Shadow (Naruto)

Chapter Twenty Five

               "I'll go with you."

               What?! "Huh?! But I'm just changing-!"

               Kakashi looked down at me in concern, "To the store..."

               Of course, that's what he meant. "Oh, okay."

               He shook his head, holding back a laugh as he went to his room to change. I scurried into my room and closed the door abruptly before collapsing against it with a groan.

               "You're such an idiot." I grumbled to myself before sifting through my dresser. I changed into a pair of black shorts and a comfy bright orange t-shirt with cute little animated white foxes splattered across it. After struggling to tame my wild blonde hair, I gave up and pulled it back in a ponytail.

               Kakashi was waiting for me by the door in his usual shinobi attire, even on his days off he wore his official gear. His mask was in place, but I could still see his smile underneath it. He was laughing at me.

               He waited for me to put my shoes on before opening the door for me. We stepped onto the front porch and I couldn't help but smile as I was hit with the familiar scent of flowers. They were just like the ones onee-san used to plant in her flowerbeds, and it brought back happy memories.

               We walked in comfortable silence, until his hand accidentally brushed against mine sending delightful electrical currents through my entire body and I nearly fell through some person's fence as I jumped away in a panic. Kakashi looked to me, his single revealed steel grey eye, wide in awe as I was currently flattened against a fence.

               "Mira, are you sure you're okay?"

               "Mhm. Why wouldn't I be?"

               "You're unusually jumpy today."

               "No, I'm not."

               "And you're hugging a stranger's fence."

               "I wasn't hugging it." I moved away from the fence and resumed walking in the direction of the store. So maybe I was a bit jumpy, but lately anytime Kakashi so much as looked at me my heart would race, if he was too close I couldn't breathe and if he touched me, my body would burn beneath his touch. Something was wrong with me. It was his fault, he was always walking around the house without his mask and sometimes even without a shirt, it was too much to handle.

               I paused as I spotted a man sneaking out of Kurenai's apartment building. It was pretty early, there weren't a whole lot of people out and about yet. His big build, dark hair and tan skin gave him away in an instant, it was Asuma.

               "Is Asuma sneaking out of Kurenai's apartment?" I turned to Kakashi.

               "Looks that way." He chuckled.

               "Good Morning Asuma." I greeted him nearly causing him to jump out of his skin.

               "Ah, Good Morning Mira-chan, Kakashi." He greeted us with a nervous smile.

               "Why are you sneaking out of Kurenai's place?" I asked him curiously causing his face to flush with color.

               Asuma groaned, "I wasn't sneaking out, and you didn't see me." He popped a cigarette into his mouth causing me to grimace. It was such a terrible habit.

               "Whatever you say." I shrugged and turned to continue on our way. They thought their relationship was a secret, but almost everyone in the village knew they were together.

               "And after hearing people talk about the 'it' couple, we decided we didn't want that kind of attention so we're keeping things under wraps." Asuma chuckled as he fell in step between Kakashi and I. What was he talking about?

               "What 'it' couple?" I asked him curiously.

               "You two of course." Asuma said seriously and laughed as my face flushed scarlet.

               "W-what?!" I squealed, Kakashi looked completely unphased.

               "After you two moved in together, all the guys that were interested in you had a very pathetic very public pity party. It was sad yet amusing." Asuma snickered.

               I couldn't believe this. Did the whole village really think Kakashi and I were a couple? Were we a couple?! How was that established? Did I miss it? Kakashi didn't correct him or even acknowledge what he had said regarding us being a couple.

               A scream from the road ahead caused me to jump and Kakashi and Asuma to tense. I looked down the road ahead and felt my heart drop as I saw two young children about to be impaled by shards of glass and a vase that appeared to have fallen and broken through a second story window. Kakashi looked over to me as I focused my chakra. Time appeared to freeze, all the people around me were like statues, they were still moving but at a fraction of the speed I was. I sprinted for the kids catching each piece of glass from the air and setting them down on the ground away from the kids before returning for the vase. Time slammed back to speed and I gasped as my insides twisted and contorted, there was a pounding in my head and I could faintly hear the rush of fluid in my skull.

               Onlookers were still screaming, not realizing what had happened. The two small children looked up at me in awe as they realized they were unscathed. I dropped to my knees as my insides screamed in protest. Why couldn't I get the hang of it? Why did it hurt so much after?

               "MIRA!" Kakashi was at my side in an instant, catching me in his arms as I felt myself falling backward ready to collapse.

               "What the hell was that?" Asuma gaped as he caught up a moment later. "How did you do that?!"

               "What happened?" A few civilians panicked.

               "Kids!" A young woman in her mid-twenties darted forward in a panic, tears streaking her cheeks.

               "Mommy!" The two children cried.

               "Are you two alright? What happened?" The woman was franticly searching them over as she spotted the glass littering the ground.

               "She saved us!" The kids pointed to me as I clung to Kakashi and struggled to regulate my breathing.

               "Mira?" Kakashi stared down at me in concern as I felt a warm liquid substance dripping from my ear, I felt a droplet of the warm liquid drop onto my shoulder and turned only to stare wide eyed at the small droplet of blood. That couldn't be a good sign.

               "Hospital." I winced, the edges of my vision turned blood red. I'd pushed myself too much and used my new technique too soon after my training from yesterday. This new move, had a lot of limits and I still hadn't perfected it, I couldn't use it more than once in a twenty-four-hour period, and I'd used it the night before when training.

               "I'll take care of everything here and catch up with you two." Asuma assured us.

               Kakashi nodded and took off in a flash to the hospital. We arrived just as my vision began to blur and I felt myself slipping from consciousness. "Mira!" Kakashi panicked as I fell limp in his arms as my body shut itself down.

Video- "Fade Away" By We Came As Romans