This is the official Chapter One of the story, and I am SOOO Happy I can upload it now. Don't know what was wrong with the site, but whatever. So, here you go. Have fun!

Disclaimer: I Do not (sadly) own Naruto

Chapter One: The Beginning

Nineteen years gone by. Nineteen birthdays past. And most of those years Kaede couldn't remember if you paid her.

She stood on the roof of the Hokage temple, her brown hair blowing lightly around her hardened, emotionless features. As the years had progressed, Kaede had matured, and now was a beautiful young woman. Her skin was a light tan, without freckle or blemish or any other facial marking. Her hazel eyes had dulled slightly from the bright and interested sparkle that they used to be, but would still glitter at her happiest moments. Her face was well defined and developed, her cheekbones set high on her face, features tough and hard. Long hours of training had given her the slim, shapely body that she possessed, and had given her the strength to be able to stand on this roof, as the Hokage of Konoha.

It was only seven months into her reign as Hokage, and she was already greatly loved by the villagers. Every day she held what she called an open court, where citizens of Konoha could come into the main hall of the temple and speak to her. They came with their problems, squabbles, concerns, and praises, and Kaede gracefully accepted and handled each one individually, no matter how long it took.

She sighed, ran a hand through her hair, and turned from the magnificent view of the village. The wind picked up, and a particularly nasty gust nearly knocked her forwards. She caught her balance, though, and walked with chin held high to the door leading down into the temple. The doorknob turned as she reached for it, and she jerked her hand back in surprise, then wrinkled her nose in annoyance when the door opened completely.

There, with a devilish grin spread across her face, stood Hyuga Miki, Kaede's best friend and not-so-dedicated guard. Once again, the black haired young woman had slept in late and was only now appearing to take her station by Kaede's side. Her pale eyes danced as she took in the view from the roof, and she brushed past the Hokage and spun around in a circle, arms spread out wide like the wings of a bird.

"Oh!" Miki exclaimed, ignoring Kaede's disgruntled sniff. "It's so beautiful out today, don't you think?" She turned to her irritated buddy and flashed a bright, innocent smile. "Come on, Kaede! Be chipper!"

Kaede glared at the other girl and turned to head downstairs. In a second, Miki was by her side, happily humming some random tune that Kaede couldn't place. They walked down the many flights of stairs silently, neither caring to speak. Well, one not wanting to tick the other off. Miki knew how to handle Kaede when she was in her weird brooding mood, and respected that the young Hokage wanted silence to think. But that, of course, didn't stop her from humming and whistling and trilling along to some song in her head.

Finally, just a few steps from the fifth floor, Kaede turned to Miki and snapped. "Will you cut that out?!"

Satisfied, Miki clicked her tongue. "Yup."

While the Hyuga jumped the last few steps and bounded through the door, Kaede clenched her fists and leaned against the wall, squinting her eyes shut. She loved Miki to death—they were best friends—but sometimes that girl got on her last nerve! It wasn't as if Kaede didn't have enough to send her mind spinning, and yet here comes Miki with some grand news to chatter on about or some other way of annoying Kaede.

The two girls had met two years ago, sometime in July, when an extremely frustrated Kaede was hunting for that perfect apple in an apple bin in the Konoha market. Miki, being the happy-go-lucky girl that she is, had only wanted to help, but instead managed to knock over the entire bin, sending apples everywhere. The angry clerk made the girls clean up the mess and wash each apple individually. Those many hours working together wouldn't have happened in silence, so they'd talked and laughed and learned much about each other, and how similar they were.

From there, they had been the best of friends, Miki able to deal with Kaede's moods and even snap her out of it, and Kaede able to put up with the pranks Miki pulled that no one else seemed to appreciate. One was frisky, the other determined and moody, and they made the perfect pair.

Kaede, after a few moments of draining her frustration, followed Miki through the door and into a long, decorated hallway. Miki was already flouncing down the hall, waving at everyone she passed and peeping her head into open doors to shout out a friendly hello. Kaede licked her lips and patiently waited for Miki to quit greeting everyone, and finally they reached the large, mahogany door that lead to the Hokage office.

She let out a loud sigh as she entered the huge room. One wall was lined with windows, another with bookshelves, the other two with documents, papers, and portraits of past great ninja and Hokage's. Kaede moved over behind her desk and settled in her comfortable office chair, leaning back and propping her feet on the edge of the desk. The polished wood was covered mostly by scrolls and papers scattered in seemingly unorganized piles, but Kaede had her own system of organizing her things. In fact…

Curious as to why her unopened pile was so full, Kaede swung her feet off her desk and picked up the scroll on the top. A gasp escaped her lips as she saw the red ribbon tied around its middle—it was urgent! She quickly untied the ribbon and opened the scroll, scanning it.

"Final notice….urgent….please see previously sent scroll…emergency…" Kaede murmured under her breath and tossed the scroll aside. Miki lazily caught it, set it down on a bookshelf, and rushed to help Kaede look for the "previously sent scroll."

Scrolls went flying everywhere as they searched for a scroll with a red ribbon on it. As she looked at the dates of each message, Kaede couldn't believe she'd been so neglectful of her work. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that this week would have been her anniversary with—well, a certain someone whose name would not be mentioned. She couldn't bring herself to open that book up again.

"Here, is this it?" Miki asked, appearing from under a sea of papers, holding up a simple scroll with a red ribbon tied around it and the Sound village stamp on it. Kaede gasped as she took it from the other girl and carefully slipped the ribbon off. She unrolled the message cautiously, swallowing hard as she read:

Hokage of the Leaf,

As the leader of the Sound village, I am presently declaring war on your village. You have been fairly warned that a week from the date this message was sent an attack will be made on Konoha. I look forward to our meeting.

Sincerely,

Lord Orochimaru

Kaede clutched the arm of her chair and forced herself to look at the date. She cried out weakly and felt Miki wrap a comforting arm around her shoulders. Tomorrow would mark the week that Orochimaru was talking about. Or, rather, Lord Orochimaru, as he referred to himself as.

She threw the scroll down and held her head in her hands, completely ignoring Miki's words of comfort. The first thing that needed to be done was a report to ANBU headquarters to prepare the troops for an attack, possibly a massive one. Sure, Konoha had survived Orochimaru's attacks before, but they didn't have Sarutobi to keep him busy anymore. They only had Kaede.

Immediately, with thoughts of the brave Third Hokage running through her mind, Kaede lifted her head from her hands and grabbed a blank scroll and a pen. She began to scribble down just what was going on, when the attack was planned, and would the top strategists of ANBU coupled with the head of ANBU please report to her office to go over the plans for attack. She shoved the scroll at Miki, who hurriedly left to deliver the message while Kaede rubbed her temples.



"Alright, so it's all settled then," Kaede said firmly, setting her pen down and looking from Anko to Shikamaru to Tsunade. The lazy Nara boy seemed serious—for once—and his face was stern. Kaede wasn't too keen to have him looking down on her like she were some pupil and he were her irritated sensei. But she ignored his glare and looked at Anko.

The brown-haired ninja had one hand in the pocket of her coat, the other rubbing her neck where Orochimaru had planted a curse seal. Kaede felt sympathy for the older woman, considering the pain that the curse seal caused whenever Orochimaru was anywhere close. That curse seal, though, would give them an idea of how far away the snake Sannin was, and Kaede knew that Anko could handle the pain. She had for many, many long years.

"I'll take this plan and send it to the team leaders," Anko said suddenly, moving her hand from her neck to take the large piece of paper off of Kaede's desk. Kaede nodded and stood up to shake each of the three's hands.

"Thank you," she murmured quietly to Tsunade, who winked and left behind Shikamaru and Anko.

With a sigh, Kaede walked over to the wall of windows and stared outside, hands clasped tightly behind her back. From these windows, she could see almost all of Konoha, from the gate of her temple to the outer gate protecting the village. In between the two walls sat hundreds of houses, stores, and other buildings that were essential to the Leaf Village's every day life. The streets and alleys separating the buildings looked like little trails in a child's ant farm. Kaede's heart tugged at the thought of all of this belonging to Orochimaru. She couldn't let that happen. This village was her life, her heart, her soul, and without it she was nothing.

Ever since waking up in that hospital room and fighting Kakashi's with everything she had, Konoha had been her life. She could remember everything from her childhood years. A smile worked its way across her face as she thought of first meeting her team, made up of Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke. Her first argument with Sasuke, fighting in the river with Naruto, and sparring with Sakura. Every memory from those years was precious to her, especially the memory of a certain young man who had captured her heart at an early age. But she wouldn't think of him for anything—his name brought up too much hurt.

Kaede placed her hand on the warm glass and looked up at the sky, wondering where that young man was.

Her smile turned into a sad grin and her eyes welled with tears as she recalled those moments spent with him. His laugh that was saved specially for her, his dark eyes dancing at the sight of her. The way he looked at her when she walked in a room, the way he held her in his arms. The look of worry on his face as she woke from a torturous unconsciousness brought on by a holder of the Sharingan, the relief when she told him that she was okay.

She felt the warm tears sliding down her face that she had kept firmly behind mental barriers for years, and shook her head sharply to get rid of the images of him. She wiped her cheeks and furiously rubbed her eyes, stemming the flow of the tears. Her hazel eyes still glistening with the stopped tears once again scanned the village and she felt a pride at knowing that she was the leader of such a place.

It was then that she realized Miki wasn't in the room with her, and she turned from the windows to look around the room for her missing friend. And she realized that Miki was part of ANBU, and was probably preparing for the battle ahead. She nodded to herself and went back to the windows, feeling a sudden urge to get outside and walk among her people.

She decided to follow through with that urge.



The people in the street were hurrying around, buzzing about on their daily activities. Kaede smiled at those who looked her way, waved at those who called out a hello, and stopped to hug little children who escaped from their mothers to come and tug on her shirt, saying, "Hi, Miss Hokage!" It was those children, she mused as she waved bye-bye to a small boy, that would be the future of the village, and it was those children that she was sworn to protect.

A few streets away, she knew, was her parents' house, but that wasn't her destination. That house brought back too many memories of a part of her life she wasn't too eager to relive. In fact, it was only recently that she was able to complete the memories that she had lost.

For several years, between the ages of somewhere near six up to thirteen, Kaede lived with the same Sannin she was trying to defeat: Orochimaru. The snake Sannin had kidnapped her from an early age and raised her under his wing. He trained her to his liking, teaching her most of what he knew, except for his immorality jutsu. Kaede now remembered every one of those lessons, and had the scars to prove it. But it had taken years of unwanted memory flashes, blackouts, and nightmares to collect those years again.

Now, Kaede knew everything. And she definitely didn't thank Orochimaru for it.

As she walked down the street, she noticed something. More and more people seemed to be getting worried, especially older women with young children. Maybe it was because their husbands were out preparing for Orochimaru's attack, but how would they know about it already? Kaede definitely hadn't said anything to anyone outside the ANBU, much less outside the temple.

Skipping, smiling, and holding a small yellow flower, a little blonde girl approached Kaede. She held her hand out and looked down shyly. Kaede smiled gently at the little girl and knelt down to her level.

"Hello, little one," she said, placing a hand on the girl's head. The child giggled and shoved the flower towards the Hokage. Kaede took it from the girl's hand and gave the pretty bloom a sniff. "Mmm," she said, wiggling the flower on the child's nose, tickling it. "Smells good. Don't you think?"

The child giggled again and leapt at Kaede, throwing her tiny arms around the young woman's neck and squeezing. Kaede hugged her lightly back and stood up, holding the little girl. "So where's your mama?"

Taking her head off of Kaede's shoulder, the girl looked around and pointed at a tall woman with the same blonde hair. Nodding, Kaede made a beeline for the woman, still holding the flower. The look on the child's mother's face when she saw the Hokage coming towards her with her daughter was a mix of amazement and relief.

She reached her arms out to the little girl when they finally reached her. The child wrapped her arms around her mom's neck and clambered to her. Kaede rumpled her hair affectionately and showed the child the flower. "I'll keep this with me," she promised, then turned her attention to the mother. "You have a very sweet daughter, ma'am."

The woman flushed. "Thank you, Miss Hokage," she said, setting her daughter on her own two feet. "I was frightened when I couldn't find her, but now I know she was in safe hands."

"Always," Kaede said softly, shook the woman's hand, and was on her way. She held the flower to her nose and sniffed it again. What kind of flower was this? Ah, yes, a lily. She couldn't believe how sweet that the child was, to leave her mother and bring her a lily. Her heart warmed at the thought. She hoped to see that little girl again.

Her walk through Konoha ended when she had made her rounds and gotten back to the Hokage temple. She stayed outside, though, enjoying the last rays of the sun as it set. She sat by a tall willow tree, lightly spinning the flower between her fingers. The orange, yellow, pink, and blue colors of the sunset never failed to make an amazing picture. When she watched the sunsets, she never asked or allowed anyone to accompany her. The only person she'd ever shared a sunset with was long gone, and it hurt too much to let anyone else take his place.

A cool evening breeze lifted her hair off her shoulders and sent it lightly flowing behind her. Over the course of the past few years, her hair had become lighter and lighter shades of brown until it became the dark chestnut color it was today. Hours in the sun had caused this, but Kaede felt she liked it. It was a welcome change. Most changes were.

She knew that when the attack happened tomorrow, she wouldn't be allowed to stand with her fellow ninja and fight. The Hokage wasn't supposed to fight battles—that was the job of the ANBU. But the Hokage was supposed to be the leader and protector of the village, and Kaede planned to do just that. Sarutobi hadn't hesitated to fight for the Leaf when Orochimaru attacked during the Chunin exams years ago. The Fourth Hokage hadn't let the Nine-tailed Fox demon destroy his village, had he? No. He'd sacrificed himself and sealed the demon inside a baby, Naruto.

Speaking of which, where was the frisky blonde ninja?

Kaede stood up as the last rays of the sun disappeared beyond the horizon and the sky completely darkened. Naruto was somewhere around here, and she bet she knew where. But it was night now, and trotting down the streets in the dark looking for Naruto at Ichiraku wasn't ideal for a Hokage whose village was about to be attacked.

So reluctantly she walked through the heavy oak doors leading into the temple and padded upstairs to her bedroom.



Kaede woke the next morning from a pretty much sleepless night. When she opened her curtains, she found that she was up before the sun, but that didn't matter. It was the day she had been dreading—well, dreading since yesterday, but in theory, she had been dreading an attack by Orochimaru her entire life.

She went into her closet and dug around for something that wouldn't make her stand out as Hokage. She wanted to be accepted as one of her people, not to be recognized as anyone special when she wasn't. In truth, she was just a ninja, the same as everyone else. And she wanted to be treated as such.

Almost everything in her wardrobe screamed "Hokage," though, and that just wouldn't do. She looked down at her trim waist and well-toned body. Then, she dug around in the back of her closet, looking for a certain something. She knelt by a plain brown box with the words "Ninja Clothes" written on it in black marker. She smiled as she took the top off and pulled out a shirt.

The shirt was black, with red marking the shoulders and forearms. The sleeves went completely down to the wrists, and the Konoha symbol was inscribed in red on the bottom of the back of the shirt. Kaede pulled out a pair of black pants and held them up to study. They were black pants with red stitching that went down to the knees. She laid them over her arm and dug in the box again, resurfacing with a pair of black sandals and two rolls of wraps.

Satisfied, Kaede stood up, carrying the outfit, and sat on her bed. She placed the shirt, shoes, pants, and wraps next to her and took a deep, shaky breath. Four years ago, he had bought her this outfit, to wear "for Konoha," had been his exact words. She had never put the clothes on, but she knew that this was the right time.

Heartache aside, Kaede stood up, and swapped her tank top and pajama shorts for the tight ninja clothes. She loved the way it fit her, the way it hugged her slim figure, broad, well-muscled shoulders, and strong legs. Unraveling the white wraps, Kaede wrapped them around her legs, up just above her knees, and tucked them in so that they would only come loose when she wanted them to.

The only problem with this outfit, she mused as she looked in the mirror, was that the sleeves were long. Well, that could be solved. She reached into the pouch attached to her waist and took out a kunai. Gritting her teeth against the little voice in her head telling her not to cut the costly fabric, she sliced the sleeves about halfway down to her elbow. The leftover pieces hung limply at her wrists, and she slipped them off, grimacing a little at the uneven cut of her kunai. She should've chosen one of her more sharpened ones.

There, that was better.

Once again, she unraveled the white material and coiled the wraps around her wrists and up to her elbow. She dug around in her bedside table drawer and came up with a red piece of string. She ran a brush through her chestnut hair, looped the string around it, and tied her hair into a neat ponytail. After one last check that her weaponry was in place, her wraps were secure, and the straps on her sandals were tightened, Kaede walked out of her room and down the hall to her office.

Already inside was a tight-lipped Miki. The Hyuga girl was dressed in the normal ANBU clothes, with the green vest, the black shirt, and the black pants. She nodded firmly at Kaede, fully aware of the Hokage's intentions to fight for her village. Kaede moved to stand beside her friend and clasped her hands behind her back.

"So," Miki said, staring out the windows. "This is it, huh?"
Nodding, Kaede agreed. "Yes, Miki. It is." She shot a sharp look at the other girl. "Miki, I know you're aware of how serious this is."

"Yes, Kaede, I know."

She hesitated. "But, I just want you to know, when we go out there, that you're not alone. You're my best friend in the world, Miki. I've got your back."

Miki turned to Kaede, her expression hard and emotionless, but her eyes telling all. The two embraced for a moment, and Kaede fought back tears. This young woman was mostly all she had left, and if anything happened to her, she didn't know what she would do. Just as they were parting, the door quietly swung open and a solemn Naruto and Kakashi walked in.

Kaede turned from Miki and dashed over to Naruto, suddenly feeling like a Chunin again, and grabbed his hand. She squeezed it and held his gaze. His blue eyes stared for a long time into hers before he pulled her into a hug. She let him, resting her head against his chest. Wasn't it not long ago that she and he had been the same height? It came as news to her that he was so much taller than she.

"Naruto," she murmured, pulling away from him. She swallowed hard and stood on tiptoes to kiss his cheek. "You are very brave to go out there today. Thank you."

When their old sensei cleared his throat and tapped his foot, they both looked sheepishly at the ground. Kakashi still acted as their mentor, even if they'd advanced up to and beyond his level. The gray-haired Jounin had been the first one to show almost a fatherly compassion towards Kaede, and she greatly appreciated his efforts to make her feel welcome in Team Seven.

She looked up into his one eye—no, two, he had his headband up. His bright red Sharingan eye and normal gray eye stared back at her with an almost wistful look to them. She held out her hand and clasped his in a firm handshake, letting him know just how grateful to him she was.

Naruto moved over to stand on behind Kaede, and placed his hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently. "Miss Hokage," he said, staring straight ahead of him. "We are honored to serve you today."

Kaede shook her head and put her hand on top of his. "No, Naruto." She turned to face him. "You are not serving me today. We are both serving the same thing: Konoha. This village is our home, our honor, and we vowed to protect it the moment we received these headbands. Today, I am not your Hokage, but your equal."

Silence followed her small speech, and she walked away from Naruto to stand beside Miki and gazed outside the windows. Far away, beyond the outer gates of Konoha, many soldiers of the Sound were marching closer to the village, a three-headed snake sliding along behind them. And inside the village, the Leaf ninja were preparing for the biggest battle that they had ever seen.

Hooray! I have, like three or something more chaps to update today, so get excited

Nicola