A/N: I created a character card for Sacora that I put up on Deviantart and Ao3. Fanfiction doesn't let me link them properly on my profile so you would have to search for them yourself. My username is the same on all sites, so it should be relatively easy, plus the character card is the only artwork in my Deviantart gallery atm. I don't see other OC's entering the scene yet so I'll create one for Chuni, then one collectively for Lady Yan, Baojun, and Xiuhua later.

"No tools or third party help – which includes Akamaru this time – and basic tai and ninjutsu only."

Kiba reluctantly pulled a whining Akamaru out of his coat. "Sorry, boy, I'll have to do this alone."

"There's no win or lose in this spar," Iruka continued, "and it will be timed for five minutes. You stop as soon as I say so." He looked pointedly at them both and then took a step back when he seemed satisfied. "Go."

Without a second thought, Kiba hunched into position and performed a blur of hand signs. Two images phased on either side of him, separating to reveal twin copies of himself.

What!? This strange, red-marked boy...could clone himself? Sacora hardly believed what her eyes were seeing. But she was quickly reminded of the situation at hand when the original Kiba dashed out of sight and his two clones came rushing at her. Dropping into stance, she sent a punch and kick of flame their way and watched in bewilderment as her attacks made them poof into smoke.

Huh? So they're not real people? In that case, they were not the ones she should focus her attention on. Realizing it almost too late, she spun around and pulsed fire through her palms to block the incoming Kiba from colliding into her. He turned on a dime and leapt back, narrowly missing being burnt by a hair. In response, she spun in his direction and leapt into as high a spinning kick as she could muster, dropping back down to sweep a crescent of fire at his feet in case the kick's fire missed him, and felt a note of satisfaction when he stumbled a bit in avoiding it.

Still, he restabilized quick, and dashed away to her right. She whirled about to follow him, but in the ensuing blast she sent his way, his form seemed to blur and split into another clone. The problem was that she now couldn't tell which was the original. As the fire cleared away, she only perceived one Kiba, so she quickly whirled about to catch what she believed would be the real one trying to ambush her.

"Boo!" a mischievous whisper suddenly hissed into her ear, and she jumped around in surprise to find Kiba mere inches away from her face. "Made you look!" He then roughly knocked her down, causing the back of her head to meet the ground with a rude blow. She rolled away through the daze and leapt to her feet using short bursts of fire to put more of a distance between them.

"Kinda slow, aren't ya?" he smirked. "And I was going easy on you!"

He yelped as a whip of flame lashed at his coat sleeve. Without a word, Sacora gathered fire into a ring and sent it towards him in a large burst. As he jumped to dodge, she harried him with barrages of flame that kept him dancing on his feet, each blast growing more relentless than the other.

"All right already!" he growled as he swerved for the umpteenth time. Mid-jump, his hand came together in a single hand seal. "Ninja Art of Beast Mimicry: All Fours Jutsu!"

When he landed, he seemed to have transformed into something else entirely. Crouching on all fours, his eyes had grown more feral and his nails lengthened into sharp claws; if it weren't for his overall humanoid physique, Sacora could have sworn she was staring into the eyes of a beast.

These strange jutsu – from the eye-popping Byakugan to the multiplying clones and now, Beast Mimicry – were starting to unnerve her one by one. She lit up her palms again and sent angry whiplashes his way, but he was gone in a flash.

Heart pumping, she was about to turn around to catch him behind her, but felt a knock on her back before she could even move. "Too slow!" came the mocking jeer, and her side was bumped a moment later. In desperation she swept out in a circle with her leg, surrounding herself in a ring of fire. She raised the flames to create something of a barrier and took advantage of the momentary lull to think.

How!? How is he going so fast? Was it that jutsu? It had to be, and even before then, he was quite fast already. A woosh of air above her made her jolt, so she manipulated a piece of the fire barrier to target the cause but hit nothing. No, this isn't going to work! With another sweep of her arms, she lowered the barrier until it sank into nothing, billowing the area with thick black smoke.

Using the cover, she dashed to the periphery and burst from the fumes panting yet wary. She figured if he had been nearby, with the wind blowing in the direction that it was, then he would still be within the smoke. Hopefully it would give her enough time to formulate something useful, but she was starting to doubt whether that'd be within her means.

"I might not see you," his voice hissed from within the smoke, and she tensed. "But I can certainly...smell you!"

Like a bad nightmare, he was suddenly barreling out at her from deep within the gloom, his wild eyes alight with glee as he dove his elbow into her stomach. A sharp, inward gasp was all she could give as the very wind was knocked out of her, replaced instead by a blunt ache. As she flew to the ground tumultuously on her back, that ache grew into a wincing pain.

"Ha! Not so tough now, are you?"

But she barely registered the taunt. With shallow breaths, she rolled onto her side and hugged her belly in an attempt to stem the pain lancing through her abdomen.

"Looks like your school oughtta think twice about who it gives 'special honors' to," the Inuzuka added. He craned his head back to give his team a grin. "This spar is over, sensei."

Kurenai sent him an exasperated look and jumped over to the fallen girl. She looked up at Iruka a moment later and shook her head.

Iruka nodded in response and wrote down some more notes. As he moved the pen, he couldn't help but feel a sense of confusion – she can easily manipulate an element without much loss of energy, but wasn't able to counter Kiba's speed or do much defensively – it seemed quite a disadvantage for an otherwise impressive art. Remembering that she was still considered a student in her old home, he wrote down a few extra sentences. I think I'll recommend her next to Kakashi Hatake when he and his team get back for a thorough analysis on why this might be. Byakugan may have been able to see the "what", but Sharingan would be able to perceive the "how". Though she may not be a perfect example of her people, the basic mechanics would be noted and perhaps the level of what a master could achieve might be inferred.

"Can you sit up?" Kurenai was asking Sacora in the meantime. With gentle hands, she propped the girl up and palpated her stomach tentatively. "Nothing feels unusual, but if it hurts too much we'll take you to a clinic."

Hinata and Shino rushed over to them. "A-are you all right?" Hinata asked.

"I told you not to get in over your head," Shino sighed.

Sacora let out another shallow breath and hid her face in her knees as soon as Kurenai stopped prodding her. "I'm fine," she ground out.

A little yip sounded from her left and an annoying voice followed shortly after, thick with triumph. "That wasn't so bad, now was it, boy?" His footsteps came close, resounding echoes of her pain and humiliation. "Didn't take long at all. So what's next, sensei?"

She hugged her knees tighter to block out the noise. Hidden from them all, she allowed the first angry tears to stream down her cheeks. Had all her training and schooling been for naught? Just what were these shinobi, if they could pummel her years of hard practice into the ground?

What had she gotten herself into?

The next few days passed her by in a slump. Kurenai-sensei mentioned something about meeting yet another jonin sensei for her bending, but it would be a while before he and his genin would return from their mission and so she spent her time trailing Team Eight as they trained. As if having to meet the three who'd witnessed her defeat every day wasn't awkward enough, she had no choice but to spend almost the entirety of those days in their presence. Apparently, she wasn't trusted enough to be let off on her own yet, though where she'd run off to in this bizarre place was beyond her.

This day was no different, stuck at a training ground while Kurenai schooled the three in ninja basics. Sacora chose a spot as far from them as Kurenai would allow and sat watching the wind blow through the trees. The very same trees that Kurenai was teaching them to...run on. Not even the trees are safe, she thought as she sank her chin further between her knees.

"Why the long face? Doesn't look good on a young lady."

Sacora gasped and looked up to find an old man with a cane bending down beside her. "Oh, hello," she greeted, straightening out her knees.

His wrinkled face lit up with a gentle smile as he asked, "Are you lost?"

"Oh, no, I..."

"Ah, is that your sensei?" He pointed at Kurenai.

She shook her head. "She already has genin."

"I see." He hobbled around her log and sank shakily onto a spot next to her. Hands folded over his cane, his rheumy eyes blinked at the training genin as he smiled at them fondly.

Sacora stayed quiet a moment, unsure of what to make of this sudden intrusion. "How are you?" she ventured at last.

"Oh, very good. And you?"

"I'm good, thank you."

He nodded and smiled some more. "The grounds sure are nice today," he remarked. "Makes for a good walk when my knees aren't troubling me. Nice and quiet, you know. Peaceful in the morning." He breathed in a lungful of fresh air as if to prove the point. "My grandchildren are chunin now, you know. Used to watch them train when they were younger. Ah, they would get so embarrassed! But they became good ninja. Very good. You should be proud to be a Leaf ninja, young lady; it's an honorable path to walk."

She smiled at him in return. He probably didn't notice that she lacked the spiral-engraved headband, which she'd come to recognize as the mark of those in the shinobi profession. "I'm not from the village," she rebuffed gently.

"Oh, pardon me! Did you just move in from another village?"

She shifted in her seat, unsure of what to tell him. "Yes," she answered anyway.

"Ah, you're shadowing a team before you're assigned one of your own?"

"Um..."

"No worries! Welcome to Konoha. I wish you the best of luck." He then hefted himself to his feet with his cane, grunting laboriously as he straightened his back. "I must go now, it's about time for my tea. Your name, young lady?"

He's awfully nosy, isn't he? But she decided to oblige him, and rather welcomed his company after days of nothing but sulking. He was just a friendly old man who liked to chat, after all. "Sacora."

"Mr. Teiji," he provided with a tip of his head. "See you again soon, Sacora."

Kiba huffed as he stuck a kunai into the ground beside him. "I don't like the way she stares at us. Sensei, does she have to follow us everywhere we go?"

"I've told you, Kiba, I'm responsible for looking after her. Until we find some sort of arrangement, she'll be where I'll be." You're not the one who has to deal with the moping silence at home, Kurenai added to herself with an inward sigh. If it had been difficult to draw her out before, it was near impossible now.

"Why does it bother you so much anyway?" Shino asked, annoyed. "Do you feel guilty about the spar or something?"

"Wha – no!"

"M-maybe we should try talking to her?" Hinata suggested. "She does seem...lonely..."

Kiba wrinkled his nose in disgust. But before he could make a retort, Kurenai interjected, "You'll catch a lot more flies with honey than vinegar, Kiba. The opponents we defeat aren't always worthless. Besides, you all could probably get her to open up better than I can." She gave them a pointed look and said no further on the subject, letting them figure that one out for themselves.

Shino, as always, caught on quick. "We'll tell you anything we learn from her. Won't we, guys?" he asked of his teammates.

"Oh," Hinata nodded, a little embarrassed. "Of course..."

"Whatever," Kiba sighed, slapping the kunai back into his holster.

"Good. Now get back up on those trees and start running."

They were walking back through the village and had stopped on a corner street for Kurenai to pick up something at a store, when the ice-cold metal can was suddenly lobbed at her.

"Here, catch," was all the warning that she'd been given.

Sacora jolted and scrambled to keep from dropping the can, finally gaining ahold of it awkwardly against her chest. She looked up uncertainly at its grantor and furrowed her brows in confusion. "Uh...thanks...?"

She and Kiba stared at each other for what seemed like a long while, until he gestured at the can. "Well? Open it."

Sacora looked down at the strange cylinder, inspecting it for some sort of opening. "How?"

"Pull the metal thing. No, that's upside-down! Oh, just lemme do it–" He grabbed the can again and pulled a little metallic tab at the top, eliciting a crisp click. "See? It's that ea–" And then he gasped and spluttered as the hissing contents sprayed all over his face. Akamaru, stuck in his coat, let out a yelp of surprise and ducked down for safety.

Sacora couldn't help but giggle. When she saw Kiba's unamused expression, however, she coughed it away. "It's, um...foaming to the ground..."

"I can see that," he huffed as he wiped his face with his sleeve.

"You shouldn't have thrown it," Shino chided from behind him. "Now it's all shaken up."

Kiba rolled his eyes and held the bubbling can out to her again. Even Akamaru, cautiously nosing his way out of the coat, seemed to stare at her with an imposing look of expectance. She accepted the can tentatively, doing her best to avoid the rivulets of dark liquid streaming down its sides. "What is it?" she asked.

"A peace offering."

"No, I mean...what is it?"

His eyes widened in surprise. "Are you saying you've never had soda before?"

She shook her head slowly.

"Well...what are you waiting for!? Oh my god, I can't believe you've never had soda!"

He wanted her to drink...that? She lifted the can closer and heard whispers of hissing and popping from inside. It felt against the grain of instinct to ingest such a seemingly hazardous concoction, but why would he poison her? He didn't dislike her that much, did he? She sniffed the opening and regretted the tingle that stung her nose. Still, it smelled sweet...maybe it wasn't so bad. Maybe it's like fire flakes, she thought, and took a little sip.

The carbonation was a surprise, but in a pleasant sense. Spicy yet cold, it was different from fire flakes and much more refreshing. "Oh, it's good," she admitted as she lowered the can. "Thanks."

Kiba smirked. "Don't mention it."

"How's your stomach feeling?" Hinata chimed in, index fingers tapping together shyly. "It must have left a bruise..."

"It's okay," she replied, looking away from Kiba; the humiliation was still too fresh in her mind. "I hardly feel anything."

"I can give you some aspirin, if you'd like," Hinata added.

"That's nice of you, Hinata," Kurenai remarked as she stepped out from the shop. "But it's fine, I gave her some at home already."

"Ah, okay..." The young Hyuga looked down at her feet, tapped her fingers together some more, and made as if to turn away. Every so often, however, her pale eyes would flit over to Kiba.

Kiba noticed and fidgeted where he stood. "Uh, sensei," he began.

Kurenai raised a brow. "Yes?"

"Um, if we're not gonna do anything later...could we, uh...take her around the village?"

"Who? Sacora?"

"Well, who else?" he mumbled uncomfortably.

Sacora frowned and looked to Kurenai in confusion. The woman seemed surprised at first, and then thoughtful. "Well," she drawled out, "I suppose you could...but bring her back by seven. You all remember the way to my apartment?" She gave them brief directions anyway, much to Kiba's annoyance. "All right then. Have fun."

The four of them were silent in the wake of her absence until Shino spoke up. "I have to head home early today, so I'll just walk a bit with you guys."

"Eh, okay, guess we can head by your clan later..." Kiba sniffed and turned towards Sacora. "So...Sakura? Sakora? Sako–"

She realized only now that she was left alone with the three genin. "No, Sah-cor-uh," she corrected.

"Yeah, whatever," he waved away. "Just drink your soda and follow us. We're gonna show you the best part of the village first."

"And what's that?"

He flashed her a toothy grin. "Hokage Rock, of course!"

"Don't people usually save the best for last?" Shino asked.

"Oh, shut up!"

And so they set off.

"...like I was saying, you could've flanked like a normal person, but nooo, you just had to rush head-on!"

"Well sorry, I was just..."

"You let the frickin' cat get away! Now we might have to continue this stupid mission tomorrow! Ugh," Ino groaned, "Sakura wasn't kidding when she said it was a pain in the–"

Asuma interrupted her with a cough and pointed look.

"What a drag," Shikamaru sighed. "Can't the both of you just shut up for once?"

"Oh, as if you care–"

Asuma closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to block out their bickering. The other genin teams had their own conflicts, he was sure, but it often felt as though he got stuck with the most cantankerous combination of them all.

"Okay, okay," he intervened when Ino wouldn't relent. "I'll take you all out to Yakiniku tonight, even if we don't find the cat. How 'bout that?"

"Sweet!" Choji cheered. "C'mon Ino, even you can't argue with that."

"It's always food with you, Choji," she huffed irritably, though her displeasure appeared to have been taken down a peg. "Sensei, I swear, if we get stuck with this mission one more time..." She trailed off and paused, a rare occurrence for her. Asuma stopped as well and then saw what had caught her eye. "Hey," she started, "what's Team Eight doing with...her?"

"Who?" Shikamaru frowned, and then he saw them. Kiba, leading the way, pointing at their surroundings and talking animatedly; Hinata, trailing happily along and making occasional commentary; Shino, stalking silently behind them all; and then finally, a complete stranger. "The one in red?"

"So my dad was on this mission, right?" Ino began, voice dipping conspiratorially. "And he found this weird girl in the woods...said her head was full of strange memories...she was kidnapped by a cult or something. When he found her, it looked like the place had been blown up, but she was okay. No other clues, just her, a scroll, and a bunch of ash. Dad thinks she did it."

"Well how d'you know it's her over there?" Choji challenged. "Maybe it's just some chick with a strange fashion sense."

"'Cause I saw her in the hospital, dummy," Ino said with a roll of her eyes. "But she wasn't wearing that tacky outfit then. We were going to deliver some flowers to Grandma and Dad stopped by her room before we left...he wouldn't tell me about it at first, but then he said I could know because she'd been interrogated."

Well, shoot. Asuma didn't think he'd be reminded of that mission so soon. He heard some bits and pieces from Kurenai since then, but it was mostly in relation to how quiet and bad with technology the girl was. "I was on that mission too, by the way," he told them. "Thanks for the credit."

Choji and Shikamaru exchanged glances at this sudden information. "So, like...did she do it?" Choji asked at last. "Did she blow the forest up?"

"How am I supposed to know?" he countered with a chortle. "Mystery's not been solved yet. Anyway, Kurenai-sensei's looking after her for now, so that's probably why she's with Team Eight. It is a bit strange that Kurenai isn't with them though..." He rubbed his bearded chin in thought. "Why don't we go see for ourselves? Give her good impressions, now."

He led them across the street to cut Team Eight off in their path. With a merry whistle, he pretended not to notice Kurenai's genin until he was within earshot.

"...and that's the dango shop," Kiba was saying. "Don't tell me you don't know what dango is, too?"

Asuma threw his arm up in greeting and interrupted the tour. "Hey, Kiba! Hinata, Shino...what're you all up to out here? Kurenai let you off early?"

The three of them knew him, of course, having crossed paths with his team before and even training together occasionally. Their guest, however, was thrown off guard and ducked between the trio warily.

"O-oh, good afternoon, Asuma-sensei," Hinata greeted first with a polite bow. "Kurenai-sensei gave us permission to show Sacora around..."

"Sacora, is it? Nice to meet you," Asuma smiled. "I'm Asuma. These here are Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji," delivered with a pat on the head for each name announced.

"Oh, hello," she said as brightly as she could, but Asuma could tell it was strained.

"What're you guys doing?" Kiba asked them.

"Trying to complete our mission," Shikamaru said with a sigh. "It's the one with the runaway cat..."

"No way!" he laughed. "You guys're still looking for it? I would've finished the whole thing ages ago!"

"That's 'cause you have a dog," Choji pouted. "Would've been faster if we had a dog."

"No it wouldn't," Ino interjected. "Things would be worse if we had a dog. Dogs and cats hate each other, remember?"

As they bantered, Asuma couldn't help but notice Sacora's baffled gaze fixed on Ino in particular. Shino appeared to notice as well, and inquired about it before he could. "What's wrong?" the Aburame asked her.

"Nothing," she said at first, but then hesitated. "Um...she has yellow hair."

Ino broke off from the conversation and gave Sacora a weird look. "It's called being blonde. Why, have you never seen a blonde before?"

Sacora pursed her lips, but Kiba ended up answering for her. "You don't know half of it! She's never had soda before, never had chocolate, never heard of dango...she even thought the people on the TVs in the electronics shop window were speaking to her!"

"H-hey," she protested, "a moving image did speak to me before, when I was being questioned..."

"Yeah, but did you used to live under a rock or what?"

Ino shared a glance with her teammates, raising a confused brow. "Geez," she murmured to them, "if that's how she reacts to blondes, wait 'til she sees Sakura..."

"This chick is weird," Choji agreed.

"What a drag," Shikamaru sighed.

How...interesting. Asuma fought the urge to chuckle and decided that he'd heard enough, for now. "We'd love to stay and chat, but we've got a cat to catch. Isn't that right, Ino-Shika-Cho?" The question was met with a chorus of groans, much to his amusement. "See you all around, Team Eight. Tell your sensei I said hi. Take care, Sacora," he added with a little salute, and ushered his weary team back into the streets. You'll need it.

Shino had turned down the path that led to his clan compound, so it was just the three of them as they plodded along to Hokage Rock. The sun was starting to cast the village in a more orange hue, but Kiba felt as though he had barely scratched Konoha's surface with their little tour today. That was what he loved most about Konoha; you could spend a day wandering its streets, yet you would not be able to claim that you had explored it all. Not even after twelve years, it seemed, as he still came across nooks and crannies that he and Akamaru had never sniffed out before.

"So whaddyou think?" he asked Sacora pompously, taking pride in the awed way she gazed about the village. "Konoha's bigger than where you came from, isn't it?"

"No it isn't. I mean...I don't know how big Konoha is for sure, but Capital City is pretty big, too."

"But Konoha's probably cooler," Kiba insisted.

"It's different," was all she was willing to admit, much to his annoyance.

"W-what was Capital City like?" Hinata asked curiously. "If you don't mind telling."

She certainly didn't, as the deep intake of breath indicated. "First of all," she began, "Capital City is located on the largest island in the western region of the Fire Nation. You can only enter it through a harbor that leads into the Royal Plaza. That leads into the Harbor City, and a long road behind it takes you up a volcano to the Royal Caldera City, which sits right at the top."

"Isn't that two different cities?" Kiba asked with a frown.

"It's one city with three different districts," Sacora corrected him.

Hinata's eyes sparkled in wonderment as she imagined the city. "That's amazing! Where did you live?"

"At the top of the volcano. That's where the noble families live. The royal family lives right at the center," she added with a proud glow.

"D-did you ever get to see the harbor?"

"Quite a bit. My father was a captain in the navy until recently, so we would go down to the harbor sometimes to greet him when he came home."

"I've always wanted to see the ocean," Hinata breathed. "You're so lucky."

Kiba scowled at this, unable to believe that Hinata was falling for all of it so readily. She's probably talking out of her ass, for all we know. I mean, 'Fire Nation'? That's like a big ripoff of the Land of Fire! "I bet your Capital City doesn't have anything as impressive as the Hokage Rock," he retorted, albeit a little more affronted than he intended to.

"You've yet to see the Great Gates of Azulon," she countered. "But you haven't seen it and I haven't seen your Hokage Rock, so we can't judge that."

"Oh yeah? Why don't you look up now?"

She listened to him and craned her head back at just the right moment. Though she probably didn't realize it, they'd arrived at the Hokage Tower and stood at the peak spot with which to see the Rock unobstructed by rooftops. It was not a perfect view, but it was the most perfect when standing at ground level.

And she was mesmerized. Kiba listened to her surprised gasp with mounting pleasure and crossed his arms smugly as she stared at the four stone heads, their empty eyes gazing watchfully over the village. The three of them were dwarfed in comparison, mere ants in the eye of the nearest carved visage.

"Those're the faces of all our Hokage," he proclaimed. "The strongest shinobi of the village."

"Which one's the first?"

"Left to right."

"Ah...so this is the current Hokage," Sacora guessed, pointing at the rightmost head. "He has a lot of hair."

"N-no...the Third Hokage is the current one," Hinata corrected, directing her to the third head. "The Fourth Hokage..."

Sacora brought her gaze down to the shy Hyuga, blinking at her curiously. "What happened to him?"

"A demon attacked the village twelve years ago," Kiba explained. "The Fourth Hokage sacrificed his life in the battle to save everyone. The Third went back into leadership and stayed Hokage ever since. This here's where he lives and works," he added, pointing to the Tower in front of them.

"Oh..." He was glad to see she understood the gravity of the tale, as her thoughtful eyes showed. "So a demon made it out of the spirit world to attack your village?"

Kiba scratched the back of his neck confusedly. "Uh...I guess you could say that...though I don't really know where they come from. They just come, I guess."

"That sounds dangerous..."

"It doesn't happen often," Hinata assured her. "The attack twelve years ago was...rare."

They stood in contemplative silence for a while, as if in respect for the Hokages past; at least, that was how Kiba felt. Hinata could probably relate, but what Sacora thought was a mystery. Bet she doesn't have anything half as cool to say about her City, he thought. If her skills are any indication about how her people fight...well, they weren't as deserving of respect, in his view.

Akamaru suddenly barked in his ear, breaking him out of those thoughts. "What, boy?" he asked, tilting his head. "It's half past six now? Guess we gotta take you back, then," he said to Sacora.

"O-oh, I have to head home in that case," Hinata said sadly.

"Oh yeah, your clan's on the opposite side of Sensei's apartment. Want us to walk you back first?"

"It's okay," she assured him with a smile. "I don't want to make you late."

"Whatever you say, then."

Hinata parted with them a little ways before the street to Shino's clan, so she had not been able to follow them for long. Sacora seemed sad to see Hinata go, which came as no surprise. Hinata was nice to just about everyone. Kiba thought that was a pretty stupid trait, but then again he didn't blame Sacora for not liking him either. Well I mean, she's pretty weird, he thought. You don't just talk to weird people like that off the bat. Who knows what sort of stuff she's keeping from us?

"You talk to your dog," Sacora suddenly said. Akamaru let out a questioning whine, to which she explained, "He...'told' you the time..."

"Every Inuzuka can communicate with their ninken," he shrugged.

"Ninken?"

"Ninja dogs."

Her eyes widened in disbelief. "Animals can be ninja too?"

"Well, yeah, if you train them to." But she wouldn't stop staring at him like that, and it was then he realized...she thought he was weird, too. She probably thought the whole village was weird, and the shinobi within it, down to the Hokage. The idea snubbed him a little. "So what's the deal with your people?" he asked, seeing if he could level the playing field. "The, uh...the benders?"

"What do you mean?"

His hands gestured about in an attempt to grasp a clearer meaning, but failed. "Well, y'know...what do they do? Are they like shinobi or something, or...?"

She didn't seem to have much luck in answering him either. "They can be warriors and soldiers...they can be builders, too, if they're Earthbenders or Waterbenders...oh, and Waterbenders can be healers. It really depends."

"Oh, okay." Well, that was a lame question. He didn't attempt any more like it and continued the rest of the way in silence.

They finally approached Kurenai's apartment building. As they came close, they saw the red-eyed sensei leaning against the railing of her floor's corridor and waved back to her when she waved. "Kurenai-sensei doesn't let anything slip by her, huh?" Sacora remarked amusedly.

"Definitely not," Kiba agreed.

She opened her mouth to say something else, but apparently thought better of it. He walked on by, thinking of nothing more than what might be for dinner that night, when she suddenly settled on, "Thanks for showing me around."

Kiba paused in his tracks. "Oh, don't mention it."

Sacora smiled briefly and looked off to the side. "It helped me feel better."

Now that was something he didn't expect. "Well, uh..." He blinked. "Glad I could help..."

"Yeah..." She pursed her lips, as if it had been an uncomfortable thing to admit, and then turned away to go up the stairs. "Bye."

Akamaru yipped after her and turned to look up at Kiba with a lick to the chin. "Bye," he reciprocated. Maybe she's not so bad, he then decided, and walked home feeling a little less guarded about the matter than before.

Notes

Guest Ridtom- Thank you so much! I've fixed the error in the corresponding chapter. Please, if you see other such mistakes in my fic, don't hesitate to point them out. I do my best to gather info from the wikis but sometimes that's not quite enough (see Ridtom's review for more detail.) As for your worry on combat comparisons, I hope this chapter somewhat answered that.

The wiki notes that firebending is more offensive than defensive, although defensive maneuvers can be created through other offensive maneuvers (i.e., the fire barrier). Furthermore, "a militaristic Fire Nation twisted this into firebending being fueled by rage, hatred, and anger". Just something of a fun fact to accompany the spar.

"Sako/Sacora" - I'd actually created Sacora long before I knew about Naruto; she was originally an ATLA exclusive OC and Sacora sounded like a nice tribal name. I thought of changing it when my friends got me into the crossover because of the potential syllable clash with Sakura (at least, on a Japanese tongue), but couldn't find any substitute that sounded right to me so I decided to keep it as is.

Now I'm not sure anymore about the accuracy of the Konoha map I've been looking at since a bunch of others show up with slightly varying locations for certain places, but the Aburame compound sits quite a ways to the right off the main street leading to the Hokage Rock, with the entrance to its street not too far from the Hokage Tower. A little after that (I guess some 500-ish meters?) is the street leading to the Hyuga clan. Hence the reason why Shino left for home first & Hinata did not walk for long when turning back from the Hokage Tower.