Part One:
A stranger walked through the village, looking left and right at the many villagers who were watching her with interest. She was very pretty, with black hair that fell to her waist and piercing eyes. Her cheekbones were high, giving her face a thin, sculpted look. None of that could draw your first attention from the strange symbol ringing around her left eye though. It looked like a twisting vine, with words inside it. Very artistic and delicate, but with steel in it's dark green dye. It complimented the rest of her skin, which was a very odd pale green color that drew your attention right after the tattoo.
She had taken to wearing black every day, without ceasing, around her un-adorned eye and on her lips, which were naturally deep red. It all gave her the appearance of being a walking dead person. Her short black clothes flapped around her slender ivory legs, and the pointed hat on her head gave a weak flutter every now and then.
She walked stiffly, bowing her head and watching the ground in front of her hard. Someone came from a side street, stopping in front of her and making her bump into him. She looked up, her icy eyes flashing to a shade of purple, when she met the black ringed blue eyes of another. She stared at him, the eyes in the green face flushing a deep blue. The color of the ocean.
He looked at her. Any other person would have shuddered at the look, full of loneliness and hatred. For all that though, she just looked at him calmly with deep blue eyes. "I am Reyah," she finally said, breaking the silence and bowing slightly. She had to grab her hat to keep it from falling off. Next chance she got she would get something to tie it on with.
He tilted his head down, and she noticed the large jar on his back. "Gaara." He narrowed his eyes as he studied her, his red hair falling over his eyes not unattractively.
The facial expression did not look kind, but neither did it look challenging. Reyah stared back at him as hard as she could, allowing her eyes to turn black. The two stood like that for a bit, then Reyah nodded and brushed past him. She closed her eyes and allowed her instincts to guide her through the crowded village, ignoring the questioning glances. The black and blue eyes that belong to Gaara floated in her vision, guiding her through the streets. Someone bumped into her, making her eyes fly open and flash purple as she stared.
A young boy with green eyes and hair had just passed her, knocking into her insolently. She watched him go for a moment, then touched a large gaudy ring with many stones in it to a silver twisting one with a single stone on her other hand and whispered a spell. The ring with many stones glowed faintly as the boy's legs seemed to lock together, making him yell and fall down. "Who did that?" he shouted, getting back up and hopping back and forth. Reyah just let her hair fall in her face and kept walking to wherever she was going. She listened to the outraged shouts of the boy, then whispered the spell again so his legs separated. He fell to the ground, not expecting the sudden release and sat there, still yelling almost wordlessly.
Everyone laughed and ignored him, and Reyah turned a corner. A tall man with long, dark blue hair was standing in a deserted square. Reyah glared at him and stopped. Her eyes went a hard lilac color as he opened his arms and came to her in a friendly manner. "Little sister! It's good to see you here so-- oomph!"
She struck him hard in the stomach, then blew over the top of a smaller, plain silver ring with the same symbols as was around her eye at him after touching it to the same twisting silver one with the single stone next to it. A wave of purple fire came from out of the ring and wreathed around the man, making him throw out his arms and stem it as she dealt him another blow to the side of his head and knocked him over. "What do you want?" she asked viscously, placing her bare green foot with her black, claw-like toenails on his throat.
He made a gurgling noise, making her draw her foot back. "Gah-- wanted to make sure you got here alright."
"The last time I saw you, you tried to kill me." Her voice was a deathly whisper.
His own hazel eyes looked mellow as he pinched one of her toes. "Oh, c'mon. I was just messing around! Besides we're gonna be here together for a-- ah-rg!"
Reyah ground her foot into his throat, then stepped over him. With a flick of her hands she touched three silver rings, only the middle containing a stone, to the twisting one and had a black kind of vine spring from the shadows in the hallway and entwine him. They were solid forms of shadow. "I am here under a challenge. The next Kazekage wants to prove himself against me, having heard of my record. That's the only reason I'm here," she said simply. "None other. I passed through this place when I was much younger."
"You're only fifteen!" He stood and glared at her, letting go of his throat and banishing the shadows into long bits of ribbon with a jutsu. He was always better at making harmless things out of the harmful. "How do you plan on fighting the guy who wants to be the Kazekage? Why would uncle even consider letting you go through with this?"
"Uncle doesn't need to know, and I was sick of the Village Hidden in Stone." Reyah turned, her eyes becoming hard and black. Emotionless. "They hate us you know. I decided I had had enough. When one of the men attacked me and tried to kill me, again, I killed him with this and ran." She showed her brother the newest ring on her hands. A flaming gold one that twisted into the shape of a rose. It was obvious from the scars going up her arm that Reyah was not quite used to it yet.
"Does it hurt you?" he asked, unconcerned about his sisters past affairs.
She frowned and lowered her hand. "Only the thorns that grow when I use it. They become long, wrap around my hand and draw on my chakra for power to do what I wish it to. I don't mind. Tell me where the dueling ring is, Leniad."
Her brother pointed at a faraway street. "That way, then to the left twice and the door on your immediate right."
She left without another word to follow his instructions, snatching up one of the shadowy ribbons as she walked out. She looped it around her hat, then under her hair and back up around the hat again. There, that should hold it in place. She glanced in a shield hanging in the hall to make sure it looked alright. It looked as though it had been there always. With a little crooked smirk she continued walking, following Leniad's directions into the place where she was to wait to enter the dueling ring.
