-TWO WEEKS LATER-

-Alixa-

I stubbed my toe as I walked across my bedroom to my closet and started to cuss, but then I bit down on my lip and sat on my bed until the pain subsided.

'Are you alright child?'

Shakelle asked and I growled.

'Of course I'm not fu-I mean of course I'm not alright. I practically came into this world screaming profanities and now I can't use them.'

I said as I stood up and pulled on my sandal and headed for my closet. I pulled on a red halter top and looked down at the black skirt I was wearing. It had splits on either side and I was wearing shorts underneath, but I bet Sakura would still want me to sit properly. I swear, my lady lessons aren't working nearly as well as Sakura's screw-you-Sasuke lessons.

'If we don't get going soon, we'll be late.'

Shakelle said and I sighed as I went over to my window.

"Yeah yeah."

I said before jumping out onto the rooftops. We had gotten another mission today, we were suppose to guard some noblewoman from Konoha to some village in the rocks that I wasn't too interested in learning the name of. All I knew was that it was going to be a six day trip and I wasn't allowed to cuss.

I made my way along the rooftops until I got to the gate where Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were already waiting. I landed next to Sakura and smiled at the others.

"Morning guys."

I said and they returned the greeting like usual. Naruto smiling brightly and Sasuke just nodding. I turned to Sakura and was surprised she'd taken to wearing the eyeliner even without me telling her. I think she's started to like it. I pulled her to the side away from the other two and asked her for the latest.

"It's wonderful! You were right. Yesterday once you and Kakashi sensei went home me, Sasuke, and Naruto continued training right? Well Naruto fell out of a tree and I went over to see if he was okay and Sasuke landed next to me and said to ignore the brat, talking about Naruto and I turned and glared at Sasuke and said 'He's my teammate you idiot. If you don't like it, then you can just deal with it Uchiha' you should have seen the look on his face!"

She practically screamed and I smiled at her. I'd noticed the first time I'd asked her how it was going that Sakura liked to talk. I looked past her shoulder and smiled when I saw Sasuke was looking straight at Sakura.

"You're right, it is working."

I said looking back at her.

"Keep this up until the end of this mission, then slowly and I do mean slowly start to pay him some attention, but keep calling him names, but drop the Saasypoo one though the look on his face when you said it was hilarious."

I said and she smiled at me as she remembered it.

"Thank you so much Alixa."

She said and suddenly hugged me.

"Y-You're welcome."

I said and she pulled back, smiled at me, and ran over to Naruto smile still in place. I shook my head at her and walked over to them and leaned against the gate while we waited for Kakashi to show up. I blushed as I thought about what had happened over the past week. I'd gone to the bar with Anko almost every night and every night was a new experience. One time Genma had managed to convince me to go out on the dance floor with him and just as I was getting into the song Kakashi suddenly grabbed me and said we were leaving, then once outside said goodnight to me and left. Then another time was when a guy at the bar had offered to take me out on a date. He was cute and a year younger than me and I had been considering it, but Kakashi who had been standing beside me and heard said we had training that day so I couldn't only for it to turn out that Kakashi cancelled training that day. But the weirdest thing was while me and the others were doing a D class mission of trying to capture some lady's cat. Naruto had chased it up a tree and I had climbed up after it. Just as I was about to catch it it ran and the others ran off to chase after it. I'd tried to climb down, but slipped and started to fall, but Kakashi came out of nowhere and caught me, but we both wound up falling to the ground with me ontop of him and his arms wrapped around my waist. We'd both blushed, though his was harder to see because of that mask, and he had avoided me for two days after that. I'm not sure what was going on with Kakashi, but it was slowly starting to get on my nerves with how he was acting around me. He wouldn't spar with me anymore, he'd avoid being close to me unless the others were around, and he avoided eye contact as much as he could, and I just had a feeling like this mission was going to be my breaking point.

"Good morning guys."

I heard Kakashi's voice as he appeared behind Sasuke and them.

"Morning sensei."

Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto all said in unison. I just looked at Kakashi to see if he was going to avoid eye contact again. He didn't disappoint. He looked at me but before he looked me in the eyes he looked away. I frowned and pushed off from the wall.

"Let's get going, I don't want to be on this mission longer than we have to be."

I said harshly before walking out of the village. I waited till they all passed me and started running, I brought up the rear so I could freely glare at the back of Kakashi's head. Normally being ignored like this would piss me off, but with it being Kakashi it was just upsetting me and I didn't understand why.

'I'm telling you, it's because you're in love with him.'

Shakelle said and I growled at her to be quiet, but when Sasuke and Sakura looked at me in shock I blushed as I realized I'd growled outloud. It took us several hours, but we finally reached the mid-point where we were going to pick up the noblewoman. We walked through the village to the restaurant the mission scroll had said she'd be inside when we arrived. Kakashi walked inside and me and the others waited outside. I leaned against the side of the building and listened to my surroundings to make sure nothing was going on and tried my best to ignore Kakashi and the noblewoman's conversation, but it wasn't going so well.

"Kakashi-kun?"

A feminine voice asked and I heard a chair being slid back.

"Yes, are you Meyara Brikezuki-san?"

Kakashi asked and I heard the woman laugh.

"Yes, but please call me Meyara."

She said and I heard Kakashi laugh uncomfortably.

"Alright Meyara-san. My team is waiting outside."

He said and I heard his footsteps come towards the door, but the woman's followed.

"Wait! Please, won't you have dinner with me first?"

She asked and I suppressed the urge to growl.

"I can't, we must get going."

Kakashi said, but I heard the woman whine.

"Please? I already paid."

She said and I heard Kakashi sigh before two chairs were pulled out. I growled outright causing the others to look at me.

"Umm, Alixa, is everything alright?"

Naruto asked hesitantly.

"Just peachy."

I growled out and he flinched at the tone in my voice. I heard the woman laugh and felt my teeth lengthen with my anger and knew my eyes had changed color. I closed them so the others wouldn't see and clenched my hands together to try and reign in my emotions, but when I heard Kakashi's laughter I lost it and my eyes snapped open and Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto all jumped back when they saw them.

"Tell Kakashi sensei that I've gone ahead to make sure it's safe. I'll join you when I'm done."

I said and disappeared before any of them could respond.

'Now where are we really going?'

Shakelle asked within my mind and I growled my response to her, knowing she'd understand me.

'Yes. It's been far too long since we last changed.'

She said and I simply growled in response as I jumped across the rooftops at speeds no one could see until I reached the forest. Once I was surrounded by trees I let Shakelle's power surround me until I fell on all fours, then I started running.

-Sasuke-

I stared in shock at the place where Alixa had disappeared.

"Okay, you guys saw her eyes too right? I'm not going crazy right?"

Naruto asked and both Sakura and I nodded.

"That was kinda scary."

Sakura said and I nodded in agreement.

"And what was up with those growls? They sounded almost animal like."

I said, but none of them seemed to have an answer. Some time later Kakashi came out of the restaurant with a woman on his arm. She was a good couple feet shorter than Kakashi, but I couldn't deny she was beautiful. She had black hair to her mid-back, blue eyes that reminded me of the sky, and a rather curvy body. She was any man's dream woman, but not mine. Over the course of the past two weeks I'd found that I had started to like Sakura, but it annoyed me to no end that she no longer seemed to care whether or not I got hurt or not and she constantly cared about Naruto. She no longer called me 'Sasuke-kun' like she used to, hell, she no longer paid me any attention unless on missions and the few times we did exchange words she called me 'Uchiha' or 'emo boy'. One time she'd even called me Saasypoo when I'd cut my hand during one of the few sparring matches we'd had and I cried out.

-FLASHBACK-

I ducked to avoid Sakura's attack only to be knocked forward from behind. I turned with kunai in hand only to have it knocked out of my hand and the blade slice my palm. I cried out and held my bleeding hand to my chest.

"Aw what's the matter Saasypoo? Did I cut you? Too bad."

Sakura said and I looked at her in shock. Not only had she managed to disarm me, hurt me, and say she didn't care, she just called me a rather embarrassing name and wasn't blushing like a mad woman, in all actuality I was blushing a bit.

-END FLASHBACK-

Since then I've been trying to get her to go back to the way she was, but nothing I do makes her call me 'Sasuke-kun' again or look at me the way she did. Though I will admit, her cold attitude has reduced a little bit and she'll talk to me every now and then, but she still calls me Uchiha or emo boy. I'm not sure what it is about her that's changed so much that I like her now, but I want her to look at me the way she did no matter what it takes.

"Where's Alixa?"

Kakashi asked as he looked around, only just now noticing she was gone.

"She said she was going to scout ahead and she'd join us when she was done."

Sakura said and Kakashi seemed to be in deep thought before nodding and starting to walk down the street.

"Come on emo boy, let's move."

Sakura called and Naruto laughed at her comment before I glared at him. We ran after our sensei and charge until we caught up to them, then we slowed to a walk as we made it out of the village. I kept glancing at Sakura and tensed when she met my eyes once.

"What do you want emo boy?"

She asked and I sighed.

"You can call me Sasuke, you know that right?"

I asked and she simply shrugged before speeding up until she was instep with Naruto with me bringing up the rear. I glared at my blonde haired teammate until Sakura called back to me.

"Hurry up Sasuke, we don't want to leave you behind!"

I mentally smiled at the fact she called me by my name and leisurely sped up until I was instep with her. I wasn't going to let it show how happy her calling me by my name made me.

-Kakashi-

I frowned when Sakura told me that Alixa had decided to go on ahead, but there really wasn't much I could do about it now. The whole way out of the village I couldn't stop thinking back to the conversation I'd had with Iruka last night about Anko and the others had showed up at the bar.

-FLASHBACK-

"I just don't know what to do Iruka. Any time I see her I want to go up to her and hug her. When she's upset I want to make her smile. When she's sparring with someone, I want to be that someone. I got jealous when Genma was dancing with her, when that boy asked her out I wanted to hunt him down and kill him. When she fell out of that tree I was so afraid she'd get hurt. She's taken over every one of my thoughts and I can't get her out of my head."

I said and Iruka laughed at me.

"It's simple, you're in love with her."

He said and I groaned as I laid my head on the table.

"I was afraid of that."

I said and heard him laugh again.

"Why? She's not a minor. She's a legal adult and only two years younger than you. It's obvious she likes you too."

He said and my head shot up and I stared at him.

"What?"

I asked and he smiled at me.

"Oh come on Kakashi, you can't tell me you haven't noticed."

He said and when I just continued to look at him he smiled.

"Then you'll just have to see for yourself."

He said and I groaned.

"I can't love her Iruka, she's my student."

I said and he just shrugged at me.

"I don't know what to tell you, but if you keep acting the way you are you're going to push her away."

He said and I looked at him confused, but before I could say anything Anko, Genma, Asuma, Kurenai, Guy, and Alixa showed up.

-END FLASHBACK-

"Kakashi sensei, it's starting to get dark."

Sakura said and I looked around as I came back to reality.

"Alright, we'll keep going a little bit more before setting up for camp."

I said and the others nodded, but when Meyara said she was getting tired we stopped and made camp. Sasuke and Sakura gathered firewood while I listened to Meyara talk about her hometown. Once the fire was made we sat in silence until Meyara started to complain about being hungry. I tried to ignore her until she pulled on my arm and started to whine.

"Kakashi-kun, please send one of your team members to get food."

She begged and I was about to do just that when a deer carcass was suddenly dropped at our feet making Meyara scream. I looked up to see Alixa walk past me and sit down on the ground far enough away from the fire so that I couldn't see her face, but I could just make out her eyes and they weren't their normal storm cloud gray. They were pure gold.

-Alixa-

Even after running for a while my emotions were still strong and the fact that I could smell that woman's arousal wasn't making it any better.

'I need something to let my emotions out since I can't cuss.'

I thought as I put more force into my push off from the ground as I ran.

'Hunt. When we get back the others will be hungry. Hunt, kill, and take it back to camp.'

Shakelle said and I smiled at her in my mind.

'Have I ever told you how much I love it when you do that?'

I asked and she just smiled at me from inside my mind. I slowed to a walk and sniffed at the air. Ignoring the woman I scented a few deer not too far off and started stalking them. I hid in the grass and singled out the easiest one. It was a doe about two years old, but she had a limp in her back leg.

'Puuurrfect.'

I thought and heard Shakelle laugh at the unintended joke. I stepped forward, but froze when I stepped on a twig. I stayed still while the doe's head shot up, but after a while she went back to grazing and I stalked closer until I was barely a foot away. I leaned back on my haunches before pouncing on her. It made a startled cry and tried to buck me off it's back, but I sank my teeth into the side of it's neck and dug my claws into it's back and stomach and after a while it stopped moving and I held a dead doe in my teeth. Because it was easier to drag in tiger form I stayed that way until I got to the edge of my team's campsite. I heard the woman complain about being hungry and scoffed at her. If she were to be left alone in the wilderness, she'd die within the first five minutes. I changed back and hoisted the dead doe over my shoulders and kept myself hidden as I walked into the campsite beside Kakashi. The others were too preoccupied with something else to notice me.

"Kakashi-kun, please send one of your team members to get food."

The woman begged and I suppressed a growl as I threw the deer carcass to the ground at her feet. I smirked when she screamed. I walked past Kakashi and the others and sat down on the ground out of the way of the fire-light. I stared at Kakashi and for the first time in about a week he looked me in the eyes.

A/N: Now, who else doesn't like Meyara? Read and review!