Chapter 21:
"I'm here to take my exam," Raxiel informed a man who was standing next to the entrance of the Hokage's Office. The man sighed with boredom. "You must be the one the Hokage has been talking about."
"She has?" Raxiel looked baffled from his statement.
"Yeah. She's in her office. I'll go inform her." And with that, the man left Raxiel to herself. Raxiel waited a few minutes, trying not to get irritated. After a while, the man came back, opening the door a little more for Raxiel to enter. "She's ready for you," he said.
Once Raxiel entered the office, the man left the room, shutting the two wooden doors as he left.
Soon, Raxiel caught the Hokage's face, and they both smiled at each other. Raxiel took a few steps forward to get nearer to her. Finally, the Hokage began to speak. "Well, my friend told me that you're here to take your next test; is that correct?"
"Yes, Hokage –"
"Please, call me Tsunade. Formalities are not my thing."
Raxiel smiled. "Alright, Tsunade. Here are the papers that were requested to be filled out." She lay them on Tsunade's desk, and Tsunade quickly picked up the forms and rolled her chair back to give her a few inches between her and her desk. She opened a drawer and stuck the forums in it.
Raxiel gave her a questioning look. "You're not even going to –"
Tsunade stopped her. "No, I trust that you filled them out. Now, are you ready to begin your final test?" she asked impatiently.
"Um… Sure, I guess."
Tsunade quickly smirked. "Good. Then you'll come with me, and you can begin."
When they had both stood up, the same man opened the both doors. He abruptly began to speak. "Tsunade, there's been some good news about Sunagakure."
Raxiel's eyes widened. "Suna!" she blurted out loud.
"Go ahead," Tsunade said swiftly, and the man continued. "Apparently, we just got news that Orochimaru's gang is about to lose. It may take another few weeks or so, but the note we have received said that they will soon have to retreat. Although it's taken quite some damage, the land is still somewhat livable to the townspeople. Sunagakure had said that our forces should be able to retreat in about a month."
Tsunade smiled. "That's good to hear. Thank you."
The man bowed, fixing to leave, but Raxiel stopped him. "Wait! ...Do you have any news about the Kazekage? Is he still alive or not?"
"Unfortunately, the only information we've gotten about him is that he was taken to be hidden so the Sound Village could not find him. That information was given to us about two months ago; nothing else was or has been said."
Raxiel's hope sank. Two months was a long time to be gone, and she knew there was a chance she'd never see him again.
"Still, he didn't say that he had died," Raxiel thought to herself. Gratefully, she nodded to the man. "Thank you," she said generously to him, and soon the two women were left alone again.
Tsunade walked over to Raxiel. "Well, now that that's over, Raxiel, would you care to follow me to where your test will be?"
"Gladly," Raxiel stated. Soon the two walked out of the office, on their way to the test room.
Soon Raxiel would be on her way to Sunagakure…
And she couldn't wait…
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"Simply incredible!" Tsunade said as she was reading the results of Raxiel's written test. "She got every singe one of them right, with the exception of one. No one had even been able to get four out of the twenty right!"
"That's exactly what I was thinking," another ninja said. "There's just no way anyone could get "all" of them right. Are you sure she didn't cheat? Maybe Iruka gave her the answers."
"No, that's impossible. Iruka doesn't even know about the test, and the answers to these questions… well… there's just no way she could have gotten them. No one has ever written them down, and it's always a different test every year: same level, different questions. No, this girl is just plain good." Tsunade moved her head to look out of the window towards the sunset.
"She's just right for the mission…"
XxXxXxXxXxXx
"RAXIEELL! RAXIEELL!"
That's what she heard from outside her hotel room…
That noise, she heard at eight o'clock at night…
And that noise was the sound of the hyperactive Naruto who was outside her room, making the entire ruckus that a seventeen-year-old could make.
Trying to shut him up, Raxiel quickly opened her door to get his attention. He abruptly stopped and gave her a grand smile.
Raxiel looked at him, annoyed with his so happy attitude when she was not. "What do you want?"
Cheerfully, Naruto answered her question. "Tsunade told me to come over here to tell you the great news! You passed the exams!"
Snapping out of her irritated attitude, Raxiel's eyes widened with excitement. "Really!"
"Yeah! Believe it! And to celebrate, I'm taking you out for some ramen, Tsunade's pay! Isn't that great!"
Raxiel laughed. "It sure is. Just give me a second to get ready, and –"
"No, come on! You look fine! Let's go! I'm starvin'!"
And with that, Naruto grabbed her arms and stormed out of the hotel with her.
Raxiel knew she owed him, big time, and she couldn't help but laugh all the way to the restaurant.
XxXxXxXxXxXx
"So how do you like yours, huh?" the blonde said.
Raxiel had just taken her first bite of her meal, and already he wanted hers. "I like it, Naruto, and I think I can finish it off by myself."
"Oh," he said a little depressed, but soon he focused back onto his own full bowl.
"So, Naruto, why did Tsunade give you money to take me out for ramen?"
Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "I guess she was in a good mood. There was one other favor she asked of me though."
"Oh, really?" Raxiel said, starting to really like her ramen. "And what's that?"
"Well, it's about this mission. It's an A-rank mission, normally for a Jounin, but some of the higher Chunin are allowed to do them."
"Yeah. So what's your point?" she said, a little too concentrated on her ramen.
"Tsunade agreed to give it to me, but I have to have a partner. In detail, I have to have a kunoichi as my partner. So Tsunade asked me to tell you that she wants you to be my partner."
Raxiel almost choked. In fact, she almost thought about spitting out her ramen that she had in her mouth, but she quickly swallowed. "Oh, really? Is that so?"
"Yeah. So, I've got to ask you, will you be my partner for this mission?"
Raxiel looked down at her bowl, her mind deep in concentration. Finally she looked up and laughed softly at him. "I knew this ramen was going to cost me something. Alright, Naruto, I'll help you out. So what's first?"
Naruto's eyes widened with excitement. "Well, first thing in the morning, we're to meet Tsunade. She'll go over the details of the mission."
"Alright, sounds fair." Raxiel smirked.
She knew something bad was going to happen while she was on this mission…
XxXxXxXxXxXx
"I win."
That was all he could say to himself as he looked up to see the "woman on the moon." He had finally found her instead of what Raxiel had called him. He smirked, knowing now that he really did have an imagination; nothing was wrong with him…
Nothing at all…
Except his heart…
That slice she had cut inside him still hurt. He didn't know if it would ever heal or not, but he was desperate to try.
"What makes it go away?" he asked the moon. He was bored out of his mind, and was tired of talking to himself. He thought that now was a better time than ever to talk to the bright, luminous "woman", since nobody was around. "This pain inside, will it ever heal?"
He remembered the words of his Uncle…
And he wasn't sure if he should believe them or not…
After all, he was betrayed by him…
He was betrayed by everyone…
Everyone, except her…
What had caused her not to betray him?
Thinking back to when he had last seen her, he remembered her pleading words, her begging words of her wanting to go with him.
"Come on, Gaara! Let me go with you! I want to help you."
Now remembering his severe strictness to her, he was almost glad he had been so strict. If she had come here with him, there's no telling what would have become of her.
She could have been dead by now…
Dead…
The Kazekage snapped those thoughts out of his head. He knew perfectly well that she was safe in Konohagure. She was just fine…
He hoped…
Anticipation…
"What makes it heal? Isn't this place inside someone called a heart? Why does it hurt so much, especially every time I think of her?"
He knew his heart and Raxiel were somehow related…
But how…
Medicine…
The medicine that he had never had before in his life from another human…
The medicine he didn't even think about was the answer…
Medicine…
Love…
