Fearless [Naruto]

Chapter Seven: Unchanging

He would never let Tenten know, but her visits meant more to Kurai than she might have been able to imagine.

'Picture this,' he might have said, had he been a more honest soul. 'From the moment you become aware of your existence, you're alone and helpless. You are perfectly capable of thought, of pain and loneliness, yet no one can hear your voice, nor can they truly see your existence. You have no true, physical form. You can't touch the world around you, not really.

'When the world does become aware of you, they damn you without a second thought. They call you a monster, a demon, any horrid word they can think of. Then they decide they must get rid of you and take every chance they can. Meanwhile, the sole person in the world capable of actually interacting with you is terrified of you, therefore they hate you. So, they yell, and they call names, and they force you to the back of their mind. They pretend you don't exist. They try to kill you. All of this while the world continues to treat them like shit and you continue to feel every physical injury and every mental scar they take on.

'At this point in time, you realize you are now slowly becoming able to touch the world around you. To cause it as much pain as it's given you from the moment you came into formation. To pay it back for the terrible life it's given the sole person you've ever truly interacted with. They might hate you, but like a child towards their parent, you can't completely bring yourself to hate them in return. Not when you know them better than you know yourself.

'Just picture it.

'Would you punish the world?

'It's easy to understand why my kind are violent when you look at it through our eyes. But no one does that, do they?'

But, Kurai wasn't honest.

So he would sit with his back to the small door of his cell, only moving when he could hear others approach his cell from outside. He could tell the time of day by the shift change. Every three shifts, she would visit. Every three shifts, someone else would finally acknowledge him as something other than just a "monster." Someone would actually see him and speak to him.

He made sure to ensure she knew that he still hated her. He would make sure he, himself, knew this as well. Yet, he no longer refused to speak to her. Perhaps it was the barest hints of life in the edges of his mind that would stir when she spoke of past events. Or maybe it was the fact that when he wouldn't respond to her, she was content to entertain him with memories.

It passed the time, at least. He could grudgingly appreciate her for that much.

"Do you remember the first time our teams practiced together?"

Not really.

"Of course," he scoffed.

"Really?" Tenten questioned, resulting in Kurai rolling his eyes at the dark room before him. Honestly, how did she do that? It was as if she always knew when he was lying. It was strange-- she'd never been able to tell the same of Jun. "It's funny. Looking back, you wouldn't imagine that all of us would end up working together as great as we do now..."

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Tenten's initial reaction to hearing they would be holding a combined practice was to be excited. After all, she respected Miki, like she respected any strong kunoichi, and Kazue was her best friend. Despite their having being limited to hand-to-hand combat only-- as Miki wanted to take advantage of Gai's presence to improve her genin's skills-- Tenten been unable to think of a single reason why the practice would be a bad idea.