The Dragon Queen // (Under Revision)

Accidents

Chizu watched from the upstairs window as her young charge, Tsuyoi Arakawa, and her new ninja boyfriend (what was his name, Naruto?) stumbled outside. As she looked on, Tsuyoi collapsed on her knees. The bright-haired boy placed a hand on her shoulder and spoke firmly to her.

Chizu gritted her teeth when, after a moment of conversation, Tsuyoi's weary face brightened at the shinobi's attention. The girl looked exhausted. So was she. Little did Tsuyoi know now, but she was sure she'd find out soon--they had been battling all night.

The girl stood, and then the boy's companions, led by Kakashi, flooded from the main door.

"We were looking for you!"

"Why do the two of you keep disappearing, anyway?"

"What secrets are you hiding from us?"

They spoke in excited voices, varying in tones of worry and interest. Sakura, the young healer girl with the monstrous strength, raised a brow at how close Naruto and Tsuyoi stood, shoulders touching. Naruto grinned in response.

Chizu couldn't help letting out a stream of smoke in irritation when she spotted the faintest mist of tears in Tsuyoi's eyes. Her eyebrows furrowed and trembled in an effort to keep them at bay. These damnable Konoha shinobi were making her Queen soft!

Naruto's words echoed in her mind, from when they battled in Tsuyoi's consciousness. You know what the problem is? You're evil, not Tsuyoi. Everyone has a little bit of bad in them; that's normal! But it's up to you to overcome the bad stuff! If Chizu didn't separate the good and bad parts of her, Tsuyoi would be able to handle problems when they come and not break down when something goes wrong! You're what's making her weak!

Chizu winced. His words rung true. Tsuyoi was becoming weak, and it was her fault.

This whole situation, the magnitude and imperativity of both herself and Tsuyoi's circumstances, was reaching a point of no return. And it wouldn't have ever existed if it wasn't for her.  

Her body sighed at once, her mind drifted.

"Why? Why do you torture her so?" Fukuo's words rang in her ears. Her subordinate's tear-choked sobs had pained her, had struck something deep in her chest, but at the time she couldn't show it.

She never could. Not when other people were around.

Fukuo and her sister had come to tend to her wounds from Chizu and Tsuyoi's physical battle a few days before. The one that Tsuyoi came dangerously close to killing her.

"She's only a child, and you know what she went through when she was young! Her mother killed in the war, her maimed father unable to escape a fire, and yet you still forced her to complete the Ritual! That damn Ritual!" Fukuo, usually the most placid and well-mannered woman you could come across, had sworn through her crying. "She was only eleven, and you stole her innocence! And you claimed it was an accident! Now you invade her very mind, making her relive all those terrible memories and experiences, and your excuse is that you're making her stronger! Love and guidance and wisdom will make her stronger, not hate and pain and suffering! WAS HURTING AN INNOCENT CHILD AN ACCIDENT, TOO?!" Fukuo had then run from the meeting room, and Tomoe had solemnly followed, leaving Chizu to think about her decisions.

Watching Tsuyoi, this girl she had known and raised for almost ten years, left a chill in her heart. Had she ever really known her? The automaton woman she had been training her to be was crumbling. The girl had become dynamic and her moods not so easy to predict because she experiencing so many different emotions. 

As Chizu looked on, Tsuyoi wobbled on her legs, thoroughly exhausted. The boy Naruto wrapped his arm around her shoulder to steady her, and Tsuyoi leaned against him, holding on to his waist. The girl looked flustered. She blinked up at him and suddenly slumped into him.  The shinobi fixed his grip on her and grinned at her and leaned close to whisper something in her ear. She smiled weakly back at him

Sakura and Sai laughed at the two of them, and to which Tsuyoi covered her face in embarrassment, and Kakashi began to lead them all inside. Before tonight, Chizu would have been able to look into Tsuyoi's thoughts and hear what Naruto had said to her, but the forced yuimaru she'd placed between them six and a half years ago, was now severed. And once a yuimaru was broken, it could never be formed again.

"So it is possible..." Chizu murmured. "A yuimaru can be broken without the caster's consent. This changes things..."

Another newly-realized truth; Hayate was also still alive. In a sense. Why Chizu had never heard or seen anything about Hayate probably had something to do with Tsuyoi's amnesia, but to think that Hayate's reiki signature had resided in the child since her Choosing....

Hayate has been battling with me since then....she never left me alone, did she?

An unprecedented tear rolled down Chizu's cheek.

Regret scored through her now. It sagged on her chest, and the searing pain beneath her lung returned, harsher than before.

"Forgive me, Tsuyoi. But this must be done.... and when it's all over...I swear...I'll redeem myself."