Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto. I DO own Kaisuke and Youshi Garukin.

Chapter Ten - Reunited

"WOW!" gasped Gaara as I threw a perfect round house kick into the practise dummy. I stood there, hands on my waist, feeling like a superhero as I proudly watched the dummy's head bounce then roll along the ground.

"Well done, champ!" called Suigetsu as he walked by the training field.

I raised my hand and waved over at him, smiling happily as he waved back to me.

As I followed his movements away from me, I caught sight of a slight commotion near the small house I shared with Sasuke. I turned to tell Gaara about it but it was obvious he had already spotted it.

"Stay here, short stuff." said Gaara as he began making his way toward the argument that had now broken out.

"You can't have him!" I heard one of the women shouting. "Kaisuke's one of us now!"

I froze in fear. It couldn't be… could it? No! It couldn't be Garukin! Sasuke had promised me!

Flashback

"Kaisuke, come here." Sasuke called me away from my jutsu training with Suigetsu.

He led me into the home he allowed me to share with him and motioned for me to sit down at the table. I did and soon Sasuke joined me.

"Kaisuke…" he started but seemed slightly unsure of what to say next, or perhaps how to say what was coming next. He looked down at the table top briefly, sighed slightly then looked back up and locked eyes with me.

"Garukin will never hurt you again. I promise."

With that said, Sasuke stood up and walked out, leaving me to take in this sudden statement.

End of Flashback

That was a week ago. The day after he had gone to Konoha and seen my mother. Could Garukin had spotted him? Followed him back here?

"Kaisuke?"

I spun around at the sound of Sasuke's voice behind me. I could already feel the tears stinging my eyes and the terror gripping my chest.

"Kaisuke? What's wrong? Your hair…"

"He's come for me!" I shrieked and ran full speed at Sasuke, clutching at his legs and trying to scramble up into his arms, desperate to hide from the monster coming to get me. Sasuke simply wrapped his arms around me and picked me up, cradling me tightly as I howled my eyes out into his shoulder.

"Don't let him get me!" I begged. "PLEASE!"

Sasuke hugged me a little tighter and rubbed my back as he whispered into my ear.

"I made you a promise, Kaisuke. I already made sure that he can never hurt you again."

I lifted my head from his shoulder and, through watery eyes and fear filled brain, realised just what he was telling me. "He's… dead?"

Sasuke smiled slightly then slowly nodded. I wriggled around in his arms until I was facing the direction of the argument, now turned screaming match.

"Then… who is…"

"Who do you think it is?" smiled Sasuke, setting me on my feet again and nudging me toward the row.

Suddenly, one of the women who was arguing, flew backwards and landed on her butt on the ground. A figure in a dark cloak stepped towards her and jabbed a hand in the woman's direction.

"Now tell me where my son is!"

I gasped. "MOMMY!"

The figure's head snapped up at the sound of my voice, the hood of the cloak falling back and long pink hair shining in the morning sunlight.

I nearly fell, twice, as I raced towards my mother. "MOMMY! MOMMY!" I was screaming in delight. My mother was rushing toward me too.

Every horrible, nasty, terrifying thing that had happened to me vanished from my mind the second I was back in my mother's arms. She picked me up and spun me around over and over again until we were both dizzy and fell to the ground.

"I knew you'd come!" I beamed. I could see my slight bangs were completely pink at the moment. I was overflowing with happiness. My mother had come!

***

We were left in peace for the rest of the morning. Sasuke orders. I gripped my mother's hand tightly as I dragged her around The Village of the Free and introduced her to everyone we saw.

It was obvious from her sudden change in expression that she knew some of them, namely Gaara, Temari, Kankuro, Karin, Suigetsu and Juugo from somewhere in the past but nothing was mentioned so I knew it couldn't have been that bad.

Gaara had told me before that his family did their Chunin exams in Konoha, I knew he wasn't telling me the whole story, judging from Sasuke's sudden frown and Gaara's smirk, but no-one seemed to mind so neither did I.

My mother thanked everyone I introduced her to for looking after me so well. They all gave similar replies.

"Not a problem." "He's a delightful boy." "Don't worry about it." or, my personal favourite, "That's what family do!"

Just as my mother and I were laughing with Gaara about a difficult move I'd made look easy, my stomach started to rumble and complain. My mother looked down at me and smiled. "Guess we should get you some…"

"Kaisuke!" came Sasuke's voice from across the street. "Lunch time!"

I smiled over at Sasuke and started dragging my mother home from something to eat.

During lunch, I kept chatting away to my mother about how great living in Free was. My mouth seemed to have a mind of it's own as words just kept tumbling out.

"It's so great being here. I get to train, play with the other kids, help make things. I never got to do that in Konoha. He never let me do anything. I always had to sit in my room, practise on my own, never got to go out when you weren't there. I hated having him as a father. I wish Sasuke was my Dad! He's a better Dad than he ever was!"

I couldn't help but notice the sudden strange feel to the atmosphere. My mother had a strange, far away look in her eye and a slight blush to her cheeks and Sasuke was suddenly fascinated by his plate.

Deciding that they had something they needed to talk about, I got to my feet and put my plate in the sink for washing. I had almost made it to the front door when my mother's voice stopped me.

"Kaisuke…"

Her words seemed to fail her when Sasuke reappeared from his bedroom. Wait… when had he gone in there? They shared a strange look before my mother nodded to him.

"You need to read these." stated my mother, her voice sounding slightly broken, almost unsure.

I didn't know what was going on but Sasuke was handing me… paper? I gasped as I saw his seal. No, not just any paper. They wanted me to read the letter!

To be continued…