I do not own Naruto!
Enjoy! : )
"Who are you?" Satsuki questioned from her spot backed up against the wall.
"Ku, ku, ku" the long, black haired man laughed stepping through the now broken window. "She doesn't even know who we are, Sasori." He glanced haphazardly over his shoulder at the red headed man behind him.
Sasori followed the snake-like man through the window and chuckled. "That's surprising, her-" he stopped short, Daisuke growling and moving further in front of Satsuki. "Daddy," the malice in his voice seemingly dripping from is mouth "Spent so much time and trouble hiding her, you'd think he'd have the decency-"
"That's enough." A deep baritone voice echoed through the house.
Satsuki looked towards the source of the voice and saw Daisuke in an offensive crouch and his hackles raised. "What was tha-" Satsuki was cut off when the voice echoed through the apartment once more.
"Satsuki-when I say go, run, and don't look back."
"Oh, how cute. The ninken thinks that he can protect her." The snake-man tutted.
Satsuki could feel her heart beating wildly against her chest as thoughts rain wild in her head. 'Daisuke just talked. These ninjas are after me. What is going on? Did they just call Daisuke a ninken? Why are these ninjas after me? Why didn't my father mention any of this? Why-' She was pulled abruptly from her thoughts by a low growl. She tensed her muscles preparing for what might come next.
"Satsuki-" She jerked her head sharply to look at Daisuke who was taking small deliberate steps forward. "Go!" He bellowed while lunging at the two ninjas.
At that moment Satsuki forgot everything that was going on around her and focused on the one task given to her-running. She scrambled to her feet, the bare soles of her feet slipping on the hard wood floor. Catching her footing last second, she sprinted towards the first opening to get out of the house: a window at the back of the house her father always insisted on leaving open. Trying to ignore the commotion going on at the other side of the house she jumped out the window, and started her way down the street, pausing slightly feeling the ground quaking beneath her bare feet. Looking over her shoulder she saw a large earth wall erupting out of the ground where her house had once been.
"Daisuke," She whispered, her eyes widening. Taking a deep breath, she turned back around and continued running. As she ran further down the street, unsure of where she was 'supposed' to go, she yanked the hood of her trench coat up over her head and whispered "Henge no jutsu". Satsuki's silver hair bled red and her charcoal eyes turned a bright violet colour. Not pausing in her running, she pulled her cloth face mask a little further up on her face making sure it was covering the markings on each of her cheeks and darted down a side alley keeping her ears out for the rougue ninjas who were bound to be after her again soon.
Satsuki darted in and out of alleyways, trying to keep in as much of an undistinguishable path as she could. Keeping her head down she turned another corner and cursed as she ran straight in to someone knocking her to the ground.
Looking up from her position she was blinded by the glint of a forehead protector in the late afternoon sun. "Shinobi-san! I am so sorry!" she mumbled hoping it wasn't the men from earlier.
"Satsuki!" The shinobi breathed out. "I'm so glad that you're alive!" The shinobi lowered himself down to her level allowing her to get a better look at him.
"Dad-?" The spikey silver hair, and the deep smell of peppermint could only belong to one person that she knew. "Dad! What's going on? Where's Naruto? Why are you dressed like a shinobi? There are rouge ninjas-"
"Satsuki." Minoru put has hands on both of her shoulders. "Now is not the time." Satsuki opened her mouth to protest but Minoru gave her a stern look. "Think of this as your first mission." His voice held a no-nonsense tone as he attached a small bag to the belt at her hip, and another on her right calf. "Your identity has been compromised and you are in the enemy's territory." As he spoke, Satsuki noticed the leaf symbol on his forehead protector "You are transporting classified information that could destroy your country if it falls in to the wrong hands." Her father stopped talking for a moment to show her two scrolls with the kanji for fire emblazoned on them and then put two scrolls into an inner pocket of her trench coat. "Your mission is to get it back to the leader and without getting captured."
Satsuki nodded her head tentatively, accepting this 'mission' that her father gave her as she tried to push all confusion and worry to the back of her mind. Cocking her head to the left she gasped as she looked back to her father. "I think they're getting close!"
Minoru cursed under his breath knowing that he had taken too long. "Come, pup, and keep up. There's no room for slowing down here." He was instantly on his feet and grabbed Satsuki's hand jumping to the nearest roof. "Do you remember how to put chakra to your feet to jump farther?" Minoru asked as dropped her hand. "Good" he said after receiving a curt nod from his daughter. He turned his attention back towards his seemingly planned out route.
Satsuki ran behind her father doing all she could to keep up with his fast pace. They had just jumped on to the fourth building when she heard the small whistle of a kunai speeding through the air. She twisted to her left, the kunai just barely grazing her right arm.
"Satsuki, duck!" her father shouted, instinctually she obeyed and crouched down as she ran and listened to two kunai with paper trailing after them whistle by her in the opposite direction. As she heard them pass her she straightened back up and glanced behind her just in time to see a large explosion where the kunai knives had struck. "Keep going Satsuki!" Her father shouted stopping for a moment to let her get in front of him. Minoru turned around and shouted "Haisekishou no jutsu!" Ash flew from his mouth, combining with the moist air to create a large smoke screen. "Come, Satsuki!" Minoru turned back towards his original path with a vengeance. "We've not much time. We have to get (you) across the wall." His voice lowered with each word and Satsuki shot her father a worried glance.
They were a hundred feet away from the wall, and Minoru was starting to get worried. The men hadn't caught up yet, it just wasn't adding up. These were Elite ninja, and he had been out of the game for a while. It was almost as if they were allowing them to get to the edge of the village for a reason. He shook his head and looked back to his daughter. No use in thinking like that. All he had to do was reach the forest on the other side of the wall and the rest of the pieces would fall in to place. There was no room for failure. Too much rode on this. "Satsuki," He said behind him as the approached the wall. "Chakra to your feet and jump to the top of the wall!"
"Hai!" She said nodding her head and scrunching her face together as she focused on catapulting herself to the top of the wall. "Umph" Satsuki grunted as she miscalculated the height of the wall. "Dad!" She shouted, the fingers on her right hand digging into the top of the wall trying to will her muscles to cooperate a little further and help hoist her up over the wall.
"Ku, ku, ku!" There was the laugh again, he was close.
Satsuki swung her body to the left trying to get her hand up to the top.
"Hiakohou no jutsu!" She heard her father shout as she swung one last time to the left, this time her hand being grabbed by her father and he helped hoist her the rest of the way up the wall. "You're doing so well, just a little farther, okay?"
Satsuki once again nodded her head, determination set in her eyes, trusting that her father knew what he was doing.
"Now, jump!" her father jumped ahead of her and hit the ground running. Satsuki took a deep breath and jumped off the ledge of the wall, keeping her eyes trained on her desired landing spot some eighty feet below.
"Awh, too slow!" A voice shouted and the next thing she knew, Satsuki was being dragged through the air to her right by an invisible force. Satsuki looked in fear at the direction she was being pulled and saw Sasori standing with a deviant grin on his face. "If we didn't have the orders that we do, you would make one gorgeous puppet." He licked his lips pulling Satsuki in to his reach and grabbing her tightly to him.
"Let go of me you freak!" She shouted struggling against his strong grip.
"You really are a fighter," The snake-man drawled out "Just like your mother was at your age." He put his face inches from hers and grabbed her neck and squeezed. "I always hated your mother." He ground out.
"And I don't like you either!" Satsuki growled out, spitting at the man through her teeth.
"Why you little!" the man hissed, squeezing her throat harder.
"I would recommend letting go of her, Orochimaru." The named man turned his head sharply towards the forest.
"Ku, ku, ku." He laughed, letting go of Satsuki. "I would have thought that my snakes would have killed you as soon as you hit the ground."
"What can I say. I'm full of surprises." He laughed winking at Satsuki. "What about you Sasori? What about a good ol' round of two on one? For old time sakes that is?" Satsuki felt her heart drop. Her dad wanted to take on the two of them at once?
"Dad, no!" She shouted further trying to struggle her way out of the red head's grasp.
"No worries, pup. I have a few tricks up my sleeve still." He gave her his award-winning grin and whispered "Summoning no jutsu."
In that split second everything changed. Sasori dropped Satsuki with a loud shout, and as soon as she hit the ground she skidded as far backwards as she could, her back slamming up against a tree.
"You think a bunch of dogs is going to keep me down, filthy leaf scum?" Sasori shouted knocking them away, one by one, each dog disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
"No, but it served its purpose." He looked over his shoulder at Satsuki against the tree. "Satsuki, remember the mission. I'll catch up as soon as possible."
Satsuki gave him a confused look. There was no way that she was leaving without him, mission or no mission. She caught his eye for a brief moment and noticed the look he had. It was the same look he got whenever he was getting himself out of a tough spot in a game of Shogi.
"I find it amusing that you think she is going anywhere," Orochimaru smiled throwing a kunai at Minoru and a second one at Satsuki.
Satsuki ducked, the kunai sticking out of the tree where her head had been seconds before. Grabbing a kunai from her pouch and throwing it back at Orochimaru with all the might she could muster she noticed black writing snaking its way up her hand. Her eyes widened and she looked back to her father in fear.
"What can I say, I picked up a knack for seals over the last few years." Minoru chuckled to himself watching as the seal finished working its way across Satsuki and started to glow. "Enough to make the Yondaime Hokage jealous if he were still alive."
Orochimaru let out a loud shout as his eyes snapped open and looked at the small girl. "How did you?!" he ground out, launching himself towards her, trying to catch her before the seal took hold
Sasori chuckled and threw a barrage of kunai at the girl and turned his focus on her father.
Satsuki panicked, trying to stand up and get out of danger, only to find that her legs would no longer cooperate with her. She looked up in fear to see that glint in her father's eyes one last time, seemingly begging her to trust him just this last time. She squeezed her eyes tight and bracing herself for the inevitable she heard her father's voice echo out: "Now it's time to play."
Suddenly the grass underneath her was gone and replaced with hard wood floor. The humid air became dry and the noise from the forest melted away and was replaced by the low playful chatter of children and adults.
Satsuki slowly opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. The forest edge where she had just been was gone and it was replaced with what looked like a small apartment. She shakily rose to her feet, her energy quickly leaving her, and walked over to a window that was letting in the last few rays of day light. Looking out the window she saw people walking quickly through the streets of a town that looked the complete opposite of Kirigakure. Satsuki's heart sank as the pieces quickly fell in to place as exhaustion and shock took over.
She hit the ground with a loud thud, her last thought before completely passing out being 'This was his plan the whole time. I was the king that he saved from checkmate.'
Leave a review if you wish!