You're kind of my protégé and one day you'll say you learned all you know from me,

I know you depend on me like a young thing would to a guardian,

I know you sexualize me like a young thing would and I think I like it.

The compound wasn't as far away as Sakura had originally imagined, but at least it looked exactly the way she'd pictured it. With bland gray buildings and flat roofs, it was too modern to be tastefully traditional, but too old to be in keeping with the current styles. It was said that Matsura had established himself as an elite ninja well over thirty years ago. That appeared to be when the compound had been built.

They were let in through one set of gates. Then another. And then a third set of gates before they finally reached the inner compound. Sakura traded discreet looks with Kakashi. They both knew this wasn't an easy place to get into without an invitation. Should anything go wrong, it wouldn't be particularly easy to escape from either. Not with three sets of thirty feet high perimeter walls topped with barbed wire and spikes to navigate past first.

The two ninjas who'd led them there handed them over to a pair of more heavily armored men stationed at the entrance of one of the larger buildings. While one of them went inside, presumably to announce their arrival, the other kept guard over them.

"Nice day, huh?" the guard said politely.

Kakashi looked him over briefly, as if assessing his worthiness for conversation, before apparently finding him wanting. "Mm," was all he said.

The guard didn't bother asking Sakura her opinion on the weather, to which she was mildly miffed. She'd not been ignored this way since she was a child… which, in retrospect, was probably what she wanted.

The minutes dragged by.

Kakashi got out his book and started thumbing to the page he'd left off at. Sakura balanced precariously on one leg as she poked at the rather prominent blisters on her other foot. The guard made popping sounds with his cheeks, clearly feeling awkward.

Finally the other guard returned. "Matsura-sama is a busy man," he said reverently. "But fortunately you have come at an opportune time. He is ready to receive visitors in the parlor. Mai will escort you there."

They dumped their shoes in the entrance hall (for which Sakura was eternally grateful) and were passed into the care of a rather elderly maid. She shuffled away down a labyrinth of corridors and staircases, but at such a tremendously slow pace that the two Konoha jonins could probably have searched the place top to bottom alone and found Matsura a good few minutes before she finally arrived at the parlor entrance.

She tapped on the papery door. "Matsura-sama. Your visitors are here."

"Send them in."

The voice from within was a deep baritone that seemed scratched with age and a rough lifestyle. Sakura gulped as she had moments to mentally picture the man behind the voice. She'd been assuming he'd be a fat old man with wobbly jowls and small, piggy eyes. This was unlikely though, considering he was an elite ninja. What was she supposed to expect?

Then the door slid open and Sakura got her first glimpse of her target.

He sat at a low table with a cup of tea poised to his lips.

Old. Fat. Plenty of jowl and not enough eye. Wispy gray hair trailed in an uninspired tail down his back and an equally long beard was forked over a rather rotund belly. The lips sipping his tea were large and surprisingly wet, in a rather off-putting way. His brow had sunk so low that his eyes were hardly visible.

Holy…

He fit her mental image of a devious old pervert to a T. It was uncanny.

Sakura despaired.

Kakashi entered first with Sakura trailing along behind him, fitting into her role as meek girl-child. When he sat down, cross-legged opposite Matsura, Sakura knelt down a few feet behind him and to the side. She kept her gaze on the floor, but even without looking she could sense Matsura's eyes following her.

"To whom do I owe the pleasure?" he asked in the same rich voice as before.

Kakashi gave a short, not at all respectful kind of nod. "My name is Umino Iruka," he gestured a hand to Sakura, "and this is Rin-chan. Say hello, Rin-chan."

No one had told her to do that since she was six. Keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the floor, Sakura gave a deep, courteous bow that had her forehead brushing the floor. "Hello," she said, pitching her voice a little higher and softer than she would normally.

Matsura turned his attention away from her and brought it back to Kakashi. "So what brings you to my door?" he asked. "They tell me you have a favor to ask."

Kakashi nodded. "I do. Forgive me if I sound impetuous, but my master – the head of one of the wealthiest families in the east – has assigned me a mission. I fear it's too difficult to handle on my own, so I wish to humbly request your help on this-"

"I do not help people I do not know," Matsura interrupted abruptly as he took another sip of his tea. "Not unless you can make it worth my while."

The haggling boots were on.

"I'm willing to split the payment of my mission with you," Kakashi said. Sakura could see that he wasn't offering her to Matsura straight off the bat. "The amount is considerable. And of course, you're welcome to help yourself to whatever treasures we come across on the mission. I'm only interested in one. The rest is yours."

At Matsura's prompting, Kakashi went on to explain in detail what the imaginary mission entailed. He rattled off false dates, names and locations so easily that Sakura wondered if the treasure laden convoy he said was arriving on the east coast next month was actually real. For someone who told such appalling bad lies every time he was late, Hatake Kakashi knew his way around a fib. When he'd finished, Sakura almost believed his story, despite knowing beforehand that it was all complete nonsense.

Matsura listened intently, narrowing his eyes as Kakashi finished. "A convoy such as this will undoubtedly be guarded by some of the finest warriors around," he pointed out. "The prize hardly warrants the effort."

Kakashi's eyebrow lifted briefly in surprise. "Oh. You think it will be too difficult for you?" he asked mildly.

A teacup hit the table with such force that it almost cracked. Matsura glowered impressively at Kakashi. "How old are you?"

"Thirty."

Another lie, Sakura thought with a roll of her eyes. Kakashi had been thirty for the last two years.

"Let me tell you something, Umino Iruka," Matsura growled. "I was a legendary ninja long before you were even born. I was laying siege to the castles of Rasen before you'd even picked up your first kunai. Don't presume to know what is too difficult for me, as I have yet to be defeated in battle. A measly convoy is no match for me."

Kakashi gave a slightly impatient nod. "Yes, yes, so the real problem lies in the payment? Is what I offer not enough to interest you?"

"Promise of money is all well and good," Matsura said. "But we have only just met and I still have no reason to trust you. It is customary for someone in your position to bring a token of good-will, to cement relations and trust."

His eyes landed on Sakura again. She quickly looked at her knees.

"Why did you bring this girl here?" Matsura asked, although it was clear from his tone that he already knew why.

Kakashi looked sideways at Sakura, as if disinterested in her. "Rin-chan? She's just traveling with me."

"Why?" Matsura pressed. "Who is she?"

"I found her in one of the poverty stricken villages near the border of the Fire country. Her family was taken by war and famine, and she had no one left to take care of her. So I brought her with me," Kakashi explained. "I intend to take her back to my village soon."

Matsura didn't look impressed. "Why? I'm assuming her presence must be quite the hindrance to an accomplished man such as yourself. She must have slowed your journey here considerably. What could she possibly offer that could make the nuisance worthwhile?"

Sakura bit her lip. When Kakashi had gone over the mission with her, he hadn't explained why she was supposedly traveling with him. Did he even have an answer prepared?

Kakashi's head tipped back a fraction. "Rin-chan has a lot to offer. Her massages like the touch of an angel to weary shoulders."

This was true, Sakura thought immodestly.

"…and she's very good with her mouth." And just to make sure that everyone present got his rather unsubtle point, Kakashi added, "Her blowjobs are to die for."

Sakura nearly fell over. By some amazing feat of self-control, she managed to keep from choking to death and instead stared so hard at the mat before her it was amazing it didn't spontaneously combust. But all the self-control in the world couldn't prevent the blush spreading steadily across her face, although this was less of a problem, since it wasn't really out of character.

Quite aware of Sakura's acute embarrassment, Matsura laughed heartily. "Reason enough, reason enough," he agreed. "But surely you know of my reputation, Iruka-san. I find it a little bit hard to believe that you brought her here for no reason other than the company. Unless you do this kind of thing regularly…?"

Kakashi shook his head. "You're right. I have heard of your reputation. Rin-chan is my bargaining chip, although I was hoping to offer her in a more subtle way. Obviously I can't escape your keen eye," he said. "I found Rin-chan on my way here. Her unique looks caught my eye… I thought they might catch yours too."

Matsura rubbed one of his chins with a stubby finger. "How thoughtful. But you've obviously had her already."

Kakashi held up his hands guiltily. "Couldn't resist. I had to know if she tasted as good as she looked."

"And?"

"I wouldn't have brought her all the way here if she didn't."

As humiliating as this conversation was, Sakura couldn't help but feel a little angry. What was she, a piece of furniture? They talked about her as if she wasn't in the room. As if she was just a horse passing from one master to another. As if she wasn't a human with feelings and fears of her own.

Granted, this was all role-playing. Kakashi wasn't really bartering her away, and she wasn't really a helpless orphan. But how many other girls had sat where she'd sat who really were helpless and defenseless and had no choice but to go along with whatever the men decided for her? How many girls had Matsura taken to his bed? How real had their fear and vulnerability been compared to hers?

Only a few people had the honor of gaining Sakura's pure and unadulterated hatred. Orochimaru was one, for what he'd put Sasuke through. Itachi was another… for what he'd also put Sasuke through. Sasuke was the third, for what he'd put himself through.

Matsura just hit fourth place on her list, for everything he'd ever done to other girls in her position, and for what he might possibly do to her later on.

(Coincidentally, Kakashi came in at number five for trying to effectively break all ties with his former team. While Sakura could forgive a little molesting in the woods, she couldn't quite forgive that.)

Sakura was startled out of her inner seething when Matsura got to his feet. For an elite ninja, he sure wasn't light on his feet. He'd have to be elite in order to get around the handicap that was his own bulk. But once he'd straightened, he gestured a hand impatiently at Sakura. "Stand up girl so I can take a look at you."

Sakura chanced a brief glance at Kakashi and saw him shrug and nod his head. She got to her feet carefully and stood meekly as Matsura moved around the table to examine her.

The man was sizeable in all dimensions apparently, since he was almost as tall as Kakashi and towered easily over her. He was close enough for Sakura to smell the tea he'd been drinking, and what also could have been sake. There were faint stains dribbling down the front of his front. Sakura wondered how a man such as this had gained a legendary title and an S-rank.

A large, chubby hand covered in calluses took her by the chin, making her start at the unwarranted contact. Matsura twisted her face this way and that as he examined her from different angles, and even pushed her lower lip down to examine her teeth. Sakura kept her eyes to the floor. Now she knew what it was like to be treated like a piece of meat. She was nothing to this man. Nothing more than a cheap thrill to pass the time. He saw her the way Kakashi probably saw those books of his.

Bad, bad association…

"She clean?" Matsura asked Kakashi, the way most people asked if a horse had been shod.

"She is," Kakashi murmured, not looking at either of them.

Sakura blinked in confusion. After a whole day trekking through forest and sitting on hay stacks, she thought she was quite grubby actually…

"How old?" Matsura inquired again.

Kakashi did look at them this time. "Fourteen." He was watching Matsura carefully, as if trying to gauge his reaction.

Sakura watched the man too, and saw him lift one heavy eyebrow. "Early bloomer, I see."

At least he bought it, because he then turned and shouted towards the closed door. "Yushio!"

The door slid back and a guard stood there expectantly. "Yes, Matsura-sama?"

"Fetch Mai here, will you? She can see to the girl."

The guard nodded and slid the door shut again. Matsura moved to retake his seat while Sakura practically collapsed to her knees in relief that some distance had been restored between them again.

"So you accept my offer?" Kakashi asked cheerfully.

"Nn," Matsura grunted. "She's good enough. We may be able to do business."

Sakura tried not to feel to indignant at being deemed only 'good enough'. What was more important was that they'd secured a short-term invitation to stay. That was all that mattered.

"Umino Iruka…" Matsura was rolling the name around his mouth, as if tasting something familiar about it. He stroked his beard slowly as he scowled intently at Kakashi. "Have you ever heard of a man by the name of Hatake Kakashi?"

Sakura's insides froze, but all Kakashi did was nod softly. "Yes," he said. "You think I look like him, don't you?"

"I've never met him personally," Matsura admitted. "Though his description is in every bingo book in every village in every country. White hair, masked, and with a sharingan for a left eye. May I ask… how you lost your eye, Iruka-san?"

"The usual way," Kakashi shrugged. "It turns out that when a mother tells her son that running with scissors is 'all fun and games till someone loses an eye', there's some real truth behind it."

"A childhood injury?" Matsura's brow quirked again. It was hard to tell if he believed Kakashi or not. "And why the mask?"

Kakashi paused for a moment before answering. "…I have a wart."

"Ah," Matsura nodded in an understanding and sympathetic way. Sakura's forehead was begging to be smacked against the table.

A knock sounded at the door. When Matsura called out, the panel slid back to reveal the slow old woman who'd originally showed them to the room. "Mai," Matsura gestured at Sakura. "Take this girl and bathe her. Find her something clean to wear and make her comfortable in one of the chambers."

Bathe!

Shit.

Sakura looked frantically at Kakashi, and even though his expression was oddly blank, she knew that he was probably thinking along the same lines. To bathe would wash away the drugs on her skin, and even if she had any left in the bottle, it was unlikely that she'd be getting the privacy to reapply it. Not with Mai around.

"You'll be alright, Rin-chan," Kakashi said as he got to his feet and offered her a hand. "You're in good hands."

Sakura took his hand and pulled herself up from her knees. No sooner was she standing than Kakashi pulled her into a loose, impromptu hug. Too startled to do much more than gape softly against his shoulder, it took her a moment to realize what he was doing.

Ah, clever, Kakashi-sensei, she thought as she returned the embrace. Now was the perfect opportunity for him to slip her another vial of poison, or perhaps even a kunai.

But he gave her nothing. Sakura frowned with growing apprehension as he neither passed her a weapon nor slipped anything useful into her obi.

It was just a simple embrace.

It was just… it was just what she needed.

The reality of her situation was suddenly all too overwhelming, and she felt her body betray her as she clung more tightly to her old sensei as if he was the only thing keeping her from drowning. She worried that the moment he let her go, she'd be caught out of her depth and would sink clean away. He'd tried to warn her… but she'd ignored him. Now it was too late, and all he could do to help her was offer her a secret farewell.

Goodbye, Sakura.

Goodbye, Sakura's virginity.

Sakura and her virginity just wanted to go home.

Kakashi must have known how she felt. He wouldn't have bothered hugging her otherwise.

After a small eternity, his arms loosened around her and she had to step back. "Go on now," he motioned to the doorway where Mai stood. "I'll see you later."

Sakura nodded shakily, not trusting herself to speak because the lump in her throat was threatening to crack and break her words. Instead she turned her glossy eyes to the floor and followed Mai out of the room.

Even when the door was drawn shut, the walls were thin enough to overhear Kakashi's short, embarrassed laugh.

"She's just a little nervous. She's not done anything like this before."

All too freaking true.

The washroom was plain and cold with a bath tub set into the ground like a ditch. Mai handed Sakura a bar of soap, a single washcloth and told her to strip down and start lathering herself up while she ran the water. Sakura obeyed, for lack of knowing what else to do. Feeling like a witless idiot, she left her clothes in a small pile in the corner before taking a seat on one of the available stools.

She noticed Mai's old, milky eyes scanning her form with a look that could be called suspicious. (At least Sakura hoped it was suspicion. She had her hands full of old men leering at her – she didn't need old women doing the same.) But if Mai thought that her body looked a little too advanced to be fourteen years old, she said nothing, and continued running the bath.

Sakura wet her cloth with one of the taps and began scrubbing lather into her shins.

She didn't think she was particularly curvy or womanly shaped – at least not the way that sent the boy's wild. It was Ino who had discovered this. She'd finally accepted that Shikamaru was a genius and taken his advice to give up her diet. Five kilograms later and Ino's father was fending off the boys with a kunai. Literally.

But Sakura had found to her dismay that, with or without a diet, her weight didn't shift much. Her thighs would never be as slim and sleek as the girls in the magazines (running, jumping and climbing trees did less to burn fat and tone up, than it did to just… harden muscle), nor would she ever gain enough weight to fill out her breasts or stop her ribs showing when she raised her arms.

However, despite all this, Sakura was fairly content with her weight. She was lithe and light – two factors that were important to every ninja (a concept Matsura was having some trouble getting his head round apparently). But what weight you sacrificed for just that small edge in speed and agility was a point sacrificed in your score with the opposite sex.

Sure, Sakura was a better ninja than Ino, but Ino only had to bat her eyelids and push her chest out to bring the boys flocking.

And who did Sakura attract?

Raging pedophiles, that's who.

Sakura continued to lather with a scowl pressing over her features. She was carefully avoiding running the cloth over her breasts for fear of washing away the poison. She didn't bother avoiding her thighs. The moment she stepped into the bath, the poison down there would be a lost cause.

"All done here," Mai turned off the taps and laid a towel down next to the rim of the tub inset in the floor.

This was the point where Sakura would normally smile and thank the woman for helping out, but Sakura's mood was still dangerously black. It was best if she interacted with as few people as possible or else risk blowing up at them like a miniature pink volcano. Besides, she was too preoccupied with her own thoughts to care much about the old woman.

As she carefully slid into the water, making sure that she didn't let it rise above her waist, she thought of Kakashi.

Where was he? What was he doing? Was he still 'negotiating' with Matsura? Had Shikamaru really told him what she'd said in the bar last night and was just politely keeping his mouth shut, or was he still honestly oblivious to her little plight? If he did know, did he even care? Would he think her an immature idiot if he knew how much she wished to go home?

Probably.

She remembered his earlier slip about being in the same situation as her. He'd already done what she was about to do – maybe even more than once. There was no way she would quit while he was around. She didn't think she had the right.

But it wasn't like he'd lost his virginity this way. She knew how boys worked. As soon as they hit puberty they wanted to hump anything that moved – and they usually did. Save for Sasuke. No one had really witnessed his puberty, and even when he'd returned, he'd possessed the sex drive of a dead panda. Naruto on the other hand…

Even if he'd never stated it explicitly, she'd gotten the feeling from him and Jiraiya that Naruto hadn't always felt restrained to sit outside the brothels that Jiraiya visited while on their travels. He'd almost definitely lost his virginity to some common prostitute before he'd even reached fifteen. And he wasn't alone. That was the path that most boys in Konoha chose.

Shikamaru's reasoning was that sex terrified men. "Everyone's so worried that they're bad at it that they just want to go practice all the technical stuff with people who don't really matter," he'd said. "Then they come home, get girlfriends and become legends."

Shikamaru was probably still a virgin in that case. He was just too lazy not to be.

But aside from this unconfirmed suspicion, Sakura was pretty sure she was one of the only virgins left in her year group. When you were considered an adult at fifteen, a lot of people had already gotten busy by then. What had Sakura been waiting for?

Sasuke? Possibly.

Perhaps she'd just been too busy? Hum…

Sakura wrinkled her nose as she rinsed her arms carefully, still avoiding her breasts.

Sakura had plenty of spare time. Sometimes she just wanted to cry with boredom because she had so little to do. If she'd just settled down and picked a boyfriend she could have been busy doing him instead of moping around. But no. Sakura was too picky. If he wasn't Sasuke, he wasn't worth having.

Now Naruto had Sasuke.

Damn that blonde. First to pop his cherry and the first to get his claws into the last surviving Uchiha.

Get him to admit that though…

So here Sakura sat at the end of it all. In a bath full of sweet smelling water and half a vial of poison smeared over her breasts with the grave possibility that if she wasn't careful about keeping those breasts dry, her virginity would be lost to the most depraved individual she'd ever met.

Kakashi may have known what it was like to be used in such a way, but it was doubtful, considering the tradition of most of young men, that his first experience would be confined to a mission. He was a pervert to the core. Those books proved as much. She could almost believe the old rumor that Ino had mentioned to her – the one in which it was said that Kakashi had lost his virginity at eleven. Eleven!

(Sakura hadn't liked to dwell on that rumor, because sensei + sex equalled Ewwwwwwww…)

But still…

Sakura didn't want to give up in front of him. Not while he was there to judge her with his own experiences. She didn't want to lose his respect that way. A respect that she'd worked hard to obtain after years of always being the weakest and most useless member of Team Seven.

She wasn't a child anymore. She was an adult.

But this mission seemed to twist that perception on its head.

"Are you done?" Mai asked from behind her.

Sakura glanced down at her breasts. They were moist from water vapor, but that shouldn't have diluted the poison much. Even so, she had to be careful about toweling off. Too much vigorous rubbing, and it would all come off.

"Yes, I think so," she said, clambering out of the tub. Sakura refused to let the old woman dry her off, in favor of doing it herself. After she'd shrugged on a clean white yukata and tied her hair back, Mai led her out of the washroom and down another tangle of corridors to whatever 'chamber' Matsura had mentioned earlier.

"These are Matsura-sama's chambers," Mai announced as she ushered Sakura through a set of guarded doors.

If Matsura had matched her preconception of an old pedophile to a T, then his bedroom could have been designed on blueprints plucked from her own head.

Red drapes, black silk sheets, lots of expensive looking trinkets littering expensive little tables and cases. Swords, wakazashi, daggers and kunai. Armour, ribbons, senbon and paintings of bloody battles.

Sakura looked around with distaste. Typical, she thought. This room was revolting.

It smelled a bit funny too, but the less known about that the better.

"You will wait here for Matsura-sama," Mai told her formally. How very professional. She must be used to scrubbing up girls for her master's pleasure.

Sakura scowled at the old woman as she shuffled out of the room and shut the door behind her. When she was sure she was alone, she began looking around the room, searching for anything that might match the description the client had given about his stolen vase. And while there were several vases scattered around the room, and in a few of the connecting ones too, none of them appeared to be painted gold or imbued with blue diamonds.

Disgruntled, she stomped back into the main room and settled down on the end of the bed.

All she could do was wait for Matsura and feel a new knot of fear twist in her stomach as each minute dragged past. The anticipation was excruciating. She found herself looking for windows and ventilation shafts, simply to take note of all possible escape routes.

Would people think terribly of her if she ran away now, changed her name and became a hermit and left Kakashi to finish up the mission alone? At least she'd never have to face the reproach…

Oh, god…

Sakura ran her hands over her face and hunched over her knees. She had to stop thinking about the tempting windows and hermit lifestyles. She had to concentrate on maintaining her act of a fourteen year old girl. If she didn't pull off a convincing performance, Matsura might cotton on and then her life would be forfeit.

How did a fourteen year old orphan act in this situation anyway?

Sakura thought for a moment.

Probably very much like a seventeen year old ninja virgin.

The door slid open with a bang. Sakura shot to her feet, hands clenched in the material of her yukata sleeves. She opened her mouth to utter something – a greeting, a cry of surprise, a whimper of fear – anything.

Her mouth promptly shut, snapping down on any noise she was about to make, as Matsura swept past her as if she wasn't even there. She may as well have been a hat stand for all the attention he paid her.

Sakura's eyes followed the bulky ninja as he took a swift seat on the edge of his bed. Her hands wrung nervously as he shrugged out of his indoor coat and let it drop haphazardly to the floor. What was she supposed to say? He was pretty much ignoring her.

With a great big sigh, the great big man lay back on the bed, arms folded behind his head and beady eyes closed.

Silence reined.

Sakura wondered if he'd actually gone to sleep and forgotten all about her. Now would be a perfect time to make a quick exit-

"Are you just going to stand there?"

Sakura flinched in surprise as he spoke and gave the man a wide-eyed stare. He was looking at her, annoyed and expectant.

"Oh… sorry," she didn't know what else to say. Well, she did, but "Fuck you!" probably wouldn't go down very well.

Matsura gave another impatient sigh. "Just take your clothes off."

She'd been expecting to undress at some point for this man. There had been little avoiding it. But to hear those words in a dispassionate order sent a cold chill running through her bones. She had no problem with nudity. She'd undressed for doctors, she'd gotten changed with women in the bathhouse and had even given her male teammates a few eyefuls during certain missions. But none of that had been for sex. None of it had been for a pervert; a man who just wanted to ogle her body for his own pleasure.

It made her feel weak and vulnerable in a way she hadn't felt since she was a genin.

But she couldn't chicken out.

Rather mechanically, Sakura pulled at the sash around her middle and let the yukata fall loose. With one shrug of her shoulders, the garment slid down her arms and onto the floor. She stood in nothing but the plain gray panties she'd put on that morning and stared decisively at the old ninja, just daring him to ask her to remove them.

He didn't. He was too busy running his eyes up and down her exposed body, a light frown tugging at his low brow. Sakura almost stepped back and covered her chest at how violated that simple look made her feel.

"How old are you?" he asked shortly.

Sakura swallowed past the lump in her throat. "Fourteen." Had he noticed the flare of her hips? Did he think her waist was too narrow? She didn't think her body had changed too much in three years.

"Bit old for my tastes," he said, pulling a sneer.

Sakura didn't know if she was supposed to be offended by that or not. So she just kept her mouth shut and swayed gently where she stood. On the outside she may have looked listless and stiff, but on the inside she was trying to figure out the best way to ask someone to lick her breasts.

Not something she'd ever really had to ponder before.

Matsura beckoned her toward the bed with a large hand.

Dread seeped through her veins, but she still moved forward. Just a tool, she reminded herself. Your body is just a tool… nothing more. This means nothing. Just a tool…

She wished she could believe that.

TBC