Chapter Text
The day was clear, with few clouds in the sky. The wind was subtle but not unwanted, moving stray leaves from the trees to the ground, causing them to crunch under Akina's foot as she walked the path laid before her.
She had been walking for days now, trying to find her way through the geography of the land. Though she had a map, it didn't really help that she didn't understand it at all. But, she knew she was going the right way, the wind was telling her so, in its whispers, telling her to keep going on this path and in a days time she will be in front of the gates of the Hidden Leaf village, her new home. A new beginning, a new start. The thought made Akina smile to herself. She really needed the change of scenery, and even more a change of lifestyle.
In her old home, there wasn't much, just a small town, a part of the village Hidden in the Mist. The town didn't really have a name, nothing worth mentioning. It wasn't even on any maps, that is how insignificant it was. It's even more irrelevant now since it's been burned and raided and looted a couple months ago. This was the reason why Akina left, and decided to find solace at the Hidden Leaf Village, to make a new life for herself. It definitely helps that she doesn't know who her parents are, and the people of the village were strangely wary of Akina.
She remembered a vivid memory of the village elders telling her to never interact with anybody, to stay and hide, especially when the new moon comes. She never knew what they meant, and to this day she was still confused on the new moon bit, it always confused her. She did get oddly weak on new moons, but nothing bad would happen. And since nothing bad ever happens, she never really thought of it seriously. But then again, the new moon was out when the village was burned and raided, and Akina couldn't really remember what happened...It's like there was a barrier set on her mind to make her not remember, and it hurt to try.
Her brows furrowing in frustration, Akina walked on, trying to figure out what happened, but just ending up with a headache. She sighs and relaxing her muscles. The tension of trying to remember becoming too much for her mind. "I probably shouldn't push myself so hard..." Akina muttered to herself, setting her backpack down to grab a drink of water from her canister. With a few swigs down, and a refreshed mindset, she put her backpack back on and started to walk faster down the path, a renewed vigor, wanting to get to the village earlier than in a day.
Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi stood in front of the Third Hokage. Naruto yawned, Sasuke looking bored, and Sakura glancing from the room to Sasuke to seem inconspicuous, but failing. Kakashi shook his head, then gave his attention to Lord Fourth. "Seeing as you called us here, I'm sure you have a mission for my team and I?" Kakashi asked. Lord Third cleared his throat and nodded. He fumbled for a few seconds to find the right file. When he did find it, he gestured for Kakashi to take it, which he did.
"This is a simple C rank mission, you four are to meet up and escort a girl around a year or two older than Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. She is coming from a very small town in the village Hidden in the Mist. Unfortunately, the town was burned down and raided recently, and the only survivor was her." the Third explained. Kakashi nodded as he read along the explanation.
"Understood, we will get ready immediately. Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, you guys get your things ready and meet me in front of the Konoha gates within two hours." Kakashi commanded the three genin.
"Why are we leaving so early?!?" Naruto sputtered, "we barely got back from the Land of Waves a week ago! And I haven't even been to Ichiraku's since we've been back!"
"You know, for someone who wants to become Hokage someday, you sure do complain a lot." Kakashi sighed in exasperation.
"Yeah Naruto, stop complaining so much. Can't you be a little quieter, like some people." Sakura chided in, referring to Sasuke who wasn't paying attention to the conversation.
"Sakura! Why are you taking his side?! You just side you were tired to, ya know!"
"Yes, but I know when to be responsible and suck it up, unlike you, you idiot!" Sakura jabbed. She huffed and looked in the opposite direction of Naruto to indicate she was done arguing. Naruto slumped his shoulders in defeat and sighed. Kakashi chuckled softly and rubbed the back of his head, bowing politely to the Third.
"Sorry about them, they never learn." Kakashi said. The Third waved a dismissive hand.
"No matter, just make sure to get her here safely. And Kakashi, I need to have a word with you privately." the Third said, indicating for the genin to leave his office. When they were signaled to leave, all three bowed and turned to leave, quietly closing the door behind them.
"What did you want to discuss with me?" Kakashi asked curiously. The Third Hokage folded his hands underneath his head and settled his chin on top of them and looked at Kakashi with a serious gaze.
"I know I said this was a C rank mission, but there is more to it than I originally thought. You see, the one requested this mission was the Mizukage himself." Lord Third said. This made Kakashi intrigued. "He wouldn't give me a lot of detail as to why he requested us to escort young Akina to our village, but what he did say was that this girl is extremely special for reasons that we don't know, that the Mizukage wouldn't disclose just yet. But if I am assuming correctly, this girl is the last member of a very long and very powerful bloodline, and the Mizukage wants her to be protected at all costs, so we must do our jobs as shinobi of the Leaf to make sure she is not harmed." the Third said. Kakashi nodded sharply.
"If I may ask, what clan could she be from?" Kakashi asked. Lord Third hesitated for a few moments, debating on if he should tell Kakashi or not. He looked to his advisers, making eye contact with them. In the end, they all agreed to tell him.
"She might be the last living member of the Seto clan."
Kakashi gasped, his visible eye practically bulging out of his head. "The Seto clan? I thought they were exterminated more than fifteen years ago."
The Seto clan. Once revered as gods of the natural elements long ago. It was said that they evolved so much in there ninjutsu that they didn't need to make hand signs, and their taijutsu was on par with the Leaf's own Hyuga clan. And in some branches of the bloodline, their genjutsu was just as terrifying as the Uchiha's genjutsu. They were a force to be reckoned with, and many people were scared of them, as much as they admired them. But with power comes the people who wanted them dead. The clan was soon executed by their own village, in fear they would do something to the people. It was a tragedy many tried to forget.
"Yes well, rumors were spreading around the land that a woman escaped, and apparently she was pregnant with who you are assigned to meet today. Though she probably doesn't know anything of her heritage and blood, and I want to keep it that way. Don't say anything, not even the your team." the Third warned. Kakashi nodded sharply. "Good, you may leave now." the Third said, dismissing Kakashi. He bowed lowly and quickly, then in a puff of smoke he was gone. The Third Hokage sighed and rubbed eyes, hoping to any god that would listen that they would all be safe on this journey.
When the two hour time limit came to an end, Kakashi jumped to the front gates of Konoha, and saw his teammates already there, packed and ready to go. He landed next to Naruto and waved in greeting. "I see that you are all ready to go." He said, smiling through his mask.
"You're five minutes late Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura exclaimed, her hands on her hips.
"Oh, was I? I didn't notice."
"Yeah, well we did!" Naruto said, siding with Sakura. She nodded her head in agreement. Kakashi chuckled, not really knowing what to say. Sasuke rolled his eyes and sighs.
"Do you ever shut up, you dolt?" Sasuke said pointedly to Naruto. Naruto glared right back and cracked his knuckles.
"What'd you say?!?" Naruto yelled out, winding up his arm to hit Sasuke square in the face, but Kakashi caught his hand before he could.
"Now now, teammates shouldn't fight each other. Besides we need to get going." Kakashi said. He let go of Naruto's fist and pushed him along so they could finally begin their search for Akina Seto.
In the first thirty minutes of the journey, it was pretty quiet, with the occasional muttered insult from Naruto towards Sasuke, to which Sasuke ignored. But when thirty minutes became six hours, things started to get a little tense.
"Sensei! Where are we even going?!" Sakura cried out, tired of all the walking they were doing.
"Well, we are following the path that leads into Konoha, to see if we run into her while we walk down the same path." Kakashi explained.
"I understand that, but we've been walking for six hours straight and I haven't seen another living soul at all!" Sakura complained. Kakashi rolled his eyes and sighed. He really didn't want to walk either, but what else were they supposed to do.
As Kakashi was about to answer, a scream was heard throughout the forest, startling all four the shinobi. "What was that?" Sasuke muttered to himself, carefully taking a kunai out of his pouch.
"I don't know, but it could be the girl we're looking for!" Naruto yelled out and dashed off the direction of the scream.
"Wait Naruto, you can't ju-- oh nevermind. Sasuke, Sakura let's go!"
As Naruto ran through the trees, he came to a sudden halt to see a girl with snow white hair hanging upside down from a tree with a rope. She was also surrounded by three ninja. Their kunai were out, and they were laughing maliciously. Before Naruto had a chance to consider going down there to help the girl, there was hand holding him in place. He looked over to see it was Kakashi, with Sasuke and Sakura following quietly behind. Naruto whispered to Kakashi, "Who are they?"
"Rogue ninja it seems." Kakashi responded back quietly. "Okay, on my command, we'll all go in and surprise them. Knock them out and then get to the girl." Kakashi whispered. Naruto nodded, along with Sasuke and Sakura. He nodded and gestured for them to move out.
Naruto quickly jumped out with a kunai in hand, and promptly kicked one of the ninja in the face causing his head to move in an unnatural way, and instantly knocking him out. Kakashi made quick hits to the second ninja, stabbing all his vitals points and also instantly knocking him out. Sakura and Sasuke made quick work of the last rogue, them both hitting him in the face on either side, at the same time, knocking him out too. "Well, that was fast." Naruto laughed out.
"Yeah, for rogue ninja, they weren't that strong. They didn't even sense us." Sasuke said, putting his kunai back in his pouch.
"You guys have a point. They were pretty compared to most ninja that go rogue. I wonder..." Kakashi concurred, trailing off into his own thoughts. The genin seemed to do the same, perplexed as to how they won so easily like that.
"Uhm, not to interrupt your brainstorming, but do you think you could help me get down from here?" Akina said from her position upside down. Naruto heard her first and gasped loudly.
"Oh right! Sorry about that!" Naruto threw his kunai at the rope, successfully cutting it, causing Akina to fall. Naruto made sure to catch her, then slowly drop her to the ground. Akina patted her clothes down for any dust and rubbed her hair down, making it less of a mess than it was when she was upside down. Naruto looked at her more closely. She was really pale, her eyes a deep blue, but yet red at the same time. Her eyelashes and eyebrows were also white. Everything about her screamed fragility. She seemed like the personification of snow. Yet, Naruto got the feeling she was strong, very strong. Maybe it was the way she held herself, or the gaze in her eyes when she met Naruto's.
She smiled and bowed, then bowed to the other three. "Thank you all for helping me, I was quite in a bind there." Akina said politely. Naruto chuckled and put his hand behind his head in a casual pose.
"Aww, no problem, what are ninja for!" Naruto said confidently.
"Yes, Naruto is quite right here. But, are you by any chance Akina Seto?" Kakashi asked. Akina blinked up at him and nodded suspiciously. Kakashi's eye crinkled, signaling his smile from under the mask, and held out his hand to her. "Oh good. My name is Kakashi," she shook his hand," and this is my team, Sasuke," Akina shook Sasuke's hand,"Sakura," she then shook Sakura's hand, "and Naruto here, who cut you down from the tree." Kakashi finished as Akina shook Naruto's hand.
"That's right, Naruto Uzumaki! Amazing ninja and future Hokage!" Naruto said loudly, a big grin on his face. Akina couldn't help but smile back at him.
"Well, it's nice to meet all of you. My name is Akina Seto, wandering traveler, trying to find her way to Konoha." she said to them.
"Yes, we were actually asked to meet you and escort you the rest of the way to Konoha." Kakashi said to her. "Now that we have found you, let us lead the way to your new home."
"Thank you very much." Akina said gratefully. She looked around and quickly found her backpack behind a tree. Putting it on, she looked to the group and smiled, indicating she was ready to leave when they were.
They set out again, going back Konoha this time. As they walked, Akina felt eyes on her and looked to her left to see Naruto stealing glances at her every once in awhile. She seem confused, was there something on her face? No, she didn't think so. Maybe something else...But, oh well. She smiled when she met eye contact with him. Naruto blushed a little in embarrassment at being caught. To distract himself, he started to talk with Sakura. Akina watched them interact, interested in how this blonde boy acted. He was pretty rambunctious for how small he was. She smiled to herself. She hoped when she got to Konoha, everybody acted like this. Loud and open. This would be her first step to a bigger, better life.