Mini time skip of three weeks. Nikujaga is meat and potatoes, a western fusion dish in Japan that normally contains a broth, dashi, rather than tomatoes.

Anaguma is Badger.

"…Can we stay on what you said for just a moment?" Yuko-san's voice remained calm, and her face even, but something felt off. Sasuke wanted to leave. "Do you believe Itachi had a reason for his actions?"

He blinked. "What?"

"You said 'I know he did it for a reason'."

Did he really say that? It was difficult to sit in these sessions and give Yuko just the right amount of truth mixed in with his lies. Mother said he shouldn't talk about the ghosts, and he didn't, but after three weeks of discussions of going back to school and his new house, it was growing a bit difficult to be dishonest.

"I mean," Sasuke wracked his brain for an explanation. "He must have believed he did it for a reason."

"Do you believe he did everything he did for a reason?"

There was no belief, there was only fact. Only what the ghosts could reveal, since the living wouldn't and couldn't. Sasuke would have to keep better track of his words from now on.

With that thought firmly in mind, he shrugged, staring at the clock. 5:28. He was almost free. He wouldn't have to think about it, as long as Yuko didn't push.

But as they wrapped up, Yuko said, "For your journal, I have a question I want you to think about."

Sasuke groaned inwardly. He already had too much schoolwork. He stared at her silently.

"Would Itachi's 'reason' change how you feel?"

And with that bombshell, she let him go.

Would Itachi's reason change how you feel?

Sasuke walked out the door, carrying lead legs to a nearby bench. Even though the hour he spent with Yamanaka Yuko wasn't shuriken training, or any exercise, he always felt wrung out afterwards.

Would Itachi's reason change how you feel?

How did Sasuke feel, anyways? He pulled out his journal.

Having a chakra locked book helped him keep track of the ghosts, without anyone asking about why he was writing his dead relative's names over and over. That was all, he thought, as he touched his chakra to the lock, pulling out a pencil.

(A very long time ago, when Itachi was just his brother, just family, he could do no wrong. Once, Itachi accidentally broke one of his wooden kunai. Sasuke cried for all of thirty minutes, before a harried Itachi came back, holding a green dinosaur.

"Neko-baa always says you apologize with a gift," Itachi said, looking at Sasuke as if he were the Hokage and Itachi failed a mission. He stood at the doorway where Sasuke was still wiping his eyes. Itachi bowed, far deeper than he should for his little brother, and held out the dinosaur. "I'm sorry, Sasuke. Please forgive me."

And in that moment, it didn't matter that his kunai was in pieces. He launched towards his older brother, nearly smacking him in the head with the force of his hug. And it was all okay again. He told everyone named the stupid thing Jun. In reality, he named him Anaguma-san, because Sasuke was an idiot and looked at his brother like he held all the stars in the universe in his hands.)

If Itachi's reason was to save him, then no, it wouldn't change how he felt. In fact, there was nothing that could change how he felt. Anaguma-san would remain in his old, bloody house, just like the brother Sasuke had. Sasuke's lungs burned, but he inhaled shakily, continuing to scribble.

"Uchiha-kun?"

He startled, flipping the journal closed and looked into brown eyes. Ino's mother. She knelt in front of him, tissues in hand. "I didn't mean to startle you, but you seem upset."

With burning cheeks, he accepted the tissue, wiping at his eyes angrily. "I'm fine."

"It's okay to cry, Uchiha-kun."

He wrinkled his nose. It sounded like she was talking to someone else, someone with much more of a clue of what was going on. He didn't want to answer that last part, so instead, he said, "You can call me Sasuke."

"Okay, Sasuke-kun." Without another word, she sat next to him, tissues separating them. "Therapy is difficult, and tiring. You're very brave for coming here."

Why was she talking to him? He swallowed his I'm not, before shrugging, looking at his kicking feet.

"In my years of coming here, after becoming a shinobi, it's never been easy," She said, and he looked over at her, wide-eyed. He was only here because he had to be. Why would Ino's mother come here? "And grief is so difficult to carry."

But she had family. Had Ino, and her father, and the other Yamanaka. Had them there, alive. Still, "How did—" he tripped over his tongue, but Ino's mother remained patient. "How did you…carry it?"

Ino's mother had a heavy look in her eyes. "Not well. I've only stopped carrying it alone." But her face brightened a bit, a moment later. "I think that helps Ino too—tonight, I'm making her favorite, tomato nikujaga."

Tomato nikujaga? Nikujaga didn't have tomatoes; he had made it with his mother multiple times. Sasuke had never heard of such a thing. It sounded odd.

(It sounded delicious.)

Unfortunately for him, his stomach rumbled at the same time.

Ino's mother smiled, and finally, Sasuke could see the resemblance. "Would you like to come over for dinner tonight, Sasuke-kun?"

Before Sasuke could say no, Ino finally walked out of her own room. She paused immediately, taking in Sasuke, then her mother, then the two at once.

"Hi Ino," her mother greeted. Sasuke started to turn away, hoping Ino couldn't see the red in his eyes, "How are you?"

"I'm fine." Her voice was a bit hoarse, like she also finished crying.

….Maybe it was normal to cry, afterwards. It's what his mother would also say, but there was a difference between someone saying it and seeing that he wasn't alone.

He had his family, of course. He had his friends. But it was still…cold, in a way he couldn't describe to anyone.

"Sasuke!" His own mother had flown through the wall. "I'm sorry I'm late, are you ready to walk ho—" She looked at Sasuke, then Ino, then her mother, and grinned. "I see there was nothing to worry about, then."

"—suke-kun?"

Sasuke blinked. Ino's mother stared at him, one eyebrow raised.

"What?"

"I was asking if you still wanted to come to dinner tonight."

"But Mama," Ino whined at her side. "It's nikujaga night."

Her mother had a sly grin on her face. "I seem to remember someone telling me that you and Sasuke both loved tomatoes. Am I wrong?"

Ino's face was red, but she sighed, glancing briefly at what was probably Sasuke's cheek. "Fine."

"Thank you for your permission, Ino," she joked, turning back to Sasuke. "Would you like to come for dinner, Sasuke-kun?"

He was stuck between a rock and a hard place, Ino's mother and his own. He didn't have to turn to know his mother would think it was a great idea.

"That's a great idea, Sasuke!"

Mother was spending too much time with Shisui, Sasuke was sure.

—

Sasuke had passed the Yamanaka compound before, but had never come inside. It was smaller than the Uchiha Compound, but each house was larger. Maybe more families lived together?

He could see a greenhouse in the distance, but he couldn't see what they were growing. Mother was going to help him plant tomatoes when it was time.

Sasuke, Ino, and Yamanaka-san rounded a bouquet of flowers at the front, of which he could only recognize the daisies from Mother's garden.

Ino's home was connected to the flower shop. As they passed through, Ino lingered on some flowers—sunflowers, he thought. Now that he thought of it, how did the Yamanaka have flowers all year round?

"Dinner will be ready in about an hour." Ino's mother said as she walked into the kitchen.

"Thanks Mama!" Ino gave her a wide smile, and Sasuke was oddly reminded of Shisui. "We'll head to the gardens for a bit."

"Make sure you finish your homework!"

"I will!"

The smile dropped. Ino began walking away, and Sasuke, bemused, followed.

Sasuke thought he had seen gardens before, but the Yamanaka Gardens were enormous, covering a wide field. When the flowers blossomed, it would look like a meadow. Sasuke didn't like flowers as much as Fusao and Aimi did, but he could appreciate them.

Ino walked alongside stone steps, reaching a small fountain that burbled quietly. At the fountain, she stopped abruptly, frowning. Then, she put her hands together. "Release!"

Sasuke couldn't even see a difference, but Ino nodded, satisfied.

"Why did you try to dispel a genjutsu?" Sasuke asked.

Ino looked in his general direction, then waved a hand towards the fountain. "My clan calls it Mind Games," she explained. "A genjutsu on a bouquet, changing the color of a vase, things like that. The fountain has three streams of water, not two. It's supposed to help our observation skills, but my clan plays more Mind Games with me since I can't—" she cut herself off abruptly, and Sasuke was left with so many questions. Can't what?

"There's a separate exit from here," Ino said quietly. She pointed to the far left, past the shrine. Sasuke could barely make out an opening behind the shrubbery. "You don't have to stay, if you don't want to. I can tell my mother you felt sick or something."

This wasn't the same Yamanaka Ino that would ask him out on a date. Nor was this the same Yamanaka Ino that would follow him home from school. In the past three weeks of schooling, she never looked him or Iruka-sensei in the eye, and barely spoke. This Ino looked like she'd rather leave her own compound than spend more time with him.

Maybe that was why he didn't immediately take her offer.

"Why don't you look at anyone anymore?" slipped out of his mouth before he could stop it. Ino grimaced, before slapping on a smile, staring at what was probably the bridge of his nose.

"I'm looking at you right now!"

"You're lying." It came out with more intensity than Sasuke intended, and Ino's smile disappeared.

"It doesn't—" matter, she was probably going to say, but she cut herself off, shaking her head.

But it did, somehow. Father said that eye contact was important, with or without the Sharingan. Not that Sasuke missed the attention, but it seemed like at every turn, there was Ino, either in class with him or outside Yuko's office, looking terrified out of her mind for no apparent reason.

It didn't line up; she missed enough school that she was now in the same position as Sasuke. Shisui asked about the Yamanaka in his class. Ino lied about being sick. Even if she were telling the truth, being sick wouldn't mean attending therapy twice a week, like him. She might have been going longer than Sasuke, but for their schedules to match up so perfectly…

There was a connection. Sasuke was missing something.

Ino continued staring at her feet, for a moment, then, "Do you have the Sharingan, Sasuke?" She pronounced each syllable slowly, like it was a new word for her.

Sasuke frowned. "Why?"

"Just asking."

And since it was such a strange question, Sasuke answered with the truth. "Not really."

"What does that mean?"

"None of your business."

Ino mouthed 'not really', deep in thought. Sasuke looked around the Gardens. The sun had finally begun to set, bringing out the sparking light of the ghosts. Yamanaka ghosts were drilling holes into Sasuke's skull. Shisui was conspicuously absent. Among the living, Sasuke could have sworn he saw one window curtain swish shut when he stared at a house.

"Okay."

Sasuke looked back, and Yamanaka Ino met his eyes for the first time in over two months.

This wasn't the same Ino in his class before everything went wrong, Sasuke thought. That Ino would grin and point at Sasuke's desk, strolling over without a care to ask him to go on a picnic. That Ino held eye contact like it was a given.

This Ino looked too unsure, blue eyes wide and wobbling, but she still held his gaze. "I'll trust you, but you better not be lying."

He didn't understand her issue with eye contact, or the Sharingan. But he could barely focus on that when something was so odd about her tone: she sounded too earnest. It was just eye contact. Still, Sasuke found that his throat had closed.

No one had ever said they trusted him like that before.

Instead, he nodded back. He sat at a safe distance, still wary, but Ino didn't move closer. She rested on the fountain's edge, and Sasuke brought his knees up to his chest.

After five minutes of waiting for Ino to say something, Sasuke gave up on focusing. He watched the ghosts fly by, chattering or walking or flying through trees. A few glanced at him, but they didn't pay him much mind. He hadn't been around many ghosts besides his family, but this was…fine. Good, even.

There was no task, no obligation to anyone. No Fire Dances to coordinate for their ascension. They were… people, Sasuke thought. Telling jokes high in a tree, singing loud and off key. They were just people.

Sasuke looked at Ino through the corner of his eye, but her eyes rested on the trees in the distance. Sakura trees, Sasuke thought. She seemed 'in her own world' too, as Auntie Hana would say. He found he didn't mind.

The silence stretched until the sun had finally gone down.

Ino paused as Sasuke tasted Mama's nikujaga, and watched black eyes widen. She couldn't help a small smirk. Nothing tasted as good as Mama's nikujaga.

Her feelings felt a little closer today. Maybe that was why she cried in Mayu-san's office, deep, deep sobs because the days hadn't stopped smearing together, like the red and black paint on her hands. Maybe that's why even two seconds of eye contact felt like a day of InoShikaCho training.

But when she glanced at Sasuke in her peripherals, his eyes were just black. Not red.

(Red and black and red and black and—)

Ino shook her head to clear it. She'd been drawing the sharingan a bit too much lately. Maybe she should go back to drawing Masae. Or Kato and Ryu. "Where's Daddy?" She asked.

"He's probably a bit tied up at work. He should be home soon." Mama had a small frown.

Ino matched it. "You said that yesterday." Daddy missed dinner again, just like he was the day before, and the day before that, and the day before…

Ino looked towards her father's empty chair that Sasuke now sat across.

Did Daddy not want to be around her anymore? Ino knew he worried about her and whether Ino was wearing the bracelets. Maybe it had gotten to be too much for him.

But Sasuke was here. She couldn't dwell on it. She took a bite of meat to prevent herself from protesting, while Sasuke stared between Mama and her like they were playing shogi. Mama stared pointedly at Ino's sketchbook, but Ino didn't want to put it away. She was almost done coloring her new drawing.

They finished the meal in relative silence. From the way Sasuke's spoon scraped the bowl, Mama's nikujaga had a brand new follower. Sasuke would have to get in line, behind Ino and Choji.

"So, Sasuke-kun," Mama said as they cleared the plates, "How has after school been for you?"

"It's fine." He fidgeted in his chair. He had tried to help, but Mama refused. "Loud."

At Mama's confused look, Ino looked up from the dish she was drying. "He means Naruto."

It was honestly impressive how often her classmate found himself in trouble. Somehow, Naruto glued their last tests together right after Iruka-sensei graded them.

Everyone ended up with full marks, since Sensei didn't want to go through the process again. Naruto got detention for the month, and, somehow, became an temporary unwilling participant in Ino and Sasuke's after school class.

It sucked for Naruto, since he had already learned the material. At least, he was supposed to know it. Sasuke and Ino had developed an unspoken pact to not tell Iruka-sensei they did their homework while he disciplined his unruly student.

Mama shook her head, the way she always did about all things Naruto. "That child has no respect," she sighed. "No manners at all."

Ino couldn't truly understand Mama's reaction, sometimes. She was mad at Naruto because he was annoying and didn't understand personal space. Ino didn't understand why Mama and Choji's mom didn't like him so much, or why Auntie Yoshino never said a thing about him. Em-pa-thi-sing with people was important, Daddy would say, and she ranted about Naruto a lot, but Mama was doing it a little too much.

A chair squeaked, and Sasuke stood up. "I have to go." he said quickly. Mama glanced over, concerned, but he wouldn't look her in the eye. Instead, he turned a glare towards the only other item on the table, Ino's sketchbook, open at the image of a crow with Shisui's eye. He stopped short.

Ino had done her best on it—shaping the crow around the eye, rather than the other way around, was really difficult.

(She tried drawing Itachi's eye pattern, and nearly had a panic attack. She drew Shisui's instead. It fit better in the crow's eye anyway.)

Then she remembered. She shouldn't know what Shisui's eyes looked like. She especially shouldn't know about his sharingan.

…But maybe Sasuke and Shisui aren't closely related. The Uchiha clan was large, definitely larger than the Yamanaka, and Shisui was at least fifteen. Sure, Shisui knew Sasuke, but that didn't mean Sasuke knew Shisui.

With that, she looked back at Sasuke, wide eyed.

Sasuke looked like he'd been slapped with a brick.

"Are you okay, Sasuke-kun?"

"Fine," he wheezed. He didn't sound fine. He paused, for a moment, like he was hearing something, then bowed rigidly. "Thank you for the meal."

"Let me walk you home, Sasuke," Mama said, reaching for her chunin jacket. "It's getting late—"

"I'll be fine, just like that child," Sasuke spat. Mama flinched, and her mouth turned down. Her hand held so still in the air. Sasuke, strangely, winced as well. He bowed stiffly once more. "I apologize for my outburst. Thank you for having me in your home."

And with a few more steps, he fled Ino's house.

Ino turned to her mother. As if her stare shook her out of indecision, Mama began pulling on her jacket, hurrying towards the door.

"Why don't you like Naruto?"

Mama stopped. "What?"

"During the last InoShikaCho dinner, Auntie Mieko said he had no home training." The phrase was odd, and a little mean. Choji's mom, who always pinched Shikamaru and Ino's cheeks and gave them red bean buns, had had such a sour expression on her face, like she smelled something bad. "Why do you both dislike him?"

Mama slung her jacket over her shoulders. "I have to go make sure Sasuke gets home safe, Ino, could we talk about this later?"

They could, but Ino had a feeling Mama would dodge the question. "Sasuke already walks home alone everyday."

"Ino!"

"But it's true," she insisted. Maybe she didn't make much eye contact, but from what she'd seen, Sasuke walked to school alone, went to classes, and went home alone. And when he wasn't at school, he was walking home from therapy, alone. "And Sasuke left after what you said about Naruto."

Her mother sighed. "I don't…dislike Naruto." At Ino's disbelief, she amended. "He can be a troublemaker, but I don't…dislike him." She kept pausing, and restarting. She was being too careful with what she wanted to say.

"But you and Auntie Mieko didn't like him before the Academy," Ino recalled. "You told me not to spend time around him."

Ino wished she could hold her mother's hand, and feel exactly how she reacted. But Mama's hand and the Yin Link were far from her.

"Naruto's pranks gave him a bad reputation. I didn't want any those…consequences to affect you."

It was an answer, but Ino felt like she was missing something. Judging by Mama's hand on the door, she wasn't going to get anything more. "I'm going to make sure Sasuke gets home safely. Toshiaki-san is in the shop if you need anything. Make sure you finish your homework, sweetheart. I'm sure some of your cousins need to finish their work as well." And with that, she was gone.

Ino stared at the cleared table. With today being a therapy day, she did have some work to do. Before that, though…. Ino walked up the stairs to her room, and closed the door. Sitting on her bed, she breathed out, and took off the bracelets.

A wave of tiredness swept her, but she kept herself awake. Ino had to practice.

Weeks ago, when Ino had hit her head on the desk, she'd seen someone. A redheaded armored woman, maybe even a princess, judging by her crown. Someone who had been dead. A ghost. And she'd seen them during the day. She hadn't been thinking of anything special, in fact, she'd been distracted by the view of the window, and she'd seen her.

The Yang bracelets worked because something was wrong with her yin chakra. When she took them off, her yin chakra could do what it wanted. At least, that's the way Daddy explained it. It made sense.

So when her yin chakra did whatever it wanted that day, she saw a ghost. She just needed to figure out how to do that all the time, and maybe she could speed up the process of finding Hitomi.

Ino tried staring out the window, towards the gardens, but no luck. She moved closer. Nothing. She moved away. Nothing. Unless no ghosts came around the Yamanaka compound, Ino was doing something wrong.

Ino stared outside, where her cousins had linked arms, walking across the gardens, no doubt using the Yin Link. Even two months later, the frustration and jealousy still struck her. They didn't even come outside when she was there.

Her mother should be coming home soon. Maybe she could surprise her with the Yin Link like she had before, see how Mama was really feeling about Naruto.

Wait. That's it.

Ino sat on her bed, and thought of the Yin Link. She thought of how only two months ago, her cousins' emotions were color coded, how she could hear if her mother was angry or frustrated or how Daddy would always open his emotions to her, like an open door.

She thought of the Yin Link, and channeled yin chakra towards her eyes.

"Ow!"

It burned. Tears sprung to her eyes, and immediately, Ino slammed them shut, hiding her purple room from view. It felt like someone had just poked her in both eyes.

She waited until the pain had faded slightly, before trying again. Too much, her eyes ached. Then again, and again, and again, until her eyes were even redder than they were at therapy. She was sure her mother was home and she felt like she hadn't made any progress. She'd have to go to bed soon, and she wasn't done with her reading homework.

This time, she tried to channel only a little chakra. The same amount she'd use in chakra exercises in the Academy. This time, the burn was mild enough that she felt like she could open her eyes.

With a sigh, she did—

And came face to face with a wide-eyed Shikari.