You've... changed. (naruto fanfic)

Chapter 24

---3rd person---

It had been a few days since Mariko, Akari and Rei had made it back to the Mist Village, in that time, a lot had happened.

Mariko had reported Kiyomi's failure to kill Gaara, only angering their Mizukage. 

He was pissed off to say the least, after all he had done for Kiyomi, and now she had failed her mission as well as going rogue, leaving their village.

That's what all of them thought.

Rei and Akari were now in a stable relationship, Akari had told her parents and they accept Rei easily. They had known Rei for ages, ever since Akari first introduced them, heck they even knew themselves that there was something more than friendship between the two. 

Mariko had however been acting different. 

Sure she acted normal, her lazy self around everyone, however she refused to talk about Kiyomi. 

No one really knew the real reason why Mariko was acting this way. Fact is it was a mixture of different things.

One, was the fact that Kiyomi was gone. Of course she missed her, having no idea where she would have gone.

Another of course is because she missed Kakashi. She never noticed how much he really meant to her. And only now did she realise how much he filled her mind. 

But lastly, it was what she found the day she came back to the Hidden Mist Village. 

---flashback---

The Mist was thick today; no one could see anything 3 meters in front of them.

Mariko walked out of the Mizukage's building; her head hung low, as she had just been scolded by him. He was angry about a lot of things and she knew he just needed to calm down. 

But that didn't stop the words that he had said.

"You're so useless!"

"They said you were the best of the best yet you can't even handle one mission!"

"You lost our prodigy!? How could you let her leave!?"

Yes, Mariko wasn't a huge fan of her Yagura, her Mizukage. He for some reason always held a grudge against Mariko. She believes it's because she turned him down a long time ago as well as every other man who asked her out. 

So as of now, she made her way through the Mist, ignoring everything and everyone she passed. She didn't want to talk to anyone or be near anyone, unless it was Kakashi.

She didn't know where she was going, but she unconsciously had walked exactly where she needed to be.

She looked up at her surroundings, taking in everything, the trees, buildings, everything.

She didn't think about anything in particular, she just walked until she arrived there.

She slowly looked up, her eyes meeting with the two grave stones before her. But as soon as she looked up, her eyes widened as her eyes caught onto the items before her.

There, lying on across the graves were Kiyomi's old sword as well as her red ninja headband which was facing the ground.

She just stood there for a moment, taking in what she was seeing. 

She knew what this meant, she wasn't stupid. But she didn't reach for the items, it almost as if she couldn't.