Kiyomi has one year. She never thought her life could be cut so short when she spent so long wasting time. She wanted to go to her death with no regrets, but how could she possibly die with peace when her family is being torn apart and her father wo...
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BEFORE KIYOMI HAD TURNED TWELVE, SHE HAD LEARNED WHAT IT FELT LIKE TO take a life. It had been a changing event that brought her home in numb silence. She thought she'd never remember how to talk without remembering the way her hands had felt like covered in blood. It was an accident. She only meant to get him to stop, but Kiyomi had fucked up. She hadn't meant to kill him.
It had been an Akatsuki member. He had been a criminal and he shouldn't have the right to anything else after the Akatsuki had attempted to destroy Suna to get to their Kazekage. Thus, she had killed the man known as Hidan. At the very least, she had aided Konoha in his removal. In doing so, she shared the burden of murder with a man known as Nara Shikamaru who had his own vendetta against that man. Kiyomi's team had been tracking Hidan for months after he was spotted in the Wind country, and he pushed her hand when he murdered her friends. When they were done, it was as close to death as Hidan could get.
She supposed that was just how the world worked these days.
Still, Kiyomi would never forget the look in Shikamaru's eyes when he fought at her side. The boy had wanted more than just Hidan's death. He wanted to destroy him. Kiyomi, having been trained from birth to fight, had followed his strategy, his lead, and had walked away with blood upon her hands.
That battle made Kiyomi know that she would much rather protect a life than take one. Thus, she joined exited her time with the persuit brigade and joined special forces with the intention of being a teacher. Of course, that was before she found out about her illness. How could she ever dedicate her life to students if she only had a year left. No, she instead was forced away from the dream that had once been so attainable. She was left wandering the village without anything in her life. She began living through the mere memories of her brother who she would never see again.
"Have you thought about a position under protection of the Kazekage?" Sobune Hibito had asked her as she put in her letter of resignation. She had planned to live out her last days getting fat and masturbating. Maybe she'd get a house mouse or a chameleon. At least that way they'd both live the same amount of time.
She was livid and shaken at the thought of where she was and she wanted to pass out as she walked up the steps towards the hallway that would lead past nearly twenty rooms, most of which she had never stepped foot inside. After Kota, she had taken every mission she could out of Suna. She had been desperate for distraction, she had been the first to request every mission that took her away from the home she had once felt safe to be inside. That innocence had died the day Kota departed.
She took another step, wishing that she could stop the rise of fear and the emotion she would not name and give power over her. She had to be stronger than she had been the first month she wasted of her year. She hurt her parents and she was hurting them now. Kiyomi's steps faltered as that second emotion swallowed her lungs when she approached the door at the end of the hall. She stared at it, and it was taller than her. It was menacing, but she had gotten so much stronger than she had ever been as a kid.
