~A Flower Amongst Thorns~

Chapter Eight: Reuniting with an Old Friend

"Asuka, hurry up! You're falling behind!"

"I wouldn't be falling behind if you guys weren't going so fast!"

The group of three genin were making their way back to Otogakure after completing their most recent mission. They were moving through the trees at a quick pace, with Hana leading the way, Mamoru following close behind her, and Asuka lagging behind them both. Hana kept calling Asuka out for trailing behind and she constantly told her to stay close to the group, which lead to bickering between both her and Asuka. Poor Mamoru was stuck in the middle of it all. He didn't add to the fighting; he just stayed quiet the entire time and let them argue.

"We need to get back home before it gets dark! It's too dangerous for us to be traveling at night!" Hana shouted.

"I know that already!" Asuka retorted.

Speed wasn't exactly Asuka's strong point, but she was trying her best to improve; that's what she focused on the most when she was training by herself. Hana constantly nagging her to move faster wasn't exactly helping matters any.

"You know, I may be inclined to move faster if you weren't naggin' me all the time!"

"The only reason I'm naggin' you is because I'm the one that's gonna get in trouble if we're late! Now hurry up!"

Asuka scoffed and she rolled her eyes. She never really understood why Orochimaru allowed this girl be in charge of their team; she was such a nag! Just what made her so special, anyway?

Ever since the three of them were assigned to this team, Asuka had been trying to out-do Hana in one form or another. She didn't think that it was fair that Hana got most of the attention. Whenever Orochimaru payed attention to Asuka, it was usually to scold her for being too brash and reckless. So, Asuka would often let her jealousy be known to everyone on the team; especially when they were on missions. However, all it really did was aggravate the living hell out of her teammates.

Asuka opened her mouth to say something else, but then Mamoru turned to her, giving her a very serious look.

"Asuka, I really think you should stop arguing with Hana. It'll make the trip go by faster." he stated.

Asuka groaned in irritation and she moved a bit faster to catch up to Mamoru. She kept her mouth shut the rest of the way home, but she kept her eyes on Hana, continuously glaring at her.

Hana could feel a set of eyes on her and she knew almost immediately that Asuka was glaring at her. She sighed in exasperation, but she kept moving forward. She needed to focus on getting back home and not on her pissed off teammate.

'Just ignore her, Hana. You need to focus on getting home.' she kept telling herself.

The three of them made it back to Otogakure right as the sun began to set. They had somehow managed to return before nightfall, but they were cutting a bit close. The sky's pale blue color had begun to fade into a dull orange.

Hana was more than a little relieved to have made it home before dark. Everything had gone rather smoothly, despite the issues that she had encountered within her own team.

Once the three genin had finally reached the hideout, they immediately began to make their way down to Orochimaru's office to inform him of the results of their mission.

"So, I assume that your mission was successful?" he questioned.

Hana gave a quick nod and then she stepped forward.

"Yes, sir, our mission went very well. There were no issues; we didn't encounter any enemies and we weren't followed." she replied.

Hana reached into her bag and she took out two different scrolls. They contained information that had been gathered by spies that had been stationed in both Konoha and Suna, as indicated by the labels on the outside of the scrolls.

Orochimaru took both of the scrolls from Hana and he set one of them aside. He opened the second one and he looked over its contents; he wanted to make sure that they hadn't received the wrong information. A satisfied smirk stretched across his pale features as he read the writing on the scroll.

"Good work; all three of you. Your mission was indeed successful." he told them.

Both Hana and Mamoru smiled, but Asuka just scoffed. She didn't think that the mission had gone as well as Orochimaru had said.

"Things would have gone a lot smoother if Hana hadn't been nagging is the whole time." she said.

Hana's smile faded almost immediately and she turned around to face Asuka. The look on her face clearly expressed her annoyance at the other girl. She was so not in the mood for this right now.

"You really enjoy floggin' that dead horse, don't ya?" she asked, her voice reflecting her irritation.

The two girls stared at each other for a few moments, the tension around them growing more and more intense. Both Orochimaru and Mamoru knew that they had to diffuse the situation before it got any worse.

"Alright, that's enough you two. Mamoru, Asuka; you two are dismissed. I need to speak with Hana in private for a moment." Orochimaru stated.

Both Mamoru and Asuka bowed respectfully to Orochimaru and then they turned and began to walk out of the room.

Hana watched as her teammates left the room, giving Asuka a dirty look as she walked out the door. She was such a little brat; she shouldn't be acting so immaturely. Yes, she had every right to not be happy, but that didn't mean that she had to act like such a child. Most of Asuka's anger was directed at Hana herself, so it would irritate her to no end.

"Stubborn git…" Hana muttered.

Asuka didn't hear the insult that had been directed her way, but Orochimaru heard it loud and clear.

"Asuka getting under your skin again?" he asked, slightly amused.

Hana sighed and she pinched the bridge of her nose. He didn't know the half of it; he really didn't.

"She's a complete pain in the ass. I still don't understand why you put me on the same team as her." she answered.

"It was to help balance out your team. She may be annoying, but Asuka is smart and she is quite proficient in taijutsu." Orochimaru explained.

Smart? Yeah, right.

Asuka may have had some form of academic intelligence, but she was definitely lacking when it came to intelligence in battle. Hana had lost count of how many times Asuka nearly blew their cover when they were trying to hide from enemies.

"You give her too much credit. She's terrible when it comes to stealth; she almost got us caught. Twice!" Hana disclosed.

Orochimaru raised an eyebrow, curious about the events that almost led to the team nearly being caught. However he would have to come back to this subject later on. Right now there was another subject that needed their attention.

"Back to the previous matter," he began, "While you and your team were off on your mission, a young woman was brought here. I spoke with her and your name came up during our conversation. She recognized your name and she insisted on meeting you."

Hana was a little confused. Who was this person and how did they know her? She hadn't gone out in public recently. In fact, Hana was trying to stay out of the public eye all together. So who was this person?

"Did she give you her name?" Hana asked.

Orochimaru just shook his head.

"No, I'm afraid she didn't. I asked her more than once, but I couldn't get an answer out of her." he replied.

The unknown factor made Hana even more curious. Just who was this mystery girl, and how in the world did she know her. Hana needed to know. She was going to be wracking her brain all night if she didn't find out soon.

"Alright, if she wants to meet me, then I shouldn't keep her waiting. Can you take me to her?" she asked.

Orochimaru rose from his seat and he began to make his way towards the door. He silently motioned for Hana to follow, and she did. He led her down the dim corridors to a room that wasn't very far from Hana's own. Orochimaru knocked on the door and a voice from the other side of the door answered, allowing them to enter.

Orochimaru opened the door and he allowed Hana to enter the room first. When Hana walked into the room and saw the girl sitting on the edge of the bed, she recognized her almost immediately. She was an old friend from Konoha; one of the very few that she had made while she was living there.

"T-Taeko? Taeko, is that you?" she asked her, completely shocked.

The purple-haired girl turned to Hana and her eyes went wide in utter surprise. She hadn't seen Hana in years, but she was still able to recognize the brunette.

The two girls just stared at each other for a minute before Hana ran up to Taeko and threw her arms around the other girl, hugging her tight. She hadn't seen her friend in so long and she was simply overjoyed to see her again.

"I can't believe you're here! How'd you get here? How did you find this place?" Hana asked excitedly.

Taeko released herself from Hana's grasp and she moved over a bit to allow Hana some room to sit beside her. She glanced back and forth between Hana and Orochimaru, seeming somewhat nervous in the presence of the serpent-like man.

Hana took notice of her friend's nervousness and she turned to Orochimaru. There seemed to be an unspoken agreement between the two and Orochimaru left the room, closing the door behind him.

His departure seemed to ease Taeko's nervousness and Hana was actually relieved that her attempt had actually worked. She would definitely take pride in her success.

"Ah, I'm really sorry about that. He can be kinda…overwhelming sometimes." Hana said, trying to get the conversation going again.

Taeko just smiled and shook her head.

"Don't worry about it; it's fine. But thank you though." she replied.

The two of them sat there in silence for quite a while, both unsure of what they should say to the other. Even though they hadn't seen each other in years, they couldn't find anything to say to each other.

It was certainly awkward for the both of them.

Finally, after spending a few minute just sitting in silence, Taeko spoke up.

"How did you get here, Hana? I mean…you just vanished out of nowhere one day and we didn't know what had happened to you." she stated.

Hana leaned back, looking up at the ceiling, and she sighed.

"Well," she began, thinking over her answer carefully, "to make a long story short, I ran away and Orochimaru found me. I had to get out of there. Way too dangerous."

So that's what happened.

Taeko's parents had asked around after Hana had disappeared from the village, but they couldn't get an answer out of anyone. They had feared the worst, but they ultimately had to end their search prematurely. Taeko had spent years wondering what had happened to her friend. But now she knew.

"What about you, Taeko? How'd you get here?"

Taeko bit her lip, hesitating for a moment. She wasn't exactly sure of how to go about explaining her story. It wasn't something that she liked to talk about; it was a rough subject for her.

"Taeko… Hey, if you're not comfortable talking about it, then you don't have to. I don't want to force you to talk." Hana said.

Hana realized how uncomfortable Taeko was becoming during her constant questioning. She didn't mean to, she really didn't, and she felt bad about it. After this, Hana kept her mouth shut, not wanting to say anything else so that she wouldn't upset her friend again.

The two girls sat there in silence for a while, just staring at either the floor or the walls. It was at least another ten minutes before Taeko finally broke the silence.

"My teammates…"

Hana's head perked up and she looked over towards her friend.

"Your teammates? Wh-What happened?"

Again, there was a pause before Taeko spoke again.

"M-My teammates were killed while we were out on a mission; we were ambushed. The guilt ate me alive, even though no one blamed me. I felt so ashamed that I wasn't able to do anything to save my team that I ended up leaving the village. Something…happened to me while I was wandering around and I ended up passing out. Then I ended up here…" she said.

There was yet another moment of silence between the two girls. Hana was absolutely stunned by what Taeko had just told her. Her team had been slaughtered by an enemy shinobi and Taeko was the only one to survive the attack. The guilt had been too much for her friend to bear and she left the village, somehow ending up here.

It took Hana a while to completely wrap her mind around all of this information. Taeko had gone through so much pain and guilt, emotions that Hana herself had experienced before; but not in the same way. She wasn't exactly sure what she should do now. She wanted to comfort her friend, but she didn't know how. This was something that she didn't have much experience with.

But she needed to say something. This silence wasn't helping matters any.

"I'm sorry that you had to go through all of that. It must have taken a heavy toll on you. No one should have to go through something like that, even if you are a shinobi." she said softly.

Taeko kept her eyes locked on the ground, not bothering to move them.

Hana scooted closer to her friend and she wrapped her arms around Taeko, hugging her tight. It was all that she knew she could do.

"But I'm here for you, ok? You're my friend, and I want to help you. If you need me for anything, don't be afraid to talk to me. You're safe here as long as I'm around." she stated.

Taeko's eyes began to well up with tears as Hana spoke. She was willing to help her through this, as difficult as it would be to do so. Hana was a good friend, and Taeko knew that she could trust her.

She wrapped her arms around Hana, hugging her back.

"Thank you, Hana… Thank you…"