Chapter 3
things in the [ ] are author's notes. Brackets are rarer for people to use than parenthesis, so I'll use brackets for my little add-ins.
Sentences in italics are a character's thoughts
flashbacks [i don't know if it'll be used in this chapter but oh well]
Re-cap:
"You and your family are not safe here it seems, and no other place is safe for such things since they already know about the new Uchihas. You're going to have to go somewhere else until the baby is born, I think."
"And where would that be?"Sasuke asked. Tthe Hokage thought for a moment, and then she replied with one word:
"America."
------------------------
"America?" The Uchiha stared at the Hokage. "Are you sure about that?"
Tsunade nodded. "I believe that Natsumi mentioned that she had been there before, and that she had a friend over there. You know enough English to get around there right?" she asked the man before her. When he nodded she said, "Good. So, you and the family must pack up some, not all, of your belongings and get on a flight to America. I'll lend you guys some money to help you get a hotel or something. Make sure to pack to where it looks like a mission as to make nobody suspicious, and then meet me at the front gate."
"Understood Hokage-sama."
She looked at the assassin who was still knocked out on the floor. "I'll get someone to bring him to the interrogation unit. Dismissed."
Sasuke left the Fifth Hokage's office and started to run back to the Niikyo-Uchiha household. When he arrived at the balcony he saw Natsumi getting her backpack and putting some clothes in it. Sasuke walked over to her and looked at her bag. It was her charmed backpack that is more of a bottomless pit than a bag, yet it weighed as if it was about ten pounds at the heaviest.
"Tsunade-sama told us that we have to move to America," Sasuke said.
"Thought so," Natsumi mumbled. "Good thing that I have some friends in America." She glanced at her husband. "How much English do you know?"
"I know English pretty well, don't worry. How about the kids and May?"
Natsumi answered whlie putting in more clothes. "Mayume and I are language experts Sasuke, we'll be fine. As for the children, Yin knows English very well; Nhamo can get by with the language; Yang is good at it, and Hunter knows it really well but doesn't talk much."
"Alright. Are the others awake?"
"Mayume is waking them up as we speak. Now go pack up Sasuke, we have to try to leave before most of the village wakes up."
Sasuke nodded in agreement and walked to the other side of the bedroom to grab his backpack. He then began to put the most used and casual clothes he could find into his bag. When both of them were done packing the essentials, they went downstairs to wait for the rest of the family to be ready. As soon as Yin came out with her backpack, the Niikyo-Uchiha family went out of their home and locked the door. They all headed to Konoha's front gates.
* * *
Tsunade was standing by the side of the gates, watching the street for anyone who walked by. When she saw the Uchiha-Niikyo family, she sighed in relief. Once they were standing in front of her, she spoke. "Alright, you all are going to hide in a new place where any assassins would find it hard to find you. When the baby is born, try to stay there for a while. I will try to call you all to make sure that everyone is okay. Here is some money to help you start." The Fifth gave Sasuke the small bag of money.
"You will need new names and looks. The great thing about this family is that I do not have to worry about that, I know that you can blend in well. Good luck to all of you." Tsunade took a good look at the family. She saw the genin Natsumi and Sasuke and the tough Mayume from so long ago. She also saw the small children that were Yin, Yang, Nhamo, and Hunter. Looking at the present selves of them, Tsunade saw the incoming baby. The Fifth Hokage placed a hand on Natsumi's stomach.
"I wish this little one a safe journey," she whispered. She looked up at Natsumi to see her nod. Tsunade couldn't help herself from giving Natsumi a hug. She would miss her helper, and Tsunade knew that her sensei, Sarutobi, had been looking after the Niikyo and her twin ever since their clan had died. The woman wished that no harm would come to them all. After several other goodbyes, the Fifth watched the seven, soon to be eight, people leave down the road into the horizon of the rising sun.
Once the walking specks disappeared into the sun, Tsunade turned and walked leisurely back to her office, moving thorugh memories of the times when the new adults of Konoha were just genin. She stopped at the stairway to her office and laughed quietly to herself.
"I'm getting old." With that she started to walk up the stairs to her office and piles of paperwork.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Mayume was staring out the window of the airplane, looking at the ocean below. The sun reflected off the surface of the blue water, shining it into her eyes. She looked away from the vast body of water and looked next to her at her twin sister, Natsumi. She had her eyes closed, and headphones were in her ears to let her listen to music as she took a nap. Mayume tuned her mind into her sister's head and saw that she was having no nightmares, which was good. The woman then tuned her mind to hear the baby's, Cari's, thoughts. Cari was perfectly content with the music, and Mayume laughed quietly to herself. She then stared at the front of the plane, not really focusing on anything.
Which state were we landing in again?Mayume thought about that for a minute. She and Natsumi had several American friends. One group of them lived in New York, but that place is too busy, too noisy. Florida? Probably not, hurricanes and all that, plus the houses are nice, but kind of pricey. That left one other place, California. Natsumi had a really great friend in California, and that friend happened to have a fairly large house. I guess that's where we're going...
The Niikyo began to wonder about the time it would be for them to stay in America. Five months after the baby is born? Six? Ten? A year after the birth of Cari? If so, then the family had best get a job -- they can not stay in their friend's house for a year. Doing so would be very rude. Finding a job...that will be a bit easy. Mayume and Natsumi spoke superb English, and so they could get a job pretty fast. Yin and the boys could find jobs pretty easy. Wait...they were only sixteen...
Sixteen-year-olds have to go to school. That's great...new identities and new schools for the kids. Excellent.Mayume continued to think out the bumps in the road ahead of them the rest of the flight.
* * *
The airplane finally landed in San Fransisco, California at 3:15P.M. Mayume woke up Natsumi and helped her out of the plane. While the girls of the family waited in the lobby, the boys went to get the family's luggage. Once everyone had their belongings, they stepped outside so Natsumi could call her friend. After several minutes of talking on her cell phone, Natsumi hung up.
"Launa will be here in about twenty minutes," she said. "Okay, roll call!" she said in English. "Jordan!"
Yang replied in English, "Here."
"Nathan!"
"Here." [Nhamo]
"Jennifer!"
"Here." [Yin]
"Hunter!"
"Here." [Guess this one, hehe]
"Kelsy!"
"Here." [Mayume]
"Kyle!"
"I'm right next to you honey." [Sasuke]
"Oh...right. Okay, everyone is accounted for. I want all of you, kids, to be on your best behavior while we stay at Ms. Rodriguez's house, understood?"
"Yes Mother," the teens replied. The mother carefully sat down on the bench, and then the family began to wait. Twenty minutes passed, and a blue mini-van pulled up a little ways down the sidewalk. The van honked, and Natsumi stood up and walked toward the car. Everyone else followed. The passenger window of the van rolled down to reveal a little girl with dirty blond hair and blue eyes. She smiled at Natsumi and giggled with joy.
"Nattie!" the little girl squealed.
"Hi Amy!" Natsumi [Natalie] said. She peered past the little girl and to the driver. "Hey Luana."
"Natalie! It's been years since I've seen you! Look at that belly!" The driver was a woman with lightly tanned skin, which still gave the look of white skin, and brown hair with natural blond highlights. Her hazel eyes were glowing with delight. Luana looked at the people behind Natalie. "This must be the family I had heard so much about!"
"Yes, they're all here this time," Natalie replied.
Launa nodded and waved her hand. "Get in! We're holding up the line!" Everyone did as she said and got into the van. Amy moved to the middle bench and sat on Kelsy's lap while Natalie took the passenger seat. Kyle sat next to Kelsy, and Jennifer sat in the back of the car along with Nathan and Hunter. Jordan volunteered to sit on the floor by the door, saying that it was comfy where he was. Once everyone was settled, Launa drove off into the afternoon traffic and up the steep street to where the larger, more expensive houses were.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The blue Ford Windstar parked next to a silver Mercedes in the driveway of a large, pale yellow two-story house. There was a first screen door that opened to the blocked front porch and another door that led to the inside of the house. Natalie and the family got out of the car and walked up to the house, carrying their backpacks, while Launa carried Amy ahead of them to unlock the first door. Luana put her daughter down and held the door for her guests as they entered the house. She then followed them inside once the last person walked through the doorway.
The entryway was very open with black and white tiled floors and a white painted staircase that went upstairs. To both sides was an opening, the one on the right had the floor change into a beige carpet while the one on the left lead to a grey tiled floor. There was a circular window near the ceiling that let some sunlight into the entryway, shining like a spotlight only a meter away from the group. Little Amy ran ahead into the spotlight and danced around in its warmth, giggling.
"Did you remodel while I was gone Launa?" Natalie asked. She took off her shoes and looked at the scene again. Luana smiled as she, too, took off her shoes.
"Well, after my husband got promoted we had enough money to fix up the place." She walked ahead and scooped up Amy. "Come on, I'll give you guys a tour." Everyone took off their shoes and followed their hostess to the carpeted area to the right. "This is the living room."
Again, the room was spacious, but this one was filled with shelves that held photographs in wooden or metal frames, cushioned chairs and two large sofas. There was a large television screen at the end of the room hung up on the light yellow wall. Next to it was a stone gas-lit fireplace with fake, yet realistic, burnt logs inside along with what looked like ashes. Paintings of an ocean view were hung up on the wall around the room as well as family photos. Luana led the family out of the living room out another doorway into the black and white tiled hallway. She took them into the other room with the grey-green tiles.
"Here is the kitchen." The kitchen was a bit smaller than the living room. The refrigerator was about four meters tall and was a meter wide. There was a stove and oven nearby it, separated by a low cupboard. The cupboards were made of mahogany wood and the counter was a black marble. A microwave sat at the end of the counter on top of a small non-slip mat. The sink and dishwasher was another counter section on its own, and connected to that was a small bar with black marble as well. Beyond the bar was a large, polished, reddish brown wooden table with matching chairs. The kitchen was absolutely spotless, and the family figured that Luana has maids to help with that. The woman led them out of the kitchen and into the hallway again.
"Down the hallway is the nursery, the bathroom, Amy's room, mine and my husband's room and my office. Upstairs to the left are two guest rooms and my husband's office. To the right are two more guest rooms and a bathroom." Luana looked at the family. "So, what do you think?"
Natalie replied, "Luana Rodriguez...did you win the lottery?" Luana laughed.
"I guess in a way I have, the woman replied. Anyway, would you like to introduce me to your family before I go to work, Mrs. Johnson?" Natalie nodded.
"This is my husband, Kyle." Natalie put an arm around a man with slightly long black-ish brown hair that was down. His dark brown eyes were deep, and he had a small smile on his face. [yeah I don't know if that looks cute or not but oh
well] Kyle nodded to Luana, who smiled back.
"Very handsome," she commented. Natalie waved to a boy with the same hair color as Kyle's but had green eyes like his mother.
"This is Jordan." She walked between two boys with reddish-brown hair like their mother and blue-grey eyes. "These twins are Nathan and Hunter." And she walked over to a girl with black hair and grey blue eyes. "This is my daughter Jennifer." Finally she hugged her twin. "And you already knew Kelsy."
Luana nodded. "Of course. Now who's the one in the tummy?" Natalie smiled at her friend, and then she placed a hand on her stomach.
"This little one will be my second daughter, Cari," she replied.
"Okay. So we got Kyle, Jordan, Nathan, Hunter, Jennifer and Cari Johnson as well as Kelsy Davis."
"That is correct." The Johnson-Davis family smiled at the woman. Luana smiled back, and Amy, who was clinging to her mother, giggled again.
Luana looked at her watch. "Oh! I gotta go! I'm leaving you to unpack and make yourselves at home. I'll be back soon!" Luana kissed her daughter's forehead and set her down on the tile floor. She ran off to her office and came back with a black business coat and a laptop bag. The woman headed toward the door. "Buh-Bye!"
After a minute of silence, Natalie clapped her hands together. "Well, let's all sit in the living room and watch some TV I guess," she said.
"Yeah! On the huge plasma screen TV!" Jordan said with a hint of enthusiasm. He and his brothers ran into the living room to the sofa. Jennifer followed her brothers, shouting for them to stop running before they hurt themselves or break something. Kelsy walked along behind Yin. Amy walked up to Natalie and held her hand. Natalie looked down and smiled at the little girl.
"Come on Amy, let's go see what everyone else is doing." She walked with Kyle on one side and Amy on the other down the hallway to the living room.
Woo, that was a lot of decription. I might have sucked at describing some things (mainly the people) but thanks for reading through it. This chapter took a while. The time thing for the flight and all took me a bit to figure out, so if I got it wrong, whatever.
Review please!
~RedWolf210