Disclaimer - Naruto belongs to Kishimoto Masashi and the various licensing companies who profit from it, not me.
She inhaled slowly then exhaled. Today was the day. She'd watched the boy for five years. Each day he went to school, went to train, went back home and ate; each day for five years, same routine always alone.
She knew it was something that was not talked about. Something that would definitely get her punished or maybe even killed, but she had to say something. She'd been alone for almost a year and it was unbearable. She didn't know how he'd suffered through it for so long.
Sasuke was at his family's training grounds when he felt her approach. He ignored her; just another stupid fan girl. Most of them usually ran off when he accidentally threw a kunai in the direction they were hiding.
This one remained in the open.
"What?" Sasuke turned around to look at girl. She was older and obviously a civilian.
"I…ah," the stumbled, squeezing the fingers of her left hand with those of her right, "I would like to talk to you."
"Go away. I don't want a girlfriend." Sasuke deadpanned. He'd seen the girl watching him before and was surprised she gotten up the nerve to approach them.
"It's about your family," the girl blurted in a rush of syllables before she lost her nerve.
Before she realized what had happened she was on her knees. The younger boy had his fingers wrapped in her hair and a kunai to her neck. She could see and feel the spittle flying from his mouth into her face as he snarled angrily at her, "You know nothing about them!"
She whimpered, "They're not all dead." She saw the blow coming and was surprised when it stopped inches from her face.
"Don't fuck with me! He killed them; every last one of them, even the babies. I saw their bodies!" Sasuke screamed letting her go as he shook with rage. "I'm the only Uchiha he left alive!"
She kept an eye on the boy as she scooted to where she dropped her purse. It was the last gift her father had ever given her. She was twelve at the time. Now she was seventeen.
Her fingers fumbled with the familiar clasps as she pulled out the single picture she had managed to save. Her mother cried while she burned the others saying they were too dangerous to keep.
"It's my mother and my father," she explained looking at the picture one last time committing it to memory before handing it to the volatile child.
Sasuke looked as the faded photograph then at the girl in front of him. "You're lying. Uncle Teyaki and Aunt Uruchi didn't have any children. If they did they would have never allowed them to grow up outside the clan."
"My mother was his mistress. I was born in Otafuku Gai. He moved us here after he stopped taking missions and no longer had a reason to leave the village," she said quietly clutching the purse as it was the single lifeline to her father now that her cousin had the picture.
Sasuke studied the small square in his hand. Uncle Teyaki was at a birthday party with a younger version of the girl in front of him. He was giving her a kiss on the cheek and had one arm around her. His other arm was around a woman that was not Aunt Uruchi.
This woman was an older version of the girl in front of him. Her right hand was visible. There was a sapphire and diamond ring on her third finger. It was the same cut but larger than the ruby and diamond wedding set Aunt Uruchi seldom wore.
"Why? Why would you come tell me this after all this time?" Sasuke asked once more looking at the girl. Her hair was the same color as her mother's, but her face was a mix of their features.
"I was afraid," The girl whispered. "The night father died men in masks appeared in our house and did something to us. We were suddenly in a room with Sandaime-sama. He told us speaking of my parentage is punishable by death. We were taken home just as suddenly."
She raised her head to look at Sasuke then lowered it again in shame. "Mother thought someone discovered their affair. The Uchiha is a prominent ninja clan. She was seamstress that had a child by one of their married men. My birth had tainted their honor and bloodline. She was always afraid someone would show up and take me away. The next day we learned what happened. We thought I would be killed."
"So why now?" Sasuke asked.
"I'm alone," the girl replied sadly. "My mother died last year. I wanted to say something sooner, but she wouldn't allow it. The one time I got close to you in the market one of those masked men appeared. It's taken all this time to gather my courage."
Sasuke contemplated her words. His cousin made sense. He had no doubt she was his cousin. She looked too much like his uncle for them to be anything but related. It was also logical that they feared for her life.
If she did carry Uchiha blood it would make sense for Anbu to protect them to prevent the total loss of the sharingan. It had been seven years, but a small part of him still feared Itachi would be back to correct his earlier mistake.
He also knew his uncle. Teyaki and Uruchi loved children. He'd overheard his mother and a different aunt say it was a shame Uruchi was unable to bear them.
He looked at the picture once more. The woman was beautiful. He could understand why his uncle had been tempted away from his dutiful but homely wife. He passed the picture back to his cousin and extended a hand to her.
Sasuke smiled. He had a cousin. He was no longer alone in this world. After promising to keep her identity a secret he vowed to remain in touch with her. After she left he picked up his kunai once more.
He was only twelve but was a becoming a man. Iruka-sensei taught them about reproduction in the academy. Kakashi-sensei had gone further and made sure all three of them had excellent theoretical knowledge of the different types of sex and the repercussions of each.
While Kakashi's methods were effective, Sasuke didn't like knowing which of his peers had trapped their parents into an unhappy marriage, or ended the career of a promising kunoichi, or why some of the older kunoichi stared wistfully at the academy and orphanage and why others could not bear to look at children in a certain age group.
He knew his penis hardened, sometimes for no apparent reasons, in preparation for manhood and fathering children. Kakashi-sensei and Iruka-sensei both said it took a strong man to control those impulses. Sasuke smiled and for the first time in years felt a small bit of hope.
Uncle Teyaki was kind, funny and only one of many kinsmen who lacked strength.