Sayuri had not slept well that night. Or the night after. What should have been a restful meander through unconsciousness was fraught with visions of blood and cries of pain. She had awoken bathed in sweat and shaking from the horrors that her own mind saw fit to plague her with. Each time she woke she spent long minutes trying her best to figure out where she was. She still remembered the forests and mountains where she had spent her youth and those images were overlain atop the reality that was her room at the Diamond Heights University. The first night after the mission on the bridge had been the hardest, she had barely slept and had spent most of the night crying fitfully. She had been out of sorts, and even the sweet smell of cured meats and cakes had been unable to convince her to stick to her usual routine. Instead of rising early with the sun and enjoying the sunrise from the University grounds she had stayed curled up on her beds, covers thrown over her head in an effort to block out the world. She had learned over those two days that no amount of hiding or trying to sleep, or blankets could ease the repetition of the assassin’s death inside her mind.

She might have stayed there forever, wreathed in sadness, were it not for the familiar feeling of hunger. It had been a while since she had been hungry enough for it to hurt, but two days without eating seemed to be her limit. So grudgingly she had dragged herself out of her bed and wandered towards the kitchens hoping that it was not too late to find any food. Scrounging around the kitchens she did manage to find a plate of food made up in the way her own meals were usually presented to her by the chefs. The consideration was not lost on her, and as she dug into the platter of cakes and sweet meats she made a mental note to thank the chefs when she saw them next. After she ate she did feel a bit better, and even took the time to shower and put on clean clothing. Her mood was dark and so she dressed to match; a tight fitting long sleeved black shirt paired with dark pants and a dark coat made up her attire. As she double checked her appearance she was surprised at how pale she looked in the dark clothing, except under her eyes. Two days of crying and not sleeping had made her under eyes look dark and purplish - almost as if it were bruised. She tied her hair back in its usual braid, though not with as much care as she normally would have. As an afterthought she grabbed her tanto and tied it to her belt - picking it up was very difficult and just holding the handle made her feel a bit ill. Shaking her head to get the memory of the smell and texture of the assassins blood out of her mind she gathered the rest of her weapons and the small bag of rocks she had gathered on her way to Iwagakure from Konohagakure. Satisfied that she looked somewhat presentable she made her way towards the Tsuchikage’s office.

Harichimo had asked her to come talk with him when she was feeling better; and although she didn’t really feel any better, she also didn’t feel that it was appropriate to make him wait very much longer. Stepping out onto the University grounds she paused and allowed the last rays of sunlight warm her face as the sun disappeared below the horizon. She hadn’t considered when he had intended to meet with her, but now that it was getting darker she hoped that it was not too late. It was a long walk from where she was to Harichimo’s office, and it was made all the longer by the guilt pressing down on her as she walked. What does he even want to talk to me about? He said I didn’t do anything wrong, but what if he was just saying that at the time to make me feel better? What if I’ve done something awful? Her thoughts grew darker as she moved through the Village in the fading light. As she came up to the large door that led into the administration building, she almost stopped and turned around. She couldn’t quite shake the feeling of guilt that hung around her like a smoke. She knew at least part of why she felt this way - she had made a promise. To never kill. Not to never kill an innocent; never kill. And although Harichimo had done his best at the time to reassure her that her actions had been necessary, she still felt terrible for having broken the one promise she had ever made. Would it have been better to not have broken that promise and be attending Harichimo’s funeral now? Of course not silly duck. You made the right choice, you know you did. The voice of her beloved grandfather eased her anxiety and she resumed her path towards the door, pausing only long enough for the guards to verify who she was. She was pleased that there wasn’t any long discussion about whether or not she should be here - it was well known, in the Village at least, who she was and it certainly helped that she was often seen in the company of the Tsuchikage. Once inside the building, she was able to follow the instructions given to her by the guards straight to Harichimo’s office. The door was open, which surprised her a bit, she had secretly been hoping that she was too late after all and would have to go home. Taking a deep breath she pushed the door open wider as she crossed the threshold into the room.

998

Harichimo had spent the past couple days in peace since the killing of his assassin. For the first time in his life he had experienced how it felt to be overpowered. If Sayuri had not been there to assist him then he may have ended up dead on that bridge. But now he was able to sleep more soundly without the threat on his life. But on the first night he questioned Sayuri's state of mind and being. She was aware of what the mission might entail and she seemed ready to take whatever action was necessary to complete it. But when the time came to take the man;s life she seemed more shaken then anything, she named somebody and apologized profusely as if she had broken some sort of pact. Harichimo thought to himself as he had learned the harsh reality of being a shinobi early on in his genin days. And to this point he had no problem to cause harm to anyone that threatened his village or the people who resided in it. Harichimo understood that she probably had never killed anyone before and it was a shock to her with everything that was on the line that night. He was hoping that she would come see him soon after he had helped her come back and gotten her home.

Today he had sat at his desk in the Tsuchikage office for most of the day. Papers and files stacked on his desk in whatever piles he saw fit. Most of his day had been finding more information about the man they had fought. The man had a proven history of fighting with a sword and an accomplished medical user. With a bit of blood that Harichimo was able to take away from their fight the ANBU was able to link him to multiple murder cases in where people seemed to have their faces stolen. Those files were now on the corner of his desk sitting in a pile and bundled together. He would get up from his chair and grab the files to carry them over to a special cabinet that was marked with an ANBU symbol. He would put the bundle inside a drawer. The bundle would take up a quarter of the drawer by itself. Harichimo would then close and lock the cabinet. Soon someone from the ANBU would come to take this case away and it would be the last bit he would have to think about it. Harichimo could still feel the sting of being stabbed by the man's sword even though he had healed away the damage from it. But it seems the brain doesn't forget damage as fast as the body does. 

Harichimo would hear his door finally swing open and he would turn to see Sayuri had finally made her way to the office. "Sayuri thank you for coming by so soon. I hope you are feeling somewhat better then the last time we talked." Harichimo would walk back over to his desk and offer to pour some cold tea into two black and gold cups that sat on a silver tray on the corner of his desk. If she took a cup or not he would grab his and start to sip some of the tea. He would take his seat before he would speak to her again. "So now that everything is out of the bag let me explain something. I was only made the Tsuchikage a short while ago. I am not a very political man so I wanted to keep all of that out of our business as I taught you things and you wouldn't get caught up in village business. But it seems that messing with the assassin has changed all of that. So I would like to know what is on your mind? You didn't seem upset that the assassin revealed his target was me but after you had saved my life you apologized to someone that I have not heard the name of. Would you be able to explain?"

683

Walking into the Tsuchikage’s office Sayuri was surprised at the greeting she received from Harichimo. So soon? I procrastinated for two days before coming here, is he joking? She paused and studied the man for a moment as he poured some tea into some pretty black and gold cups. As he held out a cup in an offer to pour one for her she would nod and move closer to accept it. Taking a sip of the cool liquid she continued studying him, looking for any sign that he was angry with her for being so tardy for their meeting - but she didn’t see any indication of that being the case. Cradling the black and gold cup in both her hands she stood in front of Hari’s desk sipping at the tea awkwardly as she didn’t know quite what to do with herself. She had never been in a meeting with a Kage before, and with what little she had heard about the men and women that held these positions was enough to make her nervous. She knew that they were the leaders of their respective villages, and usually the most powerful from their villages. This last fact made her even more nervous, she had of course respected Hari as her sensei, however the true realization of what that meant was starting to sink in. So far, her teachers; Harichimo, Tsuyo and Mitsuo were either now, or had been Kage. It was humbling to say the least and it made her somewhat self conscious - what did they think of her? Was she a good enough student to warrant such important teachers? Or was she the problem child that only the very well learned and powerful could deal with?

It was all very confusing and troubling and her ruminations did not answer any of her questions, they merely made her come up with more. In truth her whole life was full of unanswered questions, and most of the time she pushed them aside as unimportant, but today she knew she would have to answer some of them. Her train of thought darkened her mood further to the point where she was sure it was visible on her face. What kind of student lets their teacher get stabbed? No, their Tsuchikage get stabbed? For all the damage she had seen Harichimo sustain he looked none the worse for wear now, he even looked somewhat more rested than he had been in weeks past. It was a curious thing that he seemed so calm after such a perilous encounter. "So now that everything is out of the bag let me explain something. I was only made the Tsuchikage a short while ago. I am not a very political man so I wanted to keep all of that out of our business as I taught you things and you wouldn't get caught up in village business. But it seems that messing with the assassin has changed all of that. So I would like to know what is on your mind? You didn't seem upset that the assassin revealed his target was me but after you had saved my life you apologized to someone that I have not heard the name of. Would you be able to explain?" His questions caught her completely off guard. She had been expecting some sort of reprimand, or to be told that she had to leave the village or. . . something. Anything other than what he asked her. And unbidden the memories of Shiro surfaced. It was all she could do to keep herself from crying as she retold the story of her time meeting Shiro in the marketplace in Konoha.

“While I was living in Konoha I stayed with Tsuyo as you know, well one day I was hungry. Which I guess is not the most unusual thing, as you’ve seen I’m mostly always hungry. So I went to the ramen shop in the marketplace and that’s where I met him - Shiro. He was a young man, around my age I think. He had white hair, pale skin and two different coloured eyes - the same as me. It was a pleasant enough exchange, he was friendly and smiley and I had felt rather comfortable around him. Maybe it was his pleasant nature, or maybe something else - I can’t quite remember. Anyway, while we were there eating ramen there were some bandits that came and started harassing the shop owners, threatened to do horrible things to them and everyone in Konoha. It was awful - the things that those men said. And well, I couldn’t take it, so I fought back. I’m glad Shiro was there, there were so many of them, I couldn’t possibly have fought them all myself. But somewhere in the exchange Shiro well, he changed. His hair, eyes, even the feeling around him, it was dark and deadly. I didn’t kill anyone there, although I very nearly did, Shiro stopped me.


I couldn’t bear the thought of someone dying just to rid the world of violence, especially not after how kind he had been to me, and especially not after learning what he had gone through to be able to protect me that day. So I promised to never kill, so long as he didn’t die. I never saw him again after that though his memories are mine now, so it’s like he never left really. I know just about everything about that man except his name - I know it’s not Shiro, he picked it at random at the ramen stand because he simply couldn’t remember his actual name. I know that he was-”

She would stop speaking suddenly and hold her left hand over her mouth as she realised that there might be serious implications to what she was about to reveal. Because of her interactions with Shiro she had gained his memories via chakra and it had led to some startling insights into the lives of her friends. She had never been explicitly told to not reveal that information, but she knew that was a technicality. No one had told her not to reveal it, because no one knew she had it. Taking her hand down again she would swirl the cold tea around in her cup, choosing to focus on the gently swirling liquid than on the Tsuchikage’s face. “In truth Harichimo, I wasn’t visibly upset about learning that you were the Tsuchikage because I was more upset with myself as to what it could mean that no one had told me. Throughout my life the few people I have spent time with have made a habit of not telling me things. I don’t know if this is because I am untrustworthy or something else. I’m happy that you’re the Tsuchikage, if there was anyone that I thought would do a good job of leading the Village, it would definitely be you. What I am upset about though is that I let you get hurt, I am so, so sorry for that. I should have been paying better attention, I could have grabbed that sword if I had been.”  A look of determination settled on her face as she would raise her eyes to meet the gaze of the powerful man who sat in the chair across from her. “I won’t fail you again, and I will do everything in my power to keep you safe, and to keep Iwagakure safe.”

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