Those huge gates had never seemed intimidating before. They'd been protectors, a symbol of peace and security. Today, they felt a lot more like enemies than friends. But hey, you'd known it would be this way all along. The only problem was, you couldn't decide how you wanted to enter those gates. You could probably waltz right through them with little to no trouble, visitors came in through those gates all the time.
But a part of you wanted to go back inside those gates as Aika Touzoku, not as a visitor. But doing so might cause some trouble. You knew you'd since been declared a missing nin in your one year stint. It wasn't like you were a high profile candidate though; you'd left as a genin, and Touzoku clan members did end up as missing nin quite often. Your leaving had been overshadowed by the departure of Sasuke Uchiha, stealing your spotlight as usual.
But it was a year to the day. Would they be expecting you? Would they be watching the gates, looking for green hair?
There was really only one way to find out.
So, taking one last deep breath, you moved out from under the cover of the trees and joined the small stream of people moving in and out of the giant gates of Konohagakure. You couldn't help tensing up a tiny bit as you finally passed under the arc and into the town of Konoha. But there were no yells of outrage, no sudden movements, nothing. No one even glanced at you as you walked down the familiar, but somehow still new, streets. But then, that might have had something to do with the fact that your hair had been under the influence of a temporary black dye for the past few weeks. If people were, indeed looking for bright green hair, their eyes probably would have slid right past you.
But, you knew that it was impossible to go unnoticed for more than another hour. There were many keen-eyes ninja, and even if you weren't a high profile missing nin, those eyes never missed a thing. This meant that your first matter of business would be to go visit the new Hokage, the famous Gondaime, Lady Tsunade of the Sannin.
So, with high confidence, you walked to the front desk in the giant building that housed her office.
The secretary looked up, nonplussed, and asked in a very dull tone. "Yes?"
"I'd like to go see the Hokage." You answered, fingering the small scroll you'd had in your hand the entire day. That scroll might be the only thing saving your ass today, and you hoped it would pay off.
"Yes, well, do you have an appointment?"
"Well, no, I don't. But I'm sure she'd like to talk to me, if you asked her."
The secretary narrowed his eyes, quickly scanning your appearance. Apparently finding nothing noteworthy, he rolled his eyes. "The Hokage is a very busy woman, and I'm sure she'd be glad to talk to you, if you made an appointment."
You clenched your jaw in a somewhat unsuccessful attempt to keep your temper down. "And how do I do that?"
Now that you were treading on familiar territory, the secretary fell into an obviously well rehearsed routine. The first thing he did was reach into a drawer and pull out a small business card.
"Well you'll need to call the phone number on this card, and then ask to be connected to the scheduling department. They should be able to make you an appointment for the Hokage's next available date, or connect you to her personal secretary, or maybe one of her apprentices, who should be able to help you book a date."
You begrudgingly accepted the card. "And how long should I expect to make an appointment in advance?"
He flipped through a red leather ledger quickly, before snapping his head back up. "It looks to be booked in advance for approximately another two months."
That was not going to work.
You strode to the doors, realizing that this secretary would probably of no use to you anymore. Well, the next plan would be to climb the side of the building and hope the Hokage wouldn't kill you before hearing you out. Deep in thought, and walking rather quickly, you essentially rammed into somebody trying to enter the building.
You scurried to help them collect the large pile of papers you'd send flying to the floor, mashing them back into a semblance of a pile before handing them back to the person, who was also scurrying about with papers.
"Sakura?"
The pink haired girl was most certainly Sakura. She'd kept her hair short, she was a bit taller, her face had changed a little, but it was most certainly Sakura.
She stared at your face for a few seconds before hesitantly asking "Aika?"
You nodded, smirking.
"Your hair!"
You chuckled, noting that the first thing she asked about wasn't "where did you go?" or "what are you doing here?" but rather . . . why your hair wasn't green.
"Calm down, it's a temporary dye. Green hair doesn't suit the low-key traveler."
She was still staring, very wide eyed, and vaguely shuffling papers in her arms.
"Hey, what are those papers for?"
She was silent, jaw open, still looking at you for a few moments before shaking her head, clearing her thoughts.
"Oh, I have to bring these to Tsunade-sama."
Oh. Jackpot.
"Oh, so you're one of the apprentices I've heard about?"
She blushed, but seemed to gain confidence at the thought.
"Yeah, Ino is the other one, but she joined on later than I did."
You clucked your tongue. "So it seems like Sannin teachers are pretty easy to come by these days, eh?"
"Excuse me?"
Her eyes were narrowed in the same expression you'd seen on her before dealing a royally brutal beating to Naruto. Not that you were worried about losing to her, but best to avoid upsetting your free ticket to a private audience with the Hokage.
"Sakura! Temper, temper! It's just a joke. But hey, I don't have two months to spare to wait for an appointment . . . do you think you could wrangle me a few minutes of the Hokage's time? I kind of need to talk to her."
She perked up quickly now that you were asking favors of her.
"Yeah, just follow me. She'll probably be lying around doing nothing right now anyway, so it's not a big deal."
You followed her up the set of stairs to the side, reminiscing about the last time you'd visited the Hokage's personal office. Back when Kakashi had failed you, and the old man Hokage had summoned you to his room to give you a second chance. It would we odd to see someone else sitting in that seat. You’d been shocked to hear of the Hokage's death while on the road. It had been a real blow, you'd felt ridiculously guilty about leaving, as if maybe you would have been able to prevent it.
Sakura finally stopped in front of the same door you remembered, knocking on it lightly.
"Lady Tsunade? I've got your papers . . ."
Sakura pushed open the door with her foot, cocking her head to indicate that you should follow her into the room. You hesitated, wondering how the Hokage would react with no indication that a stranger would be coming in. But you entered anyway, mentally preparing for the worst.
She was younger than you were expecting, a pretty lady in her mid thirties maybe, with light blonde hair and brown eyes. She certainly didn't look like she'd been in the same team with that white haired man Jiraiya. He could be twenty or thirty years older than her by appearances alone.
She raised an eyebrow, looking at you with immediate suspicion. "Sakura! Who is this?"
You decided to take control of the situation before it got out of your hands. You tossed her the scroll, which she caught deftly. "My name is Aika Touzoku, it's lovely to meet you Hokage-sama."
She stiffened, but didn't make any moves toward attacking, which you were thankful for. Instead, she inspected the scroll. You saw her eyebrows shoot up her forehead, and you knew she probably recognized the famous Hanzou family seal on the scroll. After that, she practically tore it open, her eyes moving quickly across the scroll, devouring the words.
Once done, a small frown appeared on her face as she carefully rolled the scroll back up, tossing it back to you. Her eyes flickered to Sakura, watching in silence, but still rather dumbfounded by the whole situation.
"Sakura. You know this girl?"
She snapped back to attention. "Yes. We graduated in the same class; we even did a mission together."
The Hokage gazed at you intently from behind steepled fingers. The contents of that scroll were a letter from Raiden and Kaminari, explaining the causes and situation regarding the past year. It was meant as an apology of sorts, as well as a plea to not reveal their involvement with you to anyone. The Sannins had been given that title by Salamander Hanzou, the leader of the Village Hidden in the Rain. The twins were relatives of his, though they would never tell you just how closely you were related. But, with the official family seal on the scroll, the Hokage would need to assume that the contents were legitimate.
"And you consider her . . . trustworthy?"
Sakura swallowed, her eyes moving from you to the Hokage and back again. "Er . . . yes."
The Hokage sighed, rubbing her forehead lightly. "Right. Well then. For the moment, and I can not possibly emphasize enough how serious I am about the temporary nature of this, I will be forced to accept the validity of that testimony. Right now, we can really use every single ninja we have, and every extra is a blessing. I understand from the notes on the Chunin exams that you had intended to continue on to the second round until . . . circumstances changed?"
You mentally breathed a sigh of relief. You hadn't been allowed to read the scroll before the Hokage, but you hadn't been expecting her to return it to you. You'd read it at the soonest possible convenience to see just why the Hokage was at least temporarily willing to trust you.
"Yes ma'am."
She pursed her lips. "But I suppose I can expect you to be at least at, or above chunin level?"
You shrugged. She was probably going off information contained in the scroll, and you hadn't exactly been in any regulated or judged fights in the past year. "I'd assume so."
She bit her lips, her eyebrows furrowing in thought. "Let's be frank. I don't have time to wait for you to take the Chunin exam again. In fact, we don't have any time to waste at all. So, unless you have a reasonable objection, I'm going to test you now."
You tried to hide the surprise on your face. You normally would have wanted a good amount of sleep after a long days travel before taking whatever sort of test it was the Hokage was going to give you.
"May I ask why it is I need to be tested? Is my rank really that important right now?"
"That's simple. All the other graduates from your year have attained Chunin status at least. However, I'm not familiar with your file, so may I ask what your training background was during your time here?"
"Well, I graduated from the academy as the number one rookie of our year. I was originally assigned to Team 7, but due to other . . . reasons . . . I was assigned to Team Gai."
She raised an eyebrow, and you just knew that she was curious as to the 'reasons' you had been given a different team assignment. "Right then. That does sound promising. Do you have any objections to say . . . sparing with Sakura here?"
Your head snapped to look at Sakura, who was looking bewildered and a little like a cornered animal. Sakura had always been the least talented individual, at least in the melee fighting sense, of her team. You weren't sure what she'd been learning in the last year, but you were confident that you probably had the necessary skills to take her down.
"No objections ma'am."
She smiled wryly. "Well, as much as I'd love to do that right now, I'm afraid you'll both have to get a proper days rest for a good evaluation fight. You'll both come back at 8 am tomorrow please. I'll send out a notice to remove your missing nin status to the jonin around town, but please remember that this is temporary. When I have more time to have a good chat with you, we'll see about your permanent future in this town. Sakura, you may escort Ms.Touzoku out, and take your lunch break now, if you would."
You followed Sakura back out of the office, and eventually out of the building in silence. She was walking somewhere, and you weren't quite sure if you were supposed to follow her, but you did anyway. You really wanted her to say something, to say anything really. Was she angry that you'd agreed to fight her? Was she upset about you turning up? Was she angry that you didn't explain anything of what had happened in the Hokage's office?
Sakura's destination turned out to be the Ramen stand. Somehow, you had been expecting to see a little blonde Naruto already sitting there.
"Eh, ramen? Hey, what's Naruto up to these days?" You asked, scratching your head as you sat down next to her.
She seemed sad though, at the mention of his name. "He left too, to go training with Jiraiya-san. In fact, he left not too long after you did, a couple months after the end of the Chunin exams. "
"Oh yeah? Man, what I would have given to see those fights. And HEY! What about Naruto's fight? Neji kicked his ass, right?"
She laughed, shaking her head. "Nope. Naruto actually won."
You could feel your own jaw gaping open. "NO WAY. Naruto got to Neji before me? That's . . . crap."
"Yeah, everyone was really surprised. But Naruto's really gotten a lot stronger."
"What about the other fights? Who won? What's everyone doing? Where are they?" You were suddenly feeling hungry for that information, feeling a little swarmed with the extent of everything you'd missed.
"Ah, Shikamaru lost to Temari (OH, that's that girl from the sand village) but he was the only one to get promoted to Chunin that time. . . Uh, Shino's opponent Kankuro (the other sand village guy with the puppets) dropped out, so they didn't fight."
But she was so obviously avoiding the most important news. "And Sasuke and Gaara? Who won that?"
But Sakura was looking down, breathing deeper, and very much looking like she was trying not to cry.
"Er . . . Sakura? I'm sorry . . . is something wrong?" You didn't think that after nearly a year she'd still be so upset about it. You thought she would have at least gotten over it to the point where she wouldn't be crying.
"He left."
"Oh. I know. I'm sorry Sakura, I'm sure he'll come back eventually too."
But she looked unable to answer you. You were about to press for more answers, to find out just what Sasuke had done to make her cry like that, if he had maybe said something…
You caught sight of very familiar long, silky, dark chocolate brown hair.
"NEJI!" You shouted, waving irrationally fast. You were practically jumping out of your seat as he turned, casting glances around the street to identify his caller.
He finally spotted you, his eyes narrowing only momentarily with confusion. They widened in surprise as he identified you, quickly taking long strides over to the booth at which you and Sakura sat. You were perfectly happy to notice that he'd gotten prettier. His new clothes suited him, as did his usual lovely hair and forget-me-not purple eyes. Not that you'd ever forget that particular shade of purple.
"Aika?" He bent closer to you, peering at your face carefully while occasionally running his eyes over your long, temporarily black hair.
You grinned, positively thrilled to see him again. It didn't matter if he was kind of an asshole, because he was on your team, he was kind of your asshole. And despite everything, you had to admit that you'd missed him. So, it was only a little embarrassing when you squealed like a five year old and threw your arms around him in a massive bear hug.
"NEJIIIIII!" You cheered uncharacteristically, surprising yourself with your own enthusiasm to see everyone you'd missed so terribly in the past year.
He stood awkwardly, his arms hanging limply at his sides. Sakura gasped, blushing furiously as if you'd done something scandalous, which maybe you had. Eventually Neji managed to pat you on the back reluctantly, acknowledging your hug. You released him with a blush and a bit of a smile.
"It's so nice to see you again." You admitted earnestly. "What's going on? How is Tenten? Rock Lee? Gai-sensei? I heard everyone was a Chunin now, I'm so jealous!"
He kept staring at you, not blushing nearly as hard as you were. He was obviously embarrassed by your enthusiasm, but seemed to recover somewhat quickly. But he didn't answer your questions, just kept staring and muttered to himself. "I guess it was a year to the day."
"Sakura. I'll see you tomorrow for our spar! I'm going to make Neji take me to see the team." You turned to Sakura, waving lightly to her while dragging Neji back into the street by the elbow.
Your commanding tone seemed to snap him back to his normal self. "I have things to do."
"But, I haven’t seen everyone in a year." You pouted.
"They're probably by the training grounds. It's not my responsibility to drag you around."
"But you can't leave. I want to see everyone. That includes you. You're not allowed to ditch me when we've only been re-united for three minutes." You pouted more profusely, now guiding him toward the training grounds. He didn't even seem to notice you were moving at all.
"Re-united?" He smirked at your choice of words.
"Yes. That's right. I've missed everyone terribly, even you. We can go back to being rivals tomorrow, when I kick your ass into the ground right after Sakura's. But today, we're just going to be friends."
"That's not going to happen."
You looked him dead in the eyes, grinning again. "Just wait and see. Don't both watching your back either, because I'll be in front of you before too long."
As you turned your back to him, still towing him behind you by the elbow, Neji admitted to himself that he would probably watch you with quite a bit of interest now. And not all of that watching would necessarily be rivalry related.
