Chapter 21:

She heard a sound in the distance that made the white hair on the nape of her neck, stand up. Silently, she raised her head from her paws and listened intently. The howl came again, stirring her senses and calling to the wild spirit that lay hidden, deep within her. She slowly got to her feet, as her innate wariness cautioned her to use her eyes, ears and her keen sense of smell to alert her to the possible dangers that might lie in wait for her outside of her den. For a third time, the howl came once more and the call to the wild was so tempting, so compelling, that it was almost irresistible.

Her natural reluctance gradually eroded, replaced by the knowledge that the adventure that awaited her promised to be glorious. Her restless spirit hungered for excitement. Her every instinct thirsted for a soul mate.

Silently, she moved from her safe haven into the shadowy, moonlit night. She slipped between the trees to where the ground began to slope upward, following an invisible trail that would lure her to her destiny.

Suddenly...

...she saw him and stopped dead in her tracks.

His light colored silhouette was outlined by the moonlight as he stood on the summit of the hill with his head thrown back. He was the most magnificent male she had ever seen with his powerfully built structure and his alluring coat of fur streaked with the typical black stripes of the Tiger. Instinctively, she knew the male would be dominant, even possibly dangerous. Yet she was ready to follow wherever he led.

He scented her presence, turned to look at her and roared softly a welcome that was elemental and primal. She drew closer, answering his call and saw that his sleek, black-stripped pelt was a beautiful silver-grey; not like her own which was pure white stripped with black. His eyes were two pools of ebony ink, that reflected her very image in their center.

He took a step toward her and she growled a warning in her throat. He ignored her and came closer, stopping only inches from her. She watched him with an unwavering gaze before she made a more softer, almost gentler sound of caution, like one of uncertainty...

The male then leaned in, his tongue coming out of his mouth to lick her cheek and taste her. The rest of her resistance left her right then and there. Closing her eyes in resignation, she too leaned forward, and nuzzled into his neck, accepting him.

At once, they loped down the hill, running faster and faster in a wild frenzy joy, relishing their freedom, ecstatic that they had found each other. They covered hundreds of miles of territory, over fields, through streams and woods until dawn began to lighten the sky. They flushed a convey of birds and playfully chased them though they had little interest in hunting at the moment. The game of mating was far more pleasurable and held them both in its thrall.

Exhilarated by the nightlong dash, they found a clearing in the heart of the forest. He stretched his sleek body out in the grass and she lay down beside him, admiring his perfect male beauty. When his head turned to lock eyes with hers once again, she felt for the first time in her life, the primal heat of arousal in her belly. A soft mew left her mouth before she playfully rolled onto her back, yielding to her male's dominance in alluring age-old female submission...

Sayomi awoke with a quiet start; her indigo eyes snapping wide open to see the first flush of dawn light inching in through the window on the far side of the room.

The young woman sighed while a hand came up to gently rub her forehead. "Oh my...what a dream..." she thought to herself, "...the heck brought that on?" she then wondered.

It wasn't unusual for her to have dreams; and it most certainly was never odd if they ever were about her in her second form.

However...

...what was strange about her dream was the random, reckless, and uninhibited mating game that she had participated in.

"Mating?" she thought the one word over in her head. "...utterly preposterous." she added.

Sayomi gently shifted in her position lying on her side; it was a very slight movement, but the little wiggle was enough for the young woman to become distinctively aware of a newfound, warm weight that had come onto her sometime during the night.

At first, she froze on the spot, going as far as holding her breath as she analyzed just what exactly she was feeling. The 'weight' resided on top of her trim waist and when she slowly turned her head to let her eyes sweep downward towards her side, her eyes landed on a well muscled arm that was draping itself over her torso, with its hand flat against her stomach.

Blinking once at the position of the arm, Sayomi then let her eyes continue to trail up the length of the limb, bringing her gaze to a solid rest upon an all too familiar masked face lying less than half a foot away . At first, Sayomi had felt nothing but a slow growing fury for the one responsible for letting his arm come around her like it had. But when her narrowed eyes landed on the sleeping face of the man whom the arm belonged to...

...her anger seemed to but all just melt away.

It was then that Sayomi released the breath that she had been holding as her eyes remained glued to the face of the man lying behind her. Unconsciously, the young woman shifted again, only this time turning her body slightly to get a better look at the silver-haired Jounin.

As an automatic response, he stirred softly in his sleep, his arm slightly tightening its hold around Sayomi's waist in an almost protective, if not possessive manner.

She, of course frowned but still made no move to sock the man one right in his face for having his arm there in the first place.

Instead, she just laid there and watched him.

His breathing was deep and even, his face or at least what was visible from the top of his nose and up, looked to be completely relaxed while his silver-grey hair appeared to be even more unruly then before bed. Strands of it hung loosely around his left eye, no doubt brushing his cheek in an almost tickling manner if he ever were to move even the slightest.

Yet despite the fact that his hair looked positively wild and unmanageable, it still appeared soft enough to touch. And strangely, Sayomi had a tiny urge to do just that.

Reaching a slow, careful hand out, Sayomi extend the tips of her fingers just long enough to lightly brush away the strands hanging over Kakashi's left eye. Her touch had been extremely gentle, perfectly unnoticeable.

And once she had the hair moved from over his eye, Sayomi gasped softly as her eyes traced a long, old battle scar that went from beneath his eyebrow, down across his eyelid, stopping right above his cheek bone.

Sayomi couldn't help but softly tilt her head as she examined the half-exposed face of Kakashi with curious eyes.

"Hmmm..." she calculatingly thought to herself. "...Kakashi Hatake..."

With his wild, silver-grey hair, his two eyes framed with long and surprisingly dark lashes that contradict his hair color perfectly; even with his scar and the rest of his face hidden from the nose down to his neck...

Sayomi couldn't deny the fact that he was a strangely beautiful man.

"Still..." she continued on, switching the idea away from physical attraction, "...he can infuriate me beyond words with just one look of his ebony black..."

Sayomi's thought instantly cut off when suddenly, the image from her dream, of the silver-grey male tiger with the exact same kind of eyes flashed behind her eyes.

At once, she found herself unable to breathe...it was like the wind had been completely knocked out of her; leaving her body feeling numb.

"I had dreamed about finding a soul mate..." she reminded herself dazedly, "...and Kakashi..." she paused "...he was the..."

As she remembered the rest of her dream and where it was leading to, she felt heated stirrings awaken in the pit of her stomach, just right below where Kakashi's hand was resting...

Suddenly, Sayomi blushed and the brief numbness she had felt just seconds ago turned to dismay.

Oh God!

"Oh no!" she murmured out loud in declaration of her objection. Reaching down with one hand, Sayomi swiftly tugged Kakashi's arm off her waist before she threw back the bed covers and flew from the bed. "No, no, no, no, no!" her head screamed as Sayomi bent down, retrieved her satchel from the floor and fled the main room without a single glance back.

If she had looked back, she would've seen a pair of sleepy mismatched eyes follow her with both curiosity and concern...

Entering the bathroom, Sayomi turned and firmly closed the door shut before she locking herself inside.

Dropping her satchel on the counter, Sayomi proceed to fiercely pace back and forth across the cool tile floor; wishing most fervently that its coolness would come and ease the sudden burning that she felt in her body, both inside and out.

"What is this?" she asked herself out loud through gritted teeth. When had she ever reacted like this before?

...that would be never.

Swearing, the young woman spun on her heel and turned towards the bathroom tub and shower. Within seconds she had a cold shower up and running and was already stripping off her clothes without a second thought.

Naked, she stepped beneath the icy streams of water, and Sayomi felt her body tense at the chilliness but welcomed the bracing frigidity. The shower helped cool off her feverish skin instantly, it even soothed the sensitive and heated area that lied between her legs. Thankfully.

Turning her face up to water, Sayomi sighed, shivering softly beneath the streams while her hands then reached out and found a tiny bottle of shampoo and conditioner. Pouring the mixture into the center of her hand, Sayomi brought it up to her head and began rubbing the scented goo into her scalp.

"Might as well clean up while I'm here..." she noted to herself silently as she continued to work the soapy lather into her aqua green hair till it went white with foam and smelled sweetly of coconut. Then, she thoroughly rinsed her hair out.

After finishing her washing, Sayomi shut the water off, turned and carefully stepped out onto a small bathroom rug.

Water droplets ran down the length of her body before lightly dropping to the ground without a sound while Sayomi fetched herself a towel from a shelf and quickly jumped on the task of drying herself off.

When her body was dry, Sayomi quickly bent over and flipped her hair so she could wrap it up in her towel before she straightened up and started getting into her satchel from some clean clothes. She swiftly stepped into some simple black lace panties, threw on a matching silk bra, then grabbed her dark hip-hugging skinny jeans and put those on before applying some deodorant to her underarms before finally she finished getting dressed with an off the shoulder, short sleeved top the inviting color of summer violets.

After packing up her discarded belongings back into her satchel, Sayomi reached up for the towel on her head and freed her damp hair. Tossing the used towel up onto the counter next to her, Sayomi dug out her hairbrush from her bag and efficiently ran it through her long hair till it ran smoothly down to her lower back. Then, once her brush was also put away, Sayomi grabbed her bagged, unlocked the bathroom door and left the small room feeling in complete control. Still, she needed to get away for a bit and just be by herself...

As she rounded the corner and proceeded back into the main room, she entered swiftly, letting her feet carry her back towards her side of the bed where she dropped her bag off at and turned to head for the door that would let her leave the hotel room.

Right as her hand closed around the handle, a voice suddenly stopped her,

"Going somewhere?" Kakashi calmly asked from his place on the bed.

He was wide awake now, after seeing the young woman practically fly from the bed and escape to the bathroom. And when she had walked back into the room, and head over to her side of the bed without sparing him a single glance, he figured that something clearly was bothering. He just didn't know what.

Sayomi felt all her muscles tense at the sound of his voice but did not let things go any further than that.

"Yeah..." she replied coolly, "...out."

Without giving him a chance to further pry, Sayomi turned the handle, pulled open the door and left; pulling the door shut with a firm hand before she set off down the hall and disappeared from the Bed & Breakfast without a single witness.

Back in the room, Kakashi stared blankly at the closed door where Sayomi had been just moments ago. Sighing, the silver-haired Jounin pulled back the covers, swung his legs over the side and rose to his feet.

Taking a few moments to stretch out his limbs, Kakashi then reached down to the floor where he retrieved his own bag of belongings which he then dumped out onto the bed before he picked out his clothes and began getting dressed for the new day.

"Not to mention challenging..." he mumbled out loud.

Especially if Sayomi was going to be like how she is. That was bound to cause slight bumps in the road. And Kakashi had the sure feeling that he was going to be rather busy for these next few days with that woman.

"Busy indeed..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After ten minutes or so, Kakashi was fully dressed and ready to start the day; as he left the hotel room, and securely locked it up for his departure, he lazily stuck his hands into the front pocket of his pants before he set off down the hallway. As he entered the lobby, it didn't surprise him to see no one around; it was still pretty early in the morning.

And when he stepped outside into the fresh morning air, it looked no different. The streets were still clear, and the air around him was silent with the exception of the few chirping birds hidden in the surrounding trees.

"And of course..." he noted out loud to himself as he searched for any sighting of a aqua-green haired woman with indigo eyes, "...she's nowhere in sight too."

Sighing with a soft shake of his head, Kakashi took a deep breath of air in through his nose and caught a florally sweet aroma in the air that was headed to the North part of the town. Kakashi smiled softly beneath his mask knowingly.

"Ah...you went that way, Sayomi..." he stated out loud like he was actually telling the woman in person.

Without another word, Kakashi leisurely set off on the faint trail that Sayomi had left behind.