Transition

Sakura is perceived from the perspectives of others as she changes during the years into something else entirely. The people near her follows her transition closely and when she starts abandoning everything she held dear - she gets closer and closer to her goal.

Chapter 17

See Me With Eyes of Ashes

Through the Eyes of an Old War Veteran, a Fox Boy and an Unmasked Man

Tracker Team Ten - Lee, Tenten and Neji

On the path of the forest in Takigakure, the red swollen sun hung loosely in the late afternoon sky over the tree tops, what met his eyes was pink and what met hers was a pair of bushy brows.

"Sakura-chan?"

"Oh, for fuck's sake." Sakura muttered as Lee started, breathed deeply and then ran to her through the path of the forest, his eyes gleaming, on the brink to tears. The pinkette formed a defensive taijutsu stance and Lee came prepared. He would bring clarity to this, to the whole spectacle a month ago. He would bring her home, even if by force. He was so lucky to have stumbled upon her in the forest as he headed back from a little mission in Takigakure.

They found themselves in a taijutsu battle, him seeing panic rising in her glazed green eyes. She had probably not counted on stumbling upon Lee.

"I know you didn't do it!" He yelled, his voice hoarse, his throat tight as he avoided a roundhouse kick. He dove past underneath it and drove a high knee thrust towards her.

"It is what it is, so see it for what it is." Sakura wheezed through gritted teeth as she back flipped away. Her hair was in a sharp bun held up by senbon and sweat and grime covered her face and body. Lee guessed she had lived in the woods for a long time, as he sprinted after her. Maybe the whole week since she left Konoha.

"I know you! You'd never let your flower rot! You'd never raise your fist against Konoha!" He proclaimed as he swept her off her feet. Sakura landed on the ground on her hands, and in one swift movement rolled back. A second after, Lee's feet planted into the ground where she had just been.

"Then what am I doing now?" She asked as she clenched her fist, jumped from her crouching position and struck him hard in the gut. Stumbling back from the force of it, Lee knew she had used chakra to strengthen her punch, and she retracted back up on a tree branch above him. Blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth and he spat it out as he jumped up on a tree branch over her. The pinkette looked up at him with dark green eyes.

"I'm rotten, Lee. Realise that!"

As they continued to fight with their fists, Lee noted the kunoichi hadn't drawn her sword, it was still strapped on her back and that made his determination fuel into an inferno. She didn't want to hurt him truly, was his conclusion as to why she hadn't drawn the sword. And she used no ninjutsu nor genjutsu. She kept the fight at a taijutsu level and Lee knew she would not win on his own ground. Maybe she was sentimental. Lee wondered if she really had been the one to strike Tsunade down.

But his thoughts were put to an end as Sakura kicked his head so hard he thought he heard his own skull crack and his ears rang. All he saw was stars as he crashed into the ground, creating a crater in the muddy forest floor. As the adrenaline in his body screamed 'danger', he slipped into the First Gate. The power from the opening of the gate made him jump up from the ground and in doing so avoiding Sakura's fast kick. He could not think of much as he saw his opponent with pink hair and he advanced, his speed increasing enormously. A flurry of his hits were barely countered by his opponent. He growled and opened the Second Gate, then the Third, then the Fourth. The grounds rumbled at his feet. His opponent would taste the ground.

Then Sakura pulled out a syringe in one movement from her thigh pocket as he was about to break her leg and she shoved it into Lee's arm. Everything blurred and he couldn't see as the poison spread through his veins within seconds, accelerated by the adrenaline and the open gates. He saw, as if in slow motion, how the pinkette raised her leg. He couldn't do anything.

"Code Break: Cherry!" Lee shouted into his earpiece which he was able to turn on at the same moment, as he crashed into a tree from the force of Sakura's kick. A minute later, Lee saw through blurred eyes iron wires with hooks flew off from the foliage of a nearby oak tree, the rounded blades of the hooks catching Sakura's arm, pushing into her flesh and to the ground as Tenten yanked the iron wire. The hooks dug deep into the kunoichi's arm and blood seeped from the wounds as Sakura grunted.

"I'll give it back. Tenfold." Tenten snarled and Lee, who slumped on the tree he had crashed into, saw in horror that the kunoichi was about to cut off Sakura's leg with her two tantos, raising them above her head as she stood in front of Sakura who was trapped by wires. Lee tried to get up, but he fell down. A few of his ribs were broken and he coughed in annoyance into his hand, not caring about the darker colour of his blood dribbling down his fingers.

"Little birds shouldn't fly away from their cages." Tenten sang, bits of madness leaking into her shrill voice as she danced towards the trapped kunoichi. "Little birds should have their wings clipped so they never fly away again."

"Tread carefully, Tenten." Sakura said as she was trapped by the rounded blades that dug deep into her arm, watching Tenten lightly walk towards her while swinging her tantos with her right hand, the other she yanked the hooks deeper into Sakura's arm. "The forests are never what they seem here."

The illusion was dispelled by Tenten with a loud snarl when she slashed her tantos down on the pinkette's leg, only to see Sakura poof into a smoke cloud. Behind her, the pink haired kunoichi appeared, drawing kunais fluently. As she leapt towards Tenten, a sudden storm of fists pummelled at her side and she jumped away, wounded with bruises and a few tenketsu points shut off.

Neji appeared behind the smoke cloud created by the flurry of a hundred fists, his eyes as opalescent as ever, and his expression was the epitome of calmness. Sakura crouched and her eyes fixated on him. Neji thought he saw her lower lip quiver as he came into view, but he dismissed it as part of the pain from her wounds.

"Eight Trigrams Palms : Revolving Heaven." He said coldly as he in a flash was within her zone. Then he pressed his feet to the ground and rotated as he started spinning rapidly, releasing huge amounts of chakra from all the chakra points on his body. In the process, Sakura was tossed away by the sudden explosive force of Neji spinning at 1200 km/h and evaporating chakra and she crashed into a tree and went through it, only to crash into a second tree. Neji could almost hear her bones cracking.

Flash stepping to her huddled form of blood and pink mussed hair he was shortly followed by Tenten, and Lee dragged himself to where they stood in front of the betrayer. The killer. The traitor wearing the disguise of a pink haired innocent girl. Neji looked down on her as she struggled to raise herself off the ground, to get away. But he wouldn't let her.

"I'm disappointed." Neji said with ice in his voice. Sakura said nothing as she was suddenly pinned to the ground, her head bowed down by Neji's hand. "I'm disappointed that you won't tell us the truth." He said then, quietly. The pinkette didn't deem him worthy of an answer as she looked down on her ravaged hands. Neji distantly noted she hadn't touched Izanami who was strapped diagonally over her back and shoulders.

"It must be some kind of scheme. Her youthful flower will never bloom in darkness." Lee added and his eyes burned, as he leaned at a nearby tree, the bruises on his legs and his slight concussion making a harsh reminder. All due to Sakura. Tenten snorted.

"She broke my fucking leg on purpose. She argued constantly with Tsunade. She's killed more than all of us together, Kakashi told me. She's deranged! All she wants is blood. No wonder she killed Tsunade. And not in a honourable fashion at that; she poisoned the saké so Tsunade would be weakened when she attacked her!" The weapons wielding kunoichi growled as she stomped up to where Neji pinned Sakura to the ground. The pinkette watched them all for one quiet moment, taking in Tenten's angry eyes, Lee's pained movements, Neji's stillness. Then she scoffed, closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they were blank, unreflecting. Almost unseeing, it seemed.

"That's right. The old bitch deserved to die." Sakura said, her first words to Neji since he had come into the forest clearing. She looked at him and the others stilled.

"Did you know what she was going to do?" Anger was audible in her voice, building up, her lower lip no longer trembling. "She was going to strip my hitai-ate. She was going to take away all that I am - a shinobi of Konoha. She was going to make me into a civilian for fuck's sake! She was the one who betrayed me! She said I was too mentally unstable to continue as shinobi. She said I didn't listen to orders and I killed as I liked - and what's wrong with that? Blood is beautiful. There is no inequality in blood. And Tsunade's blood was pretty on my hands. She deserved to die, to receive my gift." Sakura's breath became ragged, sharp, hot. The pink haired, down pinned girl grit her teeth.

"Don't you see? I gave everything for Konoha's sake. My innocence, my clean hands - I would have given my life! But for what? She betrayed me and she had to pay for it. Konoha is no longer my home - it is for the weak, the worthless and undetermined. I... despise you all!" Sakura screamed, her apple green eyes wide and intense. Sweat slipped into her eye and trailed down her chin.

"You're insane." Tenten gasped. "You're absolutely fucking insane."

Neji choked on his words. She truly had killed Tsunade. She was a traitor. He couldn't love her. There was no sense in loving her. There was no reason. She was nothing.

"You low life of a kunoichi." Tenten spat at Sakura's face. The spit dribbled down on the pinkette's cheek, her eyes emptier than ever before. Since Sakura gave no response and her display of anger had receded, Tenten grew furious and kicked the kunoichi on the ground hard enough to make her cough red liquid, making Neji's hand lose the grip of her head. The pinkette slumped on the forest floor.

"That was unnecessary." Lee said and grit his teeth, struggling to come closer to the clearing.

"Was it?" Tenten growled. "I don't know this girl. She's a defector and a murderer - the least she fucking deserves is a kick! She's got Tsunade's blood on her and she betrayed us. She's nothing to me. She's just an insane piece of shit, worse than scum."

Sakura chuckled under her ragged breath, and that was it for Tenten.

Tenten started kicking Sakura in her stomach, her face, her arms, until the pinkette's eyes almost rolled back, and Neji didn't stop her. He didn't find itself within him. He would never harm her while she was down, but he just didn't want to stop Tenten. Nor did Lee, though mostly because of his inability to move, yet he called for her to stop. Tenten wouldn't listen, so they watched. Until Tenten was left breathless and the pink had turned red she was satisfied and huffed, the rage leaving her. She looked down on the girl who still had those dead eyes, not even acknowledging the apparent pain. Not acknowledging the pained hatred in Tenten's eyes.

Lee watched Sakura and her eyes weren't full of hatred; they were full of understanding - not insanity. Or that was, perhaps, what he wanted to believe.

"We've all been brutally manipulated by her." Tenten wheezed and closed her eyes for a moment, and Neji made the mistake of looking away from Sakura to Tenten.

"Rising of the Blood Moon : stage one." Sakura whispered as she formed the ram and dragon seals together with a sign Neji had never seen before, and the prodigy cursed himself for not having chained her hands. The Konoha Nin stilled and were trapped in her little genjutsu, making them see a moon pool blood down on the forest floor and the sky turned scarlet. Neji was fast to dispel it, and he forced Tenten's chakra to drain and coil and push out Sakura's chakra, but the pinkette had already slipped his grip. Lee wasn't affected, but he was exhausted due the opening of the Fourth Gate so he didn't make much use to them now. And Neji knew he was too conflicted emotionally to actually harm Sakura due to his feelings for her.

Neji whipped a palm fist against her as he ran after her, but she was there but wasn't. A flicker, an illusion of a second that made her look like she was one centimetre to the right from where she stood or ran was all it took to create chaos as they approached her. Team Ten were fully coordinated with each other, Tenten middle ranged, Lee close combat and Neji in the rear but he changed positions with Lee occasionally. They took their turns, swivelled, jumped, crossed each other's paths without disturbing the other. However, the pinkette held up, although barely. And she was hurt. How come she evaded every strike, every hit directed at her? Did they hold back unintentionally or had she become just that good?

Then Neji realised what she had done. She had layered two genjutsus - the first with the bloody moon as a decoy and then the one-second flicker, where she left a ghost image of herself one step to the right. Clever, Neji commented to himself as he dispelled the genjutsu.

He expected no less from the pink haired kunoichi that he had once fallen for. Now, he was pulling himself up. To him, it seemed more and more likely she had killed Tsunade and betrayed Konoha. Hiashi-sama had warned him about this so many times; never get attached to someone who revels in the blood of their enemies since the blood they crave will always be red, and all shinobi has the red blood pulsing in them. Once they crave it, they can't see faces anymore. Not even familiar ones, or of the ones they love.

"Enough of this." Neji heard her murmur, her breath had become sharper and shorter. She was exhausted and wouldn't hold out for too long. Her fingers cradled each other in ram, dragon and wolf seal as she evaded a hammer directed at her from Tenten, and she ducked to avoid a high kick from Lee. Neji approached her fast, intent on ending the fight.

A scroll appeared in the pinkette's hands and she poured most of her chakra in it, then she flicked something between her index finger and thumb, something she achieved from the scroll, and an explosive tag detonated between Lee and Tenten. They evaded it but then the gas from the explosion thickened and they realised too late that it was poison gas. It had immediate effect and Tenten staggered and cursed, then fell to the ground with closed eyes. Lee slumped against the tree and his breathing slowed, his eyes drooping but they still locked on the pinkette who breathed the poison gas as if it was nothing. And his male teammate's complexion was just so hurt and pained Neji felt his head spin with anger.

"Where are you going?" Neji croaked as he fought the poison gas, trembling as he stood. He couldn't do anything, for fuck's sake. And she ran like water through his fingers.

"Anywhere." Sakura said and slipped away into the murky forestation, staggering yet still going. Neji didn't have the strength to curse as he felt the poison gas make him so sleepy, so sleepy...

He dreamed of catching goldfish. The festival's chattering noises, the laughter and the music were drained out as he focused on one particular goldfish in the clear water of the large glass bowl. He shifted his traditional dark blue yukata so it would not dip down into the water. The reflection of the surface told of a dark sky full of stars, sparkling in the far distance above. The goldfish he set his eyes on swum gently in the water and Neji caught its movements as a pattern. As he was about to swoop down at the right moment, the goldfish turned its bulging eyes up to his to stare into his own opalescent eyes of surprise.

Then it grew.

Pulsing, scales slithering, the goldfish became as large as the glass container and the other goldfishes were crushed to death. Neji fell back on the ground and stared at the goldfish that was changing and suddenly it had rows and rows of sharp teeth, all the while never breaking eye contact with him. Then it hulked and shreds of scales withered away and from its gaping mouth of teeth a woman emerged, naked and slick with water and saliva. She stepped over the glass container, stepped on the shards of glass and the mutated goldfish died. Her jade eyes pierced him.

He woke up to the sound of clattering steps and the beeping of a monitor. He groaned as he realised that the vicious pinkette had outsmarted them. Opalescent eyes met his opened ones and soft ultramarine blue hair draped over the girl's shoulder. Her white eyes widened and her dark eyelashes fluttered.

"H-he's awake! Thank g-god. Outo-sama, h-he's-"

And he hadn't been able to catch her.

The Avenger, Uchiha Sasuke

When he was back in the lair, feeling the accomplishment of the mission wash over him, he felt a slight hum from Kusanagi. Or rather, from the embodiment of Izanagi, the God of Light, creator of the world. The raven haired avenger drew the sword he once had called Kusanagi and closed his eyes. Enveloped in light within his mind, he was met by a beautiful man that gently hovered down to him from the white sky, where a throbbing black sun hung in the vault of the heavens. Marble pillars shot down from the sky and Sasuke bowed his head politely as the pillars went crashing down everywhere. The beautiful man with a black kimono and waist long charcoal black hair nodded, acknowledging his respect.

"I broke the contract with Haruno and Byakko as well as Seiryu. They're free from her command." Sasuke said lowly, meeting the God's eyes without flinching. Thanks to that lovesick pinkette and her demon sword, Izanagi had successfully been able to make contact with Sasuke after that time Team Seven found Orochimaru's lair. And Izanagi had told him everything. Sasuke did not particularly enjoy the company of a God in his mind, but the God gave him power. It was highly beneficial.

"Well done, Uchiha. We will be able to merge now, and walk as one. Finally, after all this millennia, I will be able to walk the soils of the world once again." Izanagi said and smiled triumphantly, gazing away into the imaginary white horizon.

"Merge?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes. Bring forth the contracts with Seiryu and Byakko and call for them." The beautiful man said and his eyes flickered to Sasuke's onyx orbs. The avenger almost bowed down, but didn't.

"Alright." Sasuke bit off. He didn't like being ordered around, but this God was dangerous. He was no fool. He wouldn't disobey the creator, he wouldn't question him. Sasuke left the mindscape and the God disappeared from his vision, and he opened his eyes. He was back in the real world, in his hideout. His designated room was the largest, with five meters in height it was perfect for animal summonings.

With the incantation Izanagi had taught him, the two Beasts appeared before him. They bowed humbly to the avenger.

When Sasuke gripped the sword hilt of Izanagi to wait for further orders, he felt himself move and it was not on his command. Electricity came from the sword's hilt and into his body, and he spasmed. Shaking, unused, he moved his fingers. But it wasn't him. He didn't command his fingers to move. Someone else did. Sasuke wanted to look at his sword, at Izanagi, but he couldn't. All his eyes wanted to see apparently was the white tiger. All focus lay on Byakko, who still bowed to him.

Suddenly, he found himself pinning the white tiger with his sword, into flesh and bones and sinew the sword spun into the tiger's chest. Growling in pain, the tiger screamed. It almost sounded human. In a movement, he struck Izanagi into the lungs of the Beast. The heavenly Animal drowned in its own blood, coughing and sputtering, undignified squeals of death escaped his large jaws. As the large animal form of Byakko slumped down on the ground, Sasuke turned to Seiryu.

The dragon's eyes were piercing and cold and if he had had control over his own body he would have fallen due to the sheer pressure of the heavenly animal.

Sasuke moved as he never had before. He felt like he was going to explode as he evaded Seiryu's claws, jumped over his fire infernos, rolled underneath the dragon's tail as it whirled just past him, faster than a whip. It was not his movements. What was Izanagi-sama doing?

"Otohime's blood was a beautiful silver colour. Is your blood silver as well?" Sasuke found his mouth saying with a soft leer and the dragon's azure sclerae widened. A scream erupted from deep inside the dragon's long throat, such a painful scream Sasuke had never heard in his life before.

"It was you, not Izanami-" Seiryu's voice broke and his claws scratched the ground as he prepared for a leap. The dragon roared, but then he glanced at his fallen brother Byakko and in that moment of weakness, Sasuke thrust his sword. And thrust and thrust and thrust Izanagi into the dragon's stomach, breaking skin, breaking, breaking everything. And it wasn't blood that gurgled out, it was melted silver and ugly symphonies of lost atonement. And the dragon roared and spouted fire, but Sasuke simply slashed the inferno away with his sword. Then Seiryu died and his azure sclerae cried melted silver, as if the moon flowed down the glittering scales. The large Heavenly Animal fell at Sasuke's feet.

He wanted to get away - far away, yet he was fascinated with the way his body moved. He had managed to kill a dragon with the help of an incomplete Merge, the sword and Izanagi-sama. He definitely had a chance at killing his brother now. The sword glowed with the life energy of the dragon and the tiger in his grip.

"It is time. The Merge is like music. Just play with me." Izanagi whispered to him in the light. Sasuke nodded and closed his eyes, his breathing slowing down and his heart beat was almost non existent.

Then he felt it. Power surged, electricity made him shake, he was imploding because a thousand suns laid waste to his mind. Sasuke felt a grin plastered on his face; was it his own or the God's? The raven haired young man felt how his strength multiplied countless times and he was greatness itself and he could probably fly and turn water into gold and be the end of the world. And he comprehended.

They had Merged.

But the feeling of immortality was short lived. In a sudden blast, Sasuke felt his mind being pulled into a thousand directions. The omnipotent presence of Izanagi invaded his mind and he felt himself shattering. He tried to resist, pull away, push away, but it was too late. With blinding pain, as if the sun ravaged his mind, he felt himself lose to the God.

Izanagi filled his mind to the brink and Sasuke was pushed into a cell of shackles and chains. All was fire. He tried to wriggle loose, but the burning chains only came tighter to his body and he felt his flesh burn. In seas of fires, he was shackled in a cell in the back of his own mind.

"This mortal body will be fine for now. You have some interesting eyes, Uchiha."

The God Izanagi stood outside his cell of fire and Sasuke couldn't speak. He had been fooled. Izanagi had taken over his mind, his body, his will. He could only watch as Izanagi moved his own body and was in complete control of his mind. For the first time in his life, he felt useless. It was not an appreciated feeling.

"Fuck you. Fuck you." Was all he could muster, biting and breathless, and the beautiful God only smiled gently, then disappeared in a blast of light. Sasuke tried all he could not to scream his lungs out.

He was obviously, completely royally fucked.

The Old War Veteran in the Cabin, Kurotsuchi Miura

As a twig broke under the sole of his bare feet, something in his peripheral vision caught his attention. She lay so still in the greenery he would have missed her had she not had that hair colour. The young woman barely breathed, she was bloody and held a sword like a baby in her arms. Miura wrinkled his eyebrows. He was too old for this, he tried to convince himself. But as he was about to turn his head away and pretend he had not seen the dying girl, he felt his heart ache.

I'm not like my brother, he reprimanded himself. With a heavy sigh, Miura returned to the pink haired girl. As he pawed up to her on the soft grass of the glade, he let go of the branches he had gathered and abandoned the medical mushrooms he had found.

The old man took hold of the girl's wrist and slung her over his shoulder, he wrapped up the strange old katana and carried her with him back to the cabin. His oddly slender and chiseled muscles that played underneath his loose shirt allowed for him, even though his age, to carry the pinkette like she was nothing but a feather.

Four days later she woke. He found her awake in his bed, since he had taken to sleep on the floor beside the fireplace, sitting up and she was staring at his wall. A wall, where a painting hung. It displayed a drawn swallow who was frozen in its thickly brushed movements in front of a full pale moon which hung in a sky without stars, contrasting its feathers into darkness. A poem had been beautifully written besides it. Miura's heart clenched as he read the words that he already knew without looking.

See me, see me with eyes of ashes

See me, here is a child made of gas

Alone, on a ship called night

Alone, under a sky made of glass

I will never become older than this

The one I have been, I will always be

Never older than this

The one who has loved will know how lonely you are

"That is an magnificent piece." The girl croaked, her voice unused and raspy. Her eyes were bloodshot, which made the green pupils stand out even more.

"Indeed it is. My deceased wife wrote the poem and drew the swallow." Miura explained as he sat down before her, ever so gallantly and traditionally correct he positioned himself in seiza.

"I'm sorry." She said, and there was not a hint of sadness in her voice. She only stared blankly at the painting of the escaping swallow.

"It was a long time ago. But she'll always be with me, in those words and brushed lines." The old man said and his eyes glinted.

"Thank you." The girl said after a little while. "Thank you for saving me." Miura saw how she added a few words silently, and he knew she whispered 'even though I don't deserve saving.'

"Why are you crying, girl?" Miura asked as the late afternoon sunlight reflected in a teardrop on her cheek, making it look golden.

"I don't know anymore." She said emotionlessly as tears ran down her smooth skin, forming into two little golden streams. "For your deceased wife. For what could have been. For what is worthless. For the moon. I just- I don't know."

"Those are some reasons." He commented.

"Well, I have a life time of reasons to cry." She said and her voice was frosty, rimmed with sharp needles. Sardonic, her eyes lowering until they stuck on a crack in the wall.

"There are also a life time of reasons to smile. Trust an old man on this one." He chuckled and she raised her head, looking at him for the first time he entered the room. Her eyes glittered in recognition, then the flame died out just as fast. As if she had dismissed a thought.

"What is your name?" He asked her and she frowned, combing through her dirty pink hair with her slender fingers.

"Utsuro Sen." She said without hesitation. He chuckled to himself.

"Then, Utsuro-san, my name is Kurotsuchi Miura. You may simply call me Miura, little one."

"I am not so little." She said politely and defensively, yet he heard the bite in her tone.

"To me, liars are always little." He said and his grey eyes flittered to her widening green ones. She recovered quickly.

"How did you know? I gave nothing away in my expression. My breathing was perfect. I didn't think too long nor too little. My voice was steady. How did you know?"

"Little liars should know what gives them away. Are you truly a kunoichi, little girl?"

"Of course I am a kunoichi, old man. And a capable one at that." She said through gritted teeth, swelling her chest with unhidden anger.

"Apparently only by your own low standards, then." Miura chuckled.

"You-" She snapped, but then closed her eyes for a moment, taking a breath. Miura thought he had seen her eyes become white, but that must have been a play with the late afternoon sunlight reflecting in her eyes. Her anger receded and she controlled her breathing, her knitted eyebrows relaxing visibly.

Miura was not entirely impressed - controlling one's emotions was one of the most essential aspects of a shinobi's essence and partly reason of being. But this girl was nothing but an emotional wreck. He had only needed to press the sore wounds on her pride and heart and she had just let it all out. She had realised her mistake in the end, but if he had been an enemy, it would have been too late. Emotions were not unnecessary, was his belief, but in order to live life as a shinobi, one needed to be able to control them.

"You lie as well." Her voice suddenly rang to his ears like chiming bells in a breeze and the old man was caught in his mind's process. He stared at the pinkette who now had opened her eyes and she looked at him directly, her eyes clear of all anger. Purely verdant.

"Your deceased wife did not paint nor draw the swallow piece." She stated. Miura only looked at her for one moment, reassessing her abilities. Then he smiled sadly.

"The truth is that it was a lie." Miura agreed.

"You were the one to draw the swallow and write the poem." She said steadily.

"Correct. How did you know?"

"Your hands. The curve of the inside of your index finger tells of daily use of brushes, where it usually rests as you draw. There is a little ink stain in the corner, a smudge, probably where you usually draw. The poem was written with delicate swirls, similar to your drawing. However, that was only an assumption. And you confessed to it being true."

Miura smiled and nodded, tapping his cane with his fingers.

"Better, little one."

"Thank you." The pinkette smiled and Miura was glad there was a fire, or a little smouldering charcoal at least, lit in her eyes. Before, they had been more dead than the rotten leaves on the frosty grounds in autumn. He decided to help her.

They sat in silence as Miura rewrapped the bandages on the girl's body, cleaned the wounds and gave her some medical tea to help her sleep better. When he left her he looked back for one moment as he stood on the threshold to his now rented room, and he found her staring intensly at the fleeing swallow. Her eyes were clearly verdant and almost glowed in the dim light from the fading fireplace.

The Shark Man, Suigetsu

Sasuke had become strange, since that day he had gone without saying where. He came back more powerful, more contemplative. It seemed like he had become more curious, about the world, about them. Something was up, but Suigetsu couldn't for the life of it figure out what. Juugo was the one who had noticed first, but Suigetsu had shrugged it off. Karin had defensively hit him in his face, saying there was nothing wrong with Sasuke-kun.

But Suigetsu wondered, as he saw Sasuke standing outside the lair. The man was watching the moon.

The Old War Veteran in the Cabin, Kurotsuchi Miura

The girl was healing, but she was healing slowly. On the seventh day of her stay in his house, Miura understood that the girl didn't only need to heal her body.

When they ate dinner in silence, Miura knew he had grown fond of the girl. That was the reason he let her stay and recuperate. But she had been having little tidbits of moments when her face went blank and her eyes shifted colour. When she washed the dishes, helped him staple wood in the fireplace, when she tried to walk a longer distance together with him to the lake. She had so far seemed to be able to suppress whatever intense emotions she felt, but Miura wondered. He watched the girl swirl her noodles in circles with her chopsticks in front of him.

As Sen ate a scoop of noodles, she scrunched her nose and swallowed harshly, he saw she tried to hide her disgust but it was too apparent. He caught a flicker of an emotion he had not seen in her eyes before. As she stared at the noodles, she bit her lip and turned her head away.

"Is something wrong? It wasn't good?" He asked as he stirred his noodles, catching an onion with his chopstick. She looked up, startled and she put her chopsticks down.

"Ah, no! No, it's good. It's fine. I just thought I saw a hair strand in my udon." She smiled faintly. Green eyes blank.

"It's soba, Sen." Miura frowned.

The pinkette fell silent and her nose wrinkled as she looked at the noodles again. A sharp intake of a breath through her teeth warned Miura of what was to come.

"I-I feel sick." She stuttered and stumbled up from the table.

"Sen!" He called, still a bit of noodles in his mouth. "What's wrong?" He asked again and she only bit her lip, not saying anything. "You must tell me, so I can help you. Is it the wounds?"

"It's not... I know how this might sound, but I see worms in my noodles." She breathed. Choked. "They're crawling- slithering and wriggling, you- crunch bones and when you eat, you break the worms with your teeth and it crunches-" Her voice came out in short gasps and her eyes turned glazed. Kurotsuchi recognised the panic attack and swallowed harshly as he rose to walk to her.

"There are no worms in your noodles, nor in mine. It's only noodles." He said, tried to reassure, and gripped her shoulder gently. She shook under his gangly, wrinkly fingers.

"I know. But she makes me see it." She said breathily, her voice raspy as she yanked her head around and her apple green eyes were wild. Then her gaze went to the walls and they widened, as if the walls were bleeding.

"Please, stop!" She closed her eyes, wrenched and gripped her hair as the shaking in her body escalated. "Please, Izanami-sama!" She screamed and begged, clawing at her arms frenetically. He tried to wrench her fingernails from her skin, there was blood underneath her nails, and she squirmed in his grip. He had no time to wonder why she had called out a goddess' name.

"Please- I'm breaking..." She sobbed in his arms, her eyes hysterical and pained. "It tasted like salt, blood and bile - and sinewy muscles and crunchy bones. It tasted like..." Realisation then seemed to dawn on her scrawny features. "Like regret. I'm eating everyone I ever killed. She makes me-"

Then without a warning she hurled and hulked and vomited down on the floor and she cried, and cried and spit out everything there was in her stomach. Like she wanted to puke out her own soul.

"I hate noodles." She cried, shook and Miura cradled her to him. She was warm.

"You should have told me. I could have made a nice okonomiyaki instead."

"Okonomiyaki sounds… better." The girl sobbed in his arms.

After a while, the girl calmed down. Miura didn't ask why she had broken down - that was something for her to tell him. He was not one to probe. But he decided he would let her stay until she saw no more worms in her noodles.

On the tenth day, she pulled out black bracelets from a scroll and clipped them onto her wrists and ankles, three on each arm and wrist. It looked decorative, but he had seen the heaviness in her movements which was enough to be able to understand that they were not simple ugly bracelets.

"I'm going out training in the mountains, old man. I'll be back by night fall." Sen smiled at him. Miura knew the girl had gotten a bit better, but last night she had seemed to have a conversation with her sword. The old man frowned as he questioned her sanity silently.

"Wait. You're going to build a close relationship with regret with those weights - they will pull your arm out of your socket. It'll rip open your wounds, and they've just healed." He reprimanded the pinkette and poked on the heavy bracelets. Sen only smiled reassuringly again.

"Not if I constantly channel chakra in my body." She grinned and threw around her arms, showing her still intact flexibility even though she wore weights of more than hundreds of kilos.

"Can you really do that? That ability is certainly above Jounin level." Miura commented. Something flashed in the girl's eyes, but it was gone in an instant.

"I can do it for a while, yes, and only in small amounts since my chakra pools are small. This leads to putting a strain on my body physically as well as mentally with the constant chakra flow, and lets my body get accustomed to the weights. Cycling chakra through my limbs augments their strength. When my chakra ends and I stop channeling it I will not be dragged down by the sudden feel of the weights; I will have gotten accustomed to them and my muscle tissue would have gotten stronger by then." Sen explained and ruffled her cotton candy hair.

"Good thinking. But it's hard channeling chakra continually and slowly dissipating it at the same time, I know it very well." Miura commented. It was then that Sen seemed to understand Miura was not just an civilian old man, and he grinned inwards at that.

"Yes, that's why I have been practicing it since my youthful training sessions with a taijutsu master a long time ago. I wouldn't have been able to keep up with him had I not used my chakra, strengthening my whole body."

"I see." Miura said and knacked on his cane. "As long as you don't reopen your wounds."

"I'm quite good with healing in my right hand, so I'll be fine." Sen nodded and made a thumbs up with her right hand. "And good job surviving to this age as a shinobi, old man." Sen blinked and then was gone in whirlwind.

Miura stood silently for a while in the door, sadness blurring his vision.

"Surviving is not always the best of things.", he muttered and slowly walked inside the cabin.

The Man of Shadows, Shimura Danzo

The work as Hokage was not like he had anticipated. It was duller than he had first thought. Mountains of paperwork, little things he had thought to be handled by lower administrators was handed to him. He could care less for the Academy's new curriculum. He could care less for the dispute between two smaller Clans that could escalate to a little feud. What he wanted... He wanted something else. He didn't want the political intrigues, he wanted respect. Fear. He wanted to rule so that none dared disobey him. And paperwork just didn't do that for him.

He couldn't handle Konoha like he did Root, he realised one day. There were too many feelings he couldn't step on, too many unpredictable factors that never existed in Root. In Root, he was the obvious commander. He was never questioned, his authority as clear and fearful as the burning sun in the sky. But as a Hokage, he actually received lesser respect. Two little snotty kids bumped into him on the road the day before yesterday, and they didn't even add '-sama' when they apologized to him. Just a petty 'sorry, new Hokage'.

However, he did enjoy other things. Him being the commander of ANBU made him able to submit a few Root operatives into the forces. He could always trust them to be loyal to him. He had almost complete control over the Council, since he had bribed more than half and they knew of his secret Root operatives and their capabilities. He always had one or two things to say to the ancient Clans - they would listen to the Hokage, plus he had a few favours they owed him which made him have the upper hand against most of the old Clans. They listened to him. Because he was the pillar Konoha was supported by.

Other matters, like the villages waging war against Suna - he couldn't care less for the lives that were to be lost and the destruction to come. The best outcome from that invasion would be for Suna to be weakened and then Danzo could pretend to help them with the intention of them becoming more than allies to Konoha - he would be their Hokage as well. And if Suna prevailed in the war against the Kirigakure and Iwagakure - Danzo knew that would leave them weakened back in their own villages. He could propose a treaty, or something of the like. Maybe he could kidnap someone of importance and connect other ties?

The possibilities were many. And he could thank the Haruno for it.

The Fox Boy, Uzumaki Naruto

Naruto wandered without any goal in mind around in the Hokage Tower. It was in the middle of the night and he didn't really know how he had gotten there. The day's training session with Sai and Kakashi had been intense, and had let his mind wander away and he could take a breath. But now he couldn't think straight. When his movements took over his being, evading, hitting, trashing - he was alright. Now he had nothing else to focus on but his own thoughts. And it was not a nice place nowadays, his mind. He had lost two teammates. And he hadn't been able to do anything about it.

He was a failure.

A light smell of antiseptic and saké brought him back from his mind's process and he noticed he had clenched his fists so hard his fingernails had broken the skin on his palms. His blond head jerked sideways when he heard a laughter he just couldn't have imagined. It couldn't be.

It was boisterous and deep and not feminine at all. In a movement, he crashed through the wall to where he smelled the scent he could recognise anywhere. In the rubble and splinters of the destroyed wall, he found himself in a library as he stumbled inside. As the dust settled, Naruto saw two women leisurely drinking tea at a table. They looked up at him and Naruto's heart stopped beating.

"Oh. Hello, brat." Tsunade said and sighed into her tea cup.

"What the fuck."

Author's Note

Hiya!

I kinda had this chapter finished already so I thought, why not just get it out there? :D

And there seems to be mixed feelings on the continuation of Transition amongst the reviewers. So I'd like to know three things from you guys!
1. What did you like about Transition?

2. What did you dislike about Transition?

3. How else would you have written it?

A big fat thanks to you guys that are still hanging around! Sometime in the future I might rewrite the whole shabam, but we'll see about that. I can't please everyone, I have noticed. So for now, I'll do as I like. Mehe.

Cheers!

fascalia