Warring Times

|C:1| The Journey Ark |P:1|

Kazuko sighed, looking down at the map that sat, dimly lit by a small fire she had started, on the ground in front of her. Junko slept a few feet away from the seven year-old, two thick jackets over her as she leaned against a cedar tree. Kazuko sat on her knees, trying to figure out where she was as she looked at the map of the ninja nations. So, I'm here. She subconsciously pointed to the left side of Amegakure on the map. The Land of Fire's border to here is heavily guarded by Hanzo, but- Her finger drifted over to the place between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind. The Land of Rivers' border isn't as heavily guarded. With our small stature and the fact that we're female, we should be able to wiggle out of any situations we get into as we sneak across the border. She nodded to herself, marking a familiar trail to the border she needed to go to, and then rolled the map up and shoved it into her backpack.

She sat near the fire, stretching her chakra out, something she had been taught to do by her mother, just as the war had started, so she could sense. She hadn't ever kept her chakra stretched out this long before, but it had to be done in order to know if someone was around. She couldn't risk sleeping, it would be foolish on her part. She looked down at her baggy, black pants, which were ripped from her mid-calve to her knee, and closed her eyes, muttering a small prayer to anyone who would listen.

The next day, she restarted her journey when Junko awoke, screaming for food and thirsty. Kazuko pulled a can out of her bag, briefly looking over it. Cut up pears, she looked over the yellow paper wrapped around the metal can with a blank look. She pulled one of her father's kunai out of her bag, twirling it around her finger before plunging it, with great power, into the top of the can. She twirled the can, the kunai still in, until the top popped off. "Here, Imouto. I don't have any utensils." She said softly, a gentle smile on her face as she handed Junko the can.

Junko took it happily, grinning goofily at her sister and bringing the can up to her mouth. She turned it up, slurping the small, cut up pears like they were a drink. "Thanks, Nee-chan." She said, pushing her pastel blue hair behind her ear. Her's was shorter than Kazuko's, stopping just before reaching her neck. Kazuko's matching pastel blue hair stopped at her shoulders.

"Eat quickly, Junko. We need to leave soon." Kazuko took Junko's silence as an 'Okay' and packed up, placing some kunai in a pocket strapped to her right thigh. It wasn't very reliable though, and dug into her skin. After all, she had made it from vines the night before. She winced at the movement of standing up, the vines' sharper points clawing at her like a wild animal. She sighed, stepping on the hardly lit fire in front of her and covering it with grass. She didn't want anyone to know they had been there, after all.

When they were both ready, Kazuko put on her backpack and picked up Junko. She jumped into the trees, landing on each branch with a 'THUD!' She only realized as she jumped how tired, hungry, and chakra exhausted she was. She hadn't slept, eaten, and her chakra had been stretched out all night, her way of sensing people. She was positive she could take it, or so she thought. As dizziness overtook her, about thirty minutes after starting the tree hopping, she realized she was wrong. She stopped suddenly, causing Junko to yelp. She jumped from tree limb-to-tree limb in a downwards angle, until she was about ten feet from the ground. Black started creeping up around her eyes, and then she was falling. Junko's screams were enough to tell her that. She could see her hair above her, whipping her face as she fell. So, she held Junko tighter and rolled over in the air, so that she was on her back. That way, the younger girl would land on top of her. The breath was knocked out of her and she felt a sharp pain for a split second when she hit the ground, but then, there was nothing but darkness.

She blinked open her eyes, the light from a light bulb above her making her shut them tightly again. Her breathing was unsteady, and she was only half aware of the pain in her back, as well as the bandages wrapped around her back and stomach. She could see Junko's blurry figure looking at her; hopeful eyes stared back at her. "Hatake-san, Nee-chan's awake!"

She jumped up, or tried, only to be pushed back down by a young looking, grey headed male. "Whoah there, Kazuko-kun. I don't plan to hurt you, or Junko-chan here." He ruffled the latter's hair, winking playfully at her.

Junko giggled. "Hatake-san found us when you fell, Kazuko-nee. He brought us into the Land of Rivers, told the guards we were his cousins." Junko explained, clapping her hands together excitedly, and unknowingly giving Kazuko a larger headache than she already had.

Kazuko nodded hesitantly, searching the man's body language for anything suspicious. She found nothing, furrowing her eyebrows. "Why would you help us?" She asked bluntly, uncaring of how rude she sounded. Junko frowned at her, but said nothing.

"Why not?" The man asked rhetorically, raising a grey eyebrow. "You're strange for a kid, kid." He told her matter-of-factly. "I was coming out of Ame when I found you two. You should really put your fires out better, by the way. The grass doesn't do much. You might want to try dirt. Makes it less obvious."

Kazuko narrowed her blue eyes, danger shone in them. Something odd for a seven year-old, the man noted. "You're a shinobi. Why would you help us? You were on a mission, yes? I thought nothing got in the way of a mission." She said, her voice eerily calm.

"As a shinobi, my job is to protect." He said questioningly. Where would she get the idea that he wanted to hurt two young girls that weighed as much as a twig? He scratched the back of his neck unsurely.

"As a shinobi, your job is to kill and be able to not regret it!" She spat out, more cruelly than she meant to.

He narrowed his eyes, trying to figure her out, when it came to him: she was a civilian from Amegakure, but her parents were ninja(someone had to teach her chakra sensing, and the academy was destroyed during the war).Which meant she had seen war, and knew just enough about Ninja to think they didn't care. She was also protecting someone else, giving her enough reason to be suspicious about anyone she didn't know. "Sometimes, yes." He admitted. "But not this time." He sighed. "I got separated from my team. So, now I'm on my way back to Konoha."

Kazuko's head shot up, her eyes widening. "You-you-you!" She took a deep breath as he looked at her curiously. "You can take me and Junko to Konoha!" She said quietly, though excitedly, a smile on her face.

He thought for a while. She would be taken to T&I... but if she was found to not be a threat... "I can't guarantee you'll be able to stay there. But, I can help you get there." He said with a small smile. Warring times... But, she's a child. I'll keep an eye on her. He decided.

"Hatake-san, my name is Togattahoshi Kazuko." She bowed as deeply as she could from a bed.

"Hatake Sakumo."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sakumo-san."