A/N: Hello! It's been a very long time since I updated. I'm terribly sorry for not doing that. School really got much in my way. College is hard mind you. And I have no beta reader so no flames on my grammar. Hehe. Anyway thanks for the reviews and I do appreciate them…flame or not. So here it is!! I hope you like it!! (hands out cookies and milk to everybody).

Chapter 11

A True Smile

Sakura swallowed hard. Sasuke-kun… Sasuke was gritting his teeth as he nodded and said, "Yes, Ayame Uchiha. My twin sister… and DEAD! She died in the hands of Itachi. I still think she's dead and no matter what you say, she will remain dead!"

Tsunade and Kakashi sighed. They both looked at each other, reading one's thoughts in their eyes. The both of them stood up and simply walked to the door and went out.

Sakura just looked at him with sad eyes and sighed. Maybe he wants to be left alone… I should go; I may be annoying him again.

She tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Umm… Sasuke-kun? I'm sure you want to be alone. So I'd better go." Sasuke simply nodded and she made her way to the door.

She was about to open the door when suddenly she felt his hand grab her wrist.

"Sakura…" He breathed. "Please stay…Now is the time in all my life that I don't want to be alone. I need your comfort for the first time… I need your smile, your assuring words of comfort. I just need you.

The girl simply smiled and nodded, "I'll always be here for you. Always remember that, Sasuke-kun."

She sat down beside him and looked at the sleeping Akari. "Sasuke," she started, "Do you want to find out? I thought you said she'll remain dead to you."

Sasuke released a sad sigh, "Maybe…Maybe…there was a hitch to Itachi's plan. Suppose she really is alive…Suppose, Ayame IS Akari. A chance like this is given to me. And I just can't pass it up. Sakura, she may be the last bringer of my hope. She might lessen the burden given upon me by Itachi. She just might help me get out of this eternal nightmare. She might be the one that will compensate the pain that I went through for the past years."

She squeezed the boy's hand, and he squeezed hers in return. This is the first time Sasuke-kun opened up to me.

She looked at the sleeping Akari and crossed her fingers and hoped. May you be the one who brings the only true smile of Sasuke.

-Inside Akari's Head-

Akari woke up in pure darkness. Augh…Where am I? Why is it so dark? I should try calling out.

She cleared her throat and screamed, "Sasuke? Kakashi? Sakura? Anybody?!" When nobody answered, she sat down on the floor.

Instantly the room lit up and she was facing a scene.

-Scene-

A man was pacing nervously in a room. He seemed to be frantic about something. So familiar, this place is so familiar. I'm sure I've been here before. She suddenly gasped at the sudden realization, "This is the living room in the Uchiha Mansion! What is this I'm seeing? " Her thoughts were cut off once again when somebody said, "Otousan…they're done."

She turned around and was shocked to see a young Itachi tugging at his father's sleeve. He was motioning for the man to go to a room.

In an instant, the scene went to a beautiful lady, somewhat tired and was holding two babies.

The lady was motioning for the nervous man to come to her by saying, "Here they are."

The midwife at the side smiled at him as if in congratulations, "It's a boy and a girl! Twins! They have the same birthmark too! The girl on the right, while the boy has it on the left." Akari's eyes widened as she reached up to touch her birthmark.

No way, it can't be. It's impossible. But if I'm not there, then why do I have these scenes in my subconscious?

Then she heard a sweet voice saying, "Love, you name the girl while I name the boy." The man nodded as he took the baby girl carefully into his arms. He cradled her and said, "Her beauty is of the flower Iris, her name will be Ayame." The baby girl giggled, but the baby boy realizing his twin was gone, cried.

The father went closer with baby Ayame in his arms, and gave the baby boy a nudge.

Akari looked closer and saw somewhat like a glare from the baby boy to his father.

The mother laughed, "He is so protective! His name will be Sasuke."

Sasuke had a twin sister.

"Sasuke andAyame Uchiha, welcome to the world of the living! Welcome to Konohagakure!" said their father happily. "Itachi," he called, "come look at your new siblings." The neutral faced Itachi followed his father's orders and muttered a hello to them.

-end of scene-

The scene suddenly began to dissolve. Next it showed memories of those 2 children having their birthdays, their funny memories and some other times on when they were reprimanded. More memories passed by and then Akari could already make out the different personalities of the twins.

Ayame liked holding the sheath of her father's katana, and Sasuke liked playing with his toy shurikens and kunais. The one thing she also noticed was that everytime they show some of their abilities, Itachi was always there watching them with a strange look in his face.

He has that wierd look.As if of sadness? Anger? Could it be jealousy? And also, I have a connection with Ayame. I can't feel that I'm Ayame though. It's kinda hard to believe.It's just as if a product of my imagination. But she was part of the massacred people. I can't be her right? My gut intuition tells me the opposite and I really want to believe it. Maybe I just want to believe it because I want a family. A family to take care of me and love me.Tch, wishful thinking.

Her thoughts were cut off again when there a was a swirl for the umpteenth time. As the swirling stopped, she stepped out of the backyard of the Uchiha mansion.

"Sasuke-kun! Sasuke-kun!" cried a little Ayame. "Can't catch me!" said Little Sasuke.

Oh my goodness. No wonder he hated being calledSasuke-kun so much. It reminded him so much of his twin. I wonder how Sakura would react if she knew about this.

Hearing somebody crying she focused on the scene again. She saw little Ayame clutching her scraped knee sniffing while Sasuke tended her knee. "Please don't cry Ayame!" pleaded Sasuke, "It's just a scratch and it'll be fine. Come on, stop crying, I'll do anything!" Little Ayame looked up to him with a little smile, "Ice cream?" Her brother simply smiled and nodded.

Oh my goodness!! He gives in to everything she asks!!

Another scene opened up to her, the twins were sitting down to eat ice cream, obviously the continuation of the scraped knee scene. She then turned her attention back to the twins when Ayame started speaking. "Nee, Sasuke-kun. Why do you alwasy act like you're protecting me or something? We are of the same age right?" Sasuke replied, "Well, I'm one hour older than you and I'm a boy! Boys are supposed to protect girls, right?"

Little Ayame seemed to be in deep thought, then spoke, "Well, yeah. DEMOU!!! We are still twins!!! We should look out for each other! How about a promise?" "A promise?" repeated Sasuke. "Hai! Let me start first. I, Uchiha Ayame, promise to protect you, Uchiha Sasuke forever!" Her twin brother nodded and said, "And I, Uchiha Sasuke, also promise to protect you, Uchiha Ayame forever!"

-Sasuke and Sakura-

Sakura was leaning on Sasuke's shoulder sleeping while he was still awake looking at Akari. Three hours had passed and she is still not waking up.

I wonder what's going through her mind right now?

He glanced over at Sakura whose head was drooping low. He squeezed her hand and she woke up from the comforting pressure. "Yeah?" she asked groggily. "Do you want to go home? You look tired, plus you're already on overtime from your shift." said Sasuke. She shook her head and said, "I said, I'll be here for you right? Asleep or not, that's what I'm gonna do."

He just smiled at her and glanced over at Akari once more. And from what he saw, his eyes widened. Sakura raised a questioning brow, "What's wrong?"

"She's moving her mouth."

Sasuke activated her sharingan and read her lips. His eyes widened once more.

No way...can't it be. The promise...

His thought racking was cut off as Sakura shook him. "Sasuke!! She's talking!!" Sasuke leaned closer and heard her mutter, "promise…forever..."

He smiled inwardly. Oh Kami-sama...The promise!

"I'll get Tsunade," said Sakura as she stood up and headed for the door. Sasuke made no move to stop her at all.

When Sakura went out of the door, Sasuke stood up and made a series of hand seals.

This is the only way... No other way. I must get inside her head! You can do this. You did this to face Kyuubi inside Naruto. You did this. Wait for me, Akari!

-Back at Akari-

Akari enjoyed looking at the twins and their promises. But somewhere deep down inside she knew something bad was going to happen.

"It seems all too good to be true. There's gotta be a hitch something that could tell me why I keep seeing them." muttered Akari.

"Yeah, I agree. It was all too good to be true." said a voice behind her. Akari shocked to hear somebody's voice turned around and stammered, "S--Sasuke?! Why are you here? I'm soooo imagining things!!" Sasuke walked up to her and said, "I'm not a product of your imagination and no I'm not part of your subconscious. It's a jutsu that I've developed that allows me to enter people's minds for some time." She simply nodded her head, remembering reading something about this from the manga in her world. "So, why are you here?"

Sasuke sighed and said, "We can't deny it. Everybody thought you were my twin. You have connections to stuff that Ayame did long ago. And I'm here to verify that. Something I need to see from the depths of your consciousness." Akari simply nodded, "Hai. But I can't help but feel the scene that we are seeing right now is not right. I need that certain event to happen so I can verify it." "What event?" "The green light that I saw." "Don't worry, we'll see it here right now." said Sasuke as he noticed the scene to dissolve.

Sure enough, the scene swirled again and screams could be heard in the background. When she turned around she saw the whole living room of the Uchiha mansion littered with bodies and blood. Standing in the center was Itachi with his mangenkyou sharingan activated.

She heard a scream and saw three people huddled in a corner. The twinsand their okaasan!!!

She turned and saw Itachi approaching them. Their mother was tearfully saying, "Why? Itachi? Why?" He simply said, "Just because."

Instantly they ran, but little Ayame ran the other way. Instead of going with her mother and Sasuke, she ran to a room.

Oh my gosh Shegot separated!!

She glanced at Sasuke and saw that he was staring at the scene attentively. She also noticed that his eyes speak of fear and sadness.

She focused on the scene again and saw little Ayame turn, she saw Itachi then she screamed. Itachi went closer and whispered something to her. Then he stood up and quickly made rapid hand seals. Then suddenly green light enveloped the room.

"The light!! I remember this!" screamed Akari.

Then the surroundings swirled and she saw little Ayame in a room. Two familiar couple walked in and Akari focused her eyes at the faces she saw. Her gut fell when she saw the faces.

No.It couldn't be!!

A person behind her appeared, "Mr. and Mrs. Suzuki! What a nice surprise!" "We came to adopt." said Mr. Suzuki ashe pointed to little Ayame. "Oh yes. You chose her yesterday. So now you get to decide her name,since we all know that she doesn't remember anything." The man nodded and went to the little girl.

"Akari. Suzuki Akari."

Both of their eyes widened at the scene before them. They faced each other, both crying. Sasuke breathed, "Uchiha Ayame.." "and Akari Suzuki.." said Akari.

..."Are one and the same." came a voice.

The duo turned around and saw a beautiful lady clad in a white dress and a smile grace her features. Sasuke knelt down and let the tears flow as soonas he recognized the person. "Okaasan." Akari knelt down and hugged him from the side. Tears falling down she glanced at the lady, "If you're his okaasan...

Then..." The lady smiled and said, "Hai. I'm yours too." The lady went to them and caressed their tear-stained faces, "My dear twins. Look at how much you've grown. My dear Sasuke, the protector and Ayame, the beautiful iris. How I longed from the heavens to see you together again, and now I have."

Sasuke reached out to her and said, "There are so many things I want to say to you." Ayame nodded in agreement and added, "And so many things to ask you!" The lady just smiled and shook her head.

"But I can't stay long. And the answers you have to find among yourselves. The both of you are strong and will be stronger. I know it."

She held their hands together and said, "But for now. You must go back and wake up. Many people who are alive are concerned and are waiting for your return. Now wake up my dear children."

The both of them just nodded as the lady started to disappear. She gave them a smile and said, "You will meet with Itachi. And when you do, please tell him that I still love him and I miss his beautiful ebony eyes. Sayonara, my dear Iris and Protector."

A blinding light flashed as the both of them screamed, "OKAASAN!!!!!"

"OKAASAN!!" screamed Akari and Sasuke as they both sat up on the hospital bed they were in. Faces were stained with tears, as they realize that they've woken up. When the faced each other, they immediately hugged. They could only do nothing but cry at the new comfort they found in each other's arms.

When they turned around they saw Sakura, Tsunade and Kakashi smiling at them withrelieved look on their faces. Akari could only say, "Our okaasan is so beautiful." And Sasuke nodded at that statement. It was at that moment that everybody knew,

Uchiha Ayame is alive once again.