Chapter 15: What is with Sasuke?
'Welcome back,' he greeted them, smiling. Phire showed her arm for proof, as when she healed herself, she left the cut mark there for proof. Kakashi nodded, and they all went back to hokage-sama.
'Kakashi-sensei! You should've seen it! Phire was so cool at summoning all of the nature stuff! It was like whoosh, and she was like…' Naruto told all of the details to Kakashi, and he chuckled during some of it. He then looked to Phire.
'Phire-san, did they give you any trouble?' he asked. She shook her head.
'They did help, actually,' she told him with a serious face. He raised his eyebrow, and then smiled.
'Oh, well that's great to hear,' Kakashi smiled and looked at the 3 genin. Sasuke shrugged, Sakura just looked at Sasuke, and Naruto grinned.
'Our first S-rank Mission!' Naruto exclaimed. Kakashi sighed.
'It isn't; you just experienced what skills you need for an S-rank mission,' Kakashi told Naruto. Naruto made an angry face, and looked to Phire.
'But we guarded the scroll while you were off!' Naruto whined. Kakashi raised an eyebrow; she had gone off?
'Phire, where did you go, anyways?' Sasuke asked, walking next to her this time. Sakura was on his other side, of course, and Naruto was on Kakashi's side; Kakashi was on Phire's other side.
'Is it necessary to say? I just went off to… take care of some shinobi that were up ahead; they would've killed you 3 from a distance, and I would've survived, but I doubt that you three would,' Phire told them. It wasn't a lie, but she didn't say who the shinobi were.
'Who were the shinobi, then?' Sasuke asked. Phire sighed.
'Genin are not classified to know,' she told him. He glared.
'But we helped you; it wasn't even our mission,' he told her.
'I didn't ask you to come; you came because of your own will,' she countered his statement.
'Why did you take us as your responsibility then?' Sasuke asked.
'Because Hokage-sama told me to,' Phire countered again. Kakashi laughed, Sakura glared at Phire, and Naruto laughed at Sasuke.
'But your not even a Konoha ninja,' Sasuke said after a moment. Naruto was 'Oo'ing, and Sakura smirked at Phire. Finally, he defeated Phire; or did he? Phire looked at him.
'She's like my friend; I promised that you guys would come back safely, anyways; she made me,' Phire countered again. Sasuke sighed.
'Well, can't you tell us, anyways?' Sasuke complained. Phire used two fingers to push him away by hurting his forehead with 2 fingers. Sasuke widened his eyes and looked at Phire, seeing Itachi's eyes in hers.
'Forgive me, Sasuke, but'-
'Shut up!' Sasuke growled, interrupting Phire. 'You always tell me that!' she raised an eyebrow, and Kakashi looked at Phire, who didn't use any genjutsu at all.
'Always? I've only told you this one other time, Sasuke,' Phire told him, raising an eyebrow. She was confused at his behavior.
'Sasuke-kun, are you okay?' Sakura asked Sasuke, touching his shoulder. He shrugged her hand off, and then walked away.
'He needs to be alone, Sakura,' Kakashi told her. Sakura sighed, and Naruto was about to go after him, but Phire stopped him.
'Your sensei is right; listen to him,' she told Naruto.
'What would you tell me, Phire?' Naruto asked. Phire was startled.
'If I were your teacher, I'd spy on Sasuke and then tell you if he's okay or not, but I'm not your teacher, now am I?' Phire told him. Kakashi narrowed his eyes at her.
'How did you know I was going to spy on him?' Kakashi asked Phire. She giggled.
'Hey, it's just what'd I do,' Phire told him. 'Am I not a Jounin?' Kakashi smiled, and laughed.
'That is what a true Jounin would do; should do, actually,' Kakashi said. As they reached hokage, Kakashi left.
'I'll be back,' Kakashi told them. Phire went inside with Naruto and Sakura.
'Tsunade baa-chan!' Naruto yelled. Phire sighed, and Sakura sighed as well. (By the way, when Naruto screams 'Tsunade baa-chan,' it means 'Granny Tsunade'. He has the right to call her that, to an extent).
'What, Naruto!' She growled, but then saw Phire. 'Oh! Sorry, I'm just in a bad mood,' she apologized. Phire said that it was okay.
'Mission complete,' she told Tsunade. She smiled and nodded.
'I know; I was informed by the feudal lord of the land of tea that they have been making many medicines and weapons out of the plants,' Tsunade smiled and said. Phire nodded, and before she left, Tsunade called her.
'Phire, wait! Your reward money!' Tsunade yelled. 'Don't you want it?'
'I'm okay; ask the two genin here to split between themselves and Sasuke,' Phire said as she disappeared. Tsunade was surprised, and smiled.
'She is one strange Jounin, but I like her,' she thought. As Sakura and Naruto were fighting over the money, Shizune came in.
'Tsunade-sama, there is some more paper work for you,' she told her. Tsunade sighed, and Naruto and Sakura left.
As Sasuke walked among the fiery leaves hidden in the shadows, he thought about what he saw when he looked at Phire.
'How could I see Itachi? She seems… like almost a sister to me,' he thought. He was near a river, and when he looked in it, he saw himself, but then he saw his brother the night of the murder of the Uchiha clan. He slashed the water with a kunai, and panted.
'Itachi, I WILL KILL YOU!' Sasuke yelled, facing the sunset. Kakashi was spying on him, and he was confused; where did Itachi come from?
'How is it that he tells Phire to shut up and her brother have anything to…' Kakashi knew what was going on, and then wanted to go back, but decided to stay longer.
'I keep thinking that she's like my brother… I don't even know why, but… she's so similar to him!' Sasuke thought, looking into the river. He then closed his eyes, and looked into the relaxing sunset.
'I'm overreacting; what the heck was I thinking? It is just… I haven't heard those words… in that precise order… and… ugh, what the hell am I thinking, I'm just living in the past,' Sasuke muttered, shaking his head. He turned around, and saw the leaves moving with brief wind.
'Who was spying on me just now?' he thought as he went back to Hidden leaf.
'Sasuke-kun!' Sakura exclaimed, seeing Sasuke back. He didn't notice her until she was next to him with a hand on his shoulder.
'Huh? Oh, hi,' he said, still in his own world. Sakura tilted her head.
'You feeling better?' she asked him, really concerned. He shrugged.
'I've got to go, Sakura,' he said, leaving. She nodded, and left as well. When he reached the place he was staying before, Phire was there, waiting for him. He raised both of his eyebrows, startled, but then calmed down.
'Sasuke, are you alright?' Phire asked him. 'Did I say something that offended you? I didn't actually mean for you to take it so seriously, whatever I may have said.' He shook his head.
'It's not you, it's me just… I don't know, I think it may have been the exercise you taught us a while ago,' Sasuke lied. Phire saw right through him, but just went along.
'What, me discouraging you? You know that I was encouraging you; you said it yourself,' Phire told him. He nodded.
'I guess I wanted to beat Naruto as he did get higher than me, and I think I just took it seriously afterwards,' Sasuke told her. 'I'll be fine, honest; maybe I should just sleep it off.' She smiled, and then patted his hair gently.
'Then, I'll be going; it's already past 9 by 20 minutes,' Phire giggled. 'It's time for me to go, anyways.'
'So are you coming back tomorrow as well?' Sasuke asked. Phire remembered that she had to do research tomorrow, and she couldn'tcome back,but she told hokage-sama about it, so if it were cancelled, it wouldn't matter. Phire sighed.
'Unfortunately, I'm busy tomorrow, so I can't,' Phire told him. He sighed.
'Okay, fine,' he muttered, turning around and going towards his place.
'Bye then, little ni-chan,' she muttered, and disappeared. Sasuke raised his head and turned around, but she was gone.
'Ni-chan! Why did she called me ni-chan!' he thought, confused. The answer would soon reveal itself… okay, maybe not soon…