CHAPTER 7!!!

You strayed down yet another street looking for any sign of Kakashi. When you'd gotten back to you apartment he hadn't been at his yet. You even used your spare key to look inside and there was no sign of him. You felt responsible for him not making it home yet so you had ended up going on a mini man hunt, but that had been over an hour ago and your patience was reaching an end. You pulled out one of the few scrolls you carried around with you bit your thumb. They wouldn't be happy about being summoned for something so trivial, especially at this time of night, but quite frankly you didn't give a damn. Hopefully Kakashi's favourite would answer your summon since he'd probably be the fastest to find him. You slid your bleeding thumb along the paper and pressed it to the ground gently. You waited a moment and a small puff of smoke appeared before you. It cleared to reveal as small brown and black dog, "Good evening Pakkun." Pakkun, the ninja dog yawned and looked at you tiredly, "Good evening. I'm surprised to have you summoning me. Normally you summon Ditas." You straightened up and wrapped a light bandage around your thumb, "Yes well, Ditas isn't as familiar with Kakashi's scent as you." Pakkun had been yawning with his eyes closed, but when you said Kakashi's name he opened his eyes and tilted his head, "So your summons has to do with him? What has he done this time?" You sighed and pinched the bridge of your nose, "I was dumb and said something to make him upset, and him being the idiot he is, he wandered off somewhere while being drunk off his ass. I promised to get him home safely, but to do that I need to find him first. Can you track him down for me?" Pakkun stood up and shook, "Yeah I'll go find him. Wait here. I'll come back after I find him." With that Pakkun left you in the quiet little alley way.

You grabbed an old dairy crate that was left by a garbage bin and sat down on it. You didn't like the idea of sitting out in the open like this. Ever since you had been forced to kill your brother lots of people had started attacking you. They seemed to think that you had killed him in cold blood, and they intended to avenge him. None of them knew what had actually happened that day since it had been on an extremely classified mission and almost all of the details were forbidden to be spoken of. You sighed and squeezed your eyes shut.

~~~Flashback One Year~~~

*BOOM* *BOOM*

"We're sitting ducks here! We need to retreat!"

You looked over at the teammate that had spoken and shook your head, "No way! We're so close to our target! If we retreat we'll lose our only chance!" Another teammate darted over to your side and pulled off his painted mask that matched yours, "Ok what's the plan then Uta? If we don't get a break then we will lose our chance anyways" You looked at your twin brother, Usa. If it wasn't for the gender difference and element releases the two of you would be identical. You were water and lightning, he was fire and earth. You sighed and another paper bomb went off near your small hiding spot.

You brother put up an earth barrier to protect your team from the blast. You quickly picked up a stick and started drawing out the layout of the field in the soft soil at your feet. Your two teammates leaned in close. "Ok so we're here. We're facing approximately 13 opponents that were spaced out like this. Our target is in an old shed located behind a small waterfall this far past the enemy line. If Yamato and I attack at opposite ends, then that'll create an opening for you to get through and go for the target, Usa. As far as our information shows there aren't any other strong defences beyond the enemy line." Yamato shook his head, "Usa has information the rest of us don't have about this mission, so it's too risky sending him into the enemy's bunkhouse. I'll go in and retrieve the target and bring them back out. You two can create the opening."  You frowned, "But Usa's the fastest-" Usa cut you off, "I agree with Yamato. We don't exactly know what will be in store in there, and if you or I were to get captured then not only will this mission fail, but we'll have put the village in danger. Besides, Yamato is the only one that has the brute strength to break his way out if he gets captured." You sighed and accepted their alteration to your plan, "Let's get moving then." Your brother put his mask back on and burrowed into the ground, heading towards one end of the enemy line. You opened one of your small water bottles and used a jutsu to have its contents hover around your body. You nodded to Yamato before jumping out of your hiding spot and sprinting towards the end of the enemy line.

You made the water form into spear shapes and hurled them at a two of your opponents. They pierced their heads and instantly killed them. This managed to draw the attention of several others to you just as your brother broke out of the ground and began fighting his own opponents. You noticed that he had come up closer to the centre than you had planned. And he was drawing much more attention to him than you thought he would and within moments he had nearly 8 shinobi surrounding him. You were about to rush over to him when the three shinobi left came at your with their own powerful attacks. You saw Yamato make his move and he swiftly ran past the battle area. He'd better hurry, you'd underestimated the strength of these shinobi.

The battle had been going for several minutes and you had managed to take out two of your opponents, but you were out of weapons. They had some sort of body armour that made it difficult for weapons to pierce. You dodged another attack when you heard a horrifying sound. Your brother was screaming out in agony. You orders had been to kill as few people as possible, but in that moment you decided that those orders didn't matter anymore. You focused your chakra around your hands, creating blades with your chakra. You thrust forward and your chakra extended to pierce through the woman's head. You chakra pulled back to you and she dropped to the ground. You sprinted towards where you'd last seen your brother. There were only four shinobi left. You spread your fingers and aimed your hand at them. Your chakra shot forward and they all dropped like the woman had. You didn't even need to look for your brother, since you had always been able to sense his exact location throughout your life, no matter the distance. You ran to his side and you nearly retched at the sight you saw. There was a gaping, charred hole where the right side of his upper torso should be. There was blood everywhere. He should be dead, but as he reached his left hand up to you, you realized he wasn't. What a horrible jutsu, to make a death be inevitable, but lingering and torturous. You gripped his hand and knelt beside him. He forced a smile, "You...should see...your face." You gripped his hand harder and held it to your heart, "Oh Usa... You look terrible..." You knew he wouldn't want to see you crying and saying sad things. He'd always said that he wanted to die laughing, so no matter what you would try to make him smile in this moment.

He tried to chuckle, but it came out as nothing more than a weak hiss of air, "It probably looks worse than it feels...I can't really feel anything." You pushed some hair off of his forehead, "Well thank goodness for small kindnesses eh?" He nodded, but the movement made him flinch. "Uta...I'm going to die aren't I?" You nodded, "Yeah...yeah you are." He pulled your hand to his chest, over his heart, "Then I have a request." He traced an X over his heart and you realized what he wanted, "Usa no! I...I can't do that, not to you!" He tugged your hand, "Please Uta. I know I said I can't feel anything, but I can feel my life slowly leaking out of me. It...kinda sucks. I don't want to go like this. Please, help me." You looked into his grey eyes. They used to be sharp like steel, but now they looked dull like smoke. You nodded, "Ok Usa. I'll...I'll help you." A true smile tugged at his lips, "Thank you Uta. Transfer my memories before you do." You nodded and began to lean forward. "Hey Uta," you paused and looked at him, he pushed his nose up into a piggy nose, "Oink oink." You smiled and pushed your own nose up, "Oink oink." He smiled brightly. You leaned forward and pressed your forehead to his, touching the fingers of one of your hands to his temple. Your other hand laced fingers with his and rested on his chest, over his heart. The memory transfer only took a few seconds as you gained every memory he ever had in his life.

You could both tell when it was done. Usa gripped your hand tightly again, "I love you Uta. Always will. Be strong." You struggled to hold your tears back, "I love you too Usa. Find peace and save me a good spot." You quickly focused your chakra through your hand and pierced his heart. His body jolted from it, but you knew he was dead before he could feel anything. That was you specialty after, a painless, instant kill. You kissed his forehead and finally let a tear fall as you sat up and looked at his face. His eyes were closed and there was the slightest smile curving his lips. You touched his cheek, at least he'd died with a smile. Though you weren't sure you'd ever smile again. You could feel that he was gone. You had always been able to feel his presence throughout your life. Felt it like he was physically holding onto you. Now you felt nothing where you'd always felt him. You felt hollow and empty.

"What have you done?!" You snapped your head up and saw Yamato and your, now, prisoner. Yamato was looking at you with a look of horror. "I never thought you were heartless enough to kill your own brother! And for what? The information in his head?" You shook your head frantically, "No! That wasn't" "Save it Uta! I saw you do a memory transfer! You're sick!" Before you could utter another word Yamato took off, leaving you to deal with your brothers remains, as he no doubt was heading back to the village to give HIS report to the Hokage. You'd probably be named an S ranked criminal and be hunted down and killed, but you honestly didn't care about that. Actually at that moment death seemed like a rather pleasant option. 'Be strong.' You shook your head. You couldn't think like that. You'd promised your brother that you'd be strong for him. You quickly pulled his belongings from his body. The village was too far away for you to transport him home, so you'd have to destroy his body so that no one could defile it and try to use it against the village. After you finished preparing his body you did one last thing. You pulled his locket, the one that matched yours, from his neck. You then cut a lock of hair from his head and clipped it into the locket before securing it around your neck. You also cut a lock of hair from your head and placed it in his hand, "There, now we'll always be together..." You stepped back and used the only fire jutsu you knew well.

As his body finished burning and turned to ash you looked up to the sky, tears sliding down your face, "I'll be strong for you Usa. Always." With that you tied his mask to your hip and headed back to the village.

~~~End Flashback~~~

The memories of that day were as fresh as ever. You thumbed the two lockets around your neck. You still weren't used to the hollow feeling, to not feeling another person's existence at all times. You had been very fortunate that the Hokage had believed you without having Ibiki 'talk' to you. Yamato had obviously told some people what he thought had happened before the Hokage forbade it, hence why people thought that about you, and why they attacked you. And since you Hokage had decided to keep the details secret you hadn't really been able to correct it. Nor had Yamato. He'd been present when you'd given your own report, requested to be relieved of your duties as a shinobi and turned over your brother's belongings. The Hokage had allowed you to keep Usa's belongings, even his mask. Once Yamato heard what really happened he'd been repulsed by his own behaviour. He'd tried to make it up to you, but his face reminded you of that day, so you'd eventually told him that if he wanted to help you he'd stay away from you. After that he'd vanished, you didn't know where, but you also didn't ask.

You heard a noise coming from the entrance to the alley you were in. You opened your eyes and looked over, hoping to see either Pakkun or Kakashi. You frowned at who you did see. Anko. One of the last people you ever wanted to see. You and her used to be friends, until what had happened with your brother. You had gone to her after, hoping to seek comfort from her since she had also been close friends with your brother. However, when she saw you she had attacked you. She was one of the people that strongly believed what Yamato had said. That was the day that you had learned that she was in love with your brother, and she hated you for 'taking him from her'.

She had started to calm down after a while, but lately she's been acting cruel again, especially whenever she saw you around Kakashi. You had actually suspected for a while that she had developed an interest in Kakashi. You swallowed as she started walking towards you. She had a smile on her face that made you very nervous. "Oooooh Uta-chan! You look like a little abandoned puppy. Where's Kakashi?" She came to a stop in front of you. "Kakashi took off somewhere..." You watched her carefully, ready to dodge anything she might throw at you. She tilted her head, "Aww that's not very good behaviour from the guy that claimed to have confessed to you. Perhaps you should teach him how to behave properly..." her eyes locked on to you and her grin widened, "You know...like how you make the men in your writings behave."

(Oooooh snap! Looks like we know who went through your bag eh? This chapter was hard for me to write, especially the flashback about your brother. I have such a hard time writing sad stuff, so I was crying hard writing that.

BTW I actually ship Anko and Kakashi, just in case anyone is wondering why I made it be Anko.)