A Rose By Any Other Name (A Sasuke Uchiha Story)

Chapter 4.

The clearing was peaceful, secluded and right where he needed to be.

As such, Sasuke decided to make it his camp, a few minutes after the girl had disappeared.

A part of him was even more determined to meet Tatsujin no Kakusareta and get trained by him no he had met her. There was no way he was going to let her be right, and she didn’t know a thing. Look where she lived and what she did—she understood nothing of the outside world, and Sasuke wasn’t about to listen to a word she said. Rolling his shoulders, he took a deep breath and drew on the peace evident in the clearing in order to calm himself down, heading over to a nearby tree to take a seat there. Grabbing something to eat, he chewed slowly and thoughtfully, his eyes still fixated on the place where she had been meditating, unable to keep his mind off of her, the anger still lingering in his mind and very body. Her words remained echoing in his head, and Sasuke closed his eyes, slowing his breathing to make sure he didn’t lose his temper.

Who was she, anyway? She didn’t wear the same kind of clothes the villagers did, so she couldn’t do the same kind of work. The very way she was—the aura she gave off—was also unlike the others, so it was evident that she was not another farmer. But what exactly she was, Sasuke couldn’t tell. With how she was meditating…with how she spoke of Tatsujin no Kakusareta…she seemed more connected to him than the rest of the villagers. They all knew of his presence and obviously were used to the idea of people passing through looking for him, but it was different with her. It was not so much a left-handed consequence of Tatsujin no Kakusareta living there as it was for the villagers, but more…a personal grievance or irritation. She had to be about the same age as him, however, so maybe she was his daughter. It was possible, after all, and she could not like people constantly turning up asking to be trained by him. Growing up with a man who everyone wanted to be trained by couldn’t have been easy—the attention most children would get from their parents would be practically non-existent, and she was tired of it. Maybe that was why she was so prickly; Sasuke could understand why.

He knew how precious family was, after all.

But that didn’t mean he would just let what she had said slide. If she was his daughter, then she would have accepted the fact that ninjas from all over the world would come to get her father to train them, and that he wasn’t about to turn them away all because of her and her selfishness. What right did she have to stand there and tell someone that they wouldn’t get trained just because she didn’t like it? If she hated it so much, then she could leave and move to another village—make another life for herself there—instead of causing trouble for everybody else. And if she wasn’t his daughter…then clearly she had some personality problems. If she thought she could dissuade him and cause him to turn back from this, then she had another thing coming. Because unless he got trained by Tatsujin no Kakusareta, then he wasn’t giving up.

His determination set, Sasuke finally decided to settle down for the night as the moon rose fully in the sky and set the clearing aglow with its light. Glancing one more time over the clearing and the thinking over the things he would have to do tomorrow, Sasuke then shifted until he was lying down, slowly closing his eyes. Things still ran through his mind; the prospect of searching the forest tomorrow, the girl, the idea that he might not receive this training and that it would affect his fight with Itachi…but suddenly it seemed to fade. The reflection of the moonlight on the calm water hypnotized Sasuke, the clearing somehow silent regardless of what was going on within it, and a few moments later, he was fast asleep.