To Heal a Broken Heart (Sequel to Torn Between Two)

Chapter 22

The preliminary rounds were finally over. It ended with Guy's student and another Sand ninja.

Naruto's fight was...interesting. All he did was fart in an Inuzuka boy's face and the smell was really bad apparently.

I also felt bad for Naomi's cousin. Her brother was very ruthless towards her and I'm surprised about the way he acted towards her. I could see similarities between him and Naomi back in the days.

"Gotta go!" I said and rushed back over to Lord Hokage and Anko.

Anko and I followed Lord Hokage and he started making his speech again.

"Now, with all of that behind us, I'd like to begin winding things up," He said. "But before we can bring this to an end, first there is one more important matter to take care of for the final rounds,"

Anko handed me a box full of paper slips.

"And that is?" Someone asked.

"In a calm, orderly fashion, all of you are going to take one slip of paper from the box that Anko and Hana are holding," He answered.

"Everyone stay right where you are, we'll come to you," Anko said and we started walking around, letting everyone take a slip out of the box.

Everyone took a slip and Anko took the box out of my hand once were done and stacked it with hers. We walked back over to Lord Hokage was standing. The genin called their numbers out one by one and I wrote down everyone's numbers so they could get an opponent.

"Very good, now I'm going to tell you about how the final selection tournament will work," The Hokage said.

"Wait, so we just got lottery numbers?" Naruto asked.

He ignored Naruto's outburst and turned to me. "You may now reveal who they've been paired up with,"

I held up the clipboard that I was writing on and showed them who they would be paired up with. Most of them were happy with who they had. After all of that, we were dismissed and I was glad the preliminary rounds were finally over.

We left and some ANBU came to talk to Lord Hokage.

Anko caught up with me.

"Hey, uh, do you wanna talk about everything now?" She asked.

"I would love to, but now isn't a good time. I gotta meet up with Kakashi before he disappears," I said and rushed over to Naruto again.

"Stop by later though!" I called to her and caught up with Naruto.

"Where's Kakashi?" I asked.

"I don't know, he disappeared again," He replied.

He really is like a cat.

"Alright then, I'll have to talk to him later,"

I went home after that and took a shower. I really needed to feel the hot water on my body since it's the only thing that's relaxing for me. After my shower, I got into my comfy clothes and grabbed a book from my bookshelf.

I lied down on my couch and started catching up on the Makeout series.

I didn't realize how much time passed and my doorbell rang. I got up to answer it and saw Kakashi.

I invited him inside.

"I went to confront the guy," He said, following me to my couch.

"And what did he say?"

"First he said there is three more of them left," Kakashi said. "Then he refused to give his name. He kept going on about how he's going to get out of there and come for you, but the Interrogation Force has him in a cell, so I don't think he's going to be getting out,"

"He might," I said. "If he was holding back his true power, then there's no telling what he has planned,"

Kakashi sighed. "Just make sure you stay on guard constantly now. It's likely that there's another one who managed to sneak in with him,"

"Well, if there is, then that means we have to take those two out and that just leaves their boss," I smirk.

Kakashi shook his head. "Don't too cocky. If Orochimaru helped them, they may have that curse mark,"

I was about to say something, but then my doorbell rang.

I got up to answer it and saw Anko at the door with ramen, dango, and tea.

I invited her inside and she looked surprised to see Kakashi here.

"Oh, what a surprise to see you here," She rose an eyebrow at me and looked at him.

"I was just leaving actually, I'll let you two talk," Kakashi said and got up to leave. "See you later."

He left and she sat down at my dining table, putting the food and drinks down.

"Are you two-?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. "It's not like that at all. He just came by to talk about the guy who attacked me earlier,"

"Oh," She said. "I brought you some ramen and I got dango again,"

She pushed the bag of ramen towards me and the tea.

"Isn't this your second time eating dango today?" I asked her, with a chuckle.

"Yes, but it's a different flavor this time," She said and opened her box of dango. "It's just like you with ramen,"

"True,"

"So, where should we start?" She asked.

"Uh, I can explain my side first," I said. "I talked to Kurenai and I'm going to tell you the same thing I said to her. I'm really sorry I let my problems ruin our friendship. I missed you two so much and it hurt remembering the memories of our hangouts,"

She stayed quiet.

"And I know I shouldn't have pushed you guys away, but it was hard. I lost a lot of people who meant the world to me and I just didn't know how to handle it, especially since I was so young,"

She looked guilty now. "I'm sorry too, Hana. I was dealing with some problems too. Orochimaru...left me and betrayed me,"

"And he gave me this damn curse mark after he left me. I looked up to him as a father and to have him just up and leave, it just hurt and changed me," She said.

I sympathized with her. She understood how I felt.

I knew she isn't one for being sappy, so I tried to contain the tears.

"You know, I'm still hurting over Obito," I said. "He was the love of my life. I didn't realize I loved him until it was too late. That damned war took him away from me when we were just starting to realize we loved each other,"

"Sorry for assuming about Kakashi then," She said.

"No, you're fine," I said. "You'd think I would've moved on by now, but that entire war changed me too. I lost him and Rin. God, I hate myself for showing hostility towards her. Nothing was even her fault,"

Her and I just spent the entire night talking about everything. It felt nice to be able to open up again.

Eventually, we passed out on my couch. I actually felt comforted for the first time in a long time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alright, I am now very close to an important part coming up. It'll be in the next chapter. It won't be out tonight since I gotta go back to adulting, but expect an update soon. I hope I made up for the hiatus by uploading 5-6 chapters.