I curled my seven-year-old body into a ball on my bed and buried my tear-stained face into my pillow. I clamped my hands over my ears, but it didn't stop me from hearing everything that was going on outside my tiny bedroom.
"This is your last chance, Hazuki!" Remi Kashuni yelled at my father, angrily.
"Get the hell out of here, Remi," my dad, Hazuki Halu, snarled and I heard a thump and a scream as my father fell to the ground. My two-year-old little brother, Rayne, started wailing across the room from his crib.
"It's okay, Rayne," I whispered as I got out of my bed and made my way towards his crib. I peered down into the crib and saw the small baby's face caked with tears, his mint green hair messed up and his small fingers curled around a thin blanket. "Don't cry, baby." I lifted him up from the crib and let him wrap his chubby arms around my neck as I carried him back to my bed.
I caressed him in my arms as I pulled the blankets over our heads while we both cried. The Halu family and the Kashuni family had been rivals for as long as anyone could remember. The Halu's, my family, had the power to control and create fire, while the Kashuni's were the masters of ice. The Kashuni's had been dominant and had stepped all over the Halu's for a long time, but I planned to change that.
"Don't worry, Rayne," I murmured. "I'm gonna start my training at the Ninja Academy next week and then I'm gonna train hard and get strong. I'm gonna put the Kashuni's to shame, and make them wish they never messed with us." At these words, my mind flickered over to Honako Kashuni, Remi's daughter, who was also starting at the Ninja Academy next week. "And I'm gonna beat Honako, too," I added.
"Maybe next time you'll think before turning the Kashuni clan down!" Remi snapped and I heard the door slam and my mother start to cry.
"Hazuki, what are we going to do?" my mother, Paluna, whimpered and I clutched Rayne closer to me, who started to cry harder.
"Hold on," he murmured and a sliver of light appeared in the room as my father opened the door.
"Tsunami?" I pulled the blanket down and glanced up at my dad.
"I'm so sorry you had to hear that, hon," he said and took a sniffling Rayne from my arms and put him back in his crib. I noticed that he was bleeding and had a swollen eye.
"Why are they stronger than us? I mean, fire's stronger than ice, right?" I whimpered and my father grinned as he came back to sit on the edge of my bed.
"Not necessarily, sweetie."
"Well, no more!" I cried, angrily, balling my hands into fists. "I'm gonna get strong and be the greatest ninja that the Halu family has ever known! I'm gonna beat Honako's butt, I promise, Daddy!" My father grinned and ruffled my hair.
"That's my girl. And I know you can do it." He got up from the bed and started towards the door. "Go back to sleep. You're gonna need your rest if you're gonna start at the Ninja Academy next week." I grinned and nodded, wiping away the remaining tears.
"Okay." He shut the door behind him and left me alone in the dark, with only a whimpering Rayne across the room to keep me company. I curled my hand into another fist around the covers as I glared at the ceiling while I heard the bathroom sink turn on down the hall, knowing my dad was cleaning his wounds. I wasn't going to let the Kashuni clan walk all over us anymore. They won't even go near us once I'm done, I thought, angrily.