They arrived at dusk.
The two masked men glided through the outskirts of the small village, slipping by the unwary villages unnoticed. With expert speed and precision, they moved quickly towards the central building, moving through the gangly shadows that squirmed in the piercing orange rays of the setting sun. Their mission was covert, and stealth was tantamount to the success of their mission.
A metal bin conspicuously thrown from a rooftop of the central building distracted the guards long enough for the two men to slip the main door and navigate their way through a long corridor to the room at the back of the building. Inside, an elderly figure sat pondering in front of the fireplace. His wiry form seemed small in the large musky office, which was mostly empty save for the armchair which he sat on, a small desk, and a nondescript door leading to a smaller room that hid in the shadows in one corner of the room.
"We have come for the package," the taller of the two men announced.
For a moment, the man before the fireplace did not respond. He stared into the fickle flames that licked at the charred wooden logs while rubbing at the knots in his forehead; his gaze was fixed, mesmerized by the bright orange tongues that danced before him.
The two masked men stood silently for a few moments. "We have a long way to travel," the taller man spoke again, insinuating an urgency that belied his emotionless exterior.
Without so much of a nod or reply, the elder man abandoned his worn armchair before the fireplace and walked to the door in the corner of the room. He knocked twice and opened the door without waiting for an answer. "It's time," he croaked at the room's occupant.
Inside, a young girl with flaming red hair sat at a table drawing colorful animals on a clean piece of parchment. Her tightly bound ponytails drooped about both sides of her face, accentuating the roundness of her head. She looked up, startled at the intrusion, and stood up immediately in acknowledgment. "Yes, sir!" she nodded in reply, flustered and not quite sure what else to say. She gathered her belongings, already packed into a sack beside her, and nervously fingered the worn beaded necklace around her neck. It was that all she had.
She followed the older man to the outer office and inspected the two men standing silently by the door. The taller one was wearing a mask that had markings around the cheeks that made him look like a cat. He stood stoically and silently, his crisply pressed jacket showed his meticulous nature. In contrast, the other man had crumbs of food still sticking to his uniform that was slightly too small. He wore a large, heavy rucksack on his back and fidgeted slightly as the young girl stared at him.
For the first time since arriving, the shorter man spoke. "She knows where we are going?" he posed his question to the elder.
"Yes. We've discussed it beforehand," the elder responded shortly. "You will have to exit through the back door." They all exited the office and walked a few paces to the door to the side. As the elder opened the door for them, the sun's piercing rays blinded them for a moment. The young girl followed the two men in exiting the building, but she stopped after a few paces outside and suddenly turned back to face the elder. "Goodbye!" She waved tentatively but quickly withdrew her hand in afterthought, wondering if it was appropriate to be so casual in such an occasion. The elder did not respond, although she knew that it was not in his personality to be so outwardly affectionate. She squinted through the open door, but the expression on his face was shrouded in the shadows cast by the brilliant setting sun. Was it sadness showing in his piercing eyes? Pity? Indifference? She couldn't tell, and feeling the impatient stares of her escorts, she awkwardly shuffled backwards, waving one last time for good measure, and turned to catch up with the two men who had been waiting silently.
They left the village unseen by any of its inhabitants, and the young girl turned to view her village one last time before she left. Think positively, she silently chanted the mantra that her school teacher had often used. Perhaps, in the not too distant future, she would be able to return to visit. While she knew that she was going to live in Konoha from now on, she had never been told the reason why. The question lingered like a nagging itch in the back of her mind, but she chose to ignore it.
Their journey was uneventful. Neither of the men was terribly talkative, which irked the girl, whose curiosity knew no bands. She continued to pester them with various random questions – What's it like there? Why do you wear such strange masks all the time? Are you married? How long will it take to get there? – but both men ignored her questions. The shorter man, at least, deferred her questions with a curt explanation – excuse, she insisted – the first time she asked: "I'm not allowed to answer that," he grunted, as if it explained everything. Her persistent demands went unacknowledged, and after almost an hour of unsuccessfully trying to extract information from them, she begrudgingly walked in silence and let her mind wander off on its own to all sorts of imaginations and also, to her own surprise, the homework assignment her teacher had given the week before. She was getting quite bored.
Dinner, if it could be called that, consisted of a dry loaf and a tasteless gruel that was hard to stomach. Although hardly encouraged by the choices (or lack thereof) of food, the girl tried once again to engage her temporary guardians in conversation, but to no avail. If only we had a cooking-nin! the girl bemoaned to silence was quite unbearable.
The next three days of walking through grasslands passed as such, and the two men were remarkably resilient in deflecting her prying questions. They were professionals, after all, but she felt that they seemed more like walking statues than actual people. She resorted to conversing with the distant fowl which chattered above.
On the fourth day, just as the sun started to set, the shorter man spoke. "We're about one day's journey from Konoha. It's right over there, see?" He pointed to the smoke drifting above the horizon. A grand lush forest stood in front of them, concealing the village that was their destination. The taller man stared at his partner quite disapprovingly for being so uncharacteristically talkative (although his face was still hidden by the mask, she was sure the taller man was scowling). The girl breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, they were almost there! She walked a few steps forward and gazed thoughtfully into the distance at the village that would soon become her new home. Kushina, she thought to herself, this is it! We're finally there! Tomorrow is the beginning of a whole new adventure! Think of all the new places to visit, the delicious food to eat (she mentally drooled at the thought), the new people to meet . . . I wonder kind of person the Hokage is. Maybe he's a fat, balding old man. She giggled at the thought.
A disapproving grunt from behind told her that she had said the last part of her thoughts out loud.
Oops.