Shikamaru hated going on useless missions. They were far too…troublesome. As he leapt from tree to tree, he could not help but think about his fallen friends. Sakura's birthday would have been yesterday. He planned to put new flowers on her grave when he got back to the village. Sakura had been on a useless escort mission when she died. Another reason to hate useless missions.

He didn't want to think about it anymore. He focused his brilliant mind elsewhere. That elsewhere turned out to be his girlfriend. Temari of the sand. He knew that Danzou greatly disliked the fact that the two of them were meant for each other. But then again Danzou does not know emotion.

Temari was being escorted back to Suna by a team of ninja. This team consisted of Sai, Ino, Lee, Neji, and Tenten. The last 3 messengers from Suna had mysteriously been murdered. Whether Danzou decided to admit or not, Konoha needed the sand's trade routes. They needed to send secure messages back and forth. Hence the reason for the escort.

Shikamaru was pulled out of his thoughts by a kunai going straight past his head leaving a small scratch on the cheek. He immediately went it to a fighting stance. He figured out that the kunai had been thrown from his right side. He was on his way back from collecting protection money from a village near the border of the wind country. He was only a short while away from Konoha. But he did not want to lead whoever it was that was following him back to Konoha.

Silence. That was all he heard for the next 10 minutes. The rustling of trees from the wind, and the chirping of birds were all that came to his ears. He used his chakra to scan the nearby area for chakra signatures. He found an extremely faint one not too far from his position.

He headed towards its unmoving location. This had to be a rookie ninja who had missed him with the kunai, because he knew that this unknown ninja could sense his chakra but was not moving. In fact it was even making the slightest movement.

What met Shikamaru's eyes was not at all what he had expected. There in a clearing where the signature ended, was a body. A cloaked body. Shikamaru cautiously moved towards the body, making sure that it was not a trap. He moved the body so that the face could be seen. He didn't recognize it. A wave of relief washed over his mind. He could tell that it was a man and definitely a ninja. He had a headband around his neck. Shikamaru moved his large cloak down so that the neck could be seen. A sound headband met his gaze.

Damn.


Ok. So this is the first chapter after the prolouge. For those of you are wondering. Here are the questions my reviewers had:

Is Maya an OC? Yes she is an OC, she is Sasuke's twin sister, she was banished from the uchiha clan because she is a jinchuuriki. The demon sealed inside of her is Deiden a nine-tailed fox. Deiden and Kyuubi are brother and sister. She and sasuke can also communicate telepathically and are very close. She is also extremely skilled.

What are the pairings? NarutoXHinata, SasukeXSakura, InoXSai, GaaraXMaya, ShikamaruXTemari, NejiXTenten,