A bit for my story that I almost lost, thanx to stupid storywrite...grr..

So Sasuke had to leave without his headband. After a reprimand, Kakashi loaned him another one from the Academy, and Team 7 set out on their daily missions. Halfway through one, Sasuke suddenly remembered last night. Aya Uchiha....Leaf headband...for some reason, they were fused together in his brain.

"Come on, Sasuke," Sakura yelled. Sasuke shook his head and leapt after them.

"Sheesh, that's the third time today that's happened," Sakura said. "Do you think he's OK, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi glanced back.

"He'll be fine. Late nights and all that. I'll be glad when the Atlanteans are gone and we're not partying all night."

Sasuke focused on the task at hand. He would see Aya again...later.

As soon as all the day's catching stray pets was finished, Sasuke tore off.

"He sure was strange today," Naruto commented. Sakura agreed. Kakashi stared after him.

"I dunno..."

Sasuke flew down the roads and streets of Kohona to the high fence where he had seen the little girl yesterday. He leapt atop the fence and peered down. There was no one in the yard.

Silent as a creeping cat, Sasuke stole up to the ragged hut and peeped in the window.

It was dirty, dark, and dingy. A heap of broken, charred logs marked the cooking place. Two pallets lay in one corner. Aya slept on them, huddled under a threadbare blanket. In her hand she clutched the headband. It winked at Sasuke in the noonday sun. He smiled and tiptoed away.

As Sasuke returned to his home, he was confronted by Kakashi.

"Yo, Sasuke. Mind if I go with you?"

"Um, sure..." Sasuke wasn't sure why his sensei was walking with him.

"Sasuke, what was wrong with you today?" Kakashi asked. "It's not like you to be so...out of it."

"I'm feeling OOC today," Sasuke replied. He thought of something else. "Tell me, Kakashi, is there ever any...burning when a Sharingan eyes is developing?"

Kakashi considered it. "Hmm. Not the ordinary Sharingan. But one of the variants may involve a painful burning behind the eye as it develops, a growing pain of sorts. Why, Sasuke? You planning on developing the Mangekyon Sharingan?" He ruffled Sasuke's hair teasingly.

"Nah, get off!" Sasuke protested goodnaturedly. Kakashi noticed the new headband flashing in the sun.

"You didn't find your old one, did you?"

"I...no." Sasuke couldn't bring himself to tell Kakashi where it really was- in the hands of a sleeping girl who just might be his sister. Kakashi winked at him.

"Alright. You rest up, get ready for tomorrow. No more OOCness, OK?" He disappeared.

Sasuke went to the tree he had been in the day before and settled down again with a riceball for company. He amused himself by dropping leaves and watching the ripples on the surface of the water. Then he spotted it.

The kunai Siena had dropped lay about thirteen feet down below the surface on the clear, pebbly bottom of the lake. Sasuke made a decision and jumped in.

It felt good, being underwater. Sasuke felt his head clear as he propelled himself to the bottom. His fingers wrapped around the slimy, cold kunai as his legs pushed off the pebbles and he shot to the surface. He blew water as he came up.

"Sasuke?" It was Ino. Sasuke sighed inwardly. He looked like a fool.

"hmm.."

"Well, OK, then..." Ino just stood there. Sasuke heaved himself out of the water, wet clothes hanging in damp folds, hair streaming water.

"What's up, Ino?" he asked wearily.

"Um, nothing, just...walking by," she said, edging away from him. Sasuke squelched away, still holding the kunai.

The next day, after his missions, Sasuke climbed the fence again and waited for Aya. She was there, in her headband, throwing wooden sticks at a knothole in one of the fenceposts.

"HAVE A TASTE OF MY KUNAI, NIN!" she shouted as she threw it. The stick made a cracking noise as it hit the post. Sasuke grinned.

"Nice. You want to try with a real one?"

Aya looked up in disbelief, partially because he had returned, partially because of Sasuke's offer.

"You mean it?"

"Sure!" Sasuke dropped to the ground. He opened his pouch and handed Aya a kunai.

"Draw back you arm like this...that's it...wind up and release!"

There was a hiss as the kunai struck the knothole square in the center. Aya squealed in delight. Sasuke's eyes widened.

"That was COOL! Can I try again?"

"Here." This time, Sasuke handed her a shuriken. "It's kinda like the kunai, only you have to snap it-"

WHIIIIIIIIIRTHUNK!!

The shuriken buried itself abreast of the kunai. Sasuke stared, open-mouthed. How had she done that? It was obvious she had never touched a real weapon before. Besides, she had never thrown anything like a shuriken, either. What kind of person had this raw natural talent?

"Aya, cna you throw more than one kunai at once?" Aya nodded.

"At least, I can with sticks."

Sasuke picked up a bit of charcoal off the ground and marked off the fencepost into a target. He handed Aya three kunai.

"Try these."

THUNTHUNTHUNK! They all struck the target dead center.

Sasuke wordlessly handed Aya five kunai and five shuriken.

RATTATATATATAT!! Iron after iron struck the center. The center ring was now full of weapons, except for the tiniest hole in the dead center. Sasuke's eyes narrowed. Accuracy. Excellent.

"Put this in that one spot," he said, handing her his last kunai.

WHHHIRRRTHUNK!! It quivered in the right spot. Sasuke retrieved his weaponry, still awestruck.

"How often do you practice, Aya?"

"Not at all," she said. "I've never seen one of those before." She pointed to the shuriken that Sasuke held. "Oh, yeah- I remembered."

She pulled off the headband and offered it back to Sasuke. Sasuke took it and strung a kunai and a shuriken onto it. He held it out.

"Take it."

"You mean...?" Aya was speechless.

"You may keep these, but you must promise one thing- you may never use them unless your life or the life of someone precious to you is in danger, OK?"

"I promise." Aya's little voice was determined.

"Good. I'll come back as soon as I can." Sasuke leapt atop the wall.

"Goodbye, Sasuke Uchiha!" Aya called after him. Sasuke turned.

"Aya- will you call me nii-kun?"

"Big brother?" Aya asked. "Well, you are my trainer...I'll call you sensei-nii-kun!!" Sasuke smiled at the title as he leapt away.