Chapter 2: Konoha

Sasuke's POV

The three of us were trudging through the woods just outside Konaha.

"That was SOOO BORING!!" the spiky blond haired boy yowled that was walking right next to me. "How come we always get the crappy missions?"

"Geez Naruto," The other member of my group, Sakura, spoke up. She had pretty pink hair and green eyes. She made a face at the blonde haired dummy; who was Naruto. "Lighten up, you mostly mess us up anyway so nobody trusts us with high ranked missions!"

"Heh, Sakura's right," I spoke in a low, bored tone. I shook my raven colored hair and glared at Naruto with deep dark eyes. "You're such a loser, Naruto-san."

Naruto stomped the ground in frustration and glared at me.

"Would you shut it, Sasuke?"

"No."

Naruto made a face at me.

We were only Genin ninja, and were heading back to their village Hidden in the Leaves after a boring but successful mission. Just yesterday, we had returned from a difficult mission where we had unrepentantly met two rouge ninja and saved a small village.

Sakura looked around, annoyed. "Where the heck is Kakashi? He said he'd meet us on the edge of Konaha!"

"Haven't you noticed that Master Kakashi is always late?" I grumbled in my usual low tone.

Sakura glanced at me with obvious affection. "Yeah…"

Why did she always have to stare at me like that? It was SO annoying.

"Well I'm sick of it!" Naruto put in loudly.

I opened his mouth to say something, but then froze. I sensed that something strange was near and I could have sworn to hear rapid footsteps. I paused to look around anxiously.

"What is it, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked sweetly, and looked at me with a little too much gushy concern.

Naruto scowled and kept walking.

"Someone's coming." I explained quietly, making my voice urgent.

"What if it's Kakashi?"

"No, I don't think so…" I sprang upward onto the nearest tree branch, and tensed myself in a protective defense position. Sakura looked up with wide eyes, and Naruto turned around just in time to see a shape coming towards us. It was a person, a ninja, but it defiantly wasn't Kakashi. It didn't seem to see or sense us, just kept coming closer like he or she was in a big hurry. When the ninja was only a few yards away, I leaped forward and tackled him to the ground. He was taken by surprise, but quickly recovered and kicked me off with such force that I was soon flying through the air. I landed swiftly on my feet but paused before doing anything further. The ninja then did a neat backwards flip up onto a tree branch and crouched.

The ninja spoke, "Stop this, I mean no harm!" it was a young girls voice.

I was surprised at hearing such a calm, soft voice, and apparently my peers were as well. Sakura and Naruto hurried to my side, into a formation incase they had the fight the stranger.

"How do we know that you are telling the truth? Are you from the leaf village?" Naruto asked gruffly.

" No, I am not from this village." She replied truthfully, "Actually, I come from very far away." She stepped out of the shadows of her tree branch and stood in a patch of sunlight that was flittering down through the trees.

She looked to be about their age, probably a little older. She had very long brown hair that glowed in the sunlight. Her eyes were a deep greenish-blue color, and shone with kindness. The clothes she wore were not normal ninja clothes, these were more then your average jumpsuit. She wore a green and orange sleeve-less top that stretched to her waist. It was hard to tell if she was wearing shorts or a skirt, I'll just call it a skort. The top layer of the skort was a white lacy fabric. The bottom layer was a light blue color, and came tight around her legs like shorts. She also wore long green boots with small blue ribbons on them. Sakura and Naruto's eyes widened in awe at her sight. Even I was surprised, but I struggled to keep it from showing. Apparently none of us were expecting the intruder to look anything like her.

I shook my head tried to come back into focus.

"Well do you have business here or something?" I asked awkwardly.

Naruto on the other hand was all sorts of relaxed and took a step toward the girl. "Hiya!" he greeted her enthusiastically. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki!"

Way to flirt, loser.

The girl smiled warmly at him and said "Hi. I'm Kira Shitoya, nice to meet you." Then she turned her attention back to me "Yes, I do have business here. Is your Hokage in? I wish to speak with him."

I shrugged, finding it easier now to be my normal self. "Don't know. We're just heading back from a mission, but he's most likely to be there." I looked around, giving the allusion that I was bored.

Despite my attempt at a lousy expression, Kira nodded gratefully. "Thank you. Do you mind if I travel back to the village with you?"

"Of coarse you can!" Naruto almost shouted.

Sakura was more hesitant. "Well… I don't know…"

I took another long look at the girl. She didn't look at all dangerous, only innocent and soft. It was hard to believe that this was the girl who had thrown me off with such force. Was there more to her then what I could see?

I took in a breath of air then blew it out loudly, pondering. "Whatever. Sure, you can come." I offered, but still not completely willing to trust her.

Kira smiled shyly at all three of us. "Okay, thanks."

"This way, ma'am!" Naruto set a big grin on his face and turned in the direction of the village. "Follow me!"

Kira started to follow, then stopped, and looked curiously at Sakura and me. "Oh, I'm sorry, I don't know you're names…?"

I inclined his head, with more politeness then I had intended. "Uchiha Sasuke. And this-" I nodded to Sakura, "is Haruno Sakura."

Sakura brushed a strand of pink hair away from her face. "Hi."

"Nice to meet you both" Kira bowed. Then she turned and followed Naruto again, who was waiting, leaning against a tree a little ahead of them.

"This is where the forest ends," he said, then pointed away from the trees "across that clearing is our village. Take a look, Kira-san."

She hurried to catch up with him, then stood at his side and stared. A wide meadow stretched in front of them, long grasses and small white flowers rippled in the warm breeze. Now that we were out of the cover of the trees, we could see the sunset, turning the sky so many shades of oranges, reds, and pinks. I watched Kira closely from behind. She took in all this before resting her eyes to look at the Hidden Leaf Village. I had seen it a thousand times before, so it was nothing great for me, but Kira and Naruto both seemed to be enjoying themselves. Our village looks like a nice place, not too small or big. From this view we could see the edge of a market, and a row of shops were lined along the dirt streets. There were no bikes or cars, everybody walked to where they wanted to go. Beyond the shops were buildings- houses, apartments, a school, training areas, and some other buildings that seemed to be important. There was a huge wall of rock that stretched protectively along the far side of the village. Kira squinted at the see four faces etched into the rock.

"See that?" Naruto said, pointing to it. "Those are our four Hokages. Three of 'em are dead, that one in the middle, with the spiky hair and beard, is the dude who is Hokage now. Their faces are marked there as a memory to all who live in this village." He explained. Then he smiled proudly "My face will be up there one day, I can grantee it!"

Kira turned her face away from the village to look back at Naruto thoughtfully. "Really? How do you know?"

He squared his jaw. "Oh trust me, I know!" he threw his fist up in the air. "Becoming Hokage Is my lifelong dream!"

Kira laughed. "I believe you. And I'm sure that you will fulfill your dream someday. It's good to have goals."

I stood on Kira's right side and put a hand forward. "Shall we?" I said in a cool voice and took the lead towards Konoha. Naruto and Kira followed side by side behind me, while Sakura kept to the back of the group.

Naruto rambled on and on the whole way. Kira didn't seem to mind. She seemed liked his hyper attitude and listened to his gruff, excited voice with interest. I cut in a couple times to say something or correct Naruto on whatever stupid thing me was saying, but Sakura kept quiet, and I could see out of the corner of my eye that she was watching me intently.

When we reached the village, Naruto pointed everything out to Kira and told her exactly what it was. Like the shops, buildings, even some of the people. When the people looked at Kira strangely, she just smiled and waved to them. Most of them would wave back, then continued on whatever they were doing.

"I like it here." Kira said after a while of walking through the village. She obviously had no idea what direction or where they were going, but she followed right behind my without asking any questions. She seemed to be very trusting.

Naruto grinned. "Good!"

"How long are you planning to stay?" Sakura asked suddenly.

Kira looked back at her, as if noticing for the first time that she was there. Sakura scowled a little.

"I don't know, really." Kira said, slowing a bit so that she was walking next to Sakura instead of in front of her.

I looked back at her, sudden interest gnawing at my gut. "Not to be nosey or anything, but why are you here?"

Kira looked up at me with shining eyes. I tried to ignore how pretty they were. "I'm a traveling ninja, I explore the world and stay at all kinds of different villages. My original home town is the Village Hidden in the Sand, but I've been to many other places too." She explained. "I'm here because I heard about the chunin exams that are coming up, and I'm looking for somebody."

"Looking for somebody?" Naruto questioned, now walking beside her again. "Who?"

There was a pause. Kira had a far away look in here eyes, as if she was looking at something that no one else could see. "His name is Gaara. Gaara of the Sand, he's sometimes called. And, if you know him, it's pretty easy to guess why." Her eyes came back, and she looked at us. "Have you seen him?" she asked desperately.

I continued to stare at her.

"No." Sakura answered quickly. Naruto and I were still staring. What was it about her expression that was so interesting?

"Oh." Kira was disappointed. "Are you sure? He might be with two others, Kankuro and Temari."

Sakura shook her head. "Nope."

"He has short red hair and green eyes."

"Never seen him."

Kira's shoulder's fell. "Oh. Okay." She looked at the ground, her eyes smoldering with sadness.

I kept my expression looking dead and emotionless, but inside my head was spinning. What's so special about this Gaara guy? I'd have to keep my eyes open for him. I blinked and was suddenly distracted. What was up with Kira's eyes? I could have sworn that they were blue, she was looking at me just a minute ago, but now they look all gray.

Sakura shrugged. "Who knows, maybe he'll show up."

Kira looked hopeful.

"Or maybe not." I suggested grimly.

Kira made a face.

"Oh well," she said, recovering. Her bright expression came back again. "So, where can I meet with your Hokage?" she asked lightly.

Naruto wasn't fazed at all by Kira's sudden mood changes, so he was the first to speak up. "We're almost there. Look!" He pointed at a huge building with two big red doors and the leaf village symbol etched above the frame.

"Excellent!" and before anyone could react, Kira was dashing towards the building.

I was surprised.

Look at the way she runs! It's agile, fast… and that's not even her full speed!

Of course I kept this admiration to myself. My face was still hard, I hoped. But Sakura wasn't afraid to show that she was impressed. She followed Kira and a sprint, and soon caught up with her. On her tail, Naruto followed while I brought up the rear.

Kira was already making her way through the giant doors, and up the small steps that led to the Hokage's office. There she waiting for the rest of us, though there wasn't really a need to because we were right behind her.

Kira hesitated. For the first time, she looked nervous.

Naruto nudged her. "C'mon Kira-chan. This is what you came for- right?"

She nodded slowly. "Yes…" she tugged on Naruto's orange sleeve. "Come with me, though."

This surprised the three of us. I must have been right about this girl being too trusting- she was warming up to Naruto very quickly.

Kira didn't notice our surprise. She looked from Naruto, to Sakura, to me. "Will you, please?"

Naruto blinked. "Um… sure." Then he brightened. "Let's go in, then! C'mon, don't be shy, open the door already!"

"Mmkay…" without hesitating this time, Kira boldly thrust the door wide open. She walked in, suddenly straightening up and looking professional. Naruto followed closely behind while me and Sakura were more hesitant.

Sakura opened her mouth to whisper something to me, but I was already trudging through the door, leaving her alone in the hallway.