Solitude

Chapter Twenty Two: Life

❝You try to find the meaning in death... But there's only pain and hatred that you don't know what to do with.❞ ㅡ Konan

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CHAPTER TWENTY TWO:

LIFE

                           An hour before the girl was murdered in cold blood, Rei was standing in the middle of a clearing. With keen eyes, she observed the situation before her and tried to push the whirlwind of questions to the back of her mind or else she was certain she would lose it. In addition, there were more important issues at the moment: like the life-or-death situation in which Temari had been thrown without a warning.

There was a grin on her face as Tora stared down at her victim, who remained unmoving under her foot, helplessly lying on the crater the woman had created on the ground, merely to make her unexpected appearance more dramatic.

"Who are you?"

Tora silenced the blonde by pressing her foot harder against her throat.

"Ah, ah. I would think twice before wasting the small amount of air you have left," the woman sang in a voice that would put her into a mental hospital were it to be heard anywhere else. "Rei, what will it —"

Her words died in her throat as a wall of wind was shot her way, effectively throwing her away from Temari and putting quite the distance between them. As she turned to look at Rei in mild-interest, she was surprised to see her already forming signs with her hands.

Wind Style: Arms of Wind.

The breeze seemed to stop for a fleeting moment, only to start wrapping around her extended arms. Soon, a couple of gales emerged from the girl — the wind blew so hastily it could have blended with her skin. Before either of them could react, Rei directed them towards both women.

However, each of them had different purposes.

As Temari was taken within the whirlwind and away from the clearing, the other was being deflected by Tora. Frowning at the sight, Rei mentally apologized and dropped her childhood friend in the middle of the woods before retracting her arm to attack her former sensei with a solider cyclone.

A grunt was heard, a few trees were cut from their holds in the ground. Branches were tore apart, part of the grass was ripped from the ground and dirt mingled with the air.

Sweat began rolling down her forehead, her hair glued to the back of her neck as she strained herself to take the powerful woman off the ground. But Tora was strong, way more experienced than a genin — no matter how extraordinary she could be — and kept the wind at bay with a single hand.

So Rei changed its trajectory, stopped pushing her to swallow her into the whirlwind. Some days ago, she would have not dared to try such things — controlling the wind as she pleased, that's it. However, she finally could say she had had a good teacher — even if it had been only for a night.

Her feet left the safety of the ground as Tora was caught off guard and absorbed within the hurricane, only to cross the clearing and be smashed into it some feet away from where Rei was standing.

However, the girl had no time to feel satisfied.

"That was cute," Tora remarked as she brushed the dirt off her clothes. "But this ends here."

The air stopped filling her lungs, and Rei clasped a hand around her suddenly-dried throat. Her knees bulged as the strength abandoned her body, her eyes watered as black dots appeared before them due to the lack of oxygen. Something was pressing around her; invisible walls were closing in on her to keep her still, unable to move a single finger.

Feet greeted her blurry vision, and a sigh was heard before the spell was lifted and she gasped.

"I really am trying not to kill you," Tora confessed as the girl coughed and lifted her head to stare into her merciless gaze. "Fear not, I will. But you are going to hear some truth about you, about me. I'm going to make sure you suffer until your very end, to let you know how much this world despises your sole existence — just as I do."

"You were my mission, did you know? Ah, of course you wouldn't. Because you care too much for your pathetic friends to see what's really after you. You try so hard to hide it, but I see right through you. Do you remember when we met? I was honestly pleased with your attitude; so... detached. But then, those shinobi from Suna turned up and everything interesting — your potentiality — crumbled at your feet." Tora shook her head, as if disappointed. "Such a waste. I warned the elders, but they didn't give a rat's ass. Still feared you; what you could become. Those bastards could not forget about the plan, would not let you slip away from their reach and fall into the hands of another."

"I tried to follow their orders, but in the end, they were just as annoying as you are. So I killed them," she admitted, shrugging as she did. "Now that I think of it, I have basically murdered your entire family."

Rei froze. "What?"

Tora laughed, looking extremely amused by the fact. "Oh, that's right. They were what were left from your true family, the Jiyūna — you already know that, somehow. But did you know I killed mommy and daddy as well?"

The girl felt like throwing up — she had stopped trying to process her words long ago, still heard them nonetheless. She stared at the woman in utter astonishment; part of her kept telling her not to believe her, even though she was certain everything which was being revealed was true.

And suddenly, Tora snarled. Her features hardened, her eyes narrowed into slits.

"Your mother — she looked so betrayed when I murdered her. Didn't expect to be back-stabbed by her younger sister." Tora smiled and added in a sickly-sweet voice, "Say hi to auntie Suzume. Then your father fled and married that woman from Suna to hide you from us, and consequently the elders blamed your disappearance on me. Damn the Kazekage for helping that bastard."

No tears fell from her eyes when Rei stood up, shocking the woman to the core. Her emotions were boiling through her veins, catching her insides on fire as they fought against one another to prevail over the rest.

...when I murdered her.

"Why did you—why in the world did you kill her?!"

Her voice was broken, and when she raised her head to look into the gaze of the reason behind her misery, her eyes were blank, as if her feelings had repentantly destroyed each other and left a void behind.

But before she could receive an answer, a blur of white paper whisked the girl away.

Tora—Suzume was left staring at the spot on which she had been standing, eyes furrowed into a deadly glare as she clenched her hands into fists.

I should have known that you'd be the one behind this, Konan.