A Familiar Past

I’ll tell you the truth. I about fell over when I saw who was in Cell 7; and I think he almost did too.

Me: Is this your team Kakashi?
Kakashi: Yeah, did Lady Tsunade not tell you who was in it?
Me: No, she just let me pick the sensei.
Kakashi: That sounds like her.
Sasuke: Tiphia is that you?
Me: Hey you remember me?
Sasuke: I wonder why, you were just my best friend.
Me: How you been Sasuke? (holding open hand)
Sasuke: Good. (giving me a high-five) Where have you been all these years?
Me: I’ve got a little cabin outside the gates of Konoha. I’ve been living there ever since….you know when.

The air around the two of us saddened as we recalled the bad memories of the night our clan had been wiped out.

Sakura: Who are you exactly?
Me: Oh sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Tiphia Uchiha. It’s nice to meet you……
Sakura: Sakura Haruno.
Me: It’s nice to meet you Sakura. And…….
Naruto: Naruto Uzumaki, the soon-to-be greatest hokage the leaf village has ever seen. Believe it!
Me: (smiles a little) Nice to meet you too, Naruto. (turned to Kakashi) Well then Kakashi, I know you didn’t call them here to meet me; so why did you?
Kakashi: Oh, that’s right we have been assigned a mission for tomorrow.
Me: And…?
Kakashi: And what?
Me: (mentally slapping my forehead) What is the mission?
Kakashi: We’ll be taking top secret scrolls to the land of waves.
Sakura: Does that mean we can visit Tazune?
Naruto: And Inari?
Kakashi: I don’t see why you can’t after our mission is done.

{(In the land of waves)}
I felt kind of left out. I could tell they had been to the land of waves before and had friends here, too. Something I hadn’t had in a long time.

Me: [Friends……]
Sasuke: Hey Tiph, you okay?

I snapped back to reality.

Me: Yeah, I’m fine Sasuke.
Sasuke: Hey, you want to go for a walk or something and catch up. I mean we haven’t seen each other in five years.
Me: Sure

I stood up from my seat and Sasuke and I started to walk around the village.

Sasuke: So…how have you been?
Me: I’ve been doing fine. You?
Sasuke: The same.

Our conversation went on for a while with the how have you been questions until I heard Sasuke ask me,

Sasuke: Tiphia, what do you want to do about Itachi?

The question sort of hit me in the face. I wasn’t expecting it. I thought about it for a minute before answering him.

Me: I think we should punish him after we learn why.
Sasuke: What do you mean why?
Me: Why he did what he did?

Sasuke looked at me for a minute before agreeing with me. I smiled a little.

Sasuke: I guess you’re right, Tiphia.
Me: You guess? But I’m always right.

Sasuke smiled a little as he remembered the good old days, when I would say that to him almost everyday. I spaced out and remembered those days too. It seemed so long ago that Sasuke, Itachi, and me were running around Konoha and having fun. So long since I had a family or a home. I looked up at the sky and closed my eyes, as I let a solemn tear role down my cheek. I felt a hand wipe it away, and I opened my eyes.

Sasuke: Come on Tiphia, let’s get back.
Me: Sure.

Sasuke held out his hand and I took it. For a minute, I was waiting for another hand to grab my other hand, but quickly snapped back to the present. Itachi wasn’t going to show up and hold my hand like he use to. But at least I still had Sasuke.