A/N: Hey guys! I'm so so so so so so so so so so so sorry that I had not updated since... forever! I am truly and deeply sorry! I was just super busy! (I know that that reason won't cut it, but still...) Anyway, thank you to squirpsdolphin and IzzyWhitlockHale for favoriting my story! Thank you to Shadow-Ninja-Captain69, SoraLover987142, LadyAmazon, and Crystal-Rose-Lover for following my story! And thank you to Kilalahinanaruto555, LadyAmazon, Guest, andieanne, Furor, and animefreak653 for reviewing! XD And thank you for DarkFlame Alchemist for helping me with this chappie!

Disclaimer: JayTheCow does not own Naruto.

ENJOY!


Recap:

"Yeah." Shikamaru nodded. "You too." He turned his back to me and walked towards his house.

'I'm always like this when I'm around him... I'm so lucky that I was able to hide it at all.' I made a long sigh and looked up at the sky, trying to calm my thundering heart beat.

'Tomorrow's gonna be a long day…'


CHAPTER 7

In the Leaf Village...

3rd POV

"... Ha ha ha… No way. I'm just paranoid." Joy muttered to herself as she made her way to the Academy. "There's no way that that foreign ninjas infiltrated the village without anybody noticing…"

Recently, she had been sensing unrecognizable chakra in the village. There was a chance that the foreign ninjas were just visiting for diplomatic reasons, but she couldn't be too sure. Since nobody seemed to notice the difference, she had been putting it off for some time, but it only grew. Therefore, it could no longer be ignored.

She had a feeling that it was a kind of negative chakra and because of that, it was really odd that nobody noticed.

"Well… I can always ask Aika-chan…"

That was true; Aika's clan had to have sensed it because they should be able to in the first place. Their family specializes in emitting, controlling and disrupting chakra, so in a way, they're experts on that particular field. Missing the fact that strange chakra was in the air was simply not possible for them.

But, even if the clan sensed it, they were probably waiting it out a bit, just to see what would happen, so as to not alert their potential enemies. Who knows what could happen if their potential enemies figured out that their cover was blown?

She suddenly got out of her thoughts when her eyes caught sight of her friend.

"Angel!" Joy waved to the Hyuga, who in turn waved back, but not before her brows furrowed. As usual, Shikamaru and Choji were with her—Shikamaru with his lazy slouch and Choji with his chips. "Hi Shikamaru-kun, Choji-kun!"

"Hey." Shikamaru nodded his head at Joy's direction.

"Hi Joy-chan! Want a chip?" Choji greeted and handed her a potato chip, to which she took with a smile.

"Joy-chan, where's Naruto-kun? I thought you were always with him?" Aika started, with a worried expression on her face. "He's not sick, is he?"

"Nah," The green haired girl shook her head. "I just asked him to go ahead… Actually, I kinda need to talk to you, alone…" She whispered that last bit to Aika, who's ever growing worried expression deepened, but, nevertheless, she nodded.

"What's up, Ai?" Shikamaru glanced at the two girls who stopped walking. He might have looked laid back at that moment, but if someone looked close enough, they would see that his eyes held a calculating expression. He most probably caught on to the "talking alone" part. Of course, it wasn't like he suspected Joy or anything, but he felt curious on what she wanted with Aika…

"Mhmm… You guys go ahead." Aika smiled at Shikamaru, who just raised an eyebrow. The Hyuga gave them a shooing gesture. "It's fiiiine. I'll be right behind you two. Seriously."

Shikamaru searched Aika's eyes before sighing and beckoning Choji to go with him. "Let's go, Choji."

The said boy nodded, but not before turning around, "You guys better not be late! The exams might start soon."

When the two boys walked far enough to be out of earshot, Aika turned to Joy. "What is it, Joy-chan?"

"Well…" Joy pursed her lips, unsure on how to say it. "Have you… have you felt something weird lately? You know… like, some unfamiliar chakra?"

Aika's eyes widened a fraction in surprise. Not that she was underestimating her friend or anything, but the only ones she knew who could sense chakra were a few of the jonins, the Hokage, the Yamanaka, Aburame, and Hyuga clans. Actually, she didn't think that Ino even noticed the chakra, and Joy wasn't even blood related to any of the clans here, so how…?

Aika decided not to think too much about the fact that her friend was somehow able to sense chakra at the moment and focused more on her question. She then remembered the conversation that she had with her mother not too long ago, which pertained to the mysterious chakra that came out of nowhere.

*flashback*

"Aika... Do well in your graduation exam, yes?" The said kunoichi's mother looked at her daughter a bit waveringly.

Recently, Aika's been slightly worried for her mother. She's noticed her mother's uneasiness ever since their clan announced foreign chakra present in the village. Her mother acted as if... as if she knew to whom the chakra belonged to.

"Of course, Mom." Aika nodded and smiled. She came forward and hugged her mom. "Don't be so worried. We have the Hokage, the ANBU, the clans and Dad to protect the village. I'm sure we can deal with this foreign entity in time."

She released her mom and was shocked to see tears welling up in her mother's eyes. She could tell that whoever owns that chakra was really shaking her up... And that fact made Aika herself scared. Who could be here that could cause her mother to behave this way?

"Mom?"

"It's nothing..." She dismissed it with a smile and a wave. "You have a gift waiting for you here. That is, if you pass the graduation exam, which I think you will with flying colors. After all, you are a Hyuga."

Although Aika still felt uneasy, she smiled nonetheless, "Really? A present for me? Thank you! And like I just said, Mom, of course I'll pass. I'll do you proud."

Her mom then pursed her lips and released a breath, "I'm glad to hear that."

*end flashback*

"Aika-chan?" Joy's voice brought her back to the present. She looked directly at her friend, seeing the worried expression on her face once again. "C'mon, Angel! Please tell me I'm not being paranoid and the chakra that I'm sensing are just diplomats coming here, and not enemies who most probably already entered the village!" She rushed it all out in one breath, her voice slightly escalating before being silenced by Aika.

"Shh! Joy-chan! Not too loud!" the Hyuga said to quiet down the other kunoichi, which she did immediately.

"Sorry..." The chastised Joy whispered, sticking her tongue out cheekily. But before either of them could say any more, somebody spoke out from behind them.

"You're not wrong." A figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere, accompanied by the sound of clapping thunder. The sky seemed to darken with his appearance, and the village became quiet. It was almost as if they were the only ones there. As he moved, his startling silver hair peeked out from his dark hood. Both girls were surprised, to say the least.

"Byakugan!" Immediately after activating it, the Hyuga's eyes widened. 'His chakra…!'

Aika went in front of her friend, taking a defensive stance. In response, Joy took a step back.

"It would do you well to be careful." The boy said, his voice calm, not appearing to see the apprehension of the Hyuga. At the moment, he wasn't emitting a malevolent aura. He doesn't even appear to want to hurt them. But, they can't be too sure.

He was interrupted when an explosion was heard. Both kunoichis jumped, surprised at the sudden commotion. The sound resonated throughout the village quickly and, as if on cue, sirens blared.

"B Unit, scout the perimeter! C Unit, evacuate the civilians! Zero Unit, secure the safety of the Hokage!"

The two kunoichi looked back, but the mysterious stranger was nowhere to be found. Joy gasped as she heard the last order and turned towards the Hyuga, eyes widened. "Oto-san!"

At that, Aika was surprised. It was always Grandpa Ho or Grandpa Hokage… never "oto-san". Joy would seldomly refer the Hokage that way, and that change of reference indicated Joy's fear for her adoptive father.

As they were about to run to the Hokage tower, an ANBU black op called their attention and appeared in front of them. Many of the ANBU were running about, shouting orders, with their faces concealed by their customary cat masks.

"You're genin, am I right?" When the two were about to disagree, and let the ANBU know that they didn't even graduate yet, the ANBU cut them off, "Nevertheless, your orders are to help evacuate the civilians. Bring them to the safety points immediately."

"But you don't understand!" Joy protested, ignoring the look of warning that Aika was sending her. She immediately pointed to the Hokage tower where the roof was burning, spreading smoke into the air. "Oto-san is there! I have to be there! I have to!"

"Ah, you're Lord Hokage's ad—… daughter." He paused for a second, catching himself before he let the word "adopted" slip out of his lips. He looked at her straight in the eyes as much as his mask allowed him and said sternly, "Leave this to us. Going inside could only bring you harm. As—"

"Lemme go! Lemme go!" Loud shouting cut through the ANBU's sentence as their eyes were directed to a certain brown haired boy wearing a very long blue scarf. He was retaliating with jerks, kicks, and punches against the ANBU restraining him, but they were futile.

"No! Lemme go, I tell you!" Konohamaru more or less growled, with frustrated tears blurring his vision. "Grandpa is there! I have to save him! Grandpa!"

"Captain!" another ANBU appeared and announced, "We have secured the safety of the Lord Hokage… There is no need to worry." At that last statement, the said shinobi glanced at Joy and Konohamaru.

With that said, the two of them couldn't stop a sigh of relief. 'He's safe…' they simultaneously thought.

It was too early to relax, though, because at that moment, a cloaked figure jumped out of the Hokage tower, causing havoc. ANBU were immediately on his tail as he leaped from building to building, evading them left from right. It was a wild goose chase around the village until they were nearing the squad close to Joy and Aika.

"Intruder, surrender now and return what you have stolen," shouted one of the elite shinobi, ready to attack if needed.

While in midair, the figure quickly turned his body and released all items in his arms, spreading it all over the ground – books and scrolls of the like, before facing forward again to leap on another roof. An ANBU went to grab one of the scrolls before it fell, but didn't realize that it was rigged with explosive tags until the last minute.

Fortunately, the ninja kicked the scroll up, causing it to explode away from them just in time. Only a few pieces were left of the scroll, and since it was very old and one of a kind, whatever contents that was in the paper was gone forever.

That wasn't good for the ANBU, and, what's worse, the mysterious person threw several more scrolls with exploding tags on each of them. They all detonated in a flash, causing more losses.

The shinobi evaded, but only some were able to dodge and continued pursuing the perpetrator. All the while, the two who were injured from the explosion landed on the roofs to check out their damages. Once they assessed their condition, with them knowing they were still capable of moving, the two shinobi teleported away to rejoin the chase.

As the cloaked figure and remaining shinobi ran above Aika and Joy from the rooftops and poles, the green-haired kunoichi felt an ominous aura coming off of him. She could even feel it when he was already out of sight. She couldn't resist a shudder as shivers ran down her spine. 'He's definitely bad news…'

Before she could do anything more, the ANBU captain spoke and alerted all units, "The assailant had just come out of the tower! Capture him, alive!"

After hearing that order, Joy's eyes narrowed. 'He's the one who placed oto-san in danger…'

Without a second thought, she bolted towards the cloaked man.

"Joy!" Aika started to run towards the green haired kunoichi, but stopped when a jonin appeared in front of Joy and held her back.

"This is where you stop." The jonin blocked her. She started to talk, but was silenced by the jonin's words. "Stop now or we'll have to use force."

Her eyes widened and she stepped back involuntarily at the force of his words, becoming submissive now.

"The ANBU captain had already dispatched a squad to hunt down the infiltrator," he continued, "Leave it to them. You should go help the others calm down the civilians. Now."

Hesitantly, Joy nodded and the jonin disappeared. She begrudgingly started to return to where Aika was, but she moved her foot up quickly after stepping on something. She looked down and saw the old tattered books and leftover pieces of the scrolls that the intruder had dropped.

Joy reached and held one of them in her hand, staring at the cover.

"Joy-chan, what is that?" Aika asked while approaching her.

The green-haired girl said nothing and just opened the book. She was surprised to see pictures and top-secret files of citizens, her fellow shinobi.

Aika retrieved another book from the ground and as soon as she opened it, she let out a gasp.

This caught Joy's attention, which caused her to look over and see what was the matter, "What is it?" She took a quick scan and frowned, "A book about the artifacts held here? What was the point of that?"

Aika's eyes squinted, "Maybe it's to throw us off their tracks or something…"

"Maybe..." Joy agreed with Aika. She looked at the notebook more before Aika spoke.

"Um, Joy…" the said girl looked at the Hyuga questioningly.

"Yeah?"

There was a slight hesitation in Aika's eyes before she smiled and shook her head. "Nah. It's nothing. Forget I said anything."

Joy looked at Aika for a bit before they went back to the notebooks, pondering over the mystery that was presented to them.


Joy 3rd POV

'For the students who were supposed to have the exam today, we have an announcement... Due to the events that had conspired, the exams are postponed. We have decided to carry the exams on tomorrow.'

Joy sighed. 'Too much excitement for one day...'

Once she reached her house, she looked up to see a tall, brown-eyed man smoking, sitting down on the porch, while looking up at the sky. He had short, black spiky hair, and beard. He wore the standard Konoha ninja uniform but with the sleeves rolled up half way, a jonin vest, regular shinobi sandals and forehead protector. He also wore the Twelve Guardian Ninja sash that had the kanji for "Fire" marked on it around his waist, a pair of black bangles and bandages wrapped around the arms of his sleeves.

"Onii-chan..."

In response to her call, Asuma looked at her and smiled. "Hey there, imouto."

Joy started to smile then immediately sighed exasperatedly, spotting the cigarette in her adoptive brother's mouth.

"A-su-ma-nii!" She huffed, stomping towards the jonin, snatching the cigarette from his mouth and stomping it on the ground. Her arms akimbo as she lightly admonished her brother. "How many times in my freaking life do I have to tell you that smoking is bad for your health?!"

Asuma just chuckled and ruffled his sister's hair, much to her chagrin.

He stood up and started walking towards the forest while gesturing towards the green haired girl. He had already lit another cigarette and was now rightfully placed in his mouth. "C'mon. Follow me."

"Where are we going?" Joy curiously asked, but was still a bit irked by his ruffling of her hair, and decided to ignore Asuma's smoking habits... for now.

"You'll see." Was all he said before fully entering the forest.


Kaboom! Kaboom! Kaboom! Kaboom!

The young kunoichi-in-training detonated another sequence of explosive tags on several targets that Asuma put up in different ranges from distance trees to close-up and mid-ranged rocks and poles. He had been training her ever since she arrived back home, which was already a few hours ago.

She was able to hit majority of them, missing less than half of the targets. Joy wasn't expecting that, actually. She thought that she would have been rusty since she didn't have target practice in a while.

Asuma grinned approvingly, "I see that you've improved in your accuracy."

"I still don't understand why we need to be training right now, Asuma-nii." Joy said, more like complained, for the nth time.

She stood in a defensive position, with her hand ready to go in her pocket and grab a kunai attached with an explosive tag.

Joy was at the center of the clearing, several meters away from him as she awaited for her brother's signal, but all she got was a lecture instead.

"There's nothing wrong with spontaneous training, imouto. You can learn something new each time, which will harness your skills even further. That is what makes a great shinobi. You gain experience," Asuma stated before taking another puff of his cigarette and blowing out the smoke through his mouth.

Although he had said it casually, there has to be a deeper reason than to "harness your skills further", right? Joy knows that Asuma never does things without a really solid reasoning. He's pretty laid back, and he does things only then they are extremely necessary. So…?

Joy looked at him curiously, resisting the urge to frown at her brother's habit, "Like what? All we're doing right now is target practice… What else are we aiming for?"

"Mastering your skills is another thing that a shinobi needs as well. Now that you're getting better at using explosive tags with kunai, you'll eventually learn how to use them in your surroundings or on other objects to your advantage," he answered her questions. "In other words: strategy."

"That's so awesome!" Joy grinned from ear to ear before it turned into something mischievous. She was on her way into thinking of all the pranks and all the ways to annoy people before Asuma cleared his throat, which successfully gained her attention.

He looked at her knowingly with an eyebrow raised while smiling at his little sister's antics.

"It's that look on your face. Don't think that you can hide that from me, imouto."

Ever since she was younger, Joy always had a knack for blowing things up. She loved using explosive tags, that she did. Actually, the household had lots of problems because of her. They actually had to store their explosive tags somewhere where Joy could never find them.

"Whaaaa~t? I don't knoooo~w what you're talking about." Joy blinked innocently at him and shrugged in an I-don't-know-anything way. Then she skipped and turned around in a full circle and faced Asuma with a smile on her face. "Anyway, let's go back to training, onii-chan!"

The jonin shook his head, chuckling at his sister's childishness before walking closer to her until they were a few feet apart, all the while putting his hand in his pocket while the other held his cigarette, "No can do, training ends now. We'll continue this another time. For now, you should be practicing those jutsus that you'll need to perform for your exam tomorrow. You can't be a ninja if you can't even pass the exam for genin qualifications."

Joy nodded and began to form hand seals, but before she could even execute a jutsu… a searing pain erupted from her head, making her lose focus.


Joy 1st POV

"Ugh!" I yelled while crouching down, holding my head between my hands. My head was spinning. 'Where did this sudden pain come from?' I wondered.

Almost immediately, Asuma ran towards me and I noticed, even with this pain, his cigarette lay forgotten on the ground in his alarm.

"What's wrong?" He asked, checking my temperature, pulse, chakra levels, anything to help me.

"Asuma-nii… my head… nnghh!" I gritted my teeth as the pain began to worsen. It felt like senbons were piercing me over and over, the intense pain causing tears to form in my eyes.

All of a sudden, images were planted into my mind and all of a sudden, I couldn't move. And it that second…

'…I see… a tatami room filled with seals, humming with raw energy… complicated seals surrounding a pedestal… on top of it is a small, old, wooden chest… suddenly, the seals activate, flashes with a blue light, and at the same time, a painful prickling sensation enters my left eye... The chakra spread like a wild fire on the lines and symbols of ancient seals… it illuminated the room with its blue hue. And as I neared the chest, something stopped me… a shield… it seems like, the closer I get, the more painful my left eye becomes… Is my eye somehow related to this room?...'


3rd POV

"Joy!" He immediately, but gently, took her into his arms as she pressed the heel of her palm on her left eye and rested her head against his chest. This reminded him of the times when Joy would run towards Asuma whenever she becomes afraid. She would always look for him for safety, being the older brother that he is.

By this time, the kunoichi was breathing hard and sweat beaded on her forehead. It seemed like she was burning up.

"Hold on, alright? I'll take you to the hospital." He had only taken a few meters forward when the green haired girl emitted a pained yell.

"No—! Don't… don't go any… closer!" She shook her head fiercely, eyes still firmly shut. In every step that they take, the closer they get to the village, the more painful her body gets.

But eventually, the pain was becoming too much to bear. Asuma could feel her get weaker.

Joy opened her left eye and only saw a blur of her brother. She could see his mouth moving, but she couldn't hear him. And, little by little, her sight began to get blurred until her world went black, falling limp into her brother's arms…

After bringing Joy to the hospital, Asuma had to think…

…What was it that affected Joy so much that she would faint from it? And why only her?


The activation of seals released energy throughout the village, only known to the ones who were able to sense it.

And somewhere within the woods, a group of people hidden within the shadows smirked.

Somebody spoke up from behind them.

"You should not have come here. Darkness shall consume you all."


A/N: Ooooh, I wonder what Aika saw that Joy didn't... :ppp Personally, I don't really feel... fulfilled with this chappie. But, I dunno about you guys. :P

Please review! XD

Till the next chappie!

~JayTheCow~