the running free

[✘TAIGA]

The soft fall of footsteps echoed gently across the grassy fields of Konoha, a rush of yellow contained in a blur of movement. Windswept pigtails swayed within the breeze, Hotarubi's crimson jacket flapping about, behind her. Up high scattering fragments of amber light peeked through the cloudy sky. The air was cool to the touch, caressing the body as if one were in cool waters. White teeth gleamed as Hoatrubi approached a hill, her speed didn't stop, in fact it picked up as she sprang from the very top, her legs curled upwardly as her lithe body quickly descended, heels touching the grassy earth first. Using the momentum she slid down the hill, catching herself at the bottom with the flat of her palms and a flip to bring her upright.

"Here we go!"

Hotarubi said as a smile touched her freckled face, she had finally made it to her little secret place within the walls of Konhagakure no sato. It was the place where she trained her tiny ass off to become stronger, and today while wearing her weights, she'd stack some more training and practice beneath her belt. Hoatrubi took a few minutes to warm up first, with the usual stretching, a few dozen push-ups, curl-ups. Finally feeling satisfied that her body had been broken in for the day she dropped all of her items, including her special chokuto by a nearby stump. 'Hmm...what exactly should I work on?' To be honest she hadn't given what she actually do much thought, she was only focused on getting here at the very crack of dawn.

Screw it, she thought breaking into an incoherent blur, her legs exerted her inner ki, the muscles tensing within her legs as she hammered out five meters in almost the blink of the eye. Following up she would unleash a barrage of kicks, the first was a simple one, done by pivoting off her right heel, and using the momentum to carry her left leg, spinning one-hundred and eighty degrees, she'd perform a round house with her right leg this time before, dropping her shoulders low to the earth. With her palms touching the ground below, she'd prop herself up using her strength and perform three swift sweep kicks by bringing her dominant leg over her curled up knee.

"Oraaa!"

Finishing strong, Hotarubi would flip herself over by leaning forward, using inertia, she'd send the heel of her foot rocketing into the earth. The concussive force behind it was so great a small impact crater was left in its wake. It wasn't bad she thought, and she was more than confident that combo could had laid any fool out, but she was always looking to tighten her form, to strengthen her blows, to quicken her strikes. Springing from the ground by using her palms to jump herself upward she'd land on her feet with the grace of an alley cat. 'I can only perform shunpo about three more times. Lets push that limit today!' Confident that she'd succeed, Hotarubi allowed the muscles within her legs to pulsate as she pushed herself out of the threshold of reality for a moment, for five meters. Breaking out of her obscuring speed technique, Hotarubi stopped, taking a quick breath and allowing her calf's to get some air.

It was gonna be one long day.

[✘TAIGA]

Lighting quick jabs passed through the air, if one didn't know better they'd thought her fist were on fire. Whenever she punched a whistling sound emitted from the focal point as if the air would bow before her fist. Jumping back, her heels slid against the earth as she threw her weight forward, her palm holding her, she allowed her right leg to strike. Utilizing this hand-stand like position she unleashed a barrage of kicks, each one more thunderous than the first. Whilst she kicked she walked upon the flats of her hands. With a subtle twist of her body, she executed a tight, perfect back-flip, which situated her upon the balls of her feet, sun-kissed locks pig-tails fluttering about. Hotarubi's actions were graceful, like a butterfly haplessly spirited away by the wind Gods. With all the strength her tiny body could muster, Hotarubi swung her dominate arm back and unleashing and hellish combo of kicks and punches.

"Gaahh"

Teeth clenched tightly, Hotarubi's fist met the basin of a tree, and upon impact a thunderous noise reverberated, echoing loudly, like lighting striking earth. Her knuckles bruised, she moved her hand to examine the amount of force behind her best punch. The tree had given way, but not by very much, there was slight cracking as well as a moderately sized indent, but nothing worthy. 'Not as strong as I could be....shit....' Biting her lip, Hotarubi's jaw loosened, her lips souring into a frown. With sweat encasing her body, she removed her over jacket, tossing it to where she had her other things after walking back over there. ( chuckling) "I'm getting tired already?" Taking her now free arms she raised them above her head, the sounds of bones cracking could be heard as she stretched once more, taking the time to crouch and release some pressure that had been put on her legs.

A shuffling gale passed Hotarubi swaying her loose v-neck tank sleeveless shirt, the long pale scar alongside her stomach showing and tingling from the open touch of the world. (grinning) "Lets get back at it!" With new found vigor, Hotarubi sprinted off, deciding to test how long she could stay airborne, she allowed chakra to spread around her feet as she began running vertically up the tree. Cutting off the chakra she, sprinted harder, faster and quickly she reached the top. With the push of her hand she began spinning quickly, once, than twice, and finally the heel of her foot met the tree with great force and she began to fall rapidly. The bark from the tree ripped, splitting as she made it back all the way to the ground. Evidence of her work was left upon the tree. A trail of splitting wood was left in her wake. Flicking her thumb over her nose, she returned to performing random strikes that came to thought.

A breath was taken as Hotarubi took off, sprinting as fast as she could she allowed her natural energies to fill her legs, imbuing them with power. Finding that power she lit the spark of her soul and her body took off, into what could only be described as poetry in motion. Passing the five meter limit she spared no time in waiting, finding that same spark she lit it, bursting out of view, her body but a mere speck of an forgotten flicker. Like fireflies dying in the night, a fading rush of yellow. With the force of her shunpo behind her once she reached five meters she exited the high speed movement, her legs bent slightly as she took to the air and with a one-hundred eighty degree turned, performed a mid-air turn around kick, which struck a boulder with a most powerful force. The boulder didn't crack, but it was pushed aback slightly. Reaching the ground, Hotarubi grunted as she could feel her leg throbbing in pain.

(speaking through clenched teeth) "Maybe I shouldn't have done that...."

[✘TAIGA]

After having taken some time nursing the growing bruise on the shin of her knee, Hotarubi was back in business, jumping around like a monkey and what not. The day since she'd started had became more clam, and the sky darkened as a sign of the encroaching night. Perspiration dripped from Hotarubi's oily body and onto the ground below. With another exertion of her fuel, Hotarubi pushed herself up with one arm, the other held behind her back. (heavy breaths) "One hundred and seventy two..." Squeezing the exasperated words through her clenched teeth she lowered herself continuing this without falter until she reached two hundred. By than her muscles burned, crying in pain for being over worked.


Turning on her back she sighed, taking in deeps much needed breaths. Exhausted, weary,light pools of hazel flickered in an out as the world frequently turned pitch black and than back to normal. Holding her heaving chest for a moment, she rolled onto her back,and picked herself up, for a moment her balance wavered until she gradually reattained control over her tired limbs. (screaming) "Yoshh!" Shouting as she smacked her cheeks, she jumped lightly upon her feet as she rolled her shoulder, a wry smirk upon her freckled face. Her legs didn't want it, but she forced herself to break into one final shunpo, she couldn't do another, and she could feel the physical burning of her legs, the pain that ravaged each and every fiber of muscle within her calf was like a repeating death over and over again as she passed over the distance of five meters.

Hard work and determination dripped from her fist as she struck at the basin of a tree, with quick, powerful strikes, each one causing a ringing sound to softly thrum. This continued for quite some time till her fist faltered, the skin around her knuckles red and bleeding, peeling from where she hit the tree at. Hotarubi's fist were attuned to pain, so this was nothing new to the freckled face girl. With heavy breaths passing her lips, she untied her pig tails allowing her sun-kissed locks to frame over her gaunt face. Her hair fell to her shoulders, slick with perspiration. Hotarubi's v-neck tank top was dirtied, and soaked, she could feel it sticking to her flat chest, but paid it no mind as she performed a score of sit-ups, each time she went up, a hot pain burned her sternum, but she didn't quit, not until she reach two hundred.

(sighing) "Its dark out already?"

Hotraubi said, kicking back, laying on her time she had left at the stump before she started. "I'm not making it back, not tonight...." Yawning, she tried to stretch her arms, but they quickly fell, worn down from fatigue, exhaustion had crippled the young shinobi for now. Muttering an audible curse, Hotarubi laid there, looking out into the raven colored sky, the light from the waning moon, speckled the clearing gorgeously with ivory light. The night sky was clear devoid of stars. It was so quiet, so tranquil...

[✘TAIGA]

With night having already blanketed the sky above, Hotarubi's own amber eyes flickered in and out of existence, fading into the black of the deepest pits of her mind. Finally she was unable to stay awake and she slipped into the realms of dreams, where fiction became the reality and reality became fiction.....

A series of dream-scapes

Searching between the concealed seams, for where reality and fiction separated, I found myself in a dream-scape where all things meshed. It was quiet as I walked through the river, its cooling touch caressing my ankles and feet. I could feel the soil squish and bend between my toes. It was apparent I had never been here yet it all felt so nostalgic, as if this was what awaited me.Was I being beckoned to the other side? Walking it seemed as if I never truly covered any ground in this expansive world. The weird thing was that I knew I was alseep. I was totally aware I was within the realm of dreams and I couldn't escape.

Something tugged and held at my conscious, but what? All was quiet as I traversed the river, my body being submerged bit, by bit as I trotted deeper and deeper into this strange world's confines. Passing by a tree, my hand touched it surface, but something lurked behind the thick before me. I couldn't make it out, and all around me was fading. Not now I thought.I had finally made it, and I desired to know the poison of this world, but it seemed I was out of time. I was escaping this world of faint figures and shape. Something pulled me back. I suppose it wasn't time to see the poison directly. Not now.

I couldn't tell what exactly was happening, but neither could I explain that this was happening. It all seemed so hard to understand, yet within reason to believe. Little did I know I was dreaming, so I continued wandering around and empty space of white. There was no shape, form, nothing it all was loose and left to interpretation of what I simply thought it was. Even I myself within this white space, was nothing more but a mere consciousness, only a thought that resided inside a lonely world.
Was this what death was like, was this how ti felt to no longer be of this world maybe?

I shrugged the thought, mostly because I was more than I had yet to leave this world. Eventually I gave up thinking and looking for answers, and this lonesome place began to agitate me. I wanted out, but how? I imagined squinting my eyes, colors running wold upon the world, my will imprinting what I wished to be, to be. Soon the white vanished and I couldn't tell where or what I even was, looking at myself I was a spark of light wandering the late forest night, I saw many travelers upon the worn path I had once walked myself. The merchants I saw drank and joked with one another, and the families told stories. What was going on?

[✘TAIGA]

The world once more shifted an a infinite void of onyx laid outstretched across the lands, pools of sweet maple stared up into the shrouded sky, cloaked of the purest ebony. A child clad in black shadows sat upon the riverbed in deep thought. The skies tears fell with veracity to the damp terrain, but they were different they were black tears, tears shed from the heart. In a delightful sad chorus the girl Hotarubi sobbed in sync with the falling liquid. Her tears were wreaked with the pain of loss, a big hole was left....what she needed was love. Hotarubi appeared frozen under the rains weight, but it was more than the weight of pain, it was the weight of a love that hung idly upon a velvet thread. A soft piddle paddle of footsteps could faintly be heard, tapping upon the fine earth, such a rhythmic melody created a bewitching siren to the ears of those who wandered too close. It was twilight, the hour late and Hotarubi still laid upon the soaked lush, the ebb and flow of her tears had not ceased. It seemed the rain would fall forever...

The Dream...earlier

I stood atop that bridge, a caressing breezed nipped at my cheeks as if it were begging me to jump. A stormed was brooding in the moody sky, rain pounded against the ached earth. I tensed my muscles readying myself to jump, but a voiced bolstered through the atmosphere, ravaged with heart ache nestled its way into my ears. Whipping my head around I saw her, tears welled up in her eyes as pleads of No's escaped her parted lips, her haunting voice, and sorrowful tears brought, the life liquid from my tear ducts and I began to cry.

"Hotarubi! Don't jump, please don't take your life! You are not a hindrances. Please I love you so much, without you i'd wilt away!"

"Mother I-I-I have to, im making both you and me miserable! Please let me do this, so I c-can release you from this sad life."

"I don't care if were poor, or if we have sad lives all I want is you to be with me.... 'forever!' "

"It's too late...."

A powerful gust blew and took me with it, a was falling, falling into the depths of the river below me. 'You know this river is said to carry your dreams to the heavens so that they may be answered, i wonder if i ask before i plunge into it's depths will they answer mine? I was falling fast, but even so i could hear my mothers cries, as I turned my head and looked up I saw her! She was falling behind me her tears dropping on my face as she held her arms outstretched, yearning to hold me. "It seems they weren't answered!" I closed my eyes as she caught me and in that profound moment i could feel her warmth as she told me the final words i'd ever hear.

"I love you!"

"I love you too...mother..."

We were swept into the riverbank and my visuals went black, my oxygen snatched from my lungs but even so, she still held me tight, so tight, that I could still feel her as death's cruel embrace claimed our lives. 'I truly did love her..' I awoke upon that very riverbed, why? Am I not dead? I must be though cause the sky seems to weep black tears. Confused and baffled as to what was actually happening, I must had been sleeping, this scene wasn't even familiar, I'd never jump from a bridge to take my own life. It must had been a dream. squeezing my eyes shut I tired to awake myself, but when I opened my eyes my jaw was agape.

[chiatsuki]

+ 50 hoe.

[✘TAIGA]

Waking up to shimmering amber shining down on her body, Hotarubi winced as her flickering eyes tried to adjust to the light. She was sprawled out upon the ground, her red jacket used as her bed pallet. With a yawn escaping her lips, she stretched her arms high above her unkempt hair. She was in no mood to even fix it and so it was day two, the yellow rush of Konohagakure was ready to give it her all and work till her body couldn't move any longer. That was how she always did things. One hundred and twenty percent!

"What a weird dream...." Taking it easy, she performed a few light exercises, which consisted of fifty jumping jacks, various stretching methods to loosen up her tense muscles and tight joints for the work out to come. Feeling perfectly fine, she cracked her fingers, the loud pop softly humming in her ears as she clenched her fist. It was time to get to business, than she could go home and eat. She would had drooled if not for willpower and composure, but it had been awhile since she'd eaten so the thought of eating made her salivate.

"Sixty seven, sixty eight..." Perspiration fell down from her brow, rolling onto her cheek. She could taste its bitter taste, but it was also sweet, as it was a sign of her genuine effort. With another sit up down, she lowered her body. Hortarubi's legs clung tightly to the branch of a tree, and with a burst of energy she used her torso muscles to pull herself up. After reaching one hundred she started to perform them at an angle, to bet target her side muscles. The burning sensation tingles her sternum and sides as she did one hundred more on each side, Finally finished she hung upside down, catching her breath.

(sighing) "Uhhh...."

[✘TAIGA]

With a body tuck, she flung herself from her upside down position, with her forehead level with the branch she grasped it tightly with her palms. Taking a moment she adjusted herself and inhaled deeply, ready to continue her practice. Using her upper body solely, she keep her legs close together as she pulled herself up, once her neck was level with the branch, she ease down slowly, and repeat this process. The first few were no sweet, but as she eased her way into two hundred, the physical burn was evident in her oxygen lacking muscles. With each new rep, her arms seared with weariness.

"Two hundred and six, two hundred and seven, two hundred and eight, two hundred and nine, two hundred and ten..." Hotarubi's goal was three hundred even, but with things as they were her resolve began to weaken, as each rep made her just want to stop and lay flat on her back. The intensity that her arms burned with was great, and each time she brought herself up, she gave faint grunts of exasperation. Sweat continued rolling down her face as she produced more and more with each new rep, until soon she was coming up upon the final stretch. Keeping her eyes shut, she'd just imagine she were in the land of snow or something, but even such optimistic, imaginative thoughts wouldn't keep her body cool. It just resisted her.

"Two hundred eighty nine, two hundred ninety..." Jaw tight, she faltered a moment during the next rep and couldn't bring herself up. With one eye shut, she clenched her teeth together as she exhaled, summoning all the remaining force she had lift to exert she began to continue her pull-ups without reprieve until finally she had but one final one left to complete. A low grunt left her lips as she finally brought herself up and than she let go, falling to the ground back first, she breathed in and out rapidly, her stomach elevating and deflating itself with each breath. Laid out, she ignored the throbbing of her back, for the burning of her muscles was what pained her the most, her hands were hard from gripping the bark of the branch with such intensity that they were left with soft callouses.

"I'll just close my eyes for a few moments..."

[✘TAIGA]

Opening her eyes, Hotarubi found her sight flickering in an out,clearly she had slipped into the dream realm. Jumping to her feet, she Hotarubi began to once more take up her exercises. Back to push up she completed a plethora of them, her body exhausted already, staying out here for a few days had really took its toll upon her body, and she could barely push herself any longer, but she only needed to go on for but a little longer. Moving on to doing push up with one hand she struggled at first until she found her middle ground of balance and steady breathing. Completing a few more, she went on to complete a few random strikes upon the trunk of a tree.

Striking as hard as she could her attacks left thunderous noises behind. After an hour of ruthlessly pounding away at the tree, she stopped, and sat down for a moment, satisfied with her work she'd been doing, Hoatrubi thought it best for her to go home and sleep in her bad, after all she did deserve it. "Back to my home..." Slowly with aching muscles, Hotarubi made her way all the way back to where her home was. It took quite some time, but surely enough she made it, safe and sound from any dangers. Tired Hotarubi went into her home, and upstairs to her bed where she fell out, closing her lids, she drifted off without a word.

Hard work did pay off.

~exit

[chiatsuki]

+ 18 expz