"Kurenai knew too well that a smile can lie but the eyes were the gate way to the soul and the soul never lies."

There were a few known clans that lived within the hidden leaf village that had connections with animals. There was the Aburame clan with the use of the incests that take residents within their bodies and the Inuzuka clan, who had close ties to Ninken. However there was also a small clan that many in the village tend to see as a normal house hold even when they were far from it. The Ohitsujiza Clan were only know by very few people, but not from the lack of trying. They were a proud clan and the members used their connections to rams in battle. Many in the village found this strange as the ram was known to be violet and angry by nature. While this is true the Ohitsujiza clan knew the true nature of the animal and wore the clan name proud, whether or not other ninja saw it that way was unimportant to them.

Over the years there had been many generations of the clan, all holding the abilities to connected and interact with the rams of their clan as both companions and battle partners. Alex was no different to her ancestors. She held onto her clan proudly and wore it's symbol on her sleeve. As was the typical traits of her clan, she had a short temper which tended to get her into a -lot- of trouble during missions and training, although it never bothered her much. Who it did bother was her team, or more specific Team Kurenai.

That's correct she was on team Kurenai with Shino, Hinata and Kiba. It was no secret that Alex and Kiba had a little rivalry due to their clans being both having the connection with mammals. However as both of them had the type of personality to be loud and obnoxious it never did end well for either of them. More than often than not, sweet Hinata would beg them to stop the yelling, which would make them feel incredible guilty. That wasn't to say they were not friends, by far they were the closest of the team. Many thought it was due to the fact they could both understand the connection their have to their partners, however Shino had the need to point out regularly that it was more likely that they were both obnoxious in their own ways.

"I am not obnoxious!" Was a daily argument that Alex brought up. "I just know I'm right!" She explained proudly as she glared at Shino with her piercing blue tinted eyes. There always seemed to be a permanent smirk on that face of her.

"Can't you be quite for a few moments" Shino exclaimed in his typical monotones voice that showed his dislike for her loud voice.

With that she crossed her arms slightly but not before putting a finger to her lips and glancing at her sensei. Kurenai Yūhi glanced at her team with her lovely smile and let a small laugh escape her lips.

"I see you are all still the same as ever" After being their sensei for many years, she was used to their teasing, bickering and general attitude towards each other that came with being the team leader. This was just how the team acted, to others it may seem that they disliked each other, but she knew better. This was their way of showing their team bond and respect for each other. However she noticed something that was off with her team. It was Alex, there was something wrong with her eyes recently even if it was faint.

'No, it's not her eyes but the pain behind them.' Kurenai thought with worried looked burying into her blood red eyes as she watch Alex smile at her.

Something was changing in the Ohitsujiza clan but she wasn't quite sure what it was, maybe it was nothing and she was just being a worry wart of a sensei but Kurenai knew too well that a smile can lie but the eyes were the gate way to the soul and the soul never lies.

Alex's attitude had turned from her usual confident self to someone who was nervous from the strange look she was getting. Before speaking she glanced at her sensei one more time.

"Kurenai Sensei, is something wrong?"

However before Kurenai had the chance to answer her, Kiba had interrupted.

"Ha! That's how Hinata is around Naruto!" He paused from he's teasing, almost as if the slow cogs in his brain were working for once.

" Maybe you have a crush on Shino!" As those words left his mouth a fist collided with the side of his face and within a second he was on the floor with a loud thump.

"Once again you are wrong,mutt!" Alex growled at him. Her face was going red, not from embarrassment but from pure anger.

Throughout all of his, poor Hinata looked as if she was going to pass out with the thought of Naruto and Shino just shook his head slightly which communicated to everyone on the team that he was annoyed and fed up with their messing around.

It didn't take very long for Alex's anger levels to drop back down to zero and she smiled brightly back at her emotional drained sensei.

"As I was saying before I was -Rudely Interrupted- interrupted by the mutt, you were looking at me strange"

"Oh nothing at all, I was just waiting for your daily fight with Kiba to be over."

When there was enough silence and Kiba was back on his feet, Kurenai began to explain why they were all gathered together.

"We are going to train as a team! You have all come a long way from them small genin that you once were and with three of you having the aid of animals, I believe it's time that you were able to work as one. As for you Hinata. I wish for you to practise controlling that Byakugan of yours.

Kurenai decided that Shino and Hinata would train together, which left Kiba and Alex to train.

"Are you ready to taste the dirt, little ram?" Alex spun around and pointed at Kiba before replying to him.

"I'm afraid it will be you who is to fall first, mutt!"

They both laughed at their little speech and got down to training. It turned out to be very productive, at least more than they thought it would. Alex got more out of it than her teammate did, as she a little weaker than the mutt. It wasn't by much however she knew she needed to get stronger and thrived to one day beat her doggy friend to prove that her clan was capable of being on the same level as his.

Alex sat down on her knees to catch her breath and spoke through her breathing.

"Let's..carry..on"

Kiba shook his with a crooked smile plastered on his face.

"No way,little ram. You've used quite a lot of chakra, plus what your your mother say if we let you go back all ruffed up,huh"

His expression changed from a smug to a pretend terrified face and Alex found it had to figure out whether it was real or not.

"She can be terrifying!"

Alex huffed slightly and slowly brought herself to her feet, she knew he was right about it all. Her mother would not be happy but then again would it matter? She needed to be stronger to carry on her clans name and she was determined to make everyone know and respect the Ohitsujiza clan.

"Fine, you win"

As the team split up to carry on with the rest of their day, Hinata waved goodbye with her sweet smile, Kiba ruffled Alex's hair which she didn't appreciate in the slightest and Shino just stood there, looking at Alex.

Once she had caught her breath and spun around with her fluffy ram in her arms, she turned around and blinked at Shino with a confused look on her face.

"What are you doing here still doing here,bug boy ?" She grinned at him with her teasing smile.

"I told you not to call me that" He stated as her looked at her from behind his blacked out glasses.

"That doesn't answer my question,Shino" She smirked as she put emphasis on his name.

He nodded slightly and began to walk "Are you coming? Our households are close"

Alex nodded and joined him at his side. As they walked in silence she thought about how the training went, it must have been apparent that this was the case as Shino spoke up for the first time in a while.

"It didn't go that bad, you know" He glanced at her before putting his hands back in his pockets.

"Hm" She was still in her own little world as she thought about what she could of done to improve. She remembered the saying that Lee would always yell at her with enthusiasm whenever they trained 'Be Stronger than you were yesterday' Shino shook his covered head slightly went back to his silent self until they arrived at the forked path to their respected households.

"See you, bug boy!" She waved her hand at him as she walked down towards her house with a smile on her face and a little noises erupting from shoku the ram, who was nuzzling into her open grey coat.

Shino make a little tutting sound of exhaustion and carried on back to his own clan. It wasn't only Kurenai that noticed the pain behind her eyes.