"There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds."

-Laurell K Hamilton

Kikyo ground her teeth as the pain shot up her body from the spasm.

"You did it again, didn't you?" Tomoe crossed her arms.

"…No…" she said through her clenched jaw.

"Kikyo, don't you fucking lie to me." The kunoichi scowled. "Sit the fuck down before you pass out." She pulled a chair from the side of the physical rehab room to the girl.

"I'm… fine…" Kikyo flinched at the burning and leaned on the support beam to steady her weight. "K-keep going…"

Tomoe responded by jerking the girl's hair and pulling her into the chair.

"Gah! Stop that you bitch!" Kikyo rubbed her hair and ruefully scowled at the dark haired woman, wishing she could pull her hair!

"I'll stop it when you do what the fuck I tell you to do." Tomoe placed her hands on her hips before handing the girl a bottle of water.

"I don't want it." Kikyo stared at any other direction than at Tomoe.

"Quit being such a little brat." The nine year old continued to ignore her. Tomoe sighed. "And here I thought you were making such good progress, but if you really want to keep this up I guess we'll end up having to quit before you overexert yourself."

The girl held her childish scowl but averted her eyes back to the kunoichi. "Am I really?"

"You need to get a better grasp on the technique, but you are improving faster than I did." She waved dismissively.

"How can I even do that?" She took the water. "They're muscles, aren't they supposed to move in a specific way?" For the last couple of weeks Tomoe had been teaching the girl a way that she could move around without irritating her scar. It had something to do with having the muscles in her body move in a weird way and left her feeling achy all over on top of the flares. "Muscles are built to pull back and forth, isn't it bad to make them move elsewise? Is it even really possible?"

"I'm moving my arm, aren't I?" Tomoe rotated her arm with ease as though she didn't have a cursed scar on her shoulder.

"But that's just one little place. What we're trying to do is basically change the way most of the muscles on my body move."

"Kid, do you know what these are?" She flexed her arm back and forth. "These are called skeletal muscles, these types of muscles are voluntary. You choose to move them, you are in control. It's all about willpower."

"Tomoe, it's not that simple!" It couldn't be. All Kikyo had wanted to do since waking up in that hospital bed was get up and run away, if it were just a matter of wanting to the Kikyo should have been up and around months ago!

Tomoe's response was a clock to the girl's skull. Helpful Tomoe, very helpful.

"It's not supposed to be. You've spent your entire life training your muscles to move one way and now you're suddenly trying to force them into another? There's going to be major resistance in doing this." Tomoe crossed her arms. "Your muscles are made up of multiple fibers, this is all about learning to move those fibers in a way that they won't irritate the damaged tissue on your body."

"Fuck my luck," Kikyo grumbled.

"Yeah, basically." Kikyo was pretty sure a venomous snake had better bedside manner than Tomoe.

It took more weeks than the girl would like to admit, but she was finally able to (Kind of) do it. She could walk up and down a fucking flight of stairs without collapsing in pain! Granted, if she ever wanted to move around outside or walk it was advised she use a crutch so her scarred leg wouldn't have to support her weight for too long.

"Sweets! Sweets! Sweets!" Naruto sang repetitively as he marched ahead of the other two.

"Damn annoying little bastard," Kikyo growled as he yelled once more for the two girls to pick up the pace. She raised her crutch, aiming for his head.

"No Kikyo, don't do it." Hotaru wiggled her finger. "Don't you remember what happened last time?" Excuse her?! Kikyo remembered just fine! She whacked him over his thick skull with her crutch and the stupid thing broke in half! Stupid shitty weak crutch. She couldn't get back to the hospital on her own after that. It was hard to figure out whether Tomoe was laughing at her or Naruto when she lugged her back to her hospital room. Probably both.

"Yeah, yeah." She waved. "Maybe I should get Tomoe to make me a metal one." That would actually work nicely.

It took Kikyo only a second to realize what she thought and she shook it from her mind. No, she would not use a crutch long enough to get a personalized one!

As the two girls continued Kikyo felt eyes on them and every now and then she would catch the stares. Normally, that kind of stuff didn't bother her because it always happened to Hotaru and Naruto, but her mind just kept going to what Tomoe told her. Were they staring at Hotaru? Or were they staring at her? Were they judging her? Looking down on her pain? Did they think they were better than her?! It seemed everywhere she turned people were averting their eyes as soon she faced them.

"Kikyo? Kikyo?" Kikyo was snapped back to reality. "Are you alright?" Dammit she hated when people asked that.

"Yes!" she growled. "Why the hell wouldn't I be?"

"B-because you just kinda stopped walking and spaced out. I thought you were hurting or something."

"No! I am not hurting!" she barked. She couldn't take this. "I got somewhere to be." She marched off.

"But what about the sweets?" Hotaru pouted.

"You'll eat enough for both of us!"

Kikyo kept walking, and walking until she found herself in front of the Hokage's office. This was stupid. It was stupid and reckless and retarded and-and-and… what the fuck did she have to lose?!

The girl knocked on the office door, wondering if this was all for nothing. "Enter," she heard the calm voice say.

"Yondaime?" She opened the door and gazed at the blonde haired man that was up to his neck in paperwork.

"Yes?" He looked up from his work and blinked at the girl, looking somewhat surprised to see her in his office. "Kikyo, it's good to see you getting around. How are you feeling?"

Her eyebrow twitched. She hated hated HATED when people asked that! Deep breaths Kikyo, you can't break your crutch on the Hokage's head. He is not his son. "I'd feel better if you heard me out."

He blinked again. "Okay." He put all of his work down and took the nine year old seriously. "What can I do for you?"

"I'm getting stronger, everyday I'm getting better at moving around and am having fewer flares. But…" Dammit, what was she thinking? How could she just flat out tell the leader of the village that she was beginning to hate the village?!

"You're not feeling very comfortable, are you?"

Kikyo's shoulders slumped. "Saying that's an understatement would be an understatement."

"What can I do to help?"

"You can give me permission."

The man paused, becoming suspicious. "Permission for what?" he asked hesitantly. Smart man, had Kikyo been like she was months ago he would have every right to ask that the way he did.

"I want permission to leave the village."

If the blonde had been drinking something, he would have done a spit take. "Y-You want to—"

"Yes."

"Kikyo-chan, please understand what you're asking."

"I understand what I'm asking! But I…" She ground her teeth. "I feel there's nothing this village can do for me at the moment. I want to leave, maybe find a kind of training to compensate for my..." She ground her teeth. "...disability. It won't be forever." Probably. "I just need to get away from here for a little while."

"But Kikyo, to leave the village… it's—"

"I don't care what it is! I don't want to be here!" she snapped. "Obviously I'm just wasting my breath." She wouldn't expect him to understand. Kikyo ground her teeth again, waiting for the Hokage to chew her little ass out.

Yondaime sighed and ran his hand through his hair before an epiphany flashed across his face. "Kikyo-chan, it's more complicated than that. You're a child—"

"I am not a child!" Kikyo hasn't felt like a child in months.

"You may not believe so, but you still are in the eyes of many. It would be dangerous for you to leave the village on your own whether you were injured or not."

"I don't care."

"Kikyo-chan please…" The blonde rubbed his eyes and looked a lot older than he should have. "Give me some time to think. Work on getting better and come back again in a two days if you still feel the same. If you're still adamant on leaving I should come up with a solution by then."

"Fine, I'll be back in two days." He had better damned well have a good solution for her or she'd just leave on her own!

After an annoyingly anxious forty-eight hours, the nine year old made a b-line straight for the Hokage's office, determined to get an answer from him then and there.

"Yondaime." She nodded her head as he told her to enter his office.

"Good morning, Kikyo-chan." He wore a weary smile.

"What have you got for me?"

"Alright. I think I might have a solution." He pulled out a particular folder from his usual enormous stack of paper work. "At this time there is exactly one mission that will allow for the travel your request requires without being so dangerous that I would forbid you to go on it."

Kikyo blinked. Was he stupid? No, he's the Hokage… "You do realize that I'm a crippled nine year old… right?"

"And therein lies the problem." Oh, okay, good, so he did know. "First off, you are not qualified to accept missions, especially those of B rank." Shit, it's a B rank? "Secondly, the mission has already been taken."

"Then why the hell did you even bring it up?!" she exclaimed. Seriously, what was the point in wasting breath like that?

"Because, I will allow you to accompany the jonin who took the mission provided you have her permission."

Well, better than nothing she guessed. "Okay, who do I have to ask?"

Minato's mouth twitched to show a small smile. "Tomoe."

WHAT?!

"OH FUCK YOU!" Kikyo wanted to throw something at him. "LIKE TOMOE WOULD EVER AGREE TO THAT!" She paced angrily back and forth, flinging her crutch in the air only to flinch and bring it back down.

"Actually, I asked Tomoe specifically to take the mission for this exact reason."

That… low down dirty fucking… fuck you, Yondaime!

"Tomoe knows the most about your condition and in my opinion is the best person to guide you on your journey."

"It's a conspiracy." Kikyo shook her head.

"Wha'?"

"You all want me dead. That's what it is. There is no other explanation for trying to send me off to god knows where with that homicidal maniac!"

"She-she's not—well she kinda is, but she doesn't—well she kinda does… uh… She probably doesn't want to kill you! Most of the time." He had no fucking clue. Kikyo glared at him. But knowing Tomoe, she would get sick of Kikyo within a week and then she'd be free to do whatever she wanted until it came time to graduate.

"Fine." She crossed her arms. "When do we leave?" She wondered if she had just never mentioned anything in the first place if Tomoe would have just told her to pack her bags one morning and they would have just left.

"Well, the thing is… I have several conditions."

"…Okay."

"My first condition, if you choose to go on this mission, you should continue your studies."

"Why? What's the point?"

"Some of the greatest shinobi I know were at one point told they could never become ninja in the first place."

Kikyo chewed on the inside of her cheek. "Tomoe said something like that."

He smiled a little. "Tomoe would know."

"Is that it?"

"No, my second condition… you still got to ask Tomoe yourself if you can accompany her."

"Why? Doesn't she already know I'm coming?" He said that already, right?

"Well, she's probably guessed that was my intention… however, you still have to ask. If you don't, knowing Tomoe, she wouldn't let you go just out of spite."

"Why didn't you just tell her when you told her about the mission?"

"Well…" Even the great Yondaime, Yellow Flash of Konoha, was scared of Tomoe. "Honestly, I felt it would be best if you asked. Regardless of her feelings on the matter, of whether or not she wanted to or thought you ought to, she would have allowed you to go if I asked. She would have considered it an obligation. But Tomoe wouldn't have any problem expressing her true feelings with you." He had no fucking clue how true that statement was. "She could give you an honest answer, and I really do think that Tomoe's opinion of your condition is one of the most important at this time. So I decided to set up the situation to allow her the final say. She has had time to consider all the facts, and come to a solid decision. And it's that decision that I intend to go with. So yes, you do need to ask her."

"Fine I'll ask her. But think about this Yondaime. You're basically allowing Tomoe to raise a child for three years if she says yes. Just remember that." She gave him a look before leaving the now worried Hokage in his office.

Kikyo spent nearly an entire day doing her very hardest to think of a way to approach Tomoe on the matter. She could try bribery, but Tomoe was a hateful bitch that didn't like anything or anyone. There was blackmail, but Kikyo didn't have anything on her. What about appealing to her good nature—yeah Kikyo couldn't even think that with a straight face. What was left?

Oh just fuck it all to hell! She'd just fucking spit it out and when Tomoe said no Kikyo would just leave the village on her own after Tomoe was long gone.

The girl sat in a chair by her window and gazed outside, her eyes stared at the sunrays that peeked out over the village walls and her yearning to leave greatened.

"Oi, Runt." Tomoe swung the door opened and yelled just like she did every time she entered the room. "I brought food. Hope you like hibachi cause if you don't… well that's too bad cause I'm not going back out and I feel like hibachi."

Kikyo's eyebrow twitched, she loved hibachi, but her natural instinct was to spite Tomoe. Needless to say she had to choke down her instinct and act nice. She was pretty sure it actually caused her physical harm to do so. "Yes, I like hibachi. Thanks." Ugh, she was going to die from resisting bitchy impulses!

"Oi, what are you planning?" Tomoe asked suspiciously with her mouth full of rice.

"I'm not planning anything." Kikyo crossed her arms but then let them fall. "But Tomoe," The kunoichi looked up with her cheeks full of food. "Yondaime told me something interesting yesterday." Kikyo played with her food. "He said you were leaving the village soon. Is that true?" She peeked up and watched her chew.

"Yeah, what of it?" Tome said with her mouth full.

"Well… you probably don't want anyone to go with you, do you?"

"Eh." She shrugged. "I don't much care for long-term missions traveling around all the time. They get boring. And lonely. One time I was almost convinced a tree was talking to me. Granted I'd just gotten a lethal-for-an-elephant dose of tranquilizer…" She shrugged. "But Minato-sensei asked so, ya know, I gotta." She shrugged again.

Kikyo blinked at her, unsure of what to say next. One cannot simply come back from that kind of comment. On the bright side, she wasn't completely against the notion of company. "How…" She continued to play with her food. "How would you feel about someone tagging along?"

"Eh, depend on who the company was." Oh fuck you Tomoe! She knew perfectly well what Kikyo was asking! The stupid bitch!

Kikyo took a calm breath, making very sure Tomoe couldn't see how pissed or desperate she was. Oh, just fuck it already! "What if… what if I was the company?"

"Well…" Tomoe tapped her chopsticks to her lips as if thinking this over despite that fact that Kikyo knew that she'd had more than enough time to deliberate. "You can be an insensitive little pain in the ass, but honestly I bring that out in most people. Nice to know I'm not the big bad influence for once. You're not a total moron so I wouldn't feel inclined to throw you in a ravine and see if you could figure out that you could walk on the fucking water – wait, can you even do that yet? Probably not, moving on..."

Kikyo decided that Tomoe's 'decision-making process' was a waste of her life so she began to eat. Ugh, just get it the fuck over with already!

Kikyo may have tuned out the rest of the rant. Okay, there was no 'may' about it, but that stupid thing went on for like two minutes!

She barely managed to tune in for the important bit which would have sucked because then Tomoe would have known she hadn't been listening.

"…but I guess I could deal with your shit seeing as you're not that objectionable." Kikyo chose the wrong time to take a drink of her water as a second later it was sprayed all over Tomoe's face. The jonin stared at her with a deadpan, water dripping off of her face as Kikyo realized in horror that she may have just fucked herself. "You trying to make me change my mind, Runt?"

Kikyo couldn't answer at the moment because she was too busy beating her chest and trying to un-choke herself. Finally she was able to speak again. "Not-not going to lie, I wasn't expecting that answer."

"That's not the words I'm looking for here, Runt." Tomoe cleaned her face with a towel. She wound her arms. "It sounds more along the lines of 'I'm sor—' come on, you can do it." She motioned for Kikyo to finish it out.

Did Kikyo really want to travel with this psycho for three years? The girl looked out the window once more at the sun as it was setting behind the village gate and sighed. "I'm sorry I spat in your face because I was expecting a much more bitchy answer from you." Eh, close enough to a decent apology.

"See? Now, was that so hard?"

"I think I choked a little again."

"Eh, you'll live." Tomoe waved and finished her food.

"So, when do we leave?"

Tomoe tapped her chin again. "Tomorrow good?"

"Tomorrow's more that good. I have to get something, but I'll leave right now if you wanna."

"Nah, Bakuryuu would have kittens if we did that."

"And we care what Oji does because…"

"Like it or not he's you uncle and he loves you so you gotta say goodbye."

Gag. Seriously, don't use the 'L' word. It's lame. "Fine." Kikyo rolled her eyes, it wasn't like anyone was actually going to miss her anyway.

"WHAT?!" …Apparently Oji thought otherwise. The giant man-child was having an absolute fit because the two female Tadashi showed up at his house with their bags packed. "NO WAY! YOU ARE NOT TAKING KIKYO ON A MISSION, TOMOE! IT'S TOO DANGEROUS!"

"Your point?" Tomoe crossed her arms. "You have no say in the matter, Minato-sensei already gave us his okay."

"I-you-arrrgh!" He marched away. "Inoue! Please come and talk some sense into them! Or scold them! Or-or something!"

"Scold who? What are you talking about Bakuryuu?" The green haired woman made her way down the stairs, her three year olds tailing quickly behind her.

"Tomoe's hewe!"

"I got hew!" Suzume and Kenshin bombarded the kunoichi, clinging to her legs as she drug the two children.

"Get off my legs you little runts!" Tomoe shook her leg but it just made Suzume laugh even more as she bounced up and down.

"Suzume! Kenshin! Get off of Tomoe!" their mother ordered.

"But Momma~" the little white haired boy whined as Tomoe shook her leg even more. "Tomoe pwaying~"

"I am not! You're annoying!" Tomoe exclaimed but she wasn't doing a very good job of hiding her laugh.

"Enough!" Suzume gave her a scowl and Kenshin pouted, but they released the dark haired kunoichi.

"What's all this ruckus?" Hotaru hopped down the stairs, skipping every other one. "I was—oh hey! Hi Tomoe!" Her face split into what Kikyo could only call 'Oji Grin' when she spied her cousin. "Hey Kikyo! You look like you're doing a lot better! Wanna go play?" Naruto must have still been grounded and Hotaru was getting desperate for social interaction.

"Can't, I'm leaving." Kikyo tightened her grip on her bag.

"Oh, well that was a short visit. You just got here." She pouted a little.

"Not like that Runt Number Two, Kikyo and I are going on a little field trip out of the village." Tomoe smirked.

"NO YOU ARE NOT!" Oji proclaimed.

"Oji, you're blowing things out of proportion." Kikyo crossed her arms.

"I am not!" He pouted pitifully. "You're gonna get hurt."

"Hurt? What's she gonna be doing?" Hotaru cocked her head like a puppy.

"Oi!" Tomoe beat the back of his skull and ignored the eight year old's question as though it was just an off handed comment. "What do you take me for? Huh? You think I'm gonna get the kid killed or something?" Kikyo lifted an eyebrow, still not totally convinced that it wouldn't happen.

"No-but—"

"Come on Kikyo, you said your goodbyes. Now it's time to go."

"No she hasn't!" Hotaru put her hands on her hips. "She hasn't said goodbye to me yet!"

"Goodbye."

"That's not what I mean!" Hotaru stomped her foot angrily and the other girl rolled her eyes and ignored her cousin.

Kikyo was ready to follow Tomoe when she remembered something. "Oji?" She looked to the pouting man-child. "What happened to Hogoken?"

He paused and blinked at her. "Well, I was able to pick it up so I put it in our little training dojo in the back. No use in it just lying around on the ground until the next Ken no Keisho."

"Okay." The nine year old walked past the confused adults into the backyard then to Oji's tiny kenjutsu dojo. Hogoken was placed on a pedestal in the very back. Kikyo approached it and her hand hovered over the blade for a moment. It had allowed her to fight with it back then, but maybe it was a 'desperate times call for desperate measures' kind of thing. If that was true then her hand would just bounce backwards right? Surely it wouldn't be as bad as those 'This one time' stories she always heard. Kikyo was going outside the village walls, a sword of protection would really come in handy. "Do you want to go, Hogoken?" she asked aloud and like a magnet was in her hand the sword, sheath and all, flew the short distance into her palm.

"What the fuck?!" She looked back to see the two adult Tadashi gaping.

"I fought with Hogoken before. I forgot about it for a while, but…" She looked down at the sword. "I don't know if that means it chose me or what, but I wanted to see if it would do it again." The sword saved her life back then. Kikyo was glad the sword accepted her, even in her pathetic state. She'd learn to use it, even if it killed her.

Oji continued to blink like an idiot. Tomoe on the other hand clapped her hands together. "Well, ain't that just interesting!"

"So, is that a yes? Is Hogoken really mine?" She held it closer, daring them to take it now.

Hotaru pushed her way through the adults to see what all the ruckus was about. "Hey! That's not fair! You haven't had your Ken no Keisho yet!" She pointed accusingly. "Daddy! Kikyo's cheating!" She pouted.

"I am not!" She glared.

Bakuryuu was still stunned. "Not going to lie, if I was Hotaru I would have thought you cheated too."

"Oh screw you both," she scoffed. "Come on Tomoe."

"Wait Kikyo! When are you coming back?" Hotaru asked.

She looked back at the green haired girl. "I dunno." Hotaru didn't say anything else but continued to pout until Kikyo and Tomoe were gone.

On their way out Kikyo kept waiting for Tomoe to give her the details of the mission, but apparently Tomoe didn't think Kikyo should know.

"So Runt, you ready?" She sneered. "The place where we're headed could be unpredictable."

"Where are we going?" Kikyo didn't care if Tomoe made a snarky comment or not, she just wanted to know at that point.

"You-you don't know?" You could almost see the question mark over her head… or maybe she thought Kikyo was already in the loop. "Man Minato-sensei, way to drop the ball on that one. I assumed he told you before he had you ask."

"Nope." She popped the 'p'. "He just told me there was a way to get out of the village and told me I had to ask you for permission. That was all."

"God Minato-sensei!" Tomoe rolled her eyes. "So you have no idea what we're getting into here?"

"None what so ever." Kikyo waited for the explanation.

Tomoe sighed as the two walked down the dirt road that lead away from Konoha. "Not very long ago a squad was scouting out some territory just outside the Land of Fire. Now, as we all know, the Land of Fire has a very temperate climate full of trees and forests," she pulled out a scroll that must have been a copy of the mission report. "But from what it says here, it was noon on an almost cloudless day. The squad had just made it to the end of their route when a thunderstorm came from out of nowhere. The wind nearly blew one of them away and lightning was raining down like crazy. When the squad finally made their way through the storm what stood before them was an ocean." She rolled up the report. "This was to the north, close to the border of the Land of Grass."

Kikyo furrowed her brow. The only sea the Land of Fire had was to its southern and eastern sides, other than that it was land locked. "So what? Some kind of teleportation jutsu? A genjutsu maybe?"

Tomoe shrugged. "Dunno, that's what we're going to find out."

"Did they go any farther in to get more info?"

"A bit, but according to the report it was nothing like anything in the Elemental Nations. Right now it's not very widely known knowledge, but us being us we've already come up with a name for this damn place."

"What is it?"

Tomoe stared straight ahead. "They're calling it 'The Outside'."