Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any associated characters.

A/N: Welcome to the twelfth chapter of Sister Lost.

Spelling, characterization and such are all on me, feel free to point out any and all glaring errors. Especially since English isn't my first language. I will try to avoid all the regular pitfalls, but it will be unavoidable that things slip through; feedback will allow me to fix mistakes and prevent future ones. So tear my grammar and spelling a new one if you find errors.

Sorry it took so long to get this one out, RL has been kicking my ass. There will be a chapter in the weekend.

Chapter 12: Consequences

Sakura, Late morning, Shinobi Library

Sakura was smiling at the boy sitting across the table. She had managed to track him down yesterday; to her surprise, he was the one to suggest they would go here today. She had been expecting to have to badger him to do it.

She had found him out behind the main Uchiha house throwing orbs of fire at small targets set up everywhere. He turned his head towards her with an intense look on his face for a moment, tomoe spinning before he blinked and the red eyes turning back to the obsidian Sakura adored.

While being at the library wasn't what she really wanted to be doing with Sasuke, she did enjoy coming to the library, and him being there made a good thing better.

He hadn't even asked for help with research, perhaps spending time at the library was also his idea of having fun in his free time."Hell Yeah! Perfect match!" Inner Sakura chimed in.

They had been reading for a couple of hours now, he had been making small talk, asking how her training was going and even asking about missions. Sasuke never seemed very interested in other people, she it had caught her off guard. She told him about some of the things the genjutsu mistress had been teaching her. He was especially interested in Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu, asking if she could show him later. She was a little apprehensive about casting something like that on him.

When she had approached him yesterday, she had just heard that they had returned from their mission. A rumor about them killing hundreds of people was going around. She wasn't quite sure what to think of it, on one hand she kind of liked that Sasuke was that strong, but on the other hand an entire clan included civilians and children. The thought of an actual massacre turned her stomach.

Sasuke slammed a hand down on the table, pulling her from her thoughts. He was breathing heavily. He looked up, the eyes red, tomoe spinning in an intense look. He visibly relaxed when he saw her, then squeezed his eyes shut and contorted his face in disgust for a moment, before opening his eyes again looking at her with hint of sadness. He managed to croak out a sorry.

Sakura looked at him that answered some of the questions she had about the rumors. They had really done something awful. "Is it about the mission you just returned from? Do you want to talk about it?"

Sasuke let out a small sigh. "I can't, all details are classified." He hesitated for a moment then continued. "I remember every single detail." He gave her a searching look. "You have probably heard the rumors. We had to kill people." Sasuke made a gesture at his eyes, which were once more red, tomoe spinning lazily. "I remember them, all of them. The looks on their faces, every movement their bodies made as they died. Everything."

Sakura went completely pale.

She had been forced to kill on her first C-rank a month ago. A group of highwaymen had jumped them; one had slipped past and was headed to their client with a raised blade. She had run between them, a highwayman was no threat to a shinobi, even a genin. A blade even in the hands of someone with that little training could still pose a threat to their client however. She had punched him in the throat, crushing his windpipe, and watching in horror as he had crumbled to the ground, wheezing for breath until he finally suffocated. It had haunted her dreams for weeks.

If the rumor was true, Sasuke had seen hundreds of deaths. She blinked, that was the reason he had asked her to hang out today. He didn't want to be alone. Sasuke was an orphan and was always by himself, in that large section of the city the Uchiha had resided in.

Sasuke considered her a friend! She would have been happy if it wasn't such a horrible thing that had caused the revelation. What he had said months ago when he had bought her dinner was true.

Perhaps he wanted to talk about it; Sakura looked at the boy with a puzzled look on her face. She knew that he couldn't talk about specific details. "Did…" Sakura hesitated; she could push him away if he didn't actually want to talk about it. It was her duty as a friend to make sure he was okay. "Did you kill a lot of people?" Her eyes softening as she locked her eyes with his.

"Hn…" Sasuke paused for a moment before taking a deep breath. "Some… Naruto killed more than Kakashi-sensei, Hinata and I did put together."

Sakura noticed the hint of admiration that had been in his voice when he mentioned Naruto. "You did say that Naruto had been hiding how good he was in the Academy, but more than all of you?"

"You don't understand he can make solid clones. I think we are about equal in strength against a single enemy. He is much stronger against many people; there is only so much, you can do as one person. He can be hundreds." Sasuke's eyebrow twitched a little.

Sakura considered what he was saying, she had never heard of someone being able to make clones like that. There were several techniques, which could make solid clones, but all of them required so much chakra that it was rare to make more than a couple.

She turned her head, noticing what had Sasuke twitching. Two older kunoichi was standing between the shelves not far from them.

"Did you hear, they say that Hatake-san's team wiped out a whole clan?" The taller of the two whispered while looking at where Sasuke was sitting.

"I heard he let his students do most of it. The Uchiha is supposedly a prodigy and so is the Hyūga." The heavier-built woman looked at Sasuke, who was trying to ignore them.

"I heard it was the brat that killed all of them." A third kunoichi had walked up to them; she had all but spat the word and was talking a little louder than the other two. Seemly obvious to the fact that Sasuke was sitting a few yards away, wearing a jacket with the clan crest of Uchiha.

The other two looked horrified at the thought of the village pariah going berserk and wiping out a clan.

Sasuke stood up so fast that he knocked over his chair, the loud clatter had the three staring at him. He turned his head, a scowl on his face, Sharingan active and stared at them. "If you're talking about Naruto, I suggest you come closer and repeat what you just said." An oppressing feeling of killing intent was radiating off Sasuke.

The three all but ran out of the library.

Sasuke let breath hiss out between his teeth, placed his hands on the table and looked to Sakura. "Well that has completely put me off doing more reading in here today. I am supposed to meet the rest of my team for a bite later; you are welcome to join us, the Korean Barbeque at six. I'll see you around." Sasuke straightened back up and walked out of the library.

Sakura was dumbfounded, Sasuke defending his teammate to such a degree. He had changed in the two months he had been away. Their life style required people to grow up fast. Guess that was the reason why they were considered adults when they received the Hitai-ate.

Sasuke, Evening the previous day

He couldn't sleep, he had been wandering around the large house not being able to relax and get some sleep.

His mind had been going a million miles an hour since they had returned from the Hokage's office the previous day. He was excited about the prospect but also a little scared of the consequences it would have on them. Rumors like that was how you ended up in bingo-books, being in one while still a genin could turn out to be a very dangerous endeavor. On top of that, there was also the issue that Kumo was apparently after his bloodlimit, they had been after Hinata's Byakugan, but now there were aware of him being on the same team.

That many people trying to kill you, would provide plenty of opportunities to grow stronger, but it would also be hard to exact vengeance when dead.

He could not afford to skimp on training, even if their sensei had given them two days off to recover. He had trouble sleeping since they escaped, and images flashed into his mind every time he closed his eyes. To push it away, he had throwing everything he had into training.

He had been concentrating on the Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu earlier in the day, controlling more orbs, make them move faster and with greater accuracy.

He had been so focused on mastering the technique that Sakura had managed to sneak up on him. She had called his name, he turned with his Sharingan still active and it had shaken him to his core. He knew from her posture that he would be able to jump on her and tear out her throat with his teeth before she could react.

It all clicked into place, what he had read from the tablet under the Naka Shrine all those years ago. It wasn't that you had to kill your best friend, it was that you had to sacrifice a large part of your humanity, to become a monster in the quest for power. Sasuke wowed to himself that he wouldn't become a monster, wouldn't become his brother in the quest for vengeance. He would prove he was better, that he did not need shortcuts, did not need to sacrifice everything he was.

It struck him that it was exactly what he had been doing, isolating himself, ignoring everyone around him, it would lead to him becoming a monster. Trying to deal with the effects of the Sharingan on his own would probably only serve to exacerbate things.

He realized he had been standing for a moment with his Sharingan still spinning looking at Sakura, and quickly blinked turning it off. Deciding that he should probably take the first step away from the path of becoming a monster, he asked if she wanted to hang out at the library the next day. Sakura's face had lit up like the sun; he had to suppress the need to wince. He hoped she would move on from that crush at some point, while she weren't quite as annoying, since they had graduated and she had stopped trying to cling to him, she wasn't his type and he felt like he was leading her on. However, she was the closest thing to a friend he had outside of his two teammates, and he could use a friend right now.

Naruto, present day a little after noon, apartment

Naruto was sitting on his sofa, lethargic leaning his head back and starting at the ceiling, trying to tune out the soft hum of the refrigerator coming from the kitchenette. Black rings around his eyes from the lack of rest. Every time he closed his eyes, he could hear the screams; see the terror painted on the faces, blood soaking the snow, and the coppery taste of it in his mouth as he had torn through them.

He had slept since then, but it had been fitful, reliving the fight every night. Slept but not rested, there were only a couple of times on the way back; he had actually gotten some rest. He had fallen asleep sitting against Hinata-chan. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, it had always been like that. He felt at peace when she was around.

He let out a small grunt as he sat up properly. He hadn't seen her since their little impromptu meeting two days ago when they had come out of after the debriefing. She had spent much of the day yesterday at the hospital being checked out to make sure she was fit for active duty after the injury, and the rest of it training with her father, she was going to be at the restaurant later, but until then he still had a whole afternoon to kill by himself.

He had been wandering around aimlessly the previous day. He had gone past the Nara residence, Shikamaru was out on a mission. He didn't know what to do with himself, he didn't feel like training. Eventually he had just ended up sitting on top of the Hokage monument, just looking out over the town.

With a small sigh, he got up. He went out the door and set into a run to get the blood pumping so it could wash away the lethargy. Just thirty minutes later he was feeling refresh, he stopped by a public rest room to splash a bit of water in his face. Catching his reflection in the mirror, he noted that the black rings, he had been sporting all morning, had faded away.

He headed towards a bank; he needed to open an account. The stipend he had lived off while he was in the Academy and the money he had been making from doing the C-rank missions before they headed off to Three Peaks had never been more than he could handle lugging the money around in Gama-chan. The pay for a fifty-six day C-rank and two A-rank missions however was a lot of money, more than he could possibly carry around, even as bills.

Naruto entered the bank; he had half expected to be ignored as he did by most of the village. Perhaps ignored was the wrong word, people were always busy not looking at him. He hadn't expected the reaction that followed however. A man in some very fancy clothes intercepted him right after he had entered the bank.

"Uzumaki-sama, I am honored by your presence, how may I serve you?" As he did a deep bow.

Naruto did a double take, not sure how to respond to that. Resisting the urge to reach behind his neck and touch the lock of his necklace, as he was wont to do when put on the spot. After a few seconds, he finally snapped out of it. "I need to open an account and deposit these mission-chits."

The man smiled at him. "Certainly, if you would follow, then we can get started on the paper work." Things had slowed down a lot of for the revenue stream generated by the shinobi populations since the last war ended fifteen years ago, the banker was happy that the current generation was showing promise, skilled shinobi were high value clients for banks in Konohagakure. If the rumors were to be believed, Uzumaki Naruto would become a very good client indeed.

Naruto stood outside the bank a while later, his eyes wide as he looked at the bank statement. He had never seen that much money before. He had made a sizable withdrawal after cashing in the mission-chits. He needed to go on a spending spree. 'I need wire, fishing wires of various types, kunai, exploding tags and lots of those cool sealing scrolls'

He grinned widely as he went down the street towards the specialty store for fuinjutsu.

He noticed that people instead of trying to ignore him, was giving him a wide berth on the street. Something was going on, but he didn't quite know what, he shrugged and went into the store. Picking up quite a few storage scrolls, some for small inanimate objects designed for small weapons and tools, and a few stasis scrolls. He wanted to bring ramen for his next mission, two months was pushing it without the food of the gods. An idea struck him and he grabbed an extra stasis scroll.

He dumped large amount of scrolls he was carrying onto the counter. All fuinjutus items were restricted to the shinobi population because of the danger it poses. Not everyone able to mould chakra had the mindset to become shinobi. A part of the civilian population would be able to use many of the items, which without the training on it they received in the Academy, could be highly dangerous for them and people around them. Explosive tags were kept behind the counter and would only be released if one could provide a Hitai-ate and a shinobi ID marked for active duty.

Naruto cleared his throat; the shop attendant had been getting something from under the counter and straightened up. He went white, eyes wide staring at Naruto. "U-Uzumaki-sama." Taking a step away from him and bumped into the shelf behind him.

Naruto looked at the man; it was like out in the street, what was going on? Making a small shrug, he then looked at the man with a twinkle in his eyes. "I want to buy these and fifty explosive tags."

"Y-Yes certainly."

Naruto paid for his items, and went on his way; this was certainly turning out to be a strange day. That bank guy had been pretty nice, but what was with all the other people. He would prefer the way people normally treated him to whatever this were. He had heard this name whispered a few times while walking down the street, unable to make sense of it; he went towards the next destination. A little weapon shop run by an old guy that always treated him nicely.

Weapon store some time later

He stood looking at some rolls of wire, he didn't use wire for attacking like Sasuke, but it was important for trap triggers. He should probably buy a good stockpile of it now that he could carry it around with his new scrolls. He held up one of the scrolls while trying to figure out how much wire he could fit into it.

A chipper female voice sounded out behind him. "Oh, a storage scroll, you like Fūinjutsu?"

Naruto turned around to look at the girl standing next to him. Two bangs of brown hair hanging over her forehead protector.

"I didn't think anyone else in our age group liked Fūinjutsu." As she smiled at him.

Naruto frowned, she seemed familiar but he couldn't quite place where he had seen her before. "Fūinjutsu is awesome; it is so cool to be able to store things in small scrolls like this." Naruto's eyes opened wide and started twinkling as he continued. "And explosive tags, so awesome!"

The girl giggled at the entirely too enthusiastic boy, but she could understand him Fūinjutsu was indeed awesome. "So do you know how to make seals yet?"

Naruto deflated a little. "No, I asked my sensei and he said that he didn't have time to get into it until after the Chūnin exam, he showed me this really cool explosive tag, and now I have to wait months until I can start learning it!" Frustration creeping into his voice on the last part.

"If you want I can help you get started." Flashing the blonde a smile, it would give her something to do, she had been bored out of her mind all day.

"Really? REALLY?" Naruto almost vibrated with excitement taking a few seconds to calm down then continued. "But don't you have stuff to do?"

She shrugged. "My teammate is in the hospital with severe chakra exhaustion, he was trying to learn a new technique. I'm not quite sure where the rest of my team is, but I'm sure my sensei and my other teammate is out there doing something inane."

Naruto could certainly relate that. Having problems finding something to do when he wasn't training with Hinata-chan.

"There is a really good store near here that sells what you need to get started." She turned and walked towards the exit of the store, Naruto following, the purpose of coming into the weapon store forgotten.

As they made their way down the road, Naruto rolled his eyes at people's reaction to him. "Really appreciate you taking your time helping me."

A while later the two sat at a small table in a café nearby, Naruto was looking at the first few pages with a confused look on his face.

'Not too bright is he?' Sighing a little, he obviously wasn't going to learn it from a book, perhaps she could explain it to him. Pulling out a scroll. "This is a storage scroll I made myself." Pointing to the area for sealing an item. "We call this whole thing a sealing matrix. In a matrix there are several arrays, these arrays is what determine what the seal does."

Naruto nodded looking at the scroll. He was seriously impressed at the scroll, the array took up less space than the ones he had on the scrolls he had bought in the store.

She pointed to various parts of the array explaining. With Naruto just nodding as she went through it, she wasn't quite sure the boy got it, but at least he didn't look as confused.

"How did you learn all this stuff anyways?" Naruto had his hand behind his head fiddling with the necklace, this was confusing as get out, but at least her explanation was better than the technical details in the book.

Her gaze dropped down towards the table, he felt so damn familiar to her, so she decided to tell him. "I'm an orphan, I don't have anything outside missions and training, so I'm working hard to get known as a great kunoichi like Tsunade-hime."

Naruto let out a sigh. "I'm an orphan too."

Both narrowed their eyes for a moment, wide eyed a moment later they locked eyes as they both jumped up pointing at each other. "Ahhh AHHHH!" Naruto started laughing.

She had struck up the conversation because he seemed familiar, now she finally knew who he was. "Na-chan!" She got up fast and hugged the boy for all he was worth. He had been her only friend in that hellhole of a place.

Hours passed as the two told each other what had happened in the last 6 years. She had entered the Academy and graduated top kunoichi of her class. She had been trying to become a medic-nin like Tsunade after graduating, but found that she had no talent for it, instead finding that she had a knack for sealing, and incorporated it her fighting style.

Naruto got up from the table. "I need to meet my team for dinner, wanna come along? I'm sure they won't mind."

Kakashi, outskirts of Konohagakure

Kakashi was wheezing slightly, why had he been so stupid as to challenge Gai to laps around the village? Training. Kakashi would sigh if his lungs had allowed him to expel the extra air.

He had failed to protect his cute students properly during that screw up of a mission. He decided that he had gotten too lax in his training regiment since leaving ANBU, and decided that training while also antagonizing Gai had been an excellent idea.

Of course, he was regretting it now, the mini Gai clone was running with them, neither looked tired. Maybe he really had been taking it too easy.

He needed to get into peak condition, he needed to increase his chakra reserves, the Sharingan was too draining.

Once they got to the other side of the Chūnin Exam things would probably start to get a lot harder for his team. If things went as he full expected all three to be promoted, there was no way around it. It was a delicate time; he had spent most of the previous day in meetings.

The chūnin exam was going to be a lot bigger than initially planned. Recent events and skirmishes along the Iwa border had forced their hand. Konohagakure had to appear strong; the only way to do that was to show off. Besides the plans already going to effect from this year to increase the graduating classes, there would be a step up in training. Normally there were certain limits to what was taught to genin, mostly shying away from teaching advanced jutsu. This was due to most people going missing-nin were genin or low ranked chūnin.

This year's graduating class was different it was mostly clan members. Besides Haruno Sakura and partially Uzumaki Naruto, due to him not actually knowing that he was from a clan, the class was entirely established clans, which usually meant loyalty to the village. They could afford to give them a boost in ability the next two months.

All the clan heads had been given orders of accelerate their young member's training. Kakashi had almost keeled over laughing at Shikaku's facial expression, when Hiruzen had been so cheeky as to assign it as a mission to him, making sure he actually did it. Kurenai would step up the training of Haruno and he would take care of training Sasuke and Naruto. He knew he didn't have to work them harder. His team was already very driven, but he would show them some useful jutsu.

Two months wasn't enough for element training for Naruto, so that would be put off until after the exam. Instead, he would help him with using the Kage Bunshin more efficiently it was his greatest strength.

Sasuke would take like a duck to water with any jutsu he would be shown. What Sasuke needed the most was combat experience with the sharingan active.

They probably not do any more missions, save for the handful of D-rank needed to retain active mission status. Six days of training a week should give them the final edge they would need for the exam.

Training would be starting tomorrow, he had graciously given them two days to recover before he would put them through hell, the thought causing him to smirk a little under his mask.

He started to slow down, they had been running at high speed for the last ten hours and he couldn't anymore, it was time to admit defeat. As much as he didn't like to lose to Gai, he didn't rely as much on physical power as his rival and wasn't as trained.

Hinata, Sasuke and Sakura, few minutes past six in the evening, Korean Barbeque

Hinata was sitting across from Sasuke and Sakura; she still had her eyebrow quirked up with an amused smile at him inviting Sakura. He seemed to have livened up a little since they had returned.

They turned as Naruto opened the door to the restaurant. A girl stepped in before him. Clad in a pink sleeveless blouse, brown hair tied into two buns with bangs hanging over her Hitai-ate, with her brown eyes studying the group.

Naruto stepped in and past her. "Guys I'd like to introduce you to Tenten. We grew up in the same orphanage." He pointed at his teammates and introduced them to her, before making his way to the bench, scooting in next to Hinata. Tenten slided in after Naruto, who was now flanked between the two kunoichi.

Tenten smiled at them. "Hyūga and Uchiha... You guys are Kakashi's students! My sensei keeps talking about you guys, the students of his eternal rival" She paused for a moment. "So it's you guys people have been talking about the last two days. Did you really kill four-hundred people?"

Naruto looked down at the table, with a guilty expression.

Sasuke smirked. "We had a run in with a clan on a mission." Avoiding actually confirming or denying the overstatement, as his book had taught him about evasive replies. His smirk turned into a real smile. Naruto flanked by his girlfriend and his childhood friend, this was going to be fun.

A/N:

Here comes a new CHALLENGER!

So I was super indecisive where to go with this one, direct all your rage towards Solvdrage if you dislike Tenten (:

(5:52:06 PM) Solvdrage: Maybe Tenten vs Hinata to be different

Not my fault he didn't state how *whistles innocently* (Also this is not an interactive fic, but I do talk about stuff with some of the other authors on the site. I can highly recommend his (Solvdrage's) work)

It should be noted this is not a harem story and will not ever be one, but that does not mean we can't have a bit of drama, them being teenagers and all.

Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu = Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique
What Kakashi casts on Sakura during the bell test in the cannon.

Super happy for reviews so far. Questions will be answered through PM's it is simply too much to answer through the Author Notes, unless it is relevant to understanding something about the story. Also feel free to PM any questions, I will answer anything that does not spoil the story.

Thanks to md5i for help with grammar and spelling on Chapter 10 and 11.

Thanks to Solvdrage for helping with some story aspects of chapter 12 (And not just the Tenten bit).

Omake:

Naruto entered the restaurant, a girl walking behind him. Hinata's eyes widened in recognition. "Hey Tenten-chan!" As she gave the girl a small wave.

Naruto looked at her. "You two know each other?"

Hinata nodded while smiling. "She is Neji-nīsan's girlfriend."

Tenten sucked in some air and appeared to be choking, coughing violently for a good twenty seconds. Face red either from the girl's words or the coughing fit.

Hinata just smiled. "How did you manage to finally get him to go out with you anyways?"

Tenten replied in a small voice "I told him it was *cough* fate *cough*"

Hinata tried to keep a straight face for a moment before collapsing over the table from laughter.