Hello everyone! I know I said 10 reviews, but it was one of those times when the story wouldn't leave me alone, so I had to do this chapter! Hope you like it!
Don't own Naruto…
The light drizzle didn't help in Tian's mood as she studied the metal for the 50th time. "It's just not strong enough." She mumbled to herself. She had tried many methods of shaping it, but every time she tested it out, it bent ever so slightly. It may not be much, but in battle, a little bend or dent could cause it to go out range when throwing it.
Tian gave up on the metal. Setting it aside, she pulled out a sack from under her bed, and headed toward her target area outside. It was starting to rain heavily, but Tian didn't mind it. She skipped over to the targets, which were nailed up to the sturdiest trees she could find. She set the sack beside her, but before so, pulling one kunai out of it. She threw the kunai, positive that it would land in the small red dot in the middle. To her surprise, it landed slightly off the bull's eye. She scowled, Tian had 100 aim, and never missed…something was wrong. Tian didn't believe in omens, but this wasn't good. "Maybe it was just the rain." She reassured herself. She continued throwing the weapons, but every single one missed. Tian stomped her foot in frustration, causing a few drops of mud to jump onto the hem of her peasant dress.
She angrily jabbed her hand into the sack, searching for another weapon, but sliced her hand because of her carelessness. "Ow!" she moaned. She immediately felt warm liquid trail down her hand and drip onto the shuriken she had reached for…
Not wanting to loose too much blood, Tian ran inside, leaving the weapons in the now poring rain. When safely inside, Tian took out a first aid kit. She cleaned her wound, praying for no infection, and wrapped it. She blew a stray hair out of her face.
Tian took some firewood that was lying beside the fireplace, and started a fire, that almost immediately warmed the little hut. Tian stripped down out of her clothes, and hung them up. "Can't catch a cold…" she repeated to herself. She replaced the wet clothes with nice, dry ones. Tian hopped into her warm, straw bed, and drifted off to sleep.
Tian looked at her surroundings… she was in a forest, that she didn't know. Tian looked down. She was injured…she didn't know what was wrong, but she was in immense pain. She looked around, to see if anyone was there to help. She was all alone… The dream switched, now she was in a valley, very few trees were dotted along it. Tian saw that a few of the trees had a strange bark peeling off of it…out of the bark, purple flowers grew. Tian could only look at it, dumbfounded. There was a hole in the tree, as if something lived there. A red, yellow, and black ringed snake slithered out…its fangs dripping with venom onto the flower. This was a snake that her friend had told her about; they lived in the forest at the edge of Suna, the border between Suna and Konoha. There are two snakes with rings almost exactly alike…one a coral snake. She remembered the poem the friend had told her…Red touches yellow, you're a dead fellow. The poem rang through her head…She saw the snake move, then it was in front of her, fangs still dripping. It was about to strike…
"Tian"
Its fangs getting closer to her flesh…why couldn't she move?
"Tian"
Closer, still…
"TIAN!"
She sat up quickly. Sweat beads beaded across her forehead. It was still dark out. Her wound that she received earlier throbbed; it must have opened up again.
She looked up to see Gaara holding a lantern. She made out the form of Kankuro behind him.
"What are you doing here?" She questioned. He pulled her up.
"No time to explain. We have to get you out of here." He stated bluntly. "Pack the first thing your hands touch." Tian knew not to disobey Gaara when he was this serious. He helped her get her things together. He threw the sack at her, which she caught with ease.
"Gaara, really, what's-" But she was interrupted by a loud crash of the door, and Tamari crashed in, and fell onto the floor. Tian gasped, and rushed over to her.What happened? Tamari! Speak to me!" Tamari looked up to Tian, her eyes filled with urgency. Tian saw she had a bad gash in the back of her throat.
"Fought-long- as- could. Go- ANBU- coming- no time!" There was an awful gurgling noise, as the gash in her throat gushed with blood. Tamari's head dropped down to the cold stone floor, as she gave a last smile of reassurance, and hope. The sparkle in her eyes dimmed, to the point that it was looking at nothing in particular.
Tian shook Tamari. "Wake up! Please wake up!" The tears that were threatening to fall finally spilled over. She felt Gaara and Kankuro pull her off. "No! Leave me alone!" She tried to shake them off, but they wouldn't give in.
"You have to leave! Now!"Gaara yelled. She could hear the sadness in his voice.
"But- Tamari! She's- She's" "Dead." Finished Kankuro sadly. "If they get a hold of you, they won't just kill you; I know that, that much."
"What do you mean?" Replied Tian. "Can't tell you now, this letter will explain everything." He shoved a letter into her hand. At that moment, ANBU of another village –she knew this because of their attire- burst in. Gaara shoved Tian into Kankuro's arms. "Take her and go! I'll hold them off." Kankuro nodded, and set off with Tian.
When they got outside, Tian remembered that she had left her weapons bag that she had left outside. "Wait, Kankuro." She scurried over to the bag. It still had a few weapons in it. She ran back to Kankuro, who was now fighting a few ANBU that had leaked out. "Go. Now!" He yelled. Tian said nothing. She ran off through the small forest, not looking back. The last thing she heard was a clash of metal on metal.
Tian ran until her feet gave way. By this time, she was out of the sparse forest, and into the desert. She didn't know how she would get through the gates; she was still in the Suna territory. Tian new she didn't have much time, and now she was right in front of the wall, if she wanted to get out, the gate was half a mile to the left, and there would be no point, it's already closed. Tian was not a ninja, and a trip to Konoha that took three days for a ninja, would take her at least twelve days. Tian studied the gate, and pulled out a kunai. She hit the sharp part against the wall, seeing if that would do anything. It didn't of course. She punched the wall, but alas, nothing. The cut on her hand started bleeding, for about the 30th time today; with all the commotion she had forgotten about it. She didn't pay attention of the blood that had splattered the wall when she had punched it once more. This time though, there was a large explosion, as if fireworks were erupting right beside her ear, and she small a large cloud of smoke…or was it dust? There stood a small hole, just big enough to craw through. Why such a big explosion, and such a small reaction? Tian wondered one thing over all of this; how? Then she noticed the pain. It felt like her knuckles had cracked, it was a searing pain throughout her entire arm, and when she tried to move it, it hurt even more. "Probably broken…" she mumbled. Tian knew that the ANBU knew where she was, no one could miss this explosion. Tian could do nothing but crawl through the hole, and out of Suna, but outside of it, was more desert.
Tian started running, to nowhere in particular, the only thing that kept her going was the yelled she heard every 15 minutes.
The desert started to thin out, and Tian saw a forest up ahead. Tian saw a tall tree…it looked sturdy. She pushed herself up high as she could. The ANBU wandered into the forest, wondering if she had come in here. This was the first time she had actually been able to see the ANBU correctly, because the sun was rising. All she had known was that they wore different clothes. 'What strange cloaks.' She had thought. They were black with red clouds…were these really ANBU? Then she remembered. They were no ANBU. They were the Akatsuki- a group of s- class ninja. Why were they looking for her?-The Akatsuki finally gave up in trying to find her here, and left. - She wasn't powerful.
Tian moved to lower branches. She finally noticed how tired she was, and drifted back to sleep.
The Letter from Gaara lay forgotten in the bottom of her bag.
KONOHA- SAME TIME
Tsunade finished another bottle of Sake. The poor girl was probably already dead…
"Tsunade- Sama" A voice interrupted her thoughts. There stood Neji Hyuga.
"Ah, Neji, I've a mission for you." She set down the empty sake bottle. "You need to find this girl, and bring her to me. Do not harm her, she isn't a foe." Tsunade showed him a picture of a girl with black and gold hair, with even more strange eyes them himself. "Her name is Tian."
Neji nodded. "I'll go immediately." With that, he set off.
'I really do hope she is okay…' thought Tsunade, as she gulped down another bottle of sake. 'I really do…'
Well, there you go! Chapter two! Please…REVEIWWWWWWWW! Rukia.