AN: Okay, so its been a while. I am really hoping that while I may not have internet access where I'm going for Christmas, I will still have time to type up at least one more chapter. This story is going to have plenty of chapters, so I could be busy. If I ever take too long, feel free to tell me so. Yell and scream with all your might. Kokone is getting to be a little bit more of a mystery, now. So be forewarned. This chapter is mostly establishing what the other characters feel.
Thank you to those who reviewed. They helped a lot with getting me back to writing.
The open books that lay slumped across the room said things from ninja arts to forbidden loves. Tsunade ignored all of them, focusing on the still silent girl in front of her. Neither took on a hostile look, yet neither chose to relax their tense muscles.
"So you are now called Kokone, is that right?" Tsunade finally said. She folded her hands to lean on the desk. The only response she received was a short, curt nod. Kokone starred straight into Tsunade's eyes, the deep green meeting penetrating blue. (I think her eyes are blue, I haven't watched it in a while.)
Sighing, Tsunade realized that the girl was not going to speak, so she leaned back. With her hands still folded, and watched. "I heard you had your first training session today with team 8 (Is that right?). Although I don't think you learned much. I do thank you, though, for teaching Kiba not to underestimate his opponents. He needed to learn that, sooner or later. Have you learned much about them?"
Kokone nodded, sparing a thought to the chunin she fought. Hinata would be a great kuniochi if she wasn't so withdrawn, and Kiba would annoy her, she already knew that. Shino, she thought a little harder for that one. HE was strong, probably one of the most powerful shinobi in the village, or at least from those she had met so far. He seemed to learn from his friends' defeat.
"Are you still paying attention? I take it you don't mind staying with that team. Is that correct?" Tsunade was greeted by silence. "You know what, this is getting me nowhere. You need to tell me what happened to you and why I am getting…….." she paused as she ruffled through some papers on the desk. "This."
"No way!" Naruto yelled, not caring that the ramen stand was small enough that everyone could hear him anyway. The Kohona 11 were all crowed in like sardines, catching up on the latest gossip.
"It's true! I heard that she killed a 5 year old kid and got shunned from some unknown village."
"Ino, just be quiet, you're making it all up. Everyone knows she is a rogue ninja. The only question is, why did Tsunade allow her to stay?"
"Oh stop acting like you know it all forehead."
"Shut it, pig."
"You!"
"While they bicker away, I want to find out what's going on," Tenten stated, drawing the conversation back to its original idea. "Let's just make it easy. Who is she?"
"A rogue ninja," Kiba said between slurps of ramen.
"What is she doing here?" Tenten continued.
"We don't know," Choji said, munching on his chips, but still listening intently to the conversation. This girl brought out the curiosity in everyone. Even Neji and Hinata were intent on finding things out.
"When did she arrive? Is anyone writing this down? We need to keep track of what we know and what we need to find out."
"A week and a half, Tenten-Chan." Hinata said, her hands twiddling in her lap. She was ignoring Naruto, if only to keep her stuttering to a minimum. "A week in the hospital, two days getting settled at Asuma-sensei's and Kurenai-sensei's home, and one day of meetings with Tsunade and the council before training today."
Tenten smiled at the girl. "See? Hinata gets the importance, she already knows more than the rest of us. What's next, oh! Where, but that's easy. At least where she is now. Not where she came from."
"East," said Shikamaru. "You guys really aught to listen to the jounin. They can't seem to keep their mouths shut about the girl. I heard Asuma say he found her 20 kilometers east of here. Troublesome."
"Okay. She was far enough east of here she couldn't have come west and then got hurt. Right? So now why."
"Asuma found her. That's why." Ino stated the obvious, glancing at her nails.
"Fine. We'll find out more later. What about how?"
"Asuma. But how did she get the way she was? Who would do that to a girl?" Sakura said, frowning.
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, being abnormally quiet, proving to be just as effected as the others by this new mystery.
"I mean, since I work part time as a medic-nin, I got to see her when she first came in. It was like someone had taken a ninja on speed and thrown it at her. I mean, we're ninjas, so pain and injuries are inevitable, but her? She was destroyed and left for dead, I assume. Wherever she was from, is either a horrid place to be, with lone ninja's on missions, or she ran into the wrong crowd and tried to get herself killed. We've never faced anything that bad. Even Orochimaru wouldn't have done that."
"He would have kept her," Shino said, after Sakura finished. "She has a strange power. One that Orochimaru would kill to have. She can snap your neck in the blink of an eye, and you won't even know she was there. Whatever happened to her was intentional, and now she won't speak a word."
"The flower of youth is growing in you, young Shino! It is beautiful!" Lee said, eyes wide and tearful.
"Shut it, Lee. We need to……"
"Need to what, Tenten?" Asuma said, his arms crossed and a mean look on his face. "Need to run seven laps around Kohona for gossiping? I think that's a wonderful idea. All of you chop chop. Wouldn't want to waste time."
The ninja groaned and started out, knowing it was no use to argue, and scared of any other punishment Asuma could dish out in a mood like this. They needed to find a better hiding spot.
"That is no ordinary ninja you've taken on, Kurenai. She knows something and she's seen something."
"You think I don't know that? Kakashi, where else were we supposed to put her? With your team?" She looked at him with eyebrows raised. Kakashi crossed his arms and let the implied meaning sink in.
"Naruto and Sakura aren't that bad," He defended his team.
"They would pulverize her! Not on the field, but verbally, socially. She doesn't speak and do you think she is emotionally ready for something like Naruto?"
"Okay, I get your point. What about Asuma? HE seems to have grown attached to the girl." Kakashi didn't mean to be this rude and demanding, he just needed answers, and the Hokage was stressed enough as it was. With letters flying in daily from other hidden villages, all secret and only Shizune knowing what they meant.
"Ino. Shikamaru and Choji would have welcomed her. Questioned a little, but still open to it. Ino would be worse than Sakura with the gossip, and demands, constantly challenging her new female opponent. You know how she can be."
"Gai?"
"Same thing as with your team. Tenten would take kind heartedly to her, yet retaining some curiosity. Gai and Lee would fawn over her and scare her while Neji would silently berate her, and then he'd hate her. Just because she could beat him in a fight."
"Do you think she could?" Kakashi asked, eyebrows inclined at such a steep angle. This was no small feat.
"I do. She was only using a good half of her chakra to beat Shino, not to mention she did amazingly well at spreading out her chakra and never using too much of it. Wherever she was trained probably has the strongest ninja we've seen, unless it was something she taught herself, which is very unlikely."
"You are extremely observant. I never thought you would be the one to know so much about everything." Kakashi leaned against the closest tree, staring up at the sky. Everything she told him was true, and very logical, and he needed to make sense of it all. "One more question," he said, still watching the sky.
"Why my team?" she sighed. "Because Hinata won't be too suspicious, Shino will be, but he won't voice it, and Kiba will be enough boisterousness to keep her down to earth, so she does have some sort of push into the social world. Each team was designed for a reason. Mine was to be flexible with any situation."
"Don't worry, Kokone. I understand. You're safe here."
AN: So that last part is connected to the first. If you are starting to make connections, that's good. If you think you might know what's going on, send me your guess. It will be interesting to see what's going on in your head.
Thank you to those who reviewed. I loved them.