Chapter 1 - First sight

"It's so warm here," my comrade said beside me. She shed another layer of clothing before she stripped down to nothing but her underwear and shoes. Her cloak was in her arms and with her free hand she twirled a strand of hair that was on the side of her face. "Tell me again why we're going here, sensei."

Our sensei, Fubuki, turned to her question. "We're supposed to represent the snow country. Try to remember, we're here under the Feudal Lords command. She wants us to prove that the Snow Country is no joke. If we fail, we might as well give our country to the Fire country." She looked at Shimo and noticed her shocked expression. "But no pressure!" she added.

I sighed and looked ahead; there was a rather tall building that was in the middle of the town with the kanji symbol for "fire". That must have be where we were heading to. I looked over at our sensei and gave her a questioning look. She nodded silently and I smiled only lightly.

"Fubuki-sensei, do you think that we will become…acquaintances with some of the ninja—people here?" the male asked, he stood next to me. I looked over at him and he glanced at me only slightly catching my gaze until he stared back at our teacher.

"I wouldn't count on it Hyoga, we're not here to become friendly with the people of Konoha, we're here to prove how strong we are." Fubuki looked over, her mid-back silver hair shined as it moved in the air. "Isn't that right, Kori?"

I nodded my head once again, putting on more of a smirk than anything. "That's right. We're not pathetic as they think, right Hyoga?" I looked over my shoulder and smiled at him.

He nodded his head in approval, his face of course not showing any emotion but I could still tell that he was as excited as I was.

"Right Shimo," I ask as I looked across our sensei to look at her.

She gives me a thumb up with a toothy smile, "Of course! Let's kick some ass!"

Instead of feeling enraged by her rueful language, Fubuki laughs and smiles just as toothy as Shimo did. "Alright, let's kick some ass!"

A ghost of a smile appeared on my lips as I stared ahead at the tall building which we were about to enter. I felt Hyoga's look on me and I took a glimpse at him. He only nodded once and then we began to enter into the Hokage's building.

****

Shimo was right; it was getting hot in here. I was so used to the snow that I came prepared to face a blizzard. What's the first rule of ninja again? Oh yeah, use your head. I looked at the Hokage, a woman who looked in her mid twenties, even though we all knew that she was in her early fifties. She had long blonde hair that was held back with two pigtails. Bangs framed her face and her hazel eyes were lined with heavy eyelashes. A purple diamond was on the top of her forehead and her lips were coated lightly with a tint of pink lip gloss.

"I presume that you are the team from the Snow country that have come here on the mission?" she asked as she laced her fingers together and laid her elbows on the table so that she could lean her head on her hands. Her eyebrows were lightly furrowed.

"Yes, thank you Lady Tsunade for letting us prove our strength here. We're not to be taken lightly." Fubuki said as she crossed her arms.

"We never said that you were weak." Tsunade shot back in counter.

"We never said you spoke it." Fubuki shot back smartly.

Fubuki was already getting off to a rough start and I could already tell the tension that was beginning to rise in the room. A woman at a young age of her mid twenties or thirties was beside Tsunade's desk holding a pig. The pig coward into the woman's hands, poor pig already knew that something was happening.

"Anyways, our Feudal Lord never spoke of what exactly what our mission was. She wanted to keep it…private as to say." Fubuki said, shrugging off—or totally oblivious—the little encounter that she just had with one of the most powerful human beings on earth.

"Yes, we received the hawk with the letter in it. I got the information in it and I know exactly how you will be able to help us." Tsunade said also shrugging off the incident. Her eyebrows furrowed deeper, something was serious. "There's been an incident where one of the ninja of our village has run off to join a powerful enemy, Orochimaru. I'm sure that you've heard of him…all of you."

The woman was passing out a paper to each of us. When I received mine and looked at the male's picture. A young male of maybe thirteen, one year younger than me, with black hair and in the right light looked navy blue. His coal black eyes could pierce into anyone's soul and hold them into a deadlock of fear and when I saw the picture next to him; his eyes were a dark red, an intricate design of three commas and a black center. I was fascinated. I have never seen anything like this before, something so beautiful and tempting, yet at the same time devastating and frightening. I could tell that this single person was already strong just by the look of him.

"The male you see there is Uchiha Sasuke. He was a Genin, going to be Chunin, with a powerful kekkeigenkai that Orochimaru has been wanting for a while. If Orochimaru obtains this kekkeigenkai, then he will be able to learn any other ability faster by tenfold."

Our heads all perked up at this.

"We want you four to help us find him and bring him back. We must capture him at all costs; if not…we might be faced with something that we might never be able to escape." Tsunade says as she picks up a few pieces of paper and then straightens them out. "We will need all the help that we can get, and you're a team that has been sent to us by fate. I believe that you can help us bring him back."

"We will help, you have our word. We will show you how strong we are." Fubuki says as she puts a hand on my shoulder. "I should introduce you to these fine young kids."

She nudges her elbow into Shimo, "This is Megami Shimo." She nudges mine, "and Megami Kori. They're twins. And the kid next to Kori is my son Ryo Hyoga. And of course," she points to herself, "Ryo Fubuki."

Tsunade eyes us all carefully, "People from the snow must love the color white for hair. It's very beautiful."

We all looked at each other; sure every one of us had silvery white hair and we were all proud of it. Most people mistook us for siblings and Fubuki was the mother…can you saw awkward?

"You also have interesting names, very unique and once again beautiful. I've never met people who have had such a gorgeous aura around them. Kori, your name means 'Ice Goddess' does it not? And Shimo means 'Frost Goddess', Hyoga, 'Glacier Dragon' and Fubuki 'Snowstorm Dragon'. That's so interesting."

"We try to hold up the snow's tradition of having names that match our countries surroundings. It adds more depth into our life styles and gives us something to live up to. Having a name like ours means that you're very strong, we have to uphold it or else we get it taken away from us and then we get a new name. It's very dishonoring to our families." I explained.

"Wow, it sounds a little harsh." Tsunade said with a surprised expression.

"It keeps us on our toes." Shimo said as she crossed her arms and smiled.

"I suppose it would…" Tsunade says as she looked over at the woman beside her. She whispered something in her ear and the woman started heading for the door, she exited without a word. "That's Shizune by the way. You might see her at some points, random times but it doesn't exactly matter. Anyways, first things first," She stood up and handed us some papers. "We need to get you a place to stay at. Since being a ninja, I would recommend staying at another resident somewhere in the village. I'm sure that they will welcome you with open arms when they read that letter. It's better than staying in a hotel cooped up together. In a resident you'll at least be able to roam around."

"Wouldn't that be a little rude?" I asked, not entirely sure if this was the right thing to do. Just to invade someone's house and say, "Oh yeah, I'm staying here whether you like it or not." It just didn't seem right…

"Don't worry, if you pick the right one, you might just get lucky. I might suggest the Hyuga residence. They're another ninja family that is helping us look for Sasuke. You might find that they come in handy sometimes." Tsunade says as she hands Fubuki something. Fubuki looks at it and nods her head and smiles.

"We'll look into it. Thank you Lady Tsunade." Fubuki said as she motioned us to go out. We all obeyed her instructions of course, but we couldn't help but wondering what was on Fubuki's mind. It was scary when she was acting friendly to someone that she just met…

****

"I swear I'll kill her!"

Fubuki threw a brand new vase that she had just bought for "no apparent reason" across the room and watched it shatter. She yelled out in rage and stomped her way across the room until she got the broken pieces and then stepped on them again.

"Sensei, you're going to hurt yourself…" Hyoga said calmly as he quietly sipped his tea. He closed his eyes and took another sip.

No later than he said it did Fubuki stomp her foot onto a piece of the shattered pottery.

"Told you so Kaa-san…" Hyoga whispered quietly. He sipped again.

I shook my head and looked out into the distance, looking at how closely the houses were together and how people would sometimes just jump from house to house onto of the roofs. People were so carefree here. I was somehow…envious of them I believe? I was never envious before in my life. Why was I now? It was a place that we had just come to; what if there were consequences for things like this?

I quickly shed my cloak and walked over to the door.

"Hey Kori, where ya going," Shimo asked as she did a back bend and then stood up again.

"Eh, I don't really know. I guess for a little walk I guess. It couldn't hurt to take a look around." I answered her as I looked at the papers that were on the desk that Fubuki had left out. I carefully picked it up and looked at it and memorized the village as quickly as I could. I specifically looked for the "Hyuga" residence that Tsunade was talking about.

"Hey, I'll go with you." Hyoga's monotone voice said as he shed his cloak and started to follow me.

I only nodded my head in agreement and allowed him to follow me.

"Do you want me to go with you?" Shimo asked before we left.

"Shimo," Fubuki suddenly yelled. Another vase was thrown out the window.

Hyoga and I quickly ran out to see the damage. The vase broke through the glass and it quickly started dropping. I looked below and saw that a male was right underneath it. It was going to hit him.

"Hey, look out!" I called out.

The most amazing thing I ever saw happened. The male whipped around and when the vase was about to hit him, he touch it with two fingers and it shattered into a hundred pieces. I stared in awe, it was amazing. Utterly amazing. How did he know how to pinpoint the exact location of the vase's weak spot?

I saw his eyes, clear white lilac pools that held such strength in them that I couldn't stop staring, so beautiful but strong, a perfect combination. Long, brown hair was pulled back into a tie at the bottom and a black hitaiate was tied around his forehead. His eyes didn't look that serious, but they held a certain secret. He had a frown on his face, he said something quickly but I didn't hear it. He looked up and his gaze didn't change, his face still held the same semi-angry expression.

"Fubuki-sensei, you needn't get so angry!" Hyoga and I heard. We turned our heads and saw Shimo trying to calm Fubuki down. "You could've hurt someone!"

Yeah…you could have…but…didn't I think as I look back down at the male that she almost hit. Someone jumped and landed in front of me and Hyoga before I could see the male again. We stared at him. A rather large male who looked like a walking green bean with the bushiest eyebrows anyone could ever imagine stood in front of us. Hyoga stepped in between me and the man, his eyebrows furrowed downward and a slight frown on his face – his normal face.

"Do you know the person who tried to hit my student?" He asked straightforwardly. He had a toothy grin, that was oddly disturbing, and he put his hands on his hips. I could only think of one thing – is this guy gay?

"What if we do?" Hyoga asked as he put his hand on my wrist and pulled me closer to him. I looked up at the male and glared daggers. I could see the male look at me and Hyoga got in the way of his gaze. "Why are you here? He apparently didn't get hurt. It shouldn't matter."

"It matters because we know that the vase was-

"Enough." I interrupted. I stepped from behind Hyoga and male and pushed Hyoga towards the door. He looked at me and I motioned him to go inside. I closed the door behind him and I looked at the man. "We're sorry. Our sensei has a little temper."

"A little? Are you kidding? I think your sensei-

"I suggest you leave. I apologized and that's all that's needed. Tell your student that we're sorry as well." I turned and quickly went inside. I didn't want to have to deal with a judgmental human at the moment.

I shut the door in his face even though he started to protest. I leaned back up against the door and looked at Fubuki, she was starting to calm down, and Shimo had gotten her some tea. She drank quietly and crossed her legs in the chair she was sitting in. Hard to believe she could look so calm after going on a rampage. When I looked at the room and her in it…it didn't fit. The room was absolutely destroyed and yet she was so calm. How did she do it?

"Do you want some tea Kori," she asked as she held out a cup. She carefully poured some tea in it and held it out to me. I sighed and took it without argument.

"So where did you want to visit first," Fubuki asked as she sipped.

I shrugged my shoulders, lying. I wanted to find out who the boy was—the one with the most inexplicable eyes. I just couldn't that boy out of my mind. I wanted to know who he was. I wanted to find out what that secret was.

"Well, I think that we should go and see that residence, you know—the Hyuga's." Shimo said as she gulped down her tea quickly, asking for more.

Fubuki happily poured it, "I think that that's a splendid idea!"

"For some reason," Hyoga said as he closed his eyes and sipped, "I don't have a good feeling about this."

"Oh don't bring down the moment Hyoga," Fubuki snapped quickly before he could say anything a little bit more morbid. "This is a happy occasion!"

"What occasion?" I said monotonously.

"Ah-

Fubuki couldn't say anything. She glared at me—playfully—and set her cup down and crossed her arms, "Well, who's side are you on? Our side or Hyoga's side?"

"I don't have a side."

Shimo stuck her tongue out at me and pulled down her the skin under her eye. "Neh, well don't be a party pooper when we get there alright? I hate it when you're so…gloomy. It's depressing."

"It's her choice to make if she wants to be depressed around people." Hyoga mumbled under his hand as he leaned on his arm and rested his head in his palm. "You shouldn't tell her otherwise."

"Oh boo-who," Shimo snapped. She turned to Fubuki, "Can we go yet? I'm excited; I want to see where we're going to be living!"

"Hey, it's not nice to just invite yourself into someone's house." I said quietly as she stood up with Fubuki.

"Booo, well we're going. Come if you want." Shimo said as she and Fubuki grabbed their cloaks and tossed them over their arms.

I looked over at Hyoga and he sighed. Was he disappointed to have a team member that's my sister and a teacher that's his mother? I couldn't tell. He was always so mysterious, so quiet. He kept to himself most of the time and he had a rather sad aura around him. I had to keep myself back from hugging him. Something happened in his life before that he didn't normally like to talk about and I didn't like to press it against him at anytime.

"Come on Kori, let's get going." Hyoga sighed as he got his cloak and mine.

He handed it off as we both started walking to the door. He only looked at me as I took it from him. We stood standing there for a few seconds before he walked out the door and left me. I looked at the room—trashed, I felt bad about it. But there was nothing I could really do about it. I wouldn't know where my friends went if I stayed behind. Besides—

"Kori, come on!" Shimo called out from below. She waved at me to come down.

—They were calling for me.