Chapter 1- Can we really trust her?
{Naruto's P.O.V.}
Sakura, Kakashi-sensei and I stood at the gates of the village, prepared to leave for this assasin mission. Tsunade-baachan stood by with a slight smile on her face while we waved her off. We then took off. I started to think that we might have a little bit of a hard time finding this assasin. I just remembered what Tsunade-baachan had told us right before we left.
(cue flashback)
"You might some difficulty finding her [1]," Tsunade told us. "Some have said that she can use an invisibility jutsu."
"That's possible?" Sakura said.
"I don't know. But then again, she's more cunning than she appears. Also, no one really knows exactly where she is either. Last time anyone heard of her, she was somewhere outside the Fire country. No one is really certain if she is or not. If she is, get her and take her down."
For the rest of the night, those words somehow kept playing in my mind.
(end flashback)
I get pulled out of my track of thought when Sakura-chan yelled out to me.
"Hey Naruto, what's wrong with you?"
"Hmm? Oh, nothing."
"Are you sure?" She starts giving me a look of concern.
"Yeah, Sakura-chan, don't worry about me," I say with a soft smile.
"Well ok." She let it go from there.
We kept going from there. Suddenly, Kakashi-sensei stopped.
"What is it, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura asked.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~meanwhile, up in the trees~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
{Quick switch to normal P.O.V.}
A certain kunoichi sat up on a tree branch looking down on the Leaf Village team.
"Hmm...looks like the found me out already. They're quite skilled. Looks like this might be quite interesting. Guess I should go say hi."
Said kunoichi jumps from the tree and in front of the Konoha team.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~back to where the team is~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
{back to Naruto's P.O.V.}
Kakashi-sensei stays quiet, ignoring both Sakura and me. Then, a woman jumps out of the trees and in front of us. For a second, I was stunned. Not only was she the same girl in the picture Tsunade showed us, but she was even prettier in person. She looked like she was around my age. Her curls perfectly framed her face, and her outfit perfectly fit her curves. But there's one thing I couldn't help but notice about her eyes, though. In the picture, she definitely had violet eyes. Maybe it was just me, but I could've sworn that her eyes were a brownish-yellowish-honey color [2].
"Hey, blondie," the girl says. "Could you stop staring at me? It's making me feel uncomfortable."
I snap out of my thoughts and start glaring at her. She speaks again. "Sheesh...all I do is ask you stop staring at me and you instantly get mad? What's up with that?" I glare at her even more. She sighs. "Never mind. Well, anyway, I can tell you all are Leaf shinobi. And from what you guys are thinking, I can tell that you guys wanted some business with me." Our jaws drop a little. Damn, she really can read minds. "Well, I can tell you're all shocked that the rumor about me reading minds is true [3], but that's not important right now. What is this business that you wanted with me?"
We all try to relax a little bit. Apparently, Kakashi-sensei wants to handle this. "First, we all know that you're the assasin known as 'The Slayer,' am I right?"
"Well," she starts. "You are. What's your point?"
"We only want to know a few things about you."
"Okay...however..." She stops and makes sure to look at each of us in the eyes. "Don't you find it rude to ask about someone before you at least introduce yourselves? I mean, you don't have to know since I already know your names, but that doesn't me-" I cut her off.
"Wait a minute...how do already know our names?"
"You dumb-ass, weren't you listening? I can read minds!"
Sakura and Kakashi-sensei give me a quick glare and sighed.
"Anyway," she starts again. "What all do you want to know?"
Kakashi-sensei starts this up again. "First of all, what is your name?"
With a slight smirk on her face, she replies, "I'm glad you asked, Hatake Kakashi. My name is Ichiru Kaede [4]. Nice to meet you. You too, Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto."
I already don't like her or her attitude. "Wow..." Kaede says. "Already judging me and you only know my name?" I growl a little. "Calm down. I'm just joking. Anyway..." She's now turning her attention back to Kakashi. "What else is there for me to answer?"
Before he could say anything, I interrupt. "Hey, if you can read minds then why don't you just read our minds and get your answer?"
"Well, that's a very simple-minded question. One thing you should know about me is that that's not the way I handle business. I only ask because it's more polite. Plus, I can see if you guys are lying to me or not." We stayed quiet for a little while. "Well then, what else did you want to know?
"What are your intentions," Sakura-chan asked. "What exactly are you trying to do?"
"...my intentions are only to find a place to stay. I'm only trying to find a place to stay where I can get some stability."
"Alright, cut the crap," I yell at her. "We know you're up to something. Now what is it?"
"...hm. Rather impatient, aren't we? Oh well. But to answer your question, it's just what I told you. I'm getting sick and tired of wandering around. I've been doing that for the past year or so now and I just want to stay somewhere safe."
"How do we know for sure that you mean what you're saying," Sakura asked her.
"Haruno-san, I may do a lot of things. Lying certainly not one of them. That's how you know. And yes, Uzumaki-kun," she says diverting her attention to me. "I know it may sound like crap, but it's the truth." Damn, she's good.
"Well," Kakashi-sensei cuts back in. "Why exactly have you been wandering around?"
"Are you deaf, too? I'm looking for a place to stay. It's hard to do so if you're only known as an assasin. Anyways, Hatake-san, what else did you want know?"
"Your jutsu. What all can you do?"
"I'm glad you asked about that, too. As you know, I can read minds. I also do everything that was rumored about me, and more." Wow. I never expected the rumors to be true.
"What's more?"
"Look, more is too many to talk about at the moment. So just stick to the rumors, okay?"
"Hey, you don't hav-" That's all I managed to get out before I somehow lost my voice. Sakura and Kakashi looked back at me kind of stunned. They look back at her.
"What did you do to Naruto's voice," Sakura yelled.
"Nothing really," Kaede replies. "I just used my silencing jutsu that I know you've heard of. And don't worry, you can thank me later [5]." Then came a quick pause. Kaede starts back up again. "Anything else?"
"Yes," Kakashi-sensei says. "Is it true that you're done with being the Slayer?"
"Absolutely," she says. "I got sick of being the Slayer. I never liked doing that stuff. I just decided to quit one day. That's when I started wandering around looking for a place to stay."
"Again," Sakura-chan interjects. "How do we know we can trust you?"
"Look, Haruno-san. If it's a fight you're looking for, then you're looking in the wrong place. I'm sick of doing it. If you really don't believe me, then why don't you just chain me up and beat the truth out of me," her tone turned bitter when she said that. She looks at the ground, kicking her feet around and sighs. "Look," she says looking back up. "Like I said before, I'm tired of being the Slayer, I'm tired of wandering around, and I just want some stability." Somehow, her eyes shifted to a deep blue color, kinda like mine. "I truly don't want to fight you or anybody right now. And since you're wondering, Uzumaki-kun," she says, now looking me square in the eye. "My eyes tend to change colors along with my emotions." Whoa! "One thing that you didn't know about me is that some people used to call me the 'Human Mood Ring' or 'Moodie' for short." Another pause.
"Interesting," was all that Kakashi-sensei had to say.
"Look, I have a little proposal for you all," Kaede says. "Why don't I show that you can trust me?"
"What did you have in mind," Sakura asked.
"Why don't you take me back with you to your village and let me show you that I can be trusted," Kaede said that with those same violet eyes I've seen before, filled with hope. I just didn't know. I wanted to believe her, but at the same time, I had to be on my guard. She stood there waiting for a response, with her eyes the same color and still filled with hope. We turn around and huddle up [6]. Before I realized it, I had my voice back. "Thank me later, Uzumaki-kun."
Sakura-chan turned to Kakashi-sensei. "What do you think we should do, Kakashi-sensei?"
"You're really not suggesting that we take her with us are you, Sakura?"
"Well, no, but she might be more useful to the village than you think."
I look back at her while they're talking. She looks so sad now. Her eyes turn back to the same shade of blue they'd been earlier. She started to kick her feet around again. I had no idea why, but I found her to be really pretty at that moment. Before I even realize, I get slapped in the back of the head.
"Pay attention, would ya?" Sakura yelled at me while shaking me back to life.
"Well, then," Kakashi starts. "She maybe useful to us, but we still don't know if she can be trusted."
"I think she can," I say.
"What?" I heard Sakura say.
"Are you sure about that, Naruto," Kakashi-sensei asked me.
"Yeah, just trust me on this. I have a strange feeling that I'm right about this."
"Ok, fine," he said.
Sakura interjects again. "Ok, Naruto, but if you're wrong about this..." she started glaring at me while she trailed off.
"OK, OK, I get it, Sakura-chan."
We then turn back to Kaede. I start this. "Ok, Kaede, we'll take you with us." Her eyes turned back to that pretty violet color. Kakashi-sensei decided to add on to it.
He said, "But on one condition..."
Her head slightly cocks to the side. "What is it?"
Author's Note: What is that condition of Kakashi's? Stick around to find out. Anyway, I plan on updating ASAP. I hope you guys enjoyed that chapter. Please review and give me any ideas. I'd appreciate it. Oh, here's the deal with the numbers. They're stuff I just had to say something about outside of the story.
[1] You gotta love the irony.
[2] For that particular eye color, here's a link to show you what I meant: .com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=/colored-contact-lenses/edward-cullen-contacts&usg=_2hcKvlnes0qpO8cK58fawUDh0I4=&h=200&w=200&sz=9&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=pYq79sC8ML_vfM:&tbnh=160&tbnw=160&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhoney%2Beye%2Bcolore%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1600%26bih%3D677%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=638&vpy=418&dur=1210&hovh=160&hovw=160&tx=55&ty=143&ei=0ryNTIDFOYG78gbb-ICeCg&oei=0ryNTIDFOYG78gbb-ICeCg&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:19,s:0
[3] Ahh...sweet, sweet irony.
[4] The deal with Kaede's name. Her last name, Ichiru, was inspired by Bleach. I just happened to be watching Bleach one night, a few weeks before I actually started writing this fanfic, and I just took Ichigo & Rukia's names and combined them and got Ichiru. I just felt like using that. Anyway, when it comes to her first name, I got that from reading Negima! Epic win!
[5] Thank me later-one of my favorite albums by one of my favorite artists, DRAKE! Friggin love Drake!
[6] I know it's rare for them to ever 'huddle up' but please just go along with it.
Anyways...'till later...ciao!