Normally a young Chuunin would be nervous with the towering Hokage addressing them, but not Senna. The young girl felt the Hokage's warmth and his own empathy for their situation matching hers. As he rested his hand upon her shoulder she felt at ease, even more so after he assured Kyo that he would not be going out into that forest alone. Gisho spoke kindly of the Akizakura, and even spoke of Namine. "Yes sir, I believe you're speaking of my mother. You trained her yourself when she was even younger than me. She tells me quite a bit about you."

Kyo on the other hand did not receive the Hokage's message as well as his comrade did. Despite this, he respectfully allowed the Hokage to finish and bowed his head when he was done speaking. "Yes, Hokage-sama." He did well to keep his emotions from reaching his face even though he resented the Hokage's decision. And with that Kyo took one last look at the Gisho before turning his back and walking out the door, not waiting for Senna to follow. 

Senna, sensing Kyo's discontent for Gisho's reaction to his report, immediately turned and followed him out of the office with yet another concerned look. Once she followed him outside he was already almost twenty feet ahead of her and marching off, and not in the direction of his home. "You can't be serious right now?!" She yelled as she ran toward him, placing her hand on his shoulder and forcing him to turn and face her when he did not respond. "I'm not stupid Kyo, I don't know what you think you're doing but you're a fool to try and go back there right now!!" She spat at him. 

Kyo just looked at her with his usual cold, emotionless expression. It wasn't like him to force this side of himself on her, because he knew she could always see through it. "This is not the job for some nameless squad of Shinobi that don't have a connection to or a care in the world for Mizuki. This is my cross to bare and I, and I alone, will be the one to bare it. If someone is going to go into that forest and die looking for our comrade, it will be me." He spoke solemnly and with abandon for any emotion that might have played a factor in talking himself out of going. He may have spoke like he was ready to die for this cause, but truth be told his overconfidence in his abilities led him to believe that he could actually save his friend if he were still alive somewhere. 

Senna's eyes widened at Kyo's short-sightedness. For someone with eyes like his, he sure had a hard time seeing the big picture sometimes. "Well that's just so fucking noble of of you, isn't it Kyo Uchiha?! The genius boy dying a martyr for his comrade before he ever became anything bigger than himself! Well fuck you, Kyo!" She snapped at him, her eyes welling up with tears as she turned to storm away and let him go on his foolish rampage into certain death. 

Kyo winced as she had hurt his ego, but in the process she released him from the strings of self pity that had been guiding him toward what would have been his demise. His guard dropped immediately as  she turned to leave. His face softened, mouth opening slightly to begin to respond as he placed his hand on her shoulder to prevent her from leaving. 

Before Kyo could retort to her words, Senna spun around with tears streaming down her face, smacking his hand off of her shoulder with force. This caught Kyo well off guard, taken aback by her brash actions. He knew her to get emotional with him even if she was normally level headed, but this was a passion seldom seen from her. 

"If you go and get yourself killed for no fucking reason, who's gonna be here to take care of me?!" Her face was soaked with tears at this point. Any words that Kyo may have had were gone at this point. He was speechless to the reality of her words. His mouth was left hanging open slightly like a fool, and after a what seemed like a long moment of silence, of her looking to him anticipating his reaction, he now knew the gravity of the situation. He gathered himself up, his resolve hardening his expression and he looked her in the eyes. "I will always take care of you." He kissed her with a fiery passion that she had never seen from him, and after an eternity had passed all in a single moment, they parted lips and he held her under the moonlight in perfect serenity. 

~

The sun kissed Senna's eyes as she awoke in Kyo's arms beneath a tree not far from the Hokage's office. She moved her hand to her forehead to shade herself from the light, and judged the time of day by the sun's position. She looked over to her lover and took in his innocent, sleeping face. ~[i]He's so peaceful.. I want this moment to last forever... Why do we fight so hard to keep things the way they are?[/i]~ She allowed the moment to linger for just a little while longer, solemnly expressing how grateful she was for him. 

Not a moment later she was shaking him by the collar of his shirt and screaming in his face. "Hey idiot you realize we're gonna be late for the stupid exams right?!" She pulled him back and forth with force to shake any notion of going back to sleep right out of him. 

Kyo flailed back and forth as she swung him around like a children's doll, a spot of drool wagging around comically as his peaceful slumber was [i]ever-so-gracefully[/i] stricken from him. He wiped his eyes and looked over to her with his coy little smirk and the charm that she grew to know so well. "Good morning to you too." He stood up and gathered himself, giving her a helping hand to her feet as well. "Sleep well?" He asked, giving complete abandon to the notion of being late for such an important event in their lives. He simply dusted the dirt off of his clothing and began a slow trot toward where the exam was being held. 

As he helped her up she fell silent, a total 180 from how she had awoken him. "But.. we're late.." she whispered to herself as he made no motion to hurry to make sure they arrived on time to represent Konoha. She saw in him a complete disregard for the rules for her own sake. She knew fully well that he was enjoying every last second of serenity they had together before it would all be broken by the trials of war, or rather a condensed and kindergarten version of war supervised by the higher ups of all the villages. But make no mistake, this was war even in its most premature of forms, even if death was not the expectation, these were fully grown Shinobi ready to enter the highest levels of their respective villages. This was a true test of their character.