DFS Chapter 22.
Intent is important, and so is imagination.
She watches the other children struggle to form a lotus, and scowls when the image in her hand begins to grow faint. Flicker.
Concentration is as well.
Tsuru tries again, attempting to construct the white poppies she had seen as she traveled with her brother.
She lets the desk act as as a ledge, pushing a steady stream of constantly moving chakra into her palms. Attempts to weave the image into being.
Magic, she thinks shouldn't need hand signs.
Much of it seems to here, though.
She forces her hands to form the familiar hand seals. Ones Yuichi has drilled her on, again and again.
Tentatively, a single stem erupts from a small tuft of oblong leaves and reaches towards the light. It's urn shaped bud opening, and four petals spreading out.
Tsuru tilts her head as that image to is disturbed. Kimimaro's fingers caressing the bloom, instead of passing through.
"It's smooth," he critiques, frowning.
She grimaces. "It shouldn't be."
It should of been hairier, like the crocuses that sprouted in spring among the foothills. The ones she picked with her cousins for their mothers.
Softer.
0o0o0
Her mother never stopped, not even after things fell apart and her father took his life.
Tsuru watches one of Isano's friends struggle, as so many have before. One of the woman's sister's holding her shaking form.
The only difference is that their wife is about to being executed in the square, for plotting against Yagura, and the village.
Tsuru observes from her fathers side as her brother steps onto the podium. His face colder than she's ever seen before.
Isano follows him, in her uniform.
Twelve masked ninja stand before them, weapons drawn as stand guard over the traitors. The ninja bound to wooden stands, with their limbs splayed between the posts. Bruised skin, and torn skin marked with their crimes. Paralyzing agents course through their veins, courtesy of Sachihiro's mentor.
"We have been betrayed," he brother starts, and then continues with the speech he has been preparing for a week.
Tsuru has heard it to many times to be awed, as many of the others are. Instead she examines the crowd discreetly, and catches sight of a few familiar faces. Most nearby, or preparing a bonfire for the bodies. Piles of garbage ready to be burned along with them.
She sees Haku near the edges, and moves, before she realizes she has. Her fathers hand still in hers.
By the time Tsuru's almost reached him, she finds herself stopping.
When did she begin to care weither it would bother him, or not?
0o0o0
Within a few weeks, Tsuru's desk has become more crowded. Children watching Haku as he reads softly from her notebook.
Subarou's arm resting beside hers, as he sits between her, and Kimimaro. Kotatsu and Montaro to their right. All entranced as Tsuru had been, when she had first listened to cassette sent by her colleague. Her love of radio plays, and dramas well known.
Tsuru had never actually read any of the earthsea cycle books, despite the acclaim they had received, to focused on other matters and a part of her regrets it. Never bought it on tape.
So much literature lost, because she had not bothered to read them.
Still, she has other tales to tell.
Not everything was lost.
0o0o0
A month has passed since the other children have started surrounding her desk, drawn by Haku and his attempts to read the rest of her notebooks.
And it was almost comforting for awhile, but children from other classes have begun to wander in. Teachers too.
And their eyes are far to shrewd.
"You planned this!" Tsuru finally accuses, storming into Yagura's office as the door opens.
Momochi's eyebrows raise when she continues past him.
"Of course I did," her brother replies, still focused on a delicate looking scroll. A few seconds later he raises his head. "Wait- What are we speaking of?"
She drops onto the vacant seat, and covers her face with her hands, elbows digging into her thighs.
"I'm tired big brother and they keep bothering me during the breaks. Making me read words they don't recognise, and pestering me until I explain. I told them to bug me only during the last, but some of them just don't listen."
"And they're multiplying! Why can't they just go back to pretending i don't exist?"
"It's good to make friends your age, Tsuru-kun," Yagura reassures. "And Isano will be pleased, you know how important she thinks they are."
Tsuru freezes.
They are important.
Fuck.
"I hate you, sometimes," she grumbles, standing up. "You know you're supposed to be on my side right?"
He laughs, and waves his hand towards the coinpurse on his desk. "Go grab us something to snack on, hangry and we'll talk. Perhaps Zabuza-kun will even escort you if you ask him nicely."