The team has returned from their weeks worth of their S-Rank mission they received. Group must report to Sasuke immediately. However upon arriving, they notice Konohagakure has seem to be more crowded with many shinobi from other villages, mainly from the other four great lands.

The boat trip was no picnic. While the land was set free in a very odd turn of events of the snow falling back to someplace, and they were returning with a new firend. Nori was distant. Nanami expected to be blamed for some of what happenend. Though she blamed herself for a lot more than what was her share of it. Knowing their last words were ones of distrust left everything between her and Sigmund unresolved. Though the tone of voice he talked in during their last exchange didn't feel like the words he spoke.

They got off the boat at a safe port and made their way home.

Nanami notices all the new faces as she they walked through the streets towards. This worried her. There hhad been no mention of joint missions with the other villages yet. It made her wonder if the snow had attacked other villages. She was sure she would hear from Sasuke. Though their mission debrief would most likely be rough. As she turned down the main road she noticed some sand shinobi. This made Nanami worry about her mother who was back in the sand village. Hopefully Sasuke would fill them in on what's going on..

As she entered the central building. Nanami noticed it was really busy. Busier than she had ever seen it. She made her way slowly to the reception area "Nara Nanami and the rest of my team to see Sasuke. He's expecting us." In a way she was expecting the type of lashing that Sigmund gave her time and time again. Though oddly she missed hearing him. Seeing Sigmund become her enemy hurt her a lot. She kept her rage and hate inside for now. She looked forward for the chance to find a training ground and let out some of her frustration.

The receptionist had went through Sasuke's appointments on the screen, looking for openings even the building was completely busy. She looked up at the group of girls. "Go right in, he's expecting you," she had replied softly and the group went up, knocking on the door and walked right in, taking their seats before him.

Sasuke hadn't change in the weeks of their trip, however he did seemed quite busy and annoyed with everything with the energy he was giving everyone. He wasn't sitting down, but standing, looking over the window that viewed the entire hidden leaf village.

"It seems you picked up a stray and yet you're missing someone. Where is he?" he asked firmly; he seemed to have known how many bodies entered the room and the most promising one had been missing. He didn't show any emotion towards the question though as he turned around and stared at the girls, particularly the new ice wielder standing before him.
This message was last updated by the player at 09:08, Wed 29 Nov 2017.

Nori could still remember the last words that Sigmund had said to them echoing in her ears before he had vanished with Kotatsu. He was there one moment and then the next he just...vanished. She cried out for him, but her cries were useless. He was gone. He was gone and she didn't know if he was ever going to come back. She failed to reach him. She failed to stop him. She knew that she couldn't have done anything to do so yet at the same time, she felt like she she should have fought harder for him. When they took this mission, Nori had felt uneasy. There was something she didn't like about it and knew that was mainly because Kotatsu was involved and knowing that, she didn't think things would end well. And it turns out she was right. They didn't. She had just lost the most important person in her life and now she was at a loss of what to do or how to get him back. She knew she would meet him again someday, but someday seemed like forever to her. Someday was unknown and that was what scared her the most. She had felt like she just got him back and now...now she lost him again.

Nanami and Shiroma had done their best to comfort her, to tell her that everything was going to be alright, but it wasn't. It wasn't going to be alright. On the entire trip home, she had hardly said a word to either one of them. She remained distant from them. The once happy, cheerful light that was in her emerald green eyes was now lifeless and distant. She retreated into herself and didn't know if she would ever come back. All she found she could do in those moments to herself was reflect on what had happened and what she should have done to stop him from leaving. She reflected on what could have been done differently and most of all, she felt like if she hadn't taken away his brother and made him live with it all this time, maybe the darkness wouldn't have engulfed him. There was no way she could fix what she had done. Now she could never make it up to him...if that was even possible from the beginning. Nori cried. That's all she felt she could do was cry.

The trip back to Konoha had been a slow yet quiet one. Once they had arrived back into the village, they were summoned by Sasuke to give a status report on their mission. While they lost the most important person of the group, they gained another. However, as vital as Shiroma had proven herself to be during this mission, no one could replace Sigmund. The Konoha team was no longer a team without him. And she wasn't even sure...if even she wanted to be apart of it anymore. So many things happened during this mission aside from the disappearance of Sigmund. She knew she needed to talk to her family about what she had found out about Sigmund's brother, but felt like she couldn't. At least not now. The trio entered the central building with Nori lagging behind them and to the reception area where they would wait to meet with Sasuke. While Nanami went to speak with someone at the front, she made her way over to a nearby chair and sat down upon it with a quiet thud. She rested her elbows onto her knees and buried her face into her hands as she strived to hold back the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes.

It was upon hearing a voice speak up to them telling them to come in, Nori quickly wiped at her eyes and took in a sharp breath before she dropped her hands from her face and stood up. She walked after Nanami and Shiroma into Sasuke's office and took a seat at the end. At hearing the question posed to them, there was a silence that filled the room. She curled her hands into fists on the top of her legs and looked down at her lap. "He's...gone," she said in a weak, timid voice. "He...left with Kotatsu. He left and...we couldn't stop him..." She shut her eyes tightly.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:00, Wed 29 Nov 2017.

Nanami took a long deep breath, and then exhaled. Her muscles relaxed. She didn't want to do this all stiff. So the girl took a moment to adjust her frame of mind to one reporting a situation. Her eye swiveled and met Sasuke's stern gaze. The girl's eyes were near emotionless. But were also filled with emotion. It was hard to read where her exact frame of mind was. She took one last breath and exhaled again. The world seemed to slow down to a crawl as she started to speak and tell a recounting of the important parts "This first part concerns you as well Lord Sasuke." She breathes slowly as she continued. There was a little stress in her voice "We met a hunter before we left the Land of Fire.." She sighed a little not sure how much of what the woman said was the truth "We saved her from a snare trap. It concerned me that a hunter would get caught in her own trap." It was this next part she was curious to see how Sasuke would respond. A lot went through her mind as she spoke "Later that night she revealed to me and Nori. Something interesting, or well confusing.." Her hand runs through the hair just behind her ear as she spoke "Does the name Akasumi ring a bell Lord Sasuke? Anyways.. She claimed to be your aunt, and was away on a mission when the incident with the Uchiha happened, and yes she showed me her Sharingan. She also claimed to be Sigmunds mother.. I couldn't verify these things. She also warned me to not go to the Land of Frost." She takes a long breath and knew the next part would not garner a positive response "Akasumi also said not to tell Sigmund as it would cause severe issues."

Nanami eyes looked down for a moment "So we hid it from him, we did tell him later.. We escorted her back to the village that she said she was from. It seemed pretty busy and normal. Or by appearances normal.. I did memorize the route there if you need me to give you directions to it.. Later we found out it was more or less a prison." She took another long breath this was taking a mental toll on her recounting this "So progressing past Akasumi. We made it to the ship and arrived in the Land of Frost. Immediately we were engaged by enemy forces. We dispatched them and captured Shiroma. I discovered she was under a strong Genjutsu. Using my medical knowledge and the Sharingan, we managed to release her from the Genjutsu and any control that was once held. She went through a lot of horrible things. Seeing them from a perspective where she lacked control to influence her bodies actions."

The girl pauses and tries to relax herself, as the next parts stir her anger and hatred "We were heading to a cave system that Shiroma knew of to recover and prepare for the assault on the fortress. As we made our way Shiroma was leading us and the weather worsened and we got seperated. Me and Nori were alone for a moment, and Kotatsu appeared before us." She bites her lip with her canine trying to contain the emotions she had been holding in. A small trickle of blood goes over her chin "Sigmund heard the commotion and came back to check on us. Then he tried to use some Genjutsu or something on him. It was powerful.. It took me using a medical technique and Nori causing a strong emotional response to overwhelm him, stopping the Genjutsu or jutsu. After sigmund passed out. Kotatsu laughed, said some arrogant remarks and left. So we made our ways carrying Sigmund to the caves. Here we gave him time to recover. Once he did, he got angry with me for interfering in his destiny. That his destiny was his own. So because I interfered, he lost his trust in me. Though not completely. So we talked more and moved on the fortress. The assault went perfectly as me and shiroma smashed them with our arrow jutsu's. Killing all of them.. Then Nori and Sigmund mopped up the remaining ground forces in the fortress and killed the sensory shinobi. I watched while recovering some chakra. Sigmund was brutal in his execution of the sensory shinobi. He chopped off his head. While I was watching I saw something very odd with the Sharingan." Again she takes another long deep breath "His chakra flashed from his forearm to his eyes. This is when I began to suspect something was already wrong. I hopped down and collected samples from the dead sensory shinobi in hopes they could be tested and we could gain some insight how all these shinobi's have this dark chakra."

Nanami tilts her head "He seemed annoyed that I wanted to take samples. After I was done. He told me to rig the lower levels with paper-bombs so once they dealt with the stuff up top. That it could be blown sky high. However the Shinobi managed to get off a distress call.. Or that was the thinking at the time. Kotatsu appeared again. This time he put up a barrier encompassing the entire upper room. When I sensed and heard about it. I thought taking out part of the floor underneath the barrier might break it. However the building was built to look sturdy. But fall apart like a house of cards if damage came to it. So instead of the well placed and designed explosion I had set up. It brought the building down. Shiroma prevented harm from coming to me and Nori by erecting an ice barrier around us. After the dust cleared Kotatsu had Sigmund trapped in a small dark barrier. Shiroma broke the barrier eventually. We learned that Kotatsu is Sigmunds brother. Who apparently hadn't died from his coma. Once Sigmund was free. Sigmund wasn't going to let Kotatsu go. He chose to fight. So as his teammate I could only support him. So I used my knowledge of the chakra system and opened the first four gates in him. This gave him a lot of strength. Unfortunately it ended up not being enough."

Her eyes show disdain for the words that came next "So Kotatsu grabbed his wrist, and it seemed like he was placing something inside Sigmunds arm. Then he did something to his back. Fortunately via information gained from Akasumi, I knew how to reverse the damage to his back." She was quivering trying to keep her emotions from showing "According to Kotatsu he had done what he came here to do, and left yet again. So we all talked, and had some heated discussions. Eventually we all slept in a cave that was warmed by a hot spring." She breathed much deeper "We made it to an area above the port, another discussion was held. Though something wasn't right. It seemed like the approach was to easy. We went with it. Me and Shiroma under the guise of a Genjutsu cloak. Made our way into the port. This is where things went from worse, to as deadly as it could. The man that took all the leaders of all the villages. He appeared before me and Shiroma, then erected a dark barrier that covered the entire port. There was no way for me and Shiroma to penetrate the barrier. Soon we noticed that the man and Kotatsu had switched places. He captured both Nori and Sigmund, and completed whatever they were doing to him. Converting him into one of them. Kotatsu mocked me and Shiroma. Soon Sigmund smashed his fist into the barrier destroying it from the outside, his eyes displayed the three tomoe Sharingan.. I used the moment to flicker me and Shiroma to safety. I knew they could have stopped us if they had wanted to. We were deemed unimportant. So they let us live.. Then we traveled back here to the village."

She had a very angry demeanor about her "Earlier in the mission when Sigmund was unconscious after the first encounter with Kotatsu. I took blood, skin, and cell samples of the tissue around the area I saw the odd chakra. I hoped it might lead to find a way to undo what they did.." Nanami did not say that with any type of hope. The emotions she wore were hate and anger.

She calms herself down "When walking here I noticed Shinobi from all of the other lands.. Did something happen?"
This message was last edited by a game editor at 04:19, Thu 30 Nov 2017.

Sasuke had remained quiet as Nanami prepared a thesis about their entire mission. He eventually sat down as he knew this was going to be awhile. He remained attentive and did not react to any of the subjects that were brought up. Particular names, incidents, and the overall mission at the end are what interested him the most.

He studied Nanami as she continued on through her various deep breathing and trying to conceal her emotions. He was more curious and interested in her emotional distress than the actual story. Towards the end, she began questioning him which made him stand back up from the desk that belonged to the great and current Hokage. "That is not your concern," he told her. This wasn't her place to start questioning him.

"As for the tissue samples you stole from your teammate without consent, unfortunately any information we find is off limits," he explained as he walked over to a filing cabinet, searching for Sigmund's name. After pulling it out, he showed a scroll instead of a folder with a black tie on it. The outside of the scroll read confidential and top secret on the other side; in smaller print Sigmund's name appeared. "We are aware of who Sigmund is and his background; we are also aware of who his birth parents are and how it came to be. However it is restricted information. His tissue samples will help confirm what we've been thinking," he explained as he placed the scroll away and walked back to the desk. "I'm going to need those samples," he demanded with his hand out.

"I know you were expecting a reaction from me. However I am aware of who Akasumi is. She is my great aunt; I've known this information for quite some time now. She's barely surfaced out of the blue, but I have yet to confront her myself," he explained. He wasn't one to share such personal information, but by confirming this, this would help ease Nanami's own doubts and put it to rest when it came to the Uchiha name.

"As for the overall mission: you all failed," he blurted out, pointing out the obvious. "It was clear that neither of you were to engage Kotatsu and yet somehow you all managed to do so regardless. You all lack being obedient. All of you allowed personal feelings and personal affairs get in the way of working as a team. You all lack teamwork. You also failed your objective as you, Nanami, destroyed the light beam tower the first time without gathering how it worked or what exactly it did. The second light beam tower is still standing," he went on as he continued to scold them all. "The only thing you accomplished was freeing the land of frost from the grips of the Snow and brought back little intel on them," he added as he still awaited for the samples of both Sigmund and from the snow shinobi.

"Your squad is suspended indefinitely until further notice. Neither of you are allowed to leave Konohagakure without my knowledge and sign off," he said. A suspension meant they couldn't take on missions or leave the village. "As for you, in the back," his eyes finding Shiroma's. "Tsuna Shiroma was it? Here," he said, tossing her a leaf headband. "You now represent Konohagakure. Your skills are impressive, however you are suspended with the squad you have chosen to tag along with. Once I have your new leader assigned, we'll be in contact, but until then you are all dismissed," he said, sending them away at this point. Nanami was now left to hand over the samples so the group could go figure out what they needed to do next.

Nori stayed silent as she listened to Nanami go over the details of their mission. She recalled the events in her head. They had happened. And it was a time that she was never going to forget. This mission had changed everything for her. From her finding out she killed Sigmund's brother to Sigmund disappearing before her eyes. After this mission was over, she was hoping to find a way to move past what she had done all those years ago. She knew she had to if she ever wanted to learn how to forgive herself. She had hoped to do those things with Sigmund at her side. It was as she thought of him, his face flashed in her mind and she brought up her hands to bury her face within them. She had failed to save him and that was what killed her inside. She couldn't stop him. However, she knew that if Sigmund was here right now, he would tell her to suck it up and to stop being a crybaby. He probably didn't even know his own worth to her and he probably never would.

After Nanami finished giving her report on their mission, Nori knew the worst was to come. It had been apparent by the tone in his voice that he was not at all pleased with how things turned out. They had failed. Everything he was saying was true. They didn't work together as they should have. They came back with little intel. And most of all, they engaged with Kotatsu, which was something Sigmund had made clear in the beginning of the mission to not do. There was really no excuses or words to say that would justify what they had done and what they failed to do. It was no surprise that they were facing the consequences for their actions. Although at that point, Nori didn't really seem to care. She didn't really have the desire to go anywhere and do any missions anyway. Once he dismissed them, Nori slowly stood up from her place in her chair and bowed her head towards him before she turned on her heel and took a few steps around her chair, but stopped. After Nanami gave her the samples she had taken from Sigmund, Nori turned herself back around but kept her head lowered.

"Um, Lord Sasuke. I know...I know I am not in position to ask about this, but..." she began to say as she lowered her eyes back down to the floor. "When I was a child...you and my parents...did you do something to alter my memories?" She lifted her head up and looked up to him. "Back in that cave...there was something that I remembered. Something I don't ever remember doing and yet changed the lives of not only Sigmund, but his family." She clasped her hands in front of her and began to wring them nervously. "I don't have the right to demand anything. I know that, but...knowing what I know...it makes me question a lot of things about myself. Am I really who I think I am? Or do I know nothing of myself and everything in my life has been a lie?"

Nara nodded and took a step back so she could take out her summon scroll and summon the medical kit. She handed it over to Sasuke.

Some of what Sasuke said was a surprise. Some of it wasn't. She expected some form of reprimand. There was no response but a nod to Sasuke's words. Then she spoke before leaving "Am I allowed to use the training grounds? I need to blow off some steam." The expression was not disrespectful. But showed the state of mind she was in, its an expression Sasuke would recognize . After Sasuke's answer she would turn and leave, unless told to stop.

She wanted to talk to Nori. But Nori's words stifled her will to do so, as well as her current temperament wasn't the greatest to try and work things out. She would wait for rest of her team outside. If they wanted to talk she would "So what do we do now?" Nanami asked once all of them were there. She was still attempting to hide her emotions to the best of her abilities until she got the time to release some frustrations..

After receiving the samples, he was sure to place them on the desk, and carefully tried to examine them before he was interrupted by a small voice. He looked at her as she explained a familiar situation he had been apart of. He waited a moment before answering as the other two girls stepped out, leaving Nori here before him. ”Your identity crisis is not of importance to me,” he said harshly. ”This is neither the time or place. But since you seem so persistent in the mater,” he paused for a moment as he cleared his throat.

”Naruto and I decided to lock away that incident. You were hesterical; killing that boy made your parentals worry. Your parents requested, almost begged us to do something. After a short deliberation, I was summoned and did what I had to do. Be grateful we didn’t reprogram your whole life as that is what I wanted to do,” he explained, confirming Nori’s accusations.

At first Nori thought that Sasuke wasn't going to say anything to her and thus, expected to be rejected being told anything about what had happened, but to her surprise, he began to speak. From what she had remembered, she did see Sasuke there in her memory and knew that he had to have been the one to lock away her memories. Although, she never thought that anyone could reprogram someone's entire life. There was still a lot of things she didn't understand about the world and what people were actually capable of. Her eyes fell down to the floor and she just stayed silent. Her parents...that was what it came back to. While she knew they were trying to protect her, Nori still felt like part of her was taken. "Thank you, Lord Sasuke, for not reprogramming my life. I mean, I know that it's strange to thank you for something like that, but I am grateful. I can't imagine what kind of life I would have had if everything had been erased. I can't imagine a life where I hadn't met..." she began to say before she pressed her lips together. She saw Sigmund flash through her mind again and she closed her eyes.

"I know that we failed you, Lord Sasuke, and that you are disappointed in us. There's not anything we can do that will change that now. What's done is done, but this, all of this, isn't over. We may not have gotten the answers you wanted us to find, but...realistically I don't think that would have been possible." She lifted her head up and looked at Sasuke with a soft yet subtle expression. "We don't know what their intentions are or what they want out of this, but one thing I do know is that Sigmund is apart of it. There are...still things about him that I don't understand or could ever begin to understand, but they chose him for a reason," she said as she curled her hands into her fists. "There are things he wants for himself and you are a big part of that. You influence his life more than anything or anyone else. He has lived by your words his entire life. I think more than anyone the last person he wanted to disappoint was you and him not being here...I believe you are still disappointed in him. That he was weak and let himself be taken over shows his inability to be a leader, but that just isn't true."

Nori felt like she was ranting. That all of this was probably pointless to say to a person that lacked showing emotion. "I don't know what your plan is about getting him back or if you even want to get him back, but I don't plan on giving up on him. I know becoming someone that is heartless, violent, and angry like those people out there isn't what he would want. He wouldn't want anything to do with them. He would...he would want to protect everyone even at the cost of his own life. There is goodness in Sigmund. I know this more than anyone else in the entire world. I'm not going to stand by and let them manipulate and make him turn his back on all those that mean the most to him. Including you. I won't let it happen. I just won't." In saying those last words, she bowed her head respectfully towards him and made her way to the door before she walked out.

Sasuke remained quiet as the girl before him literally broke herself. She was unstable and too hopeful. It reminded him of his wife. Sakura has been just as hopeful and persistent on getting him back. Nori has the same demeanor as Sakura in wanting to save someone. To protect and die for someone like that, well he could’ve only guessed the poor girl was in love with him. ”I’ll be sending these samples for medical examination. I cannot share the results however after much deliberation and observation, I’ll be thinking over your suspension. In the meantime, go. You are not needed here,” he shooed away. It was apparent he was as busy as ever with the new refugees that seemed to have taken their likings to Konoha and with Naruto gone, there was a lot more on his plate than he would have ever liked. The fact of the matter was that he needed to get these analyzed, study how the new chakra works, add more to Sigmund’s forbidden file, and figure out what to do with an incompetent group of girls. He had gave his “blessing” for Nanami to use the training grounds and he did remind them that they were not on duty for the time being so official shinobi business was off limits until he summoned them again.

Nanami bowed to Sasuke and turned to leave. She knew down the road they would cross paths with Sigmund again, next time she has to be ready to deal with both of them. That road was going to be long and extremely taxing. Both in the mental sense and physical ones. She had gotten an idea from watching some of the taijutsu, and nin-taijutsu users. It's a style she would have to train hard to master. The sharingan will ease the actual use of the jutsu. She met up with Nori and Shiroma in the lobby "I am going to the training grounds. I'm not going to waste any of the valuable free time we have." She looks down "I also need to blow off some steam. It's been a frustrating month.. You two are welcome to join me."

Nanami looked at Nori.. She tried to say something but nothing came out. She walked over to the receptionist before leaving "Is there a list of the Sand Shinobi that are here?" Before she could blow off said steam. Nanami checked in with the receptionist to see if her mother was in Konoha. The way everything felt, it just felt a bit off, and she was concerned about her mother.

The receptionist had been filing paperwork; the desk looked chaotic as the new refugees had taken their place in staying in Konoha for salvation. After telling the little group of girls to head to Sasuke, many more Jonin like leaders came in and out bringing lists of civilians that were alive.

As the girls came back down, Nanami approached her again. ”We’re still getting lists and are still expecting more as we speak. You are free to take a look at this current list for Sunagakure, but if a name doesn’t stand out to you, don’t think the worse. It could mean we either are miscounting or they haven’t reported in yet,” she explained as she handed two pages of what appeared to be everyone from Sunagakure currently residing in Konoha right now.

Nori didn't know what she was going to do next now that they were suspended from going anywhere for the time being. Perhaps the first place she should go to was to see her parents. To ask them about what happened back then. Part of her understood why they did it, but the other part of her was upset that they would hold the truth from her after all these years. While she was sure that she wouldn't have been able to handle it as a child, she felt like it was something they could have talked to her about. Perhaps Nanami revealing the memories of what happened back then wasn't exactly the best method as everything had just come flooding back to her all at once. She couldn't help but wonder if she would have reacted any differently should her parents have been the one to tell her the truth. At least then, though, it would be coming from them. She wouldn't have had to find it out by someone else. It just made her question if there were other things they were hiding from her that they didn't want her to know about.

Nori walked down to the lobby where she met up with Nanami and Shiroma. Although she may have been able to talk to Sasuke like she had done, she still wasn't sure if she was ready to face her teammates just yet. She knew they had done nothing wrong. They had tried to comfort her after Sigmund had disappeared and were doing their best to cheer her up, but she wasn't ready. She felt like she couldn't really smile at them or be happy like she usually was. "Thank you for the offer, but I'll be going home," she told her friend before she turned her head and looked over at Shiroma. "You should go explore. I'm sure you'll like Konoha. If you'll excuse me." She bowed her head towards the girl before she dismissed herself and walked out of the building. Luckily her family home wasn't too far from here. She'd be able to get there in no time.

After about ten minutes had passed, Nori opened up the front door of her home. "Mom? Dad? I'm back," she called out to them. She wasn't sure if either of them were even home at the moment or if they were out and about since they weren't expecting her today. She stepped inside the house and closed the door before taking off her shoes and stepping up onto the tatami floor.