A/N: I know, I know, I shouldn't be doing three stories at once, but I have major writers block with my other two and this plot bunny, related to my other two but also as far off as any story will ever be from them, will not stop eating my radishes! If I don't release it soon, it'll move on to my lettuce! This is Akatsuki/Deidara-centric, and the meaning of my OC's name is Starry New Moon.
Ever since I first opened my eyes, I have been blind. I have been told that my eyes are a foggy green, with barely visible pupils. I wouldn't know. I can't see. My parents treat me like I'm a fragile glass doll, and every time I say I want to become a shinobi, I get a softly patted head and a "You are worn out already, I'll lead you back to bed." I am sick of it. I will find my way to the Star Chamber, and I will crawl on my knees in the dirt if I have to!
That was the last diary entry I ever thought of. I couldn't see to write without help, so it wasn't hard to conceal it from my overbearing, lazy noble civilians of parents and superior pig of a kid brother. My existence was not hidden from the rest of the village, Hidden Star, but well-known, creating pity, and thus power, for my parents. I don't even remember their names now. I guess my life has changed so drastically since then that I have blocked out all those memories. At the age of ten, I made up my mind to spend my nights training in the secret village building that held the star that had fallen into our village many years ago. I trained in secret for five more years, discovering along the way that the medical problems that affected almost everyone who trained with the star had no hold over me. If anything, the star made me stronger. Then, on the eve of my sixteenth birthday, I went to train with the star, but was stopped up short as pain seared through my blind eyes like fire. I saw, saw, the village. I saw myself. I saw colors, somehow knowing their names. I had long chestnut-colored hair braided carefully down my back, straggling bits of hair falling over my eyes. I was years older. Though I didn't move the whole time, the me I saw ran, and my newfound vision followed her path. I saw myself crossing the plaza between the building that was an entrance to the star's chamber. As I watched, this phantom me entered the building. She faded, along with the rest of my vision, as she stepped through the doorway. Fresh pain split my skull, and a voice echoed inside my head. Terrible, rough, yet silky, and somehow female. It spoke to me, growling inside the back of my head. "You have reached the Waking Year, Hoshiko Sorano. I can now speak to you, after all these years."
I felt as though a brick wall was slowly being broken down inside me, and I slowly became aware of something in my head. I tremblingly asked inside my head, "Wh-who are you? What are you? What's going on he-" I was stopped by the creature's force.
"I am known as the Seer, Yogensha. I am a jaguar demoness who was sealed inside you by my younger sister, Kin, the Lioness of Balance. I am the reason for your blindness, for as I am also blind from birth, you are inextricably linked to me. However, this training with the so-called star has made you strong enough to use my special power. We can see the future, Hoshiko. What you just saw was you, three years and a day into the future. The "Star" is actually a chunk of Great Mother Moon, and will not injure you. It can tell that you are family. I can teach you how, through the star, to write, and how to control your taijutsu. When you turn eighteen, I shall show you how to create pure Sight. I will help you gain working eyes. I will teach you to read and do essential mathematics. Then, you must take a village headband. After that, we cannot yet see how it will turn out."
I had listened, spellbound, my feet frozen to the wood floor of the Star Chamber, but now I shook myself out of it. For some reason, I trusted this jaguar implicitly. I asked, "How long will it take to learn all this?"
Yogensha, as I would come to call her, chuckled. "Not long. Your training will be complete before you are twenty."
I nodded, satisfied. Yogensha's presence was no longer painful, so I figured I would fight to the best of my ability to make the demon proud. As I turned toward the star, I heard Yogensha say, "Remember, Hoshiko. Blindness is not a curse, but a gift beyond the understanding of the common man."
This one sentence became the philosophy I live by to this day. However, exactly three years later, the night before I turned nineteen, all hell began to break loose.
Last year, I learned to create sight. It turned my eyes an electric purple, and my pupils were not round, but had ponts, making them appear as black stars in a purple sky. The first time I created this sight, I was so shocked by even the small amount of color I saw that I nearly collapsed. I got used to it over time, and I even became able to control my chakra to such an extent that I never even noticed the drain. I also developed, with this sight, my own special form of art. I would take a scroll and paint an animal on it, usually in purple, the color my chakra turned. Then, using Seer's chakra and mine in combination, I would bring the painting to life as a three-dimensional being. I could create tracker birds, spy mice, even foxes that could find food. Any and all of these could easily be made to explode. They would, when deactivated, become tiny drops of paint and return to the bottle, flying back fast enough to pass through wood. I told Seer that I thought art was only art when it was alive, and an explosion made even its death beautiful. My parents remained blissfully clueless, and the kid brother began to succumb to the Star's disease. I didn't actively wish for him to die, so I convinced Star, the consciousness that lived in the moon rock, to not injure him anymore. Still, he would forever be a weaker ninja than I. However, I didn't know this until after my world flipped around, turned upside-down and smashed against a rock. I was supposed to go and take a village headband that night. But, when I tried to get out out of the house, I was caught. That's where I am now.
I hadn't yet activated my eyes, but I could tell that a big, burly ninja guard was in front of me. Thanks to my intense training, I could tell that it was Momo, the dumbest yet strongest guard in the house. He was advancing on me now, saying, "Little Mistress, why are you up? Little Mistress is up past her bedtime."
I thought over what I was going to do. Yogensha was silent, letting me decide. I took the least painful and most permanent course of action, quickly activating my sight and chopping the back of Momo's neck with the side of my hand. As the big man fell unconscious, I carefully caught him and lowered him to the ground. I then proceeded to wipe his memory with another ability gleaned from Yogensha. As I looked around, I decided I would take the window when an alarm went off, triggered by a guard going unconscious. I barely managed to shut the window as guards rushed into the hall. I flitted across the village, into the home of the Hoshikage, and throughout the halls of his home to the room in which headbands were kept. I picked up one, a black-cloth styled headband with the star shape etched into it, and carefully tied it around my head. Yogensha hissed inside my head. "Hoshiko, it is midnight. You are now nineteen years old, and you are about to begin the sequence of events you saw that very first night."
I nodded and began to braid my mid-back length hair, which was of a chestnut color. I fastened it with a red strip of leather I had kept in my paint pouch and walked back to the plaza. Then, just like in the first and only vision I ever saw, I ran across the plaza into the Star Chamber with straggling bits of hair falling over my eyes. I was wearing a(stolen) uniform that I had tailored in my room after and before I went to train. I knelt in front of the star and asked, "Please, help me to do what is right for me."
No response came. As I knelt there, pain, like the first vision, seared through my head. I saw a young man...Blond hair, half ponytailed, eye colored a striking sapphire blue, slightly lined with thick black lashes. He couldn't be more than a year older. I saw the cloak he wore... The headband... His cloak was black, with a high collar and a red cloud splashed right across his chest area, his headband holding a scratched symbol for Iwagakure. He had one bang in front of his left eye. The vision changed. The same man stretched his hand out towards me, saying something. I didn't really know what it meant as it faded, and I opened my eyes to see myself surrounded by half the village, every last shinobi. The Hoshikage stood in front of my kneeling form. I looked up through my bangs at him. He glared at me, saying, "Did you try to steal the star? Answer me, you char-"
I stood to my full height, and was instantly recognized as the Sorano's girl child, albeit in ninja gear with a headband and striking purple eyes. The Hoshikage's eyes widened, and he hesitantly took a step forward. "Hoshiko? Is that...you?"
I nodded tersely. "Yes, my lord. I have been secretly training with the star for over eight years. I wished to become a ninja, and in doing so, discovered how to create pure sight. I may be at jonin level by now, my lord. Will you accept me as a ninja?"
The man looked shocked. "What the-!? Young lady, has some fever made you delusional? You are too fragile for such work!"
My mouth thinned as I listened to Yogensha's description of a vision she had just seen without me. I decided that if that was what it would take to meet the mysterious man, I would do it. I turned the full force of my eyes on the Hoshikage, who cringed. My eyes, bright when activated during the day, glowed at night, making them seem far larger than usual. "Very well. If that is how you think, then I see no reason to pursue this."
He looked relieved for a moment, until I said something that bubbled up from knowledge and anger. "Instead, I suppose I can destroy this building before I abandon it."
Every person who stood around me gasped, and some said to each other, "She can't do that-she can't!"
I moved in a flash of purple light, drawing out a prepared scroll containing a painted owl. I whipped it open and made a one-handed sign. The scroll boofed into thick white smoke that was speedily blown away by the owl's wings. I told it, "Go to the center of the mansion, then grow and implode."
The owl disappeared. One of my swiftest creations, it never made even the slightest sound. I took out several kunai and shuriken, hurling them at the villagers in my path. They either scattered or were taken down by the barrage of weapons. I picked up each one as I whipped past, bolting headlong out of the village and into forest border, aimed for Grass country. I heard a satisfying KABLAMMMM!!!!!!!! My explosive owl worked. I quickly made the special hand sign for bird. Purple chakra enveloped me for a moment, and then I lifted off into the night air with transparent wings, Yogensha cheering me in my head, and a thick roiling column of black smoke pouring into the air from the exploded mansion. I flew away into the night, and I only stopped once. I dropped to the ground in a clearing, taking off the headband. I carefully laid it on a flat rock. I had no second thoughts as I allowed my index finger to be covered in a light purple glow. In a single swift movement, I sliced the front of the headband open horizontally across the star. I was officially a missing ninja, the first from Hidden Star.
I had flown on for another thirteen miles, eventually stopping on the outskirts of a little town that was barely more than an inn and a general store. I hid my headband and used a henge to give myself chocolate-colored eyes. I walked into the inn and ordered a room for the one night. The small man at the counter gave me one on the upper floor, but I got there and wasn't too pleased. The room itself was nice, as small inn rooms go, but it had a huge window. As any good shinobi knows, windows are a huge security risk. However, I decided to deal with it. What I looked for in a room was ground-floor, three-foot thick cement walls, and heavy-duty steel door with deadbolts on the inside only. Still, a room like that is almost impossible to find, and even if I had found one, the relatively meager funds I had stolen from the safe back in Hidden Star wouldn't come close to paying for half of it. I decided that I would just fall asleep and move on early. I decided that I would go out and buy a bedroll and some essential supplies from the town's general store. I found everything I needed at a very good price and made my way back to the inn with enough money remaining for the next month. As my once again blind eyes closed, the image of the blond man floated in my mind and I found myself wondering what was on his left eye under the bang. I drifted to sleep thinking about Hidden Star, and just before my eyes closed, I resolved to steal a bingo book the first chance I had.
The next morning, I was awakened by the smell of someone baking bread, probably at the small shop across the street. I sat up and quickly activated my sight jutsu. As I blinked my eyes to rid them of the sleep sand, Yogensha greeted me with her customary mentally shouted "And WHY are you still sitting in bed when you could be downstairs by now?"
I yelped and tumbled out of bed onto the floor, scrabbling for my clothing and weapons. I found them, but I was in such a hurry that I had my black pants halfway onto my head before I corrected myself. As Yogensha laughed, I got my clothes on the right way and performed the henge to change my eye color. I packed my stuff, which consisted of a change of clothes, three pairs of clean underpants and my new bedroll into my brand-spanking-new backpack, then grabbed the room key and walked out of the room. I dropped the key onto the front desk and smiled at the clerk. As I paid my bill, I asked the clerk, a young man, "Do you know of anyone looking to hire a traveling ninja?"
The boy looked shocked for a moment, then nodded. "I heard that some businessman by name of Atsushi was looking for a ninja, but I think he was gonna submit applicants to a test before he gave them the job."
I nodded. I could handle that. "Atsushi, quite the appropriate name for an industrious man. Do you know where he is?"
The boy nodded again. "He's head of a factory town about twenty miles northeast."
I smiled again. "Thanks. Here, this is for your trouble." I placed an extra thirty ryu on the desk and left without a backwards glance. The bright sunlight did not bother me as I went outside. I had found about a month prior to my defection from Star that I could twist my vision to see in different lights or to see lies versus truths. However, it did take more chakra up, so I would adjust my vision and slowly lessen the chakra flow so that my eyes adjusted to the light. I couldn't possibly imagine that I would be able to get a good, steady source of pay, so I bought as much long-lasting traveler's bread as I could carry without adding too much to my load, then a loaf of the sweet, savory bread that was so light and fluffy it melted in my mouth. I left the tiny town going north, then made a slight adjustment east and began to run.
I had been running for an average of three to four hours when I entered a town far larger than the first, and exponentially louder. I watched the children running thruogh the streets and decided that this was about as safe a town as you could get. These children were happy, laughing and screaming with joy. Heck, for all I knew, they could be able to run around at night without fear of crime. I shook the children off my mind as I walked to the largest non-factory building in sight. I saw a few men lingering by the door. None were shinobi, that was clear. I released the henge, allowing my eyes to show what my sight jutsu made them look like. I approached one of the men. "Excuse me, I'm here about the job offered by Atsushi?"
The man, who was rather bullish, leered at me. "Sure, sweetheart. Just through this door here."
As I walked past him, his hand made a grab for my backside. I deftly caught his hand and swiftly snapped his wrist while crushing his fingers. Ignoring his agonized scream, I proceeded calmly through the door. In the dark, spacious office, I was greeted by a middle-aged man with graying cropped hair and horn-rimmed glasses, who was sitting behind the desk. He looked up from the papers in his hand and said, "Yes?"
"I'm here about the job for a traveling ninja." I got right to the point. Atsushi sat up a little straighter. He had some latent chakra, so he was probably a shinobi, at least a former one. He probably reached chunin before he stopped. He looked at the headband I was wearing.
"You're from Hidden Star? Why is your headband scratched?"
I carefully explained with a pre-fabricated lie. "I'm on extended leave, and this is scratched through due to an accident as a genin. I never bothered to replace it, which may have been a mistake." Atsushi looked satisfied.
"What's your name?"
"Hoshiko." I had already decided against giving out my last name.
"Hoshiko...It suits you. Your eyes are very unusual. However, moving on. The job I am offering is assassination. Are you comfortable with that?"
I nodded. "As long as there's a good reason behind it and the target is not a child, I am."
Atsushi nodded. "In this case, the target is another businessman. He kidnapped my five-year-old grandson as collateral for a rather old sword I own. I want him killed and my grandson brought back. That kind of brutality over a sword is immoral."
I could do that. "I'll do it."
Atsushi looked thoughtful. "I'll have to submit you to a test. Are you good with that?"
"Of course."
"Fine. Come out this way." Atsushi stood an walked to the door behind him. I followed him out into bright sunlight.
A/N: End of Chapter One! Whew! I already have a review for this story! This tells me that this just may be easier to write. I find that reviews somehow help me sprout new ideas. Be sure to visit my profile and answer my poll!
