A/N: Don't own anything except Reyna; everything recognizable is property of Masashi Kishimoto, that lucky devil! Kayha is property of a friend as is Katara! Now on with the story!

THE NEW PACK

She waited a few minutes before she was ushered inside. Tsunade watched her enter and laid her chin in one hand.

"Reyna, I was approached a couple of days ago by another pack of wolves who wanted to take up the contract that the first Leaf Pack had consented to with the village. I have agreed to extend the contract to them. They wanted to know if we had any wolves currently as members of the shinobi. I told them about you and they wish to speak to you about joining the pack. I agreed to deliver their message to you as soon as I deemed that you should know."

Reyna stared at the Hokage in shock for a few minutes before she found her voice again, "Another pack?"

Tsunade nodded, "Yes. I thought you'd be happy since now you aren't the only one anymore."

Reyna shook her head, "You don't understand. No pack just extends an invitation to another wolf to join their ranks. That's not how it works. You have to earn your way into the pack, and that's assuming that there's even an opening for you to try to earn."

Tsunade shrugged, "I promised them that you would go and speak with them. That is part of the contract that was set down."

Reyna nodded, suddenly very uneasy about the whole thing, "Alright. I'll go. Do you want me to take Naruto or Sakura or anyone with me?"

Tsunade shook her head, "They specified that you have to go alone."

Reyna swallowed her sudden nausea and nodded, "Alright. I'll head out right away then."

Tsunade dismissed her and Reyna headed out of the office woodenly. She knew that nothing good could come from this meeting, but she had to honor the contract that they had signed and since they hadn't set down their own she really didn't like the way things were going. Attempting to shake off her feeling of unease she headed out of the village and into the surrounding forest. She knew she wouldn't be back that night, the pack lands were just too far out to get out to, have a meeting and then make it back to the village before dark.

It was early evening when Reyna finally reached the heart of the pack lands where she knew she would have to meet with the new pack. As they surrounded her, she tensed suddenly all too aware of the fact that this was not going to be a simple meeting with the alpha.

"So you are Reyna," a young, gruff man asked as he circled the ninja.

"I am, but you are not the alpha. At best you are a beta and if I am to meet with anyone it will be the alpha," Reyna replied, trying to remain calm and diplomatic.

"And I am here as well. I understand that you were not mated when the others were killed?" an older man asked as he approached her.

She respectfully lowered her gaze from his, recognizing the alpha immediately, "I was not."

"Good, then we can continue," he muttered.

Everything about the meeting suddenly felt totally wrong to Reyna. She had never dealt with a pack other than the Leaf Pack, but they had never behaved in such a manner before. Still tense she held her ground, refusing to be intimidated by them. With any luck it was just a test to see if she had the ability to be a beta and protect the pack. As the others drew closer, she scented the air and realized that while there were females in the area and many of the males were mated, it was only the males that surrounded her; and most of them were the unmated males. Something was definitely wrong.

"Who claims this one?" the alpha asked the group and Reyna's head shot up, a snarl on her lips.

"I do," the beta that had been circling her answered, eyeing her with a wicked grin.

Reyna growled a challenge low in her throat, "Not gonna happen."

"Oh, but I think it will. You see, if you are going to be a part of this pack, the only way you can gain entrance is to be mated to one of our males. Now you will show the proper respect to your mate and your alpha," the alpha snarled as he stepped up beside her and delivered a hard punch to her cheek.

The seasoned ninja staggered under the force of that hit and snarled as the beta took the advantage. He tackled her hard to the ground, knocking the wind from her lungs as the rest of the pack pressed in closer. She had never seen a pack like this before, not even the rogues that her father was leader of had been like this. Fear shot through her against her will and the wolves seemed to thrive on it. As the beta dove toward the side of her neck, teeth bared to mark her as his, she twisted under him. She may have been down but they didn't seem to realize just how quickly she would and could recover. His teeth grazed her flesh, drawing blood but not cutting deep enough for a claim.

She jerked her knee up and into his stomach before rolling him off of her. In an instant she was on her feet as the rest of the males launched at her from every side. She defended against their attacks, trying not to retaliate since they had signed the contract already and to kill one of them would mark her as a traitor of the village. Something they were probably counting on. At the first possibility, she stepped into her shadows, bruised and bleeding slightly. Ignoring the fact that darkness had settled around them, Reyna launched up and into the trees, running hard back to the village. She didn't pause until she within the walls. Then she only slowed her pace, heading for her apartment.

Once inside, she bandaged the cut on her neck and shoulder from the beta and cleaned herself up before she dropped onto her couch and pulled her knees to her chest. She didn't sleep that night as the sound of howling wolves filtered through the quiet, sleeping village.

The following morning she met with Naruto and Sakura who immediately noticed the cuts and bruises, "Reyna-Sensei what happened?"

Reyna shrugged and managed a light grin at Sakura, "Nothing, I just decided to get in some solo training yesterday. I just got a little carried away is all. I'll be fine."

Sakura eyed her up, but not seeing any wounds that seemed serious she shrugged it off as the three of them headed down the street, "Well, if anything starts to bother you, I'm on my way to cover a shift at the hospital. Just stop in and I'll see what I can do for you."

Reyna nodded and Sakura headed off down the side street while she and Naruto continued walking, Naruto being oddly quiet, "Naruto, you alright?"

He looked up at her, "Yeah, I was just thinking. I went home after having lunch with Pervy Sage and there was this weird wooden box on my bed. I don't know who left it there but there was a note that said that it contained some things that would lead me to knowing who my father had been. The only thing is I don't know how to open the stupid thing."

Reyna laid a hand on his shoulder, "I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually, Naruto."

He nodded, "Yeah, I guess. Hey, do you think you could train with me today? I was going to see if Kakashi-Sensei and Kayha would too. Oh, did you know that Kakashi-Sensei's sealing didn't work on Kayha so he had to come and get Pervy Sage? Even his didn't work the way he thought it would, but he said it would work temporarily and give them time to find something that will work."

Reyna nodded, "Sure I'll train with you guys and no I didn't know he had tried that…" she growled about the fact that he had done the sealing without her being there.

"Everything worked out alright, Reyna-Sensei."

She nodded as they headed through the village, finally tracking down and convincing the other two to train with them. Naruto decided they should use their usual training grounds near the memorial stone. As they reached the area, Reyna turned to Naruto.

"So what kind of training were you up for?" she asked.

"I was thinking that maybe we could do a two on two match. Kayha and I verses you and Kakashi-Sensei?" he asked hopefully looking between the three of them.

They all shrugged and agreed before squaring off in the middle of the clearing. Reyna originally started off against Naruto using her shadows to deflect most of his attacks and trying to find a way to mesh her shadow techniques into one. From the corner of her eye, she saw Kayha send Kakashi flying back a few feet with a hit and she snarled.

"Oh come on, Kakashi! What happened to the legendary Copy Ninja?" Kayha joked as Kakashi regained his feet.

Reyna's attention had shifted to Kayha so much so that Naruto managed to land a solid hit to her left cheek and she stumbled to the side. Unknown to Naruto he had hit the exact same place that the alpha had the day before. Snarling she saw a way to finally retaliate the way she had been unable to the day before. Even as Kakashi started to reply, he saw Reyna stumble and the rage that filled her eyes while Naruto started to apologize.

"I thought you'd dodge that! I didn't mean to hit that har…." Naruto trailed off as Reyna launched herself at Kayha.

Her flying kick glanced off of Kayha's side as she tried to dodge out of the way. Reyna snarled and spun around even as she landed, her body shimmering as her form started to shift to her four-legged self, at least that was what Kakashi thought she was going to do. Instead what Reyna became was a combination of the two forms. She remained standing on two legs, but her nails had lengthened into claws, nose and jaw had elongated to that of a wolf and fur had grown over her flesh in patches. She hadn't even become the hybrid of the two before she was delivering another kick at Kayha who for her part seemed completely confused and shocked. Still she didn't attack back, she simply blocked the attacks dealt at her. Kakashi was the most shocked of the group; Reyna never shifted in the village or in the presence of anyone other than those who knew about her and to his knowledge no one knew she could become what she had just changed into.

Finally both Naruto and Kakashi shook off their shock enough to intervene in the one-sided battle. Kakashi pulled the half shifted Reyna away from Kayha while Naruto simply laid a hand on Kayha's shoulder.

Kayha stepped back and shook her head, "What the hell is her problem?"

Reyna snarled at Kakashi and shifted back to her completely human form before she shoved him away from her. Taken off guard, Kakashi stumbled a couple of steps and released her before catching his balance again. Without a second look at them, Reyna stormed away from the training ground, snarling and growling under her breath.

"Kakashi-Sensei is Reyna-Sensei alright?" Naruto asked, worriedly.

"I don't know, Naruto. Why don't you and Kayha keep training if you want to?" Kakashi appeared to be just as worried about Reyna as Naruto was.

Kakashi headed out of the training grounds quickly, following the path that Reyna had taken. He didn't actually have to go far before he found her again. She was settled against the trunk of a large tree, half hidden in some underbrush hugging her knees to her chest, her head resting against her knees. Cautiously, he crouched in front of her, brushing hair off her forehead.

"Reyna," he muttered, her silence starting to worry him more than her actions had a few moments earlier.

She remained silent except for a very low growl and she buried her head a little deeper behind her knees. Kakashi found his concern growing at her actions and he moved to sit beside her, laying a hand on her elbow in an attempt to get her to look up at him. Instead she cringed at his touch and tried to pull her arm away from his fingers, but he refused to let her.

"Reyna, talk to me," he tried again, keeping his voice as calm as he possibly could while still letting her know that he was worried about her.

She shook her head, but he counted that a small victory since she was actually acknowledging the fact that he was talking to her. He sighed and leaned back against the tree, keeping his grip firm on her arm. They stayed like that for a few moments before Kakashi glanced over and noticed the bandage on her neck and shoulder. He narrowed his eyes and reached over with his free hand to peel it off. Again she flinched away from him, but he persisted and eventually pulled the bandage off even as she growled at him. He flinched as he realized that what the bandage had been covering was a shallow bite mark.

"Come on, Hun. What happened?"

"Training," she growled, still not looking up or loosening her hold around her knees.

Kakashi shook his head, "You do not end up with a bite mark on your neck and shoulder in training. Don't lie to me."

Reyna growled, once again trying to pull away from him but his grip only tightened on her arm. She finally quit fighting him, but still she didn't look up at him. He finally gave up trying to get her to talk to him, knowing that she wasn't going to say anything until she was ready to do so. Gradually her grip around her knees seemed to relax and the tension started to seep out of her body. No longer trying to shake off Kakashi's grip, she finally released her knees long enough to grab Kakashi's forearm and wrap his arm around her shoulders. Kakashi was a little shocked by what she finally decided to do but just let her move his arm. Finally she shifted in against him, curling her body against his with her head settled on his shoulder.

"Reyna?" he asked but got no response so he tried again, "Darling?"

"So now I'm Darling?" she muttered, curling more tightly against his side.

"If it gets you to talk to me, yeah," he smiled a little now that she was finally starting to talk to him, leaving his arm wrapped loosely around her shoulders.

"Doesn't hurt," she muttered.

"What happened? And the truth this time."

"Not now," she muttered, burrowing her head against his shoulder reminding Kakashi a lot of a dog seeking safety during a thunderstorm.

He sighed and unconsciously tightened his grip around her shoulders, holding her against him, "You know I'm not going to let this go."

A/N: Another chapter done…and while trying to train my dog too… I so good… anyway I always thought that Kakashi has that kind of sweet and kind guy somewhere hidden deep down so I had to play and Reyna is the perfect person to bring it out… As always please review! Hmm, I think a special guest to do the disclaimer for the next chapter! Who do y'all want to see?