In the middle of the night, a victorious cry woke up a number of people in the hotel, some starting to grumble about the damned girl who had interrupted their night. Not one of them, though, dared to go knock on her door, knowing full well that she was sharing her suite with an adult, terrifying shinobi. They liked their head on their neck, thank you very much.
In the suite's living room, Hitomi had jumped on her feet and was hopping up and down with excitement. Deep in her euphoria, she leaped in her mentor's arms. He held her close, laughing with her. He had seen her throw herself in this project, put her whole soul into it, and was just delighted for her to see that she had succeeded in time.
The due date had grown so close he had allowed her to have a sleepless night: in a few hours, at dawn, they would say their goodbyes and hit the road again, leaving Sunagakure behind them. Then, Ensui would have quite some time left for Hitomi's training before she had to be back in Konoha for the Academy. When his protegee would get in a Genin team and go out again without him, she'd know what to do.
Ensui had to admit it: for her age, Hitomi's prowess was incredible, the kind even Hokage the Fourth hadn't been capable of. To be fair, Namikaze Minato hadn't been taught from as young as she was, but still. Ensui knew full well that he couldn't have created that seal, even if he had had the idea in the first place. One day, one day so close he could feel it breathing down his neck, she'd surpass him in this field. She'd need someone who knew far more that he did about fūinjutsu. As if Seal Masters were easy to find. Only two of them were still alive in the whole world, and both had left Konoha a long time ago.
Gaara, still very punctual for a four years old child, was at their door ten minutes before dawn. Hitomi hadn't been able to make him grow out of the fear she wouldn't be his friend anymore or wouldn't want to see him if he was even a minute late and, since being on time was a good habit anyway, she had stopped trying.
The suite had been emptied of everything that had made it lively during the past month, clothes, weapons and unholy piles of notebooks back in a storage seal she kept in her backpack, far lighter than it had been when she had left Konoha. There were only two left, waiting on the coffee table – but those were really, really special.
The two kids couldn't really hide their sadness as they ate the breakfast Gaara had brought. Ensui was too respectful of his apprentice to act like he hadn't noticed, but they couldn't be late: the caravan they had come with wouldn't wait for them as it left Sunagakure. He motioned for her to proceed as she had planned when the time of departure approached.
She stood up then, her eyes shining with restrained tears. She kept her emotions at bay, her back straight, like the future kunoichi he could see in her, in her silhouette, in her eyes, in the way she carried her wooden tantō, in her aerial gait. Her movements almost reverent, she took the two notebooks waiting on the coffee table and went back to Gaara, who had followed her with his eyes filled with such melancholy Ensui's heart ached.
"I-I'd like to give you a gift before leaving. I know you'll be alone again and I'll miss you an awful lot, s-so I thought… Here, it's for you." She gave him one of the notebooks, the one with a turquoise spine. She had written his name on the cover in golden kanjis, her calligraphy as perfect and harmonious as ever.
The boy took her offering but stared at it with confusion, biting his lower lip. "You… You got me a notebook?"
She blushed and showed him the one she had kept for herself, red and black, with her name written in silver on the cover. "You see, the project I was working on… well, that's it. Wait, I'm going to show you how it works." She opened her notebook, grabbed a pencil and wrote a few words on the first page. When she was done, she infused chakra in the paper; immediately, Gaara's notebook turned cold, making him suck in a breath. Hitomi had quickly discovered that, with a flammable medium, the opposite reaction was asking for a disaster. "Open it," she smiled.
The boy obeyed, as he always did when her friend spoke. He raised an eyebrow when he saw that a message had appeared on the first page. He wanted to understand but didn't dare to, fearing the bitter sting of disappointment if he had gotten it wrong.
"See," Hitomi chirped, "we can stay in touch that w–"
She didn't get to finish her sentence: he had pounced on her like a cute kitty cat and was hugging her as strong as he could without hurting her. And how much stronger he had become, even in a short month! Hitomi hadn't been the only one to work during Ensui's training sessions. With a delighted little laugh, she hugged him back with her free hand, petting his hair.
"I love you, Hitomi-nee!"
Those words really surprised her. Her eyes widening in surprise, she looked at Ensui in hope he'd have the answer to her silent question. When he gave her an encouraging smile and a nod, she relaxed. "I love you too, Gaara. Don't you ever forget that."
She spent the next fifteen minutes explaining everything he needed to know about her invention to Gaara. He could write as much as he wanted before infusing chakra in the paper: the complete message would appear on her notebook. She didn't tell him, but she had discovered she could link as many notebooks as she wanted to hers, and she planned to use this as a way to create a little net of communication. The notebook grew cold when it got a new message, which stayed until an hour after the notebook had been opened without disappearing from the page. It was more than enough time to copy the message before answering if Gaara wanted to – Hitomi herself would never need that.
The two children agreed to write to each other at least once a day, and to warn the other when it wouldn't be possible. They agreed on the fact they could send more messages in case of emergency, and that it might be impossible for the other to answer right away. After all, Hitomi would soon enter the Academy, and Gaara would follow his own teaching program, even if he wasn't sure yet he wanted to go to Suna's shinobi school. Teachers wouldn't know how to manage him, and all his classmates would be afraid of him. When she would be gone, there wouldn't be anyone left for him. She needed to change that.
The goodbyes were bitter, but sweetened by this new possibility, this line of communication. Gaara was still learning to write, but his kanas were good enough for them to communicate. He'd even have a good motivation to learn his kanjis now that he had someone to use them with. Hitomi had never wondered about ninja children and their precocity. It seemed normal to her, now that she was immersed in it. Most clan kids could read and write without problems around the age of six. Gaara was already really good for his age, and she – no, she was a special case.
Some members of the caravan remembered them and greeted them kindly, memories coming to mind of their willingness to help with chores even though they had paid for their spot in their group, of their tendency to stay apart during mealtime, of their training when they stopped because of the heat. This time, it was another team escorting them, three Chūnin. Hitomi was delighted to realise she had been able to keep her perceptions encaged for more than two weeks now. She didn't need to back down, didn't need to stay aside. She was free.
Once again, the days became monotonous. They walked slowly on a sea of sand, the sun glaring at them before allowing a cold, cold night to replace its suffocating heat. Fortunately, this time, Hitomi had more things to do to keep busy, and she didn't have to cope with her feelings coming back like a rubber band breaking. She took a week just to make another notebook for Shikamaru. She missed her cousin dearly and working on this gift for him helped her tone down this yearning.
She had also started drawing her own storage seals. They were so expensive in Konoha, after all. Every ninja who could make their own did, even if it took them hours for the simplest seal. She also knew how to make basic explosive seals but preferred chemical explosions when she had the choice. She was working on the possibility of combining the two types of seals to make one that would create a chemical explosion after storing its components. Her smile as she thought about it made the Chūnin who was looking at her step back with a chill.
During that trip, she also learned survival tactics that would help her if she was ever alone in a desert. One night, Ensui led her far away from the camp, ordered her to wait for two hours then to get back to the fire through her own means. It was harder than she had thought, and she didn't doubt for a moment that her mentor was following her, his chakra so muffled she couldn't feel it at all, but she managed after some time spent looking at the night sky. He made her do it every night until he was sure she'd never be lost in such an environment.
The lessons continued, of course. One of the Chūnin was fourteen years old, and quite frail for his age: he soon agreed to be her sparring partner. To make their strength difference less painfully obvious, he was only allowed to use taijutsu, while Hitomi could use her wooden tantō. Still, she couldn't even touch him with it, no matter how hard she tried. At least she was good at dodging his attacks. She knew Ensui was incredibly proud of her, and it was all that mattered to her.
One night, bored and not at all drawn to her usual projects, she took an empty notebook from one of her storage seals, sat near the fire and went into her Library. She found what she wanted and started writing the first words of a book she had loved in the Previous World, when she was still a sickly child. It was hard, since she had to translate and adapt it to her new situation, but she really wanted to get all the stories she had loved into this world.
Every night, she waited impatiently for her communication notebook to get cold. She loved it when Gaara told her about his day. He finally had an instructor that didn't fear him too much and taught him things. Alas, Hitomi feared it wouldn't last, so she tried to push him to go see his siblings, with no success for the moment. He told her, his writing still a bit clumsy, about what he had learned during the day, and she answered with tales of the Desert and life in a caravan. In the end, what they had to say didn't matter as much as the fact they were there for each other.
Finally, the Sunajin Desert ended and green replaced yellow in the horizon. The caravan wasn't as heavily loaded as it had been the first time, which had made it that much quicker. Hitomi admitted this trip wasn't as boring as the first, but she couldn't wait for a change of scenery. When Ensui decided it was time to continue alone, she said her goodbyes to the men and women she had come to like, eager still to go back to being alone with her mentor. The fact that he was less grumpy now that they had good grass under their feet was just a bonus.