12 years

"Hn 12 years this place has changed"

The sound of children's laughter floated up the hills looking down on the hidden village of the leaf. But it wasn't the laughter that he had heard all those years ago, the laugher of his old friends, no this was the laughter of children that he didn't know and that would never know the pain he felt, the only ones who had really known him where gone in one way or another.

The wind picked up the fallen leaves and petals of the sakura trees that stood imposing along the skyline and blew them round and round churning them until they formed a woman, a woman with hair that was created out of the blossoms that swirled about the newly formed body.

"Sorry I'm late, it's just that I got a little lost! I mean it was 12 years ago we left and I was only like 6"

"Yes, but now your 18 you think you could follow directions Sayana"

"Errg whatever, can we go down and see how much it's changed, I want to know if our old house is still there"

"Firstly its not our old house its yours and secondly you may go down but I have to visit someone first and oh and thirdly don't tell anyone your name!"

"Why can't I tell them my name its only a name, hey and you're the closest thing I have to family so it was OUR house "

"Hn whatever just do it, if your good I might explain later" Think of that 'our house' she said our house; I never thought I would be considered family by your daughter.

"Yeh Yeh" said the pink haired shonobi turning her back and waving over her shoulder," Oh and one more thing Mr Hn I'm an adult so don't treat me like a child"

He was about to point out her that calling him Mr Hn was really very childish, but she had already gone.

"I wonder what would have happened if you had brought her up if you'd done a better job, you probably would've. I hope one day I can tell her about you and the rest of her family, its not right her travelling with me I'm not even her father" he said.

He turned his back from his childhood home and walked back towards the sakura trees, they had grown since he left and they hid her well, she would be safe from prying eyes.

He walked between the cherry blossoms until he came upon a small clearing in the centre of the cops. In the middle of the clearing was a small rectangle of stone.

"She looks like you… she has your eyes. Evey time I look at her its like I'm looking into a deep green sea.

He walked towards the small rectangle and brushed the dirt and moss away.

"Looks like they all forgot about you after all"

"No, not everyone forgot about her……Sasuke. I come up here every year on her birthday,……… it's a shame you only managed once in 18 years."

"I put her here all those years ago, and where were you, celebrating becoming Hokage instead of helping her, she needed you Naruto and you were nowhere to be found, and you took her best friend with you, in fact you never gave her back, I bet she hasn't been up here in 18 years!"

"This has nothing to do with my wife it has to do with Sayana's mother. Anyway you have to stop talking about her like she's still alive Sasuke she died 18 years ago and you buried her, you buried her 18 years ago then brought up her daughter because you felt bad and when people started to ask questions you upped and left and took her daughter with you. You didn't even stop to check if we had found out who the father was you jus went.

You know she would have been …"

"……35 yeh I know. When she was pregnant she told me that when she was 35 her kid would be 18 and she would tell it everything, everything that happened to her and she said that then and only then would she tell her child who its father was, so I am just full filling her wishes, anyway If Sayana had stayed here she would have been in the spot light all her childhood and as we both know that is no childhood at all. Anyway Sayana is the only memory of her I have of her mother.

"Yeh I know that she was our only memory too and you took her all for your self." Naruto paused "If you had stayed you could have found out who Sayana's father was"

"No, I could not have stayed because then I would have had to keep one more secret from Sayana and goodness knows I've kept enough from her over the years.

"Well I can tell you now"

………………………………………………………………..

"Wow this place seems smaller or it could be that I'm just a lot bigger. The houses are so bright and they look so homely, man I wish we could have stayed here longer I would have liked to have been part of a team here rather than be taught by Sasuke he's so moody and secretive

"Oh my goodness that girl she looks like…"

"Hush Choji Ino will hear and I'm not going to let you get her hopes up for nothing!"

"Hey Shika-kun what was Choji gonna say, it cant of been that bad, you know no much fazes me anymore after everything that's happened."

"He didn't say anything honey he was just commenting on the weather."

"Yeh right I distinctly heard the words 'she looks like', who does this girl look like and which gir…… Ohhhh its her, no it cant be she's gone and this girls is only 18 so she cant be…….wait……there back……Sayana"

"Hello wha, how do you know my name, oh bugger Sasuke will be mad they know my name"

"You even sound like her"

"Who"

"Your mother"

"How do you know my mother and my name"?

"Well, well, I was her friend, one of her best friends and as for your name I helped her chose the name that you now wear, we sat up for nights on end talking and talking about what we would name our children, but she didn't get further than naming you she, she…"

"Don't worry darling. Sayana your mother passed shortly after your birth, she only had enough time to name you"

"Yeh she didn't even tell us who your father was"

"Choji don't talk to her like that its not like it was her fault, and you don't just talk to some one that plainly about such a sensitive subject, it's cruel."

"Don't worry Lady I know all about my mother, Sasuke told me about everything"

"Did he did he really, now that is hard to believe I don't think I've heard that teme speak a work of truth for at least 18 years"

"What, how dare you say that Sasuke has been like a father to me my whole life"

"Yeh that's because he wishes he was your father, he should have married her when he had the chance.

"Shut up Itachi this has nothing to do with you," shouted Ino

"Oh I could very well have to do with me she doesn't know who her father is yet and I could very well be me"

"Yeh or it could be someone else, someone that actually cares about her and her mother"

"Cared Ino past tense, I might've card about her mother when she was alive, how do you know I didn't."

"She didn't care about you"

"Ohh you have decided to grace us with your presence little brother. And how would you know she didn't care about me you guys weren't even an item then."

"We might no have been an 'item' but she loved me and she came to me after her 'mistake' I think she called it"

"Whatever it might have been a mistake but she came to me of her own free will, and that love she had for you didn't seem to be thee that night. I think she had finally given up, she couldn't take you crushing her anymore."

"The fact is that she came to me after she slept with you and she told me she wished that it had never happened."

"OH and you consoled her did you, in the only way you know how huh"

No one had noticed Syana's face slowly crumple and the tears that started to leek down her pale face.

"STOP, stop it, stop fighting, stop talking about my mother like she was your property, she had feelings that neither of you could ever understand, do you even know the feeling of being torn between two things that mean more to you than anything else and actually having to choose between them"

"Yes Sayana they do. They both loved your mother very much, we all did and we all had to make that same choice 18 years ago…the hardest choice ever between two choices, two people… Mother or daughter" said Naruto stepping out from behind Sasuke

"There was an attack on Konoha 18 years ago and your mother was needed as a talented medical ninja. She sapped al her strength saving others so your mother was very weak and heavily pregnant, she didn't have any strength left to give birth we could only save one of you, so she made us choose, her or the baby"

"Her or you"

"You or her"

"You or Sakura"

'Yeh I wished we'd made the other choice"

"Itachi don't talk like that bout your niece"

"What" chorused everyone?

"That means Sayana that Sasuke is your father"

"Whaa…no one ever told the story like that before, I was told that she was killed shortly after I was born by a rouge shonobi. How could you lie to me Sasuke,………….. She paused and tears streamed down her face.

" How could you lie to your own daughter."

"I didn't lie to you Sayana it true that your mother was inadvertently killed by a shonobi, weather it was the one who took the last of her strength or the one that injured all the people she healed."

"I don't care you should have told me the truth."

"I dint think it was my right, how was I to know that I was your father, I was going to leave it to him."

"Well looks like you mucked up good Baka brother. I'm leaving since she aint mine, so good luck cleaning up your mess"

"Shut up Itachi, its your mess too, if you hadn't been fooling around with Sakura we would never of had a mess to clean up to start with. Then anyone could tell it was Sasuke's."

"I'm no it lady, I'm a person, but seeing as you all seem to care more about my mother than you do about me I'll be leaving, oh and don't bother following Sasuke I don't want to ever see you again, as a matter of fact I don't ever want to see any of you ever again."

……

And she did disappear…in swirl of sakura blossoms, and she truly intended to never see any of them again. And she didn't…………… well not for a very long time.

…..

12 years later……………