"Useless!" Kiku's mother screamed. "You're ruined! Completely worthless now! How could you let this happen?"
It was Kiku's first day back home since her run-in with Gaara. She'd been in the hospital for a week. Her mother only visited her once. After she talked to the doctors the first day Kiku arrived there she never showed up again. Apparently she'd wanted to save all conversation for the privacy of their own home.
Kiku ignored her mother's yelling and settled onto her bed. She was still too sore to argue. She figured her mother would eventually just run out of steam.
"Nobody's going to want a deformed bride! How are we supposed to survive if you both aren't perfect?"
Kiku's mother continued to yell...but Kiku knew she wasn't to blame. It was just an accident.
It wasn't Kiku's fault she'd been hurt and it wasn't like the girl had intended to wind up with the thin 14" wound that went from her stomach to her back. It wasn't her fault the medics said she'd be left with a permanent scar...but her mother didn't see it that way.
"Who would possibly marry you now, Kiku?"
Her high pitched screams were giving the young girl a headache. She just wanted her mother to stop.
"We won't know until I'm older mother. Maybe it'll dissapear by then... I don't know! I'm tired...I'm in pain...and I'm going to bed. You should just be glad I didn't die and leave you stuck with my funeral payments!"
Her mother stopped yelling. Kiku turned to lay on her good side and burried her face in the pillows. This whole thing was just about money...that was it.
Kiku resented her mother so much. She'd always figured, to some extent, that she didn't mean much to mother. She and Kimi were just supposed to do as told and marry who their mother told them to...just like Kana had done. The prettier and more sophisticated she could make her girls ensured a higher place on the status ladder for them to marry into...with their mother following along on their coattails for the ride.
A little part of Kiku had wanted to believe that her mother cared more than that, but when she didn't even show up to see how her daughter was doing after nearly being killed...and when Kiku had to walk back home alone after being released...the girl lost all hope in that. As soon as her mother heard she'd been 'ruined' she lost any real concern she might have had for her youngest daughter. Kiku was certain that was how things were.
Kiku heard the door click shut behind her mother as she left. The girl turned her head to look out the window, bitter and lost in thought.
'If I'm already 'useless'...I guess it really won't matter if I become a kunoichi now.' she mumbled.