A/N: Hi there! Okay, so this story is still being heavily worked on and perfected. I just wanted to post this first part so I could receive some criticism and personal thoughts! PLEASE after you read let me know what you think! I know this first part is kind of slow to start, but I promise I have big plans. I want this to be the best it can possibly be! Don't be afraid to really give me your honest opinion! (nicely that is). Much of this chapter and the others will probably get re written and changed some, I just wanted to get your guys thoughts! Okay then, happy reading and don't forget to review!
Chapter One: Konohagakure
My hospital room was empty. Only a glass vase with an arrangement of colorful flowers kept me company. I found myself encased in a cocoon of white blankets. They matched the white walls, which matched the white tiles on the floor. The door to my room was ajar, and the sounds of the nurse's afternoon chats filled my ears. My eyes were still sensitive to the light pouring in from the opened window; I used one hand to shield my eyes as I sat myself up.
My body was extremely weak. Every muscle was sore, every bone felt like glass. My skin burned and my breathing was raspy. I could feel a strain on my lungs and heart when I made any movements. In the chair next to me, my clothes sat in a heap. It was then I realized I was only dressed in my undergarments, and the fabrics next to me were torn and bloody. My eyes lingered on them before my gaze was disrupted by one of the nurses; she was carrying medicine and a paper cup filled with water.
"We had to cut them off." She spoke, her voice fragile and meek. I stared at her in question, examining her beady green eyes, copper hair, and button-like nose. She handed me the pills in her hand, and then assisted me in taking the cup. "It was the only way to get you out of them without moving you too much."
I swallowed the last pill and shook my head. The memories were slowly returning. The Sound Village, in their entire wrath, the bloody battles, so many people were left for dead. The Leaf Village was being torn apart before our eyes. My heart sank. How many others were in this hospital with me? How many met their fate before they had a chance to come here? Sakura, was she okay? I hadn't seen her since,- and Kiba! Oh, Kiba. And Lee, oh goodness, what about Shikamaru, Neji and Tenten? Did I help save them? And Kakashi, I...
"You should rest." The nurse broke my reflection. She gently pushed me back down onto the bed and checked for a fever.
"Is the hospital full?" I requested, my thoughts still on villagers.
She negatively shook her head, "The ones who were here have all been released."
I cocked my head, not quite understanding. "But...-"
"You were in a coma for about two months." She rationalized, "Last week you came to, but you've been slipping in and out of consciousness regularly. This is the first normal conversation I have been able to have with you."
My eyes must have been the size of dinner plates. Two months? I was out for two whole months?
I ran my aching fingers through my hair. As if my head didn't hurt enough.
"I want to look outside." I behest.
She pressed a hand to my shoulder as I attempted to rise, "I'm not supposed to let you out of bed."
I ignored her and continued to struggle out of the bed. Every move I made was a painful one. It felt like my muscles and bones were protesting my wishes; they didn't move like I wanted them too. My eyes watered as I realized that getting out of bed on my own wasn't a reality. I looked up to the nurse with sorrowful eyes. "Please."
She gave a sigh, and then proceeded to help me to the window. I felt bad; she was a petite, older woman who was supporting all of my weight. I thanked her softly once we reached the window, and she stayed by my side as I looked over the Leaf Village.
Wrapped in the white blanket, I observed all of the busy people on the streets. Venders were out like normal, shop keepers were talking to customers. Children played in the street, while exasperated mothers gave them orders. Many men and women were working on repairs for damaged buildings and other property. It seemed like the village was recovering quite well.
"We lost many shinobi, and our forces are still low." The nurse informed, "But the village has a positive attitude, and we're slowly getting back to the way things were."
A small smile crept across my face. That's exactly what I loved about the Leaf Village.
"You're up!"
I turned to see Sakura, the young genin, standing in the doorway holding a new bouquet of flowers. She placed them on the hospital bed before embracing me in a hug. I winced in agony; the physical contact was not pleasing to my body, but I was overjoyed to see Sakura's shining face. She released her grip and stepped back, smiling wider than ever. Her light pink hair was fixed back with her headband; it had defiantly grown a couple of inches since the last time I saw her.
When I first met Sakura she was shy and timid in combat. But this last war against the Sound Village had been an epiphany for her. She showed great leadership and strength, something that she'd been holding back in our couple of private lessons. I looked at Sakura with her sparkling green eyes and kind smile and couldn't keep back my emotions. I was so relieved to see that she was in good health. My love for her and the others of this village had become strong. I remembered the first time I met Sakura and the rest of Team 7.
But I guess I should start from the beginning.
Never in my twenty-one years had I heard of Konohagakure.
We were told that it was a hidden village in the Land of Fire, it was one of the Five Great Shinobi Countries, and that they were one of our allies. That's all I knew walking into the gates of the Hidden Leaf Village.
My first observation of the village was it's people. They were all extremely chipper and paraded happily around like there wasn't a single thing to worry about. Many of them greeted us with wide smiles and friendly gestures. I found their lightheartedness somewhat ironic, considering our reasoning for being in their village.
Konohagakure was also much larger than our village. Everything that we had was tripled here, or so it seemed. It was much livelier; the buildings were much more colorful and the sun shone just a bit brighter.
After a few formalities, we were escorted to our quarters. It was a medium sized, pastel colored building just around the corner from many eateries and other local establishments. Inside, we were each given a separate room which included one single sized bed, a bathroom, one closet, and a desk with a matching chair. The bathrooms had already been supplied with any toiletries we could possibly need, and we were told that maids would be around each day to change the sheets and bring extra towels.
It was a nice change of pace from our own village. I really enjoyed seeing the young children playing in the streets with their friends, and the women who were seemingly in charge of the kids held casual conversation with other errand runners. Back home, children were kept in pre-academy homes from birth until the age of five. I, and the rest of my comrades, were brought up in one of these pre-academy homes by retired ninja who had already done their service in our military or medical forces. We weren't allowed to play in the streets, or even be out of our rooms past 6:30 in the evening.
There were ten of us that had been sent to help the Leaf Village. We were all jonin level ninja, and we were the most recent graduated class. All of us had been classmates since the pre-academy homes; learning together, competing with each other, and now carrying out our first S-Rank mission together.
The first person to dramatically fling her bags down and complain about how heavy they were was none other than Ayano Maki. She'd picked the first room on our floor, which had a large brassy sign above the door that labeled it R300. The hip length, deep red, insane curls on her head bounced as she explored the bedroom, making sure to inform us every time she made a new discovery.
Across the hall from Ayano was the room R301. Inside, Kiyoshi Hayashi was already settled on the bed and looked about ready to take a nap. He smoothed his ginger hair to the side and stretched back onto the bed, straightening his legs out as he did so. Kiyoshi, or Kiyo for short, was the tallest in the group. I couldn't help but slightly laugh as his feet hung over the edge of the bed.
"What's so funny?" He asked me, switching his position on the bed so he could look out of his door.
"She's laughing because you look stupid!" Ayano called from her room.
"Was I asking you?" He retorted, now standing in his doorway.
The two continued, but I blocked them out. It seemed to be a daily thing with those two; they were always at each other's necks. Kiyo was one of my better friends in the group, and Ayano had so much sass it was hard to not find her funny. I found their little spats amusing, kind of like comic relief.
"Can someone shut those two up?" Rokuro Yamauchi petitioned as he filled the room next to Ayano, R302. Like always, the top of his head was concealed in a black du rag, and he had painted two black strips down each cheek. He was also one of the few of us who actually wore their headband on their head. Rokuro liked to keep that "tough guy" reputation going.
The relationship between Rokuro and I was one that a mountain lion and a shark have; there wasn't one. I ignored him, he ignored me, and it was all fair game.
R303 was then occupied by Noa Mori. She gracefully sat her bags down and waited for the rest of us to settle in. If I could ever get more than five words out of Noa than I'm sure we'd be great friends, but whenever her anxiety gets ahold of her she has a hard time shaking it.
She smiled as I continued down the hallway, her raven like eyes and pixie-short black hair glistened in the fluorescent lighting.
Daiki Nakano helped himself to R304. Once he was in, he shut the door and made no further noises. In all my years of knowing Daiki I've never had one clue as to where that kid stands. A lot of talk circulates around his name, but I've never even seen one sign of emotion from him.
In R305 Taichi Kato placed his things next to the bed. Taichi was a good friend, and he joined me again in the hallway after he dropped his baggage. His skin was very tanned, the darkest out of all of us. He had bright green eyes and a fair amount of brown hair that was pulled back from his face. Not a single scratch or blemish could be seen anywhere; he was basically perfect.
I decided take room R306. Not for any particular reason, but it was nice having Taichi across the hall, and Akinori next to me in R308.
Akinori Wakahisa, or as I sometimes liked to call him, mop head. Akinori was my best friend. He had a head full of brown scruffy hair that was feathered out all over his forehead and ears, hence the nickname. His brown eyes were never sad, and he had a beautiful olive complexion. No one in the group had one bad thing they could say about Akinori, you just couldn't help but like him.
From our pre-academy homes, up to the day we became jonin Capitol guards; there hadn't been a day that I spent without Akinori. Akinori was basically my brother, and he was also the reason I didn't go crazy being in this group.
R307 and R309 became filled by rivals Spyridon Fujimoto and Takahiro Miyamoto. Two very similar people, not in looks but in personality. Both would take the ninja code to the grave. They take everything as seriously as humanly possible, never backing down and never ceasing to disappoint our village. It was no surprise that they graduated in the number one and two spots.
Personally, I can tolerate Takahiro a tad bit more than I can Spyridon. Spyridon has got a temper that can be set off at the drop of a pin; thankfully Takahiro is better at controlling his anger.
From my window in the bedroom I could see the large monument that towered over Konohagakure. It was the side of a mountain, with the faces of the three previous leaders, better known as the Hokages, carved into it. Their current Hokage, was the fourth face farthest to the right. I took a good long look at him, knowing that I would soon be meeting him.
Our village doesn't have a Kage. We have one leader, and his council of men who govern us. We simply call him The Riida, which in short means "leader". His council of men serve as our Officers. Each graduated jonin class works under the rule of one Officer, who works under the rule of The Riida. It is the Officer's job to assign us our permanent jobs in the village, and to make sure we carry out our duties like we're supposed to. Once you've been a jonin for four years, you can either apply to be an Officer, or you retire to teach and train the younger classes.
Around the village, I serve as a Capitol guard. The Capitol is home to The Riida, and is always under constant watch. I really don't understand it though; we have nothing to fear. Our village has never been attacked, nor have we ever been involved in any wars. On top of that, our village sits in the middle of four of the tallest mountains in the Land of Earth, it's nearly impossible to pass our borders. Needless to say, my hours spent as a Capitol guard are boring and sweaty.
It takes four days of travel to reach the Leaf Village from the southwest border of the Land of Earth. As I said before, our village sits in between four large mountains, commonly giving us the title 'The Village Between the Mountains.' Or just 'The Mountain Village' for short.
In those four days of traveling, I saw more sights and experienced more things than I had my whole life living in the Mountain Village.
"This place is great, huh?" I turned to see Akinori sprawled out on my bed. He grinned widely at me, as if to apologize for messing up the once neat sheets.
"It's different, that's for sure." I replied, returning my attention to the Hokage Mountain.
Akinori rose from the bed and joined me at the windowsill. "Different is right." He breathed, "Look at how massive this place is. Makes me wonder why they'd need help from such a small village like us."
I shrugged, unable to think of a good reason. It was obvious that the Leaf Village was far more capable than our village would ever be. And even if they did need some extra help, why ask a village from the Land of Earth?
We both watched in silence as the huge crimson and golden yellow sun slowly started to disappear behind the mountain. It painted the village in sheets of pink and orange light, letting the people know it was about time to retire inside.
"Are you two ready?" Taichi interrupted, his bright eyes peering into the room. He stayed standing in the doorway I as moved to retrieve my headband and shoes, which I'd placed at the end of the bed.
For the journey, I thought it would be wise to wear shoes that protected my feet more than a traditional sandal could. I ended up bringing some old worn out black combat style boots that were once a gift to me from Ayano. They were high-tops that laced up in the front, however I never took the time to completely tie them. As for my headband, I normally tied that around my right thigh, just where my shorts ended. The fabric from my shorts kept it from slipping, and I could tuck the knot from the headband under them so it didn't irritate my skin whenever I walked.
I smiled to Taichi when I was done, and followed his lead out of the room with Akinori by my side.
Our first meal in the Leaf Village was served to us that night as we sat at a long dining table with the 3rd Hokage. He was an elder man with many age spots and a chin of white hair. Naturally, since he was the leader of Konohagakure, several Leaf Jonin seated with us just in case we tried to pull something. Not that we would, of course.
Many of the jonin that were with us I recognized from earlier meetings. Most of them were senseis who had students that were currently testing to become chunin. On my left, a jonin by the name of Asuma quickly introduced himself as he took the seat next to me. He wore his leaf headband proudly and carried a lit cigarette in his mouth. Long sideburns and a beard framed his face, his dark hair was kept neat.
Plates of steamed vegetables, grilled seafood, and other delicacies were being passed around the table. There was a waiter who came around and filled our glasses with champagne; I stared at the foreign liquid, unsure if I should take a sip. I felt an elbow in my ribcage, and looked over to see Akinori's cheesy smile.
"C'mon you goody two shoes, we're not in the Mountain Village anymore. Drinking here isn't against the law. Have some fun." I watched as he took a swig of his drink, and then nudged Kiyo to do the same.
"We're not here to have fun, might I remind you." I said with lightness in my tone. We exchanged solid glances for a moment before cracking into smiles. He swallowed more of his drink, elbowing me once again to do the same.
I looked around at the rest of my teammates. They were all following Akinori's lead in enjoying their drinks. Well, everyone except for the three nobles. Spyridon, Takahiro, and Rokuro were all focused on the Hokage, waiting for him to inform us of our mission.
I glanced back at my drink, and then I pushed my glass back from my plate. My attention was then turned to the Hokage.
"I'm sure you all have a basic knowledge of why you have been summoned here." He started, placing both of his hands on the table. "We have reasons to believe that an enemy attack is being planned against the Leaf Village. When this attack is going to happen we are not exactly sure, but we do know that Lord Orochimaru is most likely behind it."
I looked down at my hands. I remembered that name from earlier; apparently one of the genin students had been given his curse mark during the chunin exams. We were told that sometime during our journey here.
"We don't know how large his forces are." The Hokage continued, "But the greater our numbers the better. We would like to thank you and your village for sending experienced shinobi when needed. It is a great honor to have such an alliance, and tonight we toast to you."
Everyone at the table lifted their glasses and made a silent toast. I then took a very small sip from my glass, almost immediately choking as the champagne hit my tongue; Asuma chuckled.
"Don't worry, no one likes it their first taste. It's an acquired thing." He said.
I sat my glass back down, "I don't think I'll be acquiring that anytime soon." I joked, joining him in a small snicker.
"Tomorrow you will begin your duties." The Hokage spoke again, "You will all be given different tasks or maybe even other missions. I trust that you all will do exceptionally."
With that, everyone began their meals. Small talk was passed around the table, and I chatted occasionally with Asuma. I mostly clung to comfortable conversations with Akinori and Kiyo, who were both steadily engaged in talking to a man by the name of Ebisu.
My appetite wasn't great, so I picked at my food mostly. But feeling like I was being disrespectful, I managed to clean my plate by the end of the meal. After our plates had been picked up, we where given the opportunity to chat and mingle with the other jonin. Akinori and I mainly stuck with Asuma, who told some great stories about previous missions and encounters. We also met his good friend Kurenai; she was every bit as friendly as Asuma was.
That evening ended in somewhat of a blur. We all slowly eased ourselves out of conversation and retired back to our quarters, of course thanking everyone for the lovely meal and charisma.
It was now pitch black outside, and the streets were no longer occupied. Still, I sat by the windowsill and scanned over the village a couple dozen more times. The events of today were running endlessly in my mind. All of the sights, the people, the dinner, the engaging conversations; never before had I had a day like this.
Looking back now that first day feels almost insignificant compared to what I experienced further down the road. The events from that day don't stick out in my mind anymore, I honestly haven't thought back to them in awhile. But in that moment by the window, I do remember feeling a mosaic of emotions. I was scared, excited, curious, and even a little bit happy. I was frightened for our mission; beyond that moment I had no idea what to expect. I was eager to learn more and maybe meet some more people. I was still naive to my surroundings and still questioning exactly what the Leaf Village was expecting from us. And honestly, I was thrilled to finally be out of the Mountain Village.
A/N: Thank you and don't forget to review!