Namida Nai (No Tears)
Namida Nai (No Tears)
Chapter One: Hanakura Kakoyomi
Even hours before dawn, the forest surrounding Konohagakure was full of activity—deadly ones in fact. AN exhausted twelve-year old kunoichi barged through the thicket, constantly looking back for pursuers.
She was exhausted, out of energy and chakra, and was severely injured. But even in the state she was in, her face half covered in blood, her skin covered in various depths of cuts, slashes, bruises, some of her bones broken, and all, her beauty was still clearly seen.
She felt her pursuer's presence closing in on the gap she had just put and tried to hurry. Hope began to rise for her when she saw the gates of Konohagakure.
All too suddenly, she felt her pursuer beside her.
She did not even have enough time to look at her pursuer before being knocked out cold.
The young kunoichi slowly opened her eyes and found herself in a hospital ward.
"You're awake. Finally," a voice said.
The girl turned her head to the direction of the voice's origin. Leaning on the hospital wall was a man with a mop of silver hair that defied gravity.
Based on his voice and other physical traits, the girl inferred him to be around twenty-six or twenty-seven. He was wearing some sort of jacket over his clothes. This hitai-itai thing was covering his left eye and a mask was covering his face so that the only bit of visible skin was around his right eye.
An automatic thing in her brain said that he was a Jounin. Funny that she knew what this guy was even if she did not know who he was, or where she was. Or why. Or who she was, for that matter.
"You were sleeping for four days straight," he continued.
"Four days?" Her voice cracked from lack of use.
The man nodded. "What's your name, anyway?"
"My…" The kunoichi looked down and shook her head.
The Jounin nodded. "Trauma, maybe." He put his weight on his feet and walked toward her. "You're lucky to even be alive. It took a whole medical team to heal your injuries." He stopped by her bedside and held up her hand, examining her wrist.
"Does it hurt?" She shook her head. "You have quite impressive self-regeneration. Most people won't be fully healed in twice the time you needed to recover."
The kunoichi tilted her head. "You are…?"
"Kakashi…Hatake Kakashi," he answered.
"Kakashi-san, do you mind telling me where I am and how I got here?" she asked
"You're in a hospital ward in Konohagakure. I found you in the forest some days ago. And I must tell you, it was very early in the morning.
"Anyway, I found two people in front of you. I think they were fighting over who would take you but when one of them saw me, he fled. The other one knelt over you, got something, and followed."
After some time, Kakashi asked, "Still nothing of your name?"
She shook her head. "If I still don't remember anything, I'll have to make my own name."
Kakashi nodded and left.
As the kunoichi lay on her bed, she thought of the day's happenings and the meager information she got about herself from Kakashi.
'I remember neither my past nor identity, but I can still read and write. I know about Kakashi's uniform and hitai-itai, but nothing of this village, though I know it is a hidden one.
'Who am I? Why am I here? Who were those guys Kakashi said? Why were they after me? Why don't I remember anything?'
She kept asking herself these questions but no answer came forth from her blank mind.
"Anything yet?" Kakahsi asked the kunoichi days after.
The girl shook her head, making Kakashi sigh.
Just then, a girl walked across the hospital ward the mysterious kunoichi was in. Her apparent teammates were with her and when they saw the girl on the bed, they stopped short.
One resembled a girl, with long hair and clears eyes, wearing a beige jacket and long black shorts. His hitai-itai was on his forehead.
One had a weird bowl-shaped hairdo, thick eyebrows, large round eyes and was wearing a green jumpsuit. His hitai-itai was acting as a belt, and some orange things were wrapped around his limbs.
One was a girl, with two buns on her head. She had her hitai-itai on her forehead, a pink sleeveless fighting suit, black pants and kung fu shoes.
The last was the one that got both Kakashi's and the girl's attention. The girl on the bed and the one standing a few meters away looked like each other.
"Hey Ran, the girl over there looks like you!" the girl with buns said, pointing to the girl's direction.
The one called Ran turned her head. When she saw the girl on the bed, her face showed utter astonishment. Then, a grin slowly formed.
"Onee-chan!!" she cried, running toward the bed.
Kakashi and the others watched as Ran hugged the girl on the bed.
"Excuse me, miss, but who are you?" the girl asked, mystified.
Ran stopped hugging her and cocked her head to one side. "Is your training that hard, are you kidding, or is this for real?"
"Its' for real," Kakashi responded.
Ran's teammates came nearer. One of them asked, "What happened to her?"
As Kakashi explained how he found her, he took a good look at the girl and Ran.
Both had the same lilac hair that reached just below their shoulder blades. Same smile, same lightly tanned skin, same able-looking hands, same everything.
The only evident difference was their clothes. The girl on the bed was wearing undistinguishable torn bloody clothes, while the other one was in black pants and a red full sleeved top. That is, one leg had full pant hems, but the other one was cut short near the knees. Both had kunai pouches and shuriken holsters.
Closer scrutiny revealed one more difference—their eyes. Ran had reddish-pink eyes while the other one had bright sky blue ones.
"Good morning, fair maiden." The guy with thick eyebrows kneeled and kissed the girl's hand. "I am Rock Lee, the Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha."
The girl blinked. "The…?"
"Never mind him," the girl in pink said. "I'm Tenten."
"Hyuuga Neji."
"I'm Hanakaji Hanran," the one in red said. "Call me Ran."
"If you're her sister, how come we didn't see her at the academy?" Tenten asked.
"Our mother dropped me here," Ran explained. "She underwent training with them."
"I don't get it," Ran shot an inquiring look at Tenten. "Why didn't they take you with them?"
"Because she's older," Ran stated. "And I'm thankful for it. I'd have died with the kind of training she does."
"What kind of training?" the girl on the bed asked.
"Well, for starters, you were required to run twenty kilometers and finish in a certain amount of time. That's every morning, every afternoon, and every evening."
The girl looked at her hand, wondering what kind of training she had had.
"She trained to be a ninja?" Kakashi asked, receiving a nod from Ran. "What's her name?"
"Hanakura Kakoyomi."
"Hanakura? Aren't you Hanakaji?" he inquired.
"Very long story."
With a cocked head, Kakashi left.
"Lee, Tenten, Hyuuga, could you leave us for a while? Tell Gai-sensei I met someone I haven't seen in many years."
They nodded and left.
After a while, Kakoyomi asked, "How come we have different surnames? Aren't we sisters?"
Ran just looked at her. "Are you sure you don't remember anything?" Kakoyomi nodded, making Ran sigh. "Okay. I'm going to name a few things. Tell me what you think of them. Maybe it'll help."
"Water."
"Purity, cleanses, can give or take lives."
"Fire."
"Same, but a bit harder to control."
"Animals."
"Cute, especially furry ones. Can be a pet and a weapon."
"Dogs and wolves."
"Loyal creatures you can trust your lives to. Smart."
"Um…Weasels?"
Kakoyomi stopped. Something was nagging at her brain, but she could not quite put her finger on it. Ran was looking intently at her sister. Finally, Kakoyomi gave up and shook her head.
Ran sighed. "Do you know what our names mean?" Kakoyomi shook her head. "Hana means flower. Kaji, fire. Kura, or Kuro, as is more appropriate, means black. Koko means past. Yoho, foresee. Mi, short for mizu is water. Hanran means rebellion. Your nickname, Yumi means snow."
Kakoyomi felt disappointment, frustration, and regret emanating from Ran.
'And I was so excited to see her again. I was going to ask about how they were…'
"About who?" Yumi asked.
'Uh-oh…I forgot she's a mind-reader!'
"I'm a what?" Yumi asked, confused.
"Let's just say you're super sensitive," Ran said hurriedly and left just as fast.
"So this," Ran said, opening a door, "is your room. It's pretty spacious and it's got lots of shelves, as you would have wanted."
Yumi entered it and looked around.
The room was spacious. It had its own desk table, chairs, and a couch, all made from polished wood. The chairs and couch were cushioned, even on the armrest.
A bed was opposite a window, in blue and white sheets. It was a four-poster with bed tables and drawers at each side of an empty wooden trunk near the footboard. A dresser, a closet, and a full length mirror form a ninety degree angle with the window and the bed.
The room had plenty of lighting, was carpeted, and as Ran had said, was filled with shelves.
"Wow," Yumi said. "Thanks."
Ran's eyes lingered on one of the windows before she nodded and left.