Disclaimer: I don't own the manga or anime I use here. Well, actually, since I made up a new character, she's mine, no stealing. But everything else is NOT MINE. Kay? Kay. :P

Summary: A strange new warrior has appeared on the horizon, a shinobi who knows almost nothing about her past. All she knows is the name of a village she is, or was, somehow connected to-Konoha. That, and the urge to destroy the man who took her memory from her, Orochimaru. As she travels, word reaches her that someone has all ready done Orochimaru in. She sets her sights instead on the village he comes form, wandering until she finds it. In the very village, Naruto and his newly reunited team are briefed on a mission involving an old student of Kakashi's, who they suspect has been hanging around the border, for whatever reason. The girl is after Sasuke, intending to defeat the one who took away her only goal from her...

READ THIS PEOPLE!: Um, okay, so just to get it out of the way before hand-

I did make the new character, but she is in no way in the actual Naruto series. I tried to avoid putting spoilers in here at all costs, but there are a few, regarding Sasuke and Sai. Please don't flame me if you're offended by something in here, because I really didn't mean to. I'm sorry if I seem like a jerk for adding in a new character, but it was honestly the only plot bouncing around in my head at the time and I had to get it down. I'll bet that in two weeks from now, I'll think of something else with only the original characters and I'll want to hit my head against a wall for not coming up with it earlier. " CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is appreciated, don't just tell me you hate or you like it, tell me why. Thank you.

Wayward Shurikens:

Part 1

Prologue

Present day. No territory named.

The sun was almost at it's peak, glaringly bright and sizzling hot. A trepid breeze caught hold of wandering particles of dust and crushed gravel and tossed them around lazily, pooling and circling and trickling across the ground in no particular direction. It seemed as though the wind was simply too bored to do anything that day.

The black, shapeless blot on the horizon steadily made progress, growing and taking form, until, if there had been anyone else in the deserted patch of land right then, they would've been able to make out a woman. Her golden-blonde hair shifted slightly with the puffs of air, and her eyes were half-closed against the dust. Beneath her eyelashes, lightly shaded brown eyes seemed to stare out at the world, never deviating from the direction she was headed in. It was obvious she was a shinobi by the way she carried herself, and for those less prone to notice such things, by the small pack of kunai and shuriken she carried at her hip. Although a wakizashi bumped against her left leg and a long katana was sheathed across her back, no one could mistake her for any kind of samurai. It was apparent she was on a mission, and that enemies against her village would not be treated kindly. But what was her village?

She was a ninja, but she was strangely lacking a headband.

As she walked, the wind picked up, so that the trees shook minutely and the leaves trembled. The traveler paused. Leaves...Quickly, she shook her head. None of that mattered now. They wouldn't remember her. A point had been made that all files of her ever existing had been destroyed. Six years ago, she had disappeared from the town without a trace. Not of her doing or by her will, but what could you do? That fact was that she had been a Konoha shinobi once.

Once. But no more.

"Damn it," she muttered. Her pace increased, and the intensity of the wind responded to her growing frustration. Some of the thinner trunks of the forest giants subtly bent, and a few leaves were scattered to the ground. She tilted her gaze upwards, and without thinking, she stretched out her hand and snatched a leaf out of the air. Staring at it, her eyes narrowed and her mouth formed into a snarl. Slowly, her knuckles curled, and then her angry fist snapped shut. The thoughts that always haunted her broke through her defensive line and laughed in her face.

-

"You left them, they never came looking for you!"

"No! I didn't abandon...I would never leave the Leaf Village!" That was her, desperate to hear her own reassurance.

The man that was her nemesis laughed cruelly. "You did," he hissed, delight sparking in his evil yellow eyes. "You did. And obviously, they couldn't care less. You told us that you would rather die then let us bring you here. You fought and lost. And yet, you can never seem to push it far enough to either break free or uphold your word."

"Shut up!"

Laughing again, high and hysterical and mad. "I should take mercy on you. You've been very useful to us. How about I make all the memories disappear, hmmmm?"

Out of nowhere, the five bastards that served him grabbed at her arms and shoved her down. "Get off!" She kicked out furiously, smirking as one, the one with six arms, crumpled and grunted. She had met her mark, and the explosion of chakra channeled through her foot had added to her attack. Struggling furiously, the twelve-year-old kunoichi snarled and attempted to free herself. The one with the glasses stalked up to her and jabbed his finger at her forehead. Instantly, she couldn't move.

"My, my, what did you ever think you could do with her?" he questioned, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. "She's been giving us troubles for the past three years. Why can't I just kill her?"

"You've always been impatient," the tall man chuckled, "You seem to have completely forgotten how much information she's recently acquired for us." He tilted his head to smirk at the girl. "Those eyes of hers," he thought absently, "Always so defiant."

"Does it make a difference?"

"It does." He sighed, almost happily. "The Chuunin exams!" he whispered, a terrible grin creeping over his features. "And Uchiha Sasuke!"

"I see," replied his henchman, turning his attention back to the enraged girl at his feet, still being held down by the Sound Five. "So, you want me to erase it?"

"Yes." The soft tap, tap, tap, tap of his sandals reverberated around the cavern. The pointed, grinning white face became level with hers, and she had to bite back a shrudder as a cold hand settled on top of her head.

"What are you bastards planning on doing with me?" she hissed. The man laughed again, softly, like a snake's hiss.

"I'm afraid, my dear girl," he said, enjoying every word. "That you will never be a Konoha ninja again. You won't remember..." He paused. "Anything."

Horrified, she could only watch as he stepped back and let the medical ninja come forward, his entire hand a-glow with chakra.

"No..." She thought. The hand reached down and smothered her face. She strained frantically, willing her arms and legs to work again. The chakra was pouring into her nose, her mouth, suffusing her eyes until she could barley breathe. Faintly, she heard one, then two, then all of the ninja pressing down on her beginning to laugh.

Something old and powerful snapped inside her. The stirring of chakra in her body rushed and flared. She let go of the hold on conciseness, and fury took over. She exploded up off of the floor, howling and clawing at anything her hands found. Chakra, bright and green, poured out of her body, cascading across the floor and attacking the hated, hated people who had tormented her for so long. At last, it seemed, the full ability of her family had shown itself.

Blood splashed around her feet and she dashed among them, creating havoc. At last, the only one left standing was the man...Not bothering to kill any of her victims, she clenched her fists and turned her burning green gaze on their leader.

"I will kill you." The words rasped out of her throat, and she pointed her index finger at him. "I will kill you one day. Right now, I want to take my leave of this damned place. Make sure you don't get screwed before then. You are mine."

Having said so, she blew open a hole in the wall and vanished.

-

She didn't want to remember anymore. It was all she could remember about her past. Kabuto had destroyed enough of her memory by the time she fought back. Now all she knew was the name of the Leaf Village, and the urge to destroy the asshole who had done this too her.

Screaming in sudden rage, she flung the leaf away form herself and turned on the speed. The wind transformed into a torrent, a miniature cyclone, whipping around insanely. A cloud of dust followed her as she ran, so fast she was a blur of one single color, green, streaking across the no-mans-lands.

"Damn him!" she howled. "Damn him...Damn you! Damn you..." Finally, her eyes were swallowed by the furious jade.

"...Orochimaruuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!"

-

Chapter 1

Approximately 2 months ago, Konoha.

The yellow, spiky haired boy stood there dumbly and gaped, attempting to think of something significant to say. Eventually, Naruto couldn't stand it any more and exploded, shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Sasuke beat Orochimaru!? Are you serious!?" he pumped a fist in the air, grinning. "Yes! Now, he can come back to the Leaf village, right? He's going to come back, right?!"

Tsunade winced and stuck a finger in her right ear. "Clam down, Naruto."

"This is so awesome!"

Sakura nodded enthusiastically. "Right! Now Sasuke-kun can be with us again!"

Tsunade sighed and shook head sadly. Sakura's smile slowly vanished, and Naruto stopped dancing. "I don't think that's the case at the moment, you two."

"Wha...What do you mean?" Naruto spread his hands wide and smiled wobbly. "He's done with Orochimaru, right? So why wouldn't he come back? I mean, he knows we'll help him with his revenge, doesn't he?"

Sakura looked down at the floor. "He...he doesn't want any help. He thinks he can do it on his own."

"Right." The Hokage nodded. "So far, the ANBU Black-Ops have had a hard time tracking his movements, but we do know that he's headed to what looks like an old settlement area. We have reasons to suspect he'll be recruiting some of Orochimaru's old henchmen and...experiments." She grimaced.

"Why does he want their help, then!?" Naruto shouted.

Tsunade sighed. "Probably to help with avoiding you all."

His fist clenched. "That...that bastard..." His eyes narrowed and the light of challenge shone in them. "Well, we'll find him anyway!"

-

Present day again, Konoha.

It was a long while later, during a completely different meeting, after a long chase across the Rice country and a mission including many of Naruto's friends that Sasuke Uchiha was with them.

"A mission!" Naruto exclaimed. "Oi, Sasuke, with you here, it's just like Team Kakashi all over again, huh?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and showed no excitement on his apathetic face. "Hn."

Naruto snorted and punched him in the shoulder. "You know, I'm starting to wonder why we missed you so much," he joked. Sakura resisted the urge to hit him over the head, and Kakashi sighed, flipping the page in his book.

"Please don't start something, Naruto," he said in a bored way. "Let's just get through this mission without any arguing, okay?"

"Yes sir!" responded Naruto.

Tsunade entered the room and took her seat. "Hello, all." Reaching for vile of sake, she opened up her record book and scanned the pages. "Are you ready for your mission?"

"YES!" Naruto shouted.

"Baka," muttered Sakura. Tsunade simply sighed and took another drag of her drink.

"Well, Naruto, I think you'll be happy with this one, at least. It's an A-rank."

Naruto's ocean-blue eyes flew open and he laughed happily. "Awesome!"

"Why are you always so excitable?" someone across the room asked. Three heads turned to see the newcomer, and Naruto smiled.

"Sai! What're you doing here?"

Sai looked at him. "I'm here for the mission, of course. I am part of Team Kakashi now, you know." He walked over and stood by Sakura. "So, what is it? What are we doing that's so important?"

"Well," Tsunade ran her finger down the list in her book and stopped. "It looks like it's pretty serious. The ANBU have spotted traces of a powerful ninja around the border...All clues seemed to be accompanied by sudden storms and huge gusts of wind...green chakra..." She stopped, running her eyes across the page rapidly. Kakashi didn't look up, but he paused in mid-sentence on the page of his book. Only a for a second, before resuming his read. No one noticed.

"Green chakra?" Sasuke spoke up. "Is there such a thing?" You could tell he didn't believe it.

"Well, why not?" Sai said. "Naruto had red chakra sometimes..."

"But...but that would mean..." Sakura trailed off, staring at Naruto. Two more pairs of eyes rested on their orange-suited companion. Naruto was watching Tsunade impatiently, unaware of what they were thinking of.

"Come on!" he demanded finally. "Tell us about the mission!"

"Tsunade-sama." Sakura stepped forward. "Is this person a...a Jinchurriki?" Naruto whipped around, startled.

"...No." Sai let out a breath of relief, and Tsunade continued. "Her chakra is strange, but, if I remember correctly, there is one person in the village who knows a little bit about her."

"Her?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow. If it had been anyone else, Sakura would've knocked them through the wall. But as it was, this was Sasuke, so all she said was something along the lines of, "You don't think girls are strong, Sasuke-kun?"

"You shouldn't underestimate your opponent." Kakashi looked up and moved form where he was leaning nonchalantly against the wall to stand on the right side of Naruto. "Don't discriminate against them until you actually fight. I've had some close calls fighting kunoichi, believe it or not."

"Hn."

"So, who is this person who knows something?" Said asked thoughtfully.

Tsunade turned in her seat. "I think you remember her, right Kakashi?"

Kakashi showed no surprise. Instead, he stated, "That depends if I knew her."

"You did." Handing a folded slip of paper to Kakashi, Tsunade pressed her lips into a thin line.

Kakashi unfolded the paper and froze. The four other crowded around to see the profile picture of the kunoichi wearing a green sash, a white t-shirt with crisscrossing webs of jade and black lines, kaki pants and the standard blue shinobi sandals. Slung over her back was a long katana, and at her waist was a sheathed wakizashi. Her eyes were a light brown ringed with black, and her hair was mix of golden and blonde that fell slightly past her shoulders. A long band of black went under her arms at the top of her shirt near her neck, and the Konoha leaf symbol gleamed. None of them had ever seen anybody wear their headband like that, tied at the back and under the arms. The girl looked to be about nine or ten years old. She was smiling.

"Who is that?" Naruto asked Kakashi. For a moment, he said nothing. Then, he folded the paper four ways again and stuck it in his pocket.

"Her name is Moriko," he said quietly. "I thought she was dead, she disappeared about seven years ago. She was a student of mine."