Yes I know that it has been a very long time since I updated. But I only have two words for those of you who are disgruntled. Higher Education. So yeah slower updates will be much more common during the fall and spring semesters. Sorry but that comes first.

I hope that all who read this find enjoyment in doing so.

Dedicated to my best friend.

I do not own Na to the Ru to the To. You figure that one out I'm tired and I gotta write a chapter.

Chapter 9: Reconnaissance Mission?

As she ran faster than she knew she was capable the wet night grass left her shins soaking wet, to match her cheeks. The tears welled up from her eyes independent of the the terror that pierced her heart. She wanted to stop crying, to not be in such terrible pain and so afraid, but she couldn't. Her frantic breathing filled the night air as she flew across the forest, the darkness obscuring her vision and warping the appearance of the trees. Her already blurred, tear soaked vision united with the darkness to hide from her view a thick root knot directly in her path. The knot caught her left boot and brought her tumbling down face first in the dirt. She willed her arms to move, to pick her up so she could continue running, but they would not comply. Her body wracked as she sobbed uncontrollably, soaking the dirt in her fresh tears.

'The village... the temple... everyone... Mommy... Mommy why you too...' this and this alone ran through her mind, obscuring the immediate danger of her situation. She lay on the ground in that manner until the cries of men began to echo through the forest, drawing nearer and nearer. She looked up, terror written on her face, and she did the only thing she could think of. She ran to the nearest tree and in a flurry of arms and legs clambered up the trunk as high up into the canopy as she could. When the branches became to thin for her to climb any higher she looked down to see that leaves completely blocked her hiding place from view of the ground. The voices of the men soon could be heard from the base of the tree.

"God damn it! Where did that brat of yours go?" said one of the frustrated men to another.

"I don't know where that bitch Miki went. Just as disobedient as her mother!" He kicked the trunk of the tree in a rage. "I swear when we find her I will personally make sure she is thoroughly broken in before shown to the buyers. If the bosses hear one escaped we will probably all be killed!"

"While that may be true, if we don't tell them we will DEFINITELY all be killed because a certain dumb ass here lost sight of his own God damn daughter!"

"Ruah! We've never had a witness before! This jeopardizes everything!"

"Shut up! We were there we know! She's long gone let's just head back with the others and the merchandise. We can report to the bosses and they will know what to do."

As their footsteps faded off into the woods towards the horizon from which smoke billowed Miki lay in the canopy of the tree, and cried till no more tears would flow from her eyes any longer. She sobbed as she passed out, exhausted and traumatized from her ordeal. And as she drifted to sleep a memory crossed her panicking mind.

"Mommy, what are shi-no-bi?" Miki asked her mom as the two passed a group of young women wearing headbands with leaf symbols on them who were talking to the village leaders and gesturing to a hawk that was perched on one of their forearms. Her mother laughed and said to her daughter,

"Well, shinobi are warriors who fight to protect people like you and me from bandits and other evils." Miki blinked at her mother, bewildered.

"And how exactly do they do that? Swords?" Again her mother laughed before answering.

"Well here in the land of fire we are protected by the shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato, all of whom have amazing powers that they use to fight evil people. They can cross mountain ranges over night, disappear before your eyes in broad daylight, and some say they can walk on water too. So remember honey, if you are ever in danger, find a shinobi with one of those headbands on and they will protect you." The young girl looked down and asked,

"Like... if dad... comes back and hits you again?" Her mother's expression darkened and with no hesitation she said,

"Yes Miki. Like if your father comes back."

As she fell asleep in the tree she mumbled through her sobs and tears, "Shinobi..."

The next afternoon at training ground four in Konohagakure No Sato...

"Hyaa!"

"Hup!"

"Kyaa!"

Kushina braced herself, grounded well in her defensive stance, and raised her left arm up to deflect an aerial kick from Minato. His swift attack hit her arm with great force but she did not budge so he twisted at the waist while pushing off of the point of impact to spin his body and rotate his angle. He used this new momentum and altered angle to attempt another kick to her head, which she deflected using her right hand. He kicked off of her arm and landed nimbly a few feet away from her. Her activated Byakugan carefully watched his entire body and she focused her penetrating vision on the minute muscular contractions in his body so as to predict his attacks and the strength needed to deflect them. Minato had long since learned that the traditional shinobi technique of watching the enemies eyes to predict attacks did not work on his friend because her eyes did not need to move in order to look at anything. Instead he relied on his previous experience with the taijutsu katas she had modified for herself from the Hyuuga style. He knew most of her moves because her style was still highly underdeveloped and still had very few variations in application. This advantage however was also a weakness because the fact that her technique was still evolving meant that she was always inventing new movements and attacks. This was exactly what she was doing in that instant as he carefully watched her fall into a stance he had never seen her use before.

She lowered her stance, straightening out one leg and bending the other at the knee to tilt her entire body sideways towards Minato. She kept her head straight forward, not needing to turn to look at him because of her three-hundred and sixty degree visual range, and put both of her arms at her sides one pointing directly at Minato and the other pointed directly away from him. She bent both of her arms at ninety degree angles from the horizontal formed by her shoulders, the one pointed towards Minato going down and the other going up. In her minds eye she imagined an enormous circle with an internal one pass swirl pattern on the ground around her. The swirl started at the foot under her bent leg and ended at Minato's feet. Minato drew four kunai from his pouch and readied to throw them at his sparing partner.

"Now!" Kushina yelled. "Uzumaki Style: Spiral Assault!" Minato flung a kunai directly at Kushina, but she sidestepped the projectile keeping her torso in the same position while rotating and taking a step towards Minato along the path of the swirl. Immediately following the commencement of her movement Minato threw a kunai at her new position but she continued to pivot her body in a sort of high speed spinning crab-walk along the path of the spiral now stepping further from him. He threw his two remaining kunai to her side along the path of her apparent movement pattern, but she bent at the hip while she pivoted and the kunai passed just over her back while she continued uninterrupted. She now broke the rigid form her arms had been held in as in the blink of an eye she rapidly pivoted along a curved trajectory directly at Minato. Her arms both readied at her side and she used the momentum of her rotating approach to increase the force of her attack as she punched both at him with open palms. He deflected this double strike by crossing his forearms and swung a kick at her legs upon deflecting the impact, but she continued her rotating movement and began to pivot at high speed in a circle around Minato while assaulting him with a flurry of momentum powered spin kicks and open hand punches. Spinning around in place to follow her as he deflected her punches with his fists and used small leaps to pass over her low kicks. He attempted to attack her with a spinning jump kick while her back was turned away from him by her rotation but her eyes could still see his attack and keeping with her pivot she ducked beneath it. Landing he deflected another punch and went to throw his own, but she saw this too and while his attacks were much faster than she herself was her movement pattern allowed her to narrowly avoid them. Minato himself was becoming frustrated at how difficult it was to follow her movements while she spun around him in such a way, and could slowly feel the high speed spinning bringing about the onset of dizziness. After doing a handspring without breaking her speed of rotation to avoid one of his devastating ax kicks, she used the resulting opening and grabbed a firm hold of him at the shoulder and forearm. She kicked his legs out from under him and pulled his now unbalanced and disoriented body by the arm and adjoining shoulder along with her as she pivoted, then again taking advantage of the momentum afforded by her movement she tried to fling his entire body at a nearby tree. Acting fast, Minato grabbed a hold of her wrist and held tight as she tried to throw him, causing both to go tumbling hard to the ground in a spinning mass of limbs and bruises. The two came to a stop still tangled together, Minato on his back waiting for his vision to stop spinning, and Kushina feeling very sore from the jumbled impact and laying face down half on top of Minato's chest.

Moaning she raised herself up off of him and deactivated her Byakugan as clearly neither felt like continuing this sparring round, not that Minato really could in his dizzied state. She got into a seated position on the ground next to her friend and rubbed her painful and swollen ankle which it had hit the ground rather hard and at a weird angle. Minato felt the spinning in his head start to slow down and also rose to sit.

"Damn Kushina, that was new. How did you not get dizzy from all that spinning?" he asked, now curious about her new move.

"Well the condition of vertigo is caused by two parts of the senses, the eyes and the inner ear. The eyes have difficulty processing the rapid spinning and try to compensate by falling into a reflexive movement darting to the side so-"

"I know the technicals Kushina, I'm a medical-nin, just give me the short version please?"

"Combination of Byakugan and channeling chakra into my cochlea."

"Oh. That's really clever, it is hard to block your attacks, you hit harder," he said while with glowing hands he healed the bruises that covered his forearms. "and it disorients the enemy. But it's also dangerous because if the enemy can misdirect your momentum you come tumbling down."

"Yeah I know that now, I'll work on it. Soon I will start trying to use seals while doing it too." She giggled at the promising prospect and then sighed with relief as Minato reached out a glowing hand and began to heal and reset her broken ankle. "Thanks Minato! Your getting way better with this medical jutsu!" she eagerly said to her best friend with a wide grin.

"No problem at all." replied a smiling Minato. "Good match. Guess I gotta get either faster or stronger if I wanna beat you." They both laughed and Kushina looked off towards the village.

"I wish she had come along, we could use a third training partner." Kushina said.

"Yeah but when I asked she said something about how much she would love too but that she was already close to finishing something." Minato said feeling slightly tired now that the healing was all done. His level of chakra control was still at such a level that he could use the jutsus effectively but inefficiently, wasting more chakra than a more skilled medical-nin would need to use.

"Oh? Is she almost done with a new invention?"

"Wouldn't tell me." He replied while closing his eyes and laying back to relax.

Just then Shikamaru shadow blurred from the direction of the village out of the nearby forest to stand near them in the clearing.

"Hey Shikamaru sensei! You here to fulfill your promise to help us train this week?" excitedly asked the grinning girl who seemed to have near infinite stores of energy. Shikamaru shook his head and walked closer to them.

"Sorry, we will have to do a rain-check on the training. We've been summoned by the Hokage. He needs us for a mission right away." Kushina shot up from the ground and excitedly jumped up and down giddily.

"What kind of mission? An important one? C-rank?" she asked.

"Yup, C-rank as much of a pain as it is, and yes it's important. Where is Satsuki at?" Without opening his eyes or getting up Minato answered him,

"At her apartment working on some gadget." Shikamaru sighed heavily, clearly annoyed at the prospect of a detour. He then turned to Minato nodded his head towards the village as he said,

"Minato, go over and-"

"Nope, not this time sensei. I always fetch whoever is missing because you always seem to find me first."

"Fine," grunted Shikamaru then turning to Kushina. "you go get her. We all need to get to the Hokage's Mansion pronto for out assignment."

"Yes sensei!" She eagerly replied before running and leaping off towards the far side of the village. Shikamaru turned to face the lounging Minato and rolled his eyes at the young shinobi.

"Get up Minato we're reporting to the Hokage's office. Troublesome kid." Minato groaned and hopped up to his feet.

"Okay sensei. Lets go."

Eight minutes later at the Hokage's office...

Minato and Shikamaru stood facing the mask wearing Hokage across his desk as he looked over some last minute reports that his assistant Moegi had just handed to him. The door opened and in walked Kushina being berated by an annoyed looking Satsuki.

"No it is NOT okay to enter peoples homes through the window! Even if they are your teammate! And since when were we friends?"

"Ahem." coughed Shikamaru at his students, causing Satsuki to become silent immediately and fall in line next to the other three shinobi assembled. The Hokage laid down the papers and with a heavy sigh turned to address team seventeen.

"Good, you're all here. I have just received some troubling news and I need you to go on a mission to investigate." He sifted through the scattered papers covering his desk until he found the one he was searching for and held it up for them all to see. The paper was a map of the central northern region of the Land of Fire, and had dotted across it markings indicating the locations of known cities, towns, villages, and even rural homes. One of these dots on the map had a red circle drawn around it, and several coded notes surrounding that circle. "This location of interest as marked on this map is a small rural community with a rather unique population known as Brishtem. Brishtem sprang up around a temple that is now the center of the village and the entire population of both the village and the temple are female. The temple was established for female monks, which by itself is very rare. On top of that several decades ago those monks started taking in women from around the Land of Fire who were fleeing from relationships where they were being abused by men. They took in so many of these women that a village sprung up around the temple in which those women started to live. It has since become a haven of healing and refuge for abused women from all over the elemental nations. For added security the village has a direct line of communication to this village in case of incident where they are found by those who have harmed the residents in the past. Unfortunately, we have received a report from a team that passed through the area en route to their own mission that the entire village is empty and that half of it is burned to the ground. They did not have time to investigate, so they sent this report back instead. What is truly peculiar about the situation is that we received no distress message from the village, so it is highly likely that there was simply a fire accidentally started and that they chose to relocate but forgot to inform us. Your mission will be to investigate the village and determine exactly what it is that happened there and where the citizens are." The Hokage put the paper down and looked directly at Kushina and Satsuki. "Due to the delicate nature of the community only the female members of your squad will enter the village or interact with it's inhabitants unless the situation requires otherwise or you are instructed otherwise by the inhabitants. Am I clear?" He asked, then looking at the two males on the squad for confirmation.

"Yes Hokage-sama." replied Shikamaru.

"Good." The Hokage said, his eyes expressing that beneath his mask he was smiling. "This is a C-rank reconnaissance mission, the village is two days from here. You will leave as soon as you are able. Pack prepared for any eventuality. Dismissed." The four bowed and filed out of the room to prepare themselves for the mission.

As soon as they closed the door behind themselves the shadow beneath the Hokage's desk began to rise and stretch until the silhouette of Shikamaru stood in front of the desk facing the Hokage. Moegi dropped all of the papers she was holding in surprise but the Hokage seemed unsurprised, clearly aware of it's presence the entire time.

"What is it Shikamaru?" he asked in a tired tone while off to the side Moegi was frantically trying to put the spilled papers back into the exact same order they had been in previously.

"Sorry Kakashi but I just had to ask without the kids around. There is absolutely no way that this mission is C-rank! How did it get approved as such? I mean a blind reconnaissance mission into a region were active communications have suddenly been cut off? This could be dangerous! This isn't the first incident like this either! Slowly over the past year small villages all over the northern providence have been suddenly disappearing without a trace! I don't want my genin getting hurt." The Hokage sighed heavily and turned his chair so that it's back was to the silhouette.

"I know that Shikamaru, but it was out of my hands. We've been receiving a great deal of pressure from the nobles of the Land of Fire to start sending Kushina on more... serious missions. Even the Feudal Lord has demanded as such, they are all impatiently awaiting to see what she has inherited from her father. The Feudal Lord demanded yesterday that the very next B-rank mission to come in would need to be marked a rank down and given to her and her squad. We tried to reason with him but-" he sighed heavily again. "he would not listen. We had no choice at this time but to comply. After all we are approaching the renewal period for our budget approval and if the Feudal Lord so much as twitched his nose against the village right now it would have widespread effects on everyone who lives here." The Hokage turned back around and with his one open eye gave a stern look at Shikamaru's clone. "Just keep them safe, no matter what. I'm hoping for the best but they might have to undergo a baptism by fire it would seem."

"This is such troublesome bullshit. God damn nobles sticking their fingers where they don't belong. Fine, I get it. I'll bring them all back in one piece. I swear." said the silhouette before it dissolved back into the floor, gone. The Hokage rubbed his temples with his hands in frustration and waved to Moegi that he was done with paperwork for the day. She bowed curtly and shuffled out of the room with her stack of papers. Once alone, the Hokage reached down and opened up the hidden compartment of the Hokage's desk. Where previous Hokage would have pulled from it crystal balls, bottles of sake, or even cups of instant ramen, within it he kept a small pile of little books. He pulled an orange one from near the top of the stack and closed the compartment.

"This will help me take my mind off it." he said to himself as he leaned back and cracked open the book whose cover read Make-Out Courtship! by Naruto Uzumaki.

Twenty minutes later at the gates of Konoha...

Minato shambled along the street towards where he saw all of his teammates waiting for him. Shikamaru, Satsuki and himself were wearing their large and heavy travel backpacks, but Kushina was noticeably without luggage, and almost looking smug about it. 'Almost.' He thought to himself. 'If that's what you could call it when it's coming from Kushina. Probably closer to excitement about sharing good news.' His eyebrows furrowed in annoyance and as soon as he got near them he looked at her and asked,

"What? Not bringing your gear? You don't even have your weapon pouch with you." She giggled in response, clearly excited that somebody finally decided to bring it up and rolled her sleeves back to reveal their interiors were covered in paper tags with seals on them.

"Storage seals! I just mastered them a few days ago! Isn't it awesome? Now I can carry everything I need, even more than I could carry before, and I just pull it out of my sleeves whenever I want. Even ninja tools are just a flick of the writst and 'surprise!' I've got a kunai." she giddily replied. She then started trying to explain the mechanics of these seals to Minato, who quickly informed her that he really wasn't all that that curious. Without skipping a beat she turned to Satsuki and tried the same thing only to receive a death glare from the kunoichi which also stopped her explanation.

"Alright guys let's head out, we need to get there as quickly as possible."

"Hai!" all three replied in unison before the team jumped into the tree tops and set out for the village of Brishtem.

Two days later just outside of the village of Brishtem in the norther providence of the Land of Fire...

The four Konoha shinobi stood near one another in the treetops looking out over the charred buildings that were left of the village of Brishtem.

"Alright girls you know what to do." Shikamaru said as he hooked his headset into his ear. "Minato and I will stay on the outskirts nearest your location and if you need either of our assistance you signal us over the radio. Investigate the town and search for indications of what happened. Also, provide assistance to any resident you may find."

"Got it sensei." replied Satsuki as she and Kushina put in their own headsets. The two kunoichi jumped down and started walking into the village while Minato and Shikamaru looked on from their hiding place, keeping an eye on their comrades until they could no longer be seen past the remains of the buildings. As the girls got further into town the true breadth of the devastation became apparent, as did the mystery.

"This isn't 'half burned', every single house was on fire. Just not all of them burned to the ground." said Kushina as they walked the streets observing the charred remains of walls and fences. A few buildings still had roofs but they looked like they could collapse at any moment from structural damage.

"Not only that," said Satsuki. "but the thick layer of ash over everything makes finding any tracks seem impossible. See if your eyes can look past the ash to see the dirt path unobstructed, and while your at it look for any signs of residents." Kushina formed a hand seal and the veins around her pale orbs bulged outwards. She stood for a moment as she scanned all around herself the entire small village easily fitting comfortably within the range of her eyes. While Satsuki poked around inside the remains of a nearby home Kushina stood and scanned the town for what must have been close to three minutes. Just when Satsuki was convinced that her teammate's eyes were useless she heard Kushina gasp. She ran to her side and asked,

"What is it? You find something?"

"Not something," she replied. "someONE! There is a little girl hiding in one of the large communal homes on the north side of the village! But the house she is in is highly unstable, she is in danger!" Kushina immediately sprinted off towards the house in question, which had a questionable looking roof over it. Satsuki followed sprinting as well, concerned about the welfare of the little girl inside.

The two soon arrived at the house and Satsuki moved to make her way inside but Kushina ,Byakugan still active, held out a hand to stop her.

"Don't go in. You might set off a collapse. I honestly wonder if she can even get out without it collapsing. There are footprints in the ash leading to her location which means she came back into the building after the fire, it's a miracle the building didn't go down as she made her way back in. This must be handled very, very delicately." she instructed her teammate. Satsuki turned to the building and cupped her hands around her mouth before shouting towards the apartment complex.

"Hello! Can You Hear Us? We Know You're In This House! We Want To Talk To You!" silence was her answer. She turned to Kushina and asked, "How old does she look?"

"She looks even older than us to be honest. But given the trauma of her village burning down I'm not surprised she has temporarily reverted to childlike impulses. She is hiding under what's left of a bed on the second floor, clutching a wooden mallet. She also looks like she has been crying heavily."

"It's Okay! We're Friends! Come Out From Under The Bed So We Can Talk!"

"N-No~o!" Suddenly shouted a very shaky voice from within the devastated building. "I-I don't b-believe you! You can't t-take me t-too! I'm armed! It won't b-be so easy as the others! I c-can fight back!" Satsuki and Kushina blinked in surprise, both caught completely off guard by the declaration of the teenager in the building.

"We Swear To You, We Mean You No Harm! What Are You Talking About? What Happened To The Others?" Silence again. "You Can Trust Us! We're Shinobi From Konoha Sent Here To Find Out What Happened!" Suddenly they heard a loud gasp from inside.

"Konoha? As in Konohagakure? You-you're really shinobi?" the girl cautiously shouted out to them. Satsuki rolled her eyes and shouted,

"Of Course We Are! Who In Their Right Mind Would Dare Impersonate A Shinobi? That's Suicidal!"

"... o-okay... I'm coming down. J-just give me a minute." said the girl. Satsuki, unable to see what was going on waited apprehensively while Kushina kept a close eye on the building's framework. Suddenly Kushina gasped and yelled,

"NO DON"T TAKE THOSE STAIRS!" but it was too late as the sound of shattering wood and a terrified shriek came out of the building. Soon the entire structure was rumbling and beginning to collapse. Kushina frantically searched for a way to get the girl out but as soon as the building started shaking Satsuki jumped into the building without hesitation. "Satsuki don't! It's not safe! We need to think!" Satsuki ignored Kushina, knowing that there was no time to think and that the girl needed rescuing immediately, no matter the danger. As wood fell down from above with thunderous smashes Satsuki skillfully ran through the collapsing hallways, leaping over holes as they opened up in the floor and dodging debris as it fell.

She found the girl clinging to a plank of wood jutting out of a wall that was formerly a stair in the now completely collapsed staircase as she hung over a fifteen foot drop into a pile of sharp blackened lumber and nails. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, and did not even notice Satsuki arrive. Satsuki quickly channeled chakra into her feet and ran sideways along the rumbling, freestanding wall that the girl hung from in immediate peril. As she stepped onto the wall a massive beam fell down from above and destroyed the floor where she had just been standing. Now the floor of the entire first floor had collapsed leaving no way backwards for Satsuki. She scooped the girl up in her arms and continued running up the wall towards a section of second story floor that was still standing as the wall itself began to collapse behind her. She leapt up onto the shaking second floor, the screaming girl now slung over her shoulders like a bag of rice. She looked around frantically and suddenly heard a voice coming from down the hall.

"Over Here! Follow The Sound Of My Voice! Window Over Here! Jump!" Satsuki did not hesitate an instant and ran as quickly as she could towards where the voice had came from, a small bedroom at the end of the hall with what was left of a window in it. She heard a thunderous crack and looked up to see the entire roof coming down. Only ten feet from the window she quickly hefted the girl off of her shoulders and with all her might flung the entire girl. The girl screamed harder than ever as she sailed through the air, straight out the window and started plummeting towards the earth. Suddenly however she felt herself stop falling and a pair of arms catch her nimbly. She opened her eyes which had been shut tight to see the pale eyes of Kushina staring at the building with terror on her face.

"Satsuki!" She shouted as she watched through the walls while the ceiling was falling down on top of her teammate, not enough time to make it to the window. Satsuki pointed her head up and faster than ever before in her life flew through hand seals. Ending on a tiger seal she puffed out her cheeks and spat sparking orbs at the roof which was merely a foot above her head now. The balls exploded in green red and blue like fireworks, singeing her face and hair but blasting a small hole in the roof. She kicked off of the floor as hard as she could as it collapsed just after she did so, and narrowly squeezed through the hole she had made to fly straight up into the open air. Out of the building but still nearly sixty feet in the air above the pile of rubble below that promised no safe landing she found herself out of options.

"Satsuki! Wire!" she heard Kushina shout, and suddenly the idea clicked in her head. She quickly threw a kunai at the ground at Kushina's feet, and as soon as it struck Kushina put down the now silent girl and reached out her hands. Attached to the hilt of the kunai was a line of ninja wire, and grabbing hold of the sharp wire with both hands Kushina pulled with all her might, cutting her palms open in the process. On the other end of the wire Satsuki also held onto the wire with all her might, as she felt it jerk towards Kushina pulling her entire body to the side, causing her angle of descent to now point directly at Kushina. She was falling off balance and closed her eyes as she was forced to place all her faith into her greatest rival. Kushina caught Satsuki in her arms and released the breath she had been holding since Satsuki ran into the building. Satsuki quickly got herself out of Kushina's arms and proceeded to brush ash and debris from her coat.

She pulled out a kunai and looked at her reflection off of the blade before cursing under her breath. Her eyebrows had been burned off and her bangs were all singed at the edges. Small scratches and burns covered her face as well but she knew Minato could heal those. Her eyebrows and bangs however would take weeks to grow back. Kushina, her Byakugan turned off, looked over and noticed Satsuki's predicament. She giggled lightheartedly, receiving another death glare from the red head. Watching all this was the completely stunned teenager who had just had her life saved by a girl that she then realized was more upset about loosing her eyebrows that about almost having died.

"Oh... my... God. The stories are all true. Shinobi have no fear of death, and can't be killed by anything but another shinobi... she blew a hole in the roof by breathing fire at it..." said the slack jawed girl, speaking for the first time since her rescue. Both Kushina and Satsuki were surprised by the sudden voice and turned quizzical looks at the girl. Kushina then smiled and walked over to the girl, taking her hand in a handshake before introducing herself.

"Hey there, I'm Kushina Uzumaki of the legendary Uzumaki clan. Your brave hero over here is my teammate Satsuki. How about we start with 'what is your name?' hmm?" said Kushina with a warm, comforting Uzumaki grin. The girl looked at her blankly before responding,

"My name is Miki." said the girl as she wiped the blood residue of the handshake off her hand on her skirt.

"What a ice name." said Satsuki with a massive smile stretched across her face that did not look at all genuine. Speaking slowly and articulately she then said "We are not bad guys. We are here to help you, so please lay down on your back and take a few deep breaths while we talk." Miki's eyes narrowed at the patronizing tone that bled through the false sweetness in her rescuer's voice and her cheeks blushed in annoyance at being treated like a child by someone clearly younger than herself.

"Ummmmm." said Kushina a drop of sweat rolling down the side of her face. "She doesn't look like she is in shock anymore Satsuki. Whatever mental state was impairing her judgment to compel her to hide in that deathtrap must have been shocked out of her by the building collapse. We don't need to go through procedure for a traumatized victim. She can answer our questions just fine now, right Miki?" The girl nodded in the affirmative as she defended herself.

"I'm in a lucid state of mind okay! Admittedly I... don't know what I was thinking going back in there... plus it would be the first place they would look for me... but I think I'm fine now!" she said cheeks bright red at having realized how poor of decisions she had made while delirious with grief.

Getting a good look at the girl she stood around three inches taller that Kushina, and about five inches taller that Satsuki. She had mid length brunette hair tied of to the left in a ponytail, and a pale complexion that was currently hidden beneath grime and bruises. She wore a filthy looking blue shirt with long black sleeves and blue ruffles at the cuffs and neckline. Its massive neck space hung off one shoulder and exposed her left nape showing the the black spaghetti strap tank top she wore beneath it. She wore a matching black skirt that fell below her knees and she had a long handled wooden mallet with a head the size of a bucket strapped to her back by a charred rope. Her lips were dry and cracked, indicating that she hadn't come out of the building for even water in a very long time. Her piercing blue eyes sized up her rescuers and their bizarre nonchalance about near death experiences.

"So." started Satsuki, dropping the sweetness act "What happened?"

"What happened? You mean... you mean nobody knows?" asked a clearly shocked Miki.

"We were sent to investigate the sudden disappearance of the entire village population. We had no knowledge of what actually happened here. So what did happen Miki? Who have you been talking about being after you?"

Miki dropped to her knees in horror. Never had she imagined that nobody knew. She saw the message sent via hawk at the begin of the attack but she never considered it hadn't ever reached Konoha. Clenching her teeth tight enough to be audible she felt fresh tears flow from the eyes she had thought cried themselves dry.

"They took everyone..." she said just as she began to sob anew. "They came they tied everyone up and burned our village down when they had them all!" she said through her crying. Kushina and Satsuki's jaws dropped and they looked at the girl with a mixture of horror and pure, tremendous sympathy. Kushina slowly walked over and knelt in front of the crying Miki before pulling her into a hug. Miki didn't fight the hug as she let herself cry on the kunoichi's shoulder. Satsuki, with sad eyes shuddered at the thought of ever being so very much alone as this girl must have been for the last few days.

"Shhhh... It's okay. I swear on my families honor that we will find them. We will find your people and save them." Kushina whispered to the teen as she cried and cried.

Dear Readers,

Let me begin by saying, Yes! I know it's been over a month. As I said at the beginning of the chapter I was busy trying to earn my degree. So you might want to get used to waiting longer. The good news however, is ACTION! Lots of it along side new twists and turns in the lives of our intrepid young shinobi. I'm excited about what is going on right now in the story and I hope that you all are too. Now on to the usual business, please feel free to submit reviews with your thoughts, ideas, or criticism. I love reviews, always have. And if anyone else would like to get involved in character creation I still have a need of very special Original Characters for my story. If you want to help send me a private message and I will fill you in on the top secret details. A big round of applause for my deviantart friend Forgotenlink for letting me use her OC Miki as a major player in this plot arc. Forgotenlink is a talented artist and when I saw her drawing for this character I just knew I had to use her. Also a big thumbs down for my colleague HotSpot the 626th. I work hard making him 'cut and paste' art depicting all the Original Characters on his crew and in return he asks his readers to spam me! Admittedly... only one person bothered to do it so... I'm not actually that mad. But it's the principal of the thing good sir! So change that thumbs down to a sideways thumb. I guess. Not sure if it works like that... Oh well. Please keep reading and come back for the next chapter's release. And this week try to learn from the behavior of zombies... No I'm serious. Think about it, they are the most well organized, focused, intersupportive group in existence. Zombies never fight amongst themselves, always work as a team, and almost never abandon the buddy system. Just think about it...

Love,

Danthemanwithaplan7