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

Chapter 11.

Her father had been the original Tatsujin no Kakusareta.

Her mother had died when she was a baby, and so her father was the only one she had left. Though at first she had started off living in the village with the rest of the children, a woman acting as her nanny while her father went off to train any ninjas who turned up to the village, her father soon changed his mind. When he was done for the day he would always return to her and spend time with her, and over time, he started teaching her the basics of the ninja arts. Only what he found was more than what he had been expecting. Not only was she a natural at the ninja arts, instantly mastering the techniques he showed her and even managing to pick up jutsus he did when he had turned away to do something else, not even having properly explained it to her, but she had so much power inside of her. She could sense so much around her, was so in tune with the forest and with what she was doing…he hadn’t doubted it wouldn’t take long before she would overtake him. As such, he had taken her up with him to the dojo, training her in the same way he would a student.

She wasn’t about to protest, however.

It gave her more time with her father.

She wanted to learn to be a ninja, too. Having heard and seen what her father taught to others and with what he had sometimes told her, she knew she was destined to follow the same path her father led. Being a ninja was something natural to her, and it was like second nature as she begun to understand more. It was less like learning something from scratch, and more like reawakening memories that had been long sleeping in the back of her mind—as if the knowledge had always been there, but it was only now she brought it to the surface. Her father sensed this enthusiasm, and it was obvious that she would be able to take over from him in his position with ease. He taught her everything he knew—even the things he kept hidden from the other students who flocked to be trained by him. She was special in a way that not even he truly understood; but it was something to be treasured, and he wasn’t going to let her lose the opportunity.

She’d never felt jealous of it; of seeing her father disappear off with a student and teach them. She knew it was his job and felt proud that so many people had heard of his name and wanted him to be their sensei. Her time was spent training alone until her father was done with his duties for the day and could check up on her—but as the months passed her father began to allow her to help out with the training, finally revealing her presence to the other students. The dojo was more of a home than the village had ever been, and the ninja arts were her life. Now that she could spend it training with her father, she wanted nothing more, and kept an eye on those training there.

It was how she had come to meet Uragiri.

He’d arrived with another man, and she’d noticed him right away—he was the youngest student she’d ever seen come to be trained by her father. But he easily left an impression on her with how handsome he was. His eyes had been a bright sparkling blue, with a clear, open face and dark blonde hair. Broad-shouldered, his clothes slightly revealing his muscled body, she hadn’t been able to take her eyes off of him, especially when he had flashed that amazing smile at her, revealing dazzling white teeth. His voice was melodic and beautiful as he had introduced himself to them all, and he was easy to get along with, joking around and talking as she had shown him to his room. It hadn’t take much for her to develop a soft spot for him, and the longer he stayed there the closer they got.

He was closer to her in age, so understood her more, but yet the age gap allowed them to talk about things that most her age wouldn’t know about. He became so much to her; a friend, always there to talk to and mess around with, to hang out with in their spare time; a brother, caring for her and keeping an eye out for her to make sure she was alright. She had always known she could come to him for advice and that he would always have a sensible answer to give. And the closer they got, the deeper her feelings developed. Soon she began to understand that there was no point trying to deny the fact—she was pretty much falling in love with him. Apart from her father, she cared about no one more in the world, and she did whatever she could to spend as much time with him as possible—to help him as much as she could in his training.

But, not actually being the Tatsujin no Kakusareta…there was only so much she could do.

The guy Uragiri had arrived with had been a friend of his, and they’d both been looking for the maximum amount of power they could get; but her father had stated that only one of them would be receiving it. That he would not be granting this power to them both. At first, it hadn’t bothered her; she knew how strong he was as a ninja and how powerful his abilities were. Overall he was more skilled a ninja than his friend, so she didn’t even talk to her father about it—there was no need to. It was clear that he would be the one who would get chosen, and as such she had merely encouraged him in his training and waited for the day when her father would tell him what was going to happen—so when the answer was no…even she was speechless for a while. She couldn’t understand how he wasn’t going to train Uragiri any further. She was upset at the idea that he might have to leave, but part of her forced her to remain calm. Her father had done this for years—he had a reason for not choosing Uragiri. Though she didn’t understand it, she comforted Uragiri as he nodded in acceptance and left to go to his room.

She’d had no idea of what he was going to do.

It had been late at night and she’d heard crashing; clashing of metal. Getting up, she had grabbed her kunai holster and headed towards the noise, already feeling in herself that something was not right; that something bad had happened. It was like the feeling that a storm was coming, and as such she had hurried on down the corridors of the dojo, her eyes widening in utter shock as she turned the corner. Her father’s body was lying in a pool of blood—though there weren’t many signs of a battle in the room, he had fought to stay alive. Uragiri was standing over him, glaring down at his body, his face turned into a mask with the anger that was evident on it. Her heart had stopped, her body frozen in shock, too numb to even cry. Yesterday everything had been fine; she’d had her father with her and knew that Uragiri was with her—knew that she loved him. But how quickly things had changed. She didn’t doubt his friend was dead as well, and suddenly a wave of anger washed over her. She wasn’t upset anymore—only angry. Stepping forward with a glare of her own, Uragiri had looked up, disappearing the moment he saw it was her.

She started to follow him; to hunt him down and destroy him completely. But glancing down at the body of her father, she knew she wasn’t about to leave him there. He deserved better; especially after all that had happened. So she had tended to her father, burying his body along with the other ninja, only rousing from her numb trance as a scream echoed out. Looking up, she found the skyline was glowing, and sprinting through the trees, she arrived at the village to find half of it alight. Clearly killing her father hadn’t been enough. She had been torn between two decisions; to find Uragiri and kill him…or to stay and help the village. For a moment she stood staring into the darkness of the trees, her anger overwhelming her entirely, before her father’s face rose in her mind. The village had been so important to him, and he would have protected it until the very end. She would respect her father’s wishes. As much as she hated to let Uragiri go, her love for her father overrode that, and she turned back to the village, beginning to help put the fires out, helping rebuild the houses and trying to make things go back to normal. But even she knew that would never be possible. She had trusted no one from then on. People still came to the village looking for Tatsujin no Kakusareta, but she no longer welcomed them like she would have done. But she couldn’t trust people; she had trusted Uragiri entirely, and look what he had done. By trusting people, you ignored signals that would be noticed otherwise. She wasn’t about to let it happen again.  

When she looked at Sasuke—when she spoke to him—she felt those feelings rising in her once more, the memories flashing up into her mind and reminding her of all that had occurred. She could understand his need for revenge more than anyone, even if she hadn’t gone after Uragiri. But she knew what it was like to have someone you cared about kill the people you loved. There was more understanding between them than she had ever realised, and it brought her to another realization. Maybe she had been wrong about him before. He could get revenge in a way she had never been able to.

All she had to do was help him.