"Oh, man! This mission is so boring! When are we gonna' get the chance to beat up some ninja?" Naruto exclaims dramatically.
"Why don't you just shut-up already. You've been complaining ever since we left the village," Sasuke states to his teammate, annoyed.
"Yeah, Naruto. Sasuke's right," Sakura agrees with the Uchiha, glancing at him as she walked beside him.
"Alright you three, calm down. This mission is almost overwith. All we have to do is give a note from the Third Hokage to the leader of this village right up there," Kakashi implies, gesturing to a small temple ontop of the hill before them.
Naruto sighs irritably. "Aw, man Kakashi-sensei. Is that all we were doing? I thought you said that we were going to a foreign country to track down some evil man!"
Kakashi points to himself in an innocent gesture. "Did I say that? I don't remember that. What I said was that we have to go to a small village to give this note to the leaders here."
"What! Are you kidding me?!" Naruto exclaims unbelievably.
Sasuke shakes his head at his sensei and Naruto, with a calm smile on his lips.
"I mean, were not even in no foreign country! Where are we again anyway?" Naruto demands, crossing his arms over his chest unhappily.
"Were in the Village of Kobamo. It's a small village southwest of the Village Hidden in Stone," Sakura explains in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Right, now... hmmm?" Kakashi stops mid-step, and turns to his right, his eyes narrowed.
"What is it, Kakashi-sensei?" Sasuke asks in a cool manner, his eyebrows raised. Naruto and Sakura both stop themselves, staring intently at their sensei's wary demeanor.
"...Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto hesitantly inquires, his voice apprehensive.
"Hmmm?" Kakashi turns his gaze back to his students, a small smile on his lips.
"Nothing. Come on, were almost there." He walks past them, ignoring their perplexed expressions.
"What do you think that was about?" Sakura asks her two teammates curiously.
"Don't know," Sasuke answers simply, shrugging off the thought, and walking to catch up with Kakashi.
"Come on, Sakura! I'm sure it was just as Kakashi said... nothing!" Naruto exclaims serenely, placing his arms behind his head.
"Yeah, alright. Come on, let's go. Their both getting pretty far ahead," Sakura states, forcing a a smile to her face as she looks at Naruto. "Hey, Sasuke! Wait up!"
"Phew. That was close. I was sure that that jounin from the Village Hidden in the Leaves had saw us," I sigh out in relief.
"He did see us, Aimi. He only kept going because he didn't think of us as a threat."
"Well, that's a good thing then. Right, Masumi?"
"Right, dear. It was." I nod in agreement.
I instinctively take a step forward, so that I could see the ninja's clearly from my hiding spot behind the two-story building. "What are they doing here?" I perceptibly ask, watching as they walked into Lord Komba's temple.
"They are here to see Lord Komba, as you may already know. They are giving him a letter from the Third Hokage of the Leaf Village. But that is all I know."
"I wonder what the note is about." A gust of wind then blows feverently through the village. I place my hand over my shawl just to keep it from blowing from off of my head.
"Today is very windy. I wonder if it is going to rain? On another note, I kinda wished that that jounin did have come over here. Kakashi is his name." I close my eyes in bitter judgement at Masumi's last words, each of them filling me with fear and hate. But mostly fear.
"Now, I'm really glad that he didn't walk over here. But you know you couldn't have done anything... his little group would have been right on his heels," I tell her sternly. But why even bother? When has Masumi even listened to me about this type of stuff?
"That would have been fine with me, darling. Hahah!" Her laugh sends a cold shiver down my spine, like it always did. Why was I letting her get to me like this? It wasn't like we haven't been through this before, actually it was a miracle if we got through one day without anything happening!
"And what about those two genin that were with him, huh?" I chuckle dryly. "What about them?"
"They look so tantalizingly good! I can't even decide which one I would want first!"
I laugh now, humorlessly though, at her words. It was like she was comparing them to a tasty t.v. dinner meal.
"Who are they? What are their names? The girl too," I hurriedly add, knowing that the boys were the only thing on her mind.
"Well, the girl's name is Sakura Haruno." I could hear the demon cackle darkly at this point. But her mood seemed to lighten up eractically, as soon as she got to the two boys. "They yellow haired one is named Naruto Uzumaki. And the dark haired one is Sasuke Uchiha!"
"Hmmm? Nice. You know Masumi, it always surprises me how you can know almost everything about a person without even getting to know them," I say honestly.
Masumi commented on my statement, but I was totally oblivious to what it was. For at that moment, I spotted the Leaf village travelers walking slowly out of the temple.
"Well, that was quick!" I pronounce abashed.
"Hehehehe... talking to the demon Masumi, are you now?" a voice that I did not know, whispers harshly behind me.
I turn around leisurely, coming face to face with an older looking man. He stood much more taller than me, his brown eyes glaring daggers at my unwavering expression. I then noticed that he was clutching a kunai knive in his right hand.
"Hmph. So, are you an assassin? Who sent you this time?" I ask fiercely through clenched teeth.
"What does it matter? You'll be dead anyway!" he yells surely.
"You seem so sure of that. I will hate to have to kill you. Your so determined." I almost laugh at his pitifulness.
That must have gotten to him, because at that moment, he launches forward kunai raised. "What a pathetic fool."
Before his kunai makes impact to my flesh, my entire body turns from a solid into a gas in a matter of seconds. His kunai passes through my throat, but it was inevitable. My body had turned into a foggy substance that was impenatrable to any type of weapon of jutsu. Meaning that whenever I was in this form, everything that was directed at me merely past through or didn't affect me at all.
I smirked childishly at the man's shocked face. "When he was sent to kill you, I guess his leader didn't bother to tell him my strength. Silly human. I almost feel sorry for him."
I crouch down silently, just like a lion about to pounce on her prey, but instead of attacking I merely jump backwards into the main road. As my feet touch down on the ground, my body returns to it's solid nature.
"Whoa! What was that?!" I sigh out in disbelief. It was the Leaf ninja's walking up on my left. And it was the boy named Naruto who was talking to me.
"Hey, are you okay?" the jounin, Kakashi, asks me calmly.
I didn't answer his question. I was still glaring harshly at my assassin, who was still standing in his same position, looking down at me with immense fear.
"Who goes there?" Kakashi asks sternly, following my gaze beside the stone-carved building.
"Uh-oh. She has Leaf shinobi with her. I have to get out of here." At his words, the ninja assassin'sattention flickers momentarily to the front gate mere yards away.
"He's going to try to make a run for it."
Masumi was right; obviously and as usually. The ninja quickly emerges from the shadows and darts past you to the gate down the road.
"Hey!" Kakashi bellows, grabbing out a kunai knive from his weapon pouch. I eye the knive in his hand warily.
"Take the kunai from him, my child. He musn't get away!"
Without hesitation, I snatch the kunai from the jounin's hand and fling it aimlessly towards my fleeing assasin. Within mere seconds, it jabs him square in the back of his neck; killing him instantly.
"Wow. That was amazing!" the very obnoxious brat, Naruto, exclaims with exuberance.
"Yeah, whatever," I say with venom in my voice.
Ignoring my hostile tone, or completely oblivious to it, Kakashi asks me curtly, "So, why was that ninja after you?"
I grit my teeth in frustration. "None of your business."
"Your probably right. And I guess from your defensive assertion, you are not going to tell me anything about the matter," he justifies calmly, glancing up the road and back to my face.
I sigh out in relief. At least he wasn't being persistent on the subject; for now.
"So," he continues, ignoring again my antagonistic expression, "do you have any family?"
I feel my brows pull together in anger, and my stomach twists unpleasantly. "Where the hell do you get off...?"
"Calm down, Aimi."
"No," I answer his question without emotion, my gaze averting his. He seemed to be contemplating something at my answer.
"Say yes."
Before I could ask what she meant, I noticed Naruto's and Sasuke's facial appearances. Naruto's was difficult to read; he looked saddened but at the same time elated. Sasuke's appearance was pure curiousity.
"How would you like to come back with us to the Leaf village?" Kakashi asks me, breaking me of my thoughts.
"Hmmm? What? Why?" I inquire, returning my gaze unwillingly to him.
"Well... you seem to have assassin's trying to kill you for some apparant reason. You can stay in the village for protection," --sees my indignant expression-- "and also for a place to stay," he adds
considerately.
"Say yes, my dear."
I sigh mentally, hating myself for what I was about to do. "Alright, I'll go."
"Alright then. We'll be leaving now.. or is there anything you would like to get before we depart?" Kakashi asks, with a raised eyebrow. I shake my head.
"Okay. Let's go back to the village," he concludes, walking past me without another glance.
"Alright! This mission wasn't a total loss, after all!" Naruto proclaims exuberantly. I scowl in his direction. Was he always this loud and so overly hyper?
Sasuke brushes past me then, after his sensei. His expression still bore the same curiousity as before. I could hear Masumi growling seductively in my head, as his onyx eyes met my own. She growls the same way again, as Naruto walks past, a huge grin plastered on
his face. But as Sakura hesitantly passes by, a sweet smile on her lips, the demon goes into a quiet state.
"Ohh... why so silent there, Masumi?" I giggle. "Anyway, I have a question for you."
"You want to know why I told you to say yes for going to the Leaf village? Well, for one it would be good to lay low for awhile."
"Yeah, I guess it would be. But wait... you said for one? There are other reasons?" you ask incredulously.
Masumi sighs irritably. She was giving off the impression that another reason was chilidishly obvious. I groan in disbelief; not for Masumi but for myself for not realizing it from the beginning.
"Wow. I should have figured that out from the start." I sigh. "Well, I guess these boys in the Leaf village better watch out, huh?"
Masumi laughs in response. And my stomach churns uneasily.
"And, I guess, it would be nice to go to a new village. I mean, we've never been to the Village Hidden in the Leaves. And I am a bit curious to see what it will be like," I admit sheepishly.
"That makes two of us."
"But here's the deal. We'll only be staying in the village for a week at the most. Got it?"
"Alright, alright. Fine with me. Hey, you better catch up with them. Their already to the gate."
"Hmm?" I look down the road, and sure enough, the Leaf ninja were inches from the gate doors. I sigh heavily, my expression turning emotionless, as I walk swiftly to catch up to them.
