Author's Note: Thank you so much for the review! :D Like seriously, I do little dances around my house when I get reviews. My dogs think I'm crazy XD. Anywho! Here's the new chapter, along with a little disclaimer about the short stories contained within. Enjoy! :D

All of the miniature stories told in this are not owned by me, so I'm not taking credit for them. Some of them I know are owned by Hans Christian Anderson, other's I'm not positive of the owners. Stories are versions of (in order of appearance) The Flower Story, The Ugly Duckling, The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, and Razia's Shadow by Forgive Durden.


Chapter 7

"She got you good," Kazue commented as Miyuki finished healing Akahana's bruised eye before they left town. The agent had followed through and gave them a room, which proved he was one of the more honest scums of the streets.

"Yeah, are you almost done?" she asked, feeling much more powerful and comfortable back in her shinobi uniform. Miyuki nodded and took her hands off of Akahana's face.

"All healed," she said with a nod.

"Alright, then let's head out everyone," she said with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. "Who wants to carry Sango today?"

"I want to walk," she said with some bite.

"That's too bad," Akahana said back, not in the mood to put up with her bullshit. Sango glared at her.

"As your boss, I demand you let me walk," she said angrily. Everyone didn't know why this girl was acting so different between when they'd first met and when they left the village, but then again, she was 14 or 15.

"And as someone who is taller, older, wiser, and could probably beat the crap out of you, I say that is too bad," Akahana said threateningly. Before Sango could fight anymore, Kakashi picked her up and threw her on his back. "Thanks for volunteering."

"Yeah," Kakashi nodded, leading all of them outside. Sango was trying to get him to let go of her, wiggling her legs and hitting him in an attempt to escape, but he barely noticed. His grip was tight enough on her that there was no way she could break out of it.

"You shinobi are brutes," she said after she'd given up on trying to escape.

"We're not too fond of you either," Kazue said lightheartedly. "As far as I'm concerned, the Fire Country can have you."

She just grumbled to herself while the shinobi walked in silence. They were almost out of the desert of the Wind Country, which would be a bit of a relief. Kakashi was disappointed though when they did get to the grassy areas because the grass was a dying brown rather than the lush green he was use to. There were still no trees to shade them from the unforgiving sun.

"Hey," Akahana poked a droopy Sango and handed her some water. "Drink this. We don't need you dying of dehydration."

"…Thanks," she said reluctantly as she took the water from Akahana.

"Want to trade with anyone yet?" she asked Kakashi.

"No, I'm okay," he replied, even though he wished he could be reading. It wasn't normal for all three kunoichi to be so quiet, so he had nothing to distract himself with. Plus, Akahana still seemed pretty mad at him about his smooth move last night, so that didn't help.

"We should tell stories," Kazue decided for the entire group. "Walking around all quiet like this only makes the journey even longer than it already is. I'll start!"

"This is the story of the desert flower," she said dramatically. All of her fellow travelers stared at her expectantly. "One day a young maiden planted a garden filled with many different kinds of flowers, but since she lived in the desert, she wasn't sure if they would survive. Still, she watered them and tended to them as they started wilting. Becoming discouraged, she knelt down near the flowers one day and asked them 'little flowers, what do you need for you to grow?'

The first flower replied 'I need more water and better soil to dig my roots into. If I had that, then I would grow.'

The second flower cried 'I need more room! All of these other flowers are stealing my water and my nutrients! I will surely die if I stay here!'

The third mumbled 'death is inevitable. I will not grow because I am not destined to grow. Leave me be.'

But, the last flower looked at the girl and smiled. It said 'Surely since you planted me here, I was meant to grow here. I just have to try a little harder, stretch my roots a little further and work with what I have been given, and surely I will grow.'

The girl continued tending to her flowers until the first three did die, leaving the fourth to blossom and continue to grow," Kazue ended with a smile. "That's a story they tell young kunoichi in the Suna, to teach us to deal with the cards we've been handed and flourish through it."

"That's dumb," Sango mumbled. Kazue glared at her and 'humphed'.

"Have anything better?" she asked. Sango closed her eyes and thought, until a story did come to her.

"The ugly duckling," she said, snapping her fingers.

"Everyone's heard that story," Akahana said back, only receiving confused stares from her fellow shinobi. "You all haven't heard that story?"

"No, should we have?" Kakashi asked. Sango just smiled and went on with her story.

"One day a mother duck's eggs were hatching, but one of them was bigger and wouldn't hatch. She became frustrated, but waited, sitting on the egg while her other baby ducks waddled around her. Eventually it did hatch, but it wasn't a cute little yellow duckling like all of her other babies. It was a big ugly duckling," Sango told sadly. "The duckling was ostracized by its mother and siblings and made fun of by everyone for being an ugly duckling, but the ugly duckling grew and grew. Its siblings all turned into normal pond ducks, but the ugly duckling discovered it had never been a duckling at all, but a beautiful swan."

Miyuki smiled dreamily at the story, humming happily to herself. Most of the shinobi had never heard any Hans Christian Anderson stories because they were usually taught lessons instead through traditional stories. The only one that any of them had heard was Cinderella.

"Now who's turn?" Sango asked, not liking that silence was setting back over the group.

"I guess I'll go," Kakashi answered. "Okay, so there were these two newly weds who had just gotten their own apartment and were starting to get use to living together. The holidays were approaching and both of them decided that instead of spending their money frivolously on gifts, they would just not celebrate that way."

"Well, the husband knew that his wife loved her long blonde hair and was so proud of it. Every day she would wash and condition it, brush it often, and wear it proudly. On his way home from work, he had seen these beautiful jade combs that would look perfect with her green eyes, but he didn't have the money to get them for her. But, this man really loved his wife, more than anything in the world, and he knew how happy those combs would make her, especially since she wouldn't be expecting a gift, so he decided that he would sell his pocket watch to buy them for her. Now, his pocket watch was his most prized possession and was the only thing he had left from his father, but he just knew that his wife would love these combs and always wear them, so he parted ways with his watch and bought the combs, hiding them away until the festival."

"The next day, the wife was walking home from work, idly looking in shop windows when a shimmering silver chain caught her eye. She stopped and looked into the jeweler's window at this pocket watch chain that would match her husband's pocket watch perfectly. She knew how much he loved his pocket watch and how he always had it with him, not just because his father gave it to him but because he always liked to know the time, so she knew she just had to get it for him. She walked into the shop, took one look at the price, and knew she would never be able to afford it. Disappointed, she shoved her hands in her pockets and started the walk home, until her eye was caught by a wig maker's shop. The woman walked into the shop and found that if she sold her hair, she would have enough money to buy the chain. She adored her hair and had never had it short her entire life, but she also loved her husband and knew her hair would grow back one day, so she decided to have it cut down to the root so she could buy her husband the chain. After all, the festival was that night. It would be the perfect present."

"After she had the watch chain in her pocket, she took her scarf and wrapped it over her almost bald head so her husband wouldn't see. She would find some way of explaining that later, but for now it didn't matter. She knew she had the perfect gift," Kakashi said with a smile, remembering how his father had told him this story a really long time ago. All of the girls were leaned in with suspense, walking really slowly as the story continued.

"So, the wife came home to find her husband waiting for her with something hidden behind his back. She said 'Husband, I know you said we weren't getting gifts this year, but I couldn't help myself, so I bought you the perfect present'. Her husband smiled, replying 'I bought you a present too, open mine first.' Becoming excited, the wife took the small jewelry box from her husband and opened it quickly to find the beautiful jade combs. At first, she was ecstatic and wanted to put them in her hair, until she remembered that she had no hair. She just continued smiling, knowing that she'd be able to wear them one day. 'Do you like them?' he asked, confused by her changing moods. She smiled and handed him his present. He quickly opened the small pouch she had the silver watch chain in, instantly caught off guard when he saw it. 'You know what's funny?' he asked her. 'I sold my watch, so I could buy you your combs.' She laughed as she pulled her scarf off her head. 'Then we are a pair, because I sold my hair to buy your chain.' Even though both of them had given up things that were very precious to them, they had the best holiday of their lives because now they knew how precious they were to each other," Kakashi ended, feeling Sango become deadweight and fall asleep.

"That… that was a good story," Kazue said with Akahana and Miyuki nodding in agreement. All three of them could tell Kakashi read a lot of books by the way he took the time to describe everything instead of just telling the story. He just smiled, adjusting his grip on the sleeping Sango. "Who's next?"

"I... I don't really know any stories," Miyuki confessed as she kicked a dirt clot in embarrassment. She wished she had anything to bring to the table, but her childhood hadn't been a good one. With her abusive step father and her indifferent mother, she was never really told stories, and all the books she'd read had been nonfiction.

"All of the stories I know are really long," Akahana said when they all looked to her.

"Well, since Miyuki doesn't know any, your extra long story will make up for it," Kazue said, knowing that if they heard a long story, time would pass even faster. It was only around 3 or 4, judging by the amount of sunlight.

"Okay, well, this story was actually told in song, but I refuse to sing it, so I'll just tell it," Akahana said as she paused and gathered the whole story back into her head. She hadn't heard it since she was five, when she'd first started training with her sensei. Her sensei's husband was a story teller and a medicine man, so he always had some sort of interesting folktale to tell her when she came to visit.

"Back when the world was created, one of the angels Ahrima became frustrated because he was not receiving what he considered enough credit for all of his work. Because of this, he destroyed the home they had created, which lead to his banishment. That's a whole other story, but not the story I'm telling," Akahana said with a pause. "The story I am telling takes place years and years after, when the story of Ahrima had become mere folklore. The world was divided in two; a dark side and a light side. In the dark there lived two brothers, Pallis and Adakias. The older brother, Pallis, was adored by all of the citizens of the dark and was a sensible but somewhat vengeful person while Adakias was seen as a foolish dreamer who constantly searched for the greener grass."

"One day, Adakias became fed up with the dark and decided that he wanted to go to the light, but his brother Pallis warned him that if her were to go to the light, he would track him down and make him pay for his actions. Adakias asked his brother if he'd 'ever dreamed of someplace better, where the lights shine brighter?', but was unable to sway him and left, knowing what his brother had warned him. Almost as soon as he entered the light, he saw Princess Anhura and instantly fell in love, as can only happen in fairy tales. She also instantly felt the same, and they went to go tell her father that they were in love and wanted to get married," Akahana stopped her story, freezing dead in her tracks. The other shinobi stared at her, wondering what was wrong.

"Take Sango and get to the next place," Akahana said, tossing them her map. Kazue caught it, looking completely confused.

"What are you talking about Akahana?" she asked, looking around. Then, she heard it. The stomping of feet, like a stampede. "Are they shinobi?"

"No, they're a rebel group. Probably from the Land of Song," Akahana said, her gaze set towards the direction they were coming from. "Go."

"You shouldn't stay here by yourself," Miyuki insisted, both Kakashi and Kazue nodding in agreement. "Let Kazue stay with you."

"Our mission is to protect her and get her to where she needs to go," Akahana stated robotically. "It's more likely that the mission will be complete with three instead of two. Besides, I can handle these people on my own."

"Are you sure?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes! Now go! You don't have much time," she yelled, which sent all three shinobi running. Sango started waking up from the shaking that came from Kakashi's stride.

"What's happening?" she asked sleepily.

"Some people aren't very happy with you being taken to the Fire Country," Kazue said before a giant earth shattering rumble shook all three shinobi. They didn't stop but quickly looked over their shoulders. Fire covered the area where Akahana had been. "Shit…"

"Is that one of her jutsu?" Kakashi asked, although he was half sure he knew the answer. Even though her natural element was fire, Akahana couldn't have done a jutsu like that.

"No, that sounded like home made bombs…" Miyuki said, staring at Kakashi while he figured all of this in his head.

"I'm going back for her," he said, stopping in his tracks. Kazue and Miyuki stopped too.

"But Kakashi, our mission is to keep the princess safe and Akahana's orders said-"Kazue warned.

"They say those who break the rules are scum," Kakashi said as he set the princess down. "But those who abandon their friends are even worse."

Without another word, he turned around and ran back to help Akahana. Kazue grabbed the princess and ran off with Miyuki, knowing that they couldn't change his mind even if they tried, and deep in their hearts, they knew he was right.

Akahana was fighting an entire army on her own. Even with her advanced skills, she was so outnumbered that they had hit her a few good times. She threw a fireball jutsu, hitting a group that was charging her, but not noticing the group to her right.

"Lightning blade," Kakashi called, striking down the group to her right that she hadn't even seen. She didn't have time to thank him or anything, so they just fought the hordes of people. With the two of them working together, they'd finished off every one of them that didn't flee in a decent amount of time.

"Thanks," Akahana said as she finally faced Kakashi. He smiled, completely unaware of the citizen hiding in the tall grass. Akahana hadn't noticed him either, until she saw him stand and draw his sword. "Look out!"

With the amount of speed he had and his ability to hide his chakra, he had been a shinobi at one time in his life. Kakashi wasn't fast enough to block him, but Akahana was faster than him. She was just fast enough to get in front of him and take the blow.

A tiny cough escaped her mouth as she felt the katana make a home inside her guts. Kakashi quickly moved past the shock and took the guy down before he had the chance to do any more damage. Then, he went to Akahana, who was lying on the ground, trying to breathe.

"Let me..." he kneeled next to her and carefully pulled the sword out, hesitating every time she gasped in pain. The sword had gone straight through her, but Akahana was tough. She wasn't crying or screaming in pain, even though she was gushing blood. She just flinched as she inhaled, trying to focus on breathing. If he could get her to Miyuki, she could maybe be okay. "You're bleeding a lot."

"I was stabbed," she said with as much bite as her voice could manage. Kakashi reached into his pack and pulled out the medical kit Rin had given him when he reached jonin.

"I don't know enough about medical ninjutsu to heal you, but I can bandage you up and take you to Miyuki," he assured as he unzipped her vest and ripped her shirt open. The wound went from right under her breasts in the middle of her body, about four or five inches long. It must've cut wider when she fell. Kakashi did the best he could with putting some ointment on the wound and bandaging it, but as he did so, he could see Akahana drifting. That was the last thing she could do. "Why'd you do that?"

"I…" she took a shallow breath so she could finish. "I will never let my comrades die… even if they are Konoha brats." There was a tinge of a smile in her weak voice as she tagged on the last part.

Kakashi didn't know what to say to that, but he knew he had to keep talking to keep her brain moving. She had to keep thinking and not drift to sleep.

"Can you finish your story?" he asked as he finished bandaging her and tried tying her shirt so that it would close somewhat, then zipping her vest back up. He unrolled her mask in the hopes that it would help her breathe.

"Why?" she asked as he picked her up bridal style. He didn't want to run and risk hurting her more, and he knew that he'd used the lightning blade about five times, which was his limit. He would have to walk as fast as he could, which meant that Akahana would have to stay conscious for longer than he'd like.

"Because I want to hear the rest," he said gently. She rested her head against him once he'd adjusted how he was carrying her so it would be comfortable for the both of them. He had to remain aware of the wound on her back as well as in the front. It was hard to find a place to hold her from that didn't touch that.

"I can't remember where I left off," she said, head dipping up and down with his stride. He was trying to walk as fast as he could, but he didn't want to hurt her. If her wound ripped more, there might now even be much Miyuki can do.

"They were going to the king, to see if they could get married," he reminded her. She closed her eyes, but he jostled her a bit so she'd stay awake.

"I wasn't sleeping," she lied. "Okay, so they went to the king's castle and told him they wanted to be married, but the king naturally thought that this stranger was just trying to get power and gold and whatever."

"That's logical," Kakashi commented. She smiled with those lips that normally distracted Kakashi because of how pink they were, but now worried him by how they were paling. He started moving a little faster.

"Anyways, he still disapproves, so the two decide to elope, until the princess becomes very sick. Adakias knows that it's because of his impure presence that is infecting her body, and…" Akahana paused her story, her brain becoming somewhat fuzzy.

"Infecting her body. Impure presence. What else?" Kakashi pressed. She blinked a few times, then continued.

"They went to see a specialist to cure her, and on the way there, they meet these brothers who tell Adakias that he is a descendent of the angel who created the darkness and that he is part of a prophecy to make the world right again. They also warn him of people who seem to be kind, but aren't," she coughed, blood splattering its alarming red, making Kakashi move even faster.

"When they got to the specialist, he told them that he would cure her, if she married him," Akahana said, telling the story with as little detail as possible. She was struggling to even breathe, let alone talk. Not to mention, her brain was swimming. "Adakias tells her to do it, and so she agrees and is healed, but before anything else can happen, Pallis comes back and tells his brother that he's coming back because the princess couldn't really love him. Then he tells the princess that it's Adakias's fault that she's sick but Adakias tells her that even though it's true, their love is too strong to let that stop them. Then Pallis goes to stab the princess and end the mess, but Adakias jumps in front of her, taking the stab and dying, willing his dreams for the world to his brother and the princess."

"That's a good story… Where'd you hear it?" he asked, knowing he had to keep her thinking. She didn't answer, even when he nudged her a few times. He could feel her taking shallow breaths and her heart struggling… He ran as fast as his legs would take him, pressing her close so that she wouldn't be injured and praying to every higher being he'd ever heard of that he wasn't too late.