I was quite the careless child. "Hasteless Hanako" is what they called me. My own acts of carelessness killed my parents when I was only 13 years old.
I miss them every day. My parents worked as relations between the Village Hidden in the Sand and Konohagakure, with them sending letters between the two nations when they had nobody from the respective nations that they could send. They were the main breadwinners of our little border village and were almost as respected as the chief who was only second to the Hokage.
One day, it was pouring down hard and yet, I wanted my parents to take me hiking up a nearby mountain. I may have been 13 at the time but I was quite childish. I walked up to my parents who were working on sending a birthday letter to the third Hokage Hiruzen Saratobi.
"Mother, father, can we go up to the mountain?" My parents paused. "Don't be silly, don't you see the rain outside?" My father asked with a smile. "You're father's right, maybe we can go tomorrow." My mother added. My face showed visible frustration. "It's just a little rain and rain just water and if we move quickly we won't get soaked." I said with a sly smile thinking that they were totally convinced. I was wrong to say the least, it would take at least 5 minutes of begging.
"But we could all catch a cold and that would slow down our work and besides even if we did run as fast as possible the rain would always be a step ahead of us." My father said with stern eyes. I then got into a dog-like submissive position and began to cry like a newborn infant. "Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, take me to the mountain!" I said with puppy-dog eyes and the shakiest voice I could muster.
My mother and father looked at each other before whispering something that I couldn't make out. My mother then sighed. "After some careful deliberation, we've given in and agreed to take up to the mountain for only an hour. And do not expect us to grant this kind of wish next time." My mother said firmly. I ran up to my parents and hugged them "Thank you!"
5 minutes later, my mother and father were racing through the forest, I followed just steps behind. Something caught my eye, it was a pure black flower that I had never witnessed before. It was dark and beautiful yet had a certain melancholy to it. I bent over and carefully observed the obsidian colored flower."Hanako, come!" My father said as he noticed that I was several feet behind them. "Come look at this flower, it's amazing!" I shouted with a bright gleam in my eyes.
"What is it?" My mother asked as both of them began to walk over. "What is this mom?" I asked. "Hm, it seems to be a black Lilyrose." A black lily rose huh, that's a graceful name. "Are you crying?" My father asked with a teasing smile. I touched my cheek only to feel a warm teardrop falling down my cheek. "I guess I am." I said blankly.
I then, without thinking, took the flower from the ground. "Wait, did you hear that?" My mother asked my father as she closed her eyes and held her breath. "Yeah." Suddenly a man holding a spear came running out of the woods ahead of us, a small spider like-creature following behind him with its pincers pointed at the man.
The creature's legs were crooked but its body was huge that compensated for a small head. It was a summoning beast and it certainly wasn't a tailed beast either; it was something my father had spoken of when I was just a little girl. "It's a dark tailed-beast!" My mother shouted with a voice of distress and fear in her eyes. I gripped the lillyrose tight. These tailed-beast-like beings are said to exist in order to punish sinners in the name of goddess Itadori.
My legs were locked and my breathing became almost asthmatic. My hands shook and I simply just stood and watched as the events unfolded in front of me. Suddenly the spider switched its attention from the man over to me and my eyes met its eight. The spider began to rush at me with each step it took my heart rate increased.
"Get out of the way, Hanako." My mother shouted. She always told me to act with haste and yet I was always slow, this time was no different. The spider was 8 meters away. 6 meters. 4 meters. 2 meters. I didn't move a muscle, my whole system was still paralyzed.
Time seemed to slow down a second feeling like an hour. My mother stood in front of me. I gripped the lilyrose tight. I could only moan out the word "Mother." as I watched the spider dig his pincers into her shoulders. The spider pumped my mother's whole body full of hot acid. Her last words were "It hurts."
Within a matter of seconds after she spoke she was melted down to a pile of flesh, skin, bones, and blood. My mother was completely erased in a matter of fear was increased by tenfold as its pincers which were covered in my mother's blood were mere centimeters from my face. I wanted to cry but I was empty.
But before I reunited with my mother my father in a rage grabbed the man's spear and began to stab the spider with it, managing to keep it a safe distance away from me. "Hanako, run!" My father shouted as he wrestled with the creature. "I-I can't move." I whispered. "Run!" My father retorted ignoring my words.
Soon enough, despite his desperate fighting to protect me, he too was pierced by the pincers and pumped full of acid. He didn't speak as he melted away, he just looked at me, his eyes filled with nothing but despair. I finally screamed at the top of my lungs and fell to the ground in a sobbing mess. My hair had gone from lemony blonde to a blank white.
I stood in the forest alone with three messes around me, my parents and a total stranger. I was surely going to meet the same fate. Suddenly, lightning flashed throughout the sky. Then, a tall hooded man with an aura of benevolence appeared from the forest. "Lightning-style: Five Spears of Causation." Three spears of lightning appeared above the man and two more spears appeared above the spider. The 2 spears above the spider slammed into its body which caused it to cry out in pain as its purple bodily fluids began to leak from it.
Still, the thing refused to die. It sped at the man and tried to spew its acidic webs at the mysterious man. The man easily dodged and smiled. "Oh little one, what a rough existence you have. You lived only to kill others and now you will die by being killed. Quite poetic." The man's way with words moved tears.
With a slight movement of his hand, he flung the three spears above him into the spider's three spears energy collided with the previous two and created a reactionary effect that caused an explosion of heat and smoke. There was nothing left of the poor thing besides the burnt outline on the ground where it once was
The man sighed heavily. "Although I was merely traveling through the forest to reach the village nearby I feel as if our meeting was predestined. I'm sorry for your loss but, I believe you should continue on despite how hard life may get." He bent down and offered a hand to me and his hood hung which allowed me to get a view of his face.
He had beautiful emerald green eyes and beige colored hair. His skin was fair and his smile was that of a holy being. Despite the fact that I wanted nothing more than to see my parents again, just from the man's words alone, I gained the will to survive.
I clutched the lillyrose tight.