(31) The then and the now

()()()()()()()()(3RD POV)()()()()()(

Kireina has been traversing the land of grass looking for some signs of Orochimaru or Sasuke, only going off bits and pieces of information she gathered. Soon came to a stop in front of a cave shaped like a snake head "This must be it" she muttered with a small gulp of nervousness as she formed a small flame in her hand as she walked deeper in the eerie and somewhat creepy hallways. Brushing her fingers against the dark marble surface, closing her deep onyx eyes briefly and disperse her chakra getting a mental layout of the hideout and possession of everyone in it.

She head in a bit deeper searching a few empty rooms on useful information that might come in handy later on'-cause why not, I mean he may be a bit insane but doesn't mean there not completely useless things of his laying around.' she thought, soon came across a familiar chakra signature "Sasuke" she gasped under her breath, running to a large empty room, skidding to a stop as her hand touch the door nob with slight hesitation "he's...he's here...I can feel it" the young girl muttered to herself 'Its been so long' her eyes start to water up in pure happiness at the thought 'I get to see him after so long...But-but what if he hates me now-no he loves me, no matter what. right?'

"Nope! I can't do this!" she exclaims hesitantly as she starts to have second thought "G-get a hold of yourself, Reika...you came this far, y-you can't just give up..." she trails off, trying to give herself a pep talk

"Why, You're the last person I'd expect" a voice from the other side said, slowly open the door as it made a small 'creak' sound; peeking around.

"you can do this" she whispered to herself. She slowly walked in the dark room. She noticed that a lone candlelight illuminate the room. She jumped a bit when suddenly she heard the same door close behind her.

Wiping her head around "Sasuke?" she gasped, her eyes filled with a faint hope, as she saw a pair of blazing red sharingan illuminate against the dark background only confirming the fact. "Yeah, I'm a genius!" she accidentally squealed out loud covering her lip, glancing around for any foreign chakra a small smirk crept on her face as she let's out a small victory cheer, rushing forwards letting her hair flow down as she relaxed her muscles a bit; revealing her smooth pale and blemish free face, unknowingly her sharingan shined a bright ruby red filled with happiness.

then her mood suddenly turned a 180 as her brows ached "...How dare you leave you baka!" She suddenly shouted, pointing an accusing finger at his dark figure, her eyebrows arched, towards the older Uchiha

He said nothing as he just stood there motionless staring at her with a blank look. Finally breaking it, briefly closing his eyes slowly. "How did you find this place," he asked quizzically as he was genuinely curious to know.

he eyed her from head to toe as he was taken in her differentiating features her hair slightly longer, the way she held herself and...her eyes, which were darker and filled with pain and betrayal but also a faint flicker of hope.

"Its not hard when there is a snake-shaped cave in the middle of nowhere" she simply replied nonchalantly "Besides the point-"

"-did you really come all the way for something like that" Sasuke said emotionless

"Sumimasen, I didn't intend to at first." she starts as her eyes drifted a bit "...But after I acquired a hint of a possibility to see you again I-I couldn't give up the chance you see." she softly explains in a somewhat 'don't you know' tone "you never thought that how it could've affected me. Did you?" Kireina narrowed her eyes,they glanced at the ground breifly before shooting back furious 'I don't know what to feel; happy that I see him or mad that he left me...' her thoughts trailed off as she settled on a deep annoyance "Why-why did you leave me...for what? For your stupid power trip!" she shakes her head violently as she ruffles through her hair "Baka, stupid baka!" she muttered

"You know why" he piped up in a monotoned voice tho in the back of his mind he wished she didn't know it, any of it

"But it felt like more.....it felt I was all alone" she muttered mostly to herself "Why couldn't you take me with you? Don't you love me! if so then why did you leave...just like aniki...just like everyone else" she added depressingly, her eyes devoid of the faint light that was once there

The older sibling had a hint of guilt for the young female he didn't wanted to make her feel unwanted, she the few possibly only thing he loves, the only thing he had left, that he actually loves wholeheartedly. But the teen quickly dismissed that feeling, pushing it down

"Sasuke-"

"if your trying to convince me then save your breath" he retorted coldly

"no...I already know I can't" she huffed defeated as she drew in the dirt with her foot, trying her hardest to not break out in tears "...I-I can't live with the thought that I'm alone...with the thought that all I ever loved either abandoned me...or died..." she exclaims trailing off with faint tears "...you promised you'd always be there for me...WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PROMISE YOU MADE TO ME!" she scolds, her Sharingan now blazing with furry. She lunges out of blind fury "why do you have to be such an ass" her voice strained

she was caught mid-way by someone grabbing the hood of her attire "let me go you traitor" she spat, tears free flowing as tried to get free from his grasp.

"Calm down" he sternly orders in a flat and emotionless his face showed no emotion. She only shot him a cold glare, sticking out her tongue in return "Your such a child" he comments

"Why thank you" she mockingly says in return, seemingly not fazed by his cold demenor "now let me go" she demanded

"Hn"

She glanced down "to be honest, I-I don't care if you hate the village or not...I just want ya to come back...so, so we could be a family again...if that's even possible" she muttered quietly, mostly so he wouldn't hear her voice crack. Drawing small circles in the dirt with her foot in the sand 'is it to hard to ask'

but before he could respond they heard faint footsteps 'someone else is here' she thought as her attention was glued to the foreign presence from the other side of the door "n-n-no! I can't be done yet!" her inner self panics crying an anime waterfall of tears 'I'm done for if that snake catches me...worse, leaf ninjas' her face contorts into one of horror and panic at the thought 'not now, they could choose a worse time'

Sasuke rolled his eyes "Still overdramatic I see" he mutters to himself, sighing. Gently picking her up and placing her on his bed beside him and started to rub circles on her back, calming her down and bringing her back to reality.

She gave a small inaudible gasp, glancing over at Sasuke whom just put his forefinger to his lips telling her to 'be quiet' she gave a slight nod slowly pulling up her hood obscuring herself once again.

The two shortly heard the door slowly slide open, standing there was a boy with ghostly pale skin wearing a stander anbu outfit and small dull ninto on his back and finally his leaf headband

'their chakra is unfamiliar. Who are they...and what do they want?' Kireina thought

"Uchiha Sasuke, I presume," the voice said from the other side of the room "I was initially sent to kill you but instead I decided to take you back to the leaf, to protect the bond that you have with Naruto and Sakura have"

'phf' she let out a small breath she didn't know was holding '...wait, are they here too?!' she asked herself 'hmm, this got a whole lot more insisting. I haven't seen those bakas in 3 years, wounder how things changed for them to.' she thought, tapping her chin then smirking to herself

"You woke me up for bonds" Sasuke retorted coldly to which kireina gave a small flick to his forehead, he gave a small glare in return but she brushed it off, tilting her head innocently with a soft look plastering her face. 'What about us then' she said with a single glance 'don't you still at least still care...for me?' letting out a soft, inaudible sigh

Suddenly some ink snakes made by him came slithering towards the two as they proceeded to explode, blowing up the entire room to rubble...