Once upon a time, in a far away land, there lived a young Prince who lived in a grand castle. Although he had everything his heart desired the prince was selfish, spoiled, and unkind. But then, an old homeless woman came to his castle and offered him a single rose in return for shelter from the weather. Repulsed by her haggard appearance, the Prince sneered at the gift and turned the old woman away. But she warned him not to be deceived by appearances, for beauty is meant to be found on the inside. When he dismissed her again, the old woman's ugliness melted away to reveal a beautiful enchantress.
The Prince tried to apologize, but it was too late, for she had seen that there was no love in his heart. As punishment, she transformed him into a hideous beast and placed a powerful spell on the castle and all who lived there. The rose she had offered was truly an enchanted rose, which would bloom for many years. If he could learn to love another and earn their love in return before the last petal fell, the spell would be broken. If not, he would be doomed to remain a Beast for all time.
The purple-haired young woman sighed, she picked up her books and went out of her house's gate to town. It was a sunny day just like all the others. Everyone was happy.
"Little town, it's a quiet village. Every day...like the one before. Little town, full of little people...coming out to say..." she sang, her eyes were gazing out to somewhere else.
"Konichiwa!" a man with a dog next to him sang.
"Konichiwa!" A man with sunglasses on greeted.
"Konichiwa!" a young woman with a blonde pony-tail sang
"Konichiwa!" sang a girl with short pink hair.
"Konichiwa!" an old man with long white hair following a young lady said in a creepy manner.
"There goes Ino with her flowers like always. The same old ferns, and daisies to sell!" the young girl proclaimed, "Every morning just the same. Since the morning that we came, to this large and obnoxious town."
"Ohayou Jessica!" greeted Teuchi, the ramen shop owner.
"Ohayougozaimasu sir!" Jessica replied.
"Where are you off to this morning?"
"The bookshop! I just finished the most awesome story, about a ninja who is bent on revenge for his deceased family..." the fourteen year old girl started.
"That's nice...Ayame, the noodles, hurry up!"
"Look there she goes, that girl's weird no question. Dazed and distracted can't you tell?" sang the people that had greeted 'konichiwa' to her earlier.
"Never part of any crowd!" said a lady with black hair in a dress of strips of white cloth.
"Cause her head's up in the clouds." said a man with a black short pont-tail high on his head.
"No denying she's a strange girl, that Jessica." the Konichiwa people commented and sang. Jessica jumped on the back of a passing caravan full of weapons for the nearby villages and rode through the town.
"Yo!" said the driver with slanted yet tall silver headband with a mask over his mouth and nose.
"Konichiwa!" a lady with blonde low-hanging pig-tails and a big chest said.
"How is you family?" he asked. She wacked him on the head yelling, "DEAD!"
"Hey you!" A woman with short black hair and an orange skirt yelled.
"What? Good day!" a man with long black hair and a pale face and snake-like eyes whimpered.
"Where's your container?" A boy with raven black hair with a fan on his shirt ran away.
"I need, six eggs!" Amane cried out!
"That's too expensive!" Teuchi whined.
"There must be more than this provincial life!" Jessica sang, she entered the book shop.
"Irashaimase Jessica!" A man with sunglasses like the other guy but older happily greeted her.
"Ohayo! I've come to return the book I borrowed!" Shibi Aburame took the book from her and put it on the shelf.
"Finished already?"
"Oh," Jessica said in a joyous voice, "I couldn't put it down, do you have anything new?" The librarian chuckled.
"Not since yesterday." The girl smiled and shrugged.
"That's okay. I'll borrow...this one!" she took a thick book down from a hish shelf.
"That one? But, you've already read it twice!" the man said, surprised. Jessica spinned around dreamily and said,
"Far off places, daring jutsu, Kekkai Genkai, and a prince in disguise!" He bowed to her.
"Well if you like it all that much, it's yours!"
"B-but Mr. Aburame!"
"I insist!" He smiled under his white long coat.
"Well thank you! Thank you so much!" she hugged the book to her torso and skipped out the sliding door.
The males from before were watching her from outside on the street sighed and scratched their heads singing, "Look there she goes, that girl's so peculiar. I wonder if she's feeling well!"
"With a dreamy far-off look!" said the females.
"And her nose stuck in a book! What a puzzle to the rest of us, that Jessica!" they all sang. Jessica sat down on the edge of the nearby fountain surrounded by a white dog from the man before, a pig with a necklace on, and seven other dogs in blue capes and odd accesories. Light from the sun reflected off the water and danced over the group.
"Oh...isn't this amazing! It's my favorite part because, you'll see! Here's where she meets Prince Charming, but she won't discover that it's him till chapter three!"
"Now it's no wonder her name means 'graceful'. Her looks have got no parallel!" said the woman with 'gamble' on the back of her jacket.
"But behind that fair facade I'm afraid she's very odd...very different from the rest of us-," sang the snake-eyed man. The woman knocked him on the head muttering 'Like you're one to talk.'
"She's nothing like the rest of us, yes different than the rest of us is Jessica." everyone sang. A bunch of geese flew overhead of them. A black object is projected through the air and hits one of them. A boy in his late teens with a long green scarf on ran excited with a bag in his hand, probably trying to catch it. He failed but picked it up from the ground and returned to his new role-model.
"Sugoi! You didn't miss a shot Sasuke!" the boy plucked the kunai out of the goose and handed it over the the man in an orange sweat-suit, "You're the greatest ninja ever, even if you don't have a kekkai Genkai-!" The boy was knocked to the ground when Sasuke began flexing his muscles.
"I know, Konohamaru!"
"Huh, no beast stands alive against you...and no girl for that matter!" he said, getting up from the ground.
"It's true, and I have my sights set on...that one!" Sasuke pointed to Jessica whom was still reading by the fountain. Konohamaru's jaw dropped.
"Y-you mean Sasori's daughter? The heir to the clan?" Konohamaru knew Sasuke didn't stand a chance against her, a akatsuki memeber's daughter.
"She's the one! Thant's the lucky girl I'm going to marry!"
"But she's-"
"The most beautiful girl in town!"
"I know-" a vein popped on his forehead.
" And that makes her the best. And don't I deserve the best?" Sasuke declared, ignoring his follower.
"Well of course, I mean you do, but I mean..."
"Right from the moment I met her, saw her," the man declared, tears running down his face as he looked past the sunset a boy in a green jumpsuit had brought for him, "I said she was gorgeous and I fell!" Konohamaru sweat-dropped.
"Here in town there's only she, who's as beautiful as me. So I'm planning to make plans and marry Jessica-chan." A bunch of ladies' eyes were becoming all glittery and shiny as they looked at him.
"Look there he goes, isn't he dreamy? Sasuke Uchiha, oh he's so cute!" they sighed, "Be still my heart, I'm hardly breathing. He's such a tall, black, strong, and handsome brute!" Jessica easily weaved her way through the crowd of people in the town. Sasuke struggled to get to her.
"Ohayougozaimasu!" the boy with the dog said to him.
"Excuse me, Kiba!" Sasuke pushed him out of the way.
"Hajimemashite!" a round man with red swirls on his cheeks said.
"Why yes!" the guy with a high short-and-spiky ponytail greeted.
"You call this bacon?" said the girl with long blonde hair in a pony-tail.
"What tasty ramen!" commented the pink-haired girl.
"Some dough!" Teuchi ordered.
"TEN YARDS?" Amane screamed.
"It's a wedding!" Teuchi told her. Sasuke narrowly swerved around them.
"Pardon!" Sasuke yelled.
"I'll get the shiitake."
"Please let me through!" the ninja whined.
"This fishcake!" Amane cried, looking at the swirly styled toppings on the plate.
"This squid!"
"It's stale!"
"It's old!"
"You got the wrong order!" the silver haired man with the mask explained. Amane fainted with relief. Jessica sighed.
"There must be more tha this provincial life!"
"Well maybe so..." they all muttered.
Sasuke pushed his way free proclaiming, "Just watch, I'm going to make Jessica-chan my wife!" The villagers srrounded him.
"Look there she goes, a girl that's strange but special. A most peculiar kunoichi. It's a pity and a sin. She doesn't quite fit in!" they all sang.
"But she really is a funny girl." the woman sang.
"A beauty but a funny girl." said the men.
She really is a funny girl...that Jessica!" they all said. Sasuke had finally caught up with Jessica.
"Ohayo Jessica-chan!" he said, sitting next to her on the bench.
"Ohayougozamasu Sasuke." she said to him. Sasuke snatched the book from her.
"Sasuke, may I have my book black, please?" He flipped through the pages, the book was upside down.
"How can you read this? There's no pictures!" he scrutinized.
"Well some people use their imaginations." she sneered.
"Jessica-chan, it's about time you got your head out of those books," Sasuke said, throwing the book into a mud puddle, "and pay attention to more important thing...like me!" The ladies from town gazed at the scene. Jessica sighed, she picked up the book and cleaned off the mud.
"It's not right for a woman to read...soon she starts getting ideas...and thinking." he dodged a ball of mud that was thrown at him.
"Sasuke, you are positively primeval." she told him. He put his arm over her shoulders as she sat down again.
"Why thank you, Jessica-chan. Hey, what do you say you and me take a walk over to the tavern and have a look at my mission awards and hunting trophies." He slyly said.
"Maybe some other time." she shrugged off his arm and stood up.
"What wrong with her?" Sakura cried from their hiding place.
"She's crazy!" Tenten whined.
"He's gorgeous!" sighed Ino. Jessica took a step back from him.
"Please, Sasuke. I can't. I have to get home and help my father." she explained to him. Konohamaru jumped out of a bush and laughed.
"Ha ha ha, that old puppet. He needs all the help he can get!" he said. He and Sasuke heartily laughed.
"Don't you talk about my father that way, or I'll talk about your mama!" she yelled.
"Yeah, don't talk about her old man that way!" Sasuke said, he conked him on the head.
"My father's not crazy, he's a genius!" An explosion sounded from behind them. Sasuke and Konohamaru began laughing again. Jessica sprinted back to her house. She ran to the raised floor, slipped off her sandals, and ran to the greenhouse.
"Naara? Father?" Jessica nervously said. Her brother emerged from the smoke supporting his uncle on his shoulders.
"How did this happen? Believe it!" Naara muttered. He set Sasori down on the couch.
"Are you alright father, brother?" she asked them. Her brother nodded.
"Yes, I'm fine. But I'm about to give up for tomorrow's competition!"
"You always say that." she chided him.
"I mean it, this time. I'll never get this ninjutsu down!" Sasori said, looking at the burnt greenhouse.
"Yes you will," Jessica sat next to him, "and you'll win it too."
"Hmph!"
"...and become a world famous Sannin!" she said. He smiled, his black eyes upon her.
"You really believe that?"
"I always have."
"Well what are we waiting for? Naara, help me clean this room." The two men got up and began to sweep up the mess. "Did you have a nice time in town today?"
"I got a new book. Father, do you think I'm odd?" Naara was under a desk trying to reach something when he hit his head.
"My first daughter, odd?" he looked up at her, "Where would you get an idea like that?" She sighed.
"Oh, I don't know. It's just I'm not sure if I fit in here. There's no one I can really talk to."
"What about Sasuke? He's a handsome fellow!" Jessica sweat dropped.
"He's handsome all right, and rude and concieted, and idiotic, and uneducated and... oh. father, he's not for me!"
"Well don't you worry, after I become a Sannin we can move to the Rice Village if you like! Naara, lets try it again!" Sasori declared.
"Jessica, please go to a safer area." Naara whispered to her. She nodded and went to the far off doorway. Sasori did a lot of handseals really fast: swords grew out of his hands and were enveloped in flames.
"You did it!" Naara yelled.
"I did, I did! Naara, go fetch the horses, I'm off to the Sound village!" A peice of rubbish fell from the ceiling and wacked him on the back of the head making him become unconscious.
A few hours later----------
"Sayanora father! Good luck!" Jessica waved to him as he trotted off on his horse.
"Good bye, Jessica-chan, take care while I'm gone!
Several hours later
Sasori was in a dark forest on a small and narrow dirt path. "We should be there bye now. Maybe we missed a turn. I guess I should have taken a...wait a minute." He pulled Yami his horse to a stop and lifted his lantern to illuminate a sign giving directions to the Rice village and the Sand village.
"Let's go this way!" The two continued through the darkness, he looked right at a dark and weedy path then right at a cleaner and more inviting path. They headed left. "This can't be right, Yami let's turn back-LOOK OUT!" he yelled, a swarm of poisonous bats flew over them. Yami ran through the forest with his master glued with shock to his back, they almost ran over the edge of a cliff.
"Yami? Oh, no!" A pack of wolves had surrounded them. Yami bucked the old man off and fled from them. Sasori took a step back and fell down the cliff which actually turned out to be a steep hill. He landed at the locked gates of a castle. He shakes the gate trying to get it opened.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" The gate opened, Sasori ran with his sprained foot to the castle door. He banged on it. The doors creaked apart for him and he cautiously entered.
