Growing Pains

Chapter 4

After a while, Araile allowed Kakashi to put her down. As her feet touched the ground, a butterfly fluttered by, the colours shining against the afternoon sun before landing on a nearby fallen tree log. It waved its wings back and forth, resting from its journey. Smiling widely, she jogged over to where the butterfly had landed. She wanted to get a better look at the different patterns on its wings. 

Sensing her presence, the butterfly spread its wings and took off from the log, flying higher and higher. Araile watched with gold eyes wide as the sun gleamed on the butterfly's wings. A smile spread on her lips when the butterfly landed on a tree trunk, letting its wings fan out. 

"Pretty..." she whispered as she crept closer.

The wings were dark blue, with black lines outlining the edges. The blue faded in some areas, and turned to a lighter blue. The bottom of the wings were outlined in grey, with dark blue areas merging to mix with the light blue. A soft breeze blew through the trees, and the butterfly took off.  

"Hey!" she exclaimed as the butterfly flew close to her face then darted off to land on a nearby tree branch.

Giggling, she began to stalk her insect prey quietly.

Chuckling, Kakashi watched her with a gentle smile on his face. Even though she was 14 years old, to Kakashi she was still a toddler walking on unsteady legs, grabbing everything she could with chubby hands...including his precious books. He came very close to losing a couple pages from his books when the toddler set her sights on the paper pages.

Time had definitely flown by. He was definitely feeling old.

As Kakashi continued going down memory lane, Araile stalked her butterfly prey into the bush. It wasn't getting away from her that easily! 

"The mighty ninja has cornered her prey," she murmured to herself, a wicked grin stretching her lips.

Her feet inched slowly along the ground.

"Come out, come out, little butterfly," she murmured. 

The butterfly prey took off again, flying high into the branches. The butterfly fanned its wings as it rested on a high tree branch above her head. Looking up at the branch, her mouth turned down in a frown. She wasn't in the mood to climb today. For now, the butterfly had won its freedom. Sighing, she turned around and headed back to Kakashi. As soon as she came close to Kakashi, a glimmer of light flashed above Kakashi's head. Crying out a warning, Araile's eyes widened as a shadow jumped from behind a tree and swung a sword directly at Kakashi's head. She was too far away to defend him, and she took off towards her old caregiver. 

Clang!

Her eyes widened as Kakashi blocked the sword swing with his kunai knife. A sigh of relief swept its way through her, but was replaced with a gasp of shock as the shadow figure was revealed to be her older brother. Her stomach clenched when she gazed at her brother's expression. Her brother's eyes were blazing with fury as his sword was deflected by Kakashi, and his face held a cold sneer.

"Kane? What are you doing! Stop it!" Araile cried out as she made it to the two men, shocked and confused by his actions.

Growling, Kane relaxed and put his sword in a sheath on his back.

"I thought I told you to stay away from anyone from Konoha," Kane grounded out between clenched teeth, turning his blazing gaze to his sister.

"But Kakashi saved me! I was-"

"I don't want to hear your excuses, Araile! I told you to do something so simple, and you couldn't even do that!" her brother exploded, causing her to flinch back.