Chapter 1: Innocence

"Ari-chan, let's play a game!" her cousin, Ryouichi, smirked. She tilted her head.

"A game? What type?" she asked, her eyebrows knitted together in a confused manner. Ryouichi sat up from his slouched position on the chair. He shrugged.

"One that'll help you get more accustomed to the village. After all, you just got here a couple of days ago," he said, flashing sly glances at his two sisters Yuga and Yugata. They giggled.

Oshima Ari was not originally from the Sand Village. She grew up in the city of Wisteria and had absolutely no knowledge or background with ninjas or their techniques.

"I don't know," She looked at her three cousins curiously.

"Come on! It'll be fun!" Yuga exclaimed, grabbing one of her arms. Yugata grabbed the other.

"Well….fine…I guess." Upon her agreement, Ryouichi smirk got larger.

"Okay, Ari-chan. Put on this blindfold," Ari stared at the tattered piece of cloth in his hand then stared at the boy dumbfounded.

"Blindfold? Why?" she argued.

"It'll help you become more accustomed to the village," Ryouichi stated calmly. Ari raised an eyebrow.

"How will I become more accustomed if I can't see it?"

"You will….you will," he chuckled and she didn't like the feel of what was going on but still reluctantly took the cloth from his hand.

oOoOo

After what seemed like hours of walking and having to trust Ryouichi's direction, he finally let go of her hand. "Now count to ten and take the blindfold off" then heard stifled chuckling.

"Uh…okay? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10," and she took the blindfold off. As her eyes adjusted to the new found light, all she could see was sand….sand….and more sand. Her eyes widened in the realization that they played a prank on her!

"Why those…!" she yelled and stomped her foot on the sand frustrated. Ari quickly began to panic. She had NO knowledge on the area and the village gates were nowhere in sight.

"What am I going to do?" she began helplessly walking around, not sure which way would take her toward the village. After fifteen minutes of walking to who knows where, she stopped. Frustrated and scared, she sat on a mound of sand and pulled her knees to her chest. Her vision blurred as her eyes became glazed with tears and she stared at the ground.

Hearing a noise , she looked up. She saw a black figure in front of her. Rubbing her eyes to get a better look, it was a person! She stood up and smiled as she dusted herself off. As the figure grew closer, however, he did not look as pleased to see her. He glared at her.

"I-- uh…." Ari stammered out.

"What do you want?" he hissed. Ari stepped back, this was definitely not her prince charming…at all.

"I'm--" Ari couldn't get the words out. There was a tight knot in her throat and the man's eyes narrowed.

"Are you going to be quiet?" he asked and her attention was soon focused on a flash of light coming from behind him. "I guess I'll have to finish you." Out from behind him came a metal tail, drenched in poison and she did the only thing she could, she screamed. Crouching onto the ground, she braced her head with her arms. Tears dripped from her eyes again, falling and making imprints on the sand.

Hearing her sobs, he stopped. 'Is this girl for real?' he though to himself but as he analyzed her closer he realized she had no weapons…no protection. He could kill her easily…but why couldn't he bring himself to do it. She was just to vulnerable.

Realizing how she was still alive and that she was unharmed, Ari looked up at the man. He was just staring at her. The only thing visible was his eyes, the rest of his face was concealed with a black cloth.

"Why?" she asked breathlessly, a couple of tears still escaping her eyes as she blinked.

"It would be worthless to kill something like you," he stated harshly but was taken back when her face brightened up.

"Oh thank you thank you thank you!" she smiled.

"You're happy….I called you weak?" he asked

The girl merely shrugged. "Right now, I believe that being weak is most likely better than being dead. I'm grateful." She smiled at him. She was genuinely smiling at him…even though he was going to kill her minutes before. He could only stare in awe. No one had ever given him a smile that seemed so….honest, true….innocent. Realizing his staring, he quickly turned his head away.

"This is worthless…"he lied and slowly began sliding away. He heard no movement from behind him and looked back to see her still standing there with an unexplainable expression. "Shouldn't you be getting home? It's dangerous around here, especially at night," he growled noticing the orange coloring of the sky.

"Ah…about that…" She rubbed the back of her head. "Well, I don't know how." She couldn't see a change in his expression (partially because the cloth hiding half of his face) but his response definitely was confused.

"What type of shinobi are you exactly?"

"I'm not a shinobi," she responded without missing a beat. His eyes lowered.

"Really now? Then why are you around these parts?"

"Because I….was tricked," she mumbled clearly embarrassed. She heard a quick chuckle, which probably could have been mistaken for a growl.

"Obviously. Mm…you interest me," He analyzed her up and down.

"Is that a good thing?" She questioned, putting a finger to her lips and tilting her head.

"You can put it that way…" he said and slid passed her. She just turned around and looked at him confused.

"Do you want to get home or not? You're lucky I'm not just leaving you here," he hissed.

"Thank you! Um….by the way, what's your name?" she asked shyly.

"It's not important," he replied but noticing a downfall on her expression, he added, "But if you must know, it's Sasori….Akasuna no Sasori."

"Ah Sasori-kun ne?" she smiled looking down at the orange glowing sand.

"Your name?"

"Oh yes, Oshima Ari"

"Hn…we need to go if we want to get back before dark…" Sasori explained, "The Sand Village correct?"

It was quiet as they walked alongside each other. Sasori kept taking glances at the girl next to him. She had to be no older than fifteen and was still so….innocent. There was no other word in the dictionary to describe her.

"Do you in the Sand Village also?" she asked, breaking the silence.

"No," he answered and she nodded her head slowly.

"So you're not a shinobi…then what are you?" he asked.

"Well, I'm not originally from the Sand Village. I was born and raised in the city of Wisteria. We don't study ninja techniques and fighting in school. We study math and science and thing like that." He noticed the difference in the way she dressed. She was wearing a pretty red dress which reached an inch above her knees and it had black polka dots. Her shoes had a slight heel and she had white stockings. 'She looks like a ladybug…' he thought to himself then mentally cursed himself for thinking such childish thoughts.

"What are you doing here then?" he noticed how her face expression turned unhappy.

"It's complicated," was how she answered. Sasori stopped as he saw the gates of Suna up ahead of them. Ari tilted her head.

"This is where I stop, you should be able to handle the rest on your own," Sasori admitted. Ari smiled. "And one more thing….we never met, got that?" At first, Ari looked confused but the smile returned.

"Arigatou ne…Sasori-kun," Ari then ran off toward the gates.

'Guess I know who I need to check up on every once in a while,' he smirked and began to make his way back to the Akatsuki base.