She didn’t really know why she came to this colour breathing place.
A month ago, when the young kunoichi left Mizu no Kuni, she had no idea where to go. There was no path ahead of her, no choices marked out on a map.  After losing her grasp of every tie that was keeping her bound to this bloody sea sodden place, there was nothing left but a pair of numb empty hands reaching hopelessly in to an abyss and the burning imminent need to get as far away as she could from the swirling reaches of the mist. To go as far and as fast as she could away from there. Away…. Far away.  
And so she ran away. With her masked acquaintance following hot on her heels and an oar-less boat deciding their path, the two unlikely strangers were set to drift. Floating aimlessly around the surrounding islands, over the waves, the torrents, passing quietly across unseen borders, until they finally… finally got to Konohagakure. The village hidden in the leaves. A place so different from where she came. So clean, fresh, and so luminescently bright, that maybe… maybe this would be exactly what she needed. A new home with a few less ties and a clear enough wind to scrub away the salty grains and red flecked water from deep within her pores. It was a new home and a new path. Perfect. Perfect.

But of course it wasn’t that easy. No, of course it couldn’t be that easy.

The morning after their battered boat had reached the grassy shores of Konoha and the Sotsuji was clawing her way out from under a new roof, it became clear that absolutely nothing had changed.
Yes, the air here was fresher, purer… and it felt lighter than before. But she still couldn’t see the sky. Behind a tangle of branches and handfuls of leaves, the crisp cerulean expansive sky was still obscured from her vision. Beneath the luscious emerald carpet, the ground was muddy and cold, and the dew on the cracked window still ran the same way. The same sun, same shivers, the same feelings.
The feelings she had tried so hard to run away from, had clung to her skin like a fever chill and not even the spray of the ocean could shake them off. Feelings of fear, desperation, pain. That unstable anger. It followed her right in to the forest. Step for step until… until she met him. Sousetsu Senju.

He was not unlike her. But he wasn’t entirely the same either.
Right from the moment when their gazes clashed; the special jounin could see the unyielding strength the two individuals shared. The accepting kindness and fearsome fearlessness. That protective ferocity she had grown to rely on. But Solstice… she was water and ice. A force as swift and decisive as the current that carried them here, while Sousetsu was more like wood and earth. Unwaveringly firm, and as unpredictable as the forest that protected this blessed place. But even with their different eyes and unique words, they both won against her lesser judgement. They took the screaming irrationalities from the depths of her mind and reduced them to a whisper, granting the younger a moment of peace. Even for just a little while.  Even if it wasn’t what she wanted.

Please

Please don’t leave me


Tenmei had almost forgotten how utterly frightening silence could be.
No gentle reassurances quieting the chatter of doubts and regret in the depths of her mind. No memories replaying over and over and over again before the eyes of her consciousness.  No, conscience correcting her decisions, no vision of her father sitting across from the fire with the book in his lap and a smile that reminded her of the true meaning of home. Nothing. Just simply, painfully nothing. It was enough to drive the female away from the safety of the room she had sought as a sanctuary, and out through the village. Looking…searching for something to fill that empty space other the growing frustration and lingering silence…. Tenmei did find something. A stranger carrying more questions than answers and a few too many memories of home. And a terrifying realization of what she could become. Oh yes. It was supposed to be a simple mission. Find the criminal, capture them, and bring them back to face judgment and justice. In and out. Simple. Quick and easy right? …Wrong. One mistake was all it took for everything to fall back to the wonderful chaos it was before. One moment of hesitation. One small injury. Facing up against the very image of the pathetic little girl she once was and the fear of losing yet another piece of her life. It was just enough to pierce the fragile barrier that kept those feelings at bay… and allow all that anger…. That frustration to come rushing back.

And there would be no stopping it this time

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Words: 860

Binsu.
It’s time. I’m sorry.  I know we haven’t been in Konoha long… and it feels like we just got here. But it doesn’t feel right anymore. We need to leave. I… need to leave. If you want to keep following me then I will wait for you… I will wait for you in the village hidden in the Sand. If not then this is once again goodbye. Till we meet again. – Tenmei.

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How long are you going to keep running?

At one point, the young kunoichi remembered sprinting blindly through the forest surrounding Konoha.  Seeing the flashes of cocoa bronze and glimpses of Verdigris, whip past her in a blur, listening to the sounds of her feet glancing over the crackling undergrowth and fallen life. The whispering winds and crying creatures echoing around her ears.  As she tore through the endless ocean of bowing giants and thorny scrub, she could feel the gnarled branches and wire like grass tear at her clothes, her skin…. Her resolve. It was almost as if the spirits didn’t want her to leave with all the secrets of here and home. Almost as if they were convinced they could win against her confidence.  But not even they could hold on to her forever.  Soon… soon they too started to let go. And, slowly but surely… subtly, the crowd of trees began to lessen and grow thinner. The ground became softer beneath her feet, the sun started to become crueller than the wind. And then…. Before the female knew where she was and what she was doing, the world changed in to the most beautifully rustic piece of land she had seen since she had wandered through the desert all those years ago, looking for the ivory tower. Back when everything was that little bit more perfect.

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How much longer do you plan on living like this? Those people are never going to learn.

He wasn’t wrong. Caught somewhere between the distant horizon and the silhouette of a city, Tenmei paused mid foot print and took in the honey golden world around her. It was funny, everywhere she went; the world was different. Back in Kiri everything appeared in shades of blue and grey. With it’s strength in mystery and blood tainting it’s history, the lingering mist was a constant caution for those who venture the volatile waters. And Konoha’s forest was much the same. If anyone was daring enough to walk the emerald maze of viciously looming plants and ferocious creatures, then they would come face to face with one of the strongest standing villages. And then there was Suna. With it’s scorching sun and burning desert, who knew how many bodies the dunes had swallowed? Who knew how many bones they would spit back out? A sun burnt area so vast an open, bore the largest pair of jaws she had ever come across. But whatever the land type, whatever the colours, the people were all the same. Judging… controlling. Deceitful and hateful. It was funny how short sighted these people were that they could not look to their mistakes and learn from them.

“I know. But what would you have me do? You saw how I fought the Hokage. You saw how he won. He was stronger than me, I stood no chance”

No my little candle, I want you to punish everybody. You are stronger than you think you are. And it’s about time you realized that. It’s about time that you realise just who you are

“I know who I am

No. You don’t. And because of them, you can’t see it


“That’s not true!”

The anger bitten words barely slipped past her lips. Fists balled at her sides and eyes shifting hue. Chakra coursing through her system like lava under pressure. No sooner had she voiced those bitter thoughts, a sudden and violent surge of heat blasted from her pores. Scattering the sand around her in a shimmering wave of distortion…. But it didn’t stop there. The stirring deep within her centres was far from settled, and the heat….the pure, raw, insatiable heat inside her continued to grow.

Ayakashi tried to restrain your power and you let her. Sousetsu tried to control you and you let him. That girl you saw in Konoha tried to get ahead of you and you would have let her too.  The people you called family, your friends, the enemies you faced, you let them get too close and it was You who let them hurt you. If you just open your eyes and see….

“No! I mean…. Yes. They did but I…. At least they were around. Where did you go huh? When I was getting lectured by the Hokage and sitting alone with nightmares, where were you? When I was trying to make up for my faults, where were you? I needed you when she was there but I couldn’t hear you. I couldn’t feel you at all. So how dare you lecture me when……”

There it was again. More words. More stirring.  She could feel the pressure building, like gas inside a paper balloon. And with every step she took towards this village, every word that echoed from her memory that pressure grew. It grew and spread and boiled until she couldn’t take it any longer.
With the furious roar building in her throat, the Sotsuji thrust her fist forwards in to the air, sending out a flaring fireball that would burn like magnesium against the crystal blue sky before coming to an abrupt halt amongst yet another rippling cloud of heat and smoke and sand….. and she was not yet finished. Following the powerful momentum, Tenmei pushed off with her grounded foot and swung out in a round house kick that would send a more vicious wave of heat across the sand. A wave that turned the very air in to fire as it rolled out before her, in a deathly array of flame, grit and glass. But even this wasn’t enough. Not even remotely close.

That’s it my little candle. Let it all…..

“Shut up! Just shut up! I am done with this shit! All I hear is “Show some control. Let it all go. Fight me. Calm down. Spare them. Kill her. Hold back. Stay with me. Leave me alone. Let go. Hold on. No let go” Enough!! I am so fucking sick of people telling me what I can and cannot do.  And I am so fucking tired of people breaking up my life and leaving me to pick up the pieces. I am not here to be babied, or used, or judged by some self righteous roach who thinks they know me. Those disgusting vermin can all burn in hell. If they want to see what happens when a life turns to flame. Then fine. I am a Sotsuji….”

And you are strong


“I wont be broken”

Show them all.

"I will show them that this"

This is

“Enough!”

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Words: 1185
Total: 2045

Jutsu:

For a moment….for just a fleeting, precious moment, time itself came to a grinding halt and the whole land just stood perfectly still. The wide sweeping wind withheld its biting breath, the shallow dunes all around froze mid quiver. Even the mimicking shadows stopped stretching their twisted elongated limbs for that second’s pause. But when the world sped up back to normal… when the universe resumed its normal course. Everything changed once again.

With a force great enough to shake the very ground on which she stood and a wind strong enough to part the clouds, Tenmei Sotsuji released a mighty fireball in to the sky. A brilliant explosion that lit up every stone, every hill, and every twisted shadow that dared to creep close. And when the crimson white flames died down… when the blinding light faded and the smoke cleared with the shock wave that followed; all that remained was a giant glass flower towering towards the sun in the middle of the desert. Still shining with the same shade of amber that coloured the user’s eyes.

When Tenmei woke from the entanglement of heat she had cuts all over her body. The soles of her feet were covered in blood tainted sand, her skin was as try as the land she had wondered in to… and the anger that burned deep within her stomach still burned as brightly as the flare that forever would mar this land.

I am so proud of you Tenmei. I was never angry with you. I just wanted you to see your true strength.

“I know. I just… I needed you. Don’t leave me again”

I wont. I promise. I will be here until the very end.

Jutsu:

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Words: 292
Total: 2337

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Training:

Endurance: B1 to B3 - 1700 words
Traveling: 600 words
2337 - 600 - 1700 = 37 words left over.