The little girl:

Alone a young black haired girl sat on a bench, her feet swinging back in forth past each other nowhere near the ground. Her innocent eyes watched as clouds left her mouth pushing thick snowflakes up before both faded into the air. She would aim for the largest and fluffiest of them catching them in her powerful updrafts. Ever so slightly she would rock back and forth using hands that were firmly planted in the snow covered bench to balance. She was engrossed in her simple game: keep the snowflakes from touching her face. For the most part she was pretty decent at it.

Faintly in the back the little girl noticed faint crunches of snow some heavy others not as much so as people calmly passed her, but she was content playing here for now. Conversations passing by were about as cold and indifferent as as the snow her hands were planted in. The bench-space was different though. It was her within her realm of control.

"Dooo. Doo-doo-doo-do. Do-da-da-da-da. Da. Da-do-doo." She hummed playfully blowing at the snowflakes in between lines of the song she was recreating. If she hit a snowflake as she hit a note, that would just be bonus points. She made it through a couple of songs before a sharp pain shot through the inside of her chest. it was so sudden and intense that she could not figure out just where it came from. Large tears began to well in her eyes as the sounds of crunching in the snow around rhythmically and uncaringly kept their pace. The crying child's head snapped down as she grabbed her bright red scarf and squeezed tears through her clenched eyelids.

When she opened them again, a man at a store front with large, unblinking, judging eyes was watching her. His was head rocking side to side with the metronomic CRUNCH CRUNCH, CRUNCH CRUNCH that the snow had made before. scared she looked for a familiar face in the crowd there was a woman towards her whose head had been lopped off and a gold hand like that of a grandfather clock was ticking atop her neck. The little girl stumbled off of the street as she clutched her pained chest, her teary eyes blurring the scene. Even through the tears though she could see that everyone on the street had changed into large wooden metronomes, judging her for crying about the pain in her chest. Confused she slowly stepped back before THUMP.

She bumped into someone.

The man looked down at her. His piercing eyes saw into her, quickly diagnosing her tears. He placed a hand on her shoulder she couldn't make out his face through the tears though, and as her heart started to race the pain came back again. the hand on her shoulder became firm in its grip, but not rough. It was familiar.

"Hey. It's okay. I'm back now." The voice was calm and warm and as the girl's fears were quelled. She blinked away the tears at the sound of the familiar voice and realized that once again the world was as it should be.

[WC=537]

Silver light refracted from the clouds streamed in through the window, a dull pillar as still as the pale room it illuminated. The bleached walls framed a metal island in the middle of the room that slowly twinkled in the beam of light. A matte silver cloche rested on the strange island. A haplessly balanced clipboard rested precariously close to the edge of the island. Thin strands of paper attached to a metal vent in a corner of the room vigorlessly danced in a mild wind that chilled the room to 68 degrees. A single metal chair had a few days worth of condensation slowly rolling down the back of the chair. Next to the window under the slowly falling beam of light layed a woman with alabaster skin and snowy hair. She was still, frozen even, under a thin sheet that went up to her neck. Her chest didnt move, but the glassy mask on her face slowly fogged up. After generations of seconds it would clear. Then slowly the fog would creep back up on the mask.

At the entrance on the far side of the room, creamy colored curtains quietly bucked and cantered in the slowly circulating air. Imperceptible whistles streamed from the plastic device on the patient’s face. A liquid in a bag slowly dripped into her veins keeping her in her peaceful slumber. A faint buzz hummed from a faraway place before a voice murmured into the room.

“Reque- - - a nurse make - - - - - -y to roo- - - - een B at this time.”

The clipboard slowly leaned over the edge of the wheeled eating tray it was carelessly left on. It would slowly rock the other way as it struggled to maintain equilibrium. The fight officially commenced being frozen forever on the lip of this tray, or to initiate movement and leave the stagnation that had previously characterized its existance. The weight of the records of the events from a couple of days ago should have ensured that  it fell because for the most part they were over the edge. The clip on the tray side was a force to be reckoned with weighing down making the board tap lightly on the tray.

[WC = 350/887]

The patient’s eyelids fluttered slightly in reaponse to the sound though they didn’t rouse. The tube boring into her arm numbed all of her senses. It made her dream of distant things she couldn’t keep hold of. ‘Why did that man leave that girl all by her self.’ Kanamora laid on the ground in a skyless place with cold ground. She couldn’t feel her weight here if she didn’t feel the sensation of ground beneath her body she’d be sure that she was floating. There was a sound in this strange place, the sound of snipping. As Kanamora sat up to investigate she felt a strange pressure in her chest. She strained to look down notice a small scar she was unfamiliar with on her sternum. She dismissed it for now.

As she looked up she noticed a tall man kneeling down. She saw that next to him there was a white ANBU mask that was vaguely reminiscent of a bird. Yellow liner around the eyes, a triangle indicating a nose, and four feather-like ears on the edge of the mask. Slowly she walked closer it felt like he was an unreachable distance away yet still she approached. The figure lifted its head slowly from the task it was doing, reminding her that the man had thick, brown hair that he never maintained. He looked over his shoulder greeting Kanamora with a gentle smile and a wave. He stood to his full height and turned to face revealing a bonsai tree on the ground and a pair of shears in his hand. The smile looked a little sad.

“-Dad.” Kanamora felt like a child.

“Hey there Kitten.” The warm voice was a reassuring sound that she hadn’t heard in a long time. A single large hand pushed her hair white hair back so he could look her in the eyes. “You aren’t lookin’ to hot. Maybe you should actually eat right, hm?”

She jokingly pulled away as she made a face of disgust. “Gross. Have you been watching me?!” Her father laughed before pulling her into a tight hug. He let her go and looked back at her with content. Her tears didn’t stop though.

“I couldn’t do it dad. I’ve tried so hard, but I’m so weak. I could barely even pass through the academy. I practiced everyday, but I can’t do it. I can’t be as strong as you.” Kanamora gasped for a large breath accepting the twinge of pain in her chest.
“Kitt-“
“I can’t forgive them though. I swore that day that I would find root. I swore that they would never sleep again as I dug them up one by one, and destroyed them all for what they did. I’d destroy them for what they took from me. It’s all my fault. I wanted them dead so bad, and now, even now, I can’t do anything. I can’t change want they did, I can’t fix it, and I can’t make them pay. It just hurts so bad. It’s all I’ve wanted since they took you. I can’t ever forgive them.” Slowly the tears were replaced with and as Kanamora inhaled deeply again and was once more met with a twinge of pain in her chest.

“Kitten. You can’t live for me anymore. Look at you here in this place. It’s way too soon for you.” Be rustled her hair.

Kanamora looked confused and started to look around noticing how strange this place was. Her father went through a series of hand signs, and Kanamora’s eyes widened with realization.
“Wai-”

Her father simply shook his head before placing his hand on her head. “Reverse Summoning Jutsu.” The pain in her chest was overwhelming now and she gasped with pain as the world around her suddenly went pale white.

An unfamiliar voice spoke, “She’s back.”

[WC= 666/1553]

As Kanamora awoke a medical ninja and the nurses explained to her how lucky she was in the process. They explained something about how they were ad they found a compatible donor. They said a lot of things that fell on deaf ears. Kanamora barely was able to focus on them. She had a mind that was normally sharp, but she couldn’t shake her haze. She had been comatose after her surgery for a couple of weeks. The new heart was rejecting slowly. The med-nin in front of her had been developing an experimental technique that she used on kanamora. Kanamora remembered an argument occuring to her about the morality of using an experimental treatment on her, but not having the willpower to actually say anything about it.

After they debriefed her they told her she’d need to checkout around noon tomorrow. She’d have to head back to her empty flat now. The thought of the dust that would have built up on the windows, counters, and floors was frustrating. Her bonsai trees were probably ruined, and she’d almost certainly have to buy some new ones. She couldn’t get the time she’d been unconscious out of her head. Had she actually seen her father. Did that make sense? She also was unsure about those hand seals he’d made.

She imagined him before her and mirrored him. She bit her finger and went through a string of hand seals. “Reverse Summoning Jutsu.” The world around her evaporated and she appeared in a wide plain buried in deep  snow. Kanamora looked around dumbfounded in her hospital gown. “What?”
As she took in her surroundings she noticed a clothed bipedal red feline with a bamboo fishing pole. Its line went into a little hole in the ground. “What?!” This time Kanamora let a yell slip out.

The red avian man slowly looked over his shoulder to her, “Wait. You ain’ the punk.” He easily and definitively was larger than the average she'd ever seen reaching maybe a meter tall while stood fishing.

“What?!!” Both stared at the other confused as the snow continued to slowly fall.

[WC=357/1910]

Kanamora slowly walked forward a more or less blank look on her face paired with a chin scratch emulated curious behavior while her mind raced. The snow slowly parted around the, well, thing in front of her. There was a large amount of thoroughly confusing stimuli going on at the same time. She simply had to focus on the things that she could confirm about her surroundings. She could feel the snow slowly melt on her skin, so that was normal. She could feel her feet crunch through layer after layer of snow before hitting strangely textured ground beneath. Carefully she would bite the edge of her tongue enough to test and see if there was pain. When the pain and the taste of iron filled one side of her mouth she knew that it was definitely not worth worrying about this being a genjutsu, though she could confirm that it wasn't a dream.

"Hey there, chicken guy!" Kanamora waved enthusiastically as she continued to walk forward. Her voice was playful and the warmth in her voice pierced through the frigid snow. Provoked by the pins and needles in her feet she her she slowly began channeling chakra into her feet to put her on top of the snow, so that she wouldn't sink beneath the snow anymore. To her it seemed that her chakra was working effectively as well. The cherry on top of everything was a very simple observation. This weird, fluffy, upright-standing, talking creature had on a headband from Kumogakure. Kanamora thought herself a smart person, but this was something she had never heard of. There were animals that ninja paired up with but they were, more or less, regular animals that just happened to be working with a ninja. This was almost certainly some sort of pervert transformed into an animal to catch other ninja of guard. Kanamora had seen through the futile ploy.

"Eh, what're you doin-" He was a moment through his sentence before the creature realized what this strange girl in front of him had said. He was obviously not a chicken. A human had the nerve to come here and look down on him. Not to mention the fact that she was uninvited to this treasured place. "Wait." There was a small pause punctuated by a furrowed brow. "What'dya call me?" He'd give her a chance to repent he was kind after all. "I'll have you know that I am a descendant of one of the four heavenly lineages. I am of royal blood and you will treat me as such." He stood to face the intruder clenching the pole tightly in his hand. He faced her waiting for her to respond as he began to subtly grind a twig he'd had in his beak.

[WC= 472/2382]

Kanamora held up her hands in submission. "Nonono. It wasn't my intention to insult you. I have just never seen a squirrel so large before. I was just surprised." Since the feline-thing seemed earnestly angry and offended, it my be in her interest to play along for now. Was she serious, though. Even if this thing was an animal it didn't make any sense for her to worry about a animal's feelings. "Oh wait. I did it again, didn't I? Shoot." Kanamora needed more information, and maybe, just maybe she could make this thing lose its composure and give her more information. Diplomacy would have been her preferred option, but seeing as how this thing already identified her as an intruder that would probably have been fruitless while also revealing her hand. There were no others visible. Additionally this critter was fishing which is typically a solitary act. 'It has no weapons, so it probably won't be too much of a threat.'

There was a light twitch on his fishing pole as his lowered and he started mumbling numbers in an attempt to calm himself, but he knew it wouldn't be enough. the angle of his head cast shadows over his face. The pole twitched again, and before it even finished the avian quickly yanked its pole upwards. There had to have been dozens of meters of fishing line, because the line flew out at a high velocity, and on top of that it coiled in the air as it kept coming out of the little hole for a solid 8 seconds. The next effect was sudden though. The ice behind him though seemed to explode as a fish about the size of a train car was yank out of the depths. It land on the ground with a hard crash, getting knocked out almost immediately from the combination of the impact and the dramatic change in pressure. "Wrong answer."

This isn't how today was supposed to go. She was supposed to get dispatched from the hospital after she recovered from her surgery, go home see what would have to be disposed of and replaced, and see how her new heart held up as she trained. She must have fallen out of Lord Miyamoto's graces. Quickly she flew threw the ‎Dog → Boar → Ram seals, transforming into her normal attire. If this really was a pervert in disguise she wasn't going to accidentally expose herself in front of them. She had nothing to defend herself with and this thing definitely had ninja level strength. As she looked around for anything that could help her she felt a small tug beneath her. It wasn't touching her, and she wasn't exactly sure if it was a familiar feeling. She felt a small tug in her chest and her instincts screamed at her to move. She, without hesitation, obliged.

In the space that Kanamora had just occupied a large hand made of dark gray particulates erupted from the ground closing its open hand into a fist as it emerged. Kanamora would recognize this anywhere: it was the jutsu that she had been trying to master for the last ten years, but couldn't due to a birth defect. It was the kekkei genkai that repeatedly put her in the hospital. Another hand shot out beneath her this time she had to rely on her own sense as no super natural force warned her. It was as the first hand was dissipating that she managed to hear the second and she hopped  back away from it erratically zig-zagging to keep her path relatively unpredictable as she circled around the angry chicken-pervert-man.

"I am Akashi! Remember my name. I am incredibly powerful after all." His feathers ruffling in annoyance ever so slightly as he spoke.

"Such a cute name. Your owner did a good job naming you." A saccharine smile spread across Kanamora's face as her overly sweet tone drove home the insult. She hadn't used her Jiton yet since the surgery, and she vaguely remembered the doctor saying something about her not using too much chakra. She realized that there was no way that the sand was traveling under the snow since the speed it erupted at didn't match the speed it followed her at. He must have buried pockets of iron sand under the snow for some reason ahead of time. Kanamora tried lifting up any nearby pockets of iron sand, but it seemed heavier than she'd expected. Meanwhile her mind was racing and the biggest issue she was worrying about was was how did he place the sand so perfectly ahead of time. Kanamora applied more force to lift the nearby pockets. Instead all of the snow within about 5 meters of her fell through a mass of iron sand.

It seemed that Kanamora would never ceased to be surprised by the wonders of this place. She could feel it now that she was looking for it. All of the ground in range of her Jiton: field was composed of small magnetic particles. Sh wasn't the only one dumbfounded though Akashi too seemed thoroughly shocked. It was easy to imagine that the source of his shock came from the fact that the girl in front of him just happened to have the same special chakra as him. Maybe more than surprised, he almost seemed insulted, but he didn't let up on her. He over powered her control over the sand turning the free floating sand into a pair of two large hands that sped through the air towards their target. 'Of course, he was armed. Why didn't I expect everywhere to be his weapon of choice?'

It was normally about now that Kanamora' s heart would start to get weak, but the pain seemed to be a distant thought at the moment. She could feel for the first time in a long time adrenaline surge though her body a give her mind acuity. Kanamora jumped back again to dodge. This time though, Akashi was more serious, and the hands flew faster than Kanamora had compensated for allowing for one of them to catch her, wrapping around her midsection. Kanamora had spiraled in close enough to Akashi. At his feet 5 little shuriken made from the iron sand launched out form beneath the thick snow around him.

[WC= 1051/3433]

A giant wall of sand formed on either side of Akashi protecting him from the assault done by Kanamora, and the shuriken gently embeded themselves in it doing no noticable damage to the walls form. The sand near Kanamora slowly wrapped around her detaining her so that the avian could follow up with his next technique easily. While she was wrapped in metal and darkness Akashi shook his head. He could still smell the sickness on her body. For her to think it would be wise to come here while she was in such a poor condition was nothing short of Hubris.

Akashi felt a slight twinge of pain on his shoulder that pulled his attention away from the orb temporarily. A set of his feathers there hand been cleaved away. With his talon-like hands he parted the wound, irritating it more, and beckoned out a small amount of iron sand. He was impressed with the young fletchling. She must have sent one out slightly sooner than the rest from a blind spot. He spent a few more seconds easing the rest of the shrapnel out of his arm with his Jiton. Thinking back on the fight he’d just had with the young girl.

She’d had a subtle control over the items she had manifested from the iton sand, and unlike him she didn’t use brute force to overwhelm her opponent with it. She was -relatively- patient and observant. She had quite a bit of potential despite how unrefined her physical state. He would be waiting for her the next time she arrived hoping for a better fight, and for her to prove herself. The iron sand slowly trickled from the top of the cocoon revealing Kanamora from the shoulders up. “For now though,” Akashi pulled out a tag with fuuinjutsu sigils on it from a hip holster sticking it on her forehead, “I must send ya back home.” With a flare of his chakra the sigils rapidly faded before sending Kanamora back to the hospital lying unconscious on the floor surrounded in iron sand. When she awoke a few minutes later she’d find a note in the sand saying, “Don’t comback until you think you can beat me.”

[WC= 375/3800]

All stats from E-Rank to D-Rank

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