Tsunade's daughter (A Naruto original fanfiction)

Chapter Seventy-Eight: Resolve

"What? Have you just changed your mind?" Kakashi asked her after turning around to face her.

"..... What- What happened?" Karin asked hesitantly. 

"You really want to know? This man made Mai become a traitor."

"Huh...?" Karin flinched slightly in surprise. 

Him... But how?

"......."

"Well, if you don't have anything else to say, I'll see you tomorrow. You can sleep here if you wish, I don't care," he said before leaving for good.

Somehow, it saddened karin to learn that Mai had chosen to join this man. It seemed strange too. She had been so kind and soft toward her, and seemed to be attached to her village, so why become a traitor? Or maybe... She intended to make this man pay what he had done to her......

But Karin didn't even feel like sleeping.... So she just remained sat up on the floor.

As for Kakashi, he went to fetch his daughter who had been staying with Shizune. She asked him how the Kage Summit had been and had hoped to see Mai. But Kakashi told her it had been very eventful, without giving her too many details, and that Mai was really exhausted now. Shizune could understand and didn't ask him any more questions so he could go join Mai rapidly.

Once he was back home, he made his way to his daughter's room. She needed him just as he needed her... Hadn't he had her, he didn't know what he could have done....

He put Kei in her cradle, before going to get the futon in the spare room to put it into her room. 

After doing this, he took Kei back in his arms to lay her down on the futon so she could sleep on it. Then, he removed his flak jacket, along with his headband and put them down on the floorboard near the futon. Afterward, he removed his black long-sleeved top which ended up landing on the floor, to stay with only a black singlet. 

He glanced at his daughter before lying into bed next to her. He stared at her as she was sleeping since he couldn't sleep anyway. She looked so peaceful... Thank God she couldn't be aware of what was happening... 

He thought again about Mai's words. Their daughter... A mistake... He couldn't believe it. They had been both so happy when Kei was born. She couldn't have faked her own feelings... But if she had, she had done it very well. No....

It couldn't be over between them... He loved her with all his heart. She just couldn't leave him so suddenly. 

She had promised she would never leave him again....

He had really thought she loved him back, but now he was starting to have some doubts. 

He had suffered so much the first time she had left him after his Sensei and Kushina's deaths. He had come to hate her for abandoning him. But at the same time, everyday he had hoped that she would come back soon. But the more the days had passed the more he had become depressed and bitter. And the days had become months, and then the months had become years. So he had decided to consider her as dead, to try to lessen his pain, to forget her. Also, a part of him had thought that it was better this way, that she didn't need him, since she had already her own family.

But she had come back so suddenly after so many years. It had taken him aback. He should have been happy and relieved to see her again. Yet, at first he had been angry with her for leaving him for so long, and hurt because she hadn't even come back for him. He hadn't wanted to forgive her.  But it had been much harder to ignore her and consider her as dead while she had been back. His feelings for her which he had buried deep down had begun resurging, making him truly conflicted. He had tried to deny them as hard as possible, but then while at the memorial stone Mai had made him that promise, and he had ended up giving in to his feelings. Mai had managed to break down the walls he had built all around himself to shield himself from pain.