They had been travelling almost non-stop for nearly four days.
"Why aren't we there yet?" Yumi whined impatiently as they stopped for lunch. Kabuto finished eating an apple before he responded.
"The Leaf village is a good week's journey from the Hidden Mist. You can only travel so fast, so it would be impossible for us to already be there." She pouted and took a bite out of her own apple.
"So that means it will take three more days to get there? I guess I shouldn't be too impatient. Maybe I should start trying to think of a cover story." Kabuto laughed as he stood up.
"If we run we can get there in two days. And I would have thought your cover story was quite obvious."
"Really, how?" she was stumped.
"You're wearing Mist village clothes. Your cover should be that of a refugee from the partially destroyed Mist village."
"Oh, I get it now." She smiled, lightly hitting herself on the head. "That was pretty obvious wasn't it?" She climbed to her feet. "Alright then, let's get going." She ran off ahead at a much faster pace than before. He shook his head, chasing after her.
"You can't keep this up forever." He pointed out after an hour as she started to falter.
"It's not my fault! You're not tired at all." Kabuto sighed; she really was a stubborn kid.
"I'm older than you, remember?" They slowed their pace. When it started to get dark they called it a day. Her little burst of speed had taken more out of Yumi than she cared to admit and, although she protested the early stop, it was only a half-hearted attempt.
After two more days of travel they had made it to within an hour's journey to the Hidden Leaf village. Night had already fallen by that time though, so Kabuto neglected to mention the fact since Yumi would want to keep going. They only slept for a short period of time that night, Kabuto insisting they get up before dawn.
"We're almost there. I can't come with you for much longer, you realise that right?" she nodded, albeit unhappily. With that settled they continued forward, walking and a normal pace so they could hear if someone was approaching them. They were halfway to the Leaf when they sensed people coming towards them. Kabuto glanced back.
"There's four of them. Quick, give me your belt, I have to go now." She handed him her belt, but insisted on keeping her sound headband. Shoving it in the bottom of her bag she watched Kabuto disappear into the forest. She was just about to start walking again when they caught up with her. At first it seemed like they would just pass by and ignore her, but then the silver-haired man stopped and turned to her.
"I haven't seen you in the village before, are you visiting?" he asked as the two young boys he was with began to argue. Yumi nodded, putting on a shy act. "Where are you from? We're just heading back now, do you want to come with us?"
"I came from the village hidden in the Mist." She offered timidly. The man's eye widened in surprise.
"Really? That's a long way to travel by yourself." His expression turned serious. "I heard about what happened there. Is that why you came?" The two boys shut up.
"Kakashi-sensei, what are you talking about?" the young pink haired girl asked.
"Nothing, nothing." He hedged. "Well, let's go together then, since we're all heading to the same place." He started walking and everyone else, Yumi included, followed behind him. The pink haired girl came over to walk with Yumi.
"Hi. My name is Sakura Haruno. That idiot over there -" she pointed to the blonde guy in the orange clothes, "- is Naruto Uzumaki." She then pointed at the black haired boy in the blue clothes. "The other one is Sasuke Uchiha." Yumi froze on the inside. She hadn't even put one foot in the Leaf village but she had already stumbled across the infamous Uchiha boy that her father wanted so badly. "What's your name?" Sakura asked her.
"I'm Yumi." Sakura looked at her expectantly. Yumi wracked her brain for a name to use as a last name, since she'd never needed one before and had never known her own. "Yumi Fujikawa." They passed through the main gate into the Leaf village and headed towards a tall green building near a cliff which had people's faces carved onto it. Meeting them sure made it easier to get into the village without being questioned too much. Yumi thought to herself.
"Alright then. Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, you are all dismissed now." Kakashi ordered when they reached the bottom of the stairs. "Yumi, please come with me." Sakura looked like she was going to protest, but gave up before she even started.
"Come and find me when you're finished Yumi. I'll show you around the village." She smiled and ran off. Kakashi headed up the stairs and Yumi followed behind him, thinking up a good story to tell Tsunade when they questioned her.
"Here we are." He said, stopping in front of a set of double doors. He knocked on the door and waited patiently.
"Come in." called a bored female voice. He pushed the door open, revealing a blonde woman sitting behind a desk and a black haired woman standing at her side. "Ah Kakashi, how did the mission go?" she leaned forward in her chair, arms resting on the desk.
"Oh, that. The mission was successful." He ushered Yumi into the room to stand beside him.
"Who's that?" Tsunade asked, an expression on borderline interest on her face.
"This is…"
"Yumi." She offered, remembering that only Sakura had actually asked her name.
"Yeah, Yumi." Kakashi rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "She came here from the village hidden in the Mist. Since we haven't had time to send any shinobi out to investigate I thought she might be able to give us some details."
"I see. Go ahead then Yumi." Tsunade sounded bored again, it was obvious that she didn't really care.
"I didn't actually see what happened, since I was hiding with my mother." She improvised. "But whoever attacked was strong enough to easily overpower our strongest shinobi. Everyone who tried to fight was killed, yet they spared those who didn't try to fight them. The only people left are elders, children and a few civilians." The black haired woman nearly dropped her pig.
"Lady Tsunade, if what this child says is true then we have a serious problem on our hands!" Tsunade glared at her.
"Calm down Shizune. You shouldn't jump to conclusions like that. This does seem like something we need to investigate though." Yumi cringed, that wasn't what she was planning on happening. She would have to send another message to Orochimaru. "Look at that Shizune!" Tsunade had noticed Yumi's uncomfortable expression. "You're scaring the poor child. You can go now Yumi." Her voice was softer when she gave Yumi permission to leave. She nodded and walked slowly out of the room. Once she was out of sight she sprinted down the stairs and ran around, looking for a secluded area to summon her serpent messenger. She found what she was looking for behind the hokage's building in a slightly forested area. Yumi sat down cross-legged on the ground and pulled out her scroll. She wasn't actually planning on summoning Kara; she only needed to talk to her. She closed her eyes and concentrated on finding the snake she needed.
"Kara, are you there?" she asked, reaching out with her mind.
"Hey Yumi, what's happening? Two summoning's in one week, is something wrong?" Kara's voice echoed in Yumi's head.
"Not exactly. Are you still near the hideout? I need you to take another message to my father." Kara made a hissing noise.
"I really don't like that man Yumi. Can't you use someone else? Oh never mind, I'm already here. What's the message?"
"I'm sorry, I forgot that you don't like being around him." She bit her lip, distressed that she would forget such an important fact about her favourite snake. "Tell him that the situation has changed. The Leaf is likely to send out shinobi to investigate the Mist village, so he should stay away from it until further notice as while they are there the Mist is once again a huge threat." Kara sighed.
"Do you mind if I abbreviate that?" the snake wondered.
"Sure, as long as you get the main point across." She heard footsteps coming slowly towards her. "Sorry Kara, someone's coming so I have to go." Yumi shoved the scroll back into her pocket and stood up slowly, pretending she hadn't noticed the person standing behind her.
"What are you doing?" asked a disinterested male voice.
"That's none of your business." She snapped as she turned around, cringing when she realised she had let her temper get the better of her. Her cover of a shy timid person had just blown out the window. The boy smirked.
"I guess you're not such a wimp after all." She glared at Sasuke, hands clenched by her sides.
"Who are you to talk? You don't seem so tough. You've obviously got a bad attitude though. I don't know why Sakura likes you so much." She mentally kicked herself. Sakura hadn't said anything of the sort; she just assumed that was the deal with the way she looked at him.
"Don't look at me, I can't tell you why." He shrugged. "Anyway, I was going to do some training here, but you're in the way, so I'll go somewhere else."
"Don't bother." She called after him as he went to leave. "I was going to leave anyway. Sakura said she was going to show me around. There's no point in making myself hard to find." Yumi pushed past him and walked out to the main street.
"Yumi, that's where you were!" She spun around and found Sakura running over to her. "I asked Kakashi-sensei but he wasn't very helpful." The two girls wandered off into the town together.
- Time Skip -
After about an hour Sakura had shown Yumi almost every place in the Leaf.
"This shop here" she pointed to a small shop "is Ichiraku Ramen. They have really good food, so you really should check it out some time." Just as they were walking past a familiar blonde boy stepped out of the store.
"Oh hey Sakura! What brings you here? Were you looking for me?" Naruto had a goofy grin on his face.
"How many bowls of ramen did you eat this time Naruto?" She asked, suddenly irritated. He screwed up his face, thinking, and Sakura took the chance to run, dragging Yumi along with her. "He really gets on my nerves sometimes." Sakura was muttering to herself.
"Yumi, can you hear me?" Yumi stopped dead in the middle of the street. Sakura kept walking, lost in her own world.
"What is it Kara?" She whispered as quietly as she could, concentrating on connecting with the snakes mind.
"Oh good, you can hear me." She moved to sit down; people were giving here strange looks since she was standing in the middle of the road. "Well I did what you asked me to do, but I don't think he exactly followed your thoughts. I didn't stick around for too long after I delivered it, but it seemed to me like he was planning to go visit the Mist himself."
"Damnit! He's such an idiot!" She muttered louder than necessary just as Naruto walked past her.
"I agree, although I wouldn't dare say it." Naruto glared at her and she quickly cut off her conversation with Kara. Yumi jumped up and walked over to him.
"I wasn't talking about you back there."
"I never said you were."
"Then why do you seem so damn mad at me? I didn't do anything wrong!" Yumi frowned angrily. Naruto laughed.
"You sure are weird, you know that?" She glared at him. "Calm down. Did you lose Sakura? I'll help you find her okay?" With that simple statement she found herself wandering around the town once more, this time with a different guide.
"It'll take forever to find her like this." She complained. He glanced over at her.
"You have a good point." He jumped up onto the roof of a building and made a hand sign. "Shadow clone jutsu!" There was a puff of smoke and all of a sudden there were five Narutos. Yumi gasped in surprise. "We'll find her easily like this." He sent one of his shadow clones of in each direction and sat down to wait. Yumi jumped up beside him.
"That sure is an odd jutsu." She pointed out, leaning back against the roof tiles. Ten minutes later they had found and re-joined Sakura. She seemed annoyed that Naruto had tagged along but she hid it well. The walked around aimlessly for the rest of the day, telling Yumi about the village.
A/N: This chapter is basically just her introduction to the Leaf. Nothing very interesting happening there. Why does Orochimaru insist on going to the Mist? Don't ask me, I don't know :P I don't know when the next chapter will be up, today was a snow day so it meant I had more time than usual to work on it.
