W; Mild language/Mention of violence

     A thick, sticky substance ran down the child's hand. The repetitive drip was the only noise that echoed in the suffocatingly dark corridor. The young girl's knees buckled and she slid down into the growing pool of crimson liquid, silent sobs gripping her throat as her lungs constricted and released in irregular patterns. The world seemed to sway out of focus before her young, terrified eyes. She slowly looked down to the source of the blood. A body lay there mutilated beyond recognition.

    Time slowed to a stop. Her mind lost all construct, flowing down her face in the form of salty tears that mixed with the blood splattered on her porcelain skin.

The murky liquid fell on the victims own tainted face.

It stared at the broken child listlessly.

The child was lost in their cold, dead eyes.

~~~~~~

    Tsuru woke with a start. Her heartbeat erratic from the nightmare, a sheen of sweat coating her forehead. She let out an annoyed sigh rubbing her temples, trying to rid herself of the on-coming headache. The green haired kunoichi reluctantly slid out of bed, figuring if she distracted herself it would go away.

"I hate mondays." She grumbled.

     After a bout of colorful words that usually come after her dramatic after-mission nightmares, Tsuru tiredly dragged herself out of the messy room. She slipped into her favorite pair of bunny slippers and headed over to the kitchen and put on a coffee pot. Tsuru tamed her limeade colored hair down a smidge and pulled out some eggs. She turned on the stove with a few clicks and put on a pot along with a rice cooker. The high pitched squeals told her that the coffee was done. Tsuru pulled off the steaming kettle and set it aside, preparing some miso soup, notto, and rice with an egg cracked over it. She poured the coffee into a mug shuffling over to the cozy living room. The couch was piled with fuzzy white blankets that matched the carpet and several bookshelves lined the reddish walls filled with novels and random objects.

     She set her breakfast on the coffee table and flopped down with a groan of pain. The limette gripped her bandaged side, an injury from the mission she just returned from, and Lord Third had generously given her a week off to recover(she would take her sweet time, too). She sat up leaning into the plush blankets, sipping the coffee leisurely. Her mind wandered as she picked up random chakra signatures from her neighboring tenants, all of them ANBU. Her eyes drifted to the dirty ANBU mask that was lazily thrown on the table last night. She finished her breakfast and took the dishes along with the rabbit mask that had been splattered with blood. She cleaned them, disturbingly calm, and returned to the warm confines of her couch.

    A familiar chakra signature, albeit well hidden, approached her window. Tsuru was slightly alarmed but easily brushed it off. Surely the Hokage wouldn't go back on his word, right?

     "Come in." She suspiciously called before the approaching person could knock. Her window slid open letting in a cool breeze of spring air into the living room. Tsuru groaned and pulled a plush seashell blanket around her small torso. The visitor slid off his shoes and dropped in, neatly shutting the window behind him.

      "Good morning senpai." He greeted with a seemingly lazy tone. Tsuru looked over with a deadpan glare.

     "Whatever you want me to do, it's a no." She growled. The silver haired man chuckled scratching the back of his head.

      "You wound me, Usagi-senpai." He said with obvious sarcasm. Tsuru rolled her eyes at his 'witty' comment.

      "Kakashi, you only come here if you're drunk or need something." That, was not completely a lie. Her and her silver haired friend had an odd relationship. They often sought each other out whenever feeling rather down, which in Kakashi's case, he was usually drunk. They had a weird way of communicating through one glance. The other could tell exactly what they needed and provided in a silent, compatible way. This in turn made both of them grow close, and arguably become each other's only real friend.

     Kakashi grabbed his shirt where his heart would be(if he had one) with an over dramatic gasp, "I would never use my only friend like that!"

     Tsuru snorted at this. Kakashi walked over to the kitchen as if he owned the place and grabbed some coffee from the kettle, scooping a serving of fresh rice from the cooker. Tsuru stared at him with an irritated look, then decided to just go with it and snatched her red glasses off the coffee table, preparing for the mission report she had to write. Her uninvited guest sat on a pillow next to the coffee table and started to eat. Tsuru wrote down the details of her mission as a comfortable and familiar silence fell around them. Minutes ticked by and she was growing suspicious. First Kakashi comes here unannounced, obviously doesn't need anything, and now he's eating like he lives here? In the past the anti-social Jonin never just waltzed into a social situation unless forced to do so, usually by his youthful rival Maito Gai. Her suspicions grew when Kakashi took out a volume of Icha Icha and started to read, getting comfortable. Tsuru narrowed her eyes at him, peering over the side of the thick file. Kakashi raised a brow, taking another bite of rice before it could fall through the chopsticks.

"Are you entranced with my handsome face?" He asked breaking the silence.

    Tsuru choked.

  "Kami, no you stupid dog!" She yelled, coated her pencil with chakra, then proceeded to chuck it at his eye. Kakashi ducked and the pencil embedded itself a few inches into the wall. He sweatdropped.

    "Please refrain from using office supplies to commit homicide, Tsu-chan." He muttered. She crossed her arms like a child, thoroughly flustered.

    "I'm like, way out of your league. Plus way older." She grumbled. Kakashi smirked obviously amused at her response to his snide comment. Tsuru had to admit, Kakashi was hot, but he was like her brother, and she did not support incest. "Anyways, mind telling me why you're here?" She quirked a brow.

    Kakashi pulled up his mask and set the chopsticks neatly on the bowl. He knotted his fingers together with a sharp intake of breath as if to prepare for something huge, like coming out to his (deceased) parents. Wait, was he coming out to her after all of these years? I'm not prepared! Oh dear lord please don't come out to me-

   ".......I accepted a genin team." He said after an over dramatic pause. Tsuru spat out her coffee, that being the least expected news.

"Don't lie!" She scolded. Kakashi raised his hands up in mock surrender.

"I'm not, honest!"

   Tsuru looked at him with narrowed eyes, slowly setting down her mug. "You're serious." She said after a minute.

"Of course I am." He mumbled. Tsuru shook her head in response positively baffled.

    "But you hate children. You would make the worst sensei, worse than Gai, and that's saying a lot." Kakashi was actually offended, I mean, it's Gai, of course he was offended. "Are they all prodigies or something? And what team did you get? Clan heads? Anyone you know?" Her previous joking demeanor was lost as she started to bombard him with questions.

"Team Seven." He sighed. Tsuru barked a laugh at his ironic misfortune.

"Who's on it?"

"Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Uzumaki Naruto."

    Tsuru blinked. Kakashi could see a flash of raw pain in her guarded black eyes, but it was gone as soon as it came.

    "You got the last Uchiha, a no-name, and the fox brat?" Tsuru repeated trying to cover up the brief slip up of her emotions. She doubled over in laughter. "OH GOD YOUR LIFE IS GOING TO HELL, KAKASHI-SENSEI" She rolled on the couch tears in her eyes. Kakashi slumped down with a depressing aura, fighting back the urge to grow mushrooms in a corner. Tsuru's laughing subsided into giggles.

    "It's not that funny." He muttered indignantly. Tsuru shook her head wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes.

"You're doomed, dog-sensei."

~~~~~~

    After the newly dubbed sensei had left, Tsuru got dressed into a casual white sundress with leggings and a red overcoat. She tied her lime green hair in two buns with matching white ribbons, slipping into her flats. She didn't bother cleaning up the now messy kitchen and instead went out to spy on people, like a normal person on their day off.

    She took her purse and slung it over her shoulder letting it drop down to her waist and skipped out the door, locking it behind her. A merry tune made its way into her throat whilst she walked down the road and across a rickety old bridge. The sun was a warm contrast to the chilly breeze, the wind carrying scents of newfound spring. Shopkeepers opened their stands and the streets started to fill with civilians. Tsuru listened to the absent minded chatter as she made her way to a corner weapons repair shop.

    She ducked into the store and a bell made a clear ring to announce her arrival. The place was small and homey with little plants hanging from the ceiling and smelled like ashwood and green tea. Yet the nice atmosphere was quite anti-climactic, due to the fact that the shop sold and repaired weapons that killed on a daily basis.

    "Good morning, Tsuru-san!" A warm gravelly voice called. Tsuru perked up and waved, ignoring the stinging sensation from her abdomen.

   "Mornin' Mrs. Aiza." She called. The elderly woman peeked around the corner to see her regular, then smiled, he eyes wrinkling at the edges from years of practice. She was cleaning off a rusty pair of ninjato that had seen better days. Tsuru gave her a small smile back and browsed the wooden shelves of the store, deciding to restock her rice paper and choji oil. She took the items over to the counter to wring up.

    "How did the mission go?" Mrs. Aiza asked as she wrapped the items in used newspaper, her old gnarled hands resembled much of a worn oak tree. Tsuru looked up at the dark skinned woman with another polite smile.

   "Good, but can't tell you the details." Tsuru winked playfully and pulled out some cens to pay. She left a hefty tip for the kind old woman knowing that the mission would reap good rewards once she turned her report in.

    "I'm glad to hear that dear." Aiza took the money and passed the wrapped and bagged items. "Now you have a good day." She spoke before hobbling to the back to work on repairs. Tsuru left with a cheery wave.

    Once she headed off to the hokage tower, her polite persona broke as the events that had just conspired repeated in her head like a broken record. The streets filled with children going to the academy and fresh genin running around on different jobs. It was lively in contrast to her dark mood.

    Uzumaki Naruto, huh. The name was bitter on her tongue. So Kakashi accepted Minato's brat? Good luck with that, stupid dog. I'm counting down the days until that kid's seal breaks and goes on a murder spree.

    Tsuru was shaken from her not-so-nice thoughts when she arrived at the cylindrical hokage tower. She nodded to the guards and flashed to the hokage's office door, not feeling like aggravating her injury by taking the stairs. Flaring her chakra to announce her arrival, Tsuru then kicked the door down in an elegant display of Shinobi Manners 101. The hokage looked up from his paperwork with an 'I'm so done with you' expression. Tsuru smiled back.

   "Good morning, Lord Third." She chirped her demeanor taking a quick 180(Tsuru was never one to dwell on negative emotions, or any emotion for that matter). The hokage took a long inhale from his pipe.

    "I thought I told you to report at noon, and it's no longer morning it's two in the afternoon." He glared at her. Tsuru laughed nervously, totally caring that she messed up his schedule.

  "Well sorry to interrupt, but I have a report." She brushed past some random genin team and Kakashi- wait, Kakashi? If she was surprised, she didn't show it and instead pulled the thick file case from her purse. She refused to look behind her at the team, completely and utterly ignoring them.

    "Thank you, Usagi." He used her codename in the presence of others, as did everyone else. When someone completely devotes their life to the ANBU Black Ops, they can be unmasked and still called their codename despite it revealing their identity due to the fact that their old life was now completely irrelevant. He flipped through the files muttering a few questions here and there, which Tsuru replied easily too. The now forgotten Genin started to grow annoyed, rather one certain blond brat did.

    "Hey hey hey!" He shouted. Tsuru turned and looked around purposefully missing Naruto, instead confusedly looking around the room as if she couldn't see him.

    "Who said that?" She inquired mockingly, and tapped her chin with a finger. Tsuru herself was short, the size of a teenager despite her age of (hah you thought). Her cheeks never lost their baby fat and her huge eyes and flat chest made her seem even younger, so this was quite hypocritical.

"Me!!" He shouted. Tsuru looked down her eyes widening.

    "Oh! You're so short, I didn't see you there!" She shouted with mock surprise. The hokage sighed dejectedly and stacked the papers she had given him, returning them to the file. Naruto grew a tick mark on his head as the rest of his team stifled their laughter.

"Who you calling short!?" He shouted. God he's so loud.

"You, dumbass."

   Queue team 7's laughter, rather Sakura's as Sasuke was too cool to laugh so he settled on covering his smirk with a hand.

    Despite the lighthearted joking, Tsuru couldn't repress the blatant hatred in her eyes. The same eyes the villagers looked at him with. The same villagers who called him things like monster and fox demon. With the same eyes of those who cause his suffering. As Tsuru took in his features, her hardened gaze turned into one of pain, as if looking at him brought her physical harm. This was a new one for Naruto who looked back up at her slightly perplexed. Tsuru scoffed and stalked past them mumbling something incoherent. She all but slammed the door behind her and flickered away from the confused shinobi.

                                           Naruto was still mulling over her cold, cold eyes.

~~~~~~

A/N

Hello little lambs~

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! Please comment if you have any suggestions or questions. One thing! Please don't hate on any canon characters or my OCs! Even Danzo! I will not tolerate any form of hate or rudeness towards anyone, so please keep your opinion to yourself.

<3 Goatsie