...I do own the OCs, and Storm/Time villages. But, uh... I won't sue if you use them. o.O
Guaranteed to be 400 Mary-Sue free. Yooooshi!
--------------------------------------------------
"...Oh, wow, it's sure dark in here."
"What do you expect? It's underground and we have a candle."
The sound of footsteps on concrete echoed through empty and poorly-lit catacombs, occasionally interlaced with the voices of two of the three walking down that same hallway (the third was being characteristically silent and cool).
"I still don't see why we have to be underground for this."
"Shut up, idiot."
Walking in silence was clearly not an option (unlike the owner of the second, female voice would like to believe), and within a few moments the first voice, the energetic male voice, was speaking again.
"Hey, I see light!"
"...Oh yeah, I guess this is that place."
"...Hn."
(By now, it was probably obvious that the three voices belonged to Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke, also known as Team 7, considering that a Naruto fanfiction absolutely must have them in it. I mean, c'mon.)
The three entered the subterranian chamber, blinked a few times as their eyes adjusted to the light. When their eyes did adjust, the first thing they noticed was that Princess Tsunade, the fifth Hokage, was standing behind- not sitting behind- her desk, and the second thing they noticed was that there was a ninja who looked dangerously close to death lying on said desk.
While normally Naruto was the first to take action in any situation, this situation was an anomaly, and Sakura ran forward, offering her own assistance to her mentor. Between the two medical-nins, the patient was reasonably alive within moments, and both Sakura and Tsunade stepped back, looking tired but either pleased with themselves (in Tsunade's case) or confused (in Sakura's case).
"...Hokage-sama, why did you call for us?"
Tsunade was silent for a moment, then stepped around her desk and regarded the three. The Fifth Hokage told them why she called them there.
--------------------------------------------------
"...You're absolutely crazy, old lady."
Naruto crossed his arms, leaned backwards. Blue eyes were nearly shut, mere squints on his face, as the blonde absorbed all the information the Hokage had given them about this newest mission.
"I mean, we've never heard of Hidden Time village. This guy could just be crazy! He could be some kind of spy, sent to infiltrate Konoha, and we're offering to /help/ him?"
There was another silence as this particular opinion sunk in, and then Tsunade looked up and said, "Yes."
Sakura looked slightly embarassed for a moment, then leaned over and provided Naruto with some essential information: "Hey, Naruto... this ninja's a girl."
"What? Really?"
"Yeah, idiot. If you'd payed more attention to her you'd know, she's a girl from Hidden Time village. At least, we think so, because there's a clock on her forehead protector."
Sakura pointed out the incriminating forehead protector, which was as its name implied protecting the forehead of the ninja who still hadn't woken up (the clock, it might be of interest to some people, was in the image of being set at 5:45). Tsunade had given them all the details about the mysterious girl ninja, Hidden Time village, and their mission.
This girl had said her name was Kokugen Hikari, and that she was from the Hidden Time village. Apparently the Time ninjas had originally been part of Hidden Leaf village, but the original clan had left over three hundred years ago. In that time, they founded their own village, and within a few years missing-nin from all over had joined the village and started families. Why the village was called Hidden Time, Tsunade couldn't tell. She had always heard that the Eiyrne family, who had originally founded the village, had discovered some way of controlling time- but she dismissed this, because that would use up an incredible amount of Chakra.
Either way, Hikari had asked for an alliance between Hidden Time and Hidden Leaf village, and Tsunade had almost accepted- but she wanted to see what the village was like before she agreed entirely. After all, if they ended up allying themselves with a village full of traitors and murderers- something that could easily be assumed, due to the village being founded on missing-nins- it was bad luck for all of them.
(Kakashi, by the way, would not be coming on their mission. He had something else to deal with, and Hikari was a jounin herself, so she could protect them as well as he could.) Besides, Hikari would have more reason to protect them than any Leaf Nin, because if they died her alliance was shattered.
Shortly after asking for the alliance, Hikari had collapsed from overuse of Chakra, and it was assumed that she wasn't going to wake up for a couple of hours. During that time, Tsunade had healed most of her wounds, thought long and hard, and summoned team 7 to this underground passage.
"This is considered an A-rank mission, you three. Don't mess it up."
--------------------------------------------------
Um, yeah. Hit the button, frank. Review my lovely story.
And I promise Hikari won't fall in love with Sasuke. I swear it.