Not too far away a boy who appeared to be around the same age as Kioko stood in the wings and watched as the battle commenced. His hair was a blonde light brown mix and his eyes were blue if people saw him rather quickly and didn't focus on him he would be mistaken for the fourth Hokage. A small smirk appeared on his face as his eyes attention was drawn to Kioko. 'This is an unexpected turn of events. I would never have guessed that our reunion would happen in place like this. This sure makes everything more interesting don't you think my old friend… Kioko Uchiha.'
The loud bang from Kioko's attack got everyone ready for the battle that came ahead. She narrowed her eyes and looked upon the enemy that stood in front of her. The Uchiha's hand reached down to pull out a single kunai and stood posed for the next move. The sound ninja also got on their guard and began their own offensive move against the female ninja. On the side that Sasuke and Naruto were guarding they could hear cries of the villagers and rushed to check it out.
The sound ninja had split their forces into several flanks in order to get past the defenses. But the strange thing was it was as though they knew where the strongest ninja were. Kakashi didn't like the feel of the situation and his expression grew serious. Sakura looked over at him and had a puzzled expression written on her face, "What is it Kakashi-sensei?"
Kakashi looked over at Sakura and replied, "This whole situation doesn't seem right to me. The way that the sound ninja are attacking seems carefully planned and they seem to be avoiding this area and the forces seem weaker on the side that Kioko is guarding. Someone must have known who was here and diverted the ninja to the weaker ends of the village so there would be less wounded."
Sakura looked a bit surprised at the revelation and looked back at the area where Sasuke and Naruto were. Kakashi placed his hand on her shoulder. "Do not worry about them Sakura, you have to have faith in their abilities. They can take care of themselves." Sakura tried to relax but she couldn't help but be concerned about the safety of her teammates, 'I just hope you are right about that Kakashi-sensei.'
At the other end of the village Sasuke and Naruto arrived to see that some of the villagers were surrounded by the enemy and they both appeared in seconds taking them out. The villagers' faces were soon covered with relief. Naruto turned around slightly and looked at them. "You better get inside, it's safer there. We'll take care of these guys." He watched as they ran off for cover and then turned back to face Sasuke who was staring down the sound ninja. "What do you think Sasuke?"
The Uchiha reached down and pulled out a kunai. "We can take them." Naruto felt the same confidence his best friend did and prepared his own attack. In an instant the two boys seemed to disappear, however they were just moving rather quickly. Sasuke in his usual show off way took out five of the sound ninja and then appeared in front of them. Naruto frowned a bit as he only took out four ninja. "That was good enough for a warm up, how about we get serious."
Naruto smiled as he moved his hands in one of his famous seals and shouted, "Shadow clone jutsu!" Around 30 clones appeared around Naruto. The blonde haired ninja's clones all looked rather excited and took off toward the group of sound shinobi.
Up in the mountains the unknown shinobi watched as Orochimaru's ninja were being taken down so easily by the five shinobi from the leaf. Kioko smiled as her wolves easily swatted the invaders away. When they realized that they couldn't take out the large creature they brought their attack on Kioko. A small smirk appeared on her face as she stood there for a moment. "How foolish…" The young woman flung the kunai toward them only having it pass which in turn drew their attention for a single moment and that's all she needed.
Having them in the air as they were gave Kioko the perfect opportunity to take them out. She held up a single seal and began to swirl her fingers and the wind picked up and in a blink of an eye the sound ninja were tore to ribbons by the wind blade jutsu. The broken bodies of the shinobi fell to the ground all around her and soon she was brought down to her knees by her own exhaustion. With a great deal of her chakra spent, the two wolves vanished in a poof of smoke.
Sasuke's attention was drawn by the poof of the closer of the two wolves and the ninja took advantage of that. Noticing that Sasuke wasn't aware of the on coming attack he shouted out his name before getting struck into one of the trees near by. Sasuke snapped out of his thoughts just in time to grab the ninja's hand and puncture a whole in his chest with the chidori. As Sasuke turned around he made direct eye contact with them all getting them caught in one of his genjutsu. The Uchiha boy made his way over to Naruto and shook him. "Hey, wake up loser."
Naruto began to wake up and he his vision focused on his best friend. He sprung up and looked around to see all the sound ninja unconscious. A 'what happened here' expression came on his face and Sasuke smiled as he deactivated his sharingan. "I trapped them in a genjutsu. But never mind that, we have to go see if my sister is alright. Can you move?" He nodded and picked himself up following after Sasuke who had already taken off toward Kioko's location.
Kakashi looked about and noticed that there were no more ninja around. He presumed that they retreated or were defeated already. His concern then went to Kioko as he had a feeling that she was going to need her help. Without much warning he took off toward her location and a confused Sakura followed suit. Kioko was still on one knee trying to catch her breath as the more formidable ninja appeared. "Been a long time, Kioko-chan." When she heard that she snapped her head up and looked up at the ninja. Her eyes revealed how shocked she was to see him. "I don't believe it… it's… it's really you…." Her mind began to race as she was thrown back into her memories, thinking back to the time that they shared together
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The sakura blossoms were falling all around them and the two of them were smiling and laughing as though there were no problems with the world around them. Kioko was only a young girl back then, around the age of 10. They were sitting around looking out into the sun set pleased to be in each others company. "You know Kazu-kun, you are one of my closest friends."
The boy appeared to be a year older then Kioko and smiled as he looked over at her. He stood up from a moment and looked out into the distance. A smile appeared on her face as she saw the peacefulness around him. She stood up and wrapped her arms in his. "It's beautiful isn't it?" Kazuma couldn't help but smile as he looked back at her, "Indeed it is, and you know something Kioko… I care about you a great deal and I would do anything for you."
"I know you would. You've always looked out for me and protected me just like my big brother does. I know I can depend on you and we will always have a connection like this." Her grip tightened a bit and looked down some. "Even if we don't live in the same village at some point." After a few moments she pulled back and lifted up her pinky, "Lets make a promise… that we will never forget about each other."
Kazuma looked over at her and wrapped his finger around hers. "I promise I would never forget about you."
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"Kazuma Nakamura." Suddenly came the voice of Kakashi as he approached with the other members of his squad. He looked up and noticed that he now bore the symbol for the sound village. "I had never thought that you would betray the leaf village and join Orochimaru's ranks."
Sasuke looked up at the man feeling as though he had met him somewhere else before but he just couldn't remember where. Kazuma could help but let out a small laugh. "You were always rather blind Kakashi but even so, you should have seen this coming."
Hearing her friends name again snapped her out of her memories and she once again spoke, "Kazu-kun… I'm so happy to see you after all these years." Kakashi was rather surprised as he saw her get to her feet and it was even more shocking to see that she remembered him. "I may not remember everything but the memories of you are so clear to me…."
Kazuma smiled but kept his distance from the five of them. "I must admit this isn't the way I wanted our reunion to go but I'm still glad I had a chance to see you again."
His smile faded as he turned back to Kakashi. The two ninja stared at each other for a few moments in complete silence and it only made the genin nervous. Kakashi pulled out one of his kunai and pointed it at Kazuma which did little to change his resolve. On Kazuma's belt, Kakashi noticed the younger ninja's Konoha Anbu mask and this discovery only brought about more questions instead of answers. "If you think that is going to scare me into talking, you are sadly mistaken Kakashi. You must really underestimate me."
Kakashi's expression grew serious as he realized that his tactics weren't working and that meant that the only way for him to get answers was through force. Tensions grew between them as their wills battled, not one giving up their ground for a moment. "No matter the reason, I can not forgive you for attacking the innocent people of this village. With this kunai I will put an end to you!"
Kazuma smirked as he reached behind him to pull out his Anbu sword. "I wonder if you really can, Kakashi."
The Jounin ninja looked over at Kioko and his own resolve was beginning to slip. Kakashi knew of the great bond that the two of them had and he feared that Kioko would lose control if anything happened to Kazuma. He growled to himself as he looked back at Orochimaru's subordinate. 'Looks like he hasn't changed at all after all these years. Already he has the advantage over me. There must be another way and I better find it quick or this could be trouble for all of us…'
To be continued…..