Ch. 3

The Beginning of a New Beginning

Neko's P.O.V.

I woke up the next morning in a field wondering where we were but after a minute I remembered what had happened. I looked over to where Tsubaki was sleeping and woke her up. She woke up and looked at me. "Come on we are heading for a major village in hope of being able to live there and become ninja's" I told her. She nodded her head and we headed down the road that I knew led to a village.

2 hours later

After two hours of walking we finally got to a major village. The village we arrived at was Konoha 'the village hidden in the leaves' as it is called. We saw four people at the main gate, two boys and a girl around 14 or 15 and an older man who wore a mask but seemed to be in his mid-20s. The girl had pink hair and used her ninja headband to hold her hair back out of her eyes. One of the boys was a brunette that kept glaring as if he was ready to kill the other boy who was a blonde with whisker-like markings on his cheeks; who seemed to be to hyper for his own good. All you could see of the older man was his left eye and his silver hair.

Soon after we had gotten close enough to see them the brunette spotted us and did some hand sighs before bringing one of his hands to his mouth and blowing a fire ball at us. Tsubaki froze in fear but I was able to get both of us out of the way before it hit. The second Tsubaki was on the ground she began to shake and hugged herself as she cried. The four by the gate were all surprised by the action as I knelt down next to her and tried to get her to stop crying.

After Tsubaki was calm enough for me to leave her alone, I got up and looked at the brunette with a glare that made him look scared. I stomped over to them before yelling at him "WHY DID YOU JUST ATTACK US. WE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING BUT WALK TOWARD THE VILLAGE." "I thought you guys… were an enemy" the brunette replied. "Geez, really, what enemy walks right up to the village in farming clothes on and no weapons with them? Hmm" I said. He looked down embarrassed to have done what he had. "Oh, yeah, did you have to use a fire attack because now look what you did" I said before pointing towards Tsubaki.

The pink haired girl looked at Tsubaki with concern in her eyes "what wrong with her" she asked. "She has a fear of fire because of a few events in our lives that weren't the best." I said before looking at the brunette. "So thanks to you, this happened."

The older man stepped in then and asked "who are you and why are you here." I looked at him and answered "My name is Neko and that's my cousin Tsubaki. Our village was burned down last night; it was a small village that had barely thirty people living in it. It was a farming village that had nothing that was of much value and no ninjas at all." "That still doesn't tell us why you're here" the blonde said. "Where here because we want to start a new life and become ninjas seeing as we want to protect others unlike before when we couldn't." I replied.

"Well, my name is Kakashi it is nice to meet you" the silver haired man said. "I'm Naruto!" the hyper active blonde said. "Hn" was all the brunette said. "My name is Sakura and this is my Sasuke-kun" she said as she grabbed onto the brunettes arm. I giggled as h tried to struggle but couldn't get free of the girls grip. Kakashi looked at me and asked "Would you like to meet with the Hokage she is in charge of the whole village and she is the one you need permission from to live here." "Sure we can go right know" I replied. Sakura looked worriedly over at Tsubaki who was still shaking and asked "will she be okay to walk" "I have to help her but she'll be fine." I said as I helped Tsubaki up and started to help her over to the others.

We walked through the village with the four ninja in front and me helping Tsubaki slowly behind them. Naruto and Sakura would look back at Tsubaki and me with worry in their eyes. Whereas Sasuke just acted as if he didn't care and Kakashi was reading a book. I heard Sasuke finally tell Naruto and Sakura "I'm sure that if something was horribly wrong with Tsubaki Neko would have told us." All I could do was look at him in surprise when he said it. After that though he looked to Kakashi and asked "Are you sure they can be trusted" Kakashi looked back at us "I'm more then certain" was his reply.

When we arrived at the Hokage's office Tsubaki had stopped shaking but still had fear held within her eyes. "Who is this Kakashi?" the Hokage asked. "I'm Neko; I'm seventeen and this is my cousin Tsubaki; she is sixteen. We were hoping to be able to live here and become ninja of this village." I answered. The Hokage looked at us for a moment before saying "My name is Tsunade; it is nice to meet you. If you don't mind me asking; why does your cousin seem to be scared?" I looked at her for a moment; she looked to be in her fifties. After a moment I answered "she has a fear of fire and that moron…" points at Sasuke "decided that we were enemies before even asking us why we were here and attacked us with fire." The Hokage then glared at Sasuke and started to yell at him. "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT WHEN YOU KNOW THE RULES ABOUT ATTACKING PEOPLE JUST BECAUSE THERE HEADING FOR THE VILLAGE? PLUS WHAT ENEMY WOULD JUST WALK UP TO THE MAIN GATE IF THEY WERE GOING TO ATTACK US." She looked at us "Also their wearing farming clothes and it'[s obvious that they have no weapons at all." Sasuke looked down in embarrassment.

After a few minutes Tsunade had calmed down and she asked "Why do you want to be ninja?" "So we can help people unlike in the past when we couldn't" I replied right away. She sat there and smiled at us before asking to hear our story. I told her what happened with the bandits and fire. After I finished she looked at Tsubaki who had not said anything. "Can you all step out for a moment except for you, Tsubaki; I wish to speak with you." Tsunade said. Soon after she said that we left the room.

Tsubaki's P.O.V.

I was standing there watching Neko as she left the room with worry in my eyes. When everyone had left the room Tsunade looked at me and asked "Can you tell me your name?" I nodded my head and opened my mouth but nothing came out. "Can you tell me your age?" she asked this time. I nodded once again and tried again but it was the same result. She sighed as I looked down before calling the others back into the room. Once everyone was inside she looked at them and said "it's just as I thought, she can't talk what happened with the fire has scared her to the point where she just can't." Neko looked at me with worry-filled eyes as I started to cry thinking I wouldn't be able to become a ninja. "Will she still be able to become a ninja, granny?" Naruto asked; his voice full of worry. Tsunade smiled "Yes, she will still be able to become a ninja" she replied.

At that moment I looked up at her and the tears stopped. Neko looked at me and smiled but all of a sudden Naruto had jumped on my back and made me fall 'cause of how surprised I was. "I will tell Iruka that you will be joining his class at the academy. I will also warn him about you sister and fire. As well as how she does not speak." "Thank you." Neko replied as I stood up and bowed in thanks. "I will let you live in a small house next to Naruto's apartment. It will not cost much so you will be able to easily afford it once you are ninja beforehand I will pay the bill for you." Tsunade told us. Neko and I smiled at her. "You guys want to get ramen with me" Naruto said. The moment we heard the word ramen we were at his side pulling him out of the room. "Lead the way boy we love ramen and haven't eaten since yesterday" Neko said.

The others had stayed behind to talk with Tsunade and help find her find a way to keep people from using fire as much as possible. Naruto lead the way to a ramen shop called Ichiraku's. We had dinner and before we left Sakura had come to walk home with us. When we got to our new house it was about the exact same as my old one. Naruto and Sakura left shortly after we knew where everything was.

Soon after the two left Neko and I got ready for bed. Neko looked at me "Let's have a good new life with our new friends and the ones we make after this." She told me. I nodded back to her with a small smile on my face. With that we went to bed excited about what will come during the days of our new life.