I don't own any of the characters in this story.

"Finally!" Said Zack as he crested over the last hill of many, seeing a large barn up ahead of him.

He had received word of a mission from his friend Kunsel, saying that there was an anonymous request asking for the retrieval of a priceless family heirloom. He had been rather hesitant at first due to the requestor being able to give specific coordinates to the location of the item, but not wanting to track it down themselves.

As he approached the barn he looked it over. It seemed pretty run down; the windows were all broken, the shingles on the roof were all but missing, and there were several years worth of vines snaking up the side of it, probably the only thing still holding the place up.

He approached one of the side doors and turned the knob, unlocked, and slowly entered the barn. As soon as he entered he felt as if he were being watched and an icy chill shot up his spine. He stepped back out of the barn and was ready to walk away.

"C'mon Zack its just a barn what are you scared of!" He scolded himself. He was a 1st class SOLDIER after all, some creepy old barn in the middle of nowhere wasn't going to scare him.

He walked back inside the barn with renewed confidence and began to look around. There was hay strewn throughout the stables but it looked to have been abandoned for a while. The air was stale and smelled of old chocobo feathers and- raspberries? Weird.

He continued to look around the barn, kicking hay aside and looking underneath overturned buckets and other old rundown farm equipment. He couldn't get over the feeling that he was being watched though and grew more and more nervous by the minute. He even imagined hearing footsteps and a child giggling for a minute.

"Man there's nothing here, and this place is giving me the creeps, I'm out of here."

He flipped open his phone and scrolled through the menu.

ABORT MISSION?

"Yes." Said Zack as he pressed the enter key. He folded his phone shut and began walking towards the door he entered from. He grabbed the door knob and went to turn it- only to have it come completely off the door. He looked down at the door knob in his hand and attempted to reattach it.

"Stupid damn-" He cut himself off as he heard those same footsteps from earlier.

"Who's there!" He said, drawing the Buster Sword off of his back and holding it in front of him.

Silence.

He gave up on trying to reattach the doorknob and stepped back to try and ram the door down. He ran towards the door and dropped his shoulder, but before he even reached the door he came tumbling down to the ground.

"What the!"

He landed on the ground, sending his massive blade clattering down as well. He quickly reached down at his feet and found the culprit, lifting it to his eyes to get a better look.

"Fishing line…?"

Now he knew he wasn't alone. He quickly stood up and cast a fire spell into the air, where it hovered, illuminating the darkness of the barn in a soft amber glow. He slowly scanned the area.

Hay.

Hay.

Ropes.

Old tractor.

He scanned from left to right, not seeing anything suspicious. He turned back around to face the door again, but instead turned just in time to see one of the buckets from before inches from his face. He didn't have time to react so it came in shattering against the bridge of his nose, instantly causing his eyes to water up. He stumbled backwards and tripped- once again- over another string of fishing line. He fell to the ground once more and quickly sat up, holding his nose in his left hand, only to be struck in the chest by a small knee.

A young girl, no older than ten had him pinned to the ground with her knee dug in his chest, holding a small knife up to his neck. Her eyes flickered in the amber glow of the fire spell and she had a sinister grin on her little face.

"I am the great ninja Yuffie Kisaragi and I am here to claim all of your materia!" she shouted.

"You again! No you're not-" He was cut off as Yuffie pressed her knife up against his neck.

"Quiet! Just hand it over and lets make this easier of the both of us."

Zack sighed and simply sat up with ease, causing the young girl to tumble off of him and land on her backside. Zack stood up and dusted himself off.

"You really need to cut this out, your gonna end up getting hurt one da-" Zack stopped as he squinted down at the defeated ninja in front of him. Was she… crying?

Yuffie sat on the ground with her legs pulled up to her chest, quietly sobbing.

"No one… *sniffle sniffle* ever takes me… *sniffle sniffle* seriously!" She began

Zack slumped his shoulders "Aw man… c'mon kid.." He started

He kneeled down next to her and put his hand on her shoulder.

Yuffie's sobbing stopped as she slowly raised he head to meet Zack's gaze.

"It'll be alright.." He sat again patting her on her shoulder.

Yuffie smirked at him and sent a mean right hook right into the previously injured nose.

Zack let out a yelp as he fell back to the ground. Yuffie quickly took advantage of the situation and jumped on top of Zack and quickly grabbed a pouch he had hanging of his belt and made her way to a nearby window, diving out of it head first, but not before shouting something about 'The Great Ninja Yuffie Kisaragi on her way out.'

Zack stood up after realizing what had happened and sighed.

"Why do kids think its always such a great idea to steal from me?" He asked no one as he made his way towards the door for the last time, stumbling over a bucket on the way out.