Is This A Search Or A Game?

by Dreamingoftwilight

Kaminari Kokohebi is alone in the world. The only thing she has left is memories of a brother she's not even sure existed, and a search for a jutsu that could show her the past, present, and future. Do either really exist? Can Kaminari move on?

Kaminari smiled. "I win." She dropped her cards on the table.
Their jaws dropped. A royal flush. There were a few curses hissed under the travelers'' breathes. They pushed their worn out hands forward and roughly shoved the money at Kaminari.
She grinned slyly. "You drunks are no fun. I always win."
There was a hiccup from one side of the bar table, and a few clanks as the men put their beer mugs on the table. The men had a silent eeriness about them. All of them wore cloaks of shabby grey and some of rich black. And every one of them had a story to tell.
The bar was in the middle of a forest where only the wanderers stumble on. The wanderers of the night, the ninjas of the shadows; they had many nicknames. They all went into the forest for the same reason:
For power. The power of the "seeing just". The jutsu that allows you to read minds, see the future the past, and the present if you cannot see it yourself. It is rumored once you use the jutsu once, you are never the same. Your eye sight changes to see things in a brilliant different way. The world brightens up . . . and yet darkens at the same time.
All of these travelers were out for the seeing jutsu. And none had found it. Many lost their sanity in the chaos of the search; others lost their lives from their home villages. Their ranks were replaced by other ninja, their wives replaced by other husbands.
Kaminari greedily stuffed the cash into her cloak pocket. The cloak was different from all the other shadow ninja: it was red. A fiery crimson red. It had her clan symbol painted on it: a Victorian heart with a vicious snake winding through it menacingly.
Kaminari let her platinum blonde hair fall over her eyes. She nervously ran her fingers over it, greasing them. She ran her finger down the chunk of hair, while some hairs stopped short. A majority of her hair stopped at her shoulder, but there were some pieces that had grown past her waist. The cut was very uneven.
One of the shadow ninja placed a dirty hand on her black velvet thigh. "Hey, pretty lady. May I ask what a pretty little blonde like you--"
And he was knocked into the opposite wall, probably unconscious or couldn't move.
There were no gasps of shock from the incident. There was only one whisper. "Shouldn't have tried to mess with Lady Lightning," he snickered with the other men.
Kaminari's brown eyes blazed at the ones stupid enough to speak of her nickname aloud. The pub became silent. Everyone was afraid to be the first ones to speak. Lady Lightning is not kind to those who spoke before she did.
Kaminari broke it herself. She pushed out of her chair, "I'm out for the night." She pointed to the bar tender, "Hit me up one to go." The bar tender hurriedly took her request; the same jug of sake that she always takes when she leaves. She put the glass in her belt and put her hood over her head, so her bronze eyes were concealed.
The winter air hit her cheeks, stinging them like a whip. She closed the bar door behind her and all was the forest. The darkness engulfed her, stopping even the glittering diamonds of the snow to light her way. The snow crunched under her feet as she walked in the same direction as always.
The direction of her tree. The tree scraped the sky with its dead, grey branches. The hollow underneath the massive roots of the tree were a black hole compared to the night, but Kaminari didn't care.
This nook was her home. The place that sheltered her during storms, the place that she planned out her search for the seeing jutsu, the place that was most calming to her.
She bundled up in the Kokohebi Clan's cloak, threw on some animal skins, and began a restless waiting before sleep came.
Sleep was her refuge from the world, the place of escape. The one place where she can remember with flawlessness.
Kaminari Kokohebi had not always lived in this dead tree, no. She had once a warm home, with a mother and a father and a brother. She smiled as she remembered the warmth of her parents' embrace, the loving smile of her brother's . . . everything had been perfect, but perfect never lasts.
Fourteen years ago, when Kaminari had been five, her father and mother went out to fight the nine-tailed fox: Kyuubi. Her father never came back, he died in the battle.
Her mother wept uncontrollably at first, but then her brother wouldn't speak. He didn't say a word after their dad died. So their mother tried to show that she was okay on the outside, so her brother would speak again, but they could both see right through it. Their mother was falling apart on the inside and became ill.
Then, he vanished. Kaminari's brother just never came home one night, and her mother never mentioned him again. She was almost seven by this time, smart enough to wonder why her mother never went out looking for her son, why no one else looked for him. Kaminari asked all of her friends, but they all said the same thing.
"What are you talking about? You never had a brother." For the next five years she didn't question their answer, she just kept remembering his smile, his voice. She would not allow his memory to be erased, even if he did exist at one time, or die.
Then a wandering ninja stumbled onto Konoha one day. He spoke of a "Seeing" jutsu. One that can see the past, future, and present. One that can change your outlook on the world. He said it lied in the forsaken forest, somewhere in there lived a clan that new the jutsu, and are able to teach it to others.
Kaminari was skeptical. How could such a jutsu exist? Or be taught to another person, for that matter, because it sounds like a blood-trait.
So she forgot about the person, and kept taking care of her sick, mentally ill mother. Then one day, her mother died.
She was left with no one. Only herself and memories of a better time, a time with a family . . . and memories of the seeing jutsu. With nothing else to do, she went out in search of it.
And so, here she lies. Sitting in a hollowed out tree, awaiting sleep to overtake her. The search for the seeing jutsu seemed to have no starting point, no hints, no clues, no trail, no nothing. It only leads to more sorrow and feelings of hopelessness.
If Kaminari could just get her hands on the jutsu she could recall the past and figure out if her brother really existed, or if he was just a figment of her imagination. She could also see the present. Where her brother is now, for insistence. That is, if he even existed or is alive.
Kaminari sighed. Hopefully, someday, the search will end.
Either with her life or with the seeing jutsu.
Her pale lids began to shut, preparing for another deep sleep.

Sleepily, she felt around for her sake, finding it still in her belt. Kaminari took a chug of it. Nothing like a bit of sake to warm your insides up on a cold winter day.
She blinked her eyes as she crawled out of her nook. The sun was blaring down on her, mocking her of the lack of heat in the cold Forsaken Forest. She shivered and shrugged on a few extra animal skins under her blazing red cloak.
So, what now? There was no new gossip about the seeing jutsu at the pub last night. Maybe finish a corner on her map?
She took out the long scroll. It was only a quarter done, with all the mapping out taking lots of time. Kaminari figures one day when she's done she can easily search through the whole forest, looking for the seeing clan.
Some snow fell off a tree. She jumped towards the fallen snow's direction. A sequence of growls approved her fears. A pack of snow wolves.
But snow wolves are no ordinary wolves. A crack ejected from the tree where the snow fell. They are wolves long adjusted to surviving in their forest environment. They are made for survival.
An earsplitting tearing sound came from the same direction of the snapped tree. What is going on? Why aren't they attacking her? Are they just toying with her?
The smell of rust reached her nose. Blood. They aren't after her; they've already found their prey.
There was loud, pained, cry that rung in her ears. It sounded so terrible. She could almost feel the pain of the victim. It rung again and again, higher pitched each time.
This is no prey, this is a human! Kaminari jumped away from her tree-shelter and flung herself across the splintered tree. Each wolf was freakishly big. At least five feet tall. They were absorbed in tearing apart their meal, not noticing Kaminari crouched behind them.
She focused all of her chakra into her feet, and kicked.
One by one they went flying into trees, but thy just got right back up. Now they noticed her. Their meal interrupted, they were not happy. The wolves snarled at her with huge teeth yellowed with the flesh of many animals.
She flung punches and kicks at them, getting two down to stay. Three of them rose again and again, blow after blow. What the hell are these things made out of?
One sunk its teeth into her right shoulder, making her loose concentration and miss the other snow wolf. The other one bit the hand that missed. Kaminari let out a cry resembling the one that got her into this mess.
Trying desperately to make them let go, she kicked at the one biting her hand repeatedly until it flung into a snow-covered rock, previously concealed, to become motionless. She focused on the remaining two.
The one on her shoulder was gnawing into her neck. If the snow wolf kept chewing like he is she'll end up dead. She put all of her chakra to her head, and banged down on the top of the wolf's snout with the right side of her head. It left her a little dizzy, but did the trick.
The only one left was the smallest and had just been helping from the background. Whimpered and ran off.
Kaminari fell to her knees, letting the snow clean her wounded hand. Her shoulder and neck was oozing and not likely to stop soon. Then she remembered what got her so injured. "Hey, are you alive or did I just get wounded for a dead person?"
The person was panting, and wrapped up in a ball. She couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl, the head was covered in blood.
Kaminari inched over to the bloody body. It was a guy who seemed about her age, but a huge chunk of his skin was missing around his hip. She traced the wound with her injured hand. The other arm was immobile from the deep wound in her shoulder.
"I'm guessing you're a wanderer, too." She took off some animal fur and laid it on his bleeding bare muscle.
"No," it came out in a grimacing wheeze. "I'm a . . ."
"You're a what?" She asked impatiently. Don't tell her it's a loon who thinks he's a Seeing Clan member. There are a lot of those in these parts.
"Take a hollow tree branch out of my bag," he clenched his eyes shut. The skins were turning red. "And blow it towards the sky."
Kaminari turned a shaky hand to his bag. She took out the hollow instrument and blew upwards. A shower of shiny chakra, resembling snow from far away, fell from the sky.
The wind was knocked out of her. That was her chakra she had sent flying. Kaminari already had a small amount of that after the fight. She swayed, unable to support her body. Then her bleeding shoulder hit the cold snow. Making everything black.