He's Just My Best Friend | a Kakashi love story

Chapter 20

A month had passed and it was finally time for the final rounds. I had spent a lot of time training Sakura during this time. She approached me after Naruto and Sasuke left to train and asked if I could teach her a few things, stating that she was tired of doing nothing and letting the boys do all the work. It was about time in my opinion. So, I taught her more about chakra control, and how to use it to be stronger. She still had a long way to go, but she was already improving. I also taught her the little that I knew about medical ninjutsu, thinking she would be good at it. It turns out, I was right and she loved it. Unfortunately, I know very little, so she ended up going to the hospital to try to find someone to help her advance more.

I missed both Kakashi and Sasuke, but I knew they'd be okay. It was good for Sasuke to get more one on one training, especially since Orochimaru was after him. He needed to be stronger if he ever hoped to defeat him, although I was planning on beating him to it. I wouldn't let him take my little brother.

At the arena, I was sitting next to Guy and Asuma waiting for the matches to begin. I hadn't hung out with them in quite awhile, so it was good to catch up and see them.

"Is Kakashi always late?" Asuma asked. It was almost time for the matches to begin and no one had heard from or seen him. I was beginning to get worried. Not that they weren't okay, but that Kakashi's tardiness would make Sasuke have to forfeit.

"Unfortunately, yes." I sighed. "He's been late to everything since we were teenagers." I really hoped he didn't choose today to be too late. Asuma just nodded in response since the first match was beginning.

The matches were interesting to say the least. Naruto won after almost losing to Neji, and we learned quite a bit about the Hyuga clan. I never would have thought that they would be like that. Even we didn't protect our heirs in such a way. Clearly. Or Itachi never would have done what he did. Shikamaru ended up giving up in his match, which was weird to me. I think he could have won, but I'm also not a kid genius, so what do I know? Some kid from the Sand also forfeited, which I thought was weird. Why would he do that? Something about the Sand this year feels off. All three of their contestants almost feel like they're hiding something.

It was finally time for Sasuke's match, but he still wasn't here. I kept thinking that maybe they're doing some last minute training, but I don't know. Kakashi usually isn't this late, and especially not to stuff like this. I was getting a bit irritated with him if I'm being honest. How could he be this late?

Finally, as the proctor was about to announce that Sasuke had lost by not being here, both he and Kakashi appeared with leaves surrounding them. I rolled my eyes at them. Show offs.  Finally, the match could get started, and I could yell at Kakashi for being late.

"What the hell were you thinking!" I yelled and slapped Kakashi's shoulder as he sat down in the chair next to me. He just looked at me with a bored expression and gave me a closed eye smile. "You almost made him lose, idiot! If there was any day to not be late, today would be it!" I glared at him.

"We made it in time, didn't we? We had to finish training." He still looked bored, but I could tell he was smirking under his mask.

"You had a whole month to train, and you waited until the final minutes to do it?" I slapped his arm again, making him glare at me.

"Stop doing that!" He sighed. "He just finished learning the technique. He made it in time, so stop panicking." I rolled my eyes at him and turned to watch the match.

I was incredibly impressed with both Sasuke and Gaara. Sasuke was faster than I'd ever seen him, and he was doing great at thinking on the spot, trying to get through Gaara's sand shield. It seemed that no matter what he did, the sand was always faster. Gaara intrigued me. He seemed bloodthirsty, but at the same time, he was mostly blocking attacks from Sasuke, or attacking in defense of something Sasuke was doing. It was strange.