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| - Akemi had found herself alone on many occasions, and felt alone even more often. Countless hours spend hiding by herself in the shadows, as her title as am elite ninja required her to do, many nights spent sleeping at inn's and even the structures she refered to as her houses without another soul present and countless steps taken on lonely dirt trails with no one at her side. That had been how things had been since Manami sensei and Hado sensei had died. Though Yoru sensei remained alive, at least as far as Akemi knew, he felt like a distant memory, and had for over a year now. The only people that truly understood what Akemi was and could even begin to understand how she felt were all either dead or having long parted from her life. Alone was too weak of a word to describe what she felt. Akemi looked down at the Saki in her hand, tilting the half empty glass side to side and watching the liquid flow back and forth until droplets were falling onto the wooden surface of the bar. Alcohol was never something Akemi took interest in before. It was a luxury to others, but a hindrance and waste of money to her. Booze didn't help her become strong, and in fact made her weak, slower and more susceptible to attack. The only reason she had termed to the foul liquid was to attempt to drink so much she forgot why she was here in this rundown tavern, ignoring the passes made by intoxicated men as they approached her, which made her regret wearing her purple mesh top to a bar, and drowning out the drunken babbling of the clueless thugs that occupied a majority of the tables. So far, Akemi couldn't even bring herself to finish the first drink. The bartender, a tall bald man of about fifty, noticed Akemi's hesitance as she played with her drink and became curious as to the young woman's purpose at the bar. It was rare women who didn't happen to be "for hire" came into his establishment, even rarer a customer arrived that couldn't even finish their first drink. "That's premium Saki I gave you." the veteran bartender said to the young woman. "Are you sure you don't like it? Most people would kill for a bottle of that. Some probably have." Akemi shifted her eyes towards the bartender as he began cleaning a glass, but here eyes were the only part of her that moved. "It's not that it's bad." Akemi stated, gently setting her glass on the bar. "I just don't think getting drunk is gonna solve anything." "It rarely does." the bartender replied. "But that's never stopped anyone before." Akemi let the corner of her mouth curl into a strange smirk. "I guess your right." In one large gulp, Akemi let the remaining Saki in her glass flow down her throat, every drip burning on the way down. "You really did it didn't you ?" a man shouted from the door to the bartender, "I go out for a moment and I find you intoxicating people with high spirits," the man, Yukimura Senju said as he walked past the lone girl to the bartenders stand,shifting jobs. Looking at the girl, her crimson hair caught his eye. That was one similarity these two shared. Yukimura then began mixing some ingredients and passed a drink to the girl, the drink clear as glass with lots of foam and was served in a pewter mug. The drink smelled like fresh dirt and was given a taste like dragon breath. "Drink this, and you will be fine for a day." Noticing the symbol of the leaf in her shoulders, began to take interest in Akemi. "A Leaf on a mission eh ? I wonder what kind of a mission would Lady Sayuri be sending a youngster like you, What's your name ?" Yukimura spoke while mixing drinks to the other customers. "I'm not interested." Akemi replied, eyes fixed on the empty glass in her hand, trying to decide if the Saki had done anything to help, even though she knew it wouldn't. The drink that had been slid to her remain on the bar, foam gently sliding down the side of the glass. Akemi made not motion to get the drink, continuing to play with her empty glass. "A Stubborn girl here yeh," Yukimura spoke as he returned the change back to a customer, "That is premium all right, nobody can have a second drink, not a human at least." Yukimura continued, as he took back the drink he offered earlier and drank it himself. "What mission is it ? did you lose your comrade ?" Yukimura questioned softly trying to understand the odd girl. Akira finally looked Yukimura's way to speak, here eyes like daggers and venom in her voice. "I don't do missions anymore. I am no longer affiliated with the Leaf." The way Akemi spoke made it seem as if she had left her village some time ago, when it was in fact had only been a few days ago. "There's nothing left for me there." Akemi added, looking back at her empty glass. "Why not ?" Yukimura questioned, as he hit the table with his palms, creating an atmosphere, drawing attention of everyone present there. Yukimura's striking eyes, then intimidating people to go back on their business. "If you don't mind, think of this as a farewell gift from the village," he slowly whispered to the girl. Immediately afterwards, Yukimura asked the girl to follow him, as he made his way to the basement. It may have been her curiosity, or it may have been the Saki clouding her judgment, but Akemi decided she had nothing to lose by following the man. Standing up from the worn bar stool, Akemi rose to her feet, following a few steps behind the man as the two of them headed to the basement. Leading Akemi to a large underground coliseum, Yukimura broke the creepy silence that had manifested by the earlier battles that occurred in here. "This is where the criminals get extra income," Yukimura said, "Where several people fight to the death and many put bets, why I am revealing to you all this ? Well, you are a missing-nin, and I know from experience, people like you will eventually end up here anyway, this is also where people get rid of their drunkenness state." Missing-nin. Akemi had yet to let the label sink into her mind. There was no denying it, Akemi had abandon Konohagakure, turned her back on the village gates one last time. Even so, Akemi spent so much time away form the village that it hadn't felt significant. But suddenly the weight of that final walk down the trail away from the village was coming to light. Akemi of the Fire Diamond, Missing-Nin from Konohagakure. The moniker rang out in her head several times over before she was able to organize her thoughts and reply to the man's words. "Don't act like I'm just another damn drifter." Akemi growled, venom in her words. "Just because I show up in your dump of a bar behind a few other losers doesn't make me like them." Akemi found herself failing to suppress her anger. At first she blamed the saki for the uncharacteristic lack of emotional discipline, but the catch in her throat indicated something else. "I'm not like any of them." Yukimura's eye widened at the reply, now facing Akemi in the middle of the rusty stadium, "You know what, young girl ? You decided to run away from a important challenge. The challenge being the Will of Fire, the single Leaf. you claim you are not like any of them ? Let me tell you trash is trash, whether it is biodegradable or not is of no concern." Yukimura said with a grunt, he knew Akemi sake would take control for her for a while. He had to make sure the Leaf wouldn't wither away soon. Trash. I'm trash now? Akemi's clenched her fists as Yukimura spoke, his words cutting like knives. How many lives had Akemi saved in her lifetime? Dozens? Hundreds? How many lives had she ended for the sake of her village? At least one for every life she saved. Eighteen years, the eighteen years Akemi had been alive had been eighteen years devoted to Konohagakure. Devoted despite being barred from ever having a normal life within the village's walls, because of her "heritage" and the powers that came with it. Despite never once receiving praise or in some cased even acknowledgement for the challenging, contagious and even morally questionable deeds she had performed on the village's behalf. Despite being treated like a pawn, Akemi had been loyal. Now she was... trash? The man before her dare to call her... trash? "Trash doesn't sacrifice itself for the greater good." Akemi almost shouted, jabbing a finger at the man. "Trash doesn't save lives while receiving no reward, no recognition or even any form of respect. Trash doesn't..." The catch in Akemi's throat forces her to cease speaking for a moment, but it does not stop her entirely. "Two of the only people in this world I ever truly cared about died doing what Konoha wanted them to do, what they were instructed. They saved more lives than you or I can even contemplate, especially those within Konohagakure. They were given no funeral, no acknowledgment, not even their damn named on the Hero's Stone. They embodied the Will of Fire, they lived it, and they taught me to as well. Now they're both dead, and I have nothing to show for their efforts. Nothing!!! All because Konoha refused to even acknowledge their existence. Damn Konohagakure! Damn everyone it it! And damn that pathetic lie you call the Will of Fire!!!" "Everything not useful anymore is trash, you don't have have a memorial for your beloved useful sake, after it has gone down your stomach do you ? It is waste, it is a trash after that. I don't really know about the two people you speak of and I don't really care either, because these two are nothing compared to the thousand others who have died for the Will. It was all for what you are right now, the dead are weeping for you to continue what they did, they died for the village, and they want to do what they can't continue anymore. Achievement isn't getting your name wretched in stone or getting publicity, Achievement is when, somebody they love', continue to do what they failed to do." Yukimura lectured. Yukimura had the experience, he himself was a shadow to the hiding Leaf. He knew both the world of light and the world of darkness. The girl in front of him, was a Leaf floating in the wind. The floating leaf had no right to move where it wanted to, it was being controlled by a majestic breeze. Yukimura pondered, what was controlling the girl to join the flow of darkness, was it the death of her loved ones, which usually was the case for most missing nin, like one of his old friend. But Akemi showed no signs of taking revenge. Yukimura felt nervous, he wasn't able to convince that old friend of his, and now this girl was heading in the same pathetic direction. "Damn Karma, why now of all times ? and why a girl ?" Yukimura thought, first he needed to dig out the girls history, before he could do anything. But before Yukimura was able to question the girl, he noticed an odd shift in her demeanor. She had suddenly gone quiet, looking down at the ground with her bangs obstructing her eyes from his vision. Her fists remained clenched, her surprisingly muscular arms bulging with the effort. She appeared to be failing to suppress the swell of emotions inside her, seemingly bursting at the seams. "Don'y you dare talk about them like that." Akemi finally stated, her tone eerily calm. "You have no right, to talk about them like they were nothing." As Akemi spoke, a single tear ran down her cheek, hanging off of her chin as if refusing to separate itself and fall to the dark dirt below. "And You ?" Yukimura questioned, "You don't have the right to treat their life as nothing either. Their legacy doesn't deserve your running away from the Village and escaping your duties either." Yukimura continued, raising his voice little by little. Akemi stud in complete silence, her fist clenched in white knuckle grips. It took all of Akemi's will power not to rip the man apart. No. Akmei told herself. You have nothing to gain from fighting. Just walk away. You can't afford to fight here, just WALK AWAY! But not matter how loudly she screamed in her own head, her body wouldn't respond. Akemi simply stud, rage boiling light an overfilled tea kettle on a 1000 degree stove. "Just shut up!" Akemi shouted, tears now falling from her chin. "I can't be a Leaf Ninja anymore! You talk like I wanted this, but why do you think I cam here in the first place! You can't imagine the pain of learning your entire life was a lie! I was never a person, even to those I thought loved me." Akemi dropped down her her knees, rearing her fist over her head and punching the packed red soil before her. "It was all a lie! Everything is just a lie! Everyone can look back and say at some point in their lives they had someone that loved them! I can't even say that anymore because when I look back at all the people that were supposed to love me I just see emptiness." Akemi punched the soil with her other fist, then the other and the other until she was furiously pounding the soil with both fists. "I'll show you what my pain feels like!" Before she even knew what she was doing, Akemi clasp her hands together in the Mi hand seal, indicating she was about to unleash and Earth Release technique. Without much time to react, a stone pillar shot out form the stone wall of the arena, moving in a blur and threatening to crush Yukimura.
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