Catharsis in the Interlude

Out of the Blue

Everything is grey

His hair, his smoke, his dreams

And now he's so devoid of colour

He don't know what it means

And he's blue

//

If there was a colour that he could use to describe his life with, it would have been blue. Blue was stability. Blue was intelligence. Blue was also calmness, confidence and depth.

But as of late his life has been splattered with pink - flowers, charm, tenderness and cotton candy. In other words, everything that he was definitely not used to.

How did that even happen?

It all started with that incident where she was fined 3 months worth of paycheques. Her team captain on a certain mission had reported her for ignoring orders and going on the offensive when he had clearly told her that she was there for medical backup only. And that should have been fair enough. Until she had to turn down the occasional lunch date with him because she was broke and was saving cash to move to a new place.

Clearly, that wouldn't do. He told himself that these lunch dates with her were important because it was his responsibility to check in on his ex-student's wellbeing every now and then. He then found out that Tsunade had already been lenient on her as it had been supposed to be a 5 month fine. He didn't need his superior sense of smell to realise that something fishy was going on. Like the true ninja he was, snooping around got him information that that certain team captain was a known scoundrel who loved finding trouble for his subordinates - especially female subordinates. Moreover, she had only ignored her role as medical backup and entered the fight as they were clearly outnumbered and overpowered, and it was jeopardising the entire mission.

He was powerful whenever he needed to be. Pulling a few strings in the background was as effortless as controlling chakra to walk up a tree for someone of his status. That certain team captain was put under probation and investigated for all the past reports he had made against his subordinates. Sakura's paycheques were returned, and she was so ecstatic that she treated him to dinner at a fancy restaurant the very next day. The sochu that night was exceptionally sweet, and the flush on her face was exceptionally divine.

And then there was that douchebag of a boy she had been seeing. He broke her, stripped her of her innocence and then threw her aside. She cried herself dry for weeks. Every time he saw her she forced a smile and looked like she'd lost a lot of weight. She was usually so pink and vibrant and smelled of spring, but after that she looked like a faded watercolour painting that was about to completely disappear.

His excuse for his uncharacteristic rage and the table he broke was that he still saw her as his junior and ex-student, someone under his wing - someone to protect. He made sure to recommend that bastard of a boy on the next long haul mission with a notoriously high rate of no return. But that was not before he broke into that boy's apartment and casually wrecked his living room. You may call it petty, but he called it a pastime.

There was only one incident where he couldn't completely justify why he had to take action. Afterall, she had already stood up for herself. But he refused to let it go. What she did wasn't enough, because the other party in question clearly had zero class and zero respect for her. He had to take it upon himself to set that young'un straight. Surely he had to play an important role in shaping the future generation of ninja.

That incident had occurred at the Jounin HQ, where the loudmouthed Genma was spilling tea. He was whispering, but nothing related to that pink-haired ex-student of his ever slipped past his phenomenal ears. The group of Jounins were having a coffee break, huddled around Genma and gossiping in hushed tones.