The songs used are:
Oh raven - Nightcore by NightcoreGalaxy
Am I supposed to apologize? - Nightcore by S A R C A S T I C
You should listen to them, so that you know how they will sound. Trust me, when you read a song's lyrics, in a fanfiction like this, and you've never heard it before, it always gets wrong.
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She danced across the surface of the pond, her chakra pulling the water with her.
"I wrote a song, a journal, gave it to the world.."
A myriad of water drops spinning in the air around her as she sang and danced.
"Told the story of when I was just a girl.."
The moonlight reflected off of the droplets, and created something akin to a scenery of a starry sky following her around.
"I sought understanding clarity in truth.."
And the boy with pale lavender who was watching from the bushes was entranced.
"By baring all the wounds inflicted on my youth.."
She span, and her chakra span the water with her.
"You criticized my choice to stand up to my past.."
She lifted her hand, and the water waved back.
"To give the pain a voice so that it too could pass.."
She lifted her leg, and the water speared away.
"But I felt brave and filled with pride as I let go.."
She took a step, and ripples beautifully circled away from her.
"Of bitterness that wouldn't leave or let me grow..."
Now she stood still, and the water started going up in columns, one after the other around her, going down before the next one rose up.
"But I will spend a lifetime,
Trying to understand.."
The boys eyes were glued on the similarly aged girl. He could see the green seal on her forehead now that she was facing him and standing still.
"Why someone sharing my bloodline,
Would not lend me their hand.."
Those words stung deep in the kid's soul. This song was her expressing her feelings toward their clan.
But when her voice came back, stronger and more confident than ever. Filled with ridicule and superiority.
"Am I supposed to Apologize?
"I'm ~~ supposed to Apologize?
"I'm ~~~ supposed to Apologize?
"I'm ~~~~ supposed to Apologize?
"I'm ~~~~ "
And then she stopped singing.
She stood on the surface of the large pond, completely still with her face down as the water settled.
Raven, the boy who was watching, closed his eyes with clenched teeth, and was about to sneak away. When she suddenly lifted her head, and he saw veins protruding the side of her eyes.
'Fuck.'
"Hades Hands."
Before Raven knew what happened, multiple hands of water had grasped onto both of his legs, and with a quick pull, he was pulled to the pond, with only his head still above water.
The girl glared at her from her place on top of the pond, and he could see spears of water floating around her, all pointed at himself.
"Talk."
The girl had her held up high, with the moon right behind her head, adding further to the beauty of her Byakugan eyes that were looking down at him.
The shine of the moon could be seen between strands of her white hair, and she looked like a goddess in his eyes, the only flaw and imperfection on her being the cursed seal.
He smiled bitterly.
"You're not supposed to apologize."
The spears all lost their shape and began going back to the pond. The girl's eyes widened and her mouth wasn't no longer in the superior frown as it was before. Even the hands holding the boy down lost their strength, and he could pull himself free, but he didn't do that. He knew that if he did, it would appear as though he said those words simply for that reason. So instead, he kept lying down in the water, looking at the goddess standing before him.
Said goddess calmed her heart, twirled a strand of her hair, and formed a half ram seal, and the hands once again grabbed the boy. But this time, they didn't hold him down, instead they pushed him to the surface. He stood up, put his own hand in a half ram seal, and blew on his clothing softly, with a warm breeze taking all of the moisture out of his clothing.
"Learning ninjutsu other than the mandatory ones for the academy is forbidden by the clan." The goddess stated with her composure back, looking at the boy in boredom.
The boy looked back with his eyes darkened at the mention. He nodded, "You're using ninjutsu yourself." He kicked one of the water hands, which splashed away, no longer supported with chakra. He turned his head back to the girl who was he barely caught rolling her eyes, "I'm doing it knowingly."
The boy nodded once again, "So am I."
The girl took a few seconds to think on how to word her question, and Raven didn't mind, "Would you perhaps mind, training with me?"
That was the absolute last thing Raven thought she would ask, but honestly, Raven was thinking to ask the same, "Why?" he asked simply for his own amusement. He was planning to accept no matter what she answered, "There is no one else in the clan that uses ninjutsu. And you peeped on me when I was singing and dancing. You owe me this."
He smiled and took a step forward, and started walking towards her. When he reached the water, he too stepped onto the surface and walked closer. He held out his hand with his small smile still on his face, "My name is Karasu, nice to meet you." She looked at his hand for a second, before she too reached out with her hand, and took his, "My name is Suzume, likewise."
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The next day, Suzume noticed that Karasu was late, and so, she decided to start her practice ahead of him. She stood before the practice dummy, with her stand spread out, as she breathed evenly, and dragged her right foot back in a half circle, as a yin yang symbol appeared on the ground. She narrowed her eyes, and dashed at the dummy, without making a sound, "8 Trigrams-64 palms."
Chakra flowed off her fingers, her Byakugan already saw every spot to hit, and she already knew in which order, as she began to tap the spots were the chakra points are supposed to be, sending shockwaves that followed the taps. She counted every time her taps doubled, "2 palms, 4 palms, 8 palms, 16 palms, 32 palms.." The chakra from her shockwaves were now more concentrated and straight, as her taps became faster and more precise, before she finally finished it off, sending the dummy flying, "64 palms!"
She staggered back to where she placed her stuff, from where she picked up a white towel that she sprayed some water on from her water bottle, before she wiped the sweat off her face. She heard clapping coming from across the training ground, and activated her Byakugan to see it was Karasu, "Your excuse?" She deactivated her Byakugan and turned around to face him. He smiled and approached, before putting down multiple weights.
"What are these?" Karasu's smiled dropped down and he got more serious, "I met a Jonin today in the village. Might Gai, Konoha's strongest taijutsu specialist, he's even stronger than the strongest of our clan. Of course, I knew who he was, and now that I met him, and we planned to train together, I asked him for taijutsu training tips. He told me that, since I'm a Hyuga, speed and stamina, chakra control and chakra pool after that. He recommended us some weights, and told me that whenever we can run 100 meters in under 10 seconds, no chakra, with the weights on, upgrade your weights."
Suzume nodded, before she narrowed her eyes, "I can barely run 100 meters in 10 seconds if I push myself now, how am I supposed to do it with weights on?" Karasu laughed merrily at that, before he went back to a small smile, "I can't even do that. Well, the strongest taijutsu specialist wouldn't have recommended that without a reason, so let's do as he said. He also recommended to have leg and arm warmers on for the weights, as having cold metal on your arms could be uncomfortable, so I bought you some white ones, and myself some black ones." Suzume nodded, before she blushed slightly as she hesitated, before mumbling out, "Thanks.."
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"Oh raven won't you sing me a happy song?
Oh raven won't you sing me a happy song?
Scorpion sting, I don't wanna bleed, tell me that I'm not lost
Oh raven, won't you sing me a happy song?"
Suzume was singing again after they had finished training. It was a habit of hers, whenever they were sparring, she would end up knocking him out in the end, or at least she thinks she does. When Karasu was 'knocked out', she'd place his head on her lap, and sing, and Karasu would hear it all, and relax.
Whenever she wanted to take out any emotions, she would sing a song to represent how she feels, and Karasu took it upon himself to find the hidden emotion behind all of her songs. It was his way of learning more about his friend. The lyrics were and melody were always her cryptic way of expressing herself.
"And here you are again, bad news from a bad friend,
They call you an omen, only here to torment."
This line wasn't about Karasu, he noticed.
"Wicked and hellbent, a damned soul pretending.
But I don't believe them,
Oh, oh, oh, oh..
You don't want me to stay alone, that's why you gotta sing your song..
You keep tapping at my door..
Nevermore, nevermore, nevermore.."
He had heard this poem before. This song was most likely inspired by that poem, he thought. The poem was about a man, who thinks he was going insane, and a raven that kept saying 'nevermore'.
"But can I ask you something?
A favor from you my friend..
That song you keep singing,
Nevermore, nevermore, nevermore.."
He tries to understand her sadness, but she experiences worst than he does. For she truly felt like she had no place to call home, isolated from even the side branch members of the clan..
"Oh raven won't you sing me a happy song?
Oh raven won't you sing me a happy song?
Scorpion sting, I don't wanna bleed, tell me that I'm not lost.
Oh raven won't you sing me a happy song?"
Karasu realized, the expectations and pressure of the Hyuuga clan was pushing his friend towards a dark place, a place he would keep her from reaching..
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Their weights were switched once again today, and Karasu had finally caught up in all weights aside from ankle weights. He was doubled in that. Their training schedule always started with sprinting around the whole perimeter of the branch family's east forest 10 times, before they did Juuken training until they had gone through the routines perfectly 10 times. After that, they did chakra control, followed by creating ninjutsu, as they couldn't get a hand on any already made ninjutsu without the clan's knowledge. And then they end their training with a sparring session, which was followed by Suzume singing, and the 'unconscious' Karasu trying to interpret the meaning of the songs, and also just enjoying her wonderful singing.
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After training another day, Suzume and Karasu walked through the halls of the Hyuuga compound together, while discussing something, "Yes, that could work. Did you make this idea yourself?" Suzume proudly threw her chin up as she pushed back her hair, "Yes, amazing, isn't it? It was when I saw a Jonin use shunshin that I thought of it, but shunshin can't be used in battle as you can't change directions, nor can change your stance. I call it Shunpo, or flash step."
Karasu nodded, and started thinking on how he could help make his friend's jutsu work. The jutsu she was trying to create was an advanced version of shunshin. Originally she thought of just making an extreme speed boost technique, but Karasu made her reconsider. First of all, the Juuken is quiet. And so should a ninja be. Now they were stuck in the theory part of the jutsu, but they were fairly certain that they could enter the testing phase soon. What they expect from the end result is a jutsu, where with only a light tap of her foot, she could instantly travel a distance without making any premature movements. Not even the sharingan should be able to copy something like that, nor see it coming. No hand seals would be used after all.
The technique hadn't been invented yet because there was no apparent need for it. But Karasu certainly saw how useful it would be for someone like Suzume. With talent in Juuken, and the Byakugan, she could potentially dominate any battlefield, being untouchable..
Karasu smiled and shook his head, well, that just a dream for now. They were about to turn the corner, when they both stopped as they heard a spitting sound, and a wet substance landed in front of Suzume's feet.
"Damn mix blood, Hiashi-sama should have gotten rid of you the day you were born."
Suzume stood there, looking down at the spit on the floor, then up at the main branch woman in front of her. The woman had a frown of disgust on her face as she looked down on Suzume in front of her. Karasu had suspected it, but now that he heard it, and saw how she was treated, he felt disgust at his clan. Now, he truly understood her song from that day. He looked back at Suzume who had her head down facing the spit in front of her face. He was about to reach over with his hand to grab her shoulder when she suddenly lifted her chin up high, and condescendingly looked upon the Hyuuga main branch.
"My mixed blood must have come from a better source then, if he denies your passionate questioning for my removal, main branch-sama."
The main branch woman was in shock at the attitude she displayed. Never before had a side branch member dared to talk back, or look at her as if she was of lower status. "I'll excuse myself, come on, Karasu." And when she walked past, she struck the final blow with the side glance she gave the main branch woman.
She looked at her as if she was a bug.
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"Once word reaches the rest of the main branch, you'll suffer severe consequences. Are you alright?" Karasu stopped her when they got to his room, and he pulled her in through the door. He had a worried frown on her face, but his grip on her wrist was gentle. Suzume turned her head around and he could tell that through her earlier confidence, she was without a doubt, scared, she just hid it really well, she had tears gathered in the corners of her eyes, as when began yelling at him, "I won't be alright, I just want to escape from this damn clan.. And my damn mouth can't let me show any damn weakness.. Even if I think that I should keep my mouth shut, I always end up talking, which ends up with me suffering the damn consequences of speaking.. The only reason they haven't killed me yet is because I apparently am prodigy in their damn taijutsu style.. But the only reason I am is because I practice so much.. But their expectations-"
Suzume was interrupted from her emotional yelling when she felt a pair of arms surround her, and pull her in. Her mind cleared for a second and she realized it was Karasu who hugged her into his chest, before her emotions came back many times stronger, and she broke out into tears and she screamed into his chest. All the while, Karasu had a look of hatred on his face that would dwarf even the Kyuubi.
He would not let them lay a hand on his friend.
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This is the first time I write a love story, or, maybe not the first one, but this is the first time I have romance as the primary focus, and action as the second. I noticed that when I put action as the priority, I forget about the romance, so it becomes lacking. The songs used in this chapter were what inspired me to write this, truly lovely songs. I am more of a hip hop fan, but when I find a song I like, I don't care what music genre it belongs to.
HOLY SHIT GUYS! I just found out Arifureta will be getting an ANIME!!!! I legit almost teared up!!
Cya next time.