Kensuke Nimatsu - Roran Hawkins

[Roran]

The bite of the Obsidian Shark

A collab post from Fieryfly, Roran Hawkins, Gerontis, Arkay and J8cob


An open field in a forest, North-East of Amegakure, January 475, 4 months after the end of Shoji's oppression.


Soft rain soaked the two combatants as they entered the predetermined field of battle. A soft breeze barely capable of making the warm day feel colder in combination with the rain only helped raise the tension, clearly tangible in the air.

"I'm glad you came after all. I was worried you'd deny my challenge after all pretty boy." Samaki said, licking her lips in anticipation of the upcoming fight, sending her killing intent forwards, hoping to get any kind of reaction from her opponent. She knew her opponent wasn't stupid. He was quite known despite his young age, but that was because of his position as head of the Nimatsu clan and because he was a student of the 3rd Hokage. Pretty impressive, but only a tokubetsu jounin so far. A testament of skill, yet a lack of it in other fields when compared to her.

"I promised you. And I am one that keeps his word." Kensuke replied with a calm and steady voice, despite the wave of killing intent that just struck him. It was almost tangible, but he was not as easily shaken anymore as he used to be. Instead, he sent forwards his own killing intent. Anything that could help him fight this insane fury would help. He had done some research on this person before coming here, and he had been quite troubled by his discoveries. Samaki Samutabe. One of Amegakure's deadliest and unpredictable jounin. Nearly unparalleled in stealth assassination and quick yet brutal combat. Despite that, only 25 years old. "I'm ready.' He said, letting his hands rest next to his body.

"What are we waiting for?" Samaki said with her gruelling sharkish grin. It was quite unsettling, to weaker people, but this opponent pleased her. Not only was he untouched by her killing intent, his own was quite impressive and would have caused some reaction from her if she actually cared. She never was the careful or fearful type after all.

Watching with his arms crossed as he looked at the match, Ryo frowned. He was against the whole idea. Why would Kensuke have to fight a kunoichi from Amegakure? What was even the point in it? He scoffed as he then shook his head. Clearly he wasn't positive at all about this whole event.

Settling herself in a sitting position and adjusting the great sword on her back, Tsubasa watched the Amegakure kunoichi's movements to see whether Kensuke could find a weakness in her stance or moment posture. She did find it odd that he would make a whole trip out of the want to spar, but by now Tsubasa decided she should just roll with things. She figured there was no point in investing effort in complaining about it. Wiping her rain drenched bangs out of her face, Tsubasa got ready to spectate an interesting match.

The orange haired teenager never let his eyes off the combatants. Every move, he watched closely. Katsuko was paying as much attention to Samaki as he could. The subtle body languages. Kensuke might have the dojutsu for observing, but Katsuko knows the game himself. He could tell where she would move next. Not that he was expecting to have to help Kensuke, but Katsuko didn't want to be caught unprepared if he had to jump in. And judging by the Killing Intent coming from the two, they were serious. He already predicted that only one would be walking away from here.

Eiji's eyes shot between the two people. Sure the Konoha ninja looked impressive with his armor and his blade, but he was up against Samaki. No, Eiji didn't give this Kensuke a lot of chance to win. He just hoped that Samaki wouldn't play too fair. But no matter, he wasn't going to intervere with the fight anyway. Samaki would cut him up if he did that. As the two ninja readied themselves Eiji pulled out a piece of cloth and held it thoughtfully in his hands for a second. Then he raised it up in the air, showing it to both fighters. There was a brief pause, a silence on the field.

Then he let go.

There it was! The cloth touched the ground, and he immediately dropped into a combat stance, quickly creating the comparably few handsigns required to activate the camouflage technique. With his dojutsu he would have the tiniest advantage as he would be able to notice the exact moment it'd touch the ground without cheating. He quickly turned invisible and jumped back carefully. He scanned around for any immediate dangers or attacks, but to his surprise, he saw nothing. Not even his opponent. Of course!

Samaki's grin grew wider when she realised what had happened. Simultanuously they had activated a jutsu that made them invisible to the human eye. Her hiding in the rain technique however had the advantage, since it only relied on her chakra and the rain, and not on other elements such as similar jutsu. The rain was consistent and the clouds were a grey tapestry, only meaning an endless supply of cover for her.

They were both invisible. He because he bent the light around him and hid his sounds and scent with chakra, and his opponent with another jutsu. Which? If he could determine that, he could try to eliminate the source of her cover. That was his advantage. The camouflage jutsu didn't rely on the environment to hide oneself, but on the person's own chakra and skill. The only disadvantage was that people with the sharingan or anything like that could find him easily since he only used his own chakra to hide, but he knew the Obsidian Shark had no sharingan. She was a master of stealth assassinations though, so he shouldn't underesimate her. That'd probably also mean she'd have multiple ways to sneak around. Perhaps if he could just use an all-round attack to hit most of the fighting ground, he could chase her out of cover? He grabbed a paper tag and hid it in the tall grass.

This Nimatsu-guy was good. She couldn't find him anywhere, despite using all her senses to track him down. This'd be so much fun! Finally a decent opponent again! She wondered wether he'd be able to get her tired, like the last time she fought someone this good. Noone of course ever managed to beat her. Except Eiji. But Eiji was excentric, so that didn't count. Wait? What was that! She noticed something! It resembled pa... a paper bomb tag! She smiled again. Her opponent was smart. This meant he couldn't find her, so he'd just set the entire area off in a giant explosion! Smart kid! Instead of trying to track him down conventionally, she now used the paper tags as a trail to find him, and tried to stay clear of them too. He hid them well, but not well enough.

There, all set. He took some distance from the paper tags, in a safe zone he had calculated, just out of harm's way. He unsheatehd his sword and gathered fire chakra in it, ready to send a horizontal wave of fire towards the paper tags, intending to hit his foe and make the field explode. He took a final deep breath and unleashed the attack. Now!

Fire! She was right! He was there after all! She ducked underneath the flaming wave, hearing the giant explosion set off right behind her, and raced towards this Nimatsu's position, her obsidian-teethed machuitl ready to slice him to ribbons.

There she was! It seemed the heat of the explosions and the fire had uncovered her real position, namely a few meters away, about to turn him into mincemeat. He undid the camouflage jutsu and parried the giant weapon, trying to divert it away instead of blocking so the obsidian fragments would steer clear of his face and to put the least effort into it.

How did he find her? It didn't matter. He was visible now, and if she'd keep him busy, he wouldn't have the chance to use his invisibility jutsu again. "Not bad! How did you find me?" She asked, giving him no time to react, swinging her machuitl at him in fluid and unorthodox circular motions.

He grunted under her assault and was forced backwards by it. Even with his dojutsu he couldn't deciphre where the next attack would land soon enough to create his own openings to attack! This was one hell of an opponent! A weapon so heavy and strong, yet so unprediactable and fast! He skidded to a halt and refused to answer. A battle wasn't the time for talking.

"Pfff, you deaf?" Samaki taunted him, creating handseals as he retreated. The rain that had once formed her cover had long since started to freeze into hail, forming a growing white and frozen tapestry around her as her ice aura technique took effect. Out of the icea already ammassed, 4 ice clones rose around her, ready to charge in. She also sent some flying ice swallows towards the kenjutsu user from different directions to keep him busy. She would be stupid to allow him to re-activate that camouflage technique again.

The shadow clones he had just created parried the ice projectiles right before they charged forwards, surrounding Samaki and her own clones. It seemed her weakness was fire, so he was about to test that out with his strongest combination attack. He really needed to find a name for it though. It was strange just thinking of it as 'oven' 'fireball 'sword' 'technique'.

"You clearly are not cool." She said annoyed as the shadow clones surrounded her. He should've attacked her from close range so she could've made her ice clones explode into razor-sharp hailstorms of ice. Why wasn't he attacking with his sword as a proper Nimatsu would have? Or she had heard at least from the survivors of the failed attack against the Nimatsu's village during the great war. She'd been only 11 back then, clearly a very long time ago.

There, he had her. She fell for it. The clones immediately prepared the technique and fired it. No need for warnings or hesitations, as it'd only help Samaki. Once again, half of them fired chakra waves infused with wind chakra, which reached his opponent first, delivering lethal cutting attacks. After that, the fire waves would hit, creating a giant fireball as it collided with the wind chakra, with his opponent in the center. Last but not least, the chakra waves would strike and deliver yet another serie of merciless cutting attacks, to finish off any defenses that survived the fireball.


''Oi.. Katsuko..Wanna bet? Three hundered ryõ that Kensuke is going to get trouble.'' The blonde haired chuunin suggested the bet to Katsuko. His eyes were focused on the two sparring. Kensuke was too cautious. Other then that, he was using his large combination tactic against an opponent that was what? A jounin? He sighed, but kept his eyes on the battle. Hopefully Kensuke wouldn't waste too much chakra with such tactics. Else he wouldn't have much chakra to defend himself from her jutsu.

Oh. Her ice clones deformed into an ice wall, ready to protect her from the incoming attack, while minor fragments soared skywards to evade the oncoming onslaught and strike down his clones and that annoying guy himself. The thick ice dome that had quickly surrounded her creaked under the first impact, but survived. The following explosion however, reduced it to a molten mess. She kept adding more ice to it, ice that was quickly running out, ice she had kept to attack herself. This wasn't really going as planned. The heat reached past her barrier and made her break into sweat even though the air had been cold enough to make her breath visible only moments ago. The last wave of attacks completely destroyed her barrier, leaving her standing in a wave of fragmented ice shards, baffled by the strenght of the attack. She had used way too much chakra to defend herself just now. Only because the heat had shocked her this much, she had used this much chakra. And she could be glad. Any less and she would've been roasted or cut down. This guy was fun to fight against.

He ignored all of his clones being destroyed in the blink of an eye when an ice projectile was only barely deflected. It didn't hit him, but did keep him away long enough to see the result of his barrage. A mildly surprised opponent standing unscathed in a circle of steaming water. He grunted as he charged her with the falcon leaping technique, hoping to catch her off-guard. He had spent way too much chakra just now in this attack. He had hoped that putting so much in it would deliver a fatal blow, but if his opponent was unharmed, it all had been in vain? At best he could've reduced his foe's chakra pool a bit, but this was turning bad.


Already feeling her butt get numb, Tsubasa lifted herself up to one knee and eyed Kensuke's costly performance. He was definitely using plenty of chakra. Tsubasa figured Kensuke knew that he should try used a lot of his chakra to over power his target, since she had such a limited chakra reserve. The problem was that Kensuke was using the same amount of chakra, but only half of it was actually offense. If he kept this up, Kensuke may not be able to pull this out.

The two blades collided as the two combatants met again, both drained of chakra, both surprised by their opponent's skill. Each time their weapons clashed, obsidian splinters would fill the air where the giant machuitl would stop or be stopped by the steel of the katana. Relentlessly the two objects violently collided, bringing their toll to both of the fighters. The shards flying around caused scratches and wounds all over the two fighters, on every place not protected by something thicker than thin clothing. Their movements started to slow down as their strenght and vitality decreased, and the pace of the fight gradually dropped.

The flawless execution and technique of the swordsman only barely weighed up to the unpredictability and plain weight of the female warrior, even though his eyes held a great advantage over hers. The kunoichi's fierce fighting style involved quick and brutal attacks had had no succes so far in penetrating the usually tireless shinobi she was fighting, which had taken its toll on both fighters. Time over time they separated, had a small pause to rest, shorter than the blink of an eye, and met again, clashing time over time. The machuitl, not designed to withstand such a beating, slowly crubmled away under the continious hacking and slashing, while the katana started to show signs of damage.

They now faced eachother again, heavily breathing, determined to end this endless duel in the next clash. They charged forwards, steel met obsidian time over time, and they separated again. Once again none of both had managed to score a single hit, nevermind decisive blow to win. Once again they turned around and charged.

And stopped.




The katana hung motionless in the air, just after returning from an upwards diagonal swing from left to right. The arm of the kenjutsu user had been steady during this last attack, and had found little to no resistance at all. Unlike the machuitl. The giant obsidian blade was deeply embedded into the chest of the male shinobi, its teeth of vulcanic glass having bitten themselves right through his chestplate. A small stream of blood originating from the crevice in the chestplate where the blade had struck ran down the swordfighter's body.


Samaki ripped the machuitl downwards, releasing the weapon from her foe's chest, cleanly sawing the chestplate in half and dragging her foe to his knees. She heard the muffled thump when the sword hit the floor, dropped out of the hands of this opponent, which had been surprisingly hard to hit even once.

Sweat formed on his forehead when the pain struck him. He turned bleak when his sword fell from his powerless hands as he dropped on one knee. His chestplate folded and fell now the blade supporting it was gone, showing a gaping wound diagonally over his chest, lined with a fearsome amount of bloody and razor-sharp obsidian splinters. Never before he had screamed of pain during a fight. At best he had let out a grunt to help ignore it, but never had he screamed. The piercing pain was worse than anything he had felt before. his entire chest was struck, from side to shoulder. Blood gushed out of it all over his chest, and he opened his mouth to unleash an agonizing scream. It was a way of honouring this opponent, he thought partially-conscious. Noone had ever been able to hit him this badly before, and this scream was a testament to that achievement.

She turned around and dropped the badly-damaged machuitl on the ground. With slow and calculated steps she moved towards Eiji, patiently awaiting her return. She smiled towards him as a pleasant warmth filled her chest. He'd never leave her. She knew. Not today, not tomorrow, never. "Eiji..." She said with an unsteady and fragile voice. "I'm sorry..." Blood escaped from the corner of her mouth when she skipped a step and dropped forwards. The warmth when she thought of Eiji was quickly dispelled by the ice-cold and burning pain in her chest, where the katana had gone straight through several ribs and at least one vital organ.

In utter panic Eiji rushed forwards to catch the woman. His mind was in overdrive. He knew that the swordman must have hit something with that last blow seeing as there had been blood on his sword, but this was Samaki. She was tough, right? He forced himself to believe it, but as he caught her the hope on that started to disappear. The wound was gruesome. "No... No, no, no." He mumbled incoherently as he held her and tried with his disoriented mind to figure out what to do. He couldn't think of anything and it scared him.

Tsubasa's eyes widened when she saw the obsidian blade rip through Kensuk's chestplate, and even more so when he let out a large scream. Quickly rushing to her feet, Tsubasa went to see what she could do about Kensuke's wound. Sprinting over and quickly ripping off one of her sleeves, Tsubasa pressed the strip of fabric to the wound.

"I'm ... sorry ... for..." She said while trying hard not to choke in the blood streaming out of her mouth and nose. "So ... sorry ..."
"No, no, no, it will be fine. You will be fine. No need to say sorry." He said as he held her. He had to stop the blood pouring from the wound, somehow in some way before... "Eiji... No... I'm already .... dead." She said, using his hand to pull herself to sit somewhat upright. Well, upright, she'd now lean heavily on his arm to be able to look him in the eyes. She had to bring this last message to Eiji's mind. She knew he'd be crushed by her death, her stupid mistake. Why'd she have to duel so many people fairly and honestly? Why did she have that urge? It had ruined it all. "Eiji." She said, somewhat more steadily, trying to get his attention. "Sachi ... Don't let her grow up ... to be someone like me ... Give her ... a better life..." She said, feeling her strenght literally seep away together with the blood. She noticed that her hand was shaking softly even though she tried clenching Eiji's hand with it. It didn't help. "Don't ... b ... b ..." She tried to say, before a new wave of pain and blood made her her gasp for breath. She couldn't let this evolve into an international problem. Her stupid fault. It shouldn't be ... "Don't ... bl... blame ..." She said, feeling the darkness advance. It had been hiding in the corners of her vision just before, but now it was conquering all she could see. "h... h ..." The strength she needed to hold up her head wasn't there anymore, and she collapsed in Eiji's arms. Softly and comfortably she sank into a deep sleep as her vision faded. All her muscles relaxed, further aiding the sudden lack of pain drive her into the sleep. The last things she heard before even that faded away were Eiji's sobs. I'm sorry Eiji.

Carefully Eiji wrapped his arms around Samaki and pressed her against his chest. He burried his head in her hair, smelling her smell. He could care less that her blood was staining his white shirt, that his cheeks were covered in tears. He was crying, sobbing before a crowd and he couldn't give three fucks about it. This shouldn't be happening. He should have done something, but at the same time he knew that she wouldn't have let him. Her last words... He knew what she had wanted to say, but he couldn't comply to them. As the life disappeared from the one person he had ever genuinely loved in his life, his head rose and his eyes set themselves on the Konoha shinobi. His fingers curled around Samaki's shoulders, but he couldn't find the warmth he was looking for anymore.

He kissed her and then let her rest on the ground, a far too less place for her to lay. He himself rose up, facing the Konoha group. His appearance was probably slightly frightening as blood had denched his entire shirt, matching his bright red hair and the red stains on his cheeks were tears had made a path down to his chin.

He was going to kill some people right now.

The pain was like a boiling hot fluid streaming through his veins. As fast as the pain had come, so fast did panic arrive. Was he going to make it out of this one alive? He felt fast hands all over his body as his squad approached to help him, but that didn't help to ease his panic at all. The horrible pain combined with the sight and smell of blood was certainly enough to drive a man insane before he would die of the same wound. If he was lethally struck, of course. But he wasn't. His armour had prevented the giant blade from piercing his ribcase, stopping it from completely opening his chest like one would open canned food. Instead, only all of his muscles had been severely shredded and lined with countless splinters. If he'd die, it'd be from the loss of blood or an infection, but this wound was at best crippling. He wondered if he would be able to continue the ninja life after this. It scared him.

A quick and faint glance in his opponent's direction notified him of Samaki's fate. He knew he had struck her worse than she had struck him. By far. But now this other guy wasn't looking happy. Trying to make his mind ignore the pain and think rationally he tried to get up, using his severed muscles, and dropped on his back with another scream of pain. "Ryo.." He whispered, as he knew that he would be the first to stand up and fight this guy. "Get me out of here..." He whispered, noticing Ryo not even hearing him. He pulled Ryo's shirt and searched his eyes, gathering as much strenght as he could. "Get me out of here." He said steadily between clenched teeth before dropping on his back again, and letting the pain take effect.

Here Kensuke is on his back, lying pretty much slain


The whole time, Ryo wasn't only watching. Narrowing his eyes, he had weaved slowly handseals as he didn't want to attract attention. Kensuke had screwed up. And badly. Molding the chakra he was activating his signature technique to enhance his speed, but didn't move. When Kensuke screamed, it didn't take long before the young boy was near his friend, running as fast as he could. This was going to be bad, very bad. When he was near Kensuke, the sky blue eyes of Ryo met Kensuke's. For a moment, Ryo wanted to scold at his friend for not listening to him. Instead of doing that, Ryo weaved several handseals as he blew out an Ash mist to buy him and the others some time. The technique would maybe slow down the man that had looked in their direction with a very dangerous glare, but Ryo wasn't stupid. It wouldn't stop him at all. Once the dangerous mist was hanging in the air, Ryo supported Kensuke as he tried to get him into safety.

''Katsuko, cover! Now!'' He called out to Katsuko. Hopefully, Katsuko's earth style jutsu could buy some more time or protect him and Kensuke from possible attacks from behind. Neither Ryo nor Kensuke was now able to deflect an incoming attack, as Ryo had to get Kensuke out of danger before he could join a fight. ''Tsubasa, help me to get Ken out of this.'' He shouted as the process was slow. He couldn't use his own Swift Technique to speed Kensuke out of here. ''Hang on Ken. You.. oi... baka.'' Whispering the words, Ryo gritted his teeth as he would really make Kensuke remember to listen to him next time he would decide to do something stupid as this.

Tsubasa quickly assisted Ryo lifted Kensuke up and started to make small impulse bursts to help get Ryo and him up to a speed they could effectively escape at. Seeing the man glare at the Kensuke after over hearing Samaki's final moments of consciousness was absolutely terrifiying, but Tsubasa burried it deep and continued to help Ryo and Kensuke. They needed to get out of there.... Now.

A flurry of handseals and Katsuko slammed his hand against the ground. With the cover from the ash cloud, the earth beneath began to churn. Though Eiji wouldn't see it, he'd certainly hear it. The Earth and Stone Dragon erupting from the ground in the ash mist wasn't exactly quiet. However, rather than immediately attacking the remaining foe, the dragon circled around in the mist, coiling up like a snake waiting to strike. Just a very large, rocky snake. And with this done, Katsuko began jumping backwards, to keep up with the rest of the team. But he made sure to keep his eyes behind them, in case Eiji would pursue.

Why couldn't he just lose consciousness? That'd make it all so much easier. No more pain, no more worries, no more ... a new wave of pain as he was moved wiped away all thought and replaced with with pain. In fact, it was so total that his entire being was pain. His identity, gone, his achievemnts gone, his personality, gone. All what remained was the pain and the natural instinct to flee from pain. To escape from the pain that had erased his entity.

[Roran]

The Aftermath

A collab by Fieryfly and Roran Hawkins

2 weeks after Samaki's death, Amegakure


The house was silent. Eiji had decided that even though silence started with the letter 's' he still resented the word. The silence reminded him of what was missing. Something that he didn't want to be remembered of. Missing something hurt. It hurt fucking badly. He sat on the couch, the couch they had brought together once. It still somewhat smelled of her. Just like the bed: Sleeping in there was almost like imagining that she was just out on a mission; but she wasn't. His eyes were red, not from crying, the rain was crying for him as it came pouring down outside. He was just tired. Sleep hadn't been granted to him for a while now, though supposedly that wasn't that strange. He poured himself another glass of whiskey and stared to the color of the beverage before emptying it in one gulp. It was late. He should probably go to bed soon, but he didn't feel like getting up. Besides he had to take a look at Sachi first. In a half an hour or so she would probably be hungry again.

In the distance he could hear a thunderstorm approach to make the bleek evening even bleaker. Eiji ignored it, poured himself another glass and drank it. He would go in ten minutes.

The rain was pounded into him by the strong wind. Not too far a way a nearly pitch black wave, subtly hidden in the nearly midnight sky would inform an alert bystander of the incoming thunderstorm. But not this one. Kensuke dragged himself through the streets, having snuk in under the cover of night and with his camouflage technique. However, it was too soon. His chest felt like it had been ripped open all over again. Not only that, but the clear white bandages all over his chest, hidden by his darker tunic were starting to show darker red stains. Why? Why? Why? Why? He was a goddamn monster. Why did she have to die? A duel, fine. He had known that the Amegakure kunoichi would expect him to keep his world, and negating a challenge from a prominent Ame jounin would've brought much harm to the already unstable political position as clanleader he currently had. So he accepted, and won. Sort of. But whe did he live, and was she now covered under a heavy blanket of earth and stone? He had seen it in the other guy's eyes. Fear. Surprise. Anger. Sorrow. Hate. How could he have known? How could he not notice that? A family. He had ruined a family. And what made it worse was that he knew exactly which fate would await the father who'se beloved one he had taken. He had experienced the same in his own father. He hadn't even known his father before he became embittered by his mother's death. He was the cause of yet another lifetime of hate, anger and sorrow.

And there was only one thing he could do, or rather, attempt, to avoid the man growing just as bitter and angry as his own father had. He would offer his apologies. What a fucking disgustingly weak and silly thing. Why would I endanger my own life, in this state even, just for an apology? Was it idealism? Was it regret? Was it to atone for what he deemed the crimes he had comitted? If anyone even knew of his presence here, he'd probably either be killed on sight or imprisoned. Or even better, if his own villagers knew of this, degraded and given a dishonorable discharge, in the best conditions.

Leaning heavily on his sword in the wooden scabbard, he stopped before the door. He knew he looked horrible. Pale, weak, eyes sunken in their sockets because of sheer exhaustion and self-imposed guilt. He raised his hand and knocked softly.

The knock resonated through the house. Eiji was half way out of his seat before he realized his mistake. She was not coming home. He had to realize that and he did realise that, but there was just this little glimmer of hope that maybe it was all a really bad dream. An especially awful one.

When he, of course, concluded by himself that it was not a dream he started to wonder who the hell would knock on his door in the middle of the night. He got up, took note of the rain that was getting stronger with every passing moment, wondered if he had closed Sachi's window, cloncluded that he had done so and stepped into the hall. He had paused briefly above the doorhandle as if he was considering just leaving the thing closed so that he could be shielded away from the world for a bit longer. But he couldn't do that.

He opened the door and at first frowned at the figure. Then a look of disbelieve appeared on Eiji's face. Really? This guy had the nerve, really the nerve to come here and knock on his door? There was a moment of silence as the rain poured down on the barely alive Konoha shinobi and Eiji stood unmoving in the dooropening, shielding him from the weather that he loathed.

He saw the look on his face. He recognised it. He had seen his own face like that countless times before in the mirror back home. It had worn the exact same emotion for way too long. And now he was here to prevent the same from happening to this guy. If he wouldn't kill him. That'd be possible too, but he accepted that risk. He had resolved that trying to save this man would be worth the chance of dying by his hand. If he would, he'd finally join all those nameless faces that haunted his dreams every once in a while. He didn't know how to start, but that didn't matter. It was all senseless anyways. Instead, they just kept staring at eachother for a second, while he saw the lines on the other man's face harden into a hateful glare. Finally he had found the words. While he opened his mouth the same strange lethargic feeling caught him again. The feeling that this was just hopeless and senseless. That there was no gain in this for anyone. Not in that duel nor the entire world either. All just pain and death.

It was obvious that the guy had come to say something to him and although Eiji was pretty sure that he knew what this Nimatsu wanted the say, he didn't want to hear it. An apology wouldn't solve things. Not now, not ever. Samaki had spend her last words telling him not to blame the guy, but Eiji found that particulary hard at the moment. Sure he had settled down with the fact that Samaki wouldn't come around anymore, but no blame? He most certainly blamed the guy. So with Kensuke there opening and closing his mouth like a fish on dry land Eiji took the iniative and punched the guy full in his face.

He tasted blood and mud when the world stopped moving around him. Familiar tastes. In a rectangle of light he saw the silhouette of the man who had just punched him down to the ground. His sword was lying on the ground next to the door, while he had been sent sprawling by the force of the blow. He'd feel that for quite a while, yet it shrinked in comparison with the throbbing pain in his chest after falling on it, which in turn shrunk in comparison with the emotional pain that man must be going through. He slowly turned around and tried to get up, opening his mouth in a soundless scream as his chest reacted to that with a hellish stab of pain. Instead, he crawled onto his knees and got up from there, trying hard not to use his hurt muscles. It was impossible to do that, but at least he was standing now, somewhat. Leaning heavily against the wall he stumbled forwards untill he faced the man again. "I'm sorry..." He managed to say, fighting back tears of pain as the bandage coloured even darker underneath his clothing.

The boy was a mess, both physically and mentally. Eji stared to him with an emotionless face: The words that came out of Kensuke's mouth brushed past Eiji as he stepped forwards in to the rain: It felt cool against his hot skin. He was drenched within a couple of seconds, coldness spreading over his limbs, making him numb. But the rain could never make him feel more numb than he already was. He was aware of the fact that his breath was quickening. He could take the guy out, righ there; right now. It would be easy, nobody would notice it.

Don't blame him; Samaki's words came to him again. He missed the sound of her voice. He missed it so much.

Eiji swallowed the rising bile and took another step forwards, towering over the hunched Kensuke;"What do you want Nimatsu?

Kensuke smiled faintly at the man, well aware of both of their positions. "I don't know how I should call it. Am I here to atone? Am I here to see how much sorrow I've caused? Am I here just to win an argument against myself and prove that I'm a monster?" He said, maintaining that smile all the time. "Or am I here out of sympathy? Hoping that I could do anything to help you after brutally murdering your beloved one." He added, knowing that being so direct might just hasten the end of his life, yet he didn't want to waste words on useless politeness now, beating around the bush. "I don't know what I would do in your postition. That's something I can't imagine, even after losing so many friends already. If I would've been you I might've been dead already." He continued, merciless to himself and the man in front of him. He knew he wouldn't resist if the man would try to kill him. He also knew that he was in no condition to do so. "But if that is what you are intending to do," He added, raising his hand untill his fingertips reached the position of his heart, ", make it quick. I hope you would allow a painless death if that is your plan."

Again a silence arose between the two as Eiji stared to Kensuke with mingled thoughts. The thunderstorm was getting closer. Soon it would be above their heads. Eiji took a deep breath and without hesitating he slammed the boy down in the mud again: As Kensuke would lay there Eiji slumped down next to him, his back leaning against the wall of the house."You disappoint me Nimatsu..." He said, looking to the guy on the ground. His voice was raw. "You talk about your death like there is only you. But it is not that ea-"

Lightning flashed and the thunder boomed above their heads and for a second both Eiji and Kensuke could see each other: Then a baby started wailing.

He was about to answer, his nose feeling numb under the unkind touch of Eiji's fist. The words Eiji said was saying were true. However, he hadn't finished speaking yet. Waiting for the moment to speak he felt blood run down his face. The warm fluid contrasted the cold numbness from the rain, before a thunderclap ripped open the skies, silencing their conversation. What was that? It was unmistakable. It was ... a baby crying. He saw it coming right before it hit, an invisible hammer that shattered the bits of self-esteem and confidence he had rebuilt after waking up in the hospital and realising what he had done. The shards of that thin barrier fell all around him as he rested motionless on the ground, frozen in place, struck with horror. Not only had he caused years of sorrow for this man, but he knew that this child would have to live with a mere husk of his father's real personality, as he had all those years back. Unless his father'd recover from the shock entirely. Something that'd require a miracle in Kensuke's eyes. It was a habit of this world to allow only the worst imaginable to happen. What kind of deity, if it existed, would allow all of this? What kind of horrible world did they live in then? And most importantly, what kind of a monster was he, damaging if not ruining the life of a person whose life had only barely begun!

As soon as the baby started crying Eiji straighened up, the automatic reflex of a parent. The thunder must have woken her up. He turned around, away from the Konoha shinobi on his doorstep and walked inside. Half way through the door he paused for a second, a hesitation in his movements as he was debating what to do with the guy outside. But then he seemed to make up his mind and went inside.

The door was left open.

Soon the baby wails would stop and if Kensuke listened closely he could hear how the father was softly singing a song to the child, trying to calm it down. Trying to show it that he could safe her just as its mother.

He saw him leave. His footsteps resonated through the hallway, into his ears, as did the cries of the baby. He sat there, motionless in the rain. He could hear how the father started singing a song to the baby in an attempt to calm it down. With the absence of a mother, it was up to him to do everything for the child. He didn't even remember how he had gotten up without flinching in pain, but he did remember how his knuckles started bleeding after he punched the wall in frustration. The bright red tears that seeped from his hand mixed with the rain, as did the tears he was shedding. Why couldn't she just go on without a challenge? Why did she have to die after their fight? Why couldn't he man up and act like he was supposed to? He killed someone who challenged him, so what? Any decent ninja can have that happen. Why was he feeling to guilty for it? Why did he feel so much regret? Why was he so empatethic over his foes? Was he even fit to be a ninja if he felt compassion with those who were about to take his life? Why couldn't he? He started breathing faster and faster in anger as he cursed his own failure in silence, and let his head rest against the wall he just punched.

Then he stopped hearing the crying of the baby. He or she, he didn't even know which, was finally calmed down by his or her father. It dragged him back to where he was standing, reality. Why was he even here? He turned around and reached for his sword, trying to escape. He had given the man enough of a shock. Why ruin things even further? All of this, just because he was too kindhearted to be a decent shinobi. No, that wasn't it. During war or when fighting for something, he could kill without empathy. He had no trouble killing at all, as it should be, but why was he feeling this bad then? Suddenly it dawned to him.

He had killed her for no reason at all.

As Kensuke tried to leave through the thundering storm Eiji had reappeared in the dooropening. The baby lay on his arm, her short red hair visible against Eiji's white shirt. Not his red, the flaming red he had inherited from his father. No, it was Samaki's red. The darker, richer color. The baby was sucking on Eiji's indexfinger, her eyes were closed. Eiji watched Kensuke's retreating back and took a breath. He looked down on Sachi, who lay so peaceful in his arms and then called out: "You can come in. Unless you want to drown yourself in that self-pity that seems to be soaked in your clothes. If you want to keep loathing yourself then please leave me alone." He said. He pressed Sachi closer to him, shielding her from the rain that was now blown inside the house. "I will only offer it once."

He turned around and nodded. He didn't need his offer to realize that he was in no condition to do anything really. What surprised him more was why he was so kind. He was a shinobi. He was his enemy. His wife was killed by him. So, why wasn't he dead yet? Perhaps... No, that wouldn't be it. That couldn't be it. He wouldn't have survived as a shinobi that long if he was too kindhearted too. There had to be another reason. He stopped after the door was closed, putting his dirty boots next to the door, looking at himself. He was covered in mud and dirt, and the occasional streak of blood too. "I'm sor-"

Eiji send him a deadly glare. "If you say that one more time I will kick you out of my house. Sorry won't cut it, so stop hoping it will." With that he turned around and lead Kensuke to the living room. Automatically his eyes went to the picture of Samaki and him that stood on the window still. I hope you won't kill me now, he thought as he looked to Samaki's sharky grin, I didn't kill him, only punched him in the face, so don't be mad alright? Slowly he sat down on the couch, made sure that Sachi would be comfortable and then motioned that Kensuke could take to the other chair in the room.

"You're right." He answered, following Eiji down his house, accepting the seat and carefully sitting down. Now his anger had cooled down he felt his wound again, and not lightly. He cleaned his face quickly to prevent the baby from seeing anything not meant for eyes so young, and stared at the table surrounded by the chairs. Before he could say anything more a bird darted through the house and landed on his shoulder, giving him a good stare for some reason. What was it doing? He ignored it and looked at Eiji. "I... I don't know..." He said. "I came here for reasons that seem so senseless to me now I sit here." He finally said, sighing deeply.

Eiji's eyes flickered to Ebizu for a second. The bird seemed awfully aware of the situation and Eiji was sure that he wouldn't try to stop the bird of it decided to attempt to peck at Kensuke's eyes. But Ebizu didn't move and Eiji turned his eyes back to the Nimatsu. The boy was in pain, it was etched on his face. "Do you want something against the pain?" Eiji asked, ignoring the words of Kensuke. He knew what the reason was for Kensuke's visit. He also knew that Kensuke might not have realised those reasons yet. "I have some painkillers somewhere..."

"Why are you so kind to me?" He asked with a tormented face. What was happening now was twisting his image of what he saw as a shinobi and a normal man. Previously it had been hardly possible, in a strange way, for a good shinobi to be a normal person to him. The emotionlessness required to kill without regret simply couldn't coexist with the habits of a normal man, let alone any feelings at all. The longer he thought about it, the less sense it made. If, according to his own beliefs, shinobi couldn't be normal people, why was he feeling so guilty for killing then? Because he killed shinobi, who didn't have families? He felt the need to readjust all his values about what he considered to be shinobi. How could this man be a jounin of his village, have a family, and yet still be this kind to him, who killed his family? It seemed completely impossible to him for some reason. What? Why? "I don't get it anymore." He added, confused.

Eiji's eyes were cold. "You know what Samaki's last words were to me? They were not about the baby, not about me. They were about you. She said to me, begged me, not to blame you. He shifted his position and leaned forward. "It were her last words. She could hardly speak because you probably cut through her lung." He knew his words were harsh, but he was so not in the mood to sympathize. "Samaki was my wife. I loved her. So don't you think that I might try, even though it takes me an extreme amount of self control, to head those words? Because yes, I feel like killing you would give me an enormous amount of satisfaction. But Samaki was better than me or you. She understood that if I went out to kill you and your tiny friends, that we could do severe damage to the balance between Ame and Konoha. So I won't, because I know she was right. So, let me ask you again: do you want those painkillers?"

"Sure.. Thanks..." He muttered in response. He felt tiny. Very tiny. Where his concern had been around himself and the family he crushed, Samaki's had been for two entire nations. He felt so ... He didn't know how to name it. Unworthy, but unworthy of what? Being spared? Being alive at all? At the same time he felt a great respect surfacing for that woman he killed. Her legacy had saved his life, and that of many others, apparently. And he was the cause of that legacy. His sword had cut through several ribs and a loung of the woman who didn't want him to die even now. Silence. It echoed through his head several times. This man had been right from the start. It had been all about himself. Could he really care about this family, or was it just some kind of sick desire of his to 'save' people in order to feel better himself? Or did he really want to save these people for their sake? He couldn't give an answer to that.

"Good." Eiji got up and Sachi brabbled something. Eiji send her a smile and carefully lay the baby in the crip that stood in the living room. He looked pondering to Kensuke for a moment. It was clear that the boy had understood something of what had been clear to Eiji all along. The boy was here to make himself feel less bad and clearly it wasn't working so well. Shaking his head slightly Eiji left the room in search of painkillers. They were stored in the bathroom he knew. As soon as Eiji left Sachi, who missed the warmth of Eiji's body, started sobbing again, filling the room with soft crying sounds.

He quickly noticed the baby starting to cry again and winced. Eiji was taking his time finding the painkillers, and the baby wasn't liking that. He looked around for any sign that Eiji would be returning soon and sighed, lifting himself off his chair. He shuffled towards the baby and attempted to make it stop crying, the bird eerily following him as he walked towards it. "Shhhhhh... Don't cry..." He attempted, but the scent of blood he carried probably made the baby even cry more. He quickly cleaned his hands so he wouldn't infect the baby with anything scary and picked it up, softly rocking it hence and forth to calm it down. "Don't cry, your daddy will be right back. Then the scary man will leave. Don't worry. It'll be alright..." He said, his throat feeling unusually thick. "I'm sure you'll be a great person one day, with such parents you have now. Don't you worry..." He muttered, sincerely hoping it'd calm down.

Finally he had found the painkillers and made his way downstairs again. There, however, he was met with a sight he had not expected and he wasn't sure if he liked it or not. Kensuke held the baby, trying to calm it. Sachi let out a few more cries and Eiji was about to step forward, but then she stopped and stared up to Kensuke's face with big puffy eyes. Clearly she wasn't really afraid of him as she stretched out her little hand and touched Kensuke's chin with her tiny fingers. Eiji decided that it was enough. Even though he was certain that Kensuke wouldn't hurt the baby it was just... too soon.

"Please put her down." His voice was soft, but had a dangerous edge to it. "I got you some pills, there is water in the kitchen."

The baby finally stopped crying, and was now curiously looking at him, as if he were a toy. Already a hand was raised playfully to inspect the strange object hovering above her head, and before Kensuke could react she was already touching his unshaven chin. Before he could do anything more however, Eiji arrived. He was startled by his appearance and quickly put the girl down, probably breaking a world record in doing so. "Uh, sure, excuse me." He accepted the pills and hurried his way to the kitchen as fast as he could drag himself there. What was he even thinking? He filled a glass with water and quickly gulped the painkillers inside. Why did he even? ... Whatever. He took a moment to relax his nerves and returned to the living room again, sitting down on the chair.

Against better judgement Eiji rushed to the baby as soon as Kensuke left the room. Of course she was fine. She was smiling even. Eiji poked her softly against her nose. "Go to sleep." He murmled. "You will need your energy for the morrow." Slowly the baby's eyes closed, it was late after all. Eiji turned back to the room and sat down again, facing Kensuke. A silence fell as Eiji listened to the sounds the baby made. "Her name is Sachi." He suddenly said, his eyes digging holes in Kensuke. "She is just over a month old now. Nearly two."

He simply nodded. What could he say? "She looks gorgeous"? "Her mother'd be proud of her"? "She looks like her father"? No, he'd rather remain silent, and listen to the words Eiji had to say. Now he knew a name it somehow changed the situation. It made him feel even more personally responsable for all the hardships this girl would go through thanks to him. As if he wasn't before, but now the pain was in a way real. With one rash action he permanently damaged this child's future. The child itself. It would have the same effect as if he would have stabbed the girl into her heart. He already knew what kind of pain would be waiting for her. The longer he thought about it, the more he recognised his own family's situation in here. He too lost his mother way before he started remembering anything. He too had a father that took care of him, but that father was permanently scarred by the loss of his beloved one. She had died to an enemy shinobi, albeit indirectly, but die she did. His father had personally slain the ninja responsible for it though, and that was what separated this family from his own. These people didn't seem so narrowminded as his parents were. They overcame the quench for revenge in order to allow peace to exist. Every passing moment his respect for these people grew, and his sense of guilt hammered down on him harder for causing all of this pain in such a great family.

It seemed that Kensuke understood what Eiji was trying to say. The Leaf shinobi had destroyed a part of Sachi's life. The little girl would never know her mother. Eiji leaned back on the couch. "Did this trip make you feel better?" he asked, looking at the boy before him who started to look worse with every passing second. He couldn't imagine that this whole deal had helped the boy one bit. He also wasn't sure if it had helped him.

He looked up towards the man and just watched for a moment, not knowing how to answer. "No. It hasn't." He replied shortly. Although what he had done seemed so senseless to him now, somewhere a part of him still thought it was a good idea, but in his curent state he couldn't find out wether or not that was out of sheer stubborness. He shook his head and tried to stand up, making sure he wouldn't make the place any more dirty. "I ... I shouldn't have come here... I .. I'll be going ... I guess..." He fumbled, clenchnig the back of the chair to keep his balance. His knuckles were pale from the amount of force he had to use to remain standing.

Eiji was aware of the fact that the boy was in absolute no condition to walk, let alone travel. However, having the guy out of the house seemed like a good idea. He cared little about what would happen to the boy. Samaki had said that he could not kill him, but if the boy would keel over by himself then that would be... unfortunate but not his fault. Eiji therefore remained seated while Kensuke tried to get out of his house.

He used his katana sheath as a crutch again as he forced his way through the hallway, whic seemed to grow longer with every step he took. Red-faced out of shame and physical pain he opened the door and closed it behind him, but dropped his sword. Losing the support he leand against the door and wanted to curse, but found no words. Sinking on the ground, leaning against the door, he felt the rain wash away the blood and dirt on his face and clothing. How ironic. His sins were all but washed away. He shook his head and tried to get up again, but after tesing his legs, he widely decided to wait just a moment. Untll the pankillers'd take effect. After that he'd have to get out of here. This had been such a stupid idea. If this man had been any less honourable his head would be decorating a wooden stake by now. If he was lucky. Shaking his head he wondered why the painkillers took so long to work, realising it had been only a minute since he had taken them. It seemed an eternity. For the first time that day a wry smile forced a way onto his face as he found the reason for his distoted feeling of time. That hallway was so annoying...

---

[/hr]

Eiji had taken up Sachi and had put her back in her bed. Kensuke had left, for which the Amegakure shinobi was really glad. He should try to get some sleep or he would end up falling over at some point.

But sleep wouldn't come for Eiji. His mind stayed awake for hours and his thoughts kept spinning. He cursed himself. Next to him Sachi was sleeping so peacefully, why couldn't he? In the end he decided to give up. Forcing would help him no better then not sleep. He got up again and walked downstairs. After dunking a glass of water - that didn't make him feel better - he decided he might as well go out for a walk. Maybe the morning rain of Ame would do him any good. He doubted it as it had never done so before, but one could have foolish hopes once in a while. Mindless he put on his jacket and pushed the door open.

Or well that was what he tried. The door refused however. Was it trying to tell him to go back to bed or something? Annoyed by the thing Eiji pushed harder and suddenly the thing opened partly as something slid down on the other side.

It was the lifeless body of Kensuke Nimatsu.

A quick glance over the boy told him that he wasn't dead. His chest was still rising and falling though it was slowly. The rain had washed away most of the blood that had been staining his face and hair and Eiji saw how pale the boy was in the light of the hallway. There was an annoying piece of him that told him that couldn't leave the boy here. It was an annoying piece that kept annoying him and so he despite better instincts he kneeled down and hoisted the boy upward. There was no way that he could bring a Leaf shinobi to the Amegakure hospital, but there was also no way that he could leave him out here in the rain. So that meant that Kensuke had to come inside his house again.

A short moment later Kensuke was laying on Eiji's couch. The man had taken the liberty of removing the boy's shirt to see his injuries and tried his best at bandaging them. He didn't have that much experience with medical stuff, but he tried and that was more then Kensuke could have asked from him. In the end he carefully placed a blanket over the boy and looked down on his sleeping form. Maybe he should go back to bed now. Going out was a no now. He would not leave Sachi alone with this guy even though he was passed out and didn't look like he could make it up the stairs even if he wanted to. Maybe sleep would be so kind as to take him away tonight. With that thought he left the room and turned of the light. He would see what the morning would bring.

---

[/hr]

He opened his eyes and yawned. Why had he been sleeping with all his clothes on? Wait, correction, with his pants on? He noticed his shirt lying on the ground next to a soother. A soother? Since when did he have a soother in his house? Biting away the pain as he got up, long since used to it, he reached for it when another item came to his attention. A letter bearing a Amgakure stamp. Finally it hit him. He was in Amegakure?! As the memories streamed back into his head he facepamed for his own stupidity. He quickly got up, as fast as his body allowed him that was, and put his shirt on, just pausing a moment as he noticed the large mirror to look at his body. What he saw... He didn't know if it pleased him. He was in a top conition, and looked like he was, but thin white lines were spread all over, scars from previous fights. A fresh and clean bandage hid most of it though, the large gaping wound he had from the fight against Samaki. He nearly died from surprise when he saw movement behind him in the mirror while he was standing there, looking at himself.

"Samaki always looked in that mirror before she would leave." Came a voice from behind Kensuke. Eiji stood in the dooropening and looked at the boy. Surprisingly he had gotten one or two hours of sleep, though he didn't feel particularry refreshed by it. "You shouldn't be up. Unless you are actively trying to get yourself killed. Then I suggest running around a lot. Preferably out of my house."

He quickly swiveled around, cursing himelf for doing that so quickly, and put on his shirt. Today he felt strangely a lot better. Ofcourse, there was a gaping hole in his chest, but that aside, he was feeling quite lively for a person with a gaping hole in his chest the size of a crowbare. "Oh." He said somewhat awkwardly. He scratched the back of his head and added one and one together. "You bandaged me up?" He asked somewhat superfluously.

"Yes." Was the simple answer. Eiji walked through the room and entered the kitchen. Without saying another word to Kensuke he started to make some milk for Sachi. He worked in silence. When the milk was finished he put it in a bottle and walked back to through the room. "Any more stupid questions? Otherwise I'll go back up."

All the time Eiji had been in the kitchen he had been standing there, thinking about what he should do. He was dumbfounded, and couldn't really do anything in the current situation but just ... stare. "Eh... I ... No." He answered, grabbing his sword sheath again, shrugging. "Thanks. For everything." He finally said resolutely, and nearly succeeded at walking towards the door in a straight line.

Eiji was already walking up the stairs when he noticed Kensuke was attempting to leave. "You are not going to make it home in one piece in that state." He didn't even know why he was being so kind to the guy. The shinobi had killed his wife. He should be angry, crying, doing anything besides helping him, but he just didn't. Not that he liked Kensuke. No, he very much loved to see him dead, but then again he didn't look... evil, so to speak. He looked broken, lost, pained, things Eiji could understand and somehow felt connected to. "I won't stop you, but I would advice you seek help to get back."

He stopped walking and kept staring towars the door. "Look, coming here was stupid. But it helped. I think. Or it will, one day. But right now, I can't stand staying here. It's just... Well... I can't. You don't have to be concerned, I'll make it. Your self-conrol won't have been in vain." He replied in a moment of enlightenment. All social ties that had made him feel so awkward and ashemed a few moments ago, he had let them go. He stopped caring, allowing him to finally do something.

"It was stupid yes." Eiji agreed. There was a change in Kensuke. He looked confidenter in a way. "See yourself out then. And please never drop by again." With those words Eiji continued to walk up the stairs. Somehow it felt lighter. He had done what Samaki had asked him. He had not killed her murderer, not even maimed him a little bit. It felt good in a way to see the youth so troubled by death as well. Maybe things would get better now. Maybe healing would start.

He nodded and closed the door behind him, only to be held at knifepoint by a cloaked figure. A voice he recognised as a friendly one then continued to tell him how ugly his forefathes must have been if he could be this stupid. Ryo was a good lad.

[Roran]

Tying up loose ends

A collab between Gerontis and Roran Hawkins

Konohagakure, April 475, 7 months after Shoji's oppression.


He took a deep breath and stepped forwards to the large door barring his entrance to the Hyuga compound. It had been a strange series of events that had caused him to only be able to visit her now, seven months after he had captured her in the North of the Land of Snow. After arriving back near Konoha, fighting off the last of Shoji's armies, Matsuri had been pre-emptively locked away. He had tried visiting her, but was forbidden. He had only managed to slip a letter in which stated he'd protect her during the process of determining what to do with her, but the long and arduous task of hunting down and apprehending every last insurgeant following Shoji's ideas, as well as the long process of repairing that which had been damaged had kept him busy for the following months, and after that, he had his duel with Samaki of Amegakure, which nearly got him killed. Having spent three months in a hospital, he was finally released. He felt a bit weak and faint, but they had literally kept him locked up untill he was fully healed, to make sure he wouldn't destroy the healers' work.

A friendly eyeing man opened the gate for him, and flashed him a smile before leading him towards the location where Matsuri had been placed. After the short debate between the Hokage and the leader of the Hyuga clan, it had been decided what was to be done. Kensuke had been on a mission and unable to do anything, but he wanted to say he had done his best to help. He had heard she had been prectically emprisoned in the Hyuga estate and given the curse mark.

As he was lead towards the house of the previously meek girl, he thought about how glad he was he could finally visit her again. It had been too long since he had spoken to her in non-hostile situations, and he longed to see her again too. Finally the moment was there. He nodded a thanks to the man and knocked on the wooden frame of the sliding door as he arrived.

Matsuri sat on the ground. Her legs pulled up as her eyes were closed. Though looking like she was very calm on the outside, she was raging from the inside. The trail, the process. Everybody had left her. Sure, Zakito had visited her and slipped he and some others were trying to defend her. But to no avail. She had received the Cursed Mark. Though with her headband, she was able to conceal it. But every time she would look in the mirrior without something covering the spot, she would see the mark. It made it clear that she had failed in her goal. To prove hard work was better than talent. Even when she had done so much in the time she had only worked for the Dragon Lotus, she didn't see the results of her work. Biting on her lip, the girl became angry. Seeing the faces of those who she had called friends. Sensei's. Everybody.

They had made only use of her.

The room she was kept in was decorated and in normal situations much nicer than the one she had lived in. But it was a prison, no matter how nice they would make it. She wasn't allowed to leave it and she was sure that they kept watch of her. Even lifting a finger and there would be nin ready to capture her again. For a moment Matsuri thought about using the Void Rose technique. It could easily make her vanish and escape the country. But then she would be on the run for Dragon Lotus. Something impossible with having the Dragon Seal. Suddenly hearing a knock on her door, Matsuri lifted her head up. She wasn't expecting any visitors. Maybe it was again a reminder of her cruel fate? Most likely, she thought bitterly. Deciding she wouldn't let people walk over her, she would open the door herself this time. Rising up from the ground and the wall, Matsuri walked towards the door. Opening it, she saw Kensuke. First she was surprised. Then happy, before realizing he was the one who had dragged her back. He, Ryo and Tsubasa. All former team members and friends of her. Now traitors. Her lips went down, clearly showing she was displeased of seeing the young man in front of her.

She seemed not too happy, but he greeted her heartily nevertheless. "Matsuri! It's been too long!" He said with a broad smile, and walked toward her to ... he didn't quite know why. Hugging felt awkward for some reason, but it had been such a long time, and his enthusiasm and happiness overcame his anxiety.

Her speed proved her months of training during the time of the Dragon Lotus weren't forgotten. As Kensuke was close, her hand wouldn't need to go far. A loud sound was produced as she slapped on the face. Still no word came out of her mouth, but the slap would make it clear to Kensuke what her opinion was about him at the current moment. Her shoulders trembled as she tried to restrain herself.

Staggering backwards, completely caught off-guard, he felt the cheek she had just hit. "What..." He muttered, stepping backwards in suprise. "Why?" He asked, wide-eyed. He still didn't believe what just happened, yet the burning red print on his cheek was the tangible and sensitive proof.

Slowly the right hand she had used to slap him, went to her headband. Slowly in the same movement, she pushed it up. Showing him the Cursed Mark, Matsuri spoke in calm, but spiteful tone. ''Cause you caused this. You and all the others. I'm so glad to be back.. Home.'' The emphasis she placed on the last word was more than clear she meant the opposite if Kensuke wouldn't get the clear tone of her voice. ''Hope they rewarded you as much as they have rewarded me.'' Matsuri said with a cld tone.

The spite and hate in her voice scared him as much as her eye, as the other was covered by a bandage, drilling into his. He felt as if he was slowly being pinned into a wooden wall, each nail being dlowly driven through his body. This wasn't what he had wanted. He wanted to scream it out, yell that he only wanted the best for her, only wanted to make her happy. Not this. Absolutely not this. He'd do anything to make her happy. But he couldn't. Why? He didn't know, but instead he stepped back as if he was hit again, and stared at her in disbelief. "But I didn't..."

Then who did? Who went so far to drag me back? Who is leading Team 4? Ryo? Tsubasa?'' Matsuri asked, clearly getting angrier by the fact Kensuke even said those words. She poked him against the chest with her right hand. ''You're the one to blame. The one that caused this misery. One good friend you are, Kensuke.'' She now took a step back as she narrowed her eyes. She wanted to slam the door, so that she wouldn't have to see his face. ''To think that the person I thought was the closest to me.'' Matsuri said on a softer tone, pausing for a moment. ''Would be the one that caused all this misery. I don't want to see you again, Kensuke.'' Matsuri attempted to close the door.

He felt like he was stuck under a grindstone as she continued. His face was caught in an expression of shock and disbelief, while at the same time realizing that it was true. What had he done? He had dragged her here against her will, gotten her emprisoned for the rest of her life, and had taken away not only her physical freedom, but he had also made sure she got the Cursed mark. He tried to stop her as she closed the door, so he could lmake it all up, say he didn't mean to, say he didn't know this would happen, but even while speaking the words he knew they were lies. "I tried..." He muttered, his hand stopped the door from closing.

''No. You didn't.'' Matsuri replied. ''You succeeded. Congratulations on your 'success'. Matsuri replied, pulling the door back before slamming it. If he would want to keep his hand there, it was his own choice. Matsuri turn around as she didn't want to hear or see him again. He was after all the cause of her missery. Her shoulders kept trembling as she decided to sit on the bed and wonder about some things. What if's and such.

Letting go of the door when she said the last words she had to say to him ever again, he noticed how the door was violently slammed close. Was this real? Had this really happened? He looked at the door to confirm she was really gone, and then looked at his hands. He had done this all to her. He had crushed her dreams, ruined her life, just to improve his own. Just for himself. Did he really have that right? The right to crush and ruin lives? He didn't, yet he kept doing it time over time. If he didn't outright kill or maim people, he crushed their dreams and futures instead. His shoulders dropped a decimeter and in a way it felt good. Finally he realized what he was doing. Finally he realized he should be punished, and that punishment had just begun. The only person who he had ever loved in his life now hated him because of his egoistical and short-sighted ideas. He felt that he was close to crying, but for some reason the tears wouldn't come. The shock was like an open wound, and when he tried walking away, it split him in two. He had never known that love could hurt this much. Sorrow, yes, fear, yes, anger, yes. But love? Dragging himself out of the Hyuga compound, he surrendered to his dark thoughts, untill he suddenly woke up and found himself in his bed, with his head under his pillow. The door was broken, apparently being kicked out of its hinges, and as he further explored the house, he found his right shoe in the sink, and his left next to a broken glass.

Starting to tidy up and fix his house, he tried ignoring the pounding guilt in his head. He knew that sinking into a state of self-pity wouldn't help, he had tried that before. Instead, he chose to just start doing things. Anything to distract him from the pain in his chest, and the thoughts that could potentially rip him to shreds. After cleaning the mirror he looked into it, and saw his own face. His eyes had sunk in their sockets, and were bloodshot, and his face was deathly pale. A soft and insane smile formed as he kept watching.


"You monster."

[Roran]

The party

A collab between Fieryfly and Roran Hawkins

Konohagakure, May 475, 8 months after Shoji's Oppression.



The music was too loud and the people around him ignored him, except when they accidentally bumped into him, upon which they tried being either sorry or annoyed, and even in the last case they were quick to apologize. Kensuke was tall and athletic, and looked a lot sturdier than most people present there. He guessed most of them weren't shinobi at all. The untouched plastic cup of ... whatever it was ... tasted truly disgusting. He didn't feel like he belonged here at all, and felt like he could have way more fun trying yoga at home. He felt the desire to just run away and sit home again, but knew he wouldn't amuse himself any more than he was now. He cursed himself for having so much self-pity it was disgusting. He didn't enjoy anything anymore. Eversince he visited Matsuri the moment he could leave the hospital, his world had turned. Matsuri hated him. He had never given her up during the years she was gone, he had tried his best to bring her back and stand for her to lessen her punishments, but to no avail. He had tried defending the wrong person. Even though because of him she wasn't punished as much as she could have been, she had received the cursed mark and was practically locked up in the Hyuga compound, and naturally, there was just one person to blame. The stupid and naive dicknugget that had had the great idea of bringing her back, and promising the Hokage to do so at all costs. Looking at his drink, he felt like he could try to drink as much as he could of it to see how being really drunk felt like, and to see if he could forget his trouble then. He walked towards a table to put it down when somebody bumped into him and made him spoil his drink all over his green shirt.

"Wha-... Ah, fuck..."

"Oh I'm so sorry." The voice of a girl rose up from the music. "It was an accident, really. And I-" Her voice paused as she gave the boy before him a good look before suddenly dropping her eyes to the ground. "A-ah, Ke-kensuke." Kaori fumbled with her words. She hadn't seen the guy for ages, only having seen him once before during that shopping trip of hers. After that she had been busy and besides, he was a proper ninja that trained under the Hokage. Surely he had no time for her.

Looking up, or rather, down at the girl who seemed to appear out of nowhere he couldn't hide his surprise when he recognised her face. When she excused herself hastily she seemed strangely familiar, as if he had seen her before somewhere, and finally, he understood. "Kaori, right?" He asked, tasting the words as they rolled of his tongue. It was embarrasing enough that he was going to run away from a party he was invited to, nevermind to spill his own drink over himself. Forgetting her name would be truly dumb. He looked down at his shirt and made a troubled expression. "Oh well, no problem. I wasn't planning on staying much longer anyways."

He had remembered her name. Kaori couldn't help but smile at that, her fingers wrapping themselves tightly around her plastic cup. "Yes, that is right." She said, barely audible over the music. She gave him another look. He looked terrible really and she wondered what was going on with him. "Aww, but the party is quite fun isn't it? I... I could buy you a drink to make up for that wet shirt." She said smiling slightly to him.

He wanted to thank her for the offer and leave as fast as possible, but it was strangely attractive. Now he knew at least someone here but the host, who was too busy kissing girls in his sofa, it might be a little bit more bearable to stay here. After thinking of what he'd do if he just would go home now, he raised his shoulders and made a quick decision. "That's a fair trade, I gladly accept!" He said with a smile, following the girl through the crowd as she raced towards the bar.

Her smile grew when he accepted and soon the bartender had given her two new drinks. Trying to be as graceful as was possible in a huge crowd of people Kaori handed one of the drinks to Kensuke. Her eyes looked through the room and spotted a fairly empty table in the left corner. "Shall we sit? Then we can make sure your drink doesn't spill again." She said and chuckled.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want that to happen again, now do we?" He replied with a strange newfound source of confidence. Sipping from the drink as she did, or rather, taking a large swig, it suddenly didn't taste as bad as before. Maybe it was because he focussed on the taste too much. Putting down his drink he looked at her and tried recalling the last time he saw her exactly in that shop. She hadn't changed that much, but now she was wearing ordinary clothes, just like him. She didn't look bad in them, at all, but making a compliment about it felt plain and stupid. Instead, he changed the subject. "So, how've you been doing eversince last time?" He asked. it was a standard and overused sentence, but what did that matter.

Kaori giggled as she sat down and folded her hands over each other. "I've been good. That chokuto you recommended me has really been working well for me. So I've been training, doing some small missions, but well you know, nothing major. I'm not really a big strong ninja... like you." Her eyes shot up to him and then back down to her drink and then to her hands and then back up to him. "I mean I'm just a Chuunin and all. So eh... How have you been?"

"I've been doing missions and stuff, some training, and a duel, which got me stuck in the hospital for three months. I'm only released two weeks ago." He replied, wondering why she was so short about herself. "But I'm sure you must've gone through something exciting too, right?"

Shocked Kaori looked to the guy before her once more. "Are you okay? I mean, shouldn't you be resting then instead of... being at a party you don't really seem to enjoy?" She asked him with genuine concern. "What happened? Wait..." Stupid question, he probably didn't want to talk about it. Why would he ever talk about that to some random stranger. "I mean, you don't have to answer that. I was just wondering and... you know. Concern. And I... I really didn't do much. Trained with the chokuto. I.. don't think I'm really good with it though. I mean my father thinks so and all, thinks I'm a good strong ninja, but really... All just a lie." She toyed with her cup to avoid looking up to him.

"Hey, I'm okay. I've been through worse before... Okay actually I haven't, but I'm allright. Thanks." He said on a comforting tone. The music was a bit softer in this corner of the room, so they could speak on a near normal convesational tone. "Ofcourse you're a strong ninja. I mean, you wouldn't be a chuunin if you didn't know how to fight." He then continued, trying to cheer her up a bit as she seemed to be a bit troubled. "Then again, I didn't mean training and fighting and stuff. You seem to be quite at ease here unlike me. It's one thing to know how to handle a sword, but this..." He said with a hint of a smile, looking around helplessly.

Kaori grinned. "It is not that bad I hope. Though it totally depends on the people you know." She followed Kensuke's look around the club. "I know a lot of them. Couple of good friends, couple of less good friends and a couple of... people I just know. It's fun, when you get used to it." Her eyes shot to one of the guys in the back and moved back to Kensuke. "So why are you here, if you feel so uncomfortable?" She asked him as she took another swing from her drink. Maybe she should stop, but then again... this was a special occasion.

Drinking again, noticing it went easier the less he thought about it, he sheepishly grinned as he replied. "The host is a retired shinobi. I served alongside him during the Sunagakure war, and he invited me. And I had nothing else to do, so I thought, why not? I didn't expect it to be like this though." Shrugging about his own ignorance he took another swig from his drink, noticing it was almost empty already. That went surprisingly fast.

"To be like what? Like a proper party?" Kaori giggled again and wondered briefly why she kept doing that. Her drink was empty. "To how many parties have you been?" She made a move to grab his cup and put it in hers. "Want another one?"

"Well, this... In general... This is my first party." He replied, feeling a bit stupid. In any case, she didn't seem to blame him for it, and he liked that. "Sure!' He replied as she took his cup and offered to get new drinks. Who was he to refuse such a generous offer?

"No. Way." Kaori said laughing. "You are what, the same age as me, and you have never been to a proper party? What have you been doing with your time?" She said joking as she got up. "You better have an answer when I come back." And with that she disappeared in the crowd. As careful as possible she made her way though the people, occasionaly saying hi to someone. The bartender was quick to fill both the cups and she handed him some money. He gave her a wink which she ignored.

"So, here you go." She said several minutes later when she arrived back at the table and handed Kensuke his cup. "To the party." She held her cup up for him.

Grinning as she returned he raised his cup and joined her. "To the party!" He raised his cup to his lips, staring her down, waiting for her to start. Never been to a proper party? The arrogance! Ofcourse he had been! He brightly remembered a certain party where he found out Tsubasa was actually a girl. He'd teach Kaori for making such gross underestimations of him.

Kaori snorted and took a drink. He was staring. She could play that game too so she stared back. "So what is your answer, mighty shinobi?" She said. "What is the reason that you have never been to a party like this, while this is probably one of the best things to do late at night."

"Because I was busy being a mighty shinobi. You know, putting my sword into enemies of Konoha untill they stopped moving." He joked. It was a bad joke. A really bad joke, but it was the perfect joke for this time. "But please, Kaori-sensei, teach me about this thing you call a 'proper party'!" He added, emptying his cup in a single swig. Wiping away some liquid from his mouth with his hand he surpressed a soft burp and kept staring her down.

Kaori closed her eyes and laughing shook her head. Awful joke. But hilarious. "Well then my pupil, if you want to be schooled in the art of partying you better follow my lead." She said as she emptied her cup as well and got up from the table. She blinked a couple of times and then held out her hand. "There is one thing you do when music is pumping out of the speakers. You dance. You'll join me of course, right?" She said, pulling him out of his chair.

"Naturally. You know the saying that good swordsmen are always good dancers? Let me show you!" He said after regaining his balance and dignity when she pulled his chair away quite... not suddenly at all, he had to admit. But did it matter? He followed her to the center of the crowded party where there were dancing and sweating people all over. "If I may ask your hand..." He tried yelling over the music, bowing over to her ear to make sure his fake courtesy would be heard. With a fat wink he stepped back and started moving on the rythm of the music. It felt alot more natural this time, and he wondered wether it was from the alcohol or because he wasn't dancing on his own now.

"Hell no!" She yelled back. "I'm not ready for marriage yet." But she laughed and accepted his hand anyway. The music was loud and the alcohol was running through her veins. She could feel its buzz in the back of her head and accepted it. The dancing felt good and free and quite special so close to this guy. The crowd was moving around her and on occasion they would bump into her and send her closer to Kensuke.

As more people joined in, and time started doing weird things in his head, he felt Kaori dance closer to him, which at first was uncomfortable. He didn't want anyone to see he was dancing like this with a girl. But, after a few moments, he noticed nobody noticed, and started dancing with more enthousiasm again. He even laughed about his poor choice of words out loud, wondering why he suddenly felt so free as he danced with this girl. Her body was pressed against his' and it felt surprisingly good. Maybe he should go to 'proper parties' more often...

Suddenly her arms were around his neck. Kaori didn't quite recall how they had come there, but who cared. They were still dancing and still coming closer. She could feel his breath on her face. It smelled, but then again, everything smelled here. It was part of the whole deal. At some point during that song she decided to give in to whatever it was that was going on and leaned forward to kiss him on his lips.

When her arms found their way around his neck he felt strangely excited and relaxed, as if there was noone around in the entire party but them. Yet at the same time the presence of everyone that only cared about themselves felt safe and cozy. Their little personal space in the sea of moving people. Putting his arms around her he pressed her closer, and could feel her breath on his face. It tickled him a bit, and he noticed her breath was hot. After an eternity, or was it just a mere moment, he suddenly felt her lips touch his. Her lips were warm and soft, and the sensation sent the shivers down his spine. Kissing back and pressing her against him some more, he closed his eyes and forgot the world around him for a while.

It was perfect there in the middle of a crowd. And he kissed her back. Kaori let herself melt in the kiss as she closed her eyes, feeling his hands on her back. Now time could just bugger of for a while and let them be, she thought happy.

But that was not what would happen. Only after a few seconds Kensuke would find a hand on his shoulder that would roughly pull him away from the girl and made her yelp as a punch would come for Kensuke's face.

It was actually not like it was envisonned in comon fiction, but it wasn't bad either, not at all. Suddenly however, just as he thought that maybe he should do this stuff more often, a hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away, and before he realized what was going on a fist landed square in his face. Staggering backwards, cursing himself for having drank too much to avoid that fist, he blinked rapidly to squeeze the tears out of his eyes as he felt a stream of hot fluid flow out of his nose. It was hard to see in the flashing light, and he found that he was unbalanced due to the alcohol, but it was his advantage that his assailant took this time to say something, allowing him to recover and prepare.

"What do you think you're doing?" The man facing Kensuke yelled over the music. His dark eyes were bloodshot and it was clear that he had had too much to drink. His dark hair was ruffled and so were his clothes. Behind him a couple of other guys yelled something incoherent.

Kaori was fuming and stepped in front of Kensuke as he staggered backwards. "What the hell do you think you're doing Hotaka?" She called back to him. She shot a look back to see if Kensuke was okay. His nose was bleeding pretty badly. "What was that even for? We broke up, remember? Broke. Up." The boy stepped forwards and made an attempt to grab her arm but Kaori slapped his hand away. "Don't touch me." She said stepping backwards to Kensuke. "You okay?" She asked the Nimatsu.

Having caught a part of their conversation he felt dragged into stuff he didn't want to be dragged in, but now he had been dragged in anyways, he planned on dealing with it. That guy had just possibly broken his nose, and, Kaori... woah... was a nice... girl? It amused him in his drunken state that his shyness played up, even if only in his thougts. Stepping forward and gently pushing Kaori aside he gave the other boy a challenging look. "I'm okay," He said on a light tone. "I've been through worse you see." He then added, and turned towards the boy. "I think you must be confused, I believe you two broke up?" Maybe challenging him wasn't the best idea, but hey, he was a shinobi, he could take a drunkard, even when drunk, right?

"Doesn't mean that an asshole like you can randomly kiss her." Hotaka said angry. "You think you can just come in and take her, I don't think so. You don't know anything about her." He raised his fists and took a step forward.

"This is ridiculous." Kaori said, not liking the fact that Kensuke shove her aside. She didn't want him to stand up for her or show her that he was so strong and mighty. She believed that when he said it. "Just leave it, it is not-" But before she could finish her sentence Hotaka jumped towards Kensuke.

Some people had noticed the uproar and had formed some sort of circle, and the idea of fight was floating around. He didn't like the fact that he was involved in a barfight, what it was in essence, but he wasn't going to lose it either. He noticed Kaori's frustration, and saw in her body language that she didn't like this at all, since the music was too loud to hear what she said. It made him feel strangely guilty, and coincidentally the other man chose that moment to attack. He sank through his knees and raised his arms into a combat stance instinctively, and later thanked the countless lessons he had had in taijutsu. The fact that it had become an automatism allowed him to parry the other guy's fist, grab him by the throat and tackle him to the ground. Pressing his knee hard into the chest of the other man, he loosened his grip on his throat somewhat and gave the other boy a menacing look. In his drunken condition, he might even have accidentally unleashed a bit of killing intent to put some force behind his silent argument.

The crowd yelled loudly as Hotaka hit the ground, a couple of girl brought their hands to the mouths and one guy puked, but that was probably because of the alcohol and not because of the fight. Hotaka shot Kensuke a deadly glare as he lay there though he looked startled and hurt. "Well go on, show her how violent you are, you... ninja... you ninja are all the same." The man coughed.

Kaori's eyes narrowed and she stepped fowards and with some efford pulled Kensuke away from Hotaka. "I said this is ridiculous. Stop it."

"Come on Kaori," Hotaka yelled to her from on the ground. "You can't like him. He is a ninja. Didn't you dislike that? Isn't that why we were so great together?"

He felt hurt by his words and her actions. Looking at his hand as he stood up he knew that he had hit him sraight in his soul. He wasn't proud of the violent nature of his work. He wouldn't hesitate to do it, as he had just proven, but he didn't like it either. It was as if he had been punched straight in his chest, and he felt thoroughly afraid Kaori would indeed abandon him because of what he just did. Why was he even afraid of that? Kaori was just... He should stop fooling himself. Of course he feared rejection now. He had never seen this side of life, always had been too busy being a ninja. Killing people. Now he finally found it, and enjoyed it, it was instantly turned against him. Just like it had been a few weeks ago when he spoke to Matsuri. Instant karma he had heard people call it, but he hated the term. He felt perfectly described by the other young man when he spoke of him as a man of violence, a ninja, and tried hating him for it, but couldn't. He simply was right. Backing off, trying not to stay close to Kaori as he felt that she'd probably run if he did he could only let the scene play itself out.

"Yes, that is why we were great together. But also why we are not anymore, but as you might have noticed. I am a ninja." Kaori spat to the guy on the ground. "I might suck at it, but I still am." Her words were full of hurt. This night had started so great and now everything just went wrong.

"But you don't want to be. Admit it Kaori, you wanted out." Hotaka tried to get up and rubbed his chest with a painful look on his face.

"Things are not that simple." Kaori mumbled. She turned away from her ex and looked to Kensuke. He looked hurt. Who could blame him? She cast her eyes down and bit on her lip then she offered him her hand. "Shall we get out of here?" She asked him though she was not sure if he would hear it.

He felt a bit empty as she suggested to get out of there, and he mindlessly nodded in agreement. He felt exhausted and didn't want to stay a moment longer in the crowd of people that had seemed so safe, cozy and anonymous back then. Now it was hostile, and he felt like each and every one of them would remember his face for the rest of their lives. The last thing he wanted. He followed Kaori outside the building and once outside he felt angry that she hadn't told him, but he surpressed it. It wasn't her fault. No need to stress her even more. Instead, he followed her to a bench instead of punching the wall, and sat down, releasing a deep sigh.

This was very uncomfortable, Kaori thought as they sat on the bench. "Look... I... I didn't... It was not like.. I'm sorry Kensuke. She said, stumbling over her words. I mean it. Hotaka just doesn't know when to quit and I had hoped he hadn't seen us and... I'm really sorry for your nose. I hope it doesn't hurt that bad...." She stared to her hands. "I'm really sorry." She repeated. "I... I didn't want to bother you. Obviously you have enough on your mind already with the way you were drinking." She mumbled.

He felt his nose, and everything still seemed to be in fine condition there, even the blood as already stopping to flow. As she continued to speak, he noticed she was apologizing and blaming herself for the entire thing, and he didn't want her to. It was just as much his fault as hers. "Stop blaming yourself." He said putting his hand on hers, a dangerous gesture he wouldn't have dared under other circumstances, but he was drunk. So that didn't apply. "I've never been to a party before. I didn't even know they could be this fun. Thank you." He continued, trying to fix her eyes. He could see she was close to crying, and he didn't want to see that happen.

His hand was warm and the air around her suddenly felt cold. She shivered and fixated her eyes on his hand. Swordsman hands, but they were nothing like hers. "Well I am glad the good part was good." She said smiling slightly as she looked up. She gave him a gentle push against his shoulder. "So how drunk are you?" She asked with a small glint in her eyes.

He smiled and played along now he had apparently succeeded in cheering her up again. "Drunk enough to do dumb things." He replied with a playful voice. He had already done quite the list of dumb things that evening, but hey, if he was on a roll, why not make some more?

"I was more wondering if you would fall over if I pushed you too hard, but you seem stable enough, though if you insist on doing dumb things..." Kaori's smile turned into a grin as she scooted sidewards, closer to Kensuke. "I guess I wouldn't mind doing more dumb things." She said as she leaned closer to him.

"Who am I to object..." He replied with a hoarse voice, and softly smiled as he leaned towards her. Her mouth was soft and warm, and made him forget about the less fortunate events of that evening. He didn't know how long they were kissing, but after a while it was good, and they stopped. Softly smiling as he kept looking at her, he noticed how she shivered in the cold night. Hardly needing a moment to decide he gave her his sweater. A moment after giving it, he already felt sorry for doing to, as his wet shirt, which had dried up a bit, but not enough, was truly chilling him.

While she accepted the sweater and snuggled inside it she could see that Kensuke was cold. It made her feel both happy and guilty, which was a weird combination. Her hand found his hand again and she trailed her fingers over his. The night was nearing dawn and she knew she had to go home, but... This was a pretty good place to stay. She leaned her head against his shoulder and looked up to the stars. "Will you be visiting more parties?" She asked him, hoping that the answer would be yes.

"That'd depend on who would go to these parties." He replied with a wink as he leaned a bit towards her. Any warmth was welcome, but hers was probably extra welcome right now. He looked at the sky, just like she was, and saw the first pigments of light gray appear in the East, driving away the dark purple and blue of the night. It was quite pretty. He sighed and watched the first signs of dawn appear together with her. It was peaceful, just sitting there.

They sat there for a while. Just sitting. However, when the first rays of the sun crept over the mountains and reflected in the windows Kaori abruptly shot up from her comfortable position. "Shit, " She cursed. "I need to get home. My parents are going to be livid if they find out I was out for the night." Quickly she stood up and wiggled her way of the sweater, dumping it on Kensuke's head. "I'll see you again, right? I mean, this was not just... now, right?" She asked the boy.

Caught in her startled enthusiasm he jumped up too and looked around to see wether or not her parents were already here, about to catch her. Wondering for just a moment if he couldn't help her with the camouflage jutsu or anything so she could sneak in unnoticed, he was bombarded with his own sweater. As he freed himself of it she was already halfway leaving when she turned around to face him with a remarkable look on her face. A smile broke through on his face as he melted a bit in front of her. That was too sweet for him at the moment. "Like hell it was. I'll see you tomorrow?" He asked with a hopeful gaze.

"Let's first see if you can get up before the end of tomorrow." Kaori joked. "And I am not sure. I'll try to sneak out again tomorrow night, but don't be mad if it doesn't work okay?" She tucked some black locks behind her ear as she smiled. "Besides if you desperately need to look for me. Look for Konoha's team 11. That is my team. I'll see you around!" With that she spun around and sprinted off towards her home. She raised her hand to wave goodbye before turning around a corner and disappearing.

Standing there, watching her bolt off towards wherever she lived, he felt happy. After a while he shivered and put on his sweater, realizing that sun had dawned quite a while ago. He must've been standing there for like 15 minutes at least, and had trouble keeping his eyes open. His head wasn't too fresh either, but he felt relatively okay, considering the amount he had drank today... or rather, last night, he corrected himself. Shrugging he started walking towards his home with an incorrigable smile on his face.

Arriving home however his smile faded when he saw his front door and walls sprayed with grafiti and the windows broken with rocks. Blinking a few times, and shaking with his head to test if it was just his mind making this up, he cursed when he realized someone had really vandalized his house, again. "Goddamnit."

[Roran]

"Chicks are born to give you fever"

A collab by Fieryfly and Roran Hawkins


Konohagakure, May 475, 8 months after Shoji's Oppression.


He rubbed his eyes and yawned, sitting on the bench, bathing in the last rays of the sunlight. His head was a bit light, but that was primarily due to exhaustion. He hadn't slept, at all. Instead, he had been busy taping his broken windows and washing the paint of his door and walls. Whoever had done it, they had used a type of paint that was easily removable with the use of a practical fire jutsu. had it been Yumi and her new friends, or that Hotaka guy, who wanted some vengeance? How could he even have known where he lived? Most likely the perpetrators were just random thugs, but strangely only his house had been vandalized. A sad occurence. Sitting on the bench, placed near the plaza he saw Kaori disappear towards last night, he waited. Eventually, he mused, he would spot her, or he would fall asleep.

Kaori had slept really well actually, but that might have something to do with the alcohol consumption of last night. She had managed to sneak back in her house unnoticed - or maybe her cat had seen, but he couldn't talk luckily - and had managed to catch 3 hours sleep before her mother came in to tell her that she and her father would go out for a bit. After that she had gone straight back to sleep. Yes, she was feeling pretty okay. That was until dinner and a longwinded family session about the future and other stuff Kaori didn't want to hear. She knew Kensuke was waiting for her, but she just couldn't leave. Not now. That would raise so much suspicion. She needed everyone to sleep first. Why couldn't her parents just hurry up.

Finally the house got quiet and Kaori sat up in her bed. She quickly dragged a comb through her short and messy black hair and slipped some clothes on before opening the window. She had snuck out of her room so many times now that she could dream the way. Window still, roof, dodge her parents windows, slip down, pet the cat and run off. It was all excecuted in perfect silence and finally she could run away on full speed and race towards the bench. Her eyes lit up when she saw he was already there and she raised her hand to wave.

"Kensuke! I'm here! Sorry I'm late. I... Are you sleeping?" She halted next to him, silent now and watched him. Slowly she sat down next to him and waited for a moment. Then at random she poked him in his side.

He jumped up the second he felt something intrude his belly and let out a soft squeek of surprise. "What?!" He yelled with a hoarse voice, surprised by the sudden assault. The moment he realized he had fallen asleep and Kaori had poked him awake, he sighed and sent her a smile. "You're here... I thought I hadn't fallen asleep. I was really dreaming I was sitting here and waiting, but in my dream I had a box of cookies."

His reaction made her laugh and his words even more. "I'm here yes." She said. "And you have weird dreams. Cookies would be good though." She pondered for a moment. "Oh, I know! You know Kotaku's club? You know the one with the fancy lights? You know that one right?" Kaori gave him a wishful look, but doubted that he would actually know. "There is a really nice place next to it where they sell coffee and cookies. How about I show you?"

"I know no such places." He said, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, with a wide grin on his face. "You see, I never go to 'proper parties' after all, so I only know good restaurants." Winking he gestured her to lead the way with a gentlemanly bow.

"Where have you been living..." Kaori wondered out loud, but didn't press the matter. She took the initiative and grabbed his hand as she let him through the streets of Konoha. As they walked she looked around. "I like the night." She suddenly said. "It changes a lot of things both in nature and in people. Though I have to say, I am surprised that you are still standing. Did you sleep at all, besides that little powernap just now?"

"Nope." He said amused, and followed her. She was right. The night was something special. But previously, he had seen it as special for entirely different reasons. Now, he learned to know a new meaning for it. After a while they arrived at the place Kaori had been talking about, and they quickly claimed a table. He ordered a hot chocolate milk, because nothing was better than hot chocolate milk except maybe hot chocolate milk with marshmellows.

"Thought so." She said, but didn't dwell on the subject. The place she lead him to was crowded and cozy. The tables were small and packed together and the music was loud and jazzy. She really liked it. He got hot chocolate and thinking about it, she decided to take the same. It would be the perfect dessert. However she asked the waiter to bring them a little glass of rum as well and smiled when he brought it. "This is how you drink late night hot chocolate." She said as she poured a bit of rum in his drink if he wanted it or not. "Cheers."

Raising an eyebrow he gave her a faint smile, looking at his now 'alcoholized' drink. "I totally knew that." He said, beforesipping from the hot chocolate milk with rum, and making a sour face when he tasted it. Not quite what he had hoped or expected. If he would be alone he'd probably buy a new drink or leave it there, but hey, he was here with Kaori after all. No way he'd not drink this. Wait, why was that important? Shrugging in the privacy of his own skull, he instead tasted it again, and stated that it was just as bad as the first time. Nevertheless, he managed to get out a faint smile and a nod. "De-licious." He managed to say somewhat near normal.

Kaori took a sip, leaned back and shot him a sceptical look. "You are allowed to say that you don't like it, you pussy." She said chuckling. "If you can't handle your liquor, you should just get something else. I'll pay, since I ruined your drink. Just means I can drink 2 times as much." She grinned and watched him. He was funny when he was trying.

He nodded and ordered a new hot chocolate milk, passing the one with rum to her. Why did he even try? "So." He said, trying to change the subject from his attempts to drink chocolate rum. Waiting for the real and drinkable cocolate milk he leaned on both his hands and looked at her expectantly. "So, party-sensei, tell me, is there anything else I need to know about 'proper parties'?"

Kaori sipped her chocolate milk happily as she leaned forward as well, mimicing his position. "Well, my dear pupil. I am glad you asked. Let me inquire then, what kind of music do you fancy? Do you like the classy jazzy music here? Or do you prefer the loud music back in the club? Music taste is a big thing besides drinking of course." She took another sip from her drink.

"I don't know. I never really have been interested in music. I guess that I can only hear music and then decide wether I like it or not. I kinda like this music though. Why?" He replied, drinking from the new hot chocolate milk, tasting the deliciousness of it. Nothing could beat this. Except for a few things. Maybe more than a few, but hell, it certainly was better than a lot of things.

"No reason, just want to know stuff about you." Kaori snickered. She finished her drink, but left the other one untouched. She leaned forward even more so that her nose would almost touch his. "Because I actually don't really know much about you besides that you are a mighty shinobi of course. So what are other things you like?"

Surprised by the question he leaned backwards and thought for a moment. "Except doing shinobi stuff... I uh, like drawing?" He replied, a bit taken aback. There was little he did that wasn't in function of being a shinobi. Except drawing there was actually pretty much nothing at all. He even learned the basics of a massage just to be able to relax after a mission. Not that it helped himself much, but who knew when that'd come in handy.

"Hmmm." Since Kensuke leaned backwards again Kaori did the same. He was really naive, she thought giggling to herself. Her hand found the second cup of hot chocolate and curled around it. It was hot against her skin, but she ignored it. "What kind of stuff do you draw? Any good?" She asked him curious.

"Uh... I draw people... Well, I have something for ancient armours and stuff, but sometimes I also paint stuff, and that's always people." He said, looking away for a second. He didn't add that the people he painted were those he occasionally saw in his nightmares, and that'd be the nightmares where people he had killed, or had died because of him started chasing him around, blaming him for their deaths. Eversince he was 'cured' of his depression their frequency had dropped, but they still happened once in a while, and he'd wake up, shaking, bathing in sweat. Refusing to remain on the subject for long he decided to ask something about her. "And what are your hobbies except going to 'proper parties' and dragging people into them?"

"That is pretty cool. Can you draw me?" Kaori asked interested. "You should defintely show me once. Or twice." She grinned. Then he asked what she liked and Kaori had to think for a moment. "I like listening to music." She said then. "And I wish I could play an instrument but I can't and there is not really enough money anyway to let me have lessons. Either way, I like hanging out with friends. On parties or not. And I like kissing a certain guy." She grinned to him and hid her nose in her cup as she took a few more gulps.

"Maybe some time..." He answered her request somewhat hesitantly, but listened carefully as soon as she started talknig about her hobbies. Listening to music, ofcourse. How did he not expect that? Maybe, he thought as she continued, he could help her with that music instrument? He had a decent pay as a tokubetsu jounin, and combined with the taxes his sister got from running the clan, of which he got a small but respectable portion, he had more than enough money to live quite comfortable. As she continued and reached the point where she mentionned kissing a certain person, his smile turned into a grin. "What a strange coincidence! That's also been a hobby of mine lately!"

Kaori couldn't help it. She choked in her drink and started to cough violently. Heaving for breath she looked back to Kensuke. "You like kissing guys?!" She said laughing and coughing at the same time. Really this guy... He should be more careful with his words. "Well, I did not see that coming and I mean I-" She couldn't even talk anymore now, but just kept laughing until only hiccups could be heard.

His eyes grew wide when she made the remark and he almost spewed out the chocolate milk he was drinking. "Wha-I-no-wai..." He fumbled, before breaking into laughter together with her. After two unsuccesfuly attempts to stop laughing, he finally collected himself. "Well, maybe girls too..." He said with a fat wink, before bursting into uncontrollable laughter again. He had to give it to her, this was, apart from a certain occasion yesterday, or was that today, this was the most fun he'd had in times.

"Maybe girls? Well that is no good. You have to be sure you know." She said finally calming down. "Otherwise I am really confused about last night and the whole deal is hazy anyway. Maybe you should refresh my memory and yours and think about if you like kissing girls." She said joking, but there was an obvious hint hidding in that statement.

"Hmmmm... Maybe you need a demonstration?" He suggested,leaning on the table again, giving her a challenging look, having completely forgotten about the previously so holy chocolate milk.

"Maybe I do." She said daring as she leaned on the table as well, a playful smirk on her face.

Closing in to her, unaware that he just moistened his lips, he suddenly stopped and roguishly looked left and right without a warning. Once he was sure everything was safe he gave her a mean wink. "Just checking for any stray ex-boyfriends~" He said, and didn't give her the chance to reply, kissing her on her mouth as it opened in surprise.

For a moment Kaori just sat there, unmoving. Then she pulled away, her eyes weary. "Not funny." She said, pulling her hands back and leaning backwards. "That was an unfortunate event that wasn't suposed to happen with stuff that you weren't supposed to hear..."

He leaned back and his smile faded somewhat. "I'm sorry, I only wanted to tease you a bit." He said, scratching his neck and automatically reaching for his drink again. The longer he thought about it, the more curious he got, but he hesitated asking about it. Hotaka. The entire hating ninja thing he seemed to share with her. What was that all about? Stuffing away those questions he decided to ask them later, on a more appropriate occasion. "I'm really sorry Kaori, what do I have to do to make it up with you?" He asked instead, trying desperately to sound a bit serious.

Kaori rubbed her eyes and then brought up a smile. "Its okay, I forgive you. I shouldn't make too much of a deal about it. Let's forget it all happened. Well, besides the dancing and such." She winked back to him. "And, hmm, I don't know... How about we get out of here and walk through the night? Maybe you could show me where you live?"

"Ah, I can do that!" He said, quickly emptying the cup of hot chocolate milk and, after tactfully looking if her drink was empty too, offering his arm as he stood up. He placed down some money on the table, and gave her a conspiratory wink. He paid, regardless of what she said just a few minutes ago.

"Awesome." She said as she accepted his arm. "Very gentlemanly." She teased him, eying the money he put on the table. She wouldn't complain of course that he paid. No, it was very nice. She didn't have that much money after all and yesterday, buying drinks for him and such, did cut her budget. She would have to figure something out to get some more money really. But not now. "Show me the way then, sir." She said as they came outside.

Leading the way, or rather, hauling her across the streets of Konoha towards the housing area, easily a maze for a foreigner, and led her towards his home. The windows were surprisingly already repaired, it seemed like the company he had called for that had worked really quickly today, what seemed to be his luck. The door and walls still showed some signs of paint and scorch marks from his attempts to remove it, but those didn't stand out amongst the other houses. Opening the door he led her inside towards a simple interior. Eversince he noticed his house had a strange habitude of getting demolished, he had settled for relatively cheap and simple but comfortable furniture. Things he could patch up himself, maybe even customize if he felt like it. As a result the sofa was one big chunk of patchwork, but was the best to sit in. The small table showed dents and deep cuts, but it still served what it was supposed to do. "Welcome to my mansion, my lady." He joked upon entering with her, continuing with the gentleman act.

They hardly talked during their walk, which Kaori didn't mind. Her hand was locked with his and it felt pretty good just to walk through the blackness. She could have walked for a long time, but they soon arrived at his home. It was both what she had expected and what she hadn't. Somehow the whole patchwork and stuff made it look really like a guy room, but it also made it look rather comfortable. It looked lived. "I like it." She said slowly as she looked around in the house and walked through the room. "But seriously what happened? Did a bomb explode here once or something? Or did a meteorite crash into your sofa?"

He bursted into laughter as she suggested a meteor had crashed into his sofa, and had to try really hard to stop. Once he had himself under control, he answered her. "Yeah, a crystal meteor even." Leaving her arm and removing his shoes before entering the house further he hurried towards the small kitchen where he found the expensive bottle of sake Lilia had bought him a few months ago, back when he was still in the hospital. "Please, act as if you're at home." He said as he grabbed two small wooden cups as customarily used with sake. Upon closer inspection of the label he smiled. It was a good, expensive, and heavy, sake. Lilia sure had a great taste for a girl that small. He suspected Jinkama having had to do something in her choice, and for a moment felt bad for the old man. He had passed away several weeks ago due to some kind of slumbering disease, but he had still been in the hospital at that time. He knew people had been crushed by his passing, such as Lilia, Keiko, and Katsuko too, but he had never really had any contact with the old hero. It was sad, but he couldn't really feel more about it.

In any case, leading her towards the sofa, he presented her the bottle, as if she was a true conoisseur of sake. "Is this sufficient, my lady?"

Obviously he was joking about the crystal meteor. There was no such thing after all, and if there had been then surely she would have known. She removed her shoes as well and placed them next to Kensuke's as he left the living room to fetch some things. She strolled over to the bookshelves and looked at the titels. She wasn't that a big fan of reading, but some books really sparked her interest. His titles were... interesting as well? There was a lot of ninja stuff there and Kaori wondered if this guy did anything else beside his job. Swordfighing, clan stuff, other things on weapons. Oh, there was cooking as well. That was different. Drawing, just as he had said. She looked up to see a few of his drawings hanging on the wall. So he was pretty good. Turning her eyes back to the shelve she noticed a book about medical ninjutsu and pulled it out of the row before noticing another title. Massaging. Kaori smirked. Now that was something. As she pulled the book out something bounced off and fell on the ground. A little pink shard of crystal. Kaori stared to it. No... that was not possible, was it?

With the book in her hand she turned back when Kensuke reentered the room and her smirk turned into a smile. "Classy. I like." She said as she walked over to him and held up the book. "So you do massaging too?" She asked.

His face gained a shade of red as he saw the title of the book, and he quickly put the bottle down and snatched it from her hands. "Uh, yeah. I learned the basics once." He said, a little bilt embarassed. It seemed to amuse her, but it was pretty strange nevertheless. Once the book was back where it belonged, he settled down in the sofa next to her, and opened the bottle, puring a cup for each of them. "What shall we drink to?"

Kaori giggled. "That is awesome." She said, dropping down next to him on the sofa. She accepted the cup and raised it towards him. "You should show me that too at some point. Either way, let's drink to..." She thought about it for a moment and then grinned. "Let's drink to crystal meteors making this couch so comfortable." She said and ticked her cup against his.

"Yes, to crystal meteors and massages." He said, raising his cup too and tasting it, right befire emptying it in one gulp. It was very good, and he suspected Kaori to have done exactly the same. He didn't actually drink frequently at all, but sake was something he could usually appreciate. This one was certainly more than sufficient.

The sake was good, she thought as she emptied the cup in one drink as you should do with sake. "This is really good sake. Where did you get this? No way that you can affoid this with the way this sofa looks." She said, lowering her cup.

"A gift from a friend." He said, grinning as he refilled both cups.Her misconception about his wealth was adorable for some reason, but talking about it seemed like a rather bad idea. Instead he relaxed in the sofa and drank the next cup in one go, letting go a sigh of statisfaction as he tasted the sake running down his throat.

"Nice friend." She mused as she took up her cup again. Following Kensuke's example she emptied it again in one go. They sighed at the same time and Kaori laughed. "Really good sake..." She said, trailing off and looking at him.

"Yeah..." He agreed, and put down his cup instead of filling a new one immediately. The warm feeling of freshly drank alcohol made his throat feel fuzzy, and he welcomed the feeling. He noticed she was looking at him, and smiled as he raised an eyebrow. He didn't bother asking, the gesture should be enough.

She smirked. There was an invitation after all. Maybe he wasn't that naive. She lost the cup somewhere on the sofa as she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Should go really well with something else." She mumbled as she kissed him.

He'd admit that he was midly surprised when she dragged him down, but he didn't feel bad about it either. Kissing back it felt as if it was all supposed to be like this. As they fell backwards in the couch he could feel her heartbeat through their clothes with his chest, against his own, a very strange experience. Wrapping his arms around her he surrendered to the intensity of the moment.

[Roran]

An Unexpected Visitor

A collab between Fieryfly and Roran Hawkins

Konohagakure, June 475, 9 months after Shoji's oppression.


Kaori was running through the streets carefully avoiding the people, but still very much blending in with them. She did not want to be followed, but knowing what she left behind, she might be. That was why she had to keep running with cover. Her sword bounced against her back with every step she took, but her breath was steady. At least she had proper stamina, that was something.

Finally she arrived at her destination. A house in a street. It was slightly run down as if it had been destroyed a couple of times, but it looked homely. She was sure he was home. Without hesitation she stepped to the door and knocked.

Running his hands through his hair to get rid of the shampoo still in it he heard a vague sound from outside the shower. And again. As the sound kept repeating itself he determined it to be the door to his small house, and grumbled something incohesive as he stepped outside of the comfortably hot cabin, blindly grabbing for a towel while racing to his slippers in order to touch the potentially dirty and ice-cold floor as short as possible. Quickly drying his face and most flat large areas of his body in a hurry he hurried outside of the bathroom in search of some pants to put on before opening the door. He'd have used his towel if it hadn't been too small. He reminded himself to buy larger towels so he could actually use them for anything but drying himself after a shower.

There was no respons and for a moment Kaori wondered if she had the wrong day. That would suck really bad because there was no way she could come tomorrow or the rest of the week. Not after what she had pulled off right now. She knocked again, but when the house still lay coated in silence she placed her hand on the doorknob and tried to open it. It gave in and smiling Kaori stepped inside only to be met by a practically naked Kensuke who, considering his attire and the fact that water was dripping off him, had just showered. Kaori's smile turned into a smirk.

"Hai," she simply said as she stood in the dooropening. "I thought I'd drop by, seeing that you are free at the moment."

SPOILER: Click to show

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A sound left of him made him look up and he couldn't hide a flash of surprise when he saw Kaori standing there, with a smug smile on her face as if she just caught him with his pants down. She hadn't, he'd recollect at a later day, but the result was very much the same. Looking at her, then down, then at her again, his surprised expression turned into an annoyed one.

"Why do I have this feeling you really timed this?"

"'Cause you are paranoia like that." Kaori said as she took a step forward and closed the door behind her. "I didn't time it, but I have to say it is a pleasant surprise." She walked up to him and stood on her toes to give him a kiss. "I'll wait in the living room so you can change. Unless you purposely did this to... achieve something." Wiggling her eyebrows Kaori stepped past Kensuke towards the room with the books and the comfortable sofa.

Sighing irritatedly he had to try his best to hide the smile he had grown. Walking into his living, being the only room in his house except his bathroom and bedroom, he threw the towel over a chair. "Can you pass me my clothes?" He asked, stretching out his arm as he fumbled with a heap of clean underwear.

Kaori scooped up his shirt and pants from the sofa and threw them at Kensuke's head. "Of course." She said as she fell down in the sofa and yawned. Leaning backwards she stretched out on the comfortable couch and claimed the whole thing for herself. "Good night." She mumbled as she closed her eyes.

Poking her in her side as soon as he was dressed, he raised an eyebrow as she ignored him. Poking her again, this time more forcefully and in her side, he awaited a response. "What's up with the overly-energetic 'can perfectly live on 3-hours sleep' Kaori I know?"

Kaori gave an annoying grunt when he kept presisting with his pokes and tried to shy away from him though that was impossible because the sofa was not big enough and she didn't want to fall on the ground. "3 hours yes. I don't think I had any tonight and then my sensei wanted to train and I was like 'fuck no' I need sleep." She mumbled as she burried her head in the only cushion that lay on the couch.

Claiming a place in the sofa, regardless of how she'd react to it, he poked her again, because he could. And because she accidentally or not peeped at him. She could've at least looked away or something. "Well then, here's a tip from, a professional: Sleep is pretty nice." He replied. "Then again, who am I fooling. You ran away from training you say?"

"I know that sleep is nice. What do you think I am trying to achieve here, dumbass." Kaori said though it was in a joking manner. She caught his hand when he poked her again and opened one eye to peer at him. "Stop that and yes. Yes, I ran away from training, end of story."

"Oh dear, I'll never ask again, I swear." He said, trying to get his finger back and indifferently grinning at her mostly unconscious state. He liked teasing her, especially when he knew there was an actual chance of winning the conversation. She'd repeat every time that'd he'd have to remember the arguments he won dearly, because winning one against a woman was very rare for a man, but thanks to her somewhat reckless nature, she made it a tad too easy for him.

"Good." Kaori released his hand and stuck his tongue out to him. "So what have you been up to besides showing of your body to anybody who would open your door?" She asked him as she yawned again and snuggled closer to him.

"I have been checking into the hospital to see if I'm healing correctly and to have a 60 year old nurse feel up on my chest, and I've been drawing the rest of the day. Well, untill I decided that I felt dirty and took a shower." He summarized his day. Despite that he was doing missions again already, he had a two-weekly check-up to make sure the healing wound, or rather, enormous diagonal scar, wouldn't suddenly deteriorate.

"Hmm." His words made her open her eyes again and look to his chest. She could make a joke about the 60 year old nurse, but honestly she was more interested in something else. He had never told her after all. "How did you really get that scar?" She asked after a moment of silence. "I mean I know it was a duel, but that must have been a pretty intense duel... Who was it against?"

His smile faded when she pointed at the scar, a giant mark screaming for attention, running over his chest. "Do you want the long or short version?" He asked, settling in the sofa and looking at the ceiling. Usually people'd find him ridiculously stupid if they heard the short version, and he couldn't appreciate that, at all.

"Which ever one you feel like tellling." Kaori said serious.

"Don't you dare fall sleep on me or I'll tickle you to death." He said, pre-emptively poking her already. He took a moment to form his thoughts and then cleared his voice. "Back during the chaos with the Rice Capital and Elder Koi, I was assigned there to keep his scattered forces occupied while our assassins did their jobs. Everything was going as planned untill we entered the city, and were attacked by Amegakure shinobi. Long story short, I managed to avoid a fight by offering a duel." He said, and gave her a quick nod to see if she was still following. "I never really intended to duel her, it was a solution on the spot to get on the mission at hand, but after a few months, I heard word from my clan that some Amrgakure shinobi by the name of Samaki Samutabe had challenged me to a duel of honour, and that I had accepted. She demanded the duel to be fought. Due to my international position as a clanleader of an old and, let's be honest, insignificant clan, I had no choice but to fight. If I'd had chickened out our relations with nearly everyone would have been threatened, and that was no option considering how vulnerable we are right now. So, right after Christmass this year I met her on an open spot in a forest on the borders." He said, seeing the memories coming to life.

"The fight itself was a new one to me. The rain allowed her to hide from every of my senses, while my camouflage technique allowed to the same for me. We tried finding each other untill I set off an explosion, betraying us both. We then engaged in a melee fight, both being short-ranged fighters. Despite my best efforts I couldn't defeat her and her rather strange weapon. A large wooden stick lined with razorsharp obsidian flakes." He continued, his facial expression growing more grim as he spoke. "In the end, during another clash, she took a large risk, charging straight at me in a swift encounter, and she paid dearly for that, as I was able to make a deep cleave in her chest, but at the same time, her weapon slammed in my own chest. She then, mortally wounded, continued her last attack, using the many flakes as some sort of saw, and sliced it out, cutting my pierced chestpiece in half and ..." He pauzed, mentioning at the large scar over his chest. "... doing this."

Kaori was silent. She had asked for details and she had gotten them and now she had to think about what he said. Being a clan leader meant so much responsibility she realized suddenly. He could have died in that duel. He nearly did. But he had been forced to take it. She looked at his scar and gently touched it with the index finger of her left hand. "What happened to her?" She asked then slowly.

He looked away and clenched his fists, only to calm himself down immediately. He couldn't help it. He had acceped that. There was no use getting upset about it every time over and over again, but it was so hard. So hard to think about the results of what he'd done. "She died on the spot in the arms of her lover." He said with a surprisingly steady voice, drained from any emotion and tone. "I could see her choke on her own blood because I practically must've cut her loungs in half, all the while while her lover was talking to her. I was lying on the ground, heavily wounded, partially conscious, picked up by my squadmembers, but I still remember that. Her face, filled with regret, pain and ... And his face... It was covered with a smile as thin as paper, as fragile as fresh snow. He didn't believe it untill her blood was thick on his hands." He continued, staring through the window, blind to what was happening outside. He had turned a bit pale, and his hands, clenched thight, were softly shaking. He had never told anyone about this, or thought about this, knowing well he needed time, but even 6 months after that, it was still too fresh. "Later I visited her lover to apologize, don't ask me why, and I found out they had a baby, hardly a few months old. After that... I ... I ..." He stuttered, unaware that he was on the verge of crying. "I remember seeing the baby, I remember how it looked at me, filled with curiosity, how it grabbed hold of my hand, ... the same hand that brutally murdered her mother a few days before." He said, sobbing and breathing heavily.

"I had to accept it, you know? For the good of my clan, for the good of the village, to keep up relations amonst ... everything... She just ... had ... bad luck ..." He continued, trying to force a deranged smile on his face as his tears freely streamed over his cheeks. "I ended her life ... and ruined two other lives ... for the good of my clan ... They're just ... innocent sacrifices ... for my greater good..." He was shaking quite much now, and as ice-cold ripples ran down his spine he could only see the family picture that had been on the chimney back there.

"Hey," Kaori said, slightly shocked by the suddenly sobbing Kensuke. She wrapped her arms around him. "Shhh. I understand that you had to accept it and how much you may think this is all your fault. It is not." She looked to his chest again and then her eyes moved to meet his. "Listen to me for a moment okay?"

"You are a ninja."

She gave him a stern look. "This is what ninja's do. They kill. There is nothing honorable about that what people might say. But since we live that life and we follow those rules there was nothing wrong with what you did. You accepted a duel she proposed to you. Because you wanted or needed to, it makes no difference. She knew the consequences. You knew. That guy knew. If you start contemplating about every life you take it is not going to work."

She was silent for a second. "It was not your fault." She then said again. "It was the system."

He felt her arms around him, warm on his shivering body, and felt harboured, while at the same time it felt wrong. Carefully listening to what she said he tried getting a holf of himself again, without much succes, and he made a dramatically sounding remark in the privacy of his own skull about having a running nose when crying. "Yeah, I told that to myself too. I tell that to myself every time I have to kill someone because he's 'in my way'. But as the corpses pile up, and when the faces of those whom I killed gather in my nightmares, it's hard to keep believing that..." He sighed deeply now he had somehow managed to calm down again. A few shaky breaths made him feel a bit better as he wiped the tears out of his eyes.

"You know, sometimes I hate being a ninja. But, it's all I can."

Kaori's eyes dropped. "I hate being a ninja." She mumbled. "I don't like it and I suck at it, but I just can't escape it. Cause my parents want me to be and they paid a lot to get me to be a ninja so I can't just let them down. I mean, they are my parents... But really... It is not like they ever asked me. They just assumed that it was the best carreer I could take, following my father's footsteps. But I don't want to follow my father's footsteps..."

She took a deep breath. "Anyway, you are good at what you do. You don't kill because people are 'in your way'. You kill because you are loyal to the city. Unlike me."

Today was different from how he had planned it. Carefully listening to her rant now he wrapped his arms around her in his turn and patted her on her shoulder. "When you've been surviving this as long as I have, you'll know that killing hardly ever has an ethically correct reason. It's only how you deal with it. And I simply can't sometimes." He admitted to her. "I don't mind it that you're not a ninja. I don't want you to kill people, for whatever reason." He added, attempting to comfort her. Pressing her against him so she was pretty much forced to lean against him in the multi-purpose sofa he continued. "And I'm sure that your parents will respect that choice. I'll even help you convince them if that'd be necessary, but I'll leave that up to you. You seem to know them-"

"You don't get it." Kaori interupted him. "I am a ninja. And it is not so much that they won't respect my choices, it is that I will let them down if I am not a ninja. I'm not rich Kensuke. Nor are my parents. What will I tell them? 'I don't want to be a ninja, sorry you wasted basically all your money on schooling and weapons that I will never used again?' I can't do that..." She trailed off. Her index finger made little circles on his arm.

He looked down and nodded softly. He felt worried about her. She didn't like being a ninja, at all, she was doing it because she didn't want to disappoint her parents, but was a real chuunin. She would be exposed to dangers, frequently, and she didn't like being a ninja. She wasn't even good at it, she admitted. It looked like a recipe for disaster, but he daren't voice his concerns. Who knows it might invoke that. He realized she must be feeling the same about him. He was a tokubetsu jounin, going on all kinds of dangerous missions. Any of them could die in the cruel world they lived in at any moment. He thought of supporting her family with his own income, but instantly scratched that. His pay wasn't enough for that, and who would ever accept that anyways? The parents'd just feel like he was buying their daughter. He didn't know anything to say, so he did the only thing he could. He grabbed her hand and just held it after a comforting squeeze. He'd help her. No matter what.

Kaori was silent as well. Her eyes were on his hand that was holding hers. It felt pretty nice. She forced a smile back on her face. "But hey, let's not get all depressed." She said, driving her own problems to the back of her mind. She just didn't want to think about it. Pushing it back was way easier because maybe somehow things would randomly fix themselves in the end. It was unlikely, she knew that, but even that she pushed away. "Thanks for telling me your story. Can I do that sleeping now or are you going to keep me awake with something else?" She said with a glint in her eyes. She already stretched back out on the couch.

"Well, if you really want to do that sleeping thing, don't let me stop you, but I doubt if I'll be able to stay focussed while drawing with you doing your sleeping thing right next to me." He replied on a playful tone, picking up his pencil again as he calmed himself down entirely. The partially finished sketch could always be stored in some folder somewhere...

With the metion of Kensuke drawing, Kaori opened one eye. That could be interesting. "What are you going to draw?" She asked curious as she opened her other eye as well "Can you draw me?" She placed her hand behind her head and struck a pose.

"I could..." He mumbled before he realized, caught off-guard by her sudden remark. There went his idea that he'd have some fun. Well, he liked drawing too, but... Shaking his head he sat down on a chair across the room and grabbed a fresh and clean paper. "Give me your most attractive look~" He asked, wondering why he almost said 'French look'. What was that even?

"My most attractive?" Kaori giggled as she whipped her black hair backwards and sat up a bit more. "That depends on what you think is attractive. Will this do?" She asked as she straightened her back a bit and brought up one of her legs. "Maybe you should show me how to pose?"

"Well for one," He started, rubbing his chin as he walked closer. ", I think you never stop being attractive." He said, pretending to adjust her pose as if he knew something about it. Her hot skin made him feel a bit uneasy, but in a good way. "There, way better." He walked back to the chair and started sketching her, lying on the sofa. "If you fall asleep now I'll draw a most flattering charicature of you instead."

"A flattering charicature? Isn't that kind of impossible? Either way I would be honored with a drawing of myself." Kaori said before being silent. She watched how Kensuke moved his hand over the paper, sketching line after line. It was kind of mesmerizing, she thought sleepy. She stiffled a yawn, not wanting to disrupt the drawing, but soon her eyes were falling shut and her pose dropped as she fell asleep on the sofa.

With a deep sigh he realised she had fallen asleep anyways. He decided between finishing the drawing and covering her with a sheet or something, and after a second look on her face he decided to do both. About an hour later he put down the drawing board with his best impression of the girl lying on the bench, now covered with the sheets from his bed, a pillow crammed under her head. It was about then that he heard a knock on the door, and while rubbing his hands to get rid of the annoying pencil marks and stains on them, he opened the door to find a girl of about the same age as Kaori. Her ginger hair was tied up in a spiky ponytail. She wore the standard Chuunin outfit.

"Kensuke Nimatsu, am I right?'" She asked.

Still rubbing his hands together he looked down at the red-haired girl and wondered why a random chuunin was standing at his door. "Yes, that's me." He said. She looked about his own age and, not quite bad. He felt a bit guilty for thinking that, but immediately dismissed that. He was a guy after all. "Can I help you with something?"

The girl made a small bow for him. "My name is Suzaki Kawamura. I am a teammember of Kaori and currently looking for her. I figured this would be a place where she might be." She said looking back up to him and smiling slightly. "You are her boyfriend after all." She said chuckling.

He turned a bit red as she started giggling and he shrugged while trying to find a response. "What do you mean? Is she missing or something?" He said after collecting himself again on a quasi-concerned tone, the best he could manage right now.

The girl shrugged. "Wouldn't call it missing." She said. "Kaori often skips out on trainings, but our sensei wanted me to fetch her back. We have a mission to go to. So if she is here, I would appreciate it if you could get her for me. I don't want sensei to get too mad." She made a small bow again.

He nodded in response, and shrugged again. He was conflicted between letting her sleep and sending her to this mission. It was a hard battle, fought in an instant. Once he'd decided he nodded more to himself than to her, and made a decision. "An annoyed sensei is never a good thing." He asked while leading her into his house, revealing the sleeping beauty in his sofa with a dramatical gesture. "She arrived here more asleep than awake and claimed my sofa."

At the sight of the sleeping Kaori Suzaki didn't even blink. "Thank you." She said as she stepped inside. "Sorry for intruding." She stepped past him and walked with confident steps over to Kaori. Without hesitating she threw the girl of the sofa. "Wake up."

Kaori yelled in surprise and was too late to catch herself. "What the-"

"No time," Suzaki interupted her. "I told sensei you must have overslept. We need to be there in ten 'cause we are leaving for a mission to the south."

"I didn't sleep."

"I don't care." Forcefully Suzaki pulled Kaori up before turning back to Kensuke. "Sorry again."

"Have fun on the mission." He said to them as Suzaki dragged Kaori out of his house. Raising an eyebrow at the strange sight he suddenly realized it was getting a bit colder, and that he still hadn't put on his shirt. Closing the door he quickly decided to get working on that. Kaori never had time to say something back.

[Roran]

Weeping stones

Konohagakure, October 475, 12 months after Shoji's oppression.

SPOILER: Click to show

The rain that softly dropped on his face was the herald of autumn. Untill a few days ago the entire valley had still bathed in sunlight every day, sporting a spotless blue sky and a soft breeze that made the Village of Talons one of the best places to be. Now, a heavy wind that made the cloaks of the guards wiph around them with a fierce aggression accompagnied the soft but penetrating rain that gradually soaked everything. The two simple stones were already dripping wet, as was the man who was looking at the stones. The flowers on the graves had died because of the eternal summer sun beating down on the helpless plants, but still the engravings were still easily and unmistakably vivid and readable.

Miwa Watanabe.
429 - 457
A flower that never ceased blossoming.

Takeshi Nimatsu.
428 - 473
The sword guards this warrior's soul.

He was strangely untouched, staring at the two stone graves. They seemed so distant to him, so unrelated to him. So... unreal. He looked at the empty spots next to it, ready for more generations of deceased kin, and scoffed at the fact that he might end up buried somewhere obscure, never to be found. Or he could end up like Tagashi Nimatsu, banished from the family's sanctuary, his bones gnawed on by anything feeling like doing so.

He kneeled down to inspect the graves of his parents a little bit closer and he could feel the nagging sadness in the back of his head step forward again. He was staring at the graves of his parents, yet he didn't feel sad because they were dead. He didn't even miss them. How monstrous was that. All sadness he felt was the knowledge that once, once his parents had been a happy couple of teenagers in love, with a bright and beautiful future ahead of them, a long and fruitful life together with the person they both loved more than anyone else on this world. And now they were dead. His mother had died several days after the birth of his sister Masami, a result from a lethal wound she had once received in combat against the Hon clan. He simply was too young to remember anything of his mother. He had some strange and unclear memories of a soft and caring woman with long hair, but he knew those were false. His mother always had had short hairs. His father had turned bitter beyond reasoning after his soulmate's death. He never really recovered. Then again, who would? Looking at his own hands the young man gained a crooked smile on his face, and shook his head in disdain. His father had always seen him just as a second-in-line, the man who should support his elder brother at all costs, even his own life. Tagashi had been his favourite, his heir, his firstborn son, and had been everything the man had ever wanted. Tagashi was a true prodigy. That only made it hurt more when he betrayed all of our traditions and left the village. From that point on Kensuke was the firstborn, and their father realized his mistakes. He knew it was far too late to suddenly start treating his eldest son better, he instead turned harsher to ensure his new firstborn would become a fine clanleader. Nevertheless, the agreements with Konoha that had made Tagashi betray them all demanded his second son to leave the village, and suddenly the broken yet proud man found himself with nothing but a daughter he had ignored for her entire life.

"...Hello..." His voice sounded strangely dry and instable. Apparently his emotions had gripped him harder than he had believed a moment ago. "Hello mother, father. It's been a while, hasn't it?" He said to the two cold gravestones. "Maybe I should come to visit here more often. I could get to know who you really were. You know, not as demanding father or as deceased mother. As persons. That would have been pretty awesome." The crooked smile on his face shook for one moment, but was immediately reinforced. It was a mask, a thick wall, a facade, set up to protect himself from whoever could see him here. He was glad that the rain dripping from his forehead would hide any tears, for it would be mean to weep over one's parents' graves if you never really loved them nor missed them, and still didn't. "You see, I'm really sorry I don't miss you, but considering the circumstances, that's pretty normal, don't you think? Right?" As he breathed in he involuntarily started violently shaking, and that only stopped when he breathed out again. "I would have loved to see things go different. I would have loved to talk with you, to spend time with you, damnit, I would've loved to know who my parents were safe for some naive child's memories. The worst part is that there's noone left alive who could tell me. You already know this most likely, but my old sensei died last year. So did Tosu and Rin. My brother is dead, my uncle is dead, my nephew is dead. Oh, yes. Kichiro is dead. Apparently he was struck with lethal force by a stray projectile. He should be there too. Somewhere. I don't know if you'd have liked that little brat Miwa, but I hope you do. He was a good person."

For a while he just sat there, and started at the stone grave a few meters further, his gaze returned by the cold letters.

Kichiro Nimatsu.
461 - 474
The brightest souls burn out the quickest.

"It's just me and my sister now. Only me and Masami. Oh, you'd be proud of Masami, I'm sure. She's turned into a beautiful young woman and has done a magnicifent job at leading the clan through hard times. She's a skillful diplomat and a jewel to the eye. A child to be truly proud of. Right, I forgot, Kichiro's mother is still alive too. But eversince Kichiro and her Tadashi died she hasn't been the same. She stopped eating twice already, and only because of Masami's perseverance she has been kept alive. Yeah, that stubborn girl had always loved her aunt dearly." He added, thinking of the prematurely aging old woman that would only stare at him with a mix of absence, disgust and blame when he visited her.

"I really hope you don't hate me too much though. I don't know you Miwa, so I don't know how you wanted me to become, but I really hope you don't hate me. I have done many terrible things in my life, and people always said you were much of a pacifist. I'm sorry." Were those tears rolling down his cheeks? Yes, they had to be. The rain wasn't so warm after all. "... Father... I never was quite good enough, now was I? Let's be honest, I don't like beating around the bush. I never really became what you wanted me to become. I alwas wanted to earn your pride. I always wanted to become the son you wanted me to be. I always wanted to become like Tagashi. I'm sorry I didn't grow to be that way. I really tried. But ..."

"I turned 20 two months ago. I am a fully grown man now. Isn't that strange? I never saw it in myself to become one somehow. Then again, here I am. So much has happened since I last saw you guys. You know I fell in love once? About at the same age as you did, Takeshi. I fell in love with this beautiful, meek and shy girl. She too was not the son her father had wanted her to be. Instead, she was born as a daughter without a sliver of inherited skill. As time grew, and my shyness faded, she suddenly betrayed the village and left. I seem to have that effect on people. Every time I start caring for or loving someone, they either die or betray their homes and leave everything behind. Maybe that's why I never loved you. But since you are already dead that wouldn't have helped a thing. I'm just making up conclusions. No, but I made it my personal task to track her down, this Hyuuga girl, and find her. Convince her to return to the village. Another sign of my shortsightedness. After a few years I finally succeeded. I brought her back to the village. A wonder, right? Not really. She's been locked away and given the curse seal, and now she hates me more than anything else on this world. And I deserve that. I fell in love again though, but this time it was a completely different girl. Barely shinobi material, and she lives the life of partying. You'd despise her for sure." He sighed and got up, looking around at the air filled with rain.

"I should get going. Masami is waiting for me. I heard she was so happy when she heard I was coming to visit again. She really seems to love me, even though I don't feel like I deserve that. Maybe she just caresfor me because I am the last thing that can give her the idea she just lives in a normal family. I couldn't take that away from her now could I?"

"I'll see you soon, I guess."

Walking away from the graves he felt a strange movement behind him, and turned around. He saw the graveyard on the Village of Talons, weeping in a soft rain. The shrieking of the wind brought him back in the reality. No, he hadn't seen his parents. That'd have been ridiculous. Must have been his imagination.

[Roran]

A cave of Secrets

A cave near the Village of Talons, Januari 476, 15 months after Shoji's oppression.

A collab between Ganryu and Roran Hawkins


He thightened the grip on the hilt of his sword and read the mysterious paper note once more. He folded it again and stored it in one of the bags on his waist and looked ahead at the cave he had been one time too many. The cave where he had killed his brother Tagashi, and where he had helped Lilia kill her 'older sister' Kaname. It brought back many memories, and none of them pleasant. He slowly stepped inside the cave, resisting the urge to draw his sword. He had come here, well aware of the fact that it might just as well be a trap or an ambush, and that there might be dozens of shinobi inside, ready to kill him. Once he was inside, he stopped walking, and let his sharp eyes grow accustomed to the darkness. After a few minutes, he continued. Thanks to his dojutsu he was able to see better in darkness that most people, but that didn't mean he could see very well either. There was an extremely small amount of light being reflected into even the deepest corners of this cave, and that allowed him to see just enough to recognize a wall from empty space, but without a sense of depth. Still scanning to see if he could sense any chakra or killing intent nearby, he walked through the halls of the cave, untill he heard a familiar voice, one that made the hairs on the back of his head rise.


"I've been here a few times. I came here to think sometimes as a missing nin, nobody ever caught me. This place was the first time I ever realized I had friends.... I'd never fought for someone else before. I-I've never been so scared all my life. I thought Tagashi was going to kill you."

For a moment he remained silent, ready to attack, still trying to spot Matsuri. He simply couldn't see nor hear the Hyuga girl.


"Oh, he was, but so was I. Never before I had felt as much hate as back then, as much disgust. Sadly killing him did not provide me any statisfaction. I was still a hostage in Konoha, and Shigeru was still dead and buried. My only friend. Untill I found out I could make more friends back inside Konoha."


Matsuri watched Kensuke, sitting atop a stalagmite in the cave, her Byakugan fixed on Kensuke. His reaction and his battle stance scared her, he had to know it was her. But he was ready to fight.
What should I do? I-I hadn't thought this out this far. I-I wanted to say it before I go, but is he really that angry? Have I really hurt him that much.
Thinking back to it, the last two times hadn't ended so well for Kensuke. It wasn't easy for her either, but she didn't want Kensuke to hold a grudge..... She didn't really want to hold one either, though she didn't know why.

In the silence in the cave, Matsuri started to get more unnerved, and instinctively reached for her bells at her side, her weapons, before catching herself and stopping her hand.
What am I doing?... I didn't come here to fight. But how am I suppose to say it?

She struggled as the words left her lips, quietly, but audibly.
"Ken.... I'm sorry...."


As he continued scanning around his environments in the dark cave, he tried to catch a trace of the girl. He had immediately switched to the direction he had heard her voice coming from, and sensed a small killing interest rise just one moment, a few meters in front of him. Carefully inspecting the ceiling and walls he slowly advanced in that direction. Untill he heard her softly mumble a few words that completely disarmed him. Nearly instantly he picked himself up again, and peered at the wall infront of him. he had heard her voice coming from there.

"Sorry for what?" He inquired. By now he believed it was Matsuri for sure, but he insisted that he didn't know entirely sure yet. Her following answer would most likely betray her true identity. Thereby, if she would be the real Matsuri, then he was honestly dumbfounded by her confession just now.


Matsuri remained silent for a second thinking. It was still hard to apologize, though she really wanted to. Wasn't he just as responsible as she was? She'd never asked to come back, to be hunted, to be thrown back into the Hyuga house.
But then she thought about it. She didn't want to keep on being alone, whether or not her time was short or not.
"Well.... for everything...."
Her words were really space apart, as she thought out each one, starting off to the ceiling of the cave, almost looking and sounding distracted, like she wanted to look anywhere but at Kensuke. And she thought.
She thought back to their last meeting, where she had slapped him.
"For hurting you....."
She thought back to her standing in the snow at Ushio's death, and her drawing a senbon.
"For not trusting you...."
She thought back to her hugging him in the snow.
"For betraying you..."
She thought back to the night she ran away, and as she looked back to the Leaf for what she thought was the last time.
"For running away...."

She thought back to the last time she had run to this cave as a missing nin, before entering, as she looked out to the village of Talons.
"For not letting you know I was okay..."
Her attention snapped back to Kensuke, and her voice as well sounded less spaced. She shook the bells on her side to give away exactly where she was, sitting right above him.
"Ken. L-look at us! Your prepared to kill me, and I'm hiding in the dark."



As she said the words the memories returned vividly to his mind, forcing their way into his consciousness. No matter how hard he tried to stay focussed on this possible foe, the memories were irresistable.

Yes, she had hurt him. She had hit him with her black widow attack over and over, sending excruciating waves of pain through his body. It didn't stop at that however. Mentally she had broken him after he had returned from the hospital, making him realize what he had done.

Not trusting him? Had she ever trusted him? Had she ever had the reason to trust him? Maybe when they first met already four years ago, but after that?
Betraying him? Perhaps she had from a certain point of view, but in return he had brought her into a situation of near emprisonment in exchange. Perhaps they had both betrayed eachother.

When she had run away, right before he had gone on a mission, he ahd blamed himself for it. During that mission he also found a fake copy of Zakito's corpse, and he had been crushed after that. Perhaps if she hadn't left, he could have at least talked with someone.

He had been terrified about her condition for weeks, for months. Anxiously awaiting a sign of her survival of everything going on, or an update of his bingo book that she was dead. It had been a constant strain upon his mind, and he had never been able to fully let it go.

Violently shaking his head when she stopped talking, he frowned at her, realizing once more how much he had done to her, and what she had done to him. Yes, he was ready to kill her right now, and probably so was she. It was painful to acknowledge that over a few years time he had grown to hate her, and she had grown to hate him. They used to be eachother's only real friends, and now they had repeatedly hurt eachother so much that they couldn't even look at eachother, be it from guilt or anger. As he heard the ringing of her bells he relaxed a bit, by now knowing for sure it was Matsuri. Then again, his knuckles were bleak from the force with which he held his sword as a question burned on his lips.

"Why do you ask for forgiveness like this? I never really blamed you for what you did, for it was my fault too that these things happened." He managed to say with a voice on the border of breaking.


It was Matsuri's turn to be dumbfounded as she listened to Kensuke, and a single word came out, it was hardly audible if it was at all.
"H-How...!?"
It was more an explitive than a question. Matsuri couldn't quite understand it.
H-How did you not blame me? I literally left you near unconscious in the cold snow.... H-How are you so strong Kensuke?
Matsuri wasn't really sure how to answer his question either. She was was still a bit nervous, Kensuke's stance was still the same, she was still hiding in the dark. She was still trying to come up with words that seemed so difficult.


"I cannot blame you because I never saw you as an independant human being. I always believed you was forced into leaving, that you had no other choice but to hurt me. That you was doing things against your own will. But after I left the hospital and visited you I realized how wrong I had been, and how I had forced my expectations of you upon you, and brought you into this situation. I completely ignored the blatantly obvious fact that you might have had an opinion of things of your own. Essentially, I ruined your life because I loved you. Ofcourse I blame myself for it. I had tried eversince to start blaming you for things, and I superficially succeeded in that. However, I always knew that I was the one guilty of this situation." He responded in a manner he found strangely calm of himself. It was some kind of alienating sadness that had befallen him here now, that made talking about this so much easier. As if he wasn't talking about himself. At the same time, it felt good in a way to be able to share his self-imposed guilt with someone. To momentarily share this burden he carried for years.


Matsuri moved a bit forward, dropping off the Stalagmite, before landing right infront of Kensuke. She figured she'd show some trust in him, if only to have him listen, landing right inside the range of his sword, her bells jingling as she fell, and landed.

"...Kensuke. "

She stood there for a second. It was really hard to figure out what to say to answer his question.

"I.... I guess I just want to make things right. Hiron told me what happened, that he sent you. I've looked through it alot.... and if you didn't show up, crab sensei would have killed me, no matter how much I wanted to say 'I don't need talent', or 'I'm strong', I'm not strong, like you. I can't do everything by myself, like I keep telling myself I can.
I-I real-ally am so-sorry..... "

She slowed her breathing a bit, as she realized she'd been near hyperventilating getting it out.
As she did so, she remembered the last time it was so hard to talk to Kensuke. When they hugged in the snow.
''I-I-I might...explain it...later..Okay?''

"Ken... I want to show you something. Do you have a torch?"



"Not really, but this'll gave to do." He said, focussing fire chakra in his hand and creating a small and soft flame, like a candle, in the palm of his hand. Despite its small size, the small flame was a shock to his eyes and revealed a great deal about his environments.


The light revealed Matsuri wasn't wearing her blindfold, or headband on her head, as both eyes came into focus.... and sitting right above them the curse seal she had.
Matsuri flinched, about jumping back from the sudden burst of light, as she tried to surpress another episode, still suffering from her PTSD from Kaiji, though was long dead his memory still wasn't. Her episodes was something Matsuri had tried to hide for years from everyone she could, though she supposed Kensuke long since knew about them. She held her head as she calmed her self.
"Sorry.... Give me one sec."


A dagger being twisted around in his heart. He hadn't expected it to still hurt him this much to see the damage he had caused. All the way from the scar over her eye to the flinching of her seeing light, to the cursed mark on her head. If only he had been stronger he could have prevented his brother from taking her eye, if only he had been faster he could have stopped Kaiji from abducting her and torturing her during the war, and if only he had been smarter he would have spared her from the harsh justice of the Hyuga clan. "No...Problem..." He managed to say with a thick voice, as he swallowed away the guilt and tears. He had thought he was over this. He had thought he had put this behind him. Another misassumption.


Matsuri panted for a second, before finally regaining control of herself. Her 'fight' against Kaiji had happened a hundred times before, and probably would happen a hundred more, she was panting a bit. She noticed Kensuke's thick voice, and reaction to her through her sharingan. Whether she liked it or not, it memorized every single detail, but that could be useful for what she wanted. She wondered for a second why his face looked so sad. She wished she hadn't hid in the dark, if only to hide her episodes. She also doubted what she was about to do.
Alright.... how am I going to do this? I've never done a genjutsu like this before.

Matsuri stood up straight, taking her hand from her head, and reached for her bells, pulling them off her side, and holding them in her hand. She kinda struggled as she thought about what she was doing, she could hardly get it out.
"Ken... I want to show you..... well.... my...my situation..... my.... f-f-famil.... It'd be genjutsu....okay?"

It was more like she was asking for permission than anything She wasn't moving her bells, her hands were still, and her eyes looking pretty much anywhere but Kensuke. It was rather easy to note how she just couldn't come to call the Hyuga her Family. It was really rare for her to even mention them if she could avoid it, or really talk about any of her problems. Matsuri normally kept them all to herself.


He silently nodded, not trusting his own voice in this matter. He knew that she hated him untill now, or at least untill some time ago, but he also knew that she wouldn't harm him now. Somewhere he knew, an irrational sense telling him it was fine, and he believed it, despite that his brains screamed danger. He stepped forwards and looked around to see if he could place the fire somewhere else, but found nothing, so he kept the fire in his hand going.

He had noticed homwuch trouble she had had with mentioning her situation and family, and once again felt responisble for that. Fearing the vision he was about to receive he swallowed almost audibly. He had untill now known what damage he had caused by her reaction to him, but now he was about to experience that first-hand, something he didn't look forward to. Despite that, he felt obliged to do so. If he was responsible, it was his duty to realize the full consequences of his mistakes.


Matsuri closed her eyes trying to focus as Kensuke consented. She was still a bit nervous about it, and honestly a bit surprised Kensuke had said yes. She calmed down a bit, and breathed in deeply as she prepared herself.

"This is..... the day before I left...before the Hyuga Head died, and my fath....he became the head."

Then she started. Her eyes opened, her sharingan starting to spin, and her hands moved in an intricate pattern of handsigns, moving the bells in her hands as she did so. It took alot of chakra molding to make a genjutsu like she was trying.


As Kensuke would watch, the surroundings seemed to change, and Matsuri seemed to fade away for a second, and light seemed to flow into the cave, before starting to settle. It'd be odd, as it wasn't real, and wouldn't actually bother Kensuke's eyes, but would look like it should. The genjutsu started to come into focus, everything around Kensuke becoming an illusion. It wasn't completely strong through, little strains in parts of it showed it would be extremely easy to break out of.

The scene started to change to a few years ago, the day before the last Hyuga Head had died, as everything came into focus, a younger Matsuri appeared, midstrike against a training post, in the middle of a near deserted training area. Her blindfold was off, and no curse seal was present on her head.

She kept up an assault on it, blows that were gentle, but with her style, they didn't need to be.

She kept up for about a minute before some noise in the distance came, causing her to stop and listening, before activating her Byakugan. The expression on her face became one of surprise.

"What's he doing here!?"

Matsuri started to figit, becoming real nervous, before reaching to her side, grabbing her bells.

"I really.... don't want to...be seen by them.."

She grabbed a kunai, threw her bells on the end, and stabbed it into the post, before hiding behind it. Then she started to flow chakra through it, activating her genjutsu on the area. It was a stretch, but she hoped they wouldn't pay enough attention to notice.

Toll of the Bells

A small group of people started to walk onto the field, several Hyuga, to the sound of bells filling the area. In the middle of all of them was one without a curse seal, or anything covering his forehead, Matsuri's Father, Hideyori Hyuga.

"Hideyori, your father isn't doing well, it looks like you'll be the head soon."

His facial reaction hardly changed to the statement.

"Yes.... a sad loss.... But also a new beginning for us. The Clan's been deteriorating for some time. I plan on making us the strongest clan in the leaf once more. I don't have too much time to mourn."

Matsuri's bells continued rang in the distance, causing one of the Hyuga to call out

"Is someone here?"

One of the Hyuga to his side activated his Byakugan, before deactivating it. The Genjutsu's hid Matsuri from his quick glance, showing nobody.

"No. I guess not. I thought I saw someone here earlier."

Hideyori remained silent before walking towards the post. Behind it, Matsuri's heart pounded, as she was afraid that her father had seen through her jutsu. It beat faster the closer he came, before he stopped right infront of her, and put his hand forward.

And then he simply grazed his hand by the bells and turned around to the others.

"It seems she was here."

Matsuri had to stop herself from gasping. It was a miracle that had worked. She then heard her name from Hideyori, as he talked to himself.

"Matsuri....That child... what am I going to do with you? An example of the Hon's interference, the current strongest in the Leaf. Zakito.... As if he hasn't treaded on my reputation enough. Sharingan eye'd....hardly any respect.... Full of little ideas, none of them for the clan...."

A Hyuga happily answered him.

"What are you expected to do with her? Just put her in the Branch family. Your other two children have good potential to take over the
main family. They make the rest of the Hyuga proud. Her....She already pretty much the black sheep of the clan. Weak Byukugan in one
eye, worse yet, sharingan in the other. Branch family is where she belongs. Or disown her. I can't believe she's of the same blood as you.
Your father's blood runs in yours, that's for sure. There's not really even a contest of you becoming the head, everyone looks up to you."

Hideyori stood silent at the comment for a moment, then walked away from the post. 
Matsuri was having a hard time sitting listening to it, squirming a bit to the words, still visible to Kensuke. The words hurt to listen to. Hideyori walked a way to a group of post set up a little bit in the distance.

"This is what I expect of all the Hyuga. We need to be stronger. I demand it."

Matsuri watched on for a second through her sharingan before he went to hit the post. She couldn't keep up as a blur of motion followed him, even with her dojutsu.

"32 palm, 64 palm, 128 palm."

In the blur of motion, all three post fell down.

Hideyori then folded his hands.

"Enough. I came out here to get some fresh air, and get out of Hyuga politics for a few minutes, not listen to more of it.. People are already making funeral arrangements,and expect me to deal with everything. I'll deal with the little blacksheep afterward, when I have time. It's not likely she'll do anything between tonight and the funeral that'll do any more damage."

Matsuri winced at it, standing there as the other Hyuga's walked off.


The genjutsu started to fade.


It was rather wierd that of all the memories Matsuri could show, the
one she chose wasn't of her sealing, wasn't of her first day back to
the compound, nor anything else that involved Kensuke's bringing her
back the Leaf.

Matsuri stood there standing, looking at Kensuke in the eyes, her
Sharingan starting to slow down from spinning. She was a bit tired
from the genjutsu, it'd taken alot.

"Ken... You're not the one who put a curse seal on me.... It took me til now to stop blaming you.... I'm sorry. What do you think I should do?"


Clan politics. Ofcourse. He knew all too well the grim reality of clan politics, and still he had completely forgotten about how they applied to Matsuri too. He had thrown her into the doom she had so narrowly escaped from. "I didn't put the curse seal on you in person, no. I did however hand you over to them, so they could give it to you anyways, making your entire flight from Konoha a farce." He said bitterly. "You have all the right to blame me." He added, before thinking about hernext question. He opened his other hand, stared at the glove, and knew that the hand underneath was bleak from how hard he had clenched it as he realized what he had done. He already knew, but for some reason more details just made it more painful.

"I don't know what you should do. You ran away from the Hyuga compound to meet me here, didn't you? That'll get you into trouble, won't it? Why would you give yourself even more trouble just for my sake? Didn't I hurt you enough already?" He said with a thick voice, wishing he could just run away again and blame her for forgiving him. He was not to be forgiven. This meeting had made him realize he had started 'hating' her, just so he could move on. He had thought he was past this chapter of his life, but it seemed he wasn't. He had thought that now he was with Kaori that he was definately past this, but ... did Matsuri even know about Kaori?


Matsuri gave a half hearted grin at the last statement. She guessed she would get into trouble. Though she was impressed that the genjutsu she used to escape had worked. She wondered how long ago it'd faded. She turned to Kensuke a bit tired still, the fact she had her sharingan out was slowing her recovery, but she didn't have a blindfold even on her.

"Ken.... if it's my right to blame you, then it's not yours. And I don't."

Her smile grew.

"I still remember when you visited me in the hospital after the Chunnin exams, even though you were near dead.... or when you took me for a tour of the Village of Talons.... Or when you helped rescue me at the Sand war... They.... they aren't bad memories...."

She looked at the ceiling, another pause as she thought, her smile fading in thought.. She honestly hadn't talked to Kensuke for so long.... why was she trying so hard to make things better..... she thought about it, and then started to speak. If she was telling him this much, she might as well tell him everything.

"I think.... I think I know what I'm going to do.... I'm done running away. But I don't know how it's going to go..... I guess I just wanted to try to make things better, and.... I don't know if I'm going to get another chance to see you. I didn't want you still angry at me. Who cares what the Hyuga are going to do?"

Matsuri didn't bother saying what it was exactly she was going to do. But considering how reckless Matsuri could be, Kensuke probably could figure out it wasn't safe.


He suddenly felt really childish as he stood there, blaming himself. If she had forgiven him, why didn't he forgive himself? It suddenly seemed so obvious as she prhased it that way. He should keep blaming himself for everything that'd happen to his friends. Most of his friends were shinobi after all. The harsh reality of their lives was that despite all privileges they might receive, they knew that one day, their could be a mission they wouldn't return from. There was nothing Kensuke could do about it to stop his friends from suffering such a faith. He should stop blaming himself for things he couldn't help.

As she told him of their good memories together, he involuntarily started smiling, thinking back of when life was so simple compared to now. He liked her, and she liked him. And that was it. Now there was so much between them, amongst which Kaori. And perhaps over time and because of events, the love he once harbored for Matsuri had cooled off.

He was violently thorn from his pondering as Matsuri told her she had an idea with a mischievous smile on her face. "Uh... Matsuri...? Don't do anything stupid, right? What are you planning to do...?" He asked carefully, fearing the worst.


Matsuri opened her mouth to answer when a sound echoed in the cave. A single sound, a simple footstep, but it was enough to turn her white, and stop her as she turned around.

She cursed under her breath, something that Matsuri hardly ever did, as she realized that she'd let her guard down by using the Genjutsu earlier, and someone had probably found her while she'd been occupied.


Kensuke's attention was immediately focussed on the small sound in front of him, and his sword was already halfway out of the sheath untill he noticed that the man was simply walking towards them, and not attacking them. Yet. Unable to recognise the person he stared at the silhouette, untill he heard his voice. A voice Kensuke had heard minutes ago echoed in the genjutsu through the cave. A regal voice that was so smooth it almost scared him.


"Yes.....What are you planning on doing?"

Hideyori Hyuga walked into the the visible section of the flame. He nodded his head at Kensuke, as he continued his walk towards the two.

"Greetings, Nimatsu."

Matsuri got into a fighting stance almost instinctively.... and then she dropped it. Kensuke let his sword slide into the sheath again, but kept a close eye on the Hyuga clanleader infront of him.

"You aren't going to struggle? That's not like you."

Matsuri calmed herself slightly.

"I'm done running away.... Father.... While I'm still weaker, fighting's just me trying to run away from my situation. Until I'm stronger, that's just the way it is."

Hideyori's face changed to being actually puzzled.

"While...?"

He shook his head, and Matsuri turned to Kensuke.

"Thank you, Kensuke."

She started for once to do something surprising, and actually walked willingly to her father. There was still a fire in her belly though.


Kensuke blinked rapidly a few times as she thanked him, and walked towards her father, almost just as puzzled as Hideyori must've been. Stepping back he fumblingly answered her, making space for both Hyuga to leave the cave. "Eh, no problem, ... I guess..."