The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

23: A Question of Commitment

[OP: "This Will End"--The Oh Hellos]

Sasuke wondered why he felt almost relieved to hear that Shine had changed her mind about him slightly in all this time.

Or why he didn't even care that she was assuming that he had changed his.

Maybe he was still half asleep, he thought.

Aloud, all he said was, "That isn't really that different."

"If you choose to see it that way, that's up to you." Shine was unconcerned. "Can we get back on topic? Are there any memories in particular that keep bothering you?"

Sasuke was too bitter to be as stoic about this subject, so, in a much more emotional voice than he intended to use, he replied, "What ones do you think would?"

"I'm trying to be nice and not guess something that would be upsetting to hear out loud." Calmly. "It's better if you just tell me. Do you really want me to try to poke into all your business?"

She had a point there.

"It's mostly about the massacre," he finally admitted in a low voice. "But I don't want to talk about that again."

"I know..." Shine said soberly. "I think there's a lot you don't want to talk about... It would be better if you did, but it's not the kind of thing I can force. Some things are sacred."

Yet another pause.

But Sasuke couldn't help but think that this was the most respect anyone had ever given the event.

Why was she the person who actually made it seem like it mattered at all? Why her of all people?

He just couldn't figure her out. She made so little of most of his tantrums (which was what they really were) and threats, but she'd turn around and make a lot out of things that other people brushed aside.

And it was so hard to resist feeling more comfortable with it because of that. He literally had to remind himself not to start seeing her as an ally here.

It was ridiculous.

Shine shivered. It was pretty cold at night in Stone Village.

"Let's keep walking," she said aloud. "We have somewhere to get to."

Sasuke followed her, trying to get a grip on himself again.

Soon he realized that they were going toward the nursery/greenhouse.

"Why are we here?"

"Seems safer than just walking around the village," Shine said, walking into the opening to the plot of land it was on. "Anyway, there's no buildings too close here, so you can see a lot of stars."

"Again with the stars...which you could see more of outside of the village anyway."

"But that's a much longer walk," Shine said. "Besides, the village walls block most of the view of the sky, which you know since you sit on the roof so often... Doesn't that get hot?"

"No." Flatly.

"Besides, I like to see the work of our hands here," Shine said. "Have a seat."

She sat on the only paved walkway to it. They'd put that in at some point during the building process.

Sasuke didn't want to but felt stupid standing like a scarecrow, so he finally did.

Shine stared at the greenhouse, which was quite pretty in the moonlight, if you were the type to notice things like that.

"You spend so much time in the world of nightmares, fear, and darkness," she said finally. "But what do you see when you're in the waking world with the rest of us? What did you see in the Village?"