Mourning the dead [Open] [NK]

On the outskirts of the village hidden in the mist, atop a lone hill stood a single silhouetted figure, outlined by the setting sun as she stood amongst the graves of the departed. Kira stood alone, the constant sound of the rain pouring down around her masking her quiet sobs just as it hid her tears. "Why did you have to leave me too" she muttered quietly to herself as she stared down at the small simple gravestone before her, reaching down to run her fingers along the light engraving on the stone the plain two words "Phinias Seimei" its only adornment. "Grandfather..." she trailed off as she glanced to the left at two similar stones, each representing her mother and father respectively.

Unbidden a rage welled up in her chest as she thought about the unexpected turn her life had taken, her parents stolen away from her in a matter of weeks, and then just as she managed to regain some semblance of order her beloved grandfather was found dead, murdered and tortured in one of the many dark alleyways of the village. She still remembered finding his body, walking home from her graduation only to find her grandfathers mangled body. Kira felt her hands tighten against the book she'd inherited from him, the one possession she had left in the world, her knuckles turning white from the sheer force she was exerting. "This has to be a dream, right? Some sick nightmare?" She muttered as her sobs turned to manic chuckles. "I'm going to wake up tomorrow and this whole thing will be gone, it has too?" The girl muttered to herself as she sank to her knees, her chuckles turning back to sobs because deep down she knew this was no dream, she was on her own now...

Why was Nero there? He couldn't tell. The person he was mourning wasn't even in the Kirigakure cemetery. In fact, she wasn't in any cemetery. Still, Nero didn't know any better place to talk to Sera, after letting her go in the festival. He walked through the cemetery, reading the names on the graves as if he had a specific grave he was looking for. "So..." he thought to himself, forming a conversation in his mind, "How's... The place, Sera? Wherever you are. Seriously though, wait. Where are you? Like is it a hell-heaven kind of situation, do all fighters go to a celestial arena of some sorts, is it like a sea of pirates? I don't know. Guess I'll learn when I die. Seems like that'll take a long time though. Kiri doesn't seem to kill Nero. Weird. Ever since I came back I had the fear- or maybe belief - that Kiri was going to kill me. Or at least try. Most have been petty criminals, who brushed past me. Guess whatever system the Mizukage has really works. This place has a lot less crime than most places I've been to. It's really not what I expected of home, you know. You do know, I told you a lot about it. From my parents, and from the general idea of Kiri, I thought this was a place of constant murder and crime. No, turns out being cutthroat somehow makes it safer. Funny, isn't it? You had a similar belief, one I didn't share. I believed violence encouraged more violence, and I was okay with it. I was ready to be violent just to encourage it, not for a grand cause of eliminating crime, just to do it. I lacked cause. I think I found it, Sera. The short time I've been in Kiri, I think I fianlly know where I stand in this world.".

Walking in random directions, Nero finally saw something - or more accurately, someone, that stopped his inner ramblings and caught his attention. A lonely small girl in the middle of this cemetery. "Oh for god's sake." he thought, "Is that another orphan? Is there a discount on orphans that Kiri is abusing? Is there a 'Buy 3, Pay for 1' campaign? Do villagers get a discount on their taxes if they take orphans in? What the hell?". Nero sighed. This was kind of a dangerous place, at least an empty and eerie one. In his eyes the girl looked 12, and even if she had a headband, Nero didn't pay enough attention to notice it. Even though he didn't like it, as a ninja, this was the kind of job he was responsible of. He walked over to the kid. "Hey, kid. You're not lost, are you? Do you have a guardian around here? You shouldn't come into places like this on your own.".

[WC: 478]

Each step felt harder than the last as if gravity itself as becoming more and more difficult to overcome the closer she got the sacred hill. Dressed in white robes and sporting an even paler complexion save for the wicked scar of red running across the right side of her face, Asami Miyamoto seemed to be a ghost adrift in an ever-thickening bank of fog and mist. Much like her meandering path forward, the young girl's thoughts drifted this way and that with neither rhyme nor reason. One moment she found herself back in Konoha facing off against Hayate and the next she was sitting down for breakfast with her recently deceased parents.

Alas, she had no tears left; she felt like an empty husk and yet once a week since her return to Kirigakure she found herself walking the same path. Unconsciously, she had come to know the twists and turns of the path to the village graveyard well. Take a left at the large rock, walk some distance until you see a big tree, and then ascend the hill until you are greeted by rows of marked and unmarked graves. Her parents' bodies weren't even here; they were somewhere deep beneath the waves off the coast of Fire country or so she'd been told. But still, she came without fail as if the pilgrimage helped to fill a void within her.

In reality, all it did was deepen the wounds of loss—she needed to move on.

This day, in particular, was different. Having made it to the foot of the hill, Asami looked up and instead of seeing the large skeletal tree that normally kept vigil over the dead, she saw a figure. And, what was more, she heard a voice, a familiar voice. Moving with near-silent steps, the chuunin approached Nero and came to a stop a few steps to the man's right—he had just finished speaking.

For now, the girl said nothing or maybe she couldn't. The sight of another's heartbreak was enough to stun her into silence. She had looked like the stranger in the graveyard not a few weeks earlier. The whole thing struck far too close to home.

Weirdo. Nero bailed.

[EXIT. WC:481

129WC going to Ice Release: Weapons (upgrading from B to A, 871+129=1000/1000)
352 words Bull Rush (Upgrading from D to C, 352/1000)]

Approved Nero <3

Indeed, she never would say anything either.

Asami soon left.

[Exit, TWC: 367. +1 stat & + 367 words towards Soul Resonance]

Approved Asami <3