Title: Rin

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Warning: Unbeta and horrible grammar. Language.

Chapter 24

I sat silently on the same branch as I looked at Naruto who was walking around the playroom inside the orphanage. I stared at the blond baby and shuddered. He was playing alone in the room and there wasn't anyone else inside it. I frowned and hugged my legs. Why they did that?

"I'm sorry, Naruto for not being there for you." I muttered softly and shrugged. Resting my head on my knees, I hummed something.

The branch where I sat was moving and I felt someone had joined me watching Naruto. I raised my head and turned to my left side. It was the masked person again.

"Hello," I greeted him and that person nodded.

Slowly I stood up and looked at the masked person. I smiled.

"Now I can relax a bit since you're here. Look Naruto for me will you?" I said and preparing my leg to jump away when a gloved hand grasped lightly on my arm making me stopped. I looked at the mask, since that was the only thing I could identify about this person. "Yes?"

A hand signs was showed and I stared at the hand before looking up at the mask.

"Where I'm going?" I deciphered the sign and grinned. "Got mission to do, maybe I won't be here for few days."

Another signs showed. I laughed softly. "Good luck? Thanks Anbu-san."

A nod was enough as answer and I left the place with happy smile.

Iruka ran to us and panted slightly before looked at Inoichi-sensei. "Sensei, I bring what you want."

Inoichi-sensei nodded and looked at Hanan and me. I nodded at his silent instruction and patted everyone shoulders placing my seal mark.

After the success of our first C ranked mission, our team slowly took more missions from that rank. While there was occasionally D ranked mission in our schedule but our time mostly consumed by a single C ranked where the longest it took almost two weeks until it was finished. There was also a less time consuming too. The pay was satisfying and I did make some saving for the future. I even managed to buy some new clothes and better material for my seal making. As for our first kill experience, I agreed that was a real life rule where the strongest will kill the weaker and that was my last straw if anything else didn't work. Iruka and Hanan had their own definition on the first killing experience and we all had managed to overcome it which made Inoichi-sensei quite proud and satisfied with our growth.

I also had personal talk with him about my decision on searching the jutsu. He was pleased with my choice and we were still trained on my genjutsu breaking techniques. He did placed a higher level of genjutsu to me from time to time. Sometimes, Kurenai had joined me practicing it when she found me alone at the training field. We also had some girls talk and I enjoyed it very much since I was always having interaction with boys and men. Only few girls I knew around Konoha and Mikoto was the only woman among them.

Talking about her, she did ask me to come for dinner after the mission. I simply agreed to it since she was a nice woman to hang around and she also gave some pointers on my seals. Well, she was Kushina's best friend and they did share too many things between them which Minato and Fugaku never knew and it was mostly about women things of course. Mikoto was a carefree woman too as she always enjoyed every moment in her life and of course bragging about her sons too.

About her sons, I never had a chance to met Itachi anymore since the missions came along and he was practically busy with his ninja training and classes. I didn't mind much as that gave us some gap and it was actually a little bit relaxing on my part. Remembering Mikoto's invitation somehow made me a little bit anxious. I wondered how much did Itachi have grew up by now. Well, Sasuke on the other hand…

"Rin!" Iruka shouted my name and I nodded at his direction. Quickly I landed on the ground in a crouch and pulled out a scroll from my weapon pouch on my waist. Rolling it open, I made several hand signs and let strong pulse of water came out from my seal. Slamming my palm on the scroll and releasing my chakra, a water barrier was formed. Hanan and Iruka stood behind me and pulled out their weapons.

Fire arrows reached my water barrier and it instantly stuck on it and the fire went away. Inoichi-sensei already formed his specialized hand seal behind us. His next instruction was really surprising.

"A paper bomb is going to approach us in ten seconds. Rin lower your barrier, Hanan use your kaiten and Iruka your chakra wires."

"Yes!" We answered and instantly I let the barrier down. Hanan quickly stood in front of me and performed his technique while Iruka pulling out several chakra wires from his pouch. The kunai with paper bomb was deflacted by Hanan and it went away before it was exploded. The Hyuuga boy stopped his move gracefully before our sensei released his jutsu, making the attackers became immobilized since their minds were taking over by our blond sensei. Iruka hastily threw out his kunais that were attached with chakra wires and sealing barrier, binding the enemy down.

Inoichi-sensei went to the group of unknown ninja and performed his interrogation techniques with Hanan observing him. Securing my water seal on my scroll, I looked at Iruka.

"Hey, it has been a year already since we are graduated," I said and kept my scroll away.

Iruka nodded while his gaze was focusing at the group. I looked at the direction and shrugged. "It seems that Inoichi-sensei don't hold back. Those ninjas are suffering from mental treatment. Well it's their mistake for attacking us so suddenly."

I shrugged and agreed with Iruka's statement. The unknown ninja leader was shaking while his other members were panicking. They really couldn't move around since Iruka had activated the seal barrier.

The brunet looked at me and raised his eyebrows. "So what's about a year after graduating?"

I hummed and stood up. "Do you remember about individual test that Inoichi-sensei gave us?"

"Yeah, of course I won't forget that! You didn't wake up from a genjutsu! We both are so worried!"

"Chill Iruka, stop shouting, I'm sorry about that okay. I've been practicing with Inoichi-sensei about it and don't worry about that anymore."

"O…kay then," Iruka said reluctantly and relaxed slowly. "So, what's about it?"

"You must wonder when he is going to do that test again, am I right, Rin?" Hanan joined us.

I nodded. "Yeah, you're right, Hanan. Um, what will happen to them?" We all looked at our sensei and the group of unknown ninja.

Hanan shrugged. "They aimed for the scroll we had received from the border surveillance team and they want to sell it at the black market. Apparently the scroll was containing some kind of jutsu, which I hardly believed. If there is jutsu inside it, I don't think it's easily dropped out from our client during his way back."

"Oh." Both Iruka and I nodded. The scroll was safe in Inoichi-sensei's hand since he was the one who held it. He kept it hidden of course.

"So, we're going to wait for another team to bring them back to Konoha. Inoichi-sensei already sent his summon. Then, we're going to stay here until the team arrives and resume our mission."

I shuddered. "Another night sleeping outside," I said and paused. "I miss my bed."

"Well, the ground isn't that bad, Rin." Iruka kicked some dead leaves.

"Yeah, with crawling creatures here and there, of course I like it very much." I deadpanned.

Hanan groaned and rubbed his arms, he also mumbled something under his breath about dirt and hair. Well, he was such a sissy sometimes. Even I didn't care much about some dirt attached on my clothes but he would babble silently (which also could be heard obviously) and tried to clean even for single spot on his shirt. What a guy, I groaned internally.

I stared at the full moon and shivered slightly when the wind blew by. Rubbing my arms, I pulled my sweater tighter and sighed. I looked at the ground and noticed that Hanan and Iruka were sleeping soundly. I believed Iruka was really enjoying the sleep while Hanan, I guessed he was troubled with some mosquitoes flying around his head. His face was soured with his eyebrows twitched from time to time, annoyed with the insects and his hands were swatting it away. A loud slap sound was heard and I looked at the sleeping Hyuuga. I giggled softly and quickly looked away.

"That's very funny," Inoichi-sensei said softly and smiled.

"It looks hurt," I replied casually and grinned. "But it's amusing."

"Well, Iruka did offer some ointments but he rejected it."

"Hanan's fault then." I chuckled softly. Inoichi-sensei had dropped the honorific and simply called us by our names since he had became comfortable with us from time to time. He also had let us babysitting his daughter, Ino, when he was having a higher ranking mission or interrogation with some enemy who had been caught. From time to time, he did act like our father or older brother since all of us didn't have parents save for Hanan who still had his mother. I didn't mind about my age anymore when with him and just followed the flow.

I stopped from my chuckle. "I guess Hanan is just careful with Iruka since he was fallen once. Remember the ointment wasn't really one but honey? That was hilarious."

"Of course I won't forget that, both of them were harmed by a large group of bees." Inoichi-sensei chuckled softly and I joined him.

"And it was really painful listening to those Hanan's alien speaking since his mouth was swollen heavily."

"Yeah and Iruka too, he couldn't sit on the ground since the bees stung his ass."

We laughed and stopped once we heard another face slapping sound and resumed our chuckle softly.

I washed my face after brushing my teeth and kept everything in my backpack before joined with my team and the unknown ninjas. While I was walking to the place from nearby river, I could hear Iruka's excited voice.

"More like he's congratulating someone," I said softly and resumed my walk. After entering a pretty big bush, and exiting it from the other side, I was surprised with the presence of the newcomers. It seemed that the group had arrived. My eyes widened as my gaze landed at certain person. I blinked repeatedly and rubbed my eyes. "There is no way I'm seeing that. This must be some dream!"

Iruka sighed and pulled my hand away. "Rin, this is not a dream. Face it, Itachi-kun is one of us now."

I sighed and shrugged. "Okay…"

Hanan crossed his arms and looked at me with curious expression. Ah, I did tell him about being friend with another Uchiha but I didn't really finished the story with him since we were so busy these days and I already had missed some important events in the year! Slowly I turned and looked at Itachi with other two older kids who were listening to his jounin sensei and Inoichi-sensei. I looked at the raven haired boy. I noted that his hair was a little bit longer and he was a little bit taller than our last encounter that was…pretty long time, I guessed. My eyes the caught at his forehead where the hitai ate was, it seemed that it was true.

I looked at Iruka and shrugged. "Iruka, punch me. Hard."

The brunet stared at me and placed a palm on his face. "I don't want to do it, or I'm going to be punched. Sorry but I'm really like to keep my limbs attached."

"Oh, please?"

"No!"

"Tch!"

"Um, Rin, Iruka…" Hanan spoke softly and making both of us focused at him. The Hyuuga placed a hand under his chin and nodded. "From your reaction, I guess that Uchiha Itachi is your love interest, Rin?"

I stared at Hanan and gaped. He was too clever sometimes and I didn't like it when he was making his deduction.

"Uh, not really Hanan, we're just a good friend," I said and shrugged. "He is a good boy."

Iruka rolled his eyes and nodded. "A very good one indeed."

I glared at the brunet and he simply brushed it away.

"I'm thinking about our dinner shall be salad for the whole week when we come back."

Iruka quickly looked at me and shook his head. "Anything but that! I can't stand anymore veggies since this mission! Those canned vegetables and plain rice was a torture! Our sensei taste was awful!"

"You have a weird relationship with people around you Rin," Hanan said so suddenly.

"What about that?" I asked him and ignored Iruka's pleading.

Hanan shrugged. "Nothing, just my observation. Don't worry much about it anyway."

I groaned and looked at the group which was still in deep discussion between the jounins. Itachi was looking at our direction and our gaze clashed. I quickly looked away after nodded at his direction. Well, a simple nod would be enough as a greeting in the middle of a mission, right?

The scroll was containing a toy for kids, a kendama. The client had bought it from Suna since his son really wanted one after seeing it from a group of merchant that had stopped at their village. One of the merchant children was roaming around the village and met the client son thus lead to the knowledge. The client decided to buy one for his son as birthday present when he was receiving an invitation to the Suna merchant village as a thank you for the good hospitality during their stay. He kept the toy hidden in one of his storage scroll for a surprised to his son and realized it was gone when he came back. After heard some news from the ninjas at the border, he put a request for bringing the scroll back.

We stared at the kendama and shrugged while Inoichi-sensei was talking with the client who was the leader of the village. I elbowed Hanan's ribs softly.

"It seems that your hunch was true." I whispered at him.

Hanan nodded. "Well, those nins whom attacked us were stupid and they aren't really come from a big village. So it was pretty weird on that part."

Iruka looked at us. "Or maybe they're just bandits. They want to sell it right?"

"Yeah, I think so too."

I hummed and agreed with it silently. Well, since our mission was a success, we're going to came back to Konoha. Sighing silently, I knew I was going to face it either sooner or later.

It seemed that sooner than I thought as we were approaching the main gate, I felt Itachi's chakra was around the place. I reassured my mind since I had prepared something to encounter the Itachi's feeling. After registering at the main gate post, Inoichi-sensei left us. He did mention about two days off and we were going to have our meeting after that.

Hanan left a few moments later after giving me some knowing gaze. I shuddered under his gaze and looked at Iruka. The brunet yawned and folded his arms behind his head. He stared at the evening sky and sighed.

"Well, I'm going to buy some ramen since you are insisting on salad thing," Iruka said and went to shopping district. I groaned and gritted my teeth at his direction.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm so having salad for my dinner this week!" I shouted before Iruka ran away and mockingly threw a flying kiss at my direction. Quickly grabbing nearest stone, I threw it away at the brunet direction. Sadly, Iruka already jumped away and I was so going to strangled him later.

"Rin?"

I stopped from my immature attitude and looked at Itachi with a shrug. "Sorry since you need to see that."

The boy shook his head slowly before looked at me with his deep gaze. I shrugged and looked away.

"It's okay; I like to see you so honest like that."

"Ah, I don't think that should be classified as honest, Itachi."

"Come and have dinner at our house tomorrow. Mother tells me she invited you before you left for the mission."

I nodded slowly. "Okay, I'll come tomorrow."

Itachi already walked in front of me before he stopped since I faked a cough and turning around so we were facing each other. I gulped my saliva and pulled out something from my weapon pouch.

"Itachi, congratulations on yours graduation. That hitai ate really suit on you."

"Thank you very much, Rin."

Slowly I walked to him and pulled his hand before placing my specialized kunai on his palm. It was the standard kunai we used but I had mine with carved hilt with my seal signature.

"For you."

"But?"

"Keep it, you gave something on my graduation and I want to give something to you too. We are comrades now," I said firmly and walked away with a smile. That was my way of recognizing him as my comrades. I hoped he do understood that I wasn't seeing him more that that.

"Rin!"

I stopped and turning around. "Yes?"

"I'm going to be serious from now on."

"What?" I raised my eyebrows. What now?

"Since I'm an adult," Itachi said calmly and walked away leaving me alone.

Ow, crap! He doesn't understand my sign?! I yelled internally.

Thanks for reading, following, favorite and review this story. Next chapter is going to take more time later since I got some college things to do and right now there is something happened in my family. So please be patient and see you guys later on. Thanks again for supporting this story!