Kakashi accepted the offer and began to wonder why such a peaceful village would be attacked by the sound village. He looked off in the distance and began to think, 'No matter the reason, I will not stand by and let the sound village destroy any more innocent lives. It looks like I have no choice; here is where the fight will begin, Orochimaru.' Squad seven looked rather tense as well, remembering the events that took place during the Chuunin exams not long before, and the first time they had meet the pale Sannin.
Sairen was a girl around the age of eight. Her eyes were a stunning blue color, and everything about her radiated such innocence. Her long brown hair flowed down her back and was lifted up as the winds began to pick up again. She brushed the strands out of her face and turned back to the ninja that assisted her. "I'm sure you are all hungry after your journey, won't you please join us for our evening meal?"
"We are grateful for the invitation, as long as we aren't any trouble for you." Kakashi responded.
A lady in her mid twenties approached from the crowd behind Sairen's uncle. She had a bright smile on her face and wore a rather modest outfit one that reminded Sasuke of what his mother would wear. Her hair was rather short that reached about shoulder length and was light brown in color. "Don't worry, you aren't causing us any trouble, in fact your presence here only makes us feel more secure. It's a blessing indeed to have help right after a terrible experience like that." He reached out her hand to Sairen and led the group to her home.
Sakura looked around a bit and noticed a picture on the far wall of the dinning room. She instantly recognized the young girl who appeared in the picture but the other three people were completely unfamiliar to her. She turned to the woman and began saying, "Excuse me, but who are these people?" Sairen looked over to Sakura and her eyes began to tear up as she saw the photo of her family. Without saying a word she rushed away, tears coming from her face. Sakura instantly had a look of sorrow on her face as she saw how hard things were for the young girl and instantly felt bad for her situation.
The woman walked over, placing the dishes down and looked up at the picture. "Those people are Sairen's family… her parents and the boy holding on to her, that is her older brother… Takuya." Sakura noticed from the corner of her eye that her fellow teammates, Sasuke and Naruto had some what sad faces and looks that appeared to her that they were going back into their own memories, relating to Sairen.
Kakashi looked over at the young woman wondering what had happened. "If you don't mind my asking, what happened to Sairen's parents?" The questioned asked by the silver haired Jounin got everyone's attention.
The young woman took a deep breath as she began to reveal the history of Sairen and her family. "The story of this family has been a bleak one and it appears the tragedy follows them like a lost puppy. They weren't always members of this village, before Sairen was born, they resided in one of the ninja villages. Her parents were rather strong ninja but as you must know there is always someone stronger. Her older brother Takuya belonged to the elite of their village, from a young age. Things seemed to be rather perfect but it only grew worse as the years progressed. One of the last ninja wars was what caused them to leave the village. Around the time Sairen was five years old her parents were brutality attacked. I remember seeing them stumbling into the village, it truly was a sad sight." She paused for a moment and looked out the door that Sairen had run through, "It's a memory that will forever stay with her."
The events that she were about to describe became visual for those listening to the tale. "Takuya was in his early to late teens when they had arrived here in the village. He used all his strength to carry his parents to our village. When we saw the condition of the two of them we could not turn them away and we allowed them to rest here. Our physicians tried their best to stop the bleeding but the damage was beyond our ability to treat. A few hours later Sairen found that her two parents had finally pasted away and she tried desperately to wake them again. Her older brother took hold of her and held her close as he calmly explained to her that their parents were gone but they were resting peacefully in a beautiful field like the ones they use to play in. Sairen always enjoyed the flower fields and being there makes her feel like she is with her parents."
Sakura looked as though she was going to cry as she listened. "A young girl shouldn't have to go through such heartache, and now her elder brother has been taken from her too…"
Naruto had a serious expression on his face as he stood up. He formed a fist and smiled a bit, "We will stop her suffering and return her elder brother to her, no matter what!" Everyone in the room nodded in agreement to the knuckle head ninja. Before anyone could say another word they heard the clanging of a spoon hitting the bowl and they looked over and noticed that Kakashi had already finished his meal. The blonde haired ninja's eyes bugged out as he realized that he yet again missed the true face of his sensei. 'Ahhhh not again! We never catch a break!' He plopped down and looked at the meal in front of him which appeared to be a stew and began to eat.
The two Jounin got up together and headed out into the village to continue work on the defenses for the villagers but when they returned they saw a good number of villagers already at work. Kioko was caught by surprise as she saw them putting together the barrier and the man who Sairen called uncle appeared to be the one giving direction. "How about that… It seems that the villagers want to help us out. From the looks of things, it looks rather completed."
As the last piece went in everyone began to celebrate and the uncle approached. Kakashi looked over at him and stated, "You didn't need to do this all by yourself." The elder man laughed and playful slapped Kakashi's arm, "This is our village after all. We should step up and help in its defense. Besides we wouldn't want you ninja to wear yourselves out. You all have some other ninja to battle so don't mention it."
Kakashi thanked them for their efforts and Kioko smiled but suddenly her attention was drawn to a mountain covered area close by the village. Her expression grew serious as her instincts pointed out that the sound ninja were approaching. "Kakashi you better get Naruto and the others, we have company." She stated. Then she looked around at the villagers and told them to find somewhere safe to hide. As all this was happening Kioko took the moment to attempt to bring out her larger wolves. She closed her eyes and began to concentrate on her chakra. Her eyes snapped open as she was able to feel a large burst of chakra from within her and quickly performed the summoning jutsu to bring forth two of her huge wolves. As the Genin of squad seven approached they were surprised when they saw the giant wolves standing next to her. They had to be roughly the height of a house and had pure white fur.
Naruto was surprised when he saw them. "They are gigantic!" Sasuke narrowed his eyes slightly as he began to think, 'It would appear that Kioko has gained a great deal of her chakra back if she is able to summon two wolves of that size.'
She looked a bit strained from where Kakashi was standing but she instantly turned around and smiled. "There is no need to worry about me. I was able to bring out a great deal of my chakra, but it's not at its maximum yet. Considering how strong the enemy feels this is all I'm going to need to finish them off. Kioko looked up and jumped onto of one of the giant wolves and began to head out, getting ready to jump over the wall. Kakashi was about to follow her but she shook her head. "No Kakashi, don't… you help the Genin and look after the villagers. I'm sure there are more on the way and they won't be coming from the same direction. I will look after the north and south side of the village you look after the east and west." At that moment Kioko nodded and the two wolves jumped over the fence and landed with a great force that practically knocked Naruto to the ground.
The second wolf went over to the south side and prepared to attack on any site of the enemy. Squad seven was broken up into two groups to cover more ground. Naruto and Sasuke were on the east side and Sakura and Kakashi were on the other. Kunais were held in each and they were poised to attack at any moment. Kioko's sensitive nose began to pick up the sent of the enemy and she smirked as she pulled out one of her clan's famous moves, the fireball jutsu. With that she was able to draw them out of hiding and the battle for the village had commenced.
Not too far away a boy who appeared to be around the same age as Kioko stood in the wings and watched as the battle commenced. His hair was a blonde light brown mix and his eyes were blue if people saw him rather quickly and didn't focus on him he would be mistaken for the fourth Hokage. A small smirk appeared on his face as his eyes attention was drawn to Kioko. 'This is an unexpected turn of events. I would never have guessed that our reunion would happen in place like this. This sure makes everything more interesting don't you think my old friend… Kioko Uchiha.'
To be continued….