Black Fog

Seven o'clock, morning.

Unlike the past several weeks, the sun was especially bright and warm today. There wasn't a single hint of rain clouds to be seen.

They strolled leisurely together through the residential district, the quietest part of the village.

Sensei's footsteps were balanced and even. Her own footsteps were light, almost skipping.

She had been on a standard courier mission to Konoha, and to her delight, she'd ended up crossing paths with her old sensei. He had even agreed to chat with her, however briefly, before she left. It had been so long since she last saw the calm and controlled diplomat and she couldn't help the way her heart skipped a beat when they began walking together.

He listened to her tales of recent missions and offered his own views and advice, just like he always did.

She inquired after his health, as per usual. He gave her the usual evasive response.

But she knew he was being very careful. As a known Suna ambassador, he was the target of many assassination attempts. Poisoning wasn't a problem because he always bought his own food, prepackaged, at random intervals. Said prepackaged food was always eaten within an hour, sometimes within minutes of purchase.

It wasn't the healthiest of diets, but he had assured her that he regularly kept track of the nutrients his body needed, so she did not push the issue.

Besides, she wasn't a doctor. And he was an adult who knew how to take care of himself.

She was just his ex-student, a person who he didn't mind speaking to because of his seniority over her.

All she could do was wish him good health and long life.

.

.

She had followed her dear sensei's lead without watching or caring where they were going. He knew this village better than her. She was just happy that they were able to talk like this.

Because she had missed him terribly. His diplomatic work always kept him away from Suna.

It was a miracle she'd been able to go on with her own life without seeing him for days on end.

Just as she'd thought while she was younger, a part of her heart would love this man and long for him forevermore...

Sensei had been the first to sense the presence of multiple people. When he stopped walking, so did she.

An inventory of their surroundings revealed that they were standing near an apartment complex. A group of men were huddled in a circle, speaking in low voices. There were six of them. To her surprise, her sensei boldly approached the group.

She hurried after him, and caught the faintest of whispered words from the men in the process by pure accident.

Divorcee.

Sensei called out to them. They appeared to be all civilians. One stood out in particular because of the work uniform he was wearing, which bore the logo of the nearby convenience store. She did not recognize any of the men's faces, however. The circle broke, but they all stayed together.

Perhaps they were acquainted with sensei.

He politely asked the six men if there were any problems.

They shared glances and denied the existence of any such things. One of them lazily polished a pair of heavy-duty binoculars as the others made small talk with the redheaded ambassador.

Sensei nodded and beckoned her to follow him.

They had made it to about one block before he abruptly stopped walking and told her that he had some urgent business to attend to.

She knew he was a workaholic who never truly rested despite being on leave, but this struck her as odd. Because sensei himself had been the one to request this vacation time from the Kazekage.

So she quietly asked him if this sudden, urgent business had anything to do with the group of men they'd come across.

He gave her a curt affirmative answer before vanishing in a swirl of sand, his signature shunshin.

She shrugged and turned to walk back to her own temporary quarters.

But her thoughts were decidedly uneasy.

There was something about the look of those men, and the way they hid in the shadows of the buildings...

And her sensei's expression had been perfectly blank while he spoke but his anger had been so strong, it was palpable.

She whirled around and raced back to the spot they had encountered the men.

.

.

This time, the six men had moved a bit farther away from the original area.

They huddled together, no longer in a circle, but facing the tall apartment complex and passing a pair of binoculars.

She followed their line of sight to a particular window, which had the curtains drawn save for a small crack.

It was clear that they were spying on someone.

But who?

And... where was sensei?

She felt herself shiver. Something shot from her neck to her feet.

The tallest of the men snorted something she couldn't hear under his breath. The man currently holding the binoculars chuckled and cooed. His words were carried over to her by the wind.

Looks like the divorcee is ready to give us a show.

Without warning, the sand began to swirl around their legs and feet.

All six men startled, their screams cut off by the thick waves that wrapped around their heads and bodies. The pair of heavy duty binoculars was wrenched painfully out of the man's fingers, drowning into a sea of light brown.

She saw her sensei at last, emerging from the shadows with murder in his eyes.

She had seen his determination, his anger. She was aware of his abilities and had witnessed several of his battles. And it wasn't ever like this. In those battles he was a blank slate. Unemotional. Sometimes, even bored. Killing people was just another job to him, which was the common behavior of shinobi.

For the first time in her life, she witnessed him with the desire to kill someone. For the first time in all of her years of knowing him, she felt afraid of him.

And then...

Just like that, they were gone.

Bodies, sand and all.

There was no blood. No telltale trace of their existence anywhere. It was a perfectly executed ambush.

Her knees went weak, and she dropped to the ground.

All she could think was that her sensei had possibly killed six people without remorse.

No. Nononono.

She couldn't stay like this. She needed to find him. It couldn't end like this.

And she wanted an explanation.

Why her mature and reasonable sensei do this. There had to be an explanation.

There had to be.

.

.

Twenty minutes later she finally found him again in an old empty playground.

When they were close enough to each other, he began to make small talk. Like he always had when they were spending time together.

It was something she coveted during those short moments she was with him.

But now...

The blood was visible on his maroon colored clothing. The coppery smell of freshly spilled blood was very noticeable.

In her mind, she saw those men get swallowed by the sand.

And it was driving her crazy.

Her cry cut his small story short.

All of the questions she had planned to ask him came tumbling out of her mouth, like water that broke through a dam.

He apologized for the idle talk, and told her that he would get right to the point.

Chocolate brown met jade.

Please get rid of the report you've written on the incident.

Her heart began pounding faster. She almost couldn't breathe.

Why.

Why. Why. WHY.

Why? Because... I don't like it.

It was protocol to do this when killing in an allied nation. Why would he try to get rid of the evidence? He didn't do anything wrong, did he?

At least, that was what she'd been trying to tell herself.

But here he was, asking her to destroy the report. It wasn't as if the Hokage wouldn't eventually find out about the ki-... the incident.

This wasn't making any sense. Her beloved sensei wasn't making any sense.

Sense? Sense must be a very subjective thing, if you are using that word. Don't you think so?

No...

He wasn't-

He wasn't referring to what she did, was he...? He wouldn't do that. He wouldn't, because he was a kind person despite his brusque behavior. Because he was sensei and he would never hold the mistakes of people against them.

And besides, how was she supposed to get rid of the report when she was expected to send one periodically.

I don't know. You don't know. The Kazekage doesn't know. Nobody knows.

Sensei was asking her to just replace it with a different one?

A cold feeling gripped her.

If you do this... then that thing, and the other thing... will be no more. We'll be even.

The conversation was clearly over.

His back was turned to her once more.

Still unable to breathe, much less say another word, she fled the playground without looking back.

.

.

Within her mind, she had been praying to the gods.

Don't let this happen to sensei. Don't let him become any more cold-blooded.

But she knew her wish wouldn't be granted.

Even so, she loved him today, tomorrow, forever...

Eight o'clock, morning.

Her thoughts were filled with him as she finally left the village of Konoha behind.

.

.

Black Fog

The end

TBC...