Evolve
"If all of this flies apart, he will never know why"
I guess I had to return to Santaun now.
The sun had started to sink in the sky a while ago, and I was still a thirty minute run from town. I knew I was going to be in trouble when I got back. They'd want to know why we were fighting. Except I couldn't really explain my side of things. Asuma was going to be furious with me, and who knew what Sakumo-sensei would say. I'd alienated a teammate, ran off without permission, and hadn't told anybody where I'd gone.
Yeah, I wasn't looking forward to this part.
With a labored sigh, I started back off towards the town. My return journey ended up taking longer than expected - probably because I wasn't running in an angry sprint anymore.
When I approached the gate, someone was waiting for me. I could feel a pit in my stomach forming the moment I saw their silhouette.
"Sensei told me you'd be coming back soon," Asuma greeted.
He was sitting on top of the rubble with his arms crossed and his cheeks puffed. His eyes were steeled with scrutiny. There was a rigid line in his shoulders that was tensed, unmoving.
"Well, um, thanks, I guess. For waiting," I muttered, kicking at the road.
There was a moment of silence between the two of us - the calm before the storm. I could see the questions, the accusations sitting there about to boil over. I swallowed. Then he let it out.
"What were you thinking, running away like that?" Asuma demanded, loudly. "Everyone's been worried, and Shisui won't even tell us what you were fighting about."
Shisui hadn't told anybody? Well, I suppose that was probably a good.
"I was mad, okay? I just needed to get away and clear my head. I didn't mean to be gone so long, but I lost track of time," I gave him my half-hearted explanation. Of course, that didn't make anything better. Not at all.
"Mad about what?" he demanded.
"Shisui and I got into a fight."
"Yeah, I know that. But what'd he do?"
I bit my lip. He was trying to exonerate me, I realized. If I gave him a reason, any reason, he'd side with me. I was a sister to him - he was trying to give me the benefit of the doubt, because he thought I deserved it. Because he trusted me.
His mistake, I thought bitterly.
"I was just mad, alright."
His face twisted, and he shot me a poisonous glare. "You never just get mad. You've been acting weird around him since we got our team assignments. No, you might've been avoiding him even before then," he said, sounding horribly frustrated.
Another pause.
"You're not going to tell me," he stated.
"There's not anything else to tell," I insisted.
I felt awkward.
For years I'd been hiding things, giving him pieces of myself without handing over my whole. That had always been my reality, but it was never his. Today he was getting a glimpse, for the first time, at the wall I'd been building around myself since the day I'd been born. Of course he was angry, incensed, and betrayed. For him, this wasn't about Shisui at all. It was about the fact that his sister, his best friend, had been keeping secrets, when he thought our relationship was beyond them.
Finally he shoved a finger towards my face. "Whatever your problem is with Shisui, get over it. He's our teammate now, and that's it."
Then he spun around and stalked back towards the town center. I closed my eyes, just for the briefest moment. Today really wasn't my day. I quickly chased after him.
When we got back to camp, things didn't seem so off kilter. At the end of the day, Shisui and I were two outsiders having a squabble. Our fight didn't effect the rest of the villagers at all. They were busy making dinner, organizing rebuilding efforts, and setting up sleeping bags for the night. A few people waved to us as we walked by, but nobody specifically seemed concerned.
Sensei was sitting on the ground by the central fire, beside Mayumi. His legs were criss-crossed, and his hands were resting on his knees. The moment I saw him, he caught my eye. Thankfully, I didn't see Shisui anywhere just yet - that was my one saving grace at the moment.
"She's back," Asuma announced unceremoniously, as he plopped down in the circle.
I shuffled awkwardly behind him, giving Mayumi a slight bow.
"I'm sorry Mayumi-san for my absence this evening," I said immediately. Putting team drama aside, she had been the one that I had technically wronged by running off. They'd hired us to rebuild the town with them, and I'd skipped an evening of work. It probably wasn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but I still had to apologize to. Konoha etiquette demanded that of me.
"We'll think nothing of it," the old lady smiled, her eyes twinkling. "Even shinobi must be children sometimes."
My stomach turned. That was a little condescending. But I guess, who was I to defend myself? Konoha had to save face, right? Better she blame me for being an eight year old than blame the whole village.
Sakumo-sensei barely had to say anything. He shot Mayumi a grateful smile, and rose to his feet.
"A walk, Natsuki-chan?"
I nodded, only sparing one glance towards Asuma - who was still very angry - before falling into step with him. He led me to the edge of the camp, to a point where everyone was still within view, but slightly out of hearing. There was a lot going on still. Nobody was really paying attention to us.
"I'm sorry for disappearing like that," I blurted out almost immediately.
He gave me a level look.
"I wouldn't say it was your finest moment," he commented. His voice was very calm, and... non-judgmental.
Um...
I didn't know exactly how to respond to that. He was waiting, with his gaze fixed lazily on me, expecting... something. I wasn't fooled by his casual posture. The past few weeks had shown me that Sensei could be more observant than Biwako, while being twice as subtle.
"It was stupid. We're too close to the border, and I shouldn't have just left. If I needed personal space, I should've told somebody, anybody," I started rambling, almost on reflex.
"You're right," Sensei agreed calmly.
I blinked. Where was the anger? The scolding? The lecture? It had to be coming, didn't it?
"I'm right?" I repeated, now very confused.
"Yes, you should have told somebody," he nodded. "You seem to be very guilty about it."
I opened my mouth and then closed it again, because, well yeah. I guess I was feeling pretty guilty.
"Would you like to tell me about the fight that you had with Shisui?"
I stared.
"Not really?"
I was testing him. Was he really going to drop it at that? He was our ranking officer - more than that, in fact. He was our Sensei, our mentor. He had every right to press for details, and he also had a lot of weight to hold over our heads. If he wanted to know more, he could make us drop the mission and return to Konoha. He could threaten to tell Hiruzen, either as my legal guardian or as the Hokage. If he was really feeling passionate, I suppose he could ground us, tell us we'd never be ninja again unless we gave us a full report of the argument. There were a million possibilities, but they only mattered if he went there.
Did this fight really not matter to him? Was the drama being blown out of proportion in my head? Looking at him, I was second-guessing myself. I felt... lost.
"I used to captain a full cohort during The Second Great Ninja War. Trust me, I've seen plenty of ninja bicker. I suppose we're all shinobi. Fighting is what we do, right?" Sakumo finally said at length. And yeah, I guess that made sense. Our little verbal argument couldn't have compared to the stuff that went on in a war camp.
"Then again," he went on. "S hisui seemed pretty upset earlier, and he's a genuine kid. Whatever is going on between the two of you, it's bothering him. It has been for a while now. Maybe it's not the... afternoon walk, let's call it, that's troubling you. A guilty conscious is a powerful thing. If it feels wrong, it probably is wrong," he finished softly.
I looked at my feet.
"I think I might go to bed, Sensei. If that's alright with you," I mumbled.
He nodded.
"I'll see you in the morning," he said. "And Natsuki-chan, congrats on completing your tree-walking exercises today. I'm sure your teammates would be quite proud of you."
I practically face-planted at the comment. It was so casual. So completely and utterly unassuming. The way he'd said teammates, plural, was maybe the icing on the cake.
When I walked back over to the sleeping area, I found Shisui already there. He was curled into a tight ball in his sleeping bag, completely lax. He looked unburdened.
Slipping into my own bed, right beside him, I rolled onto my side so I was facing the opposite direction. There was a lot of tossing and turning before I finally drifted to sleep. Then, of course, I didn't find any peace with my slumber. The nightmares had mostly abated a while ago, but every now and then they would come back with a vengeance. Tonight was pretty bad. One minute I was looking at Shisui as bloody tears fell from his empty eye sockets. The next, I was looking at Asuma, lying on his back, the side of his face looking scorched with a burn and his eyes glassy.
I dreamt of Sakumo-sensei too, which was particularly unusual for me. Kakashi was there, running into his house to find his father lying in a pool of red.
When I woke up startled, my shirt sticking to my back in a cold sweat, that last scene was the one I sought comfort in. Sakumo-sensei was here with us now. The time for that gruesome crime scene had passed already. Sensei had chosen to live, chosen to be with us.
Taking a deep breath, I laid back down in my sleeping bag and closed my eyes again, just focusing on my breathing.
When dawn came, I felt subdued. I had technically slept enough that I wasn't going to be exhausted, but the dreams had really gotten to me. I felt icky, like somehow in every version of the future, the bad things would be my fault.
Mechanically, I got up with everybody else and got ready for the day. The villagers gave us some rice for breakfast, and I ate beside Touma in silence. Our grumpy escort had appeared again that morning after going a few days without talking to us, and seemed to have begrudgingly decided that I needed the company of a friend.
Shisui more or less avoided me for most of the morning. We made eye-contact briefly while getting up, but hadn't actually spoken. It was awkward now. Neither of us had anything more to say to each other, but we couldn't exactly get away either. Just seeing him made my stomach twist.
Was this what the rest of my genin experience was going to be like?
Finally, Sakumo-sensei gathered us to dish out assignments for the day. Asuma had been with Mayumi for most of the morning. When he came over, he shot me an unfriendly look before sitting on my right.
This was not great.
"Alright, today's going to be a little different," Sakumo-sensei cleared his throat. "Mayumi told me the village needs more supplies, so we're going to help them travel to a stone quarry town a few miles from here. However, there's still a lot of work that can be done with the materials they still have. We're going to split up so we can continue working and help with the supply run. I think I like the divisions we had yesterday. Asuma, you'll come with me for the supply run, Shisui and Natsuki, you'll stay here together."
Ah.
I glanced side-ways at Shisui. He looked just as unhappy with this arrangement as I was. Unfortunately, neither of us could really challenge the decision. Very smooth, Sensei. He had just shackled us together with a get-along assignment.
He just smiled innocently at our grimaces.
"Good, we'll be back in no time. Make sure to report to Touma to get assigned to a construction site. Come on Asuma, you need to grab any gear you want for the trip," Sakumo-sensei said. Asuma nodded towards the two of us as he got to his feet. I think that was the closest we were going to get to a goodbye for the moment.
Shisui and I were left alone to go find Touma. He turned up by a supply wrack in camp, picking up a pile of empty buckets.
"Reporting for service, Touma-san," I greeted, awkwardly shifting beside Shisui.
Touma's eyes flickered up towards us, and made a deep grunting noise in his throat. "We're going to start on the wall," he said. Then he started limping away on his bad leg, towards the main road. Knowing that was all the direction we were going to receive, we fell into step quickly behind him.
The guy was a man a few words.
The walk to the outer edge of town was fairly short. In a way, it was nice to see all the progress we had been making. Several buildings in the heart of Santaun were completely finished, and most of the others were in some middle-stage of construction. The wall was one of the last things on Mayumi's to-do list.
That might've seemed a little counter intuitive, I guess. After all, it was the only form of security this border town had from outsiders. But really, if we're being honest, no wall would ever stop a ninja from coming in, should they want to.
Anyways, my point is that the wall was in the same rocky state of disarray that it had been in when we'd first arrived. Clearly, there was a lot of work to be done.
Shisui and I set to it with vigor. We both were determined to ignore each other as best we could, and the easiest way to do that was to throw ourselves into the day's construction. I found that we were actually very good at silent communication. See, construction required a fair amount of team-work. The rocks for the wall were heavy, and they took two people to lift. Still, neither of us wanted to ask the other for help, so instead we tag-teamed things without asking. We would heave the heavy rocks into their place at three times the pace of the civilians, if only because it meant we'd be able to separate that much sooner.
The morning passed with moderate progress and a fair amount of awkwardness, but overall it was uneventful.
Touma kept fairly close the entire time. They had him carrying a bucket of cement caulk to seal stones together. It wasn't a stressful job. His lame leg prevented him from doing too much of the hard labor. Still, he seemed to be having a difficult time. Shisui and I found ourselves pausing frequently so that he could catch up with us. When it came time to break for lunch, he dropped the bucket on the ground like it was on fire, and leaned up against a section of the half-rebuilt wall.
He looked dead tired.
"Can I give you a hand Touma-san?" I asked tentatively.
He looked up at me, and for a moment, it felt like maybe he needed help with a lot more than a bucket of cement. The look was gone the second I registered it.
"I'm fine," he shook his head, righting himself again. He looked away from me then, glancing towards the woods. I bit my lip, and took the bucket from him anyways.
"I think they're giving out sandwiches by the main road. Come on," I said.
Wordlessly, he followed me, and the three of us- Shisui was still following along in silence - made our way sullenly towards the break area. Now that I wasn't immediately preoccupied with working, however, the silence started to become oppressive. Shisui's presence lingered on my left like an itch that I couldn't scratch.
So I decided it'd be a great time to bother Touma.
"What did you do to your leg, Touma-san," I asked quietly. "Was it the earthquake?"
His entire body stiffened like a board, and he suddenly changed his gait, to better hide his limp. "Wasn't the earthquake," he said. Then he touched the bandage on his cheek. "This was."
Hm, it wasn't an answer. He'd certainly pricked my curiosity, but obviously didn't want to talk about it. I couldn't justify pressing him for more either. It was hardly mission-pertinent information. At least now I had a small distraction to wonder about, instead of focusing completely on Shisui.
When we made it to the gate, Shisui and I fell into the silent teamwork thing again. He pushed passed me, to lead Touma to a rock to sit on while I broke off to get sandwiches for three. There was a small line by the lunch basket, and I had time to steal a look backwards.
Shisui's face had been a mask of nothing all day. I guess I was looking for some sign of the cheerfulness that I knew belonged in his features. Even now though, while he was talking quietly to Touma, he seemed too serious.
I did that, I realized.
It didn't help that we seemed to be working decently together today, despite everything.
If Asuma and I had gotten into a fight, it would've been much more petty. He would've gone out of his way to make my life as miserable as possible. That's what he did to Hiruzen after all, whenever he was mad at his father. If Shisui treated me like that, I could just retaliate with the same. It would feel different, justified.
But no.
He wasn't the kind of person to get angry and take cheap shots. Everything about him was innocent and polite and kind. His mask was up to hide his disappointment in me. To hide the way that I had hurt him.
And in a way, I hated him for it. I hated that I felt so ugly when he acted like this.
"The sandwiches are tomato today," I announced when I returned to our awkward little circle.
Touma grunted, as I pointedly didn't look towards Shisui while handing him his lunch.
"They've been tomato all week," Shisui mumbled quietly to himself. He didn't sound particularly bitter about it, maybe just a little wistful.
He was just trying to fill the silence just as much as I was.
"Isn't much variety when an earthquake topples trees over half the nearby farms," Touma shrugged, glancing once again towards the woods. Hm, was that the third time he'd done that today?
Vaguely, I wondered if the town border just made him nervous. He'd been the first one to spot us when we first came to Santaun. That meant he must've been the one watching the closest.
"Maybe Sakumo-sensei and Asuma will come back with some food stuffs," I said, after another awkward pause.
Touma shrugged.
Yeah, if I ever decided to list the most awkward lunches I've had in my two lifetimes, this one would probably be up there. We continued to take turns pulling teeth for a minute. Shisui would say something. Then Touma would say something pessimistic. Then I would say something. Then Touma would grunt. And so on and so on.
Soon I resigned myself to the situation and gave up talking all together. It was easier, after all, to just shut them out for the time being. Shisui didn't want to talk to me, and Touma didn't want to talk to anyone. So why try?
That mindset though. That one, right there, where I shut the world out and tumbled inward. Where I stopped focusing on the way Touma glanced towards the forest, and the way Shisui started notice it.
That was almost my fatal mistake.
It happened quickly. So fast, I didn't even process it, until it was over. I was kicking my feet into the dirt, ignoring everything. Then Shisui was in my face, pushing me to the ground. There was a clang of metal, then a snide chuckle.
"Ah look, the kids did come out to play today," a deep voice rejoiced.
My heart spasmed in my chest, and my hand immediately went to my staff.
I spun it wide around my back, twisting just in time to see a pink blur jumping back. Three people were standing in the middle of the road just outside the town border- two men and a woman.
The one who Shisui had just engaged was in front, kneeling on the ground in a predatory crouch. His long pink hair was tied back in a tangled bun, and he was holding a long slim sword - a katana - with a decorative red handle.
That man had just been very very close to me, right in my blind spot. Shisui had just saved my life.
"Touma-san," Shisui said, voice level and calm. His kunai was still steady in his hand, and he was fixated on the enemy ninja. "I think maybe you should take everyone back to camp."
Most of the villagers didn't need to be asked twice. They dropped their tomato sandwiches in the dirt and bolted away towards the town center. But Touma was frozen. His hands were shaking while sweat beaded on his brow. He was fixated on the other ninja - on the pink-haired man specifically.
"Touma-san," our enemy repeated, mockingly. "Aren't you gonna run? Or did you want to stick around, see me kill a few more of your friends?"
My lips thinned out at that comment. Touma had run into this guy before? Hadn't he said that people usually didn't run into ninja around here and make it out alive?
Oh, and this guy was definitely a ninja. You could tell by his bright hair and the way he was taunting us. He was the kind of guy who looked for himself in Bingo Books, who wanted you to hear his name and feel fear.
Behind him, his friends both looked vaguely bored. The other man was a giant - at least seven feet tall and built like a boat. His fingers were flexing around a battered looking pair of brass knuckles. Meanwhile, the woman was slim with dark hair and a black boxy tatoo around one of her eyes. She had a subdued intelligent look to her that immediately made me nervous. More-so than the other two, I felt her watching Shisui and I carefully, probably perceiving too much.
None of them were wearing headbands anywhere I could see. That was important. Missing ninja had to be strong enough to escape and evade their home-villages. Even the weaker ones weren't exactly pushovers. The way I judged it, at best these three were chunin rank missing nin, and would slaughter us quickly. At worst, they were jonin-level, and would be cruel with this battle just because they could.
Shisui and I had been ninja for a month. We were dangerously outranked, and we both knew it.
"You know him?" Shisui asked Touma.
Touma still didn't answer. They still had him paralyzed with fear. But then again, I guess that answered his question well enough anyways.
"You were the one to hurt Touma-san's leg, weren't you?" I asked the pink haired man. We needed information. If our allies wouldn't give it to us, then I had to hope that our enemies would.
Mister evil ninja, could I bother you for a monologue please?
"Personally, I wanted to kill him," he smiled back at me. "Fura-chan here thought a gentle maiming was better. Looks like he didn't give this pathetic town any warning though. That's no fun."
A shiver ran down my spine, as the woman - Fura - rolled her eyes.
"They hired ninja," she said, as if that proved a point.
"Kids," the pink haired man retorted.
"All the better."
"Bah!"
"Stop fighting," the Big Man cut in suddenly, looking agitated. "Children from Konoha don't travel alone."
Sensei! He was talking about Sensei! But he'd taken Asuma out of town for the morning. What were the odds that they'd come back in time to save us?
I glanced at Shisui and made eye contact. His calm was as thin as mine. I could see his fear bubbling just below the surface. Neither of us had a clue what the hell these ninja were talking about, and my thoughts weren't functioning well enough to question it.
One thing was certain - whatever bad blood we may have had towards each other just moments ago was moot for the time being. If we didn't fight together right now, we would die. Hell, we might end up dying anyways.
Shisui is supposed to make it through this, I reminded myself.
That, however, didn't mean I would.
"Fine, let's get this over with," the pink-haired man said finally.
Killing intent suddenly leaked into the air. It curled around me, a stifling blanket of dispair. It was like breathing and suffocating at the same time. Terrible awful panic curled in my stomach, and I wanted to run. More than anything I wanted to run.
They told us about this in the Academy. They explained how enemies could fumigate you with their chakra to make you feel fear deeper than you'd ever imagined. To feel killing intent was to feel your insignificance, to understand completely that your enemy held your life in their hands.
Fear was the death of the shinobi. Those were Jin-sensei's words.
I bit down on the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood.
He wanted us to run, to give into his predatory persona and act like prey. Maybe it would've worked. Except the villagers were still around, scrambling backwards towards the town-center. Touma hadn't been able to move from the rock he'd sat down on for lunch.
A shinobi of Konoha protects the weak.
I refused to be the ninja that ran. Not when there were innocent people around whose lives would be forfeit to my own cowardice. Glancing over at Shisui, he seemed to be reaching the same conclusion. We made fleeting eye-contact, and a silent resolution passed between us.
No matter what, we would not allow this jack-ass to intimidate us.
The pink haired man raised his sword and pointed it at the two of us. "My name is Suraisu. I want you to know the name of the man that's gonna kill you."
Then he moved.
My knuckles turned white, as I gripped my staff. He was fast. Faster than Shisui and faster than me. But Shisui had been able to block him when he'd come out of the woods earlier. Now wasn't so different. Suraisu went for the obvious attack, not bothering to be tricky because he assumed his speed would be enough for him.
Anticipating the obvious, I had my staff up in time to block the first slice of his katana towards my midsection. The force of his swing traveled down my arms, rocking my core, but I stood my ground. I wrenched my staff around, redirecting his momentum to the side, towards Shisui.
My teammate was already moving.
His eyes!
His eyes were spinning red and black. One curved tear-dropped tomoe was traveling around his pupil.
He stabbed forward with a kunai. Suraisu's outside foot went up. It caught Shisui's wrist and knocked his weapon away. I cracked the end of my staff around, aiming for his jaw.
He knocked it with his elbow and sliced with his katana.
There was no easy way to dodge that, so I did the only thing I could. I fell. Backwards. Into an unnatural backbend that I wasn't able to hold. The sharp blade missed me, but the rocky ground didn't exactly feel great when it invariably collided with my back.
Shisui continued to engage him, striking out with his free arm and grabbing the foot that Suraisu had kicked with. He jerked his leg forward. But Suraisu was graceful. When Shisui pulled him, he fell forwards into a lunge, and ducked underneath the incoming attack. Shisui strained to react as he saw Suraisu twisting to retaliate.
He wasn't fast enough.
A moment later Shisui was forced hard into the ground beside me.
"His taijutsu's better than ours," I breathed.
"Ninjutsu then," Shisui nodded, pulling some shuriken from his pocket. Then he vaulted backwards, putting space between him and our enemy.
I did the opposite.
Jumping up from the ground, I dove towards Suraisu before I could think better of it. This wasn't the sort of fight that I was prepared for. Beyond my bojutsu, I had next to nothing. The only ninjutsu I knew were things to assist with taijutsu, like the replacement and clone techniques. I hadn't trained for mid-range fighting yet.
I had to engage Suraisu here, in his face, at perfect range for his katana to impale me.
Shisui had the ranged techniques. He was the one who could beat Suraisu.
I would have to make due as his distraction.
"Kah!" I started shouting loudly as I cracked my staff right and left. I was going to be so obnoxious that Suraisu would have no choice but to focus on me.
Blood trickled down my cheek, my arms, my stomach, as he landed thin slice after thin slice. None of my injuries were serious. Not yet at least. I was cutting my dodges close, taking many shallow hits because I was barely good enough to duck underneath the big ones.
Shisui provided as much back up as he could while doing some positioning behind me. Every time I thought I had made my last move, a blur of spinning steel would curve around my back, forcing Suraisu's sword to abort an attack in favor of a defensive stance.
I could see light glinting off the thin wires Shisui was laying with his shuriken, invisible to an ignorant eye.
Then, finally, "Jump!" Shisui's voice rang out.
I obeyed instantly, shooting upwards into the air before Suraisu could process. Shisui pulled, forcing the fresh wire trap to collapse inwards, tightening slip knots around Suraisu's ankles.
"Fire Style: Flaming Wire jutsu!" Shisui shouted as he ran through hand signs. My heart almost stopped in my chest as I watched the jutsu plume from his lips.
The wire ignited in one big violent rush. Hot air blew past me, as Suraisu basically exploded in a blast of flaming glory.
I blinked widely as I fell back beside Shisui, subconsciously putting some pressure on a bleeding cut on my bicep.
"Did we get him?" I asked in disbelief. The fire was thick and bright. My mind told me Suraisu was in there, but my eyes didn't see him.
"I think that's enough show and tell," a feminine voice drawled suddenly. It was coming from a little behind me.
Spinning around, I felt my heart drop into my stomach as I saw Fura standing on a pile of earthquake rubble. Suraisu was sitting on the ground beside her, looking surly but completely unharmed. She must've gotten him out somehow. The replacement jutsu maybe? Or was she just that fast?
"Not bad kids," Fura said, stepping forwards. "But it's my turn now."
She was closest to Shisui, so I wasn't terribly surprised when she made a bee-line straight for him. He was ready, his new Sharingan spinning. She threw a lazy right hook. He caught it easily. Too easliy.
Then I watched, petrified, as electricity crackled, and Shisui cried out. His arm spasmed. Like something out of a horror movie. His body went down, hitting the ground hard.
His whimpers were loud and awful. They filled my ears, forcing all coherent thought away. My mind was completely paralyzed with stupid uncontrollable nothingness.
Arc Title and Chapter Quote from song Evolve by Phoria
A/N
Hi everyone! Hope you liked this chapter.
I wanted to thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter! There were a few more than usual, and it sounds like everyone is a little bit fed up with Natsuki's behavior, haha. Honestly, I think I'm kind of happy you all are having these feelings, maybe? It was what I was going for when I hit that publish button the other week.
Natsuki is a flawed protagonist. She loved her first family very much, and is now petrified of loosing her new one. That means she's doing some extreme things because she is hoping that it'll help. But she's not heartless. Hopefully, you all can see from the beginning of this chapter that this sort of anti-social mantra is making her life miserable.
I guess what I'm saying is that this Arc is called "Evolve" for a reason, if you catch my drift.
Any who, make sure to let me know what you think of this chapter.
Until next time,
Aule
