Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its characters.

Claimer: Most likely the characters you don't know in this fanfic are mine.

Note 1: Everyone is a Chunin.

Note 2: Most jutsus in this story will probably be made up by me.

Note 3: This is an AU story. This story will first take place at the end of the Chunin Exams, and then skip to next year.

Introduction

"Suzuko!" A girl with long, golden blonde hair and lake blue eyes waved to another girl. Her eyes were serious and cold, but also seemed to hold a spark of warmth.

She was twelve and had a nicely toned figure. She wore a tight long sleeved black dress that showed her figure. It reached two inches above her knee. She also wore a short sleeved, button-up, red jacket over her clothes. The collar was up and around her neck. The coat was currently unbuttoned; it reached below her knees, just above her ankle.

White wrappings went around her ankles as braces. Black gloves, the tips so the fingers could poke out cut, went around her hands for good grip. Under the black gloves and around her wrists were white bindings as well. She wore the usual shoes from the village. The usual pouch of kunai and shuriken around her lower thigh.

Suzuko, the one she was waving at, had dark black hair and large chocolaty brown orbs. She was pretty and fair skinned. She wore a tight, short, flexible white dress with her thighs and lower body with bindings, along with her ankles. She was beautiful enough to be an angel. She, too, had the same pouch of shuriken and kunai.

"Hey, Ryuusei." Suzuko said to the lake blue eyed girl. Her voice was soft and sweet, but could carry over distances.

"The Chunin exams are just ending!" Rhapsody said enthusiastically.

"So?"

"That means the Academy will be posting up who passed and who didn't!"

Suzuko giggled, "Ryuusei, you know you passed. You're one of the best in our class."

"Yeah, but still! It's just exciting to see your name on that board! Now come on!"

Suzuko was about to answer when something in the river caught her eye. The river flowed from beyond the gates of the village, leading outside.

Suzuko abruptly changed her answer, "Ryuusei, I've gotta go do some things at my house. Come by later and tell me who passed and who didn't, okay?"

"You sure you don't wanna come?"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"Alright, see you later, Suzuko."

"You too, Ryuusei."

When Ryuusei was gone, Suzuko immediately went to the river. There was something in the water: Blood.

Suzuko gasped, "Someone must be hurt!" She examined the way the river flowed. It flowed from outside to inside. That meant the hurt person or animal was outside the gates.

Suzuko took off to her lonely compound: The Hikari Compound. She was adopted, but her step parents had left her everything they owned, including the compound.

She unlocked the gate entrance from the village to the compound. Once inside, she closed the gates and ran to the side of the huge compound. There was a gate to the outside of the village. Suzuko's parents loved to take her on strolls outside of the village in the forest. Suzuko's photographic memory gave her the ability to remember everything she saw, right down to the very last leaf.

She took two walks outside the village everyday to keep updated of the forest.

Suzuko quickly opened the gates to outside. She ran to the river and began to search. Outside of the gates, the river raged much, much quicker. There were hard currents and rocks everywhere.

Then she saw him. He was barely clinging onto life, to a boulder in the middle of the wide river. Actually, he was rather lucky. He wasn't clinging to the boulder on purpose. In truth he was fainted and was lucky to wash up against the rock, which kept him from drowning.

He had black spiky hair, which went off in one direction. Despite the water, his clothes were soiled and dirty, and also tattered. The way his clothes clung to his skin, it was evident that he was very skinny. The Chinese character Death, though torn, was still readable on his shirt. He seemed to have been out in the woods for a very long time.

Suzuko quickly ran to the river. With a deep breath of air, Suzuko dove into the water. She swam hard towards the boy in the water.

Suzuko managed to get to the boulder. She took hold of the boy. Suzuko slipped, and almost toppled over. She regained her grip on the boulder.

Taking another deep breath, Suzuko dove back into the water, one arm around the mysterious boy. It was much harder this time. Twice already, Suzuko was almost swept away by the current.

Ryuusei pulled a key out to the Hikari compound. Suzuko had provided her with it. Before her hand even touched the large wooden gate door, a strong gust of wind blew it open.

"Suzuko?" Ryuusei questioned. Suzuko never left the door open like that. She always had it shut and locked.

Ryuusei pushed the gate away and walked in cautiously. She took to the shadows without making a sound. She crept around, looking for a possible attacker.

Ryuusei turned to look in the direction of the gate to outside the village. It was then that she noticed Suzuko hauling a boy who looked like he'd just gone swimming in his normal clothing.

Ryuusei ran to help her struggling friend.

"Suzuko, where did you find him?" Ryuusei asked, helping to bring him inside the compound.

"I found him in the river outside."

The boy couched, water spluttering from his mouth. In a weak and brittle voice, he said, "O-others…Up river…Help…T-them t-too…"

"Suzuko, you stay here and take care of him." Ryuusei immediately took command, "I'll go look for the others. When you're sure he'll be fine for now, come look too."

Suzuko nodded.

Ryuusei swiftly left the gates. Traveling up river, Ryuusei arrived in what she supposed was to be a camp. There was no fireplace, but there were three beds of leaves. The uneatable parts of vegetation spread out among the "camp". In two of the leaf beds was a girl in one, and a boy in the other.

"Hey, are you alright?" Ryuusei shook the two. No answer.

"Answer me!" Ryuusei shouted.

The girl groaned and tried to sit up, but failed and fell backwards. Ryuusei caught her.

The girl had extremely long black-brown hair. She was beautiful, but with a dangerous tone added to it. The boy wore wrappings around his face, only leaving room for his left eye. A heavy pack of fur served to be what seemed like a shield. Currently it was hanging off his back.

Ryuusei shook the girl again, "Hey, we can't stay out here! You have to help me get your teammate!"

The girl struggled to stand, but with Ryuusei's help, she was able to. The girl leaned against Ryuusei's shoulder, while in turn helped to balance the boy on their shoulders.

"Ryuusei!" Suzuko ran out of the gates of her home. She held the girl up while Ryuusei brought the boy inside. Suzuko followed her in.

"Yanagi?" Ryuusei inquired at the dark indigo haired girl attending to the first boy.

She looked up from her work, saying, "Hey, Ryuusei."

"When did you get here?"

"Well, I went to your house and you weren't there. I supposed you were here at Suzuko's. When I found the door open, I got suspicious. When I found Suzuko here with this guy, I decided to help."

Yanagi had bright, beautiful willow colored eyes with ivory flecks. Even at the age of twelve, Yanagi already had a gracefully mature body. Her hair was long and tied into a high ponytail with a willow colored ribbon, otherwise it would've reached down to her ankles. Her long bangs that easily reached past her shoulders were let loose of the ponytail. She wore very short shorts that accentuated her long thin legs. The shirt she wore was a tube top and flashed her toned mid drift. It was dark green, matching her eyes. Around her ankles and feet were the usual white wrappings as braces. She wore, instead of the usual ninja shoes, petite ankle length, light boots.

Around her neck she wore a thin piece of silver. At the end of the silver was a dove made out of diamonds with willow emerald eyes.

"Where'd you get the nice necklace?" Ryuusei asked, "Did another guy give you something?"

Yanagi chuckled, "No, silly, my brother Neji gave it to me as a congratulatory gift for passing!"

After the initial conversation, the girls were finished with medicinal appliances to their charges. The three moved them inside the Hikari Compound Main House.

The Three Sacred Treasures

Seichuu no Katana, Kaichou no Kagami, Chiyu no Magatama

(Sword of Loyalty, Mirror of Unity, Jewel of Healing)

Pierce of Valor, Reflection of Wisdom, Shine of Benevolence

Part One

Identity Lost

Chapter One

New Members

"Kakashi Sensei, why did the Lord Hokage ask us to be here this morning?" Sakura questioned.

Kakashi sighed, "I don't really feel like explaining…" Kakashi sighed again, "We're going to a special ceremony to welcome the new Chunin."

"Oh." Sakura said.

"Why're we welcoming the new Chunin?" Naruto asked, "No one welcomed us when we first became Chunin!"

"I told you, it's a special ceremony." Kakashi said, "Most of us Jounin don't even know what's going on."

'Naruto is such an idiot…' Sasuke thought, rolling his eyes.

Everyone was here: Kakashi's team, Asuma's team, Kurenai's team, and even Guy's team.

The Lord Hokage walked in, along with the rest of the Hokage. Following them in was twelve guys and girls.

The Lord Hokage cleared his throat and said, "We are here today fro a special ceremony. We are going to merge the eight Chunin teams. The original sensei of these four teams must attend to important business. In place of the sensei, we were able to provide replacements for them, these Jounin." Lord Hokage beckoned to the four people grouped together in the corner.

Sasuke looked over them: Two girls and two guys.

The older of the two guys was the age of twenty-two. His name was Kyoshi Yuki, well known amongst the other Jounin with his mastery of Shadow-Based jutsus, earning him the name Silent Shadow. It was also rumored that he and Suzuko Hikari were related because of their shadow mastery. This rumor was proven false when they found that Suzuko was an adopted child and that Kyoshi was no where near related to her, or the Hikaris.

Kyoshi had black hair. His eyes were midnight blue with silvery flecks. He wore simply a black short sleeved shirt with a silvery yellow moon upon it. His pants were dark blue, a pouch of kunai and shuriken around his forearm rather than his right leg. He wore his head band around his head.

The younger of the guys was a less known Jounin seeing as he just passed into Jounin level. He had intelligent light brown eyes and silver grey hair. He wore a tight pure black shirt that showed his muscles on his upper body. It was no sleeved. His pants were black too. His pouch of kunai and shuriken were around his left leg. Brace wrappings were around his hands and wrists. His head band was around his wrist.

The older of the girls looked to be no older than eighteen or nineteen years old. Her name was Tsuyu Kaya, the Rain Drop, gaining her name with the usage of Water base jutsus. Not much else was known about her. She wore a tight dress that reached three inches above her knee. It was a dark blue color. Her kunai and shuriken pouch, like Kyoshi, was around her forearm. Her eyes were light purple; her hair was light brown, long and wavy. Her head band was around her head.

The other girl had thunder gold eyes and black hair that was tied up in a clip; otherwise her hair would've swept the floor easily. She wore a black kimono with silvery clouds, thunder, and lightning as the design. The kimono was easy to maneuver in, though it didn't look it. The kimono was too long to tell if she were wearing shoes. Her head band was tied around her waist like and obi. Nothing else was known of her. Not even the other three Jounin knew her.

Sasuke's eyes stopped upon this girl. He knew her. Her name was…Kitsunata? Wait, wasn't it something else? Or was it really Kitsunata? Why couldn't he remember her name clearly?

"Now, to continue with the ceremony. All new teams and Jounin were randomly selected for each team." Lord Hokage continued, "We will call out your sensei's name, then your names. Then we call out your new Jounin, and then your new Chunin. You will then join your new team.

"We will now begin. Sensei: Guy Might. Hyuuga Neji, Lee Rock, and Tenten. Jounin: Tsuyu Kaya."

Tsuyu parted from the group of Jounin and joined her new team, standing next to Guy.

"Chunin: Hyuuga Yanagi and Keiji Marise."

Yanagi, as beautiful as ever, walked with her teammate Marise towards her brother's team, smiling broadly. Actually, she was, impressively, even more elegant than before. Her hair had certainly grown much, much longer in the past year. Her hair would've easily swept the floor, and encased her if let loose from the usual ponytail. Her bangs were tied along with the ponytail. They were shorter than the rest of her hair, so stuck up in a pretty sort of way. Her hair was no longer kept up with a ribbon, but her headband. The ribbon she used to wear was now around her left wrist. Marise had big, innocent amber eyes and shoulder length brown hair with natural red highlights. He wore a nice black tunic with loose black cloth pants. The buttons on his tunic were white.

The two joined their new team, Yanagi standing next to Neji and Marise. Frankly, everyone stared at Neji and Yanagi. Not many were aware that Neji had a younger sister, no less the prettiest of the new Chunin.

"Moving on," Lord Hokage said, "Sensei: Hatake Kakashi. Haruno Sakura, Sasuke Uchiha, and Uzumaki Naruto. Jounin: Taka Kitsunata."

Kitsunata parted from the Jounin crowd. She briefly winked a friendly wink at Sasuke before standing next to Kakashi. Kakashi smiled at her and patted her head like a father.

"Chunin: Hikari Suzuko and Jounin-in-Training Seiran Ryuusei."

Two more mature girls walked from the line of Chunin and to their new team. Kakashi's, upon seeing Ryuusei, eyes widened. Just like the fortune teller foretold…

"She will be appointed to your team under a dire situation." Those were the fortune teller's exact words.
Kakashi remembered when Rhapsody had been just a baby. She was the daughter and only treasure a very close friend of his left behind. She was so quiet…So…Solemn. She began to scare the care takers. He had a hand in raising her, but in reality she raised herself. She had had no other family except her mother, who had died a week after her birth, and her father, who sacrificed himself during the Demon's invasion…
She looked just like him in female version…He couldn't believe it. She's asked so many questions about her parents, and everyone had been ordered by his Lord Hokage himself to lie to her. She didn't know who she was, or who she was supposed to be.

Eventually, she stopped asking questions. She tried to be satisfied with the answers she received, he knew that, but he also knew that she knew there was something they weren't telling her.

Even Tsunade had asked that the Lord Hokage reconsider not telling her of whom she was…

"Lord Hokage," Tsunade had argued at the end of his funeral, "She has a right to know. You've seen how much wisdom this girl has already possessed at this age." She'd only been one years old. Kakashi was standing next to Tsunade and Jiraiya, carrying little Ryuusei.

"She has a right to know." Tsunade stated, "Lord Hokage, I mean no disrespect for you in my forth coming. When she learns to speak she will ask of these incidents."

"Then lie to her. No one is to know of her origins, not even her."
"She won't be satisfied with the answers we give her." Tsunade continued.

"Lord Hokage," Jiraiya cut in, "Why exactly do you wish her and everyone else not to know her origins? Don't you find that those details are important?"

"I do not wish her to hate him." Lord Hokage simply answered.

Watching her and Suzuko walk up towards them, Kakashi remembered how, not satisfied with the answers, she began to shun away humans. She took to animals and practically ignored everyone else.
Except on that fateful day… A very young Yanagi Hyuuga, who wasn't as graceful as she was now, had tripped. She, who was with Suzuko, knocked them both into a deep stream flowing in side the village. Both were five years old and hadn't quite gotten swimming down. Suzuko had showed up in the village a couple months earlier. On that day, Suzuko had just been adopted by House Hikari. The only living heirs were an old couple.

Suzuko and Yanagi would've drowned that day had Ryuusei not been passing by.

From that day on, Ryuusei, Suzuko, and Yanagi were the best of friends. Ryuusei no longer questioned about her parents, and didn't shun away human contact. He himself, Kakashi, had been overjoyed that Ryuusei had made friends, human friends, the day she introduced them to him.

It was a relief to those who were close to Ryuusei. But still…What Tsunade had said was true: She deserved to know. After all she'd been through growing up…

"Master Kakashi." Ryuusei whispered to him again.

Kakashi snapped out of his reminiscing state and smiled at her.

Ryuusei smiled back. Whispering, "Isn't it lucky that we got paired up with you?"

Ryuusei beckoned to Suzuko who smiled.

"Sensei: Sarutobi Asuma. Akimichi Choji, Nara Shikamaru, and Yamanaka Ino. Jounin: Saniiro Kentaro."

Kentaro, who was the younger of the male Jounin. He stepped forward, a soft and kind smile on his face. He stood next to Sarutobi.

"Chunin: Kado Takara and Yamanaka Nariko."

Takara was what most would call a gem. She had garnet colored hair and emerald eyes. Her body was flexible and toned, her mind trained to near perfection. She was slim, not too fat, and not too thin. Her legs were long and especially toned: She loved to dance, especially at the local dance studio.

She was kind and sweet……..To animals…. Humans: She didn't interact with them very well. Their every actions made her boil with anger. You see, this beautiful gem, that has been shaped to near perfection, was raised by, well, animals. Wolves, eagles, foxes, falcons, and especially the local Dingoes; they all raised her. Though the animals had their differences, and had many disputes over whose baby she truly was, they each had to do something with her upbringing.

She was more in tune with nature and animals than anyone. She sported nothing more than a simple, tight, black shirt with the matching shorts. Her short, the non see through part, was no bigger than a common sports bra. The rest of the shirt hung off the non see though part loosely. Her pouch of kunai and shuriken was black, as well.

Living out in the forest, Takara was spotted with her Dingo family. Thinking she'd been kidnapped by the Dingoes, they were hunted down by Konoha. They were caught after two months chase. Despite Takara's desperate calls and attempts, the Dingoes were slaughtered…In front of her. Takara spoke to no humans whatsoever, but allowed herself to be brought to the village. She even attended the Academy. Up until she met Nariko at her first day at the Ninja Academy on her first day, she had never spoken to a human, or even known how to speak the languages of the humans.

After many months, Nariko was able to teach Takara how to speak. However, despite this, Takara still spoke to no humans except Nariko.

Nariko, however, was nothing like her teammate, or her older sister Ino. Although the two shared the same green blue eyes, and the same silky blonde hair, and looked almost exactly alike, the two were different. Nariko had short hair, which only went far enough to barely reach her shoulder. She was very shy, but her eyes always showed determination. Similar traits the two shared were determination and sticking up for their friends. Nariko wore what Ino wore, except her dress was slightly longer than her sister's.

She was shy, and at first was timid to talk to not only her original Jounin, but Takara as well. But the three of them soon found that Nariko was the only one who could tame Takara's fiery and enraged heart.

"Sensei: Yuuhi Kurenai. Aburame Shino, Hinata Hyuuga, and Inuzuka Kiba. Jounin: Yuki Kyoshi. Chunin: Akeno Shina and Teiljo Taura."

Followed by Kyoshi, the last two girls followed him. Shina had black hair tinted with a dark blue. She wore a tight but flexible dark blue shirt and white khaki shorts. Her eyes were dark black: cheerful, yet dark and mysterious. Shina was exceptionally quiet, often being mistaken as being shy, though. Shina was far from shy.

The other girl, Taura, had black hair as well. The tips of her hair were green blue. She wore a tight blue green dress that flaunted her exceptionally mature body.

"Now that everyone has been sorted into their new teams," Lord Hokage said, "Let us go on with our normal lives. You are dismissed."

"Finally." Sakura said, "That went on too long."

To Be Continued...

Next Time, On The Three Sacred Treasures...

Ryuusei -

Training for the new teams has begun. Yanagi walks alone in the courtyard of the Hyuuga Compound. It is there that she is branded...

She'll never be able to leave the village again.

Next Time, The Cursed Seal of the Hyuuga Clan