An eighteen year old kunoichi stood as a faded image, frozen stiff, unable to act, and forced to watch her seven year old self run through a dark dense forest. Kunai whizzed by the little girl, several hitting their mark. She tripped and fell, crying out as she hit the hard ground. The older version flinched at the sight but otherwise remained motionless. Even if she wanted to act there was nothing she could do.

The child began to cry; causing her vision to blur. Tears mixed in with the rain and soil, staining her torn clothes. Her short bright red hair was caked with mud and dried blood- some belonging to her and some belonging to her pursuers. Luck was partly on her side for she had managed to wound a couple of them. The sound of the crunching of leaves and twigs broke her from her daze and caused her eyes to widen.

She scrambled to get up, but it was already too late. They had reached her. Her orange eyes glossed over with fear. "Leave me alone! I'm not going back to that place! I'll never go back, not as long as they're still there!" The little girl cried in desperation as they grabbed her and pulled her roughly to her feet.

"Too bad princess, but you're far too precious to be let loose," the man who was holding on to her declared. "And far too dangerous," he added as an afterthought. She glanced fearfully up at him only to find a look of contempt plastered on his features. More tears ran down her dirty face. That look. Always that same look. She had never asked for any of it, she hadn't done anything to deserve it. They're the ones that started it all. It was their fault to begin with. It's true that she would have been special even if they hadn't done it; so why did they? And why her? Why did they choose the Water when there were four others to choose from? It was forced onto her as a child and she would have to deal with the consequences her entire life- however long, or short, that may be.

"That's right," the second man butted in, "As long our clan lives you'll never be able to leave. After all, you are one of their greatest experiments. He smirked coldly as he finished. It was a smirk the girl knew all too well.

"No!" She screamed and resumed to struggle; trying with all her might to break free from the ninja's iron grip. She bit, she clawed, she kicked – nothing had any effect. The man laughed at her futile attempts as he dragged the helpless child back in the direction she had run from.

When they reached the compound the man threw the girl to the ground as if she was a burden he was glad to be rid of. She cried out in pain: a sound everyone present was accustomed to. Only the adult members were awaiting her arrival – every single child had been herded back into their houses so as to not be "contaminated" by what they brought back: her. She shivered due to a mixture of fear for what she knew was coming and the coldness of the ground and rain. Their only response was to keep staring in the normal pitiless fashion. Nothing was ever going to change.

"Get up," a voice emanating from the centre of the crowd demanded. She scurried to her feet obediently, knowing full well the consequences of disobeying. The voice belonged to the leader of the Hikiri clan: her father.

Apparently, being obedient wasn't enough this time. He back handed the little girl, sending her flying into one of the nearby gate posts. The breath was violently knocked out of her. She was too tired from her earlier escape attempt to fight back any longer so the only thing she could do was try to reason with them to lesson her punishment. "Please father, I just-"

"Don't you dare call me that," he growled. "You are not my daughter." Her pupils contracted in fear, acknowledging what would happen next. The shinobi from earlier took that as a cue to begin the punishment for running away.

First came kicks to the ribs and back. Then, lashes from a whip dipped in a special solution that would prevent her blood from clotting. The crimson liquid flowed freely over the remnants of her tattered shirt, staining the bandages clumsily wrapped around her older and still unhealed injuries. Mud and rain ran over her fresh wounds making them sting unbearably.

She wouldn't be able to stay conscience much longer, but fainting would only make things worse. She was allowed no relief, even in unconsciousness. The last time she had let the darkness engulf her she had woken up in a rusted cage dangling over several summoned, food deprived wolves.

Through the pain the child managed to look up at her so-called "family". A different man was now approaching her mutilated body, a red hot sword in hand. With the last of her strength she cried out, hoping, in vain, that someone, anyone, would hear her and help. But no one came, no one in Kumogakure responded. The village remained in its indifferent state. The man drew nearer and was almost upon her. He raised the sword and swung it downwards.

The older version couldn't take it anymore – she clutched her head in between her clammy hands and echoed the blood curdling scream.

The teen screamed, sitting up in her bed. She was shaking all over and sweaty; she took steady breaths to try to calm herself. Every year on the same night she would have that same dream, but that didn't lessen its effects on her. Doing her best to slow her rapid heart rate, she checked the clock next to her bed. "Great... It's only three in the morning and after that dream I can never go back to sleep... I might as well get ready and train," she reasoned while she threw the blue covers off and placed a bare foot on the cold wooden floor.

After turning on the light, the red haired girl walked into her bathroom and prepared herself for a shower. Thanks to that dream, nightmare would be a better description, her entire body was soaked in sweat. She stepped into the shower and ran a hand through her hip length hair as she turned the knob for hot water. As the steamy water washed over her body she felt her muscles unclench, causing her to sigh contently. This was exactly what she needed.

Half an hour later the refreshed teen was already out the door and positioning herself onto the railing. She jumped down from her second story apartment and landed softly on the dirt.

Konohagakure was dark and without a single person in sight. Not that she had expected any different, after all, it wasn't even four in the morning yet. She set her course to the old training grounds.

It didn't take long for her to reach the wide open area. This early in the morning, most people were still asleep so it was the perfect time to try mastering the new jutsu she was working on. Especially since if it worked right it should be able to devastate a wide area.

She decided that she shouldn't use her techniques close to the village so the teen went far into the forest passing several training grounds and wooden dummies. About five kilometres away from most of the buildings, she stopped. Looking around she figured this was far enough and began to call upon her chakra.

She had only been training for thirty minutes when she sensed someone behind her. She quickly dispersed her chakra so she wouldn't cause accidental injury and spun around to scan the surrounding trees. Her eyes landed on a blue eyed figure leaning casually against one of the tall tree trunks.

The scarlet haired teen tilted her head to the side in a questioning manner. "What are you doing here?" she asked, knowing full well just how busy he was. Or at least, supposed to be. "It's so early, you shouldn't be up."

He ruffled his blonde hair and walked toward the panting girl. "It's that time of the year again – I thought you should have some company." The eighteen year old smiled softly at her closest friend as he made his way towards her.

"You don't have to. What about your duties? Your te-"

"Must I repeat myself?" he sighed. This was a common conversation between the two, the girl always tried to push away concern for herself, and her friends, especially him, always told her off for it. "My duties take second place when it comes to those close to me."

"I'm pretty sure that's not the attitude a -" he cut her off again, this time by placing his hand over her mouth to prevent her from continuing.

"Let's enjoy this time together before I have to go back to work, alright?"

When it seemed like she wouldn't protest he moved his hand to her shoulder. He then used his free hand to point out the sun that had just started to rise. "Isn't this just like old times Arei?" he questioned, reminiscing about when they were younger.

"Yeah, Minato, just like old times." Arei replied. "Or should I be calling you "sensei" now?"

He laughed, "Minato is just fine." The scarlet haired girl smiled before turning her attention to the spectacular sunrise just as rays came over the Hokage mountain.

They watched the whole thing together before Minato had to go meet up with his team. Arei then spent the rest of the day training, taking only a couple small breaks to eat. She was completely exhausted by the end of the day and collapsed in her bed gratefully.

A few weeks passed since Arei's morning meeting with Minato. She had just returned from a B-ranked mission and was now unpacking her bag. She glanced at her right arm as it came into her field of vision; the symbol was covered by her uniform's sleeves, but even if she couldn't actually see it, she could never forget that it was there, hiding just out of sight. That marking was one of the reasons she never wore anything that had sleeves shorter than three quarters. At least, she wouldn't until she found a way to get the damn thing removed. Although, considering its purpose, it would probably be better to keep it for the rest of her life.

Sighing, she pulled out the last thing from her pack, and stared at it intently: her anbu mask. She had to admit the choice of animal for it was interesting to say the least. With a wry smile she placed it down on her nightstand. Brushing aside her bag, she stretched out on the bed.

Her thoughts wandered as she closed her eyes. There were so many things on her mind; like how lately the Third Hokage had decided she should take it easy and stay behind to protect the village instead of putting her skills to good use in thinning down the number of their thought back to the Hokage and how he was originally planning to keep her inside the village at all times but after a bunch of arguing and protesting he gave in to letting her take only lower level missions. Honestly, she was impressed she had managed to squeeze out a B rank from the guy.

She sighed. She almost wished that something major would happen so she could finally be sent out to the front lines again: almost.

By the time Arei was done contemplating everything, it was still only noon and now she had nothing to do. Going through several options in her head she decided on the one that sounded the most fun: seeking out Team Minato. As long as they weren't outside the village border there shouldn't be any problems. After making up her mind, she refilled her holders with weapons and headed out.

When the scarlet haired teen arrived at the training grounds, she looked around but only saw genin. Training ground time was divided between all the ninja teams, but genin took top priority since they needed the most practice. That meant that she wouldn't be able to find them here. She frowned and scratched her head, so then, where were they? Shrugging, she left the area and went to look somewhere else.

She looked for over an hour and was just about to give up when she spotted someone with silver hair through the trees. A smile broke out on her face as she hurried to where she thought she saw the white blur. Dodging trees as she ran she quickly came upon a clearing in the forest where her favourite team was currently training.

She didn't bother to mask her presence so they noticed her right away.

"Great," the young white haired ninja sighed. "She's back again."

"Come on Kakashi! You really don't have to be like that," Arei jokingly whined, "It's not like I'm going to prevent you from training or something..."

"Tch."

After that small amount of dialogue Kakashi went back to ignoring the scarlet haired kunoichi and continued to practice with a new jutsu he was working on. Arei watched in awe as he concentrated his chakra to his arm and tried to induce an element change. Sadly, it failed and blew up in his face, kicking up chunks of the ground and sending him flying into one of the many trees. The blow was so bad it warped the trunk. Kakashi acted like nothing had happened and went right back to trying to perfect the technique.

It wasn't long until Rin ran over to her hurt teammate to heal him. He refused her assistance and just kept on focusing his chakra. She frowned at this but heeded his words and went back to her own training.

Obito was training by himself as well. He was practising his kunai skills, both offensive and defensive. In his area he had several traps rigged to send senbon, shuriken and kunai flying at him. The goal was to knock away as many as he could and dodge what he couldn't hit while he ran towards their origin. Once he reached that point he was to disable the traps as quickly as possible. There were scratches all over him from his earlier failed attempts.

Arei watched them train for a while. Though they were only a few years younger than her, their levels were entirely different, although, there was great potential in the Hatake kid.

It didn't take long for the girl to become restless. Watching people train was entertaining and all, but what she wouldn't give to be out on a S or even A rank mission. She shifted her weight around restlessly. She liked a break as much as the next guy, but knowing that even if she wanted to, she couldn't go out on a mission any time soon was really wearing down on her nerves.

Minato noticed her fidgeting and smiled. "You don't have to stay and watch you know," he commented, glancing at her out of the corner of his eyes.

Immediately she stopped her fidgeting and sighed. "The sad thing is," she began, "this is probably the most entertaining thing I can do under the circumstances."

"You mean the war?"

"Yeah... I've been restricted to the village and a couple low ranking missions if I'm lucky. My last one was the first in almost a month..."

"Must be hell for you – I know how badly you want to go out there and prove yourself."

She shrugged. "I'm sure there are worst things." The blond raised a questioning eyebrow. "Not that I can think of any at the moment..." He laughed; now that was the Arei he knew.

She was just about to question why he was laughing when some cawing interrupted her. They both looked up to see a hawk circling above them. A black hawk. It was an emergency summon for all jounin and higher level ninja. Minato excused himself and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Arei took out her mask and replaced it on her face before disappearing as well.

She appeared shortly after and kneeled before the Hokage along with all other high level ninja present in the village. He called for them to rise and everyone obeyed simultaneously. Glancing around she noticed that most wore serious expressions not unlike her own. A call from a black hawk was rare and it meant that something horrible was about to happen, if it hadn't already.

Sandaime had a solemn expression as he addressed the crowd. "My friends, I was hoping it wouldn't come to this." A murmur passed through the crowd. This didn't sound good at all. "The Third Shinobi World War has taken a turn for the worst." Gasps met his words.

Arei couldn't believe it. Sure things were bad, but people were hopeful that this one would end quicker than the last one. One war after another; no one truly wanted to keep fighting. She broke out of her thoughts and bit her lower lip as the Hokage continued.

"Iwagakure has infiltrated deep into Kusagakure and it is now time for us to act. From the shinobi we have left, half of you will be deployed latter this evening while the other half will be on standby inside the village but should be ready to mobilize in a moment's notice. Anbu squad 5 and 13 stay here, everyone else is dismissed." At the wave of a hand from the Hokage everyone dispersed. Minato caught Arei's eye before leaving. She was one of the eight who were requested to stay behind. A silent word passed between them that they would meet up later tonight, before any of them had to set out.

"I have different missions for your squads," Sarutobi continued, "Squad 5 step forward." They did as instructed. "You will leave immediately to kill off any Iwa stranglers that have separated from the main group. You need to thin their numbers as much as possible before I send out our remaining forces. Pack your bags – there's no time to waste." They gave a nod before disappearing. Now only Arei's squad was left.

The Hokage's eyes scanned the four remaining members before speaking once again. "Your mission will be a little different. Instead of going to Kusagakure like the others, you'll be heading to the Land of Rivers to secure our borders with the Land of Wind and to make sure that Suna won't interfere, we don't want to worry about all of our borders at once."

"What?!" exclaimed a male anbu with a bird mask decorated with swirling lines of red and dark blue. Arei instantly recognized the voice as belonging to Jun. "Excuse my outburst Lord Hokage, but I'm sure I'd be more useful out on the front lines! My techniques-"

He was cut off by the anbu beside him sticking out her hand in front of his face. "Ignore him Lord Hokage, we'll do as we were told."

"But-" Jun tried to speak but was interrupted by a smack to the head.

"We'll leave right away." She now turned to acknowledge the remainder of the team, "We'll meet in half an hour at the front gates." She bowed to the Hokage, who had a small smile on his face from their antics, before disappearing.

The other member wearing a boar mask with blue and black crossing lines sighed. "Good job Jun, you've gotten the captain angry before we've even started the mission." Arei could tell Jun was smiling even with the mask on. She gave a small smile of her own before bowing out.

Five minutes later Arei had everything packed and was on her way to meet with Minato one last time. She readjusted the mask on her face almost nervously before stopping under a big oak tree at the boundary of the village that served as their usual meeting spot. Minato was already waiting for her and she noticed that he wore a solemn expression. The anbu member went to remove her mask but Minato waved it off, saying that there was no point. She dropped her hand and sighed for the umpteenth time that day.

The blond leaned calmly against the tree, just like usual. He pulled out a kunai and twirled it absentmindedly as he started to speak. "I'm not being sent out right away, but I take it you are?" She gave a curt nod. "Well then, I've got something for you." She tilted her head to the side in a questioning manner.

He caught his kunai by the tip and held it out for the red haired teen to take. Now that it had stopped moving she noticed it wasn't an ordinary kunai. It had three blades instead of one and on the handle was some kind of marker. She stared at it with a confused expression but took it nonetheless.

"That marker allows me to hone in on the kunai's location, letting me teleport there easily," he explained with a smile. "This way, I'll be able to help you if you ever get into too much trouble."

"I'm a big girl," she protested, "I can take care of myself."

"I know you can, but I'll feel better knowing I'd be able to help if you ever need me." She blinked. A gentle smile broke out on her face behind her mask before she pulled him into a tight hug. He hugged her back.

They soon broke apart and he ruffled her hair as he said his goodbye before disappearing. Arei waved at his retreating back. She stood by herself for another minute until she too departed.

She arrived at the main gate in a matter of minutes. She sweatdropped when she noticed she was the last to arrive. "Sorry I'm late...?" she apologized half-heartedly. Although they had another 10 minutes before they were supposed to meet it seemed that everyone was anxious to begin as soon as possible and so they had arrived before schedule.

"Now that Arei is here, we can set off," the leader announced as she put away the scroll she had been reading.

Jun laughed as Arei caught up with the group. "I thought it was my thing to always be the last one." Arei resisted the urge to stick her tongue out, knowing that it would only be met with the hard plastic of her mask.

"It makes for a nice change of pace," stated the fourth member of the team as he shifted his boar mask to give him better vision.

"You can talk all you want once we're on the road but for now shut the hell up and move out," the cat masked anbu called from a little ways away.

Jun rubbed the back of his neck and said, "Sumiko is in a bad mood isn't she?"

Arei shrugged and followed their leader past Konoha's gates. Their mission had officially begun.