Edited 07/05/2020

Third Person's POV

Ashley leans back and places one hand on either side of Kiyumi's face, the younger twin still sobbing loudly. Ashley closes her eyes and smiles through her own tears, her hands shaking.

"I can't believe it's really you Kiyu" Ashley laughs happily, with Kiyumi clinging desperately to her sister's shirt. "I'm so happy. I've really missed you, you know."

"I-I've missed you s-so much!" Kiyumi bawls, her cheeks flushed pink and her dark eyes opening. "I th-thought I'd never s-see you again...."

Still smiling, Ashley wraps her arms around Kiyumi's shoulders and pulls the girl in for another hug, allowing her sister to cry into her own shoulder.

"This is like, crazy man" Keilor speaks up, his tail wagging lazily as he looks up at Ashley and Kiyumi through hooded eyes. "I totally missed seeing two Kiyu-chans all the time."

"It's good to see you again Keilor" Ashley grins down at the grey Wolf, reaching down to place one hand on his head, while keeping the other arm around her sister. "Thank you for looking after Kiyumi for all this time."

"It's totally been like, my pleasure man" Keilor responds, stretching his neck up to enjoy the pat. "So like, where's my main dude Ace? Is he still like, kicking around?"

"Woah, is that Ashley's sister?" a loud whisper comes from the doorway, causing everyone to look over.

"Shhhhh Naruto!" a female voice hisses, just as a head of blonde hair is yanked back into he hallway.

"Ow!" someone cries out, to which Ashlely can't help sighing heavily.

Trust Naruto and Sakura to blow it for everyone in a situation like this....

Everyone besides Ashley, Saffire and Fang is immediately on edge, with Kurai jumping down from the couch, her eyes wide. Shimei's eyes narrow slightly, his relaxed position suddenly more rigid and alert. Tsumetai begins to growl at the door, his ears laying back, as Atsui steps forwards with his hands balled into fists.

Chief Dashi eyes the door warily. Sirius' soldiers had never managed to infiltrate the Temple before, but that didn't mean it couldn't be done.

"Who's there?!" Atsui demands to know, as a worried Kiyumi ducks her head and clings to Ashley even tighter. "Don't make us come over there!"

"Atsui-chan will kill you all!" Tsumetai adds helpfully, to which Atsui can't help deadpanning.

"Did those soldiers follow you guys here Saffire?" Kurai asks urgently, clasping onto Shimei's hand.

"No way" Saffire scoffs, crossing her arms over her chest and rolling your eyes. "As if I'd be that stupid. You're all overreacting."

Seeing electricity beginning to spark around Atsui's hands, Ashley quickly releases her sister and waves her hands back and forth, sweat dropping.

"Wait, wait!" she exclaims. "You don't have to attack them! They're with me!"

"....You brought soldiers here Ley-chan?" Kurai asks, her expression growing serious.

"What?" Ashley asks incredulously. "No! What I mean is, the people who were supposed to be waiting quietly in the hallway are my friends. They're not Sirius' men."

"Yo what the heck?" Keilor asks, sounding extremely calm as he walks over and peers into the hallway. "There's like, a bunch of totally weird kids here. Oh and like, three not kids."

"Yeah" Ashley sighs raggedly, "Those are my friends..."

"Oh" Keilor realises, blinking, before stepping backwards. "Then like, totally come on in. I guess you're kind of like, welcome or something. Or not. I can't actually like, tell what's going on right now. But you can totally come in."

Ashley watches with a faint smile on her face as all of the Leaf Ninja slowly walk into the room. Naruto rubs the back of his head and grins sheepishly at Ashley, while an annoyed Sakura sticks close behind him, her annoyance soon disappearing at the sight of the other Minami Clan members. At the sight of Tamashi, a rather large Wolf, Kiba scoops Akamaru up into his arms.

Everyone is silent as the Leaf Ninja file into the room and come to a stop, all of the Minami staring at them intently. An uncertain and uncomfortable tension fills the room, with Atsui looking more and more irritated.

"Ugh, would you guys all relax already?" Saffire complains, running a hand down her face. "These Leaf Ninja couldn't hurt anyone if they tried."

"What?!" Kiba demands to know, immediately irritated by Saffire's comment. "Didn't I basically knock you out with one hit earlier?!"

"...I don't remember that" Saffire sniffs, turning her head away stubbornly.

"Yeah, probably because of the concussion" Kiba mocks, also turning away.

"You attacked her?" Atsui growls, electricity sparking around his hands again.

Before Kiba can even give an answer, the green haired Minami punches a fist in his direction, sending a large ball of crackling electricity straight towards Kiba.

Ashley immediately slides in front of the group of Leaf Ninja however, her arms outstretched. The speedy ball of electricity slowly comes to a stop in front of Ashley's fingers, much to the shock of the other Minami.

"I see...." Chief Dashi murmurs, smiling to himself as she and Atsui both pause at the older man's quiet interruption. "So you chose electricity then Ashley-chan?"

"Huh?" the blonde asks, confused. "No I-"

"Wait, wait, wait" Saffire interrupts, raising her hands up. "How are you doing that?"

".....With my Katsuryoku?" Ashley answers, so puzzled that she can't help making it sound as if she is asking a question.

"Well duh" Saffire teases, shaking her head. "What I mean is, you were controlling water when we fought last time. And you brought up an earth wall from the ground."

"Yeah?" Ashley prompts, her eyes dropping to the ball of electricity now. Holding it there was beginning to make Ashley's arms feel tired. "And?"

"And?" Saffire repeats, skeptical. "How in the hell are you controlling water, earth and now electricity as well?!"

Realisation suddenly dawns on Ashley, finally understanding Saffire's confusion. Before she answers however, Ashley quickly flings the ball of electricity back at Atsui, hitting him square in the chest.

He barely bats an eyelid as the electricity sparks across his chest and down his arms, before dissipating completely. As he could control it, pure electricity didn't affect his body at all.

"I never had the chance to focus on one element" Ashley explains to the Minami Clan members, who all look intrigued now. "My uh......Sensei at the time wanted me to develop my Kekkei Genkai to it's fullest potential. So I had to learn how to control as many elements as I could."

All of the other Minami stare in disbelief, before looking to their Chief.

"But only the Chief of the Land of Ambience is supposed to learn how to use all of the elements" Kurai says slowly.

Chief Dashi watches Ashley grow increasingly more uncomfortable through half closed eyes, rubbing his chin in thought. Ashley knew that Minami children were expected to choose one element and become a master of it. He remembered well that his oldest granddaughter had struggled to choose her element as a child, so he would never have expected her to choose all of them. That was an immense task for one person to achieve. Controlling one element was hard enough and even he, Chief of the Land of Ambience, still struggled to perfect his use of all of the elements.

"W-Well, I mean" Ashley stumbles over her words, beginning to panic that she has to speak of her past, "It was pretty irregular circumstances you know, so....uh...."

"What elements have you mastered?" Chief Dashi interrupts, causing Ashley to look over at him and blink a few times.

"Mastered?" the girl repeats. "Well, none of them obviously. It takes years to-"

"What elements can you control then?" the Chief cuts Ashley off again, his questions confusing her.

"......Just the basic ones" Ashley explains after a pause. "Water, wind, fire, earth and electricity. I'm not very experienced with fire and electricity though. They're hard."

"Not many people pick wild elements like fire or electricity because of their difficulty to control" Chief Dashi explains, nodding his head. Inwardly, the man is surprised that his Granddaughter can already use five elements, no matter the skill level. "Those elements have to come naturally, as they do for people like Shimei and Atsui."

Ashley glances between a smug look Atsui and the calmly smiling Shimei, her arms crossed over her chest. She knew Atsui could control electricity, so that must mean that Shimei could control fire.

"Well" Ashley scoffs, "They've had you to train them. I've had to learn it all on my own. My uh....My teacher at the time didn't know a lot about our Kekkei Genkai, so he wasn't any help."

"Lucky your teacher now is so wise" Kakashi says jokingly, stepping forwards and sending Ashley a wink.

All of the other Minami look to Kakashi with a mixture of suspicion and curiosity on their faces, while Ashley just heaves a sigh of relief and smiles gratefully at the Jonin.

"....Your teacher?" Kiyumi asks quietly, clinging to the back of Ashley's shirt and peering over her shoulder. She looks up at Kakashi uncertainly, her dark eyes timid and rather doll like.

"Yeah, this is Kakashi Sensei" Ashley introduces to her fellow clan members, waving her hand towards him. "He's kind of the best."

Kakashi nods politely at all of the Minami, sweat dropping when they remain silent, continuing to stare at him.

"These are my teammates" Ashley continues quickly, not wanting any of her friends to pick a fight again. "The blonde is Naruto, this is Sakura and the guy standing with his arms crossed is Sasuke."

"H-Hello" Sakura greets nervously, bowing her head. Though she didn't really like Saffire, Sakura didn't want to make a bad impression on Ashley's Clan members. They were clearly important to her and Sakura wanted to get along.

"Hee...." Naruto grins brightly, closing his eyes and placing one hand behind his head. "Naruto Uzumaki that is, and don't any of you forget it!"

Saffire grins right back at Naruto, her eyes sparkling. Kurai sees this look on the taller girl's face and places one hand over her mouth, giggling in a knowing way.

She'd never seen Saffire look at a boy like that before. While Naruto was nothing compared to her Shimei, the younger boy was still quite cute.

".....Sasuke?" Kiyumi repeats, surprise in her soft voice. She leans around Ashley to get a good look at the raven haired boy.

"I'm Kurenai" the Kunoichi at the back of the group speaks up, smiling kindly, before gesturing towards three of the Genin in the group. "And I'm the Sensei of Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuga."

"And this is Akamaru!" Kiba adds, using his thumb to point at the small puppy now sitting on top of his head.

"Arf!" Akamaru greets everyone, his tail wagging.

"Ahh......how sweet" Kiyumi breathes, her eyes sparkling at the sight of Akamaru. She'd been so focused on Sasuke that she hadn't even seen the puppy climb onto Kiba's head.

"What a cute puppy!" Kurai squeals, clasping her hands together under his chin.

Kiba smirks proudly, while Shino merely raises his hand in a wave and Hinata hurriedly bows.

"H-Hello e-everyone!" she says shyly, her face turning slightly red as she fidgets with the hem of her jacket.

"I'm Asuma Sarutobi" the last Jonin in the room adds, dropping one hand down on the head of a grinning Choji, "And this is my team. Choji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara and Ino Yamanaka."

"Yo!" Choji greets the Minami crowd, one hand raised to his forehead in a salute.

"......Hey" Shikamaru responds unenthusiastically, hands shoved into his pockets. While it was admittedly kind of cool to meet other members of Ashley's Clan, greetings like this were so tedious...

"It's nice to meet all of you" Ino adds sweetly, twirling her hair around her fingers and batting her eyelashes a little.

She couldn't believe how good looking Shimei and Atsui were. They were almost as handsome as Sasuke!

Kurai slides down from the chair she had been sitting in and clasps her hands in front of her, before closing her eyes and bowing deeply.

"It's nice to meet you all" she says kindly, raising her head to regard the Leaf Ninja with a smile. "My name is Kurai and this is my Guardian Tamashi."

The large Wolf nods his head and bares his fangs in a grin, something that causes many of the Genin to sweat drop.

"This is my boyfriend" Kurai adds pointedly, smiling sweetly at the other girls, "Shimei."

The handsome red head sends everyone a gentle closed eye smile, before pulling an apple out of nowhere and biting into it.

"You're all lucky enough to know me and Fang already" Saffire states, winking at the group. Fang, sitting beside Saffire, raises one paw in a friendly wave.

"Atsui" the green haired Minami points to himself with his thumb, wanting to get the introductions over with, "And that's-"

"I'm Tsumetai!" the small boy exclaims, scampering up Ashley's leg and sitting on top of her head, mimicking Akamaru. "But you can call me Tai-chan! All my friends call me that and even though we just met, you're all Ley-chan's friends which means you can be my friends too, but you'll have to be really, super nice to me if you wanna-"

"He talks too much" Atsui interjects, stalking over to Ashley and slapping a hand over Tsumetai's mouth, before pulling the chibi down onto his shoulder.

Smiling to herself, Ashley glances at Kiyumi over her shoulder and steps to the side. The younger of the twins glances down at the floor shyly, one hand still holding the back of Ashley's shirt.

".....I'm Kiyumi" she introduces herself quietly, looking up through her lashes. "I'm Ashley-chan's little sister..."

"You guys are like mirror images!" Sakura can't help blurting out, before feeling embarrassed and rubbing the back of her head. "W-Well, aside from your eye colour."

"That kind of happens when you're twins" Ashley teases Sakura, before grinning back at her sister. "I'm the older one, but only by a few minutes."

Kiyumi nods in agreement, smiling to herself, before pointing to the grey Wolf beside her.

"This is Keilor" she concludes. "He's my Guardian."

"What's like, up you guys?" the Wolf asks, tilting his head up in greeting.

"And I am Dashi Minami" the tall, older man beside Ashley and Kiyumi finishes the introductions, smiling warmly down at his granddaughters. "I am the Chief of the Land of Ambience and I'm also Ashley and Kiyumi's Grandfather. Welcome to our island, even though you've already been here for some time now. I apologise that we couldn't greet you properly."

"It's an honour to meet you sir" Kakashi says sincerely. "I can only speak for myself, but I know we're all happy to be able to meet with Ashley's family like this."

Ashley feels a warmth in her heart as Kakashi smiles at her, his visible eye hooded and shining. Just by the tone of his voice, Ashley could tell how genuinely happy he was for her right now.

"And it's a pleasure to meet the people who have taken care of our Ashley all this time" Chief Dashi responds just as sincerely. "Our home is your home as well."

"If this is your island" Shikamaru wonders out loud, "Then why are you all stuck hiding in this temple?"

"Yeah" Naruto adds, nodding wisely, as if he had been the one to ask the question. "Why's that Sirius guy talkin like he's the leader of this place?"

The faces of all of the Minami darken, with some of them silently baring their teeth at the mention of Sirius' name.

"That bastard ain't no leader" Atsui spits out" He's just a-"

"Hey, I don't mean to like, interrupt before things get totally heated or anything" Keilor interjects, tilting his head to the side and gazing at Ashley sleepily, "But where's my man Ace at? Is he still like, kickin or what?"

"Ace?" Ashley repeats, blinking a few times. "Well, yeah, of course he is! I totally forgot, let me summon him! He's gonna be so excited to see you all..."

"Summon?" Kurai repeats, a question mark appearing above her head as Ashley pulls out a large scroll and bites her thumb.

"Summoning Jutsu!" Ashley cries, before she is suddenly enveloped in a cloud of smoke.

"...I was in the middle of a nap....." a deep voice complains. "I hope this is important..."

"Yayyyy we've been summoned!" a far more excited voice cheers. "I love being summoned. Teleporting is fun. It makes my toes feel all tingly!"

"I doubt that's a good thing kid...."

"Milady" Ace says with a nod, looking to his partner as the smoke begins to clear. "I hope you're doing-"

"Fang?!" Rei abruptly exclaims, her eyes widening at the side of the black furred Wolf.

"Huh?" Fang responds, before her ears prick up and she bounces to her feet. "Rei?!"

The two Wolves immediately run for each other and stop just before colliding, their eyes shining and their tails wagging furiously.

"I can't believe it!" Rei cries, rubbing her cheek against the other Wolf. "It's really you!"

"I'm so shocked to see you Rei!" Fang barks excitedly. "What are you doing here? What are you doing with Ashley? How can she summon you like this?....What is going on?!"

"Woah, what is going on?" Saffire enquires, just as confused as everyone else in the room. "Fang, how do you two know......Wait a second. Rei......I remember you mentioning that name before......."

"Rei is my sister!" Fang announces gleefully, looking back to her partner, as Rei turns to Ashley, her lavender eyes glittering.

"Oh Milady" she coos,"I'm so happy. Are we back in the Land of Ambience?"

Still a bit surprised by the revelation that Rei has a sister, Ashley merely nods, only to break into a smile as Rei laughs giddily. She and Fang turn back to each other, tails wagging as they reacquaint themselves, only for Keilor to slide into Ace's view.

The navy Wolf glances down, unimpressed, only to see Keilor lying on his back. His tongue hanging out the side of his mouth.

"Ace my man" Keilor chuckles, "That is one totally sick eye patch."

Ace stares down at the grey Wolf for a few more seconds, before he seems to realise who he is staring at. His visible eye widens and he rises to his feet, only for Keilor to roll over and tilt his head.

Ace swiftly turns to look at Ashley, before his gaze then lands on the pretty blonde standing behind her.

"...M-Mistress Kiyumi...." he trails off, heart thudding in his chest as the girl gives him a tiny wave and a smile."

"Hello Ace" she says softly. "...I've missed you."

"Then....." Ace pauses again, slowly turning his head back to look at the lean, grey Wolf now sitting before him. "....Keilor?"

"It's been a long time man" Keilor replies, grinning as his tongue lolls from the side of his mouth. "You totally got like, super huge dude. I look like, uber tiny next to you."

Ace's eye slowly falls back into its usual hooded state, a faint smile tugging at the Wolf's lips. He clears his throat and shakes his head, not allowing his joy to become visible.

"You have not changed at all my friend" he states. "I am glad to see you."

"Same here man" Keilor chuckles again, blue eyes wavering slightly. "......Same here."

"I don't remember any of you people" Kai informs everyone rudely, not overly caring that he is back home. He sits with his back hunched and his head lowered, his narrowed eyes glowering at everyone in the room.

Fang, Tsumetai and Tamashi all sweat drop, unsure of the unfriendly tone in Kai's voice and his tense body language. After only a few seconds, he had already proven himself someone to be wary of.

Jet remains silent, merely staring across the room with wide eyes, as Chi bounces around excitedly.

"Oh boy, oh boy!" he barks. "New friends! I can't wait to introduce you all to Jet-chan, but you hafta remember, he's my friend! So none of you can have him. I'll let you sit kind of close to him though and you can definitely talk to him, but don't look at him or anything. You absolutely can't look at him!"

As Chi raves on and on about being friends with Jet, Tsumetai stares hard at the caramel coloured Wolf, before dropping down from Atsui's shoulder. He walks over to Chi and taps him on the shoulder, before raising his tiny hand and grinning brightly.

"Chi-chan" the chibi greets. "I am Tai-chan. Do you remember me?"

"Hmmmm....." Chi scrunches up his face in deep thought and falls silent for a few moments, studying Tsumetai carefully. "...........Nope! Not at all! Oh well!"

Tsumetai sweat drops at this, rubbing the back of his neck as Chi turns around again, trying to talk to Jet. Tsumetai taps Chi on the shoulder again, to which the pup whirls around.

"Hi Tai-chan!" Chi says excitedly, tail wagging a mile a minute. "Do you wanna talk to Jet-chan with me? You can't look at him but here, you can sit this far away from him and talk. You gotta close your eyes though okay?"

"Okay" Tsumetai agrees, sitting down obediently, his tail also wagging speedily as he closes his eyes. "Hello Jet-chan, whoever you are. We are friends now but I can't look at your or I'll die. Chi-chan told me so."

"That's right" Chi confirms seriously, nodding like a wise old man. "If you look at him, our friendship power will make you burst into flame and you'll die!"

"Yes yes" Tsumetai agrees again. "Chi-chan is right. Chi-chan is also my little brother, so I have to be respectful and not look at his friend now. Plus, I don't want to be melted by friendship fire. Ouchie, ouch, ouch!"

"Ooooo Chi has a brother?" the caramel Wolf asks enthusiastically, before bouncing up and down a few times. "How exciting Tai-chan! Did you hear that Jet-chan? Chi has a big brother! He is smaller than me but he is my biggest brother ever!"

"You guys are making me feel tired" Atsui sighs heavily. "I'm not even surprised that they're related. They're exactly the same...."

Ashley sweat drops at the silliness of the two small Wolves, though she too is unsurprised by Tsumetai's proclamation. She isn't surprised by Chi's immediate acceptance of the announcement either, despite her young Wolf clearly having no memory of Tsumetai. He had only been a tiny puppy when he had been taken from the Land of Ambience, so it made sense that he wouldn't remember his family.

"Jet-chan?" Chi repeats, jumping up and waving a paw to try and get the larger Wolf's attention. "Jet-chan? Heyyyy Jet-chan?......Jet-chan, Jet-chan, Jet-chan, Jet-chan, Jet-cha-"

Chi pauses as Jet finally rises to his feet and steps over him, his golden eyes wide as he slowly makes his way across the room. Shimei stares up at Jet as the Wolf looms over him, his fuchsia eyes also wide.

"Jet-chan?" Chi asks, confused.

".......Guardian" Shimei finally says in a quiet voice, a word that immediately causes Ashley's heart to wrench.

Ears laid back, Jet lies down at Shimei's feet and closes his eyes as the red head pats his gently, a warm smile on his face.

Ashley watches on in dismay at the sweet scene before her, while all of the other Minami grin happily, excited to see Shimei and Jet reunited.

Chi also stares at Jet and Shimei, head tilted to the side. With a perplexed look on his face, he turns back to Ashley.

"Lady Ashley-chan?" he asks quietly. "Who is that?"

".......Looks like Jet is...." Ashley pauses for a second, wanting to keep her voice steady. "Looks like Jet is Shimei's Guardian."

"........Oh."

His ears drooping, Chi looks back to Jet and Shimei with watery eyes and a painful feeling in his chest. The pup may have been uneducated in the ways of a Guardian, seeing as he'd been too young for the tradition, but Chi understood exactly what was happening here.

He was going to lose Jet. His very best friend in the whole world.

Seeing the look on Chi's face, Rei steps away from her sister and sits down behind him. Keeping Chi nestled between her front paws, Rei lies down and nuzzles the young pup comfortingly.

Jet glances back over his shoulder, feeling conflicted as he takes in the heart broken expression on Chi's face and the pained look on Ashley's. He wanted to be able to keep being there for them both but......

He had a duty to fulfil.

"Milady" Jet begins, only for Ashley to shake her head.

"I'll try to get rid of your contract" the blonde answers stiffly, something that causes Jet to sigh internally.

"....You have my thanks" he responds after a few moments of silence.

"Ohhh, this is so lovely!" Kurai smiles as she claps her hands, before kneeling down to pet Jet as well. "I'm so happy that you can both be together again! Shimei-kun has missed you terribly!"

"...I see" is Jet's only response, as his eyes linger on Ashley's face.

While the other Minami seem to be happy, the Leaf Ninja are all left feeling somewhat confused, not really sure as to what is happening.

What they all can clearly understand however, is that Ashley and her Wolves do not share the joy of the other Minami Clan members.

"So, uh" Shikamaru clears his throat, hoping to break the strange tension that Ashley seems to be feeling. "Back to my earlier question. What exactly is going on around here?"

"Those guys down in the Village are really painting all of you out to be murderous villains you know" Ino adds, crossing her arms and raising one eyebrow. "I'm kinda not really getting that feeling from you guys though."

The Minami all exchange angry looks with each other, before Atsui rolls his eyes and scoffs.

"Of course they're trying to paint us out to be the bad guys" he states gruffly. "They want us gone."

"Obviously they hired you Leaf Ninja to try and help them get rid of us" Fang sighs, ears lying back.

"Why would they want to kill you guys off if you haven't done anything?" Asuma inquires.

"And why are they saying so many horrible things about your Clan?" Sakura can't help asking. Why would Sirius have said such awful things if they weren't true?

Seeing that Atsui has opened his mouth again, Chief Dashi holds up one hand to stop him.

"To save Atsui, or any of the others, going off on a tangent" he smiles faintly, though it seems a little forced, "I will answer that question. First of all, what exactly did Sirius say about our Clan?"

"He said we were vicious and a people of war" Ashley recalls in a sharp tone, remembering every word Sirius had spoken. "Apparently we were greedy and arrogant, and our arrogance led to us becoming extinct."

"That bastard" Atsui growls, his hands shaking as the curl into tight fists. "What would he even know about our Clan?"

"He only learned of our Clan after meeting us" Saffire informs everyone in a flat tone. "I guess he decided to twist the story that the Chief told him."

"Nothing of our own doing led to the slaughter of our Clan" Chief Dashi explains, a hard look in his eyes. "Our island was suddenly attacked and we were ambushed by monsters. Surely Ashley has told you all the truth of the matter before?"

Ashley's hard gaze is replaced by an uncomfortable one, the girl raising her eyes as her friends all look to her curiously.

"Actually......" Naruto begins slowly, pursing his lips. "Now that I think about it, Ashley-chan never tells us anything about her family. We didn't even know she had a Clan until that Sirius guy said it."

"What?!" Saffire exclaims angrily, the look on her face causing Ashley to smile guiltily. "How could you never tell them about us?!"

"Well......I didn't like any of them at first" Ashley laughs sheepishly, though this does nothing to calm Saffire's annoyance. "I didn't want to tell them anything. And then even when I didn't hate them anymore, it was......Well, it just wasn't something I wanted to talk about, okay? You should understand, it's a painful memory...."

Saffire folds her arms over her chest and huffs, turning away from Ashley. While she could understand why the blonde found it hard to talk about, it still seemed kind of stupid that she'd never told her new friends about her Clan.

"Ashley-chan m-mentioned something a-about your C-Clan being attacked" Hinata stutters, nervous to have so many eyes on her as she speaks. "B-Before she ran a-away....."

"We were attacked" Atsui reiterates Dashi's earlier words. "Literally by monsters. They killed everyone. Women, children, babies, wolves. Everyone".

"I only managed to rescue the few that you see in front of you today" Chief Dashi continues, sadness creeping into his voice. "There were more but.........Aeri Minami, my daughter, had been defending people in the Village, but when I told her that I was taking the children I'd rescued to our Temple to protect them, she immediately tried to go back to get her own children. But then, two strange men showed up. Well, one was more of a boy than a man, and the other was......Well, was he a man? Anyway, I digress. They threatened Aeri with something and she lied to them, and said she would take them to what they wanted. They soon realised she was lying however and so, they attacked her. My daughter would not allow me to assist, she demanded that I take the children to safety."

".....That's when Kiyu and I found Mother" Ashley informs everyone, her eyes trained on the ground. "She was hurt really badly, but even when they tried to attack us, she wouldn't let them."

Kiyumi stares at her sister in silence, an unpleasant memory that had been forever in the back of her mind resurfacing.

"They wanted Ashley-chan" she remembers quietly, only to jump with fright when Ashley whirls around.

"Shhh!" the girl hisses urgently, one finger placed in front of her lips. She shakes her head from side to side, eyes wide with panic.

"But-"

"No" Ashley whispers frantically, clinging onto Kiyumi's shoulders now.

"They wanted you?" Kiba questions, his brows furrowing as an extremely uncomfortable Ashley turns back around. "Why?"

"Th-They didn't" the blonde girl laughs, rubbing the back of her neck and trying to laugh the question off. "Kiyu must be remembering incorrectly."

Kakashi stares intently at Ashley, piecing tiny fragments of information together in his head to understand what had happened. Back when Orochimaru had come for Sasuke and Kakashi had shielded Ashley from the man, she had been surprisingly open and honest with him about her past. But this was all new, and it was all starting to fall into place.

Ashley had said that before Orochimaru went after Sasuke's Sharingan, he had taken her in to try and get hers. She had been somewhat of a prisoner. While Ashley had never spoken of anything before she went to Orochimaru, Kakashi was now forming a theory.

Kiyumi had just said that these two people were after Ashley, while Chief Dashi had mentioned one attacker being a man, or somewhat of a man, and the other being a boy. If they had specifically come to the island for Ashley, and it had been a man and a boy......

Six years ago, Orochimaru's apprentice, Kabuto, wouldn't have been any older than thirteen or fourteen. And seeing as Ashley had been with Orochimaru for only a few years, Kakashi could only deduce that it had been Orochimaru and Kabuto that had come for Ashley.

He feels a pang in his chest at the thought. A very young Ashley, seeing her Clan murdered by madmen, only to be ripped from that home and forced to live with and train under the man that had killed her family.

While living with Orochimaru would have been bad enough on its own, to have to do so after he slaughtered your whole Clan.....Kakashi couldn't imagine the pain and trauma that must have caused such a young child.

'No wonder she was so unpleasant when we first met her' Kakashi thinks to himself, holding in a deep sigh.

Kiyumi frowns slightly to herself, unsure as to why Ashley wants to keep that part of the story a secret. No one in the Village had known that Ashley possessed the Sharingan and Kiyumi and Aeri had only found out in that moment that she did. Why was she so secretive about it, even now?

"That aside" Chief Dashi continues, massaging the bridge of his nose, "My daughter sacrificed herself to kill those men and save the children I had managed to take to the Temple. I had no idea that Ashley had survived though."

Ashley stares at the floor without blinking, purposefully ignoring her Grandfather. She didn't want to explain to her Chief that those attackers had not only survived, but had taken her prisoner and kept her for almost five years. And she definitely didn't want to tell Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke that she had been with Orochimaru all that time.

On top of all that, Kiyumi has almost spilled the beans about Ashley possessing the Sharingan, and she really didn't want Sasuke to know about that. She hadn't wanted anything to do with Sasuke at first but now, after all this time, it seemed strange to just spring on the Uchiha that she and he were in fact related.

He'd probably be mad. If he even believed her.

"So what actually happened is nothing like the story that Sirius told" Kurenai heaves a sigh, hands on her hips. "Why would he lie about such a terrible thing?"

"Simple really" Chief Dashi answers. "We're in the way. It was only two years ago that those people sailed over here from the Land of Lightning. We didn't know at the time that they were the kind that hated their Raikage, but we found out later that it turned out to be the case. It was just their rotten luck that none of them were strong enough to defeat the Raikage, so instead of trying to fight, they simply ran away."

"We were super nice to them at first" Saffire grumbles, rolling her eyes as she remembers greeting the newcomers for the first time. "Well, how stupid were we? After they learned that this was our Clan's land and that the Chief was the Leader around here, Sirius decided that he didn't like that and demanded that his soldiers kill us off. They managed to kill two of us and a Guardian, before we disappeared into the mountains. It's been like this almost right from the time they all got here."

"Why don't they just come up here to attack the Temple?" Shikamaru asks.

"They've tried it before" Kurai speaks up, brows creased with worry, "But the Temple only has one entry and is incredibly difficult to break through. We can defend it quite easily. They send search parties out all the time though, to try and find us when we do leave the Temple."

"They said that you've killed their civilians before" Asuma reminds everyone, to which the Minami all send him scornful looks.

"We've never killed anyone" Atsui spits. "Although they'd deserve it!"

"We steal their food sometimes, yeah" Saffire admits with a careless shrug, "And we defend ourselves if they attack, but we've never killed any of their people. Wouldn't surprise me if Sirius was killing his own men and blaming it on us though. He's a pig."

".....They've killed Minami before?" Ashley asks, her voice low and her face stony.

"Minami that survived the whole Clan slaughter" Saffire confirms seriously, looking her best friend in the eyes. "One of them was only ten years old."

Ashley's hands curl up into fists, her arms trembling with anger. She raises her head and glares at Kakashi, fire burning in her eyes.

"I'm quitting this stupid mission Kakashi Sensei" she announces firmly. "My new mission is to kill Sirius."

Rewriting this story is so tedious D:

But it's definitely worth it to not cringe every time I look at it lol.