In two days, the Chunin Exams are to take place. At least, that's what my internal clock told me. I couldn't see the sun.

Right after Mr. Yamanaka and Ibiki left with the two Anbu soldiers with something I had forgotten I witnessed that pertained heavily to their future, I had lost. I lost, and they weren't idiots in connecting what they had seen and what it meant for the Exams...and for the relationship between the Leaf and the Sand village.

I lost, and I had chosen to live with it. 

The hours tick by so slowly in the cell. No one has visited or spoken a word to me since they left. Not even for food, or water. They simply left me in the cell for hours. Silent, I could only sit in the corner of the room, back pressed against one side, my shoulder and head leaning on the other. The chains were heavy, cold, and uncomfortable on my wrists, arms, and ankles.

There was a moment in that time where I panicked, trying to press the clock face on the ring solidified to my hand, but because of the bar in between my wrists to prevent making hand signs, it prevented that motion as well. Pressing the clock face to the ground didn't work, and neither did trying to press it with my foot - I couldn't get enough leverage. Nothing worked. Built up frustration led to me banging my fists to the wall, only to scrape them up.

Scuffed up hands, wounded pride, and stripped of everything - even what I held so tightly in my mind - I sat. I sat in the silence, eyes glazed over and staring at the wall ahead, hoping that sooner or later someone would walk through the door. Anyone.

While I waited, I berated myself endlessly. Back and forth behind my empty eyes raged a war of self-hatred and pure anxiety. I was such an idiot. God, why did I even try to act like I was such a know it all? I wasn't qualified for this. Even if they believed me for a time, how could I reverse something like this? No, I couldn't. I can't because I was such a stupid-

Clanking snapped me out of my self-administered beating, my eyes finding that the door was open. Shadows of Anbu soldiers filed in, along with a man cloaked in white and red. A man that made my insides twist at the sight of.

"Angeles," the Third Hokage's baritone and scratchy voice filled the room easily. Saying my name made me flinch slightly. He strode toward me in the corner with a manner that I could only try to describe as confident. He spoke when he was a few feet away, causing me to tilt my head slightly to look up at him, "I know you well enough to know that you are not one to cause trouble such as this for an illogical reason. Such as the time you had stolen a sacred scroll as an accomplice for Naruto Uzumaki's sake."

My eyes drifted down and away from the Hokage, to the Anbu nearby to the rough surface of the cell wall. The old leader continued, "Of everything you knew, you had chosen to say next to nothing - only to give hints and gestures that led others to conclude solutions or identify situations on their own. You were a passive pawn."

I tensed my jaw, but said nothing. With silence as a response, he crouched to set a gentle hand on my shoulder, verbally pressing, "Son, you had witnessed a cold-blooded murder. You saw the death of Hayate Gekko."

The mention of his full name produced a warm, stinging feeling around my eyes that I was sure the Hokage saw as the shine of oncoming tears. He did not pause at my reaction as his voice cut every so gently deeper, "A valuable jonin, a man with a valuable life, cut down by the hands of someone foreign to our village. You saw who did it. Why didn't you come forward with such important knowledge, Angeles? What stopped you?"

I sniffled, the flood of blood roaring loud in my ears as I squeezed my eyes shut. In all honestly, I couldn't lie to him, but I didn't want to speak the truth lest my voice would sound shattered.

"Breathe," the older man softly coaxed, a light warning to help me realize that I was holding my breath in the tensity. Shakily, I released the air, in turn letting out an unwanted sob. Above everything, crying in front of the damned Lord Hokage after being labeled as an enemy of the Leaf felt... undignified.

"Please, help me understand," the Hokage eased back into the mostly one-sided conversation, "I can't help you if I don't understand what it is that's holding you back."

I couldn't take this anymore.

"Nothing!" I suddenly spit with a force I didn't believe I had, the older man reeling and the Anbu tensing at my wild tone, "nothing, nothing is holding me back! Nothing but me!"

Turning to the Hokage who had released my shoulder, I hissed, "I chose silence not for my sake, but for everyone. Do you know how hard it was to keep it all a secret?! To hold back so much grief and act as if nothing happened?!"

What was I doing?! It all just spilled so fast that even I didn't know what I was going on about, "knowing what would happen if I just stood there! If I let it happen, and let the world go on as it should without my interference, knowing that it was supposed to happen - do you have ANY idea?!"

I wheezed, curling up into a tighter ball that I was originally, "I can't stop anything. I couldn't...I can't..."

"Angeles," the Hokage reasoned, "this knowledge could be used to save precious lives! Men, women, children - "

The Hokage backed a couple of steps as I got up.

"I KNOW!!!" I cried, my voice ripping through my throat at such a volume that even scared myself, "I GET IT! BECAUSE I know what will happen, we could USE PREVENTATIVE MEASURES!"

The chains clanged loudly as a few Anbu soldiers quickly stepped forward to place defensive arms in front of the Third, "stay back, Lord Hokage-"

"BUT I CAN'T," I sputtered, "I can't because all of what I could change are fixed points, and if those were to change, we'd all spin into the unknown! Something even I can't see!"

"Fixed points?" The Hokage spoke, genuinely confused, "you spoke of fixed points before."

I remembered. Back when I spoke with Iruka, that was the only time I could clearly remember mentioning something like that. Flustered, I just took in a deep breath. God, everything ached, but I pushed to ignore it as best I could.

Calm.

"...fixed points. A moment in time that must happen," I spoke simply. Then, I let my back hit the wall to slide down, collapsing into an exhausted seated position. The Anbu relaxed slightly, the ones that went to protect the Hokage lowering their arms slightly.

"You weren't supposed to know," I spoke just above a whisper, "you weren't supposed to know until just before everything what they were... you couldn't...I don't know what will happen now, now that you..."

At that point, I just stopped talking. The silence hung in the air as my breath fell into a shaky rhythm. My eyes burned, simply not willing to look any of them in the eye. Nothing, nothing, couldn't comprehend anything.

"Angeles?"

Warmth lingered at my side. I did not look up.

"Do you remember when you and I first spoke to one another?"

I did. Weakly, my skin ghostly in color, I couldn't find the strength to answer as such. 

"In my office. You told me you didn't remember your name."

My breath slowed. The Hokage's voice echoed into me in a way that I would consider a grandfather's into a grandchild.

"I had asked you if you remembered where you had come from. Do you remember?"

A smiled tugged at the corners of my lips, only slightly. Of course...

"I must ask that question again now. This is very important Angeles. I need you to tell me where you had come from so I may allow the village you had come from knowledge that you have been found. I'm sure they'd be grateful to see you home."

I could only close my eyes, filtering through my world-born memories. The twins... the house... the diner. My brother working behind the bar. The violin. The field stretching miles and miles in the distance, tight perimeters of trees surrounding each house that dotted the horizons. Taking in a breath, the stale air of the cell was very unlike the sweet smell of lemongrass I expected to inhale, snapping me back to the present. For some reason the scent of wood smoke lingered in my nose.

Opening my eyes, I dragged my gaze toward the Hokage's friendly face. I gave a faint laugh.

"You're a false saint..."

The Hokage wasn't expecting that, judging by the reaction that filtered on his expression. My head swung heavily into the wall I leaned against.

"You want my family."

"That is not my intention," The Hokage grumbled level-headedly, "I want to understand you, Angeles."

Silent as I stared at the much older man, he continued sadly, "please, son, I want to spare you from facing Inoichi-san's technique once more. The last few days have been way too much for someone your age, and you do not have the support you need to face such things."

I could feel the guilty smile travel across my face, "that's... very kind. But you and I know how this goes..."

The room filled with a heavy silence as the Hokage's gaze lingered on me. Everything in my head was too loud, and by the time I came back to myself and looked up where the others had been, they had long since exited the cell.