Ok, this is the first story I've ever posted, so please, please, please be nice. I'll take all reviews, even flames.

Ok, here goes! Wish me luck!

The rain was coming down in sheets. The three genin hunkered down in the middle of a cave, watching as streaks of lightning and wind destroyed the landscape around them. There was no way they could have gone on in that storm, even if they were in the territory of their most dangerous enemy, without their jonin teacher and without even a bit of protection against attacks. They were stuck. If they were lucky, they'd make it out alive. If they weren't, they would beg for death.

"This is stupid," one of them grumbled, slouched against the wall in a lazy posture that proclaimed her parentage in Konoha as loudly as her electric blond hair and soft brown eyes. "We shouldn't even be here and now that stupid sensei of ours got us stuck here and didn't even stick around. We're going to get roasted by some missing-nin in less then an hour."

"Hey, don't think like that!" another genin said-or yelled, more accurately-indignantly. His brilliant blue eyes and pale lavender hair made it obvious who his parents were. "If any missing-nin comes just leave him to me, believe it!"

"Shut up," the last genin hissed, throwing a look at the entrance to the cave. She had silver hair that was tied back into a ponytail, dark brown eyes, and wore a black mask and a trench coat. (A/N: Three guesses). "Do you want to die? You're attracting attention, baka!"

"Yeah, he's good at that," an amused, older voice commented dryly. "Not quite to his father's level yet, but hey-Naruto had years of practice."

The three genin instantly got out weapons, settling into defensive positions.

"Hey! How do you know my father?" the boy demanded, looking around for their unseen enemy.

"Show yourself!" the blond girl commanded. She sounded confident, until you looked down and noticed her shaking knees. "Or are you too scared?"

This was met by laughter. Lots and lots of laughter.

"Guess that cancels that out," the silver-haired girl muttered sulkily.

"Oh, calm down, kids, I'm not here to kill you. Hell, you'd already be dead," the older voice said, still amused. A woman entered the cave, her lips curved into a laughing grin. "Put those toys away, would you?"

"It can't be…" the silver-haired girl breathed. Her kunai clattered to the ground in shock.

"Hey! I know you!" the blond shouted, her eyes widening and widening. "You're…you're…"

"That's how you know my father!" the boy yelled. If there was glass around it would have shattered. "But you can't be…"

"HARUNO SAKURA?" the genin shouted.

The famed missing-nin of legend grinned and flicked a piece of her trademark pink hair out of her face. "Guilty as charged." She leaned against the rock wall, stretching one leg out in front of her with a soft sigh. Emerald eyes roved over the three genin; taking note of the weapons they still held. "Will you please put those away? I'm not going to suddenly skewer you, you know. I'm honestly not here to hurt you."

The three genin exchanged uneasy glances. Then, as it seemed the missing-nin really wasn't going to do anything, they put their weapons away. That didn't make any of them relax their defensive positions, though.

"Why are you here, then?" the silver-haired girl asked.

Haruno Sakura appeared not to have heard. She was examining each of them, looking them over. "You must be Ino's girl-Nara Kaida, right?"

The blond stiffened at her name, but nodded warily. It wouldn't have mattered if she denied it, anyway-the elite ninja could read each of them like a book.

The missing-nin smiled at her nod. "Yeah, I thought so. I was wondering when she was going to marry that lazy Shikamaru. Took her a while." Her gaze shifted to the boy. "You must be Naruto's kid, Uzumaki Daisuke. Hinata must have loved it when you were born. She always did love that loudmouth."

Last, her eyes moved to the silver-haired girl. "And you…"

"Hatake Haruna," the girl grumbled, before the ninja could start speculating. "You're my namesake. Okaa-san's family wasn't too pleased about it."

"Oh, dear Kami," Haruno Sakura breathed, taking in the trench coat, the pale skin and the brown eyes. "Is your mother Mitarishi Anko?"

Hatake Sakura nodded, used to the horrified expression her parent's names put together, combined with an actual child, always sparked.

"You poor, poor child," the missing-nin proclaimed, contemplating the horrors a child with Hatake Kakashi as a father and Mitarishi Anko as a mother would have seen, not to mention what a child like that would actually do. "You never stood a chance at all, huh?"

Suke and Kai muffled their snickers behind their hands. Haruna glared.

"Never mind. What are three Konoha genin doing here? Where's your sensei?" Haruno Sakura asked.

"What are you doing here?" Kai countered, narrowing her eyes.

Sakura tilted her head. "Uh, my land, remember? What do they even teach in the Academy these days? I got caught in the storm same as you guys, I'm guessing. Your jonin sensei probably got separated from you. What I want to know is why you chose to shelter in a cave in the Hidden Sword."

"We couldn't find anything else," Haruna explained, sitting cross-legged on the floor. "And we figured that most of the people wouldn't care about a couple of new genins here." When Kai and Suke stared at her, she shrugged, looking extremely like her father. "What? It's not like its classified information; it's not like we'd beat her in a fight, and she obviously doesn't want to kill us right now. It's better to tell her then have her torture it out of us."

"Smart little kid," Sakura commented, rolling her neck. "And you're right-you're not a threat here to anyone that matters. It's what I would have done back in Konoha."

Silence reigned in the cave. Lightning split the sky.

"Why'd you leave?" Suke demanded suddenly.

Sakura turned to him, emerald eyes confused. "Huh?"

"Why did you leave?" the boy enunciated, looking annoyed. "My father always said that you loved Konoha, and that everyone loved you. He never understood why you became a missing-nin."

"My father always wondered too," Haruna chimed in, watching Sakura's face. The emerald eyes looked back at her calmly. "He always tells me that any ninja who betrays their teammates are worse then trash. He told me he thought you knew that, too."

Haruno Sakura turned away. "I did," she said softly.

"So why'd you leave?" Kai demanded peevishly, sick of this evasion. "Tell us, already!"

Sakura was silent. "No ninja ever asks me that. No ninja ever asks any missing-nin that. They just kill first and spread lies later." She turned her head, and emerald gleamed in the black. "You really want to know?"

The genin nodded.

"Give me your hands." When the three blanched, she sighed and elaborated; "I don't want anyone else to know my story. Knowledge is power. So I'm going to make it so you can't tell anyone. Hands."

Curiosity overcame caution, and the three extended their hands.

Sakura grasped them in her own and her chakra rushed through them without hand seals, warm and binding.

She let them go, and then sat back against the wall again, breathing out a sigh.

"Well?" Kai shouted.

Sakura looked out into the rain. "It started like this…"