Chapter 8:
"Ishiko, are you sure you're up for it? This can wait another day or two." Hiruzen voiced his concern, watching Ishiko wander around the hospital room.
"I'm fine Hokage-sama, I just need to get my blood running and I'll be testing those brats soon enough." She said dismissively.
"The doctor who was in charge of you told me what happened here." He said, and sighed.
"Aren't you in pain?" He asked.
"I was hoping no-one would know about that besides her." Ishiko said in a solemn tone, playing the victim was the best thing to do at the moment, it went with what Itachi wanted people to believe so she wouldn't go against it.
"Its because of my pain, that I want out of this place right now Hokage-sama. I need to remind myself that, I'm not that weak." She told him, as she fixed her hair into a flower bun, leaving her silver bangs as she usually did, not minding that they obscured her vision some.
"I see. Alright then, you are to return to your duties as normal, but if you feel the need, don't hesitate to come back here. You are a valuable citizen of this village, and it would be most preferable, to have you in good health." He said, after a few minutes of silence.
"I appreciate the concern Hokage-sama, but I'm fine. I'll be going now." She said, and half bowed before transforming into a parrot, and taking off through the window.
'Ishiko, how far to the other side will you wander?' Hiruzen wondered, but cleared his mind, and returned to his own duties.
Ishiko arrived home to find Sasuke asleep on the sectional in the living room. Watching him sleep she couldn't bring herself to wake him up. He looked peaceful. Unfortunately when he slept was the only times Sasuke really seemed like the brother she feared was gone forever. Recalling that Itachi had hurt Sasuke, she snapped out of her daze, and started examining Sasuke while trying not to wake him. No such luck. Sasuke might've been in a deeper sleep than usual, but he had trained himself to keep some part of himself alert at all times after the massacre, and this was no exception.
"What do you want?" He muttered, before yawning.
"To make sure you're okay for starters." She replied.
"I'm fine. Shouldn't you be worrying about yourself?" He countered.
"Hn, today wasn't the first time Itachi ever roughed me up, I'll live. I'm an adult, you on the other hand are still a child, albeit one closer to late childhood than middle childhood." She remarked, and he sighed.
"Lay right side up and stay still, I just want to make sure you're good to go, if you are we'll go find Sakura and Naruto and I'll test you guys, if not you're staying off your feet till I deem you well." She added.
"Fine, you win this one." He said, surrendering and laying as she'd requested.
As she examined him, Sasuke watched. She was a complete mystery to him. She kept so much to herself, that he didn't really know her at all. He remembered that before the massacre, she never spent much time with him, though she never showed signs of forced loving when she did. He was pretty attached to Itachi, but that didn't mean he had no interest in forming a bond with her too. He wondered why she'd avoided that. Ishiko leaned back suddenly, and smiled at him.
"All systems are go." She informed cheerfully.
"Before the massacre, why were you so distant with me?" He asked, after a moment of silence.
"Eh?" She asked, tilting her head in confusion.
"I know I was attached to him, but why did you always go away or just watch us, instead of trying to partake in times of bonding?" He tried to make it clearer, what he was inquiring about.
"Oh." She finally got it, but from her voice he could tell she didn't know how to answer. "Hm, this is a toughie." She sighed pensively.
"I suppose there's more than one reason. Itachi was a busy guy, so any bonding you two got to do I felt was better left alone. There was also a point when, I was jealous of you, Sasuke." She stopped then, thinking back, and he gave her a shocked look that looked rather funny to her.
"Why would you need to feel that way? He was practically completely yours." After getting over his shock, Sasuke was just plain confused.
"I hated that Itachi's love for you was pure and proper, unlike his love for me. That worked itself out eventually, but I still wasn't able to get in the middle of your bonding time. It felt wrong whenever I wanted to try, so I just watched or went to find a different way to spend my time." She explained.
"That explains one half of my question. Why were you distant with me, generally speaking?" He sat up, and looked at her expectantly.
"Many times I was just too tired to bother to bond, other times you were the one who was tired. The few times we did spend bonding just the two of us, I'm sure you remember how much I smiled. Those are some of my fondest memories Sasuke. It wasn't an issue of being distant or close, it was simply circumstance. I still loved you, just as much, as the next person." She responded easily enough, and reached up to ruffle his hair. He scowled at the gesture, and she laughed.
"You're still adorable when you scowl at that." She informed him.
"Take that back, I am not adorable!" He exclaimed.
"You can be sometimes little man, you can." She retorted, and yelped when one of the throw pillows was whacked against her head.
He smirked at her as he held the pillow over his head ready to bring it back down for another whack.
"You have five seconds." He informed.
She snatched a throw pillow of her own and smirked back.
"You are so going down!" She promised.
A knock at the door stopped them mid battle. Sasuke took this as a chance to end it in his favor. "Surrender, I've got you caught." He said, as he tied her hands together behind her back. She turned into a log. He growled loudly, and looked around. "You just got logged little brother." She said reaching for the knob of the front door.
"This isn't over Aneue, not just yet." He said bringing a kunai to her neck, as he appeared behind her, his other self disappearing.
"Pretty good Sasuke, but you're still not good enough." She said, and disappeared. The door opened and her true self poked its head in giving him a triumphant smirk.
"Hn." Was all he could say, and he held in the sigh he wanted to release when he noticed who else was at the door.
"What are you two doing here?" He inquired of Naruto and Sakura.
"You two were taking forever, so we decided to come looking for you." Naruto replied. Sakura punched his head and whined about how he shouldn't pit her together with himself.
"But coming here was your idea Sakura-chan." He remarked pitifully. That only made Sakura abuse him more.
"Tsunade would be impressed by this girl." Ishiko muttered, impressed by Sakura's strength herself.
"And Minato would definitely be impressed by Naruto's endurance." She added, smiling a little.
"If you three pass my test I think you'll make great ninja one day. You have the potential, that's undeniable, but can you handle the job, that is the question we'll learn the answer to today." She drew their attention, finally addressing them.
"What exactly is this test? Tell us already!" Naruto was getting antsy.
"I agree with him for once." Sakura said.
"The dobe said something smart, that's interesting." Sasuke added.
"What did you say? Teme!" Naruto bit back.
"Okay, that's quite enough of that. You're Genin now aren't you? Let's get to the training grounds." Ishiko stopped them before the argument could get out of hand.
Once they got to the training grounds Ishiko smiled and waved goodbye to them. "First part of the test is, locate your missing teammate, in this case, me. In this place are lots of things, but most impressive is one view in particular. You have one hour." She said, then disappeared.
A/N: Stopping there because I've got somewhere to go and I think this is long enough. I will be writing more soon enough though. I hope you all enjoy. Thank you so much for the feedback I really appreciate it!
