Once Again (A Naruto Fanfiction) (Sequel to Another Take) (Complete)

Ch. 11: Echo

~Hello, hello, anybody out there? Cause I don't hear a sound. Alone, alone, I don't really know where the world is, but I miss it now~

Kiyomi's POV

We navigated our way out of Orochimaru's hideout, all of us silent. Naruto and Sakura were still in shock from seeing Sasuke, Yamato and Sai had nothing to say, and I didn't want to be there.

Once we were about a mile away from the hideout, that's when people began to return to normal. Sort of. Nothing important happened until after we'd set up camp for the night, too tired to travel any further. I could have kept going, but Yamato made me stay with them.

We were all sitting around the fire eating dinner when Naruto could take it no longer. He'd been sending me a combination of glares and confused glances all day, and it just culminated now that I was sitting right in front of him.  "What do you think you're doing here?" he basically yelled at me, startling some birds from a nearby tree.

I calmly looked up from my food, regarding Naruto boredly. I'd been waiting for this little outburst all day. "Eating dinner," I replied sarcastically, raising my plate for extra emphasis. He wants a reaction, but I won't give him one.

Naruto gritted his teeth, staring at me heatedly. "You know that's not what I mean!" he exclaimed angrily. "Kiyomi, why are you here? You made it pretty clear that you didn't care about retrieving Sasuke!"

I inhaled through my nose and put my plate down on the ground. Then I raised my eyes to stare directly at Naruto. "It's not that I don't care about Sasuke. He's my teammate, just like you. But I don't believe we should interfere in what he wants to do!" Then I sighed, calming down a bit. "And I didn't have a choice about going on this mission. Lady Tsunade personally ordered it."

"Then why did you interfere back there?" Sakura asked quietly, joining the discussion. "You were fighting against Sasuke. You could have just stayed out of the way."

There actually was a reason. I frowned, thinking back to the night Sasuke left. What I'd said back then, I meant it.

~Flashback~

A thought occurred to me. "Are you ever planning on returning?" I asked curiously, staring straight into the Uchiha's onyx eyes. "Because if you leave now, you'll be classed a missing-nin. It won't be easy to just come back and expect things to remain the same."

Sasuke exhaled lightly. "I know," he admitted. "But this is my dream. And like you said, I'll do anything to see it completed. I will sever my bonds, and nothing will hold me back. Not this village, not Team Seven, nothing. And when it's completed... I'll see where the world takes me."

"Deep," I teased. Then I grew more somber. "... What about Naruto?" This was said in little more than a whisper, considering I wasn't sure Sasuke wanted to hear this question.

Sasuke's eyes hardened. "Like I said, I will sever all my bonds." Then he looked at me. "Including the one with you."

My eyebrows raised in comic disbelief. "We have a bond?" I asked, faking surprise. But seeing as it received no response from the Uchiha, I dropped the facade. "Don't worry about it," I said dismissively, finally turning away from Sasuke. As I started to walk away, I turned my head and called one last thing over my shoulder. "The moment you walk out of the village gates, you are no longer a part of Team Seven. You are simply another rogue-nin of Konoha."

~End Flashback~

"Yeah," I nodded. "He's a rogue-nin, it's my job. My orders were to prevent harm from coming to the four of you. He wanted to cause you harm, therefore I was required to stop him." My eyes hardened as I shifted my eyes from Sakura back to Naruto. "Sasuke severed his bond with me, and I see no need to mend it if he won't make an effort either."