Both Mila and Tobirama were shocked speechless. The deep purple bruising around Aroka's eyes and the trails of blood running down her face… for a moment he wondered if he was asleep and this was all a nightmare. His hands were shaking, he noticed, as he lightly touched her cheek, almost as if he thought she might flicker and disappear.

"What happened?" his voice was barely above a whisper.

"I had to…" Aroka moved to rest her head against the wall once again, a shadow falling over her face as she curled into herself, "...sorry…"

"Should we get the medics?" Mila turned to Tobirama, a grim fear in her eyes.

"Don't," Aroka spoke.

"They must able to help, I think-"

"...it's not safe..."

"Not safe? Did the doctors do something to you?"

"...it's not safe… here… "

"W-What do you mean? Is someone trying to hurt you?"

"...we have to go…" her words were unclear, she seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness, "...my parents… safe... there…"

Tobirama pressed a finger to her wrist and, fortunately, found her pulse to be slow but steady.

"She's asleep."

He would have been relieved had the situation been different, but he was no longer sure.

"What in the world happened?!" Kinuyo asked frantically upon seeing her eldest daughter at her doorstep, unconscious and being carried by a stranger.

"We'll tell you later, can we come inside?" Mila barely managed a polite smile, pulling her coat tightly around her.

"Yes! Come in, come in," the older woman quickly ushered them inside, closing the door behind them.

"Upstairs," she pointed, leading them to an unused bedroom.

Tobirama carefully set Aroka down on the low bed. They had cleaned her wounds and dressed her properly before escaping the compound; white bandages now concealed any signs of torment and not a trace of blood was to be found. A single strip of white cloth was tied around her eyes but, all in all, she appeared disturbingly normal.

They could almost convince themselves of it, too.

"Say something, Mila! I'm boreeed!" a young Aroka complained, pushing away the book in front of her and sprawling across the table.

"Um, s-sorry, miss."

"You're always so quiet. You don't have to stand outside all the time, you know. Come here!"

"I-I think I'm not supposed to…"

"Don't worry! You haven't been here for long but Yuto-sama never visits at this time of day, Toru said this is when he meets with the weavers. You won't get in trouble, come here!"

"Ok…"

"Yay! Hey, Mila, what's it like outside?"

"Huh? Outside?"

"Yea, what does it look like?"

"W-Well the weather is nice today, the sky is clear and there's a few clouds."

"Mm, keep going."

"Ah, it's the end of summer so the trees are starting to change colors a little. The grass is still pretty green though."

"What color do trees turn?"

"Orange, yellow, and red, mostly."

"Really? But I don't remember them being warm last time I played with them…"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Red things are supposed to be warm, right? Toru told me red was like fire."

"Not everything red is warm, like apples or leaves. Warm things can be other colors too, like the sun is yellow and it can get really hot."

"Yellow? I always thought the sun was red too… So what does yellow look like?"

"We'll, it's hard to say. Maybe you can think of it as warm too, but less warm than red. Lemons are yellow, so maybe you can think of it as a sour color?"

"Ok! Warm and sour, got it!"

"Miss! If you use your chakra here you'll get in trouble!"

"Not if I don't get caught!"

"We shouldn't break the rules, what if someone sees us? You'll get lectured again!"

"Come on, Mila, don't be a stickler! Yuto-sama is out today and it's been forever since I've looked around like this."

"Are you sure we'll be ok?"

"Of course! The lines never lie!"

"Well, ok then… Miss?"

"Hm?"

"If you don't mind me asking, what do you see, really?"

"You mean the lines? Well it's like a big web moving in the same direction; there's tons of stuff here, I could never pay attention to all of it! Yuto-sama and all the advisors say there's super important information here, they ask me to look for things from time to time. They say I shouldn't go looking unless they tell me to, though, I think it's bad for me."

"Don't you do it anyways?"

"Only sometimes!"

"Can you see anything else? When you're not looking at the lines, is it just black?"

"Hmm, well you said black is like emptiness or like the night… I'm not sure, but maybe. I think it's more like there's nothing at all; nothing was ever there, not even black."

"Oh, ok."

"You feel bad for me right? I can tell, but don't be! If I could see like other people do, I don't think I would be able to see the lines anymore. At least this way I can help people like Yuto-sama says, so I think it's ok!"

"...you're really nice, you know."

"Hehe, of course I am! Besides, you'll always be here to tell me what things look like, right?"

"...yes."

"Then who needs eyes? We're the perfect team!"

"A team…?"

"Aroka! Are you using chakra again? What did I tell you last time? Get back here!"

"AAAAA! RUN!"

Mila explained all that had happened as best she could. She spared the more disturbing details for Kinuyo's sake.

The mother was struck speechless: devastated and confused. She wanted to know what had caused Aroka's hysteria, but Mila could not answer. She wanted to know why Aroka had gouged out her own eyes, but Mila could not answer. She wanted to know why Aroka said the compound was not safe, but Mila could not answer either.

...oh.

...it hurts...

...why does everything hurt...?

...maybe if I don't wake up...

...I don't want to wake up…

...I'll stay here a little longer…

That's ok, right?

I met a woman in the snow.

I think she was surprised to see me.

"Are you sleeping? Isn't it cold?" I asked.

"Not at all," she answered, "Actually, it's very warm under the surface; the snow is like a blanket. See?"

"Wow, you're right, how nice!"

"Hm… but I do wonder why you're here. This is strange."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean you bother you, I don't know how I got here either."

"Don't worry," she laughed, "I don't mind, but maybe it would be best if you wake up soon."

"Ahh, but I feel like I could sleep here forever..."

"You can't sleep just yet, you're here a little early."

"Ah, really? Ok then, I won't."

I lingered a while longer but, in the end, I couldn't stay.

The woman in the snow...

I wonder if I'll ever see her again?

Toru pinched the bridge of his nose in an effort to clear his thoughts; he leaned back in his chair tiredly. A sudden loud thump snapped him out of his daze. Looking up, his office door was wide open and a stone-face Senju stood before him.

"Oh, Tobirama-san."

"What did you do?" he demanded. His voice made it clear he was not here for pleasantries, nor did he have the patience for such.

"What did I do…?" Toru echoed, sighing deeply, "So you've already decided I'm at fault?"

"Am I wrong?"

"Is it that easy? Right and wrong," he breathed a humorless laugh, "it's not always easy to tell."

"What exactly did you do? I have already taken Aroka away from this place; there's no use lying."

"Yes, I heard. How is she?"

"As if you have the right to know."

"Look," Toru sighed, "regardless of what you think I did, I care about her. That's the truth."

"I find that hard to believe. It was you who sent the assassins after her, wasn't it?"

"...oh. So you knew."

He didn't even try to deny it.

"And you still claim to care about her?" "...they were never meant to kill her."

"What?"

"They were just to scare her out of Konoha; to get her to come back here," Toru ran a hand through his hair and sighed once again, "We needed her back here, we were vulnerable without her. We knew she would see the assassins coming well in advance; there was no way they could have killed her, regardless of what they did. Aroka's abilities have always protected our clan. We had no other choice."

"You thought sending assassins was the best way? Did you ever consider what she went through, seeing her own death again and again?"

"It… it was all we could do. She was gone for far longer than expected and it was clear she didn't want to come back. I... never wanted to hurt her..."

"What about now? What happened to make her so hysterical that you had to sedate and restrain her like that?"

"So you know about that too..."

"Answer the question!" Tobirama's hands were curled into fists, his glare burning with suppressed rage.

Toru sighed, his expression suddenly drained with exhaustion.

"That wasn't supposed to happen. We were trying to help… we were just trying to help…"

...

"Any word from the Uchiha?" Toru asked the advisors entering his office.

"Yes, our contact has agreed, he will be arriving in a few days," one of them responded.

"This… is the right thing to do, right?"

"Of course, this is the only chance Aroka has at getting better. If the operation succeeds and her vision is restored, we will have, theoretically, extended her life."

"Indeed," the other, older advisor continued, "The vision should buy her a few more years until it wears away like the rest of her senses; a few more years of security for our clan."

"The Uchiha did have a request regarding compensation, however."

"I thought we offered him payment already?"

"Yes, but he's rejected the money. He says he will complete the operation in exchange for her eyes."

...

"He meant to study them, no doubt. Maybe he thought the root of Aroka's abilities lay within her eyes. It posed no risk, we knew it wasn't true. So we agreed. The operation worked, her vision was restored," Toru explained without a hint of satisfaction, "but when she woke up she… she wouldn't stop screaming. We tried everything to calm her down but she just kept screaming; she never said a single word, I don't know if she ever heard us at all. Our medics couldn't find anything wrong with her; we had no idea what happened so all we could do was keep her from hurting herself or others."

"You kept her sedated," Tobirama stated pointedly.

"Yes, we thought we could fix everything once we found the problem but… I started to think maybe it wasn't something that could be fixed."

...

"I'd advise you not to waste your time."

Toru paused mid-step and looked up to see the Uchiha medic leading against a wall, a few feet ahead of him in the white hallway.

"Excuse me?" he frowned.

"You're not going to find it, whatever you're looking for. There's nothing you can do about her condition now."

"Do you mean you know what's wrong with her?! If you do then-!"

"I don't know any more than you," the Uchiha shrugged, an amused smile crossing his lips, "but did you really think she would somehow instantly adapt to her newfound vision? Even a normal blind person would experience shock, add to that all her other peculiarities and, well, who knows what's going on in that mind of hers?"

"If you knew this could happen why didn't you say anything?" Toru asked through grit teeth.

The Uchiha shrugged halfheartedly.

"It's none of my concern what happens to her; I already have what I need," his smile didn't reach his eyes as he turned to walk off, "It's been a pleasure doing business with you."

...

"Our medics came to the same conclusion, eventually: there was nothing to be done," Toru's eyes were downcast as he spoke, "I… never meant to hurt her..."

"Naturally. You only did what had to be done."

An unfamiliar voice came from the doorway. They turned to see a hunched old woman padding leisurely into the office.

"Advisor Reiko…" Toru greeted the woman with a look of wariness.

"Tobirama, is it?" she slowly eased herself into a chair across from where he stood, "I understand your concern for Aroka but these are family matters. I must ask that you bring her back from wherever you took her."

"That's not going to happen."

"Oh? What a shame. Regardless, we'll find her sooner or later."

"Even if you did, do you really think she'll be willing to help you after everything you've done?"

"Of course not. Aroka's a smart girl, I have no doubt she's figured out everything by now; it would be next to impossible for us to make use of her abilities at this point. Fortunately, that isn't the limit of her usefulness."

"Reiko, maybe we shouldn't-"

"You've always been soft on her, Toru; this is exactly what your father warned you against," the woman chided, shaking her head disapprovingly before turning back towards Tobirama, "If we can no longer use her abilities, we can only rely on the next best option..."

Tobirama frowned apprehensively.

"And what is that?"

"Well, we have to kill her."