From Darkness to Light

The ANBU arrived quickly. Three masked ninjas descended from the direction of the cliff face and pried Hayate Gekko out of the stone wall.

Blood foam still bubbled from Hayate Gekko's mouth, but he had not completely lost consciousness. When he saw Yugao standing there without her mask, a twisted hatred erupted in his bloodshot eyes.

"Yugao, you really are involved with him. You deliberately lured Senju Chiba here, sold ANBU intelligence to him—you traitor!"

The words exploded across the silent summit of Hokage Rock. The three ANBU rescuers paused for a beat, their gazes behind their masks turning in unison toward Yugao.

Yugao felt as though someone had stabbed her in the back. Within three seconds, all the blood in her body seemed to drain from her extremities and rush back to her heart.

"Hayate, what are you talking about?"

"What am I talking about? Do you think I don't know why you deliberately stood on Hokage Rock today and released your chakra to lure him here? You wanted to get close to him, you shameless woman!"

Hayate Gekko's voice was so hoarse it was nearly breaking. He coughed with every word, spraying blood foam all over the rescuer beside him, yet he continued howling.

"I reported it to the Third Hokage. I reported everything. Just wait to be investigated, Uzuki Yugao!"

Yugao stood where she was, her long purple hair blown across her face by the night wind, concealing half of it.

Her shoulders trembled. The fingers hanging at her sides clenched and loosened again and again, while she bit her lips so hard they had nearly lost all color.

Fourteen years.

She had spent fourteen years in the ANBU. Since entering the ANBU training camp at thirteen, she had carried out two hundred and thirty-seven A-rank or higher missions. She had suffered severe injuries eleven times and nearly died on three missions. Every time, she had gritted her teeth and crawled back to Konoha.

She had never questioned an order, never complained about her treatment, and never told anyone of her loneliness or exhaustion.

And in return, a senior from her division who had secretly loved her for over a decade but never dared confess had, after being beaten by someone else, used the most vicious lies to frame her.

The three ANBU rescuers carried Hayate Gekko away over the edge of Hokage Rock. Before leaving, one of them said, "Captain Yugao, please report to ANBU headquarters tomorrow to assist with the investigation."

There was no hostility in the voice, but there was no warmth either.

Yugao stood alone atop Hokage Rock. Moonlight shone on her unmasked face, refracting the moisture gathered in her eyes into shattered points of light.

After an unknown amount of time, footsteps sounded behind her.

Light, unhurried, carrying the scent of grass and trees.

"Captain Yugao, still standing here?"

Chiba had not left.

Or rather, he had turned back halfway through. Everything within the range of his spiritual perception was crystal clear to him. He had heard every word of Hayate Gekko's sick accusations.

Yugao did not turn around, but her shoulders shook even harder.

Chiba walked to her side and stopped on her left. He did not touch her. He merely took off his coat and draped it over her shoulders.

The coat carried the warm grassy scent of Wood Release plants, along with the clean lingering warmth of a young man's body.

"Come on. Come back with me."

"I... I can't." Yugao forced the words through her teeth, her voice trembling uncontrollably. "I'm an ANBU captain. I still have to undergo investigation tomorrow. I can't go back to the Senju Main Residence with you."

"You've already had a bucket of filth dumped on you by your own people, and you're still thinking about due process for them?"

Chiba stepped around in front of her and lowered his head to look at her face.

Under the moonlight, Yugao's eyes were red-rimmed. Tears pooled in them, but she stubbornly refused to let them fall. Her lips had turned bluish from biting them, and her entire face bore the marks of grievance and defiance at war.

Chiba raised his right hand. His thumb brushed gently beneath her right eye, catching the tear that had been about to fall.

Yugao's body trembled at the gesture, but she did not retreat.

"Uzuki Yugao, you are not the Third Hokage's tool. You are an independent person—a genius swordswoman who has gone fourteen years without being treated well by anyone."

At last, a tear slid down from her left eye. Yugao sniffed hard and turned her head away, unwilling to let Chiba see her cry.

Chiba did not force her. He simply pulled the coat tighter around her shoulders, then turned and headed down the mountain.

"The doors of the Senju Main Residence won't be locked tonight. Come whenever you've made up your mind."

He had taken ten steps when hurried footsteps sounded behind him.

Yugao caught up. Her long purple hair streamed out as she ran, and Chiba's coat, two sizes too large on her, fluttered in the wind.

She said nothing. She simply followed half a step behind Chiba in silence, her stride compact and resolute.

Three quarters of an hour later, the gates of the Senju Main Residence were pushed open.

Tsunade was still awake, sprawled in the corridor. Hearing the commotion, she raised her head. The moment she saw a purple-haired woman following behind Chiba, her hazy drunken eyes instantly cleared.

"Another one?"

Chiba brought Yugao into the front hall. Anko poked her head out of the kitchen with a bamboo skewer between her lips. When she saw Yugao's ANBU uniform and the tears not yet dry on her face, the skewer fell from her mouth.

"Well, well. Why's the ANBU big sister crying?"

Yuhi Kurenai emerged from the study with a scroll on Yin Release methods in hand. Upon seeing the scene, her first reaction was to walk over, take the teapot, and pour Yugao a cup of hot tea.

"Sit down and have something warm first. Your hands are freezing."

Yugao accepted the teacup and wrapped all ten fingers around it. The rising steam reddened the tip of her nose.

The warmth of the tea seeped in through her palms. It was hot, but she did not let go. Instead, she gripped it even tighter.

Tsunade rose from the corridor and walked over. The smell of alcohol had not fully faded, but her eyes had regained the sharpness expected of one of the Sannin. She circled Yugao once, her gaze lingering for two seconds on the split, bleeding wounds across the other woman's knuckles.

"Anko, get the medical kit."

"Okay." Anko ran off at top speed, the skewer from her tricolor dango still hanging forgotten from the corner of her mouth.

Tsunade sat across from Yugao, folded her arms across her chest, and looked down at the purple-haired woman.

"Captain of ANBU Squad Six, Uzuki Yugao, right? What's your relationship with the Third—strictly superior and subordinate, or something else?"

Yugao set the teacup on her lap and looked toward Tsunade. The tear tracks in her purple eyes had not dried, but all hesitation was gone.

"Purely superior and subordinate. The order I received was to probe Senju Chiba's limit in close combat and report the data back. Nothing more."

"Then why did you come to my home crying?"

Yugao's jaw tightened for a moment, and the surface of the tea rippled with the pressure of her fingers.

Chiba walked over from beside a pillar in the front hall and sat next to Tsunade, casually moving the empty sake jug farther away from her.

"Lady Tsunade, stop interrogating her. Something unexpected happened tonight. Her senior from the same division, Hayate Gekko, ambushed me. After I kicked him away, he turned around and framed her for colluding with the enemy and treason. The ANBU will investigate her tomorrow."

Tsunade's brows drew together.

"Hayate Gekko? That tuberculosis case who's practically dying? He was full enough to go ambush you?"

"He got jealous." Chiba leaned back in his chair, his tone casual. "He's secretly loved Yugao for over ten years but never dared say it. Seeing me get close to her drove him crazy. He came at my back with a blade, got taken down instantly, then flew into a rage from humiliation and accused her on the spot."

Anko returned carrying the medical kit. She crouched beside Yugao, pulled out gauze and ointment, and briskly began treating the wounds on her knuckles.

"When men have no ability, they pull this crap. Just like the bunch I used to run into in the ANBU." Anko muttered as she wrapped the gauze. "Don't be afraid, sis. No one bullies you in the Senju Main Residence. Lady Tsunade can smash the Hokage Building with one punch."

Yugao lowered her head and watched Anko bandage her hand. Her lips moved slightly.

"You... are all Lord Chiba's people?"

Anko looked up, grinning as the skewer bobbed between her lips.

"We signed contracts. It's set in stone."

Yugao's gaze moved from Anko to Yuhi Kurenai, then to Tsunade, and finally settled on Chiba, sitting nearby in a relaxed posture.

Three women with completely different personalities lived beneath the same roof. There were no guarded looks of mutual scheming, none of the cold hierarchical oppression of the ANBU. Tsunade's voice was loud enough to lift the roof when she cursed, but there was no malice in it. Anko had a sharp tongue, yet her hands were gentle and meticulous. Yuhi Kurenai said little, but the tea she offered was at exactly the right temperature.

It was completely different from the feeling of spending fourteen years in the ANBU.

Yugao placed her teacup on the table, rose to her feet, faced Chiba, and dropped to one knee on the wooden floor.

"Lord Senju Chiba."

The front hall fell silent for a moment. The gauze in Anko's hand froze in midair, and Tsunade stopped lifting her sake jug.

"Uzuki Yugao hereby leaves the ANBU organization as of today and willingly follows at your side as a sword attendant. Should I ever harbor disloyalty, may I suffer a thousand blades through my body."

Chiba looked at Yugao kneeling on the floor. Her long purple hair fell over her shoulders, and the cool fragrance of moon laurel spread faintly through the warm light of the front hall. He did not let her kneel for even another second. Reaching out with his right hand, he grasped her wrist and pulled her up.

"Get up. We don't kneel here."

Yugao was pulled to her feet. The force made her lean forward slightly, her shoulder brushing Chiba's chest before she quickly straightened again. The roots of her ears flushed bright red.

Tsunade slammed the sake jug down on the table.

"Senju Chiba, you went out for a stroll one night and came back having lured an ANBU captain home. Is there anything you can't do?"

Chiba's expression was utterly serious.

"Lady Tsunade, this is called recruiting talent. It's only natural for the Senju Clan to seek worthy people."

"You call this recruiting talent?!"

Anko laughed so hard she slapped the floor. The hand holding Yuhi Kurenai's teacup trembled slightly, while a restrained smile curved her lips.

Yugao stood half a step away from Chiba. Her left hand rested on the hilt of the long sword behind her back, her posture straight and upright like a blade drawn from its sheath.

But the redness at the tips of her ears still had not faded after three minutes.