Maya - a Naruto Fanfic

14. Rabbit Hearted Girl

"Maya, can you wait here for a moment?" Kakashi calls as I start to leave. The briefing's over, he's let everyone go, so why...?

"Yeah? What is it?" I ask, crossing my arms slightly before uncrossing them and holding them at my sides. There's no reason to be defensive, right?

"I forgot to give you this back yesterday." Kakashi holds out his hand, and hanging by it's scruff, limp but very much a live, is the rabbit.

"Oh! It's alright!" I cry, a smile breaking out on my face, and gently take it from Kakashi.

"It was more hassle than it was worth." He gripes, but my smile doesn't lessen. After all, he still kept it safe for me.

"Thank you." I look up at him, and his eye blinks rapidly.

"I was tempted to cook it." Is all he says in response, and I snort.

"Liar."

"Aren't you going to give it a name?" He asks me, not looking me in the eye.

"Huh?"

"It needs a name right?"

"Yeah. I just didn't expect you to care."

"I don't. Now hurry up." His tone doesn't change, but there's definitely a soft pink flush to the very top of his cheek.

"Fine. I'll call you..." I hold the bunny up in front of me so I can look it in the face. The bunny leans forwards and presses it's nose to mine again.

"Hana."* I say decisively.

"... Stupid." Kakashi sighs after a moment.

"Hey!" I yell, but he vanishes with a pop and a puff of smoke.

"You know, I'm really starting to hate that trick." I tell Hana. Their nose twitches.

"Wait - are you a boy or a girl? Not that it really matters, but I need to know how to best care for you. I don't really want you getting pregnant." I talk to it softly as I walk down from the roof. They shake their head, making their ears flop about.

"Whatever, I guess it doesn't really matter right now. What do rabbits eat? I've heard carrots aren't actually good for you guys, so what is? Maybe I should just find a vet. Are there even vets here? I could ask someone, but the people on the street really don't like talking to me, even though they're perfectly fine with talking about me, the hypocrites." It's so much easier to talk to a rabbit than it is to talk to people. It doesn't interrupt, or try to fix everything, it just sits there, letting you pretend it can understand you.

"So you're not just stupid, you're crazy too." I hear behind me, and turn to see Sasuke leaning against a wall, not even looking at me.

"Tell me you weren't waiting there for me to come down, because that would just be sad." I raise my eyebrows at him.

"Don't overestimate your own importance. I wouldn't waste my time waiting for someone like you." His voice stays in a low murmur, like he can't even be bothered to raise it, and damn if that isn't frustrating.

"Ooh, overestimate. Good word. Did you look it up while you were waiting here?"

"Don't assume everyone's as dumb as you are."

"Why would I? You seem to have that covered, and I wouldn't want to interfere." His eyes snap up to me and he scowls hard.

"You should watch your mouth. From what I can see, you don't know anything about this place, or me. You have no idea what I'm capable of." He stalks towards me as he speaks, his eyes burning with frozen fire. I unconsciously take a step back, and he smirks, leaning back with his hands tucked in his pockets. He got me, damn him.

"You don't know me either. For all you know, I could be way stronger than you think I am." I try to look intimidating, but that's not easy to do when holding a rabbit. Sasuke snorts, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.

"Sure. I'll believe that when I see it. Until then, you'd better stay out of my way." With that, he walks past me and away.

"... JERK!" I turn fast and yell after him, but he doesn't even flinch. Who the hell does he think he is?!

Hana squirms uncomfortably in my hands.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't realise I was holding you so tight." I loosen my grip and cradle them gently in my arms. They snuggle their nose into the crook of my elbow and fall fast asleep. I breathe a laugh and smile down at them. So long as Hana's here with me, I think I can manage.

* the name Maya gives the rabbit is, in English, the same as the Japanese word for flower (花) but I've intended it as the Japanese word for nose (鼻), which has the same English translation. Please note that this is all according to Google Translate which might not be totally accurate.

A/N: guess who's running out of chapter titles! I swear coming up with those are actually harder than writing like what? How? Anyway, thank you so much to everyone who's read, commented and voted for this story! THERE ARE LIKE 29 VOTES! Which probably isn't a lot but it is for one of my stories so WOW! I'm really glad you're enjoying this!!
UPDATE: why does no one tell me about the errors in this? Rub it in my face so I know to go back and fix them! Again, only minor changes to this chapter.
Ta-ta~