Months ago...
A sea of ice and snow. The depths of Kirigakure had fallen to the icy grasps of an otherworld nature. Even as a Haku, she had felt uneasiness from the land. It moaned and rattled at every push of the wind. Snow blasting the air to blind sight deterred any who dared to return to their desolated homeland. The three traveler's faces stung as they pulled their hoods closer towards their freezing skin for warmth.
There was malice in this ice. Hoshikata at the time had warned of another presence. A powerful one that put them at danger as it slunked around in the snowfall. She never saw the spirits he warded against, but that does not mean she hadn't felt them. Or heard them. Like faint moans in the distant night, she heard them searching through abandon buildings. What were they looking for? More importantly, what would they do once they found what they desired?
The wavelength of emotion they cast was almost indescribable. Terrifying in the most overwhelming sense. She never spoke of those things with either of the ninja she traveled with. This place made her feel alone, just as alone as she had felt when first coming to Kirigakure five years ago. Her goals then were unclear. Empty like the vast expanse of the dead Kirigakurian sea.
She would not falter to this illusion. The ice here was unlike her ice. It hoped to destroy, to isolate, and evoke apathy. The Haku blood within her veins chilled, but it kept her focused. She was unyielding as the storm for she had a goal. A dream as clear as pure crystalline water. Her spirit echoed out across the fields. Ice against ice.
</COLOR>
For a long time, we had forgotten how to go forward. You reminded us we must go forward. Yes, we must run.
Drifting through the air, in the consciousness of snowflakes, she was shattered. On the frost on abandoned houses and through the reflections of entrapping ice, she was present. Incomplete but ever forming as her spirits congregated. Not nearly strong enough. Haruka's chakra called to her. Her spirit burned brightly. She opened her eyes little by little, following the hazy aura of the Haku.
Her snowflakes grazed the Shima's pale cheeks as Haruka stopped to look up at the night sky. The Shima felt only the sense of danger lurking behind the shadows and through the fog. But the spirit was there and she would remain until she grew.
<COLOR color="#000080">
Let us go, you who share our dreaming. Come, and we will run till the dream's end.
Present day...
“What's this?” The sennin stared at the envelope placed into her palms. Her dark eyes drifted upwards at the lone deliverer. He lifted his hat to her in salute before carrying on down the path, leaving Haruka in wonder. She turned the letter over in her hands continuously, afraid of the words she might find. She knew the contents. There was never a need to ask. The days passed just liked she had anticipated. The letter was expected from the very night she stepped out of the booth. Yet, she still hid from the words.
The gates of the Shima estate slammed shut behind her. In her dazed thoughts, she lifted her eyes towards the walls surrounding her home. The imposing guards of the house never kept real danger away. Dangers like a handsome and kind Kaguya that would break her heart. The danger always found her here. It hunted her, trailed her like a weak animal that only knew to drag itself back to it den. Limping with her hope slowly dying, yet instinct drove her to keep pushing. Once she thought she was safe-
Bang!
The Shima took the plunge, swiping her nail under the seal. She unfolded the parchment carefully. Her hands actually shook. She skimmed the words, not truly interested in the details. It slipped perfectly into her back pocket where she could conveniently forget about it for another few hours. Nostalgia always seemed to knock on her door in these times. She followed the feeling, like snow on the wind.
It led her home. Not where she was born, but where she was forged. The stale air clung to her, weighing her down as she listened to the absolute stillness of the apartment. The smell of emptiness replaced the once airy scent of the river that used to waft in on gentle mountain breeze. Nearly all the furniture was gone or covered with thin white sheets. Sheets like ghost.
For a moment she swore her eyes saw that ghost. The ghost of her memories. She shut the door behind her, wanting to be alone with her ethereal memories a while longer. It had been her own home, yet she was unsure of how to proceed through it. Timidly she traipsed over the wooden floor, past the locked door of a bedroom she never opened again after Natsu had left.
In a desperation, she forced the window up wildly as all the memories came rushing back. A blast of wintertime air billowed inwards. The house breathed once more. She stared for what seemed a long time at the city below. Immobilized by thoughts. The future so clear, yet so uncertain. Waking up from her dream, she walked through the door frame of her old study. His old study.
Heaving a sigh, the Shima collapsed on a chair placed at the desk. Long ago, Masao left a letter to Do Natsu. The last written word of the sennin before his death. It was the one document she never read that the former Spymaster possessed. She often hoped that one day his words to her would come, but they never did. She was insignificant at the time, despite how he had meant the world to her. Her hand steadied over a drawer. Inside was the inconspicuous letter of the departed.
What good does gazing at the past do for me? Those words aren't meant for me. In the end, they'll just end up hurting more than helping. Won't they? I've always been so weak when it came to you. Damn it! She slammed the drawer with cold force, pushing the desk back into the wall further. I know what I must do. I have to look ahead. You have a goal, Haruka. People who need you. Surely that's enough to keep you from slipping into the past?
Perhaps Hikari had been right, after all. The old man gave up long ago and it was time for her to give up on chasing his ghost. She needed to take care of those living. To pass on what the former sennin couldn't.
“I need to get stronger, but how?”
[Topic Entered]
