This chapter is going to be a shorter one but it says just as much. Hope you guys have been voting. I think I might close the poll soon so hurry if you want to choose the pairing!

Chapter 10

After hours of tiring and brain wracking tests, Miyu was finally released from the Academy. Truth be told, she didn't like it there but then again, it was better than home. No, not home. Better than the Fukui compound. That was no home. She had no home.

"Okay Miyuki. I'll grade your tests tonight. Or me and a few others," Iruka told her happily.

"Hai, sensei. Those were sure...let's just say that I might not be able to use my hand again for a while," Miyu joked back, laughing slightly. The man laughed heartily as well before saying goodbye.

Walking away from the academy, Miyu noted that the gloomy weather in Konoha had cleared up to leave a bright sun to shine and warm the people. Oh yes people. Lots of people. More people than Miyu had ever seen in one place at any given time. It actually frightened her slightly though she kept up her calm and collected facade. Slowly, she squeezed through the crowd heading to her destination of absolutely nowhere.

"Hey, did you hear that the heir to the Fukui clan has gone missing?" chattered a stranger in a small restaurant.

"Really? The girl?" questioned another man.

"Yeah. Apparently, when the maid came into her room in the morning, she was gone," replied the first man.

"Any signs of struggle?"

"Um...I don't think so."

"Maybe someone cleaned it up," muttered the second man to himself. Miyu's eyes widened a bit before she carefully moved closer to the restaurant. The sign on the small stand read 'Ichiraku', and the smell wafting through the air was unique to anything the girl had ever smelled before. Curious as to what it was, she walked right into the cozy inside of the stand.

There she found a small group of people sitting and eating something that she identified as 'ramen'. Of course, she had never had any of the stuff herself but she had read about it in her encyclopedia. Okay, so she somewhat of a nerd. Deal with it.

The group didn't seem to notice her entrance so she walked over and sat on a stool a few away from them. That was when a perky young woman went up to her from behind the counter. "Welcome to Ichiraku's! What would you like today?" she chirped. Miyu looked unsure for a moment and slightly awkward as the people form before turned to look at her.

"Um...any recommendations?" Miyu asked unsure of what there was to offer.

"How about some beef or miso ramen?" the woman suggested.

"Beef, please."

"Just one moment!" was what she said before she skipped away to prepare the food. A sigh escaped from Miyu's mouth once she was out of earshot though right after, she sat straight up and looked at the people who looked away. Except for some blonde boy with a few empty bowls beside him. He wore something of a track suit that was bright orange with some blue parts to it. He wore the same ninja sandals as hers along with a hitai-ate across his forehead.

"Hi. The name's Uzumaki Naruto and I'm going to be Hokage someday!" he half shouted to her, startling the poor girl. Obviously, he didn't seem to notice for his cerulean eyes still twinkled brightly in excitement. "This is the part where you introduce yourself, you know," he said to her as if she were slow. Ignoring this, Miyu smiled her smile again.

"Why hello, Uzumaki-san. My name is Miyuki," replied Miyu formally. Originally, she hadn't planned her name to be Miyuki but the name 'Miyu' slipped out of her lips before she coudl stop herself. Therefore, she had to cover it up somehow or she wouldn't have made it this far in her plan.

"Haha! Uzumaki-san? Call me Naruto!" he yelled back. Great. Now she would be deaf. That definitely could be good for her plan. She hid the annoyed look that was itching to crawl onto her face.

"Okay, Naruto-kun. I will."

"You're so polite. Quit it. It's weird," Naruto told her while frowning.

"I can't help it, Naruto-kun. It's how I was raised," Miyu retorted lazily.

"Hey, how come I've never seen you around before?" he asked, totally ignoring her previous comment.

"Because I just came to the village today."

At this, an older man with spiky silver hair and one dull black eye tuned in. Across the other eye diagonally, was his hitai-ate and covering the rest of his face was a Prussian blue mask. He wore the same colour sweater and sweatpants with a green vest over the sweater. Gloves covered his hands white bandages covered what the pants didn't; from the knee down to his ninja shoes. "Today, you say?" the man questioned?

"Hai. Today. May I ask why you wanted to know?" Miyu asked, already knowing what he wanted to know. The heiress to a prestigious clan goes missing on the same day that new people arrive? Can you say 'suspicious'?

"It's nothing. Are your parents here with you?"

"No, actually. I came here to become a ninja while my parents decided to stay in my old village," she explained.

"Ah...what village is that?"

"It doesn't really have a name strangely. But it's far down south."

The man paused for a moment to stare into her eyes for the signs of a lie. Miyu knew better than to let him in. Besides, she owned a magnificent pair of eyes that could deter every sign of a possible lie from reaching the surface. Instead she searched him. Behind the dull blackness, she found many emotions, memories, experiences. Very many that it was almost overwhelming though thankfully, he looked away.

"So you came to be a ninja, you say?" he inquired, changing the topic quickly.

"Hai. I have already discussed with Hokage-sama the details. I also took tests from the academy. Iruka-sensei was very kind but my hand is still cramped from all of that writing," Miyu said light heartedly.

"You met Iruka-sensei?" yelled Naruto once more.

"Naruto-kun, must you shout?" She tried desperately to stay calm.

"Yes! Iruka-sensei was our teacher when we were in the academy!" Glass was breaking.

"Is that so?" Miyu responded with mock interest, now focusing on the ramen that was placed in front of her. After saying grace, she pulled apart her chopsticks and inserted the noodles into her mouth. The taste was different than what she had eaten back at the compound but it satisfied her taste buds, leaving her without complaints.

"Yeah, he's great, isn't he? But this is Kakashi-sensei. He's a jounin so he's probably stronger than Iruka-sensei," went the rant of Naruto. She only heard it at the back of her mind. So that's Hatake Kakashi. He's the one I read about...'The Copy Cat Ninja'.It's true that there was a small section in something that she had read that mentioned his name, saying that he copied over 1000 jutsus.

"Mm hm..." she mumbled, still eating her ramen slowly.

"Oh, guys, introduce yourselves!" scolded Naruto to the other two whom Miyu had yet to even look at. She didn't look at anyone, only the food in front of her.

"Fine Naruto. I'm Haruno Sakura. Nice to meet you," voiced a young girl sweetly. She had equally sugary hair of cotton candy pink and apple green eyes. A candy apple.Her skin was pale unlike Naruto's tan and her smile was also a few hundred times smaller or in other words; normal. Her outfit was a red dress-like piece and teal shorts that clung to her legs. The hitai-ate was used as a headband in her long hair while she also wore the same shoes as everyone else.

"Likewise..." replied Miyu. Meeting people was just something that she was used to from all the times where she had to meet associates of her father. Of course, none of them were as nice as the people she had met today and definitely not as colourful.

A silence followed those words as she looked down at her food again.

"And the asshole is Sasuke," said Naruto, breaking the dreadful silence. At that comment Sakura hit the blonde boy in the head and threatened him about insulting 'her' Sasuke. She was obviously very bipolar, as Miyu decided. Then she processed what it was that Naruto said causing her to look up perhaps a second too fast.

"As in...Uchiha Sasuke?" Miyu asked quietly. Then she looked to see the person in question. He had spiky raven hair and pale skin that contrasted greatly with his onyx eyes. He wore a blue, high collared shirt and white shorts that ended at the knee. From the knee down, he had bandages and then his shoes while from his elbows to his wrists, he had arm guards. She saw him from the side so she noticed the Uchiha symbol on the back of his shirt; a red and white fan.

"What of it?" sounded a stoic voice. The cruel eyes of the Uchiha cut through her completely, almost forcing tears to her eyes. It looked like him but he had changed. The wall she had built almost fell but she forced it to remain strong, looking at him with little indifference. Inside his eyes she saw anger, hate, and blood lust.

"Yeah, what's so special about him? Wait, are you a fan girl already?" Naruto asked, angry and surprised.

Miyu shook her head a bit, not taking her eyes off of the other boy. "It's nothing of the sort. I was just...asking."

While Sasuke looked away, Naruto and Sakura gave her confused looks. "What do you mean, Miyuki?"

"It's nothing. I've...got to go," she told them, paying quickly for her ramen before running out. Her feet carried her to the edge of the forest where she hid among the trees with her heart beating harshly and her breath coming out loudly. Could it be true? Could that really be the very same boy that she had known back then?

"Get it together, Miyu," she whispered. "That was then and this is now."

The only explanation for it would be the massacre. The deaths he had seen, the blood that had been spilt. Everything from her disturbing dreams. All of those must have taken a great toll on him. It happened a few weeks before their last meeting, the news spreading quickly though not quickly enough. She had not known about it when he had last come around or else she would have said something.

Blood, Sweat, Tears.

The thought made her shutter. Everything was so..vivid. The corpses, the screams, and the pain. Miyu slid down a tree, clutching the sides of her head, trying to force those images out of her mind. And her mind was strong.

No wonder that he became like that.

Though it looked as though she had seen it first hand, she had not and he had. And his mind was frail, as if could break as easily as glass in a herd of angry bulls. The anger made his aura glow red while the hate tinted that red with a foreboding black; the blood lust making it bubble. It was almost as terrible as what she had seen inside of Naruto. The thoughts swirled around in her head, spreading over every inch of her body, forcing her limbs to go numb. Drums sounded within her, tears clouding her vision more with every beat.

A searing pain and a tearing feeling.

A scream of pure terror.

Evil eyes of blood red.

Sinister chuckles.

Darkness.

I hope you enjoyed. More coming soon.