To Stand Strong (P/NK)

Tue Jul 05, 2016 8:46 am

Again a few months had went by in Kanzaki's life. Her life had been busy, and thus she had little to no opportunities to train at all. Between her father's frequent absences due to missions and consistently having to be reminded of her mother's death as she wandered throughout Hoshigakure and receive lots of attention that she really didn't care for, Kanzaki was agonizingly terrified with the way things had been going. The poor girl had to take on most of what her mother had to do before her untimely death, and her damned father was practically working himself to death on missions. Today she had to attend some dumb conference at nine in the morning, concerning her half-royalty. That meant that the poor little girl would be waking up an hour earlier, and that was something she just could not handle.

Kanzaki had spent the night prior to the conference inconveniently being unable to sleep. Her mind was on wanting to train and the fact that she was having her life populated by stuff that did not matter to her. Who cared about a conference full of old people that pinched your cheeks all the time and called you cute? Who cared about anything anyways? Couldn't they see that she was hurting from her mother's unexpected death? The last thing she wanted to do was sit around and be constantly reminded of said death.

For the past few months, she had been diligently attending all of these meetings and that good stuff, but she was nearing her breaking point. By the time she ever returned from one of these stupid conferences she felt sick to her stomach with mourn and borderline disdain toward the people that made her come. She was being only a little diligent for the sake of her father, who was still busy on missions day in and day out. Maybe he was just lying and trying to drink himself to death somewhere.

She sat up in her queen-sized bed, pushing the purple blankets off of her and slipping between the pink canopy sheets. Kanzaki tip-toed across the soft, lilac carpet. She slowly but surely opened up a drawer, taking out a pink tank top, along with a white skirt and pair of black spats. She put on the spats and the skirt along with her tank top. Kanzaki then went over to her personal coat rack quietly and put on a simple white jacket. Kanzaki would look at the top of her dresser at the large array of gold and silver jewelry. She roamed throughout it and found the little secret pile of shinobi belongings that her father helped her hide.

She picked up a single scroll that her father had given to her. Kanzaki did not know why, but he told her not to open it unless she was outside of the palace. Therefore she was going to abide by what he said. The scroll had a dark blue obi that held it together, but otherwise the inside of the scroll had ancient looking, yellowish brown paper that crinkled up. The outer part of the scroll was more refined, with a grass-green hue to it, and a fine and smooth texture to it.

The blonde haired girl would take a simple white hair tie and tie her hair into a ponytail near the nape of her neck, allowing it to hang down. A few straight, lengthy locks were bunched together on each side of her head. She picked up her red arm bandana with Hoshigakure's black star on it, binding it around her right upper arm. She smacked her palm and fist together, smirking valiantly but all the while remaining quiet with her excitement. Lastly the blondette grasped hold of one of the straps to her lavender backpack, sliding it on.

Kanzaki parted her hands and energetically made for the window to the right from her bed. She slowly opened it up and peeked out from it, peering around the part of the palace that she could manage to perceive. Once the coast looked clear, she slipped through the window and flowed chakra to her feet, standing on the wall and tip-toeing along it's length. She traversed the top of the palace as deft and silent as possible. It was about five in the morning, and it was still dark out, so she luckily went unnoticed by Queensguard, but mainly because of her size.

The girl finally managed to get out of the palace unnoticed with the flocks of Queensguard that engulfed the length of it. From there the blondette hopped from rooftop to rooftop within the spacious village of Hoshigakure no Sato, enjoying the night breeze as it caressed her leaping form. The little girl would bounce from one brown roof to a green one, and then several more that were of different, if not the same color, but differently shaded. The endless roof hopping eventually ended with her winding up at a training field.

She was fortunate enough to be a young child who was not afraid of the dark, but instead captivated by it. The serene night sky kept mostly everything cloaked, making it hard to see what she was looking at. The training fields had various, thin logs that resembled cylinders. They were pinned to the ground and off to the sidelines of the spacious field of tall blades of green, magnificent grass. Assorted trees surrounded the training area. It was reserved specifically for the academy, and she'd be the only one here since she was awake so early.

With traveling out of the way, now Kanzaki could fully afford to work on what she came here for, training. This was so exciting to her. She had to skip out on training for months due to ridiculous amounts of conferences and what not with her mom. If she was older she would have been aware that her mother was trying to divert her attention from being a kunoichi, and occupy it with being a pretty little princess role model. Little did her mother, Chiharu Star know, however, that her little baby was born for adventure, and she would stop at nothing to get it.

The Senju looked down at the scroll that her father had given to her. She was curious what the scroll was do, and therefore she would slip the obi off with a minor application of strength. She placed it down on the ground beside her and proceeded to sit down in the blades of freshly-cut grass, Folding her legs together, she would grasp onto the peeled portion of the scroll with her right hand, and hold the scroll itself with her left hand.

Kanzaki unraveled the scroll, causing it to make a sound that resembled that of something being quickly zipped. Once it was fully unraveled it kept itself in placing, fully open. She placed the scroll on the ground, squinting and scrutinizing with her hazelnut orbs set on what the ink plastered to the innards of the scroll meant. There was a big circle, followed by really pretty markings and letters that all flowed together. Wriggle-like lines spanned outward from the big circle.

What she was looking at was a generic seal. Kanzaki lowered a brow and raised the other, leaning forth a little more and squinting down at the parchment to see if there was anything else. In small, messy handwriting, she was instructed to 'flow chakra into her palm and then slap it against the center of the thing'. It was a pretty easy task in all honesty, and she understood easily what this note meant. Anyone who could not understand what it meant may or may not have been an idiot.

The platinum-haired Senju balled her right hand into a tight fist. She focused on her reserves and slammed her eyes shut, before pursing her lips. With a quivering fist she began to concentrate, amassing a rather large amount of chakra that started to course throughout her being. The emission of chakra only grew in quickness, causing a small, visible glow of golden sparks to layer her frame in a very thin, just barely visible aura. Her hand slowly started to open up from a fist.

Her eyes slowly started to open, with a glint of pride and determination in either iris. With a half-closed hand the girl extended her arm out in front of her as she harnessed control of her massive Senju chakra pool. Localising the chakra and bundling it in one specified area within the base of her palm, she would complete the first part of the task. Her eyes widened to their normal size, noticeably dialating as she was suddenly filled with a wealth of ideas. The reawakening of sealing knowledge struck her like a train.

She recalled her conversation with her father on seals, and what they did. "Err.. seals are pretty complicated, you know. They can do just about anything so long as the user can control their chakra to that degree. When you are trying to break a seal you just have to.. like.. hmm.. basically you have to align your chakra with the user's." "But how do I do that?" Kanzaki had inquired. "Rhythm, flow, and control."

The three things that he instructed her on. She had believed it, but only because she had no former knowledge on the sealing arts. Any actual sealing specialist would know that the information was invalid. Daichi had lied to her essentially because he wanted to make the learning process for learning how to use generic seals easier for her. Her natural-born talents and prowess for Ninjutsu and the arts-alike were what would fill the many holes left in his brief description of the technique.

So she continued immersing herself in chakra which was then mitigated to her hand. She then began to attempt to manipulate it, and with her prowess in the arts of Ninjutsu she started to gradually control it to a decent degree. Decent would not cut it, however. Kanzaki continued attempting to strain her chakra pool in order to direct the stress to her control over her chakra, and luckily it was working. It seemed that all of this chakra oriented stuff was just secondhand, subconscious even, for her.

The blondette directed the entirety of the chakra to her palm in one large bundle. The bundle was flowing rather slowly, but she knew that if this drawing was complex, then so would the flow of her chakra. Thus she started to apply her basic Ninjutsu knowledge to the equation, beginning to make it move faster and thus forth get hotter, like any molecule/energy-based substance would from moving more quickly. Lastly was the rhythm, her chakra was rigid and it had no pattern to how it coursed.

This tied in with chakra control. Essentially unsealing stuff seemed to just be about chakra control and how fast your chakra could circulate throughout the seal that you're disabling. With that in mind, the girl strained herself a little more, drawing out more reserves and using them as an influence that would easily flux the situation in a positive manner. The practical prodigy, with her chakra completely harnessed and ready to tackle the seal, threw her arm out and smacked her palm against the surface of the ink-written seal on the parchment.

The seal suddenly shined white, before a large whiff of gray smoke covered her. Moments later of waving it away, Kanzaki discovered what lie behind the smoke, equipment. Lots of equipment, infact. There was a surplus of shuriken, kunai, three foldable fuuma shuriken, a tantou, a few more scrolls dull red with a golden outline, and several medical supplies. The platinum-haired Senju let out 'oohs' and 'ahhs' at the 'magic' before her, obviously impressed by the sheer amount of versatility that the Sealing Arts would have to offer if she delved into them.

Kanzaki picked up the tantou, inspecting it. The tantou had a metallic blade to it that spanned eight inches. Along with that, it had a gray guard with gray gauze wrapped loosely around the black handle. The handle itself was about three and a half inches. She gripped onto the tantou, swinging it a little before she retrieved the wooden sheathe that came with it. The female slid the black strap over her torso diagonally, proceeding to slide the tantou into the sheathe that was now on her back.

The little girl picked up several shuriken and tucked them into her backpouch. As for the rest of the equipment, she stored it in her bag. Kanzaki bounded off of the earth, springing into action as she performed a backflip in midair and tossed a total of six shuriken from each hand. The metallic ninja stars spun forth rapidly as the air carried them on their path. Slowly she started shifting her fingers around, wriggling them weirdly. As if on cue, the direction of the metallic ninja stars suddenly shifted drastically.

It was not just some science- associated trick that she did with her shuriken, in fact it was something way more indepth. Further inspection of the ninja stars would reveal in all actuality that she was manipulating small items attached to the end of the shuriken, steel wiring. All it took was one shift of the metallic thread's tough grip, and the shuriken would be more than capable of helplessly moving. She was a novice at the use of this method of ninja tool use, but she was going to master it for sure if she wanted to be better at weapon use.

She continued to shift her fingers around, tugging and pulling at the wiring with her hand alltogether since that's where the other end was attached. The shuriken would curve around a tree trunk and thrust into it from behind as she tugged back and arched her arms inward. She looked down the line of wiring that lead up to where the shurikens were, a small smile apparent on her facial features. Kanzaki gave a little harder tug, proceeding to lacerate the sides of the lumber to tug the shuriken back towards her.

Using a trick that her dad showed her she caught each shuriken with her finger through the hole in the middle, before untying the wiring and placing the shuriken, as well as the wires, back into her backpack. The blondette was not quite done with her training yet, however. She took off her backpack and removed a folded-up fuuma shuriken. To get better at throwing she decided that she'd try to lug this thing at trees and see how successful she could be in her contacts.

The Senju Princess' caramel orbs lit up with passion as she analyzed the weight of the weapon that she had picked to throw. Holding it in it's still-folded up form, she spun it around with her fingers tucked around the hole at the bottom. As she did so a few of her muscles tensed, her knees arching and her legs spreading apart. Her caramel gaze fell to a narrow as she hung her left arm in the space between her legs. The girl stretched her right arm out from her side, rearing it back.

With one more spin the folded up fuuma shuriken would open up, because she loosened the small lever mechanism with her last twirl. She whipped the fully-unfolded fuuma shuriken towards the tree trunk in front of her, giving it a good spin. The rapid-spinning shuriken would continue progressing toward the tree trunk, threatening to stab directly into it with one of it's curved blades. She had done a fantastic job with making sure the shuriken would have a nice spin to it in midair.

One of the curved blades to the fuuma shuriken would cut through the bark like butter before the rest of the giant ninja tool wedged into the tree trunk. She ran on over to it, proceeding to run up the tree itself with a decent application of chakra to her feet. Once standing on the tree trunk itself she unwedged the shuriken and folded it back up with another pressing of the lever, hanging her head back briefly. Her caramel orbs widened as she looked face to face with a masked man covered in black.

Out of her peripheral she saw metallic length descending towards her. Kanzaki shot directly to her right, twirling in midair and gripping tightly onto the fuuma shuriken as the masked man slashed into the tree. She spun like a top throughout midair before she re-assumed her position and stamped her feet into the ground, skidding across it and watching as the male advanced towards her, an aura of sinister bloodlust swarming him. His sentiment was undecipherable, in the pupiless eyes beneath the mask shrouding his face. She whipped out a kunai from her back pouch, a baffled... yet slightly prepared expression on her face.

Her caramel gaze focused on the male's form, flickering around rapidly as she attempted to follow his movements and start to keep up with him. The blonde Senju dashed towards him, unsure as to who he was but completely aware that she would die if she did not bother to fight back. With a swing of her right arm she would collide her kunai against the male's blade. She pulled her left hand from behind her back, slamming his blade straight into the ground with another kunai. The female bounced up and thrusted her legs out, kicking him in his triceps as he threw his arms up reflexively.

She kicked off of him, flinging her kunai knives while upside down and yanking his blade from the ground. A low grunt exitted the male's mouth as the kunai knives managed to stab him in the thighs before he could move. She landed on the ground, skidding across it with the thin-bladed sword in her grasp. She clutched onto the blade with both hands, her gaze falling to a narrow. "Bring it on!" She said fiercely, causing a heavy, hoarse sigh to escape the male's mouth. Kanzaki kept the sword directly in front of her, her knees arched and her feet pressed to the ground.

Once getting a subtle bit of confidence she would launch herself forward, trying to still follow the male's movements as she advanced. She held onto the bladed weapon tightly, readying herself and suddenly swinging at the male's midsection. He suddenly threw his leg up, blocking with adept accuracy and reaction time, pinning the sole of his booted foot against the base of the blade. With titan-like strength the male suddenly started to force her back, pinning her back and causing her to slide back against the ground a little.

With what seemed to be effortless nature, she was being pushed back. Surely, if she did not find some way to counter this, it could bring about more than just a few problems for her in this fight. He suddenly slammed his foot into the ground, causing the earth around them to suddenly shatter and fissure violently. The sheer physical force of his foot contacting the ground at full power sent her flying into the air with rocks. Before she could really respond and regain her bearings, she found that her tightly-held piece of weaponry had been swept out of her hands. The man suddenly performed a pivot, sending the weapon flying up towards her by kicking it with his foot at the right time and with refined angling.

"Holy---" The sheer speed cut her off. Before she could even move her arms the bladed weapon thrusted through her, going in on one end of her body and sticking out in the other. She gasped, blood splattering out from her mouth as tears spilled from her eyes and dripped onto the dewy grass in front of the presumed assassin. She descended to the ground, slamming into it on her back with ragged pants. Luckily the blade hadn't pierced any vitals, but it still hurt so much. "M-ma.." She gasped, her vision darkening and her eyes getting heavy.

She panted heavily, seeing the blurry figure of the male standing over her. He cruely ripped the sword from her torso, making her let out a blood-curdling scream, cold sweats running throughout her body. Her screams started to die and become hollow and lifeless, and she could swear she felt her life beginning to flash right before her eyes. She recalled everything.. wow.. the last time she talked to her mom she was yelling rebelliously at her, insulting the conferences, insulting the lineage, and insulting royal blood itself. It was not because she lacked respect for it, it was because she did not understand it.

Tears started to drain from her face at a rapid rate, choked and restrained, dry sobs exitting the young girl. The male simply hovered over her, tearing out the weapons she got him in the thighs with. He thrusted them through her ankles, piercing them and pinning them to the ground.. and yet, the deafening emotional pain of losing her mother, having a father that was barely there, and feeling as though her life just crashed in on itself was more harming than any kunai could. She sobbed and sobbed until she couldn't even use her voice, and the girl was confident that if she could feel anything other than numbness from head to toe at the moment then the pain of her throat hurting from all the crying and shouting that she did that it would still fail to compare to how self-blaming she was for her mother's death.

The man grunted, spinning the sword within his grasp. Everything was in slow motion as he swung it down towards her while she was bloodied and beat up, looking as though it was the end of her story right there, with blood draining from her forehead from a rock that pelted her earlier. She recalled every event that lead up to this moment, but only one thing stuck on her. Her mother's last words to her... words of desperation that showed how much she truly loved Kanzaki. 'I-I'm sorry...' it was her only response to Kanzaki's rant on how much she quote on quote 'hated' being royalty.

It was so heart-jerking that she just wanted this to end, and that she wished that the slow motion would end and the blade would just stop her from thinking about this painful stuff already.Lastly was her father's last words to her. 'Stay strong.. do what your elders tell you to.. I'm sure.. you'll grow up to be just as fine of a princess as your mother was. We'll both live on for her sake.' Her eyes suddenly went wide with the blade just moments from splitting her face in half.

We'll both live on for her sake.

Live on for her sake.

......

Live on.

Whether it was adrenaline or just her deciding she was not going to give up here, it did not matter. Energy coursed through her veins and her eyes suddenly became vivacious and determined. The Senju thrusted her arm out, steam rising out from her wounds. She clung her fingers around the blade, steam constantly rising from the wounds that were being caused by her holding onto it. "I won't die.. not here, and not to you! Some masked jerk isn't gonna take my life away and make father sadder than he already is. I promise that, on my mom's grave!"

The Senju exclaimed valiantly, and before the man could react she thrusted her leg out and smashed it into him, making him stumble away from her and let go of the blade. The blonde flung the sword into the distance, slammingher foot into the ground. She tore out the kunai, allowing steam to rise from her leg wounds. Kanzaki charged forth without a second thought, pulling out the folded up fuuma shuriken thoughtlessly and ripping it across the male's chest while he was still trying to recuperate from the blow dealt directly to his sternum.

Kanzaki twirled around, lashing her left leg out and smacking it dead in his gut, causing him to stumble back more, still in subpar condition. Without an inch of intent on holding back the female charged towards him, quickly ducking and zooming out of grabbing reach when he attempted to get a hold on her. She shot behind him, bashing the folded up shuriken into his back and then looping back around him, leaping up and uppercutting him with her fingers clasped around the hole in the shuriken, reinforcing the uppercut with the bladed side of the metal around it.

He suddenly launched his fist out, punching her in the gut. Oxygen escaped her lungs, but not before she lashed her arm out and dealt a lethal blow to his neck, jabbing in just enough to get a small cut on his capillary. She flew back, but as she descended when inertia started to take effect, she slammed her feet against the grass, pinning her soles firmly against the earth as she skid back rapidly, just barely nudging the tree trunk that she skid all the way back. Kanzaki simply poked the lever, causing the fuuma shuriken to slide open.

"Shit..!" The male shouted. "Yeah. That's all you are!" She screamed in response, sending the shuriken flying toward him. The girl leaped up, suddenly kicking off of the tree and shooting towards him. The male was too busy preoccupied with trying to avoid the shuriken and make sure his wound would give him enough time to finish his job that he did not notice Kanzaki flying right at him. He threw his forearm up instinctively, letting one of the blades rip into it with a slight flinch and a painful grunt.

She whipped forth the two kunai that he originally used on her, having picked them up earlier. The two kunai plunged through the fuuma shuriken, making one of the blades come clean off and collapse to the ground with a clang. When the male finally looked up, it was too late. She smashed her head directly into his chest, knocking the breath out of him and literally knocking him down. In the process of smashing into him, she tore out the kunai when it ripped into his chest after piercing through the shuriken.

Without a second thought the female swung down towards him with her flimsy arms, holding onto the kunai with both hands. His arms lurched up, hands clenching partially, but falling to the ground as the kunai stabbed into his forehead and pierced his brain. She let go of the kunai, ontop of the male as she dealt the killing blow. The blonde stood up slowly, looking down in horror at what she had just done. The girl was a kunoichi, sure, but this was her first kill. She slowly stepped back, falling onto her butt with wide eyes and a pale exterior. "I-I... h-he's... d-dead...?"

She recalled seeing her mother's daintied-up corpse in the casket during the funeral ceremony. Tears welled up in her eyes, descending down her cheeks with her hazel irises still looking at the corpse a few paces in front of her. She felt her meal from hours ago begin to go into her throat, and tossed herself onto her side, slamming her palms against the ground as she started to throw up violently, getting rid of all of the food and what she'd drank, eventually puking up her own bile. The Senju could not even stand---her psychological distress froze her up, making every muscle in her body buckle up in fear.

She hovered over that massive pile of puke and undecipherable stomach gook that was once caviar, tears dropping from her eyes as she remained completely silent. Her heart felt as though there was a hand pressed against it, a weirdly undescribable physical tinge of pain resonating from the center of her torso. She clasped her left, cupped fist against it, her right palm still pinned against the ground. She slammed her eyes shut, clenching her teeth and allowing more tears to fall as the emotions dawned upon the no longer adrenaline-energized girl.

"O-okaa-san..." She murmured gently, with a soft and broken, raspy voice. Her body was shuddering uncontrollably, between the mourning and just having killed someone. "O-OKAA-SAN!" She shrieked desperately, bawling. There was no support for her at this moment, so there she stood, knelt down in front of her own puke, with a terrible stomach ache and an extreme case of heartbreak, with a touch of feeling abandoned. She cried like that until once again she was not able to use her voice, at which point she just rolled over onto her back, cupping her face in her hands.

"I-I swear.. I'm not gonna kill anyone else.. no.. I-I can't.. never.. never never ever..." She said with a weak voice, laying there and just reflecting for the next twenty minutes. The female slowly stood up, looking at the stuff that her father gave to her. She just slowly picked them up one by one, sealing them back away and taking the scroll. The blonde wordlessly started to walk back, not able to bear staying there with that terrible stench of blood still in the area. She climbed back into her window once she got back to the royal palace, and quietly put stuff back.

The girl changed back into her pajamas, and just collapsed on the bed, looking up at the top of her canopy bed.

She sure wasn't going to have any sleep for that conference.

Nor any mental or psychological preparation for it, either.

So there she sat, for the rest of the night. She was practically scarred---no, she literally was scarred from the events. Between nearly dying and killing someone, there was no way that the seven year old would be able to think straight for a long time. Perhaps never. It was a traumatic experience, but it taught her one thing.

Listen to your elders.
(5016 words. 25 stats. Gained Basic Medical Ninjutsu E + C, Chakra Anesthetic, Discipline & Generic Sealing.)

Tue Jul 05, 2016 9:03 am

Sad but beautiful read.

Approved <3

To Stand Strong (P/NK)

To Stand Strong (P/NK)

Re: To Stand Strong (P/NK)