DISCLAIMER: ok, if i were as awesome as Kishimoto-san, i would be dead of being too awesome. ( property of Masashi Kishimoto DUH. :P) the only character i own is Sora. my best friend Rachel owns Izumi, and my other best friend Courtney owns Sunai. thats it.

XXXXXXXXXX

This was one of those amazing days I knew I shouldn't have. One of those days that go against the grain of what should happen in life. I couldn't bring myself to complain, though. This was also one of those perfect days that nothing could spoil.

Just lying there, his face next to mine, my head on his shoulder with our hair splayed to either side, lying in the grass with water flowing nearby and fluffy, moist-looking clouds hovering above, like they were watching me; this was bliss.

"Why does today have to be so perfect? Tomorrow…. Tomorrow could be so different; why do I have to enjoy today so much?" Wow, Sora. Could you confuse him some more? You're not doing so great! I thought to myself.

"What do you mean?" He replied obviously.

"I mean, why do I enjoy these moments so much, when they could be gone in an instant and it would only hurt that much more?" I explained cryptically. Again.

"Sora-chan, sweet, if each day were a bad one, if they were each exactly the same, the moments we enjoy so much would be insignificant and there would be no love. I personally think that would be a terrible world." He turned his head and kissed my temple.

A sigh escaped my lips. "Then maybe today should be perfect."

XXXXXXXXXX

10 YEARS AND 6 MONTHS EARLIER

I lost my balance and fell over, crashing into the floor and my school things spilled out of my bag and onto the wooden porch walkway. I could feel a body on top of me and, without seeing who it was, used all my strength to push the person off of me, crying "Baka! Now, I'll be late to the academy!" I made a frustrated noise in the back of my throat and started picking up my things. My hurried grabbing slowed as I was handed my small first aid kit. I looked to see the idiot that had knocked me over, my eyes widening and trembling.

"N-N-Neji-san! Oh, I'm so sorry Neji-san, please forgive me!" I stammered.

He smiled briefly. "It's quite alright, Sora-san. I ran into you," he looked me in the eyes. For a moment I forgot where I was.

I blinked back to the real world. "Oh, well, I should have been looking where I was going, so I suppose we're both at fault." I tried to smirk nervously. I failed miserably.

His face indifferent, Neji handed me a final handout as we stood again. "Well."

I brushed my hair behind my ear; a nervous habit that I hated. "Well," I said awkwardly. "I'll see you at school, I guess," I called over my shoulder, hurrying to school, hiding my flustered face.

XXXXXXXXXX

I got to the academy at exactly the right time. I shuffled to my seat between my two best friends, Izumi and Sunai, and took out the assignment from last night. Iruka-sensei walked into the room.

"Everyone pass their homework to the person directly in front of you."

I passed my page to Chouji Akimichi and sat back in my chair to wait on everyone else. Iruka-sensei gathered and organized the papers in his hands and laid them on his desk for grading later on.

"Today, we are starting chakra molding," he paused, listening to the loud hollers and cheering as they went up in joyous celebration. He smiled to himself. I looked around at everyone and grinned as well. This would mean ninjutsu, and I was already teaching myself my clan jutsu. I would probably be good at this, and that always made me happy.

I glanced over at the kunoichi to my right. Izumi Kumouri, a light-skinned girl with short, dark brown hair and a dark purple kunoichi dress on, had a Kekki-Genkai. She had a dojustu, or visual jutsu, called the Nekkigan. One eye was profoundly normal; it was a nice normal dark brown. But the other; the other was terrifying. It had a deep violet iris: an unnatural color in and of itself. What made it scary was the fact that it swam in an onyx sea. The rest of her eyeball was as black as it could possibly get. This series of lessons would help Izumi develop her power.

I turned again, looking at Sunai Kuuma on my other side, a gorgeous kunoichi with amazing skills as a young ninja. Of course, she would slaughter me if I said that in her presence, but it was true. Her speciality was stealth, although she was only slightly talented so far. She had no jutsu yet. But she could totally conceal her presence. Honestly, it freaked me out sometimes. But she was hard to hate. She had an almost-silver-almost-blonde kind of hair color. No one knew what color it was, exactly. She was very pretty, but that wasn't what everyone liked about her. She had a charming personality; she was kind, but firm. She was loveable, but never let anyone walk on her. Take my advice: never tell her any of this. She will kill you where you stand.

Both of these people were my best friends in the entire world. I loved them like they were my own sisters.

Iruka-sensei held up his hands, silencing us. "I know you're excited, but there are things I should say."

The room was silent. He continued, "There are risks to chakra molding. This means that once you use it, you are full-blown shinobi, and nothing can take that away. However, you cannot use this power too lightly. You will have the ability to harm or fatally wound another person. You will have to learn to respect everyone," he looked at a few choice people around the room. The rest of us giggled.

"Now, whoever would like to try chakra molding, follow me to the training ground."

And so we did.

XXXXXXXXXX

After a full three hours learning about hand signs and learning about chakra distribution, we were starting to get the hang of chakra molding. Or rather, the concept of chakra molding. At the same time, were starting to realize the strength of what we were going to be able to do. We all went home speechless, and a few people were wondering just how powerful ninjutsu was.

"I heard it can kill. I wonder how many my mom's killed," one girl pondered.

"Probably a hundred. I know my dad's killed lots of other ninjas," another replied.

I turned to Izumi and Sunai. "Do you guys think that we'll end up killers, too?"

Sunai frowned. "Yeah. Unfortunately, that's part of being a ninja." Silence obliterated their conversation. After a minute, Izumi broke it.

"Not to worry, dears. We'll be excellent shinobi, and killing will only be a last option for us," she said brightly, giving us one of her eyes-closed smirks. And we felt better automatically, because we knew we would be great ninja, and we would make the world a better place for everyone.

"Hey, um;. Hey, Sora-san?" a voice rang softly behind me. Stunned, I whipped around and took a fighting stance, like I'd learned in class. But when I saw who it was, I relaxed my stance and bowed.

"Hello, Neji-san. How are you today?"

He bowed as well, emotionless as always. "Well. Thank you."

I kept my lips in a straight line, resisting the urge to frown at his unfazed attitude. I looked at him expectantly.

He got the hint. "I was wondering if you would like to walk home with me."

I looked at him in surprise. "Walk home? With you?" I stammered. I heard Izumi and Sunai snicker behind me. They knew about the crush I had on Neji. I made a mental note to growl at them both later.

I permitted myself to smile. "Of course, Neji-san." As I walked away, I waved to my friends and crossed my fingers at them, knowing Neji couldn't see. I turned back to him. We walked in silence for a few minutes.

"So, Neji-san. Why did you want to walk with me today?" I was curious.

He took up a look of mock consideration. "I felt the company might be a good change," he replied vaguely after a moment.

"A change in what?"

"I'm not sure. I guess I figured it would be more comfortable than walking alone."

I smiled to myself. I wasn't actually in the Hyuuga clan. I was raised there, yes, but I was not their flesh and blood. I didn't even share their surname. I was born in the Hidden Rain village, although I'd never told anyone that. Not even Sunai and Izumi knew that fact.

I was the child of two war orphans from the Third Shinobi War. Unfortunately, a few months before I was born, my father left. My mother came to the Hidden Leaf village to start a new life, and perhaps find a father for me, but didn't have such luck. Then, when I was born, she had died. So, when a woman of the Hyuuga clan came to adopt from an orphanage, she had chosen me. I was adopted into the clan and pulled my own weight with chores and housekeeping.

I had met Neji when I was two years old. He had just turned three, and I had turned two. I don't really remember it very well, but I remember getting a warm feeling in my gut and getting lightheaded when I heard him say that I looked kind. I had crushed on him ever since.

"I'm sorry," I said quickly, as I realized he was waiting on a response.

He looked amazingly dispassionate.

"I've always wondered;" I trailed off.

"Wondered what?"

I felt my cheeks burn. "Why are you always so detached? Like you don't feel any emotions at all?" An awkward silence ensued.

My cheeks turned redder. "I'm sorry, Neji-san, that was uncalled for-" He cut me off.

"That's fine."

I was taken aback. I stayed silent as he explained.

"You know what happened to my father," he said through gritted teeth. I gulped. I did know. That was a very touchy subject for the entire clan.

"When he was killed, my uncle allowed it."

I looked at my feet. We were nearing the household.

"I do feel emotions," I heard him choke.

"...Is there anything I can do, Neji-san? Anything at all?" I looked at him, concerned. He searched my face; looking for something. It was like he expected me to be lying to him.

When he was done, he sighed and shook his head sadly. I watched our feet, perfectly in step, and realized soon that we were almost to the mansion that was the Hyuuga household. When we reached the fork in the hall where I kept going straight and he turned right, we stopped and faced each other.

I awkwardly brushed my hair behind my ear, averting my eyes. I looked up after about 30 seconds, and realized he had done the same. I looked into his eyes, and for the first time, I saw emotion. I saw the pain of his past and the loneliness of his present. I had a sudden mass of courage come to the front of my brain and I took a step forward, too fast for him to react. I hugged him as tightly as I could, knowing he needed a friend. After a few seconds he started to hug me back, and I knew that we would be friends for a while.

"You know, you can talk to me," I murmured.

"I know."

We relaxed our embrace and I glanced at him for a moment. "Bye, Neji-kun," I ventured, using a closer honorific.

He smirked. "See you tomorrow, Sora-chan," he replied as I walked away.

XXXXXXXXXX

The next morning, we walked to school together. We met at our little parting of ways and marched to class together. We didn't bring up the previous afternoon, or his father, or anything of the sort. We talked about how he had learned everything we were as well, and that he would help me if I needed it. We laughed together, and got very comfortable in each other's presence. We grew up together and even though he was a class ahead of mine, we learned together, learning the way of the ninja and becoming best friends.

He graduated; top of his class and a complete bore. He was the class heartthrob, like Uchiha Sasuke in my own year. I had my few friends. Izumi and Sunai and Neji, of course. We grew together and in the end, when my class became genin, Izumi and Sunai became my entire life.

I received my headband, and ran home as soon as I could, showing it to Neji and asking him how it looked with my outfit. He replied "Hn," and went on with his life, of course, but I laughed him off and we went to the garden in the courtyard, our favorite place. We lay in the tall grass, unseen, and scooted together, trying to take in all the sounds and smells around us.

I sighed. "Neji-kun?" I asked.

"Yes?"

"What is your dream? Why did you become a ninja?"

He paused, thinking I suppose. "I want to protect my loved ones."

I smiled to myself. I wanted to ask if I was one of his loved ones, but I held my tongue.

"Ooh, can come watch you train tomorrow? I'm not meeting my sensei until the day after," I begged, flipping over, my untied hair falling around my shoulders.

He turned his head toward me. He was smiling, a rare treat for anyone. Even me, his best friend.

"Sure. I don't see why not. I know it's because you love Tenten so much," he breathed a laugh.

"Ugh. Yeah. That's why I'm coming." I hated Tenten with a passion; she always seemed stuck up to me. Plus, she liked Neji. She was a natural enemy.

"Oh, that's right. You go to see Lee in his ridiculous outfit." He teased.

"AHH! No way!" I exclaimed, sitting rigidly upright and looking horrified, twisting my torso to see Neji laying on the ground, one leg propped up on the other knee and hands behind his head. I found myself desperately wanting to run my fingers through his long, untied, raven hair. I wanted to put my head on his chest and feel his heartbeat, lulling me into sleep. It was such an aching need, and I was forced to suppress it, so instead, I sighed and lay back down, and settled for snuggling a little closer. I felt him tense at first, but then he relaxed and his arm twitched, like it was pleading with his brain to move.

I smiled to myself, knowing I was definitely one of his loved ones.

XXXXXXXXXX

Izumi and Sunai met me at the fried donuts booth a little ways from Ichiraku's. We speed-walked all the way to the academy, ready to meet our new jounin sensei. We walked into the assigned room, about 10 minutes early. We hadn't stopped; we were all too excited. We were shocked to see another woman in the room.

She wore a black kunoichi dress, highlighted with hot pink, which matched the color of her irises. Her hair actually looked natural, solid black with the exception of hot pink streaks around her head. She also wore a pair of boring black shinobi sandals.

"Early birds, eh?" she smirked at us with a clearly female voice.

"Nope, not really. We were just super excited, so we didn't stop for food on the way," Izumi grinned widely back.

The jounin's face fell just a little. "Oh," she replied shortly.

Soon enough, the rest of the students and senseis arrived. Iruka-sensei announced the names of our supervising jounin, not bothering to tell us which ones were the named senseis. He finished naming the new teachers, and realized that he needed to show us who they were. He ended up leading each group to their sensei, ours being Yamagata Mei, the sensei we'd met earlier; the one who's always early.

I turned to Izumi. "Uh-oh."

She nodded. "Yeah. We are in some deep crap."

Mei turned to us menacingly. "Ready, ladies?"

XXXXXXXXXX

MONTHS LATER

I collapsed to the ground, desperately trying to catch my breath. After a moment, I shoved my arms to the ground by my head in a pushup position. But I knew I was too weak to keep fighting. My body was apparently on the same page, because a couple seconds, my body gave out and my muscles were trembling severely. I knew I'd pass out soon.

I turned my head just enough to see my best friends fight my sensei.

Izumi stood next to me, looking at me from the corner of her brown eye.

"One down, two to go."

Sunai landed a bit further away. "Ready for this?"

Mei landed a safe distance away from them and just grinned wickedly.

Iz put up her arms in surrender. "Hit me in the stomach, not the face."

Mei laughed. "Not happening." Iz groaned and Mei charged her, using every taijutsu move we knew about on Iz. Izumi kept up fairly well, until a little later when she started to slow down in her dodges. She barely missed a punch, and finally just keeled over and fell face first into the nice, cushiony gravel. I smirked at her. Not that I was in any position to judge.

"C'mon, Izumi, up!" Mei pushed.

Izumi lifted her pointer finger in her direction. "I 'ave fallen, an' I refuse to ged'dup!" Then she let her hand fall, and it pounded hard against the ground. "Ow…."

I laughed, and the last thing I remembered was Mei telling Izumi that she couldn't give up yet.

XXXXXXXXXX

I was shaken vigorously awake.

I muttered something incomprehensible and grabbed my waker, shaking them just as hard, maybe harder. My vision focused and I realized with a start that I was shaking Tenten. I released her and tried without success to look sorry. I saw the anger rush to her face.

Suddenly Neji was there between us, calmly shoving a hand between our bodies before we got violent.

"Tenten," he murmured to her, giving her a look. She turned slightly pink with embarrassment and frustration.

Neji held a hand out to me and I took it, smirking at Tenten's jealous expression.

Tenten and I had similar feelings for Neji. Only Neji could break up disputes between the two of us, although he had yet to figure out why. Any time anyone else tried to step in and stop us, they ended up in a giant snowball rolling downhill. Metaphorically and literally; that actually happened to Izumi once.

As I stood, I noticed the clones Gai and Rock Lee standing out of the way. I rubbed my eyes, trying to make them go away.

Gai thrust a thumbs-up in the air and his brilliantly white teeth made their creepy little "ping" sound. "YOSH! The day is young and so are you! Let's train!" He started punching a tree.

Rock Lee realized what Gai was doing, and his eyes turned to fire, like only his can.

"YOSH! Brilliant idea, Gai-sensei!" He began a rigorous pattern of pushups.

Sweat drop from everyone else.

"Um… Gai-sensei? We kinda have a mission…." Tenten inserted awkwardly, interrupting their… strange workout. As much as I disliked her, I appreciated Tenten's interjection.

Gai paused in his beating up the poor tree, blinked, then a look of comprehension flickered across his face.

"Right! Third Hokage wants you in his office, PRONTO!" I smacked my face, and my hand slid down my nose and mouth as Gai took another nice guy pose.

"Well, if we have a mission, we'd better wake up these loons," I gestured toward Izumi and Sunai. Everyone nodded.

Neji, Tenten, and I went to wake up Izumi, because she'd probably need the most poking and prodding; and the spandex clones went to awaken Sunai. DAMN IT, I thought, I'M GONNA GET A LOT OF CRAP FOR THAT.

Whether I got tons of hate messages from Sony or not, I wasn't about to let Tenten any alone time with Neji. No way.

I shook Iz, murmuring softly for her to wake up, we needed to get going. She guided a half-dead hand into one of her many pockets and I knew belatedly what was happening. I shot to my feet and started running away, but I knew I couldn't run nearly fast enough.

The bomb went off, and by the time it died down, Neji, Tenten, and I were covered in ashy residue. We all groaned and yelped at the same time, and for reasons unknown, Sunai screamed awake.

That really rattled me. I'd only heard Sony scream a couple times, and I had yet to see her really cry. My point being that she never lost her cool.

Apparently Iz had similar thoughts, because she reached into her pocket again and threw a bomb in Sony's general direction. I eventually found out that when she'd woken up, she'd looked up to see Lee in her face, with Gai at a bizarre angle above him. Go figure.

Iz suddenly whipped her head around to look at us.

"HOLY CRAP!" She looked us over. "S-sorry! Where am I?" She asked.

I had a spectacularly genius thought. "Why, you're in Hell, Kumouri no Izumi," I said evenly and formally, like a machine.

Izumi's eyes twitched and she plummeted backward again, passing out cold again.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Iz! C'mon, I was kidding! Get up!"

Izumi bolted upright. "I'LL KILL YOU" She took out a brand-spanking-new firebomb, surrounded in metal and everything, and I gulped, hoping she was just tired. She towered above me and you could feel the fury at being awakened in such a manner rippling off her in thick waves. Almost as much as my fear of the situation.

"Well, you're awake…." I squeaked.

Suddenly she fell on her butt and put the bomb away with dropping eyelids.

"Ngh…. Too early."

I giggled nervously. Sunai cowered behind me, hiding from Lee and Gai, and looking at Gai I remembered something.

"Hokage-sama wants us," I said suddenly.

Everyone acknowledged me. "Well, we'd better go, then."

"Right! Go forth with the energetic flames of youth!" Gai said loudly; too loudly for this early in the morning.

Iz muttered something inaudible under her breath, and then whined from the ground, "Shut UP!"

We all laughed, all but Neji, because he's odd like that. I pulled Izumi to her feet and we leapt away in the direction of the Hokage Tower.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Sora-san, you're getting a solo mission," the Hokage said in his ancient, deep voice.

I gasped, not expecting anything of the sort. "Wha…." I articulated.

Izumi and Sunai looked somewhat surprised as well, but the Iz patted my shoulder and Sony looked at me and smiled proudly.

"Good job, Sora!" Iz said.

My fear left me as the support filtered through.

I gained confidence; my shoulders straightened and my chin lifted the slightest bit.

"Yes, sir." I said surely.

He handed me a thin file and I squeezed it to my chest.

I exited the room, hugging my friends on the way out.

As soon as I closed the door, a voice sounded outside it. "Hey."

"AAHH!" I dropped my folder and fell comfortably into a fighting stance. Seeing Shikamaru Nara, I relaxed and almost laughed. "Hey, Shikamaru-kun!"

"What's up?" He said in a typically bored tone.

"I got a solo mission!" I replied excitedly. I picked up my folder and showed it off like an auction item.

He glanced at it, then looked as if he'd found a final Shougi piece. "So, I guess Team 13 is missing a member for a while."

He never ceased to amaze me with how many steps ahead he thought. "Yeah, I guess. I don't know if they're getting a new member or something."

"I think I'm filling in. It's a drag, but I gotta do it anyway."

I coughed to hide a laugh. "Good luck with that."

He quirked an eyebrow.

I answered his non-verbal question. "Just don't get on their bad side too quickly."

He raised both eyebrows this time.

I sighed loudly. "Sunai is NOT to be underestimated. And lets just say that pissed-off Pyro equals Big Bang."

His eyes narrowed.

I put my hands on my hips. "You say a lot without actually saying it, don't you?"

"When you sleep a lot, you need to be able to respond to people's bickering."

I shook my head. "Well, I'm gonna get a bite to eat and read my mission, so bye!"

He waved a hand lazily as I left the hall.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Two sticks of honey dumplings, please!" I smiled at the waitress.

She bowed. "Any tea?" She asked politely.

I thought about it. "Yes; your personal favorite tea."

She bowed again and went to prepare the snack.

I waited patiently for her to return before reading my mission portfolio. I thanked her when she came, and shifted a bit before settling into the bench and reaching for the folder.

When I opened it, I saw two sides. On the right, I saw a basic bio of me, with my hair color, my eye color, and certain traits about me, including the fact that I was a medical ninja in training; as well as a copy of my bingo book picture.

On the left, there was a detailed synopsis on the mission at hand, with the essential title of it in bold at the top.

I muttered to myself. "C-rank escort mission." I was to escort a team of genin and their jounin sensei to the Hidden Leaf, and there were some general facts about them listed.

"Sabaku no Gaara, Sabaku no Temari, and Sabaku no Kankuro; all travelling with sensei Baki," I murmured under my breath. "Siblings?" I wondered. A sibling team is just as uncommon as a Kunoichi team. I chewed a dumpling idly.

I finished my snack quickly, so I could return to the Hokage tower and finish my inquiries. I wolfed my food and chugged my tea, now a tolerable temperature.

I made my way toward the tower with the word "Fire" emblazoned onto the side. I sat in the waiting room for the Hokage to see me, among random ninjas and feeling rather awkward.

I was called in.

I knocked on the door. "Enter," the Hokage's voice called from within the room.

I closed the door behind me as I did as he asked.

He looked at me without surprise. "Hello, Sora-san." I bowed and said nothing.

He continued. "You have questions, I presume."

I nodded. "Yes, sir." I hesitated. After a moment, I inhaled and took the plunge.

"Why me; and only me?"

"Gaara no Sabaku is almost as skilled as his sensei." He replied darkly.

My eyes widened. "Aren't they Genin?" I asked.

"Yes, Genin, just like you. They're coming for the Chuunin exams."

"So they are a team. And siblings?"

"Yes. Similar to a Kunoichi team," he smirked. "Why the unusual curiosity?"

I blushed. "W-w-well…. I wanted to know, how sk-skilled they were, you know, 'cause they only need one escort," I reasoned feebly.

"That's a good reason, but not the honest one, is it?" He dismissed Iruka-sensei and the others in the room, so we were alone in the room.

I choked. "Hokage-sama…."

"Yes?" He replied calmly. I hate it when people are so nonchalant.

I brushed my hair behind my ear. No! Not that again! I thought to myself, frustrated.

I took a deep breath. "I don't think I'm ready for a solo mission."

His brow furrowed. "Why not?"

"I… I-I…. Well…."

"You are capable. You are a strong Kunoichi, trained by Mei-san, even; you have clan skills; and you have know-how. And stacked on top is your medical ninjutsu and chakra control." He stood up and walked over to me. His hands moved while he talked, and he looked me in the eyes with confidence.

"You can do it. I believe in you."

It was everything I could do to not fall over in shock. I did gasp, however. My eyes widened and I felt proud tears welled up in my eyes. "I believe in you" was the most honorable thing I had ever hoped to hear from the Hokage. I felt a lump pop into my throat.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama. I…. Thanks," I managed to say quietly.

"So, will you do the mission?"

"What time do I meet them?" I stood with my back arched and my face calm, ready to take on anything.

"Hopefully tomorrow at noon," he walked back to his desk and took a breath from his pipe.

"Tomorrow! Where?"

"Not far from here. It shouldn't take you too long if you leave soon."

"Hai." I turned to leave, but stopped at the door when the Hokage spoke once more.

"Sora-san. Don't get on their bad side." I glanced over to see his face in rigid dark lines, completely serious.

"Will do, sir."

I left for my first solo mission a medical ninja, a genin, and confident in my abilities for the first time in my life.

A/N: so, this is my first story on . ( yay! \:D/ )
i started this story a long time ago, and depending on the outcome of this chapter, i might keep writing it.

if u come across this story, plz plz plzzz read and review! i would rlly rlly appreciate it!

:DD

EDITED: I MIGHT POST ANOTHER CHAPTER. IF NO ONE REVIEWS ON ANY OF MY STORIES, I WONT UPDATE. NOT IF IT'S NOT APPRECIATED. SO IF U WANNA SEE MORE, REVIEW PLZ!