Chapter 77 - 70: The Reunion

A month ago, other shinobis from other villages came to Konoha to participate in the chunin exams. After holding the First Round in Konoha, they then switch the location of the chunin exams to Sunagakure, since their village was supposed to be the one holding the exams.

There were only three from Konoha who joined the chunin exams and they were Uzumaki Azumi, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke. The other people of their generation already became chunins a long time ago but they were too busy training for these past few years.

Fortunately, their training had paid off. While Sakura's overall skill as a shinobi is at Chunin level, she is now one of the greatest medical shinobi in Konoha, just below Shizune. It's all because of Tsunade's training that she was able to achieve this feat.

Sasuke became one of the most powerful shinobis Konoha has right now, he is now a Jounin level ninja, surpassing even Kakashi. After Hikaru left, he decided to train under Kakashi and Gai. Gai taught him taijutsu while Kakashi taught him everything he knows. After some time, he was able to create the variants of chidori. Right now, he is on his way on creating a new S-Rank jutsu, which he is going to name, Kirin. His mastery over his sharingan right now can be said to be very good for a 15 years old like him, but he knows that his elder brother is still the superior one out of the two of them.

Azumi is probably one of the best Kunoichi right now. She's trained by Jiraiya and Tsunade themselves, and she also learned Tsunade's chakra enhanced strength technique but only at a minimum level. Her chakra control isn't that good, after all. With Jiraiya's help, she was able to sign a contract with the summoning animals of Mount Myoboku. And in 1 year, she was able to learn the Sage Mode.

Hikaru had forbidden Jiraiya from teaching Azumi on how to use the kyuubi's chakra, since it could be fatal to her current body. But Jiraiya did it anyway, and oh boy, he almost lost his limbs trying to fight Azumi in her four-tailed form. Thankfully, Tsunade was with them at the time, so they were able to suppress the kyuubi-s chakra with the Shodaime's necklace. Since then, Azumi would always wear the necklace in case something goes wrong.

Her compatibility with Nature Chakra was so good that even the Sage of Mount Myoboku was amazed. He said that in a few years, she would be able to reach the perfect form of Sage Mode which the youngest son of the Sage of Six Paths used. They then trained her the Frog Kumite fighting style.

And don't forget, Hikaru had given her the scroll to change the nature of her rasengan, completing it.

Her overall battle power and skills as a shinobi are around High-Kage level. She can go toe-to-toe with Jiraiya and Tsunade and still win. Without Hikaru in the village, she is currently the strongest in Konoha along with her teammates.

In these past few years, Sakura had a change of personality. She's mature enough to take care of her own problems but she still has this huge crush on Sasuke. She had repaired her broken friendship with Ino after apologizing to her, and since then they've been hanging out whenever they are free. She now wore the same clothes back then bu t bigger to fit her size.

Sasuke developed a carefree attitude, he's always laid back but when his fighting, he's always serious. Sometimes, when he's got nothing to do, he would close one of his eyes like his brother and stare at the nothingness. He wore the typical Uchiha shirt with a high collar with a long "V" in the middle of it, where he would rest his arm sometimes. He also wore an anbu pants that was modified slightly to fill in more ninja tools. Right now, he's wearing a black poncho over his body right now. His raven hair shaped like a duck's butt is still there.

Azumi, right now, is wearing the same thing Naruto wore in Shippuden. First, her top shows some of her skin, like her belly-button and the curves she has right now, other than that, the rest covers everything. Of course, she's the most eye-catching out of all of them, since she looks absolutely gorgeous with her long blonde hair tied into twin-tails. Her beautiful blue eyes dazzled under the sun of the desert, shining as if they were gems. She has a katana on the side of her waist with an orange handle and an orange sheath. On her back though was the Sunlight Straight Sword that Hikaru gave to her a few years ago.

She has also been taught kenjutsu by Hayate and Yugao, two of the greatest kenjutsu masters in Konoha.

And right now, all three of them were traveling towards Sunagakure in the middle of the endless desert. They've passed the First Round of the chunin exams but they still had to go to Suna for the Second Round.

They've run out of drinkable water a long time ago, they have to reach Suna before they completely run out of thirst.

As they walked on top of the hot sand of the desert, they suddenly felt chill all over their body. They were feeling cold in the… middle of the desert? How is that even possible…?

"A~zu~mi~chan~!" They hear a yell before Azumi is tackled by someone.

They were immediately ready to fight whoever that was. The figure wore a completely black robe with a high collar and a bamboo hat.

As they were ready to attack the figure in front of them, a sudden wind blew the bamboo hat from the mysterious person and they saw who it was.

That familiar long black hair and black eyes with a tint of red in the middle, there was no doubt.

This is Hikaru!

"Fueh!? Darling!?" Azumi yelled in surprise.

As if he didn't hear her, Hikaru then continued to bury his face into Azumi's deep mountain peak. Her perky b.r.e.a.s.t had grown, it looks like it is an E-Cup already.

Sasuke and Sakura didn't know what to do, so they didn't disturb him.

After a few moments of heaven, Hikaru finally let go of Azumi.

"Ahahaha, it's been too long since I felt those." Hikaru said as he scratches the back of his head.

Azumi stayed silent for a few moments, before she tackled Hikaru this time. They both fell on top of the sand with Azumi on top of Hikaru. She laid her head onto his chest, hearing the familiar heart beat she's used to hear. His body is still cold like always, but this cold feeling would always turn warm when they do it.

"I've missed you for far too long, you know? Now, I won't ever let you go." Azumi said, her eyes were completely pupilless.

Hikaru smiled and rubbed her head gently with his hand and said, "I know, I know. I won't leave for a while, so we will be able to bond for a long time." At the end of his sentence, Hikaru grabbed her butt cheek with his other hand and she blushed in embarrassment.

"Uh, good to see you too, Hikaru." Sasuke said as he smiled at him.

Hikaru turned his head towards Sasuke and said, "Oh right, you were here too. Itachi, how long are you going to hide?"

Suddenly, another figure wearing the same black robe as Hikaru appeared with a bamboo hat on, appeared in the middle of them.

He slowly took off his bamboo hat to look at Sasuke more clearly and smiled at his dear beloved brother.

"Itachi…" Sasuke muttered, stupefied. He couldn't believe it, the brother he has always searched for came in. Hikaru had told him everything about his brother, how he sacrificed his own happiness for the sake of the village, how he killed the entire clan because they were planning a coup d'etat, and how he left him, his only brother. He protected him in the shadows while he endured the life of a criminal. For Sasuke, his older brother, no matter how they look at it, is a hero. The one deserving the title of the Hokage more than anyone.

"It's been a long time, Otouto." Itachi greeted.

"I…" Sasuke didn't know what to do, this is the first time he met his brother after 6 long years. The image of the clan at that time was still vivid inside his mind, even right now. Countless bloodied bodies laid on the ground, they were all dead.

Hikaru stood up along with Azumi and he dusted both of their clothes off.

"Sakura, Azumi, come with me. We'll give them the time to talk, it's not our job to interrupt their reunion after so long." Hikaru said as he dragged the two girls away.

"Thank you, Hikaru-san." Itachi said with gratitude as Hikaru quickly built a dome around the two of them before light orbs made of mana appeared inside to light the darkness of the hollowed dome.

It was cold inside, but for trained shinobis like them, it was easy to endure it.

"I…"

"You don't have to say anything, Sasuke. I know that at that time, I should've told you everything. I regret doing all that. Back then, I wanted to die by your hands. I had an incurable illness and I was getting weaker and weaker until Hikaru-san appeared and cured me of my illness. Now, I could properly tell you why everything happened the way it did." Itachi said. He looked at Sasuke straight in the eyes and said.

"So please, would you kindly listen to your evil older brother's apology?"