Ch 146

The wind tore at my face as I ran, but I didn't stop. I couldn't. The cold air stung my skin, mixing with the heat of fresh tears that wouldn't stop falling.

My chest ached, every breath ragged, every step heavy like my bones had turned to stone. I didn't care where I was going, only that it was away. Away from that room. From their eyes. From everything.

Pain sharply lanced through my arm. I glanced down, and saw it, thin lines of red cutting down from where the glass had caught me.

Shards still glinted in my skin, small but deep, pulsing with each heartbeat. Blood trickled, warm and wet, and still I kept going.

Maybe it was what I deserved.

I bit my lip until I tasted copper, trying to keep the sobs inside, but they clawed out anyway, loud and broken and awful.

I was angry. So angry.

At them. At me. At everything.

Why was living so hard? Why did it hurt so much just to exist?

I'd done everything right.

I came back. I told the truth.

I showed them the ugliest parts of me and they still looked at me like I was dangerous.

Like I was unstable. Like I was the one they needed to contain.

And maybe I was. Maybe I always had been.

I stumbled once, legs threatening to buckle, but I didn't stop until I saw the field, wide, open, empty.

Safe.

There, I collapsed to my knees. The world was quiet here. No eyes watching. No judgment. Just sky and wind and blood drying on my skin.

I clutched my arm, but not to stop the bleeding. I wasn't even sure I wanted to. My forehead dropped to the ground, and the grass bent beneath me. My body shook with sobs, but I didn't scream. I didn't have the strength for it.

"I'm trying," I whispered, voice raw and barely audible. "Why is it never enough?"

I wanted to be strong. I wanted to be calm. I wanted to be okay. But I wasn't. I was breaking again.

I lay there for a while, face pressed to the grass, breathing in the scent of sun-warmed earth. The sobs had dulled to quiet shakes, my chest still tight but no longer heaving.

My arm throbbed, blood seeping slowly from the shallow cuts, but even that pain felt distant now, like something happening to someone else.

The wind moved through the tall grass around me, soft and rhythmic, brushing against my skin like a lullaby.

It was the gentlest thing I'd felt in years.

Eventually, I lifted my head. The sky above me was bluer than I remembered skies could be. Not pale or hazy, not stormy. Just... blue. Open. Infinite.

A sky that didn't care who was watching. The kind of sky that made you feel small in the best way, like maybe the world was too big for any one person's pain to truly matter.

I sat up slowly, letting the grass sway around me, golden and green and soft against my legs.

There were wildflowers scattered through the field, purples and whites and tiny yellows and the breeze carried the faint hum of insects dancing somewhere nearby.

It was beautiful here.

Peaceful.

Safe.

"This would be a nice place," I murmured, voice barely more than a breath. "A nice place to stop running."

A nice place to end things. A nice place for my last memory to be something gentle.

I ran my fingers through the grass, watching the way it parted around my touch. The blood on my hand left a red smear on one of the blades. I stared at it for a long time.

"It wouldn't be so bad," I whispered. "To just... stay here. Let it all go. Let the world keep turning without me."

Because I was so tired. Tired of proving myself. Of holding back. Of being feared and never trusted. Of wanting to be loved and always being left behind.

This field didn't ask anything of me. It just existed. It just was. And maybe, just maybe, I could become part of something like that. Quiet. Still. Beautiful. No more sharp rooms. No more eyes watching. Just sky. Just peace.

I sat in the tall grass, knees drawn up to my chest, my wounded arm resting lightly across them. The sting from the glass had faded into a dull throb, but I didn't mind it.

It grounded me. Made the moment feel real. The field was still, the air warm with late sun, and I could hear the soft rustle of the wind moving through the trees in the distance.

Here, it was easy to forget everything. The silence felt like kindness. For a while, I just existed. Not as a threat. Not as a legacy. Not as a girl with sharingan eyes and too many ghosts.

Just...

Ishi.

Whoever that even was anymore. I let myself imagine it, if this were the last moment I ever had, it would be enough.

The wind, the sky, the feeling of not being hunted. I could vanish into this field and let the world forget me.

Then I felt it.

Chakra.

Faint but slowly approaching.

I didn't move. Didn't flinch. Whoever it was, they'd already found me. And honestly? I didn't care. Not until I heard the voice.

"I expected more from you."

That voice. That cold, composed disdain. My stomach clenched, and my peace evaporated into the air.

Danzo.

I lifted my head slowly, not bothering to hide the fury that curled through me like fire. My eyes narrowed, the softness from before already replaced with quiet contempt.

"Of course it's you," I muttered, voice flat.

He stepped into the edge of the field, cloak barely disturbed by the breeze, his expression unreadable, though it always was. That smug neutrality, the way he looked at people like pieces on a board.

"You always did show up at the worst possible times," I added, sarcasm laced through the exhaustion in my voice.

Danzo didn't respond at first. He merely observed me, like I was some equation he was already halfway through solving. Like I didn't matter beyond what I could do or break or be turned into.

I let out a bitter breath. I turned my face back toward the sky, not because I trusted him, but because looking at Danzo made everything inside me itch.

Even peace couldn't survive him.

A/n Didn't forget this piece of work, did ya? Enjoy~