A/N: Trucking right along on this.. Seeing as how this is my first attempt at Naruto, I'd love reviews.. Please tell me what you think. It would make my going back to school bones happy, not to mention my wariness of fangirling it up in a bit here.. There are quite a few of us out there right? Support meeeee! :]

A light breeze blew through the Sun Village, stirring up dust along the crowded roads and ruffling the villagers hair as they went about their afternoon business. It wound its way through the buildings pale red and yellow buildings that lined the streets and to the trees just outside the wall until it found Ayako. She sat perched on a particularly leafy tree branch, enjoying the midday sun shining through the thick foliage. The girl didn't so much as move as she focused on braiding the last of a bag of tiny bells into her thick red curls.

"Ayako!" The voice of Haru made her peek down through the leaves at the thin boy who had run up beneath the tree she was in and immediately started picking at his fingers. He always looked nervous about something. His light green eyes were always darting about and his hands always seemed to be fidgeting with something.

She sighed then dropped from the tree, still focused on the bell. "What's the matter Haru? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"There's something happening in the village!" His fingers found their way into his light brown hair and he began to pace. "It's a disaster Princess.. An absolute disaster and won't listen to anyone."

She dropped the curl with a light tinkling, and met his eyes with her own dark blue gaze and smiled. "Relax Haru, relax. Tell me now what's happening in the village?"

"It Takeshi. He's planning to go the Moon Village again!"

Ayako set her jaw. Takeshi occasionally threatened their former ally for the gold they mined from a underground gold deposit near the village. The neighboring village was even smaller than The Sun Village and had no ninja of their own to defend them. "I'll go talk to him."

"This is ridiculous. The Moon Village has been our ally for hundreds of years. You can't threaten a defenseless village on a whim." Ayako had been yelling at the large man's back as he dressed for battle for a long time. He hadn't turned or even acknowledged she was there which just made the redhead even more frustrated. He was nowhere near the man her father had been. "You aren't even listening to me." She said through her teeth

Takeshi pulled his hair into a tight bun on top of his head and sighed. "You don't intimidate me Ayako. I'm not afraid of you, or that thing you have inside of you." His voice was low and threatening, but he seemed almost bored to have to speak to the girl. "Whatever your father taught you is nothing compared to what I can do."

She tried to breathe slowly. She had a fiery temper and had always gotten her into trouble. "Don't underestimate me." She clenched her hands into fists. "You don't know the first thing about me or what I'm capable of."

"You have no power over me or my Shadow Ninja and you should consider yourself lucky that I didn't kill you when I killed your family-"

The redhead didn't let him finish. A thin sword materialized in her hand, and the light flashed before glowing gold. Using her speed, she jumped into the air and landed lightly on the desk before him, pressing the blade against his thick neck. Her eyes burned. "Don't you dare speak of my father."

Takeshi let out a low laugh, and watched her closely. "What are you going to do girl. You can't kill me. My ninja will destroy you. You can't take them all at once, even you aren't that rash."

She pressed the sword closer to his tanned skin, but knew he was right. Her father had taught her much better then to overestimate her abilities, or underestimate his.

"You're a child Ayako." His voice was stern and emotionless. In a swift motion he grabbed a handful of her thick curls and threw her across the room into the desk that had once belonged to her father. " Your parents are dead, your people don't trust you and you're not even strong enough to take me. You are just as useless as your father, and you are infinitely weaker Princess." He snarled.

She kept her dark eyes narrowed in his direction as she struggled to stand. Stars danced across her vision tried to keep herself steady.

"Get out of here." He turned to the window. "I don't need you right now and you will stay inside the village walls until I get back from The Moon Village."

Knowing there was nothing more she could do, Ayako stumbled from the office, and slammed the door behind her.

Haru, who had been waiting patiently by the door, jumped and followed after her when she didn't stop. "I heard what happened. Princess your forehead's bleeding." He grabbed her hand when they got outside and turned her to get a better look at the thin trickle cut under her hair line from where she'd struck the desk.

"It's fine."

He bit his lip and his gaze fall to the ground. "What are we going to do?"

Ayako sighed. She looked around at the beautiful day. The people of her village seemed happy enough. They practically glowed, in their brightly dyed yellow and orange clothes. Everyone in the village wore bright colors and on market day you could hardly tell what direction the sun was coming from. Outwardly everything seemed so happy, but she knew the people were suffering. They were practically prisoners inside the village walls and weren't allowed to leave for hardly any reason at all.

"Ayako?" Haru brought her back from her thoughts.

"We have to get help. We don't have any other choice." She said after a moment.

"Outside help from who exactly?"

She began to walk with purpose down the dusty road and Haru followed quickly after. "The closest ninja village is the Hidden Leaf. That's where we'll start and we won't stop until we find someone who'll help us. I won't let Takeshi continue with this."

Haru's thin fingers found their way into his hair again. "Do you think we'll find someone to help us?"

"Stop worrying. Everything's going to work out." Ayako was reassuring herself as well as her friend. All they could do was try.