Chapter 4

"Princess Mika," Hiroshi, her guard captain, screamed painfully as blood gurgled out of his mouth. "Gomene, Hime-chan. Forgive me…ne?" Hiroshi asked hesitantly as he fell on to the dusty road and began to gurgle out more of his lifeblood.

"Hiroshi," Mika cried as she laid his head onto her lap, crystalline tears slowly made a path down her soft, pale white cheeks and onto the man's bloody face. "You can't go. Remember, you made a promise to bring me and my people to the Fire Country. You promised that together, you and I will ask for assistance from the Hokage of the Fire Country. Y—you…" Mika stopped herself, struggling to compose herself and calm down.

Before Princess Mika could continue with her tearful cries Hiroshi quietly interrupted her. Using his last strength, Hiroshi whispered to her, "Before we left…I sent a…a…job request…Konoha…send shinobi…escort…you…Fire Temple. Hime…go—gomenesai." Hiroshi whispered softly as his eyes lost its brilliance light of life.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"

Hearing a sudden loud screech about a mile or two ahead of them, Team 7 quickly increased their speed and ran towards the loud painful cry. As Team 7 approached the scream, they quickly spread out, each going in their own separate directions. As Naruto left his teammates behind, he threw off his 'old Naruto' mask and the serious and blank stare of emptiness and pain was finally revealed in his cool blue eyes. Of course no one noticed this sudden change in Naruto's demeanor, since everyone was focused on finding out what that scream was about.

Finally reaching a good hiding spot, Naruto quietly glanced through the branches on the tree. As the sight before him reached his eyes, they slowly widened in shock and his stomach trembled with nausea.

Lying on the road before him were dismembered bodies everywhere. Everywhere he looked, he saw blood soaking into the dry, dusty road and blood staing the rich green brushwood within the vicinity. Who could have done this? Naruto thought savagely to himself. Sickened by the bloody sight; Naruto almost didn't notice the girl howling uncontrollably as she clung vehemently onto the dead body lying before her.

Glancing around to make sure that it was safe to get out from his hiding spot, Naruto swiftly replaced his mask and jumped down from the tree. Walking loud enough to make sure that the girl could hear him, Naruto announced his presence.

Hearing the sound of approaching footsteps, Mika swiftly silenced her cries of grief and grabbed for the sword embedded with a blood ruby still clenched in Hiroshi's cold hand. Silently and swiftly, Mika flipped over Hiroshi's lifeless body and turned in mid-air, landing softly on her feet with Hiroshi's sword clenched tightly in her small pale hand.

Quickly, Mika focused her eyes on the tall man standing ten yards from her. He had a mane of long blonde hair, which ended just at the hip. His long blonde hair was tied together at the back of his neck, and blew around listlessly as if it were alive. He was tall and of a build that wasn't too slender or too bulky. He was completely clothed in an unforgiving black cloak, with a small worn brown pouch attached to his right thigh underneath it. But what really captured her attention and made her immobile…were his eyes. They were a cool shade of blue, full of cheer and happiness. But as she looked deeper into the depths of his blue eyes, she felt a sudden tremor of terror and a cold chill slowly crept down her back, as if someone had just walked over her grave. Frozen in complete terror, Mika could do nothing but stare at him as he slowly approached.

Mika was suddenly broken out of her dazed look when the blonde man finally stopped and spoke loudly to her, his face scrunched up in both confusion and cheeriness.

"Ne, what is wrong?" Naruto asked, as he stood in front of the girl.

"Who are you?" The girl standing before him demanded steadily, the sword clenched unsteadily between her hands.

Knowing that the girl was not a threat to him or his teammates, Naruto introduced himself with a loud and cheerful voice, "Hi, I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the future Hokage of the Konoha."

As Naruto finished introducing himself, the rest of his team leapt out of their hiding place, and approached the girl, introducing themselves.

"Hi, I'm Haruno Sakura," said the pink haired girl.

"Uchiha Sasuke," the pale blue haired guy pronounced sternly.

"And I am Hatake Kakashi, the team leader," said the gray haired man with a mask covering the bottom part of his face and the Konoha headband over his left eye. Looking thoughtfully at his surroundings, Kakashi turned back towards the girl and said confidently, "You're the little girl, Princes Mika of the River Country."

Surprised and shocked that such an unkempt man would know who she was, all what Mika could do was splutter out, "H—how do you know?"

Realizing that she was spluttering like a commoner, Mika swiftly silenced herself and calmed down before she continued on. "Yes, I am Princess Mika of the River Country and I am not a little girl. I am of a marriageable age of 20 springs." Holding her head high and looking down her nose at them and with an officious tone said, "I assume that the four of you are the Konoha shinobi that Hiroshi sent for?"

"We sure are!" The blonde man shouted cheerfully. "I am the number one ninja in Konoha. Of course, being the best, I will be sent here to help you. One day I will…"

"Shut up, you baka," the pink haired girl, Sakura, shouted at Naruto as her chakra powered fist slammed against him, sending his head into the ground by her feet.

Disapproving of the woman's crude and violent behavior, Mika tilted her head a notch higher and said coldly to Sakura, "With that much strength and power, I am sure that you can deal with this field of dead bodies, nee?"

Surprised, Sakura could only open and close her mouth like a fish, pale green eyes bulging from their sockets.

"Ughh..." Naruto groaned as he slow got back up on his feet. "You know? That hurt like hell. I could have been k—"

"Oh, shut up," Sakura screamed angrily as she turned around and stomped off to look for possible burial sites.

"She's one rude lady," Mika stated quietly, staring at Sakura's receding back making sure that Sakura couldn't hear her.

"Oi, she's not that bad." Naruto said to Mika as she returned her gaze to the trio. "At least I don't think so." After a silent pause Naruto said thoughtfully to out loud, "You know? I was pretty sure that I had never seen that woman before in my life. I wonder why she's always hitting me."

Suddenly Naruto turned towards his sensei and comrade inquiring cheerily with a lift of his left brow, "Ne, do you guys know why Sakura-san always hits me?"

Glancing sharply at Naruto, Sasuke calmly replied, "Because you are a ahoo and you don't remember her."

"Nani? I don't understand," Naruto said as he frowned in fake confusion. "How can I remember someone that I had never seen before? Ne?"

"Whatever," Sasuke replied, turning sharply away from Naruto. "Kakashi-sensei, what are we going to do with all these dead bodies?"

Seeing that it was now finally time for him to take charge, Kakashi looked at his past students and the princess and told them what they had to do. "First, we will find a burial ground large enough to bury all the dead bodies, than we will make camp. When we have settled, Princess Mika," Kakashi said as he stared straight into her pale yellow eyes, "will tell us what happened."

"Yes," Mika responded even though Kakashi had not asked her a question. "I will."

"We were on our way to the border, when we were suddenly ambushed." Mika began, flares of anger apparent in her bright yellow eyes, glowing in fiercely in the fire light.

"Who ambushed you?" Sasuke asked.

"I—I don't know," Mika answered holding her head in her hands. "I don't know who they were. I had never seen anyone like them before."

"What did they look like?" Naruto asked nonchalantly, staring intently into the fire.

"Well…there were only two of them. But they were extremely strong. They wore long, dark cloaks with red clouds on it and a red interior with a chin-high collar. On their head was a large conical straw hat with small spike-like bells hanging from it. Because of the straw hat I couldn't really see their faces, but one of them was carrying a three bladed scythe and screaming about a god called Ja...Ja- something. Yeah, Jashin. The other one had his mouth and nose covered, just like Kakashi-sensei." Mika answered, looking slowly at the four shinobi surrounding the fire.

As soon as Naruto heard this, his gaze jerked away from the fire and he looked sharply at her. Then with a forced calmness, Naruto whispered, "Akatsuki…"

"Akatsuki," Kakashi said at the same time as Naruto, his head snapped back in revelation. "Only they are powerful and sordid enough to use these methods of killing." Suddenly Kakashi stared piercingly at Mika with his single uncovered eye. "Why are they after you?"

"Because I am…"