Disclaimer
To disclaim or not to disclaim... that is the question...
She thankfully found them sparring together in the yard in front of the academy. She stopped as her closest friend Mitsumi shut her eyes, focusing on doing whichever trick their Sensei had asked her to do. After a few seconds and handseals, the brown-haired girl opened her turquoise eyes and peeked at Tadashi.
"Did I get it?" she asked hopefully, making her Sensei groan in desperation. He shook his head, and was about to tell her to try it again when his eyes rested on Kenoyo. Tadashi's mouth fell open, and Mitsumi turned around to see what had shocked her Sensei. But the girl had exactly the same reaction, yet she unfroze before he did and ran towards her friend, screaming in happiness.
"You're back, you're back! I thought you were dead!" the younger girl wailed, flinging herself in Kenoyo's arms. They embraced for a while and then Kenoyo pulled away only to be hugged by her Sensei, who also was glad that she was back.
"Come on, we have to get you unpacked!" Mitsumi said, dragging her towards the small apartment they lived in. The older friend laughed and kept on walking beside her, glad she was home. But her heart was still tugging towards Sand Village, where Gaara was waiting for her.
----------
Later that day, Mitsumi and Kenoyo were both sitting against their beds, facing each other. Usually, their Sensei would tell them that it was useless for them to just sit back, relax and just talk, but this time he let it slide and allowed the two girls some privacy.
After a few jokes and talks of light subject, Kenoyo sighed and turned serious. "Listen, Mitsumi… I have to go back to Sand Village. I'm sorry, I know it's going to hurt you, but I have to go back…"
The other girl's mouth fell open in shock. At first, she whimpered that Kenoyo couldn't leave, that she'd miss her too much. Then she moved on to listing all the things that she'd lose if she was to leave. But after a few minutes, her eyes narrowed and she looked at her friend suspiciously before asking, "Who's the guy?"
Kenoyo burst in laughter and shook her head. "How did you guess!?" she asked, not answering her just yet. She wanted Mitsumi to work for the name. Half of her wanted to tell her, but the other half apprehended what her friend would say about her new boyfriend.
Mitsumi squealed, making her friend roll her eyes as she clapped her hands in happiness. "You are so busted! Spill the name out, sister! Now!" she begged, her eyes shining in excitement.
Kenoyo allowed a few seconds to pass, letting the silence torture her friend, and then she said, "Well I'm seeing Sabaku no Gaara…" She broke into a smile, looking up at her friend, her eyes almost pleading her not to freak out too much.
The 15 year old girl's mouth snapped open for a second time in one day, but instead of gushing about how he was a monster she started to laugh. "As if you, Kimura Kenoyo, is actually going out with the only guy in this world that's cold like ice! Wow! Congratulations!" she exclaimed, then went to give her friend a long hug of happiness. But when she pulled away she asked, "When are you leaving?"
"In two or three days," Kenoyo answered, glad that Mitsumi hadn't given her any trouble about Gaara.
Her friend's happy face fell again, but into a grim resolution. 'Alteast I'm seeing her again, she could've left without saying goodbye,' Mitsumi thought to herself. But she pasted on a smile for her friend's sake and said, "Alright. Three days is good I guess. We can't keep you away from the now taken Sand Ninja for too long or he'll come to get you and we'll all suffer his wrath!"
-- Three days later --
"Come in!" Tadashi called from inside his apartment.
Kenoyo pushed the door open, leaving her packed bags close to the door. "Hi," she said meekly, going to sit down in his office. He always brought his students there when they needed to talk to him, so it was obvious she had something rather serious to tell him. But Tadashi didn't leave her any chance to speak, for he started to talk before she could say anything.
"Hi, Kenoyo! I'm glad you came, because we can't let you and Mitsumi just walk around all day doing nothing! Your training will start this afternoon, right after lunch! I'm going to teach you how—"
The girl was pretty much wincing through his speech and she rather impolitely cut him off and said, "No. I won't start my training. I'm leaving Konoha for good, Tadashi-Sensei. I'm going back to the Sand Village."
He looked shocked at first, but then his expression softened and he smiled. "I see, so you've finally had enough with training. You are strong enough to be on your own, even if I had wished that you'd learn two or three other jutsus before I'd let you go. What are your plans in Sand Village? It's not like you have any place to go, plus you're throwing away the chances of taking the Jounin exams..."
Without any hesitation, Kenoyo answered rather coldly, "I met, and fell in love with, Gaara of the Desert. He'll probably teach me a lot more jutsus than you ever could, and more powerful ones too!"
Tadashi jumped up, his face outraged. Never, ever had one of his students spoken to him in that tone of voice. But the fact that she was going out with one of the most dangerous ninjas in the world made him explode. "Are you crazy?" he snapped at her, his face turning red with the words. "You are dating a monster! You're leaving a stable place to go live with a boy that could have a bad day and just go in your room and snap your neck! Do you realize what you're doing, Kenoyo?"
But the girl also stood up and glared angrily at her former teacher, crossing her arms like Gaara usually did. "Yes," she simply said, the word drenched in bitterness.
The Sensei sighed and sunk back down in his chair. "You are my biggest disappointment, Kenoyo. I've been working with you for years, and now I see you simply leave everything behind for a boy with a demon inside of him. It truely breaks my heart. But you changed so much in the three weeks you spent with him. Before leaving for Sand Village, there was no way you would've talked to me this way. Now leave, but don't ever come back to see me!"
The student nodded, then left without a goodbye. Hardened by Tadashi's cruel words, she grabbed her bags and started to walk back to Sand Village. Her goodbyes had already been given to Mitsumi and all her other friends from the academy and now all she wanted to do is go back to Gaara. Her heart hammered in her chest painfully as she thought of her sand ninja. 'Two days, Gaara, two days. I'm coming,' she thought to herself, then emptied her mind and focused on keeping her energy for the long walk.
--Two days later--
It was nearly midday when Kenoyo could see Sand Village in the distance. But there was something wrong. A thick cloud of smoke was coming up from the city and even if Kenoyo had been hiking since four am, she began to run despite her fatigue. Yet when she stepped into the usually quiet town, her heart stopped and she felt the blood draining from her face.
Ninjas from both Suna and an unknown one were fighting, though most people from the other village were dead. Doctors from the home Village were rushing to fallen people of their kind and trying to save them. Most houses were either burnt or were damaged, but Kenoyo's eyes were frantically scanning the fallen bodies, hoping with all her might that she wouldn't find Gaara amongst the dead.
The girl dropped her possessions and began to run, dodging the remaining ninjas who were fighting. She ran for only a few seconds, yet they felt more like hours as she frantically went through the littered streets. After only a minute of searching, her eyes finally fell on the boy she loved. Kenoyo stopped in the street, her feet refusing to go farther as a single word left her throat in a scream, "Gaara!"
A/N: I'm going to be terribly mean and stop my chapter there! XD Ooh, I just love cliffhangers. Well I love to write them, not to read them of course. So I will understand if all my reviewers try to hunt me down and burn me to ashes, but I'd love to get constructive criticism on the chapter.
I'll try to write chapter 10 fast, because it is really evil of me to finish the chapter this way! But remember, the more reviews I get, the faster I write!
Also, if anyone wonders what happened in Konoha to Mitsumi after, I've written a SasukeOC called "The Fire of Love", which is centered around Mitsumi and Sasuke after Motoko left.
Take care!