Sui Ryuu
12. Rain (Part Two)
A thick sound of rain falling on the wooden rood permeates the air around her in her small room. It's bare, with just a mat to sleep on, a few scrolls on the walls, some flowers by her window and two chests that contain all of her belongings.
She's shuffling through the chests. She's lost the bandages she uses to wrap her forehead up. She cannot leave this room without them. It's unthinkable. She panics.
She's late to school, which never happens, but she was very tired the night before and overslept about an hour...
She sleeps in the Second Branch House, with many of the other family members in nearby rooms, and still they let her oversleep. She lets out a frustrated sound, she cannot leave without something covering her forehead.
She stops, sitting on her knees, and thinks. Where did she put the bandages last night, before going to sleep?
Suddenly, she looks through her covers again, unmaking her carefully made bed, and wonders how she missed the white gauze...it's there, hidden in her sheets. Hurriedly, she wraps her head hastily, and runs out. She's so late! Iruka-sensei will be very disappointed... She looks up to the dark sky, smelling the rain and keeps running.
Thick drops: heavy rain falls, drop by drop splashing noisily as she runs out of the Hyuuga grounds, and into the village. She slips once, the ground a lot more slippery than she expected.
She arrives at the Academy after moments, and relief courses through her body. Now tired, her heart thundering, she enters the gate, and rushes through the hallways.
Finally, the classroom door, and she raises her hand to knock, and realizes how wet she is, her hair and clothing soaked and thick droplets of water trailing down her forehead and face...
Her eyes widen, realization suddenly hitting her.
There's is nothing covering her forehead...the bandage must've slipped off in the rain.
She'd tied it on so carelessly, in such a rush...Oh, she should've been more careful! She wants to hit herself, and she wants to cry. She can't walk into the class, she can't show her face...
She feels someone on the other side of the door, and realizes Iruka-sensei must have noticed her there, and she wills her feet to move, to hide, to leave, but somehow, she can't.
Muffled through the door, she hears her teacher's yelling: "Naruto! That's the last time, I catch you again and you're going to regret your sorry ass!"
The door opens abruptly, and Naruto is held by his collar by a very shocked Iruka, and his harsh face disappears into confusion when he sees the girl. To her horror, she sees their eyes trailing up her face, to her wet, bare forehead...
They can see, they are not blind.
Silently, tears fall down her face, but she's so wet already from the rain that you can't see it.
Her mind is blank, she doesn't think anymore. She can't. She simply runs.
She runs as fast as she can, the opposite way, to hide, to run, she leaves. She's going to hide in the rain. The hallways disappear, the gates are far behind.
Her sensei and Naruto are far behind, as she runs through small streets and through parts of the village she's never seen, never walked through. No one notices her, no one is out in the rain, except her.
Suddenly, there's a bridge, and a voice that calls out her name.
And she stops.