For Nobara

Chapter 16: Make a Murderer Out of Me

Temari looks weary.

She looks at Nobara leaning over the flowerbed she brought her to. She looks no different from the other children in the village, picking at the sand flowers just like that. And that way, the sand-haired girl just can't bring herself to look at her any differently.

"Do you like them that much?" she asks, because to her, the flowers are nothing impressive.

Temari has always been under the impression that it was because of their color, that's why the child likes them. But the sand flowers were lackluster in that aspect, their petals dull and few, as if in compensation for their ability to survive in the dry soils.

But it's exactly why the child admires them, when they're so different from her.

"Yes..." Nobara answers as her hand glide over the flowers to feel their petals on her palms. It's only subtly that a whispered layer of ice coat their surface.

"That reminds me, your name... it means wild rose, doesn't it?"

And only briefly, the child looks up at Temari because of her words. There is a distant look in her eyes as she hears an echo.

"...my little wild flower..."

"Pretty." Temari smiles softly, yet at the same time her mind too is quite astray.

Until now, Temari hasn't at all thought about bringing her here, even though she knew of the child's love for such things. Though, as if she's separating her from the other villagers, it's as though she's also grown quite wary of her now.

"I wonder if that's the reason your name is Nobara..."

The child knows the sand-haired girl doesn't mean anything by it, but somehow it brings an unpleasant taste in her mouth. She wishes it really is something like that, but she knows the truth is far from it.

"Why are you so kind to me?" Nobara asks, because she only feels miserable. And that's something the sand-haired girl realized too, because those murky dark eyes have already seen right through her, how she only acted for how she wished she could be with someone else. But long before, the child has already learned not to covet things from others.

This kindness doesn't belong to you, its sharp sinister voice whisper over the child's fragile shoulders. It's grown heavier since the last time it has manifested, stronger.

The sun feels unpleasant, but it's the only thing that's keeping the child sane and keeping it from engulfing her completely in that moment.

"Nobara..." Temari takes a step forward, feeling the need to explain. But the child backs away from her. Because anymore than that, the child is afraid she might just kill her.

She breathes. She breathes heavily, until she stills.

"Lady Temari."

The sand-haired girl flinches, almost reluctantly breaking her gaze from the child before her eyes fall onto a familiar face she has countless of times seen in her father's office.

"Have I come at the wrong time?" the man asks, but his expression tells her that he cares very little for the answer to that. More so, when his attention moves on just as quickly as his eyes travel towards the small child just behind the Kazekage's daughter.

"Yūra... what are you doing here?"

"You haven't heard?" he asks, but her confusion answers him enough. "It's a shame you have to hear it from me... but I'm taking over your task, Lady Temari."

At his response, she looks at him in disbelief. "What are you talking about...?"

"Well, it seems the Kazekage isn't satisfied with how this led to, Lady Temari. After all, for the past few days, what have you gained?" he speaks without even blinking. "Do you even have any idea why you were given this task to begin with?"