Just a quick author's note, when I put this up, I forgot to add a few things to this chapter...so I've added new stuff (only like, a few words). It really doesn't matter if you've read it already or not. I just did it so I could clear Sasuke's and Zeni's conversation up a little. Little mistakes always get to me. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Check out the disclaimer on either Chapters 1 or 2

Chapter 4: A Gennin's chores and peppermints

"Okay team. Let's see what we have on our wonderful list of tasks today..." Kakashi said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a list.

We were on the bridge waiting for Kakashi-sensei to give out what we were to do for today. I stood between Sakura and Naruto. I didn't want to be anywhere that Uchiha kid. I figured, if I stayed away from him, he wouldn't speak to me or pay any attention to me. So far, it's worked. But, then again, he hasn't been paying attention to anyone except for Kakashi-sensei.

Kakashi cleared his throat. "First of all, we need to split into partners so we can get this done faster. Naruto, Sakura, you'll be in one group. Sasuke, Zeni, you'll be in the other."

My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. Great. Just great. Why did I have to be paired up with him?!

"Hey, Sakura-chan! We get to be partners!" Naruto cheered.

Sakura sighed and looked longingly over at Sasuke. Sasuke didn't look up.

"Sakura and Naruto, I'm counting on you two to baby-sit the kids down at the Konoha nursery."

Sakura sighed again and let herself be dragged away by Naruto to the nursery.

Kakashi looked at me and Sasuke. "You guys will walk the dogs at Konoha's shelter, twice around the city. See ya," he said as he disappeared up in smoke.

Great! Now I'm left here with that Sasuke! I thought bitterly. Could it get any worse?

"Hey," Sasuke said, getting my attention. "Are you coming or not?" he asked as he walked off the bridge and towards the inner part of town.

"C-coming!" I called. I ran after him, determined not to be left alone.

We walked down the streets, holding about three dog leashes each. I held onto mine tight. We had been walking for about twenty minutes and we weren't even a quarter of the way around Konoha yet.

I didn't dare speak. He seemed so cold and distant. Not that I was sad or anything that we didn't speak, but I think I'd rather talk to someone I hardly knew then listen to dogs pant and bark.

Besides, the kid creeped me out, but, at the same time, he didn't. What was going on? Why on earth does he look like my father's killer? Could my father's killer have had a kid? No, that wasn't possible. The killer was too young. Why, then? Why does he resemble-

"What happened to your team?"

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. "Huh?" I asked stupidly.

"I said what happened to your team? Why are you on ours?" Sasuke asked stiffly.

I smiled inwardly. Even though he sounded cold and uncaring, underneath all that, he sounded like a normal kid. Not a killer. Not a murderer. I shrugged. "I really don't know the details. They were killed while they were out training one morning, at least, that's what I was told."

"Hn," he grunted. "If your whole team was killed, then how is it that you're still living?"

"I had the flu that day. My mom wouldn't let me go to training," I replied. "They went without me."

"Oh."

We stopped talking for a moment. We continued to walk, minding our own business. Then-

"What was your name again?" he asked.

"Kinieto Zeni."

"Kinieto? Name sounds familiar."

I giggled a bit, as I put one of my hands on my head. "Yeah, my dad was pretty popular. I wouldn't be surprised, being an ANBU member and all that," I said.

"Was?" he questioned.

Shoot. I should've thought before I spoke. Why did I let my guard down? Was I softening up? I cursed myself. How could've I been so careless? I ignored the error and waved it off. "Yeah."

"What is his name?"

I decided to counter. Out of all people, he was the last person I wanted to tell what happened to my father, but I couldn't discuss anything about his death so it didn't really matter. "Why are you asking so many questions about me?" I asked as I put my arm down.

Sasuke shrugged. "I dunno. Just curious."

"Curious?" Why was he curious all of a sudden about me? What did I do to attract his attention?

Maybe, he turned his attention to you because you were not trying to attract his attention, a voice within me said.

Shut up, I answered back inside my head.

"Yeah, just curious..."

I lazily walked up the stairs to my apartment, carrying the gifts my new teammates gave to me. It had been a long day. Once we were done walking the dogs, we had to weed in some old lady's garden who kept on yelling at me that I was tearing out things other than weeds. After that, Sasuke and I had to help grade some of Iruka-sensei's papers from his students. Man, did he have a lot of students.

I passed a window. It was dark. Maybe about nine at night. Twelve hours of doing pointless work. We didn't even train to become ninjas! I did hear Naruto scoffing at the Ichiraku (that's where the team met up at midday to have lunch) about me not having to do a test that Kakashi gave to him, Sakura, and Sasuke. He said it was unfair. Apparently, the test that they had to do was pretty hard.

I put my key into the lock and opened up the door to my home. "Mom?" I called. "I'm home!"

Mom sat on the couch, with a bored look on her face. She looked up at me and her face brightened. "Zeni!" she said happily. She jumped off the couch and embraced me. "So, how was it?"

"Just dandy," I replied, in a sarcastic tone. Why did I have a person like him on my team? He looked just like father's killer! I began to rant inside my head,

She let go of me. A show of concern grew on her face. "Zeni, what's wrong?"

I began to walk to my room. "Nothing," I muttered. I walked into my bedroom and slammed the door shut. I dumped the gifts onto my bed. I picked each one up and examined them.

The little pink package was Sakura-chan's. I picked it up and unwrapped it. A box? I opened it up. Inside, was a pink diamond hanging from a small silver chain. I smiled as I put it around my neck.

I didn't bother to open Naruto-kun's gift, since he never took the time to wrap it and I could plainly see it was ramen. Maybe I'll eat it later tonight.

Now, was Sasuke's gift. I took it with trembling hands and stared at it. It was wrapped in plain brown paper, nothing special about it at all. Carefully, I began to unwrap it. When it was done, I placed the paper on my bed and stared at the object in my hand. "Candy?" I asked to the object.

In my hand was a little bag full of red and white peppermints. I loved peppermints! Was this a coincidence that he gave me my favorite candies? I used to eat these all the time when I was little. Now I'm really freaked out.

Why peppermints? He doesn't seem like the kid that would be giving out candy. I stared at them for a moment, then placed it on my dresser.

I grabbed Naruto-kun's ramen gift and left the room, heading towards the kitchen.

Reviewer Responses:

Hisoka316: You can see a SasukeXOC pairing coming on? Yeah, it seems to be leaning towards that direction. Maybe it'll happen. As things are leading right now, it most likely will. Thanks for the review!

Anna: Hey, glad you liked it! And thanks for reading 'Where our Hearts Lie'. I'm glad you enjoyed it too! Thanks for the review!

lukeluke: The reason why I say those things is because; I'm pretty hard on myself with critiquing my work. I always find something wrong or out of place. I'm glad you liked it though! : D Thanks for putting my story on your favorites list! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

swt-angel-babi3: Yep! You got it right! He is the killer! Thanks for the compliments! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Akari Kametsura: Yeah, you guessed right. Thanks for telling me that my story's really detailed and all. That made me very happy! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Legna03: Thanks for the compliments! They were happy! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Monkey Shoes: Thanks for the nice compliments! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

sUmbOdi: Glad you liked the last chapter! And about your question...I honestly don't know. I wanted Zeni to pair up with Naruto at first, but now, it seems like Sasuke and her will be the most likely pairing. Hope that helps! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Hey guys! I hope you guys liked this chapter! Thank you SO much in encouraging me to continue! Yay! Kudos for you! Wow! Look! I actually updated on this fic within a week instead of a month! Go me!

One quick thing about last chapter. In Japan, you give people gifts instead of them giving gifts to you. For example, if you moved to a new home, you would bake cookies or something and give them out to your neighbors. I'm sorry for the screw up, but I really wanted to put the gift giving part in there. So, don't flame me for that, please.

Please R&R! The more reviews I get, the faster I'll update! Hope to see you soon!