Chapter Two: (forgive how short it is...)
Tears

I had thought that by now my tears would have run dry.

I cry and cry but it's like a river. A river that can never be diverted or stopped. Always flowing and brimming against the banks that hold it back, spilling and flooding the lands surrounding it. Thinking back I realised I've only been good at crying.

Especially when I was younger.

Like how I cried for him to stay. I cried when he rejected me and left me on a cold bench. But even before that I was crying. I would cry about being picked on. I would cry about having no special power like the other kids. I would cry about not fitting in. I cried about not catching his attention. I cried about never being able to do anything but cry.

All I would do was just simply cry.

Nothing more and nothing less.

I was so pathetic.

The only goal I had was near impossible. And I never did achieve it. I wanted to catch his attention. I wanted for him to see me as more than just some stupid girl. But there in lay was the problem, for when I had been younger I was nothing more than a crazed fan girl. Just a stupid air-headed little girl that had nothing. That was nothing. I may have been top girl of my class (Behind Ino), but I still cried. I was weak, annoying and a complete failure. Just like he said, and he had every right to point it out to me.

I was only book smart and book smarts only get you so far in life.

I had nothing.

I could do nothing.

I was nothing.

Nothing but a failure at life.

Until that day. The day when he left. The day when I asked Tsunade-sama to train me. I had finally done something other than cry. Something other than be a whiny little brat. I had done something with my life.

After three years I had grown into the strongest Konochi in my village surpassing the Hokage in medical standards and in strength. I even became amazing at Genjutsu with the help of Kakashi and Kureni after another year. I wasn't the weak link on my team anymore. I wasn't some little shit who always needed to be saved. I was saving them. Saving hundreds of lives all on my own. Nothing would hold me back. Nothing could stop me. I had made something of myself.

And I was proud of that something.

But even after years of training it still wasn't enough.

Team seven was being sent out on a retrieval mission for an individual known as Sasuke Uchiha.

At first I didn't know what to think. I was filled with conflicting emotions. Anger, hope, misery, terror, love, passion, devotion. Then there were the many questions. Could we bring him back? What would happen if we didn't? Why now of all times? Did he even wish to come home? Why go though all the trouble of showing himself now after all these years? Could this be a trap so he could actually break the bonds we share?

To many emotions.

To many thoughts.

To many questions.

After the briefing of that mission I went home and cried. I broke down and cried. After all these years of training I still didn't grow strong enough to fix anything, and just now when I needed to find courage and prove how strong I really was everything I had been taught meant nothing..unless we brought him back. Hopefully this would be better than the first attempt when he tried to kill Naruto.

I packed for my mission in a trance of sorts but not for reasons most would think. I don't love Sasuke anymore, because I never did. I only have feelings for him as a brother, or a close friend of sorts. Never as a lover. I confused the two, like the foolish little child I was. I wasn't in a trance because of my feelings for Sasuke...I was in a daze because I was scared.

I was worried about how I would do on a mission such as this. I refused to admit it out loud but I didn't think we could bring him back. I couldn't deny I had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind along with a feeling deep in my gut that there was something wrong. Something terribly wrong, and I feared I wouldn't be able to stop it. Stop it before team seven was left shattered beyond repair.

With muddled thoughts I climbed into my sheets and fell into a restless sleep, trying my best to prepare for what awaited.