Kakashi & Keiko

Author: cheerfulhope

A young boy around the age of eleven sat and watched as the sun rose. He wondered why his father had to commit suicide. 'Why did he leave me alone like this?' he thought to himself. The flowers lay around him. It was as if they were surrounding him to comfort his pain. Pink buds fell on him. There were orchids all around him. Without him even knowing it, he started breaking down. Tear after tear, a bud fell, until he was completely covered in them. They lay in his hair and face. He looked out into the distance with red eyes. 'He didn't even warn me. Why didn't he at least say good bye.' he thought bitterly. "Why papa?" he yelled at the sun. "Why did you have to go?!" he screamed as more tears streamed down his face. "Why are you yelling?" asked an innocent sounding voice. "Who's there?!" he said with a dry throat. Hatake Kakashi pulled out a shuriken, ready to attack. " Sorry. I was just walking through the woods to find some nice flowers for my mommy. I didn't mean to scare you." claimed the girl gently. Kakashi wiped his tears with his sleeve and tried to calm down. "Who are you and what do you want?"asked Kakashi. "I'm Keiko Hitachi." She replied "Oh, hi." he said to her, putting his shuriken away. "So, why were you crying?" she asked "Well, why were you trying to find flowers?" He snapped "I was looking for flowers that I could give to my auntie. She died last week and her funeral is tomorrow." Keiko answered "I'm sorry." Kakashi said guiltily "It's ok. After all, if you remember the bad times for the rest of your life, you forget to live."Keiko ejaculated "So, what made you come over here?" asked Kakashi "I don't really know, I was sort of drawn here." she replied "How old are you anyway?"He asked "I'm ten years old. How old are you?" Keiko answered "I'm eleven." Kakashi said back

After that fateful day, Kakashi and Keiko had become great friends. Whenever Kakashi wasn't on a mission, he'd always go to the the cliff where they first met and find her sitting there, usually playing with a bird or other woodland animals. It was so amazing how gentle she was.

One day, Kakashi had finished one of his ninja missions. I as so excited to finally see him after so many weeks alone. I was finally ready to tell him my secret. I was finally ready to tell him that I was a witch. The down side was, once I tell him, I'll have to leave. If I don't warlocks could come after me and he might get hurt in the way. I know I should have told him earlier. Maybe a year earlier. When I saw Kakashi, I was so worried. He had a cut on his left arm and was bleeding so badly that the blood was seeping through the bandages. "Kakashi! Are you ok? What happened?"I said shocked. "I-It's nothing. It doesn't even hurt." He said with pride "Come on, we have to get that wound dressed properly." I told him On the way back to my house we got to talk a little bit.

I don't know why Keiko was so freaked. It was only a scrape. On the way to her house, she was a bit quieter than usual. It was like she was hiding something. When I asked what was wrong, she just nodded it off and denied it. The alcohol stung a little, but I guess you have to deal with it. I mean what kind of a ninja can't deal with a little alcohol on his wound? I hope I don't grow up to be some kind of wimp. Then, that's when she told me. She was re-bandaging me when she said, "Kakashi, I haven't been completely honest with you. The truth is, today I was going to tell you my secret." I was shocked-"And...? What is it?" "I-I'm a witch." she said. "Come on. Isn't witch a little harsh? You're being too hard on yourself." I unknowingly commented. Unfortunately I didn't know at the time that she was serious. "Kakashi, I'm not joking! I'm a witch. I have to leave or you might get hurt. I couldn't bear to see you hurt. It would just be too much. And if it was because of me, I'd just die."

I couldn't stand it anymore. I just cried. He held me in his arms. He didn't say anything after that. I knew he wouldn't stand a chance against some of the warlocks that had already come after me. If my aunt could fight off Jurikai, how was Kakashi supposed to? I had no choice. The next morning I planned on leaving a note at the cliff. I was going to leave Japan forever. The next day, I took one last look at Japan. It was so sad that I started to cry uncontrollably. I guess I lost track of time. I was almost ready to leave when, Kakashi showed up with an orchid in his hand. "Why are you crying?" he smirked

Kakashi then said, "I don't care if you're a witch or a fairy, or even a troll. I care about you." Then, he gave Keiko the orchid. "Look, I know you care, but there are warlocks out there. They try to get powers from good witches." Keiko told him "Like you." Kakashi realized, "How do they get the powers?" "In order to obtain a witch's powers, they have to stab the witch thirteen times in a circular motion around their heart. Kakashi couldn't say anything. "I'm sorry. I should have just left." Keiko said "No. It's ok. But, how do you know how they do it?" he asked "It's how Jurikai got his powers from my auntie the week before we first met." "So, is he after you?" Kakashi asked cautiously "He will be." Keiko answered "How can I help?" "Just be careful who you talk to and if a warlock does come after me, just let me handle it."

March 25th
It had been exactly two years since we met and I was finally ready to tell Kakashi how I felt about him.

It was raining when I arrived at the cliff. Unfortunately, Jurikai was there too. "Hello witch." he said repulsively, "Any last words before I kill you?" But before I could do anything, Kakashi threw a kunai at him. The worst part wasn't that he missed, but that his stunt had really pissed off Jurikai. Before I even knew it, he was already stabbing me and with brute force. Luckily, I was able to hold out long enough to cast a spell that would protect Kakashi against Jurikai. Every stab was a loss. Soon, it was three holes in my chest. Kaskashi did all he could. Kunai after kunai, Jurikai dodged. Finally, he had had enough. He grabbed the dagger that he had used on me and hit Kakashi in the back of the head with it. Without thinking, I grabbed one of the missed kunai and stabbed Jurikai in a critical point that Kakashi had shown me a while back. Before he finally fell down to die, he managed to stab me a few more times hard enough to kill me. Luckily, it only counted as twelve so that I could at least have my powers in my next life and gain more in the future.

I entered a white field. The flowers were absolutely beautiful. The sky was bright and shiny. Everything was what I thought it would be when I died. Accept for one thing. There wasn't an orchid in sight. The sun was then turned into a moon. Out of the moon came a white wolf. "Were you expecting it back?" she asked "Expecting what back?" I inquired. "You're love." she replied "Well, no. If he doesn't love me, he doesn't love me." "That's the right answer" "To what." "You get one more chance to live and give him your love. Thirteen years. But you will have to share a body with your reincarnation." "What are you talking about?" "You humans are so trivial." "Keiko, you have one more chance to live and give Kakashi your love. But be warned, you only have thirteen years to tell him." "That's enough time."

"Ugh, what happened?" Kakashi wondered as he rubbed his throbbing head. He looked over his shoulder. There she lay. With twelve stab marks. Keiko had been brutally murdered. Her blood dried and coagulated, her eyes were open and blank. He turned and sobbed. 'How could I let her down like this?' he thought to himself. 'I promised her that everything would be ok. I can't believe it.' Then Keiko's quote came through his mind, "If you remember the past for the rest of your life, you forget to live." 'That's right. Keiko would want you to be happy. She would want you to move on in life.' As he got up, he noticed that he didn't have a scratch on him. Then, he saw Jurikai's body, lying on the ground with a shuriken in it. 'Keiko must have killed him while I was knocked out.'he thought to himself. "I wish I got to tell her." he muttered to himself angrily. PART FOUR March 20th ~ 12 years and 360 days later Naruto and Sakura are fighting again. Sasuke is being his normal broody self. I think I'll treat them all to a magic show that's in town tomorrow. After the battle with Zabuza, we all deserve a rest before we go back home. I don't know when training genins became a baby sitting job.

Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke entered the stadium. As usual, Sakura tried her best to sit right next to Sasuke. Kakashi in the lane seat, naruto after that and Sakura holding onto Sasuke after that. Meanwhile, backstage, Ginny readied herself for utter humiliation. She couldn't believe her friend talked her into being the 'lovely assistant.' " 'A magic show isn't a magic show without a lovely assistant' " she mocked John. 'What does he know about magic?' she thought to herself. 'Oh, stop it! He's your friend isn't he? You at least owe this to him.' 'Does it even matter? I'll be dead in five days anyway. We should be searching for that Kakashi guy. Otherwise, this life cycle will keep repeating and we'll keep dying at age thirteen. Not to mention, we'll have to spend another life with a bunch of people just like us. Do you know how annoying it is to have to spend time with myself? It's like I have no identity anymore.' 'You're just bitter because of the magic show.' Keiko exclaimed in thought 'So what if I am? Why couldn't he find some other idiot to put on this trampy outfit and smile like a moron?' Ginny thought 'You know what, I used to think that it was weird to have a conversation with myself. Now it's relatively normal.' joked Keiko 'I know what you mean. It is kind of psychotic.' laughed Ginny "GINNY! Two minutes 'till show time!" Yelled Kimiko, the announcer "Okay. I'll just be a minute. Tell John that he owes me one for this." Ginny yelled back "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! INTRODUCING THE AMAZING JOHN TABBOT AND HIS LOVELY ASSISTANT, GINNY HGYEN" Yelled Kimiko John went out bowing and waving like he'd done it all before a million times.(Which he had) Flowers flew out from the crowd. A roar of clapping seared in her ears. This was the first time that John's normal assistant was out sick. Carrie had gotten the flu. Ginny walked out nervously, she never liked being in front of a crowd. Kakashi looked at the assistant. She resembled Keiko from his childhood. It was as if she were Keiko. But, it couldn't be! Keiko had died about thirteen years ago. Besides, Keiko would never wear anything that short. That girl was wearing a sleeve-less red sequin top and a matching skirt that barely covered even a quarter of her thighs. Her legs were in black netted tights and sparkly red high-heels How could that girl possibly be Keiko in any way at all? Suddenly, there was a crash! It had been a chuunin out to get John and his show. Someone, most likely one of his ex-girlfriends, wanted him dead. Nothing out of the norm. Accept that this time, these ninjas looked relatively threatening. Keiko had watched Kakashi train sometimes, so she taught Ginny about chakra and hand seals along with ninja techniques that Kakashi taught her. Since Ginny was a witch and didn't come from a village, she was able to use all types of ninjutsus and genjutsus. Ginny also wore a bracelet made of shrunken kunai knives and shurikens, just in case. She pulled off a shuriken and enlarged it. "Foolish mortals, do you really think you can defeat me?" he boasted Sakura and Sasuke readied themselves for battle for behind the obnoxious creep were four more ninjas. But before the blink of an eye, the first was dead and the second cut cleanly in half. The shuriken span around and returned to its owner. "You were saying" the assistant smirked "Die!" screamed the third ninja. Swoosh! his head lay partially on his body, but he was dead. Blood splashed out onto the stage. Yet his teammate jumped down and grabbed her, while the other approached with a dagger and a thirst for blood. She flipped the fourth onto the other. They stumbled to get up, but ran at her with lightening speed. Timing it just right, she kicked the first idiot using her narrow heels and gashed him in the head. He dropped like a fly, losing pints of blood per second. The second came at her with the same speed, but hesitated. She tripped him at the perfect angle, Screwed, he flew into a nearby tree branch, which pierced his body and made him into a bloody nin-kabob. The crowd was silent. "Uh, ta-da?" Ginny said The crowd cheered and rejoiced as Ginny went to clean off her bloody heel before the stain could set. "I'll be right back." she told her astonished friend, John. Kakashi couldn't believe it.

Could that be Keiko after all? Keiko did watch me practice sometimes. Maybe she picked up on something? But, why is that girl thirteen when Keiko should be twenty-five? Oh well, maybe I should just ask? Wait. Wouldn't that sound a bit weird? 'Hi! Are you my dead friend, Keiko, come back from the dead?

" Wow! That was amazing!" exclaimed Naruto " Too bad it wasn't magic." said Sasuke " True. That was just a bit of taijutsu and she used shurikens." replied Kakashi " You think we could get backstage and ask if it was real or not?" Sakura inquired " I suppose." Kakashi replied After the show~ As they headed toward the nearest stream, they saw Ginny sitting there with her shoes in the water. ' I wonder,' Kakashi thought to himself. "Keiko!" he yelled Sure enough, She turned around

I couldn't believe it! Someone had called out my name and not Ginny's! But how did they know that Ginny and I had switched for a while? No one knew about me. So how would they know my name? When I turned to see who had called me, I saw him. It was Kakashi. He'd grown quite a bit, but was still the same. Through the excitement, I fainted.

It sure was Keiko alright. I'm not sure why she fainted, though. I carried her back to the stage and put her in one of the chairs. While I got her a damp towel, I think she woke up. Accept, this time she seemed more hostile towards me.

"Ugh, what happened? Who the heck are you!" Ginny screamed "Keiko. Are you alright?" asked Kakashi "Keiko? I'm Ginny. Wait. How do you know about her?" Ginny exclaimed "I'm Hatake Kakashi. I'm a friend of hers. You look a lot like her." Kakashi said "That's because I am her. Well, in a sense. She's my past life. We share this body." Ginny told him "I thought that she was dead." Kakashi said "She died, but she was given another chance because she never got to tell you something. Now she and I only have five days until our time runs out." Ginny explained "What did she want to tell me?" Kakashi Asked "It doesn't matter. She's the one who has to tell you and right now, she's still knocked out." said Ginny "So, how do you fit into the picture?" asked Kakashi "I'm her reincarnation." Ginny answered Suddenly, a flash of light appeared through Ginny's eyes and mouth. "Whoa. What happened?" asked Keiko "Keiko?" inquired Kakashi "Yeah?" answered Keiko "Is it really you?" inquired Kakashi "I think so." said Keiko "Kakashi? Is it you?" Keiko asked

I couldn't believe it. It was really Kakashi! My dreams came true. I couldn't help it. I just hugged him and cried. Like the time I told him that I told him that I was a witch, he just held me. I cried for a while. Kakashi didn't say anything.

It was the last day of my life and I had told Kakashi to meet me at a field similar to the one where Keiko got killed thirteen years ago. I got there and sure enough, a warlock was there. This time I needed to last long enough so that Keiko could tell Kakashi that she loved him. Kakashi was early. Then, a an infamous warlock from Japan appeared and chucked a dagger at me where Jurikai had hit me that time. Kakashi caught me before I fell to the ground. "Kakashi. Keiko has to tell you now." I told him There was a flash as I went inside.

Ginny's eyes went snow white and her expression changed. "Kakashi. I love you. I always have and always will." Keiko said as she felt the pain of the dagger "How sweet." The warlock mocked as she threw another dagger at Keiko. This time Kakashi caught it. Keiko managed to have enough strength to pull the dagger in her chest out and threw it at the warlock, hitting him in the chest area. Before he died, he managed to trow eleven daggers with extreme accuracy. "No!" Kakashi screamed as he threw the dagger he had caught. It hit the warlock in the head. Blood squirted out and embalmed everything in thick red goo. "You're going to be okay right?" asked Kakashi "I don't think so. It's okay, though. i was supposed to die today anyway. I'll always love you, Kakashi." Keiko whispered "I'll never stop loving you." Kakashi said. He took off his mask and kissed Keiko softly on the lips. At first, she was alarmed, but she grew accustomed to it. They kissed until they could no longer kiss, until it was time for Keiko to leave the world.

Keiko walked into the field cautiously. There were pink buds everywhere. In the middle of the field were two orchids on their own.