Title: Rin

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Warning: Unbeta and horrible grammar. Language.

Chapter 22

Iruka agreed to took basic classes with Shiro after we met him. Shiro had explained to us about the healing jutsu; the theory behind it, the chakra control and the concentration with delicate observation. Obviously I didn't have the last part. I wasn't a delicate person. I was more to straight forward approach thus becoming a medic nin was out from my career path. Sealing techniques also needed a delicate chakra control but it wasn't intense as healing one. I was just didn't have the long lasting concentration with delicate approach. We did the basic test with Shiro observed everything. The fish test. Now I understood why there was an aquarium inside his room.

Apparently Iruka did the test without any difficulties. I shrugged and let he did mine before Shiro was going to lost his small fish. I could see his nervous expression when he observed my work. I guessed he really cared those small fishes in his aquarium.

I could see he wiped his nervous sweat when he placed back his fish inside the glass container. Chuckling softly, I spoke out my concern. "Don't worry Shiro-san. It seems that those fish are fine."

"Yeah and I should believe you for the first time Rin-chan," Shiro said and sat down on his chair. He pulled out a book. Flipping it for a moment, he stopped at certain page. "Okay, I think we can start your training on next week, Iruka-kun."

We left the hospital ground and looked at the moody sky. There was no more rain but the sky still full with grey clouds and cold wind blew from time to time. I looked at Iruka.

"There is still no news from Inoichi-sensei and Hanan also is still recovering from the sickness. What are we going to do now, Rin?" Iruka asked.

Remembering the Hyuuga member of team six, I shrugged. It seemed that he was same with our blond haired sensei as he caught the fever but didn't act like a kid when we had visited him. Haru, his twin also caught the sickness and they were resting together. It was nice to have someone beside when you were recovering from something. My mind wandered to certain Uchiha which I believed he was on road of recovery by now. I guessed I will visit him later.

I sighed and checked out my kunai with several piece of papers in my weapon pouch. "I could practice my seals and with weather like this it gives us trickier situation. I like to try it after lunch, wanna join me?" Looking at brunet, I waited for his answer.

Iruka stood in thinking position, his gaze focused at the ground before he looked at me with a smile. "Sure, why not? This is my chance to get away from Mizuki!"

I rolled my eyes and walked forward. "My offer still stands, Iruka."

"He might be a jerk sometimes but he is still a good guy once you know him," The brunet said as he followed me. "Scarring his mind seems too much when he want to do something nice to a girl he likes."

I groaned softly. "You're just soft Iruka."

Iruka shrugged ignoring my statements. "So, what's for lunch?"

"Ramen will be nice in this kind of weather."

"Ichiraku then."

"Yeah."

We were on our way to the training field when we met Shishui and Itachi. I frowned slightly as my gaze focused at the youngest Uchiha who was still looking tired in my opinion. I looked at Shishui.

"Shishui-senpai, what're you two doing here? Itachi is not fully recovered…"

"Don't blame Shishui, Rin. I just want to have some fresh air," Itachi said interrupting my question.

"Oh okay then."

"Don't worry Rin, I'm here." Shishui grinned and patted Itachi's shoulder. "I'll make sure his safety and health."

I nodded and changed gaze with Iruka. The brunet nodded and looked at the raven haired boys. "Well, it's nice to meet you two. Have a nice walk." Iruka grinned and walked away.

"Take care, Itachi," I said and resumed my way to the training ground. Quickly I ran and joined Iruka. "Hey, don't leave me alone." I hissed.

"Well, I'm not," Iruka said casually and looked behind us. He frowned slightly.

I raised my eyebrows. "What's wrong?"

"Um, I guess they are following us?" Iruka shrugged.

"What?" I sighed, resting my palm on my forehead and stopped from walking. I looked at the brunet. "Let's just ignore them. Maybe we are just in the same direction with them."

"Yeah," Iruka said and we resumed our walk.

There wasn't anyone at the training field when we reached the area. Using my chakra, I satisfied with our surrounding. Apparently Shishui and Itachi weren't following us. I scanned the field and looked at the ground. It was damp and I could see some small spots of water here and there. We weren't going to be least dirty with this kind of ground I noted. Anyway, this was a good opportunity to saw our training results.

"Are you ready, Iruka?" I pulled out my kunai.

Iruka smirked and pulled out his. "Yes."

I narrowed my gaze and looked at the brunet. Iruka could be a very fierce opponent if he would. He also narrowed his eyes and our gaze clashed. He was really serious, I noticed and without any delay, we sprinted to each other. Raising my hand with kunai, I quickly blocked his and pushing him away. My footage was gone a little bit of and I quickly jumped away. I glared at the ground, it seemed that the weather did make the soil became very wet and slippery.

"The ground is slippery."

"Yeah, are you going to continue?" Iruka asked.

I nodded and pulled out my seal written kunai. Iruka grunted.

"You're going to use that huh?"

"Yes," I said and threw the three kunai randomly around the field. Iruka eyed each of it and narrowed his gaze. He didn't like it, I knew.

Quickly transporting to one kunai near the brunet, I pushed my right foot on the wet ground so I could dashed at Iruka. He acted fast by turning around and blocked my punch using his arms and tried for a kick using his left leg. Blocking his kick with my free hand, I kneed his stomach. He gasped and we both retreated a few steps from each other. He spat to the ground and ran at my direction with his sharpened kunai in his hand. Surprisingly he threw his weapon away and hit me with a kick. I was barely blocking it and he managed a hit to my side as I avoided my holding kunai hand from Iruka. Grunted, I a quickly made a roundhouse kick which Iruka avoided and I managed a gap between us. Crouching on the wet ground, I gritted my teeth. The brunet already retrieved his weapon while I eyed his leg. Smirking, I activated the fourth seal and transported in front of him.

Iruka eyes widened but he quickly blocked my kunai with his and we stayed still with our gaze focusing at each other. I grinned.

"That's a very fast reaction."

"Yeah," Iruka said and pushed me away. "And you managed another seal. How?"

"Practicing from time to time," I replied and waved my hand. I had written down a seal on my palm and I only could place one since three already laid out on the field via kunai.

He rolled his eyes and snorted. "Now you make me want to do something too." Checking his weapon pouch for moment, the brunet smirked as he pulled out some shurikens and chakra wires. There was also his custom made seal together.

My grin gone instantly as my eyes landed at the materials in his hand. "Oh, shit no way. You're not making any traps today."

"Oh, shit yes way," Iruka said as he pulled the thin wire from its coil. "I'm going to practice my trapping skills today."

Quickly retrieving two of my hiraishin kunai, I eyed Iruka's position. He was stood calmly in the middle of the field and I knew he already laid out his traps around him and any wrong move to him was totally unwise. Iruka's traps were nasty. While I had made some pepper bomb seal that lead to irritating after effect, he used coloured materials which would never go away even after several vigorous wash. It took one week the fastest time for it to fade away and month was the longest. Hanan nearly had chocked Iruka to death as the brunet managed dyeing the Hyugaa smooth hair to blond colour. Inoichi-sensei simply shared his amused smile with us for the whole week. Hanan wore his hoodie for the whole week.

Using my chakra, I tried finding out where his traps were. Iruka used the wire so his chakra might attach together with it in order to work properly. The trickiest part was in finding it since only very small amount of chakra was being used and I could saw Iruka's smirk from my position. I frowned and threw my hiraishin kunai so it stuck on the ground near the brunet. Iruka startled and jumped away. I grinned, activating the seal and kicked his legs. It seemed that he forgot I had my seal on his leg.

Harshly landed on wet ground to his side, Iruka quickly raised his hands blocking my kunai. Under his breath, he said something. "They're here."

"Who?" I raised my eyebrows.

"You know who!" Iruka hissed and pushed me away using his foot on my stomach.

"Tch!" I jumped away and noted that I stepped on something. It was Iruka's chakra wires. "Shit!" I shouted and quickly transported myself to the brunet barely avoiding a small explosion from the ground. I glared at him. "You are tricking me!"

"I'm not!" Iruka stood up and jumped away.

I stood warily and wiped away my sweat. Using my chakra I noticed two presences other than us two around the field. Iruka stared flatly at my direction.

"See? I'm not tricking you," The brunet said and dashed to me.

I hastily blocked his kunai and palmed his stomach, providing a gap between us. Standing in offensive position, I eyed Iruka who also preparing himself for another attack. Our kunai clashed and Iruka muttered something.

"You want to continue?"

"I want to but, I don't feel like having spectators now. Inoichi-sensei and Hanan are okay but other than them, I don't think so."

We both lowered our kunai and made the reconciliation sign. I scanned Iruka from top to bottom and laughed.

"You're covered with mud."

"Look who's talking."

I rolled my eyes and snorted. "Tch…"

I quickly turning around once I noted the two chakra presences walked to us. I looked at amused looking Shishui and silent Itachi. Iruka stood beside me and we changed our gaze.

"Um, are you two following us here?" Iruka asked softly.

Shishui grinned. "Yeah," He said and patted Itachi's shoulder. "He wants to see where you two are going together."

I shrugged and looked at Itachi who stared at the ground before focused at Shishui. "We're just practicing our skill since there is nothing else we can do until Inoichi-sensei and Hanan are back."

"Yeah, we had seen that. Both of you have a good reflex." Shishui added. "I want to join both of you sometime."

"Sure?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Yeah, yes please join us," Iruka said excitedly. "Training with an Uchiha is always fun and challenging."

I looked at him and shrugged. Now I remembered why Iruka had said that. He did have training with Suzu who is one of the Uchiha. Now I was curious what kind of training did Iruka had making him said it was fun and challenging.

"What about tomorrow? I'm free until next week."

"Okay, same time?" Iruka asked. I let Iruka did the deal as I searched for my kunai which I had thrown earlier.

"Yes."

Iruka nodded and walked around the field, collecting our things. Quickly, I followed him. Iruka patted my shoulder and smirked.

"Someone's jealous. Now I'm scared."

I snorted and stared indifferently at the brunet. "Say what you want, Iruka." I pulled out my kunai from the soft ground and checked on the seal. It seemed that the letters was slightly blurred.

"You should use waterproof ink for this kind of purpose," Itachi said softly beside me. I startled a bit and looked at the young boy. When he did follow me?

"Yeah, sure thank you for your suggestion," I replied and looked at the brunet who was smirking mockingly. Without any doubt, I threw my kunai at his direction. "Stop smirking, Iruka!"

Iruka laughed and ran to Shishui. I gritted my teeth and collecting my weapon.

"Rin."

"Yes?"

"Are you angry?"

"No, I'm not. I just irritated."

"Rin."

"Yes?"

"You smelled."

"Itachi?"

"Mn?"

"Shut up and go back to Shishui or else…"

Without any reply, the raven haired boy walked to his friend and they left the ground.

We reached the bath house after picking up the needs for bathing. I stared at the building and shrugged. Iruka scratched away dry mud from his skin and walked into the building.

"Well, see you after one hour and half."

"One hour and half? That's too long."

"I want to soak…" Iruka said softly and I could see blush on his cheek.

Grinning, I patted his back and went into the building. "Sure, sure one hour and half."

I decided for a short soak, after finished with cleaning of my body and hair from dry mud and sand. Entering the large bath and settled myself at one corner, I sighed at the relaxing sensation.

"Hey, are you Rin?"

"Huh?" Slowly I opened my eyes and looked at the one who called my name. "Yes?"

A teenaged girl whom I assumed her age around fifteen or sixteen years old was standing in front of me. She had shoulder length wavy black hair and bright ruby red eyes and it was fascinating. Her exposed skin was also in healthy pearly white colour. I gaped at her beauty and shrugged, embarrassing with my attitude.

"Sorry for staring."

"Nah, it's okay," She casually said and sat down beside me. "I'm Kurenai, Yuuhi Kurenai."

"Suzuhara Rin, just call me Rin."

"Then call me Kurenai."

I smiled and relaxed in the bath. Kurenai also did the same and rested her arms on the bath wall.

"So, you're a genin now?"

"Yes."

Kurenai smiled and patted my shoulder. "It's nice to have another kunoichi around."

"Sure," I answered and smiled at her. What she had said was particularly true. After receiving the hitai ate, I realized there weren't many girls as ninja. This field was dominating by men while there wasn't any gender preference but most of the missions required the men's power. I also noted that most woman with hitai ate had worked around the academy, hospital and administration part at the hokage tower. From my observation, I also noted that once a kunoichi married, she was no longer in active duty unless she worked in one the three places that I noticed.

"Are you specialized in anything?"

"I'm kind of practicing myself with sealing techniques," I said and waved my hand. "I'm still a novice and still in training."

"Obviously, even I'm also in training too. I'm specializing in genjutsu." Kurenai laughed.

I turned and looked at her. "Genjutsu?"

"Yeah, what's wrong Rin?"

"Mm, nothing. I just remember it was a difficult field to master." Indeed, genjutsu was a pretty unique field. Manipulating chakra was the basic of genjutsu. Wide imagination and creativity of a caster was very important in order to perform a real life illusionary technique. Proper knowledge was also an important thing too. Basically a perfect genjutsu master had these kinds of traits. Kurenai might be a bookworm or something like that.

"Indeed, it is a little bit difficult but the amazing part is majority of genjutsu user are woman."

"Really?" Now that was interesting.

"Yeah because, girls tend to have a detailed imagination and it is logic in human eyes, unlike boy's imagination."

"Oh, that's interesting."

Kurenai looked away and snorted. "Boy's like to think something perverted too…"

"Uh…" I shrugged and remembered Iruka. Henge no jutsu was the most basic jutsu for genjutsu. You're manipulating your chakra and changed your physical appearance. My gaze narrowed as I remembered that Iruka had used henge to change himself into Tsubaki.

I slapped my hand on Iruka's head once he stepped out from the bath house.

"You pervert!"

The brunet groaned and placed a hand on his head. "What? I'm not doing anything!"

"Henge into Tsubaki, what're you thinking?"

"That's Mizuki issue!"

"Iruka? Rin? What're you two talking about?" A soft voice spoke beside us.

Clank! Clank!

Our basket fell down on the ground as we slowly turned our face at our classmate. Tsubaki blinked and smiled innocently at us.

"Hi, Tsubaki," I said and picked up my basket casually. I laughed softly. "My hands were slipped. It's nice to see you around."

"Yeah." Iruka grinned and picked up his things. "My hands slipped too."

I rolled my eyes at his lame reasoning, hey he stole mine!

"Nice to see you two too, it has been few months already since we were graduated from the academy," Tsubaki said and looked at the bath house entrance. It seemed that she was in hurry. This was our chance.

"Yeah, you're right," I said and pulled Iruka's sleeve. "Sadly that we're in hurry for dinner; I like to have some chat with you but next time maybe. See you around?"

"Sure," Tsubaki said and waved to us before entering the bath house.

Once the girl entered the building, we released a deep sigh. Iruka pulled his sleeve from my grasp and groaned.

"I'm not doing anything perverted by henge into Tsubaki."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, Mizuki was just practicing his stupid speech and I just smiled at everything he said." Iruka frowned and sighed. "I'm so not going to help him with this anymore."

I eyed the brunet critically and shrugged. "Okay, I believe you, Iruka," I said patted his shoulder. "I'm sorry for doubting you."

"It's okay, but it will be much better if you buy me some treat. I'm craving for some pudding."

My eyes widened at hi demand. "What! That's expensive!"

Iruka ran away to certain convenience store with a smirk. He waved my money pouch. I gritted my teeth and ran to his direction. When he took that?

"This is must be your first experience with it," Shishui said as he extended his arms to our reach. I grabbed one of his hands and let him pulling my body up. I groaned slightly.

"Yeah," Iruka said. "Sharingan is really something, Shishui-senpai."

I nodded. "This is my first time seeing it and it's unique."

Shishui closed his eyes and deactivated his sharingan. "Yes, it is very unique and special." He spoke softly and looked at the bright sky. Apparently the rainy season in Konoha was going away.

I turned my head and looked at Itachi who was practicing alone with his kunai. I wonder how he would look with his sharingan activated.

As if knowing that I was staring at his direction, Itachi looked at my face. Our eyes stared at each other.

"And then they walk to each other, staring into each other gaze…ouch!"

I elbowed Iruka's stomach and turned away. "Let's continue, Shishui-senpai."

"S-Sure…Are you okay, Iruka?"

"Mm fine! Damnit Rin."

I laughed and pulled out my pepper bomb seal. Inoichi-sensei only banned me from using it when Hanan and him around. I grinned and Iruka already preparing something to counter attack my seal.

"Sorry Shishui-senpai but no sharingan this time," I said and activated the seal.

"What the hell is this?!"

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