Tsuneko was standing by the open window in her room within the Kaguya Temple. She held her new Genin forehead protector in her hands, admiring the shiny, new metal in the sunlight. The blue cloth draped over the fair skin of her hands; she had had neither the time nor inclination to customize it yet. She was still rather enamored with the fact that she had one of her own. A breeze blew through her long, white hair, pushing her bangs back, and revealing the Kaguya’s marks on her forehead. When a shadow passed over Kiri’s emblem, the fourteen year-old’s lilac eyes flicked up towards the sky. She frowned as she saw the clouds, the village was, understandably, normally misty and overcast, and she’d been enjoying the sunlight. She squinted as she saw a shadow appear on the village walls. It took a few seconds to make the identification. “Amaterasu,” Tsuneko whispered, her voice reflecting her disbelief that the all-destructive flames would be here, that her village would be burning before her eyes.

However, there was no mistaking that it was. Within the few seconds that elapsed between the start of the fire and her recognition of it, the fire had already spread to most of the walls surrounding the village. She had heard about Amaterasu in the academy and knew that the best response for a young shinobi against that technique was to run, as far and as fast as possible. That was exactly what she was going to do.

Without even a second look at her room, even leaving the picture of her deceased parents on her bedside table, she vaulted out of her window. Grateful that she lived on the first floor, she dropped only a few feet before landing lightly on the ground. As she ran through the village, more buildings caught on fire around her. She could hear screams coming from inside the buildings as people realized that they were trapped within, but she never hesitated.

Tsuneko reached the Misty Salvage, Kirigakure’s bunker, and saw that the building’s roof was already on fire. She hurried through the door and found piles of burning debris scattered around the room, but the entrance to the tunnels was, mercifully, still clear. She made her way through the tunnels and emerged from them near the tree line, a safe distance from the blaze. Finally slowing down, she turned to face Kirigakure

She watched as everything she had ever known burned before her eyes, and as the adrenaline left her system, her trembling legs finally gave out and the young shinobi sank to her knees. What was she going to do now? She knew that nothing but ashes would remain of the village by the time Amaterasu burned itself out. She had nothing but the clothes on her back and… She looked down at the forehead protector gripped tightly in her hands. It was all she had left.

((I don't know who all is left in Kiri, so I'll wait a day or so, and if I don't have any replies, I guess she'll have to make the trip solo.))

Tsuneko remained on her knees watching Kiri burn until the black flames merged into the twilight. She waited and waited for more survivors to make their way out of the tunnel, but no one emerged. She knew that the tunnels opened up at a few other places around the village. However, she didn’t have much confidence that anyone else made it out. Amaterasu had engulfed everything and spread so quickly that if she hadn’t happened to have been looking out the window to see its start, she doubted that she would have made it out alive herself. As the light faded, she slowly got to her knees, stiff and tired from her sprint out of the village. The young Genin was on her own and knew that she couldn’t sit here out in the open and wait for someone to come along and tell her what to do. ‘I’m a shinobi now,’ she thought as she used her teeth to help tie her forehead protector around her left arm. ’I have to take care of myself.’

Her senses were not very attuned to chakra signatures yet, and she couldn’t be certain whether or not the Uchiha was still in the area. She shouldn’t have even sat around for as long as she did; she recognized that she’d just been in too much shock to think about what to do next. Now she had wasted the daylight and would have to camp near the village. Tsuneko made her way a little deeper into the woods. She had no supplies with her and knew that she was in for a long, cold night. She wished that she had at least chosen to wear a shirt with sleeves that morning instead of her sleeveless, crimson training top and her short, charcoal skirt. The fourteen year-old sat with her back against a tree and gathered up a few armfuls of fallen leaves to cover her bare legs as a makeshift blanket against the chilly air. She intended to stay awake and keep watch all night, but exhaustion overcame her. After a couple hours, her lilac eyes shut and her chin drooped to rest uncomfortably on her chest as Tsuneko fell into an uneasy sleep.

Tsuneko opened her eyes in the center of the village, black flames dominating the scene. They seemed to dance and jump around her like malignant spirits, and the crackling of the fire sounded like snickers as they gleefully destroyed everything and -one she’d ever known. She ran through a labyrinth of fire desperately trying to find her way to the bunker that she knew should be around here. “Tsuneko!” she heard someone call over the noise of the flames. Lilac eyes searched frantically around for the source before landing on a young academy student. He looked familiar… Shirou Nakano: she recognized him from a few days earlier when he had had a cast removed in the Kiri Hospital, where she volunteered after her own academy classes. That same newly mended ankle was now covered in the black flames that were quickly spreading to the rest of his body. He reached out a hand to her, pleading for help, for her to hold his hand like she had days earlier and tell him that everything was going to be okay. She shook her head and backed away from Shirou; there was nothing anyone could do against Amaterasu. He screamed as the flames flared up and quickly engulfed the rest of his body. Tsuneko turned away and ran, his screams echoing in her ears. She ran and ran, hearing the screams of everyone she had ever known following her as she tried to escape. A piece of a burning building broke off and landed on her neck. She shrieked as the fire spread into her shoulders, knowing that this was the end for her.

Tsuneko woke up to the sound of someone screaming, and it took a moment to realize that the noise was coming from her own mouth. She quickly shut it and, remembering her dream, slapped a hand up to her neck. Reassured that she wasn’t burning, she noticed how stiff her neck and shoulders were from her unrestful nap. Looking around, she saw that it was still dark, but the sun would be up in a few hours. She knew that if anyone was in the area they would have heard her and could be on their way here as she sat there. Forcing herself to her feet, she began making her slow progress towards the docks, the main way off the island. She hadn’t yet decided where she was going, but she knew it was pointless to remain here, next to a village that would only be ashes after Amaterasu burned itself out.

It was mid-day when Tsuneko reached the docks. She was easily able to get passage to Konoha, despite her lack of ryo; she had not taken the time to grab her small purse when escaping the village. Fortunately, the feudal lord of the Water Country had an arrangement with the ferrymen in the country where a Kiri forehead protector was all that was required for free transport. He, apparently, didn’t want any problems with his shinobi not being able to carry out his will because of difficulty traveling between the islands that make up his country.

While on board, the Genin made a meager meal out of various berries and edible plants she had found along the way. With her fast metabolism due to the high level of activity she’s involved in while training to become a shinobi, the miniscule amount of calories she had just consumed would not sustain her for long, but she was unwilling to show weakness by begging the ferryman for food. With her education in the Academy as well as further studies on her own, plants as poisons and antidotes were useful to a medical-nin, Tsuneko was capable for finding a decent meal in the forest, but she had resolved on her journey to the docks that she would not waste the time that doing so would require and made do with what chanced in front of her as she traveled.

Her solitary trip had given her time to think about Kiri’s situation and her next steps. She couldn’t believe that another village would have attacked Kirigakure in such an absolute manner. They weren’t at war with another village, to her knowledge, and what would that village have gained? Nothgin was salvageable from Amaterasu. Besides, would a Kage really risk starting that kind of annihilation wargare? The villages would destroy themselves until only ruins remained of the other four, as well. There was no point in remaining here. Even if Kirigakure was rebuilt, it might take years before it could stand beside even the weakest of the other villages. She craved more training; she had not even been assigned to a team before the fire. She remembered hearing that Team One from Kiri had left to attend the Chuunin exams in the Fire Country. Did they even know what happened here? Kirigakure was isolated on its island, but it was not uncommon for villages to have spies keep watch on the going-ons of the others. Had there been one here? Does Konoha know what happened already? Vaguely she wondered if they would send relief efforts, or if they’d be happy to have one less village to compete against for supremacy. She decided that her best option at this point would be to try to track down her compatriots and find out what they planned to do; she wasn’t certain about bailing ship and jumping to another country yet, or if another village would even accept her. She had never met any of them, but she couldn’t think of a better idea.

After landing in the Fire country, Tsuneko had a few more days of traveling to reach Konoha, and over those days, she learned why shinobi were told to never travel alone. Between her nightmares of Amaterasu and trying to keep watch for herself, the fourteen year-old got little to no rest. She kept a very lean diet, just enough to keep her feet moving, determined to get to Konoha as quickly as possible. The Genin had never been outside of Kirigakure, much less outside of the Water Country, and being on her own in this unknown land was hard on Tsuneko. With a great sense of relief, her lilac eyes finally spotted the walls of Konoha.

[Travel thread word count: 1st post: 488, 2nd: 795, 3rd: 622
Total: 1906/600 ]