AN: This first chapter is more like a prologue for the whole story. The story will actually start when Sasuke and Kohana are little kids before the massacre. But I just thought it'd be a lot more interesting to start it like this. The chapters to follow will be much longer, I promise. Anyways, I hope you enjoy! (:

Chapter: Prologue

The sound of Kohana's hands slamming down onto the table echoed throughout Lady Tsunade's office.

The eerie air of war plagued them for a month now, as a result, tensions were high. Anything would set off any aware shinobi, but this request in Kohana's eyes, it was nearly impossible.

Her hazel eyes swirled with sadness, betrayal, anger and lastly heartbrokenness.

“What do you mean I've been ordered to do this? By who? You?” she demanded, her tan fists curling into tight balls of anger. “Why would you ever – how could you expect me to do something like this!”

“I didn't order for this, Kohana,” Tsunade responded, her honey eyes gazing right back into those of the young kunoichi in front of her. “However, I do believe that if anyone should be chosen to do something like this, it should be you.”

“I don't care what you believe, Lady Tsunade. I won't do this. I can't. Out of everyone in this village, I would think you would understand the most!”

“You won't be alone-”

“I don't care!” she exclaimed back, her hands flying into the air. “That doesn't make a difference to me, he'll still be the same person whether Sakura, Hinata, Ino or Naruto come with me.”

“Sasuke Uchiha is now a threat to your village – our village,” Tsunade paused, taking in a deep breath “I do understand your feelings right now, because I've been in your same situation. That is why I believe you can do this. You may think that this will save you from some sort of heartbreak from losing a close friend, in your case something more, but believe me when I say that allowing them to go down this road will hurt you even more.”

Kohana turned away as her eyes slowly closed shut. “I can't – I can't kill him.” a murmured, mostly to herself if anyone else.

She heard Tsunade's chair scrape across the wooden floors as she rose from her seat. As Tsunade made her way around her desk, she let out an audible sigh. “Listen to me, if you do love Sasuke as much as you say you do, then you wouldn't allow him to dig a deeper ditch for himself.”

“It's not fair,” she sobbed “Why can't someone else like ANBU be assigned to this?”

“Though you are right that someone with more physical prowess should be assigned to this, in this case, someone with more emotional ties to the target is needed. And you, other than Naruto and Sakura have been chosen,” Tsunade elucidated.

A few moments of silence passed by as Kohana's eyes did everything they could to keep away from locking onto Tsunade's gaze.

She took in a deep breath, followed by a series of sniffles as her hands clenched back into fists. “Who would be going with me?”

“Kage,” Tsunade responded as she reached behind her for en envelope. “He's apart of the ANBU, here's his statistics if you'd like to know what have to work with.”

Kohana reached forward for the manilla envelope, and cautiously opened it up, doing all she could to ignore the few tears that escaped her eyes.

“One person?”

“We expect him to be enough.”

Kohana scoffed as she closed to envelope. “You're underestimating Sasuke.”

“You're underestimating yourself. We wouldn't have chosen either one of you had we known that this would be suicide.”

She remained quiet as Tsunade continued, “Trust me, I wouldn't have taken responsibility of telling you this if this would be suicide.”

Kohana shook her head slightly as she once again closed her eyes. “When?”

“A fortnight.”

She let out a jagged sigh as she looked back up at Tsunade. “Alright,” she breathed.

She could hear a breath that Tsunade wasn't aware of holding in.

“I expect you to prepare for this mission. Stay at home, rest, between now and then check into the hospital to have a check up.”

“Yes, Lady Tsunade,” Kohana finally complied solemnly.

Tsunade watched as the orange haired girl turned on her heel before walking through the wooden doors that she entered in only a few minutes prior.

Tsunade let out a deep sigh as she walked back around her desk. “I can only hope that you two made the right decision, Koharu Utatane, Homura Mitokado.”

She looked over her shoulder back out at the village that she's been chosen to protect. “Kohana Ueda. Let's hope that your will to protect this village, burns hotter than your will to protect Sasuke.”

-TBW-

My, or rather, Sasuke and I's story started many years prior to now. It started when, everything was peaceful, when no one worried if today was the day that they would have to kill one of their own. It started before that one terrifying day, 6 years ago that not only took a whole clan, but also my best friend.

What would you have done, had you been faced with the assignment of killing someone you cared for and loved? Someone who you would've, long ago, given your life to save?