So I don't mean to disappoint anyone, but this chapter does focus solely on the OCs.

Chapter Seven

I remained on the bed for a long time. To say my family was distant would be generous. The truth was... although he was also my brother, only three years older than we were, I couldn't say I'd known Tyler all that well. Luke and I were only six when he'd been diagnosed, and he'd spent so much of his life in the hospital. It wasn't like I wasn't sad he had died, but I couldn't really discern if I truly missed him. Did it even matter now? What was the difference, really, between being dead and being an entire dimension away? Either way, I felt like I should be feeling something more, and that in itself was sad.

I settled my inner musings by telling myself that I was now way overdue to go looking for the only brother I had left. I put his sketchbook down almost gingerly, as if the picture would disappear if jarred too roughly, and then set off. I was surprised to see the sun already setting when I reached the last step of the stairs outside our building. I had no idea where I was going, but the second my feet touched the dirt I took off running.

I headed in the direction of the training field, but not too surprisingly, Luke wasn't there. I doubted he wanted to be found right now, so he wouldn't be hanging around any place I was familiar with. So I kept running. I headed into an area I had yet to explore. The forest surrounding the village. Really, if you didn't count the forest as part of the village, then the training grounds were the very outskirts.

Call me crazy, but I didn't stop for even a second to think this through before plunging into the woods. Yes, I know this was stupid. It was getting dark and I didn't know my way around and... yeah, there's not really a counterargument.

In case it was not already apparent, decision-making has never been a forte of mine. That's Luke's area of triumph. I depended on him more than I realized. I often only realized it once my grounding agent was gone. People often talked as if, just because we'd shared a womb, there were only so many traits to go around. I'd gotten the impulsiveness and imagination. Luke was the one with all the caution and common sense. Except for today apparently because, as far as I knew, he knew his way around even less than I did and he still hadn't returned.

Very quickly, I got lost. It was only once I realized this that I stopped running. Adrenaline had covered up a stitch in my side that I now felt return with a vengeance. Taking a deep breath, I sat down and lay back against a tree trunk. Continuing to walk wouldn't do me any more good than sitting down would, so I chose the easier of the two. What can I say? I was a lazy teenager whose favorite activity had been watching anime. Besides, I needed time to think this situation through before I got myself even more lost.

Okay, so I was in an unfamiliar forest where all the trees looked exactly the same and there was no path whatsoever that I could follow. Wonderful.

Sunsets were so brief... I could literally see the sky darkening by degrees. Only then did I begin to really worry. At the rate the shadows were approaching, I wouldn't even be able to find the direction I'd come running from. But I couldn't just stand there and wait for morning. That was the least productive of all my limited options.

So I continued on in the direction that I was already heading. Not the best way to make it back home, but I'd come out here with a purpose, and I was going to see this through. I was going to find my brother. And he hadn't run into me yet. So really I had no choice other than to go on.

Soon it was pitch dark and I was stumbling into things that I was positive weren't in my path just seconds before. If I later found out that the trees had learned how to move just to spite me, I wouldn't have been surprised.

"Ow!" I hissed as I stubbed my toe on yet another rock. When the light did finally return, I would be limping home.

But just then, I saw a little pinprick of light in the distance. It had a peculiar purple color, but I didn't stop to contemplate what this could mean before I rushed after it.

The trees parted very suddenly around a lake. There was a tiny beach on my side, and if I hadn't slowed down, there's a good chance I would have plunged right into the water. The light was soft and beautiful, if a bit eerie. It was just bright enough to see the shadowy outline of someone sitting on the tiny strip of sand, staring out at the water. It was still too dark to make out any specific characteristics, but I easily recognized Luke.

I stood awkwardly by the final tree and watched my brother. It wouldn't have surprised me if he knew I was there. I wasn't exactly stealthy. But he remained where he was, motionless. The rest of the forest seemed to fade away. There was the scene in front of me and then there was me. Hiding behind the one tree that stood out from the rest. My final obstacle.

I took a deep breath and pushed away from the bark, slowly walking up to my brother. Without a word, I sat down next to him and took a look at what he was staring so intently at. I didn't gasp out loud, but for a second I couldn't catch my breath. That one tiny light was floating out in the middle of the lake. It sank in what Luke had done. And if the thought had crossed my mind, I would have realized that I would have preferred doing this task alone as well.

Floating in the pond was a memorial to our brother. I wasn't sure how Luke had found the materials, but they probably weren't too hard to find in a forest this large when you weren't sprinting past all of it.

Moonstone glows in the dark. And the purple glow was given off by the pink lotus petals keeping the stones afloat. Originally this gesture had been made at the end of each year for all the sailors who had been lost at sea. There isn't a word for how amazing all those little shrines looked floating out on the water.

Only upon seeing this sight would one be able to really appreciate all of Gai and Lee's references to the lotus flower. They look just like any other flower petal, (though a bit more elegant than the rest, in my opinion) yet they're able to hold and keep afloat the beautiful shining stone that completes the memorial.

Luke had done just this for Tyler. Maybe this was a very loose response to the old tradition, but times had changed, and I highly doubted any sailor had ever used this pond.

Tearing my eyes away from the sight, I looked over at my brother. He had one arm rested on his knee and his chin settled on his arm. Without realizing it, I had mirrored this position when I'd sat down beside him. There were dried tearstains down his cheeks and he still hadn't made a move to acknowledge my presence.

And suddenly, completely disregarding how long I had searched for him, I felt that I didn't deserve his recognition. It was selfish to bring him along on my little adventure. Had I ever stopped to wonder what Luke would have wanted, given the option? The answer, of course, was a resounding no. Of course not. I'd written him into my fantasy simply because I couldn't imagine my life without him, regardless of how unfair that might be. What had I done?

I swallowed and forced myself not to look away. People used to say all the time that Luke looked just like our mother and I looked just like our father. (Of course, they'd stopped this habit when our dad had died.) I remembered not knowing what they'd meant. Didn't we look almost exactly the same?

Only once I got older did I start to understand what they had meant. After a while, you start to see a person based solely on their actions. At one point in time, Luke had strongly resembled our mother, but things had changed. It's ironic that only after they'd stopped looking so alike had I understood.

When Dad died, my mother had been a constant mess. Luke was always so put-together, even if it was only because he had to be when she wasn't.

I won't say that I wasn't affected by my father's death. We'd been very close. But I was still so young that I wasn't totally against change and learning to adapt. My grief over our father's death was just slightly overshadowed by my need to learn how to take care of myself. And I did learn. And as I did this, Luke slowly got our mother back on her feet.

It wasn't nearly as simple as it sounds. It took nearly two years for her to be able to reassume her position as 'mother'. And that's when things really began to change for us. Because I just didn't seem capable of playing the role of 'daughter' again.

Luke was fine. He had relied a lot on me during this time (more than I'd ever been able to realize) and besides, hadn't this been what he was working for all along? The whole idea of getting Mom back into operating mode was so that we could be the kids again. But I just wasn't as ready to rely on someone who had already let me down once. And besides, (it had seemed so logical in my mind at the time) why did I need to? Had I not proved that I could take care of myself?

So I guess it was my fault when our mother started falling apart again. It wasn't as dramatic as the last time, but the fact that she started going downhill still has to count for something.

I don't want to make it sound like we did anything incredible, because really we didn't. We weren't without help. (What, are you crazy? There's no way two six-year-olds could completely take care of themselves!) Our mom was still functioning. Just not as a person. She could go to work and pay the bills and she always got us to school. (We even got there on time on a good day!) And there was always the random helpful neighbor or old family friend. (Most of whom I'd never before seen in my life.) My mother just wasn't up to taking care of us like she once had.

The point when my relationship with my mother began to crumble was also the point when my relationship with my brother began to get more and more strained. It was like I was the playground bully, come to destroy what he had spent so long building and rebuilding. I wasn't trying to make things so much harder on her, but the way I saw it was simple: I didn't need to rely on her so much anymore, so why should I? I actually found that it was incredibly hard to do so. I was no actress, and I had no idea how to act other than how I felt.

Because of this, Luke and I started becoming more and more distant with each other. We could still coexist peacefully living in the same house. It wasn't like we ever really argued. But we were no longer a team. We were still pieces to the same puzzle. Just not the pieces that match up and fit together.

"I'm sorry."

"Huh?" I stumbled out oh-so-eloquently.

Luke hadn't taken his eyes off the water, but he had set the ball rolling. "I'm sorry," he repeated. "I shouldn't have blown up at you."

I couldn't disagree more, but it wasn't like he'd had an abundance of chances to vent in his lifetime (the downside of always being the one people go to with their problems) and it was my responsibility to discontinue this new trend. So I didn't contradict him and say it was my fault. (though it so obviously was) I didn't say anything.

"I just..." that look of frustration came back into his eyes. "I don't understand, and it makes me feel like I could just hit something! I miss the days when I could read your every move, and now I have no idea where you're coming from."

A thousand responses bubbled up behind my lips, but once again I responded with silence, figuring he wasn't done. I was right.

"I can understand your fascination with this world and these characters. The characters even interest me a little, but it's you that I can't seem to figure out."

"What do you mean?" This conversation, if possible, hurt more than our last one. Just how far apart had we drifted?

Finally, Luke turned to me. "Carly, why do you want to be here? I mean, I could understand if you wanted to join the academy and try to become a ninja yourself, you know, really fit in with the characters, but you're content with just watching. I don't think I could ever do that. I'd go insane being constantly on the sidelines. I'm sorry; I just don't understand!"

And unfortunately for my brother, I doubted I could explain well enough to make him understand. I wished I could lay out my thoughts plainly and point out the hidden logic behind each of them, but sometimes I wasn't sure I understood what was going on in my own head any better than he did. But I also knew that he knew this. He was frustrated, but he didn't really expect me to have all the answers. All I could really do was extend my hand. With a sigh, my twin let me pull him to his feet. Hand in hand, we began to walk in the general direction of home.

And it was then that I saw just how unfair I'd been for the past six years. Luke had done all the work last time. Now it was my job to take the reins and try to reshape our edges until we were each other's matching pieces once more.

Review please!

The Naruto characters and some of their plot (neither of which I own) should be coming back into the story next chapter! :)

And now I shall perform my much-neglected job of thanking all my reviewers!

Sasuke's Pal

Mage666

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ethereal tears

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snakebite3

XxDarkSarcasm1010xX

jaizina

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Revised April 22, 2016.