Mina was frozen on the spot. Time seemed to be frozen, yet, time could never stop. Time was a precious thing, once someone wastes it, there's no going back. Time will never stop in this merciless world for one person, it won't stop for anyone. It will keep moving, continuing, just like the circle of life... of hate. A clock is a circle, correct? Time is never-ending. It goes by, not caring about what was happening in the world, not caring for a person.
It is ignorant of the things around it, it acts as everything revolves around it. But doesn't everything link to time? Everyone knows of time, it's something that every single person will know of in the world. People underestimate the power of time. It's a dangerous thing. Someone's life could change in a second, or a minute, hour, day, week, month, year, decade...
Someone's life could change, someone could -will- die, yet time stops for no one. It's a deadly thing that can not be stopped. The ultimate weapon, the undefeated champion.
"You can only learn from the past," She finally managed to do something other than stare, eyes wide, at the Uchiha that sat next to her. She blinked, the skin between her eyebrows creasing underneath the cloth that had a piece of metal attached to it. On that piece of metal was a swirly leaf design. "But you have to make the decision to learn from it."
It was silent for a moment, "What's your point?" Itachi asked, looking at her with the usual blank expression.
She huffed and turned to look elsewhere, crossing her arms over her chest and puffing out her cheeks. "I don't know, ya know!" She responded, "Give me some time to process everything! I'm not bright, ya know!" She demanded, the crease in between her blonde eyebrows increasing as a thoughtful look overtook the childish one.
"I'm sure you're really bright," The dark-eyed male responded chuckling.
"Oh," She laughed quietly without any humour, "trust me. I barely have any light left in me." The seriousness of her voice was clear as she gave a certain look to the forest below them. "Anyway," She broke the tense silence, turning to grin at the Akatsuki member. "What I was trying to say was, what you did was for the better. I know that I won't ever be able to feel the same way you do, simply because we're on different life paths. But, Itachi, you saved a whole nation from going to war. Sacrifices need to be made, that won't change. I haven't known anyone that would turn their back on their family for the village." She saw him cringe a bit, making her smile sheepishly. "I have no right to tell you this since I'm not innocent myself, but what you did- thank you."
A soft smile replaced the grin, she watched as his eyes widened a bit, but she didn't stop there. "You're a true shinobi that I could only dream of becoming. Someone who protects from the shadows." Her smile slowly turned into a grin again, "I can't justify your actions, simply because I don't know if there is such a thing as justice in the shinobi world, ya know. We fight for our own concept of justice, but if the enemy is doing the same thing, who is wrong?"
She turned away, looking back at the destroyed village, and forest. "I won't be able to protect the village from the shadows like you have, that's for sure. I-" She brought a shaking hand to her face and clutched her head, like it was in pain, though it wasn't. "I don't even know anymore?!"
The man stayed silent, listening to every word of her rant. Her rant of confusion, her rant of frustration, her rant on life. It mostly consisted of unanswered questions. She almost started screaming at him for the answers. He silently reached the arm that was closer to her, his right, and pulled her into a side hug.
The sudden movement made the girl stop her rant, and stay rigid in his embrace. Time passed by, it felt like forever, but it was only a mere couple of seconds. Her posture relaxed as she grabbed on his cloak tightly with both hands. She buried her face further into his chest, her grip on his tightening, sending a silent message of thanks to him. His embrace tightened along with hers.
"Life sucks..." She muttered after a long while of silence, but she didn't pull away. No tears escaped her eyes. His muscly chest rumbled as a low chuckle emitted from the back of his throat.
*-*
'He knows how the Flying Thunder God works', she thought, in a feline like position staring intently at the white-haired man who only suffered a few scratches. 'But how is he able to evade every attack I throw?' Panic started to rise in the pit of her stomach, 'just who is this man?!'
"Like I said before, my name is Kirigaya, Tomoe." The man said plainly, getting rid of the dust on his clothes by patting it. Her eyes furrowed when he started to speak, "You just wondered who I was."
Her black and violet eyes widened, realising what he just had said. "How did you know?"
"You wear your emotions on your face during a fight." He said simply, standing in a relaxed manner. "To answer your question fully, I was a friend of the man that used to be called Namikaze, Minato."
Mina's knees shook from the new information given until they finally gave way. She fell on her knees due to shock. No, shocked would be an understatement. The oxygen got caught in her throat, eyes widening even more -to the point it started hurting at the edges- yet, she continued to watch the man.
"We were childhood friends, that's why I know how to evade Flying Thunder God," He said, his blue eyes becoming distant. "You're his daughter, correct?" The red-haired female absentmindedly nodded, not being able to fully process the situation.
"Your father had a great dream, it would have been achieved if he wasn't killed. He died to protect the village, a true hero. But his death brought misery to a lot, and thus, not being able to create a world of peace. He did everything with a reason, I guess that's how we became friends quickly. Because he did it for a reason. Because I was useful to his dream."
Mina slowly started to process the words he was speaking. Her eyes narrowing as she realised where he was going with his words, "Are you saying..." She stood up gradually, her red bangs shadowing her eyes, "That my father used you?" She scoffed, allowing him to answer.
"That's exactly what I'm saying. Because of my Kekkkei Genkai, he used me to make sure he became Hokage, that stupid position, he made me turn against him and attack the village! He beat me using the Flying Thunder God, rendering him a hero! I would have destroyed that stupid Hokage position if it wasn't for him wanting to protect the village!" He laughed, "and now I will finally have the joy of killing his daughter!"
"Wow, I didn't know that you, someone with a decent plan to get rid of the shinobi way, had a grudge against my dear old daddy~" She looked up a sickening grin forming on her lips, the void black finally managing to fade over the remaining violet and white. The air around them became chilly, dropping to almost freezing. The reason, unknown. "You have it wrong. He did not use you, you're just sick in the brain~! It sounds to me you attacked the village because of your jealousy."
The man's eyebrow started to twitch, his chakra going haywire. The calm and collected aura around him shattering. Mina's crazed grin, turned into a smirk, as she jumped up, ignoring the pain in her hip, as she dodged something that shot out from beneath her. Her dark gaze flickered behind her, spotting the noticeably clear ice spike. If it were not for the suns rays creating a rainbow through it, she would not have noticed it.
Her eyes moved back in front of her, only to widen in surprise. Using the momentum of flying forward, she grabbed onto the new large ice spike that was in front of her, making her rotate in a different direction. Flying in the direction of the first spike, she narrowly dodged another attack.
'So this is his Kekkei Genkai?' She questioned mentally, infusing her feet with chakra and latching herself onto one of the spikes, but soon jumping off into another to avoid another incoming frozen water spike. 'Ice?'
'If I don't give her a break, she'll lose stamina eventually,' The white-haired man thought, a smirk tugging at his lips. He moved an outstretched hand diagonally, creating another spike aimed at the female. 'She'll be so concentrated on dodging them that she won't even realise she's a trap.'
---
Mina cursed under her breath, dodging another incoming ice spike, changing her direction by kicking off the frozen water. 'It's a trap!' She screamed in her thought, kicking off another spike. Flying in the direction she came from. 'Damn! How do I get out of here if I can't stop on the ice for more than five seconds?'
Her black eyes glanced down at her black ninja boots that started to frost over every time she stayed attached to the ice. 'There's no way out of here, not without melting the ice or shattering it.' Her brain was thinking of possible ways out as she jumped off the ice she was standing on and onto another piece. 'It's like an Ice dome!'
A small light bulb appeared above her head when a good enough idea popped into her mind. She gathered chakra into the fingertips of her middle finger and thumb on her left hand and clicked them together. Sparks flew out of the friction she created in a millisecond, soon becoming a large flame, taking form into a dragon.
The flame dragon hit the circular ice wall, that was surrounding Mina, creating a tremendous amount of steam. She closed her void-black eyes, in a way of shielding her eyes from the heat. When she reopened them, they widened, even more, realising that the fire didn't do anything to weaken the ice.
'Well, that didn't work.' A sigh escaped her lips as she jumped off the ice and onto another piece, repeating the process. 'Maybe....'
She tired flashing out of the dome to one of the kunai that were on the other side of the dome. But when she slammed into the frozen wall, she knew that it wouldn't work anytime soon. 'Right.... he knows everything about FTGT. Then how-' Before she was able to finish the mental question, the voice cut her off.
'Are you ignoring me?' It said.
"I just want to see the extent of my own power," Mina responded in a mutter.
'I am yours, don't you remember. This is your power,' He returned, 'Use me.'
Her mind went blank, with only the words the voice left her. 'He insulted your family. Didn't you say you'll become the monster they all fear when someone does that?'The frozen water shattered like it wasn't the thing that was stopping her moments ago. It broke so easily.
A golden glow surrounded her bracelet, intensifying until it took form into the familiar black katana. Her blood red hair floating upwards, flying around vigorously. Dark blue, almost black, liquid-type substance started leaking out of her being, dripping onto the ice pieces below her.
The man's eyes widened once he laid eyes on the figure standing in the midst of the broken pieces of ice. A dark blue liquid thing was rolling off her hitting the floor by her feet, like a slow waterfall of blue washing-up liquid, surrounding her shape and disappearing when it reached a certain distance. Long animalistic claws gripping the black katana tightly -with blood veins popped from the strain and breaking holes in the white glove. Blonde unkept eyebrows turned downwards in anger, creating the skin between to crease many times. Whisker-like marks seeming to be more noticeable than they usually are. Her eyes, when they locked onto the man's eyes, showed no mercy. How could they? The blackness in them was so clear, the darkness in them. Drawing him in, like an endless pit of oblivion. He wanted to find out more of this thing in front of him, wanting to figure out what that look told him. But one thing was clear (just as clear as his ice) when he looked into the blackness of her eyes, her true emotions were hidden under piles and stacks of lies, creating a large and thick wall around her. And, it took a split second to notice, that he wouldn't be able to tear through the wall just to find out that emotion that was lurking, curled up in a tiny ball, isolating itself from everything. The only emotion showing on her face, anger. Though it could be a mixture, fury, rage, bitterness and... madness. The female's long hair was flying around like Medusa's snakes, almost turning him into stone when he laid his eyes on her.
"You said my father used you." Her voice changed drastically, not the mocking it was before. It was human-like, yet not. "Humans are such stupid creatures that can't see the bigger picture. He was only trying to protect everyone from your madness." Her lips twitched up, spreading into an empty smile, a very scary smile that held cruel intentions. "He failed, and it's my turn to do what he couldn't." She took a threatening step forward, "See you in the next life. That is, if there is one. Bye bye~"
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Hope you enjoyed this chapter and well.... yeah.
Thanks for reading!
Unedited, 18/12/17
Barry-The-Berry~