Sorry for taking so long. Senior year stuff. Will try to be quicker with the next one. No promises though.

Iwa Shinobi Chapter 5: A Heart's Secret Yearning

Disclaimer: Me no ownie. If I did, i would be suing all the writers of the bad fics.

Tazuna's house

Sasuke woke up in a daze, a smile plastered onto his face. He had had the most wonderful dream in his entire life (which wasn't much) about a beautiful red-haired girl who he had asked to be his girlfriend and she had said yes.

It wasn't until a few moments later that he came out of said daze and realized that he would be meeting the red-haired goddess again today and that there wasn't much time until he had to meet up with her. And he had to bring her around the house to meet Kakashi-sensei. He only hoped that she wouldn't be upset about having their time together spent with others.

^_^Iwa Shinobi^_^

Cliff

"I would love to meet your sensei!"

To say Sasuke was surprised would be like saying Jiraiya was a pervert, in other words: a huge understatement. He had not expected it. He had thought that she, like he, would want to spend their time together alone.

"Why?" he asked suspiciously.

She smiled at him, his heart beat rapidly, "Why wouldn't I want to meet the man that trained you? If you turned out this good, I can only imagine what your sensei is like."

He gaped. He just couldn't believe it: she wanted to meet him not because of his history, but simply because Kakashi had trained him. She had managed to give him an answer and compliment him at the same time. He smiled.

"Well, if you insist Rose."

She turned a brilliant shade of crimson, "I d-do Sasuke." 1

Sasuke smirked, while trying to cover up his own blush, "Well, alright if you insist. But I must warn you: my teammates are not as nice as I am. Just stay out of their way and you'll be fine."

With that they started down the cliff to Team 7's host's home.

^_^ Iwa Shinobi^_^

Tazuna's House

When they reached the door they stopped. Sasuke had been holding her hand the entire time and he noticed that she was shaking. He squeezed her hand reassuringly. She gave him a weak smile in return. His heart felt like it could break and he had the sudden urge to whisk her away so the feeling would go away. But he had promised his sensei that he would bring her over and that was what he was going to do.

Sasuke took a deep breath and pushed the door open. Leading her inside he called out, "Kakashi-sensei, we're here."

They heard some noises from the kitchen and after a moment of waiting the man who was called sensei walked into the living room, and froze upon sight of Sasuke's companion, his visible eye widening dramatically.

Kakashi couldn't believe his eyes. Standing before him was what anyone who spent a good deal of their life with the Namikaze's, a carbon copy of Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze, wife of the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze, his sensei.

The red hair flowed down her back and gave off a shine that could rival the sun and eyes of violet that were more precious than any jewel and a face that could only be compared to a goddesses. Kakashi had thought this way when he had first seen Kushina Uzumaki while she was dating Minato-sensei. And if he was right (and he was one-hundred percent sure he was) this was their first child.

Just then Naruto walked into the room and saw a girl that looked just like his mom and started walking up the stairs and. . . wait looks like mom? His head whirled around so fast Kakashi wondered how he didn't break his neck.

He growled, "Alright who are you and why are you impersonating my mother?"

Akahana's widened in surprise, I look like his mom? Taking a deep breath she says shakily, "I'm not sure I know what you're implying sir. I have always looked this way."

Having confirmed his suspicions, Kakashi stepped forward and extended his hand, giving her an eye-smile, Hi there young lady, my name is Kakashi Hatake. I am Sasuke-kun's sensei. The young man over there with the accusing glare is Naruto, and there is another student of mine around here somewhere by the name of Sakura Haruno. You can recognize her by her pink hair. I honestly don't know anyone else with pink hair so there shouldn't be any mix-ups. Now what did you say your name was again?"

"Aka-Akahana," she said nervously as everyone's eyes were on her. Sasuke sensing her discomfort grabbed her hand and squeezed it, she smiled at him showing her gratitude.

Naruto, recognizing the name instantly rushed forward and yanked her away from Sasuke, earning an indignant squeak in return, "Hands off my sister Uchiha, she's too good for the likes of you."

"Hey! I ain't nobodies' sister!" She yelled trying to get out of his grip.

Naruto tightened his grip and glared at her, silencing her and she ceased her struggle, blushing underneath the scathing glare, "You are my sister Akahana. Neither Mom nor Dad stop crying about how they couldn't find you and after all these years we finally did it. No thanks to that worthless Uchiha."

Akahana's eyes narrowed dangerously. From what she could tell, it would appear that Sasuke was in fact the Uchiha. Perhaps he was not the best person to befriend, even if he made her heart go all aflutter. She wished she didn't act like a cruddy fan-girl whenever he was around, but perhaps it was for the best. And she had absolutely no idea why this guy was calling her his sister. I mean,it's not like I'm a carbon copy of his mom right? She really didn't know, and honestly, she didn't want to find out.

If for whatever bizarre reason she was in fact his sister than that would mean her entire village hates her (well since they didn't actually know what she looks like since she is always wearing the henge but that's beside the point). Being the daughter of her village's most hated and feared enemy was definitely not something she needed be. But having a brother and parents that care about me would be nice. Ever since Akira, her adoptive mom, gave birth to her and Minoru's first real child, a baby girl, she had spent less time with her, and even less time caring about her. She had her own child to worry about. No time left for the replacement when she has the real thing. But she still owed her for taking her in, and it would be a betrayal if she didn't return to Iwa with her team.

And besides, there was no way that he could really like her. After all, her own mother didn't like her anymore so why should this boy. She wasn't pretty, so there was no reason for anyone to like her in that way. She was going to be alone the rest of her life.

She shook her head, "But I'm a nobody, and nobodies don't have families that cry over them." She looked down at the floor, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. Shinobi she might be, but human being came first.

At that everyone stopped arguing and stared at her. She could feel their eyes boring into her. Her 'brother's' arms tightened their hold on her. He lifted her head up and looked in her eyes.

"You are right a nobody doesn't have a family to cry over them," she lowered her eyes, tears starting to trickle down her face. She tried to pull away but he held her tight, forcing her to look in his eyes again, "But you. Are not. A nobody. Do you understand me Akahana? Do you sister? I wouldn't be holding you if you were a nobody. And neither would our parents have cried themselves to sleep every night since you disappeared," he paused, a thought suddenly crossing his mind, "Speaking of disappearing, where did you vanish off to?"

Her defenses already broken, she answered, "Iwa."

If the atmosphere was already tense, then now it was so thick you could cut it with a knife, and barely scratch it.

Suddenly her brain caught up with her mouth and her eyes widened dramatically, shit I wasn't supposed to say that. Now they're going to torture and interrogate me about what I saw and heard there and then execute me. She suddenly tried to break out her brother's grip. Still shocked he didn't try to stop her. But before she could make it out the door, Sasuke grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her and hugging her to his chest. After several attempts to get away she realized she was never going to see her teammates or Deidara-sensei or Haku or old man Tsuchikage again. She was going to be locked in a tiny cell and fed bread crumbs for the rest of her life. She broke down in his arms and sobbed her heart out. Somehow being in his arms let her release all her pent-up emotions. She felt like no one would judge her while he held her, that no one could hurt her.

Sasuke held her close while she cried, wishing there was something he could do or say to make her feel better but he also needed to calm himself down as he had just heard that his new crush was the daughter of the Yondaime Hokage and had been raised in Iwa all her life. The latter part was more of a blessing because it meant that she wasn't around to hear all the slander and hurtful things the villagers have said about his clan, but the former meant that she was out of his league.

Kakashi after recovering from his shock walked over to the girl that he hadn't seen since she was born and was being carried into battle in Minato-sensei's arms and picked her up. By some act of Kami, she didn't fight him, in fact she flung her arms around his neck and continued to sob. Luckily she was so small otherwise it wouldn't have worked, she was slightly shorter than Sasuke and a great deal lighter so it made it a lot easier to hold her.

And on top of that she felt safe in his arms, nothing like when she was in Sasuke's, but safe nonetheless. Kakashi's uncovered eye softened considerably at the sight of this girl who had been who had been mocked for her beauty. She only wished that things wouldn't go badly. Deidara-sensei would probably whisk her away and make her put on the henge again and play the boy that she never wanted to be. Why did males have it so easy?

Outside in a tree bordering the house a young man was watching the entire scene run. His brown hair sticking up behind the mask that covered his face, which looked like a hawk, his hitai-ite wrapped around his forearm, bearing the symbol for Iwagakure. He had his hand on a katana on his back for a quick draw in case the Konoha shinobi harm his charge.

The day wasn't done yet though. For in a tree next to the Tremor was another masked ninja who had the symbol for mist engraved on the top of it. But instead of a ninja outfit there was a formfitting pink kimono that hugged the female nin's curves. Oddly enough the nin from both trees were masking their chakra so well that neither could detect the other.

Haku was watching the entire proceedings and couldn't help the tears running down her face. She only wished she could let her stay with them, then she would be treated right, but alas then Zabuza-sama would be in trouble for allowing one of Iwa's shinobi going missing and it would put Akahana/Naruto in a bind because she shouldn't know any jutsus. Although from she heard she is guessing it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that she had training because she was raised by their greatest enemy. Granted she is wondering why they haven't asked why she was here in the first place. Oh well, at least she's safe for the moment.

Back in the house Kakashi was holding the crying thirteen year-old and noticed that her sobs were becoming more akin to sniffles. Drawing her back he looked her in the eyes with his one and said, "We have never stopped hoping. We prayed that we would find you so many years that it became a mantra, saying the same thing over and over again. "Please return Sensei's daughter to us". We never stopped and now it seems that our prayers have been answered. Of course this probably wasn't the best place for you to show up at and definitely not the best time but for now we are just thankful to have found you. And when this mission is over we will go home to Konoha together, where your mother and father are waiting for you. How do you feel about that?"

Another sniffle, looking into his eye with her tear-filled ones, she nodded, smiling, "That sounds wonderful."

Kakashi's eye crinkles into a smile, "Good. I am sorry to cut this short but my team needs to train. We have a missing nin to contend with and I will not let my team fail. I will be leaving Sakura with you for company and protection while Sasuke and Naruto and I are out training."

Akahana's eyes widened when she heard her brother's name, "N-N-Naruto?"

"Yeah, that's my name. Why have you heard it before?"

Thinking fast she said, "N-no. It's just that there's someone in Iwa that has the same name."

Seeing the others nod accepting what she said she gave herself and internal pat on the back and sighed in relief at the avoiding that potential catastrophe.

With that the boys left with Kakashi and Sakura walked up to her and extended her hand, "Hi, my name's Sakura Haruno. I'm Naruto-kun's teammate." Naruto-kun?

"Are you dating my b-brother?" That's going to take a while to get used to.

She giggles, which was very annoying because she just asked her a yes or no question, and on top of that her giggle was obnoxious, "No, but he will come around eventually and see that we are meant for each other."

Akahana sweat-dropped, Great, a fan-girl, just what I need to end my day; a girl who can't get her head of my brother's ass.

Noticing her discomfort, Sakura decided to tone down her fan-girl-ness and talk about Konoha. They talked for a while, each saying what they thought or had heard about the ninja village.

When the boys were just about done with training they heard a scream coming from Tazuna's house. It was Sakura. Fearing the worst, they stopped what they were doing and rushed back to their temporary dwelling and saw the door lying on the ground broken off its hinges. Running inside they saw Sakura lying on the ground in a pool of blood with a wound in her side. Running through handsigns Kakashi rushed forward and placed them on the wound. After a few moments it closed and Kakashi leaned backward and sighed in relief.

Behind him Sasuke and Naruto were looking frantically for Akahana and when they saw a strip of red cloth they immediately knew what had happened: Iwa had taken her, again. Sasuke slammed his fist onto the ground, tears pouring out of his eyes. Naruto, in turn, clenched his fists tightly, so hard in fact that blood started running down his hands, and his eyes shut tight in sorrow. He had just found his long-long sister and she was taken from him not five hours after meeting her. He didn't know what he was going to his. . . Parents! Oh shit he had completely forgotten about them! If they heard that they found her and that she had been in Iwa this entire time they would raise an army and storm the Village Hidden in the Rocks, resulting in many innocent lives lost.

He marched over to Kakashi-sensei and asked, "When do you think she will wake up?"

Kakashi looked up at his sensei's student, he sighed, "Hard to tell really, might be tomorrow, might be next week there is just no way to know. We can only hope that she actually hope does wake up, otherwise we will never know what happened to Akahana," he closed his eye sadly, "I don't know how I will be able to talk to Sensei after this."

Naruto stared off into the distance for a moment before his eyes hardened, "We tell him the truth. We found my sister and that she was kidnapped just after we relocated her. We just can't tell him or mom about Iwa being involved with this because of the treaty we have with them although I can't help but think they were doing that to throw off suspicion and it was very sudden when they asked for an alliance with us."

Kakashi nodded his head in agreement, "We'll do that, but before we do anything else we should get Sakura upstairs and into a futon. I can't imagine sleeping on a floor to be very comfortable."

^_^Iwa Shinobi^_^

At the Iwa teams hideout

After Haku and Jinsoku retrieved Akahana, Deidara was having a rather 'heated' discussion with Roshi on the matter.

"She could have jeopardized the entire operation!"

It seemed that during the time it took for Akahana/Naruto to be retrieved Roshi had revealed that he knew he was really a she. Hiro being the grandson of the Sandaime Tsuchikage obviously knew about her real gender. And Jinsoku, well, they weren't really sure how he knew but he did.

"And what would you have her do? Sit back and miss the only chance at a real family? Have you seen Akira lately? She acts nothing like she used to. So don't even pretend that she cares for the girl anymore!" Roshi roared at the three-mouth nin.

"She's just going through a rough patch. She just had a baby you know!" Deidara tried to reason.

But Roshi was having none of it, "She had a baby four years ago Deidara! Four years! I hardly think that's an excuse. And a rough patch! Are you serious? That woman doesn't even spare her a second glance!"

In her bedroom Akahana was lying on the bed hugging her knees to her chest, crying. She had just found out she had a brother and parents [After giving birth to Hana(means favorite) she had stopped pretending that she was her mother in private and told her that she was adopted and that she had been forced onto her to raise], and then they took him from her only chance at happiness away and now she was going to have to return to that accursed place that used to be her home but was now more akin to a prison.

Her so-called 'father' had been ecstatic during her early years but when she didn't do everything that he thought a perfect son should do he started to grow distant from her. And when Akira announced she was pregnant he withdrew from her immediately. Of course he thought he was a guy and it is kindof hard for a girl to be a perfect son so she was improvising most of the time.

Akira, although she had been great in her early years as well, grew distant because she was tired of pretending she had a son when it was really a daughter and when she came out with her pregnancy she was happy to have a child of her own, or at least another attempt because the last one had ended so badly.

It just wasn't fair.

I am very much aware that this chapter is sappy, but I had to do it sometime. Please Review! It would make my day.

1: nard it! You can't make a nickname with Sasuke. It means warrior and nothing goes with it. If any of you can think of a good nickname for him please tell me in a review. Much appreciated!

Til Next Time! ^_^!