Fate Wheel | Naruto

𝟗𝟎| "Dinners and assassinations"

CHAPTER 90 — DINNERS AND ASSASSINATIONS
══════════════════

PRESENT DAY- DAWNS POV

I killed people and enjoyed it.

A sudden high filled with blank memories and loss of humanity, spaces instantly full to the brim with thoughts of destruction and chaos, an ocean of sanguine thirst and carelessness.

I didn't care that the people I killed for bounty and exchange had families waiting for them to come home. I didn't care that I mindlessly slaughtered individuals and regarded them as casualties simply because they hindered the flow of my missions. I didn't care that my hands were equally as stained as no other- making me no better than the people who once spun the strings that controlled my puppet arms and created a pawn out of me. I didn't care at all.

And when that high descended from its spontaneous outbursts and the ocean was no longer painted red and the feeling returned back to my fingertips and my limbs were no longer numbed— I felt. I felt and I hated it more than anything in the world. After all, when you feel the weight of everything, you waver under its pressure until it crushed you to pieces.

I refused to look over my shoulder once again and I refused to tune into my surroundings and hear the sounds of water at the rear of the canyon or the screams of the rogues that incessantly rung in my ears. The more I felt, the more this mission would be harder for me to complete.

If my emotions didn't hinder the outcome, my impulsivity would. Maybe I should've let that arrow hit Ino.

"What the hell was that?" Naruto stormed up to me after I released the dome and despite the pure anger that contorted his features, he still cradled my arm with a foreign gentleness that made the furrows on my forehead soften. "The arrow hit your arm- where's the arrow?"

"I pulled it out." I said, shrugging his grip away and tightened the hems of my cloak. "It's no big deal."

"It's no big deal." He repeated, forcing out a harsh chuckle as his eyes met mine. "Of course, nothing is ever a 'big deal' for you anymore but it sure as hell is for me. I care about you! And I'll be damned if I let you walk around with a bleeding hole in your arm."

I stared back at him with equal exertion, refusing to show him that the wound stung like a bitch and that I still felt. It didn't concern him, it shouldn't, not anymore, and the sooner he realised that the better. It would be unwise of me to fully brush away his futile attempts of comfort, as much as I wanted him away I still needed him.

"Even if Lady Tsunade made you captain, we're still a team. Meaning that you can't make decisions based on a whim, you have to inform and compromise." I looked over at Shikamaru, his narrowed eyes also staring daggers at me which was something he seemed to be doing majority of the time. "I don't care if you're used to working by yourself, you're not by yourself. You have us."

His words made my lips quirk up and a chuckle escape my mouth. I forgot how teamwork-oriented he was, Shikamaru had been quite persistent in working together during our training days in the office. A shadow that always overlooked my shoulder, or more appropriately, a nuisance. It made sense considering he was a Nara, the Naras had a knack to lurk in the shadows and stick their noses into situations that didn't concern them.