Don't Mess With a Namikaze

Chapter 27

Just to let everyone know I changed the pairing for Kagome. I had wanted to try writing something different from what I normally write/read by pairing her up with somebody else. However, I have put a LOT of work into this fic and I don't want to lose a bunch of readers once the pairing begins just because they don't like who Kagome ends up with. So, I've changed the pairing from Zabuza to Kakashi. It doesn't really matter all that much in terms of the story but it did take me a while to rearrange some things in my timeline to make it work. Plus, I have absolutely terrible writer's block that I am desperately trying to push past which is why this chapter took so long to get out.

Kagome glanced over at the person that collapsed down next to her. Her lips tilted in amusement at the boy who is completely out of breath after having sparred with her brother. He glared at her, knowing she found his suffering amusing, and she had to hold back her laughter. Their relationship had originally started off rather bad, they had both hated each other, but they have since worked things out. She met him nearly right after she became a chunin, it's been nearly a year since then.

He let out a sigh as he leaned a bit closer to her, something she wasn't even sure he realized he did. She's pretty sure that she's the only person he views as a friend and she takes that role very seriously. He gets pulled along with her normal friend group constantly, mostly at the insistence of Minato, but he usually only talks or interacts with her. Unless there is a moment to be snarky and cut into someone, then he'll bark out an insult with no problem. He doesn't seem to mind Ibiki all that much and tends to stick with him when she's not around, or so Kurenai tells her. It probably doesn't help that both Guy and Obito have declared him their rivals, which he tries to ignore. It usually means that the poor kid doesn't get a moment's rest while with the rest of them. Honestly, the main reason she hadn't liked him originally was his treatment of Obito. His viewpoint of Shinobi life and the rules is a bit hardcore as well, which can be off-putting. She's come to realize since then that most of his attitude is very exaggerated. He just unconsciously tries to push people away from him. If he's not close to anyone, nobody can hurt him. Like his dad did.

"Why are you abandoning me with these idiots?" Kakashi whined at her once he got his breath back.

She smiled towards him without looking up from the Fuinjutsu scroll she's studying, she wants to finish up this one bit before taking off, "Sorry, but I don't really have a choice." She's scheduled to leave the next morning for quite a while.

"It's still going to suck." He pouted at her, or well she assumes it's a pout. Hard to tell sometimes with that mask of his.

This time she couldn't hold back her laughter, "I'll miss you too Kakashi." She pretended not to notice the light blush sneaking past his mask. A sigh escaped her as she rolled up the scroll, "I think I'm going to head off to my next destination, wanna spend some time with the deer before I'm sent out."

Kakashi nodded in understanding, "Yeah, go ahead. Kushina invited me over for supper again tonight so I'll see you then."

Kushina invites him over a lot since his dad killed himself. He moved out of his family home and into a small apartment that isn't too far from them actually. But it's still a bit much having a six-year-old living by himself. Kushina's motherly instincts were awoken by him and Kakashi finds himself at their house more often than not.

Kagome let her mind wander as she snuck her way into the Nara compound, she didn't feel like talking to anyone at the moment. This was the first long break she has gotten, the Hokage has given her a month off to recuperate. Even so, she found herself constantly exhausted, mostly mentally at this point. She had gotten pretty hurt on her last mission and had needed time to heal. A sand shinobi had gotten a lucky hit on her during her last mission. She was focused on his buddy and he had traveled through the sand to sneak up behind her. He stabbed her through the back, much closer to her heart than was comfortable. It had been a shock to her to look down only to see a blade sticking out of her chest. The man didn't last long after that as Magatsuhi had manifested and tore him apart with a vengeance. They had been way too far away to get her to a healer so Jiraiya had sent one of his toads to appear to Minato. Minato-Nii had teleported to them using the kunai of his she always kept on her and quickly teleported them back to the leaf village. Magatsuhi who has been more active lately with the type of missions they were assigned had been pretty low on power. So, he had used a good portion of her Ki to boost himself to be able to help her. Which was why she hasn't simply healed herself to keep going, he had really sucked up a lot of her Ki. With how close the stab had been to her heart everyone wanted her to take some time off to make sure everything healed correctly. The medic-nins were stretched thin as it was and, after an initial bout of healing, her injury hadn't been life-threatening so she was given time to heal on her own time. It didn't really bother her though, she was enjoying the break. She's spent the last month studying up on Fuinjutsu seals instead of physically training, which has been a nice change of pace.