"Found her! That's Uchiha Nanashi!"
"After her — seal her!"
Hatred. Piled inside, too thick to dissolve.
That darkness settled in the chest and would not leave.
I hate shinobi. I hate this world.
All I wanted was to destroy it.
Maybe then — maybe then the hatred would finally stop.
And then—
Warmth. On my hand.
Light ahead.
Then: red. A deep, vivid red.
Finally: a girl, eyes closed. Roughly my age. Still and quiet. Wearing a kimono.
She looks like… a princess.
"Morning~" The girl smiled. "I'm Hanabi. And you, my dear Sleeping Beauty, are a princess."
"I'm — I'm not a princess…"
Wait.
Why did I say that?
Something about her voice — the tension went out of me, thread by thread.
"Oh? So you'd rather be the knight protecting the princess? How admirable~"
The girl smiled — and then, without a single guard up, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me.
"It's over now."
She held on gently.
Hikari Uchiha was beautiful.
Long black hair, straight and dark. Beneath long lashes, a pair of wide, liquid eyes. Lips the soft color of rose petals. A small, fine face. And a slight, fragile frame that seemed to ask for care.
But those eyes — eyes that should have held the brightness of someone her age — held nothing of the sort. Only the dead stillness of hatred. A pool without current, without light.
Still water. The kind nothing grows in.
"Who… are you?"
"Someone who came to be your friend~ My dearest princess."
Strange.
Such a strange thing to say.
No one had ever helped me before.
But what was she even saying?
Friend. A word from somewhere impossibly far away. Why would someone want to be friends with someone like me?
What did she want?
She's the one who should be a princess. She's the one.
Wait — why was I thinking about that?
Hikari's eyes clouded with confusion.
Freshly released from the seal, she felt the world shifting beneath her — like everything had been stirred up and not yet settled.
She didn't know where she was. She didn't know what had happened.
But.
"…Warm."
This person's body was warm.
This person's words were warm.
And her own chest — for the first time in longer than she could say — was warm.
"Then up we go, Sleeping Beauty."
Hanabi scooped her up in a bridal carry.
"Wha— wh—?!"
A bridal carry?!
Hikari's thoughts scattered.
A girl was carrying her bridal-style?!
"Put me down!"
"What is wrong with you?! Why are you acting like we're old friends?! We don't even know each other!"
She had been used as a weapon her entire life. No one had ever offered her this. Ever.
All that had ever come her way was exploitation. Contempt.
Goodwill — that word had always been a luxury too extravagant to imagine.
She had spent her whole life alone, in the dark.
And this person — this person like a burst of fireworks — was the first of her kind she had ever seen.
"Then close your eyes for me, my dear Sleeping Beauty. It's bright out there — if your eyes adjust too fast, you'll hurt them."
"I— that— um."
She had no idea what to say.
Hanabi, talking all the while, carried her out of the dark.
Somewhere between the tunnel and the light, without knowing why, Hikari felt her body unclench.
"Hanabi!"
Neji and Hinata came forward. They saw the girl in Hanabi's arms at once.
Hanabi shook her head quietly — a small gesture that said: not yet, stay back.
The girl in her arms had fallen asleep against her chest.
The four of them made their way back to the inn in the nearby village.
The commission was complete — but the girl was still sleeping. The mission window still had time remaining, so Neji decided they'd rest here first.
The girl Hanabi had carried out couldn't simply be taken back to the Leaf as-is.
"Mm…"
A soft, tingling sensation across her skin.
Comfortable.
The wounds on her body seemed to pulse with gentle heat. Her eyes — which had gone blurry at some point — no longer ached.
Hikari Uchiha opened her eyes.
Night had fallen.
She was lying on a tatami mat.
"I… fell asleep?"
"You did. Soundly~"
The girl smiled at her.
"Who exactly are you…" Hikari had lost track completely.
Who was this person, anyway? She'd just swept in out of nowhere and rescued her without a word of explanation.
It made no sense.
"Hyuga Hanabi. That's my name." Hanabi tilted her head. "And you — you're Hikari Uchiha."
"Nanashi," Hikari muttered.
She was being mistaken for someone else.
Though "Hikari" — that name had a nice sound to it. Something gentle about it.
"Oh?" Hanabi tilted her head. "'Hikari' is prettier, don't you think? That's the real name your parents gave you."
"Why do you keep stirring everything up?!"
Hikari felt herself spinning.
But Hanabi raised a hand.
"Hold on — the treatment isn't finished yet."
"…Treatment? What — wait—?!"
Right. That strange, pleasant sensation all over her body.
From her arms through all her limbs, old injuries gradually knitting closed, the hollow places inside her body slowly filling.
That was when Hikari noticed — her vision, which had been deteriorating for years, was clear again.
Treatment. In a sense, yes. And an oddly comfortable one. But when she glanced down at herself, something was moving on her.
Like rope.
As a weapon of the Uchiha — kept in shackles and restraints, locked away — she knew that feeling well. It lived in her muscle memory.
But this time, the binding held no malice. No pain. In fact, it felt light. And from the rope itself came warmth, and a scent — clean, faintly sweet, almost weightless.
It was only the shape of the rope that made no sense.
"What are you?!"
Hikari's confusion tipped into outrage.
Rescued without permission. Treated without permission. Made to feel this strange, impossible warmth — without permission.
Her head was a wreck. Her chest was a wreck.
The emptiness that had been her chest for as long as she could remember was now a tangled knot, and she didn't know how to undo it.
Someone had come crashing into her life without warning. Had extended her goodwill without explanation. Had smiled at her like that, without reason.
What a mess.
"Hanabi~ Hikari Uchiha's friend. Hyuga Hanabi~"