Chapter 14: Trickling Water
Haruno Sakura
His blood red eyes held mine. It felt as though a pair of invisible hands had reached out and gently kept me in place. I opened my mouth to say something but the words had fled from me, leaving a foreboding silence to reign over the room. It felt as though something awful was going to happen. Maybe he would smack me or maybe I would start yelling at him. Or maybe Tsunade-sama would wake up and scream at the both of us and have Itachi executed on the spot.
What I didn't expect was something perfectly normal to happen. He merely looked away from me without a word. Strangely enough, that dismissive gesture hurt me much more than any argument ever would.
When I made no move to leave, Itachi's head rose slightly. It was still turned away from me, as if he were avoiding my eyes, and his long onyx hair cascaded down his pale neck. He spoke quietly, "There isn't any point in your presence here since your teacher isn't here. Leave."
I had half a mind to blatantly refuse and stay put. The other reasonable half of my mind told me to follow his orders and leave, so as to prevent any complicated and awkward confrontation. Unfortunately, I pulled a Naruto and listened to the crazier side of me.
"I can't go. I have to hand in my mission report," I protested, my voice sounding more confident than I felt.
"Then leave it on the desk and go," He quietly ordered.
"I can't do that, you could sabotage it," I pointed out.
His jaw clenched slightly at the accusation and he retorted sharply, "Then hand it in tomorrow."
I never did have much patience and it waned quickly. I forgot about everything that had come to pass in the past few days. For a few moments, things reverted back to how they used to be when it was just me and an infuriating Uchiha. "Itachi, for fuck's sake, stop acting like a child!"
"Don't go telling people what to do when you can't even follow your own advice," His pride retaliated. It was the closest to angry I supposed I'd ever see him but I was madder than he was and it failed to faze me.
"If you could see past that stupid Uchiha pride of yours then you would realize that you're the hypocrite, you heartless bastard!" My voice began to rise.
The loud screech of his chair silenced me immediately.
For a moment I was filled with a blinding fear that reminded me of our first encounter in a forest a few months ago. The restrictor necklace glinting on the floor beside my foot didn't go unnoticed and I became fully aware of how easy it was for this man to reach out and break my neck. His back was turned to me and his body was still. His silence spoke a thousand words; a thousand words that managed to escape me.
He appeared suddenly two centimetres away from my face and I backed up against the wall instinctively. His crimson eyes burned a hole into my emerald ones as both of his hands slammed against the wall beside my head. I could have moved or thrown him off but my body no longer paid attention to rational thought. I could feel my eyes brimming up with angry tears, my actions had been rash but they had gotten me the desired result. I wanted him to notice me, to realize that I wasn't dead and that I was still here. He had totally ignored me for the past few days and I missed him. I was angry and frustrated and I wanted him to feel all of that too.
A tear slipped down my face, unbidden, but I continued glaring at him. He said not a word to me and his nightmarish crimson eyes simmered quietly. His right hand clenched and immediately unclenched again as he tried to retain what little self control he had left. I would just have to say one more thing and he would be thrown off the edge.
Time passed agonizingly slowly and each second seemed to draw out for an eternity. The blood pounded in my ears as my heartbeat seemed to race and beat like a drum. Thud…thud…thud…
My hands were suddenly in his midnight hair, trying desperately to bring him closer as a war ensued within our mouths. His hands were under my clothes and it felt as though my entire being was on fire as his body pressed against mine. I gasped as his tongue traced a path down my neck and he pinned me to the wall, his hands roaming wildly. His mouth returned to mine once again and I let out a strangled moan in between his feverish kisses. We were both struggling for breath but neither of us really cared anymore. I whispered his name breathlessly and suddenly, the world collectively held its breath. He stopped and drew back, his eyes reflecting for the first time an inner conflict as he hesitated.
He closed his eyes, his chest heaving slightly. His indecision fled in the next instant. His voice was as sharp as a cutting edge, "Leave."
There was no need for him to say it twice. I all but ran for the door. I couldn't stand to be near him anymore. The heavy wooden door closed with a distinctive click and it felt as though I had locked my tortured heart away along with the S class criminal. The light from the surrounding windows fell upon my feet as I walked away from him, my face shrouded in shadows.
Uchiha Itachi
I sat back down in the wooden chair, staring aimlessly at a blank piece of wall. As the wispy clouds rolled over the moon, the light shifted across my face like a lover's caress. I felt as though I were twenty years older and, in a rare moment of vulnerability, leaned forwards and covered my eyes with my palms.
For a few seconds, I removed the Mangekyou Sharingan. Everything became unfocussed and the colours blurred. Frustration took a temporary hold on me as everything on my left was lost to blackness, only to be quickly replaced by bodily relief. My chakra channels seemed to sigh in joy as my eyes were given a chance to relax at long last.
I remained still for a few moments, trying to pull myself together. The dam that had once held my emotions back so effortlessly was beginning to crack and feelings were starting to trickle through again. I could hear the endless echo in my mind, 'Emotions make you weak, emotions make you vulnerable' but for once in my life the words lost the importance they once held.
I could still feel the warmth of her curvaceous body pressed up against my own and pictured the angry gloss of her emerald eyes. Her challenge had angered me much more than it should have but before I had never let something as petty as anger get the best of me. I convinced myself that it was only out of pride that I kissed her but another quiet voice in the back of my mind nagged otherwise. I leaned back in the chair, ignoring the creak of protest it made.
The door opened behind me and I briefly wondered if it was Sakura. I then realized it couldn't be Sakura, this person's footsteps seemed to drag across the floor drunkenly and I could hear the quiet clink of stilettos. I instantly activated my Sharingan again before the person could notice my black eyes and pulled on a mask of indifference. The busty blonde Hokage collapsed into her chair behind the wooden table and sighed loudly.
A silence fell over the room. Suddenly, her eyes snapped to mine angrily as she demanded, "Will you stop staring at me?"
Instinctively, I shot back, "I wasn't."
"I'm sure you weren't. Your eyes just happened to travel down to my chest," She growled at me threateningly.
If I were Deidara, I would have slapped my forehead about now. No, actually, Deidara would have smirked suggestively and then said something especially crude. The urge to punch this woman was quickly growing.
"You are nothing special. I have seen other women before," I told her coldly and she slammed her hands down on the desk. She brought her face a mere centimetre away from mine, unfocussed hazel eyes flaring. I could smell the sake on her breath.
"Do you mean to say I'm ugly?" She asked, her eyes narrowing.
I decided to keep quiet to avoid any more confrontation with this unstable Hokage. She took my silence the wrong way and her teeth began to grind against one another. I leaned back as far as the chair would allow me without making it obvious and looked away from her, fixing my gaze on the window behind her.
"You are not to talk to the Hokage in that manner!" She shouted at me.
"I said nothing to you," I pointed out, steadily growing more and more annoyed. She stood up suddenly, her chair screaming on the floor behind her.
"Don't talk back to the Hokage!" She shouted again and I closed my eyes, feeling a headache coming on.
Haruno Sakura
The still waters of the river glimmered in the moonlight as the fish slept peacefully. The bridge was growing old and the red paint was starting to peel again, no matter how many times we painted it over in a vain attempt to cling to the memories of Team 7. The railing creaked under my weight as I leaned on it and my ears revelled in the calm silence. I sighed breathily, the loudest sound in the area.
"Such a sad sound isn't befitting for such a pretty face, yeah," A low, seductive voice murmured from behind me.
I turned around quickly. A man with long blonde hair stood across from me, watching me through piercing green eyes. His lips twitched into a self confident smirk and he put his hands into his pockets. His back was against the railing. At a glance, I thought he was a civilian but then I remembered he had made not a sound to announce his presence. I hadn't been able to detect him at all.
"Pretty my ass," I scoffed, looking back at the river.
"Yours isn't half bad actually," He commented offhandedly and my head whizzed back around to gape at him.
He took a few steps towards me and pressed his hands against the railing at either side of me. A calloused finger began to trace the contours of my face and he gently closed my mouth. I began to lean backwards to get as far away from him as possible and moved too far back. I began to fall over the railing of the bridge and I grabbed his shirt in a futile attempt to retain my balance. Unfortunately, he too began to lose his balance and we both went toppling over the edge of the bridge into the icy waters.
I hit the surface with a muffled splash. The river was relatively shallow and I stood up, my clothes sopping wet. I turned around to look for the blonde man and he was standing on the water's glimmering skin with a smirk on his face. It confirmed my suspicion that he was a ninja and I began to twist my bubblegum hair to get the water out of it.
"Nice body," The man's eyes roamed over my clinging clothes and my eyes quickly narrowed at him. As nice as all this praise was, he was a complete stranger.
"If you're trying to get in my pants, get lost," I growled at him as I waded out of the river, walking rigidly.
He quickly walked to my side and said, "I'm not trying to get into anything. I've just got unfinished business in Konoha…yeah."
"Then go and finish your business, yeah," I snapped and he stepped in front of me to prevent me from leaving. His sea foam eyes captured mine and I stopped, putting my hands on my hips threateningly.
He complained, "That would be no fun though. A guy needs a holiday every once in a while, yeah?"
"Then go have your holiday somewhere else!" I shouted.
His smirk widened. "I want to talk to you though."
"You don't even know me," I told him and he slung an arm around my shoulder amiably. His face was mere centimetres away from my own and his soft blonde hair gently caressed my shoulder.
He countered, "Well, that means that you and I should get to know each other better, yeah?"
"No!" I began to grow agitated and he sighed, removing his arm from around my shoulder. He reached into the pouch at his side and a sound began to come from inside of it, a munching sound. When he took his hand out of it, he opened it and threw something white into the air.
"It's a present for you. Don't break it, yeah?" He told me. Quick as a flash, he kissed me on the cheek and disappeared with a poof.
The white figure floated down towards me and landed on my shoulder. I looked at it questioningly and a tiny little bird stared back innocently.
Uchiha Itachi
The next morning, the Hokage slammed a porcelain sake saucer down on the table in front of me. The fragile skin glittered in the dim sunlight like a diamond and I raised my head to look at her questioningly. She stared back, her chocolate orbs hardened like flint, before sinking into her solid wooden chair. I stared at the sake cup suspiciously, as if it were to rear up and spit whatever poison was in it into my mouth, effectively murdering me.
Her pen scratched away noisily on the tortured pieces of paper. The scratching noise stopped after a few minutes and there was a quiet clink as she put down her ball pen to watch me quietly.
"You can drink it, boy. We wouldn't try to hurt you since you're going to die in a couple of days anyways," She told me, slightly amused by my caution.
I still made no move to touch it but my tense muscles slackened slightly. However, I didn't take kindly to my new nickname but who was I to speak back to the Hokage? After what seemed an eternity, she looked up at me and leaned her cheek against her hand lazily. She commented, "You know, you could go on trial instead of going straight to execution ground. You might be able to live if you prove yourself innocent."
I answered analytically, "When all the evidence points at me and there was even a witness to the killing, it is impossible for me to prove myself innocent."
"You're a bit of a disappointment, you know that? I was expecting some more attitude or hatred from a missing-nin but you're still the same logical, cynical kid from more than ten years ago," She admitted, sipping at her sake.
She waved a hand about flamboyantly, "You're probably wondering how I know that. I was the third Hokage's student, you know, so I saw everyone who came in for missions. You came in the most and you pissed me off with your adult demeanour. You still do, actually."
"If I am that much of an annoyance to you, why don't you kill me now rather than have a formal execution?" I pointed out to her and her eyes lowered to her papers as she began to scribble away again.
Her hand unconsciously tightened around her pen. "Every citizen of Konoha deserves a respectable death; even if they are missing-nin or criminals."
I told her blatantly, "If you truly believe that, then you are the ideal Kage for a place like Konoha."
Three days since I had come into the Hokage's supervision, her black haired assistant entered with a manila file clenched in her bloodless hands, as if whatever was in it disgusted her to no end. The Hokage took it from her and opened it, spreading its contents over the desk and scanned over them. My eyes travelled across the pages and I sent the little reserves of chakra I still had to focus my eyesight so that the characters didn't appear as black blurs.
Name: Uchiha Itachi
ANBU team assigned: Captain- Haruko Toshiro, Uzumaki Naruto, Hijiri Tsumon, Shiranui Genma
Holding cell: Number 15
"You and I have a few things to discuss," Tsunade noted aloud, leaning back in her chair. My eyes flicked up to her face to grace her with my attention.
"Your execution is tomorrow. You will be taken to a holding cell and your chakra channels will be blocked off. Tomorrow morning at nine o clock you will be taken to the execution room and a person specially trained in painless killing techniques will kill you," She informed me in a manner that suggested she might as well have been saying she was going out to get some milk from the supermarket.
"You will be under 24 hour watch by ANBU class ninja so escape is impossible," The Hokage added. She seemed to think that such information would faze me, or terrify me in the least, but I honestly didn't care. I nodded slightly to acknowledge this.
There was a loud knock on the door that prevented her from saying anything else. She barked at the people behind it to enter and four uniformed ANBU officers entered. I knew instantly which one was the Kyuubi by simply picking out his confident walk and cerulean eyes. The other three ninja were silent but I noted mentally that one of them wore a silver stud in one ear and walked before everyone else. He was obviously the leader.
"None of you are to talk to the prisoner. Am I understood?" The Hokage ordered, her eyes lingering on the Kyuubi for a fraction of a second longer than the others.
The man with a silver stud nodded and answered for his team, "Understood."
They all nodded and surrounded me in a tight circle. I walked with them without complaint, a contemplative curtain of onyx falling over my eyes. Had the guards been looking at me, they would not have been able to notice the triumphant gleam in my crimson eyes as we grew further and further away from my previous jail cell.
Haruno Sakura
"Naruto, what are you doing here so late?" I chastised him as he sat down on my threadbare red sofa. He looked as though hell had chewed him up and then spat him back out again, only to drag him through purgatory before chucking him back to earth.
He said nothing for a few moments, his eyes glassy and unfocussed. His uncanny silence frightened me slightly so I went over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. I shook him slightly, trying to fish a reaction out of him. His palm snaked up to grasp at my wrist as his eyes pierced through mine with uncharacteristic seriousness.
"Naruto?" My jade eyes flickered to my wrist quickly before darting up to meet his gaze again.
"Sakura, do you want to see Itachi again?"
Naruto's shift was in the next ten minutes and to be safe, I wasn't to come until after his shift had started and the coast was clear. The execution blocks and holding cells were all hidden deep in the Forest of Death. The place still sent shivers down my spine and caused bad memories to resurface but I was willing to go back in if it meant I would be able to see Itachi one last time.
The prospect of seeing him again both scared me and thrilled me at the same time. I had no idea what I was going to say to him or how we would react after our heated encounter last time. I didn't know what I was doing but I realized that when dealing with Itachi, most of the time you had to let things happen. Planning out a relationship or meeting with Itachi would never get anyone anywhere.
"Sakura, come," Naruto's voice was quiet but commanding as the earpiece hummed slightly in my ear. The little white bird on my shoulder clung to me tightly as I traced a path through the tall trees towards the execution block. It made not a noise as I sprinted.
"Don't come through the main entrance. Walk around until you see a window with a black cloak slung over the windowsill. It should be on the second floor," He informed me quietly.
I stayed far enough from the building so that nobody could notice me but close enough to allow me a clear view. I trod carefully, circling the building until I finally found the window he had mentioned. His black cloak billowed slightly in the wind and I stared up at it.
"Jump up to the window," He ordered me.
"Are you crazy? I can't jump into a window! I can jump really high but I can't aim myself into anything. Why can't I just scale the walls, or something?" I began to babble anxiously but Naruto shushed me.
"If you climb the walls with chakra, the person permanently standing guard at the main entrance will know. His chakra is stretched across the entire building so if he senses a strange disturbance of his chakra flow he'll alert an ANBU team," Naruto explained and I groaned inwardly, staring up at the window.
"Won't he be able to sense me anyways if there's a second body of chakra in the building?" I pressed him further.
"No, he won't. It's like…if you do something suspicious, like explode a wall or carve a hole in the floor with chakra it'll make a ripple in his chakra," He answered coolly.
So that means if I use healing techniques, it won't alert the guard because my chakra isn't interrupting his flow. It's going into another person and not into the other man's chakra flow. I realized.
"Okay, fine, I'm coming," I muttered. Taking a few steps back to get a running start, I nervously wiped my sweaty palms on my shorts. I began to sprint, jade eyes focused on the open window and forced chakra to my feet. I sprung off the ground and into the air, hurtling towards the window.
"Oh shit, how the hell am I going to land?" a new, terrifying question came to mind. I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for a painful impact but instead smacked into a heavy wall of muscle. Naruto didn't even flinch as I crashed into him, gripping my arms tightly to steady me. The white bird fluttered through the window calmly and landed on my shoulder again, nuzzling its inner-wing.
"When I knock on the door, you have to leave him and jump out of the window without using any chakra. You should know how to land a fall by now," He flashed me a quick grin as he began unlocking a metal door behind him. The words 'Number 15' were written in a cold, businesslike script that seemed extremely detached.
I took in my surroundings and likened the place to a very depressing hospital. I was standing in a long narrow hallway with only a few doors and two windows. Rectangular ceiling lights lit up the path but the light above our heads flickered on and off eerily. The unsettling light didn't do much for my already crumbling resolve.
There was a loud click as Naruto finally got the door open. I froze, half expecting a squadron of ANBU to race down the hallway and pin us to the floor. It was only after Naruto shoved me inside Itachi's cell that I realized the squadron never came. The room was dark but I could make out a dim figure sitting on the floor. When Naruto closed the door, we were left in pitch darkness.
"Itachi?" I called his name quietly. There was a rustle of clothing as the figure stood up. I didn't have to see his face to know he was staring at me intently. The white bird on my shoulder deserted my shoulder and fluttered off somewhere in the darkness, its tiny wings providing the only escape from silence.
"It's me…Sakura," I took a step towards him. He said nothing and I began to walk towards him with more confidence.
"Are you here under orders?" He asked tonelessly.
"No, I'm not," I answered.
"Then why did you come?" He asked again, taking a step closer to me. I could feel the tickle of his long black hair and the body heat radiating off of him. He was so close now and I could hear his steady breathing, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale…
"I…I don't know," I lied to him, instinctively swaying closer. A stormy silence reigned over the cell and I pressed my hands against his chest as if to measure the distance between us. I felt a bead of sweat trickle down my face and trace a path down my neck to rest in its hollow.
My hands travelled up his body to rest on his cheeks. My fingertips brushed the scars below his eyes and I felt his eyelashes bat against my hand. His eyelids had closed and I gently allowed a trickle of chakra to seep through the pale skin. I noted that his chakra channels had collapsed inwards on themselves, probably from overexertion, and began to open them up again. They were already very fragile and I knew that what little healing I had done would be undone if he was to use his Sharingan again.
"You should be able to see really faintly out of your left eye when I'm done but you'll still have bad eyesight. If you use the Sharingan again you'll go blind in that eye again and the right one will eventually suffer the same problem," I murmured quietly.
"How long will it last?" He inquired calmly.
"One month at the most, without Sharingan. If I had more time to work on you, I could get it back to normal," I said, looking away from him.
"My execution is tomorrow," He stated and my head snapped up to look at him in disbelief. My chakra temporarily came to a stop.
"I…I didn't know," I whispered in shock.
He said nothing to comfort me and nothing to make me feel worse. He simply let the words he had said earlier further sink into me. My motif for coming and whatever happiness was still left in me dropped like a stone off the side of a cliff. They were so far gone that I couldn't even reach them anymore.
My eyes began to glaze over and I bit down ferociously on my lip. I was glad for the lack of light; he wouldn't be able to see my weakness and point out how unfit I was as a ninja. Tears trickled down my face like silent spectators. They witnessed my sorrow and accused Itachi of things beyond his own control, finding courage in the lack of visibility. He lifted his hands and pressed against my fingertips softly, an indication to keep healing. His action registered somewhere in the back of my mind but faded away into nothingness.
He murmured my name, "Sakura."
His voice crushed me like a landslide, forcing me back to reality. I blinked rapidly and tried to keep my breathing under control so as not to betray anything to him. I took my hands away from his eyes and they flopped to my sides as I tried to absorb what he had just told me. I swore that I could see his eyes in the darkness, two onyx orbs that had seen too much too fast; the unmistakable eyes of a ninja.
His hand brushed the side of my face and I shied away from it, knowing that he would feel the rivulets of sadness trickling down my skin if he touched me. He persisted until his calloused palm finally held my wet cheek and I stood, motionless, knowing I had lost.
"There is no need for you to cry. Crying is a display of weakness," He commented coldly. His hand remained where it was, cupping my cheek.
"You idiot, can't you see I'm crying for you?" I snapped at him angrily. He said nothing in response.
His lips pressed against mine gently and there was no enormous sexual tension or rage like last time. There was so much more meaning behind this, a meaning that trickled through my fingers the more I tried to decipher it. I wanted to cling to the moment forever, to freeze time for the both of us but an urgent interruption brought the both of us back to reality.
There was a knock at the door and it opened a fraction. I quickly stepped away from Itachi and his hands fell to his sides. It was almost as if nothing had come to pass between us but, feeling his intense gaze upon me as I left, we both knew something had.
Uzumaki Naruto
Sakura flashed me a smile that would have made Sai proud when she finally came out of the room. As she brushed past me, I touched her shoulder and shot her a questioning look. She shook her head to say there was nothing wrong but I frowned at her in disbelief.
"Wait for me outside. I'll be out in a few seconds," I told her quietly before she jumped through the open window.
We were lucky she left just in time since the shinobi who was to take the next shift entered the hallway a few moments later. I grinned and tossed him the keys to Itachi's cell, "You'll have an easy time, Haruko-san. He doesn't do anything at all and just sits there all the time. It's like he's accepted the execution."
Our squad captain sighed in relief, "That's good, I don't feel up to fending off a crazy guy."
"I'll see you later," I told him and left the building swiftly, nodding to the guard on duty outside.
I found Sakura leaning lazily against a gnarly tree, blankly staring into space. I cleared my throat slightly to let her know I was there and she started, looking around her in fright. When her jaded eyes rested upon me, she relaxed considerably.
"How'd it go?" I asked her in a murmur. It felt as though if I spoke any louder the whole world would hear.
She hesitated before answering weakly, "It was fine."
It was an obvious lie and we both knew it.
It was simply a matter of time before she broke down. The seconds ticked by painfully but I waited. I saw her swallow with difficulty, watched her eyes glaze over and avoid mine. She took an uncertain step towards me, then another and then another until we were mere centimetres apart. She stared at my chest, her jaw clenching with the effort not to cry.
She was absolutely silent. I continued to wait.
When her traitorous gasp broke the silence, I embraced her tightly. My arms locked around her and I kept her close to me, as if I could hide her away from the pain and heartbreak.
The pain was something Sakura - that no one - should have had to go through.
Uchiha Itachi
There was a scratching noise as the forgotten clay bird hopped towards me, its tiny claws scraping against the hard floor. When the annoying noise halted and I felt a slight tug at my trouser leg, I ignored the bird.
"So, are you ready for the execution thing, yeah?" It asked and I continued to ignore it. After a few moments of tense silence, it tugged at my trouser leg again.
"I am ready," I answered.
It chuckled darkly and began to hop up my leg. "You didn't get attached to that girl, yeah? We don't need another love struck teenager."
"Someone like me would never become attached," I told it sharply.
"That little kiss thing was all an act then. You never struck me as the sadistic heart breaker type…yeah." The voice trailed off.
"What has Leader said?" I interrupted him coldly.
"Leader's already recruiting for a new member. Though, it was a good thing he picked you first. If it was anyone else we'd be fucked…yeah," The bird commented. I supposed it was the closest to a compliment I would ever get but it had no effect on me.
"I'm going to watch the execution. It'll be kind of funny watching it all play out," The bird chuckled again.
"…Haruko-san…do anything…all the time…the execution," The Kyuubi's loud voice reached us in the cell.
I let the darkness swallow me up whole, waiting for the moment I would be let out. Tomorrow was coming much faster than I had anticipated and it would bring with it a grand finale to end a final tale.
Next (last) chapter preview: Breaking Ties
"If it makes you feel any better, close your eyes when it happens. Then you won't see him go down."
I guess she really couldn't bring herself to come in the end.
I can't lose you, I can't, I can't, I can't, because I-
"Hurry the fuck up!"
A/N:
Holy shnaikies! Selandora's finally finished Defining Evil and it's time to celebrate with the second last chapter. I know it's ironic that I'm celebrating Itachi's execution but YAHA! It's done! Finished! Well, technically it's not finished because the sequel's going to come out...
I love Itachi. He's so much fun to write, even though fun and Itachi should never be in the same sentence. After the Defining series is done (series? Maybe...) I want to try my hand at saisaku or narusaku. Screw schoolwork, fanfiction is English GCSE prep :)
Selandora (the sickeningly emotional one you must fear who is now ecstatic over Defining Duty)