Dire Wolf

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Kara stood, punctual to the agreed meeting time, her gaze fixed on the village gate. Tsunade's decision to pair them together left her uneasy. She glanced at her wristwatch impatiently, debating how long her patience would last before she decided to leave without him.

Can't believe Tsunade has paired us together. Sometimes people just don't get on and there's nothing to be done about it. Seriously where the fuck is this guy!

As minutes stretched into an hour, impatience grew within her. She had been waiting for some time at this point. She was about to leave when, finally, she spotted Kakashi's figure in the distance, approaching at his own slow pace.

"You're late" she snapped

"Your point?" He retorted

"You said two hours, it's been over three or can't you tell the time!" Kara had her arms crossed. The fact that she was stuck with him was bad enough, but him showing up late was just adding fuel to the fire.

"Shuuut upp" Kakashi was already exhausted with her tone. "Let just get on with it and go" he started walking out of the gates. Kara followed suit.

This is going to be a looonngg mission.  They both thought.

They travelled for a few hours in complete silence, neither wanting to speak a word to the other. Darkness began to fall and so did the light patter of rain.

"Let's find some shelter to camp for the night." Kakashi said breaking the tense silence.

They found and stopped in a nearby cave. They both threw their gear in and started unpacking their sleeping bags. Kakashi ran out to grab some wood to start a fire only to return slightly later with his arms full of wood.

"It's a bit damp, not sure how well it will burn.." he dropped the wood in-front of Kara and sat across from her while she began building the fire.

"It will be fine, I can also draw out a most of water with my Celestiagan," Kara assured. Activating her Dojustu, she delicately passed her hands over the moist wood, inhaling deeply.

"Pisces," she murmured, intertwining her chakra, coaxing the water to recede from the wood, rendering it perfectly dry through the influence of the celestial water spirit. Next, with her right index finger centered on the wooden pyramid, she invoked "Aries," and flames sprang to life, swiftly enveloping the area, casting warmth upon the two shinobi.

Kara possesses the remarkable ability to harness the unique powers of all twelve zodiac spirits, seamlessly aligning her chakra with their respective elemental affinities, without using hand signs. Through her luminous golden eye, she gains a visual insight into the surrounding nature chakras, effortlessly bridging the connection between her spirit's essence and the elements. The zodiacal divisions enable the elements such as Fire, represented by Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius; Earth, embodied by Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn; Air, entrusted to Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius; and Water, channeled through Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces. However, the one elemental force that poses a challenge for Kara is lightning, as it lacks a zodiacal counterpart within her arsenal of connected spirits.

"I forget how handy that eye of yours can be" Kakashi spoke up sheepishly, trying to avoid looking directly at her under the orange glow from the flames. 

"Yeah, it does have its uses.. though I can't use lightning with it" Kara for once didn't have some snarky comment to retort. He gave her a genuine compliment and she wasn't sure on how to respond.

Kara dug through her bag looking for her food pills. She found them and was about the chuck a couple in her mouth when Kakashi spoke up.
"Didn't you bring any actual food with you? Those are meant for emergencies"

"Naa, I'm not the best cook so don't waste my time trying, it's just easier to have a couple of pills rather than cook and carry any food."

"Here, have some." Kakashi handed her a small bowl of rice and pork.

"Oh thank you, but you don't need to give me your food, you should eat it" she tried to hand him the bowl back but he had a second bowl already in his hands.

"I've packed enough, so eat"

Both of their tones were neutral and blunt, neither had the energy or were eager to incite a fight.

"Oh okay, thank you Kakashi"

He was shocked, did she just call me by my given name? Apart from that evening on the Hokage Monument, Kara always calls him Hatake, usually out of spite so this was a first for the both of them.

Kara noticed his eye widen so turned away from him to eat. He took that opportunity to quickly devour his food without her seeing him with his mask down.

Kara turned back a minute later and noticed his bowl empty. She rolled her eyes. She had known him for long enough to know what he's like with his mask. She never asked nor really cared why he was stubborn about wearing it. She assumed it was only there to draw attention to him, build his ego of sorts.

Kakashi rinsed the bowls out with his water bottle before resealing them in one of his scrolls.

"We should rest, I'll take first watch while you sleep" Kakashi said looking at Kara yawning.

"No that's not necessary, I'll summon Yuji, he can watch us while we both sleep through the night, we will need our energy for tomorrow." Kara stood and headed to the mouth of the cave.

"Who's Yuji?' Kakashi inquired, unaware that Kara had the ability to summon animals.

"He's my dire wolf" with that small statement, Kara proceeded to complete the hand signs and slamming her palm to the ground. A large black wolf with yellow eyes stood in front of the woman, it was almost as tall as her.

Kakashi's eyes were wide with astonishment. He had never seen such a large wolf before.

"You summons dogs Hatake, I summon wolfs." She said stroking the wolf. "This is Yuji, the alpha of the pack. I can also summon the rest when needed. But Yuji is also my best friend and spirit guide. We met while I was on the mission with my ANBU, I was separated from the team for several months after a near fatality. Yuji found me in the snow and brought me to his pack. He saved my life." She explained.

"Huh.." Kakashi didn't know how to respond, slightly jealous of the size of dogs she can summon. The wolf proceeded to growl in his direction. Making Kara chuckle.

"What was that for?" Kakashi asked not sure on whether the wolf was going to bite his head off.

"He asked why are you wearing a stupid mask" she continued giggling. 

"Wait, you can understand him?!"

"Yeah.. why are you so surprised?"

"Well he's a wolf? He only growled?"

"If he wanted you to hear him, you would be able to understand him. He will only communicates with those that he wants to. Plus he doesn't trust you so"

Kakashi sat there in silent dumbfounded on what to say.

Kara laughed and made her way back to her sleeping bag and settled in. Kakashi proceeded to do the same. They were both lying next to each other but opted to face away from one another. The tension between them was still thick.

As they both drifted into a deep sleep, they knew that Yuji was guarding them. Well Kara was certain of it, Kakashi on the other hand was not entirely convinced that the wolf wasn't going to bite his head of during the night.

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