Unappreciated

by Illusions4738

What am I? That really depends on whose asking. A regular leaf ninja? A friend, A medic who will always help others, some might even say I'm a host of a very pleasant inn that hosts foreign shinobi when they come to Konoha...In a way I'd say I'm still figuring that out. But wouldn't it be interesting for you to read and see?

1. Chapter 1

AN - This is a link for what Kina's hair resembles. The curls around the head are the same but the fringe and bangs are longer and are more pronounced in the top of the head:

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Chapter 1 - I always do like the unappreciated ones.

"Hey...hey Kina wake up."

Slowly I opened my eyes, the light stinging my eyes as they creaked apart. "What's going on Shikamaru?" My voice was mumbled, mixed with a yawn that was slowly escaping my lips.

"How about waking up and seeing for yourself. Geez waking you up is such a drag."

An amused chuckle escape from me. "You should see me trying to wake you up in the middle of a test."

The boy next to me, black hair pulled back into a high ponytail was wearing a naturally bored expression with black eyes that I could tell wanted to do nothing but sleep. He smirked, his voice a lazy sort of drawl. "What are you talking about, you're usually asleep yourself next to me."

I smirked, my green eyes trailing to Shikamaru "I can't argue with that."

I turned back to face the front of the class which I had fallen asleep in and was alittle surprised.

"I see Iruka sensei got Naruto back." Truthfully I didn't expect to see the blonde boy that was tied up in ropes at the front of the class.

"If you were awake 3 minutes ago you would have seen him being dragged in."

"I know, I know."

My eyes narrowed as I watched sensei berating the blond kid named Naruto, who looked rather displeased by his situation.

I sighed and picked up my pen, twirling it around my fingers. After a few moments I placed my pen down and focused my attention again on the centre of the room. Iruka sighed "I'm at the end of my rope Naruto. You failed the graduation test last time and the time before that. Tomorrow you've got another chance and you're messing up again." Almost as if defiance Naruto turned his head away from Iruka sensei. "Humph!"

Iruka sensei didn't seem very pleased. "Fine!" Sensei pointed dramatically at Naruto "Because you missed it Naruto, everyone will review the transformation jutsu." Slight irritation spiked through me along with the rest of the class.

My gaze caught Shikamaru's and we both sighed, "Man, this is such a drag."

I wanted to chuckle alittle at that. One can really tell how close to someone you are when you can match phrases they say in unison. He sighed once more and we got up along with the rest of the class and made our way to the centre clearing of the classroom. I sat myself on one of the desks within 5 seconds of getting down there next to Shikamaru, Naruto (who had been untied) and a girl named Ino Yamanaka. I watched as another girl with long pink hair came to the centre of the floor after having her name called out of a register by Iruka sensei. Clearly she was to perform the jutsu first.

"Alright Sakura here"" She announced "Let's do it." She made the hand sign "Transform." A puff of smoker later and a perfect replica of Iruka sensei was standing in Sakura's place.

Sensei wrote something down on a clip board "Transformed into me. Good."

With a puff of smoke she changed back "Yes I did it." she announced congratulating herself, within the seconds she turned to look at a disinterested boy standing in the Que. The moment she saw him she started blushing, "Sasuke, did you see that?"

Sakura Haruno, a koinichi of the hidden leaf village. She is small, has long pink hair, blue green eyes and wears a red short dress and ninja sandals. Well that's her appearance anyways, she is teased by my friend Ino alot about her forehead, it is quite wide in comparison to the average persons but personally there are worse things to be teased about. Personality wise she is rather loud and argumentative, quite temperamental too. That I could ignore, but she also does have a rather prominent aspect to her personality. She has an obsessive fangirl nature over one person in particular.

"Next... Sasuke Uchiha."

Sakura disappeared into the que and the object of Sakura's obsessions came forward to stand where she had just been. To be perfectly honest most of the girls in this class were Uchiha fangirls with a small sane minority. As you can probably guess, I am not one of these Uchiha fangirls. I do find Sasuke attractive however, I am still a girl but nothing more than that. I think Shikamaru would kick me out of his house if I was.

I could emphasize with the boy though, his entire clan was massacred by his older brother. Sasuke was the sole survivor. Mine on the otherhand was a creation of toxic gas through to chemical in paint mixing with something else…. I didn't have the context behind my loss that he did.

Slowly I shook my head, these thoughts are too morbid for just after lunch. My eyes focused in time to see Sasuke transform from Iruka back into himself. I seem to have missed his transformation. He immediately joined the back of the que, his black eyes surveying the class before moving to looking disinterested again. Sasuke was a rather disinterested person who didn't really think too highly of others, his fangirls included. Pretty arrogant sometimes and he had a cool type of personality. We got on OK, given that he rarely talked to anyone often.

"Tsukina Tanaka!"

I felt abit more irritated when my full name was called. "Sensei, I thought you changed my name to Kina on the register."

Iruka sensei laughed lightly "I can't change your name on the official register Kina." Shrugging I made my way to the front of the class. Breathing out I made the necessary hand signs and focused on the jutsu. With a puff of smoke I also transformed into Iruka Sensei. He looked over the transformation and wrote down onto a clipboard he was carrying.

"Good job Kina!"

I breathed out again and released the jutsu before walking over and re-joining Shikamaru and Ino instead of going to the back of the que like I was probably meant to. I re-sat back on the desk and looked over my friends. Naruto was standing next to the other two with his hands in his pockets and was looking rather irritated. And from what I could hear the others weren't helping.

"This is a total waste of time Naruto." Shikamaru complained stuffing his hands in his pockets too.

"Yeh" Ino agreed "We always pay for your screw ups."

"Next, Naruto Uzumaki"

Naruto humped and began to walk forward "Like I care." He groaned.

I lifted my hand up in a small sort of wave hoping not to make Naruto feel too bad "I don't mind Naruto." I told him cheerfully "Just so long as you put on a show and make it worth my time."

Almost immediately he turned back with a small grin "Oh I will." Mission accomplished.

As Naruto stood in the centre of the room and made the hand signs Ino turned to me. "Did you really feel the need to say that to someone like him?"

I turned to her and smiled. "I always do like the unappreciated ones Ino. Underdogs are my type. Besides I'm overly friendly."

Many people in this village (the hidden Leaf village situated in the land of Fire in case you haven't guessed) didn't like the optimistic, innocent, good intentioned blonde boy called Naruto Uzumaki who went around making trouble in a bright orange and blue track suit. I didn't understand why though, everyone treated him like crap and for no apparent reason.

At first I had been wary and scared of him too because whenever I encountered him people looked down on me and tried to keep me away from him. All those years ago I had assumed there was a reason why. But now that I was abit older I could see that despite causing some trouble and few small pranks he hadn't actually done anything to merit the constant hate. It confused me, the way people treated him so I decided to be someone different to him. Like someone who actually cares. The callings of 'Brat', 'Waste of space', and 'monster' he experienced on a daily basis were cruel and in my eyes uncalled for. Ino unlike some did not mean to be as cruel as many of the adults, but I also knew that deep down there was that uneasiness about him which had almost been imbedded in our minds since we were born that she and many in our class still had. Even if some of us tried to hide it, because we knew that being around Naruto, it was obvious that his reputation wasn't all he was.

Yes I have sympathy for the boy, but wouldn't you?

"Transform"

A large amount of blue chakra began to emit and swirl around Naruto and with a poof he transformed. But what he transformed into was...

Okay, admittedly I did tell him to put on a show and make this worth my time but...

Many jaws dropped and many palms were slapped to faces. Standing where Naruto had been was a beautiful naked girl, with long blonde hair tied into pigtails and was giggling. My jaw dropped however as I watched sensei fly backwards with blood streaming from his nose. Disgusting. With another poof, Naruto changed back into himself and was pointing at Iruka sensei and laughing. Many of the other students in the class were laughing too.

"Gotcha!" Naruto announced amongst fits of laughter "That's my sexy jutsu."

Not being able to help myself I started laughing as well. Iruka sensei on the otherhand didn't look too pleased "All right!" he yelled at Naruto having composed himself "Cut the stupid tricks, this is your last warning!" Naruto on the otherhand didn't seem to care. I watched sensei's eyes narrow before turning to the rest of us "The rest of you can all go home early, but be sure to practice for the exam." The aura of the room suddenly became alot more buzzed, I sat up straighter too. I could tell this wasn't going to end well for Naruto. "Naruto Uzumaki on the otherhand is going to come with me, for a detention." He groaned as Iruka placed a hand on his shoulder and began to lead him out the classroom door, all our eyes following him. "I'll see you all tomorrow." With that the door shut behind the two of them leaving a slightly surprised class in their wake.

"Alright!" Ino cheered turning to face me "We get to go home early, wanna come round to my house, we could even go to the bath house later since we'll have some free time."

I glanced at Shikamaru asking for permission and he sighed, "Just go with Ino, I'll tell my mum you'll be back for dinner. So long as you're back before your curfew she won't mind...well my dad certainly won't at least."

Ino giggled and clasped my hands with her own. "It's synched then."

I smiled at her before turning my head to Shikamaru. "Thanks Shikamaru, tell Yoshino I'll pick up some more of that soap she likes from the bathhouse as compensation for not giving her advanced warning of going to Ino's."

"Sure sure, just don't spoil your appetite, she'll get really angry if you ruin your meal."

I nodded and hopped off the table, noticing the rest of the students were beginning to disperse. "You have anything you need to get?" I asked them both to receive nods. Within a minute or so we had exited the building. "See you at 7 Shikamaru." I waved as the 3 of us split up.

"Yeh Yeh." He drawled sauntering off in the other direction.

Ino giggled again "Watching you both is so funny, you might as well be related."

"Yeh, we might as well be." A strip of dark blue, and white caught my eye and I gave out a sly grin. I knew what to do now. "Hey Ino, look 5 o'clock." As she moved her eyes she broke out in a fangirl grin. Smirking I placed a hand on her shoulder, "Wanna play the stalking game?" She nodded eagerly, suddenly not saying a word. Let's just say last time we played this we got caught due to her constant chattering about the object of our stalking. Nice to know she had learnt from our past mistakes. "How about we both try to get as close as we can without being spotted. Having Sasuke glance at the place we're hiding counts, if that happens we give up and go home, Agreed." I laid out the terms as if I was going over the rules for a real ninja mission. "Understand?" My partner in crime nodded. "Let's go."

Quietly we both ran after Sasuke ducking behind many different people and buildings and objects that made up the village, grinning all the while. As we ducked and weaved I noticed that we'd both improved at this. Yes, we have done this before, however sometimes we stalk Sakura or Ino's parents or Shikamaru, Sasuke isn't our only victim, but he is Ino's most preferred one. Before we couldn't get within 16 meters of Sasuke even in the middle of town without getting caught. We were too obvious, either we tripped on something, didn't hide properly or were too loud. Now we were within 10 meters of Sasuke. Our creepy training methods are paying off. I took 3 more steps before ducking behind a bench, feeling the rough dirt of the ground on my bare knees. I watched Ino move from behind a man standing at a street vender to the doorway of a grocery shop. Suddenly she looked toward me and her grin faltered, being replaced with horror instead.

"What?" I mouthed silently to her in confusion but instead of replying she turned to look to my left.

'Oh shit! Don't tell me...'

"What on earth are you two idiots doing?"

I slowly turned my head to the left wearing my classic 'Oh shit!' expression. Standing up I took in the boy standing before me. Sasuke Uchiha was watching me with mild disinterested in his black eyes which were framed by his black hair. He was standing like usual with his hands in the pockets of his white shorts. His dark blue short sleeved shirt bringing out a slight blue tint to his hair. I could feel my stomach twisting. We. Got. Caught.

"Hey...Sasuke…Fancy seeing you here." I gave a small wave but even an outsider could tell it was forced and nervous.

"What are you both doing, following me?"

"I think you just said it yourself, following you." I laughed nervously, scratching the back of my head slowly. "We were training. Trying to see if our skills in spying... Espionage have improved."

"Huhm." It was obvious he was skeptical but I was only half joking. Our skills had improved, "Your following of me is pathetic, how long are you going to keep it up?"

"Probably until our skills have improved enough to follow people effectively." I replied with feigned confidence, looking him in the eyes and trying not to waver, he could be intimidating at times. I'm not stupid enough to ignore that fact.

He sighed before turning back the way he had been going before "Well at least cover your head with a scarf or something next time Kina. Your red hair draws attention to your position."

He walked away. I let out a breath and before I knew it Ino came up to me. "What did Sasuke say? Was he angry?" She asked lightly glancing at the Uchiha's retreating back, a light blush over her pale features.

I shook my head "Probably just irritated. He did tell me to cover my red hair next time, so I guess he doesn't mind as much as he'd like us to believe."

She smiled at my reply. "At least he's inviting me to follow him next time."

I sighed. Her crush with him was as obsessive as Sakura's. I stretched "Let's head to yours. I believe you promised me last time to teach me how to make a proper flower display."

"Oh yeh, yours sucked!"

"Shut up Ino."

"Ahhhhhhhhhh this is the stuff." I yawned as I let myself sink into the steamy hot water, it submerging me up to my chin. I breathed out a long tired breath.

"You do love your baths Kina. I'm surprised you're not a prune." My friend stretched out herself let the water embrace her too. Her long blonde hair was tied up in a bun atop her head. Her pale blue eyes were closed as she relaxed in the water. "But I can see why you come here so often."

I nodded in agreement. I came to the bath houses at least once a week, but I bathed at home every night. I wasn't a shower person, I believed it was important to appreciate the times in a day where one can relax and just drift away. "It's always much nicer bathing with another person so that you have someone to talk to. Unfortunately Shikamaru's a guy so that scores him of the list of candidates." I admitted running my fingers over the top of the water.

"Your finally getting better at your flower arranging though, this one was actually pretty good. You just need to try and not choose colours that blend together too much for the piece you were practicing." I nodded as I took her advice in. Ino's family owned the Yamanaka flower shop in the hidden leaf village, so naturally Ino was a master when it came to flower arranging. Her family also worked in interrogation with their clan's secret jutsu. It was quite amazing their technique. Although still being in the academy Ino had yet to properly master it.

We soaked for a while, just chatting about all the mindless things girls our age did, even about boys but eventually I could feel my skin begin to wrinkle.

"Hey, Kina!"

"Yeh?"

"What time are you meant to be back at Shikamaru's?"

"7, why?"

Ino gave a kind of nervous smile. "Well its 6:35 and we still have to get changed."

I could feel my eye twitch as I turned my head to face the clock on the wall behind me. You ask why there's a clock. I put one in here (with the permission of the owner of course) for situations such as this one. And sure enough the time wasn't in fact 6:35 but 6:37, which was even worse. "Rats!" I exclaimed quickly turning my body and pulling myself out of the water. I could hear Ino do the same. We still had to get dry too, and get home, and get the soap I said I'd get. Shit. I wrapped a towel around my body and belted into the next room, wasting no time to start trying to remove the droplets of water from my body. The towel scraped roughly against my body, leaving it a darker kind of pink but I didn't care. I hated running late. Within 5 minutes I was dry and changed. Making sure I had to money I looked to Ino who still wasn't quite done yet.

"I'm going to run to the shop at the front to buy some soap, meet me there?" I announced stopping infront of a mirror.

I saw her nod in the reflection as I gave myself a once over. Blue ninja sandals which reached up my shins to give me better ankle support were zipped up and on the right feet (they're practically boots but the foot bit looks like a sandal). My shorts were grey and worn with a red fabric belt. The boarders of the legs of the shorts were a light sand/beige colour. Thankfully they weren't inside out this time. I wore a red fishnet vest top under a loose grey top. The collar and sleeves all had the same boarder as the shorts. One long sleeve and one short one, surprisingly I had not put it on back to front this time either.

My red hair was damp, but there wasn't anything I could do about that now, unless there was some kind of hair drying jutsu I don't know of (how convenient would that be). My hair grew oddly, the ends came round my neck and encircled it, almost like pincers on a crab or something. Average fringe. But it was the colour that identified me as a member of the Tanaka clan of the hidden leaf. I liked the red, it was different; the roots of my hair were slightly darker than the tips of the hair pincers (for lack of a better name) and was my most defining feature.

Shaking my head I realized I had gotten absorbed in checking to make sure I was properly dressed and ran out of the girl's dressing room. About 20 seconds of corridor later I had reached the little shop that was present in one of the wings of the bathhouse's reception.

The owner smiled at me as I arrived, panting slightly.

"I trust that you enjoyed your bath miss Kina."

She was an elderly lady, around 60-70 years old with grey hair tied up in a slightly messy bun, and was wearing a light green robe with a white leaf print on it. She had a 40 year old daughter who was pregnant again who helped her run the bathhouse. But Ino and I hadn't seen her today. She might be with her own daughter, a kind girl of 12.

"Yes I did Mrs. Hamada. Do you have any of that willow and plum soap in stock, I would like to purchase some for Mrs. Nara."

I scanned around the shelves behind her and to the side of reception looking for the familiar lilac and pale green wrappings.

"Yes, we do, just hold on a moment and I'll go and get it for you." I felt that light headed relief wash over me upon having these words reach me. At least even if I was late I would have a peace offering. "Here you go Miss Kina." The recognized square package was placed on the desk, tied with a straw imitating ribbon. Reaching into my pocket and pulling out some money I counted out the normal 20 ryo with the extra 10 ryo tip I gave every time I was here. I placed the money on the counter and picked up the soap. I loved this paper, it was really soft.

"Thank you Mrs. Hamada, see you soon." I could tell she was giving me a silent wave as I turned my back, she did it to every customer that walked into this building. Upon turning round I saw Ino leaning against the doorframe clearly waiting for me. Her long blonde hair was tied up in a bun for once given that it was still rather damp.

"Took you long enough Kina."

I pouted slightly. "I thought that was a pretty fast exchange all things considered."

"You do realize its 6:50, right?"

That impulse one occasionally gets when they realize how little time they have left to do something. "I do now." Both of us immediately started belting it out of the bathhouse and the way which we knew the Nara house was, while at the same time shouting a quick goodbye to Mrs. Hamada. It was only as I was running did I realize how long it had been since I had last done so. The burning feeling which I knew was lactic acid in my legs was slightly strange to me, a clear sign that I needed to be training harder and much more frequently than I have been. It almost made me want to laugh.

"Hey Kina." I looked to my left to see Ino, running a step or so behind me. "When was the last time you did cardio, well running specifically?"

I grimaced. "A while ago."

"Just cos you seem abit wheezy there." It was one of those joke smiles that she gave me but it still made my grimace deepen.

"Shut u..."

I trailed off and stopped dead. Ino realizing this and stopping a few steps ahead of me.

"Hey why'd you st..." She trailed off in mid-sentence too, probably realizing just where we were. Feelings of longing, mixed with pain and disgust filled me as I let my eyes rest on the building before them. Ino gave me a subtle sad look. I could be doing anything but I would always stop when I reached the pathway stretching to the front door of the Tanaka family home.

It may or may not be pretty obvious but I don't live there anymore. I haven't lived there for 6 years, a long time I'm sure you'll agree. I now lived with Shikamaru Nara and his parents who graciously took me in after my family in the leaf died. It made me uneasy being there as everywhere I looked in the building, traces of them were everywhere.

A stone path branched out from the main road slightly on the outskirts of town and stretched for about 30 meters before meeting the foundation of the large (surprisingly large) house. I sighed and turned away from the memory, meeting Ino's gaze. "Sorry, let's hurry." And just like that we continued. All my friends didn't question this anymore, like I said this happened every time I passed my old home. About 20 seconds of running, turning streets and Ino probably getting dust in her toes from wearing sandals she spoke.

"I don't want to sound rude Kina..."

"Just say it anyway." I urged, usually having people beating around the bush irritated me, there were a few exceptions though, like Hinata Hyuuga.

"Your family was quite small right, well for the size of your Clan's house right, so why is it so big." I stayed silent for a moment or two, only speaking when finally we had arrived outside the Nara household. Yoshino wasn't standing outside waiting for me so I knew I somehow wasn't late. I looked towards Shikamaru's house as I began to explain.

"You know how your clan owns a flower shop but also are experts at intelligence gathering, espionage and interrogation." Ino nodded.

"Before my mother married into the Tanaka clan her family had their own village specialty." I smiled as I remembered my mum explaining this to me back when I was too young to properly understand. "She liked to call it the role of leaf hospitality. Essentially one of her main roles was to assign living space and host foreign shinobi and well, people in general when they visited the leaf. One example would be during the Chuunin exams when people from all over would come to the leaf village and needed a place to stay, There were the normal rooms we kept in the centre of the village for civilians and then for shinobi she hosted them in her own home, which was actually more like an inn. When she married my father they decided to rebuild the Tanaka house so that she could continue her role of the allocation and hosting of visitors to the village. So essentially we have an inn in our house as strange as that sounds."

Ino's eyes widened "That's awesome, so she kept track of where every visitor to the leaf was staying?"

"Yes." I told her as I closed my eyes "Her aim was to promote the village through her hospitality. But her family was in charge of more than that. They did that on a much large scale. For the whole hidden leaf village."

"The whole village?"

"It was their job to keep record of where everyone was staying, what buildings were empty, what buildings were in construction and so on. Basically if you wanted to move house then you had to liaise with them because they were the ones that would officially move you. One day I wish to pick up all the roles my family held within the village and to give help and give people a place they feel they can be at home and belong." I opened my eyes and turned back to face her. "You may dream to one day marry Sasuke or something and Naruto Uzumaki may dream to become Hokage, but that is my dream, to prove myself as Tsukina Tanaka and give people a place they feel they belong, a home, friends, love whatever they want. Whatever they need."

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This is the first chapter of my newest story, I certainly plan to continue with this story as I have already written up the 2nd part of the chuunin exams.
Hoping to hear your thoughts on my story as it's something I've been sitting on for a while.

Hope you enjoyed.
Illusions.