Chapter 1 - Disturbing News: A Sister in Trouble

“You are going to have to be faster than that if you want to beat me,” said Rock Lee, as he leapt off the top of a ten foot wooden wall.

“Yeah, well we’ll just have to see about that,” replied Kiba as he reached the top of the same wall, with Akamaru right behind him, “right, Akamaru?” The large hound barked in agreement and the pair jumped from the wall, following Lee to the next obstacle, a thirty foot rope climb. Lee was already on his way up, but Kiba was quickly able close the gap once he arrived.

Akai stood a short distance away, watching the two test out the obstacle course that he and Iruka-sensei had designed and built. The two shinobi had remained neck and neck for most of the course, seeming to have little difficulty with any of the obstacles, though Akai had to admit that they were also physically far above the average ninja. Just because these two made the course look easy did not mean that everyone else would. He watched as the two reached the top of the ropes and each started their descent, Kiba moving faster than Lee to begin with and also dropping for the last fifteen feet, creating the largest gap between them yet as they moved to the final obstacle.

It was an inverted ladder, leaning backward at a forty-five degree angle, which the two would have to climb up on the bottom side and then down on the top side, not an easy feat. Kiba reached it first and immediately started his ascent, having only minimal trouble hanging on to the wooden bars. Lee had more difficulty when he arrived, having never done anything similar, he was unsure of what to do. But after a few failed attempts, he finally found a method that worked for him and started scaling the ladder at great speed.

“Now look who’s going to win, Lee!” shouted Kiba as he reached the ground again and Lee had just reached the top of the ladder. He smiled broadly as he took off toward the finish line where Akai was waiting. Lee continued his way down the ladder and did a back flip off of the last bar to land running on his feet.

“We will see about that!” he shouted as he took off sprinting after Kiba. When Kiba heard this and glanced back to see Lee gaining on him, his smile was gone and he refocused on running for the finish. Akai could tell that it was gonna be a close one. The two chunin approached side by side, but Kiba’s lead after the inverted ladder paid off, he ran past Akai just a moment before Lee.

“Kiba is the victor!” shouted Akai, as the two ran by. Upon hearing this, Kiba jumped up and howled in victory before turning and giving both Akai and Lee high fives.

“We did it, Akamaru!” he shouted with excitement, “we were the first to complete the new course!” Akamaru barked with equal excitement.

“Well done, Kiba,” said Lee, bowing shortly, “it was a good race. And now,” he added as he dropped into the leaning rest, “one hundred pushups for not winning. One and two and one and two…” In his signature style, he had challenged himself to either beat Kiba or do one hundred pushups for failing to do so.

“Thanks for trying out the course guys,” said Akai as Lee continued with his pushups and Kiba finally started calming down, “what did you think?”

“It was splendid,” said Lee without stopping his ‘punishment’, “I can truly see that running through it regularly will certainly make for some excellent training.”

“I have to agree with Lee on that,” added Kiba, patting Akamaru on the neck, “it’s just challenging enough without being impossible, even for shinobi who aren’t as fit as we are.”

“I could not agree with Kiba more,” Lee continued as he stood up again, having completed his pushups.

“Thanks, guys,” Akai replied, “it took Iruka and me a while to finish it, so I’m glad that someone will use it. Do you guys want to head over to Ichiraku’s and grab something to eat? My treat.”

“Sure,” said Kiba, “that would be awesome. Let’s get going.”

“Hang on a minute,” said Lee, suddenly reaching up to his left ear, where he had an earpiece and microphone. “Yes, Guy-sensei? Yes, I am with Akai right now.” He listened for a moment and a look of concern crossed his face. “Yes, sir, I will tell him.” He switched off the microphone and lowered his hand turning to look at Akai with a worried look on his face.

“Lady Hokage wants you to meet her at the south gate immediately.”

“Why?” asked Kiba.

“Apparently the Kajihana Clan is approaching the village, but something does not seem right. There are Sand shinobi with them, and the caravan appears to have recently been through a fight,” he explained, keeping his eyes on Akai. Akai’s face filled with shock.

“Then let’s go,” suggested Kiba, realizing what the clan being attacked could mean for Akai. The trio took off, using the roof tops as a highway as they steered toward the south gate.
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As they approached the gate, they could all see the Kajihana caravan wagons coming into the village. Some were missing there tops, others had chunks of wood missing, and still others were covered in scorch marks. Some of the clan members were walking and several were sporting cuts and bruises. It certainly looked like they had been through a battle, and, sure enough, there were sand ninja among the group as well. The three saw Lady Tsunade and Iruka speaking to one of them, a blond woman with a large iron fan folded up on her back.

“Hey, it’s Temari,” said Kiba recognizing her as they approached over the roof tops, “the sand ninja must be from one of her liaison missions, traveling with her to carry messages between us and Sunagakure.” Akai listened but was not interested in identifying the shinobi present. His main concern was locating his family. He finally spotted them coming threw the gate as he, Kiba, and Lee leapt down from the roof top and landed near Tsunade, Iruka, and Temari. As the two chunin with him ran to meet with the older shinobi and find out what was happening, Akai ran to see his parents and brother.

“Mikon, Mom, Dad,” he called as he came up to them and gave each of them a hug. They were all stunned, especially Mikon and Toramaru, by the headband that Akai had been wearing for two weeks now. Akai was so glad to see them all safe that, for a moment, he didn’t realize he had left someone out. When he did realize it, he looked about for his sister, but did not see her anywhere. “Where is Izumi?”

At the mention of their daughter’s name, Mina and Toramaru looked down in despair, leaving Mikon to answer his younger brother’s question.

“She was captured,” he said slowly, too stunned by his own words to even form tears. Akai didn’t understand.

“Captured? What do you mean?” he asked forcefully, unintentionally causing his brother to recoil in fear, “Captured by who?”

“The Akatsuki,” said a voice behind him, causing him to turn around and see Temari standing behind him. She and the others had come running over after seeing Akai rush to see his family. “Not the actually Akatsuki, but some of their agents. My group found them attacking this caravan on the road and stepped in to intervene. They fled quickly, leaving only a few casualties, but it wasn’t until after we had tended the wounded and logged the dead that we realized they had taken ten captives.”

“Izumi was one of them,” added Mikon when Temari had finished. Akai’s heart sank. His own sister? A prisoner of the Akatsuki? “I saw them take her,” continued Mikon, his face downtrodden, “but I couldn’t stop them. They fled before I could get to her.” Now, even as his little brother watched, Mikon did fall to tears, ashamed of having not been able to protect his sister. Akai, struggling to contain his own tears for his sister, placed a hand on his big brother’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry,” he said, “we’ll find her.” Then he turned around and faced Lady Tsunade. “Lady Hokage, I request permission to leave the village on a mission to locate these Akatsuki agents and rescue my sister and fellow clan members.”

“When you became a Leaf genin, the Kajihana Clan became a member of this village,” Tsunade replied, “of course I grant you permission, but I will make a few stipulations.” She looked at the other shinobi around her to see that they were listening, then addressed each of them, “Iruka, Kiba, Lee, would all of you be willing to go on this rescue mission?”

“Of course, Lady Hokage,” replied Lee, “I can not sit by while friends of the Leaf Village are held prisoner, it will not stand.” He offered his salute, usually reserved for Guy-sensei alone, as a sign of his acceptance.

“Surely, Lady Tsunade,” said Iruka, “you don’t think I would just stand here when one of my student’s family members is in enemy hands. You can count on me.”

“You can sure count me and Akamaru in too,” added Kiba, “especially since we’ll have to track down these Akatsuki.” Akamaru howled in agreement.

“Good,” said Tsunade again, before turning to Temari, “Temari, would you be willing to at least show them where the attack happened?”

“I can do more than that, Lady Hokage,” the sand shinobi replied, a smirk on her face. “My apprentice, Areno Taka, is currently tracking the Akatsuki agents. Tracking is her specialty and I asked her to do it just in case you wanted to send a team. To be honest, I would have gone myself if I didn’t have to oversee the clan’s arrival here.”

“That’s perfect,” said Tsunade with a nod, turning to the group in general, “the five of you will depart immediately and locate Temari’s apprentice, who has hopefully located the Akatsuki’s base of operations by now. Gather some intel and move in if you are able. Since the Akatsuki are involved, I will mobilize the Neju Shotai and they will follow you shortly. They will back you up.”

“Understood,” said Temari and Iruka, while the three younger shinobi nodded. The team then turned around and headed for the south gate. Mikon watched them leave, his brother in particular. He could not help noticing how much his brother had changed in the past two and a half months.

“Good luck, little brother. Please bring our sister back safely.”

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