This chapter will probably be the longest one I'll write, but I really needed to put this all in one chapter because it is only the beginning of the story.

I don't own Naruto; if I did I would be looking over Masashi Kishimoto shoulder as he drew the next chapter.

Hope you like this chapter.

The morning started like most others. Alarm annoyed the shit out of me until I got up and turned it off. Cereal for breakfast and was out of the house by 5am. Usually I would train in my secret spot a while but the Tsuchikage wanted my team early. I walked through the array of smooth stone structure, relishing the quiet before the shops started to open and people crowded the streets. But it was all over too quick as I reached the tallest building in the village, the Tsuchikage's palace. I sighed; I had a bad feeling about this mission.

Suddenly, I felt a presence behind me and braced myself for what was coming next.

"BOO!" Puru hollered in my ear then fell back laughing hysterically, his cropped crimson hair falling about his face.

I stuck my finger in my ear, trying to fish out the echo stuck in it, putting on the majorly unimpressed look.

"Maybe you should practice your stealth a bit more before you try that again. You kicked a stone." I lied.

An impish grin appeared on his face.

"Still gave you a fright."

"No it didn't. I was trying to stop my brains from being blasted out the other ear."

"Sure you were." He replied, mock rolling his eyes.

I repressed another sigh as more footsteps approached from behind.

"Superior daybreak all." Takau called, stopping to help Puru off the ground. "Shall we go see what we are required for?"

"Shut up, man!" I sighed "Once again it sounds like you are reciting bad poetry."

Takau smoothed back his dark hair and winked at me.

"Lady's adore gentleman who perform poetry."

I gave him a glare saying, "Yes they do, but they don't like people who swallow dictionaries and start spewing random words out"

"Ouch."

"Come on guys," Puru piped up. "We're gana be late!"

As the other two sprung onto the third story deck I felt a ping of annoyance. Why did they get to be so tall? Sure at 166cm I wasn't exactly short but they still towered over me. I swept my sun kissed brown hair over my shoulders, felt it settle just below them and followed my team mates up. Sorasu sensei and Tsuchikage Onoki were already waiting in the small grey room.

"Humph," Tsuchikage grumbled, "Now that you're all here I will brief you on the mission."

Whenever Sorasu and Tsuchikage stood next to each other it made me laugh, they were complete opposites. While Tsuchikage was old, had white hair, hunched over with a big nose covered in sunspots and round cunning eyes, Sorasu was tall, young and dark green haired, calm wise eyed with a slightly small nose. Noting that the atmosphere wasn't really right for laughing, I concentrated on my focus word and managed to keep a straight face.

Tsuchikage continued. "We have been offered a very high price for an A ranked mission. A very wealthy hotel and casino owner's daughter has run away to the Country of Fire and he wants us to bring her back home. I have chosen your group to go because you specialise in live retrieval. And everyone else was busy."

I glowered at him. To translate it properly, he would rather not send us but wants the money so he has no choice, I thought.

"You are to leave right now; Sorasu has a map and a picture of the girl."

Puru opened his mouth to speak but Tsuchikage talked over him with a smirk on his face.

"If you aren't packed I don't care, you should be prepared next time."

Puru closed his mouth again putting his puppy pout on, which was ignored; he never prepared for missions.

"Oh," Tsuchikage started again, "I don't give a crap if we're related Jikko, I will not take failure as an option."

The pay must have been good for him to say that. He knew I hated to be compared to him in any way, so that was pretty bad incentive to pass the mission. I filled my voice with as much venom as possible as I fired my retort.

"As far as I'm concerned, we're not related."

With that I turned and jumped down to the ground. When the others appeared there was no mention of my statement.

"OK,' Sorasu said in his business voice, "it's a four day journey from here to our destination. We leave now."

With that we took off towards the gate. Puru was still looking sulky so I decided to ease his worry. I jumped up beside him.

"Hey," I whispered, grabbing his attention. "I packed enough stuff for you too."

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

The trip there was pretty uneventful. It was Takau's and my first time into the land of fire so the border cross was pretty exhilarating. This is also where the guy who gave me the locket came from, I thought excitedly. I knew the chances of seeing him were slim but there was still a chance.

We slowed as we approached our destination. It was around mid-day so the light was in their favour; we had to take a lot of precautions. Puru was the best stealth ninja in our team. He placed a camouflage jutsu over us before we jumped into a tree for a better look. Amidst a few saplings, in a small clearing in the forest a couple of hundred meters away, was a little hut. The choice to approach from down-wind was a good one. Patrolling outside were two white shapes, a ninja and his rather large dog.

I heard Takau snigger.

"This will be easy." He whispered.

"Do you really think he will be the only one?" Sorasu asked rhetorically.

He was proven right when the door of the hut opened. A scene of four people was shown, one coming out, before the door closed again. A kid with bright yellow hair and an orange jacket plonked himself down on the top step. A loud moaning voice was carried down by the wind.

"Man, she won't shut up," Blondie complained. "She's always going on about how her house is so big and great and how the hut makes her want to scream it's so small. Bla bla bla, she never shuts up."

"I could say the same for you Naruto. We're not supposed to be attracting any attention." K9 Guy scolded, his dog barked in agreement.

I was adjusting my head protector to bring my hair further off my face when a bug on Sorasu's rather wooden looking shoulder caught my attention. Being the nature lover I was I moved to take it off before Takau saw and squashed it.

"What are you doing?" Sorasu hissed when he saw my leafy hand extend towards him.

"There are a couple of small black bugs on you. Don't move." I said as I swept them into my hand and released them onto the real tree.

"Wait," he said urgently, "Not the Aburame Clans small black bugs?"

"How am I supposed to know?" I snapped. "Who's the Abu-whatever clan?"

More and more bugs were accumulating on the tree now, its tanned bark turning darker.

"Shit!" Sorasu cursed just as I thought it. "Get off the tree now we have been discovered! Formation Q!"

We were all on the ground before he finished his sentence. Straitening upright on the soft grass I felt something from behind a tree. A guy dressed in a light sea green hooded jacket with sunglasses on came out from behind it, moving as silently as the bugs flying around him. It only took a matter of seconds for his friends to arrive, the Blondie Naruto, the K9 Guy and his dog and a pink haired girl who was inside the hut. While the others looked pissed off and angry I put my game face on, it was time to create some confusion. Naruto opened his mouth first.

"What are you guys doing here?" he asked with a confused look on his face.

"I don't really see how that is any of your business." I said, keeping my heart rate at the pace it usually is when I'm pissed off, changing my expression.

The bug guy was strait to the point.

"Are you here to get the girl?" his monotone voice rang out, making me think of how creepy he is.

"What girl?" I asked putting on a confused face and slowing my heart rate slightly.

Seemingly without moving a muscle he replied, "The girl who ran away from The Land of Earth."

I kept my heart the same as I answered, "Ah no, we're not here for her. We are on our way to the Land of Water. Takau has our passing permit."

Takau rummaged through his bag to find the fake permits. Bug Guy looked over to K9 Guy.

"She's telling the truth Shino. Heart rate was normal and all." K9 Guy shrugged.

He then proceeded to go and check the forms. That is when formation Q really took off. Takau used Kubomi Jutsu, which creates a sinkhole in the ground, to trap K9 Guy and his dog then went for Shino. Puru went for the pink haired girl and Sorasu went for Naruto. I, being the quickest in our team, made an uncontested break for the hut. My job was to take care of the other girl inside and grab our target. When I burst through the door of the hut I braced for an attack that didn't come. A white eyed girl stood in front of the, very scared looking, casino owner's daughter, with a kunai knife in hand and a determined look on her face. When she called out 'Byakugan' a sudden idea popped into my head.

"Are you from the Hyuga Clan?" I asked quickly, trying to avoid a fight.

This threw her off a bit and she answered an unsteady "Ye-yes."

My heart almost skipped a beat with relief. I quickly explained my plan.

"Well you see, I don't really want to fight. My fighting skills rely mostly on chakra. So if you block all of my chakra points then take the girl and run, it would look like you beat me and my team mates won't get suspicious. You can block individual chakra point's right?"

All my hope was riding on the answer to my question.

"Yes I can." She answered in a soft voice, looking rather startled by my plan.

"Cool," I said, relieved that my plan to get under the Tsuchikage's skin was about to fall into place. "Well, I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

I'm not really one for taking pain I know I can avoid so it took all my strength to stand there as she blocked most of my chakra points. It hurt like hell but was done quickly. I lay on the floor as she hosted the other girl onto her back, barely able to move. I was just going over how stupid it was to put blind trust into a complete stranger, she could have totally killed me at any second, though I was glad she didn't, when she used her voice again (it scared the crap out of me, not literally).

"My name is Hinata." She said holding out a hand.

Oh no, I thought, here comes the death shot. But I took her hand anyway.

"Jikko."

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

The trip home was a long quiet one. The rest of my team were not doing too bad in the fight, their main purpose was to stop anyone following me. They were evenly matched in skill but the Shino guy suddenly, much to Naruto's disgust, called for everyone to retreat. When they arrived at the hut to find me on the floor, Sorasu went off his nut.

'How could this happen, you probably weren't concentrating, bla bla bla, we should go after them.' In the end I told him they were taking the girl back to their village, and unless he wanted to start a war we should go home. I felt bad that he believed me, even though I was known as The Lie Master back in the village. When school teacher's used to ask me for my homework I could say that I have already given it to them with such confidence that they would start to doubt their memory. But when my mum found the actual homework uncompleted at home, she took it in. Talk about an awkward situation. From then my lying skills have only got better.

The only person who talked to me was Puru, though I thought it was only because I had his share of the food.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, the night before we were due home.

"Fine, I can use my chakra again." I said, handing him an apple and a ball of rice.

"That's good"

When we arrived back Sorasu took control of the situation.

"I'll go tell Tsuchikage what happened. Jikko, you should get a check up at the hospital."

"Yep sure thing." I replied.

I still wasn't regretting my decision. I've always hated hurting things but my father made me become ninja to 'uphold the family honour'. So not only did I get to rub failure in Tsuchikage's face, but his as well and hopefully he would regret the day he made me become a ninja. That was my plan anyway.

As the team dispersed I followed Sorasu so I could see the Tsuchikage's reaction. I couldn't help the little smile of anticipation that crept onto my face (I sound like a total bitch... maybe I am). I landed on the balcony above Sorasu and waited to hear the yelling. What I actually heard took me by surprise.

"Congrats on a job well done." The Tsuchikage gruff voice rang out as Sorasu walked in.

That must of surprised Sorasu too because his reply was "What?"

Tsuchikage chuckled.

"The owner off the hotel and casino has been in contact with me. He said to congratulate and thank your team on his behalf. When his daughter arrived home she said she will never leave again. He paid us double."

It didn't really astonish me when Sorasu adapted the situation to his advantage.

"So do my team get double pay for this?"

As Sorasu and Tsuchikage talked money I flopped onto my back and glared up at the stars. So the girl got tired of the small hut, I thought with a sigh, that kills my plan.

I decided to head for home, feeling gloomy that I couldn't irritate my dad. I walked through the front door just as the sun set. Making my way upstairs to dump my bag, I called "Hey mum, dad, I'm back."

When I went down into the kitchen I was surprised to see that it was my father, Aruku, cooking dinner.

"Hey, where's mum?" I asked, grabbing plates to set the table.

"She is gone." He said in a weird, robotic voice that un-nerved me a bit.

"Where too?" I questioned, hiding my uneasiness.

He changed the subject.

"Why have you never applied yourself?" he asked in the same voice, grabbing a knife and cutting a carrot into the pot.

"What?"

"In your whole life I have never seen you try hard at anything. You could have passed the academy top of class but instead you fucken flunked off. In your missions you leave most of the work to the rest of your team. You are a dishonour to the Hakkin Clan, just like your mother."

He was really freaking me out now. I'd heard him yell and shout even scream with anger, but scary calm was a new one.

"Wh-what are you talking about?" I stuttered, feeling the hair on the back on my neck stand up.

He growled, placing his hands, with the knife still in one, on either side of the stove. I took a good look at them, realising they were covered in blood. Panic flooded through my body, making the already small kitchen seem minute.

"Dad, where is mum?" I asked again as I stood up and backed towards the door.

"Don't worry, you'll see her soon enough."

I made a break for the door but it slammed shut before I could get there, a faint pressure hovering around it. I spun round to see my dad facing me and froze. The front of his black jacket was unzipped, the once white tee-shirt now blotchy red. His face was splattered with blood that dripped from his mattered hair, but it was the expression that petrified me the most. His lips were twisted into a contorted grin and blue eyes so wide that I could see white all the way around them.

"With you gone, my life will be perfect again." He giggled, "No more stupid bitches dragging me down. Good bye, Jikko. Oh, you should know, I never loved you."

With that he spread his chakra throughout the room, picking up every sharp or heavy object possible. Knifes, chopsticks, plates, pots, even the microwave were lifted into the air. My body unfroze as survival instinct kicked in.

RUN!

So I did, kicking the kitchen door down, I ran for the front exit, hearing the loud crash ad most of the utensils hit the walls as they came after me. The pot that had been on the stove crashed into my left shoulder, spilling its boiling contents down my arm as it pushed me through an open door. I cried out in pain as I hit the floor. At first I didn't distinguish which room I was in. Standing up, a horrible sight met my eyes.

Curtains hung in tatters letting shafts of dull moonlight shine in and illuminate the scene. Deep holes were rammed in all the walls and kunai knives and shuriken were embedded into every surface. The only clue as to which room it could be was a misshapen lump covered in dark splotches and stuffing spilling out of its many slices, a double bed.

As my eyes adjusted to the lack of light I saw a figure lying on the bed. It had some many missing bits, slices, cuts and weapons stuck it and was covered in so much blood that I only recognized her by the hair.

"Mum?"

The realisation hit me like an avalanche. It knocked the breath out of me, driving all the pain out of my arm and made the world spin. I stumbled over and grabbed what was left of her cold wrist, feeling for nonexistent pulse.

"Mum?" I called again louder this time, feeling tears slide down my face.

"She's dead. She can't answer you." My father's voice rang out, sounding bored.

I spun round, tears still streaming down my face. White hot rage rose from my stomach when I saw him leaning against the wall picking at his finger nails with a knife. My sight became slightly blurred and for the first time ever I felt the need to kill.

He said something I couldn't hear over the ringing in my ears as I spread my chakra out from every point in my body and used it to jerk all the kunai out of the wall. I did hear what he said next as laughter knotted his face into an even uglier expression.

"Do you honestly think you can beat me in a fight? A 17 year old kid who fails everything can beat me, the strongest..."

I didn't wait for him to finish. I forced my chakra at him so hard that it started to burn my skin. The kunai hurdled towards him so fast they couldn't be seen with normal eyes. But he still caught them with his own chakra and pushed them back towards me. The closer they inched, the hatred I felt for my father increased.

I knew he never loved my mum or me. He ignored her his whole childhood until he discovered that she was related to the Tsuchikage. Aruku then saw that mum had a crush on him and used that to his advantage, marrying her to up his status. He also wanted a son, not a daughter, to carry the family name.

The more I thought about this, the angrier I got. I channelled this rage into my chakra and the kunai slowed down, but it was too late. The closet one was mere inches from my chest. I tried to back up but the wall was right behind me. So I reached out for the kunai's handle. As I closed my fingers around it, Aruku advanced on me, the sadistic smile back in his face.

"This is where it ends for you. Now I can pin this on you because..."

Whatever he was saying was lost on my ears as the kunai started to cut into my upper chest. I held in my scream of pain because I knew it would only make him happier. When the blade started to slip between my ribs I had a sudden, extremely late, idea. I shaped my chakra into a shield in front of me, cutting his off from the kunai knife I was holding. With one swift movement I pulled it out of my chest, used my shield to slip between the rest of the kunai and buried into his chest.

When his face went blank I knew I had hit his heart. His chakra stopped flowing to the rest of the kunai and they fell to the ground like rain. A wave of exhaustion swept over me as the ground rushed up for a close inspection.