Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto/Naruto Shippuden. Even if I did, Tonbo still probably wouldn't be canon. (Maybe Hinashou would.)

Chapter 5:

Secrets Revealed: The Past Part 2

She could feel the sunlight on her face. It was warm and bright. Her body no longer ached and she felt safe.

She slowly opened her eyes. She was under the covers of a bed and she had a cast on her left arm. She untangled her right arm from the covers and reached to touch the cast. It was hard and she was assured that it was real.

She sat herself up and this woke the woman who was sitting in a chair pulled up close to the bed. She had had her arms and head resting on the edge of the bed. She sat up in her chair and looked at the little girl.

She smiled, "You're awake. I'm glad you're okay." Now that the girl's chakra had been sealed, she no longer feared her. But her smile faded into a frown. "Did they do this to you? Your parents?"

The child said nothing, but looked back down at her arm. For Mikoto, that in itself was an answer.

"It's okay, I won't let them hurt you anymore." Mikoto leaned in closer and brought the back of her fingers to the girl's cheek. "From now on... you can call me mother."

The little girl seemed shocked and Mikoto wondered if she had overstepped. But all that worry changed with a single word. "M-mother?" That was the first time the little girl had said anything to Mikoto, and for her, that moment was precious.

She watched as the little child crawled out from under the covers and onto her lap. The girl placed her ear to Mikoto's chest and listened to her heart beating.

Mikoto was overwhelmed with emotions. She was happy that the girl wanted to know that she was real, but she was sad knowing that the girl's real mother probably never tended to the child.

She found herself crying. She was still a bit stunned by the girl's actions, she wasn't quite sure what she should do. But she instinctively wrapped her arms around the girl and embraced her.

They stayed like that for a long while, until Mikoto spoke again. "You were asleep a long time. I was so worried about you."

The girl still had her ear against Mikoto's chest, and she was now playing with the ends of Mikoto's hair.

"Please tell me, what is your name? I need to call you something."

The girl shook her head at Mikoto. Mikoto was unsure what that meant. "Well then how about I give you a name until you're ready to tell me your real name. That way you'll know when I'm calling you, okay?"

She nodded her head and Mikoto put her hand to her chin in thought. "Oh, I've got it. For now, I'll call you Hanahime. Having two boys of my own, I never got to name a girl, but I've liked that name since I was a child. It was my best friend's name. Does that sound okay?"

The girl nodded again, and that was that. "Alright Hanahime, your clothes are filthy, and you need a bath," the mother in her took over. "Bath first, and then I'll wash your clothes. You'll have to borrow some clothes while I was your own."

She stood up with Hanahime in her arms and went to give her a bath. Once she had bathed her, she dried her off and put her in boy's clothes that fit surprisingly well.

She brought her back to the guest bedroom. "Alright, I'm going to wash your clothes, if you need anything, you can just call for me, okay?"

"Okay," Hanahime nodded. The second word. This made Mikoto smile.

She walked away and left Hanahime in the room. After a while, Hanahime heard the front door open. She thought it might be Fugaku, so she left the bedroom and walked down the hall towards the front door.

She froze in place when she saw two little boys, roughly the same height as her. They both had dark raven hair and onyx eyes.

"Hey Sasuke, is that girl wearing your clothes?" one of them asked.

The one who was presumably Sasuke called out, "Mother!"

Hanahime darted into the nearest room. Mikoto came to the voice, walking while talking. "Sasuke, I thought you were over at Hinashou's house." She turned the corner to see the two boys standing in the hallway.

"Oh, Hinashou, you're here too? What are you boys up to?"

"Well we were over at my house, but then Sasuke forgot his shuriken, so we had to come back here. But then there was this girl here and she was dressed in Sasuke's clothes, and-" Hinashou was cut off by Sasuke's hand going over his mouth.

He received a hard glare from Sasuke, but both looked up when Mikoto put her hands on her hips.

"Sasuke's shuriken?! I think you mean Itachi's. You both know that you aren't supposed to take Itachi's stuff. When you have your own you can use those. But you're both still too young to be handling shuriken. I'm sure your mother would say the same, Hinashou," she scolded them.

"I told you not to mention it," Sasuke hissed at Hinashou.

"You were the one who told me they were yours!" Hinashou shot back.

"Boys, just go back to Hinashou's house for now, okay?" Mikoto commanded more than asked.

Sasuke looked up at his mother, "But wait a minute, there's still some girl wearing my clothes, she went into my room too."

"Oh so you met her already, have you? That's just Hanahime, she'll be staying here for quite a while. So you both have to be nice to her, got it?"

"Well yeah, but why was she wearing Sasuke's clothes?" Hinashou stifled a laugh.

"I'm washing her clothes right now. Later today I was planning on going into town to get her something more to wear, seeing as how she only has the one outfit."

Sasuke and Hinashou just looked at each other. "Alright, now go back to Hinashou's house, both of you," Mikoto shooed them out the door.

Mikoto walked back over to Sasuke's room and opened the door. Hanahime was just standing with her back against the wall next to the door. Mikoto could tell she was uncomfortable having heard the conversation.

"Hanahime, why don't you come with me and we'll get you some new clothes to wear now?" Mikoto asked.

Hanahime nodded, "Those boys, one of them was your son? And the other one, was he your son's friend?"

Mikoto smiled, "Yes, Sasuke is my son and Hinashou is his best friend. They're with each other all the time. Sometimes, I feel like I have three son's instead of two."

"And then, this is Sasuke's room?"

"Yes it is, and he probably doesn't want you in here, so why don't we leave?" she reached out a hand and Hanahime took it.

During the time Mikoto and Hanahime went shopping, Fugaku had gone to Konoha's gates to walk home with Itachi after he had gotten home from a mission. Fugaku explained the situation to his eldest son on the way home.

Fugaku knew that he would have to explain in less detail to his youngest son. Sasuke was about the same age as Hanahime, and many of the things that had happened to Hanahime are hard for a three-year-old to handle, or even to understand.

When Fugaku and Itachi got back home, Mikoto was getting Hanahime dressed and Sasuke and Hinashou were running around the house playing ninja.

When Sasuke saw Itachi, he ran up and hugged him. Hinashou did the same thing. "Itachi, you're back from your mission!" Sasuke smiled.

"Did you do a whole bunch of cool ninja stuff?" Hinashou asked.

Itachi smiled down at them. "I'll tell you both about it later."

Fugaku put a hand on Itachi's shoulder, "But right now, I need to talk to you Sasuke about our guest. And Hinashou, since you're here, you might as well listen too."

The two boys groaned to each other as they followed Fugaku into the next room.

"Alright boys, the girl who will be staying with us is about your age and the guest bedroom will from now on be her room. If you ever want to come into her room you must knock first and make sure she's okay with you coming in. You both have to treat her with respect, but also, since she will be living here, I expect you to treat her like family. You both got it?"

They both nodded their heads.

"Alright, good. Mikoto!" he called out. "Will you bring her in here so the boys can meet her?"

"Yeah, we're coming!" Mikoto called back.

Mikoto entered the room with Hanahime following close behind. When Hanahime saw the three boys she had to meet, she hid behind Mikoto's legs.

Mikoto laughed, "It looks like she's a bit shy to meet all of you. You can call her Hanahime."

Mikoto had put Hanahime in a dress, and she had brushed her hair so that is wasn't a tangled mess anymore. She looked much better now that she wasn't wearing Sasuke's clothes.

"Hanahime, that is my oldest son, Itachi, my younger son, Sasuke, and Sasuke's best friend, Hinashou. But sometimes Hinashou feels like my third, and youngest son," Mikoto pointed at each of them.

Itachi looked curiously at Hanahime. He wasn't quite sure why his parents decided to take in someone that wasn't an Uchiha.

"Hanahime? Flower princess huh? Well you might be pretty, but that doesn't make you a princess," Hinashou almost always said the first thing that came to his mind. "I'll call you Hanahi instead."

Hanahime wasn't sure whether to take that as a compliment, or as an insult.

"Hinashou, that isn't very nice," Mikoto began.

"Okay, I like it," Hanahime came out from hiding behind Mikoto.

This surprised everyone. "Hanahime, you don't have to-"

"No, I like it," she broke in again.

Both Hinashou and Sasuke were shocked. They had planned on annoying her to no end, and that was supposed to be the first hit. But it didn't seem to go quite as planned. They hadn't liked her from the beginning because neither of them wanted to have some girl always following them around with Mikoto always telling them to include her.

But she didn't seem phased. "I would rather not be called a princess all the time anyway," she explained further.

"Alright then... we'll start calling you Hanahi," Mikoto gave in.

After a few weeks, the boys did start getting along with Hanahi. They started to do everything together, and Hanahi became a lot more open. But there were still matters Fugaku and Mikoto had to resolve.

"Has she told you what her real name is yet?" Fugaku asked his wife.

"No, and we can't go to court to get custody of her without knowing her name and the names of her parents. For now we're fortunate that her parents don't care enough about her to file for a missing child at the police station."

"I know that. The sooner we can get custody of her, the better. We have to have custody of her before she turns six years old. We can't enrolled her into the academy without custody over her."

"We still have a few years before that, my concern is that people will start asking about her. Then what do you tell them?"

"For now, the fact that we're keeping her here has to remain a secret."

It had been a couple of weeks since Hanahi had gotten her cast off. At first she had been afraid to use it and so she was given a week of physical therapy. After that, Mikoto had to give up on having Hanahi wear dresses.

She played outside in the dirt all the time with Sasuke and Hinashou, so from then on it was shorts and a shirt.

Hanahi had told Sasuke and Hinashou all about where she used to live and about how dangerous it was. Because of this, the boys both thought it would be a perfect challenge to have to survive a day in her old district.

Hanahi thought it might be hilarious to watch them trying to cope with all the crazy kinds of people she remembered living there. No one really messed with her when she was living there, but she knew that that probably wouldn't be the case anymore. It really could be dangerous.

But as children go, they don't necessarily have good judgement. So Hanahi agreed to give them the challenge. She, of course, would be the judge.

They told Sasuke's mother they would be at Hinashou's house all day, and they told Hinashou's mother that they would be at Sasuke's house all day.

They knew that they would probably figure out that they had gone somewhere else, but they just needed it to work long enough for them to get there.

On the way, Hanahi told the boys the details of the challenge. "Alright, just surviving the day isn't enough of a challenge, so instead, you'll have a goal. I'll go in ahead of you two and I'll hide this flag," she held up a flag she had made out of a stick and a piece of cloth. "You too will have to find it together. Of course, you may run into dangerous people or some other type of obstacle along the way. You can't buy food or water, if you get hungry or thirsty, you have to get what you need some other way. Oh and no stealing. It's wrong so that's against the rules too. Once you find the flag, whoever gets it first wins. You might have to fight each other for it like real ninja. But whoever grabs it and pulls it out of the ground first is the winner. If you just touch it, it doesn't count. Got it?"

"Sounds a lot better than just a test of survival. It'll be easy!" Hinashou was obviously excited.

"Don't forget who you're up against. I won't go easy on you," Sasuke smirked.

Hinashou smirked back, "Well in that case, I'll make sure to go easy on you, that way you'll stand a chance!"

"Oh yeah? Race you to the gates!" Sasuke took off and so did Hinashou.

"Hey wait a minute, you don't even know where you're going!" Hanahi called after them. She sighed, "Idiots," and she took off running after them.

They did make it to the gates, but Hanahi had to run behind them calling out which way to turn. The boys stood with their hands on their knees, panting in front of the district gates.

"I- so- beat you," Hinashou said between pants.

"You- so- did not," came Sasuke's slow reply.

"You both got here at practically the exact same time, and the competition hasn't even started yet!" Hanahi broke into their conversation.

"How come- you aren't- tired?" Hinashou was annoyed.

"Because I'm not an idiot and I actually knew how far away I was from the gates."

"I'm not an idiot!" both Sasuke and Hinashou said in unison.

"You know what, you boys are right. You're only idiots when you're together!"

"Hn." They both crossed their arms.

This made Hanahi laugh. Somedays they were total opposites, but sometimes they acted just like each other.

"Okay, you two wait here, I'll be back," Hanahi went off to hide the flag and the boys both sat down off to the side of the gates to rest while they waited.

She came back within 15 minutes with a shirk across her face. "Okay, ready?" she asked them as they stood up.

"More than ready," Sasuke looked smug. Surprisingly, Hinashou had a very serious and determined look on his face. It was rare to see him so serious, he just nodded to Hanahi.

"Alright, remember, you have to find the flag together. This is mostly because I can't keep tract of you both at the same time," Hanahi began.

"If you could make a shadow clone, that wouldn't be a problem," that was more in character for Hinashou.

Sasuke couldn't help but smile, he thoroughly enjoyed seeing Hanahi get annoyed.

"Shut up! It's not like you can do that either!" Hanahi shouted.

The boys both stifled their laughs. Hanahi glared at both of them, "Ready, set, go!"

They both took off running side by side again. "And there they go. What's the point of running? They'll probably run right past it. Idiots," she said to herself before she too, took off running so she could follow them.

They eventually got tired of running and started to walk. After a while of looking, Hinashou started asking for a hint every few minutes or so, which Hanahi denied him.

Almost everyone in the district seemed to be scary or intimidating, or both. For the most part, no one really bothered them, although one woman with matted hair tried to take them home with her. They told her that their father would be back for them any minute. She eventually backed off.

It was a little past noon and they were all hungry by now. "Hanahi," Hinashou groaned. "How do you expect us to get food? Are we supposed to catch a wild animal or something?" he whined.

"Do you see much in the way of a forest around here? There's nothing but streets and dark alleyways for the most part," Hanahi implied an answer.

"Well then how did you feed yourself?" he questioned.

"I took food out of my parents' refrigerator. I didn't live out on the streets you know."

Hinashou suddenly felt stupid. "Then what are we supposed to do for food?" Sasuke put in.

"That part's easy. All you have to do is ask," Hanahi smiled.

"You mean beg," Sasuke corrected.

"Hanahi, Uchihas never beg," Hinashou clarified.

"Well you two will just have to swallow your pride if you want swallow something to eat. Or you could just go hungry for the day," Hanahi teased.

She scooped up some dirt in her hands, and proceeded to rub it into her clothes.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked.

"Just watch." She knew that if this was going to work, she would have to pick someone who did know her from before. Otherwise, no one would give her anything.

She chose an older man with really thick glasses who was selling apples on the side of the street. She walked up to him and tugged on the sleeve of his shirt.

"Excuse me sir," the old man looked down at her.

"Oh why hello there young lady. What can I do you for?" he asked with the kind of kindhearted smiled only caring old men could bear.

"Could you spare some food?" she gave him the saddest eyes she could muster.

"Oh, well of course I can. A growing girl needs to eat." He picked one of the apples off his stand and placed it in her hands.

"Thank you very much sir!" she made sure to brighten up her face in as much gratitude as she could.

She turned to leave but the man grabbed her shoulder. "You know what? Actually, why don't you take another one." He handed her a second apple.

She bowed to him. "Thank you!"

She then left the old man and came back over to where Sasuke and Hinashou had been watching from a distance.

She wore a smug smile on her face. She bit into one of the apples. "And that's how to get food. Just don't go up to the same person."

"Hn. I am not doing that," Sasuke crossed his arms.

The hunger was getting to the Uchiha boys, but Hinashou broke first. "Fine. I'll do it," he was unhappy about it, but he was happy about the idea of having food in his belly.

After watching Hinashou do it, Sasuke reluctantly gave in and went to beg as well.

It was a few more hours before they found the flag. It was in the middle of a crowded four-way intersection. Although the street was filled with people, no one seemed to have touched the flag.

Sasuke and Hinashou battled it out right there in the street until one of them had pulled the flag out of the ground.

They then started to walk back while they talked. "Looks like I beat you," Sasuke dangled the flag in front of Hinashou's face, tauntingly.

"You only won because that man with the fruit cart got in my way, he's the only reason you got the opportunity," Hinashou pouted.

"Hn," Sasuke smirked. "If you had been paying more attention to your surroundings, you would have noticed him coming. Blame it on the fruit man all you want, that doesn't change the fact that I still won."

"Yeah, whatever. If we hadn't been in a crowded place like that, I would have beaten you."

They continued to argue, and the sun was getting low in the sky.

A boy who just happened to be spot Hanahi's long mess of purple hair from behind, watched them as they walked.

Is that Tonbo? I've been looking for her for three months! Looks like she's been hiding out ever since she kicked my little brother in the face! She can't get away with that. He'd always hated her, and everyone else did too. So why were two boys hanging out with her?

Not that he cared, but he figured if he could somehow let those two know that they didn't want to hang out with her, he could probably save them from her.

"Hey Tonbo!" he shouted out to her.

Hanahi stopped in her tracks. Sasuke and Hinashou took a few more steps before they realized she was no longer moving with them, and came to a stop themselves.

"What's wrong Hanahi?" Sasuke asked.

She didn't answer, but she turned to face the boy who had called out.

"What do you want?" she asked.

Sasuke and Hinashou looked at each other, not quite sure why she was talking to that kid.

"You know, I've always thought Tonbo was a nice name, for a boy!" the kid spat at Hanahi.

Sasuke and Hinashou were even more confused at this point. It sounded like the kid was trying to be insulting, but neither of them saw how that was an insult.

If I don't say anything, Hinashou and Sasuke will just ask about it later. I can't let them think I'm weak, I can't just turn away.

"It's not a boy's name, it's my name!" Hanahi yelled forcefully.

Sasuke and Hinashou were shocked, and apparently so was that kid, although they didn't know why he would be shocked.

Hanahi... or Tonbo, turned back around and started walking in the direction of the district gates. It took a while before Sasuke and Hinashou turned and followed after her.

They walked in silence most of the way home. It wasn't until the Uchiha district gates were in sight that someone spoke. "You know, I like Tonbo better. That way I don't have to remind myself not to call you princess every time I talk to you."

Tonbo and Sasuke both looked at Hinashou in surprise. "You mean, you aren't angry?" Tonbo asked.

"No, not really. To tell you the truth, I wasn't all that surprised. Shocked, yes. But I already had a feeling."

"What do you mean?" she asked him.

"Well, a few days ago, I had noticed that Itachi never once called you Hanahi or Hanahime. So I asked him why he never called you anything, and he said that it was because that wasn't your name. When I asked him what he meant by that, he didn't answer me."

"So Itachi knew, and he never told us?" Sasuke asked.

"Well neither of us had ever asked before," Hinashou defended.

"Alright, fair enough. But why did you go by a fake name in the first place?" Sasuke asked Tonbo.

"Well, actually mother gave me that name. When I woke up from after breaking my arm, she was there. And that's when she told me to call her mother. Then she asked me what my name was... but I couldn't tell her."

"Why not?" Sasuke asked.

"Well she had just told me to call her mother, and the my real mother was the one who named me. It's hard to explain, but I just didn't feel right in telling her right then. But she insisted on calling me something so that I would know when she was talking to me. So she named me after her best friend from when she was a child."

"And then after she had introduced you as Hanahime to us, you were afraid to tell us?" Hinashou pressed.

"Yes," Tonbo replied.

Sasuke looked over at Hinashou, "Looks like we both win something," he smiled slightly. Hinashou smiled too and nodded in agreement.

"Wait, what do you mean?" Tonbo didn't understand.

They stopped in front of Sasuke's house and both Sasuke and Hinashou hugged Tonbo together. Neither of them had ever hugged her before, and she didn't understand why they were hugging her now. But still, she found herself crying silently. She wasn't sad though, she was happy. So she returned their embrace.

"Tonbo? That name is very uncommon. We should be able to find her birth certificate and that will have both the names of her parents on it. Then we can start building our case to get custody over her," Fugaku explained to his wife.

"We really will have custody over her soon, won't we?" Mikoto's eyes shined as she stared up at her husband.

"Yes, we will," he smiled at her.

A/N: The second part of this where the kids go to Tonbo's old district is usually everyone's favorite chapter. I must admit I'm pretty fond of it myself. Tell me what your favorite chapter is. Read and Review!