Lui Kusagano was furious; No, she was actually seething with anger. It had been nearly three weeks since her sister's death, but her rage still hadn't subsided. Kakashi had acted as if he wanted Lui to move on, and he seemed to think that was what Kareiko would have also wanted for Lui. However, Lui couldn't accept the way things had happened; she most certainly could not forgive and forget. She prodded the small fire she had kindled with a thin stick as she rested her chin on her knees. She started to feel a cold breeze as it grew dark, and she huddled more closely towards the fire. Since leaving Kakashi, she hadn't returned home to her mother. She had, instead, gone back to the abandoned Kusagano village and taken refuge in one of the less decrepit homes. While she still had her mother, she felt as if she had no one.
Lui couldn't bear to go back to her mother in such a state. Their mother had never even acknowledged Kareiko, and Lui was certain that she would not mourn the death of Kareiko. The more she thought about how Kareiko had been treated by their family and clan, the more Lui started to feel sick. In fact, she actually was feeling extremely sick. She crawled away from the fire and proceeded to vomit; her whole stomach felt as if it was trying to escape through her mouth. When her vomiting finally subsided, she wiped her chin and sat up. She knew that she could no longer handle the toll that these pent up emotions were having on her body; she had a new determination to take action. In that moment, in the soft light of the dwindling fire, Lui Kusagano resolved that she would find and confront her sister's killer. No matter the outcome, she was going to find Itachi Uchiha.
Lui had searched for days straight, only stopping to take occasional breaks for food and water. She hadn't slept, and it was beginning to take a heavy toll on her tiny body. Her face had once looked young and bright, but it now seemed pale and extremely weathered. She eventually wandered back to the supposed resting place of her sister and collapsed. Her stomach groaned as if it were angry at her for not feeding it in so long. Her eyes tried to remain shut despite her constant forcing to keep them open. Lui may have been losing faith that she would find Itachi, but she still wouldn't allow herself to sleep; she couldn't rest until she found him. She sat with her back against a tree as her eyes started to wince. She had almost dozed off, but her ears caught a faint sound; it was the sound of footsteps.
Lui hopped quickly to her feet, all the while trying to remain undetected by the mysterious presence. She peered through the dense growth of the forest and attempted to catch a view of the intruder. The darkness of night was making it incredibly difficult for her to make out details of the figure, which appeared to be doing something around the place where Kareiko had died. Lui wasn't sure what this person could be doing, but she was more concerned with determining who the person was. She stared so intensely that her eyes began to wince and water, but she had to figure out just who was snooping around this place. Upon looking closer, Lui determined that the figure was certainly a male, and she began to wonder if it could have been Kakashi. She tried to focus her eyes when suddenly she saw the man's features more clearly. In that moment, Lui lost all of her sense of reason, and she stepped out from her hiding place.
"Do you know who I am?" asked Lui gruffly, "if you don't, you definitely should."
Itachi didn't answer, and Lui gathered that he wasn't the type of man who enjoyed speaking very much. She glared at him with hate in her eyes, and as she looked deep into his eyes she sensed something odd; it was almost as if there had been a look of sadness in them. Lui forced away any ounce of sympathy that started to come to her mind, and immediately started glaring once again.
"You should remember me because," she felt her blood boiling, "I am Lui Kusagano, and you killed my sister!" Lui had managed to get her cold, assassin-esque demeanor back again; she wanted, with every fiber of her being, to cause this man pain in retribution for the pain he had caused her.
"I know who you are," he said suddenly. Lui hadn't expected him to respond, and she was concerned that he might try to attack her now. He had killed Kareiko, and it was highly probable that he would try to kill her as well. "I had thought that you would come to see me eventually…" he never stopped looking Lui in the eyes as he spoke. "I actually believed you would have come much sooner than this, but I suppose that everyone does things in their own time."
Lui's fury was increasing, "How dare you even speak to me in such a way! Quit acting so high and mighty!" Lui started to contemplate lunging at Itachi; she wanted nothing more than to drive a kunai into his heart, but she realized acting rashly would only get her killed. Sweat started to drench her clothes, and she felt her fists clench tightly as she tried to quiet her temper. She bit her lip in frustration, and she waited to see how the strange man would react.
Itachi looked at Lui inquisitively, as if he was trying to see what was behind her hate-filled eyes. "You think that you know everything, but are you certain that what you know is the truth?"
Lui took a step forward; she was having trouble containing herself. "You try to feed me these cryptic lines, and you try to act like you are on a separate level of humanity than I am. You act as though you are emotionless," Lui's voice was starting to quiver, "but my sister loved you! She truly loved you! She chose to be with you, but you betrayed her! Are you going to honestly tell me that her love meant nothing to you?!" Lui's voice echoed and her tears fell to the ground.
"There is nothing that I could tell you to make you understand the complexity of our situation. There really isn't a point in me even bothering to try to explain-"
"You have to explain yourself! If you won't, then I'll have to-"
"I can't tell you, but I can show you," said Itachi as the surroundings started to change. Lui had gotten so overworked that she had forgotten about the effects of Itachi's sharingan. He had managed to capture her and pulled her into his own world; he now had all the control. Lui was certain the he was going to put her through some awful form of torture, but as she looked around she noticed that the scene seemed almost serene. The landscape was oddly familiar, and Lui finally noticed that they were in Kusagano village; the village was smaller, but it wasn't yet burned down. She wondered what could possibly be happening and why Itachi was making her see this.
"You recognize it, don't you? It is your home, but we are looking at something that happened before you were born." Lui heard Itachi's voice, but she couldn't see him; she thought that it must be due to his genjutsu. He was obviously showing her something in particular, but Lui wasn't sure what it was.
"What are you trying to prove?" Lui wasn't in the mood for games, but she realized she had really no choice in the matter; she was in Itachi's hands for the time being.
"In order for you to understand everything that has happened, you need to see how mistaken your ideas about your sister really are." Itachi was still nowhere to be seen, but
Lui now realized that she was in her childhood home. She saw a young Kareiko, and her father. She wanted to call out to them, but she suddenly stopped approaching them as she saw her father smack Kareiko firmly across the cheek; the smack was so powerful that it had sent the young Kareiko to the ground. Lui watched in horror as he continued to smack her each time that she tried to stand again. Her father continued to beat Kareiko, even though she had done nothing wrong. Lui could no longer stand to watch the horror of the scene.
"Why are you showing me something so terrible?! Why are you making up such an awful story?" Lui's eyes had filled with tears once again.
"You thought you should always serve your father. You thought that he was a wonderful man, but he was a wretched person who abused Kareiko heavily. He hated her, and mistreated her due to no fault of her own."
Lui closed her eyes; she couldn't handle viewing what was happening. "She had to have done something. She betrayed the clan!"
"You're wrong. Kareiko Kusagano did nothing to betray the clan. Kou Kusagano was the one who committed betrayal. Kareiko Kusagano could be said to not even be a member of the clan at all."
Lui kept her eyes closed, fearful of what she might see if she opened them even for a moment. "My father would never…"
"The reason that Kareiko was so different from the entire clan was not due to some fictitious curse. The reason that she was different was due to the fact that she was only half Kusagano."
Lui's eyes had opened forcibly on their own, and they were now wide with horror. She had never considered the unthinkable; she had never wanted to believe that her father would have committed such a heinous act, but it was hard to deny that it was all beginning to make sense. Kareiko was different than every Kusagano because she wasn't a full-blooded Kusagano at all.
"Kou Kusagano hated Kareiko because she was the physical embodiment of his biggest mistake. He couldn't look at her or her yellow eyes without seeing it as his failure. He resented her, and treated her horribly because he couldn't face the terrible acts that he had committed himself. He tried to hide the crime he had committed from everyone in the village, and he forced them all to act as if Kareiko was actually different because of the curse that he fabricated. It was nothing more than an elaborate strand of lies to protect him."
The more that Lui looked at her father standing over the tiny, disheveled Kareiko, the more hopeless she started to feel. What Itachi had told her was logical, but to her it seemed so bizarre. She had lived her entire life seeing Kareiko as a cursed stain on the pure Kusagano family name; it was so crazy for her to accept such a radical change in what she had always believed to be true. She started to feel the sick feeling in her stomach return, and she tried her best not to start vomiting again. She thought about the father she had always known, and then her mind was filled with the image of him beating Kareiko so severely. Her mind was also full of the question of why he would do something so terrible.
"If you're wondering why he went through such lengths to make Kareiko's life the way it was, then I should tell you that there is a very simple answer." It was almost as if Itachi had read her mind, and she started to wonder if he was actually capable of that. The scene had started to change once again, and Lui noticed that they were now in what appeared to be her father's private quarters. She saw a group of strange men talking with her father; it was very dark, and only a few candles illuminated the dim room. Lui could see the lips of the men moving, but she couldn't hear any audible sound coming from them. She was merely an observer of the scene that Itachi wanted her to see.
"The men you don't recognize are ANBU forces from Konoha. I'm sure that you've heard of them. Although, I doubt that you know the reason they were in your village."
Lui recalled that she had heard stories of Konoha attempting to invade and intervene in her village, "They were trying to take control of Kusagano village. It was all a part of the curse."
"You're mistaken. They were sent to intervene due to a fear of what Kareiko could become if she wasn't dealt with correctly."
Lui started to become frustrated, "Then how am I mistaken? You've told me something that I always knew. You haven't explained anything!"
"The reason that they feared Kareiko was the same underlying reason that your father feared Kareiko. They were afraid of her powers. I've already told you that she wasn't full Kusagano, and that is the reason that the Hidden Leaf decided to try to intervene. If your sister was to fall into the possession of the wrong individual, it would have dire consequences." As Itachi finished speaking, Lui saw that the men from Konoha and her father were arguing. She still could hear no sound, but their body language was extremely hostile toward one another; she wondered why her father would try to keep Kareiko in the village. Perhaps he had loved Kareiko, after all?
Itachi seemed to have sensed Lui's thoughts again, "Your father fought the Konoha forces vehemently, for he wanted to keep such a powerful weapon under his own control. He felt that giving Kareiko to the Leaf would be giving them a major advantage. He also feared it would cause people of his own clan to lose respect for him as a leader. His decision to keep Kareiko was one based off of self-interest and nothing more." Lui struggled to swallow as she thought about all that she had been shown thus far.
"If my father wanted to keep her around, then why did Kareiko abandon the village? She may have had a rough life, but that shouldn't excuse her from fleeing her village and disgracing her clan!" Lui realized what she had said must have sounded cruel, but it was the law of the shinobi. You obey the clan you are born to, and loyalty should be above all else. Time seemed to shift suddenly and Lui was now in the same location, but it was obvious that some years had passed. Everything was much more familiar to Lui, and she saw her father talking with a now 17 year old Kareiko. Kareiko was kneeling before her father, who had the same stern look on his face that Lui had known so well.
"You're still so concerned about loyalty to your clan, but you are failing to realize that Kareiko was being loyal to her clan by leaving. Your father was the one who told Kareiko to leave the village and never return."
"That's not true! She left because she wanted to go to Konoha!" Lui was being asked to challenge so much of what she had previously believed, but this was one thing that she simply couldn't fathom; how could her father have forced Kareiko away? It just didn't make any sense, and Lui was having difficulty coming to terms with the notion.
"I'm speaking nothing but truth. Your sister told me everything before she died, and why should you have any reason to doubt that? Your father sent Kareiko to the tea house, the place which in which I first encountered her, because he wanted her to remain imprisoned there for her entire life. He had hoped that she would have no further contact with any shinobi, and thus he sent her to a place in which he thought that would never happen. He told her lies, and he let her believe that she was nothing but a burden to all of her family. He instilled hopelessness inside of her…"
Lui shook her head in disbelief, "Why?! Why would he do such a thing to his own child?!"
"He did this all because he was afraid of her. He had grown fearful as she matured and started to learn ninja arts. It was obvious that her chakra was immense, and he most likely even contemplated killing her at one point or another. Though, I am certain he would be incapable of doing that. He felt that his last resort was to send your sister away."
"She could have still come back! What was stopping her from coming back to the village if she was so powerful?"
"Because your father told her that if she ever returned, he'd kill you."
Lui finally broke down; her very spirit felt as if it was breaking. She fell to her knees and started to sob. She turned her head to the ground, and she felt like she could no longer handle the things that Itachi was saying to her. She had always believed that her father was her protector; she believed that he was a strong, honorable man, and that Kareiko had been an enemy. It was too difficult to believe that Kareiko was actually the one who had wanted to protect Lui from their father. How could she accept that as truth?
"Your mind is struggling to accept what I've said, but I am certain that in your heart you always knew. Perhaps that is why you are here and confronting me now. You wanted to avenge the sister that you always truly loved."
Lui snorted as she tried to dry her tears. "You still haven't answered my question." She grumbled and rose to her feet.
"In time, you'll come to understand my actions." Lui was becoming frustrated that Itachi always spoke so cryptically. She wondered how anyone could be attracted to such a person, especially her sister. In Lui's mind, Kareiko was becoming increasingly more perfect while Itachi was becoming all the more heinous. The truth about Kareiko was devastating. However, it led Lui to believe that Kareiko was more admirable than she ever could have imagined. She felt her hatred toward Itachi burning inside her stomach, and she wondered what could have possibly transpired to make Kareiko love him so dearly. The thought of Kareiko loving this man was almost disgusting to Lui, and Itachi surely felt her anger radiating from her tiny body.
"I first encountered your sister at the tea house, the one which your father banished her to," Lui heard Itachi's voice once again as the scenery shifted once again. The heavy rain pounded down on Lui's face and body, and although it was an illusion it certainly felt real. Her body shivered involuntarily, and she began to grow very cold. She decided to step inside and get out of the rain, and she was immediately hit by the floral stench of the tea house. Lui couldn't possibly picture Kareiko living among the other women that she saw there; they were heavily decorated and hidden in masks of makeup, and Lui had always known Kareiko to abhor dressing in such a way. This fact made it all the more shocking when Lui actually spotted her sister for the first time, and Lui let out an audible gasp.
Itachi had actually appeared beside Lui at this point, "It's sort of a farce, isn't it? A kunoichi with such chakra parading around like a commoner in such a place? I wasn't expecting the chakra that I was sensing that night to belong to such a woman," Itachi's voice was now gaining that same inkling of sadness that Lui had sensed earlier, "but perhaps it was fate."
"Fate has nothing to do with it. Kareiko could have easily run away and saved herself at any time. She could have returned to the village and never allowed our father to hurt me-"
"You're wrong about that. Kareiko had accepted her fate because she valued her family over her own life and happiness. It was only by chance that I passed the tea house that evening and decided to question her decision. While every human can make their own decisions, one cannot deny that there is some amount of external influence that we cannot control weighing in on our lives."
"So, you just met my sister and decided to have her follow you? That was all just something caused by fate?"
"No, I found her due to the influence of fate. What happened after that was due largely to our own human emotions." As Itachi finished his sentence, Lui's mind began to wander. She couldn't picture this man having any emotions, especially the positive ones such as love. She was sure that he must be speaking in some sort of cryptic code again.
"I'm tired of all of your embellishment. Just tell me why you wanted my sister to come with you in the first place!" Lui was beginning to grow physically and emotionally exhausted, and she couldn't bear to stand Itachi's mind games much longer.
Itachi surprisingly answered Lui very directly, "I wanted her to come with me because I truly believed I could protect her."
"Who would you possibly be trying to protect her from?"
"I've told you already that Kareiko wasn't full Kusagano, and that her chakra was immense. I was not the only one from my organization that would be able to notice that."
Lui's eyes suddenly shifted to the Itachi she was watching interact with the imaginary Kareiko, "You were trying to protect her from other members of the Akatsuki, then?"
Lui noticed that Itachi was watching the scene as well, "In a way, yes. I feared what would happen if someone with truly malicious intentions were to take control of her. She may not have been a tailed beast, but her true power was something that they may not ignore for much longer."
Lui furrowed her brow and looked Itachi square in his eyes, "So you decided it would be better for you to abuse her power and take her for yourself?! Don't talk to me like you were any better than the rest of those criminals! Don't-"
"You're getting it wrong, again. I never wanted to use Kareiko for my own sake," Itachi hadn't looked away from Lui, but the images around them transitioned again. Lui saw that they were in what appeared to be some sort of private room in an abandoned building. It was dark and in the dead of night, and the moonlight shining through an old window was all that was keeping them from being in total darkness. Lui turned to see Itachi and Kareiko speaking with one another; Lui noticed Kareiko was crying.
"What did you do to my sister?! You did nothing but torment her and eventually got her killed!" Lui had started to cry again as she pictured Itachi denying her sister's feelings for him. She contemplated what it must have felt like to have your heart broken, and then to be killed by the one whom you loved so dearly. She was so deep in her thoughts that she hadn't realized Itachi had left her side once again; perhaps he wanted her to just view the scene. Lui started to hear sound coming from her sister and the fictional Itachi.
Lui heard her sister's voice, "Why would you put yourself through something like that? Haven't you suffered enough?!" Kareiko's voice was heavily strained as she spoke, and it was clear she was trying to fight off tears.
"I didn't tell you to upset you. You asked me the truth, and I…I just couldn't deny it to you anymore. You need to know why you shouldn't follow me."
Kareiko had now thrown herself onto Itachi's lap and buried her head in his chest, "I've already said that it doesn't matter to me. Nothing that you could do would change what I feel for you, Itachi-sama. As foolish as I am, I am entirely certain about that one thing. You're braver than I could ever hope to be, and I don't want you to bear this burden on your own any longer. I know what it is like to carry the sins of your family on your back, and now neither of us have to face it alone." Lui quickly turned away as she saw her sister lean in put her lips to Itachi's; Lui had begun to feel that she was intruding on something that she shouldn't be. As she looked away, the scene behind her quieted.
The real Itachi started to speak, "I had tried to deny Kareiko's feelings since the start, but there came a time when I could no longer force her away. She pledged devotion and feelings of love to me, and I tried to keep my hardened exterior intact. Although, it was difficult to deny that I had developed feelings for Kareiko when she insisted upon following me no matter what I did to deter her." His voice had started to quiver, and Lui was now beginning to feel some of her hatred subside.
"Why didn't you just accept her feelings, then?" Lui found her anger again after remembering why Kareiko had died.
"It wasn't as simple as that. She was getting herself far too involved in my life, and I couldn't risk her ruining my plan or getting herself killed in the process. I had to tell her to go, for my own safety and for hers. I pushed my feelings aside and told your sister to return to Kakashi Hatake. I had hoped that she would remain with him, safe and away from me."
"So you're the reason that she went to see Kakashi that night? I thought she had finally just chosen him over you…" Lui had meant her statement to sting Itachi.
"I see," Itachi's voice sounded as is Lui's statement had caused him pain, "so she did go to him, after all."
"She stayed the night with him before she left to find Sasuke. I'd assumed you would have known that by now," said Lui with an almost caustic bitterness.
"No, I wasn't aware of that," Itachi's voice was very faint at this point, "I assume that you feel your sister would have lived if she remained with Kakashi."
Lui's face showed surprise, but in her heart she knew that she had felt that way. "Yes. But that shouldn't come as a shock. You're the one that killed her…" Lui felt her hand pulsing; she wanted to attack, but she had to remember that she was still trapped in Itachi's word.
Itachi heaved a sigh, "I had hoped that it would have been that simple, but nothing ever is. Kareiko Kusagano would have died either way. Her mind set wouldn't allow her to survive for much longer."
"I'm so tired of this nonsense! You're feeding me all of these lies and hoping that I'll forgive you, but I never will! How can I forgive you after what I saw you do?!" Lui cried out, and her face became red with rage.
"I'm not asking you to forgive me," said Itachi calmly, "I only want you to realize the truth. You believe what you saw to be the absolute reality, but you're neglecting everything that I've shown you up to this point."
"Show me the truth, then. Show me exactly what happened. Enlighten me, if you can," grumbled Lui. She had understood everything that she had been shown, but she couldn't ever accept that Itachi had a valid reason for ending Kareiko's life. She wouldn't accept it, but she was still somewhat curious to see what his explanation would be; Lui had very little time to reflect on her assertion, for Itachi had already started to play out the scene of Kareiko's death. Lui saw her sister, and the boy that she presumed must be Sasuke. Lui found him beautiful, yet terrifying at the same time; He also didn't waste any time before beginning to hack away at Kareiko.
Lui sprinted to her sister's side, "Stop it!" Lui threw herself in front of Kareiko and tried to halt Sasuke, although her efforts were in vain. The scene played out just as it had in the past; this was all just an illusion. Lui continued to try to stop it, however. She tried to fight and she exasperated herself in the process. She had started to sob in frustration, and she felt as if she was in agony. It was entirely too painful to watch something as this happen while being unable to intervene. It was something that anyone, and certainly a twelve year old girl, would be unable to handle. As Lui watched Kareiko fall to the ground, she failed to notice Itachi had appeared next to her once again.
"Kareiko died because she wanted to. You have to realize she refused to use her power to defeat my younger brother."
"That can't be true," Lui's weeping intensified, "my sister would never go to die."
"She died the death of a martyr, hoping that her life would serve to convince Sasuke that he was mistaken and going down the wrong path. She also felt that she would only ever bring sorrow to those around her, thus she willingly let her life come to an end."
Lui clenched her hands to tight fists, "You're asking me to believe that Kareiko wanted to die?!"
"I am telling you what she wanted to happen. However, I think that she saw that she was capable of bringing happiness to others during her final moments. She regretted making her hasty decision, and that is why she had hoped that I would come to her aid."
Lui rushed to his side and started pummeling his chest with her fists as she hollered, "Then why didn't you save her?! How could you…"
Itachi grabbed her fists tightly and looked into her eyes, "What would you have me do? Should I have killed my only brother to save the woman I cared about?" Lui looked at him and was convinced that she saw hints of tears in his eyes. "I couldn't face Sasuke yet. That confrontation would have only ended in disaster, and I couldn't die yet. You wanted me to choose Kareiko over my little brother, but could you have done something like that? I told Kareiko not to intervene with Sasuke, but she refused to listen. Her stubbornness forced her to get hurt, and there wasn't anything I could do to help her."
"You could have done something. If you cared so much you would have-"
"I chose to do something. I chose to end her life. When I finally reached Kareiko, she was so badly wounded. There was only one thing could be done. I take full responsibility for your killing your sister, but you now know why I made that choice. You should know that it was not something I took lightly, but I would rather take on another sin than to allow my brother to do so."
Lui finally understood. It still didn't seem fair, but it was the reality of the world that they were living in. Shinobi lived and died every day; that was nothing new to Lui or Itachi. However, it was much easier to kill when you were confronting an enemy rather than a loved one. Lui thought about how she had believed Kareiko to be her enemy in the past, and she thought about the love that existed between siblings. She realized that Itachi and Kareiko had been quite similar; they both always put their younger siblings above all else. Lui fell to her knees and stared, wide-eyed and confused as to what she should do next. The truth was not an easy pill to swallow, and without someone to seek revenge on she was feeling lost once again. She turned when she saw that the world of illusion finally seemed to be fading. She was once again at the spot where she had met Itachi.
Lui looked to Itachi, who was now walking away. "You're going now?"
"I've told you everything I had to say. There's no reason for me to remain here any longer," he said as he continued moving forward.
"Before you go, I want you to answer me two more questions," Lui said as she remained seated; she wasn't going to fight anymore. Itachi didn't respond, but he had stopped walking. "Did you love my sister?" Lui knew that her question was invasive, but she didn't care. She had to know.
"Love is just a ridiculous label. It is impossible for me to qualify what I felt for Kareiko."
"So, you didn't love her…" Lui had gotten the answer she expected.
"I never said that. Kareiko Kusagano was likely the only one who could truly understand the things that I've endured. That is why I told her the truth about myself and my clan, and why I let her remain with me for so long. Perhaps, if the conditions had been different, we would have been in what you would call love."
"Love it supposed to be unconditional," said Lui as she pushed a strand of hair from her eyes and thought of the endearing tales of love she had read about in the past.
Itachi exhaled deeply, "You'd like to assume that, but in our world it can't be that way. Being shinobi means putting conditions onto every facet of our lives. We are given extensive conditions by our village, and by our leaders. We are given conditions by the people we care about. We can even come to make our own conditions for situations we encounter in our lives. Though, maybe Kareiko and I will meet again someday. Maybe it can be a day when neither of us is bound by the rules of the shinobi." Itachi actually let out a small laugh, and Lui honestly believed that it was the most genuine thing she had heard come from his mouth the entire time.
"I'm not done. You said that Kareiko wasn't a full Kusagano, but you never said which clan she was mixed with."
Itachi's entire demeanor seemed to shift as he processed Lui's question in his mind, "The reason that your sister was so feared was because she possessed blood of the Kurama clan."
"The Kurama clan," Lui's mouth remained open as she tried to recall any information she'd ever learned about the Kurama clan.
"That's really all that I should tell you, but I suppose I should let you know that I am the one who took Kareiko's body."
"Why? Where is she?!" Lui had wanted so badly to build her sister a proper grave.
"I can't tell you that. Just know that I had to take her and put her somewhere safe." Itachi obviously wasn't going to elaborate any further, and he leapt away abruptly. Lui was confused as to what Itachi would have done with Kareiko's body; why would he need to put it somewhere "safe"? She wondered about this Kurama clan, and what could be so dangerous about them. She wasn't sure that she would ever get any answers to these questions, but she had to try.