I watch as my partner is taken away. His unrecognizable face tilted in my direction as the unseeing eyes seemed to stare into my soul. I watch as he is taken to disappear, forever gone and unseen.

We had gone on a mission. Assassination. Kill someone important. Someone important that I had not known existed until the mission itself.

I had distracted the guards, the enemies. He had gone for the kill. We miscommunicated, made a mistake, did something that should never have been done. The guards noticed him. The guards killed him.

I am an illusionist, or genjutsu specialist. I can mess with someone's senses in order to get them to believe something. Not even the best can penetrate my deception. I had made the guards think there was a threat going down a corridor. I had them go on a wild chase based on the map I had memorized.

I was given a tampered map. I had led the guards closer to the important someone's vicinity than farther. The traitor who had given me this misinformation was interrogated and killed later, as protocol. But even then, this was not the only blunder.

There were more guards than what we had been informed of. Of a higher rank than what was needed. We had not thought that the person we were targeting would be so paranoid as to assign multiple jounin to guard him. Or thought themself so important. Or maybe thought to flaunt their money by hiring them. My partner already had to make a ruckus going through the extra attackers he did not know he needed to fight.

The guards I was leading became reinforcements for my partner's attackers. I did not come fast enough.

Slashes. Shouts. Blades. Metal. My partner could set anything aflame. Even in ways thought impossible with just a movement of his hands.

They cut his hands off. Surprised him and rendered them useless. No more fire. Just useless fighting.

Scream. Shot. Hit. Dead. He was dead. I got his body back.

I killed everyone else. Including that bloody important person. I didn't even know their name. Not that I cared anyway. I left with the body. The body that slowly became not quite human-like as the seal made its use.

I came back to the base. The superior dismissed me as I repeated what I had learned years ago in my head, one more time. One more time that I did not need. No grief. No sentiment. No tears. No emotion. These were all nuisances.

I am a weapon. I am a person meant to kill, not feel. Emotions are useless and must be exterminated for my cause. To feel is to be a liability. Relationships are useless.

Even then, as I watch my partner get carted away, I still mourn. He was a valuable asset. Not only that, he was a friend, no matter how forbidden it was. We were close, even though we were not supposed to be. He was the only one I let into my heart after the other died.

And now he is gone, lost to the wind, the sky, or wherever his spirit will go when his all traces of him disappear, for 'the greater good'.

He did not even know his name.

I do not know my name. It was lost long ago. A mother and a father, somewhere in the world, maybe mourning over the fact that their lost daughter had never been given her name.

Or the name could have been given. I do not know. I do not remember. I had been taken long before my memory became efficient.

I have taken many names. Each for a different cause. A different mission, a different objective. So had my partner. So had every other child in this organization. I am not the youngest, nor am I the oldest. Nor am I special with my abilities. Others have them too. Just not mine. That does not make me special. It makes me a killer.

Even so, I must obey. We must obey. Everyone follows the superiors, shutting out our own opinions, if we even have one anymore, aside to take directions. Our guidelines are simple really. Just a few words.

Follow. Obey. Do not question.

Or else.

This is ROOT.