Kira found herself holding herself inches away from the ground, blood dripping from her nose, pooling up beneath her on the dirt. There was no sound at first, but soon the sounds flooded back to her ears like ocean waves, creating a slight disturbance. Her head swam. Her body ached. Her arms shook as she slowly tried to get up, wiping a smear of blood off of her mouth.

"Hang on there," a voice softly said. But the voice was unfamiliar, and what's more, an unfamiliar hand had grasped onto her arm. Kira whipped around in fright to see a young man smiling at her through his tousled dark brown hair. He smiled at her with glinting gold eyes.

"You did it," he smiled, "You won."

Kira couldn't completely comprehend what he had said, but soon the words started to make sense. She only nodded, the first thought that entered her mind being "What happened to Akemi?"

Before she could ask the question that was now taunting her mind, she suddenly lurched over and gargled up blood from her throat, watching it spatter beneath her in the dust.

"Whoa, we need medical ops over here, now!" A voice commanded from far off.

"Get over here, all of you," another voice barked. Kira's vision became dizzy as she wiped her mouth, wincing at the sour taste, and sat up, watching the world spin around her.

"Where's Akemi?" Kira asked quietly, feeling the lights from above her blind her eyes.

"Get her teacher over here," another unfamiliar voice commanded, the sound of whispers from above her growing more prominent, "She'd probably calm down if she saw him."

"No, wait," Kira pleaded as best as she could, feeling a pair of arms wrap around her, "No, I wanna see Akemi."

"Just be quiet," a voice said in her ear, causing it to flick at the vibrations, "You need to stop talking." Kira suddenly began to pry herself from the man's arms, swinging her feet as hard as she could.

"No! Let go! Let go!" She yelled, quickly holding onto her mouth as she felt the blood rise up in her throat again.

"Kira, don't kick the nice man," a voice suddenly said in its calm and aloof tone. Kira's ears pricked up and she looked up at her teacher's smiling face.

"Kakashi sensei!" she tried to smile as a medical team next to her began to lay out a stretcher. Her smile was soon wiped away when she saw all the faces looking down on her from every direction; and an empty arena.

"Where's Akemi?" Kira asked, wriggling this way and that to look behind the medical op that held her, "Is she all right?"

"She's in the hospital," Kakashi explained, "She had critical injuries, but they think she's going to be okay."

Kira fell silent. Everything started to come back to her; the sound of the crowd gasping, the chirping of birds exploding in the air, and the anger that was flaming inside of her. She looked to the corner of the arena and saw blood smeared across the ground. A shiver went up her spine. Did she really do that to Akemi? Did she really almost kill her only friend?

"That doesn't matter now," the medical op said behind her kindly, patting her shoulder reassuringly. Kira bristled, the fur on her tail and ears doing the same, her crimson eyes narrowing as he said, "You did great; you won."

A chorus of loud screams broke out as Kira whipped around, sinking her fangs into the flesh of the man's arm. He screamed loudly, trying to move his arm in every direction possible, but her teeth were now sinking in, going deeper and deeper, blood washing up against her up until now white fangs. Kakashi took a step back; horrified. He had never seen his student act this way, and it frightened him. It was like looking back on that scene a few months ago, when Kira looked at him with tearful red eyes. He had been surprised then, but not frightened as he was now. There was a focused and angry look in her eyes as she glared up at the man, hardly making a sound as her small fangs seeped into his skin; utter hatred searing in her fire red eyes.

"Get her off of me!" The man screamed in terror and extreme pain as several medical ops rushed in, attempting to pull Kira off of his arm.

"Careful! She may go for you next!" one yelled fearfully as they surrounded her. Kakashi watched in shock; is this what a Neko was capable of?

"Stand back, Kakashi!" one of them ordered loudly, stepping on front of him, "She may bite you!" Kakashi watched with horrified eyes as one of the medical ops quickly grabbed Kira's nose, holding it tightly. The screams from the victim and audience soon began to die down as Kira writhed her body slightly, the lack of oxygen forbidding her to continue her impulse act. She finally opened her mouth with an unsettling noise that resembled a knife being taken out of a piece of meat; Kakashi winced at the noise.

When the medical ops held her arms, holding her tiny but agile frame off of the ground, she licked the blood away from her mouth, glaring at the man that had tried to console her, narrowing her eyes at him as others rushed to his aid, attending to his bleeding arm, her ear folded back; blood dripping from her mouth. Kakashi felt as though he was staring at a completely different student.

"Shut up!" she snapped loudly, her small fangs dripping blood, "There's nothing great about it!"

Kakashi watched in amazement at what she had just said.

He loved Kyra like a daughter. He would put his life on the line for her. She was the first student he really connected with, and felt as though he could confide in her about anything. But for some reason, he wanted to scream at Kira then, "She was not your friend! Don't you see that!? She wanted to kill you, and you're still holding onto her!"

But he didn't have a chance, because suddenly, Kira's angered eyes went wide.

"Aah!" she yelped, "What are y-"

With out warning, she slowly slumped in the medical op's arms while, her body going limp. Before her eyes closed, she saw the look on Kakashi's face. She couldn't make out the expression. Was he angry with her? Happy? Sad? Pitiful? But the thoughts soon echoed away in her mind as she slipped into darkness.

"Look, it's her."

"Let's do this together."

"Don't you know who you are?"

"She's a monster."

"You're finished."

"No one ever wanted to be your friend."

"You make me sick!"

"All these secrets are no fun unless you have someone to share them with."

The room suddenly lit up around Kira, peeling back the darkness she was thrown into. She blinked her heavy eyelids, the soft light of the sunlit white room enveloping her. Quickly, the sounds that were echoing in her ears faded away, replacing it with the drone of soft breezes from outside. Kira tried to sit up, but her head spun as she did so. She endured it, wiping her sour tasting mouth and looked around the room. She looked beneath her neck to see that the headband around her neck was still there, flecked with blood.

Had it been a dream?

"Why so surprised?" a warm voice chuckled.

Kira instantly lit up and turned behind her to see her silver haired sensei, his face calm and relieved.

"Kakashi sensei!" she chirped, turning her body around in her bed covers to face him, her tail wagging. Suddenly, the memories of before came flooding back into her mind, sending her down the path of emotions was walking down earlier. She stopped short of saying something to Kakashi and her ears went limp, her smile disappearing. Kakashi noticed.

"Kyra, do you remember what happened?" Kakashi asked quietly, trying not to provoke her. It was rare that the child got angry about anything, but when she did, it scared him; he wasn't used to it.

"Mm," Kyra whimpered sadly, rubbing her arm, "I did a bad thing…I'm sorry I bit that man." Kakashi couldn't help but melt at her sad red eyes.

"He was trying to help you," Kakashi said quietly, reaching out and scratching her tan colored ears, "They had to sedate you; you were so wild." He pointed to the tiny dot on the back of Kira's arm. Kira looked at it and winced.

"…Why did you do that?" Kakashi asked quietly.

Kira was silent for a while, her head slowly starting to shake. Kakashi watched as she shut her eyes tight, before clenching her fists and choking out the words, "Because…I…hate what I am now!"

Kakashi, startled, kept quiet, allowing her to continue. Kira's eyes glazed over as she sniffed and said in a more quiet voice, "I—I don't want to fight people for the sake of winning. I don't want to lose friends, and be the best. I don't want to do any of the things that everybody is trying to make me do! I don't want to be the Kaze Koneko anymore! I just want to be me!"

Kakashi knew all too well what she meant: Protecting the ones you love. It was beaten into the heads of young ninja in training who were given the privilege to learn a special move, one that could, or should, only be used for that purpose. Kira had just naturally felt that that was the right thing to do. Kakashi mentally gave a bitter smile.

Kira's tears had died down and she sniffed again, wiping her nose, then saying softly, "Kakashi sensei…I don't know what to do," she sounded hopeless as she took her tail in her hands and wrung it thoughtfully, "I'm scared…what do I do?"
Kira asking Kakashi that was a first. He had never seen such a lost look in her eyes before, as if he was her only answer in life.

Maybe he was.

"You think there's an answer to life?" he smiled down at her down at her big eyes, "People go around life trying to find an answer, but there is none. All you can do if figure out the answer to your life; what you want to do, or where you want to go," he laid a soft hand on her head, "You're a smart, brave girl, Kira. You will face battles much greater than what you have faced today, and you will learn from those battles. But you have a challenge that some people do not even know enough to experience, and that is pressure." Kira cocked her head.

"I know you don't like who you are," Kakashi continued, "But we all have to expect our lives, and learn to accept who we are. There will be people bowing to you and claiming you as a god, but that doesn't mean you can't be who you are. You will learn one day that having all eyes on you is better than having none at all."

Kira nodded slowly, all his words sinking in. She looked up at him, and Kakashi's felt the same heart warming he had been feeling for months swell up inside him.

She was smiling at him.

"I guess if I am who I am, I can't change that," Kira shrugged happily, "But I like who I am. It's like you said," she grinned at him, "I'm Kira."

Kakashi smiled and nodded. "You are," he said softly.