Chapter Five

Author note: Since today (October 18th) was my birthday, I decided to update sooner than anticipated, as a little birthday gift to my readers here. Enjoy!

He started running in the direction of where the sound came from. His adrenaline-level raised significantly, as well as his heartbeat. He gripped a kunai out of the holder and held it in front of him, running, ready to defend himself as soon as somebody attacked him.

He got closer and closer to where the sound came from, but then...He stopped running. He had reached the stream, and the sound of the waterfall thundered in his ears. The same thundering sound he had heard when he was catching fish that evening. But there was something different to it. He walked nearer to the waterfall, trying to figure out what that difference was.

He twitched his ears as he tried to distinguish the noise coming from the waterfall from the noise that was added to it.

He narrowed his eyes. He could swear he saw something.

There it was again! A dark shadow appeared behind the rain of water that was falling down. But as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared again. Still, the sounds that had alarmed him earlier were without a doubt coming from whatever it was that hid behind the waterfall.
He sneaked to the bushes, trying to get a better view at the thing.

Suddenly a change in the atmosphere.
His eyes widened as he witnessed the most beautiful sight ever seen.
There, at the foot of the waterfall, the shadow appeared. He could see it clearly now.
It? Her!
The outlines of the creature were sharply shown against the moonlight reflected by the waterfall. She was definitely the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on.

The womanly creature started to move. And the way she moved...it was more like dancing...
Such elegance...
She seemed weightless as she touched the surface of the water with what seemed to be only her toes.
She moved her arms around her, and the water flew into the air, following every move she made. It was as if her fingers were connected with the water, controlling it.
She made another move, shooting the water upwards, far into the night sky, where it exploded in countless little drops. The moonlight shone through them and changed them into little diamonds, spreading rays of light in every imaginable colour.

He held his breath, not wanting to disturb the fairy-like dance in any possible way.

She started spinning around on the tip of her right feet, her arms above her head, her eyes focused on the stars. The water whirled around her with enormous speed, changing into a waterspout and growing bigger and bigger with every time she spun around.
Suddenly some water separated itself from the spout and evolved slowly into sharp needles of water. Another move of the beautiful creature. The water needles were shot in every direction.

He woke up from his trance as he saw a few needles coming directly in his direction with an alarming speed. He tried to move his body out of their way, but he failed. The needles were about to change his head into a pin-cushion, as he could finally move. Just in time to dodge them. One of them escaped though, and scratched his right cheek, creating a small cut.
But the jolt from the sudden attack still echoed through his body and he fell backwards, with his behind right upon a husk of a chestnut.

'Aaaargh!' A scream resounded through the woods. He ran out of the forest, rubbing his bottom with both hands.
The moment he realized he wasn't exactly hiding his presence, it already was too late. The woman was nowhere to be seen. The only evidence she had been there was the surface of the water, still gushing where she had placed her feet.

Early sunlight tickled her eyes through a small hole in the tent, waking her. She yawned and sat up in her sleeping bag. She was still rubbing the sleeping crust out of her eyes, as she heard some noise outside her tent. She was immediately alarmed. It can't be Naruto, he's never up this early...it must be some enemy!
She gripped a kunai and ran out of her tent, ready to attack whoever was disturbing the camp's peace.

Wait...that's not an enemy...She saw a young man sitting by the fireplace, leaning against a treestump. His blond hair was hanging over his eyes. She couldn't see if he was sleeping or not.
Suddenly he lifted up his head. 'Oh! You're...a..wa..ke...' His face slowly turned tomato-red, his eyes stuck in a gaze.
Why is he looking at me like that...Do I look weird or something?
She looked down at her body.
Oh my g-! She quickly wrapped her arms around her body, trying to cover it where her small white dress obviously failed. Oh why didn't I have a quick look at myself before I ran out of the tent like crazy?!
Her face turned as red as his, if she wasn't surpassing him.
'I'm sorry! I wasn't intending to...I-I didn't want to...' he stammered, quickly turning his head away, his eyes squeezed together.
'I-It's okay, it's not your fault...' she said, staring at her feet. 'I-I guess I'll go change..'

A little while later, he was at the stream again. He didn't particularly like fish for breakfast , he'd rather have ramen. But since they didn't know whether their victuals would be enough or not, they had to grip every chance to preserve their food supply for times that there wouldn't be a stream or something to provide food.
He sighed. He couldn't believe this was the same place where he had seen that nymph last night. It was all quiet now -except from the waterfall-noise of course-, there was no clue at all she had ever been here, dancing,
The moment she had disappeared, he'd felt some sort of emptiness in his heart, as if he'd lost something. She was so beautiful...
After he'd walked back to the camp, he couldn't sleep anymore. Not like he could before he went taking a walk, but still. He thought it to be useless to go back to his tent, dawn would be breaking in a few hours anyway. He'd sat down by the fireplace, dozing a bit, waiting for Hinata to wake up.
He sighed again, wondering if the girl would appear once more tonight. He wouldn't be able to watch her again though, because they would be moving on soon after breakfast.
He summoned a clone and send him into the water to catch some fish.
Shortly after that a fish got thrown out of the water. He quickly threw a kunai, clinching the fish to a tree at the opposite side of the stream. Gotcha! Let's see if I can do that with my eyes closed hehe.

A little while later, she was done changing and was cleaning up the camp a bit while he had gone to the stream,
Atsjie! She sneezed. Tsjie! Again. Am I getting a cold? Well, that's just what I needed...I hope it wasn't from last night...
She decided to make a fire to roast the fish. She lit it up gently but forcefully, just like he taught her. It ignited immediately.

Ka..a..tsja! He sneezed. Atsja! Again. Hey, did I catch a cold? Hmm, probably from last night...
Well, I got enough fish now, time to go back.
He made his clone disappear and headed back to the camp, enjoying the sunlight warming his face and the soothing sound of rustling leaves. Suddenly he noticed something. There was another trail of footprints next to the one he was creating right now. It was different size, smaller than his. He could see from the depth of the prints that is wasn't a heavy person, probably a woman. The prints were also covered in dew, so they had to be left behind last night. But the most interesting thing about them was...they were leading from the stream straight to the camp.
Hmm, that's weird, the only woman who knows where our camp is pitched up is Hinata, but she has been at the camp the whole time, so it can't possibly be her...
But the fish in his hands and his grumbling stomach reminded him he had to get back to the camp, and, for now, he left the footprints-mystery for what it was...