6- The calm before the Storm

Sharino felt tense and uneasy as she sat on the volcano slope looking down at the Smoke village. The band of Missing-Nin had been attacking for months, but the next few days would determine the fate of the Smoke village and all the people living there. Their fate rested in the hands of the Konoha ninja; three foreign Jounin and six Genin who normally would not even be allowed near a mission of this level. It was a sad state for the Smoke village to be in.

Her Katana rested in her lap. She looked down at it, remembering the day she had first received it. It had been given to her father on her behalf when she was just five, to be given to her when she became a Chuunin. The day she returned, successful, from the Chuunin exams in Sunagakure, the Sand village, she had been taken aside by her father.

"I am very proud of you, Sharino," he had said. He had given her the Katana then, explaining where it came from. She had been eleven at the time. Though she would have been capable of taking the exam earlier, her team mates had not been ready, so she had waited. But even at eleven she was one of the youngest ever Smoke shinobi to become a Chuunin.

That was the last time in Sharino's memory that her father had spoken to her as her father, rather than as the village's leader. Even when she received the rank of Jounin he had been almost cold towards her. She did not know why he had become cold, only that the man she had learned to love as a father after not knowing him at all during the earliest years of her life now did not seem to want her as a daughter anymore.

Sharino heard someone coming up the path behind her. At first, from the sound of the steps, she thought that it might be Nekoya, but if it had been she would also have heard Toramaru. She turned to see one of Kakashi's Genin, Uzumaki Naruto, standing behind her.

"Sharino Nee-chan," he said. She nodded to him.

"Naruto-kun. It is late. Shouldn't you be asleep?" she replied. He moved a step closer.

"I couldn't sleep," he said. He paused again before asking a question. "Sharino Nee-chan?" he started. Sharino nodded that he could ask what was on his mind. "Why did you not want us to meet your father?" With a sad sigh, Sharino turned back to the view for a moment.

"If I am honest, it was not for your benefit, but mine," she said.

"What do you mean?" said Naruto. He didn't move any closer, instead watching her from where he was stood, a little way behind her.

"My father and I are not close… at least, not anymore. I was trying to avoid him. Unfortunately, I was unable to." Naruto moved another few steps forward so that he was just beside her.

"What happened?" Sharino sighed and looked at the young Genin for a very long moment. Having seen him fight, she knew that he was an extraordinary boy and now she also saw the compassion and strength of mind in him. There was genuine concern in his face. She wondered why he cared, but she decided to tell him something of her story.

"I didn't know my father or this village until I was five years old, when I came here and found my place. I worked so hard to be acknowledged by my father, because I felt I had to earn my place in the Smoke village. I trained so hard that I'd collapse in the forest and my Sensei would have to carry me home. My father and I grew close then… when I was young.

"But after I became a Chuunin, he suddenly seemed distant from me, as though he didn't feel I belonged here. I don't know why. It just hasn't been the same since then." Naruto felt saddened by this revelation. He knew what it was like to work to be acknowledged, and he knew what it was like to have no parents. 'She's like me,' he thought, looking at the sad green eyes of the ninja he had seen giving her all in battle earlier. She was still trying to be acknowledged by her father.

Sharino in turn looked up into his eyes. Behind his thoughtful expression, she saw something she would not have expected from what Kakashi had told her of the boy that had mastered the Kage Bunshin, and had fought a Jounin and survived. She saw fear. She raised an eyebrow.

"What is troubling you?" she asked.

"Nothing!" said Naruto, his instinctive bravado pushing up past his facial expression. "I'm just excited about the mission tomorrow!" Sharino smiled kindly and he knew that she saw through him.

"I know you are an inexperienced Genin. I am sure Kakashi will not put you in more danger than is absolutely necessary."

"It's not that…" he said. "I really am excited about fighting." He paused, crouching down beside Sharino so that he could look out over the village with her.

"Then what is it?"

"Since the start of this, when we were heading over here, I've had the weirdest feeling like I've been here before, like I know this place. I don't know what it is, but it's been telling me that bad things are going to happen here." Sharino examined the young ninja's face and followed his eye line down, past the hot springs that concealed the village and out into the forest. She looked down again, at her father's house.

"I don't know why you have these feelings, but I do know that I will not let the Smoke village fall. We must protect our homes and our important people with all we have and sometimes saving what is dear to us means risking everything. If your feeling is a premonition, then I will fight to change the future." Naruto turned and their eyes met.

He couldn't help but remember once again talking to Haku in the forest, before he had known who the other boy was. 'Do you have a precious person?' Naruto smiled and he witnessed a new resolve forming in Sharino's eyes, as a new resolve formed just as tangibly in his.

But the uneasy feeling never really went away.

---

Sakura found Sasuke sitting out on the steps at the back of the house looking at the gardens. She had woken up and found herself alone, with four empty sleeping mats where her team mates and Kakashi and Genma should have been.

"Sasuke-kun?" she said, walking out to him. His head was resting on his clasped hands and he looked very thoughtful. He looked around at her, nodded an acknowledgement of her presence then returned his gaze out to the garden. Sakura sat down next to him.

"Sakura," said Sasuke. He sounded like he was about to say something, but then he stopped himself, shaking his head and turning away from her. Sakura looked at him, waiting. When he didn't speak, she sighed and looked out at the garden. She wanted to find something to say, but her unease and fear about the coming battle was growing and that was all she could think about.

For a while she just took comfort in his presence, distant and distracted though he seemed.

"We should try and get some sleep," Sasuke said after a few minutes. "We will need our strength to defeat the enemies tomorrow." Sakura looked at him and smiled. His words may not have been meant as reassurance or encouragement, but when he looked at her she saw no fear in his black eyes. She nodded.

"Yeah!" she said.

When they returned to their sleep mats, they found Naruto, fast asleep, in his. Just before Sakura fell into the calm blackness of sleep, she heard the quiet footsteps of the two Konoha Jounin also returning.

---

Lee woke up before the other members of his team and sat up, looking around the room. It was still dark outside. The sun had not even started to rise, but the moon was still high enough to provide some illumination. He looked down at his hands. Bare, they showed the many tiny scars that marked his knuckles and hands, a silent testament to the hours and hours of hard work and training he had put in over the years. He sighed.

Rubbing the last remnants of sleep from his eyes, Lee looked across at his sleeping team mates. Tenten, her hair hanging loose around her face, looked worried, even in sleep. Even Neji's sleeping face had a tiny frown creasing his forehead. The tense atmosphere had penetrated all their dreams.

For a moment, Lee's eyes lingered on his Hyuuga rival. With his eyes shut, Neji could have been anyone. Unable to see the silver eyes of the Hyuuga Bloodline Limit, he could have been just an ordinary boy. Like Lee. Maybe then he would feel fear, make mistakes occasionally. Like Lee.

'If I don't defeat as many enemies than Neji today,' Lee thought to himself, 'then I will have to run around the volcano five times!'

Silently, Lee got up. He glanced once more at his scarred, puckered hands. They were not the hands of a young boy. They were the hands of someone that had woken up before dawn every morning for years to train and train and strengthen his body, punching and kicking logs until his knuckles bled and his body simply refused to do more. He swore by his hands that one day soon he would defeat the Hyuuga, and prove to him once and for all that a genius could be defeated by hard work alone.

He dressed as quietly and quickly as he could, bandaging his arms and putting on his training weights, ready to face the day. Finally, he tied his forehead protector around his waist, emulating his Sensei in every way but the sleeveless jacket that Konoha ninja first received when they became Chuunin.

Lee went to the door and opened it silently, preparing to go out and train for a little while before the rest of his team awoke and they had to leave.

"Not this morning Lee," a deep voice whispered from the corner of the room where Gai had been sleeping. "You must save all your energy for the battles to come."

"Gai-Sensei," Lee said, just as quietly, turning around to see Gai, sitting up on his sleeping mat. "I did not know you were awake." Gai grinned. He looked just as bright first thing in the morning as he ever did.

"It is hard to rest heavily when the day promises so much. But we must be patient for now. We will have much to do later," Gai said. Lee smiled at his Sensei and nodded his agreement. Gai grinned and gave Lee the 'nice-guy' pose with his thumb up. Everything was going to be all right.

---

Gai and his team had already set out into the forest, without waiting to greet the other Konoha team. Kakashi and Genma were nearly ready to leave and the Smoke team had just been given their final instructions from Isamu. Sharino stood with them now.

Their leader was Yumeda Reiboshi, an elite Jounin level ninja and good friend of Sharino. Though he looked only sixteen, he was actually much older… old enough to have helped train Sharino when she was a Genin. He used a permanent Henge to appear younger than he was, for reasons he kept to himself. His hair was short, except for a long arch down the middle of his head, and it was all painted black. His upper eyelids were also painted black with thick kohl, and thin stripes of the same make-up ran from his eyes to halfway down his cheeks. The eyes themselves were pure white. On his forehead he bore a symbol, representing his clan, like three narrow ellipses with pointed ends joined together in the centre. The other three on his team included one other Jounin and two Chuunin.

Just as they were about to leave, Umatatsu Isako ran down the street towards them.

"I am coming too!" she said. Sharino turned and looked at her.

"But father said you were to remain here…" she said. Isako seemed to misunderstand her meaning and became very defensive.

"I will not be sheltered from this battle, Sharino, not by you or father or anyone. I will fight for my village!"

"Isako…" started Sharino, but her sister cut her off before she could say any more.

"No Sharino! You know I excel in situations like this. I may not have your rank or your strength, but I am still your older sister. I am an Umatatsu and I will not be left behind!"

"Isako!" Sharino said louder, smiling. "I am glad you got away." Isako paused, her mouth open in shock. Slowly this altered to a smile and she laughed. Then, she nodded to Reiboshi, who greeted her.

In the next seconds they were gone and Sharino was left standing with Nekoya.

"Won't your father get mad?" Nekoya said, referring to Isako. Sharino shrugged.

"I'd rather have that and have a better chance of saving this village," she said. Nekoya nodded, then smiled

"Come on Toramaru! Lets get going!" Nekoya said. The cat mewed and Nekoya smiled at Sharino. They nodded and started out after the other teams.

---

"They're heading out," said Ketsume's second in command, Jirou. Jirou was looking into a wide shallow bowl filled with water. Though Ketsume could see nothing except the reflection of the sky on the water, he nodded.

"Then let us begin," he replied, turning to where the rest of his ninja stood, looking at him with bloodthirsty expressions on their faces.