Chapter 20

In the days following the funeral the weather was beautiful, sunny and warm pushing high temperatures. It was almost as if it meant to cheer the villagers up. As if some sunlight could make them forget the dark hand that had touched and destroyed parts of their lives.

There was a lot of destruction; most of buildings had been heavily damaged. Time was spent by almost everyone trying to heal and patch it all up. So far I had to admit, it was going well. The place was starting to look good as new.

Well, most people's time was spent that way. I spent mine trying to dodge the lame babysitters Kakashi forced on me.

I understand his worry, but still. He was spending a lot of time with the village elders, doing boring council stuff, damage control, politics, blah blah blah. He doesn't like to leave me alone all day, might have something to do with my psychotic mother vowing to kill me and painting a large red target on me. No pun intended.

I peer around the corner into the living room. Kakashi tried multiple times to "drop" me off places with people he trusted. By dropping me of, I mean he ditched me there a disappeared without warning to avoid the earful I had loaded and waiting. He's a jerk, but this is taking it TOO far.

Gai and Asuma sit across from each other with a deck of cards between them on the table. Now, I have a healthy respect for both of them as teachers. NOT babysitters, though. There is no way they'd agree to such a degrading position without a heavy pay off, I wonder what he promised to give them.

I bite back a growl as I sneak back up the stairs to my room and quietly shut the door. Obviously, the only way to show Kakashi that this show was unnecessary was to openly defy him –again. I am just as capable of walking around without a bodyguard as Sasuke and Naruto.

I throw open my window and close my eyes with a smile as I feel the breeze on my face. I also pause, waiting for a reaction to the loud sound of my window protesting. After a few breaths – nothing, they must think that I've given up trying to get away. I already had a few unsuccessful attempts today. I tried to make it to the door; my fingers didn't even brush the knob before they had me marching in the opposite direction. I tried to lure them into a cunning gen jutsu, but they were prepared for that too, so no dice. Asuma whipped his hand up in a sign to release any gen jutsu I tried, and Gai stared directly at my feet. I've got them this time though, no fancy tricks needed. They must not have noticed the tree by my window. A tree Kakashi knows is my main escape route to meet up with my friends after hours. A tree that he usually keeps heavily guarded. Too bad he didn't tell his lackeys about my fondness for leaping into trees. It gives me a moment's worry though, that my usually vigilant brother forgot this important detail, before the promise of sweet freedom calls to me again.

With two bounds I'm out the window, down the tree, and making my get away as quick as I can make my feet move on the solid ground.

As I run I think I try to figure out my chances. The only one who even has a prayer of catching me is Gai. If I want to avoid him, I need to blend in. He'll get distracted easily enough.

I run towards to broken part villages where there is still a lot work to be done. There's a lot of activity, a lot of people, a lot of places to blend it and become invisible.

While I'm dodging and weaving around the sea of people I spy a familiar spiky brown ponytail. "Shikamaru!"

He whips towards my voice with an annoyed look on his face as I catch up to him quickly, waving and laughing.

"Shh!" He hisses at me, slapping my hand out of the air. "I'm trying to get out of helping and doing work, that's not gonna happen if you call attention to me."

"Kakashi is trying to stick a twenty-four watch on me when he's gone. Help me get away and I promise I'll spend the day doing whatever you wanna do."

"Even playing countless games of shogi?"

I pull a fake grimace of soul tearing pain, "Even that. Clearly I'm desperate if I'm agreeing to listen to you brag and talk down to me all day long."

"I know how we make a flawless get away." He says with his signature know it all smirk.

We're casually strolling around the streets slowly making our way to his house. I complain about the snail like pace the whole time.

"You asked me to help? This is the best way. If you don't look like you're trying to get away, no one will think we are. It's called being stealthy, something you have no patience for."

I snort, lining up a sarcastic reply when we both stop. "We're being followed." We say at the same time, realising it in the same instant.

Shikamaru quickly picks his slow pace back up, dragging me along. "Could be a coincidence."

I reluctantly follow along, "Could be, probably not though. The way I see it could be one of three things. First, it could be your theory, in which we do nothing. Or, it could be that whoever is following us has us mistaken for someone else. If that's the cause, then we find a way to let them get a good look at us without setting off their suspicions so they leave us alone. Or my final theory, it could be that they mean to follow us and they have something in mind for us, and we'll need to know what that is."

"How are you going to figure it out?"

I laugh, "Did you forget who I am? But get this, this totally gives me a chance to try out this trick me and Kakashi have been working on. It I focus really hard I can listen to what they're saying and transfer it to you at the same time. That way we can both listen to whatever they're talking about. It's almost like I'm broadcasting as I hear."

"Then do that." He tries to sound casual but I can hear the excitement in the undertones of his voice. He's a lousy actor.

"I have to focus really hard though. I can walk still you'll have to guide me, because I won't be paying attention to where I'm walking. If you walk me into a wall, which will no doubt be hilarious, I'll lose focus and we'll lose them."

"Hey, come on. I got you, promise."

Despite my warning, I already trusted him. I know during Ino's jutsu it leaves her body vulnerable, and Shikamaru is the one she entrusts her helpless body too. With that comfort in my head I slip my arm around his and with my other hand grab his bare wrist.

He jumps at the sudden and unexpected touch.

"Sorry, Kakashi found he could hear better when we had physical contact. He said it made it sound louder and more central, less like random drifting thoughts." I try to explain.

He just nods and gripped me a little tighter.

I took that as my sign to start. Slowly, my mind drifts away and I concentrate more and more on the sounds around me. I flip through all the noises around me, looking to zero in on the voices following us. I hear two strange male voices, whispering in low tones to each other. Some part of me, mentally, connected to my friend guiding me, touching me. My mind opened up and at the same time part of it settled into his brain. Such a strange sensation to try to explain, the part of me in Shikamaru's head responded and he could hear them now too. He stiffened at the sudden intrusion. His first instinct was to try and dislodge himself from the intrusion. For a second he almost pulled away before remembering himself, forcing himself to stay close.

The voices become very clear to us.

"I don't know about this man, are you really sure this is the only way?"

"It's the best way, trust me."

"What makes you so sure about this, Charlie?"

"It's all just simple logical train of thought paired with process of elimination. But since you lack those simple functions I'll explain it all out – again. Really, how many times is this now?"

"Aw, come on. That's not fair; I just can't keep up with your strange brain processes."

"Well pay attention. Think back, all those years ago, when that demon fox came out of nowhere and wrecked the village. It broke the place to pieces. Then, out of nowhere this demon kid shows up. Nobody questions it, he just sticks around here. Now, giant snakes attack and wreck it all up again. Now there's a little red haired kid running around here that no one can account for. That kid is the fox, what's to say she isn't one of the snakes?"

Shikamaru hand tightens on my arm and my heart gives a similar squeeze. Option number three it is then. Shikamaru gives another squeeze, cautioning me to keep calm and quiet, and keep listening.

"That's a little crazy, even for you."

"Don't be a naïve idiot. It's perfectly logical. Just like before, the shinobi are blind to what's really going on. They think they're all so smart and clever, yet they can't even see that we have two potential dangers in our midst, and one of them is definitely a spy."

"Those snakes were Orochimaru's."

"Exactly my point, we know who she belongs to. She's his little spy. Let me finish. So, he seals a snake in that girl. She's here now to report everything back to him. We're in such a weak position now it'd be only too easy for him to crawl back with an army and do us in. She's here to blab everything she sees and hears back to her master, and to try and convince the Uzumaki kid join her in destroying us. She's picking up powerful friends all over the place. She's evil, I know it."

"You have no proof; no one is going to believe this."

"You have to see her, she's beautiful. She has all those powerful kids wrapped around her finger. She and the fox kid are attached at the hip. All she has to do is wait for the word from her master and she'll bring us all to our knees. She's hooked up with the Inuzuka kid, Sasuke Uchiha, and the one she's with now is Shikamaru Nara. Tell me now you don't think she's surrounding herself with talented kids who have the potential to be really dangerous."

There's a thoughtful pause before the partner says, "Okay, fine. But really, what are you going to do about that? You aren't a shinobi."

"I thought about that. We wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell in getting the Uchiha kid. Inuzuka and Nara are out too, they have powerful families surrounding them. They won't hesitate to get rid of us if they catch us sniffing around their kids. But the kid and the girl are different. They aren't as powerful as Uchiha, and they don't have any one looking after them like the other two. We can take them out, besides from what I can tell they're the ringleaders. It's perfect; we take them out one at a time. Nip the problem in the bud."

"How?"

I hear the other one tap his fingernail on something metallic hidden under his clothes. "With this sharp little thing, of course. They may be mini shinobi but they all die the same way. Get her alone, quick, easy and we get away clean. No one's coming to look for her."

"Why am I even listening to this? I'm not agreeing to this."

"Think about it buddy, we take care of this and the whole village is saved. No harm comes to anyone here and we become heroes for being so clever. With that road come more riches and women that we'll ever know what to do with."

He grumbles under his breath for a minute, as if the idea of killing a girl is merely only inconvenient to him if those are the promised rewards. "Fine." He finally agrees.

I got cold all over in pure rage. If they want me alone, they'll get it. But I'll be damned if it goes the way they've oh so brilliantly planned.

I jerk myself away from Shikamaru's touch. "Get out of here." I hiss at him harshly and avoid his eyes.

"Red, no." He says with a note of panic. "Don't be dumb."
"I'm going to lead them down the alley over there," I nod my head in the direction. "They don't know me or what I'm capable of. I'll take care of them in no time; they won't even know what hit them."

"Don't do that, they'll kill you. There are smarter ways to go about this."

"They can try," I scoff.

"At least let me stay with you, if you won't be smart about it, even the odds."

I place a hand on his cheek and force my eyes to meet his carefully. "Please, don't make me do this."

"Make you do what?" He asks confusedly.

I lock my gaze to his and speak in the way I know he can't resist, burning my command into his mind. "Shikamaru Nara, leave this place. Leave now. Don't you dare come back for me." I drop my hand and take a step back. "I'm telling you, I can take these punks."

"Red, you idiot." He chokes out before running off, staying out of sight of our stalkers.

I start whistling, singling myself out of the thin crowd. When I'm sure my pray thinks they have a lock on me, I duck into the dead end alley, waiting at the end for them to chase me down.

One of them appears and walk towards me. He's a young adult, Kakashi's age or so. He's on the short side, spiky brown hair that reminds me somewhat of Shickamaru's would be like if it was cropped short. His eyes are a matching muddy brown. Day old stubble sticks out of his jowls, which are flexing nervously as he approaches me warily still. I stand perfectly still assessing him with every step he takes and staring him down unflinchingly.

I can tell he's not the ring leader; he just doesn't have the stones. "What's wrong?" I taunt him. He jumps at the sound of my voice like he's been slapped. "Charlie made you handle the dirty work on your own? You're both beyond stupid, I hope you know that. You have no idea about me. He's stupid for thinking you can take me out, and you're stupid for letting him convince you to try." I shift my weight to my right foot and the man jumps again at my sudden and casual movements. "Come on then," I smile disarmingly.

Just as I expect, he hesitates. I laugh loudly at him. I see a flash of rage cross his face, he doesn't like the fact that a little girl has him so scared, and he especially doesn't like the fact that she knows it. He lunges at me, both arms extended for my throat to shut my laughing up. I spin out of his reach, twirling behind him and slam one of my feet into the back of his knee's causing him to fall. My back is now facing the exit.

I hear the feet pounding behind me and I whirl again, leading with my elbow connecting solidly with Charlie's jaw.

He's a little taller than his friend, with the same wiry build that looks weak, but is surprisingly strong. Unkempt dark hair spills into his pale green eyes that stick out harshly against his pallid skin tone. I duck as he throws a punch at me and dodge to his left, dancing behind him easily. I give him a shove towards his friend. I now have them both backed into the dead end.

I snarl to myself, not my ideal situation, they'll fight harder now. Somehow I'll make it work.

An idea strikes me, why not even out my odds in my favor? I could call on my wolf friends. If these guys think I'm going to do a jutsu though, that might cause them to lash out at me. I stare them both down, I'll have to trick them.

I turn my back on them, slowly, deliberately. I stroll towards to exit, keeping my hands in front of me and out of their sight.

"Hey! Where are you going, kid?" Charlie demands. His voice is agitated. He didn't count on me putting up a fight, much less the blatant disrespect I was showing him by turning my back to them both.

Quickly I perform the hand seals, feeling the pressure of time breathing down my neck. I turn around to face them again, still hiding my hands. I reach for the knives in the pack I keep hooked on to the back of my pants, to prick my thumbs. I answer as I feel the sting of the sharp points cutting into my flesh. "I'm going home; you're not fun to play with anymore. You bore me."

Charlie's scum bag side kick is smarter than I pinned him for though, he's figured me out. "She's about to do some sort of jutsu! Stop her!"

I start guiltily at the accusation as they both charge me, wasting precious seconds of reaction time. I drop, about to smack my hands to the pavement. I'm so agonizingly close when both hands are wretched up and away. Charlie's buddy has my wrists and my hands hang uselessly in the air. He brings them down and folds them against my back, restraining me. The exit is now behind me, out of my sight, and I know I am royally screwed. I struggle to break free and he twists one of my wrists painfully, making me cry out in pain and frustration.

Charlie stands in front of me, smiling down in my face with a satisfied, smug look. "What were you saying to my friend Po here before? That we were stupid? Well, we're not so stupid looking right now are we?" He pulls and long knife from the back of his pants. He inspects the blade closely, as he keeps on smiling. "Nope, I bet we don't. But what I guess is that your spying days are over, little snake."

I surge against the arms holding me back. "I am not a spy or a snake."

He gives me an unimpressed look. "I don't believe you."

"If there was any kind of creature sealed inside me, I'd have to have a seal mark somewhere, just like Naruto does. You'd know that of course, if you had done any research before coming up with these insane paranoid theories of yours. Also, Naruto has done nothing to harm this village and would lay down his life a million times to save it. Yet you think he would destroy it? You're nothing more than a degenerate psychopath and wanna be shinobi."

Something deadly cold flashed in his eyes. He placed his knife flat against my cheek and leaned into close to me. "I'll show you a true psychopath, little girl. It's a shame too, you're so pretty. You could have grown up to be my girlfriend."

Rage rose up and dried the outraged words in my throat. I spit in his face instead.

With an infuriated growl, he smacks the side of my face. Before the stars fade from my eyes he smacks the other side. My legs crumple beneath me and I gasp for air before he slams a fist into my torso.

I cry out and gag. I wish I hadn't sent Shikamaru away. Charlie grabs my hair and pulls it back, forcing me to look at his face. "Listen up. I'm going to silt your throat, bleed you dry like an animal. Then I'm going to cut you into tiny pieces and scatter you so you'll never be found. Got any smart comments for that?" He pulls again, and I grimace as I feel some hairs pull free of my scalp.

Part of me wishes that when he kills me that his threats are true. I don't want Kakashi or Naruto to find my lifeless shell tossed in this back alley. I can't imagine the pain they'd have to go through because I'm an idiot. Better they think that I just ran away one day and never came back. Maybe they would assume that I ran away to join my mother, then maybe they'd hate me and curse my memory. Better to hate me than to mourn me is my reasoning. And the only way to give them a chance at that is to really piss these guys off.

Gathering my strength I force my jelly legs to stand and support me, and I give one last heartfelt attempt at struggling out of the iron arms holding me back. With a heavy sigh I meet my attacker's eyes and say, "How about, fuck you?"

His face floods red and he gives an enraged scream before driving his fists in my stomach, forcing my knees to buckle again.

There's a rustle behind Charlie and so quick that I'm sure my eyes are tricking me, Kakashi appears behind him. I wonder how he managed to sneak past us all without any of us noticing. I breathe his name in awe and thankfulness, like a prayer.

Charlie turns quickly with the knife extended, searching to stick Kakashi with its deadly pointy end. Kakashi is too fast for him, however, and grabs his wrist and with one smooth movement, and a rather bored expression in his eye, snaps it. The knife clatters uselessly to the ground accompanied by Charlie's screams of pain. Without missing a beat, Kakashi's hand removes the forehead protector covering his sharingan giving my captor an eyeful. Po immediately lets me free and pushes me away from him, not roughly, in panic. He begins to back away wringing his hands and begging, "Please, no. It was all his idea, please. I didn't know she belonged to you, I'm sorry. Please, he made me. I didn't want to hurt her, honest."

I catch the dangerous expression on my brother's face and wonder if the pleas have fallen on deaf and uncaring ears. Deciding to do a little damage control I lock eyes with Po and put him to sleep quickly.

Kakashi's arms wrap around me and pull me in, one hand stroking the back of my hair. I burry my face into his neck, shivering. We stay like that for a while, not speaking. No words are needed really. The frenzied hand stroking my hair told me how scared he was for me, how grateful he was that I was safe. And I'm sure he could tell by my frightening gasping that I was happy to see him, and that I was sure I wasn't getting out of that scrape. Eventually, I feel Kakashi relax and my shivering slowed and stopped altogether.

It's only then I open my eyes and notice the elongated shadows stopping the pair of scumbags from running. It takes my shocked brain a minute to process the cause of that shadow, before I switch my gaze to that familiar annoyed glare and spiky ponytail.

"How?" I breathe, apparently still not able to speak properly.

"You told me I couldn't come back for you. You didn't say anything about me coming back for these dirt bags." He sniffs. "You really owe me one this time, I had to run, actually run, until I found Kakashi. Of course, he didn't find it too hard to believe you went and got yourself in to some sort of disaster while he thought you were safe at home. So we didn't waste too much time on the explanation, and just came here together."

Tears sting my eyes and before I can blink them back they spill over my cheeks. Not being able to muster a word I run and throw myself at him. He grunts as he catches me arms and does his best to put on a pained expression as I wrap my arms around his neck and cry into his chest. There's an awkward pause before he wraps his arms around me and squeezes. "You're really dumb sometimes, do you know that? A real troublesome person, you're lucky you have me." He allows himself another brief hug before he disentangles us. "Naruto's going to be mad though."

I jump back and wipe at my face with both hands, "At me? Why?"

He ignores my questions and rambles on, "Yeah, I'd say Naruto's anger will be on par with Kakashi's. Never mind when Kiba and Sasuke find out."

"Why would they be mad at me?"

He gives me a strange look, "If you really don't know then you deserve every minute of it."

I mull over that for a minute before asking, "Are you mad at me?"
His expression softens and he reaches out and musses my hair, "Nah, little sister, I'm not mad."

I wrinkle my noise at him and swat away the hand, "I'm not little."

He replaces the hand easily, "Yeah you are," and snickers.

Before I can get riled up Kakashi sweeps by and grabs my arm, "Time to go." He says in a flat voice.

As we walk home, Kakashi never lets go of my arm, but he doesn't say anything either. The flat voice he used keeps echoing in my mind and the silence weighs heavier on my heart with every step. By the time we get in sight of the door I can't take it anymore. "Are you mad at me? Shikamaru said you would be."

He waits until we're inside to answer me, I can see that the failed babysitters have cleared out some time before. I look up into his face, expectantly, but all I get is a blank stare and a suggestion to go to my room, in the same flat, tired voice.

I lie on my back on my bed with the window opened. Eyes shut tightly, letting my ears guide me along in a lazily drifting fashion when I sense him waiting. Damn, Shikamaru certainly couldn't wait to tattle on me and get me into more trouble. Pay back I supposed for making him exert more than his preferred level of energy in one day. I know that he knows that I know he's at the bottom of the tree waiting. I also know that he'll wait all day, but not quietly. The last thing I need now is for him to make a giant racket and bring Kakashi down on the both of us and get more upset.

I sigh, and listen closely to see what he's up too. He's in the living room and by the sound of his snores; he's having a pretty decent nap. Feeling confident that he won't miss me for a while yet, I leap into the tree and wait.

He grumbles under his breath like he's annoyed for a minute before scrambling up beside me. Before he lets loose on me I warn him. "Kakashi's already really mad at me, so don't you go yelling and wake him up because if he finds us here he'll kill us both."

He clenches his jaw and nods; I can see the anger flaring in his eyes. "You're an idiot." He informs me.

I scoff, "Shikamaru didn't waste a second to go running to you did he? Well hurry up about it, I expect the others will be on the way soon and they'll all want a quart of the blood."

"What were you thinking? They were going to kill you."

My temper flares up to meet his, "Duh and when they were done with me they were coming after you. They wanted to get rid of Kiba and Sasuke too!" My anger cools off and hurt pride takes its place. "I...I thought I was strong enough to beat them. I thought I could save us all, all by myself. I guess I'm just weak." I stare down at my hands, feeling useless, "They would have killed me, no question. For a while, I was convinced that there was no way out of it and I couldn't stop them. All I could think about was you and Kakashi having to find me like that. Dead, I mean."

I can see his temper cooling off too, and I continue on, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for it to happen like that."

Both his hands cup my cheeks and he turns my head side to side, inspecting me.

He heaves a sigh a moment later, satisfied that I've suffered no extreme damage. "Red, don't throw your life away like that. Don't you know how much you mean?" His fingers brush my cheek bones. "You're not weak, you're strong, you've been through so much, and you're unbreakable. You just have to think things through, and you need more training and practice. You wanted to prove your power to yourself, but there's other ways to do it rather than risking your life in a street fight with some thugs."

"I still don't understand why everyone is so mad at me though." I say perplexedly.

"We've all done so much to keep you safe, to protect you. It hurts us to see you throw it all away because you feel like you have something to prove. That's why we're mad, because we love you." He kisses my nose and I crinkle it up.

"Now I'm getting out of here before Kakashi finds out I was here while you were grounded."

"I'm not grounded."

"Not yet." He promises ominously before tearing off.

The truth of his words slowly sinks in and the guilt starts to eat away at me. Of course, this time, he was totally right. Not only could they have lost me because of my rash decision and over confidence, I could have lost them. I don't like to admit fault, but I suck it up and crawl back in my window, getting ready to face the dragon.

I peek at Kakashi on the couch where he lays sprawled and snoring. My heart softens, he's worked really hard since all this stuff happened and my giving him hell for trying to keep my safe isn't helping. I didn't realise before how worn out he looked. Shikamaru was right; I'm a pretty troublesome person. It irks me to have to admit that he was right…again. I file that away under another reason to kick his ass when I see him again.

I tiptoe over to the couch. I know in reality I'm much too big and too old for this, but it's something we both need right now.

I squeeze in between the couch and Kakashi's side and curl into a tight ball and rest my head on his belly. I close my eyes and enjoying the peaceful feeling washing over my tattered nerves. It feels like home. He makes me feel secure and safe, a rarity for me.

His hand lifts and gently lands on my cheek.

After a beat I venture. "Kakashi?"

"Yes?"

I stumble over the first words. "I…I'm sorry. What I did was stupid and foolish and wrong. I see that now. That's my problem I never see that it was the wrong thing to do til after I go and do it and it's too late. I know that you only want what's best for me and sometimes I make that hard to do. But I won't do something like that again. You mean too much to me. I'm sorry, okay? I love you, big brother."

Another moment passes in silence before he replies. "I've been pretty over protective of you. It's only because you're precious to me, you're all I have left now Red, remember that at the times I seem overbearing. I have to protect you. But I promise I'll try to be more reasonable about it. I love you, sister mine."

I smile to myself, content.

"Besides, you'll be able to do all kinds of study and practice for the next week or so. You'll get a chance to train and perfect some more jutsu so you'll be better equipped should that situation arise again. We'll also have to spend some time working on your strategizing skills as well." He muses, patting my cheek.

"A week or so? Why is that?"

"Oh, did I forget to mention it? You're grounded."