Mika sighed to herself as she walked out of the woods in the direction of the Village, content at her progress which was admittedly slow, but she was getting there. She looked over at what used to be her uncles unused field and which she now used as training ground for her new powers; it now no longer looked like an unused field but like an unkempt park with a few large scorched areas dotted here and there, but on the whole it looked quite nice. A small hill had appeared on the far side of the large expanse on which a large tree had established itself, standing tall and proud as though it hadn't just appeared the day before but had been there for centuries. Mika admired her own handiwork, forgetting for a moment her bruises and burns she had received from trying to create it and remembering why she had done it: It was a memorial for her and Sasuke's families, their clans, so that none should forget what had happened. She looked forwards towards the small gates which separated her from the village and her eyes fell upon the large stone which she had placed there and had written on with help from her new control over electricity: "In remembrance of The Tikaake and Uchiha clans who fell at the hands of a traitor." and below all the names of the members of the two clans.
She noticed the jagged movements of the letters where she had tried to force the bolt of lightning to do her bidding nicely, and found it surprisingly difficult. Three weeks ago, when she had realised she had all these powers, she had thought that the most powerful would be the most difficult to master and so she had started working out how to control the earth element first, but she had found that that one was one of the easiest and had moved on to the next. Out of all the powers she had been given she found that she had most trouble with electricity, finding that the bolt which struck down in front of her was very reluctant to follow her commands, instead opting for a different route which usually involved making Mika run around for her life or throwing herself under a tree or something.
Now she had more control over it and she could laugh at her near death experiences, but at the time she was sure it was Yama continuing to tease her even after he had gone and it had infuriated her no end.
She looked up at the gates and sure enough there he was, waiting for her as he leaned against the wall inspecting his shoes uninterestedly. Mika smiled as she watched him sigh in boredom, looking back into the village as she grinned at him, speeding up a little to get to him faster.
'Sasuke!' she cried out, the stupid grin still stuck to her lips. As he heard her he looked over in her direction expectantly, his dark hair flicking at his face as he jerked it towards her, a smile creeping across his lips. Mika felt herself blush as he walked towards her, his handsome face pulled in an affectionate smile which gave the young girl butterflies. 'Did you have to wait long?' she asked suddenly aware of how tired she was and how dark it had got.
'About an hour.' he said without a second thought still smiling at her. 'I wanted to come and get you but-'
'Don't come and get me cos I might accidentally electrocute you.' she said, a worried look taking over her expressions as she looked up at him. They started walking back inside the Village, taking a left up a deserted street, the lights flickered on around them.
'I was about to say that.' he answered smiling down at her tenderly. 'If you'd given me time to finish.' she blushed, making his heart flutter a little making him look away awkwardly. 'So how are things?' he asked, looking back over at her as they took a right and ignoring the barking dog which lived in that particular house.
'Well, I'm getting better at the grassy thing.' she told him, counting it off on her left index finger. 'And I'm sure I've pretty much got the fire one, and the air is definitely getting easier.' she continued ticking them off on her fingers as she said them. 'And of course mine which I already knew, and I think earth is coming.' there was a pause, she knew he was waiting for news on the last element with which she'd been having trouble. She sighed miserably. 'But I'm still having trouble with Yama's thing.' she finished on an out breath, trying to ignore how much she was aching.
As she watched her feet slowly stepping one in front of the other she felt a warm finger brush up against hers making her glance over at them, seeing Sasuke's hand reaching over to hers hesitantly, a beetroot glow shining on his cheeks and a coy smile on his lips as he wondered how it had come about. She mirrored his blush and the embarrassed smile before looking away, loving the intimacy and yet wishing it was more.
Since she had recovered her memory and the intense emotions of that time had worn off she and Sasuke had been slowly drifting further and further apart. Training had pulled Mika away from team seven which had continued to train on their missions, while Mika stayed behind and tried to wield her new powers without breaking anything. The only time the two young shinobi had had together were in the evenings, when Sasuke would wait for Mika at the gates to the village and then walk her home, sometimes stopping to get a ramen take-away or something and eating it on their way.
She wished she could do more, she wished she could be with him more, but she knew that she had to get her powers under control or put the whole village in jeopardy if things got out of hand which happened on occasions, but since she was in the middle of the woods she didn't do too much damage. She knew that he wished they could see more of each other, but he knew that she needed to train and he wouldn't stop on his quest to defeat his brother. She would never let herself get in his way.
'Would you like to… you know.' she started hesitantly, feeling the colour rush to her cheeks again as she stared firmly ahead of her. 'do something some time?' she continued, still not meeting his gaze as he watched her calmly, their two hands entwined together. 'Like a… umm, well a date, I guess…' she finished, trailing off uncomfortably as she dropped her gaze to her feet slowly stepping one in front of the other.
'I thought we were past the whole "date" stage.' he said quietly with a sort of uncertain laugh in his tone. She could feel the burning of her blush on her beetroot cheeks, she knew he was probably still watching her and waiting for an answer. 'I… I wanted to talk to you about that…'
Mika closed her eyes. She had dreaded this moment although she knew it was inevitable; he was going to tell her it wasn't working, he was going to tell her he'd had enough. She could feel the tears which had snuck up in the back of her eyes, waiting for a decent excuse to spill over and down her burning cheeks, so she closed her deep hazel eyes, trying to shut out the truth.
'I- You…' Sasuke started awkwardly before clearing his throat quietly, trying to say what was on his mind. 'Do you want to finish this?' he said after taking a deep breath, he was looking at her now as he tried to see what she was thinking but she was determined not to look at him. 'Mika.' he pressed, stopping and pulling her towards him so that she was facing him directly, but she still looked over at the ground to her left, away to the dark eyed boys right. 'I know I don't, but this doesn't seem to be going very well… I've never been in a rel-' he stopped himself, blushing at the idea of him being in a relationship.
'I don't want to finish it.' piped up the girl still trying to hold back the tears, relieved though she was that he wasn't breaking up with her. 'But… we're hardly ever together, and- and I don't know what to do… I- maybe we could…' she trailed off, not knowing what they could do.
'Have you been with someone before me?' he asked quietly, as he did so Mika felt his gentle grip on her fingers loosen a little making her even more nervous than she already was. 'I don't think it's supposed to be like this… Was it when you were with… What was his name again?'
'Umm, Nekura.' she answered uncertainly, looking over at Sasuke as they continued on their journey back to her place. She knew he was trying to ignore what their relationship could have consisted of, and she wasn't about to tell him: he had guessed enough. 'It- it wasn't really like this…' she said as quietly as she could, hoping he might not hear her.
'What did you do?' came his voice almost as quietly as hers and she guessed he was looking away. His fingers loosened again around hers so she clung on tighter, trying not to let them slip from her grip.
'Umm… we…' she paused. She'd have to think about what they did without telling him too much which she knew he didn't want to know. 'We spent a lot of time together… we were on the same squad so that was easy… umm… we talked a lot… we… well we…'
'Kissed. You can say it.' came Sasuke's voice again and this time it was quite harsh, loud in the silence around them as Mika looked over at him with a nervous apologetic expression but he was staring into the darkness on his other side, away from Mika.
'Here we are.' said Mika, noticing the large building where she lived in a tiny little flat with her new cat: Surplus Nev. Sasuke looked up briefly before looking back down at the dark undergrowth, a moody frown across his forehead. 'Do you want to come up?' she asked, wondering whether this sounded too banal. She watched him shake his head, his dark hair ruffling softly with the movement and his fingers slip between hers.
'Same time tomorrow?' he asked without looking at her, she could feel the tears about to fall down her cheeks but she forced them to stay in a moment longer even though he wouldn't have seen them anyway. She mumbled a "yes" and he started walking away, his hands in his pockets and his shoulders hunched sullenly. She wanted to call after him. She wanted to run after him and throw her arms around his shoulders, feeling his strong body against hers, smelling his faint scent which she adored.
But she didn't. She stood in silence, watching him slowly walk away and feeling that this moment felt a lot deeper than it probably was. When she could no longer see him she turned around slowly, heading in through the doors where the paint was peeling off gradually, revealing the dirty wood beneath.