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Chapter 10 : Shadows from the past

Sasuke exhaled the smoke slowly, enjoying the heat and crackle that he could feel even after he had exhaled the smoke out from his mouth. The tendrils danced in the air before him and then were blown away by the slow wind. He leaned back against the bridge rail again, inhaling at the pipe again he felt the fire erupting in his mouth, repeatedly blowing out the smoke that was created in his mouth when the fire was taken out by the air he inhaled.

Fire weed was something of a new discovery among the towers. They were for fire users who wanted something more than the usual smoke of cigarette. The weed itself was rare and the pipes were usually handed down the generations in clans. Sasuke remembered his father smoking in the patio, usually after afternoon tea.

The pipe belly contains water and when the weed is put there as well it reacts to send a blue smoke that goes through the pipe and is inhaled. The blue smoke ignites in the mouth of the inhaler which then would turn into regular smoke after the fire dies out. Fire users usually guard their stock of the weed jealously.

Sasuke ignored the insisting gaze of the green eyes some feet away from at the bridge. If the woman wanted to talk then she should talk, he didn't need to keep playing to her needs. He felt kakashi's presence some meters away from the bridge, with another presence he could recognize as the teacher who taught at the academy. 'Iruka-sensei,' he recalled the name, 'Naruto used to love hanging out with that teacher. '

He watched the smoke dance away again, making patterns in the early morning air. They were to start their D-rank missions today. The hokage had been lenient and only assigned a week of D-rank before they were to take regular missions. The three days holiday was done and the team hadn't met up during those days. Sasuke was glad to have some days without seeing pink hair at the edge of his vision.

Kakashi came to join them with iruka, and then in turn waited for Naruto come to the bridge. Iruka made small talk with sakura, relating memories of days in the academy when they had been young. Naruto arrived only five minutes later. Iruka had been genuinely glad to see Naruto again, and Naruto seemed to return the gesture if his laugh was anything to go by. They promised to have lunch together, just like before and iruka went off to the academy. Naruto turned to Kakashi with a sharp glare the moment the chuunin level elemental user had been gone.

"You take care of him. If he ever gets any pain because of you I will castrate you." Kakashi's only response was to wave the statement away. Sasuke knew he should be surprised but wasn't. Kakashi deserved to be with someone finally, and sakura had finally caught up to what had transpired.

"What? When? And why iruka- sensei?" her eyes were wide and she didn't seem to be able to make coherent thought after the news.

"Maa maa. Don't concern yourself with that. We have to go meet Itsuki-san and help her with her garden." Sakura's groan was the only response.

Naruto almost flinched when they passed the playing children, hearing the words again made his vision cloud with the memories. He walked with a sort of dual vision for a while, his eyes showing him the present and also the ghost of the pasts. He had ran along a stone path just like the one he was walking on now, back then when he had played in Uzu.

"Kagome kagome!", the words were full of happiness and punctuated with shrieks of childish glee and even louder he could hear the voices from his memories.

'Naruto Naruto! You're caught!' 'I am not!' 'Hahahaha!'

They reached the small house in silence. The usual nonsense talk he filled it with was gone. The patron woman came to meet them at the front when Kakashi rang the doorbell, smiling and greeting them before leading around the house to the back.

"The weeds are over growing. I tried everything I could but I don't have time right now with my job to take care of it. There's a party tomorrow so please be careful with the flowers."

Kakashi smiled through his and assured the woman. She left after a while and the team got down to weeding the garden. Naruto got down to weed away from the other two, the garden been divided into three without words. Naruto set about pulling the rough plants without thinking, his mind travelling back to the last time he had to utter the words for that game.

/flashback/

"Come play with me now Naruto. You don't have anyone to play with today right?"

"But tou-chan told me not to talk to strangers." The laugh he heard from the figure was deep and booming. It reminded him of the laugh Jiraiya gave off. "But you know me Naru-chan, remember?" with that the figure walked into the clearing and away from the shadows of the trees.

"Ah madara oji-san! What are you doing here? When did you get back?" he hugged the tall man he had come to know as a relative of sasuke's. his parents didn't seem to like the man but Naruto liked him enough, madara knew a lot of things and taught him things when he asked. He was the only one who treated Naruto like an adult so Naruto liked him the most from the Uchihas.

"I came back yesterday. I brought you a present." The man laughed out loud again when the young face took on an expression of glee and shouted his thanks. He brought a wrapped box in front of him, giving it to eager hands and watching with keen eyes as the child began to rip at the covering.

"A fox! How did you know I liked foxes madara oji-san?", Naruto yelled as he clutched the soft toy to his chest. The fox toy was bright orange and had, "It has nine tails! I love Kyuubi's legend! Wait," blue eyes narrowed childishly as Naruto peered into the smiling dark haired Uchiha, "Are you a mind reader?" the child whispered.

Madara had decided to play along, he leaned close in reply to the young face and whispered conspiratorially, "No I'm not Naruto." Red eyes watched as the young face crumpled in disappointment before changing expressions quickly into confidence.

"I knew you couldn't read my mind!" the child yelled before turning around to hear his name called. Minato walked forward to meet Naruto, nodding his acknowledgment to the other man. The older blonde smiled and answered the child as he explained his present and how he love Kyuubi and how madara oji-san knew he liked it too. Narrow blue eyes quickly snapped to red ones before focusing on the child again.

Naruto ran into the house after kushina called for him at the house, he turned back only once and saw minato pointing his finger at madara and yelling. Naruto knew father only got red when he was mad and wondered what oji-san had done to make father angry. Since all the time minato had been yelling at him, madara only smiled.

They hadn't talked about madara all that day after he had left. The soft toy was secured in Naruto's room along with the others he had received. Dinner had been the same as usual and Naruto got his favorite ramen for dinner. Naruto had been in his room for full ten minutes to go to sleep before madara showed himself.

"What are you doing here madara oji-san? Did Sasuke make you mad too?" he asked. "The bed is not big for both us you know." Naruto waited for an answer from the still unmoving figure.

"Why don't we play a game Naruto?"

"Now? But its bedtime and I'm sleepy." He rubbed his knuckles against his face. it was late and he was sleepy after playing all afternoon with Kyuubi.

"It'll only take a while. Let's play your favorite game. You like tag don't you?" Naruto nodded eagerly.

"I like playing tag!" madara's smile wasn't any different to child, but the eyes were. "Well I'll start then. You're going to be it naru-chan. No complaints!" he interrupted when the child opened his mouth. "So I'm going to close the door then."

Naruto obediently closed his eyes and heard the older man move out of the room; the door closing and clicking eerily. Naruto woke up next time to the smell of smoke and a burning in his lungs. The door was locked and the house was silent except for the roar of the fire. Naruto never saw his parents or madara again.

\end flashback\

"Naruto! Be careful with that! You're almost pulling the lady's flowers!" sakura's voice jarred him out of memories. Looking down he saw that he had gotten hold of a flowering plant, almost pulling it out of the earth. He let go of the plant carefully, reaching to the soft petals and running his fingers through them.

"Well looks like Naruto is almost done. You're the one lagging behind sakura. Better pick up the pace." Kakashi opined from the shade of the house.

"Hmph."

Kakashi felt a smile coming up when he saw his three students; Naruto and Sasuke silently pulling the weeds with sakura muttering mutinously from under her breath. It felt good to have them all back. He looked at the blonde standing up and stretching. 'Finally back together at last."

Anko handled the dango box cautiously, glaring at anyone who got too close. She was almost at the counter of the shop when she felt a long forgotten presence at the door. She smiled at the boy, 'No a man now.' She eyed the clothes and the face, 'A fine man.'

"Been a while now hasn't it anko-nee?"anko laughed, she couldn't help it. "Sure has been brat. So what bring you here then."

Blue eyes locked onto purple ones, and anko for all her interrogation skills couldn't read the emotion in them. 'No that's not right. There is no emotion. What the hell have you been doing brat?"

"I need help with a seal. You heard of it before. I need a steady hand for the counter seal."

Anko sighed before dropping her precious cargo at the counter, nodding at the man behind the till. "So what's the seal then." She knew it wouldn't be anything good, especially for the brat to come to her.

"The red rose one."

And anko cursed out aloud.

A/N - Thank you for reading! Reviews are like cookies! they're addicting! ;D