Maria's P.O.V.

"IT'S NOT MY FAULT!" I cried as I stormed out of the room. I ran around to the backside of the library and sat down with my face in my knees and my back against the wall. I can't believe he would say something like that. I trusted him. I thought he was honest when he said he liked me. It was too good to be true though. After all these years, why would he decide to like me now? I sobbed even harder.

"You okay?" A voice asked. I felt a person sit next to me. They put their arm over my shoulder. "You seemed pretty upset when you stormed out of the room."

"Go away Hotaru." I demanded before picking up my head. It's not like I didn't want to be comforted. I quite liked it. I just didn't want to appear weak for crying. I wiped my eyes vigorously in an attempt to hide the fact that I was crying since I had a feeling Lily wouldn't go away on being asked. I have a feeling I failed though.

"It's funny how you always think it's Lily even though it never has been." It was Adrienne's voice. She paused for a moment to think before continuing her thought. "Could that be because subconsciously you do really want Hotaru to come to you."

I thought that over in my head. I had never really thought about why I expect it to be Lily. Adrienne does have a fair point, but I don't quite think that that's it. "Nah. Just because I always feel like it should be Hotaru doesn't mean that I wanted it to be. I think it'sprobably just because I've known her longest. Besides Sam." Thinking about Sam hurt. I really don't understand why hewould insult me like that. When we had sared at the stars together the other night, I really felt like we had something special. "Why did he say that?"

"I don't think he thought much of it when saying it." Adrienne screwed up her face like she was trying to remember something. "He thinks it's cute and thought that something as cute as you blushing could never embarrass you. It wasn't meant to hurt  your feelings."

"Yeah right." I rolled my eyes. "Good try, but how on earth could you know that." Adrienne looked at me like I was an idiot. "Oh, yeah. I forgot."

"Nice going genius." She smirked. I smiled and rolled my eyes at her at her again. "Now you should start smiling. I don't like it when you're sad. It doesn't suit you.

We walked back around to the front of the library and sat down on a bench the played chopsticks for a few minutes. She won most of the time. I was so close to winning when Sam came out. Adrienne walked back into the library.

I was going to apologize for storming out of the room when I noticed that Sam's eyes were full of tears. At first it surprised me to see him crying, but after a few seconds, it made me feel sad as well because it was me who had caused him that pain. I looked him in the eyes for a few moments. Before I knew what I was doing, I had thrown my arms around him and started crying.

"I'm sorry." He whispered in my ear as we embraced. "I shouldn't have-"

"It's not your fault." I cut him off before e could finish his thought. "I shouldn't have overreacted."

"It's okay." He smiled apologetically. "I didn't realize that you didn't like your blushing. I think it's cute."

"You do?" I asked, blushing slightly.

"Yeah. I really do." He laughed a little. "It looks good on you."

I smiled. "Sorry I insulted your smartness."

"It's okay. I know I'm smart." He looked up at the sky for a few moment. "Do you want to go get some ramen or something?"

"You mean, like on a date?" I blushed even more. I've never been asked on a date before.

"I guess it would be kinda like a date..." He replied awkwardly. "So, what d'ya say?

"Sure." I smiled. He grabbed my hand and we started walking to Ichiraku's. Nothing much was said until we were halfway to Ichiraku ramen.

"How long have you liked me?" He asked without looking at me. The question took me slightly aback. I hadn't expected him to say something like that.

"I don't know." I responded. "longer than I can remember. How about you?"

"Since the moment I laid my eyes on you." He smiled. "We were so little then."

"Yeah..." I looked at him. For the first time, I noticed that his eyes were emerald green. They hadn't been that way out of Naruto. They used to be a dark brown color. We stood there for what seemed like an eternity. At the exact same time, we both started leaning in. I was really going to do it. I was going to kiss him. Our lips were only inches apart now.

"MIZUKI!!!" I heard someone call. Startled, I turned around. I ended up hitting Sam in the face with the back of my head. I then stumbled over my own feet and fell down, bringing Sam with me.

"Sorry." I mumbled as I picked myself off of Sam.

"It's fine." He muttered as he pushed himself off the ground. He reached a hand out to me and pulled me up. I thanked him quickly before looking around for the person who had called my name.

"Is this a bad time?" Naruto asked from around ten feet away from me.

"I was actually just about to go get some ramen with Sam." I smiled.

"Can I come?" He asked excitedly. "I like ramen you know."

"We were actually going to go alone." I responded. "Like, on a date."

"Oh, I'll be going then" Naruto said as a look of realization fell over his face. "Maybe I should ask Sakura-chan on a date sometime" He mumbled the last part before walking away quickly. I looked at Sam and we both laughed.

"We should probably get ramen now then." I said. "Last one there's a rotten egg."

"The entrance is ten yards away." Sam said. "Why would we raw there?"

"Why wouldn't we?" I asked. I began running towards the ramen shop.

"Not so fast!" He called behind my as he started running.

I laughed as I slid into the first seat I saw after dashing in. "I win!" I exclaimed as Sam sat down gloomily in the seat next to me.

"No fair!" He yelled. "You had a head start."

"Whatever." I laughed. "Let's just get some ramen."

~•~

After finishing our ramen, Sam and I decided to walk around the village for a while. We ended up in a beautiful park. It had cherry blossom and trees and beautiful flowers everywhere. There were eight stone pathways that let to a fountain in the middle like spokes on a wheel. The sun set magnificently over the mountains in the distance.

"I don't remember this place from the manga," I said in amazement.

"Probably because I asked Lily to make it specially for you." Sam smiled. "I thought you might like it. I left most of the planning up to her though. I"m not very good with this kind of thing.

 "It's so beautiful." I smiled after taking another moment to take it all in. This time I noticed that the sunset reflected off the water in the fountain.

"I guess it is." Sam commented absentmindedly.

"Are you okay?" I asked Sam. It didn't seem like him to zone out like that.

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine." He said shaking his head. "Just got lost in thought."

"Okay." I smiled. "Just making sure."

Sam's POV

"I swear I heard something" I think to myself. "Must've been nothing. I don't like this though."

Maria's POV

Sam smiled back as me. He grabbed my hand that had been loosely sitting at my side. We walked towards the fountain and sat down on the edge of it facing the sunset.

"It's amazing." I commented.

"Yeah." Sam replied. I looked in his eyes and he looked in mine. Before I knew it, we were kissing. It was amazing. Happiness rushed through me. When we finally pulled apart, I was grinning from ear to ear. Nothing could ruin this moment. That is, until I heard it. It was faint at first. A high pitched laugh.

Sam's face fell. "I'm sorry." He said. "I knew that there was something there but I didn't tell you. It's all my fault."

"It not your fault." I smiled. "You didn't want to ruin the moment. Besides, we don't know who or what it is yet anyway."

"Ah, young love" the laughing voice said. "So wonderful, yet so, so foolish.  I remember when I was just a foolish youngling like yourself. I thought that love would be able to conquer all the evil in the world. I thought it was true and just. Until that day. It was then that I realized that the only true and just thing in the world was evil. Anybody who tells themselves otherwise is just fooling themselves ."

"Who are you!" Sam called. "And what are you doing here?"

"I don't need to answer your first question. As for the second question, I'm here to kill you." He laughed.

"Why us?" I cried. "What did we ever do to you?"

"Don't flatter yourself." He said. "I'm killing all of your little friends."

"I WONT LET YOU!" I screamed. I activated my tenseigan. "EIGHT TRIGRAM SIXTY-FOUR PALM!" I screamed as I began my attack. I put as much as I could into the attack. I expected to see him lying near dead when I finished. Instead he stood there without a scratch. "How?!?" I yelled. "You should have died!"

He smirked.  "I thought it would be obvious to someone like you. You're supposed to know everything about this world. He looked at me as though he expected me to say something back to him. When I didn't do anything, he kept on going. "It's my kekkei genkai.  I can absorb other people's attacks if they use a kekkei genkai or ninjutsu, rendering their attack completely useless. After that, I can use their attack back on them. This time, ten times stronger."

"That's impossible!" I cried, trembling with fear. "A power of that magnitude wouldn't have been allowed to remain on this earth.  People would have set out to destroy it!"

"And so they did." The man said firmly.  "They attacked my clan when I was just a baby. I Barely escaped with my life. One would think I would have learned my lesson about this world by that point, but clearly I hadn't. I know now though. And I will destroy ever shred of love you and your little friends have ever had."

"YOU WILL NOT!" I cried. Anger coursed through my blood. I wouldn't let this man get away with what he was trying to pull. I would protect my friends, even if it would cost me my life.  I began to focus as much chakra as I could to my hand. Once I had created a decent sized rasengan, I began running as fast as I could.  I rammed the rasengan into his chest as hard as I could.  It was no use though. My rasengan disappeared before I could touch him. "W-what?" I stammered. "M-my chakra! What did you do to it?"

"Oh. did I forget to mention?" He grinned. "I can also suppress my enemies chakra at will. You may have an infinite amount, but if you can't use any of it, it's not very useful, now is it? Enough talking though, it's time for you to die!" I trembled in fear as I watched him prepare his attack.  It was nothing like any jutsu I had ever seen before. A ball of pure light formed in his hand. "SOARING SPIRIT BOMB!" He screamed as he sent the ball of light flying straight at me. I closed my eyes and braced for the impact, but it never came. 

I opened my eyes slowly and saw Sam lying on the ground in front of me with a huge wound in the middle of his chest. I looked around to find the man, but he had already vanished. "You saved me." I whispered to Sam. "Why?"

"Because I love you." He muttered before fainting.

I picked him up of the ground and ran to the hospital with him cradled in my arms. After making sure that the hospital would take care of him, I ran back home to tell the others.

Lily's POV

"I just think it's boring, you know, not having to try at all to be able to do something." I explained to Adrienne as we sat on the living room sofa eating the ramen I had just made appear out of thin air. "I don't even get to have the fun of trying to make the ramen."

"I can see your point." Adrienne remarked as she finished her first bowl and another one was created to take its spot. "I've gotten bored of not actually have to learn anything. I suppose there really isn't anything we can do about it though."

"Not quite." I said with a grin. "I could just wish away our abilities so they we won't be able to use them until I wish them back."

"Sometimes," Adrienne began. " I forget that you as well are extremely smart. Wouldn't that take away your ability to use whatever type of jutsu you want if it is someone else's kekkei genkai?"

I thought it over in my head. "I don't know, would it?"

Adrienne thought for a moment. "Apparently, no it wouldn't. You're ability to do that is just another trait of your being a prophecy child."

"Okay then, I suppose I can remove our abilities now." I concentrated very hard one what I wanted to happen to me and Adrienne's abilities, being sure to include specific instructions on how we would be able to get our powers back if  I wished for them.

"Did it work?" Adrienne asked. I wished for a glass of water to appear in front of me. Nothing happened.

"It worked." I smiled. "We can finally have to work to-"

My sentence was interrupted when the door was flung open and Maria ran in. "Oh, Maria, did you like the park I made for... What happened?" When I looked at her I noticed that her clothes were torn and covered with blood and her face was covered with tears.

"We were attacked." She sobbed. "There was this man and I tried to stop him but my attacks wouldn't work and then he sent this spirit bomb thingy at me but Sam blocked it and now Sam's in the hospital and the people said that he would be alright but I just don't know what to do."

"It's okay." Adrienne said as she put an arm around Maria's shoulder. "Sam'll be okay. Now tell me, what did this man look like?"

"I don't really remember." Maria said. "He was wearing all black. And I think he had a bowler hat."