An inky blackness was draped over her mind. Her thoughts were hazy, her sight distorted, diluted, unseeing.
Her mouth was dry, as if filled with ash, tendrils of shadow shifted in her sight as she struggled to pierce their blackened veil to see the world around her, but her success was a small one, merely catching a brief flicker of brown drapes hanging on the ceiling, illuminated by firelight before the world darkened again.
A voice, distant, childlike pierced the veil then, words melded together to form an incomprehensible gurgle in her ears.
She felt something, a warm hand over her head, the sensation being the only thing she could cling to, the only thing her mind was aware of. But soon even that warm comfort was gone and the cold grip of sleep seemed to creep back up to claim her.
It was later when she felt a small repeated pressure at her ribs, the slight nudges jostling her from one side to the other, feeling a small groan of pain escape her throat as the voice, one she knew to be a child, spoke. It was so distant but yet so close, the words were once again distorted and incomprehensible leaving the young woman grasping feebly at them before she succumbed.
Zhuge Liang stood behind his desk. A report from his Anbu captain held loosely, almost dazedly in his hand as his eyes ghosted over a single fragment of a sentence over and over again.
'-now believed to have died from drowning.'
The Anbu captain shifted uneasily from foot to foot watching as Liang's jaw twitched and clenched, his jaw line tightening as his fingers rubbed tensely over the paper.
"Leave." Was the single tight word that escaped the Raikage's lips and the captain was more than happy to oblige, bowing hastily he vanished before he was even upright.
Liang stared at the paper, his body tensing more and more with every passing second, winding itself tight as the veteran Shinobi tried to control himself, to take his emotions and bury them under the layers of ice that had long been in the making throughout the course of his life, to smother them in the biting cold of it and remain true to the Shinobi code that had been indoctrinated into his system since before he had even made his first kill.
But it was to no avail and in a display of rage rarely seen by the Raikage he flung the paper to the side and punched down on his desk with enough force to break the wooden furniture in two, its legs buckling as the papers and files that had been neatly organized on top of it drifted lazily down to the ground, having been jostled from their place. The strength seemed to leave Liang then as he collapsed back onto his chair, closing his eyes and this time he was able to reign in his anger. A lesser man may have destroyed the entire office rather than just a single desk, as it stood his breathing was heavy, his hands clenched, tightening on the armrests of his chair until the blood seemed to drain from his fingertips due to the force of his grip.
He realized with some...detachment that he was very glad Tsunade was still in the hospital because at the moment. He wasn't sure he would be able to deal with the questions and accusations with a clear head, and he knew they would be coming.
But apparently fate had denied him this brief time to fully gather himself and his thoughts as another woman entered the room, one that would prove to be far more troublesome, yet for slightly different reasons.
He let his head fall back, resting against the soft leather of his chair as his dark brown eyes took in the appearance of his wife. An images, that would normally calm his spirit and bring a smile, however slight, to his face, but now, with what he knew was going to be brought, her image wrought only a magnification to the weariness that shrouded him as well as a sharp, almost physically painful stab of what could only be described as guilt piercing his chest.
Guilt over what however, he did not know.
Guilt due to Akina's death? Perhaps.
Guilt due to the fact that he had hidden so many things...from her, and everyone. Or perhaps it was the guilt due to the knowledge that the deaths of so many people had come to pass, for a cause that now seemed nearly as lost as their lives were. With Akina's death...he just wasn't sure if they could win any more. The Kazekage was strong true, Yugito was strong as well...but he had been riding everything on Akina, on the hope that she could one day become strong enough, to stand toe to toe against Naruto with another Jinchuriki at her side, wether that would be Gaara or Yugito it did not matter. She would need their help true, but she was the catalyst of his plans.
And now...she was dead.
And he had sacrificed so many so, much life...for nothing.
Yes. He could safely say that guilt was the emotion that was piercing his heart right now.
Yue Ying looked at him, her soft brown eyes striking deep. His head was slightly bowed, his temple resting against a closed fist, her rust red hair fanning out behind her, trailing down to her waist. The light of the sun shined against it, making seem like a crowning halo.
When she spoke her voice was tired, holding something akin to resignation. "Do you have anything to say?"
Liang took a deep breath as he sighed. "Does it truly look like I planned for this?" He questioned back gesturing to the broken desk.
"Did you?" She shot back, now glaring at him, her voice gaining a very dangerous edge. Liang stood up from his chair, the simmering anger returning as he began to make his way out the door, only for Ying to latch onto his wrist with a firm grip stopping him before he could leave.
"Zhuge Liang...did you have anything to do with what happened to her?"
There was a silence that seemed to suffocate the entire room. It was heavy, stifling; as a myriad of thoughts and emotions passed through Liang's eyes before he finally turned to face his wife. "She was not supposed to die."
Ying reeled from the words as if she'd been physically struck, her eyes widening. She pulled back her hand as if it was scalded by his touch, backing away several steps. "You were behind this."
"No." He spoke firmly as he turned to face her fully. "No. It was never supposed to be like this, she was never supposed to die."
"What...what could you have possibly wanted to accomplish with this?" She questioned shaking her head in disbelief. "What were you trying-"
"I was trying to let her go." He snapped before visibly sagging with a heavy sigh rubbing the bridge of his nose looking to his wife's suspicious gaze before he continued. "She couldn't remain here in the state she was in. She would have been driven mad and been a danger to both herself and others. I wanted to simply let her go, gather herself for a while then later I would bring her back."
Ying's eyes held him with wariness, refusing to believe her husband would lie to her but not discounting the possibility either. "If you wanted to let her go then why not simply do it? Why have her pursued by your Anbu to the point where she preferred death over returning here?"
"You know what a dangerous precedent that would set. With us at war I cannot simply...allow a ninja to just leave the village with no knowledge of when or if she would return with my blessings. You know better than anyone the damage such blatant favoritism would cause. The Anbu would understand if explained, but younger, less experienced ninja would certainly not. Defections and desertions would be on the rise and even with our full strength with Akina in our ranks winning this war was always at best a 50/50 shot" The raven haired man explained as calmly as he could given the circumstances. Still, Ying looked away refusing to meet his eyes. She wanted to believe his words, she truly did, but if he was willing to do this, to betray Akina, a girl he had been closer to than anybody else other than her and Yugito in years then...she just wasn't so sure he wasn't willing to do the same with her anymore.
Zhuge Lian's previous dispassionate countenance melted away as he felt the sting of rejection from his wife's visible suspicion of him. He stepped forward slowly, raising the back of his hand to caress her cheek bringing her eyes up to meet his own. "Ying." He whispered raising his other hand to caress the opposite cheek as he let his head tip forward, his forehead resting on her crown as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "You know I would never lie to you."
"Do I?" She questioned softly her hands gripping the front of his clothing, pulling him closer towards her as a few faint tears stung at the corner of her eyes. "Do I really Liang? If you're-"
"Naruto must be stopped. You know that." He cut her off as gently as he could.
"At what cost?" She questioned pulling away from him, staring into his eyes with a strange form of pleading.
Zhuge Liang gripped her hand in his. "Any that I can give." He said softly before continuing in a stronger tone. "Naruto must be stopped and if I have to be remembered solely as a tyrant in history to do so I will do it. But please..." He said, his voice slightly thicker with emotion as he stared deep into her eyes. "I need you by my side. I cannot do this without you Ying."
She looked at him then, not with just her eyes, she truly looked at him, piercing the veil he shielded himself with from the world and slowly leaned into him, accepting his embrace as she clutched the hem of his robes. "I will always stand by you Zhuge Liang." She whispered, ignoring the sting of tears as they trailed down her cheeks.
The sleeping dragon sighed in relief, hugging her tight as he kissed the crown of her long rust red hair. "My Ying. My Yue Ying." Yes...she was his Yue Ying, and though he may not admit it often, he knew, that if he needed to sacrifice her love to win this war, even he could not pay so high a cost. Because truly, though he claimed her to be his it was he that belonged to her.
Naruto sat in his office a file held in his hand as he stared at the chuunin messenger, the man shifting uneasily from foot to foot as Naruto's sharp blue eyes glared into his own. "You are certain this report is accurate."
The chuunin nodded hastily. "Yes sir. Our spies in Kumo have confirmed it through several highly reliable sources." Though his voice was as sure as possible the slight tremor in it told Naruto quite clearly of the mans unease at being in this office with him.
Naruto's eyes trailed back down to the file. "You may leave." He said with a wave of his hand and the young messenger was quite happy to follow said orders as he quickly bowed, turned and practically ran from the room.
Naruto slowly laid the files down on his desk the papers shifting a bit with the momentum of their fall. He stood, his robes fluttering in the afternoon breeze as he made his way to the balcony, watching as the orange hued sun began its slow decent beneath the horizon.
'So...you have taken your own life then dear sister. Or perhaps...a ploy, by Zhuge Liang...no, no. Not this time. No, you yet live. If nothing else I know this to be true. What shall you do now I wonder, my foolish sibling. Will you fight the world? Vanish from it? Or perhaps there is yet a part of your hatred...that remains...'
So deep in his contemplation was the Kage, that he barely caught the sound of his door creaking open. Turning his head slightly to the side he saw his secretary Suzume enter the office, in her hands were a stack of files which she hefted onto his desk with a grunt. "Reports from the front Hokage-sama." She sighed as she wiped some sweat off her brow.
Naruto walked back into the office his hands ghosting over the reports before he opened the first one and began trailing his eyes over it. Suzume watched him work with his near mechanical efficiency, making no show of taking a short break after her long walk up those stairs with all those reports. You'd think that with all their advancements in Ninjutsu they would think of an easier way for people to get all the way up here, maybe some kind of box that brought people up with pulleys...hmmm...now there was an interesting concept.
Suzume shook her head away from those daydreams. Unlike most ninja of the village she had to speak and interact with Naruto on a near day to day basis, much of her initial fear had dissipated within the first year. Oh sure she knew he could tear her apart with his bare hands if he really wanted to but because she had proven to be a little too good at her current job many of her transfer requests had been denied and she wasn't quite willing to test her luck on failing Naruto too many times. He may very well kill her rather than simply get her transferred in exchange for a new secretary.
So being figuratively 'stuck' in this position (that paid quite well) she had decided that living in a work environment of constant fear wasn't necessarily healthy. And so had been working on shedding some of that fear for a long time, and had proven to be mostly successful at it which meant that she allowed herself to teeter over the proverbial edge that was Naruto's temper more than most would ever dream.
So it was with little to no hesitation that she peered over his desk catching sight of the file already laid out there. "What's this one about?" She questioned reaching down for it and picking it up. She only caught a brief glimpse of a few lines before the paper was snatched out of her hand. "Hey!" She cried out in protest and surprise as Naruto snapped the file shut. "This is not for your eyes." He said in that same flat tone before he walked towards one of the many file cabinets and stuffed it in.
"Jeeze you coulda just said 'put that down' rather than snatch it out of my hand." She grumbled to herself but stopped when she caught sight of him staring at her with that look that almost always meant something akin to 'I suggest you find somewhere else to be.'
Still she decided to test her luck out a bit more this day. "I saw female and 'presumed dead.' I assume its some kind of Nuke-nin or some high ranking enemy kunoichi right?"
"What does it matter to you?" Naruto questioned as he walked back and began to read through the reports again.
She shrugged. "It doesn't I suppose what with her dead and all."
"She's not dead." Naruto spoke.
"Huh?" Suzume questioned with a confused air. "How do you kno-"
"Because I haven't killed her yet." Naruto interrupted her already having known her question.
Suzume took that as her cue to leave. "Right. Well I still have work to do. Good evening Hokage-sama." She said with a quick bow.
Naruto nodded not even turning to face her as he heard the door close behind him.