Hey guys! Guess what? I'm actually updating! Go me!

The plot finally speeds up. And Gaara's first entrance, whoot!

And the only two things I have left to say are "Please review and make this poor soul happy" and , of course, ENJOY!


Gods' Game

Chapter 8: Too much for one day

It was a sunny Friday in September and my first week of school after summer break was nearing its end. It was still early but I was already at school, sitting in the classroom and sleeping on the table. Stupid bus, that always had to be so early! At least I wasn't the only one, since Stephen had to ride the same bus as me, being my neighbor and everything. And even thought that guy was two years older than me, he still spent almost every morning before school together with me, mostly to keep me from making up for the sleep the bus stole from me.

"I hate morniiiiings." I groaned as I pressed my forehead against the tabletop of my desk.

"But that's no reason to make out with the desk you know, Nicci?" Stephen pointed out grinning.

"I hate you.", I growled.

"Oh why thank you, I love you, too. But with that attitude I doubt you'll find any friends."

"Hey! I very well have friends! For example Lisa and Julia and Marcus and-" I told him counting all the names on my fingers.

"'Kay, 'kay, I get it." he said laughing as I tried to count my classmates on my fingers.

"Morning guys." Julia, greeted as she walked into the room and sat down on the seat in front of me.

"Morning, Julia. You're early today." I remarked pointing out her early entrance.

"My mom had to take a morning shift so she could drop me off at school today. But I didn't think that you guys were already here." she admitted laughing at me as I started banging my head against the tabletop because of my misery.

"Stop it or you'll break the desk." Stephen teased me holding his hurting stomach from all the laughing.

"Ha ha..." I growled and glared at the older boy, which looked more like a pouting kid by the way, but then my eyes wandered off.

"Hey, do we have a new student?"

"Strange since the first week is almost over.", Stephen remarked as he and Julia followed my look.

There by the door stood a girl with a cute face that was framed with a mob of long golden locks. She had a slender body but didn't look fragile and wore short jeans, black boots and a brown jacket over a simple white shirt.

"I heard one more student was supposed to be in our class but for some unknown reason they didn't show up till now. Maybe that's her." Julia whispered eying the new kid suspiciously.

I raised an eyebrow as I watched the girl glancing in our general direction then noticing our stare and quickly looking away, unsure of what to do.

"She doesn't look too tall, maybe I'm actually taller than her?" I wondered out loud almost immediately getting Stephen to laugh at me for the nth time today.

"Like that'd ever happen, Nicci." he retorted smirking.

"Let's see." I remarked smiling and called out to the girl that was still standing at the front.

"Hey, you!" I shouted and got her to look at me once more.

"Can you tell me how tall you are?"

She looked at me warily for a moment as to find out the true intentions behind my questions before answering.

"5,0''. Why are you asking?"

"Nooooo! I'm still the smallest in claaaass!" I cried out and theatrically broke down onto my table crying fake tears.

"Don't cry, poor Nicci. You must accept that you'll forever stay the class dwarf." Stephen cooed and making everyone laugh including me and even the blond girl couldn't hide her giggles.

"Don't worry, being small has its advantages, too." she tried to comfort me now walking over to us.

"Yeah, squeezing trough small holes for example." my supposedly best friend suggested grinning.

"I'm not a rat!" I pouted at him which he responded with messing with my hair.

"Ahh! Save meee." I screamed between laughing, then remembering something. So I boxed Stephen in the side making him flinch and let out a high pitched noise like a girl.

"By the way I'm Nicole but please call me Nicci. And this guy here with the girl scream is Stephen.", I introduced myself and my friend while nudging him repeatedly.

"I'm Samantha, but you can call me Sam if you want." the blond girl replied with a smile.

"I'm Julia, nice to meet you." Julia said making her presence known to us since we seemed to ignore her until now, evil us.

"Hey Sam, if you don't have a seat yet you can sit next to me." I suggested since the seat next to me was still empty and unloved.

"But I'm sitting here." Stephen faked pouted and crossed his arms.

"Oh poor little Stephen. But I'm afraid upperclassmen have no rights to claim seats here." I retorted sticking my tongue out and poking him till he fell from the chair.

"Sam, now's your chance!" I yelled sitting on the boy on the ground still poking him.

"Don't do it Sam! Don't do it!" he shouted and tried to get me off him with a tickle attack.


"..."

In silence I stared to the sky. A dream? More like a memory that I dreamed. Slowly I sat up without taking my gaze off the skies even once.

"I wonder how they're doing." I mumbled.

"Who do you mean?"

Turning my head I looked into the questioning faces of Ino, Choji and Shikamaru. Now I remembered that I fell asleep while eating lunch together with my ninja friends.

I shook my head.

"Nothing. How late is it?" I asked not wanting to be late for Ibiki's lessons again. Never. Ever. Ever. Again.

"12.30, so you still have some time." Ino answered with a wink.

"Thanks goodness." I sighted and let myself fall back to the ground.

Five weeks had already passed and still no change of my training schedule in sight. I still couldn't keep up with the others physically – even a six year old could beat me according to Asuma; seriously what are they feeding their kids?! - but at least I appear to have a certain talent with this chakra stuff. But due to my strict schedule I could hardly find any time to relax. As a consequence I suffered from constant muscle aches and feel exhausted since the little time I find to sleep isn't nearly enough to replenish the strength and chakra that I use up during training.

"If the training's really so hard for you, why don't you talk to the Hokage? He'll surely unterstand you." Shikamaru suggested as if he just read my thoughts.

"Right. Or talk to Iruka-sensei, he'll definitely be on your side if you explain your situation." Ino added.

"Normally you should've already caught up most academy material. Maybe you can start doing missions soon." Choji said.

"Naah, I'm horrible at taijutsu, they'd never let me." I retorted. Honestly I didn't really like the thought of going on missions. Getting killed while doing the dirty work for others isn't on my things-I-want-to-do-list, so no thank you.

"But last year was this boy that became a genin with just taijutsu. So why can't you become one with just ninjutsu?" Ino asked no one in particular.

"If I had to take a guess, I'd say it's because I'm a stranger that literally fell from the skies and doesn't now anything about this place." I remarked resting my cheeks in my hand.

Seriously, I'm still wondering why they didn't just kill me on the spot, not to mention all this training to make me a ninja thingy.

"Uh, Nicci?"

"Hmmh"

"You still have 10 minutes left. I think you should get going." Ino informed me.

My eyes widened in shock and I jumped to my feet.

"Ah crap, I have to hurry! Bye guys!"

I hurriedly hugged the three of then and then went on my way to the ANBU headquarters to Ibiki. Never evoke Ibiki's anger! Never!


As I rushed trough the door to Ibiki's office, he was already standing there staring at his watch and impatiently tapping with his left foot.

"Just in time." he remarked his ever present frown deepening.

I turned to look at the watch on the wall and saw the seconds hand just passing the 12. Yes!

After that my training began. As always we started with a little mind battle as a warm-up, as Ibiki likes to call it. For me it's more like Ibiki, as the sadist that he is, just loves to torture me every time before training me. Why so? Well the mind battle mostly consists of him trying with genjutsu to break into my mind while I do everything I can to prevent that. You could compare it with someone who tries to break through the door to your house that's actually your mind and the door being your shield that you have to hold up as good as you can. But unfortunately this man was like Gozilla knocking on a paper wall, not letting me any chance to win this. So what if he won and saw what I did this morning and ate for breakfast, some of you might wonder. Well when the door you braced yourself against gets smashed from Gozilla consequently you get squished under it. And that's exactly what it feels like in my head. Getting mentally squished by Gozilla. Sweet.

And after my 52th loss against the torture and interrogation specialist (seriously, how could I ever stand a chance?!) my training began. But instead of the usual genjutsu and prevention exercises, my teacher instructed me to follow him into another room. There I was already awaited by three official looking old men and twice as much Anbu guards.

"It this the girl?" the man in the middle asked as soon as I had entered the room after my mentor.

"Yes." Ibiki answered.

"She looks weak." the on standing to the right remarked.

"Can she really be of use to us?"

"The council has high expectations on her. We have to take every sensor type we get, even if they're foreigners." the left one added.

'So they're council members?' I thought slowly getting to where this was leading. I didn't like this one bit.

"Well, she'll now have the chance to prove her worth." Ibiki retorted glancing at me as to make sure I was still there. No wonder. I would have already made a run for it if it wasn't for an Anbu member guarding the door.

"Nicole." Ibiki called out to get my attention and motioned me to make a step forward, probably so I can be better stared at. Getting stared at by some old geezers can get scratched from my to-do-list for today.

But since this couldn't be all, he took something out fro god-knows-where and handed it so me.

"What's that?" I asked and stared at the piece of cloth in my hands with some strange chakra-drenched scribbling on it.

"That's a blindfold. The seal on it will prevent you from taking it off on your own. To get rid of it you have to find the person who created the seal who's somewhere in this building and make him unseal it. You have 6 hours starting the moment when you put on the blindfold. Regard this as a test to show your improvements. Any questions?"

"No." I answered swallowing the lump in my throat.

"Then go." he instructed and I did as told and put on the cloth. The moment I ties the ends at the back of my head, I felt foreign chakra from the blindfold flash trough my head and settling in my eyes and a part of my brain.

The first few seconds I got dizzy from having my eyesight robbed, but I quickly could settle down and get used to the foreign feeling. I could still feel the pools of chakra that the people present emitted, but the seal was clouding my senses.

I heard the old men whisper among themselves but couldn't make out exact words. Great. The only thing worse than getting stared at by geezers is getting stared at by geezers while being blindfolded. Not wanting to stay in this room any longer I tried to orient by the chakra everyone was emitting but unfortunately walls and inanimate objects don't have any. So to prevent me from running against walls and table edges and making me the laughing stock of our honourable council members (sarcasm) I had to think of something else.

So I molded a little part of my chakra and sent it out as a wave, using it as a sonar, and moments later having a vivid image of this room echoing in my mind.

"I'm on my way then." I announced and surprising everyone, well everyone except for Ibiki who had, according to my chakra waves, the trace of an acknowledging smile on his lips.

So to the shock of the three council members I found the door without even running against everything and easily found the door knob as if seeing like any other person. As I exited the room a content grin darted across my face because I left three stunned men behind without ruining my act. Take that for staring constantly at me!

First things first, I had to come up with a plan now. I was looking for a person that had the same chakra signature as the seal on the blindfold. Not that hard to distinguish him when I have a sample of his chakra literally in front of my eyes. The more present problem would be how to find my way around here. The Anbu headquarters were like a labyrinth and it could take a whole day to find the right way even if I found the location of the chakra signature. So since randomly running through the whole building isn't an option any more I had to come up with something more clever.

I molded more chakra and altered the waves I was sending out to find the right wavelength that'd allow me to send them through the walls and objects without making them invisible for my let's call it sonar. After four more minutes I found the right wavelength and even thought my vision got a bit blurred (the seal wasn't helping) I could now see a three-dimensional layout of the building in my mind. I was pretty much in the middle, fortunately since sending the waves a too great distance would tire me out in no time.

Now to the next step. Sharpening my senses I tried to make out all the chakra sources that flared up like little blue flames in my layout. I felt like I was part of some hollywood movie where the gangsters with their hightech equipment create these cool 3D images of the bank they want to rob and follow the movements of the guards that were shown on it. Yeah I feel really cool right now.

Not much later I found one chakra signature that coincided with the seal.

'Bingo!' I thought grinning and started to follow the map in my mind, if possible avoiding other Anbu members since you never knew what Ibiki had up his sleeve.

It took me about ten minutes to find to the room my target was located in. I masked my presence and first remained outside the door to review my next steps. Ibiki had mentioned that I had to get them to remove the seal. Which probably meant that a kind "Pretty please?" won't be enough.

Sensing their chakra again I noticed that unlike the Anbu this one had poorer control over him, probably the level of a chunin. I could try genjutsu then.

Making a few hand signs I sent chakra waves in the direction of my target, stimulating the area of their brain that was responsible for sleep.

I heard a yawn and shortly afterwards a faint thud. Quietly I sneaked into the room and saw a man in his mid twenties sound asleep sitting on a chair and his face on the tabletop.

Making some more hand signs I then touched his forehead with my fingers to manipulate his brainwaves and successfully using my genjutsu on him.


"Asleep while on duty, I see." a gruff voice stated tearing Shouta, chunin and apprentice at the Konohagakure Intelligence Division, out of his sleep. While waiting in his assigned room for some little girl that should try to make him dispel the seal a sudden fatigue came over him and before he knew he fell asleep.

"W...Where? What?" he mumbled still drowsy. But as he saw the huge man in front of him that was Ibiki Morino he jumped to his feet saluting to his superior.

"M-Morino-sama!" he stuttered out ashamed that he got caught sleeping at work.

"Seems that you slept through the whole test." Ibiki scolded his stern glare making the chunin shrink and bashfully averting his eyes.

"Y-Yes sir..." he mumbled the shame unbearable since this was his second week in this department and he didn't want to get removed to another post again.

"Not that it would matter since the girl failed anyway." the interrogation specialist added. Now Shouta first noticed the girl that stood next to his boss. She was still blindfolded but her posture was telling him that she was disappointed about her failure.

"Now that the test is over remove the blindfold. Or would you prefer to go back to sleep?"

"N-No Sir..." he mumbled frustrated by the harsh tone and then took the blindfold off the girl.

But as he loosened the knot he didn't look into the ashamed face of a young girl that had failed but instead the smirking face of a kid that just had got the cookie jar.

Now he noticed how Ibiki's form blurred and then dissipated into thin air only leaving the triumphantly smirking girl in front of him.

"Oh..." was the only word he could say as he slowly realized that he got ripped off by a 12 year old girl that wasn't even a genin.


"Thanks man." I said grinning as I grabbed the blindfold from the chunin's hands while he was still in shock and made a run for it. I would have never thought that this went so well, I thought while grinning like a maniac. I couldn't wait to rub it into the faces of those old men that I passed the test. In less than an hour to top it off!

After ten more minutes I reached the room where my proctor and the council members were still waiting for my return. But now having my eyesight back my eye-hand coordination started to fail again and so after running into the door with a loud thud I happened to turn the knob so that the door opened and I literally fell into the room.

From my spot on the floor I looked up to the shocked faces of not only the council members but even Ibiki Morino himself couldn't hide his surprise from my entrance.

"I didn't expect you to be back so soon." he stated quickly finding back to his usual emotionless self.

"But it seems that you passed since you have your blindfold off."

"Didn't you say that this test would take her 4 hours at least?" one council member asked sceptically.

"And that the fastest sensor type that succeeded needed two and a half hours to do so?" another added.

"Yes I did. This should proof the capability of this girl's sensor skills." Ibiki stated.

I couldn't help but grin as my mentor actually said something like a praise about me.

The council members exchanged meaningful looks. Then one of them stepped forward and addressed Ibiki completely ignoring my existence. Go on, ignore the person you're talking about, it's not like that was rude or anything.

"I seems that she could actually be of use to the village." he stated then turned to the door without another word. An Anbu opened the door for them as the three men left the room, their motions synchronized like a rehearsed choreography.

I watched them in wonder but didn't have much time to think about the strange habits of those council members since again Ibiki told me to follow him.

We went back to his office and he motioned me to sit down in the chair in front of his desk while he searches the stacks of paper on the desk and looked through the drawers until he found what he was looking for. He handed me the neatly piled up stack of papers and I stared at them warily.

"This is a non-disclosure agreement." he stated.

"For what?" I asked carefully reading through the characters on the first pages. Why do there have to be so many kanji? Why kanji? I just got used to fluently use hiragana and I'm okay with katakana, but kanji? I'm screwed.

"The council decided to assign you to your first mission. I guess it's appropriate to congratulate you."

"A mission?" I repeated disbelievingly. Why would they want me to go on a mission?

"Yes. You will assist in the coming chunin exams. After you sign the agreement I will give you the details." he explained already irritated from my hesitancy. Not like I had a choice anyway.

I heard of the chunin exams from Iruka. They were some sort of competition between the allied shinobi villages and necessary to get the title of chunin.

I nodded and skimmed through the pages trying to understand as much as I could and then signed at the last page to give the document to Ibiki who put it back into a drawer. From what I could decipher it was a standard secrecy agreement form that forbid me of telling any specified details to third parties. So as long as I shut my mouth nothing bad could happen. Only the paragraph about torture through third parties was a bit unnerving from the little I could understand, but something like that couldn't possibly happen. Right?


Happily I wandered through the streets of Konoha. Why so happy you ask? The answer is simple. After I got the details to my mission (which I'm still suspicious of though) I got a new training plan for the remaining two weeks until the start of the chunin exams. This training will focus on the skills that are needed for my mission and – guess what – taijutsu isn't a part of those required skills! So not only did I get rid of the green jumpsuit duo for the next two weeks and the time the exams are hold, I even got the rest of the day plus the weekend free since my training would start in three days on Monday! Finally I could sleep in! It felt like forever since the last time I could do this. Hard to believe that there are actually advantages to risking their lives for some stupid mission.

So now I strolled through the streets with a wide grin plastered on my face and wondered what I could do with the remaining spare time that I had for today.

I would be able to sleep the whole weekend so this wasn't an option. So I decided to look for my friends and spent the rest of the day together with them.

First I went to Ino but unfortunately she had to help out in the flower shop and couldn't skip on work. Next I went to Choji's house but his mother told me that he was off training with his father and wouldn't be back before late at night. The last one remaining now was Shikamaru.

This mother welcomed me kindly at the entrance to the Nara compound and showed me to their house and to my friend's room. We were doing some small talk while walking through the compound and I couldn't really comprehend why Shikamaru was so afraid of his mother. To me she was a very kind and lively woman. She had a strong-willed personality but it was fitting for an ex-kunoishi and the wife of a renowned ninja, at least in my opinion.

"Maybe you can get him out of bed." she said as we reached Shikamaru's room.

"Sometimes I wonder whether he would die of starvation while sleeping if I didn't wake him for dinner."

"I can imagine that." I answered laughing. If it was Shikamaru he could definitely manage that.

She winked at me with a smug smile before leaving and I shrugged it off. Slowly I opened the wooden door and slid into the barely lit room, closing the door behind me. Though I was already a few time at Shikamaru's house, this was actually the first time I entered his room.

It was sparsely furnished, only a bed, table, wardrobe and bookshelf stuffed with all sorts of books and scrolls. I traced the back of the books with my finger carefully reading their titles. Mostly books about strategy and military tactics but also history and warfare.

In the middle of the room was a small table used for Shogi, the japanese variant of chess but more complex, from what I knew. Maybe I could ask Shikamaru to teach me one day?

The light curtains in front of the window were drawn close to keep some of the sunlight out, enough to comfortably take a little nap.

I noticed something move in the corner of my eye and turned to see a sleeping form on the bed wrapped up in his blanket, only the black hair that stuck out from under the covers gave away the identity of the sleeping person.

I tiptoed to the edge of the bed and crouched down, resting my chin on my folded arms that I placed down next to his pillow.

"If you sleep the whole afternoon you won't be able to sleep at night, you know?"

"Mnmngh..." he mumbled into his covers and buried his face even deeper into his pillow. Quickly he glanced up into my face that was – due to my position – just mere inches away from his.

"What do you want?" he grumbled but it was hard for me to understand him since his already quiet mumbling was further muffled by the pillow.

"Well I got the rest of the day off and wanted to spend it with my friends. And since the others are busy..." I explained ending mid-sentence with a wide grin.

"I'm also busy. Go away." he retorted still not willing to even move an inch.

"Aww come on." I pleaded giving him the puppy dog eyes (Not very effective when he's not even looking at me, I know) "You still have enough time to sleep in the evening. Or are you saying that I'm less important than a little nap?"

Then I started to fake cry and theatrically turned away from him. I heard the covers rustling and felt the movements of the mattress I was leaned against. A triumphant smile darted over my face.

"So what do you want to do?" he asked in a defeated manner now sitting on the edge of the bed looking down at me since I was still sitting on the carpeted floor.

"Dunno. We could stroll through the village and cloud watch or something." I suggested leaning my head back to look into his lazy face.

"So the same as always." he concluded a small smile crossing his face.


"So what did you do to get the day off? Faked your death?" Shikamaru asked as we strolled along the streets.

"I doubt that would work. I can already hear Ibiki say, death is no excuse to skip training!" I joked laughing.

"No, I actually got a mission and starting monday I'll get some special training and until then I can relax and catch up on some sleep."

"And you think I'd let you?" Shikamaru asked smirking.

"Since you would have to wake up first and go all the way to Asuma's apartment to wake me up, yeah I think so." I replied with a grin.

"Yeah, too troublesome." he admitted with his lazy smile.

"So what is this mission about?"

"Something with the coming chunin exams. Didn't really understand what exactly I have to do though." I answered frowning.

"Asuma-sensei told us about this exam. He wants us to participate. Such a drag." he commented shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Don't you want to become a chunin?" I asked raising one eyebrow.

"I guess." he answered with a tired smile.

Suddenly a cold shiver run down my spine making me halt in my steps. Shikamaru gave me a questioning look but I just stood there my eyes staring straight ahead and cold sweat gathering on my forehead.

Then I saw them. They were three, two boys and a girl. They wore headbands with a foreign symbol on it. According to Iruka-sensei, it was the symbol of Sunagakure, a shinobi village in the Land of Wind. It was really unusual to see foreign ninjas in the village but that wasn't the reason that was unnerving me. It was the smallest of the group, a redheaded boy, and the bloodthirsty aura that he was emitting. And something in his chakra was... Different. This foreign chakra I only felt once before in this Naruto. But in this boy it was much more present. Much more threatening.

Even though the face of the boy was calm and emotionless his killing intent was so strong and present that it paralysed me.

It was Shikamaru who got me out of my stupor. He had followed my gaze and frowned at the trio that was approaching but didn't even notice us. He took my arm and firmly but not forcefully pulled to get me going so we could leave them behind as soon as possible.

I looked to the ground as we neared them. The girl was just talking to the taller boy that wore a black one-piece and make-up about this really cute guy they just met and he only grunted irritatedly as a response.

They were still ignoring us but as they passed right next to us I just couldn't resist and glanced at them just to look the redheaded boy right into the eyes.

Thunderstruck I stopped dead in my tracks staring into the teal eyes of the boy who also came to a halt and just watched me with an emotionless expression.

Now the other two members of their little group also stopped to eye us. Shikamaru tugged repeatedly on my sleeve urging me to follow him, the situation making him visibly nervous.

After a moment of complete silence the boy finally lost his patience.

"What is it?" he asked icily.

I didn't reply immediately, still mesmerized by his teal eyes.

"Your eyes." I mumbled, making him raise a nonexistend eyebrow questioningly.

This eyes. Her eyes. Why is he reminding me so much of her? Why now?

I felt something wet running down my cheeks. Tears? Was I crying?

"What's your problem?" he asked a threatening tone in his voice and his face darkened.

"Gaara, let it be." the girl immediately stepped in as if fearing what would happen otherwide.

"Let's go, Nicci." Shikamaru whispered not liking where this was heading.

I shook my head finally coming back to my senses and averting my eyes.

"I'm sorry, you just reminded me of someone." I mumbled and let myself getting dragged by Shikamaru along the street and around the next corner away from the group.

I sensed the chakra of those three also retreating but kept letting myself get dragged away. After two more turns he finally slowed his pace. On the side of the road was a bench that we sat down on. I was wiping the tears from my face that finally ran dry. Shikamaru sat down next to me leaning back with a sight and mumbling a "troublesome" as he glanced at me.

"So care to explain what happened there just now?" he asked tiredly.

I stared at my hands that rested folded on my lap.

"This boy." I whispered suppressing the sob that wanted to come out of my throat.

"He had the same eyes as her."

"Who's 'she'?" he questioned further but immediately regretted it as the tears started to run down my face again. Shocked from my reaction he pulled away, clearly overwhelmed with the situation.

"I- I didn't mean to... I mean, you don't have to..." he stuttered, not able to handle the sight of tears.

Between two sobs I laughed at his innocent behaviour and once again fought down the tears.

"It's okay." I said. "It's just... It's hard to think about her."

"You don't have to if you don't want to." he said, slowly settling down again.

"No, it's okay. Maybe I will feel better it I talk about it."

He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his upper knees as I just leaned back and watched the clouds pass by.

"It's about Sam. She's... was my best friend. We met each other three years ago and were inseparable since. She always supported me, no matter what happened, I could always count on her."

Again a single tear fell run down my reddened cheek.

"What happened?" the boy asked with curiosity in his voice. I lowered my gaze and stared at my hands again.

"She... betrayed me. I would have entrusted my life to her and she betrayed me in the worst way I could think of."

"Troublesome." Shikamaru murmured and settled back against the backrest.

"Mmhmm..." I mumbled and leaned against his chest, the boy glancing at me then looking to the sky.

"Thanks for listening." I whispered.

"Nevermind." he answered in his usual bored voice.

I don't how how long we sat there like that until he finally brought me back to Asuma's apartment.

I didn't realize it until now but this was the first time that I could openly cry about what had happened back then...