Okay, so I've had this idea ever since Utakata was introduced in the new Naruto filler arc.
I don't know why I enjoy his character, but I just do.

So here's to commemorating his eventual death in this arc...

Disclaimer: I own nothing except for this storyline and my OC.

Black, White And Shades Of Grey...

They had been chasing him non-stop for at least half an hour now. Relentless was the perfect word to describe them. He had already used up at least half of his chakra, and there were too many opponents for him to just attack recklessly if he was going to conserve the rest of his chakra and get as far away from here as possible. He had seen them briefly, and they were clearly Kiri ANBU. He had to make a plan if he was going to get out of this alive and in one piece.

For the time being he had his chakra completely masked and he was just trying to get further away and maybe lose them instead of being forced to fight for his life. His jutsu was definitely good against multiple enemies, but there were at least two cells after him, and fatigue was starting to set in. He had already taken out two of them, but there were still roughly six more.

Abruptly, he was pulled into a large hole in a massive tree and a strange tingle went through his body, and he began struggling when the mystery person wrapped a hand around him, just above his hips and placed a hand over his mouth, being careful to not cover his nose so he could still breath. He immediately stopped trying to squirm out of their grasp when he heard two words spoken so quietly that he barely heard them even though the person was right behind him.

"...don't move..."

The voice sounded like it belonged to a woman, but it was so low and almost inaudible that he wouldn't be able to tell unless they spoke again. Even though he was currently being chased, he didn't really care how he got out of it, just as long as he was safe...for the most part.

He vaguely heard the sound of the Kiri ANBU hissing to each other a fair way off, and he could just see them behind some branches looking around frantically for any signs of their target. At one point, he could have sworn that they were looking right at him, but from their lack of investigating it, he assumed that they must not be able to see him. They seemed to move on a few minutes after because the person deemed it okay to release them.

When they did, the faint tingle fluttered through his body again and they moved past him silently and jumped out onto the closest tree branch. From the faint light of the moon shining through the trees, he could see that the person was in fact a woman. They stood up and looked around briefly, body tensed with readiness for battle.

After a moment, she relaxed slightly and started to move off. His voice stopped her.

"Wait!"

She turned back, and he saw her face for the first time. Pale skin was revealed, since most of her body was covered by black clothing, or mesh, and her black hair contrasted with it almost violently, but it was very aesthetically pleasing at the same time. Her curious eyes looked silver in the lighting and a black eyebrow raised in question of his telling her to wait.

"W-Why did you that?" he finally got out, stuttering a little as the reality of the situation set in.

"Because they might have caught me as well." she spoke after a long, awkward pause while she examined him. His brown hair fell over almost half of his face, covering one of his soft amber eyes and he wore a long blue kimono with a bright orange sash and she could see a small bamboo jug in his hand.

Not bothering to wait any longer, in case the shinobi began back-tracking, she abruptly vanished into thin air, much to his surprise, and he just barely felt her chakra running off into the distance, until he could feel it no more...

A week later, he woke up, resting up against a tree. This had been his usual place to sleep since he left Kirigakure, and he hadn't wanted to risk being in villages too much, no matter how small. The Kiri ANBU were incredibly resourceful and he wouldn't be too surprised if even the slightest of slip-ups got him captured.

Apparently there was some natural hot-springs that had been used as onsen for many years around here, and he decided to wait until nightfall before using them, just to be on the safe side. Since this place was so small and unpopulated even with the onsen being here (which usually attracted tourists from places without them), they should be completely deserted late at night.

When night finally fell, he moved into the village and it only took him a small amount of time to find the facility, and quickly looked around before leaping gracefully over the fence and landing silently on the other side. It was mainly because of the long black hair that covered most of the exposed parts of their body that were above the water and his eagerness to get in the water, but he didn't notice the small form of another person on the other side of the onsen until he had completely stripped off and slid into the warm water, thoroughly enjoying the sensation of it heating up his skin.

The other person was snapped out of their light doze when they felt the water ripple and heard the faint splash of someone getting in the water near them. Silvery-grey eyes cracked opened to see the strangely familiar face partially covered by dark brown hair. The amber-eyed man looked around after he had made himself comfortable and his gaze landed on the pale-skinned woman who was staring back at him blankly.

It took a while for the sheer ridiculousness of the situation to click in for both of them, but both sets of eyes widened dramatically then they turned away from each other, only to look back a moment later after blinking several times, just to confirm to themselves that they weren't hallucinating.

The woman exhaled in an almost silent whistle, and slid into the water a little more. She was completely covered, but it was just the incredulity of the whole thing that left her feeling a little on the spot. This was the guy who's ass she had indirectly saved a week ago at about the exact same time of night, with only distance and many litres of warm water separating their naked bodies.

As a medic, the idea of seeing a man naked wasn't exactly something scary or out of the ordinary to her, since she saw that kind of thing almost every day when she was working at the hospital back when she was in her village. Yet as an ordinary, red blooded woman who was attracted to men, the prospect of seeing an oddly attractive, tall, thin man who was in a state of undress, it may have made her a little nervous.

His smooth voice broke her out of her reverie. "I guess I should thank you...for, er, the other day." he managed to choke out, whilst trying to keep his eyes off her for the sake of modesty, not because he might be blushing a little.

"No need to thank me. I was saving myself as well." she replied firmly, looking pointedly at his face, not even allowing her peripheral vision to wander, her voice much more confident than she felt right now. This statement threw him off a little, although it didn't show on his face.

"You're a missing nin?" he asked cautiously, not knowing how she would react to him asking such a question.

She nodded slowly. "I'm guessing that you were from Kirigakure." she half-stated, half-asked and this time his expression did change fractionally. She must have seen the ANBU the other day.

"Yep." he answered simply, his tone suggesting that he didn't really want to talk about it. "What about you?"

"Konoha." she said quietly, knowing that it would undoubtedly take him by surprise. "There's a good reason for it though." the grey-eyed woman said cryptically, letting him know that there was more to it, but not enough to let him figure anything out. He'd have to know who she was for that.

There was a long, but comfortable pause between them. They both sat in the onsen, previous nervousness mostly forgotten, and black hair fell further into the water as she tilted her head up to look at the night sky. For some unknown reason, the woman didn't feel much caution around him. He just seemed like her, a victim of pasts they'd rather forget. It showed in his eyes.

"What's your name?" his voice was much steadier than before, and he watched the far-off look in her eye slowly become focused again, and her head fell back down to look at him and there was a shadow of a smile on her face before she answered.

"Hitori." the small smile stayed on her face, and she looked back up at the sky. "You?"

"Utakata." he said, his face also pulling into a faint smile. But he didn't really know why.

It was the first time in several months that he had actually smiled and it grew slightly t the concept of that actually happening. Even though this was undoubtedly the most random and nonsensical situations he had ever been in, it was almost as if that fact alone comforted them both in some odd way.

The life of a missing-nin was monotonous, filled with paranoia, constant danger and caution. Waking up in whatever place you could actually sleep in (although you didn't get much sleep because it was so damn hard to stay asleep) then for the whole day, doing whatever you could to eat, drink and survive. Fighting and running from hunter nin, ANBU and bounty hunters alike. The more well-known you were, the more danger that you were put in day in and day fucking out. Having something incredibly unexpected happen, no matter how small, was such a huge change that it was welcomed with open arms by both of them.

And so, they sat there, bathing in the water and their own melancholy until their skin started to prune. Hitori noticed first, and went to get out of the onsen to sneak inside the building and get some towels for both of them. It definitely wasn't the first time she had done this. Utakata momentarily freaked out as he saw more and more of her bare, pale skin rising from underneath the water, but when she vanished into the shadows, he gathered that she was using some sort of concealment jutsu that had most likely hidden them from the Kiri ANBU last week.

She walked out of the place with a towel wrapped around her small form, shutting the door behind her and threw a towel over to him, and he stretched his arm up to catch it easily. He got out and wrapped the towel around his waist as she looked off in the opposite direction with her back turned to him. With the cool night breeze, it didn't take long for their bodies to dry and they both dressed in record shinobi-trained time.

Barely anything was said between them, but they silently decided to walk up to the top of a very large hill that was just outside the village. Gradually, they got to the top and Hitori sat down leaning up against the only tree on the hill, and looked up at him with a wistful smirk on her face. He sat down beside her and leant back on his hands. The only sounds to be heard was the wind past them, and the occasional sound of a bird or animal in the distance. It took a few minutes for Utakata to break the silence between them and speak.

"That jutsu...I've never seen it before. What is it?" he asked, referring to the jutsu that she had used only a while earlier, as well as a week ago when they had first met.

"Do you know of the 'Kage Oni'?" she answered with a question of her own. She watched him as his expression turned thoughtful and she could easily tell when he had figured it out, since his eyes suddenly widened.

"The Kage Oni who attempted to kill the Tsuchikage several years ago?" he said, with an awed tone. She confirmed it with a small sound. "Are you...?" he trailed off, starting to think it was a little silly for her to be here, sitting next to him since he knew that Iwa had been trying to track the 'Kage Oni' down ever since the incident.

"Yeah. That's me." she replied simply, as if she wasn't talking about such a thing as trying to kill and Kage in their home village and surviving to tell the tale. "It was a mission. We had no idea who it was that asked Konoha to do it, but the amount of money was just too much to say no, so I became a scapegoat, of sorts." she said, before he could ask her exactly why the fuck all that happened.

There was silence between them until he plucked up the courage to tell her about his past. It was only fair. "Back when I was in Kirigakure...my shisho...he betrayed me by sealing the Rokubi inside me. I killed him for it, and then left. It was the most agonising pain I've ever been through. Being stabbed by one hundred kunai over and over again wouldn't even come close to comparing..." he said so quietly it was almost a whisper, and his body subconsciously twitched in remembrance of said pain.

Again, silence came over them. They didn't have to say 'Sorry to hear that' or some other sugar-coated saying to make one another feel better. Neither of them felt the need to pull a wool blanket over their eyes to what they had just heard. To pretend that it was anything other than painful would be utterly ridiculous.

Utakata began to get drowsy, and over the course of several minutes, more and more of his body was on the ground until he was nearly completely lying down. Black hair fell over her shoulders as she turned to look at him, trying in vein to stay awake. Without bothering to contemplate her actions, she gently nudged his head with her hand until he eventually put his head in her lap. He sighed contentedly, and allowed another tiny smile to grace his expression.

This odd connection made no sense and neither of them knew where it came from, but for a life filled with nothing other than doing everything possible to stay alive and well, it was certainly not something that they planned on pushing away.

Without a doubt, it was something that would bring some colour to their lives that was only depicted with black, white and shades of grey...

So there you have it. My first attempt at a oneshot!
It's not really supposed to be all romantic and stuff, but in a way it is implied.
Basically, Utakata and Hitori are able to find some comfort in each other because they both have pasts that they would rather forget about, and their lives are almost exactly the same...being hunted constantly and stuff.

I'm not entirely sure why I called it 'Black, White And Shades Of Grey' (It just popped in my head to be honest), but I think that in their world of shinobi, there really isn't much that can be classified as wrong or right.

Please let me know what you think!!! (And if enough people are actually interested in it, I might turn it into a full story :D)

Chapter glossary -
1. Kiri/Kirigakure - Village Hidden in the Mist
2. Kage Oni - Shadow Demon
3. Rokubi - Six Tails (Six Tailed Slug)
4. Shisho - Master/Teacher etc