Dusk sank toward night, the horizon holding on to one last wash of red.
In a quiet clearing of the Leaf's forest, a blindfolded girl in black innerwear stood with her arms spread, a slim figure like a crucifix set upright in the fading light. Her pale skin took on the sky's last blush.
Konome Taketori faced Might Guy's conflicted expression and waited for his verdict in stillness.
Knots are best untied early. There was no point drawing this out, and she had no time to keep playing charades with him.
She had come to the Leaf for one reason, to grow strong quickly.
She had killed plenty in the Mist and her face would already be pinned on a Kirigakure ANBU board. A reckoning would come sooner or later. She wondered if Kuryu Shun was even alive.
If the Byakugan was exposed, the Hyuga would be another problem, the Caged Bird curse seal a sword hanging by a thread.
Worse, she carried the Shikotsumyaku.
Obito Uchiha, the butcher behind a clan's annihilation, had to die. After the Taketori were erased, the Leaf's Root or Orochimaru would never leave the world's other surviving bone-bloodline in peace if word leaked.
And the Shikotsumyaku's hereditary disease ticked like a bomb.
Right now her tailed-beast chakra stock was small. If she ate more in the future she might end up fighting Akatsuki.
Then there was the Fourth Great Ninja War, and the world-ending calamity named Otsutsuki Kaguya.
Just thinking through the troubles ahead made her temples pulse. In practice it meant she could not afford to stop training, not for a breath.
Guy was a crucial piece of that path.
A rare taijutsu sparring partner. The living key to the Eight Gates. Most of all, the title daughter gave her access to the Leaf's center.
If he turned against her, it would slow everything.
That was unacceptable.
So before things blew apart, she might as well lay it all bare and see if he would forgive her.
Guy looked at the girl holding herself open to his anger. His fist clenched, hard enough to creak.
"Do not strike family. Do not bully the weak. Do not attack an enemy who has laid down the will to resist. Strength exists to protect."
His father's teachings echoed until he could not swing. He remembered the sentence she had spoken last night when she handed him his father's photo. There is no secret more important than family.
Someone who could say that could not be beyond saving.
And in truth, she had not done anything unforgivable yet.
"You are from the Mist?"
Konome heard the softening under his question and felt a small lift in her chest.
"Kirigakure is my enemy. Their shinobi killed my parents. I seek strength to take revenge for my family."
"Why did they kill them?"
"I do not know."
She shook her head.
She knew only that the Mist, or rather Obito Uchiha from behind its fog, coveted something that belonged to the Taketori. She still did not know what the object was.
Guy searched her face and found no hint of a lie.
Only a clean steadiness.
But he would not simply take her word. He would test her in his own way.
Chakra flooded his legs. Muscle bunched like rebar.
Konome's eyelids twitched.
The swell of his physique was a visible shock wave.
Boom.
The tall green form shot forward like a shell. A fist the size of a melon tore the air and hammered toward her face.
She did not move.
The bandaged knuckles stopped a hair's breadth from her nose. The silver hair snapped back in the gust.
"Konome." Guy held that fist rigid and locked his gaze on her. "There is nothing wrong with avenging family, but you cannot trade away your bottom line for power."
"I will forgive you, and I will even teach you how to train the Eight Gates the right way. In return you will promise me this. You will not sell your soul for strength, and you will not harm the Leaf."
"I swear I will not do anything that harms the Leaf," Konome said, letting out a slow breath. Her answer was solemn.
"All right. Then I forgive you."
He lowered his hand. She had deceived him, yes, but she had not done evil, and he could not bring himself to beat her bloody. Most important, she had already read the scroll. If she kept quiet, he would never have known. Yet she had chosen to admit it and ask forgiveness.
He heard the sincerity.
She was a pitiful soul too.
Thinking of her ruined clan and her sightless eyes, pity crowded out the last heat of his anger.
"Shall we… go home?" he asked carefully, the moment's intensity leaving behind an awkward quiet.
Konome nodded, picked up her cloak, shook off the dust, and swung it over her shoulders.
The sky had gone dark. The warm breath of daylight still seeped through the trees. Far off, a scatter of windows glowed, a map of hope and safety.
She watched him fumble for words and sighed inwardly.
This really was the kind of man who could be won back with a sincere apology. If even Obito Uchiha could be forgiven in the end, her little sins hardly counted.
With Guy, her hidden risk was plucked out. Life in the Leaf would be open country ahead.
Tomorrow she would start elemental nature training in earnest. Daily taijutsu with Guy. Once she secured the Shadow Clone Technique, her growth would surge.
The thought set her humming. For once, her mood lifted.
Grrr.
Her stomach announced itself. Hunger burned in her belly.
It was late.
"Guy, did you make dinner?"
"Of course. I left a big pot of curry simmering when we stepped out."
"Oh. Good."
She fell in behind him, and they started back toward the village.
They had not gone far when they both stopped.
They looked at each other.
"Guy, when you left, did you turn the stove…"
"Konome, I think I did not…"
They spoke in unison, then cut off together.
The forest seemed to hold its breath.
In the distance, among the pricks of household lights, one home already shone suspiciously bright.
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