Chapter 2

"You're my grandmother?!" Karasu exclaimed. "How is that?!"

"Calm down, Karasu, this is just as much of a shock to me as it is to you. I didn't realize it until just a few seconds ago when I saw the picture of your father. He looks exactly like Natsu when he was Don's age." Hamako replied.

"I don't understand, how come no one has ever mentioned you ever before?" Karasu asked completely shocked at this new discovery.

Hamako frowned and her heart began to race as sadness overwhelmed her. "It's a bit of a touchy subject, but as you are my own kin, you deserve to know the truth. The reason no one ever talks about me is because I am a deserter. A short time after Don was born, I fled the village never to return again. As much as your grandfather tried to stop me, he ultimately failed and disappeared from his life forever. He took it very hard and I became dead to him."

"I don't understand, why did you leave?" Karasu asked.

"Because I was being selfish." she replied. "I was always the adventurous type, I couldn't be tied down in one place for very long, but most of all, I wasn't ready to be a mother. No, that's no completely right. I was just too afraid of being a failure of a mother. My fear got the best of me and I ran..."

Karasu's eyes turned from sadness and curiosity, to anger. She stood up screaming "You ran out on my dad and grandfather all because you didn't want to be tied down and thought you were going to be a crappy mom?! Do you even realize the damage you caused for them, especially my dad? Do you even realize the life my dad has had to live because he didn't have you in his life? He was completely consumed by darkness. All he felt was loneliness and pain! Your fear came true, you turned out to be a failure of a mother!"

"Karasu... I..." she began but was cut off.

"Don't you dare say you are sorry. That's all I've been hearing from the people who've hurt me lately. Leave now, I don't ever want to see you ever again!" Karasu said, her rage consuming her and her face beginning to become extremely red.

Hamako left the house with tears running down her face.

"I can't believe it. I just can't believe it. That woman is my grandmother. The scum who walked out on my dad and Grampa. All these years and she never even once tried to return home and make amends for her actions. At least dad did everything in his power to own up to his actions... well, now I see where he got his desire to leave villages from." Karasu said to herself. She continued to clean the house for the rest of the day and by the end of it had everything prepared the way she wanted it.

The very next day, Karasu retrieved some money from her account and went to the market. There she bought new clothes, food, and other supplies for herself. The truth about her grandmother shook her emotions even more. She didn't want to stay here any longer so she decided to pack her things and travel. Hitting the road always calmed her and gave her a chance to think about things and overcome them. Before she left, she sent a messenger hawk to her intended destination to inform that she was going to be arriving in the next couple of weeks.

Karasu spent many lonely nights on the road staring into her campfire thinking about all that had happened recently: her mother and grandfather dying, her father abandoning her, and now her grandmother. She knew it would take time to come to terms with everything, the hardest part was figuring out how.

A couple of weeks went by and she finally reached her destination, the village of Kirigakure. Waiting for her were two mist village ninja. They escorted her to where she would be staying for her duration in the village. When they reached a house in a secluded corner of the village, the escort ninja left Karasu. She then knocked on the door, and within a few moments, heard the sound of someone walking to the door, and unlocking it. When the door opened, there stood Mei Terumi.

"Karasu, it's so good to see you, I'm so happy you decided to come visit!" she said happily opening her arms for a hug.

Karasu hugged Mei, "Grandma Mei, it's so good to see you too!"

Mei noticed that Karasu's hug was slightly different than normal, as if something was bothering her. "How have you been?" she asked smiling at her.

"I.. I've been fine..." she said trying to hide her true emotions.

Mei chucked at Karasu, "You know, Karasu, I can tell when something is wrong with someone. I remember when your father would try to hide his emotions from me but I'd see right through him. Call it mother's intuition."

"It's nothing, I promise." Karasu said timidly.

Mei looked at her sternly, "Karasu, please don't take me for a fool. I know what's going on. Even if I couldn't see through your blatant lie right now, when were you planning on telling me your grandfather and mother are dead and that your father is missing?"

Karasu turned red with shame and anger and burst out, "Just shut up! It's none of your business! I didn't come here so I could be interrogated by you!" she then walked out the door slamming it behind her.

Mei sighed placing her hand to her face, "Way to go Mei, you see your granddaughter for the first time in years and this is how you start." She then headed out the house to pursue Karasu.

Mei saw Karasu in the distance and ran to catch up to her. "Karasu, stop!" she called out to her. She quickly caught up to Karasu and stopped her from continuing any further.

Karasu had tears in her eyes. Mei just embraced her. "Karasu, I'm sorry for snapping at you like that and upsetting you. I can only imagine the pain you are going through. I let myself get get carried away and allowed myself to get pushy. You should take this at your own pace and open up to me when you're ready. Please forgive me."

Karasu broke away from Mei, "I need to be alone for a while." she said as she began to walk off again.

"I'll have dinner ready for us in a couple of hours, so be back home by then, ok?" Mei called out to her.

Karasu just raised her hand to her in acknowledgment. Some time later, Karasu reached a secluded strip of shore. There she sat and stared off into the horizon and reflect on everything swirling around her mind. She balled up and began to tear up again. From behind she heard an unfamiliar voice.

"Karasu, is that you?"

Karasu looked up to see an older man in his late thirties, standing before her. He had black hair and black eyes. His attire was also black and on the back of his shirt, was the family emblem of the Uchiha. He softly smiled at her.

"Who are you?" Karasu asked squinting her eyes at him.

The man bowed, "I am Sasuke Uchiha of the Hidden Leaf, and might I say, you are quite the difficult young ninja to track down."

Karasu's eyes shot open and she jumped to her feet and drew a kunai from her sleeve. "Back off, if you value your life, you will leave me alone!"

Sasuke held his hand up to her, maintaining he composure. "I am not here to harm you Karasu. I am here merely to offer you my assistance and information."

"How do I know you aren't here to kill me?" Karasu asked.

"If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't have bothered calling out to you, now would I?" he replied giving her a cocky smile.

Karasu glared back at Sasuke, "You do have a point..." she replied letting down her guard.

"I know you were sitting down earlier, mind if I join you?" Sasuke asked.

"I guess so." Karasu replied as she sat back into the sand, followed by Sasuke.

"I'm glad I finally found you. When I received news of what happened, I rushed to Konoha to see you but when I arrived, word was that you had disappeared. I spoke with some anbu agents and they told me the story you gave them. I realized it was definitely important that I see you." Sasuke said.

"That's nice and all, but why did you want to see me in the first place?" Karasu asked.

Sasuke smiled softly, "I'm your godfather."

"Godfather, huh? So why does it take my mother and grandfather's murder, and then my dad's disappearance for all these random 'family' members to start showing up?" Karasu asked.

"Your father never spoke of me to you? Wow, that asshole. We've been friends since childhood. I guess that's what happens when you don't see friends for years. You miss out on seeing them have kids and getting to know their family and such. With a man like Don, it's to be expected..." Sasuke replied.

"Can you cut to the chase now? I really did come out here to be alone. Unless what you are about to tell me is really all that important, please go." Karasu said becoming irritated.

"Trust me, you'll want to hear this." Sasuke replied.

"So what was it you wanted to talk to me about?" she asked.

"I'll start by asking you, if you could see your father again, would you take that opportunity?" Sasuke asked.

Karasu looked at him puzzled, "What do you mean, what kind of question is that?" she replied.

"Answer the question; it's rather simple, it's either yes or no. If you say yes, then what I have to tell you would benefit you greatly, if the answer is no, then I'll be on my way." Sasuke replied.

She wanted to say no. At this point in time she was despising her father so much, but the curiosity peaked her interest. To see her father again? How would that even be possible? He went back to his reality, leaving her in his dream world. A thought crossed her mind, what if she could see her father again? She could exact her revenge upon him, to the extent of taking his life...

"So what will it be Karasu? I know right now it must be difficult on you, but surly you'd want to see your father again." Sasuke said.

"Yes, I would like to see him again. My biggest question to you is how is that going to happen?" she asked.

"It's going to be the same way your father came here, however with a minor difference." Sasuke said.

"So I'm going to be sent to my father's world by use of sharingan on a full moon that's blood red, but what's the difference?" she asked.

"Well in a sense yes, but not exactly. You see the jutsu that was used on your father wasn't originally an optical jutsu. It turns out, it was a jutsu created and developed on pen in paper by my clan. It was a powerful jutsu but the problem was that it wasn't practical in use because there was so much preparation that went into it that being able to trap a target into the jutsu was very much impossible. After many generations of experimentation, the Uchiha were able to use the sharingan to implement it instead of the original methods of executing the jutsu." Sasuke explained.

"So if I'm understanding what you are getting at here, if I want to see my father again, I'm going to need to perform the jutsu the old fashioned way?" Karasu asked.

"Yes, you understand perfectly. You are quite the bright one." Sasuke said.

Karasu just rolled her eyes at the comment, it didn't take a genius to understand what Sasuke was saying.

"So how do I go about performing this jutsu?" Karasu asked.

"Well, that is where things get a little tricky. Given how long ago the jutsu was originally created, much of the records with that information have been lost in time. In order to perform the jutsu, you'll have to do the research on your own and solve that puzzle." Sasuke replied.

Karasu sighed "Just great, I have to figure all of this out on my own. Of course I have to do things the hard way, why would I be given any breaks after all that's just happened?" continuing her statement frustrated.

Sasuke placed his hand on her shoulder, "Have faith in yourself, Karasu. You're Don's daughter, after all. It's in your blood to adapt to the harshest of situations and weather the storm. Don did some of the most impossible work when he was younger and came out alright. I have faith in you."

Karasu and Sasuke stood up, by now it was time to return home for dinner. "Thank you for your information, Mr. Uchiha, but I really need to go."

"It was my pleasure, and one last thing." he said pulling out a piece of paper and handing it to her. On the paper had concentric circles with a design which much resembled the sharingan but in a much older fashion. "Take this. It's the only thing I could find regarding the subject in my family's secret vault. It's not much but I hope it will become of use to you later down the road."

"Thank you for this." Karasu said as she began to walk off, "And one more thing Mr. Uchiha..."

"Yes?" Sasuke replied.

"Please don't call me Don's daughter ever again. I don't want to be associated with that vile man." she replied and continued back home.

Sasuke let out a sigh and shook his head. "One day your anger will subside and you will find the truth Karasu. Until then, take care." he said quietly to himself while watching Karasu walk away.