| abstract | - The night in the Land of Tea's inn went by as the twins sleep through the middle of the night. The sun rises the next day. As Tsukai wakes up, he sees the sky above him. Squinting his eyes as the sun hits him in the face, he gets up quickly, his eyes darting around his surroundings. He realized he was no longer in the Land of Tea, but somewhere else entirely. His sister is nowhere in sight. Breathing heavily, his eyes go wide, veins protruding from his temporal lobes as his Byakugan engages, his vision intent on finding his sister. Looking around, he sees nothing but empty fields, not even a single source of tenketsu around him. He has never been separated from his sister before, his mind racing with panic as he wonders the worst. Before he could finish his thoughts, he sees a massive source of tenketsu appear out of nowhere and makes a run for it, hiding from the forces that march through the empty field; An army of Zetsu. As the army passes by, Tsukai runs in the opposite direction, hoping to find his sister On the other side of the world, Tsuji wakes up in a field of snow, shivering violently. As she gets up, she looks around the snowy forest, her breaths labored from the cold air closing up her sinuses. As she wraps her arms around herself, she continues to shiver, her Byakugan scouring the perimeter around her, trying to look for her brother. There was nothing in sight that her eyes could pick up. She panics, not knowing what to do without her brother at her side. She runs through the forest, trying to find any source of her brother before finding herself within an encampment of samurai. She hides herself, not wanting to be seen by the samurai within the camp. Crouching down, her panic turns to tears as she wonders where her brother was. Drying her tears, she gets up and runs from the camp, hoping to find her brother in her travels. The two twins are at an empasse as they search for each other through the parts of the world they were separated in. As Tsuji runs through the snow laden forest, her vision starts turning blurry, a mixture of tears and fading consciousness, her breathing labored and forced. Her running becomes slower and slower until she drops down on her knees, her consciousness slipping away. She collapses in the snow, her eyes closing as her breaths get slower and slower. Her shivering slows to a stop as her body begins to shut down to preserve herself. In the clearing, an individual hoists her over their shoulder, taking her to the nearest camp to help nurse her back to health. In the meantime, Tsukai does what he can to avoid the advancing Zetsu forces who are intent on capturing this particular stretch of land. Tsukai keeps himself hidden with his camouflage technique, blending in with the surroundings, his chakra signature and sounds completely silenced as he escapes from the land that the Zetsu aim to control. His worry begins to sink deeper within him as he runs towards the Land of Fire, the silhouette of Konohagakure in the distance. As Tsuji's eyes slowly open, she hears the crackling of a fire. Looking down, she finds herself wrapped in a blanket. From the other side of the tent, Tsuji sees a white haired figure dressed in a Shogun's uniform, her red eyes staring down at her. As the shogun walks up to her, she hands her a loaf of bread, noting the pain in her eyes. She recognizes the pain, having seen it in her own eyes. The feeling of a missing sibling. Sitting down next to her, the shogun clears her voice. "I'm sure you're wondering how you got here. You collapsed out in the snow. You're lucky one of my samurai found you out on their patrol. He brought you back here and I tended to your wounds, kept you warm until you woke up. You were mumbling the name "Tsukai" in your sleep. I'm going to assume it's someone you know and leave it at that. I'm not in the business of poking into peoples' personal lives without their permission. I'm the shogun of this camp, and many others in the Land of Iron. I am Tokihakiri. And you are?" Tokihakiri looks towards Tsuji once again, who sits there in silence, diverting her gaze to the tent wall opposite of her. With a sigh, Tokihakiri places her hand on Tsuji's shoulder, which Tsuji bats away. "Don't... don't touch me." Nodding, Tokihakiri pulls her arm away. "Listen, we want to help you. But that will be difficult if-" "Listen, I don't want help. I just want to find my brother. That's all I want." As she sighs, Tsuji puts her hand over her eyes, the stress getting to her. Tokihakiri knows the feeling of losing a close sibling, having been separated from her brother years ago. "Well, if you want to find your brother, the first thing you'll have to do is get a hold of yourself. The more you stress over it, the harder it will be to keep your head level enough to know where to look." Tsukai finds himself on the outskirts of Konohagakure. He's hungry, tired, and dead worried about what has happened to his sister. The village was still about a mile off and Tsukai's legs are weary from the long distance traveled. Deciding to rest, he sits himself under a tree, looking down at the grass and wondering if he'll ever find his sister again. As he digs down at the dirt with a stick, he looks up at the sky, noting the sun halfway from setting. With a sharp exhale from his nose, he gets up, patting the dirt off of his pants and cloak, and makes his way towards Konohagakure. He has little knowledge of the impending Zetsu force that would make its way into the village in the coming days, not having kept up with current events. Back in the Land of Iron, Tokohakiri decides the best way for Tsuji to relieve her stress is with one on one combat. Tsuji thinks this is a bad idea for Tokihakiri, but decides that if she wants to fight, she'll do it. "You better be ready for this. I won't go easy." With a glare, Tsuji activates her Byakugan, her eyes going from sky blue to white, the veins around her temporal lobe extending out. With a charge, she's instantly gone. As fast as she disappears, she's right next to Tokihakiri, aiming a well placed finger strike towards her temporal lobe. But Tokihakiri, who has trained her reflexes to follow and react to the speed of an arrow midflight, catches her by the wrist before averting her gaze towards Tsuji. "I don't intend for you to go easy." Tsuji's eyes widen, having never been caught before in her life. Pulling her wrist free, she disappears again, this time reappearing behind Tokihakiri. With her fingers aimed towards her spine, she aims to try and paralyze the Shogun. But Tokihakiri, who has been paying attention to her footsteps in the snow, ducks down. Using Tsuji's forward momentum, she delivers a sweeping kick against her shins, throwing her forward, landing her face first into the snow. Getting up, Tsuji pounds her fist in the snow. Getting back on her feet, Tsuji yells and with a stomp of her foot before her charge, the entire snow lifted up behind her, creating a cloud of white powder around them. Wanting to attack Tokihakiri from every angle, she attacks her from every side, to no avail. With an extension of each step, Tokihakiri moves away from the strikes before grabbing Tsuji by the wrist and flipping her on her side, her arm twisted behind her back as Tokihakiri sits down on her. "Now, do you feel better?" Tokihakiri asks, letting go of Tsuji. Tsuji, with a slow breath, couldn't feel any anger, no resentment towards Tokihakiri. She felt like she needed to be shown the futility of trying to charge headlong into things without thinking. Closing her eyes, the veins in her temples disappear, her eyes reverting back to blue before opening them and nodding. Tsukai's travels find him within the confines of Konohagakure. Bustling skyscrapers dot the horizon beyond the Hokage Monument. Many of the older buildings have been modernized to catch up with Konoha's technological advances. His body weary from the long travels, he checks his pockets, only to find them empty, leading him to assume he was robbed before being displaced. Looking above, the clouds darken as the first raindrop descends from the heavens, followed by a deluge of rain. Lightning flashes across the clouds, a roar of thunder following behind it like the roar of the clouds. With a sigh, he finds the closest dry spot he could, which happened to be the roofing of the Hyūga branch house. With his back to the wall, he kneels down, his arms holding his legs. As he looks down, he wonders of his sister's fate, what may have happened to her. Hearing a door slide open, he looks up to see a grey haired woman, dressed in an orange robe with several floral patterns. It was Hanabi Hyūga, one of the elders of the Hyūga main branch and sister to Hinata Hyūga. Looking down towards Tsukai, her eyes widen as memories of a relative she once knew long ago begin to course through her mind. With a slow breathe, she kneels down towards Tsukai. "What is ailing you, my child?" Hanabi asks, her eyes old, but wise. She has seen many things in her life and not very much could escape her gaze when she has something in her sight. In her youth, she was at the top of her class in her studies, and quickly rose through the ranks to become a chunin, and eventually, a jonin. When she became of age, Hinata granted her leadership over the main house, where she watched over it for decades, raising children and grandchildren in the ways of the Hyūga. Tsukai realizes he wouldn't be able to say anything on the contrary without her knowing about it. "My sister and I were separated by forces unknown. I want to find her. We've never been apart until now, and I don't know how she's faring being apart. I need to know she's safe." Tsukai replies. With a sigh, he looks down towards the rain ridden dirt. With a smile, Hanabi kneels down to Tsukai, picking him up off the ground and patting the dirt off of his clothes. Leading him in the main house, she picks up a forehead protector off of the table she used to work on, with a kanji on it that meant "Morning Sun". Walking up to Tsukai, she places the protector in his hands. "I carved this protector twenty years ago, hoping to find a lost soul worthy enough to wear it. The kanji is Asahi, meaning morning sun. May it grant you the sun on your back in your travels. But before you go, I'm sure you've been aware of the ever growing threat an ancient evil has wrought upon the world. If you're going to find your sister, you'd need to be alive to do that. With this in mind, I want to train you. I can tell by your eyes that you're a Hyūga." Hanabi speaks up. Leading Tsukai into the training room, the two stand across from each other. Other Hyūga gather around to see the two begin their battle. With the veins in their temporal lobes expanding, their Byakugan activate. Tsukai stands his ground, waiting for Hanabi to make the first move. Hanabi, who's become aware of his fighting style, takes the first step. In that moment, she was gone, the testament of the speed she had amassed in her age. Before Tsukai could even wonder where she was, she appears right next to him. With chakra surging through her hand, she goes for the first strike. Tsukai retaliates by striking her wrist with an equal amount of chakra from his hand, knocking the strike away. With Hanabi on the offensive, Tsukai finds himself walking backwards, completely unable to break distance from her to use his Vacuum Palm, forcing him into a defensive stance to keep any of Hanabi's strikes from making contact. Hoping to break distance, Tsukai blocks one of Hanabi's strikes. Taking advantage of the window of time where she'd have to reset, Tsukai uses the Body Flicker Technique, teleporting across the room. But before he has a chance to use his Vacuum Palm, Hanabi was once again in front of him. Before Tsukai could retaliate, Hanabi strikes him in the chest with a burst of chakra, her own Vacuum Palm. Knocking him against the wall, Hanabi concedes the battle. Pulling Tsukai back up, she helps heal the area of damage she inflicted. Tsukai is shocked how fast she was for her age, how agile her attacks were. He was unable to retaliate against her offense. "You have great skill, young one, but you're too reluctant to push the offensive. Going second in combat can be proficient, but not all the time. You and your sister no doubt fight alongside each other, so normally, you have someone to help keep you defended when you push the offensive. But on your own, it can be difficult to keep the defense against a much faster opponent." Hanabi speaks up. As the day passes on, she begins training Tsukai on the ways of offensive combat to help strengthen him on his journey to find his sister.
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