See! I've updated! It's fantastic! I'm kind of proud of this chapter. Shin is really starting to see the side-effects of being a small child. :)

Enjoy!

Chapter thirteen: Onigiri breakfast and PAIN

Mmm… warm, soft……Nice…, Shin stirred, Don't wanna go to class... Boring stupid class. .. Stupid, deceiving classmates. I'm so getting back at them, Shin rolled over on her face and frowned, When did I get a self heating pillow?

She cracked an eye open and froze. Her face was currently pressing up against the clothed chest of an unknown male. Shin felt her insides drop through a black hole and almost fainted before she detected the males face. Everything came flooding back and the realisation hit her square in the head.

She was in Konoha. She actually was in The Konohagakure. Sitting up she felt a quivering ball of excitement in the pit of her stomach. But that wasn't the only thing she felt there. growl She was starving.

Looking down at Iruka she had a sudden impulse to jump up and down on top of him until he woke up. (I don't think you'd have to jump that many times on someone before they wake up) It would be so fun to see his reaction.

Wow there! Where did that come from?

It would not be funny to see his reaction. No good could possibly come out of such a childish act. And why wasn't she more bothered about waking up at the same bed as him?

Shin shrugged, grabbed a pillow and forcibly brought it down on the serene face of Umino Iruka.

The effect was immediate. The teacher shot up to sitting position, looking around him bewilderedly to discover where the sneak attack was coming from. His eyes locked on the dumbfounded Shin who was sitting beside him with a pillow in her grip and mouth somewhat ajar.

I can't believe I just did that, she stared in shock at the man she had just pummelled, What was I thinking?! Did my synapses suffer some kind of meltdown?

Iruka's expression went from complete confusion to a kind and gentle understanding.

"I see you're finally awake. Shin, wasn't it?"

Shin managed to break out of her paralyzed state and snapped her mouth shut, but still not able to stop staring.

"Did I get it wrong?", the brown-haired chuunin asked uncertainly when she didn't answer.

Say something! Come on, snap out of it!

"I'm hungry!", she piped up.

Ah! I just did it again. What's wrong with me?

Iruka didn't seem to find anything out of place with her behaviour and gave her an comprehending nod.

"Yes, you would be. You've been sleeping for 24 hours", he looked out the window where the rising sun was colouring everything a warm shade of pink, "I guess I would have to get up soon anyway" he said and turned back to her, "Do you want some breakfast?"

Shin stopped her mental self-beating and nodded frantically.

Iruka smiled at her eagerness and stood up.

"What would you like to have?", he asked while tying up his hair in the usual ponytail.

Shin noted that he was only wearing a t-shirt and a pair of boxers, but the roaring beast that was her stomach told her to ignore the awkwardness.

"Pancakes!", Shin answered quickly.

Oh, how she would love some freshly fried pancakes with a ton of syrup on top!

Iruka, who was now pulling on the customary dark pants of his shinobi uniform, looked up at her questioningly.

"Pancakes?"

"Yeah?", Shin responded hesitantly.

Maybe they didn't eat that kind of thing for breakfast here.

"What are pancakes?", he asked.

Shin couldn't believe her ears. He didn't know what pancakes were. But the Naruto world was of course more or less Japanese and the Japanese didn't have pancakes. Did they?

"Um…I can eat anything. It doesn't matter"

"Well, I got some stuff yesterday in case you would wake up. How about some onigiri?", Iruka looked like someone would when they asked a kid if they want ice cream for lunch. (Or in this case breakfast)

Shin couldn't recall what onigiri was, although she knew she'd heard it somewhere. Something to do with rice. Rice wasn't a good reason to get all worked up. Didn't they give kids sugar here?

"Okay", she told him and tried to look like she was excited about having those, onigiri.

But he seemed to have expected a more enthusiastic response because he looked at her as if wondering if she had a fever.

"Good. I'll be in the kitchen, if you need to use the bathroom it's just out here to your left", he walked out the door, leaving behind a fairly troubled Shin.

Still thinking about whether or not Konoha did have food with sugar in it, she untangled herself from the sheets and crawled over to the edge of the bed. She was just asking herself if she had seen any real sweets on the anime when she remembered her dark travelling partner.

Oh no! I left Hush with the guards! She flung herself of the bed and rushed after Iruka. Shin raced passed the previously mentioned bathroom and then stumbled into a dining area where she noticed that her feet were burning like the deepest pits of hell.

"WAAAAHHHUmph!", in an attempt to grab both her feet at the same time she fell forward, made an ungracious somersault and ended up sprawled on her back, head pointing the way she had come and her throbbing feet on a low-style dining table.

"What's going on?", Iruka appeared in the doorway she had meant to enter.

His gaze went from Shin to the floor and back into the hall. She couldn't see what he was looking at from where she lay so she sat up and spun around. On the tatami (the typical Japanese mat/mats) was a trail of tiny red footprints all the way back to the bedroom.

What is that? she wondered and squinted at the smudged one closest to her.

That's when Iruka hastily kneeled in front of her blocking the view.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO YOUR FEET!", he cried.

"Huh? What?", Shin looked down at her feet which he had lifted up into his lap, "Aagh!", she let out a startled yelp before she could stop herself.

The feet were scraped everywhere and full of cuts and gashes, and that was just on top. Shin didn't even want to know what the other side was like for her to leave those marks on the floor.

"They look like they've gone through a meat grinder!", he exclaimed, bewilderment written all over his face, "What have you been doing?!"

"Nothing!", Shin shrieked at his accusations, "I haven't done anything!"

Iruka shook his head trying to calm down. The soles of the child's feet were bleeding exceedingly from all kinds of messy wounds and yelling wasn't going to help. He needed to get a first aid kit. The questions could be dealt with later.

Iruka shifted Shin's feet back onto the table again and ordered her to lie down. Shin didn't appreciate his commanding tone. She had learned the basics in first aid and already knew that you were supposed to keep the wounded body part higher than the rest of you.

Oh no, I hope I'm not blacking out, she thought as the floor swayed a bit.

She heard Iruka rummaging around in the bathroom and let a curse slip as he dropped something on the floor. Soon he was sitting beside her again, pulling out different kinds of torture devices from a box. There was the usual gauze and band aids, and then there were a few very small bottles and some needles. But the thing that caught Shin's attention wasn't any of the sharp objects. It was the considerably larger bottle filled with clear liquid that Iruka was unscrewing. Her eyes grew big as she realised the pain she was in for.

Ha! Not in this lifetime!

She swung her feet of the table and made to get up in one swift movement, but as soon as her soles merely brushed the floor she made another acrobatic attempt at picking up her feet simultaneously.

"What are you doing?!", demanded the baffled teacher.

Shin didn't answer. Instead she began crawling her way towards the kitchen. Maybe there would be a way out.

"And where exactly do you think you're going?!", she felt long fingered hands grip around her wrists.

"I'm just going outside for a bit", she whined, "It's stuffy in hear"

Iruka yanked and she slid backwards on her belly, probably receiving a few burn marks when the shirt slid up.

"You are NOT going outside!", he commanded, his tone implying he was angry and he wasn't going to let her get away.

"Ghhn!", Shin tried flailing her legs so he'd let go but only managed to spray blood over the table and accidentally kick Iruka in the stomach, hurting her more than him.

"Stop kicking! You're going to injure yourself even more!"

"I don't care!", she yelled and tried clawing her way forward with the sensei attached to her calfs. (Needless to say, it didn't work)

Iruka, who by now had understood that she wasn't willingly going to let him treat her injuries, (he's a bit slow isn't he? ') had had enough. He sat down on the floor and locked Shin's legs in-between his own.

"YOU ARE NOT PUTTING THAT ON MY FEET!", she shouted and began squirming as much as she could in the crippling position.

Iruka gritted his teeth while grabbing the bottle of antiseptic and a towel he had brought with him.

"LET ME GO!!", Shin bawled, beating the tatami with her fists.

There was a brief moment of silence when she felt the cold, trickling sensation of something wet running between her toes. Then the pain came. If she had thought her feet had been burning before it was nothing compared to the pain caused by the white hot poker she knew Iruka must be pressing against them at the moment.

"AAAAHH!!!", she dug her nails into the carpet and bit her lip to cut of the screaming.

Iruka just held her legs steady until she stopped twitching.

"Mean man!", the teary-eyed Shin shot over her shoulder once the stinging had subsided into a steady ache.

"You'll thank me when you can walk properly", Iruka said without looking up from what he was doing, which was picking gravel and splinters of wood out of her feet with a pair of tweezers. Shin could tell though, that a vein was pulsating on his forehead and wisely decided to wait with the finger pointing.

There you go..

I don't think it'll be too long before I update again. I'm sort of in a writing mood.

Please tell me what you think. The story in general. The mystery. (Is it mysterious enough?) Are there any requests for romance? (I'm still pondering that. And I know that a certain little guy is going to have a pathetic and unrequited crush on our poor heroine. And; No, it's not Naruto. He and Shin are going to have a quite different relationship)

Next chapter: Shin gets even more uncomfortable in Iruka's apartment, and the academy instructor himself grows suspicious. :)