Solitary Contemplation

[hebiko]

[Half an hour prior]

Five years, and they were only just getting around to this. They probably should have done this either sooner, or never at all... But it would have been an insult to just leave everything the way it had hurriedly been packed away into the attic, so she guessed that it was about time.

"So what IS all this stuff?" Mineko piped up, breaking the several minute silence that had passed since the three family members had come up into the attic.

"It belonged to father. You weren't born yet when all this was moved up, so you wouldn't remember." Hebiko answered as she saw her mother shift uncomfortably.

Mineko seemed to pale to almost a peach complextion as her eyes widened and she began to cast off a glow. She then started shivering.

"D-d-d-does th-th-that mean that....." The little girl gave a hard swallow. ".. that.... daddy's ghost is up here?"

Hebiko couldn't help but to wonder if she had ever been like this. She couldn't remember a great deal about how she used to be around Mineko's age.

"No, Mineko. It doesn't mean that the attic is haunted." Tsukiko answered before Hebiko could get one out.

Mineko's glowing seemed to get more under control and in her typical fashion, the little girl of course had to start messing around, not realizing how inappropriate the joking was in this situation. The younger girl had her eyes glowing alone and began to make fake ghost sounds.

"But every attic need s a ghoooooooooost~! Ooooohhhooooooohhh~."

Hebiko just gave her a certain look and Mineko almost instantly settled down, her eyes no longer glowing but tears brimming at them now.

"You should have more patience with your sister, Hebiko."

"She should have more respect for the dead." Hebiko found herself replying before she could stop herself.

Her mother was the one to shoot a look this time.

"She's just a kid." The woman stated in a slightly firmer tone.

"I know she's a kid, but you're too lenient on her. I mean, would you have let ME run around the attic with father's underwear on my head and making ghost sounds like Mineko is doing right now, even at her age?" Hebiko asked, gesturing towards where her little sister who had recovered from the earlier emotional bruise and was now doing what was just mentioned.

Her mother was silent, and Hebiko knew that she had made a point. Though she wouldn't admit it out loud, that fact hurt.

"I'll take care of the organizing when I get back." She said, walking towards the exit in the floor.

"Were are you going?"

"Training. I'll take care of all this when I get back. You can consider it as grounding me for talking back to you." The preteen answered before dropping down through the rectangular hole.

[Current Time]

It had taken her a few minutes, but she arrived to the somewhat kept up training spot that her father used to bring her to. This had been where she had learned the Burikka no Justu, Flickering Technique. Her mother had been there that day too; both of her parents standing side by side as they watched their child finally grasp the concept enough to intentionally use the skill. Though Hebiko couldn't remember much of things earlier on, she still had memories here and there that she clung onto. That had been one of those memories.

She took a slow breath and went to setting up the different targets before walking to the spot she would be standing in to make use of them. In an almost fluent motion, her hand darted to her pouch before tossing several marbles up then darted in again. Her other hand snatched up the first set of marbles. Going into her usual stance, she stood with her hands at her sides, the multi-colored small orbs nestled between her fingers. She would be starting off with simple target practice....

[tbc]

[hebiko]

Tick tick. Tick tick. It was that sound along with her breathing and footsteps, the subtle rustle of her clothes in almost the background as she trained. She didn't talk to herself, didn't make any comments out loud when she hit the marks ore even when she was slightly off. Just because she was silent on the outside though, it didn't mean that she was as speechless on the inside. Her mind was racing. Working over things, repeating the events of the day and events that had gone on years ago.

She shouldn't have been the way she was earlier. She had already decided that before she had even started on the target practice. But she hadn't been able to help it. The way her mother treated Mineko and the way her mother treated her... It didn't seem fair to her. But subconsciously, the older sister knew why. It was because Hebiko was so much like her father. Because Tsukiko had trouble figuring out how to deal with her while raising up Mineko came so much easier as there weren't as many memories attached to the younger child.

There weren't that many memories with them all together. No photographs. No mementos like the wooden cat that had been carved for Hebiko's third birthday by her father and painted by her mother. No nights where they all got together for the spice challenge to see who could handle the most heat... A small smirk showed at the corner of her lip at those memories, and the subconscious knowledge of the why's started to surface towards being on the noticeable level. To the level where she could grasp it and notice.

Their mother didn't love either of them more than the other. It was the fact that though Mineko was the product of their mother and father, Mineko wasn't like their father. Hebiko, on the other hand, would have probably been just like him had she been a boy. Tomboy was close, but it didn't go that extra stretch that would have been needed for her to be more like him. She would keep trying though. She would get as close to being like her hero as she could. To keep him alive at least in that way. Another smirk threatened but this time turned into a small smile.

The smile vanished almost as soon as it was made though as she got a more serious expression on her face as she switched the metal marbles out for the glass ones. She was switching out power for speed.

[hebiko]

Between the fact that it was light out, and that this area of the village was known for random busts of light, it didn't draw any attention when Hebiko switched out the more traditional target practice with practicing her Flash Bomb technique. Though she had the grasp of the technique when under pressure or showing someone how it was done, she still needed work on her timing and how much light she pushed into the marbles. There had been more than once when there hadn't been enough light pushed in and the result was something that would more of entertain a small child than distract an enemy. And there had been a couple of times when the flash went off too brightly and caused even a Hotaru like her to have to blink a couple of times to recover from it.

When those faults happened, she didn't get bent out of shape about it. Though, she did keep telling herself that would just have to keep improving. It was a genin level technique, so she should have been able to get a better grasp on it. Maybe she would need to start trying to act like there was some stress there. Like she was on the spot or something as, as she had thought of earlier, she did preform better under pressure. But it was kind of hard for her to play pretend... Though this wouldn't really be playing, now would it. It would be a training exercise. Just like she usually visualized the targets as opponents or specific parts of them.

She gave a small sigh and a nod to herself before she began to visualize this as some kind of test that someone else placed on her. Then, with a flick of her wrist to cause one of the stashed marbles to drop from the elbow crease of her sleeve, she caught the hollow glass orb between her ring and middle fingers before pushing a swirl of light through her skin and into the object...