Ba-thump, ba-thump.
I could feel and hear my heart beat itself wildly against my ribcage as anxiety washed over my whole body. Are they going to find me? I hope not! They better not notice that damned window I wasn't able to close on my way of escaping through it!
"…someone was here." I heard Kakashi tell the Yamanaka.
"How do you know that for sure Kakashi-kun?" The worry in the Yamanaka's voice evident as I hear them walk into the room I previously was in.
"…The window…is open and I've sensed their presence before…" I internally whistled. Two years old and talking like an adult, a prodigy indeed. Then I paused. Wait, they noticed the window! Fuck!
"…before? What do you mean by that Kakashi-kun?" The blond questioned him, both people walking towards the window. I cursed, time to take my chances and run like the wind!
I jumped out of the bush I was hiding in and sprinted away from them, ignoring the Yamanaka's yelp and Kakashi's silent but yet loud feeling of realization. It seems like his feelings are apparent because we're currently in his mindscape…or so I think that's the reason why I can know for sure Kakashi felt realization dawn over him.
Then out in front of me popped up a wall and I was suddenly forced to meet face to face with the child I was apparently watching over and have been living in his mind for the past two years and the accompanying Yamanaka.
I guess trying to outrun shinobi and especially if one of the shinobi is the person who owns the mindscape they were all currently in and the other, a person specializing with mindscapes, was a terrible idea.
"H-Hey Kakashi." I waved to him and saw his curious pair of child-like curiousity eyes. Simultaneously, I also anxiously stared at the Yamanaka's grim set expression. "…Hello Yamanaka."
"…Kakashi, does this person hold the same presence you've felt before in the past and just now?" The Yamanaka questioned him, all sense of cordiality thrown out of the window as did the –kun attachment. "Is she?"
Kakashi nodded in affirmation, taking a step towards me. I stilled. "Yeah. This presence feels extremely familiar with the one that was with me constantly when I was smaller!"
My eyes widened at that. When he was smaller? How much smaller can he get than two years old?! And anyways, babies weren't supposed to have enough brain cells nor nerves to even have memories of their moments as babies! This is going borderline prodigious and more like a mutation in Kakashi's brain and body for him to remember such a thing!
"So, you..." I flinched at the suspicious tone held in his speech. "Who are you? Why are you here? What is your purpose?"
I held my hands up in defense, anxiously looking back and forth between Kakashi who seemed like he wanted to say something to me but held off and the Yamanaka who seemed ready to somehow kill me in Kakashi's mindscape.
"I was a civilian who died from a sudden and unknown illness. I found myself to wake up as a sort of…"guardian angel" over Kakashi," I gestured to Kakashi as I explained. "I do not know why I am here. My purpose is, I suppose, to try and get used to live in his mind with him." The Yamanaka hummed and his eyes strayed over to my entire appearance as if trying to find some sort of contradiction or falsity in my words.
Looking down at myself self-conscious after a long time with no one being able to see me, I saw I was wearing the same outfit I wore on my way to the airport. I was wearing a pair of jeans and a plain blue polo shirt with the number 10 written in neon yellow-green on the side of my shoulders.
…Does the Naruto world even have Polo shirts? Huh. I think not. Oh well.
Once again, I must have been in too deep of a thought to have even noticed Kakashi had started walking closer towards me and then poked me. Breaking me out of my stupor.
"Huh? What?" I blinked, looking down at the source of the disturbance in my train of thought. "Oh, hey there Kakashi." I knelt down, so I could meet eye to eye with him. "…You grow up pretty fast for a baby."
He puffed out his chest as if proud and nodded. "Of course. I am Sakumo's son after all!"
I grinned at him, feeling slightly more at ease in the presence of a child. "Yeah, of course you are." Then I paused…didn't Kakashi used to hate his dad when he was a kid? Ah… right, maybe Sakumo's mission that led to his reputation shamed and his suicide hadn't happened yet. Heh.
Ruffling his hair I grinned before suddenly remembering the Yamanaka was still here I stood up abruptly and met his contemplative glance.
"…What is it?" I probed the Yamanaka.
"Do you know the reason we are in Kakashi's mindscape?" He asked me.
I shook my head. "I do not. Although I do have a slight idea of what it might be."
He stiffly nodded at me. "Do tell."
I obliged him. "It was most probably to check up on his mental stability as a prodigy, am I right?"
The Yamanaka stared at me surprised. "So you did know…" He muttered before resuming his slightly more audible voice. "Why did you try to run and hide away from us then?"
I shrugged. "I thought you might have tried to kill me seeing that I'm an anomaly to have even existed in his mind at all."
"We wouldn't have done that!" Kakashi protested sending me a look of hurt and I swallowed the saliva building up in my throat, gulping back at his shock and hurt expression.
"Erm…" I awkwardly patted his head. "Yes, but I didn't know that for sure, so better safe than sorry yeah?" I tried to stop him from crying. I hate dealing with crying kids. Heck, I hate kids in general. They were too confusing and sometimes you forget they can actually understand you and remember it in the future, especially with a prodigy and their mutations to have a photographic memory of some sort even as a newborn!
"…Okay." He relented. I sighed in relief at that, then this time looked at the Yamanaka. Why was he simply observing Kakashi and I?
"Did you know what you did to get into Kakashi's mindscape? From what he had told me, it seems like you had previously never been here before the sudden disappearance of your presence."
"Ah." I shrugged, rubbing the back of my neck sheepishly. "I, ah, was, simply put bored and wanted to go somewhere else, and simply from that thought in mind…I found myself in his mindscape, but back then it was far messier than what it is now." I explained before proudly claiming my hard work and effort. "So, I started organizing the things that entered his mind and I've been learning quite a lot of your language from doing just that! After all… I can talk pretty fluently in your language yeah?"
He hummed again. Man, what is it with the Yamanaka humming constantly? Couldn't he just say I understand or I see, I see or something else like "That's interesting…."? Geez.
"I see…" Oh hey! "That is quite interesting indeed…"
I stilled. Is the Yamanaka reading my mind? "Are you reading my mind?" I asked him, feeling a bit foolish after seeing his bemused expression. He shook his head at me, chuckling softly. I frowned.
"Okay…so maybe not." I grumbled feeling incredibly uncomfortable in this whole situation. I writhed in my position. "So…Do you have any idea or plan for me to go back and forth from Kakashi's mindscape easily?"
The Yamanaka losing his previously entertained expression sent me a look before shaking his head. "Unfortunately, no, I do not… Although…" He paused. "…seeing as you had simply thought of it and brought yourself here…couldn't you have thought yourself out of here?" He questioned me.
I sent him an annoyed glare, my hands unconsciously erratically ruffling Kakashi's hair rapidly in counter-clockwise. "…You think I hadn't tried?"
"…Stop that!" Kakashi whined at me, slapping my hands away from his head.
I blinked. "Oh, sorry, I didn't notice I was doing that to you...heh."
It seems like little Kakashi is currently upset with me…Little Kakashi who controls the mindscape I've lived in for the past two years…crap!
"…I'll give you a piggy ride if you'll forgive me…." I nonchalantly said, glancing at him as I squatted down, arms reaching back, inviting him to climb on.
He twitched and relented and climbed up my back. "…You're forgiven."
I grinned. "Thanks."
It seems that the Yamanaka was having a blast observing me play with brat Kakashi as he watched with an apparent bemused expression. The rim of his lips tilted upwards a bit and his eyes held an amused twinkle in them.
I seethed at him. Was he finding it funny that I had to bribe a child, a two-year-old brat, to forgive me since he could control his mindscape and most probably murder me if he hates me enough?
…
I paused taking a better look at the now extremely amused Yamanaka. Yeah, he most probably was… That bastard!
He waved dismissively and shrugged at me. "Don't mind me, and unfortunately there is nothing I can do for you."
I smirked. "But there is! You were able to have brought both yourself and Kakashi into here, which means you can bring yourselves out again right? Teach me!"
"Yeah! Teach her!" I heard Kakashi whoop and cheer for me. I grinned. I've gained the support of the two-year old prodigious Kakashi brat! How great! How wonderful! Sorry, I'm feeling quite sarcastic right now, so you'll have to forgive my stab-stabs. …but then again, he's a two year old prodigy and is the owner of the mindscape we are currently residing in. Yeah, I really shouldn't be sarcastic about actually gaining his support.
"…I would, but do you even know how to use Chakra? Do you even have chakra?" He questioned me.
I bit back a groan.
"I'll never know unless we try!" I exclaimed loudly, feeling a bit annoyed at how he was treating me like a baby. Then I looked down at the peering curious eyes of prodigious two-year-old Kakashi and stopped huffing. "…Or maybe you can bring a Hyuuga in to check whether or not I have a chakra system?" I suggested questioningly at the Yamanaka who seemed to be contemplating on accepting my suggestion or not.
"…There might be side effects of civilians trying to perform ninja techniques though…" The Yamanaka mused out loud, staring at me.
I shook my head at him. "I have no physical form, intangible, so you can kind of think of me similar like you would a tailed beast yeah? My whole body is probably made of chakra or something like that and therefore I won't be able to get hurt from performing ninja techniques that requires Chakra." I tried explaining my presumptions to him before pausing. "…Did what I say make sense?"
The Yamanaka nodded at me. "…Sort of, yes. But, I would like to refute your premises, if we were to assume you are indeed made of chakra, then we can also assume you wouldn't be able to perform the ninja technique I'll possibly teach you due to risks of chakra strain on your body being made purely out of chakra and due to other unknown factors you might not have any chakra system to perform chakra normally as a person like me would and the fact that you have never had any previous experience in chakra makes it seem unreliable for me to even try and teach you without concern and doubting whether you will be able to perform the jutsu successfully or not and end up in another whole area without any way out than you already are."
I gaped at him. Did he not find the time to just pause and breathe? There were almost no commas or periods in his entire monologue he just uttered! Like, seriously!
"Well, I also have several refutes ready at hand to go against your rebuttals. For number one, you said it wouldn't be possible due to "risks" and "unknown factors", but I'd like to just say that, it won't matter because we're in a mindscape, Kakashi's mindscape, and if I were to traverse more than I already have, I'll simply just find myself back here because I am after all the one who organized his entire mindscape. Or if I were to somehow damage Kakashi's mindscape I can fix it too!" I proclaimed. "Number two, "unable to perform chakra normally" you say? Because I "might not have an chakra system to perform chakra draining techniques normally as a person like" you "would", you say?"
….Yeah, lots and lots of quotation fingers right now.
"And are you to tell me that you aren't right now, simply a blob of chakra in a shape of your physical body in the outside world?" I continued my rebuttal. "Just spit out the truth, you're just making up excuses for not wanting to teach one of your clan's prized secret technique in front of a prodigious child with photographic memory!"
The Yamanaka's lips tightened into a stiff line and he stiffly nodded. "…You're right, I am indeed making excuses, but you see-"
"Erm, sorry to interrupt but…would you both mind looking upwards to the sky?" I heard Kakashi meekly speak, and I looked up looking at what exactly was troubling him.
Oh god. They were Kakashi's new memories of his mindscape…! Why are they so abnormally large though…?! And so many of them too!
"HOLY COW!" I screamed. "WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!"
The Yamanaka looked at me worry evident on his face. "What…?" Then he looked up and I saw his eyes bulge out as well. "I'll be able to get Kakashi and I out of here but…" His eyes strayed down to my face from Kakashi's who was still riding on my back, his head resting on my shoulder, that sloth, "I'm not sure about you…"
I bristled at that. "WHAT, WHY YOU-" What I was about to say next was fortunately cut off by Kakashi who came to my rescue. …A two year old came to my rescue… Now that just sounds plain weird and odd, but then again for the time I've been here, and apparently it has been two years, everything I've faced was weird and odd so far, so this wasn't anything too different I guess.
"Just try and teleport the both of us out!" Kakashi shrilly exclaimed. "You two have been arguing for the past ten minutes and asteroids of a cosmically huge size are raining down upon us! JUST TRY AND STOP ARGUING ABOUT WHETHER IT WOULD WORK OR NOT AND THE CONSEQUENCES!"
The Yamanaka seemed to have relented at that and motioned me to come to him. I walked towards him and he clammed his hands down on my shoulder and on Kakashi's head. I felt something surge through me, and I closed my eyes. Then, in an instant, we were gone.
Author's Notes
Woaahh, this is like, my most liked story out of the others I've published! Thanks for the support! I'm glad that you're interested in this story! I hope I've met your expectations! If not…I hope I didn't disappoint you too bad yeah? Also! I managed to update before the deadline! YAY! ...Even if it's like a day before in the evening...hehehe. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
