Hey, here's the next chapter finally The internet was down today, so I had ton's of time to work on it. Tell me what you think, and thanks to all the people who sent me their AWESOME reviews! Gets warm fuzzies inside
Ch. 7
The she-wolf yawned, showing dagger-like canines as she stretched. The day was warm; the circle-that-glows warm on her golden fur. She let out a contented sigh as she flopped back down onto the soft grasses in front of her den. She let her eyes wander, coming to rest on a small ball of golden-red fur, her pup.
The little wolflet was romping alone through the stream, she being the only one of her brothers and sisters left. The water was warm on her paddy-paws, and the tiny fish darting around amused her to no end. She would lift her paws, splashing them down again, trying to catch the tiny silver fish.
The wolflet slipped at one point, her rump flying in the air as her head submerged under water for a second. The she-wolf lifted her lip, revealing a gleaming white canine, as an almost coughing sound came from her throat. She was laughing. It had been a long time since she had born any children, and when this young one had survived the sharp winter frost, the she-wolf could not have been more grateful.
Eventually, with the warming air and full belly, the she-wolf dozed off as the little one played in the stream.
After a while, the wolflet began to tire of the stream and its fish. She turned to her mother for fun, only to find her asleep. The little wolflet let out a little huff, then turned when a spark of shining red caught her eye. There was some sort of strange rock on the ground, about the size of her head and deep red in color. The wolflet tilted her head in curiosity, approaching the strange rock carefully. She bent down to sniff the thing and…
It moved. The wolflet snorted, jumping back in surprise, but the shiny stone paid no heed, slowly inching towards a thicket twenty yards away. The little wolf let out an excited yip and pounced towards the moving rock, only to grab dirt as it scooted just out of her reach. She crouched again, a false snarl playing her lips, and leapt at the stone. Again, it moved just out of her reach. She kept chasing it, moving closer and closer to the thicket. When the little wolf was almost in the thicket, the stone finally stopped, and she was able to pounce on it, biting softly. She turned her back to the thicket and lay down, tired from the chasing game, gnawing contentedly on the stone. Suddenly, the wind picked up, blowing from behind the thicket, towards her, and her nose twitched at the unnatural and dangerous smell the wind carried.
The she-wolf awoke immediately at the frightened yips of her pup. She looked up and down the stream bank frantically, not seeing the wolflet. Eventually, her eyes landed on the thicket, and her child being bared down on by a human hunter. The she-wolf let out a snarl colder than ice and in three gigantic bounds was in front of her pup. She snapped at the hand reaching for her pup, and the wielder was too slow, cursing as two of his fingers came off in the she-wolf's mouth. The brush next to him twitched, and another human jumped out with a thin, sharp rock. The mother wolf had just enough time to kick her pup into the deeper, swifter part of the stream before the humans fell upon her. As the wolflet struggled to keep her head above the now-frigid waters, the last image she had of her mother was the silvery blood spraying from her open throat…
Aori sat straight up, the covers that had been on her falling to her waist. She was breathing heavily, covered in a cold sweat. She brought a shaking and, she quickly realized, clawed hand to cover her eyes, slipping down after a few moments to cover her mouth.
When she had stopped shaking so badly, Aori brought her knees up, hiding her head behind them and putting her hands over the top. She should not be having such dreams, not right now. She took in a deep breath through her nose and realized that she wasn't outside. Her head snapped back up, her eyes wide as she looked around.
She was in an average-sized room, and everything was white. The walls, the floor, the lights, her bed and sheets, even the table next to her was white. She frowned, squinting from the whiteness of it all and tried to remember what had happened. She started to chew on her lip, thinking hard. Flashes of memory came to her. The three men, an attack, the pain in her head, then the shock that came from deep within her soul as she examined the yellow-haired man's body for wounds through the plants.
The door creaked open and Aori vaulted out of the bed, landing on the ceiling. She looked down to see Sasuke gazing up at her with raised eyebrows, and his right hand in a cast.
"Oh, pardon me. Did I surprise you?" Aori glared when she heard the laughter in his voice, letting her chakra go so that she fell from the ceiling, landing on her feet. She walked over to him, gently grasping his encased arm and bringing it up to look at with regret-filled eyes. She brought her purple orbs up to stare into his, the apology clear in their depths. He slowly drew his cast out of her grasp.
"It wasn't your fault Aori… You had no way of knowing that I was a friend, from what I could see." Aori nodded, signifying that she understood.
"Ah, Sasuke! Here you are! I was wondering where you had gotten to." Sasuke whipped around as Kakashi stepped into the hospital room. He felt slight movement behind him and tilted his head enough to see that Aori was crouched behind him, shaking slightly. Sasuke turned back to Kakashi.
"Is there something you need of me Sensei?" Kakashi just shook his head, a smile in his eyes.
"Nope, but Tsunade does. She wants you in her office right now. Oh, and, bring the girl…" Sasuke let out a weary sigh and nodded, heading for the door. When he realized that Aori wasn't following him, he turned back, his face perplexed.
"Aori, what's the matter?" Aori was still standing where he had left her, her eyes going from the floor, to Kakashi and back again. Neither of the other two ninjas could see the battle raging inside of her body. When the jounin had stepped into the room, she had recognized him immediately, and her heart had jolted a little to see the bandages wrapped around his chest. She had done that to him. Not only that, he was a man, full grown and powerful, and she was automatically rooted to the spot, the fear inside of her taking over her mind.
From the stillness of her body, and the way that she wouldn't look at Kakashi, Sasuke could roughly guess what was going through her head. He walked back to her as Kakashi looked on, his face as cheerful as always.
"Aori, you don't have to worry. Sensei isn't the type to get angry often, and I won't let him near you, if you don't want." Aori looked up at him, and Sasuke saw a swallow of relief flit through her eyes. She nodded, her hands clenching the fabric at her sides.
"Well, come on you two. I'd better get you to Tsunade-sama before she gets angry." With that, Kakashi turned, acting as if the one-sided conversation between his former student and the girl hadn't happened.
A few minutes later, Aori flopped down onto a wooden bench outside the doors leading to Tsunade's office. She and Sasuke had passed many strangers on the way, and it had been trying on her nerves to not turn and run. In fact, when they first stepped out of the room, and four ANBU had appeared next to them, Sasuke had needed to grab her arm to keep her from retreating back into the room.
Sasuke sat down next to Aori, touching her gloved hand gently, pulling her from her thoughts. She looked over at him.
"Do you mind telling me exactly why you jumped onto the ceiling when I came into your room?" Aori blinked slowly, and then shook her head. Sasuke was surprised to see shame on her face. He let out a soft sigh.
"Aori, look at me. Please." Aori closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, and then brought her head back up, the shame erased from her face. Sasuke caught her eyes with his and held their gaze.
"You don't need to keep secrets about you hidden from me. I won't keep any from you if you won't keep yours from me." Aori chewed slightly on her bottom lip, thinking. She opened her mouth to say something when the door behind her opened. She whipped her head around to gaze at a tired-looking blonde woman.
"Sasuke, you and the girl can come in now." Aori looked back at Sasuke as the young man rose from his seat. He walked to the door and stopped, waiting for her. Aori reluctantly stood up and followed Sasuke into the blonde woman's office.
"Please, both of you, sit down. We have a lot to talk about." Aori and Sasuke each took a seat in front of a large and disorganized mahogany desk. The blonde woman sat in the chair behind it, facing them. She leaned forward on the desk, resting her fingers in a steeple shape. All three sat there in silence for a few moments before Sasuke opened his mouth.
"Tsunade-sama, I-
Sasuke stopped as the blonde woman, Tsunade he had called her, held up her hand.
"Whatever it is that you need to say Sasuke, you will have your chance in a minute. I am the one who must speak right now." She sighed and pushed her chair away from the desk, getting up and walking around to lean on the front.
"First off. Are either of you hungry?" Sasuke and Aori both frowned at that, looking at her bewildered. Tsunade beckoned at a table behind them, tucked in next to the door. It was laden with meats and fruits, salads, and, of course, desserts. Sasuke turned back to Tsunade quickly, bowing his head slightly.
"Arigato Tsunade-sama." He got up from his seat and headed for the table, with Aori right behind him. They grabbed plates, and Sasuke loaded his with salads, fruit and a piece of pie. He looked over and watched as Aori piled on a slab of steak, pork, turkey, and some chicken. She then turned her attentions to the fruit dishes, adding oranges, apples and strawberries to her meaty meal. A few helpings of salad, and she headed back to her seat, Sasuke right next to her.
As they sat down, Tsunade stared in quite a bit of shock. Between the two of them, they had managed to take at least half of the food on the banquet table. After a few moments of watching them eat, Tsunade cleared her throat, focusing on Sasuke.
"First, welcome back Sasuke. You don't think it, but you were sorely missed by many people." Sasuke snorted at this comment, his mouth to full of salad to retort. Tsunade frowned at his behavior.
"Disbelieve me all you want, but it's true. I missed you, as did your Sensei, Sakura," another snort, "and especially Naruto." At the mention of the rambunctious youth, Sasuke paused to look up at the Hokage. Tsunade nodded.
"Yes, he really did miss you. I don't think you realize just how highly he regards you Sasuke." Sasuke just stared at her for another moment as an emotion that Tsunade couldn't quite discern passed through his eyes. She cleared her throat and spoke again.
"I will also need you to come in for a while one day so that I may get a full account of how and why you left Orochimaru." Sasuke just nodded, turning his attention onto his slice of blueberry pie. Tsunade just rolled her eyes before turning to the girl in the other chair.
"As for you g-g-g-…" Both teenagers looked up as Tsunade suddenly halted, staring at Aori's plate. She had watched the girl take more food than Sasuke, and already all that was left was a few pieces of lettuce that she was just finishing up, while Sasuke was barely half way through his pie with the fruit he had taken left to go.
"How did you…Never mind. There are more important things…" Tsunade trailed off before focusing back on the girl.
"First, I would like to know your name." She watched the girl's eyes flick over to Sasuke, who gave a slight shrug in return. The girl focused back on Tsunade.
"You may call me Aori, Hokage." Tsunade started, then gave a little chuckle.
"Perceptive girl, aren't we Aori?" She pace around to the back of the girl's chair.
"Well then. Aori, I need you to tell me why you attacked and injured three of Hidden Leaf's ninjas." Aori stared up at her for a moment, licking a bit of stray dressing from her lip.
"I was scared." Tsunade let out an unbelieving snort.
"Scared. That's funny, because as I watched you attack my men, you seemed completely calm and in control. Usually, a scared person can't move, or they act rashly when they attack. So nice try. How about telling me why you really attacked them? And NO lies this time." Aori took all of this in a stride, sitting there calmly the whole time. When Tsunade looked at her, awaiting her new answer, Aori just shrugged, her face carefully blank.
"I was scared." Tsunade stepped a few feet back from the chair, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, her jaw clenched.
"Fine then. If you won't answer that question honestly, perhaps you will my next one. After injuring them, when I said that I wasn't able to, why did you heal them?" This time, Aori glance over to Sasuke, who was just finishing up the last of his meal. He nodded, and she turned to Tsunade.
"Because they didn't deserve what happened to them…" Tsunade growled, getting more and more frustrated with this red-headed girl by the second.
"Would you care to elaborate that for me, Aori?" Aori blinked.
"No, I wouldn't." That was the last straw for the short-tempered Hokage. Faster than a person could blink, she had whipped around the chair Aori was sitting in, grabbing it by both arms, her nose mere inches from the girls.
"Listen to me you rude, little brat. You attacked three of my ninjas, and I have every reason to arrest you, and I mean EVERY reason. Now, I've tried being nice and civil, but when you feed me crackpot answers like you just gave me, you tread on very dangerous ground. Now, TELL THE TRUTH." Aori listened to the woman rant all of this, the only sign of her anger the clenching of her teeth. When Tsunade stopped to catch her breath, Aori opened her mouth to retort, but was stopped by Sasuke stepping in between the two of them.
"Tsunade-sama, not to disrespect you, but you're out of line. I know for a fact that every single answer that she has given to your questions is the truth. If you don't believe it, that's your problem, but do not take it out on an honest person." Tsunade stared at him.
"You're telling me that every single word that this girl has said has been true?" Sasuke nodded. "She hasn't lied to me, not once." Sasuke shook his head. "And you would be willing to bet your Uchiha blood line on that?" Sasuke grimaced at the reference, but nodded his head again. Tsunade let out a sigh, running her hand over her face.
"Very well then. If you believe her, and will swear on your blood line,I guess that I should consider her answers to be truthful too…" She turned to the blank-faced girl, giving her a weary smile.
"Please forgive me Aori. This job is stressful, and I can often misjudge people." Aori nodded her head, signifying that the Hokage had her forgiveness.
"Just one last question for you then. You may leave afterwards." At this both Sasuke and Aori nodded.
"How is it, that you, an untrained, seventeen-year-old girl, was able to heal three men that I, a master healer, could do nothing for?" Aori let out a soft sigh before answering.
"That, Hokage, is something that I do not plan on telling anybody for a long time." Sasuke and Tsunade frowned at thecryptic answer, but Tsunade had promised that they could leave, so she had to let them.
"Very well, you may go now." Sasuke and Aori bowed their head in thanks, then stood up, heading for the door.
"Oh, I forgot to ask…" The two teens froze, turning back to look at Tsunade.
"Aori, where are you going to be staying, if you are staying in Konoha?" Aori looked at Sasuke, who answered for her.
"She is going to be staying in one of the guest rooms of the Uchiha clan house, Hokage-sama. Her and I both thought that it would be best." From the girl's previous reaction to strangers, Tsunade had to agree.
"Alright then. Good day to you both. Aori, just try to not hurt anybody please, and welcome to Konoha."
Well, what do you guys think?
Sasuke: ... ... ... Aori, how in the world do you eat so much food and not gain weight?
Aori: Giggles That's a secret...
Sasuke: Huffs Everything is a secret with you...
Aori: Giggle
Sasuke: Grumble
... Riiiight. Well then, we'll just leave their opinions out for right now...;