He's Just My Best Friend | a Kakashi love story

Chapter 19

During the Chunnin exams, Kakashi and I were extremely free. We couldn't train with our team for obvious reasons, we couldn't train together, again, for obvious reasons, and we weren't sent on missions just in case our team needed us. In short, we had nothing to do.

We ended up just walking around town and talking for the most part, and although I would have rather been training or doing missions, just getting to spend time together was really good. We decided not to tell people we were together yet. I don't really remember why we came to that decision, but I was okay with it. It saved us from getting weird stares in public, and for that I was thankful.

Today was the fourth day of the second test, and I couldn't help but be nervous for our team. Had they made it to the tower? Were they all okay? I thought they were well prepared, but also knew that Sakura was not confident, Naruto was reckless, and Sasuke was often uncooperative. Despite that, they usually found a way to work together, but I was still worried. Something about the whole thing didn't sit right with me for some reason.

"Worried?" Kakashi asked me. We were sitting in a coffee house, waiting to go and see which teams had made it through the second round. Apparently my face gave me away, but then again, with Kakashi, my face almost always gave me away.

"A little. I'm sure they're fine, right?" I looked down and stared at my coffee, thinking somehow it would give me the answers.

"They're fine. They may be maimed by now, but they're fine." He responded sarcastically. He gave me a closed eye smile that I just glared at.

"Very funny." I said sarcastically. "We should get going, I want to see if they made it or not."

We finally got to the room where those who passed the test were to be brought, and I was filled with anxiety. I was terrified that something either happened to one of them, or that they didn't make it, or both. I felt Kakashi reach over and grab my hand, interlacing our fingers. It instantly calmed me down, as it always did. Something about his touch had always made me relax instantly.

"Won't people be suspicious?" I said, barely above a whisper.

"I've held your hand in public before. Relax." He teased back.

"Yeah, when bad things happen. This might not be bad." I reasoned.

"Just shut up and let me comfort you." I could feel his eyes rolling, even though I wasn't looking at him. As if on cue, the Hokage gave Kakashi and I a look that said he needed to talk to us now. I gulped, and looked up at Kakashi. He was wearing his usual bored expression, so I tried not to worry. He let go of my hand, and we began to make our way over to the Hokage.

"I have something to tell you, and Mika, I need you to stay calm." He started, not looking at either of us. This was to be a conversation that no one noticed, and that made me begin to panic. I just nodded, and prayed that I could keep my unspoken promise. I channeled everything I knew about pretending to be emotionless and waited for the Hokage to continue. "Sasuke has been given Orochimaru's curse mark." I gasped as quietly as I could without making a scene. What the hell does Orochimaru want with Sasuke? "He will fight first, and then Kakashi you are to seal it immediately. I will leave it up to you if Mika comes with you or not." He stated emotionlessly. I felt my breaths begin to become uneven, and I worked as hard as I could to stop it. I could not do this here. I just nodded and walked away, leaving Kakashi behind. I needed to be somewhere where I could panic for five minutes. My only relative is being targeted by Orochimaru. What the hell? What does he want? I walked into the bathroom, locked the door, and immediately let out my breaths as unevenly as they could come. How could this happen? What was the end goal? Why Sasuke? If he's after an Uchiha, why not me? Why not Itachi? I would gladly take Sasuke's place, and would even more so be glad to hand him Itachi for whatever sick experiment he had in mind.