A/N: This is like my third Naruto story, so I don't want any flamers still. M'kay? And I especially dn't want any complaints about have Sasori still alive when he should be dead at this point in time. I wanted him alive, so there.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or it's charcters. I only own Mika.
Petals Upon the Water
Plip.
The sound that the rose petal made as it fell into the water relaxed Mika. Her dishwater blonde hair fell over her eyes, hiding the tears that dropped from her emerald green eyes. She was covered in dirt, from burying her younger brother. He had died, like her parents, from the epidemic that had plagued her village. She was one of the last one's left.
Plip.
Another rose petal fell. She slowly picked the petals from the freshly plucked red rose. They were her brother's favorite flower. He used to grow them when he was still alive, and on her birthday, he would always grow a special boquet mde of roses of the same number as her age. She was going to turn eighteen in a month or so. He had promised her that her new birthday present was that he would live to see her become a woman. It was the only one he couldn't have kept.
"Mika," an elderly man called her over. She looked up to meet his eyes. His wise old charcoal grey eyes smiled at her warmly. "I don't think Koru would like it if you were so sad, what about you?"
"No," she sniffled. "But its still hard to know that he's gone. I mean, he was only ten, you know." She pulled off the last petal, and let it fall into the calm water with a plip. It slowly floated downstream, and was soon out of sight.
"I want you to leave the village, Mika," the elderly man told her.
"Huh? But, why?" Mika whined.
"I am sick with the disease. Your parents entrusted me you and your brother's safety. I do not want you to get sick also." he had told her roughly, but his eyes were only filled with kindness.
Mika jumped off the bridge and picked up the last rose. "Live everyday like it is your last," he said, as she nodded and sprinted off. There were other villages nearby, so she at least would have somewhere to stay.
* * *
"I honestly think that we're lost, senpai," Tobi complained.
"Nonsense. I know where we are going, un," Deidara claimed. To be honest, he actually did think they were lost. He could hear the trickling of a nearby river, and decided to follow the noise. Most villages lay near a source of water, and if they traveled down the river, the could get directions at the first village they came upon.
"Really?" Sasori said sarcasticly. Deidara fumed.
"Oh, senpai senapi, look at that!" Tobi said excitedly. They had appeared before the river, and rose petals seem to be floating down it ever so gently. "Now that is art," Sasori said.
"I disagree. Art is a bang, and that is not art, un," Deidara claimed.
Something rustled in the bushes, and they turned to face it. A little red head popped out, it's golden eyes staring at them. Little by little, he green creature came out of the bushes, and was noticed to be a dragon. It didn't look like the images of the celestial dragons that were around here, but more like one's that were from a more western area. It walked about on four legs, had bat-like red wings, and was about the size of a housecat.
It dunked its small head in a pool of water, and drank silently. No chakra emitted from it, so it was not one of the Tailed Beasts that the Akastuki was looking for.
"Senpai, is that a dragon?" asked Tobi.
"Of course it is, you moron," Deidara scolded him.
"Oh!" Tobi chased afer it, trying to catch it. It whined and hissed at him, and spit a huge flame at Tobi's head. "GYAH!"
"Well, that's what happens when you try to catch something like that. It isn't one of the Tailed Beasts that we're looking for, so let it be." Sasori grumbled.
"Aww," Tobi whined. The dragon had dissapeared from his sight, and hid under a rock. It waited until the strange clothed people were gone from sight, and it could no longer sense their presence.
"But I know I could have caught it, if I had just held on a little longer," Tobi complained.
"Or if you were flameproof," Sasori added.
"Which your not," Deidara finished. He was curious as to why it even came near them, if it wasn't used to humans. By the way the scales were, and how small the distance was between them, it seemed pretty tame. The only thing he could bet on was the fact that it was raised by a human, but reacted to others than it would with the person who raised it. Another question was why it was even this far east. Dragons were usually hard to spot, and one's that were seen certainly did not look like that.
A small shrill whistle was heard, and Deidara turned to see the dragon following them. It was slowly closing the distanve between them. It passed twenty feet, ten, five, one, and walked on past as if they didn't even exist. It dissapeared into a learing, and a loud whooshing sound was heard.
Deidara raced up and saw that the dragon had gone from the size of a cat to larger than a horse. A blonde girl hopped aboard the dragon, and take off. He was about to say something, but they were already out out of hearing range. Sasori and Tobi followed him into the clearing, and saw the blond girl and the dragon.
"Who was that?" Sasori asked. Deidara put his hand in his bag of clay.
"We're about to find out."
Please review and tell me what you think.