Lost (Book 2 of the KITD series)(NWA Third Place Kakashi winner.)

Chapter 12

A couple of days later, and Meiko was finally completely set up in the house. She had done all the shopping she could, gotten Taka's room completely set up and had clean the majority of the apartment. She, of course, hadn't cleaned the entire thing, but the majority was clean to the point it at least looked better than it had before. 

Today was also the day that Team Kakashi would begin their chunin exams. All three of them has agreed to take the exam after they got back from their mission in the hidden mist. A mission that almost costed all of them their lives, which only gave them more reason to go on to the next level of their ninja training. 

Taka was spending the day with the third Hokage, Kakashi was with his team before the written exam actually started, so that left Meiko with little to nothing to do until she had to head towards the academy for the Chunin exams. She sighed heavily as she glanced around the household, before she grabbed her money pouch and put it into her shuriken pouch before she left the house. Boredom was not something the young mother was used to, so she was out looking for something to do.

She slowly wandered around the village, her eyes glancing around at all of the things within the village. All of the things that she missed when she was in Suna, from the green colored grass and the large trees that surrounded the perimeter of the buildings. The trees only broke when their was place for a training field, or a house. When she was at Suna, Meiko was unaware of how much she would actually miss all of the green color of her village.  

"Meiko?" A voice said, and the girl turned around to come face to face with Izumo, yet again. A scowled formed over her face and she shook her head.

"You just don't know when to quit, do you?" She said, and Izumo chuckled quietly, shaking his head.

"I guess not. But I learned that from you."

"Maybe you shouldn't have taken a lesson from me." She said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Listen, no offense, actually, all the offense, I dont care what you have to say."

"But Meiko, please. Ten minutes of your time, that's all I'm asking. I have to get to the Chunin exams soon, and I know you have to as well. But please. Walk and talk to me. You don't even have to say anything." He said as he clasped his hands together and stared down at her with pleading eyes. Meiko rolled her eyes slightly, but began to walk towards Izumo and towards the academy.

"You can talk. Until we get to the academy." She said, and the man practically jumped around in a circle and ran up beside her, nodding his head quickly.

"Thank you for finally hearing me out."

"I'm not. I'm not going to buy whatever excuse you throw at me. I'm just going to listen to whatever you string together." She said, shrugging her shoulders slightly, but the hope never left Izumos eyes.

"That's fine with me." He said with a hopeful tone to his voice as he kicked a few rocks, glancing down at the ground as if he was searching for the words. And in all honety, he was. He didn't actually think he would get this far.

"Are you going to say anything or can I just go to the academy now?" Meiko said, sighing heavily.

"No! I'm just... I just dont know how to explain everything." He said softly, and the girl rolled her eyes.

"Of course not."

"Listen Meiko, I never meant to hurt you. Neither of us did. We were dumb teenagers who had no idea how much pain we would be causing you with our actions. We just... We didn't know how to deal with it." He said, referring to her leg.

"And you thought that I knew how to deal with it?" She said, getting slightly angry.

"No! Of course not. No one knows how to deal with that. We were just.. We were scared and unsure of what to do, how to help. We figured that if we stepped away, we couldn't hurt you with doing things you could no longer do." He said lightly, and the girl chuckled quietly.