Chapter 10

I am SO SO SO sorry it's been so long, my laptop was destroyed and I had to go get it fixed, which meant I had to write this chapter all over again, which also means it may be a little rough around the edges. But it is longer so theres that :)

A big thank you to the reviewers! And the favs and followers of course.

InARealPickle- You have no idea what that review did for me :) I felt so good for the rest of the day!

httydismylife- I cant wait for that point either! It was so fun to write. Im so happy you liked it :)

shirohara- I'm glad you enjoyed :) I know right, blushing Shiakamaru :)

The familiar dream shaped behind closed eyes and the smell of blood filled her lungs.

Rosile was aware that she was dreaming, but at the same time had a hard time to keep herself believing it.

Everything felt so real.

Her fingertips brushing again her old wallpaper, her bare feet walking on warm liquid beneath her and the eerie feeling that someone was watching her.

Her eyes wouldn't adjust but she could make out a few meters in front of her, the hallway of her old home in Kirigakurewas dark and she was horrified to find that everything was painted red.

Like blood.

It was splattered over the cream walls like someone had been thrown against it multiple times until they'd exploded, dark red puddles all over the wooden floor and was drying at the sides into a nasty brown color, and of course, her bare feet were covered in it.

Her eyes itched but she didn't dare rub them, knowing the paint on the walls was all over them while she stumbled down the hallway.

Everything was so familiar, like this had happened before.

Her back seemed as if it was on fire, right where her seal was and she tried to reach back and touch it, her fingers barely brushing it before white-hot pain seared down her spine and she jerked her had away quickly.

Her fingers were coated in blood.

There was something building in her throat, Rosile had a feeling that it might be blood judging by how it seemed to be everywhere and tried her best to swallow it down, continuing her walk down the hall towards the kitchen.

The light was off, all light was off, partly the reason she couldn't see but she could definitely hear.

In the room ahead someone was choking, someone was definitely choking.

Muffled sounds of mumbled words accompanying it and they sounded dark, like a forbidden jutsu.

Rosile didn't want to see, she wanted to wake up, she wanted to go home, she wanted her father, she wanted to-

Wait.

Her father.

Rosile's feet took off faster than ever before with legs that felt like they'd been weighed down with concrete, it hurt to run but she had to get there now, the sudden recognition of the voice had her heart racing fearfully and her heart in her throat.

Her father was choking.

And someone was doing a Jutsu.

There was blood everywhere.

The door to the kitchen was open barely an inch and Rosile collided with it, using her weight to knock the door clean off of its hinges and hit the ground hard, her head knocking on the ground rather painfully and her vision became even more fuzzy.

Still her eyes searched through the black dots, passing more blood stained furniture, a broken vase and a whole lot more blood staining the floor.

Rosile painfully pushed off of the ground, turning her head to look again and finding her father, fighting for air on the dinner table with her step-mother standing over him with a blank, almost aloof expression.

But that wasn't the most terrifying part, the woman's inky black hair was falling around her face messily like she was a savage but her eyes, her eyes had turned completely black.

Rosile's father still coughed in a way that sounded agonizing but Rosile was frozen in her spot, unable to take her eyes off of the woman who claimed to love her father.

She was wearing all black with her necklace clearly showcases in the middle of her sternum, a little vial that had red liquid encased in it, only it seemed to be glowing.

Rosile's mind couldn't comprehend what was going on, she couldn't understand, didn't want to, couldn't think what to do until her attention was taken by her father, mumbling the woman's name.

The woman merely smiled, her teeth seeming to fill Rosile's vision with how sharp they looked, not taking her eyes off of Rosile.

And then her sickly sweet voice filled the air, the sound of everything innocent and pure in the world, like her stepmother didn't look like the embodiment of death right now.

With the poor lighting and her pounding head, Rosile could barely make it out, but it seemed as if where the woman's irises were turned red.

"Be a good girl Rosile and hand me the knife"

Rosile woke with a start, her breath coming out in spasmic irregular rhythm and her hand clenched over her shirt where her heart would be, able to feel her blood coursing quicker along with it.

She was sure her pupils were blown up wide and her ears were ringing from the dream.

Dream. It didn't feel like a dream. Not at all.

Something had happened that she couldn't remember, and it all had something to do with her stepmother.

Rosile closed her eyes, letting herself fall back onto the soft expanse of mattress beneath her and took deep breaths to slow her heart down again, it felt as if it was beating in her ears with how hard it was pounding.

Her brain was starting to accept the blood sensing thing as second nature now and had even began doing 'exercises', as she liked to call them, every now and again to try to get a better feel for it.

These exercises consisted of her seeking her brother for his blood.

Well, the scent of his blood, the specific smell of rain came from in the lounge, the boy was jumping up and down from what she could sense and his blood was heating up quite rapidly.

Rosile smiled to herself, finding his restlessness a good outlet to take her mind off of things.

Right now she could feel everything weighting down on her, training, her seal, looking after Robbie, trying to find her chakra and all she wanted to do was just out everything on hold and just lay somewhere quiet.

Not to think, just to rest.

But as her eyes fell on the small clock on her bedside table it seemed that that couldn't be, Shikamaru would be here soon to walk them.

Rosile swung her legs out of bed and stood on shaky legs, finding herself more than a little exhausted from her dream and all this stress.

Frankly all she wanted right now was a distraction and even thought she didn't want to admit it to herself, the specific distraction she wanted was a certain pony-tailed boy with a scratchy voice and a spicy scent.

She didn't understand.

This morning when Shikamaru had arrived to walk with her and Robbie she'd acted the way she usually did, doing her best to seem aloof as not to make him suspicious of the dark circles under her eyes.

Her nightmare had spooked her more than she'd like to say and didn't want to freak him out by telling him about her step-mother asking her to kill her father.

Rosile suspected that it wasnt exactly something you went shouting from the rooftops.

Rosile had been prepared enough to leave when Shikamaru knocked on he door and even Robbie had greeted the boy with a good morning which, on an average day would mean that it was a start to great day.

The sun was shining bright and it seemed tat everyone was in good spirits.

But when Robbie ran to catch up with Konohamaru and she was left alone to walk with Shikamaru something odd happened.

Well was happening.

Rosile felt the undeniable urge to.. bite him.

Her teeth seemed to ache by the mere thought of it and it was slightly disturbing.

What in the world would make her crave blood?

Was it something to do with her seal? Or her mother perhaps?

She didn't know, probably didn't want to, but of course that didn't matter right now because the only thing she could focus on was how GOOd he smelled right now.

Rosile shook her head to try to clear the thought surfacing, what was the matter with her?

Here he was walking her to training with Asuma-sensei when he clearly didn't have to since she knew her way there now and she wanted to bite him?

The bite would hurt him, she didn't want to hurt him, but lord above it was so distracting.

Rosile turned her head towards him slightly, enough to catch a glimpse of his left side, he was looking down while his hands were set firmly in his pockets, his back arched in a slouch and he seemed to be thinking hard on something.

Her eyes smoothed over the bridge of his nose to the small furrow in between his eyebrows, noting the tension in his shoulders.

And of course, raking her gaze down his neck to the thin skin and the blood running through his-

"Rosile?"

Rosile's head snapped up at the sound of his voice, catching eyes with him and felt her cheeks heating up when she realised she'd been caught and quickly turned away.

In her little daydream she'd subconsciously walked towards him until she could practically lick his skin should she take another step.

In a poor attempt to save herself from humiliation, since the way he was looking at her made her feel as if she was a complete idiot for not noticing sooner, Rosile gently brushed his shoulder with her fingers, mumbling that there was something on his shirt.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at her but didn't question her, to which she was glad but it didn't do much to make her feel better.

This was getting out of hand, there was no way she was going to be able to train if this was anything to go by.

Rosile didn't have that much experience with people her age, ever since she was young she had stayed at home and helping her father with the restaurant, going out to stores to get groceries and cleaning up Robbie.

Friends werent a 'thing' for her and she wasnt sure what this meant.

A few minutes past and Rosile could feel the urge to look fill her again, starting from her toes and working up to her eyes, her lungs begging her to look at him again since his scent was so goddamn alluring.

But luck seemed to have her side since they made it to the training grounds before he caught her again.

Rosile subtly made her way over to Asuma, in a way that didn't look as if she was doing her best to get as far away fromShikamaru as possible even though she was.

But that didn't stop her eyes from watching him go over to Choji and start up a conversation with the red-haired boy.

Ino was nowhere to be found which for some reason made Rosile worry, the blond girl seemed to make the training thing a bit more interesting with her quirks and snappy remarks.

Asuma, as usual, stood with a hand on his hip and the other holding a cigarette to his lips, watching the two boys as he took in a drag of the cancer stick, blowing it out in a slow motion.

Rosile continued towards him with purposeful steps, wondering what was up with the intense look in his eyes.

He held that look often.

"Sensei?" she asked tentatively, waving a hand at him to try to get him out of his daydream without startling him, hedid a moment later, turning his head to look at her and straightening his posture back up.

"Rosile, good you're here, we need to have a talk"

A talk? oh great.

She didn't really want to talk right now, she didn't even want to ogle Shikamaru for the rest of the training session.

Rosile wanted to actually train so that she wouldn't be useless if Robbie was ever in trouble.

But it seemed Asuma didn't have that in mind.

"I think it's time that we talk about this seal of yours"

Oh.. He had her full attention now.

"The Shukketsu Clan?" Rosile repeated, wanting to make sure she pronounced the words right, especially if she hailed from the clan.

Asuma hummed in response, pointing back at the scroll he'd layed on the ground in front of her, indicating to a seal drawn delicately on the paper, one identical to her own seal.

Asuma had sent for the other three to do some simple teamwork training thing which left both Rosile and Asuma alone for the time being, enough for him to explain a few things to her.

The Shukketsu clan were an obscure clan, thought to be wiped out years ago and were known for their magical blood techniques and jutsu's.

Supposedly a myth, but the Rosile's seal attested to that, something Asuma seemed uneasy about.

"They were known for their curiosity, the women of the clan known for their long hair, and their red eyes"

Depictions of the women were shown on some of the scrolls, the women were dressed fully in dark clothes, with paint smudged over their eyes and cheeks which only made them more menacing.

There wasn't much to go on, only that they had blood jutsu's and they were rarely come across.

"So.." Rosile started, turning her head away from the scrolls and looking at Asuma, "If i am from this clan, what happens then?"

A deep frown set in between his eyebrows, a grim look setting over his face and Rosile felt a bad feeling well up in her stomach.

WHAT if it means I'll be separated from Robbie?

"That depends" He grumbled, turning away for a moment to find another cigarette and place it between his lips, reaching into his pocket to find his Zippo and lit it up, sucking in the smoke slowly.

Rosile looked back to the scroll, the seal seeming more real now than it ever had before since it belonged to an actual clan.

A clan that specialized in blood techniques nonetheless.

"Depends on what?"

With how Asuma hesitated, Rosile debated on whether or not she wanted to know the answer.

He sighed, giving her a look that made her feel very young and vulnerable.

"Depends on if the clan is dangerous or not"

Dangerous.

Was she dangerous?

Flashes of the night her hand was cut came flashing back and she remembered how badly she wanted to bite Shikamaru in that moment.

Bite him hard enough to taste blood on her tongue.

It was a terrifying thought.

She didn't want to be dangerous or put any of her friends in danger but when it came down to it she couldn't exactly be sure of it.

Rosile could potentially be dangerous and if she was she had no idea what the Hokage would do with her, she'd only met him twice and though he seemed like a nice man if it really became serious he would choose the village over her.

And that would mean she would have to leave.

Leaving her and Robbie exposed to her.

But in order to protect herself and Robbie she would need to learn how to fight, but if she did then that would mean she could be dangerous.

Oh lord Rosile couldn't think properly.

Frustration was clawing at her mind and Rosile lost touch of her senses for a moment, sensing Asuma's blood next to her strongly and even across the field to where Ino, Choji and Shikamaru were.

She could sense the birds around her and the grasshoppers jumping and every single insect that was around her crawling.

Rosile couldn't breathe, she was loosing control of it and she didn't want to, clenching her fists and gritting her teeth in concentration.

Blocking out each scent carefully, one at a time, cooling the blood that was circulating faster around her body, keeping it away from her seal.

She tucked her hair behind her ear while trying to catch her breath, noticing that she was sweating from the effort and feeling the panic about to set in again.

It was getting harder and harder to control.

But after what Asuma just told her she didn't want to tell him, just in case this ranked as 'dangerous'.

Looking over at him he seemed to be lost in thought again, turned away from her and smoking his cigarette calmly.

And then she remembered, today was the day she was supposed to get the seal off wasn't it?

The question was, would it be better if it was off? Who knew what would happen should they remove it.

Before she could say anything else, Ino yelled out from across the field, exclaiming along with Choji that it was, in fact, lunch time, the end of training time today.

Asuma seemed to come out of his daydream and take notice of them, waving them over.

He turned to her, a closed eye smile sent her way which made her feel a bit more at ease after the little episode she just had.

"Try not to worry Rosile, just go get lunch with these three right now, I'll find you after"

Rosile agreed reluctantly, picking up the scrolls and packing them up neatly before handing them to Asuma, a notion that she saw Shikamaru notice.

She gave a lighthearted shrug and raced to catch up with them, all heading towards town where Choji was leading them to a very good meat place, or so he told them.

Rosile just focused on keeping her attention on her friends, not wanting to think about loosing them so quickly after she'd found them.

"Rosie! Rosie! Look at me!"

"Robbie get down from there!"

Rosile had her hands firmly on her mouth in shock as she watched her younger brother hang very dangerously off of one of the Hokage's faces.

The academy had ended sooner today like her training and Robbie had taken to hanging out with his friend and getting into trouble.

The young boy had gotten it in his head that it would be brave to climb up and hang off of the tip of who she assumed was the Second Hokage's nose and yell her name out with a big toothy grin adorning his face.

Robbie had apparently been doing things like this all day, along with his sidekick Konohamaru and Konohamaru's friends, playing pranks on people, getting into dangerous situations, all because of Naruto.

Rosile had no idea who the boy was but she was not pleased with whoever it was.

Konohamaru seemed obsessed with the boy and his admiration had somehow passed on to Robbie and the boys would disappear every now and again to go 'find Naruto'.

She'd asked Shikamaru about the boy when they had been training but judging by the groan that he gave her, she realized that Shikamaru was probably not the best person to ask.

But then again she really didn't have anyone else to ask.

This was Rosile's third day with team 10, the day that she was meant to go see Hokage and since her first day the team had considerably warmed up to her, and by the team, she meant Choji.

She realized when she was doing chakra exercises with Asuma that by the way the red-haired boy talked to Shikamaru, that they were most likely very good friends, and along with her arrival their relationship must be getting strained with how Shikamaru seemed to always have to be around her.

This bugged Rosile a lot since on one hand she wanted to give the two boys enough space to be boys and still be good friends, but on another note Rosile really didn't know anyone here in the village.

And though she wouldn't say it out loud, Ino was really bossy and Rosile didn't exactly want to be left alone with the blonde girl.

Although lovely, Ino seemed to have too much energy solely used just to gossip.

Half the time Rosile had no clue what the girl was talking about but nodded nonetheless just to appease the girl.

But all of that didn't matter right now since Rosile was currently trying to catch her little brother who had since gotten off of one of the giant head of the second Hokage and was now running off with Konohamaru to go see 'Naruto', and honestly?

Rosile had no idea what she was going to do with her brother once she found him, she was only intent on catching him right now and that was all that mattered.

As it turned out, Robbie was a lot faster than Rosile, the young boy using his boundless energy and long legs to sprint.

Rosile was just, short.

And after she finally caught up to the boy, watching him stop with Konohamaru at the back of a boy with an orange jumpsuit on, his back facing her and his blond hair looking wild from the back.

He was talking to three other people, a taller man with gray hair with a mask that covered almost the entirety of his face.

The man also wore a vest similar to Asuma-sensei, suggesting that he was also a Jounin, but he looked extremely shady when he rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish look the way he was now.

A pink haired girl and a raven haired boy were also looking at the man, and it looked as if they were all trying to intimidate the older man.

Which would be extremely weird if he was, in fact, a Jounin.

A Jounin getting scared by a few kids? Unheard of.

Both the small boys were doing an awful job of being spies and hiding in the middle of the street to watch the jumpsuit boy.

Annoying Rosile a little.

If this was what Robbie thought was hiding then who knows what would happen in a serious scenario.

It seemed her team had caught up behind her, all of them agreeing to help her catch Robbie, albeit hesitantly after she pleaded, and they panted wildly behind her, Ino catching her breath first and giving her an irked look, pointing a finger towards Rosile.

"Hey, next time you want me to catch your brother, don't make-"

The blond stopped midway when she saw who Robbie and Konohamaru had stopped behind.

Or rather, when she caught sight of the dark-haired boy beside him.

Rosile dismissed it when she noticed Robbie and Konohamaru run off again, too fast for her to be able to catch them again.

She groaned and slouched, making a pained face.

She would give up for now, maybe if she let him be for a while he would come home tired and not try to destroy the house again.

"Hey! Who are you?"

Rosile turned her head to the side, in order for her to see who addressed her.

It was the blond-haired boy, the one Robbie and Konohamaru had caught up to and did a bad job of being sneaky.

He had bright blue eyes that shone brighter than the hot sun, fair skin and were they.. whiskers?

Was that normal?

"Ah, that's Rosile Snow, a new addition to the leaf"

While she had been transfixed with the blond boy's whiskers, the Jounin had answered for her, sending her a closed eye look that she guessed was a smile.

It weirded her out, him answering for her, making her take a small step back towards Shikamaru and tuck her hair behind her ear shyly.

"H-How did you-"

Naruto seemed to realize something, a light-bulb going off in his head and loudly interrupting her with a "Hey! You're Robbie's sister!"

"Naruto! Don't be so rude to the new girl!"

The pink haired girl, suddenly turning into a scary gremlin, punched the boy so hard he fell forward, him making a pained noise and cradling the back of his head where he'd been hit.

Rosile stared wide-eyed at the scene.

Who the hell were these guys?

The grey haired man sighed, giving her an apologetic look, one that made her wonder if this sort of thing happened all the time with the way no one, not even her own team, reacted.

"Ow! Sakura! I didn't mean it!"

Oh his teary eyes, they made her want to cry herself.

The boy she now realized was the Naruto, the boy her brother and Konohamaru were obsessed over, seemed so heartbroken with the way the pink hai- SAKUra, had hit him.

It made Rosile want to forget about his little disrespectful remark and hug him tightly until he smiled again.

His scent was earthy, like a wild animal, and with those whiskers it kind of made sense.

The girl Sakura, smelled of flowers, much like Ino's own scent.

And the Jounin smelled of a rainforest.

But when she turned her head towards the raven haired boy, her heart literally stopped for a moment.

Rosile froze. Really really froze.

Her blood seemed to stop as well and all noise ceased while her eyes blurred everything in her peripheral vision and he was the only thing visible to her.

Well, his eyes were the only thing visible.

They were dark, dark like charcoal and deeper than the ocean, with thick eyelashes framing them to give them that extra little 'pop'.

And oh, his blood.

It smelled like power, pure masculine power that threatened to overpower her with every breath she took in.

Needing an anchor she reached out to take Shikamaru's wrist in her hand, stepping closer to him and doing her best to breathe in his comforting scent to calm her sudden nerves.

What the hell was wrong with her?

Shikamaru sent her a look with an underlying question, waiting for her to give him an explanation to why she was freaking out.

Rosile didn't give one, keeping her eyes firmly on this stranger, inching herself in front of Shikamaru subtly on instinct.

Cold coal eyes narrowed at her actions, setting all of his attention on her and if it were even possible, making her feel even more unsettled with his undivided attention.

She didn't know what was up with him, but she had the urge to run away from him, get as far as she possibly could and then some.

But at the same time, a small scary part of her longed to be close to him.

"Tch, who cares, I'm going to go train"

Oh.

So he was equally as rude as he was handsome.

"Oh, I'll come too Sasuke!"

"Oh, I'll come too Sasuke!"

Ino and Sakura instantly turned on each other, sending scalding looks that no one seemed to care about either.

Apart from Shikamaru's exhausted sigh and him pulling on her arm to keep her from getting between them, whispering for her to "let them work it out"

Rosile obeyed, turning her attention to Sasuke again who was walking away, not waiting for either of the girls as he stalked down the street with his hands in his pockets, sending a cold look towards her briefly.

She wondered if he sensed it too, the weird connection.

Perhaps he used blood techniques too.

Either way, he was already too far to question, and she wasn't sure if she should go over to him.

Not sure, but trying to suppress the urge to do so.

The grey haired Jounin decided that the girls had fought enough, setting a hand on Saukra shoulder and scolding her with a patronizing tone and mentioning that it was lunchtime so that's what they should do.

They complied, still sending each other looks but walking back towards their respective teams.

Naruto gave a look towards the Jounin, "Hey wait. I want to talk to the new girl Kakashi-sensei"

That was a surprise to Rosile.

So far, her friends were only her friends because of her being forced onto team 10.

No one had ever expressed an interest in conversing with her before.

Should she try to make friends with this boy?

He seemed nice enough, his female teammate was another story, but that wasn't a reason to reject him.

"I think we should let her get settled into the village first, Naruto"

Well at least the Jounin was polite.

Naruto gave a little bummed out sigh but complied with his Sensei nevertheless, giving her a smile and a wave as they turned towards town, giving her a look at his pointy teeth.

"See you around Rosile-chan"

She waved back shyly, tucking her hair behind her ear and not looking him in the eyes.

So that was the team Robbie gushed about daily.

Team 7.

"Hey Rosile" Shikamaru drawled, bringing her back to reality and finding him, Choji and Ino all heading towards the restaurant again, "You coming?"

Rosile looked back where the team had just been, or more specifically, in the direction the raven haired boy was headed.

"Um, you guys go ahead" she replied politely, turning back around to give them all a smile, trying to get rid of that look Shikamaru was giving her, "I just want to check something"

Preview:

"So you want to tell me whats going on yet?"

"Shikamaru!"

and,

Chunnin exams come closer.

Yes i know i said the Chunnin exams would be mentioned in this chapter but i had to cut it short otherwise it would be too much information for one chapter.

I didn't want it to be too much.

Anyways be sure to review! I love them so much.

I'm sure i'm forgetting something but i'll leave it here.

As always Take Care,

PrincessJade.