Love and the Time Travel Paradox

05:27PM

It was as if the floodgates keeping her tears at bay were suddenly opened.

Each cry seemed to be wrenched from every fiber of her body. From dark places that she'd tried her best to suppress.

From little corners that were long forgotten.

Every sob was long, deep and painful, filled with years and years of heartache for the loved ones she lost and the loved ones she left behind of her own accord.

And just when she thought she was finally coming down from her height of sorrow, her lips moved on their own and began to swear.

With words that she never imagined herself using, vocabulary that she'd repressed under a veneer of politeness, she cursed her life.

She cursed her parents, her teammates, her lost students, her ex-husband, and the people of Konoha with phrases that made the young diplomat's jaw drop.

She did not protest when he swept her up into his arms and began to shunshin in an unknown direction.

It was all she could do to stay awake, her body and mind fatigued from and she was content to let him take her to whatever place he wanted to go.

05:37PM

Training Ground 15.

The diplomat had brought her here, for reasons unknown to her.

He held out his hand for her to take.

She threaded her fingers through his.

It was in this training ground that she meditated in, screwing up her courage to ask her shishou to make her an apprentice.

Many things have happened to the emerald eyed woman ever since that fateful day. She'd gotten married to her first love. She'd had a beautiful son. She'd become head medic at the hospital, and international recognition.

Back then, she didn't have the faintest idea.

What it meant to give up your dreams. What it meant to lose your dreams.

And...

How it feels to remember those forgotten dreams.

Knowing how the abundant hope and joy of that time can never be recovered.

Truly, some things in this world just can't be predicted.

One's heart. One's feelings.

How do they form?

Why do they change?

05:38PM

A flock of whooping cranes flew overhead, with no other sign of life for miles.

Walking hand-in-hand, in a wide open grassland with the boy of her past.

The clouds were just beginning to settle in the sky.

"I had a dream about you. Honestly it began as a fanciful daydream, but then I began seeing it while I slept at night several years ago."

She sniffled and blinked her emerald eyes at him.

"Really?"

He smiled gently at her.

"It's not really interesting. ...You and I, we were walking in an unknown grassland together, just like this."

"What happened then?"

"Nothing."

"Huh?"

"Sometimes, I couldn't see your face because of the way the wind was blowing your hair, and you didn't look at me. There was the occasional cranes flying overhead, and it was cloudy just like now. No one else around for miles. It was just you and me, walking side by side."

05:44PM

"I have a question for you, but don't laugh okay? Am I... ugly?"

"You're not ugly. You're very beautiful."

He told her this with a straight face.

Still, she gave him a suspicious stare with her red-rimmed eyes.

"You're saying the truth?"

"Let me frame this in a different perspective... say that, I never crossed paths with you sixteen years ago, and our coincidental meeting at the playground was our true first meeting."

"Mmm-hmm."

"I'm single, I'm not going to work, and I have nothing better to do than read. And then-"

His fingers ghosted towards her, and gently ran down the side of her cheek.

"-I meet a mysterious woman at a place that is supposedly abandoned. Who also happens to be smart, great to converse with, and is very beautiful. Except when she cries over her romance novels and makes a scene, I enjoy spending time with her. And when she tells me 'maybe we'll meet again some other time', I can't help but agree with her because I feel attracted to her."

"So what you're saying is, you would have kept seeing me at the swings because I'm your 'type'? Do you like older girls?"

"I do like older women. Especially when they have pink hair and green eyes..."

She pinched him until he groaned with pain and stopped stroking her cheek.

05:45PM

"Will someone ever like me again? I mean, will I still get to have another relationship? Will I ever be loved?"

"Of course you will."

"Will I ever recover? From... everything?"

"Yes. You are strong. You will recover."

She smiled tremulously.

The grasslands seemed to stretch out forever, as far as the eye can see.

"You sound so sure about that."

"...It's impossible for a love like yours, an overwhelming kind of love that flows out from you, to not catch anywhere... or anyone. It's bound to be reciprocated, not necessarily by the person for whom it was intended. I'm sure it will go in full circle back to you."

The wind blew, and the countless blades of grass danced.

"How did that saying go, in the book One in a Million You? The ones we love leave us, because someone new is on the way. And that someone will show us why the past never worked out. And will make us realize how we're supposed to be loved. ...It's a comforting concept, isn't it?"

"Yeah..."

05:46PM

She gasped as a sudden thought occurred to her.

"Wait, if you know that saying, that means you really read the novel?!"

"Naturally. I wanted to know why that romance novel made you so emotional that day, when you burst into tears in front of me."

"I- I can't imagine you reading a romance novel...! Whenever I try, a mosaic pattern covers the image in my mind...!"

"Then don't think about it too hard?"

She clutched his arm and pulled him along.

"No way! I can't stop thinking about it... I'm so curious!"

05:49PM

They resumed walking at a slow pace, once again holding hands.

"Hey..."

Her voice was soft.

"What happened at the end of your dream? I'm talking about the one where we just walk together. What happened when we reached the edge of the grasslands?"

For some reason, his jade eyes strayed from hers and gazed out into the distance.

"Well... I never get to that part. I always wake up before we reach anywhere."

"Oh."

"But, if I were to give it an ending right now... at the end of the dream, I would gather enough courage to finally reach out and push your hair away from your face so I can see you. And then, you would smile at me and say that you will forget your ex-husband."

05:54PM

The clouds blocked the sun, the shadow like a curtain that fell over their bodies. Shielding them from the rest of the world.

His footsteps slowed. So did hers.

The cranes were long gone, and all was still.

His hand was trembling slightly when he reached for her, but he managed to push the stray strands of hair away from her face.

This was not a dream any longer. This was reality.

Jade met emerald.

Slowly, a smile grew on her face. A smile just for him.

"...I will forget him."

06:01PM

She felt their presences before she saw them.

Two masked ninja in full gear materialized in front of them.

They did not waste any time in stating their purpose:

The Suna diplomat was being summoned by the Hokage to her office, and was expecting his presence as soon as possible.

TBC...

Also note: this is a double update (ch 26 and 27) because the story is kind of dragging. two updates in one day! Make sure to read ch 26!