A/N: Major rewrites for this fanfic are still in progress - it's looking good though. Oh, and this chapter is pretty short compared to what I usely write, so expect future chapters to be at least twice as long.

WARNING: This chapter contains some light swearing - not as much as one of my other stories though. I'm trying to keep the theme to this story 'innocent' for a little while longer like they do in the anime with the initial 'happy episode' and then get to angst and death-related issues later. (You can expect that in the next chapter when I get around to writing it.)

Chapter 2 - Of Ghosts, Fears, and Snake Obssessions

"... really, Iruka? Ghosts? That's where we're going with this now?"

Iruka glared. Emiko rolled her eyes.

It was just over a month later and Emiko was currently in the Hokage's office with her sensei standing beside her looking bored.

Natski sighed... and for good reason. Instead of 5 minutes, they'd been in there for about half an hour...

So what if the mission was to investigate some 'ghost' sightings in some abandoned temple in the forest east of the Village?

It paid.

You see, recently Emiko has been becoming resistant when it came to accepting D-Rank missions, but she always started to sweat a little when someone mentioned a C-Rank...

Then again, the girl had had some serious anxiety issues for as long as Natski had known her - hell, the first time she met her young charge she had been forcibly hospitalized and was under guard.

Something about a mental break down...

"Emiko! Would you just take the damn mission already?"

Wow, she's got Iruka to start cursing already - that has to be a record!

"Calm down, Iruka" Natski began, waving a hand dismissively "the mission's fine. We'll take it - the kid needs the experience anyway"

"Hey! I resent that!" Emiko snapped.

"But you don't deny it" Natski retorted, her expression becoming smug.

Emiko did not respond; scowling, instead, and mumbling under her breath.

Iruka sighed, glad he could finally be rid of Emiko - honestly, the girl really knew how to get on his nerves.

The Third however, who up until that point had been ignoring the jovial tension, just smiled good naturedly and said "then I will see you two tomorrow with your report, Natski, Emiko-chan"

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" the genin replied, smiling in return and standing at attention - the respect she by all appearances lacked when talking so brashly to the academy teacher, was clearly present when she spoke to the Third Hokage.

"Come on, sensei!" Emiko began, suddenly excited "looks like we get to spend the night in a haunted temple!" then rushed out the doors so quickly she completely missed the violent shiver that went up her sensei's spine.

"Have fun, Natski" commented one of the other chuunins as he threw her the mission scroll.

"Fuck you, Gon"

Later that day, after the mission delegating had ended and they were the only two in the room, Iruka let out a large sigh.

"... are you sure about this, Hokage-sama?" the chuunin asked as the older man moved to stand over by the window "she's twelve, yes - but up until a year ago she was only a civilian..."

"I seem to remember a time when ninja graduated from the academy several years younger than her" Sarutobi replied airily.

"That's a different thing entirely..." Iruka quickly interuptted "there were extenuating circumstances - and besides that, she hasn't even trained at the Academy..."

The Hokage sighed, suddenly looking very tired "Iruka... she will be ready soon - I know it. Besides, I've already discussed it with Natski"

"And?"

"And we've decided not to send her this year. We're going to wait until next year - when it will be hosted here in Konoha. That way Ibiki can keep as much an eye on her as he wants"

Iruka shivered slightly "I still don't understand what that man sees in her..."

The Hokage smiled "she passed his course with flying colours - what's not to like?" then his expression turned amused "and from what I understand, he also finds it amusing that she was the one to request it in the first place..."

"She is an odd one, that girl" Iruka agreed as he walked over to stand beside him "and she's changed a lot since she came here"

Sarutobi's smile broadened "yes, she has come a long way from that frightened little girl, standing in my office with a broken lip, avoiding eye contact"

A long way indeed...

Meanwhile, while stowing their extra kit in one of the rooms of the abandoned temple, Emiko suddenly sneezed.

"Great" she muttered to herself "I really needed a random arterial explosion... wait, does that mean someone's talking about me? God, I hope not... I have enough issues with paranoia as it is..."

'Granted, they're fully justified. Not that I can tell anyone that...'

Glancing around a bit, she sat down next to their stuff - Natski was out looking around temple, she would have just enough time to change the bandages.

You see, Emiko grew up normal. In 'our world', she had a mostly comfortable life in the western world - which meant the skin on her hands was more... fragile then most other Konoha residents.

Which meant her skin cut, bruised and split easily - the fact that she barely noticed nor remembered how she got her own injuries before that didn't help.

Carefully, she peeled off her left glove to see the most recent cuts had started bleeding through the bandages already and went about removing them.

A few thin red lines ran over the palm of her hand, bleeding slightly, the rest of her hand was covered in other scars in varying stages of age - the more serious ones up to and just over a year old.

Before re-wrapping her hand, she decided examining her knuckles would be a good idea - the skin was cracking and bleeding again. Not as bad before, mind you, but serious enough she would have to go to the hospital soon to get some more skin cream and to get her knuckles checked out.

Meogi's mother, who was a retired field medic and now worked at the hospital as a nurse, had warned her about it before. She said that if she left it untreated properly for too long, she could end up damaging the nerves on her hands.

Which would, in turn, adversely effect her ability to move her hands and fingers - some thing she wanted to avoid as it was difficult enough for her to form hand signs as it was.

"Emiko!" her sensei shrieked and Emiko took off to investigate.

And so the mission began.

Several hours into the mission and so far no sightings.

Emiko, having quickly gotten so very bored with her sensei's constant false alarms, had sat herself down on the veranda in the inner courtyard and was practicing forming hand signs at a painfully slow pace - meanwhile, her sensei was pacing back and forth behind her and had starting to twitch at every sound.

At the very least, it was better then the shrieking she was doing earlier...

It was around midnight when the odd noises started, but Emiko had been feeling odd ever since they'd arrived at the old temple - not that she'd tell her sensei that.

After all, the woman was apparently scared shitless of ghosts - who would've thought that? - but the other reason was because she'd only noticed it because of her chakra sensitivity.

The one she got from growing up without it.

In another world.

'Yep, definitely keep THAT to myself'

"EMIKO!" her sensei's voice screeched.

The aforementioned girl sighed heavily for the countless time that night, slumping her shoulders, before going to investigate.

Except she never made it that far.

Instead, she crashed through a few brittle pieces of old floorboards and landed in the cellar.

Groaning, she rolled over onto her back, her nose numb and probably dislocated from falling six metres, face first into the floor.

And just when she thought it was over, the floorboards beneath her began creaking ominously again, and suddenly, there was nothing below her.

And, with a wordless shriek, she fell again.

Colliding with rock is painful.

Being completely winded - so badly that you loose consciousness - is also very painful, once you wake up.

Squinting her eyes behind her glasses - after she'd retrieved them - as she sat in a spot of light, she took a look around.

Emiko could only see what was illuminated by the patch of moonlight coming from the hole above her, but from looks of things, she was in the catacombs that snaked around the area.

And, apparently, also beneath the old temple.

She shakily got to her feet, looking up so she could see the hole she'd made - it was too far to jump, even with chakra. She just wasn't that good with it yet.

'Time to explore then.'

After waiting for her eyes to adjust, she started traveling along the dark tunnel, eventually coming to a larger cavern, light streaming in from another breach in the ceiling.

At first, there wasn't much difference to tunnel, then she noticed the slightly raised platform in the center, and after approaching and lightly running her fingers over it - she realized it was made of wood.

It was a table.

There was a table in the catacombs.

With the sudden realization, she froze, eyes darting around the room, taking in the bookshelves, apothecaries and scattered equipment, books and scrolls.

'No way. No freaking way.'

Taking stumbled steps backwards, her eyes flying to the floor to see the tomoe-shaped symbol encircled by an ouroboros. A snake eating its own tail.

Only one man would have that.

A snake.

This was Orochimaru's Konoha-era secret hideout.

It took her 10 minutes of running, and another 15 of hiding in the dark corridors, before she worked up the courage to go back and have a look around.

Tentatively, she entered the room, approaching one of the bookshelves on the far left. There were snake designs on a few of the scattered handwritten scrolls there - maybe Orochimaru's own notebooks? - but after opening a few, she realized they were too tattered and damaged to make out anything.

She felt stupid for even trying - of course they would destroy everything! Ninja are meticulous, after all.

Still, one could hope. Orochimaru was a genius seen only once in a generation, and being able to get a hold of the man's notes? That would be an amazing experience! So much knowledge - and the techniques!

... just the thought of it all made her feel all giddy!

She giggled manically for a while before eventually calming down enough to continue looking around the room.

After 10 minutes of searching every nook and cranny, she'd found nothing usable.

Disappointed, she turned to leave, throwing one of the useless scrolls across the room in her frustration.

She froze. 'When that hit the-! It made a-!'

Excited, she dashed across the room, putting her hands up against the wall and knocking lightly on it as she began moving along the edge of the room.

She stopped suddenly - there it was again.

Knocking just one more time to be sure, she heard the hollow noise of a wall that should be made of solid stone and earth.

Quickly, she pulled out a kunai from her weapons pouch and stabbed it between the cobble stones that lined the wall of that side of the room, and began levering it out.

Slowly but surely, the stone eventually gave way to reveal what looked like a hidden cache...

... of books and scrolls- Orochimaru's books and scrolls?

A maniacal grin slipped into her expression.

End Chapter

~Omake~

Wide eyes darting around, Natski took a few steps backwards as another strange noise filled the courtyard.

"Where the hell did that girl get to?" Natski hissed under her breath.

"BOO!"

Natski shrieked so loudly that she scattered a nearby flock of birds.

Then Kakashi started laughing.

"KAKASHI HATAKE!"

~Omake End~

A/N: Thanks for reading! I really should be doing a lot of other things - yet here I am. Establishing the timeline. In a story not many people apparently read... ah well, I like writing this.

... okay, so I recently got back into the Naruto anime - don't look at me like that!

Please remember to rate, author/story alert, fav and/or review!

C ya,
Milley02