Chapter 28: Aftermath

The Funeral:

The day had come. A day she never thought would come, at least, not until she was older. Yuri had been sitting on her bed for hours, she couldn't sleep the night before. It all felt like a blur to her, and it all happened on the day. She had been fighting and there was so much aftermath that she felt overwhelmed. She puts on the black clothes, staring out her window. She was going to have to go. The Hokage was dead… and it was going to rain.

Seeing Isamu and Kenji in front of her door, Yuri doesn't say anything. They walk in silence, all lost in thought, but Kenji and Isamu hold her hand. While they don't say anything, they know each other well enough. Getting there, she notices many people are already there.

At the funeral, Yuri stands between Shikamaru and Sasuke. Her head bowed. She can't stand to look up. It was too much for her.

And the rain begins to fall.

She looks up, sees the sky and is also crying for the Hokage, and all the lives lost in the fighting.

"We are gathered here to not only remember and honor not only the third hokage, but all those who sacrificed themselves in this battle so that our village would survive." One of the elders said,

They place white roses for the Hokage. One by one.

Yuri reaches out and grabs both Shikamaru's and Sasuke's hand. Needing their comfort. She doesn't look at either of them.

The Hokage is the one who introduced her to Sasuke and Naruto. Who built her friendship with Shikamaru and Hinata. If he hadn't, she would be alone. She would have been alone. Yuri would have been left alone, and he checked in on her a few times. Without the Hokage, she wouldn't have been accepted into the village.

While she won't cry here, she will cry when she is alone.

And she won't forget the kindness the Hokage gave her when her whole family wasn't there or able to give her comfort. Yuri needed someone and she found some people. All because of the kindness of the Hokage.

But the rain stops. And she can't help but smile slightly.

Going off with her friends, she knows they might have a short time, but she can enjoy her time now.

Asami's POV:

Sitting across from Kakashi she takes a sip of her tea. She had asked to meet him so they could talk about their students. But it had changed when they saw a specific Uchiha walking by.

"You're sure Kakashi?" Glancing at Kakashi he nods his head.

It was disturbing to say the least. Even Asami had to admit… if the Chibana's hadn't taken in the people they did… she can't help but wonder if Sasuke would have followed a similar path. It was something she wasn't willing to admit… but the boy might have been messed up.

"I am. Izumi is unravaling, the more she sees Sasuke the higher chance she is going to be to attack him." Kakashi shakes his head. "Thankfully Sasuke has ties to the village and doesn't want to go to Orochimaru. But it's Izumi I worry about."

Izumi was a problem.

Ever since Itachi killed his whole clan, Izumi had been strange. All the Uchiha clan members were scarred after it. Sasuke the most of all, he had witnessed his own father being killed. Izumi was slowly showing her colors, she had become hateful of Sasuke. She lives with Doki Uchiha and tends to keep to herself now. Not even talking to her old sensi.

But when she saw Sasuke, she used to attack him. She doesn't now… but it was concerning. She even called Sasuke Itachi one time. It was hard for everyone, especially after Sasuke had awoken his Sharingan. Izumi is becoming a problem constantly.

Asami agreed they needed to watch her. She was starting to stalk Sasuke a little more and was following him to training. It would become a danger soon and could esculate to her following them on missions. They needed to step in.

"I see. I am guessing everyone is keeping them away from each other?" Asami asks.

Kakashi doesn't say anything for a moment. Only stares at her. Which is fine by her. She had learned Kakashi worked in strange ways. It was probably because of everything he had gone through. Especially with the third war and his team being destroyed.

War did strange things to the mind. Not to mention he was isolated after it, and didn't interact with the people he should have been in class with. Being with friends and having someone to compete against helped to better oneself.

Finally, Kakashi speaks up. "You know. I need to meet Sasuke. Want to join?"

"Fine."

Asami gets up and begins to walk. They walk to a sweets shop and she wonders why. But she notices two men in black clocks and red clouds. Asami understands right away, one look at Kakashi and it tells her everything she needs. Meeting Sasuke is a ruse. Leave it to Kakashi to plan something that looks so innocent.

They run into Asuma and Kurenai. She knows he calls Sasuke and that's when a comment grabs her attention.

Obito.

Kakashi never talked about him.

Kurenai and Asuma seem to understand. While she would love to talk to Asuma about his relationship with Kurenai, now isn't the time sadly. It would be amusing though.

"Kakshi, it's not like you to show up early. What gives?" Sasuke asks.

Smirking, Asami shakes her head. Glad Sasuke noticed Kakashi and him being early to this fake meal thing.

"Well, sometimes I do." Kakashi shrugs his shoulders.

"Let's eat somewhere else. I don't have much of a sweet tooth." Sasuke shakes his head.

She notes how the two seem to have vanished. And she knows that something needs to be done. If it's who she thinks it is, they need to protect the Uchiha's. While they might be able to defend themselves… they had the youngest one that wouldn't defend herself just yet.

"Is that so?" Kakashi mutters.

He looks at Kurenai and Asuma. They nod and vanish. She knows this is going to be strange. It was going to be something soon, if she needed to help she would. She would like to help Kurenai and Asuma, that isn't her task right now. Leaving Asami with Kakashi and Sasuke. She has to wonder what his game is.

Why ask Sasuke here?

"What… What is going on?" Sasuke asks.

Kakashi shakes his head. "I might have to cancel Sasuke."

Asami sees a chance and it would be something to help her out. More Yuri. I know she was pissed, and she might be able to ensure Yuri remained focused. She was upset when she trained and it might have helped her. But she didn't want Yuri relaying on hate.

"I'll take him. I need to teach him some manners anyway." Asami smirks.

So, she was being left out of a fight? No matter. She would distract Sasuke, for now. But she would need to help possibly. And she would be okay with it. But she wants to say something to Sasuke before she has to go.

"Well, have fun." Kakashi waves and vanishes.

"What is happening?" Sasuke asks her once again.

Asami hits his head. "Don't bother asking."

She leads him to her favorite spot. And he is only rubbing his head. Good, she won't be able to say, it was going to be something short. Asami wanted to help, but she wasn't going to give the answer. And she would need him to figure it out himself.

"The more you sulk, the less likely you will be able to focus and grow." Asami stops in her step.

"Why are you even bothering?" Sasuke continues walking but pauses and looks back at her.

Asami shakes her head. "I'm bothered because you are involved with my student, who by the way is pissed off. I have never seen her so mad before."

"I… I don't know what to say to her…" Sasuke admits.

Asami shakes her head. Maybe Kakashi shouldn't be teaching him emotionally. Seeing as Kakashi was just as bad. But that's what she is for. Asami is a little better with emotions.

"Just talk to her idiot." Asami says. "You won't do anything by ignoring it."

Something is bugging her. She doesn't like this feeling and Asami can't ignore the feeling. She needs to go and help. That means leaving Sasuke alone, he should go see his own team though.

"I need to go as well. Maybe you should hang out with people now." Asami vanishes, leaving a confused Sasuke.

Rushing over to the spot, She sees Kakashi on the ground with Asuma and Kurenai's eyes closed. She sees Itachi Uchiha. She narrows her eyes, she knows she should look at his feet. And she hears Guy moving in as well, they should be able to take out Itachi and make sure to capture him.

Asami shows up, standing by Guy, listening to him. They need to act fast, this could get ugly quickly. Putting her hand on the hilt of her sword, ready to fight and trying to figure out a way out of this.

But Itachi Uchiha tells them to pull out. And she shakes her head. They leave and Asami removes her hand from her sword. Turning to Kurenai and Kakashi, she lets out a sigh.

"A shame." She shakes her head. "Let's get Kakashi to medical treatment."

They manage to get Kakashi to his apartment, Kurenai and Asami stand next to each other. Asuma looks to be debating about taking a smoke. Guy sits on a stool, she knows he is worried. His usual go happy self is in a state where she only saw him a few times. Guy was worried about Itachi being in the village, and how easily he took down Kakashi. There is a reason why Itachi was able to take out the whole Uchiha clan at 13.

It bothers her that Itachi has managed to get into the village and seems to be hunting Naruto. Or at least what was inside Naruto. He was now following Naruto, wherever he was. It was quiet, and she assumed Naruto was out of the village.

"They're trouble, but from the look of things, it doesn't appear they've found Naruto yet." Guy comments, breaking the silence.

Asuma chimes in. "That's what's crazy. It doesn't add up. I mean, they had already infiltrated the village. It should be easy for them to find Naruto around here." He hits a cigarette out, hitting it back in. "Besides, Itachi knows Naruto's face already."

Guy shushes them. Someone was coming into the room. Someone they didn't want overhearing this information. She didn't blame Guy for it. It was going to be a mess if more people found out and they didn't have a Hokage to report to at this time.

"Kakashi." Izumi enters the room. "Why is Kakashi asleep? And why is this room full of jonin? What are you doing? What the hell is going on here?"

"Kakashi had a little accident against me in train-" Asami begins.

But of course, someone else has to come into the room as they are talking to the most unstable 17 year old in the village. It would only get worse for them now.

"Hey!" Aoba comes into the room. "Is it true that Itachi has returned? And that he's come here to get Naruto?"

Guy facepalms as Kurenai mutters "Idiot."

There is a moment of silence. Asami is worried about what is about to happen, seeing as this won't end well. Izumi hated Itachi since he killed everyone and she was a friend to Itachi. Izumi wasn't there the night everyone was killed. Mikoto comforted Sasuke the best she could, it was why Yuri and Sasuke were introduced. They had clan destruction in common.

But they should have focused on Izumi more. She hated Itachi more than she valued her own life.

Izumi sprints out of the room.

"There she goes…" Asami mutters.

"Aw, why does this always have to happen?" Guy gets up.

It was a rule in this village. Something will always happen. For ninja, they should have sensed Aoba coming, and shut him out. But he came in when Asami was speaking. So she wasn't able to stop the things set in motion.

Asami shakes her head. "She is going to get herself killed. One of us should go after her."

She and Kurenai shake their heads, as Asuma lets out a a pain. Asuma seemed annoyed as well.

"Looks like it… she has a problem." Asuma states.

Asami has a bad feeling about this. But she believes Naruto is safe with Jirya. Izumi should be fine as well. The great Toad Sage was protecting Naruto, it included anyone who wasn't Itachi.

"If Itachi is after Naruto, Jirya took Naruto out of the village, we know Jirya will protect him with his life. Izumi might be safe with Jirya. But someone should go get her." Asami comments.

Yuri's POV:

A Day Later:

She is standing across from Sasuke with her arms crossed. She had agreed to meet with him and since the funeral, Yuri was trying to remain calm. She was trying to see it from Sasuke's viewpoint, but she wasn't able to. She trained too in that time and she didn't vanish.

It was something that would annoy her forever.

"Yuri…" Sasuke trails off.

"Save it. First you ask me out and then! You go off training for weeks and don't bother to tell me anything. To top it all off? Want to know the punchline? You coming in, in the middle of my match!"

She can tell her words hurt Sasuke, but she is still upset. She needs to tell Sasuke all this, even with the village being fixed, she doesn't want to put this off any longer. But she needed to let Sasuke come to her. And now that he has, she is going to tear him apart so he knows this was a dumb thing to do.

He doesn't speak for a moment as he only looks at her. She only stares back, not wanting to say anything, as she knows she will go off worse if she starts talking.

"I know. I know." Sasuke says. "It was an awful thing to do. I'm sorry."

Yuri only stares at him as she thinks about what he is even saying. She doesn't even know what to say.

He said it was awful? She doesn't know what to even say to that. He only sees it as one thing and while yes it is awful, she would describe it more than awful. Humiliating, and overall atrocious. If Sasuke can't see it… she doesn't even know.

"Awful? Awful? You just vanished." Is all Yuri can say.

She doesn't know what to even do. It was baffling to her that they are even in this position.

"I'm sorry. Kakashi Sensi just took me away and I didn't have time to tell anyone. He didn't even tell my mother. I want to make it up to you now. We can go on a date. Whatever you want to do."

Yuri had heard enough, she felt like she needed to punch something.

"We are going to spar."

Sasuke widens his eyes. That wasn't what he expected Yuri to say, she was normally fine with talking everything out. But today? With this? She doesn't want to talk it out. They were waiting for the new Hokage since Jirya declined.

"Spar?"

"Ya. And I'm going to kick your ass in the process. Show you that a whole month of training wasn't worth it when you have an upset girlfriend."

Yuri turns and rushes towards the training field. She takes off so quickly, and doesn't bother to look and see if Sasuke is following her. She doesn't care too much. Sasuke follows her and they make it to the training field.

She barely lands and turns to punch Sasuke. And he doesn't even have time to turn around. But he is sent flying, she puts chakra behind the punch. It was going to help her feel better. She managed to not take any of her anger out on anyone else, and they both finally had time. They had both been helping to build a few things, and training with their teams.

Sasuke regains his footing and stands there.

"What is this going to prove?" Sasuke asks.

"It's to get some anger out, Sasuke." Yuri charges him once again.

She doesn't give any emotion and pulls out kunai. She could use her full strength against Sasuke and no one would even know. And she was planning to hit Sasuke hard. Putting away her kunai, she wouldn't use deadly force with him, just hit him hard.

Activating her bakyguan Yuri decides using the gentle fist would be good. And Sasuke doesn't even have time to move since she knows two different styles of taijustu. And she has only gotten faster than before. Doki made sure of that. Yuri liked how fast she had gotten, and while Sasuke was fast, Yuri knew he didn't know how quick she had gotten.

Hitting both Sasuke's arms he realizes he is screwed. He tries to move away from her but she comes at him faster, and he can't seem to keep up. He even activates his sharingan. But she already shut down his arms, she just needed to do that to the rest of his chakra points. Especially since he took off by himself.

"Yuri! Come on!" Sasuke yells.

But Yuri keeps going after him, hitting all his points and closing his ability to use his chakra. He can't even move as he lays on the ground. Yuri gently sits down and they stare at each other. And she knows he finally understands just how upset she was.

But she feels better. So much better that she feels like a weight was lifted off her shoulders.

"Yuri!" She knows it's Kiba.

She looks around and deactivates her byakugan. Knowing that she isn't ready for Kiba to ask her a million questions. It was going to be a bother explaining anything to him.

"Hey! What- why is Sasuke on the ground?" He looks between the two of them.

Yuri knows this is confusing as she is normally laying down, but this time she is sitting and Sasuke is down.

"That is a lesson for you. Some girls hate being left alone especially after you ask them out. And then vanish for a month." Yuri offers a sweet smile. "Oh and not to cross me. I will clobber you."

"I would listen to her, Kiba." Sasuke mumbles.

This gets Yuri to laugh. So he did understand the lesson! How good for her! She found out that this is a good way to teach Sasuke anything. Just the fact Sasuke said to listen to Yuri is very telling.

He narrows his eyes. "You sound like Asuma."

Slowly Sasuke gets up. "Damnit Yuri. That hurt like hell. Plus, you should listen to Asuma."

Yuri stands up. She had a smirk on her face, and it was just good to know that Sasuke was feeling the pain, but he couldn't say why he was. Not unless it was Sakura who came around. Sakura knows but while Kiba knows, she doesn't want to deal with him.

"Good. And yes, Asuma sensi is very wise and is dealing with Shika already, maybe he can help you." Yuri doesn't even bother helping Sasuke up or sparing him a glance. "What is it, Kiba?"

"Oh, I was sent to find you. Kenji was looking for you. Something about a team meeting?"

Yuri widens her eyes. She forgot! Asami sesni wanted to talk to all her students, seeing as they had been helping around the village. Yuri and Kenji were helping with building a few things while Isamu was in the hospital healing people. Asami hadn't had time to gather her students, so she called a meeting.

"I'll see you later!" Yuri runs off.

Rushing to the river she jumps down. Yuri's mind went blank as she ran, and it was important for her to get there before Asami sensi. She sees Isamu and Kenji both beat her though, which is rare. She managed to beat Asami sensi though.

"Glad you made it." Isamu chuckles. "Why were you so late?"

"I was kicking Sasuke's butt. Shut down his chakra network." Yuri puts her hands on her knees.

Isamu begins to laugh at the whole thing. She knows their images are probably funnier than what actually happened and she would let them have it. It was pretty funny to her as well. Hell, it was even fun to do.

This causes Kenji to burst out laughing. "I would have loved to have seen that!"

"Me too."

"What are you three discussing?"

All three turn to Asami sensi and smile.

"Just that Sasuke got his butt kicked by Yuri." Isamu explains.

"While thrilling, I need to talk to you three about something." Asami isnt being light hearted like normal, and that worries Yuri.

With everything going on, she doesn't blame Asami… but it was going to be hard. Things were hard for the village, and they had no Hokage. So no genin is moving up currently. It was clear that Shikamaru might manage and Shino didn't get a chance to show his skill. It needed to become better, but this darkness was needed.

"Listen, team seven is going to be two people down. Kakashi was injured while doing some training with me and Naruto was taken by Jirya to do something outside of the village."

She pauses. Yuri shakes her head. Kakashi injured? Because of Asami? That makes no sense, and she wasn't going to say anything… even if it didn't sit right with her. And Naruto being gone? That was also strange to hear, but he is with Jirya, and Jirya wanted to train Naruto a little more.

"But, I wanted to discuss Isamu and Yuri's fights in the finals. Isamu." Asami turns to Isamu, he was still healing after the beating he took, the fact he could stand was impressive. "Good job. While you didn't win, you showed how smart you are. And that you are a medical nin, which is a good thing."

"Even though I got my ass kicked?" Isamu frowns and crosses his arms.

Asami smiles. "Even then. You did something Isesu didn't. You tried thinking it through, after a point she didn't. I am proud of you and even if you don't make Chunin."

Slowly Asami turns to Yuri. "As for you. Could have been better."

Yuri's mouth hangs open. Only staring at her sensi. It could have been better? Yuri did the best she could and remained calm, she was able to think things through and Hani was an even match with her. It was upsetting Asami thought she could have done better.

Unless Asami was trying to test her… and she might. Yuri needs to be relaxed and thinking things through.

Regaining her composer she takes in a deep breath. "How?"

Asami smirks, maybe it was a test, but she clearly was growing a little more with each day. She needed to think clearly and this was how she began.

"For one, you had the thought of people coming to help you. While good, sometimes you need to fight like no one is coming. That might have been your downfall. But you might due to how you handled someone coming in during your match. You also did well, and I heard you managed to delay the sand team for Hisata to get there."

She had only remained calm in front of people. Anyone can ask Shikamaru how she reacted to it. She punched a wall and wanted to just cry. Sasuke messed up her chance and she wasn't happy about it. While she was calmer now, she is still slightly upset about it.

Yuri nods her head. "I tasted someone coming and knew it was a Hyuga. So I delayed."

"Good. That was smart.'

"Sensi…" Kenji starts. "One moment ago you were saying the delay was a bad thing. But now you are praising her?"

Letting out a sigh, Yuri turns to Kenji.

"Different circumstances. I am built to do either. One on one battles I should be able to hold my own, but when in a team setting I should be able to move anywhere. Which is normally long distance and close. Just depends." Yuri explains.

Asami sensi nods her head. "Correct. But that is all I wanted to say. I'll be around and avalible. But Isamu, get some rest. Yuri and Kenji, help out and see if you guys can watch the younger ones. Also, don't forget to train."

Asami vanishes and leaves the three. Isamu lets out a sigh and walks away. Yuri and Kenji shrug. They walk in silence, needing to make themselves useful to rebuild the village.

Notes: Things are heating up! I have added in some side missions for the group to do after this chapter. In a sense fillers, but they will play roles later on. All of it happening while Tsunade is being retrieved by Naruto and Jirya. I hope you guys enjoy the next section, as I found it the hardest to write. Please leave a comment and follow the story!