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

Chapter 12

Several more years had passed, and while I wouldn't say that I was over my family's death, I was definitely able to move on and learn to be happy again. I poured myself into work and my friends like I always had and somehow made it out of that tragedy with minimal damage.

Sasuke was another story. He isolated himself and grew cold towards others, much like Kakashi had done when we were younger. I kept trying to tell him that he needed to talk to someone and try to actually feel his feelings, but he never did. I was afraid that he was consumed by hatred for Itachi, and I didn't know how to cope with that. I definitely hated him, but out of confusion more so than anger. I wanted to know why he did it, and probably never would. It was something I had accepted a long time ago. Or at least I tried to.

Kakashi and I went back to normal, like nothing ever happened. We never talked about that night again, and just continued as friends. I was thankful but also not. Some of his words confused me, and I wanted to understand them, but I didn't want to make things awkward by bringing it up. If I learned anything that night, it was that being his friend and having him in my life was better than losing him because of my feelings.

We never passed a Genin team. One or both of us always found a reason why they weren't good enough, and I could tell the Hokage was growing tired of dealing with us because of it. We took missions often, even though I requested not to because I was responsible for Sasuke. I wanted to be there for him, but couldn't very well say no to doing my job that was keeping us alive and with a roof over our head. So, I went. We needed the money.

Today, however, the Hokage had another plan. He wanted to show us the apartments of those we would be examining this year. I'm not sure why, but I bet he has his reasons.

I arrived at the address, and surprisingly, Kakashi was already there talking to the Hokage. Weird. He's never on time for anything.

"Follow me, you two." We did as we were told and followed him into an apartment. I was taken aback at how messy it was. There were ramen cups everywhere, and tons of dishes in the sink. It looked like no one had cleaned in here in weeks, or maybe months.

"Why are you showing us this?" I asked.

"To show you that they need you." Lord Third responded. "This is Naruto's apartment."

"Naruto? Like Minato-sensei's child?" Kakashi asked.

"Exactly." Lord Third smiled.

"He's on our team?" I was a bit shocked. Lord Third knew we would have a soft spot for the child, so why put him on our team? Isn't that dangerous when we're on missions?

"He is. I can't think of better people to look after him." My face softened.

"Okay, to the next place." Lord Third led us to the next house, and it was much different. It belonged to a girl named Sakura, and her parents made us come in for tea. They were lovely people. I think I understand why Lord Third is doing this. He doesn't want us to fail them this year, so he's trying to get us to be attached before we even meet them. I didn't know if it would work though. If they couldn't meet our requirements, I knew both Kakashi and I would fail them.

The next place shocked me entirely.

"Lord Third?" I asked.

"Yes, Mika?"

"Why are we at my apartment?" I didn't understand. Surely Sasuke wasn't on our team. Family never got to be on a team, and for good reason. Emotions would get in the way if anything were to happen on a mission.

"Sasuke is our third member?" Kakashi asked, seemingly as shocked as I was.

"Yes, and before you ask, I have my reasons, one of them being if Sasuke activates his sharingan, you two are the only ones who can help him. There are other reasons as well."