The two quickly pulled their hands away from each other. Like a simultaneous reaction, they smiled meekly at each other, and flushed more. There was a sense of awkwardness in the air between them, and neither spoke to each other for what seemed like an eternity. It was Iruka that spoke first again.
'So…' he began, rubbing the back of his head and smiling at Renita 'What were you doing out here at this time of the morning?'
'I could say the same thing to you' Renita replied swiftly, smiling at Iruka so it didn't seem like it she was snapping at him. True, her head hurt but she knew it would go away soon. 'But I was on my way to watch the sunrise and well, now I'm here with you.'
'Here with you'
The words echoed around Iruka's head, and he couldn't help but feel a squirming sensation in the pit of his stomach because of it. He liked the feeling, and he knew that those three words would haunt him for the rest of the night, along with her melodic voice and an image of the beautiful blues in her eyes, which seem to strike deep into his subconscious to reside there. A part of him wished that those words were true, but he wasn't sure of the reason entirely. Instead, he laughed, a little nervously but attempted to dissolve the remaining tension and awkwardness.
'Judging by the sky' he said, looking at the sky slowly turning from navy to a salmon pink 'If we run at full speed we can make it in time to still see it.'
Renita grinned, a mischievous look forming in her eye.
'Race you?'
Iruka grinned more, lighting up his face.
'You're on. Meet you at the ghost gum tree at the top. You can't miss it'
A 'swooshing' sound and the two shinobi had sped off at high speeds, going on two different paths but smiling like a Cheshire cat all the way. Renita bounded over the boughs of the trees with the quickest of ease, like a gazelle with its majestic movements and perfect precision. She could see the shadow of Iruka just up ahead of her, so she tried to run at a faster pace, which was hard considering that she felt as if she was running at full capacity already. With the wind in her face still, and her cheeks only pink again from the apple cheek, she laughed heartily, because for the first time since she had arrived at the village, she was having genuine fun, and all it took was a clashing in mid-air. Ironic.
Out of the corner of his eye, Iruka could see Renita's form. She was catching up, and he noted to himself the remarkable grace she kept as she was running. He let his eyes run over her, drinking in every curve and form of her appearance. She was stunning in his eyes, and he wondered how he could have missed a leaf shinobi like her in the village of Konoha at all. He thought he knew all of the chuunin and jōnin, and yet here he was mistaken, and she was living proof that he was wrong. He was still running over his own set of trees, enjoying the wind lashing at his face and pushing his pony-tail back in a streamlined effect, but he was still staring at Renita.
'God she's gorgeous' he thought to himself, misjudging a landing on the next branch and staggering slightly and barely stopping himself before he ran into a low-hanging branch. It was chillier this morning, and he suddenly had a random thought of wrapping his arms around this girl while standing and watching the sunrise together with her. He snapped out of his daydream, but not quick enough before leaping straight into another tree infront of him. He ricocheted back onto a lower bough while pain filled his face and the space in between his eyes. He watched Renita's shadow blaze on ahead, and he knew that he lost the race. Still, he picked himself up and ran on, shaking his head a bit to try and clear the blurriness out of his eyes. He ran on until he had reached the top of the mountain, and to no surprise, Renita was waiting there on the ghost gum, sitting in the spot in the highest branches in exactly the same spot where he liked to sit. Funny, he didn't mind that there was someone else there, even if he didn't know this girl personally yet. Just butted heads in an unfortunate scenario. Iruka eventually caught up, and sat down next to her. She turned around and smiled wide at him and then just laughed at his current state.
'A, I just beat you and B, you have a giant red welt on your forehead' (Iruka's hand flew up to cover the top of his head, once again blushing at his own actions). Renita just laughed harder at this, and sighed a deep breath, which seemed to fill her with a cleansing feeling. Renita felt that if she was able to, she could fly. She was simply happy and she hadn't felt proper laughter in such a long time, years even. She laced her fingers behind her back and watched the sunrise. Its gold and crimson rays crawling across the valley, like fingers stretching and claiming every expanse of land as its own and removing any trace of shadow which cloaked the landscape beforehand. Iruka was both watching the sunrise and looking at Renita in swift, inconspicuous movements of his eyes. This was the first morning that he had enjoyed the most, and all it took was a stranger. Admittedly, he thought that she was more interesting than the sunrise, but never had he been surrounded by such beauty in his life. Again, he got embarrassed and the two sat in silence, waiting for nature to finish its early morning display.
'So how long have you been coming here, Iruka?'
'A few years. I come here every morning just to watch the sunrise and to clear my head'
'That's poetic in itself, really. Though I get what you mean'
'You'd be the first person that does'
'Well, I'm here to stay so perhaps we can make this an annual thing. Besides, it'll be good for us to get to know each other more'
The two of them smiled at each other.
'Sounds great. Anyways, I have to run off now. I have a class to teach. Why don't you drop by the academy later and I can introduce you to the other members of staff'
'Sure, I'd love that'
'So would I' Iruka thought, standing up and stretching towards the sky and waving goodbye to Renita, who was still sitting down and looking up him, her eye sparkling in the morning sun. A beautiful picture in itself, and he lost his train of thought just by looking at it.
He then jumped from the bough and ran off back down the way it came, but the thought of Renita sitting on the ghost gum and next to him stayed in his thoughts all the way down, and he couldn't help but feel that sensational feeling of electricity running through him and the squirming sensation in his stomach.
***

Renita had to admit, the village was full of surprises. Thinking that she was on her way to the academy, she accidentally took a wrong turn down a narrow side street and ended up in another clearing with a rather solitary building constructed in the very centre. Curiosity gained the best of her and she pushed the front door slightly and poked her head in.
'At last! I have been waiting for you!'
A shadow of a figure was sitting in the middle of the darkened room in a lotus position, as if meditating. It took less than a second and then they were gone, faster than the time it took for Renita's eyes to adjust to the sudden change in lighting.
A sudden blow to the back of her neck, between where the skull connects to the spine and the bone which juts out slightly forced Renita to stumble properly into the room and she staggered terribly across the wooden floor. She had no idea what was going on, but her assailant seemed fixated on attacking. Their speed was incredible, and she was pummelled in each direction at every available point on her body.
She had no choice.
This attacker wasn't stopping, and it felt to Renita as if it was either live or die, and there was no way she was going to let this mysterious person get the best of her. No way in the world. She jumped, propelled by her new found adrenaline and managed to dodge another would-be blow to her calves, and took her protective wrappings on her arm, and once again brought out the gashes where she could control powerful sound waves at any moment. Her feet hit the ground and she sprang off again backwards, flipping as she did. She extended her arm outwards to the left, making a 'half-t' shape and propelled wide waves across the room, in an attempt to both attack the fighter and avoid being attacked. Her attacks missed though, which only seemed to spur on this unknown competitor even more.
'You indeed have an interesting jutsu, but it is no match for my tai-jutsu!'
The voice of this attacker was young, and seemed to have an almost squeaky tone to it, but it was definitely a male. Renita tried to locate him, though the room was still dark. A walloping kick just then uppercut her chin and she was sent flying into the air, temporarily paralysed from sheer bewilderment.
Now there really was no choice.
Managing to control her fly-away right hand, she lifted the forehead protector and revealed the part of her face that she felt needed to remain hidden from the world.
A scar ran along her eye, beginning at the lining of her eyebrow and deeply gashing across her eyelid and down to the edge of her cheek. It was shaped like a 'z', the kicks curly as if a fancy font had been struck into her face. The scar was not the important thing though, but they eye itself. The iris was a violent purple, with a blazing orange twist hugging the pupil. It was as if a living, dancing flame had been removed from a fire and forcefully placed in the depths of the iris, connecting into her internal network. It glowed a vibrant orange, but was yellow around the edges and with small dots running through it. It was hypnotic just to see it. She forced herself to roll over in mid-air, just in time to catch her competitor off guard, and stared into his eyes with a piercing gaze, and sent an air piercing ping sound from her mouth, almost like submarine sonar would make but pitched three octaves higher. It froze the attacker in an instant, and a look mixed with fear and surprise was stricken into his face. Renita finally got a look at him, and her eyes widened in horror.
He was young, he had to be only a genin. He had thick, sleek black hair in a bowl cut, and (Renita found this a little humorous) thick, caterpillar eyebrows. He was dressed in a moss-green uni-tard with orange leg warmers, and heavily wrapped bandages on his arms too. The thing that scared Renita the most was the expression on his face, and she knew it all too well, but she couldn't stop her attack on him until she was at least firmly on the ground. The genin hit the floor with a shattering blow, and started to splutter uncontrollably, gasping but unable to clutch at his throat or windpipe. He was in pain and Renita knew it, and she felt sick and cold inside, as if an icy grip had suddenly found its way into her insides and was squeezing at every space available.
How could she do this to a genin?
The young ninja was strangling from the inside out, and his eyes were beginning to close and roll back towards his head, making an inhumane gurgling from his windpipe. Renita closed her eyes and concentrated harder than ever before to release the kekkei genkai imposed on him and willed it to stop, as a bead of sweat slowly creeped out from her forehead protector and down her face, leaving a glistening path down the left-hand side of her face and where it dropped to the floor, after clinging with a valiant effort to her skin. It seemed to have worked, because the genin was no longer making noises of pain, but it may have been too late, because he wasn't breathing. She ran and scooped up him up, feeling his body go limp as she cradled him into her chest. Simultaneously running and flicking her forehead protector down over her eye, she sprinted back through the side street and didn't stop once until she had reached the hospital and burst through the double door entrance, practically screaming for help. Medical ninja seemed to appear from every direction and surrounded Renita, talking so loudly and together that it all seemed like white noise growing until it had filled her head unbearably, like a rush-hour traffic had invaded her and would refuse to settle.
'Just…take….him!' she gasped, relinquishing the poor boy to the hands of the medical ninja and collapsing in a ball on the floor, cramming her eyes shut and gripping at her head until the voices had gone away down the hallway, subduing the growing tension in her mind.
Two hands gently picked her up under her armpits and held her close to their chest, the pockets of a shinobi vest gently prodding into her shoulders. They embraced her and she could hear a heartbeat, calming and repetitive, and it slowly worked its magic and brought her shuddering coughs and hiccups to a stop until she was breathing normally again.
'Let's take a walk' Kakashi whispered, leaning his head on hers and cradling her head with one arm and the other holding her closer to his chest.

Kakashi took her to a secluded green area behind the village gates, and pulled her down with him so they were sitting on the bank of a river, its grassy matt comfortable and tickling their legs slightly through the material of their pants. Renita was pale as a ghost, looking at the ground with her mouth shut tightly in a grim, severe line. She didn't care that her arm was still exposed, and Kakashi's eye travelled over it, taking in every detail and blemish.
'Renita' he began, his low voice calm and collected 'what happened?'
Renita took a shuddering breathe inward, and exhaled heavily.
'He….he attacked me… and I didn't….I didn't know what to do. I thought that…I-I-it felt like…it was going to end badly on my terms…'
'What I need to know exactly is what happened in combat.'
'Who was the boy?'
'Afterwards. Please Ren-'
'Now!' Renita snapped, finally looking at Kakashi's face. He wasn't offended by this outburst, because all he wanted to do was help her.
'His name is Rock Lee' he said, simply.
Renita dropped her eyes back to the ground, looking at the grass and how it waved gently up at the two of them in the breeze.
'Rock Lee, huh?' She thought to herself, knowing that he would haunt her for some time. 'I just hope he'll be ok…'
She felt Kakashi's hand on top of hers, and realised that her knuckles were white while piercing the palm of her hand with her nails, which was drawing blood.
'Renita, please tell me what happened' Kakashi said, lowering his head and peering up at her through a part of his hair which had flopped down slightly in a cute fashion. Renita's shoulders relaxed and she couldn't help but admire the position he was in. She still felt terrible, but after all, she was human, and had her own emotions to deal with when it came to men. Without a word, she lifted her forehead protector. Kakashi's eye widened only the smallest bit at the eye underneath, and the miraculous scar embedded into the skin.
'It's my kekkei genkai.' Renita said, looking ashamed. 'It's a powerful one, and I didn't realise that he was a genin'
'What does it do?'
'I have the ability to infiltrate the inner workings of the human body. I can attack the nervous system and scramble messages to and from the brain, or I could contract the muscles so the victim can't defend themselves. I can do whatever I wish to it…even manipulate the pulse of someone's heart…' she trailed off, and looked at Kakashi again. He could see that it this was hard for her to admit, and all he wanted to do was hug her again, and never let her go. He still had things to get from her, so that moment would have to wait. He pressed on, coaxing the information he wanted to get from her.
'And what exactly was it you did this time?'
Another shuddering breath, but Renita willed herself to relax. She needed to settle, and she hated to appear weak infront Kakashi, even though she knew he was trying to help.
'This time…I-I… I paralysed his muscles and cut off the circulation of oxygen around his body… His lungs would have been collapsing…' She trailed off, breaking into gulps of air and breaking down entirely into uncontrollable sobs. This time, Kakashi knew that he had to take the opportunity. He slid his left arm across her body and pulled her into him via the small of her back, while his right arm sneaked through under her armpit and held the back of her neck, all the while holding her close to his shoulder where she cried heavily into it, tears rolling off of the vest in wayward directions. Kakashi moved his legs into a comfortable position with his legs at an angle and then shifted Renita closer to him so her face could bury itself in his chest if need be, while her legs fit neatly on top of his, like two matching pieces of a puzzle. He wished that whatever else had made her like this would go away, or he could stop it. Instead, he compromised to stroking her hair, letting it catch slightly between his fingers before letting it go. He rocked her slightly, as if a father would soothe a young child into a slumber, and to ease her from crying so heavily.
They sat there together for quite some time, and Kakashi was selfishly treasuring every moment he had with her, even if she was as upset as this, but since he had first saw her, she had stayed on his mind every night and he desired to know more about her, no matter what it took. He continued to stroke her hair, and almost made this sort of purring sensation deep in his chest. Renita's tears were slowing then fell to a few sniffles, burying her face in his chest. Kakashi clutched her tighter in an embrace which silently said his new found feelings for her, but they were oblivious to Renita. He gently tipped her head back to look at her, and then he felt cold.
She wasn't breathing anymore.
Panic welled up in his stomach, but he forbid it to grow any larger. Scoping the area, he remembered that Iruka's house was the closest familiar landmark. He held Renita in the bridal position and turned her inwards to his body, so she was protected from any oncoming dangers or debris as he ran to Iruka's house.

Renita snuggled in deeper to the blankets, their warm fibres pressing against her silky smooth skin. She felt a little more…freer than she normally did when she slept, like something was missing compared to other nights…
She rubbed her eyes, and kept her arms raised against a pillow, letting the cooler air breathe against the skin on her arm as she slowly began to wake up. There wasn't any constraint from the strap of her thin singlet she wore to bed every night…in fact, there wasn't any strap at all…
Worried slightly, she sat up, and the blanket moved up with her still covering her chest and below. She peeked down at her body below the covers.
She was completely bare.
Renita snapped awake, her eyes darting about the room, which she did not recognise at all. Where in the world was she?
A pounding headache attacked her temples, and she let out a small gasp of pain, and her left hand raced up to have her palm lie flat against her forehead. Her left eye was covered by the angle that her hand
'Oh, you're awake' a voice said a little while away.
Iruka appeared at the doorway, fully dressed and smiling. 'Did you sleep any better?'
'IRUKA, WHERE ARE MY CLOTHES?'
Iruka blushed a deep crimson, and pointed towards the dresser. He then realised that he needed to avert his eyes from Renita at all costs, or he would end up in the intensive care ward of the hospital. He turned around immediately and covered his eyes with both of his hands, his palms pressed against his eyeballs with quite an amount of force that he was beginning to see small white dots against the black of his eyelids, but he didn't dare take them away until she had finished.
The sound of a zipper being pulled up against the top of its teeth was heard and Renita called that she was dressed and he could turn around now. He released the pressure on his eyes and blinked a few times to rid the white speckles in his vision and turned to look at her, realising that he missed his chance to see the left half of her face. He mentally slapped himself for that.
'Iruka, what's going on' Renita said in a small voice a whisper, feeling a little vulnerable for being in such a state infront of the other ninja.
'I'll tell you everything that happened' Iruka said, trying to calm Renita down by keeping his voice sweet and mellow. It was working on her slightly 'Please, just sit down, and I'll tell you everything…'

*Liked it? Tell me what you think. What can I improve, change, what would you like to see? Didn't like it? That's ok. Tell me what you didn't like. I'm not shy for reviews*