Broken Arrow and The White Lotus

Somethings were just harder to say than others. Once you said it, it was real. Anytime you said it out loud it was confirming it happened. But just because you didn't speak about it, didn't mean it didn't exist. Years of hiding the truth from yourself, denying your own closure only made it that much harder to move on. Rei was someone who had begun to let go of her past. She wasn't running from it, she faced it head on, and once she had made it through, she didn't look back. There was no reason to. She just didn't care about them. Blood was blood. It didn't matter who you shared yours with. It mattered who was there for you.

Listening to the girl's words, she understood. She knew what she was going through. It was easier to blame things on something you didn't get, something you didn't have. Cursing a family you didn't have, or wanting a parent you couldn't get. She knew what it was like to want something like that. But to be spared of images of your parents always disappointed, almost fearful of your failure even when you gave it your all. Well, she wished for a life where she was born alone in the world. Then maybe, she could make someone happy. But if that meant throwing the life she had now. It it meant losing Engetsu and Kaisaki, if it meant not having Chigetsu, all for a childhood, then it wasn't worth it. She would have to bear it all.

"Fifteen years." she would say after listening to her. A curse was nothing to be brushed off. "Fifteen years living in the wild. Not once did my parents try to reach out to me. Fifteen years later I returned home, their final words to send me away." She reached out to the girl, letting her hand rest on her shoulder, as her right lay on her own leg. "Sometimes, a family is nice. But not the one you are born into." She would nod, almost as if to say;

We're family now.

Strength: B || Constitution: D(C)|| Stamina: C || Speed: B ||
Coordination: B+ || Intelligence: C || Perception: B
94(-5)/110 Chakra

She had seen the world, all parts good and bad. She faced things head on for what they were. She didn't have time to second guess things. She didn't have time to waste on processing her feelings. She needed to overcome things and move on. She wanted to tell Haruko that, but it wasn't her place. Not now, not yet. She stared into the young girl's eyes, trying to see where they fell. She wanted to know what her words meant to her, but with few to reply, she was left in the dark.

"Then I suppose I can teach you one final thing." she would say, standing upright, all of her gear placed where it belonged. "Then, we will come back another day, and see what else I can teach you."

Strength: B || Constitution: D(C)|| Stamina: C || Speed: B ||
Coordination: B+ || Intelligence: C || Perception: B
94(-5)/110 Chakra

She may have had a collection of jutsus and techniques memorized, but she was not a master by any means. She had only a few techniques to call her own. She was sub-par compared to others, but her unique application of the moves she had learned was what set her apart from the rest. It was the sole reason she was able to even possess the blade. It was one of the only reasons she held on. She was different, even if she wasn't strong. She saw the world from an entirely different perspective.

Everyone was someone else's students. Some studied for just the afternoon, while others a lifetime. The world was full of lessons, some harsh, and some warming. Rei was going to share the harsh realities of her own life with her students, in hope that they one day would surpass her. In hope that they, like her son, would walk into a world that was scarred and changed from what it used to be. She hoped it would be a better world where people like herself would have no place. Weapons of the past sealed away never to be used again. An age of peace and understanding. She knew it wasn't likely, but any chance to minimize the conflict, was one she hoped for. One where kids didn't have to die. One where the Shinobi were no longer useful.

She exhaled, her stand growing wide as she faced the girl, her eyes closed. Calm. It was her state of mind for all of her practices. A way for her to act only from her mind, without involvement of the world around them. A way to practice, just in her mind. Each step she took, would be changed quickly. Nothing landing as intended. Constant missteps and sudden turns. Half thrown punches to stop to give momentum to knees and kicks. She wasn't facing her student, but moving in a way that would allow her to see. Quick fluid movements, like a ball that rapidly bounced around the room. It would land as it pleased, but each impact sent a spin, changing its direction, just like her arms and legs...

Strength: B || Constitution: D(C)|| Stamina: C || Speed: B ||
Coordination: B+ || Intelligence: C || Perception: B
89(-10)/110 Chakra

At the sounds of movement, she would open her eyes, continuing her dance even after it was done. Repetition as she followed her student's lead, showing her the moves before her. She slowed herself before she saw something unplanned, unlike the chaos of the movements. Her hand folded, from from the puddle, another version of herself, a clone would emerge to catch the girl.

"Careful." Rei would tell her, "Practice the motions at home. Refine it until it becomes your own." She continued to move, only now her own steps becoming strange and unlike the one before. She was entering her own stances, remembering old words from an aged man far past his prime. Words that would stick with her forever.

"As is life, will return to death. All that lives will die. It is okay to die, it is not okay to kill."

But the life of the shinobi, was one that broke many of life's many rules.

Strength: B || Constitution: D(C)|| Stamina: C || Speed: B ||
Coordination: B+ || Intelligence: C || Perception: B
79/110 Chakra

Truth was, every day, Rei woke up ready to go to war. Every day, she prepared herself as if it was going to be her last day in the village. She had no idea what to expect. She constantly fought her instincts and urges, but the second anything would happen, she had her list planned. She could not save her husband, he had chosen his own demise. But to leave a body like his around, memories to poke holes into her. All of her secrets. Every day, she woke up, thinking "Today is the day." Every day she prepared herself to tell her husband one final good bye before she killed him. Every day she battled with putting him out of his misery.

Every day she was ready to go to war. Some would say the perfect ideals for a ANBU soldier, but even they it seemed did not want her. She was unstable, reckless. But she was willing to do what it took to survive. She was willing to make sacrifices. To train a single student, was her way to ensure their survival, one shinobi at a time. The less that died, the less she had to worry about. The less she worried, the more time she would have to kill. Peace, it was her dream. But she knew, to achieve peace meant she had to cover her skin in blood. She knew the cost of peace. At the end, the world might know it, but she would always be at war. And if it meant to kill a Kage, or all of the Kage, well, she was prepared for it. Every day.

The clone would help the girl back onto her feet, the bits that touched her growing cold and almost frosted as if ready to freeze. Once she got up on her own, it would be dispersed and fall back to the ground, now wetting more of the ground. Rei stopped, only to look at Haruko.

"What do you call home, Haruko?" Everyone had their definition. Sometimes it was the place where years of your youth was spent trying to earn love and attention from your parents. A place full of failed training and suffering at the end of a open hand or some stick that you got rather antiquated with. Sometimes it was your own single bedroom apartment where you filled it with things that made you happy and filled you with joy. A place to call your own after years of living elsewhere. Sometimes home was a big house full of silence and sour tasting memories, where your husband lays in bed, drinking himself to death, no matter how much time you take to try to save his insides from imploding, he won't change. He wasn't one to change. A bedroom full of failed paths and dead ends. A home where instead of sleeping next to him, she found comfort in any other room of the house. A home, still, where you had someone and things you actually loved. Yet, felt so alone.

Strength: B || Constitution: D(C)|| Stamina: C || Speed: B ||
Coordination: B+ || Intelligence: C || Perception: B
79/110 Chakra

Between her memories and her estate, her home was Kirigakure, yet no building she could ever feel at peace inside. She was ready to die for her home, but not for everyone it in. Some lives were worth more than others. Some didn't have any value. But if it was possible to save them all, she would. She would save everyone.

"Why don't you live somewhere else then." She would say. It was something easier said than done. It was a concept of life that didn't change over night. You could just leave in theory to anywhere you wanted. But not everyone had that choice. Not everyone had that option. Sometimes saying where you were, however uncomfortable, was more preferable to others. The devil you knew was better than the one you didn't. That was simply how life was. But she wasn't asking a question. She wasn't suggesting it. She was telling the girl.

Rei smiled, extending her arm the same way as before. After all, their training was done, for now.

Strength: B || Constitution: D(C)|| Stamina: C || Speed: B ||
Coordination: B+ || Intelligence: C || Perception: B
79/110 Chakra

Every day her mind was fogged with regrets that occurred while in the mist. Smoke clogged her senses and deafened her to reality. A haze that reminded her of feelings long repressed. She fought on, even when she fought her own battles, she fought on. She fought for not just herself, but a future she believed in, even if it was impossible.

She held the girl in her own grasp, not just holding onto her student but a future. It wasn't just about Haruko, it was about Rei. She could never do anything without a reason. And now, she had finally gotten a purpose. A reason to return.

"Go back to your house." she would say. "Then, in the coming days, I will both walk you, and help you take what you do have, to home." She smiled. They were outcasts among the Kaguya in a way. But if she could make right to one half-Kaguya, then she would, in a way set a path for her own son. And now, she was going to see the home where all of her memories was buried.

Her first home.

[/end?]

Strength: B || Constitution: D(C)|| Stamina: C || Speed: B ||
Coordination: B+ || Intelligence: C || Perception: B
79/110 Chakra