Steel Rain

Amaya Kita yawned and stretched out her arms. Even though she was young, mornings were hard on her. She sighed and fell comfortably back into her bed. She weighed the thought of the softness of the covers and her pillow against the thought of getting up… Maybe if she stayed there for just five more minutes no-one would noti-

"Amaya! Get up from your bed NOW. I won't have you sleeping in on a school day!" the voice of her all-knowing-mother yelled.

So much for that wish, she thought. She sighed again and forced her body into an up-right sitting position. It was sooo very tempting to fall back down again, but decided against it, lest her mother should come up and literally drag her out of bed and down the stairs. Then she placed out one leg, then the other, and using all of the energy she had left she stood up. Away from the bed. Damn. It seemed to call to her, sleeeep… She was starting to feel drowsy again…

"Amaya! Are you up yet? If you don't come down I'm going to have to come up and fetch you!"

Nope, definitely no more chance to go back to bed.

"I'll be right down!" Amaya called back.

Even though the house wasn't at all noisy, nor very large, it felt like a morning-ritual to shout to her mother down the stairs, to get rid of the extra frustration over not getting to sleep longer in the mornings.

She went over to her wardrobe, opened it, and pondered on what to wear…

The top and the skirt? Or the pants and the shirt? Let's see, what was the weather like? She took a step to the side and looked out the window.

It wasn't raining, but the sky looked grey and miserable, not anywhere was there a crack for the sun to shine through. Today was very perky, neh?

Seeing as there was a threat of rain, her pair of aubergine cargo pants and silver-grey sleeveless shirt would do fine. And as her trademark, she had black gloves that were made out of thin cloth that reached almost all the way to her shoulders.

Thinking that she had to hurry, she only glanced at herself in the mirror, minorly satisfied with that her violet hair was as orderly as it could be, which wasn't saying much, as it practically stood out on all ends.

She hurriedly ran into the bathroom, and then quickly went down the stairs.

As she reached the lower steps she was greeted by a lovely smell of breakfast her mother had made.

"Mmm! Morning Mom! It smells great!" She said and seated herself at the kitchen table.

"Hurry up now Amaya, your brother has already gone out. You'll be late for class." Said her mother who was busy picking up and cleaning from where her younger brother had been sitting.

Incredible, her brother who was only a year younger had so much more energy than her, how could they possibly be related?

"Don't stay too long after school, your dad is coming home from his mission today, so I'm going to cook something really delicious. If you see your brother, tell him that too."

Amaya nodded and proceeded to wolf down her food, pour down her tea, and zoom out of the door after a hasty "bye-bye!" to her mother.

Luckily for Amaya, she only lived a couple of blocks away from the academy, so it wasn't a particularly long run, but the fact remained that she was running late.

This wasn't really uncommon though, so over the year that she had been enrolled in the academy, she had developed a really fast sprint. The downside was that when she finally skidded to a halt in front of the classroom door she was completely exhausted.

Panting heavily, Amaya peered inside of the classroom, hoping not to see any teacher… and she was in luck! No teacher in sight, so she let out a sigh of relief. Not wanting to look as stressed as she just had been, she put on the "cool" act and walked into the classroom as if she had been waiting outside the room talking to other people before entering.

She sat down next to one of her classmates and kept on the act by looking around at who else was there.

First and way easiest to spot was this years rookie number one, Neji Hyuuga. He had a constant sour look on his face that very clearly show that he desired to be in a more suitable place for someone with his powers, and his eyes did nothing to deny it.

Amaya thought it was so irritating that some one so good-looking as Neji, with his long black hair and white eyes could be so annoying to only tell people it wasn't their destiny to as good ninja as he was going to be.

Amaya continued to let her eyes scan the room for more recognisable people. The next person who caught her attention was a boy, with short messy black hair that always seemed to shine wherever he was. His name was Rock Lee, she recalled, he always seemed to have an unlimited energy supply, because Amaya had never seen him tired or in a bad mood, well, with the exception from the genjutsu and the ninjutsu lessons. He couldn't really get the hang of how to use his chakra or the techniques, but he was truly excellent when it came to facts and general knowledge, something Joan envied.

Sitting next to Lee sat Mai, she had long, blond hair that she had tied up in to two ponytails with two aquamarine ribbons. She sat and giggled at a something her best friend Natsuki hade told her who was sitting on her other side. Amaya had nicknamed those two the "Giggle Girls", always gossiping and giggling at and about whatever they could think of. Apart from that fact, they weren't too bad, but Amaya wondered if they really were ninja material?

Behind the two girls sat a boy named Kenta. He had short, brown hair and a piece of cloth tied around his head to cover his eyes. Amaya found Kenta a bit creepy, because there was something strange about him, she just hadn't found out what. But she had a feeling like he was watching her, but she knew that he couldn't, because he was blind. And she always wondered where that feeling came from, like if some one hade a constant eye on her. Strangely it always seamed to appear around him.

"You were kinda late this morning, weren't ya? said a cheerful voice beside her.

Amaya turned around towards the one that had spoken and found her friend Tenten smiling back.

"So… you noticed?" Ooops, she wondered how many others had noticed.

"Mmm, yeah. I saw you through the window…" Tenten pointed at the window that was next to her. "And going at such breakneck speed and with that wild look on your face… it was kinda obvious."

Damn. That was not good for her image! She really needed to work on her face expressions…

Tenten looked at her and giggled. "But don't worry. I don't think anyone else noticed your mad dash…" Her eyes darted around to make sure that no-one was listening in, then leaned towards Amaya and spoke in a quieter voice. "But really… who are you trying to impress on anyways?"

"Um…." Came the reply. There wasn't anyone in particular per say, she just wanted to be as cool and mysterious as some of the other people in her class. Ninjas were supposed to be cool… dark, and mysterious. Like her dad! Whatever he did or said, it always struck Amaya with awe, he was so cool! He could do anything, and he was a great ninja. And that was what she wanted to be… a ninja like her dad! And to do that, she had to start with acting like one, because ninjas were never the ones being crazy, or ridiculous, and they were always aware of everything! And they didn't have hair that looked like you just put your finger in an electric socket…

"Well?"

"I just want to be… a great ninja"

"My, how touching. Then you can start with getting your grades up. Can we start this lesson now?" said a male voice from behind her.

She felt as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice cold water over her head. Horrified, Amaya turned around to come face-to-face with her sensei, Iruka Umino.

Crap… definitely not good! How could she not have noticed him entering the classroom?! A ninja was supposed to be aware of their surroundings… And then everyone probably heard the cheesy thing she just told Tenten, and about her current grade level… It was so embarrassing! She felt her cheeks burn as they turned to an angry shade of red.

Tenten, on the other hand, felt bad about the situation Amaya had been put in. She hadn't noticed that Iruka had entered the classroom either, much less that he had gone up beside them. She was fine with it all though, not feeling embarrassed. She had a similar dream to that of Amaya's, Tenten wanted to be a great ninja too… but with Tsunade, the legendary female Sannin as a role model. Plus she didn't care if someone else had listened, they'd forget about it anyway.

Iruka had gone to the blackboard and started the lesson, the topic of the day being Geography. After going through all the countries and pointed out the hidden villages, he handed out a test that was a black-and-white paper map, without any names or indications. He then told them to write down the names of the countries and their hidden village, if any. He also pointed out that extra marks were to be given if you could draw the sign of the hidden village.

Thunk

The kunai had hit its mark on the training dummy. Amaya was venting out some frustration by target practicing. The test had been a disaster… She had gotten the main five countries alright, but the smaller countries? A complete guessing game. And the hidden villages? Well, Leaf of course… but the others? Now who said that hidden village of Sand couldn't be in earth country?? She threw another kunai, this one also hitting the dummy, but far away from the bulls-eye. She spun around, quickly throwing another kunai at a dummy behind her, however, that one missed. Then she opened her pouch and grabbed some shuriken, lining them along her fingers, crouched, then jumped into the air for a front-flip and gracefully threw them in a fluid like movement, and- Crash! She landed flat on her face on the ground. Yep, today was indeed a great day…

"I heard someone messing up badly, so I knew it had to be you"

And it just got worse! That smug, irritating voice could only belong to one being… Amaya lifted her head from the ground and glared at her little brother, Kenta. Wait… oh no! She had promised her mother to come home directly after school, and here she was target practicing! She instantly got to her feet, ran like a tornado towards the dummies, grabbing her shuriken and kunai from them. Then she ran towards her brother who was looking at her in bewilderment. Still running at her famous break-neck speed, she grabbed him by the arm and sped off towards their home. All the way, her brother was screaming: "Whaaaaat??? Hey! What's gotten into you? Answer me!!"

"Oh, well you could've just told me that we had to hurry home… not drag me all the way," her brawn haired brother said, clearly annoyed.

They were standing outside by the old steel-framed fence that was outside their house, Amaya was putting on her bag properly, and checking her and her brother's appearance. They had to look their best, Amaya thought. After all, Dad was home! She didn't want her dad to think they were irresponsible. When she was done "fussing" as her brother called it, they walked towards the door. Strangely, it was open. Not wide open, but about half-way. Had he already come home? Maybe Mom had been so happy to see him that she had forgotten about the door…

That's when she heard voices from inside. Her mother's and a man's voice, she recognised it, but it wasn't her Dads… Maybe he brought a friend? Feeling curious and exited, she decided that it would be great to sneak up on them, proving that she had improved on her ninja skills. She motioned her brother to slow down and be quiet, he nodded and followed. They quietly put down their bags as soon as they got inside, and then silently walked over to the where the voices came from. This led them to the kitchen. She peeked around the doorframe, while her brother did the same on the opposite side. Inside was her mother, her back facing them, sitting down by the kitchen table holding something in her hands, and… she was crying. Beside her were two blue-clad men that Amaya then recognised as her fathers team mates… They both had very solemn expressions.

"When we finally reached him. we did everything we could to save him," said one of them, the voice she had heard from before.

Who were they talking about? It couldn't be…

"But it just wasn't enough."

No.

"To protect Konoha, Masao Kita died."

No!!

At that moment Amaya felt her whole world shatter, and it finally started to rain.

Thanks for reading! This is me and my sister's combined writing, and our first story. Please help us make it better by reading it and then reviewing. Thanks again!