Chapter Four

It was about four in the afternoon about two weeks later when a new song could be heard drifting from the young Hatake's open door and through the house. The familiar buzz of the electric guitar reached Kakashi's ears in an unfamiliar tune that he supposed was one of her newest compositions. He could hear her murmuring words to herself, occasionally stopping for a few moments before trying something new, and likely modifying the lyrics to her liking.

With a small smile, he turned back to his little orange book, giggling at something he read just as someone knocked on the front door.

With an annoyed sigh at being disturbed he moved off of the couch to go answer it, revealing the caller to be an ANBU member.

"The Hokage wishes to see you in her office for a new mission." Before the Jounin could blink the ninja shunshinned away, leaving behind a slowly dispersing puff of smoke.

Kakashi sighed before heading up to his daughters' room, lightly wrapping his knuckles on the doorway to get her attention. She was currently strumming her guitar as she gazed down at a piece of sheet music on her bed, wearing dark green sweatpants and a black spaghetti-strap top, what she called her "Lazy Outfit". She looked up when she heard the knock and smiled.

"Another mission?"

The Jounin nodded.

"I'm not sure how long it will be yet. I'm going to head out to the Hokage's office."

She nodded understandingly, leaping up from her spot on her bed to give him a hug.

"Be careful okay?"

Her dad chuckled and hugged her back.

"I promise."

The two broke apart and Kakashi ruffled her hair, making it stick up all over the place.

"Hey! Otou! What was that for?" he laughed as she stuck her tongue out at him, ducking easily as she attempted to jump and mess up his hair too. She gave an annoyed huff, obviously trying to hold off a small smile.

"I'll see you later then," he waved as he began walking down the hallway. He paused for a moment before turning back to her. "Oh, and don't burn the house down while I'm gone."

He chuckled to himself once more as his daughter yelled indignant protests at his retreating back.

Now for the mission.

The next day was a Monday and it was seven days until Mari's birthday not including today. Her dad was still off on his mission to apprehend some thugs threatening a family a couple villages over and wasn't expected back until late this evening or tomorrow morning. With that in mind, Mari lethargically made her way to the Academy, walking the near empty streets calmly. She breathed in the fresh morning air gratefully, knowing she would get there far earlier today than usual. She usually did when her dad was off on missions, the house felt too empty without him there to tease her.

SSShhhkkk. The door to the classroom slid open to reveal only the dark haired boy she realized was Uchiha Sasuke, sitting down at one of the desks. Not even Iruka-sensei was there yet. She shrugged and glided soundlessly over to her seat before pulling out her notebook and beginning to doodle around the latest song she had written. She was bored already but it was better than staying in the house with no one there.

Only the sounds of her pencil scratching lightly against the paper invaded the peaceful silence of the classroom. Just as she was shading in a feather she noticed a steady stare burning into the side of her head from across the room. She glanced up to see the Uchiha looking right at her, his smoldering onyx eyes blankly observing. She mentally shrugged it off and continued to draw, hoping if she ignored him he would stop.

He didn't.

"It's rude to stare you know." Her quite voice sounded clearly in the silence, apparently breaking the top student from his thoughts. He turned away from her in favor of staring out the window.

Well, really it was more like glaring. She noticed he seemed to do that a lot, but whatever.

Click, click. SSShhhkkk.

Mari glanced up at the sound to see the Uchiha standing by the classroom door. He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes before walking out, closing the door behind him.

…

"Okay then." She raised a single eyebrow at the door before turning back to her music and drawings, humming the tune to herself now that no one was in the room with her to bother.

"You're here awfully early today Mari," Iruka-sensei commented. The younger brunette sighed.

"My dad's on a mission. I had nothing better to do really." Her sensei nodded understandingly, setting a stack of papers on his desk as a few more students started to trickle into the classroom. Still no sign of the anti-social Uchiha. What was with that kid anyway?

"Hey, Hatake! You're actually early for once huh?" Kiba's voice called out to the girl. It didn't exactly sound mean but he was obviously poking fun at her. "Haven't gotten lost on that stupid path of life or anything again?"

"At least I have a life, Inuzuka," She stated coolly, not bothering to spare him a glance. A few of her classmates laughed much to the dog-lover's annoyance.

"Hey, I do too have a life!" He argued in vain. Mari just ignored him as Shikamaru walked in to sit beside her in exact middle of the room.

"Hey Nara," she greeted him with a sigh. He nodded to her lethargically, slumping forward and crossed his arms on the desk.

"Ignore Kiba, he's just being troublesome because he tried hitting on some non-academy girl the other day and she turned him down."

"Bummer," she replied with a sarcastic smirk.

The two sat in a comfortable silence as everyone took their seats. Kiba sat in the row in front of them with Hinata who exchanged cheerful greetings with Mari. Sasuke – who had somehow snuck back into the classroom without Mari noticing – was sitting in his usual spot by the window, trying to ignore a horde of fan-girls fighting over who got to sit next to him. Within this group of girls stood her more popular classmates, Ino and Sakura, who honestly had more of a chance of sitting in that seat than the others did. Not because the Uchiha liked them, but because they were practically the leaders of the Uchiha's fan club and would fight to sit there until one of them ended up in the seat, whether the Uchiha liked it or not.

Shino, a quiet boy Mari knew to be of the Aburame clan, sat in the row behind them with a chubby boy by the name of Akimichi Choji, whose clan required a good amount of weight to be present for the use of their bloodline trait. They were both always polite to her, Choji even occasionally hung out with her, though it was mainly a friendship started from their shared companionship with the lazy Nara Shikamaru. The only person that had yet to arrive, once again, was Naruto.

The oddly mushroom shaped cloud of a sigh that escaped Mari's mouth was enough to catch Shikamaru's attention.

"He'll be back before you know it. Just relax, he can take care of himself," the boy offered. To anyone listening he would have sounded like he didn't really care, but Mari knew better. "So troublesome…," even if he did say that all the time.

Mari smiled slightly, light pink lips turning up at the corners just enough to show the appreciation she had for those words. The dark-haired boy laid his head on his arms, likely to fall to sleep. It really did amaze her how he kept up his grades when he never paid any attention.

"NA-RU-TO!"

Iruka-sensei all but threw the orange-clad boy into the room seconds before the bell rang. Within seconds he and Naruto were standing at the front of the class, the later being chastised harshly by the former.

"Why would you do that?" Iruka-sensei was saying. "Those kids will be scratching for a week!"

"But I-,"

"No 'buts' about it Naruto. You've got detention during lunch and after school writing apology letters to each and every one of them, and their parents!"

The blonde growled in annoyance and pouted, but kept his mouth shut, probably a smart move considering Iruka-sensei looked like an inflated balloon.

Mari figured he had done something with itching powder involved due to the reference to scratching that Iruka-sensei made. Naruto was sure to get hell from the victims parents.

A small sigh escaped Hinata's mouth as the two friends walked to the training grounds, looking rather sad. The reason for this was, unknown to Mari, a fight between her father and her the night before.

Hinata had always confided in her friend about her family life, often escaping to her house for a day of girl talk, ice cream, and any distracting activity Mari could think of. The brunette had always been so kind, befriending her, comforting her, even helping her train to impress her father. But the fight still had her thoroughly shaken and she couldn't help but feel like she wasn't quite ready to talk about it. It had never taken her this long before…

"Hey Hinata?" The lavender-eyed girl looked to her friend. Mari looked calm, even a bit amused if it weren't for her eyes whose deep blue depths held an understanding and acceptance that she had only seldom seen others' hold. A small smile was on her face, giving a glimpse of her carefree attitude.

"I can tell something's bothering you. It's okay if you don't want to talk about it. Just try to look on the bright side of things okay? Oh- hey look! Squirrel!" the girl spazzed as she ran comically after the fuzzy creature that had captured her attention. Hinata welcomed the distraction and ran after her friend; smile lighting up her face as she strove to live in the moment like her two idols seemed to so easily do.

"Left! Right! Left! Right! Left! Right! Common Hinata! Only twenty left!" Mari pressed her friend.

The two were finishing up what Mari called the "warm-up drills." It consisted of the regular stretches, 100 sit-ups, push-ups, and varying kick and punch drills that were aimed at training posts.

Both girls then reviewed their taijutsu lessons from the week next, practicing new moves on each other and helping one another when they noticed a mistake. This was normally what training sessions consisted of when they were together, aside from the occasional spar. They never really focused on ninjutsu or genjutsu, seeing as they just knew the basics anyway. They still had yet to learn those even, not even having started actually performing genjutsu due to how early in the year it still was. School had pretty much just started after all.

The two of them had been practicing for about two and a half hours by the time they moved on to target practice.

"Hey Hinata?"

"Hm?" The lavender-eyed girl's kunai hit the second ring closest to the bulls-eye.

"Who's that guy watching us over there?"

Startled, Hinata completely missed her target, her kunai flying of into the trees somewhere.

"W-what?"

"Yeah, there's this guy – wait! He's coming over here!"

Hinata spun on her heels and spotted him right away. It was kind of hard not to what with his neon-green tipped black hair and dark, bad boy-like style of clothing. He had on baggy black shorts with chains hanging from the pockets. A black, ripped band tee covered his torso, displaying bright neon colors that advertised a band Mari had never heard of. He wore black ninja boots – though he was clearly a normal citizen – and a studded belt and arm bands. Silver studs in his nose and along his ears completed the look. When he finally got within hearing distance he got straight to the point.

"Is one of you Hatake Mari?"

The two shared a look.

"I am," Mari replied warily, sizing the boy up from beneath her thick eyelashes. He looked to be their age, but definitely not a ninja. His chakra was rough and inexperienced and he didn't really have the fit body of one either, though he wasn't exactly out of shape.

"I hear you play the guitar? And you sing?"

Mari's face went blank as soon as these words slipped from his mouth. Just who was this guy and how did he know about her?

Seeing that she wasn't going to answer the boy elaborated.

"My name is Kusonukina Kyo. My friends and I are part of a band and we've got a problem. We were wondering if you'd be interested in helping."

"How do you know me?" The tone in her voice implied that if he didn't answer correctly the result would be very bad for him. Her rather shy-looking friend watched the two curiously. The boy gulped, turning a bit pale.

"Eh? Some guy told me about you, said you might like to try out. You know, 'cause we don't let just anyone into our band."

"Guy? What guy?"

"Uh, really tall, silver hair, kept his face covered. He somehow found out that our lead singer and guitarist moved and figured we'd need a replacement. We do actually. No one we've come across had enough talent. We need someone who already knows their stuff." His dark green eyes flitted from side-to-side nervously. He wasn't so hot with the idea of some crazy ninja chick blowing up on him.

His worries for his health were needless though, because a second later the brunette broke out into a pretty grin, striding up to him calmly as though the tension between them had never existed.

"Sorry 'bout that. Let's start over. The name's Hatake Mari," she held out her hand and Kyo smiled, taking it.

"Kusonukina Kyo."