;; transcending across time (p/i)

[❥;; bexx]

What happened after that was a frenzy. She had not even been conscious enough for her to remember every detail. The only thing she remembered last doing was her struggling still to get to the surface of the waters even with her leg hurting as it did. She didn't get very far of course but she pushed herself. She was loosing oxygen and was also slowly slipping into unconscious slowly. The last thing she remembered was that her muscles were starting to relax and that her eyes were fluttering to a close. Indeed, her rash actions had made her end up many feet underwater and drifting further down as her body gave way. What she did not know was that she would be saved; barely so. Her limp body continued to drift underwater for a couple more seconds.

And then someone had broke through the water surface too, having seen her plunge into the ocean. He had been walking along the shores of Tetsu no Kuni on his usual business; which was nothing in particular. Today was such a cold day that there was nothing he really wanted to do much less what he could do. He was a villager of Kaminari no Kuni, a Genin who had taken to a little vacation from the village and its duties. After some drifting on a sailboat he found that he was lost in the middle of the ocean. For days he had drifted alone and unsure of which way to go. It was just his luck that he would eventually find his way again as another sailboat came by and led him to the nearest country; which was Tetsu no Kuni. But he had not braced himself with enough clothing and was almost going to freeze to death.

It had been about four days since he landed on the shores of this icy cold country. He didn't know anything about this place and didn't really feel like asking random strangers in case he got himself in trouble for saying the wrong things. Since nobody seemed to mind the fact that he was here, he decided to stay for a couple of days. He was so used to being chased off country lands that not having such treatment here made it feel oddly comfortable. He now was able to buy a winter overcoat and better brace himself against the winter temperatures of this country. He had been planning on his return trip to Kaminari no Kuni since it seemed as though he didn't know where he was and wouldn't be able to just sail out to the ocean and expect to find his hone country by sailing in all directions.

And he had been just been thinking about this problem that morning when he came upon the odd looking girl. Originally he didn't take much notice of her, thinking that she was just those other people here in Tetsu that seemed to only be concerned with themselves. But something made him stand there and watch her movements. He had been standing but a couple feet to her right but because she had her eyes closed, she didn't know. He didn't go over and make a formal introduction but decided it was best to let her have her personal space. And then he noticed that there was a coat beside her, neatly folded and saw that she herself was shivering from the cold. He had wondered what she was trying to do. Looking at her figure quizzically, he found this girl interesting by the second.

But really shocked him was when she dove into the ocean water. It took him almost a full ten seconds to get himself back to reality. He looked away and then again at where the girl had been standing only seconds ago and found that she was no longer standing there. The waters parted to give way to her body and a few sparks appeared and descended back into the waters. Without hesitation, he took off his overcoat and dove into the water after the girl thinking she was trying to commit suicide. He was shocked that nobody around him seemed to have seen this and nobody bothered to help the poor girl. People were just plain cold-blooded these days.

[❥;; bexx]

After diving into the water after Sayuri, he would notice just how cold the ocean waters were. It was colder than the country weather that he was just diving from. But his mind was focused on helping the girl because he saw that she hadn't come to the surface since having plunged into the water. His instinct told him that she must not know how to swim. He didn't want her to freeze or drown to death. He swam deeper down the ocean waters, swimming at a quite fast pace even though he was still recovering from the shock of seeing that girl trying to kill herself. He kept on swimming, his eyes open and looking for any sign of the girl. He would find her limp body being carried away by the currents of the ocean and race to her, knowing that she had perhaps slipped into unconscious already. His regular swimming classes had taught him well after all and he was now allowed to use his skills to help somebody.

In a few long strokes, he would reach the girl's body. Her eyes were closed and her body was relaxed. She had definitely fainted. Bringing them both to the surface of the waters, he would tilt her head a little as he tried to pull the girl back to shore. They weren't that far away from it which was fortunate. In about ten minutes he was able to get her safely to shore, pulling the girl's almost lifeless body onto the snowy grounds. He would help her by performing CPR, trying to revive her or at least get her to wake up. Knowing that it could probably be awhile after she would wake up and being afraid that she may not be able to wake up even as she had spat out water. He would put on his overcoat and then cover her with the coat that she had neatly folded on the ground before picking her body up in his firm arms and making way to the marketplace of this country.

He was going to find himself a hospital of some sort. He found it with relative ease and had a doctor do a thorough examination. He was told that she was fine but she had suffered hypothermia from the long time she had spent in the ocean waters and that she was just greatly fatigued from the events which was the cause of why she had not yet awoken. Thanking the doctor, he would carry her to the nearest hotel and check into a room, with the help of the hotel staff to get the girl some new clothes since all of her old clothes were wet. Placing her on one of the two beds in the room, he would then study her a little more. When he had noticed her standing there at the shore, he had only noticed her hair color and her build. Now he could see her face. She looked relaxed which gave her the feeling that she was used to pushing herself to great lengths.

As he sat there waiting for a new change of clothes, he would then notice that the girl's forehead was bearing a headband. Wasn't that the Yukigakure no Sato shinobi headband? He had only been to that vilalge once before the war struck them and abolished it. So she was a shinobi from that village? He only remembered vividly that Yuki no Kuni was a lot like Tetsu in terms of weather but he didn't remember much else since his one and only stay had been very brief. He wondered how she had passed the past one and a half years since it had been that long since the war had taken out her village and also taken out her country. She must have suffered a lot to make her want to commit suicide and maybe being here made her recall too much of her homeland that she wanted to escape forever, choosing a very bad route.

After taking a nice hot shower and order some food from room service, he would sit on one of the single sofas that looked out the window and wait. It seemed like forever before the girl would finally open her eyes. But it was all worth the wait to him since he knew that she was now safe and away from harm's way. At that moment though, he would sigh and look out the window at the beautiful scenery of white and the bustling of people on the streets below. He had a lot of questions that he wanted to ask her when she woke up and was thinking in her head of possible way for him to approach her with these questions without seeming too much of a nosy guy.

[❥;; bexx]

flashback

She was walking down the streets of Yukigakure no Sato one morning. It seemed that the sun was shining overhead and she was quite happy that there was not going to be snowfall for the next couple of days. Yuki had suffered from snowfalls and blizzards continuously the past few weeks that snow started to agitate her. She was going to use the next couple of days to her advantage. Because there was heavy snowfall all the way up to the day before, she had been forced to stay in the mansion and train. Training especially solo training was so boring. Her brother had gone on a team mission again and had left her to tend to a nearly empty house. Out of exasperation, she had asked the servants to take a break for a couple of days, telling them that they should take the opportunity of no heavy snowfall the next couple days and go out with their families.

She had felt lonely sitting in the mansion with just four walls every room she went to and decided that it would be much more eventful if she found something to do. And the first thing that came to mind was that she could take a mission. It had been a few weeks that she had last touched a mission and that one had been petty. Even though she had managed to help people in the process, it was still a little boring for her. She was looking for excitement, for adventure and she vowed that she was going to get it on her next mission no matter what. And so she had charged upstairs of her house to her bedroom and changed into a short kimono, tying her katana to her back and then left the house immediately, heading to the Yukikage Tower.

She had missed being in the tower, missed the receptionist and missed the mission board. She wondered if any of the missions that were beginning to mound on the board were taken in the last weeks. She guessed that they must have been since she didn't hear the Yukikage or any of the Village Councils expressing concern about the lack of productivity of the shinobi. Being a shinobi was a job after all and they got paid for doing the job. So she was certain that if the missions hadm;t been cleared yet that there should have been an announcement which would alert all shinobi in Yukigakure to take them and get their butts moving. The people that requested in mission form and posted in the missions board were often people that were in dire need of help and the fact that they weren't taken would equal to shinobi ignoring their plea of help.

She would walk down the very clean main streets of the village with a smile on her face. She actually even skipped down the street almost since it was a rare sight to see the road actually the color of cement and not the color of white that came from the snow that fell on it. This was turning into a very good day. So she may have the chance to actually have her wish come true. She would greet some of the people that were walking on the street or setting up stands there with a wave and a smile as she passed. The Yukikage Tower was just a few moments ahead and she was so excited for what was to come. She was always excited for a mission but never quite seemed to have enough time to do them since she had only completed three or four to date.

She made a little vow to herself that she would try to do all of the missions on the mission board before the Chuunin Exams. This was not just an opportunity for her to get some money while performing her services as a shinobi but also let her strengthen herself in ways that were not training. She would pass the guards that were required to stand at the entrance of the tower, smiling at them both when she passed through. She was definitely not very accustomed to herself being happy. The guards didn't really take notice of her wave and she felt offended that the first time she was actually in the mood to wave a hello at them that they just ignored her.

[❥;; bexx]

flashback

She would walk directly to the mission area of the Yukikage Tower the second she entered. Her expression was still a little bit of a sneer at the fact that the guards out front had ignored her. But she wasn't going to allow two people she didn't really care about affect her mood for too long. She would walk towards the reception desk area and found that the blonde woman who usually sat behind it was nowhere to be found. She probably went to the restroom or something she thought. It wasn't a lie when she said she missed the receptionist. Even though the woman was lazy and was often seen not doing her job, she wouldn't blame her. She was sure that there was really not much to do as a receptionist except approve missions that shinobi would take and give out rewards for them. She wasn't sure if the Kage himself would give her anything to do though.

Walking over to the mission boards, she noticed with a raised eyebrow that they had cleared quite a bit from before. Her assumption was right then; her colleagues were actually working hard and not hardly working. She remembered when she had taken her first mission slip off the board that the board was littered with overlapping slips that were starting to collect dust because nobody would take them. The fact that the board looked substantially more bare than it had ever been surprised her. She would scan the missions that were still left to do, reading each of them carefully and slowly. She wasn't in a hurry and she was really wondering what sort of missions were still left to be done.

And that was when she heard a voice from behind her. Sayuri turned around and saw that the receptionist had come back from wherever she had gone. "Hey, long time no see!" The woman seemed oddly happy too. She guessed it was the fact that she would not have to face the unforgiving blizzards for the next few days. Everyone around the village were in lighter spirits because of that. Sayuri finished reading the mission slips and then shook her head. There was nothing that interested her and the worst part was she was itching to do a mission. Every one of the ones that were still tacked on that board looked boring even in the brief two or three sentences that she read. It was rather depressing that the day she wanted to do a mission, there wasn't one for her. Giving a sigh, she would head to the reception desk.

"Nothing interesting?" the woman asked. She nodded her head in agreement, her expression definitely disappointed. She decided that since there wasn't going to be a mission that she could do that day, she was probably better off spending a few moments chatting with the receptionist. The woman didn't seem at all busy. She wasn't even sure if the woman knew what being busy meant as she was always either reading a magazine, putting on nailpolish or make up whenever she came into the tower. She commented on how bare the mission board was and to her surprise the woman giggled. "You think it looks empty because your lot decided to get their butts moving and get their acts together?" Sayuri answered the question with a nod and an innocent expression. She did think it was that. It wasn't? Now that was surprising. "Your lot don't take missions anymore. The paper gets put here for like three weeks straight. The Kage decided that some of the oldest missions would be taken down from the board." Ah, that explained it all.

She nodded her head and sighed. It was true. Out of the very small number of teenagers that had managed to graduate from the shinobi academy, not many liked going on mission. All they spent time doing was either training like a maniac to try to get stronger or simply nothing at all. It infuriated her that some of those lazy bums could still be called a shinobi since they did nothing. And worst of all they were getting paid for doing nothing! The only reason why she didn't go on missions was because she had taken a few in the short time span of a week. Even if she really wanted to take more, her body didn't feel like it. Beside, the snowstorms that the village made maneuvering around the village close to impossible sometimes.