Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters.
Author note: I hope you guys are enjoying this as much as I enjoyed writing it:) This is the first fanfic I have ever wrote. I work between 60-70 hours a week so it gets tough to post often. I wish I could post everyday! I'll be posting the next chapter very soon.
Miki walked next to Kakashi, they were getting closer to the edge of the village. He told her when he met her at the hospital that he wanted to speak with her in private. Maybe he was worried someone from Black Opps would somehow hear their conversation, its not a bad idea to be paranoid when it came to those guys. Or...she thought to herself as she swallowed hard, maybe he wanted to speak to her about this morning. Maybe he was making some sort of romantic gesture, she thought.
They were just outside of the village, crossing over a meadow when she heard a familiar voice calling to them.
"Kakashi-san! Miki-chan!" Gai came barelling across the field towards them.
"Hey!" Miki called as she waved at him.
Kakashi said nothing as he sighed and propped his hand on his hip. He mumbled something under his breath that Miki didn't hear. Was he irriated?
"What are you two doing out here?" Gai raised a bushy eyebrow.
Kakashi remained silent and straightened as he stared at Gai.
"Oh, I was going to do some training so that I don't get rusty. Kakashi volunteered to help me out." Miki replied with a wink.
"Is that right?" Gai's eyes went wide with excitement. "It's great to see you do something other than sit behind a desk all day, Miki! And Kakashi could use the exercise, seeing that he isn't very busy these days."
"What do you mean I could use the exercise?!" Kakashi shrieked. His voice sounded higher than normal.
Gai held up his hands. "Whoa! I didn't mean to offend you. I was just saying, you don't have Naruto around to keep you as active as you have been. That's all I meant. When did you get so sensitive?"
Miki changed the subject quickly. "So what are you doing out here, Gai?"
"I was training with my students. We have to train especially hard for them to pass the next exams." Gai gave a thumbs up. "They're going to do great!"
"You are a great teacher." Miki complimented him with a proud smile.
"Well, I could come with you and give you some pointers as well." Gai offered.
"That won't be necessary." Kakashi snapped impatiently.
Miki and Gai exchanged confused glances before she smiled apologetically to her brother.
"I'll catch up with you later, ok Gai?" She gave her brother a tight hug.
"What's his deal?" Gai whispered.
"I'm not sure." She whispered as she wondered the same thing. "Maybe he's irritated because you brought up Naruto and he misses him?"
Gai's eyes began to tear up as he thought of how he would feel if Rock Lee had left to train with someone else. He should not have mentioned Naruto, he thought to himself. He blinked away the tears quickly before letting his sister go.
"Ok Miki." Gai smiled big, speaking loudly. "And go easy on Kakashi, ok?" He teased as he patted her on the head. Oh how she hated it when he patted her on the head like a child.
"I'll do my best." She smiled with clenched teeth.
They watched Gai walk away before she turned to Kakashi. "Are you alright, Kakashi-chan?
He nodded, running his fingers through his silver hair. "I'm fine. We're almost there."
Miki let him walk ahead as she followed a few steps behind him. Kakashi had never shown any sign of impatience in all of the time that she knew him...and with Naruto as one of his students, that was saying a lot. She'd never seen him snap at anyone before, not even in a stressful situation.
Her suspicious dark eyes followed him as they entered the woods. His hips swayed back and forth momentarily before he forced a more controlled stride.
"Hey Kakashi-chan." She called, a few steps behind him.
"Hmmm?" He answered over his shoulder, continuing to walk.
"Its funny how Gai's afraid of my dog, isn't it?" She forced a giggle.
"Yeah." He chuckled.
Miki swallowed hard as she reached into her bag and felt for the handle of the kunai. In one fluid moment, she pulled it from her back and threw it. It was a direct hit, the kunai stuck in the Kakashi imposter's back. The disguise fell away with a poof!
Miki was now looking at the back of a woman with long dark hair. The dark hair woman swore as she plucked the blade from her back and threw it to the ground, blood drops splashing on the ground.
"You." Miki took a defensive stance.
The dark haired lady laughed deeply as she turned around slowly. "I was never really good at disguises like Rowan."
"Who are you?" Miki quickly averted her gaze to the woman's feet. She knew from meeting her last time that this woman had abilities much like her own. She would have to avoid eye contact to keep her out of her mind.
"Clever girl, didn't anyone ever teach you its impolite to avoid eye contact?" The woman laughed in amusement.
"Yeah, and stealing forbidden jutsu is polite." Miki replied sarcastically.
"It's not stealing if it was mine in the first place." The woman growled.
"Maybe it was taken away from you for a reason." Miki smiled.
"That's a matter of the Hidden Leaf's opinion." The woman's voice oozed with that sickeningly sweet tone that Miki recognized. "My name is Nami. You and I have a lot to talk about."
Miki snorted. "What do you want?"
Nami moved quickly, she was suddenly standing toe to toe with Miki.
"Just you." Nami whispered.
Gai was finally back in the village, he had taken the long way back from the training grounds. He saw it as a test of endurance and, of course he passed. He was almost half way home when he saw Kakashi running towards him.
Kakashi? Gai thought to himself, how did he get here so quickly? And where is Miki? Kakashi is defintely the fastest ninja that Gai knew, but there was no way he was that fast.
"How did you get back here so fast?" Gai called to Kakashi as he approached.
"You just saw me?!" Kakashi's uncovered eye was wide. "Where?"
Gai was confused. "Are you lost?"
Kakashi fought the urge to face palm. "Where did you just see me?"
"On my way back from training, you were with Miki." Gai scratched his head. "What sort of training did you do to achieve such great speed?! You have to tell me! Did you train with weights? Or was it-"
Kakashi interrupted him as he spoke coolly. "That wasn't me with your sister, Gai. Tell me where you saw them."
"If that wasn't you, then who the hell was that?" Gai narrowed his eyes.
"Long story short, someone is after Miki. This person has a partner and he disguised himself as her to distract me. The other person must have done the same with Miki, pretending to be me." Kakashi quickly explained.
"Little Miki is in trouble?!" Gai cracked his knuckles.
"Yes." Kakashi sighed. "Where did you see them?"
"Follow me!" Gai turned and sped off.
As Gai ran ahead of Kakashi leading the way, the realization of what was happening began to sink in. Someone in the disguise of Kakashi was with little Miki at this very moment leading her into a trap. Worst case scenarios began to play through his head at the fear of the unknown. Why would anyone want to hurt his little sister? His hands clenched as he ran faster, Kakashi was at his heels matching his speed.
He remembered the promise he had made to his sister after the Nine Tails attack that happened a little over a decade ago. She was laying in a hospital bed, covered in bandages. The medic ninja working on her told him it didn't look good for her. They never knew their mother and they had just lost their father recently...they were all each other had. He remembered when his father had sacrificed his own life for Gai and his teammates. His last words to Gai were, 'take care of your sister.'
Gai had refused to leave his sister's side, even to have his own wounds treated. She had ran into a burning building to save other children that were trapped inside. He was told a burning beam had fallen on her, crushing her and leaving her badly burned. That was his little sister, always putting others before herself. He was proud of her bravery that day even as he feared he would lose her. He spend that entire night at her side praying that she would pull through. He wasn't ready to lose the last of his family.
She was only 10 years old at the time, he was 14. He promised multiple times, whispering to her while she remained unconscious that he would make sure she never had to risk her life ever again if she just pull through. He remembered he wanted to challenged death himself that night for his sister's life. Thanks to the skill of the medic ninja, she survived.
"Hey, Gai." Kakashi called softly. "Don't under estimate her."
"I know she's strong, but she's also out numbered." Gai pushed himself to run faster, hoping that Kakashi didn't notice the mist of tears that followed him. He wasn't ready to lose her when they were kids and he wasn't ready to lose her now.
"We'll be there soon. She can hold her own till we get there." Kakashi reassured Gai as well as himself. He knew that Miki was very capable and stronger than Gai could possibly know. Kakashi knew that she had to have gone through Black Opps training in order to be in any kind of contract with them. It was no doubt they had tortured her to train her not to give out information should she ever be captured. It was one of the most gruesome parts of training.
Kakashi didn't doubt that she could hold her own in a typical battle, but this wouldn't be a typical battle. He knew that the woman had the same abilities that Miki has, but it was still unknown what the woman's partner was capable of. Miki could probably handle the woman alone, but the partner was a wild card.