29

Chapter 29: twenty-eight: the rain is ice coldSummary:

In which the war takes and takes - then takes a little more.

Notes:

(Listen; I don't know what's up with two chapters in as many weeks either. This one and the next one basically wrote themselves.)

I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own Chiyuki, any original characters, and this story's plot.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Becoming Hokage 101

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Section Six: Avoid denying help. You  will  need it, even if you think you won't.

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Chapter Twenty Eight

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Villages aren't built in one day, and certainly not by one person alone. More importantly, villages are definitely not built only by its inhabitants, but also by those who live in its surroundings, those who trade, those who live far away, and even those who may be your enemies.

Even though the Hokage is considered the strongest shinobi in the village, brawns alone will not get you far. Don't be so foolish as to think you'll be able to do everything on your own, or that you don't need the help of the other villages. Being Hokage doesn't stop at ruling a ninja village.

Now that you've studied until your head feels like it's about to fall off, it's time to put the knowledge in action: strike deals with merchants; offer good living conditions to your people - and not just the bare minimum -; treat your shinobi well, for they are not your pawns; accept and offer help, when it's due. You are not invincible, and you don't know what the future holds.

A shaky alliance is better than none.

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Killing is messy and traumatic, until it isn't.

It's relatively easy to kill under the mindset 'it's either them or me', and it's even easier to use it as an anesthetic.

A clutch. A shield. Something that would ease the pain and the guilt of taking lives even if you know there simply is no other way.

'Isn't there?'

"Chiyuki? You alright there?" Genma's voice calls out to me quietly in the darkness of the room we rented out for the evening, voice a mere passing whisper.

When I lift my gaze from rummaging through my bag and turn around, both my teammates are looking intently at me, worry and concern in their gazes.

'We're children. We are not soldiers. We are not pawns. We are not-'

"Chiyuki?" A gentle hand falls on my shoulder, and it takes everything in me to not flinch back. I look up and meet the gaze of our oldest teammate, who's become much taller and a bit lankier even if only a year has passed since we became chunin.

"I'm gonna be alright, Gen." I reply quietly, briefly wondering if I should take the first watch since it's quite obvious I won't fall asleep easily.

"Is it…?" The soon to be fifteen year old hesitantly asks, and Gai takes my hand in his.

"It was the right decision, Chiyuki." The boy holding my hand says, low and steady like there's no way I could possibly make the wrong call.

"You don't know that, Gai-chan." I hear my own voice break in the middle of the whisper, and if we hadn't gone through so much together, I might have felt embarrassed.

"I know it was the right decision to make at that time." He shrugs, unusually serious. "It was either them or us."

"We can't keep thinking like that forever." I shake my head, swallowing heavily and blinking back the frustrated tears.

"We're in the middle of a war, baby girl." Genma tries to soothe me, like he's done so many times now. "It's awful to have to make decisions like that, I know that. But you can't blame yourself for wanting to live."

"And that's exactly why more and more people have decided to become mercenaries and thieves. Because they are unable to survive otherwise." I want to yell. I want to scream and scream and scream as loudly as I can, until my voice gives out, until all the breath leaves my lungs, until I'm so exhausted that sleep will have no choice but to overcome me.

It's the daimyo's responsibility to care of the people of this country, providing food and shelter, at the very least, but what can the man do in the middle of a shinobi war?

'I'm just so, so tired.'

"Chiyuki, you can't possibly take the blame for that." The teenage boy's voice takes on a bit of a stern tone, grabbing my face and locking determined brown eyes with me. "You're doing the best you can, and that's enough. That's more than enough."

A sob threatens to break out.

'So impossibly tired.'

"I'm sorry. I know this isn't easy for you two either, and yet you still have to comfort me-"

"Hey, take it easy." Genma takes upon himself to initiate the group hug, and not a second later I feel two sets of arms embracing me.

Just when did I start trembling so much?

"Remember what you said after the whole Orochimaru fiasco?" The brown haired teenager whispers into my hair, and I shake my head silently.

"Things might seem awful right now, but we'll get through it together." Gai says quietly, tightening his grip on me the slightest bit. "As long as we stay together, we'll be fine."

The tears start to fall freely, and no one gets much sleep that night.

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The next day, the sun rises lazily behind a thick curtain of rain clouds, even though I'd expect nothing else while being at the border of Rain country.

"We ready to roll?" Genma asks as he puts his backpack on his back, nodding at me. I do the same and nod back, choppily cut bangs flying into my face.

"Let's get going."

The trip back home is mostly uneventful. A B-rank mission to escort a merchant caravan from Fire to Rain Country isn't considered that dangerous, because enemy ninja don't exactly target merchants in roads mostly used by civilians. Instead, what we had was not one, not two, but four groups of bandits and mercenaries who had attempted to rob the caravan at different points of the week-long trip.

Being civilians, none of them could land a hand on trained shinobi, even if we're all basically children. Their movements are slow and sluggish, faces sunk with hunger and desperation, and their weapons have definitely seen better days.

We had no choice but to kill all of them.

"Let's camp here for the night." My voice cuts through the silence of the slowly darkening evening, the first thing anyone has ever said in hours.

Team Choza - now Team Chiyuki, since we're all chunin and go on missions on our own, and isn't that crazy - had made good progress, and we should reach Konoha sometime around late evening tomorrow. Traveling through the night, however, is basically a death sentence, unless you're strong or desperate enough to take on the many dangers of the darkened woods.

Wordlessly, the boys nod at me, and everyone swiftly unrolls their own sleeping bags. Instead of hunting and building a fire, we eat dried meat and Akimichi granola bars. We may be close to Konoha, but the risk of attracting other shinobi in the middle of the night is definitely not worth it.

"I'll take the first watch." Gai offers as soon as he's done eating, and even though I doubt I'll manage to get any sleep, I could definitely use the rest.

In less than ten minutes, we've erased our traces as much as possible, leaving only the sleeping bags out. Our green-clad teammate quickly finds a tree to sit on for the next three hours, and Genma and I silently try to get as comfy as possible.

After a little over a year after being promoted to chunin, we'd created a routine whenever we went out of the village. In addition, as a stealth/combat team, we excelled at missions where things had to be done quickly and efficiently, and people were starting to recognize the boys more and more often.

Being on a team with Konoha's Iron Demon does that to you, I suppose.

Just like I'd wanted, rumors of a girl from Konoha who's able to swing an iron club around like it weighs nothing spread like wildfire and reached ridiculous proportions. The Tsuchikage himself had given me the famed nickname after reading the team's report, apparently, and the rumor spread all the way to the Land of Iron.

Strange how everything had gone exactly as planned, but I wasn't the least bit satisfied with it.

Trying desperately to run away from the shadow of my parents, I even cut my own hair with a kunai a few months back. Now, even if my facial features are similar to my mother's, the haircut is enough to make everyone pause.

As if on cue, a small butterfly lands on my hair, ruffling the straight bangs in front. I close my eyes, feeling the small insect fly around my head, as if playing hide and seek with the strands. The front half, cut in a straight line around my chin, tickles my neck whenever the orange butterfly brushes over. It then hides quickly in the back half of the ash blonde hair, which reaches all the way to the middle of my back.

Perhaps I'd been too harsh in my desperation to not look like my mother, but even if it was cut sloppily and I was sure to get a scolding from Rin later, I liked it.

It made me look a little more like me, and not a shadow of my parents. It made me feel as if I finally had control over one thing about me.

For now, that's enough.

I'm nearly asleep, exhaustion winning over my plagued mind, until I feel something against my skin.

Something that's decidedly not the butterfly that was there a moment ago.

I open my mouth to yell a warning, but the unmistakable sound of paper flapping around clogs around my throat and hovers threateningly over my neck.

"Chiyuki!" Gai is the first to notice, and his shout of alarm is more than enough to bring Genma out of his half-asleep state.

'There is only one person who uses paper ninjutsu-'

"I suggest you cooperate." A low, feminine, and dangerously calm voice states just next to me, and wordlessly I get up from my sleeping back, movements slow and obvious.

"Stand down." I see Genma taking a few senbon in his mouth and quickly give the order, knowing very well it's in our very best interest to not fight these people full-on.

"At least she's not dumb." A deep, masculine voice scoffs behind me, and I don't need to turn around to see who these people are. I can now clearly feel the iron humming in three distinct bodies behind me, all of them perfectly poised and in control of the situation. The hums are calm and constant, slow and sure like rain.

'We're too close to Konoha. Why are they here? Why are they here?!'

"If you willingly come with us, we'll let your teammates go." The feminine voice sounds almost bored next to me, but I know this is not a suggestion. I don't even need to think twice to agree.

"Okay."

"Chiyuki-!" The boys, of course, are not happy with this arrangement, but while they don't have any idea what we're dealing with, I'd rather die than let them dive head-first into a fight that they have no chance of winning.

"Do not pursue." My voice rings out clearly, coldly. I glance briefly to the direction where Konoha is, trying to tell them to go straight there as soon as-

"Don't do that." The third one finally speaks up, and his tone is so cold and so ferocious in its promise of 'or else' that it immediately shuts me up and locks me in place.

'I'd thought that they wouldn't notice because I'm still facing the opposite direction. How did they know? How-'

"Nagato?" The other masculine voice questions, and a neverending chill settles in my very bones.

'The rinnegan.' I think, petrified from fear. 'What now? Is this it? Is this the end? Am I really gonna die like this-?'

Silence follows, and I belatedly realize they don't plan on killing me - at least, not yet. I force cold air into my dry lungs, begging my brain to think past the fog of fear and panic.

'Stop and think. They haven't hurt anyone. They said they plan on letting the boys go. If they had planned otherwise, they'd already have killed them.' A shudder goes down my spine, the mere thought of it making me sick. 'I'd wager they want the boys to go back to Konoha, but they also need to keep me in check.'

"You are not to follow us." Nagato's voice sounds chilling and dangerous, like a snake coiling around the neck of its victim. "Wait two minutes, then go."

Two minutes is a long time for a ninja. Elite shinobi like them are able to erase their tracks almost perfectly in 120 seconds, so they definitely don't want anyone to know where they're heading.

'Seems like they just want Konoha to know that Ame is involved. Which… I'm not sure if it's good or not.'

Add in the fact that we're mere chunin against elite foreign shinobi… well. The odds are definitely not in our favor.

I look at each boy and clench my jaw, trying to get them to agree already. They look uneasy, on the verge of doing something stupid, and I give them my most ferocious glare.

'Absolutely. Do. Not. Engage.' Perhaps sensing the gravity of the situation and the fact that we don't stand a chance against them, my teammates glance at each other and nod, solemn looks on their young faces.

"Finally. Let's hurry up and go." The voice that I assume to be Yahiko's grumbles behind me, and the whisper of paper fluttering around is the last thing I hear before I'm surrounded by endless darkness.

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. . .

His legs won't stop trembling, and whether it's from physical exhaustion or the deadly encounter they had just moments ago, Genma's not really sure.

After the two minutes passed, both he and Gai wasted no time in hastily gathering their stuff and sprinting towards Konoha, covering tracks be damned.

The teenager glances worriedly at his teammate, who has his jaw tightly clenched and hasn't spoken a single word since they took off.

He knows the other boy could go much faster than this and reach the village sooner, but Chiyuki - their friend, their teammate, their team leader, their sister - has always emphasized how being together was the best way to ensure their survival, and so neither of them dares suggest that Gai go on ahead.

It's the middle of the night, they're more than ten hours away from Konoha, they're tired from traveling the entire day, and they just had an encounter with enemy shinobi that could have gone much, much worse. They need to stick together.

Without pausing in his tree hopping, Genma grabs an Akimichi soldier pill out of his pouch and eats it whole. Wordlessly he throws another at his green-clad teammate, who catches it without looking and eats it much the same way. Neither is sure how long they travel like this, not stopping once, but the sun has just broken out in the winter sky when they reach the village.

His whole body trembles violently, dark spots filling his vision every now and then, but they can't stop now. They can't stop now.

"Genma? Gai?" Namiashi Raido's voice brings him slightly out of his stupor, and only then he recognizes the two chunin on gate duty for that day.

"Raido, Ibiki." He manages to choke out, feeling just as awful as he sounds. "We need- there's-"

"We need to report to the Hokage. Now." Gai surprises everyone with his hard expression and rage-filled voice, taking charge of the situation with tightly clenched fists. Genma thinks he sees blood seeping out from the bandages, but now is not the time to think about them.

Raido looks like he might protest, but Ibiki takes one second to evaluate the state they're in and the fact that Chiyuki is most definitely not with them, and nods.

"Go."

Neither of the boys of Team Chiyuki needs to be told twice. They sprint to the Hokage Tower, taking to the rooftops to avoid the slowly awakening streets of Konoha. A few shinobi look at them confusedly, and one of them actually attempts to stop them.

"You can't just see the Hokage whenever you want-"

"Chiyuki is gone!" Gai explodes, and Genma has never seen anything like it in his short fourteen years of life. If he weren't just as desperate, he might've attempted to calm the boy down. "Chiyuki is gone, and if she dies, it'll be on you-"

The door to the Hokage's office bursts open, nearly falling off its hinges. Senju Tsunade looks like the eye of the storm, chakra rippling and crackling around her in dangerous waves. Honey-colored eyes, which have looked at her teacher's daughter with so much fondness one time, are now flaming with barely-contained rage, and Genma wishes she'd punch the jounin that tried to stop them.

Behind her, Uchiha Fugaku stands behind his desk, chair thrown to the floor. He's already barking out orders to a couple of ANBU inside his office, who leave as soon as he's closed his mouth.

"Get in here, and explain." Tsunade barks out, and with a promise to break the jounin's fingers very slowly the next time she sees him, she slams the abused doors closed as soon as the boys of Team Chiyuki are inside the Hokage's office.

Chiyuki had said that Tsunade was adamant in changing the favoritism that ran rampant, and if the bile wasn't threatening to burn his body from the inside out, Genma might've even made a joke.

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As soon as I realize that I'm waking up in a foreign environment, I force my breathing to remain deep and calm. The floor isn't terribly cold, but there's something itchy scratching on my face and it takes everything in me to keep immobile. My hands and feet are tied, and as I breathe, I realize there's tape in my mouth as well.

"Sit up." What I barely recognize as Nagato's voice strikes through my still foggy brain and I curse internally.

'Fucking ridiculously overpowered rinnegan, what the hell is up with it, anyway?!'

Knowing better than to disobey or try to pretend I'm still asleep, I slowly sit up and open my eyes.

Rain is pouring outside, and I even hear some thunder every now and then. A flash of lighting illuminates the room: a hideout made out of stone, dark and a tad bit damp. It seems like a cave of some sort, and it's bare of any furniture except the threadbare futon I was put in.

Someone lights up an oil lamp, and my eyes struggle to adjust to the low lighting. Konan is the first to approach me, giving me a warning glance before she takes the tape out of my mouth.

'Do they think I'm stupid enough to yell or try to escape? Please.'

As I blink my eyes and become able to make out their features, my eyes widen in recognition.

There, in all their flesh and glory, are Konan, Nagato, and Yahiko, faces young but grim. They should be around Tooru's age, which would make them 19 year olds or so.

'Not quite teenagers, but not quite adults yet.'

"You seem to recognize us." Yahiko almost spits at me, not bothering to hide his suspicion. His orange hair looks a bit misplaced in a face that doesn't have the rinnegan, but I shake the image aside.

'Children, just children caught up in a war the adults caused. Children who had no one to rely on but themselves. Children who just wanted the fighting to stop.'

"I know about you. From Jiraya." My voice cracks from disuse, and only then I realize I haven't drunk anything since we set up camp, in what seems like so long ago.

So Jiraya had never told me explicitly about the Ame orphans - hell, I'm pretty sure only my father and his teammates are supposed to know about this, but it's not a lie.

It might not be the entire truth, but it's not a lie, either.

"Who?" Yahiko squints his eyes at me suspiciously, and not for the first time I feel like I'm walking on thin ice.

"Jiraya was my father's student." I shrug, floundering a bit. "I mean, he's still alive, but he's not my father's student anymore."

The tiniest corner of Konan's mouth twitches, and my face warms up in embarrassment.

"You're honest." She mumbles, and she looks at me as if she's expected otherwise.

"It's not in my best interest to lie. I wouldn't be able to keep up with it, and you'd know immediately if I was." I shrug again, shifting uncomfortably.

"Alright, fine. So Jiraya-sen- Jiraya." It's Yahiko who flounders a bit this time, and the man coughs slightly from Nagato's judging gaze.

"We know who you are, and what your connection to Jiraya is." Konan smoothly takes over, voice low and calm like a lullaby. I nod, having already expected as much. "Where is he?"

I shrug again, involuntarily remembering the last time I'd seen him. A bitter taste spreads in my mouth, which shows me that I'm clearly not over what he's done. "I don't know." I reply honestly, regardless.

The three adults glance at each other, no doubt trying to interpret my reaction correctly.

"You sound like you could care less." Yahiko states, crossing his arms in front of his chest. There's a hint of judgment in his voice, and if he's taken offense to how I reacted.

I smile bitterly and look into his eyes, unafraid for the first time since they showed up.

"Jiraya once left me to a fate worse than death." I reply, sounding just as bitter as I feel. "So, yeah, forgive me if he's not exactly my favorite person." Against my will, memories of my team's near death experience and the fight against Orochimaru flash in my mind, and I shudder lightly at the idea of what might have happened to me.

At best, death. At worst, a miserable life of drifting in and out of consciousness between cruel experiments.

The hideout drowns in silence as Konan and Yahiko glance at Nagato, presumably for confirmation. The red hair nods once, and the three look as if they're planning their next step.

'Huh. So the rinnegan can detect lies as well? How handy.' I think, a bit detachedly. My arms and hands have gone numb, and after an eventful day and a restless sleep, exhaustion finally wraps over me now that I know I'm not in immediate danger of being killed.

Footsteps sound behind the three shinobi standing in front of me, and wordlessly they decide Nagato will be the one to stay and keep watch. Yahiko and Konan leave the hideout, voices murmuring indistinctly behind the door.

'What, do they think an exhausted chunin will attempt to escape when she's not even sure where she's at? Surrounded by powerful enemy shinobi?' I almost roll my eyes.

I glance at Nagato, who clearly has no intention of continuing their interrogation by himself, and shrug internally. Lying down on the threadbare futon I was put in, I turn my back to the rinnegan user and close my eyes, hoping that the pitter-patter of the rain outside helps me sleep, if just for a little bit.

Just before I drift off to a restless sleep, I briefly think about Gai and Genma, and pray to whatever god is out there that they're okay.

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Three days pass, and the Ame orphans surprise me more and more often with each passing day.

The day after my kidnapping dawns lazily, the rain falling softly outside the hideout. The one watching over me is no longer Nagato, but Konan, who brings me a wet towel and some thin porridge. The woman stares at me for a second, before she comes to the conclusion that I'm not stupid enough to try anything, and frees my hands with only a stern glance.

I wipe my face clean, trying not to think about whether the towel is relatively clean or not, and eat the porridge like I've gone a month without eating. I'm also given a cup of water, which I drink in seconds.

"Thank you." Her orange eyes widen the slightest bit, probably not expecting me to thank them, of all things.

'Well, they could treat me a lot worse than they do, so the least I can do is be polite.'

Still as silent as a grave, the kunoichi gathers all the things in her arms and leaves, just in time for Nagato to come back.

Perhaps he's been designated as the main babysitter.

The red haired man approaches me and frees my hands and feet, then he takes my forearms from the long sleeves and seals my chakra, effectively cutting off any and all chances of me escaping.

'Not that I'd planned on it in the first place, but I almost prefer the physical binds. At least then I could still sense people's iron humming.'

It's incredibly disconcerting to not be able to sense the way someone's iron runs through their bloodstream, the sensation foreign and similar to losing one of your senses. Hell, maybe Nagato knew somehow and that's why he decided to seal my chakra?

After he deems his work done, he glances very briefly at the seal on my forehead, but wordlessly goes back to sitting against the opposite wall.

On the second day, my designated babysitter is Yahiko, and he definitely isn't happy about it. Still, like Konan had done, he brings me a wet towel and thin porridge. Just like with Konan, I thank him too, and he just looks at me with the oddest look in his eyes.

At some point between the second and third day, the blue haired woman comes to fetch me, looking tired and worn out, but apparently unharmed. She relieves the orange-head from his babysitting duties and asks me if I'd like to wash up, after a nanosecond of hesitation.

"Yes, please." I nod, making sure to still be polite and obvious in my actions. The kunoichi puts a blindfold over my eyes and silently grabs my wrist, guiding me outside the room for the first time in days. Naturally, I don't see anything, but from the way that the air feels slightly stale and moist, I'd say we're in some sort of cave system in the outskirts of Ame, with the way the sound of rain hasn't stopped for a single minute.

We arrive at a room that's definitely more humid than the one I'm in, the slight smell of mold entering my nostrils. I'm not allowed to remove the blindfold, but Konan gently guides me to a tub filled with cold water. I feel more than I hear her leave me be, and I silently remove my clothes before quickly washing my body, feeling better instantly even if the water is nearly ice cold.

I hear low splashing in front of me, and an odd sense of camaraderie and gratefulness overcomes me. Perhaps Konan had sensed how gross I was starting to feel, or maybe it was just a moment of relating to keeping minimal hygiene even during a shinobi war. Either way, whatever it was that made her bring me here, I was thankful nonetheless.

She hands me a thin towel when I'm done, and I quickly dry myself off before putting my clothes back on. They were still dirty and sweaty from being worn for days on end, but being able to wash myself is enough to make me feel a lot better, and realize that they really aren't bad people at all.

"Thank you." I say to her once we're back, and she nods at me before Nagato takes over babysitting duties once again.

On the third day, I take a gamble.

I figure my polite and demure behavior have earned me at least a few points in their books, and turn to Konan once it's her turn to watch over me.

"Uh, excuse me." Her orange eyes meet mine, and not for the first time I'm amazed at her beauty. Not conventional by Konoha standards, no, but maybe that's why she seems so attractive to me. Her silent confidence, the way she stands tall next to Yahiko and Nagato, her piercing gaze and unusual-colored hair, it all appeals greatly to me.

'Careful, there. Your bisexual is showing.'

"May I ask why exactly I'm here?" I ask quietly, trying my best to not shatter this delicate sort of respect we have going on.

I suspect it's got something to do with Hanzo, who probably hasn't been able to get in contact with Konoha behind the scenes ever since Danzo got killed. With ROOT and Orochimaru gone, the village has lost a lot of its heavy-hitters, yes, but it also meant a lot of the corruption schemes have gone down the drain.

A long silence follows my question, and I bravely resist the urge to fidget under her intense gaze. Finally, until I'm about to give in and shift uncomfortably, she asks me something in return.

"What do you know about Hanzo the Salamander?" I tilt my head, mulling the question over in my head. Even though I was right and it does have something to do with Ame's current leader, I'm still not quite sure what that's got to do with me.

"I don't know much about him, honestly. I know he's Ame's current leader, and I do know that he and an elder from Konoha had been scheming something behind the scenes, but that's about it." I look into her sunset-colored eyes the entire time, continuing to be as honest as I possibly can.

If I want to get out of this in one piece, lying to their face certainly isn't gonna help, not to mention it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

(I choose to keep quiet about knowing exactly what kind of scheme they'd been on, figuring it'd be good to have at least one card up my sleeve.)

"That elder is dead." It's a statement that feels a little bit like a question, like she wants to confirm the info they have with what happened exactly.

I flinch slightly, remembering all the shit that went down-

-the kunai reflecting the moonlight-

-the crazed look in my aunt's eyes-

-the pain, the grief, the fear-

"Yes." I reply. "He's dead."

Konan thankfully doesn't mention the pause or the slight tremble in my voice, and once again I find myself being grateful. She merely nods, and after a second of consideration, gracefully gets up and leaves the room, not without leaving a small paper frog to watch over me.

A sudden exhaustion settles into my bones and drags me down with it, and I drag a hand down my face as the other one grips the necklace Tsunade gave me.

'Danzo is dead. My aunt is dead. ROOT has been disbanded, and Orochimaru has fled the village. No one there can hurt me again. No one. No one. No-'

The door opens again not a minute later, and this time it's Nagato who steps inside. He seems to be their unofficial second-in-command, even though the three of them seem to be very chill in regards to who makes the official decisions.

"You want to know why you're here." He says as a matter of greeting, leaving some space between us as he sits down in front of me.

In the short time I've been here, I've learned that the rinnegan user is often blunt and rispid in his way of speaking, but that doesn't mean he's unkind. It's made some of my initial fear go away, but I know I'll never be 100% safe unless there's someone trustworthy next to me.

Still, none of them have been openly hostile to me, no one but Konan has touched me (and that was one time), and I've been given food and the opportunity to wash myself.

'In the end, they really are good people, huh.'

I nod just as a ridiculous idea forms in my head.

'If the rinnegan is able to tell what's true and what's not, and if their goal ultimately aligns with ours-'

"What do you know about Shimura Danzo?"

I close my eyes tightly, both to keep the images of that night away and to yell at myself, wondering if I'm really doing this.

'Have I finally gone crazy?'

I open my eyes and glance at Nagato, who keeps staring at me impassively.

'I can't believe I'm about to do this. Holy crap.'

"Can you please make sure no one is listening in?" The red-hair blinks at my request but nods either way, humoring me. I have no other way but to trust him.

"Before I tell you that, I have to explain something else." Taking a deep breath in, I steel my nerves and look straight into the swirling pools of the rinnegan.

'Gods, please don't let me fail here. There's too much at stake.'

"Before I was Chiyuki, I was someone else."

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