Old Faces
Kagami lets out a soft groan as she very ungracefully wakes up, rubbing a palm against her eyes as she slowly opens them to the darkness behind the curtains the beeping alarm clock. She reaches over and clicks it off before her gaze drifts down to the lump of blankets curled against her. A soft laugh falls from her lips as she hears a similar groan come from the lump and she gently peels the blankets back to reveal a sleepy Sasuke.
“C’mon fledgling you have to get ready for the Academy” Kagami had ended up after eating dinner with Sasuke in his bed because he had fallen asleep against her soon not long after eating. Thankfully they both fit in the small child sized futon, though that is a tad embarrassing since Kagami is a grown woman, but she’ll take what she can get.
“Mphrm” At that very clear response Kagami rolls her eyes and picks up the boy easily, for once thankful for her physical therapy as she slips out of bed and walks towards the kitchen with Sasuke in her arms.
Once she reaches the kitchen, she finds Ichika curled up by the stove for some odd reason, the giant wolf sleeping soundly. Kagami gently nudges her summon and when Ichika acknowledges her, she lays Sasuke against the wolf before she goes and rummages to find stuff to make breakfast for her and Sasuke. Plus, she also needs to find stuff to make a bento for him. Amerastsu help her because she hasn’t made bento’s since she left the Academy.
Slowly but surely life comes back to the world as the sun rises and Sasuke rises with it, his stirring helping Ichika along the way to full awareness as well. Kagami is just beginning to form some onigiri, the miso soup she managed to make for breakfast already steaming on the table next to small bowls of rice when Sasuke finally wakes up fully.
“Kagami-zan?” Kagami turns towards him with a curious hum, gesturing for him to continue as she begins to slice up some vegetables to accompany the onigiri.
“Why weren’t you here when Ita- that man killed the clan” Kagami freezes as she hears Sasuke stutter over his elder brother’s name, and she takes a deep breath as she clicks the lip to the bento closed. She leans against the counter, palms pressed flat against the cold stone as she brings herself out of the memories to answer Sasuke, but she can’t seem to find the words.
“It’s a long story fledgling and you have to get to the Academy, so eat your breakfast and I’ll walk over with you”
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By the time Kagami is watching Sasuke walk through the door to the Academy she’s surprised she isn’t having a full-on panic attack. She also desperately needs a drink, and Ichika has decided that Kagami needs to interact with people. So here she is after the wolf pushing her towards the bar near the academy with much reluctance.
“Ichika I’m going to skin you and wear you like a coat” Kagami growls out as she looks at the bar in disdain. While she looks the part of a shinobi, she certainly doesn’t have any identification if some asshole decides to check to see if she is a shinobi. Plus, on the off chance she runs into any of her teammates clan members she is going to have a fucking mental breakdown.
“Come on pup, I want to see is Kaa-san's summoner’s pup is still kicking” Kagami knows that Ichika knows Kakashi’s name, but the wolf is still salty that the Hatake didn’t sign the wolf contract in favor of the dog contract. Kagami digs a sharp canine into her lip and then walks across the street and slips into the bar.
Ichika presses up against her side and Kagami is running her fingers through the wolf’s fur as she beelines for an empty table, eyes darting around the room trying to spot familiar faces.
When she sees the faces of the InoShikaCho trio of her father’s generation she draws in the deep breath because she cannot of a full-on panic attack right now. Slowly she pulls away from Ichika and walks towards the counter.
“Can I have something that won’t immediately get me drunk?”
Kagami leans against the bar top as the bartender makes her a drink which she accepts gratefully before her ears pick up a familiar voice. Her heart in her throat as she takes a sip of the surprisingly fruity drink, she turns around to see Gai talking loudly to three other shinobi. Yūhi Kurenai, Sarutobi Asuma and Hatake Kakakshi.
She takes another swig of her drink as she watches Kurenai notice her and freeze, mouth closing as the woman ignores the conversation, she had been having with Asuma.
Kagami and Kurenai were certainly close back before she fell into a multiyear coma as a result of intense chakra exhaustion, injuries that could only heal naturally and not a ton of money. They were both genjutsu specialists and female at that, so the fact they befriended each other wasn’t unexpected. Only Kagami melted into the shadows while Kurenai stayed in the light.
As Kagami watches Kurenai, who now has managed to get everyone at her table to look at her, she sighs yet again and drains the rest of her drink. What Kagami notes however is Kakashi, he is both surprised and unsurprised to see her and she distantly wonders if he was one of the ANBU with the Sandaime when she first woke up. Ameratsu dammit, Kagami pushes herself off the bar counter and weaves through the crowd, thankful that Ichika is as big as she is when people step out of the way to let the massive wolf through.
Hey Kurenai, good to see you still kicking” Kurenai freezes because Kagami is alive, alive and very much walking and talking around. Kagami should still be in a coma lying in a hospital bed with no idea that both her brothers are now dead and all that's left of her clan is a boy who is now basically the Psych poster boy.
“Kagami! It’s good to see your youthful flame burning just as brightly as it used to!” Then of course Gai speaks up and everyone in the general vicinity flinches because Gai is a fucking experience. Kagami watches in horror as Gai’s smile literally shines and Kakashi squints at Gai as if planning a murder.
Behind her Ichika lets out a barking laugh and Kagami in turn elbows the wolf in the neck though it doesn’t affect Ichika in the slightest.
Good to see you to Gai” At Kagami’s casualness Kurenai sputters and then points at her accusingly, the woman about to open her mouth to dig into the Uchiha. At the sight of that Kagami decides to ignore her doctor’s recommendation to not use her chakra for no reason and body flickers outside, leaving Ichika to find her later as she finally goes to the training grounds.
She needs to stop by Psych before she meets the hokage next week, she also needs to burn the bodies she can after inspecting all of them, but she can’t do that until she meets with the hokage. Dammit, she can taste blood in her mouth as she begins to run through a modified set of Uchiha Kata’s, edited for speed rather than strength like the usual katas.
Should she be going to Psych at the moment? Absolutely, is she going to, no, no way in hell is she going to Psych unless someone literally drags her there.
Would sensei be disappointed if he saw her now? Yes, but he hasn’t tried to contact her in the months since she woke up in the hospital bed to two dead teammates. Inori-sensei of all people should understand why she needs people now of all times, the man is a Yamanaka and the one who pulled her, Naeto, and Souta into the world of T&I during the height of the war.
He of all people is not allowed to just leave her when he was the main reason behind why her path led to where it has. However, Kagami can’t dwell on the past and doing so will only result in more pain for her further down the road.
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The wind swirls around her, throwing her hair into her face as coal black eyes narrow on the dirt training field outside the academy, her back pressed against the rough bark of a tree as she watches children fight not yet knowing where this path leads them.
Kagami lets out a soft breath as she attempts to tuck her hair behind her ears and she looks at the children, their faces still young and happy, not yet scarred by the truths of the world. Her eyes follow Sasuke as he is called up by his teacher, his face solemn as he holds his hands out in front of him and forms the battle sign to the boy in front of him.
She notes the other boy’s name, Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto, a clan Kagami thought near extinct but it seems she’s wrong, but she can’t help the nagging feeling she recognizes the boy’s features. However, once they start fighting Kagami can’t but narrow her eyes as the boy’s form. For his age its incredibly sloppy and it almost looks like his mistakes weren’t corrected so now he’s just relying on brute strength which won’t work given that Sasuke has obviously learned some of the Uchiha katas and simple Academy katas won’t cut it against clan katas.
However, she also notes the other teachers sneer with narrowed eyes, she watches as the children only cheer for her cousin with mildly hidden disdain.
For a moment she just repeats a mantra of you can’t kill chunnin as she watches, and scene and she breathe out a soft breath as the fight finishes. She also realizes that she’s going to have to talk to Sasuke because he was being dangerously overconfident in the fight and even if he was stronger than most in the academy, he is not the strongest person in the five nations.
Maybe she can understand why Inori-sensei was always so tired now that she has her hands full with just one kid.
Kagami lets out an annoyed huff as she finally watches the students and teachers disperse and notes with slight happiness that the Academy is finally over for today. Slowly she walks towards the Academy entrance and leans against a tree in eyesight of the door into the building and waits for Sasuke to come out.
Seems like today is a whirlwind of old faces, memories, and teachings, isn’t it?