My first fanfic, well here goes nothing. I hope you like it.

An escort mission, which was all it was supposed to be. So how did it end up like this?

It was a normal day in Konoha when Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru and Choji received their mission. It was a basic escort mission, but required battle ready guides. They were to escort a young woman, who claimed she fled to the village after her home was attacked by a clan of violent ninjas, to her brother's home in a distant village. She was worried about the attackers coming after her so she paid for extra protection.

So now Ino and her team walked along side of the woman. It was a warm day with a cool breeze, and trees were in bloom. Ino secretly was glad that they had to walk, it was a beautiful spring day and she felt like enjoying it. However the other two were obviously less than thrilled about this particular mission. Shikamaru grumbled about how troublesome it was to walk and Choji was equally as irritated, just a bit less expressive about it. Ino turned her attention to the girl that they were escorting. Her name was Umeko. Umeko had shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes. She had small features and pale skin. She was so small and thin that Ino wondered how she ever escaped from the ninjas alive.

"I think we should rest here for the night." Shikamaru announced suddenly. Everyone came to abrupt halt and stared at him. "This location is elevated and provides an excellent lookout post," motioning to a single tree that towered above the others. "Also we are far enough away from any possible target villages so we should not have to worry too much about an attack." Choji eagerly agreed and began setting up the tent. "And you two lazy asses are just tired of walking" Ino thought too herself.

Once all the tents were set up, Ino volunteered to take the first look out post. Looking around as she climbed up the tree, she couldn't help but agree that this was a good location to rest. From the top branch of the tree, a sprawling landscape became visible. The forest was massive, and at this rate, it will take forever before they reach their destination. Sighing she settled down into a comfortable position to begin the long watch.

Ino awoke with a start at a sudden falling sensation. She reached out blindly for a tree branch and flipped back up to a stable location. Had she fallen asleep? Strangely she never remembered closing her eyes. Shaking her head and scolding herself, she looked up at the sky. The moon was still shining giving everything around her smudged shadows. It was still night, good. She hated to think about what Shikamaru would say if he found her sleeping on the job.

Morning came with a brilliant sunrise. Ino stretched her stiff muscles and noiselessly hopped down from the tree. Opening the flap to Umeko's tent she found the girl twisted in her sleeping bag. This was the obvious sign of a nightmare; poor thing must be reliving the horrible event of her village's massacre. "Rise and Shine" she called softly to the stirring figure. After waking Umeko she proceeded to Shikamaru and Choji's tent. Ripping the flap open allowing the bright sunshine to spill into the dark tent, she hollered at them to get a move on. It was troublesome to wake them up; those two could sleep all day.

The next day was not much different than the first, lots of walking and the occasional break for food. Thanks to Choji they had enough of that. However it was the second night that things began to get interesting.

The team had set up camp in another strategic location selected by Shikamaru and Ino had volunteered for lookout duty again. She felt guilty about falling asleep last night and was going to make up for it by staying awake the whole night this time. Both of the boys didn't ask any questions, relived that they were not the ones doing it.

A large silver moon cast odd angles of light on the forest, causing everything to be oddly out of proportion. Ino paced on a tall rock formation in order to keep herself awake. Finally she sat down. Her head jerked down just as something whizzed past her neck. Immediately, she was alert and focused, searching for her attacker. However when she looked down she saw a small figure with pale skin and wide eyes, Umeko.

The moon's shadows caused her thing features to appear almost skeletal, and her wide eyes resembled those of a small child who had just been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Before Ino had any time to react, the girl was off. Ino, not wasting a second, sped after her. "Umeko!" Ino called loudly, "What's wrong, come back!" It was useless, for someone so small she could move pretty fast. Ino came to a halt at a cliff wall. Umeko stood there, backed up against the wall. Ino approached calmly, not wanting to hurt her client, "Umeko, what was that for?" Ino waited for her answer as she put the pieces together in her mind. Could Umeko have something to do with her falling asleep last night? Ino grimaced, how she could be so idiotic as to not check on the tents after she discovered that she had fallen asleep. Ino was a short distance from the girl now, "Umeko?" she asked one last time with a bit more force. In response the pale girl pulled out a hollow bamboo rod, and before Ino could strike, fired a single red flare into the night sky. The dark red light glinted downward on her face. Her hollow cheeks disappeared in darker shadows and Umeko grinned. In the red light of the signal and the silver of the moon, Umeko looked like an undead skeleton straight from hell. Ino lunged and grabbed Umeko's wrist that still held the rod. "What the hell is going on here!" she yelled at the girl. Umeko smiled at her and looked up. Ino followed her gaze to the edge of the cliff. The once bare cliff side was now lined with hooded nin. Ino gulped, they had been betrayed, and she was in some deep shit.

My first chapter! Its a mixture of pride and embarassment. If you read this far then it is a sucess. Tell me what you think of it.