I don't like how I did this chapter at all. This is the final product after rewriting it several times, it's decent but definitely not my best...
*~*~*Three Years Later*~*~*
I’m nine now and Kakashi is fourteen. I’ve taken a vacation from Konoha and came to visit the land of iron to hang out with Kinsy, Steph, and Chris. Chris’s parents were Konoha ninjas who were killed by people in my village. I’ve been down here for three weeks and haven’t heard anything from Kakashi. Maybe he’s enjoying being alone, maybe I should extend my vacation and give him more time to himself? But I miss him too much to not come back as planned at the end of the next week; he could just be giving me my space that I’ve needed recently.
“Hold still guys! I need to capture you perfectly! This’ll be my only memorable item from this vacation besides my memories but I want a keepsake! You know I won’t get another wonderful vacation like this one for at least another year!” My drawing of them was almost complete they were all nestled into Arupha’s fur with Chris who is two years older than us on the far right by Arupha's rear then Kinsy and then Steph with her hand resting on Arupha’s head. I have drawn it so It looks like sunshine is shining on them make their eyes sparkle with joy and happiness with the pure silvery snow surrounding them and the snow covered trees a beautiful background
About two months ago the nine-tailed beast, the kyuubi, attacked my village, Konoha, and in order to defeat it the fourth sealed the kyuubi into his new born baby, Naruto. The villagers already dislike him; I think they haven’t given him a chance and should lighten up some. I miss the fourth, the jutsu he did killed him; they say it was a great sacrifice but I think there was some other way it could’ve been done. The fourth was the third most important to me guy at the village, he was always sweet, funny, just plain clueless, and would do anything for anyone at any price. I have several drawings of him in my sketchbook and my first one still tucked safely in the wooden box Kakashi gave me.
“Hurry up Allie! I really need to go to the ‘powder room’!” Kinsy yelled, of course with that being the issue Chris started tickling her making it worse. We always make fun of people who call it the ‘powder room’ instead of the bathroom, so, we say powder room all the time. Arupha got up and walked over to me leaving those three to fall over into the snow effectively ending their bickering.
“Go ahead and go, I’ve been done for quite a while. I was just having fun watching you all!” I told them laughing at the expression on Kinsys face.
“Amber, you’re cruel, you made me sit by them when you’ve been done this whole time!” Arupha grunted in his rough voice.
“Come on Arupha! Ya know ya love us sooo much that it hurts!” Steph called over to him then tackled him to the ground, if she weren’t just kidding around there was no way he would have fallen over but, being the wolf he is, he fell over and allowed her to cuddle with him, I guess he knows how important these guys are to me. “Hey Allie, what’s the matter with you? We know something else happened that you’re not telling us about.” Steph said up to me looking at me with huge puppy dog eyes trying to get me to spill me every secret
“Fine,” I sighed laying my head on Arupha’s stomach, right next to Steph’s. Chris came over quietly to listen and just as I was about to start my story Kinsy came running back apologizing for taking so long. Steph quickly had her shushed and laying down ready for my story to start. “It’s Kakashi, I think he’s getting sick of me. Every time he looks at me… I don’t know, it’s like he’s not really seeing me at all. Like he doesn’t know why I’m still there.” I tell them, a wave of depression hitting me as I think about the last few weeks.
“Awww! Allie I’m sure it’s not you!” Steph comforted.
Kinsy snorted and looked at Steph like she was crazy. “Allie, He’s probably still torn up over the fourths death.” Pain so fierce it made me reminisce of the months after Sangekiko died ripped through me at his name. I felt my walls fly up and worked to lower them again. Kinsy reached out and grabbed my hand, squeezing gently. “We know how much the Fourth meant to you too. Stop hiding it. We can tell.”
Chris smiled at me softly when I glanced at him. I shot a smile back then felt it fall off my face when I pictured Kakashi home alone. I knew I should go back but I just felt like he didn’t want me there so I’ll stay this last week. “C’mon, let’s go get some hot chocolate.” I say then chuckle at the twin burst of enthusiasm from Kinsy and Steph.
Knocking the snow off our shoes we trampled in where Margaret, being the amazing woman she is, had hot chocolate waiting for us on the stove. Chris threw an extra log on the fire and we surrounded it. I knew they wanted me to bring up Minato but I just couldn’t. The pain was still fresh to me. I listened to Steph start talking about some boy in town who is ‘completely eye-catching’.
“… Never seen such a dark brown eye col- Allie! What’s wrong?” Steph stopped in the middle of her sentence. Tears were streaking down my face and there was nothing I could do to stop them. Kinsy knocked her head over to rest on my shoulder and Chris just squeezed my knee. Steph sat there flabbergasted for a moment then took my cup and got me a refill of hot chocolate.
We ended up passing out in front of the fire. I woke up in the middle of the night with a crick in my neck two heads on my shoulders. Slowly nudging myself free I put pillows under their heads and tossed a blanket over them. Escaping outside I called Arupha to me, he wrapped himself around me. “Allie, it’s ok. You got through Sangekiko, you can get through this.” A soft voice whispered behind me.
Kinsy was standing there, tears in her eyes. I nodded at her, then broke free from Arupha and stumbled up to her. We hugged tightly and a few more tears fell before I started talking. “We would fight in the woods all the time. He kept me on my toes… Now the woods where we would fight are destroyed. Kakashi is so distant. The entire village is grieving. I don’t know what to do with myself anymore. Everything that I was taught in Swansea, it seems like it’s not important anymore! It’s gotten more difficult to mask my emotions, Kakashi is almost constantly white and the absolute worse is that Minatos son is already being looked at like he’s a monster!”
Kinsy didn’t say anything at first then she squeezed me slightly and pushed me away to look me in the eyes. “Go home.” Was all she said and those two words were all that was needed. I hugged her and pulled my things from the house. My Chakra doing the work, the bag came flying at me. “I’ll explain everything to them. Don’t worry just get home fast.”
We left. Arupha, who has grown even larger and more powerful, pushed every extra ounce of his energy into me again. I felt whole, like a complete human being, for awhile. I had my chakra running through my legs. I made my two week journey in two days.
*~*~*
“Kakashi!” I missed him so much. He’s laying there sleeping soundly and I’m about to collapse as it is. I nudge him, “Kakashi!” I murmured, he looked at me blearily.
“Amber? What’re you doing back early?” My body was giving out after the excess of Chakra I used so instead of giving him an answer I just crawled in bed with him and cuddled up. We hadn’t done this since my first birthday in Konoha. I curled into him and tears just started falling, I tried to stop the little noises I was making but I was unsuccessful. Kakashi, after a moment of stunned silence, wrapped his arms around me, pulled his mask off and kissed the top of his head. He pulled me tightly to him, I started to apologize when I felt his body shake. Tentatively I looked up, Kakashi had tears streaming down his face too.
“I’ve missed you. I needed you.” Kakashi murmured, I pushed my head into his chest as he continued to silently cry.
“I’m so sorry.” I whispered when his body stopped shaking and his breath evened out. I finally let the exhaustion take me under and I passed out safe in the arms of Kakashi.
