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Chapter 16

Lost Memories

Uchiha Sasuke crawled through the gate of his clan's former compound. Followed by his sister, he edged towards the old place he used to call home. The umbrella in front of the entrance still was in the ground, though now it toppled over from years exposed to winds and any other natural cause. He glanced down at the little flower beds on the side of the wall. They were still blooming. Sasuke remembered helping his mother plant them. He would always end up getting himself covered in dirt.

Rei stood dead silent behind her brother. She could tell by the silence and how he was gazing at the flowers in bloom that he was deep in his past already. To her disappointment, she still couldn't remember anything about her childhood. She hesitated, but then put her hand reassuringly on his shoulder. Rei didn't expect him to do anything. So you can imagine that she was a little shocked when Sasuke put his hand on hers. Rei smirked as they continued walking into the building.

Sasuke walked without a sound, Rei doing the same. The only thing they could hear was the soft rustle of the trees outside and the crows calling out. She glanced at all the old dusty furniture that was left.

"Recognize anything?" Sasuke turned his head at Rei. She sighed and shook her head. Sasuke reached over and lightly swept his fingers over the kitchen counter. "My…erm, our mother used to cook here all the time. You tried to cook once and got burnt. Even when you got burned, you didn't cry though. You kind of just…sat there looking at the burn, oblivious to how much it hurt. You know…I don't think I've ever seen you cry."

Rei shyly looked at him and changed the topic as she saw that the refrigerator had old papers being hung by magnets on it. She walked over to it and lightly took the papers down, and then blew on one. It struck her like blinding light;

There a younger Rei sat, drawing on a paper with what else? Crayons! It was stick like but very sweet all the same. Currently she was drawing a tall person that was at the end of the "family picture." The room was in a tatami mat style and she was drawing on the table. That's when a younger version of Sasuke walked in and towards her.

"Whatcha drawin Rei?" He asked. Rei looked up at him and said,

"A picture of our family! You can draw too! Here's a piece of paper!" and then she handed him a sheet. Sasuke was reluctant to sit down and DRAW. I mean, that's a wussy thing right?

"You should be training! ESPECIALLY if you want to be like Itachi-niisan!" Sasuke retorted.

"But I AM training! Besides, I don't WANT to be like Itachi-san," Rei said as she put the sheet of paper back down.

"For what?"

"BOTH an artist AND a kunouchi!"

"How can drawing be anything useful for a kunouchi?"

"BECAUSE I'm gonna make up this jutsu and it has to do with drawing! AND it helps creativity which you can use during missions on what to do when your in a tight situation AND it steadies your hand and makes it less shaky when you do delicate things like throwing needles precisely and it's just overall a good way to express your feelings!" Rei stated, though the only thing she meant true was the jutsu part. Sasuke remained quiet. Rei looked down at her paper and continued drawing. After a couple of moments in silence, Sasuke looked back down at the blank paper in front of him. He looked away from Rei as he sat down and took a crimson red crayon.

Rei looked at the dusty picture, feeling a little feint. She held that charming little picture. HER charming little picture. She toppled onto one of the remaining chairs and looked up at Sasuke.

"What? What just happened?" Sasuke asked as he came over to his sister and glanced at what she was holding. "Do you remember anything?"

"YUP! Just a little though. Just when I drew this and convinced you to draw something too," she replied. Sasuke showed a hint of a smile, "Well, you should keep looking at those then."

The rest of that day went on like that. Rei kept remembering and eventually remembered almost all her past life. Sasuke helping her clear up her memories more. Telling her the things she doesn't remember.

Kitei continued visiting Serenity in hope of finding a clue about his mysterious person. He kept repeating the person's name over and over in his head. Modenta Seija. He wouldn't tell anyone about the compass, for whenever he found something important and told his family they'd always say, "Really? Well, don't worry about it, we'll take over," and that's exactly what they did leaving Kitei out, not even bothering to tell him the outcome. There was only one clue he found. That the person was a little older than him. He could tell this from the footprints along the river after he had found the compass, but by the time he used Byakugan, the person was nowhere in sight. He didn't lose hope though. Sooner or later, the person would have to be nearby there again, right?

All in the meanwhile, Kotetsu was in the academy, in the room where each shinobi in the village took their missions and finished them. He was looking through the C rank missions. I mean, his team has to be tired of D rank missions, right?

He got an approval by Hokage to be able to look through the missions himself. To personally pick what they'd go on. Kotetsu was setting aside a mission about a loose tiger sent in by the mist, when the doors opened and someone walked in. Kotetsu looked up and saw the strict teacher of team 11: Anko.

"Hello, Anko," Kotetsu greeted her. Anko strode towards him, giving the impression that she was there to do the same thing.

"Kotetsu? What're you doing here?" she asked him.

"Same reason you are, I presume," He replied.

"Yes, if your looking for a more challenging mission," Anko said as Kotetsu pushed aside another scroll. He then nodded and gestured to the pile of scrolls he'd already looked through. Anko sighed. If those many D-rank missions aren't challenging, then I might just take a B-rank...this is going to take a while she thought as she sat down in an extra seat across from Kotetsu.

The two searched through the scrolls, and even glanced at some B-rank missions. The clock ticked by until a while later. The day slowly drew into night when they had finally narrowed their selection of missions down to a mere two. One for both, but there was slight problem. Kotetsu reached for the mission he preferred, but so did Anko. Normally, Kotetsu would let her take it, but compared to the other one, his team would have serious complaints about it. So all that time of searching would be for nothing.

"Er, Anko, if you wouldn't mind if I could have this one?" Kotetsu asked, holding up the scroll in the middle of the desk.

"Sorry Kotetsu, but my team will for sure complain if I get the other," Anko said, but even if she said it politely, Kotetsu knew she wouldn't let go of it. After she made up her mind, she's made up her mind. They stared at each other, thinking of a way to solve this problem. The one lamp flickered on and off above their head as crickets played their songs outside. Kotetsu knew that something had come alight in Anko's head as she slowly smirked, giving him a challenging look.

"Yes, Anko?" he asked.

"Why fight over this mission? Why not...share it?" and finally Kotetsu realized that she was challenging him a race.

"You mean, we both take up the mission, and see who can finish it first?" he asked.

"Yup! And whoever loses, means that they don't get the reward money, so it would just be a whole waste of time!" Anko said. Kotetsu considered her suggestion, then held out his hand,

"But remember, this is just friendly competition, right?"

"Yup," Anko chipped, "Just friendly competition." and she shook Kotetsu's hand of which held the scroll. Your completely right, Kotetsu, this is just some friendly competition..."friendly" alright...