'Again.' Kaiya said, panting, as she held her tachi.

This was just a couple of days before the final stage of the exams, and, once she caught the trick, Tenten proved herself to be a master at using swords.

Tenten hurried towards Kaiya and pressed her katana* against Kaiya's sword and, after a few moments of resistance, Tenten slowly lowered her sword. 'I need a break.'

Kaiya nodded in understanding and put her sword aside as well.

'Alright.' She said. 'While you do that, I'll try to climb that darn tree with chakra and see how much I'll last before my chakra runs all out.'

Tenten narrowed her eyebrows as she sat down under a tree. 'Aren't you tired? We've been fighting on and off for over 2 hours already, and you barely even rest!'

Kaiya sighed a little bit as she looked down at the girl. 'I'm trying to work on my resistance as well, ya know? You never know when you'll need it.'

Tenten thought for a second, before getting up on her feet. 'You know what? You're right.'

She walked in front of Kaiya, who gave her a questioning look and looked into her eyes. 'Fight me, but no swords or kunais. Only ninjutsu and taijutsu.'

Kaiya looked at the girl, a little surprised, before regaining her composure. 'Fine.'

The two put all their weaponry away and, before any of them knew it, they were in the middle of a serious fight.

Kaiya jumped in the air just above Tenten and tried to push her to the ground, only for the girl to turn around and resell the move by kicking her in the stomach.

Just as she did that, Kaiya grabbed Tenten by her shoulder and served her multiple kicks. Without giving the girl the chance to defend herself, Kaiya put her hands on Tenten's shoulders and pushed herself further up in the air, before serving a final kick to Tenten that eventually threw her to the ground.

Tenten rolled on the ground and hurried to grab one of her kunai. 'Change of plans! We can use weapons.'

Kaiya huffed as she landed, looking at Tenten carefully. Tenten made a dart at Kaiya but, just as she was about to land an attack, she found herself meeting a log along with some smoke.

'Hey, you can use the Replacement technique!' Tenten exclaimed.

Before she even realised what happened, Kaiya suddenly appeared behind her and kicked her on her back, making her lose balance and fall. As she did that, Kaiya didn't give her a chance to react and blocked her by, once on the ground, putting a kunai at her neck.

'Yeah! I've learned some stuff too, y'know?' Kaiya said.

Suddenly, a cloud of smoke appeared, only for Kaiya to notice that she didn't hold a kunai against someone, but rather something. She squinted her eyes, only to curse under her breath in the realisation that she got tricked by her own medicine.

She stood up and kicked the log as hard as she could, with no regrets. For a moment, she stood still, trying to locate the girl.

For a brief moment, even the leaves stopped rustling as every smell disappeared. Darn it, I didn't know she's so good at covering her tracks, Kaiya thought.

She tensed her hand around her kunai and turned her head around a few times. Where was Tenten...? Seeing how nothing happened, Kaiya made the mistake of relaxing her muscles for a second with a quiet sigh.

Just as she did that, a wave of kunais bolted towards her. Kaiya noticed them last minute from the corner of her eye and turned around to dodge them.

'Earth release: Mud wall.' Kaiya said under her breath as she formed the fitting hand signs, before spitting a large amount of mud that immediately created a wall.

The wall wasn't the best mud wall ever made -it wasn't much taller than Kaiya herself, nor much thicker than four fingers next to each other- but, for a fact, it made its job and defended Kaiya well.

But one thing Kaiya didn't expect was, as she turned around, the kunais rose up on their own and aimed at Kaiya, yet again. This time, her defence wasn't so good, as she only used her kunai. The result? This time, there were much more scratches than Kaiya wanted.

After all the kunais dropped once and for all, Tenten made herself present, with a huge grin on her face.

'Alright, alright, no need to mock me...I'll let you win this time.' Kaiya said, raising her hands in defeat.

The two girls walked and sat under one tree, giving Kaiya the chance to drink all the water she brought with herself.

'It was a nice match, but I still need to work more on the chakra control, though.' Kaiya said, wiping her mouth with her hand. 'Do you know any other jutsu I could learn?'

'Well... I don't know. You already can climb trees with no problem and you can create a defence... I can't really think of anything right now. Taking that you can defend yourself and how good you can work with kunais and taijutsu, I think you're fine for now.'

'Hn.' Kaiya nodded.

'Hey, I have an idea!' Tenten jolted up, making Kaiya shriek back in surprise by her sudden action. 'Why don't you ask Guy-sensei to teach you the summoning technique?'

'The... summoning tehnique?' Kaiya asked, obviously confused.

'Yeah! You can summon various animals that you can train to become ninjas.'

Kaiya frowned, amused. 'That's silly.'

'It's not, I swear! Do you know Sakura's teacher? Kakashi-sensei?' Tenten asked, as Kaiya nodded. 'He has an entire pack of ninken*.'

'Ninja dogs?'

Tenten nodded. 'According to Guy-sensei, Kakashi-sensei always had a thing for dogs. He grew up with them or something...'

'What can Guy-sensei summon?' Kaiya tilted her head.

'A turtle.' Tenten answered, bluntly. ' I-I know it sounds silly, but that turtle can really be useful.'

Kaiya blinked two times as she took a breath. 'It sounds good and all, but there are only three days until the finals. It would be impossible for me to learn it.'

Tenten shrugged. 'You can try!'

Kaiya said.

'Maybe after the finals. Now I want to focus on what I already can do and where I can improve.' She said, as she got up. 'I don't know about you, but I'm starving right now. Do you want to come with me?'

A wide smile appeared on Tenten's face.

'Sure!' She said.

'Maybe we can have another match with the swords after.' Kaiya smiled back, as she collected her kunai and put her Tachi on her back.

Meanwhile, the Hokage's Office was full of tensity. The third Hokage held two papers received from the hospital, as a nurse sat there tense, along with a particular ANBU member.

'So... they are in fact, related?' The Hokage asked.

The two papers held each blood and DNA results, one with the name Kiba Inuzuka, and one with the name Kaiya Takahashi.

'It seems so, Hokage-sama.' The nurse said.

'Thank you, Ayame-san.' The Hokage nodded. 'I'd like to keep these papers a little longer.'

The woman nodded, before leaving the room.

'Why wouldn't she give her name? Could she possibly be an exile from the Inuzuka clan?' Asumi, still wearing her ANBU mask, asked.

'Perhaps, but then I'm sure that I- or the Fourth Hokage himself, if that was the case- would've known of it.' The Hokage asked.

'So what do we do?' Asumi asked.

The Hokage sighed. 'I'd like to ask her about this whole situation myself.'

'Should I continue on watching her? She didn't show any suspicious activity.'

'Speaking of that... I think that you may, in fact, stop with controlling her non-stop.' He said, unsure of his decision. 'Could it be much asked if you would still check on her, from time to time?'

'No, sir. Not at all.!' Asumi said.

'I'm glad. You may be off, now.' He said, and the woman disappeared immediately. 'Akira-san, please search for Kaiya and bring her here, please.'

Akira, the ex-Konoha entrance guard, recently got promoted to guarding the Hokage's door. In his opinion, it was an honour. As he heard the Hokage's orders, he bowed, before rushing to fulfil them.

In a couple of minutes, he was back. This time, accompanied by someone.

'You wanted to see me, Hokage-sama?' Kaiya asked, with a bow.

The Hokage smiled a little to himself. From when he last talked to her, her manners have definitely improved. Not alone the manners, but she looked healthier, too; she was cleaner and had definitely lesser bruises.

'Yes, I did.' He said. 'I wanted to ask you something about your family.'

Kaiya tensed immediately as her heart began racing. Could they have found out about her family? Did Kiba tell them anything that might've uncover her lies?

'What about them?' She asked, ice-cold.

'Are you related, by any chance, to Kiba Kiba Inuzuka?'

Kaiya sighed in relief, her body leaving behind some of the tensity, but not all.

'Yes, I am.' She said. 'He's my cousin.'

'Your cousin? I see.' The Hokage thought for a moment. 'Did you come here in Konoha because of him?'

Kaiya frowned. 'Sir, I absolutely had no idea that my cousin lived here. When I first came here, I gave you an answer about why I am here. My answer didn't change one bit ever since.'

The Hokage looked down for a few moments. He didn't expect such determination coming from her.

'I understand.' The Hokage said as he looked back up. 'That was all I wanted to ask you. Thank you for being fair with me.'

'You're welcome, sir.' Kaiya answered, before turning away and taking her leave.

That evening before the finals was a rather quiet one. It seemed like even the Konoha residents, ninja or not, were quietly waiting for the final part of the Chuunin exams, where outsiders were welcome to watch the fights.

Nobody could blame them, though- there weren't many attractions in that large metropolitan from the Land of Fire.

'Are you excited for tomorrow?' Lee asked, as he slurped some noodles his bowl of ramen.

That day, Lee asked his team if they were free that evening -since, willingly or not, he couldn't train and had nothing better to do- so they could go to Ichiraku's Ramen. Neji, as expected, refused and Tenten apologised that she couldn't come due to the fact that she already had planned a dinner with her own family. Since Kaiya didn't train at such late hours and didn't have any other plans, she accepted. And that meant that dinner would be just the two of them.

'To be honest, I don't know.' Kaiya said with all the honesty within her. 'The opponents all seem really threatening. Besides...'

'Hm? Besides what?' Lee tilted his head to a side in curiosity.

'The boy you fought in the preliminaries -Gaara, was it?- is the biggest threat there is, I think. Ever since I saw what he did to you and what he's capable of, I keep thinking about what if I'll have to fight him. You know, that kind of thing...'

'Don't stress yourself too much, Kaiya-san.' Lee smiled. 'I'm sure that if it gets too serious, they won't let you die.'

'Are you sure?' Kaiya sighed, as she rolled the noodles in her bowl around her chopsticks.

'Guy-sensei will be there, and so will be I.'

Kaiya smiled. In a way or another, that felt reassuring. After all, Guy-sensei stepped in when Lee nearly died. He would do the same for her as well, wouldn't he...?

'Thanks, Lee.' She said. 'I feel a little better now.'

The rest of the dinner went quite quietly, as the two enjoyed each their bowl of ramen while having other topics than the Chuunin exams. The two eventually finished and paid for the food and it was, alas, time to say goodbye.

'Do you live far from here?' Lee asked as they exited the restaurant.

'Not really. About five minutes on foot from here.'

'Let me walk you home.'

'I'm- I'm sorry?'

'Would you let me walk you home?' Lee rephrased.

'It's not necessary.' Kaiya laughed, awkwardly. 'It's quite late and-'

'Exactly- I want to make sure you get home safely. Besides, I don't live too far away.'

Kaiya looked away for a second, in thought. He was a nice company to have around, and if he insisted he didn't live far away, what would she have to loose?

'Ok, then.' She eventually said. 'Let's go.'

Just as Kaiya approximated, they were in front of an apartment complex in about five minutes. It wasn't anything fancy, but there was nothing to whine about.

'Is this where you live?' Lee asked, looking at the building.

'Yeah. Nothing too fancy, but-' Kaiya said as she took out some keys from her pockets. 'For one person, it's just great.'

They entered the building and, after two flights of stairs, they finally reached Kaiya's apartment. Kaiya opened the door and entered immediately, but Lee had to stay in one place and look around for a second.

It was a fairly spacious square room with a small kitchen and a living room -that consisted of only a red couch, a small table made out of wood and glass and a small rug- that might've once seemed different, without various blankets and rugs placed on the floor.

'What's with all the...?' Lee asked, pointing to all the blankets and rugs.

'All that?' Kaiya laughed. 'Sorry 'bout that- old habits.'

Lee preferred to only nod. One thing was clear was him. Sometimes, you better take your time with things you don't understand. He looked at the clock on the wall and he couldn't help but feel a little surprised. It was already 10 pm.

'It's already that late, huh?' Kaiya said, looking in the same direction. 'Do you live far, Lee?'

'I live... five kilometres from here.' He said, still looking at the clock.

'That's quite a bit. Do you want to stay here over night?' Kaiya offered.

'Over... night?' Lee asked, his head jolting in Kaiya's direction in confusion.

'Yeah. Five kilometres is quite a distance, and I think it's common sense how dangerous streets can be at night. Besides, it wouldn't really bother me.'

Lee blinked twice in surprise and considered for a moment.

'Thank you Kaiya-san.' He said. 'I hope you don't mind I'll sleep on the couch.'

Kaiya smiled. 'Let be bring you a pillow and a blanket.'

Lee thanked as he sat on the couch, his crutches next to him, and admired the apartment. It wasn't much, but it was just enough for one person. Just as he thought that Kaiya entered back the room, now holding a pillow and a blanket.

'Thank you, Kaiya-san.' He said, as he reached for the pillow and blanket.

'No problem.' Kaiya said, before walking away. 'Good night, Lee.'

'Good night...'

Most of the night went rather quietly. Much to Lee's surprise, the red couch Kaiya owned turned out to be very comfortable, so he was able to sleep well on it. Well, almost the entire night, though.

Somewhere around two, maybe three in the morning, he woke up to a sound. Still half-asleep, he raised his head up and listened carefully. This time, he could almost tell what it was.

The sound was like a whimper, coming from a small hallway where he assumed to be Kaiya's bedroom. Maybe she's having a bad dream., he thought as he laid his head back on his pillow.

As he did that, the whimpering continued only so that moments later, a scream could be heard. Lee jumped to his feet, only to fall back on the couch in pain. He bit his lip for a second in pain, before grabbing his crutches and got up in a slower manner, determined to find out what happened.

He walked down the small hallway only to find a single, half-open door. He pushed the door open and noticed a Kaiya full of sweat on her head and breathing heavily.

'Are you alright?' He said as he walked up to her and sat on her bed.

'I'm... I'm sorry. I woke you up.' Kaiya said with a shaky voice, between breaths.

'Don't worry about me- I'm fine.' Lee spoke, softer. 'Did you have a bad dream?'

Kaiya looked at the boy for a second, before letting her back fall back on the bed

'I guess you could say that, except it's reality.'

Lee thought for a moment.

'The Chuunin exams?' He guessed.

'No.' Kaiya shook her head. 'It doesn't matter.'

Lee closed his eyes for a second, meditating.

'Ok then.' He said as he prepared his crutches to get up. 'If you need me, just-'

He didn't get to finish his sentence, as Kaiya reached for his hand. Normally, she would've been disgusted by her own actions, but right now, she was too tired to care.

'Please stay for a little longer.'

Lee looked at the girl for a moment. Her eyes, although tired, had a begging look he couldn't refuse.

'Alright.' He said as he responded to Kaiya's grip.

A/N

Hey y'all. How are you guys doing?

So this chapter is much shorter and unexpected than the other chapters. Why, you may ask? Well, I literally just wrote most of this today and, at the end, I was thinking, should I add the finals?

In the end, I was like 'y'know what? Leave it. The finals have a lot of plot.' So, I guess I'll leave the finals and the whole revealing for the next chapters because, to be honest? There'll be much plot, and I really wanted people to enjoy the fight between Kaiya and Tenten good. So yeah, here we are.

I also felt like I neglected Asumi for a really long time, so here we are!

As I said, school starts soon, so don't expect updates VERY often, but I'll do my best on it, so don't forget that.

So, see you in the next chapters, I guess!

-Avery