"Remind me again, why do we need to do this?" Akira asks as he practically drags his wooden puppet around. His papa has given him his old puppet, complete with sealed weaponry and poisonous blades, but this puppet is so heavy beyond imagination. He grumbles and that really annoys his siblings, who also carries burden of their own. Tooya sighs and put his luggage on the ground rather harshly.
"We need to strengthen our teamwork. If this keeps up, we will disappoint father." He replies.
"Right!" Hikaru puts his structured bags next to Tooya's and pulls three bird-shaped clays from his bag. "So, what do we do now?"
"First, let's calculate your best time in reaching the other side of this mountain, with three bird-clays at once." Tooya commands. He sets his time nicely and put his luggage on his back. Akira also does the same, shouldering the heavy puppet and both of them mount different bird-clay as soon as Hikaru drops three birds on the ground and whispered 'Kai', making the birds instantly large enough to carry a person. They mold enough charka at their feet to make them stay on the bird when they fly.
"Here we go." Hikaru shouts as the three bird-clays fly higher forward. He tries his best to maintain the direction and speed, with occasional shout of 'left', 'right', 'look out', 'higher' and else from his brothers. By the time they reach the other side, both of his siblings are holding their white birds for dear life.
"You're not…careful enough." They say to his through their shaky breath. Hikaru pouts and reaches inside his bag again, this time taking a suspicious-looking lion-like figure with wings. He grins evilly then. "If you don't like the bird, the griffin might be better. It's just that I haven't tried this one yet."
"The bird it is." Akira replies, still eyeing the figure. Well, it seems like its wings are clipped.
*
One month later…
Sasuke feels proud of himself. Taking Sora to school for the first time surely reminds him of his own childhood, especially at the very same moment when he came into the Academy. At that time, his father almost didn't attend the opening ceremony. If it wasn't because of Itachi's help, then his first day of school wouldn't as pleasurable as it was back then. It wasn't exactly pleasurable, but bearable, Sasuke has to remind himself. Sora is just too busy checking his backpack over and over again, while Arashi tightly holds Sasuke's hand. It seems that she's afraid of other people, moreover with so many people fully packet in the stadium, where they are at this moment. Some duel has finished already, and Sora's turn becomes closer and closer. The duel looks friendly though, even if the use of weaponry and jutsu are allowed, most of the seniors only fool the juniors with bunshin and scare them enough with simple mist. So far, no one gets hurt.
"Next participant: Uchiha Sora."
Sora grins and immediately jumps down from the second balcony. He really enjoys the surprised gasp of the audience, who think the boy might break a leg. He smiles even wider, but his smiles instantly disappear the moment he recognize his opponent. The same thug who tried to bully him days ago.
"So, you're an Uchiha. No wonder you're so jumpy about your family."
Sora's eyes blaze with fury. He narrows his eyes at the enemy (now he really considers the older boy in front of him as an enemy) and fingers his scroll inside his pouch carefully. The other boy doesn't give out such a calming aura, and so Sora thinks revenge should be on his mind. It doesn't matter, though, he can always win, with or without the scroll. He really hopes that boy doesn't get on his nerve enough for him to use the scroll, Arashi has reminded him to be 'low-profile and not using the sharingan' beforehand. A loud shout of 'Begin' can be heard from Shiranui Genma and he prepares himself for the upcoming attack. Seeing shurikens flying fast to his direction, he decides to move away. Adding the right amount of charka to his feet, Sora jumps high and lands smoothly on the ground, he can perfectly hear the shurikens struck the tree behind him.
"You still need to learn throwing shurikens!" Sora calls back. He purposely taunt the other boy as he growls and Sora finds more shurikens flying faster on his way. He runs again, careful enough by not letting any shurikens graze him. The other boy is getting more annoyed. He stops his throwing and makes a single seal to summon mist. The entire stadium is instantly covered with mist, a stage where previous participant, no matter how good they are, has been forced to admit defeat.
"Now you can't avoid those shurikens!" he calls from somewhere in the mist. Sora scowls darkly, the mist has preventing him from getting a good sight of the older boy, and obviously he's nowhere near his father's level, who can battle nicely even in the most clouded mist. He can hear a single shuriken flying near him and he moves quickly to another path. More and more of them come, and Sora can only avoid them by moving a bit further than he was. Suddenly he trips over a red string around his ankle. With careful observation, he realizes that the ground around him is almost full with red strings, which are embedded from one shuriken to another. To his horror, those strings are too close to his feet.
"You can't go anywhere!" the boy shouts. When he receives no reply from Sora, he cries out again. "You can't run like chicken, Uchiha! Give up!"
Sasuke's eyes blaze with fury. No one can call an Uchiha a chicken and get away with it. He wonders whether this boy has a grudge against Sora earlier. Arashi leans closer to him and getting his attention by tugging at his shirt.
"He bullied Sora days ago. And Sora beat him to pulp." She explains. For an instant, Sasuke is amazed. She can answer his question nicely, even tough that said question is only spoken inside his head.
"I see. But Sora will win, right?" Sasuke asks with a smile.
"He will against an idiot like that." Arashi answers. Somewhere in the mist she can see her brother's charka fills up the air. Sora fumes, he pulls out a scroll from his pouch and opens it. As he says 'Kai', two large-sized shurikens appear in mid-air and both of them begin to blaze. He attaches the special wire that Sasuke has given earlier to the shurikens and starts to hover them quickly. Gradually, the mist is lifted and in the stadium now he can clearly see where the older boy is standing. With careful measure, Sora throws the shurikens to his direction. Wide-eyed, the boy doesn't move quick enough to avoid them, but luckily Genma moves faster, deflecting those dangerous shurikens onto the ground.
"Never insult my family!" Sora warns the other boy. The boy shakes with fear, Genma eyeing Sora cautiously, and Arashi begins to panic when she feels Sora's charka still dancing around him. She knows the sign – sharingan, and so without any thoughts, she lets go off Sasuke's hand with a burst of charka and runs towards her brother from the staircase in great speed.
"Sora, stop!" she practically shrieked while running down the stairs with a rush. Everyone turn their heads when they see her; Arashi is running with all her might, her breath feels burning in her lungs and her feet aching. Sasuke looks at her closely with his sharingan and he can tell that her charka circulation is quite uncontrollable. Chakra leaks out of her in wild manner, hurting and pressuring in several places. Sora also looks at her and the moment he locks his eyes with his, Sora's charka goes back to normal and he immediately appears next to her.
"Arashi, arashi…" he calls desperately, kissing her face over and over again.
"Sora, the promise…" she says before she falls unconscious. Sasuke, and many other shinobi from his genin time, rush down the balcony almost at the same time. And so, the match ends horribly with chaos and whispers.
*
Hinata carefully checks the girl in front of him, her byakugan has been activated from quite a while ago and she is almost positive with its accuracy. Yet, what she sees right before her eyes makes her confused. This girl, Arashi, has two different charka sources and both of them intermingled messily inside her body.
"How is she, Hinata?" Sasuke asks with his deep, worry-coated voice. Hinata pushes down a lump in her throat before she answers.
"She'll… be awake in a moment."
Which is not entirely a lie, Arashi is going to be awaken soon, but Hinata doesn't feel the urge to tell Sasuke about that messy charka circulation. She hopes Sasuke hasn't been suspicious about anything.
"What about her charka circulation? Does your byakugan see something?" he asks.
Hinata draws an exasperated sigh, there goes her hopes.
"It's a bit…complicated, Sasuke. Per-perhaps you should ask Tsunade sama about it?"
"Tsunade? Can't you fix it?" Sasuke is almost shouting in his surprise.
"I can't."
*
"She's a hanyou." Tsunade explains with a heavy sigh. Sasuke's dark eyes widen considerably.
"A what?"
"Hanyou. Half-demon."
"So, that means…the daughter of a demon?" he asks again.
"Not necessarily. It's just absurd to mate with a demon; however, mating with a Jinchuriki is not."
Sasuke thinks about the possibility. If he manages to get Naruto pregnant, so can other people with other Jinchuriki. Come to think of it, there are nine Jinchuriki in all. Then the reality hits him like a ton of bricks: his son or daughter is going to be like that as well, since Naruto is a Jinchuriki!
"I know what you're thinking." Tsunade says, and Sasuke retorts her with a glance that says 'Oh, yeah?' "Not all Jinchuriki can get pregnant easily, the demon itself has to accept his alpha male. And by that, I can conclude that her father is a very powerful nin, to make a demon bend to his wish like that."
Sasuke grins proudly inside. Isn't he at the same boat then?
"You must feel very proud, Uchiha." Tsunade grins back. "From what I can see, her father is also someone with bloodline ability. Just be careful."
"You're telling me to be careful?" Sasuke asks skeptically. Tsunade looks at the Uchiha genius carefully. Sometimes, it's really such a pain talking with the Uchiha, he's too smug for his own good. She comes closer to him quickly, and gives him a good smack on his head. Sasuke remains in his spot, knowing the Hokage won't hurt Naruto's husband in any way. And so the smack lands rather painfully on his head.
"This can happen anytime. Her twin has good charka control, but she doesn't. Perhaps she can't control her charka at all."
"I see."
Sasuke leans closer to Arashi, and scoops her with ease in his arms. He bows deeply to the Hokage, expressing his gratitude, before he goes to the exit.
"Are you taking her home?"
"Yes, when she's awake, I guess she'll be asking for Sora."
Tsunade nods in understanding. When Sasuke opens the door, she realizes that a boy has been waiting outside. Worry is written clearly all over his face, and his big blue eyes immediately shine with delight as soon as he sees Sasuke.
"So, this is her twin?"
Sora looks at the young Hokage and smiles a bit too forcefully. "I'm Uchiha Sora, Hokage sama."
Tsunade smiles back. Seeing him up close like this, she can see clearly how this boy, and his twin as well, resembles Sasuke and Naruto so much. His eyes are big and they have the color of clear-blue sky. His hair is spiky, just like Naruto's but the girl's hair is cascading down beautifully. And both of them have Sasuke's hair color, although Sasuke's is colored with flashes of dark blue here and there, while theirs is more likely adorned with the color of darkest brown.
"Sasuke san, let me carry her."
Sasuke hands Arashi to him carefully, and Sora accept her with ease as well, having delivered fair amount of charka into his arms. He bows to the Hokage, before running quickly to the Uchiha compound. Tsunade asks Sasuke then.
"Do you know who they really are?"
"I don't. And I don't need to." He answers assuredly, even as curiosity creeps in his mind.
*
Kabuto looks at the carefully arranged lightning scrolls in front of him. It's almost time, he reminds himself, and so he must stay strong to the end. Calling for the guardians after they haven't been called for hundreds of years can be quite pesky sometimes, but Kabuto has prepared for he worst. It's all or nothing. He opens another scroll on his laps, the one which is filled with nothing but seals. Nearly a hundred seals, he doesn't bother to count them all, carefully arranged in numbers – a very complicated series of seals which have to be performed carefully, there's no room for mistakes. And so he starts with the first one… to the end.
As soon as he has made the final sign, he put his palm on the ground, as ones might do when they perform kuchiyose no jutsu. It is then, chaos happens. Mist flying everywhere from the place where his hand and the ground is connected. Seconds after, flashes of lighting begin to descend from the ground, striking here and there ferociously. Just like Limelight, a famous jutsu from Lightning country. One of the lightnings strikes him directly, sending him shivering on the ground.
'Weak.'
Kabuto looks around, he perfectly hears that voice, yet there's no one that he can see.
'You're too weak. Why do you call me?'
Now he knows, the voice is being spoken directly inside his head, like telepathy. That voice, he should answer it.
"I need power. For revenge!"
'Revenge has always been the case. Can't you human be a bit more entertaining?'
"Please, you have to help me. My enemy has the Fire." He calls desperately. Then he can see clearly as the mist disappears all at once. A bulky man, not exactly a man, for it is made of lightning, appears in bright yellowish form levitating above the ground. Kabuto, still frozen in his spot, looks at it with awe.
'Fire. Yes, I know he's around. It's been a while.' It murmurs almost quietly as it slowly descend down to his eye level. Its face comes closer and even though Kabuto cannot perfectly see its facial expression, he knows that the creature is calculating him. It's deciding by itself whether it will help him or not. He waits.
'Seems interesting. I'll help on one condition.'
"Anything."
'Your soul.'
"Fine." Kabuto answers immediately without any hesitation in his voice. Then seconds later, he feels weird as its mouth descents on his. He feels electrocuted, not enough to hurt, but sufficient to make him shiver. He wonders if it wants his soul, then why should it do something which reserved for Orochimaru only. Kabuto starts to think whether he must pay more than what he intends to when he feels great charka pressure pushes him onto the ground painfully.
*
"Can you tell me who you really are?" Sasuke asks to both children. Arashi has woken up a moment ago, and at this time they all gather in her room, with Sasuke wants an explanation. Sora remains quiet. He knows he's not smart enough, therefore any mistake in replying may lead to the exposure of their secret.
"We are truly Sora and Arashi, that's our real name." Arashi begins her story. "Our father is a shinobi, he teach us many things."
"Your mother?"
"We never know her. Another mother raises us, but he's not our biological mother."
The word 'he' startles Sasuke, but he doesn't push the matter any further. Some things are better left unknown. That explains how the twin manages to accept his relationship with Naruto easily, though.
"Where do you live?"
"In a wood near Lightning Country. We live in a small house."
Silence hangs in the air for a while then. Sasuke tries to handle the situation correctly, Arashi tries to gauge his reaction and Sora simply wishes for nothing more than breaks out of the door. It is, in a way, a tense situation. One false move and the next second Sasuke can send them out the door and bolt it so that they can't come back in. Sasuke looks at them wearily: Arashi is too calm and collected, while Sora is merely avoiding him.
"Do you have other siblings?" he asks again.
"We do. Three of them."
"Where are they?"
"We don't know. I believe the time will come when all of us will together again, but our father said that we must learn through the good way here." Arashi explains, praying in her heart for no more questions will be asked.
"Okay," Sasuke says dismissively, but then he halts halfway and faces Arashi seriously again. "What's your father's name?"
Sora's eyes widens as he hears that question, and he rises up from his seat. Arashi looks at him and then she answers: "Sasuke san, you should've known that our father is a missing nin. By revealing his identity, then we are nothing more than trash. We can't say his name."
Sasuke sighs then. While Sora blatantly displaying nervousness upon the questions, Arashi keeps her calm easily as if she has thought about it many times before. He figures that Sora will be more willing to share bits of information, if he plays his cards right.
"Alright, I will ask no more. Both of you can start cleaning up and cooking for dinner. There is some food in the fridge." Sasuke collects his stack of papers then. "I'll be out, back in the morning."
*
The Fire perches himself on a high tree, silently examining his surrounding as he senses something disturbing - one of his own kinds had been woken up from its deep sleep. The occasionally rumbling of thunder sounds very annoying, and he knows better than to interpret it as ordinary nature sign. There shouldn't have been any thunder in this season, and certainly no living creature on this earth hosts enough chakra to make it. He nervously rubs his hand together. Certainly an element cannot feel nervous, but he has experienced so many feelings beyond that. Uchiha Itachi is somehow a kind master, and he's glad to serve him. The Fire has seen the Uchiha's personal reason even further than what he's willing to admit, and he finds that reason fascinating.
He stares at the cloudy sky and expands a pair of fiery wings on his back. His master is going to start the ritual soon. He doesn't like the idea of sharing his master with anyone else, moreover with the Water. Even since the beginning of civilization, they'd never been good friends. Will this century make any difference? Somehow he doubts that. Not to mention that attempt can be dangerous for his master, controlling the Water without an affinity to water element is a suicide mission. Nevertheless, Itachi insists and who he is to disobey his command? He just needs to protect him, that's all.
He flies down to an open clearing in the forest, brushes the edge of his wings to Kisame, who yelps in surprise and curse loudly. He smiles, the Uchiha group is so intriguing that he never grows tired of it. He waited for his master patiently, for the final step of acquiring the Water is just around the corner.
