Set Free

          IT SMELLED AS CLEANNESS, if that state even had a scent. Yoko could feel the events as they happened, in her bones. They were just an echo, in her mind: she was overwhelmed by the pain and she collapsed the moment her childhood memory helped her from the ground.

   Blinking slowly, the girl's hands curled underneath the sheets she has been carefully placed beneath. The bed was hard under her, but the feeling of rest was something her muscles ached for too long not to enjoy it now.

   However, the moment she tried to stand, a voice cut through the silence of the nursing chamber.

   "I wouldn't recommend moving."

   The simple, masculine tone mixed with her sudden muffled yelp and she sat back into the pillow. Her eyes eagerly searched the room until they fell on a dark haired boy.

   Sasuke looked at her neutrally, in a side glance, interrupting his contemplative stare at the window. He sat in wooden chair. "You were severely wounded and they couldn't heal you completely. Move too much and you'll bleed yourself to death."

   "I can almost bet I bled more than you, thank you," Yoko huffed, her tiredness washed away for the sake of irony. "And what? You've been there, staring at me the whole time? I'd like to know your name before we get this personal."

   If Naruto was angrier, this would be how he talked, Sasuke mentally sighed to that thought. His team was held accountable for bringing a stranger into the village, but at the mannerism and dramatic scenes of Naruto, the Hokage allowed her stay only if they could all deliberately vouch for her.

   They did.

   Another sigh escaped Sasuke's parted lips, without even realizing he let silence build up between them. He just recalled all the crazy things that happened in these days while Yoko was recovering.

   "How do you know Naruto?" his voice finally beamed through the peacefulness of hearing the birds sing outside. Yoko hasn't heard them in so very long.

   It was her time to sigh now.

   She couldn't have possibly known that Naruto was questioned by Sakura too, and that was his same reaction as well. This other duo was standing on some swings, in the small park. With their unexpected need to vouch for someone, they weren't given any other missions, so time passed by slower.

   "Yoko...," Naruto trailed off. Sakura was watching him, careful enough to notice that small smile lifting just a bit the corners of his mouth. She observed that this must have been one of his happy memories.

   "We were both quite young when we met," his blue eyes looked happily to the horizon, his hands slumped in his lap and feet grazed the sand beneath the swing. "Before the academy got annoying," he added. "We were both probably around six or seven..."

   The pink haired girl listened patiently to this story as Naruto went on, in a calm voice, unlike most of his amusing and entertaining stories. "She came with an odd letter in town, all on her own. She was staying with the Hokage then, from what I remember."

   "With the Hokage?" Sakura furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. She might have been quite a big deal at that age..., she thought.

   Naruto just shrugged, "Don't ask me why. I barely asked her anything in that week she stayed here either way."

   "Only one week?" she questioned again, more and more confused. Judging by their reunion in the forest, she would have thought they had at least a year of history. But just a week?

   "The best week of my life," to her surprise, Naruto suddenly beamed with a big smile at her. "We met on the playground. She was very good at making flower crowns back then and she made some for the girls and boys. Someone, however, started a fight. And when I was about to interfere..."

   A typical Naruto thing to do at six years old... Sakura mentally noted, unimpressed.

   "I had nothing to interfere in. That boy was running away, quite scared. I still have no idea how she managed that..."

   "Huh? That's odd.."

   "Aha," Naruto interrupted, proudly placing his hands on the back of his neck, relaxing in a straight posture. "I knew that very moment that I had to be friends with this new girl. And that was easy, because she..."

   "She didn't know you like everyone else?" Sakura finally smiled along the story.

   Naruto simply shrugged. It was true, that was his thought back then... that no one would ever befriend him, because everyone seemed to be happy just with the rumours.

   "She became my friend, we taught each other a couple of things... I had no idea it was possible to learn easily until she was my partner in doing so," he took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. His gaze fell to the ground beneath.

   "And then, one night, I woke up with a big... explosion?" He seemed confused about what happened too. "There were shouts, arguments, and all I remember is seeing from my window how a Jonin, a woman, was taking Yoko away. There was no fire anywhere, no sign of a fight... but I know what I heard."

   The same story was heard by Sasuke. He was less touched by it. Yoko's tone was dreamy, falling into the remembrance of her last days as someone free.

   "Then what happened?" the raven haired boy crossed his arms at his chest after having helped the girl sit up against her pillow. "If there wasn't a fight, nor an explosion... what was it?"

   "You wouldn't understand. No one ever lets us understand things like that..."

   By now, something was clear to Sasuke, the quiet observer: Yoko spoke more like a Jōnin than as a girl the same age as him. She had the wisdom of sorrow and loss in her eyes, but not in the shape of anger, as any usual teen, but more in the shape of the quietness. The quiet before the storm. He liked that, though he, himself, would rather find comfort in rage.

   He just had begun wondering what exactly happened to this girl to forge her into someone with so much raw potential. But then, a shift in the air of the room happened and Naruto burst in, greeting them both with wide eyes.

   "Yoko, you're awake..."

   Sasuke straightened up and stretched his arms above his head, "You can take over with your shift now, I am tired." He admitted nonchalantly and nodded with neutrality at the blonde. Sasuke exited the room and the door closed behind him.

   Finally, the song of the birds was heard by the girl again. Her eyes were fixed on Naruto's and he looked at her without being able to move. He felt trapped between more than just one emotion. The calm and lack of feeling in her dark eyes unsettled him.

   "Where have...?"

   "We don't have time for this," Yoko cut him off before he could even finish his question. It was as if she already knew what he wanted to say. Now, that definetely angered Naruto and he glared her way, out of instinct.

   "You leave one night without saying goodbye and we don't see each other for twelve years. I think we have plenty of time to talk about how you left a trail of your own blood through the forest! That was reckless and so unlike you!"

   "Maybe I wanted to be found," Yoko remained dismissive, watching his features change between anger and concern. Finally, her next move puzzled him: she smiled.

   "What...?"

   "I've missed you," she laughed lightly. But Naruto's instinct of smiling right back to her was short lived once the girl grimaced, holding her side. He rushed by her side and took the seat next to her bed. He turned to her eagerly.

   "Tell me who did this."

   Yoko looked up, confused by the determination in his eyes. We have only been friends for one week and yet, after twelve years, he is determined to help me? What a fool..., Yoko thought.

   She shook her head, "The same person that now knows too much."

  "Huh?" Naruto tilted his head to the side. He rested his hands on the margins of his seat.

   "They had a ninja who could get into other people's thoughts. He got into mine and the last thought he captured from me was our meeting when we were kids. He saw you, Naruto. And he saw these streets," Yoko sighed. "I couldn't take him out while I made my escape so Lord Akamatsu knows about us knowing each other."

   "Lord Akamatsu...," Naruto repeated, serious, tasting that name on his lips.

   Yoko nodded along, "He's a dangerous man, Naruto. One of the most dangerous Jonin that have separated from his village. He wears no symbol and he works only for himself. Now, he's ruling over those that have joined his quest for power. He has an army..."

   "Ha!" Naruto suddenly exclaimed, making Yoko dart her eyes at him, just in time to see his confidence vibrate through his smile. "This Akamatsu might have an army, but we are the best ninjas, he'll never find you..."

   "Don't be an idiot!" she cut him off, leaving him speechless, right in the middle of his boosting. "I came here only to warn you. The longer I stay here, the more I put you in danger. Lord Akamatsu will send his people only to scout at first. He won't attack for another month at least. But when he does, if I am here, he'd have known all about you, all about the people who defend Konoha."

   "Impossible," Naruto shook his head. "You are still wounded and I am not letting you go anywhere in this state."

   He got up from his seat, unable to process the warning of the girl. They met when she used to smile more often and joke all the time. This Yoko was different.

   And that thought was proved and solidified as a common truth, because she stood up, despite her wounds and bandages, just to prove a point. Her knees immediately started shaking, but she looked more determined than ever at Naruto.

   "I am not the girl you knew, just like you are no longer that child. I am telling you, let me get out of here or there will be war coming towards this village."

   Naruto's eyes widened. She was barely holding herself together, but she stood up, still. He understood then: she had lost things. Just like him. He could finally relate and he wished he could just pull his oldest, his first friend, into a hug. She looked like she needed it.

   "If I let you go, whoever they are, they'll capture you and they will get exactly what they want. I can't lose you again. And...," he interrupted himself, shaking his head.

   Finally, Yoko tightened her fists and closed her eyes in pain, collapsing back into the low bed. "Fine." She agreed too easily, even for ehr own like. But looking him in the eyes and telling him she had to leave was harder than she expected. And she would have been a liar if she didn't admit it hurt her. "I will stay, but only until I can walk, you hear me, blondie?"