A week passed and Kokoro grew. Literally. She had grown half an inch since Ryu had found her, and was quite tall. Luna had grown as well, and both of them had been training hard the whole week. They had been able to mindblend after two days of hard work, and by then had also learned the names of all the kids in their class. It was a small class that consisted of about 12 students, including Kokoro.
Shun
Male
The leader of the village’s son
9 years old
Very competitive. Until Kokoro came, he had no one to compete against.
Also, a genius. Apparently, Kokoro is a genius as well because she tied in a battle with him.
Okumaru
Male
9 years old
Seems to have the same train of thought of Kokoro, as they often say things in sync, much to their annoyance. Is training under Gramps (Kokoro still hasn’t learned his name, and everyone seems to call him that anyway.) to become a medical ninja. Was scared to death of cats. Is ok now.
Kaisuke and Daisuke
Males
9 years old
Identical twins. Like playing, which twin is which? So far, Miyu is the only one able to win ( Kaisuke‘s smile, she says, is 2.3 percent more evil than Daisuke‘s, while Daisuke‘s is 3.7 percent more loving. When she says that, Daisuke always blushes and trys his best to look as evil as Kaisuke, who would be trying his best to blush.). Love goofing off and making jokes. Drive the teachers crazy.
Miyu
Female
9 years old
Is shy with newbies. Opens up with people she knows. Loves teasing Kaisuke and Daisuke, though. Is the twins cousin. S the only one who knows for certain which twin is which even if their wearing identical clothing.
Naomi
Female
9 years old
Is loud and energetic. Very tom boyish, but is the prettiest girl in the class. Looks delicate, but Ray learned the hard way that she isn’t. Is now best friends with Ray.
Ray
Male
9 years old
Picked a fight with Naomi. Got his butt kicked, and respects Naomi ever since. Loves teasing newbies. Got his butt kicked by Kokoro, and respects her as well. Hates the twins who constantly tease him about it, but still likes them as long as they don’t call him ‘Mr. EasilyBeat’ or, ‘The Guy who Likes Naomi.’
Dai
Male
9 years old
Loves puzzles. Is very smart, and is a natural leader. Is Hikaru’s friend.
Hikaru
Male
9 years old
Is trying to become stronger to kill a ‘certain someone‘. Sound familiar? Has completely different personality from Sasuke though. Is very easy going. Family was killed by Deidara in front of him.
Kimihiro
Male
9 years old
A loner. No one knows about his past, just like Kokoro, although he himself knows. Was adopted by the Shindo’s. Is friends with Hikaru and Dai.
Yui
Female
9 years old
Was the best girl fighter in the class before Kokoro came. Will not bow down to Kokoro. Unfortunately for Shun and Yui, Kokoro is irritatingly nice and doesn’t know that both of them are trying to beat her
Kokoro
Female
9 years old
Makes friends very easily, and made friends with everyone. Likes to stay around Okumaru and Shun, as they are both loners, and she is pretty much one as well, even though she has great social skills.
Luna
Kokoro’s companion. If anyone calls her a pet , she growls at him or her, and they change their mind quick. Is very talkative once you get to know her ( obviously, Kokoro is the only one human who ‘can’ talk to her.) Likes to be petted around the head, especially behind the ears. Loves little children as well, but tends to avoid them as they usually go for the tail.
For Kokoro and Luna, mindblending had come fairly easily after a day and a half of hard work. On the third day the concentrated on being able to mindblend unconsciously. The results were great. Kokoro and Luna could mindblend and transfer images to each other, or just completely mindblend and see out of one of their’s eyes.
Kokoro worked hard at sword fighting every day and had taken to carrying a stick around her because Ryu would spring at her at anytime. Okumaru came everyday, and they would spar a little after he was done his lessons. Shun and Kokoro also trained together, and when they got a chance Luna and Kokoro would go off into the forest and practice together, or Luna would just practice alone.
After a while, weeks, and then months, went by. One Monday, at the end of summer and 4 months after Ryu found her, Kokoro remembered.
She and Shun were at the market getting something for dinner.
“Why did I have to come?” Shun grumbled as he put an egg carton in his basket.
“Because,” Kokoro answered from the bread aisle, “Your father said you would, and, I was attacked last time!”
“Well, you can take perfectly good care of yourself.” He said, walking over to her. “ You broke several of his ribs with just one kick!”
“I was angry. He tried to pick my pocket a when I first came here, and I left him off with a warning then. But he had the nerve to try to rob me again!” Kokoro went off to look at a man frying some fish.
“One fish fillet please.” she ordered and turned her back to the man, still talking to Shun .
“I think the only reason Gramps asked you to come was so that you could control me- ow!”
The pan had fallen forward, and the hot oil burnt the tip of her fingers. The man who had been making the fish got up and apologized repeatedly.
“I’m so sorry! Quick, put your hands in the ice in the frozen foods aisle!”
Shun grabbed her hands and led her to the frozen foods aisle, dunking her fingers in the ice and holding it there.
Kokoro felt her hand go numb, and pulled away, putting it in her mouth and sucking hard. Shun grabbed her hand from her mouth saying, “Put it in the ice!”
“This helps!”
“Ice is better!”
Kokoro suddenly saw images flashing in her minds eye, a boy’s face flitting by so fast that the only thing she could see was his lingering frown as he put somebody’s fingers under a faucet.. She saw a man, again not clearly, and two bodies lying on the floor, a man and a woman. A sudden grief rose within her, and she sank to the floor, trembling, tears leaking from her eyes.
She couldn’t see Shun yelling in alarm, and suddenly she saw a locket very clearly, a locket with her picture in it. She was smiling cheerful, and looked as she did now. Kokoro unconsciously thought, ‘The picture must have been taken a little while before Ryu found me!‘
Suddenly, the locket left her vision, and once more she saw the man, and he was standing over the boy, a knife at the boy’s throat. The boy turned to look at her, and he said softly, “Kokoro!“ The man killed him and Kokoro’s heart twisted, and she couldn’t breath, and then the part of her brain that remembered everything cried out, “Sasuke!“.
Then she passed out, her despair and grief overwhelming, and her mind took that last part, the part where she saw Sasuke being killed by Itachi, and stored it alongside her forgotten life with her family.
Shun and Gramps stood outside of Kokoro’s room, watching as she thrashed about in the bed screaming, “No, No,, No, No!”
Shun stepped forward as if to comfort her, but then she slammed her fist into the wall, still yelling “NO!”
He watched in alarm as a large crack appeared in the wall.
‘Never mind’ he thought and stepped back.
“What happened?” Gramps asked
Shun looked down at the tiny old man, and explained.
“Kokoro accidentally burnt her fingers, and we were fighting about whether she should put her fingers in the ice. She suddenly collapsed to her knees, and was staring at the floor, a horrible look on her face, and tears were pouring down here face. She fainted after a couple of seconds, and I carried her and Luna, who had fainted as well, here as fast as I could. What’s wrong with her?”
Gramps said, “She most likely remembered something from her past, and it was so sad that it had that affect on her. When she regains conscious, she might have forgotten about us, or remembered everything from her past, or her brain could have made up it‘s own memories and made her a completely different person.”
Shun looked at the girl in the room as she calmed down, soon still and silent under the bed sheets. ‘Was her past really that terrible?’
Kokoro dreamed. She dreamed of Sasuke and Itachi and her whole family before the massacre.
In her dream, she was once more five and a half and it was winter. She had sneaked out the back door and into the woods.
Kokoro raced after a small rabbit that had sneaked out to look for food.
“Come here rabbit! Rabbity, rabbit! Come here!”
The little girl’s legs worked furiously, her light weight preventing her from sinking into the snow. Her eyes were trained on the rabbit, but as she watched, it got smaller and smaller, until she could see it no more. Kokoro stopped, disappointed, and turned around to go back inside before Mom missed her and got mad.
As she looked around her, all she could see were trees everywhere, laden with snow.
“I’m lost!” she gasped, bringing her hands up to her mouth in horror. If anybody had seen, they would have smiled at the cute gesture and at her round eyes. But, nobody was around, and nobody had seen, for if they had, they would have taken the little girl and kept her safe, because they would have known about a snowstorm that was about to come into the area.
Kokoro looked around wildly, and then picked a random direction and began to walk.
“That’s the way home.” she said to herself, while all the time she was headed towards the training grounds.
When she stumbled into the training grounds, she looked around, and saw a boy whom she deemed to be about Sasuke’s age, and walked over to him.
The boy had long hair that hung in a braid down his back, and he had big bushy eyebrows. He was punching at a tree furiously, hitting it and hitting it over and over.
Kokoro said, “Excuse me.”
The boy didn’t seem to hear her; he was muttering to himself about showing somebody and that and the sound of his punches upon wood drowned out her little voice.
“Excuse me!” She yelled and he heard her and stopped, turning to look at her.
She was wearing a winter coat that covered her body and hid her hair and overshadowed her face, but he could see that she was cold and shivering. He himself was not cold, for his anger and his heat from his workout had warmed him, but he knew that he was too little to be wandering about in this snow, especially when there was to be a snowstorm.
“Hello.” Lee (for that was who it was) bent down to look at her.
“My house is lost. It’s the Uchiha house. Can you tell me where it is?”
Le frowned thoughtfully. “Hmmm. I’m not sure where it is. Here, come with me.”
Kokoro shook her head. “I’m not supposed to go with strangers.”
“That’s right! So let’s be friends. My name is Lee. What’s yours?”
Kokoro thought that these terms were reasonable and stuck out her hand. “Kokoro Uchiha. Nice to meetcha.”
Lee held her hand and spoke to her softly as they walked back to the village. Lee was about to ask somebody where the Uchiha Compound was, when a frantic Mikoto barreled into them.
“Kokoro! Where have you been? Don’t sneak out like that! Ever! I’m telling Fugaku to tell the Hokage to build a fence there!”
Mikoto swung Kokoro up and, still scolding her and went back home. Kokoro grinned over Mikoto’s shoulder at Lee and waved.
When she woke up, she forgot her dream, but remembered the incident. She had forgotten all the faces, except for the locket.
Luna had woken up as well, and they both mind touched. Luna conveyed to Kokoro what she had overheard Gramps say to Shun, and told her that Ryu and Okumaru both had come to check up on her. Kokoro suddenly smiled, a mischievous glint in her eye. She had the perfect prank. It was way too good to pass up. Luna agreed.
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Chapter notes: Hello! I'm back! :)
I hope you like this chapter, and please review to tell me your thoughts!
Again, any japanese names are welcome. *sweatdrop* Maybe I should just google some.
Chapter end notes: Muwahahahaha! I hope you find the prank ( in the next chapter) funny!