AN: This story is the final part in the series involving: In your eyes, A new Beginning and Cherry Blossom Memories. If you haven't read those stories, please go to my profile and read them as they can clear a few things up that will otherwise not make sense.
He rested his forearm over his eyes and groaned loudly as he rolled over and out of bed. Placing one foot on the floor a head of the rest of his body, he evaded landing on the floor. He may alert and attentive in class but he was not a morning person. He yawned loudly, scratching the back of his neck, then sniffed the air. The scent of freshly brewing coffee filled his nose, beckoning to him. He heaved a heavy sigh as he got up from his bed and grabbed large navy blue towel as he made his way into the washroom.
After a quick shower that started off boiling hot then became freezing cold he went back to his room, towel around his waist and got dressed, taking care to dry his dark brown hair and tuck it up into the red and white cap, then secure it with the blue string, leaving the signature singular bang to fall down in his stern dark brown eyes. He liked keeping his outfits fairly similar. A white sleeveless v-neck shirt, and then on went a pair of dull teal pants, he dawned a matching dull teal haori and then wrapped his forearms in bandages. He liked training his upper body and arms mostly, and the bandages helped with reducing injury. Aside from that, although he'd never admit it out loud he liked the look and the contrast of the white bandages against his tanned skin as well as the dark teal in his outfit. He left his room, closing the door behind him as he made his way down the hall way to the kitchen. In the kitchen stood a girl who appeared to be a human of sixteen years.
She had long raven black hair that was styled half up. The front of her hair on either side tied back and held with a pink ribbon. She had a pale complexion, and an oval face. She had wide steel grey eyes that were focused on the food cooking on the stove top. She wore simple grey leggings and sakura print button down top with a white tank top underneath it.
This was the part of his life that he kept secret, the guardian who hardly ages. She was the one who had been protecting and caring for him for the past twelve years of his life, after his parents were killed by exploding humans. He, himself, was nearly met with the same fate. He had only been a toddler back then but out of nowhere he found himself in the arms of a strange teenager who used something called 'danku' to shield them from an explosion. She then did the best she could to defend the nearby villagers of the village he'd been visiting as well as him from the exploding humans.
She recognized him as being from the hidden leaf and brought him back home with her. What had surprised him at first was that the girl seemed to know where he lived and moved in to care for him. She had also located letters that his parents had written to him, that had been concealed within the house itself. She had identified herself as an older cousin from a different village, but the truth had learned just two years ago was far more complex.
She had been born in the same village, in Konoha, a hundred and fourteen years ago. She had aged as a normal human until the age of six, when her own power began to awaken. After that her aging slowed to one human year per decade, giving her the appearance of a now sixteen-year-old teenager. Between the time he'd met her, and now she only appeared to have aged a single year, but he knew she had aged a lot more than one birthday. Ten times that amount and then some. He had been two when he met her, he barely remembered anything about his parents except for that terrifying incident.
It was she who stayed up with him when he caught a stomach bug, she was the one who changed his bed sheets after he'd wet the bed when he was a toddler. She had taught him how to cook, clean, and about manners. Indeed, if she had learned of his shenanigans at the academy, she would've hit the roof. No, scratch that, she'd kill him, revive him and kill him again, and then revive him once more and ask him if he wanted to keep making an fool out of himself. The scariest thing is, he knew she was capable of it. Although she rarely ever used it, the technique was a method of torture she used to extract information from her own kind. Though she was quick to point out that although they were the same species as her, they weren't necessarily comrades.
He knew that her mother had been sent here on a mission, long ago, a little over one hundred and fourteen years ago as a matter of fact! Her mother had come here, along with two other high ranking officers of their organization to chase down some kind of 'dangerous scrolls' that had gone missing from their archive. He didn't know anything more than that, other than the obvious, what was meant to be a three man mission was quickly discovered to have an unsuspected fourth agent: the teenage girl whom he regarded as family. The surprise agent was the one who had raised him thus far, and educated him as much as she could about life, even the more embarrassing aspects of it. She was affectionately called the 'surprise' by her group because although her mother had been in a relationship, with someone from their home, she had been unaware that she had left for this mission while pregnant. It wasn't until about two weeks in that she noticed the early signs of pregnancy.
But by then their ability to communicate with their home had been disrupted and they had no way to fix it. He had asked before why they didn't just return home and she had answered with, "mother says that we can't leave until the mission is done." For a while he'd regarded her as the daughter of Shinobi, but he quickly realized that was not the case. After a few years, when he was nearly a teenager himself, she told him the truth. She was a Shinigami. A balancer of spirits, and in fact could exist without a corporeal body. However, if she did he would likely not be able to interact with her. So she chose to remain in a faux body most of the time and when he was away, she'd shed the faux body and exist as she normally would without him to interact with.
He knew she could sense him. For crying out loud she could identify any person around them before she could see, smell, or hear them. She could identify a person solely on the sensation she felt when they were approaching and had demonstrated more than once to know when he was in peril, simply by the feelings she'd get. Yet he refused to be the one to break the silence—it was tradition, after all.
"Good morning Iwabe," She greeted him as she handed a dark teal mug of steaming hot coffee to him. A cheery smile to her face as she flipped the omelet in the frying pan.
"Morning Sakiya," he replied, taking a sip from the dark liquid.
"Sit down, it'll be ready in a moment," Sakiya instructed.
He nodded as he sat down with his coffee and let out a heavy sigh. Another morning, if he was honest, morning or afternoon he'd struggle to get up and get moving. She on the other hand could leap out of bed and beat six grown men before they had time to ask 'what?'
They were polar opposites in many ways, but somehow it worked. She was a strong woman, and he admired her for her resilience. Fifteen years ago, during the fourth great shinobi war, her mother and the two other agents assigned to the mission, whom Sakiya referred to as her "aunt" and "uncle" realized that an invisible spiritual blast was threatening to wipe out Konoha, they had protected the village from the shockwave, but at a high cost.
Sakiya had a painting of a teenaged boy, whom if Iwabe were honest, seemed to be a male version of the girl standing at the stove. She took the pan off the heat, and served the vegetarian omelets. There was one for him and one for herself, she placed them on the table respectively. He thanked her for the food as he began to eat. Sakiya smiled as she ate a bit.
After a while Iwabe asked, "have you ever wondered about your father?"
"Yes," Sakiya admitted before adding, "Luckily my mother was very forthcoming about him."