Chapter 23

'Wow this is so pretty!' I exclaimed as we walked towards the main village square. The trees had lights wrapped in them, streamers and banners were stretched between trees and buildings. Small candles were scattered around the tables along with sakura petals and other flower heads.

'I know what you mean.' She replied. Hotaru was wearing a simple indigo kimono with an intricate design in a dark blue and a black obi. I was wearing the kimono Hotaru had grabbed for me this morning. It was the simple white kimono with the falling sakura petals. It came with an obi in the same shade of pink as the sakura petals.

"Hotaru!" Someone shouted waving at us. I suddenly felt myself moving in the direction of person who had called to Hotaru. It seemed that she was dragging me towards a couple of people.

'Time for those introductions I was talking about earlier.' She whispered in my head. "Hey guys, this is Sakura. She's spending a week with the clan, so that we can teach her our abilities." She informed them. "Sakura," She said, turning to me. "this is Midori, she's Sayuri-chan's daughter, which makes her the next in line to become the head of the clan." She said pointing to the girl in the green kimono detailed with yellow flowers and birds and a yellow obi. She had bright emerald green eyes, very similar to mine and very long dark red hair like her mum's. "And this is her older brother Kenta." He had the dark blue/purple eyes that most people within the clan tended to have and shoulder-length strawberry blonde hair, almost verging on a pinkish tinge.

"It's very nice to meet you." Kenta said bowing and kissing the tips of my fingers. I noticed that he was wearing a navy blue yukata.

"She's taken, baka!" Hotaru yelled. "And she's you're cousin." She carried on.

"So? Many people marry within the family..." He stopped talking once Midori had hit him upside the back on his head.

"Sorry about him. He has a big head, but only because he is the only male to have the ability to wield the elemental-jutsu at the moment." Midori said smiling, I warming up to her immediately. "It's so nice to meet you in person, after hearing so much from Hotaru-chan."

"May I gain everyone's attention!?" Sayuri-san shouted over the crowd gathered in the clearing. Everyone quickly fell silent to listen to the head of the clan. "Tonight is a celebration. Now I know you don't really want to listen to me," She earned a few chuckles, before she carried on. "So the buffet table is now open." She declared.

"Come on lets go get food, before the good stuff disappears." Midori suggested, not giving us time to decide. She quickly pulled both me and Hotaru towards the food table, before either of us could answer. Kenta followed closely behind. We piled up our plates and found an area to sit at the tables.

As the others conversed I decided to look at the other clan members to see if I could discern the main clan features. I saw many people with different shades of red hair, however there were a few with the same strawberry blond as Kenta. Even fewer people had the same pink hair as me. Most clan members had the dark blue/purple eyes, but a small majority had the emerald green eyes which Midori and I shared. Very few people didn't have these common features, I realised that Kenta's comment couldn't have been truer.

"Sakura?" A voice said pulling me away from my observations. "Have you found out what abilities you have?" Midori asked interested.

"Yeah, well we already knew that I had Eolas as me and Hotaru were sort of already using that connection. So we mainly worked on that today." I divulged to my two interested cousins. "We also found out that I have all five chakra types, so we were going to work on some of the basics of the Elemental jutsu later this week. We assumed that I would be able to use it since I already have perfect chakra control." I explained.

"Nice, so what other stuff could you do before?" Kenta asked me, clearly curious to my abilities as a ninja.

"Well I studied under Tsunade-sama. She taught me all of her arts. So I am very well versed in medical nin-jitsu and have what most people call 'super-strength'. Most of the techniques I've developed are based around these..."

"You made your own techniques?" Midori asked surprised. Kenta looked just as surprised, while Hotaru tried very hard to stifle her laughter.

"Well, I mean that I use senbon with my own make of sedative and poison. A few of my moves include small touches to certain places of the body which can stop either their movements or their chakra. That sort of thing really." I explained my comment in full.

"You must be a highly revered ninja within Konoha." Kenta commented

"Not really, there are loads of people who are better than me, namely my teammates. My sensei is Kakashi Hatake, known as the copy-ninja. Naruto is the Kubbi container, Sasuke is an Uchiha and Sai is a Root agent. I have to work double the amount they do just to keep up with them. Although I think things will change with these new jitsu's in my bag!" I said the last part evilly, rubbing my hands together slightly. Everyone burst into laughter from my last comment.

"Hiroshi-kun!" I heard exclaimed from near me. I tuned into that conversation, hearing my father's name. "I haven't seen you in a while. Why have you not come to visit us?" Sayuri asked, as I had now figured out.

"Sayuri-chan, I know it has been too long. Business has been busy recently." The man explained, I knew my father's voice very well. I wondered what he was doing here. I decided to listen in for a little longer before I went charging over there

"I'm glad you're here too Ai." Of course my mother was here as well. "And who's this you've brought with you?" She asked. Who would they have brought with them? I thought no-body knew about the clan.

"I am Uchiha, Itachi; Sakura's husband." The familiar deep velvety voice floated over to me.

"So you are the infamous man my brother married our Sakura off to." Sayuri mentioned before I was brought back to the people at our table.

"Sakura, go pummel your dad and glomp Itachi." Hotaru said softly. I blinked at her before whispering 'thank you' in her head as I left the table. "Bring him back here!" She shouted after me.

I stepped up behind the small group. "Why didn't you tell me about the clan?" I asked suddenly when there was a small brake in her conversation.

"Well, hello to you too Pumpkin." He said playfully, ruffling my hair. I slapped his hand away as the others chuckled at my expense. He answered my question when I glared at him. "Because we decided not to tell you until you were older." He said simply, sort of avoiding the question.

"Fine, don't tell me then." I said turning away, grabbing Itachi's hand in the process. "We'll just take our leave then." I dragged him over to the food table. "You must be hungry from the long journey." I told him

"Do you not want food?" He asked me concerned that I wasn't taking any food.

"I already have half a plate left and if I'm still hungry I'll just steal some from yours." I told him. "I'm sitting over there with my cousins." I pointed towards the area I had been sitting previously to find them watching us.

When we arrived I realised that there weren't any spare chairs so I sat Itachi on mine and sat on top of him. "How am I supposed to eat now?" He questioned.

"I'm going to feed you. Now I suppose I will have to do introductions because Hotaru seems incapable of speech over there." I commented. Hotaru laughed even harder than she had been before, if that was possible. "This is Midori, she's then next in line to become the head of the clan. And this is Kenta, her older brother." I told him first. "Midori-chan, Kenta-kun, this is Itachi, my husband."

"Sakura, you've already gone off with another, married as well. How can you have done this to me?" Kenta said theatrically, throwing a hand over his brow.

"Kenta!" Midori exclaimed, hitting him upside the head again. "Sorry about him. He's very big headed." She explained. I joined in with the giggling Hotaru was still deploying.

I picked up Itachi's plate and started to feed him once the giggle had passed. "I thought you were going to request a day off not ask to join me here." I stated, while asking why he was currently.

"I went to see Tsunade and she granted me today and tomorrow, allowing me to come here. She needs us to work extra hard to catch the traitor when you return." He said in between the bits of food I fed him.

"Okay, well I suppose you could watch me train tomorrow. Although it might not be interesting because for most of it I'll be talking silently to Hotaru-chan." I fed him more food.

"Actually we'll be doing a little more than just that, but I'm not going to tell you anything else it's a surprise." I pouted but became distracted as music started to play and some people got up to dance in the square space.

"Would you like to dance?" Itachi asked me. I looked at him before nodding. He picked me up and placed me on my feet. He then led me over to the dance floor and took my hands in his. He placed one on his shoulder while the other resided in his hand. He placed his free hand around my waist and started to twirl us in time to the music.

OOO

"Just stand there for now. I'll tell you what to do in a minute." Hotaru ordered Itachi, Midori and Kenta, placing them in the middle of the training field. Today we were using the medium training field today as we had a bigger group than normal. "Right Sakura," She said out loud, catching my attention. 'today I'll show you how effective this can be in battle.' She told me silently. "I would like you to attack us. Midori-chan and Kenta-kun, please refrain from using your abilities. I'd like Sakura-chan to get the feel of fighting with the extra sense." They both nodded and prepared their fighting stances. "Those are the only rules for this spar." She declared, effectively starting the fight.

I leapt to the trees for some cover, narrowly missing the kunai which had been thrown at me. I saw Hotaru had done the same as me on the other side of the field. 'Now we need to formulate a plan. I suggest due to the positions of the other team that you punch the ground by the trees at your 9 o'clock. As they disperse I will throw kunai and paper bombs at them from my hiding position. You will have to engage openly with them, and I will join you quickly we can only plan till then really. I will shout more instructions to you later, you can add anything if you want to.' She formulated a plan.

'I can't see many problems with that. We should act now if we are to complete it and have the element of surprise.' I commented before I leapt out of the trees towards the spot Hotaru had indicated. As I jumped I built up my chakra into my fist. As I landed my chakra laden fist impacted with the ground. As predicted the other team whom had been planning verbally dispersed out into the open. They became disorientated as paper bombs and kunai were thrown at them. I pulled out some plain senbon, hiding them in my closed fists and took my chance to attack. I leapt towards Midori since she was the closest to me. She whipped around and blocked my incoming attack. My other hand swooped in for another attack to her neck. She grabbed this arm as well in a firm grip. I dropped the senbon in my hands, knowing that they were useless to me now. I twisted my arms so that I was also grasping her arms in a firm hold. I gathered chakra to my feet to plant them to the ground, while also using chakra to strengthen and enhance my muscles. I lifted her up and flung her over my back, she let go due to the shock and force, landing hard on her back. I twisted and quickly assessed that damaged I had done to her. She was very winded, but nothing was broken. She would be out of the spar for a little while. 'Behind you!' Hotaru shouted. I quickly twisted to find Itachi standing behind me. He had been about to land his katana on me. I quickly ducked and weaved out of the way.

'Back to back.' I suggested as I moved towards Hotaru and her mini spar with Kenta. She acted accordingly to my suggestion as I saw Midori get up from the floor. Seems as though she wasn't as winded as I thought she had been. I bumped into the back of Hotaru as the others slowly circled us getting closer with every step they took. 'What now?' I asked Hotaru, knowing that we needed some sort of a plan to get out of this.

'Do you have any of those sedative dipped senbons on you?' She asked me as I saw ideas running through her head.

'Yes, I think that will be the best option here.' I replied. 'I will take out Midori since she will be the easiest to target, due to her injury. Then we should go back to our previous fights.' I suggested quickly smoothing out the details of our plan.

'Ok, wait for my signal. I want them to get a little closer before we act, giving them less time to react to us.' She ordered. I did as she said knowing that she was right. I was fine taking orders from her now since I had been doing so for the last couple of days. 'Now!' She bellowed in my mind, giving the signal.

My hand shot out to my weapons pouch. It automatically went to the specially lined pocket which contained pre-coated sedative senbons. I quickly and precisely threw them at Midori, while still keeping Itachi within my line of site. When they saw my movements the opposition jumped into action. Midori fell to the ground as soon as my senbon hit their marks. Pulling out a kunai, I turned my full attention to Itachi as Hotaru went to Kenta.

His katana clashed with my kunai as I brought it up to block his attack. He put more force into his attack and tried to use the advantage he had. I brought chakra to my arms to deal with the change in pressure. There was no way I would win this battle of strength when he had the larger weapon, even though I could see his stamina starting to waver a little. I came off the defensive and dogged the incoming attack. My hand shot out to his left shoulder, where there was an 'open' chakra point. I shot a small bit of my chakra into it rendering his left arm useless. He threw a couple of kunai over me. 'Duck!' I yelled to Hotaru through Eolas as I realised he was aiming for her. I swung my legs round knocking him off his feet. I leapt on him and put a kunai to his throat. He quickly grabbed my arm and flipped me over. I lost the grip of my kunai when he twisted my arm. He quickly secured both of my hands in one of his before putting his hand around my neck. He gave a little squeeze to signal that I was now 'dead' in our spar. I glared at him. "I won that fight fair and square!" I accused him.

"I'm a ninja. We don't play fair if you hadn't noticed." He replied calmly. We heard some clapping from the other side of the field. We both looked up to see Sayuri watching our spar. Itachi then let go of me and help me up from the ground. I looked over and saw that Hotaru had won her spar with Kenta.

"Will Midori-chan be alright?" Sayuri asked, motioning towards her daughter lying on the ground unconscious. I walked over to her to asses her properly.

"She was heavily winded during our spar, but nothing is broken." I then took out the senbon sticking from her body and took her pulse. "She is currently asleep from my sedative and will most likely wake up in about 20 to 30 minutes." I said. I then put my hands to her chest and back to heal the winded areas. "There, now she won't wake up in any pain." I then looked up to a concerned Sayuri. She was obviously very protective of her children, like any mother should be.

"Thank you Sakura-chan." She whispered quietly. "Kenta-Kun, Hotaru-chan could you take Midori-chan up to Tomoko-baa-chan? And take Itachi up with you as well, she'll want to see him as well I think." They both nodded and followed her instructions. Itachi walked over to me and gave me a small kiss before following Kenta and Hotaru. Sayuri then turned to me before speaking again. "Now Sakura, I think you're ready for the basics."