Chapter 3
"How's the food? Everything good?" Mei asked.
Karasu nodded, "Yes, it's good, thank you grandma."
Mei smiled weakly to the response. Her heart was in pain over Karasu's loss. Keeping her composure was difficult.
"Grandma?" Karasu asked to break their moment of silence.
"Yes?" she replied.
"Do you really want to know what happened with my parents and grandpa?" Karasu asked.
"Only if you are ready to speak about it." Mei answered back.
Karasu let out a deep breath and explained to Mei everything that happened. The result was Mei in tears.
"I had no idea, that all this time, Don had been putting on an act... no, that's wrong. He was trying to forget, he was trying to adapt, he was trying to atone." Mei said. "And the Don I met all those years ago... he's been dead this whole time."
Karasu shook her head "Yeah, the Don who originally was born in this world was found dead shortly after my father arrived here. His death still remains a mystery. It's confusing to think how things might have been different if the Don of this world would have been my father. I wonder if they were alike in any way?"
Mei smiled softly, "They were fairly alike in the sense that they both did what they felt was right and were very protective of their loved ones, however I feel idiotic having never noticed a key difference."
"What was that?" Karasu asked.
"The Don I first met during his diplomatic mission around the world was a confident man. He was energetic, charismatic, and despite his recent loss of his team mate, still seemed to be a light in the darkness for all to see. Your father, however, quite the opposite. Instead of a light, he seemed more like a shadow, his eyes, those of which have seen death and dismay, fear and lack of certainty. You would never know because you knew your father as a jovial goofball; most people did. I only caught a glimpse of his true nature once or twice. I can only imagine how hard it was to hide the truth from everyone for so long." Mei replied.
"Grandma Mei?" Karasu said timidly.
"Yes?" she replied.
"I know this is coming out of the blue, but for what it's worth, thanks for being a mother figure for my dad... I'm happy you became part of my family." she said smiling.
"It has always been an honor. I was quite shocked when Don asked me to be a part of his family. Not having a mother of his own, I can see his need for that parental balance in his life. The best part was getting to see Natsu more" she giggled, turning red and twirling her hair.
Karasu smiled in embarrassment knowing Mei once had fallen in love with her grandfather a long time ago.
"May I ask why you brought that up all of a sudden?" Mei asked.
"After relocating to Amegakure, I ran into my grandmother." she replied.
"I thought your mother was an orphan?" Mei asked.
"Yes she is, but that's not the grandmother I was referring to." she said in a distasteful tone.
Mei gasped, "You mean Natsu's wife? I thought she had been dead for years?"
"See, that's what I thought too, but it looks like dear old grandmother ran out on my dad and grandfather. She claims she was too much of a free spirit to be tied down with a child and was too fearful of being a bad parent." Karasu said clinching her fists.
"That's so disgraceful. A parent running out on their child like that." Mei said.
Karasu gave her a disgruntled face, "Yea, tell me about it." she replied.
Mei curled her lips knowing she was referring to her father. "Sorry..." she replied timidly.
The two finished eating and went their separate ways to go to bed.
Just before Karasu went to bed, she lay awake staring at the paper Sasuke had given her which contained the symbol for the infinite tsukuyomi. As she became more tired and her eyes became more heavy from string at the piece, she felt herself drift into a trance. She realized it was like she was staring into a sharingan eye. It wasn't long before she fell asleep.
For a while, Karasu could tell she was standing in the middle of pitch black darkness. What she saw a few moments later, she would have never expected. In front of her was a young man with brown curly hair and brown eyes. He wore a black cloak with red clouds accenting the attire.
"Is that?" she thought to herself, then called out, "Dad!" but there was no response.
She chased after the young man as he headed toward a large shrine. "Hey, I'm talking to you, answer me!" she yelled, but again, there was no response.
The man finally stopped when he reached his destination. Karasu ran up to him to place her hand on his shoulder to yank him back to her attention. "Who do you think you are just ignoring me like that you jerk?!" she yelled, but when she went to place her hand on the man's shoulder, it slipped right thought him. She gasped in shock and her face went pale. She was frozen as the man walked off to the shrine.
"What is this? Am I a ghost? No... I have to be dreaming, but why does this feel so real?" she said to herself.
As the man approached the shrine's entrance, he stopped for a moment. Karasu took notice as the man reached into his cloak and pulled out a shimmering blue necklace. It was a sapphire raindrop with silver angel wings on the side. The necklace was glowing in an unusual fashion. The young man looked puzzled, and then tucked the necklace away, then entered the shrine.
"That was dad... he still has my necklace I gave him." thought to herself. She then followed her father into the shrine.
Karasu stood in the doorway of the shrine and watched as her father spoke to the priestess of the shrine. He was being quite rude to her and threatening her with violence. She was puzzled because this was not the Don she was raised by. Was this for real or just a dream?
The priestess sighed and opened up a hidden stairwell which resided below their feet. Karasu followed them down the steps. Don reached down to poke the priestess's butt, however was stopped when she caught him.
"Dad, you pig! How dare you try to touch another woman other than mom!" she screamed out.
They reached the bottom of the stairs and on a pedestal was a glass orb. The second Don grabbed it, the priestess held a knife to his throat. Their witty banter was childish but from what she deduced, her father and the priestess were once lovers.
"You're a traitor to the village and all of its allies. We trusted you and you betrayed us! I'll never forgive you, Don!" the woman shouted.
"Oh boo-hoo, Temari, your words hurt my feelings. You'll get over it. Besides, I really must be going. It was nice seeing you again, and just a helpful tip; next time you wear a disguise to fool me, wear something less revealing. I know your curves anywhere." Don replied winking at her and with a hand sign, a pillar of rock shot him to the surface, but not without causing rubble to fall from the ceiling to cave in Temari.
"He knows her curves that well?! When I get my hands on you, you cheating father, I'm going to kill you!" Karasu shouted.
Temari and Karasu pursued Don back to the surface overcoming the rubble which stood in their way. Temari opened her fan to its greatest extent and swung it as hard as she could towards the ground. Chunks of earth shot for Don with great speed. When Don turned around, he was hit by it all and by reaction, snapped his fingers, activating an explosion which shot Temari forward. Don caught her which made her blush a little but her expression quickly turned from fluster to anger. Before she could react, Don was struck down by her teammate Hinata.
Karasu watched as her father was brutally beaten down by Temari, Hinata, and their additional team member, Neji. Don's body was finally knocked into the river they were fighting by and was left in utter shock as she watched her father's lifeless body go over the waterfall that was a few hundred feet away from where they were.
"Dad, no!" she cried out running toward him, however before she could reach her father, she woke up.
She heard Mei talking to someone at the front door. She could somewhat understand what she was saying.
"Karasu's not here, I haven't seen her in years, but you're more than welcome to take a look around." Mei said.
Karasu immediately knew what was going on. The anbu had tracked her here and if she were discovered, she'd be killed. She grabbed her travel bag, quickly shoved her clothes inside it and escaped through the window. A few seconds later, the anbu entered her bedroom and looked around. They noticed the window was open and peered outside of it to see if Karasu was anywhere to be found but didn't see her. It was obvious the room had recently been occupied, by whom, they didn't know.
"So, Lady Mei, who was it that stayed over last night?" the anbu agent asked.
Mei realized that Karasu had escaped, she had to come up with a story to keep the anbu off her trail. "I had a friend over last night. We talked until the late hours of the night, so I let them stay here as a courtesy. They left early this morning before I awoke. I opened the window in there to let some fresh air in before I clean it. I'm sure you saw how messy it was in there."
The anbu looked over at the eating table and saw two plates out, "If your guest is gone, then how come you have two plates set at the table?"
Mei was caught off guard for a moment but then calmly replied, "I'm having breakfast with one of my old subordinates. I'll be expecting them in a while, so if you would excuse me, I really do need to get back to preparing breakfast."
"We have nothing more to do here, so we will go. Sorry to have disturbed you." the anbu said and left with his companions.
"Sir, do you really believe her story?" one of the anbu agents asked her leader.
"Not one bit, Karasu was there last night, I'm sure of it, but without solid evidence, we can't do anything about it. Karasu couldn't have gotten far so we need to fan out and search for her. Also send word back to base that we need someone to stake out Lady Mei's house in case Karasu ever returns." the leader replied.
Karasu had transformed herself to look like a different person and was just boarding the first boat out of the country. She was troubled that she didn't have time to rest like she has hoped, but she figured she'd either rest when she was safely with her father again or dead. As she lay in her bunk, she began to think about where her next destination was going to be. For now, it was obvious she could never return to Mei's house.
She remembered learning about the war at the academy and how devastating it was, however it did manage to bring the five great shinobi nations together and form a strong bond which produced many years of peace. The most important event to her from that war was the use of the infinite tsukuyomi. The man behind it all was Madara Uchiha. It was decided that she would visit the old remains of his hideout with the slight chance she might find some clues or information about how the infinite tsukuyomi works.
The next day, the boat arrived to the mainland and everyone disembarked. Karasu still remained in her disguise in the event there were anbu in the area looking for her. She headed north to where Madara's base of operations used to be; looking at her map, she estimated it would only take her a few days.
Meanwhile, in Konoha, an anbu captain stood before his subordinate.
"What news do we have about our escaped criminal?" he asked.
"Sir, we believe that Karasu was recently in Kirigakure visiting her grandmother, we are sorry to report that she eluded our grasp, right now, we are searching for clues as to where she may be going to next." the subordinate replied.
The captain smashed his fist into the wall, "Damn it! How incompetent can these agents be? What does it take to capture a little girl?!"
"With all due respect captain, this girl is the hokage's granddaughter, who was an anbu in his prime. No doubt he passed his teachings to his son, who in turn, passed it down to his daughter. She's staying one step ahead of us because she knows our tactics." the subordinate replied.
The captain remained silent for a few moments. He was riddled with anger how a sixteen year old girl was eluding highly trained agents.
"I just want her captured immediately. Her story concerns me. Dream world... man in a mask. I haven't heard talk like this since the war. Not since..." the captain began.
"The infinite tsukuyomi." a deep voice called out. "Forgive me, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation."
"Sasuke Uchiha, well, this is quite the surprise. What business do you have here with us at this time?" Captain Shirou replied.
"The girl you mentioned, Karasu, the story she told, it's very much in line with that of the infinite tsukuyomi, therefore it has now become my business." Sasuke said.
"What information do you have for us?" Captain Shirou asked.
"For starters, I know she is looking to recreate the infinite tsukuyomi for her own personal gain. I fear what will happen if she succeeds." he replied.
"Are you serious? She going to replicate that forsaken technique? Sasuke, how do you know this?" the captain asked.
"Simple really, because she told me." Sasuke replied.
"And you didn't strike her down right there?! Explain yourself!" Shirou shouted.
Sasuke turned away slightly and his face turned a light red, "She caught me off guard with a harem jutsu, comprised of nothing but my wife. In the split second of my vulnerability, she escaped..."
The room fell silent to the confession. Sasuke cleared his throat to cease the awkwardness.
"However, just because she escaped doesn't mean she will remain elusive for long." he said.
"Oh really, and why is that? She's evaded all of our agents thus far. What makes you so confident you'll be able to find her again?"
Sasuke smirked, "Because I know exactly where she's going to be."