Asano Kaoru pounded the seeds vigorously with a stone pestle.
Bronze-colored oil slowly oozed out with the kunoichi's movements. Twenty seeds could only produce a strand of oil as thin as a hair. Asano Kaoru carefully collected it, surprisingly accumulating half a bowl.
Knock, knock, knock.
A knock came at the door. The kunoichi knew who was standing outside just by the rhythm.
"Come in, the door's unlocked."
With a creak, Takeda Seigen entered the room and locked the door behind him.
Asano Kaoru didn't turn around, continuing to forcefully extract the oil from the seeds. "Captain, entering a female subordinate's room in the middle of the night is quite impolite, you know."
"Ah..." Takeda Seigen muttered in a daze, trying to speak in his usual tone. "What are you doing?"
"Extracting oil."
"You're fond of all kinds of flower and plant seeds. This is the first time I've seen you interested in oil."
"These are [Black Palm Flower] seeds. They're not pretty and don't have much fragrance, but their oil is very useful... When applied to metal, it can prevent rust."
Takeda Seigen paused slightly and touched the chakra short knife hidden behind his back. "For me?"
"For a pig."
The man's lips curled up subconsciously, the cold resolve he had forced himself to muster before entering the room vanished.
He remained silent for a while, then said softly, "Come with me."
Asano Kaoru put down the stone pestle, stood up, and followed Takeda Seigen out without any awareness of being a spy.
They walked for a long time, leaving the Akatsuki base, leaving the underground, coming to the surface, entering the boundless rain, and gradually moving further away.
Finally, they stopped at the edge of Amegakure Village.
Takeda Seigen turned around, looked at Asano Kaoru's delicate face, and said calmly, "Konoha ninja, Kaoru, nice to meet you."
"..." The kunoichi remained silent, neither refuting nor responding.
"I thought you would run away." Takeda Seigen frowned. He deliberately brought Asano Kaoru here. A few more steps and they would be out of the village. The implication was self-evident.
If Asano Kaoru left, he would not stop her.
"Where can I run to?" The woman spoke. The rain soaked her hair, strands of black hair sticking to her fair cheeks, like fragile porcelain. "The three leaders are all very powerful figures."
"This is the edge of Amegakure Village. The leaders won't chase you to the Land of Fire for you."
"My mission is not yet complete. Even if I return to Konoha, I won't have it easy."
"Mission... Mission!" Intense anger suddenly surged in his heart. Takeda Seigen took a step forward, grabbed the woman's shoulders, his grip so strong that his nails almost dug into Asano Kaoru's skin. "Your mission is to orchestrate my assassination and then replace me as the organization's fourth-in-command, isn't it? You..."
—Would you even disregard your own life to complete the mission and kill me?
Takeda Seigen stammered for a long time, but still couldn't bring himself to say those words.
He was afraid that the woman would give him an affirmative answer, which would make his actions today a complete joke.
"Ah... Mission." Asano Kaoru said noncommittally, looking to the side.
The sky of Amegakure Village was always an awe-inspiring leaden gray. It was alright during the day, but once night fell, looking up, one could only see boundless darkness, as if the sky had turned into a deep pool.
People who entered Amegakure were like falling into an abyss, never to leave for the rest of their lives. The kunoichi thought this and said softly, "Stop saying such childish things... Takeda Seigen." She no longer addressed him as Captain and looked directly into the man's eyes. "Who do you think we are? We are ninjas! Killing, espionage, waging war... We can do many things, but that doesn't include showing mercy to the enemy!"
"Do you think I'll be grateful if you spare me? No, Takeda Seigen, I'll only laugh at your weakness!"
"The Land of Fire and the other two great nations have been fighting here for years. Many people in the Land of Rain have died at the hands of Konoha. Conversely, Amegakure has also inflicted heavy casualties on Konoha forces."
"I'm a Konoha ninja, and you're a high-ranking member of Amegakure's Akatsuki organization."
"No matter how well we get along, it's just a facade. Once you know my identity as a spy, only one of us can survive!"
"Generations upon generations, a blood feud."
"Hatred... is the greatest bond between people in our world."
Asano Kaoru felt the grip on her shoulders weakening.
I've still hurt him, Kaoru thought, her heart aching, but miraculously, she didn't feel afraid.
Dying at the hands of Takeda Seigen was an ending Asano Kaoru could accept.
The pressure on her shoulders disappeared. The next moment, the kunoichi noticed something in her hand.
She brought it before her eyes and asked blankly, "What is this...?"
"A seashell." Takeda Seigen's voice was gentle, as if trying to dispel the gloom of the rainy night. "I've never been to the seaside, have you?"
"Neither have I... But what does this seashell have to do with the current situation...?"
Takeda Seigen wiped the water from the woman's face and whispered, "In a very distant place, there is a country called the Land of the Sea."
"It's a remote place, even further from the center of the world than the Land of Water. It's made up of archipelagos, sparsely populated, and I heard they don't even have ninjas... [Chakra] hasn't blessed that place."
"But, it's truly a wonderful place. I heard from wandering travelers that in the Land of the Sea, the sunlight turns the beaches golden, reflecting onto the sky and dyeing the clouds into golden palaces. The tops of tall, straight trees bear strange fruits with an outer skin harder than iron, but inside, there's plenty of sweet juice. There are no ninjas, no wars, only houses built in the mountains and by the sea, and people living happily together."
The man paused and whispered, "Let's go to the Land of the Sea... together."
The woman suddenly felt at a loss. Even though she had long become an excellent ninja, at this moment, she was as flustered as the little girl who was caught stealing candy by her mother many years ago.
Many, many years had passed. Her mother and father were long gone, but now, the man in front of her wanted to give her a blue sky again.
Takeda Seigen opened his arms and embraced the woman.
The rainy night was no longer cold.
"Let's go together... Let's leave the countries where ninjas dwell, go to the Land of the Sea. We've done too much over the years. I don't owe the organization anything, and you don't owe Konoha anything either."
"I have enough connections to get us out safely, but preparing the secret passage will take time."
"Give me one day."
"Tomorrow, at midnight, I'll be waiting for you under the red sign at Exit Six of the base."
"We'll leave together, go to the Land of the Sea, to that beautiful place where the beaches are covered in pearly white seashells."
"Kaoru, give me a chance, and give yourself a chance... okay?"
In the dark, rainy night, an unknown amount of time passed.
The woman closed her eyes and nodded, wrapping her arms around the man's waist.
Her voice trembled, as if embarking on a grand escape.
"Okay."