1.

The nakodo came in their final year of ninja training.

She would stay for a week. Girls were supposed to come to the Academy, in groups of four, each group of girls assigned a different day. And once there, they had to impress Nakodo-san, the village matchmaker.

"I don't get it," said Naruko to Hinata. "Kunoichi in training are supposed to take all these different classes in all of these feminine arts so that we can seduce targets out in the field. Trick them into falling in love with us, get information from them and then kill them. Hundreds of years ago, that was a female ninja's only job. Now we fight alongside the boys, too, but it's still our most important job. Yet they're sending the nakodo to assess us in our final year of training? What, are not allowed to pass as kunoichi if we fail to meet up to her high, exacting standards for whether or not we'd make a good wife?"

"The nakodo would know better than anyone what men like and what they don't," Hinata pointed out. "Besides, Naruko-chan, you know this won't affect whether or not we pass as kunoichi. Suzume-sensei said so."

"The day I trust anything a teacher tells me is the day I run naked through the streets on my hands with a pair of pink silk underwear on my head," said Naruko.

"I would like to see that," said Hinata. "And realistically, you know plenty of girls in our class are planning on using their kunoichi training to seduce themselves a husband. I can think of several who are absolutely ecstatic looking forward to this week.

"You'll do fine," she told Naruko. "You're the best person I know. You won me over, remember?"

"I won you over by fighting," said Naruko. "I'm hopelessly weird and informal and Suzume-sensei hates me." And to this, Hinata had no response.

It had been a snowy January day and everyone had been signing up for classes at the Konoha Ninja Academy as young children. Most of them went onto campus that first time with their parents. Naruko went with an official from the village council. Her family had died in an attack from a forest fox demon the day she was born.

She didn't know much about them. The Hokage, leader of Konoha Hidden Village, brought her personally a check every month from the council. When she was very young, Naruko would simply accept gratefully the check placed on the kitchen table that helped her buy food. Later, she asked insistent questions, beginning to wonder about her parents and her origins.

"I know they died in the fox demon attack the day I was born, but what were they like? Who were they? What were their names?"

"Why would I tell you that?" the Hokage had asked. "It would only make you look back. Telling you would not change the past."

But next month, he brought her an old wooden chest full of ninja scrolls and a tattered scarf alongside the money.

"These scrolls are from your Uzumaki clan," he said. "Your mother's clan. You should have them. That scarf is hers. Wear it when you need to keep warm." Naruko never wore it. She kept it hung, carefully preserved and regularly taken tender care of, in a special spot within her bedroom.

The scrolls and the chest - the scrolls separated into four sections, taijutsu, ninjutsu, bloodline abilities, and seal studies - had left Naruko with more questions than answers. Why was she named after her mother's family? Who had her father been? And why were the grains and edges of the old chest riddled with sea salt, as if from ocean air? At last, when she learned to read, she learned the truth from the introductory scroll. The Uzumaki clan was not originally from Konoha's Fire Country. They were from a foreign island country called Whirlpool, named because it was surrounded by turbulent seas. Instead of living in a woodland area that caught fire easily and was full of colorful little wood and plaster buildings, Naruko was supposed to have grown up on a windy dark green island surrounded by wild ocean waters and filled with villa-like compounds. So that begged the question: Why was she here? The scrolls had no answer. When they had been written, all of the Uzumaki still lived in Whirlpool.

Perhaps her mother had been some sort of refugee. Perhaps her father was an unknown man. But Naruko didn't know. For one of the only times in her life, she went to the library, and learned that the Hidden Village of Uzu in Whirlpool Country had been destroyed in the Third Great Ninja War. Supposedly, everyone from that village was dead, including its founding Uzumaki clan. She'd used a dictionary that day as well. Kaukokaipuu - an old language foreign word for a feeling of homesickness for a place or time you've never visited. Still, the Hokage would tell her nothing. By now, at twelve, Naruko had simply stopped asking. But when she'd said all those years ago that she wanted to be a ninja, and not just for the reason of her parentage, he had sent a council official to assist her in the signup process.

Naruko had let the official sign up for her at the long table in the front entryway of the main building. She'd been surrounded by swarms of excited children clinging to their parents, asking demanding questions, the parents answering in tones of thrilled, indulging pride. "Stay away from that girl." The parents had subtly pulled their children away from her.

"Why?"

"Just do it."

Naruko had wandered out of the front doors and into the Academy's front courtyard. Huge blankets of snow coated the grounds with strange evenness, the perfection wrought by probable gardeners marred with footsteps from fallible human beings. Large trees arched skeletal, black, snow laden branches to the skies. Naruko tramped through the snow to a wooden tree swing hanging by thick ropes from a particularly heavy tree branch. She brushed off the accumulated snow and sat down, creaking as she softly swung herself back and forth. The Konoha Ninja Academy loomed up before her, round white plaster buildings with wooden roofs and weird splashes of bright primary color, her new school - the only place she could think of that would give her the respect and status she so desperately sought.

"Your eyes are super creepy."

"You look so weird. Are you some kind of nightmare monster?"

Naruko looked around, frowning. She wasn't the only child who was out here in the cold instead of in there with the hoards of happy families. In the center of a nearby grove of trees, three boys were standing around a little girl, picking on her, jeering and calling her names as she was curled up crying in the middle of them. Their source of ire, on the surface, seemed to be her eyes, which were pupil-less and whose irises were such a blank silvery white that they were almost indistinguishable from the sclera, the white part surrounding the eye.

Naruko knew the truth, though. She'd been picked on a lot as a smaller child. If it hadn't been the eyes, it would have been something else. Shoulders hunched timidly, curled up crying quietly, this girl was an easy target.

She stomped over in between the boys and the girl, getting right up in the lead boy's face. She heard the sniffles of the girl behind her silence as the girl sucked in a sharp breath. "I can already tell what kind of ninja you three are going to be," said Naruko. "You know, true warriors attack people who can actually fight back."

The boy scoffed. "What do you know about, village freak? This girl is a Hyuuga. She can fight back. She's just not willing to."

"Not being able to fight psychologically is the same as not being able to fight physically!" Naruko snapped. "Just leave her alone, dattebayo!" It was a verbal tic. Instead of coming out when she was nervous, it came out when she was emotional.

The boy smirked. "Or you'll do what?"

"Start guessing at the size of your penis," said Naruko without pausing.

The boy's friends snickered as his face flushed. He stepped forward to throw a crashing, fast punch - and Naruko, having already trained privately for two years in her clan's special Water Weaving Fist style of taijutsu fighting, slid smoothly out of the way, flowing with speed and grace around the attack. The boy paused briefly in surprise, his fist still in the air, and she used that time to kick him really hard in the crotch. He let out a groan, bending over and falling to his knees.

"Wow," said Naruko. "I was right. It's really tiny." She looked up at the other two boys, who backed away in terror and fled. Naruko turned back around to the girl and grinned. "Oops," she said. "I'm planning not to show off any of my clan abilities at the Academy. But until I learn Academy styles of fighting, I guess I'll have to break that rule just this once."

The girl was much more traditional looking than Naruko. Naruko dressed in long blonde pigtails and a bright orange kunoichi dress; she had blue eyes and a heart-shaped, whisker-marked face and she wore pink lip gloss. From the beginning, Hinata fit the traditional idea better of what a kunoichi ninja was supposed to be. She had a pale face, short chin-length blue-black hair, striking grey eyes, she went with only very muted makeup, and she wore reserved sweaters and pants. She was quiet and demure. Naruko had never been very good at acting that way.

Naruko walked over and held out a hand to help the girl up. "You okay?"

The girl at last smiled, and took the hand. "Y-yes," she said softly. "Thank you. You saved me."

"Eh." Naruko shrugged. "You know, you need to be more confident. Stand up for yourself more. I think your eyes are cool."

"Th-thank you. They're a doujutsu. A chakra-related eye ability passed down through the Hyuuga clan generations," said Hinata shyly. Hinata had always been shy and timid, back then. She'd had a horrible stutter gained by sheer nervousness. She was more confident now. Being best friends with Uzumaki Naruko did that to a person.

"Really?" said Naruko curiously. "What can it do?"

"The Byakugan? W-well… It can see through anything and across long distances, and it has an almost 360 degree field of vision. It's connected to our clan taijutsu style, Gentle Fist - we use our Byakugan to touch a person lightly with chakra and inflict massive internal organ damage."

"Shit that's cool!" said Naruko, impressed.

"I-it is?" said Hinata uncertainly.

"Hell yeah! We should totally train together sometime. My name's Uzumaki Naruko."

"Hyuuga Hinata. I haven't heard of that clan before… Uzumaki," said Hinata.

"We're refugees," said Naruko. "Well, I am. My parents are dead. I live alone, like the rest of the older orphans. Village raises me kind of thing."

"Oh!" Hinata looked humiliated. "I'm so sorry, I had no idea -"

"I don't remember them," said Naruko. "I guess that makes it less horrible. I don't know. At the same time, I guess I've always really wondered what it would feel like to have a family - you know, to have people worth losing. Wow! That got depressing really fast!" Naruko laughed with nervousness. "Let's talk about something more cheerful! I bet we'll be in the same Academy class; all the students here will be. Don't worry, I'll protect you from those clods and that's a promise, dattebayo! Do you think -?"

"Hinata-sama!"

The two of them whirled around. A man Naruko would learn later was Hinata's clan retainer for the day, a tall dark-haired man with silvery Hyuuga eyes, was standing there, furious and thunderstruck.

"Y-yes?" said Hinata, puzzled but instinctively cringing at any sign of anger. It was a very peculiar mix on her round face.

"You must not speak to this thing! Come with me!" He stormed over and hurried her away, even as Hinata struggled, looking back over her shoulder.

"But - wait - she saved me -!"

"It doesn't matter. Come."

Hinata and Naruko shared one last look before Hinata was pulled out of sight. Hinata looked stricken and confused. Naruko gazed after them distantly, solemn and resigned, a little bit sad. That had been nice - talking to someone like she was just some other girl.

Hinata and Naruko didn't talk again for three months. Naruko assumed Hinata was now afraid of her, wanting nothing to do with her. She would learn later that Hinata had been too humiliated to talk to her, afraid Naruko would be angry that she'd let herself be pulled away so easily.

But when Hinata was being picked on again one spring morning out in the courtyard by the same bullies, same area too, Naruko charged forward again and this time she didn't screw around. She used an Academy taijutsu move to slide underneath the lead bully, kicking his feet out from under him. He fell to the ground with a yelp and Naruko landed with a skid in front of Hinata.

Having already had a detailed schematic for one taijutsu style, it had not been hard for her to learn another. She stood and made a come-forward motion, smirking. The other two boys charged, and in a series of swift punches and kicks, she had them on the ground. Then she grabbed them up, one in each arm, and tossed them on top of their buddy across the wooded clearing.

"And stay away!" she yelled after them. "How many times do I have to do this, gentlemen?" They groaned in a pile several feet away. Naruko turned around to Hinata, but her stomach was jumpy and unsettled. She tried for a smile. "I did make a promise, didn't I?"

Hinata stood, her tears fading, surprised. "You're - you're not angry with me?"

"You're not angry with me?" Naruko echoed, equally bewildered.

They looked at each other, and laughed.

"So what's wrong?" Naruko asked as they walked together toward the Academy building. "You seemed upset even before those guys came over. That's why they singled you out. I would have gone over to you, but I didn't think you wanted to talk to me."

"Oh. I'm pathetically weak," said Hinata, downcast. "Not fit for the Hyuuga clan. My father just made me fight my little sister. She's clan heiress now. Not me."

"Oh. Well… I can't do anything about your family… in fact, it's probably a good idea if they never know you talk to me," Naruko admitted. "I'm not well liked in Konoha. I don't really know why, and none of the other kids seem to either. I think I might be illegitimate. That's why I have my mother's name. But… hey. My offer to train together still stands. I mean, I'm pretty merciless in spars, and I haven't had any more luck making friends than you seem to have. I have no one to fight with."

She'd offered friendship and been rejected so many times by fearful children, she'd mostly just said it to make sure she knew it could never have happened. But Hinata paused, and then smiled. "Yes, Naruko-chan," she said. "You seem strong. I would like to train and get stronger with you."

"I seem strong? I'm not even the best in the class. My academic grades suck and I can't do a single Academy ninjutsu."

"But you never give up, even when you do something badly. You may not be the strongest in the class, Naruko-chan, but that kind of strength can be taught. You have the kind of strength that can't be."

The girls in Naruko's group gathered in the long hallway outside the kunoichi classroom on the appointed day. She was with Hinata, Yamanaka Ino, and Haruno Sakura.

"God, Naruko, do you not even get the point of what today's all about?" Ino asked, exasperated.

"What do you mean?" Naruko asked.

"Just look at the way she's dressed," Sakura whispered, disgusted and horrified.

They were supposed to be in traditional kimono, but Naruko had decided to do hers a bit differently. She was wearing a furisode style kimono of white and red chrysanthemums on an orange background. Her obi sash was colored shocking pink with a black dragon motif. She wore clogs, kabuki face makeup, and a lilac wig decorated with bright yellow and pink kanzashi hair ornaments.

"It took me three weeks to make this outfit. I had to do it by hand," said Naruko. "It's avant garde."

"It's weird," Sakura mandated, glaring. "What kind of boy is going to find you attractive, looking like that?" Sakura and Ino were, Naruko suspected, two of the girls Hinata had been talking about when she'd said some among their number would try to seduce their way into finding husbands. They never ate lunch in an effort to keep themselves looking perfect, a cardinal sin in Naruko's world. She didn't trust anyone who didn't eat food and enjoy it.

"I'm not looking for a boy to find me attractive," said Naruko. "And neither is Hinata-chan, dattebayo!"

"Yeah, but Hinata's from a huge, wealthy clan who will clan who will definitely find a marriage for her," said Ino. "You need this today in a way she doesn't. She's also dressed normally." Ino assumed, because Naruko displayed no clan abilities, that she had none. But the fact did remain: Naruko's clan was dead.

Hinata was a perfect contrast. Her kimono was a soft white with a silvery obi, decorated with sprigs of quiet flowers and snowflake patterns. Her dark hair longer all these years later, it was tied back in a bun frosted with a single, tasteful bejewelled comb to decorate. Her makeup was more obvious than usual, but still subtle and traditional.

"Ignore them, Naruko-chan," said Hinata with dignity, looking out the window as if Sakura and Ino simply didn't exist. "You look fine."

"What, you think you're better than us, Hyuuga?" Ino demanded.

"I think I am nothing. I am Zen," said Hinata, and Naruko snickered.

Just then, the classroom door slid open to reveal Suzume-sensei, a mannish but elegant woman with frizzy black hair, a square chin line, a carved face, and glasses. "Girls, Nakodo-san is ready for y -" She saw Naruko and took a deep breath, nostrils flaring. "Naruko."

"Yes?"

Suzume-sensei seemed to contemplate saying something. They could practically see it in her eyes as she decided the futility of it. She sighed and stepped aside. "Come right in."

They entered the kunoichi arts classroom. Cooking stations were in one half of this room, a dance floor with a mirror in the middle, and work tables with chairs in the other half. There was an adjacent room that mirrored a teahouse, meant for tea ceremony. The girls all took seats at the tables. Nakodo-san stood at the head of the room, her face carved from stone. She had a bun of grey hair; dark, humble clothes; and strict, severe, lined features. Her eyes lingered, for a moment, on Naruko.

"You all know why I am here, and who I am," Nakodo-san said, when they had all sat and waited for some time in uneasy, nervous silence. "I arrange marriages between men and women - miai ceremonies. Ren'ai kekkon, love marriage, is a relatively recent invention. But miai is not its opposite. During a miai process, two people are matched together by a nakodo, or matchmaker - such as myself - because it is thought they would suit each other. They date and court for a while, and if they find they like each other, they get married. If not, they go their separate ways and search for other partners.

"As you know, we also live in a polygamous society. Monogamy is a relatively recent invention as well, though it is allowed. It used to be that only men could have multiple wives, but now, in the modern day, women can also have many husbands.

"I am here to encourage you to consider the older ways of doing things. They still have merit."

Naruko saw Sakura and Ino's expressions. Both seemed determined never to go by the old ways of doing things. Whether they were simply jealous, had imbibed far too much modern romance, or both was a matter up for debate.

Hinata had raised her hand. "You say a woman may have multiple husbands. What if she wants to have children with those husbands? Is she just supposed to get pregnant countless times?"

Naruko listened curiously.

"There is modern technology, a relatively recent medical invention, which we recommend that answers that need," said Nakodo-san. "They exist in hospitals, and are known simply as bubbles. The DNA of two people is mixed together and through a chakra-related process by a medic nin a fetus is created inside a small golden bubble, hooked up to chakra machines, which provide it with nourishment. The parents can visit the hospital and watch their child grow inside the bubble, in a great room along with countless others. When nine months has passed, the child is released and is handed over to the parents. This method of childbirth is also recommended for same sex couples, which are similarly socially allowed."

"I had never heard of that," said Suzume thoughtfully.

"It's only come out in the past ten years," said Nakodo-san, giving her a single nod. "But most villages, Hidden or not, now have such facilities. It spread quickly. It is understandably popular. Women with physical risks associated with pregnancy can now have children as well, as can supposedly infertile women and men. And having a child without a partner or spouse has never been easier.

"So!" Nakodo-san clapped her hands and everyone started. "We will not be going through a complete run of your kunoichi abilities. That would take days just for these four women. You have been learning tea ceremony, flower arrangement, incense burning, shamisen playing, dancing, cooking, traditional fashion, and calligraphy, just to name some of your subjects. Along with the more cerebral subjects of games, conversation, flirtation, flattering, and studying the culture and psychology of chosen targets.

"But I would like to make an assessment of each of you as women. Part of it, I have done already, through your chosen outfits for today." Her eyes wandered once around the room. Naruko's palms sweated, her hands clenched underneath the table. Sakura and Ino were smirking. "But I have been told you all have prepared a flower arrangement and a brief, informal style tea ceremony for me. I will look over your arrangements, and then you will each in turn show me your tea ceremony skills - and that includes your cooking.

"I will then tell you what kind of man would suit you."

Suzume-sensei brought out their flower arrangements and set them on tables. Each girl stood next to their individual table. They were supposed to stand still and demure, with their hands folded. Naruko kept fidgeting despite herself.

Nakodo-san told Sakura that with her quiet, muted, cerebral manner she would suit a louder and more flirtatious man, while Ino with her loud, warm, flirtatious manner was told she would suit a quieter, colder man. Sakura and Ino glared at one another, Ino looking smug. Sakura and Ino shared a mutual crush, each determined to have him individually in a modern love marriage, and he was quiet and cold. That was the desired man. He was a slim, dark-haired pretty boy, too, making it worse. Sakura and Ino were me-har - fangirls.

Hinata was told that with her traditional, delicate, elegant flower arrangement she deserved "only the best - a highly refined man." Ino and Sakura glared at potential competition because their crush, Uchiha Sasuke, was from one of the most important families in the village. Hinata remained refined and dignified, saying nothing and continuing to pretend Sakura and Ino did not exist.

Then Nakodo-san arrived in front of Naruko's flower arrangement, and she stared at it without moving. It was Moribana Slanting Style, gyakugatte - which meant the reverse of the usual in ikebana, or flower arrangement. Everything was flipped exactly around from the way it was supposed to be.

Black smoke tree branches with dark leaves were in one long, shaped grouping, arranged in a slant that doubled as a circular arch formation over the edge of the vase. A single rose hung over the edge of the vase in the center of the smoke tree branches. The vase itself was an old repurposed bluish glass milk bottle. Greenish pond scum pebbles lay in the water layer at the bottom.

Nevertheless, everything was anatomically perfect. Naruko had put a lot of effort into this, buying the plant materials herself; she'd made sure of it. At a ninety degree angle with the kenzan, the instrument holding the arrangement in place, as the bottom center, hikae was at 45 degrees, shin was at 15, and soe was at 75. The branches were perfect, plants filling the spaces in between. To the surface eye, everything looked grouped together, but the arrangement was actually done to exact specifications and Naruko was proud of it.

Then she saw Nakodo-san's cold glare and became less certain. This might not be good. Nakodo-san - she was one of the many who didn't like Naruko for reasons that had nothing to do… well, with Naruko. Naruko could spot that look from a mile away.

"Well," said Nakodo-san, "this is interesting. What exactly is it supposed to be?"

"It's -" Naruko began.

"That was a rhetorical question," said Nakodo-san, and she moved on without saying anything. "Tea ceremony comes next," she tossed back over her shoulder. "I will give you my final assessment privately at the end of your brief ceremony." And she walked without looking into the adjacent room.

The next two hours were torture. Naruko talked and talked on a high plane of anxiety until Ino finally told her to shut up. She fidgeted when she knelt, paced when she didn't. "Polite girls sit quietly and obediently!" Suzume-sensei barked once, fed up, but Naruko had never been good at that either.

She was finally called in last, and did her ceremony as perfectly as she could, zoned in on the moment of physical performance. She smiled cheerfully, talked warmly when she spoke, and made it through her tea ceremony - both the first portion, the meal, and then the second portion, the actual drinking of both the thick and the thin powdered matcha green tea in a humble dark bowl. She knelt and served, answered questions, whisked tea, bowed as she handed it over. She did everything she was supposed to during the break between part one and part two, from cleaning the tea room to replacing the hanging scroll with a chabana flower arrangement, and rang the gong to allow Nakodo-san back into the room for the tea drinking portion.

She thought she had it made. But since this ceremony was supposed to reveal their personality, she'd added her own personal touches. The meal was all warm, filling soul foods, including a light curry with mango and honey to sweeten, a cold noodle salad filled with fruits and vegetables, and some light fried finger foods that were typically good for sandwiches. And she'd gone for an underwater mythology theme in the symbols painted on her utensils, in the types of flowers she'd chosen, and in the hanging scroll. The flowers were water lilies, arranged as they were found in nature as per chabana rules, while the hanging scroll showed an ink painting of Ryūgū-jō, the undersea palace of Ryujin, the dragon god of the sea. The symbols painted on the utensils were orange - her favorite color - and were alternately kappas, water demons, and the trademark Uzumaki swirl symbol. Water was the Uzumaki element, so it was what she felt most confident and at-home in. As for the typical tea ceremony foods, well they wouldn't fill a person up at all, she felt! Something more substantial was needed!

At the end of the ceremony, she sat and waited. Nakodo-san raised an eyebrow. "What is it, Uzumaki? You can go," she said as if this should be obvious.

"But… you didn't tell me what type of man will like me yet," said Naruko, confused.

Nakodo-san sighed. "Uzumaki-san," she said, "we both know you are never getting married. You will never find a husband. You are bizarre, you misunderstand the point of formality, and in any case no one wants you. The evidence of your strangeness is clear to see. Even now, you don't desire romance the way the others do. Deep down, even you know you are different. It is why I saved you for last. You, more than any other girl in your class, are the most pointless for me to analyze."

Naruko suddenly stood, her eyes burning like stinging fires. "It doesn't matter!" she snapped. "I'm going to become the Hokage someday, dattebayo, and then you'll be sorry!"

Nakodo-san raised an eyebrow. "Many of your classmates beat you in grades. And in any case, women don't become Hokages. They become advisors. You may go."

Naruko clenched her teeth. "If women don't become Hokages," she snapped, "then I will be the first!" And she stormed out of the tea room.

"Naruko -!" Hinata started, standing, everyone outside looking rather alarmed at the shouting, but Naruko slammed out the classroom door past them and hurried away. She was halfway off campus when she heard someone else call her name, and looked around instinctively.

Her shinobi arts teacher, Iruka, a ponytailed young man with a scar across his nose, was hurrying up behind her. "Naruko -! What's wrong?" He paused, staring at her. Naruko realized she was crying.

"Oh." She wiped away the tears, laughing lightly. "Nothing!"

"In any case, we need to advise soon," said Iruka sternly, glaring. He never treated her any better than the others did. He said she smiled too much, laughed too loudly, talked too constantly. "The final graduation exam into the forces is coming in a month. Your chakra control is horrible, your clone technique is still a mess, your academic grades are poor, and you have no clan skills!"

Only the last was untrue. Naruko had a bloodline ability of her own, but it felt more like a curse. Extremely large chakra coils were her dubious gift, making any technique requiring very little chakra - like the Academy techniques - extraordinarily harder. As for the academic grades, she didn't know. She supposed she was just stupid.

"Sure, Iruka-sensei," she muttered, trudging off campus. The streets were not any easier, the dirt roads lined with trees and colorful little rounded plaster buildings. People glared, hissed, spat at her from a distance - the adults anyway. The children, not understanding but imbibing, merely sneered. That same cold stare. It was everywhere.

Bakemono, adults called her when no children were around. Monster. Naruko always read that as "illegitimate." "Not supposed to be here." "Orphan."

In a rare show of cowardice, Naruko had retreated from the village proper years ago, and had the council build her a personal house on the outskirts, next to the great wooden village wall. So she did what came naturally - she disappeared, retreated, into the surrounding woodland. Into the trees.

Only there did she let the tears fully fall. Sometimes, she felt she was a forest fox demon herself, the woodlands her home.