- 0 6 - ✔

▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄

He's late...

Kiara puffed her cheeks as she leaned her back against the training posts and frowned. She glanced down at her wrist and stared at her watch, 11.30 am.

Where has he gone? Did something come up? If something did, I'd be notified straight away, right?

Heaving another heavy sigh, Kiara decided to do another few laps around the field and do some push-ups while she continued to wait it out. If her sensei doesn't show up in another thirty minutes, she'd be gone to get herself some lunch, and probably turn to Itachi for more training tips.

As she jogged around the field on her second lap, a figure suddenly teleported right in front of her way. From that, unfortunately, with less than a second to react, Kiara came crashing towards the person's chest and stumbled forward. If it weren't for the person's agility and strength to hold themselves together, they would've received a far greater impact of falling backward.

The figure wrapped their arms around Kiara's shoulders to help steady herself from falling.

"Are you alright?"

"Hai. G-gomenasai..." As apologetic she sincerely was, the moment Kiara looked up to see who it was she bumped into by accident, frustration started to boil within her. Kiara puffed her cheeks again from anger and glared daggers at the man who decided to show up later. "Kakashi-sensei. Why did you decide to show up now? You are two and a half hours late!"

Kakashi let go of his hands around Kiara's shoulders and instead, raised them a little as a sign of surrender. "My bad. You see, a black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way around." 

Kiara rolled her eyes from his silly excuse and prepared herself for the day. "Whatever, let's just get on with it."

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

"You're a fast learner, Kiara." Kakashi complimented as he looked up from his book and watched Kiara perform another water style jutsu. "I'm impressed."

Kiara panted heavily as she took in deep breaths and wiped the sweat out from her forehead. The water style jutsu that Kakashi taught her was merely just another B-rank jutsu. He simply taught her the signs on how to perform it, and just like that, she was able to accomplish the same move in no time. 

"If you're feeling up to it, I might just teach you another one. Although, it requires a lot of hand seals."

Kiara turned towards her sensei again as she breathed out and gave him a simple nod. Although she may not look like it on the outside, Kiara was actually eager to learn more from Kakashi.  "Let's do it then."

The jounin gestured for the Uchiha to come closer to him, and soon after that, he began to teach her the seals. "Since you're pretty good with your element of water, this technique I'm showing you right now is called the Water Dragon Jutsu. It has a long string of hand seals, so it's fine if you can't perform it immediately like the other one I just showed you. It takes practice."

"Don't worry, sensei. I'm paying close attention, plus, I'll do my best to master this technique as well."

"Yes, but I'm not pressuring you to do so. It's just another simple B-rank technique."

"I don't mind. Anyway, I have a goal to accomplish." Kiara said as she started focusing on the hand seals that Kakashi performed and began to imitate those seals little by little. It was indeed a challenging one since she had to memorize the order of the seals that must come next. "Ushi, Saru, Oo, Nae, Ee, Tori... Ushi?"

"Hm-mm, Ushi, Uma, Tori, Nae, Tora, Inu. They come next." Kakashi added with a small eye smile. He showed her the seals again and continued to help her memorize the rest of them. When he was sure that Kiara got the rest of it covered, he took a seat on a nearby boulder and took his book out to read. 

Of course, he may look like he was reading, but in reality, he was also listening to the hand seals being recited by Kiara. If she missed one of them or had forgotten them, the jounin would correct her every now and then. 

At some point, Kakashi would occasionally peek over his book to observe the she-Uchiha. He really found her intriguing and peculiar. Despite knowing her for over a day and a half, Kiara convinced him that she was not like how most girls are these days. She truly was passionate about her ambitions of becoming a renowned kunoichi and was clearly working hard to achieve that.

The jounin was surprised with himself too that he actually has a student that he could teach. In the past, he was known to fail other genin teams because they were not able to understand the essence of teamwork. However, with Kiara's case, she just happened to be the odd one of her year, the odd number count.

Not that he minded taking over to look after her and teach her, but Kiara's case was specially assigned to him by the Hokage himself...

▬▬▬▬��▬▬▬ 𝒇 𝒍 𝒂 𝒔 𝒉 𝒃 𝒂 𝒄 𝒌   ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

"You've summoned me, Lord Third." Kakashi announced his presence to the village leader. He knelt on the floor with one knee down and his head hung low.

"Yes. Stand, Kakashi." The Hokage ordered as he turned from the window to face the white-haired jounin in front of him. "You are aware that a group of fresh genin are graduating from Konoha High. There is one in particular who happens to be the odd one out, a special case, you could say."

"A special case?" Kakashi questioned with evident confusion. "What do you mean by that?"

"Two things. 1) The odd number count of the class. 2) An assignment."

Kakashi glanced down at the floor as he went deep into thought about the latter. "An assignment... I understand the first reasoning, however with the latter... Is this genin 'an assignment?' What sort of assignment?"

"I will explain further, Kakashi. But first, I want you to have a look at this genin's portfolio." The Sarutobi handed him over a file for the jounin to read. He watched him read with a narrow gaze, waiting patiently for Kakashi to finish. When the time Kakashi had finished reading, the Hokage spoke ahead of him.

"I know what you're probably wondering at this point. At any circumstances, if I do decide to assign this genin to you, you are not to question her eyes."

"It can't be a birth defect, right?" Kakashi questioned again. "Most Uchihas are known to have darker orbs, but this one is indeed... different. Why is this the case, Lord Hokage?"

"The family does not wish to disclose this case, however, they've indeed written it off as a birth defect."

"And do you believe it?"

"Of course I don't believe it. For many generations, the Uchihas have not had such a case. It's completely absurd to think that an Uchiha would be born with amber-eyes." The Hokage stated.

"Has she awakened the Sharingan yet?"

"Disclosed information as well."

Kakashi sighed as he stared down at the file again and stared at the Uchiha's photo. "Kiara Uchiha... What is so special about you?" He mumbled to himself before looking up to the Hokage. "Is she even aware of the fact that her eyes are different from her clan?"

"Indeed. I've had a few ANBU observe her for me these past few months. Recently, she had been questioned about her eyes by her peers..." The Third walked over to his chair and slowly took a seat. His limbs were weary and old, and a few bones clicked as he sat down.

"And what did she say after that?" Kakashi asked, wanting to know further.

"Just like I suspected. Nothing..." The old man sighed heavily as he stared at the pile of papers he'd have to look into later. "Perhaps she knows something about it or perhaps she doesn't. Whatever it is, I must know it. It's been years, and ever since Fugaku sent her away to do boarding school at Suna, I didn't get any answers.

"That's why, I am trusting you, Kakashi, to do this for me. I need you to investigate the situation discreetly. Pose as her sensei and when the time comes, find out about her as much as you can and report back to me. It must be kept strictly confidential."

"I understand, but with all due respect for asking this, Lord Third, why are you keen on finding out about this girl?" 

"Because her eyes are starting to draw attention to everyone, the elders and the council want to know whether there is power in her eyes and whether she is capable of becoming a threat to this village or not. I wish for it to be the latter... Whereas, I personally want to know the truth behind those eyes. Is she simply an Uchiha or not?" The Hokage leaned back and crossed his arms, staring at the jounin.

"If she is an Uchiha..."

"Then there's nothing I would need to worry about. I would insist on the council and to the elders that Kiara Uchiha simply has a birth defect with her eye color."

Kakashi placed the file he held of the genin's personal information back on the Hokage's desk. However, his single eye never left the Uchiha's photo. The main focus on the girl's features were her eyes.

"And if she is not?"

The Hokage sighed heavily. To do this to one of his own people was not something that he chose to do. "... I would have no choice but to isolate her and seek the reason why Fugaku and Mikoto would hide such secrets." The elder man took Kiara's file and stared at her picture. "Can I trust you with this assignment, Kakashi?"

Kakashi stared back with a firm gaze, bowing his head in respect. "Yes, Lord Third."

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 𝒇 𝒍 𝒂 𝒔 𝒉 𝒃 𝒂 𝒄 𝒌   𝒆 𝒏 𝒅 𝒔 ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Ever since then, Kakashi had been wary of his words and actions towards the she-Uchiha. Being a sensei to a student is one thing, but to also be undercover of finding out his own student's secrets was also a very different thing. To summarize his overall thoughts, Kakashi was basically deceiving Kiara in a way.

It felt wrong to do that, especially to your own student, but in this case, the jounin had no choice. This was his task, and he was fixed on accomplishing that.

If it's for the sake of the village, it shouldn't matter... But, to think that a simple eye color would create this much trouble and suspicion...

As he continued to observe the she-Uchiha practice, he, later on, stood up from his place, stretched a little and placed his book back in his pouch. Kakashi then approached Kiara with another small friendly eye-smile. "Kiara, how about we continue this later on? Let's have some lunch."

Kiara looked up from her training and nodded with a faint smile. She was actually feeling quite exhausted, but of course, she would never admit that out loud. "Yeah, let's do that."

"Great." Kakashi smiled again, "Anyway, I think you deserve a small break."

"I guess." Kiara shrugged before her eyes that glistened underneath the sun's rays became fixed with Kakashi's gaze. 

Uchiha Kiara, what secrets do you hide behind those eyes?

▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄