Erai walked around the quiet village of stone in the middle of the night. She had on gray sweat pants that almost looked too big for her, and in truth they were. This problem was easily fixed by simply tightening the string that was inside the pants which also wrapped around her waist like a belt. With this she wore a black tank top with a small windbreaker on as well. As for her shoes, she wore nothing but sandals. Her pure white hair was tied up in the ponytail that went down to lower areas of her back, almost reaching her rump. She had her hands inside the pockets of the jacket to keep them warm as she walked down the rocky road. There wasn’t too many people out walking with her, though they were probably in some other part of town. “It's been a awhile since I’ve done this, guess I’ll take the opportunity to reminisce. “ She thought to herself as she continued to walk.

She could only hear the sounds of her sandals flopping as she walked at a steady pace throughout the rocky roads. She wore no socks with her sandals, leaving her feet exposed to the frosty wind that was moving her hair in a slight way. This had little to no effect on her since she was fairly warm thanks to her light coat. Stopping in her tracks, she turned her gray eyes up to her location, which was quite possibly the highest point in the village. It was simply known as the sightseeing cliff. As its named entailed, it was a cliff that was well known for those who just wanted to see a good portion of the village. Erai gazed up at the cliff, her gray eyes scanning the immediate area. She started to walk up the stone stairs that lead up to the top of the cliff. It didn’t take long to reach the top, Erai making it up in less than ten minutes. “The air...it's colder up here. I probably should have worn a bigger coat. “ Erai said under her breath while a goose bumps made their way around her body. She stood at the guard rail, looking out over the village.

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The moon covered by clouds of gray, sat in the dark sky with only the stars to be seen through the dark night. The occasional nocturnal animal could be heard scurrying around the forest grounds in search of food. The air was heated, not with temperature, but with tension. Erai, only twelve years old, was walking closely to her father Yamato. Her mother was close to her while holding the little girl’s hand. The dried leaves beneath them crunched with every step. With this also came the sounds of breathing from Erai, as she and her family had been walking all day without too many breaks. Yamato looked as if he could go for another day without even showing a glimpse of fatigue. The same couldn’t be said by the girls, since they had pains that went from the feet to the thigh.

Erai hadn’t eaten all day, but this feeling was overide by the thirst in her throat. Her whole chest on the inside felt dry, but her clothes were soaking wet with sweat. Looking to her left, she could see how her mother, Yuzuki, could barely keep up as she stumbled on the untravelled path’s obstacles. Tree’s roots that stuck up from the ground, medium sized rocks that were partially buried underground, and uneven ground that would catch her off guard. Erai was filled with the strong desire to take a break so she could sleep. At the very least, she wanted to sit and rest her legs that throbbed with every step. Finally, she could feel her lock up as she took her last step before she fell. She took her mother with her on her way down, as Yuzuki tried to keep her from hitting the ground.

In her deprived state, even the cold, dirty ground felt like a cloud. For the first time in nine hours of continued walking through rough, unmapped terrain Erai was able to stop. Her legs throbbed as she became dizzy from exhaustion. Her father picked up them both up and rested the girls against a nearby tree. Yamato gathered wood and lit it up with a small fire ball jutsu. The warm heat from the fire felt good, the cold water they drunk however was better. The longer she sat, the more pain she felt from her aching body. After taking a moment to eat a rice ball, Erai looked at her father to ready her question.

“Father? How long will we be gone from the village?” She asked Yamato making eye contact. Yamato wasn’t able to keep this contact as his heart jumped when she asked. His throat felt somewhat swollen with grief as he readied his response. “We’ll be able to go back one day soon baby.” He said, staring off into the dark woods. Erai noticed this, which made her feel uneasy. Even though her father wanted to encourage some kind of hope within Erai, she felt as though that statement was more for himself. The overall vibe between her parents was that of deep sorrow and regret. “Try to get some rest Erai, we’ll have another long day tomorrow.” Yamato instructed. Erai nodded and closed her eyes to quickly fall asleep. She was awoken however to the sounds of her parents talking. She kept her eyes closed, but listened closely to what they were saying.

“What's the plan Yamato?! Huh?” Yuzuki said in a slight panicked state. “Here we are, in the middle of unkown woods with no clear idea of where we are.” Yamato looked at Yuzuki with glossy eyes. “We are going to Iwagakure. They’ll have to take us in.” he said in a calm tone. Yuzuki stared at him for a moment, and then turned her back towards him. “Yamato...We all know our village history. Iwagakure didn’t take us in so many years ago because they were afraid. What makes you think that’ll be any different now?” Yuzuki took another breath before turning around to face Yamato again. “I know you’re trying to protect us, I do. You know I’ll always love you, but we need to take a moment to rethink this plan of ours. I don’t like pinning our hopes on a large village that could just, turn us away.” She walked closer to Yamato and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Let’s spend a couple of days in this area, so we can let Erai rest. Once we get our heads right, we’ll get back on the move. Okay?”

Yamato stared into Yuzuki’s beautiful dark gray eyes, signature among Uchiha. He leaned in to kiss his wife; they locked lips passionately. “Okay, we’ll wait here and rest up.” They looked at eachother and smiled, their faces dimly lit by the small fire. The intimate moment was broken when Yamato heard a branch crack in the brush. His head turned to the noise, in an attempt to seek out the source. He waved Yuzuki over to Erai and went for his weapon. His sword that he managed to snatch from the village armory. By this point Erai had opened her eyes, but she didn’t know what was going on. She did however hear the noise a second time, and this time Yamato moved closer. Deeper into the woods he walked, but not so far from his family that he couldn’t respond quickly. The hit came fast, faster than he could react, and even faster than he could have the chance to react. Next thing Yamato knew, he was on the ground clutching his sword. He got up as fast as could; but he could feel something wrong in his body.

He gritted through the pain and ran to where his family was by the fire. Erai looked up to see a shadowy figure. In his hand was a kunai, and on his face was an wide smile. “Well, well. What do we have here? A woman and her child lost in the woods by themselves? No. That was your husband I just kicked into the ground, right? Hahaha.” Erai had never been more scared in her life. She didn’t what to do in situations like this, she hadn’t prepared for this. The man walked closer to her and her mother. Yuzuki wrapped her arms around Erai, holding her close. The man just smiled and grabbed Yuzuki by the hair, making her stand up. He held the kunai to Yuzuki’s throat, pressing it against her neck causing her to bleed. “Hahaha, two pretty ladies could fetch a nice price.”  A loud slashing sound was heard from behind the man, following the sound of flesh being cut. This caused the man to drop Yuzuki and turn around to face the attacker. There he saw Yamato, his eyes glowing red with the one tomoe sharingan.

The man stood up straight, completely still for a few seconds. “HAHAHAHA, WELL, WELL!!! WE GOT OURSELVES AN UCHIHA!!!” The man shouted at the top of his lungs. After gathering himself, he looked back at Erai. “I guess this means that you and your mother have it, eh?” With that, he made a hand seal with one hand and pointed his index finger upwards. Out then came a single bright light that shot out into the sky. Yamato charged at the man once he realized it was a signal, but it was too late. “DAD!!!” shouted Erai. Looking over Yamato could see two men holding Erai in the air by her feet. To her neck was a kunai; looking over he could see that Yuzuki had been taken hostage as well. “You better think carefully Uchiha.” the man said with a sick grin. Yamato dropped his sword and received a swift kick to the face, knocking him out unconscious. Erai’s world was literally upside down, but watching her father get kicked in the face was the hardest thing she ever had to witness. At least, up until this point in time. “Why did you do that to my daddy? Why’d you hurt him?” Erai said, her eyes overflowing with tears that ran down her forehead.

The man turned and walked towards Erai. As he walked closer, Erai could see his face a little more clearly. She could see that half of his face was wrapped up with black bandages. Reaching his destination, the man bent over to look at Erai with his one eye. Erai stared into his black, soulless eye that had a black circle under it from sleep deprivation. “You wanna know why I hurt your precious daddy?” The man said, slowly unwrapping his bandages. “He has something very valuable to me, to all of us here.” His bandages now completely unwrapped, and his eye still closed. “You and your mother might have it too, and if you don’t cooperate…” The man slowly opened his eye, to Erai’s shock and disbelief it was a fully developed Sharingan. “I’ll do more than hurt you, hahaha.” With that, he knocked Erai out.

Erai woke up to the shock of ice cold water being splashed over her face. Gasping for breath, her arms and legs were bound to a wooden chair. Completely naked, she began to shiver; her fingers and toes curling up in some attempt to keep warm. She looked up to see someone in a white coat looking over her. It was a man with a gray beard and glasses that seemed to reflect the above light in such a way that masked his eyes. He began to speak in a deep, scratchy voice. “Girl, you’re apart of the Uchiha clan. Are you not?” Erai didn’t really know how to respond, she could only think of one thing. “Where is my parents? Where is mom and dad? Who are you?” The man in white leaned over, his eyes still obscured. “I’m The Doctor. You’re parents are here. Now it's your turn to answer my question. Are you an Uchiha?” Erai looked at him, momentarily forgetting how cold she was. “Yes, I am.” Erai said timidly, her voice cracking. The Doctor returned to his normal standing position. He pushed Erai’s head back, activating some kind of head restraint the kept her from moving completely.

“Good.” The Doctor said from across the room. “Then we can begin your regime.” Regime? Erai thought to herself, what does that mean? While she was trying to figure out the meaning, she felt an intense burning sensation along with the smell of burning flesh. Erai screamed at the top of her lungs from the sheer amount of pain, passing out shortly afterwards. When she awoke again was in a cell full of other people. They all wore gray shirts and shorts with barefeet. Her left shoulder was still sore, so when she lifted up her sleeve she could see what they did. On her shoulder was a brand with the Uchiha clan symbol. “It's going to hurt for awhile, but it’ll get better.” Erai looked over to see a girl who looked younger than her staring at her. The girl had bright red hair, and pasty white skin. “Wha- What is this place?” Erai asked, still shaken up. The girl looked over to the rest of the prisoners who were curled up in balls in different places all around.

“This is the Kekkai Genkai Camp, notorious in the underworld. These...monsters capture those from different clans all around the world. They perform experiments on us, trying to recreate our clan’s special powers, our Kekkai Genkai. Most of us are sold however, as slaves to the rich, since we do offer special services.” Erai looked at the girl with wide eyes, her heart beating with purpose. The girl looked at Erai, and then back into the crowd. “Don’t worry though, those of us here are special. They won’t just throw us away.” The girl then crawled over to Erai and looked deep into her eyes. “I guess I’m special because of my eyes, but I can’t use the Sharigan yet.” Erai said looking down. “I see...My name is Yukkio. Yukkio Uzumaki. No matter what happens, stay strong friend.”

These were the words that stuck in Erai’s mind for the months to come. If she didn’t already have white hair, she was sure she would have it now. The Doctor tortured Erai on an almost daily basis. She was subjected to electrical currents running through her body, whips being used to beat her body, and her flesh being cut or burnt. At the end of all this, The Doctor would then heal all injuries, most of the time it looked as though nothing happened at all. Aside from the physical strain, she was being emotionally and mentally tormented every day.  She hadn’t seen her parents since that night in the woods. The Doctor mentioned every session, it was a literal hell. All of this happens in order for her to awaken her Sharingan. Everytime its a failure, and Erai doesn’t know why. It got to the point where she was just frustrated with herself.

The sessions changed one day however, when The Doctor decided to do something different. Erai was shackled to the wall, in place of her clothes were white bandages that were red with her own blood. Erai’s eyes looked vacant, in truth she was long gone by this point. “My dear Uchiha, I’m willing to try one more thing with you. It has been said that the Curse of Hatred plagues the great Uchiha clan. When under great stress, or when you experience something traumatic, you are then supposed to awaken your Sharingan. However; there have been cases of Uchiha awakening under the exact opposite circumstances. We are here today to test out those theories.” The Doctor motioned and the door opened to reveal Erai’s mother. She stumbled in, wearing nothing more than rags, bloody and beaten. “Erai? Are you in here honey?” Yuzuki said. Her voice broke Erai’s trance like state. There was a loud clunk sound from behind the wall and Erai’s shackles were opened. She stumbled towards her mother, still weak from her session with the doctor.

Making it to her mother they held each other, falling to their knees together. She sat there, crying into her mother’s shoulder. “I’ve missed you so much, this place has been hell mom.” Erai looked up to see her mother had bandages over her eyes. “Mom wha-” Erai was cut short by her mother. “Shhh, listen. I love you, okay? You mean the absolute world to me, my precious princess.” Erai looked at her mom in her fragile state. She was nothing more than a skin on bone. The blood from the bandage wasn’t even dry yet, this was the price to pay. Yuzuki’s soul had left her body, but her spirit lived on with her daughter. Erai was filled with so much love for her mother. Little did she know that she had unlocked the her Sharingan during that event. Seconds later, Erai heard an explosion in the distance. She turned to The Doctor who had a panicked look on his face. Seeing that she had awakened her Sharingan, The Doctor made one last ditch effort to retrieve what he felt like was his. Lunging toward Erai, to her it looked as though he was moving slower than normal. A second explosion hit, this time breaking the wall right next to The Doctor launching him the otherway.
The flames from the explosion rushed towards Erai, she looked over to her mother in an attempt to grab her. Before the flames could touch her she felt a tingling sensation all over her body and just like that she was in the mountains. The weather was harsh, and her unhealed wounds caused her body to ache. After all she went through though, her pain tolerance was high enough to not even be bothered by it. She still had her bandages from before, but they only wrapped around her breasts and pelvis area. She tried her best to battle the environment, but her body was too worn out to keep up with her mentally. Her Sharingan had been active the whole time she tried to traverse aimlessly across the new mountainous area, which due to her already weakened state and lack of training to effectively use it caused a tremendous strain on her chakra reserves. With her vision blurred, she took a wrong step and fell off a cliff to hit the ground hard. This knocked her unconscious while also bringing Erai back to reality.

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Erai pulled herself away from the cliff in disdain. “Ugh.. I need a drink. “

(One Tomoe Learned- 1,500 wc)

(Leftover: 1,640 wc)