A/N-OI! Paprika here with the next chapter of 'When Reality Becomes Blurred'. MANY thanks to Kagime and the Owl, Kiyiri Makrono, Emily-the-Elemental, and ForeverForsakenfor reviewing the last chapter…now…onto this chapter…. just a forewarning, near the end it gets a little violent. And I am remarkably sorry that I couldn't update before now. Something went wrong and I couldn't access the internet to update. Also, in the bottom A/N is something that fans of this story should read so...please read it. R&R

Disclaimer-I do not own Naruto or Dance Dance Revolution but I own my OC's…sorta.

Chapter 7

Metal glinted in the evening sun. The sound of air whistling as the razor sharp blades flew through it and… "CRAP!" a voice echoed loudly thought the back yard as shadows danced in the setting sun.

Mika leapt to one side as three shuriken went flying past her. The fourth one that Mika hadn't seen him throw, sliced several strands of black hair off of the side of her head. She collapsed onto one knee, exhausted, as she glared at the thrower.

"Was adding that last one absolutely necessary? I can barely dodge three." She snapped, irritated. Her glare intensified as she looked at Kakashi. "Are you trying to kill me or something?" she said as she took a long drink out of a water bottle her mother had put out for her.

Kakashi raised his eyebrow. "I'm merely doing what any enemy Shinobi would do. I'm using your obvious weak spot. In other words your blind spot. Most Genin are trained, in the Academy to overcome their blind spot. You haven't had a chance to do that. So, I'm trying to do it now." Mika nodded in resignation. "Yeah I know that you had to be doing something along those lines. It's just hot for April 25th, that's all. My temper is getting the better of me."

"Ok. Then, if you're ready, we'll go again."

Mika went over and stood at a distance from Kakashi. As she tensed, his voice reached her, reminding her of what she should do. 'Foresee where it would land.'In that way she could overcome her blind spot. As she watched him release the shuriken watched the way they flew and tried to predict where they would land. As the first one drew closer to her, she leapt backwards, just out of range and watched it land on the ground in front of her. She flipped back over the first one as the second hit the fencing with a dull 'thunk'. The third curved in from the right so she leapt to the left to avoid it.

The fourth caught her by surprise…again. This one didn't give her a hair cut…this one actually cut her arm. As she gasped and dropped to the ground in pain, Kakashi smiled beneath his mask and gently shook his head. Bringing her water over from the patio table where it sat, he handed it to her so she could drink and rinse her cut. "I think we'll call it a night for tonight." "Ok Kakashi-Sensei, I'll be in soon, give me five minitues."

When Kakashi got inside, he was met by a pink-haired Kunoichi who asked him where Mika was. Upon being directed into the back yard, she looked outside and saw Mika, with her arms wrapped around her knees and face buried in her arms. The way her black shimmering hair was shaking….

Sakura walked outside and squatted in front of her new friend. "Hey…Mika-Chan… what's wrong?" Mika looked up and wiped the tears off of her face. "Nothing…I'm fine." Sakura arched an eyebrow. "You're crying. Fine people do not cry." She came around and plopped down beside Mika.

"I guess…it's just….all so…Sakura I can't do this." Concern filled Sakura's emerald orbs. "Can't do what?" "This training. Becoming a Kunoichi. Trying to learn skills of a trait no one else has. It just hit me and… it's all too much. I can't…" At this point she couldn't hold it back and she began to sob again. Sakura stuck an arm around her and held her while she cried.

As she held the crying girl, she surveyed the yard. Numerous shuriken littered the small, enclosed space along with kunai and a couple senbon needles. This, accompanied by Mika's scratched arms and legs gave Sakura a pretty good idea of what kind of training the girl had been made to endure.

"Well I wouldn't look at it from this way. Weapons training is always the hardest. The only one it came natural to, really was TenTen. It took me over a week just to learn how to simply dodge a kunai…you've been in training for only three days and you can ably dodge a kunai as well as shuriken and the needles. except for your blind spot but…you're such a fast learner, agile and you're fast so…it shouldn't take to long for your blind spot to disappear completely."

Mika had stopped crying during this monologue. She chuckled when Sakura said that she was agile. "I think that that's because of DanceDance Revolution. Before I got the game I wasn't that fast or agile…but" she said as her tone grew sober "it's not just that. It's…this is going to be such a big part of my life. But my parents can't relate to it and my friends who would be able to are kept entirely in the dark about it. That and, as long as ninja keep coming after me like they did on Saturday, my friends and family are going to be put in danger. And I don't want that." She said, adding an "Ever" for emphasis.

The two sat there in silence, Mika's last words hanging in the air as a buffer until "Sakura…." "Yeah?" "Could I…if I wanted to…quit?" These words took Sakura by surprise. "Quit?" she said , as though it were a foreign word. "Yeah…quit. Not train anymore…not…have to deal with this pressure."

Sakura drew her own knees to her chest and rested her chin on them as she contemplated an answer. "Kakashi…. told us what to say if you ever asked this. Firstly, I must say this. You shouldn't doubt your abilities to protect those dear to you. When you doubt, that's when you put them in danger. Your abilities are already highly accelerated for someone with no formal training. Here's what he told us to say. You can, at any time, decide to forego the training and stop being a Kunoichi. We-that is Kakashi, Sasuke, Naruto, Gaara and myself, will vanish from your life and you will never see us again." Mika brightened up at this statement. "My life can return to normal."

"No, the life that you call 'Normal' is gone. For good. For whatever reason the members of the Akatsuki are pursuing you… and they will" Mika broke in "Gaara told you about what the ninja said?" "Yeah, on Monday, while you were at school. But that's not important right now. They will keep pursing you until they get whatever it is they are after. Or they kill you. And simply because we disappear…they won't stop. They'll be even happier that we aren't around to protect you or train you. And they will go through your family and friends to get to you. And you won't be able to do a thing because you aren't trained and cannot fight them off."

This stunned Mika. "So basically you're saying that if I were to stop, I'd put everyone I care about in even more danger because I can't protect them." Sakura nodded. "Great."

Sakura stood up to go back inside. "OH!" she said, as though remembering something important. She turned back around and bent over to whisper in Mika's ear in case someone else was listening. "And I happen to know that if you were to quit, a certain Shinobi of the Sand would lose all respect for you cause he hates quitters."

Color tinged Mika's face. "What are you talking about?" she managed to get out. "Oh come on Mika. I can smell the Salve of the Sand Aloe from here. He only uses that on himself whenever something manages to pierce his sand barrier. It's a very rare and expensive concoction. He wouldn't give you it if he didn't feel something for you." Sakura winked. "And lemmie guess how it went. He hurt you because he got ticked at you and regretted it so he gave you the lotion." "Weeelll…I'm not so sure about the regretting he hurt me…" Mika attempted to cover up but was stopped short by Sakura "Hun, you don't know him to well then. He's not built for regret but neither is he built to apologize. If he didn't truly regret what he did to you…" she eyeballed Mika's wrists, which still had slender cuts from the sand "Then he wouldn't have given the salve to you as an attempted apology." Mika turned a bright red and turned away.

"Think about what I said though…about making the choice to stop. It's not a decision to make lightly because once you do there's no going back." With that Sakura went inside and left Mika in the dark. The sun had set.

The next day, Thursday, in the staircase, Mika was almost as quiet and withdrawn as she had been on the Monday after finding out about the whole Kunoichi thing. She contemplated the choices. To continue would be an incredible opportunity. The once in a lifetime type thing. But all she had to do was say the word and her life would return to some semblance of 'normal'.

"Ok, what is it this time." Said Seyann in a drawling voice. "I have to make…a difficult decision. One that will affect the rest of my life. I mean…" she couldn't tell them that Naruto was real but…she could at least give them a bit of a lowdown. "I'm in training to do something. It's extremely hard and challenging but I'm learning how to protect. If I stop this training…my family, and…you guys…will be in extreme danger. But I'll have a normal life." She sighed and leaned back against the wall. "I don't know what do to."

Michelle wrapped an arm around her friends shoulder and Seyann lay a hand on her arm. "Well that explains where all these cuts are from." Said Sey, eyebrow arched, smirk on her face. Continuing in a serious voice, she said, "Whatever you decide…you know that we will support you and your family will too. We will take the necessary steps to protect ourselves and you."

Internally Mika was wondering how they could protect themselves from the likes of people who were in the Akatsuki, externally, she smiled and said "Thanks guys. Your support….it's something that I needed."

The two other girls smiled at her and then Sey, looking at her with hazel eyes (which today, looked as green as Sakura's) and asked "Now that that's settled…can you make me a shuriken? My other one got 'accidentally' thrown out when it landed in supper last night." The sharp reminder of her powers startled Mika, thinking that Sey meant for her to make her a metal shuriken. Only when she remembered that her friend didn't know anything about the Yourusashi clan, did she realize that Seyann meant the paper kind of shuriken. She laughed and pulled out two pieces of paper and folded the fake weapon….

All the while feeling the small compact case strapped to her leg, which contained the real ones, she was being trained to use.

Life was really ironic sometimes.

The rest of the day she mulled over her decision. She had almost made it by the end of fifth and prepared to go home and tell Kakashi her decision. She hadn't made it easily but…it needed to be done.

That day when she got off of the bus at her house (she lived semi out in the country. She had one neighbor but that was it for a half a kilometer or so), she immediately knew something was up. The door to her next-door neighbor's house had been broken down. As soon as the bus pulled away, she reached into her shuriken holder and pulled out three. Dropping her bag in one fluid motion, she put chakra into her feet and ran towards the house.

Entering the house that had a design similar to her own, she crept into the kitchen where she heard the noises coming from. She didn't have a sand bottle with her…she hadn't replaced the one that had exploded on Monday. As she approached the kitchen and peered around the corner she was met with an awful sight.

Her young neighbor, a 6-year-old named Mercy who had brown hair and big brown eyes, was being held tightly by a member of the Akatsuki-the trademark slash though the headband was a dead giveaway. Two others were in the kitchen. One was asking the questions, while the third held Mercy's mother, Violet in a vice grip-by the neck.

Seeing her friends treated in such a manner enraged Mika beyond no end. She heard the question that was being put to Violet. "Where is she? Where is the Yourusashi?" "I don't know anyone by that name…" managed Violet. Her daughter was staring at her with wide, terror-filled eyes, screaming when the ninja hit her mother on the head, causing her to collapse onto the ground.

Mika couldn't take it anymore. She raised the shuriken to her face and prepared to throw at the one holding Mercy. Before she leapt out however, she said sharply "Mercy close your eyes right now." She threw the shuriken at the ninja, as Mercy closed her eyes tightly-just in time-as the shuriken sliced the neck of the ninja holding her.

Mercy couldn't see anything but she felt something warm on her face and the person holding her went loose and slumped over. As this happened, she could hear Mika yelling at her "Mercy go to my house…go in and tell them that Mika is in trouble. Someone will come."

She didn't need to be told twice. She was out of the door in a flash, gone to next door, leaving Mika to face 3 Akatsuki members. Alone.

Mercy ran without stopping into the Field's house, sobbing. "Please…." She gasped, sinking to her knees. "Help…" she looked up the hall. She couldn't hear anyone…she thought the house was empty. Then she remembered what Mika had told her to yell.

"Please…Mika's in trouble, she needs help…" No sooner were these words out of her mouth when a cloud of sand followed by a silver puff appeared in front of her. As both cleared, she could see three other people running up the hall behind them. The sand cleared to reveal a scary looking red-head with black covered eyes and a tattoo on his forehead while the silver smoke cleared to a silver-haired man with one black eye and one red eye. "Where is she?" asked the redhead in a deadly voice.

Mika stood before the remaining two nins, tensed for battle. Before she could move, however, a shuriken and kunai were embedded in her leg, causing her to collapse. Her eyes widened. So this was what Sakura meant. 'You're untrained…you can't do anything…'

She hated this feeling of helplessness.

"So you're the Yourusashi. I wonder…" the nin who appeared to be the leader walked forward and grabbed her by the hair, dragging her painfully to her feet. "Why he wants you. Oh well. I only listen to him." He smirked. "I wonder if he'll let us have fun with you first…. after all… you're nothing but the bait…."

He was abruptly cut off however, when a cloud of sand engulfed him. As she turned around she saw Gaara standing in the door, rage in his eyes. Just behind him stood Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi. Sasuke pulled out a windmill Shuriken without a word and sent it flying at the other ninja, following behind it with Naruto on his heels.

Very unceremoniously, as she watched, the two ninja were dispatched-one when Gaara closed his fist tightly, creating the Desert Funeral, the other dispatched when the Shuriken cut off his leg, immobilizing him and he faced the Rasengan.

Through all this, Kakashi and Sakura had made it over to the wounded Mika where Sakura went to work and-once again-healed the girl.

"It was horrible." Managed Mika. "What was?" said Sakura absently as she worked. "It was like you told me. They were in danger…and I couldn't do anything. I got Mercy out…but I couldn't help Violet." She glanced at the woman who was sprawled on the ground.

"I'll do it. I refuse to give up. Never again will I ever be this helpless in the face of my enemy." Kakashi smiled and looked like he was about to say something until a cold voice spoke up. "Good. Smart girl."

She looked up and met Gaara's eyes. Sakura nudged her Sakura, as a blush came to her cheeks.

Sasuke, meanwhile, looked back and forth between the two (Mika and Gaara), a plan formulating in his head.

A/N-sits back and admires handiwork this is officially, the longest chapter…actually the longest anything I've every written. If anyone really wants to know what Sasuke's planning…well you'll just have to wait for that won't you? smirks. Anyways, that thing I mentioned at the beginning of the chapter. While I was unable to access the internet or the computer for that matter, I got an idea. I had already written a one-shot that accompanied this story and was going to publish it when the spot came along that it went with. However I got several more remarkably good ideas for various one-shots to accompany this story which lead me to the idea to create a separate area for them-a series of one shots that accompany this story. My problem is that, although I have a tenative title for this series of one shots, it's not that good. If any of you can come up with a good title that will go with the title of the story, 'When Reality Becomes Blurred' i'd appreciate it.

Also, if any of you think that there is a missing conversation in the story, or an incident mentioned in passing that was never put into 'When Reality Becomes Blurred' that you would like to read a one-shot about, by all means, you can request it andI will try to come up with something. Or, if you, the reader, have a good idea about one you can write it and I will add it to the series. (takes deep breath) Wow that was a mouthfull.

That being said REVIEW!

Oh and if you haven't seen the movie 'The Lake House' go see it. It's amazing.