The Day of Sun and Turmoil

Thu Jun 16, 2022 9:15 pm

The bleakness of the inky night was beginning to slowly fade in the morning. The slight creak of something pressing against the wood would have alerted anyone inside of the house that someone was inside. However Ryumi knew that Lloyd was too busy asleep to notice that she was up so early in the morning. The cover of darkness hides her features well enough inside of the small home. The slightly rotting wood pressing against her foot made her cringe at how bad this looked for the both of them. It's why she barely had anyone over her house with its slowly decaying form. The crimson roof had been sinking into her ceiling for a while. Knowing that it was only a matter of time before something went and popped. Yet she couldn't really distract herself much from how her dark home looked. Each disgusting new fact about it made her hurt more and more. She wasn't telling Lloyd that she had been saving up in order to attempt to fix the decrepit one story house. How happy he seemed whenever he saw her wake up in the morning. His bright smile shining like that of the sunlight. She knew he couldn't walk with how messed up his spine had been during that one fateful day.

Her vivid memory of that particular day will always catch her by surprise when she remembered all of the small details that came with that day in the first place. She had been training in this very house, near where the backyard was. The light shining down on the two of them as sweat had poured down from her chin in response to the exercise routine Lloyd crafted for herself. She remembered each ache of her muscles even now, how easy it was to remember him standing there, his pale skin also streaming with sweat from how hot the sun was. His sharp jaw slightly shifted when he saw how tired she had been from all of the workouts that he had her under. Resulting in the same feeling of remorse she felt at his current state. She remembered how well he stood while training her that day. She also remembered on that very day her body had given out from underneath all of the stress from that very same workout. Each aching muscle filled to the brim with pins and needles as well as the soft amounts of soreness that turned to pain when she moved to rest her butt on the ground. She remembered him immediately finding her sitting there on the ground. Softly swaying as a small gust of wind graced their skins with the cool reprieve of wind. Yet Lloyd had immediately given her the water she would need for the rest of the workout along with relaxing her body a bit. Ryumi immediately grasped the water bottle with a tight grip. Her muscled arm flexing slightly with how strong the grip was before immediately chugging the water down.

Ryumi looked back at that specific moment with great fondness. How he had taken care of her before this, it was something that she could never even ask for from someone. Yet Lloyd had delivered in taking care of her as best as he could. Ryumi couldn’t ask for a better father figure in her life, yet that right there was something she always seemed to notice about herself. The refusal to call him her father, he technically was her legal guardian, but that was because she had no family to speak of inside of the village and was already taken in by the Hyuga. Who had given her such warmth and comfort after the priest incident that she could not think of him as anything else other than her father. But she didn’t know if he wanted that, wanted to have the burden of being her own father. She could never say the father that made her was her actual father. He had never so much as breathed in her presence before that one day that the two had shared, the very same day that Lloyd was cirppled by her father as well. She didn’t want to remember that much detail. But the flashes of blood strewn across the fields of Hoshigakure would always be etched in her own psyche for all of time. That day made her also remember the one who apparently had started the uprising in the first place. One of the previous Hogokage had caused that one event to spiral out of control. Clenching her fists tightly together until she could feel her skin begin to blister and open up again at the thought that someone from Hoshigakure had that much power and that much ties that they were able to insight something like that from happening. To attack your fellow shinobi and even go so far as to attack your own flesh and blood. She could only imagine why exactly it had happened. It had to have been something stupid for someone to do something so reckless. Yet she had to calm down now, her memory served her right in how she wanted to at least make sure that Lloyd could see the sunrise. She wanted him to notice all of the beautiful colors that the sunrise presented to the lands of Hoshi. How one simple star could brighten up the whole village's day with just rising from the crust of the earth itself. She knew that Lloyd would probably be annoyed that she was waking him up so early in the day, if there was one thing the man always complained about. It was the apparent beauty that he needed to apparently be in tip top shape to sleep or lounge around for the rest of the day. Her eyes resting on his door for a moment, always slightly open just in case for her to walk in without disturbing him. She understood his paranoia after the attack had happened all of those years ago. But the thought that it still scared him, even so much as it affected him, made her curse her parents with venom poised in her mind.

If anything was at least nice about seeing him, it was that Lloyd was indeed alive at least. He certainly wasn’t feeling well, his pale, almost chalk like skin resting on the bed sheets that she hadn’t been able to change in awhile because of the lack of money. Maybe she could at least get something good for him to rest on with the new money that she had acquired from helping around the village with the help of those other three children. She had to do more for him, she knew she had to get stronger. Atarashi had been a great help with her growing and understanding her own clan's heritage and what it meant for her as an individual. Yet she felt like she could have been doing more. She needed to do more if she had any sort of thought about getting enough money for Lloyds own operation. The thought kept on nagging and pricking her again and again when she was in thought. How she had to repay him for saving her life with his own funds and money. It always made her have this pang of guilt whenever she even so much as tok a glance at Lloyd. Especially now with his white hair being the only thing bright within his own room. Ryumi now inside of the doorway as Lloyd would be shifting slightly while in bed. His back to her with the sheets covering his now lanky frame. Ryumi knew that he hadn’t gotten any exercise ever since that day. His arms were thin, not enough to be considered down to the bone, but enough to where it would be worrisome for him to lift anything that was his own body weight. Yet Ryumi spoke out to him, her voice slightly shaky as she didn't want to upset him.

“L-Lloyd! Sorry to wake ya but I was wondering if you wanted to….” Lloyd, with speeds like that of a wasp. Immediately turned himself over to face Ryumi, his sharp jaw and pale face, the soft milky eye that he was left with that he used to stare at Ryumi while she was speaking. Lloyd’s piercing stare was enough for her to get her own footing, knowing that she didn’t have to be scared to talk to him.

“....W-would you like to see the sunrise with me?”

Lloyd’s eyes slowly took in the information that he had just been given. That small request, along with Ryumi’s own body language, told him that she wanted to spend time with him. His breathing ceased for a moment as Lloyd immediately attempted to escape his bed, his determination now building up to something more at the thought that Ryumi would see him so weak as to not get out of bed. The puzzled look on her face when he moved, followed by an intense desire to protect at the flip of the switch. He felt her hands, covered in the bloodied bandages she always had wrapped around her densely compact arms. The rough fabric digging into his skin as Lloyd had nearly fallen out of bed. Ryumi’s reaction however was immediate, even more so for an average shinobi. Her strong arms wrapped around her father's body tightly as his legs did not move with the rest of his body. Her strength was massive in comparison to the last time he had felt her. Just what type of training had she done while he was busy sitting around and not accomplishing anything for her. Lloyd’s expression however had him sporting a small smile as Ryumi held him up with her strength. She wanted to support him as much as she could with what little they had. It was something that she just had to do, she wanted to repay him for what he did and helped her do. He taught her how to walk, how to begin to fight and be her own individual. Yet that only got him injured with one of his eyes missing and his spine being damaged to where he couldn’t even walk.

“Thanks Ryumi for catching me back there, who knows what would have happened if I fell,” His smile made him look like he was glowing. Ryumi only gave a small chuckle before nodding towards him as well.

“I just…. I wanted to see if you were okay and to go see the sunrise, I don’t remember the last time you even did see the sunrise, so I thought it would be good for us to see it together.”

Lloyd nodded his head with acceptance of the matter at hand. KNowing that Ryumi had been planning something like this for a while. It pleased him to see just how strong Ryumi had gotten from being saved that day. His lips creased upwards into a bright smile as she carried him out of the bed and suddenly got him inside of a piggy back like position. His legs were held painlessly by her arms as they made the trek outside of the house and onto the small hill peaking right outside of their small house. Ryumi and Lloyd both collectively look at each way of the road before crossing onwards up along the ridge where the round topped hill laid.

“You know, I think it’s my first time actually seeing a Sunrise before… Even when I was a child. So thank you for this opportunity Ryumi.”

“Oh! Well I just thought it’d be nice since ya know…. You aren’t able to move about because of well…. You know?” Her voice almost squeaked out the last part. Lloyd green eyes stared back with a slight hint of pity in them. His gaze suddenly shifted to the light that was slowly beseeching their eyes. The two shinobi are graced with the sun beginning to rise over the horizon. The soft hue of color began to fill Lloyds face for the first time in a while. His smile began to fully form as he laid on the top of that rounded hill. The two of them relaxing while staring at the sun beginning to rise was almost magical to the two of them. How bright the sun was in the morning could only be described as unnatural. The glowing rays now fill the rest of the village with its light. Following the soft edges of the people beginning to wake up during the early morning for their own routines. Some would have woken up with annoyance, others merely happy to have survived another day.

Yet there was something strange about what the sun could also hide in the morning. Yet even someone trained in the Byakugan like that of Lloyd could notice that something was not right. There seemed to be something…. No… Someone near the outskirts of the village. A group of individuals it seemed. Whoever they were, the Hyuga clan members' eyes only widened at the thought that this could be some kind of force intent on fighting Hoshigakure. Whatever it was, he knew that Ryumi would have jumped at the opportunity to go and fight them. It was only in their nature to fight against that of another opposing force. He could see Ryumi was yawning from having already woken up so early in the morning. He knew that Ryumi would hate him for this, but it was for her safety that she doesn’t end up getting herself killed.

So the Hyuga member used his hands, softly and gently tapping the back of the Hiyu clan members neck and knocking out Ryumi in the process. Her body immediately slumping over as she was knocked unconscious without even noticing what had just happened. So it was no surprise that he at least had someone around to help him. A ninja patrolling the hill had come by. To which the alarmed Hyuga’s voice rang out.

“Someone might be coming… Please bring… My daughter and I back home….”

WC:2349

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Thu Jun 16, 2022 9:32 pm

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The Day of Sun and Turmoil

The Day of Sun and Turmoil

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