of guilt and other things-naruto

(of)guilt and other things

{NOT EDITED.}
———
Ren holds his hands together tightly, trying his best not to shake. Akane watches over the two distantly.

———

"Don't you ever wish you were capable of more? Capable of climbing the ranks, making a name, and going down in history?" Akane asks.
"Right now, I make enough money to sustain my sister and I, so why should I strive for more when I need not to?" Ren replies, a hand running through his dark blue hair.
"Just because your life is going well right now, doesn't mean it's at the best it could be."
"You're being hypocritical." He scoffs.
"But I'm right, aren't I?" And it's a whisper like a promise never told—her voice, that is. Ren is left to scramble for words, so instead he opts to stay silent as he mulls over it.

Does he truly wish to put more effort and live lavishly? To take the risk of death, to leave his sister behind, only to provide a better life?

"You might be," he says, "but I'm fine like this. I'm fine with standing in the back, looking through rose colored lenses, and living without the fear of leaving my sister behind."
"But the benefits-!"
"—Not everyone is like you, Akane. Not everyone wishes to go out there to risk their life on the battlefield." And as Ren explains, he lets out a shuddering breath.

"Not everyone has nothing to lose."

———

"Akane, I've been meaning to ask, but, what's your last name?" Ren asks, watching her braid her brown hair across her shoulder.
Akane grins mischievously at him. "Don't you know, my dear Ren-kun? I'm a Hagiwara, just like you~" she sings, and Ren flushes at the implication.

"That's-!" It's a struggle for words. "Stop horsing around, Akane. It's really not funny," he whines.

"Okay fine." Akane ties the braid with a, well, tie, and looks at the boy. "My full name is Nohara Akane, and as you might or might not know, I have a cousin who is a shinobi."

"Wow." Ren claps slowly, tone ever so dry and sarcastic. "Fantastic."
Akane pouts, lightly hitting him on the shoulder.
"It is!"
"Yeah yeah whatever."
"So, are we gonna talk about how you totally just, oh, i don't know, forgot my family name?"

———

The girl had approached them, brown haired, brown eyed.

———

"I'm going to the frontlines."

Ren's cup clatters against the floor, its content spilling onto the wood. His shoulders are stiff and his eye bags have never looked so dark before.
"You're what?"
"Frontlines. Me. Dispatched. Tomorrow."
"I never agreed to this!" he exclaims.
Akane's eyes narrow. "You're not my mother, Ren. I can make my own decisions."
"You're going to die!"
"You think I'm that weak?"

Ren stands up suddenly from the chair he was sitting on, letting it fall from beneath him. "Yes! Yes, I do! We aren't in the Genin Corps for nothing, Akane! We are weak!"

Akane pushes off the hands that settled themselves on her shoulders.

"Only you, Ren. I trained hard while you were out doing those crappy missions around the village because we are almost at war. I can't stand by like this!" Akane is screaming by the end of her words, chest warm and face flushed.

"Why can't you?! It's not your job to go out there—to go out there and kill for the village! You were put here because it was your job to help the people in the village!"

Akane flinches and moves away from his furious face. A flash of hurt and surprise passes along Ren's face, so brief she would not have seen it had she blinked twice that instant. Ren shrinks back, almost tripping over the chair still on the ground from having been toppled over.