Atsui had to admit, it felt good to get clean. She didn't stick to everything that touched her anymore, and she didn't look like she had just climbed out of a stove. As much as she didn't like to worry about her appearance all the time; she did like to keep a nice, clean appearance.

There was a knock on the bathroom door.

"Uh, here's you some clean clothes and a towel." Uzu muttered from the other side of the door as he slid his hand in and placed clean clothes on the counter. The door shut rather quick, cutting off the last of his mumbles.

"Thank you Uzu!" Atsui chimed from the inside of the bathroom.

He returned to sitting with Amaya on the porch. She was engrossed in some little black book that she had been carrying around as of late. Mostly likely one of those horror books that she liked so much. She broke free from her entrancement just in time to catch his face burning a bright crimson.

"Are you going be alright Uzu? You look rather flustered." She teased menacingly.

"I'm fine, it's nothing."

There was silence for a few minutes between them, but he finally broke.

"Why weren't you the one to give her the clothes?"

"It's your house Uzu; I'm merely a guest here. Not to mention that heaven forbid your arm, of all ligaments, catch a glimpse of…"

"Okay! Too much information! I would never do that anyways! She's practically my sister and that's just wrong Amaya!" Uzu barked back defensively only to make his face burn a brighter shade of red.

Amaya just shrugged and went back to reading her book. Only to be stopped by the opening of the bathroom door. A cloud of steam escaped as Atsui came out in and hoodie and sweatpants, that practically flooded her. She had carefully wrapped her hair up in a towel and held her dirty clothes in her arms.

"All done! Thank you so much for letting me get cleaned up!" She chirped as she planted her self next to her two friends. A big grin spread across her face.

"Uh…Here let me…take those. I'll pop them in the wash for you and while we eat lunch they can wash and by the time we get done you'll be able to wear them again." Uzu exclaimed as he took her dirty laundry and head for the washroom.

"Oh thank you so much Uzu! I really owe you one!"

Atsui turned around to face Amaya, who she noticed was gazing intently at her hand with the burn on it. Atsui grimaced and quickly used her other hand to cover it.

"How'd you get that burn Atsui?" Amaya asked looking back up at her quite sternly.

"Oh heh heh, when I was getting rid of the food I burnt. I accidently grabbed the handle and it burned my hand. I just haven't had enough time to heal it yet."

Amaya kept a concerned gaze on her.

"Atsui, if there is something you want to tell me, I'd be more then happy to listen. It wasn't him again was it?"

Atsui's face flashed horror struck. She knew Amaya and Uzu had known what was going on, but it still bothered her to make them stress out over it. It was useless whining and all it would do is just add more problems to their life that they didn't need.

"Oh no, I just wasn't thinking and grabbed the hot handle is all. It's no big deal, just a little burn." Her hand started to glow white with chakra. It was only a little burn, so it wouldn't require that much to heal it. She slid her chakra infused hand over the burned skin and started to repair the scorch mark until it had completely disappeared.

"As much as that bloodline of yours helps; you need to realize that getting hurt is still getting hurt Atsui. You don't deserve to be treated like that." Amaya lectured.

"Don't worry about it Amaya, I'm okay. See?" Atsui reassured flaunting her newly healed hand at her.

Amaya just sighed. She couldn't help being concerned about her best friend.

'You're just trying to be brave to protect me and Uzu. Why can't you ever think of yourself Atsui?' This phrase had echoed through Amaya's mind ever since they had found out about her uncle. Atsui had an unusual stubborn streak when it came to expressing her own problems to others.

"Hey! You two done gossiping cause this food is gonna get cold if you don't hurry up and come eat it!" Uzu shouted from the other room.

"…gossiping?..." Amaya seemed to seethe at the word.

"If that numbskull thinks I would participate in such a trivial affair, he'll have more to worry about then just cold food."

Atsui couldn't help but snicker.

"I'm sure he was just kidding. He knows we're not into that." Atsui reminded her.

Since she didn't get a chance to make herself breakfast; Atsui couldn't help but savor the lunch Uzu had prepared. He could be a hard head at times, but he had a wonderful sense of taste. It was still shocking that he still didn't have a girl friend. Though that was probably, partially due to the fact that he hung out with her and Amaya all the time; it probably gave off the appearance that he was going out with one of them. He seemed to be okay with that though.

Atsui was just about to bite into a lovely looking rice ball when they heard a knock at the door.

"Are you expecting someone today Uzu?" Amaya asked inquisitively.

"Don't think so, be right back." He stood up and went to go greet his guest. There were a few mumbles followed by Uzu running back to the kitchen.

"Atsui! That was one of the ANBU Black Ops. They said you've been summoned to go see the Mizukage this afternoon!"

"What?!" She yelped while slurping up a mouth full of noodles.

"Lady Mizukage wants to see you!" He repeated.

What could she have done to acquire a meeting with Lady Mizukage? Getting up from the table, she started to head for where her shoes sat.

"Uhh…uhh…Oh okay…uh…What time is it? 1:00?...Oh geeze! I better get going if she wants me there this afternoon!" She stammered in utter panic as she dashed around looking for her shoes.

Amaya stood up along side her and pulled her into a hug.

"Let us know what she discusses with you, if you can alright my friend?" her words seemed to help. This meeting must be very important for the Mizukage to summon her on such short notice.

"Okay, I'll be back as soon as I can. I'll see you guys later!" She pulled her two friends in for a quick hug and started off on the road to the village center.

She really wished that they could have come with her. It would have been nice to have them by her side for support. Which brought up another question in her head: Why had Lady Mizukage only asked to see her? Usually, when she summoned her, she summoned one of her friends too, and it was almost always for missions. To call for her alone, was just so unlike Lady Mizukage. From the start, she had told all that academy students that they would sometimes have to be sent on challenging missions, but that she would never let one of them go alone. When she assigned missions; she always kept sure that there was a back up person or team aide them. This all just seemed so bizarre. Atsui tried to find some explanation for what was going, but the more she toyed around with it the more dead ends she found. She was so busy in thought that she nearly walked into the wall of the Mizukage's building.

'Okay Atsui, stay calm. You're just going in for a chat. Nothing big, just keep calm.' She kept thinking to herself, she needed something to calm her nerves. It wasn't necessarily the Mizukage, oh no; Lady Mizukage was a very understanding and calm person. It was just the idea of what was going to be said, that had her shaking.

She took a deep breathe as she approached the door, and very politely knocked.

"You're right on time, come in Atsui." A woman's voice kindly spoke.

The calmness of the tone seemed to disperse the dense fog of worry around Atsui. She opened the door, only to notice that her old academy sensei was standing there along with an ANBU Black Ops member, most likely the one that had been sent to notify her of the meeting.

She approached the desk that the Mizukage was occupying and gave a respectful bow.

"It's good to see Atsui. Now I've called you here for a very important reason. Have you ever heard of our village's 'Genin Transfer Program'?"

"I-I think so. Isn't it where we send a few selected genin to train in other villages to become stronger?"

"Very good, but it not only does that. As you can see, most of the qualified jounin in our village have to be sent out on a number of missions, and most don't have time to teach you and your fellow peers in teams. So we send many of you out to our allied villages to receive training. Also this program strengthens our connection with these villages, so we can help one another when needed."

It did seem like a good plan. The moon village was not one of the extremely powerful ninja villages in the land, and most unfortunately, was a very easy target for enemies. It was almost necessary to rely on the strength of the village's allies to protect them. With this plan, the village could loan some of its gifted shinobi to help the ally village out in exchange for protection when needed.

"I think I understand…but, Lady Mizukage…I don't quite understand why you asked me to?..." She started to ask.

"Atsui, have you heard of the Village Hidden in the Leaves?"

This was a rather obvious answer. The Village Hidden in the Leaves, or rather Konoha Village, was the Moon Village's biggest ally. This was surprising though, considering they had gotten into a war against each other many years ago. It had started when they were just starting out as Villages, although the reason as to what actually started the war, was long forgotten and still is not known.

The war had lasted nearly three years, but the Hidden Leaf Villages had the upper hand with its famous and powerful clans. Atsui had learned many of their names and abilities while at the academy. To think of such powers invested in actual human beings was truly mind buzzing. This shouldn't have seemed so strange to her, considering she came from a gifted clan as well, but to hear how these people use their Kekkai Genkai to overcome nearly impossible things, was inspiring.

The Moon Village really had no chance against them, until the first Mizukage decided to take the offensive by force and start recruiting gifted clans of its own. Her family, the Hisakata clan, had been one of them. Which, ironically enough, has a bloodline that deals with the moon itself as a chakra source and is extremely powerful in the eyes of others.

With these new clans' bloodlines, at the disposal of the village, the war became at an in pass. Neither side a greater advantage of the other, but both would not fall to the other. It became nothing but a slaughter of valuable shinobi. By this time though, the first Mizukage had died, and his predecessor now took control. For the good of both villages, he met with the leaf village's Hokage to declare a cease in the fighting and become allies in the process.

Over the years, they had been on shaky terms with each other, but now worked together in full cooperation.

"Yes I have My Lady, but I'm sorry to say I still don't…"

"Don't worry I'll get there. Recent news has come to me that our villages ally and friend has taken a drastic blow, and has lost many of its talented shinobi. As I stated earlier about the transfer program and how we must help our ally's in their time of need, I want you to go there and begin training with the Leaf village's most talented."

This came as a total surprise; nothing could have prepared her for it. The thought of leaving Amaya, Uzu, and the village itself, to go live with people that were most likely beyond her skill levels, was unbelievable. She could not even begin to form words, and express how she felt about the situation.

"I not only ask you to do this for your training reason alone, I ask too that you be a representative for the moon village to strengthen our tie with our friends in Konoha. It would greatly benefit our village as well as theirs."

Now this was a whole new concept. If she turned this down she would be failing her friends, her family, and her entire village. As much as it hurt to sacrifice her comfort of staying with them, she couldn't bare to think of letting them down, not to mention another kind village.

"I accept, and promise to try my hardest to represent our village, but this transfer…is it permanent?"

"You are given two choices at the successful end of your training. You can decide to come back here and use your newly acquired skills to help our village, or you may remain with that village. You don't have to decide until you have finished though, so you will have plenty of time to think about it, and you are welcome to come back and visit in between training and the missions they assign you."

This was comforting to know. At least it meant that she would never be able to see her friends again, and who knows they might even get sent of missions to help her and her foster village out too.

"Then I am certain that I will accept…but…" It suddenly hit her…her uncle…how would he take this new change?