Akari Uchiha

Ch. 57 Let the Chunin Exams Commence

Kakashi oh-so-maturely glared back at the thirteen-year-old Mizuhi brat glaring at him since the last thirty seconds, while an unaware Uchiha slept on in oblivious bliss on the hospital bed besides them.

"What?" he finally deadpanned.

The brat only further narrowed his eyes. "I don't care if you are her master or an elite jonin, but you hurt my best friend," he scowled.

"Oh, so you are here to tell me off?" Kakashi drawled sarcastically.

Haru gritted his teeth. "Listen old man, Akari is my only best friend and if you hurt her, I will hurt you!" he grit out seriously. "I don't care if to you she's just a charge to deal with and get results out of, or if you don't care whether she gets hurt or dies-"

Before Haru could blink, he suddenly felt a hand grabbing his collar and hauling him up until he was standing on his tip toes, grunting at the effort.

"I'm warning you, boy, don't speak of things you don't understand," Kakashi spoke in a controlled voice.

Both of them glanced to the side from their positions when they heard the door slide open and saw Shizune standing there, frozen at the scene.

"This is what I walk in on?" she muttered to herself.

"Alright Kakashi, why were you trying to Anko's apprentice?"

"We were just having a friendly conversation, that's all," Kakashi eye-smiled, patting Haru's head, receiving an annoyed growl in return.

Shizune rolled her eyes before looking at Haru.

"He hurt Akari!" he pointed at the Hatake accusingly.

"The fire ball was a training accident," came the unimpressed drawl.

Haru scowled further. "That's not all! You made her train until she dropped dead!"

"She's alive," Kakashi dead-panned. "What is that? An alive Uchiha," he pointed towards the sleeping eleven-year-old.

"You know what I mean! She looked like a zombie when you were training her and... look, sensei, I don't know what you have against her, but don't EVER hurt my best friend again!"

Shizune sighed. "Look Haru, Kakashi cares a great deal about Akari, almost like his own kid. Hell, people have difficulty believing he hasn't already adopted her. I assure you that he won't ever intentionally hurt her," she finished, before standing up.

"I guess," Haru grumbled, kicking at nothing below the chair he was sitting on.

"Why do people keep believing I'll adopt her? She's my apprentice," the jonin sensei emphasized.

Shizune pointedly ignored him. "Anything else, Haru?"

"No."

"Anything you'd like to say to Kakashi-san?"

"...."

"Well?"

"I apologize, Hatake-sensei," he grumbled begrudgingly.

"Good," Shizune nodded. "And Kakashi-san, I should not walk in on you threatening any child or any one for that matter," Shizune gritted out.

"What are you talking about? I'm an angel."

"And I suddenly want to go to hell."

"You're mean."

Shizune shook her head with an exasperated smile before heading out.

After a few seconds of silence, Kakashi stood up, stretching his arms, glancing at his student still peacefully sleeping, and sighing, before heading to the door.

He stopped for a second, glancing at Haru. "You know," he started, gaining the boy's attention. "I do care if that clumsy sleeping brat over there gets hurt. I care about anything related to that idiot, really," he muttered. "I can see that you care a lot about her too, which is why I'm confirming that everything Shizune said was true."

Haru blinked a few times before glancing down. "Yeah I know... I'm sorry. It's just..." the teenager shuffled slightly. "You know... back when I joined the academy, everything seemed so lame, until a random Uchiha was shifted into our class. Akari somehow made everything so much fun and our energies seemed to match so well. She listened whenever I complained about my parents not paying me attention or always comparing me to my elder cousin, until one day my dumb self realized that she didn't even have parents. And she still always listened and cheered me up and let me stay at her house and..."

Haru clenched his fist. "And one day we came across this... retired chunin...  and he hurt her just because she was an Uchiha and... I couldn't do anything! I was so useless, and I only watched that bastard grab her throat until we were rescued by Lady Hokage's apprentice. That's the reason I started taking training seriously."

He glanced up at Kakashi fiercely. "I don't ever want to just watch while she gets hurt, ever again."

Haru sighed after a while. "Sorry, I'm ranting," he muttered.

"It's good to get it out," Kakashi waved his apology off. "Trust me, Mizuhi, I want to protect her just as much as you do, if not more. But I'm confident that soon enough, Akari will be strong enough to not even need our protection. And I'm going to make her that strong."

Haru's eyes widened before he smiled slightly. "I guess I was worried for nothing," he shrugged sheepishly, before laughing.

Kakashi chuckled back.

------------------------

"And I'm going to register as Copy Ninja the Second!"

"No, I forbid you. Don't."

"What's so bad about it!?"

"Why are you so insistent on calling yourself... that?"

Asuma and Kurenai stared at the bickering master-student duo

"Well, she seems ready for the chunin exams," Kurenai chuckled. "Kakashi's apprentice is really something, huh? I heard about the Ronin Playoffs."

"No wonder Kakashi was marked off duty to train her. They need to maintain the reputation, specially in the chunin exams, when everyone is watching," Asuma muttered.

"You're worrying too much," Ibiki said from behind them. "I think she'll pull it off."

"Ah, you aren't conducting this year's examinations?"

"Nope, the next generation took over," Ibiki pointed at Shikamaru and Temari.

Asuma smirked. "About time," he muttered looking at Shikamaru and Temari.

"You are just trying to avenge all the times the brat teased us as a couple, aren't you?" Kurenai chuckled.

Asuma grinned through his cigarette. "He deserves it."

"What team is Sara in?" Kurenai questioned after a while.

"Sara, Akio and Tsunaga, this guy Sara met during medical training, are partcipating as a team," Asuma answered.

"Do you really think Sara is ready?" Kurenai muttered after a while.

"No," Asuma admitted. "But sometimes you need to experience crushing defeat to realize how far behind you are."

Kurenai blinked. "Ah, are you sure it won't crush her though?"

"It won't," Asuma muttered. "Akio is on her team and he was the rookie of the year."

Somewhere in the distance, they heard a distance yell: "Let the chunin exams commence!"