Oh my gosh, I'm soo sorry that it's taken me this long to move the plot along and get Mai and family back out of Konoha and to Kumogakure. But they return home at the end of this chapter, and the plot progresses again next chapter. Also, I just want to say thank you!to all of my reviewers! Your reviews mean alot to me. And once I get an opportunity, I will send each of you replies to your reviews... But for now, I'd might as well reply briefly to a few of the recent ones here...
Akatsuki210: I'm glad you liked the part with Kakashi, and seeing Iruka and all. I guess since you liked Kakashi in the story, I did a halfway decent job of keeping him in character. As for the Akatsuki- I can tell from your name that you're a crazy Akatsuki fan like me, but.. it'll be at least three chapters before they come into the plot, sorry. They may make another cameo like they did before though... I'll see if I can get them in next chapter for a cameo. But yeah, I can't hurry the plot too much, or the story will suck- though maybe I'm going too slow and it's boring... I don't know, but I'll mull that over.
Yuko: I'm glad you liked the Kakashi part too! And again, about the plot thing... okay, I'll try speeding things up a bit- but it's hard for me-when I write, it's more in the style of classic novels, and they're loooooong. But I guess with my story, pointless details do make things boring, and make me lose readers... so I'll try.
Dusk and Daybreak
Chapter 4: Time Sure Flies
Mai looked around groggily. She noted that it was still dark outside as someone quietly called her name and gently tapped her arm to wake her up. Finally she sat up, and was about to open her mouth to yell in outrage at why the hell she needed to be woken up so early, but a hand quickly covered her mouth. "Mai. I'm sorry to wake you up so early, but I know how early your father gets up. Get ready and get your sister up, and I'll make two Kage Bunshins to stay and pose as you." Mai nodded silently, smiling from ear to ear, though you couldn't see it in the darkened living room. Kakashi got up from where he had been crouching next to the couch, and returned to his room.
After a lot of pushing, poking, tapping, and shoving, and then ripping the covers away, Yugito finally got up, amid loud violent curses and yells, during which Mai had to quickly shove her hand over her sister's mouth, almost suffocating her.
Finally, Mai gave up waiting for Yugito to get up off of the loveseat, and just pulled her up, one hand safely over the girl's mouth to suppress any of the angry yelling that she was sure would start immediately. Kakashi reemerged from his room momentarily, and motioned to Mai to follow as he walked out the front door. Mai dragged Yugito from the house, fighting the whole way. When Yugito got out into the into the coming dawn though and saw that it was only her sister who had woken her up and pulled her outside, she calmed down a bit; well, after Mai explained everything at least.
"Well, now that that's settled, why don't we go and get some breakfast?.." Mai and Yugito followed Kakashi to a nice little restaurant on the other side of town- since they'd had enough of ramen, and the place wasn't open yet anyway- and had breakfast. Afterwards, it was still only around 8am, and so Kakashi offered to take them to look around town, sort of like sightseeing since other years they'd been here, their father had had more activities planned with the family and they'd never seen the whole village of Konoha.
"Wow, I never knew it was so big…" Yugito said incredulously as they headed over to the training grounds. Kakashi didn't answer, his head in his book again, but nodded to Yugito. "Oh, hey, there's Sakura! Oh my gosh, I have to tell her I found the perfect little boutique for us to go to when we go shopping later this week!"
Yugito ran off to talk to Sakura, who was sitting with Naruto and Sai on a large log, waiting for Kakashi-sensei, who was, of course, late as usual- an hour and a half this time.
Kakashi and Mai walked over at a more leisurely pace, and Naruto got up. "Oi! You're late again Kakashi-sensei! We had to sit here and listen to Sai harassing us for such a long time!" Kakashi smiled a little under his mask, and replied, "Oh, I'm sorry Naruto. You see, I got-" "None of that 'lost on the road of life' crap Kakashi-sensei! That's what you always say!"
Kakashi tilted his head a bit and looked at Naruto. "Actually, I was going to say I got held up showing Mai and Yugito around, but that works too. At any rate, let's start training. Oh, and Mai and Yugito will be joining us for the remainder of the week." Yugito squealed happily, and she and Sakura continued talking animatedly a little ways away, until Kakashi finally went over and called them over, to start training.
"I'd like to work on the same thing that you all did yesterday, tweaking your chakra control to it's optimum level, and we'll be doing that for about 2 more days." Naruto was about to remark on the training, probably to say it was boring, or that he wasn't learning anything useful for getting Sasuke back, but Kakashi-sensei held up his hand. "I know that it might seem boring to you Naruto, but this type of training is important for all of the jutsus that you use. You'll see as you progress farther along." Naruto sat back down and kept his mouth shut, though anyone could see that he was still bored and it was an effort on his part.
Kakashi-sensei was pleased and surprised as he left the training grounds for the day. All 5 of his 'students' were improving rapidly, even Naruto; though Sai, Sakura, and Mai had mastered the concept the best. Sai obviously did thanks to his ANBU training, and Kakashi knew that he already knew all of this stuff and more like the back of his hand, though he just wasn't letting on. Sakura's training with Tsunade-sama had obviously helped her quite a bit. After all, it took quite a bit of chakra control to use that strength she had. All expect for Sai had had initial problems with masking their chakra entirely though, but had improved a lot in just these two days. Well.. Naruto still didn't really get it, but that was okay. Knowing him, he would soon enough, and he'd find his own way of managing it.
The week passed by rather quickly this way- first working on the complete chakra control and masking, and after they'd all gotten it on the 3rd day, moving on to dispelling powerful genjutsu, which he felt was important for Mai to know since she used them so often and should know how they were dispelled too.
After the 3rd day, Kakashi also decided to train Mai and Yugito alone each morning, before heading over to the training grounds to meet with his students. Yugito was ecstatic to have some alone time with Kakashi- even though her sister had to be there too- and didn't do much else but stare at him and try to hit on him without blatantly 'hitting' on him the entire time.
Mai however caught on quickly to everything that Kakashi was teaching her, and learned two new and powerful ninjutsu. By the 6th morning, Kakashi had started explaining to her how his only original jutsu, Chidori worked, though there wouldn't be time for her to learn it. He promised to teach it to her when she came next year though, and she was all too happy to accept his promise.
But there would be no training that day- her family was going sight-seeing, and later that evening would be returning for their things, and heading to a nearby amusement park in the Land of Fire, before returning to Kumogakure in two days time.
"This sucks! Can't you like, I don't know, send bunshins with them so we can go and have some fun instead of being stuck with family?.. Family trips are always so boring, annoying, and embarrassing, and we never see anything new either! I wanna go shopping again! Oh, please Kakashi-san, please?..." Yugito pleaded with her cousin as her father yelled angrily from outside for the two older girls to hurry up, because their younger siblings were getting bored and acting rowdy, and soon they'd miss their tour of the monuments too.
"Yugito, your father isn't an idiot, and bunshins can only do so much. When you were supposed to be here in the house, there wasn't much interaction between them and your parents- your father just told you to cook, or be quiet, or.. well you get the idea. But obviously on a tour such as this, you'll need to interact with your family more, and while I may know you two, I don't know you as well as your parents and don't know how you interact with them in everyday life. Your father will most likely notice something is the matter, and then notice that the bunshins don't have your chakra signatures and therefore aren't you. I'm sorry, but it is for the best. It's you last day here in Konoha, you'd might as well spend a few hours with your family, right?" Mai just nodded and headed outside, but Yugito continued pleading with him.
"Mai, where's your sister? We need to go, now." Akio stated angrily from the tour 'bus'(which was really a fancy looking wagon) that the rest of the family was sitting in. "Um.. she has a stomach ache. She'll be out as soon as she can.." "Well go and tell her to hurry, the tour bus isn't going to wait forever, as you can see there are other people on here as well who have paid for the tour." Mai hurried back inside.
"Yugito… Otousama is getting really mad.." Yugito looked from Kakashi to Mai, and back again, then sighing defeatedly, followed her sister.
"See kids, aren't the monuments of the Hokages amazing? I'll bet you wish they had something like this back in Kumogakure, huh kids?" "Yeah, yeah Otousama, they're so cool!" Mai and Yugito stood back from the others, talking boredly amongst themselves.
"Oh, come on you two. It isn't all that bad. I know we come here every year, but it's some crazy tradition of your father's and he just isn't happy till he sees those damn faces." Midori said, walking over two Mai and Yugito and giving them a quick hug. "Besides, I know that we usually have a big family dinner out somewhere with cousin Kakashi-san and all on the last evening of our stay, but I convinced your father to let you go out and spend time with your friends this evening, since the only other time you got to this whole week was when you were shopping yesterday." Midori smiled at her daughters and walked back over to her husband and the younger children, who were fighting while Akio was trying to take a picture. Yugito squealed in excitement, and the two girls walked over to get in the picture.
After the tour of the statues of the faces of the past Hokages, the tour went to the Hokage's building(though access was obviously restricted since otherwise any nin from a hostile village could take the tour, sneak off, and try to assassinate the Hokage), and then to see more statues outside the city, at the Valley of the End. Mai and Yugito tolerated the monotony of it all, staring in disbelief at the excitement and enthusiasm of their younger siblings- and most of all their father. Well, at least he was spending 'bonding time' with them without yelling or ordering anyone around…
The entire family came home exhausted- the younger children from having to climb around to get onto the statues, from the boring monotony of some of the tour(like seeing where the Hokage worked), and from running around and fighting. Everyone else was tired from trying to control and chase the younger ones so they didn't fight, and wouldn't fall off a statue and die or something.
But once the 'bus' stopped, Yugito flew out of it with more energy than a hummingbird. She ran inside Kakashi's apartment and told him the good news, how they could all go out to dinner that night, with her father's and mother's permission, and didn't have to eat with the rest of the family. "Really?.. Alright, I'm happy to hear that. Let me just make sure first with your father."
Akio walked in a few minutes later, and Yugito ran over to him. "It's true, right?" He just looked at her like she had two heads. "You know Otousama, that we can go out to dinner with Kakashi-san and our friends from this village tonight since we have to leave later!..." Realization dawned on Mai's father's face and he answered, "I'm sorry girls. I know what your mother and I said earlier, but… we really need to be going. We won't be having our dinner as usual. We need to head back to Kumogakure tonight. Kakashi-san, I'm sorry that we won't be able to join you for dinner tonight, but you of course understand." Akio walked past Kakashi and his two daughters and into one of the guest rooms to finish packing the family's things.
"Ohhh! Noooooo! This is soooooo unfair!" Yugito cried, going to sit on the living room couch and pout. For once, Mai had to agree with her younger sister, and went and pouted as well. Kakashi was at a loss for what to do- yes, Kakashi was actually at a loss- and so just gave the girls a sympathetic look and headed off to help Akio pack the rest of the family's things, and bring them to the door.
The same carriage that had brought the family from the seaport to Kakashi's apartment in Konoha was soon waiting outside, and Kakashi and Mai's father helped the man who drove it to carry out all of the luggage an place it inside. Mai's mother Midori was washing up the little one's faces and just about ready to herd them outside and into the waiting carriage.
When all the suitcases were finally packed, Mai's father came back in and said, "Okay everyone, let's get going." The rest of the family followed him out, and Akio and Midori quickly said goodbye to Kakashi before getting into the carriage with Akeno, Kikyo, and Taikimaru. Mai and Yugito however took quite a while longer than everyone else to say their farewells, much to the chagrin of their father.
"We… we were supposed to have an awesome dinner together, and then get to hang out with everyone and.. Oh, Kakashi-san, when will we get to see you again!..." Yugito sobbed, clinging to Kakashi's waist. As Kakashi tried to carefully pry her off, he answered, "I suppose next year. And don't worry, we can have our little dinner then, so please don't get all worked up Yugito. This is a new vest after all, and it's dry-clean only." Kakashi smiled at her, and she tried to smile back. "And… Kakashi-san.. You will teach me your jutsu like you promised when we come back, won't you?.." Mai wasn't doing much better then her sister, but at least she wasn't being all clingy Kakashi noted thankfully. "Yes Mai, of course." The two girls hugged their 'cousin' and got into the carriage, waving goodbye to Kakashi and Konoha.
Later on that night, on the family's yacht, after the younger children had been put to bed, Mai's mother and father called her and Yugito into the common room of the boat. Mai and Yugito noticed as they sat down on the couch, facing their parents, that their father looked very troubled and stressed- he had his head resting on one hand, while he rubbed his temples with the other.
It was quite a while before he finally spoke, and voice sounded tired and choked. "Mai, Yugito… I know that you're angry at your mother and I for telling you two that you could go out to dinner with your friends, and then lying to you about it. But, just as you were going into Kakashi-san's apartment this evening, one of the Konoha ANBU came up to your mother and I with a letter that had been delivered to the Hokage-sama. It was from Raikage-sama, and in it, we were directed to return to Kumogakure immediately. Supposedly the village is having problems with Kusagakure, and needs every available ninja of Chuunin rank or above for various missions. I've been called to serve on a diplomatic council to Kusagakure…. And you two girls have been called back into active service as Jounin. Mai, you in fact are to head an ANBU squad, though when we get back, and I have my say about that, we'll see."
Mai mother looked at the girls hopelessly as their father cupped his head in his hands and continued, "At any rate though, you will be active as ninja again, whether I like it or not. Supposedly they are especially in need of our kekkai genkai skills, for spying missions to Kusagakure and all.. I'm sorry.."
Akio got up and left the room, and once the door closed, the girls started hugging each other and squealing excitedly. "I knew Otousama was wrong about the new Raikage Mai! Thanks to him, we'll be ninja again! Real ninja!" "I know! I've waited for this for so long!.. I thought I'd be a teacher forever- oh, though I will miss my students.. I hope they'll be alright without me…" "Who cares Mai! Ninja again, ninja again!" Yugito shouted, jumping up and down now.
Their mother got up and moved towards the door, stopping with her hand on the doorknob, and saying, "Girls, don't be too harsh on your father. Even though it may seem like the new Raikage is amazing and all, there's a lot you don't know about him- and that it's best that nobody knows. But just know that what your father did was truly in your best interest, and only because he cares so much for you. At any rate, I'm going to bed- it's going to be a long day tomorrow…"
With that, Midori left the common room, leaving Mai and Yugito squealing and celebrating long into the night.
Well, there it is- Chapter 4, my longest chapter yet. The plot will start moving now though, so things shouldn't be as boring... It'll be at least a week though till my next chapter- I have tons of homework for my drawing class(and I suck at drawing, so each assignment takes at least 6 hours- 4 assignments, you do the math.) Then I have to go to Chinatown with a friend on the only day I'll have free next week- so I won't be able to even sit down and write again till next Saturday. Sorry! But enjoy, and please review, good or bad!