These Scars I Bare (Open)

[Ryu Hime]

Unlike most academy students here in the proud village of Sunagakure, Ren did not have the brightest of pasts. Her mother was poor and would sale her body in order to provide enough for Ren and herself. It was a tough life but still a pleasant one, up until her mother got horribly sick. Her Mother was not able to make as much money as she use to and was having a hard time making ends meet. There were times that the Mother had to decide between getting medicine or providing food on the table. Despite her mother trying desperately to stay positive and act like everything was alright, Ren was not fooled. Ren tries to help out doing small jobs here and there but it just was not enough. Eventually Ren does something drastic. She sales herself into slavery, so that her mother could afford to live.

Currently Ren was within a public bath house washing herself before entering the large communal tub. Her rabbit hand puppet, Usagi, held the sponge and scrubs Ren lightly. She could still remember how the slave traders would scrub her skin raw the day before showings. Ren’s skin for the most part was smooth and fair as she was still young. Her back however was another story all together. It was indeed a sight to behold but out of beauty or disgust it is hard to say. Numerous scars littered her back from collar to tailbone, which made it almost appeared like she had tiger stripes. It is not uncommon for an academy student to have a scar or two, but this is much more than normal.

Ren not wanting to make a scene was here during the hours when the bath house was at its low point. Many people come in to soak in the evening after a long day’s work or first thing in the morning to freshen up for the new day. Ren was her in the bath house right around noon and at the moment here plan was working quite well. Looking around the bath there was currently no one around the see her scars.

 

[Hanabi Aiko]

"BELLY FLOP EXTREME!" A loud screech could be heard through the whole building as it was quite empty and prone to echoes. She dove in, towel wrapped tightly around her top as to hide her bits. She landed square on her stomach and stayed still on top of the water for a second, before slowly sinking into it. A silent moment passed and she burst from the water laughing. It didn't even splash, she was so small that it was like she was a rock and had almost skipped herself across. She shook the water off her face and then crawled back out, reaching off to the side and grabbing a backpack she had brought, bringing it close to the edge of the water and sinking back in. She unzipped it and brought forth a sucker and a soda. She spun and leaned against the side of the tub. The towel had remained on her impeccably.

"Cool puppet, did it lose it's eye in defense of your honor?!" She said excitedly, personifying it probably more than she should for this little girls mental health. It was cleaning her though, so it must be nice. She popped the soda open and drank half of it in what seemed like a fraction of a second, putting the sucker in her mouth afterward as she eagerly awaited this other blue haired girls response.

 

[Ryu Hime]

Ren’s peace and quiet was shattered by a loud screech that made Usagi drop the sponge. The rabbit picks back up the sponge with both paws when a girl came racing past. A shiver went down Ren spine from the breeze. Unlike the loud girl that just entered Ren was not wearing a towel as her sense of dignity was robbed from her a while ago. This was the female section and it did not require people to be covered, though some people chose too. At least she was following proper bath house educate and washing herself before entering the tub. Of course she says nothing as was her nature and would have likely stayed silent if it wasn’t for the girl addressing her.

Suds covered Ren’s entire body to the point it looked like she was wearing a coat of bubbles. Ren glances over to the girl then back to the mirror without saying a word. With her one free hand she takes a bucket and begins filling it with water. While Ren seems to be ignoring her, the puppet on the other hand was not. The clothed bunny puts down the sponge and positions herself between Ren and the new girl. “You are curious about my eye huh?” Ren was quite good at ventriloquism as her mouth did not move and her puppet’s movement coincided with the words wonderfully. “It was a dark and stormy night.” Ren then takes the filled bucket and dumps its contents over herself. “Sunny. Mid-day.” Ren Corrected the rabbit.

“We were surrounded by a pack of hykal.” It was at this point Ren was walking to the tub for a soak. “Students.” She says before entering it being sure not to let Usagi touch the water. “Well they laughed like hykal.” Usagi looks over to Ren to see if she was going to correct that too. Ren did not as the kids were indeed laughed at her. “There were five of them.” Ren raises three fingers. “They wanted a piece of Ren but I wasn’t going to let them have her.” The rabbit does some mock punches in there air. “It was a glorious battle but in the end I was victorious and all I lost was an eye.” Truthfully the kids beat her up till a teacher came and scalded them. The eye was lost during that time.

 

[Hanabi Aiko]

They told their story in tandem, it was one of struggle, strife, sadness, bullying. As she listened her cheeks puffed out in anger at what she heard, the injustice of such a thing. She jumped out of the tub and back to the edge, taking a sparring stance and throwing one two punches in the air, twirling for a kick, shadow boxing these awful individuals to death!

"I knew it, it was for honor!" she exclaimed, a crunch sound occurring as she bit clean through her sucker. She opened her mouth and moved the stick in, chomping it down and swallowing the whole thing. "Give me the names of the hykal students, and I'll go give them the Karasu Suplex!" she finished her combo with a spinning uppercut that landed her square back in the water, this time splashing all over. She came up faster this time, another sucker in her mouth...where was it this whole time?

"I have something for you..." she said, moving over to dig through her backpack. She stuck her whole head in it, most certainly ruining a lot of the contents inside with moisture. She came back out with 2 small candies, no bigger than an M&M. She held them out to the pair, offering them as a gift.

"Here, special treats for your unending braveries! Just don't eat it all at once, it'll give you a tummy ache!" she said cutely, but it was mostly a warning. These treats where specifically made for her, absurdly high in sugar and caffeine content, plus some extra stuff for nutritional value and some suna science to make them twice as strong as what was just described. They tasted like peanut butter and chocolate though, and that was a nice difference from the fruity suckers and light cola she'd been drinking since she got here, also made special for her.

 

[Ryu Hime]

This girl was quite energetic, which was a stark contrast to Ren who sat in the tub lazily. When she asked for names Ren just stared blankly at her, while Usagi rubs the back of its head with a nervous laugh. “Yeah I might have been kicking butt, but I wasn’t taking names. Sorry.” It is during these moments that sometimes people think the girl is merely an extension to the puppet, rather than the other way around. Both Ren’s and Usagi’s eyes follow Karasu as she jumps back into the tub with a splash. As the wave of water approaches Ren, her arm pumps up and down as Usagi seems to be hopping away. Usagi seem to be screaming in terror as the puppet fleas outside the tub area. Fortunately Usagi was able to escape the splash zone. Usagi then returns panting, “Are you trying to drown me?”

Usagi takes the offered candy but Ren did not eat it. Ren had considered tossing it into her mouth right away but the warning made her hesitant. Instead the rabbit seems to place the candy in some sort of hidden compartment. “For you.” Usagi then pulls out a piece of candy for Karasu to take. The candy had a diameter of a yen and seems to be made of the same material as a lollipop. Ren then looks into Karasu straight in the eye with a very stern look. “No bite, No swallow.” After the girl takes the candy the rabbit would explain. “These are one of Ren’s own creations. It has a special surprise in the center.” It was small but it did seem like Ren just smirked. “Poison.” The rabbit scratches its head again trying to figure out how to explain. “It’s an inhaled poison within a glass orb. The candy part is simply a disguise so not to raise suspicion.”

 

[Hanabi Aiko]

She got a candy in return, a deadly candy. She could probably eat it, she had a pretty strong constitution but she wouldn't test it. She slid it in a pocket on the front of her back pack to keep it separate from her actual candy. She's probably going to still forget about it, and eat it later, but for right now it's a solid gift and made her feel special. She would slide back into her comfy wall position and sink mostly into the water.

"Thanks, I'll give it to one of those bullies! Or I'll poison the whole town so I can't possibly miss who they are!" the intentions were well placed, if a bit off. She went silent for a moment, as she stared forward at the wall. She wasn't really in here to wash, just a soak. She was watching the puppet bathe the girl, but as much as it was cute, it was also pretty sad. She had such a gloomy look on her face.

"Hey, Ren was it? Try to smile alright? Even if you can't find a reason to. It'll help..." she said lower, with less energy and a sense of seriousness.

 

[Ryu Hime]

“One boy…” Ren touches her cheek sliding a finger from eye to lip. “The leader of the group had a scar on the left side of his face.” If this girl was going to go after the students that wronged her, she might need to know who she is looking for. “He likes to act tough and brags about his skill with the sword. It was he that started the confrontation.” Ren did not really care about the other two as they seem to just follow along. “He poked fun of my poor Ren saying, ‘kids that play with toys don’t belong in the academy.’” The rabbit balls his paw into a fist and shakes it angrily. “I AM NOT A TOY!” Ren’s free hand emerges from out of the water and pets the rabbits head. Stoking Usagi a few time cause her to calm down. “She… practice weapon.” The puppet belonged to her adopted father, the one who saved her from the horrible slavers. She owes him everything for that and because of this adoration she seeks to be more like him. He was a master puppeteer and she wished to be the same. Once she tried to move a puppet like he did but could not figure out how to produce chakra strings like he does. Seeing her attempts, her father gives her this rabbit hand puppet. He told her she must first learn how to crawl before she could run. She did not need strings to control the puppet and she is getting down the basics quite well. “He was the one that cut out by eye and I would personally thank you if you taught him a lesson.”