Kakashi's Teammate, the Lightning Goddess

Sympathy and Courage

**edited! finally!**

We were sitting in silence. My story had been told; all my cards were on the table.

                Or not. Just kidding. But that one vital card had been played, and now Sasuke stared at me with an unreadable expression.

                “Wait a minute,” he said, breaking the silence. “When we first graduated from the Academy, we took a test to become Genin. Kakashi took two bells and ordered us to get them from him.”

                “Same test we took,” I said. “Did you?”

                "No. But in the end, Naruto was tied to a stump, while he gave me and Sakura our lunches. He ordered us not to feed Naruto, or we'd all fail. But we each gave him a little, and he passed us for working together."

                I snorted. “That’s funny, since he was always the loner of the group. I always felt like he didn’t like us, but at the same time, I’d hoped that it was just an act. Maybe he’s changed, anyhow. Because of Obito, perhaps…”

                Sasuke gave a quick nod of agreement.

                “’Those who break the rules are branded as scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum’. Obito was always that kind of person. That’s why I admired him, despite his unnatural lack of Uchiha-ness in him.”

                “Uchiha-ness?”

                “Uchiha-ness.”

                “Right,” he said slowly, giving me his usual ‘are you an idiot?’ look. “But Kakashi said the same thing to us. Then he went over to the KIA stone and told us that the names of his best friends were engraved there. ‘Four,’ he said. ‘All four of them are here.’”

                “Obito and Rin,” I said immediately. “And Minato-sensei, the Fourth Hokage.”

                “That’s three,” said Sasuke. “And you were presumed to be dead, in the line of action, so…”

                “I’d like to believe that he was referring to me,” I admitted. “I despise what he did at the time, but now that so many years have passed, and now that we’ve led completely different lives, I wonder if it’s not such a big deal anymore. Sympathy and courage, Sasuke. Sympathy and courage.”

                “You still called him a betrayer, did you not?”

                “That’s true, but I’ve been thinking it over, and the more time I spend with him, the more the happy memories come back, instead of the bad ones. I mean, we were a good team, and we had some pretty good times. It wasn’t all bad.”

                “I’m glad to hear that.”