[CLOSED]Unexpected Visitor

[Rain21199]

It was another normal day for Zakuro. He was bored out of his mind with stacks and stacks of paperwork. As a Genin, Zakuro had always imagined that the people who were appointed above him got to go on cool, secretive missions all the time. The reality was much more dull. It was sign this, approve that, send something back for corrections or deny it altogether. He had to balance a budget for crying out loud. He'd rather be out there risking his life, but the fact that he wasn't was probably for the best. If he wasn't needed, it meant that there wasn't much going on. Good for Konoha, not so good for Zakuro's sanity.

There were two reasons why his office door swinging open startled the hell out of him. Reason one was he was only an hour into his work day. It was 0530. Nobody was ever up this early to go see him. The second reason was that his secretary always knocked. Whoever was coming in wasn't her. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the long black hair, pure white eyes, and the pretty face of Hyuuga Aina. He hadn't heard from her since she left him laying in the dirt with a red face and a broken heart. Now here she was.

The Chuunin immediately got to his feet, the look of surprise frozen on his face. His chair flew backwards and rattled on the ground. "Aina! Wha... What are you doing here?" The man said in an alarmed tone. For a moment he forgot his place. He quickly regained his composure and fixed his chair. "Sorry, what I meant to say was, what brings you in today?" He remained standing but Zakuro tried his best to relax.

[Willoria]

To say it took awhile for Aina to work up her courage for this moment would be a serious understatement. The bannin and mother had wronged a young man who looked up to her, and that had eaten away at her for so long. That, and the long list of things that had happened before it that had led up to that moment. She had regretted it since it happened, and had hoped to be one of the ones to bring him back to the Village. She hadn't had the chance however. Her own issues coupled with responsibilities took the chance from her. She had feared he would pay further for that, but thankfully he had not and now was even poised to take over a position she had once held within the Mamorinuku herself.

It made her proud.

But she was still terrified of seeing him again. Eventually she worked up her courage and came to visit him at his office. She had meant to do so quietly, her own nerves making a fool of her as it swung open wildly and for a moment she found herself just staring at him wide-eyed. But as he went from startled to trying to be professional, she couldn't help a bit of a chuckle at the entire situation. "No need to be so formal, Zakuro." she said rather quietly, turning to shut the door behind her before finally walking further into the room. "I need to talk to you about what happened actually..." she said, reaching back to scratch the back of her head as she tried to think how to tell him. To inform him of all of it would mean bearing her soul. Only Takeo knew her so well to know every detail of what had happened and led up to the way she had betrayed her friend. Even Masami only knew pieces. Yet as Zakuro was the one she had likely hurt the most, she knew he deserved the full truth. Being so honest with anyone had never been her strong suit. "Think you got time for a walk?" she finally asked, looking at him a moment. She couldn't even hold his eyes long before she felt her own shame and guilt creeping up, and she looked away, her own pain evident in her white eyes.

[Rain21199]

Zakuro let out a sigh. To say Zakuro played this moment over and over a million times in his head was an understatement. He went over every way he could think of as to how this would go down, but he didn't think it would be like this. She seemed warm. Friendly even. For that he was grateful. Zakuro held no ill will towards Aina. He understood that they had both lost their way. Even though Zakuro wasn't expect Aina to wander through his door, he was still happy to see her.

After hearing her words, Zakuro's shoulders relaxed and he took a few steps toward Aina. He happily gave his old mentor a warm smile. He was happy to see her again. Despite what happened in the past, Aina always had a place in Zakuro's heart. He would always remember her with fondness. "Of course I'll go with you. Anything for a friend." The Chuunin said while putting a hand on the beautiful Bannin's shoulder. "Lead the way, I'll be happy to follow."

Zakuro didn't know what Aina would say to him that he didn't already know, but he would let her say it nonetheless. She probably felt as much guilt as he did, and this conversation was bound to ease some of that.

[Willoria]

Aina felt like she'd been holding her breath for hours. She'd been expecting some kind of nastiness, she certainly wasn't expecting for Zakuro to be so kind, nor for him to even be happy to see her. She let her breath out slow and nodded, tilting her head in a motion for him to follow her as she lead the way out of the office. Naturally she'd pause if he needed to close a door or stop to talk to anyone, but she wouldn't start anything she needed to say until they'd left the building entirely and begun their walk.

"I'm sorry about what happened, Zakuro." she started quietly, sighing as she thought about how to continue. "I've tried to bury a few things over the years, not let on. I think getting Bannin as young as I did made it worse." Aina sighed again, thrusting her hands in her pockets as she thought over what she needed to say, chuckling nervously to herself. "I don't even know where to start..."

Aina shook her head and looked over at Zakuro, temporarily changing the subject. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to help bring you back. I had planned to... just didn't work out that way."

[Rain21199]

Zakuro was rarely bothered by others when moving around the building. The people who worked with him understood that if they needed to talk to him, they would do so while he was in his office. If he was up and about it was either because he was doing something important or just leaving for the day. Today, it was something important. The two walked out of the building, as Aina talked. She apologized multiple times, but the fact was that she didn't need to. He would let her finish but the man had already forgiven her.

"Aina, it's really okay. From what I understand, you were going through a hardship of your own. We both weren't really in the best place at the time. I don't blame you for what happened. As for my retrieval, well, I wouldn't have wanted it to go any other way, no offense to you. Fanho was exactly what I needed in that moment." He gave out a soft sigh. "So, where are we off to?"

[Willoria]

Aina lead the way along, away from the Mamorinuku offices and down a quiet path. She had little idea of where she was leading him to, but aside from that she was taken aback and into silence for several moments as he spoke. She had expected a chance to explain, and had mentally been preparing herself for weeks it seemed like, just to figure out how to explain and what to say. In a sense he had taken the wind out of her sails and left her floundering. In addition his statement about Fanho being who he needed struck a cord in her as well, though none of this did she allow to show on the surface. Instead she simply sighed, her mind reeling over all of it. 'Right... suppose at this point they need each other more than I... starting to understand how Takeo feels when his students grow up. God I am really not looking forward to when our children are like this...', she thought to herself. It was hard to feel useless, especially for someone who had achieved the rank of Bannin at such a young age. All her life she might have been some kid of rebel against clan life, but she was also a prodigy.

She nodded, chuckling to herself a bit as she glanced around. "Honestly I expected my part of the conversation to take a bit more time... I didn't really have a particular destination in mind." she admitted. "Regardless of your understanding... if there is ever anything I can do to try and make up for what happened, just say the word. No matter my situation, that was a line I should never have crossed."

[Rain21199]

Zakuro didn't take his eyes off of Aina as they walked. He wanted to know exactly what was going on in her head at that moment, like staring at her would somehow give him a glimpse into her head. She seemed to think that she owed him something, but Zakuro didn't feel that way at all. Enough time had passed and there were enough events in Zakuro's life since then that it felt like a distant memory. Truthfully the pain of that day didn't even phase him anymore, and when he learned what she was going through as well, it made it impossible to hold any sort of grudge against the girl.

Zakuro increased his pace a bit to catch up to her. He rested his hand on her shoulder. Zakuro knew that she owed him nothing, but if didn't accept her kindness in some way, and never gave her a chance to feel as though she never made it up to him, then she would never get any closure. "Aina, there is one thing you could do for me. I'd like to get closer to your husband. Whether that's by doing some assistant work for him, being assigned an actual position with him, or just hanging out with him in a casual sense, I want to spend as much time with him as I can. There's a lot I can learn from him. Maybe just say something to him. That's all I want." He took his hand off of her shoulder. While he had this opportunity, he might as well take it. Takeo was a great person to learn from, but his time was often taken up by things. If he could work under him, then Zakuro could certainly learn from him on a daily basis.

[Willoria]

Aina nodded as Zakuro made his request, feeling more than a little awkward about it. She did her best to push her discomfort aside and had another thought come to mind. "You're always welcome to come to the house, but another option to spend time with Takeo is to spend time with Yozei, his son." she said with a light sigh. There was a time when talking about Yozei would have actually been a source of pain for the woman, back when he was a surprise from a former lover of her husband. It had left her feeling jealous, something she certainly wasn't used to, as well as hurt considering her own children with Takeo at the time. But since then she had spent time training with the boy, even as his team leader for a short stint.

Aina fell into silence as they walked along, Aina finding she had so little to say as Zakuro had just breezed past everything that she had been stewing over for so long. "You know, at some point you should meet the twins now that you're back." she finally said, trying to move away from the bad, and to simply catching up since Zakuro's return. "You know, I've had a lot of close calls as a shinobi, but I swear bringing those two in the world was probably harder on me." she added with a light snort, referring to the fact that she had actually barely survived the birth of the twins.

[Rain21199]

Zakuro smiled at Aina when she offered to let him into her home. Almost as if he were family. That kind of love warmed Zakuro's heart. It made him feel wanted by Aina. It was apparent that their reunion was going well on both fronts. Zakuro couldn't have asked for anything better. She mentioned Yozei, but Zakuro actually wasn't familiar with the name, he heard about all of their children, but not him. With a quizical tone in his voice, Zakuro questioned Aina, "You have a son named Yozei? Sorry, I'm a bit out of the loop. Fanho put me to work as soon as I got released and I really haven't had time to catch up with anyone."

Even more shocking was Aina retelling her near death experience with her twins. Zakuro had seen her in the arms of the strongest shinobi he'd ever seen, Yaku, the very man that hospitalized Zakuro for weeks with the flick of his wrist, but here she still stood. It was crazy to think that anything could bring down the Bannin that stood before him, but apparently two children could do just that. He would love to see who was capable of such a thing, "That'd be great Aina. Is there any chance that I could see them now? If not, that's fine too." Zakuro did have work to do, but he was already out. It wouldn't be too hard to swing by their place.

[Willoria]

Aina wrinkled up her nose and chuckled a little awkwardly as Zakuro referred to Yozei as being her son. "Uh... no. Yozei isn't my son. He's Takeo's from someone he was with before." she said, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she explained, obviously feeling a little strange about the situation still. "He just kinda showed up one day and lives with us now... I was actually in charge of his Genin team for a little while. We've gotten past most of the weirdness but... some days its still a shock." In truth she was glad when the subject turned to her twins, a subject so much easier for her to talk about.

She nodded and motioned towards a path that would take them back towards the home she shared with Takeo. "Of course. They're at home with Hanako now." she explained, chuckling. "Honestly you've missed alot... Hanako is a Hyuuga girl I adopted some time ago, before Takeo and I married. There was another too but he was already seventeen when I adopted him and quickly wanted his independence. I see him once a month or so when he pops by hoping I'm cooking something." she laughed as she remembered something else now and reached over to clap Zakuro on the shoulder. "And before you ask, yes, I can actually cook now."

[Rain21199]

Zakuro couldn't help but laugh. "Aina, you've really turned into quite the mom haven't you?" Truth be told, it was weird seeing such a powerful rebel be subdued by a couple of kids. Zakuro had never seen the hokage's home before. He had no idea if him visiting would be a little weird. He had trained with Takeo a few times, but they definitely weren't friends. He was the hokage. The head of the village and the strongest shinobi in Konoha. Zakuro was about to walk into where he ate and slept. It was weird.

"Aina." Zakuro turned his head and looked at her as they walked. "Do you remember when we first met? Not when we helped put a house back together, but during the invasion." This was a bit random, and Zakuro wasn't quite sure himself why he decided to bring it up now. "The reason why I was there, in the street as a Genin was because I had hid with civilians instead of helping with the evacuation. It's something I think about a lot. I was a coward." He shook his head. "If I was out there doing my job, helping people evacuate like I was supposed to, maybe I could've saved just one more life." It was one of the thoughts that wasn't always on his mind, but still kept him up at night some days.

He looked away from her. "Sorry... I know that was a shift in mood, but I've never said that out loud before. I guess I just needed to get it out."

[Willoria]

Aina couldn't help a bit of a laugh as Zakuro remarked on her as a mother, the woman reaching back and rubbing the back of her neck almost nervously. "I've tried." admitted, almost blushing a bit. "Honestly I love it. I mean, I thought I loved being a shinobi, but all my life I've tried to protect the people I care about and I guess that just kinda lent to motherhood, pushing me fully into it. I'd almost say it's more rewarding than almost any mission I've taken part in." Her mind raced through several missions, chuckling to herself as certain moments came to mind and it was as if she was trying to convince herself that it wasn't true, but in truth, it was entirely true. She found being a mom to be very rewarding, and loved every moment of it.

Aina turned a path as they got closer to her home, her gaze meeting Zakuro's briefly as she remembered the invasion. She didn't say anything as he spoke, even remaining quiet for several moment after as they finally got to the house and she led the way up the two front steps to the porch, pausing at the door. "Zakuro, we might have been shinobi but we were also still children ourselves." she removed her hand from the doorhandle a moment and leaned against the still closed door briefly as she faced Zakuro, crossing her arms over her chest. "I was taken captive by Yaku that day. I used to beat myself up over it so much. I remember getting dragged along, being used as a hostage to get close to the leader of my clan. To this day people have blamed me for his death, and because I don't make it a secret that I hope to lead the clan one day, they call me 'Usurper'. Hell I still remember the moment Yaku handed me to Enma, the way his turning back felt like damnation before I was gutted like a fresh fish and tossed out to die. I only survived because one of my brothers were right there." She looked at Zakuro a moment. "We have shouldn't have any shame in surviving what we did. Not me. Not you. Maybe we could have done more, maybe we couldn't. Maybe doing more would have meant we died. All we can do is take what lessons we can and move forward, help others, do what we can."

She finally pushed off the door and turned around, pushing the door open and stepping inside, almost immediately being tackled by her twins who were maybe three or so by this point in time.

[Rain21199]

Aina's words had a way of comforting him. It's why Zakuro went to her when he was on the brink of collapse. He wished for her to cheer him up and comfort him. It was in the past though. No need to think about it anymore. As Aina opened the door, he watched two little kids almost attack her. "Wow, they're ferocious aren't they." He gave out a laugh. They were so young and full of energy. Zakuro would wait to be introduced before crouching down to their height and giving them a smile. "The names Zakuro! Nice to meetcha!" Zakuro stood back up, still with a smile on his face. "Aina, they're adorable."

[Willoria]

Naturally the moment the pair jumped on her, Aina was laughing, despite how serious the subject had been just a moment ago. "They can be." she admitted to Zakuro, still laughing as she shook her head and slowly managed to extricate herself from the twins. They barely even seemed to look at Zakuro before taking off after who knows what. Aina shook her head. "They're definitely adorable... and wildly unpredictable." she replied, sighing as she watched another young Hyuuga come tearing out of one of the bedrooms, barely look at her and Zakuro, and take off after the twins. The girl looked to be roughly 15 or so, and only caused Aina to shake her head again. "That's Haruna. She's supposed to be babysitting and I think she just now noticed her charges have escaped her."

Aina snorted in laughter a bit, leading the way into the kitchen of her shared home and motioned Zakuro to a seat as she started fiddling around in the kitchen. "It's honestly a bit weird for me, being so... domestic. Hard to believe it happened when I hit Bannin. I always imagined as a kid there'd be grand adventures at this rank, instead I find myself appreciating the quiet a lot more."

[Rain21199]

Zakuro kept a smile on his face as he delved deeper into the home of two Bannin. Weirdly enough it looked very similar to his parent’s place. It was just an average, dull, family friendly home. Not that that was a bad thing, but it simply wasn’t what Zakuro was expecting. He wasn’t even sure what he was expecting. Just not normal. Upon entering the kitchen, he could see Haruna dealing with the other two. That made him laugh. Zakuro took note of her age though. Being 15 and a Hyuuga meant that she was definitely old enough to be a shinobi. Hyuuga were great assets to Mamorinuku. Hell, Hyuuga were great assets to everything. The act of being born a Hyuuga alone immediately set one up for success. That was great and all, but at the same time, Zakuro was proud of where he was and what he had to do to get there. He wasn’t sure if he’d be as proud if he was given an advantage like that.

Aina motioned for Zakuro to take a seat. He took off his leather jacket and rested it on the backing of the seat. It was a nice day outside, but it was even nicer in the house, almost reaching the point of uncomfortably hot with the jacket on, so he thought it best to take it off before he began to sweat. While lowering into the chair, Zakuro wanted to delve a bit deeper into Aina’s currently living situation. “So, is Haruna a cousin?” Being the only child of two only children, Zakuro’s family was the definition of small. He didn’t have any siblings or cousins, so he couldn’t possibly imagine being born into a family the size of the Hyuuga. It was mind blowing. Aina probably had more cousins than Zakuro had people he knew. Zakuro zoned out for a second, beginning to count the people he knew, before snapping back to the real world at Aina’s reply.

[Willoria]

As Zakuro asked his question, Aina held up a hand parallel to the ground and shook it slightly. "Technically yes." she replied, shrugging. "She's also one of the two I adopted. She was left blind after the invasion, her brother killed when he tried to rescue her from the collapse of her house. She was younger then. Her eyes were gone and I knew she'd face the derision of the clan. I originally took her in to try and help her how to still be the shinobi she wanted to be, when she was a Genin Ibakuro Yosuke returned to the village with the eyes of his former teammate as proof. The clan allowed those eyes to be transplanted into Haruna and so she regained both sight and Byakugan." She turned back to the table and set down a tray of a few small snacks as well as a pot of tea with two cups, sitting across from Zakuro.

"She's endured some of the worst things this clan offers and is still turning out to be a pretty damn good shinobi." she remarked, simply nodding. "She still has a scar across her eyes from before but it seems to be fading. Probably won't be much of it left in a couple of years." she added, pouring tea for the both of them before settling into her seat.