Mother Nature's Flower

Chapter 9

It’s been three days and Aiko, Kakashi, and Sakura had made it to the village Hidden in the Leaves. Aiko had become great friends with Sakura. She had even let her braid her hair. She had talked about all the genin in the village and a lot about a “Sasuke-kun” person.

He must be very impressive if he can get Sakura-chan to talk about him for almost three days, Aiko thought to herself as the gate to the village loomed closer.

They were only a few feet away when Aiko noticed two men talking behind the desk at the front gate. She got scared and grabbed the material of the qipao that was at the small of her back. As she grabbed it, she moved behind Sakura for protection.

Sakura noticed, but this had become a usual occurrence. She would do this whenever she got scared.

As they stood a mere three feet away from the men, they looked up. They noticed first Kakashi, then Sakura, and then Aiko. When they saw Aiko, they stared at her confused. She noticed their stares and squeaked while going back behind Sakura’s back.

Kakashi noticed their stares and cleared his throat to get their attention on him. Izumo and Kotetsu snapped their stares away from Aiko and attached them to Kakashi.

“We’re back from the escort mission from Suna,” Kakashi informed them as he showed them his pass before walking into the village towards what Aiko assumed was the Hokage’s office.

Toshiko had told her some about the Konoha before she left. She learned about the Hokage’s, which was especially fun for her. She really liked the Fourth Hokage. He sounded so wise for how young he was before he died. And he died while protecting the village from the Nine-Tailed Beast. She really wanted to meet this person. They had to be an amazing person. She couldn’t wait and hoped that they were still in the village and weren’t hard to find.

As Aiko got down from her thoughts, she noticed that they were approaching a building. A rather large building.

“Must be the Hokage’s office,” Aiko mused as she, Sakura, and Kakashi walked through the doors. They walked down the long halls before Kakashi finally stopped at a pair of large double-doors.

He knocked three times before stepping back. Aiko could hear a faint come in as Kakashi opened the door and held it open for them.

Aiko walked through, still a little wary of Kakashi, but froze seeing two men in the room.

They seemed to be finishing up a conversation, but that didn’t matter in the least to Aiko.

They looked scary! The man behind the desk, who she assumed was the Hokage, was wearing the traditional Hokage robe and hat. The man he was talking to was terrifying. He was big. He was wearing a long, black trench coat with a black bandana around his head. Along the forehead part of the bandana was the metal part of the forehead protector that showed he was part of the Leaf village. He had scars across his face, three of them.

She froze as she made it only three feet inside the office. Kakashi and Sakura noticed her stop. So did the two men in the room.

They looked at her, the Hokage and the scary man. The Hokage had nice, kind eyes that made him seem not so bad. The scary man, though, his eyes were hard and cold. He was someone who had seen the bad of the world and had survived.

“Hello. I see you Kakashi and Sakura finished their mission,” the Hokage spoke as she saw Kakashi and Sakura behind Aiko.

The scary man narrowed his eyes at Aiko, not having seen her before.

Aiko started to breathe heavily. Her palms were getting sweaty. Her knees shaking, threatening to buckle at any given moment.

Oh no! Kakashi and Sakura thought at the same time.

Sakura rushed to stand in front of Aiko. She put her hands on her shoulder as she spoke to her, “It’s okay Aiko. It’s okay. Breathe. Just breathe.”

But it wasn’t working. She wasn’t calming down in the slightest and breathing became next to impossible. She started to cry.

“I want Sh-shiko! I w-want Panda! I want Nii-san!” Aiko cried out as she fell to the floor.

Sakura looked panicked. She looked at Kakashi for help, but he might just make it worse.

While all this was happening, a group of people walked through the door. One was women who looked to be just a bit younger than Kakashi. There were three kids with her. Two boys and one girl.

The woman was very pretty. She had curly black hair, bright red eyes, and was very slim but looked like a force to be reckoned with. She also looked kind at the same time. Her outfit consisted of a wrap dress that had a V-neck line. Underneath she was wearing a one-sleeved shirt that had fishnet on the body but the arm was a red fabric that matched her eyes. She had bandages wrapped around her thighs and standard black shinobi boots.

The other girl was also very beautiful. She had short dark blue hair that looked almost black and pale, pupiless purple eyes. The jacket she was wearing was large and hid her figure along with baggy pants with bandages around her right thigh. The top of a fishnet shirt peeked over the collar of her jacket along with a headband around her neck. On her feet were standard shinobi sandals.

One of the boys was wearing a dog on his head. The dog was downright adorable, the boy wasn’t too bad himself, but he looked scary with the fuzzy hood of his jacket up. He also had the fuzz around the wrists. His eyes were naturally narrowed with slit-like pupils. Under each eye was a red rang mark. He had on brown baggy pants with a bandage around his right thigh. On his feet were, again, standard shinobi sandals and around his forehead was his Leaf headband.

The last boy was peculiar but something about him struck Aiko as familiar and that was a comfort over the last days of being away from everything she held dear.

His bottom half was just like the other two, but the top half was all him. He wore a long-sleeved coat that hid everything. It had a high color and deep pockets. He wore round sunglasses on his face and his headband rested on his forehead. He also had a scent that smelled like her old home. The forest.

As she looked them over, she realized why the boy with the glasses seemed familiar. He reminded her of Gaara. His face had not changed since he entered the room and he looked very reserved. He reminded her some much of him, she wanted to cry.

With a sob, she ran to him and cried into his chest while wrapping her arms around his torso. He let out a surprised grunt before seeing how upset she was and awkwardly resting in arms on her back, trying to rub her shoulders soothingly.

Just like Gaara, Aiko thought as she cried harder and tightened her grip on him.

He looked up and looked at the confused people in the room. “What is going on?” He asked in a rough voice that calmed Aiko down a little from her freak out.