sorry for the wait, posted un beta'd. love, -cp

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Harumi Kiki laughed and waved to her friends as she passed them. They would hang out later and discuss the most interesting gossip, the cutest boys, and all the little nuances that made up the life of a fifteen year old, but for now they were working. Kiki had been born on a farm near the southern border of the earth country, and for all she knew she was going to die on a farm there. She had it all planned out. She was going to marry a handsom man (maybe the apotocary's son, Mei. He liked her, right?) Then she'd set up a farm of her own where she was going to raise the best horses. Yeah, it was going to be nice. She hefted the pole up on her shoulder as she walked down to the river, a spring in her step, thinking about her future.

It was a long walk, but she was lost in her thoughts so it seemed to pass quickly. Before she knew it she was dangling her feet in the water, having cast her line and set aside the basket she had been carrying. She sighed and smiled. She loved fishing duty, and she got it so often. She grinned in egotistical delight. It was because she was the best at it, that's why. Most of the other girls would barely touch a raw fish, let alone a live one and the bait. She propped the pole up against a log and clipped a bell to the end before laying back in the soft moss around the river to watch the clouds.

She woke up to the sound of the bell ringing. Her first instinct was to jump up and grab the pole, hauling her catch back to the land, but something stopped her. The sky was gone, all she could see now was a mass of matted brown fur. She blinked, failing to comprehend in her sleep induced stupor the danger she was in. She reached up to touch the brown sky. It was warm and twiched under her fingers. It turned. The eyes were comparitivly small in refference to the head, wattery and brown, twin trails of clear fluid and yellowish goop running down from them to its slightly paler snout. It wobbled as it turned towards her and the urgency of her situation suddenly dawned on her. Kiki stood up slowly, taking in the sight of the sick bear, the overturned picnic basket, the maimed fishing pole. She started to back away. Her eyes darted the ground, she knew she'd brought one...Ah! There! She bent with her eyes on the bear and picked up the knife she had brought with her lunch and clasped it with both hands. She leveled it at the bear.

It snarled and took a step forward, the little flash of silver in a girl's hands ment nothing to it. She trembled as hope slowly dissolved in front of her. It snuffled as it took another wobbling step closer to her, little watery eyes turning in their sockets to flash white scelera. Kiki felt the tears begin to tricle down her cheeks. She was never going to see her family again. All her plans for the future? nothing. She was going to be nothing. What would they think? Would they miss her? Would Mei miss her? She collapsed to her knees as her back touched a tree. This was it.

There was a flash. The bear's roar of rage pitched into a shirill scream of agony and fear. She closed her eyes and waved the knife in front of her like a sword. The sound of the bear's heavy foot steps retreated at a lope. She opened her eyes slowly, not willing to trust her ears at first. But when she looked around the bear was gone. In fact, all she saw now was a relativly small shape raiding the remains of her picnic. She stood up and walked over to him, slightly sideways so she could bolt if she had to. "Who...Who are you?" He looked up at her with a rice ball halfway in his mouth, blinking big blue eyes. He was covered in mud from head to toe, skinny, and compleatly naked. He swallowed, barely seeming to chew at all, and smiled at her. His voice was pleasent and cheerful, and he sounded like he was about her age. "I have no idea!"

She named him Tenshi, because he had been her angel, and he never told her otherwise. She had taken him home, given him fresh clothes, and food, and the use of a bath. He in turn became his namesake to her in every way, and when thier first child was born she asked him what they should name him. He just smiled and said "Sasuke." She looked at him curiously. "I don't know," he smiled and shrugged, "I just like the name. Do you like it?" She smiled and nodded. "Yeah." She looked down on the child in her arms as he yawned sleepily and waved his chubby little arms, the boy had a shock of almost white-blond hair already curled on his forehead, "Yeah. I like it."

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gee, I wonder who that could be. More to come soon. (Sorry again about the wait. > )