Chapter One
The team was odd this year, Kakashi Hatake thought as he watched them from a distance, he knew one of the four, personally. He had four genin this year, Sasuke Uchiha, the broody, pissy avenger. The council had forced him to take on the Uchiha survivor so he could teach him to use his Sharingan- when it showed itself. Haruno Sakura, a pink haired girl with an annoying voice and an even more annoying obsession over Sasuke, he hoped he'd be able to break her of it. Then there was Naruto Uzumaki, Son of the Yondaime, his own Sensei, one of the two that he had actually requested. He knew the boy could be powerful if someone gave him the proper training. He hoped the Council wouldn't berate him if he showed proper attention to the Jinjuriki. Then, in the shadows of the branches, was a girl with dark gray hair and bright amber cat-like eyes, she ate chocolate pocky like Chouji ate potato chips. This was Shinrin Mishiranu. He remembered when she appeared in the village, a child that was found on the outskirts of Fire Country by Itachi Uchiha while he was on patrol. He told the council that he just found her laying there, and thought she was dead at first, but when he lifted her she groaned in pain. She had no memory, and no identification, so they treated her and entered her into the academy. They guessed she was eight when found, so she was a couple years older than her classmates, but terribly malnourished, they gave her the name, Shinrin Mishiranu, Shinrin, forest, and Mishiranu, unknown. She was found, unknown in the forest.
Shinrin lay in the tree, she was meditating.
"Ne! Why are you late again sensei!" Sakura's loud voice jarred her from her meditation. She scowled as she cracked one amber eye and looked down, Sakura was yelling at Kakashi, an accusatory finger pointed at her, Naruto was behind her laughing, and Sasuke was leaning against an adjacent tree, looking somewhat humiliated that he was on the same team as the two dobes.
Shinrin Stretched languidly and rolled out of the tree landing gracefully and silently. She wore a sleeveless hoodie with the kanji for Mishiranu on the back in silver, the hood was pulled up over her dark hair, it had cat-ears on it. She wore plain black ninja pants and boots other than that, her weapons pouch was on her left leg, a tanto strapped to her right.
"Why are you late today, Kashi-sempai?" Shinrin asked.
"Well you see, a black cat crossed-" Kakashi began his elaborate excuse to cover up for his meeting with the memorial stone, as well as spying on his students, when Sakura's loud voice interrupted him,
"How come You call him Senpai?" she growled at Shinrin, obviously jealous of the strange ninja's familiarity with their sensei. "He has to be at least twenty years older than you!"
"Sakura, I'm only twenty." Kakashi Deadpanned.
"Ne, Sakura-chan your so rude!" Naruto teased the pinkie. And then the two began squabbling over how Sakura wasn't being rude, it was an easy assumption since Kakashi had gray hair, and then Naruto had to budge in that he could assume that Sakura liked dying her hair because she had pink hair, it was ended when Sakura punched Naruto in the ear, and Shinrin healed the bloody ear-drum with a dirty look at the pinkie. Shinrin had always been looked down upon as an outsider by her classmates, she was an unknown, as her name stated.
"Well if your done bickering like children," Kakashi said, an annoyed look on his face, "We have to go catch Tora again."
There were unanimous groans of displeasure, but then a bright voice piped up,
"Rin-chan will be there, so the pesky cat will come to us! She's good with cats!" Naruto spoke adoringly of the older Kunochi.
About a week after the team had been named team 7, the four young genin had been walking down the street, Naruto was chattering away, and Sakura was fawning over Sasuke, who was doing his best to ignore her. Shinrin was standing at the back of the group, when a rock the size of her fist connected with the side of Naruto's head. He fell to his hands and knees and a sick chortling of amusement rose from the villagers around her. She had looked around, a growl rose to her throat, she had sniffed the rock, finding a scent to track it back to a grocer. She demanded he apologize and when the grocer refused to apologize to the 'vile stinking demon' Shinrin had beaten him into the hospital. Since then, Naruto had fawned over Shinrin rather than Sakura. While Kakashi knew Shinrin would never return the feelings Naruto held for her, he was sure it was a passing affection, and was glad at least the little blonde had his affections on someone who wasn't abusive, and could teach him better things than flower arranging and how to paint his nails perfectly.
"What ever," Sasuke grunted, "Let's just get it over with, dobe." he tossed the last insult over his shoulder as he began walking towards the forest where Tora was always found.
"This is Kitsune, target in sight," Naruto's voice crackled over the microphone.
"Scarecrow, can you see the bow?" Shinrin hissed through hers,
"I'm on the wrong side, Bubblegum?" Kakashi's voice rumbled.
"The Bow is there, on the right ear." Sakura's voice ground out, obviously not happy about her codename.
"I am in position, Neko, move in." came Sasuke's grunt. Shinrin dropped from a tree, right near the little black cat, she crouched in front of the be-bowed kitten, who meowed in distaste.
"Yes, I know, it's awful, but we have to go, Tora." Shinrin said softly. Tora put her nose up and turned her back on Shinrin. Shinrin sighed and jolted forward, grabbing Tora by her scruff. Kakashi rushed out with a box and she dropped Tora in the box, Kakashi snapped the lid shut. They turned Tora in, and then retired to the training grounds for the rest of the day to train.
Kakashi had decided to teach his students chakra control the day before, by tree walking, Sakura and Shinrin got it down almost instantly, Sasuke not very far behind. But Naruto was struggling. Shinrin frowned, and a thought popped in her head. She approached the blonde who had just fallen out of the tree again, and smiled at him,
"Hey Naruto, I have an Idea to help you."
"Yeah?" he looked hopeful.
"With your Chakra Type, it will be hard for you to tree walk at first, try something that takes more chakra at once, water walking could be a good start, because it requires less control and more chakra, then, go to tree walking, then stick a leaf to your forehead, and your hands, and then work till you have smaller things, till it's as small as a pebble, or a bead." She lead naruto to a nearby lake, "See the water is still, it should be easier to balance on a still water, after this, try in a river."
"Ok! Cool!" He took a step onto the water and instantly fell through. Shinrin began laughing as Naruto emerged sputtering from the water. He tried again, this time, the chakra stopped him at his knees.
"Yahtah! I'm getting better!" he cried.
Later, after the sun had gone down, and her teammates had gone home, Shinrin began walking into the trees, on the outskirts of Konoha just inside the trees was a shack. It was camouflaged, colored like a boulder with a bunch of brush over it. There was no door either, but a seal hidden under some of the foliage that reacted to a ninja's chakra, Shinrin was hoping to eventually make a seal that would react only to her chakra. She pumped a small bust of energy into the seal and a panel slid to the side, allowing her entrance. The inside of the structure was nicer, it was fashioned after a one bedroom flat, there was a bed in one corner and a t.v at the foot of said bed, slightly raised on a milk-box. Next to the T.v was a lamp with a chair next to it, and close by was a table with a small fridge next to it, and a small counter with a single cupboard that had a microwave on it. This all was plugged into a surge protector that ran out of a miniscule hole in the wall behind the t.v. Where Shinrin had ghetto-rigged it to a electric box that powered lights of Konoha- the Hokage knew about her set up, and she paid a very low monthly bill for her power. In the deep summer she brought a fan in as well.
Sh sighed, happy to be home, and went and sat cross legged on her bed, and began meditating. As she entered her subconscious, she was in a amp cae that had torches along the walls, it smelled like freshly fallen rain. At the other end of the cave, a large clouded leopard lay, it looked like a regular clouded leopard, except for her size, about that of a large horse, and the fact that she had human eyes. Here were shackles clasped around her front paws that were chained the wall of the cave, but she didn't seem bothered by it. This was Ziraki, the Lightning Spirit. She had been sealed in Shinrin when Shinrin was an infant- but that's all either of them knew. Ziraki had the same amnesia that Shinrin had.
"Hello, Shinrin." Ziraki purred, "To what do i owe a visit now? I was napping." Ziraki stretched through a yawn,
"Hello Ziraki," Shinrin bowed respectfully, and approached, "I just wanted to visit."
"Well, my kitten, you may want to cut your visit short, I feel our Sensei approaching- oh! There's him knocking on the door." Ziraki chuckled,
Shinrin was jolted from her meditation, See, told you kitten. Ziraki purred in her head when a sharp knock on the wall brought her attention to the scent of kakashi outside her shack. She stretched and turned on her lamp,
"Come in Sempai!" She called. The panel slid open and the scarecrow-copy-nin walked through, carrying a small black box with a bow on the top.
"Happy Birthday Shinrin." The jounin eye smiled at her and handed her the box. Shinrin frowned, yes, today was the birthday that the village elders gave her when she was accepted into the academy. She was supposedly fifteen today. The box kakashi gave her shook,
"Kashi, what's in this?" she asked warily,
"Please open it before it suffocates." Kakashi eye smiled to her, a small laugh in his voice. SHinrin took the lid off and a white kitten with green eyes looked up at her and mewed, there was a pink bow around its neck showing it was a girl.
"Aww she so cute!" Sinrin gushed, "What's her name?"
"Well, I've been calling her Sukoshi, but she's yours to name." Kakashi shrugged.
"I like it, Sukoshi." she smiled at the kitten, "Thank you, Kakashi Sempai."
Shinrin and Kakashi had been friends for a little while, when she first got there, many villagers didn't trust her so soon after the massacre, an unknown child with large chakra reserves was not very welcome. Kakashi felt bad for her at first, and gave her a safe place, over time, Kakashi began to truly care for the strange girl. Now, they were truly friends, due to this, Sinrin had no friends in the rookie-nine, other than Naruto, all her friends were in the chunin-jounin area.
"Want to get some Sushi?" Kakashi asked, "my treat, a birthday present." he smiled to her knowing that Shinrin's favorite was Sushi.
'Awesome! Thank you Senpai!" she purred at him and set Sukoshi down on her bed where the white kitten curled up and promptly fell asleep.
Alright, so this is a rewrite, I hope you all like it =) yes, Kakashi is a little younger, but that's so the pairing isn't too… ewie. Nobody wants pedo-Kashi.
The kitten, Sukoshi is a reference to one of my favorite fanfictions called Cat-o-Nine-tails by Kaze and Kiba. I won't explain the reference in case people haven't read it and want to, it's a good story!
-Ari the Fox