It was chilly in the Land of Clouds. Not surprising, though, as it usually was over-cast with a damp draft. It was a common enough occurrence to go without seeing the sun for weeks. Kurai was used to that. It was also a common occurrence to hear her family arguing. That she wasn't used to. But, really, would you eve get used to hearing your own flesh and blood argue over whether they should just kill you?

Kurai was weak. Mama knew that, grandma knew that, Hikaru knew it, all the other shinobi and civilians of the village knew that. She was a weak member of a strong clan. Every once in a while someone would say within ear-shot, "Where did the Torakiba Clan go wrong?" Of course, anyone only said it when no member of the Torakiba was near enough to hear them. The speaker would be subjected to a graphic threat and a cold stare by the Torakiba who had heard. The Torakiba would defend the clan, but not the weak child.

"If you want some respect, earn it." Her cousin, Kagemaru, would snarl, pushing her into the nearest muddy puddle.

"What future have I given birth to you for?" Mama would mourn, staring with sorrow at her frail daughter. What future indeed, as an easy target for enemies of the Torakiba Clan?

"Poor child." Grandma would smooth back her limp, dull black bangs off of her pale forehead and look with unreadable eyes upon her granddaughter. "You were well-named 'without light'."

She pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around her legs, keeping a firm, skinny arm around her teddy-bear.

"…future!" it was back to that again. She could hear the argument clearly, as it was the annual Torakiba Clan meeting. They had been talking all day and only now were they getting around to the old subject: whether she should live or die.

"She's one of our own, Tora." That voice was chilling and Kurai recognized it as grandma's as she put down her nephew. "Kurai is weak, yes, and I hardly see a future for her. As I was saying before, we could have her raised as a civilian and had her learn a normal profess-"

"Then our enemies will find it even easier to kidnap her and find out our secrets." That voice could only belong to Inazuma, Kurai's aunt and her mother's younger half-sister. Inazuma always possessed a morbid sense of humor, only heightened by her years as an ANBU.

"Then what do you suggest, Inazuma?" that was Kurai's mother, Hanabira.

"I suggest we train her up as a kunoichi." Inazuma's voice was darkly amused. Cries of outrage were added to that.

"Preposterous!"

"Teach her our secrets when she's already a prime kidnapping victim?"

"She'd die the first day!"

"I wasn't finished." Inazuma waited for the yelling to subside. "She's got talent, save that she's amazingly weak. She's… what, four?"

"Seven." Hanabira's voice spoke of tightly controlled rage.

"Same difference. Anyways, she's of our clan, ladies and lone gentleman." Kurai could hear the nod in Tora's direction. "It's unheard of for one of our brood to forgo training."

"We should never have given up the old ways." Tora grumbled. "In our day, twins would kill each other! It kept the balance in tact. It would weed out the weak. Hikaru is a fine, strong girl. Strongest kid I've ever seen. She's got stamina and chakra enough for three kids her age!"

"There's something not right about Hikaru." Was all Inazuma said. "It's unnatural, all the energy she has. I'll train Kurai if no one else will." Dead silence greeted her statement.

"But you're in the Black Ops Squad!" another voice, one Kurai didn't know, said. It probably belonged to some aunt or cousin that only came back to the ancestral home once a year for the meeting.

"So? I planned to take a few years off, anyway. I still have some old wounds that haven't quite healed all the way. I can train a single rookie. She'd be left in the dust by the other kids, anyway. I wouldn't trust her to not get flattened at the village training school."

"But…" doubt was evident in Hanabira's voice.

"Hana,you may want to dither about with what to do with Kurai. I don't. Go worry about the other brat you birthed. Something's not right with the blonde one, I can assure you. Something's off about her."

There was the rattle of the rice-paper door opening and Kurai jumped, scrambling to hide before a voice said, "Hey, kid." She stopped, looking up from her position on the floor at her aunt. Inazuma was a great beauty, everyone agreed. It was slightly marred by her narrowed, sadistic eyes and dark smirk. Her hair was ink-black, her eyes a light reddish brown, and she kept the typical widow's peak and sharp chin of the Torakiba line. She was neither tall nor short, but leanly built but still with enough of a figure to tell she was female from behind. She flicked her long, pale fingers at Kurai. "Get up."

"She was listening!" the other meeting participants looked with varying degrees of alarm and anger through the door at their youngest clan-member.

"I said up, kid. Let's go for a walk." Kurai was hauled roughly to her feet by the back of her red kimono, ducking her head down and tightening her grip on her teddy-bear. She refused to look at her mother. Hanabira looked like she was going to burst into tears at any moment. "You won't need that." Inazuma flicked her eyes at the teddy-bear. Slowly, eyes never leaving her aunt, Kurai put the bear down and trotted after the elite kunoichi into the drizzle, pausing only to slip on her geta.

"Umm… Oba-san?" Kurai finally asked after fifteen minutes of walking out in the drizzle. The sky was gray with clouds and it was impossible to tell what time it was. The ANBU winced.

"I'm not that old, kid. I'm only twenty-six. It's Inazuma. None of that 'oba-san' crap."

"So… Inazuma-san?"

"Yeah?"

"Where're we going?" Inazuma turned her head and flashed her niece a savage grin that any tiger would have been proud of.

"Training."