Chapter 2: Just up The Stairway to Heaven, Then Turn Onto The Highway To Hell.
"Whozair?"
Artemis glanced impatiently at her teammate. "Matsuri, for once, I'd like to see if you can go a night of Gate Duty without falling asleep."
"Yeah, yeah," Matsuri said before peering down at the man who had woken him. "HELLO! PLEASE STATE YOUR NAME AND AHHH!"
Artemis had slapped him on the back of his head. "You and your fear of heights. You make things so difficult."
Matsuri wobbled over the ledge for a few seconds before looking at Artemis grumpily. "What the Hell is wrong with you? I could have Fallen and gotten seriously hurt."
"Yeah, whatever," Artemis grumbled before leaping off the edge of the gate and landing gracefully in front of the visitor.
She straightened up and faced the man. His face was hidden partially by the darkness, but completely by the dark blue velvet hooded cloak he wore. Inside, she felt her apprehension rise. She did not trust people who would not show their face. They always turned out to be the ones who was capable of killing you in cold blood. Nevertheless, she greeted him cordially.
"Greetings, welcome to Konoha Village. Would you please state your name and business here?" And maybe show me your face and where you're hiding your weapons.
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I used to live here, I am returning home. I still have ownership over the Uchiha Mansion, I believe."
Artemis looked at him skeptically. Sasuke. That name rang a bell. Where had she heard it before? "Would you please lower your hood, Uchiha-san?"
"I was not aware you needed to see my face to grant me entry," the man said grumpily. But he removed his hood.
Sasuke didn't really mind removing it, at least now he could see properly. He looked at the young woman before him. She was a young girl, probably in her early teens. Pretty thing, in a wild sort of way. Masses of black crazy hair held back by her leaf headband, pale skin, and bright green eyes. For some reason, he felt like he knew her. But he knew he had never met the girl. He remembered every face.
"I'm sorry, Miss, but have we met somewhere before?"
"Not that I know of, Uchiha-san. My name is Artemis. I will escort you to your home" said the girl absently. She turned and yelled up to her teammate, "OPEN THE GATE!"
The gates opened and they stepped through. Sasuke looked around in happy appraisal. Not much had changed. Still the same old Konoha. But he was more concerned with the people.
Artemis looked at him uneasily. She was sure she had seen his face somewhere. She was so lost in looking at his face, she was surprised when he spoke.
"So, Artemis, do you have a last name?"
Artemis did not give her full name to strangers, and hated when they asked. "Yes."
"May I know it?"
"No."
They were silent for the rest of the walk to the old Uchiha Mansion. Artemis looked up at the looming building with awe. When she and her friends were little, they always tried to break in, but could never manage it. They called it "The Witch House," and made it the setting of every ghost story they ever told. It was quite strange to finally meet the owner. Even stranger to see how normal he looked, just walking straight through the gate like it was nothing when she and every other kid in the village had tried everything and never got in. It almost seemed disrespectful, the way he just strode in like it was nothing. But he must have put a spell on it so only he could enter. Made sense.
"Thank you for your assistance, Artemis-chan. I hope we'll cross paths again." The man called out. Artemis took that as her dismissal and made her way back to the gate as fast as she could. She wasn't sure she liked this Uchiha Sasuke.
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Sakura glanced into her daughter's room to check on her. Artemis lay sleeping peacefully, totally undisturbed by the light that hit her eyes. Sakura smiled, remembering what it was like being a Genin on Gate Duty. Strange how someone else's life can sometimes emulate your own so much.
She left the house, feeling fresh and ready for work, despite the downpour. It was one of those warm summer storms that made you want to just dance around in. Unfortunately, she was tried for time. She hurried to work, making it just in time.
She took her place by Tsubame's side, winking at Naruto. He didn't wink back and just gave her a sympathetic look. 'What?' Sakura thought. 'Do I have something on my face?'
Naruto started making weird hand movements and motioning toward the door through which was reserved for visitors and people coming to move tp the village. OH! Some big perv was probably visiting and Sakura would probably have to take care of him. Sakura sighed. She hated things like this.
She waved to Naruto assuringly, who responded with a shocked look. Sakura just sat back and picked up the clipboard on the desk in front of her.
Schedule:
Assign Genin Missions (always an extremely funny affair)
Welcome Back Old Resident (Must be the Perv
Wake up Kakashi (Always a Dangerous Mission)
Evaluate New Requests (Sakura could do that without looking, D, D, D, C, D, D, D...)
Lunch (Heehee, wake up Artemis, even worse than waking up Kakashi)
ANBU Reports (Anti-Anti-Depressants)
Announcements
Assign ANBU and Chuunin Missions
Assign New Genin Missions (Anti-Anti-Anti-Depressants, good thing Tom Cruise isn't a Shinobi)
Collect Rewards (Pay Day!)
Private Meetings (Her cue to leave, YAY!)
Altogether, it seemed a pretty good day, nothing out of the ordinary, so what was the problem?
The problem walked into the room with a solemn look on his face and said, "I am back."
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Artemis woke up to the usual sound of Bon Scott's high-renching vocals with a frown. She hated waking up, but at least today would not be too weird. It was pretty uniform. Everynight, go to bed listening to Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven,' wake up to AC/DC's 'Highway to Hell.'
It was something she had been doing since she was six, the year she had mastered the Sharingan and knew her life's mission. As a Kunoichi, she would protect her country, most likely someday have to kill a person. Which might send her to Hell. So every waking moment she was on a 'Highway to Hell.' Which is why she couldn't die in a waking moment and spent all her waking time training so she would not die awake and be sent to Hell.However, at night, when she was asleep, she would not be training for the moment she would have to kill, so she wasn't going to Hell. So when she was asleep, she left her guard down and was on the 'Stairway to Heaven.' If she died then, at least she woud not be going to Hell.
People did not understand this at all. Haruno Artemis did not spend all her time training, she spent half of it training, and half of it making music with her band 'Sober Love.' How could she possibly be going to Hell every waking moment?
What they didn't know was that every time she made music, she was training her sharingan. She found out music was a great way to exercise it, by using it to transport people further into her music than if they just heard her. Her sharingan was used to make sure everyone felt the benefit of whatever song she played, By working through her guitar and voice. This training was so affecive, she did not even have to use her eyes. She sould use her voice, or an instrument, or anything else she wished. This made it so that even if her opponent avoided her eyes, he could not escape her power. It made it more far reaching, and put people in a state of shock and bewilderment even after she was done controlling their mind, making it easier for her to attack.
It was through this, she was able to elevate her sharingan's power without taking human life.
Of course, this constant training made her horribly tired, so waking her up was always a dangerous mission.
However, this morning, she got up easily. She had a feeling she should. There was something going down she did NOT want to miss. She quickly got dressed in her usual outfit of ripped blue jeans, black tank top, and purple fishnet over shirt. Artemis loved purple, mostly because of her hair. So unlike her mother's, whose was light pink and silky. Artemis had a black spiky mess with striking purple highlights. Thus she wore a lot purple. Purple netting, purple eyeliner, purple fingerless gloves, and purple bangles.
She was lost in thought of her hair until the next song came on. Madonna's 'Material Girl.' Where was Mom? This was their song. Every morning or whatever time it was, depending on whenever Artemis awoke, they made it a daily ritual to dance around and lip-synch to this. And Mom was in the house, who else could have turned on the stereo?
"HEY MOM! IT'S OUR SONG!"
"Not right now, Artemis."
What? No WAY! This was the women who rushed in here to sing this song in the middle of shaving her legs. Never before had she ever failed to answer Madonna's call.
"COME ON, MOM! THE DIVINE QUEEN OF POP CALLS YOU OUT!"
"NOT RIGHT NOW ARTEMIS!"
WHAT THE FUCK!
Artemis walked briskly out of her bedroom into the living room, prepared to interrogate her mother, but stopped in her tracks and gaped at what she saw.
That weird Uchiha dude sat on the couch next her mother. He looked at her with shock. They stared at eachother for a while. Sakura looked at them back and forth in panic and confusion. Did they know each other? No, impossible. Sasuke had just gotten here last night.
Oh, wait, that explained it. Gate Duty. Right. She should have realized it. But, wait. Who knew what might have passed between them? Oh Lord.
"Artemis, this is..."
"Uchiha Sasuke." Artemis finished for her. "What is this guy doing in our house?" She asked with an eyebrow risen.
Sasuke broke his look of shock to one of a warm, yet awkward smile. "Well, Artemis-san, I guess your last name is revealed."
Inside, Sasuke was goingcrazy. Sakura had a kid? With who? And how long a ago? This girl did not look a day under fourteen. No, wait, maybe this was her sister. No, the girl had called Sakura 'Mom.' Adoption, maybe? No. The girl had those eyes. Sakura's eyes, besides, the resemblance was to striking. Sakura's eyes, cheeks, height, and her hands; as Sasuke saw as they rested on her hips. Though they were a little more calloused at the fingertips.
He looked at Sakura in shock, who looked at him with an odd look. Like she was angry and sorry at the same time. Why?
"Uchiha-san," Artemis said, bowing. Her purple-black mess fell forward as she dipped her neck.
"Artemis, baby? This is one of my old friends. He's coming back to live here again. We were just disscussing some things. Why don't you take some money from the drawer and go buy some ramen at The Ichiraku Noodle Shop? Then go meet your team at the bridge, they'll be meeting at 2:30. I'll talk to you tonight. You don't have Gate Duty again, do you?" Sakura asked, awkwardly.
Artemis looked at her angrily. "You know I don't. They never give it to one team two nights in a row. We only have prompting today. We're doing a C mission tomorrow. But other than that, we have today off. I have band practice tonight, which you also know." Her mother spoke to her like she was a baby, something she had never done before, and she was forgetting things she never forgot. Why was she acting all weird?
But a pleading look from her mother promptd her to just grab her stuff and leave. As she sipped her ramen, she cursed Uchiha Sasuke. Whatever the nature of her mother's actions, he was the cause of it.