Chapter One

"Look a falling star!"

Inojin glanced over at the smaller girl that said it and smiled softly at Boruto's younger sister as she clasped her hands and said a prayer.

It was a camping trip, Shikadai had invited the two of them, then Boruto invited Mitsuki, and then Himawari begged her brother to come too, she had wanted to make s'mores.

The blond volunteered to stay with her by the fire while the other three boys went to find the monster rumored to be around here, the real reason of the camping trip, with Shikadai lazily making a comment that there better not be any trouble while Boruto complaining that it better be something good to scare everyone around here.

"It was reddish," Himawari said quietly, then looked over to Inojin, "How come you didn't want to go look for the monster?"

"Well, it wouldn't be right to leave you alone..." he started, then blinked as she took her hand, "Hima..."

"Let's find it ourselves! That'd show Big Brother to leave me out of things!" she said excitedly, "Come on Ino-chan!" she pointed, "The star fell over there, I bet the monster's there too!"

He smiled, then nodded as he stood, "Or better yet, we find the star and get three wishes," he said, ruffling her hair, then lead her away from the campfire...


Inojin woke with a start, quickly silencing himself as he remembered sleepily that he was on a mission, then glanced around, seeing that his other teammates were still asleep.

That camping trip was years ago, before he became a gennin. Why was he thinking about it now? They didn't even find anything, just a shining red stone that he let Himawari keep.

And neither one of them told any of the others about leaving the campfire, they were back long before the failed monster hunt returned.

"WAKE UP LAZY!" Cho-cho's voice drew him out of his thoughts, and he glanced over to see her kicking Shikadai awake.

"He's fine," he said quietly as he took out his sketch pad, "He was awake long before you were."

She stared at him, blinking in surprise as he started drawing, and Shikadai sat up, clutching his side as he frowned at his teammates.

"It's too damn early," he muttered, "Why does it have to be early?"

"Our targets are going to be coming this way in a few hours and we were heading them off," Inojin reminded him, "You also stayed up late composing a note to someone."

"I don't care!" Cho-cho complained loudly, crossing her arms, "Let's finish this up so we can meet the PRINCE that hired us," she giggled, "Maybe he'll be so in love with me when he meets me that..."

"Not going to happen," Inojin and Shikadai said at the same time, and she turned red, then proceeded to yell at them both.

Inojin smiled as he went back to his sketching, a normal mission, a normal day.

He paused, staring at what he had just drawn, wondering where he had gotten the idea from.


"Oh!" Himawari grinned as she looked at the picture, then kissed Inojin on the cheek, "Thanks Jin-kun, but why?"

"It came to me," he admitted, taking the sketch of the winged girl with long hair adorned with small flowers and rolled it up, "It seemed like something you'd like though."

"I wonder why she's so sad," the younger girl said thoughtfully, "Did you maybe see something like that and that's why it came to you?"

He shrugged, then took out his sketchpad and started to draw again.

The two had been meeting in the park after missions for a long time now, a offer he made once to get her ice cream after the attack on the chunin exams had turned into a promise to meet after missions.

It wasn't exactly dating, at least he told himself that. Himawari was only thirteen now anyways. Besides, he was just her brother's friend, one that always managed to cheer her up.

It was getting harder for him to tell himself he wasn't interested in her at all.

"So did the Prince fall in love with Cho-cho?" she asked quietly, then looked to what he was drawing, "You did see something, you're drawing her again!"

He paused, glancing at what he was drawing, now the girl looking towards him instead of away, and frowned, he had meant to draw a field of sunflowers for Himawari.

"She's so sad, it's like she wants to tell us something," the burnette whispered, leaning her head on his shoulder, "She makes me think of the night we saw the shooting star..."

Inojin frowned, about to ask why when Himawari snapped her fingers and sat up.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" she said grinning, "Daddy said I can go with him to visit the village that just applied for protection from us, so long as I choose a guardian. I almost had him beat on that, but he said even the most important ambassadors have bodyguards. It'll be my first big assignment as one, even if it IS supervised."

Inojin smiled at her, "I'm glad, you've been working really hard. Who will you choose?"

She stared at him and frowned, "Of course I'm choosing you Jin-kun, you're my best friend. And besides, you're one of the best there is. And you can tell things before they go bad, it's why you're a chunin right?"

"Shikadai is stronger, he and Sarada already have their jonin status."

"Both their dads are already going, and I want you," Himawari giggled, "Besides, you're not far off from becoming jonin. You work really hard."

He faintly blushed, then blinked, "...how come the star reminded you of that?"

"Because of the village's name," she said, "Well not really, the village is called Tsubasa, but the name of the leader is the Princess of Wishes and Dreams. Apparently, no one outside the village has ever seen her face."

"A small village has a Princess?"

"She's actually a holy person," Himawari shrugged, "We don't have a lot of information on her, but she's very important according to our information. Something seems... off though, there's something we're not being told..."

He smiled at her, "See, already becoming a great diplomat, you're already trying to safeguard us against possible situations and ensure that we continue our peace."

She giggled, then leaned her head against his shoulder again, taking out the small red stone they had found when they were children.

"There's a legend that says she can grant wishes... I wonder if that's true..."

He shrugged, and resumed drawing the girl with the sad eyes as Himawari watched, neither saying anything as they enjoyed the other's company.