Weak Fingers and Strong Trees [Xia]

It had been too long...far too long. Ever since his eyes began to diminish, Hyuuga Taiyo truly struggled to find purpose to continue his training. The hardening and harnessing of a body into a lethal weapon was pointless endeavor when one's ocular gaze had turned into nothing but a white haze. Yes, he could still see with his Byakugan...but keeping it active only strained his eyes more. The last he truly wanted was to be plunged into total darkness. He wanted to keep his light perception at the very least.

As he tapped his cane across the familiar ground, feeling for the edge of the small patio that surrounded his home, his head turned up towards the sky. He could "see" it was at least a mostly cloudless day but boy didn't he envy for the chance to witness the beautiful blue it possessed once more. When was the last time he saw color? 60? 65? It really was hard to keep track. Didn't help that his memory wasn't quite what it used to be after all.

Stepping down off the patio and into his garden, the man worked his way towards a simple yet sturdy tree. A Senju had grown it on the property as a "gift" of sorts. It was thick and provided a nice shade that kept the harsh sun from baking him (and his home) in the summer. Other clan members remarked of its beauty with its bright blossoms in the spring and kaleidoscope of yellows, reds, and oranges in the fall. It was merely an ironic choice that they planted the seeds on the blind man's property. He released a small grunt of annoyance as that thought passed his mind. Damned idiots...

Once his cane impacted with a root, Taiyo stopped his motion and let his wrinkled palm extend to touch the bark and feel across it. There were a few places that he had punched holes in the tree back in his 70s. Back when his fingers actually held strength to them. In his prime, he could do more than just leave little divots. Jyuuken might be gentle, but that didn't mean there wasn't a time and a place where one needed a bit more rigidity to their strikes.

Closing his eyes and listening to see if there was anyone around, he drew back his right hand and quickly threw a stab as hard as he could. His fingers impacted the trunk with an audible sound.

CRACK!

Boy did he wish that was the sound of the bark breaking as he withdrew his hand in agony and pain.

The day was bright and warm, the sun was shining and it was all around wonderful. Xia was wandering around the Hyuga compound looking for a suitable new canvas, or at least ideas for her next art piece as she had had to remove her last one. That day she was wearing her painting clothes. Her painting clothes were also her training clothes, but that was beside the point. A dark blue and orange set of overalls that she let one strap hang off her shoulder, which was both fashionable and allowed a clear view of the large tattoo of a dragon that covered her right arm and shoulder. She wore a dark green tank top underneath the overalls to keep her moderately covered up and a leather bag slung crossways across her body that was filled to bursting with cans of paint in every colour imaginable. Despite the fact that she was out painting she still had her jade kama with her, she took it just about everywhere. The weapon had been a graduation gift from her parents and she didn’t want to lose it. A strap on her right thigh held her jade kunai in place and she looked for all the world as if she was up to no good.

Xia always made a point of dressing fashionably, but with an edge. In reality though, she was sweet and eager and not at all a trouble maker, regardless of the story her fashion choices told. As she walked along she noticed the absolutely gorgeous senju tree and as an artist she was naturally drawn to the beauty of nature. She knew she should probably knock on the front door of the home where the tree grew, but she was so entranced that she found herself wandering towards it without much thought to proper etiquette. The tiny blonde and black haired woman was just crossing the threshold of what could probably be considered trespassing when she heard a sharp ‘crack’ noise. She couldn’t quite make out what the noise was, it could have been a snapping twig or a broken clay pot or anything really. She could easily tell its direction; the backyard. She didn’t see anyone immediately and so she sprinted towards the noise, both curious and concerned. If there was no one home then a noise like that might mean someone was breaking in, and if she was standing right here and didn’t stop it. . . what kind of neighbour did that make her?

Slightly out of breath Xia would stop as she saw an elderly man standing in front of the large senju tree, and from his demeanour he appeared to be not having the best of days. She assumed that if this was a burglary of some sort that the elderly white haired man was likely not the one performing it. So she walked up and called out to him with friendly concern in her voice. “Hello Ojii-san. Is everything okay? I heard a noise and well. . . can I help with anything?”

The old man recoiled back his hand, his fingers immediately turning red from the impact. If he could actually see the digits, a few drops of blood could be seen leaking from underneath each fingernail. To say he was out of practice was definitely an understatement. But this pain was not something he could focus on for long. A voice called out to him with concern. He couldn’t quite tell who it originated from nor did it seem to have an outstanding amount of familiarity to it. All he could tell was that it belonged to a fairly young girl. Then his ears caught sound of what she carried: the clanking of metallic canisters in her satchel, the distinct jingle of jade weaponry at her waist, and the ruffling of paint covered fabrics. Xia. She hailed from a different branch of the Hyuuga. One that obviously didn’t seem to follow tradition very closely. “Ojii-san is fine. Swatted at an annoying bug. Didn’t realize I was so close to the tree.” It was a lie. He enjoyed being seen as the feeble old man. He didn’t like others, including those in his clan, knowing he still had some fighting spirit in him. It gave him some strength in the deception. Or at least that was what he told himself.

Wiping his digits on his sleeve to clear it of its fluid collection, he grabbed his cane and shifted towards the source of the voice. With soft taps, he guided himself back to his patio and took comfort in one of the few chairs there. It was a beautiful day. Would be a shame if he didn’t enjoy it outside. He even patted the chair next to him, offering the girl a seat. “What brings you into this neck of the woods? I’m sure you weren’t just waiting around for an old man to hit himself on a tree.” He paused for a moment, letting those words marinate before continuing on. “Judging by the sounds coming from your bag, I’m assuming you’re wanting to paint? Hopefully you’re here to ask for permission. From what I’ve heard, your last attempt at artwork was seen as more of a vandalization than anything else.” Though the words came out with a harsh tone, he had the excuse of being old. After a certain age, the filter was one of the first things to go. “I admit, I’m not sure if I have anything that needs painted. Even if I did, I wouldn’t know. My eyes aren’t quite what they used to be.” He was blind after all.

Xia was relieved when Ojii-san reassured her that he was fine. She wasn’t quite sure if she believed that the noise she had heard was him swatting at a bug, but she knew better than to imply that the elderly man was lying. When he didn’t immediately tell her to leave, she of course took that as an invitation to come closer. So she did. Her happy forward momentum at the imagined invitation would stop suddenly as Ojii-san turned and began making his way back to his patio, feeling his way along with his cane. ‘He’s blind. . .’ Xia was mortified as she realized this and her heart swelled with sadness. A blind Hyuuga was one of the more terrible fates she could imagine. Their entire clan was based around their dojutsu and their exceptional sight based abilities. . . to not have those would drive her mad so she could only imagine what the old man must be feeling.

She stood still for a time, silently deciding whether to offer her assistance or not. On the one hand she definitely should offer to help him, since he was an elder and deserved to be venerated. On the other hand she definitely shouldn’t offer to help him, since he might think that her offer meant she thought he was incapable rather than just polite. In the end it didn’t matter however as Ojii-san quite capably, if slowly, made his way back to his seat on his own. Xia would blush fiercely as he patted the seat next to him, not that he could see it, she was both proud to have an actual offer of company and embarrassed that she hadn’t made a decision for herself beforehand. She would scurry over to the seat next to him, unceremoniously dropping her bag of paint cans on the ground at the base of her chair and then curling her feet up as she turned her body towards the white haired man. If he could have seen, her eyes were filled with excitement as she leaned on the arm of her chair with her chin in her hands, seemingly awaiting some pearl of wisdom or story of old. Xia was an eager student, and as much as she despised the idea that she and potentially all Hyuuga were special by birth, she greatly appreciated learning anything and everything she could from those that were willing to teach her.

When he asked what she was doing there she would grin and a laugh could be heard in her voice while she answered. “I was looking around for places to paint, and well I saw your tree and it was so beautiful I just . . . I didn’t mean to trespass or anything. I was just sort of, ya’know, drawn in.” She would adopt a more sombre tone as she addressed his second point. She didn’t think it was vandalizing, but she was definitely in the minority on that subject and she had promised to do better. “And no, Ojii-san. I won’t be vandalizing anything today. I made a promise and I intend to keep it. No more art on things that aren’t mine without permission. You uh. . . you heard about that?” It hadn’t occurred to Xia that anyone other than her parents had known of her mistake, and now that she knew this man had heard about it she squirmed in her seat uncomfortable suddenly with everything as shame rippled through her.

She had pulled her legs up to her chest now and moved her arms to hug them to her torso, using the position as a means to hide her discomfort as she was gently chided about her lapse in judgement. When he said he wasn’t sure if anything here even needed painting she would look around, noting the only thing that seemed damaged to her was the trunk of the giant senju tree, and even that seemed like old and healed damage. “I don’t know if anything needs painting. But I could paint something if you like, I could even try to paint it so. . .” She stopped herself mid sentence as she realized she might have just said something awful without thinking had she completed her sentence with ‘so even you can see it’. “Um, Ojii-san. . . I don’t mean to sound rude or anything, but. . . how much can you see?” She had a few techniques she was willing to try with her painting so that he could appreciate it, but first she had to know how much vision he retained if she was to know which one would work.

Ojii-san’s explanation about how he knew about her getting into trouble for her art made a lot of sense to Xia. Without giving it too much thought she nodded and naturally (though somewhat insensitively) assumed that he could see her gesture. After a beat she would stammer out a reply as she realized her mistake. “That makes sense Ojii-san, and does make me feel a bit better. I was worried that what I’d done was bad enough that everyone just knew about it, but it seems less about me and more about how much you care about the Clan.”

Xia was excited to hear that Ojii-san could see differences in light, it gave her some ideas for high contrast painting that she was pretty sure he would be able to see. She had some paints with light reflecting particles in them that she thought would provide enough of a light difference that as long as the painting wasn’t too detailed would be exactly the kind of thing someone with Ojii-san’s eyesight could appreciate. Whether he’d like it or not, that was a different story. “I could, if you wanted, try to paint something that you could see. Some of my paints are metallic, so they’d reflect some light and maybe that would be enough. If you were interested I mean, don’t want to impose.”

When the elderly man mentioned her training, she soured somewhat. She was small for her age, small for any age really, and while she had nearly mastered the Byakugan she had been having trouble with successfully practicing the Gentle Fist technique. It was embarrassing and not something she particularly enjoyed having pointed out. Again. It was always the way of it; compared to any other Clan she was supposedly an amazing prodigy, but compared to members of her own Clan she was an abysmal failure. Squirming slightly under the scrutiny of Ojii-san’s gaze, she fiddled with the hem of her pants while she answered quietly, trying unsuccessfully to keep the shame from her voice. “I am trying Ojii-san. I need to get faster, and well, I’m a bit clumsy. But I do try. I train everyday. It’s why I have weapons, I’m just not fast enough without them yet.”

Xia waited for Ojii-san to reply but when he didn’t she became concerned. First she was concerned that she had insulted him somehow and that he was angry with her, but when she noticed that his eyes were closed and he had slumped into his chair she sprang up and rushed over to him. She had heard about the Plague and while she didn’t know exactly how old Ojii-san was, she knew he was probably at greater risk of contracting it due to his age.

She would shake him gently, her voice filled with concern as she tried to rouse him from his slumber. “Ojii-san please, are you okay? Please wake up!” No matter what she did though, the elder would not move and so she ran as fast as she could to the hospital, waving down a doctor she saw sitting outside on a break. “Please help! Ojii-san is sick, he’s not moving and I don’t know how to help him.” There were tears in her eyes as she did her best to explain the situation to the doctor. The doctor, while attentive and sympathetic, was not so easily brought to tears and nodded as they silently gestured for more assistance. “Don’t worry, Miss. We’ll get your grandfather looked at right away.”

“Oh he’s not. . . okay, thank you.” She gave them directions to Ojii-san’s home and then, after being reassured multiple times that he was in good hands and she should go home, she went home. It was a frightening end to an otherwise normal day, and once she was home Xia’s mother hugged her and sat with her until she was finally tired enough to sleep.

[Exit Thread]