"I told you that you'd be fine!" Kurotsuchi said, patting her cousin on the back.

"Still, I can't believe it!" Haruka exclaimed. "I'm a real genin, just like you were!"

"Maybe one day you'll even be a chūnin!" Kurotsuchi suggested. "But by then I'll probably be the Tsuchikage or something."

"Thanks?" Haruka said unsurely. "Hey, where is Deidara-nii? I want to tell him that I passed!"

Kurotsuchi frowned. "He's off moping around as usual. Something's been wrong with him lately. Now he's so distant..."

Haruka smiled. "I'm sure it will all be alright," she assured her cousin.

Kurostuchi smiled at her cousin's naïvety. "Let's go tell the old man!"

The two girls ran off to find their grandfather and tell him the good news. It had been years since that past event Haruka had erased from her memory. About seven. Haruka had passed the Genin Exam and received her Iwagakure forehead protector that day. Now she was just like Deidara and Kurotsuchi.

"Now, make sure you don't get him too excited, because he might die of a heart attack," Kurotsuchi began as they walked towards their destination. "Be really gentle and speak slowly; he isn't nearly as dainty as he used to be. And don't tell him I said any of this because you know how he... move!"

Kurotsuchi grabbed her cousin tightly and jumped out of the way as the walls of a nearby house burst in an explosion of wind. The girls were pushed back by the wind and hit with pieces of wood and other debris.

They stood up, coughing as they tried to catch a breath in the dust-filled air. The dust began to thin, revealing their surroundings. Besides the giant hole in the wall and rubble surrounding them, there were multiple people who had been caught in the explosion. Many were injured, others had died.

Kurotsuchi, who had gotten the brunt of the explosion but still managed to escape with minor cuts and bruises, noticed several Iwagakure shinobi had been the target for the attack. Their assailants stepped out of the hole in the wall.

"Well, looks like it's my lucky day," said one of the men stepping out. "This one is an earth elemental."

"We're in Earth country, what else would you expect to find?" his friend said, stepping out from behind him.

Both men were dressed in black cloaks covered in red clouds. One man had gray hair and a dark complexion; he carried a red, double-bladed scythe with him. The other man's face was covered.

"Both of you girls, run," whispered a shinobi on the ground. His legs had been crushed by rocks that had been thrown in the explosion. "These men are way out of your lead." He looked at Haruka. "And you, leave the village. Get out of here and don't look back."

The shinobi got up as best he could and threw multiple shuriken at the men in black. The man with the scythe blocked all of the shuriken with his weapon, except for one. The shuriken was lodged deeply into his throat. Annoyed, the man pulled the shuriken out of his throat, and at the stubborn shinobi, who was struck in the head and died on impact.

Haruka and Kurotsuchi went pale. The village was in a panic, everyone running around and screaming.

"You never were one for subtlety," the man with the scythe said to his partner.

"You're one to talk," his partner replied.

Not being one to run, Kurotsuchi pulled out her weapons, prepared to fight.

"Get out of the way!" Kitsuchi said, running over with reinforcements, and pushing the girls aside. "Both of you get away! Haruka, get out of the village! Get to safety, now!"

Stunned into silence, the girls nodded and started running.

"'Haruka.' That's the name," said the man with his face covered, ready to leave.

"Hold on, I need to do something!" stated his partner.

"Can't you just skip it?" the first shouted.

"It's my religion!" explained the second.

In the midst of their argument, the girls ran.

"Haru-chan, we need to split up," Kurotsuchi said through breaths as she and her cousin ran.

"What?" was all Haruka said.

"They're after you, but they don't know which of us is you," Kurotsuchi explained. "I know it's dangerous either way, but if they split up to look for us, we might have a better chance of fighting. You might have a better chance of getting away."

"I don't want to leave, Kuro-chan!" Haruka cried. "I want to stay in the village with all of you!"

"Damn it, Haruka!" Kurotsuchi shouted, not being one to address her cousin by her full name. "They're here for you! Stay any longer, and there won't be anyone left for you to stay with! You're going to get us all killed!"

Haruka was used to it. Getting treated terribly by the other kids in the village, sometimes even the adults. Kurotsuchi had been one of the people who never did that to her, one of the people Haruka thought she could always trust as a friend.

"Fine!" was all Haruka said, charging off in another direction.

"Haruka!" Kurotsuchi shouted, not wanting to depart on such a foul note.

Haruka ran and ran, jumping over and around rocks that were in her way.

"Found you!" a voice shouted.

Haruka gasped and turned to see the man from before, with the scythe. He swung his scythe at her throat, knowing it would be enough to wound but not kill her. He was disappointed by the sound of metal against metal and a slight spark coming from her neck.

Her forehead protector, which she wore tightly around her neck, had protected her. However, her forehead protector had been scratched in the process, a sole line crossing out her village symbol from the middle, just like the man's forehead protector.

The man frowned but quickly regained his composure. "You'll make a decent starting sacrifice for Jashin-sama. But don't worry, if you're the one I'm looking for, then I'm not going to kill you—yet!"

Suddenly, everything was in slow motion. Haruka heard the explosion, hearing it move closer and closer to her, aware it would engulf her. But it never did. She felt someone grab her, and she held onto them tightly. She saw only a flash of blonde hair and was unsure who it was she was clinging to, but she held on for dear life, hoping that whoever it was was on her side.

When his feet touched solid earth and they were away from the explosion, time seemed to be properly back in motion. Haruka's hair fluttered in the wind, which followed the explosion, the ends slightly singed.

"Sorry about that," a voice said, bringing Haruka back to reality. She looked up at her savior.

"Deidara-nii," she said, relieved but with her mind buzzing with questions, such as what on earth it was Deidara had just done.

Deidara was silent for a minute, staring at her forehead protector, drawn to the line going through the middle of their village symbol. She saw something in his eyes then.

"Who did that?" a voice screamed. "Somebody is going to die now!"

Deidara and Haruka's eyes widened, and turned to see the man who had been caught in the explosion, his body parts dismembered.

"Haruka, are they after you?" Deidara said, refocusing his attention to the problem at hand.

Haruka nodded.

"Why?" Deidara asked.

Haruka shrugged, though she had a good idea as to why. But she couldn't tell Deidara, not Deidara-nii. He treated her kindly, unlike the others who had turned sour ever since she got that thing put inside her. They didn't know, but their parents knew, which was reason enough for them to hate her. Deidara knew nothing, and if it would keep him from hating her, then she would make sure that he stayed oblivious of it.

"You need to get out of here," he said softly. "Go to another Hidden Village. Any you can find. The stronger the better. Stay there, but whatever you do, don't tell them you're being chased after."

She nodded. "Deidara-nii," she whispered, tears coming to her eyes. "I'm a genin now, see?" she pointed to her forehead protector.

Deidara stared at her forehead protector again, entranced by the fact that their village symbol was crossed off of it. "Yeah," he said, putting his hand to the back of her neck and cutting her forehead protector off of her with a kunai. It fell to the ground with a clank. "You did it, kid."

"Where is my scythe?" the decapitated head shouted. "Kakuzu, get over here and give me my body, damn it!"

"Go," Deidara said, refocusing his attention onto Haruka. "Get out of here."

He grabbed her hand, helping her up, and then Haruka ran.

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"Kaasan! Kaasan, I think she's waking up!" an obnoxious voice rung in Haruka's ears.

"Don't yell, boy!" a woman whispered angrily.

Haruka wrinkled her eyebrows and opened her eyes. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw a boy looking down at her. He had messy brown hair and large, green eyes.

"She's awake, Kaasan!" said the boy.

"Alright, Koji, alright! Settle down!" a woman's voice said. "Step back and give her some room to breathe!"

A woman stepped into the room. She was a relatively young woman, maybe in her early thirties or so. Her big hazel eyes filled with both concern and annoyance.

"You're awake," she said, looking down at Haruka. "Are you feeling alright?"

"How did I get here?" Haruka said. "And where is here?"

"You're in Takigakure," the woman explained. "I found you collapsed out in the woods. You looked exhausted, so I brought you back to my home until you could get rested."

Waterfall country. That wasn't one of the five main shinobi countries, if Haruka was recalling her classes correctly. The closest countries of the five main countries were Earth and Fire. Earth contained Iwagakure, which she definitely could not return to. Fire was Konohagakure.

"Well, I'm fine now. I need to go," Haruka said, jumping out of the bed.

"Oh, no, you don't!" said the woman. "You have some explaining to do! Who are you? Where are you from? What are you doing here?"

"Should I answer all of those questions at once?" Haruka asked. The stern look on the woman's face was a good enough answer for her. "My name is..." a bell could be heard, chiming the arrival of a new hour "...Suzu."

"Suzu?" the woman said skeptically. Haruka nodded. The men had been after a "Haruka." Hopefully, there was no one named "Suzu" on their list. Avoiding the truth would likely be the best way to stay safe.

"And Suzu, do you have a family name?" the woman asked.

"No... I'm an orphan," Haruka said. "I'm from... Kusa. I was trying to get to Konoha, but I guess I didn't make it."

"You wanted to get to Konoha, so you came here?" the woman said.

"I have a bad sense of direction," Haruka explained.

"Right," said the woman.

"So do you think you could maybe help me get to Konoha?" Haruka asked.

"I'll talk to the village leader," said the woman. "We don't have many shinobi to spare. Maybe we can get some escorts from Konoha to take you there."

Haruka couldn't help but grin.

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She had taken a bath, and the dirt and grime were now off her body. Her clothes had been ripped apart on her journey, so the woman had supplied her with new clothes to wear. The family didn't have much money, so she'd been given old hand-me-downs. Instead of her old blue dress and shoes, she wore faded black tights and a moss-green skirt that went down slightly above her knees. Her boots were brown and had been washed so that they were no longer covered in mud but were still stained slightly. She wore a snug, white, short sleeved tee-shirt and a patched brown sweat shirt that was one size too large. Her hair, now untangled and twig-free, went slightly past her waist. She always put her hair up into a long ponytail. She looked through her bag that she'd somehow managed to keep with her this whole time. She pulled out a kunai. Putting it to her hair, slightly passed her shoulder, she pressed down, and her long locks that had taken her so many years to grow fell to the floor. She grabbed two hair elastics and braided her hair into two pigtails. She looked in the mirror.

It wasn't her. It would do.

"Suzu! The escorts are here!"

Because she was Suzu, not Haruka.

Suzu stepped out of the bathroom. The woman's eyes widened, surprised with Suzu's new appearance.

"Are you ready to leave now?" the woman asked.

"Yes," Suzu replied.

"Finally!" a young girl around Suzu's age replied.

"Watch your mouth, Ino," an older man smoking a cigarette said.

"Sorry, Asuma-sensei."

"We had to leave Konoha for a stupid C-ranked mission," said a boy. "How troublesome."

"That's the spirit, Shikamaru," the man, Asuma, said with a laugh. He turned to Suzu. "We're Team Ten. We'll be escorting you to Konoha."