Naruto 1. Chapter 1

It was a bright, cheerful morning as Kakashi and team seven were training at their usual training grounds. Sakura was sparring with the teacher while Naruto and Sasuke practiced jutsus a small distance away.

"Sakura you have to think before you attack." Kakashi had dodged yet another fruitless attack from Sakura and returned with his own. Luckily, Sakura was able to block the incoming kick or she was quite sure that it would have cracked a rib, at the very least.

Sakura and Kakashi continued like this, she'd attack, he'd block and attack back, for another twenty minutes before stopping.

"Sasuke, Naruto, that's enough." The two boys came over, looking tired, and it was obvious that they had been practicing hard today. "Go home and get some rest, all of you, tomorrow we have a mission. Meet outside the Hogake's office at 8:00 a.m. don't be late." He cautioned. With a poof, he was gone.

Team 7 sat resting for a few minutes. They had spent the last two weeks without a mission, supposedly because they need to improve their skills, but they knew that that was another of Kakashi's excuses as they were already more powerful than their fellow chuunins.

"ALRIGHT!" Naruto was jumping up and down, doing his "excited dance" as Sakura calls it, "A mission, a mission, a mission, a mission…..I wonder what it's gonna be. Maybe escort someone to another village? Or track down enemy shinobi…..OH maybe we get to steal an important scroll!" Naruto rubbed his hands together as he grinned devilishly. Sakura and Sasuke rolled their eyes and didn't comment….they knew better than to try and interrupt Naruto.

"Maybe this is why we've been training so hard lately…." Sasuke trailed off his thought….Naruto stopped jumping around and sat down, obviously thinking about what his teammate had just said.

"You know, Sasuke-kun," Sakura also had started to think about this possibility, "you may be right….I mean, we haven't done any missions ever that involved meeting with the Hokage privately for briefing….and usually Kakashi-senseii doesn't find out about a mission until it gets assigned….this mission is obviously going to be out of the ordinary. I wonder what it will be."

"Hn…well, I'm leaving….Kakashi-senseii told us to get some rest, we will probably need it." Sasuke got up and stalked off, hands in his pockets.

Sakura sighed, she would never get closer to the Uchiha, no matter how hard she tried. Lately she had been thinking about him a lot, but in a different way. She had been his teammate for two years now, and the only difference in their relationship since their academy days was that they had come to trust each others as teammates, as '_work buddies…that's all we'll ever be, that's the best I can ever hope for.'_ Strangely she didn't seem as sad about this as she would have when they were first teamed up. '_I've come to know him a little better than I used to. He's not so mysterious and interesting as I had thought him all those years. But now that I know him better, he really isn't what I thought, what I wanted him to be. Maybe that's why this is not so painful…because I never really loved HIM, I loved the idea of him that I had created in my head.'_

As Sakura was thinking, Naruto stared at her wondering why she looked so serious all of a sudden.

"Ne, Sakura-chan?" Sakura snapped out of her reverie to look at him "Maybe the mission won't be that bad, maybe we're just over-thinking it. But maybe we should do as Kakashi-senseii said and get some rest, after today any mission will seem hard."

Sakura laughed." Sometimes you can be so serious Naruto." She chuckled some more, "Come on, maybe we can get some ramen at Ichiraku's before going home."

Naruto's eyes shone as he bounced to his feet, "Let's go Sakura-chan! Ichiraku makes the best ramen in the whole village, especially the miso ramen…." Sakura sighed as she realized the mistake in her offer, but regardless she let Naruto pull her up and lead her to his favorite dinner place, all the while listening to the entire menu of ramen and its quality.

The next morning found three members of chuunin team 7 patiently waiting outside the Hokage's office at precisely 7:59 a.m. When it was finally eight, the door opened and they were told to come in. They entered the office and noticed that Kakashi was late….again. As each inwardly cursed his constant lateness, they were told to take a seat. Tsunade looked at them for a few minutes before speaking.

"Unfortunately I cannot discuss your mission without Kakashi here, so you're going to have to get comfortable. The three looked at each other and sighed. They ended up only having to wait another twenty minutes before the door opened once again and Kakashi greeted them with his customary wave of the hand.

"Yo."

"Yes, we're all glad you were able to join us Kakashi." Tsunade said, glaring at him.

"Yes, well, I had to-"

"Help an old lady down from a tree, I know, I know. Well, take a seat and I will give you the details of your mission." Kakashi took the final seat available while Tsunade continued. "As you are all aware, Orochimaru has been taken care of, thanks to Uchiha here." She nodded at Sasuke before continuing.

"I have very recently, however received word of a new enemy, someone who is said to be even more powerful, and if at all possible, less human." The younger three looked taken aback, even nervous.

"We have no information yet on his name, but we expect it soon. Anyway, I received this report little more than a month ago, and since then I have been going through all of the documents in the library, trying to find a way to defeat our new enemy and about two and a half weeks ago, I discovered an old scroll…an ancient scroll. This scroll, which I have read and reread so as to understand completely, seemed at first a history, of old enemies defeated by this village. However, it has become apparent that this scroll is in fact an ancient prophesy. It tells of events that have happened, which is why it seemed to be a history at first. Then however, I noticed that there were passages that spoke of Kyubi, and also of Orochimaru, though his name was not known. Close to the end there came a passage that spoke of what sounded like the enemy we will soon be facing, and I realized that this scroll was indeed a prophetic history of Konoha. The very last part of the scroll was not information so much as it was two jutsus. The first jutsu, it said, would allow the user, or users, to be transported to where they would find the key to defeating this new enemy. The second jutsu is to be used after the first, to locate _precisely_ the key."

"So, in other words," Kakashi interrupted, "The first jutsu will bring us to the general area, say a forest or village, and the second will be able to take us directly to whatever this weapon is?"

"Exactly."

Team 7 looked intense. The three chuunins were obviously getting overwhelmed by this information, while Kakashi was simply focusing all of his attention on what the Hokage was saying.

"Your mission, will not be known to anyone outside this room. You will have to leave today, at approximately 7:00 p.m. To everyone else, you will simply be gone on a secret mission. After you leave, you are to travel for one day, and tomorrow, at 7:00p.m. you will use the first jutsu. Your overall objective will be to get the "key" and bring it back here using this jutsu," Tsunade handed them each a scroll, "I have studied the ancient jutsu and come up with this, as its compliment. One will take you there, one will bring you back. Now, you may need to surveil the area around the key for a while, as it may be guarded my enemy nin or by the monster himself. Whatever happens, you must do what you can to bring it back, _without compromising the safety of you team._ The enemy MUST NOT find out that we are aware of him, and he MUST NOT find out that we are looking for a way to defeat him, or he will find us and attack." Tsunade paused. "Are their any questions?" there were none. "Good, now, you must all go pack, you have only," she looked at her clock, "nine hours and fifteen minutes before you must leave the village."

The team was dismissed. The three younger members were at a loss of words, while Kakashi simply picked up the assignment and the jutsus from Tsunade. As the team members walked out of the ninja headquarters, Naruto was the first to speak.

"So, guess we were right about it being a secret mission, eh Sakura-chan?" Sakura looked at him for a minute before addressing her leader.

"Kakashi-senseii, this is real, isn't it?" She was hoping his answer would be negative, but he merely looked at her with his lone eye. She could tell that this was a serious mission by the fact that his eye was no longer droopy, for the first time she could remember. Sakura looked down.

"I guess we've gotta go and pack then. At least Naruto finally gets an exciting mission." She smiled slightly at her attempt at a joke, and while Naruto was the only one to smile in return, the other two members of the team were grateful that she was trying to lift the grim mood that had settled upon them as soon as Tsunade had started her speech.

Nine hours and ten minutes later, Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto were waiting at the gate of the village waiting once again for the arrival of their team leader. Sakura and Naruto crossed their fingers and hoped against hope that he would be on time for once, Tsunade had said that they need to leave at precisely 7:00 and it was only a couple minutes until then.

Just as the second hand on Sakura's watch reached 7:00, Kakashi appeared with a poof, he wasn't late for once, but he wasn't early either.

"Yo." The three just looked at him. "Alright, you all look to be ready, so let's go, we have a ways to go."

"Kakashi-senseii, exactly where are we going?" Sakura had been wondering since the morning.

"We are heading North for exactly one day." Was her answer.

"You mean we aren't going to a specific place?"

"Nope." He replied, obviously smiling at her confusion. "So, enough chit-chat, we need to be leaving." With that he took to the trees, pausing only a moment for his students to put on their packs and catch up to him before taking off again, this time going at a quick pace, one that they would have to work to keep up with.

After a few hours of traveling through the forest, they heard a sound that shook them from their grimly concentrated state. Naruto's stomach began growling, telling them all that it was a good time to set up camp, since a hungry Naruto would only hinder them. Kakashi went on for a few more minutes until he found a place that looked suitable enough for the night. The four dropped down and looked around, making sure that there were no enemies around before finally starting to set up a camp.

The boys sat around the newly stoked fire as Sakura prepared their dinner. Kakashi busied himself with rolling out bed mats, until Sasuke spoke up.

"Kakashi-senseii, the jutsus that will help us to find this key that Tsunade-san was talking about, are we going to able to do them on the first try?" Kakashi looked at him.

"Well, there really isn't the option to practice, so yes, you have to get it the first time or you will probably end up in the wrong place." The three chuunins looked startled. "However, this jutsu looks to be easy enough for you three to do it no problem. So, all we have to worry about is actually getting the key and bringing it back here. The children inwardly sighed, if Kakashi thought they could do it, then they had no doubts.

"I wonder what it is we have to bring back," Naruto started, "I bet it's some sort of wicked cool weapon, like a forbidden jutsu or something. Sasuke and Sakura once again shook their heads and just let Naruto continue his fantasizing. As the night was setting in, Sakura let out a yawn, it had been rather tiring keeping up with Kakashi through the forest, and she was dead sure that they would be getting up early tomorrow morning.

"I guess I'll get some sleep then." Sakura put away her dinner stuff and the stretched while walking over to where she would sleep. She was soon followed by Naruto and Sasuke as Kakashi, as usual, was to keep watch first.

The jounin settled himself on a tree branch, quickly pulling out Icha Icha paradise and turning to the page he had left off on. However, though the book remained open before him, he never left that page, wondering what Tsunade had put the four of them up against.


	2. Chapter 2

1Ok, here's chapter two...I have chapter three under way already so if you want it review!

Just as an FYI, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke are fourteen and they are all chuunins. Kakashi is twenty-eight. Ok, here ya go!

- - - - - - - - -

Shayla looked up at her house as she shut the trunk of her car. She couldn't believe she was actually going away, she was actually going to college. She wasn't really happy, exactly, but she was relieved. She knew that college would not get rid of her memories, would never change what had happened here. Even leaving for college wouldn't change her back to the carefree and happy girl she used to be. _But maybe getting away from this house will help me get away from the nightmares. _

She sighed as she looked back at her home. Her parents were both dead, and unfortunately they had left her their house...her house. She blinked back a tear,_ Never cry, never show that weakness to the world, that is how it knows to hurt you. _This was the mantra that she had been repeating to herself every time she even thought about crying. She hadn't let out a tear in years, she knew she couldn't.

Shayla mentally double-checked her list of things she was bringing to the dorm that was going to be her home for the next nine months, once she was sure she had not forgotten anything important, she got in the car. She slowly pulled out of the driveway, and as she turned the car and started to drive down the road, one sentence rang through her head like a bell: _Goodbye Mom and Dad, goodby everyone._

- - - - - - - - -

Team seven could see their target. It was moving swiftly, but the plan that they had come up with to stop it had already been placed into action. Further up the road Sakura waited in the bushes alongside the deserted road, waiting for the signal from her team leader. Kakashi was in the trees, keeping even with his target and preparing to give Sakura the signal.

Sasuke and Naruto were across the road from Sakura, ready to jump in and ambush the target once Sakura's move had been made. The team was working like a well-oiled machine, and Kakashi allowed himself a moment to feel pride in his students.

- - - - - - - - -

Shayla drove along her road. She rolled down the windows of her car and let the wind caress her face and blow through her long ponytail. She put in her favorite CD and turned to her favorite song: Breaking the Habit by Linkin Park.

As she turned the music up louder, she tried to drown out her thoughts, tried to break the habit that had become her life, hoping against hope that maybe this time, _Maybe this time I will find the answer. _But as usual she had no epiphany. There was no moment when she realized what was wrong in her life, no realization of the cure for her thoughts. _Not that it really matters...life is life and this is mine._ Shayla continued down the road. College was ahead of her, offering her a welcome distraction for the next four years. _Someone sharing my room and more people around...that's just what I need, _she thought sarcastically. As she let her mind wander to other thoughts and memories, she barely noticed something dart out in front of her car. She barely had time to think as she slammed the brakes and turned the wheel, trying not to hit the young girl that was too shocked to move. Shayla could only close her eyes and feel her heart sink as she heard the thud of impact.

- - - - - - - - -

_Eight days before..._

Kakashi and his team had awoken from their slumber in the woods and continued traveling as Tsunade had told them to. Once the time came when they were told to use the transportation jutsu, Kakashi made his three young team members do it one at a time until all three had gone. They had not gotten it in one try, but he hardly expected them to, nothing happened anyway. After a few minutes for each of them however, they had gone, leaving Kakashi alone to perform the jutsu. He suddenly appeared next to Sasuke, who was leaning against a tree in woods that seemed similar to yet different from those he had just left.

_I wonder where we are, exactly. I can't tell if we are still in Fire country or if we are in enemy territory. _He looked around uneasily.

"Nobody move." He quickly disappeared and circled the area for a hundred yard radius making sure that there were no booby traps. When he finally rejoined his students, he returned their questioning looks with a shrug.

"Just checking and making sure that there were no traps." He explained. "Lucky for us there weren't any. If we are truly lucky, no one will have realized yet that we are looking for this, object. We may even be able to avoid any unpleasant circumstances."

The three chuunins were relieved by their senseii's words and even relaxed a bit.

"So, Kakashi-senseii," Naruto spoke up, "where are we?" Sasuke and Sakura looked at Kakashi, expecting him to be at least vaguely familiar with the area they had ended up in.

"Actually Naruto," Kakashi grinned beneath his mask, "I have no idea."

Three jaws promptly dropped at this admission. They had never known their senseii not to know something about any predicament they found themselves in, so needless to say they were all shocked.

"Don't worry though, as soon as you three pull yourselves together and stop gawking then we can go about and _find out_ where we are. Don't forget, if you are ever in doubt about a location, the best thing to do is to explore what you can and find out what you can. So, since there aren't

any traps, I think it would be safe to split up into teams of two. Naruto and Sasuke you will go East," Kakashi pointed away from the setting sun, "Sakura and I will go West. While exploring, you are to draw a map of everything you see...every landmark, every village, everything. Sakura and I will be doing the same and when we return in," he looked at the sun, "two hours, we will put the two together and see what we can make out. So... go." Kakashi disappeared.

Naruto and Sasuke watched as Sakura also disappeared, no doubt trying to catch up to her partner. The two boys looked at each other for a few moments.

"You know," Sasuke began, "it's times like this that I wish you had the ability to make a simple map, much less the kind of detailed one that Kakashi-senseii wants us to make." Sasuke looked over at the other boy, waiting for him to take the bait...he did

"Wait a minute... I CAN MAKE A MAP YOU JACKASS!" Naruto grabbed an empty scroll and writing utensils before sprinting off, determined not to be outdone by Sasuke again.

Sasuke laughed to himself, he knew exactly how to push the other boy's buttons to make him actually concentrate and work, granted he usually had to taunt Naruto first, but that only made it more fun. Sasuke grabbed his own writing equipment and scroll before following Naruto, taking note of his surroundings as we went.

After two hours of exploring, team seven met back where they had started to look over the two maps. Kakashi and Sakura had encountered nothing but forest. They had diagramed where they had gone though, just in case. Naruto and Sasuke then reported what they had found in their exploration.

"Kakashi-senseii, umm, do you know of a country that has machines that move really, really fast?" Narauto asked nervously.

"Hm, what do you mean Naruto?"

"I mean, Sasuke and I went off in the direction that you told us to, and after a few kilometers, we came upon what looks like a road, only it was made of this weird, hard stuff. We stopped for a minute to look at it, and suddenly..." Naruto shuddered, earning a questioning look from Sakura and Kakashi.

"This machine appeared out of nowhere," Sasuke continued, "and we were still on the road, putting it down in our maps, here," he handed his map to Kakashi for him to look at it, "well, this machine was going pretty fast, and we expected it to slow down, seeing as how we were there, but it didn't. It started making this loud noise, and we kept waiting for it to stop or go around, but it didn't. In the end, we had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit, and it was going at least fifty miles an hour too. We would have died if we had not been able to get out of the way."

Kakashi started to think about what the boys had told him. After a few minutes, he came to a decision. "Ok, we're going to go take a look at this. Sasuke and Naruto, take us to this road you found."

The three chuunins found themselves staring at their leader for the second time that day.

"Well, let's go." Kakashi urged.

"Well, it's just that," Sakura started to put her two index fingers together, doing a fair imitation of Hinata when they had been at the academy together. "If Sasuke-kun and Naruto almost got killed there, wouldn't it make more sense to stay away from it?"

"No." The younger three obviously didn't understand.

"The fact that Naruto and Sasuke almost got killed tells us that wherever we are, the habitants patrol their roads constantly for strangers, and apparently they think little of killing those strangers. We are going to break camp and move closer to this road, so that we may observe it and see if we can find a pattern in their patrol so that if we need to make a move we won't be caught off guard." The younger three nodded in understanding.

"So get moving, we are still on a mission." They quickly set about puttting away all their equipment. A few moments later Sakura and Kakashi were following Naruto and Sasuke as they lead the way to the road.

_So, we are in a forest with an odd road through it. The enemy patrol the road and seemingly kill all foreigners. I should have expected something like this. Well, once we get to the road, I think it will be a good time to use that second jutsu. It seems the enemy has not realized that we have come for whatever it is we are looking for, and the faster we can get this thing, the faster and safer we can get home._

Sakura noticed that Kakashi had gotten more serious over the past couple of days. He hadn't even _attempted_ to get the best of them since they started on this mission. She could tell that he was tense.

_I wonder if we should be worried that he's so focused,...I mean, usually when we're on missions we can barely get him to look up from his stupid books. He's actually pretty...creepy like this. _Sakura repressed the urge to shiver slightly. _I guess this is what it's like when jounins are on their high class missions._

After a few minutes of running through the trees, Naruto and Sasuke stopped. Sakura came up next to them and looked down at the road. It was indeed weird. The road was a slight blue-ish grey color and there was no dust or stray leaves or sticks on it. The group jumped down to test it out and Sakura realized that the road was much harder and less forgiving than regular dirt roads.

_It's almost as if it's made out of stone,_ She thought.

Kakashi crouched down and put a hand on the road. It felt almost like rock, but it was smooth. He didn't know how it got this way, but he didn't have time to figure it out.

"Ok team," three sets of eyes looked at their senseii. "We cannot stay right here. From what Tsunade-sama said of the jutsu, we should be in the general vicinity of our target. So, before any more enemies come this way, I shall perform the second jutsu. I don't want to risk any of you as we don't know the exact effects of it." He looked warningly at Naruto, who was apparently about to protest.

"Now be quiet for a minute."

Kakashi took the scroll out of one of his vest pockets and looked at it with his normal eye. It was not very complicated really, but he wasn't lying when he said he would not risk one of his teammates to perform an unknown jutsu.

"Oh, and just for the future," he lazily looked over at the younger ninjas, "if anything happens to me on this mission, or if I tell you to, you three all have a copy Tsunade's reversal jutsu to get you home." His eye narrowed dangerously, "Use it."

Kakashi returned to the scroll as his students nodded their assent. Once he felt confident that he would not mess it up, Kakashi began the jutsu. As he neared the end, he began to feel something in the back of his head. It wasn't pain exactly, but it also wasn't comfortable. Kakashi finished the hand signs though, and as soon as he had finished the last one, the feeling in his head intensified.

_SHIT! _Kakashi grimaced and grabbed his head. There was a feeling of separation, as if half of himself had been torn out of his head and moved somewhere else. Kakashi grunted at the feeling, trying to get used to it, but it was another few minutes before he got hold of himself.

Kakashi breathed heavily, focusing his mind and exploring the feeling in the back of his mind. _This is...This is why it will lead us straight to the target, _he thought. _Part of my consciousness has been moved to it, I know it has. Luckily I can feel the direction it went in_.

He stood up and shook his head, turning slightly to look at his students. Sakura was shaking slightly and the two boys looked caught with indecision. He could tell that they had wanted to help him, but also that they wouldn't know how to or even if they should.

Kakashi could understand their dilemma, he usually showed no sign of any weakness, it must have shocked them thoroughly to see him like that. _At least we know where the target is now._ And he did. He could sense the part of his own mind that had left, for a part of his mind truly had left and traveled to the target. It was calling to him from the northwest, wanting to be rejoined with the rest of him.

"Ok, the target is to the northwest. I can't tell how far away it is, but once we reach it, I will be able to point it out."

"B-But Ka-Kakashi-senseii!" Sakura started, "You were just in pain! Are you sure we should be leaving already?"

"I'm fine Sakura, and while I appreciate your concern, we do have a mission to complete." His lone eye was unusually wide and focused, "Now, gather your things and follow me. Keep on the

lookout for enemies." With that he pocketed the scroll and once more took to the trees, leaving his students to follow suit.

Kakashi could feel that he was getting closer to the target by the second. They had only been running for two or three minutes and he knew they were almost there. As the feeling in his head dulled with the closeness to the rest of himself, Kakashi stopped suddenly. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura landed next to him on the same branch.

"Kaka-" Naruto was cut off by Kakashi's hand covering his mouth.

"Be absolutely silent." He whispered softly.

Sasuke and Sakura took that as a hint and quickly and silently melted into the shadows of the trees surrounding him. Naruto followed suit after a quick glance at what had stopped Kakashi.

Kakashi looked down at the sight before him. It was a small home with equally small side and back yards. Kakashi watched as a girl was walking up to it, about to enter._ Just what we need...more complications._ After the girl had disappeared, Kakashi quietly signaled to the three ninja around him. They all retreated until Kakashi had deemed them far enough away and stopped them.

"We are going to camp here for the remainder of our time in this land. Did all three of you see that girl back there?" He was met with three nods. "That was our target." Two sets of eyes widened while the third merely looked at the ground thinking.

"Ne, Kakashi-senseii?" Naruto was a bit confused. "I thought we were supposed to come here for a weapon?"

_It seems we misinterpreted the message. We thought we came here for a jutsu or a literal weapon. Apparently we were wrong. The weapon to taking out our enemy is a person, which means that this isn't simply stealing...this is a kidnapping mission._ Kakashi shook his head . There was no way he was wrong about this...as soon as he saw her, the jutsu that had split his consciousness had been dispelled, returning him to normal.

"Well Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura...it looks like that girl _was_ the weapon that we came here for. So, we are going to be here for a little while longer. We are going to have to kidnap her, because I am sure she will not come willingly. The best way to do this is to set up twenty-four hour surveillance. We are going to watch her for one week and by the end of it I want to know

everything we can find out about her. We will each take six hour surveillance shifts, and while we are not watching the target, I want you three exploring and taking notes on whatever you can. I will stay here between shifts and guard the camp as well as receive your end of duty reports."

The three chuunins nodded, agreeing with their leader. "Sasuke, you will take the noon to six p.m. shift." The Uchiha nodded. "Naruto, you will take the six p.m. to midnight shift, I will take the

midnight to six a.m. shift, and that leaves you with the six a.m. to noon shift." Kakashi finished looking at Sakura.

Kakashi looked at his watch. "We will start tonight, since it's almost midnight already, I will take the first watch. Now, before I go, I want you all to be clear. You are to report at the end of each and every shift. I want detailed descriptions of what the target does, what her daily routines are, the places she goes and the people she comes into contact with. Also, because we are going to be so close to the target, after the first two days of surveillance, we will attempt to go in the house to see what else we can find out about her."

Kakashi was proud of the determined looks on his students' faces. _Well at least I've done one thing right in this life._ He would never tell anyone this, but he was secretly glad that they had passed his test as Genins. He had come to realize that he really did enjoy having a hand in teaching the next generation of ninjas for his village, plus he could always find some amusement in the three children. Naruto and Sasuke were always at each other, and he could get a rise out of all three of them whenever he pulled out his Icha Icha books.

"Ok then, now that we are all clear on the expectations, you three need to get some sleep. Sakura, I will be waking you up in a little over six hours, so you especially need to rest." Kakashi vanished right after he said these words. He quickly returned to the tree they had hid in earlier, seeing as how it gave a clear view of the house and his target.

As Kakashi settled down on the branch, he reached into his pocket to pull out his long-neglected book, but as he did so, he realized that there was a light on in the house. He got up and pulled out his paper and writing utensils, getting ready to take down notes if necessary. He moved around so that he could get a better view of the room, ending up nearly in the top of the tree.

As he watched through the window, he saw that the girl had just gotten out of the shower and felt a slight blush crawl up his cheeks...she looked like one of the girls in his current Icha Icha book. She was tall, for a girl, about 5' 8" he guessed. She was pretty slim, but he could see that she didn't have much muscle. _How is she supposed to defeat this monster if she is so weak? _He watched and took notes as she took her towel off and used it to dry her shoulder-length black hair. He tried to ignore the fact that she was now wearing nothing, and though her back was facing him, he felt like he was intruding her personal privacy.

_Although it's not like I'm watching or ogling her,_ he thought, _I'm just observing her actions._ As he continued to jot down notes, she got dressed in a tank top and shorts. Her hair she flipped out behind her as she lay down and covered herself with her blanket. Kakashi settled himself on his branch as she settled into a light slumber...he could tell it was light by the fact that she continued to toss and turn in her sleep. He simply noted this and went back to his book.

- - - - - - - - -

At almost six o'clock, Kakashi realized that he would have to leave his post to wake Sakura, and in the time he left to the time the pink-haired girl got here, they would miss about fifteen minutes of observation time, which could be crucial. He sighed before raising his head with a thought. He jumped down to the ground, did a few quick hand seals and then bit the skin at the tip of his thumb, letting a drop of blood form there before pressing his hand to the ground. Suddenly his dog, Pakkun, appeared, apparently awake and cranky because of his master's call.

"What do you need _this _early Kakashi?" the dog asked, obviously irritable, "And please tell me that it won't be long, because if it will, the wife's gonna have my hide."

"It won't take long Pakkun, just can you go over to where my students and I have been camping, and wake up Sakura?"

"Hmm...the pink-haired one? Fine, but if she is as grumpy when she wakes up this time as she was the last time I woke her up, then you will owe me big time."

"Fine, fine, although I doubt she will be very cranky, I told her I would be waking her up this early. She should be expecting it."

Pakkun grumbled as he walked away, disappearing quickly in the underbrush. Kakashi turned back to his target as he waited for Sakura to arrive. His shift had been relatively quiet. Aside from continued muttering in her sleep, his target stayed asleep the whole night, leaving his notepaper almost blank and his mind filled with the most recently read pages of Icha Icha Paradise.

After a few minutes Sakura appeared on the branch next to him.

"Pakkun is down on the ground Senseii" Sakura told him as she wiped sleep from her eyes. Kakashi nodded. He did few quick hand signs and dispelled Pakkun.

"The target is right there," he pointed in the window at the girl's sleeping figure. "Have fun, I'll send some breakfast around in about an hour or so, and then Sasuke will be here at noon to relieve you." Sakura nodded as she woke up a little.

"Ok Kakashi-senseii." As Sakura turned to face the window and start her own six hour shift Kakashi left, intending to wake up Sasuke. Naruto would need more sleep because he had a later shift, but Sasuke had the chance to get something done.

When Kakashi reached the camp he set about starting a fire and getting breakfast ready. As the food was almost done, he walked over and shook the boys until they woke. As they got up slowly and looked around Kakashi shoved food into their hands. The two boys started to eat.

"Sasuke," Sasuke looked up at him, "Today you are to start exploring. I want you to go down the road that the target lives on and follow it in the woods. As you go, take notes on everything,

_everything_ you see. Be back by quarter of twelve so that you can report and still relieve Sakura." Sasuke nodded.

"Naruto," the blonde boy cringed, expecting to receive an assignment like Sasuke's, "Take this to Sakura." The jounin was handing him a bowl of food. "If you go back to the tree by the house where we hid ourselves yesterday, you'll find her pretty high up. When you come back and finish your own breakfast, however," Naruto cringed again, "I need you to get back to sleep." Naruto looked like Christmas had come early.

"Are you serious Kakashi-senseii!" Naruto started to jump up and down before Kakashi finished his statement.

"Because you only have another four hours to sleep before you get up for good and you're going to need it since you will be up until midnight." The look of happiness that had appeared across Naruto's face vanished as Kakashi continued. He hung his head slightly before taking Sakura's food to her.

Kakashi and Sasuke continued to eat in silence. When he had finished Sasuke got up and gathered his note-taking material and walked off to the east. Kakashi watched him go before finishing his own breakfast. He decided that before he went to bed he would try to find a stream or a body of water, someplace they could refill their water containers when they run out. It took a little while, and the small pond that he found was farther away than he would have liked, but Kakashi hadn't sensed any enemy ninja since they had arrived, and he rather doubted that they would have to worry about being attacked.

_I don't know why, but there is just something about this place that makes me relax a little bit. I haven't sensed any chakra or hostile presences anywhere near here for the past day. _He shrugged and put his hands in his pockets.

When Kakashi returned to the camp he saw that Naruto had fallen back asleep. He walked over to where his own bedroll lay. He had only a few hours before Sasuke came back and he had to wake up Naruto. He lay down, preparing for a light sleep. Putting his arm over his eye he let sleep envelop him and was soon lost to the world.

- - - - - - - - -

Sasuke was, needless to say, a bit overwhelmed. He had done as he was told and followed the road while staying hidden in the trees. For a few miles there was nothing, but then he came to a place where the road he had been following met another. Sasuke marked the tree he was next to and then marked the new road on a make-shift map in his notes. He followed this new road, however after a short period of time he heard a somewhat familiar sound. Sasuke froze as the sound of the ninja-machines came up the road behind him. He hoped that he wouldn't be discovered, but as the machine got closer, he realized something he had overlooked last night: _He could not sense any chakra at all from this machine. _

_That must mean that it truly is only a machine, which makes it as dangerous to me as I am to it. _Sasuke watched as it followed the road to wherever it was going. He also put down his thoughts onto his notepaper and his final observation: "The machines seem to stay to the roads and don't care to patrol the woods." Sasuke waited until the machine was a ways away before continuing on his way. He traveled for another half hour in the treetops before seeing something that made him stop. The only way to keep moving forward was to come out in the open, because he had come to the end of the trees and reached the village.

- - - - - - - - -

After two days of observing their target, Team seven had found out a lot about the place they had ended up in. Sakura's first report brought the most information about the girl, describing how she woke early and then got into one of the ninja-machines that had almost killed Naruto and Sasuke. They also followed her where she went, to various stores and buildings, but it seemed as though she spent most of her time at her house, where she lived apparently alone. They also realized to their dismay that the target and the people of this country spoke a different language.

_Things just have to be complicated, huh? _Kakashi asked himself. _It just can never be easy. How is she supposed to help us if we can't understand each other?_

Sasuke's first report from exploring was also very helpful. The sheer size of the village they were in astounded the ninjas, that it had no walls around it and was partially within the forest itself. Sasuke had also made note of the buildings he had seen. They seemed to be much more advanced than he was used to, with lights and strange writings on them, not to mention that there were many people and many more ninja machines than he had ever thought possible.

As Kakashi had sorted through all the information he was brought he shared his thoughts with his students as they had all met on the tree branch used to observe their target.

"It seems that this girl we are after lives alone, which is good because then people won't notice her missing until after we are long gone. Also, these machines that we have been watching seem not to be dangerous per say, it just seems like a mode of transportation, a very effective one at that."

"Then why did one almost kill Sasuke and I our first night here?" Naruto demanded.

"I do not know, but it is most likely that the person inside it did not see you two until it was too late. The loud noise was probably an alarm telling you to get out of the way, seeing as how many people get in front of them and yet nothing happens." They nodded as he continued, "it will probably be very easy to capture her, because as you may have noticed, she doesn't have a lot of strength and no training on self-defense or anything." More nodding.

"Tomorrow we will try to enter the house, the target usually sleeps between eleven-thirty and midnight, so we will begin infiltration at twelve-thirty." Kakashi laid down a rough blueprint of the house, "Sasuke, you will enter here in the back," Kakashi pointed out a small bathroom window, "you will cover the bottom floor of the house. Take notes on what you find as you have

been doing. Naruto and Sakura, you will stand watch at the usual post, if the target should wake up, you need to let Sasuke and I know. I will enter the house here on the top floor," Kakashi pointed to a window at the opposite end of the house from the target's room, "I will cover the top floor. We will stay in for only thirty minutes. Once thirty minutes is up, we will meet in the tree with Sakura and Naruto." Team seven nodded. Kakashi looked at his watch and sighed. "Ok, Naruto you stay here since this is your shift." Naruto nodded. Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura returned to camp, where Sakura set about making dinner and Kakashi sat down to read his book. This was his second time reading it since he started this mission.

_This girl, I honestly don't know how we are going to defeat this enemy with her. She is weak and untrained, and she won't be able to understand anything we say. Then, because she's so old, it will be a long and difficult process training her, if we even are able to. Plus, she will probably resent the fact that we are going to kidnap her, and unfortunately that could make an enemy out of her, in which case this mission would be a complete and utter failure. _Kakashi sighed inwardly. _And to top it all off, I don't even know how we are going to get her back to Konoha with that jutsu of Tsunade's when she has had no ninja training and I cannot even sense her chakra. This is going to be a lot harder than I thought._

- - - - - - - - -

It was another four days until Kakashi thought about the problem of getting his target to Konoha. After he and Sasuke had gotten into the target's house to look around, and upon seeing the nearly bare house filled with packed boxes, they realized that she was preparing to move. A calendar hanging on the wall confirmed that her departure date was five days later. Kakashi had cursed inwardly at the time limit set, knowing that now they had a very limited chance of doing this, because she would be on her guard and distrusting after the first attack, so they had to be successful the first time.

As their seventh day in this strange country drew to a close, Kakashi still hadn't come up with an idea on how to get the girl back to Konoha, so, he called a meeting.

"Ok, we have all the information we need, so we will no longer be doing round the clock surveillance." His students looked relieved at this news. "However, as we have all noticed, we cannot sense the chakra of the people living here, as well as the target, and so we are faced with a problem. We cannot return to Konoha without her, and she cannot do the jutsu herself, because she lacks the presence and control of chakra. So, we need to find a way of enabling her to use chakra and doing the jutsu."

Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto looked dumbfounded. They hadn't even thought of this problem, nor had they ever heard of someone doing a jutsu with no knowledge or control of their chakra. They quickly started running ideas through their heads, and after a few minutes, Sakura looked up.

"Senseii, I have a theory." Kakashi looked at her and nodded for her to continue. "Well, when I go to the hospital to train with Tsunade-sama, well, the healing skills that I learn involve me letting my own chakra flow into a patient to heal them." Kakashi nodded as she spoke. "Well, what I was thinking, is that, maybe...maybe if I put the right amount of chakra into the target and let it flow to the right space, if she were able to do the hand signs, then my chakra could act as hers, maybe."

Kakashi lowered his head and thought. _Well, I don't think anyone has ever tried this, _he glanced at Naruto, _but then again, if Naruto is able to use the chakra of the nine-tails fox, I don't see why this plan shouldn't work either. _He looked up at Sakura, who was waiting to hear his opinion.

"Ok, that may work. Here's what we are going to do then."

- - - - - - - - -

Kakashi was once again in the tree branch they had been frequenting this past week. He watched as the target loaded her machine with boxes until it could fit no more. He knew that his students were hidden further up the road in the woods. Because the target lived at the end of a loosely populated road, they had managed to find a place where there were no houses and no one to watch them carry out their plan. He watched as the target looked back at the house for a final time and then got into her machine. As she moved away from her house and started to turn, Kakashi took off, making sure that he kept even with the girl as she headed towards where his team was waiting.

After a few minutes, Kakashi could see the stretch of road on which the were to put their plan into action. He pulled a kunai out of his holder and threw it, knowing that Sakura would see it land on the ground near her and know what to do.

Once Sakura saw the flash of gold in the sun and heard the sound of metal hitting stone she immediately made a shadow clone and sent it out into the path of the target. She watched as the machine started to stop and tried to turn, but her clone had appeared too close to it to avoid being hit. Sakura heard the thud and the customary poof that told her the machine had really hit the clone. She then watched the target carefully in the machine.

T

he girl had closed her eyes, but once the machine stopped she had opened them and quickly gotten out of it. She was obviously going to check to see whether the "person" she had it was ok, and that was what team seven had been counting on.

Three chuunins quickly jumped from their hiding places and made a circle around the target. The girl was confused and obviously distraught at the thought that she had hit someone. However, fear was quickly added to her face as she caught sight of the kunais in the hands of the attackers and the grim look of determination on their faces.

- - - - - - - - -

Shayla couldn't move. She had left her car to see if the child she had hit was ok, and before she knew it she was surrounded by three kids, all holding oddly shaped knives and looking at her. She couldn't tell what they wanted, but she knew that it wasn't good. Before they had a chance to attack, she reached quickly into her pursed and pulled out her mace, pointing it at the blonde boy directly in front of her. Unfortunately her movements only seemed to make them attack.

Shayla sprayed the blonde boy directly in the eyes and he quickly dropped his knife to clutch at his eyes. When he had done this, she lunged forward to grab his weapon and dodge the other two attackers at the same time, but instead of avoiding them, she felt a foot come in contact with her stomach. Shayla lay on the ground winded and watched as the girl she had thought to have hit with her car checked on the boy she had hit with her mace. The other boy that had attacked her was out of her sight, and just as she was wondering where he had gone, she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head and darkness took over her mind.

- - - - - - - - -

Kakashi had watched the little scene below him, trying to assess the skills of the girl they had come for. _Well, she is a quick thinker it seems, knowing to go for Naruto's weapon when he dropped it, but still, she's a complete beginner._ He dropped down to the road.

"Naruto, are you ok?" The girl had sprayed something in his eyes that had made him drop his weapon.

"MY EYES STING SO BAD, WHAT THE HELL DID SHE SPRAY AT ME?" Naruto was still rubbing his eyes, wiping away tears as the fell and Kakashi noticed that they were starting to turn red.

"Sakura, take him to the pond where we have been getting our water and help him rinse his eyes out." Sakura nodded and lead Naruto off by the hand. Kakashi turned to Sasuke. "We are going to have to move her before anyone comes along and sees us." Kakashi stooped down and picked up the limp girl.

"Kakashi-Senseii?" Kakashi turned and looked at the boy. "Should we leave all of this here?" He indicated the machine full of the target's possessions.

Kakashi thought for a moment. "Get it off to the side of the road and then bury it."

Sasuke nodded. He pushed the machine into the woods, which was relatively easy because of the wheels on it. He then did a set of quick hand seals before the machine was swallowed by the earth. There was no sign that there had ever been a struggle here. Once he had finished, Sasuke headed back to the camp where Kakashi had brought the target.

Naruto and Sakura arrived shortly after Sasuke. Naruto's eyes were still red and he was still rubbing them, but at least he could see again. They took notice of their target, who was laying on the ground by the fire. She was still out cold.

"Ok, team, we are going to break camp and then use Tsunade's jutsu to bring us back to Fire country. Sakura, are you going to have enough chakra for the both of you?" The kunoichi nodded at Kakashi, and he did the same back.

"Ok, after we have cleared this place up, Sakura you will let your chakra be used as hers, and I will make the seals with her hands. Be careful though, manipulating her hands to form seals will take much longer than if one of you were doing it on your own." Sakura nodded again. "Well then, lets break up this camp then, shall we?"

Five minutes later the four ninjas were left in the middle of the forest around the girl they had kidnapped. Sakura and Kakashi were both kneeling on opposite sides of her.

"Now, you know how much chakra you will need, but remember that you must focus it evenly throughout her whole body or she will not go." Sakura nodded. "Ok, as long as we're clear then. Naruto and Sasuke, you go first so that you can protect the target when she arrives after you. Sakura, you will go once we have sent her, and then I will go." Naruto and Sasuke nodded and then both performed the jutsu. It was nearly the same as the one that had brought them here, so they got it on the first try this time. Once they had gone, Kakashi nodded at Sakura.

Sakura put her hands on the girls shoulders. She concentrated all of her chakra and let it flow into the girl as she had done many times at the hospital. Once she was sure that the necessary amount of chakra was dispersed equaly throughout the body, she looked at Kakashi, who understood her signal and began to make the hand seals with the girl's hand. As he finished the last one, she disappeared. Kakashi looked at Sakura, who was panting slightly from the effort.

"Good job Sakura. You will be able to do it yourself now?"

"Hai senseii." Sakura then brought her hands together and focused her chakra inside herself. She quickly did the necessary seals and vanished, a moment later Kakashi followed suit.

- - - - - - - - -

When the jutsu wore off, Kakashi found himself, surprisingly, outside the gates of Konoha. _Tsunade must had put this as the destination, seeing as how it was impossible to tell where we had left from. _

His students stood to the side, Naruto holding the girl they had brought back with them. They had obviously waited for him, even though they were so close to the village, which was good because he had not wanted the girl to be seen by anyone in the village. He cocked his head to the side, thinking for a minute.

Kakashi reached into his backpack and pulled out the blanket from his bedroll. He carefully put it over the girl, covering her from head to toe. When his students looked at him with a question in their eyes he answered.

"Because." With that he started walking toward the village.

The three looked like they'd been hit before straightening up and falling into step behind him, Naruto carrying the now-covered girl. It was just after noon, so he lead them into the ninja headquarters and straight to the Hokage's office. They could tell that she was in a meeting, but Kakashi wanted to make an entrance...he couldn't help himself, he just loved to catch people off-guard.

The three chuunins watched as their senseii walked without hesitation up to the Hokage's door and without so much as a knock he entered. They were a bit shocked, since you never disrupt Tsunade-sama in case she's in a top-secret meeting, but they followed their senseii's lead and walked in right behind him. The sight that met their eyes shocked them so much Naruto almost dropped the girl. He recovered quickly though, and turned his attention to the scene around him.

Tsunade, as soon as she realized that someone was entering her office, had sent Genma, who was in a meeting with her, to the door to subdue whoever it was, but they had not been expecting Kakashi. Genma had attempted to subdue the fellow jounin, but Kakashi was better and was currently sitting on his back and it looked like he would have taken out Icha Icha except for the fact that Genma had started to yell and Tsunade was trying to get Kakashi off of Genma and silence him at the same time.

"QUIET GENMA!" Said ninja abruptly stopped yelling. "Kakashi, can you please get off of Genma and take a seat. You three too, take a seat," she said to Kakashi's students. "Genma, we will have to finish this later, I must debrief Kakashi and his students. I will send for you when I have finished." Genma grumbled under his breath as he nodded, throwing Kakashi a dirty look as he left the room.

"Now, needless to say you surprised me, I had no idea when you would be returning." Kakashi's eye didn't lose it's droopy expression as he nodded. "Now, I assume that since you are all unhurt I can expect that the mission went better than expected and you have the weapon?" Kakashi nodded again, this time joined by his students. "Well, where is it?"

"It's right here baa-san," Naruto said as he lifted the girl a little higher. Tsunade was obviously angered by his usual "old lady" comment but decided that she would punish him later. _Right now we need to focus on the weapon_. She thought as she looked at it. The weapon was still covered by Kakashi's blanket, so she couldn't see what it was.

"Well, take the blanket off please." Naruto looked like he was going to follow through with this request, but Sakura beat him to it, knowing that Naruto would drop the girl if he tried to do it. As the blanket was pulled back and fell to the floor, Tsunade let out a shocked gasp and fell back into her chair.


	3. Chapter 3

1Umm, sorry for the obvious lapse in brain activities...it's just been a while since I wrote a fic that I completely forgot to put a disclaimer in the first two chapters...oops. Well here it is.

Unfortunately (very, very unfortunately) I do not own, or have any sort of claim whatsoever, to the sexiness that is Hatake Kakashi... or I would not have to read or write stories about him. I also do not own anything in this story except the new enemy and the OC. But I wish I did...mmm silver haired ninja...

Ok, enough of that...here's the story.

- - - - - - - - -

Tsunade was shocked speechless. If it had been a less serious moment, Kakashi would have grinned under his mask, but as it was...

"Baa-san, you should see the look on your face!" As he should have expected, Naruto had spoken up loudly and started laughing, causing Tsunade to snap out of her surprise.

"But, but that's a girl!"she exclaimed. Kakashi nodded his head and said nothing. "I thought I sent you to bring back a weapon?"

"It seems this is the weapon Tsunade-senseii," Sakura said, addressing her. "Kakashi-senseii used the jutsu you gave him, and he said that this girl was what we had been sent to get." Tsunade looked at Kakashi, who nodded, confirming what Sakura had just said.

"Well..." Tsunade paused for a moment, looking at the three chuunins, "I'm sure you three have had quite the week and are in need of some rest and time to yourselves, so Naruto, if you could just lay the, um, girl on the couch over there," She waved to the couch that sat beneath the window, "you three are dismissed." Naruto looked indignant at not being able to stay around for Tsunade's discussion with Kakashi, but a look from his teacher told him that he wasn't to argue. He sighed as he put the girl onto the couch as gently as he could, which ended up not being so gentle, and then grumbled as he left the room, closing the door behind him.

Once the chuunins had left Tsunade turned to Kakashi.

"Well?" Kakashi raised his eyebrow at her question. "What happened?"

Kakashi sighed before answering. "Well, the jutsus worked like you said they would and brought us to where we needed to be, and they led us straight to the target, who happened to be this girl. We watched her for a week," Kakashi reached into his backpack and took out all of the maps and reports he and his team had written the past week, "these are maps and written observations of her and her country, I think you'll find some interesting things in here." Tsunade looked at him questioningly as she took the scrolls. Kakashi merely shrugged, "You'll see."

Tsunade sighed as she scanned the information quickly.

"One thing though," Tsunade looked up at Kakashi, "as we've written in our reports, she is pretty weak, compared to most of us, she doesn't speak our language and has no knowledge or control of chakra or fighting techniques or anything. However, she does seem to have a knack for it. She managed to take out Naruto when he, Sasuke and Sakura surrounded her. If you plan on training her as a shinobi you're probably going to have to start her at academy-level and hope she learns quickly." Tsunade nodded as Kakashi stood and prepared to leave.

"Wait, Kakashi-san, before you go, could you please take her to the hospital? Tell Shizune that I said she needs a bed right away because we don't know when she will wake up." Kakashi nodded. He headed over to the girl and lifted her up. He nodded goodbye to Tsunade as he left her office.

Kakashi dropped the girl off at the hospital, leaving Tsunade's message with Shizune and then made his way to the memorial stone.

_It's been a week since I've visited you old friend, _Kakashi stared at his ex-teammate's name, _it seems like I'll be joining you soon, if what Tsunade says is true. This new enemy is supposedly stronger than Orochimaru, and the only defense we can hope for is a girl who must learn years worth of stuff in a limited amount of time. Plus, she doesn't speak our language. _Kakashi shook his head, _This is going to be a challenge...I wonder what Tsunade will do._

Kakashi turned away from the stone and headed to his home. He passed the training grounds where he had first met his students and smiled to himself, remembering them so long ago. _Such children...they really do grow up too fast in this village, _he thought with sadness, _everybody does._

_- - - - - - -_

Shayla stirred slightly. She was very warm, and could hear birds outside. She smiled as she opened her eyes. As she took in her surroundings, however, her smile quickly disappeared.

_Where am I? _She thought frantically, _I remember being attacked by those kids...Oh my God, did they kidnap me? Shit, where am I?_

Shayla looked around at the room she was in. _It looks like a hospital, but...I'm not hurt...I can move around just fine...I don't understand. Why would they bring me here...what could they want from me? _Shayla sat back against the wall, wracking her brain for reasons that anyone would want to kidnap her.

_I'm not rich, I don't have any family, no enemies...I'm not exceptionally gifted at anything. Why? _As she sat thinking, the door on the other side of the room slid open and a young blonde woman stepped into the room. Shayla looked at her, trying to decide whether this woman was an enemy or a friend.

_She's either the one in charge and has come to tell me why I'm here, or she is someone who has been put in charge of checking on me to see if I was awake. _When the woman stepped in and silently took the seat next to Shayla's bed, she figured that based on this woman's air of importance this was the person who was in charge. The woman started to talk, but she spoke in a language that the girl didn't understand.

I don't understand what you are saying. Shayla said. She knew that this woman wouldn't understand her, but she said it anyway, as a hint to get her to realize the language barrier. Shayla crossed her arms and glared at the woman, silently seething and promising not to cooperate with her.

_If she does want something, it's probably illegal or she wouldn't have kidnapped me. And because they did take me, it's probably something that only I can do seeing as how I am not extraordinary at anything. And if I am special to them, depending on how bad they need whatever it is done, they will not let me go or kill me. They need me._

Tsunade stared at the girl. She had a determined face and an attitude that obviously said she would not cooperate. _This is going to be tough...Shit. _Tsunade sighed. _The first thing we've gotta do is get her a place to stay and somehow teach her our language...or get someone who can learn hers..._Tsunade mentally made a list of all the ninjas she knew that might be able to do this task. There weren't many.

_That leaves Sakura, Neji, Kurenai or Iruka maybe..._Tsunade's eyes snapped open, _Ino! With her mind transfer technique, it may be possible for her to teach the girl our language directly. But wait, she's on a mission right now...she's not even scheduled to be back until the day after tomorrow. Damnit._ Tsunade sighed and she shook her head to herself. _Kurenai is on that same mission too...We could try Sakura, but I doubt this girl will cooperate with one of the people who kidnapped her. I'll try it and see for sure, of course... she may have forgotten about Sakura, but realistically I'll have to wait for Ino to come back. _

Shayla watched as the woman thought. She was obviously trying to figure something out, something that wasn't being resolved as easily as she thought it would. _Probably me. Too bad for her they kidnapped someone that doesn't understand them. Haha, serves them right._ Shayla didn't have much time to gloat though, the blonde woman had stood up and appeared to be about to leave. She walked to the door before turning around and pointing at herself.

"Tsunade." She pointed at Shayla, but when she received no answer she merely turned and left, shutting the door behind her.

Shayla sat on the bed for a second, wondering what was going to happen to her, but soon after Tsunade had left the room, the door opened again. This time, the woman who entered was wearing a white apron over her clothes, giving her the appearance of being a nurse. She was carrying a clipboard and a hospital gown as she approached the young girl on the bed.

The medic handed the gown to the girl, "Please change into this." The patient gave her a blank look, obviously not understanding the command. The young medic put the gown in the girl's hand and pulled the curtain around the bed, leaving Shayla alone to change her clothes. After a few minutes, the medic noticed that the girl hadn't moved. She peeked around the curtain and the girl was still sitting in the same position, but the gown had been placed on the pillow and she looked determined not to change her clothes.

The medic sighed, realizing that she would have to do this the hard way. She stepped closer to the bed and reached out, taking the girl's slender wrist into her hand. She saw light blue eyes widen before sending chakra into the girl and knocking her unconscious. As her patient slumped over on the bed the medic sighed._ Why don't people ever cooperate?_

The young medic quickly changed the girl into the hospital gown, neatly folding her clothes and putting them in a pile next to the bed. She then started her examination. She put her hands on either side of the girl's temples, letting a small amount of chakra flow into her. She then sent the chakra throughout the girl's body, noting everything that could be fixed.

_Let's see, she's got a sprain in her left wrist, the left knee has been dislocated and hasn't healed right, the bones and muscles of her back have been jarred out of place and haven't been fixed, other than that though, she seems to be fine. _The medic quickly jotted notes on the girl's condition on the clipboard before returning to her patient. This time, she put her hands over each of the places that the girl needed work on before releasing her chakra. She strengthened the knee and wrist joints of the young girl before turning her over onto her stomach.

This time, instead of using just her chakra, the medic began by massaging her patient's back. As she felt the muscles yielding under her hands, she sent out short bursts of chakra to put the vertebrae back into position. The whole process took about ten minutes, and then the medic turned the girl onto her back and covered her with the blanket.

As she left the room writing on the clipboard, the medic wondered to herself who the girl was and what the Hokage wanted with her.

- - - - - - - - -

Shayla woke with a start hours later. As she looked around warily she saw that Tsunade had returned and was sitting in the chair next to her bed. Shayla looked at her, wondering why she was there again, and then noticed that she was not wearing her clothes but the hospital gown that other woman had brought in her. Her fists clenched as she remembered the nurse from before.

_She fucking knocked me out and changed my clothes! Where the hell does she get off doing that! _As Shayla stewed over the indignity of the nurse doing stuff to her without permission and while she was unconscious, Tsunade cleared her throat. When she had the attention of the young girl on the bed she held out a tray that had been resting on the table. Shayla looked at it cautiously, wondering what was in it.

Tsunade understood Shayla's caution and lifted the lid from the tray, exposing the food that she had brought, assuming that the girl was hungry. Shayla still eyed it warily, not sure whether to take it. She could feel the pangs of hunger, but she wanted this woman to get the message that she didn't trust her.

The girl crossed her arms and looked away, _She obviously isn't going to cooperate easily, if at all. I just hope Ino comes back on time...we really need to be able to talk to this girl and explain everything to her before we completely turn her against us._

Tsunade sighed and replaced the lid on the tray, "Well, it will be here for awhile, so if you get hungry later..." She knew that the girl couldn't understand the words, but she hoped that her tone and voice could convey the message she wanted sent. She sat back against the chair. It was now around eight-thirty in the evening, and the strange girl was still staring out the window. Tsunade took a moment to take in her appearance.

_Like Kakashi said, there doesn't seem to be too much muscle on her. _The girl was about average size, but seeing the lack of muscle, she doubted the girl was very physically fit. She was about 5'8" with black hair that came up just above her shoulder, _Odd...her hair seems a bit...almost too dark, and it doesn't really match her complexion either, which is too bad, because she could be very pretty if not for the hair. _She was very pale, a sure sign that she spent very little time outdoors, with a light smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose. The girl turned, feeling Tsunade's eyes.

The blue eyes that met her own shocked Tsunade, she stopped breathing for a minute before she could regain her composure. Her eyes were the most intense yet lightest shade of blue Tsunade had ever seen, holding a swirling mass of countless emotions but at the same time, an expression that Tsunade knew far too well. _That's the one that all shinobi have, the look that comes from seeing death and coming back to tell the tale._ Tsunade sighed as she looked out the window and the girl did the same.

"It's beautiful, ne?" She received a blank stare. "This village, it is called Konohagakure, the hidden village of leaf. It is very beautiful, I think."

Shayla rested her chin on her hands, which in turn rested on her knees. Tsunade was talking, but she didn't know what the woman was saying. She had returned to looking out the window and ignored Tsunade.

_This seems like a very quaint little town, with its dirt roads and little buildings. It's a shame more places in the world aren't like this, it seems like a total sanctuary almost, like if you're here you don't have to worry about getting hurt. It's almost surreal. _Tsunade stopped talking and the two females satin silence for a while. Then, when she realized that it was almost ten already, Tsunade moved to get up.

"I have to go now, but I will be returning tomorrow." There was no response. "Goodbye then." Tsunade turned and left as silently as she had earlier that morning, once more leaving Shayla to her thoughts. As she continued staring out the window, Shayla saw something a little odd, but almost smiled, remembering herself as a child.

There, walking almost directly under her window was a person. She couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman, because they were wearing a mask that covered all but the right eye. This person was walking down the street, completely oblivious to everything except the little orange book in their hand. Memories started to play across her mind as she remembered doing almost the exact same thing as a child, with different books of course. She remembered how her parents had warned her that doing that will cause her to walk into things, but she never cared.

Her warmth soon turned into coldness as she remembered her parents. She quickly tore herself away from the window and lay down. As she willed herself to sleep and forget, she fought to hold back tears. _No. No. No. No tears, don't be weak. You have to be strong now and crying over the past won't fix it. _As she calmed down a bit and started to drift off to sleep, Shayla's heart clenched.

- - - - - - - - -

Shayla woke once more to sunlight and birds chirping, and once more this serene environment did nothing to touch her. She rolled over and tried as hard as she could to fall back asleep, but when that didn't happen she settled on staring at the ceiling, tracing patterns with her eyes.

At the same time that Shayla was staring at the ceiling in her hospital room, the Hokage was in her office debriefing a very loud, very blonde kunoichi.

"As you can see from the reports Hokage-sama, the mission went smoothly and we were one hundred percent successful." Ino said to a nodding Tsunade.

"Good, very good Ino, however, I must ask you one thing." The smile that had been on Ino's face vanished at Tsunade's serious tone.

"Yes, Hokage-sama?"

"With your mind transfer technique, am I correct in assuming that you can not only take information from someone but give it to them as well?"

"Well, it takes more chakra to give information than take it, but yes, I can. Why? Do you have another mission for me already?"

"Well, in a sense I do, but you don't need to leave the village for it." Ino looked confused. "Let's just say that as part of a mission, team Kakashi brought back a person, and this person does not speak our language." Ino still looked confused for a minute, but Tsunade could tell that she realized what was being asked of her when she took in a breath and sighed.

"Oh. So, you want me to give them our language then?"

"Precisely." Ino thought for a moment, trying to assess how much chakra she would need for such a project.

"Well, Hokage-sama, I will most likely have to do it a little at a time. A language is a very large thing, and I don't have enough chakra to do it all in one sitting." Tsunade nodded in understanding.

"That's fine, just as long as you can do it." Ino nodded. "Good, let's see, it's now ten-fifteen. Meet me in the lobby of the hospital at noon and we'll start." Once again Ino nodded, and recognizing the dismissal she turned and left the room.

_Well, this is going good...not only does she come back early, but she can do this. Hopefully she can get a good amount into that girl's mind before she has to rest, I really need to talk to her to sort out this mess._

At precisely twelve o'clock that afternoon, Tsunade met Ino in the lobby of the hospital. After a nod to each other, Tsunade led the way to the hospital room where the girl was kept. As they were walking up the stairs, Ino's curiosity got the better of her.

"Hokage-same, why did Kakashi-san and his team have to bring someone back as part of their mission, if I may ask?"

"Let's just say that we need something from this person."

"But, they do not speak our language...did Kakashi have to go far to find this person then?" Tsunade did not answer, in all honesty she didn't know how far away the girl's homeland was, and she didn't want to lie to Ino, so she kept quiet.

"Hokage-sama?"

"Let's just say that I've told you all I can about Kakashi and his team's mission." Ino nodded and fell silent, following Tsunade down the practically empty hallway. It wasn't until they reached the absolute last room in the corridor did Tsunade stopped.

_It's almost as if this person must be kept away from everyone else, like they're dangerous or something._ Ino prepared herself as Tsunade slid open the door and entered the room, but she was not expecting to see the person who was occupying it.

_The Hokage needs something from this girl? She is so...ordinary looking, I wonder what Konoha could need from her._ Ino shut the door as she stepped into the room.

"Ino, this is the girl who needs to learn our language. She hasn't told us anything, naturally because she can't understand me and vice versa, although if she doesn't know my name then she's an idiot. Basically she has been staying here for almost two days, she hasn't eaten or spoken...she just seems to ignore the people who come in here and stare out the window. Although, I got the feeling yesterday that she didn't much like me."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it turns out that Kakashi's team had to kidnap her, and she obviously isn't very happy about it."

"Oh...I see." Ino looked at the girl who was staring out the window. She hadn't moved at all except to turn her head to see who had come in, but as soon as she had seen Tsunade the girl turned back to the window.

"Ok, Hokage-sama, when I go into her mind, I'm going to need you to watch my body, just in case. I shouldn't be in there for a very long time, but I will do as much as I can at once." Tsunade nodded as Ino sat on the floor. After a few hand seals from the girl, Ino's body slumped over onto the floor. Tsunade turned it onto it's back so that it could get air before looking over at the unknown girl.

Ino knew that it would be tough to implant something into someone's mind even before she entered the strange girl's head, as she had used this same technique many times in missions to cover her trail, and she knew that implanting a language would be even more difficult. As she set to her task though, she encountered something she had never seen before in anyone else.

Normally, when Ino took over someone's mind, she could access certain parts of the brain, and she had had to go into people's long term memory many times to obtain information. Usually, she didn't have to worry about leaving an imprint of herself as she did this, because it is a known fact that people must do things many times before it is committed to long term memory. This girl, however, was the exact opposite.

_This is not possible! Her mind is...amazing, simply amazing. _Ino quickly realized that she had to be careful with her own thoughts, because anything that she thought right now would be left in the girl's permanent memory, so she focused her mind on language. Because she didn't have to repeat everything three or four times, Ino found that the job went a lot easier than she had expected. After ten minutes, she released the jutsu and returned to her own body.

Tsunade looked at the chuunin as her eyes fluttered open.

"Hokage-sama, I have to talk with you in private." Ino got up and led Tsunade out of the room. "That girl's mind is not normal." Tsunade blinked at this statement.

"What do you mean it's not normal?"

"When I have to imprint something in someone's mind, I have to do it multiple times to make sure it sticks," Tsunade nodded, knowing the way the brain worked, "but this girl, her mind simply, for lack of a better word, absorbed everything. I even had to be careful of my own thoughts or they would be left in her mind. Luckily though, that meant that I was able to give her a lot of our language before I had to leave, which is why I had to talk to you out here and not in there, because she would most likely understand us."

Tsunade nodded, but was still shocked by what Ino had said. _This changes things a little...If she is able to commit things to her long term memory so quickly, then she may prove to be a quick learner, which is always a good thing. But we still have to get her to cooperate with us, and I don't know how long that will take._

"Good, good job Ino, you may go then, thank you." Ino bowed and left, leaving Tsunade alone in the hallway.

Shayla heard the door slide open again and knew that it was just Tsunade and that person coming back again.

"Good afternoon, my name is Tsunade, and I am the Hokage of this village." Shayla looked at the woman, trying not to show her shock.

_How is it that I can understand her...she's definitely not speaking English, but now I can understand what she's saying. _As she thought this, Shayla remembered something.

_This is not possible! Her mind is...amazing simply amazing._

_Now where did that thought come from? That was definitely not me..._As she wondered about this, Tsunade continued to speak.

"This is the hidden village of the Leaf, in the country of Fire, and we have brought you here because we are in need of your assistance." Shayla continued looking out the window as she gave her answer.

"No." Needless to say Tsunade was surprised, she really had only half-expected the girl to understand her.

"What...what do you mean no?"

"I mean I'm not helping you." _Obviously, it's not like I wasn't direct or anything. _"And how come I can all of a sudden understand you and talk to you? And don't try to tell me that you don't know, because I know for a fact that I couldn't understand you when you and that little girl came in."

_Little girl? Oh, she must mean Ino._

"Actually, that wasn't a little girl, she happens to be one of our best young kunoichi. She also technically taught you our language, because I needed you to understand me when I talk to you."

"How? She was here, then she left. How could she have taught me anything?" the confused girl asked.

"Because of her special ninja technique-"

"_Ninja technique? _Do I look like I was born yesterday?" Tsunade was quickly getting annoyed by the girl's interruptions.

"No,-"

"And yet you expect me to believe that that little girl is a ninja with special techniques? Come on, I'm not stupid, ninjas don't exist." Tsunade was shocked speechless.

"What do you mean, 'ninja's don't exist.'"

"Well, seeing as how I was being perfectly clear, I don't think it's really necessary to explain further." Tsunade's eyebrow twitched slightly at the girl's rudeness.

"But, ninjas do exist, and that girl is one, as am I and most of the people in this village." The girl rolled her eyes and looked out the window again.

"Yeah, ok lady, whatever you say."

_How did people in her world live without ninjas? Or worse, will villages like ours eventually become extinct? _Tsunade didn't want to continue that thought.

"And we need your help."

"I already said no, and that's not going to change, so you might as well let me go," The girl paused and thought for a moment, "or kill me, depending on how much of a threat my leaving will be to you."

"What? Why would we kill you?"

"Eh, it happens all the time on T.V. people would rather kill the person they KIDNAPPED than let them go and risk exposure, I figure that's the only other option if you won't let me go."

"I'm not going to kill you, but I can't let you go either, it's not safe outside the village, especially for civilians, there are too many enemies."

"Well, I got here somehow, just take me back the same way." The girl said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

_Oh...this isn't going to be good._

"Well, it's not like I wouldn't do it," _Even though I wouldn't, _"it's just that, I can't."

"Yeah, ok, I don't believe you."

"No, you see, I had found a jutsu, a technique, that allowed one of my teams to find you and bring you back, although we didn't single you out specifically, and it's just that we don't know where you come from or how to get there."

"Can't they bring me back the way they got there?"

"Well, it's a long story and would require a bit of explaining." Tsunade received a look that plainly said 'we've got all day.' With that she sighed mentally and began her tale.

- - - - - - - - -

It was almost three hours later when Tsunade had finally finished telling the girl the whole situation and answering all of her questions. As she watched her absorb the information, she realized something: The girl was wearing the clothes she had been in when Team Kakashi had brought her to Konoha.

_We're going to have to get her some new clothes, and definitely a place to live, she can't stay in the hospital forever._

"I have one more question." Tsunade look at her expectantly. "Where is the bathroom?" The Hokage mentally slapped her forehead.

_And she hasn't gone to the bathroom. Wow, we are really on top of things with this one. _Although Tsunade knew it was really because she had been extremely busy lately, she couldn't help but question the neglect of this girl. _Shizune had better have a good reason for this._

"Follow me, I'll take you there." As she stood, Tsunade took in the girl's appearance. Her hair was slightly mussed from not being brushed in a couple days, and she could probably have used a shower as well. She was wearing a green sweatshirt with some sort of symbol on it in gold, as well as blue jeans. As she looked carefully, Tsunade also noticed that she was wearing a couple of necklaces, but she couldn't see them clearly because of the sweatshirt and, presumably, the blue shirt underneath. The girl had bent over to put on her shoes, which looked odd to Tsunade. They were not sandals, like most people wore, but some other kind of shoe, made out of black fabric with pink stripes.

When the girl stood from her bed, Tsunade headed out of the room and motioned for her to follow, which she did. They headed down the hallway, almost to the stairs, before turning to the left, where Shayla saw the door to what she supposed, since Tsunade had stopped, was the bathroom.

As she entered it, Shayla noticed that there was a window set pretty low on the wall, and she smiled as the half-formed plan in her mind quickly fell into place.

_She must have really had to go,_ Tsunade thought as she waited for the girl. She had been in the bathroom for a few minutes already, and if Tsunade had not already known that she couldn't sense the girl's chakra, she would have been worried, but as it was she figured the girl was just taking a long time.

After five more minutes, Tsunade got impatient and started to knock on the door. Her knocks only got harder when she received no answer, thinking that the girl was just ignoring her. However, after only a few seconds under Tsunade's fist, the door splintered and collapsed into the room. Once Tsunade could see past the fallen door, she realized that not only was the bathroom not occupied, but the window was open, leading her to only one conclusion.

_Shit._

- - - - - - - - -

TBC

Lol, man that took WAAAAAAY too long to write...I literally had to delete and rewrite the whole thing like three times, but here it is! I promise the next chapter won't take so long to freakin get out. Thanks to my reviewer, I'm glad you like it so far, this is my favorite story so far that I've written, I love it.

Hope you all enjoy and don't forget to review, I really want people's opinions. Till next chapter!


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Naruto