Waking up in the middle of the night was irritating to Rinkei, but she had been doing it for the longest time, that she was sort of used to it. However, this time she woke up with her mind racing, and her body shaking.

She couldn't take it any longer.

Rinkei had only been a Shinobi for a short amount of time, but she could already tell that staying in Konaha was not going to allow her to become too much more stronger. She had to go somewhere else.

The idea of leaving Konaha was scary, and difficult at the same time. Scary because she hadn't ever been out of the village besides to go to her favorite spot right outside of the walls. Difficult because Genin weren't allowed to leave the village alone. Rinkei wasn't about to wait to get an escort though, she wanted to leave as soon as possible.

Rising quickly, but quietly from her bed, Rinkei went to start packing. She was only going to bring the essentials for the journey. She could acquire new painting supplies at a later time. Besides, once she got to where she wanted to go, she wouldn't have time at all to paint, she wanted to train until she dropped.

Throwing on some clothes, she tiptoed toward her open window. With her shirt still halfway over her head, she slung her now full backpack outside of the window and watched as it dropped to the ground. She was on the first floor, so she wasn't worried about making a lot of noise by sneaking out. After she got the shirt over her head, she turned around and gazed at her room one last time. She was probably never going to see that place again, she probably wouldn't even step foot back into Konaha again. The fear intensified, but she wasn't going to back down.

Hopping out of the window, she scooped up her backpack and slung it across her shoulder. Rinkei started dashing down the street when she remembered something. Katara... She had just met the girl the other day, and she had made a promise to herself that she would visit the girl again. Rinkei wasn't about skipping out on promises. So she made a detour.

~~

Rinkei remembered the location of the Senju household with ease, so she wasn't surprised when she arrived there so quickly. The only problem was finding Katara's room, she didn't want to walk up to the door in the middle of the night and ask politely to see if their child could play, that was weird. She supposed climbing through her window and speaking to her was just as weird, if not more weird, but she didn't care. She wanted to see her friend.

Rinkei circled the house looking through all of the windows until she found Katara's room. Luckily the window was open and she could climb through it easily.

Climbing up on the window sill, Rinkei plopped down in a sitting position and eyed the sleeping girl. "I hope you don't hate me for this..." She whispered under her breath. Rinkei then knocked lightly on Katara's wall, loud enough for the girl to hear, but quiet enough that it wouldn't bother the rest of the household. "Wake up sleepy head" She said quietly to Katara across the room on her bed.

Rinkei was fully intending to convince the girl of going with her after she thought about it more. She knew for a fact that she could not just leave her one and only friend in Konaha. Especially since the village was so weak. Katara wanted to grow as a Shinobi as well, she could tell when she met her at the hot springs. Please come with me...

WC: 651
TWC: 651

Katara was in a deep, deep slumber on a cold, chilly night.  It was extremely late at night, there was no reason for anyone in the whole entire village of Konoha to be awake at this point in time.  Katara was in a trance of REM sleep, making it hard to be woken up.  She was dreaming, dreaming about things that she had never even put into a train of thought before.  They weren't positive dreams either, they were dreams that doubted everything that Katara had ever believed in; from her all that her father taught her, to her classmates that she spent all of her time in the Academy with.  

Konoha...  The village itself was founded by her bloodline; the ones who were responsible for starting it all.  Overtime, leaders have been put in to the Hokage position, who in Katara's opinion were not deemed to fit the requirements of someone who could be a leader.  After the Seventh Hokage, it all began to go downhill from there - the quality of Kage slowly declined for generations and generations to go forth.  The Village Hidden in the Leaves began producing lower and lower quality of ninja, losing it's own title of being military superpower it was once during the times of all great shinobi wars.  

This saddened Katara in her dream, as she was watching replays of all the major battles that occurred during Konoha's prime.  From her greatest ancestor, Hashirama, who was able to defeat Madara Uchiha and protect the village, to Tsunade who continued the Senju blood serving as the Fifth Hokage, noted as the strongest medical ninja known to live.  She watched all of their fights, their strengths in combat, amazed by the sheer tenacity of all of their willpower.  But what do we have today?  Sure, Konoha may have no powerhouse god-tier ninja such as they had in the past, but there are other villages that do.  Katara wanted to be apart of it; she had goals to be a legendary Senju such as her great ancestors had become, engraved in history as legends.

As Katara was watching all of her great ancestors fighting in combat, the mirror images of her dream were slowing starting to fade away - she was waking up, but why?  Katara was in too deep of a sleep to be woken up so suddenly like that, it was a sign of danger for her that she realized before she even set her eyes open, it was time to act.

Katara was woken up, by a small couple knocks that were placed on the wall.  She was awake, but didn't want to let the intruder know she was awake and kept her eyes closed - she could feel their chakra.  The intruder was nervous, but obviously had something of importance to say, but it was no matter.  An intruder is an intruder, no matter who it is, Katara thought to herself, formulating a plan of attack in her mind.  Deciding on how she would continue, she finally had an official plan of attack.  Katara leaped up with immense speed, dashing to the right - grabbing a kunai from her nightstand before leaping, throwing the blanket up in the air to try to cover her movements.  

Taking a closer look at who was there, she realized who the intruder was - it was Rinkei.  Landing with both soles of her feet on the ground, she set her kunai down on the ground, giving the Hyuga a strange look.  "Rinkei!  I'm glad to see you, b-but why are you in my house?".  Katara was oddly enough confused on how Rinkei got in here, but that was definitely a secondary thought.  Why was Rinkei in here?  They had just met yesterday, and there was no way that Rinkei was the type of person to just show up in peoples houses in the middle of the night.  Evaluating her facial expressions a little more, it was obvious that she was nervous - nervous about something, and had something of great importance to share.

Katara annihilated all emotion of fear from within her, as she was in the prescense of a friend.  "I can tell you have something important say, here - take a seat", Katara said, offering a place for Rinkei on the other side of her bed.

WC: 731
Total WC: 731

Rinkei waited quietly for Katara to wake up from her slumber. She was still a little worried about what the girl would say when she mentioned leaving Konaha. She knew her family had founded the village and had done so much to bring it up from nothing. But Katara couldn't possibly be naive to the fact that Konaha was losing it's glory, and certainly wasn't offering enough to sustain their thirst for strength. All she needed to do was convince her, after all, Katara was her friend right? She should at least put it in consideration... Of course they had met only just the day before, but there was a connection, Rinkei knew there was. She trusted Katara, which was something no one had been able to bestow upon Rinkei before. So why shouldn't Katara trust Rinkei? She didn't think she had given the girl reason to not trust her at least.

Finally, Katara had awoken from her sleep, but not peacefully. She knew Rinkei was there, or at least knew someone was there, which startled the girl, and made her act aggressively. Katara leaped from her bed and dashed to a small table to the right o her, grabbing a kuna. Upon her retreiving the weapon, Rinkei quikly slid down from the window sill and into a defensive crouching position on the floor below, grasping her own kunai in hand which she snatched from her leg strap. Rinkei had got down so low that she looked almost feline-like, her backpack hanging low over her head, nearly blocking Rinkei's vision.

As Katara leaped toward Rinkei, throwing a blanket in the air, probably to cover her movements. Rinkei clenched her teeth, ready to defend. She didn't want to hurt Katara, but she definitely had to stop her. However, Katara had stopped, finally realizing who she was about to attack as she gently landed on her feet in front of Rinkei with grace. Katara gave her a strange look, where upon greeting Rinkei, but swiftly questioning why she was in her house. "I'm sorry...I just had to see you.." Rinkei said, saddened. She hated showing signs of weakness, but it was at this moment that Rinkei was near her lowest. She needed someone to understand her, someone to be with her through this situation.

Katara visually lightened up, she was no longer freightened, which was good. She calmly offered Rinkei a seat, stating that she looked like she had something to say that was important. She had something important to say all right, insanely important. Rinkei slowly got up from her crouched postition, sliding her Kunai back in her leg strap securely, and slowly moved to a chair in the corner of Katara's room. When Rinkei sat down, she let out an extended exhale, trying to gather the strength to say the things she had to say without crying. It wasn't the actions that were making her so emotional, it was the pure idea of going alone on this journey, she didn't believe she could do it by herself, and she so desperately wanted her friend to come with her.

Slowly, Rinkei spoke. "I...I can't stay in Konaha any longer..." She started, the words starting to flow out easily now. "This place isn't the same as history told us it used to be, there's absolutely nothing I can get out of being here. I want to get stronger, but under the rule of the Hokage we have now, and the lack of strong Shinobi to guide us Genin, it's almost impossible to get anywhere," Rinkei sighed heavily and continued. "So I've decided to defect from Konaha and leave to Kiri. I hear they have a strong Mizukage, and is overall just a strong village. There's nothing left for me here anyways after my father had been killed. I just want to leave...But I don't think I can do it alone...And I was hoping you would come with me, Katara..." She finished, shedding a tear that rolled off her cheek and onto the floor. Rinkei knew she looked pathetic, but she couldn't help it. She stared intensely in the girl's eyes, looking for any sort of understanding.

If Katara didn't come with her, she didn't know what she would do.


WC: 734
TWC:1385

Listening to her closest friend's saddening voice, covered with frightful tears, Katara began to show a small expression of her soft side.  Looking at her best friend in the state that she was in was killing Katara, giving her a feeling that no one has ever given her before.  As Rinkei took a seat, Katara began to get worried - she knew this something of importance involved her to be included within it.  Right now wasn't the time nor place to do anything too drastic as it was very possible for her to make a rash decision that wouldn't be well thought out, considering the half nightmare half positive dream she had just been awoken from.  But, there was no reason for her to ignore Rinkei, as they both seemed like they become very attached to each other almost instantaneously, even from the first moment that they both spoke to each other in the Konoha Hot Springs.

She kept straight on eye contact with Rinkei, as she took a seat in one of the chairs in her huge room, walking rather slowly to it.  Uh oh, this is not good - but, we'll get through it, I promise Rinkei, she thought to herself.  Rinkei showed no signs of cheering up, even being in the prescense of Katara, which was strange.  Every time Katara has been near Rinkei, it's been always filled with positive vibes and emotions.  This time must have had to be significantly different, as the feel of her room felt not dark and gloomy, but contained more of a nervous and scared feeling.  As they both took a seat, Katara paid close attention to whatever news Rinkei had to bring, giving her a nervous sort of feeling as well.  

"I.... I can't stay in Konoha any longer...", Rinkei started to say to Katara.  Oh no, she began to think to herself, this is not good.  I can't let my best friend leave the village, that has been preserved by my family for so long!  But before Katara wanted to cut Rinkei, she grew curious on what more she had to say, it couldn't have been a simple desire; it had to have been a long, thought out process.  "This place isn't the same as history told us it used to be, there's absolutely nothing I can get out of being here. I want to get stronger, but under the rule of the Hokage we have now, and the lack of strong Shinobi to guide us Genin, it's almost impossible to get anywhere," Rinkei kept on talking about the village.  Part of her speech made Katara angry, insulting everything that all the past Kages had worked for - but really, was there was reason to be mad?  

Everything Rinkei was saying was one hundred percent accurate, and that's when Katara realized - she wasn't mad at Rinkei, she was mad at all of the past kages succeeding the Seventh, and how they have slowly declined Konoha into a socialist village.  The shinobi world wasn't meant for social villages, that leads to numerous attacks!  Such as the one done by the Legendary S-Rank Missing Ninja, Tame, who came into our village and captured one of the Hokage so many years ago!  Katara began to show her anger towards Konoha, just thinking about the past years of her life living her, including the years before she was born!  At this rate, it would be no surprise to anyone if someone came up with a jutsu that could annihilate Konoha in one swift, coordinated attack!  

Katara knew what she wanted in life - she knew she wanted to gain immense strength, to the point where almost no one currently alive to stop her.  It was a ground implanted fact that area of Konohagakure no Sato was absolutely no place to raise legendary ninja anymore, as it was time to truly listen to what Rinkei had to say next.  Katara already knew what Rinkei was going to say, even before she would say it.  The more she thought about the idea of it, the more she grew fond of it.  The next words that came out of the Hyuga's mouth gave little to no surprise to her, as she said "So I've decided to defect from Konaha and leave to Kiri. I hear they have a strong Mizukage, and is overall just a strong village. There's nothing left for me here anyways after my father had been killed. I just want to leave...But I don't think I can do it alone...And I was hoping you would come with me, Katara...".  

Katara looked down at her cold feet, and then all around her room before giving Rinkei another response, implying that she had taken a long thought about what she was doing.  The tear dropping from Rinkei's face and hitting the floor symbolized something, something she just couldn't put her finger on it.  "All of my ancestors.......  No one, in years!  Not a single one of them have been able to achieve the great strength that Hashirama, Tobirama, or even Tsunade have attained!  It's in our name, it's in our blood, to be great!  We're supposed to set the example of how all Konoha shinobis should hope to become.... But we haven't.... We've failed!  Our current Hokage, a Senju of our own blood, considered to be the one of the weakest out of the Five Kage!", Katara was at this point screaming words of intense anger, loud enough for the entire Senju household to hear.  

It took a few seconds after she had said her little speech for her to calm down.  She looked at Rinkei right in her beautiful Hyuga eyes, "Let's go - now.... I'm tired of being pathetic.  I hate Konoha, I hate the way the Senju name has been tainted, if no one else wants to regain our glory... I'll do it", she said as she grabbed the backpack she used to go fishing, packing only the bare essentials for the trip.  Leaping up on the window-sill, she looked back at her closest friend Rinkei, giving her the slight nod of approval, before jumping down onto the cold hard floor.  

Katara patiently waited for Rinkei to come down out of her room as well, as it was time to talk about what the next plan of movement was.  Katara had changed the way she felt about Konoha in almost as little as five minutes - but it felt right.  It was time to acquire strength in numbers.

WC: 1,118
Total WC: 1,852

Rinkei watched as Katara went through many different emotions as she spoke to the girl. It was evident that she had effectively offended the girl at first, but then Katara had a change of mind. It was all in her facial expression. Rinkei believed that whatever she were to ask of her now, she would go through with a hundred percent. Katara seemed like she would go anywhere and do anything with Rinkei. That made her smile wide, even before her answer. When Rinkei finished, she could tell Katara was moved in some way shape or form. The girl looked like Rinkei had sparked something in her that was ready to burst out. Her response inspired Rinkei.

Katara started off slowly, stating that her family was meant to be one of the strongest bloodlines in all the land, she progressively got more louder and louder until she was screaming loudly enough for the whole house to hear. Rinkei wanted to tell her to be quiet, but she could tell that Katara didn't care, that this speech was meant to be hear, and Rinkei respected that from her. The way the girl was carrying herself at that moment made Rinkei want to become a better person, this wasn't just about getting stronger anymore. This was about about proving to everyone that ever doubted the two girls, they were going to let everyone know that they meant business, and they were going to change the future for the better.

The girl continued to sob as she finished with her speech, it was a compelling and heartbreaking one at that. Rinkei wanted to Katara so badly, but the girl was ready to go, she said she was tired of being pathetic. All Rinkei could think was that Katara wasn't pathetic, it was the village and the names associated with the village that were pathetic, Katara was a strong girl, and it was obvious that she was going to be someone of great strength one day. Whatever she became, Rinkei was going to stand by her side no matter what. It was her obligation to protect her since she was basically taking Katara away from her family and friends. However, if she wanted to go with Rinkei instead of staying with her parents, then she obviously felt very passionate about what she was saying and doing, and Rinkei respected her for that.

Katara had packed up, and hopped out of her window before Rinkei had a chance to to think straight. It was really happening, and Rinkei was happy that her friend had agreed to go with her. The new experience was already invigorating to Rinkei, she felt as if she was ready for anything. If anything, this experience would make a great story to tell in the future to her children...Assuming she decided to have any. She didn't believe she would make a great parent though. None of that mattered anyways. She shook her head, thinking about how stupid she was.

Rinkei hopped out the window close behind Katara and looked at the girl. She still looked distraught, she was sure that this was going to weigh down on Katara for quite a while, and Rinkei didn't like the thought of that, so she wanted to do something to cheer her up. Rinkei poked her on the shoulder and tilted her head toward the nearest village gate. The walls loomed over the two girls, it would be the last time that they looked at them from the inside. It was a weird feeling to say the least. "I'll race ya." She said with a grin, the same grin she had gave Katara when they first met. Rinkei dashed off down the street, giggling softly to herself.

We'll make it Katara, we have to.

~~Exit~~

WC: 638
TWC: 2013


Stats Trained:

Speed: E-3 ~> D (300 Words)
Strength: D ~> D-2 (725 words and 75 Ryo)
Perception: E-3 ~> D (300 Words)
Reaction Time: E-3 ~> D (300 Words)
Endurance: E-3 ~> D (300 Words)

Total: 1925 words and 75 ryo

Leftover Words: 88

As Katara flew out of the window from her room at the Senju household, she was glad to look behind her and see Rinkei follow behind her, losing her tears and sad emotions, seeming to be in more of a hyperactive mood which was good to see.  Katara hated seeing Rinkei in a state of sadness, it made her sad as well - but those times would be over soon.  Konoha was full of mediocre dreams, and is not a place for people like these two girls.  Growth was required if they wanted to achieve the goals that they have all planned out, and this was only the first step.  They were two seeds that had just been implanted into the Konoha soil, it was them leaving that watered them and allowed them to grow.  It was only a matter of time until they sprouted into fully grown plants, ready to expand to bigger and better things.

Rinkei leaped down from the window sill, poking Katara relatively easily with her finger that dug into her shoulder.  "I'll race ya", she said, smiling while doing it.  This reassured Katara of her prediction before of having Rinkei back in her normal state of mind.  Her being back to normal also allowed Katara herself to return back to a state of zen, as she knew what her next objective was.  

Katara gazed at Rinkei as she dashed off into the lazy night of the Konohagakure streets, being able to hear all the giggling noise that she was making while doing it.  As Rinkei was running further and further away, Katara layed her eyes down and closed them for just a brief moment.  Hmph.  Rinkei Hyuga.  Who knew that you would be the one.....  Who I would follow on this memorable journey across the world, she thought to herself.  Out of all the people she has encountered in the world,  Katara had never expected that someone she had just met yesterday would be so powerful and moving enough to convince her to leave everything that she had been working for behind.  She knew it was for a good reason though - there was nothing left for her in this village.

Taking one last look, she turned around and glanced up and down the Senju household, which was located in the area right above the Konoha Hokage Statues, having the perfect view of the rest of the village.  "Tch, you will be redeemed - I swear of it", she said, looking specifically at the Senju symbol implanted in the center of the main building.  After making one last hmph, Katara transferred some of her inner chakra into her feet, having them glow a bright, soft baby blue color.  This allowed her to safely run down the Hokage Mountain with ease, as that's exactly what she did, having both arms cocked back with the look of intensity in her eyes.

She could barely see Rinkei out in the distance, as she was still running quickly at a significantly quick pace towards the village gate.  Katara, still having that same look of ferocity in her eyes, went at full sprint to catch up to her.  At this moment, she was 100% committed to what she was about to do, and dropped all feelings of emotional attachment towards the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

Jutsu(s) Used:

Chakra Status:

WC: 555
Final WC: 2,407