Prelude
/ ˈprɛljuːd / · noun
serve as a prelude or introduction to.
"How much are you willing to sacrifice to make this reality?"
"Everything."
…
People – ninja, civilians, monarchs and the religious – were ruled by limits. Whether it was moral, physical, spiritual or financial, there were lines one wouldn't cross, or didn't have the means to cross.
But they had to break those glass limits to be strong. Some did it by attempting to transcend to immortality. Others by debauchery, their cunning or chakra. And if all of them sought to overcome, if they desperately wanted to reach the peaks of what they aspired to be—
"Why won't you join me in my plans?"
Kara almost laughed at how odd it was to suddenly think of the words of her enemy – a madman who, despite being so keen on rushing the world to its end, seemed to love wasting time delivering monologues and lectures – as she was on her all fours and breathing heavily through her mouth and nose. Her lungs greedily absorbed the air she was taking in, trying to make up for the oxygen debt she had incurred.
The time-traveller should have let that Uchiha bastard distract himself so that she could make her clones his impassioned audience. It would have bought them more time.
But honestly, 'ttebane, Kara groused as she centred herself back into reality, this is not a fucking test.
A test did not last five days long. A test did not require such strenuous training. A test should not be reminiscent of the spartan training boot camp the ANBU put her through to officialise her induction into the shadow corps, inspired by the thought that "you may have chosen us, but now it is our turn to choose you."
She could see that much of it was a ploy to weed out the weaker minds and to hammer the ideals of coordinated stealth they held themselves to. The camp sought to break them. Mind body and soul, morphing them from corporal beings to ghosts where they silenced themselves and faded into the peripheries unseen. Their hauntings were a practiced scare; bringing terror in controlled shocks, almost illusionary as they struck and left. It was an art form to succeed as an ANBU, and the camp answered to the requisites with intensity. The current camp lacked in that aspect, but it was probably inspired by it.
Blank must have said her observations out loud because her fellow operatives echoed their agreement.
"Again, I would like to remind you that there is one person who doesn't really understand what is going on here," commented Tatami, thumping on his own mud-stained and singed grey uniform. It hadn't taken the interrogator a long time to figure out the nature of their real professions when one too many unfamiliar hand signs flashed over his head, and he might have gotten a peek at Raidō's tattoo due to the tear on his left sleeve.
"Be grateful you don't." Genma groaned through dry lips, collapsing against one of the trees behind her. Having lost his bandana somewhere between running from a giant centipede and having fellow ANBU bombarding them with a diverse number of jutsu and projectiles, his brown hair caught onto a wood chip, causing him to wince as he slid down the bark.
"Are you sure you want to rest like that, Kara?"
"If they want to complain about my posture tell them that I'm observing the ground for their chakra signatures," Kara snarked at Raidō who was lying next to her. "How's the sky?"
"Clear of enemies," replied Raidō dryly.
"See, we have each other's backs."
"You're both idiots," deadpanned Kakashi, plopping down on her right.
"Remind me to insult you when I have the energy to, teme."
"I'll dutifully remember not to."
"Ass."
"Amazing, she remembered."
Instead of deigning him another response, Kara sighed woefully at her situation. I should have slept before the test. Should 'ave turned down the damn offer to join. Her vision blurred, and she blinked groggily to clear it. I think I just want ramen, 'ttebane.
"M' tired."
The others, sans the Hatake who was still too much of a stiffy to talk about his own shortcomings, verbalised their agreements with a series of croaks.
"Want ramen."
"You ate a cup just yesterday," Raidō reminded unhelpfully, earning a disgruntled glare.
"Yeah, but it got knocked away by a jutsu because someone wasn't watching the trees properly." On cue, Tatami looked away guiltily. "My last ramen," she sighed sadly for the noodles and three minutes she lost.
"You're speaking like it's your lover you lost, Kara. It's honestly getting a little creepy."
"Are you trying to pick a fight, Raidō? Cus' I will send you flying into the river like my ramen if you want one."
"A fight in the river?" He raised his eyebrow suggestively. "I don't mind getting wet."
"That's gross," Kara wrinkled her nose. "Like expired ration bars." She paused. "Why 'aven't the Akimichi made ration bars taste less like cardboard?"
("Is she usually this odd or is it exclusive to when she's tired?" asked a bewildered Genma.
"Yes.")
Tatami was the only one who took her question seriously. Fixing his bent glasses up his nose, he replied, "I heard one of them is in the works, and apparently what we have now is the improved version."
"S'not easy to make a bunch of stuff shoved together taste good," she nodded self-importantly, "Unless it is ramen of course."
Kakashi's head suddenly jerked up. "People are coming."
"Ramen-sama?"
"No," he said incredulously, resisting the urge to slap his forehead at her insomnia-induced stupidity. She was one of the best chakra sensors he knew, by the Shodai. She shouldn't be reduced to this.
Grumbling, she stood up, using him as support while Genma utilised the tree as a backing to rise. Despite their lethargy, they got into the standard pentagon formation within seconds, notably with the sole kunoichi standing closer to the middle, hand primed on her Fūinjutsu-inscribed arm sleeve.
"I thought this was over," Raidō bemoaned lowly.
"It is over," Minato informed them warmly, being the first to arrive in his entourage. "Congratulations on passing- though that was never in doubt."
"Hokage-sama," sounded the Hokage Guard Platoon, with a drowsy chirp of "Ramen-sama!" added to its midst. Subtlety, the Sigma Squad who encircled current Hokage glared at her.
Kara nudged her silver-haired partner. "Told you Ramen-sama was coming."
"Kara, shut up."
Ignoring his students' antics, the Yondaime nodded to the Sigma Squad, who took it as their command to leap up into the trees to set up a perimeter.
"At ease," he then addressed the first generation of his burgeoning security detail. "I'm not here to test you, but merely here to deliver exposition of what is to come, and what you should expect as a part of my guard."
He gestured for them to come closer and take a seat. No point in making them stand, and the Namikaze was honestly still uncomfortable with the natural authority which the hat accrued to him. He probably won't ever get used to it – not when those closest to him promised to keep him on his toes (his wife mostly) – but he was certain he would get better at not showing it.
"You must be wondering why out of all the candidates, I have chosen only five of you, and five of you specifically."
Slowly, he met their eyes, one by one, to ensure he had their attention. Satisfied, he continued his speech: "I do not intend for my security detail to be… orthodox," he admitted. "When you review the configuration I have created, there is no doubt that you will realise quickly that some of you are better utilised in your own niche routes which I have extracted you from. In others, you are perhaps incredulous that someone more qualified didn't take your place. You are neither right nor wrong in your assumptions.
"My reasons are simple," he declared, raising his fingers as he started listing. "One, I want a security detail who I can trust, two, you are my Shinobi and students as much as you are my guards and I intend to train you. Thus, I sought for younger candidates. And fourthly... In each of you, at some point in your career, you have expressed an interest in Fūinjutsu, and it is an interest which I intend to cultivate and later spread."
With his confession, the pieces in Kara's mind clicked. Now that she reflected upon it, the old Hokage Guard Platoon had been relatively proficient in the basics. Her old Genin-sensei was one of the better users in his generation; a proficient Jack of all trades but a master of none. Raidō didn't expand upon his interests as far as his peers did, but Genma made explosive seals an art which would have made Deidara cry.
His explosive senbon were genius.
"Therefore, in addition to your duties, I will be taking the opportunity to hone you in the basics of Fūinjutsu. It is not an easy discipline to master by any means," he said dryly, thinking back about the struggles he faced, "but it can be extremely rewarding if you are willing to venture into it. In exchange for your investment, I will willingly teach you what I know, with some help from my wife and Kara-chan."
Said kunoichi blinked. "What?"
"Yes, you," said Minato with fond exasperation. "You didn't acquire official qualifications to practice and create Fūinjutsu without reason."
"So you had an ulterior motive in giving me the position?"
In her muddled mind, the sentence did not sound as accusing as it did.
"You deserved the position, Kara-chan, and you would have gotten it earlier if you didn't stall the testing. And personally, I prefer to not leave your talents lying around unused, lest you decided to channel your creative energy to more destructive and insanity-inducing endeavours."
The girl sulked at his hinting. She knew he wouldn't have let her off easily after the small stunt she pulled on the Hokage Monument, and she was just carrying out orders from her sister figure.
"I expected that," Raidō muttered. "No offence, Kara, but you were saturated in the smell of ink and some blood when I first met you. It was a no-brainer that you dabbled in Fūinjutsu."
Using the word "dabbling" would be doing her skill an injustice though, Genma thought critically upon reviewing the chain of events that occurred during the test.
The girl hadn't made a show of her Fūinjutsu prowess; she wasn't Uzumaki Kushina who fought in with an oppressive flurry of chains and layered barriers for both offensive and defensive use (or so the stories go) or Namikaze Minato who wielded his Hiraishin with such cutting speed that forced Iwa's hand at surrender.
But Kara was successful in her own timely applications, no matter how shaky she was. In the Shiranui's moment of crisis, she had swooped in with a speed befitting of the Yellow Flash's student and erected a hasty barrier to fend off the barrage of attacks, buying him precious seconds to reposition and counter unscathed. With her ingenious timing (and a penchant for pranking), she had similarly slowed down the Sigma's Squad chase and gave them breathing space. As to how she did it, she remained silent, although the mischievous glint in her eye and the paint splattered uniforms of their mentors was telling enough of her tactics.
"And ultimately," Minato concluded as he unfurled a large scroll in front of them, "I want you to be able to use this."
Hello history, Kara sobered up upon seeing the seal, lips unconsciously tilting upward as she traced over the calligraphy: the purposeful cacography of his own sealing language, the thick and thinning brushstrokes; forming words which birthed pocket dimensions to marked coordinates and was circularly protected and linked to security layers.
"This is…?" asked Tatami.
"Hiraishin," she murmured, vermillion eyes softening with tenderness as she recalled all the good memories associated with it.
The attempts to understand the Formation Hiraishin to revive the original seal work was what kick started her official studies in Fūinjutsu with the Hokage Guard Platoon as her teachers. Having seen what the undead Yondaime Hokage could do with his own created technique had opened their eyes, and they decided that Shushin variant was too powerful to not utilise.
The time-traveller remembered the countless hours they spent bickering about Fūinjutsu theory and the necessity of certain layers of the seal work into the night, or the times where unravelling the security layers had nearly lost them a limb. Her father had been a protective bastard over his magnum opus, and even if he had given them information, it was not on a silver platter; dissecting his work had taken more time than comprehension of it.
At the end of their experimentation, they had all agreed they would never recover the Hiraishin in full – theirs was too chakra-expensive for successive casts and the landings were not as precise. Only Naruto, with her ocean-deep reserves and a tailed beast to make up for the margin of error, could use it on a whim. But the imperfections didn't matter as much as the fact that the redux version was in her hands. With their collective hard work, she became the second coming of the Yellow Flash (though some called her gold in secret) and allowed her to regain her inheritance as his daughter.
"Not exactly," Minato chuckled, mistaking her adoration for mere curiosity. "I call it the Formation Hiraishin: a variant of my original work that allows for group teleportation, with the Hokage as the determined coordinate."
Kakashi's eyebrows furrowed, partly concerned and confused. "Aren't you afraid that we might steal your work, Hokage-sama?"
The Kiiroi Senko smiled wryly. "If you can manage to re-adapt it back for individual use, consider the technique yours." His lips became sharp like a kunai's point, almost daring them. "That is, if you can, of course."
After saying that, his fingers lingered on the edge of the paper. "I did think about patenting my Hiraishin prior to this—" he gestured at the scroll carelessly before shrugging— "but then I decided some things are better to be passed on than lost. In teaching you how to utilise this piece, all of you have officially become candidates to inherit the Hiraishin. If you can decipher it, it really is yours to have, and I will take it as my cue to bow out and retire."
"Although I do hope you take some creative liberties to officially make it your own," he added as an afterthought, internally grimacing about the idea of outright plagiarism.
"What do you mean by 'individual use', Hokage-sama?" Genma inquired, homing in on his choice of words.
"Good question," Minato praised. "My Hiraishin, as you know it, only requires me to activate my tri-pronged kunai to teleport to another marked location. Formation Hiraishin, however, in order to account for the higher demands of chakra needed to teleport a group and perhaps to greater distances, requires three people to activate the seal to execute the teleport."
"To simplify terms… think of it like your chakra pathways and tenketsu points. Your chakra pathways already exist like the lines I have already drafted, but it is the trigger - your tenketsu points - that allow chakra to spread and connect. And in this scenario, you need to go through three tenketsu points to get chakra from your main source to say, your toes."
The three who were new to the discipline nodded in understanding.
"But we'll delve into the parts and parcel of Fūinjutsu and how to construct a seal later. We'll be here for hours if I started now. Your first order of business will be learning to activate the seal correctly, so focus on that first. Since we're on the topic, let me ask: Raidō-kun, what's the benefit of Fūinjutsu?"
He pondered the question in his mind for a few beats. Frowning, he replied with uncertainty, "You don't have to necessarily know the specifics to use it, I guess?"
The Fūinjutsu master hummed in satisfaction. "Right on the mark. Explosive and storage seals are the most frequently used types in Konoha, and I'm sure T&I uses their fair share of paralysis seals and chakra repressors. The discipline is infinitely versatile and capable of adapting to suit different needs if you have the know-how."
Tapping three almost identical-looking points on his scroll, he told them: "In terms of activation, the Formation Hiraishin is not dissimilar to those you have been exposed to. Fundamentally, it requires the simultaneous infusion of chakra from the three participants at their given points. The difficulty comes about when ensuring that everyone contributes equal portions of chakra at the same rate so that the seal isn't overloaded."
"And for full disclosure…" He said at length, sheepish, "I don't know the exact chakra cost needed to power the seal. It can differ due to the distance you need to travel and I'm still in the process of hashing out the safety precautions, how to further decrease the overall expenditure, and make the collaboration easier, not to mention the possible conflicting affinities-"
"Minato-sensei, you're rambling," Kakashi cut in politely, keenly aware of the incoming rant. If his time with three, sometimes four, Fūinjutsu obsessed Shinobi had taught him anything, it was to derail them before they could start.
Catching himself, the embarrassed Hokage scratched his head. "Thanks, Kakashi-kun."
From the looks of it, only his youngest student was keeping up, while the rest looked like they were getting overwhelmed with the variables involved with his favourite discipline.
He cleared his throat. "Therefore, the only solution you have is to practice until you get it right. I am certain with the talents I have here, it is only a matter of time before you find the correct distribution. But do try to do it with supervision… It would be best if there was someone who can judge if a seal is going to explode before it actually does."
Kara coughed, trying to mask her laughter against the alarm on their faces. "Don't worry, it takes a lot of chakra for that to happen, 'ttebane," she tried to say as sincerely as possible.
She should know. Where most people tried to economise the chakra intake of their works, she disregarded it. Why should she care with ever-expanding reserves? If normal people were sink faucets linked to a barrel, the jinchūriki was her own factory; her output was that of an industrial hose fully powered and reducing her output was a lot harder than what was expected.
(Even after nearly three decades, her chakra control was still terrible. On second thought, she probably shouldn't participate in the Formation Hiraishin unless it was in a supervisory capacity; she would plummet the rates of success drastically with her potent chakra.)
Alas, no one bought her assurances due to the toothy smirk she was sporting.
"That's still not a definitive no," Raidō deadpanned.
"Yeah, but none of you are dumb enough to overload the seal now that you know about the possible consequences. In fact, you'll probably underpower the seal."
"Now you're just trying to screw with us," muttered Genma under his breath. Unrepentant, the kunoichi continued to smirk.
"If anything," Minato interrupted them nicely, "the condition of the seal work isn't your main concern. If you accidentally overload it, I'll draw a few more for the sake of practice. When it's all said and done… I'll give you access to the final product.
"But for now…" He looked up at the darkening skies – although it was hard to tell if it was the time of the day or just the thick canopy— "you are dismissed. Training will take place again two days later. Go home and rest."
"And when I said rest," he looked meaningfully at all of them, especially his two errant and overworking students, "I really meant it."
…
Which was why the Yondaime Hokage found himself back on Training Ground 44 again a week later, watching over the youths who were arguing about how they could improve their synchronization. Thus far, Raidō, Genma and Tatami were the ones with closer affinities – both elemental and reserve wise – while his two students were far off. The Hatake, with his signature white and thicker chakra mutation, would have a bit more to go before he could get to the rate established by the trio, and his youngest, well—
She hung upside down on the lowest branch next to him as she had been relegated to working on her abysmal chakra control. Tree walking had been a choice of poison, but as to why she decided that hanging upside down would make the brunt of gravity heavier for her, he had no clue.
Is she using chakra to stick her hair to her shoulder as well? His cerulean eyes narrowed suspiciously at the ponytail that was lying limp on her shoulder.
But she has taken her position with good grace, the Namikaze inspected. Her chakra control was never the best, and in war time, she had compensated by using the chakra-intensive techniques he had passed onto her. But the problem was temporarily routed, still unsolved, and since she entered ANBU right after and he had post-war arrangements to deal with… he had forgotten about it.
However, between the both of them, Kara had quietly confided that she might never be able to use the Formation Hiraishin no matter how much effort she put into restricting her chakra flow. It was hard for her to channel her chakra in minute amounts – not from the lack of trying – and her sad blob of a Bushin attested to it. For once, her blessedly large reserves had worked against her.
Where her colleagues could slowly infuse chakra to light up a series of interlocking relays of heat-produced light, hers was a firework; quick and overpowering, so much so she melted the seal into a sorry mess, where there was no distinction between paper and words. She threw the paper away right after, seconds before the trapped energy sought for release and imploded.
Rather than being disgruntled at the results, she had shrugged it off as if she has had years to acclimate to her poor control. "It is what it is," she had told them, vermillion eyes vacant of expectations.
(Disturbing, the Kiiroi Senko thought, wondering how the dualities of acceptance and the anxiety to be more could coexist. He knew how tirelessly the girl trained. She had forgoed meals and sleep numerous times for it. What made her convictions towards her chakra so different?)
But it wasn't as if the Fūinjutsu mistress would never get to use the Hiraishin. It was only fitting he asked: "You understand how the Hiraishin works, don't you?"
Surprised by his question, the kunoichi almost slammed into the tree bark from a slip up. "W-What?" She spluttered, silently cursing a toad-loving pervert who probably sold her out.
"You understand how the Hiraishin works, right?" He repeated for her benefit.
She looked away. "Yeah," mumbled Kara, tugging at her tail ends. "Are you angry?"
"For what? Having an extremely talented student?"
"That I might take what's yours which is not mine to have?"
Against her insistence at theft, he rolled her eyes. "Get down, Kara-chan."
Once she dropped down next to him, he ruffled her hair roughly. "I'm not angry," said Minato, earnest, eyes crinkling. She was getting taller again. "Of all my students, past or future, I expected that you would be the first to crack the code. I'm quite proud – you needed only a few glances. And what I said a week ago, I meant it. If you want to use it, you can.
"What I am put off by, however, is that you have yet to show me your adapted version."
His student floundered, heat rising to her cheeks and to the tips of her ears. She scratched her cheek.
"Um… sorry, 'ttebane? I'm still working on it and umm… I wanted to iron the kinks out before I showed it to you." She lowered her head bashfully. "I wanted you to be proud of my variant, 'ttebane."
"Does Kushina know?"
"No. Kushina-nee wouldn't have kept it a secret from you. She'd probably out me in less than a day."
Laughing, he nodded, "She would have. You can bring it over for a trial run when you're ready."
"Hai."
…
While training up his security detail was legitimate, it was also a convenient excuse for the Yondaime Hokage to set up the site for his child's birth.
They were happening in the same place after all.
By a complete stroke of luck, the time-traveller managed to be part of the small circle who knew about the details of when and what was going to happen. Being one of the few in the village officialised as a Fūinjutsu user, she was indisputably involved in the proof-reading of the barriers and the reinforcement of the Shishō Fūin.
The couple may have decided against hiding the pregnancy since it was neigh impossible with the duties Kushina had to attend to as the First Lady, but it didn't mean her jinchūriki status, as well as its possible dangers would be revealed to the public.
(If they knew, they would be against a child coming out of their union like the council was, but a family was ultimately the couple's business and no one else's.)
To the populace of Konoha, Uzumaki Naruto was supposed to be born later than what was stipulated, in Konoha's Hospital with minimal complications rather than a cot on a cave's floor, fighting for both her life and her child's, against a tailed beast who was doing everything in his power to escape.
Despite being involved in the process of securing her mother's and future self's life, Kara was still torn with guilt because she had yet to figure out a countermeasure against the Uchiha's Kamui. All she could do was suggest improvements to the sensory layers. During Fourth War, her only tactic was to react to his teleportation based purely on reflex alongside an arsenal of large-scale and long-lasting abilities to get a successful hit on him. Later when she had the Hiraishin, it became a battle of who could teleport first to get the upper hand.
Constructively, she couldn't come up with a counteragent due to the similar natures the two techniques shared. If she anchored space to keep him grounded in the present dimension (she had never figured out how), she would hypothetically render both the Hiraishin and Kamui useless. But that would be denying the utility of the variant Shushin, which would defeat the whole purpose of resurrecting it in the first place.
And she couldn't just tell the Yondaime Hokage who the assailant was—
She clamped down on the thought, a throbbing sensation flaring in her temple again.
"Couldn't we try and get Ero-sennin back to Konoha before October 10?" Kara voiced her frustration to the man she regarded as her grandfather, bloodied crimson eyes pleading for a failsafe. She carded her fingers through her hair. "By the Shodai, I'm willing to even suggest Orochimaru if it means that there's extra security."
Sighing tiredly, Hiruzen shook his head. The knowledge of the events was taking a toll on his psyche as well. "Jiraiya was adamant to be near the borders of Tsuchi and Kaminari no Kuni to confuse the rumours going in and out regarding Kushina's pregnancy to stall any assassination attempts. Your mother—" the kunoichi flinched at the relation as if it burnt her— "is not overtly fond of Orochimaru. And by extension, neither is your father."
Deep within her, Kurama snorted. Being creatures attuned to the emotions of others, it would be harder to ignore the increasing depravity the snake summoner oozed. His cruelty and dabbling into human experimentation tainted him, sheeting him with dark matter; as deep as his curiosity; immortal in immorality; ensnarling him in his own sins, except he smiles, accepting it like an old lover's embrace, except it was strangle-hold instead.
"We can't find baa-chan under such a short notice and manage to persuade her to come back either," said Kara in defeat. She slumped over his table. "Took a week to convince her last time, with reason."
"We will have to make do with what we have," he consoled, patting her arm lightly.
"But, Jiji, what about your wife?" She asked so softly he barely heard her. "I cannot guarantee she will get out unharmed. I cannot, in good conscience promise you something I cannot keep." Her voice thickened with emotions. "You know I don't do such things, 'ttebane."
Much of the arrangements were already decided on: Biwako would be leading a team of medics to assist in the birth, the Sigma Squad and a select number of ANBU operatives would be guarding and Minato was responsible for holding the Kyuubi down. To ask the previous First Lady of Konoha to not participate for her own safety would be a grave insult to her abilities.
"Then, why don't you tell Minato?"
"No!" She snapped, hand slamming against his table with such force it started cracking. Surprised by her own outburst, she held her hands together to stop it from shaking, to stop the bursts of unrestrained chakra running amok throughout her body. The time-traveller was on tenterhooks; almost mad with the possibilities – from prophecy to probability – and she couldn't stop thinking about what could go wrong, how it could wrong, all this is just fucking wrong—
Miserably, she said, "No, I can't. Not yet." Maybe not ever. "It'd break him to know who is behind the mask, Jiji. And why would he believe a mad woman's fable— a tale that I have neglected to tell him about for nearly four years?"
"I believed you despite not knowing you for a day."
"But I wasn't breaking your trust."
"If you are aware of that fact, why are you doing it now?"
"Because honesty isn't always the right option, Jiji!" The time-traveller raised her volume unwillingly. "Sometimes I wish it was but it isn't. It's not that simple, 'ttebane. I thought about it so much, and I thought about it hundreds and thousands of times only to come to the realisation that the truth isn't going to save anyone. Truth did not stop his goddamn plans from happening back then, it is not going to stop him now. Truth isn't going to make the variables go away because this truth I bear in me now—" she clutched the fabric closest to her heart— "can become a lie if enough people know about it. And that lie can cost us more."
"I'm so tired, 'ttebane," she murmured brokenly, almost hysterical, with tears underlining her eyes. "So tired."
Kara continued to ramble. "And this must happen, 'ttebane. Sensei needs to know there is a threat he needs to prepare himself for. Once he does… a lot of things can and will change, Jiji. And that is when I start hoping things will get better." She shuddered. "And I don't want to break that faith, 'ttebane."
After hearing his charge's case, he pondered about it for a few minutes while the girl recollected her composure.
Sarutobi Hiruzen knew, from the moment she stepped into his office, he would not be winning any arguments against her. He had only seen a fraction of what she had experienced, and what drove her to such desperation was not of a magnitude he could fully fathom.
Did he blame the girl for her actions? No. He probably would have done what she was doing, except he would remain unmatched to her strong will.
She broke and was still breaking but what mattered was that she was sitting here, in front of him, hoping. She was weathered down and trodden on by the elements, but in her chest was a heart that beat strongly for a better world. She was optimistic and pessimistic in the same turn, torn between wanting to change the events proceedings whilst understanding that the full potential costs of her actions should she overstep.
He sighed, taking another long drag of his pipe. "Do what you must, Kara-chan. What I said four years ago was not a fib; I will unconditionally grant you my support, should you need it. I did not fail you back then. I will not do it now."
"Even to the world's end?" She lifted her lips futilely.
"We will not get there, Kara-chan. Above all, I would like to believe in miracles. I fervently hope, for you and I, that you succeed."
Beta'd by wecantgiggleitsacrimescene
[24/8/2018] Annnnnd we are entering semi-canon territory. Took us 25 chapters, but we're here :D
Hope you enjoyed the chapter :)
Thank you for all the support you have shown to this story thus far *bows*