Reborn as Sakura and Hinata: Lost in the Wind

Mexicans

"Does it hurt?"

Kiba looked up at me with a look that was dangerously close to a pout, pointedly tugging his sleeve back over his arm as Akamaru jumped up to curiously sniff it, "Yeah, I'm fine." But I didn't miss his grumbled, "It didn't even hurt in the first place."

Smiling mostly to myself, I couldn't help but be a bit humored at what a familiar scenario this had become. I had to have a bit of sympathy for Kurenai, because I'd say we were not the easiest team to control out of them. I'm sure all the teams had their quirks and difficulties, in fact I'd bet on it with one in particular, but given that we were Kurenai's first team we were lamentably not merciful.

It wasn't from any intent of course. I was simply a nervous wreck, Kiba an unstoppable force of energy, and Shino... his own special type of difficult, and those things did not blend together all that well. Kiba was the volatile chemical to Shino's catalyst, as the latter had seemed to perfect the art of saying just the right thing to make Kiba as angry as possible, although I couldn't tell if it was intentional or not. It was entirely possible Shino had some special gift for that, just like he had a little knack of unnerving me. I couldn't say I was much better than either of them, because although I made active attempts to follow Kurenai's direction, I'd freeze up if I didn't have that direction.

But at least I was learning healing, and at the very least Kiba's odd type of clumsiness provided me with the perfect practice, and I gently poked his other hand, Akamaru following my gesture, "Is that one okay?"

His expression quirked a tad confused before his face dropped in an almost put out expression, "I'm fine. I already told you."

"I find that unlikely." Shino hummed from where he stood a few feet away, unmoving from the spot where he'd watched the event that led us to this point, and his glasses directed to the splintered tree, "Why? The intent of a fang over fang is to not connect with anything but what you're targeting."

"And what if I was targeting the tree?" Kiba followed aloofly.

"Unlikely." Shino stated again, "If you were, you aimed very poorly."

Kiba finally flinched, making to get up, "Maybe I should practice my aim on something else then!"

I grabbed his arm gently, pulling him back down, "My healing skills aren't that good yet."

He glanced back at me, part surprised and part puzzled, before his eyes locked distractedly on my hand, and I went to remove it before he caught my wrist, "Your hands are so... small."

"Uh-" He was holding my hand what was I supposed to do!? "You think?"

He nodded, almost studying my hand with a focus that seemed so odd for him. Apparently his expression intrigued Shino enough to walk over, him crouching down next to us, "Yes. They are small."

A bolt of dissatisfaction shot through me; I wasn't supposed to be the small one! I was supposed to be tall and Latina. Or... was I? It was far too confusing for me to have that constant war: twelve or nineteen, Japanese or Hispanic, Hinata or Isabel, it was getting to the point where I couldn't tell if I was forming a new identity around the body I was in or if it was a simple matter of hormones and brain chemistry. I had the body of a twelve year old, so I should feel like one, right? Yet at times it felt so wrong to interact with them like I was their age...

Regardless, I certainly knew how I felt about my hand being held like this, though. I wish I could've enjoyed it, Sakura would've enjoyed something like this... but even with my 'crush' on him, I didn't like the feeling of my hand in someone else's.

"Do you always shake like this?" He glanced up at me curiously, a genuine question.

"Um," I let out a nervous, light laugh, "Yeah, kinda."