It was a normal day in Konoha. The birds were chirping, the sun was shining, and Team Seven was making an effort to build their teamwork…again. Nearly escaping death, they had just finished their A-rank mission in the Land of Waves, but that didn't change the way they felt about each other.
They had decided to hang out together on their day off…well it was more like their sensei, Kakashi Hatake, demanded it. He was tired of the bickering and ordered them to spend time together outside of the training ground so they could all talk.
"Isn't this great you two?" A pink-haired girl asked.
"Yeah, the spending time with you part, Sakura. Having him tag along, not so much…" a blonde boy with whiskers on his face commented. He glared with his blue eyes at his other teammate who returned the gesture.
"Hey, leave Sasuke alone, Naruto! His company is delightful," Sakura said turning to stare at her crush, her big green eyes gleaming in the light. Sasuke, the boy with a pale face, dark onyx hair and eyes simply ignored her.
Naruto pouted and spun around to face the other direction. But his expression didn’t stay for very long. It was replaced with confused look when he noticed two girls he had never seen before walk towards the team. "Hey…who's that?" he asked, pointing down the road.
The other two turned and immediately saw who he was talking about.
There were two figures heading their way. From their shape they could tell that they were girls, but their appearance wasn’t quite apparent due to the distance. So, they waited until they were close enough to see what they looked like.
As the mystery girls got closer and their features became easier to see, Naruto and Sakura became surprised while Sasuke, like always, had no facial change at all.
One girl, had long, gray-white, wavy hair with her bangs short and parted to her right. She wore a flow-y dark blue, long sleeve shirt that stopped above her bellybutton. A light gray shirt covered the rest of her stomach and had three rips that revealed green. Her bottoms were dark blue capris that stopped just below her knees with a green band around the bottom. Her eyes were a bright yellow with green surrounding her iris. And she kept a straight, almost angry, face, giving off a mysterious feel.
The other girl, strolling next to her had long, straight, red-brown hair that was parted down the middle. She wore a deep violet V-neck sleeveless shirt, under a plain white band that covered her chest with black baggy shorts that stopped above the knee. There was also tape wrapped around her biceps and ankles. The girl was smiling the entire time, the opposite of her friend's expression, and when she opened her eyes they were a light blue.
The two continued to walk as the three continued to stare. Sasuke checked out the angry looking one with his usual stare, Sakura kept her eyes glued on Sasuke, and Naruto stared at both of the girls dreamily.
"Those two are pretty…" Naruto blurted unthinkingly.
"The one with the yellow eyes seems intimidating…" Sakura commented. With the way Sasuke's looking at her, I might wanna keep an eye on her... she jealously thought.
"Hn…" Sasuke muttered.
The girls passed by the three without a glance and they would have continued to walk away from them if Naruto hadn’t decided to talk to them when there was a few feet between them.
"Hey, there!" he called out. The two stopped and slightly turned to face whoever was disturbing them.
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki!” he introduced. “I haven't seen you girls around here before. Are you travellers?"
The white haired girl scoffed and scowled, wanting to leave, but her friend, being the nice one, responded.
"Hi!" she greeted with her slightly high-pitched voice. "My name's Etsuyo Terumi and this is my friend Yumika Hakinowa. And no, we're not travellers, we're-"
"Wait," Sasuke interrupted. "Who is she?"
Etsuyo grabbed her friends arm so she stood closer. “I said her name’s Yumika Hakinowa,” she answered.” Yumika glanced at the loud-mouth from the corner of her eye, keeping her face exactly the same.
Then, she shifted her yellow eyes to look at Sasuke and her expression completely changed. Gasping, she said, "Sasuke…?" He gave her a small nod. "Wow, it's been a while, hasn't it?" He nodded again recognizing her from a long time ago. “When was the last time we saw each other?” she questioned, the amount of time escaping her mind.
"Five years," he muttered. She grinned, feeling quite happy he kept track. Little did she know, he only knew because she disappeared around the same time as another person.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Sakura butted in. "How do you two know…” she stopped finally remembering who this girl was. “Wait a minute. I know who you are too!” she exclaimed. “You’re that little girl that went missing when we all had just started in the academy. You were in my class.”
Yumika stared at the pink haired girl curiously, trying to understand what she was talking about. For a moment she had no recollection of that class, until she recognized her face as well. “Oh yeah,” she affirmed. “I, sort of, remember you. You had just enrolled when I left…”
“I don’t remember anything about a missing girl back then,” Naruto chimed in.
“Well of course you wouldn’t have, Naruto. You never really did pay attention,” Sakura pointed out.
Etsuyo leaned over and whispered in the girl’s ear. “Wow, Yumika. It seems as though people do remember you. And you said they wouldn’t.”
“I highly doubt anyone else will… not counting my clan,” she whispered back.
“You’re parents must’ve been worried sick and torn apart when you disappeared,” Sakura brought their attention back to the other conversation, with her remark.
Yumika glared at her for saying such a thing. “They were fine without me,” she harshly stated, “because they knew I left.” She crossed her arms across her chest.
“And they didn’t let anyone know? That kind of information should’ve been shared with the Hokage. That way he wouldn’t have wasted man power trying to find you,” she scolded.
She rolled her eyes. “It’s not wasting man power if they didn’t even head out very far,” she retorted. Sakura raised an eyebrow. “They didn’t even manage to get passed the entrance. My parents understood that the village would think my absence was a kidnapping and that they would send shinobi out to find me. So they stopped them, before any trouble would spark up.”
“Why didn’t your parents just come into the village and tell the Hokage himself?” she wondered.
“…Let’s just say my parents don’t associate well with others inside the village…”
“If you were seven when you left,” Naruto started, “how did you manage to survive on your own?”
“I had companions,” she easily answered slyly.
Sasuke’s eyes widened a bit at her answer. Companions…he wondered. And she left practically the same time… His jaw clenched at his realization and now that it was silent, he was going to ask her two valuable questions. "Where have you been, exactly? And who were you with?" Sasuke asked before anyone else could interrupt.
She suddenly became a little nervous by his question. She could handle questions about herself, and herself only, but when it came to herself and someone else that she shouldn’t be the one to reveal, it was somewhat hard to answer. “I was…training in other places and even became a shinobi in one of the villages.”
"Really?!" Naruto asked bewildered before Sasuke could. "Where?"
“Kirigakure,” she carefully answered. “That happens to be where this girl is originally from.” Etsuyo smiled widely.
“That’s cool!” Naruto commented. “We just defeated a guy that was from there.”
“His name was Zabuza Momochi,” Sakura added. “Have you heard of him?”
“Of course!” Etsuyo told her. “You’re the team that took him down as well as Gato? Good job, they were a couple of nasty guys. We surely stayed away from them as much as we could.”
“So you two aren’t just friends, you’re teammates?” Sakura received a nod from the red-head as her answer. Yumika was too preoccupied with looking up at the sun.
She took note of its location, giving her a time, before saying, “Look, we don’t have anymore time to answer your questions."
“You still haven’t answered my second one.” Sasuke reminded her.
“I’m sorry, but we really have to go,” she excused.
“Naming a few names isn’t going to take very long,” he retorted, obviously wanting an answer.
She hesistated. “Sasuke I…”
“You what?” he slightly hissed, stepping closer to her. “You answered their questions. Now answer mine.”
“Sheesh, Sasuke. You’re being a little harsh to her, don’t you think?” Naruto let him know, but they both ignored the kid.
They stood facing each other with almost the exact same expression on their faces. Their eyes locked in a glare form, jaws clenched. But even though she looked intimidating, Yumika couldn’t help but feel a little shock at his reaction and attitude. She had never seen him like this before.
The other three stared at the two with confused and frightened stares.
“I’m not the one to tell you that information, alright?” she whispered calmly. “You’ll know soon enough,” she broke away from the locked gaze and grabbed Etsuyo’s arm. “We have to go.”
Unfortunately, they couldn’t manage to get a few feet away from Team Seven before another surprise took place. "HEY!" Someone called out from behind. Another girl, running, came into view.
This girl, had fringed, black onyx hair, parted down the middle. Her bangs covered both sides of her face. She wore a white, short sleeve turtle neck that zipped up and had black sleeves. Over her stomach was a thick, red band and her forearms were covered with black wristbands. She wore a red skirt that was cut on both sides revealing black shorts underneath. Her eyes were black and she didn't look to happy. Right off the bat, Team Seven thought she looked kind of like Sasuke and they continuously looked from her to him.
Catching up to them she scolded. "Thanks a lot for making me be the one to talk to the guards at the front gate and for ditching me! You could've waited!"
"Hi!" Naruto yelled, changing her focal view and making her jump. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. What's yours? "
She stared down at him with a scrunched face and didn’t bother to answer. Instead, she looked up to see if anyone would pull him away. Never would she have thought she would lock eyes with someone who made her feel like she was looking in a mirror. When she saw Sasuke, her eyes and mouth widened. The shock was intense enough to make her have to take a step back to keep her balance.
"Sasuke?" she gasped.
Sasuke's eyes identically mimicked hers. "Ayako?" But then hers changed to a form that looked like she was about to cry.
"It really is you!" The girl yelled running to him. She hugged him tightly around his neck and didn’t even notice he didn’t hug back.
"Ok, I don’t know this one." Sakura admitted. “Who is this girl, Sasuke?” she asked confusion and jealously once again growing inside her.
Ayako let go to allow them to stare at each other’s faces. Neither one cried, but Ayako had tears in the corner of her eyes.
"Ayako…Uchiha…” Sasuke answered.
"Uchiha?!" Sakura and Naruto said simultaneously.
"I can't believe it's really you," Ayako said grabbing his face. “Oh you’re probably dying for answers aren’t you?” she said, reading his face like a book.
"Then give me some." Ayako looked at her teammates and wiped her eyes. Etsuyo was smiling and Yumika was grinning until she pointed to her wrist.
"I can't right now,” she turned back to him, completely letting go. “I have to be somewhere. But I promise I'll meet up with you later. I-We have to go somewhere." She stepped away from him, towards Yumika and Etsuyo. The three girls then started to run down the road to head to their destination.
"Wait, where?" Sasuke called after his sister.
She turned back. "Meet me in front of the Hokage's building! In an hour!" Sasuke nodded.
"Well, that was… interesting…" Sakura spoke.
"I'll say…" Naruto agreed.
"Whatever…let's just finish this stupid thing…" He acted as though he was uninterested with what had just happened, but inside, he was very affected.
The Hokage's Building
"Ahhh…" The Third Hokage began, looking down at their files. "Welcome back, Yumika and Ayako."
"Thank you." Both girls bowed to their superior.
"And welcome to the Leaf Village, Etsuyo Terumi,” he greeted.
"Thank you," she responded.
“Everything seems acceptable in all of your files, you’ve passed all the written and physical tests with exceptional scores, and nothing is standing out to me in a negative way,” The Hokage read aloud their paperwork, nodding at some interesting information about each one of them.
"Um…Lord Hokage?" Ayako spoke to him. He met her troubled gaze. "If you don't mind me asking…how did you know who I was?"
He raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
Her teammates looked at her. "No one in this village had any idea that I even existed. My father made sure of it. The only people who knew were my clan, and Yumika's family. So how did you know? And why were you not surprised by my sudden appearance?"
"Young lady,” he started, “I wasn't surprised because I knew all along that you were alive. I was informed about you a long time ago but I was told I had to keep it a secret because of your…status. But I see that you have fixed it with your training and time being a shinobi of Kirigakure, so there's no reason to keep secrets anymore."
"Well, what about the other Jonin and Chunin?" she wondered.
"I have gathered them in a meeting today and will speak with them shortly. They will pass on the information to their students when they gather. Sure there will be questions but hopefully your sensei and I can answer most leaving you with very little." He smiled thoughtfully. Ayako nodded, bowing again in a sign of thankfulness.
"Anyway," he began. "I see you’ve wanted to become Konoha shinobi, for some time now." They all nodded. "Change of heart?” he asked. “You took away two of Kiri’s own, your sensei and Etsuyo."
"It wasn't a change of heart, Lord Hokage,” Yumika explained. “It was more like change of the village. Recent updates have shown the crime level is greater and it is a target of almost all other villages. We didn't want to fight for something we knew was evil, thus we decided to transfer here, where it is stable."
"Understandable. Your sensei had already spoken with me a while back. I was making sure you knew your reasons for leaving and it has matched up with hers. You won't be seeing her until later by the way."
They stood their staring for a moment. "Are we accepted, then?" Estuyo asked.
Lord Hokage smiled. "Yes, indeed you are. Like I said, you all passed the tests. I wouldn't be a very good Hokage if I didn't recruit very skilled members when they applied. In fact, your skills are better than most Genin, they're practically Chunin level."
All three smiled widely at his intrigue. He reached into a drawer and took out three forehead protectors with the Leaf's symbol engraved on the metal plate. "Here are your headbands. Wear them with honor."
The girls took them from his hands and tied them around their heads.
"Congratulations, you three. Make sure I gave these to you for a reason."
"Thank you, Lord Hokage. We won't let you down!" The girls stood tall and proud wearing their new headbands that they were ever so happy to receive.
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Chapter notes: Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters. But the O.C.'s I made up are mine of course.
Reviews would be nice. :)
Chapter end notes: Hope you liked it!