"Hey...Risa, he's kind of cute, don't you think so?" Hitomi remarked, appraising the muscles she knew he hid underneath the clothes. The full force of my heated glare fell upon Hitomi. She wasn't looking at me, but rather her new fling. She was pretty enough to snatch him from right underneath that bubblegum-haired girl's grasps. Whilst that girl's looks were soft and pleasing, Hitomi's glimmering dark green eyes and flagrant ebony locks were enthralling.
'I bet she's not new to seduction missions, the mistress,' I snorted inwardly. 'How come Hitomi gets everything she wants without even breaking a sweat? I always have to try so hard and she just...'
I found an irrational satisfaction in knowing that Lee wouldn't fall for something as superficial as Hitomi's charms. But he might fall for her strength. D_mn.
I truncated my thoughts abruptly. Why...why the h_ll was I dwelling on this so much? [I didn't know it then, but I felt really, really small.]
That's right. I didn't care. I started shuffling forward, intent on avoiding confrontation. If he saw me now, he'd never take me seriously again. My appearance was mournfully deplorable, and I'd be d_mned if I let him catch me looking like anything less than taking the world by storm.
Suddenly, before I could make my getaway: "Oh, Hitomi, hi!" the bright medic-nin greeted. I froze, irked beyond reason. Hitomi tugged me forward without even looking at me as they approached. I stiffened considerably as they neared, hoping that my death-aura could deter them somehow. It turned out life didn't work that way and that it really did nothing except make me look foolish.
"Hi, Risa," Lee exclaimed, sounding surprised at my appearance.
"Yeah," I mutter-grunted, narrowing my eyes at air in front of me.
"How are you, Hitomi?" the medic asked in a tender tone.
My eyes must have deceived me. Hitomi appeared to flinch, then took no notice of being spoken to at all. I would've been miffed at such impudent behavior, but the kunoichi did not seem to take offense. Instead, she directed her greetings at me. "Hi, I'm Sakura Haruno; it's a pleasure to meet you...?"
"Risa Choushu," I returned, accepting her hand begrudgingly. Old symptoms of my competitive spirit returned; sure, she wished me luck, but I could bet that she was sizing me up in her head. I bet I could out-run her. I was surprised her firm grasp. So firm, in fact, that she nearly broke every bone in my hand and I nearly swore.
"Oh," astonishment overtook her features, "you're related?"
"Yes," I replied tersely. I wasn't surprised. I looked like a un-extraordinary version of Hitomi; no one would believe that we shared any blood. The only features that were remotely similar were our eyes; they had the same wide, almond shape, but her's were a deep, deep emerald, while mine's were only a misty sage. She even had the elf's ears!
Lee acknowledged Hitomi with a chivalrous nod; a faint blush crept up his cheeks. Hitomi bared her fangs smiled back, her eyes inviting.
I wanted to punch him.
I should've known that he went for the lookers! How could I have been so blind? There was that pixie-stick Sakura Haruno, and now Hitomi--oh my gods, gag.
"My name is Rock Lee! Pleased to make your acquaintance!" He extended his hand out to her.
She smiled lopsidedly. "Hitomi Choushu; Risa's cousin. Pleasure's all mine, Lee." She was going to give me h_ll with this later. I thanked the gods that Lee hadn't mentioned that fruit basket; he was decent enough not to embarrass me further.
It was frightful to behold. I turned away in disgust, impatient to escape this suddenly nightmarish pen.
"Well, we've got to go," Hitomi informed him, disregarding Sakura's existence altogether. "Risa's sicky-poo and--"
"THE H_LL DID YOU JUST CALL ME?"
Hitomi smirked, keeping her eyes locked ahead of her. Lee smiled affectionately at my outburst.
I reined myself in, appalled at my temper. I'd already been reckless, but never loud. I was obnoxious sometimes, but not...raucous. Why was I acting up? Father didn't raise me to be this way. My eyes travelled down. "I'm going, Hitomi," I announced, heading off.
"Wh--hey!" Hitomi started after me, rolling her eyes in the process. "Bye," she called sweetly behind her as she followed after me.
I managed to catch a smidget of conversation before we descended the stairs to the ground floor.
"So, Lee, remember to take your medicine. You really shouldn't have been training so hard in that weather. We're all human, you know. Even guys like you fall victim to a simple cold now and then," Sakura chuckled.
"Of course! Thank you, Sakura."
'Lee's sick, too?' I shook my head. 'I knew it; he was being such an idiot, training so foolishly.'
But...knowing that even people like Lee fell ill, it made me feel less debilitated. It made us more equal, and made him less unreachable...unreachable, like Hitomi.
"What's the hurry, Risa?" Hitomi complained. We were already nearing my house, situated on the outskirts of the Choushu compound.
"Nothing," I answered vaguely, not really knowing myself.
When we neared the door, Hitomi took a hold of my shoulders and forced me to face her. I jerked back on impulse, startled. "Hitomi, what--"
"What's with you, lately?" she deprecated. "Why are you acting like a doormat all of a sudden? I thought you were stronger than this!" She shoved me, and barely caught myself before tripping over the first step. "You act like an insecure, lost, little child!" She shook her head in disgust. "You really haven't grown up at all, have you, Risa?"
With that, she turned on her heel tempestuously and left me standing as the rain began to beat upon my skin.
Her outline grew farther and farther, and I knew I couldn't catch up.
I kept repeating those questions in my head. I honestly didn't know what was wrong with me. I knew something was. Was it because I couldn't boast to be the best anymore? Because I was dwarfed by everyone else? ...It felt like that was the answer, but I couldn't be sure, and even if it was...I couldn't do anything about it.
I closed the cabinet door, setting the tea packet on the counter.
But hadn't I said...hadn't I refused to be a loser? Hadn't I? Then why was I here, moping around like one?
I dropped the tea bag into a steaming mug of water. I clasped my cold hands around it and sat down on the sofa, staring out at the raining beating against the window.
"You're too slow."
I cringed.
Maybe I had lost the fight. Maybe I had none left in me. I had no accomplishments to boast of.
I was nothing.
I was so exhausted in fact that, before I knew it, I had fallen asleep to the mellifluous symphony of rain and thunder.
I woke up some time later, when the rain were a mere pattering, no longer able to be heard by normal human ears. 'Perhaps,' I thought distractedly, 'those with the Choushu ears can...' I stretched out awkwardly and reached for the cup of tea lingering desolately on the table. It was cold now. I frowned, sitting up, and brought it over to the microwave.
I watched listlessly as the mug revolved lazily in the mircowave. Bored with the routine, I proceeded to pluck the ugly, brown lint-balls from the woolen cardigan, dropping them carelessly onto my bare feet. I noticed, then, how pale my feet were. When was the last time I ran barefoot along beaches for fun? 'A long time ago,' I answered myself. Nowadays, when--no, if I indulged in running down sandy shores, I'd be doing it for the workout and endurance, not for the pleasure or experience.
I used to run for the ear-drumming adrenaline rush of it. When did that cease to exist?
"You're pretty lame, for a Choushu."
My working fingers halted. They reached absently for my ordinary ears, but fell away without touching them.
My intentions are forgotten. I know not who I am.
I ran. I was cursing my body for its weakness, and making it suffer by running, faster, faster, faster. I pushed apart the foliage, and almost collapsed into the clearing.
There it was. A scarred, dirt road. I stared at it for a long while, before moving forward. My feet felt oddly uncomfortable in my worn, old sneakers. Maybe it was because I lacked socks.
This road. This was where it all began. Where I began.
And suddenly I was submerged in the not-now. I was elsewhere, living memories, my feet falling from beneath me, taking me up and swirling in some space I couldn't fathom.
I was nine. Okay, I'm lying. I was eight and a half. But close enough, right?
I wriggled out of Mother's hand, eager to join my cousins and their enthusiastic chatter. Mother let go of me with an exasperated expression, and then meandered over to her speak with her sister-in-laws.
My feet pounded against the Choushu clan grounds, plodding gradually up to my blood relatives. I stopped next to them, jerking the unpleasant yellow dress Mother forced me into out of the way. I smiled, swiping at my nose boyishly. "Hi," I greeted them.
"Hi!" several of them chorused back. A majority, however, found their eyes reaching toward my ears. With unconcealed surprise, they found them rounded and unmarked.
I shifted feet uncomfortably. "Um, what are you guys talking about?" I questioned with strained eagerness.
They collected their gazes. "Well..." one began slowly, "we were just talking about ketsueki."
"Oh."
Ketsueki. Blood. Colloquial term amongst Choushu clan members for our kekkei genkai. It was a topic of pride and inheritance. Who belonged and who didn't. Who was better and who wasn't.
A couple reached hesitantly to the sensory organ up upon the side of their head, prodding hopefully at the small point developing there. They grinned. "Father didn't even have his until he was fourteen. I'm only thirteen, and look!" Proud gestures. "Yeah! Mine started last year! Just a few more years to go!" Pumped shouts. "We were in class one day, and I thought I heard something, right? But no one else heard it! And I bet that's because my hearing's getting better!" Exaggerated half-truths.
'And what should I say?'
"Don't worry about it, Risa," Keiko reassured me. "You're probably just a late-bloomer."
"Yeah..." I said, not really believing a single word. Even at birth, Choushu infants had oddly shaped ears; the cartilege was more malleable and was most definitely not rounded, though only became pronounced during adolescence.
I showed no traces of development. None.
"Hey, hey! Did you hear?" sibilated Seichiro. Everyone seemed to know of what he was speaking. They glanced over their shoulders simultaneously, watching wtih intent interest at a dark-haired girl standing away from them all, arms crossed over her chest and watching the ground with a concentrated look in her eyes.
"Yeah, Mother was talking about it..."
"Hitomi's got them; she's even learning techniques now."
"It's too bad she's got mean temper."
"How'd she get them so early?"
"I heard Uncle Hiroshii makes her train every day with them."
"Isn't she only eleven?"
I grew impatient with their conversation. "What?" I interrupted. "What are you talking about?"
No one heard me. I hated being ignored. Fuming, I clenched my fists and stalked away to the respite a bending willow provided in the nearby distance.
They always talked about the same thing. The same stupid topic. Didn't they ever get tired of it? Didn't they?! "It's so stupid. So...stupid..." I mumbled, mentally slapping myself for allowing a bit of dejection seep into my voice.
'Why can't I have the Choushu bloodline? WHY?' I wondered bitterly, glowering at the imperfect, brown bark. 'Why did I have to born a freak?' I kicked forward impulsively.
Seconds later, I was limping angrily away from the towering, unsympathetic tree.
"Hey."
I swiveled around, my hazy jade eyes narrowed in an automatic glare.
A girl was leaning on the nearby wall. She blinked at me with her dark, dark green--almost osidian--orbs, nonchalant and unimpressed. As she left the sturdy bulwark behind her, she straightened her posture until it impeccable, flawless.
She blinked vaguely at me, then pointed directly at my nose.
"You're the girl they're talking about."
My eyebrows knitted in acute ire, and my mouth pressed into a thin, unhappy line. I didn't enjoy people talking about me in clandestinity. "What?" I asked.
She lowered her finger and the beginning of a sneer I grew to detest formed upon her lips.
"You're the girl, without ketsueki."
I bristled immediately. No one--no one--had ever directly stated that to my face. Everyone knew it, but no one ever--
"That's vulgar," I spat, feeling my heart set itself aflame and emerge as something transformed. "That's vulgar of you."
She seemed to brighten at my reaction, her eyebrows rising imperceptibly and her smile achieving more sincerity. "So, it's true," she murmured elatedly.
My knuckles stretched thinly over my bones now. I was itching to dislocate this girl's jaw, right off her face. "Shut up."
Instead of recoiling, she closed the space between us, leaning over my shoulder to observe my ears. Her face lit up like a Christmas decoration. "Oh, wow." She grinned ferally. "Never seen anything like it. You're just like they say. Regular."
I could not believe her. I stared at her in horror, unable to comprehend the words. She was a monstrosity.
"Who says?" I finally demanded, wavering on false confidence, feelings internally drained.
"Them." She jabbed her finger at the culmination of Choushu children. The very same ones I had been talking to minutes previous.
I swung my gaze back to her, my face flushed with anger and disbelief.
She smiled darkly, watching me through her lashes. She murmured something, something meant to incite my temper or...but I couldn't hear it. I couldn't hear it.
Then, she disappeared. I jerked, startled, suddenly finding the object of my revulsion gone.
"Here." A whisper.
My head snapped to the right. She was right behind me. 'When did she...?'
"You didn't hear me?" She sounded genuinely incredulous. "You couldn't sense me?" The internecine kunai she spun whimsically in a single hand disappeared behind her sleeve. And I knew, had I been a shinobi...had that been the real thing, I would've been dead.
Her lips curved up for an honest smile; but I knew that any smile she had was cruel and contorted. "Wow." She beheld me like a malfunctioning toy she enjoyed watching break down. "You're pretty pathetic, for a Choushu."
Her name was Hitomi.
8'D Isn't she the sweetest, little girl?
=D Hot chili-dogs. This is fun to watch.
SO, SO, {7} was calling my name. And I hit bulls-eye. →
Preview:
{7}
A distant strike of lightning illuminated the street before me. I flicked off flecks of mud from my old clothes as I headed who-knows-where. I didn't even know. I didn't even know what possessed me to come out here in the first place.
Looking back on those memories of mine, it felt ridiculous. All that childish passion, all those wasted years. 'I wonder if Hitomi won, in the long run.'
Feelin' ambivalent about this one.
Boost my confidence?
Like she said, with a vengeance. Haha, yeeesss.♥
