What Came Down the River

Chapter 2: Home

The break of a new dawn had just begun to stream sunlight through the trees of the forest. It lit up the faces of the three young ninjas and a girl who had yet to wake. Kakashi had been the first to wake up, it's just been a habit of his after waking up early from missions beforehand. Seeing the sun crack through the trees, he let out a yawn as he stretched against the tree comfortably. We should probably get going soon. I don't want to be running for four hours in the blazing hot sun.

         Making up his mind, he hopped off the sturdy branch and kneeled next to Naruto. "Naruto, wake up. Let's get ready to go."

The boy simply groaned loudly and turned onto his chest, pulling the pillow over his head to muffle out Kakashi's voice.

    "Come on Naruto. I thought you were the one that wanted to hurry to the village yesterday. Don't you want ramen?" Kakashi slyly smiled under his mask as he got the reaction he wanted from Naruto. Who quickly shot up and ran around packing his things up and changing his clothes.

         Kakashi wandered over to Sakura and kindly woke her up. She rubbed her eyes tiredly, and stretched as she slowly rolled her sleeping bag up.

          Sasuke was already up, although it's hard to tell for how long. Kakashi didn't even have to go kneel next to him to know.

     "Kakashi-sensei," Sakura looked wearily at the girl next to the ashes of the fire pit. Kakashi glanced over to her from above his book. The woman's face had seemed to gain some color back. She seemed like a fuzzy, soft, peach now. The sun only added to the gentle pinks on her cheeks.

          "Who is she?" Sakura seemed to be on the defensive. Taking out her kunai just in case the answer was I don't know. Suske seemed to have been alerted by the stranger's presence now. His cold, beaded eyes glazed over her. Naruto was so busy he hadn't even noticed until Sakura mentioned anything.

      "To be honest I'm not sure. But we are taking her back to Konoha. She might have some information that's beneficial for us. See the numbers on her neck? It's a branding of one of the gangs that's been kidnapping people." His words were simple and rather bored. As if tired of waiting on Naruto to be ready. Or maybe not looking forward to having to carry this mystery woman for the next four hours.

       "Are you sure we can't leave her? She seems like she would have trouble following her around." Sasuke was cold and leaned against a tree, ready to take off at any moment.

     "Well...we'll see what happens." Kakashi walked over to the girl and kneeled next to her. As if she were a fragile baby bunny, he eased her onto his back and propped her arms around his neck and her legs were around his waist. For an instant, he could've sworn he felt her flinch and grip his clothes. But the next instant she was completely out again. Even now she's scared... what did these people do to her? A bit of anger was built into his thoughts. But his eyes gave her a caring empathetic look.

       "LET'S GET GOING KAKASHI-SENSEI! MY RAMEN'S WAITING FOR ME!" Naruto's hair was just as ecstatic as his attitude. He was already back in the trees and ready to take off. Sasuke leapt into the trees as well. Seeing that her secret love was gone, Sakura jumped into the tree next to Sasuke.

     "Right right," Kakashi made sure the girl was snug on his back, picked up his sleeping bag, and took off.

     Naruto was cruising in the front obviously daydreaming about ramen. A few small branches hit him as he leaped half attentively, which snapped him out of his thoughts for a couple of minutes. Sakura and Sasuke were only slightly apart. Although you could tell Sakura was trying her hardest to stay as close to him as possible. Kakashi stayed in the back the whole trip. Making sure his students were safe and taking a lookout for anything suspicious.