Yay! Another snow day! And more time for me to write! Only one chapter and a short epilogue to go! This one is a bit more fluffy than usual, but hey, that's the way it goes. And I never denied the fact that I have a dog fetish. It's not too weird in this one. Trust me. It could be much worse.
I had a dream that I owned Naruto. I cried when I woke up.
Enjoy, and please review!
………………………………………………………………
"Kakashi! Come on and pack your stuff. We're getting out of here." It was Gai. He was holding his bags and standing in the kitchen.
"What?" He had been in his own head since they left the clearing.
"We're going back home." Kurenai appeared in the doorway behind him.
"What? Tonight?"
"Yes, tonight!" Asuma looked as if he was willing to knock him out and carry him back to Konoha.
"We're not going now."
"You need to get out of here." Gai was looking dangerous too.
"I know that, but we can't leave now."
"Kakashi, the mission is over. We need to go back." Sweet, sweet Kurenai with her hand reaching slowly for a rope.
Kakashi smiled and shook his head. His friends know him well, but not too well. He wanted more than anything to get back to Konoha, except maybe to drag Kia out of hiding, but they couldn't go now.
"We're not going tonight."
"Why the Hell not?!" chorused his squad.
He calmly walked to a window and opened the blind.
Rain was violently hitting the side of the house, and lighting flashed menacingly along the path they had to take.
"The Village Hidden in the Valley: well known for its good medicine, great wood carvers, and once-in-a-decade flooding storms. It looks like this one came a bit early. I don't think we should leave right now."
The three stared out the window and, defeated, pulled their packs back towards their rooms.
Kakashi looked back to the tea he had been thinking of drinking. So much for the impossible.
He had done the one thing he thought he would never do; he let his emotions get the better of himself and fell for the girl he might have had to fight. And what would have happened if they had caught her in the woods that one time that seemed ages ago?
His stomach turned at the thought. He would have sentenced an innocent girl to her death, or maybe worse. He put down his mug and looked out the window. Only 5 pm and darker than a moonless midnight. It was going to be a long night.
…………………………………………………………………….
Kakashi had just finished eating at 6 pm when a knock at the door sounded in between the crashes of thunder.
He opened it to see a small, drenched boy standing on their steps.
"Please! You have to help! The canals are cracking! Please!"
The jonin and his squad were already out the door. Kakashi had the boy on his back to lead him to the river.
When another flash of lighting lit up the sky, Kakashi could make out a large group of people surrounding a section of the canal wall. They let him pass to see.
A huge, vertical crack had formed in the concrete, and water prang out of it in tiny spouts.
He looked at his team, and they shook their heads. They had been trained to penetrate walls, defend them, and smash them down, but none of them were very talented at fixing them.
He set to work, applying as many sealing jutsus as he knew, while his team helped evacuate the villagers downstream.
"Kakashi!" Gai yelled.
He looked where his friend was pointing. As the lightning cracked around them, he could see a crack appearing on the main dam.
"Shit," he muttered as he raced towards the mountainous structure.
When he arrived, he saw immediately that nay attempt from him to repair the dam was in vain.
Be hind him, he heard the panic of the villagers as they evacuated. He had to give them more time.
As he prepared to lay down another seal, he heard the wall groan beside him. A second crack appeared, then a third, then more. The villagers beside him took frightened steps back. It was too late. He wouldn't be able to survive this. There was no chance for those beside him. Still, that wouldn't get him to stop trying.
"Run! RUN! Get out of here!" he roared as he threw himself at the wall, summoning as much chakra as he could.
The people around him snapped out of their shock and started rushing for higher ground. They hadn't even gotten a yard or two away before Kakashi felt the wall giving in beneath his hands. So it was the end. He was going to die vainly trying to save a village. A hero's death, but no one would ever know. It could have been worse.
As the dam heaved one last sigh before succumbing to the pressure of its overflowing lake, he felt someone land beside him.
"EARTH TYPE! BARRIER SEAL!"
Kia squatted there beside him with her hands in the mud. She raised them with a scream of effort, and the earth followed.
A vast wall of stone, gravel and muddy soil flew up in front of them and plastered itself to the wall. She stood there with her hands raised above her on the wall and her head hanging down, panting with exhaustion.
She slowly lifted her head and looked at him, her eyes smiling shyly.
"The moon always shows its face when its allies need it to."
He found himself too scared to talk. As if one word from him would shatter this dream, and he'd wake up at the edge of the destroyed city.
"Tsuma!" she called.
A muscular wolf leapt up beside them, towering over their heads. His pitch-black coat glistened in the flashes of the lightning. A scar like a crescent moon and three stars contrasted brightly on his left cheek, and his yellow eyes shined with unmeasured free will and intelligence.
"This wall will only hold for a couple of hours…"
"Yes, little Kia. We will take the humans to the main den until the flood waters recede." His voice was a deep growl and demanded respect.
"You know me too well," she said, laughing.
"You are the Blood Moon of my pack. Of course I do." He raised his head and uttered a long, deafening howl that made the hairs on Kakashi's neck stand up. Hundreds of wolves poured out of the forest and approached the villagers. Kakashi watched the drenched people pulling back with fear.
"They're here to help!" yelled Kakashi, "They'll bring us to higher ground!"
"How do we know they won't just round all of us up and kill us in our sleep?" screamed a voice from the crowd. Others yelled their agreement, and there looked to be no hope for them to get out of there.
Tsuma let out a tremendous half-growl, half-laugh. The yelling quickly died away.
"Stupid humans. If we wanted you dead, we would do it wolf-style, with an open treat and a chance for you to flee, not slaughter you in your sleep. Besides, if we wonted to kill you off, we would have done it years ago."
"Yeah? And we're supposed to buy that shit?" It was one of the men who had been trying to fix the great dam. "Get lost, you bastard! We can take care of our-"
He was cut off as Tsuma threw his body, tiny in comparison, against the wall.
Screams of panic and yells of anger started up, but immediately stopped when a large boulder crashed down on the spot the man had previously occupied.
"Do yourself a favor," said the calm voice of a female wolf, "and shut up. This isn't about pride; this is about saving your family. Or do humans not have the urge to keep their pups safe?"
Kia chimed in before anyone else could join the argument.
"Alright, my pack! Dark clan! You will be in charge of finding the people and getting them to the paths. Earth clan, stay here and keep the dams and canal walls up until everyone is out. Water clan! You go downstream and break the minor dams, starting with the furthest one so the water can drain quickly. Everyone else, you will wait at the path and take groups up to Main Den. Carry the young, old and sick, and make sure no one gets lost! Let's move it!"
The wolves set out to do her bidding. It took no time for a long train of people to begin moving up the mountain. The pack members moved in perfect harmony with each other, and the area was cleared almost immediately. By 7:30 pm, the entire village and the surrounding houses had been evacuated.
Kia, Tsuma and Kakashi took up the rear, each carrying a child, or, in Tsuma's case, three. The littlest on the black wolf's back was too young to understand, and having the time of his life while tugging on the wolf's great black ears. The dark alpha couldn't have enjoyed it more.
"You should see him with his pups. He can beat anything that comes his way, but he has a huge soft spot for anything young."
Kakashi looked at the young woman walking beside him. She held herself high, but he could see her exhaustion beginning to take effect.
"What?"
"I thought you said this village wasn't your concern."
She averted her smiling eyes. The jonin could have sworn he could see her blush though her mask.
"None of my family was hurt, and I got to prove to the villagers that I'm not as bad as they thought. It's a win-win situation."
Kakashi smiled at her.
She could feel his eyes on her as she pretended to be concentrating on the people in front of her. Her heart beat faster as she felt the warmth of his masked smile.
Besides the Gravekeep, he was the only human to try to help her since Tankato. She stumbled slightly on some lose gravel. His arm shot out to steady her, which nearly made her heart stop. She was so distracted with the feeling of his hand, calloused, cold and wet from the rain, that she didn't feel the immobile seal until a split second before it hit her.
With practiced speed and precision, she made the sign of the disspell.
The humans and wolves around her stopped moving except for their eyes. She placed the sleeping girl she had been carrying gently on the ground.
"Hello, father," she said with nothing but pure hatred in her voice, "and brother too. Well, isn't this the family reunion."
"You're not family," Kuna said with disgust.
Tanza's eyes shone with hatred.
"Couldn't agree more," she muttered, eyeing them closely.
"A human raised by wolves. All alone in the world, with no one to love you, save the monsters you call your pack. I guess that makes you a stray dog. And you know what we do to stray dogs who cause trouble." Tanza paused and gave a sickening smile. "We put them down."
With that, the three surged together. Kia was exhausted, or she would have quickly emerged as the winner. She could feel her lack of physical strength and chakra slowly increasing. She blocked a blow from her bother and threw him back, quickly realizing her mistake. With her weight off balance, her father quickly car in behind her and applied a seal.
"Wind type, immobile seal!"
She was thrown to the side, and a series of invisible vines wrapped around her, preventing any movement. She strained at them while her father made a second seal from a safe distance.
"Unbreakable, timed seal," he muttered as Kuna slowly walked up to her, drawing a knife from its sheath.
"Good bye, bitch," her grinning sibling uttered in a joyous tone.
This is going to hurt, thought Kia as he placed one hand on her shoulder, bringing back his arm to strike.
He twitched slightly and she braced herself, but the blow never came. His eyes went wide as he dropped his knife and fell forward, a kunai sticking out of his back.
There was a small poof from behind her, and she could see the shadow clone of Kakashi disappear.
"How do I get rid of this seal on you?" asked his soft voice from behind her.
The girl's head whipped back around, a look of shocked gratefulness flooding her eyes.
"It-it doesn't come off until the time runs out. Unbreakable time seals go away a half hour after they are applied. Not even a disspell or any amount of chakra can break them."
Kakashi turned his head back to Tanza, who had just overcome his shock.
"Just hang in here, then, while I deal with this one."
A feeling of hatred was steadily rising in Kakashi. He stood protectively in front of Kia. Thank God for adrenaline. His senses had been heightened before the seal was applied, thanks to the miracle hormone and its friend, testosterone. He had just enough time to make a clone of himself stand in his place. The jonin was impressed with Kia's skill. To be able to defend yourself from two attackers after so much strain was a miracle itself.
He pulled back his headband, uncovering a scar running from above his eyebrow to the top of his mask. He slowly opened his eye, revealing a red iris with swirling black commas surrounding the pupil. The sharingan. He could immediately see the world in a different light, movements captured and predicted in his line of sight. He considered his options. It was true that he could use that attack, but it was risky and he hadn't quite mastered it. Not to mention the fact that it would leave him passed out from exhaustion. No. That was not a way to impress a girl. Instead, he made a series of hand signs and grabbed at his right wrist.
"Raikiri!" he yelled as blue chakra swirled around his hand. It jumped around like the lightning from the storm.
"By you definition, Tanza, I guess some may consider Kia to be similar to a dog, but you were wrong about part of it."
"Really? What part would that be?" asked Tanza, trying, unsuccessfully, to hide his terror.
"She's not alone," he continued with a quieter voice, "and…"
He sprang at the man, who tried in vain to defend himself. Kakashi's hand ran him through the chest. He lowered his voice so that only Tanza and Kia could hear.
"…I love her."
Kakashi pulled his arm out of the former leader of the Village Hidden in the Valley, who fell to the ground. The wolves and humans, other than Kia, were able to move, but not many wanted to.
"Tanza was deceiving you all," said Kakashi in a voice that everyone could hear as he allowed the rain to wash the blood off of his arm. "There is evidence of his treachery at the morgue, in his office, and right her. Kia, his daughter, whom you all know as Okami was defending your village when she was banished. However, that doesn't matter now. We need to get to shelter soon."
The wolves and his squad took his cue and started moving the line again. He walked back to Kia.
"Tsuma, we need you to carry the children, so would you mind if…"
The wolf picked up Kia's and Kakashi's charges. As he moved past, he uttered a low growl that only the shinobi could hear.
"If you break her heart, I'll break you."
"I don't think you'll have that problem," replied Kakashi.
He gently picked up Kia. Her body was completely limp except for her head.
"You shouldn't keep your eye covered up all the time. I like it."
He looked down at her. She wasn't looking at him, but the steadily raining clouds.
"It scared most people, and it's good to keep it quiet. The less people know about me, the less they can do to hurt me."
"But that means you don't trust them."
"That's why I'm not covering it up now." He smiled softly as her eyes met his.
"What… what you said earlier… did you…"
"Mean it? Yes. Every word."
He could feel her pulse quicken slightly.
He pulled her closer as he maneuvered around the rough path.
"I never thanked you earlier, Kakashi. You helped me get to my pack mate in time. She got her leg trapped in a metal claw. They're all over the southern forest."
"I almost stopped you from getting there on time."
"You thought I was a murderer."
"I was wrong."
"And you went above and beyond to correct yourself. No one's ever done that for me before."
"Get used to it," he said smiling.
After some hiking, he felt the seal recede. He didn't put Kia down. She didn't ask to be let down.
He smiled warmly. The weather was horrible, but he couldn't have been happier.
………………………………………………………………..
How was it? I like making Kakashi sweet. The next chapter should pretty much conclude this… sob!
REVIEW REVIW REVIEW!!! I wrote this for you. Five words and a click or two won't kill you.