The Lost Uzumaki (Kakashi x OC)

Chapter Four- The Past

TW/CW: Mentioning of a suicide.

Meilani waited until all three were moving too fast to stop before swinging her swords from right to left. Her 3 opponents were flung backwards with a steady gust of wind. While they recovered, Meilani jumped to higher ground.
Sasuke was the first to recover, swinging back using the same branch he held onto while the wind died. He threw shuriken at the tree Meilani was running up, and threw more towards the direction she changed to avoid them.
What he didn't expect, was for her to dash towards him in the blink of an eye.
"Over here," She called, grabbing his shoulders and lunging him towards Sakura. The two crashed to the ground while Naruto charged his sister with 2 kunai.
"You're kidding, right?" She scoffed, deflecting both with only one blade. Her brows snapped together at the feeble hint of wind on her left ear. Her left arm swung her free sword behind her, deflecting the real Naruto away from her hair.
"Shadow clone." She jumped away from the disappearing clone and charged towards Naruto. "Not bad, fish cake."
Naruto growled, charging again. "Don't call me that in front of my team!"
Meilani kicked Sakura away from her after dodging a weak swing of the fist. Naruto jumped and reached for her hair. Mei grabbed his wrist and swung him to the ground with his arm behind his back. Sakura moved towards her opponent once more. Kakashi frowned behind his book after witnessing Mei use her free hand to block Sakura's kick and grab her calf, pushing to use the momentum against her.
Kakashi mentioned a lack of teamwork. But these guy's have absolutely no sense of the word.
"What in blazes is going on here?!"
Meilani nearly missed dodging out of Sasuke's attack when Lord Third startled them all.
"Lord Hokage." Kakashi immediately jumped down and bowed. Soon the rest of Team 7 and Meilani regrouped and followed suit. Sarutobi stared at them with a hardened glare.
"I told you to rest, Ishida. And yet here you are fighting Genin. And you, Hatake, you sit back and read-."
"Forgive me, sir." Kakashi remained in his bowing state, he didn't want to risk anyone seeing his flushed face. "I had asked Meilani to assist me with strengthening Team 7's teamwork. With the first part of the Chunin Exams approaching, I want them to be at their best."
"What's the big deal, old man?" Naruto huffed. Meilani shot a glare at her brother to silence him.
"Hm, perhaps I should have called you home sooner. I've been trying to get him to do that for years." Lord Third scowled.
"Forgive me, Lord Third. I was curious about my brother's progress, especially after Hatake's cry for help. " She ignored his death glare with a hint of a smirk. "And I wanted to see his skills myself."
The Hokage looked at the group, and turned around.
"Team 7 you are dismissed. Kakashi, Meilani, with me."
Meilani groaned internally before following the two men, not paying attention to a lagging Kakashi. Once she was no longer behind him, he waited for her to take another two strides before following at a distance.
"Why is Kakashi-sensei acting so weird?" Sakura asked. "You two have noticed, right?"
"It's obvious, Sakura. He's hiding something. And so is Meilani."
Naruto's hands balled into fists. "Shut your mouth, Sasuke. You don't know anything about my sister."
"He knows something, he's just not telling us." Sakura crossed her arms, her pout evident.
"There's nothing to tell. Now are we going to go see what they'll say or not?"
Naruto was already on their track, much to his team's annoyance. They followed at a safe distance until the Hokage's office, where they had no choice but to lean against the doors and conceal their own chakra as best they could.
"I understand your intentions, Kakashi. But you cannot simply hand off your students to the next teacher whenever a conflict arises."
"Yes, sir."
"As for you, Meilani. I can imagine how much you've missed Naruto, and you take your duties as his guardian seriously. But you cannot coddle him his whole life. Especially now that he has chosen the path of the ninja."
"With all due respect, Sir, Naruto's parents not only saw me as their own, but as his sister. One who can be entrusted to care and protect him. I vowed to do that with my life. If that means training him to be his absolute best for when I can no longer do that, then so be it."
"He is much too young and reckless for you to train him. And your trust in him blinds you from seeing that he is not ready for your lessons."
"It was a simple match, not a lesson."
"Regardless, you are forbidden from teaching him anything until he his older."
"What? You literally recommended me to become a teacher! That's bullsh-"
"If I may," Kakashi interjected, taking a step forward. "Given Naruto's respect for his sister, I think there would be great potential in allowing her a little leniency."
Meilani crossed her arms in annoyance. "I can speak for myself, Hatake."
"You can? Huh, I wouldn't know. I've barely heard a word out of you."
"Because I have nothing to say to you."
"Enough of this!" Lord Third snapped. "Have you two not have an ounce of respect towards one another? Years of comradeship and yet I've never seen such hostility."
"No hostility here, Lord Third. I'm only respecting Kakashi's wishes."
"What the hell are you on about?"
"I don't care," Lord Third's voice rose slightly. Kakashi noticed Meilani clench her fist tucked under her elbow. "I am ordering you two to stop this nonsense. Whatever drama that is going on between you two needs to end. And DON'T you deny it, Meilani. There has been gossip among some of the Shinobi about the two of you at the market."
"What?" They both asked in unison.
"You heard me. Now for the sake of your old team, knock it off."
"She was never a part of the team."
He hated himself as soon as he said it. Kakashi did not need to look at Mei to know how deep his words cut.
I really am a dick.
"I said-"
"Understood. Is there anything else sir?"
"Yes, I'm sending Asuma over later for your banana bread recipe. It's my grandson's favorite."
Kakashi was perplexed by the sudden change of conversation.
"Anything else, sir?"
"Dismissed."
Team 7 scattered when the two jonin hastily exit the doors. Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura found new spots to snoop from.
"Banana bread?"
"Don't talk to me."
"What the hell is your problem?" Kakashi snapped, cutting off her stride. "I'm sorry for what I said back there, but the Hokage's right."
"I don't give a rat's ass. And you can cut the apologetic behavior out. We both know you don't mean it so just, stop." Mei clenched get jaw when he leaned left, where she moved to step around.
"I do mean it. You know if I didn't give a shit then I wouldn't even bother trying to get you to look at me."
The team looked at one another with raised brows, perplexed at Kakashi's language.
"Well stop trying, Kakashi. Whatever bond we had was severed long ago. It was YOU who decided that, remember? You didn't give a shit about what I had to say then, why should I care about what you have to say now?"
"It sounds like they were friends." Sakura whispered.
"Man, I don't know what the heck is going on." Naruto was barely paying attention, his mind still stuck on the Hokage's words about his parents and Mei. He was so excited to see his sister again, he forgot about all the questions he had for her.
"Because we're both older, and I'd like to say that we've both matured. I had hope that we would be able to sit down and talk like adults. But I see now that... That was selfish of me to assume. I'm not entitled to give an apology, as I said before. But you deserve one."
"Since when does this world give anyone what they deserve?" She muttered bitterly. He watched her expression, eyeing her furrowed brows and tensed jaw. He eyed the wind dance with the loose curls that framed the sides of her face, brushing across her jaw and cheekbone gently.
"I don't mean to be so rude to you. After all you've been through, and after what you've done for me.... Please, Kakashi, just stop trying."
Sakura pressed her lips together, Naruto watched still as clueless.
"If that's what you really want, then okay.  Just know that despite what you think, whatever intentions are behind your choice, this isn't what I wished for."
She gave no acknowledgement on whether she heard him or not. He sighed deeply, and went his own way.
"What could have happened between Kakashi-sensei and Mei?" Naruto scratched his head.
"Do you think they were lovers?"
"What? No way, Sakura!" Naruto shook his head profusely. "Mei's never dated anybody. She always said she didn't have time for stupid boys when she had me to watch."
"Yeah, I bet she had her hands full with just you alone." Sakura rolled her eyes. "Whatever happened, it really hurt her. Couldn't you tell? She sounded like she wanted to cry in the end."
"Mei never cries. Besides, I only heard you sniffling you big baby."
"I do too, cry." Meilani interjected behind them. "Show me a good book or movie and it's waterfall city here."
"Y.... You knew we were following?"
"Yes, we all did. I don't like being spied on, Naruto. If you have questions, I'll answer them the best that I can."
"Yeah, right. So why did you blow off all the questions I had about Kakashi-sensei the other night?"
"You kept asking about his face. I'm going home to start dinner. If you're not home by sunset then it's all getting eaten."
"Hey, wait a second!" Sakura raised a hand to cut her off.
"Yeah, we have questions too. Like if you've seen my brother."
"Sasuke-"
"Why the heck would she know anything about your brother?" Naruto sneered in Sasuke's face.
"Why don't you two join us at our place and I'll answer everyone's questions? On the condition that afterwards you 3 brats focus on passing the exams together."