Growing Pains

Chapter 19

Streams of sunlight cascaded from the window and floated along a lean and muscular arm as the birds outside began their search for a morning meal, singing to their little heart's content. The sunlight continued along the arm until it came in contact with a sleeping face. That face squinted their closed eyes against the sunlight and turned to rest its face against a pillow.

The sunlight then decided to move to another face, one that was masculine and roughed up. That face didn't react like the first face and continued on sleeping, letting out little snores now and then.

Sunlight: 1

Face: 1

Sighing lightly, Araile's eyes opened slowly. Blearily, she sat up and looked around her room, finally fixing her gaze on Shinrai. His hair was messed up from the fight yesterday and sleeping, and his arm had loosely wrapped itself around her waist. It slipped down o rest at his side when Araile sat up as Shinrai continued sleeping.

Her muscles gave a yell of protest as she moved her legs to sit cross legged. Turning around, she stared around her room, her eyes still filled with sadness. A small part of her still waited for the clatter of claws as Takumi would dash into her room and anxiously wait for her to wake up and give him some food.

But she knew that wouldn't happen anymore. Kakashi had taken Takumi somewhere, and Araile didn't know where. A creak in the floorboards snapped her out of her thoughts. Looking up, she noticed her old caregiver standing in the doorway. She stretched out her legs and carefully climbed over Shinrai, who remained blissfully asleep. She reached the edge of her bed, slowly swinging her feet to the ground. Letting out a cringe from her wounds, she stood up and walked slowly to Kakashi.

"How are you feeling today kiddo? You were roughed up pretty badly yesterday," Kakashi asked softly as he put his hand on her head.

Closing her gold eyes, Araile leaned against his side, feeling the warmth of his body against hers.

"Come with me," Kakashi said as he led her down the hallway and to the front door.

Opening the door, the bright sunlight shone straight in her face. Turning away, she closed her eyes and let Kakashi lead her to wherever he was going. Looking around, she noticed that a lot of the buildings had a lot of damage done to them and some were completely destroyed. People were walking around or helping others to rebuild buildings. Seeing all this destruction caused her heart to sink. It was all because of Ishimaru and his rogue ninjas and bandits that all this destruction happened.

Blinking, Araile noticed that they were now in the forest. Kakashi continued walking, steering her deeper and deeper into the foliage. Finally, they entered a clearing and her eyes widened as she set her sights on a structure in the middle.

A grave was in the middle with flowers in a stone vase on each side. It was a solid structure made of some kind of shiny black stone, and at the bottom were 3 rectangular slabs that went from largest to smallest. At the top was a long rectangular slab of rock that stood straight into the sky. Takumi's name was carved into long rectangular slab. Araile slowly walked towards the grave, her eyes beginning to water as she took in the sight. So this is what Kakashi was doing all last night. A small smile curved her lips as she touched one of the petals on one of the flowers.

"Thank you," she said softly, and Kakashi smiled gently.

The 14 year old sank to her rear and pulled her knees to her chest, resting her chin on the top of her knees. Kakashi placed a hand on her head and walked away, leaving her alone to her thoughts and Takumi's grave.

Sighing, her mind began to wander. After a while, she began to notice how much her limbs hurt, but that didn't matter.