Roses {Kakashi Hatake}

9. Grief

A couple of months passed, time Akahana mainly spent with her friends and family. After a few weeks, she had even picked up training again. She was very serious about it, determined to make her parents proud.

Most of her sessions were still with Shikaku, who she could easily talk to about anything. He always beared in mind what she was feeling, especially about her parents' death.

Other trainings were with either her team or Isamu, and today was one of them.

"Come on! Even a fat woman who has never gotten any training could do better!" Isamu yelled as Akahana was punching a tree repeatedly.

"I'd call it beginner's luck then," she retorted with a smirk. She punched the tree with full power, soon pulling away her hand as it hurt like hell.

"Look, if you think I'm being too hard on you, I could--"

"You're not being too hard on me, Isamu-kun," she assured him with a smile, "I'm not doing all this just to make them as proud as they should be, I also want to be able to protect myself from their killers if they return."

"You still have me and my tou-san and kaa-san," Isamu told her, "You're not alone. You'll never be."

"And if all three of you are on a mission?"

"That's very unlikely."

"That's not an answer!"

***

Whilst Shikaku was on a mission with his teammates, Akahana tried to get Shibi to help her. She still needed guidance in some ways and she'd rather not have Naoki and Mako around.

"Shibi-sensei, I have a question," she stated when she finally found him and got his attention.

He replied with a nod, gesturing her to say what she wanted to tell him, "I was wondering whether you could help me with my training," she said.

Shibi was surprised to say the least, he wasn't the first person someone would go to for training, especially since the entire bug thing. "Of course," he eventually said.

"You're not much of a talker, are you, Shibi-sensei?"

"Do I need to be?"

She shook her head, "That's fine, perhaps it'll be easier to focus on my training."

Shibi asked her what it was she needed his help with, which turned out to be the ninjutsu technique she was working on.

"It involves flowers," she said, "It's a technique I'm trying to create to honour my parents."

Hidden behind his high collar, was a tiny smile. The girl was growing on him, he had to give her that.

***

"Oji-san," Akahana said as she looked into her uncle's blue eyes, "Will you play a match of shogi with me? And don't hold back, please."

He nodded and the two of them sat down at the the table and started playing. The place looked really nice and simple with its broken white walls and wooden furniture, "Don't you usually do this with Shikaku-san?"

"He's coming back tomorrow," she said, "and I really wanted to play against you at least once!"

"You think you can handle losing against me?" Aoi jestered, "You know I'm a shogi master."

The redhead chuckled, "Does that make me a shogi master too then?" she asked.

Aoi looked down at the board, realising he was once again losing. He sighed, "What is it with you and the capability of winning from me?"