Shades of White and Gold.
An early morning mist, with small rays of sun light covered Konoha this autumn day. Things were quiet as the village just began to wake, several shops starting to open up for the busy day. Off in the trees, the illustrious team Gai was working hard at their training as they usually did. Tenten, a slight girl with brown pigtails, held in a laugh as she watched her young friend, Neji Hyuga, getting yet another lecture on releasing the power of youth into his fighting style. Lee, a flamboyant young man that was an almost twin to his teacher, was currently gathering kunai from earlier work, and didn't hold back his laughter in the slightest. He continued to run around like a lunatic, picking up the weapons and throwing them into a single practice dummy. But suddenly he stopped, starring into the bushes with a curious expression. He walked a bit further into the brush and then turned back fairly quickly.
"Gai-sensei...Could you come over here..." he said in a somewhat loud but also quieter then usual voice. Said sensei looked up from his lecture and then walked over to where his favorite pupil was standing, following his gaze until he noticed what had caught the boys' attention. A small female form lay in the wet grass, quite overly soaked from the morning rain. She was covered in a thin off white material, which, combined with the rain, didn't leave much to the imagination, with a light blue obi. Shoulder length aqua hair surrounded her pale face, and fell messily over her eyes. On her slightly flushed cheeks were faded black stripes, adding to her already somewhat strange appearance. The Jonin crouched down checking to see if she was living, and when he found she was he picked her up carefully handing her to Neji, who looked at him confused. He gave his student a weird look, but didn't add anything with it.
"You take her to the Hokage, she'll want to know about this..." he said walking away before the Hyuga could put up any argument. He glanced down at the sleeping girl and then sprinted off towards Hokage's tower, never stopping to question his orders. When he finally arrived he was informed that the Hokage had not returned from her "meeting" with her past team-mate yet, so he stood there thinking for about ten minutes and decided on the next best place. Once he decided on a place he took off yet again at a sprint. He arrived at a small apartment complex, that looked somewhat old but still fairly nice, it wasn't the best part of town but ninja could handle themselves.
Once he reached the said destination he knocked on the door, and waited for his old sensei to answer. Said chuunin teacher jumped slightly but answered the door none the less, glancing down at his former student with a curious glance. Then his eyes rested on the girl in his arms and he invited the boy in directing him where to put her. He was already confused and had about a million questions, but kept them in his head and narrowed it down to one instead of fifty. Not to mention he was supposed to have some people over in about an hour.
"Okay, I give up, what's going on?" he said and Neji just shrugged his shoulders. He had no idea what was going on, they found her in the bushes, and he told Iruka just that. He didn't know why but he asked if he could stay until she woke up, and when he got a curious glance he told him it was simple curiosity. His teacher didn't believe him but let him stay anyway.
About ten minutes later, hushed voices floated through the air, and the girl wanted to know what was happening though she would have to get herself to wake up first. This was easier said then done at this point in time. 'Okay…. need to wake up now…' she thought. After five minutes of annoying herself, she managed to will herself awake and noticed that she was being stared at. There were four people in the room, but she had sensed that before she had seen them all. Two of them had their backs to her, but she could see the other two easily. One of them being an older man, tan skin, dark hair and eyes, and a thin scar across his face. He walked over to her; politely excusing the two she couldn't see and then shined a bright light in her eyes. She slowly sat up and stared at him with an uncertain gaze, and then she glanced at the other person. He was about her age, with long black hair and white eyes. Which she found very interesting; so she stared at them as if nothing else in the world was worth her attention.
"Umm, are you feeling alright then..." Iruka asked quietly, and glanced between the two teenagers with annoyance when he didn't get an answer. So he looked back at the new girl and tried again.
"Can you give me a name..." once again, silence answered him. She glanced back over at him finally; she was hesitant to trust him. She had no idea where she was, who she was with or even what had happened to her. So she felt it necessary to stay quiet for the time being. So Iruka stood up and walked towards the door, he gestured for her to follow him and after one last glance at the white eyed boy; she followed him on slightly shaky legs.
After several minutes' worth of walking, they walked through the large double doors of the Hokage's tower, and were surrounded by the dank white walls of the building. To her it looked like a mental hospital, and she knew what those were like. She kept close to the tall man in front of her, glancing around at all the people running about doing paper work or simply talking with others. She was then led through another large set of doors and into an office that was covered in scrolls. Scrolls on the shelves, scrolls on the floor, scrolls on the desk, in short the room was covered in scrolls. Behind the scroll covered desk, sat a tall older looking women with long blond hair that hung by her shoulders in two loops. The dark skinned man she now knew as Iruka bowed slightly and then walked out of the room, leaving the two women alone in the room. The older women stood up and walked around her desk to face the teen, standing a good few inches taller due to her large heeled shoes. The girl wouldn't have noticed them if not for the fact that she refused to look anywhere but down unless she had too.
"So...You gonna tell me your name or should I make one up for you..." she said almost sarcastically. The aqua haired girl jumped slightly, but shook her head to the making up comment.
"Akeema…" she said quietly, not really knowing how to react to the look she was getting. She stood in awkward silence, as the older woman circled her. It felt like she could see into the very depths of her soul with her penetrating stare. It was actually very unnerving, and she started to wonder why exactly she was being inspected so closely, but then she supposed someone just appearing in the forest that no one had ever seen before was slightly odd.
"Well by now I'm sure you're aware of where you are, or at least the general area. You can call me Tsunande by the way, I'm the Hokage of this village..." she explained rather quickly. Akeema lightly nodded but said nothing, even when she felt the Hokage's hand tilting her face upward, turning her all about like some kind of lab specimen. When she chanced a glance up, Tsunande, quite intensely, held her stare. The quiet woman was completely fascinated, as the teens golden eyes shined brightly in the sun that came through the window.
"How strange…." She muttered quietly, engaging in a sort of one sided starring contest with the teen. She remained quietly staring for a moment, and was about to say something else when a loud knock interrupted her. She called for them to enter looking somewhat please with something was she leaned back on her desk. "Kakashi, how unusual for you to be on time…" she commented dryly, her voice laced with sarcasm. Said man was actually rather tall, with silver hair, she was unable to guess his age because he kept his face covered but she could take a guesstimate on about…25. There were about three other people in the room, and she quickly glanced at all of them being able to take in appearance without actually starring. Two men and one woman.
The one woman was slightly taller then she was used too, with dark hair and red eyes. That seemed a bit weird to her but what could someone with unnatural gold eyes say about weird. The older looking man looked around 50, with long white hair that fell down his back and brushing the top of a large scroll. He walked up to her and like the Hokage had, turned her face all about studying her.
"No one on gate guard remembers seeing her enter the village…but that isn't really surprising to me because those guys are lazy on night shift." The woman in the corner commented in a bored voice. They all looked at her again and she found herself starring at the floor like it was completely fascinating. The old guy suddenly threw an arm over her shoulder and she looked up dumbfounded.
"Gotta admit though…she's a pretty little thing ya know?" he said loudly with a somewhat perverted grin on his face, which earned him a big slap from Tsunande. Seraph blinked, being some what confused about the compliment. The man with the mask walked up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders.
"Well, Gai was the one who found her...Why don't we just leaver her with him..." he said calmly, as she stared at him. She wondered briefly who that was, but then she supposed that was who originally found her. Everyone sort of froze for a minute as if debating something.
"Because that would be torture for any one...But I supposed it's the best option we have at the moment…we'll do that until we can find a place for her." Tsunande commented thoughtfully.
"She could stay with me!" said the old man with a big grin. She jumped slightly when all four of the other people in the room said 'NO' really suddenly, all at the same time. He looked somewhat like he knew that was coming, but was still aggravated about it.
"I don't know her exact age...But I know for a fact she's still pretty young...So there is no way in hell I'm leaving her with you..." the Hokage said like it was the most common thing in the room. The other adults all nodded in agreement, but the room was silent for a few moments.
"Well I guess I'll take her back to Gai, since no one else seems to be volunteering..." the silver haired man said suddenly, and then she saw hazy. And when she blinked, they were no longer in the office but outside. She was led towards a small group of people, which looked to be play-fighting. When they reached the small group, the silver haired man she now knew as Kakashi, engaged in a some what "friendly" conversation, but she didn't bother listening. Her gaze was captured but something… or rather someone else.
He moved so gracefully, his long black hair flowing around him in the breeze. When he turned and met her gaze, she saw white. 'That's the boy from this morning...' she thought almost excitedly as her face flushed slightly. Neji looked at her curiously, and barely managed to avoid the blow his team mate threw in his direction. He cursed himself for getting distracted. By a girl no less...At that point she jumped as the tall man in the green jumpsuit appeared next to her.
"Well Hi There! Good to see you up and about! You looked pretty bad this morning." He ranted on about the power of youth and its magical healing abilities, but she was distracted as the members of the team walked over to their sensei. That interesting boy standing no more then a foot away. He held her gaze just as interested, and they began a silent staring contest with each other, completely ignoring the two blabbering green boys.
As Gai and Lee stood embracing each other and crying after a speech on how beautiful the power of youth truly was, they were both suddenly punched on the head and dragged away by a girl in pink, leaving them completely alone. Standing in an awkward silence that seemed to last forever. She finally decided to just follow after the other three people in the group so she didn't embarrass herself. As she turned, he foot had to catch on the one rock in 30 miles and she lost her usually inhuman balance. Neji quickly grabbed her waist so she wouldn't fall, but ended up pulling her a bit too hard and falling backwards himself, her small body landing on top of his.
She stopped and slowly glanced up at his face trying to hide her blush, and felt slightly reassured to see his face just as red. The weirdest part, they stayed that way for quite some time just looking at each other. She then let the awkwardness of it all sink and quickly scampered off of him. Sitting in the grass a little bit away and attempting to calm her nerves. Oddly enough, Neji felt like something had been taken away when she moved. He couldn't really explain it if he wanted too, but having her there had felt... Comforting; in a way. Not one to usually be bold in the romanced field he stayed still for a moment before standing and extending his hand down towards her. She hesitantly accepted it and pulled herself up nodding a silent thank you.
"Neji! Stop Hitting on the New Girl and Get over Here!" they both blushed deeply again as the teacher called back to them with a grin on his face. He walked quickly over to his teacher with a glum look on his face, and after a moment's hesitation Seraph followed with a small smile.
End o' Chapter
BSA: Alright, it took me quite a while to get this all edited and posted. Let me know if you liked it. If you want me to continue or if it sucks beyond beleife!!
Ja Ne!
