Naruto (Kira's Story)

Here's the next chapter. Please do enjoy, and I promise that it will get more involved after the character development. ^^

***Zabuza***

Over the next few days a pattern was formed. The group always stopped during the day to eat lunch and again in the evening for dinner and sleep. Kira was the only one who didn’t follow that schedule. She traveled with the others but she didn’t eat or sleep with them. While they ate their meals, Kira would catnap. And when they went to sleep, she took the entire watch. On the second day of this the others finally asked her about it.
It was lunchtime and Kira settled down on the warm ground and buried her head in her arms. The others finished fishing out their lunches from their bags and sat down under the shade of one of the trees, and Miko climbed onto her back and curled up, sleeping.
“Hey, Kira?” Sakura asked after a while.
“Hm?” she answered sleepily.
“Why do you sleep when it’s time to eat?”
“Well…” she started resting her chin on her crossed arms. “I’m nocturnal by nature. I usually sleep during the day. That’s why I take the watches at night. I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway if one of you took them.” She yawned. “I eat a meal about halfway through the night-watch.”
“But you only eat one meal that way,” Naruto mumbled through a mouthful of food.
“And you only get a couple hours of total sleep. Doesn’t it keep you from performing at 100%?” asked Sakura.
“Well, yes, if I keep it up for more than a week. But I’m not too worried about it. I traveled like this all the time when I was a kid and I’ve gotten used to performing with little sleep. As for food, I only eat one or two meals a day anyway.” She shrugged and yawned again. “Can I go to sleep now?”
“One more thing, how is it that you aren’t exhausted. After one day of no rest the body rapidly deteriorates and a few hours of sporadic sleep shouldn’t be enough to sustain you.”
Kira looked at the girl sleepily. “When I catnap like this, it’s more like meditation than actual sleep. I can get more recovery in less time. Unfortunately, it isn’t as good as normal sleep. After a week of sleeping this way, the body requires the regular sleep cycle. Since we’ve only got about one to two more days of this, I’ll be fine. If you have any more questions, please save them for the road.” With that, she closed her eyes and went immediately to sleep.
“I’ve never heard of meditation being used for sleep before,” Sakura mused.
“It’s a technique rarely used. It was developed to provide rest for warriors during breaks in wars. Battle could begin in very short amounts of time so they needed a way to recover quickly from exhaustion,” Sasuke explained. “Unfortunately, it can only be used about a week before it becomes too dangerous. It forces the body to create large quantities of adrenaline and store it for later use while allowing the muscles to rest and repair themselves for a short time. After a while, that storage can begin destroying parts of the body and the brain becomes too exhausted to control crucial systems. The organs fail and the body dies, or the person never wakes up.”
“That’s terrible!” Sakura gasped. “Kira needs to stop doing that. She’s putting herself in danger.”
“Only if she continues for more than a week is it dangerous,” Kakashi said from behind his book since he was still eating. “The body is damaged by everyday things and is repaired by resting. This form of meditation allows her to repair damage and keep herself alert at all times without forcing us to do without sleep. A single night—or day in Kira’s case—of regular sleep and she will be back to normal. No harm done.”
“So, she’s doing this so she’s always able to protect Mr. Tazuna?” Sakura asked, clarifying.
“Except when we are eating. Then she hands both her own and Mr. Tazuna’s life to us,” he said, nodding.
“She doesn’t trust us much, does she?” she asked sadly.
“She only met you two days ago. Trust takes time. Or the right situation,” he added as if it was an afterthought.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“He means a situation that forces people to trust each other,” Sasuke interrupted.
“What kind of situation forces people to trust each other?” asked Naruto, lost.
“You’re both hopeless,” Sasuke huffed and went back to eating, turning away from them.
His eyes fell on Kira and he found himself intrigued by how different her face looked when she was asleep. Her normal face was full of determination and her eyes were nearly impossible to read. But now, it was gentle, peaceful, and also very beautiful he noticed with a start. He turned his head sharply away, but couldn’t stop himself from looking again out of the corner of his eye. It was like an entirely different person was lying on her stomach next to him.
They moved on when lunch was over. Looking at Kira they would have bet money that she had sleep a few hours if they didn’t know that she had only slept about twenty minutes. Kira took the watch that night, as always, and the next day greeted them humid and foggy. Mr. Tazuna said that was a sign that they were close to the ocean and that the fog should dissipate by noon.
The first half of his words proved true when they reached the coast and looked out over the blue waves to the horizon. He explained that the island he lived on was farther out than could be seen from the shore and proceeded to lead them to a friend of his that had agreed to take them across.
The first half of the boat ride across was for the most part uneventful. Kira was confused when the man cut the engine and began punting them along before she realized the reason why. It wasn’t noon yet and the fog made a good cover. Without the noise from the motor, they’d be practically invisible to any searching eyes.
“We’ll be able to see the bridge in a minute,” said the boat owner quietly.
Just then, a dark shape began looming through the fog. When they were close enough to see clearly, Kira couldn’t help but gasp in wonder. It was drowned out by Naruto’s exclamation though.
“WOW! It’s HUUUUUUGGE!”
It reverberated loudly in the fog.
“Shut it, dunce!” hissed Sasuke as Sakura, the closest one to him, covered his mouth with her hand.
Her sudden movement caused the boat to rock violently. Kira squeaked slightly and latched herself tightly to the edge of the boat, her nails digging into the wood. Everyone glanced at her before turning back to Naruto and explaining why quiet was so important. Eventually, he got the message and Sakura removed her hand, wiping it on her skirt as she did.
They passed through a tunnel and into a grove of mangroves. The fog was lifting and the sun shown prettily through the water droplets, creating a rainbow effect across the entire sky not just in an arc. It was beautiful. Kira stared, captivated, as the boat continued to be steered to shore. The boat stopped at a dock and everyone climbed out, Kira slightly faster than everyone else.
“This is as far as I go. Good luck.”
“Thank you for taking such a risk, I shouldn’t have asked it,” Tazuna said, looking back.
The boater nodded before turning on his engine and driving away. They watched him go for a minute, then turned and continued on their way. Their formation was closer this time and everyone was tense. All of them realized that there would be another attack, even Naruto.
By this time, all of the fog had dispersed and the sun shone brightly on the green foliage around them. Even though they were in danger, Kira smiled. The land was beautiful and the air smelled salty and clean. It was enough to raise her spirits. But not so much that she forgot the situation. She let her senses roam. She could feel the people walking around her and their moods: various levels of nervousness, determination, and fear. Naruto seemed to be particularly determined. He was glancing around sharply.
“There!” he shouted suddenly, throwing a shuriken into a group of bushes.
Nothing happened after his attack and everyone realized it was a false alarm.
“I….guess it was only a mouse,” he said, embarrassed.
“What mouse? There was nothing there, Moron.” Sakura said, angry.
“Please….please don’t mess around with your shuriken. They can be just a teensy bit dangerous.” Kakashi begged.
Kira and Miko sighed as Tazuna jumped on the unfortunate genin as well. This wasn’t doing anything for their stealth.
She was jerked out of her thoughts as Naruto threw another throwing star into another group of bushes that had been rustling, the sharp weapon passing a few inches in front of her.
“I told you to quit it!” screamed an irate Sakura, hitting him over the head.
Kakashi moved towards the place where the shuriken had entered while Naruto tried to defend himself from the angry kunoichi. (A kunoichi is a female ninja.) He moved the bushes aside and revealed—a rabbit.
Kira sweatdropped.
‘All that for a rabbit?’ she thought.
Suddenly, a shiver ran up her spine. A sense of oppression was looming over her head. She jerked her head up sharply and met the eyes of Kakashi.
‘He knows as well.’ she realized.
She nodded and he returned it.
This was it. The enemy was here.
“Take cover!” he warned.
“Get down!” Kira yelled.
Everyone dropped to the ground just in time as a huge sword spun through where their bodies had been a second earlier. They looked up as their attacker perched on the hilt of the sword where it had lodged itself in the trunk of a tree.
Everyone was grouped into twos now. Tazuna was on the ground from when Sasuke had pulled him out of harms way and Sakura was kneeling over Naruto, having pushed him to the ground. Kira and Kakashi were crouched next to each other nearest to the offending ninja.
They looked him over carefully while climbing back to their feet. He was very tall—a giant, and wore pinstriped pants and no shirt. His shoes were open-toed as all traditional shinobi shoes are, but the tops went all the way to the bottom of his knees, dyed in a camouflage pattern. There were matching sleeves on his arms from the top of his biceps to the webbing of his fingers. A single suspender for his pants looped around his neck in the front. He wore bandages over his face from his chin to below his eyes and over his right ear. A Kirigakure headband (A Village Hidden in the Mist headband.) was worn weirdly on the side of his head.

“Well, well. If it isn’t Momochi Zabuza.” Kakashi stated calmly.
“The Demon Zabuza?” Kira asked, glancing at Kakashi sideways.
“Hm?” Zabuza questioned. “A pipsqueak like you has heard of me?” He chuckled evilly. “I’m flattered really. Maybe I’ll kill you first.”
Kira tensed but held her ground. Next to her, Miko’s fur bristled and he bared his teeth. Behind her, Kakashi held out his arm and stopped Naruto who was getting ready to charge into battle.
“This one’s at a whole other level than the other two. Stay back and protect Mr. Tazuna.” He ordered, placing his hand on the side of his headband that covered his eye.
Kira backed up, dragging Naruto with her so the two of them were closer to the others.
“Kakashi of the Sharingan eye, I presume? Could you surrender the old man?” Zabuza asked dangerously.
‘Sharingan?!’ Sasuke and Kira thought, shocked. ‘But only the Uchiha clan is supposed to have that!’
“The mirror-wheel eye?” Miko asked.
Kira nodded.
Kira and Sasuke glanced at each other questioningly before looking back at Kakashi.
He looked back at them and, seeing that they hadn’t moved, said, “Get in formation! Protect Mr. Tazuna and stay out of the fight.”
They jumped before forming a four-point formation around the old man. Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura pulled out kunai and held them defensively in front of them. Kira hesitated before unwrapping the kusari-gama from around her waist, holding the chain in her left hand and the handle of the blade in her right. The others grouped around her looked at it curiously, having never seen a weapon like it before.
“Stay focused,” she said quietly. “This battle will be dangerous even with Kakashi-sensei to help.”
They others gulped at her ominous words and prepared themselves as best they could.
“And now, Zabuza,” Kakashi said, pulling his headband up to reveal his other eye—which had a scar running over it. “Shall we?”
He opened his eye, and everyone but Zabuza gasped. Instead of another onyx eye, it was red with three curved tear-drop shaped markings around the pupil.
“To face the Sharingan so early in our encounter is truly an honor,” Zabuza stated, in a creepy tone.
“What is it?” Naruto questioned suddenly. “What’s this Sharingan eye you keep talking about?”
Everyone looked at him. Kira knew, but since there was an Uchiha in the group, it was better to let him explain. She didn’t need them to know how much she knew yet anyway. They might start relying on her a lot more. That, in turn, could lead to her getting attached, which wasn’t an option.
“Those who’ve mastered the Sharingan have mastered an eye technique that allows them to penetrate, recognize reality through an illusion or spell, and reflect those powers back on the one who cast them. But, there’s more…” Sasuke said, staring intensely at Kakashi.
“Indeed.” Zabuza interrupted. “The most formidable part of this ninjutsu is its ability to understand and duplicate any technique it sees whether ninjutsu, genjutsu, or taijutsu.” He chuckled evilly again. “There was a rather impressive write-up of you in my bingo book. ‘The man who’s copied over one thousand techniques: Kakashi, the Mirror Ninja’.”
Everyone looked shocked at their sensei’s fame. Kira recovered after a moment and smirked.
‘I thought I recognized his name,’ she thought.
“It seems we have a more powerful ally than we first believed.” Miko stated, smirking in his own, cat-like way.
“Now I’m getting excited,” she said suddenly, trembling with excitement as she looked at Kakashi and Zabuza.
Everyone turned to look at her in shock.
“This is going to be a good fight.”
Her eyes were burning with golden inner flames that made them shimmer and glow. No one quite knew what to make of that statement until Zabuza began chuckling and then flat-out laughing.
“I’m beginning to look forward to this,” he stated with an evil grin once his laughing fit had subsided. “But as I’m on a very tight schedule, I’m afraid I’m going to have to cut the idle chit-chat short.”
He crouched down, still perching on his sword’s handle, before leaping forcefully from the tree, ripping his sword out of the trunk on the way. He stopped on the nearby surface of the ocean, small ripples pulsating from his feet. Both of his hands were in the universal sign for concentration with the right one in front of his face and the other held on a fully extended arm straight up. With him standing like that, it was easy to see how large his sword was. The handle stuck up nearly as far as his arm and the rest was so long that even though it was worn at a wider angle than usual, it still dragged on the ground, or in this case, water. The blade, itself, was as wide as the man’s hips. It was a truly monstrous weapon.
A ribbon of water was steadily rising from the water at Zabuza’s feet and turning into a thick cloud as he applied his chakra to it.
‘Shit!’ Kira swore in her mind. ‘He’s creating mist to hide in.’
“This could be a problem,” she muttered so quietly no one heard her.
She wasn’t worried about herself. She could detect enemies without the use of her eyes, and supposed that Kakashi was the same, but she doubted that the others had learned that skill yet.
It quickly became too foggy to see more than a few feet. Kira kept her eyes open even though now the only thing she was using them for was the detection of movement. All of her attention was focused on sounds and the presence of chakras. She quickly picked up the presence of the three genin, her cat, the bridge builder behind her, and Kakashi a little farther away. Zabuza’s presence was no longer at the ocean. She narrowed her eyes. He would attack soon.
“Keep your guard up. I haven’t mastered all the aspects of the Sharingan, yet,” Kakashi warned, glancing around.
Kira felt her teammates tense. The tension in the air was palpable.
“Eight points.” Zabuza’s voice echoed eerily. “Throat, spinal column, lungs, liver, jugular vein, subclavian artery, kidney, and heart. Which vulnerable place should I choose?”
Kakashi gave a start, but it was so small, Kira almost missed it. She blinked in surprise when he suddenly concentrated his chakra.
‘What is Kakashi-sensei up to? As for Zabuza, he’s trying to freak us out and it’s working.’ She thought worriedly.
Sasuke’s breathing in particular was more rapid than it should have been. She could hear his heartbeat, and all of the others’, with her advanced hearing as they slowly began to panic, their bodies shaking uncontrollably. Only Kakashi’s, Miko’s, and her own remained steady.
“Sasuke,” Kakashi’s calm voice reached their ears. “Calm down. Even if he gets me, I’ll still protect you.” He turned his head slightly and closed his eyes in a smile. “I will never let my comrades die.”
Instantly, they relaxed slightly, their bodies no longer so locked-up the muscles were convulsing.
“I wouldn’t bet on that.”
Kira leapt into action, immediately, grabbing onto the back of Mr. Tazuna’s shirt and hauling him back out of harms way, as Zabuza appeared in the middle of their group. She let go of Tazuna and allowed him to fall to the ground as she made a rush to the nearest person in harms way, who happened to be Sakura. Zabuza made to sweep his sword through the group of vulnerable bodies, but Kakashi chose that moment to intervene, knocking Naruto and Sasuke out of harms way while stabbing a kunai into the Missing Ninja’s stomach.
A jet of water, instead of blood, spurted out of the wound before the water doppelganger dissolved into a puddle of water and another Zabuza appeared behind the jonin. He swung his sword through the air, cutting the silver-haired man in two.
The two pieces of Kakashi fell to the ground, turning into water, as a kunai was placed to Zabuza’s neck.
“Game over,” Kakashi stated.
Sakura sighed in relief, cutting off the startled scream she had uttered when Kakashi had appeared to be cut in half. Kira rubbed her ear which was throbbing painfully from having someone scream so close to her noise-sensitive eardrum, careful to let no one see that her hand was further up on her head than normal.
“Awesome!” shouted a relieved Naruto, while Sasuke settled for relaxing his muscles.
Kira nearly relaxed before she realized something, and quickly threw the scythe portion of the kusari-gama, the point of which sunk into the forehead of the Zabuza Kakashi was holding. No one understood why she had done that until the body dissolved into another water doppelganger, allowing her blade to fall to the ground.
“Another?!” Kakashi gasped turning to look behind him.
He ducked to the ground on his hands and feet in a crouch as the giant sword whistled through the air in the hand of the real Zabuza. The momentum of the large sword forced it to continue on its path until he tilted the angle and drove it into the ground, slicing a furrow in the dirt. Using the entrenched sword as a pushing point, Zabuza swung his leg around in a roundhouse kick and connected solidly with Kakashi’s side. He pulled his sword easily from the ground and took off after him as the jonin flew through the air to land with a splash in the ocean when Zabuza stopped to avoid the spikes Kakashi had spread during his flight.
“Foolishness,” Zabuza said disdainfully, as he vanished from his spot on the shore.
He reappeared behind Kakashi as he struggled to get out of the chakra-thickened water. With a quick series of hand-seals, he created a giant globe of water, trapping Kakashi.
“You’re trapped, Kakashi,” he chuckled evilly. “My water prison is inescapable.”
“You’ve trapped yourself as well. You can’t move to attack anyone other than me with your arm like that,” Kakashi said, looking at the arm Zabuza had halfway in the water prison to keep it together.
“I don’t need to attack them myself to destroy them.”
He grinned evilly and formed a seal. A water doppelganger formed in between the two groups, the eyes glaring menacingly at the genin.
“Foolish ninja wannabes,” the clone said. “Until you have crossed the barriers of life and death many times and earned a slot in my bingo book, you will never be acknowledged. Wearing that hitai-ate doesn’t make you a ninja.” (A hitai-ate is the ninja headband.)
Kira calmly looked at him and, with a practiced tug, caught her weapon as he continued.
“We don’t call your kind ninja. We call them….” He stopped talking and vanished from his place to send Naruto flying as he kicked him. “Brats,” he finished.
Naruto’s headband fell off and fell to the ground where the doppelganger stood on it. Kira glared and tightened her hands on her weapon. She started to take a step forward but Kakashi’s voice stopped her.
“Everyone listen! Take Tazuna and go! This is a fight you can’t win! He can’t leave his spot if he wants to keep me trapped and he’ll lose control of his doppelganger if you get far enough away! Get out of here!” his voice was pleading, cracking with desperation.
Naruto rose to a crouch before stopping to look at the bandages wrapped around his left hand. He remembered his vow and the words Kira had said to him.
“‘Everyone freezes up a bit in their first battle. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.’
‘You’ve had your first taste of battle; the next one will go better.’”
He clenched his fist and stood to his feet. His eyes blazed with determination as he charged the doppelganger.
Sakura, Sasuke, and Tazuna gave a start at the action but Kira smirked, glad he was beginning to come into his own. He was beginning to think like a ninja—looking beyond the norm.
He was kicked again and skidded further than before. He stood up and proudly retied the hitai-ate around his forehead, ignoring the disapproving shouting of Sakura.
Kira’s smirk widened as she listened to Naruto tell Zabuza to add his name to the bingo book. She turned to look at Tazuna.
“It looks like we’re finishing this battle. I suggest you stay back. Miko will take care of you. He’ll be more than enough even if he doesn’t seem like it.”
She didn’t wait for his reply and grabbed a few shuriken in her right hand. Her hand was a blur as a quick wrist flick sent them spinning towards the doppelganger. He drew his sword and started to use it to block the shuriken. As soon as they left her hand, she vanished to reappear closer to him and wrapped the chain around him, tying his sword against his chest. She pulled back on the chain to keep him from moving and sliced off his head with the scythe while he was preoccupied with the incoming shuriken. She heard everyone gasp at the ease with which she had ‘killed’ her opponent.
She pulled the weapon back into her hands, easily caught her shuriken, and stared at Zabuza as she watched rage take over his face. He quickly created three more doppelgangers. Her brow furrowed. Three would be very difficult by herself. The only reason the last one was so easy was because he was focused on Naruto. These would be focusing on her. She looked at her new teammates and caught their eyes. She held up two fingers and pointed to herself.
“Free Kakashi,” she told them without making a sound through her moving lips.
They nodded.
“I have a plan….” she heard Naruto tell the others confidently.
She turned back to her two doppelganger opponents, prepared to keep them away from the others long enough for Naruto’s plan to work. She glared at the two doppelgangers and they glared at her. The other people around them seemed to disappear and they took no notice of their actions. Suddenly, they simultaneously disappeared to reappear farther to the left of the others, giving the remaining three genin a chance to attack the real Zabuza through the one doppelganger.
One of them darted forward and she locked the outer edge of her blade with his sword as the other clone disappeared. She focused on the one in front of her while tracking the other clone’s movements with her heightened hearing, ignoring the sounds of talking coming from the other group. She pushed strongly against her opponent’s weapon, causing his feet to slide several inches backwards. She watched his eyes widen as she pushed him back. Then his face became determined and angry as he added more pressure to his own weapon. The cords in his neck popped with the strain, and Kira found that she was the one moving backwards this time, her feet digging furrows in the soft dirt.
She decided to use his raw strength to her advantage and flipped the blade of her scythe so the edge that had previously been against the sword was now away from it. Then, in a smooth movement, she dropped all of the pressure she was exerting on her opponent’s weapon and used the short shaft of her scythe as a boosted base from which to plant both her feet on the clones face in a powerful kick as his momentum carried him to the ground. He was sent away from her headfirst and into the base of a nearby tree in a shower of splinters.
While that clone was temporarily out of commission, the other attacked her from behind and she was forced to use the Art of Substitution to switch with a log as his sword chopped through where she used to be. She reappeared a few yards behind him and quickly threw her kusari-gama at his back. To avoid it, he mimicked her earlier move by switching with a log as well. She cursed and pulled back her weapon, readying herself for another strike. However, he was nowhere to be found.
She glanced over at the others during this brief lull and found that the others were doing well. Sasuke had just thrown a Demon Wind Shuriken and a transformed Naruto at the real Zabuza. She smiled at the clever ploy; sure that Kakashi would soon be free.
At that moment, the first clone, now recovered from his crash into the tree, attacked her with a kick and a swing of his huge sword. She dodged both of his strikes with ease and threw her chain, wrapping in around his neck as the other clone appeared behind her again.
“This is getting old boys,” she said cockily.
With a tug, she spun around quickly and swung the captured doppelganger into his compatriot. They collided with a smack and went down in a tangle of limbs and swords. A pool of water suddenly spread from the pile and she felt her chain become limp. The force of her tug had snapped the doppelganger’s neck and forced it to disintegrate. She smiled, glad that the battle was half over, and sighed in relief.
In that instant of relaxation, the remaining doppelganger leapt to his feet and kneed her hard in the stomach. She fell to the ground and he kicked the weapon out of her hands. She mentally scolded herself for making such a novice mistake as the doppelganger stepped firmly on her bruised stomach and brought the point of his sword to her neck. She smiled as a realization made itself clear to her: the large width of the sword hid her body from the doppelganger’s sight. The clone glared confused at her smiling face.
“Why are you so happy, brat? You’re about to die.”
“Oh, you know that old saying about facing death with a smile? It just seems fitting don’t you think?” she asked, trying to distract him as she reached into her pouch and drew a kunai as silently as possible.
“Hmph,” he grunted. “It doesn’t matter whether you smile or not. Either way, you’re going to die.”
“And that is where I disagree with you,” she said happily as her kunai stabbed him in the side.
His eyes bugged slightly and he looked down to see the kunai knife buried in his flesh.
“I never said I was smiling at my death,” she said coyly.
“Damn brat,” he murmured, and dissolved.
She breathed out in relief once again and picked herself up from the ground, disgustedly wiping off the water from the clone. She looked over at the others and was pleased to see Kakashi free and fighting the real Zabuza. Sasuke, Sakura, Tazuna, and Miko were near where they had been last time, all unharmed, but Naruto was not in her sight. She searched for him again and found him past the two elder ninja in the water, also unharmed.
Pleased, she walked to her fallen weapon and picked it up from the ground. She then walked towards the others while wrapping the chain around her waist once again. Once it was secured she ran towards the small group as Zabuza and Kakashi initiated a Water Dragon fight. She stopped in horror mid-step as a wave of water rushed towards her. She found herself unable to move as it loomed over her. With a foamy crash it washed over her in a torrent that threw her from her feet and carried her away from her unknowing companions. It eventually threw her against a tree and she clutched at it coughing and sputtering as it continued into the forested island.
For several minutes she didn’t move from her position as she fought to free herself from the memories evoked by the wave. Finally convinced that she wasn’t trapped in water, she relaxed enough to open her eyes and see that she was hugging the trunk of a tree a few feet from the ground. She looked behind her. Somehow the wave had woven through a group of trees without slamming her against them. Her fellow genin, her charge, her sensei, and their enemy were no longer in her sight.
She groaned in frustration. Today just wasn’t her day. She bit back a sigh and started climbing down from the tree. When her feet touched the soggy ground she hissed in aggravation. Her clothes were soaked. She quickly squeezed as much of the water out of her clothes and hat as she could without removing them. She was loath to remove it here because she could never be sure if she was completely alone in a place so full of hiding spots.
Her clothes were still very damp and her skirt stuck to her legs but she realized she would just have to deal with it. With an unhappy pout, she began jogging in the direction of her teammates. They quickly came into view. They were grouped around something lying on the ground. She narrowed her eyes to see what it was and felt a shock go up her spine. The object was a person and not just any person: Kakashi.