Sorry it took so long to update! I've been stressing a lot over my classes - but thankfully I'm finally dropping out of one of my courses into an easier level, so it'll be one less thing to worry about. Enjoy! I don't own Naruto, but I do own Maia, Ryu, and all the other OC Characters.


Chapter Eleven – Distractions

The days after the funerals, the shinobi were back to work. The ANBU captain had taken to giving out "missions" until a new Hokage was found. The missions weren't far from home – in fact, it was well within the borders of the fire nation. We were repairing the damage that the Sound Village and Orochimaru had created. There were houses to rebuild, walls to fix, people to find – for some were buried in the rubble, others were lost in the confusion –, and patrols to be mounted. We did all of these. Team Gai was sent on patrols and to clear rubble more often than not, but we did help out with the moving of stone for the walls and the lumber for houses. We weren't part of the reconstruction there – none of the shinobi was. Instead, there were people who were skilled at building walls and homes that were employed to do so, by the seal of the captain of the ANBU.

My most favorite and most hated job was on the first day, when we'd helped to find those missing people. It was my favorite, because families would be reunited. They may have been children that got lost in the chaos that the attack created or a husband that was trapped under rubble, but not too terribly injured to the point that a day or so would allow them to die. Maybe it was a genin. There were many that hadn't had time to check in with family members. Even before the first "official" day of these so-called missions, there were shinobi helping out the civilians. Some didn't make it home, being too tired to manage the distance, so they stayed with a friend. It may have been days before genin – who were mere children in their parents' eyes – were seen by their parents. To the genin, this was no big deal. Missions occurred often, and they were away from home for days at a time. The parents, having brought them into the world however, were entitled to their worry, and so we spent countless hours searching for children, both shinobi and civilian, to give the parents to give the parents the good news.

However, it could also be bad. Have you ever told someone that their child had been crushed by a falling stone? Their husband had been gutted by the enemy while he was protecting the lives of the rest of the village? Or worse, those parents who, like mine, didn't want their children to be shinobi because it was dangerous lost their genin to a stray kunai at the chuunin exams. I'd seen the fighting, how it was occurring everywhere – in the air above the competitors, on the backs of the seats, in the aisle – I had thrown my fair share of kunai at the enemy myself. If they had been deflected or dodged, who was to say that some helpless civilian, or shinobi that didn't release the genjutsu, wouldn't have been stabbed? Then they would break down into tears, and then you were stuck in that awkward position where you had to comfort them without knowing them. Neji seemed too aloof for that, staring at those – mainly the women-folk – with an unreadable stare. Thankfully, none of them seemed to notice and Tenten and I attempted comfort. Lee wasn't there, thank goodness, or he'd have spouted some sort of nonsense probably. He was confined to the hospital, though I had heard he'd been to the chuunin exams just before the attack.

I hadn't seen my parents since the dinner a few nights before the chuunin exams. It was now two days after the Hokage had been assassinated. The night of the attack we'd stayed at home, merely because that was where the clothes were and where I knew Ryu could be found. After that, I got rest whenever I could. We were given guard duty late into the night the day of the funeral, so I had Ryu stay with Tenten. I crashed at her place after; instead of carrying his heavy form all the way back to my apartment. The next day we were all over the village. We didn't necessarily work as a team. I was running messages while Tenten was overseeing academy students that were helping clear rubble. Neji was helping carry lumber and stone to where they needed to be. Then, later I was carrying materials for homes and Tenten was alongside me while Neji was elsewhere. It just went on and on and on, and I fell asleep at home that night, rising early the next day to take up patrol with my teammates in the forest. The second day I returned home with Ryu, who helped us with our duties if it wasn't patrol, to find a note from my parents.

Maia and Ryu,

Are you alright? Such awful things have happened, and we haven't heard any word from either of you. I know that the shinobi are busy, what with all the repairs that have to be done right away, but every time we've come to visit, at any time a normal person would be taking a meal, you two are nowhere to be found. Could you both come visit us soon, to ease our worries?

Mom and Dad

I read the note and sighed, running fingers through my messy hair. I'd barely had time to keep it brushed, but it managed to get snarled and everywhere by the end of the day.

"Ryu, want to go have dinner with Mom and Dad again?" He looked up at me and nodded. "Good, because they'll leave more demanding notes as days go by, and the longer it takes, the more worried they'll be, and the more annoying their sentiments will be." Ryu just laughed. We descended the stairs together, and made our way across town, where the hotel our parents were staying in was located. I knocked on the door loudly, and after a long moment, my mother opened the door.

"Maia!" She cried, throwing her arms around me. I took a step back to brace myself, my hands out to my sides to keep my balance.

"Hey, Mom." I said, waiting for the rush of words that she was going to babble, probably getting up to Gai-sensei's level of nonsensical words. And alas, she did, assaulting my poor ears with her words. She berated me for not visiting sooner, wept over not knowing where we had been, cheered that I was alive, cuddled Ryu – even though she didn't really know him, he seemed to kind of like it – for just being there, and glared at me, telling me that being a kunoichi was too dangerous and that she wanted me to stop. I matched her glare with cool eyes, feeling almost like Neji, to which I wasn't sure I should feel proud of or slightly scared.

"I will not stop being a kunoichi." I told her, in a tone that brooked no argument. Her hands were on her hips, and she tried to exert her motherly wrath – which all children feared – but I held firm against the tempest. It was harder still when my father joined her. Neither had supported my want to become a kunoichi.

"You should do as your mother says." My father told me, looking down at me. I hated when people towered over me, especially in an argument. I crossed my arms, fixing them with a hard look.

"And what do you suggest I do? Go into business? I doubt my mercantile skills would be useful, and I will not spend my days stocking shelves. I can't become a teacher – the only thing I can teach is shinobi work. I won't become a doctor, not with all the medical nin around, rubbing in my face what I was forbidden to do by my parents. With my training, there is nothing I can do, feasibly, without training I should have gotten before now." I looked at my parents, waiting for a moment for a response. When there was none, I went on. "While you and the rest of the villagers were unconscious because of a genjutsu placed by the enemy, do you know what I was doing? I was fighting. Fighting for my life, for your lives, for his life," I pointed at Ryu. "for my teammates lives, and for the lives of every single one of these villagers here. I was sent on a special high-ranked mission to stop Gaara from gaining enough chakra to attack the village again. And, while on that mission, my teammates – not my usual ones, by the way – and I were tracked by nine high ranking ninja who would have killed us without hesitation. Do you know what I did?" I watched their reactions. My mother had flinched at the work "killed" and my fathers' face closed more and more as the story wore on.

"Do you think I faltered? That I thought, 'they're going to kill me, so I'd better go hide.'? No. My team and I assessed the situation, and we came up with only one plan that could save us. One of us was to be a decoy to distract the enemy from the trail of the others. Do you know what else we determined?" I paused again. "We determined that the chances were very high, much higher than the chance of the other three that the decoy would die saving the others. No one wants to face those odds. But I sent Sakura, Pakkun, and Naruto ahead of me while I stayed behind to probably die to save them, after I had explained so thoroughly to them the plan would probably kill the decoy. I killed two men, and incapacitated three others, before a jounin arrived to help me finish them off. If he had not shown up, I would have died. I was immensely lucky. Don't tell me that I'm a little girl who doesn't understand life, or that I need to come home and find a new way of life. I've already taken life. There is no going back from that."

My parents looked away from me. They probably didn't want to face that I was a killer now, even at such a young age – at such a low shinobi ranking. They'd thought I'd find it too hard and quit. Too bad that they were wrong; that I had to destroy their dreams of having a little girl to follow in their footsteps. I felt some remorse, but not enough to back down. It was a long, awkward silence that filled the room. Ryu moved next to me, and I gently placed my hand on his shoulder. After a minute, I sighed.

"You know we're alive. We'll be going now. The next couple of days – weeks, even! – are going to be very late, and we need to get our sleep." I told them, turning away, steering Ryu to do the same.

"No – wait." My mom spoke, softly. I stopped halfway in my turn, glancing back to look at her. "You might have all that training that teaches you to defend yourself and protect others, to –" she faltered for a moment, before continuing, "take the lives of another, but you're still my daughter." She sighed, looking up at me. I saw tears on her face. I did not succumb to the wish to comfort her. I had to remain impartial. This was just as hard as telling a mother their child or husband had died. "I've never understood the need to fight, to want to protect others. You always had the dream of being a kunoichi, and I'm proud of you for protecting everyone. If that is what you really want to do, then we can't stop you. You're a woman in your own right." Well, she was both right and wrong in that final statement. I was an emancipated minor, having become such when I moved out to live on my own in Konoha to continue my studies as a shinobi, which meant I was trusted to make good judgments. However, I was also only a thirteen year old girl, not a woman that was entitled to her own opinions – not completely, anyway. I decided not to mention any of that.

"I'm glad you understand." I told her, nodding slightly. "However, that does not change my duties. I would still love you, even if you refused to accept my want to be a kunoichi. I will train Ryu to be a shinobi, which you would have been unable to stop, if you had refused me. We are needed – as is every hand available – to help the village, so we must go. Thank you for taking the time to see us, Mother, Father." I replied. I noticed how she winced at my words. I pushed Ryu ahead of me, and we quietly exited.

"What would you like to eat, Ryu? My treat." I told him, tiredly. I couldn't believe they'd bring up such at foolish thing during a crisis like this. Even if I wanted to back out, I would have been forbidden by everyone. There was just too big of a need, especially since there were missions outside of Konoha that we still had to take to ensure we had enough revenue to pay for the repairs.

"Can we get ramen?" He asked. What was with these boys and ramen? I wondered, as I nodded. We'd probably see Naruto there, and he'd chatter my ear off while devouring unhealthy amounts of ramen. It wasn't that long of a walk, and soon we were seated at the Ichiryu Ramen Stand, but there was no Naruto in sight. Huh. He must have gotten lucky enough to get a mission that didn't include back breaking labor for the village. Not that I begrudged the need, not at all. It just got very tedious after awhile. We ate quickly, as the sun was barely giving off any rays, and headed home at a fast pace. They had instated a curfew on the village for sundown, for precautionary measures. Unless you had patrol or other important need, you were to be indoors at that time. I saw a few others hurrying to their homes. I scooped Ryu up in my arms and leapt to the rooftops, crossing across the village much faster than searching through the maze of alleys. We landed at the base of the apartment as the sun was fully past the horizon, and the light diminished to that of the stars. We rushed up the stairs and into our apartment. I almost didn't notice the note on my door. I snatched it and closed the door, locking it behind us.

Maia,

We have a mission that starts tomorrow. We are escorting a few high-ranking business members as they head to a convention near the border. While under normal circumstances this would be ranked as a C mission, this is being classified as a B-rank mission until we are sure the threat is completely gone. Be prepared – we leave at noon from the gates, which, as I know you know, means arrive there by eleven. Pack well, for we shouldn't be home for a few weeks. Their goods will take time to carry, and we're heading to the border. Besides that, the convention will last quite a few days.

Tenten

"Augh!" I crumpled the note and threw it at the wall. "They know better than to give me a note last minute!" Ryu glanced over at my shoulder, and I flapped a hand at him. "Nothing. I have a mission tomorrow and I need to pack. Go ahead and get ready for bed in the bathroom – I'll be out of there soon." He nodded, and I went to my room, where I grabbed my clothes. I grabbed three gray-green tank tops and three black pairs of shorts, along with my black ninja sandals. Along with these I grabbed some underclothes. I folded these up quickly, making them as small as I could. Upon reflection, I grabbed another set of each, quickly making them into an easy to move bundle, and then exited, setting these on the living room table as I went to the pack at the base of my desk. Now this is where I was frustrated. I hadn't had time to make any poisons. All I had left was very little, and I didn't even have a full set of poisoned weapons on hand. I sighed and got to work on what I'd need immediately, after glancing at the clock. It was only seven thirty. Okay, I should be able to get this done and have time to spare, I nodded.

How wrong I was. It had taken an hour to create and spread the paralysis poison, before moving on to the antidote, taking another thirty-five minutes. The same occurred for the sleeping poison. I took utmost care in creating my deadly poison, since it was late, taking a full hour just to create it, and then I spread it carefully onto five kunai, taking fifteen minutes. The antidote took forty minutes, and then the healing potions another hour. Finally, when all was said and done, I had twelve paralysis kunai, ten sleeping kunai, and five deadly. I added thirteen clean kunai to the mess and slid them into the holster. After that, three handfuls of shuriken went in and I closed it. I went to the pack and carefully slid my vials into their correct places, placing bandages between them in case of and to prevent leaking, spills, or breakages. I closed the vials section and grabbed the little pouches out of their box and hurriedly filled them with herbs, checking quickly to make sure I didn't mix them, before tossing them deftly into their place. My now clean bowl, a small hammer, and some extra vials were set into their places, the clothes on top of them, pressing gently to make sure it was all properly stored and secure, and then I gratefully went to the couch to curl up and get some rest. It was two in the morning.

The next day, I finished my packing at around nine, having only got seven hours of sleep. Well, it could be worse. I packed energy bars into any crevice of the bag I could find. I filled my second holster with an emergency kit. This was made purely for the worst case scenario that included us ditching everything we had but the clothes on our backs and our wards. It held a roll of bandages, a vial of each poison and its antidote, two healing potions, a small packet of soldier pills, wire, eight kunai, five shuriken, a smoke bomb, and two energy bars. It was a very tight fit, but everything was placed in its proper place, and it held enough items that I could survive in the wilderness without dying – and I could probably support another person, such as one of our wards, without trouble too. It was ten when I finished my bag, and I quickly got dressed. I pulled on my usual gray-green tank tops and black shorts with my red belt and the long fingerless black gloves before brushing my hair quickly and tucking that into my pack. I tied my hitai-ate to my forehead and pulled on my sandals. I quickly threw together a pack for Ryu – enough clothes for him to stay at Tenten's house comfortably. Five outfits – she could do some laundry for him hopefully, or bring him by for more – a spare key, and a letter with some money in it if she needed to spend some on Ryu.

I dropped Ryu and his pack off at Tenten's house, where I met up with said girl to travel to the gates. I grumbled at how late I got to bed because of her note, to which she laughed softly and apologized.

"Sorry, Maia. I'd forgotten you had used up most of your special kunai. I suppose I figured you'd have extra poison hidden away somewhere. I guess not, hmm?" She said, to which I made a face.

"I'll have to take a day after this mission to restock everything. I barely had enough to bring extra herbs on this mission, just in case." I sighed gustily. "I also have to find a new apartment so that I can have a bed again." Tenten grinned.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll survive. It could be worse." She told me, teasingly.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure it could. However, it isn't, so I'm going to complain until it is. And then, when it is worse, I'll wish for this minor annoyance with the same gusto that I have now." I nodded, sticking my tongue out at Tenten. She laughed as we came into view of Neji, the only other teammate we had – excluding our sensei, of course – that would be going with us. I glanced up at the sun. It was approximately eleven, probably a little later. Gai-sensei wasn't here though, so it was alright. There were, however, four wagons there near Neji. "Don't tell me we're guarding those death traps." I whispered covertly to Tenten as we walked up. She nodded lightly, and I could tell she wasn't exactly happy about that either. I sighed. "It just got worse." She grinned.

"Is this all of them?" Tenten asked Neji as we came up to him. He shook his head.

"There's a fifth. We're escorting five men and their wives, and they all insist on travelling in these wagons with enough food and goods to supply an army." He replied, a slight grimace on his lips. They'd even gotten some emotion out of the stoic Neji. They must've said something, I decided. As if my thought conjured them, two men appeared from between the caravans.

"It is an outrage, I say!" The first was complaining. "Giving us genin to protect us, especially when the land is under alert! My goods are important, and we shouldn't be slighted because the ANBU captain – who isn't even the Hokage! – says there aren't people to spare." They came before us. Neji stood, his arms crossed over his chest. I stood to his left, one hand on my hip, the other hanging to my side. Tenten also had her arms crossed. The second one nodded in agreement with the first.

"We demand different shinobi to escort us. Please go tell your ANBU captain that we will not accept less than what we are due." The second told us. I glanced over at Neji, who glared at the two. Obviously they'd discussed this before. So, I took a slight step forward, and smiled as sweetly and innocently as I could muster.

"I'm very sorry, sirs, that you feel we are slighting you by our presence. However, the facts are, there isn't anyone else that can help you that is of a higher level than genin. The chuunin are helping to oversee the academy students while the jounin and ANBU are on constant alert and patrolling the forest around Konoha. You aren't insinuating that you're more important than the good of the Land of Fire as a whole, now are you?"

The two men looked slightly confused for a moment. Apparently they hadn't expected a nice, reasonable tone from such a young shinobi. I looked up at them with my eyes, which, unlike my voice, were hard and unmoving. The first one turned red in the face after realizing what I had told him.

"Now you listen here young lady, I am-"

"No, you listen here, sir." I told him more firmly. "As I stated before, it is us or no one. Our sensei will be here soon, and he'll tell you the same thing. There is no other shinobi, excluding other genin of course, that are available. We are one of the most skilled genin teams in Konoha. You'll be safe in our care." I fixed him with a stare. It was at that moment that Gai-sensei made his appearance in a plume of smoke.

"Don't worry my youthful students; your amazingly awesome sensei is here now!" I sighed. Tenten rolled her eyes. The men turned to face him, almost double-taking at his appearance.

"Sir, I demand that we be given a team of jounin to escort us. Your students have been most vehement in denying us, but we most certainly cannot trust our lives and materials to that of mere genin, especially after the last attack." The first one, the one I'd come to dislike the most of the two, said before Gai-sensei had time to take another breath.

"My students are the best there is! Besides, there are no jounin team available to escort people such as yourself, other than those who lead the genin that take missions such as these. My wonderful students understand the risks and can defend you and whatever else you may have admirably. Why, my Maia here helped stave off an attack force of nine jounin from a team of genin that were helping end the attack." He pointed at me, and I blushed slightly.

"Asuma helped me." I pointed out.

"After you had engaged them and taken out five, my wonderful student. He told me it was because of my awesome training."

"He told you?" I grumbled. I'd told him not to say anything. Gai-sensei just grinned in reply. The two men watched us speak, a slight look of awe on their faces. I rolled my eyes at the look and glanced away towards the sun.

"So you see: you'll be just fine in our capable, youthful hands." Gai-sensei told them.

"Where's the other person we're supposed to be escorting?" Tenten asked, glancing around.

"Yes. It's getting late. We have to get going." Neji said, also looking to the sun. It was nearing noon, the time we had appointed to leave at. Gai-sensei looked around, unsure himself. While we waited for our third client to appear, he handed out our radios.

"We're on wave five this time." He told us, and we adjusted them accordingly. I stuck the earpiece into my right ear and then clipped the microphone at the base of my throat, to the right slightly.

As it neared twelve fifteen, the next client had still yet to arrive. I looked around impatiently.

"Shouldn't we leave?" Tenten asked.

"Without the other client? We couldn't do that!" Gai-sensei exclaimed.

"Why not do what we did on the last mission? Send people ahead with the first group and then have the second group catch up." I offered. "We can leave someone behind to look for and wait for the last client and then escort him to us when he's found." I offered, longing for anything to change the boredom of standing at the gates for the latecomer. Gai-sensei nodded.

"That sounds like a good plan. Who will stay behind to guard the client? I have to stay with the main group – Neji, I'd like you to be with the main group as well, to watch with your Byakugan."Gai-sensei stated. After a moment of thought, Neji nodded in agreement. I looked over at Tenten.

"What do you want to do, Tenten?" I asked her. "I don't mind doing either, so you can pick your preference." She tapped her chin in thought before deciding after a long moment.

"I'm sure both of us could guard the client just fine. I'll go with Gai-sensei and Neji, if you don't mind." I shrugged.

"I told you, whichever is fine. Alright, I'll catch up with you guys as soon as we can. I'll be in touch." I tapped my ear where the radio was, and they nodded. "Be safe."

"Alright!" Gai-sensei yelled, calling the attention of our other clients to us. "We are going to move ahead without the fifth client. Maia will wait for them and bring them to us as soon as they arrive." He told them before they could protest. I didn't look at them – instead, my eyes were for the path that led further into the village. The jounin guarding the gate handed passports to each of us – I took mine, though I wasn't leaving just yet – and soon they were spots on the horizon, and still there was no sign. I rolled my eyes and turned to the jounin.

"If a trader comes to leave the village, could you please hold him here? I'll be back soon, I'm just going to check the roads to see if they're stuck somewhere." He nodded, staring out at the road. "Thank you." I headed out over the rooftops, scanning for the person I was supposed to be escorting. It turned out that he and his wife had gotten stuck in traffic after leaving late – thinking that they were to meet us at twelve thirty instead of twelve on the dot. I aided them in reaching the gate and informed the guard that we would be leaving. As we walked away from Konoha, the man and his wife on the front seats, driving two mules, I checked in with my teammates. They were almost a whole hour ahead of us. After a short chat with the two on the cart, I climbed up onto the top of the contraption and set up a look out, watching for potential enemies, while they sped up the pace so that we would catch up by night fall.

As they were finishing creating camp we drove up. The two, Mr. and Mrs. Akita, hobbled their mules near a good piece of grass so they could graze as I dropped off the roof. I greeted my teammates warmly and took a duty – gathering water. The fire was already made – we were going to make a stew for everyone while there was still light. I went in the direction Neji pointed and soon found a small stream, from which I quickly drew water from. I returned to the camp, where Tenten and I created the stew. Neji and Gai-sensei went about ensuring that the businessmen and their wives were comfortable – comfortable enough as anyone could be in the wilderness, anyway – and to tell them dinner would be ready soon. After that, we set up a watch schedule and went to sleep.

The whole way there – which was a full week – we did this same procedure, with only a few inconsistencies, those being who did what job for the most part. There weren't any attacks, for all the paranoia that first day. We arrived on time for their meeting and the trading of their goods. My team and I stood around and appeared conspicuous, the pure opposite of what shinobi usually would do. The worst that happened at the convention was a pickpocket, whom Neji caught as he tried to flee. The whole thing lasted six days, so we'd be home in about a week, finally. The way things were going, it would be almost another week before we were home. And, on the way back, we hit a turn of bad weather, causing the track to be muddy and difficult to travel. To make matters even worse, one of the wheels decided it would be just perfect to break in the middle of one of these muddy roads, in the rain. With instructions from the driver and Gai-sensei, we managed to fix the wheel.

By the time we arrived back home in Konoha, twenty three days had passed, no thanks to the weather may I add. And, we returned home to a pleasant surprise. We had a new Hokage, Tsunade, and she was a medical ninja; one of the best in the world, in fact.