Sennin : The tale of the utterly gutsy shinobi

by Livehak-san

Hiruzen died during Kyūbi's attack on Konoha. Twenty years later, the butterfly effect of his demise has reached unimaginable proportions. But if the death of an aging man can change history that much, can the simple life of a young hermit bring it back into the right path? Sennin, the tale of the utterly gutsy shinobi.

4. The Sins of the Cherry Sweet

Note : Sorry if it took me a while to translate another chapter, I'm busy lately and I don't have time to write or translate. I managed to find some time in the last two days to finish the translation of this chapter. Unlike the previous chapters, I can't say when I will post the next one, maybe this week, maybe in two, three weeks. I don't know.

Anyway, as usual, I apologize for the mistakes and the strange sentences, I still don't have any feedback or beta reader, so, yeah. I also apologize if there are double paragraphs, I sometimes paste them in double. I've tried to fix that but there may be some left.

It's hard for me to translate the original version well, partly because my English is bad, and partly because I tend to play with words. It's quite difficult to translate, I'm not going to lie. But anyway, I hope that the story is understandable, although if you feel that you are missing a lot of elements, it's normal, because this chapter closes the prologue.

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Chapter size : 14500 words.

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The Sins of the Cherry Sweet

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Sakura

December 8, 1020, 12 :45am

Land of Fire, Konoha

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"One, two... six...? No."

"Don't move!"

The raindrop beaded from the bridge of her nose onto her bloody knuckles. She pressed more firmly on the open wound covered by the torn green vest, and the man's screams intensified under the pressure of her fingers.

"DON'T MOVE I SAID."

Lying on his back and grimacing, the man blocked his breath by pounding his fists on the ground and tried to focus on something else than the pain that was tearing his abdomen.

"Please, I don't want to die." he whispered as he slammed the back of his head against the soggy earth, again, again, again and again. But the pain didn't go away, it redoubled with each breath he took.

In a last hope through the foliage, his opaque pupils scanned the taciturn and cloudy skies. "Mercy, lord, have mercy..."

The pain was still there.

Leaning on her knees and at the side of the man, she watched in awe as the clear red liquid seeped through her fingers and dashed the plans she had just made.

"If you want to survive it's my voice you have to listen to, not your god's! So stop holding your breath you idiot!"

With a wavering breath that reflected the pain he was feeling at that moment, the man exhaled heavily.

The suffering increased tenfold without warning and the screams started again.

Her knuckles that still compressed the wound turned purple as an absinthe glow escaped from her hands and soothed the man's untimely flailing. Her emerald gaze moved beyond the dismembered brown vest to her right, and focused on the greenish, century-old trees on the other side of the wooded glen.

"Kyarā!"

The echo of her impatient tone traveled painfully through the streaming forest. But it still managed to alert the clumsy movement some twenty meters away from her being wading through the crimson mud.

A little girl with silver hair, hidden behind the trunk of a tree that a light breeze was making dance, dislodged her sky-blue gaze from the beech tree that overhung her and stared at the disarticulated brown vest. Completely stunned, the girl could not bear the scene and put back her frightened eyes as well as the immaculate bag she was carrying behind the trunk.

The breathing of the man under her parma fingers became more docile, less recalcitrant, until it almost faded away.

"MOVE!"

Her threatening tone reached the panicked look of the little girl who gasped. This one then straightened her terrorized face towards the fine rain which watered her silver hair and pinched her forearm to try to wake up. To forget.

A flash of light that passed through the branches and leaves to the north brought her back to reality. She understood then that she had much more to fear from the voice that was about to slit her throat if she remained motionless, than from the explosions that dazzled the horizon. She swallowed painfully and raised her exhausted body.

The darkness suddenly turned orange, unlike her complexion, livid than it had ever been.

"GET DOWN!"

She listened strictly to the order from the other side of the forest and threw herself ruthlessly into the mud and weeds at her feet. The next moment, the humid atmosphere suddenly dried up and let a crackling fireball pass by that made the hundred-year-old trees turn pale. The glowing sphere brushed against her silver, muddy hair on the ground and crashed into a huge oak tree few meters away.

The encounter of the wet wood and the condensed flames ignited the flora in a blinding detonation and literally sawed the tree in half, causing it to collapse and ripping its fellow species from their roots. The echo of the explosion reverberated in the surroundings and mixed with the blasts that lit up the horizon.

Sitting in the mud, she watched the forest fire being extinguished by the drizzle that flowed continuously.

She did not have time to think about the situation as the cracking of a dead branch in her back made her startle once again. Petrified for the second time in less than ten seconds, she nevertheless managed to turn her sky-blue irises towards the nuisance and her lungs emptied of their oxygen in a cry of terror.

Without being able to think, she closed her eyelids and clutched the stained bag with all her strength. Her heart, following the frantic pace of the scene, missed a beat and the iron taste that insinuated itself in her throat burned her trachea. The urge to vomit prevented her from focusing on the time that had passed.

She gasped for a third time as the sharp blade she had seen rushing in her direction met her legs in an innocent rebound. What did not fail to multiply her incomprehension.

A moan, followed by a strange sound, almost like the implosion of a balloon, forced her to open her eyes again. Breathing hard and shaking all over, she looked at the headless body and the scarlet vest, crushed and pressed against the trunk of one of the many charred trees.

"Lis... well it... you... that you leave... prev... the... main prin..."

The buzzing sound tickled her eardrums, but she didn't care, preferring to contemplate with fascination the pieces of brains and hair that decorated the charcoal bark of the oak.

"Are you listening to me?!"

She brought back her concentration on the woman crouched in front of her who shook her shoulders and her pallid air. A concentration which went the next moment to the opposite of the morbid scene while she regurgitated the last rations she had swallowed.

Muddy hair pressed against her peony cheeks, she tried to stand up with the help of the hands on her shoulders, but her trembling legs sent her knees back into the mud. Putting her sweaty hands on her black, hot, yellowed pants, she turned her attention to the emerald gaze still positioned at her level and clenched her jaw to suppress her next vomit.

"Go and tell the main division what is going on here, they are in Herupu, to the west. If you leave right away you will reach them in two hours, don't waste time on the way."

Her panicked expression reappeared and redoubled her desire to vomit.

"N-No... I ca... I can't... I..."

The bloody phalanges of the woman left her collarbones in order to settle on her soaked face, making only increase the carmine of her cheeks.

"Calm down, breathe easy, everything is fine."

Inhaling deeply as she mimicked the pink hair, she closed her eyelids for a brief moment and focused on the warm palms that surrounded her distraught look.

"Now listen carefully to what I'm about to say and keep it in mind no matter what happens, okay?"

Breathing out slowly, she reopened her sky-blue eyes and nodded.

"You can't fail. It's not an option, you have to succeed, no matter what it takes."

She wanted to move her fleeing expression to the faded leaves far from the journey that awaited her, but the two hands on her cheeks prevented her from initiating her cowardice. Those then moved under her chin and raised her now frightened expression.

"You're a lot braver than I was at your age and you're smarter, which is why you're going to succeed. You're going to succeed because you're not going to stop under any circumstances and you're not going to be a hero on your way. You will not help anyone. You will go straight ahead without stopping. All you're going to do is complete your mission and get to Herupu so you can warn the main division, is that clear?"

She breathed deeply and nodded for the second time, but this time with conviction. The warm, scarlet palms then left her face and let her stand up on her somewhat more compliant legs.

"And y-you, what are you going to do?"

Removing the flesh on his right hand, the emerald pupils settled on the man lying in the mud, abdomen wide open, breathing at a standstill, looking up to the heavens, to his god. Those pupils then observed the dismembered and disarticulated body at their side, bathed in its own blood, before scrutinizing the headless corpse to their left, its arms flailing against the trunks.

She finally observed the gray smoke rising from the village several miles north of their position.

"I'm going back to Doroppu."

"One, two...four? No, still not."

She landed as quietly as possible on the roof of the house.

Calming her heart rate and reducing to a minimum the aura that emanated from her enraged movements, she moved slowly on the slippery and multicolored metal sheets to reach the top of the building. Leaving only the upper part of her pink head protruding, she observed the street for a short moment before lowering it when an indiscreet look randomly scanned her perch.

Thirty-two... maybe thirty-three...?

"Fuck."

Taking a deep breath, she repositioned herself and once again looked down at the street below.

Thirty-two. Thirty-two brown vests.

Did she have a chance?

She shook her face and tightened her jaw. There was no need for this question. If she had to sacrifice her life to save theirs, then she only had a few minutes to live.

Bringing her field of vision back to the street for the third time, she observed the thirteen green vests kneeling in the center of it, their arms firmly tied behind their backs with ropes.

A brown vest, whose face remained blurred to her from that distance, took a few steps in front of the line represented by the prostrate medical unit. He raised an arm, and instantly a blade emerged from the scabbard of one of the men standing behind them. The sharp point of the steel went to the neck of the first person in the line.

Red-haired with a square jaw, his right arm burned and his leg on the same side bloody, the man, about thirty years old, overcame the gaze of the ninja of Iwa who stopped in front of him.

"Tell me, where is the rest of your unit hiding? Speak and you will live.

For only answer, the thirty-year-old closed his eyes and raised his face towards the skies. This brought a smile to the face of the executioner who, on his side, raised his arm. The sharp blade went deep into the man's neck until it reached his heart through his spine and rib cage. No sound came out of his mouth, which was wide open and searching for oxygen.

The katana withdrew abruptly and let the lifeless body fall.

She let herself slide slightly on the metal sheet and grabbed her pink hair with both hands.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck..."

Crouching down, she tried to think of a scenario that would result in the survival of what would remain of the unit. But the sound of footsteps, walking in the mud that the light rain was creating, prevented her from thinking further.

Slipping this time to the bottom of the iron roof, she dropped into a dark alley. She then passed a large rectangular blue trash can and some newspapers that had served their purpose, and stopped at the edge of the huge avenue. Now at about thirty meters, she managed to put a name on the faces lowered on the other side of the street.

She tried to hold back the apprehension that overwhelmed every muscle in her legs, ready to jump, but the tremors were stronger than she was. So, she breathed for what may be her last time.

"One."

The brown vest stopped in front of its second victim, at the same time as the point of the sharpened blade positioned itself on the nape of this one.

"Here's a nice find. " he declared while grabbing with his dirty hands the cheeks of the young woman. "Speak and maybe you'll not only live, but you'll be allowed to share my bed tonight."

Several laughs went up in the street, empty of common sense.

A phenomenal amount of chakra seeped into every muscle fiber of her supporting leg as she pulled herself out of the alley.

"Two."

Kneeling, the arms tied on its back that its blond hair in a ponytail came intertwined, the young woman, the face always in the grips of the hand of the man, inhaled deeply before spitting in his face, under the sickly recoil of the latter.

"Fuck you."

The laughter around faded away.

The man, with a mortified expression on his face and accompanied by an angry growl, hurriedly grabbed the young woman's hair and dragged her face down into the mud. She grimaced painfully while her face struck the soaked ground and that she felt her pants being unbuttoned.

"I'll teach you what we do to bitches like you!"

The young woman closed her eyelids and locked her ocean eyes for the last time.

"Three... is that it?... Onēchan?"

Blinking, she detached her reminiscence from the white wall to bring her gaze back to the little girl in front of her. Half lying under the sheets of the immaculate bed and dressed in a loose white t-shirt, a pillow held the child's back straight.

The innocent chestnut-colored gaze was obsessed with her own.

"Did I succeed, Onēchan?"

A kind smile materialized under her pink hair.

"Yes, you did sweetie."

While speaking, she leaned slightly forward to touch the face of the girl with the back of her hand. The proud smile that this one addressed to her, following her success, put some joy in her heart. This was why she left a few more seconds to this smile which was becoming more and more rare. But finally had to force herself to put an end to it.

"It's getting late, I'll have to go."

The little girl's dilated pupils lowered sadly to the wide open book. Set down on the sheets, the volume showed its animal-shaped numbers.

"Already?" she asked her in a sad voice.

"Hey, come here."

Taking hold of the book on the child's legs, she closed it and put it on the bedside. Then, gently, she put her hands on the bandana that covered the little bald head.

"I'll be back tomorrow as usual, okay?"

"Is that a promise?"

"You have my word."

She repositioned the pillow and was careful not to touch the IV on the little girl's arm. She then laid her down before grabbing the white sheet and tucking her in.

"Now you have to sleep, it's important."

At the nod that stretched under the sheets, she left her sitting position and moved the animal book on the furniture in order to catch the metal notepad that was hidden under it. Checking the IV stand one last time as well as the EKG next to the bed, she grabbed the pen from the front pocket of her gown and marked a few words on the sheet of paper the notebook held.

"Onēchan?"

Her busy attention paused in her observations and considered the chestnut-colored gaze on the pillow once more.

"Yes?"

"Good night."

She stared at the angel lying in the bed for a short moment before giving her a smile.

"Good night, sweetheart."

Staying a minute longer to wait for the child's mind to drift off into her dreams, she checked the rest of the machines that decorated the room and then left the chamber in silence. She gently closed the door behind her back and put her soothed and saddened look at the woman sitting on one of the few benches in the corridor facing the room one hundred and eighty-two.

In her thirties, brunette and with an inky-black gaze focused on the magazine she was reading, she seemed to have been waiting for her for a long time.

"What are you still doing here at this hour, Hana?"

Pretending not to have noticed her before she spoke and ceasing to read the boring paper, the woman carelessly threw the book on the small table next to the wood she was sitting on.

"I can ask you the same question. Your shift ended five hours ago, and the last time I checked, the night shift took over three hours ago." she answered, looking at her from head to toe.

She then moved her gaze down to the light blue clothes she wore under her white gown. "So, let me ask you again, Sakura. Your last two surgeries were this afternoon and you're still in the same outfit, are you planning to break a record of surgery performed within twenty-four hours?" she added with a stern look.

She rolled her eyes with a heavy sigh and, tucking her pen into her blouse pocket, began to walk down the lit hallway.

"You were much less of a pain in the ass when you weren't in charge."

Having caught up with her in her escape and dodging the stretchers in front of the rooms, Hana shrugged with a sorry expression.

"You can only blame yourself, I'm not the one who turned down the position." she reminded as she made her way down the stairs that led to the lower floor.

A light laugh escaped through her amused lips as her pink hair twirled at each step she took.

"At least I can spend my free time doing something other than paperwork."

The spade that she threw against the brunette made a playful grimace on the face of this one, as if it was a little game well known to both of them.

Passing two wide-open swinging doors, they entered the thirteenth floor of the building.

"And besides paying your patients' hospital bills and tucking them in after they learn to count, what exactly do you spend your free time on?"

She stopped in the middle of the corridor and let a surprised and outraged expression appear while the brunette, amused, continued to advance during a few steps.

Finally turning around, the latter rolled her eyes, reproducing exactly the same gesture she had made earlier. She then raised her sarcastic hands halfway up.

"Just kidding."

Her emerald pupils, quite as tired as the breath which escaped from her being, went down on the tiling of the corridor. A sentence that she had heard in the morning was then replayed between two of her harassed thoughts.

No one seemed to want to leave her alone today.

Observing her downcast expression, Hana let a jovial smile appear.

"Do you want to come over for a drink at the house? Midori is on a mission for the rest of the week and if I remember correctly, unless you decided to do volunteer work again, tomorrow is your day off, am I wrong? "

Knowing full well that if she answered this last question, a flurry of reproaches would fall upon her, she contented herself by observing the clock above the offices on the floor. The next moment she shifted her astonished look to her superior who was waiting for an answer in front of the elevator.

"At 1 a.m.?"

For the second time in a few minutes, the brunette shrugged.

"What? We've already done worse, haven't we? Besides, it's never too late to get drunk."

A smile appeared under her amused expression. At least, unlike someone she wouldn't name, Hana was good at making her forget her worries. But...

"Another time maybe. Not tonight, sorry."

A form of disappointment distorted the features of the woman in charge of the hospital.

"Sometimes I wonder where the reckless Sakura I once knew has gone." she admitted wistfully. Pressing the button for the elevator, she held out a threatening finger in her direction "You better get home. If not I swear I'll impose you a week of rest."

Smiling from ear to ear at this utopian threat, she watched her friend enter the metal cage.

"I'll finish filling out the file and get home right away, don't worry."

Passing the elevator from which a smile reached her, she stopped in front of a light green door a few meters away. Examining the white letters on the opaque glass embedded in the door, she reached into the right pocket of her blouse for the set of keys and inserted one of them into the lock.

"By the way!"

Her voice, having just remembered something important, met the closed elevator and the illuminated number eleven above it. Then the ten. "Sorry about the gate."

Opening the door and holding the notebook to her chest, she stopped almost immediately in her tracks. Her calm and cheerful mood from her recent conversation vanished in an instant. Illuminated by the neon lights of the hallway that streamed through the half-open door, she entered the room and closed the glass door behind her. Her austere walk passed a few seconds later over the letters that the light of the corridor projected through the glass.

The room half immersed in darkness, she placed the notebook and her keys on the desk before sitting down on the leather seat in front of it.

Then, and only then, did she stare at the person sitting in the chair on the other side of the desk.

Small and older than the village's foundation, gray hair surrounded a pair of small multicolored earrings that were separated by an aged and tired face.

"Good evening." formulated the seventy-year-old after a long silence.

Shifting her attention to the shadows projected on the floor, the old woman brought it back to her impassive expression on the other side of the desk. "Doctor Haruno."

After a second heavy silence where she did nothing but try to read through the smile that adorned the old lady's face, the latter opened her mouth again.

"Excuse me for introducing myself like this, I am Koharu Utatane, and I am delighted to finally get to meet you personally."

After a second heavy silence where she did nothing but try to read through the smile that adorned the old lady's face, the latter opened her mouth again.

"Excuse me for introducing myself like this, my name is Koharu Utatane, and I am delighted to finally get to meet you personally."

This information did nothing to change her rigid and clinging behavior on the armrests of the leather chair. Although this was the first time she had met the septuagenarian in person, she couldn't deny the fact that the reputation of the woman had made the introductions a few years earlier.

Koharu Utatane. One of the two shadows of the Leaf, the other being Homura Mitokado, a man as old and influential as she was. An inner member of the Konoha Council, made up of the most important people in the village, but also a member of the Restricted Council, which stood above her namesake and was well named. For, if one left out the Kage of the village, the small council was now composed of only five people. The five most influential people in the Leaf. But it was not always so.

Before the rise of Danzō Shimura to power twenty years earlier, the small council at that time had only four seats. The four most influential people in the Leaf. The first two, Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado, had been watching over Konoha since Hiruzen Sarutobi himself had appointed them forty years earlier. While the other two seats were occupied by the representative of the Jōnins faction as well as the Anbu faction, a position that Danzō Shimura had held before his nomination. But sixteen years earlier, Fugaku Uchiha and Hiashi Hyūga, then leader of the clans bearing the same name, had joined them at the request of the Hokage and the approval of the council, their eyes set on the fourth Great War that was about to break out.

So yes, she had every right to wonder what one of the Leaf's most influential people was doing in her office, at one o'clock in the morning, two days before the next council meeting.

"Your name came to my ears today."

With her arms still resting on the armrests of the seat, she clasped her hands together at her distorted expression as she couldn't help but giggle.

If she was referring to her former teacher, this conversation was going to be cut short. Because if her memories were good, although lately they were showing flaws, the woman sitting in front of her had voted in favor of the reform that concerned the admission age to the academy.

A person in herself, detestable.

"Glad to hear that, have you come to lecture me?"

Her dry tone made the smile on the other side of the desk double. It was as if her rebellious behavior amused her to no end.

"Sort of." she admitted, tilting her face slightly under the tinkle of her earrings. "To tell you the truth, it would be better for you to be more careful with your actions."

Her pink hair let the old woman observe a surprised look. She opened her mouth in order to externalize the implosion that had just taken place in her thoughts, but, after a second of hesitation, she closed it and examined the old woman with a frown.

This behavior, this tone of voice, this particular breathing, this non-existent aura. She had already faced it many times, right here. Could she be wrong?

No, not about that.

Swallowing her inner questioning, she finally unhooked her right forearm from the armrest to grab the notebook and pen from the desk.

"As you can see, I'm busy, so with all due respect, I'll ask you to cut this short."

It was a sincere, yet attenuated, statement about her passing mood. Cutting this conversation short was really what was best for her near and distant future. Attracting even more attention from the village's leaders was not a good idea in itself.

Once again, the earrings tinkled with amusement.

"The more time passes, the more you look like her, it's almost disturbing. A real door buster."

The phalanges of her left hand, facing this subject where even a certain Nara would not dare to venture, deformed the leather on which they were clutched.

"But I understand, your time is precious and I wouldn't want to waste it." began Koharu as she left her seated position in her chair.

Standing in front of the desk, the Restricted Council Member resumed a neutral expression.

"At the risk of repeating myself, you represent the village, Doctor Haruno. You are an important figure of the fourth war. And an ideal to be achieved for the present and future generations. Behave as such, for the sake of the village as well as your own."

Her impatience suddenly disappeared and her limbs relaxed on the leather. It was no longer a matter of containing any form of anger inside her or swallowing her words in order to avoid attracting the wrath of her Hokage, no. It had become much more than that.

"Is that a threat?"

The woman moved to the only door in the office and turned back to her, smiling wider.

"A true copycat, I guess she finally achieved something."

Remaining calm and seated despite the last tirade of the respected Koharu, as if her thoughts were too obsessed with something else, she listened carefully to the slightest sounds that emanated from the only exit of her office.

She was sure of it now. There was no doubt about it.

The door handle moved and let in a blinding light that lit the room, obstructing for a short moment any visibility on the enigmatic Utatane.

After much consideration, she would have liked this conversation to continue and take a little more of her precious time, but the woman seemed determined to leave her with her many questions. Questions that she knew she could not answer at the moment.

However and in spite of her reticence to the idea, one of them imposed itself to her lips.

"How long will it take?

The septuagenarian stopped in the doorway and, with a measured but still smiling expression, took a last look inside the office.

"Sometimes the answer can be found inside something you didn't expect."

The door closed, throwing the room back into darkness. The footsteps faded away a few seconds later and, under the tinkle of the elevator, they were heard again. Then the silence.

What exactly had just happened? And what did she mean by something you didn't expect?

These were the first questions that came to her mind.

Getting up from the seat, she walked towards the double-glazed window of her office. Wide open on the thirteenth floor, it offered an incredible view of the village.

She first observed the half-moon shyly illuminating the deep sleep surrounding the village, before placing her gaze on the five faces that overlooked it, watching over the ruins of the Fire's will. That same will that had been wrung out and trampled on from as far back as her memories went, and which had finally fizzled out. That moderate faction that had seen its most prominent members disappear during the war and had succumbed to the dictatorship of Danzō Shimura.

Her attention settled on the silhouette of a woman at the base of the building who was heading towards the empty quarters of the Leaf.

For how long had Koharu Utatane known she was dying?

"I like her."

Jumping as she turned back, it took her a quarter of a second to put a face on that familiar voice, and another second for her to do a complete turn. Facing the window again, her heart pounding and her face directed towards the ceiling, she noisily pressed her forehead against the glass and blew out her fear which materialized in the form of steam.

"Fuck."

The woman below had time to disappear before she decided to stare at the person sitting on the chair of her desk.

"Don't you know how to fucking knock!?"

Her finger pointed at the only door in the room, she glanced angrily at the male figure hidden in the darkness of her seat. It wasn't the fear she had just felt that put her in this state. No, it was her ego. She had been caught off guard, a rare occurrence. She hadn't felt him at all, as if he had just teleported behind her. But mostly she was upset because his presence was bringing up yet another of her recent lies.

Maybe she had lied to her former teacher. Maybe there was someone in this village who could prevent her from reaching him.

Maybe... someone could listen to her without her noticing.

Half hidden in the darkness of the back of the leather chair, the figure stepped forward slightly into the light that crept through the glass, and let his burning gaze be seen.

"Good evening, I'm glad to see you too, Doctor Haruno."

An evil look drawn under her pink hair, she moved her accusing finger from the door to the pupils looking at her.

"Put those eyes away if you don't want me to make you swallow them."

As soon as she said that, the crimson pupils faded and returned to their original color, becoming even blacker than the darkness in which they were immersed.

"How long have you been listening exactly?"

Pretending to think about it, he got up from the seat and stopped with a playful look in front of her. Her arms crossed against her chest and one eyebrow raised, she stared down at his six-foot-tall body.

Black hair, he wore a pair of black shoes intertwined with some white bandages that tightened a pair of dark gray pants. A pair of black gloves with a sticky fabric covered his forearms and stopped at the bottom of his shoulders where a red tattoo on the top of his left bicep was drawn. His torso was covered with a gray kevlar vest, sleeveless, which let her see the turtleneck shirt underneath, also sleeveless, and which stopped at the top of his neck.

Only the two titanium plates on his forearms and his mask were missing.

Knowing that the mission they had done with Shikamaru and from which they had returned early the day before was in no way related to the special forces, she understood that he had just come out of a section meeting.

"I'm not sure... since when do you turn down a drink?"

While speaking, he had come closer to her, until he was about twenty centimeters of her face. With a slow gesture, he took hold of one of her pink locks and repositioned it behind her ear.

"Did you cut your hair?"

With a wave of her hand, she swept her arm and pushed away his being amused by the predictability of her action. She then crossed the room and stopped in front of the closet built into the wall next to the only door.

Wasn't her hair hard enough to wear that people would stop reminding her about it in every damn conversation?

"Two months ago."

Once again, she repeated herself. But unlike the first time she had used these words and where simple insinuations had been made, this time her voice was surlier and she did not even turn it in the direction of her interlocutor.

Opening the closet, she got rid of her blouse giving her suddenly the heat and grabbed a hanger present inside in order to store the white textile.

"Did you miss me?"

A sneer of disbelief tore the features of her face.

With a quick movement, she shifted her irritated mood to the arrogant smile sitting on the edge of her desk, legs and arms crossed over his insolence.

The ego in this room had never been higher.

"Don't reverse the roles, Uchiha."

Standing in front of the ray of light that the opaque glass was transmitting, she grabbed the blue t-shirt covering her upper body and pulled it off, revealing the red of her bra.

Understanding the little game that was going to be played in front of his ink-black eyes, the amused look that the Uchiha was showing quickly became serious and, without missing a beat, he could not refrain from scratching the bridge of his nose.

Throwing the shirt into the basket inside the closet, she leaned forward and took off her shoes. Gently, she slipped her light blue pants over her black lace panties and, sending them in turn into the basket with a movement of her leg, ended up in her underwear in front of eyes that were ogling her. Her chaste, half-naked expression then settled on the male figure, both hands contracted against the edges of the desk and jaw clenched, who was staring at her periodically.

"What? Did you miss me?"

A laugh that ended in a frustrated gasp mingled with the sudden heat surrounding the desk.

Accompanied by a satisfied expression, she seized the black leggings folded on the shelf and dressed herself slowly as she made it climb on her forms. Only then, she grabbed the white t-shirt, which was also stored next to the sheets and files, and put it on, not without forgetting to clumsily block it at the level of her chest. Bringing down the white fabric on her slightly visible abs, she leaned forward again and put on the shoes she had just removed.

A second loud exhale, almost like a growl, reached her ears as she relished it. Getting up, she grabbed the beige jacket hanging inside the locker and closed it. She then crossed the room with an innocent step. Taking care not to pay the slightest attention to the presence clutched to the desk, she took the bunch of keys by leaning over the frozen being.

A second loud exhale, almost like a growl, reached her ears, and she relished it. Getting up, she grabbed the beige jacket hanging inside the locker and closed it. She then crossed the room with an innocent step. Taking care not to pay the slightest attention to the presence clutched on the desk, she seized the bunch of keys by leaning over the frozen being.

As he moved closer to her neck, inhaling her intoxicating scent, she turned back and opened the door as the keys jingled in her hand.

The neon lights in the hallway barely had time to settle on the flustered expression in the middle of the room that she slammed the door after giving one last provocative glance inside.

Locking the door of her office, she threw the keychain into the pocket of her beige jacket hanging on her forearm and walked along the empty corridor. Arriving in front of the elevator, she hurriedly pressed the arrow pointing to the white ceiling. The number above the metal doors faded away, leaving the next one to take over. The numbers followed one another, remaining lit for only a few seconds.

A full minute passed before the light lingered on the floor below, bringing a smile to her face.

The sound of the elevator echoed in the corridor. The doors opened, permanently erasing the intimacy of her smile. She rushed into the steel cage and, turning around, pressed the button that led to the main floor. Her emerald irises settled for a moment on the small screen above the many buttons.

This one, indicating that the elevator was on the thirteenth floor, signaled, in the form of an orange, half-colored human being, the load it carried.

The sound signal sounded again. The metal doors closed on her only exit, reflecting to her dilated pupils the innocent and impatient expressions that they held.

The hysterical eyes watched like a countdown the number of the floor lit up above the hermetic doors.

Thirteenth.

As soon as the slight sensation of gravity was felt, her jacket fell off her forearm. The beige cotton did not have time to reach the ground that her feet were detached from it. In a thud, her back hit the cold, hard metal of the elevator.

Twelfth.

In the only reflex that managed to extricate itself from her overwhelmed thoughts, she placed with ferocity her lips against those of her assailant and intertwined her legs with his dark gray pelvis, hindering his movements.

Eleventh.

In an indulgent mood, she let the two risible forces seize her wrists and allowed them to lift them above her abdicated expression. The grip which maintained her against the metal wall delivered her lips and attacked immediately her carotid in a wild growl, forcing her excitement in the heights of the elevator.

Tenth.

The force which maintained her wrists crossed these ones above her emerald and excited glance, leaving the way to a wandering hand that, under her moan, cherished her wet crotch. The next moment the pelvis to which her legs were entangled dragged her on the other side of the elevator where her spine struck the wall once again under the resonance of steel.

Ninth.

Her two free hands clutched at the railing of the metallic wall while her calves released the pelvis and let themselves be carried over the kevlar and the undressed shoulders. The gloved fingers inserted themselves between the fabric which covered her hips and her skin and pulled up her last protections. The glove then went under her white t-shirt and gripped her buttocks to make her climb on the deformed wall.

Eighth.

Again, she lost the possession of her lips, and, under the choking of her umpteenth moan, he entered in her. Her hands, looking for support to her idyll, rested against the icy partition of the elevator before clutching ruthlessly to the bristly hair which overhung her.

Seventh.

The incessant coming and going, but especially the simple idea that the doors could open at any moment, intensified the fire inside her, inevitably taking away the control of her laments and her actions. One of her hands grabbed the railing roughly while the other, pulling more firmly on the black hair, put an abrupt end to the kiss. A spasm crossed her body and deformed the features of her face in a groan.

Sixth.

The movements in her lower abdomen reached a frantic pace and gave her a feeling of ecstasy that reverberated through her limbs, which contracted. The railing creaked and her head hit the steel in her back as her whole body shook and arched.

Fifth.

The orgasm took away her sight, hearing, and her reason in a muffled, but nevertheless noisy giggle. Her hips shook under the grunt of the forehead pressed against hers as she breathed deeply, gasping for oxygen. The next second her heart pounded her eardrums and sent a cocktail of hormones flowing through her body that warmed her temples.

Fourth.

The adrenalin went away gradually, and the sounds around returned to her in a continuous whistling. She lifted her forehead from his and reopened her eyelids to observe the euphoria of his black irises, which were enjoying the vision of her flushed face.

Third.

Helping herself with the railing while he receded, she brought down her legs and put her feet on the ground. Reaching the clothes on her knees, she made them return to the curve of her hips and readjusted her t-shirt. A whisper in the hollow of her ear tore her a bitter smile which she made immediately disappear.

Second.

With a jerky breath and stiff movements, she reached down and retrieved the beige jacket waiting gently to be picked up. Repositioning herself to face the metal doors, she observed the orange man on the small screen above the numbered buttons, a quarter colored.

First.

Alone, with her legs crossed and clenched under her embarrassed expression, she inhaled quietly and, remembering the whisper pointing out yet another of her lies, she bit her lower lip, suddenly overcome with shame.

"I knew you missed me."

For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, but not for the same reasons, the sound of the elevator was heard and the doors opened on the main floor, letting out her disturbed being.

The warmth that her body generated made contact with the huge, cold, yellow corridor reserved for employees. With an anxious shudder, she exited the elevator and, with an impotent step, began her tumultuous journey towards the restroom on the other side of the huge hall. Halfway to her salvation, she heard the sound of the swinging doors behind her that led to the reception area and inwardly prayed that, for once in her life, she would go unnoticed.

"Sakura-san?" rose a male voice having just caught a glimpse of her hurried walk, but especially her atypical hair. "Are you on the night shift this week?" the surprised voice added.

Turning around without stopping in order to move towards the toilets, or rather in her case, to move backwards, she let appear a relieved expression by the identity on the other side of the corridor.

"No, I just finished and was on my way home, good luck Pairu-san."

Pairu, a dark-haired, bespectacled man in his forties, pulled up the files he was holding against his body and pressed the button of the elevator. This one opened at once, but, too much obsessed by her unusual walk, Pairu hardly paid attention to the dents on the steel of the cage.

"Thank you, but are you sure you're okay?" he asked as he hesitated to get inside the elevator.

As she continued to retreat, she sent her hand behind her back and grabbed the door handle with ease.

"Yes, yes, don't worry it's just girls' problems, you know it better than anyone."

The man, readjusting the files in his hands where the word gynecology was marked in the header, gave her an understanding look.

"Oh, I see, in that case it is me who wishes you good luck." he declared while greeting her.

The elevator doors closed, as did the bathroom doors in the empty hallway.

Pushing the blue door of one of the many toilets, she hurriedly wiped off, with the help of toilet paper, what she had tried so hard to keep inside her.

Then and as usual, the guilt of what she had just done gnawed her from the inside. This feeling of betrayal which characterized her so much.

Stepping out of the bathroom under the flip of the door behind her back and the flush of the toilet, making sure this time he wasn't in the room, she watched her tired reflection in one of the many mirrors above the sinks.

What was wrong with this particular day? No... that was the wrong question to ask.

Everything was happening so fast that she could hardly keep up with her own decisions. One minute she was chatting in a bar-restaurant and signing an autograph, and the next minute she was punching her former teacher on the other side of the village. One minute she was talking with the most influential woman in the village who was openly threatening her, and the next minute she was having sex in an elevator.

Carefully watching the reflection of her face, she observed the tear that ran down her cheek before crashing on the immaculate tile floor at her feet.

What was wrong with her, in particular?

She distanced herself from any healthy and sociable life, she isolated herself and deliberately sank into her chaotic thoughts.

Was this a form of punishment she wanted to inflict on herself for what she had done?

Turning on the faucet, she splashed some cold water on her face and looked a second time at her dejected look in the mirror. A feeling of pity overwhelmed her dark mood.

Why couldn't she control her impulses? She was about to turn twenty-one and yet it was as if she was stuck at seventeen, as if she couldn't get over him.

Clenching her fist so hard that her nails almost cut into her skin, she lifted it off and pointed it at her picturesque reflection. A drop of blood beaded from the palm of her right hand. But after two determined breaths keeping her forearm in the heights of the toilets, she finally stopped in her gesture and bring back her childish maneuver.

Spending her nerves on the toilet of a hospital that wouldn't resist for a second wasn't really something she wanted to do. All she wanted to do right now was to sleep.

She was tired.

She was just tired.

She raised her face somewhat to contain her angry tears and finally opened the exit door.

Crossing the huge hallway a second time, she stopped in front of the yellow swinging doors where, through the two small panes of glass the doors had, she observed the reception area of the western part of the hospital as well as the waiting room. Making sure to tuck her hair back, she put on her beige jacket and zipped it up before pulling her hood down over her face. Only then did she open the doors, letting the sounds within reach her hearing, hidden behind the cotton.

As discreetly as possible, she passed the benches and chairs where a dozen people were waiting for their turn, and stopped in front of a white counter where a young man, not as old as she was, gave her a smile as she arrived

"Ma'am, please calm down."

Grabbing the pen hanging on an iron chain and placing it on an almost filled sheet of paper, she scanned the paper for her name. Once she found it, she glanced at the clock above the reception desk, which indicated one thirty and, returning her gaze to the sheet, she wrote yet another lie.

The young receptionist, picking up the paper, couldn't help but smile at the sight of it.

"You know that it's not eighteen o'clock, right?"

"Calm down?! How can I calm down?!"

Smiling slightly at the dark-haired man behind the desk, she turned her attention to the waiting room where a woman, accompanied by her daughter, herself accompanied by a teddy bear, was literally screaming at a very patient emergency doctor.

"Are you hurt?"

"I demand to see her! I need her to treat my daughter urgently!"

Stopping in order to examine the little girl at about twenty meters by realizing that there was nothing alarming, she brought back her attention on the young man who observed her with his turquoise eyes.

A pink eyebrow rose on her face.

"Sorry Kahoku, you were saying something?"

"Ma'am, it's only a mild flu, we've already given her the necessary care, your daughter is in no danger."

Her interlocutor grabbed a piece of her hood bent over the counter and revealed to her puzzled look the right side of her neck.

"You have a mark right there, did you burn yourself?

"So you haven't heard about the disease in the Waterfalls, it might not be a...?!"

Strangely, the thread of the conversation between the hysterical mother and the emergency doctor suddenly eluded her, as if her thoughts were suddenly submerged by embarrassment. Without really thinking about it, she immediately covered with her hood what she suspected to be the reason for the long kiss on her carotid.

"W... What? Oh this? I-it's nothing, don't worry."

The speed with which she pronounced her last words and the peony color that spread from the print on her neck to her whole face only made Kohaku's smile bigger. The young man, still standing on the other side of the reception, quickly took a more serious look.

"Oh, I see, I see." he declared, finally smiling wider at her embarrassed expression. "Does this have anything to do with that mysterious Prince Charming you always refuse to talk about?"

Her embarrassed look vanished at once.

The smile of her interlocutor faded at the same pace.

She knew the young man for more than one year now. He had replaced the former guard who had retired.

Kahoku Sasane was very kind and friendly, though occasionally intrusive... which many people loved to replicate these days.

She had been surprised to see him inviting himself to her table in the cafeteria only three days after his arrival. Her reputation, which usually intimidated most of her co-workers, didn't bother him at all. He struck up a conversation as if nothing had happened and she befriended him the first second she responded. What, in the course of the time and of the shared words, had made that she had let him enter in her thoughts. Revealing to him facets of her personality and her life that only a few people knew about.

Some of which were... thorny.

"Sor..."

"Good luck."

Slightly tapping the reception counter with her nails, she sent him a slight smile and headed for the doors that led to the outside of the building. The young man watched with regret as the automated doors opened on the other side of the lobby.

"Ma'am, even if I wanted to it's not possible, she has finished her shift since several..."

The doors of the hospital closed behind her back, letting her exhale a hot, noisy breath that materialized in the form of scattered smoke.

She understood little by little why she was sinking into her solitude. Sometimes, forgetting certain memories was the best way to achieve peace of mind.

Raising her gaze to the starry skies, several chaotic thoughts amalgamated in her mind, ranging from a simple thought to deep questioning. But a question became more insistent, as if it was the only question in which the answer was the most vital to her.

It had been three years now... was he alive somewhere?

"Good night, Sakura-sama, have a good rest."

"Yes, good rest Sakura-sama."

Her emerald gaze dropped from its luminescent perch and settled on the plexiglass and benches that made the corner to her left where half a dozen orderlies, having become accustomed to seeing her out at this hour, were taking their break together.

A smile appeared under her worried, pink face.

"Thanks girls, good luck."

Walking down the steps under the admiring glances and thanks of the group of young women, she put her hands in the pockets of her jacket and started the long and reverse path that awaited her. Once again, the multicolored buildings filled with life followed one after the other, letting her enter the almost deserted urban jungle.

Only drunkards or groups of young people, sometimes both, dared to roam the streets of the sleepy village and...

"Walking around by yourself at night like that, it's dangerous, you know. It's a good thing I'm here."

His glance settled on the man having just landed on her right while a smile as well as a hilarious blow emanated from her own person.

Although what had happened had pissed her off when the hormones went away, she wasn't mad at him at all. After all, she had been the one who provoked him before spreading her legs, hadn't she?

It wasn't the act itself that bothered her, quite the contrary, it was rather that, deep inside her, she had this horrible feeling that every time she indulged in this kind of act, she was betraying herself. She was betraying what she had once felt. That thing she would never feel again.

"Do I have to remind you that you are not the center of the universe, Uchiha?"

The member of one of the two major clans of the Leaf, his hands shoved in the pockets of his gray pants and walking down the same alley she was trying to cross, let appear an amused look.

"These are some pretty cheeky words coming from the person I just undressed."

Stunned, she pushed with a backhand the arrogance to her right, which let himself go, all smiles, while she could not hold her own to redouble.

"You're really hopeless."

Their laughter gradually faded away and the silence, only disturbed by the sound of their footsteps, settled again. Only then a thought that her hormones had prevented her from thinking about reached her curious lips.

"So?"

Passing many modern, drab, and almost identical homes, her question echoed in one of the many upscale neighborhoods of the leaf.

"So... what?"

Turning her attention back to the Uchiha, she shrugged her shoulders, knowing full well that he understood what she was trying to say.

"Shikamaru didn't want to tell me a thing, did you find anything?"

The same silence that had preceded her question lasted about ten strides, giving her a hint of the answer she was waiting for.

"I didn't find anything, not a single lead. I guess he just vanished." he confessed, taking his hands out of his pockets to place them behind his neck.

"Do you think something happened?"

Her voice echoed through the neighborhood again, not caring that anyone could hear it.

"I don't know. All I can think is that there was only one way he could have disappeared without making a fuss. That he wanted to." he replied, looking at the twinkling stars. "But why he would have done that and why now, I don't know."

"You were close though, how come he didn't tell you?"

As she spoke, she turned once more to the Uchiha who, staring into the darkness, seemed to have already pondered the question.

"He had become distant in the last few months, which was not unusual in itself."

Continuing to walk for a long moment in silence and with her gaze cast down, she finally broke the lull.

"And how is the situation within your clan?"

The Uchiha's sigh was heard.

"It's even worse than when I left. Father blames the Grass for his disappearance and the council does nothing to calm his nerves. It's as if they want it to get worse."

With a straight face, she turned her attention back to the special forces member and, with a sense of dread as she passed under a wrought-iron archway, she opened her mouth.

"Doesn't it remind you of something?"

"You mean what happened sixteen years ago? Yes, of course, history seems to repeat itself as it always does."

The kidnapping of the Hyūga heiress on the night of the signing of the peace treaty had led to the Fourth Great War. But unlike that sordid tale, where Hiashi Hyūga, then head of the clan, had done everything he could to avoid war - to no avail - Fugaku Uchiha seemed to want only that. The most powerful member that the Uchiha clan had carried for generations had disappeared at the borders of Kusa no Kuni, the Land of Grass, and nothing seemed to be able to stop the clan leader's fury.

Passing under the arm that opened the swinging doors of the building, she unzipped her jacket.

"And your brother, what does he think of this? They were close too, right?"

Her question sounded in the air-conditioned hall of the building.

"I have no idea."

She pressed the button to bring the elevator down, and took this sudden pause to stare at the man to her left, his gaze locked in hers.

"What do you mean you have no idea? You guys didn't talk about it?"

The doors opened, letting in her astonished look, which was closely followed by the one of the Uchiha, impassive.

He did not answer immediately, remaining strangely silent. And it was at this moment that she understood that he did not want to talk about it. As the doors closed under the unruffled expression, she watched his white teeth on the reflections of the metal cage.

"I'm leaving in a few hours for the Land of Water."

Without her being able to control her sudden change of mood, her eyebrows furrowed and, turning her face towards him, she let out the acerbic tone lodged deep in her throat.

"You just got back, why didn't you say no?"

She now understood the reason for his attire and the section meeting.

A smile appeared on the Uchiha's face at the sound of her voice.

"I guess you missed me more than you let on."

Immediately, as the words echoed through the elevator, she crossed her arms against her chest and turned her attention to the reflective metal on her right, where, even as she tried to avoid it with her eyes, the Uchiha's grin haunted her.

She wanted to go right back and swallow her words, as she always did, but instead she just swallowed her pride.

"I don't understand, the Water Rebellion was repelled more than eight months ago now, thanks to Konoha's intervention, so what exactly are you going to do there? And..."

The end of her sentence was harder to say than the start. She wasn't very good at letting her emotions out, especially if it was about feeling concern.

"For how long are you leaving?"

She had learned with time and loss that getting too attached to one particular person could break someone from the Inside, psychologically and physically.

If someone important to you were to disappear or be in danger, then this would cause a complete change in your personality, make you lose your mind, and put you in danger. Whether you like it or not.

It was something that she had promised herself to never feel again... But it seemed that lately nothing was going as she wanted to.

The satisfied smile on her right faded away to regain its seriousness.

"The unit commander will tell us the mission once we get there, I have no further information. And for the duration, it's indeterminate."

The doors opened, letting them set foot on the red pictograms carpet, only illuminated by the light inside the elevator.

"So, you're off to complete a mission blindly without knowing how long it will take?"

He remained silent, which only increased the anger bubbling up inside her.

"Besides, you didn't answer my question, why did you accept? Do I have to remind you that after completing a two-month mission you are allowed to rest for several weeks?"

This time her voice rose a bit in the high notes, not giving a damn about waking up the whole floor. But this concern she expressed towards the Uchiha only brought to her face the impassivity that characterized him so much.

"There's something I need to make sure of."

Silence returned to the fifth-floor corridor. The sound of the doors closing broke it for a short moment, inevitably immersing the corridor in darkness. What concealed to her the black and calm irises at less than one meter of hers, emerald and pissed off.

Time passed without either of them making the slightest movement or uttering a single word, until finally, dimly lit by the stained-glass windows on the other side of the corridor behind her, she decided to open her mouth.

"Are you going to tell me what it's about or do I have to ask you?"

A form of disappointment arose in her as a grin, making her understand the lie that was going to follow, materialized on the face that was facing her.

"It's not important."

He didn't even seem to hide it.

With a frustrated step, she passed by the member of the special forces, taking care to focus her attention on the door of her apartment on the other side of the corridor. Which was very difficult.

"Thank you for walking me home."

Whatever this unimportant thing was, it was clear that he didn't want to tell her. So, delaying him in his mission was the last thing she wanted to do.

This time, unfortunately, she had failed to restrain her childish behavior.

A sigh was heard in its back, which did not prevent her from pursuing her escape. Arrived in front of the door, she seized the keys in the pocket of her jacket and inserted them in the lock.

"Take care, Sakura."

The whisper from the other side of the hallway reached her hearing, which had been waiting for this. Her mouth opened and her gaze moved with zest into the darkness of the corridor, empty.

He had left just as he had appeared to her: without her wanting him to.

Shaking her face, not very surprised, but nevertheless hurt by his behavior - which she had provoked - she grabbed the door handle and opened it to rush inside her apartment. Taking off her shoes and her jacket, which she hung on the coat rack on the wall, she closed the door behind her back.

With her vision shrouded in darkness, she crossed the few meters that separated her from the bathroom and opened the door before pressing the only light switch the room had. The light bulb on the ceiling blinded her for a few seconds as she moved closer to the mirror hanging above the sink and scanned the dark circles under her emerald eyes.

A sigh escaped from her tired being.

Just a quick shower and she could finally pass out on her couch.

Opening the cupboard below the sink, she grabbed a small blue box and swallowed one of the many pills it contained. Putting the package back where she had found it, she took off her clothes and headed for the bathtub to take a much-needed shower. The silence vanished as the hot water hit her face and the marble at her feet. Her whole body felt numb and time seemed to stand still as she rested her forehead on the thick glass of the tub.

Without her realizing it, her thoughts wandered.

Several memories that she would have liked never to see again came to her closed eyelids. The stream of warm water on her face gradually receded until it was replaced by a fine, icy rain. Then came the tears and the sudden disappearance of the green glow on her hands.

Crouching and bloody, her attention settled on the effeminate body, inert, with blond hair lying face down. Eyes wet and wide open, her jaw twitched. Her fists regained their original color and clutched her pants with all their strength. A scream arose at the embrasure of her lips but, letting escape only a noisy and dry breath, it remained in her throat.

Using the palms of her wavering hands to pull herself up from the mud in which she was wading, she took the opportunity to retrieve the kunai at her feet. She looked at the fifty bodies lying in the mud on the avenue in a detached way.

A gasping breath drew her attention. Her impassive face then turned to the brown vest about ten meters away that was crawling in the mud.

Stepping over the lifeless, green vests, she stopped in front of the man, still fighting for his life, and with a weary movement of her right leg, turned him over onto his back, forcing him to look at her. The man then threw a terrified look at the numerous bloodstains that covered her teenage face.

"P-p-please, I-I didn't want to, I was f-forced, I-I..."

The pleas faded abruptly as she let herself fall on top of the half-charred man's chest and placed the kunai on his trachea.

Raising her emerald irises to the heavens, she inhaled deeply as the man's umpteenth choking sounded.

"I-I have a family, p-p-please..."

The words brought her troubled vision back to solid ground to observe the blond hair lying in the middle of the street, silent.

"A family..."

Without even looking at the pleading, tear-filled pupils of the man, her right arm swung sharply and horizontally across the street, bringing in its wake a scarlet trail that mixed with the mud and corpses as her exhausted left hand positioned itself over the man's mouth, silencing his choking. Her head lowered, her candy-pink hair soaked and streaming, she let the drizzle cover her indifference as the fluttering under her weight gradually faded.

"I... will... enjoy..."

Without moving her face, her irises shifted to the other suffocating voice a few feet to her left. Using her victim's torso, which she was still straddling, she got back to her feet and moved her limp body towards the noise.

"Watch... your village... burn..."

Stopping in front of it, she observed the man at the head of the group that had attacked them by surprise. The one who had given the order to take the life of her comrades, her friends.

The one who had dragged her in the mud.

A perfidious hate spread immediately inside her fingers which compressed a little more the trembling kunai in her right hand.

Sniffing her sorrow, she wiped the tears that flowed down her scarlet cheeks with a backhand of her soaked sleeve. She then turned her attention to the many open wounds and torn vest of the man, as his choking redoubled, letting a trickle of blood escape between his clenched and reddish teeth.

His eyes glazed over and not even being able to tell where she was, the man opened his mouth and nearly choked.

"You're... waiting... for what? For me to... give you my... permission... bitch?"

Raising her foot above what was left of the man's combativeness, she put it delicately on the gaping wound in his lower abdomen before putting some of her weight on it. A howl of pain spread in the deserted village, waking up the struggles at her feet.

With a movement almost invisible to the human eye, she swung the kunai she was still holding between her compressed phalanges at the grip that tried to grab her ankle.

The sharp steel pierced the flesh and nerves of the man's hand with ease, and then planted itself with a thud in his abdomen, causing him to let out yet another agonized grunt.

Closing her eyelids for a short moment, she enjoyed the sound, managing to erase from her memory the still warm screams of her friends face down.

She had failed. She had failed to save them.

Her gaze shifted to the green vests to watch them and memorize their faces, to remember her failure, before taking one last look at the blond hair on the other side of the street.

She had not saved her.

Shaking her head vigorously, she turned the tap fixed to the navy-blue tiles and let the cold water quickly take over her improvised sauna.

Her thoughts frosted and finally stopping the flow of water after a long minute without moving, she opened the glass of the bathtub to leave the icy marble at her feet.

If there was one thing she hated most of all lately, it was taking a shower that was too long, too hot.

But despite the fact that she forbade herself to do so, she could not escape this whim.

Grabbing one of the white towels inside the cabinet under the sink, she dried her hair and body before wrapping the cloth around her chest.

The longer she stayed under the hot water, both comforting and soothing, the more her thoughts, as absurd as they were painful, brought back memories she wanted to forget. That she wanted to change. And it was impossible for her to avoid it.

It seems that she liked to make herself suffer.

Leaving the ambient vapor by taking care to switch off the light of the bathroom in her back, she walked in the corridor immersed in the half-light of her apartment. Letting her fingertips brush the plasterboard that led to the room she was moving away from, she walked without a sound across the filaments of moonlight that passed through the half-open shutters of the kitchen.

Her right hand stopped at the edge of the wall opening as the unmistakable sound of a switch was heard.

The kitchen lit up and the light from outside disappeared, illuminating the wide-open living room and the door of her bedroom. Crossing the icy tile floor while she ruffled her wet hair, she opened the refrigerator to lean inside and grab the bowl containing the meal she had eaten the day before.

As well as the day before that... and probably the rest of the past week.

Smiling slightly at that thought, which didn't bother her at all, since she did this most of the time, she closed the fridge and slid the salad bowl onto the marble counter that made the corner of the room. Accompanying her salad and tomatoes, which stopped just below one of the many pieces of hanging furniture, she stood on her tiptoes to open the contents of the furniture.

But as her warm fingers gently touched one of the cold plates in the cabinet, a strange feeling of uncertainty stopped her in her tracks.

Her anxious expression settled on the empty and impeccably cleaned marble, inevitably causing a troubled chuckle to appear underneath her furrowed brows.

Her anxious expression settled on the empty and impeccably cleaned marble, inevitably causing a troubled chuckle to appear underneath her furrowed and pinky eyebrows.

Her anxious expression then settled on the empty and impeccably cleaned marble, inevitably causing a disturbed grin to appear underneath her frowning, pink eyebrows.

Was her memory playing tricks on her again?

Bringing her heels back against the icy kitchen floor, she closed the cupboard and placed the plate on the counter in perfect silence, revealing the doubt she felt. Her gaze roamed the entire kitchen and stopped on the coffee pot on the other side of the counter, which, after long seconds of immobility, finally calmed her troubled air.

However, it was clear that she remembered it perfectly.

Turning her attention back to her plate, she opened the drawer under the counter and pulled out a fork before closing it under the clink of the many cutlery items.

She could have forgotten the fact that she hadn't thrown away Akamaru's pack of crackers. After all, she often did. But she could never have forgotten her coffee. The same coffee that she had not drunk and that had indirectly generated the second discussion of her strange day.

From the corner of her eye, she looked again at the coffee pot behind her back.

Without her knowing why, and just like the packet of cakes she had not thrown away when she left the day before, the cup of coffee had disappeared from the coffee pot.

Directing her gaze more by reflex than anything else on the assortment of knives next to the sink, she... finally laughed before shaking her face.

Decidedly, she watched way too many movies, she almost forgot the fact that she wasn't one of those half-brained protagonists.

A second smile and a slight chuckle tore the features of her face amused by the situation.

At least and for the moment, she was not.

Of all the apartments in this brand-new, upscale neighborhood that could be prone to burglary, this had to be hers.

A third consecutive smile formed under his crinkled eyes.

Had it become trendy to clean up before coldly stabbing someone in the back?

She had to admit that her behavior was largely the cause of her recent problems, she could not deny it, but she also had to admit that today her luck was close to zero. Everything seemed to happen to her without any real logic.

Passing her tongue over her wet lips waiting to devour the vegetables, a weary breath escaped from between them.

Did she have a tiny chance to avoid the final chapter of this never-ending awakening?

"I, once again, forgot to lock the door, you have a chance to get out if you run fast enough, take it."

Using her fork to prick a slice of tomato that she brought to her mouth, she let her words linger for a few seconds while chewing the juicy texture without, surprisingly, any frantic running being heard. This did not fail to raise her astonished eyebrows for the second time.

Now that she thought about it, she felt absolutely no one in the apartment. And from her last conversation with the Uchiha, it was clear that he was not in her place.

So... was she wrong? Had she finally become as stupid as those fictions she was laughing at? Had she really prepared a coffee?

With a phlegmatic movement, she picked up the bowl again to serve herself her meal in an almost perfect silence. Only her fork strokes and the drops of water falling from her wet hair onto the immaculate tile floor disturbed her thoughts.

Isolation, disinterest, anxiety, false memories, strange behavior...

Doing a self-diagnosis was one of the worst ideas in itself, but maybe it was there, the answer to all her thoughts, the answer to her behavior that she couldn't control and sometimes couldn't even understand.

Schizophrenia, with a more or less distinctive appearance, was a common brain disease among many shinobi. A psychosis that had seen its cases multiply and even worsen at the end of the fourth Great War.

Putting the bowl down as she finished serving herself, she grabbed the full plate and finally turned back with a wandering mind to the wide opening of her living room.

Maybe she wasn't as strong as she liked to pretend. Maybe what she had left behind had affected her more than she wanted it t...

The whole path of her thinking shattered in the blink of an eye and made her forget every single thought... and then her startle came.

She startled very slightly, yes, but she startled nonetheless, causing her fork to fall off her plate, which tinkled its fear in several bounces on the tile floor.

Standing less than a meter away from her under the kitchen's inlaid lights, arms at his sides and perfectly stoic, the white mask, slightly bent over, was staring at her.

She mechanically placed the palm of her hand on the orchestra produced by her chest and tried not to let go of the wobbly plate in her left hand. She then cast an evil glance at the pallid face in the center of the room.

A satisfied look materialized on her face and blended with her still shocked expression.

With a slight smile, her teeth clenched and her eyes wide, she then glared at the male figure standing at less than two meters from her.

She wasn't crazy. Or at least she wasn't as crazy as the expression on her face described at that moment.

Sparingly, her smile got worse and worse as each second passed and distanced her from her fright, before finally being entirely replaced by an expression mixing incomprehension and murderous desire.

"There's no door in your damn neighborhood!?"

The beginning of her question was calm, but the end pointed to hysteria, exposing the anger she was trying to contain.

This was the second time in two hours.

Excluding that most... exhausting night, she couldn't remember the last time she had been caught off guard.

With squinted eyes, she stared at her silent interlocutor.

"Did you two pass the word around? The one that says you can sneak up on my back any time you want? "

Taking a deep breath in order to get her heart and breathing back to a normal rhythm, she put her plate on the counter and leaned her pelvis against the marble before pulling the napkin up against her chest with her only free hand.

The silence that followed her ambiguous sentence only made the discomfort on her cheeks increase tenfold... as well as firming the fingers of her right fist, strangely feeling a lack of bone contact.

"How's my little brother doing?"

Swallowing her saliva and nearly choking, she examined the special forces outfit that the man was wearing.

An umpteenth question that would remain unanswered.

"What the hell are you doing in my apartment at 2a.m. exactly? "

The fear she had felt had finished off what was left of her good mood, making her voice surlier than she had intended. But she made no apologies for it, either in her eyes, which were as sharp as ever, or in her annoyed posture.

All she wanted at that moment was to fall asleep on her couch in front of yet another stupid movie, and forget for even half a second the day she had just been through, nothing else.

Couldn't we just leave her alone, just one damn time?

Still standing in the center of the room, the man pointed with his gloved fingertips to one of the many wooden chairs next to the only kitchen table.

She glared at the newcomer before nodding to the silent request. Her tired exhale was accompanied by the scrape of the chair on the tile floor.

Exhausting a breath as tired as hers, he took place on the wood which cracked under his weight and removed his mask in order to let appear the exact calm and self-controlled expression that she had imagined since the beginning.

The one that brought out the fine features of his beardless face and his hollowed cheekbones. That impregnated his posture and his aura and that let see a kind of expression mixing quietude and detachment. This same expression that she had had the opportunity to admire during more than six hours in a white room and that, unfortunately for her in this moment of tiredness, did not manage to trick her anymore.

"When did they reappear?"

Her question broke the silence which had followed the deposit of the mask on the table and had for only answer the raising of an interrogative eyebrow on the face of the man leaning to it.

In front of the incomprehension that she knew simulated, she repeated herself.

"The pains, for how long have they been back?"

Surprised but without expressing it, the special forces member offered her a slight smile.

"Nine days."

Unlike her, who let that same surprise widen her eyes.

Crossing her arms under her chest, even more upset than she was already, she looked at the ink-black irises, hoping to see some form of mockery. But it was not, he was telling her the pure truth.

Was it death he was looking for?

"Why did you wait so long to come to me?"

The smile on the man's face disappeared so that he could observe her with his usual detached look, as if this conversation, concerning his health, was not very important to him.

"I just came back from Iwa."

She wanted to stare at him to make him understand that she was not in the mood to joke. But the calmness that he gave her back reminded her that joking was not in his habits.

Which only enhanced the coming eruption of her emotions.

Placing her hands on the edge of the counter behind her back, and surprising herself, she managed not to transcribe what she felt in the tone of her voice.

"Were you not listening when I told you to take at least six months off?"

With his right elbow resting on the wooden table where his hand still encircled the white mask, he stared at her without blinking.

"I was listening."

As the marble cracked slightly under the pressure of her left hand, she withdrew her phalanges from the counter in agreement with her broom and purse and stooped to retrieve the fork from the floor.

Turning around as she stood up, she carelessly tossed what was left of her meal into the bowl - which was everything - and turned on the sink faucet on her right.

Frantically cleaning her fork and plate, she took a deep breath.

"I recommend you Doctor Tanaka. She works in Teiboku in the south of Shusuka City, she is an excellent cardiologist."

Finishing wringing out her plate as she turned off the faucet, she grabbed the bowl and headed for the refrigerator.

"Given the resources you have, I'm sure she'll have the patience to treat someone stupid as you are."

The thing that irritated her even more was the fact that he did not defend himself. Instead, he just observed her movements, as if he was waiting for her calm to return, for the little adrenalin that her words had generated to dissipate, as if he knew exactly how to behave in her presence. Then, as she moved in his back in order to join the living room, signifying him very clearly the fact that he knew the exit, he decided to open his mouth once again under a heavy silence.

"I apologize for not following your words."

Staring at her half-naked reflection on the bay window of the living room, she let herself fall on the rigid leather of the sofa which crunched under her weight.

A moment later, the light of the television illuminated her irises and reflected on the glass of the kitchen a television program while a stream of words spread through the apartment.

"I came here to talk to you, not to seek treatment, but if you wish, I can leave you alone."

In spite of the fact that his voice was lower than the one of the television, she had heard it perfectly, however, she did not answer, moping a little more in the sofa. Back to her on the chair of the kitchen, he then initiated a movement in order to move towards the corridor on his right, but he stopped in his gesture when the sound of the television became less and less noisy, until almost not being heard.

Putting himself to observe on the reflection of the glass her white towel lying on the sofa, continuing to press on the remote control, he folded up his back on the back of the chair.

"I made sure to silence your apartment, I hope you don't mind. What I'm about to reveal will put you, your loved ones, and everyone you know in danger. If you don't want to put yourself in that position, I can understand that."

Continuing to press one of the many buttons on the remote control, she scanned the luminescent images on the other side of the room without a care.

Was this the bouquet garni of this unusual night? The moment when the walls would come down and a dozen cameras would focus on an ecstatic audience, applauding the short film they had just seen?

Rubbing the dark circles on her livid face, she averted her gaze to the man sitting in her kitchen, his back turned to her baffled self.

All forms of fatigue instantly left her thoughts.

He had placed some seals inside her apartment and she had not felt them when she walked through.

"What gap was between her and this sibling?"

She thought of her parents, sleeping peacefully on the other side of the village at this time, of her close family, her uncles, aunts, cousins, as well as of Shikamaru, having to elaborate yet another go strategy while watching over his goddaughter's sleep. To Shino, her teammate, her lifelong friend, probably collecting whatever insect in the oases and deserts of the Wind. Then she thought about Hana and her husband and the white mastodon wandering in their garden.

Then she thought of the little brother of the man sitting in her kitchen.

Which made her smile slightly. Because among all the people who had come to her mind in this moment of doubt, he was certainly the one who needed her protection the least, one could even say that the opposite was more likely.

She did not answer, letting the silence do it for her. Which made the older brother realize that he could continue.

"You must have heard the rumors about the disappearance of a member of my clan, Shisui."