By Betula
I had wanted to be a ninja since I was a very young girl. I had romantic dreams of what it would be like to be a kunoichi. Now that I am a grown woman, I understand how foolish I was, and am content with my life as it is.
I come from a small village in an isolated corner of the Fire Country, far from our nation's ninja village, Konohagakure. I was born and raised in this village, and until I was thirteen, I had never left it. My father died before I could remember him, so for a long time, my mother and I lived alone. When I was twelve Mother remarried, to a moderately prosperous trader who had recently settled in the district. I was happy enough about the situation: he was a kind man, a widower with a daughter two years older than myself.
I quickly developed a case of hero worship for my stepsister. She had traveled widely with her father, and had tales of exotic places a provincial village girl like myself could only dream about. Best of all were her tales about the shinobi.
"Father usually hires them as guard, in case we run into bandits." She explained casually. "He only pays for C-class missions, of course, so we usually end up with genins or new chuunins. They're more than enough to take care of bandits."
"So you've seen actual ninjas fighting?" I asked her eagerly. I ignored most of her speech, as I had no idea what a 'C-class mission' was.
Stepsister shrugged. "Sort of. Most bandits won't risk a fight with a ninja, but sometimes they're desperate or confident enough to try. I don't like to watch it. I just try to stay out of the way until it's over."
"So you've never watched a battle?" I said, disappointed.
"Not the fights, no. But since they're lower level ninjas, they're mostly young – my age, or a little older, or even ones as young as you. I like to watch them when they're not fighting."
I ignored her dreamy smile. Stepsister liked boys a little too much sometimes. Instead, I focused on her more interesting statement. "They're my age? Does that mean I could be a ninja?"
Stepsister's smile turned condescending. "Not really. Most of them are born and raised in ninja villages. They start training really young – five or so, I think. You're too old to start being a ninja now!"
I smiled weakly at her, but inside I was crushed. When I was five, I had played at being a ninja with the other village children. I never dreamed that I could have been learning how to be a real ninja instead.
For the longest time, I had had an image of myself as an adult kunoichi. I would be beautiful and dangerous, wearing a revealing costume and a multitude of weapons. It seemed very remote now.
It was soon after I turned thirteen that my stepfather began making plans for a trading expedition. Our village boasted many artisans who produced beautiful goods, including my mother, who wove exquisite lace. Unfortunately, our remote location meant that there were few ready buyers for items that would usually fetch high prices in a large settlement and among the nobility. Stepfather had proposed a joint trading venture, where he would transport samples of everyone's work to the city, where he had contacts among the rich and idle, and hopefully gain some commissions for the artists.
Mother, Stepsister and I were going with him, and I could scarcely contain my excitement. Not only was I going outside the village for the first time in my life, but also Stepfather had hired a ninja team to escort us. Since I couldn't sit still in the house, Mother let me go to the village gate to wait for them on the day appointed for their arrival.
I saw them long before they reached me, as the road leading to the gate was wide and flat. The first things I saw were their headbands glinting in the sun. I spent some time sighing over them in my head, for those headbands, carved with the symbol of their home village, were the most recognizable sign of a ninja. It wasn't until they moved closer that I remembered to study the ninjas themselves.
I was somewhat disappointed at first. Three of them were the same age as me. A short blond boy in orange was skipping ahead, yelling to his companions to hurry up. A girl with pink hair shouted back at him to not be so impatient. A dark boy sauntered behind them, ignoring them both. The last member of the party was an adult who was reading from a small book as he walked. Even with the headbands, and armed as they were with shiruken and kunai, they hardly seemed like professionals.
Then my spirits rose again, because if these people could be ninjas, why couldn't I?
Stepfather greeted them cordially, and the odd group introduced themselves as Hidden Leaf genins Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke, and their jounin teacher Kakashi. Everything became businesslike as Kakashi and Stepfather discussed the planned route and the state of the roads. I sidled up to my stepsister.
"It's like I told you." She whispered. "A genin team and their teacher. Kakashi might be attractive without the mask. That Sasuke is divine, even if he is a little young."
"They're different from what I expected."
"What did you expect then?"
I would not embarrass myself by telling her I had expected stoic, worldly, exotic, mysterious soldiers. The only one that seemed to fit the whole description was Sasuke, and he was, as my sister had already observed, a little young. "They're my age."
"That doesn't mean they can't do their job. And I see no reason to complain, since two of them are good looking."
I decided not to argue with her.
We set out the next day with two covered wagons, my family, and the four shinobi. Stepfather drove the first wagon, which contained the all-important goods. Mother drove the second wagon, which contained the supplies and baggage, and my sister and I rode with her.
The shinobi arranged themselves around us. One of them, usually Kakashi, walked before the first wagon. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura alternated between three positions: one in front of the second wagon, one behind our party, and one scouting out the road ahead and returning periodically to report. Our horses were old, placid beasts, so our wagons moved slowly, but I was amazed that the ninjas easily kept pace on foot, without even seeming tired at the end of the day. I nearly screamed the first time the scout (it was Sasuke) leaped to the to the branch of a tree, then disappeared into the forest, bounding from one impossible perch to another like a monkey. It was my first real glimpse of shinobi abilities, and I almost embarrassed myself completely.
My attempts to engage the three ninja children in conversation when they were stationed at the second wagon didn't meet with many results. Sasuke all but ignored me, returning only one-word answers to my most probing questions. Stepsister thought he was cool and mysterious, and I admit he was good looking, but I was getting irritated with him until Mother told me to leave the poor boy alone and let him do his job.
Sakura was friendly and I thought she would be able to fit in with my friends in the village seamlessly (if she changed her clothes – her outfit would have given the staid village matrons a collective heart attack). When I started asking about her training, she spoke brightly about studying at the academy, taking exams, and theoretical and practical lessons. She gave me no details about any of it, however – it sounded exactly the same as my own schooling, in fact. I had the uncomfortable impression that Sakura was much smarter than I was, and that she would have far exceeded my own mediocre test results.
I had high hopes for Naruto, however. The boy was the most unlikely ninja I could have imagined. He spoke loudly and often, he could not sit still for more than ten seconds, and with his vivid personality and colouring, I couldn't imagine him ever blending into the background or moving stealthily in the night.
Only, I could never seem to point his babble in the right direction.
"Naruto," I said to him. "How did you get to be a ninja?"
"Oh, I've always wanted to be a ninja!" Naruto bubbled at me. "I'm gonna be the greatest ninja the Leaf's ever seen. I'm gonna be Hokage someday!"
An enthusiastic response, but not quite what I was aiming for. "So, what sort of things do you do as a ninja?"
"We do missions and stuff. We get a lot of the dumb assignments 'cos we're genin. Sometimes we get better missions, like this one. I like traveling and seeing different places. Hey, hey, I think I saw a wolf last night! You might want to watch out when we camp – you know, not go anywhere alone. Anyway, what's your village like? What do you do all day?"
Naruto's verbal meandering had managed to completely turn the topic around. I persevered, but each attempt led to more conversational tangents. By the time the young ninjas once again rotated their positions, Naruto knew much more about my life than I had managed to find out about his.
Traveling over a long distance was far less romantic than I had imagined. Most nights, we were unable to reach a town before nightfall, so we had to camp in the forest. I slept poorly without a bed, and the lack of sleep made me irritable. We bathed haphazardly in cold water, and dug a hole for a latrine. Small biting insects pestered us constantly, and when it rained it was impossible to stay dry. Even the lovely scenery began to pall. I had found out nothing about being a ninja.
I shaved a tent with my stepsister, who usually dropped off to sleep immediately. Tonight, however, she sat up and stared at me. "It isn't going to work." She said.
"What isn't?"
"Getting them to tell you their techniques, and tell you how to use them."
I was speechless.
"You were fairly obvious. If I noticed, I can guarantee you that they did too."
I flushed in mortification.
"They're ninjas. Secrecy is in their job descriptions. They wouldn't tell a civilian anything. Even that Naruto kid wouldn't tell you anything, and he doesn't seem to ever shut his mouth. They probably all censor what they say without even thinking about it."
I wanted to argue with her, but I didn't, because I knew she was right.
I resolved not to speak to the ninjas at all the next day, and I spent the morning sulking. No one noticed, however, because Sasuke was the one accompanying the second wagon.
I looked up to see Sakura return from her reconnaissance. She spoke quietly to Kakashi, before coming back towards us. After saying something too quietly for me to catch to Sasuke, she said calmly to Mother, "Could you please stop the wagon and take shelter? We'll let you know when it's safe to come out again." That did not sound reassuring.
Mother, my stepsister and I huddled among the baggage inside the cart. The wait was agonizing. We could hear nothing apart from the stamp of a horse's hoof and the sound of our own breathing.
It began so suddenly that I jumped and hit my shin on something hard. A series of harsh cries went up, and heavy feet crashed through the undergrowth. A second later I heard the unmistakable chime of metal striking metal. We were under attack.
My mother and sister covered their ears and squeezed their eyes shut as something heavy thumped against the side of the wagon.
Adrenaline pumped through me, and all I could think of was that there was a real battle going on outside. I just had to see it. It might be my only chance.
I crawled towards the back of the wagon and lifted the canvas flap. The sounds of the fight were louder, but I still couldn't see anything. I would have to leave the safety of the cart. I slipped out. Crouched on the ground, and crawled along to peer around the wheel.
Sasuke and Sakura stood defending the wagons against a horde of unkempt looking men. All of the men were armed with knives or rusty swords. We had been targeted by what looked to me like the largest group of bandits in the country. The two ninjas weaved in between them, knocking them down with ruthless efficiency. As I watched, Sakura swept one man's feet out from underneath him with a leg and delivered a stunning blow to his temple with the hilt of her kunai. Sasuke deftly avoided an overhead blow from a sword, and sliced the bandit's arm open from elbow to wrist.
Suddenly, a meaty hand was slapped over my mouth and an arm was wrapped my body. I realized in terror that someone had crept up behind me. I struggled and tried to scream, but he was too strong. He lifted me off my feet and lumbered towards the forest. I had been captured by a bandit, and no one had noticed.
He carried me for some distance through the trees, until we reached a clearing. "Stop your squirming." He said harshly, pressing a knife to my throat. I went limp.
Three more men emerged, having apparently abandoned the fight to follow us.
"Got one, eh?" Said one of them.
"She's a bit young." The second said.
"All the more fun." The third said, leering at me.
I whimpered.
"You guys will let her go, if you know what's good for you."
Another figure emerged from the shadows. It was Naruto. The normally cheerful boy looked like a wild animal. His fists were clenched and he had someone else's blood spattered across the front of his orange jacket.
The bandits laughed. "You're outnumbered here, kid." Sneered the man holding me. He turned to face the boy and the knife left my throat, though he still kept a firm grip on me.
Naruto was unimpressed. "I can fix that." His hands flickered through a series of movements too fast for me to catch, and he cried "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" There was a boom, and suddenly there was twice as many Narutos in the clearing as there were bandits.
The Narutos grinned at the stunned thieves. "Now you're outnumbered!" They said in unison, before they leaped forward in attack.
As his comrades fell beneath the multitude of Naruto fists, my captor yanked me back against him and held the knife to my neck again. He backed up as the Narutos approached, dragging me with him. "Stay back or she's dead."
The clones vanished into puffs of smoke, until there was only one Naruto facing the bandit. "Let her go." He said.
"I don't think so." The bandit sneered. I screamed as I saw one of the fallen men behind Naruto leap to his feet and swing wildly at the boy with his sword. I flinched, waiting for the spray of blood.
Naruto vanished in a puff of smoke.
"Damn it!" The man holding me hissed. He swung around, trying to locate the young ninja, instinctively removing the knife from my neck to hold it protectively in front of his body.
There was a whisper of displaced air, and the bandit screamed, dropping his knife and letting me go to clutch at his other hand. Sunk to the hilt and protruding from his palm was a kunai. An orange blur flew down from the nearest tree and kicked the sword-wielding bandit in the stomach so hard the man flew across the clearing and slammed into a tree trunk. The ninja then whirled and knocked out my injured captor with a punch to the face.
For a moment, Naruto stood warily, but no more enemies stirred. He then turned to me.
"Hey, hey, are you all right? It's okay, I got them all." He said brightly.
I could only stare at him. I was shaking all over. Naruto scratched his head thoughtfully, then once again brought his hands up and summoned another troupe of clones. After instructing them to bring the fallen bandits along, he crouched down with his back to me, and I obediently climbed on.
Naruto was shorter than I was, but there was a surprising amount of muscle on his wiry little frame. He lifted me easily, and set off quickly back towards the road. The clones followed us, lugging the unconscious thieves along none too gently.
"You know, those guys weren't too tough." Naruto said after a moment. "Not too smart either. But still, you could've gotten hurt. Coming out of the wagon like that was dumb. Next time, stay inside like you're supposed to, okay?"
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.
When we got back, Mother crushed me to her chest and sobbed. Father thanked Kakashi profusely for his team's defence of his family, and was waved off. Sakura looked bight-eyed and alert, and Sasuke looked bored, standing with his hands in his pockets. Naruto regaled his teammates with his heroism, grinning and waving his arms around as he mimed the battle. They looked as if they had nothing more than a stint of vigorous exercise.
I had gotten what I had wanted – a real glimpse into the world of the shinobi – a first hand view at their swift and brutal fighting style. I had even witnessed an example of real ninjutsu.
My hands did not stop shaking for days. The terror of those brief minutes I had spent kidnapped had made an impression that affected me for many years. When I returned home, it was with joy and relief, and I never imagined myself as a ninja again.
A.N.: The Naruto world doesn't seem to have much in the way of motorized transport, so I hope the wagons are acceptable.