A Hatred That Will Never Bloom Into Friendship

I jump to the side and narrowly miss getting pierced by three kunai.

He's on me in a heartbeat, and I hurriedly put my arms in front on my face, blocking a punch. I grit my teeth and throw two punches of my own, and a kick. He blocks, dodges, and grabs a hold of my ankle before it hits it's mark. He smirks, and I narrow my eyes.

I snatch my leg out of his grip and quickly throw up my other foot, aiming for his cheek. I miss. He drops to the ground and, and punches me hard in the stomach. The wind is knocked out of me and I fly back.

Poof

I jump through the smoke of my substitution and tackle him to the ground. I straddle his waist to keep him semi-contained and press a knife lightly against his neck. Silence wraps around us.

He smiles his little cocky smirk, and places his hands on either side of my hips. My grasp on the kunai falters a bit, and I almost blush at how intimate his small action felt.

He then clutches my hand,snatches the kunai away, and pushes me roughly off of him. I land on my back, and he leaps into the air and hurls the knife down at me. At the last moment I roll out of the way.

I pounce to my feet and he was on me again. We were doing nothing but close hand to hand combat. He throws a punch, I throw a kick; he blocks and I dodge.

I jump back, getting closer to the tree line behind me. He was on top of me, throwing punch after punch. My back was against a tree now and I was pinned with no where to go.

He then puts his hands on the trunk of the tree, right above my shoulders on both sides. He was breathing hard, and his hair hangs a little over his forehead with moisture. Sweat runs down his face and a bruise discolored his jawline.

I smile as the green healing chakra flows from my body to his, and heals his scrapes and restores his energy, while simultaneously performing the same effect on me.

He chuckles. "Thanks."

I open my mouth to respond, but I was interrupted.

"Alright, you two. That's enough training for right now."

I look behind Lloyd. "Naria sensei!"

"Hey, guys."

"Where the heck have you been?" Lloyd questions her. "We were supposed to be training with you over two hours ago."

She sighs. "Yeah, sorry about that, I got caught up with some things."

"What things?" I automatically ask.

She looks at me, and after awhile I almost thought she wasn't going to answer me. She then starts to unzip her kimono and slides it off of her right shoulder. She unwraps the bandages.

My eyes widen at her punctured wound. "What happened?"

"Heal it first, Kimina, and then I'll explain."

While I heal her, Naria sensei glances from Lloyd back to me. "Have either of you seen Rakuyo since yesterday?"

"Not me, but Kimina definitely has," Lloyd answers.

I make a face at him. "Rakuyo is staying with me and my mom."

Naria sensei's eyebrows raise. "Whose idea was that?" She zips back up her kimono after I was done.

"Mine."

"Well, that was nice of you, but where is he now?"

I shrug. "I don't know. He just disappeared after breakfast."

"Well, he does need time to himself to think things over, especially after what happened."

I nod.

"So... back to you, sensei. What do you need to tell us?" Lloyd asks. He takes a leisurely seat in the grass and Naria sensei and I follow his lead.

"There's a lot to tell, so let me just get straight to the point,"--she pauses--"Yasu is alive and here in the village."

My heart skips a beat as the horrible news is confirmed.

"I sort of get the feeling that you two might have gotten word of this already." Obviously she didn't get the reaction from us she thought she would. "Why don't you tell me what you know."

Lloyd divulges to her about how we were attacked in the Forest of Death, and after we fled the lone shinobi yelled about how we would die by Yasu's hand.

"Who was he? What did he look like?"

I shake my head. "No one I recognized. He had no headband on. Um, he was skinny with black hair. But there is something else I noticed. While I was fighting him, I swore I saw someone else watching from a distance. It was a bigger figure, bigger than Yasu."

Naria looks alarmed. "I might have a hunch about who that was. Yasu has a partner in all of this. He was the one who inflicted this injury on me."

"Wow, are you serious?" Lloyd exclaims.

"And the two of them are after the three of you, especially you, Kimina."

"That's a big surprise," Lloyd says.

"What can we do, sensei?" I inquire.

"Nothing, but watch our backs and stay on guard.They haven't executed an attack on you guys yet, so that's all we can do for now."

Lloyd nods. "Yeah, that makes sense."

I raise an eyebrow. "Oh, really?" Usually you would be the one to go out and get things done without a second thought."

He smiles. "Yeah, but not something like this. Not something this irrational that could end with getting you hurt."

"I could get hurt regardless," I reply.

"Probably, but in this situation, it's best to wait for them so we can be more prepared."

Honestly, I was a little taken aback at his response. I was still getting used to seeing this softer side of him.

Naria sensei stands to her feet. "So, that was basically everything. And I won't be training you, Kimina, today. You got some exercise and techniques in with Lloyd, so that's good for today. We'll reconvene here same time tomorrow for the real training."

I stand. "Okay, sensei. Got it."

"I guess I'll be heading on then," Lloyd says.

"Yea, I'll see you tomorrow," I say.

"Hm? What are you about to do?"

"I need to talk with Naria sensei bout some things."

Lloyd hesitates, but gets the picture. "Alright." He walks away.

Only when his body disappears through the trees do I turn my attention to Naria.

"What else is it, Kimina?"

My throat suddenly becomes dry. "It's about... Orochimaru."