Naruto: A New Perspective

Chapter 4

Disclaimer:I do not own Naruto or this would be true

Across town, Aiko had run into Team 10 and decided it wouldn't be right if they weren't invited as well. Ino seemed very surprised that she was talking again, quite happily surprised. The blonde girl jumped on the chance to actually visit Sasuke's home and assured Aiko she would drag the boys along.

Aiko was still surprised herself, at how much she was talking. A few weeks previous she had been a complete mute with everyone except Sasuke, now it felt like she couldn't stop talking... she had thought it would be forced for awhile, but talking came naturally to her, she hadn't forgotten the right things to say, how to speak without stammering...

In some ways it felt silly to have become so withdrawn... she was naturally good with people, but she had retreated deeper within herself than even Sasuke, who felt the brunt of Itachi's deed. She had not been placed under Mangekyou Sharingan's Tsukiyomi Genjutsu as her brother... but waking up to see her parents dead, and Sasuke knocked out was horrifying.

Aiko had been relatively fine, but Sasuke was in the hospital for almost two weeks in a near vegetative state. She had almost lost everything, and it terrified her. So she clung to Sasuke, and stopped talking to all the well wishers, and sympathizers. They would never understand what she had gone through, never understand her pain...

Shaking her head, she tried to rid herself of her darkening thoughts, the Uchiha girl approached her brother, who was practicing at one of the private Uchiha training grounds near the apartment.

"Hey," Sasuke greeted her from the middle of a kata, "Come to spar?"

"No, we're going to be having a bit of a party to celebrate our official graduation, and you're coming."

"What? When?"

"A party, Sasu. In an hour, and you're gonna be there."

"Why do I have to be there? I don't want to hang out with the loser and Sakura."

"They're our teammates Sasuke," Aiko scolded, would her brother ever learn? "Plus it's not just them, Team 8 and 10 are coming as well."

"Why didn't you just invite the whole class to our apartment?"

"I would have, but they didn't all pass."

"I'm not going, and there is no way you can make me."

________________

"You got roped into this too, huh?" Shikamaru asked the glowering Uchiha boy, who nodded.

"Troublesome."

Sasuke sat at his spot at the table, watching Chouji and Naruto set up the food Chouji had brought from his family restaurant. So far only Team 10 and Naruto had arrived, but Aiko had assured him more would be coming.

'This sucks. I should be training.'

Shikamaru sat by him, in Aiko' seat, but he didn't make him move, he didn't feel like sitting next to Aiko today. Naruto was laughing loudly at a joke Chouji just told, while Ino chattered away on the couch in the nearby living room while Aiko listened patiently, inserting the appropriate comment here or there.