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"Talking"
'Shukaku talking'
'Thinking'
Singing
The Devil in the Pale Moonlight
Chapter 20: Kirameku Namida Wa Hoshi Ni
The sounds of almost silent footsteps echoed through the halls of the Kazekage tower as a certain puppet master ran to his brothers office. A messenger woke him up causing him to be in a very irritable mood, but that quickly passed when he heard there was news about Katsura's condition. Now the make upped boy skidded to a halt in front of the Kazekage office to find out what happened. Temari has been sent on a short mission in the morning as a substitute Jounin for a team of Genin so she was due back shortly. The brunette quickly opened the door and stepped inside the office waiting to gauge what the news was based on Gaara. He looked and saw the red head standing facing away from him, his gaze was out the window. He watched the people below him but was eerily silent. He didn't even move to show his acknowledgment that his older brother entered the room.
"Gaara?" The elder spoke hesitantly. Gaara turned his head only slightly so Kankuro could see his morbid look. When the younger Sabuku looked back out the window thats when the other saw the scroll on the desk. "Is this from Kat? How long until that old hag will allow her to come back to Suna?" Kankuro walked over to it and picked up the small scroll only to see the Hokage's seal over the edge. He remembered that Katsura said if anything went wrong the Hokage would send the scroll and not her. His eyes wandered up to look at his little brother and mow understood why Gaara was acting to weird this morning. His heart ached, he knew there was some feelings for Katsura that Gaara held but now he will never get a chance to act on it, he probably will never try to love again. This confirmed that he can never love any one cause they will die even if he is not the direct cause.
Minagi walked in holding a stack of papers that were obviously too heavy for her. Her glasses slid down her nose just the slightest when she looked at the two solum brothers in the office. "Geez, what's wrong with you guys"
Kankuro was the one to turn to face the Secretary. "Kat… I mean, Katsura has passed away."
A loud thud of papers hit the ground scattering the documents all over the floor at the secretary's feet. She looked at Kankuro with a horrified and saddened expression, tears started filling up her in her eyes, she looked between the two boys and saw that the puppeteer was hanging his head and looked very sad while Gaara was silently staring out the window. Minagi walked over to the older of the two and hugged onto him while placing his head on her shoulder. The boy in face paint didn't seem to mind and remained there.
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Temari was completely fed up with everything, she swore that the next person who even looked at her odd was going to end up with a few broken bones. She had spent her entire morning babysitting a team of Genin on a D rank mission because their sensei was injured. Now normally she didn't have too much of a problem with kids but this just so happened to be a team troublemakers who lived off of creating mayhem and chaos. Temari smirked, of course now they should behave unless they want to meet the backside of her fan… again.
Thanks to the bunch of kids she now had a headache the size of the desert the surrounded the village. She dismissed them after the mission and the behavioral lesson with her fan, all she had to do now was give her report to her brother and be on her way. She stormed into the office and almost literally saw the dark cloud hanging over the group that was in there. Her scowl faded to concern when she saw that the secretary was in tears while her bothers had an aura of misery surrounding them, Gaara more so then Kankuro. The middle sibling locked eyes with his sister and handed over the scroll.
"She's gone" He whispered, he really would miss her. "Katsura is gone"
Temari's eyes went wide and looked over to her younger brother who was staring out the window. Call it woman's intuition or what ever but she would tell just by looking at the back of his head that he was mourning but he didn't really know how he should express it. For the first time in his life he found someone he cares for and now she is gone forever, just like their mom, just like Yashamaru. She unrolled the scroll and looked to see what Tsunade-sama said exactly. Her eyes narrowed at the paper and then looked up at her brothers. "All you of are idiots!" She yelled making everyone look at her, including Gaara.
"Temari!" Kankuro yelled at his sister. "He just lost someone important to him, you don't need to yell at him."
"Baka!" She yelled back at him glaring the signature Sabuku glare that would scare anybody but Kankuro was already used to it. "Did you even read the scroll?"
Kankuro looked at her confused. "No, but what's the point we know she's dead, it was sent by the Hokage."
"Gaara, did you read the scroll?" Her turned to her silent brother and her turned his entire body to look at her. At length he spoke.
"No, I couldn't…" He trailed off but the message was loud and clear, he didn't want to read it cause then it would be proof that her was really gone forever. The blonde sighed.
"Shall I read it then?"
'Dear Kazekage-sama,
This scroll is to inform you about the success of the sealing process regarding Gekkou Katsura. She told me of the arrangement of sending a letter if it was not successful but she did not account for all the possibilities of the process. The stress to her body was great and she fell unconscious, though she is expected to make a full recovery in a few days. Since she can not send you a letter in person I am sending one on her behalf.
Sighed,
Godaime Hokage, Tsunade'
The wind user looked at her brothers who wore a face of shock. The secretary was smiling brightly and hugged onto the puppet master tighter even though he was a bit confused as to why she still clung to him. When she looked at Gaara there was a glint in his eye to show his happiness. Temari swore she saw the corner of his mouth twitch up into an almost smile.
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In the Konoha hospital a soft voice rang out down the halls from one particular room. The heavenly voice drifted down upon the ears of one particular girl who was laying with her eyes closed, breathing steady and heart beating at a constant rate.
(A/N Translation in parenthesis)
Massugu na reeru ga iyade
(I hate being forced on straight rails,)
Yamikumo ni kakedashita
(And I blindly broke into a run)
Akirame wo ketsui ni kae te
(Changing resignation into determination)
Surihetta kakato hokoru
(Taking pride on the calloused heels)
Michi wa tsuzuku nishi e higashi e
(The road continues to the west, to the east)
Hi wa shi zundemo
(Even if the sun sets)
A hand reached out to stroke the soft brown hair cascading down upon the pure white pillow as the voice continued its soft melody. The person who was sitting next to the bed who was singing shifted making her ANBU gear cling as it hit one another.
Kirameku namida wa hoshi ni
(to the stars my glittering tears went)
Kaze ni nori sora wo kazaru
(they ride the wind and adorn the sky)
Tsukiakari kumo ni togiretemo
(and if the moonlight is blocked out by the clouds)
Boku wo terasu
(They still shine on me)
The purple haired woman finished her song and looked out the window. She hoped that the girl in the hospital bed would wake up soon. She looked down at her only daughter and her eyes started to water, it seemed like only a short time ago Hayate was teaching her how to handle a sword and now…
Yugao wiped her eyes to clear her blurry vision. She leaned back in the chair and waited. The day faded into evening, the sky was streaked with a barrage of colors casting over the horizon. Soft eye lids started to flutter over pale cheeks that hadn't moved in a few days. Slowly the lids pulled up revealing soft brown eyes, they darted about the room for a seconds trying to place where the owner was at. A soft grunt was heard as the girl in the bed slowly sat up though her body was in a lot of pain. Once again she looked around the room and she saw a sleeping form next to her in the chair, purple hair falling over the face and cradling her shoulders. A cough escaped Katsura's mouth waking the older woman in the chair. She instantly jumped up and captured her daughter in a hug. Katsura hugged back but a little awkwardly, after all she was still a teenager and it was still weird to hug her mom.
Yugao stepped back and smiled that her daughter had finally woken up. It had only taken… "Mom?" Katsura spoke with a slightly parched throat but it was nothing she couldn't deal with.
"How long have I been out?"
"About three days" The ANBU member spoke.
"oh… Gaara!" Katsura shouted in realization, she needed to send the letter to him fast so he will know how it went. She scrambled to stand but her entire body was sore and ached making her lose her balance and fall face first onto the cold hospital floor. Oh how she hated hospitals.
"You have been unconscious for a while, do you really expect you can just get up right away?" Yugao said with a smirk at her daughter.
Katsura sat up and smiled sheepishly with a blush of embarrassment staining her cheeks slightly. She slowly got up, with help from the bed, and crawled back underneath the covers of her hospital bed. "I need to send a letter to Gaara!"
"No you need to rest" An third voice spoke, this one sounded very irritable. The fifth Hokage walked into the hospital room with her assistant and the pig trailing right behind her, apparently one of the nurses passing through the hallway saw that Katsura was up and informed the fifth. "And we need to discuss your punishment."
"Tsunade-sama after everything thats happened I don't think-" Yugao tried to protest but a sharp glare from the older blonde cut her off.
"You don't think what? That is not necessary for her to receive punishment for her actions?" The Kage of the Fire Country asked harshly. "Do you realize she disobeyed a direct order from me, ran off disobeying orders from the commanding ninja on the team and put not only Team Kakashi, Team Gai, and Suna in danger but Konoha as well!"
Yugao opened her mouth to try and figure out something to say but nothing came to mind. Katsura spoke up from her hospital bed, her head was hung in shame. "I will accept my punishment"
A small smirk formed on the Hokage's face, "You will come to my office later tonight and we will discuss this then." Tsunade and Shizune walked out of the office leaving the mother and daughter alone once again. After a while of comfortable silence while Katsura's thought on a certain man that she loves Yugao had to leave to go on patrol duty with ANBU. She left her daughter alone in the hospital room, Katsura got up shakily from her bed and started to gather her things from the room. There was no way she was going to stay in the hospital longer the necessary.
Just as she finished getting dressed in her usual clothes did she hear a long sigh of boredom come from behind her. "How did I know you were going to leave" She turned to see her friend shaking his head in annoyance. "Troublesome woman" Katsura smiled brightly at Shikamaru.
"What are you doing here? I figured you would have just talked to me after I left" She chuckled after knowing thats probably what he thought of doing first.
The lazy one just shrugged and walked over to the unoccupied bed and sat on it, he leaned back and placed his hands behind his head while one leg crossed the other propping it into the air. "I came to visit you" He said nonchalantly making Katsura wonder what his real purpose was. She grabbed her sword off the wall next to the bed and strapped it onto her back while raising an eyebrow at Shikamaru.
"Really? When have you ever just felt like visiting me?" She said sharply, it wasn't to show that he didn't care about his friend it was just to prove that she knew him well enough to tell when he was lying.
He sighed and sat up with only one leg up and his arm resting on his knee. "Why must you be so troublesome? I needed to talk to you about the process." Katsura looked at the ponytailed boy but he lowered his own eyes to the ground. "I messed up. The seal is weaker then before"
All of a sudden Shikamaru felt two arms wrap around his shoulders. "If it wasn't for you I would be dead right now so I am grateful" He could see a small smile cross the genius's face. "Thanks… Shika-kun!" There was a groan of irritation and the girl just chuckled as she let go of her friend.
"So what now?" He asked laying back down onto the bed while Katsura grabbed her Konoha headband and tied it back onto her head.
"What do you mean?" The brunette asked a bit confused.
"With you and Gaara" He deadpanned at her. "What do you plan on doing about your relationship?"
"I haven't really thought about that" She spoke quietly " I just assumed that it would all work out"
"Yes because dating someone you may only see once in a blue moon will always work out." He shook his head and sighed.
"I just need to think but I will figure something out"
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"Come one Kakashi-san" The jounin stood reading his book trying to ignore the other man in front of him, after all Kakashi had to meet Naruto for training and he was already running 3 hours late like normal. "If we hang out together all the girls in town will flock to us."
"I don't really care" The silver haired man sighed in annoyance. "Hiro I don't even know what you are talking about"
"Come on woman love you" Hiro said obviously. "I think its the mask, you know it adds a sense of mystery," Kakashi just shook his head. "I bet you can just close you book and women will appear."
"I think thats a bit of an over exaggeration."
"Prove it" The purple and silver haired man said smugly. Just to shut up the other the copy nin closed "Icha Icha Tactics" it was then that a figure ran up to the two men.
"Kakashi-sensei, I have been looking for you forever" The pink haired Sakura ran up. Hiro smiled triumphantly while Kakashi looked both surprised and disturbed at the same time. Kakashi left with Sakura to find Naruto leaving the other jounin instructor alone with his thoughts.
'hmm, I wonder' Hiro slowly pulled out a piece of cloth from his ninja pouch and placed it over his own face making a makeshift mask of his own.
"Hiro-sensei" Katsura ran up to her teacher. "I need some advice from you"
"Seems to only work on students." He mumbled to himself as he took off the cloth. "Anyway why don't we go sit and talk alright"
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"So I don't know what to do" Katsura admitted after telling her former teacher everything that happened " I love him but we may never see each other and I don't want to be a burden to him"
"Katsura you can never be a burden." Hiro tried telling her. "You are a wonderful girl, he should feel lucky to have you." That still didn't make the young leaf feel any better. "The way I see it there are two ways to approach the subject of love. There's the 'if you love them they them go' way and if you meet again then its meant to be. Or there is the 'work you ass of to make it work' I usually never go that way but then again I never found someone who I want to do that for… not yet at least." Katsura sat in silence mulling over her teachers word's. Even though he never had a steady relationship, he still knew what he was talking about.
"Arugatou, Hiro-sensei" Katsura jumped up from the bench they were sitting at. "I guess I just need some time to think."
"Hey Katsura, I'm happy that you found love" Hiro called to her with a small smile, it was the second time he had said that to one of his students. To this day Katsura never found out about Jubei being in love with her but maybe it was for the best, She would only be saddened by this knowledge. He waved and watched his former student walk off.
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The young Chuunin trudged down the street to the Hokage tower, it was about the time when she had to show up to receive her punishment. She stopped just short of the winding stairs on the outside of the tower. The brunette sighed, if only she didn't disobey Tsunade-sama's first orders then she wouldn't have fallen ill and she wouldn't have had to stay in Suna. She sighed, 'Its not like I did anything to save Gaara anyways' That thought plagued her mind, she was only a burden the entire time of her stay in Suna. Now she was really unsure of what to do, the swordsman sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose and gave a long sigh. It was then that a mysterious masked ninja appeared right behind Katsura.
"I tried reasoning with the Hokage-sama but she has a punishment in mind already" The purple haired ANBU member said making the young girl jump slightly in surprise. She turned to look at a bear mask staring at her, right away she knew it was her mother Yugao. "What's wrong?"
"I was just thinking" Katsura answered her voice indicated her sorrow of the thoughts that have running through her mind. "If I didn't fall ill then I wouldn't have any problems, Maybe I'm not good enough for him."
The ANBU member removed her mask and looked down at her child who stared dejectedly at her own feet. Yugao looked at her only daughter, she had worked so hard in life though it seemed like everything had forsaken her. She was born with the illness, had no friends to turn to, her team was killed and now the one she loved had been in danger. And she feels like she could never help him. A small smirk appeared on the jounin's face. "Baka, you are really like your father." This of course confused her daughter but she listened anyway. "When your father first confessed to me I was a bit apprehensive. I didn't full know about his illness but I was convinced that he was weak because of it so naturally I rejected him" She looked down recalling the incident though she gazed as if looking into the past. She smiled a little remembering that day and how sad Hayate looked but also how he still tried anyway, "There was a mission we both were assigned to as well as a few others, Turned out the enemy knew we were coming and set up an ambush."
"Well we had to split up and it was me, Hayate and Izumo, how he got separated from Kotetsu I'll never know but, one of the guys attacked me. Your father got so mad he fought with no hesitation even though the enemy was stronger then he was. I saw then that he was a strong man and a great shinobi. It was then I fell in love with him. And I know you will and already have done the same thing"
The swordsman stared teary eyed at her mother a large smile crossed her face. She ran up and hugged her mother, "Thank you I know exactly what to do." Katsura said and ran off up the stairs and into the hokage tower. Once she was let into the Hokage's office she stood facing the leader with a smile and new confidence.
"Gekkou Katsura are you prepared to accept your punishment" The blonde leader spoke in a serious tone glaring over her hands that were resting in front of her face since she elbows were propped on the desk. Katsura nodded not caring what punishment was set up for her, she would serve it with no problem as long as she could send some letters to Gaara. "Good" an evil smirk appeared on the hime's face.
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This chapter was awful! And once again I am sorry for the late update for some reason the more time I have the less I do… I need to work on that. And to tell you the results from the unofficial poll Yes there will be a sequel to this story. Oh, the next chapter will be the last one for this story which makes me sad cause I liked this story but the sequel should be starting soon after. I will post a chapter on this one to let you know when I start it.
And for those who can't figure it out "Kirameku Namida Wa Hoshi Ni" which is the title is also the first line of the song and it translates to "To the stars my glittering tears went" I ran out of title idea's leave me alone… also I never mentioned last time that the song is the second opening to the anime "Fate/Stay Night" which is a great series.
Next Time: What is the punishment and how will this story end?
Please Review, Arugatou