Zabuza's sister

12 : Don't give up

Spoiler : you finally have a bit of a sweet moment between Dana and Kakashi at the end of this chapter ! Enjoy !

***

"So, how was your day?" Dana asked while cleaning the vegetables for the diner.

"Great! I'm gonna help you guard Tazuna tomorrow." Sakura replied cheerily. "Today's exercise was so easy! Maybe a little tiring, but still. I succeeded in my first attempt!"

"That's great, Sakura-chan. You sure must be proud, and Kakashi-san too."

Dana felt a bit irritated that the girl would brag that much, knowing the two boys were quite upset not having as much success as her with their training, but she didn't show anything, and rubbed her head gently after cleaning her hands.

"Ayane-chan?"

"Yes, Sakura?"

"How are you able to see with your eyes blindfolded?"

Dana had put the band-aids on her eyes again and was cooking without any difficulty. She laughed.

"That's nothing. Let's say that my senses are quite strong, and that sometimes my sight can even bother me a little. With that blindfold, I can train my other senses and still feel everything around me to act normally."

"Wow, that's so impressive!" Sakura said with amazement.

"That's nothing." Naruto intervened. "She always does that. Someday she almost cut me in half when she was training like that."

"Hey, I told you not to come near me when I'm training, that would have been your fault."

"Of course, then how can you tell your blindfolded training works that well if you can't even feel me?" And the two of them went arguing the next ten minutes.

Kakashi was watching them, listening to their argument. It was easy to see how close they were. Like brother and sister. His suspicions increased. Or is it just that I want Ayane to be Her? He asked himself, as the girl immobilized Naruto in her arms to rub his head with her fist.

...

"Where's Naruto?" Dana asked by way of good morning.

"He still hasn't come back from his training, it seems." Kakashi answered, watching the brunette descending the stairs and offering her a bowl of rice.

"Thank you. I hope he's doing fine. He always does too much." She maybe was concerned, but they could hear the pride in her voice. "I'll go check on him after breakfast."

"Good idea, he's such a loser, he could be dead by now." Sasuke said, voice even.

But the brunette could feel his concern. She smiled beneath her mask. They were finally becoming friends.

...

After breakfast, "Ayane" let Sakura accompany the bridge builder to his worksite while searching for her brother in the forest. Sasuke joined her half of the way to get to what had become the "training trees". They walked silently, side by side, strangely comfortable in each other's presence.

"You can talk to me, you know." Dana said, breaking the peaceful silence.

"What do you mean?"

"I know things aren't easy for you, that it has been a long time since they haven't been. But we are a team now. You can trust us. You can trust me."

"I don't know what you are talking about. I'm fine on my own, thank you."

She stopped, grabbing the boy's shoulder and forcing him to face her.