Ok, so here's the very first chapter :D R&R pleeasee x)

Disclaimer: WE DON'T OWN NARUTO, IT'S NOT OURS, ETC. ETC. ETC.

Summary: Two girls have fought for their Village hidden in the Flames for all their lives. But now they're allies with Konoha, they're being FORCED to go and get an EDUCATION. That's more unfair than Lizards on a poisoned peanut petri dish. But you know what they say - if you mess with fire, youre gonnna get burned. Konoha Academy is in for Rating may change.

**Aranya POV**

"How long do you think it will take for the backup from Suna and Konoha to get here?" Kai asked me. We were sitting in the main room of the underground bunker we had. The rest of the people from the Village Hidden in the Flames, in the Land of Lightening, were in refugee camps in the centre of the village, while Kaitaru and I stayed here to fight. The best fighters in each family had to stay at the outskirts of the village to defend it and the families that were living there, so the Oto ninja didn't kill everyone. We had just signed a treaty with the Leaf village, Konohagakure, or just Konoha for short, after some of their ANBU ninja passed by on their way back from a mission and saw the destruction around the outskirts of our village.

"Yamato said that they would be here as soon as possible, but it's quite a long way from here to the leaf village, so maybe another four or five days?" I replied, remembering all of our interactions with Yamato.

*FLASHBACK*

'KAI, LOOK OUT!' I yelled over at her, swinging one of my swords around just in time to slice the shadow clone in half before it landed on her back.

'Thanks' She replied as she ran up to me, jumped on my shoulders and jumped off, twisting in the air and swinging her rapier around with her, destroying all of the clones about to pounce on me.

Suddenly I was thrown off-balance, and my swords were knocked out of my hands as the real ninja pounced on me, pinning me to the floor with their kunai.

I kicked them off me as best as I could, warning Kai that the real ones were by me, and yanked my (now pinned to the floor) cloak off, pulling out my twin dragon blades as I stood. The blades on them were semi-circles, each end joined up by the black handle. Joining the handle to the blades was an intricate, steel dragon on either end. Holding them, I used them for defence as I ran to where my swords were balancing precariously off the edge of the building we're fighting on.

Noticing how close we are to the village compared to normal, I called out to Kai, glancing over to the centre of the village when she looked at me. I saw her eyes widen slightly as she dodged another attack, and she nodded to me to let me know she knew. I nodded back and grabbed my swords, sheathing them in the case on my back only to activate my kekke genkai and heat up the handle of my sword. I heard the almost inaudible click that meant the blades had come out of the handle, and I pulled out the handles, using one of the flames from some of the fires created to create a fireblade by sticking the handle into the fire, and concentrating on curing the flames into a blade using my kekke genkai. I smirked when some of the Oto ninja backed off a little bit, and, using my new fire blades, I span around, possibly killing some of the ninja and scaring off the others.

The fight was just beginning.

I glanced around me quickly to see how some of the other ninja were doing, and saw my cousin Jet get knocked down by several of the sound ninja, and quickly using some pressure points to K.O.* the sound ninja around me, I darted in front of him before they could strike him. It was risky, because I couldn't raise my swords without harming my cousin, which left me defenceless. I would just have to hope that I can knock them off balance enough for them to not kill, but enough so I can reach a pressure point.

I raised my leg and aimed a strike to the face, but was caught out by another one of the sound ninja. We were severely outnumbered.

'ARANYA!' I heard Kai scream from wherever she was. I looked in her direction and saw a huge axe-type weapon swinging towards my neck, and as I raised my arm to block the attack, a ninja suddenly threw himself in front of me.

Frowning, I looked around and saw some more ninja. But not just any ninja.

ANBU. More specifically, leaf village ANBU.

Thank god for that.

*END OF FLASHBACK*

After that, the ANBU helped us kick butt and the sound ninja retreated. That was one week ago, and the treaty between The Village hidden in the Flames, the Village hidden in the Sand, and the Hidden Leaf Village had only been signed yesterday and sent off, so it would take a few days for it to get back to Konoha, and then another few days for the ninja to get here. If they left straight away, that is.

The one good thing is we haven't seen the sound ninja since the ANBU aided us. From how things looked then, we must have made enough of a dent in their numbers for them to have to recruit more ninja. Which gives us enough time to train harder, and some of the younger ninja who have to fight, time to perfect their new jutsu.

"Ugh. Four or five days too long," Kai replied, grumbling as usual

"I know right….ugh we don't even need their help. We can hold up for ourselves, enough to save the village anyway, and we DEFINITELY DO NOT need them butting in." I replied. I didn't like the whole idea of the treaty, because they can't really do much. And besides, our village has been independent for as long as it's been around, especially because we don't need protecting, not with the kekke genkai. Well. We didn't need protecting. But now the kekke genkai that runs through my family of the Fenikkusu clan, and Kai's family of the Serasi clan (*) is getting rarer and rarer, so we have less ninja capable of using the fire techniques safely.

"Hey. Be thankful. Yamato and his friends saved your arse and you know it. Besides, since the Meredíra clan was wiped out, the village has been in mayhem. They were the peacemakers, the pacifiers, and without them people are fighting within the village. Maybe with some help from Konoha, people will be more relaxed and not so touchy, ya know?" She said. Damn I think that's the only sane thing she's said, that's ever been that long. Usually, after about three sentences she would start comparing the situation to something stupid. "It's kinda like where fugly singing pink unicorns came from the fugly pink unicorn village, attacked us, and then Lizards came to save your lil feathery phoenix arse. And now with the aid of the lizards, we can all go and fuck camels in Hawaii!," (Translation: fugly pink singing unicorns = Oto ninja. Fugly pink unicorn village = the sound village. Lizards = ANBU people. Feathery phoenix arse = my arse. Fuck camel in Hawaii = I have no freaking clue. And that was only for the FIRST LINE she originally said.), "Since the marshmallows which ate my TV remote have been completely obliterated, the Pegasus convention has been panicking as though they forgot to pack a parachute. Apparently they wanted the world to go 'happy end' and without the Pegasi, the remaining marshmallows are burning each other. Maybe if we get the Chupacabra thingies from Konoha, teh remaining marshmallows will relax and stop burning each other." (I'll put the translation at the end for those of you who need help)

Apparently I spoke too soon.

I just stared at her blankly.

And stared.

And stared.

"Are we having a staring contest or something? Cause if we are I win. You blinked aaages ago."

I kept staring at her. And blinking.

"Okay SAY SOMETHING. YOU EST FREAKIN MEH OUTTTAAAA" She said, shifting uncomfortably. Good.

"Kai. You make no sense whatsofreakinever."

And with that, I walked out from the main room, into the hallway leading up to the stairs, which led up to the building that was above the land. The building concealed all the entrances to our own rooms underground.

"Hey, Jet, how ya doin?" I asked my cousin, seeing him sitting in the corner with a book. He had his shirt off, so I could see his bandages wrapped around his waist. He also had a few bandages on his arms, probably from the senbon that were used by a lot of the Oto ninja.

"Been better. How're your injuries doing?" He asked me. I knew he couldn't see much, because I had my cloak back on after I retrieved it from my fight and had fixed it, but he already saw the damage the sound ninja had done. I raised my hand to the cut down the side of my face, feeling the dried blood still there.

"Healing up nicely. I'll be fine again in no time." Yeah if no time meant a few months. Some of the bones in my right hand were shattered, and I had a few deep cuts on my legs.

"I think I'm gonna go to bed now. Have fun on watch duty." I said, giving him a quick hug and walked down the set of stairs that lead to the sleeping quarters.

*THREE DAYS LATER*

It had been ten days since we last saw the sound ninja, and we were expecting the leaf ninja anytime now. Because it had been so calm, Kai and I got to see our family – well, Kai's family. My mother and father had been one of the first of those killed when the Sound ninja attacked, along with my younger brother. I had been living with my aunt until I had to go and fight. But when I say Kai's family, they are my family too, but we are very distant cousins (read the fact file for more info).

I walked out of the Warehouse (the building that hid the entrances to our rooms), and saw some people in the distance, running towards us. I used a special earth technique I'd picked up, and raised the ground I was standing on, so I was standing on a pillar of earth.

Looking off into the distance (and no not in a corny kinda way), I could just about make out ninja coming towards us, and lots of them. There must've been at least 60 of them. Before I went to go warn the ninja on watch duty, I watched the ninja coming towards us for a few seconds longer. They were running in a V shape, the point of the V at the front, which seemed way too organised for how the sound ninja usually ran. Also, the Oto ninja usually came at us in groups of about ten ninja at a time, so this must be a new tactic….or…..

I looked closer. I ninja at the point of the V ran even faster, speeding ahead of the rest of them…until...I could just about….see…AHA! Their headbands!

I called out to the watch guards, getting them to come outside, and brought them up here by raising the ground they were standing on.

"See that?" I asked, grinning at their worried faces, "Oh you idiot. IT'S THE LEAF NINJA!" I screamed in his ear, laughing when he almost fell off the pillar.

I jumped down and called down all the entrances of the stairs, knowing that all of our ninja who were fighting would want to see our help. I wondered briefly how old they would be, and if I would still be the youngest at fourteen, with Kai being only a couple of months older than me.

I ran down the stairs that lead to Kai's room, because she wasn't answering.

"HEY! KAI! THE LEAF NINJA ARE HERE, GET YOUR ARSE OUT HERE!" I called into her.

No answer.

"HEY BITCH!" I called again, banging on the door. I tried opening it, but it was locked…which could only mean one thing.

That freakin fish is asleep.

"KAI. GET YOUR ASS UP RIGHT FUCKING NOW OR SO HELP ME I WILL BREAK THIS DOOR DOWN."

Still nothing.

I heard a commotion upstairs, and figured that the leaf ninja must've arrived. Damn I wanted to be there when they first got here.

I could hear some talking coming from outside, and was so tempted to go out there, but I knew Kai would kill me if I didn't wake her up for it.

"KAI WAKE UP!" I yelled, banging on the door a few times.

I heard some talking and then people walking around upstairs, inside the Warehouse, and I could sense a few people walking down the stairs. Never mind. The Konoha and Suna ninja have no reason to come down here, and any of the other ninja already expect this from Kai and me.

"Stupid-owl-screwing-son-of-a-motherfucking-llama," I muttered, making a few hand signs. I concentrated all of my chakra into my fist, and aimed at the door, shouting out one last warning; "KAI. EITHER YOU GET YOUR LAZY LITTLE ASS UP RIGHT NOW OR I BREAK YOUR DOOR DOWN. AGAIN."

…

Silence.

"Fine, have it your way you stupid FISH" I muttered again, pulling my fist back.

And then?

Yeah, and then I smashed her door into a million, tiny shards.

"KAI. IF YOU'RE NOT AWAKE NOW SO HELP ME I'-you gotta be kidding me." I walked through the now tiny bits of wood, and heard someone come up to the door. Probably one of the other ninja that live down here checking out the damage again. I walked up to the bed and looked down at Kai. And guess freaking what?

SHE. IS STILL. ASLEEP.

I sighed and ducked down, kneeling next to her bed. She didn't even stir.

I leant over and started whispering in her ear, knowing she would be able to hear me in her dream. I could feel the eyes of whoever was standing at the door, boring into my back, but whatever.

"Kai. You are being chased by…..a shark. On legs. SPIDER legs." I paused as I saw her turn around in her bed, and I smirked as she began frowning and muttering in her sleep.

Smirking, I carried on. "It's gaining on you. It' catching up to you. Faster and faster. And now…..It's right behind you. It's grabbing you…..it's turning into…..a GIANT, ABOLUTELYHUMONGOUS YOSHI….and…..you're inside…..his stomach….," I paused, sniggering as she tossed and turned, getting way too scared than anyone should be. I mean, she's only getting eaten by a giant Yoshi, jeesh.

I carried on, "You're falling asleep…slowly…..drifting off…," I said, making my voice slow and dreamy enough to make her think she is sleeping in her dream, "And now…IM GONNA GET A MINIVAN TO FUCK A LLAMA AND THEN IM GONNA KILL YOU!" I screamed in her ear. I jumped back to the middle of her room (her bed being against the back wall) and started laughing hysterically as she jolted awake and started screaming.

"NOOO! NOT THE MINIVAN AND THE LLAMA PLEEASEEE! I'M STILL INSIDE OF YOSHI AHHH SOMEONE HELP MEEE!" She bawled. By this point, I was almost crying with laughter.

"KAI SHUT UP! THE LEAF AND SAND NINJA ARE HERE AND YOU WOULDN'T WAKE UP!" I half laughed half screamed at her. Yeah, we do a LOT of shouting.

"AHHHH-wait. That was YOU?" She said, pointing her finger at me accusingly.

"Yeeeaahhh….." I said, pretending to wipe a tear away from the corner of my eye. At this point, I was leaning against her wall, still ignoring the people at the door. "Some of my best work, if I do say so myself." I smirked at her.

"YOU LITTLE CATARPILLAR-HEADED SNAKE-FOOTED TROLL!" She yelled

"AT LEAST IM NOT A JELLYBEAN FUCKING, KANGAROO WRITING CALENDER BODIED FISH!" I have no idea what I just said. But I called her a fish in the end, so I know that would piss her off.

Apparently I said something really bad, however, because she jumped out of bed and swung her arm at me. Laughing, I dodged it.

"Oh gimme a break! It' not my fault you wouldn't wake up!" I defended, dodging her sloppy punches and kicks. This girl is not that good a fighter when she's sleepy.

"YEAH, BUT YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO WAKE ME UP LIKE THAT YOU PURPLE CUP-wait. Did you say the leaf and sand ninja are here?"

I just stared at her blankly.

And stared.

And stared.

"Quit doing thaaattt! You're freaakina meeahh outtaaahhhhh!" She moaned. Ahh, I love making her uncomfortable.

"It's fun." I said emotionlessly, "Aaanyways, COME ON WE GOTTA GO SEE THE NINJA!" I leapt over to her, grabbed her arm, and completely forgot about the people at her door.

I stopped just in front of them, just before we collided, and stared them straight in the eye.

"Who the freakin hell are YOU." I asked the guy in front of me. He had red hair, was shorter than the other two – a dude in kiddy face paints, with a kitty suit on (minus the tail), and a girl wth her hair in four ponytails (four? I mean one, okay, two sure, three, nu-uh, four WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKIN?), some weird pinky purpley outfit, with a fan. Weird people. I looked at the red-headed guy closer. He had some kind of gourd on his back, and the symbol for Love on his forehead.

All of them had bemused expressions on.

"Dude?" Kai prompted from behind me.

I figured he must have been one of the leaf or sand ninja, considering he got this far, but he was annoying me by not answering.

"Douche. You either answer me or you get outta my way, please and thank you." I went to push past him, but was stopped by….sand? I looked up and saw it coming from the gourd on his back. Straangeee.

I looked up at him, because by this point I was standing next to him, our faces side by side. But, you know, facing different ways.

"Okay, I don't know what you're doing but let me past. Come on I even said pl-ARE YOU WEARING EYELINER?" I said. I was gonna say let me past, I said please, but I couldn't help but ask that question. I mean he had black rings under his eyes, so he was either EXTREMELY sleep deprived or just wearing eyeliner.

I saw his eye twitch, and Kai and I were pulled out of the way by kitty dude.

"We're ninja from the Sunagakure, the village hidden in the sand. I'm Kankuro, this is Temari," He said pointing to the girl, "And that's Gaara."

"Kay thanks," Kai answered for me, "I'm Kaitaru, and that's Aranya." She said, pointing at me. I gave a small wave.

"Nice to meet yo-" Temari began, before Kankuro cut her off.

"Wait, as in Kaitaru Serasi and Aranya Fenikkusu?" He asked us. I looked at Kai, noticing the expression of realisation on Temari's face.

I nodded. "Yup, that's us, scared yet?" I said, half joking, half to see how much he knew. He let go of me and pulled Gaara out of my way of the exit.

"No kidding." I heard him mutter as he and Temari moved out of my way.

I looked back at Kai, and, muttering whatever, I grabbed my swords from the corner of her room where I had ditched them after I broke the door down, pulled the strap over my head and under my left arm so that it was hanging diagonally across my body, and walked out.

I caught up to Kai who was already at the steps, and grabbed her wrist pulling her along faster.

"Come one!" I said to her, wanting to get out of the warehouse and out to the ninja already.

I dragged Kai outside, and saw Natsui, our village leader (because we don't have a kage like the other villages) talking to the ANBU member that was leading all of the other ninja here. I looked around, and saw Gaara, Kankuro and Temari emerge from the warehouse, only to be stopped by another dude from the sand. The other guy had bandages round his head, and a piece of fabric covering up one of his eyes. He said something to Kankuro, who simply replied. By pointing in my direction. And saying my name.

"KAI." I stage whispered over to her.

"WHAT." She stage whispered back

"THEY'RE POINTIN AT US….THEYRE COMING CLOSER." I replied (still in stage whisper mode), watching Kankuro and the other guy come over to us.

"DUH DUH…..DUUH DUH…..DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH…." And then Kai carried on whispering the JAWS theme tune. And they were nearly in hearing range, because let's face it. Kai is definitely not quiet, and stage-whispering isn't quiet either.

"If you don't shut UP I'm gonna knock you out and get Yoshi on you again." I whispered to her, smirking when I saw her freeze up. Damn that girl is scared of being eaten by Yoshi.

"Aranya, Kai, it's good to see you again." Yamato said, popping up out of nowhere.

"Uhh, hey Yamato, good to see you too." Kai replied.

Kankuro and the other guy came up behind Yamato and tapped his shoulder. Turning around, Yamato greeted the other guy, and introduced him to us as Baki.

"Kaitaru, Aranya, it is nice to meet you both." He said to us, bowing respectively.

"It's nice to meet you too." I replied for both Kai and myself.

"Is it time to tell them yet?" I heard Baki whisper to Yamato, seeming slightly nervous. Yamato looked at me questioningly, and I thought about playing innocent, but I wasn't in the mood to wait to be told something, so I just raised an eyebrow.

Sighing, Yamato nodded, and I saw him move his fingers slightly, but still keeping his hands at his side.

Frowning, I looked at Kaitaru and pulled her to my back, just as the crowd of ninja in the area seemed to migrate towards us. My eyes narrowed as I looked at Yamato with an otherwise blank face.

"It's nothing to worry about Aranya, so-"

"So why is everyone surrounding us?" I questioned, cutting him off.

"It's just a precaution. Now-"

"Precaution for what?" As much as I wanted to know what he had to say, I also had to know whether or not I should pull out my dragon blades, against this 'precaution' of his.

"You may not like what I have to say. Now, may I carry on?" He began.

My eyes narrowed again in response.

"Thank you. Anyway, when I returned to the Hidden Leaf village, I spoke to Lady Tsunade about this village. She asked in particular about you and Kaitaru," I felt Kai turn around behind me to face Yamato, "And when I said you were only fourteen years old, she demanded to know why you were fighting and not getting an education. I wasn't even aware she cared much about that, but there you go.

I explained the circumstances to her, but she insisted that you need an education, and that she would be more than happy to give you both placements in Konoha Academy, where not only do they train students to be ninja, the students also get a good education."

"So….she wants us to come to Konoha?" Kai asked, just to clarify.

"Basically, yes. You would be provided with a place to stay, and still be able to go on missions, where you can earn enough money to support yourselves." He explained.

I looked over my shoulder at Kai, and, keeping my face blank, I looked her in the eye. Although her face was completely emotionless, I saw exactly what she was thinking.

Turning around, I saw all the ninja around us, and understood why Yamato had assembled them. This apparently wasn't up for discussion. I looked at Kai again, and she nodded slightly, to show that she understood what I was telling her – that, after we declined, we'd have to make a break for it.

This time I turned around fully to face Yamato.

"No thanks. Not interested." I told him.

Spinning around I put my foot in the cradle of Kai's hands that she had prepared for me, and she threw me up into the air, grabbing my hands. I flung her up with me, and we ran on the shoulders of the ninja, jumping out of the way when they tried to grab us. As soon as we got away from the circle of ninja, we both activated our kekke genkai and disappeared into fire, reappearing in the main village.

I hi-fived Kai, and started walking, but Yamato popped out of the ground in front of us, and Natsui appeared behind us.

"Your good, I'll give you that." I told Yamato.

"But, we don't want to leave our village, so N.T.Y." Kai finished off for me.

"I'm sorry girls, but this isn't up for discussion I'm afraid." Yup. Just like I thought.

"So what, you're just going to force us?" Kai asked.

"And we don't get any say in this?" I clarified.

"We will only force you if we have to, and we are only doing this with your best interests at heart." Baki said, appearing out of nowhere.

"Who gave you permission to just take us out of our village?" Kai all but yelled at Baki, and he stepped back in fear.

Good.

"I did." Natsui said, stepping forward when Baki stepped back, "We cannot give you the best education possible in our small village. A lot of the other children move off to other villages, and then come back as adults." He explained.

"Yeah, but a lot of the other children haven't fought in the war. They've left before it's majorly affected them, and don't really understand what's going on." I fought back.

"And besides, you know Aranya and me, we need to see this through till the end. Especially with how much of our time and effort we've put into this." Kai said. She wasn't going down without a fight either.

"Yes, but with all of the extra help we are getting, your educations are the bigger priority now." Natsui told us, in his 'This is Final' voice.

Suddenly, my aunt and Kai's parents turned up, and said how they agreed with Lady Tsunade, and Natsui, blah blah blah, we need an edumacation, etcetera, etcetera.

Whatever.

Either way, we are NOT going to Konoha.

*4 hours later*

"IM NOT FUCKING GOING!" Kai yelled for the seventh time in as many minutes. I had already pt up my fight and ended up with my arms tied behind my back and some band thing around my arm which prevented me using fire-type jutsu (bitches, but they didn't exactly get away unharmed. I smirked briefly, looking around at the faces that would now have to fight Kai. Scratches and bruises all over them. Kai should be thankful I've weakened them for her), and now I was watching, bemused, as Kai tried to FORCE them into saying that she doesn't have to go, but the Konoha and sand ninja are stubborn BITCHES.

"YES YOU ARE KAITARU SERASI, OR SO HELP ME!" And that was her mother Lissirya. If you thought Kai was weird (cause let's face it, she is) then just know it's not her own fault, not with her family.

Damn, this looks like it's gonna be one good fight.

*For those who don't know, K.O. means Knock Out x)

(*) On my profile, there's gonna be a fact file thingy on Aranya Fenikkusu and Kaitaru Serasi, if you wanna know more about their clans.

Translation: Marshmallows which ate her tv remote: the Meredíra clan. The Pegasus convention: the village. Panicking as though they forgot to pack a parachute: fighting in the village. Go happy end: be calm and shizz. Without the Pegasi, the remaining marshmallows are burning each other: Without the Meredíra, the other people are fighting with eachother. Maybe if we get the Chupacabra thingies from Konoha teh remaining marshmallows will stop burning each other: Maybe if we get the ninja from Konoha, the villagers will stop fighting with each other.

Ok, now for the author's note.

This fic is a joint fic between Me and Kathryn Integra Pleasant, and let me tell you – we have had a LOT of fun writing this. We've been doing countless calls over skype, and this has caused a lot of craziness, but it was SO WORTH IT to get it finished in time.

Soo….please make the time we took to do this worth it by reviewing! Just let us know what you think of the story, anything extra you want, and if you want me to post the factfile as the first chapter on here too – although I'm not entirely sure how to get pictures up…..and if we even can post pictures, but whatever x)

Lala.x

(and here's a crazy conversation that went on at skype while we were writing this – GingaNinja and Smurf are our friends)

GingaNinja says (14:11):

*O.o

*the fuck?

*:L

KathrynIntegraPleasant says (14:12):

*BASICALLY...

*Since the marshmellows which ate my TV remote have been completely obliterated, the pegasus convention has been panicking as though they forgot to pack a parachute. Apparently they wanted the world to go 'happy end' and without the pegasi, the remaining marshmellows are burning eachother. Maybe if we get the Chupacabra thingies from Konoha, teh remaining marshmellows will relax and stop burning each other.

*SEE

*BUT

*THEY ATE MY TV REMOTE

*:

GingaNinja says (14:12):

*:L

Smurfy says (14:13):

*...

KathrynIntegraPleasant says (14:13):

*NOT FUNNEH GINGAH PIMPEH

*YOU IZ A MARSHYMALLOWWW..

SP00N

*MULTICOLOURED SQUIRREL MOLESTER

*MASKS

TOBI IZZA BAD BOY

*HENOCANHAZUNICORN