I roll over and slap my alarm to shut it off, I sigh tiredly and lay there for a sec feeling Sakura sit up next to me.
"Hn… I don't want to get up," I mumble still laying down. I hear Sakura yawn as she gets up opening my door.
"We don't have much to do until we have to get ready unless you have something to do?" She says turning to me. I shrug,
"I was going to buy some groceries today, but since you decided to bug me till past midnight and keep me up I may just stay here and sleep."
"You got almost 6 hours of sleep, I will even help you get your groceries," She laughs and makes her way to my bathroom I grumble and turn over in the bed shutting my eyes again wanting to fall back asleep. "Oh, come on I'll even buy you breakfast if you get up." Sakura pulls me from the edge of sleep again and I groan.
"Please, just let me sleep," I mumble pushing her off the edge of my bed.
"Ok, you are in a terrible mood, what is today?" She mumbles then shakes her head and leaves the room I hear her rummaging in my fridge for something. "Here drink, it's a Monday, and your right it doesn't help that I kept you up." She says placing a bottle of blood in my face. I glare at it but sit up none the less and drink it. "I'll let you sleep for a bit longer if you would like?" She says I shake my head as I finish drinking the blood.
"No, it's fine, normally 6 hours of sleep would be fine. It's not your fault," I say getting out of bed and grabbing a set of normal clothes to change into and make my way to the bathroom. Once done Sakura and I make our way to a small restaurant where she buys herself some breakfast. I sit in the booth stretching out trying to wake up but failing miserably.
"Hey, you okay Kane?" I hear someone say and I look up to find Kiba and his team sitting at the table next to our booth.
"I'm fine just exhausted," I say giving a small smile.
"Your mission really tire you out that much?" He asks still looking worried.
"No, I blame her," I say pointing to Sakura and she looks at me dumbfounded and shakes her head.
"What, you just told me earlier you didn't blame me. Quit being in a bad mood," She glares and throws a piece of her bread roll at me. I glare at her and throw the piece of bread she threw at me to the floor next to Akamaru so he could eat it.
"Why do you blame Sakura?" Hinata asks from her seat in front of Kiba.
"She stayed the night last night and kept me up till past midnight bugging for information because she can't take no for an answer, but today is also Monday which means I'm also just tired from the needing blood," I say shrugging and yawning again.
"You did drink your blood right?" Shino asks from his seat and I nod. "I know you're not hungry after that but maybe some breakfast tea will help?"
"Hmm, tea does sound good, I will go get some," I say going to get up but Kiba jumps up quickly.
"I got it," He says and rushes off I blink in surprise but smile none the less.
"Told you he likes you," I hear Sakura say and turn glaring at her.
"Oh hush, you know what's wrong with the issue," I state plainly.
"Is that what you were talking about last night?" Hinata asks and I sigh.
"She has a crush on someone new and won't say who," Sakura blatantly states as Kiba comes back with a tray he places in front of me, he looks to Sakura slightly shocked.
"Thank you, Kiba, I appreciate it," I say trying to ignore Sakura.
"You're welcome," He smiles at me then turns to Sakura. "So you bugged her past midnight to figure out who it was?"
"I didn't even get to figure out who it was she wouldn't tell me, I even tried guessing people but she wouldn't answer yes or no,"
"Not my fault you can't take a hint," I say shrugging as I prepare my tea.
"Hey that's a good idea, how about you just give me hints till I guess who it is," She says smiling at me.
"No," I grumble.
"Does this person have black hair?" She asks.
"No," I shake my head at her.
"No, they don't have black hair, brown?"
"No, as in no I'm not going to give hints," I say stirring my tea and taking a sip. "Please Sakura it is way too early for this."
"Fine, but I will figure it out," She says and I roll my eyes.
"If I can go just a couple of hours without you bugging me about it, I will go along with your questions about the said person, okay," I say just trying to shut her up for now.
"Okay, but you have to promise to answer the questions truthfully." I just nod and sigh when all she does is smile at me going back to her food.
"My gosh, you can be a relentless woman," I mumble placing my head on the table still tired.
The group goes quiet for a couple of minutes when I realize they think I'm asleep.
"So who do you think she likes?" Kiba says in a slight whisper.
"I don't honestly know," Sakura answers. "She only has technically given me one hint that doesn't make any sense to me."
"What's the hint?" Hinata asks and my heart races that they might figure it out.
"Hey, guys! How's it…."
"SHH!" Sakura and Kiba chastise Ino as I hear her and possibly the others walking up to us.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize she was here, is she okay?" Ino says in a slight whisper.
"She's exhausted, she's asleep, today is Monday which means she is tired from the blood thing and I may have kept her up past midnight last night,"
"Why would you do that?" Shikamaru asks as someone sits right next to me, I still keep my head down perfectly content to get a few minutes of sleep in.
"She has a new crush and won't tell me who it is,"
"Oh… well, that's not a surprise considering how long it took to even get out of her a hint of whom she had a crush on in the first place." Ino says and I can't help but roll my eyes.
"Her having a crush on someone new means you keep the girl up all night?" Shikamaru says from next to me.
"I didn't keep her up all night," Sakura defends herself.
"So who do you think it is?" Ino asks I can tell she's ready to gossip.
"I don't know,"
"You did say she gave you a hint," Hinata says, barely audible.
"What's the hint?" Choji asks from somewhere to the side of me.
"Well yesterday when she got back from her mission we hung out at her place and we got on the topic of crushes and of course she tries to drop the subject with bringing up suitors so I brought up possibly adding her crush to the suitor list and she basically shot that idea out of the air by saying why her mom wouldn't pick them as a suitor, I could tell this upset her and I apologized for it, but she just shook her head and after a while, she asked me specifically if had ever had a crush on someone that I shouldn't have a crush on," Sakura explains what happened yesterday.
"A crush on someone your not supposed to have a crush on?" Ino repeats.
"Well, she is a Princess she technically can't have crushes can she?" Kiba asks.
"See that's the thing, I asked her if having a crush on anyone here would be such a bad thing and she said no, I asked her what she meant then and she tried to brush it off to be nothing."
"Hmm… So it's obviously not any of the boys here then," Ino says.
"It could be one of you girls," I hear Shino's voice. I'm about to say something when Ino talks.
"No, it can't be that, she talks about boys just like us girls do, and I don't get that vibe from her,"
"Yeah, I don't think so," Sakura confirms and I relax shifting a bit in my seat and turning my head away from them.
"Could her clan have any enemies?" I hear Shikamaru asks and part of me wants to laugh knowing he is thinking too hard on this, then I start to worry, he would be the one to easily figure it out if I gave any hints.
"Not that I know of, and she said herself shes never had a huge crush before she came here,"
"So it's got to be someone in Kohona," Kiba says. "Maybe it's someone she likes that she's not supposed to because it's one of your crushes?" I blink at the thought of one of them liking Kakashi.
"Shes never met Sasuke," Sakura says her voice just a touch higher than normal. "Ino doesn't have a crush right now, and Shes never met Naruto so that's a no, Tenten likes Neji, shes has met Neji." The table goes quiet for just a sec and I finally speak.
"I don't have a crush on Neji," I say and I feel Shika jump a bit.
"How long have you been awake?" Ino asks me as I sit up.
"Since Shikamaru asked if I had any clan enemies," I lie but drink my tea.
"So who do you like?" Ino smiles at me and I glare. "Nevermind, I don't need you killing me right now." I just smile at her.
"Well Sakura, are you still going to help me with my grocery shopping?" I ask her.
"As long as you don't kill me," She says innocently.
"Then stop pestering me and I won't have to," I smile at her.
"You are extremely scary when you're tired," She says I roll my eyes.
"Blame it on yourself," I mumble truth be told I wasn't that tired anymore I was just done with her pestering me about my crush for now. I honestly didn't know how she would react if I told her the truth. "Excuse me Shika," I say turning to him to get out of the booth, he moves and I scoot out. "Bye, everyone!" I say waving to everyone as we leave.
The grocery shopping and errands sadly took longer than I wanted it to, something was happening in the Kohona Plaza that made everyone have to go around it causing the travel time from one shop to the other to double. Jonin were blocking all the ways into the plaza and when we tried to even get a look we couldn't see anything. We get lunch and then finally get back to my place at around noon.
"That took way to long," I say sighing as I start to place the groceries away. "I wonder what's going on in that plaza,"
"I don't know," She says putting some stuff away in my pantry. "It must be pretty big if the Jonin are guarding,"
"I'm surprised we aren't being told if we are to be there at 3," I say shaking my head.
"Maybe it's cause no one can talk about it?" She says shrugging.
"Maybe," I agree, putting the last of the groceries in my fridge.
"Speaking of, ready to start getting ready?" She asks I nod and make my way to my room.
"You can shower first, I'll get stuff ready," I say to her and she heads off to the bathroom with her hygiene kit, I start to pull out the small amount of make up I do have. I grab our kimonos out of my wardrobe and hang them on the door. I make sure that we have everything ready and I pull out all the stuff we got yesterday as well.
"Don't worry I left you some hot water," Sakura jokes from my door. I laugh.
"You only took 10 minutes I would hope so," I say grabbing my robe and heading to the bathroom myself. I take my shower using my normal rose-scented shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. I get out drying off and wrapping in my robe I walk to my room to find Sakura with her mask on lying on my bed, I grab mine pull it out of the packet unfolding it pressing it to my face, I smile at the cool feeling it gives. I lay down relaxing next to her.
"Sorry for bugging you too much today," Sakura says. I smile.
"It's fine, sorry for snapping at you," I apologize. Sakura laughs.
"It's fine, you know while you were napping Shino suggested your crush might be a girl," I laugh remembering and shake my head.
"Nope, not a girl,"
"Ok, does this person have brown hair?" Sakura asks as she gets up pulling the mask off and using her towel to wipe the residue off.
"Nope," I say bracing myself for the endless questions.
"Is this person smart?" I stop to think about how to answer that.
"Very,"
"Shikamaru?" She then shakes her head as she starts to paint her toenails."No, you said yesterday you don't like him anymore, hmm… Shino?" I giver her a look. "Ok is this person someone we have met?" I snort and nod. "Ok." I get up and pull my mask off as well wiping the residue off with my towel I throw the mask away and join her in painting my toes. "Is this person married?" I blink shocked at the thought.
"No…" I answer she sighs.
"That doesn't narrow it down much," I can see her thinking, almost like shes imagining playing real Guess Who in her head.
"Is this person taller than you?"
"Yes, about 5 inches taller." I think doing the math in my head.
"Is this person a Shinobi?"
"Yes," I say and I can see her thinking more on her Guess Who game.
"Is this person a Chunin?"
"No," I whisper looking away as we trade nail polishes to do each other's hands.
"Jonin?" I can feel her staring at me.
"No more questions for right now please," I say blushing as I take her hand start to paint her nails. She stays quiet, I can tell the wheels are spinning in her head. I finish painting her nails and look to her she was lost in thought as she starts on my nails.
"Would this person make a good Suitor?" Sakura randomly asks as we sit eating a small snack.
"Honestly, I don't know," I say thinking. On one hand, he is perfect for the spot, he knows how to lead already, he is respectful, smart, and tactical. But on the other hand, he is late slightly lazy and I don't know how he would handle being under the ruling of a Queen. Not to mention the fact that I don't know how my mother would react to his age. "Besides it doesn't matter because said crush doesn't like me anyway."
"How do you know that?" She asks.
"Because I'm… it doesn't matter I just do," I harshly say and sigh, "Sorry," I say getting up and grabbing my brush I sit at my vanity and brush my hair. I can feel Sakura watching me. She walks over to me taking my brush and she starts to brush my hair.
"Is this person a Sensei?" She asks not looking at me in the mirror. I watch her reaction.
"Yes," I sigh. She just nods.
"Is this person older than us?"
"Yes, 10 years," I blush looking down at my hands in my lap.
"It's not the worst I've heard of," Sakura says now braiding a section of my hair.
"What do you mean?" I ask looking at her in the mirror she meets my eyes.
"We have a couple 15 years apart here in Kohona," She says shrugging. "They are having a child soon and are happy together. I met them at the hospital in my training."
"Interesting." I laugh and shake my head.
"Does this person have black hair?" She asks going back to her questions and game of Guess Who.
"No," I answer and she looks up at me the slight shock on her face telling me she figured it out.
"Kakashi Sensei?" She asks and I blush deeply looking away from her. She giggles and I look up at her in shock. "Well, he's not the worst person to have a crush on."
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Well, he's not my type, but he is smart, respectful, laid back, and obviously he has to be in good shape. It's a bonus he's taller than you and if you think about it, he has to know what he's doing reading those pervy books of his."
"SAKURA!" I blush deeply putting my head in my hands and shaking my head.
"Stop moving," She says giving a small tug on the braid she is working on. She pins the braid in place and steps away. "There."
"I can not believe you said that!" I say trying not to think about what she said.
"Well, it's true," She shrugs. "When did you gain a crush on our Sensei anyway?" She asks sitting on my bed and brushing her own hair.
"A bit after we started going on missions alone together," I start to explain. "I guess part of it was the fact that he's easy to talk to, although, he barely talks about himself. We just talked about random stuff easily while we camped or getting to where we had to go." I say as I start to do my makeup, I wasn't putting much on just a slight amount of eyeliner and mascara. "I also find his voice strangely pleasing to listen to." I blush when Sakura giggles from her spot on my bed. "Anyway, I have this habit I got due to my mother always comparing boys to be suitors for me, I started doing it and I strangely started to compare Kakashi in that list, I don't know why."
"So that's why you didn't take long to answer yesterday when I said to add Kiba to the list, you've thought about it," Sakura says shaking her head. I nod as I put on a bit of lip gloss. "So where does Kakashi fit on that list?"
"Yes, I've thought about it about all the boys," I answer. "And honestly I don't think my mom would even allow him on the list being he's 1, my Sensei and 2, 10 years older than I," Sakura nods understanding.
"So that's the reason you're not supposed to have a crush on him. He's our Sensei," She says grinning at me.
"Yes," I say getting up and walking to my wardrobe, I open a drawer and grab a black velvet box. I open it grabbing my circlet and stare at it.
"I haven't seen that since you first got here," Sakura says looking over my shoulder. "It's beautiful."
"Thank you," I smile putting it on strangely feeling nostalgic. "This and my mothers have been passed down from generation to generation of princesses and queens. The only thing that ever changes is the birthstone, we place those in our new crowns we gain when we 'retire' onto the council." I explain.
"That's awesome," Sakura says as she's getting dressed.
"Yeah I just don't understand why Lady Tsunade and Kakashi say to wear it, it makes me wonder whom I am meeting today…" I mumble as I start to help her tie her Kimono.
"I'm just as lost as you are," She states simply.
"What type of missions consist of wearing formal outfits?" I ask finally getting dressed.
"This is a first for me," She answers grabbing my kimono tie from the bed and helping me. "By the way, you look beautiful and I think Kakashi will think so even if he doesn't say anything," I roll my eyes and push her slightly.
"Hush, you," I say as we laugh. "You look beautiful as well."
Around 2:45 we start to head to the plaza, part of me wanted to run quickly but that was not going to happen in this kimono. Sakura and I make it to the front of the plaza and were trying to find our Sensei.
"There he is," Sakura points just as I turn to see his silver spikey hair, and I can't help but gasp at how well he looked, he was wearing a black mask. He replaced his blue ninja band for a black one and was wearing a black nagagi and haori with a grey hakama. Sakura giggles as she hears my reaction. "Doesn't he clean up well," I glare at her as he makes his way to us.
"Hi Kakashi Sensei," I smile.
"Hello, you both look beautiful," Kakashi says my heart flutters, and I can feel a blush creep onto my cheeks.
"Thank you," Sakura and I say.
"You look handsome as well," I can't help but say.
"Thank you," Kakashi says and I swear I see a slight blush just above his mask.
"So what's our mission today?" I ask distracting my thoughts by looking for the Hokage. "I don't see Lady Tsunade anywhere,"
"Shes just inside, Sakura you are to go in first," Our Sensei instructs.
"Ok," Sakura says and smiles at me before she passes the Jonin on guard heading into the plaza.
"Kakashi Sensei?" I gain his attention.
"Yes?" He asks looking at me.
"What is this mission about?" I ask trying to see into the plaza before I go inside.
"I'm not allowed to say anything before we head inside," He says with his closed eye smile. "Ready?" He asks causing me to look at him, I raise my eyebrow at him as he holds his elbow out to me. "Princess?" He asks when I don't place my hand on his elbow.
"Sorry," I say placing my hand around his elbow and we walk into the plaza and pause in our step as I gasp.
All around me sitting at long tables was my clan, white drapes with Autumn colors and flowers decorated the tables, Lanterns unlit right now were strung up to light the area come sundown. The Genin and their Sensei were sitting to my left at the one table my clan wasn't. I smiled at them when they waved at me. The only exception was Sakura who was sitting next to Tsunade at the front table with my mother. She stands smiling when we walk in.
"The Queen says you would know how to act from here," Kakashi whispers from next to me. "Happy Birthday by the way,"
"Yes, and thank you," I smile more and start to lead Kakashi to my mother. "Just stand to my right behind me a bit as I greet the Queen and then lead me to greet each member of my clan from there," I tell him as were still out of earshot from my mother. I hear Kakashi chuckle.
"I know, your Queen informed me of my duties as your guard for tonight," Kakashi says causing me to find Masao 2 seats down from my mother, he smiles at me.
"Of Course she did," I laugh and quiet down when I know we are in earshot. I let go of Kakashi's elbow when I'm 3 feet from the table and step forward on my own bowing about 2 feet from the table.
"Princess Shinokane," My mother greets a smile on her face. I rise when she greets me and smiles at her. "Suprise!" She says opening her arms and I laugh again.
"Yes, my Queen a big surprise, I was not expecting this after your letter said that you were unable to make it this year," She had written to me about 2 weeks ago.
"Yes, originally we were not going to be able to make it," My mother replies her smile faltering for a second causing my own to do so as well. "But some things came up and we had to change our plans accordingly, they allowed us to come here and surprise you as well,"
"May I ask what plans changed?" I ask worrying. My mother shakes her head slightly.
"We will talk more about that in a bit, right now we celebrate your 17th year around the sun." She then raises her voice to address the whole clan and Kohona ninjas. "I want to thank all of the Hokage and all Kohona teams that made today possible, I know for a fact that Princess Shinokane can be hard to keep secrets from," She says winking at me and I laugh when the Genin and Kakashi laugh as well. "Now Princess, go greet everyone." She says sitting down I smile to her and bow before stepping back and taking Kakashi's elbow again.
"Hmm, 'try not to let your manners slip, you may need them in the coming days,' she said. I wondered why," I whisper to my Sensei and he chuckles in a reply as we make it to the right side table as my clan stands from their chairs. Each clan member gave a small bow to which I would greet with their name and then we would shake hands and exchange small pleasantries. I do this till I make it to the middle table where the clan council and nobles sat. I give a small bow to each noble as they bow to me as well and we exchange pleasantries from there. I finally get to Masao who stands and bows to me.
"Masao," I smile at the person whom I considered to be like a father to me. He stands takes my hand kissing it.
"Princess, I hope you have found your stay here pleasant so far," He asks his eyes questioning further to make sure I was okay.
"It's been wonderful here, how have you been?" I ask smiling to let him know that I was indeed fine.
"I've been well, the perimeter guard duties have been relaxing, to say the least," He smiles his tone picking fun at me.
"Better than guarding your Princess? Note to self I may keep you on perimeter duty then," I laugh shaking my head causing the others around us to laugh as well. I smile taking his hand and squeezing it again before skipping the 2 empty chairs and getting to my mother. Again I bow and she gives a slight bow.
"Daughter," She smiles at me as I take her hand. "I hope you are fine with this surprise,"
"Of course I am Mother, I have missed you all!" I shake my head at her crazy thought, I did miss them all, I hadn't seen them in 10 months only writing every few weeks to keep up, this was a wonderful surprise, though I was not liking the formalities on seeing them again as this was considered a formal event.
"I'm glad, we can talk more privately after dinner and the show. I hope to catch up on every small detail I can, I have missed you, though I am glad to hear from the Hokage that you are doing well here and your Sensei gives you high praises," I blush, turning to Kakashi for a second.
"I'm glad to make you all happy," I smile to all of them.
"Well, I'll talk more with you while at dinner, go finish your round, my beautiful daughter," I smile and bow. Then make my way to the Hokage who was next to my mother, I bow then she does.
"Lady Tsunade," I greet a knowing smile on my face when she takes my hand in hers. "Don't worry about it, you said," I shake my head as she laughs.
"I was right you didn't need to worry about it till now, Sakura helped plan it all and Kakashi just made sure you were on your mission,"
"So that mission was just to get me out of Kohona to sneak my own clan in? Smart," I say shaking my head the two.
"Yes, that was Kakashi's idea, originally that mission was going to go to some just out of the Academy Genin,"
"Well, I still stand by what I said about the merchant," I say with a smile but they knew what I was saying.
"And I still mean what I said in reply," Tsunade says and I laugh nodding.
"Thank you both of you," I say to her and Kakashi they nod and I move to Sakura she bows to me and I frown slightly realizing this was only the 2nd time shes ever bowed to me. "Sakura," I greet letting her quicky stand, I strangely didn't like her bowing to me. She smiles at me and I can tell she found it weird treating me like a princess as well, we were friends. "You didn't know what was going on hmm?" I raise my eyebrows at her she grins at me.
"Sorry, this was a secret I had to keep and wanted to keep honestly," she says I laugh and shake my head.
"So you're the only one allowed to keep secrets?" I ask giving her a playful glare.
"Hey, your secret was shareable to me so that I can help with it," I raise my eyebrows in confusion as to what she means.
"I don't understand what you mean by that,"
"I'll tell you later," She says looking to Kakashi for a split second then back to me.
"Ok," I blink and nod. I move on to say thank you to all the Genin and their Sensei for helping with everything. As I get done Kakashi and I make our way around the table heading to the seats next to my mother.
"So you're the reason I had to go on an annoying C-Rank mission," I say playfully shaking his elbow, he laughs.
"Yes, yes, I am a terrible Sensei for making you do a C-Rank mission," He says sarcastically. I roll my eyes.
"Well, I'm glad I didn't kill the merchant now," I say laughing causing Kakashi to laugh as well.
"I agree, though the magot as you called him would have deserved it," I laugh then blink when I see a flash. Sakura has taken a picture of Kakashi and I. I tilt my head at her she just smiles and sits back down.
"Thank you, Kakashi Sensei, for helping with this, even if I didn't like the mission, it was worth it in the end," I say smiling up at him.
"You're welcome, Kane," He says smiling at me as well. I get lost in his eye for a second then look down blushing. I look up as we make it to our seats, Kakashi kindly pulls my seat and gives a slight bow before taking his own seat.