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Eternal ( ff.net / ao3 )
[ Reincarnation / AU ] There are bonds that transcend time: a long lasting rivalry, a love so deep that the heart can never forget, friendships that shape you. Team 7 reunite once again, but they don’t know it isn’t their first meeting. When an epidemic arises in a small village in Northern Japan, the familiarity they feel towards each other begins to make sense.
So the next update is gonna be an interlude that takes place during ninja times, so we get more background and foreshadowing. Here’s a sneak peak at a few paragraphs from the opening scene.
She looked at him, a soft smile gracing her lips. It was a gentle look he was beginning to etch into his memory. He liked that smile.
“I’m just thinking about what we had to do to get here.”
His mind went a little differently than hers did. A flash of guilt invaded his thoughts. She, as well as the rest of team seven, had to fight their way into getting him back in the right state of mind. Years of his personal struggles had also affected them. He knew he was not entirely to blame. His circumstances were marred with stains of manipulation and lies that led him diving into a storm that he was not proud of falling into.
He had his sins to atone for, the sins that had made him walk away from his village a second time, but unlike the first time, he left with a lighter heart.
The night he had first left the village, all he could remember was how he felt like he had to cage his emotions and other things he deemed distracting away from his mind. Package and seal them away, so it wouldn’t make him hesitate. That was the same night she found him by the gates.
He had been angry, at first, at the sight of her. He wanted to leave without notice, and yet she stood there before him, somehow having figured out his intentions.
He knew she was intelligent, observant. It shouldn’t have come as a shock, but he knew now that it wasn’t a momentary feeling of surprise at the sight of her. It was anger. He didn’t want to have her there and beg him to stay. He was too caught up in his desire for power that nothing would have made him stay. But as her tears rolled on and her voice grew more and more desperate, he felt his resolve chip slightly. That was why he had to stop her.
She confessed that night. Though, he knew of her feelings towards him, he didn’t know how deep they had become and if her words were truly what her heart was saying and not her desperation. Back then, he knew she was important to him, but to what extent, he didn’t think it was to the same level that she had of him.
But now, years later, as the two of them walk side by side with no set destination, he had begun to notice so much more about his pink-haired teammate. She had grown from an unsure young girl to a confident force to be reckoned with. He was proud of her. He never said it out loud, but he hoped she knew.
The day he left after the war, she was there, too. But instead of tears, he left her with hope. And he had come back to fulfill his promise.
When he decided to go on this journey, he meant it when he said she had no part in his sins. Thinking back, he could understand how she could have misconstrued what he meant. That first part of his journey was to help him absolve himself of the sins he made as a ninja, to walk and see the world for what it has become in all ways, instead of the bleak lenses that had covered his gaze.
But he made her a promise. “Next time,” he said then. His first journey was for him to realize the gravity and extent of his actions. When he came back to fulfill his promise to her, it was just as much for him as it was for her. He had caused her great grief and sorrow. He did things he regretted, and he still wondered why she thought so highly of him.
It was an alleviating feeling, though, her warmth towards him. After everything he did, everything they had gone through, she still gave him the benefit of the doubt. She still waited for him. What he did to deserve that patience, he did not know. He found himself grateful for it, either way.
They have been travelling together for almost a month now, and they both felt a shift in their relationship. What started as comfortable, albeit at times awkward, companionship had morphed into steady and natural back and forths. When he needed her help, she knew when to pitch in, and when she would ask him questions, he found himself unhesitatingly answer.
Small brushes of their fingers as they set camp or the lingering gazes they shared did not go past him. Being with her had felt all the more right. Sometimes they would have conversations, and though Sakura always led them, he appreciated hearing the passion in her voice as she spoke about the clinics she had started for orphaned children and the work she was so proud of.
As she felt his fingers brush hers, she felt a rise in heat on her cheeks. A finger lingered on her hand and she felt herself open her palm, inviting his. His fingers slowly intertwined with hers, and all she could do was have the corners of her lips curve up at the newfound warmth of his palm meeting hers. The heat in her cheeks intensified and she couldn’t help but look away, a mixture of giddiness and shyness.
He didn’t say a word. He continued looking straight, but he noted how small her hand was compared to his own. Yet, those hands could do more damage than a majority of ninja ever could.
She was all sorts of contradictions. Where her fists could cause the ground beneath them to shake, her fingers were delicate, her touch soft, healing. Where she could be loud, her voice would soften and soothe and empower an audience. Where her eyes could divulge her secrets, she was a kunoichi capable of uncovering secrets that are not her own.
Aside from that, there was one thing, one word he thought of that encompassed her being. Vibrant.
Where his life had been dark, there had been sparks of light that had helped him. One of them was the bright pink light she radiated. Even then, he knew she had grown important to him. Now, she still was, but in a way he didn’t know how to describe.
What he did know, though, was that in that moment, with her slim fingers intertwined his, he felt content.
Eternal Part Two: Thallo
Interlude II: Overture will be posted tomorrow
