An hour had passed since Sasuke's sister had waltzed into the Leaf Village and he was still bewildered; he didn't exactly know how he felt. All these years he'd thought Ayako was dead and that she wasn't ever coming back like the rest. But now that he knows she was alive all this time, he wasn't sure if he should be angry with her for leaving him, or happy that she was back. Though, he wouldn't show his happiness if he felt it.
Sasuke remembered wandering into her room the night after the incident to see if she was a victim of the massacre. He prepared himself to see the blood and the outline of her body with tape on her floor, but instead he found a vacant, messy room, that was missing a few items. He recalled it being like the fresh air above water; it was the only place he could breathe in the house, and the only place that didn't feel heavier as he went deeper in.
Of course he became worried and had a lot of questions. At the time he had no idea what had happened to her. But later on, after he noticed the backpack she had secretly gotten was missing and the fewer amount of clothes in her closet, he knew she had run for it. Still, even though he knew she wasn't killed by their brother, Sasuke figured she died. It was his sister, the Dishonorable Uchiha. He believed she could never make it on her own, but now it was obvious he was wrong.
Sasuke was walking on the streets on his way to the Hokage's building, just like Ayako instructed. His hands were in his pockets like usual and his face was stoic. But inside he was eager to get to talk to her alone after all these years...too bad they wouldn't exactly be alone.
"Wow, Sasuke, I'm still amazed that you have a sister. You never told us." Sakura pouted at the last sentence. He scoffed. As if he'd tell anyone. He still had the feeling he had to keep it a secret from the world.
"Yeah, and she's pretty too! Honestly, I don't see how you two are twins. She's seems to be gentle and nice, while you're just…well a jerk," Naruto commented.
"Quiet, Naruto. They look exactly alike!" Sakura defended.
"Shut up…loser," he said, refusing to make eye contact with either of them. "Why don't you both just go?"
"We can't, remember. We have to hang out together all day." Sakura reminded him. "And you know Kakashi. He could be watching us right this second." He let out a sigh.
"Just let us come along," Naruto said. "I'm pretty sure we'd like to get to know your sister too…as well as her friends," he slyly added the end.
"…Fine…" His jaw clenched tightly, regretting his decision.
Finally they arrived at the front of the Hokage's building and sure enough, there was Ayako with her team, huddled close together, talking.
"How, do you think the meeting's going?" Etsuyo asked.
"It's probably all fine," Yumika said. "They can't be that shocked…right?"
"I'm pretty sure they are," Ayako answered. "This news isn't like getting an awesome gift for no reason. This is like paper bombs exploding everywhere in the village." She raised her arms over her head for emphasis.
"I believe you're over exaggerating a bit there, Ayako." Yumika gave her a weird look.
"Well, Nishiya sensei will tell us all about it later," Etsuyo informed, before something caught her eye. "Oh hey, Ayako, there's your brother." She changed the subject, pointing down the street.
Ayako gasped excitedly, swiftly spinning around to run towards him. Once she closed the distance she slipped both her arms under his and hugged him tightly.
Pulling away, she grabbed his hand and dragged him towards her team.
"Look! We're all full-fledged Shinobi of Konoha!" She pointed to her forehead protector. Her smile was wide until she noticed Naruto and Sakura trailing behind.
Sasuke, noticing her stare, said dryly, "Orders from our sensei. We have to stick together today."
"No problem," Ayako spoke sweetly, her smile returning. "I can't leave my team behind either so… I guess they can hang out with each other."
Sasuke shrugged. Suddenly Ayako moved faster, roughly tugging on his arm. He willingly let her pull him along.
Taking a left in front of the Hokage's building, Ayako turned back and said, "Come one you four. It's ok! You won't bother us!" Naruto and Sakura followed immediately, very eagerly. Yumika and Etsuyo exchanged glances. Shrugging, they ran to catch up with them.
When they came across a street that was partly deserted, she let go of her brother's hand.
"Ok, she started. "I know this is all sudden," she spoke in an understanding tone, "and you deserve answers. But let me start out by saying, I never meant to leave you alone. I know I should have contacted you in some way to inform you that I was alive and well but, I couldn't bring myself to do so until the timing was just right."
"If I could have had been in touch with you for the past five years," he began, "that means you knew I was alive."
"How could I not?" she replied, smartly. "The massacre was global, and so was the fact that you were the only known survivor."
"Then why didn't you come back right away?"
She raised an eyebrow.
"You say you never meant to leave me alone, and yet you did." His tone started to become harsh. "If you knew all this time that we could have been together, why did you ignore that chance?"
She blinked a few times, staring at him with some shock. "Like I said before, the timing wasn't right," she excused.
"Why now?" he snapped, stopping in his tracks. The four behind them, stopped where they were as well, watching Sasuke with the same look on Ayako's face.
She didn't know how to act. She could tell he was starting to get angry and she had to admit it startled her. She would have never guessed he could have such a temper.
He didn't mean to raise his voice, but he couldn't help it. The anger that he wasn't sure of expressing before was now almost replacing the happiness of her return.
"Well I…" she didn't know what to say at the moment. His sudden outburst made her speechless and now she had to rethink the reasons why.
There was an event called the Chunin exams that happened to take place in Konoha this year. She felt it was better to show up beforehand to release possible tension and questions that could interfere with her focus and if he was entering, she didn't want it ruining his focus as well. But she didn't exactly want to tell him that that was her reason, so she told him the
more heartfelt one.
"I'm sorry," she randomly apologized. "I had no idea it would've meant so much to you considering I was…" she failed to finish that sentence. "Sasuke… you must understand that I wanted to return to you stronger than I was. The massacre happened the day after I ran away, and obviously there wouldn't have been any progress. I know you're probably thinking I abandoned you, but I knew you were going to fine on your own. You were already pretty stealthy at that age but I was just… pathetic." She looked at the ground.
"And how could we have possibly explained my existence to everyone in the village?" she asked him. "They would have seen me the same way the clan did… but now they won't. They do not know me as I was, but they will come to know me as I am. Face it Sasuke, if I returned to you the way I was, it would have been worse than not coming back at all. That's why the right time is now. Because I feel I'm acceptable enough… to be related to you."
His eyes widened at her last words. The words that got him to calm down, making him realize that she was right. Times would have been harder if they were together. It was possible that she would have been treated like a disgrace by people who wouldn't give her a chance because no one else bothered to. Not even her own family. Ayako needed to start fresh, in a different place where people wouldn't know her well enough to judge her, where she could be on her own without worrying about someone recognizing her, where she could train and be given a chance.
Ayako flicked her eyes at him for a split second before walking down the road again. Sasuke followed close behind, as did the others. Then she did something that was odd to him. She reached around and behind her head and pulled her hair over her left shoulder. "As you can see," she spoke while looking back at him, "I don't have the crest. Hopefully soon, I will, but for the past five years that space on the back of my shirt has remained vacant and unstitched. Simply because, if you weren't going to know I was out there, no one else was going to either."
Ayako looked up to the bright blue sky, not noticing her brother appear beside her once again. "It took me five years of training with Yumika in various parts of the world," she was now going to tell him about her life in that time without him asking. "First, it was Kusagakure, then Sunagakure, to Iwagakure…until finally we settled in Kirigakure. We learned many different techniques and various jutsus making our skills more diverse than most shinobi. It kind of gave us an advantage. But we had to learn in sneaky manner. We had to sort of spy on people who were training themselves and then practice the moves ourselves. We spent three years running around in those villages, and the last two were spent in Kiri. That's pretty much all we did. Eat, sleep…occasionally, train, and then travel." She smiled at him.
"It sounds like you worked hard," he responded quietly.
"We did," she stated.
For a few moments it was silent. All they could hear were Naruto and Sakura talking with Yumika and Etsuyo about the exact same thing.
"How old were you when you became a Genin?" Sasuke broke the silence.
Their identical eyes met while he waited. Ayako sighed and faced front again. "Ten," She finally answered.
"Ten?" he said slightly surprised.
She nodded. "I guess I was more of a fast learner than you all thought, and the hard work from the three years prior helped a lot. But it was mostly because Kirigakure needed as much help as they could get. Their crime rate was growing and they passed as many people as they could. They practically begged us to become their shinobi because we were 'skilled enough'," she quoted. "When that happened we were put in a team with our sensei and Etsuyo. Our sole duty was to protect Kiri, but after a while, all that was happening was getting too much for us to handle so we had to leave. It wasn't the right environment for us anymore." Her explanation made a lot of sense. He remembered how evil most of the people were from his battle against Zabuza and Haku.
"You all decided to come here instead?" he concluded.
"If there was place that would easily welcome us and quickly become our home, it would be Konoha. Plus, this place is practically the strongest in the world. How can we not bring our services here?" She smiled widely. "But most importantly…you're here." Sasuke grinned. "So we just had to choose this place."
The others were quietly walking behind them, listening to what was being said. They all thought it was a sweet sight to see.
Now was the time Sasuke felt he needed to ask her the big question. "How were you… after you found out everyone was dead?" he whispered to ensure the four behind wouldn't hear.
Ayako sighed knowing some form of this question would come up. "Can we not talk about it here or now? I just came back, don't make me feel sad!" She nudged him in the shoulder.
They spent the next few hours touring the village, trying to make a mental map for the three newcomers. The four that were trailing behind soon caught up to the two and walked with them. And after wandering around every part of the village once, they finally ended up at their starting spot, the Hokage's building.
There, a woman with straight, long, dark brown hair, stood at the front entrance. Her hair was parted to the left with her bangs covering half of her left eye which were dark brown. She wore a dark gray skirt with fishnet edging on the bottom along with a matching dark gray, quarter sleeve, off-the-shoulder shirt. Mesh armor underneath covered her shoulders and neck with a light green neck band, while a low-cut, light green, kimono style, tank-top was over it. On her forehead was Konoha forehead protector.
"It's about time you three came back," she said with a small grin on her face.
"Nishiya sensei!" Ayako and Etsuyo called while Yumika remained silent. They quickly left Team Seven at their spot to run to the woman.
"Having fun all ready?" their sensei asked, receiving a nod from the three.
"Sensei," Ayako said, "that's my brother. The one I talked about the entire time we headed over here." She ran back and grabbed Sasuke's hand pulling him over there.
"Pleased to meet you," Nishiya greeted. "I've heard a lot of great things." Sasuke nodded.
"Now, girls," she turned her attention back to her students, "everything is all good and set. We officially start tomorrow. I'd let you all go off and spend more time with your new friends but first we have something to discuss. Ayako, say good-bye to your brother for now and let's go." She began to walk in a different direction followed by Yumika and Etsuyo.
"Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke!" A man called from behind. He had white hair and the bottom half of his face was covered up by a mask.
"Oh, hey look, it's Kakashi sensei!" Naruto yelled.
"That's your sensei, Sasuke?" Ayako asked, staring at the man curiously. She was still standing by his side, holding has hand.
"Yeah…" he muttered.
"Come with me. We need to talk," Kakashi said, turning around to walk. Naruto and Sakura said a quick 'goodbye' and went to catch up with him.
"Well, I guess this is where we part," she shrugged. "But only for a little while. Meet up with me again tonight, okay?"
"Sure," he nodded.
She smiled. "I'll find you this time," she informed. "See you later!" Ayako let go and ran to catch up with her team.
Giving her one small wave, Sasuke headed in the direction of his team.
"This place is really interesting," Etsuyo commented when Ayako caught up.
"But you're glad you came though, right?" Ayako asked.
"Of course," she squeaked. "Hanako and I needed to move and it seems to be a lot more fun here."
"Yeah it does," she agreed. "In all honesty, this was the first time in my life I've actually seen the village."
"Really?" Etsuyo was a little shocked.
"Yeah," Ayako left it at that.
"You know, I think it'll take some getting used to… even for me," Yumika admitted. "Are you excited to be with your brother again, Ayako?"
"Yeah!" she exclaimed. "I can see us being together all the time now. Fighting together, training together, and hanging out together. It was the best decision to come back here!" Ayako said happily.
"It sure was," Yumika acceded.
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Chapter notes: Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Naruto characters. Only the OCs I created are all mine.