Life was such an utterly fickle thing. It could go from an ultimate high, one full of happiness and brightness, and then suddenly come crashing down with darkness and sadness taking its place. For Kaia that was precisely what happened. She had been on the ultimate high of life: she had so much going for her such as a new promotion and a man whom she loved more than life itself and then it was suddenly all taken from her. She had had plans: she had left Konoha officially in favor of traveling the world with Daremo, the inseparable pair having plans of doing some training while on the road as well as just generally escaping from the shinobi world and living in one of hopeful peace. That had all come crashing down when Daremo had died during a bout of Sage training. No sooner had he started had he perished, and there was nothing Kaia could have done – her limited Medical Ninjutsu knowledge not nearly enough to bring someone back from the clutches of death itself. She had been utterly broken.

It had taken her days to even peel herself out of bed after his funeral, and even then she couldn’t stand to be in the house they had shared once she had. Too many memories, too many times had she expected to see the front door opening and the love of her life walking through it home from a late shift at the hospital. But, no matter how many times she expected it to occur it didn’t. She felt utterly alone. She knew she couldn’t keep this up though; it wasn’t healthy, and it definitely wasn’t what Daremo had wanted for her out of life. No, she needed to do what she had been holding off on for so long and actually leave. But where was she going to go?

She had pined over the question over and over again before settling on Suna: there was no one there she actually knew and it was this that egged her on. The idea of going somewhere where no one would know her, where no one would ask her how she was or how she was handling Daremo’s death was a very appealing idea. So, in preparation she had packed what little she would need in various scrolls, left a note for her father detailing where she was going and her reasoning as to why, and ensured that the bills for the house and property would be paid for a prolonged period of time with the money Daremo and she had saved up, and then headed out, not bothering to even look back as she crossed through the village gates for what would likely be the last time in a long while.

She wasn’t consciously aware of her journey as she went, staying at inns and roadside hotels as she came across them but otherwise resting in the wilderness itself when she couldn’t. The journey was a slow one, but she was not in a rush. She had no reason to go to Suna, and thus no reason to hasten the trip. The further she got from Konoha the more she realized she could think: the memories were easier to push away when there weren’t constant reminders lurking around of them. It was still difficult of course, but far more managable.

Before long though the land had changed around her, forests giving away for endless mountains of sand and then the village itself came into view. She made her way through the gates without much fanfare, heading for the nearest hotel so she could get a decent nights rest and washed up…

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