That night, that one night without pain, seemed so long ago now, like a distant dream, only half real. She hadn't changed much, she supposed. Her hand once again grazing the skin just beneath her right eye, her sensitive fingertips glossing just over her milk pale skin. Her left arm twisted in odd ways as her shattered bones reset themselves, a fleeting reminder of tonight. She tilted her head up again, feeling the moon's soft light pour over her. Sighing as the cool breeze, hardly a breath, ghosting through her long, inky hair; she didn't feel quite so broken here, up above the village.

"Father," Her voice froze in her throat, words failing her. Anger and hurt building in her stomach.

"I know." the voice rumbled through her bones. Tears like pearls slipped silently down her cheeks. The slip of rough cloth and metal she clutched in her hand bound her, chained her. She had never wanted this. She had failed purposefully, but the Hokage had wanted another Yondaime. Had FORCED her into this life, not that he knew it was her. To him, she was Naruto; the empty headed baka of the academy. She didn't exist to these people, she was just a tool.

"We're all tools aren't we? They just can't think of us as anything but puppets, inanimate creatures without feeling or thought. Anyone in power is just a puppet master, and people follow their strings without a second thought." Tears dripped from her left eye, making trails of gleaming white through the dirt of earlier.

"Yuzuki." Her father's voice soothed, "Do not fret kit, dream. I shall keep you safe." she needed no more encouragement, her eyes slid closed, sleep was a welcome oblivion. The delicate white butterflies that pooled around her moved, bubbling to create a shell around her. And the same eyes kept her company in the dark as always had, and always would. I will always keep you safe my kit, even if I must destroy this village, if I must burn the sky, I will do it for you.

Her eyes fluttered open to harsh light, but for once it wasn't the sun that drew her wrath, today it was the hospital lights that tore her from her father's comforting gaze. She forced herself to lie perfectly still, to keep her breath deep and even, to keep her mismatched eyes closed.

"We will tell him that he was attacked by Mizuki, not a word of what really happened. He can't know that they tried to kill him." They thought they could keep her in the dark, HER! When she had been there? Fought for her existence, she wouldn't call this life. She stopped the yowl building in her throat, concentrating only on the burning in her eye, forcing it to recede. She let her body relax for just a second, before she sensed they had moved just enough; her body coiled and sprang tumbling out the open window to the ground four floors below, where she landed like a cat, her sharp nails digging into the ground to steady her from the shock. She stood gracefully, even in this stocky body. With a twitch of her fingers smoke like butterflies rose from her skin and gathered around her covering her body, clinging to her and each other, quickly Yuzuki released the genjutsu on her appearance, her black hair fluttered around her in the almost unnoticeable beats of her butterflies' wings.

"Yuzuki,"

"Don't worry father, they won't recognize me." Carefully she stood, her yukata shifting delicately.

"Yuzuki, are you strong enough?" her father's worried voice caused Yuzuki's grey-blue eye to soften.

"I am always strong enough." Her voice did not waver. "After all, what is pain to me?"