Here's the next chapter guys! Next OC enter!

I do not own Naruto therefore any names or terms mentioned here from the naime are not mine ^^

Yumi walked through the forest instinctively knowing where to go, as though a driving force within her lead her to her future. She was energised and wild with thoughts of revenge against her. The rain became heavier and Yumi's clothes were mere rags they couldn't sustain her body. She wrapped her hair around herself to keep warm as she continued to walk on.

As it neared sunset she came to the edge of the forest where a field of grass lay. She was not comfortable to sleep under the stars without the comfort of the trees around her. But far off in the distance she spied a wooden shack, sturdy but small. Little puffs of smoke came cheerily from the chimney so she walked on.

She pressed her wet face against the window pane and caught sight of the inhabitant of this little wooden inn. A young man stood poking the wood in the fire; he too looked soaked from the rain. His short black hair stuck flat to his neck and his eyes were a glitter with the sparks of fire. He began to strip down and that is when Yumi creaked open the door. His head turned sharply to the entrance but in a flash Yumi was not there. He continued on, much tenser now, changing his clothes as Yumi spied the frugal provisions of food that lay on his table.

Yumi was feeling ravenous for she had not eaten all winter long. With a swift leap she was on the table on all fours, but swifter still was the kunai in the man's hand at Yumi's neck. Her hair flayed around her as she quietly growled at the man.

"Who or what are you?" He said in a steely voice.

'How dare he say what!' she thought furiously but she calmly assessed her stance and realised how animal like she seemed.

She stood back slowly and off the table her hair falling to the floor as she did so. She pulled back her blonde bangs and looked the man straight in the eye before lapsing back into human speech.

"Midori Yumi. I am Midori Yumi born of the Earth."

The man gave her a curious look before slowly putting his kunai away. This rain beaten, beautiful creature standing before him was indeed human and female. However she spoke like the spirits and her clothes, if they were to be called clothes, hung on her body too closely for his comfort.

"Masaki Bakuto, Anbu shinobi of Konohagakure."

"Kono-ha-ga-kure." Yumi slowly pronounced the name, alien to her ears and knowledge.

"A...are you from any village around here?"

Yumi only gave him blank stares. Even before her re-birth and mother's death she lived mostly in isolation. They only met travellers and merchants and occasionally gave lodging to them for a fee. Her mother and she had little money and got most of their provisions form the forest. Clothing was always made from old material and any generous offerings from merchants. She was not pretty enough to be sold off, or so she always thought; besides her mother needed her and her mother loved her.

Her mother...

As Yumi was lost in thought Bakuto searched for some blankets and draped one round Yumi. He realised she was serious in her words and that she seemed to have spent her life in the forest. Judging from her appearance she had just hit puberty.

'Great just what I need an adolescent forest child who doesn't know a thing about the outside world' Bakuto inwardly sighed to himself, he was an Anbu not a babysitter. He would send the girl to the village leaders the next day but he was not supposed to leave his post for another 4 days.

He stared at the girl's eyes; they were a mixture of pain and confusion. He reached over to tap her shoulder when she snapped round and glared at him. Her wild green eyes were now colouring red around the edges slowly closing in on her pupils.

"Hold on! I was only making sure you were ok!" He said with his hands up in surrender.

"You need to learn to control your emotions girl; it's a tough world out there."

Yumi calmed down and her iris returned to its vivid green. A sullen silence prevailed between them.

"What is this land Konohagakure like?" she asked after long thought.

"It is the land of the best shinobi in all the five nations."

"Shinobi? What are shinobi?"

"Shinobi are men and women skilled in the art of fighting, bloodshed and war. We may be more unorthodox in our ways than our ancestors who were samurai's and warlords but more powerful." Bakuto said this all the while cooking his simple provisions which were now a meal for two.

"Why do such people exist?"

"War." Bakuto was getting slowly irritated at all the questions.

"War...why are you at war...?"

"Look I'm no history teacher if you want to know found out yourself!"

Yumi was silent, Bakuto was irritated all was quiet once more.

"Gomenai." He mumbled under his breath as he served Yumi her meal

"Sumimaste." She mumbled back, "Itadimaste." She said and took a bite of her bread and munched happily.

Bakuto couldn't help but smile, Yumi slightly reminded him of his little sister Mina. As memories of her replayed his smile soon faded and they ate in silence.

Bakuto was not very curious of his strange company but he thought he needed some information of her background so she would not open her mouth flippantly to the elders.

"You say you are born of the Earth, does that mean you do not know who your mother or father is?"

Yumi stopped eating and briefly said.

"My mother died last winter. I do not have a father."

Bakuto took this all in, the manner in which she said it, the way her eyes would flair and mellow out. Her mother was her all and father did not exist. She spent the winter alone in the forest. How did she survive?

As though Yumi read his mind,
"I slept all winter and awoke like this there is nothing more nothing less."

Maybe she was an Earthly spirit, a ghost not alive! But her skin, her eyes her hunger was all real, so real she must be alive.

'She's tougher than she looks' he thought to himself. Then there and then he made a proposal he thought she couldn't refuse.

"Midori Yumi, born of the Earth, if I teach you some shinobi skills will you leave me be?

Yumi pondered on the notion of her leaving and making her own way of life. Maybe this man was brought to her so she could start taking care of herself.

"I will take you up on your offer Masaki Bakuto."

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