Inevitable
Chapter 5

A month filled with hard work, team building exercises andeasily-completed missions later, Amejisuto woke up to replace Mikoto leaning overher bed, staring at her. She held back the urge to scream and sat up with aforced smile. "Good morning, Lady Mikoto, what brings you to myroom?"

"Happy birthday, Amejisuto! Time to get you all dressedup! I'm going to teach you the Uchiha birthday traditions," the older womanchirped, holding up a plain yellow kimono with red butterflies.

"Alright, but can I just take my usual showerfirst?" Amejisuto yawned, sitting up.

"Nope, we're going to the spa and we can bathe there.That's one of the traditions! Well, it's that the birthday child and the samegendered parent go to a relaxing place," Mikoto said cheerfully, pullingback the silky purple blankets and pretty much dragging the young girl out ofher bed, quickly shoving her into the garment.

Thankfully, the younger female was able to steal an extraminute to brush her hair well enough that she didn’t have a bird’s nest on herhead. Amejisuto felt slightly winded as Mikoto dragged her through the large houseto the kitchen to bid the stunned males, who were in the middle of eating,goodbye.

Amejisuto glared at the boys as Sasuke started snickering.Itachi only chuckled but also gave her a look of sympathy. He knew he couldn't doanything to help when his mom was excited like this.

Mikoto and her victim arrived at the spa and bath house andwere welcomed in instantly due to a reservation. Once they were showered and inthe bath, things were finally explained in a bit more detail. "I never goto do these things since I married into the Uchiha clan, and as you know, Ionly have sons," the monarch grinned. "You are the closest thing to adaughter to me right now, so I decided that we should do this for yourbirthday."

Amejisuto was slightly dazed and still half asleep, eventhough she had been pulled around for the past twenty minutes of being awake,but she was also flattered that she was considered a daughter. "Are thereany other birthday traditions I should know about?"

"Well, there’s always the normal gift-giving, but I wastold that there's a specific thing that Uchihas and their apprentices have todo on whoever’s birthday, since it’s a rare and special circumstance. I don'tknow all the details, but generally, you have to go on a special mission for aweek," she informed.

"That sounds fun. More bonding time with my favoriteteacher," Amejisuto smiled, starting to wonder where the special missionwould take them. She enjoyed going to different lands, even if it was just forimportant missions that required full focus.

Mikoto grinned, knowing the girl well enough already topredict what she was thinking about. However, this was to be a day ofrelaxation, and she decided that any more talk of missions were the opposite ofthat. "Any Ishi clan traditions that we should be aware of?" shechanged the focus.

"Well, since my clan is mainly made up of masters ofnature, we usually just sit back and enjoy the elements, but it isn’t exactly atradition. I’m planning on visiting my mother and cousin."

They both grew quiet and enjoyed the soak before a worker droppedby and brought them to the set up spa room for different treatments. It was agirl's day out paradise filled with mud baths, wraps, massages and otherrelaxing things. Amejisuto wasn't the biggest fan of those types of things, butshe found herself enjoying how refreshed she felt once it was done. Herfavorite part was the massages, of course. Ninja tended to get extremely stiffand gain many knots, no matter how much they stretched.

A few hours passed and the females were walking back totheir home, laughing at stories that Mikoto told about Sasuke and Itachi whenthey were younger. Embarrassing stories. "Seriously? He cut those lines on his face with a kunai? And I'm supposed to think he's a wiseshinobi," the brunette laughed after the older woman told a story abouther oldest son.

"Well, he was only three and wanted to look like awarrior with battle scars," Mikoto giggled. They got back in the house andthe Uchihas, Team Seven, Team Guy, Sora and Sirami were all waiting in the dojoto surprise her.

"Happy beginning of the last year of true youth, thoughyou will always have youth on your side, just a different kind of youthfulness!"Rock Lee and Guy sensei started crying randomly and were ushered into a cornerby their teammates, Neji and Tenten, so they could cry out their weirdness.

"Happy birthday, Ameji," Itachi smiled. Everyonejoined in, giving hugs and good wishes. Not too long after the rounds of hugswere finished, she was pressured to hurry up and open the presents. She got aCD from Sakura, a ramen coupon from Naruto, a dark blue kunai knife with anUchiha crest on it from Sasuke, the original three Icha-Icha books fromKakashi, who in turn got glared at by a lot of other guests, and a greenleotard from Lee and Guy. Tenten got her a metal fan for wind users, and Nejigave a scroll for techniques to use against genjutsu.

Sora smirked while giving her a small book filled with 'getout of bet free as long as you admit I'm right' coupons, and Sirami gave ashort scroll of high level techniques for the elite members of the Ishi clan. Lee and Guy returned to their own little worldwhere sunsets never ended, and neither did the waterfalls of tears.

"And what about my brother? The great sensei hasn'tforgotten a gift for his favorite pupil, has he?" Sasuke teased.

"I'm going to give it to her at the end of the traditionallygiven mission," the older raven replied.

The birthday girl inched close to her cousin. "HeySora, it's been a month and I haven't felt anything towards any Uchihayet," she bragged.

"Have you ever even liked anyone before?" Soraasked.

"Psh, yah. I liked Kiba when I was eight," Amejisutocrossed her arms.

"That... Is... Pathetic..." Sora laughed."You probably don't even know what it feels like.

"Oh shut up."

"Hey Ameji! Are you going to celebrate with birthdayramen?" Naruto shouted.

"Naruto, I think she has to prepare for the missionItachi was just talking about, so we should leave. It was a nice small partythough," Sakura dragged her teammate out by the ear. Kakashi waved and disappearedin a cloud of smoke. The other guests soon left too, leaving the Uchiha familyand the Ishi.

"Itachi, Amejisuto, we’ve already arranged the mission,"Fugaku entered the dojo. "It will take around a week, and it's A-ranked."

"What will we be doing?" Itachi inquired, clearingaway a few stray ribbons and tissue paper strands.

"You will be undercover as a young couple in Sunagakure.Apparently the Kazekage requested assistance from someone in Konoha to trackdown an S ranked criminal and bring him to Suna. He should be near the borderin the town Airin. You must bring him back to Konoha and he will be dealt withby others," he assigned.

"If he's an S rank criminal why is it an A rankedmission?" Amejisuto asked, packing her gifts in a big birthday bag.

"You two are in the higher ranks, and you have a week.Just take him back here for the intelligence division when you capture him."

"Yes, father," Itachi bowed and Amejisuto followedhis lead. They left to pack lightly and set out later that day.

Once they were out of sight, Mikoto started panicking."What if this mission doesn't bring them closer together?"

"The Hokage has assured me that this mission is perfectfor that. The man they're tracking down always uses a certain jutsu to makethings more... Interesting," Fugaku assured.

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Deidara and Sasori started to pack for their mission toSuna. It was still another week until they left, but Sasori would complain ifthey wasted any time when they needed to leave. He wasn't exactly the mostpatient person, and Deidara didn't feel like being jabbed with a poisonedweapon, being left in pain until he'd be almost dead after three days, thenstabbed harshly with an antidote. He shuddered at the thought.

"So which one of us fights the great eighteen year oldKazekage, yeah?" the blonde asked as he shoved globs of detonating clayinto small pouches.

"You will. My puppets will be crushed if I fighthim," Sasori sighed. "You better make it quick though. I hatewaiting."

"Yah yah, I know, you only mention that six billiontimes a week. I bet you don't want to fight him because he's the leader of thevillage you ran away from and you're scared to face your past, yeah."

The redhead growled and pulled out a poison-tipped kunai,smirking at the fear in his partner's eyes. "Sorry, I missed that. Whatwere you saying?"

"Um... That I'lltake care of the one tail and you should set up traps, yeah?"

"That's what I thought."

"I'll make the fight quick. Sand is no match for mybeautiful art! Yeah!"

"Whatever, just get it done before I getimpatient."

Deidara pouted at his partner's coldness. "You're sodemanding, Sasori. Yeah."

Sasori rolled his eyes. "I wasn't made to have anyother emotions. How I even get into pointless fights with you is a mystery; Imade myself to specific details that I wanted but somehow you over-ran myprogramming."

"You make it sound like you're a robot or acomputer, yeah. Puppets don't get programmed."