Me: I do not own Naruto!
Naruto: Hey! Why would you own me?!
Me: That's not the point...
Naruto: Eeeh? The point?
Me: Oh, nevermind.
Naruto: Ramen?
Me: ^_^lll
Purblind
When it was time for Sasuke's watch, he wasn't surprised to see that Kasumi's cot was empty. He almost expected it.
Narrowing his eyes slightly, he slid outside and began the arduous task of finding his female teammate. As he circled the house, keeping a watch for her chakra signature, he pondered her recent behavior.
Sasuke understood secrets, he really did. He had a couple of his own; he did not ever want to discuss his clan's massacre with his teammates. He did not want to talk about Itachi and what he had said to him on that night, did not want to confer about his plans for vengeance. So, he understood why Kasumi had been so distant and and remote recently.
That didn't mean he liked it. Sasuke did not like feeling helpless... and in the face of his teammate's suffering, he was exactly that because she was so damn stubborn!
She was good at hiding, he gave her that. It took him ten minutes of searching to find her sitting on a log, two minutes away from the house, staring off into the shadowed forest.
As he had expected, she had dark circles under her eyes. He sincerely wanted to know what her nightmares were about.
"Sasuke-san." She greeted as he came up behind her as he had that night on the porch. "Aren't you supposed to be on watch?"
He just barely arched an eyebrow even though she couldn't see him. "Aren't you supposed to be asleep?" He returned quietly.
Sasuke saw her lips curl slightly, but her eyes remained near black with gloom. Despite that, her voice was light when she said, "Touché."
He stopped right behind Kasumi and pinned his eyes firmly on her face. Sasuke had realized that day in the rain that she was more like him than he had realized; she hid her true emotions behind kindness and graciousness while he hid his behind a cold, monotone mask. It had made him grit his teeth and wonder just how much he had missed when it came to his female teammate, because he had been so certain he could miss nothing.
Ignorant... he had been so ignorant before and he remained ignorant now. But now, he was aware of the flaw and could work around it. If Kasumi reacted in any way, she could mask it in her face and body, but her eyes sometimes showed her true emotions.
"What are your nightmares about?" He asked and saw her eyes tighten for a bare second. Her face remained unchanged, her body still relaxed.
"I do not see how that is any of your business, Sasuke-san." She replied softly.
"You aren't getting enough sleep." He countered. "That can affect your battle performance."
"Whether I tell you or not, the situation will remain the same." Kasumi said, not missing a beat. "There is no need for you to know."
He narrowed his eyes, annoyed, frustrated, and intrigued all at the same time. "Something here is bothering you. As your teammate, I do have the right to know what that is."
Her smile was sweet with a bite of spice. "Taking lessons from Kakashi-sensei?"
Sasuke smirked, sensing he had scored a hit. "He is our sensei, no matter how lazy."
She shook her head, the smile fading along with her amusement. "Leave it."
It was an order. Uchiha Sasuke did not do orders.
His smirk fell to be replaced by an aggravated glare. "No."
Kasumi pressed her lips together lightly, her eyes narrowing minutely. "It has nothing to do with you."
He gritted his teeth, moving with a rapid burst of chakra to stand in front of her and forced her to meet his furious black eyes. Sasuke could not remember the last time he had felt this angry since that day and the feeling from back then had been tinged with disbelief and pain. "Do you think you can just block us both out?" He hissed, not needing to specify who he meant. "Do you think he doesn't want to know?"
She flinched and rather than feeling triumphant that he had finally got a decent reaction from her, Sasuke felt a little sick. He...didn't want to hurt her; he simply wanted to know why she hurt so he could fix it, whatever 'it' was. He had made it his job since that day to take action, to fix things; he never wanted to be powerless once again. Why couldn't she just tell him? It couldn't be that bad, not compared to the Massacre he had witnessed as an eight year old by his revered older brother.
But despite his harsh words, Kasumi refused to back down. She met his gaze; her normal milk chocolate eyes the color of bitter dark chocolate. "It isn't yours to know." She stated, words filled with a strange echo of desperation that Sasuke wanted to follow, but couldn't. "Stop pushing, Sasuke-san."
His hands clenched into fists. "Is it really that bad?" He asked gingerly.
She bit her lip hard, a whisper of pain touching those bitter-sweet eyes. "Yes." Kasumi whispered.
Sasuke sighed, his shoulders dropping marginally. He wanted to know...but he could all but feel her vulnerability at that moment and he had no intention of breaking Kasumi. Some things, he had learned, could never be put back together after being broken and he had the feeling she was one of them.
Besides, it wasn't as if he didn't have time.
Straightening up, he held out his hand to her, glimpsed the flare of surprise in her eyes. A small smile tugged at his lips; he found he quite enjoyed surprising this composed girl.
"Come on." Sasuke said, keeping his voice casual. "It's almost breakfast time."
Kasumi glanced at the sky, took in the streaks of pink and orange that had stretched across the dark blue. She shook her head at him, smile exasperated.
She reached up and took his hand as the dawn broke.
Success
The afternoon after her conversation with Sasuke, Kasumi stared thoughtfully at her target and smiled.
Flashing through the hand-seals with now thoughtless ease, she twisted chakra through her body and said, "Water Release: Black Rain Technique."
Instantly, a dark, dark mist formed around her body and she solidified it into a black cloud, directing it above her target. Dispersing it with a shift of her will, she watched in satisfaction as black oil rained steady down on the poor wooden doll.
She had finally mastered it.
In his own clearing, Sasuke smirked as he slammed his hands down on the ground, a powerful electric wave forming under his hands to race forward without visible weak points. "Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder!"
Not too far away, Naruto slammed his hands together and called out, "Wind Release: Gale Palm!" Wind compressed neatly in between his hands as he drew them apart and he threw his hands out, a massive gust of wind flying at a group of trees, flattening them in the process.
He stared at the decimated trees, at his own hands, and grinned, pumping a fist into the air. "Yatta! I did it!"
From where he was 'guarding' Tazuna - reading his porn - Kakashi blinked as his clones dispelled and eye-smiled. 'Maa...I knew they could do it, but I didn't expect this much progress in such a short time. Good job, Naruto, Sasuke, Kasumi.'
Plans
"So, we're all done?" Kasumi questioned, kneeling on the untouched clearing the genin had by unconscious agreement gathered in.
"Yeah!" Naruto grinned, evidently supremely pleased with himself. He was sprawled on the ground, limbs spread out like he was trying to create a snow angel, all but radiating satisfaction.
"Hn." Sasuke smirked smugly from where he was sitting near Kasumi, arm casually hooked around his bent leg.
"That's good." She hummed, her mind surprisingly free from the dark fog that had obscured her clarity for so long. She refused to believe that it was because of what happened that morning; it was probably just because she was happy that she had mastered her own jutsu.
Yup, that was it. Nothing more, nothing less.
Resolutely ignoring the dry voice inside her that whispered, 'Denial~', she focused on what the upcoming fight would contain, talking out loud for the benefit of her teammates. "A week.. that's how long Sensei said Zabuza-san would take to recover. Following that trail of thought, we have... two days, maybe three. This time, he'll be ready for Kakashi-sensei and his Sharingan, which means he won't be caught off guard..."
"And there's still that fake hunter-nin." Sasuke prompted.
"Yes, him." Kasumi frowned fractionally. Something about that shinobi made her decidedly uneasy and it wasn't simply because of his disguise as a Kirigakure hunter-nin, she had figured that out some time ago. Her bloodline wasn't yet alert enough for it to inform her of the reason and circumstances, but that accomplice of Zabuza's would be a problem. "Something's wrong with this..."
"What is it?" Naruto blinked at her, blissful haze broken.
She blinked back at him, brow furrowing. "Zabuza-san's a missing-nin, an A rank shinobi, someone who should have been able to overpower us all easily once Kakashi-sensei was out of the picture. Instead, he wasted time talking about how he slaughtered his classmates as a child and kept trying to make us give up. Why is that?"
"He could have just been trying to psych us out." Naruto suggested.
"Yes, but why not just kill us straight out? He could have done it, but except for that one instance with the clone - and thinking back on it, I don't think that attack would have sliced off my neck, only cut off an arm or something - " Naruto choked and Sasuke's eye twitched. She ignored both of their reactions, " - similar. Zabuza-san never truly tried to kill us."
"Are you sure you're not over thinking this, Kasumi-chan?" The blonde asked dubiously.
"No, she's not, dobe." Sasuke cut in, eyes narrowing in thought. "Why the hell would a jaded, violent missing-nin who had no problems killing his own classmates not kill us?"
"That's the question." Biting her lip, she tucked a stray piece of cream hair behind her ear. "And then there's his accomplice. Why was he hiding in the trees when the fight was happening? You saw his speed. While none of us were aware of him, he could have taken us all out with senbon and killed Tazuna-san easily. But he only interfered when it became clear that Zabuza-san was losing and would be killed."
"Maybe Zabuza just didn't want to kill us?" Naruto suggested, not unreasonably, in his point of view, at least.
"That's possible, but with him being who he is, he shouldn't have any morals against killing a trio of green genins." Kasumi paused, thinking through the information she had. "It's highly likely that those two are working for Gato purely for money. Missing-nin tend to have that problem after a while, but I know there have been rumors of rebellion in the Kiri..."
"You sound familiar with the Village Hidden in the Mist." Sasuke commented, tone 'mild'.
She didn't flinch, didn't blink. "I've read a few books on the place, as it is one of the Five Great Shinobi Countries." She replied easily.
The look Sasuke gave her was quietly suspicious, but he nodded and let it go for now.
Lowering her gaze to the ground, Kasumi absently began to pick at the grass, her mind far, far away. "If Zabuza-san is a part of the Mist Rebellion... that puts an entirely different spin on this." She sighed, leaned back. "I'm sorry; I should have noticed this sooner. I've been... distracted."
The boys exchanged a look.
"Eeh, don't worry about it, Kasumi-chan!" Naruto chirped brightly. "I didn't even bother thinking about Zabuza and his crony!"
His crony? Kasumi sweatdropped.
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Dobe, remind me that when we get back, the first thing to go is your jumpsuit and the second thing is your vocabulary."
"Oi!" Naruto managed to jump to his feet despite his visible exhaustion and pointed a finger at his rival, who quirked an eyebrow at him. "Don't you dare touch my precious jumpsuit!"
"Naruto-san..."
"Ah, right, sorry about that, Kasumi-chan..." He laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.
Sasuke smirked.
Dinner
"Wow! This is super fun!" Tazuna exclaimed at the head of the dining table, rubbing the back of his neck happily. "It's been a long time since we ate with so many people!"
Kasumi blinked. Did he mean that there used to be gatherings with a great deal of people? Did he mean that his family used to be larger? She knew that Inari's father was gone or dead; that was easily deduced. So... was he dead? Or was Tazuna referring to the state of his town and how some of his friends from before would have dinner with him?
She sighed inwardly, taking a bite of her salmon. The thing about observing and speculating was that she tended to overdo it to the point where it simply made no sense or fixated on a statement that could very well have been just a casual comment.
They really did have good seafood here.
"Ya." Naruto muttered through a mouthful of food.
Sasuke shot him a disgusted look while Kasumi reprimanded him with a soft, "Naruto-san. Mouth closed and chew."
The blonde obeyed, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "Sorry, Kasumi-chan." Brightening up as a thought struck him, he turned towards Kakashi, eyes sparkling. "Hey, Kakashi-sensei! Now that we're done with our jutsu, are you going to teach us some new ones?"
He chuckled, eye curving up in amusement. "Maybe later. Why don't you guys just practice your teamwork for now, ne? Those jutsu are all capable of combination attacks."
Naruto blinked and tried to process that. He failed; Sasuke and Kasumi had done a spectacular job of cramming knowledge inside his head, but they hadn't gotten to nature manipulation, yet. Confused, he automatically turned to his female teammate. "Kasumi-chan?"
She covered a yawn and beside her, Sasuke's eyes narrowed slightly. Leaning forward, Kasumi crossed her legs and propped up her head on her hand.
"Our jutsu were meant to be complimentary, Naruto-san, like how me and Sasuke can combine his fire and my wind for a stronger attack. Your wind jutsu can boost Sasuke's fire techniques and increase the force of my own wind jutsu. Sasuke's lightning techniques are more powerful if used in conjunction with my water techniques and the jutsu I recently learned was meant to be used with a fire technique." She explained languidly.
"But," Kakashi interjected. "Combination attacks require specific timing and careful teamwork. They only succeed if they two casters have a close bond and have spent a great deal of time practicing. It's why," He glanced at Sasuke and Kasumi, "you two had such a difficult time getting your jutsu to work together properly when you first tried to combine them."
"Oh." Naruto thought about that for a moment before brightening up, pumping a fist into the air, eyes flaring with determination. "Yosh! We're gonna master this in no time at all!"
Kakashi eye-smiled, Sasuke smirked, and Kasumi... Kasumi watched as Inari's eyes filled with tears.
"Why do you guys try so hard?" He screamed suddenly, tears falling down his cheeks. "No matter how hard you train, you're still no match for Gato's men! No matter how pretty the claims you make or how hard you work. When facing the strong, the weak will only get killed!"
'He sounds like he has some personal vendetta against Gatou,' Kasumi noted to herself. 'Maybe...' Her gaze flickered to the torn photograph she had noticed the first time she had eaten dinner.
Sasuke kept his silence, but Naruto made a face and laid his head down at the table. "Whatever kid, I'm not like you."
No. No... Naruto wasn't like Inari, at all. He was bright and cheerful and strong... while Inari was...
"I'd hate to be like you!" Inari screamed and Kasumi narrowed her eyes, feeling like someone had just slid an ice cube down her throat. She wasn't going to like what came next. "You don't know anything about this country, yet you're being so nosy!"
"What the hell do you know about me?" He continued and whirled on Kasumi and Sasuke, too, eyes pained. Her fingers tightened on her chopsticks despite herself. "I'm different from all of you guys, you're always clowning around and acting so foolish, you don't know how hard life can be!"
Mother, Father, Big Brother, Family, Home, Life-
Kasumi snapped her metal chopsticks cleanly in half.
Rough
The sound echoed clearly through the room and Sasuke had already turned towards Kasumi before his mind had registered it.
She stared down at the chopsticks, face perfectly blank. But, he was sitting right next to her and he caught the unexpected quiet fury that swirled in those coffee depths. Sasuke had never truly seen Kasumi mad. Not once, despite the shenanigans he and the dobe got up to on a daily basis.
It was... unnerving, almost upsetting to see the emotion in her eyes. He felt an almost foreign annoyance directed at the boy that had upset her so.
The others were silent, staring wide-eyed at the girl in shock, surprise, or concern. Even Inari, the idiotic brat, had cut off his rant to gape at the kunoichi.
Sasuke didn't know what to do. He knew that Inari's words had hit a sore spot, hell, he wanted to deck the boy himself, but he hadn't comforted anyone in... years. What was he supposed to do? He knew how to fight, how to tear someone down layer by layer, but he didn't know how to assuage her broken composure.
Was he supposed to reach out to her? Touch her hand, assure her that he was on her side and she wasn't alone against the world? He didn't know and he felt strangely inadequate for it.
Damn it. Of course his team did this to him, took his absolute assurance in any situation and turned it inside out without even trying.
Of course.
As usual, it was Naruto who broke the silence. "Kasumi-chan?" He reached out across the table to lay his hand on Kasumi's still arm, cerulean eyes wide and worried.
She blinked and the anger was gone from her eyes, replaced with serene indifference. Kasumi looked up and smiled reassuringly at the blonde. "I'm fine, Naruto-san." She said, gently removing his hand with her own, her gentle tone taking the sting out of the action.
He didn't look convinced, but she turned to Tsunami, who sat ram-rod straight in her seat, face writ with concern. "My apologies, Tsunami-san." Kasumi lightly set the broken chopsticks next to her bowl. "I must have been more tired than I realized. Forgive me."
Practically everyone at the table knew her exhaustion had nothing to do with this, but the older woman nodded, pulling herself together with admirable speed. "Oh, don't worry about it, Kasumi-chan. They were only chopsticks." Turning to her disgrace of a son, she scowled. "Inari! Apologize to her at once!"
Kasumi held out a hand calmly before the boy could stutter out an angry retort, the tears on his face not yet dry. "No need. Excuse me, I believe a walk will do me well." Rising out of her seat, she swept out of the room before anyone could abject.
The door closed quietly behind her and Sasuke sighed as Naruto rose out of his seat and began to shout out at Inari both for him upsetting his teammate and for his idiotic views. It wasn't like he disagreed with the dobe, but now that Kasumi was gone, it would be expected for him to reign in Naruto.
And he seriously did not want to do that. The little brat completely deserved the dressing down. Sasuke had certainly never gave up and cried.
Stars
Kasumi's family had had certain views on stars.
Her father had once picked her up, taken her outside and sat her on their porch all so she could see the stars.
"See, Kasumi?" He had said, pointing at the twinkling lights up in the heavens. "Those are stars... but we like to think of them as the spirits of our ancestors."
"Really?" The young, naive girl that she had been had said in fascination. "Why?"
Masato had laughed and ruffled up her hair to her pout. "Because of our bloodline, sweetie. You've felt it, haven't you? A warm, pretty amber glow?"
She had nodded. Kausmi had been so young at that time, hadn't understood why her parents had cautioned her to never ever tell anyone else she possessed that protective amber chakra. She hadn't understood that at that age she shouldn't have been able to use it either.
She hadn't understood so many things... but she had known something was coming, a storm that had eventually wiped away her life as she had known it. But that had been the one thing her parents had refused to hear of.
"Well, that connects us to the world, Kasumi." Her father had smiled at her, cheeks crinkling. "To the earth and streams and trees and flowers... but especially to the heavens and the stars."
"Why?" She had asked, eyes wide with curiosity.
"Because that's where it came from." Masato had explained patiently. "And because that's where our chakra came from, we believe that when we die, we go back up to the stars."
"Oh." Kasumi had thought about that, childishly somber. "So, Obaa-san and Ojii-san are up there?" She had never truly known her grandfather and her one experience with her grandmother had been... troubling to say the least, but she knew her parents were sad about them not being with them.
"Yes." Her Otou-san had looked thoughtfully up into the pretty, bright lights in the darkness. "One day, your Okaa-san and I are going to be up there too, watching over you."
She had quickly shaken her head, the statement striking too close to the dark nightmares that haunted her at night. "No, no! I want Okaa-san and Otou-san to be with me forever!"
Masato had laughed and thrown her up in the air, amused by a child's dependence on her parents. "You won't be saying that when you want to sneak out with a boyfriend!" He had teased.
Kasumi had gasped in indignation and refused to forgive her Otou-san until he piggybacked her all across their house. And then her Okaa-san had come out to see what all the fuss was about... with colorful frosted cupcakes!
She had giggled and lunged for them while her older brothers had moaned and complained about how unfair that was. How come their imouto could eat the cupcakes while they couldn't? Sighing dramatically, her Okaa-san had finally folded to their puppy dog eyes and gave them two each.
For all their complaining though, when Kasumi had looked at them with shiny eyes the next morning, both had let her lick the frosting from their cupcakes. It had been a night of magic and sprinkles, light and sugar, family and warmth.
Sometimes, Kasumi would dream of it while lying in bed and wake up with a smile on her face, hope in her heart. Until she looked out her window and saw the Hokage Mountain, go downstairs to find that Hiroshi-onii-san had left for a mission again.
She hated those dreams more than she hated the nightmares, because they reminded her of what she could never have again.
Next time:
"Evil witch." Sasuke muttered under his breath and was abruptly met with kick to his chin that he couldn't avoid, because he couldn't fucking see! Needless to say, he didn't repeat the insult.
Me: Kyaa! Here are the reviews!
lostfeather1: Itachi, huh? I love that guy; I even have a fanfic for him. Oh, thank you! I'm so happy you like Kasumi-chan! Thanks for the review, hun!
LadyMorph18: Kimimaro... he was completely awesome. I agree; there's even this one fic where he does eventually end up loyal to Naruto. It's called Damaged by Faust VII. Maybe you should check it out? Thanks for the review, sweetheart!
starrat: Thank you! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
kkkitties: Ah, I'm so happy you liked! I hope this chapter didn't disappoint!
Bella-swan: Ah, well, Sasuke's a stubborn guy. I'm sure he'll get Kasumi-chan to open up eventually... Lolz, thanks for the review, hun!
uxintaa: Oh, thank you! Well, character development marches on! Thanks for the review, too!
Nikita: Gaara is amazing. Wonder how Kasumi-chan's going to react to him...? Ah, thank you so much! I did originally plan for Sakura to be on the team, but then I realized a four-man team would be really imbalanced. Thanks for the review, hun!
MiaMushroomCloud: Thank you, thank you, thank you! Your review made my day! I hope you liked this chapter! Thanks for the wonderful review, sweetheart!
Ah, please review and check out my blog! Thanks to my betas, as always.
Question: Who goes on tvtropes and spends hours browsing through random stuff? *raises hand*