I Am Not a Secret to be Kept (A Neji Hyuga Love Story) - Book one [Discontinued]

Chapter 6

I jumped back as a mole burst out of the ground before me. It lunged at me, aiming for my headband. I whipped out a kunai and darted at it, jabbing its side. I winced as blood gushed out of the wound I had made and watched the mole roar, disgruntled.

"I thought moles were sensitive to light." I said, looking around for the old lady, but she had already gone inside. "Apparently not these." Kei responded, fighting off a mole by himself. "And this is what they call a D-rank mission?" I wondered to myself, throwing shuriken at a mole. It opened its mouth and ate them.

"Don't waste your shuriken like that." Koe sensei advised, watching. "Koe sensei, shouldn't you be helping?" I asked, trying to kill a mole that was charging at me. She shrugged. "This is training, remember? I won't benefit from this." "And I'll get killed." I muttered to myself.

Finally, the moles disappeared and we were able to get back to weeding. By the time we were finished, the sun was disappearing beneath the horizon. I wiped the sweat off my brow. "Okay, it's time to go!" Koe sensei said in a perky voice.

"What kind of mission was that?!" I yelled, snapping as we got on the road. The boys said nothing, too exhausted to speak. Koe sensei smirked. "Your training went well today." I was so mad, I could've spit. I hung back and waited untill they were all out of sight before running to Ichiraku ramen.

I'd found some money in my pocket that I forgot I had, enough to last me a month or so of rent and food. "What was I doing carrying around that much money?" I asked myself, ordering a bowl of miso ramen. I started eating, then stopped as Naruto walked in.

"Naruto... kun?" I asked, adding the kun to be polite. "Why are you here?" I mentally whacked my head. "Hey, you're that girl, Kazumi-chan, right?" he asked, helping himself to a bowl of ramen. I nodded, surprised that he remembered my name.

He grinned at me. "I'm here to eat ramen!" I nodded and watched as he finished his bowl in no time. "Where does it all go?" I wondered to myself. "So what were you doing today?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

He shrugged and responded, "Kakashi sensei made us do 'training'." "'Training?'" I asked, as though I didn't already know. Naruto nodded. "Kakashi sensei made us take bells from him. Another bowl please!" he added, motioning to Teuchi.

I smiled. Maybe he wasn't so bad, although it didn't change the fact that he was still somewhat of an idiot. "So how did you do?" Keeping up this facade was hard... He grinned like the idiot he was. "We passed!" he yelled, earning a glare from Teuchi.

"I have to get home." I lied, finishing my ramen. "My... cat is waiting for me." I mentally slapped my forehead. "The lies you tell, Kazumi." I scolded myself as I walked from Ichiraku to my apartment. I opened the door to my apartment and nearly fell when I saw a shadow against the window.

"Who?" I asked, walking slowly into my apartment. "Nya." "A cat?" I wondered. "Nya." the cat responded, and jumped down from the windowsill. She paced in front of me, and I saw that she was black, with a white spot on the back of her left ear.

I knew she was a girl because I looked under her tail. "Gross." I thought as I checked. She seemed to trust me, though. I patted her and decided to keep her. For the time being, anyway. I lay down on the floor and fell asleep with my hand on her fur.

The first thing I did next morning was scream when the cat licked my face. "Bad cat." I scolded as I picked her up and put her on the floor. I knew I couldn't leave her in the apartment, though. I got dressed, at some rice, then picked her up and headed out.

I showed up at our meeting place with Koe sensei waiting and Hisao and Kei missing, as usual. "What is that?" Koe sensei asked, spotting my cat under my arm. "My cat, Nyanya." I responded without thinking. Koe sensei wrinkled her nose.

"That's a weird name." she said. I shrugged. "I'm a weird person." I responded, setting Nyanya down. Then Koe sensei did something she'd never done before-lower her voice. "Who's a good cat?" she asked, bending down to pet Nyanya.

I blinked. "So, you're a cat person?" I asked Koe sensei. It was weird to see someone teaching me to fawn over something so small. Koe sensei just nodded. Then Hisao and Kei came running up to us. "What is that?" Hisao asked, spotting Nyanya.

"My cat." I responded cooly, looking at Koe sensei. Koe sensei stood up and handed me my cat. "Where have you been?!" she yelled at Hisao and Kei. "Well, the quiet didn't last long." I thought to myself, listening to Hisao make lame excuses for Kei and him.

 "So are we going to go or what?" I asked. We had another boring mission, going to help someone harvest their crops. Ugh. Hisao shot me a grateful look, but I wasn't doing it to bail them out. I really needed to buy stuff for Nyanya, and the sooner we got the mission over with, the sooner I could go.

The mission went by fairly quickly, with only a bit of complaining. Thankfully, there weren't many crops and we had three pairs of hands. Koe sensei sat out again, this time eating some random food she picked up somewhere.

I picked up Nyanya, who had been pawing at the plants, and ran down the streets, suprised that I still had energy after our boring mission, and skidded to a halt before a shop that sold things for pets. "Getting something for your cat, miss?" the man working inside asked. I just nodded and grabbed the things I would need. Litter, food, and a dish. The pure essentials.

"I'll have these." I said, paying and getting out of there. Despite the fact that I barely bought anything, I was set back at least a week of food. "I hope the Hokage pays me soon." I though to myself, arriving at my apartment. I opened it up and gasped loudly. "How?"