The first night on their journey from Konoha to Sunagakure Sakiya sat up staring at the stars. She had thought herself alone until someone appeared behind her and knelt down, glancing over she saw the eldest living Uchiha who had wordlessly joined her. A small smile crept over her face as she advised him, "you needn't worry about me. I'm alright."
"I have a daughter who is a bit younger than you," Sasuke informed her. At this Sakiya softly giggled and commented, "She's almost 114? I sincerely doubt it."
At this reminder he gave a small chuckle as he apologized, "Forgive me. You look sixteen, and my Sarada is twelve."
"Hmm, yeah that sounds a bit more accurate," Sakiya agreed. She turned her attention back to the sky and admitted, "Believe it or not, I can understand how it feels as a parent to be away from your child."
Sasuke gave her a bewildered glance as he inquired, "you're a mother?"
She shook her head from side to side, "Not biologically. Although, there is a teenager I've raised since he was a toddler, after his mother died in front of me. I couldn't move fast enough to protect her, but I managed to save him. He didn't have any family left so I stayed with him. I fed and clothed him, taught him right from wrong, taught him everything I knew about Shinobi skills. I may not be a Shinobi but the truth is Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, both are derived from Shinigami abilities, namely Kido and Hakuda. However, even with that, Shinobi don't possess the ability to use kido. That's unique to my kind… but it is similar in some ways."
"I've noticed. The Sharingan, and Rennigan allow me to see things that others would not. I've noticed that the barrier you used to keep your family alive is composed similarly to how some of our own barrier techniques would work. They have similar mechanics in that they both use reiatsu, but yours lack nature energy," Sasuke revealed.
"You're right about that. That's the difference between Shinobi and Shinigami. Your powers are a combination of nature energy and spirit energy whereas ours are pure spirit energy," Sakiya confirmed.
She looked to him with tear filled eyes as she admitted, "I know what happened to you, when you were a child. I'm sorry I couldn't do much back then. I wasn't even in Konoha at the time—otherwise I would've pushed to intervene. The greed that Danzo had, the idea of using the Sharingan to gain all of that power—it was brought about by the scrolls. We knew it could happen but we had no knowledge of when it would happen."
"Thank you—but in the end it didn't turn out so bad. I do have Sarada, and Sakura. They're my family now," Sasuke reminded her.
Sakiya nodded as she looked to the star filled sky and revealed, "Sakiya Nozomi Tsukiko is my full given name. My mother named me after two of my father's favourite things: the moon, and cherry blossoms."
She gained a small smile as she recalled, "we actually had a cherry blossom tree on the farm, for no other reason than it gave my mom comfort. Whenever she was unsure of something or felt off, she'd sit under it and just observe the flowers. She told me once that when she used to train with my father and grandfather they'd have lunch breaks under this one cherry blossom tree. Those were her favourite memories."
Sasuke gained a small smile as he acknowledged, "that was a cleaver way to honour your father then. But why 'Nozomi'?"
"Nozomi was my father's mother, she died in childbirth, with my Aunt… that and because Nozomi means 'hope'. My mother's hope is that the curse of our bloodline ends with her, and never carries over to me. She sees me as a possible future where the scrolls no longer exist, and the sin of our clan is cleansed, and there's no further need for inner clan bloodshed," she answered.
"You know—my Dad may prefer the moon, but I love watching the night sky for the stars. The moon is this giant thing in the sky, it's often where your eyes go, but—the stars in the sky—some of them are from planets that no longer exist but their light still shines. Anyone can take notice of a gigantic ball of light, but without those smaller lights the larger light would be too blinding. You need the balance of the two or the moon seems overwhelming even intimidating," Sakiya observed.
Processing this Sasuke gave a small chuckle as he admitted, "I never thought of it like that."
Near the outskirts of Konohagakure, the dark complexioned teenage boy laid back in his bed. He was currently not wearing his usual hat, allowing his straight, shoulder length, black hair to sprawl out on the pillow. He was staring up at the ceiling, the house was quiet. Too quiet, and it made him uneasy. He'd tried a few times to sleep but it seemed as though each time he closed his eyes, he quickly reopened them and glanced in a frenzy around his room. He'd been up from bed, to check and double check each door and window to ensure the house was safe. This was ridiculous. He was a Shinobi, sure, he was Genin rank, but how could a Shinobi be afraid of sleeping alone?
But then he was hit hard with the reality that even when he was away on missions he'd never actually slept alone. The guys were always close by when they were on missions together, and at home Sakiya or at least her mod soul inhabited gigai were always present when he slept.
This was strange and new to him, that's why it unnerved him. He gave a heavy sigh as he sat up in bed and ran his hands over his face, his hair falling down onto his bare shoulders. He was currently wearing a pair of dark teal pajama bottoms and a loose white muscle shirt.
A knock at the door almost made him fall off the bed with shock. It was 10 pm, who would possibly be knocking at this hour? Grabbing his Jo and heading out of his room, he went to his door and looked through the peephole into the hallway. He blinked at the sight of Denki, Metal, Boruto, Mitsuki, and Metal's father, Rock Lee.
He unlocked the door and opened it, "is something wrong?"
It was Rock Lee who answered, "Not 'wrong'. However, Naruto did tell me you would be alone and you may not adjust too easily to being without your sister during the mission. We are here to help ease you into this rite of passage in springtime of youth!"
Iwabee's expression conveyed how little of that his mind was able to process, it was too late for this. "What Mr. Lee means is we realized this likely isn't easy for you, so we're here to help you dip your feet into being alone, slowly. Denki, Mitsuki, and I will only be here tonight, but Metal and his Dad can stay tomorrow night as well if you're not quite ready to be alone just yet," Boruto offered.
Iwabee blinked as the meaning of their presence began to sink in. He gave a small smile as he conceded, "I suppose I wouldn't say no to some company. It is funny, the last thing my big sister told me was 'no girls', I supposed that's why."
Rock Lee chuckled a little as he followed the other boys into the apartment, closed and locked the door as he figured out sleeping arrangements with Iwabee. After the three of them sat down with some chamomile tea, it was Mitsuki who asked, "So how much older is Sakiya then you?"
"Please don't try telling me she's 26 again, my Dad didn't tell me much but I know she ages a lot slower than we do," Boruto interjected.
"That is true, they do age differently than us, well some of them. Those of her race who have powers age slower than humans, otherwise they tend to age at about the same rate until they're adults," Iwabee agreed.
Rock Lee was now not paying attention to his tea as he inquired, "What race is that?"
"There's a few names for her race, they're non corporeal beings. She mostly inhabits a faux body while here. However, her kind have been called Shinigami, literally meaning 'death god', or soul reapers, or even balancers because they maintain the balance of souls in living worlds against the souls in the spirit realm—where her parents are from," Iwabee explained.
At this it was Denki's turn to express his curiosity, "her parents? Then where was she born?"
"Here, In Konohagakure, 114 years ago," Iwabee revealed. Someone sputtered and choked on their tea, while another dropped the cup they'd been holding, and the remaining three held a stunned gaze in his direction.
"She appears to be sixteen and yet she is older than any of us, even Lady Tsunade? I find that very difficult to believe," Rock Lee objected.
"Believe it or don't. I have no means of forcing you either way," Iwabee replied as simply as if talking about an upcoming weather change.
