Sumire considered herself to be a good actress and good at reading people, but lately she was inclined to doubt her skills. To remain poker faced in front of Kawaki was a challenge when every cell screamed to demand a reason from him, and for all their interactions prior, for all her empathy, Sumire now doubted she knew him as well as she once thought she did. Sarada could barely keep her composure around him however so Sumire was the only one of the two that could be trusted to attempt to ply any information out of Kawaki so when he'd asked her to come by the house because he had a favor to ask of course she had to oblige.

She had to hear the request from Delta. Kawaki no longer needed Amado's medical assitance and by extension Sumire, she was reassigned back to the R&D lab. She mostly only saw him when Eida invited them over. Eida was cagey. She knew that she and Sarada were immune which might have ordinarily been cause for celebration but Eida had not forgotten that they'd acted otherwise and no longer felt safe around them. They would talk on the phone with her for hours and go shopping with her (always with Daemon) but Eida had only ever entrusted them with piecemeal morsels of confidence and she was likewise selective about what she'd reveal about Kawaki, though Sumire knew he was unaware that she and Sarada had not lost their true memories. Sumire was one of Delta's few social connections however, and Delta had somehow, for some reason, struck up an unusual friendship with Mitsuki, who likewise had somehow, for some reason, successfully endeared himself to Kawaki and was the person who saw him with the most frequency aside from Eida, Daemon and Himawari.
 It was by this chain that Sumire had received the request.

Sumire approached the house preemptively weary. She'd been let in by Daemon, who looked somber, and waited on the couch expectantly. Sumire felt her stomach drop and a thread of panic rise in her chest as she heard Kawaki's footsteps approach from behind her.

She was afraid of him.

"Good of you to come by," he said.

Sumire shifted her body back to look at him, "Of course, you asked me to. Something up?"

She spoke sweetly and jovially, nothing betrayed her internal mood. Kawaki looked impassive as most always which did nothing to reassure her.

"Only if I can trust you not to tattle."

Sumire froze that instant, what was this?

"Of course you can."

"You can't even tell Sarada, not yet."

Not yet?

Sumire frowned, "Well there must be a good reason right?"

"It's about Himawari."

He motioned for her to follow and they found themselves in Himawari's bedroom. She was fast asleep in her bed and looking frightfully pale.

"She's sick," he said quietly, his voice cracking a trace.

Sumire approached Himawari's bedside, noting unusual bruising at the edges of heir hairline and an odd translucency to her pallid complexion. Her breath ran ragged.

"What is this?"

"We don't know, not really," Kawaki closed in and knelt next to Himawari's bed, resting his forearms on her mattress.

"She's seen a doctor, right?"

"Of couse she has," he said, annoyance lacing his voice, "She's seen many."

"Sorry I just-"

"It's fine."

Sumire might have miscalculated what Kawaki was capable of before but there was no misinterpreting how he was feeling or what he was thinking now. His hand engulfed Hima's, a finger tracing the contours of a friendship bracelet Daemon had made for her. Kawaki had completely destroyed Himawari's life and yet she'd seen him attempt to dote on her in a distant sort of way ever since. She was probably the main reason why he even bothered with Eida anymore. He'd been furious with her refusing to give up Boruto's location, but Eida had plenty of experience caring for a younger sibling while Kawaki had none. Shikamaru had tasked Kawaki with trying to win Eida over to eventually convince her to betray Boruto but Kawaki complied because Eida was good with Himawari. Himawari had bound them into what was functionally a platonic marriage.

"Why can't I tell Sarada?"

"This isn't what you can't tell her about."

"Then why did you ask me to come by?"

"I'm going to ask Amado to look her over but I don't trust him. I don't know anything about this science tech stuff, but you do. You worked with him."

This was the first time he'd ever looked at her imploringly, and she could see the traces of stress and sleeplessness beneath his eyes, "I'll never ask another favor, just this one. I wouldn't let Amado be in the same room as her if I thought I had better options."

Sumire nodded gravely, "Of course."

Kawaki rested his forehead against the edge of the mattress, "Mitsuki's gone off to fetch his dad, Lord Orochimaru is supposed to be another expert at this stuff. I'd rather him than Amado but just in case."

"Does Amado know about Himawari's illness yet?"

"No."

"He's asked me to come back to work with him before, I can find him first thing tomorrow."

"Good," Kawaki said, but there was no enthusiasm in his voice.

"Has Lady Sakura in particular seen Himawari yet?"

"Yes, which is why I'm even considering asking Amado, she said she saw Lord Seventh deal with the same illness and seemed really concerned. Lady Shizune is actually supposed to be posted here in an hour actually. I asked them not to notify anyone else about her illness, keep it private."

"How long has she been sick?"

"A bit over two week now."

Kawaki's throat felt tight, looking up towards Himawari's sickly face, his breathing growing heavy. He wasn't going to let her die if it ever came to that. He'd seal her away where time could not pass and where she could not get any worse. She'd live forever, trapped in amber. But he had to try something before resorting to that. He couldn't bring back Lord Seventh and Lady Hinata to one dead child and another in the process of dying.

"I thought Eida could fix it, but its too risky."

"Huh? What could Eida do?"

"It's her power. Omnipotence. That's what you can't tell Sarada about."

Sumire felt a chill across her skin. Eida had told them she was responsible for Boruto and Kawaki switching places in everyone's memories and that it was an accident and that she couldn't control it or reverse it. But she'd shared little more about the true nature of her powers and Sumire and Sarada didn't know how much Kawaki knew either other than that he didn't know they were immune.

"It's the power to do anything. Imagine being able to get a wish granted, but the wish comes out wrong."

Sumire's head buzzed and her heart raced. THAT was Eida's true power?

"What do you mean the wish comes out wrong?" Her chest tightened as her head worked overtime making the connections.

"Every desire it has tried to grant got distorted."

"How many times has she used it?"

Kawaki looked at her with a measured expression, as if finding her curiosity concerning, "Not important. Maybe three or four times though."

THREE OR FOUR TIMES? How had Sumire not noticed?

"What happened? When, exactly?" Sumire tried not to stammer.

Kawaki didn't respond. The less Sumire knew about how Eida's Omnipotence functioned, the better. Sumire wondered if he was lying because that didn't make any sense to her but then again neither she nor Sarada remembered ever noticing such a distinct flash of light cross the sky other than the night Eida rewrote everyone's memories. Presumably it must have occurred once before to make her enchant humanity. Three or four times . . .

"I think just knowing about it is a risk, the fewer people know the better and I don't think Sarada could keep it to herself. Imagine what people might do for that power. Things are already in the gutter as is."

He wasn't wrong. Without Naruto to strong arm everyone else into compliance the shinobi world threatened to unravel the peace he had built. Border skirmishes and blood feuds were rising from slumber. Sumire was primarily fixated on the revelation that 'the wish had gone wrong' and searched Kawaki's face for any more context. For Kawaki it was obvious; he was separated from Naruto and being 'Boruto' was shit and totally exhausting.

"Are you sure Eida would want me knowing this?"

"I don't really care." Not anymore.

They were quiet a moment, Sumire watching Kawaki expectantly, she hadn't seen him speak so freely in ages.

"I thought I'd ask Eida, and Eida herself offered, but it's too risky," he spoke quietly. He wouldn't speak of him or Eida trying to experiment in controlling her powers and the subsequent disappointing results. He was certain by this point that using it for Himawari's benefit would backfire horribly, she'd live forever and be unable to grow older or something else terrible and unthinkable. Eida just couldn't control her powers, Kawaki just couldn't shut off his growing desperation over Himawari's health and they'd narrowly avoided activating her Omnipotence a few days ago.

Kawaki had pulled himself away at the last moment. Eida soon realized that the one boy she still nursed a small, mad hope of taming and being with she couldn't even touch. She'd steeled herself and left to her bedroom misty eyed and Kawaki spent the next few hours wondering if the realization would trigger her powers yet again. For every spat, for all the resentment, she had become something of a friend, and that made the realization that perhaps Jigen was correct about her being too powerful to continue living a difficult one to accept because there was only one logical conclusion.

They left Himawari to continue sleeping and Kawaki led Sumire to the door.

"Thanks for saying yes about Amado."

"I couldn't possibly refuse."

Sumire lingered at the doorway, as did Kawaki. She had hated him for so long, feared him just as long but tonight she felt sorry for him. All the worries that she knew and did not know of, the 'wish gone wrong', Lord Seventh's absence, the crumbling peace, Himawari's illness, Eida's fate, Code and Boruto, weighed on him like anchors. He looked sad and exhausted. Tentatively, Sumire reached a hand for his face.

"What are you doing?" he asked, speaking more loudly than he ever had since she'd arrived.

She pulled her hand back with a yelp, "I'm sorry, I don't-!"

"Look, I can't think about stuff like that anymore," his volume lowered, "There's too much going on. Just promise you'll keep an eye on Himawari if we do end up needing Amado."

"I will, I-I'll go now," Sumire turned away to hide the rising crimson on her face and walked off mortified. What a miscalculation.

"You can tell Sarada about Himawari now, if you want," he called from the doorway.

"I will!"

Behind her she could hear him bid her farewell inexpressively, his face shaded in the palest tint of sadness. He shut the door softly.
Sumire arrived home to her empty apartment and collapsed onto her bed, exhausted.

Sumire didn't know what reaction she wanted from him anymore. There were moments where she felt sick with panic about being discovered. Maybe she was wrong about him, maybe he'd hurt her. Staying safe meant playing the role of lovestruck teenybopper though and for all her training and personal self interest in survival she was still just a young girl for whom so much as holding hands was a Big Deal. What was she supposed to do if Kawaki ever reciprocrated one of her clumsy but calculated flirtations? But he never did and the initial relief invariably gave way to feeling like the ugliest girl in Konoha. And THEN she got to feel guilty about feeling disappointed. She'd once asked Mitsuki for a neutral appraisal of her looks from a male point of view and he just awkwardly scrunched up his face and told her that she wasn't 'his type' which just shattered her to pieces.

Even Mitsuki had a type!

And she wasn't it!

And Eida? What of Eida? She'd not thought of her just earlier, but they were still supposed to be friends and as much as Eida complained about Kawaki and claimed to be over him Sumire thought that Eida might still have held aspirations for them both. Sumire could only hope that Eida wasn't and wouldn't watch and consider what had occurred as exceeding her permitted roleplay and sic her Omnipotence on Sumire for transgressing on her territory.

Sumire's phone buzzed and she knew it was Sarada. She let it ring. Sarada would want to know why she'd gone over to see Kawaki and if she'd learned anything important. Would she keep Kawaki's confidence? If she didn't, would Eida spy? Sumire decided she'd deal with that later, but wasn't keen on telling Sarada about Himawari's illness just yet either. Sarada would be upset about that then about her mother not breaking doctor-patient confidence. Sumire just wanted to take a break. She was too young to be getting any more white hairs, if that kept up then she'd be nobody's type.

She rolled and cocooned herself in her blanket, forlornly gazing out the empty expanse of apartment she called home. Usually it didn't bother her but today it did. If she wasn't with Sarada or Mitsuki she mostly ate dinner alone. She realized what had bothered her so much about earlier beyond the surface level. Having to interact with Kawaki was always stressful and filtered through multiple layers of deceit, there was nothing communicated plainly, only via each inhabiting proxies. For once though the filters had faltered, there was sincerity expressed in fragmented moments. She'd made a genuine attempt at compassion and kinship and it hadn't gone well. She couldn't have known he felt bad for snapping at her.

Back at the house Himawari tumbled out of bed and into the living room, eyes bloodshot. Daemon rushed to get his only friend a glass of water upon noting her parched lips,

"You're not supposed to get up if you can help it!"

Kawaki leapt from his sofa to usher her back, "Lady Shizune will be here to see you soon, you should get back to bed."

She mumbled something about being hungry, Kawaki promising he'd bring her something and racking his mind over what to prepare.

"I'll make her something," said Eida. She'd come back from wherever she'd been.

"Good."

Night fell and the lights in the house dimmed like dying embers till at that remained was the light in Himawari's room, a bright punch of gold in the dark and blue draped night. That house, ensconced in the woods and far from all but a solitary neighbor, isolated its increasingly reclusive inhabitants like hothouse flowers. For all their power their world was a small one, each gravitating around the little girl who was the nucleus that bound them all together, the center of their lives.