2

2. Appearing

Second day of school…was good and bad, I guess.

The people though didn't stop staring at me and I felt their eyes were stalking me in every class. Kiba and Lycan were able to keep me away from some of the gangs or baddies of the school that could randomly attack me for having more than five senses. It was that Neji Hatake that caused this. He was definitely the cause for this and I wanted to have a talk with him, but he seemed to scare other people around him including his own foster family. At third period Kiba decided to sit next to me and explained why he always brought his dog Akamaru in his backpack.

"I just rather not leave him by himself. He's very important to me." He explains with a lot love in his voice. I heard a small bark from his back and he patted his head. "I don't trust him alone at my house with my mom's or my older sister's dogs."

I nodded as he told me quietly about his family. It was very fascinating about his family history involving Konoha a lot. The Inuzuka family takes care of the pounds and hatcheries in Konoha, their pet people of Konoha per say. Lycan was an orphan left wondering the street since she was six years old until Kiba found outside his house unconscious on his front porch with bruises all over her face and chest. They believed she was attacked by wolves in the woods after her parents were horribly slaughtered by the wolves or she was abused.

When Kiba finished telling me that, after we started our homework assessment, I gazed for at Lycan, who seemed concerted concentrated enough on her home to never suspect that I was looking toward her way. I swear I saw some unhealed scars on her arms and hands and one on her face. I wonder what happened to her.

At lunch the Hatake table was completely empty. Maybe they were still in line, but when I looked in the Cafeteria line no one matching any of their descriptions. That was weird.

"So, you noticed that the Hatake table was empty, right?" A new voice solicited sharply. I gazed over to next to me and a different girl sitting across from Lycan.

This girl was about as tall as me with short pink bubblegum hair also on her shoulders. (Must be the fashion these days.) She had pale emerald eyes that matched that redhead boy's, but she had actual pupils and pink eyebrows too. It's doubtful that she had it died, but I guess it's possible that she was born with pink hair. She wore a dark pink shirt with pale short sleeves above her elbows. She wore dark blue pants.

"I'm Sakura Haruno. Raidon Uchiha, right?"

"Yeah, the one and only," I recited my favorite line of all time. She smiled and began to eat her rice. I sighed and my eyes widened in realization; Neji Hatake wasn't here today.

But what was this nagging feeling that made me question on why he wasn't here today. Man, this nagging feeling is very maddening and hard. After lunch was gym and that went ok, except when I accidently hit a long haired blonde girl on the back of the head after making a statement about my falling over yesterday. I have a bad temper and she made it crack. The gym teacher, despite the fact he was inspecting me that the whole time, didn't even complain to me about it. Strange.

"You little city girl," The blond girl cried out as the ball hit her. She should've maybe not talking to her friends and pay more attention to her surroundings. I rolled my eyes and I heard Lycan chuckle at this.

She came up from behind me and whispered, "Nice one. That's Ino by the way; she's one of the most popular girls here."

"Sounds like a bitch." I muttered back frowning straight at her back. She was rubbing her cheek and two girls, whom I've never seen before, were helping her.

"What? A female dog?" Lycan replies with a small smile yet the look in her eyes contained some hope in there. I nodded and she laughed lightly.

One of her friends then walked over here with a very non-friendly face, but in a rage of fury. I was careful to stand my ground as she approached me. Her dark brown hair tied in two buns along her head that weren't in her face, but there were some loose locks in her face which meant that she had really short hair maybe above shoulders. She was just as tall as me and by her the smell of her breath she was chewing minty gum. This fury girl had dark brown eyes and by the scars on her knuckles I'm sensing that she's been in a fight or two with people. Great, a fighter and an experienced one at best.

"You got a problem with my friend over there?" She asked me. I raised my eyebrow. She's a bodyguard for the popular crowd.

"Um, no, she's got problems with me in fact." I respond with a frown and folded my arms carefully. She looked like she was about to hit me square in the face. "She's not actually the nicest person in the bunch is she?"

"Burn!!" Lycan backed me up by coughing with that, but the girl ignored her and kept her gaze steadily on me instead. I held my gaze onto her tightly.

She wiped the sweat off her face and I glared at her with intense hatred that could frighten even the toughest kid. But she wasn't even fazed by this action so I began to turn around and walk away from the volleyball net. Then I felt a small headache enter my mind and I duck down and I miss that girl's fist and she ends up falling onto the ground in front of me, my eyes widen in surprise. She gasps and her face tightened into a face of absolute resentment that she jumps onto her feet and starts to aim her fist back at me. I felt her fist make contact with my cheek hard so hard that I was sent into the air.

Damn! That was powerful.

I squeezed my eyes tightly, but after a few minutes I realized that I didn't hit the ground…and landed in someone's arms. I didn't open my eyes groaned in pain of my bruise was against my cheek. I clutched it carefully until I felt a cool hand touched it to check to make sure my cheekbone wasn't broken, it felt reassuring. But that punch was so damn hard!

"You're all right." A sweet yet soft voice reassured me. That was voice was beautiful, but I couldn't help, but sense loneliness in it.

"Tenten you assaulted a student and could've hurt her severely." I heard the gym teacher, Gai-sensei, accuse her. She pleaded back, but he told her to can it and began to approach me. "You alright Raidon?"

"Y-yeah." I stuttered. I opened my murky blue eyes to find I was gaping into a pair of lovely light lavender eyes. They were filled with curiosity and…fret.

"I'll take her to the nurses office, Gai-sensei." His sweet voice rang in my head despite the fact that I knew he was talking to Gai-sensei. Our teacher nodded in endorsement.

Neji carried me out of the gym class with Lycan, and the entire class, staring in awe at the fact he was helping the new freaky girl. Instead of atleast talking to me, he kept walking quietly towards the nurse's office also staring straight ahead. I grunted at him to let go of me, but he ignored me.

"Look, I honestly don't know who are you, but I can walk myself to the nurse's office and second I don't need medical help. Its just a scratch." I dictated to him stubbornly. I saw the curves of his mouth curl into a small smirk.

"You're the type to get into trouble, aren't you?" He asks with that cute smirk. Wait, did I say cute?!

"W-Well, no. Not really that type, I just have a foul temper." I reply back nervously and felt chills on my arms. He's pretty cold for a human, even colder than me! "I thought you were gone today."

It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

"Yes I was, but I had to take care of some things."

I nodded my head and glanced around the building. But the my head began to ach and I groaned out in pain and that instantly caught his attention causing him to stop in his tracks. I bit down on my lip as I grasped my head tightly with my fingers running through my thick hair. I would've screamed but there was a huge lump in my throat that halted me from speaking out for anymore help. Neji knelt down on his knees and his cool hand touched my sweaty forehead. I saw a fire instead of the real world.

"Mommy! Daddy!" I cried out though the hot flames. The smoke burned my eyes harshly and I felt tears pour down my eyes.

My lungs also began to clog up with smoke and I began to cough violently that I thought I'd cough up blood. Wood on fire began to fall from out of nowhere nearly hitting from left and right sides of my body. I also heard frantic screams and my uncle Takeshi yelling for me, but I needed to find my parents before I leave. With my bare feet, I ran through the flames and stepped glass, broken pieces of wood, and other unknown things as I trampled through the building.

"MOM! DAD!" I cried out more as I ran up stairs anxiously and searched. I heard more wood begin to collapse underneath me quickly. "Help!"

The fire was so strong that it made the window's glass explode and they'd fly everywhere, making it even more difficult to travel through the room. I felt my foot was losing some red liquid as I stepped on more glass as I continued on slowly without a care of my wellbeing. I called for them again some wood began to collapse from the ceiling and I accidentally let out a shriek for help instead. I shielded myself from the wood, which also contained nails and other hard objects in them, but somehow I knew that I wouldn't survive this. Maybe my parents were outside already and were concerned sick about me or they were already dead, rotting away.

I closed my eyes tightly in fear and continued to shield my body from the falling wood. But I felt someone grab me instead and quickly pulled me out of the way of the wreckage and I quivered in dread of this stranger – who saved my life – would do to me. He was icy cold.

"Fear not little one." He whispered sweetly encouragingly to me as he pulled a piece of my hair out of my face. Out of tiredness, my eyes began to close into a deep sleep.

My eyes then opened and I was in the nurse's office. There was no coldness in this room and I think Neji had left me. I heard footsteps and turned to see an old woman with long white hair and bright dark eyes, there were a few wrinkles on her face and arms. She appeared to be around sixty-five years old. She was looking over a paper on a brown clip board. As she was flipping through the pages, she finally noticed me after a bit.

"Ah, you're up Miss Uchiha. Welcome back to the real world. " The nurse said with a small smile. Was she partly teasing me too? That's very heartening old lady.

"Uhh, where-?"

"That handsome young Neji Hatake, you mean?" The nurse interrupted me rather quickly and was smiling as if she was remembering fondly. "Mmm! He's a handsome fellow. But I've never seen him look at girl like that before. He seemed very concerned about you."

"Really?"

"Yes, indeed he was. He had to go though. He was a bit a hurry maybe."

Yep, that sounds like him. Why is it that he's always in a hurry I wonder? He seems to be a man who would rush off even after helping out a damsel in distress. Of course I'd never refer myself as that, but this was a different situation. What was so mysterious about this boy that this school is a little paranoid about him and his family? I glanced around and felt that same chilliness that I'd felt earlier yesterday and in my bedroom. He left his chill through. Is it possible that he knew I was coming?

I shake my head not believing this irrational explanation that I made. Neji Hatake appeared to be a normal boy with, very pale skin and is cold. I do remember some other feature that Neji Hatake had that he had fangs. Not like Kiba and Lycan's, but sharper. They were vampire fangs. But that can't be.

-

After I was released from the nurse's office, Kiba and Lycan were meeting me outside the office with huge grins on their faces. What's there to celebrate? Kiba nudged me in the elbow as we walked down the hallway, but Lycan gave him a bad look. Was there something I missed while I was away? Kiba cleared his throat has if he was gonna speak.

"Well, Rea, I'm impressed from what I heard Ly here, about your little fallout with Tenten." Kiba bragged as if it was important. Lycan glared at him with one hand on her hip in a stubborn way.

"Was it really that impressive? I just got in an argument with some bodyguard and got hooked right in the face." I retort blushing a little self-conscious of my reputation.

"It awe-inspiring Rea," Lycan replied sarcastically still glaring at Kiba. He grinned back playing around with the black haired red streaked girl. Kiba liked her back too.

"But then all those star-struck faces see Neji Hatake take you away, holding you like some princess." Kiba said pretending to be star-struck and impressed. That time I felt like I was being laughed at by the dog carrying boy. I playing stuck out my tongue back at him. He calmed down. "Of course all jokes aside Raidon, why did Hatake help you anyway?"

I shrugged unsure. Lycan did the same because she had no clue either. "Its strange. I feel…comfortable around him."

"Hmp. That is strange." Lycan rejoined raising her black eyebrow and I sighed heavily. It was the end of my second day of school.

I invited my two friends to come and see my house, both accepted. Neither of them even cars anyway, so they'd just hitch a ride with me after they picked up their books from their lockers. I waited patiently at the door leading to the parking lot for them. When I was bored I pulled out my MP3 player and put my purple earphones in my ears carefully. I scrolled down my list of songs and played "Move by Thousand Foot Crutch." Once I heard this I got hooked instantly.

Atleast three groups of people shoved past me rudely just to get to their cars or rides. But one of the groups was the Hatake foster siblings; Neji was among them and he caught my eye instantly. The girl, whom appeared to look a lot like him, turned to me and directed a small smile towards me, but then there was a glimmer in her eyes that made her smile vanish so suddenly. She quickly, as if she was in a hurry, moved past Neji and continued following her brothers and sister to their car. I bit down on my lip as he broke the eye contact and followed behind them slowly.

One of the older siblings was talking to the younger sister and by the looks of it she was telling him something important, and significant enough to gaze back my way who then looked at Neji. I'm not good with reading lips so I can't tell what they're saying.

"Hey, ready to go?" Lycan's shouty voice made me jump out of my skin. She laughed lightly. "Don't freak out on us yet. We just met yesterday."

"Right," was all I could mutter and I lead them to my car where the other decided to sit in back just be safe. They didn't know whether to trust my driving or not. My driving was okay to me and Gina often said that I shouldn't get distracted or else I'd probably crash on the side of the road. I miss Gina.

As I was driving, Kiba and Lycan were flirting like there was no yesterday. Which could happen, but scientists say that won't happen for another few hundred centuries. I argued with myself if I should turn on the radio or not. Of course I could be quarrelling with myself the whole way home if I felt like it, but I made up my mind and turned it to a rock station. A Breaking Benjamin song was playing, I had to guess…Evil Angel. Hmmm…I've been wrong before, no, definitely Evil Angel. I tapped my index finger on the wheel as we pulled into the driveway.

I noticed the police cruiser on the other side of the driveway as I parked. Damn, Takeshi's home already. As Kiba began to open the door I actually noticed his arm over Lycan's shoulder. That's kinda cute.

"That's right!" Kiba realized smacking his face lightly and looking back at me. "Takeshi is your uncle and he's the police chief."

I nodded and gestured for them to trail me inside the residence. Takeshi was reading The Konoha Herald, the local newspaper, on one of the big black chairs. His shoes were on the ground next to the chair, so must've just gotten here. The front page was about some guy said something about finding the cure of some non-fatal disease, I really didn't care at this point. Unless it was about a cure for all the cancers and AIDS then I'd be happy and rejoicing at this point.

"Raidon, welcome H-!" He froze mid sentence as he saw Kiba and Lycan standing in the doorway behind me looking very sheepish. His dark eyes smiled at them and he stood up and shook both their hands. "Ah, I know who you two are; Kiba Inuzuka and Lycan Thrope, right?"

They nodded. I don't think they benefit from some guy they just met asking them their names right away. The only things they knew about Takeshi was that he was the Police chief and my uncle. It was just strange that he knew their names so easily. He laughed lightly at their expressions. "Don't worry, I know your Mom. That's how I know your names." They breathed a sigh.

"They your friends, Rea?" He directed his questions to me now. Was I in trouble for bring friends without permission? Opps in that case.

"Of course. I just met them yesterday at school." I answered back folding my arms across my chest. It was then Lycan brought up something.

"Kiba and I live get a few blocks down, we'll be okay on a ride." She announced with a small smile. Takeshi smiled.

After a few hours of talking and constant flirting from Kiba to Lycan, they walked out our door holding hands. Even I have to admit, they'd make a cute, dysfunction couple, just like they were when they were just friends staying in the same house. I suggested to Lycan that if Kiba was the right one, make every night a special one and she just winked. I hope I gave her the right idea.

After I waved goodbye to them, I went upstairs to check my e-mail and found Gina had sent an e-mail to me about an hour ago.

Greetings from beautiful Yakima, Washington. How goes school? Betting you're having a great time and making a lot of new friends, that Takeshi probably knows, but oh well. E-mail me back when you get this message, little one.

Love,

Gina

I sighed heavily and slowly began to type down my first two misery days in Konoha. I decided to exclude the parts about Neji Hatake.

From: Raidon(dot)Phantom(at)gmail(dot)com

To: Catlover3(at)gmail(dot)com

I'm doing fine actually. I've met two new people who've lived in Konoha their whole lives, and yes, Takeshi knows their parents. Lycan Thrope and Kiba Inuzuka are their names. They aren't actually related, they found Lycan wondering around one day. School's okay I guess. Most of the teachers are nice to me. I might've accidently gotten into a fight with this girl at school. That was a big opps on my part. Love ya!

Love,

Raidon

Well, hopefully she won't call and tell Takeshi that last part about the fighting. Or he'll probably find out somehow.