Disclaimer: I don't own this, really, I don't own Naruto. How the hell could you assume that I did?

WARNING: There is a scene of sexual assault on a child in this chapter! It is the second flashback! If this makes you uncomfortable, please skip it. It will end when the italicized part does.

-Tones-

I was having a bad day. Granted, that seemed to happen to me quite often, but still. Graduation was two months off, and I was sick and tired of Kunoichi lessons. Some of the lessons were alright, I'd admit. The rest? They were absolute bullshit.

I rubbed my temples and, not for the first time, realized why these young female ninja turned out the way they did. The teacher, Suzume-Sensei, was droning on about how finding a husband by seventeen was our best bet. Yes, I understood that we had short life expectancies. I got it. That didn't explain the rest of the literal shit that was spewing from her mouth.

"-sure that you care for their needs properly. Know that a few may raise their hands against you, and understand that they do not do so out of malice. The only time this is truly a problem is if you are with child-" She droned, her perfectly painted face giving away no real emotion. I was done. She would go as far as to promote abuse? No, nope, not happening.

"If a man I'm dating ever hits me, I'll hit back, harder. Then I'll leave the bastard." I interrupted. She turned toward me, and immediately frowned.

"You can't hit back, Isamu-" she started.

"Why the hell not? If he hits me, I have the right to hit back. He is not worth more than I am, and if you love someone, you won't hurt them. In a spar? That I can understand. In a fit of temper? That's not something that I'll accept." I cut her off, standing up to my full height. She scowled at me.

"I am your teacher, Isamu! You will show respect." I sneered at her in return.

"You have taught an entire generation of Kunoichi that they are either eye candy, or support for the men. Yes, they do have a physical advantage over us. Us? Most girls have better control, Genjutsu, Bukijutsu, Medical. Most girls are faster, Sensei.

Instead of teaching them that advantage, you teach them about their bodies, how to seduce. You are trying to tell these girls that their accomplishments will never mean anything, because a boy will always be better!" I all but yelled the last part, my fists clenched at my sides.

"Men are better-"

"Bullshit!" I yelled.

"Tsunade-Sama, our females in ANBU! Mito-sama! The entirety of Nadeshiko Village! And what about me? I'm the top of our class in nearly everything but accuracy, and your lessons! The person behind me in academics? Female! The person behind her? Female! The third in the ranks for Taijutsu? Female!" I was shaking with my anger, and I really wanted to hit her.

"Kurenai Yuhi-Sama. Mitarashi Anko-sama." I snarled the two names. The woman smirked at me.

"Well, you don't really count much as a female, now do you?" I felt the blood drain from my face. I knew that. I knew that. Did she have to mention that?

"Your shoulders are too broad."

I knew that.

"You're too muscled, not enough curves."

I knew that.

"Those stupid goggles of yours hide your eyes, which I'm assuming are deformed in some way?" Her smile was cruel. I already knew what would come next, and I regretted wearing shorts that day.

"And those scars, oh, how unseemly. It'd be better if you'd just cover them up." She pressed her finger to her lips, then went for the kill.

"No one will ever want a girl like you, will they? You're not pretty enough." I closed my eyes behind my goggles, ignoring the burning in them, and tightness of my chest.

"But I'll live, Sensei. You trained these girls to die." With that, I left the area before I could cry. I knew, damnit! I knew that while I had inherited most of my mother's face, I still wouldn't be pretty. I would be too tall, too broad, too muscled. Someone would never look to me for romance when I got older. Even if they could look past my body, would they be able to look past my eyes?

I ran the whole way home, and stormed up to my room. I ignored Ayane when she asked me what was wrong. Throwing my goggles across the room, I cried into my pillow.

-Gai-Ayane-

When Isamu failed to leave her room, even for dinner, the beautiful woman decided to take matters into her own hands. She pulled on her sensible boots, grabbed a shawl from the coat rack, and left the house-slash-bakery; stepping out into the still slightly chilly streets of Konoha.

Someone had made her little girl cry. She may not have given birth to Isamu, but the girl was her child. Isamu, her strong girl, didn't cry. The child hadn't even cried the day she had left her abusive mother behind.

Isamu didn't do crying. Whoever had made her shed those tears would face a mother's wrath.

Her feet padded along the streets for fifteen minutes, before she found the place she was looking for. Gai, her ever so sweet boyfriend, had told her to go there if she ever desperately needed him. Pulling her shawl tightly around her shoulders, she opened the door.

Instantly, several dozen pairs of eyes fell on her. A part of her told her to cower, to run. She beat that part down viciously. This was for her daughter.

"E-Excuse me? I need to find Might Gai." She spoke up, her voice slightly shaky at the beginning, but strong at the end.

"And who are you, exactly?" A rather tall man questioned, a cigarette hanging from his lips. She recognized him as Asuma, one of Gai's friends.

"My name is Ayane, I'm his girlfriend." She elaborated, tucking a loose strand of brown hair behind one ear. He started, then looked her over. Nodding, he stepped toward her, and steered her out of the room by her shoulder.

"Gai told us to keep an eye out for someone with your name and looks. What do you need 'im for?" He questioned.

"My kid, Isamu. She's crying, and won't come out of her room." Ayane clasped her shaking hands together.

"Sounds like puberty." The smoker drawled. The woman shook her head.

"No, you don't understand, Asuma-sama. Isamu doesn't cry. She didn't even cry when her mother, her birth mother, did or spoke terrible things to her. She didn't cry when she got bit by a Brown Recluse fifteen times.

My child does not cry. Curse up a storm and challenge trees to a brawl? Yes. Glare those of a weaker will into submission? Yes. Retreat into herself when something painful occurs? Most certainly. But, in all of the years that I have known that little girl, not once has she cried over anything but cutting onions." She paused, then locked eyes with the man. Her eyes were steel, and she held her back straight. He was impressed.

"And I'm gonna kill whoever caused it." He studied her for a moment, before dropping his smoke to the ground, and scuffing it out with his shoe.

"Close your eyes, and don't wiggle too much. I'll take you to him. Ninja style." Nodding, the woman closed her eyes. The man wrapped his arm around her waist, and promptly Shunshin'd the two of them to training ground fifteen.

"Gai! Your girlfriend's here." The smoker called out. Not four seconds later, a serious looking Gai appeared.

"What happened?" He asked her. The brunette promptly threw herself into his arms. He caught her.

"Something's wrong with Isamu, Gai. She came home halfway through school, and hasn't left her room since. She- she was crying. Isamu was, and she won't let me in the room." The woman burst into tears against his chest, and Gai felt something in him rise up in his throat, like an enraged beast. It growled, and thrashed at the thought that someone had harmed his child. Because she was his.

He was the one who helped the girl train, who dropped things and tips at the dinner table. He was the one who had held her hand when she had been in the hospital, smiling even as she grit her teeth against the pain. He was the one who would ruffle her hair in the morning. She was his kid, even if she didn't call him dad; she was his daughter.

As the cloying sensation of rage arched through him, he remembered exactly why he was Konoha's Green Beast, and who he had been before that title. The Akatora no Akuma reared his head, and growled.

As Gai, Jonin Sensei of Konoha stepped back; Gai, The War Veteran took his place.

Asuma pitied whoever had made that child cry; they probably wouldn't live much longer.

-emerald-

I laid on my bed, holding my face in my hands. Why the hell had just those words been enough to make me cry? I didn't cry. That wasn't a something that I did, not even during my past life. I had been through so much worse than that.

"Demon!" Michiko snarled, hate in her eyes.

"Why couldn't you have died when I made the tea? Huh? Why'd I have to have you. A freak. Demon eyes. That skin! You look nothing like me!"

But I did! I did look like her, and it made me sick every time I looked in the mirror. I knew that Kakuzu was a terrible person, I did! But he wasn't Michiko. He wasn't Michiko, and that was enough. It was enough as long as it wasn't her.

"Hey there, Doll. You hungry? If you come back to my apartment, I'll feed you." A man in his forties offered. I shook my head, backing away.

"No thank you, Mister. I-I have to go." I rushed out, my already childishly high voice squeaking. I wasn't a child, and I understood the look in that man's eyes. He frowned, then stepped closer to me.

"Come on kiddo, I'm just offering to feed you." I didn't respond, just turned to run. I didn't make it very far. His meaty hand wrapped around my shoulder, and he hauled my skinny body back with ease. I screamed, but I knew it wouldn't do any good. No one helped anyone in this city.

I fought back, biting and clawing. One one my bites drew blood, but the sick bastard only laughed.

"It feels so much better when they fight it." He giggled, a deranged gleam in his eyes. He threw me back into the alley, and the cement knocked my breath from my lungs. Then he lowered himself over me, one hand pressed against my chest to hold me down. I fought uselessly, and turned my head to the side when he tried to kiss me.

My eyes caught sight of something before my face was yanked toward his own. I fought the urge to gag as his tongue slid into my mouth, and reached an arm out blindly.

"Sometimes, the ones like you? They die in the middle. That's okay though." Another giggle.

"Here." He gripped my behind. I wondered if I could puke on him. Would that make him let go?

"Here." His voice was giddy as he shoved his tongue in my mouth. I considered biting it off, but thought better of it. He was large enough that he could kill me. He pulled away with a sickeningly wet sound. I felt tears trying to pour from my eyes. My hand clenched. He needed to be distracted for this to work.

"Oh, little one, so little. His hand, which was still inside my yukata, moved up to my chest, my undeveloped breasts. I felt rage. This man was disgusting, the trash of the earth. He deserved to die. I wanted to kill him, to rip out his throat. He tugged off my yukata, and stared down at me.

"Precious, precious child. I'm going to fuck you, shove my cock in you, watch your tiny, tiny body try to fight it." He leaned down and lapped at my neck.

Disgusting.

Freak! Monster! I'd kill him.

I clenched my hand again, then wrapped my arms around his neck.

"I'm sorry! I'll go eat with you! I'm sorry!" I yelled.

No other choice.

"Can you say something for me, Sweetie? Say, 'fill me up! 'Till I'm too big!' Say it? Please little one?" He whimpered.

Disgusting.

"Repent, pervert scum!" I snarled, then drove the rusty piece of metal into his neck. When he startled backwards, I raked it down the side, uncaring of the blood that dropped onto me. Using my other arm, I shoved his shoulder, making him fall to his side. Then, I stabbed him again, and again, and again, and again. My piece of metal butchering his flesh, and my my hands quickly becoming stained with red. I didn't realize that I was screaming throughout it, until another street kid, this one older than myself, pulled me away.

I didn't regret it.

I had killed someone when I was seven years old! Had nearly been raped by that same man. So why did those words hurt so much?

"Disgusting child."

-Tones-

Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm just gonna go vomit. Then bathe myself in holy water. I kept telling myself "Tigressa, T-Kat, it's for the plot." Well, T-Kat, now you're sick to your stomach, and wondering if you're secretly a psychopath. Congrats!

Burning so much sage to cleanse my filthy spirit,

-Tigressa.