Colliding Constellations

Chapter 9: Legacy

Kaito offered a sleepover at his house, and Tsunade reluctantly agreed.

"Should I tell my mom?" was the first thing Kara asked.

"Yeah, you should," Kaito answered. Kara slumped in defeat, it had been a question she had hoped for the opposite response. "But you don't have to, if you don't want to," Kaito continued, "Though I doubt she won't notice something is wrong, Mom's are like that."

"Yeah, mom's as sharp as a hawk," Kara nodded sadly. The room was met by an awkward silence, neither had said a word on the way back to the Senju estate. Kaito sighed and stood up, setting up his station so that they could play a game.

"Why?" Kara asked abruptly, "Why?"

Kaito kneaded his forehead, "I don't know."

"But you have an idea," Kara prodded, her eyes accusing.

"Do you really want to do this right now-" Kaito began, but Kara cut him off.

"-I didn't know them," Kara said, staring out the window, "I don't know my father, I don't know my uncle, I certainly don't know my grandfather. I don't know them, and yet until this very day I thought I would want to." Kara kneaded her forehead, "I shouldn't mourn them because I never knew them to begin with, but I do."

"..." Kaito couldn't respond.

"So tell me," Kara pleaded, "Please, tell me why."

Kaito sighed, placing down the remote, "If I were to make a wild guess- politics."

Kara stared at him in curiosity, and he breathed in another breath before responding, "You've been told your uncle was a hero, right? Well, unless the Uchiha had been convicted of treason, there's no other way he would have been considered something so protagonistic..."

"..He helped during the war," Kara brought up in her desperation.

"Still.." Kaito winced, "I'm sorry, Kara, nothing I'm going to say is going to make it better."

"I know," Kara sighed, "I know." She then rushed to collapse on Kaito's bed, staring up blankly at the ceiling. She brought her hands up to massage her temple as a pounding headache started up.

"I wonder what Sarada would say, if she knew," Kara murmured, "Itachi was her favorite hero."

"..Are you angry?" Kaito asked hesitantly.

"No," Kara responded, "I'm a little scared and confused, but I'm not angry, not yet."

"You shouldn't come to conclusions too fast," Kaito advised, "Nana-obaa-san severely discriminates against the clans, everything she said was made from a place of hate and grudges, and none of it was acceptable."

"And I know you don't want to," Kaito begins, "But I think it'd be a good idea to find out the rest of the story, and not from someone like Nana, someone who actually knows your father, someone like your mom."

Kara groaned, "Okay, I get the idea. I'll ask her, I will." Kara's stomach turned with the confrontation she did not want to face.

"Mom," Kara called hesitantly. Sakura was taking off her shoes, her brow set from the toll work had taken on her.

"Huh? Karasu? Is something wrong?" Sakura stared at her daughter in curiosity, "Where's Sarada?"

"With Chocho," Kara responded immediately, "But actually I have something I want to talk about."

"Really?" Sakura started moving to the kitchen, "Is that food I smell? I'm always so impressed with your cooking skills, Kara-chan."