Impossible to Forgive

Chapter 24: Since You Were Such a Good Girl

When I woke up, I was no longer strapped down fully. I curled up tightly into the fetal position and shoved a wad of the thin blanket covering me into my mouth. I bit down hard, trying to drown out the persistent throbbing that filled my entire body.

I slid up next to the wall in terror as Sasainako entered the room holding a tray.

"Breakfast," She smiled.

She placed the tray down on a small table next to my bed that had held her senbon the day before. I glared at the food. I would rather starve myself to death than go through anything like that ever again.

She saw the look that I was giving the meal and clucked her tongue while shaking her head, "Now, now, don't be that way. A hunger strike won't get you anywhere. If you don't eat of your own free will, then I am going to have to feed you, and you won't like it."

I hesitantly snatched the bread off the tray and started eating it, but it was not sitting well in my stomach at all. The churning and clenching pain nearly caused me to throw it back up as soon as it hit my tongue.

Sasainako smiled, "I just want to thank you because you were such a good girl yesterday. You should have seen what your screams did to the Hokage; he was like a shell of a man. To properly thank you, I'll let you ask any one question and I'll answer it to the best of my ability."

"W-Why?"

"You're going to have to be more specific than that."

"Why are you doing this? What's your motive? Why did it take you twenty-five years to go after the scroll again? Why do you hate the Leaf so much?"

"Well, that was four questions, but I guess that to answer one of them I'll probably end up answering them all."

"One more really quick question, why are you going to tell me this?"

She smiled, "Oh because you are going to leave this room in one of two ways: dead or under my genjutsu so I'm not worried." I assessed my sorry state; she had every right to be that confident. But I wasn't going to let her win that easily. I shoved down my upset stomach and grabbed more food from the tray because I'd need all my strength.

Sasainako smirked, "Why don't we bring in your precious Kakashi since I'm sure that he'd love to hear this as well."

She called out to the guards and soon they lead him in.

He walked like a man broken. His shoulders were so slumped that he looked like and upside-down letter "J" and his face was clear of all emotion, his eyes completely unfocused. It hurt me more than anything to see him like that.

But when the guards and Sasainako turned to talk to each other, he locked eyes with mine and I saw determination. There was a fire lit behind his eyes that showed me that he was only acting the part of being broken, but in truth he was the exact opposite. I sent him a look that shared his fire and the skin around his eyes crinkled a bit in a slight smile before his face turned defeated again just before our captors turned back around.