A Hero All Along (A Kakashi Story)

Chapter 8.

Yuuki had barely spent any time last night sleeping.

Kakashi had left a big impact on her, and his words had echoed through her head for so long, stopping her from truly sleeping. He was everything she'd imagined him to be, and she could understand why so many people admired and respected him as a ninja and as a person in general. He'd said to her the exact thing she wanted to know; the exact dream she wanted to be a reality. But as much as she would have loved to agree plain and simple and go along with everything he had said, he didn't know her whole situation. He didn't know how her life was set out, and how people saw her. To Kakashi, he was just offering a bit of advice. But Yuuki knew the truth, and couldn't make the choice to go along with him.

It was a dream, and nothing more.

She repeated this idea to herself as the sun began to rise, shining light into her room and over her bed. For a moment longer she remained lying there, wondering what to do next. How things would go from here. But she frowned at this attitude and pushed herself onwards, forcing herself to get up and into the shower to wake herself up. Things were hard for her right now, but she had a job to do either way; a job she did like doing-a job that helped out the people she admired more than anything in the world. That meant she couldn't just give in to the thoughts that had plagued her mind while she had lain in bed. She had to get up and continue on with her life; something Yuuki did as she breathed in the cold as the water cascaded over her skin.

A few minutes later and she was finishing her breakfast, needing to head over to the training grounds as quick as possible in order to put the finishing touches on the katana that one of her customers would be coming to pick up soon. It was the process she always did last-using her chakra, she strengthened the blade and made it more powerful, as well as making it less susceptible to damage in battle. It was better done at the last minute, as then the sword was fully done, it had gotten used to being used in a battle situation and was ready to go. Although Yuuki might have done it last night; with all that had happened, she had decided to leave it until morning, knowing she had the time to do so and it wouldn't take very long to complete.

Swallowing the last of her food down, Yuuki quickly set off, taking to the rooftops as the sun fully rose, allowing her a quick route to reach the training grounds, dodging past the clearing and the trees, straight into the building and right over to where she had left the katana. Picking it up, she quickly checked it over, running her fingers over it and making sure everything was perfect. Once she was satisfied, Yuuki headed into the backroom, grabbing some polish and coming back a second later and grabbing the katana once more. As she had the time, she would give it a quick going over; the polish would get rid of any marks, smoothen the blade and just generally make it look good as well as perform well. As she gently scrubbed at the metal, she became lost in the bubble of concentration that always came over her when she was focusing on something important, smiling in triumph as she finished, happy with her work.

With that, she returned to the backroom and replaced the polish, checking up on the other weapons that were ready, almost ready and still needed some more work. It was while she was doing this that someone entered the building without her noticing-the customer who had ordered the katana. It was only as Yuuki had grabbed one of the daggers off the side as was smoothing the blade that he finally called out, running his fingers over his new katana with a smile,

"Hey, Yuuki! I'm here for my sword!"

Freezing, she remembered she still had to infuse the metal with her chakra, and began to speed up her action, almost done with the dagger before she could finish the sword-she hated to leave a job unfinished. Calling out hurriedly,

"Yeah, sure-just wait a minute and I'll come out and do it for you!"

She continued with her work, rubbing as fast as she could without completely ruining the dagger. The only problem was her customer; he wasn't exactly a patient man, and never had been-a trait that was only heightened with the fact he was going to be sparring in front of the Hokage today. He wanted the best weapon-so he had gone to Yuuki in order to get it. But he didn't want to be late, either, and after a couple of minutes of standing there, tapping his foot and glaring at the doorway to where he knew Yuuki was, he gave up, and muttering 'whatever', under his breath, he took out the money from his pocket and threw it down on the counter, turning from the room and heading straight out the door, still admiring his new katana.

Yuuki gave the dagger one more wipe, nodding in acceptance, and placed it on the counter, jogging back to the main room to finish off the katana-only it wasn't what she had been expecting. There was no one around, and as she came forward, the katana was gone, replaced with the money that she had asked to be paid in return for her services. Snapping her head up, she vaulted over the counter and sprinted outside, scanning the clearing and walking forward to see if she could spot him anywhere-but he was long gone. Clenching her fists in frustration, Yuuki bit her lip slightly, wondering what she should do now. It wasn't ready. All she had needed to do was one final thing-a process that she was still able to do; it wouldn't exactly take her long. The weapon wouldn't be complete without it; he had asked for a well-made weapon that would suit him perfectly-that would be perfect. But without infusing her chakra into the metal, it wouldn't be-a thought that answered her question.

She may not be as good a ninja as she wanted to be...

But Yuuki was going to do what she could do right, at least.

Darting back into the building, she swiftly grabbed all the other weapons people had wanted at the same time. They would all be there for the sparring sessions, and it would give her the chance to give them out while she was there. But once she had all she needed, Yuuki turned and sprinted out the door, jumping into the trees and into the rooftops, searching around and spotting the arena where the ninjas would all be sparring a second later. Narrowing her eyes at that, she sprang forward, dodging past all and any obstacles in her way, already able to hear the chatter of voices and the practice swings of metal on metal from the weapons. Cursing under her breath, she pushed onwards and straight through the doors, opening the bag as she did so.

Coming out into the seats area, she looked around and instantly spotted several of her customers, and headed over, handing the weapons to them one after the other and receiving the money in return. It didn't take long before the bag was empty, and chucking it to the side, Yuuki turned and focused on finding the one person she needed right now. he was the only one Yuuki hadn't seen, and she needed to find him before he got into the arena and started to fight-only to hear someone calling his name a second later. Jumping down the steps two at a time, Yuuki turned and looked all around for him, but realised where he was as she noticed everyone's gazes were facing the battlefield. He was already beginning to spar-and with the katana that wasn't ready to fight with yet.

Staring at him circling his opponent, sword drawn and poised to attack, Yuuki's focused changed and became on the sword and nothing else. Her job was to make those weapons-that was what people knew her for. It was her life, and she had always tried her best to create the perfect weapons, making each and every one unique to the warrior who used them. Sometimes-a lot of the time-Yuuki wished she was a ninja instead of a blacksmith, true, but she had said to herself last night that she had accepted that was a dream. It had only been a minute earlier that she had thought to herself she would at least do this job right. And knowing this, Yuuki threw caution to the wind-she knew what she had to do.