Hello everyone, this chapter is going to be a long one just to give you a heads up! I've been on a writing kick lately, so here's another one for you. Enjoy:)
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Small missions came and small missions went over the course of a few months, and our friendly neighborhood Naruto was getting impatient. He complained that our missions weren't hard enough every chance he got, Sakura grumbled at him to stop complaining. Since the day Sasuke explained what happened with Sakura and Naruto, she no longer was the subject of my dislike. She annoyed me on occasion with her bickering with Naruto, but I no longer wanted to hurt her. In fact she became someone I could talk to about girly things, Hinata would always be my best female friend, but she was slightly awkward when it came to talking about affaires of the heart. Sakura listened, even though I would occasionally talked about Sasuke and I could see the hurt in her eyes, she smiled. It seemed as though she was starting to let go but deep down I knew she wouldn't give up. It was a silent agreement 'let the best woman win'. I think we both only wanted Sasuke to be happy, regardless of whom he found happiness with.
She and I were shopping when we were summoned to the Hokage's tower, bags in hand we walked to his office. When we arrived everyone turned to us and smiled, even my stoic Sasuke-Kun. We set our bags by our feet and listened as the hokage assigned our mission. "Hey old man this better not be a lame mission again." Naruto said only to be hit in the back of the head by Sakura. "Of course not Naruto today you are assigned your first C rank mission. Your duty is to escort a bridge builder named Tazuna back to his village." Naruto smiled really big and jumped in the air. "This should be a simple enough mission for you all. You will meet Tazuna at the gate in three hours, I suggest you get ready for departure. One more thing, Kakashi, Kikiyo, as you both know there could be potential danger with her majesty leaving the village. There are bounties out on your head because you're a royal and next in line to rule the Land of Fire. You must be careful darling. If anything goes unexpectedly and you can't handle it I expect you to all protect the princess, Kakashi. Even if that means... Failing the mission in more ways than one. Kikiyo must survive." They all looked nervous except Sasuke and Kakashi who nodded, "I assure you, her majesty is in the safest, most capable young hands, Hokage-sama, no harm will come to her." We all turned to My father and smiled. We exited and went to our homes and packed.
Three hours later we all met the bridge builder at the gate. I wasn't surprised in the slightest to see Naruto arguing with the man, who was most likely our client, as Sasuke and I approached. We were late because of me of course, I had to get all my clothes I purchased from shopping put away, then had to pack my clothes and other girly needs. Wow, my father's habits were rubbing off on me. But hey, I'm a girl, that didn't change. They all turned as I dropped my hold on Sasuke's arm. "It isn't like you two to be late, what gives?" My father asked. "Sorry, Kakashi, we would have left with you but someone just had to get all her clothes put away and clean her room before we left. Not to mention she packed like five scrolls." Sasuke said nudging me with his elbow. "Well tardiness doesn't work for me. I expected more than a group of kids as my escorts." The man said causing the others to appear annoyed. "Hey old man we're here to help your sorry a--" "Naruto." I interrupted before he could continue. "You must be Tazuna, it's nice to meet you. I feel it's best we all get to know each other before we continue." I said in a very diplomatic way. He gave a facetious smile, "You're pretty grown up kid, who are you?" The younger members of team 7 tensed at the lack of respect he showed, he didn't recognize me, I just gave them a reassuring smile. I was prepared to continue when my father spoke for me in a polite way. "Well sir, first things first, you really shouldn't address a princess so informally. This is princess Kikiyo Siada." Tazuna's eyes got huge and he grabbed my hand and kissed it while speaking, "My lady, I apologize I didn't realize you were a Siada. But now looking at your markings it makes sense. Forgive me." I pulled my hand away and smiled, "It is okay, we all make mistakes, but know this, these are people too, they are my team, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi. We are here to escort you home safely, to the Land of Waves, which makes you part of our team now. And your duty is to simply do as we tell you without question. Understand sir?" He nodded, "Wonderful, let's go then, oh and for the sake of friendliness and the mission, please call me Kiki-chan." I said as I walked ahead of them.
We walked for several hours, it was slightly warm, we could feel the heat but Naruto also made it a point to complain about it. I giggled at his outrage but stopped dead in my tracks when I noticed something. A puddle of water? It hadn't rained for months in this area. Our party stopped and looked at me questioningly, "Sensei, has it rained here as of late?" And pointed in the direction of the puddle, their eyes turned to it as well. "You know I noticed several puddles as well. Whoever you are show yourself." He called out, suddenly three rouge ninja appeared from the puddles. "So the Siada brat figured it out first? Well looks like we got two heads to sell boys. A bridge builder and a royal." The leader of their team said. Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura and I took our places around Tazuna. "She is a sharp girl, expect nothing less of my team." My father said as he took up his guard. Out of no where they attacked all of us with clones. "Well two can play at that game! Multi-shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto screamed and charged at them. Sasuke followed suit and attacked with a fireball. Watching them perform their hand signs and seeing the heart they both put into the battle reminded me of how grateful I was to have them. One of our combatants rushed at Sakura and I jumped in the way, taking a shuriken to the calf, I yanked it out and healed myself with one hand and punched him into a near by tree with the other. He stood back up, "Not bad little lady, as expected of a Siada." He ran at me again this time he froze for a fraction of a second, when he saw my eyes glowing orange, I took that blip of time as my opportunity and charged at him. "Earth style: stone grip jutsu" suddenly his legs were grabbed by hands made of dirt and held in place. He struggled to try and break free but couldn't, with a few more hand signs my hand started glowing pink with chakra, "Siada art: neuro-tap" I punched him in the face and he fell the the ground. "What is this I can't move!" He screamed, "I have shut down all of your basic motor skills for the time being. They should come back in a few hours. Same with your memory." he looked confused. I then laid my hand on his forehead and again my hand glew pink with chakra, "secret art: memory relapse." "Where am I, who are you?" He asked in confusion. "I'm no one, you and your team got hurt and we helped you, you should return to your village." I turned to see the other two shinobi on the ground as well and performed the memory loss technique and Kakashi sent them on their way.
After the ninja left, our sensei, was furious but of course kept his cool, "Tazuna, you set this as a 'C rank' mission, stating you only needed an escort. It is clear based on what they said that this should have been a 'B rank mission' at least and then a more seasoned team would have been assigned. You have put my team at risk, one of my team has been poisoned. We will return to the village and have you reassigned." He turned to walk toward to village when Naruto spoke as he stabbed himself with a kunai knife, "No, we can do this, I'll get this poison out and we can get this done, I have to get stronger. We took on this mission and we must complete it. I'm not going to get left behind. Growing up no one noticed me except Kiki-chan, she encouraged me in everything I did, now is my chance to show her and everyone that our hard work paid off." Still trying to cut the poison out our sensai spoke, "Uh, Naruto that was a great speech and all and we'll continue the mission but you got all the poison and if you keep cutting yourself you'll bleed to death." He immediately stop and yelled out, "Oh my god I'm gonna die! I'm to young and pretty to die!" I laughed and Sakura and Sasuke shook their heads, I grabbed his arm and began healing his hand. Slowly the pain began to dull and he smiled while rubbing the back of his neck as I finished up his other hand. "All done you knucklehead. Come on we have a mission to complete. I'm always watching you so be careful." I held my hand out to him and he accepted it, we walked over to the others and continued on our journey.
It had gotten dark so we set up camp for the night. Sasuke lit a fire, Naruto and I caught three rabbits and Sakura collected water from the near by river. As we ate we laughed and talked, Tazuna told us about the great bridge he was building and how it would change the lives of his village people. He was a rough old man but underneath he was a kind hearted person. Everyone was having a great time, except Sasuke who seemed to be deep in thought. I grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. He smiled at me softly and squeezed mine back reassuringly. "Well we better get some rest, I'll take first watch, then Sasuke and Naruto you'll take the next." Said my father with a commanding voice. They nodded and we all crawled into our sleeping bags. Mine was between Sasuke's and Naruto's, everyone was drifting off to sleep, while our orange wearing comrade fell asleep the moment his head hit the ground. I could hear everyone's soft breathing, but as I stayed awake looking at the stars, I could tell the person to my left was doing the same. I rolled onto my side to face him, "what's troubling you Sasuke-kun?" I asked in a whisper, and as I did he too rolled over to face me. "Nothing I was just thinking about how we would go camping with our siblings when we were kids." I felt a tug at my chest when he brought up the memories and I shuffled closer to him. "I miss sleeping next to you and being around a camp fire with you. I know this isn't the best time to be nostalgic but I wanted you to know that." I could make out the blush on his cheeks in the fire light, this time he moved closer, wrapped his arms around me and I blushed. "I like that I can hold you as we sleep now. I prefer the extra warmth." I snuggled into his chest and spoke one last time before drifting into sleep, "I love when you talk like this to me. Good night Sasuke-kun, sleep you have next watch." Right as sleep was taking over I heard him whisper faintly in me ear, "I'll only ever talk to you this way." I smiled and was gone.