I am Asami [Village Escape]

Some wounds never truly heal.

Sure, we go through life thinking we've put past failings and tragedies behind us. We live our lives as if everything was as normal as it could be, but then something happens that changes all that. It could be a sight, a sound, a name, or even a taste that reopens a long-closed wound afresh as if it had always been there. For Asami Miyamoto, this trigger was a rumor, a rumor that her parents yet lived.

Everything had been going so well and even the young chuunin had begun to forget.

Hope, however, shattered her fragile resolve and exhumed her hopelessness from deep within her heart. She heard it on the docks roughly a week ago from one of the merchants who often made sanctioned trips to the mainland. The name of her parents' downed ship, The Inlet, came up and she learned that there were survivors living in the land of tea. No one ever mentioned her parents by name, but the thought of them living in some foreign land ate at the girl and festered.

These emotions all led up to a single starless night that found Asami standing alone by her family's boat, her boat. Nothing grand, the sailboat had served her well and taught her to love the sea. In a few short hours, it would meet its greatest test, Kirigakure's grand storm wall. For now, however, the girl looked out into the blackness of the sea and into the distant flashes of lightning that marked the beginning of the wall itself.

She couldn't wait any longer.

Naoki left the building. He had just finished dealing with a trader whom he had business with in the past. The man had ways to obtain special resources and material that the Uchiha needed for his experiments, but most importantly for creation of his seal clones - the Exemplars. Last time simple coin did the trick, but as the man was finding himself less concerned with such things, he happened to walk into that situation without any on him. Naturally he wasn't prepared though and in exchange he brought a series of scrolls and sealing formulas devised and made by himself. Explaining their worth and the fairness of the exchange took time however and now it was dark. Tugging more firmly into the cloak shaped manipulated fabric Naoki would start walking the mist covered path that would take him partly through the docks and then to his house. There was a lot of preparation to be done.

The man's steps on the creaking wooden platform would halt as his his senses caught some kind of movement by the boats. Turning to look in that direction, his sharingan and sensory quickly recognized the presence of a shinobi. More so, it seemed somehow familiar to him although he would not be able to attach a name to it. The former leader hesitated, glancing back at the path he was walking. Why should he bother? There did not seem to be any threat here and he was really eager to get back and start using the stuff he got. But something else was also gnawing at him. Simply put, he was curious what reasons a shinobi of the village would have to fiddle with the boat at this hour, when not even sailors were working and in a place clearly not on any standard patrol routes. It was also somewhat frustrating that he couldn't remember who this person was, despite definitely having met them before.

So, in less than half a minute one side of that argument won and on the condition of "just a few minutes and then back home" Naoki,with the back of materials still in his hand, started walking deeper into the dock and towards the female form shrouded in the dark.

[Using sharingan, but Thousand Faces is also still in effect masking sharingan's appearance]

Everything was set to go.

All she had to do was get on the boat, unfurl the sails, and allow the soft evening breeze to do the rest. She'd gone through this same process a thousand times before, but never with the intent of never returning. She had nothing to keep her any longer. Perhaps at one point she could have talked to Hayate, but she still couldn't bear to face him and so she only found refuge in her own dark thoughts.

Neither Azami nor Asumi were any help in the matter either—they didn't even know she was leaving.

And yet, she still found herself petrified at the end of the dock as she contemplated the task before her. It all seemed so straightforward in her head, but now? Well, now, faced by the immensity of the task at hand she faltered. The young girl had never been brave and it showed now. She should have left an hour ago, but she couldn't make herself do it. Instead, she triple checked everything on the boat and then allowed herself to second guess herself time and time again.

The familiar creaking of the docks drew her attention away from the storm and to the source of the sound behind her.

A distant flash of lightning threw the small girl's form into sharp relief. Wrapped in a tattered black cloak over a brown slicker, the girl looked like any other sailor save for her smaller stature and headband of Kirigakure around her neck. The backlighting of the storm also revealed the clean scar across the right side of her face that went back to her abbreviated earlobe before disappearing in her head of black hair and served as a souvenir from her trip to Konoha.

"Oh..." Asami gave a half nod to the figure approaching her. "Hello..."

She turned her back on the masculine figure and returned her gaze to the storm circle.

Her heart began to beat a little faster.

Gekou-sama.

As he got closer and the person turned to face him Naoki finally got to see the face. He recognized the girl as one of the two Chuunin candidates he had led to Konoha; if memory served him, this one was the champion and her name was Asami. The girl wasn't dressed much different from the Uchiha man, although his manipulated fabric did not look tattered and it did not take on much of the brown color. It was otherwise just how he would normally dress, though slightly warmer - Naoki's rainy days edition.

As he got within a couple steps range the now Chuunin half-nodly greeted him and then to his mild amusement turned away to face the distant storm that was providing most of the illumination of this scene. Naoki would stop within arm's reach of her and then ask. "Am I disturbing you?" He would wait for her response while taking in the details of the immediate surroundings, specifically the boat he found her next to. Most likely after her response or lack thereof he would inquire further. "This is a strange time to go sailing, if that's what you are preparing the boat for. I hear that can be quite dangerous."

Almost as dangerous as leaving Kirigakure or driving while drunk.

"No."

The girl's response to the man's initial question came to her lips involuntarily. Asami was many things, but she was not a liar. And, truthfully, it was nice to have someone there, even if they were someone who would surely stop her. Perhaps that was what she had longed for since her parents' passing, someone to be there. Hayate had become distant, Azami and Asumi had their own agendas, and the village was far from understanding of the human weakness that Asami had in spades. Yes, despite the fact that his next observation sent Asami's heart rate ever higher, it was nice to have the deputy kage there.

"It's not that dangerous," her despondent gaze remained on the churnning waters before her. "The fishermen do it all the time. I used to go with my father..."

She paused and took a breath.

"Gekou-Sama," the chuunin turned to face the man as a distant flash of lightning illuminated both their figures. "Did you always want to be a shinobi?"

Alright, so he heard wrong then. The way the Chuunin ended the line with a reference to her father did not slip past his net and some suspicions started to bud. The deputy kage had read the files of the two candidates before taking them to the Leaf and if memory served him, this one did not have her parents with her anymore. It was honestly not all that uncommon for shinobi, but it was one of the things the Uchiha man would pay attention to. He considered the presence of parents to be a major influence on any child's life and in turn considered himself to be lucky to still have at least one living parent. The question that followed the pause only helped to indicate some kind of a problem here.

The question caught the man somewhat off guard and seeing as he did not have an immediate answer, and also the signs that there was something more to all of this Naoki decided to put the whole Exemplar crafting thing on hold until tomorrow. He would let his eyes wander a little, to show the girl facing him that he was thinking, but then without a long pause he would respond. "I assume a straight yes or no answer would not suffice here. How about we take the boat out for a go around the isle; I can't say I've sailed at night before and it should take long enough for me to answer this and your next question." Should she agree to his proposition, the man would throw the black dust filled sack into the boat and hop in after.

"Hmm..." the girl cast a longing glance at the storm wall as if to contemplate making a run for it then and there. "...Ok."

Not much liking her chances of fleeing outright, the young chuunin thought better of it for the time being and in a few well-practiced movements slipped aboard the familiar vessel. No longer than twenty-three feet in length, the small sloop cut a sleek profile with a compact cabin near the bow and lacquered wood trim decorating the deck. It was a far cry from the larger fishing vessels around her, but the small boat could be skippered by a single person and made up for its size with its speed. Perhaps then, it was fitting that one would find 'The Whisper' scrawled artfully on the stern paying homage to the way it sliced soundlessly through the waves surrounding Kirigakure.

Running on habitual autopilot as Naoki boarded, Asami gave the boat a once over making it the fourth time that evening she'd gone through the same motions. One moment she was checking the hatches in the cabin, the next she was securing the anchor at the bow, and then in the last she was undoing the bow lines. The repetition calmed her nerves and settled her heart as she shifted down the boat releasing the midship lines and, finally, the stern lines.

Pushing off from the dock, the young girl allowed the strange current of Kirigakure's harbor to do the rest. Yes, sometimes having a huge whirlpool near your central harbor had its advantages, like how it essentially pulled unmoored boats out to sea [though more than a few negligent sailors would definitely have called it a disdvanatage]. The trick was, of course, not getting caught in the whirlpool itself on the way out or in of the harbor—there was a reason only the most experienced sailors made their living in Kirigakure of late.

Navigating by her wits alone, trusting her own experience, and feeling the building strength of the whirlpool’s pull as they left the main marina, Asami knew it was time to break from the once helpful current's grasp. Locking the rudder in place, she scampered to the front of the boat to raise the sails. A more novice sailor would have probably fumbled with the lines in the darkness, but the teen's hands found all the right places and in no time at all had both the mainsail and headsail furling out into the storm-wall-generated wind.

In a flash, she was back by the stern with her hand wrapped around the familiar wooden tiller. Then, in a slow deliberate motion, she pulled the tiller far to port sending the bow to starboard and away from the pull of the whirlpool. For a few tense moments, nothing happened until, seemingly all at once, the boat picked up speed as it slungshot itself out of the whirlpool's influence and into calmer waters with the help of the ever-present wind.

Asami took a breath and stole a glance at her passenger before returning her attention to the mist-shrouded waters. While she certainly had more experience sailing than most, she was still not able to navigate effortlessly in darkness like her father had. She had to pay attention.

"So..." she prompted in little more than a whisper.

So...what are you doing, Asami?

The girl did not seem to want nor need his assistance as she checked everything on the boat and then pushed off from the dock. There weren't any significant worries about both of their safety in Naoki's mind as Asami was displaying great finesse and expertise in handling the boat. That and because the Uchiha knew even if something were to go wrong, he could get both of them to safety in an instant, so if she was risking anything that would only be her boat. While the Chuunin was taking them out of the harbor the former leader picked up the small bag he had tossed in and bringing it to his sleeve channeled a little bit of chakra into the fabric. The surface of the strange cloth seemed to momentarily take on a sheen and the sack containing the special dust sank into it, being sealed and stored inside his regalia. Then he grabbed onto the nearest rope and enjoyed the show while Asami maneuvered to take the boat into the sea.

When they were clear of the whirlpool the Chuunin let him know she was ready to hear his answer. And given her well done departure and the possible inconvenience he has caused Naoki felt he owed her a useful and heartfelt response. "I think most people have doubts or wonder what their life could be from time to time. Especially during ups and downs. I am no exception and I will admit there were times when I considered disappearing and having my peace. And it happened both when I was very happy and when I was hurting." The first of the two times that came to his mind was before his involvement with Denkiteki and Akatsuki, before he met Xyxer, back when Shimagakure was peaceful, back when he was with Caithe, back when there was a chance for a peaceful life. The second was after his greatest disaster, after he and Youka had crushed Kumogakure, when he was contemplating the suffering he had caused and the direction he should take. Naturally there would have to be a but. At this point Naoki was already aware of the force that made him continue the struggle the same force that caused his to pursue this path in the first place and one that he only noticed when it disappeared. Unfortunately it was not something the man was willing to reveal, but he would try to give his as much useful clues as he could without compromising his secret. "There are usually other things we are not noticing that push us forward. I know I did not feel like I had much of a choice but to be a shinobi for most of my life. Do you feel like your choice to become a kunoichi was unbiased or maybe there could be something else pushing you?"

Asami did not respond at first.

Instead, she silently saw to their course taking special care to not skirt too close to one of the island's more treachours reefs. Not more than a couple of months ago words would have spilled from her mouth with neither rhyme nor reason, but not now. Things had changed; she had changed—time and tragedy muted her once immutable optimism and crushed her once uncrushable spirit. After all, how could she go through life glib and happy knowing that it could all be snuffed out in the cruelest ways imaginable? So, yes, for nearing on a minute the young girl remained silent as she gazed out into the inky blackness of the sea.

"I wasn't supposed to become a kunoichi, you know," she finally admitted. "Before..."

She paused considering her next words carefully.

"Before Kirigakure," she continued hoping the man would understand what she meant by invoking the village's name and all it entailed. "I was going to work at sea with my father. But then the Mizukage arrived and my parents thought it best that I do what every kid my age was doing and enter the academy to serve our new village."

A soft rueful laugh slipped past her lips as if to underscore the absurdity of it all.

"Did you know," she glanced over at the man with a single tearing running down her face. "I failed my first genin exam and then only barely passed my second one?"

At this point, the girl's voice wavered with unsuppressible emotion.

"But I did it for them," she couldn't even bring herself to say the word 'parents' let alone their names. "And for a while it was fine; I met friends, saw the world, and felt normal. B-but now they're gone and I can't bring myself to go on without knowing—"

She averted her gaze from her companion as tears began to stream down her small face. In her emotional tumult, Asami's hand loosened on the till and the boat slipped aimlessly out to sea. For so long she had kept her tears to herself with no outlet and now, atop the waves with a strange man, it felt as if her very soul were pouring from her eyes onto the wooden deck of The Whisper.

It hurt.

Everything hurt.

Asami did not seem to be immediately responding, so Naoki turned around to look forward through the front of the ship. After almost a minute she began speaking and he turn his head a bit to lock his sharingan on her as he listened. He understood the emotional shackles of the Mist, the constant danger that came with being a shinobi and the paradoxical state she was in right now, with the main reason of her being a ninja gone. And he saw a certain similarity to a state he had experienced a while back, except unlike her he was not willing to go look for what used to drive him, as he had found it not to be good enough for him.

When the girl could no longer hold her sadness and finish the sentence he remained motionless, allowing her to cry for a moment or two. Then he let the rope he was holding on go and walked up to her. Standing on the other side of the tiller he would grasp the wooden lever closer to the base than she held it and gently return it to the position she maintained before loosening her grip. If he had a second left arm, he would probably would have placed it on her shoulder, but that wasn't quite possible for him yet. Maybe in the future. For a moment Naoki found himself thinking what Xyxer would do in this situation. The girl was clearly displaying weakness, which wasn't something the Mizukage appreciated, but the Uchiha had also found his conqueror to be quite intuitive and psychological at times. He was probably equally likely to punish her as he was to help her, even if it wasn't in the most comforting way.

Well, Naoki wasn't Xyxer and he did things differently. "Do you regret it?" He would ask after giving the young Chuunin a healthy amount of time to shed tears. "Would you choose to be a sailor over a kunoichi now? I imagine you might be thinking that if you had chosen that path, they might not have died, you could have done something about it, but that's not how this world works; we never know what would have happened. At most we get to choose what to do from now on."