Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Imouto Trilogy :: Hatake :: Even After All These Years ❯ Chapter 15: The Past ( Chapter 15 )

A/N: I believe that you'll enjoy this chapter for two reasons. One is because you finally get to find out how Kyomi knows Itachi and a bit about her past. Two is because it's kind of like an entrance way to the main action of this story, namely the Chuunin Exam and the chapters where Itachi is fully present in the story. For a hint as to what I mean, go reread the end of the prologue (grins) Please read, review, and enjoy! Ja ne!

 

--Oh, and I just realized that Kakashi technically can't wink; if he does you really can't differentiate it from a blink. And yes, I do realize that that is a completely inane and obvious fact, but I just realized it nonetheless (grins)

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

 

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

 

(1) - Iwagakure means "Hidden in the Stone" or "Hidden Stone". It's a shortcut for Iwagakure no Sato, "the Village Hidden in the Stone".

 

(2) - Neko means cat. This is her ANBU name and is a reference to her mask, though she's currently not wearing it. And yes, this is supposed to be Y

 

Thanks to my beta reader, BattleStations.

 

---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X- --X---X---X---X---X---X---

 

Even After All These Years

 

Chapter 15

The Past

 

---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X- --X---X---X---X---X---X---

 

As the sun began to rise, Kyomi stood in the middle of the forest outside the town. Her eyes were glued to the patch of burnt ground in front of her as the wind slowly blew the ashes away.

 

It had been almost a half an hour since Naruto had left the town, the kunoichi estimated. She'd watched over Naruto as he'd preformed his mission, difficult as it'd been to watch him in emotional pain, but had stayed behind while he'd left. Naruto may have wanted to avoid unnecessary casualties, but Kyomi had seen that Naruto had made one major mistake during the mission.

 

The blonde, Kyomi had seen, had been careful about hiding his identity as a Konoha-nin. This was good as Konohagakure and Iwagakure(1) were still on shaky terms, so even something as simply as a Konoha-nin upsetting their mission could cause their relationship to deteriorate even further.

 

The problem, however, was that the Chuunin had witnessed Naruto using Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique), a technique that was known to be known only by Konoha-nin, and only high-ranking ones at that. It would be very easy for Naruto to be identified as being from Konohagakure.

 

And thus it was left up to Kyomi to take care of the Chuunin. Though she'd speak with Naruto about this later, she didn't want to push him too hard right now.

 

The silver haired ANBU had easily gotten the Chuunin out of the house and into the woods, where she'd then destroyed his corpse with a well-placed fire jutsu. Because Naruto had done such a clean job of taking out the Chuunin, all evidence of the man's disappearance was now gone. With any luck it might even be a week or two before anyone from Iwagakure no Sato came to investigate the disappearance. And by then they really wouldn't be able to find anything. Kyomi let out a sigh and then suddenly vanished from the woods, already on her way to catch up with Naruto.

 

The ashes floated silently away on the wind.

 

---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X- --X---X---X---X---X---X---

 

Kyomi didn't appear before Naruto until he'd exited the Hokage tower after turning in his mission report. She'd been tempted to speak with him during the night that he'd spent in the wilderness, but had given him time to think instead.

 

When Kyomi fell into step with Naruto the blonde didn't say anything. In fact, he didn't even look at her but rather just kept his eyes glued to the ground beneath his feet. The Genin did, however, follow Kyomi when she began to lead him toward the Ichiraku Ramen Stand.

 

As Kyomi and Naruto took their seats in the small restaurant, they still didn't speak. Sensing the mood, Teuchi quickly served them and then disappeared from sight.

 

It took several minutes before Naruto finally spoke up. "Does it ever get any easer?" he asked.

 

Kyomi let out a sigh. "No," she admitted. "It's always just as difficult as the first time."

 

A shiver ran down Naruto's spine. "How-- how can you deal with it?" he croaked out. "How can you live with yourself, knowing...?"

 

"It'll always be difficult," Kyomi replied with another sigh, "But eventually you'll find ways to repress the way that you feel; ways to block it out. Kakashi-kun, for example, has those little perverted books of his. Gai, meanwhile, acts insane. I also happen to know that Sarutobi Asuma--I believe you know him--has a tendency to take his frustrations out on random trees using his brass knuckles, and on top of that is a chain smoker. All high level shinobi generally have some kind of quirk. Those that don't...Well, either they develop one or they don't last very long."

 

"What about you?" Naruto asked, curiosity coloring his voice and lifted his mood slightly. "What's your 'quirk'?"

 

For a long while Kyomi stayed silent. Naruto almost thought that she wasn't going to answer, when she finally spoke again.

 

"I...I sued to play pranks all the time. It was a way for me to laugh, and to get others to laugh as well. But then...Well, eventually I began to bury myself in my work. It sounds contradictory, but it helped because I didn't have to think much. I just...did. Whenever I'd come back my mind would start to think again, so I'd go out on another mission. Before long I was barely spending any time in Konohagakure no Sato at all."

 

Naruto frowned, contemplating Kyomi's words. Kyomi herself was just glad that he seemed to be coming out the funk that he'd been in, even if it was just due to his curiosity about her.

 

"I...I don't really know much about you, now that I think about it," the boy said after a moment. "For example, who was on your Genin team?"

 

Kyomi smiled sadly, staring off into space. "My teammates and best friends were Hyuuga Satoru and Uchiha Itachi," she told him. She ignored--or perhaps just didn't notice--the shocked expression on Naruto's face and continued on. "Itachi and I graduated from the academy at the same time and since we were both six years old at that time we were put on the same team. Though all three of us on that team became close, Itachi I were really drawn together because of our similar situations.

 

"It wasn't even a year later that our team passed the Chuunin Exam. Itachi and I still worked together often and we were still close. We remained so until Itachi was promoted to Jounin. It was at that point that we started seeing less and less of each other. We talked whenever we could, but we were both so busy...

 

"I didn't even know that Itachi had been given a position in the ANBU until right after I was promoted to Jounin when I was eleven. It...It was at that point that I realized that I barley knew Itachi anymore. We were still close, but he'd changed so much. He was so much colder, more emotionless. I could barely reconcile him with the boy I'd met in the academy years before.

 

"I-It was a complete shock for me to find out two years later that Itachi had massacred his clan. It was something that I'd never suspected him of, not even with his change in personality. At first I was sure that there'd been some kind of a mistake, that he'd been framed or something. But..." She paused to take a deep breath. "When Sasuke woke up he told the Hokage about how Itachi had the Mangekyo Sharingan. Knowing my closeness to Itachi, Sandaime-sama immediately sought me out to ask me out this information. When I heard what Sasuke had said, I knew that it had been Itachi and not some imposter.

 

"You see, Itachi and I were two of the very few people who knew about the Mangekyo Sharingan. I never was supposed to of course, but there was an incident many years ago...I'd never thought that Itachi would go so far to obtain the Mangekyo, or even that he would go for it at all. He'd seen what it could do to a person..."

 

As Naruto listened to Kyomi speak, he suddenly remembered something. "Two years ago, when I was at the Valley of the End, Sasuke spoke about his brother. He said...he said that Itachi had told him that there were currently two people who had the Mangekyo sharingan. Do you know that second person then?"

 

Kyomi smiled sadly. "Yes," she replied softly. Here eyes were unfocused once she got lost in her memories. Naruto was tempted to inquire further, but decided that now wasn't the time and instead let it drop. He had a lot to think over now anyway.

 

A small smile crossed Naruto's face as he finished his ramen. At least he now knew a whole lot more about his sensei.

 

---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X- --X---X---X---X---X---X---

 

When Kyomi finally returned to her apartment the sun was beginning to set. She let out a sigh and plopped down onto the couch to relax.

 

It was strange, when Kyomi really thought about it, that she was still living with her older brother, even after all these years. She'd lived with him her entire life as her mother had died in childbirth with her and her father had committed suicide only a year later.

 

Honestly, it didn't feel like she'd lived with Kakashi for that long. When she'd been little, Kakashi had always been away on missions or training, and then later, when she'd begun to rise through the ranks, she'd always been away.

 

Kyomi gently trailed a finger along the armrest of the couch. She actually hadn't been around the apartment that much, despite the fact that she'd grown up there. It was more of a short resting spot between activities rather than an actual home.

 

As Kyomi glanced around however, she noticed that the house looked more lived in than ever. It'd started to become that way for the past few years, ever since Kakashi had retired from the ANBU. Now that he was a Jounin sensei he was in the village most of the time.

 

Hearing a sound coming from the kitchen, Kyomi turned her head in that direction. She wasn't alarmed however, as the sound was familiar. Kakashi was most likely in the kitchen, cooking.

 

A little known fact was that Kakashi was actually a very good cook. It came from having to take care of himself and a younger sibling from a young age. Over time however it'd developed into something of a hobby, though he almost never let anyone know.

 

Almost on queue, the silver haired shinobi popped his head out of the kitchen. A smile was just barely visible beneath his mask.

 

"Back from your mission, Kyomi-chan?" he asked brightly. "Took you long enough. My team's never going to be able to get anything done with the way you keep on stealing my student." Despite his words Kakashi's voice was teasing, showing that he wasn't being serious.

 

Kyomi matched Kakashi's smile with a grin of her own. "He's my student too," she replied. Slowly, her grin fell and her face took on a serious expression. "As for the mission...I actually need to talk to you about that."

 

Seeing her change of mood, Kakashi too grew serious and fully entered the room.

 

"The mission," Kyomi began while taking a deep breath. "It...It was an assassination."

 

Kyomi could see Kakashi's mouth form a thin line through his mask. He understood exactly why Kyomi was telling him this.

 

"Did he...?" Kakashi trailed off, leaving the question to hang in the air unsaid. Did he bail on the mission?

 

Kyomi shook her head. "No, he completed the mission just fine," she said softly. "He actually did very well. He took out the Chuunin guard there very easily. It's just been...difficult...for him."

 

Kakashi nodded absently, processing this information. "I'll postpone team meetings for a few days," he said finally. "That'll give him some time to think things over. The last thing that he needs right now is to be among people who won't be able to understand what he's going through."

 

Kyomi nodded mutely in response and the two of them fell into silence, both lost in their own thoughts. Because of this Kyomi was almost startled when Kakashi spoke up once more.

 

"I really should take Sasuke on an assignation mission," the shinobi said, almost to himself. "It's just...I-- I'm afraid, to be honest. He almost killed Naruto before, two years ago. What if such a mission changed Sasuke? What if he tries to defect again?"

 

Kyomi smiled sadly at Kakashi. "But if you hold him back then he'll only resent you for it. And besides, we'd never get anywhere if we spent all of our time worrying over 'what ifs'." She paused for a moment, considering a sudden idea. "Although...What if you took Sasuke-kun out on an assassination mission right now? Once he's back both he and Naruto-kun will be going through similar things so they might be able to help each other through it. It'll bring them closer as teammates and comrades."

 

While considering Kyomi's suggestion Kakashi suddenly began to chuckle. Playfully he reached out and pushed Kyomi's head. "You can be so manipulating sometimes, you know that?"

 

"It's not being manipulating," the kunoichi rebuffed indignantly. "It's just...it's just...placing them in a situation that'll help them, if they so choose."

 

Kakashi continued to laugh while shaking his head in amusement. "Of course, imouto. Of course."

 

---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X- --X---X---X---X---X---X---

 

Kyomi let out a sigh as she strode down a long hallway through a large complex. Many doors littered the sides of the hall, but Kyomi bypassed them all until she came to a large metal door, where she hesitated.

 

Currently Kyomi was in one of the numerous ANBU complexes that could be found in the village. This particular one just so happened to be considered to be "headquarters". Everyone there was decked out in their ANBU gear, including Kyomi herself.

 

It had already been nearly a week since Kyomi's conversation with Kakashi. Shortly after that Kakashi had taken Kyomi's advice and had taken Sasuke on an assassination mission. Since then Naruto and Sasuke had met several times and it appeared that they were indeed using each other to get over what they'd done. The blonde was beginning to spend more and more time with his team, including that Sakura girl.

 

After her pause Kyomi lifted one hand and knocked soundly on the door. A muffled reply came from inside a moment later and Kyomi opened the door and slipped inside.

 

The room which Kyomi entered was clearly an office. It was fairly spare, containing only a desk, several chairs, and numerous filing cabinets. Behind the desk was a young purple haired woman who was in ANBU gear but wore no mask. Without her signature white cloak one would have never known that she was on of the four ANBU commanders.

 

"You called for me, Neko-dono?(2)" Kyomi prompted.

 

The woman looked up from the paper--a mission report, Kyomi thought--that she'd been reading. "Ah, yes, Ookami-san," she said while placing the paper to the side. She then gestured to one of the chairs in front of her desk. "Please, have a seat. There's something that I need to speak with you about."

 

Frowning beneath her mask, Kyomi did so. She then waited in patient silence for the commander to continue.

 

"We've recently received some new information," the woman said. She pulled a packet of papers and passed them to Kyomi. "Here, read this."

 

Kyomi took the papers and quickly scanned through them. After a moment, as the information processed in her mind, the kunoichi gasped and looked up.

 

"This is--!"

 

Neko nodded solemnly. "Yes," she replied softly. "The Akatsuki activity has increased exponentially within the past few months. We have reason to believe that they'll make another attempt on Uzumaki Naruto soon. We've already stepped up patrols and guard shifts around the village, but...

 

"As I'm sure that you already know, Konohagakure will be hosting the Chuunin Exams in just over two weeks. We expect them to enter the village then and make their move. This cannot affect the Exam. We have been unable to attend the Exams for the last two years so we must present a strong face to the rest of the shinobi world. We must show that we are as powerful as ever and are able to stand up to anyone who whishes to face us."

 

Kyomi hesitated. "Do you...wish to keep Naruto out of the Exam?"

 

Immediately the ANBU commander began to shake her head. "No. Definitely not. You see, we'll be placing our best Genin teams into the Exam. We'll be notifying the teams of their acceptance tomorrow--which is part of the reason why I'm speaking to you now, first--and Genin Team #7 will be one of them. Team # 7 is one of our most powerful teams as it's made up of Uzumaki, the last Uchiha, and Tsunade-sama's apprentice. We expect the team to do well in the Exams and they shall all be promoted to Chuunin regardless of the outcome of the Exam.

 

"On top of that, we do not wish to pull Uzumaki from the Exam because that would alert the Akatsuki that we know of their plan. We would then have no idea what they would do instead. No, it's best to let things play out while they're under our control and surveillance.

 

"The reason why I've called you here, other than to warn you, is because I just came back from a meeting with the Hokage. Her orders are that you're to move in immediately with Uzumaki Naruto, in order to keep an eye on him in case the Akatsuki do something other than what we expect. Team 7 shall be taken off all missions until the Exam and will use that time to train as a team. During those two weeks you'll work with Hatake Kakashi to train them all. You'll receive the pay of an A-rank mission for your time."

 

Kyomi let out a sigh as she leaned back in her chair and ran a hand through her hair. Things were quickly starting to get complicated.

 

---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X---X- --X---X---X---X---X---X---

 

End Notes: I'm just curious if any one would be interested in reading a story about Kyomi's Genin team and what things were like when she and Itachi were growing up. I'm not saying that I'm going to be writing such a story, as I'm really busy right now, but the idea is in the back of my mind. Thoughts? It depends mainly on you readers as to whether or not I'll write it.

 

And before anyone asks, the whole thing with the second Mangekyo Sharingan wielder will be explained, but not until third part of this trilogy. You see, this first one is called Imouto Trilogy :: Hatake :: Even After All These Years. The second is Imouto Trilogy :: Momochi :: From the Shadows and the third is Imouto Trilogy :: Uchiha :: Kaleidoscope. The full story will be spread out through these, though starting with the second one things will quickly start to get complicated. This story is more like the intro to it all than anything else (winks) You'll see. Please review! Ja ne!

 

--B.I.