After a few more days of agonizing travel with people who were withholding their wrath, Shina was back in Konoha. They had put her in a room to wait for her judgment. She was glad that they brought the Konoha forces back. From what she heard, they were sending a 'special force team'.
A new Hokage had yet to be found, so Shina was getting prosecuted by an ANBU captain. He was her judge, jury, and executioner.
"Shina Kimino, you are charged with twenty five counts of manslaughter. You are hereby stripped from your ninja status and exiled from Konoha. This decision is final."
This decision is final.
Final.
Shina sighed tiredly and went home to collect her things. She only took what was necessary, a few changes of clothes, some food, and whatever money she could find. Kei locked herself in her room, but their father was waiting for her.
"Father," she said curtly.
"Shina," he sighed heavily. "I don't want to see you around here anymore. I don't want you to contact Kei either."
"Of course," she said. "I'm banished anyways." So she turned and walked put, leaving her motherly life behind.
As she walked through the darkness—it had turned night while she was waiting—Shina thought of her plans or lack thereof. She was tired. She was even more tired of planning everything all the damn time. It was time to throw caution to the sparse wind and be an actual teenager for once. She rolled her eyes.
That was so not happening either way.
Years of travelling didn't change Shina very much. She was still shy and introverted. She was still protective. She still had her seal, though she hadn't used her chakra since she left Konoha. The purple swirls covered her entire body which made her have to wear long sleeves and pants at all times, but it was okay. She wore all black most of the time, tight black cloth that was lightweight and not that hot. Heat had never really bothered her.
Some things did change about her though.
She began collecting old fairy tales; songs of ages long past. Shina learned them all, becoming a bard of ancient tales. She began to read more to pass the time in between cities. She became more and more interested in them, telling them to whoever would listen.
She became a master in to art of lying. Exiled from her village didn't seem like a good way to start a conversation, so she became a wandering traveler, bringing stories to rural villages. She dropped the name Kimino and was simply Shina.
In her travels, she had yet to visit a certain Sunakagure which she would quickly rectify.
Shina sighed.
"It's good to be back," she said sarcastically.
Shina walked into the sandy village. It was very bland, she observed. Mostly brown although with the frequent sandstorms she supposed it was for the best. People were looking at her as she took in the village; they probably weren't used to having strangers. Who in their right mind would actually come to Suna of their own free will?
Shina.
A man approached her.
"Can I help you?" He asked.
"Yes," she replied. "Where's your theatre or library or something along those lines?"
"Well, I don't believe we have a theatre, but we do have a small library just around the corner." He pointed down the road. She followed where his finger went and found it. It was a tiny excuse for the city's only library.
I was small and set in between a deli and a clothing shop. The windows were dusty, and the letters were scraped away so it read IIBPARV instead of LIBRARY. She entered, and a sad rusted bell tried to clink at her arrival. It failed.
The shelves were covered with dust, and there were maybe three books on each shelf. A little old lady sat in the back, asleep.
"Excuse me," Shina called. The lady opened her eyes and smiled through thick glasses.
"Yes, dearie?"
"I'm wondering where all the books are. Are they all checked out?" She asked. The little librarian reached under the table and pulled out a bid book. A cloud of dust came out when she set it on the table which made Shina sneeze.
"Yes. They're all checked out."
"When was the last time you checked a book out?" Shina queried.
"Well if it's Tuesday, then that would make this the second month without any checkouts."
"But all the books are checked out?"
"Yes." Shina sighed and looked around.
"Who owns this place?" The young woman asked eventually.
"Well that'd be me, but if you're interested I could sell it to you at a nice price," she hinted. Shina thought for a moment.
"I think I'd like that."
And so Shina's library was born. She found there was a space upstairs where she could sleep, and the front of the library was just the beginning. There was an entire other room behind the counter, supposedly a storage unit, but it was almost twice as large as the actual library.
She set to work.
She cleaned out the front window and replaced the letters spelling LIBRARY. She took out all of the books, enough to fill maybe two shelves, and put them outside the building. She was drawing attention to herself, but she didn't care. The shelves got cleaned, the floors swept, and then she started taking inventory.
There were a few tattered books on Suna history, some story books, and a trilogy on hair care. As for the reference books, there were some encyclopedias, but they were missing E, J, and V. There was exactly half of a dictionary that was glued to an atlas.
Her work was cut out for her as she journeyed away from Suna for books and other things Suna didn't have. Like apples. There were absolutely no apples anywhere in the Sand.
