The siblings came to around the same moment, both startled from a deep sleep.
"Komura...?" Akino called from a few feet away from her. "Why does my head hurt?" His voice became increasingly panicked the longer he went on. "And why are we in the middle of the woods?!"
Through the leaves above, Komura witnessed the final wisps of smoke trailing up into the sky. She blinked before pointing at them, indicating for Akino to follow her.
"Where's mother? Oh no! I hadn't even thought about her last night! What happened?! Is she okay?!"
"Akino calm down, just look through your eyes."
"What do you mean?! I am looking!"
"I mean really look, at me."
Akino quieted down at his sister's words. He closed his eyes momentarily and reopened them, seeing an almost imperceptible glow around Komura.
"K-Komura...you're glowing yellow..."
"Yes Akino I am well aware," Komura replies sarcastically.
"Well what color am I?"
Komura paused before answering, "A light blue..." It was the first time she had ever lied to Akino. Sure, there were jokes and snide comments every now and then, but never a flat out lie. In truth, Akino's aura was a deep crimson, a little lighter than the shade of blood.
"Oh really?! I wonder what that could say about me..."
"We should probably be getting back..." A little reminder was all that it took to get Akino back on track, thinking once more about the events that had transpired. As the pair walked in search of where the smoke had risen from, Akino babbled nonstop about last night, from berating himself, to defending himself, to making sure that she was okay, to worry about mother, and finally wondering why the female had let them go practically unscathed, before looping around again.
Komura herself was quiet. The events of the night past whirling through her head in a never ending dance. She too pondered the reason for them being alive, but other thoughts glided past as well. While she was young and didn't know much, she knew this, Komura was sure that the woman was supposed to kill the two of them. It certainly would have been simple, with how easy it was to incapacitate them for her. Yet she didn't. Nor did the small girl think, she would ever receive an answer to her questions.
The shrubbery thinned and trees grew more scarce as Akino and Komura were revealed from the forest. To their dismay, what lay before them was in fact the burned-out remains of their village.
Silently, they approached the embers, no longer producing the mass of smoke as they had earlier. They stood resolute, unable to believe that what they saw in front of them used to be their home.
Wooden and stone pieces poked out of the ground, the only charred remains of a once prosperous village. Numbly they passed by, the worst of the carnage were the bodies. Horrible stinking masses of undefinable flesh and bone, where once living and breathing people stood.
The children were stunned silent, simply gazing around at the horrors surrounding them. Not a sound passed through the ghost town, the vultures hadn't even bothered to come down and see what meat was ripe for the picking.
The heat of the day only made the smells worse, baking the bodies after they had already been burned through. Komura thought that she would never be able to get the picture out of her head.
The entire town, wiped out in mere hours. Akino was sure the news had spread to the bigger cities, some traveling merchant must have seen the carnage and reported it to the authorities. He realized then that they couldn't stay here.
"Komura," he whispered, not wanting to break the stillness of the land. "We need to go. There's nothing left for us here." Honestly, he was scared. What thirteen year old wouldn't be? He wasn't sure how his sister was holding herself together so, but he admired her for it slightly.
"But-" Komura tried.
"No buts."
Komura fell silent, knowing her brother was right. They meandered down the path until they reached their home, or what it used to be. Nothing remained, not the kitchen table where they would all eat together every night. Not their bedroom, where they had shared many nights staying up when they weren't supposed to be. Not even the scrolls Akino read in the early hours of the morning when everyone was still asleep.
Yet mother was nowhere to be found. Akino concluded that she must not have returned last night before the burning occurred, which gave him hope. Even so the logical side of his brain crushed that hope, knowing deep down that she was gone.
"Akino, it's not good to linger on thoughts of what-ifs and could-haves," Komura called to him. Shaking himself out of the revery, he looked at her, really looking. The sadness and regret that she herself had, manifested itself into her aura, decreasing it's brilliance.
"Haha, don't worry about me sis, I'll be fine, it's you I'm more worried about." He smiled, trying to lighten the atmosphere. A thin smile made it's way to her face, lacking any of the usual humor.
"We should go, as you said, there's nothing left for us here." Komura muttered, turning from the house. Only then did she let a single tear flow, not halting it's descent until it dropped to the sandy floor below.
Akino and Komura dejectedly left the remains of the village behind. They knew nothing about where to go or what do, only the will to survive driving then foreword, back into the forest where they woke up. The sun was high in the sky when they first felt the rumbles of their stomaches.
A groan escaped Komura's mouth as she looked around at all the green and brown foliage. Something here must be edible, if only we knew what. Akino was thinking of a similar mind, although instead of food he thought of shelter. No doubt ninja would be coming sooner or later to inspect the remains, and they would surely search the surrounding area for any sign of survivors.
If they didn't want to be brought back either as outcasts or in suspicion, they would have to hide. As he was about to reach out and touch her shoulder she swiftly looked back at his outstretched hand. He paused his movement, but showed no sign of any other confusion.
"Komura," he began.
"Yes?" She answered back.
"I think we need to be prepared. Anything new could happen out here. It's likely we'll die from one reason or another, but you don't want that, do you?"
Komura thought a moment on Akino's words. Of course she did not want to die, she was too young for such ideas, but with the war going on it was not inconceivable that death would occur. Not to mention natural dangers out in the woods, and they were unarmed.
Now, I will tell you in advance, there are a handful of things that can occur when two people are put into a situation such as they are presently. The first is lose hope, and die. The second, live on but only barely and with no purpose, living day by day. The third is that only one survives and the other lives on for them. The fourth requires the aid of at least one other person, they are saved from the predicament and follow the savior wholeheartedly. Yet this story deals with the fifth, they manage to survive for an extended period of time, and finally find a home back in society, or some form of it.
To the two young siblings, death was not an option. They were the sole survivors of a village wrecked my turmoil, and to toss that fortune, good or bad, out the window would be disgraceful to their mother.
Akino's limited knowledge of plants was able to get them through a day before his lack of knowledge provided no ideas for other edible food source of a plant nature. So they moved on, eating what they could and straying away from possibly harmful greens.
With Akino's forethought, he realized that Komura's bright clothing could attract unwanted attention, and even muddied his clothing along with hers when a stream was discovered the following day.
Berries and plants were all good and all, but Komura could not resist her hunger. The pair had lost an eye-raising amount of weight, walking or running all week and sleeping high up in the trees at night, always with one of them on lookout.
In that time they had seen no other sign of human life thankfully. But they were always on guard in case anything were to occur. Before moving from their location in the morning they would practice moving quickly through the trees in the area. Akino didn't know much, but whatever he could he taught to Komura.
It was on one such morning when they spotted the remains of a campsite. After a week of no idea if this was even a part of any nation's territory, for they had no idea the distance that they had traveled, finally some sign of human life was discovered.
Komura and Akino dropped from the trees, inspecting the campsite. The fire pit was cold, some of the woods still remaining inside. Although the sun had not even started it's heavenly decent, Akino decided to stop for the night.
"Why are we stopping here?" Komura protested.
"Because, it's high time we practice on jutsu, and since now there is proof of others nearby, we need to make sure we can at least try to defend ourselves."
"I don't know any jutsu..." Komura states the obvious.
"This is why for you we will only work on Taijutsu. You know the differences between the three correct?"
"Mhm," Komura nods in affirmation.
"Then let's begin."
At first Akino tried to be gentle. Whenever they practiced in the academy it was always on dummies, so it was okay to go full force into your technique. However these attacks were being used directly on Komura so she could good get a good feel for them.
A few hours later, Komura was able to do something to stop a handful of the different possibilities she might see.
Satisfied, he then had her practice the kicks he just performed on a nearby stump. It was difficult at first, she needed to work on her balance so she wouldn't fall over, but Akino was sure she would get them in time.
For that day, all he had her do was practice. On a living tree on the opposite side of the clearing he worked his own kicks, putting more strength into them this time so as not to lose the skill.
Komura ceased practicing when she felt her left leg give out. She had worked both of them so as not to tire out as quickly, but it seems to have happened anyway.
Instead, she sat cross-legged over near the fire pit and closed her eyes. Slowly breathing in and out, she calmed her racing heartbeat and, with nothing else to do, listened to the surrounding forest. The sounds of bugs and animals were diminished by the overarching noises of Akino practicing.
His labored breathing was apparent and Komura could almost imagine his posture as he readied himself to perform another attack. Despite her imagining she didn't see him in full color, instead it was more so an outline of what his aura might be.
In her imagination he stood up fully and lifted his leg, before setting it back down again. The sounds of crunching leaves passed closer to Komura as she opened her eyes, breaking the trance-like state.
Akino stood in front of Komura before sitting down like her.
"Hey there," he greeted cheerfully.
"Hello..." she responded, slightly confused.
"I don't know a lot of ninjutsu," Akino began. "But I do know one thing that can come in real handy."
"And that is...?"
"That, my dear sister, would be the Transformation Jutsu."