DISCLAIMER: I own nothing, Squaresoft owns it all, minus my incoherent ramblings.

Chapter 3: Forest Encounter

"What do you mean you're lost! How can you be lost?" A brown-haired woman yelled at a distressed blonde spiky haired man.

"Leave Cloud alone Tifa." The emerald-eyed woman said.

"But he's lost Aerith!" Tifa exclaimed.

"I'm not lost! I'm just disoriented, that's all." Cloud mumbled as he turned a map this way and that.

"Now ya know why I shoulda been the #$# leader! I wouldn of got us lost in this !$!#$ forest!" A mountain of a man yelled as he reloaded his gun-arm.

"No Barret, you would have got us lost on the way to Kalm." A red beast with a fiery tail said calmly.

"What you !$!#$$ say, ya beast? Ya gotsa problem with me Red?" Barret swore back.

Red XIII simply gave the slightest of chuckles and turned away. Barret scowled at him but let it drop. He turned away grumbling all manner of words. Aerith and the others simply laughed.

"Well I know where we are now anyway, so lets go this way!" Cloud laughed as he waved the group forward.

"Are you sure? How do you know?" Tifa questioned him with a unconfident look.

"Because Junon is in the west so if we walk west then we'll eventually get there." Cloud explained with a smile at his simple logic.

"So you are lost!" Tifa said with a smirk.

"Whatever." Cloud shrugged and gave up.

The group continued onward through the forest, unaware of a ninja laughing at their trouble. 'These guys will be easy pickings.' Yuffie grinned to herself. She slowly moved from tree to tree careful to stay silent and downwind, didn't want that red dog to catch her smell. She continued to watch them, waiting for the right moment, then she pounced!

She cast sleep on Barret and Cloud, not wanting to deal with the big man's gun or the oversized sword. She charged Red XIII, but then jumped back, throwing a smoke bomb right in his face, blinding him. 'Now for the girls, they won't be much of a problem for the great ninja Yuffie!' She thought as she turned towards the last of her opponents. She was about to attack Tifa when she was unable to move. 'What?' she tried to say but was unable to utter a word. She hadn't noticed Aerith seal her. 'Crap!' she thought as she watched Tifa running towards her.

Tifa charged in with a thunderous fist to Yuffie's stomach quickly followed by a hook kick that sent the young ninja flying, she landed with a loud thump out cold.

"Whew, I'm glad I was able to seal her, although did you have to be so rough Tifa?" Aerith asked as she looked between Yuffie and the rest of the group.

"I had to stop her, I did hold back though, she didn't use attack materia so maybe she wasn't out to hurt us." Tifa answered. "Why don't you use esuna on Cloud and Barret. I'll give Red some eye drops."

"Thank you for the help." Red XIII thanked Tifa. "Sorry I didn't notice the girl coming."

"Its alright none of the rest of us did either. So it wasn't anyone's fault, ok?" Tifa tried to comfort the beast as she dripped the liquid into his eye.

Aerith slipped esuna into her staff and concentrated. A blue spark emerged from the end of her staff and descended on Cloud it enveloped him is a soft light then disappeared. Slowly he arose and looked at the ninja on the ground with a confused look. Aerith repeated the same with Barret who woke up with a huge yawn. Tifa filled the three on the fight while Aerith caught her breath, with a worried looks from Cloud.

"So what she we do with the girl?" Cloud asked the group.

"I do not know but we better decide quickly because she is awakening." Red XIII pointed out.

"Ok, lets see what she has to say before we decide." Cloud stated and with the rest of the group walked over to the stirring Yuffie, taking her bag, weapons, and materia. "That should keep her from doing anything else." Cloud said.

"Ouuuch. That really hurt!" Yuffie whined as she held her stomach and her throbbing head. "What you guys do that for and who are you guys?"

"We're AVALANCHE and we were about to ask you what you were doing attacking us." Cloud said. "We didn't do anything to you. We were just passing through."

"What? You've never heard of the great ninja Yuffie?" Yuffie exclaimed in a shocked tone. "You haven't heard the tales about me? You must not get out much, spiky."

All but Cloud laughed at her comment. Cloud unconsciously rubbed the back of his head. "No we haven't heard of you. Are you someone important?" Cloud inquired.

"Hah, I'm the best ninja ever." Yuffie replied. 'Man, I can't take their materia in a direct fight. What am I gunna do?' She thought to herself. 'Wait, these people seem to be going somewhere in a hurry, I'll get them to let me join them and steal their materia later. It's a perfect plan!' She smirked at the thought.

"What's wrong?" Cloud asked as Yuffie suddenly wiped the smile off her face and frowned.

"You guys beat me really bad. I don't think I could make it Junon in this condition. You owe it to me to take me there!" She accused.

"No way! Not a chance! What we did! You attacked us! You little!" Cloud replied shocked. Suddenly Aerith spoke up.

"Can't we take her Cloud? She is pretty hurt, just to Junon?" She pleaded, looking at him with soft eyes.

"But-! She-! We don't-!" He stuttered only to be met with those emerald jewels of eyes, filling with tears. "FINE, but ONLY to Junon!" Cloud gave up for the second time today. "Let's go."

"Yippee!" Yuffie yelled with mock excitement. As the newest member of the group got her things back she smiled to herself 'This is working perfectly! I'll make my move soon.' She laughed openly, which brought concerned looks from the others.

'Who have we just picked up?' Cloud sighed to himself. 'She does have a cute laugh though.'

Miles away in a cold coffin lay a man tortured by his own guilt and endless nightmares. Suddenly a laugh peeled through his mind, bringing light and a moment. That moment was fleeting, but for that instant, the man had peace. The darkness soon drowned the laugh out, returning him to his world of despair. Destiny had finally begun its work.