Chapter I: Cakes of Sorrow

It was a lovely Konoha morning. The sun was shinning, the birds were singing, and the Uchiha was getting pissed off. Once again, Sakura had come up with what she thought was a good idea but was actually stupidity.

Today was Sasuke's birthday, and she believed no one (not even the uber-emo himself) would want to spend their birthday alone. She had invited all their 'friends' over for a small party. Sasuke, of course, had no intention of spending his birthday anywhere near Sakura, but he at least wanted everyone's presents. But for some reason these people only seemed to buy him things they would have wanted for themselves. He didn't get any cool weapons or scrolls with rare and deadly techniques, only garbage.

Everyone (except himself) was having a good time, and the party seemed to be going well. Suddenly, the lights went out, and the room went pitch black.

"CAKE TIME!" screamed a voice that could have only belonged to Naruto. Sasuke rolled his eyes, completely not wanting a cake at all.

"But...there's no one in the kitchen..." said Kiba. "Who turned out the lights?"

Everyone went silent as they tried to figure this out. Suddenly a cake appeared in their midst, seemingly floating in midair.

"Oh my God, it's haunted!" screamed Ino stupidly.

"Don't be stupid, ghosts don't exist," muttered Sasuke.

"That's right, they don't!" said a male voice that none of them had heard. The lights snapped back on, and a shinobi wearing mostly black was revealed to be the one holding the cake. "Happy birthday, Sasuke!"

A dreamy sigh came from the four girls in the room, and it wasn't hard to see why.

He appeared to be the same age as the rest of them, though with a more mature air around him. His black hair had bright blue roots, which would normally seem strange but on him looked natural and perfect. He had it tied back into a loose pony tail, the tips just touching his shoulders. His eyes were an electric blue color, and hanging from his shoulder was an ANBU mask that looked like a unicorn, horn and all. His forehead was covered with a Konoha forehead protector, and he was dressed in the usual ANBU uniform. Everyone in the room could easily tell he had a lot of chakra and that he was clearly a very powerful shinobi.

"Who is this, Sasuke?" asked Naruto in awe. Someone their age was already ANBU... From Sasuke's face it was clear that he was not pleased.

"His name is Chizu Kanesaka," he said acidly. "And I don't believe he was invited to this party."

Chizu smiled, earning more sighs from the females. "Of course I wasn't invited. I bet you never talk about me. No, I just happened to be around and saw this little partygoing on so I decided to stop by and give you your present now instead of just mailing it."

Sasuke's face turned bright red. "You were spying on me again!"

"I wouldn't call it spying, more like unasked watching. Voluntary babysitting."

Sasuke growled again. Before any one could register what was happening Sasuke had charged at Chizu, fist in the air, prepared to punch. Chizu's outline blurred and soon Sasuke stood frozen, this face completely covered in royal icing.

"Ugh, Sasuke, you ruined your cake!" Chizu sighed, still holding the cake that now had a face print in it.

"But who are you?" Naruto screamed in his cat-vomit voice.

Chizu, of course, being a ninja, had the ability to ignore the high-pitched sounds and instead continued to lament the loss of the tasty dessert. "I mean come ON Sasuke, your friends went to all the trouble of getting this for you! They even went to the best bakery in town!"

"Chizu you idiot, just go home!" Sasuke practically screamed in frustration.

"How COULD you, Sasuke?" wailed Chizu.

"You put my face there!" yelled Sasuke.

"No, you did! I would never ruin this beautiful sugary confection!" insisted Chizu.

"But who ARE you?" yelled Naruto and Sakura together.

"Well you moved the cake so that my face would be there!" Sasuke kept on talking over the interruptions.

"That poor cake! That poor frosting! You didn't even get to blow out the candles!"

"WHO ARE YOU?" screeched Naruto, Sakura, Ino and Kiba.

For the first time the two arguing shinobi looked at the bystanders. "You want to know who I am?" asked Chizu innocently.

"HOLY FUCK, YES!" came the deafening roar.

Chizu blushed. "Well! I didn't know that I was that interesting!"

Tenten folded her arms. "Well, you did randomly show up in an ANBU uniform, you and Sasuke know each other, and you're really hot, why shouldn't we be interested?" she asked exasperatedly. Neji gave her a very strange look. "Well he is!" she said in defense.

All the shinobi stared at Chizu, expecting a great epic tale to unfold. He smiled. "I was born in a log cabin—"

"Tell the REAL story!" Sasuke said, his face an angry red.

"Aww, he's blushing!" Sakura said.

"I am not blushing! There is increased blood flow to my face because I am very, very angry!" he practically shouted in her face.

"You want the real story? Fine," said Chizu. Everyone gathered around him in a little circle of friendship and childish glee, except for Sasuke. He went to go sulk in a corner.

Chizu began. "I was born in the Waterfall Village fourteen years ago…"