Neji went on a mission and Ashita was left at home, free of a job and burdened to a session of ordered therapy.
She took to staring out onto the village from her porch, thinking hard with conflict bubbling up inside her eyes. The place was so happy looking; it had so much prosperity, like any other huge village with tall buildings and a kind of twinkle to it. And for just a second there, Ashita earnestly hated it. The image was dishonest. Konoha looked like such a kind place, with friendly people of every walk of life. And maybe that was true for anyone else, without a reputation completely sullied by a sick man and a lack of social grace.
Sometimes it was hard to move forward.
The rocking chair creaked with the back and forth motion. And again when Ashita stood up and went back into her home.
She got a backpack together. Tooth brush, hair brush, kimono. Obi. Make up. Money. Cigarettes and her lighter.
You know; the essentials.
And she left her house and walked. Not really in any particular direction. Not really thinking it through. But her feet moved forward and her handsome, dark black sandals scuttled along until she was gone, with a dull sense of sadness insider her stomach and lonesomeness she hadn't really felt since meeting Neji Hyūga.
But sometimes, just for sobriety's sake, you need a break from your own personal Jesus. A minute to breathe and consider all the doubts and options that came with a quick slice of atheism.
It didn't even occur to her that she didn't leave a note. That she didn't let anyone know where she would go, or who that little woman would decide to be once she got there. All the rest was too heavy, and the pieces stacked together, to build a fortress to block out the sun.
A whole damn tower, made up of brick and mortar thick as stone.
And she smoked a cigarette.