Escaping through the window, Hasuka began her first training of the night. Her self-guided task was to return to the training grounds as undetected as possible; not at all was preferable. Pulling herself onto the roof, she paused a moment, letting the breeze brush by her exposed shoulders and neck.
It was a cool breeze, signaling colder temperatures to come, even in the temperate climate of the Land of Fire. Goosebumps appeared on her skin when her breath hitched, the tinge of cold unfamiliar. Only a second did she pause before continuing her movements, dashing across the shingles and rooftops.
Now knowing where the training grounds were by heart, she made her way stealthily through the night, the back flap of her skirt flapping behind her gracefully. When there were no more houses in her pathway, she leapt to the ground, perfecting the role that she hadn't been able to stick in her past training.
Coming to a standing position, she paused once more in the middle of the road. Hasuka looked upwards at the silvery moon, not unlike a celestial beacon guiding her way. With a slow intake of breath, she focused energy into her eyes, feeling them sink into the black lines around her pupils. "Taming Technique: Fauna Force," she muttered, risking the reveal of her presence.
As she continued on her merry way, so many things popped out at her that she sometimes had to close her eyes against the onslaught, blocking out the sight rather than risk a sensory overload. Upon arriving at one of the training fields, she made sure to keep her eyes open, searching. Searching for what, she had no idea, just searching.
Then, without a word, Hasuka began to dance. With slow and steady movements, she planted herself into the ground, refusing to budge even if she were attacked that very second. It was a beautiful dance; done in the dark of night, her shadow following her without a second's pause. It was a dance of death, one meant to kill the attack without mercy.
Although the movements were slow, they built up the strength, position, and feeling of how they would be delivered if at full speed. Once a handful of the same form were completed to her mental standards, she attempted the movements faster. Hasuka's breathing came out in quick huffs as she tried to suppress it for the cause of not being heard while sweat dropped from her forehead unabashed.
Drawing her only two shuriken from her weapons pouch, she fluidly moved out of taijutsu practice and onto weapons. She stared at them for a moment, feeling the surprisingly heavy weight of the metal in her hand. With little prior knowledge, she looked where she wanted the weapon to go and threw it in the way one might throw a frisbee, hitting her target spot on.
What happened in the span of a second between her fixation on the invisible bulls-eye and her throw was her body subconsciously fixing itself. When throwing the second, the same thing occurred. This one landed slightly at an angle, but for not much practice in their use, Hasuka thought that she had done more than good.
Now, she thought, how could she incorporate them into her normal attacks? Perhaps she could use them like her hair sticks? Deciding to try it out, she connected one to a points on each blade and dropped them, letting them hang free. They were heavier than wood certainly but overall they didn't feel too differently. What might cause a problem is wrapping them in an energy casing. The shape was so irregular that it would prove difficult to mold the energy to it's shape.
For some reason though, when Hasuka tried tossing and maneuvering around with them, they were being almost unruly. The metal edges would sink into anything it came into contact with. They be good sometimes but for practice, it became a hinderance. Trying to hold them a different way, she split the end of an energy string into 4 parts and connected them to the center circle of the shuriken.
This time when she pulled on it, it laid flat and when swinging it around, while it would still get stuck in branches, it was much easier to pull out. Glad to have discovered a use for them, Hasuka worked on controlling both with one hand. One on each was easy, but there may one a time where only one hand is free for some reason, and she wanted to be prepared.
The way that she had been holding the string, wrapping her fingers around it, was not conductive to this technique, so she had to change where the sting was coming out of her hand from. Painstakingly slowly, Hasuka changed the flow of energy away from that area to instead split into five streams that were directed into the fingers. From there, she sent out the strings, connecting to the four points and center of the shuriken.
Hasuka spent a couple of moments getting used to the feeling and how different it felt to move the weapon around in such a way before disconnecting and separating the strings, two to each shuriken with the middle finger left unattached. Her problem now was making sure that the two did not hit each other, eventually giving up due to its futility.
With a sigh, she retrieved the weapons, connecting her energy strings back onto the end of her hair sticks. Walking over to a tree on the edge of the clearing, Hasuka climbs it and throws the projectile, watching it wrap around the limb of another tree. She tightens her grip on the string before leaping off of the branch, flying through the air even as she is throwing and setting the next stick in place to keep her momentum going.
Continuing onward through the forest, she loses track of how long she spends mechanically throwing, setting, swinging, releasing, and setting again. Only when the glimmers of a large pond are seen in the moonlight does she finally swing her last time, landing near the water's edge.
Peering into it's depths, she sees something that seemed to glow at the bottom of the water, very faint, but even when she stuck her face below it still glimmered. For some reason, Hasuka had a strange desire to figure out exactly what it was and so removed her sweater, skirt, and bandages in preparation to dive down for it.
Just as she was about to sink below the surface however, the glowing orb split into two shapes who lazily rose to the surface. Stumbling back, she waited for whatever it was to come out of the water and chase her away, but nothing came. Instead, she crawled across the cool earth back to the water's edge and looked at the now reformed orb of light.
What she had thought initially was a sphere were in fact two glowing fish swirling around each other, one that was white with a black ring around the eye, and the other black with a white ring. Gaping at them, Hasuka's eyes only widened more when a voice rang around the pond, looking around for the source.
It was an angelic voice, a calming voice. One that instantly soothed her panicked mind into a peaceful state, even as she questioned who exactly was talking. Even when focusing energy into her eyes, the small girl couldn't see anyone who could be making the sound.
"Down here," the voice whispers, causing her to look once more at the glowing being before her.
"W-What are you?" She asks, frightened of the voice and the fish and the unearthly glow.
"Calm, child," the voice commands. "I am what you need."
"What do you mean?" She questions, distrustful of the peaceful sounding animal.
"You may call me Balance."
"Why should I call you that?"
"I help people to find it. You seem to have seen much to be so distrustful. I can heal your pain, make it better so that you can grow and learn."
"You mean, as in teach me?" Hasuka asks.
"I can," the fish respond. "However all power comes with a price. Have you noticed?"
"What do you mean?"
"You had to leave a life behind, including a past teacher to get where you are."
"H-How did you know that?" She shrieks, scrambling back away from the water.
"Wisdom comes through Time, Balance comes through Wisdom, and Time does not hinder those who covet Balance," the neither masculine-nor-feminine voice replies mysteriously.
"I don't trust you," the girl growled.
"Is it because of Garoma?" The fish guessed.
Feeling defeated, Hasuka replies, "Yes."
"Would you like to see him now?"
"Can you guys do that?!" She exclaimed.
"Of course," the spirit replies. Suddenly, a flash fills her vision, and she's back in the forest, Garoma by her side.
"Garoma!" She calls joyfully.
"He cannot hear you," the voice explains, seeming to shake the image itself. Hasuka casts her eyes downwards, crestfallen, as her past friend and teacher prowls through the night.
He sniffs the air gently, turning in her direction. Her hopes are lifted that he might at least be able to see her, only for him to turn away and plunge through the bushes once more. "Let me go," she mutters, wringing her hands in frustration.
"As you wish," the fish allow.
In a blink, she was back in a different dark forest, with a bleary lake in front of her and no Garoma to be found, only two cruel fish to keep her company. Wet tears streamed down her face as she collapsed on the ground, sobbing. "W-Why would you do that to m-me?!" She stutters.
"You need to face him, even if only in your mind."
"Take me back!" She screams, dragging her hands through the long blue strands. With a 'poof' her transformation jutsu collapses, leaving her holding the red hair and blue eyes that she had not payed more than a second's attention to in months. "Take me back so he can see me! So I can see him! I've changed! Why did he have to leave me like this?!" She screeched into the night.
"As you wish," the fish respond again. A flash later, Hasuka is sobbing on the dead leaves on the outskirts of a Sunagakure village, without truly being there. Her raccoon paces by leisurely, so close she could touch him, without knowing a thing. With fingers splayed, she reaches for him, cringing before pulling her hand back as tears fell harder.
"I can't," she hiccups. "-take this anymore. I've seen enough! I don't understand anything anymore! We were fine together! Just the two of us! Then I had the chance to get stronger and I took it and look where I am now! I'm here on the ground with no one to guide me and my closest friend just left me for what?! He wouldn't even explain himself! He just left me, with someone else's blood on my hands, without a care in the world to how I felt! Would he be happy now?! To see me like this?!"
The voice remained silent through her rant, watching the poor girl wipe her face only for more to stream down, eventually giving up on rubbing them dry. Eventually her cries ceased, her body only shaking with sobs until those too stopped. "He's gone now," she uttered. "It's time for me to go home."
"As you wish," the fish concede. Hasuka, who's eyelids could barely stay open any longer, slowly rose and collected her garments, wrapping and tying them back onto her body.
"Goodbye," she calls, disheartened.
"Goodbye," the voice replies calmly to the girl. Not even having enough energy to use her hair sticks to swing back, Hasuka paces through the underbrush tiredly, making her way back in the direction that she remembers coming from.
Hasuka sighs once she reaches the training field again, falling over onto the soft grass. Although the night is chilly, her mind doesn't care, only craving rest to recover emotional energy.
Kakashi stared coldly at the red-haired girl's form. He had been contacted immediately when the landowner over Hasuka's apartment had noticed her chakra leave the room in the middle of the night and he was not particularly happy about it.
Even though she had just been training, he was on his guard, waiting for the moment when she might escape. The Hokage himself had set up this system as an extra precaution because there were not enough shinobi to keep one on her at all times. As the strongest on their team it was only natural that he should be the one to go after her if she ran, and so he was here, watching over a girl who was too guided by emotions.
Her actions only reinforced his ethic of not letting emotions and feelings get in the way of your goals. They were holding her back from getting stronger, not that he was complaining. Even if he lost sleep, it was worth it so that his duty as a ninja would be completed.