I flop onto the cave floor with a sigh, leaning back against the rough stone wall and letting my rain-soaked clothes start to exude their moisture. The rainstorm had come on so quickly that it was impossible for me to make it to decent cover before becoming thoroughly drenched. I'm just glad there happened to be a cave near where I was training, or I'd have had to try and make it back to my village through the torrential downpour.
A soft rustling from the far side of the cave interrupts my musing. I draw a kunai and point it in the direction of the disturbance; the dim light filtering in through the cave's entrance is too faint to make anything out from this distance. "Show yourself!" I exclaim, my loud declaration immediately returned by a frightened squeak.
"D-Don't hurt me please, I'll die..." a scared and childish voice calls back through the darkness. I stow my kunai and cautiously make my way towards the sound.
"I won't hurt you. I'm going to walk over there now, okay?" Taking the silence as affirmation, I make my way to the far end of the cave, where I'm met with the pitiful sight of a drenched young girl shivering in the corner of the cave.
"Ah! Are you a m-man?" she asks, trembling as I slowly approach her. It's hard to tell if her shivers are from cold or fear, though I suppose it could easily be a combination of the two.
"Yes, I'm a man. Are you here all alone, little one?"
"Y-Yeah... hey, you don't look nearly as scary as sensei said," she says once I'm close enough that we can see each other regardless of the cave's dim lighting.
"What, you've never seen a man before?" I ask, kneeling to remove my satchel and rummage for some material to start a fire. The girl shakes her head, another shiver running through her body, though she no longer looks quite as scared as she had a few moments before. I speak gently, not wanting to frighten her any further, "I'm going to try and start a fire to get us warmed up. I have some kindling in my pouch that should still be dry, so we can use that."
She nods and watches intently while I get to work starting a small fire. The cave appears to be ventilated enough that we won't have much trouble with smoke; there's only the one entrance, but there are numerous smaller openings along the walls. "So, what's your name?" I ask, finally getting a small flame started as a result of my efforts.
"Hagi," the young girl replies, her features coming into full view for the first time in the orange glow of the fire.
"Well, Hagi, we should probably try and dry off our clothes, or we'll never rid ourselves of this chill."