Learning to stand again

3rd person

Sasuke limped as quickly as he could out of the village on his sprained ankle. He forced himself not to think about whether Himeko was alive and focused on getting help. His legs were bleeding badly, as due to his ankle injury, he tripped dozens of times as he escaped. He thought he heard someone approaching and limped as fast as he could towards the village gate.

Then the man he feared most appeared in front of him. He stuttered, "I..itachi..."

His brother stared mercilessly at him. Sasuke didn't care anymore and exclaimed, "Just kill me and get it over with!"

Itachi replied coldly, "You're not worth killing. You are too weak. You always wanted to surpass me. So this is your chance. Despise me, flee and live in fear with Himeko, foolish little brother!" Sasuke fell to his knees as his once kind brother left him in the deserted street of the Uchiha village.

3rd person

Asuma stood at the bedside of the resting girl on the hospital bed and stared sadly at her. He was ashamed that he wasn't fulfilling his duties as her father at all ever since her amnesia. He found it impossible to even talk to her normally. It felt like he was betraying her trust. He was so proud of her graduation, but only watched her from afar. He loved her deeply, but every moment he spent with her made him feel so guilty.

Now it was his fault that he wasn't there to protect her from this Uchiha Massacre. It was because of his personal insecurities that his daughter was exposed to this mass murderer, Uchiha Itachi. He stroked her cheek gently and his heart ached as he saw Himeko's arm in a cast.

He turned away from the girl and saw the sleeping boy next to her, Uchiha Sasuke. He knew that the boy's life would be so tough when he woke up, being the only surviving clan member apart from his brother. He couldn't imagine what the boy would have to go through when the kid's own brother killed his own family in cold blood.

The little girl stirred in her sleep and Asuma whispered, "Himeko-chan, if you can hear me, I want to know how proud I am of you. I know that you must have tried to protect your best friend as much as possible." Asuma planted a soft kiss on his daughter's forehead and prayed silently, "Ancestors of Konoha Village, I pray that you protect these two children from any more suffering."

HIMEKO's POV

I felt someone touch my hand and opened my eyes to see Sasuke staring at me with lifeless eyes. We didn't speak but looked into each others' eyes. He muttered, "I am glad that you're alive."

I nodded and added, "I am glad we are both alright." For the next week, we didn't speak much during our daily check-ups at the hospital and the visit to the Uchiha house to claim Sasuke's belongings. I held his hand in support during the funerals, but we couldn't utter a single word to each other.

Even when Sandaime went into the ward to check in on us to suggest that we continue our genin education at the academy. We both merely nodded. On the last night of our stay at the hospital till we go to the ninja academy, Sasuke finally spoke solemnly, "Himeko, I have decided."

I turned to look at him in my bed next to his. He continued, "I will be the strongest ninja and kill Itachi." I felt his determination and promised, "I will support you all the way." Sasuke and I gazed at each other for a long while, making a pact between us to avenge the Uchiha Clan.

The first day of school came and I went to the washroom to put a new plaster on my seal at the back. I looked at myself at the mirror and realised that my eyes had lost its previous warm glow, but now were a dull grey. My wounds had healed perfectly and my arms had stopped aching. I went back to the ward for the last time to pick up a backpack prepared by the nurses and started for the academy with Sasuke.

As we walked down the road to the school, the villagers all pointed at us and talked under their breaths about us. Sasuke said softly, "So this is how you felt before."

I assured, "They'll stop doing it after a while." As we entered the classroom, we received the same reaction from the students except Naruto.

Naruto ran towards me, hugging me tightly, crying, "Himeko-chan! I was so worried about you."

Sasuke grunted in distaste beside me, and I pushed Naruto away slowly, reassuring him, "Naruto-kun, I am fine." Sasuke took my hand and pulled me away from him towards the two seats at the back of the classroom.

Iruka-sensei entered the room and announced, "Fellow genins, today I will be announcing your grouping! You will all be in teams of 3 with a highly experienced teacher." When he stated the team 7 members, Naruto jumped out of his chair in glee.

He exclaimed, "YES! I am in the same team with you, Himeko-chan!" I smiled weakly at him and heard Sasuke's "tsk" beside me.

Sasuke growled, "At least I am with you. Why are we stuck with the idiot of the class?"

Naruto turned around to glare at Sasuke and shouted angrily, "Hey, I HEARD THAT!" I felt definite tension between the two boys and suggested worriedly, "Guys, should we just go meet our teacher now?"

I stayed defiantly between Naruto and Sasuke, hopefully stopping some of their endless bickering. As we reached the training ground, no one was there to be seen. I glanced down at my watch and remarked, "The teacher's late."

Then suddenly, a ninja with silver hair appeared beside me and greeted cheerfully, "Yo, I am team 7's leader, Kakashi-sensei!" I turned to stare at the teacher whose forehead protector covered one of his eyes.

He continued, "Should we start introducing ourselves? Tell me why you want to be a ninja." He gestured towards the eager Naruto, who replied quickly, "I am Uzumaki Naruto. I want to be a ninja because I want to be the next Hokage!" Sasuke scoffed, and earned a instant glare from the blonde ninja.

Sasuke began, "I am Uchiha Sasuke. I only have one purpose – kill a certain ninja for revenge." Everyone in the team stared at him silently.

Then I began, "I am Sarutobi Himeko. I want to be a ninja to support and protect people that I care about." I glanced at Sasuke beside me and turned to see Kakashi-sensei gazing at me sadly.

As he saw me looking at him, he turned away to continue, "Well, that's it for introduction! We'll start our exams now!"

Naruto's mouth fell open and stuttered, "E-exam? Again?"

Kakashi nodded and grinned, saying, "If you fail this exam, you won't be able to be a ninja. The exam is to take these two bells tied to my pocket." He rattled the two bells in front of us and warned, "There are only two bells. So act quickly! LET'S BEGIN!"

Naruto took a direct swing at him, which Kakashi dodged easily, while Sasuke and I leapt behind the trees to formulate a plan. Sasuke suggested, "We need to work together. I'll be the distraction, and you'll take the two bells."

I nodded and waited till Sasuke engaged Kakashi. I focused on my hearing and sneaked slowly, making no noise at all. Within seconds, Sasuke was pushed onto the ground by Kakashi. However, Sasuke used the Great Fireball Technique which surprised Kakashi so much that he didn't notice my hand removing the bells from his pockets.

Kakashi leapt to safety away from the fireball and said under his breath, "Impressive. He can already use this technique at such a young age."

I walked out of the trees in plain sight and Kakashi stared confusedly at me, stating, "Himeko-sama, I don't think you understand the game. You're supposed to attack me for the bells."

I lifted the two bells for him to see and he smiled, praising, "Well played!" I handed one of the bells to Sasuke while Naruto moaned, "That's not fair! They were working together!" Kakashi turned to Naruto and said maliciously, "Now to punish the loser!"

Naruto was tied to the wooden stake in the middle of the training ground. Kakashi gave Sasuke and me two bentos and said, "I'll be away for a while. Mark my words, these bentos are only for the victors. If I see you giving it to Naruto, you will automatically fail!" With that, he left.

Sasuke and I opened the bentos and began savouring the delicious food. Naruto bit his lip as he saw us munching away. As his stomach started growling pitifully, I turned my head to look at him and back at my bento.

Sasuke knew what I wanted to do and warned, "Himeko, no. He'll fail you."

"It's fine if we don't tell." I used my chopsticks to pick up a slice of pork and fed Naruto.

Naruto blushed and thanked, "Himeko-chan! You are so nice!" I smiled back at him and I saw Sasuke stuffing a riceball roughly into Naruto's mouth, choking Naruto slightly.

I giggled as Naruto scolded, "What the hell? Sasuke, I nearly choked to death!" Sasuke said coldly, "I thought you are hungry."

Someone behind us said ominously, "So you have decided to fail." Sasuke and I turned around to see Kakashi's disappointed stare.

He approached us slowly and suddenly gave Sasuke a pat on the back, shouting joyously, "Congratulations! You all passed! You are now officially genin of the team 7!" Kakashi caught sight of our surprised looks and explained, "The exam is to see if you can work together and you passed!"

Over the couple of months, we did mundane missions like retrieving lost cats, painting houses and random jobs around the village because Sandaime kept stressing that a Konoha Princess shouldn't be put in such danger. The worst thing was that Naruto kept messing things up during every mission, making it that much harder. However, the weird thing was Sasuke and I had gotten used to his hot temper, ignorant comments and silly ideas. We met each other every single day and grew much closer to each other. So when Kakashi suggested that we went on a D-mission which required us to go to the Mist Village, we felt perfectly ready.

Little did we know that this was no normal D-mission.