Hey, I'mma back with a new story ;) So this one is another SasukexOc…And it's set in a more modern time period in New York (again…if you've read my other story). These guys are all undercover ninja, who pose as regular teens at school. I really liked the concept of this idea, so I decided to go for it! Hope you enjoy XD

Chapter One.

"And just where have you been all night, young lady?"

I flinched, and faster then I could blink I dove under my covers and tried to look as innocent as possible when my glowering foster mother entered the room. The late night moon peered in on us through my open window, the only witness to my mothers rage.

"Well," Mom pressed, her brown eyes screaming "danger, danger- about to spontaneously combust in 5-4-3-2…

"1"

"Do you have any idea how worried I've been? Checking up on you every hour, your bed empty! Every time! I can't believe you're still doing this Kyoko! It's the last straw! I'm not doing this anymore!"

She says this every night I'm caught out of my bed by curfew.

"You think you can sneak out, do whatever you please, whatever you want, whenever you want! Well I've got news for you Missy!"

Now Dad wobbles into my cold unheated bedroom and flicks on the lights. His mustache is twitching and his eyes are blearily taking in the scene before him. As if he doesn't already know what's going on, I think sarcastically. We're all creatures of habit, my foster family and I.

"Doug!" Wilma turns in relief to face her husband, "Tell her! Tell her right now! This is the last straw! Her last chance!"

And then he says…

"Now, now, Wilma, we can work this out-" Dad begins in his best patronizing voice as he reaches forward in an attempt to comfort his stressed out wife.

This is where I'm supposed to look pathetic, and mildly hopeful.

Wilma, however, surprises us all with an interruption. She never interrupts.

"No Doug! No. I will not be calmed once again. This is more then we bargained for! We didn't want this! Either she leaves…or I do," Wilma proclaimed in a shaky, yet determined, voice.

The room is shell shocked by the change of script. Goose bumps erupt over my entire body, and I think in panic, she can't be serious! They can't just throw me out! I'm their kid!

It wouldn't be the first time…a nasty, unwelcome, voice hisses in my subconscious.

With a final, defiant, glare directed at me, Wilma spins right around and storms out.

I look pleadingly up at Doug. The two of us have always gotten along…most of the time. We played checkers…once. It doesn't matter right now though, he was still my foster dad. He was still responsible for me. I chewed down my rising terror of abandonment. They couldn't do this to me- this couldn't happen to me again! My luck wasn't that bad, was it?

Apparently it was. Doug's squinty gray eyes were cold and unwelcoming. "Well," he said gruffly, "You heard the woman. I'll give you twenty minutes to pack your stuff."

I jumped to my feet right away and was barely aware of my voice rising with every spoken word- "You can't just throw me out! Like I'm a dog or some kind of pet that you can get rid of when your sick of it! I'm not a test run or something stupid like that! I'm your kid! You adopted me! We're supposed to be a family!"

I was shaking all over, the very core of the Earth was trembling. I wasn't on familiar territory, I hadn't memorized my lines for this scene. This wasn't supposed to happen!

Doug's hard stare softened a wee bit, "Look, I know that she's upset right now, but she'll calm down eventually. Until she does, I think that it's best for you to stay at a friend's house. Get this out of your systems."

My stomach tightened.

They were serious.

They were actually kicking me out.

If they only understood the truth…

"Well," my voice was unnaturally hushed. "I guess you'll have to start the timer. Twenty minutes."

Not another word was spoken to relieve the silence. Finally, with a curt nod, as if I had made the decision to leave and not him, Doug exited. Once the door had shut behind him, the first thing I wanted to do was break down and curse Tsunade, the Hidden Leaf, and my secret life as a ninja. Because this, the reason I would be without a family yet again, was all of their fault! But I held back my tears with practiced reflexes, and instead dug my cell out of my back pocket and fired off a quick text to my closest friend n the entire world. Also known as my team mate, Naruto Uzumaki.

Hey, mind sharing your bed tonight?

I raced around my room while anxiously awaiting his reply, praying that he'd still be awake.

Even though I hated it, I was prepared for this sort of thing. I had an emergency duffle bag under my bed already filled with sweats, t-shirts, underwear, bras, and a spare ninja outfit. My weapons were buried deep underneath various articles of clothing, wrapped in a metal proof bag designed especially to keep the cloak of invisibility over my kunai and shuriken when faced with nosy metal detectors. The famous genius of the Hidden Leaf, Shikamaru Nara, had created them for us, and t hey were damn handy.

But Nara's genius was the last thing on my mind as I shoved my few personal items, which consisted of an ivory hairbrush, three of my all time favorite pirate novels, a black silk scarf and a tiny wallet sized photo of my mother holding me when I was first born- into the duffle bag as well.

I was preoccupied, but not because of the recent events. No, that wasn't what was making me feel like I had millions of microscopic bugs crawling under my skin.

He got away.

Decieved my team mates and I. No doubt we had underestimated our opponent, but he had left us feeling like complete idiots after falling into his trap.

It had started with Tsunade warning us about a new threat known solely as the Akatsuki. It took our trackers longer then usual to pin point all (or most of) the Akatsuki members, before we could begin the assassination.

From what info we had gathered on the Akatsuki, it seemed like they were just another underground drug organization, a standard case. But that, in the end, was not it at all. After confusing trails and new articles, we came up with this: they were set on assassinating certain powerful figures in the city of New York. As vague as it was, the arrows pointed towards nothing good, or easy to deal with.

The man we had been tracing for almost four months finally caught wind of us just tonight, or so we thought, and he'd taken off. Our best guess was that he had been aware of our trackers the entire time, which pissed Kiba off, and had his trap set out in advance, leading us right into it. The chase was exhausting, but exhilarating at the same time, I recalled with a faint echo of my previous adrenaline rush. Chasing bad guys over the rooftops of New York always reminded me of why I truly loved to be a ninja. My team mates at my side, strength and speed burning in my veins. There was no feeling that could match it, that was for certain.

But he had escaped us, obviously. After dragging our way out of the sewers, my team, Naruto, Neji, Kiba and I, searched the perimeter for hours- to no avail. Our prime source for information had disappeared like smoke into fog, and we let it happen.

All in all, I sighed, hefting my duffle bag onto my shoulder, it had been a very, very bad night for me.

I left the Cottingham household in stoney silence, unresponsive to Doug's hug or Wilma's tearful good-bye. Ha, the one who should be balling her eyes out is me. You're not homeless. You have a family-

I felt the familiar buzz of my cell phone as I stepped out into the cool night, and whipped it out.

1 new message…

Naruto, I let my breath out in a whoosh of relief.

Cors u can, since whn do u haffta ask? I dnt mind shrin muh bed wid a preeeety lady ;)

I rolled my eyes. Typical.

At the same time, he made me smile at the exact time I had believed momentarily that smiling was an impossible gesture.

So, no, maybe I didn't have flesh and blood family…but my team mates were good enough for me.

I was embraced enthusiastically by my spiky headed cannonball as soon as I let myself into his apartment (I had the spare key).

I sank briefly into his wiry muscles, savoring the natural auburn warmth that radiated off of him.

"Long time no see, ol' buddy ol' pal," I smiled against his orange pajama shirt.

"You're right," Naruto sighed, mockingly wistful, "It seems like only yesterday we were chasing lowlife dickheads through the streets of New York."

I laughed and stepped back, closing the door behind me. I gazed up into his brilliant aqua eyes and found only understanding nestled within them. That was all I needed right now. Not sympathy, definitely not pity, just someone who could relate to and understand what I was going through.

I fell asleep on the sagging orange couch, held together only by Naruto's welcoming arms. Tears stained and tracked determinedly down my face as I slept.

Sneak Peek of Chapter Two!

"Psst," Naruto hissed in my ear, and I was startled violently out of my thoughts.

"Gah!" I gasped. I glared at Naruto's grin, "Baka!"

"I take it your up?" he asked innocently.

"Good," Tsunade nodded, "Now that we're all present, I can assign you your mission. I'm sure Shizune has informed the rest of you in on our current situation?"

"Hai," a tall, shapely, girl who had twin chocolate colored buns resting atop her head replied, "The Akatsuki. Deidara. Assassinations."

My first impression of the new comers was: O_O.

The first guy to enter had sharp raven black hair and untidy bangs that fell over his bottomless eyes, and an expression that was colder then Sais- which was saying something.

Tsunade smirked, "Everyone, meet Sasuke, Karin, Suigetsu and Juugo- Gaara, Temari and Kankuro.

"You're new team mates."

So that's it for now…XD I was gonna continue on with it, but I figured that that would have to do for an "end of the chapter" line. Soo….Reviews are welcome! : ) : ) Thanks for reading!