Stumble [Rewrite]

Hollow

Ibiki came to the office early to review some files to send to the Hokage when he saw a little girl sitting on the couch. Her hands and clothes were dusted with soot, and a pile of ragged books and unsharpened weapons by her feet. Dirtied bangs covered the front of her face; the bandages on knuckles ripped, revealing scars caked in dried blood.

"Sakura?"

"Ibiki-san," she returned quietly. The tone in her voice was that of defeat, like when one gave up on life or was swimming in guilt about what they'd done. He took a seat beside her. There had been news of a fire around the civilian district, as he saw a brief overview of the incident in the morning newspaper. The street names he couldn't remember, but he felt a sense of familiarity behind them.

Now he knew why.

"You weren't home last night?" he asked. Sakura shook her head.

"I was out. I didn't know," she murmured. "I should've stayed home. I could've helped. They would've been alive."

"The building wasn't inspected properly, Sakura. There was faulty electric wiring and the heating units malfunctioned in the middle of the night. You couldn't have known about it. And if you stayed, you properly would've been caught in it too," Ibiki said.

"As long as they would've been fine."

"Just your parents?"

"All of them."

Ibiki's eyes moved to her. Her stare was glued to her lap and aside from her mouth, was completely unmoving. She was truly a child undeserving of what fate had in store for her.

"Do you have anywhere to go?"

She shook her head again. Ibiki stood first, then bent over to pick up her books. He took her book bag and other weapons, slinging the former over his shoulder. Sakura finally looked up, confusion wholly apparent in her forlorn eyes.

"Ibiki-san?"

"Come on."

The streets were still kind of empty this early in the morning giving the perfect atmosphere for Ibiki to guide her down the road. It was silent as the two didn't speak a word to each other, but is was expected. Both had lost their only family members in the past day or so, leaving them alone with only them, he noted with distaste. At least he was old enough to understand and deal with his emotions, but Sakura? She was eight.

They entered one of the many residential shinobi districts spotted around the village. Sakura, despite churning in her overwhelming guilt, couldn't help but eye the one story house they approached. She knew nothing about his home life or what he did outside of his job and was actually surprised at what she was seeing.

When they entered, it was as sparsely decorated as she expected. No clutter and absolutely no dust to be found. He opened one of the doors down the hallway and set her things down on top of the metal desk beside the door.

"I know it isn't much, but you can change it as much as you'd like later on," he said. "I have some errands to run, but I'll be back soon."

He turned to leave.

"Ibiki-san."

He stopped.

"... Thank you."

He continued walking.

"Make yourself at home, kid."

Sakura sat at the edge of the bed, looking around the room. It was much larger than her last one with a bigger bed, bigger closet, and bigger windows that let her see the few flowers that grew on the ground outside. She appreciated everything Ibiki did, but going as far as giving her a place to stay was something she didn't account for.