"Ino!" I called out to my best friend and caught up with her. We were climbing up a steep hill and I could hardly wait to see the view when we arrived there. As thirteen year olds, we were as adventurous as we were now. Only at that time, the steep hill seemed like mountain to us.
Now at the top of the hill, I stared down at the view before us. Konoha, the town we lived in looked smaller than usual and we could see most of the things. A huge dust gathered somewhere and started chasing a small orange dot.
"That must be Naruto. He must've gotten into trouble again." Ino observed. I laughed. Allowing myself to fall down backwards, I stared up at the sky. Ino followed my suit.
"Sakura?" she said to me.
"Hmm?" I replied back.
"Have you ever wondered what happened to you if you fall in love?" I snorted.
"I'm never gonna find my Mr. Right so I never wondered." It was Ino's turn to snort.
"Everyone falls in love, even if the person they love doesn't love them back."
"This doesn't have anything to do with Nara Shikamaru, does it?" I questioned her. From the corner of my eye, I could see her blush slightly.
"That reminds me," she said. "My cousins are coming to visit tomorrow. Did I mention that they aren't really related to me? They're adopted."
My eyes widened. School was finally out and I would finally get to meet the cousins Ino had been talking about since last summer.
"Ino," I said. "You've said that about five times already." She shrugged.
"I guess you're bored hearing about them." she said after a while.
"Not really, I just want to meet them." She smiled at me.
"Why not? I'll introduce you guys." She winked at me and I had a feeling she was going to pair me up with the younger one, Sasuke, who happened to be our age. The older one who "is a lot more relaxed" happened to be about seventeen. Although Ino would've wanted to pair me up with someone relaxed like him, he was too old.
"Don't pair me up with the younger one," I said dangerously. She giggled.
"Sasuke said the same thing when I told him he should meet you."
"Well you should listen to him," I sighed. 'Ino could be a matchmaker if she wanted to,' I said in my mind. She turned towards me to look at me and said, "You're gonna regret what you said the minute you see him. He has fangirls following him everywhere. He's gonna attract attention here too."
"Ino, you already have a plan in your mind," I pointed out. "So even if I told you not to, you'd pair me up with him anyway." I could almost see her scowling in her mind when I told her I was aware of what she'd do to me.
"Well, it'd be worth it in the end." she said and got up. It was nearly dinner time and in a few minutes, we were both in our homes eating dinner. I soon forgot my conversation with Ino but the next day she called me at noon to meet her outside the school in half an hour. Picking my red Chinese-style outfit and blue shorts to wear, I slipped on my sandals and went out.
Fifteen minutes later, I arrived in front of the school and realizing that it would be another ten minutes until she'd arrived, I climbed a tree and decided to wait there since it was cooler in there. When she finally arrived, she was followed by two calm looking guys who both had very dark hair.
"Now where is that girl?" I heard Ino's voice. One of the guys, shorter and a little tensed looking, looked up at the tree and stared at me. His brother, noticing this, looked up and smirked.
"Try looking up." He suggested. I jumped down before Ino could do anything.
"Hey, Sakura!" she greeted me. Then, wrapping her hands around my shoulders, she smiled lopsidedly at us.
"Itachi, Sasuke, this is my best friend, Haruno Sakura." The older one, Itachi, grinned.
"Hey," he said. Sasuke stared at me.
"Sakura," Ino popped in, "these are my cousins, Uchiha Sasuke and Itachi." I smiled shyly at them. "So now that we've all been introduced," she continued, "let's all go for some ice cream since its so hot today. And luckily for us, Sakura knows where the best place to get ice cream here. Well, what are we waiting for? Lead the way, Sakura!" Twenty minutes later, we were all in a café, ordering ice cream.
"Sakura! It's so nice of you to bring customers here on your day-off!" the waitress taking our orders smiled at me. Her name was Tenten and we both worked at this café. I smiled back at her.
"Yeah, and you should do the same on your day-off." I said. Ino grinned at her. "Hey Tenten, can we order a mocha flavored ice cream with chocolate chips in it, a strawberry sundae with whip cream for Sakura, umm…what do you guys want?" she looked over at her two cousins who were both looking at the menu.
"I'll have a banana split…" Sasuke said from out of the blue. I glanced at him, it was the first time I saw him say something today.
"…And I'll have a chocolate sundae," Itachi said with a charming smile. I felt myself turn red lightly. 'What's this?' my inner conscious (A/N: muhahaha, Inner Sakura) said to me. 'You're falling for a guy like him? He's way older than you! And anyway, he sounds like a playboy… But hell! He's HOT!' My eye twitched at the thought of me dating him.
"Hi, SAKURA-CHAN!" A loud, happy sounding voice suddenly ran through our ears. I turned around to greet it.
"Hey there, Naruto!" A blonde boy wearing an orange shirt and pants grinned at us. "Hey Ino!" he greeted her. She waved back at him and pulled out a chair.
"Come sit with us, Naruto." He happily did and grinned at the two Uchihas.
"Hey there, I'm Uzemaki Naruto. You guys must be the cousins Ino's been talking about." Itachi lit a cigar and grinned at him.
"Uhh, yeah. I'm Itachi and this is Sasuke."
"Itachi!" Ino's horrified voice rang among us. "You smoke?"
I winced as I inhaled a puff of smoke.
"A little bit," he replied and went on like it was no big deal.
"A little bit?" Sasuke echoed. "You smoke whenever you can. It's become an addiction." We all glared at him, especially Sasuke
"In case you haven't noticed," Tenten said coolly, "we have a no-smoking policy here." She pointed at the sign on the door. Itachi smiled apologetically at her.
"Sorry," he said. "I guess I'll go smoke outside. Call me when the food comes." He stood up and walked towards the entrance. Tenten sighed.
"So, Naruto," she said, turning towards him. "What would you like to order?"
"I'll have a nice cold cappuccino ice-cream," he said, putting the menu down. Ino winced as Tenten left.
"Naruto, I don't think you need that much amount of sugar."
He shrugged. "Ah well, I don't care."
Realizing that a fight between a heated Ino and a soon-to-be-even-more-hyper Naruto would cause unwanted attraction, I glanced over at Sasuke.
"So, Sasuke…" I started. "Tell us about yourself." He gave me a lazy stare. 'Man, does this guy do anything but stare and glare?' Inner Sakura said to me.
"Well, you already know my name," he said. Naruto shook his head.
"Well, of course we do!" he exclaimed. "But you should tell us more about yourself…You likes, dislike, dreams for the future, hobbies…stuff like that!" Ino and I sweat-dropped. That was what our science teacher, Mr. Hatake had replied to a rather cold classmate, Neji, when had said the same thing about introducing himself.
"I like playing sports, especially hockey." Sasuke said slowly. "There are many things I dislike, I don't really have a dream for the future, and I guess playing on my guitar would be my hobby."
His answer was emotionless and so cold that Ino looked away from him. I raised my eyebrow at him. Was this the ever so fabulous Sasuke Uchiha Ino had been bragging about for so any times?
Naruto, of course, had taken this answer in his own way.
"You know," he said thoughtfully, "You should meet a friend of mine, Neji. He's a human ice-cube, just like you." Ino laughed.
"Neji is a human ice-cube, but I'm sure Sasuke will show more emotion that this. Right, Sasuke?" He nodded at her. Just then, the ice cream came.
"Enjoy," Tenten said cheerfully and left.
"I'll go call Itachi," Sasuke offered. I nodded at him. As soon as he left, Naruto went to go to the bathroom. Ino and I were alone.
"Ino…" I said, picking on my ice cream. "No offence, but I don't think Sasuke is has been acting the way you've describing him since last year. He's a lot more…colder."
I could see Ino considering this. From her facial expression, she was admitting this to herself.
"Naruto was right," she finally said. "Sasuke is a human ice-cube. But he wasn't like that last year. He was a lot happier and less tense, but now…" She fell silent.
"Hey," Itachi's relaxed voice interrupted the awkward silence that had formed itself around Ino and me. He was followed by Sasuke, whose eye was twitching due to the fact that some girls from school were giggling and pointing at him from a nearby table. Ino noticed this and gave me a look that said, 'I told you he's gonna attraction'. I sweat-dropped at this.
"Where did Naruto go?" Sasuke asked.
"Did someone say my name?" a blonde boy suddenly asked from behind me.
"Never mind," Sasuke muttered. He looked over at Itachi, who was eating his chocolate split happily.
"Sakura, this really is the best ice cream I've tasted." he said to me. "You really do know where the best ice cream is." I blushed.
"Arigatou, Itachi-san."
Half an hour later, Naruto offered to take the Uchihas to a "really cool place you guys might find interesting". Ino, Sasuke, Itachi, and I soon found ourselves at the local history museum.
"The museum? What's so interesting about that?" Ino asked. Naruto said nothing, but laughed. He led us to a room that was labeled "Noble Families of Konoha". There were several timelines, pictures, family tress, and information about each family member. He pointed to a large part of the wall in the room.
"Go over there," he instructed. We all did. When we reached it, we all gasped. On the wall, there was a title that stood over a family tree which was labeled, "The Uchiha Clan". The timeline stopped at 1010 A.H. From my studies at school, I knew that A.H meant "After Hokage." Apparently, the idea of ninjas, hokages, and all that ended about 1000 years ago. However, I didn't know Konoha's history in full detail. A paragraph explaining what had happen to the clan answered all my questions.
"…A revolution occurred after the death of the sixth Hokage, Uzemaki Naruto. It is said that the Hokage was also a very good friend with the head of the Uchiha clan, Uchiha Sasuke. He and his wife died along with the Hokage's other friends after his death. Uchiha's successor, Uchiha Hiro, disappeared from all records ten years after."
Ino turned to Naruto.
"I never knew your ancestor happened to be the sixth Hokage." She said. But no one was listening to her. We were all studying the Uchiha ancestry. My eyes traveled down until I reached a name that said "Uchiha Itachi".
Uchiha Itachi: Uchiha Itachi was one of the last Uchihas. A fully fledged ANBU jounin by the age of around 13, he massacred the clan. The only survivor was his little brother, Sasuke. Itachi later joined the Akatsuki, a terrorist group around that time. He was finally killed by Sasuke at the age of 32.
Then, below the paragraph, there was a picture of the Itachi in that time. He looked uncannily like the present day Itachi, except his hair was longer and was tied back. Below that, was another name.
Uchiha Sasuke: The last survivor of the original clan, Sasuke was one of the best shinobi in his time. However, his thirst for revenge to kill his older brother made him an S-Class criminal at one time. Fortunately, he returned to Konoha a few years after nearly killing half the shinobi in the village, and married Haruno Sakura and had three children. After that, he became the village's most loyal shinobi. Sasuke's grave can still be found on monument hill.
My eyes widened. My name is Haruno Sakura. His name is Uchiha Sasuke. His brother's name is Itachi. A small choking sound escaped my throat. The same realization struck Sasuke as well. He slowly turned to me and stared at me curiously. Itachi was staring at the paragraph that had his name on it curiously. Ino, who had just realized that there was an uncanny coincidence, gasped slightly and her eyes widened even more than mines.
"Oh my god…"
