Author's Note: Hey guys! Sorry i'm still slow! forgive me, ne!

rikkufan: you can just click on my name up there (Anko-dono), so you can easily e-mail me. .
Spellcasterz: sorry Mitsuri's reaction here is sort of unclear... but in the end you'll see how it really affects her!
SpEcIaLxDoRk: thanks for liking this!
JapanAnimeGirl: here's another one! :)
xl-twisted-lx: here u go...
Rythmic: i'll try my best not to let you down! frustrating... but sugoi. hee-hee!
Everyone: Kurisumasu omedetou!!!

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NEW Author's Note (As of June 21, 2009): Major changes made. :D .

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Chapter Five: I'm Disappointed

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It was almost four o'clock when Mitsuri entered the Godaime's office. She found Tsunade enjoying a bottle of sake, her assistant sitting beside her. "Hokage-sama?"

"Oi! Mitsuri! You should be resting."

"Hey, Shizune-san. I didn't know you drank," commented Mitsuri, ignoring Tsunade.

"I don't!" Shizune poked her superior and stood up to leave. "I have to go now. See you!"

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"What are you doing, Sakura?" Sasuke couldn't help but frown. The pink-haired girl was too clingy for his taste, and he hated being touched. Yeah right, a voice inside his head mocked him. If Mitsuri touched you... he politely took his arm from Sakura's grasp.

"Listen, Sasuke-kun," she said. "Why don't we go out later? You know, to catch up on things." She acted as though she hadn't gone around asking Tsunade or Kakashi about Sasuke's life. She knew that he had become a jounin teacher and that he was working with Mitsuri, but she wanted to hear it from the love of her life himself.

"I don't know, Sakura. I still have something to do early tomorrow morning—"

"Please, Sasuke-kun! We'll go home early, ne..."

After a few minutes of not really thinking, Sasuke consented. Sakura beamed and jumped up and down joyfully just as she always did when they were younger. Afterwards, when he had reached home, Sasuke thought maybe he made the right decision when he agreed to go out with Sakura, because he needed a break from thinking about Mitsuri and her background that the Hokage had kept secret.

How did she end up on the late Sandaime's doorstep? Sasuke rested his head on the back of his couch and closed his eyes. He'd been spending a lot of time on that couch lately.

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"Mitsuri, there's something I have to tell you."

For a moment, Mitsuri was afraid. "What? You look so serious. Am I dying?"

Tsunade laughed. "No, you idiot." Then she became serious. "It's about your family."

That isn't any less scarier, Mitsuri thought, beginning to get goosebumps. "What about my family?" she croaked. "Are they alive?"

"No. You have no living relatives left. It's already confirmed. But I do know who they are and what happened to them."

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Rather confused about how she felt, Mitsuri went to the apartment of her former sensei.

"What's wrong? Mitsuri...?" Kakashi peered curiously at her blank face.

"Ne, Kakashi-sensei. What do you think about the Keiko clan?"

Kakashi fell silent, staring at her for a while. "Why do you ask?"

"I've been told that I belong to that clan."

I see. Tsunade talked to her already. He knew all about it, since the day Mitsuri was given to the Sandaime. He wondered how much Tsunade told her. "The Keiko clan is a great clan." He didn't show that he knew all about it.

"I... I don't quite know what to say. Sensei... you don't seem shocked at all."

Kakashi smiled. "Do you want me to be shocked?"

"Well, no. But don't you care? I just found out that I belong to a clan that's been dead for years. That's all Tsunade-sama told me, no other details. She and the Sandaime knew about my family all along. I don't understand anything. I don't even know how they died! It's not in the records. Is it even true that I was left on the doorstep?"

"Yep. Saw it with my own eye." He grinned at his own pun.

Mitsuri sprawled over the couch and groaned. "I am so so disappointed."

"Hn?"

She stood up and headed out the door. "My accomplishments are hardly anything to be proud of. Because I belong to a great clan." Then she left.

Quite startled at what the girl had said, Kakashi watched the door close. You couldn't read minds yet when you became a jounin. The clan's abilities weren't what got you through. It was your spirit.

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Sakura glanced at her watch. Eight-forty. They had planned to meet at seven-thirty, so were was Sasuke? Perhaps he got tied up with something. She looked around the restaurant. He'll be here. He won't let me down. Right?

Chandarou! The waiters are starting to give sympathetic looks! How many girls have been stood up here anyway? Stop looking at me you fools! Inner Sakura snarled and balled up her fists, very different from the calmly waiting girl on the surface. What if something went wrong? What if Sasuke-kun's in some sort of trouble?

One more hour passed and Sakura finally stepped out of the restaurant, red-faced and worried. 'I'll go to his house' she decided.

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"What are you doing here, Sasuke? It's nearly ten," Mitsuri said when she opened the door of her apartment.

"I-I... I have to tell you something."

Author's Note: -whew- this chapter is finally done. There's not much substance here but I'll make it up in the next chap. I can't update faster during this vacation after all... I mean, i'm always eating. And... and... take the guitar away please! I'm like staring blankly at the computer screen, but instead of thinking what to write next, I think about strumming the strings... :P ... I think I already know how to end this story but it's not for sure yet. Heheh.

Ugh. I also keep thinking about school and all. I still have a lot to do for the school paper and as soon as school reboots, there's this project I have to hand in. Ho hum. I hope my grades haven't gone down. One time my mother told me, "You're always facing the computer, you don't study anymore!" and I go thinking, "When have I ever studied?" -hugz you all-

Please tell me what'cha think by submitting a review or by e-mailing me! -Anko-dono-