Hello everyone

It's been a while since I uploaded the last chapter. I hope some of you still remember me. Enjoy the chapter. The stones are slowly starting to roll. Have a nice week. :)

Soleira

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Kairi

It was early morning when I set off for work. The night had been free of sleep again. It must have been the full moon, but it had never been as bad as today. It was no use getting angry about it. It was probably also slightly due to my thoughts, which often wandered to Asna. It wasn't that often that we ran into each other anymore. However, she had never completely broken off contact. She still remained cautious.

It wasn't good when people saw us together. Not even my husband knew that I sometimes met her. Even though I always felt guilty when the topics of conversation during dinner were about the children of the ashes. He was simply too deeply involved in the politics of the village. And Asna was no longer so unknown. Her appearance, in particular, played a role. The blind eye stood out, whether she had it bandaged or not.

Her appearance left a certain impression on people. Asna was not exactly short. Her hair was dark brown. Sometimes it looked almost black. She wore a long, dark coat that she got from some garbage dump. Her eyes stood out all the more. The bright, blind one, in contrast to the amber one. But I wasn't quite sure about this color yet.

Every now and then I had the impression that it had a golden shimmer to it under certain lighting conditions. I had never seen anyone like her in appearance before. But I was sure that her roots didn't come from Sunagakure. Then there was her caramel-colored skin. She had always been insecure and anxious in the orphanage. But now she radiated a certain confidence, which was not to be confused with arrogance.

On the way to the orphanage, I had to cross the main market. A rough wind whistled around my ears. It certainly didn't make it easy for the traders to set up their stalls. I had the presence of mind to catch a beam that was threatening to topple over. Chakra flowed through my hands as I secured it. The man who owned the stall was grateful and offered me three of his apples as a thank you. I accepted them. I didn't often shop there as the produce was quite expensive. But if I could get it for free? Why not?

As my work wasn't right in the city center, I had to go through a few alleyways that most people tended to avoid. Thanks to my training, however, I knew immediately when someone was approaching me and was able to avoid any unpleasant collisions. Whenever I walked this way, my stomach ached. Because I was one of the privileged people who didn't know what an empty stomach felt like. In total contrast to the children of the ashes. The homeless.

Chakra flared up near me. From several people. Almost immediately, I turned towards another alleyway to avoid them as much as possible. Then two shadows detached themselves from the wall. I took up a defensive stance. But the two children only gave me a quick glance. The boy quickly passed me by. The girl, however, hesitated for a moment.

"Akuma," she began quietly. She didn't seem to be much older than twelve. Her face stared with dirt. Cuts adorned her cheeks. And a large bruise framed her eye. "We have to help her. This isn't right."

Then her eyes drifted to me. It seemed to me that she was really noticing me for the first time.

"C-can you help her?" she asked. "Our friend is still fighting to stop them. The other gang..."

"Get away from my sister," Akuma hissed, throwing a short knife in my direction. I ducked in one fluid motion and it bounced against the wall a few meters away. Before he could attack again, however, the girl stood between us.

"What are you doing Yui? She's one of them. If you look at her clothes, she's even a bit higher up in the hierarchy. We have nothing to do with these people."

"She works at the orphanage and knows Asna. I saw them together once," Yui insisted.

"Asna's still fighting, isn't she?"

They both nodded. A sigh escaped my lips before I placed my fingers on the cheeks of the surprised Yui and treated the injuries with green chakra. Her brother also allowed himself to be helped after a brief hesitation. Then I turned away and followed the trail of the two back. It almost seemed to me that the fighters didn't care that they might be discovered by the next patrol. After all, this alley wasn't that far from the main market. However, it was still quite early and very few shinobi went to this corner. Or were sent there. Another thing I would like to talk to Rasa about. But since our argument six months ago, we had spoken very little. The argument stayed with me, but there was no point in discussing it with him.

I suppressed my chakra and kept to the shadows. From an early age, I had learned to move in such a way that my opponent only saw me coming at the last moment. No one in my family could make themselves invisible. But we didn't need to. I loathed nothing more than fighting. But when it came to someone I cared about, I would do anything.

When one of the gang members noticed me, it was already too late. He lashed out, but I ducked under his blow and pulled his legs away. He crashed to the ground. The next one seemed to be injured already. A long cut ran down his cheek to his chin. I made short work of him and punched him in the temple. The third one ran away. Meanwhile, Asna was still fighting with a girl about her age. Both were badly battered and hatred glowed in her opponent's eyes when she spotted me.

"Shinobi," she snarled and lunged at me. I could have reacted, but Asna was quicker. With her bare hands, she stopped the knife that had been aimed at my heart and pushed her opponent back. I heard her gasp in pain. Asna applied pressure once more and then moved fluidly to the side. The girl stumbled past her and away into the darkness. Not once did she turn around. A sudden change of thought. I looked after her suspiciously. And then Asna sank to her knees.

Asna

Kairi dabbed my wound very carefully. I stayed calm, even though I was raging inside, because after all, I didn't belong here. I had to go to Yui and Akuma, see if they were okay and that none of the gang members could get their hands on our hiding place. We had to defend it again and again. Especially when Kaito wasn't around. They already had respect for me, but they feared him. He had never hurt them before, but Kaito liked to play with his chakra and everyone could sense the power behind it. He had never really helped me in fights before. But the fact that he took me out of the village every now and then to teach me a few things about the desert somehow counted for something. I now knew how to tell the difference between the few plants. Which were poisonous and which were edible.

I often brought back stones and dry branches from these outings so that I could light a fire on the really cold nights. On the really bad days, we sometimes ate bark or beetles. I had refined my jutsus and the things I occasionally found in the junkyards were carefully hidden in a secret passage in the cave. Some inventions still didn't work as they should. When I was still at home, I had always used my surroundings to help me shake off Akio. Now I built things to ward off other dangers. I wasn't yet able to gather my chakra to climb the really high buildings. My concentration tended to wane. It almost ended badly once.

The climbing hook I had made was under an iron ring on my wrist. The rope was thin but sturdy and as soon as I activated it, it sprang out and dug into the nearest wall. I had often thought about how I could escape if I was caught one day. Because sitting in a dungeon for the rest of my life was not my goal. At the moment, Yui was helping me work on finding something to break out of every dungeon.

Kairi seemed lost in thought. I searched her gaze and she looked up.

"I was just thinking about someone when I looked you in the eye just now. A situation a few years ago, during the war. We were on opposite sides, but she still helped me."

"Who helped you?" I asked, but Kairi didn't answer. She pressed her lips together as if she had said too much. But I wanted to know, this secret that she didn't want to tell me. Then I reached for her arm and part of my vision blurred. I found myself in a stony area. Trees grew here and there like bushes. My surroundings seemed dry, but not lifeless. Screams and loud crashes echoed in my ears. The earth shook, large charges of chakra were released.

A few feet away from me lay two motionless bodies. To the side of me, a lone figure dragged itself forward. I recognized brown hair, tanned skin and orange-yellow eyes... Kairi. Her lower lip was bleeding, her left eye was swollen and a long bloody cut was eating through her thigh. Despite all this, she was carrying another person on her shoulders. On closer inspection, I realized that the other woman was the complete spitting image of her. She was breathing weakly and Kairi seemed to notice. She went to her knees with clenched teeth and laid her on the floor. There was worry in her eyes.

"Please hang in there Ayame. We can do this...it..."

"You said an hour ago that it's not far now," the other person breathed with a weak smile. The bandage on her hip was soaked with blood. Kairi placed her hands on it, green chakra flowing through her. She stared at her twin sister in despair.

"This is all my fault. I shouldn't have listened to Yun, I should have listened to myself and gone straight to your unit."

"You couldn't have done anything about the ambush either," Ayame replied. Her voice began to become more and more brittle with every word.

A solitary tear rolled down Kairi's cheek.

Yun? What did Yugure's friend have to do with this?

There was a cracking sound in the bushes and I recognized the three ninja with horror. I didn't recognize their headbands. Kairi rose swaying and stood in front of her sister.

"A medic nin from Sunagakure? Well, never mind...the less the enemy can heal themselves, the better. Kill them both."

Kairi moved faster than I would have expected her to with her wound. She ran towards the opponents, dived under the blow of one of them and rammed her kunai into his heart. But the shadow clone fizzled out and Kairi staggered. All at once, he was behind her and struck. But his dagger bounced off Kairi's body. Then something tore him away. So fast that I couldn't follow. A woman was now standing between Kairi and the attackers. Her chakra was so strong that they could barely stay on their feet. Fear was written on their faces. My vision began to blur, but the last thing I saw were silver eyes.

A hand grabbed my shoulder and shook me. I blinked. What had that been? Instinct? Those images had no longer been images, but a memory. Kairi's and I had perceived them clearly. Not like Yun's. Was it because Kairi had opened her mind to me, but unconsciously?

"What was that?" Kairi whispered. "Your eyes...the bright one was shining...golden...and you were in a trance."

"Did you lose your sister Ayame in the war?" I asked. Kairi blinked in irritation and I repeated my question. Only then did she nod. I felt dizzy.

"Asna...do you see other people's pasts?" Kairi's question confirmed what I was thinking. I had had this much earlier in the orphanage. Short, small images when I had touched other children. But that couldn't have triggered this situation, could it?

"I want to try something, will you let me?" I asked.

Kairi hesitated, but then she held out her hand to me. I tried hard to think about what I had just experienced, but instead she seemed older now. Older than now. She lay there very still. Her eyes open, one hand on her chest in a pool of blood. I tore myself away, stumbled back, crashed into the shelf behind me. My heart raced in my chest. I pressed my hand firmly on it. Sweat trickled down my temple and I looked into Kairi's wide eyes. She grabbed my cheeks so that I had to look at her.

"What did you see?"

I collected myself and forced the words to leave my mouth bit by bit.

"The future..."

It was impossible...I couldn't tell her. I wasn't allowed to. No. I had to stop this from happening. Kairi was not allowed to die. She was my friend. Even though we lived in different worlds, she still supported me. I couldn't, I shouldn't. My body trembled and when the doorbell rang, we both froze.

Kairi listened and glanced at me.

"That's Baki. Hide."