"Miss Aadhira! Miss Aadhira! I need your help!" A small female librarian ran down the hall, her bun askew.

She was running toward the top floor of the Suna Library, better known as the Sanctuary, where the head librarian dwelled most of her days.

Her voice echoed on the walls as she came to the two huge sandstone doors with four massive symbols carved into the stone. The woman recognized two of them, the symbol of Sunagakure and Konohagakure, but the other two, an eight petal flower and a strange circular carving were lost to her. But she gave a half shrug, everyone said the Miss Aadhira was becoming more and more senile by the day, less likely to come out among the others. But the woman still respectfully bowed her head and tapped her knuckles on the stone and surprisingly the door swung open to reveal a library within the library. Massive shelves were carved into the walls made of marble and stuffed full of books all bound in metal and leather. Three large photos were above the fireplace that had a low, blue green fire, glowing in the hearth. One was of the last Kazekage, one of a man with white hair, a half mask covering his mouth and jaw with a Konoha headband covering his left eye and the last picture was of a woman. She had black shiny hair, a blue anemone pin on her kimono and tsubaki clips in her hair.

Aadhira was sitting in a rocking chair that looked twice her age rocking gently back and forth looking up longingly at the photos as her two knitting needles clicked against each other. An impressively long scarf was starting to gather at her feet, and was about the size of a small, curled up child. Aadhire was old, everyone knew that, but with her pure white hair twisted into four small buns on the back of her head, and the look of her withered hands, they looked like someone had taken the bones of a hand and just stretched skin over it. She turned her head looking at the young woman over her shoulder with a small smile, the woman fought the urge to jerk back at the sight of her ghostly blue blind eye in contrast to her ever vibrant golden eye with bright blood red flecks in it.

" What do you need young lady? I don't appreciate people hootin' and hollerin' in my library," her voice was stern but a kind smile graced her wrinkled face.

But that smile didn't help calm the librarian, " Miss Aadhira I need help! I have a young Academy student terrorizing the other patrons! We tried to make him leave but he wouldn't."

The young lady seemed to be near tears so Aadhira put down her knitting in a small wicker basket by her feet, "come, bring me my cane."

The librarian brought over a white ash wood cane that had detailed carvings worn into it with a blue stone embedded into the top. When Aadhira had it in her hand as she pulled herself out of the rocking chair with a groan as her joints popped loudly and she hobbled quickly over to the door. Even stooped with age she was able to move at a rather brisk pace leaving the young woman jogging to keep up with her as she emerged from the solitude of the Sanctuary. As they walked quickly down to the main lobby of the three story library other workers and the patrons bowed in sheer shock as Aadhira blazed past.

'She's quite spry for an older lady!' The young woman thought as Aadhira cleared the stairs with no obvious difficulty going down to the main lobby where most of the patrons were.

And indeed there was a very young child there making a lot of noise and spinning a kunei haphazardly on his pointer finger.

" This place is so BORING and it smells like mothballs! " the child whined loudly and Aadhira saw the Suna symbol on the shiny metal of his headband.

She walked forward and lightly, WHACK, hit him on the head with the blue gem part of her staff, " You do realize that this is a library correct?"

Aadhira looked down at the child and smiled a little at the powerful glare from the little...girl, and with a mild stroke of shock she realized that this young shinobi was not a boy.

"Oh my... Why would you cover up such a beautiful face behind all that hair?" Aadhira reached forward and pushed some of the loose hair away from her face.

The girl looked shocked and jerked away from the older woman's touch like she had been burned, "how could you tell?"

Aadhira smiled softly, not bothered by the shinobis reaction "Come with me."

She turned and started to walk back to the Sanctuary knowing that the girl would follow her, and indeed the young ninja did follow her. Past the massive sandstone doors and into the cold marble room, the girl kneeled on a cushion by a table as Aadhira brought over some thick pads of paper. With a creaking groan she sat across from the girl and have her a knowing smile.

"You didn't answer my question. Why would you cover up such a pretty face?" Aadhira reached across the table and again pushed the girls black bangs back from her face showing her dark indigo eyes.

"Ku..." Aadhira whispered in shock as she got a better hold on her emotions. The girl shrugged passively, "I just can't keep it from falling into my face."

Aadhira smiled and waved her hand across one of the sheets of paper and it folded itself into a camellia with a small clip. Then she secured the girls hair back with it revealing her indigo eyes, and making Aadhira's heartache.

"Now that we can see each other will you tell me why you were being so loud in a library? You could see that signs that said 'Please Be Quiet' all over lobby," she kept her tone light and teasing with the girl.

She crossed her arms pouting and wouldn't look at the elderly woman across from her, Aadhira recognized that look from her own childhood. All this girl wanted, needed really, was some attention, and what better way to get attention than to be causing problems in a library. Only she couldn't understand why anyone would be neglecting to give this child the acknowledgment that she so obviously wanted.

"Well will you at least tell me your name? I'm Aadhira or you can call me Grandmother," she was pleased with the shinobi as she looked up at the older woman.

"Rina." The girl said softly after some silent encouragement from the older woman.

"Well Rina, let me tell you a story," Aadhira started to tear more sheets from the pad of paper spreading them out on the table.

Rina slumped whining as she threw back her head, "Oh come on Grandma! Stories are for BABIES. And I'm not a baby!"

Aadhira laughed a crackly, witch like giggle as she looked at the girl showing her a glimpse of the power of her paper manipulation kekkai genkai. Rina stared dumbstruck as she made small figurines out of the paper, similar to the people whose portraits she had hung on her wall. Rina looked even more shocked as the figures seemed to 'walk' across the table by themselves.

" Oh Rina, trust me that this will not be a boring story, nor is it made for babies," Aadhira laughed as she used her hands, underneath the table, to control the dolls.

As she spoke she melted into those days of long since passed yesteryears.

~Aadhira POV~

The Land of Paper, a small island by the Land of Frost that was always cold and covered in snow no matter what time of year it was for the rest of the world. The Land of Paper was a nation that had treaties with all the other lands because their purpose is to be the keepers of sacred knowledge, though to them all knowledge, even the most trivial of books were said to be kept there. Because of their wealth of knowledge they were feared and no one risked the possibility that their clans or villages secrets could be revealed to the enemy. Even though the Land of Paper was seen as a weak Land that needed constant protection from the larger countries they were wrong. They had a massive facility in the center of the island that had only three above ground levels all of which were apartment like suites for the citizens of the island, the library, called the Haven, was completely underground. Outsiders estimated that the facility had 40 subterranean levels though they had no idea that even the highest levels of shinobi knew for sure how deep the library was. Some of the most precious scrolls we had were from the very first shinobi, journals of their lives and the battles that they had fought.

Though in the Land of Paper, especially in the Kamitsuki Clan, their children are raised to be the shinobi protectors of knowledge, to risk their lives to make sure that a village or clans secrets remain secret many of the children grew up in normal families with both parents present through their lives. But the children of parents that chose to put their children through the rigorous training to become a shinobi in hopes of being one of the select few to serve the five Kages were separated from their families. They promised to reunite the children with their families if they survived. We lived in mass barracks, boys on the right girls on the left in rows, and rows of metal bunk beds. There was no guaranteed graduation for us, if we had reached the level that was necessary to pass we would graduate, if not we were still kept in the barracks and had to repeat the program over again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

Until we passed the final exams and proved ourselves to our instructors or we commited suicide.

But even worse than killing ourselves, about 20% of the children who joined would defect to other villages and would be unable to ever return to the village or see their families again.

Most of us would end up going through the program three of four times because our training would start as soon as we could read and write.

And today, myself and fifteen other people from my class who had managed to pass this year, would find out which five students were lucky enough to be the ones that served one of the Kages, all of which were in the very top of our passing class. I was kneeling at the first position in our small group of kids because my name started with a double A, Aadhira. Though the entire village was in attendance none of us would know who our parents were until after the ceremony, but I felt at ease knowing that there was at least one person there wishing the best for me. My only inkling of the understanding of 'family' was the Sute Clan from the Land of Mist. They stood in the far back Ku, Ju Ni, and their father. Ku ( the ninth child of her year hence her name ) watched with a demure expression though her eyes sparkled with excitement and amusement. Her younger sister Ju Ni (meaning twelve ) had to stifle giggles as they stood beside their father who looked less than please that he had to be there.

I stared down at my lap biting my lower lip, I smoothed down the nonexistent creases in my parchment colored fabric of my pants. My smock was pure white with ink colored buttons along the side of my neck. The long wide sleeves covered my hands which thankfully hid the fact that I kept wringing them. I was so nervous, afraid that I would fall when I was getting up to get my forehead protector. But at the same time I was disappointed. I could look at the rest of my graduating class and I knew exactly who would be getting called as the top five students to go work for the Kages. At least one of them would choose the Suna forehead protector and end up bowing out of the responsibility.

No one wanted to go to Suna.

No one would go to Suna.

It was rumoured that the Sunagakure library hadn't been maintained in over thirty years, and the heat, wind, and sand was horrible for the books. They became brittle and easily fell apart, if someone wanted to rehabilitate the library most of the books would need extensive tender love and care to be readable again.

But I had no reason to worry. There was no reason that I was going to be chosen. I hoped that I might be able to go with Ku and Ju Ni to their clan so I could manage the Sute Clan library, though small it had an immense amount of history kept there. I had done my training there.

"Welcome students to our Academy graduation. Most of you will become Genin and be sent to smaller clan or village libraries." Our teacher stood at a podium in the same outfit as all of us, parchment colored pants and a white smock, though he wore his forehead protector, "as you know the top five students from your class will become the Librarian Patriarch or Matriarch for one of the Kage Libraries. You will also achieve the rank of Chunin immediately and also receive the coveted Kami-me "

My heart was racing, the Kami-me, the blinding of one's right eye so that we may gain the ability to see the chakra of our opponents and it raises the strength of our Kekkai Genkai. My instructor continued his speech about how all of us were very lucky to graduate, that our lives were spread out in front of us, and that after so many years away from our families we would finally be able to see them. After six years I would finally be reunited with my parents, I was supposed to be happy, overwhelmed with feelings of love and affection. But I couldn't feel anything other than a strange hollowness in the center of my chest, I had grown up with forty other people in a cold stone barrack. Girls on the left, boys on the right, and I had gone to ten of their funerals.

No privacy.

No warmth.

No love.

So how could they expect me to be grateful to the people who had put me through all of that? I just couldn't, but it didn't matter. That ship had set sail long ago.

"So now I am happy to present the top five students of this years class!" The teacher had finally caught my wandering, six years old, attention, "Please hold your applause until the end. Hiro Fukimoto!"

A tall lean boy, about eight years old, and wore an identical outfit to mine, he had almost graduated last year.

"Jun Otsuka!"

Shorter and plump he was a better librarian than a ninja, I had helped his pass multiple of his gen and taijutsu tests.

"Kazuki Saito!"

Another boy, I was starting to see a bit of a trend, but at least he was kind and overall cared about the sanctity of books and knowledge.

"Kento Chiba!"

I sighed and looked down from the growing line of boys up on the stage, Kento was mean, and cruel, this year there were some rumours that not all of the deaths were suicides.

"Aadhira Kamitsuki!"

Finally a girl!

Wait...What?!

My head snapped up, he had said my name!

I scrabbled up smoothing down my clothes as I joined my other classmates up on the stage. I was shaking and I knew it. I smoothed my clothes down with trembling hands as I hid them in my sleeves wringing them together happy that I had the long sleeves to cover them.

" Now they will choose which village and Kage they will serve by receiving that village's forehead protector." My teacher finished speaking to the crowd as he turned to us with five forehead protector on a tray, all of them turned upside down so we couldn't see the village marking.

We all stared at the sleep black material with fear, but I found myself reaching out for the protector in the middle, I grabbed it and turned it over seeing Suna's symbol. The shiny metal glinted as I saw the small hourglass engraved in the metal, I tilted it in my hand making the light glint off the surface. My teacher looked at me pityingly.

" We would all understand if you decline becoming the librarian for Suna," the teacher pause, " Besides you're only a woman."

My blood boiled, I had the impulsive urge to step very hard on his toes, " Excuse me?" I forced a dangerous smile, " I understand why you would think that, you're only a man."

He looked at me shocked, I wasn't a very outspoken child, and talking back was even more unheard of from me. I took the headband, hands no longer shaking, and tied it around my forehead with a proud look on my face as I stepped back. The crowd saw the glinting metal and the Sunagakure symbol, murmurs of shock washed through the group. My eyes locked with Ku's and she gave me a small reassuring smile, and Ju Ni gave me a thumbs up.

Then reality set in, that I was going to the Wind Country, a massive desert as far from Paper Country as I could get.

And I was going to be a Chunin.

That's when the world began to swirl, the colors melding together as the ground came rushing up to me.

I didn't even feel my body hit the ground.