• It had been a peaceful night after my brother left from our little fight/family bonding moment. I woke up early seeing as there was nothing special to do this particular day, and made my way to the park, to maybe relax a bit. Just as I was about to sit down on a bench I heard someone yell my name. "AKANE!" Was that Matsuo? I asked myself looking over my shoulder to see her with some guy. "HI!" She began to run over, and I stood once again. "What's up?" She suddenly popped the question at me.
    "Uhm nothing much, just a bit stressed I guess. Who's the uh........" I tried thinking of a word, looking at the ninja beside her. "Dude," I decided on the word for him.
    "He's my dad!" She said happily smiling away. She then looked at him again. "Dad this is Akane. Akane this is my dad Takashi," She went through the greetings quickly.
    "Hi," I said waving a hand by my head in greeting him.


    Takashi dipped his head to her. "Hello there."
    She smiled weakly at him, shooting me a confused glance. I remembered faintly that she had been in the Hokage tower with me when I had been asking about him. "Oh, um...he just got back. And we're getting some new stuff for the apartment."
    Akane nodded. "Neat. Um...so you don't live with Iruka-Sensei anymore?"
    "No." my dad interupted. "We live in an apartment at the edge of town, now."
    Akane nodded. "Neat."
    We stood for a long minute in awkward silence.

    IRUKAS POV
    Iruka stared angrily at the phone on the counter. Call, or don't call. Call, or don't call. He dug the heel of his hand into his brow. This isn't a huge moral dilemma, Iruka, he told himself. You just worry. And they won't be back yet. Takashi said they were going shopping.
    At his name, Iruka bristled in anger. Takashi. He had seemed a reasonable enough guy...Natsumi wouldn't have married some bum, but at the same time, that was exactly what he had turned out to be. What guy, in all good concious, could leave his daughter at a relatives? For eight years? And even if he had a guilty concious, why come back NOW? Now, when Matsuo didn't need any pressure or distractions or anything. He rubbed his temple hard, feeling a headache building. He needed to relax. Wind down. Have Matsuo bring him an ice pack for his headache.
    Oh . Yeah.
    He slid from his chair and went back to his room to sleep.



    The awkward silence had made everything go, well awkward. Not sure what to say to him I blurted out the first thing that had come to mind.
    "I actually moved here from the Sand village to graduate, and stuff," In my head I slapped myself. That sounded stupid, I thought. I glance back up at them. "Sorry that was stupid to say," I looked at the ground.
    "Yeah she did but she can do really cool jutsus!" I heard Matsuo exclaim quickly. I looked back up to see Matsuo using hand gestures to explain.
    "Like what?" Her dad asked the question towards me.
    "Uhm......" I had put my hand on the back of my neck. "I have a kekkei genkai, that an ocular jutus, and I use a magma style," I said suddenly.
    "Hhhmmmm," He said thoughtfully "I see your quite gifted, as well as my daughter," Takashi said. I felt weight on my shoulders, and turned my head both ways to see Miki and Sho.
    "Hey guys! Where'd you go to?" I asked and heard their answer. They began rubbing their faces on my cheeks affectionately, and I smiled.
    "Oh yeah and she has ferrets too!" Matsuo said.



    My dad turned to me curiously. I folded my arms with a huff. "What? They're cool."
    He laughed quietly. We turned back to Akane, who was making baby sounds to her ferrets. He suddenly set a hand on my shoulder. "We should get going," he said. He cleared his throat and Akane looked up from, startled. "It was nice to meet you, Akane. Have a good day."
    "Oh, yeah. Um...you too. bye."
    As Takashi started to lead me back to the apartment, I waved at Akane. "You should come over soon!" I beamed. "Like spend the night! Oh, you should come spend the night tomorrow! I'll figure everything out, and then I'll come let you know."
    Before she could say anything, I was out of hearing range. Takashi turned to me, looking irritable. "The apartment really isn't in a good condition for guests..."
    Heart sinking, I nodded. "Okay."
    He looked away quickly. After a minute of walking he suddenly beamed at me. "You know, Matsuo...why don't you go visit your uncle. I'll um...set up this stuff and get the apartment looking nice for when Akane comes over." he glanced back. "If she comes over. You kind of caught her off guard."
    I ignored the last part. "Really? thank you!" i suddenly glomped him. "I'll help you as soon as I get back. Bye!" before he could react I was already sprinting away, momoko digging his claws into my back in a desperate attempt at holding on to me.
    I was at Iruka's door before I realized I hadn't been giving anyone a chance to say anything today. Oh well.


    Matsuo had left me standing in the park after a bit of an awkward invitation to sleepover. I wasn't sure what to do after she left. Finally taking my seat on the bench I looked at the sparse population of people now in the park. "How am I going to practice now?" I thought allowed. I focused on a couple that went walking by me now. Originally I came here to practice my ocular jutsu, but it was nice seeing Matsuo for a bit. I smile, activating the jutsu I looked into one of the couples pasts. Now that I thought about it I was kind of snooping in about how people lived and all.
    Shrugging the thought off, I went about my training trying to figure out how I could unlock what my kekkei genkai could do. I accidently caught sight of an odd looking guy, and suddenly my eye sight turned into his past. I began to war, and bloodshed everywhere. The one who was causing this was himself, with a giant looking sword. I looked him over. Why does he look so different? I thought, and that's when everything ended. I looked back over to where he was, and now I knew what was different. His skin was blue in the past vision I had of him, plus his teeth were pointed like a sharks.


    I crept into the house and, not seeing my uncle in the living room, went upstairs to where I found him sleeping in his bed. Flicking on the lights, he let uot a grunt and rolled onto his stomach, pulling his pillow over his head. "Uncle Iruka!" I cried, diving onto the bed. He let out a little screech and whirled around so fast that he tumbled off, landing hard on the floor. I wiggled over to the edge of the bed and propped my head up in my hands, smiling at him.
    "Matsuo?" he reached up and rubbed one eye wearily.
    "Hi."
    "What are you doing here?"
    I shrugged. "Dad's fixing up the apartment so that I can have a friend spend the night. Akane - you remember her, I'm sure. And so, to kill time, I decided to visit you." I grinned mischeviously. "Miss me?"
    He looked slightly pained. "Nah...I mean...well, yeah, how can I not? But ... I can get over it. It is your dad we're talking about." He sat up and rested his hands in his lap, looking up at me. "So how about you? How are you doing?"
    "It...it was a little wierd at first. But I'm kinda over it." I turned so that I was on my back, and tipped my head upside down so that I could see him. "The apartment is...uh...questionable, though."
    He nodded. "Oh, well...that's um..." he scratched his head. "That's good, I suppose."
    I nodded and we sat in an awkward silence. There were NEVER any awkward silences with me and Uncle Iruka. Suddenly, at the same time, we blurted, "I miss you."
    I laughed and flipped back over onto my stomach. He chuckled nervously. "Uh...want something to eat?"


    I watched as the man came closer. With every step he took, I took one backwards. He's part of the Akatsuki, I thought. My back then hit a tree right then causing me to be cornered in by him. He just had that evil smile on his face looking down at me seeing as he's about a foot taller.
    "Heh you seem to be intimidated easily. What are you scarred of sharks?" He chuckled like he had said something funny. When I didn't join in the laughter he immediately stopped. Glaring down at me from his transformation jutsu finally went away seeing as the park was dark, and nobody except us were here. Noticing the large sword on him back, he took it, and swung it so it was in front of him. He seemed to be watching my reactions. "Your no fun. Well I guess my job is done here," I heard him say while I watched him liquefy into a puddle, which I guess was kind of like disappearing but not with the poofing, and smoke.
    "Awkward," I told myself walking away from the puddle carefully just in case an arm came out and grabbed me or something. Taking only about three steps out from under the tree I had backed myself against it began to pour suddenly. I looked up at the sky glaring. "Why?" I asked the raining sky. "Is it because I've gotten into a mess with the Akatsuki wanting me," I kept glaring feeling irritated about the whole thing. Just standing there for a couple of seconds a thought crossed my mind about running away so the Akatsuki couldn't find me, but then another thought came that they could probably find me easily, even by my petty attempts' of getting away.
    With each step I heard the squishing of mud and the rain hitting the ground.


    I sat humming to myself at the kitchen table as Iruka readied a meal - a huge tray of fettucini alfredo (with a side of cheese sticks and a glass of cold rasberry lemonade. he knew me so well!) We ate in silence and he cleared his throat then, leaning against the table. "So...um...your dad." he held out his hands."Is he as great as you had hoped?"
    I sipped at my lemonade. "Uh...yeah. I guess. He's kinda...I don't know him well enough to say. Not yet."
    He nodded. "He's trying."
    "Yep."
    Iruka played with his food. "That Kabuto guy came here the other day. He wanted to take you on another date."
    I blushed furiously, not meeting his gaze. "You didn't...chase him away with a windmill shuriken, did you?"
    He laughed quietly. "I gave him your new address." Suddenly Momoko scrambled onto the table and ran over to his best bud iruka. The chunin pet the tanuki with a smile. "How's training going?"
    "Good. I made a new Genjutsu."
    "really? neat. What is it?"
    "It turns plants into the things people are afraid of..." I stabbed my noodles awkwardly.
    We sank back into an uncomfortable silence. "Neat," he offered.


    I had taken a hot shower to warm my body up soon after I entered my house. Dressing into an oversized t-shirt, I jumped on my bed, and heard it creak with pain. Flipping on to my back I suddenly realized how quiet it was actually just myself, with Miki and Sho living here. When my brother use to live with me it's be a lot of noise and other stuff. Like him dropping pans, or making some weird sounds when he did something wrong. But the unusual thing is, that I had grew accustomed to living by myself since he left. I don't know why I didn't miss as much as I should when the Kazekage told me he had been "kidnapped". I rolled over to look outside the window to see a crow starring at me through my window.
    Glaring at it for a couple of minutes I got up, and tried scarring it, but it didn't even budge a bit.
    "I really do need to buy curtains for my room," I thought allowed while starring at the statue like crow. Sitting back at the crow, I thought I'd have a starring contest with it for a bit. Giving up I finally looked up at it. "Why don't you just leave?" I questioned it, and then it took off.