Akanishi-san: Woot! Thanks for the reviews everyone! Here is ch2!

Ch2 New Anbu, New Faces

"All right then, let's go after I drop off my stuff in my new room." She said happily, but realizing what she promised to tell Naruto had dropped her happiness. "Naruto, about my family thing…" Naruto turned to her, not realizing that he was going to her sensitive spot. "They are…dead." She muttered the last part, looking gloomier than ever. "They were killed…by me."

"What?" Naruto whispered, stopping dead on his track, looking at her with a horrified face. "You…what? Wait…this has to be a joke, ne?" He slowly made his way to her, peering into her face, but she refused to look at him. "Obachan…Ojichan…everyone? They were so nice to me too…even though they knew about…Kyuubi…"

"I know…" Minami whispered to him, tears about to fall. "I…it was 5 years ago," She started. "We were practicing like usual, on my fire techniques and other ninjutsu…My brother…you remember him, right?" She smiled sadly at Naruto, who nodded. "Well, he met Orochimaru, I don't know where; I don't want to know either. I'm sure you know Orochimaru as well, no?" This time, she didn't look at Naruto, but looked up into the sky, her eyes glimmering. "Well…Orochimaru wanted my powers, so Brother thought to hand me over to Orochimaru. He told Mother and Father it was for the best anyway, having a cursed child was not really good in the first place."

She took a deep breath, her eyes still looking into the sky, where a bird flew over head swiftly. "I wish I was free like that bird, of this curse…" She muttered. She turned to Naruto, her smile still on, but was quivering. "I guess I got angry, at Brother, and…well, it was my 13th birthday, and I guess the Fire Bird wanted to remind me my test was coming in 5 years, so it decided to give me power or something. Next thing I knew, I had killed my brother. Next thing I knew after that, I was fighting my parents. They were I guess trying to fight the Bird off of me or something; I don't really remember what happened. It felt like the Bird took over my body. But…What I do remember is that…I killed them…" She brought her hands in front of her. "With these hands, I killed them…"

Naruto stood there, still dumbfounded. "Minami-chan…" He whispered, taking a step towards her. He reached towards her, but found himself hesitating.

Minami smiled weakly. "I'm not dangerous anymore, Naruto. Don't worry. Tsunade-sama placed a seal on me so that I will not lose control anymore. Unless, I wish upon it." She opened her jacket once more, and revealed a small seal around the burn mark, Naruto hadn't noticed earlier. She closed it once more, sighing.

Naruto was now in front of her, his mouth open. "Minami-chan…" He whispered. She smiled in response, her eyes filled with sorrow. "I'm sorry…" He said, and brought her to a hug. This time, Taka has swiftly moved away, landing on a near by pole, accepting Naruto at this moment.

"What are you saying sorry for?" Minami asked tears about to fall. "Why are you saying sorry?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up memories, and…" He mumbled on, about how sorry he was. He was still hugging her, feeling sadder than ever. He wanted to help her, but reviving the dead was not possible. What can he do?

She smiled softly. She knew something had changed Naruto, and was glad. "Nah, I was going to tell you soon anyway." She pulled herself away and looked at him in the face. "Listen Naruto, no word of this to anyone else, all right? Promise?"

Naruto nodded vigorously. "Right! I won't tell anyone."

She nodded. "Good. Naruto, now let's get ourselves to my room so we can go eat at Ichiraku!" He punched the air and trotted ahead. "Come on slowpoke!" She yelled behind herself.

"Gah! I'm coming!" Naruto yelled, and ran after her.

"Taka?" Minami looked up into the air, seeing the hawk gliding towards them. She extended her arm to let him drop on her arm, but the hawk surprisingly landed on Naruto's shoulder gracefully. Naruto looked bewildered at it. At that, Minami had to laugh. "It seems Taka had accepted you, Naruto."

"Oh really?" Naruto exclaimed happily, looking at the hawk who was now peering into his face, its head cocked to one side. "Yay!" He cheered, rubbing its chest. "My name's Naruto, the future Hokage!"

The hawk straightened and puffed the air, and screeched softly. "He says hello as well." Minami said, giggling. "All right, let's get going!" She said again, and grabbing Naruto's arm, they headed off to where her room was.

Room

"Oh wow!" Minami said, walking into her new room. "This is just for me?" She looked into the room, and entered it. There was a kitchen, a rather large one for a single person room, a table and chairs accompanied it. The room next to it was medium sized, bigger room than the kitchen, and it had a sofa, a fire place and a medium sized TV. She then trotted over to her bedroom, where a bed with light green sheets over it, with nice comfy pillows. She then noticed another room, to which she entered curiously. In the room was her anbu gears, a desk with file cabinets and a bookshelf.

Naruto entered the room with Taka still perched on him, but soon as he entered the room, the hawk had taken off and had landed on a podium, used for birds. "I guess Tsunade-bachan knew what you will need." Naruto said to Minami who had come back from her exploring.

"Yeah, she was pretty quick with it." She said, noting the extra supply of food for her hawk friend. "Would you like this or ramen?" She asked the hawk, who was now preening himself. The hawk looked up, and puffed the air, and returned to preening. "All right, just don't get in trouble." She said, opening the food and placing it in a dish next to the podium. The hawk stopped preening and made a soft sound and returned to preening again.

Naruto looked at her weirdly. "It's like you guys know what you guys say." He said, looking at the hawk now.

"Well 5 years together kind of made us know what each other are thinking. Plus, Taka here was already smart form the beginning." With that, she petted the hawk, and exited the room with Naruto.

"ICHIRAKU!" Naruto yelled, running towards the stand, and entered it with enthusiasm. "Look who I brought today!" He yelled with a grin at the owner, who was talking to another. Sasuke. "Eh? Sasuke?" Naruto asked, surprised. He hadn't seen Sasuke at Ichiraku in ages. Only time he saw come in was because Naruto had always dragged him in with him.

Sasuke looked up, and nodded in acknowledgement. "I heard you skipped today's work." He said, taking a sip of water.

"Who are you talking to?" Minami asked, now entering. She then noticed the Uchiha, who was looking at her. "Oh." She said simply, and smiled. "Hello Sasuke-san."

He nodded. "I only know you as Minami." He replied.

"Oh, yes, I'm sorry. That was rude of me. I am Suzaku Minami." She extended a hand. "Nice to meet you."

Sasuke took the hand, and shook it. "I am Uchiha Sasuke."

Minami nodded, taking note of that. But before she could say more, the owner was talking to her. "Minami-chan?" He asked, looking surprised.

Minami turned to him, grinning. "Nice to see you again."

He grinned back. "Minami-chan! I can't believe you're back!" He said, extending a hand out to her.

Grinning, she took it. "I just came back about noon today. I decided to eat at your place for tonight."

"Thanks!" He said, and added, "I'll give you extra stuff on your ramen, all right?" With another look at her, he returned to work.

"Thanks." Minami said, and sat down next to Sasuke, Naruto sitting down on the other side of her. She turned to Naruto, who was smiling happily. "Well Naruto, or shall I say Hokage-sama?"

Naruto blushed, dropping the chopsticks he had on his hand. "Arg…" He said, turning redder.

Minami raised her eyebrows at him. Seeing her confusion, Sasuke told her what was wrong with him. "Dobe gets shy when someone calls him that."

Minami giggled. "Haha, Hokage-sama being shy!" She twirled a finger in front of him, mocking him with a grin. "Ho-ka-ge-sa-ma!" she said, placing a long pause in each word.

Naruto turned redder if possible, and hid his face in his hands. "MINAMI-CHAN! SASUKE!" He yelled angrily. "You ARE a double agent, aren't you!" He accdused the Uchiha.

Sasuke just took another sip and retorted "Well if I am working under you, Tsunade and Minami-san here, that would make is triple agent."

Minami bursted out laughing, pointing a finger at him, tears forming form laughter. So Sasuke was the one that changed Naruto. Sasuke was also supporting a smile on his lips, however, looking at Minami and not at Naruto. He felt weird with her next to him, laughing. Before everyone could see his smile, he whipped it off replacing it with a mask.

"Dobe." He muttered.

"SASUKE!" Naruto yelled, growling. "Good thing to do, embarrass me in front of my friend who I just met up couple hours ago!"

"Oh, don't worry, I knew you were stupid from before!" Minami said, giggling.

Naruto shot a glare at Minami. "HEY!"

She kept laughing, and adding more comments on what she remembered form before. She kept laughing, and before she knew it, she had lost balance, and was falling backwards.

Before she could defend herself from the fall or anything, two strong arms stopped her from tumbling to the ground. She looked into the dark eyes belonging to no other than the Uchiha, who was now pushing her up into the chair.

"Thanks." She muttered, blushing. She felt so weird. She hadn't had any other person with opposite gender touch her for support like that in ages. Naruto was an exception however, since she knew him from before. Or…was it something different? Did she feel something different towards him? The Uchiha?

"HA! WHO'S THE CLUTZ NOW!" Naruto laughed this time, breaking Minami thoughts and to glare at Naruto.

She puffed out her cheeks and crossed her arms. "Pft." She said, and turned towards the table.

Naruto stopped laughing loudly, but was still laughing, just not as loud…if that was possible. "Remember that time when you almost ran into one of the trees?"

Minami frowned at him with a glare. "That was ages ago." She pointed out.

"Yeah, but remember?" He asked, trying to suppress his laugh.

Before she could shoot comments on how Naruto was earlier ages, a delicious smell made her turn to the table, where the owner was now placing 3 ramen in front of them, the one in front of Minami full with extra toppings on it.

She grinned widely. "Thanks!" She said, and breaking her chopsticks, she dug in. "I ate ramen in other countries, but it's not good as this on here, Ichiraku! Good as always!" She gave a thumb up to the owner, who grinned at her.

"It is, isn't it?" Naruto said between mouthfuls.

Sasuke silently ate his, enjoying his company. He never felt so comfortable, well, except Naruto, of course. Naruto always had this atmosphere that made everyone welcome, but a female?

They ate with random conversations, mainly about Minami's experiences in other countries, and about what happened in Konoha while her absence.

"I'm so full…" Minami said, placing her chopsticks back to the bowl, sighing in happiness. "I haven't eaten a full stomach for so long."

"Really?" Naruto asked, surprised.

Minami nodded. "Yeah, being a traveler-nin and well with not much of good money income, also with a hawk that has a different stomach for each hour is hard to keep up." She grinned.

"Minami-san, Sasuke-san, and Naruto-sama." Someone asked behind them.

The 3 turned to the newcomer, who wore an anbu outfit. "Yes?" Minami asked.

The anbu turned to her, and said, "You are to report in Tsunade-sama's office at 7 tomorrow morning. Your mission starts tomorrow. Sasuke-san, you are to come to her office at 7:30. You and Minami-san will work together in this particular mission. It involves just you two, Sasuke-san, you will not need to bring any other people. Naruto-sama, you are to come to her office at 7 sharp. You are to work, she says."

Naruto winced. "Aww…" He muttered.

Minami nodded. "All right, thank you for informing me." The anbu nodded, and disappeared.

Naruto turned to Sasuke, and said, "Your house is over there, so take Minami-chan home, will you? It's on your way anyway. C'ya at the Old Fart's office you guys!" And he was off before they could say a word.

Minami chuckled. "Always on the run." She said, and turned to the Uchiha. "Well then, let's go home, shall we?" She grinned.

Sasuke found himself smiling back, nodding and walking with her towards her home. "Where do you live?" He asked, breaking the short silence.

"Oh, I live in the apartment for the anbu reserved place thing." She said. "I don't know what you call it though." She laughed softly.

Sasuke nodded. It was on his way home. It was exactly on his way home, just couple blocks away too. "I guess I will be directing you tomorrow then, Minami-san."

Minami turned to him, frowning. "You mean you are the…?"

Sasuke nodded. "Yes, I am one of the anbu captains." He smiled. "Did you think someone else would be in the position? Someone older?"

Minami shook her head. "No, I wasn't that surprised, actually. The way the anbu looked at you and the tone he used talking to you kind of gave it away." She shrugged. "But I did expect someone older." She admitted. "Not that I think you are not powerful." She added quickly.

"You calculated that I was one of the anbu captains just by looking at that anbu?" Sasuke asked, this time, he was surprised.

Minami nodded. "Yeah, I just don't trust people anymore." She shrugged. "I have to look into their eyes, listen to their tone, and look how they look at me before I can be sure." She looked away. "Let's leave it at I lived in a hard life, all right? I don't want to talk about it now. Maybe I will another time."

Sasuke nodded, accepting that. He wanted to ask if she trusted him though. He wanted to know that. It was going to bug him for days, he realized. But…why did she make him feel that way? What was so special about her and not any other females of the village? Normally he would not care what others thought, especially a female. However…she was an exception. He could not place a finger on why though.

Noticing the confused atmosphere on Sasuke, Minami chuckled. "Don't worry Uchiha-san, I trust you." She said, smiling. "I am telling the truth. Friends of Naruto, I will always trust."

He now, found himself sighing in relief. "Thank god." He muttered. Realizing that he said it aloud, he quickly added while blushing, "Because if you didn't trust me, then the missions will not work as smoothly."

Minami raised an eyebrow. Being a good reader for their expressions, she knew exactly why he was relieved. She blushed, and a smile was on her lips. "Well Uchiha-san, I will see you tomorrow." She said, now realizing that they were standing in front of her apartment.

Sasuke nodded. "Tomorrow at 7:30."

"Tomorrow at 7:30." She nodded.

Akanishi-san: Woot! Another long chappie! I'm surprised I'm writing this long!

BTW REVIEWERS:

Sasuke-Clan-San: Oh...someone needs to take a chill pill. Lol. Well anyway, thanks for reviewiing! Im glad you like this one as well!

RainingHeart: Hehe, here's the next chappie! Thanks for coming to read this!

icydragon14: Im glad to see you like this story. Please keep on reading!

mangagurl101: Woot! Im so glad to see faces from my other fics! Thanks!

JapanAnimeGirl: Hehe, it's all right. The NejixOc is complete though, btw. That's why I started this one.