Jihi couldn’t remember the last time she had been around this many people, the last time she had simply wandered her way through a market without a care in the world – okay, she wasn’t exactly without a care, but still. It was so normal to do and for her that made it a very foreign thing, a very strange concept to grasp hold of once more. For the past four years of her life she had been held as a slave, kidnapped from this very village when her parents had been slain trying to protect her. She had been but a child then, a Genin fresh from the Academy. Now she was free again, and the very idea was simply hard to wrap her head around. Of course there was a lot of darkness to wrap her head around too due to this, but she wasn’t allowing herself to focus on that just yet.

She moved slowly, finding that the littlest of things distracted her. Whether it was ordinary and every day conversations between people, or wares she had never seen sold before, she couldn’t help but stop and stare or listen for several long moments – must to the disdain of those walking behind her who found their progress suddenly halted by her. “Excuse me, are you going to move? We have places to go!”, came an angry woman’s voice from behind her before she all but shoved herself past Jihi, tugging a child with her in each hand. The children threw her what looked to be apologetic looks while the woman didn’t bother to spare her a second glance.


Her physical response was torn: one moment she was flinching as if afraid she would be struck, the next her hand was twitching to where the kunai she carried on her form was hidden though she didn’t draw it. Jihi suddenly felt like she was drowning. As if her head was in a bag with no air despite being outside and in the open. Even as she caught her appearance in the reflection of a shop mirror she could see it: behind her snow-white hair cut short and shaggy with bangs that hid the Kirigakure headband on her forehead, behind her wrapped and bound chest and the form fitting black turtle neck tank top and black baggy pants that she wore, an outfit that barely hid the scars behind years of abuse and torture a top that definitely didn't hide the bar-code on her upper right arm that marked her as a former slave: it showed clear as a bell in her silvery colored hues. Knowing panic would very likely set in soon she reacted, bending her knees and launching herself into the air. She landed on one of the nearby rooftops, moving further away as she ran and jumped over several more before coming to a stop.

She flopped herself down on the edge of the roof, her left leg left to dangle in the air while the right was bent at the knee. She rested her arms on her knee and then her chin on top of them as she simply stared at the people coming and going below her. So normal, so innocent, so unbroken. So very much unlike her. She could never be them again, she could never be fixed. There was no cure for the darkness that now tainted her very heart and soul, nor for the demons and monsters that dwell within her head. There was no point in pretending she could blend in with them, that she could be like them again. She had been very right with the path she had so recently chosen – she was better off as a weapon to be used and honed to perfection. ”…I can never be like them again.”, she spoke softly to herself, figuring that no one else would hear her.

Word Count: 670

Nozomi stretched her arms out lazily after placing the empty lo mein bowl down in front of her, uncrossing her legs and standing up from the table she'd been eating at. For the most part, her life had been rather stagnant again, going back to her usual training of the average genin, and a few lower ranked missions. Things were notably tense around the Hunter-nin and ANBU headquarters, as they had intelligence that showed an overlaying theme of talks about civil unrest. Despite having been removed from the clan, one of the higher ranking clans that were leading the talks of coup and deposing Ayakashi being her former clan didn't allow for Nozomi to do any sort of investigation, as some of the Hunters viewed her as too close to the situation.

She didn't really blame them, but normally she'd have been trying her best to figure out what was happening and put a preemptive stop to it, and that would have taken up most of her time. Since she wasn't leading the investigation into the Himitsu Clan, and everything else apart from that was fairly quiet, Eventually, she'd gotten bored, and decided that the best thing for her to do would be go out and have some food at one of her more frequented restaurants.

Having just finished eating, she left her payment on the table as she usually did, waiting for the server to come and pick up her stuff before she left, wiping out the wrinkles of her short flowered kimono. Her bare legs had slight red marks on the back of her thighs from the chair she had been sitting in, as she'd been there for quite some time. Rubbing her arms, a little chilly from the crisp Kirigakure air, Nozomi left the restaurant, ready to go home.

As she walked through the streets, Nozomi's attention was brought skywards, sounds of feet pounding on a rooftop. It was part of her training, something to always be on the lookout for. Seeing as she had nothing better to do, and wanted to waste some time anyhow, Nozomi decided that she should probably check it out for herself. Following along on the streets below with relative ease, Nozomi was quite a deal quieter than the girl running across the roof tops. Eventually, the sounds stopped, and Nozomi herself slowed down, waiting for any sort of sound to follow.

What she heard was a soft voice that nobody else would ever be able to hear. Nozomi only was able to hear it herself because of her advanced training with perception and Hunter-nin clues. A frown formed on her face. What did those words mean?

Kicking off from the ground, Nozomi easily cleared to the roof of the building, landing softly next to the girl, her tiptoes barely catching the edge of the roof, and most of her feet still hanging off the building, but Nozomi didn't seem to be stressed by it. She lowered herself to a squatting position, her legs almost completely exposed, but the kimono covering enough so it wasn't really revealing anything. Her eyes glowing slightly, the blue taking up most of it, but the light glowing green dots and ring in the eyes locking onto the other girl's face. Some would say that she had a doujutsu of some kind, but they were nothing really special beyond indicators of her chakra levels. Several freckles lined her face, but weren't as noticeable.

Jihi sat on the ledge, in Nozomi's view, and the young freckle lesbian realized she was a girl only a little younger than she was. Perhaps the age that Nozomi had been when she was a genin. That had only been a couple of years ago. She was almost as pale, if not exactly as pale as Nozomi, but Nozomi doubted hers was due to a sickness of some sort like she had. "Who is it you can never be like?" she asked softly, her voice chiming out moments after she landed.

WC: 686

The reaction that came was immediate upon hearing the voice all too close to her: not so much startled but legitimately fearful, a response built up over years of constant violent abuse and suffering. She flinched openly, wincing as hands shifted off of the bar-code like slave brand it had been covering on her arm to suddenly protecting her head from blows she assumed were coming. Her heartbeat sky rocketed, hands trembling as she waited for some kind of act of violence to occur. She had thought she was over the reaction – she knew two of the individuals involved in her torment were dead and gone – but alas here she was being caught off guard and responding just the same. Not much had changed in her short few days of freedom. At least not enough to stop this kind of reaction from occuring.


When the blows didn’t come she would lower her arms slowly but gingerly, as if testing the waters so to speak to ensure it wasn’t a trap. At the same time she exhaled a breath she hadn’t been aware she was holding until that moment, silvery colored hues shifting to the female who had arrived or appeared so suddenly. Her hands still trembled and she wrapped them around herself, hands squeezed into fists as if by doing so she could control the shaking. She blinked several times, her mind catching up with what was going on – she wasn’t in danger, well she wasn’t being attacked that was. She knew nothing about the woman, so danger or not was still an unknown factor, but she wasn’t beating her as her reaction had clearly been expecting, so that was a plus.


It would take her a moment, her gaze leaving the woman to shift back to those below who seemed none the wiser that two people were nearby on the roof. ”Them….”, she would respond, releasing her hold on herself and lifting her right hand and pointing a finger in the direction of the people below. ”I can never be like them… never again, anyway. I was once, a little over four years ago...” She stopped herself right then from rambling on, mouth shutting suddenly as if she had caught herself telling secrets she really didn’t want known. It was paranoia on her part, she had no idea who this woman was, and she lived with the constant threat of being captured and dragged back to those who had held her captive.

Even though her silvery hues turned back towards the people below she couldn’t help but watch the woman out of the corner of her eye: she was curious about her, and curious about how she had heard what she had muttered, but she was also a bit fearful of her: she was a mostly unknown factor to Jihi, and that made her weary.

Word Count: 1,175

The reaction Nozomi got was sort of expected, anyone who was startled tended to jump back and freak out a bit. However, the reaction was a bit different than Nozomi would have usually thought a startled person would act. A freeze up as the body tried to figure out whether to fight or flee. As the girl began to calm herself enough to actually respond to her question, by pointing to some people on the streets and saying a little bit that Nozomi could relate to.

She hadn't said a lot, but it was enough for Nozomi to clue in on what she meant. So the girl had been through something that had messed with her head quite a bit. But what exactly does that mean?

Looking over the girl, Nozomi noticed a few scars that were prominent on the girl, some that were newer. She nodded to herself, clued into what was wrong. "I see. I understand." The girl had undergone some recent and prolonged trauma. There were tells. Spinning around, Nozomi planted herself in a sitting motion.

Pulling her kimono slightly looser, Nozomi slipped the clothes off her shoulders, her own binding covering her breasts. As the kimono slipped off her body slightly, still attached at her waist by the belt. "I have had my faith shaken a bit as well." she said, as her back was revealed, massive burn marks scarring her flesh. A hand print in the middle of the burns showed deeper scarring than the rest.

Leaving the kimono partially off, Nozomi spoke, letting Jihi listen. "I don't know what you've gone through, exactly, but I know how hard it is to return to some sort of normalcy. My ex girlfriend did this to me during our match in the Chuunin Exams. I still loved her. I was loyal. I did everything for her for a few years. Trained, got stronger. Helped her flee from Kumo. Marched on Kumo with the army Lady Ayakashi had assembled, And then Kaekio chose Kumo over us, her new village. Over Lady Ayakashi, who had risked a lot taking her in. Over me. And I'll never be able to forget her, to move on. I have a permanent reminder. I'm a changed person because of it."

Turning her head towards Jihi, Nozomi smiled at the girl, a sort of sad smile. "It never goes away, the trust issues. I don't trust many people. But I'd like to believe I can move forward."

WC: 417
TWC: 1103

Jihi kept herself still even as she felt the stranger looking her over: she knew some of her scars showed even with the top she wore, but it was a choice out of what she thought was more practical to wear daily compared to what would cover up her traumas and sins more thoroughly. When the woman spoke saying that she understood Jihi found herself cocking her head to the right in curiosity, watching as the woman spun around and sat down. She had no idea how she ‘understood’ but she wasn’t left guessing for long. Blinking, she watched as the woman loosened her kimono before slipping it off of her shoulders, revealing her back and what were clearly burn marks. In the middle of them was the worst of all, though, in what was a definite hand print. This didn’t look like an accident: no, this looked like it had been done on purpose: just the same as every one of Jihi’s own scars.

She wanted to ask, curiosity was burning, and yet she felt like it was such a personal thing to know. However, it would seem she didn’t have to ask, as the woman began to explain: Jihi listening with rapt attention. She listened as the woman explained about her girlfriend, and about how it had been her who had done that to the woman’s back during the Chuunin Exams. Despite this she had still loved and trusted her, and had even helped her flee from another village. Yet, despite all of this, her girlfriend had chosen her village over her, and over Lady Ayakashi who had risked so much by taking her in. Yes, if anyone could know how she felt outside of those who had been held captive with her, it was this woman. She now had to endure a permanent reminder of what had happened, and she was changed for it – the same as Jihi.


At the woman’s final words Jihi found herself looking away, staring ahead but not really seeing anything as her eyes glazed over – her mind was in the past, and as she began to speak she did so in a voice that was soft and yet which held agonizing pain within it, ”Four years ago I was helping my mother run her shop – she was a seamstress who made and repaired kimono. My father was a shinobi. They both wanted me to follow their paths… and I ended up kind of in the middle – I had just graduated from the Academy. Some thugs came by trying to force her to pay them protection money and trying to steal from her, I stopped them. A few other shop owners who had agreed to pay suddenly stopped doing so – I guess they figured if a little girl could stand up to a bunch of thugs then they should be able to as well. Well the guy behind it, his name was Hiromasa, he didn’t like people standing against him anymore than he liked losing money. So one evening he sent Kinzoku his right hand man and his thugs to my family’s house. My dad tried to hold them off while my mom and I escaped but there were just too many. He died trying to give us time to get away. Later on the thugs caught up to us, they strung my mother up and brutalized her while making me watch. My friend, Sim, he tried to save me.. he was the last thing I saw before I was knocked unconscious. When I came to I was in Hiromasa’s house… another slave like the many he had already claimed. What was worse though was my friend was there too – my parents had died because of my actions, and now my best friend was a slave because of them. I was there for four years….”

Slowly Jihi turned her gaze back to the woman, her eyes no longer silver in color but more like the color of coal: as if the darkness and hurt she carried in her heart had manifested themselves in her cold eyes. ”It was thanks to Sim I was able to escape. He convinced them to assign me… other tasks… one of which was repairing Hiromasa’s daughters kimono. One of the slaves were giving trouble, so the guard who was supposed to be watching me left to help handle that. I found the scroll that held my items on his daughters desk – she was keeping it like a trophy. I… choked her out, and escaped out the window. I couldn’t stop and get Sim out though, I didn’t get far before they realized I had escaped and followed me. I ran for what felt like forever… and then I found this strange man, a man with three eyes… he helped me. Hiromasa and Kinzoku are dead… I went back and saved Sim and the rest. I couldn’t leave them there… but it feels like it’s not enough. I still have all this pain and anger inside, it’s like there’s a monster in my head...” Her chin returned to resting on her knees as she looked away once more, staring back at the people below as they went about such normal lives; it had been fairly hard to admit to what all had happened, harder still to put the blame she felt for all of this suffering into words, and even harder than that to admit she felt like some kind of monster. She had no idea what the other woman would make of her story, but she was still focused enough on her to find out, even though the people below currently held her coal colored gaze.

Word Count: 2,155

Nozomi listened attentively, her story having provided the incentive for the other girl to open up a bit about what had happened to her. That was a good thing, as it meant that she viewed Nozomi as trustworthy, or at the very least, someone she could talk to about her problem, and that was probably the best way to heal, although the Hunter would be the first to admit that she wasn't really the best person at healing properly, or knowing what the mind needed in order to balance emotionally.

To be honest, Nozomi was still very messed up by everything. Between her father's banishing her from their clan, stripping her of the title of Heiress of the Himitsu clan because of her refusal to fight Kaekio during the exams, and all she'd done for Kaekio since, only to have the girl throw that loyalty and those sacrifices down the drain like that. And her sensei, Gin, who had chosen her boyfriend's life, the enemy of Nozomi as he was Kaekio's sensei and the reason for her abandoning Kumo in the first place. Nozomi had fought Gin because she was going to stop her from killing Sanosuke. Now, she'd surpassed or equalled her sensei in skill, but she had lost that trust too.

Even Ayakashi, who had taken in Kaekio as per Nozomi's request. Ayakashi who had marched on Kumo to correct the injustices brought upon by the tyrant Sanosuke. Ayakashi, who fled after the first moments of conflict, as Kaekio gave up the ruse instead of striking down Sanosuke, the object of Nozomi's ire. It wouldn't have mattered that he knew, he'd have been dead, and justly so. It wouldn't have mattered that Kaekio got in their way, it would have been the distraction that gave the opening to disable him. But instead, Ayakashi turned tail and ran. She marked Kaekio a traitor to Kiri, a missing nin to be hunted.

Her fists clenched in anger at the thought of it, mixed with her anger at the girl's story. For someone to be so cruel as to kidnap people and force them into slavery, they were no better than the power hungry tyrant Sanosuke. But her story took a turn for the better. She had gotten saved, and in turn rescued her friends. She had done what Nozomi had been incapable of. She'd gotten her revenge. Sure, the girl had help, but she had done it. The three eyed man. Nozomi frowned. She knew someone like that. Only in his sage mode, but she knew only one person with three eyes. "If the one who saved you and enabled your revenge is who I think it is, you were lucky to meet him. I believe that's Sero, the second strongest shinobi in Kirigakure. My equal, my former squad mate, and my best friend. The captain of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist." She looked off into the distance, struggling to put her thoughts into words.

A few moments of strangled speech attempts passed as Nozomi stumbled over her words, unable to articulate her thoughts until she finally was able to. "When you killed them. And got your revenge on your captors and tormentors. The object of your ire. Was it worth it? Did you feel better?" She asked, as someone asks who has never known the answer, as someone speaking from a place of uncertainty. "Does it help, to take revenge on those who wronged you?"

For a while, Nozomi herself had been struggling with finding the right answer to this question, but she would never know. Not without permanently making a decision to end people's lives. To track down Sanosuke and see him at the end of her blade, dead. To track down Gin, and make her pay for stopping her from taking down Sanosuke. To track down Kaekio, and end her for hurting her so. To wipe Kumogakure off the face of the map, to end her pain everyone she looked at it or heard the name. In short, to get some final revenge so she could move on.

There was something pleasing about telling her story, about someone listening and knowing the wrongs that had occurred, of the horror and pain she had seen. She had not only witnessed the darkness of the world but she had been apart of it from such a young age, and now she had finally been able to tell her tale to someone else and have them understand. It was oddly freeing. As if a weight had been lifted off of her chest: it didn’t make it feel any better, it didn’t cure her thirst for more blood to be shed, but it certainly made her feel more weightless.


It shouldn’t have surprised her that the woman beside her knew the man who had made her revenge possible; though she did garner a bit more information out of the deal from having mentioned him. The second strongest in the village? She could definitely believe it from what she had witnessed that night. Her head tilted in interest as she listened even as her body continued to relax, no longer the tenseness it held from the woman’s sudden appearance just mere moments ago. Even as it became clear how strong the woman next to her was due to her words she remained calm and relaxed, comfortable even.


The inner battle, something she had been dealing with for a few days now. Was it worth it? Did it in fact make her feel better? It was something she had been struggling with herself for the past few days. She found herself unable to answer right away as she silvery gaze remained on the people below, still watching them go about their lives. ”It… “, she paused sighing. ”It’s hard to say. In one hand I know that the people who hurt me will never be able to do so again. The fact that they died by my hand makes that more final: it’s more real in a way than it would have been had someone else done it. I know I won’t have to lay awake at night jumping at every creak of my room, I don’t have to fear every shadow creeping across my walls. But at the same time it didn’t. The anger is still there, so is the pain. It didn’t dull any of it. Hell, even the blame is there – the fact I wasn’t strong enough to save my family, the fact that I wasn’t strong enough to save myself. And the logical part’s there of course… I was fresh from the Academy, my father was a Jounin when he died… there’s no way I could have been expected to fight all of them off and save my mom when my own father failed to do so. But it doesn’t make it any better...”

She found herself pausing and shaking her head a bit, turning her silvery gaze from the people below and back onto the woman beside her. ”If anything it makes the thirst for revenge stronger. There’s always one more person who crops up, one more target you want to remove. Like… I know there are more people out there like Hiromasa and Kinzoku… I know because when I tried and failed to escape several times I was sent to them to be tortured, and broken. They called it reprogramming. So now I want to kill them too. I’ve had a taste for it, now I want more… it’s like a never ending cycle.” A soft frown formed on her face as she shook her head. ”I’m sorry I can’t give you a simple answer… I can only hope that later on, maybe a few weeks or months down the road it’ll really feel better – but somehow I don’t think it’ll be that simple.“

Word Count: 2,810

Nozomi was silent for a few moments after Jihi spoke, while she thought about the meaning of her words. She didn't have a limited supply of people she'd want to take revenge on, so she would be working on that list for a while. It provided some closure, but left her wanting more, and Nozomi knew that with the sheer amount of people she had on her list, she would really never feel there had been enough deaths to satisfy her revenge. She didn't really care about killing usually, and would do so purely because she didn't care, but it wasn't something she took joy in.

However, revenge, taking joy in that, could changed her mindset very easily. Enough deaths, and she could condition herself to enjoy any amount of killing, not just the revenge killings. Her father Hachirou, the former Raikage Sanosuke, her former lover Kaekio, her former Sensei Gin, almost all of Kumo as a whole. By the time she'd beaten them all down and killed those deserving of it, she would have acquired a joy for it. Not that all of them she wanted to kill. But Nozomi already had a joy for fighting, and her techniques were devastating. She could easily kill any of them if she had an opportunity for even one good strike.

"I see." she said simply. She was still partially stuck in her own thoughts, but didn't want to ignore the girl. Snapping back to reality, she looked over her, eyes falling on the headband that marked her as a shinobi. "You're still a genin, aren't you? Do you have a sensei yet? I'd like to take you on as a student if not, so I can help you grow to levels that you'll be able to fight off any threat to you or those you care about."

She waited for the response to come from the girl, but already had made up her mind that she'd help this girl grow into a fine young shinobi. She'd been through a lot, and having Nozomi on her side would give her someone to talk to. Besides, Nozomi was probably one of the best people to have as a personal sensei, she was always teaching at the Training grounds, but she'd probably put that on the back burner if she was going to have a squad. Helping them build up, with much more intense training than she could provide in a couple of random hour long lessons.

WC: 415

Jihi was curious but quiet after she had spoken, wanting to give the other woman a chance to think over the things that Jihi had said. She knew the answer she had given hadn’t been straightforward nor to the point, but she didn’t have that type of answer to give. Death for Jihi was complicated, not the act itself which came perhaps a little too easy for the young girl, but rather the emotions that surrounded it. She knew that most people choked the first time they had to take a life, most hesitated - sometimes in costly ways. Yet, this was something that Jihi hadn’t faced, something which hadn’t occured. She also knew that most suffered traumatically afterward: nightmares and walking horrors followed them around - most ended up with either momentary or permanent post traumatic stress disorder from it. Yet, this was something else which hadn’t affected Jihi. Instead she felt… empty, almost. It had been satisfactory in a way to kill those who had harmed herself and others, to right the wrongs that had been brought down upon her own head and those who had likewise been innocent, and yet at the same time it hadn’t been enough. Satisfactory, and yet not satisfying. Or, perhaps she was simply looking into it too deeply, thinking too much on it.

Either way, as the woman spoke again she found herself knocked from her own inner thoughts as she debated the lives she had stolen from those who had wronged her. Her attention shifted once more from the crowd of people below them going on about their ordinary lives, and back to the woman beside her, curious as to what her take on things would be.


Yet, it seemed that whatever the other woman was thinking about now that Jihi had answered her question, Jihi wasn’t going to get to know - at least not yet. Instead a question was posed to her asking about her status as a Genin, to which she responded with a nod yes of her head, followed by another as to whether or not she had a sensei to which she shook her head no. Of course, these questions were nothing compared to the offer that was brought about that she hadn’t been expecting, causing slender white eyebrows to raise in both curiosity and shock. She hadn’t honestly expected anyone to take an interest in her, at least not enough to specifically want to take her under their proverbial wing, but it was also an opportunity she wasn’t willing to pass up - especially if chances were it wouldn’t be offered again.

What she was being offered was a chance to better herself, a chance to grow in skill and ability so that she would be able to protect not only herself but those she cared about. This would be skills and knowledge useful to continue down the dark and vengeful path she walked so boldly upon, and so her answer was immediate, ”I would greatly appreciate that.” She was no fool in thinking that this training would likely be easy, but she was willing to face whatever the other woman planned on throwing at her, something which showed in the steely determination within Jihi’s eyes.

Word Count: 565 | 3,375

Training Suiton C -> B: 3,375 - 2,000 = 1,375
Training Futon C -> B: 1,375 / 2000 (Training will continue Elsewhere).