Disclaimer: Do I own Naruto? Is that a rhetorical question? Obviously not.

Chapter 4: A Caged Emotion

"I'm never going to get a break," she sighed. "Remind me to strangle Hokage-sama when she's not looking."

"Right now, I need your strings for another purpose," he reminded her. With another sigh, the brown-haired woman let loose a kunai at the target dummy. As usual, it hit with perfect accuracy in the target's arm. The man standing next to her quickly grabbed the string tied to the kunai and released his chakra into it. Miniature explosions arose as his chakra enveloped the targeted arm, and then spread throughout the entire body.

The woman stifled a yawn. "Well done," she said tiredly. "You've hit all the tenketsu as usual. Now can we please go back? We've been training all night."

The man shook his head slowly, frowning in concentration. "It is still too slow. By the time my chakra hits the tenketsu, the target would already have reacted to the kunai hit. There has to be some way of making it faster."

The brown-haired, brown-eyed woman wearing a Chinese blouse gave an exasperated sigh and started to walk off. Her companion looked up at her sudden departure.

"Where are you going?"

"Off. Out. Back to my house to get some sleep. Anywhere away from you," she replied, not bothering to look back over her shoulder.

"You can't do that!" the man said, starting to go after her. She spun around angrily to face him.

"And just who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do?" she narrowed her eyes and glared at him, folding her arms across her chest.

"I…" he stopped, looking slightly confused. It had been a long night for him too, but he had not noticed it until now. Now, it all caught up to him and made his brain slow to react. "I… err…"

Go on. Say it. I dare you to say it, she thought, trying to keep her emotions suppressed. Not that it did much good. Not in front of his eyes. Besides, he should have known by now. There was no way he could not have known, after so long. But he had never shown any sign of bringing the matter up, and she didn't dare to. At least, if we don't talk about it, there's still a chance that he might reciprocate. It's safer not to know than to know that he doesn't. So why was she bringing it up now? Was she too exhausted, or was the tension getting to her?

Her stance indicates extreme tiredness. Her folded arms show defiance and anger, but could also mean that she is trying to hide something. The focused glare of her eyes indicate that this feeling is directed at me. Is she angry at me, or worried I might discover her secret? He knew, of course, what her secret was. It had been painfully obvious for a number of years now, whenever she thought he wasn't focused on her. Sometimes, he wished that he didn't have the insight into people's emotions that his eyes gave him. It wasn't always useful. Additional information led to more complex ambiguities and dilemmas.

"I thought you wanted to become the best kunoichi in the village," he said, forcing his voice to be calm. "You can't be that unless you spend a lot of time training."

"I DO want to become the best kunoichi in the village," she said, disappointedly. All he cares about is training. "But that doesn't mean that I should spend day and night training with you. Especially not when I'm supposed to have another mission coming up soon with my Genins."

He was taken aback. "I thought you liked our training sessions," he said, muffling the hurt in his voice.She noticed anyway and softened, coming up to him to put a hand on his shoulder.

"No, you liked our training sessions," she said kindly. She paused, considering. "Well, I liked them too. But not for such extended periods at a time. Not all day and night, like this one. That's just too long, and there's too much strain involved. Plus, we've also got our teams to think of."

"There's too much strain involved?" This was a bad idea. "You're right," he heard his voice answer coldly. "I apologise for keeping you awake. I'll let you go back to rest for your mission later then." He nodded stiffly and walked off before she could reply.

"Oh damn…" she muttered to herself, softly. There you go again. Just when he was starting to open up.A wave of exhaustion shook her, and she realised she was trembling on her feet. I'll find another day to make it up to him. Right now, I've got to get some sleep before those hyperactive 12-year-olds drag me all over the farm during the next mission. She turned and started walking along the path back to her home, then noticed the bird hovering overhead. Damn.

The man opened the door to his house in a small corner of the compound, still musing over the events earlier. Perhaps it wasn't as bad as he had initially thought. Nothing was set in stone. His fate might still be changed. It could be different for him.

He found his mother up and about, cooking breakfast. She half-turned and acknowledged his return. He went up to her side and stared at the porridge she was making. It was pure white, and looked tasteless. As he watched, she added brown sauce to it, and the porridge suddenly smelled and looked a lot better. Amazing how a little bit of brown adds so much colour and beauty to something that was pure white. He pushed that thought away and realised he was starving.

"You seem upset," his mother's voice inquired gently.

"It's nothing." They sat down to breakfast. It was a quiet meal, like most of the others in this household.

"Mother, how did you come to meet Father?" he broke the silence suddenly.

Her eyes grew faraway, and a happy – yet sorrowful – expression crossed her face. "We were part of the same team. He was very bitter about his fate at first, just like you were." Her eyes rested briefly on him before returning to the dim mists of memory. "I remember that we used to train together a lot. It took a long time before he was able to allow anyone into his heart. But when he did, he was very gentle with me. That's why I loved him. Even though I knew it would be a very hard life for the both of us, his gentleness and the hundred different ways he showed his love for me kept me going." A tear formed in her eye. "How I miss him so…" she whispered.

The young man got up and put his hands on his mother's shoulders to comfort her. She turned and cried quietly into his side. As he watched his mother mourn a man that had been dead for almost three decades, he realised that he had been wrong earlier. There was no way to escape this particular fate. It still trapped him in tragedy and sorrow, as it had his parents before him. And he could only look out of it, a caged bird, watching as others flew freely in the sky together. He gazed into the distance, wishing…

"Son…" His mother had stopped weeping now, and was wiping her eyes, trying to put on a brave smile for him. "I forgot to say this earlier."

"Yes?"

"Welcome home."

Author's Notes: Okay, okay, I know the ending was a bit contrived. Sorry... just wanted to maintain stylistic consistency. Also, I've done some minor changes to the earlier chapters... changed the name of ShikaTem's daughter, and changed Sasuke's role. I confused ANBU with Konoha Police. Anyway, this chapter is dedicated to Goldberry. Fans of Goldberry would know why.