Chapter 4: Another Brick In The Wall

Artemis walked through the door, her mind still on her conversation with Itachi. "Hey Mom, I-"

Once again, she was halted by the sight of her mother and that Uchiha dude sitting on the couch, looking at her, with worry.

"You're still here?" Artemis said, dumbfounded. Instantly, her mother had her in a death grip and was screaming at her.

"ARTEMIS! OH, BABY YOU HAD ME SO WORRIED! WHERE DID YOU GO AFTER BAND PRACTICE? I CALLED THE KANOS BUT THEY SAID YOU LEFT EARLY! I WAS SO SCARED! WHERE WERE YOU?"

"Calm down, Mom, jeez. I just went for a little extra training time out in the woods afterwards. I've done this before, what's the big deal?"

"You should have called or told someone where you were going." This time, it was Uchiha Sasuke who spoke. Artemis looked at him angrily.

"This is none of your business! Who do you think you are, my father?"

There was a silence. Artemis looked back and forth between the two adults. They both stared at her in utter shock. Artemis didn't get it, why were they acting all weird? And then it hit her. She started gasping for breath, staring at Uchiha Sasuke with wide eyes.

"Wh-what?" She gasped before turning to her mother angrily, pointing at Sasuke. "THIS IS YOUR 'MISSION GONE WRONG?'"

Sakura opened her mouth to speak.

"N-no," Artemis cut her off, "I don't want to hear it, it's probably just a lie anyways."

Sakura bowed her head. Artemis grabbed her mother by the chin and made her face her. "No, you look me in the eye," Artemis gasped out. "Don't you look away! How could you? How could you lie to me like this?"

"Artemis--" Sasuke said from behind her. Artemis swung around and stared at him.

"Don't talk to me. I don't know you, don't talk to me. You have been absent from my life for fourteen years, I don't want to hear what you have to say, got it?"

With that, Artemis swept into her room, and slammed the door.

Sasuke looked at the tearful Sakura. "Well, that could not have gone worse."

But it did. Five minutes later, Artemis burst out of the room, carrying a duffel bag. "I'm going to stay over at Naruto-kun's, we have a C mission tomorrow, so I want to make sure we're there on time. If you need anything, you know where to call."

And she left.

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She really did go to Naruto's, who greeted her solemnly. He knew enough from her expression she was severely distressed. He put out two bowls of shrimp ramen and looked at her. "What happened?"

Artemis stirred the noodles slowly. "Well, I just found out my Mother has been lying to me my entire life."

"What? It doesn't sound like your mother to lie, especially not to you."

"Well, she did," Artemis assured him with a bitter smile. "She fucking well did. You know that Uchiha Sasuke guy?"

"Of course, he and I were on your mother's Genin squad, we were best friends," Naruto said, reminiscing.

"Well, that's one more thing I didn't know about him," Artemis said quietly.

"What do you mean?"

Artemis threw down her spoon angrily, kicked out her chair from under her, and pulled at her hair. "HE'S MY FUCKING FATHER! MY FATHER! I WASN'T THE RESULT OF SOME MISSION-RAPE OR SHIT LIKE THAT! MOM LIED TO ME! SHE KNEW IT, HE'S MY FATHER!"

Naruto stared a her in astonishment. "Woah."

Artemis looked at him pleadingly with tears in her eyes. "Tell me you didn't know."

"Of course not! I mean, sure, your Mother always had a thing for him; all the girls did. And I know they got a lot closer as time went on. Your mother was devastated when he left. And I always suspected your mother was not telling the whole truth about it, but I didn't want to say anything. But it sure as Hell makes a ton of sense."

Artemis crumbled to the floor. "Why? Why did she keep it a secret?" She sobbed wildly.

Naruto crouched down beside the girl and gave her a squeeze. "She did it for good reason, Artemis. Your father had betrayed the village, and who knows what path he took afterwards? Besides, Sasuke was cursed, and the last thing you would want to be is the 'cursed boy's daughter.' Would you really have wanted to live with that?"

Artemis shook her head. "She still could have told me. It;s not right for me to know this way! It's not fair!"

"I know, Sweetheart, I know."

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Sasuke sat in Artemis's room. He felt he should not leave Sakura alone tonight. She had been hysterical for the rest of the night, and it took him forever to get her to bed. He looked around at the walls. Everywhere were posters. Pink Floyd, Hole, The Who, Nirvana, John Lennon, Tori Amos, Lacuna Coil, The Ramones, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, The Sex Pistols. In frames were newspaper articles. He looked at one closely. There was a picture of Artemis in a shredded skirt and black tank top playing guitar and singing into the microphone while a boy in jeans played bass and beanie-wearing girl drummed. The Headline read, "Sober Love Is The Sex Pistols With Estrigen and Good Musicianship, The Ramones with a Sharper Edge."

Sasuke smiled. Nice to see his first child had talent.

"Quite the headline," said an all-too-familiar voice.

"Itachi." Sasuke said without turning.

"Little brother, how nice to see you again."

Sasuke turned to him. "I beg to differ."

"Aw, has Sasuke become all defensive now that he's a Daddy?"

Sasuke's face heated up. "You stay away from her, you don't know anything about Artemis."

For some reason, Itachi looked like he was desperately trying to hold back a laugh. "I could say the same thing about you. But this is serious. If the Akatsuki find out about Artemis, they may try to kidnap her, and then they would have no reason to keep you alive and destroy the village. If I were you, I'd keep the girl close. Have the girl and her mother move in with, say it's a romantic thing between you and Sakura. Keep her close and keep her safe."

Sasuke nodded at his brother's advice. Fate was funny. All his life he had been training to kill his brother, now he was getting parenting advice from him. Just proves that children change everything.

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A Week Later:

Artemis loved C missions. It was a chance to get out and stretch your legs without having to worry about danger. Not to mention protecting this old Lady took her mind off her problems at home.

This one had been particularly good. Lady Watsuki was an outgoing woman who loved Weird Al Yankovic Songs, so a good amount of time was spent singing "Like A Surgeon," "Smells Like Nirvana," and "Pretty Fly For a Rabbi." But soon after they left the woman back home in Water, Artemis was reminded of what she had to face when she got home. The entire way home, she bombarded Naruto with questions about Uchiha Sasuke. What did he do for fun? Did He have a Sense of Humor? What was his taste in Music? What was his attitude toward mom? What were his pet peeves?

But she really could not get much. According to Naruto-sensei, the only thing Sasuke cared about was revenge. This of course intrigued Artemis intensely. On who? Why? On his brother for wiping out the entire Uchiha Clan. All Sasuke ever wanted was to kill his brother and restore his clan.

This bothered Artemis. That was all he cared about? Jeez. Then who was to say he ever cared about her mother, or would ever care about her? Besides, she did not want a person who only focussd on killing. She wanted a father.

No, that was not fair. All her life she had had plenty of Father-figures. Naruto, Kakashi, Rock Lee, Iruka. The list went on. She had been showered with love from multiple people all her life, and spoiled rotten. Whether it was Itachi in one of his secret meetings, Tenten showing her how to throw a Kunai, Hinata teaching her healing, Ino doing her hair in a way that no one else could, Rock Lee showing her Taijutsu, Naruto treating her to Ramen, or Kakashi showing her his friends's memorial. She always had a million people loving her and taking care of her. She had never been starved for love.Before she knew about Uchiha Sasuke, she had been perfectly content with the amount of love she was recieving. She was not going to let one guy ruin that for her. Even if it was her real father.

It was through this realization she was able to forgive her mother and come home without fear. She arrived home to find her mother in the kitchen, making beef dumplings. Artemis dumped her stuff in her room and went into the kitchen and sat down.

"Mom."

Sakura turned around and looked at Artemis fearfully. "Yes?"

"I forgive you."

"Arty, I-"

"No, wait, let me finish. Naruto explained everything to me. Listen, I have had plenty of people taking care of me my entire life. I have never ever been starved for love. I have you to thank for that. It's not your fault he left you like he did. But you always made sure I had plenty of people to care for me. I'm not going to spoil that or my relationship with you just because the asshole finally showed up. I don't need him around, and neither do I want him around. I love you, and I'm not going to let some idiot from your past ruin that. He wasn't around before, so I don't want him around now. Let's just pretend he doesn't exist, ok?"

"Arty?"

"Yes?"

"We're moving in with him."

Artemis packed another bag and left the house without a word.

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Itachi watched solemnly from the top of the building as Artemis burst out of the house angrily.

"Itachi! If you're there, I could really use you!"

Itachi landed in front of her. "How can I be of service?"

Artemis took a few deep breaths, her teeth clenched. "Can I please just...beat the crap out of you for a few seconds?"

Itachi shook his head. "I'm afraid not. See, it's really for your own good that you live with my brother."

"Your -"

Itachi nodded sadly. "Yes, I am the evil brother that slaughtered The Uchiha Clan and became the center of your father's life. I am the reason he left Konoha four years ago. I am also the reason he came back."

Artemis smiled at him. "Very funny."

"Even if I was kidding,it wouldn't be."

Artemis clenched her fist and looked at Itachi with eyes like daggers. "So, what you are saying is, you are the person who single-handedly destroyed my life?"

Itachi opened his mouth to protest before immediately feeling the pain of a million shuriken hit him for three hours in a matter of seconds. He passed out, his last view being the Sharingan eyes of the one person he loved more than he loved himself. With that sight, he bitterly congratulated himslef. That was four lives he's now destroyed.

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Sasuke watched with horror at the damage his daughter inflicted on his brother. Horror and ecstacy. Such a beautiful girl, such terrifying power, such pain. Black seals engulfed the girl's body, and Sasuke knew what was coming. The seals disappeared and Artemis burst into tears. she flung herself onto Itachi's body and began to call out his name.

"ITACHI! NO! I'M SORRY! I DIDN'T MEAN TOO! PLEASE WAKE UP! PLEASE DON"T BE DEAD, DON'T BE DEAD. WAKE UP, PLEASE!"

How the Hell did Artemis know his brother, let alone have this knd of relationship with him? But there was no time to consider that. Sasuke came out of hiding and landed softly behind the crouching girl. She turned around and looked at him fearfully. Sasuke stared at her calmly. "Take his pulse."

Artemis obliged. "He's alive! Oh, thank God, he's alive!"

"Good, now tell me exactly what you did to him, and we'll see if he'll stay that way."