Title: Silver
Summary: How to deal with hallucinations. 1. Freak out very mildly because even if it's cool you feel crazy. 2. Realize you aren't hallucinating and then freak out some more. 3. Figure out how to use this as an upper hand over your team. 4. Feel good when they get pissed and annoyed and for once Sasuke and his stupid "annoyed" can suck it and you're now way more awesome than him even though you have a crush on him. 5. Automatically become the new it Kunoichi because Sasuke can't see through you and everyone can see him interested in you. Duh.
Long before the existence of mankind, there were only beings. The natural creations of the harmonious flow between spiritual chakra in the atmosphere, and natural chakra in all its forms. These beings were barely humanoid, instead they exuded spirals of energy as they walked. As centuries passed, they slowly began to take different shapes. Beings that held Earth chakra slowly changed into animalistic creatures, beings of Water chakra morphed into lakes, their spirals of energy flowing and spreading into their watery abodes, transforming into beings to live harmoniously in the lake.
The four mothers from whom every sister of the earth originated, Sui, Ka, Hei and Chikyu. When humans beings came into existence, these nymphs and half-spirit creatures disappeared from sight and left behind those that had transformed into animals. Water nymphs opened up pockets of nature life-force within their watery havens, taking themselves to beyond what reality the lakes were. The energy that they floated and frolicked in, inaccessible to human-spiritual chakra.
A few of them stayed behind. Becoming the legends and myths, the yokai and nymphs that were passed on through generation.
Two such beings were Arachii and Seryuu. One with hair as dark as the blackest sky, the other with hair as blue as clear water. Arachii with her blood-red eyes was a half earthen spirit and half arachnid, one of the first descendants of Chikyu. Seryuu was the spirit of the lake, the second daughter of Sui.
Both beings were in a glade, with a gentle waterfall located in the center of the lake and tall trees and mountains behind. They had warped the old magick in the air to ensure that humans didn't find them, content to frolic as they pleased.
"Arachii, you really have been quite naughty haven't you?" Seryuu giggled, her glistening, silvery hand coming to rest on the earth.
"I don't know what you're talking about Ryuu, if anything you're the one being naughty, never coming back with me to visit mother." She retorted playfully, her long hair morphing into dozens of tiny little spiders and back into thin strands of hair.
"Well now I'm not the one who let myself get seen by a traveler, you didn't have to take such a big bite out of his soul now did you?" Seryuu motioned at her sister, before spotting another earthen sister go past her in a hurry, in one of the pockets of natural life-force.
"I didn't actually bite anything important, just his tail mind you, and you know I would never do that."
"Well... I suppose so, we would get in trouble with that."
"You're already in trouble now aren't you Ryuu?"
Said sister with her hair as liquid as the lake around her scoffed. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Now don't you go mimicking me, it's a hideous quality that those humans have," Her sister muttered, before carrying on "And I wasn't the one who went ahead and sung a stranger to his death, I bet mother wouldn't even be that annoyed if you actually went home for a visit every now and then."
"Well mother Ka and Sui can't really stop us, and the humans never really die, it's just those shells of theirs that get a bid... stuck," Seryuu chuckled, "And you know it was Ryu who did it not me."
"Don't play ignorant Ryuu... it's my thing, not yours... and yes of course I know, and you know just as well that Ryu is interconnected to you, I know you could have stopped it."
"Well maybe I wanted to see that lecherous, pathetic scum of a man crash into a huge iceberg."
"Naughty. Then again you are my sister."
"Yes and mother said that she didn't like this world, or the spirit world too much because it was dirty, never because of whatever consequences that could come about because of our actions."
Seryuu flicked her serpentine energy swirls that made up the bottom half of her body, blending in with the water around her, up and out of the water. Sending fat droplets of water at her sister. Arachii retaliated by smacking her sister with a vine. Seryuu laughed before noticing someone coming close to their environment. With a silent motion to her lips, she and her sister faded away into their respective elements, keeping a full degree of awareness of their entire location and the others' position. Seryuu moved her sight throughout the forest, the dew and liquid in the air giving her a fantastic view of the place.
A little girl came through the bushes, her gait was uncertain and trembling.
The water spirit moved forward to eye the child, interested in how the little one had come upon their territory.
"She's just a little baby Arachii, isn't she adorable?"
"Her soul must be ridiculously pure for her to stumble this way."
"I wonder?"
Arachii looked at the girl, surveying her from head to toe.
"We rarely see anyone with a soul this pure, it's quite special."
"And we like special things don't we?"
"..."
"We don't know how pure this child truly is, it could be a fluke Arachii..." Seryuu moved back and looked at the little girl again, "But she is dirty and bruised, I think she needs a bath."
The water spirit took hold of the girl, and after carefully maneuvering a bubble of air around the child's mouth and nose, took the child with down under through the blurriest, natural life-source pocket in the water and brought her up again. Her fingers smoothed and washed the little girl's cheeks and hair, smiling as she hiccupped and giggled.
"What did you do?" Arachii asked.
"I took her through the little air-hole."
"That deep? And did she get through it?"
"She did, her soul really is pure." Seryuu's voice was tinged with marvel and excitement.
"And she has pink hair, looks a little like the blossom nymph."
"So rare we find a soul untainted by greed..."
"And lust..."
"She is really quite lovely... but we better take her back home Arachii."
"Through a pocket then? Since she seems to be able to take it?"
Seryuu nodded. Her fingers glowed white for a moment before a transparent force seemed to split the air in half. They stepped through it into a weightless void, unknowingly saturating the young girl in Seryuu's arms with the most concentrated essences of the natural earthen life-force. Floating out until they reached the edge of the forest, they released the girl.
Seryuu bent down and pressed her forehead against the little girl, "If the strings of fate deem it so, perhaps we will meet again little one."
The two retreated into the shade, their swells of natural chakra making no impact on the shinobi around them.
Over the next few years, toddler Sakura found her way back to the glade so often, her mother no longer fretted quite so much when she went missing.
"Back so soon little Hatsuko? You just came a few days ago." Seryuu said, her voice like melodious chimes.
'Hatsuko' gurgled happily, her aura melding in with the special energies the sisters were exuding into the background.
"Shall we play with bubbles again Hatsuko?" Seryuu asked, her fingers conjuring up a little droplet of water. When the little child nodded, she flung the droplet into the air, conjuring up more and more. The little girl was taking to the usual games she played with her nymph and spirit sisters like a koi to a pond. She didn't think it was normal, for a human to be able to interact with her kind so easily, much less use the same abilities they had, but she didn't pay it any mind. They all came from the four mothers, human beings merely didn't have the earth's life-force in them, although she suspected her little Hatsuko had picked up on some, it probably wasn't a big deal.
"Do you think you can catch water this time Hatsuko-chan?" She asked, fingers forming a web of glistening droplets.
"Ready? Okay now... an... twe... breo!" She threw the droplets into the air again, laughing at the smile on the child's face as she caught them in her hand.
She could still remember when she was teaching the little girl how to play the water. It had been a fairly tough task, and she found it had been easier when the child was within the energy pockets.
'Can you feel how my hands are like when I hold the bubbles little Hatsuko-chan?' The little girl nodded.
'Yeah... do you think you can make your hands feel the same way?'
And the energy within the girl, slowly, over the course of a few months had eventually come into a little bit of balance with her spiritual chakra.
Her mother had frowned on it at first, but even she couldn't deny what a pure soul the young girl had.
"Seryuu stop hogging her." Arachii whined and tried catching Sakura's attention with a vine.
She smiled gleefully at her sister before motioning to Sakura play with the leaves the same way Seryuu had taught her.
"Can you hide in the tree Hatsuko-chan?"
"I can I can!" And the little girl ran in the direction of the tree, only to bump into it and fall down.
"You silly darling, what have I told you before?"
"Feel for the same thing the tree and I have.. but it's hard nee-chan."
"That's alright, would you like to swing from the vines again instead?"
Arachii looked at her sister knowingly as the vines wrapped around Sakura and she swung around the glade.
"Quite proficient for a little human isn't she Seryuu?"
In fact, the little girl became so accustomed to the energy, Seryuu and Arachii once found her wandering along a path in the different plane. How she had gotten there they didn't know, but it was something she planned to teach the girl later on.
"I don't think I can come back here anymore nee-chan." Sakura said while playing with a little glob of water.
Seryuu paused mid-bite, fingers holding onto a strawberry Sakura had brought with her and turned to her little Hatsuko.
"Why not Hatsuko-chan? You haven't grown too much for us now have you?"
"No.. but my mom yelled at me the other day for running away and hiding too often, she said I can't do it anymore if she can't come with me..."
Arachii sighed and Seryuu nodded. It was just something she and Sakura had agreed on, that she would keep her and this place a secret. The mother wouldn't be able to come this way anyway, her soul though not a bad one, would never be as pure as a baby's, and the likelihood of her absorbing the energy without damaging her human body was very low.
"I'm sorry my nee-chans. I don't want to miss you or forget you... but I can't not listen to my mom..." Sakura mumbled, tears starting to fall.
"Shh... shh... don't cry Hatsuko-chan," She said as she pressed her forehead to Sakura's, "You won't forget me, I can promise you that."
Seryuu smiled and said, "How about one last dive little Hatsuko?" Gesturing to the lake. "You know how to do the bubble yourself now too."
They dove into the water and Seryuu took her up the waterfall, the one thing that this plane shared with the energy pockets. It was imbued with very old energy from her mothers time, and as a parting gift, Seryuu thought it would be nice to add a little kick to the energy in her dear girl, intertwining it fully with her own spiritual chakra so that wherever she went she would be recognized as one of them.
When Sakura came back up to the surface, her appearance had changed ever so slightly, and only someone from her world would be able to pick up on it, or rather it was something only another being that had natural energy would notice. Her eyes had a silvery sheen to them and her pink hair was lighter.
"Now, I know you're still quite young but I want you to remember this Hatsuko-chan," She said as her fingers tucked Sakura's hair behind her ears, "You're really one of us now, you just have to practice so that the other you inside, can handle this... and no matter where you are, if you need help, you only need to ask and we will be there to help you."
Sakura sniffled a bit.
"I promise."
"You know Seryuu, it's kind of unfair that you get that special waterfall. I didn't exactly have anything to give Hatsuko-chan."
"Well don't think I haven't noticed you feeding her poison just to get her immunity up, she's too young for that."
"I can't teach her how to tear someone's body apart or give her a spider bite now can I?"
"She can talk to us sister, to nature, to all the leaves and spirits around her. And you were the one that taught her how to create things out of air with her energy."
"Still doesn't count." Arachii sulked.
"Well think about it like this. There's plenty more you can teach her later on, even how to secrete poisonous energy."
"True... which would be fun I guess... I just can't believe you get to use the waterfall."
"Deal with it, it's a water spirit thing."
"You're the only water spirit who gets to use it."
"I know." She smirked.
So what do you guys think? Confusing? Yeah I got a little bit confused now but I think, I'm going to start calling the place that the beings stay in as planes or just the Void, because it's easier, and the other energy sakura has will just be natural energy.
So let me know what you guys think and if I should do it non-massacre or massacre okay?
I'm happy to dole out answers if you have any questions at all.