Chapter/Episode 1

Kyoko Tanaka's Debut

The Fourth Great Shinobi World War was going on as it had been for the past week or so as Sakura Haruno ran through the forests of the Land of Fire while she searched for her sensei, Kakashi Hatake. He had gone out by himself yesterday afternoon to do a mission associated with the war and earlier that morning a call had notified Lady Tsunade about his whereabouts and that he needed backup. Sakura was the only person available at the moment, but Lady Tsunade promised she would send more ninja when she had the chance.

"Why would he go out all by himself in the middle of a Shinobi war?" Sakura couldn't help but think to herself. "He could be in grave danger and why does he need back up all of a sudden. He wasn't even gone a day, and he's not careless he wouldn't jump into a fight he knew he couldn't win. Unless his opponent found him, maybe he was specifically sought out… "

As Sakura wondered what dangers or opponents awaited her arrival, she heard a loud explosion as the earth beneath her trembled and shook the trees.

"What was that?" she exclaimed, shocked by whatever force that caused the explosion. "Maybe it was Kakashi-sensei."

Sakura changed direction and started running toward the place where the explosion occurred and as the trees spaced out and the clearing came into view, she gasped as she saw what had caused the explosion moments before. Kakashi was fighting with her former team mate, Sasuke Uchiha. Not far off was Sasuke's new team mates from Team Taka as they watched the battle from the shelter of the trees, probably told by Sasuke to stay out of his battle.

Sakura stayed quiet and hid trying to figure out what to do to help her sensei. "Should I wait for a good opening and then strike," She thought to herself. "Or should I wait till I am needed?"

She didn't have time to figure out what to do as Sasuke pulled a quick maneuver on Kakashi and struck down the obviously tired, silver haired ninja with a powerful chidori.

"No," Sakura whispered fiercely. "Kakashi-sensei!"

"When I have killed you," Sasuke said as he looked down on a barely moving Kakashi. "I will have further progressed on purifying my clan and destroying Konoha."

He was about to do a final chidori when Sakura appeared from hiding and punched the ground between where Sasuke and Kakashi were, so chunks of earth flew in Sasuke's direction. The move barely impacted Sasuke, however, it caused enough of a distraction with the help of some explosions from paper bombs attached to kunai, which exploded where Sasuke's team were watching, to help Sakura escape with Kakashi slung under one of her shoulders.

"Sasuke," Suigetsu yelled from his position on the ground. "What do you want us to do?"

"Follow them," Sasuke replied. "Karin, find out which direction they set off to."

"Right," answered Karin as she used her Mind's Eye of the Kagura to sense Sakura's and Kakashi's chakra. "That way." She pointed off in the direction both ninja went as Sasuke and the rest of the team set off.

Kyoko hummed to one of her favourite songs as she picked strawberries and put them into a small basket that she had put on the ground at her feet. She loved strawberries, which was good, because that was what she ate most of the time anyway. As she stood up, she wiped her hands on her already dirty dress, which was made of thick material, and was probably something you would only see a poor person wear. She was, in fact, poor but that did not bother her in the slightest. She was happy living her life in the forest; well, as happy as a 17-year-old girl could be with no money, home or family. She preferred not to talk about what happened eight years ago when her parents, her only family, were killed. She also didn't like to talk about how she lost her best friend when she moved from her village and when she was drove out her village when she was only 10.

Ever since she left her village, she had been travelling abroad in the Shinobi world, visiting village after village to look for her best friend and not staying long after finding out she wasn't there. Kyoko basically lived in the forest, sleeping where ever, and catching (or in this case gathering) her own food every day. So, it wasn't a surprise that she was totally oblivious to the Shinobi World War that was taking place. Not that she would care anyway, for she hated ninjas. Ever since she believed that a ninja killed her parents, she believed that getting involved with ninjas was a bad idea and nothing good could come of it.

Kyoko put the stray piece of her medium-length brown hair that fell out from her bun (she almost always had her hair up in a bun) behind her ear and picked up her basket full of strawberries.

"Hmmmmmmm….," she thought aloud. "Where should I eat today?"

She closed her always bright looking brown eyes and concentrated. She didn't understand how she could do it, but she could sometimes sense where bodies of water, slow-moving animals, and slow-moving people were and pinpoint their location.

"Over there." she decided as she started walking toward where a small river flowed through the forest to her left.

She started walking and couldn't help but smile. It was such a nice day. The sun was warm on her skin and there was a slight cool breeze that just rustled the leaves in the trees. She wasn't that tall, only about 162 cm tall, to be exact and people who had seen her considered her quite pretty. The physical feature that stood out to most people was her big, bright eyes and when you got to know her, you found yourself coming to love her, rather childish, personality. No one would be able to guess about the tragedies and misfortunes that happened to her earlier in her life.

All of a sudden her tummy grumbled. "I can't wait to eat," she thought to herself. "I'm starving."

She closed her eyes and breathed in the fresh air when she thought she sensed something go by in front of her. She quickly opened her eyes, stopped walking and looked around, but no one was there. The only thing she noticed was a giant tree to her left. She shrugged thinking it was something of her imagination and continued walking.

However, just as she passed by the tree, she came into the path of an oncoming ninja. A ninja that was moving so fast, he never had time to stop before he slammed into her, sending the basket flying through the air as the rays of the sun glinted off the ripe red berries that were sent rolling on the ground. Both Kyoko, and the ninja, were sent sliding across the forest floor before they finally came to a stop. Both of them were dazed and confused and it would seem that fate had finally caught up with Kyoko Tanka.