And to think I was doing so well up to this point… Well, I suppose the last chapter being the only late one isn't so bad. I had a test and a project due yesterday. It was literally 9 PM before I stopped to think 'Oh yeah, the epilogue was supposed to go up today…' And at that point, I just wasn't sitting down to type it up. So here we are now.

Epilogue: Closure

Everything changed after the hospital visit, though not as much as Matsuri had been expecting. Hisako was soon cleared to go home, with no lasting effects but the headache that was to be expected. And that would fade.

But Hisako herself seemed more than fine. A little melancholy at times, but Matsuri had not seen a single occasion of her daughter just blanking out the way she used to. As if the injury had knocked something back into place that had been missing. But Matsuri tried not to linger on that thought.

Things began to return to normal. Hisako was allowed to return to school, though any physical training was restricted until further notice from her doctors. But even the standard lectures she seemed to find fascinating now. Matsuri had noticed a new energy in her daughter since her return home. She'd always been aware of Hisako's intelligence, but now she approached the world with a new enthusiasm. Matsuri couldn't sense these changes. She had not discussed the severity of her injury with Hisako in much detail. So a newfound appreciation for life seemed like an extreme conclusion for a six-year-old to have come to, but Matsuri didn't question it too much. She would not soon forget the way it had felt to sit in that hospital room, bargaining with unseeable forces for her daughter's wellbeing.

And she was keeping up her end of that bargain. Matsuri had taken up meditation in the weeks since Hisako's recovery. She wasn't sure what the goal was, exactly. A better grip on her own mind, perhaps. In any case, she left the hospital that day with a renewed determination to focus on her own family… and leave Gaara to his.

Which seemed to be for the best. He had since taken in the girl who'd been with them that day as well. Matsuri sometimes felt overwhelmed by her one child. She couldn't imagine how he was managing to look after three and run a village. It suddenly felt selfish to ask anything more of him.

No one tried to teach you balance when you were a kid. Shoot for the stars, they said. Don't limit your dreams. But Matsuri had spent a long time learning that limits were healthy, particularly when your dreams and desires involved other people. Matsuri was never going to live that picture-perfect fairy tale life so many little girls dreamed of. But that didn't feel like such a loss anymore. Life was what you made of it, and Matsuri was aiming to make the best of the rest of hers.

It was a little disorienting how much both everything and nothing had changed.

My puzzle was complete, and I was no longer plagued by a persistent, creeping feeling of wrongness. Veronica and Hisako were able to comfortably share the space where my name belonged. But this other identity was still finding its place alongside my time as Hisako.

So much of this second life had been spent chasing after the memories of my first… only to find a girl who'd been rather aimless. Now that my first life had been regained, I missed Jenna fiercely, but my time as Veronica still felt… empty. I had spent seventeen years hoping to siphon off some of her charisma and drive. That was no way to live a life.

Hisako was going to do things right; I would make sure of that. It was time to stop chasing the past and start looking towards the future. A future that was unfolding before me a little more each day.

I'd returned to school after a few weeks of my mother keeping me close. And to the untrained eye, it would appear that everything had returned to normal. And sometimes the monotony did make it feel like nothing had changed. But I knew better. Shinki had welcomed me back in his restrained way—but I could tell he was relieved at my recovery. The day I came back, Araya looked at me head on for the first time… from behind the new mask he'd taken to wearing. He'd always been perceptive, and the mask gave him the courage to face the world and observe everything even more thoroughly. And I didn't have to look far to see where the idea had come from. A third addition had joined our little row in class. Cast on her arm, scowl in place, Yodo seemed as pleased to see me as the other two, in her own way. I had heard that she'd officially become Shinki and Araya's sister in my absence. There was something about Yodo that was still a little wild, but she was undeniably happy with this new development.

And, with my friends and family at my side, I was ready to go forward and make my own happiness. When I'd first entered the academy, it hadn't been due to any passion of my own. As I'd told Shinki, my mother was a shinobi, and so I was simply riding the current, unconcerned with where it might take me.

Now I saw every boring lecture in a new light. Now that I knew my past and remembered how limited my first life had been, this world felt magical. I was excited to see more of it. And if the simplest way to do that was to get good enough as a ninja to be sent on missions outside of the village, so be it. Maybe this wasn't exactly the burning desire to protect my homeland that my sensei wanted to see in all his students. And maybe in the long run, the life of a kunoichi wouldn't be for me. Maybe I would retire early and find some other way to travel the world and feel fulfilled. But maybe there were more surprises in store for me. And I was excited to find out.

I wondered about Jenna sometimes. I had come to understand that our friendship had not been so lopsided after all. One of us had just not fit into the world quite as well as the other. I wondered if she'd found something else to ground her the way I once had—some way to ground herself. I hoped so. Jenna had had such a bright future head of her. And now I was looking forward to figuring out mine.

The End

Review please!

I don't own Naruto.

This story started out with just an image in my head of two very different little girls… and morphed into the one who felt inadequate getting a redo on what she felt was a disappointing life. I think I mentioned in an earlier chapter that I also wanted to play with the idea of an OC who'd been reincarnated but didn't remember her past life right off the bat the way so many of the ones I've seen do. In case anyone was wondering, the song this fic is loosely based on is Six Degrees of Separation by The Script. I'd been listening to it nonstop around the time I first started planning out this story, and pretty soon a song listing the steps of dealing with a breakup started to sound pretty fitting for a reincarnate coming to terms with leaving their past life behind. I realize that this conclusion is a little open-ended… for both sides of the story. For Hisako, that was always the intention. She needed to understand her past life before she could really approach her new one with any sort of ambition. Matsuri's is a little more difficult. But what can I say? Sometimes there aren't perfect endings. Frankly, I wish more stories were about crushes that are never requited or cleanly resolved. It may not be as satisfying, but it just feels more realistic to me. Anyway, if you've made it all the way to the end, thank you joining me!