Sorry if anyone following this story got multiple notifications about this one update. I tried uploading it earlier but it kept coming through as just a wall of HTML code so I literally had to take it down and go through it paragraph by paragraph to fix it. I'm so tired...
Anyway, it's finally here, enjoy!
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We were told that we would not return to the academy for about a month, maybe longer. Not by our choice, but by the village's. The hospital staff were being rather thorough in their examination of Sasuke, perhaps out of pity or perhaps they were sucking up to one of the last remaining Uchiha. A somewhat cynical thought but I thought it nonetheless.
Me, on the other hand, I took time to sort through everything. I was steadily given access to the wealth of the Uchiha clan as well as a list of Uchiha possessions with their individual values, all their scrolls and weapons and whatnot. There was so much to figure out, so much to do. I wondered if Canon-Sasuke would've had to do all this too. It sucked.
Natsu opted to help me out a lot, as did Asami in between her missions. I didn't know what I'd do without those two.
Sasuke hadn't said anything so far about me being Clan Head. Whether that was a good sign or not, I was just relieved he didn't say anything against it. He hadn't exactly opened up to me after that day, and definitely still thought I was a freak, but he didn't push me away as much either which was progress, I guess.
I kind of expected this much anyway. Just because we were cousins and alive, didn't necessarily mean we were suddenly going to be as close as siblings or anything. This was enough for now.
What I worried the most about though was my training. Yeah, I'd trained beforehand and wasn't half bad for my age but I wasn't truly motivated before. I had been lax. There was a target on our backs now and I needed to be stronger.
A week before Sasuke and I returned to the academy, I dropped by first to see if there was any work we could catch up on before we returned. Sensei said nothing about the massacre, thankfully, instead dumping a bunch of scrolls into my arms and telling me, "Your friends, the Nara and the Akimichi, have informed me that they have also taken extra notes for you. See them for the rest."
I bowed in gratitude and made to leave when Sensei called out to me again. "You know, they kept asking about you while you were gone. Go talk to them so they can stop bugging me about it."
I stopped in surprise before dipping my head in acknowledgement and leaving.
Shikamaru and Chouji... Harsh as it sounds, I hadn't really given them much thought in the past few weeks. They must be worried.
I was wary of the warm feeling bubbling up inside me at the idea but it didn't keep the smile from forming.
~{}~{}~{}~{}~{}~
"Ahhhh, why are there so many freakin' scrolls!" Natsu complained, sprawled out on the ground as she chucked another scroll on the 'storage' pile.
"My eyes," I whimpered, similarly spread out across the floorboards nearby and surrounded by a library's worth of rolled up parchment.
The scrolls had been dropped by early that morning, gathered from the Uchiha compound for me to sort and read through as Clan Head. Unfortunately, when I had arranged for the scrolls to be dropped at the Noguchi household, no one had bothered to mention to me just how many there were or that they were simply heaped together in one big mess before being dropped at my feet.
The conclusion? I had to read through each and every one so I could organise and store them accordingly.
Why must I suffer this way?
Even Natsu, loyal friend that she was, immediately tried to squirm out of her promise to help out as soon as she saw the horror that awaited us.
Dear, angelic Asami had tried to help out for as long as she could too but eventually had to leave for a mission a few hours prior.
It was also Asami's idea to just focus on separating the mountain into 'topic' piles. There was a pile for storage seals, and other piles for financial documents, inter-clan politics, intra-clan politics, shinobi-related resources and reports, police-related documents, and so on.
It had been several long hours and my eyes were starting to burn with the effort of deciphering all the text. With a loud sob and a shudder, I gave up and let my head drop with a painful thud against the wood.
"Ok, it's time for a break," Natsu declared, leaping to her feet and dragging me up with her. I hung bonelessly from her arms and she shook me angrily until I gathered the strength to stand on my own. "Wake up, you piece of limp soba!"
"Hnghh," I groaned. "I miss the sky."
Natsu shrugged and pulled me towards the door. "Then let's go out for lunch. I'll go crazy if I have to look at these piles for another minute."
The stress hit me hard as Natsu dramatically flung the front door open and I immediately began to protest. "But there's still so much to organise! And Asami made us packed lunches…!"
Natsu whirled around, pushing her face just a bit too close to mine as I quickly stopped struggling. "Look, this room is starting to smell like your anxiety and we can't open the windows since the wind will mess up all our hard work so we're going outside for a little bit, got it?"
I nodded mutely and she grinned, cheerily shoving me out the door. "Great! Let's go."
I cast an uncertain look and a quick sniff over my shoulder as my friend steered me down the street and away from my responsibilities. "My anxiety…?"
Moments later, we were happily seated in Natsu's favourite teppanyaki place as she ordered a frankly ridiculous amount of meat and I just smiled and nodded like the hostage I was.
"So," Natsu remarked as soon as the waiter disappeared with our order, "you've got some freaky eyes now, huh?"
My expression flattened as she offered a sly smile thinly masked with innocence.
"That's not exactly how I put it, but yeah," I admitted reluctantly, catching on quickly to where this was heading.
"Have you used them again since they first popped out?" Natsu went on joyfully.
"'Popped out' isn't exactly the technical term, but no," I scowled.
"Oh? Why not? I'm excited to finally see the dreaded Sharingan doujutsu everyone seems so fussed about," Natsu asked, her wide smirk letting me know that it was a pointless question she already knew the answer to and she was only asking to mock me. Oh, if Schadenfreude was a person…
I scowled grumpily. "How about we just skip ahead to the part where I admit I have no idea how to use them and you make that stupid face of undeserved superiority."
She chortled evilly and leaned back in her seat. "My superiority is definitely deserved and you are the most un-Uchiha Uchiha I have ever met."
"Shut up," I grouched. "It's harder than it looks. It's not like there's a nice little switch I can flick on and off to activate it. I've tried but it's really draining and I can't seem to keep it for more than a couple of minutes."
"I figured as much when you took too long to start bragging about them to me," Natsu snickered. "So? What're you gonna do about it?"
"What can I do?" I sulked. "It's not like there's a bunch of Sharingan-wielding experts running around anymore to teach me this stuff. If there were, I wouldn't be in this mess."
"If only the Ninja Academy had a 'freaky eye jutsu' class," Natsu teased, her eyes fixating scarily on our food as it exited the kitchen and moved towards our table.
"Though," she added, seemingly as an afterthought, "surely there's someone in this huge-ass village who knows more about the Sharingan. I seriously doubt that you're the best we've got."
It took a moment for her words to sink in.
I paused.
I grinned.
"Noguchi Natsumi, you absolute gem." I locked eyes with her, emanating sheer adoration through my gaze. "Marry me."
She snorted and used a thin strip of delicious steak to silence me. "I am so out of your league."
~{}~{}~{}~{}~{}~
The Hokage had been waiting for me to meet with him. He wanted to discuss my situation, you see, but I'd been dodging it for a while. The thought of being alone in a room with a man as powerful and cunning as him, well, it had scared the living daylights out of me.
It was only a matter of time until I had to meet him though and he probably wasn't expecting it to be in this sort of manner.
"Hatake Kakashi."
I slammed a torn out page of a bingo book on his desk and grinned, channelling all of the inner Natsu confidence I had.
The Hokage blinked. "Yes? What about him?"
"I want him to train me," I announced. That surprised him and he sat back in his chair a little.
"And what brought this on?" He asked.
"I want to be stronger. He'll make me stronger. I want him to train me," I stated firmly. He clearly suspected that there was more but I figured I was eight and had just lost my entire family so he wouldn't ask.
Instead, he declared, "Hatake Kakashi isn't taking any apprentices right now."
Yeah, I knew he would say that. I pursed my lips. "Was that your decision or his?"
"His."
"Then let me talk to him," I requested. "It'll be fine if I change his mind, right?"
"I suppose," the Hokage nodded thoughtfully. "Though it is highly unlikely he will change his mind."
"I'm sure I can convince him," I smiled hopefully. "I just, uh, don't know where to find him."
He appraised me, seemingly interested in this turn of events. Interested but not unpleased, I noted. "Is that why you came to me first? In hopes that I would tell you where to find him?"
I smiled sheepishly.
He chuckled. "Alright. Truth be told, I've been trying to convince him to take on a team for a while now with few results. We'll have to see how your attempts go."
He scribbled something down on a piece of paper and handed it over. "Try this."
I took it and beamed, bowing to him in both respect and gratitude. "Thanks so much, Hokage-sama!"
"Hmm," the Hokage hummed, "why'd you choose him anyway?"
Ah, he did end up asking after all.
"Eh, he's the best choice," I called, already edging towards the door.
Yeah, retreat. Retreat now.
"Anyway, thanks again Hokage-sama!" I called, rushing my speech as I practically scrambled to get out of there.
~{}~{}~{}~{}~{}~
Honestly, I hadn't expected much from the Hokage in terms of how to find Hatake Kakashi. As a result, I got way more than I expected, an address. His address.
I am ashamed to admit that, just for a few seconds, I reverted to a 12-year-old fangirl, practically drooling over freaking Hatake Kakashi's address until I caught myself. Kaida, you are 30 years old, pull yourself together woman.
It took me a couple of days to successfully track down the apartment. I was still 8 and, while I could find my way between my house, the academy, the park and Natsu's place, I still didn't really know where anything else was. Natsu didn't either, leading to a ransacking of her place to try and find a map. Asami came home the following day to a mess we were trying to fix before she saw.
Luckily Asami pointed me in the right direction and thus, a few days later I found myself wandering up to an apartment building halfway across the village. I earned an odd glance from a couple exiting the building as I entered, probably looking way too excited and jittery for social standards, but otherwise moved unhindered.
My excitement was very much extinguished when I knocked on the door and nothing happened. I waited a few minutes but no change.
I knocked again. Not even a bump or a rustle.
I tried the handle. Locked, predictably, but still worth a shot. Natsu had taught me how to pick a lock ages ago but I wanted a good first impression here.
Breaking and entering was not a good first impression.
Dang, he was probably on a mission or something. I sighed and plopped on the floor, leaning my back against the door as I resigned myself to wait. I had nothing but training and organising Uchiha stuff planned for the next month and, truthfully, I knew I could use a break. I had time to wait.
I must've fallen asleep soon after I sat down because I was abruptly woken some time later as the door swung open.
Without the wood supporting me, I toppled backwards, jolting awake with a surprised squawk followed by a pained grunt as my head thwacked against the wooden floorboards.
"The hell...?" I grumbled, massaging my cramped neck muscles as I took a moment to recover.
"And who might you be?"
The smooth, masculine voice above me did wonders in waking me up entirely and my eyes snapped open, pinpointing the telltale spiked grey hair and the black mask stretched across the lower half of his face.
Hatake Kakashi raised an eyebrow, well, the only eyebrow I could see. I just barely resisted the urge to squeal in his face as I sprang to my feet and swivelled to face him.
"Hatake-sama!" I yelped, dipping into an awkward bow.
"No, I'm Hatake," he drawled lazily. "Who are you?"
"Right, no, I meant- I was just- you know, just acknowledging your, uh... existence?" I rambled.
He blinked slowly.
"I'm Uchiha, uh, Uchiha Kaida at your service," I bowed again (stop doing that!) and fidgeted nervously in the following silence.
"You're the new Uchiha Clan Head," he stated. Any surprise he might've felt at this revelation was either nonexistent or masked incredibly well. "I've heard of you."
"Y-Yep, that's me," I smiled sheepishly.
"Well, it was nice to meet you," his eye crinkled in an obviously fake smile and he made to close the door.
"No, wait!" I squeaked, throwing my foot out in panic. The bridge of my foot jammed between the door and the doorframe and Kakashi watched in mild concern and curiosity as I bit my lip and let out a keening, pained noise in response.
"Wait," I repeated, pushing the pain down as he opened the door again.
"What?" He deadpanned, not-so-subtly nudging my foot out of the doorway.
I took a deep breath, once again channeling as much of Natsu as I could manage, before pinning him in place with a strong glare. "Teach me how to-"
"No," he said and slammed the door in my face.
The rest of my words stuck in my throat and I stared ahead of me blankly.
Minutes passed before I snapped out of my reverie and started banging angrily on his door.
"Oi! Come back here, I wasn't finished, you little-" I yelled, letting off a string of very unladylike, very un-8-year-old-like words.
The door didn't open again and I couldn't even hear him moving around inside anymore.
An hour later, I growled as I stomped out of the building. That was a challenge if I'd ever seen one and like hell I was giving up now.
Screw first impressions.
Game on.
~{}~{}~{}~{}~{}~
"Hatake-san!"
I ambushed him outside of his apartment building this time, after a few days of waiting. He stopped dead in his tracks as I blocked his path, standing tall with all the rage of one stressed out little ninja who had been kept waiting for days outside that freakin' building, now very behind on both her homework and paperwork and blaming it entirely on him.
"Do you know just how long I've been waiting for you?" I growled. "I am so behind on my homework right now and I blame you. Who the hell doesn't return to their apartment for six-"
There was a sudden rush of air and I cut myself off when I realised he wasn't there anymore.
"Son of a-!"
By the time I reached his apartment (that was an ungodly amount of stairs), the door was shut and locked behind him.
That's adorable, Kakashi, but don't think a locked door will stop me twice.
It took me less than five minutes to pick the lock, something Natsu had taken great pride in teaching me how to do in our free time. She called it a valuable life skill, especially for a ninja. I called it concerning, but in the end, I supposed she was kind of right.
I threw the door open with a bang and yelled, "Hatake-san, teach me h-!"
In a flash, the butter knife and paperclip were both wrenched out of my hand before I was promptly spun back around and placed back in the hallway. I spluttered indignantly as I whirled back around to give him a piece of my mind but the door was already slammed shut.
"You get your ass out here right now," I howled, hammering at the door. "You can't avoid me forever!"
There was a long, drawn out silence in which it became very evident that he wasn't going to come back out, probably because he was very much intending to avoid me forever.
"... Can I at least get the butter knife back?"
I never got it back and I think Kakashi started entering his apartment through the window from then on.
~{}~{}~{}~{}~{}~
The next time I found him was actually by accident. I was hunting through the shelves of a local bookstore when the door creaked open and in stepped that familiar head of spiky grey hair.
For once, the universe was working in my favour.
I smirked as Kakashi scanned the room and his eyes landed on me. He hesitated but instead of backing out of the store entirely like I kind of expected him to do, he merely looked straight ahead and chose not to acknowledge my presence at all.
A flash of annoyance surged in my chest and I pouted. Oh ho ho, I am not that easy to ignore.
"Hatake-sama!" I exclaimed as loudly and brightly as I could. Several heads swivelled in my direction at the noise and Kakashi visibly cringed as I beelined through the store in his direction.
He quickly turned towards the boy behind the counter, away from me and spoke in a hurried tone, "Collecting a book purchase for Hatake?"
The boy yawned and nodded. "Yeah sure, one moment."
I popped up at the his side, donning the widest smile I could possibly manage.
"What are the odds," I began cheekily as the ninja twitched, "that we'd run into each other again so soon, Hatake-sama?"
"Hmm, it is curious, Uchiha-san," he hummed. I tried to make eye contact but he kept his eyes fixed on the boy behind the counter as he moved to check Kakashi's order. "I don't suppose you planned this."
"Of course not," I said, aggressively oozing charisma as I waggled my eyebrows. "But you know, sometimes fate just works itself."
Kakashi opted not to reply at all, instead silently urging the cashier to move faster. However, the cashier seemed to be purposefully ignoring our conversation as he turned to find the book order, taking his own sweet time.
"So Hatake-san," I drawled, taking full advantage of the delay, "about my reque-"
"You're rather persistent, you know that?" He interrupted.
"It's all part of my charm," I shot back without hesitation. "Anyway, about my request, I-"
"So what are you here for, Uchiha-san?" He smiled behind the mask and I faltered in confusion.
"Huh? Well, my cousin and I have fallen behind in our studies a bit so I picking out some extra materials to help us catch up. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about-"
"Ah yes, I assume you're working hard to keep up with all your work?"
"Well, trying my best. Back on topic, I-"
"And how is your cousin?"
I twitched as he cut me off yet again. Was he going to interrupt me every time? "Well, he's fine now. But as I was saying-"
"That's good. Is he out of the hospital yet?"
"I know what you're doing," I hissed, my fingers curling into fists at my sides as I physically restrained myself.
He feigned ignorance, innocently quirking an eyebrow. He was saved from having to deliver whatever bad explanation he was brewing up in that evil little head of his when the cashier finally seemed to locate the right book, plucking a note with Kakashi's name on it from the cover and placing it on the counter.
"Here you go, that'll be..." Not even the cashier could finish talking with this guy apparently since, in the blink of an eye, Kakashi has snatched the book up, slammed some money on the counter and slipped outside before anyone could stop him.
I openly gaped at the space he used to occupy as the cashier paused in surprise before he shrugged nonchalantly and started counting out the coins. I was still there when he deemed it the right amount and opened the cash register.
He glanced in my direction as he sorted the cash into the register and asked, "Hey, you gonna buy something or what?"
I gave a strangled shriek of frustration that didn't seem to faze him in the slightest and turned on my heel to march back into the stacks.
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"Ah, Hatake-san, I've been expecting- huh? Just let me finish for once!"
"Hatake-san, please just teach me to- wait, where'd he go?"
"Hatake-san, open the door! You never let me finish my sentences, how do you even know what I'm asking you?!"
"Please, Hatake-san, I'm just asking you to... oh, come on!"
"I'm not going to stop bugging you, Hatake-san, until you hear me out!"
"I can be just as stubborn as you, Hatake-san. I've got nothing better to do... ok, that was a lie, I still have training and all sorts of stuff to sort through but I refuse to admit defeat! Just open the damn door!"
"Hatake-san, won't you just listen to me for one minute!"
"Hatake-san?"
"Hatake-san!"
"Hatake-s—"
~{}~{}~{}~{}~{}~
"Ah, Uchiha-san. I didn't expect to see you so soon." The knowing glint in the Hokage's eyes undermined his words but I found that I didn't care as much about that as my current mission.
I was on a freakin' warpath and Hatake Kakashi would know my wrath.
I was perfectly aware that my temper had spiralled way out of control but I was also aware of the fact that I don't care.
"I need everything you have on that man," I growled. "Preferably any weaknesses, fears, and soft spots he has that I can use against him. You must have a psychological profile or something on him, right? I'm going to break him."
"Yes, he does tend to have that effect on people." The Hokage's eyebrow arched as my scowl deepened. "You are aware that this is all personal information that I can't just hand over, right?"
Taking a deep breath, I brightened my expression into something a bit cheerier.
"Ah, what harm could I do really?" I said, oozing theatrical innocence. "I'm just a harmless little academy student. Help me out here, gramps?"
He smiled. "Nice try."
My smile dropped. "Damn."
"It seems Hatake-san is not cooperating with you?" The Hokage reclined back in his seat, looking rather nonplussed at my predicament.
"Ah, it seems he's vehemently avoiding me," I replied, slumping into the seat across from him.
"I thought you were so confident you could convince him to come around?" He recalled, not even bothering to stifle the mischief in his eyes. "What happened?"
"He's as stubborn as a freakin' mule, is what happened!" I howled, pulling frustratedly on my hair. "Besides, how am I supposed to convince him if he keeps escaping any semblance of contact with me?!"
I winced upon realising I had lapsed into a rather casual tone in front of the ruler of the entire village. "Uh, Hokage-sama..." I awkwardly tacked onto the end.
He didn't seem too bothered as he mused over my words.
"Ah yes, well, Hatake Kakashi is a rather private man. He likes having his space. It makes sense he'd be rather reluctant to take on apprentices of any sort," he noted, not at all surprised at the outcome.
I glowered. And then I smiled.
"He does like his space, doesn't he?" I drawled slyly, an idea quickly forming in my mind.
The Hokage quirked an eyebrow again at my odd behaviour but I didn't allow him time to question me as I leapt up and dipped into a hasty bow. "Thanks, old man! I owe you one!"
I leapt out the door, just barely catching the muttered, "Old man...?" before I was gone in the wind.
~{}~{}~{}~{}~{}~
"Uh, Kaida-chan...? What are you doing with that butter knife?"
"Hmm? Oh, this? Nothing really, I couldn't find a tension wrench and my butter knife was stolen. Say, Asami-chan, you got any paperclips around here? Maybe a piece of wire or two?"
"... do I want to know what you're up to?"
"Do you usually ask what Natsu's up to?"
"... I think I have some paperclips around here somewhere."
"Much appreciated, Asami-chan. While I have you here, do you happen to have a spare futon around?"
~{}~{}~{}~{}~{}~
Kakashi's POV
Hatake Kakashi was a patient man. It was one of his few redeeming features.
He had been called many things in his lifetime, not all of which were kind. Aloof, apathetic, carefree, late. His patience was something he took some pride in.
And yet, here was this irritable, dark-eyed little brat threatening to take that patience and shatter it into a million and one tiny little pieces.
He stifled an exasperated groan and pressed his fingers to his temples, rubbing in slow circles in an effort to combat the oncoming headache. This girl was the epitome of why he would never have kids.
The girl sniffled in her sleep and turned over, comfortably bundled up in a pile of blanket. His blanket. In his apartment. He'd thought he'd had an intruder for a moment there and had a kunai in his palm in a flash before he realised it was just that brat from before.
A brat that had set up a blow-up futon in the middle of his apartment and was now snoring.
He sighed and glanced at the kunai in his hand. Well, it might as well be put to use.
The brat woke up with a startled yelp as the kunai pierced the futon with a loud pop and it started to rapidly deflate beneath her. She gasped and twisted, taking the blanket with her as she rolled right off the futon, just barely missing his toes as she softly thumped onto the wooden floor.
Bleary eyes squeezed shut then blinked open to meet his own utterly unimpressed gaze.
Uchiha Kaida smiled sheepishly and poked her fingers out the top of the blanket to wriggle them at him. "Morning?"
"Maa, you really are persistent," he remarked.
"I don't know what you mean, Hatake-sama," she retorted, the challenge flashing in her eyes. "You've been dodging any interaction with me for a week now and I figured, instead of wasting the rest of my youth chasing you down, I'd have to wait for you to come to me instead. This is probably the only place I can be sure you'll be unable to avoid forever."
"This is an incredible display of invasion into my privacy, you know," he remarked dryly. "I no longer feel safe in my own home."
She scoffed, apparently having long since given up on manners in his presence. "I doubt you'll lose any sleep over this."
True, of course. It was absurd to think he'd be intimidated by a pesky 8 year old. It was also true that he could've cleared out this apartment in a night without waking the pest and moved to an new address unknown to her.
Still, he had to admire her sheer persistence.
"You really can't take no for an answer," he mused.
She threw her arms up in the air with a dirty look in his direction. "I haven't even asked you anything yet! You keep running away before I can."
He shrugged slowly. "Some people would call that a hint."
"Well I call it a provocation."
"Evidently." He smiled behind his mask and cut off her rising indignation before she ended up dragging this conversation out even longer. "Well, hurry up and ask me then so I can turn you down. You know, the good and proper way."
She quickly shuffled into a slightly more (but not really) dignified position on the ground and stared him down with a harsh Uchiha-style gaze.
"Teach me how to use the Sharingan."
"No."
She flushed an angry red as she discarded her blanket and leapt to her feet. "Stop doing that!"
"Doing what?"
"Declining!"
"One of the many marvels of a yes or no question, Uchiha-san, is that 'no' is one of the possible answers." He couldn't resist teasing her a bit after all she'd put him through.
"Well my plan doesn't really account for you saying no," she whined. "Come on, it's not like I'm asking for a full apprenticeship or anything. I just need someone to tell me how these stupid eyeballs work and maybe help me train them a little bit. You know, just a little head start."
"I'm busy, find someone else."
"The whole point is that there is no one else," she hissed. "You're the only one left with a Sharingan, unless you count my murderous absentee cousin."
It was a nonchalant mention of the boy who had killed almost her entire clan but he didn't miss the slight waver in her voice towards the end of her sentence. It was enough to keep him quiet for an extra moment as the girl plopped stubbornly down in the middle of his floor and grouchily hugged her blanket.
"You're obviously not taking me very seriously so I guess I'll just camp out here until you actually consider my request."
Nope, that didn't sound like fun for him at all. He frowned and peered closer at her. "Don't you have somewhere to get back to? Surely your caretaker or cousin will worry about you?"
She sniffed. "No one's mentioned a caretaker to me. Besides, Sasuke's not cleared from the hospital for at least a few more days and I can tell he's getting pretty sick of me crashing in his hospital room already."
"You can't sleep in your own house?" He already knew it was a dumb question before it left his mouth but he had to ask it anyway.
"Neither me nor my cousin are very eager to go back there any time soon," she admitted, a bit more subdued now that the conversation had moved onto more serious topics.
There was a second before she met his gaze. "It's full of ghosts."
He knew she didn't mean the literal disembodied souls of those lost in the massacre. These were a different sort of ghosts, the kind he talked to every time he visited the Memorial Stone without ever expecting them to hear him. Damn it, there was a reason he'd wanted to avoid any interaction with the last Uchiha in the village.
Against all odds, she was wearing him down and it certainly didn't look like she was giving up anytime soon. Damn.
"Your request…" He watched as she immediately perked up with hope and then tried to play it off as though she was stretching. "Is it for revenge?"
Her eyes narrowed.
"No way," she asserted firmly.
His next look said it all. Then what else?
She took a breath. "My cousin and I have targets on our backs. Big ones. I need to be able to protect us both and that means making good use of this stupid doujutsu of mine."
She pinned him with a hard look and for once, she didn't look like some kid. "If there was anyone else capable of helping me do that, I promise you that's where I'd be. But I'm here and I'm not fucking leaving."
Her bravado slowly drained away in the silence that followed and she fidgeted awkwardly in the shadow of her own words. But she never broke eye contact until he closed his eyes and sighed wearily.
"Tomorrow, training ground 5, 6am sharp. You get one month and then we're done."
A soft 'oof' escaped him as Uchiha Kaida barrelled forward and tackled him with a huge sunny grin.
It is only a testament to his skills and expectation that she'd do something dumb that he fights off his instinct to pull out another kunai.
"… Hey, do you think I could still sleep here? 'Cause I kind of thought this would take longer and told Sasuke I'd be out of his hair for at lea-"
Kaida was abruptly cut off with a yelp as he scooped her up by the back of her shirt and casually tossed her into the hallway, followed by the familiar sound of a door slamming shut in her face.
"Wow. Rude."
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Kakashi arrived 3 hours late for their first training session but by that point, Kaida was far too hyped up to care.
"Good morning!" She chirped as soon as he grumpily poofed into the clearing, disbelieving that this annoying little 8 year old brat had actually roped him into doing this.
"Ready to start?" He checked, cracking his knuckles threateningly as he got straight to business.
Kaida refused to let her mood be dampened by the scary aura emanating from her new temporary sensei and so snapped her fingers to her forehead in a happy little salute. "Yes, Sensei!"
"Good. Activate your Sharingan." That sounded ominous.
Her smile faltered a little as the dread started to set in early. Stupidly, she pushed it down and straightened up in anticipation.
"The Sharingan has a couple of major abilities we're going to train over the next few weeks," Kakashi explained happily. "One of the most basic uses is increased perception. In combat, you should be able to better see fast-moving objects and eventually even be able to predict your opponent's next moves."
"Sweet," Kaida nodded.
That sounds pretty cool, she thought, maybe training's going to be even more fun than expected.
She was wrong and she definitely didn't need to see beyond his mask to sense the terrifying grin he now had as he pulled out an alarming amount of pointy kunai.
"Since we're beginning with training your perception, we're gonna start off with a fun game of Dodge the Kunai."
She blanched. "Wait, what?"
A long, high-pitched, gurgling sound distantly resembling a screaming pterodactyl soon exited Kaida's mouth as she promptly ducked, threw her hands over her head and ran for her life.
She swore she heard him cackling as he gave chase.
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"I made you lunch!"
Dark eyes that closely resembled my own slowly blinked in silent surprise as they struggled to focus on the lunchbox I had just shoved into his face.
Sasuke looked like he had swallowed something sour as he regarded my gift warily.
"You do know that the hospital provides food right?" He responded dryly, not-so-subtly leaning away from me.
I lunged forward and grabbed his closest hand, thrusting a pair of chopsticks into it as I deposited the bento on his lap. "Yeah, but everyone agrees that hospital is shi- uh, bland."
I was watching my language now since one of the nurses had caught wind of my mild potty mouth and tracked me down to give me an hour-long lecture on etiquette and bedside manner. My reasoning that I wasn't a nurse and thus my bedside manner was irrelevant was not appreciated.
I figured it was less painful to just watch my language around the hospital than face the wrath of nurses again. (I totally blamed Natsu's influence anyway. I blame her influence for a lot of things nowadays.)
"Can you even cook?" He added, reluctantly prodding at the steamed vegetables I'd piled up on one side with his chopsticks.
"Won't know until you try it," I announced cheerily, producing another set of chopsticks from out of nowhere. Before he could react, I snatched up a piece of the karaage chicken and shovelled it into his mouth, fully taking advantage of the fact that he couldn't move much with the bento on his lap, lest he spill it everywhere.
He spluttered, caught off guard, and I leaned in closer to watch his reaction.
Indignation. Then irritation.
He bit down.
Subtle surprise masked with more irritation.
He chewed. He swallowed. Reluctant glance at me, then at the bento.
I lifted an eyebrow curiously. "Like it?"
"Passable," he scoffed.
"Barely," he quickly tacked onto the end when I responded by beaming. The effect of it was somewhat muffled by the fact that he proceeded to shove some rice and another piece of chicken into his mouth while avoiding eye contact.
I said nothing of it though and pulled out my own bento, humming quietly with satisfaction.
He didn't say thank you as he returned the empty bento.
I eyed the red tips of his ears and said, "You're welcome," anyway.
The air continued to get a little bit easier to breathe with each day.
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Alternative name for this chapter; Kaida finds a new victim to harass while simultaneously working off the stress of the past few chapters.
Now, don't mind me as I throw this nice long chapter at you real quick and then promptly run away before you can question how long it took to get here.
To be honest, the next chapter probably isn't going to be any sooner. I made the mistake of starting to plan two more Naruto OC-Inserts (one of which I've actually sketched out quite a bit of and might actually publish soon-ish, maybe, we'll see) and then life and the pandemic kind of clubbed me over the head. Now I've really lost the plot on where I was going to take this story and I can't find my old notes. I swear I used to be more organised than this… But on the bright side, I've managed to pull myself together for long enough to give you this extra chapter so who knows, maybe I'll figure something out and continue this. Otherwise, I'm sorry but expect another long hiatus.
Sorry!
- Dragon
