Okey, so here is something very important about this chapter- Some of the arc I did not remember so I looked it up and realized that some major edits need to be done to chapter five. So I'm about to edit those in, please go read them (:

WARNING: Cussing, blood, a bit of gore.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto or the song (Hey Jealousy by Gin Blossoms).

Anything in bold is important or with emphasis.
This is what memories look like.
This is what thoughts or letters look like.
'This is what song lyrics look like.'

~SCARRED~

'If you don't expect too much from me you might not be let down.'

~SCARRED~

Kakashi manages to block her at the last moment, making some sound akin to a squawk of indignation. "Nani?!" He asks, side stepping another of her blows.

"YOU! MORTAL ENEMY!" She shouts, diving after him again. She was just an old woman, distinctly ninja. My eyebrows are raised, a small smile tugging at my lips. Sasuke looks mildly amused, and Naruto is outright laughing.

"I have no idea who you are-"

"White Fang of Konoha-"

"That's my father, Sakumo! I'm Kakashi-"

"Liar! I'll-"

"Help!" He shouts, diving to hide behind the three of us. One of his hands grips my hip and stays there, scooting me to the side slightly so he could see past me in his crouched position.

"What do you want me to do, Kakashi-sensei?!" I ask, twisting to be able to look at him. I turn to the woman. "Listen, I don't know what happened but he's not Sakumo, he's Kakashi. The son. Surely you've heard of him? Copy Cat Kakashi?"

The old woman blinks twice. "Oh." She turns and reenters the hospital room. We trail in somewhat cautiously after her, finding the room to be in a comical sort of state. Kankuro was on his hospital cot, motionless and without any facepaint. I rather preferred him like he was now, quiet and without all the purple, though it would be more enjoyable under different circumstances. Like where Gaara hadn't been jinchuriki-napped by the Akatsuki, which my brother was amongst still and very much a member of. Over the years I'd heard about bits and pieces of his various exploits, being able to piece together a little timeline for his whereabouts and actions. With extreme difficulty, of course.

Temari held her head in her hand, appearing incredibly stressed and slightly annoyed by the woman's antics. Another older person, a man, sat in one of the waiting chairs against the wall. "Chiyo-baa-sama," Temari grits out, "this team is from Konoha. The ones being sent to rescue Gaara. These are elders in Suna," she says, the last part obviously to us.

"Konnichiwa! I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto says. "The old man is Hatake Kakashi, and the two antisocials are Uchiha Sasuke and Kioku Kimiko. Kimi's ninken is Makoto."

"I'm not antisocial," I mumble. I'm deftly ignored. Chiyo peers at us carefully, eyes narrowed.

"You sure these are the right people? They don't look very tough," she asks Temari.

"We're all jonin level," Kakashi assures her, a bright little closed-eye smile on his face. She snorts and looks to Temari for confirmation.

"He's right. They are. Besides, one of them is supposed to personally know one of the members that attacked." Her tone is brusque. Makoto stiffens slightly. I barely manage not to do anything. So that meant Masao was here, huh? Either that or Itachi was. Sasuke and I share a look.

"Hum," Chiyo remarks, making no effort to see which. She just looks at Kankuro.

Makoto leaves my side, edging toward the hospital bed. He sniffs the edge of it, letting his nose edge upward to smell Kankuro himself. He makes a face and withdraws. He circles around the bed and smells Temari. Then, announcing what he's found to the room, he tells, "That's some nasty poison. But there's a way for it to be removed. Another squad from Konoha is on the way, with them a highly trained medic. She should be able to do it." With those words he nudges Temari's hand with his head and walks over to me, plopping down on the floor before my feet in an ungraceful heap.

There's a few moments of heavy, near-oppresive silence before Temari moves from the bedside of Kankuro. "Chiyo-baa-sama, Ebizo-jii-sama, please remain here while I go escort them to the briefing. After we will return." With those words she leads us from the room.

~SCARRED~

The briefing is short and to the point. Three Akatsuki members were present, one of them actually attacking Gaara, one disarming the guards, and one simply sitting there watching. The one directly attacking was blonde and used chakra-infused clay to act as explosives. The one disarming and who harmed Kankuro was a puppet user who utilized poisons heavily. The third one, the observer, was tall and darkhaired with seemingly glowing blue eyes. That was the only information they had for us, except that they were supposedly keeping him alive with no intention of having him permanently as such, just until they completed whatever goal they needed to. And the third member was definitely my brother. We also received a scrap of clothing from the puppeteer, giving us the ability to track him with ninken.

We are shown to one of the many supply posts in the Kazekage's tower building. Temari tells us to take whatever we needed without worry about repaying them. I don't take much, just a small medical kit with antiseptic and plenty of bandages. That was all I needed. The boys take what they need and we return to the hospital room of Kankuro. Makoto is still there, sleeping on the floor space at the foot of the cot.

"The other squad should be here tomorrow, right?" Temari asks.

"Yes," I reply, "bright and early. Are we free to leave now or are we staying until their arrival?"

"Free to leave. Without me," she remarks, sounding somewhat bitter. We nod.

"Then who's coming with us-" Sasuke begins.

"I am," Chiyo-sama answers. She's standing in the doorway of Kankuro's room, eyeing all of us carefully.

"Makoto, stay here, will you? You'll be able to help Sakura when she gets here," I ask him. He doesn't seem very happy about it, grumbling under his breath about missing out on all of the action and never getting to do anything fun. After his complaints he grudgingly agrees and settles back down for even more sleep. Then we set out.

Kakashi's ninken lead us through the forest. Chiyo-baa accompanied us, talking with Kakashi about the Akatsuki and their potential plans for the jinchuriki. Naruto and Sasuke are directly before them. I am in the back, observing all of them. Chiyo prattles on about the jinchuriki. I'm sure at some point through the conversation Naruto begins to cry. I am not paying much attention, not that I honestly needed to. I'd catch it all anyway.

I think of my brother. Masao. The direct cause of my misery. I still felt an acidic burning in my stomach at any mention of him or my family members. His insanity, the bipolar qualities he held. How he was incredibly sorry but harmed me with a sadistic gleam that told me otherwise.

The acid eats away at my stomach, my esophagus, my tongue and teeth and mouth and lips until I cannot hold my words in, talking so quickly so maybe my mouth wouldn't feel like it was burning up and falling apart. "It's me," I blurt. Chiyo looks back at me curiously, like I was crazy. "When Temari said one of us knew one of the attackers. It's me. His name is Masao and he's my older brother. Since I knew him he had essentially mastered three chakra affinities- earth, water and fire. He is best with ninjutsu and genjutsu. Taijutsu is his weakness. He's sadistic and relies mostly upon speed, instead of strength. The key to defeating him would be to move faster than he does. As a memory keeper it is pointless to use genjutsu against him. If it comes down to killing him out of all of us either Sasuke-kun, Kakashi-sensei or I have the best chance, seeing as Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei have the Sharingan and I have the same memory keeper abilities. If it comes to it I would prefer being the one fighting him, as I know his abilities the most."

Chiyo's eyes narrow. "Your brother, huh? Wouldn't be surprised if you kept contact with him-"

I cut her off smoothly. "Please do not assume anything of me, Chiyo-sama. He murdered almost my entire family." With those words, said serenly, I keep moving.

Though it was still before noon, the other team should be arriving at our position shortly. We keep moving through the trees, not willing to stop or slow down. We don't have much of a choice, though, because suddenly before us is Uchiha Itachi.

Sasuke's eyes blaze red with the Sharingan, the tomoes spinning rapidly with blind fury. Itachi's eyes slide over us, settling finally on Sasuke. No expression comes across his face at his little brother's eagerness to kill him. He opens his mouth and speaks, the heavy words resounding through the clearing.

"Foolish otouto."

~SCARRED~

Dear Team Seven,

It's Kimi.

Again.

Six months and two weeks' worth of letters and not a single reply. I wonder why? And does it matter? Whatever. I've recently gotten a ninken. His name is Makoto, I think you would like him. Maybe even your ninken would like him, too, Kakashi-sensei. Though I'm sure Makoto could eat Pakkun for lunch and have plenty of room left over.

I really like Makoto. I've known him for a mere week, true, but it's been an extremely busy week and he's been here for me. Y'know, like I'm wishing you guys wilk be. He's huge. But he's sort of like Naruto, in terms of personality. Incredibly determined but exceedingly dense sometimes.

Anyway, I'm attaching a photo of him within. He didn't enjoy it - he's not a fan of bathing, though he doesn't necessarily mind getting his coat brushed. And before the picture I insisted on both.

Well, I have to leave. He's whining for some more food. I end the letter here.

Kimi.

~SCARRED~

The rain was endless.

For six hours it poured down, covering my tracks and, for the last two hours, helping hide me in the cramped alcove of a tree. There was barely enough room for me, my legs crushed to my chest and my head tucked in, but it was all I had. In my pouch was a precious scroll containing secrets to a valuable jutsu. It was captured from a small temple on an outlying island of Mizu no Kuni.

I was alone. I got separated from the rest of my squad during an incident with a powerful water-user. The one I was running from now. In case of a separation my squad agreed on meeting at a seemingly nondescript cave about ten miles from my current position. But I couldn't run anymore, not until the blinding, freezing and disorienting rain let up and not until I shook off my pursuer. Which I wasn't sure how I was going to do.

Thirty minutes pass and I feel an approaching chakra signature. I clamp down on mine desperately as I recognize it- one of the people chasing me. The one in specific was a supporter of violent deaths, it seemed. I squeeze tighter inside the hollow, as disguised as I could be. He slows as he approaches me and my heartbeat races wildly in my chest. He glances around, coming to a full stop. He keeps looking around searchingly, like he's trying to pinpoint my location. I resist the urge to swallow heavily. He freezes, his head titled sideways like he's trying to listen to some far away noise.

And then he laughs.

Seconds later his laughing face appears before me, his teeth looking razor sharp in his insane grin. I feel like screaming. He grabs at my ankle. I kick him in his face, twisting my leg to keep it from his grasp. His hand, fingernails like claws, find my leg and sink in, pulling me roughly from the tree.

I fall to the ground, struggling to catch myself and land properly. I barely make it and as soon as I hit the ground so does he, standing upright and at a distinct advantage. He grabs me by the hair and smashes my face into the nearest tree trunk, dropping my head. I fall to the ground again but scramble to get up through the kicks to my rib cage. He picks me up again, this time by my throat. I punch him with a chakra infused fist. His grip loosens on me, through which I wriggle out of his hold and back away, forming shaky hand signs. The rain is still pouring down, mixing with the blood trickling from my mouth and nose.

My head is ringing and my face aches with pain. The man grabs me again, claws digging into my throat. He presses inwards on my trachea, drawing forth blood. I finish the last of my hand signs and Raikiri comes to life in my palm. I instinctively press the orb of lightning in on his chest, clearing the width and my hand showing through on the other side. My hand and wrist and lower arm is covered in blood and bits of muscle and internal organs, just barely clearing the spine but destroying several ribs.

His eyes widen and he dies almost instantly, body flopping inwards on me. He sizzles under the rain as it hits his exposed internal organs, the electrical current still partially racking his lifeless corpse. The smell is horrible. I push him off with my clean hand and he falls to my feet, blood sloshing out onto the ground. I sink to my knees and curl in on myself once again. I bring my gore-covered hand to rest on my knees. The rain rinses it off slowly. I close my eyes as the cold seeps into my bones. Dosu's death plays through my mind again and again, the smell and sight and sound not entirely similar to what it was now but too close for comfort.

The first tear falls shortly after the realization that I had no Team Seven waiting for me, wanting to comfort and help me. And that I couldn't do the same for them when they needed it, because they'd been gone for over a year and weren't anywhere close enough to me for it to count.

~SCARRED~

Well here ya go (: Comment and vote pretty please?