Naruto: Children of the Ninja
By Hikari Dohjutsu
A/N: I am soooooooooooo sorry for the long wait, I have been so busy lately I hope the long chapter makes up for it!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but I do own the plot of the story and the o.c's (no stealing)\
Saki, Ichie, Nobu, and Lee trudged down the well-worn path. Well, Ichie, Saki, and Nobu trudged down the well-worn path Lee ran up ahead of them and ran back every once in a while telling his students to hurry using the power of youth! The three young genin glared at their sensei but Lee oblivious ran up ahead humming happily.
It was a LONG walk to the Light Empire's gates. They had to walk past wind country and come upon the first check point which was in former Village hidden in the Grass. The Empress had graciously offered to meet them there but it was still a long and tiresome walk.
The sun was blazing overhead, sweat dropped down the backs of the poor exhausted genin. They had left Konoha at dawn, and they still hadn't even hit Sunagakure.
"Come on my youthful students, Keep it up!" Lee shouted back to his students.
Saki glared at her father vehemently.
"Can't we stop and eat?" Nobu whined.
Ichie glared, "Nobu you have eaten 154 bags of chips since we left Konoha, I think you can wait a little longer," she said in a voice of extremely forced calm.
Nobu perked up, "Wait I remembered," Nobu frantically rummaged through his sack, "I have a few more bags of chips!"
Ichie's eyes widened, "Nobu," she said smiling sweetly, "Give me some,"
"NO!" Nobu shook his head vigorously, clutching the bag of chips for dear life.
"Nobu," Saki came in grinning wildly, "You're going to give some to your best friend, right?"
Nobu shook his head.
Ichie and Saki were not patient girls.
"NOBU YOU GIVE ME THOSE CHIPS RIGHT NOW!" both girls screeched.
"NEVER!" Nobu yelled waddling away from the half-crazed with hunger females.
"GIVE IT!" Ichie demanded, her delicate arms reaching for the bag of chips.
Nobu held his chips back which proved to be a mistake as Saki came from behind him and tried to snatch the bag of chips.
"Go Away!" Nobu yelled holding the chips above his head.
Saki and Ichie jumped up simultaneously, making a grab for the bag when they both crashed into each other banging heads. Both fell with a loud thump to the ground.
Nobu's mouth dropped open. "Umm…guys?" Nobu looked down at them nervously, "Are you guys okay?"
There was a moment of stunned silence and than both girls burst out into hysterical bouts of laughter.
Nobu backed up slightly, "Umm…did you guys hit your heads that hard? Because if you did you can have the chips,"
Both girls sat up.
"Can you believe this?" Ichie laughed, tears streaming down her face.
"I know," Saki gasped, "We finally get a big mission and what do we do?"
"Yell at each other, fight over a bag of chips, being irritable," Ichie giggled.
"We finally get a big mission and we act like total morons." Saki sniggered.
Both girls look at each other and burst out in more maniacal laughter.
Nobu had a bewildered expression on his face, "Girls are weird," he muttered munching on the chips.
The two girls wipe the tears from their eyes and helped each other up. "Hey, where's Lee-sensei?" Ichie asked worriedly squinting down the road.
Saki took a few tentative steps toward the sun, and squinted down the road.
"Oops,"
Nobu dropped his bag of chips, "What do you mean 'oops'?" He said panicking.
"Let's relax," Ichie started trying to remain calm, "How far could he have gone?"
Saki raised her delicate eyebrows at her best friend. "Ichie you're talking about my dad who has fun running 3000 laps around Konoha.
Ichie tried again, "Let's just follow the road," she suggested, "He'll realize we're gone sooner or later and come back to find us,"
Her two teammates gazed doubtfully at her.
Ichie started walking forward, "Come on guys there's only one road, it's not like we're going to get lost."
Saki shrugged, "Alright," Nobu shook his head and followed the girls, "I have bad feeling about this," he muttered.
With Lee…
Lee was sprinting down the road, Why do I have the unyouthful feeling that I have forgotten something.
Back with our poor lost genin
"Umm…I think we made a wrong turn," Ichie said looking up at the looming forest overhead.
"What do you mean we made a wrong turn there's only one road!" Saki yelled.
"Let's be calm and rational," Nobu said hyperventilating.
"Both of you take deep breaths," Ichie instructed her two teammates.
"Your right," Saki nodded, "We just keep following the path,"
The three genins stepped tentatively toward the forest. It was a huge forest, They could barely make out the remainder of the path, covered in weeds, grass, and the faint traces of animal footprints.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Nobu muttered once again, to the annoyance of his already nervous teammates.
The further they got along the path, the darker it became. The trees loomed overhead, their trunks thick and knotted, strange creatures scuttled across the dirt path. Small rays of light were able to penetrate the thick roof of tree tops. The air was chilly and a pungent scent came from the strange plants wrapping around the trees.
Saki shivered, This place is creepy
One of the green tendrils of the plants snuck forward and tripped her.
"Are you alright Saki-chan?" Ichie and Nobu asked anxiously.
"Yeah," she rubbed the back of her head.
Ichie looked down at the offending plant, "That wasn't there before when I walked by," She commented studying the plant closer.
There was an odd dryness towards the end of the plant, but the ends were still slightly moist, full and green.
This plant wasn't grown naturally, Ichi concluded
"Come on Ichie let's go," Nobu urged nervously peering around the dark forest.
Ichie stayed down for a minute, than recognition dawned on her face. She suddenly stood up and started running.
"Ichie what is it?" Saki asked jogging up behind her. "Ichie slow down!" Nobu panted.
Ichie turned to them her face paling, "Guys just trust me, something is wrong and we've got to get out of here!"
Both of her teammates, seeming to sense the urgency of the situation, ran beside her.
"How big is this stupid forest," Ichie muttered seeing no end to the sea of trees.
"Aren't we supposed to be in Wind Country, I thought there were no forests in Wind Country," Nobu gasped, he wasn't really a runner.
Saki stopped in her tracks, "There aren't" she said breathlessly, "which means,"
"Genjutsu," Ichie and Saki concluded in unison.
Just then a kunai came whizzing by, grazing Ichie on her cheek and imbedding itself into the tree behind her.
"Very good deduction ladies," a cocky, rough voice resounded around the forest, "Things are not as they appear," A barrage of kunais rained down from above them.
"What are we going to do," Nobu asked jumping to the side. The tendrils of one of the odd plants wrapped around his arms, he cut it off with a kunai.
"Baika no…" Nobu started.
"Wait, stop!" Ichie yelled.
"It's a waste of chakra," Saki informed him, "You'd just tire yourself out,"
"What are we supposed to do then?" Nobu asked really wishing that he had another bag of chips.
"Let's see," Ichie muttered to herself, "My jutsus are useless since I don't know where he is, none of Nobu's jutsu work out either, that means we have to fight genjutsu with genjutsu, Saki has the best genjutsu on the team,"
Saki paled a little, "My genjutsu is not at his level, and mom hasn't taught me the Kai(cancel) technique yet.
"Alright listen up, we'll just make his world illusionary, he may be able to control what we see, but we can also control what he sees with the right tactics," Ichie's eyes lit up.
"Now we are inside his little illusionary world, the good thing about genjutsu is that we don't need to see the enemy to be able to trap him all we have to do is use a genjutsu, we'll still be in the forest but he'll see something completely different, if ours is more convincing his genjutsu will probably be dispelled," (A.N/ Woah Ichie is really smart, like her daddy XD)
Saki dodged another barrage of kunai headed her away, "I think I've got an idea," Saki said slowly.
"Good," Ichie nodded "It's all yours."
Saki did the proper hand seals, and pushed her hand out against a nearby tree, Nobu and Ichie covering her as more kunai's came flooding down.
Saki's blue chakra swirled up the tree; it seemed as though the tree had melted away and in its place stood a snarling golden figure, electricity emanating from it. The creature, strangely enough, had 6 zigzagging tails emanating from its persona. It was truly a sight to behold.
Nobu gaped at the large creature, "Woah, where did Saki see that thing?"
Ichie stared at the creature, mouth also agape, "Saki reads a lot," she explained faintly.
Slowly, the forest around them melted away, and Saki sunk to the floor, the last genjutsu sucking out her remaining chakra. She was a deathly white.
"What's wrong with Saki?" Nobu asked worriedly.
"She used up a lot of chakra to transform the tree and she doesn't have that much chakra to begin with so she really must have went all out, in any case she needs to see a medical-nin," Ichie explained her face showing the same expression of worry.
Nobu looked out into the large expanse of desert, "What about that nin who was doing all this?"
Ichie started and ran, "Come on Nobu, we've got to get them,"
Both kids ran until they came face to face with a tall nin with light brown hair falling carelessly over his eyes.
He stood in a fighting stance, hands up.
"Keep him still alright Nobu?" Ichie muttered quietly.
Nobu smiled, "You've got it Ichie,"
The strange nin smirked, "I'd like to see you two try,"
Nobu aimed a punch at his face, the nin ducked, and Nobu leap-frogged over him, probably dislocating his shoulders, he then held him in a tight gripped.
"Alright," Ichie smiled, "Shintenshin no Jutsu" (Mind Body Switch Technique)
Ichie's Body slumped to the ground and the enemy nin seemed to faze out before he woke up as Ichie.
"Is that you Ichie?" Nobu asked nervously.
"Yeah," she straightened up.
Suddenly a figure clad in green spandex leapt into the battle field, "Konoha Sen.."
"Stop Lee-sensei it's me Ichie!" she exclaimed holding up her hands hastily.
"Ahh I see my youthful students captured the enemy using the power of youth!" Lee smiled teeth pinging. Ichie and Nobu sweat dropped.
"Where is my little flower of youth?" Lee asked looking around.
Ichie and Nobu looked down nervously, "Umm Lee-sensei, Saki got hurt when we were trying to stop the enemy."
Lee's eyes hardened, "Where is she?" he asked quietly.
The two genin led him to the spot where Saki was laying only to find a tall woman with long black hair looking down at her. Hearing the footsteps she turned around to reveal dark blue eyes and a crown lying on her head.
Empress Ketsumi
A/N: I hope that made sense, I wanted to finish this mission in one chapter but it looks like it's gonna have to be two. I just found out something that happened in the manga and I'm gonna have to alternate the story a bit, not a lot just the pairings for the old senseis, from what I have found out I am going to change the pairings for the old sensei's to Kakashi/Kurenai, Anko/Iruka, Gai/Shizune. I hope readers don't mind!
The reason for this change is
SPOILER
Asuma Dies!
End of spoiler,
Oh well it's not going to change anything in the story.
Thank you for all the wonderful reviews.
Could I ask for at least 4-5 reviews for the next chapter? Pretty Please? Even if its just yelling at me for the late chapter XD