A month had gone by since Kazumi had come to the Leaf Village. She had grown comfortable around all of the people and even enough to get a part time job. She felt like she was mooching off of the Hokage's for letting her stay in her apartment for free. She also wanted to start paying for dinner when her and Kakashi ate out together but he never allowed her to.

Kazumi's job was at the flower shop that was run by a nice family. She helped maintain the flowers and made sure they were happy, the owner seemed to enjoy having Kazumi around. She always seemed like she knew what she was doing when it came to flowers and she did a good job.

It made Kakashi happy to see Kazumi getting along with people in the village, she seemed to fit in pretty well. She came a long way from being the nervous mystery girl to one of the Leaf's own citizens. At least everyone treated her like one of them. Kakashi was out on a small mission with Asuma and Gai.

It felt strange to be doing a normal mission with them, he usually did missions alone now a days. "Are we done here?" Kakashi asked standing on top of a large tree branch. "Almost." Gai replied knelt down in front of a tree. "You anxious to get back to your girl Kakashi?" Asuma chuckled. "I don't know what you're talking about." Kakashi said casually while he looked up at the sky. "Right." Asuma couldn't help but chuckle again.

"There!" Gai said while standing up and dusting off his hands. "The package is in place and ready to pick up by the others." Gai said proudly. "About time." Kakashi replied jumping down from the tree. "So we done here?" He asked placing his hands in his pockets. "Yea, let's head back and report." Gai nodded. Kakashi and Asuma nodded back and they all jumped into the trees to return to the Leaf Village.

"That's it for today Kazumi! You can head home now if you like." The owner of the store smiled at Kazumi. "Alright." She nodded. She took of her apron that was covered in mud and walked out of the store. She turned and waved to the owner and started to walk down the street. 'I should pick some things up on my way back.' Kazumi thought to herself as she headed down the street.

It took Kazumi about an hour to finish shopping. She had her arms full of bags and a content smile on her face. The afternoon was beginning to change into the evening and Kazumi couldn't help but wonder when Kakashi was going to return. They were close but as far as Kazumi knew, they were still just friends. She felt disappointed when she would think about it but she tried to distract herself from it. He still came around her like it was nothing so at least she had that much.

Kazumi was only a block away from her apartment and was deep in thought, but a gush of wind almost knocking her down knocked her out of it. Kazumi stopped in the middle of the road and just stood there staring straight ahead. Something in the wind was speaking to her, whispers all around her but she couldn't make out any of them except for one that kept repeating louder and louder. "Run." She felt her heart stop and her muscles tense up.

Before she could react she felt the cool sensation of a Kunai blade be placed on her neck. Kazumi's breath stopped. "Princess." The whispered voice slithered through her ear and made her shiver. She slowly moved her eyes to the side trying to see who it was that was behind her but she couldn't see them. "Took us a long time to find you Princess." The Kunai was pressed closer to her neck.

'What's going on...' Kazumi's mind was going from place to place as sweat slowly ran down her face. "Come with me quietly and we won't have a problem." A rough hand grabbed her jaw lifting her head up so that the Kunai knife could be raised up her neck. 'What do I do...' Her mind started to panic as her legs started to shake. She felt like they were going to give out.

But than suddenly the sound of running footsteps behind them cut off her thoughts and caused who ever was holding the knife to her neck to quickly look back. "Princess!" The loud voice seemed familiar to Kazumi.

She was suddenly pushed out of the way and onto the ground. The next thing she knew she heard the sound of blades clashing together. "Is the village under attack?!" She heard a distant ninja yell as they too heard the fight. Kazumi quickly regained herself and slowly looked back at the two men fighting.

The one who had held a knife to her throat had black hair tied into a long braid, his eyes were bright amber, and half of his face was covered by a black mask. The one who had saved her seemed familiar to her. He had long blonde hair and silver eyes, he wielded a sword that called to her. Kazumi stared at the blonde ninja as if he were a long lost friend but...She didn't know who he was.

She was so deep in thought that she didn't realize the ground below her began to shake. Dirt exploded behind her sending her forward with a scream, another enemy ninja had come out of the ground and lunged at Kazumi. "Come here! Come here!" He laughed in a mad way. He had spiked up silver hair and blue eyes.

Kazumi tried to escape but the mad ninja had grabbed her leg and dragged her to him. "Don't think so! Don't think so!" He laughed loudly. "Entanglement Jutsu!" Vines suddenly came flying from the distance and wrapped around the mad ninja causing him to fall to the ground. Kazumi looked up in the direction they came from and there stood a girl. A girl who looked older than Kazumi but resembled her a lot, almost like a sibling would.

She too had black hair but it was short and her eyes were crystal blue. Her eyes than met Kazumi's and softened for a moment till more enemy ninja appeared around them. She glared at them and quickly looked back at Kazumi. "Chiyo run!" She yelled as loud as she could. 'Chiyo? Is she talking to me?' Kazumi blinked in confusion as she continued to stare at her. "What are you doing! Run!" The girl screamed at her.

Kazumi did as she was told and quickly got to her feet making a run for it. "Oh no you don't!" A woman with red hair and black eyes on a nearby building yelled. Before she could be stopped by the other she quickly jumped down from the building and ran after Kazumi.

As Kazumi ran she saw fighting everywhere, it had only taken a second for the Leaf Village ninja to respond but it seemed they were fighting against unfamiliar jutsu and enemy's so they were struggling. 'Who are these people?!' Kazumi thought in a panic. 'Why are they here!?' Tears started to weld up in her eyes out of fear. She could hear the woman who was chasing her getting closer to her.

The red haired woman quickly did her hand signs and than pointed two fingers out towards Kazumi. "Fire Lily!" She yelled. The ground underneath Kazumi's feet began to glow red causing her to stop. Just below her feet formed a giant red lily that looked like it was formed from chakra. Her eyes widened and than it exploded right under her.

The explosion was heard through out all of the village, and even outside of it. The loud explosion caused Kakashi and the others to stop and quickly look at each other. "What was that!" Gai yelled. "I don't know but I think it came from the village!" Kakashi quickly took off with the other two right behind him.

They could see the smoke in the distance and it made them run faster. As they got closer they could hear blades clashing together and yells of pain from injured ninja. "Hurry!" Kakashi yelled jumped a head of the other two.

They finally reached the gates of the village and the first thing they saw was brutal fighting. Leaf Village ninja's laid on the ground along with some of the enemy ninja. Kakashi looked at one of the enemy's to examine them but he had no idea who they were. "These guys..I've never seen them before.." Gai said as he was also observing one. "Their not from any place I know." Asuma pointed out. "You're right...They're an unfamiliar enemy.." Kakashi turned one of the Leaf's ninja over and suddenly gasped taking a few steps back.

"What is it?!" Gia and Asuma quickly rushed over and when they did they too gasped and looked down in shock.

The face of the ninja had small vines growing out of his cheek and into his eyes and mouth. It looked like he was sufficated and killed that way. "What the hell!" Asuma shouted. Kakashi slowly examined the other ninjas and saw that some of them too died that way and others had vines growing out of their body and strangled with them. "What kind of jutsu is this?" Gai knelt down and touched the vines. "I don't know..." Kakashi slowly looked over them all.

The fighting suddenly got louder making them all jump and look into the village. "Come on!" Kakashi quickly took off. "Right!" Asuma and Gai both nodded and quickly ran after him.