Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Caught ❯ In Which, Kohona Begins a New Day ( Chapter 3 )

6:32 a.m

It had been so long. Too long actually. Women really were the loveliest things alive.

Perhaps it was because she didn’t pull away was why Ibiki was affected so deeply.

The feel of her over his shoulder, the feminine smell of her sent his senses reeling. She was light as a feather, and it wasn’t a surprise.

She was in no way shape or form ‘fragile’ (the beating she took earlier proved this fact), yet there was something…

Something Ibiki couldn’t quite put his finger on. Despite delving into the darkest parts of the human mind, he couldn’t quite place what he saw because of the short amount of time he had been with her.

Usually within the first few minutes of meeting someone, he would be able to tell almost everything about them.

It wasn’t so much as he went solely on first impression, but he would have at least had a faint idea of what type of personality they had.

This usually applied to most people, because frankly, most were too shallow to actually harbor anything deeper.

And yet…this woman on his shoulder wasn’t one of those people.

She was both an open book and a mask, both very vulnerable and guarded. She was almost a contradiction at times…then again, what human isn’t?

She was another reminder to himself that he couldn’t be right all the time and in some small part of himself…that enraged him.

As he carried her down another flight of stairs, taking her deeper and deeper into the darkness, he almost laughed to himself.

He truly was a mess, wasn’t he?

6:07 a.m

The sun had begun to rise, greeting anyone up at the time with its brightness.

Although it was summer, it felt like spring in the early morn, the breeze pleasant and warm compared to the scorching heat that would follow in the later day.

Off in the training fields, a young man wiped his brow, sweat trickling from his early training. He raised his eyes to the horizon and smiled, his tooth-paste indorsing teeth giving a ping!

Elsewhere, a blonde ran through the streets, mischief apparent in his face, while his teammates trudged behind.

Upon meeting their sensei, the trio had received slips. After a brief explanation, the blonde jumped in all his joy, clinging to his sensei as he expressed his excitement.

The slip now was safely tucked away in his back pocket, a reminded of what was to come in a few short weeks.

It was, if anything, a normal summer day.

But, there was probably only one person in Kohona who wasn’t aware that it was morning. Someone lost in the haze of drugs, lost in the darkness that was below the bustling streets of the city.

Aiko had woke a few moments before sunrise, yet she felt herself caught in a surreal experience, muscles relaxed, head heavy. She tried to gather her thoughts, only to have them fade away.

In her current state, she was incapable of thinking logically for very long, so she lay there, completely devoid of motion. For a short moment, she wondered how long she had been down here, but her mind blanked soon afterward.

She felt light, lighter than she ever felt in a while. It reminded her of her childhood, when everything was okay. By this time, a melancholy would overtake her, but it was forgotten, just as her thoughts.

The air was clammy, yet she felt warm, as if wrapped in a blanket of fluff. No longer able to keep her eyes open, she surrendered herself to sleep, dozing off in a matter of seconds.

She was unaware of day, she was unaware of the cold, she was only aware of her dreams, her dreams of her past.

6:45 a.m

Ibiki let out a sigh as he closed the door behind him. His apartment was quiet and dark, and in some ways it soothed him.

He had just got out of a meeting with the Hokage twenty minutes ago, giving him a report on what little information he had on the prisoner.

The Hokage seemed perturbed about something, and abruptly told Ibiki to keep him updated and dismissed him. The lack of sleep was apparent in the old mans face, dark rings under his eyes making him appear frail.

Although he knew not to take the Hokage’s abruptness personally, irritation that had slowly manifested in himself began to take its toll, his frustration threatening to boil over. It was short-lived however, when irritation gave way to fatigue.

As Ibiki rubbed his temples, he vaguely wondered if he could sneak a couple more hours before going to back to the prisoner.

The allure of his bed was maddening and in a rare moment, his will broke. He ventured over, shedding his imposing coat, letting in fall to the ground. He removed his each piece of clothing one by one, joining the coat in a crumpled heap.

Ibiki made a point to get rid of every single mirror in his home after he recovered from his disfiguring injuries. There was no place for vanity in his life now, and he had no desire to look at himself anymore.

If anything, it was moments like these, when he came back to his lonely apartment, when he actually had time to think about things, are when he felt the most repugnant.

She didn’t think you were disgusting, a little voice in the back of his mind said, but he disregarded it, throwing his bandana heatedly to the ground.

Ibiki slid between the clean sheets, the material caressing his skin as he settled into its embrace. Ibiki had learned to never take sleep for granted. It was his only escape from his strenuous schedule.