When Meiko woke up, arms wrapped around her torso and her head buried in someone's chest, she began to panic. She glanced down at the arms that were wrapped around her, her eyes starting at the beginning of the mans wrist and quickly making her way up to see the sleeping face of Kakashi Hatake.

Meiko glared at Kakashi, and if it was possible she would have burned holes in his head with her eyes. She pulled back her arm, and quickly brought it forward against the mans chest. This caused Kakashi to fly back out of the bed, and fall to the floor.

Needless to say, Kakashi was unprepared to awaken like that.

"WHAT THE HELL, HATAKE?!" Meiko screamed as glanced around for her prosthetic leg. "I FELL ASLEEP ON THE COUCH. HOW DID I END UP IN YOUR BED?!"

"I am aware of how uncomfortable that couch is. I did not want you to sleep on that, so I carried you in here." Kakashi said, and Meiko turned to look at him with a scowl, but instead of noticing the hateful look, Kakashi just stared at the woman and smiled very faintly.

Meiko's hair was sticking out in multiple directions, and her nose was flaring slightly. Her eyes made have seemed annoyed, but Kakashi had learned to see pass that. Deep in her eyes, Kakashi could see the hint of happiness she still felt being around him, and that was enough for him.

Meiko huffed slightly before looking around for her lower leg again. "Did you happen to bring my prosthetic in here when you kidnapped me from the couch?"

Kakashi cursed under his breath and scratched the back of his neck, looking at Meiko with a sheepish grin. "Uh.. No. I forgot."

"Of course you did, Baka." She said, before she swung her working leg over the bed and used the nightstand beside of her to steady herself. When Kakashi noticed what she was doing, he leaped up, but Meiko shot him a glare that stopped him dead in his tracks.

"What are you trying to do?" Kakashi asked, and Meiko rolled her eyes from where she stood.

"I'm going to get my leg. What does it look like?" Meiko asked as she hopped towards the door, stopping by the wall as she leaned on it to support herself. Kakashi approached the girl slowly, his hand raised in a defensive position.

"Please let me help you." He said, and Meiko shook her head.

"Nope. I can do it on my own." She said, reaching forward and opening the door. Kakashi sighed heavily, shaking his head; Meiko has always been like a small child. She hated to not do things on her own, and she hated help even more.

Meiko pulled the door open and hobbled out into the door frame. She glanced back and forth down the hallway and started to go down the hallway, using the wall as her support. Kakashi walked a few steps behind of Meiko, carefully watching her every movement.

When Meiko got to the end of the hallway and to the open living room, she sighed slightly and went to move forward. But with nothing to balance herself on, Meiko began to fall forward. The brunette closed her eyes and waited for the impact of the hard floor, but to her surprise, it never came.

Meiko opened her brown eyes to be staring at the floor in front of her, her body hovering slightly. Around her torso again were a pair of arms, holding her up from hitting her face against the floor.

While she was silently thankful to Kakashi, she never said it. She just stayed quiet as Kakashi lifted her up and sat her down on the couch, walking over and grabbing the prosthetic and handing it to the girl. Meiko sighed heavily and began to strap on the leg, and once it was on, she stood up.

"Are you okay?" Kakashi asked Meiko, and she nodded slightly before starting down the hallway to where Taka's room was. She opened the door and smiled as she saw her son surprisingly still asleep in his bed, snoring quietly every once in a while.

"He looks like you when you sleep. Peaceful." Kakashi said, and Meiko nodded slightly.

"Probably the only time he ever looks like me. He's your spitting image." She chuckled, shaking her head. "I prayed and prayed he wouldn't get that silver hair of yours, but when do I ever get what I want?"

"What's wrong with my hair?"

"Nothing's wrong with it. It's just everyone knows it. Jonin in the sand knew who his father was before I ever told anyone. I didn't want people to hate Taka because they don't like Kakashi Hatake, the copy cat ninja."

"Oh. I guess I understand." Kakashi said, and Meiko turned towards him, nodding her head.

"Good."  She said, pushing past Kakashi and heading towards his room. Once in Kakashi's room, she shut the door behind of her and glanced around for any source of her clothes. She thought she had placed them in the corner beside of Kakashis bed, but the bag wasn't there, so she had no idea where her stuff was.

With a heavy sigh, Meiko began to look around the room for any appearance of her clothing, opening drawers and looking under the bed. But it was when she opened the closest, that she couldn't help the small smile on her lips. Half of the closest was Kakashi's clothes, and the other half was hers. They were hung neatly and sorted the way she liked them to be.

Meiko grabbed a pair of long pants and a no sleeve shirt, putting them on quickly with easy. On her feet, she put on a pair of boots like she wore most days. Once she was dressed, she grabbed her Konoha headband from inside of one of her jacket pockets, smiling slightly. She couldn't remember the last time that she actually wore this headband.

Meiko pulled her hair up into a ponytail, and tied her headband around her forehead. Once she felt completely ready, she left the room and walked into the living room; there Kakashi sat, his face buried in one of the Make-Out Paradise books.

The Sarutobi rolled her eyes slightly before walking to the front door. "I'll be back later. I trust you with Taka. He better be okay when I get back. And if he's not, neither will you." She smiled and left.

| * | * | * |

Meiko walked down the streets of Konoha, passing by shops and houses that she remembered oh so fondly. But it wasn't until she passed by a certain ally way, that the girl couldn't help but smile. As she looked around to make sure no one was looking, she walked down the ally and looked at the wall to her right. On that wall, in faded orange paint, was the words "Kids In The Dark."

Meiko laughed as she reached up and gently ran her hand along the side of the wall; the paint slightly chipping under the girls finger tips. As she glanced around again, she removed her hand and began to walk away.

"How foolish were we, Meiko?" Said Izumo from one side of the ally. Meiko froze slightly at the sound of her voice, but began to walk again. As she walked out of the ally, she was stopped by a Izumo standing in front of her. "You can't ignore me forever."

"I can try." She said, stepping to the side and walking around him. The man grabbed her arm, and pulled her back to him.

"Meiko please, give me a chance." He said, and Meiko pulled her from his grip. "Give me a chance to explain myself."

"You had a chance, years ago. I'm not going to let you have a chance to beg for my friendship again, because frankly, you don't deserve me in your life." Meiko said, before she stormed off in the other direction, leaving Izumo standing there, alone, his mouth agape.

Meiko blew out an angry breath as she stormed down the town. She couldn't believe the audacity of the man, that he thought he could just grab her and try to beg for her friendship back. He was an idiot, that was plain for her to see.

She sighed as she walked around a little more, finally finding the place that she wanted to find. Her brothers home. The only reason she could assume this was his home was because Asuma was sitting on the front porch, with a boy who looked like he had a pineapple on his head.

"Asuma!" Meiko said, waving at her brother with one hand, giving
him a closed eye smile. Asuma glanced up and smiled when he saw his sister.

"Yo!" He said, smiling as Meiko walked up on the porch. The boy who was sitting across from Asuma raised an eyebrow at the woman, and then back at Asuma.

"Who's this troublesome woman?" The boy asked, and Meiko raised her eyebrow slightly at the teenage boy.

"Excuse me?" She said, and Asuma quickly sat up, shaking his hands side to side at his sister.

"No no no, Meiko, this is Shikamaru, one of my students. One of the ones you scared that day, remember?"

"Oh yeah! Sorry about that." Meiko said, scratching the back of her neck slightly, smiling at him. Shikamaru let out a sigh, shaking his head.

"What a drag. Sensei, we can finish this game later. My mother is a troublesome woman, and wants me home before she gets there." Shikamaru said, standing up and placing his hands on the back of his neck, walking away.

"So you got a student to play shogi with you? Really Asuma?" She asked, chuckling slightly.

"Hey! Shikamaru likes to play Shogi. He asked." Asuma said, holding his hands up.

"Sure." She said. "Anyways, I thought maybe we could spend the day together?"

"That sounds great. But where's the boy of yours.. uh.."

"Taka, your nephew." Meiko said with a sigh. "He's with Kakashi. He was asleep when I left home, so I told Kakashi to watch him until I got back."

"Are you sure that was such a good idea?"

"I mean, he's stayed over night with Kakashi once. I don't think much will go wrong. Taka is a pretty well behaved kid," Meiko said, smiling.

"If you say so. But that sounds nice." Asuma said, wrapping his arm around his sisters neck and starting to walk. Meiko smiled, wrapping her arm around her brothers torso, and the two of them walked through town, telling stories and reminiscing on old memories.

The two of them decided to go to a food store, and ended up a beef place. They sat down at a booth within the place, and got their food; still talking about old memories.

"So tell me about your squad." Meiko said, placing her head in her hands, smiling at her brother.

"Well... The one you met earlier was Shikamaru. Unlike how he acted, he's a genius. That child has an IQ of over 200, and he's an excellent strategist. The Nara family excels in Shadow Possession Jutsu, and Shikamaru is fairly good at it already. Then there's Choji. You'll meet him sooner or later, since you love to eat. He loves to eat. It's crazy how much he eats. And then there's Ino. She's just... a typical teenage girl. Obsessing over a boy named Sasuke."

"Oh I know him! He's on Kakashi Squad. Taka loves him." Meiko said with a laugh, and Asuma rolled his eyes slightly.

"I feel bad for the kids, ever since the Uch-"

"HEY OLD LADY!!" A voice screamed from their right, and Meiko's face dropped and she began to scowl. She glanced over and saw none other than Naruto. But behind him, peeking out from behind of his legs, was a little white haired boy who had teary eyes, and stared at Meiko intensely. "LOOK WHO I FOUND!"

"Mommy.." Taka mumbled quietly, and Meiko stood up quickly and walked over to her son. She picked up Taka in her arms, and hugged him close to her.

"Where's your father?" Meiko asked, looking down at her son who shook his head and shrugged slightly.

"I don't know..." Taka said quietly, and the anger that began to radiate off of Meiko, scared even Asuma.

"I'm gonna kill him." Meiko said.

///