Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and not me.

A/N: Hey everyone, time for another chapter! I've been a little as of late. I might be getting a job doing some advertising for a website, which is kinda cool. Anyway, hope you all enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 14: In the Dead of Night

"I can't believe that lady is Kazuo-sensei's grandmother. She looks like she walked off the set of a comedy show carrying that harisen around." Yanagi clasped her hands behind her back and looked up at the night sky.

"I'm tired enough to believe anything at the moment," muttered Sora. He was barely able to carry the bag Yanagi had left at the desk that morning.

Kita felt the ache of being tired but unable to find any rest. Somehow, whenever she had Sora's bracelet on it forced her into sleeplessness. This was the negative they'd discovered to the positive of keeping her awake. It quite literally drained her until she had no energy to move. She couldn't close her eyes and drift off into unconsciousness like she used to – not until she pulled it off when she got home. She wouldn't be able to sleep without waking up every few moments otherwise. She glanced up at the streetlights, stark beams lighting the way home.

"Oh, and today was really lame," Yanagi complained. "So much for a big important mission on our first day! Chasing crows away from some guy's farm has got to be the most boring mission ever."

"You should keep your expectations low," Kita replied. She had no idea how someone in their position could envision such grandeur on the first day. Of course it was going to be boring. Although, Yanagi hadn't admitted the smile on her face as they made scarecrows that looked like each other.

Yanagi stopped in the middle of the path, Sora bumping into the back of her. She ignored him for the moment as a look of thought spread over her face. "We've got tomorrow off and then another mission the day after," she said to them. "We should find Hisae tomorrow."

Sora placed the bag on the ground, relieved to have the weight off him. "She might not want to see us at the moment," he said. "She probably has a lot of things she wants to sort out for herself."

The dark-haired girl placed her hands on her hips – the sure sign Kita had come to know as her stubbornness arising. "I can't accept that she'd just give up so easily," she snapped back. "She might be waiting for someone to go cheer her up. Kita, what do you think?"

She blinked, caught off-guard. She glanced away uneasily. "You guys know I'm not too good with this stuff… but Sora might be right." All this friendship/relationship stuff always felt somewhat awkward to her.

"I know what Hisae's like. If we left her she'd just keep telling herself how horribly she messed up…" Yanagi chewed her bottom lip. It surprised Kita to see her like this. Normally Yanagi just seemed… well, selfish. "It's just we studied so hard together, and we promised we'd make it. She broke her promise, it's not fair. She shouldn't give up because of it."

"She might be waiting for us to go, but then what if we mess things up?" asked Sora. "We'll accidentally let slip something about how we graduated and that might make her feel worse. We shouldn't go rushing over there and push her when she doesn't want it."

"We should wait for her," said Kita. She tried to keep the questioning tone out of her voice, she couldn't let herself sound like an idiot. "She'll come talk to us when she's ready, right?" Mentally she slapped herself for letting her words slip out like that.

Sora nodded at her. "Yanagi-chan, it's for our own good that we stay away. I'm sure Tsuchikage-sama has wiser things to say to her than we do."

Yanagi grumbled to herself, obviously beaten by his argument. Sora grunted as he picked the bag back up. Kita eyed it suspiciously – just what was in that thing anyway? Apart from a hairdryer, of course. She thought back over that morning, one other particular suspicion surfacing in her mind.

"Tansei…" she muttered. The other two glanced at her questioningly. "Why wasn't he able to get his headband yesterday?"

Sora shrugged the best he could with the heavy bag on his shoulders. "I dunno, but it was kind of strange."

"Strange?" Yanagi scowled at him. "There's nothing strange about that. Just leave Tansei-kun alone, he's supposed to be our friend."

Kita let the subject go immediately. They probably knew as much as she did. Still, there was just something… a look in Tansei's eyes as he spoke to them that morning. He'd always seemed confident before, but with that forehead protector perched on his head like a crown it seemed like he'd won something – even greater than just graduating. There was something shivering inside Tansei, not from fear, but from anticipation.

It suddenly felt strange to have such things as "a day off from work". The day felt completely different from having a day off from school or something like that. After trying to be lazy all morning he found it simply didn't feel right, even though he was still tired from the day before. Sora strapped his leg-holster on. He was going to spend the rest of the day training and feeling productive for once. Maybe if they all trained a bit more they'd get better missions. The thought of having to spend the rest of his days chasing crows didn't comfort him in the least, not when he had something to prove. His family weren't involved in things like combat missions. They worked as part of the local police force, in intelligence and interrogation, shuffling papers for the Tsuchikage – hardly ever going outside the boundaries of the village unless it was something like spy work. Even then it was usually low-risk stuff.

He'd refused home training to go to academy. He wanted to be able to travel and be able to use the sorts of skills he had properly. His mother, although against the idea at first, had caved, but in that same moment decided she would make life hell for him in order to toughen him up for that outside world. It took him a while to realise that. Although he hated it, he knew that she was doing it to help him. She was sad too with what the Kigaino had become. They'd slowly become sheltered from the world, even before the Mitsukai clan had been wiped out. But it seemed that after that event clans were suddenly treated like they were sacred old relics, ones that should be handled as though made of glass.

Sora didn't want to see himself as some nerdy guy working behind a desk. He wanted to be cool, strong, grow up to be the kind of man that could do the impossible and stand tall. And maybe… just maybe be respected by Yanagi. He felt a lot of pain over the argument they had last night. He could have simply agreed, but what if they really did make things worse? Hisae would probably hide in her room and never come out, Yanagi would be completely depressed and blame him, and Kita… well, he wasn't sure how she'd respond, but he liked to think she'd be at least concerned.

He pouted to himself and picked up his bag from the door, shoulders still stiff from yesterday. He was such a sucker for helping Yanagi pack yesterday. He'd dug his own grave there when he ended up carrying it for her. Glancing back up the stairs, he found the string that belonged to his sister. She was in her room, as usual, using her bloodline to talk to her friends.

'I'm going out training for a while. I might be back late tonight.'

'Alright,' came the reply. 'And stop interrupting me when I'm talking.'

'But you're always talking. Are you sure you're not some sort of alien that needs to talk to live instead of breathing?' he retorted, shutting her voice off as she tried to insult him back. He grinned and ran out the door, hearing her footsteps pounding down the hallway. The outside air was crisp with the onset of winter. It'd start to snow soon enough. He was lucky in the meanwhile, or else his footprints in the snow would have led his sister to track him down.

Half an hour later and he was in one of the forests on the outskirts of the village. The ground sloped gently up to the ridge. A herd of small deer scattered as he pushed through the bushes. The grass was nibbled short in the open space. Light flickered through the leaves surrounding him. It was quiet out here, just how he liked it. He zipped his backpack open and began to set-up. A picnic rug to eat his lunch on later, the bento box he'd packed this morning (and wished that Yanagi had packed it instead), a target board, and wire to help create a makeshift training dummy. He realised he probably wouldn't get around to making it though, he was just so glad for the quiet that he felt like sleeping instead. So much for feeling productive…

A few minutes later and he was spread-eagle on the blanket sleeping peacefully.

Sora grimaced in his sleep. Something was bothering him. Noise? But what kind of noise, external or mental? He grunted and sat up, temporarily confused about where he was. It was dark, cold, silent but for that one little noise. Leaves rustled suddenly in a cool breeze. Was that it? No, there had been something before that. His eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. The moon was half-size above him.

Something clicked in the darkness behind him. He twisted around. A figure sat on the other end of the rug, crouching over a box. Sora's eyes finally adjusted. "T-Tansei…?" The boy was poking through his bento box, seemingly unimpressed.

"You suck at cooking," he commented. "You should have asked Yanagi to make it for you. She's probably good at stuff like that. It's not like she's from a ninja family."

Sora untwisted himself to sit properly. He scowled. "What's your problem, Tansei? She's just as good as anyone from a ninja family – no, she's even better. Don't you dare insult her like that."

Tansei smirked. "If you really thought so you wouldn't be so close to Kita now. You wouldn't have done what you did." He stood up, towering over him.

Sora scrambled to his feet as well. The feeling he was getting… it was unnerving and confusing. "I didn't do anything. Kita's in my team, there's nothing wrong with being close to a team-mate."

The bento box fell to the ground, food spilling onto the grass messily. Tansei's hands were clenched tightly. "Don't lie. After I told you I was helping her, she tells me she's too busy for training with me. It was because you took over and told her to stop wasting her time on me."

"I never said anything like that," he replied. He clenched his own hands tightly for a moment. "I just… I just saw that she had a problem that couldn't be fixed by training hard. It was something completely different you couldn't have helped her with."

"I was helping her!" The disgust on Tansei's face deepened. He stepped forward, foot crushing the side of the bento box now.

Sora stood his ground, refusing to step back to him. "You weren't helping her! All you did was ignore that she wasn't fine at all. You were just encouraging her to shut herself off from everyone else! Couldn't you see that?"

Tansei flinched at his voice. The startled look on his face vanished in a blink though, replaced by that look of hatred again. "You couldn't stand that I was the one helping her. You've always been jealous of what I've had. Like how I've always been the better ninja than you. It's why you tried to get lessons from my uncle as well, right?" He leapt back, pulling a shuriken from his leg holster. It zipped past Sora's ear, barely missing him.

This was bad… really bad. He hadn't meant any harm in all this, but he was right in what he said – Tansei hadn't been helping Kita in any way. But now, all this over what he'd done? Just for helping Kita and trying to be her friend? He hadn't meant for this… He didn't want a fight… He…

His breath hitched in his throat.

"Kita…?" His bloodline heightened, he saw her now, glowing pale white in the low moonlight. She stood between them, off to the side. She didn't say a word as she stared up at the night sky.

"I know you'll trying using your bloodline," commented Tansei smugly, unaware of the girl's ghostly presence. "You're too slow to keep up even if you could read my thoughts."

Sora's hand shook as he reached into his leg holster. He knew he'd have to defend himself. He stared into Tansei's eyes. They'd trained together many times before, but he'd never felt this scared before. Kita's gaze suddenly looked down from the sky. Sora's eyes flickered to meet hers.

Twigs snapped. Sora looked back.

"Ki-Kita-chan…" Tansei stumbled back as the girl walked through the grass towards him. She came to stop before him, head slouched, hair messily covering her face. Her pyjamas were covered in dirt and tears, as though she'd run right through the forest without caring where she was going. Her feet were caked with mud. Tansei dropped the kunai he was holding.

Sora felt the kunai in his own hand start to tremble. His eyes flashed back and forth between the two Kita. What was the meaning of this? For her body to be walking like this…

"Kita-chan, what are you doing here?" Tansei's face was pale at the sight of her. She said nothing. Tansei grabbed her by the hand, putting his usual face of confidence on. "You shouldn't have followed me out here. If you want to talk we can do it tomorrow. You can apologise later."

Kita's hand slipped from his grip. Before he could blink, she had slapped him. Still she said nothing. Tansei held a hand to his reddened cheek, fury flooding his eyes. He raised a fist. After a moment he gulped and let his guard drop, arm limply going back to his side.

"I see…" he muttered, lowering his head. "You're betraying me too. Just like Hisae did."

The string between Sora and Tansei fizzed. Flashes entered Sora's mind, bits and pieces all jumbled up. They confused him.

"Tansei! Tansei! The jutsu I've been practising! Under the waterfall, look! I'm really strong now! What do you think?"

"…You're stronger than me. Much… more… Why? It's not fair!"

A scream snapped Sora to his senses. But it had only been in his head. Kita was standing where she had been before, although Tansei had vanished. Sora stepped towards her, head still slightly dizzy. It seemed like Kita was wavering in his vision until she fell forward onto the ground. He ran to her and rolled her onto her back. She wasn't breathing although her pulse was beating. Just like every other time… He searched around for Kita's ghost. It was behind him but not observing him, just looking up at the sky again.

He paused, wondering if trying to startle the spirit back into her body would be the best thing at the moment. After having dealt with this numerous times now, he decided against it. Kita would wake up without the foggiest idea anyway. And how would he explain what she was doing in the middle of the forest at night and that she'd slapped Tansei in the face? Although that was kinda cool, but it wasn't something to get her worried about at this moment right now. He grumbled to himself and picked the girl up. It was funny, like carrying a doll in how she seemed so light and frail. Those wrists of hers were so small…

But really, there was nothing funny about what he'd heard in his mind – from both Kita and Tansei.

"They're late…" Kazuo glanced up at the tower clock. "Damn kids, I should buy them all alarm clocks for Christmas."

"Well I'm not late," snapped Yanagi. She pointed a bokken at him threateningly. He pushed it away before it poked him in the eye.

"For the first time," he muttered quietly, but not quietly enough for her to hear. He pushed the bokken away for a second time. "Stop that, why are you carrying that around?"

The girl rested it on her shoulder, trying to look aloof and confident. "I've decided this is going to be one of my weapons."

"Right… But wouldn't it better to carry an actual sword around instead of a bokken?"

She stared up at him as if he were an idiot. "Swords mean blood. I don't want to wreck my outfit. It's easier to swing one of these around anyway."

"You're a ninja, not a baseball player." Kazuo rubbed the bridge of his nose, praying that his team one day be blessed with common sense. His wishes from the day previous had been left unfulfilled. He had to take his plea to a higher authority this time.

The two of them stood around for some time, Kazuo glad for the silence Yanagi granted him. She meant well, but there was only so much he could take of someone talking about shoes. He only owned one pair of shoes anyway – his work sandals. Sure they smelt a bit ripe, but those sandals had gotten him out of enough tight spots now to be considered a lucky pair. In fact, he really didn't own much in the way of clothes at all. A ninja outfit could work in any situation, right? He'd been to enough fancy dinners wearing it. Nobody seemed to mind, although the female half of the guests seemed to avoid him. No wonder he had a hard time finding a date… He eyed Yanagi briefly wondering if the girl gave out fashion advice for the lost and confused.

"Senseeei!"

Kazuo looked up, distracted away from his thoughts. Kita and Sora rounded the corner running hard. They came to a halt before him. Sora doubled over and braced his hands on his knees as he gasped for breath. Kita wiped the sweat from her brow, trying to look a little more composed. Kazuo glanced the girl over, noticing something.

"What happened to you?" he asked. The girl had bandaids all over her hands. The one on her nose did nothing to deter that stubborn chin of hers.

She crossed her arms, looking even more stubborn than before. "No idea," she replied curtly.

"I, uh, just found her like this when I went over this morning," explained Sora. He scratched the back of his head. Kazuo eyed him suspiciously. "She must have forgotten to take the beads off last night and accidentally went sleepwalking."

"I'm sure I took them off last night," grumbled Kita. She shot a suspicious look at Sora as well. The boy avoided their gazes.

Kazuo looked up at the sky as if roughly checking the time – although it was more to hide his urge to roll his eyes. "Fine, it doesn't matter what happened," he said finally. "You're all here now and we're late. You kids are getting me in more trouble than I should be in."

"From your graaaandma," teased Yanagi with a smirk. Kazuo rubbed the top of her head with a heavy palm, ruining her hair. She shrieked curses at him as he ran up the stairs.

He had missed doing that sort of thing to Minami…

A/N: Am I missing any info? Hope not… remind me if I did though!