Who remembered as she slept. Remembered finding the dead bodies of her family, her elder brother standing over their corpses with his eyes a red that seemed to blur and shift.
Who remembered going to the Academy and ending up pairing up with Sakura, mainly because she still felt guys were icky. Sakura, her girlfriend, whom she'd practiced the fine art of snogging a few times with. Sakura Haruno, whose house she'd stayed over at a few times rather than spend the night alone with memories of That Night. Sleepovers that had been the innocent stuff of children, the only experiments there being with hairstyles and makeup.
She also remembered being Sasuke Uchiha, making the entire thing very very odd.
Morning rituals were still observed though.
Naruto, curse of stupidity lifted, still stumbled around while brushing his teeth and looking rumpled.
Sakura still brushed her hair fifty times and spent way too much time in the bathroom. Even on a mission.
Satsuki Uchiha, having been born two months earlier than he had as Sasuke, who was discovering that being a girl meant a couple of other rituals had been added. Such as the time-honored ritual of complaining when someone else spent too much time in the bathroom.
"So troublesome," complained Satsuki, waiting at the bathroom door.
"But Sakura's always been like that," noted Naruto around his toothbrush, referring to the amount of time she spent getting ready for practically anything.
"Then it's always been troublesome," philosophically indicated Satsuki.
Naruto considered that, shrugged, and then went outside to spit out the foam and toothpaste into the drainage canal.
Satsuki considered her name. Born in the month of the same name, but written with the characters for "happiness/rare hope" - she even had a signature stamp in her pack with that.
So much had changed, and yet so little had changed.
That reminded her, she had to get more whip practice in. Now, where could she find someone to teach her?
Anko Mitarashi paused as some feeling of a problem-to-be loomed over her briefly.
Then she shrugged and continued throwing various sharp objects into the lifesize stuffed dummy of Orochimaru she'd tied to a stump.
Time to worry about such things later. She only had a half-hour break to practice her skills before getting back to the interrogation.
Kakashi was thoughtful during breakfast, not that anyone noticed.
"Do you have to read that at the table?" asked Naruto.
"Hmm?" asked Kakashi absently. "Oh, we were scouted last night."
"'Scouted'?" asked Sakura.
"Yes, the scout was good. Very good. At least chunin-level and more like ANBU level," said Kakashi.
"Wha? Why didn't you wake us?" asked Sakura.
"Because you wouldn't have been of much use against this opponent and whoever it was didn't approach," said Kakashi. "We most likely will be attacked later in the day. Their target will be the client, and secondarily will be you."
"So we have to be ready at all times for an ambush from a high-level enemy nin," noted Satsuki.
"You're all going to die!" declared Inari.
"Depressing little twit, aren't you?" noted Satsuki.
"Gato's too strong! You should run away!" declared Inari.
"Ain't gonna happen," said Naruto. "We're ninja. Mission comes first. Even when there's pancakes."
Kakashi briefly wondered what pancakes had to do with it. Sure, that was on the table at the moment, but still.
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(Posted Thu, 16 May 2013 17:45)
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