Absolved.

Bonding.

[Song: Between - Currier]

I'd never realized how long it had been since I was completely alone until I tried to camp at the border that night. I gave up after a few hours of laying there, staring up at the moon and started running towards the village again.

Even exhausted I was able to reach the tea house by noon. Temari was already there waiting for me, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes when she commented on my lateness. I'd left well before planned, and run all night but I was happy to see her after spending so long surrounded by men.

"Where is your team?" She gave me a disapproving look, obviously upset I had chosen to travel alone.

"Where is your boyfriend?" I shot back with a laugh as I sat beside her.

"I don't know who you mean." She sounded positively snobbish as she sipped her tea.

"A certain lazy chunin.."

"A weakling Leaf shinobi? Not on your life!" She snubbed, and then gave me a wicked smile. "Speaking of Leaf shinobi.."

I sighed, flashing her a glare. "Not this again.."

"He asked about you."

"Why do you always end up hanging out with him?" I avoided thinking about what he could have asked.

"It's easy, Shikamaru is Asuma's favorite and Asuma is friends with Kakashi." She shrugged as she poured me a cup.

"And Shikamaru is also your favorite."

"Kairi, you have been back long enough that I wouldn't feel bad about hitting you."

We both laughed and I took a greedy sip of green tea. It felt good to be around my sister, it had been a little over a month since we had last been home together at the same time.

"I'm serious though, you have to stop going off on your own." She complained after a few minutes of silence. "You're good at your job, that means you have pissed off a lot of people."

"I wasn't alone." I shrugged, smirking at her. "Gaara walked me to the border."

It was her turn to glare at me, a demeaning look that made my stomach twist. "That's even worse, what about the aka--"

"Stop, obviously I wouldn't put him in danger." It had been me that asked her to protect him anyways. "He took the sand back."

She nodded, but was still tense. I felt bad, but that feeling left me when she spoke again.

"What did he do that was so wrong?"

I couldn't stop the groan that came out as I dropped my head to the table. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"It's just a question." She snipped.

"You were there, you know what he did."

"No, I know what dad tried to do.." She placed a hand on my shoulder. "Kairi... Talk to me, obviously there was something between you two."

When I lifted my head to look at her she flicked her finger against the headband I had around my neck as if me wearing emphasized her point. I had avoided this conversation with her for so long, today I was stuck with her. I gave a defeated shrug and a sigh. "I don't even know Tem.."

"Just tell me everything." She encouraged, giving me a sweet smile, not a hint of sass.

So I did. I told her about getting into that stupid game of cat and mouse with him, about how he had saved me from Itachi and about being guarded by him and his sharingan. I was careful with the details of the cemetery, they weren't my stories to tell. "We were called to the Hokage's office and sent out on a mission."

"Even though she thought you were a spy?" She had an eyebrow raised, obviously wondering if Lady Tsunade was stupid.

"At Kakashi's insistence.." I continued, running my thumb over the metal part of his headband. "That's when he gave me this."

She nodded, urging me to continue.

I told her about the hot springs, how good it had felt to hang out with him and his friends.. My friends. I told her how we had stayed up talking and how he'd summoned the dogs to comfort me. She had already known about Orochimaru, Kabuto and my curse mark that was still on my arm, just sealed. I didn't need to spend too much time on that part of the story, but I found it difficult to tell her about the night in the hospital.

"He was drunk?"

I nodded slightly.

"And he snuck in your window?"

Again I nodded with a little bit of a blush.

"Kairi, he was out drinking with his friends.. And at the end of the night, he wanted to be with you." She reworded my story, awestruck. "That is so cute."

I felt my blush deepen, and found myself biting my lip thinking about those rushed kisses we'd stolen from each other that night.

"Oh my God, you didn't?"

"What?" I looked up at her confused, her eyebrows were raised and her eyes were wide.

"You did it didn't you! That's why you guys are so hung up on each other!" She pretty much yelled it out, earning us a look from one of the servers.

"Would you shut up!" I pushed on her head to get her to sit back down, turning fully red. "It wasn't that.. We just kissed... A lot."

"You need to come back and see him right now!" She shot back up and pulled at my arm, trying to get me to follow her back to Konohagakure.

"No, Temari stop! He was drunk, he didn't know what he was doing!"

"Why would you think that?"

"Because he's a jonin, an elite shinobi and I was just a kid.. An annoying, depressing teenager." I sighed, pulling my hand away from her and staring into my glass of tea. "That's why he avoided me for so long.."

The memories of waiting for him every night that week hurt, I felt stupid and that voice that was always in the back of my head kept ripping me apart about it.

"You're forgetting about the part where he saved your life.. All of our lives.." She said as she sat back down, filling her cup again with now lukewarm tea. "You don't know, do you?"

This was getting too painful, the memories and that stupid voice were getting harder to choke down. "I don't want to talk about this anymore." I whimpered, it sounded more like begging.

She nodded reluctantly, reaching for her cup to take a sip but it cracked when her hand got near. We both stared at the cup and then shared a worried look. I could tell she was thinking the same thing I was, that can't be good.