**Chapter features detailed descriptions of abuse

The next day they were on a train heading to the Land of Snow. Minka was wearing dark gray, long pants, tall black boots, a dark blue long sleeved shirt, and a light gray vest. She kept arm wraps on for an additional layer of warmth and had a scarf wrapped around her waist in case she needed more warmth around her neck.

Konohamaru was wearing his normal pants, but added tall boots as well, and wore a vivid blue shirt under a black jacket, his signature scarf laying over it. They glanced at each other a few times but Konohamaru and his team were technically on a mission, so they didn't try to find time together for the moment.

Minka was stir crazy and explored the train car a bit. Some lawyers were discussing something privately in the car in front of hers, but they seemed to resolve their concerns with one another before coming into her car to chat.

"Do you mind talking to us a bit?" one asked. "Since you'll be testifying?"

Minka nodded. "I definitely can."

They all sat down in some chairs that were able to swivel to face each other and Konohamaru was guarding the front door of the train car, while Sarada was guarding the rear door. The other two ninja were likely with the conductor and at the caboose, watching the exterior of the train instead.

"Tell us a bit about your childhood," the lawyer began.

She sighed, glancing at Konohamaru briefly. He met her eyes but nodded shallowly and turned to the side, letting her know he was still focusing on work, and not trying to be involved in her business at the moment.

"My earliest memory was walking with my mom in the snow one day," she began. "She didn't have shoes though. I still don't really know why, but I think it's because we didn't have much money." The lawyer nodded grimly, jotting down notes. Another lawyer had a recorder to tape the discussion, in case references were needed later.

"I grew up in a house that was on the outskirts of an already rural village. It didn't have much heating because we didn't have much wood to burn inside. Our meals were usually cold and small, but that's pretty typical in poor households, so I didn't think anything of it when I was younger," she continued. "While I was still young though I heard my parents fighting a lot. I don't remember the first time I saw my dad hit my mom - but he never slapped her. He would punch her," she flinched. "And he was never drunk. He abhorred drinking. He stayed sober."

"Minka, I hate to interrupt and have to be callous, but… do you have any references to back up his sobriety?" the first lawyer asked.

She nodded. "You can ask any barkeep in the village. He would snub them and openly be rude to the owners," she said. At a nod from the lawyer, she continued. "He would argue with and hit my mom in front of me. It was usually over not having enough money or food, but he was the one managing the finances, and wouldn't let her work. When I was about six he started physically abusing me, too. I think the first time I remember him hurting me was when I threw a snowball at him outside. It accidentally hit him in the face and he took me inside and slammed my face against the wall once. It knocked out some of my teeth."

Minka paused. "If the doctor that was around when I was a kid is still there, they should be able to attest to giving me some stitches along my lip." The primary lawyer nodded. She sighed, then continued, listing a few different instances of abuse, citing people she thought might still be around. Konohamaru and Sarada were appalled at the story, knowing such evil exists in the world, but forgetting that it can affect anyone and everyone. They were also concerned about Minka - she hadn't sounded sad or close to tears even once, just reciting everything like she was made of stone.

"The worst instance I can remember of blatant abuse towards me, not the starving or freezing, was when he beat me and burnt me with a hot poker," she noted. "He wouldn't let me go to school so when he found out I'd been trading things for books and had learned to read, he was livid. We had the small stove with a fire and he took a metal rod, hitting me with it and then holding me down and burning me along parts of my legs and hips that wouldn't be visible to others. I still have the scars."

The lawyer nodded, growing more and more solemn. "Are you able to talk about your mother?" he asked grimly.

"Heh. Yes, I can definitely talk about my mother," she growled. "When I was about eleven, a few years after he'd burnt me, I had largely learned how to avoid the worst of the abuse. But one day I came home from running errands with my mom and something seemed off. He was sitting at the table, smiling and acting pleasantly. We worked on our typical chores while he just chit chatted with us. It was disturbing," Minka started, staring at the ground. "Then he just stands up, asks my mother for a hug, and slams her head down into the table. He did it over and over again, yelling about her stealing money from him to run away, and how we could never leave him. I was throwing myself at him, biting and punching and kicking, but I was so small compared to him. He threw me off and I slammed back against the wall, hitting my head. I tried to get up to grab a knife but the kitchen was far away and I couldn't walk."

She took a deep breath and continued. "He kept yelling at my mom and slamming her head down, her face was covered in blood and unrecognizable. I think I was screaming but don't really remember, but I know she wasn't saying anything, so I was scared. He finally held her up and choked her. She kind of shivered and shook, before she went limp and he threw her on the floor. When I was able to get up enough to crawl, I crawled over to her and just laid with her, because I knew I couldn't do anything."

She had some silent tears on her face. Konohamaru couldn't take his eyes off of her for the last part of her story - he hadn't felt such disgust towards a person besides Orochimaru and felt his heart breaking at Minka's suffering. Sarada had walked out of the train car, guarding from the other side instead, when Minka had started talking about her dad slamming her mom's head into the table.

"My dad kicked me until I passed out. When I woke up, I heard voices outside, and my dad talking to them. It was something about cleaning up the house and telling everyone we had ran away. They picked up my mom's body and mine and took us to the middle of nowhere. They didn't care if we were dead or alive, because where we were, we'd die of hypothermia soon if we weren't already. So they dumped us off and when I was able to, I stood up and cried over my mom. I remember my face hurting because the blood and tears kept freezing over. I said goodbye, but decided then that I'd live twice the life I would've have, so she could live through me," Minka said, her voice cracking.

"So how'd you survive?" the second lawyer asked.

"I was walking through the tundra and couldn't see anything anywhere. Thankfully it wasn't snowing so it was peaceful. I eventually fell down because my limbs were going numb, and I was crying and thinking about how unfair it all was. I swore with every bit of my body that my dad wouldn't get away with it, and that I'd protect everyone from him," she whispered. "I don't know how or what, but I guess my emotions accessed a part of me that was inherently in tune with chakra… I remember fire forming on my hands, and I was able to cup it and nurture it to warm up enough to walk on. I eventually made it to some other small town I didn't know of, where they cared for me and then sent me to the city. Everything from then on is on paper with the courts," she finished.

The lawyers nodded, expressing again their grief, and began discussing concrete details - who was with her dad when they were cleaning up the house, who else has evidence to help, etc. Konohamaru was staring at the ground, lost in his thoughts and emotions, and also decided to step outside of the train car.

After another hour or two Konohamaru went on his rounds to check on his team. Sarada was still visibly upset but said she was okay, and the other two hadn't seen anything odd going on outside. When he went back to the original train car only the lawyers remained, and they said Minka had gone to the sleeper car to rest. He walked that way, coming to the small room that was hers, and knocked. At her acceptance he poked his head in.

"Hey," he whispered. "Do you want me to do anything, to help with how you're feeling?" he asked, assuming she was feeling a lot of things.

Minka was wrapped up in her blankets, her head and face partially covered. She shook her head no. "I just… need to think. Process. Feel," she whispered.

He nodded, getting ready to turn away.

"Konohamaru?" she asked. He stopped, turning to look at her. "Do you… want to hear what my mom was like?"

He was a bit surprised, but then realized it made sense - she had relived the most horrifying moment of her and her mother's life. She wanted to relive some good things, too. "I'd love to Minka," he said.

She beckoned for him to sit on the bed and she placed her head on his lap, wrapping up once again in her blanket. He set one hand on her side, and the other on her head, gently running along her hair. "Well, I might've gotten my dad's hair, but I got her eyes and everything else really…" she started. She recounted over the next hour or so the good memories her mother had worked to forge for her daughter, even through so much hardship. Konohamaru flinched occasionally when those memories were something like a funny conversation they had while her mom was stitching up a wound, but he supposed that was just their reality.

Minka had cried on and off but not like she had that day at the Hokage's office. She had turned to curl up towards Konohamaru, her head still on his lap but her hands poking out from the blankets enough to hold one of his. He pulled her hands up, leaning over and kissing them gently. "Your mom sounds like she was the most beautiful person in the world," he whispered.

Minka's face scrunched with another round of tears as she nodded. "She really was," she muttered. Konohamaru held her through this wave of grief as well. When Minka had settled again, she seemed very tired.

"You should go ahead and sleep," Konohamaru said.

She nodded, yawning. The sun was only setting but it had been a hard enough day for her that it made sense to go ahead and sleep. Konohamaru had to pry himself away from her, desperately wanting to stay instead, but he was on night shift for guard duty and went to check in with Mitsuki, his other half for the evening.

Dinner was served and Konohamaru helped himself to his portion, and after confirming with Minka that she didn't want hers, he split it with Mitsuki. Before taking a bite himself, Mitsuki paused. "Konohamaru sensei," he said. "This food isn't right."

"What do you mean?" Konohamaru asked, lowering his chopsticks.

"There's something in it," Mitsuki continued. He sniffed the food closer and nibbled a tiny bit. "It's poisoned," he stated simply.

Konohamaru made a face. "Are you absolutely sure?" he asked.

Mitsuki nodded. Konohamaru instructed Mitsuki to go catch anyone else eating and test their food while Konohamaru ran to the dining car, trying to see who was in the kitchen and serving areas. Mitsuki soon joined Konohamaru, confirming no one else had a poisoned plate, and was then tasked to finding the source of the poison.

Konohamaru had already been questioning everyone and checking for suspicious persons, but not yielding anything yet. No one had entered or exited the train in hours, so they had to still be present. Mitsuki soon came back to report the source of the poison: a small bottle of a common poison that had been tied in a back, then thrown in the trash. "One of my snakes found it," he said. "It's a common poison for assassins to use."

They brainstormed a plan forward and set to work for the rest of the night. They woke up Boruto and Sarada to assist and provide additional security, one guard posted on Minka's room the whole night. "I bet someone is trying to prevent her from testifying," Konohamaru sighed.

Team 7 nodded, in agreement. "But we won't let them stop her!" Boruto assured him.