Prologue

Great. This was the thought of a young girl who was currently grinding her teeth against the dirty and rather gross tasting rag that had been tied around her head in place of a gag. Her eyebrows were lowered and she was glaring at the ground as it slowly came closer and moved farther away. Glaring at the large man who had an almost too tight grip around her waist, the girl tried to sneer.

The sudden lurching to a stop of The Giant, as the girl dubbed him, made his shoulder press into her stomach sharply. The girl groaned loudly, but the gag muffled it. The Giant took a quick look back at the girl, and went back to observing the area. Leaning down, he deposited her on the tree branch that was creaking under his weight.

The girl watched as her napper blocked the sun with a raised hand and peered around for followers. Narrowing his eyes in the bright light of noonday he wiped off the sheen of sweat and shook his hand, getting a few droplets on the girl's face, much to her disgust. She watched him seem to focus for a few seconds before he grabbed her roughly again and threw her back up onto his surprisingly sharp shoulder. She tried to shout, but the gag muffled it.

"Don't try to talk." He said flatly. The girl tried to purse her lips, but it looked ridiculous with the gag. She wrinkled her nose, a habit that she picked up from observing her mother, who was probably tearing down half the forest looking for her. Along with her father and her older brother, the girl's family made a nearly unstoppable team. Not that they often teamed up. Her father was usually too busy with work to even spend quality time with her anyway. Her mother usually accompanied her father, and her brother was too busy looking after his own family. In fact, the one she was missing the most, was her nerdy friend, Kimihiro, Hiro for short. He went to civilian school, but they had often walked home together, as the Academy was a few blocks away. He was taller than her, gangly, and had really thick glasses.

The girl's eyes started to burn as they built up small wells of tears that threatened to spill over onto her cheeks. She couldn't think of anything that could help her. The Giant was huge enough that even if she were free of all binds, and didn't have the pounding headache he had given her when he initially stole her AWAY; she didn't think she could do much damage. Not for the first time, and probably not for the last time, her petite size was a hindrance in the ninja world.

The constant motion of going up and down as The Giant flew across the tree tops to only god knows where, was starting to make the girl drowsy and a little sick. Squirming, The Giant responded by pinched her thigh. The girl tired to shout, and The Giant just laughed. The girl swung her head around and winced when a few strands of her red hair hit her in the eye. Blinking and moaning seemed to make the pain go away faster, but the girl scowled when she thought she felt The Giant chuckle.

Swearing through the gag, she felt The Giant tense up. For the second time in the hour of shoulder travel, the girl was jabbed in the stomach with the large man's shoulder as he came to an abrupt halt. Looking around quickly, as if trying to see in all different directions at once. The seriousness of The Giant was making the girl worried.

Feeling about in her chakra reserves, she realized how little she had left. She was surprised that she was even still conscious. A rustle in a tree about 50 feet away from The Giant and his captive caught both of their attention. The girl saw the one thing she wanted to see the most, a white mask designed to resemble an animal of some sort worn on an average height person dropped down from the upper level of trees to their level. The girl started squirming and shouting through her gag again, almost crying at how glad she was to see an ANBU. The Giant grunted sourly and gave the girl a hearty slap on the rear end, causing her face to light up like a tomato.

The ANBU flashed his hands through a complicated set of seals and a small but fast dragon made of water jetted out towards the Giant, piercing directly into his shoulder. Almost dropping his prize, The Giant grabbed the wound with his other hand and weighed his options. He could stay and fight, waste chakra and time, or he could run and risk leading the pesky ANBU to his rendezvous point with his partner. Glancing at the small struggling redhead, he shook his head and took off towards the rendezvous point, his partner was a lot stronger in fighting these kind of people than he was, he could take care of it.

Despite his size, The Giant was pretty quick, and quickly lost sight of the ANBU, much to the girl's dismay. She was pretty sure he was close by though. If only she had more chakra! Blinking back frustrated tears, the girl squirmed again as The Giant used huge chakra boosts to jump higher and farther than the girl had ever done. It was dizzying.

A jet of water shot out from the trees behind the Giant and pierced his shoulder in about the same spot as the first one, causing the man to let out a loud grunt. He faltered in his running and in the moment of weakness, he let his grip slip on the small statured girl. Not one to look a horse in the mouth, the girl wriggled and squirmed as hard as her tired little body let her. The look on the giant's face as she slipped off the side of his shoulder was priceless. Pushing her feet out she braced her ankles to land on the tree branch below her when she saw the Giant's face flash a scowl at her before a jet of water struck the side of his head, scaring the girl enough to jar her concentration.

She felt her foot hit the branch, and then she slipped. Her heart wrenched painfully as it missed a few beats. Falling was the worst feeling ever. She could stand heights no problem, but falling? It was the stuff nightmares were made of. The worst part about this fall was that everything was in slow motion, letting her absorb every detail as she watched the branch she should have landed on inch it's way past her head. She heard the ANBU shout, but when she twisted to look at him her back struck a branch as thick as her wrist. The limb snapped off and took the girl's breath with it.

The force of the way she hit the branch pushed her body forward and she continued to fall head first down the tall trees into the forest below. Cuts formed on any exposed skin from the smaller branches whipping her, and bruises would no doubt form from the branches she was hitting. She at least had enough sense to tuck her head between her arms, but even that was pushing it. Lack of Chakra coupled with the whole kidnapping business was taking its toll on her, and at the moment, the only she truly wished for was that everything would overwhelm her and steal her away before she hit the ground.

Fortunately for her, the gods were listening, and she slipped into the darkness a mere second before a dull crunching thud echoed throughout the forest.


A young man, no more than sixteen years of age, snapped his head around to focus on the crunching noise. He battled inside of himself on whether or not to go and see if it was merely a side effect of the two battling on the canopy above. Carefully withdrawing his chakra into a tiny ball in his stomach, the so called centre of the chakra sea, he crept with every inch of stealth he had in his bones, and made his way over to where the sound had alerted him.

Occasionally a stream of water would drill a hole through a tree a few inches from his head, or a broken branch would nearly crush him, but he continued, unwavering, towards what he could now see was indeed what he was looking for. He was pretty sure, at least. Glancing up for a fraction of a second, he could tell that the Gigantic man he had caught a glimpse of earlier was dangerously outclassed by the Konoha ANBU, and that the battle would be over quickly. He knew that the broken looking girl that lay in a twisted pile of what was probably broken limbs was something Konoha didn't want to lose, and that if he had any chance of taking it, he would have to move quickly and quietly.

Stealing another glance up, he bit his lip and tried not to scrunch his eye shut. Letting his chakra out from the tightly compact ball her had formed with it, he immediately tried to channel most of it to his legs to sprint to the girl's body, but some of it got loose. Not a lot, he was too good to let out that much, but the ANBU was definitely sensitive enough to pick up what he did let out. He felt the ANBU's attention shift towards him for a second before the Giant did something that caught him off guard, knocking him into the trunk of a tree with enough force to break his mask. The giant paused, allowing himself a short break. He let his hands rest on his knees as sweat poured off of him. He wasn't cut out to fight these tiny little ninjutsu users; give him a taijutsu specialist and see what he could do then.

Grunting and smirking at the thought, he took a deep breath and calmed himself down. he knew there would be more ANBU the next time. He needed to get to the rendezvous point and fast. Dropping down out of the trees, he landed roughly on the ground and glanced around for the girl. She had been wearing a light purple jacket on, she couldn't have been too hard to spot, but to the giant's horror, he couldn't see her anywhere. Ripping up bushes his rage grew exponentially with every bush he tore out of the ground. It was pure chance and luck that he happened to look up while throwing a bush above his head in anger, that he saw a teenager carrying an unconscious girl on his shoulders. He had a bright red scarf that matched the girl's hair, and with every second that the Giant stared, they got farther and farther away. The tall man roared with enough force to scare the birds out of the trees, and bounced after the pair, quite literally, seeing red.

The young man swore to himself. He knew he could outrun the tired man easily, but he wasn't so sure he could with the added weight of an unconscious girl… at least without damaging her anymore than she already was. He knew he could just stop and kill the man, no dilly dallying, and be on with it, but the chakra that was needed for the jutsu would definitely alert the numerous ANBU that were already on the man's trail. sighing, he decided it wasn't worth the risk, and with any luck, the man would fall behind and the ANBU would capture him without thinking to chase after the girl for at least a few minutes, and that's all he needed to disappear.

The girl's leg twitched slightly, and the young man looked at her in wonder. He had been running for nearly 15 minutes straight. He felt chakra being used and surmised that the ANBU had to fight, at least for a minute before they had either killed or incapacitated the Giant man. Sending another burst of Chakra into his legs, the young man sprinted ahead, being careful to not leave behind any easily traced residues behind. If Konoha wanted to track him down, they were going to have to call in a specialist; he hadn't earned the nickname "Ghost Child" for nothing.

Crossing a bridge that connected a large ravine, the man stopped only to cut the bridge. The jump wasn't too terribly far for a good shinobi, but it would require a good boost, and that meant that his pursuers would use just that much more chakra. The girl twitched her leg again, this time with more force. He looked at her with wonder. He was pretty sure she should be knocked out cold, at least for a few hours, if not a few days. Hoping that she was just having a nice dream, he continued, running as fast as his body would let him while leaving his trail nearly untraceable.

The sun had set and the moon had risen fully before the man finally stopped. He had reached his limit, and he was absolutely grateful to his mother for putting him through all of those control and endurance lessons. Gulping breaths of air and trying to calm his heart down, he found the cluster of boulders he had been looking for. doggedly dragging himself and the girl on his shoulder around to the other side, he found the stone he had been looking for. Pushing it over, it revealed the cluster of boulders to be hollowed out, creating a room where he could rest and not worry about the ANBU finding him, at least, for the night. When he got back, he was definitely going to thank Nue for teaching him this dojutsu.

Laying the girl down gently, he untied the red scarf from his neck and picked out various herbs and bandages that he store, among other things, in small pouches he had spent hours sewing into the article of clothing. bandaging her worst wounds, which were centered mainly on her forehead, which she had landed on, and her back, which had taken the brunt of most of the branches. He saw that both of her forearms had breaks, her left arm was cleaning snapped in half, leaving her arm bent at a weird angle in a place that no arm should bend. Her right fared little better, a few fractures was the most of what he could tell with his pathetically underdeveloped diagnostic jutsu. Her legs, other than bruises and cuts, were thankfully un-broken, which would be a lot more helpful in the long run. Her skull, around where she had split it open, was cracked and fractured in a spider web pattern. She was going to have a massive headache when she woke up. If she ever woke up. The young man would not have been surprised to see that the girl merely slip into a coma and never wake.

Setting the bones on her arm back into place made him nauseas, and he was definitely glad that she wasn't awake, not that it stopped the small cry that had escaped her lips. Tying his scarf around both of her arms as a makeshift splint until the morning, the young man sat back, admired his work, and yawned. He had used almost all of his chakra up running from the persistent ANBU. They had fallen back a few hours into the chase, or the man had gotten far away enough that he couldn't sense them anymore. Either was good, it gave him time to rest and recover.

Lying down on the mossy ground, he didn't even have time to think about how uncomfortable he was before he passed out.


Smiling to himself, he pressed his face into the warm pillow his face was rested on. he loved it when the sun shone directly onto his pillow. There was nothing like waking up to a preheated piece of cloud. pushing his nose deeper into the warmness, his fingers reached out for his blanket, but grabbed moss instead. Moss? He shot straight up, cracking his head on the ceiling. Swearing loudly and rubbing his head, he tried to cover up (but not succeeding) the blush that had taken root on his face. He had been lying on the girl's bare stomach; his face had been mere inches below her bound breasts. The girl's arms were still in the same position as the previous night, bent double at the elbows and tied in a way that would prevent movement, thankfully the way she was laying forced her red swathed hands and arms to be covering her chest, otherwise he might have awoken just a bit north.

Shaking his head of thoughts that were unnecessary, he checked the bindings on her forehead and back, amazed at her recovery rate. Whereas the welts and smaller slices seemed to be untouched, and the bruises that had yet to form the previous night had formed, turning most of the girl's porcelain skin into a black, blue, purple, and green looking mass of colours, the gash on her forehead and back had completely scabbed over, and after a quick diagnostic jutsu, he was pretty sure the fractures on her skull were starting to knit together already.

He really needed this girl to live. She was crucial to his mission. Grabbing the paper in his pocket, he sat back and tried, futilely, to smooth it out on his knee. The ink was fading a bit, and the writing itself was chicken scratch. It was the mission objective he had pulled off of an older man he had met the previous day. He had a bit of trouble dispatching him, but the old man seemed to not be bothered by the fact that missions were supposed to be classified and rattled off before the fighting had begun. He was definitely the man he had been looking for. Searching the body, after snubbing the campfire had proved useful; the old man had carried a copy of his mission outline. What an idiot.

Apparently, he and another man whose name he couldn't make out, were supposed to kidnap a Branch member of the Hyuuga, now that none of them were marked with the seal, they were easy pickings. They specified a specific girl, known for something that the young man couldn't make out. They included a description of the girl; she was young, around 7 or 8, she had cropped black hair and milky white eyes. Glancing over at his new prisoner, he saw that she was indeed young, but most likely around 12 or 13. She had bright vermillion hair that stood out in all directions stopped at about chin level. After a quick check, he did confirm that although the Giant man was obviously either incompetent, or illiterate, as this was obviously not the Hyuuga girl he was set out nap, the girl was at least a Hyuuga. Or blind. He sure hoped not though. it took a lot of work to plan this little trip, and he'd be damned if it was ruined by a giant man's stupidity. Crunching the paper in his hands, the man quickly left to find some proper wood for splints.


The girl woke in the dark, and for a second she thought she was dead. That was until pain assaulted her from everywhere. She let out a scream that would spook the dead, and as soon as her breath ran out, she drew another deep one and screamed again, and again, and continued to scream until someone clamped their hand over her mouth. The girl stopped screaming and let fountains of tears work their way down her face, sobbing from the intensity of the pain. Her companion rubbed her temples gently, as one of the most painful places was very near his fingers. He stuck a few pieces of a bitter tasting herb in her mouth and calmly told her to chew. Not even suspecting poison she chewed. If she could think coherently, she probably wouldn't have even cared if it was poison, anything to stop the pain.

The herb was bitter, but with gentle coaxing of her unseen companion, she kept gnawing at it until the sharp stabbing pains had dulled enough that she felt like she could form coherent words.

"What happened?" She said slowly, the herb was starting to make her drowsy. The figure above her paused his rubbing for a second until the girl gave a little whimper. He started his slow circles again and said,

"You fell from a tree when that man was trying to kidnap you." Memories flooded the girl's head, making it pound even harder. This was good, she must be in the hospital, or on her way back home by now. The young man's soothing circles were starting to make her drowsy.

"Who?" She could have never imagined a single word to be so hard to say. The man hesitated for a fraction of a second before saying,

"Byakko." the girl nodded slowly, regretting it as pain shot up her back and into her head, making the pounding feel more like stabbing. She tried to point to herself, but her arms were tied up, extremely sore, and felt bulgy. Hoping he got the point with her small flail, she said, slurring every letter,

"Haneko." She tried to say her thanks to the man, who was at least trying to ease her pain somewhat, but the floor started to spin, and she slipped down into a deeper kind of darkness.

Byakko kept rubbing her temples until her breathing was even. As he pulled the long stick of numbing herbs that midwives often used to ease labour pains out of Haneko's mouth, he was continually amazed by the rate at which the girl was recovering. It had been only 2 days she had fallen, and here she was forming coherent words. He felt pity for the amount of pain she was in. He wished that he had an ounce of talent in the medic nin field. All he had to rely on was the basic training all academies offered, and the herbs and natural remedies his father, being a sort of medic himself had taught him over the years.

While the bruises and the large scabs she had on her face and back hadn't healed noticeably after the first day there, almost all of her smaller cuts and welts had healed, with a few of the larger ones scabbed up. The bones in her skull were knitting together at an alarming rate, while the ones in her arms were just as bad, and pretty much looked like they had had two days to heal. It seemed to Byakko like Haneko's body was picking and choosing the worst wounds to heal first. Very strange indeed.

Tonight they resided inside of a hollowed tree stump. He had been very reluctant to move her, but he could start to feel chakra approach, and he couldn't push it any farther. He sped as fast as he could without aggravating her wounds too much, and at the end of the day, he almost passed out with exhaustion before he could even summon up enough energy to do the relatively simply jutsu. He knew that at this grueling pace he was going to crash soon. He hadn't eaten in nearly three days, not to mention his only form of water came from a brief period where it had rained. He needed to get to a village, where he could get a proper bed, and erase his trail thoroughly enough that he could take a few days rest, and get proper medical supplies for his newly acquired friend. Grimacing at the distance he would need to cover, Byakko slipped back into sleep, hoping that he wouldn't be awoken again to screams of pain.

END

Start!

Chapter 1


Looking over her shoulder, Haneko sighed at the pitifully small pile of weeds on the ground, and looking forward, she sighed at the large amount of weeds yet to be picked.

"Stupid D missions… We're Chuunin! This is Genin material!" Haneko heard muttered to her left. Glancing over, she saw her taller team mate angrily rip random weeds out.

"Taichi-kun! You're pulling the herbs out too! Stop!" Haneko said, surprised that Taichi showed frustration. He was usually calm and calculating. The heat must be getting to him.

Taichi stood up and sighed, his Chuunin vest was laying on the ground in a crumpled heap, and his bare upper half was shining with sweat. Haneko stood up as well and wiped the sweat off her forehead in an attempt to hide the small blush that graced her cheeks. She had no desire to deal with his cocky attitude that persisted through from their Genin era, but she couldn't deny that she enjoyed looking at him, along with the rest of the girls their age in Konoha.

It was the middle of an unusually hot summer. The sun was sweltering and HIGH and Haneko had no doubts why this place was called the Land of Fire. Looking over to her right, she saw her last team mate still enthusiastically picking the weeds. His pile was nearly three times the size of Taichi and Haneko's combined, yet he had not a single amount of smugness about him. his hiteate was pushed up and tied around his forehead to keep his burgundy hair and sweat out of his eyes. Looking up at Haneko, he smiled and stopped picking weeds. Standing straight, he raised his hand and gave Haneko a gigantic thumbs up, all while smiling brightly, his frighteningly white teeth glinting in the harsh summer sun. Haneko and Taichi both shared a look of dismay on their faces.

"Don't give up! Let the power of youth lead you down the path of right! Hokage-sama gave us an important mission to complete in our genin-chan's absence!" Haneko put her face in her hands and groaned loudly. Her youthful teammate promptly ignored the faces his teammates had given him, he was much too used to it by now, and went back to picking the weeds at a blinding pace.

"Ho-kun..." Taichi didn't say anything, but bent over and roughly replanted the herbs he had accidently pulled up. Why couldn't I have been stuck on team 12? Haneko thought despairingly.

Her entire life, from the moment she could activate her Byakugan her mother and father both agreed that she was suited to be in a tracking team like her mother had before her. She had spent years training in stealth, not just from her family, but her mother had even managed to pull favours from the Inuzukas and Aburames. She even had a few sessions with her Mother's friend Ino on the finer details of espionage, which was basically a continuation of the kunoichi training in academy, and although she wasn't supposed to mention it to her mother, Ino let her brush into the basics of interrogation and manipulation.

So naturally, Haneko was devastated when the tracking based team, two Inuzuka cousins, were partnered with the Matatabi girl. A girl from a family that had moved to Konoha from Suna. Her family worked with cats, and she was immediately on edge with the boys. What the Hokage was thinking when he approved that team was something incomprehensible to Haneko. Every day she wished that she was on that team, she had grown up with the Inuzukas, played in their 'packs', she would have been the perfect teammate! Haneko sighed angrily, she was stressing herself out. A figure approached the three teammates and waved as furiously as he could as soon as he was in visible range.

"Fei-sensei!" Ho yelled out, his green jumpsuit clashing horrible with his burgundy bowl cut.

"Ho!" The tall, black haired, blue eyed man yelled back, his own matching green jumpsuit fared slightly better in terms of clashing, but it was still a horrendous piece of clothing and Haneko wished that they would wear something different and stop embarrassing her to death everything they went out into public.

"Fei-sensei! I have a query!" Ho shouted, making Haneko wince.

"Yes, my youthful student! Anything I can do to ensure that you are full of the flame of youth!" Taichi sighed dismissively and look off to the side.

"May we visit Lee-sensei after this mission? I have something I wish to ask him!" Fei's eyes sparkled at the mention of his Jounin Sensei. Lee was a miracle case. During the last great shinobi war, Lee was badly injured, his spine was broken in several places and his arms were fractured into practically dust, but the medical expertise of the Godaime and the Medical Sennin, Uchiha Sakura, saved him. All that was left of his heinous injury was a terrible scar that extends from his hip, all the around his back, and up to his cheek. He still limped slightly when he walked, but was a very capable fighter.

"YES HO-KUN! WE WILL VISIT LEE-SENSEI!" Fei shouted, pumping his three fingered fist into the air, another reminder of the war Haneko had been born just after. Ho started imitated Fei, pumping his own fist into the air excitedly. Haneko nearly cried as she watched the old woman who owned the garden laugh from her doorframe.

"Fei-sensei, please. We need to report to the Hokage so that we can go home. It's too hot to do another mission." Haneko said, nearly whining.

"What has happened to my student's Flame of Youth?!" Fei shouted. Ho's black eyes sparkled with unspoken glee, and Taichi strained to remain calm.

"I left it at home. It was melting from the heat. Let's just go." Haneko said in a very flat tone. Fei gave a hearty laugh and strut the rest of the way to the tower, followed closely by a green spandex-clad student. Haneko looked at Taichi, who in turned rolled his eyes, before slipping her already unzipped lavender belly top jacket off and tying it around her waist. Taichi snuck a glance at her exposed torso and let a smile tug the corner of his lip.


"Well, I suppose that solves the problem of asking for the day off, Hokage-sama wasn't even there." Taichi said, and snorted, stuck between being glad for the time off, or being offended that he wasn't there. Haneko giggled softly as she watched Ho and Fei race to Lee's small apartment on the other side of the village.

"Don't be like that; you know he's probably in a meeting." Taichi shrugged and grabbed Haneko's arm, pulling her out of the way of a peculiar man in a long white coat. Taichi made an angry noise and the man stopped a few steps past them. Looking back over his shoulder through his small smart looking glasses, his eyes lit up in recognition.

"Ahh! Haneko-chan! Is my father inside?" Haneko shook her head and said,

"I didn't see him. He might be in a meeting with the Hokage." The man nodded slowly, checked his watch and looked at the paper in his hands.

"Sara's been looking for me. If you see her tell her that the scroll she wants is with Iro or Kiro. One of them." Haneko nodded and continued down the stairs, abreast with Taichi.

"Oh yea, you have a meeting with your aunt tonight at 7, don't forget again, I don't think she'll let you go with just a few tenketsus closed this time." Haneko's face burned in embarrassment as she nodded curtly and all but dragged Taichi down the stairs. Taichi looked up at the man and then at his teammate.

"Who was that? I don't think I have ever seen him before and with hair like that…" Taichi hesitated and stole another glance up at the man, "…I think I'd remember a man with pink hair." Haneko shrugged noncommittally.

"That's Osshi-ni…Or Osshimakuru as he likes to be called by people other than family. He's my Dad's teammate's kid. He used to babysit me when Kouden-ni was too busy. He's kind of like my adopted brother now." Taichi exclaimed,

"Wait, wait, does that mean he's an Uchiha?" Haneko let her eyebrows climb.

"Yea? So what? He's a doctor and stays in the hospital most of the time. This is actually the first time I haven't seen him either in the hospital or in the complex with his wives." It was Taichi's turn to let his eyebrows climb.

"Wives?" Haneko sighed.

"Long story." Taichi continued to look at her, but Haneko shook her head.

"A seriously long story. It's way too hot. If you drop by tomorrow I'll tell you. I can get a nice cold lunch for us from the kitchens." Taichi shrugged and the pair continued down the main street, bustling with activity despite the heat.

"Haaannnneeee!!!" Both Taichi and Haneko turned their heads in the direction of the shout. A girl, not much older than Haneko herself, stood bent over and panting. Her short cropped black hair glinted blue in the sun. Behind her following at a much slower pace was a boy with dirty blonde hair pulled into a thick ponytail. He shot a bored look over at the pair of Chuunin as he stopped. The girl, still panting slightly, said between gasps,

"Hane, have you … seen my brother? He's not at the hospital… or with the sisters." Haneko shrugged.

"I actually just ran into him about 20 minutes ago. He told me to tell you if I saw you that Kiro-san or Iro-san has whatever you were looking for. I think he was going to meet up with Sasuke-ji." Sara let her hand rest gratefully on Haneko's shoulder before turning to her partner. Grabbing his hand she started to drag him down the street.

"C'mon, Tayoumaru. I knew he was hiding the stupid scroll from me. I can teach you the first one before you leave tomorrow!" Haneko gave a small chuckle as Tayoumaru sighed, a mumbled 'mendokuse' floating out of his mouth. Turning to Taichi Haneko said softly,

"I'll see you tomorrow morning then?" Taichi gave a stiff nod and turned to leave. Haneko pouted a bit at the unresponsiveness of her teammate. Sighing and turning into the large manor that housed all of the Hyuuga, save for Neji and Tenten, she nodded respectfully towards the guards, and gave a friendly smile towards anyone she saw, branch or main family. A few of the cousins stopped to ruffle her hair or pinch her cheek. A few of the older Branch members wore bandages around their foreheads to cover up the green cage seal that had been placed there during their youth at sometime. Haneko started to frown. As soon as her mother had returned from her time as a missing-nin, the first thing she had done was destroy any scroll that had to do with applying and using the seal. Most of the clan elders were already either dead or too old to use chakra, and the only people with the knowledge to activate it were Hanabi, and Hinata. That secret would die with them.

Now a days, a new seal, one applied to the base of every child's neck, where the Byakugan's blind spot was, was administered. Tsunade herself had developed the seal during the first few years of her retirement. If a sealed user died, the eyes would be sealed, same as the old seal, except this seal was harmless and could not be used to do anything. It was little more than a tattoo until one died. Haneko rubbed the back of her neck, where the spiked seal that roughly looked like a bird was imprinted in faded dark blue.

"Haneko-sama! You have a message!" Haneko glanced up at the elderly maid who had taken care of her as a child. Her heart was pounding; the old woman had snuck up on her. Handing the girl a piece of paper, Haneko unfolded it as she waltzed away.

Koneha, meet me on number 4 before your meeting with your Aunt. Haneko smiled. Koneha was her friend Hiro's nickname for her. Hiro was a civilian, surprisingly, who had attended the large primary school that all children attended, before they chose to split off into the Ninja Academy, or the Civilian Academy.

Slipping into the kitchen to grab a bite to eat before she intended to depart to meet up with Hiro, Haneko gasped in surprise. A shorter woman, only a few inches taller than Haneko herself, with her long indigo hair pulled up into a rough bun was shoving a cinnamon roll into her mouth. The woman gasped, partially choking, and Haneko gave a giggle.
"What? I really like Kimiko's rolls." The older woman said, undignified. Streaks of silver shot out from the area around her ears, but her face remained mostly smooth, giving her an aged beauty that Haneko could only hope for when she was her age. Slipping in close to the woman, she slipped her arms around her waist and gave her a hug. The woman returned the hug, kissing the red-head's forehead.

"You look just like your grandmother, you know?" Haneko smiled.
"Which one, Mom?" She asked and Hinata smiled softly.

"You may have Kushina-san's hair colour, but you most certainly look like my mother. You even have her nose." Hinata poked her daughter's nose and Haneko giggled. She knew she was the baby of the family, and while sometimes it was a annoying, she enjoyed the cuddles and coddles she received every once in a while.

"Mmm, don't you have a meeting with Hanabi tonight?" Haneko sighed and pulled back a bit.

"Do I have too? Hiro wants to meet up with me in a few minutes." Hinata glanced at the clock, slight disapproval tugging the corners of her lips down.

"You had better not be late again. Remember what Hanabi did last time. I won't defend you this time either." Haneko winced. Giving her mother one last hug, she said,

"I'll see you later!" Hinata waved at her second born, dread filling her chest for some reason. Shrugging it off, Hinata stole another roll before slipping out into the hall to attend her duties as tutor for the youngest generation of Hyuuga.


Haneko set her speed at full as she opted to take the shortcut to the top of the Yondaime's head. Pushing chakra into her feet, she sped straight up the side of the cliff, startling Hiro so bad he almost fell off the cliff himself, when she popped right up over the edge.
Falling to the ground beside the black haired boy Haneko crossed her arms under her head and gazed at the still sunny sky. Hiro lowered himself down to do the same. He let his eyes linger over Haneko for a second too long and ended up as red as a tomato. The crush he had on the Hyuuga princess had faded somewhat since they were children, but it still popped up every now and then. Laying his head down on the ground, Haneko said, breaking the silence,

"Something wrong Hiro. You aren't talking about school, or work, or Ando-san. Is everything ok?" Hiro winced; he didn't think she would have noticed. Sighing, Hiro said,

"Um, yea. Sorry that I wasn't able to see you this week… I've just been really tired." Haneko noted his swerving of the conversation and said, lightly,

"Does this have to do with your Dad?" Hiro smirked, Haneko knew him too well.

"Kind of. He came to the store today and demanded that my mother hand over the rest of the junk he had left in the shed. My mother would have agreed normally, but he came in and made a scene, and you know how mum is." Haneko smirked and nodded slightly. She was pigheaded when someone tried to start a fight with her. Something, thankfully, Hiro hadn't inherited much of.

"How is Ando-san? I haven't seen him a while." Hiro was silent, fighting the pressure that seemed to build in his chest. Haneko looked over at him and frowned.

"Is he hurt? I had heard that he had gone with his Genin team to the edge of the fire nation. Hiro?" Hiro frowned.

"He… He didn't come back." Haneko let her mouth drop. Sitting up she gaped.

"What? What do you mean he didn't come back?" Tears started to well in the red-heads eyes, and Hiro tried to shrug.

"He protected his teammate from an enemy attack, and died. His name will be carved on the cenograph tomorrow after his funeral." Haneko pulled the boy into a hug, one which he accepted gratefully. The bushes behind Haneko and Hiro rustled, drawing her attention. A large leg stepped out, and Haneko saw nothing but black.

Hiro felt Haneko slump over onto him slightly. Looking up to see if she was thinking what he was thinking his heart skipped a beat when he saw that her eyes were closed and a large gash had been opened on her forehead. Sitting up straight, he tried to lower her slowly when he heard a grunt from behind them.

By the time he looked up, a large fist was already a mere foot from his face. The contact didn't hurt immediately; all he could make out was that his glasses had broken. Hiro fell backwards, and in the half raised position he had been hit in, he took a few steps, until all of a sudden, there were no more steps to take.

Not even letting out a scream, Hiro started falling down the fourth's faces. The pain from his nose kicked in, but he merely grunted, the adrenaline from falling was helping for the moment. Thinking fast, Hiro pulled every bit of chakra and control that Haneko had spent with him and stuck his hands flat on the rocks, ignoring the cuts and scrapes that dug into his palms.

Slipping down the fourth's cheek, he was definitely falling much slower than before, but still fast enough that he would probably get really hurt. Opening his mouth, Hiro's voice finally decided to work. He let out the loudest shout he could and pumped out the rest of his civilian chakra that he had. His descent was slowed even more, and Hiro managed to stick his foot in a crevice at the corner of the Fourth's lips.


Standing and giving a class of academy students a lecture in the observatory area for the Hokage monument was a young blonde woman wearing a green vest. The students started whispering and pointing, before finally shouting, causing the now irate teacher to turn her head. Her eyes widened and her mouth gaped as she saw the boy, an obvious civilian, fall down the monument face. She watched as his hold in the corner of the Yondaime's mouth gave out, and he tumbled down into a tree. But by the time that had happened, she had already covered half the distance.


When Hiro woke, the first thing he did was lean over his bed and throw up in a conveniently placed bucket. His forehead started pounding like his brain was trying to escape, and with the memories of how he had come to be like this, Hiro was stressed out.

He only had to wait a few minutes before a pair of doctors he recognized as Uchiha Sakura and Osshi entered his room, both with grim faces. Nervousness crept up Hiro's chest. Osshi glanced at the charts at the end of his bed, and Sakura peeled back the gauze that covered his forehead.

"Is Haneko ok?" He asked, breaking the terrible silence. Sakura sighed. She wiped something that stung over his forehead and replaced the bandages. Osshi pulled the curtains closed, separating them from the other patients, most of whom were sleeping. Glancing at the window by his bed, he noticed that it was dark outside; he must have been out for hours.

"Hiro-san, can you tell me anything at all about what happened? All we've got is a Chuunin and some students who tell us you fell off the top of the Hokage monument." Hiro sat up straighter, suddenly feeling extremely tired. If they were asking him what happened, Haneko was either missing or dead.

"I dunno, she was hugging me one second, and unconscious the next. I noticed that it looked like something had hit here right here-" He pointed to temple "and then I saw a really big man with a really big arm. He punched me in the face, and I fell over the edge. That's all I remember. I didn't get a good look at his face." Sakura looked crestfallen, even Osshi looked disappointed.

"Sorry…" Hiro mumbled. Sakura put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Haneko is still missing. ANBU detained an abnormally large man earlier this evening, but Haneko was nowhere to be found, no chakra traces or scent, or anything. Who ever took her is a professional at not getting caught, that's for sure. All the ANBU had to go on was broken branches and the occasional thread or foot print." Hiro sighed and scratched at his forehead. Sakura slapped the hand away and said,

I had to give you 6 stitches, but other than the concussion you have, you should be fine. Take these before you sleep and when you wake up for the next week. Come back and see me or Dr. Uchiha again and we'll see how those stitches are doing. Now, remember not to scratch them or else." Hiro almost asked, 'or else what' but he knew that if she really wanted to, Sakura could kill him with a single flick of the finger. So the boy wisely kept his mouth shut and was led to his hysterical mother in the waiting room.


End Chapter 1

Better? Yes? No? I'm changing everything and taking down the other story. I'll try to update more often than once every six months this time, lol. I'll also try to make it less lame. :I