Sorry for taking so long to update, I ran out of ideas! But it's all good now! Until chapter 4…

Chapter 3: The Past Never Fades

Sango and Lee approached the edge the forest and they could see the gates of Konoha. Suddenly, something came up behind Sango and she felt weight on her left shoulder. She looked over to her left and saw a squirrel sitting there looking at her with its head tilted. It was mostly light brown, with a white stomach and face, and the tip of its tail was a darker brown. It also had big, black eyes. It nibbled on the acorn it was holding and climbed up onto Sango's head.

"Oh, how cute!" Sango said as she grabbed the squirrel and held it in her hands. "Hey, little guy!"

"Sango, why isn't it running away? Squirrels are afraid of humans," Lee said.

"I'm not sure, maybe it's trained and belongs to someone… maybe we should look for an owner."

"I don't think so, I don't know anybody in Konoha that would keep a squirrel as a pet."

"Well, you do now, I'm keeping him!"

"Nani?"

"Hmmm… I think I'll name him Sanyu, because he's always so happy!"

Sango and Lee walked through the streets of Konoha, and Sanyu was resting on Sango's shoulder. Lee glanced down and for the first time took full notice of the katana at Sango's waist.

"Hey, Sango, I was wondering, where did you get that katana?"

"Oh, this?" Sango put her hand on its sheath. "It's name is the Kage no Nagaregawa, which means the Shadow of Flowing Water. I got it from my mother…"

"Really?"

"Yeah… but I don't really want to talk about it…"

"That's OK, you don't have to."

"Actually, on second thought, I do. Can we sit down somewhere?"

"Sure…" Lee looked around. "Let's go over there, just outside Konoha, there's a clearing and some trees."

They walked to a large tree and sat down at its base. Sanyu jumped off of Sango and climbed up the tree.

"It wasn't too long before now…" Sango said, a touch of sadness in her voice. "That my village was attacked by demons."

"Demons?" Lee exclaimed. "Where did you live?"

"In a small, unknown village very close to Konoha. They were giant monsters, attacking in broad daylight. It was so sudden, no one saw it coming…"

Lee put his arm around Sango to comfort her. "Then what?"

"Well, I was running an errand for my mother, when darkness came over the entire village. I hurried home, scared and confused. When I got there, my mother was waiting for me. She said we had to leave the village immediately. She took me to the outskirts of the village and handed me the Kage no Nagaregawa. She told me to run far away to get out of the way of the demons' destructive path."

"So I ran until I couldn't run anymore," Sango continued. "Then I turned around and saw nothing but destruction where my village used to stand. The demons were gone, I didn't see where they went, but I think they just disappeared."

"Wow… what did you do then?" Lee asked.

"Well, it had always been a goal of mine to come to Konoha to be a ninja. I had already gone through training, so when I traveled the short distance here, I quickly passed the test to graduate and I got this." She pointed at the Konoha band around her waist.

"Then you met me? Right after all of that happened?"

"Yes, I graduated yesterday."

"That must have been very sudden, you're probably still getting over it."

"Yeah, sort of… but I'm glad I met you!" She smiled at him. Lee blushed.

"I'm glad I met you too, Sango."

They both sat there for a while in silence.

"Hey, let's go back into the village, what do you say?" Lee suggested.

"Sure!" Sango replied, feeling a little better.

Lee stood and held out his hand to help Sango up. She took his hand and stood. Sanyu jumped from the branch he had been sitting on and landed on Sango's head. The trio then walked back through the gates of Konoha.

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Oh, yeah, "nani" means "what" in Japanese, and Sanyu means happiness, in case you didn't know.