Part III

As he had grown older, Kakuzu had grown to dislike old people. Perhaps this came from when Takigakure had just begun developing as a village. Back when he had failed to assassinate Hashirama. He had returned to the village and—well, he became who he was today shortly after. The village elders had thought they had known what was best for the village and Kakuzu had decided that the village was better off without the elders.

However, since then it has been quite a long time since Kakuzu has even interacted with an elderly person, who he wasn't assigned to assassinate, extort, etcetera. Perhaps what Kakuzu didn't like then was not old people necessarily, but rather just seeing old people.

Their faces were crinkled and wrinkled like the autumn leaves…and on that note Kakuzu also really didn't like the trees' leaves in autumn. While many beheld in their colorful red, orange, and yellow beauty, Kakuzu saw no point in even describing the leaves to be beautiful in the first place. After all once autumn ended, most all those beautiful leaves became a dirty, musty brown.

Kakuzu was a realist after all.

But as he left his village, after successfully completing his mission, the autumn wind began stirring up again, swirling the leaves all about him. And as the wind began to die, and the leaves began to settle, he could spy a woman quite a ways down the road. She wore traditional clothing, an orange-yellow kimono, appropriate for the season. Her long, black hair ran down her back, and it was tied off with a red ribbon right near the end, just like the way Hitomi always wore her hair.

He stopped walking.

"It's not her," Kakuzu's reason scolded himself, but he still couldn't find it in himself to continue walking. Instead his thoughts ran away from him. They tried to remember what Hitomi actually looked like, but failed. They could only remember her eyes: honey-brown and always crinkled with a smile.

Kakuzu drew away from his thoughts, returning his attention to the woman down the road.

"It's not her." This time Kakuzu said this aloud; he was a realist after all.

He blinked the woman was no longer there. He was alone on the road, surrounded by the autumn leaves.

As he began walking again, he noticed his footsteps, more specifically how audible they were. And all of a sudden he wondered where the birds were, where the dragonflies were, where the autumn wind was. His surroundings had suddenly become very still and very quiet, save for the sound of his footsteps.

But down the road he could see another person, from what he could tell an old woman. She crouched at the side of the road, picking small, light purple flowers.

Kakuzu thought nothing much of her, and continued on his way, determined to get away from Takigakure. As he did the wind began to pick up again, and just as he was near-approaching the old woman, she looked up at him.

Her eyes were honey-brown and crinkled with a smile.

Kakuzu found himself frozen. The old woman could clearly see his face, or at least what he showed of it, from where she was crouching. Her eyes were locked on his, and she kept the contact as she rose from her crouching position.

A slight moment passed, before she smiled at him and said, "Kakuzu, welcome home."

As much as he loathed to admit it, Kakuzu was, for a second, lost for words. Hitomi's hair was now a dingy gray, and while she was still thin, the skin on her face now slightly sagged and was riddled with freckles and wrinkles…but her eyes were still the same warm, honey-brown.

"You're alive," Kakuzu finally said, so quietly he was almost unsure on whether or not he had said that aloud.

"I am," Hitomi laughed. "And so are you."

Kakuzu became quiet again and very still. Hitomi seemed to sense his troubled thoughts. "I'm actually here you know. It's not a dream."

Kakuzu almost wanted to reach out to make sure, but refrained from doing so.

"But I am wondering if I am dreaming of you or not," Hitomi laughed again, but this time her laughter was weighed down with a hint of melancholy.

When Kakuzu still said nothing, Hitomi sighed, but smiled. "I'm happy you came home, even though you're already leaving. I'm sure Keiga would have been happy too."

"Where is Keiga?" Kakuzu had to ask.

Hitomi's smile faltered slightly. "He died many years ago…in the second war."

"I see. I—" Kakuzu stopped himself. He didn't really know what he could say to her. He shouldn't even be talking to her in the first place and yet…

Hitomi seemed to understand. Somehow she always did. "There's nothing for you to apologize for Kakuzu. If anything, I should be the one who's sorry."

"What for?" Kakuzu asked curtly.

"For not going with you those many years ago."

Kakuzu found himself to be truly speechless. If anyone had to be sorry, then it was—

"I'm glad to see that you're doing alright, and I'm glad I got to see you one more time" she continued, beginning to move past him, and before she started her way home, she looked at him once more. "Goodbye Kakuzu."

He didn't reply, and he didn't watch her go, but he could hear her footsteps slowly getting farther and farther away. It was not until her footsteps became dangerously faint that he turned his head. He could see her down the road gradually getting smaller.

She was still there.

She had always been there.

Silently cursing himself, Kakuzu began walking, and this time he did not look back. After all, what was one heart compared to five? What was one compared to eternity?