Author's note: Bit of a time-skip here, nothing major. A year or so.
"What the hell, Hikaru! How can you still be able to do that?" Kagemaru, completely exhausted, was sitting on the porch during a rare sunny day. Kurai, now ten, had fallen asleep watching her twin sister, Hikaru, sparring with her cousin.
Hikaru and Kurai could not have been any more different. Where Kurai was pale, dark, and weak with light amber eyes, Hikaru was tan, blonde, and stronger than an ox with bright black eyes. She seemed to almost exude energy and chakra, nearly glowing with good health whereas Kurai seemed to nearly soak up the sun in an attempt to even gain a normal ten-year-old's energy. It was sad, really, that in the olden days Kurai wouldn't even have still been alive. It was family tradition for twins to fight to the death in hopes of retaining the "balance". The Clan's crest was even a Yin-Yang symbol set in a square formed by four black dots. To all appearances, Hikaru was the Yin and Kurai the Yang.
Kurai didn't even twitch when Hikaru plunked herself down right beside her. The poor kid was exhausted after a morning of "special training".
"How long's she gonna sleep?" Hikaru cocked her head, looking down at her twin. Kagemaru shrugged.
"She's always sleeping. I don't know why Inazuma bothers. She's weak." He looked down at his younger cousin with disdain, his hawk-like face much like his father's.
"Go-" Kurai responded with an extremely graphic offer. "-yourself." She uncurled herself and sat up, vertebrae cracking. She yawned hugely, feeling as if her narrow little jaw was going to dislocate. She stood up, patting the dust off of her black tunic.She flicked her ponytail over her shoulder and walked off.
"I'm weak," she called over her shoulder at the corner of the house. "But I'm sure as hell a better ninja than you are, Kagemaru."
"What?" he shouted, stomping after her. At thirteen, he didn't like to be talked down to by his baby cousin. He glared down into her face. She looked up at him, lone visible eye impassive through her bangs. "I'm the best genin here! Everyone says so!" Hikaru made a little disbelieving noise through her hand, but no one noticed. It was true, though. Kagemaru was a gifted genin if there ever was one.
"You rely on your strength too much," Kurai's mouth tossed out harsh words like sharp rocks. "You don't think. You meet your enemies head-on like a dumbass."
"And you couldn't hit a practice dummy without bruising your poor little hand." Kagemaru pushed her, but Kurai grabbed his wrist, digging fingernails that had suddenly become claws into his flesh. He didn't yelp, instead snarling in fury. How could girl who wasn't even strong enough to become a genin learn to use the family blood-limit already?
"What can I do to get a little respect around here?" her voice was cool, expressionless. Her eyes were unreadable but Kagemaru was almost sure that he could see the tiniest flicker of uncertainty in their amber depths. He was taken aback by the question.
"The day you beat me is the day I respect you." He growled with a sneer. She would never be able to beat him. He was over a foot taller than her and weighed about sixty more pounds in muscle. She released him, running her long, pink tongue over a bloodied claw.
"Then that day will come." She said, a faint purr of anticipation in her voice. "I've already had a taste of your blood. I am eager for more." There was the flicker of a genjutsu and she disappeared in a breath of dust.
Kagemaru eyed the wounds in his arm as if they would immediately turn green from rot. Finally, he said, "She's been around Inazuma too much. She's beginning to talk like her." Hikaru was more than delighted. Her twin had such power, even with all the odds against her! And more power for the taking. She was faintly breathless at the prospect.
"You're joking, right?" her voice came out as a high-pitched squeak and she was shivering, only wearing a very short kimono, just like her sensei.
"Darling, do I ever joke?" Kurai looked up at Inazuma, mimicking her confident smirk and saying at the same time, "It gives me wrinkles." Inazuma proceeded to stretch, not bothered by the fine drizzle and the thick mist. Finally, she leapt, doing a handspring right over into the gorge. Kurai gave a strangled shriek but cut it off when she saw her aunt standing on thin air. A huge canyon called Cloud Gorge sported a rocky bottom and a ferocious river. Inazuma was standing two hundred and fifty feet over it on air.
"You're going to teach me how to do that, right?" Kurai squeaked, feeling her knees trembled. Inazuma did a few cartwheels, seemingly walking on the fog.
"Of course. And you're learning in the best way possible."
"And which way is that?"
"With a handicap. You're cold, yes?" Kurai didn't bother answering, trusting her chattering teeth to do the talking for her. "Perfect. It'll be harder to focus."
"But…" she tip-toed to the edge of the canyon and looked down, only able to see five feet in any direction through the mist. She was already soaked to the skin and could feel yet another head-cold coming on. "Umm… what?" Inazuma kept doing cartwheels on the air as she explained.
"You have so little chakra, I'm amazed you're even still alive and able to do genjutsu. But, the less you have the better control you have over it. You mastered tree-climbing the first day. You could already walk on water on your third try before collapsing halfway out." Kurai blushed with embarrassment. She had gotten influenza from falling into the freezing-cold water of the lake. "Now, you've already had your afternoon nap-" Kurai flushed an even deeper shade of red at the slur in Inazuma's voice. She always had to rest or she would faint. "-you should be relatively fresh." But then her eyes suddenly softened and she walked over to Kurai, resting a hand on the head crowned with luster-less black hair.
"It's not you're fault you're not as strong as the others." She murmured. Tears of rage glittered in her niece's eyes as the Torakiba looked into her eyes.
"Inazuma-sensei…" Inazuma winced inwardly. She hated the "sensei" bit. "I know I am weak. I know that for years everyone's talked of having me killed." Inazuma was cautious. She had never heard that tone before. It was at the same time furious and dispassionate. But Kurai's eyes no longer held rage as she realized the hopelessness of her situation. "I am weak, I will get killed sooner or later, either by the clan or a real enemy. I am working at a disadvantage. But I am glad I have that disadvantage, sometimes. I am forced to work harder and better myself constantly."
Inazuma gently gripped her niece's chin and tilted her head back, the better to look at her.
"It doesn't bother you that you are ten times as vulnerable as any other clan member? Even Obaba?" a small, sad smile crept its way onto Kurai's face.
"It bothers me, but not too much. There's not a whole lot I can do about it. I will show them all someday that I am stronger than any of them."
Inazuma ruffled her niece's limp bangs.
"Come on, kid, let's get to work."
Kurai scrubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and snapped to attention, still shivering violently in the cold.
"Couldn't we have worn weather appropriate clothes?" she sniffed, feeling a cold coming on. Inazuma scowled.
"Now. Beginners should learn with a lot of water in the air. Shinobi can walk on water. Thus, you can have your feet stick to the water in the air. That's why we're doing this now in the drizzle. Less clothes means less weight and less that can get wet and weigh you down even more. Catch my drift?" the girl nodded, not really sure what else to do.
"Then could you have taught me not over a canyon? Maybe off of a tree stump or something?" Inazuma sighed, shoulders sagging. Then, with a burst of speed Kurai could never have fathomed, Inazuma grabbed her niece's wrists and slung her out across the gorge.