'So, umm… why did you pass the Chuunin exam before us?' asked Sasuke as he watched Mika swing a thin stick back and forth absent-mindedly by her side, while they both walked leisurely around Konoha vaguely looking at the sights… not that either were very interested: they were merely meandering around to be together.

'Because when I was taken to Kusa no Kuni, they didn't know how old I was' explained the girl, whipping the head off of some weeds inattentively, a small polite smile playing across her lips. 'and when I… err… developed… earlier than the other girls I had been put with they guessed I was older than them. Two years actually.' she said with a small giggle. 'It's kinda weird being told first that you're two years older than you thought you were, then being told that you're not… kinda messes you up.' she finished shrugging a little.

They both looked up at the Hokage's faces silently, respect etched in their eyes and on their faces. Sasuke tore his eyes away from the impressive monument and glanced sideways at the girl next to him who was frowning, puzzlement stretched across her pretty face. He wondered whether to ask her what was on her mind, but shyness took a strong hold of him and he decided to stay silent, hoping that she would tell him herself. He watched as she took a deep breath, closing her eyes and looking in the direction of the foot of the cliff, but he knew she wasn't seeing anything. (Okay, put on a sad song now! This is supposed to be really emotional for Mika… so you know…Yes I AM talking to you!!! It helps!)

'Every now and then,' she started, clearly apprehensive of what she was about to tell him. 'I get these… flashes… flashes of memory… like when you had a dream and you can only remember snippets… like a picture.' she explained, still not opening her stunning chocolaty eyes. 'I just got one of those.' she finished quietly, finally looking up at him.

Sasuke noticed that her eyes were watering, the tears welling up quickly, threatening to overflow.

'I saw an older boy.' she told him, the tears audible in her straining voice as she tried to force them to subside. 'He had dark brown hair… blue eyes… was that my brother? Was that…' she paused, trying to keep the tears at bay but they were quietly winning. '…Yama?' she finished, the tears finally defeating her and rolling down her cheeks as she spoke the name of her older brother for the first time in over three years.

'Probably.' answered Sasuke after a pause as he tried to remember what her brother had looked like. 'What was he doing?' he asked, trying to work out whether it was Yama and not one of her cousins. Mika sniffed, trying to hide how emotional she really was, but the tears kinda gave it away.

'We were… we were looking up at the faces…' she started, looking back up at the four faces staring down at the sternly. 'I was really little… he looked about eight… or something…' she wiped her nose on the back of her gloved hand before continuing. 'He was umm… explaining something to me and… pointing at the faces.' she kept taking deep steadying breaths to try and stem the perpetual flow of tears rolling down her cheeks. 'He picked me up.' she gave a meek, unconvincing laugh but her face was contorted in sorrow. 'He was smiling at me… he poked me in the nose..' with this final detail she dropped the charade of strength and fell to her knees, burying her face in her hands as she sobbed uncontrollably.

Sasuke knelt down next to her and awkwardly pulled her into an embarrassed embrace, feeling her back and shoulders heave as she continued to cry. He felt her suddenly wrap her arms around his stomach and push her face into his chest, still sobbing pathetically so he placed his head on her back, bent over her protectively.

'I can't even remember him!' she cried out suddenly, the pain horribly obvious in her voice which was contorted into desperate agony.

They sat there for at least ten minutes while she gradually calmed down until Sasuke could have sworn that she had fallen asleep, but she sat up again, her eyes all red and swollen. She smiled uneasily at him as they sat opposite each other, their hands in their laps because they didn't know what to do with them.

'Sorry…' she whispered with embarrassment, shrugging a little and not meeting his eye. 'I must look horrible…' she wiped her eyes with her fingers at the same time as wiping her cheeks with her palms. 'Great… I have to cry in front of the hottest guy in the world… that's just perfect' she thought furiously.

'It's okay…' said the boy awkwardly, still gazing at her affectionately as she tried to tidy herself up. 'Girls are allowed to cry… you saw me cry… now that's embarrassing!' he joked, she giggled, forgetting about her face which was definitely looking better than it had a moment ago.

'Your whole family was killed and then I come here and can't remember anything.' she said quickly, trying to make him feel better. 'You have more of a right to cry than I do!' They both smiled at each other companionably, not knowing what else to say.

Sasuke got to his feet and held out his hand for Mika to take, which she did, standing up and brushing the dust off of her clothes at the same time. They set off in the opposite direction, away from the Hokage's faces and that little incident which had, yet again, brought them even closer.

As they walked down an unused side street, Mika glanced sideways at the boy walking next to her before looking straight out ahead of her, narrowly dodging a dustbin. Sasuke glanced nervously at the girl walking beside him as she barely missed an empty dustbin, trying to psych himself up to do something he hadn't done for so long… his heart raced as he decided to go for it, it suddenly jumped into his throat where it pounded uncomfortably. Mika was looking straight ahead of her, unaware that he was having an inward battle between his heart and his muscles.

Suddenly she looked sideways at him, a small, innocent and grateful smile on her lips which made Sasuke go weak at the knees for the first time in an age. He tried to smile back but, to his dismay, it came out as a pained grimace. She looked away, clearly thrown by his reaction, a confused and slightly wounded look on her pretty face.

Sasuke hated himself for making her look that way. He closed his eyes as they turned right into a larger deserted street, took a deep reassuring breath as he decided to do it. He opened his eyes again, glanced at her apprehensively, then forced his muscles to do his bidding.

Mika felt the soft touch of skin from a nervous finger as it hesitantly searched for a comfortable way to take her hand. She opened her fingers and let the boys fingers entwine gently with hers, the reassuring warmth of skin on skin making both teenagers a little uncomfortable but neither would ever have dreamt of letting go. She looked up and saw Sasuke looking at their hands in mild surprise, his cheeks slowly burning into a healthy red blush as she felt her own cheeks going scarlet, but she smiled as he looked up at her, disbelief etched on his blushing face. He smiled back at her, and this time it was the easiest thing to do.