"Pant... pant.. pant.."

It can be endured- I can endure this!

A droplet of sweat slid across her golden brow, curving around the indent that revealed her large yellow eyes. This droplet ceased to slowdown, in fact accelerating down her rosy cheeks before sticking to the bottom of her jawline and halting at the sharp vertex of her chin. A second passed by and as her head waved to the left, the momentum swept away this drop with a swing. Being caressed by the gravity which enveloped it, the droplet pulled down, catching speed, splashing against the dusty brown ground that had sat below. The droplet was soon after scraped and spread by the heel of it's creator.

Hakune's foot dragged across the ground, a dust cloud rising in reaction. Her puffs and gasps showed her clear exhaust, but this hadn't stopped her. With persistence she painstakingly kept moving about, her resolve wholly stout. Her toes tapped along structures everywhere- from the sides of trees to the branches connecting and ground below. Her movement was fluid, clearly trained in strive to perfect.

Skipping around the surroundings, absent of sound to her own and others' ears, Hakune was attempting to have a training spar with her Mentor- "attempted", as her "master" was far above her own level. It took her all just to compare to perhaps a fraction of his own capabilities; of course, her perspective may be one of over-glorification in light of her intense respect for him, but he was far more powerful than her nonetheless.

Despite her deafness limiting her ability to speak, due to the inability to hear and therefore be uncertain of what she says, sounds released from her gaping mouth nonetheless.

"Hah.. Hah..."

She had been told that it was okay and much better to take occasional breaks, Hakune was stubborn and set in her ways- the only time she would cease practicing in the middle of training was if she had completed her goal, or the classic case of tiring one's self out to the extent of lost consciousness- an option Hakune frequently undertook. But this time, her goal was much harder than her goals had previously been set out: the fall of Shishoo.

She was determined to make her master fall, whether through loss of balance or his word of consent in his loss of the spar; either a temporary literal fall, or drop in pride and honour. Of course, Hakune would much prefer to have him give up as she could declare herself the winner for once, but in mind, perhaps subconsciously, she realised that with his fall, her thoughts of him and his skills in combat might degrade rather than seeing herself rise in said genre; and so, impulsively, she went for the physical fall as opposed to that of his pride.

____

Several hours passed by before Hakune had awoken. It was in her regained conscious that she realised, with a hint of satisfaction, that her skill was yet to be in range of adequacy of her given goal. Nearly 3 hours had elapsed before she collapsed from fatigue, and several more as she rested. And it was there that the silhouette of her beloved master shadowed her from the full moon- the moon that she would reach for, and the moon that she would inevitably grasp.

Silent all the while, simply gazing at the moon floating atop the bed of clouds, it was through these thoughts that Hakune began to reminisce about the day she had met 'Shishoo', and how much she had grown since that day.


The sun glared at the mattress of treetops, penetrating through the sky in it's absence of the clouds which protected the land. Upon this surface, Hakune was walking in her Kimono, bathed in a pink hue and patterned in bloomed, darkened red lilies plastered all across the dress. Directly below the Obi that shared the tint of the flowery patterns of which it held, a slit in her Kimono was present; from the side of her thigh to the bottom of her dress. Hakune had recently been infatuated with these types and the freedom that it offered; in fact, she had been walking towards her usual "forest of training" to test out the maneuverability she now possessed.

__________


After nearly half an hour Hakune arrived at her set destination. Finally being free of the surrounding eyes that might see this "soon-to-be 'indecency'" -and this she was sure of- the small child released the stick that pierced her hair and held it in a bun. Her hair flowed down to the back of chest and her leg slid out between the frabic. Steadying her body on the soles of her feet, Hakune leaned forward and bent her knees forward, flexing her calves in preparation.

She released her knees and propelled herself towards the leaves above, gliding through the wind and towards the most appropriate branch before her. Extending her left leg forward, Hakune touched the branch and bent the knee for a second time, cushioning the land and slowing her momentum, inertia brought forward the rest of her body as she ended the motion in a standing position atop the wooden structure.

Hardly any of her usual motions were restricted from the dress, and with delight pairing a grin, Hakune continued onward, sprinting through the trees...

_______________

Another half-hour had passed before she soon realised the tire from these motions building up within in contrast to the wearing-off of the adrenaline that filled her self. It was in this state that Hakune skipped off from the tree and to the ground below. Her fatigued legs nearly faltered from the fall, the wobbly repercussion nearly felling her. Regathering her composure, Hakune began walking towards the familiar lake located nearby wanting a quick wash before returning to the village.

Repairing her old hairstyle momentarily, Hakune soon after loosened her garbs to avoid the Kimono getting wet, and to avoid the sticky feeling from the sweat which had soaked her body as well. While slowly pacing herself towards the nearby body of water she hadn't noticed how much of a mess she looked like, with her unkempt, poorly presented hair bun that reflected her tiredness and the loose and nearly slipping kimono she had worn. But, to what she could gather, she was alone, so little care and thought was put into her current visage..

From what she could gather...