Am I a Demon? ; A Naruto Fan fiction (Rewritten)

Chapter Ten: What is Protection

"Say, why is it that he always calls us out this early and he always ends up being the one who's late?!" Sakura complained as she shrieked in annoyance.

"That's right! That's right!" Naruto said in agreement.

"What's he going to do about the feelings of a maiden who accidentally overslept and resigned herself to not blow drying?!" She continued to complain.

"I overslept," Naruto said while assuming that Sakura would definitely understand, "So i haven't washed my face or brushed my teeth."

"T-that's just dirty... Naruto." She said while looking at him slightly disgusted- the complete opposite of the reaction that he was looking for.

Sasuke, who wasn't partaking in their conversation, simply looked as if he wished to be elsewhere.

"Hey, good morning guys!" Kakashi greeted while perching on the red arches over the bridge, "Today I got caught up walking down the path of life...."

"YEAH RIGHT!" Both Naruto and Sakura yelled, cutting off his obvious lie of an excuse.

"And I was picking up a stray cat on the way...." Kakashi finished, looking towards Akane who had at some point appeared behind the three Genin.

The three turned around, shock registered on Naruto's as well as Sakura's faces. However, Sasuke had already noticed her presence so it didn't come as much of a shock to him.

Almost immediately Sakura lunged towards Akane to hug her. But of course Akane stepped out of the way causing Sakura to frown slightly.

Pushing all negative emotions aside, Sakura decided to just be happy that her teammate decided to join them. Even if she did have a lot of questions to ask Akane.

The entire time Akane was missing, Sakura just had to ask herself 'why?'. Just why did Akane take a long break without saying anything; without giving any sort of reason, and then just as suddenly come back?

Well, the story starts from the night before.

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(Keep in mind, this part is the same day that the incident with the Sand Genin happened)

"Konohamaru! Do you want to go somewhere for dinner with me?" Akane asked, leaning against the doorframe of her younger cousin's bedroom. She watched as he threw down his wooden kunai that he was practicing with and jumped up while pumping his fist into the air.

"YAKINIKU Q! Let's go, Akane-nee chan!" He said as he grabbed her hand and started to pull her out the door.

"Oi! Calm down, Konohamaru. It's not going to run away from you!" Akane scolded as she let herself be pulled away. And just barely noticeably, there was a slight upturn of her lips.

Konohamaru was like a younger brother to Akane, a bond that the old her never thought she could hold.

It was something she had to cherish.

But... was this bond the only thing she wanted to protect...?

Throughout her time in Konoha she grew close to so many others... but did she really have the power to protect them all?

Could she really find the power to protect them all?

Akane... just didn't know... she still needed time to decide...but then, as Mirai said, all that time would be wasted. All the time she uses to wait could have been used to help someone.

"Hurry up, Akane- nee chan!" Konohamaru said, breaking Akane out of her daze.

"Geez, Konohamaru. Slow down a bit!" Akane replied, not understanding why kids found the need to run to everywhere... even though she herself was still a 'kid'.