‘Tsuneko opened her eyes to see her mother, Sachiko Kaguya, standing before her. “Mom?” she asked, confused. Looking around, she found herself in her room within the Kaguya Temple. Her shiny, new forehead protector was sitting on the windowsill, the ties gently waving in the wind coming through the open window. Disbelievingly her eyes returned to her mother, standing in front of her as real as anything. Was everything just a bad dream? The forehead protector sitting there…. Her mother had not lived to see her earn it. Or had she? Running forward, she wrapped her arms around her mother’s waist. “I had the worst dream…” Her arms still tight around Sachiko, she looked up at her, relishing in the simple pleasure of looking on her mother’s face again. The family resemblance was unmistakable. The same fair skin, white hair, and clan markings were mirrored on her face; the main difference between the two were gray-blue eyes on the elder versus violet on the younger. There was no sign of the bone disease that had attacked her mother’s body, she looked peaceful and happy, not wracked by pain as she had been the last years of her life. “Your disease, Mom, I dreamed that it-“ “-Shh…sweetheart. Don’t worry about that now,” her mother interrupted, gently. “I’m here to help you. Shall we start with the Dance of the Willows?” “But Mom, the window…” Her mother never wanted anyone to know that her daughter had inherited the Shikotsumyaku. They normally trained in one of the underground rooms where no prying eyes could find them. “Don’t worry about that now,” Sachiko repeated as she gently stepped back from her daughter's embrace.

Bones grew out of her palms as Sachiko began the first dance of the Kaguya. Her mother moved smoothly between each motion, everything looking effortless. Amazed, as she always was, with how beautiful and graceful her mother looked, Tsuneko didn’t notice the black fire surrounding them until the pure white stone of the ceiling cracked from the heat and a piece broke off, almost striking her mother. “Amaterasu,” she whispered just like she did on that fateful day. Seeing another piece break off, her voice cracked as she screamed, “Look out!” But her mother didn’t or couldn’t hear her. She reached out for her mom, catching the woman’s sleeve, and suddenly the room shifted. Her mother was gone. It was just her, surrounded by the black flames, with bones already protruding from her palms. The open window that she had escaped from in the waking world was now hidden by flames. Black was the only color that she could see within this pure white temple. Impulsively, she picked up the dance, trying to fight off the flames, stabbing at them. It was impossible though. Amaterasu burned hotter than the sun and even bones stronger than any metal could not withstand it. Her right hand catching on fire, she flung it out away from her body with a wordless cry of terror.’

ThumpBumpThump! The medical books on her small nightstand went crashing to the floor as her right hand struck them. The minor pain and the sound of her own cry woke her from her nightmare. She had been sleeping in one of the rooms within the temporary housing unit with a few other girls. However, she didn't notice her surroundings nor any of the complaints that her roommates may or may not have had at the noise. Her heart racing and adrenaline up from fear, she moved on impulsively, just knowing that she had to get out of there. Her covers already thrown back from her thrashing while asleep, she leapt out of the bed. One of her feet kicked her one of her valued medical books a few feet across the floor, but she didn't even acknowledge that she had touched it.

Dressed in only a simple white nightgown, hair mussed from her restless sleep, Tsuneko rapidly made her way out through the common room and into the cold night air. Mindless of her surroundings, the girl acted on instinct and just kept walking. The mist that Kirigakure was known for hung heavy in the air; as the small figure made her way through it, she looked ghost-like with her white clothes, pale skin, and white hair, almost as though one of the spirits of the deceased had come walking in the night. She made her way up the hill to where the Kaguya Temple lay in ruin. Bare feet trod over the uneven surface as she wove her way around a few chunks of broken stone that had not been turned to ash in the impossibly hot flames of Amaterasu. Not seeking the center of the ruined temple, her feet did not stop until she reached the Eastern side of it, where her room had once been. Once there, she wavered a bit. Violet eyes shadowed by dark circles searched the area sightlessly, still half in her dreamworld. Whether she found what she was looking for or not was uncertain. She lowered herself to her knees, sitting with her head bowed, hands resting in her lap, as though in prayer.

The girl remained there for some time. The actual length of her stay was uncertain as she was too preoccupied with her own thoughts to notice the passage of time, and there was no one else around to keep track of it for her. There was much for the young kunoichi to wrap her head around. Often in the company of others, Tsuneko had shut off her emotions and fears from the rest of her consciousness. It wouldn’t do to become overly emotional in front of her peers; that would make her appear weak, and weakness would make her a target. Besides, the Kaguya were war-loving and ferocious: it would be absurd to suggest that a daughter of that clan, especially one with the Shikotsumyaku, would be disturbed by the sight of death and destruction...But she was. So she hid it all away until tonight. Sleep deprived and alone within the ruins of her home, she allowed herself to weep for the first time as she finally worked to come to terms with it.

Her mother was gone. Dreams, like the one tonight, were the only place that they would meet again. Sachiko had died a few years ago when Tsuneko was ten and had inspired her to pursue Medical Ninjutsu. Despite the absence of her mother, she was never truly alone. The other clan members, her aunts, uncles, and cousins (both distant and closely related), took care of her. After their close brush to extinction after the rebellion against Kirigakure, the family had remained rather small and close-knit. Now? It was possible that she was the only one. The family records had burned along with everything else, and until she received word of another Kaguya whom had sought refuge or had been outside of Kiri when the fire started, she had to work under the assumption that she was really on her own for the first time... It was a scary thought.

‘It shouldn’t be.’ she scolded herself, as she wiped the tears from her cheeks and impolitely used the back of her hand for her nose. Yes, she was young. She had only recently graduated from the Academy when the fire had come and had not even been assigned a squad. But she had seen things. She had watched her home burn to the ground and heard the screams of the people trapped inside Kirigakure; she had traveled to Konohagakure on her own and survived with no supplies. She had watched a ninja melt the eyes out of an enemy and had taken her first life. As young as she appeared, she was not the child that admired her shiny, new forehead protector in her room. She was a kunoichi now and needed to behave like one.

The sky was beginning to show the first lightening of dawn; she had been out here all night. Tsuneko picked herself up off the ground and looked at the wreckage around her in the gray morning light. It was possible that she was alone, but the Kaguya were known to be survivors. They had survived their rebellion against Kirigakure, when everyone had thought them extinct, and others may have survived this tragedy as well. Filled with a new confidence and sense of resolve, the Genin made her way through the wreckage. The Kaguya stored their family wealth in a bank on the mainland. As a Kaguya and user of the Shikotsumyaku, she felt that she had as much right to it as anyone, and she knew what she would use it for. She would rebuild the Kaguya Temple and create a new home for her clan, whatever remained of it. Violet eyes bright against the sleepless, dark circles under her eyes, Tsuneko could almost see the future. A smile brightened her face at the prospect.