After years of being kept in the dark of her past and of her family, Kari Yamada finally knows the truth. However, there's something still missing, something detrimental to gain the peace she strives to find. With the Akatsuki breathing down hers an...
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With and for good reason, our journey home had been a silent one. After Sakura helped to treat everyone's injuries until they became minor enough to allow us to move comfortably, and after I had replenished everyone's chakra levels to a reasonable level, we had begun to move.
Things... could've gone a lot smoother. I know a lot of it came down to shock for three out of five of us, and, none of us wanted it to come down to a fight, but after everything that's happened, there was no reasonable doubt for it not to come down to a fight. All signs pointed to one, right from the moment Sasori told Sakura about his business with Orochimaru. And besides, we're Shinobi. Obviously, it's gonna come down to a fight. But I think we were just so... mentally unprepared to see Sasuke again. And yes, I'd seen Sasuke very few times over the past three years, but it was completely different being face to face with him, and feeling the feelings I did in front of him...
The day I learned that through my grandmother, Sasuke and I were somehow related, something changed in me. Something I'd never felt up to that point in my life. Granted, I was twelve at the time, and I could only remember half of my life thanks to my illness, so I suppose my life was short-lived. But I had never felt anything like it before-- not with Makara, not with Naruto, no one. Was it some strange form of kindship? There was some great need for me to care about Sasuke constantly and consistently after, and especially after he went along with the Sound Four. To this day, I regret listening to my mother's warning. Yes, maybe it would have still happened, but we would have had a greater chance of stopping Sasuke before he could go off like he did. Maybe he would have been in the village with us right now, bickering with Naruto over something dumb. Maybe we could talk about our families with each other. Things just... might have been different if I'd tried a little harder.
Apparently I'd zoned out almost completely on our walk home; my eyes had been so hard-focused on my hands, and all I could do was keep walking after the others', subconsciously using their chakra to guide me. Naruto's hand falls onto my shoulder from my right, startling me back into concentration. Sakura, Sai, and Captain Yamato are far ahead of us now.
"Y-Yeah?" I say, swallowing.
"Kari." He narrows his blue eyes at me, his eyebrows furrowed together at me as if trying to solve some non-existent mystery. Stumbling in my walk from his close proximity, I lean away, furthermore confused.
"W-What?" I demand. Gently, I shirk his hand off my shoulder and continue walking.
"You're being quiet," he said, joining me and matching my stride.
"The same could be said about you," I note. "It's uncharacteristic for you."
"Yeah, well..." He sighs. I sigh, too.
"Yeah." I can't help myself when I start fiddling with my supplies satchel. "Um... I didn't tell you this... not in my letters, or even when I returned to the village..." Naruto raises one of his formerly scrunched together eyebrows. "I didn't tell Sakura or Kakashi-sensei, either... but I went after Sasuke a few times."
