I would like to thank Purewaterlily for all of her help. If it wasn't for her betareading this, there would be a lot more mistakes and confused readers. So, a round of applause for her.

Enjoy!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I had never yet seen a being resembling me or who claimed any intercourse with me. What was I? The question again recurred, to be answered only with groans"- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Sakura and Naruto were heading towards Ichiraku's ramen bar as they had invited Shikamaru to ramen with Kakashi to cheer him up a bit, before Asuma's funeral. As they arrived they found a young woman with ebony black hair sitting at the bar. Sakura recognised the woman straight away due to her trademark goggles, but was shocked to find her here. Sakura hadn't expected her to accept her invitation.

"Kimiko! I can't believe you came!" exclaimed the medic-nin running over to this sickly pale skinned woman, whose complexion appeared to be like chalk, hugging her with joy. There was nothing beautiful about the paleness of her skin, it was like the white skin people had, when they suffered from leprosy.

The girl appeared to be around the age of twenty, but two features made this feat questionable, the first being quite obvious. Her figure was that of a boy's, not only due to the narrow hips and lack of bosom, but her height suggested this as well, since she was much taller than all the boys reaching a height of 5'7. This had been a reoccurring disadvantage, because she resorted to dressing in men's clothing, and therefore was wearing the typical trousers and navy-sleeved top many male jounin wore. She also had the pair of sandals, sported by many male jounin due to the size of her feet.

The other feature was perhaps less obvious and something one would only notice, after engaging conversation or contact with her. Her eyes. They were grey, which would perhaps for many be considered a beautiful trait to possess, but this was not true of Kimiko. Many could not gaze into her eyes or look directly into them, not out of fear, but something else. Her eyes seemed out of place of her youthful appearance, the reason being they appeared to be that of an old and jaded woman. There was something grotesque about it, considering it manifested the idea that pasty woman had implanted her spirit into some poor young woman's body.

"I hope you don't think I don't know what lies beyond the front door of my apartment? I need fresh air every now and then. Anyway I'm testing how long it'll take for Genma to find me. He's probably thought I've fucked off and left the village and has now got a whole ANBU squad after me. A girl can never simply go off and have some ramen," said the brunette, whose hair had pulled up with side fringes and was a little too short to be tied into a proper pony-tail.

The pink-haired girl smiled, glad for her humour especially due to the gloomy atmosphere among the shinobi since Asuma's death. "You have to meet my team mates. This is Naruto, Sai, and Kakashi who I think you already know. Shikamaru is another friend of mine," Sakura said and gestured to each as she introduced each of them. "This is Kimiko, she's been working with me to have a better understanding of chemicals and herbs which are generally not used in medic-nin work."

"Good to meet ya," said Kimiko and tipped her index and middle finger off her forehead as a friendly gesture.

They ordered their food and ate their ramen trying to make small talk. Kimiko was quiet, but then piped up the most inappropriate question: "How was the mission, Sakura?" This put a whole damper on the mood. Nobody said anything.

"Okay, then not so well. You lost someone, possibly close? Hmm…whose funeral is up next? I remember Genma mentioning something…there's so many of them I can never figure out who died and who's still alive. Heck, Kakashi I thought you'd be long past your expiration date."

Naruto and Shikamaru were flabbergasted by the insensitive attitude this woman had towards death. Sakura was also surprised by these statements she made, but not to the same extent as the other two, as she knew Kimiko had somewhat unusual opinions. She remembered Kimiko muttering to herself one time, when she mentioned Sasuke to her, about the Uchiha clan being "fucked-up". But she hadn't expected Kimiko to be so callous. This is something she had expected from Sai, but Kimiko had always seemed somewhat reserved and indifferent to the village, despite the fact that she was the major contributing factor for the items they used in missions.

Sakura didn't know her too well, but Tsunade wished for them to work together. Kimiko was a researcher and had created many of the items one used in missions such as poisoned rice or truth-telling tofu (this was designed more for low-leveled victims without resorting to painful interrogation techniques, that high-leveled had to endure as they could prevent the substance in the tofu to work on their minds.) She also made potions for shift-shaping or other such things.. This was especially useful in missions where the use of chakra was prohibited to avoid detection as a shinobi, or a shinobi that had been drained of their chakra. In addition, she had been the one the behind the pills that Choji took three years previously to aid his team as they tried to retrieve Sasuke from the Sound Four.

Kimiko took more interest in her work than social interaction. Something Sakura learned none too quickly after she discovered Kimiko knew hardly anyone in the village. She didn't even know Naruto, until she mentioned the nine tail fox but just shrugged and said, "that it didn't really concern me".

"Ah, Genma! You have finally arrived!" commented Kimiko with sarcasm as Genma appeared chewing his senbon. "Genma, I was sure you would have had a search party after me by now. Now, I finally know how little I matter to you."

"You're not really the sociable type. So this is one of the last place I would expect to find you."

"Well I have to pretend to be a human sometimes," half-joked Kimiko.

Naruto was fuming at what Kimiko said previously. He couldn't understand how Sakura could even be friendly towards someone like her, especially considering the type of person Sakura was.

"Who the hell are you to say such things about a person's death? Talking about it as though it's the weather! You should show more sensitivity towards other people's deaths and their friends who are mourning. How would you like it, if someone had that attitude towards the death of someone close to you? You ignorant bitch!"

Kakashi tried to hush Naruto. Kimiko stood up from her seat, walked to Naruto and put her hand on his shoulder. " I'm glad that shinobi like you exist and I honestly hope your dream of Hokage comes true. Maybe I might come to like this place a little bit, if someone like you will actually change something here. Maybe opinions like I voiced will be scolded by everyone in the village but I've got time to wait and see, unlike everyone here. Just don't die on us." She smiled and winked at Naruto.

"Well, Genma let's go! I've got some rotten eggs just waiting to be used for my next experiment and I have just the perfect people to use as my test subjects," she said. "And Kakashi you don't mind paying, do you?"

Everyone turned to Kakashi, expecting him to talk himself out of it, but he mumbled a reply sounding something like, 'no problem Kimiko'.

She did her gesture from beforehand and left with Genma.

"Was that really necessary with Kakashi?" asked Genma. It was a couple days after the incident at the ramen stand and they were in Kimiko's appartment. Genma had noticed Kakashi was disgruntled about the fact, he had to pay everyone's bill, as he had always gotten out of it.

"You know he deserved it. He's picking up girls for free at brothels with his smooth talking especially with all those women after him, in particular Ayame, that girl from the ramen stand. I think he ought to have taken something from that lecture I gave him, after I found him that night. Anyway, I had to go then or I'd have regurgitated the food right then and there."

"I don't know why you put yourself through eating and drinking, if you throw it up anyway."

Kimiko ignored his last comment and returned to the topic at hand. "You know cos' you're not going to live the normal age expectancy doesn't mean you have to throw away that part of life. Kakashi has a romantic side, I don't doubt that."

"Another admirer?"

"I think I'm bit old for him. Have you read those books that he reads? They're actually really quite cute! But I prefer my male-on-male porn."

Genma shuddered at the thought what type of fantasies crossed her mind about the shinobi in their village from those books that she reads.

"I couldn't imagine you in love anyway."

"It's for the youth. Since my life is futile I don't need love to prove the worth of my existence which will only last a short period before the woman, man or transvestite dies."

"What time is it anyway, Genma?" asked Kimiko. She was working on a simple joke invention which threw rotten eggs and other inanimate objects, and animate objects if you really wished to throw them at great lengths and accuracy.

"Two in the afternoon," replied Genma.

"Want sake?"

"Why do you bother drink, if it has no affect on you? And throw it up?"

"Dunno. Passes the time I guess. Like I said, I like to pretend sometimes that I'm human."

"Have you looked at the expiry date on some of these things?" asked Genma who had wondered over to her kitchen and had taken a peek at the contents in her fridge. He picked each of the items and eyed them with disgust.

"I remember your father saying it was a shame that I didn't keep wine. A new job prospect perhaps if I get bored with this."

"Hmm…doesn't the smell of rotten eggs bother you in the least? Shouldn't you be working on improving the formula for the tofu? And not on this pointless contraption?"

"I'm not really feeling inspired and I need a break from doing all that stuff. And this is more fun."

"You know for someone who's immortal and is reaching hundred you don't act…"

"Don't even dare finishing that statement, Genma. You know me well about how much I hate that sort of lecture talk. It's something I have to hear from those god damn Elders and the Hyuugas who are so stuck up their own asses that they make that poor heiress scared of her own voice. So don't start that shit with me!" snapped Kimiko.

"I think I'll go now."

"Okay, I think I'm going to give this device a try on my favourite family," said Kimko smiling mischievously to herself.

Genma sighed inwardly and excused himself out.

Genma hadn't expect Kimiko to snap at him like that. Kimiko was a complicated woman. Genma had always felt duty-bound to her especially after his father died. She had been a wild-fired woman, even more then than now. His father told him, what his great uncle believed the reason why she was the way she was: Kimiko was extremely frustrated with Konoha, in particular its politics and its inhabitants. Something that still resided in her today, which is the reason she still isolates herself from the rest of village.

His great uncle befriended her as he himself felt abandoned from his shinobi friends, because he preferred the chemistry of how ninja objects were constructed rather than the weight of shinobi responsibility. Therefore after the chuunin exams, which he failed, he gave up the idea of becoming a shinobi. She had helped him with carrying herbs and chemicals when he dropped them on the street, and had shown a vast knowledge of such things in their short conversation when they were carrying the items to his apartment. He became enticed with her and wished to befriend her. Their friendship was shaky at first; because she had been known to be a promiscuous woman. Kimiko derived this might have been the reason that sparked his sudden interest in her. She offered to sleep with him but he refused and she accepted their friendship was genuine after hearing that refusal. The bond between Kimiko and his father were just as strong as that between his great-uncle and her and even now between him and her were now still as strong.

But Kimiko still never told his great uncle or his father about her past or why she was immortal and their relationship was still somewhat artificial. Genma knew they would never get beneath the surface of the lake known as Kimiko. Even the reason for her grudge against Konoha was a mystery to him. Her inability to age, which is known to the inner circle of Konoha, was kept a secret from the rest of Konoha as she didn't want to be known in her words 'the freak who can't die' when she walks down a street. That is how he interpreted it anyway.

Genma had asked her once a couple of years back for the reason she didn't age. She shrugged and answered, "Maybe at the age of twenty God decided that being a woman wasn't punishment enough. That I happened to be me is perhaps the reason. That I ate not only from the tree of knowledge, but also from the tree of life. Maybe that is the reason for my punishment."

Genma didn't delve any further, as he saw Kimiko shed tears for the first time. It was the only time he saw teardrops ever form on her face. He never mentioned the incident to her again. Genma realised their friendship would only last if remained at a superficial level. She wasn't human anymore and was so different to the rest of humankind that she was cursed to remain isolated for eternity. The only one existing of this immortal species. Her.

Sakura decided to visit Kimiko, as she needed to retrieve some articles for her next mission. She also had some herbs for Kimiko, gathered from a merchant who often helped her to obtain rarer herbs. She could smell the rotten eggs in her apartment from the other end of the street and felt embarrassed knowing the owner of the odor, which the whole street had to suffer. She assumed the smell of rotten eggs was for that new invention she had talked about after their last encounter at the ramen stand. She rang the doorbell, and as the owner of the apartment opened the door to welcome her, did an intense wave of the stench come out.

"Ah, Sakura I had a feeling you would be coming by. Did you get what I asked for?" said Kimiko, letting her in.

"Yeah," answered Sakura trying not to wring her face in disgust due to the smell as she delivered the pouch with the two herbs she asked for. "And I am going to be closer to home for this mission if you need any herbs from around here."

"Thanks. That's a bit surprise about it being so close by. But this here will do me for now," said Kimiko referring to the pouch she now had in her hands. "There's not really anything I need from around here, the local market is sufficient enough. When are you leaving?"

"I'm leaving in a couple of hours. I need a couple of things."

Sakura then handed her a list. Kimiko then walked off into the backroom where she kept all the supplies.

"Hmm...sounds like a heck of mission for it to be so close by. I suspected with your old team mate back, you'd be going on these types of missions. You're one good medic, you'll soon be surpassing Tsunade from the things I've heard from Genma," shouted from the back room.

Kimiko reappeared and said, "I've got most of what you need, but come back later today and I'll have made the other things. Okay?"

She nodded.

"How's Tsunade keeping up?"

"She was at the Konoha Council, a couple days ago and has been in a worse mood than usual."

Kimiko rolled her eyes and replied irritably,"Giving her stick, as usual. Hmph. Nothing new there, displeased as usual. I dunno why they just put themselves as Hokage. Maybe they'd figure what the hell work is, instead of sitting on their backsides all day, complaining about a world that they've lost touch with. Or maybe they might know they'd have a coup d'etat on their hands, as soon as they stepped inside the Hokage building."

Sakura wasn't sure how to deal with this outburst from Kimiko, who tended to remain indifferent about the politics of Konoha, even changing the subject if it was ever raised. Her usual callous remark on the subject, "I just make things" finished with a shrugged, highlighted this particularly well.

"Are the Konoha Council that bad? Could they have, perhaps, prevented...Sasuke leaving?"

"The Uchiha boy? I really don't know. I just make..."

Before Kimiko could finish her sentence, she noticed Sakura shedding tears.

"You saw him again, didn't you?"

Sakura nodded and somewhat dumbfounded, that Kimiko was able to interpret her reaction correctly.

"Come here, Sakura," said Kimiko offering a hug and a shoulder to cry on. She took the girl into her arms.

Sakura gave into her emotions and cried. "I don't understand why he had to leave," sobbed Sakura. "We all loved him so much. He choose revenge over us. Why? Why did his brother have to kill his clan. He'd be here and we'd be happy as team seven. We wouldn't be chasing him all over the five lands to find him. Naruto wouldn't have left us for two and half years. Why? His brother did this to all of us."

This is why she had become disillusioned from this world, she thought. She questioned whether she should sit here and tolerate it in resignation through this disillusionment on her behalf. She had tried half-heartily to re-connect with her own lost humanity, but turning a blind eye to rest of the village's events, had led her to exactly what she had tried desperately not to become: Disconnected from the rest of humanity. She realised, she rarely showed real emotions to other humans in hope to deal with her own shortcomings, the last time, besides this one was almost ten years ago when Genma asked her about her immortality. She knew emotions connected people, but her own had been kept under lock and key, unable to share them, in fear of misunderstanding. This is one of the fundamental problems she had to deal with, so that she did not lose touch with the outside world.

If she could not connect with human beings in the sharing of her and their emotions, she would perhaps try from another viewpoint. Something she already did, help, but not from a distance, not through her expertises of making objects malleable for her on a scientific level, but nearer. Science is shallow, only able to explain how things, but not how. It's like the cynic, it's able to tell you the price of everything, but the value of nothing. She would try understand, not simply know. She would try and help.

Kimiko was a bit shook-up from the conversation with Sakura and had been going through her library of books in another room, which was meant to be her bedroom, but since she did not need to sleep she turned it into a library. It was full of books not only on chemistry, but a greater majority of it was of Philosophy, Politics and Literature. She picked up a red book, whose pages had turned yellow with time and paged through it. Disillusionment overcame her as she thought of the politics of Konoha and its people not only throughout the years but also during the foundation. She resigned herself to books, after she departed from the social life of Konoha those eighty years ago and saw how people tried to put into practise in Konoha what she read about or would be written about in years to come. She remembered someone saying to her: "one ounce of action is worth a ton of theory". What she feared is that people won't realise how lucky they are and how fragile the state they are and that one false move could bring down the whole of Konoha.

Something she saw since its the foundation, the ideals of the past still lurked behind this semblance of each Hokage ready to strike lives, once again. She felt that Tsunade was walking a tie rope, and she needed to prevent that.

Someone knocked at her door. She closed the door to her room and locked it. She put the key into the bag attached to the belt of her trousers. She then let in her one and only regular visitor: Genma.

"I've been thinking that maybe I should visit Tsunade," she said to Genma as he walked into the kitchen. Kimiko didn't like other people in her library.

"The last time you went to visit Tsunade, we had to bring you kicking and screaming."

"There's something that's been bothering me. I heard she and the Konoha Council don't get along. I'm worried."

"What makes you think that?"

"I may not particularly like this village, but I worry at times for it."

"Do you think she's unfit for the job?"

"It's not that, I'm worried the Konoha Council thinks that she's unfit for the job."

Genma knew she had a bit of a grudge against many of the Elders in the village and in particular that of the Konoha council.

"Should I make an appointment?"

"Not necessary. I'm going to go there now," said Kimiko in a dazed voice.

Genma decided to excuse himself quickly, as he planned to avoid a run-in with two hot-tempered women.

Human beings have to bear up and face whatever's meant to be. There's a courage and dignity in ordinary people. That can be breathtaking. But you're the opposite. Your courage has gone wild, you're like a brute, that can only foam at the mouth. You aren't baring up, you are bearing down."- Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy

She had enough integrity to listen at the door to check if Tsunade was actual doing something, although she had her own doubts about that. One of her assistants came across her and asked, "Who are you? And what are you doing?"

"Is she in...?"

"Erm..." The assistant was unsure how to reply, but Tsunade's voice interrupted his train of thought, which was loud and booming and could be heard across the other end of the corridor. She seemed to be furious and Kimiko detected the words 'Konoha Council' and 'Elders' from this outburst of Tsunade.

Kimiko took her chance and stepped into the room. Tsunade stopped in mid rant, as she eyed Kimiko and said, "Oh God, another one of them. What the hell do you want?"

"To give advice, help...possibly. Heck, the Elders maybe a group of good-for-nothings, but they're here and one has to deal with them."

Tsunade barely knew the woman and only had the information from the file about her, despite part of it denied to her from the Elders with the excuse: "Kimiko was their business". She was immortal, but she was unusual case of immortality as she was like the Kazekage , and was protected by an invisible external force, who encased her in a "reflective shield" to protect her from outside threats. For the Kazekage it maybe sand, but for her it was described in the file as something "unworldly", "god-like", as one couldn't experience it through sense impressions. The element that made it up was of something "that has not ever seen before". This protective shield also made it difficult for her to feel pain and whatever was inflicted upon her would reflect it, in that direction, hence the description "reflective shield". This was perhaps the only sense impression one could experience. Any more about her so-called "powers" was either in files Tsunade was denied to or "no more could be stated about the matter". This included her incapability to age, even extending to such things as not needing to breathe, no heartbeats and the inability to grow hair, nails and so on. Tsunade thought of her as a walking corpse, which perhaps an opinion that resided well with her sickly appearance.

It was perhaps their first and only meeting at the beginning of her reign, that made her express this less than desirable view of Kimiko. She had been unwilling to meet her and when she did, she came across ignorant about the political going-ons in Konoha, as she had aloof during the whole. But one statement that Tsunade remembered crystal clear, which she said when she was about to leave in her usual impartial tone of voice : "I've been here since the beginning of Foundation Konoha and there are people who don't like the philosophy of your Grandfather. Each Hokage have carried this philosophy, but despite this, the people who have disagreed with it have always prevailed in most of the political matters. It's a ridiculous façade that Konoha carries."

Tsunade took this as an offence against her grandfather, but in the back of her mind she asked whether there was some truth about it, especially having had dealt with the Konoha Council and Danzou. She had tried denying it, but it had become increasingly difficult to do that.

"And how does that affect you?"

"Despite the fact, that a heart may not have any more use to me, I still have one. I've come to offer my help, since I think the Konoha Council is Konoha's worst asset and should be dealt with accordingly. I can't watch Konoha dig its own grave."

"What makes you think we're digging our grave?"

"I have my own reasons, but I've come with an offer you might like..."

"And that would be?"

"The Konoha Council are malleable, when you know how to mould them. They would give an arm and leg, just to put me in a research facility to discover what am I and what Konoha could use me for. It would give them the upper hand from all the other Hidden Villages and not only that... They're a pair of paranoid bastards and would be glad not to live under the "threat of Kimiko"."

"Why do they think you're a threat?"

"Oh, is that part of the file 'restricted'? Hmmm, well the Konoha Council like to have control of situations and when someone like me, who can do things that they don't understand, it makes them feel uncomfortable and not in control. They get paranoid and assume things, such as me trying to destroy Konoha like what happened three years ago. The problem with that, despite this immortality I possess, I couldn't even defeat genin. I have no sense of co-ordination and I'm incredibly unfit. I remember Genma's father making me run over a bench in the first part of an obstacle course. I slipped and hit my head against the ground every time. I doubt, I could ever be considered a threat to Konoha."

"Why the change of mind?"

"I saw Sakura this morning and she seemed worried about you. This Uchiha thing is always at the back of her mind."

Tsunade interrupted her.

"I'm well aware of that, he was her team mate and her first crush, it's no wonder it's always in the back of her mind. Despite her worries for me, she knows perfectly well that I can deal whatever that Konoha Council."

"I'm not denying that, but what bothers them is that I feel something is out of joint. People, who do know me, question my loyalties for Konoha and I'm not here to prove them. I've come here for Sakura's sake. She is a likable character and when I saw her cry like she did for this Uchiha boy when she came to see me for supplies, it tugged at some strings in my heart."

"So what are you saying?"

"He wants to avenge his family, doesn't he?"

"Yes."

"Do you know what they say about avengers?"

"No."

"The man who seeks revenge should dig two graves."

"So you also believe revenge is "a wild kind..."

"...of justice. Exactly," said Kimiko, finishing off Tsunade's sentence.

"So what are you suggesting?"

"Why did the Konoha Council try not to prevent this nor tried to pursue the matter, after leaving? His intentions were obvious, they could have stopped this easily. Did they expect Sasuke to betray Konoha? Especially, why is there a member of the ANBU root in Sakura's team, despite its disbandment all those years ago... Why is Danzou interested in this matter, that he even decided to betray Konoha's trust and tap into the restricted files? I think Konoha Council know something and they're trying their best for us to not discover it."

Kimiko's suspicions had not occurred to her and what made things worse, she knew how true and logical they were. Tsunade did not want to appear that she had been completely blind about this to Kimiko and so answered, "I have had my suspicions, but since you know Konoha Council's behaviour better than I do. What do you propose we should do?"

"I would like access to the files about the Uchiha massacre and the man who caused it, who's name I admittedly can't remember..."

Tsunade wasn't sure, if she should bet all her hopes of getting rid of the Konoha Council on a woman, who couldn't even remember Itachi Uchiha's name. But she knew, if Kimiko did, she would be able to choose people more capable for the job of the Council.

"And if you discover something...how are you going to prove it?"

"I'm gonna ask them..."

"What do you mean? Simply ask them, whether they know something about the Uchiha massacre, that isn't in the files, isn't something that can be simply done."

"Yes, it can be. I have a plan. The smell coming from my apartment isn't the rotten eggs I've been using to throw at the Hyuuga household, but the new and improved recipe for my truth-telling tofu." (Tsunade and most of the Konoha ninja thought she had the most cheesiest names for her inventions and their descriptions.) "And the Council will be my guinea pigs, as there's this herb I've been investigating and the reaction with my old recipe suggests promising results. I just need to solve the problem with the smell and its taste. But I can't promise anything."

"Fine, but I would to keep this agreement between us. Don't even mention it to Genma or Sakura."

"No Problem."

Both of them shook hands in agreement, despite Tsunade's second thoughts about it.

Kimiko laid the file with the contents about the Uchiha massacre on the table and sat down. She let out a long sigh.

"Okay, let's see what we've got here," she said out loud and opened the file.

She didn't know what the man looked like, who had committed the massacre and so the picture in the file would be her first encounter with a man, who had caused more than enough grief for Sakura and her friends. She picked up the picture of the man and her heart quivered and she felt sick in the stomach.

"It can't be..." she choked. He looked so much like him, despite, perhaps looking a bit younger. Tears whelmed from her eyes. "Have you've come back to haunt me, after almost eighty years? God, isn't eternity with you on my conscience enough?...for fuck sake!"

She stood-up and walked about the room in frustration. She turned to the wall opposite the table with the file and banged her fist to try and release the emotions that she had suppressed for so long. This was all in vain, as she slumped to the floor and sobbed for an almost an hour. What had prevented her from living in recluse for the rest of eternity was the knock on her door from Sakura, who had come to pick-up the rest of the supplies for her mission.

Kimiko tried to pick herself up from the floor and glue together the façade that she kept up for eighty years, which had been smashed to pieces like a glass, that had fallen from a table. This glass could never be mended or replaced, it was an antique, fragile and delicate. It would not smash into five or six big bits and a few small bits, so it makes it easy to clean-up, and you're unlikely to cut yourself and can be easily replaced. This glass smashes into a thousand pieces, so you can never pick-up everything up and you nearly always cut yourself, as you attempt to do so in the long procedure.

"One minute, I'll be right there."

Kimiko shut the door to her room and locked it. She then walked to the door and opened to find the pink-haired girl.

"Sakura, what are you...Shit!" said Kimiko, as it dawned her, that she promised to get Sakura. "I'm really sorry. It went completely out of head, I've been somewhat pre-occupied with improving one of my recipes for my truth-telling tofu, as Tsunade has been nagging at me to get it finished."

This was a weak excuse from Kimiko, and Sakura noticed. There was no humour in her voice, which was perhaps the biggest give way. Something was very wrong with Kimiko, thought Sakura. But she said nothing and just replied, "It's okay, I can perhaps do without."

"Sorry."

"It's okay. I have to go. Bye."

"Bye..." breathed Kimiko, unable to even give a smile and see her off with a 'mind yourself'.

She closed the door and stood in the hall. She flexed right hand and whispered, "Fuck."

She unlocked the door to her library-, and attempted to deal with her demons.