Freedom? Not Quite. [P, NK, IO]

Hanako shivered as she walked down the side of the road, her arms clasped over one another. Her senses were expanded to their fullest extent, and she could feel the night creeping around her. For summer, the night was chilly, and her attire didn't help her condition.

Now, the twelve year old usually dressed in nice attire, pink and black and grey and even the rare red. Sweaters, tanks, jeans, and hats completed her look, but today was not an average day. Baggy, dull grey sweats, cut sloppily off just above the knee, hung loosely off her too-thin frame. Meanwhile, a single maroon tank-top served as her only shirt. She was barefoot, for she had no time to grab any shoes, and a small sack was slung across her back containing the few items she didhave a moment to take with her: a pink sweater, a pair of black jeans, her favorite hat and necklace, her mother's dying note, and 500 ryo. It didn't cross her mind that she could change into her warmer clothing once... her mind wasn't there.

This fact just mentioned was frighteningly obvious with just a single glance at her. Hanako's hair was several inches longer than it had been, falling past her shoulders, as well as dull and messy from lack of care. Her single visible emerald eye was wide and lackluster from trauma, while the other was hidden under loose, ratty looking bandages. After over nine months, she was still blind in her Byakugan eye - it never had healed right, contracting an infection fairly quickly when she was unable to get her medication. It hurt like hell, but she had gotten used to it.

Bruises and cuts were incredibly conspicuous across her pale, sickly skin, and she looked like she hadn't been outside in months... Nine of them, to be exact. Though she had attempted to clean herself up a bit while she had time, it had been rushed, and faint traces of blood still spotted across her skin (though stains still lingered on her current clothing). Water dripped from her clothing, from how she tried to remove the blood and grime, and it only served to make her seem smaller. It also made her colder, though the sound of her teeth chattering sounded distant and dreamlike.

Hanako's form shook as she walked slowly down the side of the street, both from cold and fatigue. She knew she had to walk faster, farther, to escape him... but she was already stumbling. Any faster, and she would collapse face-first into the ground. If she fell now.... She wasn't sure she would ever pick herself up. Either way, she can to keep moving. Keep her head above the waves, and maybe she wouldn't drown here.

Hanako wasn't completely broken, not yet. She still had her sanity, but as for her fears... They had developed into something of phobias, with few exceptions. Maybe her mind wasn't broken, but her heart, as cliche as it sounded, was shattered. Thoughout her nine months of incapacitation in her own house, she'd had her hopes bound around a small string, the idea that maybe her team would find her, that they were looking for her... Daiki always said they wouldn't... but she always believed.

But today? Today, he told her about Sora, who went Missing-Nin so many months ago. He never looked for her, or even found her to say good-bye. The person she thought most would look, never looked. Never cared, not once, not really. That was her final straw. She realized that no one was coming, no one had been coming, and no one would be coming. So, she took her last bit of willpower that remained within her, her last bit of fire, and broke out when her father left.

Still, being free didn't mean she was fixed. Hanako was still in pieces, like a glass figurine that fell from the mantle place, and it would take a pretty big bucket of glue to fix her. Being free didn't mean anything... It just meant she wouldn't break anymore than she already had.

Hanako wondered why they hadn't looked for her... Was it because she was really as weak as she thought? She'd tried to grow stronger - she really had. She'd trained so much, and even had an advanced element within half a year of being promoted to Genin... She'd been stronger than Sora at times, but that faded. They'd been on par, but that faded too... Of her old team, Hanako knew she was now the weakest by far. Maybe that was why they left her.

Maybe she was just that pathetic.

The girl felt a burn behind her eyes, but she didn't cry. Hanako never cried over anything, ever. Maybe the day her mother died, but... Not since then, and that was so... so long ago. She'd taken everything she got with her head held high, shaking when she was alone but never crying. To do so, to her, would be to lose. Daiki would win if she so much as shed a year for anything, so she didn't.

Hanako couldn't help but wonder, though, why everyone left. Every person she'd ever loved, ever trusted, ever liked in the littlest bit... Everyone had betrayed her. Every time. Every Kami forsaken time, she was always left alone, and she couldn't help but wonder why.

Hanako couldn't help but wonder if she should just speed up... so that maybe... she would just fall down.

[10k/10k for Hypersensitivity, I completed it before but eh, confirming it now]

Yaju had been out in the village for a while looking for things that would accommodate his new housemate and he wasn't...doing to well with it. With only a handful of things he gave up and instead went on to get something to eat...pork puns. Walking to the nearest stand he would order and soon get his food before moving to one of the rooftop buildings and eating the warm and savory delights," Mmm," the only audible words that escaped the Sannin's mouth as he bit into the buns and continued to gorge himself on them. Most of the time he had been spending in the village was primarily spent on his at home girlfriend, his job and minor Kage duties and of course making sure the ANBU stayed in order but moreso the latter of the bunch as he really had never went on any missions since his last team.

Time shortly went on as he continued to eat the pork buns until he had caught the sight of someone he had not seen in a while," Hanako?," he was confused at first because he hadn't seen his old student in so long which made him smile a bit. Setting the bag down he would body flicker behind the girl, the small breeze created behind her only alerting her to his presence. He had looked the same as when she had first met him, Yellow eyes and Red hair with the same outfit as well but he simply smiled as he looked to her,," Its been a while Hanako...where have you been hiding?," he would wait for her to turn around before noticing that something was off with her.

Sure she was usually dreary and a bit sad but now...it seemed as if the world just dropped her and she was on the throes of death which...made him concerned. Leaning down a bit he would look into her eyes and tilt his head," What...is wrong?," not asking in an imposing tone but one of concern as he waited to see what she would say.

As a small breeze brushed up against her, Hanako stilled. This breeze was different than the wind blowing her knotted hair and chilling her to the bone... Someone was behind her. Though the girl was mentally frantic, she found herself unable to move, to flee from this stranger. Her eyes widened further and her breathing caught in her throat as she felt how the breeze swirled around his figure... his.

"It's been a while, Hanako... Where have you been hiding?"

Oh, definitely masculine.

Hanako whipped around, fixing her eyes on the man who dated to speak to her. To say she was scared was an understatement - The growth so terrified that her hands were shaking. From this person, whoever he was, Hana found no comfort. Instead, she felt only apprehension, but the only thing she had ever found in a man was pain - save for the one who gave her sight back to her. Sure, Hanako had been hurt and betrayed by women - her mother - … But at least Akemi had compensated for her betrayal.

As she looked at the at the - who she assumed was a - stranger with eyes as wide as saucers, she appeared as pitiful as a child without candy. Like a drenched kitten, beaten and tossed out the door, she looked small, hurt and a bit more helpless than she was. When Yaju leaned close to her, his face inches away from her bruised one, Hanako saw Daiki instead of the man who was really there.

Hanako flinched harshly away, her back hunching and her arms rising protectively around her abdomen. She began to back up wildly, screeching, "Get away!" though she only made it a few steps. Hana collided with the ground, hitting hard, but she didn't even flinch as pain spiraled through her. Instead, she continued to back away desperately, sliding backwards across the ground until she was several feet away. She can move forward, Hanako would move backward, keeping the distance consistent. "Don't touch me!"

However, as she heard him speak again, her fear melted into amazement. She knew that voice. Maybe it had been nine months, and maybe the sound voice was like a distant dream, but Hanako never forgot an identity, once her senses memorized it. "Sensei..." she whispered, seeing him for the first time. Last time they has conversed, Hana had been blind. This was the first time she had ever laid seeing eyes on the man she called her Sensei.

Once called. Sensei? As if... This man didn't deserve the title.

Though it hurt her bruised flash, Hanako managed to pull her face into a hateful grimace. What happened? Where had she been hiding? Well, who knows?! If he had looked for her, even once, he would have figured it out pretty easily. The nerve. The nerve. Hanako had not felt a rage such as this in a long time, a rage that overpowered her fear. To fake concern, to lie, once was one thing, but to do it twice? When she was in such an obviously weak state? It made her sick.

"What happened?" she spat incredulously from her place on the ground. Slowly, she struggled to her unsteady feet, fire in her visible eye. Still, after moment, Hanako managed to still her quivering and meet her "Sensei's" concerned gaze with one filled with both loathe and hurt beyond imagine. "Oh, wouldn't you like to know?!" The now-12-year-old growled out with venom. Her voice was coarse from lack of use, yet her tone was clear as day - 'I don't forgive you, and sorry isn't good enough.'

"Maybe if you looked for me - even one time - you'd know! You know why? Cause I've been," air quotes, "'hiding' in my house this whole time!" she snarled. However, her anger seemed to snap then, and she brought er quivering arms up to hug herself around her too-thin midriff. "You didn't even look at all, not even once, did you...? Sora, he didn't even say goodbye..." she managed out, her voice sounding soft and broken as her eyes rested on the ground.

The girl took a step back with one foot, lifting er ruin-filled eyes to the 'concerned' ones of her 'Sensei'. Betrayal created an air so thickly veiling her that it was like a slap in the face to those who hurt her - and who were the antagonists that so crumbled her spirits? Everyone; everyone she had ever liked, even a little bit. Hanako had been betrayed more times than any 12 year old should ever have been. "You don't care about me, not really... It's a lie, so don't look at me like that!" she said, her whimper becoming a desperate plea. She brought her other foot back to meet her one, having now moved an entire step away on top of the original. A final spark making it's way into her eyes, Hanako screamed at Yaju, "Don't lie to me!" She then dropped her dull, visible eye to his feet, shaking from trauma. 

Hanako's unbrushed brown hair hung limply around her face, longer than it had been, and her dirty bandages shifted upon her face, her eye peeking through. It was emerald to the edge of the iris, but from there, the cornea was a dark red, streaked with colors of infection, and the eye was still very blind. It was fixable with her medicine, but... She hadn't the time to et any, nor the means.

At first he didn't think anything of it, simply taking as something bad had happened and he had came in at the wrong time, which prompted him to flinch slightly in retaliation to her words," Maybe she really doesn't remember me," the thought passed through his mind like a swift wind, maybe his absence had scarred her but....it really wasn't his fault that he had been gone for so long. It was when she responded afterwards with telling him to get away that something had clicked in his mind "Hey something's definitely wrong here..." or maybe that was just reality clicking into place and letting him know that he had just intruded on a very bad time. None the less, being the teacher that he was he would step forward when she realized who he was and knelt down to look over her," Yeah its me...its been a long time since-," his words stopped once he looked upon her face once more...the look had changed...it was as if his being here had brought on a look of pure hate and disgust from the young girl.

Slowly as she "ripped" him a new asshole he found out things that not even he knew about...Sora leaving...her being locked within her home for some reason...and all because he had been a careless teacher. Slowly he stood backup and returned his hands to his pockets, his eyes wandering around trying to come up with something to say that didn't sound like "Oh, i'm a ninja who has responsibilities, so i can't watch over kids anymore" something that would only make this situation a hell of a lot worse.

When she had finished he would finally be looking at the ground, a mighty wolf whose pride and feelings had oddly been hurt because of this. No it wasn't because he was soft...it was because through it all he still cared for each and everyone of his students, but at the same time...these things happened. With a heavy sigh he looked back up to her he would finally speak," Hanako...I can't...Look it is my fault for not looking for you after our last meeting, but since then i have not been in the village. If i knew that you were in this position...i would have came sooner but," his voice stopped as he looked upon her eye and met with a flat tone," What happened to you...and where is your father," it would be a simple question that if she had answered he would simply reply with," Take me to him..," even if she didn't respond to him, he would still ask this of her for one reason and one reason only...she reeked of the old man and it was time for him to answer why.

Making a small hand clap, the Haori that had been given to him by the Raikage would appear, his hands slowly moving to drape it over her to provide warmth," Look Hanako..i still care for you as my student...and as a member of my team. Trust me when i say i wouldn'y abandon you...because i know what it is like to feel abandoned...and tormented by your family, but at least let me make it up to you now," saying only this he would move backwards and wait to see what she would do, hoping for this to be resolved soon.

[Short post be short, but were getting somewhere]

As Yaju knelt down in front of her, blatant fear mixed with her anger. She began to panic within, her mind flashing back to all the times Daiki would get close to her, hit her, every time he would... he would... The girl fought back in the only way she could, striking her fist against his cheek. Desperately, she would then move back several paces once again, trying to put that ever-so-vital distance between them. Perhaps the hit wouldn't have really hurt him, and perhaps she was weak... But the point she was making should have been clear. "I said, stay away, damn it! Don't come near me!" she spat angrily as she realized it wasn't her father, once again.

The girl had to admit that she was a bit apprehensive when he stood back up after she did and didn't turn to leave, still facing her. She didn't trust this man as far as she could throw him, and she wasn't the strongest ninja out there. She could tell, as he averted his eyes, that she had hurt him. The old Hanako, she would have moved over and shyly tried to comfort him, shamed that she had been the cause of internal conflict. This one, though? She didn't even care. In her eyes was no shame that she had hurt a grown man, but only a very slight satisfaction. Hey, at least he still had feelings to hurt. Hanako? Well, the only reason she knew she had a heart was because it was always throbbing out a dull ache... Though she had, after time, simply grown accustomed.

As Hanako's eye(s?) met her Sensei's, she did nothing to warm her gaze. Her eyes were cold, hard and unforgiving, but the anger they had held had dwindled, if only slightly. She heard him out, though, the look in her eyes unwavering. "You haven't been in the village for nine months, and just so happen to return the day I escape? I think we both know that's total bullshit," she spat, yet her voice remained even and controlled. Hanako wouldn't fall for tricks again. She was done with trust and friendship, done with hope, done with emotion in general. She was just done, and some petty apology wouldn't fix everything.

Hanako thought for a moment, trying to come up with a response for his question. Father? What father? Did he mean that disgusting, sick alcoholic he met once so long ago, that posed as her father? The girl's dead eyes gained a bit of an accusing look to them. "I don't have any parents. My mother has been dead for nearly a year, and I don't know when my father died. Maybe when I was 10. Maybe when my mother died," she said. Hanako knew he would probably be confused by this, as the day he met her, he had also met her father, and had heard of her mother. It was true, though. Her mother had been killed many months ago by Daiki, and her father... That man was not her father. As far as Hanako was concerned, her father was dead, and this monster had come to take the stage. "Do you mean Daiki? He was passed out in the living room, last I checked. He's probably awake now, though," she muttered, her face twisting more in disgust than fear a she spoke of him.

As Yaju clapped, Hanako flinched again, the sound too close to when she would be struck. She grew very stiff and still as he draped the Haiti over her, how close he was to her, and how he touched her shoulders. She could smell him, and she hated that. No one, no one, was allowed to get that close to her, and it took all the self-control she had not to swipe at him again. Hanako's eyes narrowed at what she assumed was supposed to be an apology. Maybe e could relate, but that pissed her off. He acted as if he knew exactly what she had been through, and it pissed her off. "Maybe you do know, Yaju... But you don't know what it's like to be me. I don't doubt that your life has been hard, but... Some experiences, they can't have been the same... Hanako said softly. She brought her arms closer to her torso, as if protecting herself. A look of grief and shame crossed her face as she remembered things that he probably couldn't relate to, but it was gone in a second, and she gazed at the ground, staring at a far away place. "I... was her replacement... when he killed her... For nine months, I replaced mom..." She bit her broken bottom lip, drawing even more blood, but she didn't much care. She allowed her gaze to stray back up to Yaju's, looking small. "You can't possibly relate to that. Not that part."

However, her small facade soon dissipated, leaving her eyes blank and dull once again, but firm. "Everyone I've ever loved, ever even liked, has betrayed me, Yaju Hayate, and I'm done with being society's toy. The only one who has never given me remorse of any sort is a man named Kurokon... Yaju, do you think that a few sentences are going to just going to turn back the clock and make everything okay? Nothing is okay, and it's not going to be, so save your breath and stop lying to me." The last part was said quietly, yet it still held an unbending firmness to it.

Hanako gripped the edges of the Haori, pulling it closer around herself and scanning it with calculating eyes too old for her age. It was like she was looking for a bomb set in the fabric, an ulterior motive for giving her something kind, and yet she found nothing. It was warm, though. She looked back to Yaju, her hands still holding the fabric. "It takes more than a little warmth and a couple kind words to fix glass, once it's shattered. Especially when it wants to stay broken," she said, her lifeless eyes staring into Yaju's. With that, she turned, saying to him, "I'll take you to Daiki," as she did.

After taking a few steps in the direction of her house, a thought occurred to her. He still didn't know she could see, did he? With a biting yet amuse glint in her eyes, Hanako looked over her shoulder and scanned Yaju up and down. "I always imagined you as more attractive than that. Oh, well," she teased, a hint of her old self showing through, before turning back an continuing down the road.

She still wore the haori, dispite what she had said.

It wasn't because she was forgiving him though - no, she needed the warmth.

Hanako would just return in once she got to wherever she would not be staying.

"Ignore the bloodstains, once we get there. Daiki always says I'm a horrible housekeeper...~" Perhaps the old Hanako wasn't completely dead... Just gasping.

At first Yaju would be used to her yelling and actually just accepted it as her venting and getting the anger towards him off of her chest, of course this had been nothing new to him due to growing up with his father. It was until she had hit him that he...had a momentary relapse and his eyes which were currently normal and yellow, soon became slitted and filled with anger. The one gesture soon died down as he sighed and rubbed his cheek, a notion he had learned shortly after calming his inner storm. A slow sigh escaped his lips before he scratched his head and closed his eyes," I doubt you'd listen to what all i have to say so i will leave it at that...you may think its bullshit but i won't say nothing more on the matter," he didn't feel like arguing with her nor was he going to...instead he would allow her to properly vent and let it go.

However...the issue with her saying she didn't have any parent's caused him to raise a brow, mentally questioning the girls stability but leaving it alone long enough to simply get an answer to his question. For a moment he would turn his back and look towards the village itself, his voice holding no filter for what he was about to say," My life is any and never was anything but easy Hanako, we may have been abused and used...but its when you get the blood of someone else on your hands...and body...it makes things different," his voice quieting down as he allowed himself...no allowed her words to penetrate his ears which caused him to slowly turn his head to her.

In his eyes she could see...a different light in his eye that showed his anger, he didn't show it in his facial expression but in his eyes were the only thing one could ever need to see his expression. Of course when she had mentioned Kurokon he laughed for a moment before shaking his head," Fine then...if you think i am lying to you and want nothing else to deal with me...after this you can renounce me as your sensei...seeing as i'm never around you can always find someone better," he was going to say something else but simply held a finger up," I never expected you to forgive me nor wanting me to make everything better...you'd be naive to think so," with that he would simply wait for her to lead him to the man.

Yaju had an awkward way...no rather a strange way of showing he cared, and in this situation he was better for him to be honest than trying to console her. As they walked he would chuckle and look towards her," My appearance isn't what makes me attractive...its the animal instincts, but thanks for the compliment," walking with her down the long road these animal instincts would take over, his eyes slitting again and his teeth and ears becoming a bit...more feral. Once he had arrived to the house, even without opening the door he could smell the blood from outside," Stay here...or rather come if you must," his hand stretching into a fist as he punched the door, the frame of wood snapping and contorting before breaking apart into splints and shooting into the inside of the house itself.

With slow strides he would walk into the house, looking around slowly before growling," Daiki bring your worthless life here now!!!," his voice rising slightly and vibrating through the whole house. Small flares of his chakra could be seen by the young girls as a table next to him erupted into a silver flame, while his body remained perfectly relaxed...it was time for someone to answer.