Paint It Black
*Spoiler alert for chapter 613*
When her comb broke that morning Yoshino did not pay it much attention. She was a practical woman, not given over to superstitions. Finishing her routine she left for the day's duties. Despite the war-footing Konoha was on and the siege mentality, the fact of the matter was that were still students who needed training and skinned knees that needed bandaging and scared young children of shinobi parents who needed hugs. There was and always would be work for those manning the homefront.
Hours passed uneventfully, the nature of the day comforting in its very tedium. Time marched on in its allotted increments, morning at the school, afternoon at the clinic, stopping by the Nara warehouses to check medicinal supply levels in the early evening. Before she went home to tend to the deer she paused at one of the few remaining open shops and purchased a new comb.
But when the strap of her sandal broke as she stepped across her own threshold nothing could prevent the frisson of fear that ran down her spine. 'Stop it' she tried to chide herself, 'it's only an old wives' tale.' The irony was not lost on her. Her hands trembled slightly as she made the tea and even its warmth could not shake the chill that settled around her.
The pleasant monotony of earlier was replaced by smothering pangs of anxiety and obsessive glances at the clock. She wanted the hands to move, dammit. Forward, backward, didn't matter. She wanted it to be tomorrow or yesterday, any day but *this* day. She wanted *this* day over, or better yet never to have happened at all. Eventually she fell into a fitful sleep on the sofa downstairs.
Feather-light flickering at the edge of her consciousness woke her. Sleep fogged she yawned and stretched sitting up, recognizing the signature. "Inoichi?"
By all rights he shouldn't have been able to contact her, to have been able to let Shikaku contact her through him but still they'd managed it a few times through the years. Whether it was the closeness of their team or their mutual familial bonds, Yamanaka history said it couldn't be done and yet he'd managed to, they'd managed to over the years.
Whisper soft, her husband's thoughts came to her.
Bitter and sweet...
"No," she mouthed silently her throat suddenly so constricted it hurt. "Shikaku, no..."
harsh and tender...
"Shikaku please don't..."
I wouldn't have wanted you to be any other way...
"Don't go!"
"And I just want to say..."
Flat black and silent her world ended. The abyss yawned before her and he was gone.
A/N: Okay, I'm going thru a rough patch right now and Kishimoto does THIS to me in chapter 613! But sometimes it's good to just wallow in your fandom angst along with your own real world issues. Title is from a Rolling Stones song. Please be kind and leave a review.