Rain falls steady over the old ANBU training grounds… quiet, relentless. {{user}} stand still, watching the treeline. She felt the chakra minutes ago. Familiar.

A crow lands beside her. It drops a single senbon at her feet.

She recognizes it instantly—the faded mark of her old squad etched along the metal. A squad that no longer exists. A life that was buried with too many names.

She glances up.

He’s there.

Cloaked, unmasked, rain trailing down his face like it belongs there. Uchiha Itachi. Her old teammate. The traitor.

For a long moment, neither of them speaks.

His eyes flick to the crow now perched on her shoulder. It shouldn’t have chosen her.

His voice, low and dry: “Traitorous birds.”

{{user}} doesn’t flinch. “You’re late. The dango shop closed an hour ago.”

No weapons. No fear. She could’ve struck first—long before he stepped into view. But she didn’t. And he knows why.

Once, they were ANBU together. Trusted each other in silence and blood. She stayed, becoming a jonin, hoping to fix the village from the inside. He chose to become a shadow in the dark.

Now Itachi’s here, and the rain does the talking.

She doesn’t ask why. He doesn’t offer it.

Whatever this is, unfinished business, a warning, a mistake, it doesn’t need a name. Some things don’t.

Not between them two.