Chapter 15

A Decision that was Made

"nee-chan?" Sasuke knocked on Sakura's bedroom door, trying to see if she was already awake but received no answer in return. He was expecting her to open the door any time soon but until now, she didn't. Worried, he turned the knob and slowly opened the door, in case she was still asleep.

He found no one. With that, he quickly rushed out of the door and went down.

"Kaa-san, I couldn't find Sakura nee-chan anywhere," he said in between breaths when he saw his mother in the living room.

Mikoto smiled at him. "She told me that she would be going out for a while."

"Where did she go?" he asked.

"She didn't say anything. Why? Is there something wrong?" she wondered why her younger son looked so worried for it rarely happened.

"I knew it. She would look for the girl," he said out loud before slumping down the couch as if he was not pleased with something.

She raised her eyebrows in confusion and sat down next to him. "Girl? Why would Sakura look for a girl?" That was the time when Itachi went down and saw them.

"I saw a girl yesterday with pink hair and she looked almost like nee-chan. When I told her about it, she told me that it's rare to find someone with pink hair so the girl might be one of her relatives."

"And...?" Mikoto urged him to continue. Itachi was also listening to him. He was supposed to leave just a while ago but he chose to stay a little longer to hear what his brother has to say.

"She said that first thing in the morning, she would wake up early and look for that girl no matter how hard it takes," Itachi's fist clenched when he heard the news. Mikoto nodded her head in understanding, oblivious to her older son's already narrowed eyes.

"I see. She really wants to know who she really is," she said, finally understanding why she would wake up so early in the morning. It was not to just take a walk. It was to look for the people she thinks might be her relatives.

"It must have been hard for her not to remember anything in her past. I think we should help her." she suggested as she looked back and forth to her two sons.

"Well, who wants to help?" she asked.

"I don't want to. If nee-chan finds her real family, she would leave us."" Sasuke looked away, refusing to offer his help.

Mikoto sighed. She couldn't blame him. The whole time that Sakura was living with them, she noticed that her younger son developed some sort of fondness for her.

"What about you, Itachi?" she turned her head around to face her other son.

"I have to go now." he said as he walked out the door.

"Wait, you haven't answered my question."

The last thing she heard before he went out was the sound of the closing door.

-

"Congratulations to those who passed the test. Keep in mind that the Uchiha clan members are the ones who would train all of you. This is a special project of the clan since they wanted to develop the skills of some of the chosen ninjas of Konoha." a Konoha police was busy telling them the objectives of their training for a bout half an hour already.

Sasuke was getting impatient. Just how long does this man plans to talk? He knew all the basic information he was talking about because he was a member of the clan. The other four people, who were with him, he noticed, were listening intently. They just took the test yesterday and the five people who passed were given a place to stay inside the mansion. Today was the start of their actual training and the police officers were giving them a briefing about the clan's project.

Finally, after about half an hour of lecturing, the officer stopped talking.

"Shisui-sama, here they are," Sasuke saw Shisui coming over to them.

He looked at each one of them as his gaze stopped when his eyes landed upon Sasuke.

"Just as I expected. I knew you would be here. What's your name?" He smirked. Sasuke only returned it with a glare. This was the man who annoyed him to no end since yesterday.

"It doesn't matter who I am," he replied. He had no plans of telling anyone his real name.

Shisui just ignored his rudeness. If he didn't want to say his name then he wouldn't force him.

"I would be the one to take charge in your training for the day. For the place, I decided that all of us should go to the training grounds near the academy."

Sasuke wasn't on the least happy about the place. He expected that they would train inside the compound. How could he find his teammate if they would train outside?

"We need to go now so that we could finish early."

Sasuke wordlessly followed the others, all the while forming a plan in his head. He heard Shisui said something about finishing the training early. He hoped it would so that there would be still some time left for him.

-

Sakura looked around for any signs of pink at the Konoha park but found none. She thought of another place where there were many children and an idea came to mind. She could go and visit the ninja academy. The girl Sasuke was talking about might be studying there. She went there with him once so she knew the way to the place.

-

Itachi was on his way to the ANBU headquarters. He was still in deep thought whether he should help Sakura to look for her real relatives or not. Sasuke was right. There's a possibility that she would leave in case she her memories come back.

He didn't want to be selfish.

He decided he would help her.

It's for the best. If she stayed longer, he might get used to it.

The longer she stays, the harder it would be for him to let go.

Helping her was definitely the best choice. At least that's what he keeps telling himself.

-

Sakura sat on an empty swing in the playground just in front the academy, once gain checking out for any signs of a little girl with pink hair.

"nee-san?" she turned her head and saw little Sasuke looking at her.

"Sasuke," she quickly stood up and faced him.

"Are you looking for her?" he immediately asked.

"I think she might be here. Could you help me find her? Cause you're the one who saw her yesterday and you're studying ……." she was not yet finished talking when little Sasuke cut her off.

"I would be late for the classes, nee-san. I'm very sorry that I couldn't help you right now," he said a little too quickly before running away from her and towards the entrance of the academy.

"Why do I have the feeling that he doesn't really want to help me?"

"I guess I'll just have to sit here and wait for the girl to come out. That is, if she's really studying here," she told herself as she sat down on the swing again.

-

Shisui looked at the five members. "We needed to prepare for tomorrow's activity. There would be a special gathering that will be held in the village. Members of the different clans would attend. I wanted all of you to be present there since the head of the clan would like to present you to the Hokage.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "Is that really required?" he asked, defiance written all over his face.

The other people looked at him as if he was out of his mind for he was questioning the order of one of the members of the strongest and most powerful clan in Konoha.

Shisui just chuckled, amused. "I see you're a bit anti-social," Then, his expression suddenly turned serious. "Since all of you passed the test, it is expected that all of you should uphold the clan's name. The clan leader would present you to the Hokage to let him know about the clan's project to train highly skilled ninjas to be future high quality ANBU members. So act right at the gathering. We wouldn't want the other clans talking negative about the Uchiha clan behind our backs. Do all of you understand that?" he looked pointedly at Sasuke when he asked that.

"And…..since it's just the first day of the training. I wanted to find out how good each one of you in controlling his chakra for it would be necessary for the future training all of you would have."

-

Sakura placed her hand on her stomach She was already hungry. She was waiting for an hour already but still couldn't find the one she was looking for. She also noticed that aside from the pink-haired girl not being there, there were also no sighs of any genin kunoichis around.

It was better if she would ask one of the people there rather than sit there for long period of time.

"Um…excuse me," she went over to a group of women who were talking among themselves. She figured they might be the parents of some of the students there.

They all gave her curious looks. "May I help you?' one of them kindly asked.

"I just wanted to know….Why isn't there any genin kunoichis around?" she asked politely.

"Oh they're not really here right now. They went to their special classes. They do that once every week."

"Special lessons?" she furrowed her brows in confusion.

"Well, kunoichis were not only trained to become good fighters. They were also taught some feminine tasks like arranging flowers, and others," the second woman informed her.

She looked down, disappointed when she knew she actually waited for nothing.

"I guess I'll just have to go back some other time," She said as she went on the way she passed by a while ago.

When she was nearing the training the training grounds, she was surprised upon hearing some noises. There were also sounds of kunais being thrown. When she passed by this place a while ago, there were no people training but now there was.

She went straight, not caring about the ninjas who were training. After all, it's a typical scene.

"Sakura-san," she heard someone called out he name.

She turned around, wondering whom the person was.

She smiled upon seeing him. "Shisui-kun, nice to see you here," she said. Itachi introduced him to her a few days ago so she knew who he was.

She looked at the people who were with him. there were five of them. And wait, one of them was looking at her intently. He, just like Itachi and Sasuke, possessed a pair of black eyes and raven hair. Was he an Uchiha too? She wondered.

-

"Sakura-san," Sasuke, upon hearing Shisui said that name, stopped what his training to see who she was. Was she her teammate? Or was she just another girl with the same name?

When he saw the pink hair, he froze. She was definitely Sakura.

-

"Sakura?" he said almost loud enough for her to hear.

Shisui and Sakura looked back at him, surprised.

"You…you know my name?"