As soon as those deafening words had left the ANBU's mouth, the various reactions of the team seven members were immediate
Sakura had broken down and was now hugging her knees close to her chest sobbing heavily making her breathing erratic and difficult
Naruto had entered a state of shock, his usually bright colorful face had drained of all color leaving him looking as pale as a sheet and his bright blue eyes had widened in horror and were beginning to tear up.
Sasuke however, unlike the others, had only met Yamato a few times and found him to be tolerable and would preferably not give him massive migraines by the end of the day, to find out that he had been killed had affected him, not as badly as Naruto or sakura but enough to make him feel deeply upset however he would not admit that to his fellow team-mates, feeling he had to be strong for both of his emotional comrades
Iruka had gone immensely quiet, he had been speaking to the ANBU-sensei earlier this evening and it un-nerved him to know he could have been killed moments after leaving the office
Hearing the sound of a heavy door being closed, he turned and noticed that kakashi had vanished; pushing his way through the crowd he pushed open the heavy metal doors and found himself in the dark alleyway of the side of the building
"Kakashi? Where are you going? What about yamato?" He yelled causing the silver haired kunoichi to stop for a few seconds before dashing off into the shadows
Damn it kakashi!
Preparing the muscles in his legs to get ready for a long night of chasing, he was stopped once again by the sound of a door opening, turning around the stared into the faces of his former students looking sternly at him
"We saw kakashi-sensei run through here and we wanted to make sure she was alright" whispered a distraught Sakura and gained two solemn nods from the two boys strolling slowly behind her
Smiling reassuringly at the trio he nodded his confirmation at their silent request
We want to go with you
Iruka dashed through the pitch black streets of konoha followed by the trio until they reached the gates of the village
"Why would she leave the village?" Glancing at the ground he noticed familiar footprints embedded into the soil, turning back to make sure the trio had not been left too far behind before glancing into the dark forest, then taking a deep breath he dashed head first into the dark wilderness in search of the young woman.
After two hours of searching, the group had found they even deeper in the dark forest of the leaf village with no lights with them and the moon's guiding beams being blocked by the large thick branches and dead leaves of the trees, they had come to the conclusion that they were all officially lost
"We're shinobi right?" huffed an agitated sasuke
Resulting in a "yeah", "that's right" and an "of course" from his fellow comrades
"Well if we're shinobi, we would have to be prepared for anything right"
The same replies followed
"and if that's the case, do you not think that at least ONE of us should have brought matches or something, you don't even have to BE a shinobi to know that if you're going into a dark place bring something bright so you can see where you're going at the very least"
Turning his coal black eyes towards the chunin, caused the tanned teacher to blush and give him a semi-glare in return as he understood the silent message perfectly
You're a chunin and you still didn't bring a light and YOU knew better than all of us
Fuming silently iruka and the trio trudged through the thick under growth, deeper and deeper into the forest, everything silent apart from the sound of rustling from the bushes being pushed aside
Suddenly
"WOAH, IRUKA SENSEI, LOOK LOOK"
Pointing straight ahead, he spotted an old run down Ai in the middle of the clearing
The tiles of the roof looked worn and beaten a larger portion of them were broken in half, shattered completely or were just barely staying together.
The sliding screen door, despite being discolored with age and small tares decorating its sheets, they could still make out the elegant designs of a sakura tree with the blossoms falling in the background and around the edges of these doors there had been gold lining surrounding the inside boarders and illuminating the season of the picture
Upon entering the house the sight that met him was disconcerting, the bright wooden floors than would have glistened brightly reflecting a well-lived in home but now after years of deterioration the floors were now dark and damp many becoming loose and cracked making them very unstable to walk on and was covered in the remnants of broken frames and the glass of each frame had been smashed and the pieces scattered the decrepit floor and each frame seemed to be missing the photos they were designed to hold.
The walls that had once been vibrant and alive with white paint had now become dirtied with pieces of the wall breaking off and on one wall to the far back a large hole decorated most of the division.
What was odd about the place was that the tables looked as though they were cleaned recently as compared to the rest of the moss covered home the heating table looked old and worn but recently used
"Where should we look first?" glancing around the rooms of the house they had decided it would be more effective if the search party of four divided themselves and searched the different areas
"I get dibs on searching the garden"
Staring at the blonde haired ninja the group descended into questionable glances
"Any particular reason why?" asked Sakura narrowing her eyes suspiciously
"Yeah, if there is a creepy psychopathic ghost the garden would be a perfect place to get the hell out of grabbing range"
After gaining three large lumps on his head and stern glares, the group split up
Sasuke would take the basement and the tool shed
Sakura would take most of the rooms on the ground floor
Iruka would take the rooms on the upstairs
And Naruto true to his word….took the garden
(With Naruto)
Stepping onto the pebbled steps Naruto paused for a moment to take notice of the garden itself
The grass covering the either side of the path and the entire yard was a healthy green color and looked as though they were still absorbing the moisture from the rain the night before as the moonlight was reflecting from the dew still left on the blades of grass creating an image of the stars on earth
Along the walls vines reached out and over the top and each vine was covered in silver roses some closed and another few open revealing a pink base of their petals
Around the yard various bushes with the same roses glowing with the moons rays and further down the path a small koi pond with small boulders set around the pond as if making a small child's seat with reeds stretching up from each side and wrapping themselves around the boulders as if in a caressing embrace while the reeds at either side of the pond stood stock straight and in perfect alignment reminding Naruto of the Anbu officers that were on constant duty outside the hokage tower
They never moved and they never spoke, Naruto had once thought they were statues and in one of his "shinobi studies" moments he poked the guard right underneath his ribs,
The victim of said poke had, unfortunately, his back turned on the prankster so door did not notice the impending "finger of genin curiosity", the sudden jab on his side resulted in the poor guard leaping a foot in the air, screaming like a kunoichi who just saw her favorite hero and twirling around facing his assailant
Staring blankly at the shocked guard before bursting into hysterical laughter Naruto turned around and ran as far from the scene as possible making sure to list it as one of his favorite prank reactions ever!
"He he…its STILL funny" giggle the blonde before continuing his search through the lush garden
Feeling a sudden gust of wind Naruto turned back once more to the silent Koi pond and found that he wasn't alone
Sitting on the boulder of the pond was a small girl, she looked as though she was only around six years old nearly seven
She sat near the pond contently swinging her legs, her feet lightly grazing the water's surface causing ripples in the once still liquid
Walking closer to the young girl he could faintly make out her features, her face held a child-like quality however it also held a stern adult look to her as well as he could make out the dainty cheek bones, which was a quality he recognized from someone he knew, her eyes were also a familiar shade of chocolate brown and femininely narrowed making her look wise beyond her years and lastly was her hair, her hair was pure silver however the underside, the back of her neck and a handful of tips and the end were a chocolate brown.
"Hey, what are you doing here? Are you on your own?"
The girl stopped swinging her legs and turned her auburn eyes onto the genin, she rose to her feet and revealed that the was donning a blue kimono lined with silver stitching and one the bottom part of the kimono small silver roses were stitched resembling the roses he had seen on the vines and wrapped around her waist was a silver obi tied into a bow at the back
"What's your name?"
"Aiyaka" answered a silky smooth but childishly toned voice
"That's a good name, my name's Naruto Uzumaki and I'm going to become the hokage"
Merely nodding her head, she remained routed to her podium merely watching the blonde ninja
"Mom doesn't want you here" she whispered
"Huh aren't you afraid of psychotic ghosts?" he asked, ignoring her warning to him
"Not psychotic, merely mentally disturbed, I thought I taught you better Naruto-kun"
Turning around to face the owner of the recognizable voice
"Kakashi-sensei!!"
Standing on the far side of the garden was indeed Kakashi sensei, and in one hand she carried large rusted scissors
umm....yeah ..i tried to make this more anxious but the words were fighting a revolution against me -_-;;
i apologise for this chapter, i might reconstruct it at a later time, but until then bare with me okies?
i promise a better chapter if i can D8
