Kids In The Dark (A Kakashi Love Story) (1st Place in NWA Kakashi 2015)

New

Meiko sat on her bed at home after the second week of being aloud home, and she had never felt more useless in her entire life. Her leg, while it helped her a lot, came with a lot of cannot do's.

For example, Meiko couldn't shower with the leg on because of the material it was made of, while wood, it broke the wood down. Her father had to replace their just standing shower with a bathtub so that Meiko could bathe herself. But that didn't stop all the problems of her baths. She was unable to get herself in and out of the tub, so she had to have her brother help her in and out of it, which was embarrassing as it gets.

Meiko sighed heavily as she grabbed the leg from beside of her bed, and attached it to the stump the way the doctor had shown her. She was suppose to go out with Kakashi today, but to no avail, her father sent him, Gai, and Rin out on a mission so he had to cancel their plans. As she strapped the leg on, a gentle knock echoed through the silent room.

"Come in." She called out, and Asuma walked into the room with a small smile on his lips.

"Do you need anything?" He asked, and Meiko shook her head as she stood up, and went to take a step with her right leg, but the moment she brought her leg up, her wooden leg fell off from not being properly strapped on, and the girl fell to the ground. She barely managed to catch herself with her hands, and she could feel Asuma's hand holding her up as well.

"Are you okay?!" Asuma said, and Meiko nodded slightly as she began to shove him off of her.

"Stop acting like I'm broken!" She said, her voice slightly cracking. She was so upset with herself for not having strapped it on right, that she was almost in tears.

"Just let me help you up and get the leg on right Meiko." Asuma said in a quiet tone, his eyes watching as his sister struggled to get up off the ground.

"I got it!" Meiko said, struggling to push herself up into a sitting position. Asuma was tired of watching his sister struggle, so he went over to her and began to slowly pick her up.

"Don't touch me! I can do it on my own!" Meiko said, bringing her fist around and hitting her brother, who eventually backed down and let her do it her way. Meiko eventually got herself into a sitting position, but the action exhausted the girl. In a sigh, she looked up at her brother with desperate eyes.

"C-Can you help me back into my bed.." She mumbled quietly, and Asuma nodded slightly as he picked his sister up, and sat her down on her bed. He grabbed the leg from the floor and kneeled in front of her leg, pushing up her ninja pants above her knee cap so he could see where to attach it, and began to strap it on the correct way. Meiko's brown eyes watched his every movement so that she would not misstrap it again.

"There you go." Asuma said, rubbing his sisters knee slightly before he stood up, and ruffled her hair in the same motion he had used on her knee. She gave him a weak smile before watching him walk out of the room. Once he was gone, the tears fell down her face. She felt so useless that it was driving her crazy. For the last couple of months, Kakashi had been training with Meiko to strengthen herself with only the one real leg, and she had gotten fairly good, but she wasn't as good as she had been.

In all honesty, Meiko was completely used to the leg. But it was the stares and the whispered of the villagers that she wasn't used to. 'I can't believe that happened to the Hokage's daughter. Shouldn't she have been stronger?' 'Oh my god, is she part puppet?!' 'She'll never be a ninja again.' Were only some of the things that Meiko would hear on a daily basis. As much as she wanted to pretend it didn't hurt her, it didn't bother her, that she didn't care, she couldn't. It hurt so bad to hear all the things the villagers thought of her now that she was slightly disabled at no fault of her own.