Chapter 1: Lost

The surface of the water exploded violently, just before a figure emerged from it, running off towards the bank in a hurried manner. He ran quickly over the way, using chakra control to enable him to run across the surface of the water. He stopped some distance away, watching as someone suddenly floated to the surface, coming upwards as if she was climbing up from the watery depths below.

The female figure suddenly dashed at him, the speed at which she was moving at parted the water of the large massive river, as if it blew up in her wake. The male figure parried the blow as she came sailing towards him, slamming her arms towards his face. Despite the force she applied, he was still able to withstand her blow.

" Sora, cut it out this very instant! If you continue this further..." the male snarled at the female named Sora.

" So what, Hiroshi?! What are you going to make me do?" Sora asked, laughing loudly.

" Oi, what are you idiots doing?!" another voice called out from behind them.

Sora and Hiroshi broke off immediately, only to see Ryouta standing at the river bank, smiling at them while shaking his head. Sora was laughing gleefully, while Hiroshi looked very irritated, looking at his now wet clothes.

" Don't ask me. I was trying to get some fresh water when this moron jumped on me," Hiroshi replied. " You are damn lucky we are crossing the desert soon, and my clothes will dry soon. Crazy woman."

" Aww, I was just having some fun," Sora replied, laughing it off.

" Hardly. You are probably just jealous that I've become a jounin," Hiroshi muttered.

" Bah...although I should say that's an excellent achievement from someone who was practically dead last in the academy," Sora replied. " Congrats, our village must be desperate to make you a jounin."

" Sora, don't belittle Hiroshi's capabilities. The jounin council had every reason to promote Hiroshi to a jounin. Honestly, he was fairly capable at a jounin level even from before, perhaps only lacking in some experience," Ryouta rebuked her. " Oh, and before I forget, I need to ask what did you get him?"

" Huh?" Sora mused.

" For Hiroshi's promotion. I'm sure you would have gotten something for him, right?" Ryouta asked.

" ...What did you give?" Sora questioned.

Hiroshi drew out a small blade, before sticking it on the ground before him as he sat down and checked his stuff, making sure they were fine despite having been soaked in water. " A neat weapon, considering now that I can use elemental manipulation properly," Hiroshi replied. " So, do you have one or not?"

" Sheeh, demanding, aren't you?" Sora mused, before digging into her pack and taking out a packet and tossing it to Hiroshi. Hiroshi took a good look at it. In it was apparently some sort of white powder.

" ...Is this...?"

" It's not what you think it is, punk. I know you have been doing some research on poisons. I took the effort to go north to collect some samples of the nuts you sorely needed, and even grinding them into the powdered form you needed," Sora replied with a huff. " Now, say thank you."

Hiroshi merely looked at the packet, before keeping it and continuing with whatever he was doing previously.

" Oi, I said say thank you, to me!" Sora shouted at him.

Hiroshi looked at her and made a face. " Sheeh, demanding, aren't you?" Hiroshi mused.

-

The three of them continued to make their way towards the Sand village. They weren't there on any official business, but they somehow managed to bug their Hokage until she gave in and allowed them to go. Hiroshi was especially more than eager to go to the Sand village, because this would mean that he would be able to meet his sweetheart Suzumi. Their relationship had been progressing at a very slow rate, since they didn't get too many chances to meet up with one another as they come from different villages. Still, they had silently promised themselves for each other, and Hiroshi was patient enough to wait for her.

With Hiroshi's promotion, this meant that all six of them, including their Sand comrades, were now full-fledged jounins, elite shinobis of their own respective villages. It was a fairly good accomplishment for someone of their age, as they were all only 19 years of age. Ryouta got his promotion first, which was right after the event that transpired four years ago where they had to escort a Grass lord's daughter, Lady Kaguya, back to her home country to avoid a civil war. Ryouta got the promotion as he managed to lead their team to successfully return Lady Kaguya in one piece.

Ryouta had been offered a position in ANBU, to serve as one of the captains, but he declined the offer, because to enter ANBU was to separate himself from his old teammates, something he was still reluctant to do, and it was to Hiroshi's relief that he didn't accept it. There was no one more capable than Ryouta to pull off any type of mission presented to them. With Shikamaru officially resigning from their team once Ryouta became an official jounin, Ryouta had been officially delegated as their team's leader, which was an obvious choice, for their three man team.

Ryouta's name was now spreading far and wide, and almost everyone in all countries have at least heard of the name of the one called the Phoenix of Konoha. Ryouta's exploits went far and wide, his most famous fight was during one stormy night in the Waterfall country. Ryouta had been sent along with some other people to deal with some rogue assassination cell made up of missing-nins. Word was that he managed to kill four jounin level shinobis single-handedly. Whenever people asked him about the matter, Ryouta would merely smile at them and shrug his shoulders.

Ryouta had grown up to become a fine, young man, with sharp handsome features any girl would want to die for. He had a well-built body, which was kept in an excellent shape. His crop of dark red hair swayed on his head whenever the wind blew, and the looks on his deep blue eyes showed that he had grown up and seen a lot of things in his life, which gave him a very mature look. He was the only one among their team to wear the standard Leaf tactical vest.

Sora was fairly famous as well, in a bad kind of way. Sora had yet to relinquish her violent and volatile nature, and picking fights at random was her forte. Her love for fighting had not diminished over the years, but in fact, according to Hiroshi's account, probably grew exponentially over the years. She loved scaring the students at the academy, despite having some of the them looking up to her, especially the females in the group, since they saw a very independent and brave kunoichi, but no doubt dangerous, in Sora.

Sora is known to be the only Leaf kunoichi to ever master a whole slew of sound techniques obtained from their old enemies, the Sound-nins. Slightly frowned upon, but nevertheless, everyone didn't mind since Sora would always get the job done. Hiroshi was always worried about her using her techniques which were potentially harmful, but since she had kept to her promise to wear most of the custom made stuff made by Hiroshi, like her fingerless gloves and bandages that were wrapped around her chest and arms to soften the damage from channelling sound energies, he tried not to pester her too much about watching out for her body.

Sora still kept her silver hair short, regarding long hair as a sign of feminity, which to her was a sign of weakness. However, as an interesting touch, after becoming a jounin, she did get her ears pierced, and wore earrings from time to time, which was a source of entertainment for them for a while since this was highly unusual, since she was pretty much a tomboy anyway, and her attire said it all. Dressed in a tank-top, short jeans and some pack strapped to her belt, she would have looked like a very pretty guy if not for the presence of her breasts on her chest.

Hiroshi managed to pass the qualifications to become a jounin about a week ago. Unlike the Chuunin exam, where nominations were set by the jounin instructor, the selection for a jounin was done by the jounin council. Hiroshi managed to get an 80% approval vote from the 65% require to enter the exam. It was far more gruelling than the Chuunin exams, having the need to pass multiple written examinations and practicals that lasted two weeks. He was pretty much dead tired by the end of it, and he was grateful he didn't need to sit it all again when they said he passed.

Hiroshi was also promoted to an assistant medical researcher of the Leaf, which meant he had a lot of responsibilities now. Not only did he function as a medic, he also did a lot of research in medicine, looking up techniques, cures and antidote, and the likes. This was also coupled by the fact he was one of the best weapon manufacturers of his village, and this was the very reason why he had a bounty on his head.

His bounty had now grown to 45 million ryou now, and Shikamaru was not kidding when he said people will be after his head. Hiroshi had a run in with at least 15 attempts since his bounty was issued, and he was not allowed to leave the village unless he was minimally accompanied with either his two teammates, or someone else of equal rank and skill. Still, Hiroshi was a fairly competent combatant anyway, and he excelled in deception, which was good for running away from people who were after his head.

Hiroshi figured that he was blessed with good eyes, since he had to spend long hours in the library, most of the time in the middle of the night, reading through medical texts and research papers, along with other academic stuff, and yet his vision was still strangely perfect. He had a habit of wearing a thick cloak this time which covered most of his body, usually a long cotton one in his favourite colour, marine blue. He found it easier to slip out his weapon scrolls and puppets much more discreetly, not to mention he could hide his hands easier when he fought, allowing to conceal his movements somewhat, least someone decided to read his puppets attacks by observing his fingers.

" Holy cow, there it is!" Sora exclaimed, pointing towards the front.

The Sand village lay before them, sticking out like a sore thumb in the middle of the desert. It hadn't changed much, and if it did, all three of them couldn't possibly see the difference. The architecture was bland anyway, and downright boring. Hiroshi always wondered if the Sand-nins ever got sick of the monotonous colour.

All of them made their way towards the front entrance. A few guards met them there, and after checking their identification, allowed them to enter. Sora started to skip around happily as she entered the village.

" Oh for God's sake, please act your age," Hiroshi groaned, noticing people were looking at them. " Ryouta, stop her!"

" She listens to you more, and if she doesn't, what am I supposed to do?" he replied, laughing out loud.

" Damn, you are useless..." Hiroshi moaned.

All three of them walked through the streets. Hiroshi wasn't sure where to head off first, so Ryouta suggested that they either visit one of their companions houses, and since most of the time, due to the company and space, the guys hung around Suzumi's home, they decided to visit her home first.

" Can we buy something to eat?" Sora asked.

" I just made you something to eat in less than two hours. Is your stomach an infinite black hole?" Hiroshi mused. " And my answer is yes, provided you pay for it yourself. Stop scrounging off Ryouta and me. You are by far much more well off than the two of us."

" Scrooge," Sora mused.

" We can get something to eat later, and let our Sand friends pay for it, so why don't we find them, huh?" Ryouta replied, before noticing something. " Hmm, speak of the devil, I think...nope, I can see Suzumi in front of us."

And Ryouta was right. Right in front of them was Suzumi, walking through the crowd, as if idly walking past, looking at all the stall nearby. She was strangely alone, since she was usually seen with at least Makoto, Hibiki, or one of her academy friends. Still, they were delighted to see her so quickly. Sora instantly ran up to her before either boys could even stop her.

Without warning, Sora suddenly caught Suzumi from behind, hugging her tightly while rubbing her cheeks on a visibly surprised Suzumi. " Ooohhh, I haven't done this in a while...Suzumi, how I you? Your sister misses you," Sora replied in an almost girlish voice, or as girlish as she could make her voice go.

Suzumi reacted in a way none of them had expected: she screamed, hysterically.

Sora instantly released her as if she had ignited a bomb, but Suzumi would not stop screaming. Everyone in the entire street was now looking at the scene now, Suzumi's scream piercing all of their ears painfully. Hiroshi didn't even know she could hurt them in such a way, and from the looks of it, she didn't seem like she was about to stop. Worst, from the sound of it, it sounded as if she was screaming in fear.

" Suzumi...I'm sorry...please stop...I'm sorry..." Sora pleaded, and when Suzumi didn't show any signs of slowing down. " Oh, fuck this! If this is some sort of joke, even I won't be vaguely amused! Hiroshi, do something before your girlfriend breaks my eardrums!"

Ryouta and Hiroshi were stumped, not too sure what to do. Perhaps totally taken aback by Suzumi's sudden terrified reaction towards seeing them, they could only stand where they were while looking at Suzumi, their hands to their ears. Hiroshi was only brought back to his senses when all of a sudden Suzumi started to add words to her screams, namely the words " Help me" being repeated very loudly over and over again.

...What?...What has happened to Suzumi?...Hiroshi thought to himself, unable to believe the girl standing while screaming her head off was the Suzumi he knew. Rushing up to her, he suddenly grabbed hold of her shoulder while trying to shake her. " Stop this, Suzumi! Why are you screaming?! We are..."

He didn't get to finish his message, because Suzumi's hand started to glow a faint blue colour all of a sudden. He recognised it as the standard technique when applying healing jutsus. She raised her arm upwards, before bringing it down with an insane amount of force on his left arm.

Hiroshi could only stand there, practically paralysed as she smashed and sliced his arm to bits, tearing his cloak's left side to shreds. Her hands now mimicked the sharpness of a scalpel, which could easily tear through his body. He was God damned lucky that she managed to destroy his puppet arm, as it shatters to bits the instant she touched him, and she could have easily destroyed his other arm just as easily.

However, the thing that paralysed Hiroshi was not the attack, but the look in Suzumi's eyes when she looked at him. Fear was evident in her eyes, but the thing that he noticed the most was this disgusting hatred that seemed to be seeping out from her body.

" ...Suzumi?" Hiroshi could only gasp as she raised her hand, aiming for his neck this time.

Sora and Ryouta reacted instantly, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him backwards. Still, Suzumi was surprisingly quick enough to hit Hiroshi, nicking his neck slightly even as Sora and Ryouta pulled Hiroshi away from danger. Blood spurted from his neck from the cut, but Hiroshi was lucky it wasn't a deep cut. An extra half a centimetre, he would have probably died from the resulting bloodloss.

" Suzumi, are you...?!"

Suzumi didn't give Sora the time to reply. She launched herself at them, like a frenzied beast, kicking both Ryouta and Sora aside, falling backwards in a heap. She then pounced on Hiroshi like an expert hunter, grabbing him by the lapels of his cloak as she sat on top of his body, his neck bleeding from the cut she gave him, her arms raised, with the intent of killing him on the spot.

Only to be saved when Hibiki and Makoto appeared out of nowhere to catch Suzumi just as she was about to kill Hiroshi.

Both of them grabbed an arm each, and using another free arm, grabbed her by the neck, and slammed her onto a wall, pinning her hard as she tried to break free. Hiroshi had never seen Suzumi overpower any of them before, as in terms of strength she was the weakest amongst all of them, yet now, even with Hibiki and Makoto's combined strength, she seemed to be forcing them to use all their strength to withhold her back. In fact, given enough time, she would probably break free.

" Guys!" Ryouta exclaimed, getting up and moving towards them.

" Stop! Stay right there if you value your life!" Hibiki shot back.

" Suzumi! Stop! It's alright, they are your friends...look at me, I am not lying...calm down...please..." Makoto begged.

Upon hearing his voice, like magic, she stopped struggling, before collapsing on the ground, panting heavily, her eyes totally unfocused. Sora helped Hiroshi up, allowing him to heal his neck, least he fainted from blood loss.

" Oi, what the fuck is this shit all about?! That was so not funny! I'm going to break a couple of kneecaps unless someone explain to me what the hell just happened!" Sora spat sounding angry.

Makoto raised his hand up to her, showing her to stop. " Please, don't agitate her any more....Suzumi..." Makoto replied, panting heavily. " Suzumi...she has lost her memory..."