Open Snapped Threads

[Toraono Michino]

When she had taken up the mission to form a diplomatic alliance between two nations, the at-home repercussions of being gone for long didn’t make the list of things to watch out for. Rei sat at a round table in the brand new kitchen of her brand new home that had been built exactly to specifications. It was in the same place her last home had been, was far smaller than it had been to allow the clan to grow more, and felt painfully empty. In front of the military leader was two simple things; a low-ball glass half full of scotch, and a bottle of said scotch already three-quarters empty. Her hand was gripping the glass which had been reinforced to not become the broken state that was the shattered glass surrounding her. A painful thought shot through her alcohol ladened mind and the hand gripped again; this time the container of the amber liquids held firm.

Miro had started an underground operation using prison labor to collect only the gods knew what with a personal force that apparently vanished just as deeply as the prior sennin had. Her spies could only tell her what, where, and when but not why. They had all completely lost track of Miro and her servants. Words of attacks from Tenouza on a class of students and the presumed death of their sensei - Tobi; presumed because no one could find a body just loads of blood-stained snow. A man who had never wanted to be a shinobi in the first place…

Worse than those two things and whatever other unrest was going on through the nation, Rei’s adopted daughter was completely missing. Her branch lost track of her around the border and now the mother had no idea if her child was alive, dead, or even why she had absconded in the first place. The scotch burned her lips, tongue, and throat as she drained the half-glass and quickly began to pour more as her bloodshot eyes tried to focus on any reason. Tears welled up when the only two choices that made sense was either the Ryuu Madness, or her own failure for not being there when Sumika clearly needed someone to talk to. A sob racked her form. The Sennin’s hand quickly shot up to her mouth to stifle such a weakness but, the tears betrayed the overflowing emotions despite her physical interjection. For the first time since returning home she was happy to be alone.

Mentally she tried to wrap her head around the entire sitaution on a whole as the leader of a village. She knew that this would pass, and that she would need to get back on her feet and continue being a stalwart leader unaffected by such a loss. Indeed she had lost a great many deal of people that she had know, and even liked more, than her own child and never once did such emotions rack her form. Yet with the child, it had been a promise to take care of someone defenseless that needed it - and Rei wholly failed at that task. It was a blow to her pride as a shinobi, as a mother, and most importantly to her - as a human. The Sennin already struggled to keep what retained of her humanity after evolving to such a state, and it seemed emotional triggers were two fold. It was as if was once again suffering the Clan’s Curse despite having beat it once already…

Anxiety, depression, rage, and a bewildered mind laden in alcohol racked the woman as she tried to find any justice in continuing on in a roll she clearly failed in. Rei had hoped to find something relaxing in Konohagakure, and indeed had the time of her life, but if the repercussions of trying to relax as a shinobi was…this…maybe, just maybe…

…she didn’t want to be a ninja anymore.

[MFT]

 

[Akane Kiseki]

A knock at the door. The pitter-patter of a hare out of its first snow - a tittering shape within the darkness of the slant outside the home, poor lighting to betray dark circles under such bright eyes. A hand gripped the other at its shoulder; the half-act of half-hugging himself, the gripped arm precociously handling a small stack of books and a handheld case of accessories. The case itself was his, volunteered - daisy blue, dotted with poorly handpainted sunflowers that faded with time.

There was nothing important in his grasp. Pencils and texts. Refuse left behind by Sumika Ryuu in her belongings at the Academy. Yet, still, he held tight until his knuckles went white. It wasn't a feat. His skin had the pallor of a ghost, already - and he had the gait and breath of one, imperceptible movements through pale lips that kept his body in enough motion to startle anyone who looked at him too long. He would almost disappear in the wind of the night, blow as it did through wintry tresses to hide away that peeking blue gaze (soft, solemn), but an unwrinkled face mustered up a smile 'til it wrinkled. Exhalation left steam to drift away, coasting up the air with his sight following it to the stars above. Twinkle, twinkle.

Little stars.

"H-hello," and he had to try again, mumbling into a scarf readjusting with the shrug of his wingbones, "G-good evening, I'm sorry!" It was a step. He cringed at himself. "My name is -- uhm, I'm Kiseki Akane, from the Kumogakure Shinobi A-Academy." Yes, obviously. Dumb. Dumb. You said you would do this. You asked to do this! Puff out your chest - what little difference that made - and stake this purpose. You don't climb hills to tumble back down. "I heard ... I wanted ... I've brought some of Sumika senpai's belongings. N-nothing --," and he caught himself on 'important', fearing it heartless, only to try again, "Her work study notes, textbooks, some tools ... I didn't want to leave them at school."

Teeth played over the memory of pink in his lips, waiting a moment longer to say only. "I can leave them out here. Thank you for your time."

 

[Toraono Michino]

“H-hello?”

The word at her front door, so close to the dining room where Rei wallowed in her misery. She jumped with a start and gasp from the sound, a mild panic overtaking the leader at the thought of being seen like this by anyone. The Sennin stood up suddenly, pushing the chair with the back of her legs so hard it flew into the wall behind and broke. With a yelp she began to turn and fix the chair but forgot about the broken glass, stepping on it with a deep crunch; pain shot up from her foot immediately. She quickly dropped down and nearly grabbed the foot as if pressure would stop the sudden pain of hundreds of glass shards invading her foot - her face twisted up in a silent scream.

Tears of pain, guilt, shame, and the near renouncement of her humanity to go hide in the mountains as a hermit was all she felt right then. However, through the layers of drunk and the emotions swallowing the Sennin alive - the very center of her mind still just as calm and serene as ever. The Rei within Rei opened her eyes and looked up at the maelstrom of emotions surrounding her and simply breathed in…

…and let it out.

In realspace the broken shinobi had taken an eerie since of calm before releasing the rigidity of her hands and gently stroking the top of her foot. The glass slid right on out. No wounds or blood marred the soles of her feet as she simply adjusted reality so that there was no broken glass. Indeed, on her table instead, was six glasses with various amounts of whiskey in them.

“I've brought some of Sumika senpai's belongings. N-nothing-, her work study notes, textbooks, some tools ... I didn't want to leave them at school…”

And in a single sentence the child outside nearly broke her leader again. Rei clutched her chest and heaved, biting her bottom lip to stop the sob as the various glasses above her wobbled and shattered again as her grip on the altered reality slipped. This time the shinobi weaved her hands through two signs and activated a jutsu that increased the speed of her metabolism and flushed the toxins out quickly. Some, of the anxiety fled with the poisoned happiness but now she had another problem.

Now Rei needed to pee.

"I can leave them out here. Thank you for your time."

No!

Scrambling on the tile floor like a dog who had suddenly forgotten it walks on two legs, not four, the Sennin all but cryptic crawled over to her front door before remembering to stand up and begin to loudly undo locks so that her guest knew she was there. Whoever had brought in her daughter’s things was a connection to the child she had lost and potentially a lead where she didn’t have any. One of the first things mentioned to Rei when the KIO finally broke the bad news was that, despite how well built up and how many cameras they had littering the village and how many agents roamed the country…no one knew where she had gone. Perhaps this classmate could give Rei even an inkling where her adopted daughter could have gone.

All she wanted was a chance to tell Sumika she was sorry.

The door cracked open and a single red eye softly glowed in the cracks between. Bloodshot from tears with burned streaks down her exposed cheek as the Kumogakure mountain air blew in and frayed it further. It looked down at the Student who had brought Sumika's things and nearly welled up with water again at the realization her daughter had at least managed to make a friend. The door swung open to reveal an empty home with little lighting and the Sennin of the Main Branch standing there in little more than a bathrobe as the smell of a bar wafted out.
"Please, please come in, yes. I...uh, you can put them in living room on the left there...I...will make you tea?" She said with a highly quizzical voice of an adult who wasn't sure what children enjoyed as a reward.

 

[Akane Kiseki]

It wasn't unusual for Kiseki to feel out of place - for truth, what world of wolves had place for the snowdappled kitten on its lame legs? - but he realized, then, as the clamor increased, that he might have overstepped. Not just his social boundaries - as mortifying as crossing any line with his superiors would be - but an emotional one, as if he was intruding on a bubble he had no place popping. ... Mm, that is to say, he wasn't self-actualized enough to put that into words. He just felt bad. He had offered to do this out of the bleeding gentleness of his heart, which frankly had no place here either, and it bled so much deeper witnessing the effects of what an event like this could leave behind. He couldn't imagine: but he could feel.

He couldn't work up the nerve to ask if the other party was okay, if they needed his help or maybe if he shouldn't have come here at all? So he stood. Still, silent. The winds passed him, nipping at the smallest nose lost in deeper pale until they all bloomed ruddied. Sniffled. He'd wait there forever, he decided, until he was told to leave. He'd clench the ornaments he carried that much harder. Didn't he owe that? For his inaction and lack of understanding. For all of his books, his thoughts and his worries, he still understood so little. A shift of his feet. A sound at the door, causing him to wince on instinct, but still he stood.

And it opened, light breaking on a fogged night, so he did what he did know: he bowed. He all but disappeared on the bend, instinctively holding out the arm holding its belongings even as it wobbled from the effort of managing that alone. "S-Sennin-sama!" His voice never held from its crack on first greeting, but he fought it out of respect. ... To his best ability. On that mere glance of the other, the weight of his actions came crashing down until only dust remained of fragile bones. Of course he knew this was the Sennin's house - and the Raikage's eventual successor! He had just wrapped himself so much in his concern ... he had lost his nerve among his sadness, but it wasn't hard to find it again.

He couldn't quite make eye contact. Found a particularly interesting cobblestone, instead. Maybe a nice bug. Something to relate to. "R-Ryuu-sama? Uhm, if I - if I've," gods, did he struggle, so he had to lift himself back up enough to swallow in that bashful way. "These are Sumika-sans. Thank you for your time. I'm very sorry to have intruded, Sennin-sama. I will --" but he wasn't quick enough. Kiseki Akane would die before being discourteous to an official. He really, really just might. His eyes flew up, atlantean blue fighting its waver like the ocean containing a ripple, and pale lips parted in a gasp. He had to speak before he could move. "Yes ma'am." His gaze sparkled. He couldn't quite help that - not even the deepest shades could mask such pure, innocent wonder. Perplexity. He swallowed again, tamping his feet with barely contained nervousness (like a small animal), then followed after her.

"That would be l-lovely, thank you." What did you say now? What did you say at all? Would he be put to death if he was rude? Gods, he hoped so. Don't let me live through that. "But I -- I'm sorry. Are you - uhm, are you - o-okay, Sennin-sama?" Frick.

 

[Toraono Michino]

Rei tightened her bathrobe and whipped her hand around the air a little. Motes of her invisible chakra were flung out like beads of sweat that caught the stale air full of foul odors and whisked them away to another part of the house where a window would suddenly bust open. Once they were in the spacious living room she quickly padded over to the fireplace and kicked it. A fire sprung from the logs like it had been embarrassingly awoken from a nap. Her hand directed the child towards one of the large recliners that was closest to an empty silver tray that once held treats for the Sennin’s missing daughter; it remained there in melancholia. The wolf within was picking up on an innate fear radiating from Kiseki but the Sennin did her best to ignore it. She too could remember a time when first meeting Kitsune and what a pressure that had been.

The lightly green-haired individual, confident that the boy would wait now, had started to pad out of the room to quickly make herself more presentable; but her heart was lanced just moments after her body crossed the door frame. The simple worrying question from the child made Rei’s breath suddenly hitch as she froze up. After a full awkward second, she padded out in silence without returning an answer. Tears had already began to well.

Her guest only needed to wait for another three awkward minutes, an eternity to him no doubt, to finally receive his answer. Candidly, the Sennin returned wearing a long t-shirt that grazed the top of her knees, carrying a silver tray before setting it on the coffee table before them and flopping into the recliner parallel to the one Kiseki was positioned in. The two chairs were pointed not at the fire place in the corner that somehow warmed the entire room nearly immediately, but instead a bay window. Through it one could see the starts to the infamous forest and the woodland critters that played around the edges. Rei’s legs crossed and tucked up under her knees and she leaned forward ever so slightly to reach towards the silver tray she had brought in. The woman’s green hair was a deeper color now, and quickly grown out now in a shaggy manner; it perfectly hid her face.

On the tray was a teapot, already filled with water, a tin box, and two cups with matching little plates adorned with prancing dragons. Raising it she tapped the side once and poured from within boiling hot water - a mystery to wonder if it had always been that hot. Two cups full of tepid liquid, she then opened the tin box to reveal an assortment of prepackaged tea bags that were organized with filing tabs holding different colors. Rei chose blue. Two bags were dropped into cups of waiting heat, exploding the oils instantly to reveal a deeply red colored tea as they seeped. She lifted the two plates holding precious warm liquids and passed one to her guest.

Then another awkward minute passed.

“Sumika is adopted,” the engineer said breaking the hanging ice of their frozen conversation, “Not by me, originally, but by a couple in my clan. We Ryuu have a curse, and a rather nasty one at that. It’s always, constantly tugging our minds towards sheer madness. Even those who are adopted are struck the moment they take the Ryuu name…
“She…began exhibiting signs of the madness the same night she was brought home. It was so powerful that I felt, it. Had I arrived even a second later she might have been killed by the same loving couple that had adopted her. Marks of the curse are ostracized immediately, if not outright killed.
"And...I…too, once suffered the effects. Head of the Ryuu Clan. I was but six when it happened to me, and it was my own parents who kept the rest of the clan from killing us by using logic and reason. Later I broke the curse on myself. When I saw Sumika there bloodied by the people who claimed to lover her…all I could see was myself again.” Rei’s voice began to quaver but a strong inhale and shuddering sigh steadied the leader again - even as little drips of tears hit the tea cup she hadn’t even bothered to drink yet.

“I broke away too soon. I chose the country over my family and now I…have lost someone before getting to understand why I loved her so. I…don’t expect a youth like you to understand the burdens we adults face in a world so harsh - not yet, anyways,” a hint of mirth in her voice at the helplessness they all one day had to face.
“But…just, thank you. At the current time I cannot move to locate her. So much relies on me actually being here that I cannot even begin to search. I fear to send my spies to force her to hide harder. I fear to send my soldiers that they might kill her. Having…some of her things will at least help me get a mind of what she was thinking when she left…”

 

[Akane Kiseki]

Ah, and wait he did. He was a dutiful little guy, truly, and that duty got him far: but distance was not the concern once he found himself in the center of Rei's living room. Distance, maybe, in lightyears. He realized what he embodied as he fiddled between his shy feet, glancing around and then back at his sandled paws - a poppyseed. A single poppyseed in a great big ocean; or was an inferno more apt, as his eyes drifted across the urged flames? He sucked in a breath. Well, that made things easier. A little bit of time in the oven he could handle.

His attempt to clear his throat when Rei returned came instead as a squeak from troubled little lips. He fixed it, of course, righted himself, but his heart had slipped heavy into his stomach at the initial lack of reply. He thought he had overstepped after all: but even more worrying, he thought he had hurt her feelings. He wasn't going to cry about it. No, really. He wasn't going to cry. He promises. She just seemed so sad. Aaah. Ah, he was sad now, too. He took her quiet settlement as an expectation for his own. He slid into the recliner, dwarfed by natural circumstances, and teetered between watching her with curiosity and sitting straighter with respect. She had come back just a little bit different. ... That wasn't his place to comment on.

He equally had no place to refuse her tea, setting aside Sumika's valued vestiges on an endtable to cup it within his fingers, but the added warmth brought some pallor back to his pale. He sighed, despite himself. Some emotions could only be managed with action. "Th-thank you." He wasn't about to press her, but his relief was a palpable ripple through oceanic eyes that met her words. He ... couldn't quite manage the eye contact. "Oh ..."

"I didn't know." It was a stupid thing to say, but what else could the boy offer? He knew practically nothing of Sumika's circumstances - her past or her blood or her plans - but no imagination would dream of a story like that. An entire clan ... cursed with insanity. Madness. How painful that must be. How terrible. He wavered, curling his grip firmer around his cup so as not to spill it. He dipped his head, lower, letting the heat from its steam lick and curl away the ruddying of his cheeks. He wasn't going to cry. Really not, this time. He just felt so fundamentally ... so unapproachably ... ah, sad. It can't be that bad, came a half-bored trill at the back of his solace. She got away, didn't she? Did she? Kiseki could only wonder in reply, recalling the tense announcement of her departure and the scene he found himself in now. Did anyone?

"You saved her," he spoke so clearly out of turn, but the words came like bellsong anyway. A thud of the clapper. A beat of his heart. "Even her leaving ... u-uhm, she only had that choice because you saved her." How did you navigate treason with an acquaintances heartbroken head-of-state mother? "That's so hard. I don't know ... I don't know much, Ryuu-sama. Sennin-san. I haven't graduated yet, and I-I don't know many people, or many places, or the way the world looks from where you are. But even ... even where I am, that seems really sad. That seems really hard." He glanced away, blinked, looked back, then drew his eyes up to meet hers. Deep, deep blue. The sadness of lost atlantis. "That would hurt me, too. That's ... that's okay. I mean! It's not okay, it --"

He lost his nerve quickly after, finding a spot on the wall with a quiver of his lips. Sucked in another breath of his tea, then exhaled its steam like a fire being fanned. "You love Kumogakure, don't you, Ryuu-sama? It doesn't have to be that you chose it ... o-over her." His voice cracked. "She's a part of it, too. She still is. Your hard work ... everything in the Village ... the country is here for all of us. People like me, people like y-you, people like Sumika-san. So you ... you work to keep it here for us, don't you, Ryuu-sama? That's okay, then. She needed this place to b-be ... and she'll, uhm, need it to come back to. Right?"

The rock in his throat could weigh him to the bottom of the sea. "I want to h-help, too. I want to help. I want to help Sumika-san. I want to help my friends, a-and my country, and all the reasons why someone would want to run away from it." Tears pricked the edges of his eyes by the end of the sentence, but he couldn't stop to halt their spill. "All that pain and th-the fear and the fighting -- I want to help. A world where it's not so hard. A world where it's not so sad ... wh-where people like Sumika-san don't need to leave. Where people like me--" Don't hurt so much? This isn't about you, Kiseki-kun. "And I want to help you, Ryuu-sama."

"E ..." Etto. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, though."

 

[Toraono Michino]

The shinobi leader sat there in awe of the young boy. Her mind raced trying to recall a time of such innocence and felt a weight drop on her heart when she realized that she couldn’t. It was a sign of the times, a proper change in the course of the country that’s been needed for the last fifty-years. Having chakra was no longer a death sentence, kids were allowed to be kids again unless they signed up for the service; and even then, the training was so light-hearted compared to what Rei had seen.

Kiseki’s optimism was a breath of fresh air, and for the first time the older woman was spoken words that she’d been needing to hear this entire time: “You saved her.” The life Sumika was able to live now, even as it broke her mother’s heart, was only because Rei had allowed it. She had stopped the original adoptive parents from doing any more harm. She, had taken Sumika in to keep her untouchable from the other Ryuu. Thinking logically for the first time since she got home, the young mother realized that this was most likely some kind of teenage rebellion fostered by the lack of a proper authoritative direction. Something inside of the Ryuu Clan Head snapped back in place and a tremendous weight lifted from her shoulders.

The leader waved her hand to make the coffee table scoot itself to the wall, and then motioned her right to swing Kise’s chair around so that he could face the Sennin. Rei’s eyes were red from days of crying that no amount of cosmetic ninjutsu could hide. Tear streaks burned down her face but what the boy would see was anything but sad. A hopeful smile of someone saved leaned in close and gently cupped the youth’s wet cheeks,

“Of course I love Kumogakure, little Akane, the world is just really dark. These things will happen in our lives, and I shouldn’t need my children to remind me. Forgive me in this state you had to see, but know that when you leave this house - you didn’t just help me in the search for my daughter, you helped me,” she let go of Kiseki and leaned back into he chair a little.
“As shinobi we will spend our lives in this kind of darkness, willingly, for the good of those we love and want to protect…because those we love are the light that helps us see the right way back home when we’re about to be swallowed up. If Sumika can’t find it, I just got to go shine down and help her find it again. Thank you for reminding me of…who I am, and what I’m supposed to be.”

The Sennin sat back up and actually brought the tea up to drink it, making a face when she realized that her tears had salted the drink in a terrible way,
“Bleh, salty!”