||My Little Bird|| [Neji Hyuga x OC]

Chapter Four

The girl was new. Oddly familiar, but it was too early to tell. His mind wasn't working correctly today, since the dark mentioning of the Uzuki clan, and his dad's death right after. The girl looked about a few inches shorter than him, though she was taller than Hinata. Her eyes were pools of night sky, her long strands of dark brown hair tied up in a tight high ponytail. Though she was as average as average could get, it was almost like it was...overboard. So normal, it wasn't normal. He already disliked making eye contact with her. She was always looking into his soul, and he despised that.

"I'm okay, Tenten." Neji mumbled, unclenching his fists. He didn't look down, yet he could already tell that there was blood there, dripping. His nails had dug deep into his palms. "Who's the new girl?"

"She's a new Genin, transferred in from the Mist Village." Tenten said quickly and quietly, her glances darting between him and the girl. "She's gonna be randomly assigned to one of our teams. And she's staying at the Uchiha clan for the time being." Tenten said, glancing at Sasuke's fangirls. "Just hope that she survives, or Ino and Sakura are gonna tear her apart..." She laughed lightly, the small sad joke attempt bringing a ghost of a smile to Neji's face.

The Hokage began catching the girl up on the teams, the names, numbers, statistics, and such. She paid attention well, occasionally nodding and smiling in response. She occasionally glanced at the Hyuga, and when he caught her, she would shyly look away. Neji scoffed, shaking his head. She was probably another girl, one of the girls who fell for him for his brains, settling on him because Sasuke was too mainstream. Though she had the perfect chance of capturing Sasuke's heart, she only seemed vaguely interested in him, shaking his hand and introducing herself.

From what Neji caught from her brief introduction, her name was Kimiko Houra, the daughter of a simple baker and a musician. Her aspirations for the future was to join the Anbu Black Ops.

"For now, she will be joining...Team 9. Gai..." The Hokage nodded, and Gai Sensei rushed up to the Hokage, bowed, and took Kimiko off of his hands. "She's a very skilled shinobi, so work her as much as you like. I think you'd enjoy that task very well." He smiled, and Gai bowed deeply.

"Of course Hokage! No student of mine will be trained without the influence of youth on our side! She'll be worked to the core!" He shouted, and Rock Lee clapped for him.

"A-Aye, Gai Sensei! Youth will always be on our side!!" Lee beamed, and suddenly remembered that this event was formal. "O-Of course!" He stuttered, and bowed deeply. "I apologize for my outburst! I will run a thousand laps around Konoha!"

"Hehehe, no, quite alright Lee!" The Hokage smiled back. "That is all I have for you teams today. All are dismissed."

The teams slowly filed out of the building, the silence sliced only by the shuffles of feet and mumbling. Neji slowed his pace to walk besides Gai Sensei, while Tenten and Lee tried to warm up to Kimiko.

"Hello!" Tenten smiled nervously. She herself wasn't sure of Kimiko, though she knew the new kid chills. "New, aren't you? It's alright, we're all friendly here!" She beamed once more, and Kimiko looked up at her.

"Hello..." She smiled slightly. "That's good. I'm Kimiko, pleased to meet you. And you are?" she raised her eyebrow at Tenten.