A/N: I own nothing that is recognizable. That all belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I do however, own Reyna, she is my own creation! Muhahaha…Anyway, enough of my mad scientist routine. Enjoy!
A CHANGE OF HEART
Kakashi turned around and slowly headed back to the camp and the other ninja. Gai looked up as he entered the clearing and shook his head at the hurt look on his friend's face. Tenten stopped Lee from going over to Kakashi and Shino continued to collect his bugs, deciding it would be best to stay out of it.
"Let's go," Kakashi muttered.
"What about Reyna?" Gai asked.
"She made her choice. Vengeance is more important," Kakashi snarled.
"Kakashi, my eternal rival and friend, I have never seen you actually happy and yet whenever Reyna is around you smile; even if we cannot see it in your face, we can see it in your eye. I do not think we know the whole story about what is happening here or with her," Gai responded stopping Kakashi with a hand on his friend's shoulder.
"It doesn't matter, she still left," Kakashi replied, the hurt in his voice evident to them all.
"Perhaps there is a good reason for her to do so. Maybe she thinks it is the only way to protect us. I do not think she would make the choice to walk away from you so lightly. You need to talk to her, find out the whole story about what's going on. Kakashi, think about how you would feel if we left and she truly needed our help and we were not there to aid her. You are upset because you think she betrayed you and the village. I do not believe this is the case. The only thing she has ever done is try to protect those that are dear to her heart," Gai's words finally seemed to reach Kakashi as he sighed.
"Alright, we'll wait for her," he finally said before walking away from the others to sit with his back against a tree.
While Kakashi was heading back towards the camp, Reyna continued to chase her father. She nearly missed the point where he had doubled back on her and slid to a halt a few seconds too late. A very large tan wolf tackled her to the ground and she fought to scramble away from the beast who latched its jaws around her right calf. Teeth tore through muscle and scraped bone, wrenching an inhuman yelping scream from Reyna's throat as she used her free leg to deliver a powerful kick to his head.
The wolf reared back, releasing her leg and shimmering before her until her father stood before her in human form, "You little whelp. You will not win this fight."
"I will because my strength comes from something you will never understand. Hell it took training with a knuckle headed ninja for me to realize where true power lies," Reyna shot back, forcing herself to her feet, balancing on her uninjured leg.
"So you will kill your own father?" he snarled.
"If you force my hand. You've wanted this fight ever since Mom got me away from you. Well, here it is."
"But wouldn't it be worse for you if I didn't. I know how that damn Leaf Pack works. They only kill for one of two reasons; to eat or to survive. You won't kill your own father unless you have to. If I just walk away you won't be able to bring yourself to do it. That's why you only killed one member of the pack during that fight. You can't do it because we are family."
"No. You may be my father by blood, but my family is the Leaf Village. If you so much as sneeze at the village I will gut you without a second thought. If you come close to my friends or my mate, you will learn just how many torture techniques I know and am willing to use. I will make you beg for death and then I will turn you over to the ANBU," a kunai appeared in her hand. "Or I could just kill you now and save myself the trouble later."
Her father laughed, "Then do it, little one. Let's see if you can back those words."
Reyna launched herself at the laughing man, her kunai blade resting against the skin of his throat but she could not bring herself to make that fatal cut. In that second of hesitation, he drove his heel into the torn bite wound on her calf, dropping her to her knees. A second later he was once again lost in the trees, but she knew she wouldn't be able to chase him down now. She had not only lost Kakashi, but she hadn't even been able to kill the man that took him from her. She howled in outrage before she shoved herself to her feet and headed back towards the camp. There she should at least find bandages for her leg before heading for the village.
Kakashi thought over what Gai had told him as he sat and waited for Reyna to return. He was right, he felt betrayed but he also should give Reyna the chance to explain what was going on before he condemned her and the longer it took her to return, the more concerned he became. What if she had taken him seriously and wasn't going to come back? What if she was badly injured and unable to return? He found his anger fading more and more the longer they waited. The sun was heading for the horizon before he thought the worst had happened to her.
"Why didn't I just follow her?" he muttered to himself, pacing the camp from one end to the other, ignoring the looks the others were giving him.
"Why don't we go out and see if we can pick up Reyna-Sensei's trail?" Tenten asked, Kakashi's pacing starting to make her extremely nervous.
"Good idea, Tenten!" Lee exclaimed, leaping to his feet and heading for the trees where Reyna had disappeared.
The others followed, Kakashi starting out at the rear of the group until he heard a long, low, frustrated howl. Instantly he broke into a run, heading in the direction the sound had come from. It wasn't long before he paused, listening intently. Bushes rustled to his right and he spun even as Reyna stumbled out of the underbrush and into his side. Blood soaked her torn leg, dripping onto the ground under her feet.
"Reyna?" concern lilted Kakashi's voice as he steadied her at his side.
"I didn't think you'd still be here," she muttered, closing her eyes.
"You can thank Gai for that," he muttered, urging her to sit as he pulled his pack from his shoulders and dug for bandages.
"Here, I'll give you a hand, Kakashi," Gai spoke from his left as the younger ninja gathered around them.
"Did you get him, Reyna-Sensei?" Lee asked.
Reyna cringed and shook her head as Gai and Kakashi started bandaging her leg, "No, he got away."
"He must have been some opponent in order to defeat you, Reyna-Sensei!" Lee exclaimed, shocked that any enemy could outfight Reyna.
She shrugged, and let Kakashi pull her to her feet once her leg was bandaged. They headed back towards the Leaf without further conversation. Reyna kept her gaze on the ground, having not yet met any of their gazes. She had failed them. The threat remained and it was because she hadn't been able to kill him. She hadn't even met Kakashi's gaze and finally her depressed look and silence forced Gai to act. He was pretty sure she was going to hand his ass to him, but if it would break her out of her mood, he figured it would be worth it. He stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, capturing her in a hug.
She didn't fight back against him, she stiffened slightly but if anything it seemed to make her mood darker and more depressed. The second he released her however, Kakashi threw a hard right hook into Gai's jaw. Gai was sent flying back a couple of feet and he knew that Kakashi had pulled the punch. Still Reyna said nothing and with her head down and gaze on the ground in front of her she walked away from the group. The ninja looked between one another.
"Is she alright, Kakashi-Sensei?" Tenten asked quietly, watching the retreating back of Reyna.
Kakashi shrugged, "I don't think so."
Even Gai was silent and worried about his friend. Lee and Shino shared a look before Shino pointed something out that even Kakashi was too worried to realize, "Why isn't she heading for the village?"
Kakashi looked after Reyna's retreating form and sighed, "Look, you guys head back to the village and report to Tsunade. Tell her it's what I thought it was and that Reyna and I will be back tomorrow sometime. I need to talk to Reyna."
Gai and the rest of his team headed back for the village while Kakashi followed the path that Reyna had taken. He didn't get very far before he heard the unmistakable sound of a fist connecting with the trunk of a tree and he cringed as the sound continued to repeat itself. Sighing, he followed the sound and shook his head when he finally saw Reyna who was alternating fists as she hit a random tree.
"Reyna!" he barked, but she didn't even glance in his direction, though she did start punching faster and harder, eyes narrowed.
Once again finding his earlier anger, he walked towards her and stepped up behind her. As she pulled one fist back to deliver another punch, he grabbed her arm and repeated the process with her other arm as well, locking her arms behind her. She struggled against his hold for a few more minutes before she gave up trying to break his hold and lowered her head. Slowly he released her arms, ready to grab her again if he needed to. She didn't even try to and by her body language, she looked to be completely defeated as she hunched her shoulders, her head hanging and she favoured her injured leg.
"Reyna, what the hell were you thinking?" Kakashi started, grasping her shoulder and turning her around to face him.
"I did what I had to," she muttered head still low and her eyes closed now.
"And you didn't even think to go and tell the Hokage what you were going to do; or to take some kind of help with you?"
"I couldn't," was her quiet reply and Kakashi found himself grinding his teeth in frustration.
"And why the hell not; what makes this so bloody different?"
"They would have become targets. Hell, they probably wouldn't have survived and it would have been on my head…I couldn't have protected them," she sighed, seeming to fold in on herself even more.
"And yet we survived when we came to find you, didn't we? Do you really think that little of the rest of the village's shinobi?"
Reyna shook her head, "You survived this time around, but now you're a target. That's why I kept running, Kakashi. Either way I lose you to him, only if I had stopped him at least you would continue to live."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"That was the rogue pack; my father's pack," Reyna turned to walk away from Kakashi but he stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
"What difference does that make? This was about revenge, wasn't it?" he spoke quietly now, sounding almost hurt.
Reyna shook her head again, "No, not entirely. Part of the reason why I wanted to come out here was revenge I suppose; to prove that I was nothing like them, but it wasn't the main reason. Kakashi, I kept everyone at a distance from me for so long because I knew that eventually he would come after me again and that anyone that I cared about would be at risk when that happened. He would kill anyone and everyone just to break me; by facing him alone I was trying to protect the only pack I have left; and I've managed to fail in that once again."
"How do you suppose that you failed at any point in time?" she cringed when he removed his hand from her shoulder.
"I failed the first Leaf Pack. They may not have really wanted to have me around because they thought that I would become like my father and technically I wasn't truly a member of the pack. I was an orphan that they took in for a while until they could find someplace to get rid of me. They died because I failed."
Kakashi tugged his mask off and shook his head, all traces of his earlier anger gone at the dejected and defeated tone of Reyna's voice as she explained her reasons for everything she had done. He wasn't the kind of man to confess his feelings in words, but he knew that she knew what she meant to him when he willingly let her see him without a mask. Gently he laid a hand on her shoulder again and turned her to face him once again.
"We should get those hands bandaged up and if you wouldn't mind keeping your ears and nose peeled for anyone approaching, I'd appreciate that," he still spoke softly and she finally flickered her gaze up to meet his. "And that's enough of you feeling guilty for something that you couldn't have done anything to prevent. If you would have been able to help the pack you would have."
"It doesn't change the fact that my father is still alive because I couldn't bring myself to kill him. The downside to being the way I am; he never made a move against me or any of you. If he had, I wouldn't have had an issue, but he wouldn't raise a hand against me when I was willing to give him the fight he wanted. Kakashi, he didn't defeat me; I couldn't kill him."
"Which says more about who you really are than if you had killed him; you are nothing like the man. Reyna, you are one of the most powerful ninja in the village and he can't take that away from you no matter what he does. If you had killed him, he would have won because he would have turned you into exactly what he wanted you to be. Now, let me see your hands," Kakashi admonished even as he dug bandages out of his pack again
Reyna sighed and let Kakashi push her down to sit under the same tree she had been using as a punching bag before he set about the task of cleaning the wounds on her hands, her knuckles torn nearly down to the bone, and finally bandaged them.
"Ready to head back to the village?" he asked quietly as he finished his task and raised his grey eye to meet her gaze.
She shook her head, "No, I need some time to just…"
Kakashi nodded, "Alright, we'll head back in the morning then."
"You don't have to stay if you don't want to," she muttered.
"If I didn't want to be here, I wouldn't be and I sure as hell wouldn't be here without my mask on."
Reyna finally flickered the corners of her lips in an attempt of a smile and Kakashi relaxed a little at the effort. She sighed and slid a little closer to his side before he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in against him. She settled her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.
"There's something else that you should probably know," she finally spoke a few minutes later and lifted her head enough to meet his eye briefly before lowering her gaze again.
"What is it?"
"My dad joined up with Zeke, who is like Kayha only evil and out to destroy all mankind, from what I could pick up while I was there. The pack wasn't just after me, they're after Kayha too but they decided to go after me first; probably thought that I'd be more effective against Kayha than they are."
Kakashi sighed and lifted her head so that he could meet her gaze, "Then we'll warn Kayha when we get back to the village. Why aren't you holding my eye?"
Reyna shrugged, "I just made my mate a major target for death; kind of brings out the submissive side I guess."
"Well stop; I am capable of looking after myself you know," he grinned and she shook her head even as he spoke again, "And I'm your mate now?"
"I'll try, granted no mask definitely makes it a lot easier and if you remember you are the one who declared me as your mate to the pack," she finally managed a small grin.
Kakashi laughed a little at that and on impulse leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers, but this time she was a little better prepared to react to the move and slid her hand over his vest and curled her fingers around the back of his neck; fingertips playing lightly through his hair below where he had his headband tied. He had meant for the kiss to be quick and light, but as she shifted more tightly against him and returned the kiss he found that rather than pulling away from her as he had planned, they deepened the kiss and he wrapped his free arm around her waist, pulling her nearly on top of himself.
Reyna smiled against his lips and twisted around to kneel beside him briefly, never breaking the kiss, before she straddled his hips and wrapped both arms around his neck still kissing him as she settled on his legs. She shifted again to take the weight off her injured calf even as Kakashi broke the kiss and pulled in a deep, much needed, breath; her fingers played lightly through his hair, threading it through her hands.
"Kind of hard for you to play submissive like this too," he chuckled, both his arms wrapped around her waist and his fingers gently massaging her lower back, slipping underneath her vest.
Reyna shrugged and laid her forehead against his before she replied, "Let me guess, that was your plan all along wasn't it?"
Kakashi chuckled and tightened his hold around her, "Sure, that sounds like something I'd plan."
His lips had just found the side of her neck bringing a soft gasp and a shiver from her before she tensed and he felt her fingers tugging his mask up hastily and without a question he replaced his mask. However Reyna was still sitting astride his legs when he heard the approaching footsteps and knew that they were going to get caught. Reyna groaned as she laid her head against his shoulder.
A/N: As always click the button below to feed the muse and help me keep writing! I may have another story in the works as well, so watch out for that one!