A young teen jumped off a thick oak tree branch and landed on the grassy ground, crouching. They quickly stood straight and began sprinting after the figure in front of them, but then the teen's hood got snagged on a branch, revealing a girl's face. She had long blond hair and heterochromic eyes, with the right eye being blue and the left one red. Her eyes were dull and bland, showing the lack of emotion behind them.

The teen didn't stop sprinting despite her identity being revealed. Who needed it anyway when she planned to isolate the man in front of her? Assuming she did not kill him first... She ran faster and yanked a kunai out from a holster on her hip. She held the blade in her right hand as she continued to run. It was dark, so she had to avoid tripping on rocks and logs. She caught up to her target with the scroll on his back. Natsumi didn't say any words—she didn't need to. She swiped the blade on his back swiftly, but he simply lunged to the side. The teen scoffed.

"Well, look at you. Mizuki, the newest Konoha rebel," she notes dryly, gazing him up and down with a slight judgmental look before scoffing. There was a slight breeze on the crisp spring evening. Mizuki smiled under the moonlight. It looked so cheerful, yet so sinister and devious. He was known to be quite the diplomat.

"I suppose," the silver-haired man responded with a shrug as he tightened the scroll around him. Earlier that night, Mizuki stole the scroll from the Hokage's tower and it was up to the young teen girl to confiscate him. Mizuki took the scroll known as the Scroll of Sealing. It contained secrets that were sealed by the first Hokage and these secrets were known only to Konoha, the hidden leaf village. If put into the wrong hands... well, anyone could assume what would happen then. "Don't you get sick of it, Natsumi?" Mizuki asked the teen. He was once her Sensei several years ago.

"Of what?" Natsumi questioned back with a small scowl plastered on her face. She just wanted to get this done with...

"Of being used—being used like an animal—a machine," he states as if it were a broad fact.

"Don't be ridiculous. I am not a machine, Mizuki. I am myself—me." Mizuki smiles with a slight scoff of his own, taking a step back, which Natsumi countered by taking a step forward with her kunai still in hand, ready to attack.

"That doesn't change the fact that they're using you! If you didn't have the abilities you have now, they wouldn't even bat an eye at you."

"So? What are you implying? That I become just as much as a scum by rebelling and betraying my village?" Her posture remained stiff as she eyed him. Mizuki's smile turns into a devious smirk.

"No need to say it like that. I'm just suggesting... to leave the village. If you were to run off with me, then you could find a village—no, a person who would give you the recognition you deserve! Just-" Natsumi cut him off.

"Yeah, no. I'm not interested." Her expression was pure boredom. She was quite uninterested in this conversation. She gripped onto the kunai tighter. Mizuki's smile finally faded into an annoyed expression as he sighed.

"Well, I tried to warn you..." Since when was this a warning? "I kind of wished to settle this peacefully, but... oh well." The devious smirk returned. Natsumi just scoffed and swiftly swipes her kunai at him, this time towards the neck. She missed as he lunged to the side again. Mizuki clicked his tongue. He pulls out his abnormally large shuriken, now fighting back.

The two exchange slashes, swipes, and attacks, but neither landed a successful blow. Mizuki's large shuriken hit Natsumi's kunai just right, knocking it out of her hands and it fell onto the grass, quite a few yards away. Mizuki smirked.

"Whatever shall you do now?" He asks with a slightly mocking tone. Natsumi just shrugs, not seeming too concerned at all. She still seemed quite confident that she would be the victor. Instead of speaking, she clasped her hands together.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu," she called out in an almost emotionless tone. There was not hardly any spirit visible in her voice, expression, or body language. An overwhelming amount of Natsumis appeared. The Shadow Clone Jutsu was her trump card. The Third Hokage himself, Hiruzen Sarutobi, taught her said jutsu several years ago. All the Natsumis surrounded Mizuki. He paled slightly, unaware of what this jutsu was.

"Those... those are solid clones!" Mizuki says, stating the obvious. He took a step back, accidentally pressing his back against one of the Natsumis. He growled and cursed in annoyance. It was now him against more than a dozen clones! None of the Natsumis spoke for a few seconds.

"Yes, indeed. I have been taught well, don't you think?" She asked in what seemed to be a rhetorical question. Once again the battle continued with Mizuki losing, unlike the stalemate they had before. He managed to make several of the clones poof with his giant shuriken, but he was still no match for the decently experienced teen. It was an embarrassment for him, really. She was only twelve years old.

It didn't take too long for Mizuki to be all bloody and wounded. Soon enough, he could hardly move. He just laid there on the grass, groaning in pain. She grabbed the scroll he carried on his back and took it. She dragged him back to Konoha so the Third Hokage himself (or ANBU) could figure out what to do with him, ignoring his yelps and curses of pain.

Once Natsumi reached Konoha, she crossed paths with several ANBU.

"Hand him over to us. We'll take care of this," one of them in a falcon mask said. They had a deep voice. Natsumi shoved the beat up Mizuki over to them. By now, all her clones have poofed away.

"I'll give this personally to the Hokage," Natsumi dryly says, beckoning to the scroll on her back. The ANBU didn't question it but nodded. Several knew who Natsumi was. When she was younger, she was always around the Third Hokage, Hiruzen. To some, they seemed to have a grandfather-granddaughter bond. She walks to the Hokage Residence and goes inside. She walks up the stairs and knocks on an enormous set of doors.

Tappity tap.

Natsumi heard, "Come in," from the old Hokage. She opened the door and walked in, shutting the door behind her.

"I have captured and turned the traitor in to ANBU, Lord Hokage." Natsumi said, and gave Hiruzen the scroll, setting it on his desk next to the giant stack of papers and then proceeded to put her hands behind her back. The Hokage nods.

"Excellent," he says and takes a smoke out of his smoke pipe before setting it back down on his desk. "You did fantastic work, Natsumi," he said in a slightly gruff voice.

"Thank you," Natsumi said dryly. Hiruzen nodded and clasped his hands together as he pursed his lips tightly together as if seeming hesitant to say something.

"I have your next... mission for you," he said. Natsumi nodded, acknowledging him.

"What is it?" She asked.

"You are to be enrolled as a graduated genin at the Academy a few streets down," Hiruzen began. Natsumi nodded in acknowledgement with a slight gleam of home in her eyes. She has always wanted to become a registered shinobi. For the past several years, the closest she has gotten to that is training and doing basic (sometimes complicated—for example capturing Mizuki) odd jobs around Konoha.

"What shall I do then?" She asked, curious to see if there was anything else to be added to this. Hiruzen takes another smoke from his pipe before setting it down once again. He leaned down a little in his chair and into a drawer, pulling out a file.

"You shall learn more about this boy." Hiruzen gave Natsumi the file and signals her to open it. She did and stared at it for a few brief seconds, studying it intently. It felt like she has just seen a ghost. It was a boy who was around her age. He had dark ebony hair and eyes, contrasting his pale alabaster skin. Natsumi felt herself pale slightly and swallows, attempting to calm herself.

"This is Sasuke Uchiha, correct?" Natsumi asks as she flipped through the papers that were laid in the file. The Third Hokage nods and there was a brief pause between the two. "What exactly do you mean by learn about this boy, Lord Hokage?" She asks as he took another smoke out of his pipe. He does not day anything, seeming to be choosing his words.

"Ever since the... scandal with his older brother, Itachi, he has not been the same. He has become cold, dangerous perhaps. In a way, he is unstable. Given the right push, he may desert the village too..." He says trailing off at the end. Natsumi winces slightly at the use of Itachi's name but quickly regains her composure. Hiruzen began talking again. "How you do this is your choice, however..." He trailed off again, gazing at her heterochromic eyes with his dark brown.

"I fail to see the point in this, Lord Hokage," Natsumi admitted, staring at him with dull eyes.

"The point is, Natsumi, is that your loosing."

"Losing what? I have completed every task assigned to me," she said and Hiruzen laced his fingers together with his elbows propped on the wooden desk.

"You're losing yourself, Natsumi. I've seen it." Natsumi sighed.

"Then you should've told the village to not harass me as a little girl," she said in a slightly aggressive tone. She sighs again and read the rest of the list.

She shrugs. "Lord Hokage, is this really necessary?" He nodded, and she then sighed. "What's in it for me, then?"

"Becoming a registered shinobi like you always wanted—one step closer to becoming Hokage yourself," he replies. She perks her ears up at the word Hokage. The title has always appealed to her.

"I accept," she says shortly after with a quick, almost enthusiastic nod. She took the list and folded it, stuffing it in her pant pockets. "Learn about Uchiha and do the ten side missions. Got it." It really was not an enormous price to pay for finally getting one step closer to her goal. Hiruzen nods.

"Excellent." He paused. "You are to report at the Academy at room 205 tomorrow at 8:00 AM," he instructs. She nods. Hiruzen leaned down and opened his drawer again. He pulled out a blue shinobi headband. "Take this. There will be a bit of paperwork for you and I to fill out, but after that you will officially be a Genin." She nods, taking the headband. She wrapped and tied to around her right bicep. There was already one on her left, except it had a slash in the middle.

"I thank you, Lord Hokage." Mizuki was wrong: she wasn't being used like that. Even though she believed she was fine, she knew Hiruzen was attempting to help her.

AN:

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