Chapter 19

AN: Kishimoto owns all except my characters-Kiminari, and Kimiko, and later characters. Also I'm probably not going to follow any of the story line except a few small things. I may take the characters outside their natural personalities, but that's because it's my story, and it'll add to it. Another thing: since I'm not following the story line of the series- All main (good) characters will start out the same age as they should be, but even though the Akatsuki will be around, the war will not happen until later; if it does at all. Again this is because I'm making up my own story line; it gets kinda boring when nothing has changed and, you readers would be able to guess what was going to happen all the time. So, enjoy, and please comment, review, rate, whatever you wanna do. :D

P.S. I don't like to go into detail to tell you things most of you already know, and if you don't already know them, then it's best I don't tell you.

I took a deep breath, steadying myself and slid open the door.

Someone's P.O.V.

I watched as a young girl in a blue kimono and black pants, walked down the road that went to through the Uchiha compound. She had brilliant, red hair, and blue eyes; she was quite small, but I could tell she had strength hidden behind her appearances. She bowed, slightly to a group of workers as she passed; whoever she is she must have something to do with everything being rebuilt. She made her way to the clan head home then stop just outside the sliding door. I saw her pause, as if contemplating something then slowly push the door open.

For the last twenty minutes or so, while I was waiting for the girl to come back out of the old house, I'd been thinking of what she was doing there anyway. She definitely didn't look like an Uchiha, and, besides Sasuke was the youngest left. When she finally reappeared, she looked as though she'd been crying. I watched as she softly pulled the door closed and sat to put her shoes back on. As she turned to leave, two things caught my eyes. The first was the Uzumaki crest upon her right shoulder, and the second was the Uchiha crest proudly displayed upon her back.

Once I had double-checked myself, I turned on the branch I'd been spying from, and began to make my way back to my hideout; there was someone who would definitely want to know about this.

Kimiko's P.O.V.

As I walked through the house, I saw many things that had been salvaged that told the history of my family. Down one hallway was a large mural depicting the formation of Konoha; it was absolutely beautiful. Down another, were several displays and replicas of swords and various other weapons that had belonged to members of the clan before the formation of Konoha. There was so much I could learn from just looking around, but I knew I'd have to leave soon.

On my way out, I saw a room I hadn't noticed coming in. I gently opened the door and peeked in to see several pictures of what I assumed to be very important people and their families. I walked in and looked at some. The first one that caught my eye was a painting of Sasuke's family; his father looked stoic, while his mother, brother, and he smiled gently at whoever the artist had been. The next painting was also of two brothers and their parents. All four people in this painting looked worn and tired, but at the same time happy to be together. I read the names of the people and saw that the younger's name was Izuna, and the older brother was Madara, my father. I gasped a little when I noticed that I'd definitely inherited his skin and face; also, although I had my mother's blue eyes, my eyes were rounder, like my fathers, but seemingly more similar to his brother's and mother's.

I looked to the picture beside it and saw a lone figure. This was also a painting of my father, but at an older age. It still baffled me that he was as old as he was when he met my mother; Lady Tsunade said it probably had some crazy jutsu behind it. I reached out and touched the blank face of the man in the picture. I only wish he hadn't gone against the clan and that he had stayed here; then maybe I would have had a father that was there for me and was proud of me.

I hadn't noticed the tears rolling down my face until then, but when I did, I knew it was time for me to leave. It was definitely going to take some getting used to, living here, but I still enjoyed it. I turned to leave; I was already going to be late to dance if I didn't hurry.

Later, while I walked back to the apartment, I tried to remind myself of a saying I'd read from a small book about my clans history. The book had mainly talked about how the Uchiha been perfectionists at everything, but whenever one seemed to have perfected everything, there was always a major flaw to go along with it: A jack of all trades is a master of none.

When Lady Tsunade had asked me if I would like to start dance, she'd said it would help my clumsiness, which, I seemed to have a lot of, even in training -unless I was standing still. She had talked about how, even when I had beat Kakashi, he had not used this weakness to his advantage; he had wanted me to win, though not easily. She had pointed out that clumsiness was normal in small children, but as I grew older and it did not improve much, she had begun to worry. Over the past few years, I had found that, although I was far from the best dancer, all clumsiness seemed to fade when I danced. When I applied the thought if dancing to my fighting, it improved majorly; Kakashi had begun to try tripping me or knocking me off balance, but could no longer succeed. Lady Tsunade had been quite right saying dance would help in that area, but I still held that clumsiness it everyday life; something my friends tended to make fun of me about.

When I arrived at the apartment, I decided not to take the stairs -again a tripping factor- so I simply jumped into the kitchen window, which had been opened-presumably to let out the smoke being created by whatever Kakashi was attempting to cook now. I jumped, and when my hands touched the sill, I kicked off the wall and brought my feet in to my hands and removing my shoes and stuffing them into my bag. Once I was perched in the window above the sink, I watched Kakashi carefully; he seemed to be trying to make senbei, which I loved, but was definitely failing.

I continued to watch as he took the pan out of the oven, and before he turned to place the blackened cookies on the counter, I stepped to the side of the sink and off the counter before placing my things quietly on a nearby chair. Once his back was turned to the rest of the kitchen, I got the ingredients back down and, as he fanned the smoke from the pan, I started the recipe over. By the time he went to dump the cookies in the trash, I had already mixed the left-over ingredients- steamed rice, oil, rice flour, and water- and begun to separate it into small bite sized balls.

When he finally turned around, he jumped a little. "Kimiko, when did you get in here?" he asked a little scared.

"Oh, just when I realized you were about to burn the house down." I said with a giggle. "I saw the smoke, so I decided to take a short-cut; I jumped in the window, just as you were about to take the senbei out."

"Ah, he said. You know, you really shouldn't do that to people."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because," He said, "it's scary. If someone doesn't recognize you soon enough, they might attack you."

"Well, I'll just have to watch out then." I smirked.

He got back to work preparing something simpler-Yakisoba-while I finished the cookies. When dinner was finished, he went to the living room and patted the sofa seat next to him. I walked in and joined him.

"You know, Lady Tsunade has asked me to tell you more about your family. She says that with all the problems we've had with Sasuke in the past, you should at least know all the truth; no one told him, and now he's all confused. We just don't want him to tell you something wrong." He said

"So, what all does she want me to know?" I asked and with that, he began explaining the truth behind the massacre, why it had happened, who had caused it, and many other things. When he'd finished, he started to tell me about how Konoha was formed, he paused, and told me that he'd tell me more about that tomorrow.

"Why? Will it take a long time?"

"No." He said. "And yes. It involves your father, so it will probably bring up a lot of side questions. I think I'll see if you, Lady Tsunade, and I can go on a little field trip tomorrow." He said with a smile. I smiled back; it had been about a month since I'd been anywhere new, or uncommon.