Summary: They had been seeing each other in secret for a reason. They wanted something that didn't involve their family. They already had to deal with expectations and the impending uncertainty of their graduation. Sadly good things have to come to an end.
Pairing: Kagome/Sasuke
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to it's respected owners. All mistakes are my own. This is an exposition dump of a chapter.
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Higurashi Mitsu stood at the gates with his arms crossed over his chest. It was earlier than he would have liked to be awake, the sun blinded him over the horizon. He could go home and nap for a bit longer, but Kagome was coming home today. She told him that they might be back early, so he would wait. He wasn't alone, there were the two chunin guards, but they were still sleepy and not quite talkative yet. It was ninja like them that reminded him that war times were long over. When he was in there shoes, appearing or being sleepy at this post was unacceptable. Any chain of weakness opened the village to attacks, attacks meant casualties and rushed confused forces, he felt his body tense as he became hyper aware of his surroundings.
"Sometimes I forget there's a world outside the gates," a deep monotone voice said from beside him. Uchiha Fugaku had also accompanied him. Mitsu had been shadowing the man to learn more about his new role of lieutenant. He was dismissed from further ANBU missions, and was reassigned to the Military Police Force. It was a sign of good faith between the Leaf Village and the Uchiha clan, an effort to smooth over any residual friction from the Kyuubi attack. He was the prototype to see how a non-Uchiha would fair in the environment before the implementation of other clans into the force occured, and Uchiha would begin to fill the ranks of shinobi. All of this until a cohesive match was struck, and the remaining hostility between the clan and the village evaporated. .
"Yeah, the world is ever changing, and we place faith in the village to place our children out there," Mitsu said as he tried to get a feel for Kagome, he sometimes wished he could contact the spirit for the forest. Don't get him wrong he loved his connection to water, but he didn't want to feel the suspense of waiting. If he has the forest spirit he'd be able to see for miles around, but he'd settled for feeling the body systems of people around, knowing that at any moment he could collapse their circulatory system killing them instantly with no connection to him. He shook his head, he had been in ANBU too long.
"Our children placed on the same team, what do you think of that?" Fugaku asked, Mitsu didn't see why the man had to bring it up. It just caused his lips to twitch in irritation, it reminded him of his failure. He wasn't there to keep his daughter from being signed away for life because of deceptive young love. If he had married the first girl he had a crush on, he would have met his beautiful Katsumi. That made his placement in the KMPF more unbearable than the over prideful men that worked there. It felt insulting being reassigned to the people that were going to ruin his child. His Kagome was too spirited and free for the likes of Uchiha or any clan really except maybe Nara. That was a strong maybe though because Yashino's spirit never calmed because of marriage. He didn't want to see her be groomed to be an Uchiha bride. While Mikoto was a pleasant women, he knew her before she married. Her eyes didn't hold the same spark for life that they had in her youth.
"Team placement is a mystery, if they weren't compatible in someway they wouldn't have been placed as such," he stared ahead of him.
"I wouldn't say compatible, complementary," the clan leader said much to Mitsu's surprise, "Sasuke is a good balance for any team, his ability to keep his calm puts him above anyone in his age group."
"That's the quality of a good leader, " Mitsu couldn't argue with that sentiment, leaders needed to be calm and collected. There was no way to appeal to an Uchiha's ego than compliments and acknowledging their perceived superiority. Though he was still unsure on why this was being brought up, he had no cares for the little thief of a boy, "Kagome has the issue of she's never liked asking for help." He remembers on several occasions how she would steal his scrolls and books to learn more techniques because she exhausted the academy's resources.
"Fascinating,I've noticed as well, she stole scrolls from the archives," Mitsu stared at the other men, how did Kagome manage that? The security wasn't a strong as it should have been, but an academy student shouldn't be able to just take things. The patriarch noticed his stunned silence. "I know, I didn't' think it was possible either. Every time I don't think there's no more, she surprises me." The man's lips twitched with a pride Mitsu didn't think he had any right to show.
"Does Sasuke have any shortcomings?" he asked not bothering to hold his tongue.
"Sasuke doesn't understand teamwork. That's the one remark on all of his reports that has never changed," Fugaku's look of pride dimmed a little.
"He'll learn as we all do, scared and when everything is going wrong," Mitsu shielded his face from the sun, "Maybe if Team Seven is approved for the chunin exams, he'll figure it out."
"There's not if of them getting approved for the exams," Fugaku crossed his arms, "Kagome and Sasuke have enough potential to be nominated."
"Thanks for the confidence in my daughter," he said
"I've seen over the past couple months of the growth she's capable of. Her raw skills alone qualify her. She and Sasuke will have no problem becoming chunin."
"Are you saying my oldest son aren't up to par?"
"I can't say for Uzumaki," there was an inflection in the man's voice to stress Naruto's family name, "I know that when Kagome and Sasuke it will bring them closer, they can learn to work together to achieve the same goal."
Mitsu's jaw tightened, before he could bite out a response a force of chakra barreled towards him. The force almost knocked him off his feet, and he would have killed them if his senses weren't flooded with his daughter's chakra signature and her bright blue eyes. A trait that marked her as a Higurashi woman. His perfectly made daughter.
"Dad!" she wrapped her arms around his neck, and hung there. She had gotten so much bigger since he had last seen her. From her chakra he could tell her nature manifested his heart constricted, he wasn't there to guide her through the mental turmoil of developing a connection to the spirit world. His arms paused as they wrapped around her, orbs hovered near her shoulder blades. Water orbs. He had never seen anything like that. Before he could do anything she propelled herself away and he watched as wings made of water extended from behind her and she gracefully landed on the ground in front of him.
"Kagome, no fair you cheated," Naruto huffed while crossing his arms.
"I did not, you said that we were racing," she cocked her hip and pointed at him, "You didn't mention how we had to cross over the gates," she stuck out her tongue and Mitsu had to bite back a laugh. His children were bigger, but the same.
"Naruto," his voice boomed as he spread open his arms, "The race doesn't matter, I haven't seen you in so long," his arms were full with his oldest children and he clutched them closely to his chest. "Tell how was your first mission? Was it scary?"
"Pops you should have seen it, Kagome was saving our asses left and right," Naruto yelled and Kagome blushed and turned her head.
"Not really, I just helped," she said, she began to pick at the edges of her sweater.
"Are you kidding me? First there were this two goons and she cut 'em down with her thorn whip in this epic way and she broke one of their necks and pierced the other with lightning." Mitsu stared at Naruto shocked. Thorns? Lightning? Did she have multiple spirit? Or did she pick up these techniques from somewhere? "And that's not even the best part, then there was this mercenary guy named Zabuza, and like there was fog and Kakashi was trapped. And you wanna know what Kagome did? Handed his ass to him on a silver platter!" His eyes twitched at the blonde's loud infection, he had forgotten how enthusiastic Naruto could get.
"That was after he tried to drown me," Kagome said, "And I did not hand his ass to him."
"Is that how you connected with the water spirit?" she nodded, "And she gave you wings?" Another nod.
"I know Kagome's such a badass, that's not even all. She burned at bunch of people, while fighting others, and also using a giant tidal wave to wipe people out. It was epic," Naruto continued to gush, and Kagome's blush deepened.
"You used the katon technique I showed you?" Fugaku asked as he stared at her. Mitsu noticed how Sasuke stood beside his father. The only word he think of was small, that's how this boy was small. "How did you perform on the mission?" the patriarch aimed at his son.
"Sasuke performed well, he kept his composure in battle. He followed orders when either stated by Kagome or myself, and his chakra control has improved," the silver haired jounin, "Naruto could take a page from Sasuke's book, he often froze, but would later follow orders."
"I'm not reporting to the Hokage for you Kakashi," Mitsu said, it didn't take a genius to figure out what the other man was trying to do. He was infamous for trying to pawn off his mission reports.
"Well then, come along team, we have paperwork to fill out," the man pulled out his orange book from his back pocket, "Also Higurashi-san, welcome back," the silver haired jounin waved at him before he stuck his hands in his pocket and meandered off with his genin following him. It didn't take long for Naruto to yell about a race to the Hokage Tower and Kagome bound up walls to run across the rooftops while Naruto followed with uneven slower jumps. He smiled, he was home.
I wanted to do a short chapter because I realized I don't have to rush through anything, I want to build up some more things before the chunin exams start. I think I'm going back to shorter chapters because my instinct when I write this story now is I have to cram everything I wanted to fit into one chapter. I don't have to do that. I would be miserable trying to do that, so I'm going back to shorter chapters, it'll be slow for a while, well for a long while. I just haven't been updating not only because of longer chapters to speed through the story but also I hate writing long chapters because there is so much to keep track of and the pacing has to be right. Well anyway I love the support you guys give, if you see any issues please tell me. JaNe~