“Wait.” Yura held up a hand as he moved up to her. She struggled for a moment with how best to handle him. She wanted to be kind and gentle with him but not to coddle him. A moment ago he was willing to keep practicing but after getting worried that she would leave he wasn’t as ready to part from her even briefly. She understood, but that wouldn’t do. Next time she would just slip away and not give him time to think about it, maybe that would be better. 

She dropped her hand and smiled reassuringly. 

“I’m glad you’ll come with me. But go ahead and finish practicing. I’m just going to clean up the mess I made while you do that. And we’ll sharpen the arrows before we leave, like I said.” 

She met his eyes with calm understanding.  “Don’t worry, Sasuke. I won’t leave without you,” she promised quietly. 

Then, lingering and watching him closely to make sure he was okay, she retreated into the house. But then she went to the kitchen window to watch him and make sure he really was okay. Standing there she thought of his mother doing the same thing and shivered hard.