"KIYOKI! WAKE UP! IT IS SUCH A YOUTHFUL DAY, YOU DO NOT WANT TO WASTE IT LYING IN THAT BED, DO YOU?!?!" A loud shout came from
beside the sleeping form of Kiyoki.
Kiyoki groaned and pulled her pillow over her head, hoping to atleast muffle Lee's over-enthusiastic shouts.
Kiyoki sat up and yawned loudly.
"Good morning Lee" she mumbled from under her pillow.
A nurse walked into the room and smiled at Kiyoki and Lee,
"Ah good you're up. You two can leave the hospital today, take as much time as you want, it's not busy today." She turned and made to leave, "Oh, and remember, Lady Tsunade wants to see you in her office" she left the room.
Lee smiled at Kiyoki, who had managed to excavate herself from under her pillow at last, though his expression soon changed when he saw her face drop
"You don't know where the Hokage's office is, do you?" Lee asked, though it was more of a downright statement than a question.
"No..." she hesitated "...I don't", she felt embarrassed just saying it, though she didn't really know why.
"I can take you there if you'd like? I going to report for duty today." Lee smiled.
Kiyoki's face flushed crimson briefly and she looked down quickly, "If you wouldn't mind, I'd more than likely get lost and wander aimlessly through the village otherwise"
Lee brightened up immediately and hobbled off as fast as he could.
"LET US GO THEN, WITH THE POWER OF YOUTH DRIVING US EVER FORWARD WE CANNOT BE STOPPED!" He exclaimed, shortly before tripping over halfway through the doorway.
Kiyoki smiled slightly and slid off of the bed. She walked slowly, silently, glancing back briefly at the room before sliding the door shut and jogging a short distance down the corrider and round the corner to catch up with Lee. For someone who was restricted by crutches, he could really move when he wanted to, even if some of it was falling down.
They checked out of the hospital and turned left at the end of the path. Kiyoki was amazed simply at the sight of the village. The sun was high, and the heat beaming from it made her feel so much more alive she she had felt in the hospital room. She looked around and her view was drawn almost instinctively to the large mountain not to far in the distance. Their were 4 large faces carved out of the rocks, and what looked like the beginnngs of another to the far right of these. They continued walking through the crowded villiage in silence. Kiyoki was looking around, taking in every detail that she could possibly remember, and memorising as much of the layout as was humanly possible. They walked past a small ramen stand, the sign next to it read 'ICHIRAKU'. They eventually arrived at a large red, rounded building, with a symbol high up the front most facing part of the wall. The symbol meant 'FIRE'.
Kiyoki noticed that, on a staircase that climbed up the right hand side of the building and dissapeared behind the building and out of view, someone was walking up, with books and files precariously piled in their arms. As they closer to the bottom of the staircase, Kiyoki looked up and could make up a few features of the person with the books. It was definately a girl, she thought, if the feminine figuire was anything to go by, and she had rather strikingly pink hair.
But even as Kiyoki was processing these thoughts, The girls slipped and a stop fairly close to the top and fell back over, sending the books and files flying andherself bouncing down the stairs several at a time. Without even thinking, Kiyoki bolted from were she stood and was halfway towards the falling girl within a second, and an instant later, she had braced herself three steps down ready to try and stop her from falling.
Unfortunately, as the girl hit Kiyoki, her knees gave out, she had obviously not completely recovered yet. She closed her eyes and tried to focus her chakra to her feet for extra support, only to be hit in the face by one of the many files that were now falling towards the ground, and lost her footing totally. Out of pure instinct, she threw her arms around the girls head to protect her and they crashed down the remaining stairs and landed in a heap at the bottom. Lee hobbled over as quickly as he possibly could.
"Kiyoki, Sakura, are you alright?" he asked, his voice was full of worry, betraying his calm expression.
Kiyoki pushed herself to a sitting position and looked down at the mess of pink hair and body that was laying over her legs. Sakura looked up, her emerald green eyes were hazy looking,
"Sa.....Sasuke?" she asked quietly. Kiyoki's heart skipped a beat
"How do you know Sasuke?" she asked frantically. Sakura rubbed her eyes and jumped off of her,
"I'm sorry, you looked an awful lot like someone else" She replied, before Lee interupted,
"Kiyoki, we must not keep the Hokage waiting, she is not a very patient woman" as he said this, Sakura's expression slowly change to intruige,
"Who are you anyway? and why are you going to see Lady Tsunade?" Sakura asked, but before she could answer, Lee whispered something in Sakura's ear. Her face went blank, expressionless, like she had just been slapped across the face randomly for no reason.
"Kiyoki, let us go to the Hokage" Lee said, and started to hop up the stairs one at a time, his head hanging. Kiyoki followed suit, leaving Sakura standing there in shock, she didn't move even as Kiyoki moved past her. when she caught Lee up, she asked him,
"How does she know Sasuke?" Lee's face looked almost pained, and he did not make eye contact as he said
"It is not my place to say. Tsunade will tell you everything you want to know"
At that moment they did indeed arrive at Tsunade's office. Kiyoki rapped three times on the door, and someone shouted something from the other side, presumably 'Come in', or something along those lines.
Lee turned the handle and pushed the door open, revealing a fair sized round room, dominated by large windows on the far wall. In front of the windows was a large desk and chair, with mounds of paper scattered across much of the floor. Sat in the chair was a woman who looked around 20 years old, long blond hair in loose pig-tails that hung over her shoulders and down her front a little. She alos had a small, diamond shaped mark on her forehead. She had her hands infront of her nose, fingers intertwined. The whole image made her seem very wise and knowledgeable. She did not move as they entered, not even a muscle twitched, except her lips when she spoke. She simply said
"No, Lee, you are not fit for duty yet. But thank you for showing our guest here. Now, please leave, and don't make me ask you again" her voice was calm, but had the most threatening edge to it. obviously this was NOT the woman to mess with.
Lee turned to leave, as he did, his hand brushed Kiyoki's very gently and he whispered
"Please, do not hate Lady Tsunade..." he hesitated "...and do not be afriad to ask" and he left without saying another word. Tsunade motion to a chair opposite her own and Kiyoki obliged.
"you won't like what i have to tell you, but you need to know everything that went on when Sasuke abandoned the village to seek Orochimaru
Kiyoki sat there, motionless, as Tsunade told her everything that had happened during the mission to retrieve Sasuke before he crossed the border, including how it nealry cost the lives of all six shinobi involved, one of which was Lee. Tears slowly filled her eyes, still refusing to admit that this was all happening, had happened and there was nothing she could do about it. Then anger took hold of her, she clenched her fists so tightly her palms began to bleed. She started to shake in rage and launched herself at Tsunade, only to feel like she had been hit by a brick in her forehead and was thrown backover across the room.
In anger and embarrassment, she got up and quickly ran out of the room, and just as quickly, out of the building and into the bustling streets of Konoha. Barging through crowds and dodging shinobi, she ran like a maniac, desperate for somewhere to hide, to get away from it all. Eventually she came across a small flat that seemed deserted, so she slid open the window and slowly climbed in.
It was a small apartment, and she was in what she guessed was the bedroom. something on the bedside table caught her eye, a photograph. A photograph of 3 children and an adult.
On closer examination she noticed that the boy on the left looked like he didn't want to be there. He had black hair that was spiked at the back and framed his face, his black eyes that held annoyance reminded Kiyoki of herself slightly. He did look remarkably like her.
"What if that......" She thought to herself. "....What if that...is Sasuke? Yes, it HAS to be him!"
She looked at the other three people in the picture and gasped. It was the blonde kid she had fought not to long ago, the one with the perverted old man with white hair. And the girl with pink hair in the middle, even the adult was the one who showed her what happened when he last talked to Sasuke.
"They....." she said out loud "are MINE"
mega mega mega mega thanks to Animegirl122 for helping me with this chapter, please please please review, the more criticism i get the better the next chapters will be, and thankyou to all of you who have read the story so far
FightingxDreamer