Chapter 2
It had been three years since that unfortunate day. Three years of roaming through forests and towns, trying to survive by eating the things that grow in the forest. Sometimes Kasumi had taken to begging or even stealing, but she didn't get nearly enough to last. She'd been slowly moving forward. Too slow, she thought. Her once happy looking eyes had turned empty. Her face was hollow. Her body had become thin, too thin, but muscular. In those three years she had not given up her training. She never would. She had sworn that she would go back to her village one day and show them just how strong she had become. Though, if she continued living like this she'd only grow weaker. She'd started to think that maybe it wasn't worth all this misery.
She was currently standing at the border of yet another forest. Kasumi jumped in the tree nearest to her to get a better view of the village. It looked rather rich. But that wasn't necessarily a good sign. Most rich people were actually much greedier than the less rich ones. She sighed. She'd have to rob someone. Unfortunately, she really wasn't all that good at stealing.
"Don't know until you try, right?" She muttered to herself. She jumped down again and started walking into the village. The streets were full of cheerful people, laughing at each other. How she longed to laugh again. She looked around. People were looking at her. She had learned that her forehead protector attracted attention. Negative attention, that is. So she removed it when in villages. Unfortunately she forgot to this time, she realized as she felt her hitai-ate. Suddenly two figures caught her attention and she immediately forgot her forehead protector. It wasn't really that big of a deal unless she was in enemy territory. The small village she was in now didn't have any shinobi so she was safe for the time being. 'They look rich enough.' She thought. They were both wearing the same cloaks; black with red clouds. As she followed them she noticed that the one lagging behind had long black hair pulled together. She couldn't see the other one's head, though. He was too far away.
If her mind had been working correctly, she would have noticed how people turned away from them, their faces contorted in disgust. But - maybe because of the lack of food, maybe because she didn't care - she didn't see it. As she caught up with the black haired one, she pulled on his sleeve slightly.
"Excuse me, sir. You wouldn't happen to have any food, would you?" She asked. The man stopped and looked at her hand on his sleeve and then turned to her. Kasumi backed away slightly, eyes open wide in shock. His eyes…they were red. With what seemed like three black dots in them. She stared at them. Never had she seen such fascinating, yet terrifying eyes before. She blinked and suddenly a fist was coming her way. Out of reflex, she dodged the attack and flipped backwards landing crouched on the ground.
"Geez, don't have to go all violent on me. Forget I asked." She muttered slightly hurt. 'He couldn't have, could he?'
"You're a ninja." he stated simply. She stood up straight with her hands on her hips and her head cocked slightly.
"Well duh…" She said as she pointed to her forehead. His eyes slid to her forehead for a second, but then back to her eyes. He paused, still staring at her with those creepy eyes. She was getting annoyed and was about to turn away when he said,
"You tried to rob me." She froze mid-step. 'How the hell did he know that?' Her eyes studied his face. There were lines on his face, accentuating his red eyes. He was actually rather handsome. She tried to find any emotion in his face, but there wasn't. She couldn't tell if he was angry. As her eyes slid to his forehead she flinched. A ninja… 'Smart move, Kasumi, very smart. Trying to rob a ninja. And a missing-nin, too. Wait… Missing-nin?'
"You're a missing-nin?" she questioned. He didn't answer as they stared at each other. She wondered where the other guy had gone as the guy's eyes looked behind her and then back at her so fast she didn't see it. "I'm sorry to have bothered you." Kasumi said as she was going to turn to walk away, but was stopped by his voice.
"What's your name?" She hesitated, not sure if she should tell him, but then decided a name wouldn't do any harm.
"Yuuki Kasumi. Yours?"
"Uchiha Itachi." He answered. She gave him one of her fake smiles and a little wave before she turned and walked away…into something solid.
"Itai. Gomennasai." She said before she looked up. It was that other guy. The guy grinned.
"Well, what do ya know, if it isn't-"
"Kisame." A warning voice sounded from behind her. 'Kisame? Oh my god!' She took a step back and bowed.
"It's an honor, Kisame-san. I've heard a lot about you and have always admired your strength… Though I would have been killed if I ever admitted that." She added with a tinge of hate.
"Would you look at that, I have a fan." Kisame's raspy voice sounded. She looked at his grinning face. "Ah, so you're a missing-nin too, eh? You don't look like a ninja" He continued. Kasumi's anger rose.
"You don't either."
"Touché."Kisame said grinning, while Kasumi scowled.
"Fish-man." She muttered. Kisame turned his gaze on her. He looked rather angry.
"What did you call me?" She squealed as he suddenly grabbed her neck and pulled her up. Her feet were of the ground and she was running out of oxygen. 'Geez, didn't know he was so sensitive…' She then proceeded to gather a constant amount of chakra in her upper body and made some seals with her hands.
"Shoushitsu no Jutsu" She managed to get out and smirked as she saw Kisame's eyes widen slightly. She disappeared from his grasp and landed a few meters behind Itachi. She dropped to her knees, panting heavily. "I definitely…need to…work on that…more." She panted.
"Interesting" A raspy voice said in front of her. She looked up at Kisame and smirked.
"It is, isn't it?" She said catching her breath. "It's a Bloodline Limit. But I don't have full control over it yet. It uses too much chakra, as you can see. So I don't use it often, only when absolutely necessary." She never realized that it could be dangerous to give away this much information on her Bloodline Limit. Kisame stared at her.
"How does it work?" He asked. Kasumi shrugged.
"I just gather a constant amount of chakra in my upper body, form the right seals and say 'shousitsu no jutsu'. That's all I was taught, really. Nobody bothered explaining anything to little, weak Kasumi." She said bitterly.
Over the years she had grown bitter towards her old village. She realized that nobody had actually cared about her. She had always known her father didn't. Her father had wanted a strong son who could one day become the Head. But since Kasumi was neither strong nor a guy, her father had hated her since he realized she would never become a strong ninja. Her friends, though…She had once thought they actually liked her. But she now realized they just hung with her because her father was an important man.
"Bastards." She muttered. Then she looked up with another one of her fake smiles. "Well, I'd better be going. Once again, I'm sorry I tried to rob you." She said turning to Itachi while rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "It was nice meeting you. I hope we'll meet again one day." Kisame grinned.
"I'm sure we will." Kasumi gave a small wave and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Kisame turned to Itachi. "Mind telling me why you cut me off like that?"
"She doesn't know."
"So that's why she acted so weird…" Kisame said. Itachi nodded. "Should we go after her?"
"Not now." Itachi said in his usual cold voice.
"They won't wait forever, Itachi-san. And it would be nice to keep most of the Akatsuki members alive."
"It was foolish of Deidera to be captured. We have better things to do than to save him." Itachi pointed out as he disappeared. Kisame stared at the spot Itachi had been standing at for a while, deep in thought, before he too disappeared.
Kasumi appeared at the border of the forest once again.
"Damn! Still didn't get any food. Oh well, the next village maybe. I wasn't really all that hungry, anyway." She said as she sighed before starting to run through the forest. 'Fire Country, here I come!'
"Damn it! Stupid rain!" Kasumi winced as she landed on another tree branch and looked at the kunai still sticking out her right shoulder. She had entered Fire Country a while ago and had been attacked immediately. A group of four shinobi passed by and she didn't have time to take off her hitai-ate. She had barely made it out alive. There were three kids that were obviously still Genin, so she managed to knock them out rather quickly. But their team leader had been difficult to deal with. The senbon he had had in his mouth was thrown at her which she easily dodged, though she hadn't expected it. Unfortunately it was meant as a distraction and she had ended up with the kunai in her shoulder. In the end she managed to knock him out by silently creating a replication and making it attack from behind. She was lucky, though. He didn't seem like the kind of guy that would normally fall for something that obvious. He probably had an off day. The wound she received, though, turned out to be more serious than she had thought at first. She had lost a lot of blood and was on the verge of fainting. And then it had started to bloody rain!
"Just a little rest." Kasumi muttered weakly as she jumped down on the road wincing in the process. She sat down against one of the trees, clutching her shoulder. She wanted to rip the stupid kunai out, but was afraid that that might cause even more damage and blood loss. At least she was out of the rain for now. Her eyes slowly drifted shut and moments later her breath steadied.
"Anou sa, anou sa, Kakashi-sensei? Are you sure we're going the right way?"
"Yes, Naruto." Kakashi answered sounding annoyed. Naruto had been asking the same question over and over again for the last fifteen minutes. He thought they were going in circles ever since he claimed that 'he had seen that tree already'.
"I just wanted to make su-" He was interrupted by a scream not too far away.
"What was that?" Sakura asked as Team 7 came to a stop. "Should we check it out, Kakashi-sensei?"
"Of course! Someone could be in danger! Let's go!" Naruto yelled and disappeared into the direction the scream came from. Kakashi shrugged.
"I guess we don't have a choice."
"We could leave him." Sasuke suggested. Fortunately for Naruto, nobody answered as they disappeared after Naruto. After a few minutes they saw Naruto. He was on his knees bending over something. As Team 7 landed behind him, Naruto said,
"Sakura, she needs your help." He said sounding serious all of a sudden. They walked closer to see a girl lying before them. Her black hair was wet from the sweat dripping down her forehead. She kept rolling around as if she was having a nightmare, muttering incoherently. Sakura knelt down next to the girl.
"She has a high fever." She stated as she felt the girl's forehead. "The wound on her shoulder doesn't look too good, either."
"Will she make it?" Naruto asked.
"She'll be fine as long as we take her to the hospital. I can do some emergency healing, but we need to get to Konoha. Give me a minute." Naruto nodded and stood up. As he walked over to Kakashi, he asked,
"How long until we get to Konoha?" Kakashi shrugged as he pulled out his famous, orange book.
"About 10 minutes."
"Do you think she's from Konoha?"
"I don't think so. I've never seen her before."
"She's not a ninja, either." Naruto asked taking in her thin body covered by black knee-length shorts and a red halter top.
"Yes, she is." Sasuke said. Naruto turned to him.
"What makes you think that?"
"She has ninja gear, dobe." He said simply.
"What did you call me?" Naruto growled.
"Sensei!" Sakura's voice sounded. They quickly walked over to her. The kunai lay next to the girl and her shoulder had been bandaged. Sakura smiled up at them. "We're ready to go now. One of you needs to carry her." Kakashi just read his book while Sasuke glared at her.
"I'll carry her!" Naruto said enthusiastically. Sakura stood up and cleaned her hands as Naruto carefully lifted the girl onto his back. "Ready? Let's go!" Naruto jumped back into the trees and disappeared, soon followed by Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke.
Kasumi groaned and slowly opened her eyes letting them adjust to the light.
"Ugh, how long have I been asleep?" she said to no one in particular. Imagine her surprise when someone actually answered.
"About 6 hours." Kasumi jumped and reached for her weapon pouch, only to find out it wasn't there. Her eyes slid to the person next to her bed. It was a woman with long blond hair and honey brown eyes. She was writing something down. Then she looked at her and smiled.
"Don't worry, you're safe now."
"Safe? I don't recall ever being in danger. Who are you and where am I?" The woman sat down next to the bed.
"You're in the Konoha Hospital. I'm a medic and this village's Hokage."
"Hokage? Whoa…How did I get here?"
"A group of Konoha shinobi was on their way back to the village when they heard a scream. They went to check it out and found you, injured."
Kasumi blinked. "I screamed?" the woman nodded.
"Probably because of the high fever. They said you looked like you were having a nightmare. But you'll be fine now. You just need some rest and then you'll be on your way."
"On my way?"
"Yes. You're not from around here, right?"
Kasumi nodded. 'How did they know? They can't have looked in my bag. They wouldn't be so nice to me if they had.' After the fight she had ended up in right after entering Fire Country, she had taken off her forehead protector and put it in her bag. "Where's my bag?" She asked. The woman frowned, but then pointed across the room. Kasumi sighed in relief as she saw her bag lying against the wall. Her katana was put next to it.
"What's your name?" The Hokage asked carefully. She thought the girl was acting strange. The girl smiled, but she could see it was fake.
"Yuuki Kasumi. Would you mind telling me yours, Hokage-sama?" She asked politely.
"My name is Tsunade"
"Tsunade-baa-chan? Is she awake yet?" A voice yelled.
"Don't yell Naruto! This is a hospital!" Tsunade yelled right back. Naruto opened the door and grinned.
"Gomen." Then he smiled at Kasumi. "You're awake!" She nodded shyly. After being pretty much alone every day for 3 years, meeting such a noisy guy can be kind of overwhelming.
"Are you the one that saved me?" Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and said,
"One of them. Sakura-chan actually healed you, but I helped bring you to Konoha!"
"Sakura, huh? Well…thanks, I guess."
"Anou sa, you're a ninja, right?" Kasumi's eyes widened in shock.
"How did you know that?"
"Your weapon pouch."
"Oh…err…yes, I'm a ninja. You are, too, right? What's your name?" He pointed his thumb at his forehead protector and grinned.
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo! I'm a ninja and will be the Hokage one day!"
"Really? That's very ambitious." 'Uzumaki Naruto, huh? I've heard that name before…'
"Naruto, you'll have to leave now. She needs to rest." Tsunade said. Naruto looked disappointed, but nodded.
"Just one question: What's your name?"
"Yuuki Kasumi." She answered. Naruto turned around and walked to the door.
"Bye Kasumi! Get well soon so I can introduce you to my team!"
"I will. Bye Naruto." He waved and closed the door. Kasumi turned to Tsunade who looked deep in thought.
"Hokage-sama?" Tsunade looked up.
"Oh sorry, I was just thinking about something." She stood up. "Get some rest and I'll check up on you later."
Kasumi nodded. "Okay, thanks."
Tsunade nodded and walked away. After the door closed Kasumi lay back down. 'Well, at least I got into Konoha, though it didn't go quite like I planned.' She closed her eyes, attempting to sleep, but she felt wide awake. Then she tried concentrating on her breath. 'Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.' Suddenly she felt a piercing stare. She sat up straight and looked at the window on the left side, but saw nothing. 'Weird.' She thought as she lay down and closed her eyes again. The feeling didn't return for the rest of the evening.
Another chapter of this story! I'm going to be very busy for a while, but school ends in about 2-3 weeks and then I'll be going to America for 4 weeks. So I'll have enough time to write and upload then and after that. :)
Of course, I'd really appreciate it if you'd review!
Thnx! SilverHearts.
