Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Guardian ❯ In Dire Need ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

A/N: Too...many...fanfic ideas. This one hit me and I really wanted to work on it. I have so much history and such written up on this story it’s sad. Like, a history of Konoha. Because I altered it a little (don’t kill me!). I normally really hate to disrupt the things like back-story and such, but it was the only way to make this work. Just keep in mind it is (for all intents and purposes) an AU, it just takes in Konoha, uses Naruto’s characters and a tweaked version of past events in the original story-line. Thanks and I hope you enjoy.

Blanket Disclaimer: Nope, don’t own. Just the plot. Though it remains to be seen whether I should openly broadcast that...

It was another hot and humid day. Konoha was known for it’s warm winters and extraordinarily hot summers. As a pretty popular vacation spot, most foreigners would opt to stay in one of Fire’s larger towns or villages rather then the Capitol, simply because it was too bothersome to gain admittance into the city. Even with that, Sakura still found herself having to fight her way through the crowds outside the Hokage tower to meet with her team and get assigned a new mission. As it were, even with the throngs of people haggling in the bazaar and gaping at the Hokage Monument she would still arrive before her sensei, that much was sure. Her teammates would probably be there though. She’d swear they got up at the crack of dawn.

Not her. She normally needed time to dress and style her hair. Not that there was much to style anymore. Her mother had met Team 7 and noticed both her comrades had short hair. After that she had insisted nonstop just how much more functional it was for a kunoichi to have cropped hair. She had pestered Sakura to the point where the girl marched down to the barber and chopped her bubblegum locks just below her chin. Of course, that was in the heat of the moment, and she now regretted it. It was true though. She now found that her hair didn’t get in the way while training anymore.

Then there was the other word her mother kept pushing on her. Kunoichi.

By definition, a kunoichi was ‘A female ninja’. But it was so much more than that. It was her life and a great honor. Kunochi were rare. They were far more common now then they had been in the past, but still not overly seen. That could be chalked up to two reasons. The first was that women were lacking the amount of physical strength and chakra capacity men had. The second, and far more common, was the unwillingness of parents to allow their ‘darling daughter’ to endanger themselves and be trained in the very art of death. Still, many parents enrolled their daughter into ninja academy long enough to get a basic shinobi education and learn self-defense before removing them to live more proper lives. Becoming a ninja was a tricky thing. One would have to study from an extremely early age to be any good, so the decision, the very future of the child, rests in the hands of the parents. Sakura was very grateful to be a ninja.

She was now nearing her teams meeting spot, a bridge crossing over a small stream near the outskirts of town. She had been right. There were both her teammates. They had been together for the last soon-to-be five years, since they had been inducted as genin. Now they all proudly displayed their chuunin vests over their clothes.

First was Uchiha Sasuke, the boy she was fairly smitten with. He was rather dark and a loner, adding to his alluding aura if mystery. He was one of the legendary Uchiha, considered to have been one of the most influential and powerful group in Konoha. He was also the last one, because his entire clan had been wiped out. He was a wonderful fighter, but was a bit deprived in the conversationalist area.

Then there was the other teammate, Hyuuga Hinata. Sakura had never been overly friendly with her in school, and it wasn’t much better now. Sure, she was nice and pulled her weight in the group but she was almost as quiet as Sasuke. Hinata was the heiress of the Hyuuga clan, the other highly esteemed group in Fire Country. It was fairly easy to tell that she had been trained rigorously in her family fighting style from a young age.

These two made Sakura the most loud and talkative of the bunch. Because of that, she had often taken to speaking with her teacher. Thankfully, once you got over his seemingly blandness, he was quite interesting.

“Hello Hinata-chan, Sasuke-kun.” she greeted cheerfully as she took relief in the shade of one of Konoha’s famous trees. Sasuke was sitting beside her to the right, brooding (though some might call it sulking). Against the tree to her left was Hinata, back against the rough bark and knees drawn tightly to her chest. Sakura sighed. It really was a pity she was so shy. The other kunoichi had a wonderfully pale complexion which was a stark compliment to her dark hair.

Sakura must’ve been later then she had originally though, for their jounin sensei appeared just fifteen minutes later in a puff of smoke. As she got up and dusted her clothes off she wondered idly why jounin and above were the only shinobi with such a technique when the lower classes were the ones who needed to be on time for things. Her musings were interrupted when the older man spoke.

“Hokage-sama has requested you guys specifically for a mission.” was said in a bored tone, gazing lazily at an orange bound book in his hands, a foreboding ‘x’ on the back cover. Despite his less the favorable reading choice, many of her fellow female ninja were green with envy. Hatake Kakashi was still fairly young (the bingo-book pegged him in his early 30's) and was said to be ‘cooly’ handsome, with his spiky silver hair and mellow attitude. He wore his hitai-ate over his left eye and a mask covering the lower half of his face. He was known as the ‘copy ninja’.
Seeing as her teammates weren’t going to speak, she asked the question on all of their minds. “When, Kakashi-sensei?”

“Well, I know you’d normally get at least a day leeway, but she said this was urgent. Pack lightly for a three-day, outdoor A-rank mission and we’ll meet up outside the Hokage’s chambers for briefing within thirty minutes.” within a spit second, he was gone. No pleasantries were exchanged before the teens dispersed.



Sakura had rushed through packing. Even though her travel pack was small and hardly filled to capacity, it would still be considered taking too much. She had taken the required items, such as soldier pills, nin-food and the like, and a few personal things. ‘Ugh. The life of a ninja is so not glamorous.’

Now she found herself trotting up the fast flight of stairs leading to the fire-shadow’s office with a few minutes to spare. The view from up on the free-standing staircase was rivaled only by that from atop the hokage monument. The heat was creating a haze over the metropolis, giving it a surreal visage. Walking under the doorway into the inviting shade she nodded to the ANBU guards and noticed her team already there. She shook off a small bit of frustration and noticed something else. Kakashi was already there. She looked towards a clock on the wall with wide eyes. No...she was on time...meaning that he was actually early! Either Tsunade-sama promised to give him the latest copy of ‘Icha-Icha Paradise’ or this was a serious issue. The elite jounin cast an eye over his subordinates before opening the large, oak doors.

Sakura had only been in this office once or twice, each time was when the previous Hokage, Sandaime, was in place. He had retired a few years pervious and now lived happily on the edge of Konoha, visiting the Godaime often.

It looked pretty much the same. A few different tomes littered the room and some personable objects placed on shelves. Most different was the buxom woman behind the polished desk.

It was no secret that Tsunade was a prodigy. She, along with her former teammates all were. What made it special for them was that they had no birth-given kekkei-genkai. She had been made Hokage just four years prior, at the fairly young age of thirty-five, making her the first woman Kage. She was an inspiration to nearly all female-ninja.

Her sensei and her team lined up in front of the powerful woman. She looked quite somber, but then again, she had never really heard of a time when Tsunade wasn’t like this.

Steepling her fingers in front of her face, she spoke, eyes gleaming. “I’m sure you’ve been told why you’re here to some extent. Unfortunately, the circumstances behind this mission are tentative, at best. It’s come to our knowledge that an artifact valuable to Konoha’s history has recently been discovered. We don’t know whether it is being guarded by another village or if it is a trap, but the council and I feel that the item is important enough to take the risk. This is considered an A-rank mission and you’ll be paid with a bonus for the short notice. The source of our information is strictly classified, and even then we weren’t able to gather enough to make the details vague at best. All we know for sure is that what you’re looking for is going to be a valuable of some sort; armor, jewelry and the like.

“You’ll follow Kakashi to the point of interception. He’s been prepped on the aura the item is giving off and should be able to track it with the help if his summons. I wish you success on this mission.”

She looked down as though finished, and when everyone made moves to leave she spoke softly. “Please try your hardest. This is a matter close to my heart...dismissed.”


------


Try as Sakura might, she couldn’t find anything truly beneficial about camping in the woods. There were insects, a lack of modern commodities...and even more insects. She was positive that this would be Shino’s heaven. His old team didn’t have to put up with this. Shino had complete control over the creepy bugs. He was a Jounin now though, so he would protecting his own team from the little annoyances. Or disciplining the kids with them, depending how they acted.

It was the night after their departure. The moon had only just fully rose, lighting up their spot in the woods in blue hues. Their group had erected the typical anti-weather tent supplied to them and were now munching on their woefully dry foods inside.

The tents themselves didn’t have anything spectacular about them. They were created to be fireproof and to keep out rain and wind in fairly extreme conditions, but it was still camping. No one had asked for a fire to be made. With a mission like this, where there could be a potential ambush awaiting them it was stupid to alert others to their whereabouts. Still...warm food would taste sinfully good right now.

Finishing her meal bar (which Sakura decided was one of the most disgusting tasting things on the planet) she sat atop her sleeping bag, pretending to be prepping for bed.

Hinata was also sitting on her blankets, writing in what Sakura presumed was a diary or journal of some sort. Hinata was always writing in a book. She normally had a new one each month. Sakura mused that the dark-haired girl had an entire bookshelf dedicated solely to her writings.

Kakashi was sitting by the entrance of their small abode, nose stuck in that little orange book of his, a pink blush staining his cheeks...or what she could see of his cheeks. She wondered why he reread his books so many times. Whenever a new volume came out he would keep rereading it until the next was released. Man, talk about no life.

And then there was Sasuke. The boy was doing something eerily similar to what he had been doing just this afternoon, only now he was hunched over in a tent instead of under a tree. She tried to look in the direction his eyes were, but Sakura didn’t find the puppies and scarecrows decorating Kakashi’s sleeping-bag all that interesting.

Sakura sighed. She must have had the most boring team in the history of teams.

Deciding that it was time to settle down if she wanted to get up when required in the morning, she settled under her mat, letting sleep take her.


------


It was hours later when Sakura awoke, blinking eyes blearily and bring a lazy hand to cover a giant yawn.

‘Ugh.’ the pink-haired girl thought. ‘It’s stifling in here! These gods-forsaken tents keep the damn elements out alright, like air!’

She kicked her coverings off in hopes of finding some much needed oxygen, but now only felt even more sticky in the stagnant air.

‘Forget this. I need to step outside for a minute.’

Slipping on her vest and shoes she clumsily stepped over the group (narrowly missing stomping on her senesi’s face) she made it to the flap separating them from the outside. She unzipped it nosily, fingers fumbling, before ducking under the opening.

Upon setting foot on the grass, Sakura breathed in relief. Stupid summer nights. She was regretting taking the mission already. It was the dog-days now, and she really should have remembered how horrible it was to be caught without air-conditioning.

A sudden gust of wind blew by and she shivered involuntarily. It may have been July, but it was still a pretty cool night.

‘Well, can’t have both worlds, I guess.’

Wrapping her arms about herself she settled into the long grass, gazing into the dark sky. It was only a quarter moon tonight. The foliage around her was being swayed noisily, leaves blowing off trees and carried on the breeze. That same breeze had her hair whipping about her face and eyes tearing.

Figuring that the warm air in the tent was better then being blown away Sakura stood up, dusting off her ninja clothes and turned to head back in when something caught her eye.

Something was in the trees just twenty feet from her. She put her senses on alert and felt outwards, trying to tell whether the intruder was a friend or foe. A branch snapped behind her and she snapped around with wide eyes, breathing heavily. Just as she was about to inspect further she felt a white-hot pain slam against her head and then the world slid into darkness.


-----


It was that feeling where you knew you were awake before you could really wake up. Where you are somewhat cogent of your surroundings but for some reason can’t bring yourself to open your eyes. For Sakura, that reason was the spitting headache vibrating through her skull.

Suppressing a groan, green eyes cracked open. Not recognizing the dark ceiling looming above her, the instincts every shinobi had drilled into them kicked in.

The chuunin first tested all of her limbs and extremities for functionality. Yes...nothing was broken or even severely bruised (though she insisted she had to have a dreadful bump on her cranium) but her wrists were shackled together behind her back. Heh, these guys underestimated her.

Casting a glance about the rest of her cell she nearly scoffed audibly. They honestly thought this would contain a ninja? Ha! A natural cave room with wrought-iron bars capping off the front, which led into a dark hall. This was so pathetic it was almost insulting. Ah well, their lack of care was her gain, after all.

The lithe woman moved to the darkest corner of the room and settled onto the floor. With a bit of a stretch she brought the bonded arms under her legs and up, in front of her. The chains around her wrists weren’t quite what she had originally thought, having some metal bars in between the guards to keep her from moving her hands together (presumably for hand-seals and jutsu), but still shouldn’t have posed a problem.

Sakura placed the restraints against the stone floor and put a foot over the center part. Pulling both arms as hard as she could, she heard a snap as the device gave way, and she went sprawling to land unceremoniously on her rump.

Glad noone was around to witness that, she once more stood up, quietly stalking to the door.

As she had hoped, no one was guarding the ‘prisoner’. Now if only she could get out of here without any unwanted attention...

Placing her hands into the tiger seal and whispering, she reared back, performing one of the most simple katon jutsu she knew. The entire vicinity lit up red and orange. A bit too flashy than what she had hoped, but it still had the desired effect. The bars were red-hot, and she used the gloves she fished out of a pocket in her vest to spread them apart just enough to allow her passage. Fireproof gloves really were quite handy.

She hugged the wall as she inched down the long hallway. Even after five minutes of this, she still hadn’t seen a soul, but one could never be too safe. It was still pitch black, though. For all she knew there was a rabid mob following her.

‘Ok. First get out. Then find team.’ was the terribly detailed plan she formulated.

After another handful of minutes sneaking aimlessly, she came to an intersection. Remembering something her teacher had once told her about feeling for fresh air she took a step forwards...and promptly set off an alarm.

‘Oh crap!’ she thought as she now abandoned any thought of stealth. With the bright red lights blaring and loud whining noise pouring from some hidden speaker they’d see her in an instant anyway.

She heard heavy footsteps behind her, running at fast speeds.

‘Crap, crap crap...’

Continuing her mantra she saw a door approaching on the left side in the rock. Without a thought she pushed through and slammed it shut, panting heavily.

The room she found herself in was even darker then the one she had awoken in. She couldn’t see a thing, and her bag contained her night-goggles.

She stumbled around blindly for a moment, until she walked into something solid. It felt like a pedestal of some sort. The harried girl ran a hand over the smooth surface, groping for anything that could help her.

Just as she was about to give up hope the door burst open, reverbing off the wall. She could hear people filing in and surrounding her. With a push she tipped forwards over the stone slab and felt something slip into her hand.

It was dangling from something and felt like a string of some sort. Hoping for a light-switch she pulled, and fell for the second time that night when it gave way and landed in her hand.

Right when she hit the floor a blinding blue light flashed through the room, lighting it. At first Sakura thought she had, in fact, found the light switch. Then she saw where the light was coming from.

A boy.

A single boy close to her age, stretching his hands above his head and cracking his back in a way that would’ve made her wince under better circumstances.

He looked at her with something akin to interest in his eyes, and her stomach lurched to find that she could vaguely see through his outline to the men beyond.

He just raised an eyebrow at the surroundings. About ten ninja had assembled around them, but they weren’t looking at the glowing boy. Some were looking around with confusion dancing across their faces, while others kept their gazes trained on Sakura.

Then the boy ran off into the direction of one darkly clad shinobi, kneeing him in the chest and flipping him over the shoulder. He did similar to another one, and then with a third he simply punched, sending the man sprawling. The remaining group stumbled back in terror.

“What the hell?!” One screamed.

“Who is this girl?” said another, apparently thinking Sakura had done this.

“A ghost!” was the final yell. The men looked at him, and ran out of the room as though the very hounds of hell were at their heels.

Sakura stood up shakily, using the column for support. The glow the boy exerted died down just a bit, giving her a better glimpse at him as he strode toward her calm as anything.

Out of fear she stood still, putting his appearance to memory, thinking this would be the man who killed her.

He couldn’t have been older then her by more then a few years. Perhaps just five inches taller, not counting the extra lift his hair gave him. His hair was blonde and fell by his ears in spikes. Clear, cerulean eyes blinked at her from an almost otherworldly handsome face, three whisker-like tattoos sharply contrasting the angular bone structure. He was also wearing what had to be some of the oddest clothing she had ever seen; a white...kimono? She wasn’t so good with clothing from history, but the entire thing was sparkling white.

He grinned toothily at her and said with a flourished bow, “Pleasure to make your acquaintance. I’m Naruto. Your Guardian.”
Post Note: Aha! I’m so glad I finally got this out. In case you didn’t really pick up on it; Sakura, Sasuke, the whole bunch are 16-17, depending on their birthdays. Since it is July in this chapter, Sakura is 17. Sasuke’s 17th birthday is in just a week or so from the time of this chapter, and Hinata’s 17th is a couple’o months off. Sakura’s the old one in the group lol.

The idea has been milling around for a while...well, first chappie fever probably means I’ll update soon...for those who read Requiem of the Living, don’t worry, if anything this story is a backseat to that one, for more comical relief for myself then anything. Ya, nothing too serious will be in this story. For those who haven’t read RoTL...go read it! (Shameless plug!). This could be the only story I’ve really got hard-core planned out. Wow. XD. Now, I have about four
more Naruto fics that are semi-planned and first chapter written sitting on the shelf...I don’t know if I should post them now because I have so much going on...either way, I’m still adding to them in free time, so maybe when they get to a few chapters long I’ll add them. I’ll put the summary of the fic I’m most likely to submit next right after this note, for opinions...? Gahh.

Please review?
-hanyoupup