Chapter 3.- Early Morning Revelations

"Train me." Was all Sakura said, her eyes fixed on Hirome.

"What?" Hirome seemed quite confused.

"I want you to train me, Onegai." Sakura insisted.

"Why do you want me to train you Sakura-san?" Hirome asked.

"I saw you back at the gates, and Naruto-kun told me of your fight with Itachi, you're a wonderful jounin." Sakura explained.

"Arigato for the compliment, but that still doesn't explain me for what reason it is you want me to train you."

"I'm tired of feeling useless. I'm tired of feeling I bring more problems than solutions to Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun. They always have to risk themselves to save me, I don't want that to continue. I want to be able to fend for myself; I want to be able to help Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun instead of just being helped by them. Onegai, let me be your student."

All of those currently in the room were truly surprised of the way she had expressed, the confidence and passion that covered each of her words.

"Even if I accept you as my student, it wouldn't be easy." Hirome warned. "You have to understand it was Tsunade-san who trained me for the last six years of my life, and most of the jutsus she taught me are very complicated. It's not probable that you'll be able to learn properly any of them in just three months."

"Onegai, let me try." Sakura pleaded. "I'll try at my best. If there's one thing I've always been proud of, is that everyone says I am the best at controlling chakra. I do believe if I try hard enough I can learn whatever you may teach me to be useful in the upcoming battle. Onegai. I'll do whatever is needed."

"So be it." Hirome finally complied.

.---.

"I can't believe she said yes." Sakura was almost glowing of joy and excitement as she packed her belongings.

Hirome had told her they would be off in the woods training for the following two months and three weeks. The last week would be for them all to plan what to do when Itachi arrived.

"I'm leaving kaa-san." Sakura announced as she went to the door.

"Please take care Sakura-chan." Her mother told her.

"Don't worry kaa-san, I'll be fine, I'll just be training." Sakura told her.

Sakura had just told her mother she had convinced a jounin, student of Tsunade-sama to train her, she hadn't mentioned anything about the upcoming battle, surely her mother would fret if she knew.

As Sakura was running as fast as she could to Konoha's gates so as not to be late she almost crashed into Naruto.

"Itai!" Naruto cried out as he did fall down.

Sakura managed to concentrate the chakra and recovered her balance.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto smiled at her. "Where are you going with all that?"

"To the woods." Sakura answered. "Hirome-san will be training me the following weeks."

"Is this because of that threat…" Naruto began.

"Hai. We've gotta be ready. I have to train. I promise you Naruto-kun I won't be a burden to you and Sasuke-kun anymore."

"But Sakura-chan…"

"I'm gonna be late. Matta ne!"

And with that she was soon out of sight.

'You'll never be a burden Sakura-chan.' Naruto finished the sentence in his mind.

"Fine." Naruto murmured self-confidently. "I must go find that Ero-sennin, he needs to supervise my training again."

.---.

Sasuke, on the other hand, was standing atop a mountain, practicing his Chidori. He knew that would be his best jutsu against his brother. But even when he tried hard to concentrate, Hirome's face always made its way into her mind.

"Why?" he finally yelled at no one in particular. "Why did you come back after all these years? And why exactly now? Why?"

.---.

Tsunade stood in front of a great window in her office, from which almost all Konoha could be seen. From there she could see Hirome and Sakura as they made their way into the woods, Naruto as he went looking for Jiraiya, and Kakashi as he followed the road Sasuke had taken some hours ago to the nearby mountains.

"A challenge from Uchiha Itachi and his companions of the Akatsuki Org., Tsunade-sama this is bad." Shizune said worriedly after she heard what was going on.

"I know Shizune-san." Tsunade said looking into the horizon. "But it was their decision to handle this on their own. And you know that at least with two of them, this is more important than a mere dare."

"They are taking this fight too personal." Shizune said disapprovingly.

"After all they've been through, I had expected no less from them."

"But still, if Itachi defeats them Konoha will be vulnerable, you know that. And as the Hokage it is your duty to…"

"I know what my duties are Shizune-san, you need not remind them to me. Of course I'll have an alternative plan if things were to go wrong, but just if…"

"As you wish Tsunade-sama." Shizune said as she left the office.

"You know Naruto-kun is looking for you, don't you Jiraiya-san?" Tsunade asked, turning to a window.

"Hai, I know." Jiraiya nodded carelessly. "I'll go to him in a moment, I just wanted to have a word with you first."

"Say what you want already and leave." Tsunade ordered.

"Do you really think it is wise to let them handle this on their own?"

"I don't know Jiraiya-san, I honestly don't know."

Jiraiya said nothing more and left in silence, knowing he had to find Naruto and begin his training. The upcoming battle was definitely going to be a hard one.

.---.

~Two Months later.~

Sakura crashed painfully into a tree trunk.

Hirome dropped from a high branch right in front of her.

"Have enough?" Hirome asked her.

"Not quite." Sakura answered getting back on her feet.

Sakura immediately threw six shuriken to Hirome, who dodged them easily.

"I believe you're loosing your good aim already Sakura-san." Hirome said.

"Not really." Sakura replied making a harsh movement with her hands.

And that was when Hirome realized her mistake, those shurikens had been aimed to the nearby trees, and they had chakra threads attached to them, forming a net around Hirome.

"Never underestimate me Hirome-sensei." Sakura said with a smile.

She wasn't a fool, she knew that web wouldn't be stopping the jounin for long, but she just needed a little time.

Hirome took her time to do a special jutsu to cut the strings (if she touched the strings they would give her something like an electric shock).

Sakura used that time to make a healing technique on herself, to heal the hit she had just gotten on her back, and some scratches she had on both arms.

Hirome waited for a moment after having freed herself before attacking the young gennin.

'It's incredible everything this girl has managed in just two months.' Hirome thought to herself. 'She already manages the healing almost to an expert level, the style of fighting both me and my sensei use, along with three of the most important of Tsunade-sensei's techniques and two of mine. She truly is a very special girl. She must have a very strong reason to be doing all this.'

And it was as if Sakura were answering Hirome's silent questions with her own thoughts:

'I won't be a burden ever again, I won't give problems to any of my teammates.' She thought. 'Next time I'll be the one protecting you Naruto-kun…Sasuke-kun…'

With that Sakura got back on her feet and prepared her next attack, she immediately threw three kunai to Hirome, followed by a multiplication illusion. That technique made the opponent believe that their opponent had thrown about two dozen of attacks, when just three were real.

"You sometimes forget Sakura-san, I'm one of the best at the Illusions." Hirome said with a cocked eyebrow. "Kasumi Teien no Jutsu!"

"I may have committed a mistake Hirome-sensei, but I'm not that foolish." Sakura said concentrating.

Before her a scene developed: it was Sasuke, his clothes seemed to be dirty, like after a day of a very long training, and he even had some minor injuries. He was calling Sakura's name, seemed to be looking for her, suddenly a rush was heard, and immediately afterwards a rain of shuriken and kunai fell on him, most of them hitting him.

'And to think that just some months ago this would have driven me crazy.' Sakura murmured to herself.

"You know Hirome-sensei, Kakashi-sensei used an illusion like this one on our first test after we graduated. Since then I promised I would never fall under such a thing again." Sakura said aloud. "Kai!"

The illusion dissipated and Sakura flipped backwards, moving just in time, Hirome had been about to punch her.

'She can really feel me even when being in an illusion, remarkable.' Hirome thought.

And it was true. Since the first day she had noticed Sakura had that special talent to sense those around her even if she couldn't see them, nor hear them nor use any of her physical senses, it was another to the list of things that made this young kunoichi truly special.

.---.

A few miles away, on the top of a mountain some rocks had just fallen as a result of the most recent attack. It was where Sasuke and Kakashi were training.

"Well, I must say you've improved a lot in such a little time Sasuke." Kakashi complimented him. "You can now manage the Chidori thrice a day. Although I would suggest you didn't use it a third time unless there is no other choice."

"Or what?" Sasuke asked. "Don't remind me about the cursed seal, I know about it already and I've managed to keep it under control."

"That I know." Kakashi nodded. "But still, you must have noticed you get completely drained after the third Chidori. So you must use it only if you're sure that with it you'll end the fight. If not, you'll be completely vulnerable to your enemy's attack."

None of them had mentioned Itachi's name, always referring to him as the enemy, or the opponent, but never saying his name, it was a way of concentrating just in the training, and not in the battle for which they were training.

The other thing that worried Kakashi was that Sasuke hadn't said a word about Hirome's arrival; Kakashi had already tried to get something out of him, at least to know if the shinobi was happy or not about the return of the young woman; but it was as if Sasuke hadn't even acknowledged her.

.---.

As for Naruto, he had been really occupied with Jiraiya, who was trying to teach him different jutsu that might come in handy in the upcoming battle. Bu what may be considered as the most important accomplishment of those two months was the fact that Naruto managed to make the Rasengan using just one hand.

.---.

After three weeks more they all returned to Konoha to take a rest and plan what they would be doing once the three months were off and Itachi arrived along with his companions.

"Maybe we could go meet him, instead of waiting for him." Kakashi suggested.

"We'll go to meet him before he enters the forest that surrounds Konoha." Hirome said as a matter of fact. "We can't risk looking for him beyond that because we don't know from which direction he'll be coming. If we don't go in the direction he is we'll just be leaving Konoha without good defenses."

"I still don't like the idea of letting you go on your own." Tsunade said biting her lip. "And before you ask, no, I don't doubt the abilities of any of you, but still I think we're taking too many risks."

"Why is that?" Sasuke asked, a bit mad. "You don't believe me capable of fighting Itachi?"

"This isn't just about Itachi-san." Shizune stepped in. "You must know already that no matter how powerful he is he won't be coming alone. And even if you are five, we don't know how many of them there will be, nor how much power each of them may posses."

"Even then Shizune-san." Hirome said seriously. "Sasuke-kun and I know Itachi-san, I believe that well enough to know what to expect. I know and trust Kakashi-san's and Sakura-san's abilities to support both of us; and even if I don't know Naruto-san, I trust that if Jiraiya-sama chose to train him there was a good reason." She turned to her sensei. "You must trust us Tsunade-sensei. This isn't really about a revenge for what Itachi-san did all those years ago; it is about stopping him of doing more evil than what he has already done in all this time."

"Fine." Tsunade nodded. "You five will go fight Itachi and his companions by yourselves. But a group of the ANBU will be waiting as reinforcements, if anything is to go wrong you are to make a visible signal and they will be send to help you. Understood?"

This wasn't a suggestion, it was an order.

They all nodded.

.---.

~One more week later.~

Finally the time for training was over. All three gennins stayed in their respective homes for almost the full week, not exactly because they were tired (well, they were tired but not that much), but because they had been told to take a break all the week so they would be ready for the upcoming battle.

Sakura's family still didn't know of what their 'dear daughter' was getting into. Hirome had tried to convince the green-eyed gennin of telling them but Sakura had been final on her decision. She knew if she were to tell her parents they would surely lock her in her room, or even use some kind of seal just so she wouldn't risk herself. And Sakura certainly wasn't going to stand back and watch when she knew the risks in which her friends would be; and she hadn't been training all that time for nothing.

Naruto and Sasuke both lived alone, so they had to answer to no one at all about their actions. Normally being alone was a curse for them, but in situations like these it had their benefits, no one would worry on their absence, and most likely no one would miss them if they were to die in battle.

Hirome still slept in one of the guest rooms at the Hokage's room. Although sleep isn't exactly what she did, as most of the night she passed it sitting atop of the Hokage's monument, watching the dark night-sky, the moon, stars, the shadowed landscape…

Tsunade had seen her student up there more than once, but even when she would have liked to go and convince her to go to bed, the Sannin knew it would be useless. Hirome had been an insomniac for a very long time; in fact, if Tsunade remembered correctly Hirome's insomnia had begun back almost five years ago, right after Hirome and Itachi saw each other, that conversation where Hirome learned Itachi had murdered all the Uchiha Clan, the consequent battle none of them had won. And from that day on her student had never been the same.

"Right when I believed she was finally recovering from the loss of Kenji…that event got her back into depression, and it was even worse than before." Tsunade murmured to herself. "My dear girl, will you ever be at peace with those around you? And even more important: Will you ever be at peace with yourself?"

.---.

Unaware of Tsunade's thoughts Hirome was sitting right at the rocky edge of the mountain, feeling the chilly night-air move her loose her.

"What a beautiful night…" she murmured.

Night passed almost fast to her, and when the sun was already coming up she decided to go take a walk. Not long afterwards her steps took her to the small woods of Konoha, and to the monument where the names of all fallen-nins were engraved. There she knelt down and prayed, like she hadn't done in so long.

"What an unexpected sight, to find you with a low guard." A voice said after a while.

"I've known you were here since almost fifteen minutes ago Kakashi-san." Hirome said seriously, and then showed him a kunai she kept hidden in her sleeve. "And as you can see I am neither defenseless nor with a low guard."

"Hai, I know." He sighed, he almost sounded sad this time. "You've always been like that. Since you were small you showed unique talents for genjutsu, you were the youngest nin to ever graduate from the Academy, and with the best grades too. Also the youngest to ever become a chunin and a jounin, and then when you became a medic-nin."

"But I could never best Itachi-kun. Chichihue always saw him as the best of all the Clan. He was disappointed of me because I didn't have Itachi-kun's talent in ninjutsu and taijutsu. No matter how hard I tried, I could never best him, the great Uchiha Itachi-kun; I could never be more than his mere shadow."

Kakashi could notice the sad tone in her voice, and even then the slight care when she called the man Itachi-kun, instead of Itachi-san like she had been doing all that time.

"Oh but you are a lot more than someone else's shadow." Kakashi insisted.

"You're the only one who has ever believed in me Kakashi-kun, besides Tsunade-sensei." Hirome said with a sad sigh. "Not even mom and dad believed in me."

"Don't say that. I'm sure they believed in you, you just never gave them a chance."

"Iie. There's no need to hide the obvious. Otou-san was deceived because I couldn't master the Uchiha special techniques the way Itachi-san did. And when I decided to quit the ANBU, well, everything got worse. I almost believed he would disown me."

"But you returned, didn't you? And you became one of the best medi-nin Konoha ever had."

"Even then, I was never able to make him proud of me. I never heard him say: 'Just like I expected of my daughter' or 'I'm proud of my daughter', or 'Well done daughter', nothing like that. He always saw me as a burden, a dishonor to the clan."

"That's why you don't use the name any longer?"

Hirome didn't answer to this.

"You know, Tsunade-sama and I aren't the only ones who believe in you. I know of two others: Kushina-sensei and Kenji-kun."

"And they are dead. They believed in me and they are dead. Kushina-sensei died that night, trying to protect those she loved the most, and not knowing she would leave one of them completely alone."

"He's not alone. You've seen him, he has friends, he has found a family in them. The same family you would find if you just gave yourself the chance."

"But do I really deserve that chance Kakashi-kun? After all that has happened…" she sighed sadly, almost in tears. "You just mentioned Kenji-kun, hai, I know he believed in me, and he loved me. He told me once he loved me more than anything else in this world, and it was for that that he died you know? He died because he, for some strange reason, believed I was more worthy of surviving than him, and no matter how hard I tried, my healing jutsus weren't enough to bring him back…" she extended her hand to finger a name engraved in the black stone. "And it still hurts…" she tried to hide her sobs, but it was almost impossible, to this point her tears could already be seen running down her cheeks. "It still hurts to know he gave everything for me, and I wasn't able to do anything for him, not even love him back."

"He loved you." Kakashi said with a hand on her shoulder. "He could see how special you are. He could see you would do a lot of good if you lived; He believed you had the right to live."

"Why did I have that right more than him?"

"I do not know. But I do know it wasn't for you to punish yourself like this. He wouldn't have wanted you to do such a thing. He wanted you to live, to go on with your life, to be happy."

"I don't know if I'll ever be able to feel happiness again Kakashi-kun."

"You will, if you just try hard enough."

By then Kakashi had knelt next to her, and she was laying into him, silently crying. It took her a couple of minutes to recover.

"Gomen nasai." She said ashamed. "I'm not the only one who has experienced a loss like this one, and even then I'm the one crying."

"You are half right." Kakashi said. "You aren't the only one who has suffered a loss like this one, I too loss a great teammate and friend, Obito; the difference is that I have overcome that pain, and I go on, because that's what he would have wanted me to do."

Hirome nodded, she knew he was right.

"It's an irony we are so alike, and so different at the same time." Hirome commented as she propped herself on her arms, sitting in the grass.

"Our lives have been difficult, but we chose different ways to handle those difficulties."

"Hai. And for a long time I believed mine had been the wisest. But I was just a coward."

"You are not a coward, you'll never be."

"You say that just to make me feel better."

"That's not true and you know it."

Hirome turned to retort the statement, but the look in Kakashi's eyes stopped her, it was until then that she noticed he wasn't wearing his protector, nor his mask. No matter how much she wanted to speak, to break that strange silence, no word would come out of her mouth until…

"Kakashi…"

This time her phrase was cut short by another mouth over hers, a gesture she had never expected to feel, that made her so happy and confused at the same time.


And so the mystery begins to unravel itself...and that's all I'm saying about this, many things will be happening in the next couple of chapters, the climax is approaching!