Its Just a Game

This is just a story that I made up on a hunch. I've wanted to use this storyline for a while in an original, but have yet to develop my original characters, so I decided to develop my storyline with this. Naruto and the Naruto characters do not belong to me, they belong to Masashi Kishimoto. The storyline, however, is completely mine and nobody else's, and I'll eventually use this storyline in an original, so COPY ME AND I'LL SUE YOUR EYES OUT! Thanks!

Chapter One

The Chunin and Jounin teams that filled Tsunade's conference room sat in hushed silence, team by team, listening intently for their Hokage to give them the details on this pressing news. By now, buzz had spread across Konoha of a visitor coming through, but this visitor has varied from person to person. At one point this person was the Kage of an enemy village coming to make peace with Konoha, another they were beautiful women coming to visit that needed tour guides (Obviously Jariaya's daydream of a visitor), and now, now, they were finally getting the right information. Who was this person? Where are they coming from? What were they coming for? Were they for good or bad purposes?

"As I know you've all been wondering," Tsunade said in a demanding tone, calling the conference to order, "who this new visitor is."

"Well, Grandma-Tsunade, who is it?" Naruto piped in, his orange head instantaneously being hit, keeping him in a sitting position on the floor.

A unison whisper from the three other people on his team came across, "Shut up!" Tsunade smirked and carried on her business as though he hadn't spoken.

"As you are all aware, since Orochimaru and his goons invaded, our village has collapsed considerably."

A dull roar of whispers of teams among themselves filled the room. Tsunade continued talking as though they hadn't even opened their mouths.

"The food and farming has decreased greatly, leaving little for our village to eat, considering the lack of farmland due to the destruction. The people coming are a father and daughter. This farmer is one of the best in the world; he'll come to help the farmers here clear the land and replant their farms. Their daughter is a Jounin, fifteen years old, and she works horses. I've gotten several horses for the Jounins, and she'll be working with these horses to train them for missions. She will also be training the Jounins on how to work with these horses."

"How will two hicks help Konoha's reconstruction any?" Sasuke's overly cocky voice radiated through.

The vein in Tsunade's forehead throbbed, "These two are anything but hicks, Sasuke. I am a personal friend of the father, Koriama He is a great man, who works harder than you'll ever know for what he has. His daughter, Kaiya, is just like him. And I think that you'll be quite surprised at them, as well. You'll see, soon enough."

"Why do we need horses as ninja?" Anko yelled up to the Hokage.

"Kaiya is the top ninja of her class, in all the places they've gone. She doesn't have a ninja team; she has her horse. She's a certified medic nin, for ninja as well as horses. Her horse is her partner, and they've never lost a fight in her time as a ninja."

"In her time as a ninja?" someone else asked.

"She's no longer working as a ninja. Kaiya and her father are very close, and she's had some close calls, personally. I'm not at honor to dispose of those; you'll have to ask them yourselves. But that horse is her best friend, and the last thing it would ever do it let her die before it did. I've become close with her and her horse as well. It's truly amazing what they can do together. You'll see, you'll see."

"When are they coming?"

"They should be coming any minute. They've scheduled to be here by late this evening or early tomorrow morning."

The dull roar from the teams' whispers among themselves filled the room. Tsunade cleared her throat for one final word.

"If you're all finished with your questions, I will close this meeting. I expect no less than absolute respect toward Kaiya and Koriama from any of you. Meeting dismissed."

All the ninja poofed out of the room and onto the street outside of the Hokage's building. Most of the teams split in their own directions, either dismissing their training for the day of giving last minute words to the Chunin teams as direction for their impressions of the new visitors.

"You all should know by now that the Hokage respects these visitors, which means that if you mess with them, she'll mess you up. So I'd suggest you guys don't act like idiots around these new people," Kakashi said in his usual monotonous voice from behind his little orange book.

"Is it possible to just avoid the two hicks like the plague and not worry about it?" Sasuke asked in his all-to-cocky tone.

"Sasuke, why are you so rude? They haven't even shown up yet and you're already being mean to them!" Bushy Brows piped in, interrupting Team 7's not-so-conversation.

"Why should we want them here?" Sasuke asked again, monotonous still.

Glitter glistened in the green latex-clad ninja's eyes at getting a response from the infamous Sasuke Uchiha, "Sasuke, you always think you're better than everyone else. I, for one, think that these people will show you up. Gai-Sensei says he's heard of Kaiya and Koriama, and that they're extremely strong, and that Kaiya is extremely beautiful. And, as the green beast of Konoha, I shall be the one to sweep her off her feet and she shall be mine!"

"Look, we don't know who they are, so why judge them before they get here?" Sakura's logical voice came in.

Kakashi's monotonous voice called them to attention, "Listen…"

The gates to Konoha were close to the Hokage building, and the crowd of teams gathered closer to it.

Thump…thump…thumpthumpthumpthump!

"Ho, pretty boy. Ease up," a small but definitely commanding female voice said. The thumping that was closer to the gate had stopped, but there was still thumping coming from farther away.

Thump…thump…thump..thump..thump…thump!

"Kaiya, I don't know how you can ride so fast. It's killing me," a steady, easy male voice said.

The female voice did not reply, though everyone that had heard it knew that they were speaking. No one could help but be excited and a bit bewildered at the new visitors, and finally they were about to see who they were! Maybe they were just two country hicks, maybe they weren't, maybe….

Then the gates opened. The man came through first; a tall man, skinnier in build, but had muscle, who wore a green cap. He rode through on a grey horse that was tall and lanky, which made the man look bigger and his farmer's tan look darker. The girl came out behind him. She was wearing a navy blue kimono that had a light pink flower on the side, with light pink shorts. Her shoulder blade length black hair flew back in the wind as her short, bulky, red horse came through the gate in a run to the back of the grey horse.

The girl was long and skinny, but had muscle that showed in her legs. She had a tan, but it wasn't a farmer's tan. Her dragonfly necklace was a bit off, being as how it was pink and purple, but it stood out against her skin. She was beautiful, but kept herself right behind the man, almost as though shyly.

Tsunade walked out of the crowd of people, whom no one had even realized had been there. Both the girl and the man got off of their horses and bowed to the Hokage. Then the horses followed suit and bowed! The crowd of people created a dull roar again, watching the horses bow. It lasted only a moment, because they came up just as the man and girl did to stand in front of the same respect-demanding woman. Words were exchanged between the man and the Hokage, before Tsunade turned to the girl to give a word, and the girl smiled and gave a few words back. The man put his hand on the girl's shoulder and went back to speaking quietly with the Hokage. Tsunade then called out to the crowd.

"Everyone, this is Koriama and Kaiya Kaniwa. They will be helping the village get back on its feet in the farming industry, and Kaiya will be working with the horses and the Jounins that will be training on them."

The crowd bowed in respect to the new visitors, and the two visitors, plus their horses, bowed back. This caused another dull roar of amusement from the crowd. The girl, Kaiya, turned to the Hokage with a look of almost confusion, and the Hokage whispered something to her that made her laugh. The laugh was so pure and sweet, it made all the men stop.

The man looked at his daughter and gave her some sort of direction. She jumped onto the back of her horse, stood up, and put one foot on the grey horse, the other on the red horse, and gave a clicking noise. The horses started up and took off, the girl still standing on their backs. The crowd watched the girl as she directed the horses to turn down a street to head towards the Hokage's stables that sat in the pastures on the outskirts of Konoha. She ran, uncaring, until she knew that she was out of the eyes of the crowd that had been watching her. She then sat back on her red horse and pulled the grey horse behind her by the reins. She ran straight and then she saw the white picket fence that led to the stables. She let the grey horse go and kicked the red horse. The horse took off, with the grey one right behind it, and both horses jumped the fence.

She grabbed the grey horse's reins once again and led them both into the barn. Coming off of her horse, she tied them to notches in the barn wall and looked around. The horses in the stalls were of all different colors, but she could see things about them that almost gave them away to their owners. Whether anyone else was aware of it; Kaiya was a very watchful girl. The horse in the second stall on the right was a tall, black horse with a white blaze down her face, with red eyes. That horse had to have belonged to the woman that was in the crowd; the one with long, wavy black hair, red eyes, and red lips. Oh yes, she paid attention. She looked across the stalls, studying the horses, as she unsaddled her horses and put the saddles in the tack room that was down past all stalls on the far left corner of the barn. On the end of the barn by the tack room was a large white metal gate that led out into a connecting pasture. The pasture had nothing in it, but had large molasses tubs that held water in each corner. This, she knew, was the horse pasture. The cattle pastures connected to that pasture, separated by barbed wire.

Once the horses were unsaddled, Kaiya took a rope halter from the tack room and took of the red horse's bridle and put the halter on his head. Tying the rope halter to the notch where she'd previously tied the bridle, she put the bridle on the hook where the rope halter had been placed in the tack room and pulled out the brush from a small blue bucket in the close right corner underneath another unused hook. She brushed out the horse, who had a large sweat stain in his hair where the saddle had been, and a band of sweat where the brow band had been above his eyes. He'd had a long run and was obviously tired, so she brushed him down well, filled the large tub in the corner of the empty stall next to the black horse with water, and led him into it. She then took one of the buckets from the back of the tack room and put some feed into it. She put it in the stall and rubbed the horse's head as it ate.

"You've had a good run today, Chipper Doc. You've earned your keep."

By this point, her grey horse was getting antsy, so she did the same with it, petting it on the head before she left and saying, "You did well, Smoke."

Just as she was leaving, a boy came up. He looked about the same age as she was, and had a small dog that walked alongside him. Kaiya looked his way, but said nothing. She went to the water spout that the water hose was connected to and washed her hands, which had been sweaty and hard worked. She wiped the water off on her shorts and pulled her hair up into a ponytail with a pink ribbon that had been tied around her wrist. The boy came through and didn't say anything; he just walked into the stables like he owned the place and looked around at the horses.

"Can I help you?" She said, turning to the boy as he reached out to pet Smoke on the head.

"Oh, hi! I'm sorry, I didn't even see you there. You're the Kaiya girl, right?" the boy asked as his dog crawled into Smoke's stall and sniffed at his leg.

She jumped over the door to Smoke's stall and grabbed the dog, just as the horse lifted his foot to stomp it. She used her shoulder to push against the horse's leg, tilting him off balance and making him take a side step.

"Sorry about that. I didn't mean to blow you off like that. But I didn't want your dog to get stomped on. I haven't trained him to work with dogs yet."

The dog walked over aimlessly to Chipper Doc's stall and crawled underneath the door to it as though the first time wasn't enough. The boy gasped in fear that his dog would get stomped again, and almost jumped over the gate to get it, but Kaiya pulled him off.

"That's my boy. He's trained to dogs."

The little dog sniffed at Chipper Doc's leg, and then licked him. The horse turned his big ole head around and sniffs the dog back.

"I'm Kiba; nice to meet you," the boy said. "Sorry about my dog. He's not used to horses either."

"No problem. I'm Kaiya."

"Where did you move from?"

"We move from place to place. I'm originally from the Mist village, but Daddy made us move after all the things that happened there after I started going on missions as a Jounin."

Kiba gave a confused look.

"In my two year Jounin career in the Mist village, my horse has been my only teammate. So, in a sense, I've been a bit more vulnerable. Daddy didn't like that, and forced my retirement from full-time ninja business."

"Jeez, I never would have thought a dad would do that. I mean, nobody could stop me from being a ninja!"

"My daddy and I are really close. He's just looking out for me. And plus, I love this. I love working with horses, and teaching people on them. It's just so cool."

"You seem really into this sort of thing. Why did you seem so scared when you came through the gate earlier today?" Kiba asked.

"I don't like crowds. I'm not much of a public speaker."

"Ha," Kiba said, leaning over to pet Chipper Doc on the head, "they all thought you two would be hicks."

"I've gotten that before. I'm surprising, not surprised."

Kiba looked somewhat surprised at this line.

"Hey, Kiba?"

"Yeah?"

"You know the people here way better than me. Who's the woman that lives here with the long wavy black hair and red eyes?"

A look of astonishment crossed his face, "Kurenai- Sensei? She's a jounin here, and my team's sensei. Why do you ask?"

"Is she on the list to be trained to a horse?"

"I think so. Why?"

"This one is her's," she said, pointing to the black horse with red eyes.

"How can you tell?" he asked.

"Pets and people share a bond…my horse and I share a bond too. The red horse, Chipper Doc, is mine, not the grey one. The grey one is Daddy's. But me and Chipper Doc work so well together, I can fall asleep on him, and he knows if anything is wrong and protects me before I even know I'm in danger. He's saved me in my sleep from an Akatsuki member before. If you don't have that bond with an animal that you're working with, then it's no use to have them around….hey, what do you guys do for fun around here anyways?"

"What do you mean?" Kiba said, a mischievous look in his eyes.

"I mean fun! My life isn't all work and no play. What's there to do that's fun around here?"

"Usually we all just hang out in our own teams. Sometimes we'll get together for something with more than just our team, but our teammates are our best friends, so we do a lot of stuff together."

Kaiya's eyes showed that she was downcast. It wasn't the first, and she knew it wouldn't be the last time in her lifetime that she would feel this way. But Kiba saw it and caught himself.

"I didn't mean it like that! My team would love you….you're not afraid of bugs, are you?"

"Bugs, no. If you get a mouse near me though, I'll freak out."

Kiba laughed, and the puppy crawled out of Chipper Doc's stall and jumped into his arms, "I'll remember that. But there aren't any mice around my team. Just bugs."

"Ok, I can deal with that. What's your team like?"

"C'mon, I'll take you to meet them. You can walk, Akamaru," he said, putting the dog on the ground.

Kiba grabbed her hand and took off the way he'd come earlier that afternoon.

Ha, I got to her first, Sasuke has no chance…Kiba thought as he ran faster to keep up with the girl's long legs running beside him. She was a ninja alright; I wonder how many Mist ninja tried to get at her while she was there….They had to have tried to do something; otherwise her dad would have no complaints.

They ran together that way until they came upon the streets of Konoha, Kiba still leading her by the hand. She didn't think anything of it, really. Worse had been done, and Kiba seemed cool enough. That is, until something that resembled a booger in a blender came flying up.

"KIBA!!" This furious green thing yelled. "I TOLD YOU I WOULD BE THE FIRST TO COURT HER!!"

As it came down the street, she whispered to Kiba, "What is that thing, and did it just say it wanted to court me?"

Kiba looked at her nonchalantly and replied, "It's Lee, a ninja here. Yeah, he dresses horribly, but he's ok enough. He's desperate; he'd date a rock if it had hair. You were a huge opportunity for him to get a girl. But nobody knew what you looked like; he's got no chance now."

She wrinkled her nose in disapproval, "What do you mean by that? No one knew what I looked like?"

"Everybody thought you'd be a hick, you know, bum. But now that they've seen you, jeez, you're gorgeous. Lee has no chance. Everybody's going to want you."

"By the looks of him, he's never had a chance."

The green beast stopped about six inches from her face, took a step back and bowed, "Lady Kaiya Kaniwa, I am Lee, the Green Beast of Konoha! It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Umm…that's nice…Lee…nice to meet you as well."

The bushy eyed boy gave a goofy smile and a thumbs up.

"Lady Kaiya, I know that you're unaware of the places here, and I would be much obliged to show you around…that is, if you'd like."

"I'd much appreciate it Lee, but you see, Kiba has already offered me a tour of Konoha, so I guess I'll just have to see you around, ok?" Kaiya said, looking to Kiba for some form of support in the matter.

"She's with me, Bushy Brows. Leave it."

Fire raged in the green spandex-laden lad, but was soon washed out with the essence of defeat.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, Lady Kaniwa. I'm sure I will see you again soon."

The boy bowed once more and walked off, much more slowly than he had before, when he was coming up to the girl.

"Jeez…"Kaiya murmured.

"That's Lee for you. C'mon, I'll introduce you to my team."

"Alright. Hey, are you Jounin or what?"

"Nah, I'm a Chuunin, just passed the exams. Orochimaru destroyed everything during the middle of the last phase of the them. That's what you guys are here for, isn't it? To help us get our crops going back again?"

She nodded pleasantly, "That's right. I got the basic information, but I didn't know who was in the exams. That's cool though; I never find any Jounin my age anyhow."

As they walked along the streets, the pleasant conversation continued until they had come upon the two people that were Kiba's teammates- A shy girl with purple hair, Hinata, and a boy with a high collar jacket and sunglasses that worked with the bugs, Shino.

As Kiba introduced them, Kaiya was pleasantly surprised at the easy acceptance from the two. She knew they must not be the most popular people in Konoha, just because of their sweet, quiet nature, but that was just fine with her; she never did really like hanging out with popular people. They were always so cocky and rude, but they all liked her plenty, as arm candy. Kaiya hated that, but she didn't feel like she was being used as anything at the moment. She'd become so comfortable, however, that she hadn't even realized that Kiba was still holding on to her hand.



The next day, Kaiya was up early. The Hokage had given her one day off to recover from the long ride to Konoha, and she took advantage of it to get some peace in the early morning to explore the village.

"Kaiya," her father had said that morning.

"Yeah, Daddy?"

"You made friends yesterday, didn't you? I saw you with a couple of people yesterday afternoon."

"Yeah, I did. They're cool. Kiba, the one with the dog, came up to the stables when I was getting the horses unsaddled. He introduced me to the other two, Hinata and Shino, his teammates."

"Good. I don't want you running off at night by yourself, you know that right?"

"Yes, Daddy, I know. But it's like six in the morning. Why are you worried about nighttime right now?"

"I'm just making sure you know, that's all."

Her eyes flickered with sadness for a moment as she said, "I know."

"Good. Go out and have fun. Work starts tomorrow; best get your fun out today."

"Yeah," she said, smiling, the sadness completely forgotten. She kissed Koriama on the cheek as she walked out the door. "Bye Daddy."

She walked out the door, looking at all the shops and stores just beginning to open, with sleepy-eyed people opening up shop. She walked down the streets that were mostly vacant, looking at the names of the stores and in the windows to see where she'd need to later on.

She'd taken care to dress nicely today, since she would most likely be absolutely disgusting after working with the horses after today. She wore a navy blue summer dress that came down to her ankles, but had a slit up to her thigh, with a hat that had a navy ribbon on it. Her high heels clicked up and down the street, as she looked through everything with interest and enjoyed the cool, moist morning air that only came in the mornings before the sun rose completely. The strong smell of flowers carried over to her, and she took it in with everything.

After about an hour of walking through the streets, she walked into the park to check things out there. She took her time, enjoying the light coming up, and the trees that stood so tall and looked so at peace with everything. A breeze flowed through, and she tilted her head slightly to get the wind in her face. She enjoyed it for a moment, but her hat flew off, bringing her back to reality. She spun on her heel quickly and was about to run after her hat, when someone came up, carrying it back to her.

"Is this yours?" the boy asked.

"Yes! Thank you for getting it. I'd hate to lose it," Kaiya smiled in appreciation.

"Hn, no problem. You're that Kaiya girl, right?"

"Yep, that's me."

"I'm Sasuke."

"Well, thank you, Sasuke. I don't know how to repay you."

He smirked in her direction, but the moment was kicked out from underneath them when a huge group of girls came running in their direction screaming, "SASUKE!!"

"Do you really want to repay me?" he asked.

She gave a mischievous look and said, "Sure."

Sasuke grabbed her hand. The girls stopped abruptly, all with the same expression of shock. They kept yelling, "SASUKE!!"

"Do you still want to repay me?"

She laughed, "Sure."

"This means nothing, alright?" he whispered in her ear.

She nodded and whispered back, "It's just like a game. But later when they're all over me and they think we're dating, I'm denying it."

"Good."

He leaned in to her and kissed her a bit forcefully. She shut her eyes and let him do what he wanted; it was just a game, after all. He put his arms around her waist, and she followed suit, putting her arms around his neck.

Hn, good kisser…Sasuke thought, asking for entrance into her mouth.

What the heck? Nobody's going to know if he did that or not…she thought, refusing his request.

The kiss broke off, and Sasuke came back for one more, which she only obliged with a ghostly, gentle little kiss. Her petal soft lips broke from him and their hands removed from each other. The crowd of girls was completely gone.

"HA!" Kaiya laughed.

"Hn," Sasuke smirked.

"Well, Sasuke dear, it looks as though we're even now. I guess I'll catch you later, ok?"

"Yeah, later."

And as Kaiya walked off, Sasuke couldn't help but think about that kiss. She was good at that, and he wanted more. He knew then that he was going to get her. But, at least in her mind, it was just a game…

I know that this a probably OOC like crazy, but I haven't watched Naruto in forever and need to practice more. It will get better, I promise. Reviews/Comments/whatever is great. NO HATE MAIL! Thanks muchly!

ShelbyCole