(3rd Person POV)
When Sen and Kakashi arrived at training area 44 it was deserted aside from the rest of team 7. Sakura and Naruto both looked pissed while Sasuke just stood there presumably conversing with Ibiki. Sen ran up to Ibiki and hugged him, previous anxiety entirely forgotten.
"Oh, Sen. I'm glad to see you're awake. Any better?" Ibiki asked hugging his adopted son.
Sen nodded vigorously and replied, "Yeah papa. I feel a lot better." Kakashi smiled under his mask and gestured signalled to Ibiki, telling him it was time for them to leave the three twelve-year-olds and single 13-year-old to their own devices. Ibiki ruffled Sen's hair once more and left with his husband. Sen smiled again and waved to them as they left after they had disappeared from sight he turned back to his team to ask what the plan was.
"We're 20 minutes off track because you decided to take a nap!" Sakura yelled at Sen as he was about to ask what he had missed. Sen flinched at her tone and volume and hid awkwardly behind Sasuke.
"Hey leave him alone. He's here now and I don't think to force him into a panic attack will help us get any of our time back. Kami Sakura, it's only 20 minutes." Sasuke said bluntly. Sakura backed down and they entered training ground 44.
"Hey! Sasuke! I think I remember this place. It looks like the place we went looking for Itachi and got lost."Sen exclaimed, jumping onto an upturned rock. Sasuke flinched slightly and nodded, he was still unused to the mention of his older brother in such a casual sense.
"Yeah, it does. Hey, Sen." Sasuke said to get his older cousin's attention.
"Yeah, what is it Sasuke?" Sen asked looking down at the trio on the ground.
"Can you go and scout for the hideouts of some other teams. And remember we need an earth scroll okay?" Sasuke ordered. Sen smiled and nodded then took off into the forest. When Sen was out of sight Sasuke turned to his remaining teammates and sighed, "Sakura, I want to make something clear. Sen's anxiety is uncontrollable, he has no idea when it'll pop up or how bad it'll be. But I know that it mostly comes from his fear of disappointing others. If you ever talk down to him or say something that makes him think he let us down again, I will have to do something I won't soon regret. Got it?" Sasuke said in a hostile manner and turned to Naruto, "Naruto please make a fire with Sakura, in the meantime, I'm going to go find some food." He said as he walked further into the forest. Sakura and Naruto just stood there dumbfounded for a while then began scrambling to get the fire started.
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(Sen's POV)
I leaped through the trees scanning the ground for any sign of life, and as I did this I began to think to myself.
'I wonder why Sasuke asked me to do this? I bet he just needed to split us up to get the work done faster...wait...what am I supposed to be looking for again?'
'WELL SCORPLING IT'S GOOD FOR YOU THAT I LISTEN IN ON ALL OF YOUR CONVERSATIONS. YOUR COUSIN TOLD YOU TO LOOK FOR THE EARTH SCROLL. I HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE WHAT YOU WOULD DO WITHOUT ME.' Aki said in my head.
'I don't know what I would do without you ether, I would probably fall apart.' I thought back to him. I looked for about 10 more minutes before I was going to return to Sasuke and the others, but suddenly I heard what sounded like fighting. I stopped and hid behind the trunk of the tree I was standing in. I would've jumped into the fray but I knew I shouldn't jump in without a plan. When I heard the area under me I waited for a few minutes before jumping down to the ground to look around. The base of the tree that I was standing in a mere seconds ago was all cut up and had about 20 kunai buried into its bark, while the ground was covered in a massive amount of blood. After getting over the initial shock of the state of the area around me I decided to search the bodies lying motionless around the base of the tree, presumably dead. I approached the corpses slowly, this all seemed so familiar but I couldn't place the event. I had just begun to reach for the first corps when the realization hit me like a bag of bricks. The quick delivery, the silent kill, the copious amount of blood; I had seen this before. When my and my prior team had gone on that mission to Iwa ... when I ... when I had first killed.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX(Flashback brought to you by Author-Kohai)XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
(Sen's POV)
"Sen! Sen! Pull back and let Gai-sensei take care of them!" TenTen shouted at me as the rouge shinobi began circling around the small team of Konoha nin.
"I... I ... I can't... I can't freaking think!" I shouted frantically. We were surrounded by 12 rouge jonin level shinobi.
'HEY, SCORPLING. CALM DOWN, CALM DOWN. WE'RE GONNA BE FINE.' I heard Aki say in my head. I shook my head and nodded vigorously and screamed, My mind was racing and I just couldn't think. The last thing I could remember was TenTen screaming before I blacked out. When I came to I was sitting on the ground with my team screaming at me. I opened my eyes and all I saw was red, just blood red. When I could finally focus I looked around at the faces of my teammates. Their faces were spattered with blood and gore, I looked around me in a wider range and all I could see for what seemed to be miles was torn apart bloody corpses. I took a step towards my team and I heard a loud squelch, I looked down slowly and stared in horror at the kidney I had just squashed. As I looked back up at my team I had noticed they were slowly backing away from me, and who could blame them I had just slaughtered a dozen rouge jonin level shinobi. I looked around me at the horrific carnage surrounding me and turned to run. As I ran I could hear them shouting for me to come back, but how could I? How could I subject them to such horror and danger again? What was I thinking to enter the academy in the first place? How could I subject the world to such danger? I'm so sorry mom! I'm so sorry!
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX(Flashback end brought to you by Author-Kohai)XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
(Sen's POV)
I shivered at the memory, after that mission I only had one more field mission with team 9. And I killed again during that one. I breathed in deeply in order to calm myself, it was the past and I shouldn't blame myself. Just like dad says, I am only the container, I am not the beast itself.
'no offence Aki.' I told the scorpion in my head.
'DON'T WORRY SCORPLING, NONE TAKEN. NOW GET ON WITH THE SEARCH, I'M SURE SASUKE IS GETTING WORRIED.' Aki-Kin replied, reassuring me. I nodded in agreement and again inched closer to the bodies, I could still feel the heat radiating off of them. Darn these heat sensors to heck, I hate them sometimes.
'GOODNESS, SUCH STRONG LANGUAGE SCORPLING. MY WORD.' Aki teased me.
'Oh stick a sock in it Aki.' I shot back.
'OH, I MUST'VE STRUCK A NERVE'. Aki laughed. I mentally glared at him and he just laughed again. I took another deep breath and reached into the first corps' pocket. I felt around the pouch of fabric until I felt a scroll. I grabbed it and pulled it out if the pocket, it was an earth scroll, just the one we needed. I pocketed the scroll and was about to head back to the campsite when I saw what looked like Sasuke run past me. Without thinking I turned around to follow him.
"Hey, Sasuke! I got the scroll! Just like you asked!" I shouted at him. He stopped and turned to face me, which made me stop. He sure looked like Sasuke, but he wasn't. First his eyes were magenta, not black, then his hair was too long, being pulled up in a short ponytail and had a little patch of red in it.
'UM, SEN. HE'S FROM SAUNA. LOOK AT HIS PROTECTOR.' Aki said pointing out one of the most obvious differences that I should've noticed.
"Sasuke? I haven't heard that name since... who are you?" The Sasuke look-alike said to me sceptically.
" I'm Sen Hatake. And who might you be?" I asked in return.
"Sen Hatake... that sounds so familiar. I'm Matt Uchiha..." He answered. My eyes widened in shock.
"M...M...Matty...is...is that really you?" I asked, still trying to process the information. Could this really be...Matt?
He looked at me, confused and said, "Matty? The only person other than my siblings was... Sen... Sen is that really you?" I nodded vigorously and started to tear up, it really was Matt! He smiled widely and tackled me into a hug, and I hugged back. "You're alive?! How?! How are you alive?!" he screamed. I was crying profusely at this point.
" I wasn't at the compound when it happened, dad moved when grandpa wouldn't let papa live there with us. I'm sorry..." I replied quietly, not wanting him to hear me. Sasuke refused to even look at me for a month after the massacre when he found out. But Matt just shook his head and hugged me tighter. I began to cry harder and I buried my face in his hair, he was about the same height as Sasuke so I had about 7 cm on him.
"Wait, " he said pushing me away again, "does this mean that Sasuke is alive?!" I nodded as he cringed harshly.
"Matt? Are you okay?" I asked, steadying him as he swayed, almost toppling over.
"Yeah...I'm just...fi..."He started to say but passed out before he could finish. I caught him before he fell to the ground.
'COME ON SCORPLING WE SHOULD GET HIM BACK TO THE OTHERS AND GIVE SASUKE THE NEWS.' Aki said to me in a calming tone. My anxiety had begun to climb when I had stumbled upon the bodies, but now I was at breaking point. Sasuke and I weren't the only survivors and so many things were happening all a once.
'okay, Sen...it's okay...you're fine... I'm fine...' I thought to my self as I headed back to the campsite with Matt on my back. When I arrived I found a fire going and some fish were cooking over it. I chuckled at this and set Matt down by the fire. After I had gotten him settled I pulled out the scroll I had kept all our bentos in and layed them all on the ground surrounding the fire. I took the fish off the fire before they burned so that Matt could eat them. I was just settling down to wait for the others when I felt something poke my back, acting on instinct I grabbed the offender's hand and flipped them onto their back, efficiently knocking the wind out of them.
"Wow, Sen. It's okay. It's just Sasuke. Anxiety that bad huh." I heard the perpetrator gasp.
'Oops,' I thought, yanking my hand away.
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(3rd Person POV)
'Wow, Sen is jumpy. His anxiety must be acting up again.' Sasuke thought to himself as he got up from being thrown by his older cousin. He could tell that Sen was feeling terrible from the way his shoulders were slightly shaking to the way his eyes were frantically searching for anything that could be considered a threat. Sasuke sighed and approached Sen slowly, frowning when Sen flinched as he touched him. Sasuke sat on the ground just behind him and tried to remember what his uncle Kakashi had told him to do when Sen got like this. As he wracked his brain for a solution he heard a groan come from behind the fire. Sasuke looked in the direction of the noise and saw a boy around his age that was practically identical to him.
"You need to apply pressure on him." The boy said, stiffly sitting up.
"What?" Sasuke asked, not understanding what was just said to him.
"Apply pressure. Uhg. Just hug him tightly and it should help." The boy explained. Sasuke nodded and brought Sen into a tight hug, which Sen greatly relaxed into. Sasuke sighed in relief at this.
When Sen had calmed down enough Sasuke let go and turned to the mystery boy and asked, "Who are you? And how did you know how to help him?"
The boy chuckled and replied, "I'm not surprised you don't remember me that night was five years ago and you probably thought I died like everyone else, but no, I am very much alive, tomato." That last comment made Sasuke flinch.
"Wait...tomato...? The only one who knows about that was...Matt?" Sasuke pondered out loud.
Matt smirked and replied, "Right on the money, tomato. I see you're as helpless as usual."
Sasuke glared, "And I see you're as cocky as ever, Matt." Sasuke shot back.
The two of them laughed and looked at each other in a sort of nostalgic understanding. Sen looked up from his spot and looked at his surroundings in his somewhat calm state. "Hey Sen, you feeling any better?" Sasuke questioned the taller male, awkwardly hunkered down into his chest.
"Yeah, how are you feeling?" Matt asked in agreement.
"I feel a lot better, thanks. Sasuke, you'll never believe who I found!" Sen said excitedly.
"Let me guess was it Matt Uchiha? Our long lost, presumed to be dead cousin." Sasuke replied with mock surprise. Sen nodded and turned to Matt.
"Oh, you guys were talking. Sorry," he said quietly.
"Don't apologize. God, you're still apologizing for things you have no control over. How does tomato put up with you?" Matt sighed in irritation. He would never admit it but he had missed Sasuke's rotten ass.
"Hey, Sasuke! I made everyone bentos before the exams. And I got the earth scroll just like you asked." Sen said, returning to his cheery demeanour. Sasuke looked at him, surprised.
"What? I just asked you to scout for teams with earth scrolls. You didn't have to get one. Are you ok? You could've been hurt." Sasuke gasped and checked Sen for injuries.
Sen shook his head and replied, "No, I didn't have to fight anyone. I just found it on some corpses deeper in the forest." Matt sighed and bit into a cooked fish that Sen had set down beside him.
"Hey! That's our food!" Naruto and Sakura shouted in unison as they ran into the campsite.
"Naruto, Sakura. Sen made us bentos. He can have the fish." Sasuke said irritably at his team when they had finished shouting. Kami those two gave him one hell of a headache. The two looked around and found their bentos and sat down, still glaring at Matt.
"Well, hello. I'm Matt Uchiha. I'm Sen and Sasuke's, cousin." Matt introduced himself. Sakura blushed while Naruto just ate his delicious ramen. 'Well this is gonna be a long night.' Matt thought to himself as he took another bite of his fish.