Just A Kid

Chapter 11

Up high in the trees, a giggle floated down as Araile watched the team as they had just found out about her clone. Another howl sounded, and the team below jumped again. Araile looked up into the darkness and saw a pair of dark eyes. A diamond-shaped head appeared, then a body, and ended at a tail that curled over a black back.

She smiled and reached out to touch the creature on the forehead. The creature gave a happy yip, pushing its forehead into her hand for more.

"You're the dog that I rescued from those two ninjas," she said, now rubbing the canine behind its ears.

The dog walked up to shifted closer to Araile and began licking her face, causing her to giggle. The creature suddenly stopped licking the nine year old and growled softly, its gaze locked on something behind her. She stopped laughing and looked behind her, already having a good idea who it was. Kakashi stood behind Araile with an angry look on his face. Araile gave him a small sheepish smile, and a small movement caught her eye. The creature suddenly jumped onto the young girl's lap and gazed at Kakashi, surprising both Araile and Kakashi.

The creature gave Kakashi a small growl before leaping off Araile's lap and into some branches, the sound of its paw steps disappearing. Kakashi continued glaring at his young charge, and Araile averted her eyes. Kakashi suddenly picked her up and slung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Araile squealed a little bit and hit her small fists against his back as Kakashi began to descend, jumping from branch from branch. Finally, Kakashi reached the ground and put his young charge down. Araile looked around and started to laugh as she lay her sights on Naruto. Naruto was on his stomach, shouting out for help as the dog sat on his back, calmly cleaning a paw. The dog jumped off Naruto and ran over to Araile, causing her to yelp in surprise as the dog knocked her on her back and began licking her face. She began laughing again, and squirmed as the canine continued licking her face. Finally, it got off her and scratched behind an ear. Araile rubbed her face on her shirt as she looked at Kakashi.

"Can we keep it Kakashi? Please?" Araile asked.

Kakashi thought for a moment before ruffling her hair. Araile smiled, knowing that it was an automatic 'yes', and looked back at the dog, who was now resting beside her.

"I need to give you a name," Araile thought out loud.

"I know, let's name it Naruto!" Naruto said, causing Sakura to sigh.

"I know! I'm gonna call you 'Takumi'," she said.

'Takumi' yipped and Araile began to smile, but was interrupted by a yawn. Her stomach decided to remind her of the creeping illness, and Araile placed a hand on her stomach. She quickly looked around, hoping Kakashi wouldn't notice. The team was thankfully getting ready to sleep to notice the young girl. Araile relaxed onto her back and stared up at the night sky, her new furry companion settling next to her. Her eyes began to get heavy, and the young girl curled up beside Takumi.

"Well, I think Araile has the right idea. Let's get some sleep," Kakashi said.

"Finally, some..." Naruto started to say, but couldn't finish because he fell asleep.

Soon, everyone else was fast asleep as well, including Kakashi. As Araile entered the Land of Nod, she began to have the strangest dream. Her body twitched as images flashed through her head.

 A young boy stood on a cliff facing a smouldering house, and watched as the house continued to burn. The boy's hair swayed in the breeze as his sharp ears picked up some rustling in some bushes nearby. The fire finally burnt out, leaving only ruins of the house.

A group of ninjas came out of the bushes and ran to the burnt ruins of the once-standing house. They began rummaging through the rubble, hoping to find any survivors.

The boy smiled, obviously pleased.

One of the ninjas called out to the other ninjas and held something in his arms. As the young boy watched intently, the ninjas rushed off with a little baby girl in the ninja's arms.

"Until we meet again, little sister," the young boy said with a small grin and walked off, disappearing into the darkness.

As the awful dream ended, Araile slowly started to open her eyes. She saw a blurry image of Takumi cleaning himself beside her. Her head pounded and her eyes started to burn, and instinctively she began rubbing at her eyes. As soon as she stopped rubbing, her eyes began to sting even worse. 

A hand suddenly pressed against her forehead, and her body twitched. The cool hand felt good against her burning skin

"Hm, a fever," a voice said.

She recognized that voice as Sasuke's, who had probably seen her rubbing her eyes.

Araile stopped rubbing one eye and looked up, squinting.

"Alright everyone, let's get going," Kakashi said.

"Kakashi-sensei, I think you should take a look at Araile. I think there's something wrong with her," Sasuke said as he glanced at his childhood friend.

"Oh?" Kakashi questioned as he looked at her.

"Let's see," Kakashi said as he bent down in front of the young girl.

Araile's body began to shake as Kakashi placed his hand on her forehead, like Sasuke did earlier.

"A high fever, huh?" Kakashi said quietly.

Araile could feel Takumi giving her a small lick on her arm, while whining softly. She grunted slightly as Kakashi picked her up and situated her on his back, before giving the order for the team to continue walking toward Konoha.

Araile fell asleep to the gentle rocking motion of Kakashi walking. As she slept, she unconsciously buried her head into his back, and Kakashi smiled slightly when he felt her do this. 

After a couple hours of walking, the team finally reached the village of Konoha.

"Ah, finally! We're here!" Naruto exclaimed.

Sasuke smirked and walk off towards his house as they entered Konoha.

"Where's Iruka-sensei? I wanna find him so we can get some ramen!" Naruto said.

"Well, I'm going to find Sasuke," Sakura said, putting her hands on her hips.

"Hey Sakura, wanna have ramen with me?" Naruto asked hopefully.

Sakura began running at full-speed after Sasuke.

"Hey Sakura! Wait up!" Naruto shouted as he chased after Sakura.

"They'll never learn," Kakashi sighed and continued walking.