A/N: I'm back with another chapter.

Chapter 11: Konoha Fire Festival

Itsuka hadn't gone to a festival since her days living in Sunakagure and honestly she was nervous. She hadn't experienced much of the social aspect of Konoha since arriving. Itsuka was grateful for Team 7 and their help. Sakura had taken her out during the day to find a nice yukata to wear. Ino had decided to tag along but they managed to find something suitable for Itsuka. She was now wearing a blue yukata with gold scale-like print all over it. It was very easy to see why Itsuka was drawn to that particular yukata. Sakura accompanied her wearing her pink yukata and had accessories both her and Itsuka in the colours they wore and adjusted their hair into a ponytail. Sakura had agreed to take Itsuka to the entrance of the festival where the rest of Team 7 was waiting. It was there that the two girls spotted Naruto and Sasuke dressed up by the gates of the shrine where the festival was being held. Of course they had to be fighting.

The scene before them caused Sakura to go into her usual rage and hit the two. "You idiots!" She shouted and slammed their heads together. "Can't you stop fighting for two seconds?"

"He started it!" Naruto whined.

The three stopped when they heard a laughter from behind them and found it was Itsuka laughing. and stare at her in disbelief. Eventually Naruto and Sakura began to smile at Itsuka's cheerful expression. "I'm glad we could make you laugh." Sakura smiled. It had been a long time for herself to be this way. It was the first time she had ever shown emotion to them in a while.
When she stopped, Itsuka finally noticed Naruto was approaching her and staring in awe.

"Wow Itsuka, you look beautiful." He complimented. "Right Sasuke?"

When Itsuka faced him, he diverted his eyes to the ground and nodded. "Thank you." She smiled at the two as she saw Sasuke look at her again and nod his head.

"Well then, let's get going." Team 7 proceeded into the matsuri ready to explore. Itsuka let her eyes wonder around the matsuri at the various decorations and events around. They encountered some of the other ninjas both jounin and chunin who were also there enjoying the matsuri "What do you think of the matsuri?" Sakura asked.

Itsuka peered at the people around dressed in their summer matsuri attire. Everyone was so colourful, both in their appearance and expression and it felt like Itsuka had stepped into a new world. "It's nice. Really nice."
"You should try doing origami with me. Come on!" Sakura said pulling her to one of the tutorial booths.
The four joined in with Team 10 - who they had encountered there - in a lesson on how to make customised origami of their own. They each took their own ideas and started creating their own origami. Chouji and Naruto were busy hastily trying to create their origami before the other. Ino and Sakura were doing the same in an effort to present it to Sasuke which left Shikamaru, Itsuka and Sasuke. "I'm creating a plane." Shikamaru told Itsuka. "What are you guys making?"
"I want to make a crane but..." Itsuka's voice trailed off as she looked up from her work.
Sasuke noticed that she seemed to be looking around for help and assumed. "You're doing it wrong." He said. But then he realised Itsuka was just simply looking at the sensei next to him who was helping another student.

"It's ok." She reassured him. "I've got it." Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her work then went back to focus on what he was making.

"Wow, that's great Itsuka!" Sakura complimented suddenly and the action made the others look at her finished art.

"Thank you."

"For your first try, that's amazing!" Even the sensei teaching them was impressed at her origami. It surprised Itsuka to see so many people around her for a good reason rather than people staring or backing away to be afraid of her.

"Really?"She gazed upon the crane origami that everyone was focusing upon. It was just a simple red and blue crane with white "I" on the right side.

"Only a friend of ours can do something awesome like this to us!"

Itsuka looked at Naruto in surprise. "Friend?"

"Of course Itsuka!" Seeing her new found friends in the village call her that, it made her smile. She had never been called that before and it surprised her to hear such a thing from Naruto. She looked at the rest of Team 7 and Team 10 who were nodding in agreement except for Sasuke who had shifted away from the crowd.

The feeling stayed with her even after the group walked past a few stalls enjoying their time. After exploring more and enjoying festivities, one particular game had intrigued Itsuka that was going on. It seemed to be a game involving goldfish and the customers around this were ecstatic to play trying to catch them.

"What is this game?" She asked Naruto.

Naruto followed her eyes and noticed the game she was interested in. "Kingyo Sukui - you catch as much goldfish as you can and as a prize, you keep the fish." He explained. "I'm really good at this game."

"No you're not." Sakura said. "You couldn't even beat Sasuke or Neji the last time we went to the last festival."

"That's not true! I definitely beat this fool no matter what!" Naruto pointed at Sasuke and glared at the Uchiha boy.

"A this time it'll be a battle with me!" Lee appeared in between Naruto and Sasuke and surprising the Uzumaki boy made him fall to the ground at the presence of himself."Let's have a rematch!"

"Lee, for once can't you just stop running off?" TenTen said. Neji was right next to "Oh hi guys."

"Lee, this isn't a fight between me and you. I'm going to get my revenge..." He turned his attention to Sasuke once again. "...on Sasuke for embarrassing me last time."

"Why don't you four just see who can be the first one to get a goldfish instead?" Itsuka suggested looking at Sasuke and Neji to see if they would agree to this. In actuality, they could see that they had no choice. Because hot-headed and never saying no, they knew Lee and Naruto would drag them to play. So they reluctantly joined.

"Yes, let's do this!" Lee and Naruto chorused.

After all that, Neji and Sasuke were the ones victorious, catching two goldfish each while Naruto and Lee accomplished nothing. They gave the goldfish to children who were nearby watching as Naruto and Lee looked on in disappointment in not being able to catch just one fish. While the latter two sulked at their defeat, Sasuke walked over to Itsuka and Sakura. "We should get going, the fireworks will start soon."

"Just one more time!" Both Lee and Naruto said at the same time but Neji and Sasuke already dragged them away from each other. Itsuka waved at Team 9 as they left and followed her members while Naruto whined at his defeat.

"We're already late to get a nice spot, Naruto." Sakura said. "We need to get the best view like Sasuke said."

"Who cares what he says? I'm sure we'll get a good place."

By the time they had got there, Sasuke was right and Naruto was proved wrong once again. They weren't going to get a good view with all these people. Even in the trees, all the shinobi were occupying the branches to get a better look at the show. Itsuka wasn't too bothered but she sighed.

"Uh-oh..." Naruto said before he prepared for Sakura's rage to befall him. Itsuka winced as she watched the Uzumaki boy be hit on their head followed by nagging. They both retaliated back and forth and after a while, the other teams had to step in in order to prevent them from disrupting the public.

"Itsuka." She heard Sasuke call her. When she looked to her other side, Itsuka saw him walking away from the group and beckoning her to follow. She was reluctant to follow as she didn't want to leave Sakura and Naruto. But since they were preoccupied with their argument, she decided to slip away and follow Sasuke through the crowd.

"Where are we going?" She asked once they had slipped past the audience of people.

"Just follow me." Sasuke only told her before proceeding away from the crowd. They jumped on a few trees and climbed higher up to a particular hill. "We're here. "You can see the fireworks from here better."

"Wow, this is..." "Amazing." Emerging from the trees, Itsuka finally landed next to Sasuke. Itsuka had heard about this location; Bluebell Hill. It was the only place she had known of where the bluebell flowers grew that she had learnt about by Hiroshi. It was a simple hill but the view before her was breathtaking. Half of the village along with where the Fire Festival fireworks were being held were in full view. "Thank you Sasuke."

"Why?" He asked as he sat down just by the hill's edge. Itsuka followed suit. Instead she replied with a smile.

"Won't your girlfriend Sakura be upset?" She questioned. It was likely something she could imagine Sakura going crazy after. Her and Sasuke alone in a secluded area with a nice view.

"I don't have a girlfriend."

"Is that right?" Itsuka let out a light chuckle after her comment.

To Sasuke however that little chuckle was a bit odd. She had definitely changed from her cool and quiet character to being a bit more open than usual by actually showing emotion. And what stunned Sasuke the most lead him to be surprised by what Itsuka did next. Sasuke reacted to the sudden action of hers with a light shudder but then he relaxed. He could just about see from the corner of his view that Itsuka had closed her eyes and put her head on his shoulder. Fortunately, the fireworks before them had started and became a distracting sight for him. They watched them in silence, Sasuke being unable to move just continued to watch the fireworks without questioning why Itsuka did so.

"Thank you Sasuke." She said after a short time. "This is nice. I've never seen fireworks this close."

"You're welcome." He managed to say.

"Sasuke...you know we've met before." Itsuka spoke after a long silence.

"Hmmm?"

"In the hospital. A couple of days after my mentor and your clan was killed."

There was a moment before Sasuke replied to her. He remembered a while back recalling the first time he had met her. "I remember."

"You do?"

"I've always known you were the same person." He turned to look at her. "That's why I was asking you all those questions. For that, I'm sorry."

"You don't need to apologise." She said. "In our world, no one is always going to stay the same."

"Can I ask, why did you give me those flowers?"

"You were poisoned by people of the Sound, stupid. Or Maseru." Itsuka replied.

"No I mean...that single chrysthanemum."

"What about it?" Itsuka looked at him confused and moved her head from his shoulder. "That old lady Kaori told me it would be better to give to you that's all."

"Never mind." Sasuke paused. So it looked like Kaori was the one to set it up. "But you make it seem like you're responsible for Maseru's actions."

"He WAS targeting me that's why." Itsuka said. "Sasuke, you do ask too many questions. Your interrogation is too much. Do you really want to know more about me?"

Sasuke smirked at her and he noticed she was doing the same back too. It was as if they slightly understood what she said, They both found themselves breaking into a laugh which was unusual for the both of them to be honest. Sasuke suddenly stopped when he winced at the pain of his mark. Itsuka merely touched it for a while muttering a few words and soon after she managed to make Sasuke's pain subside again.

"Do not worry Sasuke." She suddenly said. "My presence disables the mark from growing or controlling you. It's something I learnt to do to stop Orochimaru from biting me."

"So he DID try to bite you after all!"

"Yes, tried to." Itsuka told him. "At least I can imagine he would. That sound ninja, Kabuto told me he couldn't because thankfully the Golden Dragon mark prevented him from doing so."

Sasuke nodded after understanding. He wondered how strong Itsuka really was especially with this Golden Dragon that he had hardly heard about. To be honest, even the Jinchuuriki wasn't something he knew much about but he could only imagine what it was like in battle.

"So you and Gaara...are you two...friends?" He asked cautiously changing the subject.

"He's a...friend, I guess." Itsuka contemplated on whether he was a friend or not. That was something she had never considered before until now.

"You guess?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"I used to be close with him until he and I were prevented from talking to each other because of his father figuring out who I am." Itsuka told him. "After that, I was close to Temari but again the Kazekage prevented me from speaking to her." "But now me and Gaara seem to be ok. I guess you can say he's an acquaintance."

Sasuke nodded. He had always wondered about the relationship of those two since coming back from Sunakagure. Hearing her explain, he could see that she didn't quite know herself and decided to leave it. Maybe next time he could hear what Gaara had to say. "I think it's time we left."

"We're going now?" She asked. "That's all you wanted to know?"

"For now." Sasuke said. He guided Itsuka back through the trees quietly and they ended up in the midst of the crowd preparing to leave

"Oi!" It seemed Naruto had spotted them before they could. "Where did you two go to?"

He pointed his finger at Sasuke and the Uchiha boy merely walked off ahead. "Hey! I'm talking to you too Sasuke, don't walk away!"

"Sorry guys." Itsuka said following after Sasuke. "I think it's time we started heading home."

"Huh?"

"What happened between those two...?" Sakura thought then walked along with Naruto who was still bugging Sasuke and Itsuka on where they had been. Sasuke decided to ignore anything that Naruto was trying to say about him or Itsuka. To be honest, even though it was a short time he enjoyed it. He had never felt so relaxed and comfortable and he hadn't felt that way since before getting bitten. He didn't think about his mark and his revenge on his brother Itachi. What was wrong with him?

Sasuke suddenly spotted Kaori by one of the stalls as they prepared to leave the matsuri. "You sneaky old lady." He quietly said at her.

Kaori merely smiled "She'll bring the light back into you Sasuke. Trust me."

Sasuke looked puzzled after he had heard that. He turned his head back to Itsuka who had also listened in the conversation and stared back at him with a similar expression. They both shrugged it off and continued to move their way out of the matsuri. Naruto and Sakura were both following behind still asking of their whereabouts.

A/N: Only five chapters left. The next one could be a while. But two chapters within a few weeks, that's amazing isn't it!