The Blood in our Veins

The Cherry Blossoms

Mystery POV

Sometimes at night, she can hear their screams. the screams of the living and the screams of the dead and the screams of the soon-to-be dead.

We think she knew it was going to happen, it certainly seemed like it those times she would zone out while training, or completely ignore what we were saying in favor of looking up at the sky. We had worried for a long time, at-least I did, but we also knew enough not to ask questions. Somewhere in the back of our minds was the knowledge already. It was like we all knew without saying anything what was wrong with her. Of course, the fact that her family had been literally torn apart in front of her eyes couldn't help.

No one knew except for those two what actually happened that day, and later, it was only her who knew. But we had all seen the bodies once they were taken out of the sacred scroll they had clung onto so tightly. We all saw the despair and horror in their eyes and knew they must've seen something.

So we didn't ask, and instead viewed her with quiet sympathy.

Although, there were the days when she would meet us for a mission with bruises and cuts on her arms and legs, her face the only thing untouched, as if he couldn't bare the thought of destroying that beauty. Then we would ask, we would ask how and why and when. We would comfort her as best we could. I think Sasuke's betrayal of the village cost her something, much more than any of us. Possibly because she could still feel his heart beat within her because of her blood.

Naruto also got pretty bad, after he failed to bring him back, I think he had a hard time coping with the loss of not only Sasuke, but her happiness. Then that day came.

Mitsu's father had been horrible after her mother's and brother's death. Drinking and screaming and beating Mitsu up. We all knew it was happening, yet no one tried to save her.

I feel especially guilty for that.

I found her that morning, after the long night she stayed up on that wall, hand attached by a kunai, her father hanging from the ceiling beam. She had kept staring at him, I think wishing he would come back. Or that it had all been some terrible dream. Of course, life goes on, and the night ended.

It wasn't until a week later that she was able to tell the story, another month until she could tell it without crying, and another year until she was able to sleep again or step into that house. We tried our best to help her, truly. I offered her a place in my house, to maybe watch over her. Naruto offered to let her sleep in his apartment, as awful as that offer sounds. She denied us.

Instead, Mitsu simply existed. We din't think she ever actually slept that entire year, or got herself an apartment. Instead, she jumped from house to house, the villagers always left a key or a window open so she could get in if they weren't home. It was for the simplest things too, to take a shower, to do some laundry, to hang out on the couch. She often came to my home or Naruto's, because there was never anyone around. Sometimes I could find her hanging around the Hokage's tower, waiting for another mission.

She kept busy too, just as I did. We often couldn't find her around. Once, i went to ask Tsunade about it, and she told me Mitsu was on a month long mission, traveling to the land of lightning. I asked her when she had left, and Tsunade only told me, "Two months ago."

I grew worried about her. Where was Mitsu? Naruto and Sakura also did, though they were busy with their individual training, whereas I was not. Team seven had fallen apart, there were no missions together. Mitsu was too busy with the Anbu and whatever else she did, Naruto with Jiraiya, and Sakura in her medic training. I was left to wander, doing the occasional mission and still visiting the memorial stone. In my free time, I looked for Mitsu, when I wasn't being challenged by Gai that was.

I found her once, painting. It was after Naruto had left to train for two years, a lot had happened.

Somehow Mitsu had been there, but not. You could always sense her, be quieted by her. It was like your shadow, you knew it was there, but you don't acknowledge it. She still comforted the villagers, if anything she had more time for it. Always knowing exactly which house to go to and which person was having a bad day. Often, it was the ninjas who needed the most help. The ones with the most trauma, and she knew exactly what to say, and what to do. I don't think anyone knew anything about her though.

One night, Mitsu came to my house, I don't know how she knew it would happen, or what day it truly was, but she did.

It was the day Rin had died, the day I had killed her. I was fine up until I got home. I had completely ignored it, going about my daily life as normally as possible, checking up on Sakura and challenging Gai to Rock-Paper-Scissors. But it hit me when I entered my bedroom and saw the photograph of my team. My naive, poor team.

I guess I should've known she would be there, she always was. Maybe it was her power that let her know who's heart was beating faster, who's eyes were shedding tears, but I don't think so. I think that was just who Mitsu was.

Mitsu was sitting on my bed, waiting for me. I should have been stronger, I am the teacher, but she was there and I was here and it happened. I had told her long ago of my team, of our misfortunes and their deaths, how it was my fault. She somehow manages to get everyone's life story laid out, I don't know how she does it.

Anyways, she sat there on the bed, with eyes of expectancy and calm. And I broke down. I collapsed into her arms and I cried and I screamed. All she did was rub my back and hold me, like the mother I had lost long ago. Like the mother Naruto had never known. She stayed with me too. I had, ashamedly, fallen asleep. She held me all night and kept the nightmares away, made sure I had someone to rely on, to depend on. I don't think she ever fell asleep.

I've forgotten if Mitsu ever said anything to me after the first morning. I'm sure she did, but I have almost completely forgotten. For that I feel the most guilty.

The night I found her painting, up on top of the Hokage cliff, she was crying. The first time I had seen her since the scars in her hands had been made and the house off-limits. That night she did say words, words i will never forget. They made chills run down my spine and my breath hitch in fear.

"I'm broken Kakashi. I can barely ever breath, I can't sleep, I keep seeing everybody's faces: yours, Naruto's, Sakura's, Sasuke's, my father's, my mother's, my baby b-b-broth-ther's," She fell into tears, the paint brush falling to the dirt and the palette slipping from her fingers. I stood staring at her, my own heart burning.

"I th-think . . . they're gonna kill me. A-All of us . . . who's going to remember everyone? I-If I-I d-die, who's going to remember all th-the names a-and faces? Oh God! I don't want to die Kakashi!"

So I held her as she collapsed, unable to hold her own weight, me scarcely able to hold it either. It was as if she held onto the sky, keeping it from falling on her loved ones. But the sky tore at her skin and bones and muscle, it ripped apart her chest and clung to her heart, squeezing it until she was unable to breath, and only had enough to keep the sky up. I new I was part of the problem, I had not tried to help, I had not tried to lessen her load, and instead made her responsible for yet another person's memory.

I saw the painting over her shoulder as I held her, her salty tears wetting my shirt and hands clawing fresh scratches into my bruised arms. It was not a painting of the village, as I had thought, but of a cherry blossom field, the petals falling and landing upon red earth, the faces of Mitsu's brother and mother staring empty into the sky, her father hanging from a nearby tree, herself curled into a ball in a corner, face turned away from the massacre that had taken place. A man in dark shadow stood at the edge of the treeline, only two piercing black eyes visible. I assumed this was the man responsible.

All at once, I was impressed with the skill and beauty of the painting, and horrified at the images.

I took Mitsu back to my apartment, laid her in my bed to sleep, though she never did, only mumbling the occasional word. I watched over her all night, trying to be there for her as she had been for me.

I never did ask her what she meant when she said they would kill her. I should have. Maybe i could've saved her.