Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ To Steal Guiding Hope ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

To Steal Guiding Hope

Chapter 1

Akimiri Cho trudged down the road toward the Akimiri Clan's part of town. I hope Mommy baked those cookies. Just behind her was her twin brother Haru who had wisely brought along a mega-sized bag of potato chips. Despite the rumbling in her stomach, she didn't ask her brother for any of his snacks as she could clearly recall his comments about her to the other shinobis-to-be.

 

“Are you still mad about that, Sis?” Haru asked. “It was just a joke.”

 

She spun - he nearly crashed into her - brown eyes blazing beneath a layer of pale orange hair. “You, Akimiri Haru, told everyone that I couldn't be as strong as Daddy just because I'm not fat!!!!!!”

 

This was true - both that she was not fat and her brother and father were. Cho had a slim face and a slender body that would not gain weight regardless of her insane eating habits. Her cousins and the other kids at the Academy were forever telling her she should stop eating or she would be ugly and fat. Her father Chouji just smiled at her and said to eat what she liked and she would be as beautiful as the sakura blossoms in spring.

 

Her brother was the mirror image of their father with carrot colored hair and sharp brown eyes that tended to twitch when food was close. His clothes bulged slightly over his plump stomach, arms, legs and his body in general. His cheeks were marked with green waves that formed small crosses on each cheek.

 

Ignoring her brother's feeble protesting explanations, the young girl turned and ran to her favorite spot in the village, a bench on the roof of the schoolhouse. I wish I were like Daddy and Haru, I don't even care if the other kids call me fatso or cow - I just want to be a real Akimiri!

 

 

In another part of Konoha, in the Hokage's office, a blonde young man ruffled through papers and files, most of which were labeled HOKAGE-THIS DOCUMENT IS IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ! Ignoring the labeled folders, the man yanked one at random out of the hodge-podge stack and flipped it open. He muttered darkly to himself as he scanned the contents.

 

“Stupid rebels, why can't they just be happy with the government? Lemme see… this is a B-ranked mission…ummmmm…I'll send Mina, Daisuke, and wotshisname Touya!” Scribbling untidily on the cover of the file, the Sixth Hokage shoved the finished document into an uncluttered portion of his desk. With a soft curse, he grabbed one of the labeled files and peered inside. His blue eyes widened, “What the…?! Sakura!!!!!”

 

Haruno Sakura crashed into the office, kunai at the ready, “What is it Naruto - ah, Hokage?”

 

Not taking his eyes off the contents of the file, Uzumaki Naruto barked his orders to his wife and secretary, “Get Sasuke and Neji in here now! We've got major problems!”

 

In less than an hour, Uchiha Sasuke and Hyuuga Neji were sprinting out of the gates of Konoha in an unmistakable direction - they were heading toward the Country of Wind and its resident ninja village, Village Hidden In the Sand.

 

 

Cho lay on her back on the roof of the Academy and stared up at the clouds. Her classes would start as soon as old Iruka got back from a diplomatic mission with the ruler of the Fire Country. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the energy swirling within her - it was twisting slowly around in her stomach area. The girl poked it with a mental hand - This stuff really is the true power of the ninja. Weird, it doesn't feel dangerous.

 

Her nose tickled. She opened her eyes and peered at the blue butterfly perched at the end of her pert nose.

 

Cho smiled at the tiny thing - she loved butterflies, she only wished she could keep them as pets but she knew how fragile and free they were. To her dismay she sneezed and the little piece of sky fluttered away to other places that would not jerk. She sighed.

 

 

Ayame peered quietly through the window into the hot, still day. Below, the shinobi of the Sand Village hurried through their errands in order to get out of the unbearable heat. She turned away from the sand grimed window and looked around the Kazekage's office. The Kazekage himself was steadily plowing through a formidable pile of paperwork muttering the occasional curse or derisive comment.

 

As though the Shinobi had sensed her gaze on him, he looked up at her through pale blue eyes lined with the black circles of insomnia. “What is it Ayame?”

 

“Why doesn't Aunt Temari live here with her family?”

 

Gaara of the Desert, Kazekage of the Sand Village, shook his head tiredly, “Our people aren't quite as accepting as the Konoha inhabitants are. She and her husband and your cousins would not be accepted, even though she is the sister and daughter of a Kazekage.”

 

The little girl scowled, her fiery red hair falling into her face. “That's stupid, Uncle Kankuro and his wife live here with no problems.”

 

The Kazekage shrugged, “Apparently she likes Konoha better than Suna because of the atmosphere.”

 

Ayame's previous good mood had vanished with this explanation and she decided against wandering through the streets, she couldn't stand the looks the villagers gave her - it was as though they believed she would eat them. She wondered if her uncle Kankuro was in an understanding mood, she could hide out there until the sun set and she would be able to walk home undisturbed. There was also the added perk of her cousin Cain who feared her about as much as he feared ants - that was unless Kankuro was in a foul mood in which case he would hurl her from his house unless his wife Tenten (AN: sorry for the weird match up but I just read a pairing fic about them and was so cute!) was there, then she could stay until hell froze over.

 

With a deep sigh, she cast a bored blue eye over her father's paperwork, “Are you going to be done soon?”

 

“Ayame, if I'm lucky I'll get through this stack by the time you hit puberty.”

 

“What's puberty?”

 

“Something you don't want to experience until much later. Now beat it, I'll be home by midnight at the latest.”

 

“You said that yesterday and ended up showing up at dawn for a shower and breakfast and then came right back here. Do you really like being here with paperwork?”

 

“It makes me retch, knowing I have to come here every day.”

 

“Then why didn't you refuse the position?”

 

Gaara smiled slightly at his daughter's naïveté. “Only the strongest ninja in the village can be Kazekage. So do me a favor, train hard so you can take this cursed job away from me.”

 

 

Sasuke was hard pressed to keep running; the desert sun was absolutely brutal. He made a mental note to force Naruto to pay for the treatment to the severe sunburn he could feel forming on the back of his neck. Just ahead of him, through the purple blotch on his vision, he could just make out a large gate behind which stone lumps stuck out of the desert like honeycombs.

 

“Finally,” rasped Neji. “The Sand Village.”

 

As the two Konoha shinobi neared the gate, Neji spotted a small child standing smack-dab in the middle of the path. A tiny thing with dark red hair gathered up into a short ponytail. Even through the painful brightness of the sand and sun, her pale blue eyes burned. Sasuke's heart did a somersault, this couldn't be…but she looked just like him…

 

He and Neji slowed to a walk and strode confidently toward the entrance.

 

“Hello,” Neji said kindly.

 

“Good afternoon.”

 

“Where is the Kazekage?”

 

The child's blue eyes narrowed. “What do you want in the village?”

 

“We just want to speak with Gaara, you know, the Kazekage -“

 

“I know who he is. Who are you?”

 

“I am the Jounin Uchiha Sasuke and this is my friend Hyuuga Neji, we are here to give a message to him. Will you show us to where he is?”

 

“You are ninjas from the Leaf Village?”

 

“Yes,” Sasuke said with a nod.

 

The girl extended a hand, “I will give the message to the Lord Kazekage. You may wait here.”

 

“No,” Neji's voice was icy. “We will be the ones to give him this message. Stand aside.” He stepped forward and was suddenly thrown to his knees by a rope of sand. The expert ninja warrior spat out a mouthful of sand and stared at the tiny child.

 

“Okay Ayame, that's enough,” a sharp voice rang out.

 

Sasuke caught sight of a tall familiar looking ninja walking out from behind the gate. Despite the unbearable summer heat, the man wore a black jumpsuit complete with hood, purple lines adorned his face and a large bundle wrapped in white cloth was slung across his back.

 

She turned immediately to the speaker. “Why? They don't have permission to enter the -“

 

“I'm giving them permission - you guys said you needed to talk with Gaara about something right?” asked Kankuro, older brother of the Kazekage.

 

“Yes,” said Neji as the sand relinquished its hold on him and he stood up. “We have a message from the Hokage.”

 

“Okay,” the sand shinobi replied. He turned his attention to the small redhead, “Ayame, go ahead and take them to the Kazekage. Oh, and don't kill them, Gaara'll do that himself.”