As Kyohei traversed the streets of Konogagakure he allowed his mind to wander, something that was an unusual practice for him. And with that freedom to roam wherever it pleased and question any and all of the world’s mysteries, he could not shake the thought of Risu from his mind. When their relationship together was new it all seemed so easy. Sure, he had his own difficulties to work with out of necessity due to his forced involvement with the black ANBU, but he thought that only a minor inconvenience, something that he could work around without sacrificing his time with her. And he did try, despite his promise not to keep secrets from her this was the only way he could protect her.  Over time however, it became evident that whatever it was he was doing to try and keep her happy was not enough. He was not enough.

For some time now, something had been weighing on Risu’s mind and consequently their relationship, but despite their vows against secrecy she continued to go about as if nothing was wrong and as though Kyohei was too stupid to notice. And in his devotion he had allowed things to continue like that, turning a blind eye to the secrets she kept and the distance it was putting between them, but that could only go on for so long. He needed her to tell him what the hell was going on with her. He couldn’t continue to protect someone who he now seemed to know so little about. He couldn’t always be there to watch over her and with as much secrecy that her time away from him now seemed to be shrouded him, he didn’t even know where to find her most of the time. He swore to protect her, if something were to happen to her…

And so he would arrive at the building of her private apartment to surprise her, and hopefully this time she wouldn’t mysteriously have to cut their time together short to go deal with something for “work”. But of course he did not intend to turn up empty-handed, plastic bags in hand containing beef ramen and sweet dumplings for dinner from Risu’s favorite ramen shop. If he had learned anything about Risu during their relationship it was that she loved to be spoiled. Like Kyohei they had endured a life that involved them spending an inordinate amount of time on the outside looking in. Although Kyohei had grown to quite enjoy the isolation, it made sense that Risu relished in the opportunity to receive someone’s undivided attention. Hopefully she would enjoy it enough to finally tell him what the hell was going on with her instead of just trying to sweep the problem under the rug as if it didn’t exist. Standing before the front door of her apartment he would stop for a moment to compose himself. He would take a deep breath and do his best to remove the look of concern on his face before knocking on the door three times.

---

520~

The sun's rays of this unusually bright autumn-evening shone straight into Risu's face, forcing her to wake up way earlier than she had planned to. Still groggy of having slept only about four hours, the young woman nearly stumbled out of bed, noticing that it had been already six o-clock in the evening, which made her look towards her window again, realizing it wasn't the sun that woke her up, but the streetlight next to her window. Annoyed, the young woman walked towards her shower, trying to get the fatigue out of her body, making her curse her nightshift of the night before.

"Patrol duty, such a drag," The young woman sighed, while feeling the water flow through her hair and over her skin, making her feel all fuzzy because of the steam. "Why can't I just have a day off. I should've never been so focused on getting myself in the ANBU...at least my nights were meant for sleeping or...other stuff."

Stepping out of the shower, the young woman realized that she was blushing, so she slapped her cheeks once, so she could finally be completely awake. Grumbling a bit, she pulled on the gray shorts and top, putting a pair of gray sandals on her feet and her red, furlined jacket to feel warm enough. While walking out of the bedroom, she noticed that Uraeus had already gotten himself from his personal sleepingcorner to her bed, where he was snuggling in the still-warm covers of the bed.

"Are you sure you dont want to go to the Orochi Estate," The young woman asked, while making herself a cup of coffee. The large snake however, simply nodded and continued snoozing on her blanket. He wasn't the talkative kind anyway. "Suit yourself."

Just as she was starting to enjoy the cup of coffee she had made, Risu heard three knocks on the front door of her apartment, which surprised her, since she hadn't had the time to clean everything up, with her towel still hanging over the back of one of the kitchen chairs and the tin with coffee still open and standing next to the pot with warm water. Sighing a bit, she shoved the ANBU uniform hanging on the front door into the closet before actually opening it, her eyes widening when realizing that it was a familiar face she was looking at: Kyohei's.

"Eh...Kyo...Really not the best timing," She tried to smile a bit, though that was quickly followed by a long and loud yawn. "Come in ,come in"

437

From the very moment she opened the door Kyohei knew that things weren’t going to go as planned. It was already soon to be evening and Risu stood there looking like he had knocked on her door at the break of dawn. Then she would open her mouth and confirm what he already knew to be true, she had other plans and no time to see him… again. He couldn’t blame her for her work schedule, but even amongst the ANBU members of the village that he could deduce, none of them had their lives so fully consumed by their job. They had to at least maintain appearances of having a normal life since being an ANBU operative was supposed to be a secret (although Kyohei found it painfully obvious, for the most part, which segment of Konoha’s military force was even qualified to join ANBU).

Risu on the other hand, did very little of late to keep up even a semblance of an ordinary civilian life. She had constantly been “working” at ungodly hours and going days sometimes without contacting anyone. If it weren’t for the fact that he was probably the only person that she interacted with in her personal life frequently enough to notice the subtle changes that had been piling up with her personality over the past few months, she surely would have encountered issues. And despite his dissatisfaction with it, Kyohei never confronted her about it, instead giving her free roam to pursue whatever it is she was after. He did this partially because he didn’t believe in a relationship necessitating tying anyone’s hands, in fact her almost untamable nature was part of what he loved, but the predominant reason was probably guilt. As long as he was still bound to the black ANBU he could not tell Risu the truth for fear of her safety. And so he was forced to watch her struggle as she searched for something that she would just never find, a feeling of emptiness that she could never fill on her own and that he was not allowed to help her fill.

“A bad time, huh?” he replied with a disappointed sigh, holding fast outside of her apartment rather than entering to speak to her, “Isn’t it always. That’s alright, I don’t need to come in. I won’t be staying long. I was hoping to surprise you, but if you’re busy again it can’t be helped. I bought dinner for us, but you might as well just take it. It’s beef ramen and some sweet dumplings for dessert. I know that’s your favorite. You can probably eat it while you’re working. There should be some left over for tomorrow too.” Then, forcing a smile to his face Kyohei would raise the arm that was holding the plastic bags containing the food and offer it to Risu.

---

492 | 1012~

They had been seperated due to so many things going on, but Risu knew that she could always rely on Kyohei, even though their relationship had been strained by her continuous work and her obsession with the so-called Eien no Yami organization and the connections it had with the Konoha's Black ANBU. The more questions she got answered in her search, the more questions rose up from underneath. Even though she was starting to get a good grasp of the overall picture, she still had no idea who was directing everything from behind the curtains and from beyond the shadows.

Sure, she had already figured out her uncle had something to do with them, but her own trust and love for her sometimes annoying uncle always made her decide twice on how to confront him. Because what if she was wrong and he wasn't as guilty as some of her documents and reports stated. It was easy to point fingers, but not as easy to prove things.

These things had forced her to search everything, look through records as old as herself, search for hideouts and more. Twice already she had felt coming close to the truth behind everything; once when she was ordered to assassinate a rogue politician and the second time when she was told to kill a slavetrader and weapon's dealer. However, because of this work, this search, she had started to forget about the things most important to her, her mood mostly seemed to teether between madness and pure unbound rage, her obsession was on the verge of pulling her into it's abyss.

"No dont just hand it over...come in," The young woman said, while opening the door, revealing that she had indeed not done so much in her apartment, besides her actual work, as the desk next to her bed was cluttered with maps, documents and pictures. "Pardon me for the mess, will you...I've got a lot of stuff going on."

334/771

The forced smile that sat upon his lips would fade as she re-invited him into her apartment, replaced by a saddened and distant expression that had become normal for him whenever the issue of his relationship with Risu came up. “It’s not a big deal, really,” he began, still holding out the food waiting for her to take the bags, “I didn’t mean to interrupt anything. I just thought you might be free tonight and I wanted to spend some time with you. I understand if you’re too busy. There’s always next time…” His grip around the crinkled plastic handles that tugged down on his palms tightened before he lowered his hand and gave in with a sigh. “So I guess I’ll just put it down in the kitchen then,” he continued, stepping past her and into the apartment.

Upon entering the apartment and taking a look around, it became apparent that she was not simply being polite when talking about the mess. It had been some time since he had last been here, but with all of the paperwork around the apartment was barely recognizable. He stepped around a bag that had carelessly been left leaning up against a wall on his way to the kitchen, leaving him slightly disappointed that she really seemed to be so consumed with whatever it was she was doing. He would place the food down and stand there for a moment, taking one of the containers of beef ramen out and leaving a pair of chopsticks beside it for Risu to eat with.

“I’m pretty sure I had it made just the way you like it,” he spoke with his back still turned away from her, “If not I apologize. I didn’t really plan to come here until a short while ago. This was kind of a spur of the moment kind of decision.” He would turn to face her once more and again would force an uneasy smile before he spoke, leaning back against the counter top, “I won’t hold you up for too long, I just wanted to at least get to see you. I’m happy now. I should probably head out and leave you to whatever you were doing. I’m sure it’s important. Tell Uraeus I said hello, would you? You should call me and let me know when you get off some time. I’d like to see you again.”

---

413 | 1425~

For just a second Risu's eyes turned a bit brighter, only to turn back to the dullness they seemed to have constantly as of late, with the once golden color seemingly having turned into a slicker, less glimmering filthy yellow. With a sigh, she sat down at the counter of the kitchen, giving a soft and feint smile. It was apparent that she was close to not only a physical but also a mental breakdown and Kyohei was the one person she didn't want to show it to, she wanted to be the happy and frivole person around him, since he actually seemed to be the only thing left in her life that felt real.

"You know...actually I do have the night off," The Orochi lady almost whispered those words, while watching Kyohei open the bags and placing the containers of ramen on the table, which prompted her stomach to make a groaning noise, followed by a thing the Uchiha had probably not seen in a while: an obvious blush on her face, while she tried to avoid his eyes and focused on the chopsticks in her hands. "Thanks for the food Kyo...seems I really needed it."

At the same time, The white snake had slithered from underneath the covers of Risu's bed, climbing up the side of the counter, his head quickly turning into the Uchiha's direction. "It's at times like this that I wonder how you humans do it...cooking stuff I mean, I prefer my meat raw and fresh."

With a quick flick of her wrist, Risu tapped the snake's head with her chopsticks, chuckling a bit at Ureaus' comment. While slurping up the noodles from the container, her eyes locked into those of the Uchiha and she couldn't help herself but grin towards him.

"Talking about work...I'm not the only one busy, aren't I?" The young woman joked, while sliding her hand across the counter, hoping to grab Kyohei's free hand gently. "Do you remember that we used to go on missions together. You were always so strong and so determined in the path you've decided to follow. While you were following that path, I might've been ranking up faster, but in the end, I still feel weaker than you,  if it's not physically, it surely is mentally."

Placing the chopsticks on the table, Risu grabbed the container with her hands, raising it to her lips and drinking the miso soup until the container was completely empty. "I once thought I was a monster, now it seems I am actually turning into one..."

443/1214

Kyohei’s eyes would widen a bit as Risu told him that she had the night off, but in turn that only served to make him more curious as to what exactly she meant when she said this wasn’t a good time. He couldn’t help but smile as her stomach rumbled loudly, causing her to blush in embarrassment. He was glad that at least through everything that might have happened since the first day they met some things didn’t change.

“Well Uraeus, one of the drawbacks of being a human is that we actually have to chew and taste what we eat,” Kyohei replied, turning his attention to the snake, “We can’t just swallow our food whole and let our bodies digest everything for us. Speaking of which, I brought something for you as well.” Reaching into the black bag that Kyohei had slung over his shoulder, he would pull out a perforated, clear plastic cylinder containing a rather large, grey mouse. “For when you’re bored or hungry,” Kyohei stated as he placed the cylinder flat-side down onto the counter in front of Uraeus. If anyone knew the snake they knew that he enjoyed hunting his meal at least as much as he enjoyed eating it. He could open the container himself in a more challenging environment than the apartment and give the mouse a head start or whatever it is he did to try and level the playing field during one of his hunts.

The playful atmosphere would become a bit more heavy as Kyohei listened to Risu speak. “I remember…” he would reply, watching her put down the now empty bowl she had eaten from, “I remember saving your ass and then having to watch over you on our very first mission. I don’t remember always being so strong and determined though.” Taking a step outward and swinging around the counter so that he stood directly in front of Risu, his left hand propping him up on the counter and his right finding its way to her chin, directing her to look directly at him. “I remember being a dull blade, lost and with no purpose,” he whispered to her, “And then I remember finding the only one I’d ever need. And I distinctly remember telling you to stop speaking that way about yourself. A conversation that you apparently forgot.”

---

400 | 1825~

When Kyohei pointed out the difference of humans and animals, not only Ureaus, but also Risu lifted their heads and listened intently. The first one simply because it was quite amusing to hear a man or rather a boy like him explain something to him, a White snake from the Ryuchi cave, while the other wanted to hear if Kyohei actually had any idea that technically, in certain ways she was a bit or even more than a bit of an animal herself and in a way he was to.

"I will accept this offering of yours," Uraeus said rather haughtily, wrapping part of his body around the container, squeezing half of it very tightly, as if he had already thought about what to do with it. "I will retreat myself for now, for a dish is best to be savored when the prey is scared beyond its wits...like a tiny mouse would be when facing me, heheheh."

As the large white snake slithered away, slipping out of the appartment through the open window at the back, Risu simply sighed a bit, placing her head in her hands. She was physically and mentally still tired, but she couldn't rest her head for long as Kyohei quickly swung around the counter, placing his hand under her chin and lifting it up so she would look straight into his eyes. The Uchiha gave his own vision on how he had been when the two of them first met, but in a way it didn't comfort Risu at all, in fact, it made her wonder on how she was if he had already noted himself to have been a dull blade.

"It's not that I forgot that conversation, Kyo," The young woman replied calmly, the dullness returning in her eyes. "But I know what I feel, I know what I have done. I have killed people, innocent people and to make things worse, I dont even care about the blood on my hands anymore. I know it's wrong, it gnaws my mind every passing moment, but I have a task, a job to fulfill and a man to kill and I will not rest before I have done so."

371/1585

“So let me know how you feel,” Kyohei pleaded as he placed each of his hands onto Risu’s cheeks, leaning his forehead into hers as he spoke, “Let me know what you’ve done. I don’t care how many people you’ve killed or whether or not you’re remorseful. Just tell me. Let me be here for you, like I’ve always been, like I’ve been all this time even when you did all that you could to keep me out. Let me wash your hands of that blood. Whatever task you have to complete and whatever man you have to kill, let me help you.”

“You know,” the Uchiha continued, activating his sharingan to look directly into Risu’s eyes with his own crimson iris, “For all the trouble these eyes have brought me, for all the grief that they’ve wrought, I don’t regret my blood one bit, because these eyes are what brought us together. The true power of these eyes are not their illusions, or their black flames, or whatever other jutsu were born of them. These eyes see the truth in a world of lies. That’s why when I look at you with them I remember everything it was that made me fall in love with you, and those same things make me fall in love with you again every time I see you. But what you’re trying to show me right now isn’t you. You are not a monster. You are not your mask. You are not whatever it is you think you are right now. You are my hebihime.”

The look of determination and conviction in his eyes would fade to one of sadness as Kyohei pulled his head back from hers, his eyes looking downward as he broke eye contact with her. As scenes of their past together flashed through his mind, the Uchiha could not help but feel as though everything that has happened between them now was his fault. If he was stronger, if he had only done something different, maybe he could have prevented things from ever reaching this point. The promises they made to each other of their love and their partnership all seemed like nothing but distant memories at this point. He would then wrap his arms around his waist in an embrace, nuzzling his face into her left shoulder. “Please, just let me in,” he spoke almost in a whisper, “I miss my partner.”

---

416 | 2241~

Everything seemed to fall silent, with Uraues having retreated himself to the outdoors and with the only sound being the breathing of Kyohei and Risu, all seemed to be so distant and rather insignificant to the young woman with this man standing in front of her, showing his sharing, his Uchiha curse and displaying so much emotion she wasn't really used to seeing him do that.

"I...I've killed innocent people," Risu stumbled over her words, finding it hard to breath as she tried to explain what was gnawing on her mind for so long. "I've been searching for the Black ANBU for so long, spitting through piles of decade-old documents, trying to figure out some clues in my parent's mission logs and even trying to find some clues that absolve my uncle. I couldn't find his ANBU mission logs, until I became captain. Sadly, I'm still not as far as I hoped to be."

A sudden chuckle turned into a groan, a painfully deep groan filled with sadness, which became apparent when tears started to well up in Risu's eyes, followed by her arms wrapping themselves around Kyohei, crying and trying to apologize over and over again.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry...I'm so sorry," The young woman cried, apologizing to Kyohei, but to so many other people, to those that started haunting her dreams, those that she had not been ordered to kill, yet she ruthlessly did so. "I dont think the Hokage even knows how dark the ANBU is, we dont know who we can trust, who's a real part of us and every day that passes, some of us die mysteriously, without a word vanishing from sight forever. I'm close to the identity of the one leading the Eien no Yami group that has popped up in all those Black ANBU files, but I'm so tired, so exhausted...I feel like anytime now, I could vanish as well...like the hollow shell of myself I've been turning into...Help me Kyo, let me end this darkness, let me reveal this shadow...if you want me to open up, than help me."

369/1954

Risu’s words would prompt Kyohei to stand tall once more, removing his head from her shoulder and instead standing directly in front of her. He would raise on of his hands from her waist to the middle of her back to pull her body into his. With the other hand he would place it gently behind her head, cradling her head in his palm and pulling her head into his chest. He wouldn’t tell her not to cry. God only knows she had reason to. Besides, her crying to him like this was the closest they had been in a long time. Even if the reason for them being like this was upsetting, part of him was glad that this Risu was still in there. He was glad that everything that he had done to keep his promise had not gone to waste.

“Don’t be afraid of the darkness, Risu,” Kyohei whispered to her, pulling Risu into him tightly as he spoke, “I’ll always be here to pull you back out from it. I won’t let you fall, I promise.” His heart would sink into his stomach as he listened to her speak of Enaka and the black ANBU, then once more when she asked him to assist her in her search. He had always known that his secret couldn’t last forever. Risu’s curiosity and persistence allowed her to stumble upon the letters in Enaka’s office that set all of this in motion in the first place. It would have been naïve for anyone to think that she wouldn’t eventually find her way back to it again. But he knew as well as anyone what bringing all of their darkness to the light could entail. He thought he would have more time.

“Vanish…” He murmured ominously, looking down as he leaned is head down onto hers, pressing his lips against her black hair in a kiss, “We could… if you wanted. Maybe what you need is to get away from all of this for a while. We could leave together, tonight. Leave a message at the administration office and get away. We could go anywhere you wanted. Finally take that vacation that the trip to Takigakure turned out not to be. You could bring that swimsuit and I can finally get a chance to do what I wanted to do to you in it when we were at the waterpark. We never… have to come back.”

The Uchiha’s voice fluctuated between playful elation and pained desperation as he spoke, but ultimately he knew that she would not leave it be, not even for him. “You aren’t becoming hollow,” he sighed as he looked her in the eyes directly, “The way we are together right now is proof. The world can be draining at times, but whatever you lose out there you can take from me. All you ever needed to do to receive my help was ask. After all, what kind of knight in shining armor would I be if I didn’t come to the rescue when my princess was in need?”

---

525 | 2766~

"It's not the darkness I fear," Risu explained, with tears rolling down her cheeks. "But what shedding light upon it would reveal to me. I can't lose more than I already have, Kyo. I can't bear to lose anything again, not a single thing."

When suddenly the Uchiha started trying to convince Risu that they could simply run off, vanish into obscurity together, away from all the trials and tribulations which had caused the Orochi lady to fall into the depths of despair and insanity, the young woman couldn't help herself but to smile through her tears; a soft, yet surprisingly sour smile.

"I know, contradictionary to my words, I can't leave either," She suddenly rebuked. It was obvious that she was torn between her obsession, her desires and her fears. It was not only a physical fight which brought her to the edge, but also a psychic fight, one which disturbed her mental balance and started to warp her mind. "I want to go, but I dont at the same time. I can't bear to lose anything, but I can't bear to lose this fight either. I can't choose, even if I dont want to make a choice."

For a moment she kept silent, trying to enjoy the hug, the warmth of the Uchiha touching her cold, unnaturally sensitive skin. Somehow it was because she had lacked that sensation of love and compassion for so long, that her body reacted to it like a spunge reacts to water. However, she couldn't do as He asked, not yet, not until her job was completed.

"I love you, but I can't follow you on that road," Risu sighed deeply, her eyes looking down. "I have a job to do, I have a destiny to fulfil and a murderer to kill. I will not stop, I can't stop now...not even if it threatens to kill me."

326/1911

“You’re not the only one that has something to lose on this path you’re choosing to follow,” Kyohei muttered in response, already having known that he would be unable to dissuade her from her choice, “But you already have my answer. If you truly feel that you cannot carry on without completing this mission, if this is what is most important to you now, I’ll be here to help you however you need me to. I once promised you that I’d change this world for you and make it so that you never had to feel out of place again. I won’t let anything stop you from achieving what you want to… not even me.”

Lowering his hands down to her waist, Kyohei would lift Risu up off of her feet and sit her down on the countertop directly behind her, bringing her up to just above eye level with him. “Is it wrong of me to wish that you never joined the ANBU?” he lamented as he leaned his head down against her chest and sighed, “You seemed so happy when you told me you were promoted that I couldn’t help but be happy for you. But ever since then all the ANBU has done is pull you away from me and put you in harm’s way. I know that we all have our responsibilities, but is it so bad for me to just want to be able to have you all to myself and keep you safe? I guess I’m just selfish.”

---

262 | 3032~

For a moment, Risu didn't know what to say, even though she knew that Kyohei was certainly right with his words and his choices, she couldn't just give up simply because she was getting tired or becoming less and less of what she used to be. When he suddenly lifted her a bit, placing her on the counter, he finally seemed to speak his mind clearly, saying that he actually wished she had never joined the ANBU, so that she had never gotten herself in the situation, the deprivation in which she had gotten herself.

"It's never wrong to wish for things," The young woman suddenly replied, placing her hands on the Uchiha's head, softly combing his hair, before pulling him closer to press a soft kiss on his forehead. "But for some things it is better to leave certain wishes unspoken and unheard. Even if some may see those wishes as selfish or childish, it's not wrong or forbidden to wish for them in the first place. However, if there's one thing I might've wished now more than ever, is that I wished I never had lost my parents, never lost my sensei and so much more, but sadly all those things have happened and I have learned that I had to accept them."

Pulling Kyohei's head closer to her chest, she breathed deeply, sighing a bit, while resting her head upon his soft hair, looking at a picture haging at the wall near her bed, which depicted her mother and father together with Risu when she was still just a small child who used to think the world was a beautiful and happy place filled with sunshine and rainbows.

"I realized it though," The young orochi woman sighed. "Tomorrow I'll be doing my last raid on a possible hideout of the organization I've been tracking for so long. However, as I said, I've realized how meaningless my actions are. No matter how close I come to discover their goals, their secrets, in the end it'll depend on luck and not skill and quite frankly, I'm beginning to think my luck's running out."

368/2279

Kyohei remained silent for a short while after he listened to Risu speak, her voice full of uncertainty and sadness as she embraced him tighter. Having Risu open up to him and confide in him her feelings wasn’t the most surprising thing in the world given their relationship, but something just felt off. There was something different about this situation that made Kyohei feel almost guilty. Without him realizing it, somewhere in this situation it seemed like their roles had temporarily switched. It was now Risu that was holding him, trying to comfort him as he expressed himself rather than the other way around. He didn’t like it, especially given that she was so clearly struggling with what she was going through. He came here to be the shoulder for her to lean on and somehow he had become the one being comforted.

Kyohei would tighten his embrace with Risu once more, taking one last moment to enjoy this more gentle side of her before he flipped the script like he knew he needed to. With so much chaos in Risu’s life, what she needed Kyohei to be was a constant, not someone who was as torn as she was, regardless of the situation he found himself in. He would take a single deep breath, inhaling the scent of the woman he was prepared to throw aside his own pain for, and exhaling any trace of the vulnerability he allowed her to see, if only for a moment.

“I believe that we make our own luck,” Kyohei stated as he raised his head to look Risu in the eye before leaning his head back into her chest and playfully nuzzling into her breasts like a cushion, “Considering that I have these with I’d consider myself pretty lucky. I could loan you some of my luck, but you’ll have to pay me back… with interest of course.” He would show her a devious smirk, one that she by now should have been more than familiar with, but instead of moving his hands in an aggressively frisky manner like he would normally do he simply placed both of his hands behind her knees and pulled her into him, leaving not an inch of space between them. The Uchiha would place his head beside hers so that he could whisper into her ear, pausing for a moment as he synchronized his breathing with hers, following the movements of her chest pressed against his. “You said it’s never wrong to wish for things…” Kyohei said softly into her ear placing his left hand behind her head and stroking her long black hair, “Then I wish for you to be happy. I know it seems difficult now, but I’ve never given up on what was most important to me.”

---

471 | 3503~

Kyohei's silence for that moment, was actually quite comforting to Risu, who hadn't felt the warmth and care of love for a while now. Her work had seemingly taken them a bit apart, but knowing that the Uchiha wasn't going to let that be a hurdle was something of a dependance for her. However, when he started to tighten his embrace a bit, the young woman couldn't help herself but blush slightly and grin a bit. Who was she kidding, he wasn't just a dependance, he was a life and a loveline for her and she hoped that she wouldn't change too much for their relation to strain or fail because of it.

When Kyohei gave a reaction again, he made her blush slightly stronger when he started nuzzling playfully between her breasts, which really was typical for the man. It made the young Orochi woman womder if he had some kind of fetish regarding those. Thinking about his preferences, she nearly forgot to listen to what he was saying, making a rather awkward face while partially daydreaming whilst being deep in thought.

She was brought back to reality when she noticed his devious smirk, followed by a quick, yet gentle pull. He really got himself close, whispering in her ears softly, while starting to stroke her hair. Letting out a soft chuckle, she couldn't help herself but place a hand on his head and start frolicking with his hair as well, combing through it with her fingers, twirling it around them into tiny curls and combing through that hair yet again. It was a short moment of playful intimacy, something so small, yet so lovable was something she wouldn't want to miss for anything in the world.

"You know...besides all our more...heavy conversation," the young woman suddenly chuckled. "I was wondering, but...if I've reached my goal...can we go out again, have some drinks, some laughs...it's been awhile, hasn't it?"

336/2615

Kyohei could not help but grin happily at Risu’s request, letting out an amused huff as he responded first by nuzzling his face happily into her neck, pecking small kisses with his lips playfully. “What a silly thing to ask hime-chan,” he teased as he brought his face up and leaned his forehead into hers, “I never stopped wanting to be with you, you simply reached a point where there wasn’t any more time for ‘us’. I was never upset with you for it. I’m just as happy standing here like this in complete silence all night as I am at a bar or restaurant. As long as I get to be with you, anywhere is fine with me. Whenever you’re ready, just let me know.”

The Uchiha’s eyes would shift to the side for a moment as he momentarily allowed his thoughts to wander to the picture of Risu’s parents that hung on the wall directly across from them. That picture had always been there and for as long as Kyohei had been coming to the apartment he would always catch Risu sneaking glances at it, sometimes even catching herself lost in thought over it. He was sure that tonight was no different. “I wish I had gotten a chance to meet them, you know…” he muttered hesitantly, his gaze slowly shifting back to meet hers, “Your parents, I mean. You always stare at that picture. They must have meant a lot to you. I never had the chance to thank them properly. For most of my life I had been alone and by the time I found you, I thought that loneliness was all that this world had to offer me. So I want to thank them for saving me. You should take me to their gravestones one of these days. I want to leave an offering there.” Stopping for a moment he would take this time to brush the stray hairs from Risu’s face before continuing, “I’m sure they’re just as proud of the woman that you’ve become as I am.”

Kyohei would then peck a kiss onto the tip of Risu’s nose and smile at her warmly. Not once during their exchange would he pull away from her, if anything pressing his body into her more strongly as they went along. His free hand that had previously been running through her long black hair now rested on the side of her face, gently running his thumb over her cheek.

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425 | 3928~

While playfully rubbing through Kyohei's hair, Risu calmly listened to the young man's words, as they seemed to have a soothing effect on her. It was really enjoyable to see his smiles and hear his confident voice. Even though he was the older one, she was the one who climbed in ranks faster than a speeding kunai.  However, somehow the young woman couldn't think about him as weak or anything like that. She knew it was something else, something personal which was holding him back, as she had seen 'that' look in his eyes, the look of a predator, a tainted beast wanting to reclaim its glory and honor. Most likely he couldn't grow until he had found what troubled him so much, just the opposit of her, who had grown due to the constant fear and hatred welling up inside her.

"My mom would've probably loved you, Kyo," The young Orochi lady laughed calmly, almost in such a noble and dignified manner, that one would not dare to forget her actual status. "My dad however...he'd have killed you if he ever knew what we've done."

After saying that, she burst out in spontanious laughter, shaking heavily, wrapping her arms around the Uchiha to make sure she would not fall off the counter. For a moment though, she fell silent, a soft sigh and a snicker coming from her throat, as she gave a glance at the picture on the wall, suddenly gritting her teeth when thinking about the fact that somehow someone had been doing the unthinkable: retrieving her parents corpses and using them as puppets.

"Ah well, no use whimpering about losses from long ago," She said with a rather weird, broken sounding tone of voice, before pulling herself straight again, both figuratively and literally. "They'd surely give me a slap around my ears if they ever knew I worried about them even now."

Suddenly, Risu's eyes widened comprehensively, when she watched out of the window, even though Kyohei would not have seen what she had seen, he should've noticed that her eyes changed dramatically, turning dull and emotionless again. "I...I have to get dressed."

369/2984

“It’s been a while since I’ve heard you laugh like that,” Kyohei remarked while allowing her to use his body for stability during her fit of laughter, “It makes me happy to hear you like that again.” After the laughter ended, Risu would raise herself up from the counter and within a moment there was a distinct shift in her facial expression and the air in the room. So this is what her dealings with the ANBU had become… their mere presence seemingly draining all the joy from her in an instant. Just as Kyohei felt they were making progress in their relationship, one of the things driving a wedge between them reared its ugly head yet again. But the Uchiha could not simply let this stand. Everything that had been said between them that night would not simply be wiped clean because her job called.

Kyohei did not know where the signal came from, but with the window a few steps away from them in the kitchen being the only visible portal to the outside world, he could only assume that was it, since there was no sign of disturbance within the apartment. “So, it’s that time, is it?” he said aloud as he stepped over and shut the blinds over the window before returning to Risu. He would stop directly in front of Risu and begin walking towards her, stealing a kiss from her, and walking her backwards towards the counter as he held the kiss. As he pulled his lips away from hers he would press her against the counter, leaning her backwards over it as he placed an arm on the counter at each of her sides to keep her from walking away. “That face you just made, I don’t want to see it ever again. I want to see your smile again. I want to hear you laugh. I want to see your eyes light up happily, like they did only a moment ago. What I’m seeing now isn’t you, it’s them.”

Once he was no longer concerned with her walking away before he got the chance to speak his mind he would remove his hands from the counter, instead moving his right hand to her waist and his left rubbing her neck gently. Moving his face closer to hers he would continue to speak, with a tinge of anger in his voice that would slowly fade into a domineering order, stern but still gentle and compassionate. “I know what it’s like you know, to be so consumed and overwhelmed that it feels like every day you lose a grip on who you are. It’s like every day a piece of you fades away, and the “you” you once knew just seems to get smaller and smaller until you barely even recognize yourself anymore. It’s like the days get shorter and shorter until all you remember is the darkness and you’re left there wondering if you’ll ever see the sun again. I remember being all alone in the darkness, losing myself to the point where I believed Uchiha Kyohei to be dead. Then I found the sun again and everything that I had once lost, all of the anger, and sorrow, and pain I felt… just seemed to matter less and less every time I saw it. I found you. I don’t care about the things you’ve done with the ANBU. You are not your mask. You are not your code name. You are Orochi Risu. I know it’s hard to see through the darkness, but I promise that the girl I fell in love with is still right here with me. So no more of that face. Now, let’s get you dressed.”

Without saying another word Kyohei would take both of her arms and move them over his shoulders and around his neck, in a position to allow her to lace them together and rest her head against his chest. From there he would slide his hands behind her thighs and lift her off of the ground before kissing her head and carrying her like this all the way to her bedroom, dropping her in front of the sliding doors of her closet and taking a seat at the edge of her bed. “You said you needed to get changed, right?” he said with a naughty grin replacing the stern look on his face, “Go ahead and get undressed. Don’t let me stop you.”

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757 | 4685~

"It's THAT time indeed," Risu said calmly, averting her eyes from Kyohei after he had given her his opinion on how her face had distorted right when she had noticed the two ANBU pass in front of the window above her bed. "Perhaps when everything is over...you will see me smile again and I will see your real smile again, not the forced, secretive ones you've been showing me lately."

Risu straightened up, hardly reacting to Kyohei's speech about how he had been through the same thing as her. However, she doubted he could understand the pain she felt at that moment, the hatred which had started coursing through her entire body. It was her mission, no, her goal to find and eliminate all those who stood in the way of 'her' villages safety and prosperity. The Black ANBU was dangerous, an entity ruled by a dark shadow which threatened to swallow up konoha, but even worse, it was the very reason she had lost so much in her life, the very origin of all her pain and despair and now that she had risen through the ranks faster than a soaring eagle, she wanted to make that very entity feel all the hatred all the fear and despair she had felt for far too long.

When Kyohei kissed her however, despite her rather neutral and almost twisted expression, she didn't let go of his lips as easily as he might've thought, stretching the kiss for a full minute, before opening the doors of her closet, with probably quite an unsavory surprise: Both her armor and her mask had stains, droplets of dried and old blood scattered accross the entire armor and the mask seemed to have a trail of blood on it, with a small crack at the left eye.

Slowly pulling off her clothes, pulling on a black jumpsuit and the standard black sandals, Risu bound her hair with a single lace of purple silk, though she did not remove the locket she had been given by the Uchiha, carefully tucking it away when pulling on her armor and placing her mask on top of her head. After she had pulled two longsleeved gloves over her arms, she turned towards Kyohei, placed her index finger against his lips before pressing her own lips upon them, wrapping her arms around him and as she released her lips from his, she calmly whispered in his ears with a slightly deeper tone of voice, the very voice which when amplified by her mask, was able to send shivers down anyone's spine:

"My job is simple," Her cold voice was accompanied by the movement of her hands, which rather roughly grasped Kyohei's hair, though not roughly enough to hurt, more to show the amount of control she had, not to mention the great increase in strength she had surprisingly gained in the last few months. "Eliminate all those who stand against Konoha...all who stand against me."

With that being said, she released Kyohei, pulled the mask over her face and opened the door, where two ANBU agents quickly appeared, their faces hidden by their masks, but their bodylanguage showing that they were quite surprised by the fact that there was someone else in their captain's apartment.

"I'll keep you to your work, kyo," A slightly less abbrasive tone of voice escaped the mask, a lighter and actually quite happy sounding voice. "Next time, we'll be having a real date. No jobs, no attachments, just fun."

595/3579

training:

Kyohei’s eyes widened in surprise as he attempted to pull away from his kiss with Risu and put her down only to be pulled back in and held there as she took the lead. It wasn’t like he was exactly opposed to it, nor would he struggle against the opportunity to taste his lover’s lips for even a moment longer, but he found himself a bit on edge due to her behavior. She was acting so strangely and he couldn’t get a read on what her angle was. Aside from the fact that he was an Uchiha who was born with the power of insight do to his Sharingan, Kyohei thought himself skilled in reading people. The fact that he could not read Risu at the moment was unsettling, but at the same time he found the prospect of this mysterious side of her exciting.

Kyohei would grit his teeth and let out a low growl as Risu yanked on his hair, not out of agony but out of surprise. Risu had seemingly always held a higher occupational position within the village than he did, but when they were alone her noble and haughty demeanor more often than not gave way to her desire to be treated as a woman. The usual result was him being free to take the lead and direct the flow of action in however he chose, but tonight she was not doing that. From the looks of it, it was her intention to show off how controlling she could be and dominate the situation. Surprisingly, Kyohei didn’t mind handing over the reigns to her, but he had every intention of seizing control back at the first chance he got. Or at least, that would have been the plan had she not end their intimate moment as abruptly as it had begun by releasing him and heading to the front door for work. For a moment the Uchiha had allowed himself to get so caught up in the moment that he had forgotten what they were actually in her bedroom for, but upon seeing the ANBU agents waiting outside the door he would instantly remember.

Kyohei would glare somewhat angrily at the two guards accompanying her, not happy with being interrupted and still somewhat perturbed by Risu’s behavior that night, but in the end he knew that was all he could do for now. She had made it more than clear that she would not be dissuaded from walking down this path, no matter how much he wished she wouldn’t force the issue. She was getting closer to the source of it all and when she found it everything would change. He would sigh deeply as he threw himself back on her bed, staring directly at the ceiling as he thought back to Risu grabbing hold of his hair and whispering into his ear domineeringly, “Hime-chan, you’re such a tease…”

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493 | 5178~

[Exit]