Sand. It was everywhere. In her shoes, her hair, her pants. Shizuka narrowed her grey eyes on the harsh Suna landscape, all the while cursing her mother for her stupid family reunion. They hadn't quite reached the village and were about to set up camp and all she could think of was getting away from them.
"Okaa-san, I'm gonna go exploring with Hotaru." Her mother glanced at her over the items she was carrying before rolling her eyes, exasperated with her daughters lack of concern when it came to the family unit.
"Just be back before dark." Shizuka smirked and bounded off, wanting to get as far away from them as she could. She didn't hate them, she just felt couldn't understand her need for freedom. She knew it wasn't their fault, understood all parents and children went through a similiar process, but that knowledge didn't stop her from resenting them.
And after traveling for six days in the dry heat and sand, Shizuka decided she never wanted to see it again. Life, however, was not kind enough to fulfill this request. The bright, grainy substance surrounded her from all sides. She was close to tears, ready to give up and go back when she happened to glance to her right and spot what appeared to be mountians. Rocks may just be uncrushed sand, but the consistancy difference was not really a factor for the weary girl. They were close enough to reach in a reasonable amount of time, so she could get there, rest, and make her way back before her mother started worrying.
The sun was just starting to set when she reached the odd border between Wind and Fire, the sand and vegitation fighting for dominance. It wasn't so much a decision as it was a reaction to scramble under the cool shade of the forest. She glanced towards the direction of the mountian, which was now closer than the camp. After coming this far, she refused to give up, deciding to just take the punishment after she explored the rocky terrain.
The forest was actually pretty dark by now, and the young girl couldn't supress the shiver that went down her spine. She wasn't afraid of the dark per se, but she wasn't naive enough to be completely off her gaurd in the middle of the forest at night. She reached into her pocket, rumaged around for a second, and pulled out a tiny wooden doll.
"Come on Hotaru-chan, I need you on gaurd duty." The object in her hand blinked, groggily rubbing it's eyes as it rose to a sitting position.
"Ne Shizuka-chan, I thought we were headed to Suna. Why are we in a forest?" The green haired girl blushed.
"I was exploring." The doll sighed, which Shizuka took as assent. She placed Hotaru gently on her shoulder and continued walking.
"You know this is dagerous, right?"
"Yes Hotaru-chan." The doll rolled her vermillion eyes and sighed, wishing her creator had more sense.
"Well, we might as well spend the night in the cave, then you can head back in the morning. Your mom is gonna kill you." The second part was almost an after thought, and it set the grey eyed girl on the defense.
"Well sorry. Next time I'll consult you before making a decision."
"Please do." The sharp retort that was coming next was cut short by the sound of an owl hooting. Both girls jumped, and Shizuka booked it to get to the cave that was now looming in the distance. Hotaru grabbed hold of Shizuka's sleeve, preying that she didn't fall off. While Hotaru was fifteen, both knew that Hotaru falling would mean her loosing her ride on Shizuka's shoulder.
They made it into the cave, surprisingly, and Shizuka doubled over, gasping for breath. It took a few seconds for her to recover, and when she did she almost cried. She had travelled four hours to find herself in a totally decimated hellhole.
"Great choice." The sarcasm reached deaf ears as Shizuka took in the amount of puppets littering the floor. She took one shaky step after the other, slowly approaching the center. She wasn't sure why the puppet there drew her in unlike the others, but it did. She realized that it was a totally unconcience movement, she couldn't stop it, and in a sick way, she didn't want to.
"Shizuka?" The question normally would have brought her out of her revery, but as she reached the distroyed puppet with the calm brown eyes and shocking red hair, she couldn't. Her fixation on the object kept her from noticing the destitute of the place, the utter destruction and horror. But Hotaru noticed. And as Shizuka knealt down in front of the 'corpse', Hotaru began pounding her tiny wooden fists against her creators face.
"Snap out of it!" It was futile. A trembling hand grazed the peaceful face as Shizuka drew in a ragged breath.
"I have to fix him." The statement was bold, and Hotaru glanced nervously between the body and Shizuka.
"I'm not sure that's such a good idea..." Shizuka ignored her, picking up a cilindric object with a large stick protruding from it lying in the puppets chest cavity.
"It's fluttering." Her astounded statement startled Hotaru, just as the miniature puppet was about to protest, a scuffling came from the entrance of the cave. As if douced with ice water, Shizuka scampered into the shadows, object in hand. She flung herself behind a large rock, peared around and saw a man in make up picking up the body. Her hand began to shake, it took everything she had not to attack him and fight for the puppet.
Of course, even if she did, she knew she would lose. While her parents were both shinobi, Shizuka decided to do things more sedate. And her civilian antics would never work on this, illegedly, skilled ninja. Her hands stilled as that realization hit, as if the thing that possed her realized it as well and was now recalculating. Hotaru was terrified, while used to Shizuka's random outbursts, she always made sense.
And Hotaru knew the logical thing to do was ask the man for help. Not hide and contimplate attacking him. She glanced at Shizuka, terrified by her friends sudden transformation. The way she was stroking the object was disturbing her, and for the first time in her existance, she regretted being made.
The man frowned, looking for something, which the girls could only speculate to be the cylinder in Shizuka's hands. He shrugged, and reluctantly left, corpse in tow. Hotaru sighed in relief and slumped down, wishing she was in her nice, comfortable home.
"I think I can fix it." Hotaru gave Shizuka a disparaging look.
"Fix it? You don't even have the damn thing!" Her voice was a little shrill, a sign her stress was getting to her.
"Then I'll rebuild it." Shizuka was totally oblivious to her friends hystarics, so focused was she on the cylinder. Her hand suddenly grasped the stick, and in one swift movement, she yanked it out. Immediatly she covered it with her hands and began transfering chakra. Which was impossible, since she wasn't trained. At all.
After a few moments, she sighed, falling back against the boulder, hand tenderly stroking the object. Hotaru eyed her warily before speaking again.
"What the hell?" Shizuka looked at her, and for the first time this evening, she looked relativly normal.
"Don't tell."
The room was dull. Walls blank, bed small, only the bare necessities filling the space. Shizuka sighed, crumpling up the twenty-second sketch this morning. After she finally got back to camp, cylinder tucked serrupticiously in her satchel, her parent had nearly killled her in there frantic need to make sure she was okay.
(Flash Back)
"Where were you?" Michiko Yamada sqeezed her daughter, holding her like she might dissapear at any second if she let go.
"Do you know how woried we were?" Her father's scold was half hearted, as he too embraced his family. They broke apart after a while, and as soon as they lost contact, the atmosphere turned deadly.
"Grounded." Her father nodded in earnest, agreeing wholeheartedly in her statement.
"One month."
(End Flash Back)
"It's your own fault you know." She glanced over at Hotaru and grimaced. "What happened anyways?" The puppet was guinuenly concerened about her friend, unsure of why she acted so odd the other day.
"I'm not sure. One second I was fine, the next I just needed to be there." She couldn't fully explain the phenonon, and deep down, she didn't really want to. A part of her felt if she knew the answer, life would cease to be as simple as it used to be.
"Maybe it's horemones." Shizuka blushed at Hotaru's blunt statement.
"That's not it. And just because you don't have any doesn't mean you can blame it on all my oddities." Hotaru scoffed.
"You humans are so wierd." Shizuka shook her head, smiling lightly at Hotaru's antics.
"I need to get out." Hotaru gave her a knowing look.
"Yeah, it's really stifling in here."
"No, I mean I need the supplies to rebuild him." Hotaru groaned.
"Come on Shizuka-chan. Hasn't this stupid puppet gotten you in enough trouble?" She ignored her, an expression similiar to the one from earlier.
"I can't help it." Her voice had lost it's teasing tone, her thoughts fadinig from their normal, light flow. Hotaru sighed, resigning herself to another day of craziness.
"Well, where do we need to go?" Hotaru sounded exhausted, mainly because she was.
"First, we need wood." Both girls glanced to the door, which was closed. Shizuka rose from the bed and approached the door, trying to convey calm, controled, teenage resentment. "I'm taking a nap. Leave me alone." She knew her parents heard it, knew they would leave her in peace. So she grabbed Hotaru, opened the window, and slipped out.
"Do you even know where you're going?" Shizuka shrugged, following a path that was almost instinctual to her. Hotaru sighed, holding tighter to her creator's sleeve. They traveled for a goos forty-five minutes, and Hotaru was about to complain when they found themselves outside of a large building. Shizuka opened the door, stepped inside, and froze when she saw who was there.
"It's him!" The hiss from Hotaru was grating as Shizuka stared wide eyed at the hooded man from the cave. He was messing with the puppet, and the trembling in her hand bagan again. He looked up at her and smiled, a welcoming gesture that made her want to cringe.
"What brings you here?" Shizuka drug in a ragged breath, preying she could sound normal.
"I need a base, aproximately five point thirty eight feet, male." His gaze changed from appraising to measuring.
"I thought I knew all the builders here. You sure you can handle this? Puppetry isn't something you can just pick up as a hobby. It's a passion, an art." There was overwhelming emotion in his voice, a clear sign of how deticated he was. But all his words did was offend her.
"My family has been performing this art for generations. My mother just left the country before I was born." And with that, she moved past him to find what she needed on her own, refusing to be pushed around and demeaned by a boy who didn't understand her unnatural obbsession. Of course those thoughts didn't go through her head. She just felt herself moving and chose not to question it, as questioning just made the whole experiance more difficult.
"Shizuka-chan, what if he gets us in trouble?" Hotaru was frantic, surprised by her friends reaction to the boy. She knew her to be a terrible flirt, and the way she acted so callously was unheard of. Grey eyes narrowed on the slight girl and she shrunk back, not recognizing the person behind the glare.
Finding the base was not difficult. While designing Hotaru, Shizuka had spent hours laboring over what to make. But now, it was like she instinctually knew what that was. On her way out, she snagged a wealth of red silk, layed down a sum of money, and slid out another window, as she refused to speak with the man up front again. The trek to the house was a little more time consuming, but soon they were safely tucked away in Shizuka's bedroom.
"What now?" Hotaru was visibly shaken, the whole ordeal making her distraught. Shizuka glanced at her and wrinkled her nose.
"I need to make the wig." Hotaru nodded, accepting the comparatively safe activity over the more risky things that she knew was coming.
"Shizuka! It's time for dinner, get down here!" Shizuka started at her mother's call, scrammbling to cover her nearly completed project. She somehow was able to weave the silk onto the puppet's head, as well as paint his features perfectly. The only things left were to perform a jutsu to make the face 'life like', and place the cylinder in the hollow she made in the chest cavity.
"Coming." She trudged down the stairs, Hotaru in tow and sat down at the table, fidgeting nervously in her seat. Her mother had prepared curry rice, and the whole family was already seated.
"Itadakimasu!" With that they began digging in, and after only a few seconds her aunt began to chastise her.
"When is the last time you ate?" Shizuka looked up from her untouched plate and frowned.
"I'm not hungry." And she wasn't. Even after missing about five consecuative meals, and multiple ones before, she just felt restless. "Can I be excused?" Her mother gave her an anxious glance but nodded, not wanting to make a bigger deal out of it in front of her family. She rose, pushed in her chair, and quickly dashed up the stairs to put the finishing touches on the puppet.
By now Hotaru had givin up trying to talk sense into Shizuka. She just hoped once this project was done they could go back to their normal lives. Smiling, Shizuka placed her hands over the puppets chest, and concentrated on the inner insperation that had guided her through this whole journey. A blue light eminated from her palms, seeping into the wood and cousing it to take a more human appearance.
She dropped her hands after a second, sweat beading her forehead. With a sigh she reached for the cylinder and placed it in the hollow.
At first nothing happened. But then he blinked, rising up from the table. Hotaru yelped, scampering off Shizuka's shoulder and away from the living puppet. He turned his cold gaze towards the green haired girl, and he blinked.
"You fixed me." She trembled as the toll of no eating and little sleep finally caught up with her.
"I rebuilt you." He cocked his head and frowned, his gaze glazing over. It wasn't until her stomache let out a noise that he focused back on her.
"You may eat now." She nodded, evacuating the room and leaving Hotaru to his mercy. "Did she create you as well?" Hotaru nodded, and he reached for her, picking her up and inspecting her. She was completely uncomfortable, but refused to say anything, afraid more of his wrath than his inspection.
"This craftmanship is good." Hotaru wasn't sure who the compliment was meant for, but decided not to respond. "But how are you alive?"
"Shizuka-chan gave me a soul." He nodded taking in that information, and layed back on the bed, holding Hotaru up to continue his appraisal. She bounded back into the room then, an apple in her hands, missing a couple bites. She assessed the situation and, after finding the scene before her satasfactory, perched herself on the edge of the bed.
All was silent, eerily so, and it started unnerve Hotaru. "Could you put me down?" He blinked, robotically lowering the puppet to the matress and continuing his contimplation. Hotaru shifted closer to Shizuka and nudged her. The girl glanced down, eyes reluctant to leave the masterpeice she had accomplished. Though now that the construction was complete she began to feel anxious, unsure how she was supposed to his this living thing to her parents.
"I have decided you will come with me." Shizuka frowned, brows furrowing in confusion.
"Excuse me?"
"I can not stay in Suna. It is imparitive that I leave as soon as possible." She nodded, absorbing his logic.
"Yes, but what does that have to do with me?" He turned to her, gaze cold and detached, sending chills down her spine.
"You are adaquite at puppet making and not unpleasing to look at. You will travel with me." Hotaru gaped as Shizuka floundered to make sense of the situation.
"You can't take her away with you! She's only seventeen. Her parents would worry, and we don't even know you!" He just stared boredly at her, as if questioning her point.
"It is entirely up to you, of course. I can't force you tocome with me." Shizuka contimplated it, muling over the decision. She wanted to go, felt deep down that it was right. Of course she understood the feeling was coming from the same place that made her build the puppet. And that fact made her weary of following him.
"I should pack first, yes?" He nodded, leaning back to allow her time to do so.
"I'm glad you agreed. This is so much easier than dragging an unconsious girl and an unwilling puppet across the desert.