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Last time:

"So." Kasumi leaned back and looked at her teammates, eyes endless pools of dark, dark chocolate churning with pain and sorrow and remorse, her smile a painful, painful thing. "Questions, boys?"

Moment

Naruto was the one to react first. He chose to react by lunging forward and enveloping Kasumi in the mother of all hugs, babbling apologies.

She froze, eyes widening. What? What... was he doing?!

"Kasumi-chan, I'm so sorry! Are you okay? I didn't know about Haku and Kirigakure and... and... I-I didn't know, I'm sorry; I was really inconsiderate these past few days, huh? You'll be okay, right? I'm sorry your childhood was horrible, I'm sorry your family's dead, I'm sorry your village was such a nasty place!" He rambled quietly, every word impossibly sincere, oddly sorrowful.

Kasumi could only keep herself motionless, every muscle locked in place for fear that if she moved the tiniest inch, the parts of her would shatter and break and go flying everywhere, never to be gathered up again.

No one, no one, had ever apologized to her for her shitty childhood. The closest anyone had gotten was when her brother had apologized before leaving on that mission. He hadn't come back either.

Not alive.

A warm, steady hand on her back, a stormy, temperate chakra signature, and she knew that Sasuke was behind her, offering the comfort that the antisocial, reserved Uchiha could offer.

Strangely, her sprinting, running brain seemed to have come to a dead-stop, skidding a little on the way. Nothing was making sense. She hadn't known what she had expected when she had told Naruto and Sasuke part of her past, because it held hints of their own pasts. By themselves Naruto's loneliness had been worse than hers and Sasuke's massacre had been crueler, but put together... the lines began to blur.

She hadn't known how they would react; would they be sympathetic, uncertain, or disinterested? Angry at her keeping it from them for so long, upset at the dark brutality of the world in which she had been born, dismissive of her pain as their childhoods had been no walk in the park either?

Kasumi hadn't known and for once, she hadn't cared. Her teammates had deserved an explanation after all that she had put them through in the past few days and she had given it to them. She hadn't sugarcoated anything, although she had left some details out, and gave the bloody, gloomy, tear-soaked truth to them.

Naruto was apologizing to her? Why? He hadn't done anything, he couldn't have known, it had nothing to do with him. Sasuke was trying to comfort her? Why? She knew her recounting must have dredged up memories for him, ugly and much hated, painful and ripping.

She couldn't understand, but Kasumi let herself relax in Naruto's arms and soak in the natural sunlight the boy who held the Kyubi gave off, accepted Sasuke's undemanding presence at her side and let the screaming, clawing memories go for a moment.

Just a moment.

Understanding

Sasuke stepped out of the house and onto the porch lit by sparkling moonlight, onyx eyes instantly locking on to the girl kneeling a few feet ahead, platinum hair shining white in the cool light.

He leaned against the doorway for a second, taking in the scene as said girl had demanded from him and the dobe so many times during their training sessions and reaching conclusions, making generalizations, silent although he knew that she, perceptive as she was, knew that he was there.

He took in his teammate, noted that she hadn't changed from her previous clothing - a pure white lace dress - and that her hair, still free from the bun that she normally kept it in, longer than he had ever suspected that it was, waved around her slender figure, strangely lonely in the beam of moonlight in which she kneeled on the dewy grass.

She probably hadn't slept a second tonight, he thought to himself. Certainly, he hadn't been surprised when he had woken up for his watch and found the girl absent from her cot. Sasuke observed the way the mist, so harmless, so insignificant before, danced in the faint silver light, swirled and coiled, and wondered what the kunoichi saw in the same innocent display.

He suspected she saw red and violence, heard the screams of her family and friends, felt the splash of heart's blood on her skin.

Sasuke was no fool; he knew that Kasumi had given them the bare bones of her past. She hadn't lied to them, hadn't sweetened her story for them, but she had hardly told them just how bad it had been for her.

The other kids knew better than to play with clan kids? He had heard, and he knew the dobe had heard, a childhood filled with loneliness, alienation, devoid of friends and secluded for reasons that a child surely couldn't have understood. She and Haku were close friends, clung to each other? They hadn't had anyone else, two children with bloodlines who had only had each other.

Her clan had become too powerful and was hunted down and massacred? One sentence, she had said one sentence, but Sasuke knew it couldn't have been that simple, couldn't have been anywhere close to the terror and desperation and blood that it must have been. Hunted, she had said her clan had been hunted down. It reminded the Uchiha of a game back in the Academy.

The group of children would scatter and then Kiba and Akamaru would track all of them down, one by one. It had been a game the teachers had encouraged for it taught them how to conceal their tracks, evasion tactics, and gave Kiba and Akamaru a chance to hone their burgeoning tracking skills, and Sasuke had played the game once or twice before That Night, but Kasumi, he recalled, had never ever participated.

Not once.

It had been nowhere close to what she must have experienced, but Sasuke could remember the feeling of being hunted down, of having a predator on your trail, of being prey. What must it have been like, being hunted by experienced shinobi, possibly even hunter-nin, judging by the way Kasumi had responded to seeing Haku's fake mask, while you were a mere child?

Thinking back to her slight aversion to Kiba and Akamaru, slight because she was logical and could differentiate between an Inuzuka and a Kirigakure hunter-nin, but aversion because like it or not, logical or not, it was there, it made sense. Of course, Kasumi Fumei had a reluctant dislike towards the boy who was the Heir to the Clan whose main job was hunting ninja down.

Who else? Who else had Kasumi shown a subtle antipathy for? Ino. Yamanaka Ino. Sasuke frowned slightly. It could go both ways for that relationship, he realized. It was possible that Kasumi hadn't liked Ino because she was a fangirl and a fangirl of the SUFA no less. He shuddered inwardly. It could also be because Ino was a Yamanaka and had the ability to enter her mind, something that Sasuke was dryly certain that Kasumi would take none too kindly to.

He knew because he was the same way. It had been recommended more than once after That Night that one of the Yamanaka take a look inside his head, but he had rejected all of the recommendations harshly, infuriated that they thought he would want someone in his head after what That Man had done.

Everyone else, everyone else that had passed in their year, Kasumi got along fine with. It vaguely made sense now that he had most of the pieces, how she had been of the few people who had never offered him a pitying look or asked if he was okay, how she had quietly fulfilled Naruto's need for a friend while, at the same time, letting him loose to fight with Sasuke or bother Sakura or declare to the world that he was going to become Hokage with an indulgent smile.

Looking back, Sasuke suddenly found himself questioning if it had been natural, the group of the friends that Kasumi had slowly gathered around her. He knew through the annoyingly fast gossip system the girls had kept up and found prudent to bombard his ears with that she had a thing with bullying and as such, had drawn Choji and subsequently Shikamaru, the Nara Heir, to her side when she had defended the Akimichi Heir. Same with Shino, Heir of the Aburame Clan, and no one really knew how she had become friends with Hinata, Heir to the Hyuga Clan.

Then, there was her sort of friendship with him, Heir to the Uchiha Clan. If you thought about it like that and added in the fact that she had had little to no interaction with the civilian students, it seemed rather suspicious, especially given what Sasuke knew of how his teammate's mind worked, how impossibly devious and farsighted she could be. But... Naruto was the outlier. Their other teammate wasn't a part of a powerful clan, was 'nothing' in the way of politics and power as far as he knew.

So, why had Kasumi made the conscience effort to befriend the Uzumaki? Unless... Sasuke narrowed his eyes; maybe the dobe wasn't so normal after all? He hadn't missed how Naruto had glossed over how he had defeated Haku after he had been knocked out by the senbon-user and the faint understanding in Kasumi's eyes before she had wordlessly warned him to leave it alone.

He shook his head. Trying to decipher Kasumi's mind was like trying to find pattern in a sea constantly being blown at by a fierce gale. You would think that you found something only for the wind to shift and realize that all you saw was an illusion, a mist created by the spray the ocean continuously flung up. It was maddening, irritating, useless, and endlessly beautiful.

Butterfly

"Sasuke-san."

Thoughts splintered by that gentle, calm voice, Sasuke glanced up to see Kasumi looking at him over her shoulder, chocolate brown eyes a shade of startling amber in the bright moonlight. She studied him for a heartbeat and then tilted her head, the skin of her neck pale and creamy, a small smile touching lips of pale pink. "Come here."

Sasuke wasn't in the least sure what she wanted, but found his feet taking him down the shallows stairs of the porch anyways, drawn by that slow, sweet smile. Crossing the distance between them in a few, easy strides, he crouched beside her, gave her a curious look. "What?"

In answer, she nodded at the small plant in front of her and he focused his vision on the innocent looking thing, found nothing out of the ordinary, until -

Sasuke blinked, stared at the oval-shaped, light green, gently translucent... thing hanging from a leaf. He could see something inside of it, a wing with distinct orange and black patterns. "Is that...?"

"A chrysalis," Kasumi told him, naked delight in her voice, "of a monarch butterfly, to be exact. We're very lucky, it's almost time."

"Time?"

She laughed, light and airy. "Watch."

Rather confused, but judging that he probably wasn't going to get anymore sleep tonight, Sasuke settled down next to her, keeping his eyes trained on the plant. Two minutes later, five minutes later, he saw it. The barest crack forming at the bottom, the tip of a black wing.

Oh.

The butterfly emerged from its shell slowly, meticulously, moving with utmost care as not to hurt its newly formed wings. Hanging upside from its former case, Sasuke watched with wide eyes as it attentively, delicately spread its folded, crumpled wings out, detailed, exquisite wings of fire-lit orange and night shadow.

Those wings gradually, unhurriedly grew, expanded as the butterfly hung onto its chrysalis by its forelegs, fluttering every so lightly as the small creature shifted this way and that to get used to its new body, its new surroundings.

It was graceful and magnificent, and he felt an acute thrill of regret for he knew that the butterfly would live for less than a month.

"Many of the most beautiful things in the world are fleeting." Kasumi murmured into the cool morning air, and he belatedly wondered if she had known what he was thinking. "It's why we must treasure them while they last."

Sasuke said nothing, but continued to watch as the butterfly dried its wings off, spread them to their full length. It flapped those wings experimentally once, twice, testing their resilience and durability against the playful wind, so eager for flight, to fly off towards the emerging sunrise that painted the lightening sky rose and violet and an orange that matched its splendid wings.

Quicker now, those fragile wings beating in the air, and the butterfly let go of its perch, free falling for all of a heartbeat, and Sasuke struggled briefly with himself, wanting to save the stunning creature, but knowing from hard-earned experience that some things you had to do by yourself.

It fell... and then its wings beat once, twice, and it rose in the air, hesitant and unsteady but flying, flying after a lifetime of the hard, unyielding earth, and he had the sudden awareness that this was what the butterfly had lived its entire life for.

As a caterpillar crawling on the ground, soft and squishy and all but helpless against the larger forces that could and would trample them in a heartbeat, as a pupa, hiding in its shell, waiting and waiting to emerge, this, this was what it had spent its life anticipating. To fly free in the sky, untouched and graceful, to be what it had always been meant to be.

A soft sigh from the girl beside him, and Sasuke glanced at Kasumi to see a dreamy smile on her face, eyes a deep, radiant coffee concentrated on the butterfly making its way into the multi-colored sky. His heartbeat quickened without his conscious understanding of why, his eyes unable to move away from the raw reverence in hers.

As if feeling his gaze, she turned to smile at him, and without warning, without reason, his heart skipped a beat. "Beautiful, isn't it?" Kasumi asked softly.

Sasuke was silent for a long heartbeat, enough that she gave him a mildly questioning look. He smirked coolly. "Beautiful." He agreed, eyes lingering a fraction too long on her face.

Time

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto worried as they escorted Tazuna to the bridge he had yet to finish building. "Are you sure this is okay? What if Kasumi-chan's not okay?"

"Maa, maa, Naruto." Kakashi placated, nose stuck in his book. "I'm sure Kasumi-chan will be fine."

"But, but, but what if she isn't?!" Naruto persisted stubbornly.

Kakashi sighed, absently flipping a page in his Icha Icha. Upon waking up this morning, in no ways surprised to see Sasuke and Kasumi already awake and eating breakfast, he had told his cute little students that while Zabuza and Haku were dead, they still needed to complete their mission.

Naruto had pouted, Sasuke had scowled, and Kasumi had sighed, but the ducklings had reluctantly perked up when Tazuna informed them that it really should only take a week or two. Not long after, Kasumi had pulled him aside discreetly and asked for a day off.

Kakashi had granted her request with an eye-smile, of course, well aware of just how hard the past week had been on her. Unfortunately, her teammates hadn't taken the information well - not even close - and now, he had to deal with two fussy mother-hens.

One that was kicking up quite a racket and the other quiet, but projecting his disapproval through some obscure Uchiha means.

"Kasumi-chan can take care of herself, duckling." Kakashi told Naruto. "Have some faith in your teammate, won't you?"

Naruto opened his mouth, clearly ready to scream his opinion some more, before snapping it shut abruptly, shoulders slumping. "I know she can take care of herself." He said, voice unusually somber. "But what if she wants company and there's no one there?"

The jounin didn't remind him that she was the one that had requested solitude in the first place or inform him that she wasn't alone, but he didn't need to because Sasuke unexpectedly spoke up.

"Hn. She'll be fine, dobe. Stop nagging." He said, hands tucked into his pockets.

Naruto's eye twitched, attention thankfully diverted. "Hey! I'm not nagging!"

"Could have fooled me." Sasuke said dryly.

"What did you say, teme?!"

Kakashi eye-smiled and went back to reading about how Kiki was having some fun with Maru...

Reflect

Kasumi sat in front of the graves of Zabuza and Haku, twirling a senbon around her fingers distractedly, mind on her first, first friend.

As she had told Naruto and Sasuke, after she had reached the Village Hidden in the Leaves, she had never really put any thought into what happened to Haku, or truly thought of him at all. Selfish of her, perhaps, heartless, but she had been busy trying to survive day by day... and by the time that she had successfully assimilated to Konoha, he had been a cool memory that she associated primarily with blood and death.

Needless to say, she had done her very best to not dwell on such things.

Then, had come Team 7 and that, in itself, had bought with it a multitude of problems. Getting Naruto and Sasuke to stop arguing, improving their teamwork, teaching Naruto basic shinobi knowledge, sanding away Sasuke's icy exterior...

The list went on and on. And Haku had remained a ghost that she ignored to the best of her ability. Why mull on the past when she had Shikamaru and Shino and Choji and Hinata and Naruto and Sasuke?

When she had first seen the man that the boy she had laughed with on the steps of a Kirigakure orphanage had become, it had been a brutal slap to the face. Kasumi had reeled, her barely steady composure threatening to break apart once more, and tried to convince herself that she had imagined the resemblance, that this man that would become her enemy and try and kill her was not the boy she had left on the steps of a Kirigakure orphanage.

That precarious assumption hadn't lasted beyond two minutes during the battle on the unfinished bridge.

Now, Kasumi sighed, falling back so she could stare at the clouds as a certain lazy Nara loved to do. He was probably rubbing off on her, she thought with a small smile, unable to find it in her normally proudly efficient self to be concerned. Her eyes followed the fluffy, white clouds above, outlined so perfectly against the clear blue sky and she began to analyze how exactly Haku had changed... adapted.

He was a missing-nin and the accomplice of Momochi Zabuza for one. Kasumi, for all that Zabuza had almost killed her, could find no fault in Haku's decision. She was glad that he had found someone to live for, a purpose, an anchor, for she knew what it was to survive in life without one.

She had several. Her brother... her brothers since the beginning. And then, her friends, and her goal to become one of the Intelligence Division, because she needed to have some aspect of control in her life and information was the best path to that. If she knew what was going on with herself, with her friends and family, with the village, she could maintain some of the control that remained so essential to her sanity.

And then... Team 7, but that was something else entirely.

Her mind went over the battle, the simple ease in which Haku had used his bloodline. He had always had it, but back in the orphanage, she remembered his hesitance in using the Yuki Clan's talent to its full extent. Such a skill was the reason his parents were dead and that naturally introduced distaste for the bloodline.

But when she had fought him with Naruto and Sasuke, he had been frighteningly proficient with the Ice Release, used it without batting an eyelid. For Zabuza, she had deduced. Haku had done it for Zabuza, but that didn't change the pure fact that he had done it.

He hadn't shied away from his bloody past, from his 'curse', his 'gift', and that... that was something Kasumi hadn't had the courage to do.

Distantly, darkly, she wondered if maybe, just maybe, she would have been able to take on Haku if she hadn't suppressed her bloodline all those years ago. If she had taken her bloodline and honed it instead of hiding it away, used it in spars instead of pretended it didn't exist.

Would things have gone so badly? Would she have been knocked out, Sasuke forced to sacrifice himself for Naruto, Naruto pained enough to draw on the Kyubi?!

She had known what Naruto had done. Figured it out in less than a second, because in Mist, knowledge of jinchuriki was common, wide-spread. Everyone knew of the human sacrifices after Yagura... after the Yondaime Mizukage. Combined with the knowledge of the Nine-Tailed attack more than a decade ago and it wasn't a hard connection to make, especially with the way the villagers treated Naruto.

Kasumi had known... and she was sorry, grievously sorry for causing the blonde to draw on the fox, because it was evident that Naruto had lost something when he had done so and that could be a problem later on and she had never meant to hurt her teammate.

Either of them.

Sasuke had said nothing, but she didn't have to be a mind-reader to register that watching her 'die' must have bought up bad memories for him, too. If she had done as Haku had done, embraced her past instead of running away, would things have gone better?

How many times in the past had her brother asked her whether she wanted to learn a new jutsu - a Water Release one?

How many times had she refused because she had watched her family and friends and home fall to one?

Senbon. She rolled the metal needle between her fingers, taking in its cold, smooth surface. Haku had been terribly good with the senbon. She knew he had been holding back when he had fought her team because all of them were still alive and mere days later, as good as new, but he could have killed them easily, so easily.

Too easily.

Pressure points and weaknesses. Easy things, really. All you had to do was get your hands on an anatomy book, talk to some medics, and find target practice. Be dedicated, have a good eye and a good aim, work hard, observe others, and you could identify your opponent's weak points and bring them down with some strategically placed senbon.

Perfect for someone with fast speed, moderate strength, a photographic memory, and advanced observation skills.

A small smile curved Kasumi's lips. She knew what needed to be done. That was enough of running. She wasn't a coward and she refused to act like one anymore. If she had to plow straight past her fears and nightmares to do, then so be it.

"Kakashi-sensei." She called out lightly.

A pause and then the shadow clone of her sensei jumped down from a tree, bending his head to look at her from above. "Maa, how long have you known, Kasumi-chan?"

"Some time," She admitted and held up the senbon in her hand. "Do you think I could use senbon in battle?"

Kakashi observed her closely for several moments. Kasumi waited patiently, watched as he obviously reached a conclusion and eye-smiled cheerfully at her. "I don't see why not."

"Excellent." And she had no doubts her brother would be delighted to pass on some water jutsu to her. Kasumi pushed herself to her feet gracefully and grinned spiritedly at the clone. "You can inform Kakashi-sensei I will be joining everyone else in five minutes."

The clone chuckled, gave her a lazy salute. "Good for you, Kasumi-chan." He disappeared in a poof of smoke and she shook her head.

Tension leaching out of her body for what seemed to be the first time in days, Kasumi Fumei glanced up at the brightly shining sun and smiled.

She would be okay.

Next time:

"A-Ah. K-Kasumi?" Sakura stared back at her with wide green eyes.

Me: Kasumi does some reflecting. And here are the reviews!~

ShikiUploadz: Kyaa! No, that's not how it works! Guns are prohibited in this fandom! :P

starrat: Awesome! Hope you enjoyed this one, too!

Rosy Fire: Whoopsies! Thanks again for bringing it to my attention!

Arcana The Wolf: Hmmm... that sorta happens? Lolz, Kasumi does get over it. Takes some time, but she does it! Thanks for the review, hun!

bunnyguest: Well, Sasuke is somewhat friendlier. Kakashi probably knows all of this already, sneaky sensei that he is. XD Thanks for the review, hun!

Sonata Fuling: Great! I'm so happy you liked it! Hope you enjoy this chapter, too! Thanks so much for the review, sweetie!

TheQueenofGoodbyes: It's wonderful that you liked it, hun! I didn't keep you waiting too long, did I? ^_^

rinievermilion: Lolz, Sasuke seems to think so. Thanks for the review!

1XxKiraXx1: Thank you so much! Sweetie, your review made my day. Really! *blushes* Kasumi did have a very hard time accepting what was happening. She basically just stuck her past in a dark hole and tried to push on. Poor girl, but it looks like she's doing better! Thank you for your beautiful, beautiful review!

lostfeather1: *cries with you* Kasumi has been going through a lot recently. But I think you hit bulls-eye with your assessment! Her teammates do understand her more after the big reveal. Thanks for your review, darling!

Nikita: Lolz, I don't think you're the only one. Well, since Kiri is the Village Hidden in the Waves, I though scattering the ashes of dead shinobi into the sea was a way of honoring them, returning them to the home that they've protected for so long. Sasuke and Kasumi... they're on their way! Kakashi is aware of what's going on with Kasumi, he just knows that, right now, she'd prefer to think it through on her own. Thanks for the great review, hun!

wookie. cookie. : Awesome! I'm so happy that you like my story! No, no, no, feel free to spam me with reviews! I shall enjoy every one of them! The Chunin Exams... they're coming up alright! XD

Suki: Lolz, I'm glad you think so! Hope you enjoyed this chapter, sweetie!

Marie: Yup, yup! And this time, we have some reflections and understanding! Thanks for the review, hun!

Bella-swan11: Sasuke is a stubborn guy and he gets that Kasumi's had a rough time with it. Hopefully, he won't be too oblivious! Thanks for the review!

michi-nin: Ah, I'm honored! I hope you liked this chapter, too!

Me: Soo many reviews! Thank you all so much! And, of course, thanks to my wonderful, wonderful beta! Couldn't do it without her! Please review and take a look at my blog! (Although, recently, the website's been a bit touchy)