Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional~





The train car flew over the land, creating a blurry sunny scenery for her; the trees, lakes, rivers, and mountains blending together to create a dizzying masterpiece of moving art. Strings of blonde hair slapped her face, the small stings bringing her out of her reminiscing. Pulling the mass of blonde back once again she sighed knowing the past would only wrack her nerves for the next show, once again she stared out at the landscape passing before her. Her bare feet dangled off the edge of the train car swinging in a carefree fashion.

To Maiha nothing seemed longer than a bright summers day. To her life should be nothing but cold or pouring rain. At least she felt the world around her should feel like her heart, her soul, and her life.

Cold; she felt cold all the time now. Her bones were cold, or maybe something deeper she thought to herself. She shivered at the thought. It had been 3 years since she left The Village Hidden in the Mist. She never missed it. She had abandoned her family, and her purpose. She was now considered a missing nin; she knew she was sought after, she was on one of their most wanted lists. The secrets she knew could devastate the Mist if it got into the wrong hands.

She smiled as she thought about the downfall of that damned country.

Finally finding some solitude in her thoughts she looked toward the next town she would be in. In the distance darkness rose into the sky. Huge thunder head clouds started to boom, lightly rocking the earth, streaks of white lightening shot through the upper clouds and the mountains they surrounded slowly became distorted showing the sure signs of a downfall.

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This is what happened. That night the entire region was lashed with the most vicious thunderstorm they had ever seen.

For an hour before the air had been perfectly still, the heat had beat down upon every one. The heat was a solid thing now that the train had pulled her closer to Suna. She had ate a cold supper, picking listlessly at ham and soupy potatoes with the train crew that had come to accept her presence.  

The train faced the west and gave a perfect view of the impending storms. The evergreens over there looked dusty and beaten. Great purple thunder heads were slowly building up, massing like an army. A boy around the age of 14 stepped out of the darkness of the train to stand beside Maiha.

“Maiha I don’t want to scare you,” he said, “but there’s a bad storm on the way, I think.” Maiha smiled a smile that never quite made it to her eyes. “I know.” He looked at her doubtfully.

She didn’t understand her feelings about this approaching storm, it was different than the rest, a sense of danger that hung in the air sending small tickles down her spine. She didn’t like the feeling. Normally she would be elated about the storm, not this time, but as always she masked how she felt about the situation.

Another boom echoed followed quickly by a streak of lightening that cut through the night sky. The boy recoiled a little putting himself further back into the dark tent. He was afraid of the storm, of any storm for that matter. Maiha knew it, and felt it. His movements, his eyes, the sweat forming on his brow, how could one not know it. She was unerringly observant though, which made her the ninja she was, not that any one on the small train knew this though. She turned to face him and put a hand on his shoulder. He shivered slightly at the small pressure she applied there.

“Do not fear the storm Reiko, embrace it. Fear does not have any special power unless you empower it by submitting to it.”

Mesmerized by her voice and choice of words he slowly nodded and turned back into the train.

Maiha loved storms, she loved the rain, the feeling of it as it washed away her worries, the booms of the thunder made her feel whole, the lightening fascinated her. So why was she feeling this tug on her soul, like an undescribable itch she couldn’t scratch that something was wrong.

She stepped out away from the train, crossing over the railroad tracks, and slowly slipped into the wooded area that surrounded the dull gray train. Her heart beat increased with every step, she knew she had to check this out, what ever this feeling was. It was rather unlike her though, she never usually indulged in these kind of hysterics, but something was pulling her farther into the small gathering of trees. Her pulse raced as the storm boomed around her, lightening hitting near by trees, only slightly startled she continued, the need to find this thing so strong she could barely breath.

She rounded a few more trees, into what seemed to be the darkest portion of the woods, her heart beating so fast she was sure any second it would explode from her chest. To grasp something other than the feeling she put her hand lightly on a small pine to rest against, and then it stopped. Every thing around her stilled, the feeling that was so strong was gone, the storm ceased leaving a black grey stillness around it, not even the wind blew through the trees, instead the air simply fell leaving the feeling of great emptiness where she was, the most odd things of all, her heart that had been racing to the point of pain no longer sounded through out her head, not even a twitch of a pulse that buzzed in her ears.

Taking in the situation she slowly put two fingers to the pulse that should have been on her neck. Nothing. Two twigs popped and she looked up into the darkness only seeing a set of eyes staring back at her. Only one name was whispered from Maiha’s lips, “Kimihiro”. Those eyes became blurry until all she saw was darkness. There Maiha fell into an empty sleep of unconsciousness.




Tausha sighed, throwing her head back over the chair, looking upside down and backwards at Gaara. “Aren’t there any missions?” She asked. Never lifting his head from his paperwork he replied, “yes”.

Tausha waited several minutes before asking. “Well???” Still in deep thought about his paperwork, “Well what?” he responds. This was just starting to irritate Tausha, she wanted an answer not a game of cat mouse.

“Well is the mission for me?!” she sat up and spun around while asking the all to obvious. Now suddenly being stared down Gaara finally looks up from his work and sighs. “Tausha, why do you think your in my office?” he stares at the pretty face before him.
“I thought it was because you wanted to see me.” A small pout formed on her lips, Gaara sighed and returned to his paperwork.
“Yes Tausha your apart of the mission.” he stops his writing  “and I always want to see you.”

Tausha’s mouth drops just a little as a slight blush forms across her face. A smirk slices across Gaara’s face, for some reason he loved making her happy and surprised.

Satisfied with the answers Tausha turned her head to stare out across Suna. It really was a beautiful place, the buildings that surrounded the Kage’s seems to form minions of sand castles. She really enjoyed the idea of Gaara so in charge, in command, protecting the people that she knew he did care about.

Someone knocked on the door pulling Tausha from her thoughts.

“Enter” Gaara commanded.

Three shinobi entered the room. With a yell of glee Tausha flung herself on her best of friends Danya. The girls embraced one another, it had been many weeks since they had seen one another.

“Danya! Me and you are on a mission together again?” Tausha enthusiastically asked. Danya just smiled and nodded. “I suppose so, when I got my letter from Gaara, I mean the Kage, I came as fast as I could.” She hugged Tausha once more and both girls turned to the Kage.

“Okay Gaara, what’s our mission?” Gaara just smiled, he knew the moment Tausha was in the zone, she had already set in her mind that the mission would be completed with success. That was one of the reasons that he loved her so much. Gaara stopped his thoughts, it felt so right so natural to think of love when it came to Tausha. He didn’t want anything to happen to some one who made him that way, who cared for him that way. Placing his mind back on the mission he then gave the orders of what it would consist of exactly.

He waved his hand across the floor, a table with four chairs formed from his sand. Each shinobi took their seat, knowing that this is the moments that they lived for, the moments they trained for, they could not fail their village, their kage, and their fellow ninja.

Gaara held up a large picture of a blonde haired girl with bright teal eyes. Every one’s attention held on the picture and Gaara.

“This is Maiha Nagazato, she is a Jounen from Village Hidden in the Mist. She escaped the Mist and was hunted mercilessly  by not only the top shinobi but as well as other assassins hired to find her.”  Gaara held up several other pictures of battles that had taken place in an effort to capture her.

“So are we now assassins sent to capture her?” Danya asked, staring at the girl in the picture with such a sad look in her eyes.

“No. We are going to rescue her.” Every one looked up at the Kage now realizing that there was some one’s life on the lines, some one’s life depended on them to be successful.

“Two nights ago three miles south east of Suna, a train that was making its way here, was stopped because of flooding. I have been in the works of getting Maiha to Suna, it has taken much time because her being on the Mist’s wanted list. I was then informed by my men who were keeping an eye on her that she was drawn out into a small wooded area and kidnaped.”

Tausha and Danya turned once more to the picture of the girl, she couldn’t be any older than them.

“Your mission is to find Maiha and return safely to Suna. We need the information that she has, and she is willing to give us anything we need.”

With the seriousness of the mission set in Danya and Tausha looked out the window as the other shinobi started discussing each plan of retrieving Maiha.

“Tausha.” Danya looked out over the horizon “I’ve never seen clouds like that near Suna. Tausha knew exactly what she was talking about. In the distance huge thunder clouds were forming. Tingles went down her spine. She hoped that the girl was alright where ever she was at. Some odd hung in the air, a sense of danger.

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Maiha woke screaming. Fear was a living, breathing entity in the darkness of her room. The weight of it crushed her, held her helpless, unable to move. She could taste it in her mouth, and her body beaded with sweat. Around her, the air seemed thick so that her lungs burned for oxygen. For a moment she lay frozen, her ears straining for the murmur of voices rising and falling, whispers she couldn’t quite grasp. She felt some one watching, summoning her, beckoning her closer, as it crept ever closer. Her eyes flew open, the need to flee paramount in her mind.

Her whole body convulsed with the need to move, thus flinging her from the bed to the floor. At once the cold air brought her out of her nightmare and into the realization that she was not safe at her traveling home in her bed, but in a dark empty space of a room.

Candles outlined the walls that circled the four postured cherry bed. A sheer red and white lace tent enveloped the full sized bed and connected to the ceiling concealing the sleeper from prying eyes. A large candle rested on a small night stand that was placed beside her lacy tomb. The shadows it caused danced around the room, almost lively in the way they moved.

She rubbed her hand across her face, pushing on her eyes to try and ease off the small headache that had formed.
“Where am I?” she asked aloud to the empty candle lite room. Swinging her feet over the edge of the bed she pushed aside the lacy red and white mass and stood in the middle of the room observing her surroundings.

She had never been here. This was the conclusion she had come too, she had never seen this bed, never seen these light peachy walls, these candles that danced and flickered with every move she made.


Several candles where lit and she spun around to see how. Her eyes scanned the room behind her. Nothing. Realization dawned on her.

“Kimihiro” she whispered to herself. A soft chuckle echoed through out the room.



With creased brows Maiha gripped the table so tight that her knuckles turned white. She didn’t like this place, she didn’t like the situation, and she didn’t the thought of being captured by her own brother.

“I want to leave.” She said out of gritted teeth.

Laughter echoed through out the room, Maiha then realized that the room possessed no doors, no windows. Nothing. Just the night stand table, the candles and her bed.  Fear hit her, she was trapped by one of the most dangerous shinobi from the Mist. Who would save her now?