Outlander: Found on the Path of Life. Part 1

Chapter 16. Can a Ninja Love?

"What was that?!" Kakashi kept thinking perplexedly all the way to the farm, completely ignoring his students, who, however, quickly realized that their sensei had other concerns, and were now chatting among themselves — or rather, Naruto was chatting mostly, and the other two only occasionally answered something without much enthusiasm.

So at first she shunned him for an eternity, and then suddenly she acts in such a way that his, mature shinobi's, vision blurred and he felt treacherously weak in the limbs just at the mere thought... What's gotten into her? And how to explain her attitude before that, well, if you didn't take into account their quarrel? Had she suddenly become so overcome with their forthcoming separation? But it wasn't like it was going to be forever...

Kakashi was completely bewildered, but he knew one thing for sure: he would go above and beyond, but he will complete the mission as fast as he could in order to return home as soon as possible. She wouldn't be able to just push him away this time. She won't fool him anymore. Not after such a kiss. The amount of effort it took him not to  lose his head completely back then... He licked the cut on his lip again.

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At home, Arina was experiencing a similar agony. That damn kiss almost messed up all her plans — she was already on the verge of giving up. She was by no means an innocent girl, but she had never been kissed like that before, she was sure of it. She planned everything perfectly to be on the safe side — the children who joined them for breakfast helped unwittingly, otherwise she was afraid to even imagine what Kakashi could do to her had she dared pull this trick without the kids acting as a deterrent.

But in fact she was really tempted to find out what exactly he could do, especially after the cursory but still very impressive contact with that intriguing prominence. Just the thought made her head spin and twisted her lower abdomen into a knot — she liked the beginning this much already... However, the gears of her plan had already begun to turn, and, no matter how much she wanted to pretend that she hadn't planned anything, her sometimes terribly unbearable and stubborn character intervened again.

So she was to visit Hiruzen again soon.

☙ ❦ ❧

A week before, she had already been to the Hokage's office. She felt uncomfortable distracting such a high-ranking man, but he also impressed her as a very wise and surprisingly sympathetic person. Even though he yelled at Kakashi in her presence, scaring her a little. Besides, Kurenai, with whom she had gotten quite close recently and to whom she turned at first, also supported her.

Lord Third was at his office and received Arina warmly. It was not easy for Arina to get straight to the point, but it was impossible to deceive the acute Hokage.

"I see something is bothering you?.. Iruka said you stopped showing up at the Academy..."

"Yes... Hiruzen-sama... you said I could leave if I wanted to. Is that still the case?"

Hiruzen sighed.

"Have you decided? I see then... I would have wanted to answer differently, but... Even though you poked your nose into our library, I do not consider myself entitled to keep you here against your will. And to be honest — I rather support this decision. If I were you, I'd be scared of the prospects too, considering how different this world is from the one you lived in. You deserve a calmer life. If you can find it at all here... But a ninja village is hardly the right place in this case."

"That's not what scares me, to be honest. I am afraid of my helplessness and dependence on a certain person."

"I believe that he himself was not particularly prepared for what happened between you two — and it probably scares him too," — Hiruzen smiled gently.