Chapter 12: Puzzle Pieces Coming Together

It had been a few days since they got back. Things had been calm for the genin. Yuri for herself had been reaxing at home. She had met with Isamu and Kenji to learn the things they knew. Without Asami sensi being around. She even went cloud watching with Shikamaru a few times as well, it was a great time. Team 7 wasn't back yet from their mission, but it was said they would be gone for a while due to the nature of their mission. Asami sensi even got her team paid more because they had been attacked and Jirya agreed to it. He was worried about Naruto though.

But Jirya never told Yuri what it was about. Which annoyed her.

That was a problem for later Yuri could figure out. She had a different problem she was about to walk into.

Asami sensi was dragging Yuri to Saskue's home.

"Why are we going to Saskue's? His team isn't even back yet!" Yuri complains.

Asami sensi doesn't answer Yuri once again. With a roll of her eyes, Yuri puffs out her cheeks. Asami had been silent their whole way over. It was annoying to her, she liked to know things, so not knowing what they were doing bothered her. She normally always knows what is going on or she can figure things out quickly enough. Yuri keeps walking.

She was reading the history of her family from the scrolls they had gotten in the mission. It was helping her understand the power, but she was into the history of her family.

The first family head did punish her son for attempting to kill her. She did that by banishing him. There wasn't much more from her writing, but her daughter, who was also named Yuri, wrote about her mother. She said she remembered her mother being stronger than her father or grandfather. While her brother had tried to plan something, the mother had absorbed chakra that allowed them to predict the future. Which was how she discovered his betrayal. The daughter mentioned some interesting things.

Her mother was said to be one of the strongest users of their families abilities in years. The warring states had seen a lot of smart and capable people of the Chibana Family, but her mother was on another level. The rumor was, which the daughter knew was true, that the mother was able to tell the justus someone had and how to counter them perfectly. She had taken the Uchiha's eyes and made friends to learn the powers, something she didn't do that often. When she learned it, she had the ability to copy people, they didn't have to teach her and take time, she could learn it on the fly.

Not many Chibana's were able to do that. They had to learn things from the person and it took time.

But the mother had them settled and she used a genjustu, one she learned. And she passed that down to the daughter. Making sure she knew how to use it and fix it. She made her promise to keep it up and pass it down to her own daughter. And to ensure it was passed on. It kept their family safe since so many people wanted their powers and they weren't seen as powerful yet. But they didn't want to remain that way.

After that, there are so many gaps. Mentions of this or that, the genjustu is always there, and how no one could seem to find the name of the Mother of the Chibana's, she never said her name and her daughter never did either. No mention of the brother that got kicked out, nothing. It was basically a blank time. The Chibana Family seemed to live alone and sharing their own justu's with each other.

It's not until Yuri gets to the end of the warring states that it gets interesting once again. It was said the whole clan shared the Uchiha's power and some went out on a scout one day, only to never come back. They all wanted to beat the Mother and they were all determined to do just that. None of them had been recorded to have achieved the same power, but once word came back that they had been missing, the chief of the time asked people to go out, and find them. If they left, they would need to be killed.

And… that's as far as Yuri had gotten before Asami sensi had interrupted her on one of her days off. She was annoyed, yes, but Yuri was spending a majority of the time off reading and making notes. Mostly to ask Shikamaru about.

Yuri is brought out of her thoughts when she sees the Uchiha symbol.

They make it to the door and Mikoto opens it. "Yuri, Asami, please come in. The third is already in."

They are led to the kitchen where the Hokage is sitting. With a tilt of her head, Yuri is ushered into the seat, she is right across from Mikoto. Yuri doesn't know what they are going to talk about. She was in the sun and hanging out. Reading about her family, but Asami grabbed her and didn't explain anything. Only took her here, which only confused her more.

Shouldn't they meet the Hokage in his office? Not in the Uchiha home? It was all strange to Yuri and she had too many questions.

"What is going on?" Yuri looks between everyone.

For a moment none of the adults speak up to answer Yuri's question. The Hokage has his eyes closed and seems to be deep in thought about the whole thing. Mikoto hasn't looked at Yuri since she sat down. Making Yuri worry she had done something wrong to offend Mikoto, or Izumi… but Izumi didn't talk to her much.

Asami looks at Yuri. "We need to talk about the day your family was attacked. Please tell the third and Mikoto what happened."

Yuri looks down at the table. She knows eventually she would have to talk about it… But she didn't want to.

Still a painful memory and one she never wants to think about. It's part of the reason Yuri rarely likes to be alone. She spends most of her time with Naruto, Saskue, Hinata or Shikamaru. It helped her not think about it. It also helped when she was training with them. It made her feel like she was actually doing something, not just a scared little kid.

Reading about the Mother of her family, Yuri wanted to become better to protect those closest to her. But still… Yuri remains silent. She doesn't even know where to begin! What does she even say about the day her family was killed? Or the events leading up to it? She gave her team a condensed version of events when they went out on their mission.

After a moment the third lets out a breath. "I have allowed you to keep this to yourself, but as your sensi has heard about it, she believes we also need to hear about it."

"Very well…" Yuri pauses and takes a deep breath. "When I was younger, my mother was teaching me a little history about our family. She had to start at the beginning and work her way to the present, to show me that we needed to keep our ways. Truthfully, we hadn't gotten very far, just speaking briefly about the first chief and how she became the first chief. With that an explanation about our powers, very small explanation though. As it was new to me and I was one of the younger ones, but I had to be taught by the chief as I was going to be chief. But the alarm rang in the middle of our lessons. I remember she had seemed distracted before then though…"

Yuri pauses as she closes her eyes and tries to shake the feeling of it happening again. Seeing her mother sitting next to her as they began to read a scroll. How distracted her mother was. Only now does Yuri understand that it was because she could taste people near the land. At least that is what Yuri likes to believe, her mother was able to tell when someone was coming into the land and if they were family or not.

Mentally Yuri shakes her head and tries to refocus. Taking a deep breath, Yuri counts backwards from 10 and looks back to everyone else.

"She got me and my cousins into a hiding place, saying something I couldn't understand. I was the daughter of the chief, I was going to take over the clan one day. But they found us. A man with long hair and purple lining of his eyes busted open the hidden spot. My cousins told me to run while they made sure I got away. Only for a man with red eyes to find me. He said something about me being young, and told me to run."

There is a moment of silence, all the adults seem to be thinking about what Yuri has said. Placing her hands on her knees and leaning forward. She doesn't know what is going to be said… And that made her nervous.

She looks up and sees Mikoto. "Yuri, did his eyes look like this?"

Looking at the eyes, Yuri instantly scoots her chair back. Those are almost the exact same eyes that she had seen that night, the other man with the red eyes. The one that told her to run. Yuri never thought she would see those eyes again. How could Yuri never know that they were the same? She is about to stand up when Asami sensi puts her hand on her. She looks at Asami. But Asami sensi isn't even looking at her.

She is looking at Mikoto. Yuri doesn't dare look at the Thrid or Mikoto, since she feels her cheeks becoming red with her actions. She was about to run away from the eyes that haunt her.

"Calm down," She looks back to the others. "When she told me about it, I knew about Orochimaru and I believed Itachi, and her reaction to you Mikoto confirms it for me."

Mikoto's eyes change back to black and Yuri relaxes a little.

She looks at Mikoto with wary eyes for a moment, sitting in her chair silently as she looks down to the ground. She doesn't want to do this… and she knows why. It's painful for her, and Yuri doesn't like this. She should go find Shikamaru or Hinata after this and train. Or even hanging out. Yuri would take that at this moment.

"Sorry Yuri, I wanted confirmation. And knowing this… I don't know." Slowly Yuri raises her eyes.

With a slow nod, Yuri tries to sink back into her chair. She really wants to stop this conversation. It isn't that nice and she doesn't like it. It brings up too many memories for her, and she doesn't like remembering this instant.

"It's troubling that Orochimaru and Itachi were working together." The Third ponders. "What else can you remember?"

All the adults' eyes look to Yuri. Though she had been looking down and looks back at them all wide eyed. They needed more information? What more could they need? She was a child than, and very scared at that! She didn't know what to look for like she does now! All of this is going to make her see if she can spend the night at Hinata's or Shikamaru's. She knows those places are safe.

"Um… they had these like black robes and clouds… I don't remember the color though."

There is a small pause from everyone. All of them looking at her as she looks down once again.

"I think we have enough from Yuri. I am sure Asami can fill in the blanks." Mikoto looks at Yuri. "I think you should go."

"I agree. Thank you Yuri." Asami leans on the table and stares at the third.

He gives her a nod and she scurrys away. Yuri nearly trips heading out of the house though. No way does she want to be in that position again. She would have to remember to thank Mikoto when she saw her again, she had to get out of there. It was too much for Yuri to handle. Who should she go find?

Shikamaru.

She should go see her best friend.

Once she is outside she runs into someone. Luckily Yuri still has her balance and stumbles just a little. She looks and sees Izumi.

"What did Mikoto want to talk with you about? Saskue isn't even here." Izumi crosses her arms.

Yuri stares blankly at Izumi. "Um… they wanted to ask me a few questions…"

She hops on one foot to the other. Yuri hates when Izumi gets like this. Saskue told her she rarely talked to him. As Izumi thought he was annoying. While it didn't bleed over to Yuri all the time, she could feel the ice from Izumi.

"They? Who else was there?" She takes a step closer to the younger girl.

"Umm… Mikoto, Asami Sensi and Lord Third." Yuri shifts on her feet. "But I need to go…"

Yuri runs away. She couldn't stand staying there for a long time. Yuri needed to get away from all the adults. She wants to be around her friends, so she knows what they can talk about and it wouldn't be her family. She needed to talk about telling more people. She thinks a few people she can trust… and it would be helpful.

Finding herself walking towards Shikamaru's house. She pauses and thinks about it. Should she even go and see him? Talking to people has proven to be nothing but a bother today and causing a lot of emotions to come up. But… Shikamaru is her comfort person. She knows that she wants to talk it out.

She should see Shikamaru.

Just him being quiet and listening to her would help her a lot. Everyone else wanted to talk to her and not listen to her. Asami Sensi had just been talking to them. Wanted them to put their heads down and focus on learning justus and getting stronger.

Making it to the door she raises her hand to knock but Yoshino is already opening the door. Surprising Yuri as she jumps a little. Blinking, she waits for Yoshino to speak.

"Yuri! Come in. Hinata came over with Shino earlier. I believe they are all in the back." Yoshino smiles.

Yuri smiles back at her. "Thank you!"

Yuri goes around to the back and spots the group. Shikamaru, Hinata and Shino. She had thought Shino would be a good person to tell. It might be helpful.

"I can't tell you anything Shino! It's not my thing to tell." Shikamaru lays down.

She tilts her head, maybe Shino was stronger than she thought. He was smarter than she remembered. She hadn't seen Team 8 in a while, so it's possible.

"Shikamaru, I know you know what Yuri's clan abilities are. I just want to know. My father is worried since her team and the Hokage have been tight-lipped about their fight."

Yuri pauses and can only stand on the side. She knew eventually they would have to tell the others about this…. And she knows Shino could keep a secret. Maybe this is the perfect timing to tell him. She would need to tell others eventually, why not start with Shino? The next person would maybe be Sakura?

Either way, Yuri would need to tell them. And it seemed like a perfect chance was here. While she would have liked to tell Shikamaru and Hinata before she told someone else. But Shino is Hinata's teammate, she would trust him as well.

"You think she told me?" Shikamaru asks.

There is a pause. Yuri just hadn't had time to see anyone. She wanted to recover from the mission and take some time to herself. This was one of the first times she was able to move and not have the awful images of the mission in her mind.

Shino shakes his head. "She normally tells you everything."

"Shino… Shino she doesn't always… always tell us everything. We haven't seen her in a while." Hinata mumbles.

All eyes turn to Hinata. A small smile goes to Yuri's face when she sees how Hinata gets a little more red when Shino looks at her. It could be a moment… but Hinata having other things, other crushes is good for her.

Like Yuri letting other people know about her.

Yuri figures this is a good time to go out.

"There's a reason why Shino." All of them look at her. She comes out from behind the house. "I…" Yuri walks over to them.

"Yuri!" Hinata smiles as she walks over to them.

It takes a second for her to walk over to them. She notices Shikamaru giving her a look, and she shakes her head slightly. Yuri needs to do this and it should be her choice. And she is going to tell Shino.

Shino stares at her. "Please explain."

"Might be a bad idea." Shikamaru mumbles.

Yuri glares at Shikamaru. "They are all going to find out eventually."

A tense moment of silence. Shikamaru and Yuri glare at each other, of course she sees why Shikamaru isn't okay with her telling people. But eventually people will know and she is going to need to have a group of people to lean on. Especially since it's only going to get harder from here. Shikamaru shrugs and lays back down.

"Listen… Shino, you can't tell anyone about this. My family's abilities allow me to taste people's chakra. Not only that, but I can absorb their chakra and do their justu. But they have to teach me those things."

She carefully watches Shino. He doesn't give a reaction until he turns towards her. Yuri feels guilty about the way everything is going, she just needs to get everything out there. Letting Shino know about her is something she needs. While she doesn't think he will freak out, she is worried that he might. It's a lot to take in, a person who can COPY others is beyond the scoop. While Shino is silent, Yuri glances at Hinata and Shikamaru.

"Your clan can copy anything?" Shino finally asks.

Yuri nods. "Yes. I have to learn it though. Isamu for example has to teach me his earth justu for me to master it. My family chose to stay out of conflict and settle."

"Could you even copy mine?"

Yuri pauses and slowly nods her head.

"Theoretically, I can copy anyone. I haven't found anything about your clan in my family's history. But Asami sensi I should only use copied justus if my life or my teammates life is in danger."

"Is that why people aren't speaking about your fight? Even Isamu has been silent about it."

Yuri presses her lips together. She knows why. After the fight and on their way back, Asami sensi told them no one else should know about their fight. Especially since Yuri used her powers. Isamu fought about it for half a day… but he agreed to it. They agreed to let the Hokage know and Asami would talk to him.

"I had to use my powers. We agreed to not talk about it."

A moment of silence. She can only stare at Shino, he seems to be in thought about it. And Yuri isn't going to intrude on that. She knows things are going to change a lot. She doesn't want to talk about the fight, but she feels like she needs to let Shikamaru and Hinata know. She won't talk about the whole thing, but she would just let them know about it.

It's the first time she has used them outside of their private training they would have sometimes. It seemed like something to tell them. And she didn't know if she should talk about it in front of Shino, but she would so Shino knew about what was going on.

Shikamaru sits up. "Yuri… which ones did you use?"

"Shadow and Byakugan. I was hitting the chakra points to weaken him and pinned him for Kenji. Isamu was knocked out by that point." Yuri puffs out her cheeks.

Shikamaru, Hinata and Yuri all stare at each other. She knows she used their clans techniques, but if she didn't Isamu or Kenji could have died. She did what she had to do to protect ehr team, and she knew she was only going to get stronger with time. And now that she can read about her powers and keep moving forward. She would need to talk with Shikamaru about it though.

"You… you managed with the Byakugan?" Hinata asks.

Her eyes go to Hinata.

"I did. I couldn't hold it for long though. But it was enough to slow the man down and for Kenji and I to…" Yuri trails off.

She lets her words hang in the air. She can only hope that this lets them know everything.

Notes: I have uploaded another chapter! I am glad to see people enjoying this. And I am continuing to write more things for it! Please look forward to it!