Same disclaimer. Same request.
Section 2: The Journey
And so Luca left.
As Luca packed her things and said good-bye to everyone, she thought upon where she was going. She had a letter that would allow her to be accepted into the village and work there for pay, but that didn't mean that she would be accepted by those she worked with. She would be viewed with disdain and hatred, merely because she wasn't from that village. She still wouldn't get away from that feeling of being pushed away.
As Luca walked out of the village, she heard all the parents in the village whisper behind her. They were glad she was leaving. They would be safer if she weren't there. They all thought that, except the ninjas who were in her class. They knew that the village would be more susceptible to attack when she left. She was the strongest ninja in the village, and that scared most people, but those who had taken classes with her knew that her power was all about control, and she was a control freak when it came to her powers.
Even so, when the children she watched after on off days came running up to her to say good-bye and wish her well, their parents pulled them inside, as they always would.
Luca walked calmly through the countryside by herself, glad to be by herself for the first time in months. She felt open but empty. She walked down the road away from her home but not her place of birth.
Luca was not born in the village. She had no parents to speak of, no parents to complain about. The story in the village was that she had wandered into the Haroukage's office through a secret passage that lead to some of the other villages. The Haroukage had taken her in, saying she was the daughter of a certain village's leader. She would never tell anyone who, but plenty suspected.
She stopped every night in a new spot, but never in a town, not while she was in the Country of the Waves. Everyone knew her there; they knew her story and feared her.
Whenever and wherever she stopped, she danced. She danced off her aggression, hearing the leaves rustle around her, the wind blow through her, the water move beneath her, and the fire burn within her.
Sometimes, people would stop and stare. They would watch her. They would leave her money, thinking she was merely some traveling performer. They would leave incense, thinking she was a goddess, descended from the heavens. But those who stopped and stared never looked at her as a demon, only as a girl, or a performer, or a goddess, or all the above. They didn't judge, only admired.
When Luca finally reached the Great Naruto Bridge, she was hungry. She hadn't bothered to stop in the passing towns to buy food, even though now she had plenty of money. She knew she would be given the worst of the worst, so she had passed by all the towns and stayed hungry, simply moving as fast as she could.
As Luca walked across the bridge, she saw a plaque dedicating the bridge to a ninja group in the Leaf Village. She was glad she was going to a village that had some nice people. She continued working her way across the bridge.
Soon she would be able to walk through villages without being stared at or getting children yanked from under her hands. She would be able to buy food without being given the dregs. She would be given the respect she deserved, or so she hoped, in the village instead of being treated with disdain and hate. Within a day or two she would be there.