The Demon They Once Feared. {BOOK 2}

|21| It Never Comes From Your Enemies.

His eyes crinkled closed as the large grin overtook his whiskered face, bringing warmth to her heart, though, it didn't last. For some reason, the grin, at this moment, didn't bring her the usual happiness she felt when seeing it; it just didn't feel right. In this wonderful moment, there had to be a reason, but what?

It was just a memory.

The picture of his grin faded as reality hit her hard, like hitting the surface of water when the dive went wrong. No, that was too weak of a comparison. It was more like falling flat on her stomach from the largest cliff there ever was. It hurt. Seeing his lips turned downwards, his deep blue eyes refusing to meet hers, gazing anywhere but her violet eyes. She stayed silent as the man continued to speak, a woman's voice chipping in every now and then.

The people in the room stared, not seeming to blink. Not once taking their eyes off her, with different emotions filling their different eyes.

"Mina," Tsunade's voice broke her out of her trance. "Is it true?" The female Hokage asked. Multiple creases between her neatly kept eyebrows were evident, her lips pursed together, no drunkard silliness on her face, no nothing. Mina didn't have to try hard to read her emotions, a child's book with a lot of pictures. Never has she wished she wasn't able to read people's emotions that easily, never in her life, not to this extent. She stayed silent, locking eyes with Tsunade's, not giving a response.

She couldn't help but feel as if her heart was made of glass -a fragile material that, one broken is hard to repair. And pieces of it were chipping away due to the numerous cracks and scratches already on it. Her voice was trapped, unable to break free from the confines of her throat. It was difficult to breathe, the weight of reality drowning her to the depth of certainty. With an open mouth, gaping like a fish out of water, she took a deep breath in, trying to sort out the mess in her mind, trying to untangle the knots of her thoughts. It wasn't easy, with threads tying themselves together, others cut off with no explanation of why they just stopped, it was a bundle of chaos. It was a monstrosity. Her lips almost tugged upwards when she compared her thoughts to that of a life ending. Specifically, by her hands. The deaths she caused were unpredictable, not one of the thousands of people knew they were going to die, but they did, unexpectedly just ending, becoming lumps of flesh in a messy pile, most likely with limbs tangled together. Her mind was a monstrosity, and she realised, she may be becoming a monster herself.

Mina closed her mouth, a sudden dryness in it, as she broke the eye contact with Tsunade to look at the other people. One by one, she looked into the eyes of the people surrounding her, hoping that one of them was able to read the plea that was written in her violet eyes. Nothing. The only person she was sure would be able to understand what she was trying to say, refused to look at her.

There's no point. They wouldn't believe her anyway.

Without a word, she lifted up both hands, bringing them to the back of her head, noticing how stiff the people became. She felt the fabric, ruff and worn, but still thick like the many others she'd seen. Grazing her fingers along the black band, blindly searching for the fastened part. It became loose when she tugged on it, sliding off her slightly sweaty forehead and resting neatly in her palms. With a clenched jaw, she gazed around the room again. The little amount of hope she had left was crushed.

"I'll take that as a yes." Tsunade's voice was crisp and clean, lacking any emotion.

She pushed her hands to her side, anger settling in the depths of her gut. Her cracked lips, longing for some moisture that her tongue wasn't able to provide, fell. She locked eyes with an old man that stood beside Tsunade and couldn't help but scowl further. One of his eyes, it was covered by bandages and the other was shut loosely, a small smile visible on his face. It infuriated her, the mocking, despicable and secretive smile he was giving of. She wished to kill him then and there, rip out his guts, gouge out his eyeballs and shove them down his throat. She wouldn't stop until he was inside-out.

But instead of lashing out, she stayed silent. Gripping the metal on the headband tightly making her knuckles turn white. And without a word, she quickly unseals a normal kunai, bringing the fabric up. Without a word, she dug the sharp metal of the weapon into one of the sides of the metal plate. Silently dragging it across to the other side, keeping control of the scratch as it hit the already embedded symbol on it. The screeching of metal is the only thing heard in the deafening silence.

"Stop," his voice came out as a mere whisper but Mina refused to do as he said. She continued to create the mortifying sound. "Stop." He repeated, louder this time and with more power. Mina stopped, grip becoming loose on the kunai before she eventually dropped it. The sound pierces her ears.

Eventually, she looked up, finally, after what felt like forever, she met his blue eyes. Confusion was clearly written in them, but also another emotion. Disappointment. Her teeth came slightly out of her mouth as she grabbed onto the delicate skin of her lips, chewing on the shards of dry skin, picking them away and swallowing the torn skin. A small amount of warmth pooled out of one spot, warming her freezing lips and providing them with the much-needed moisture. 

She swiftly turned around and walked to the door, hand gripping the cool metal of the handle. And just as she was about to twist the door open, she looked back, scanning their facial expressions and burning the image into her mind. She looked back at the door before she spoke. Voice coming out cracked, forced and raspy, "the saddest thing about betrayal," she said, opening the door to be able to walk out, "is that it never comes your enemies, ya know."

Her lone footsteps becoming quieter before stopping, she was gone. And nobody knew if she would ever come back.

"MINA!" Naruto yelled, running out the door and ignoring the calls of everyone else. Yet, as he looked both ways of the hallway, no trace was left of her.

His feet moved on their own, without his permission. The little bit of hope that she didn't actually leave guiding him to the very familiar green door of their apartment.

"Make sure to lock the door, Naruto!" Mina had yelled one summer morning, running down the stairs of the building.

A sad smile graced his lips and he twisted the door open, the little bit of hope her being there, cooking food, faded.

"Oi! Don't eat it all at once, we need to leave some for tomorrow so we actually eat, ya know!" She had scolded, slapping his hand away, gaining an annoyed whine from him.

He took off his shoes and left them there in a messy way, stepping onto the wooden floor of their home. He briefly glanced back and tidied his shoes, knowing that Mina would scold him. But she didn't.

Tears were brought to the brink of his eyelids and eventually started sliding down his whiskered cheeks.

The light in the kitchen was on, unexpectedly, and a smell of food wafted up to his nose. Eyes widening a fraction, and sprinting into the kitchen with false hope, it was empty. Though another unexpected thing was on the dining table. There in the middle of the clutter was a bowl of steaming hot ramen. Homemade ramen. The one he liked better than Ichiraku, and in that moment a spark of hope of her coming back was lit. And somehow he knew she would come back, they would be together once again. Like family was supposed to.

/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/

So, the exams will be over soon and I may start posting more often. However, when I wasn't writing, my need to write lessened and now I'm struggling to go back to writing. All the ideas I had kinda just left. I'll try my best to finish this book because I know I'll have this nagging feeling of not finishing it.

Thank's for continuing to read this book (if you have).

Barry-The-Berry

Unedited, 9/06/18