Ugh, I've had this in the wings for so long (a couple of months) but have never gotten around to getting it finished.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
The sun hadn't fully risen yet, but a deep lavender-pink light spilled across the small, lush hollow. Crickets sang a soft, rhythmic tune from their hiding places in verdant deciduous trees, bushes and large, leafy ferns; the earliest risers of song birds were just beginning to wake up and softly sing to the sky. The morning star twinkled in the east. A soft, cool mist sprayed softly over the still, tranquil pond.
Yugao doubted Tenten was appreciating the scenery at all.
Yugao matter-of-factly patted Tenten's back and made sure the girl's hair was out of her face as she vomited into the bushes. Personally, she was a little disappointed; she had expected a better reaction out of her kohai.
"Why didn't you tell me…" Tenten gasped, choking and throwing up again "…we were being sent to kill a kid?"
Yugao raised an eyebrow, and waited. The girl would run out of bile eventually. After her throat convulsed three more times, Tenten lifted her head, gasping and wiping her mouth, her eyes filling with water.
"Done?" The older ANBU asked, sitting on her knees with her hands folded in front of her. Her voice was neutral and cool; neither passing judgment over Tenten nor expressing any submerged opinions of disapproval. The disapproval was there, floating around in Yugao's mind, but she didn't voice it, and would save the shored up admonitions for when they got back to Konohagakure.
"Yes," Tenten muttered hoarsely. She braced her hands on her knees as she tipped sharply from side to side, a few strands coming loose from the single dark knob at the back of her head to fall over her eyes.
The older woman nodded sternly and stood up. "Now get up. We're going home."
Tenten didn't seem to hear her. She glared up at Yugao, her bloodshot brown eyes displaying all too eloquently her disturbance in mind. "Why…didn't you tell me?"
"Tell you what?" Yugao inquired flatly, folding her arms around her chest. Deep down, she started to feel a small tug of worry on her.
"Tell me that we were going to kill a four year old boy?" Tenten half-shouted, breathing hard again, though she did not throw up. After a moment she regained control of her heartbeat and glared down at her hands. "What did he do to deserve death?"
Yugao had heard that question many times before. In fact, in her early days in the ANBU, she herself had asked that question a great deal. Reluctantly, Yugao felt herself softening as a modicum of sympathy for her kohai took over. "His father was abusing his position as a city official. This was a warning to him."
Shock radiated off of Tenten. "And what if he doesn't heed this "warning"?" she asked, aghast and intentionally challenging.
Bird cries reminded Yugao that it was nearly morning as she wearily ran a hand through her hair. "Then we move on. First his daughter, than his wife, than his father, than his mother, until everyone he cares about is gone or until he comes to his senses."
Tenten flinched. "Then…the kid died for no reason?" Her voice shook slightly and a small tremor shook her skinny frame.
Yugao looked down. "Yes," she murmured. "He did." Tenten was too soft, but Yugao couldn't blame her.
Tenten shook her head in a mixture of horror and sorrow. "How do you deal with this?" she begged to know in a barely-audible voice.
The ANBU paused, reaching in the air for words. "You learn to live with it," Yugao half-whispered. "You learn not to feel anything when you kill a child. You will learn how to cope with it."
Tenten looked up, and her eyes were burning oddly. "As you did?" she whispered in a strangely intense tone, her voice a cold, ominous hiss.
Yugao found herself troubled by the tone in her kohai's voice.
They didn't say another word to each other on the way back to Konoha.