desolate minds

viii. dying to be unbroken

For a typical jōnin, the trip to Konoha from Suna would only take three days (accounting the hours used to rest and camp for the night). Due to the majority of us being Academy students, we were all reduced to civilian speed. Thus, this was going to take a lot longer than three days.

'No wonder we had to leave so early...' I inwardly grumbled to myself, already sick of walking. It had only been three hours and I was absolutely done with this civilian speed shit. I'd never tried to ninja-run before, but I was willing to try anything if it meant we'd get to Konoha faster.

My grumpiness must have been apparent on my face, because it caught the attention of another student walking beside me. It was a boy from a year above mine, seeing as he looked older than Jin and I. He was practically a whole head taller than me, with short black hair and light pink eyes.

He stared at me unabashedly, but I couldn't find it in myself to say anything. I— I was blushing. This guy (probably ten or eleven-years-old) was so pretty. He had long eyelashes, and smooth pale skin. His black hair curled slightly at the tips, giving it a wavy look.

"Um... I—" I began to blubber out, for some ungodly reason.

The boy blinked slowly, his eyebrows raising a bit in question before a smirk settled on his face. It was clear to me that he was amused.

"I'm Toshiki Dāku."

His voice came as a surprise. I expected him to sound more loud and confident. Instead, his voice was very mellow and calm.

"K-Kyojin," I stuttered quickly before facing forward immediately after. Toshiki snorted quietly to himself, making me huff a little.

'I feel like I'm the awkward kid in high school all over again.'

"Is this your first time outside of the village?" Toshiki asked, sounding genuinely curious. My mind immediately went to that quiet oasis Sasori had taken me to once upon a time.

"...Sorta," I ended up saying as I shrugged my shoulders. It wasn't exactly inside the village, but it wasn't extremely far from it either.

Toshiki supplied a toneless grunt as he nodded his head in acceptance of my answer. I thought the conversation was over, but then he quietly spoke up once again. "It isn't mine either. I've left the village a few times to visit family."

"Family...? Aren't you from a clan?" The name Dāku was somewhat familiar to me, having heard it more than a few times while walking through the village. The Dāku clan was just one of many to be tossed around within village gossip.

Toshiki nodded "Yes, but our clan reaches far and wide. Our members are not restricted to just live in one place. Not the civilians anyway."

"Interesting..." I mumbled, "Why did you bring it up? Going outside the village, I mean."

"Just because it seems like you've never left it before. I was going to try and comfort you, but..." He paused and looked forward, "I don't know how."

There was a moment of shocked silence between us before I had to muffle a laugh into my hand. This guy was definitely not what I pegged him to be. I grinned, covering up my laughter with a few coughs.

Toshiki eyed me oddly. "Are you okay? That was...sudden."

"Sorry, I just— I was really intimidated by you before, but now I realize you're pretty normal for a kid."

His eyebrows furrowed. "I'm older than you."

I snorted. "Right."

If Murai ever met Toshiki and found out that he wasn't really this "cool aloof" guy, he'd have a field day teasing him. That would certainly take the pinkette's attention off of me... Maybe... Probably not, but it would still be fun to see.