Chapter Eight: Sasuke and Sachio Sarutobi
Smoke continued to fill the sky, and Kukikio knew it had been a day since she had put the fire out. Renjiro turned out to be a nice man, but she didn't think she could stay with them. She had a feeling that she had missed up history enough as it was.
In fact, she had a bad feeling that something had happened at Naka river when she was gone. Sighing, she looked at Sachio's sleeping face. Sasuke and Renjiro had gone off to find breakfast, but she was sure Renjiro wanted to talk to Sasuke. Or start his training.
"Are you going to come with us?" Sachio asked as he pulled himself up. She didn't know what to tell him, he was cute, but so were Itama and Nori. "Renjiro said you could, and he said he'd keep an eye out of our uncle."
"Someone needs to help Renjiro keep an eye on your uncle," she told him, that and she was worried about Hashirama and Madara, along with Itama and Nori. She didn't care that she had been friends with Hashirama and Madara for only close to a year, they were still important to her. "I'm almost eleven, Sachio, and my friends are almost fifteen. December isn't a good time to be picking up strays."
"But your not a stray."
"Don't worry, it's a term of expression."
"Do you think they'll miss you?"
Kukikio only blinked at his question, she knew Hashirama would miss her. He had shown her that when she returned from on of her two week long missions. She could only get jobs from people who couldn't afford to hire shinobis from clans. "If I stay away too long, they'd think I was dead."
"Do you think uncle tired to kill us?" Sachio asked his eyes wide as he looked into hers. He remembered the grief he felt when one of his friends had died during one of his missions. "He never like mum and dad, said they were too soft."
"He did," Kukikio said putting her hand on his head, before pulling him into a hug. He was too young, but she guessed during the clan war era, there wasn't a thing as 'too young'. "That fire wasn't one to scare you two, he meant to kill you. Sasuke is the rightful Clan Head."
"He's going to tell everyone that Sasuke and I are dead."
"Then things work out in the end. You'll see, everything happens for a reason."
"Yea, you need to be believe in time, Sachio," Sasuke said a pole over his shoulder, a few fish hanging off ninja wire. She would have to make not of that, since it might help her when she needed to catch fish. "We'll go back and bring the Sarutobi Clan back to their former glory. Once we're stronger."
"Renjiro will help," Sachio said a giant smile on his face, before hiding it in her shoulder. Kukikio wished she could go back to that childish mindset, but if she wanted to live. It was one mindset she could never get back, not after everything she had seen in her life.
"I promise," Renjiro said carrying a small pile of wood, it was safer to burn a camp fire during the day, then it was at night. That and he had the perfect place to train Sachio and Sasuke, he did owe their parents his life. It was a shame that he wasn't able to help them in time. "Kukikio would you like to join us?"
"I wish I could, but I have friends waiting for me. That and I can spy on the Sarutobi clan, I know for a fact that your not," she answered, she just hoped she was only a few hours away from the Naka river. "We lose too much to let go of everything in our lives, friendship is one of those things. Along with family. But I'll write and won't tell a soul about your location, even under torture."
"Loyalty and honour," Renjiro said a smile on his face as he put a hand on her head. "That's what a Samurai aims to live by, you best be on your way."
"Yes, thank you," Kukikio said but blinked when she was handed a piece of paper. But then she remembered she didn't tell them that she could simply track them down. "I won't tell a soul, I promise. Sachio, Sasuke, when we meet again."
"Okay, Kiki," Sachio said and she only shock her head at the nickname, a smile on her face as she made her way towards the Naka river. "Good bye."
-Snow-
Kukikio wished she had been wrong about her bad feeling, but it turned out she was correct. Sitting from her spot in a tree, she watched as two grown man threw kunai at Itama, along with a small boy she guessed was Izuna.
Looking at two grey stones in her hands, she threw them towards the weapons knocking them into the river. Jumping down, she appeared in the middle of Nori and Itama, both boys only looking at each other with sadness.
"Another one," the browned haired male whispered, his gaze still on Madara's father. Kukikio ignored him while unsealing her katana.
"We're outnumbered," Madara told his father, a scrowl on his face as he looked at her with bright red eyes. "Izuna and Nori can take out the brats, but Hashirama and Kukikio are stronger then I am."
Kukikio couldn't even look at Hashirama as she too retreated into the forest, like Madara had said. They were outnumbered, her more so then he was. But she didn't need to be caught up in their pity family fights.
"I'm sorry," she mouthed to Itama and Hashirama, Tobirama she only glared at, before masking her chakra so she couldn't be followed. "I'm so sorry."
Kukikio looked at her tree-house, tears going down her face. It would figure that the moment she was gone more then two week, that everything would fall apart. "Damn it, damn it. The next few years are going to be hell."
