Gerimis

The train departed as scheduled, each of the seat and overnight bed occupied except for two. Naruko glanced at the empty bed opposite her. She could vaguely picture an image of a boy with an apathetic expression, or was he smirking? Nonetheless, an image of a dark haired boy sitting on the bed with skin fairer than hers. His pair of onyx eyes looking at her, or was he ignoring her? Naruko was not sure. She had just met the boy, too early to anticipate his actions towards her.

Most probably annoy me to death with his good looks and evil intentions.

Naruko face palmed at her inner self's thoughts. She realised that such thoughts were distracting her from relaxing and having fun on this trip. So Naruko shook her head vigorously trying to dissipate him from her mind.

Ino who was lying on the top bed, above the empty bed reserved for Sasuke, opened one eye and raised her eyebrow watching Naruko shaking her head. At that moment, Naruko feeling the intensity of the gaze looked up and saw Ino looking at her confusingly.

"I think I have a headache," she half lied, reaching for the switch to shut the light off.

The older girl played along, smiling while asking, "You want some medicine for it?"

"No," Naruko could feel her cheeks blushing. "I should sleep, sleep makes everything better, Imma... Imma.. sleep. Yes, right, sleep," and she promptly lay on her side and curled the other way.

Ino smiled and whispered "Silly girl."

Then Ino lifted her blankets to seek more warmth and said in a louder voice, "Good night, don't let the bedbugs bite."

Naruko smiled and closed her eyes and replied good night albeit in a whisper. She was asleep in less than twenty seconds. Meanwhile Ino looked at the empty bed opposite hers, reserved for Sai. She smiled and thought of her fiance back at his base, shopping online for plane tickets most probably, and she went to sleep.

Naruko woke four hours after the train departed. It was normal for her to wake up in the middle of the night when in someplace foreign. But she did not let herself return to sleep immediately, instead her mind was attracted to the landscape outside. There was not much to see since everything was dark, but the sky was breathtaking. She glanced out the window, the night sky peeped in between the curtains which were not fully drawn. Sprinkles of stars dotted the sky which was almost clear save for some clouds. Naruko had missed this, the city sky was not as clear as this.

Naruko yawned and looked at her handphone and saw that it was 3.30 am in the morning. Her mind wandered back to life in Iwa. She had left Iwa for about seven months now. She had managed to stay in contact with Chiyo for at least six months out of that as the oldy lady had been transferred to a private nursing home under the sponsors of a former anonymous orphan. So she had effectively lost communication when Chiyo forgot to leave her phone number on their last phone conversation. Naruko knew that there couldn't be that many private nursing home in Iwa, so she had intended to use this trip to reconnect with her foster mother.

She suddenly felt weird that she had not been sorely missing Iwa as she had expected to be. Naruko was never homesick while she was in Konoha, had even contemplated moving to Kumo because of Iruka. Maybe it was because there was no one in Iwa to tie her down, maybe because all her former foster siblings never took the time to contact her when they were adopted. Her thoughts floated to Anko, her former social service officer who had not kept in touch at all. They were not really close like siblings but she greatly appreciated all that Anko had done for her so far. Especially for making sure that she was permanently placed with Chiyo, after years of being in various foster homes before she moved in with Chiyo. Naruko frowned, she had too many memories she was eager to forget. They weren't the worst to happen, nor were they the happiest, but still she wanted to forget.

She pulled her feet up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her knees. Now she really couldn't sleep after so much thinking. Naruko stopped her mind from letting all the memories flood in. This could be the reason why she readily settled into life as a single girl in Konoha. To forget her past life, to start anew. She could build a new life in Konoha, she was only sixteen as Iruka had said, and the sky's the limit. Iwa was home but Konoha is her present home, and maybe her future home.

At that moment the train pulled into a station and an announcement over the speakers notified that they were in Ame. Naruko scrambled for her map to check their current location. The map showed that Ame Grand Central Station was the second station on the way to Iwa. There will be two more stops before they reach Iwa. Naruko folded her map and slipped it back into a pocket in her backpack.

She inched towards the window and pulled the curtain away to one side and secured it to the window frame with a curtain tie back, careful to do it slowly should it disrupt the soundly sleeping Ino. She could see a few passengers from Ame approaching the train and the trainmaster pointing them towards their respective coaches. She knew the train was full when it departed from Konoha, but it looked like some passengers disembarked here and their seats occupied by Ame passengers.

Her mind floated to a scene four hours earlier when she had first arrived at Konoha Train Station. Ino was already there with her bags, but she was alone. Naruko looked left and right for signs of two black haired guys but didn't see any. Ino smiled as Naruko approached her.

"Sai and Sasuke sent their regards," Ino said sheepishly.

"Are they going to be late? This train is full and I doubt that the train will wait for them if they are the only two being late."

"No, they aren't coming with us. They have some unplanned… urgent matter to attend to. Sai told me that they will still come to Iwa but they will take the plane instead. But I thought why waste money and join them, as a train ride sans the boys once in awhile would be nice, just us girls."

Naruko nodded and was secretly relieved since she had been nervous about meeting Sasuke. The boy had been popping in her mind whenever she began daydreaming. She sighed in relief when she realised that she could act as she pleased without having to act all awkward and defensive around him.

She reached into her jeans' front pocket and fiddled with the friendship bands she had made for Ino, Sai and Sasuke, his in black and red. Would Sasuke laugh at her if she gave him the handmade craft, and would he think her as silly? Naruko decided to ignore her negative thoughts. If he wanted to be friends with her, he must do it Iwa style, with a friendship band. Naruko wondered why she never made one for Iruka, maybe because Iruka was not really a friend to her, more like a sensei, she thought.

"Woooh! Wooooh!"

The train blared its horns thrice quite loudly but surprisingly Ino did not wake up at all. Naruko watched as the train station moved away from her vision, the train slowly began departing Ame. Naruko inched back to her former comfortable position and snuggled under the blanket.

She had began to zone out when she heard footsteps outside, stopping in front of their compartment. The persons outside paused and Naruko braced herself to meet them.

The curtain separating the compartment from the aisle was slowly pulled back and someone peered into the compartment.

"Hey..."

Naruko sat up and switched on the light. Sai stepped in lugging a backpack and was followed by another make wearing a knitted hat. Naruko noticed that they were almost equal in height, just when did Sasuke became taller she thought.

Naruko stood and shook Ino to wake her up.

"They're here Ino!"

Ino opened her eyes and eyed the newcomers blearily. She smiled. "Oh yes, Sai texted me an hour ago while you were asleep. Now get settled everyone, we need to start early in four hours."

Sai kissed his fiancee on the forehead and climbed on to the bed above Naruko. Ino smiled as she looked at her fiance settling down for sleep. Meanwhile Sasuke sat on the bed across Naruko.

"How'd you get to Ame, Sai?" Naruko asked Sai but her eyes stared at Sasuke who was rummaging his bag for something.

"A friend of mine drove us here." Sai said.

"Oh. That was one quick ride."

"You don't want to know," Sai said from the bed above Naruko.

She sat back on her bed still couldn't believe that Sasuke was in front of her.

"Had a good night's sleep?" Sasuke took off his hat and ruffled his black damp hair. Naruko felt her heart beating wildly.

Shit, why does he has to look distractingly good looking.

"Yes, until you arrived," she said while fluffing her pillows, an unnecessary act since they were fluffy already.

"Great, have some more," a smirk followed.

"Whatever," Naruko said wanting to have the last word.

Sasuke was wearing a dark grey turtleneck inside his dark coloured zipped up jacket. He took off his shoes and jacket. He stuffed his shoes under the bed and rolled his jacket and put it on top of his backpack and slipped into the covers. Naruko who was still checking him out mimicked him. She closed her eyes and waited until the room was dark again before opening her eyes to peep at Sasuke.

The boy was smirking though his eyes were closed.

Bastard!

Naruko tried sleeping, but when she woke up and the sky was still dark, so she checked her phone again and saw that it was 5.30 am. Too early to freshen up, but suddenly her stomach growled and she knew she needed some snack to keep it quiet. She glanced at Sasuke who was lying the other way. Silently she stretched to waken her sleepy muscle and sat on the bed. Quietly she grabbed her phone, ticket, jacket and a few yen notes and made her way to the cafeteria which was about six compartments away.

When she arrived at the cafeteria she was glad to see that she was not the only one awake, there were a few early risers or maybe 'night owls' who were snacking at the cafe. She moved to the counter and was served complimentary coffee after showing her ticket. The cheery server handed her the complimentary food and smiled brightly. Naruko smiled back albeit surprised at the very awake waiter. Carefully walking and balancing a cup of covered coffee and a box of biscuits, she made her way to an empty seat and sat down.

Before sitting down, Naruko stuffed her handphone inside her jacket's pockets and zipped it up. She was wearing her favourite orange and black jacket, a branded one which had a Konoha insignia of a swirl patched on the arms, near the shoulders.

By this time the sky had lightened to a lighter blue as opposed to blue black. Naruko opened her box of biscuits and began dipping it into the hot coffee without realizing that the cup's cover wasn't open yet. She chuckled at her forgetfulness and opened the plastic cover, the delicious steam wafted into her nostrils. She dipped the biscuit into the coffee and began eating. After five minutes she felt the urge to pee but satiating her hunger was a priority now, so she proceeded to eat.

Meanwhile, earlier as Naruko left the sleeper compartment, Sasuke turned around from his side laying position and saw her getting off her bed and moving away. He contemplated whether to follow her or just talk to her in the morning. After five minutes suddenly his stomach growled, so he too woke up and followed her.

He could see her blonde hair combed into a neat plait from the entrance of the cafe. He ordered a cup of unsweetened hot mocha and grabbed a box of biscuits from the complementary pile. After his order was ready, he made his way to her table. Naruko was apparently too engrossed watching the early morning sky to notice that he had moved closer to the table and hovered until she saw her.

Naruko saw the reflection of someone in the mirror standing beside the table and promptly turned around to see the person she least expected. She gaped at him and bit her lower lip. He cocked his head to gesture to the empty seat, asking for permission to sit. Naruko nodded and Sasuke slipped into the seat. They were seated facing each other.

"Can I have the itinerary for our trip?" Sasuke asked breaking the twenty seconds silence after he sat.

"Umm.. Ummm," she quickly swallowed her last piece of biscuit.

"Hmmm?"

"Oh yes, it's in my bag at the sleeper. I have a copy for you and Sai. I'll give it later."

"So, who was your guardian in Iwa?" He said as he copied Naruko's act of dipping biscuit into his mocha.

"Chiyo-bachaan. She was actually my foster mother, but she was in her 60s when she took me in so she told me to call her grandma."

"You want to visit her?"

"Well, yeah. But don't worry. I'll see her by myself, I have hired another.. more experienced guide for all of you during that time."

"No, Sai and Ino can go together. They won't miss me. I'll go with you."

Naruko felt awkward at the suddenness of Sasuke's request and her bladder was bursting.

"Well, Whatever. I need to get to the toilet anyway, nature's call," and she slipped away back to the compartment to fetch her toiletries bag and headed to the shared toilet on the opposite carriage.

Back in the train's cafe, Sasuke had gaped at Naruko's action of deserting him. He attributed it to her wariness of stranger and continued enjoying his early breakfast.

When Naruko returned to the compartment everyone was already up, Sasuke was there too. She stood in the entrance since Ino had gotten down and occupied the space in front of her bed, to choose her outfit of the day.

Naruko shivered when the air condition hit her freshly washed face. Fortunately she did not bathe yet since it was still deathly cold, so she had just washed her face and brushed her teeth to freshen up.

Upon seeing Naruko standing at the entrance, Sasuke stood and made his way to the toilet. But he paused when he reached Naruko's side, looking at her sideways. He looked into her eyes and stared at her questioningly for a few seconds before breaking into a smirk and asked.

"Would you mind if I have some of your toothpaste because I forgot mine."

"Ah um, here," she handed him her toothpaste.

"Thank you," he smirked and continued on his way.

Naruko was dumbfounded with all the suddenly smirking expression from the formerly stoic boy. Her suspicious mind jolted back to reality when Sai came down from his bed and started asking about the food unique to Iwa.

"Umm well, there's the famous….." and he listed all the food mentally while Ino continued to choose between a blue and pink turtleneck sweater.

Naruko, Ino, Sai and Sasuke, arrived at Iwa at around 7.30 am. The climate was cold and chilly and they were received by Naruko's former neighbour and good friend, Rock Lee. He was about to teach Naruko martial arts before she followed Iruka to Konoha.

"Hello sunshines and especially my little sunflower of Iwa. Oh, how Iwa had missed you so much. So how have you been doing?" the thick browed teen held his hand to Naruko and pulled Naruko into a bear hug.

"I am doing great. Meet my friends, Ino, Sai and Sasuke."

"This is Lee, our tour guide for the next three days. Lee actually runs an organic fruit farm, he's also part of the agro tourism industry in Iwa." Naruko briefed her new friends of the tour guide's resume.

After all the ice breaking, Lee led them to the car park. The green turtleneck wearing man also wore green khakis, green work boots and tied a green key around his neck. Sai and Ino had initially gaped at all the greenness on the teen entrepreneur, but was soon ignoring the greens when the man started rolling out his nice guy tour guide personality. The green clad man hoisted all their bags in one heave and jogged them to his four wheel drive which was about twenty feet away. They all raised their eyebrows at his display of strength.

"My foster uncle gave me this business to take over because he was hired for a special contract with the government. Something about wrangling wild animals for conservation."

Sai and Sasuke glanced at each other knowingly as Ino smiled, acting all innocent.

"That's wow!" Ino exclaimed.

"Well, let's head to the hotel first for breakfast. Our first itinerary after brekkie is a ride to Konoha Hokage Hill. The hill is situated 1450 feet above sea level and boasts about 500 types of flora and 800 types of fauna."

Lee continued his explanations as he placed their bags in the back, made sure they all buckled up and started his engine.

Naruko sat beside Lee and nodded at all Lee's words. Sai and Ino were half listening to Lee and half admiring the scenario along the way. Iwa's climate made it possible for Ino to wear her expensive scarves, which she usually uses as bag accessory back in warm Konoha.

Sasuke looked outside the window and saw trees and colourful flowers lining the streets. His thoughts reflected on his meeting with Gai regarding his mission to persuade Naruko. They were on their way to the train when the call from headquarters came. Sai groaned while reminding himself why he chose to stay with Root for another year as yet another personal errand disturbed.

CHUNIN HQ

"Danzo set a new deadline for you in view of your successful Mangekyou implant. You do know the circumstances of your Mangekyou and the Kyuubi's myth right?"

Sasuke nodded at his superior.

Gai continued "The test will be conducted in a month from now. Just in time for your Mangekyou to mature and be tested along with the Kyuubi. Just some controlled test which we will go by you and the prospective Jinchuuriki."

Sasuke nodded again.

Gai adjusted his spectacles and began briefing the boy about Naruko Uzumaki. Sasuke nodded as he raked in all the information about the original blonde and blue eyed girl.

IWA

Back in the vehicle, Lee had stopped by the roadside to point to some beautiful scenery. They didn't get down as they would be going down the route again tomorrow. Sasuke eyed the back of Naruko's yellow head as the girl's head bobbed to acknowledge Lee's explanation. He couldn't fathom how one could live and not knowing about their background.

One thing they didn't disclose about Naruko was how Naruko ended in Iwa when she was born in Konoha. He also discovered that they were actually only three months apart, though she was led to believe that she was a year older than she was.

The information he had received from Maito Gai yesterday was that Naruko's father, Minato came from Konoha and her mother from war torn Uzushi. He knew Naruko did not even know who her father was, much less her mother and that it was not his place to divulge these information to her. The order was for him to obtain the Mangekyou Sharingan before gaining Naruko's trust and then Sai bringing her in to ROOT.

He hoped that she will get to know of her backgrounds soon. Unlike him, Sasuke of the Uchiha genes, who was created in the laboratory from Root's finest genes and raised by armies. He had also received motherlike affection from his gene donator, Mikoto but at least he was aware that he was a genetically engineered soldier unlike Naruko who was a raised as a normal human. He had all his life to adjust while she still lived in ignorance of her genetic potentials as a jinchuuriki.

Sasuke looked to the front and caught Naruko looking at him. But when heir eyes met, she looked away. He smirked and continued looking outside out the other window. The couple beside him was cooing at something outside.

Naruko was busy, trying to not blush so hard from getting caught staring at the fair skinned and very attractive boy. Lee's voice seeped back into her eardrums, "So tomorrow we are going to visit the Iwa Agricultural Museum and then head to the flower exhibition next to the market place."

"Why are you all red Naru?" Ino asked suddenly.

"Haaa what?"

"Her skin must have forgotten how cold Iwa's climate was, after months of being at Konoha," Lee interjected while he pulled into the hotel's car park.

"Yeah, maybe that," Naruko smiled and scratched her blonde head while glancing back at Ino.

As soon as the car parked, Naruko opened her door and ran to the hotel lobby to register. Lee looked confusingly and went to the back to fetch their bags.

Ino knew who made Naruko act all weird, turned to the younger reprimanded him, "Stop teasing her Sas."

"Ok," Sasuke smirked. "It was an order anyway."

Ino rolled her eyes.

From the front of the hotel a young man who had gotten out of his Jaguar, looked surprised at the newcomers as they exited the vehicle. He couldn't believe how Naruko had looked so different from last year. She was more feminine that the last time he had seen her. He was about to call her when she dashed into the hotel

Instead of driving away which he had intended to do before noticing Naruko, he took of his sunglasses and approached the tourists.

"Lee, Good Morning, bringing them to our wonderful village in time for the fruit festival?"

Lee turned around and greeted the man "Sora, how are you man? Naruko's in the hotel. She must be so surprised to see how you have changed now."

Sora smiled and gave a hearty laugh, and he noticed the dark haired boy looking at him questioningly. He decided to ignore him and proceeded to the hotel.

"Hey Lee, I left something at the hotel. Talk to you later."