Twilight River

Chapter 8

Rest

Shisui-senpai's house took a lot of getting used to. Kagami was awake before the sun on most days and Shisui-senpai surprisingly woke up early too. I tried to wake up with them but some days I just couldn't get myself functioning as quickly as them. I needed the sun to have already risen if I wanted to be active, to be honest. Waking up while it was still dark was kind of depressing.

"Isn't it nice watching the sun rise in the morning?" Shisui-senpai asked me as we sat on the edge of one of the open hallways.

I looked at him, eyes narrowed, wondering if he read my mind. But I answered him, "I mean, I guess. I think it's pretty to watch but I wish I woke up when the sun was already up."

Shisui-senpai hummed, "It is nice to sleep in."

"I don't mind waking up early." I amended, "I just find the world looks so much sadder when its dark and quiet in the early morning. It feels so silent compared to when the sun is up."

"That's... actually pretty accurate. I kind of like it though. How everything is quiet and lonely. It lets you think." Shisui-senpai remarked, sounding far away despite being right next to me.

I swung my legs, "I'd find myself thinking about sad, terrible things alone in the dark morning."

"I can understand that." Shisui-senpai agreed quietly, but then he looked over at me, "At least we aren't alone."

.

A week passed, and when I found myself on the training grounds for the first time since before ANBU, I was a little nervous standing across from Shisui-senpai. Itachi was supposed to be home from his mission soon and really, we had been waiting for him to meet on the training grounds, but Shisui-senpai had been losing patience in his excitement.

"We should spar!" he announced gleefully, that morning at breakfast. I had been a little befuddled, and I tried to remind him we were waiting for Itachi before I showed off any of the 'cool' things I learned but Shisui-senpai had all but dragged me to the training grounds. So that was how I had ended up in the warm sun on our preferred training grounds. I could hear the river rushing in the distance behind the trees. There had been a good amount of snow in the winter, I wondered if that had caused the rivers and lakes to overflow this late in the season?

I pouted at him as I crouched down to play with the grass, "I'd rather lay in the sun."

"You are pretty pale." Shisui-senpai remarked, but grinned, "You'll get plenty of sun while we spar."

I groaned rather dramatically and tossed some grass in his direction. Shisui-senpai simply gave me a mysterious grin and then, in a shunshin that didn't even have any smoke, he was in front of me. I reacted on instinct, mostly from remembering Dog's tendency to check my awareness by random attacks, and I rolled out of the way to kick grass in Shisui-senpai's direction. To be fair, I had forgotten the training field had actual plants and thought I was back in the dirt ANBU training grounds.

"Oh, good instinct, Miyako-chan!" Shisui-senpai praised, "Have you learned any jutsu?"

"Yes!" I huffed, grinning as I ran towards the river. Shisui-senpai was hot on my tail and closing the gap quickly. I kicked off a tree and Shisui-senpai whistled as I landed clumsily in the river and almost went under. I hadn't learned to water walk yet with there being no water sources in the ANBU base so I stayed about knee deep. I flashed through some hand signs and spat a water bullet at Shisui-senpai.

He whooped, flipped over it, and landed on top of the water further out into the river. He kicked some water at me to disguise his hand signs for a fireball and I got the hell out of the way while spitting another water bullet at him. My water bullet was annihilated by his fireball and I turned and ran towards the woods again. Shisui-senpai, not even hiding his joyful laughter, was on my heels.

I climbed a tree to try a dumb idea.

Shisui-senpai stopped at the base of the tree and smiled up at me. His smile grew even larger when two dark blue chains erupted from my back and I spun them, cutting the branches down and letting half the tree fall towards him.

"Good idea." Shisui-senpai praised, switching with a branch close to me, "That's a cool trick. How do those work?"

I held my chains close to me as Shisui-senpai inspected them. He went to touch but I shook my head and he admired from afar.

"Well, they work." I said while scratching my head, "A bit violently to be honest. I can't really control them well yet so I'm more a menace than anything else with them."

"Kekkei-Genkai?" Shishui-senpai questioned intelligently.

I nodded, "Uzumaki chakra chains."

"That's great!" Shisui-senpai sat on the branch. Taking our fight was over, I let go of the chains and felt a portion of my chakra wither away from me. I made a face and Shisui-senpai briefly looked like he was going to say something. But I plopped down on the branch and swung my feet cheerfully.

I looked up at the sky, "It's so nice being outside. It's so nice to be with a friend."

Shisui-senpai hummed in agreement.

It felt good to be outside again. It felt good to be with my friend again. It felt good to be... Miyako again.

.

I met with Dog on my eighth day of being free. We met on one of the outside training grounds with our full ANBU gear on. Dog looked me over critically before nodding to himself.

"Today, I am going to give you a basic rundown on the tanto I gave you." Dog informed me.

Nodding, I slid it out of its holster on my back. Dog gave me an hour long lecture on kenjutsu and the difference between a tanto and other weapons that would fall under the kenjutsu category. It was a fascinating subject and Dog took note of my interest in weapons, literally. He literally wrote it down on his dumb clipboard.

One we began actual training, things went relatively smoothly. Dog wanted to train my muscle memory first so I did one hundred of different strikes, repeating after a quick break between sets. My arms were going to fall off at one point so Dog switched to having me practice with my chains for a bit. I drained my chakra and then we went to sword sets.

My memory was decent, so Dog gave me the beginning to three sets and made sure I had the beginnings memorized before we quit practice for the day. We had spent from dawn to noon training and once Dog had left, I had shed my armor and put them in a sealing scroll. I intended to go back to Shisui-senpai's house and rest, but he had other ideas.

As soon as I stepped into the Uchiha clan grounds, Shisui-senpai dashed towards me, lifting me up and we were on the rooftops before I had really processed where we were.

"What are you doing?" I asked, swinging my arms around his neck. I trusted he wouldn't drop me but I wanted to make sure.

Shisui-senpai grinned down at me, "What we are going to do is go shopping!"

I blinked, "Why?"

We touched down in the shopping district where the best blacksmiths, clothiers, and other general goods stores could be found. There were some market stalls outside storefronts and if we followed this road we would find ourselves in the open air market. Grocery stores were only just beginning and there was one in this area, but the market did better business still.

Shisui-senpai plucked the hair pin he had given me out of my hair, admiring me with a forced dramatic expression. I rolled my eyes but I was totally smiling.

"Your clothes are too small so we're going to get you new ones. Izumi-san is supposed to meet us here." Shisui-senpai explained with a grin, shushing me when I went to protest, "Nope you don't have a choice. We're going to get you nicer clothes than the orphanage ever gave you."

"Senpai I-"

"Nope."

I frowned, and tried again, "Money, Senpai-"

"I'm paying." he told me firmly, "No more arguing."

I frowned at him, "Honestly-"

"Miyako-chan," Shisui-senpai said very seriously, putting a hand on my shoulder, "Look at things from my perspective. You disappeared for almost a year. Then tell me you were kicked out of the orphanage. And even after this week, you seem sad."

I looked down at my feet and Shisui-senpai directed us towards an alley. He put his other hand on my other shoulder and leaned down so I had to look into his eyes. I saw my own eyes reflected in his black ones, my round blue-purple eyes starting to tear up the longer Shisui-senpai looked at me. I felt small under his gaze, like he could see into my heart and mind and know exactly what I had done these past few months.

I didn't want my friends to know. I didn't want them to know I had sliced two people into bits and chunks. I didn't want them to know I had been locked away, forced to train so that in the near future I would kill more people. I didn't want them to know the monster I could become. I didn't want them to know I was ANBU now, and that I had been forced into training my body harshly for months so that I could try comparing to other ANBU. I didn't want them to know that to be considered a new 'level' I had to fight people way beyond my level and survive long enough. I didn't want them to know that I was a little lying ANBU, small and not truly ready to deal with threats a real ANBU would face.

The time I spent in training... while worthwhile, had changed me in a way that I hated.

I uttered softly, "It's been a hard year."

"It's been a hard year for all of us without you." he agreed, "Itachi was worried. Izumi-san kept asking if we knew where you were. We won't ask you where you were, because clearly it upsets you, but we are your friends and we are here for you."

Sniffling, I wanted to ask him what he had done the year I had been gone. According to Shisui, Itachi had been worried, Izumi asking about me, but had Shisui-senpai been worried too? But instead I found myself silent, tears streaming down my face as I let myself cry for the first time in months. I had cried a few times, my first few nights in the barracks but I had quickly stopped because crying sapped energy I needed. Besides, Dog could always tell if I had cried. And I hated it when he said shinobi rule 25, you must never show your tears.

Shisui-senpai leaned forward, resting his head on top of mine as he pulled me in for a hug.

"You looked like you needed a good cry." he whispered into my hair, "You can cry with me. I won't judge you."

I leaned my forehead on Shisui-senpai's chest, and complained quietly into him, "How dare you make me cry in an alleyway."

"You were supposed to cry tears of joy when we got you new clothes." he laughed quietly and I felt his voice rumble. I closed my eyes.

We stood there for another minute and I just enjoyed the contact of a hug. I hadn't realized how much I missed hugs. Just being in contact with one of my friends was enough to feel like I was healing. It made me feel even more like Miyako.

When I broke out of the hug, I told Shisui-senpai, "Thank you."

"What for?" he asked cheekily, "I just let you use me as a handkerchief, thats all."

"For being my friend." I informed him and Shisui-senpai smiled a big, blinding smile.

.

Shopping had been a small nightmare because Izumi and Shisui-senpai were able to agree on one thing; they wanted me to look cute. As they tried to hand me things to try on I had to knock out quite a few of the clothes. I liked the blue shirt I wore that was like a yukata top that I could tuck into my shinobi pants but Shisui-senpai and Izumi had their hearts set on a battle kimono.

At least we all agreed I looked damn good in blue.

Izumi bartered with all the shopkeepers over my clothes, wheeling and dealing to get things two for one, half price, etc. She was rather scary and rather good at it, so Shisui-senpai left that task to her. His job was making sure I cooperated because I refused some of the outfits that I saw the price tags on.

In the end, we stopped for a snack a few hours before dusk and I was a little exasperated with the bags of clothes. I hadn't had this many clothes before in this life and I was unsure of where to put them in Shisui-senpai's guest bedroom.

"This cake is delicious." Izumi mentioned, taking a piece with her spoon and trying to force it towards me, "Try some Miyako-chan!"

When I took that bite, Shisui-senpai offered me a bite of his dessert, which I unwillingly accepted.

I jumped when a plate was set down next to me and someone sat down. Looking to my side, I couldn't stop the big grin that stretched across my face when I realized who it was.

"Itachi!" I chirped happily, "You're back from your mission!" He had grown more. His hair was longer, his eyes older and his face looking like it lost most of his remaining baby fat. It was so good to see him again. I wanted to give him a hug but I refrained, instead just giving him the biggest smile I could.

Taking a bite of his dango, Itachi greeted me with his usual polite calmness, "Good to see you, Miyako-chan. How are you?"

Shisui-senpai, rather dramatically, remarked, "How can you ask that like you saw her last week? I know you've been waiting, so be excited!"

Itachi simply ignored him, shoving a piece of dango towards me and trying to get me to eat it. I accepted the sweets, as I always did.

I almost cried again. I was just so happy all my friends were together... nothing could have ruined it.

.

The next day, Dog held a mission scroll in his hands as he stood in front of me.

"You'll be assisting me on assassinations from now on. This will technically be your first one, be ready in an hour and meet at the West gate."

The emotional good high I had been riding on for just a day sank so very suddenly.

.

I told Shisui-senpai I would be gone on a mission for a few days. He had taken it rather badly, his eyes flashing sadly for a moment before he asked, "What kind of mission?"

"Well," I shrugged, and avoided the topic, "My mentor is taking me out of the village. I don't think it's going to be long, maybe two or three days."

"What about D Ranks?" Shisui-senpai asked, "Have you done any of those?"

I shook my head and Shisui-senpai frowned. Those were the starter missions, I knew he was thinking, how could she be going outside the village when she doesn't have a single D Rank to her name. I expected annoyance, anger, jealousy, fear.

Instead, Shisui-senpai put a hand on my head, "Be safe out there, Miyako-chan."

"I will." I told him.

I left the village with Dog quickly. The process to leave as an ANBU was rather easy, one look at your tattoo and the guards just take down your mask and have you flash your chakra to make sure it's you. Each ANBU also has a code they give when they leave and return, mine being 'Twilight'. I thought it was dumb but the Hokage probably chose it because of my name's meaning.

With my excitement at seeing outside the village very obvious, Dog gave me a few minutes to just run around the forest and practice my tree hopping. I blew a few branches clean off before I figured out how much chakra was enough to not blow up the branch. Dog seemed like he almost regret having to tell me we needed to leave, and that reminded me of what exactly we were leaving to do. My mood leveled out to be more moot, so we left.

Dog had us chakra run, silently laughing at me when I misjudged my attempts and ended up crashing through a tree branch. This happened a few more times throughout our run, whether I broke a branch, misjudged a leap, or any other possible error I could have made. The trip was long for me but Dog seemed to enjoy the entertainment of me screaming every time I fell out of the trees.

We debriefed when we stopped for a rest.

"You will only be observing on this mission, but our target is a man named Ryunosuke Taiga." Dog informed me, "We had the request to make it seem like an accident so it will be a silent kill. Can you think of ways to make a lord's death seem like an accident?"

I blinked under my mask, thought for a moment, and said, "Give him a heart attack?"

"He's young."

I thought about it, "He falls out his window."

Dog snorted, "Creative, but no."

I hummed, "Something heavy falls on him."

"Viable but annoying." Dog stood up, "Keep coming up with ideas as we move."

We started to run again, this time with me pitching ideas and falling off the trees more because I was focusing on two things at once.

"Poison."

"It's supposed to be an accident, Wolf-chan."

"Food poisoning, then. He could die from it if he gets dehydrated."

"He's a nobleman. He'll have the resources to survive that."

I ran into a branch. It gave me an idea.

"He falls down the stairs."

"How are you going to get him down those stairs when he has people around him at all times?" I mean, banana peel was going to be my response but I hadn't seen any bananas in the years I'd been here.

We reached the destination around night time and I was still guessing.

"He dies suddenly," I informed Dog rather dramatically, despite my mask making everything sound dull, "Cut off his blood flow and he dies."

Dog snorted, as he had done with many of my suggestions, "That could suggest foul play."

Suffocation was ruled out. Death by electrocution was out because the man didn't really have any electronics in his home. Drowning him in his bathtub was ruled out because it was a dumb idea, but I thought it was a perfectly fine idea.

"If he's drunk it's completely viable." I huffed under my breath, not intending for Dog to hear it. But he did. And he even considered it.

Dog thought about it, "Get him drunk then."

"Wait, what?"

I blinked at Dog, who responded, "Get him drunk then. I'll drown him in the bathtub if you can get him drunk."

"Why me? I thought I was just observing?" I complained, trying to convey that I was glaring at him through my mask.

Dog nodded, "Observing for the actual kill. You can help by being a beautiful lady who gets him drunk."

"I'm seven! What do I know about being a beautiful lady!" I pointed out.

I could feel Dog's amusement as he answered, "I'm sure you'll figure it out."

.

I hanged into what I thought an older Izumi would look like. Long brown hair, big dark eyes, flawless pale skin and a beauty mark. I admired my henge in the still water of the clearing I had found. I looked pretty damn good. Henges were a bit weird when you changed your form. It was an illusion but at the same time it wasn't. I knew it was possible for people to henge into non-human objects, which forced their body to twist and turn-

I could remember two men in a puddle. I could remember the Wave Arc.

-but I wasn't at that level yet. I could do a simple person to person henge and that was it, although I had needed to make myself an adult which took a few failed henges.

It was easy infiltrating the party our target was at. I climbed in through a window, suppressing my chakra and going through all the motions I had learned in my ANBU tag game. Once inside I let my chakra flow like a civilian's, slowly. I walked through the halls, feeling the straight, thin brown hair around me. I could tell it wasn't real, it had this strange feeling that Dog had explained only I would feel. To anyone else, my henge would feel real.

At the party our target was already drinking. He had another beautiful lady with him and as I approached, he eyed me quickly. I smiled at him, reaching across his chest for a drink. It was a little weird suddenly having went from being the height of a small seven year old to the height of a tall, slender woman. But I could still remember a life where I was this tall with long thin arms.

"And what's your name, miss?" the target asked me.

I smiled, "Izumi."

It was easier to get him drunk than I had expected. I kept getting both of us drinks. While I had been sipping at my drink, occasionally actually taking a sip, I had mostly been using my chakra to slowly evaporate the alcohol. Dog had taught me the trick as a chakra control exercise when we figured out my chakra nature. While the alcohol was definitely different than water and I didn't have the mastery to break down the alcohol completely yet, when we were several drinks in I had probably only drank enough for me to feel a bit tipsy.

Then I nearly fell off the stool I had been sitting daintily on.

Or I was a little drunk, forgetting I had the body of a seven year old.

I tripped up the stairs, giggling and a little nervous as the man followed me.

"I'ave to go now!" I told him, definitely slurring a bit, trying to skirt around and disappear into another hallway. He lumbered after me and despite the fact I was pretty drunk, I was still a ninja and he was only a civilian. It took a few minutes, but I had lost him and had planted the idea of a nice bath in his mind. After the party had ended a little later he did exactly that, and I was in the shadows watching when Dog had snuck behind him and forced his head under the water. He didn't flail much, hardly spilling any water out of the tub.

When the man was dead, Dog rearranged him a bit to suggest he had fallen asleep and slipped further into the tub. He deposited a few more glasses around him, to suggest more drinking, and then we were on our way back to Konoha.

Dog carried me on his back, sighing when he smelled my breath, "Just because you're an adult once you receive your hitai-ate, doesn't mean you should drink, little Wolf-chan."

I hiccuped, then dropped my head on his shoulder, "I tried to eva-po-evaporate it. Like the chakra trick." Dog considered what I had said for a moment.

"Good thinking. Just practice more with it." Dog told me and I fell asleep to the lull of Dog gliding through the air.

.

We reached Konoha with me trying to hold back my nausea. After I had woken up to Dog moving far faster than I had been going on the way there, motion sickness suddenly reminded me I had just drank. Dog was aware enough to pluck me off his back when I puked and he held me under my arms like a toddler as I emptied the contents of my stomach.

"My mask is going to smell bad now." I complained, holding it away from my face and pouting at Dog.

I'm sure he rolled his eyes at me under his mask as he told me, "Just live with it for two more hours."

And we reached Konoha in an hour, then we went and reported in not to the Hokage, but the ANBU General.

The ANBU General was a large, ambiguously gendered figure with a mask that resembled a cat and an ornate white decorated cloak. There were stripes coming from the sides of the feline mask, curving in fiercely in well handled strokes. To be honest, this mask was one of the better ANBU masks. I had been rather lucky with Dog giving me an intimidating one, but I had seen a Crane that had ridiculous wavy things on the very edges of their mask that I hoped were meant to represent wings.

"Tiger-sama," Dog took a knee and I followed his lead, "Wolf and I successfully eliminated our target."

The ANBU General, Tiger, nodded and asked, voice sounding either like a sensual deep woman's voice or a smooth male one's, "How did Wolf do?"

"She performed above expectations." Dog answered tonelessly, "Wolf was able to identify several possible methods of eliminating the target that were viable to the parameters we were given and she was able to sustain chakra running the entire way there. I tasked Wolf with influencing the target, which she performed acceptably. Under the henge of a young woman she was able to charm our target into consuming a large amount of alcohol, while Wolf was able to use a chakra training technique to prevent herself from consuming the same amount. There was some fault here, where Wolf had consumed enough for her to feel the influences and I carried her back to the village."

"And the assassination technique?" The ANBU General sounded, in a hardly notable way, amused.

Dog was able to, very seriously, report, "I drowned our target in the bathtub."

Tiger actually snorted at that, "Mission succeeded, then. Good work. Report back in three days for another."

Then Tiger turned to me. They knelt down so they were closer to my eye level and behind the shadows and black fabric of the mask, I could almost see a flash of blue eyes, "Good first assasination, Wolf. Continue to learn under Dog and I expect you will become a formidable shinobi."

I bowed my head, uttered a thank you, and we were dismissed. Dog told me to meet him on the training field at the usual time the following day and I stopped in the ANBU barracks to take a power nap before returning to Shisui-senpai's house. It was about three in the morning, and I hadn't slept the night before this one. Dog and I had run for hours to get to where we had been going, and then Dog had carried me back.

Not to mention I was still feeling pretty awful from drinking. I completely blame Dog for letting a seven year old drink alcohol.

Hawk saw me as I tried to crawl onto an empty bunk and cheerfully waved, "Oh Wolf-chan! You're back so soon." There were a few angry murmurs from various ANBU but they all rolled back over to ignore Hawk as he came towards me. He plopped down on my bunk next to me, his dumb bird mask mocking me.

I tried to convey the dark expression I was giving him under my mask, but Hawk only laughed and ruffled my hair. He hummed, "First mission?"

"Yes." I nodded, "I'm going to rest now."

Hawk took that sentence to mean 'Oh Hawk, I would love for you to bother me!' and I ended up stuck with Hawk until I felt like the sun was probably starting to rise. I left the barracks after Horse, who had been trying to nap on a nearby bunk, had gotten tired of Hawk's talking and chased him off. I figured it was around morning then so I left, and I was right in that the sun was rising.

I walked back to the Uchiha compound and changed quickly in an alley just outside the compound before I dove over the wall and ran towards Shisui-senpai's house. I quietly entered through the back sliding porch, intent on getting straight to bed, but Kagami was awake with the dawn and caught me.

"Oh, welcome back Miyako-chan." he greeted me pleasantly, "Can you go wake up Shisui?"

I nodded, despite the fact I wanted nothing less than to wake up Shisui-senpai because then I was sure Shisui-senpai wouldn't let me go to sleep. But I told Kagami I would and I knocked on Shisui-senpai's door before sliding it open. Shisui-senpai was already sitting up by the time I peaked in, wiping at his eyes. Shisui-senpai had a futon in his room and it was less traditional than the rest of the house. He had a desk covered in things pushed to one side while weapons and other equipment were scattered about.

"Wel-come back," Shisui-senpai yawned, "Miyako-chan."

He told me I could come in, then belatedly looked around his room in half-awake stupor. He sighed as I sat on the edge of his futon, "I forgot to clean. I wanted your first impression of my room to be when it was neater."

"It's lived in." I told him warmly. Shisui-senpai adjusted so he had his back against the wall and he pat next to him. I sat next to him and we both watched the morning light start to filter in through his drawn closed curtains.

"How was your mission?" he asked.

"Not bad." I told him, but he had reminded me of my slow pounding headache and I leaned my head back against the wall, "Weird and long, I suppose."

Shisui-senpai laughed at that, "How so?"

I paused for a moment to decide how to spin the story of me drinking alcohol without having to explain it was for an assassination, "Well, I was supposed to gather information, you see. And the man I was supposed to get it from was drinking alcohol-"

"Tell me you drank it." Shisu-senpai sputtered, laughing when I nodded.

"It wasn't on purpose." I insisted, "I tried to get around it. Anyway, my mentor had to carry me back to the village and I almost puked on him."

Shisui-senpai laughed again, and he took a few moments to collect himself before he could look at me without chuckling. I giggled too but my head was really starting to pound.

With a smaller smile on his lips, Shisui-senpai whispered, "Don't worry Miyako-chan. I'll tell you about my first time with alcohol."

I blinked at him slowly, "You too?"

"Not on a mission," his voice was low and in my ear, probably so that Kagami wouldn't hear, "So when we get our hitai-ate we're officially considered adults. A few months ago one of my senpai was hazing me and told me I had to go to the bar with him as part of an initiation ritual."

"I see." I replied, feeling my head start to droop as my body started to realize I was in a safe place to just drop unconscious. I tried to force my eyes to stay open but Shisui-senpai's voice, low and warm in my ear, was incredibly soothing.

"Well, I went to the bar with him and the bartender took one look at me, thirteen, and then at my hitai-ate and he said-"

Without knowing it, I fell asleep.

While I was asleep though, Shisui-senpai finished his story quietly, dozing off as he got further along in the story until he had also fallen asleep. When Kagami came to retrieve us some time later he came across the two of us leaning against each other and both of us snoring loudly. Kagami had obviously decided to go find a camera to take a picture with and that photograph ended up on the wall before we had even woken up from sleeping.

.

Shisui-senpai was the first to wake up, and he woke me up when he realized we had fallen asleep by jumping and letting me fall over abruptly.

"Ughghhhh." I complained, inhaling Shisui-senpai's scent from the blankets. I was pleased to know it smelled as good as I had hoped, smoky like a late fall evening. Whatever smell Shisui-senpai used; I approved. That didn't stop me from giving a sheepish Shisui-senpai the stink eye though.

"Sorry Miyako-chan," he apologized, "I didn't realize we fell asleep and grandfather is going to kill us."

"You." I said, "He'll kill you. I however, am going back to sleep."

I closed my eyes and refused to budge even when Shisui-senpai poked me.

"Miyaaaakooo-chan, it's time to wake up!" he insisted, being purposefully annoying as he tried to roll me over. I groaned in response and threw my arm over my face.

Shisui-senpai picked me up, to which I let myself ragdoll and Shisui-senpai huffed, "Why must you be like this."

I grinned at him but kept my eyes closed and my body heavy. Shisui-senpai gave up as I started to immediately doze off again. And he left me there. I slept for a few hours and when I woke up, Shisui-senpai had draped a blanket over me and had put a pillow under my head.

Inhaling the smell of safety and friendship, I let my eyes close again.

AN:

This chapter was really hard to write. Next chapter will hopefully be easier, since everyone is together again. I intend for Miyako to clear up her skill level soon, as she is certainly not at real ANBU level from her training. Please keep in mind that Miyako is an unreliable first person narrator, and she hears things from people who may be deceiving her, mishears things, and assumes.

I am like, 75% happy with this chapter, by the way.

As I am in college, the next update may either be March or May. If I have time to write, which my schedule is currently not suggesting I will, there may be an earlier update.

Thank you for reading.

And thank you so much to the following for reviewing (:

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