Chapter 1: A familiar place

The water's temperature wasn't at its highest that morning, as it splashed all over Yuzuki's body he started to shiver. Turning the knob Yuzuki stepped out of the shower pulling away the curtain. Yuzuki pulled a towel from the cabinet wrapping it around him.

He looked into the mirror finding his face paler than usual. He tried to brush his hair back so that he could wrap his head band on before his hair got too uncontrollable. Yuzuki's hair was made up of a perfect blonde color with patches of black that added a contrasting affect to his appearance. He checked for facial hair hoping that something would show up, he was thirteen after all. To his disappointment he saw only some peach fuzz, nothing special.
He tied his head band on; he had just received it about a month ago.

In a giant room, were many students from the academy who were now being called up to be given their own headband and to be registered as Jonin.

"Kiru, come forward" yelled the academy instructor Iruka sensei.

Over the years he had aged greatly and decided to keep the rank of Chunin to spend more time with the future great ninja of the leaf village. He wore his grey hair in a ponytail that had grown quite large. Lines showed on his face and his voice was soft and caring as it always was, but deeper than in his younger years.

"Yuzuki, you may now come forward." Iruka sensei said signaling for Yuzuki to come.

The giant crowd of children soon made way for Yuzuki to walk forward. Each one just stared at him whispering unknown things. Yuzuki walked forward to Iruka's desk, looking down at his shoes not noticing the figure in the corner. The slender figure walked out of the shadows to greet Yuzuki.

It was a woman with black hair that flowed all the way to her waist. She had pale skin and grey eyes, she wore a fancy kimono. At the time her headband was not on, she chose not to wear it anymore since she no longer participated in most missions.

"M, mother what are you doing here? This is my graduation…" Yuzuki managed to stumble out of his mouth shyly looking at all the others.

"Well knowing that your mother once was a Jonin herself, she offered to come and give you a special gift." Iruka sensei replied giving a smile to Yuzuki.

In Yuzuki's mother's hands was a headband with a maroon red stain on the cloth. His mother always kept this headband in her jewelry box where she kept all of her prize possessions. She never had anyone but herself looking into the box but Yuzuki always snuck the few peeks that he could.

Yuzuki's mother started to tie the head band on Yuzuki's head when Iruka asked, "But lady Hinata, that headband…"

Lady Hinata cut Iruka off saying, "I understand, don't worry." And so she finished tying the headband on her sons head.

Iruka paused and sighed, looking down at a photo at his desk, and turned it down…

Yuzuki finished tying his headband on his forehead and started to fix his hair. He looked back into the mirror and looked into his dark grey eyes. His mother said that his training for the Byakugan would begin in a couple of weeks. For now he was just going to train with his instructor. He really didn't want to meet any new people; everyone kept their distance and always gave him sad glances, as if they pitied him.

He dried himself off and put on his clothes for the day. He looked into another mirror much larger than the other one. His mother told him to select a ninja mission outfit for his training at the market and now he looked right at it. It was a nice green coat with a hood and zipper with fluffy insides that kept him warm. His pants were sweats that were black and his undershirt was also black with a red circle with a swirl on it.

He opened the door of the bathroom and walked out into the house. He looked at the clock; it was about 7:30.am. He decided to just leave for his first meeting with his instructor. Looking around the house for his shoes he found his mother already out of bead. She usually was gone during the mornings so that she could go shopping at the market.

Walking out the door Yuzuki looked up to see the many orange trees towering over him. It was fall and the cold winter breeze would soon be prowling the village. Yuzuki decided to go to the Ichiraku Ramen shop, one of his favorite places to go before he met his instructor. He always felt at home there, and the people there were really nice to him. He did have some time so he started to walk. Many of the people on the road that he walked on looked away from him, whenever he came within hearing range that person or the people would fall silent.

This always happened, ever since he was a little kid, so he ignored it. He didn't remember much from when he was small. The only thing that reminded him of his past was the tattoo on his back. It wasn't really a tattoo, more like a seal mark he always thought. It was markings that circled, he really didn't understand it. His mother never told him about it, but Iruka sensei once told him that it had something to do with the markings on his cheeks. He usually ignored them; they were two black lines on each cheek that looked like whiskers. He was always teased about it by the academy children.

He finally arrived at Ichiruka's, and pulled the curtain away to find the woman that he always found there serving customers, Ayame. At the time she was attending to another customer, he wore a black suit with a hood on so Yuzuki couldn't tell what the man looked like.

"Pork please," the man said to Ayame, but she just stood there staring at the man. It looked as if she would cry but then he raised his hand to signal this wasn't the time.

"I'd also like to make a special order," the man said secretively, and Ayame gave a more serious look at him.

She paused for a moment and replied with, "Please come with me." And so she led him to the kitchen and into a backroom. Yuzuki tried to see where they went but he couldn't see that far.

Sighing he looked around the shop to only see the steam coming from the kitchen. But then he heard a quiet rustling sound from behind him. He looked around but saw no one. Yuzuki decided that it was just some animal but then suddenly a woman appeared beside him sitting casually as if she had been sitting there the whole time.

"Sheesh kid, my instructor was always late but a student should never dilly dally." said the woman waving her thinger at him.

Yuzuki looked at the woman and asked, "Excuse me, but do I know you?" Yuzuki was still staring at her in amazement.

This woman had pink hair put into a ponytail, and her headband was wrapped around her breasts. She wore a small green vest that most Chunin wore that went down to the top of her stomach area. She wore small black shorts and overly sized hiker boots. Yuzuki found her extremely attractive, but she gave him a look like she was thinking he was a fool.

"You are your father's child aren't you…" the woman said going into something like a trance, or into deep thought staring and studying Yuzuki's face.

Yuzuki looked behind him in embarrassment, blushing and turned back asking, "So who are you exactly?"

The woman's eyes opened widely and so she said, "OH, so you'll be calling me Sensei!" she said standing with her thumbs up.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT! YOUR'E MY SENSEI!" Yuzuki yelled in astonishment falling out of his chair.

"Wow you are like your father…Oh well you'll be meeting your teammates today." The woman said picking Yuzuki up.

Yuzuki, puzzled, asked his sensei, "What do you mean I'm my fathers child, you say it so much?" and then he looked into his sensei's eyes. She was shocked by his question.

"Uh………." The woman said but was cut off by Ayame who just walked back in.

"Sorry if I'm interrupting but I thought I heard someone scream, is everything alright?" The Ayame asked.

But then she looked at Yuzuki's sensei and yelled, "Sakura! Your back, so how are you? Oh wait, Yuzuki what are you doing here?"

Yuzuki looked back at his sensei and said, "So you're Sakura! And you're one of the soldiers 5!"

"How do you know about the soldier five? You're only a Jonin! The soldiers five aren't known to most children of the leaf village!" Sakura said in astonishment

"My mother has a file cabinet in the basement, I know all of the soldiers five, Master Lee, Sakura, Lady of Hyuga, Sasuke Uchiha, and the last and greatest, Naruto!" Yuzuki said in awe of them all.

"So this kid doesn't know about naruto, good. Hinata should have known that kid would have found that cabinet. And Sasuke, poor Sasuke, he better not know about what happened." Sakura thought to herself.

"Come on now; let's go meet your new teammates." Sakura said changing the topic, then standing back up and holding out her hand.

"What? Uh, ok" Yuzuki said taking Sakura's hand and soon both of them disappeared, while Ayame at the shop looked around and then shrugged her shoulders.

Both bodies moved faster and faster through town, so fast that know one but ninja could really spot them. The reason Sakura was moving so fast (faster than a normal ninja) was because she was applying chakra to her feet, and releasing it with every step. Yuzuki held onto her hand for his life. He had never moved so fast in his life, and he thought that playing ninja was fun. Doing actual ninja stuff was way cooler he thought.