Sasuke wandered down the streets of his old village. It felt so familiar yet foreign all at the same time. Old buildings he would have used as landmarks as a child were gone and the ever-growing city was in its place. The Uchiha district had been destroyed or torn down, in its place stood family homes and a playground right where his darkest nightmares used to keep him up. At the gate was a plaque in memory of all those who had died. Itachi has his own with a new title 'The Konoha Protector' accompanying his story that he never got to be honored for.

Hinata squeezed the arm she held onto reassuringly.

"This is where you grew up?" Karura asked, looking up as she stared up at the gate.

"Until the massacre." Sasuke mumble. "They don't think orphans should stay in ghost-infested compounds."

Hinata frowned at him disapprovingly.

"Are there really ghosts!?" Karura lit up.

Hinata sighed

Karura had grown, she was short for her age, but not that she would know it, and not that it ever obstructed her. She took great pride in crawling up to reach anything without assistance much to Sasori's protests. He did a lot more chasing after her then either of them did. Sasuke was fine letting her get bruises and Hinata was 'letting her make mistakes and talk about how to learn from them later as long as she wasn't in immediate danger' type.

Her hair made her look even smaller with its mass. Her endless unruly black curls lazily pinned back with a clip made up about half of her, Kisame joked that it made her look a little like a cloud of smoke following her everywhere she went. Which was fitting?

As they continued after a disappointing explanation that where no ghosts Hinata pointed out the building they trained in. "They start children for proper nin training there about your age."

"Isn't eight a bit old to be training children?" Kisame asked thoughtfully. "I think my village trained children from the moment they could walk."

Before Hinata could answer him, Karura looked up. "Matatabi wants to know if this is where you met."

Then there were the two tails.

Sometimes it was like having two children in one. Matatabi was rather well mannered and polite in comparison. It had taken them a while to figure out who had taught Karura honorifics because Hinata and Sasori hadn't yet and the other three surely hadn't. When Karura could, she explained that it was just the way Matatabi spoke in her head so she hadn't thought anything of it. To contrast, Karura was hot-headed with quite low patience.

However, despite their very different personalities, they didn't work against each other. It could be awful when they worked together. Karura had grown a rebellious streak but not against authority or rules, but limits. Matatabi on the other hand, was always very curious, always asking questions. Together they came up with a lot of questions, like 'Just how far could we throw a fireball?', 'How long can we hold a ring of fire around me?', 'How big can we make it?', and other things that made Hinata blood pressure rise.

Nevertheless, Matatabi also kept her honest and in line, like an extra conscious. Wouldn't let her lie to get out of trouble, wouldn't let her go long without making sure someone knew about something they have done wrong, or damaged, or hurt, but even then the incidences were few because Matatabi was more likely to scold her in real-time. Annoyingly enough to Karura, it was like having an extra parent that was always there for everything that she did. This occasionally caused them very confusing self-screaming matches Karura would have seemingly on her own, simply because no one else could hear the other side.

"U-Uh..." Hinata's thought broke him. "I-I think we met at a formal clan meeting when we were very young..." Hinata looked up to him for help.

Sasuke shrugged. "I don't remember much that young." He had a good reason, trauma. "We weren't friends back then though." He added.

Karura nodded looking satisfied.

"S-Some much has changed," Hinata mumbled. "Th-The village has grown to appreciate technology more, we still had largely dirt roads when we were kids."

"It's been nearly 10 years for you hasn't it?" Sasuke asked.

Hinata nodded. "I-I think more than that. M-Much longer for you though."

He nodded. "Nearly double." He was starting to show it around the eyes too, but that might just be waking up to fire on more than one occasion.

"I don't think I could live in a place with this many people," Karura mumbled moving closer to Hinata as they passed people.

"I-It's not jarring when you grow up in a village." Hinata reminded her.

They tried to stay out of the high traffic areas but they had made the mistake of coming around noon. Karura had been in villages on and off growing up, but they had never been in one for more than a few days and they had never spent more than a day in a large one. This was going to be their long trip away from home and Karura was already a little uncomfortable with the idea.

"I guess." She mumbled trying to tuck herself under a mothering arm.

"Here." Kisame suddenly said, picking her up and tossing her up on her shoulders. "Better?"

Hinata frowned. "I-I think we shouldn't be drawing so much attention to ourselves."

"I think that we are drawing the same amount of attention with him alone." Sasuke reminded her.

She sighed.

Sasuke offered his arm and she took it holding it a bit tighter than she probably realized.

She had been stressed since this was planned. She never fully let go of the guilt that she felt for what her work had a cause, what she had been forced to do. The pain, night terrors, panic attacks, and meltdowns faded with time and healing, but the scars will always be there. Some people were dead because of her, there were people that had to relive the death of their loved ones because of her. Though he may never truly understand how she could see herself as being so heavily responsible for it he had accepted it was how it felt to her and that the only way to support her was to stop denying that she had some fault for it.

They had all done the most horrible things in the name of something important to them. He could always relate to thinking you were doing the right thing only to have the rug ripped out from under you.

It took time for him to truly build back up the relationship they had. It was a bit inside for a while, him always reaching for her, pulling her to him, kissing her, holding her, but it was what they both needed. She needed to be held, and he needed something to hold on to. The day he realized she was starting to reach for him was probably one of the best feelings he had had in a long time.

He still did a lot of the reaching though. It just wasn't out of necessity anymore.

The Hokage tower came in to view grounded him back into what they were here for and why Hinata was now nearly shaking.

"I-I… can't help feeling I still don't belong here." She whispered to him, it had been so long since she had walked out these doors, she never intended to ever return, now standing in front of it felt… wrong?

"You were invited." He whispered back.

"W-We were invited 5 years ago." She grumbled back.

"You can do this." He told her.

"I-I know I can, but I don't think I want to." She puffed at him.

"We can turn around..." He told her. "Runaway, no one would be that surprised."

She pouted at him annoyed that he would give her such an attractive escape.

"I mean it." He smiled at her knowingly.

She looked at the building again and then back at Kisame and Karura. Her eye-catching the guards that had been tailing them since they had come into the village, she was sure was just a precaution, but being back under a watchful eye didn't help her discomfort.

Karura looked ready to bolt just the way she was looking down the crowded street in front of the building.

"K-Karura-chan?" Hinata asked.

"Hmm?" She asked miserably looking down from Kisame's height.

"D-Do you want to go home?" Hinata asked.

She nodded.

Hinata looked back up at Sasuke.

Sasuke grinned. "They can wait." He told her. "They've waited this long."

"L-Let's go home." Hinata said turning away as she had done so many times before.