ℍ𝕒𝕣𝕦𝕟𝕠 ℝ𝕒𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕟 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑛𝑒

𝕃𝕒𝕟𝕘𝕦𝕒𝕘𝕖! (𝕡𝕥.18)

The young boy's eyes slightly fluttered open, blinking in confusion and then he was met with the sound of the beeping of the heart monitor and the swarming of Medic Nins. "Sup?" The white-ette asked through a groggy voice, still strained from his previous unconsciousness. The ninjas in the room looked at him as if he had grown another head. They had every right to. It's really not every day you see a young teen asking what was up after passing out on the brink of death. "What?" Raiden asked innocently, a kind smile on his face. But, the smile didn't last long and he was reminded that he wasn't an only child by his older brother instincts. "Wait, my sister, where is she? Is she alright?" He frantically asked, eyes darting around the room worriedly.

The medic-nin closest to him put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and said with a kind smile, "Your sister is fine. She's still taking the exam. But as of right now, how are you?"

The boy wiggled around but with his body's many protests it made it rather difficult. "Yeah, I'm fine," He said, rolling his shoulders, painfully.

All of the ninjas looked at him with a disbelieving look.

"Yeah, well, you need to rest for a few days. Let your body heal completely."

"Ugh, that's no fun," Raiden whined, face dropping, back slouching in the bed.

"We weren't asking your opinion." A medical ninja deadpanned.

"Fine," the teen relented, unwantedly. "Is Kakashi here? I wanna talk to him."

"Yeah, he's just outside." The medic nins piled out of the room and Kakashi soon walked in and closed the door behind him.

When the man was next to the teen's bed, he spoke up, and asked with a sigh, "What have you gotten yourself into now?"

"Oh, you know," Raiden began, "gets a broken leg by a giant snake, gets stabbed through the stomach by a snake man wearing someone's face. You know, the usual," The teen finished with a sarcastic smile.

"Fool! You could have died!" The boy's sensei roughly hit him upside the head.

"Itai! Kakashi, why?~" the white haired-boy whined, indignantly, rubbing the back of his head, trying to ease the pain caused by the older of them.

"Don't be so stupid! Do you know how worried I've been?!" The man chastised, worry the only emotion on his face, despite the angry tone he forced his voice to use.

The younger boys silly grin faded at his words. "Oh," He realised. "Sorry."

The man relaxed his features and waved his worry off. "Just don't be so reckless next time, okay? I don't want to have to lose a student, too." The man knew there was no point in making Raiden promise that it wouldn't happen again, so he settled for when and if it happened again, that he wouldn't end up in the same state.

"I'll try not to."

"Thank you." The two males sat in comfortable silence for a moment. "...How did you pass the exam so quickly?"

Shrugging indifferently, the white-ette answered, "I sent Kage Bunshins to get the necessary scrolls whilst I helped Sakura and the others."

"You need to stop worrying about Sakura so much. She can take care of herself, you know?" The silver-ette sat down in the seat next to his student.

Nodding, Raiden spoke uncertain of his words, "Yeah, I know. It's just- I made a promise years ago and..." The boy cut himself off.

"And?..."

Raiden shook his head, "I don't really want to talk about it. Maybe another time, Kakashi."

"You don't trust me?" The boy's sensei knew the answer already but he just had to ask. He needed to hear it from him.