Chapter 35: The Light

Kakashi's POV

"Elle, Open your eyes. ELLE!" I was holding her unconscious form. At my shout, the door shot open revealing Inoichi, Ino, Choji, and Shikamaru. They all quickly rushed over and huddled around her. Shikamaru reached out and checked for a pulse, only to close his eyes and step back. "no…" Ino gasped covering her mouth. Inoichi led Ino and Choji out with a solemn expression. I was looking down at her, tears slipping from my eyes. She's not dead. She can't be. No…no…

Shikamaru's POV

I opened my eyes, tears slipping down my face. Kakashi was just looking at his student, frozen in pain. That troublesome woman… "she knew…" I said with a weak voice. Kakashi looked up at me slowly. "she told me that…" I stopped, begging my voice not to crack. "that she's not staying." Flashback of all our memories were replaying in my head. "she said… 'when I'm gone, don't be too sad'… and I did nothing." I walked closer to her body. just a few days ago she was training with me in my backyard. My eyes widened at the memory.

Flashback

"hey, didn't you say we're going to train. What a drag…" she looked up at me laughing slightly. "well, I just got a crack in this new technique I've been developing." I walked up to her, sitting down on the grass. "what technique?" she didn't even look up at me as she was scribbling in her scroll. "it's this medical technique that might be really useful. I just need to go to my training grounds to figure it out." she looked up at me with a bright smile.

End Flashback

I rushed around the room looking through her stuff, until I finally found it in one of the drawers. I opened and read though, suddenly extremely thankful that she taught me English. "this will work…WE CAN SAVE HER!" I jumped from my spot and grabbed Elle from Kakashi's arms. I started running towards the training grounds with Kakashi quick on my tail. "what did you find?" I looked down at Elle, before running faster. Once we reached the training grounds, I slowly carried her and put her in the water in the river. I let her body go and stepped out of the water. "what're you doing?! She'll sink." He was about to rush in to get her, but I stopped him. "it's her own jutsu. she'll make it." He looked at me with a mix of hope and fear, but stood down and stopped moving.

Elle's POV

I was floating in complete darkness. I'm for sure dead this time…again. without warning a bright light lit up the place from in front of me. "Not yet child, it's not your time." Slowly the bright light ate up the whole space, and everything started spinning. I was being vacuumed out of wherever I was. The chaos stopped as I was thrown back into my body along with the white light. I could feel the power surging through my body as I pulled in all the chakra from around me, and thrust myself upward into the sky, landing on the water. I looked down at my reflection. My eyes were glowing the bright white. whatever you are, thank you… I looked up at the familiar training grounds, focusing on the two people in front of me. The light slowly faded as I approached the bank of the river. I rushed over to Kakashi and hugged him tightly. "I'm so sorry you had to see that." I sincerely apologized holding him close. He just held me back tightly. "you're safe." I slowly let go of him and turned to Shika. "you put me in the water…" he nodded, smiling at me while wiping his tears. I walked over to him and hugged him close. This time he didn't push me away but hugged back. "what a drag…" I laughed and let him go. "well I hate to put a damper on things, but we have to go back." I said as I held my hands out. They each grabbed a hand and using my chakra transfer technique I zapped us all back to Inoichi's place. They were all gathered in the living room with somber looks on their face. I cleared my throat, making them all turn to me. I could see their eyes widen one by one. Everyone was there, the Yamanakas and the Naras. Smiles slowly spread on everyone's faces. "sorry, I worried you guys." Inoichi's eyes widened. "You're ok! How? You had no pulse?!" I shrugged and smiled at Shika. Inoichi rubbed the back of his head. "I'm so glad you're ok, it's just that I…already told the hokage. He'll make the announcement tomorrow." I laughed slightly. "what's funny? Everyone will think you're dead!" Ino screamed flabbergasted. "well, you guys know I'm alive so it doesn't really matter. Actually, now Danzo will stop following me. It's actually perfect." I turned to Inoichi, a slight frown on my face. "Now I don't have to stay here. I can stay with Kakashi." He looked at the ground ashamed. "Is that ok with you Kashi?" He shrugged and nodded slightly giving me a small smile. I grabbed his hand and was about to leave, but stopped. I turned to Shikamaru who was next to me and smiled. I leaned over and pecked his cheek. "see you, shika…" I said a small blush on both of our faces. Leaving a shocked Shika behind, I transported to Kakashi's house.