Broken
Lighting flashed as thunder crackled through the air, disturbing the eerie quiet of the night. Far below, lying on the soft forest floor, a young woman's eyes fluttered open, adjusting to the darkness. Flexing well-toned muscles, she attempted to sit up, only to come crashing down, a burning sensation in her right arm. As she shakily turned her head to see what could be the problem, a strange taste flitted about on her tongue. Blood. Her blood. She would know the taste, having used it so often with her scrolls.
She swallowed the crimson liquid and returned to her original task. Rain started to fall, sticking to her skin and releasing the matted blood once more into its fluid form, staining the pale pink of her shirt. Her dark brown eyes focused on her arm, hardening when they saw the white of her bone sticking slightly out of her elbow. Sighing slightly, she had a brief wish that she had decided to become a medic ninja, like Sakura. As her left hand brushed by her scrolls, the thought abruptly left. Weapons were her area of mastery, and the path she would continue to take. In fact...
Wiping her thumb on one of the splotches of blood on her dark blue pants, she opened one of the scrolls with her free fingers, searching for the right symbol. Nodding slightly when she found it, she smeared the blood-stained appendage over it, quickly grabbing the large bo staff as it appeared.
Groaning as she pulled herself up, her right arm swung instinctively towards her side, where it hung, useless. Propped up against the weapon, she raised her head, brown hair falling out of their signature buns and onto her shoulders. Ignoring it, she instead turned her gaze to the night sky, planning to use the familiar stars as a way to figure out where she was, and how to get home. But, the black storm clouds blocked her view, and the lighting that burst forth from them seemed to be mocking her.
A sudden wave of nausea came over her, and she quickly abandoned the staff to relieve her stomach. Halfway healed wounds seemed to be opening up again, and the releasing blood was making her head weak. Taking hold of the staff again, she crawled to the shelter of several thick bushes, too drained to even think the basic questions; What happened? Where am I? Where are Neji and Lee?
As soon as she reached the safety of the brush, her chocolate eyes closed in exhaustion.
--X--
Birds chirped gaily as life in Konoha began. A blonde-haired shinobi sat at the local ramen bar, shoveling mouthful after mouthful of the meal into his large mouth. His teammate sat next to him, gracefully sipping green tea while reading a medical textbook.
Naruto slammed his fifth bowl on the counter, noisily wiping his mouth and declaring it to be the best bowl of ramen he had ever eaten. Sakura glanced up from her book, a small smirk playing about her delicate features. "Naruto-kun, you've said that about the other four bowls." She closed the book, turning to give him her full attention. "What makes this one different?"
The brightly clad ninja turned to face her, giving her a full-tooth grin. "Because that was the last bowl, Sakura! Everyone knows that the last bowl is the most special!!" His companion just rolled her eyes and took another drink from her cup. An empty silence fell over the two of them, one that would have been filled had Sasuke been there. The coral-haired ninja blinked a few times, hiding the emotion that had hoped to show. Naruto just glared at the empty bowls of ramen, as if he focused enough, Sasuke would come back.
An overly-energetic voice brought them out of their depressive dreams.
"Friends! What are you doing wasting the morning of your youth away?! The sun waits for no one, let's make the most of our young lives while we can!"
Naruto's ears perked up, the notion of a day full of training filling his head, and he and Rock Lee immediately began talk of various exercise regimes. Sakura merely shook her head as she stood to take her leave, not wanting to spend the remainder of her morning with most cheerful of all the ninjas. She raised her hand in a gesture of farewell, and made her way out of the small shop, a slight sashay to her walk.
--X--
Neji sat on the stump where they always met to train, turning a flower in his hands in boredom. It wasn't like Tenten to be late. She was usually waiting for him. Standing up, he shook his long brown locks out of his face, and made his way back into the main part of the village. Maybe she was still asleep. He crushed the poor plant in his fist, letting it fall slowly to the ground. Tenten didn't do this. It wasn't who she was. Smoothly sliding off the stump and onto his feet, he started to make his way to Tenten's house, a sort of fury residing in his pale eyes.
"What happened to you?"
--X--
Weary eyes opened once again, this time to a bright sun. Squinting heavily, she began to raise herself off the ground, only to fall right back down. Right, she thought, that arm is broken. She gripped the wooden staff lying next to her and crawled out of the bush and out into the open. Pulling herself up onto the pole, she made her to a tree, a giant oak, using the staff as support. Leaning against the ancient being, she closed her eyes and opened her ears to the sounds of the forest. Twelve degrees west, two rabbits were eating roots. Straight north, a hawk and an eagle were fighting over a dead mouse. Twenty degrees east...water. Her eyes snapped open and she began the slow trek towards the bubbling sounds of the creek.
When she finally came into sight of the stream, she threw down the staff and ran towards it, a bit off balanced. After using her left hand to drink deeply of the pure liquid, she looked at her reflection in the water. Blood and mud were matted together with her hair, and her shirt had become a deeper shade of rose, almost red. Various cuts, scratches, and bruises were all over her arms and legs, even a few on her head. The bone still stuck out of her elbow at an awkward direction, and looking at it made the bile start to rise in her throat again. Quickly averting her gaze, she slid off her pack, using her available hand to search for anything that could be used. As she dug through the bag, two voices came across the water to her ears. Two male voices that sounded vaguely familiar. A jolt of pain suddenly shot across her right arm, and she bit back a yelp. She hurried to gather her things, for the voices were getting closer.
Shit...
Artist listened to while writing:
Metric