We're Not So Different, You and I

The wind roared in Sunagakure no Sato on this day, carrying nothing but memories and disappointment to the mind of a young, Hyuuga genin. The sun beamed down upon the village, nearly roasting all who inhabited it in the process. As summer was now here, today's intense climate of the Village Hidden in the Wind would be scheduled to be this severe for months to come. But Sakaiza was no stranger to this weather, yet it seemed so unfamiliar to him at the same time. He had yet to feel the sensation of pure dismay, although it appeared as if today were the day for that to change. As he sat on a bench amongst the presence of other genin, vigorously training underneath the relentless sun, he was deadlocked in thought.

He thought about the passing of his father and how it had made life difficult for him. Each day that went by without him was a new obstacle for Sakaiza. He was be forced to train and learn the abilities of his clan all by himself, with no help from another Hyuuga. He was forced to be a contributor to his home's income. He was even an emotional crutch for his mother, who would more times than not be seen trying to hold back tears in her evergreen eyes. It wasn't fair. How could someone so strong die so easily? Sakaiza reflected upon this question before finally coming to a conclusion. He cut his eyes from the sky to the ground; his father wasn't that strong. That was the only logical explanation. Thinking on this idea, he hung his head low, almost as if he had felt scorn for his father's passing.

A cloud rolled by covering the sun and casting a large ominous shadow upon the training grounds, thus Sakaiza's thought process was broken. He looked up in confusion and let out a faint, "Why are there clouds out..."

It was unusual to Sakaiza, but today had felt like an unusual day. It had a eerie vibe to it, almost as if there were something in store for Sakaiza today. Perhaps he would see another giant wolf roaming the training grounds? Or maybe he would even meet someone with some significance to him. Nevertheless he continued to sit on his bench, once again hanging his head low in thought. 

(WC: 391)

This was a better day for Ashie to be out, the clouds were rolling in, and if it were to rain it'd be equally as awesome as the clouds itself. There Ashie stood at the center of the training grounds at the edge of the oasis that was there for water training, her short hair blowing in the strong breeze that came with the clouds. She donned a black tank top with matching shorts her pouch strapped to her lower back.

She grinned as she hadn't seen the form of her jutsu for a long time, maybe it was time to see. She brought up her hands to begin the series of hand signs, Snake, Ram, Horse, Hare, Ram, Horse, Hare, Snake, Ox, and within a second of waiting for her chakra to lock onto the water below her. She thrust her hand outwards, the water from the oasis in front of her starting to drift up by the will of her chakra and begin to make a spherical shape. Once it was done she smiled at it's magnificance, it was a water prison, it wasn't very large because of the amount of water that was in the oasis, but it was still a glorious thing to be able to form one bigger than her own body.

She let go of her focus pulling her hand out of the orb watching the water slowly drop back into its home. She was smiling again, until she heard it, whisper's, she turned a few genin sat not to far from her giggling, probably making fun of the fact that she uses water jutsu's in a desert. Ha...very amusing. She stuck her chin up, making her way over to one of the stone pillars that stood proud and tall by the oasis. She took her stance of a hyuuga. If any Byakuugan were to activate they would see the chakra being focused into a single point on her palms as she began to strike at the pillar, causing small dents as she counted her combo, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, and eventually one hundred and twenty-eight strikes were counted, she made a moderate sized crater in the side of the pillar. The whisper's stop she glanced back to see them sweating bullets, she grinned. Good. She wasn't anything to simply giggle at, she wanted to make sure they understood.

(395) [also I know we aren't battling, but just in case, 50 AP used from the water prison and then the 128 palms, so 581/531]

Sakaiza, still sitting upon his bench closed his eyes. He leaned his head back and rested his torso upon the table connected to the bench. As he stayed deep in thought reflecting his father and the false power he presented to Sakaiza, he grew frustrated with his thoughts. Yet he couldn't seem to shake the idea that his father wasn't the man that Sakaiza thought he was. Now reclining upon the bench, Sakaiza seemed to drift off from the subject of this thoughts. The wind blowing upon his skin. The smell of nearby sand being tossed by the wind in the process. And then, what sounded like the waves of water slightly flowing nearby. No, more like just the sound of wetness from moving water. Either way, Sakaiza grew more and more relaxed as this sound became more and more evident. He felt as if he were at the beach, for all the environmental conditions were made. 

Now his thoughts seemed to transcend from dark ones to those of more of a relaxing calm mindset. He began to visualize in his head himself sitting in the water, as waves tumbled into him. However these waves would not move Sakaiza, instead they would cover and soak his body then regress back to the ocean. The sun would instantly dry out the excess water from his body, and then the waves would again crash upon Sakaiza. It was like a mental therapy to him, created just by his senses detecting the different characteristics of the beach from Sakaiza's nearby setting. And then it dawned on him: where was that sound of water coming from?

He immediately recalled that Nobu was the only shinobi he had known that had the water release affinity, but still Nobu's skills with ninjutsu were far less than his taijutsu skills. It could not be his comrade, it had to be someone else. Sakaiza leaned up and forward and began to look around. As his eyes were adjusting to the sun after being closed for so long, everything was slightly blurry. He panned across the training grounds again recognizing the regular sand shinobi who would be practicing their jutsu. Finally, his eyes fell upon a girl by a small body of water. She seemed to be using water release jutsu, harnessing the nearby body of water to practice her techniques. As she did so several sand shinobi snickered to themselves, likely at the fact that a shinobi with the water affinity was in the barren desert known as the Wind Village. The thought was slightly humorous, but not enough for Sakaiza to snicker at; he had been used to this concept with his comrade Nobu being a user of the water release jutsu.

Instead of laughing, Sakaiza just watched from afar. He recognized her talent rather than judged her ability. She seemed so young, but could still formulate a sizable sphere of water, roughly some feet in radius. Although young, she was not ignorant to the chatter of the immature sand shinobi watching her. She seemed to grow slightly frustrated by the shinobi, as now she ended her water release training and approached a nearby stone pillar. What would happen next would slightly startle Sakaiza. The young girl began to assume the stance of the Gentle Fist and conduct a flawless One Hundred Twenty Eight Palms technique. Sakaiza, easily recognizing this form and jutsu rose to his feet. He wanted to confront this girl. He made his way past the shinobi who seemed stunned by her execution of such speed, chuckling slightly at their disbelief. When he would finally reach the girl, she seemed to be nearing the end of her last set of strikes. 

Sakaiza would wait for her to finish before letting out a, "So gentle fist style huh? You a Hyuuga?" He was tempted to reveal the fact that he was a Hyuuga, quite familiar with the form but decided against it to have some degree of discretion. "I've seen it before...although yours wasn't as fast." he slight critiqued before letting out a friendly chuckle, attempting to let the girl know that he wasn't attempting to be too critical.

He extended a hand to the girl and let out, "The name is Sakaiza, and you are?"


Sakaiza was quite interested in getting to know who this potential Hyuuga was and where she hailed from. 

(WC: 729) 
(Pretty sure you don't need to consider your AP rn since we're not sparring or training ^_^)

She panted as she was still not use to her combination, she knew she was rusty, it's been awhile since she's even used her stance. To top it all off she wasn't as fast as her brother. Soon though, soon, she'd have enough power to protect him. She wiped her forehead with her left fore arm and as she got into the stance again she heard a voice. She slowly dropped her stance and turned slightly, her body was sideways compared to the Sand shinobi who was approaching carefully. She watched him, he was older than her, his rank unknown to her, but he was one of the kids sitting on the bench, a genin maybe, but she wasn't sure. She tensed as he slightly pushed for information of her lineage. Was he a Hyuuga? Not good, she couldn't let him know of her lineage, she'd have to lie, there was no choice, back home in Konoha the Hyuuga clan was the first to refuse to recognize Samuru and Ashie as part of their clan. Refused to treat us like human beings, but didn't yield their countless verbal abuse on them and their mother. She had to drop her fear, and her possible hate, she'd be no better than the Hyuuga house back in Konoha if she treated him the same. He didn't even know who she was, and that's why he was asking.

However...Ashie still couldn't risk it, she needed to practice her spying skills as well, keeping a facade. He asked if she were Hyuuga, which was half true, and then he pointed out the rustiness of her gentle fist technique. She turned fully, turning on her six year old charm, smiling gently,

"Yeah you could say that I am." She watched as he outstretched his hand, she slowly outstretched her's and once she would grab a hold of his hand shaking it lightly, Sakaiza, that was his name.

"Ashie. Nice to meet you." He was now close enough to notice her Konoha headband tied across her hips and through the loops of her shorts, it was the only place that her headband wouldn't either slip off, or need constant readjusting.

"Yeah, I haven't trained for awhile, I had to take some time away from Konoha, but at the moment my Uncle is busy, so I decided it'd be best to resharpen my skills for when I return." She looked behind her again at the pillar, the dent was the same size as her, but if she were stronger she could make bigger dents like her Uncle Koroshi. She turned back towards Sakaiza,

"I noticed you were resting on the bench, I'm surprised you didn't chuckle at the fact that I used water jutsu's. Ironic right? Water jutsu in a desert haha!" she chuckled trying to make light of the situation, but also trying to deter him from asking anymore questions about her lineage.

(487)

Sakaiza shook the hand of the girl, but couldn't help but notice her face was initially too stern for a child. When Sakaiza began to question if she were a Hyuuga, her face grew very expressionless. Almost as if she had information to hide and thus wouldn't reveal it to Sakaiza. But then again, Sakaiza was a stranger to her. He just so happened to recognize her Hyuuga abilities while they were both in the training grounds. Additionally, everyone has information that they keep secret to themselves. Sakaiza, for instance, decided to repress his Hyuuga ability and affiliation. He was not proud of his family's history for the Hyuuga Clan in Konoha, for they were not even proud enough to stay. They fled the ridicule from the main branch and began anew in Sunagakure. The only reason they were not tracked down is because of a claim to begin a branch in the Sunagakure clan, although the only progress they made on this goal was birthing Sakaiza.

As he was not proud of his history, he didn't mention it. In fact, he didn't mention it to anyone. And so Sakaiza slightly overlooked whatever the girl was hiding, for it was not any of his business. 

Still curious, he wanted to know just what she meant when she said that he could call her a Hyuuga. 


"Ashie, the pleasure is mine," Sakaiza affirmed while ceasing the handshake. He returned his hand to his pocket and placed the other upon the back of his neck. He noted the Konoha headband upon Ashie's hips. She could have very well been of the main branch from Konoha, however if that were the case then she would have admitted to her heritage with pride, as the main branch were a confident one. No, this girl wasn't actively affiliated with the main branch, or at least not happily affiliated. 

Ashie continued to explain to Sakaiza the reasoning behind her presence in Sunaga and why she was training her skills. However, he said nothing in response to this, instead allowing her to continue her statement. She went on to make a comment about Sakaiza resting on the bench and not laughing at her water jutsu, yet she laughed at the mention of the idea itself. 

Being friendly and recognizing the blatant irony, Sakaiza let out a small laugh in agreement then responded with a comment of his own, "It's not too common here, but I've seen it before. One of my companions, Nobu Sen Katto, actually utilizes Suiton here." He smiled while saying this, sort of to let Ashie know that she wasn't alone.

He took a moment to hesitate and think of the girl's situation before continuing the conversation any further. Sakaiza had a slight idea of her background based upon her body language and speech pattern, yet nothing concrete. Instead, he focused more on the topic at hand, which is what brought Sakaiza to Ashie's training area.

"You know, that One Hundred Twenty Eight Palms technique is extremely powerful. But it can be perfected when a skilled Hyuuga and Byakugan user masters the foundations of the Gentle Fist." As Sakaiza finished his thought, he shifted his posture a bit. Now both hands positioned on the back of his head with left foot crossed over his right. He realized he sounded a bit lecture-y, and thus wanted to take on a more casual approach; the girl was a child after all.

"Maybe I could shed some light on ya?"


(WC: 583)

She tensed slightly, as he didn't respond with right away, but respond he did. Laughing. He was laughing with her and that was enough for Ashie to get a little more comfortable. She had to come to the realization that this wasn't Konoha, people seemed to be a little more nicer here. She was sweating, even though the sun wasn't blazing today it was still hot! She wasn't use to it. She listened to him speak of his friend, who also used water jutsu. That was comforting. Someone else had the same love of water, and also understood the irony. She tensed, Byakuugan, she got the chilling thought that he knew who she was, and pried further knowing that she was lying.

"I suppose that is my downfall, I haven't perfected my kekeigenkai yet, so it makes sense why it's still slow. I couldn't really train it where I was in Konoha, a lot of the clans there didn't really appreciate me per say. However! I've managed so far! My uncle is very strong though! Which is part of the reason I came here for a little while. Since I cannot do any mission's here in Suna, I thought it'd be a good idea to keep up on my training." She watched him shift to a casual pose, looking quite relaxed, but quite confident as he asked her if she'd like to know more. She was nervous, she didn't want the taunts to continue here in Suna, that was if this shinobi happened to be a hyuuga. She took a gulp and hoped that if he was indeed, that they could push passed their differences. She smiled and nodded at his question stepping to the side to allow him access to the pillar in which she had used for practice.

"Sure! I could always use some tips, if you want you can use the pillar too!" She was calm, she didn't like lying, that's what causes so much pain. Both for the liar and the person being lied to, and Ashie hated it for that reason. Pain. It pained Ashie that she had to keep secrets from her brother, but maybe that's how mom and dad felt too.

(368)

It came to no surprise to Sakaiza that Ashie had yet to perfect her Byakugan, for he had not either. There were still jutsu that Sakaiza had yet to learn; one of which stood out quite evidently to him, the Twin Lion Fists. It would likely be quite some time before he would find the necessary material to teach him of such a technique, and let alone an instructor who would be able to show him the ways of it. Therefore, Sakaiza completely understood Ashie not mastering the Byakugan. That was not a shock to him. But what did surprise him, was to see a Byakugan wielder struggled with an execution of the one hundred twenty eight palms. It was merely an extension of the lesser, sixty four palms, but just with continued strikes and amplified speed. This indicated to Sakaiza that the root of the problem lied with either her chakra control, speed control or a lack of founding principles of the Gentle Fist. As Ashie elaborated on her relationship with the clan, Sakaiza's speculations were confirmed to a degree. If none of the clan were appreciating her, then it was likely that she had not received adequate training, unless this uncle she spoke of had taken her underneath his wing. 

When Sakaiza finished his extension of assistance to her, he noted that she seemed to be overtaken by a degree of anxiety. Perhaps she had rough encounters with Hyuuga in the past and did not feel comfortable with them. Sakaiza would attempt to show some empathy for her and continue to not reveal his bloodline. He did not want to risk any negative, preconceived connotations that she might have formulated due to bad run ins with Hyuugas in Konoha. But he still wanted to show her that not all Hyuuga were douchebags. 

Accepting his offer, she stated that he could use the pillar she had been practicing with. It seemed like a set up, almost as if she wanted Sakaiza to confirm that he could use the Byakugan. Instead, he had the idea of acting like an observer of the Gentle Fist and Eight Trigram Styles. He looked upon the rock pillar and noted it was dented. Laughing he smirked, "I don't think anyone's going to get good training with that pillar in the condition its in. Let's try out that one next to it." As he suggested the other pillar, he pointed to it, which was only several feet away.

"I can't actually show you anything, for I am not a Hyuuga," lying "But I have witnessed many practice in the Gentle Fist and Eight Trigrams art, so I can offer you criticism and suggestions for improvement." Hopefully with this statement, Ashie would rest assured with him, thus allowing her to practice her technique with the fullest of her capabilities since she would be in her comfort zone.

Sakaiza took several steps forward to get closer to the intact rock pillar and then began to speak again, "I want you to assume your Gentle Fist stance, align your body with the rock pillar and activate your Byakugan."


(WC: 520)

She heard the confirmation, he wasn't a hyuuga after all, or maybe he was like Ashie. Regardless she felt relief that he wasn't going to look down on her lineage. In fact maybe they could even be good friends. Yes, it was time to drop the facade, she was no noblewomen of the hyuuga. She was an Uchiha through and through. She got nervous as they stood in front of a fresh rock pillar, one with no dents, one that Ashie could use to improved. However...then he asked her to assume the stance and activate her byakuugan. This was it...it was time to reveal everything once more. She aligned herself in front of it as she calmly brought one hand out in front of her palm facing up and the other palm back slightly palm facing the pillar. She closed her eyes for a moment feeling her heart flutter with fear.

In that moment she breathed deeply, soothing herself, she could here her mother and father's voice in her head, 'It's okay. You can do it.' In that moment her eyes activated, the sides of her face tensed as her eyes turned white but within the white three black tomoe formed. Her chakra had already spread through her body, this was the missing ingredient that she didn't show in the stance before. Her true kekeigenkai. She began hitting, faster, more accurate, as if she were hitting a real person. "Sixteen! Thirty-Two!" Her strike's didn't yield, instead she pushed harder, faster, "Sixty-four!" She pushed herself again her dents almost breaking through the pillar like an ax to a tree, "One Hundered and Twenty-Eight Palms!" With her last strike she pushed herself away from the pillar, skidding backwards he would have full view of her face...

And her eyes. They weren't normal, they were byakuugan or Sharingan. They were both.

Her face untensed, instead of serious or happy like he saw before, this one was slightly sad, but full of relief, "I hope you can forgive my lies, but I am no Hyuuga, I'm Ashie Uchiha, nice to meet you, Sakaiza." She rubbed her arm, she was nervous again. She couldn't hide herself, it was impossible to try. She looked at the pillar, the dents were bigger than the previous anyone could see that. She was closing her hands now, they hurt, stung a bit. She had forgotten to take her mat off of the tree in Konoha that she used to protect her hand. That was a mistake.

(416)

As they took the several steps over, Sakaiza folded his arms and stood firmly in place. Attempting to watch Ashie as she lined up with the pillar. She seemed slightly nervous, yet immensely relieved. As she assumed her natural stance, Sakaiza noted that was no traditional Gentle Fist stance. It seemed to be a variation of it, which would be strange coming from a Hyuuga from Konoha. He always had assumed that the most traditional styles would be seen in Hyuuga coming from Konoha, seeing as there was so much influence around. Not like his own, he had his own modified Gentle Fist that was neither aggressive nor defensive, but instead responsive. Ashie seemed to incorporate her own style into her resting Gentle Fist, which was good seeing as not all fighters were the same, but unexpected considering where she was from. Sakaiza furrowed his brown and ceased to judge Ashie anymore.

Upon aligning her body with the pillar and assuming her stance, she had completed Sakaiza's preliminary instructions. However as Sakaiza opened his mouth to begin to speak, it seemed as if she had already jumped the gun. Closing his mouth, he watched as Ashie flowed with more chakra than what she had initially demonstrated. However the chakra did not seem to be the sole driving factor when she unleashed this technique, there seemed to be a reliance on strength in her execution of the jutsu. Something that Hyuuga did not incorporate into their style traditionally, yet once again this was her own modified stance, so Sakaiza could not fault her. But still, he couldn't help but feel there was something different upon her. As she moved, he caught a quick glimpse of her eye, not being purely white in color. His eyes widened; she could not be a Hyuuga, there was something else up.

Ashie slid back as she finished the technique and raised her head revealing her eyes. It was a combination of the Byakugan and the Sharingan working hand in hand. 

She admitted her lie, revealing that she was actually of Uchiha descent, which led Sakaiza to speculate further: "She must have killed a Hyuuga and morphed his eyes with her own..." he thought, "..but she's just a child. I don't think she would have the heart to murder someone for their kekkei genkai.."

Sakaiza tensed up slightly, taking on his guard in case the girl was filled with more deceit. But not so much so that she would notice, just ever so slightly. 

"Well Ashie Uchiha..." he started while smiling a bit, not a happy smile, but more of a witty one, "it would seem as if we both lied." He hung his head low, allowing his eyes to be hidden from Ashie's line of sight. When he would raise his head, his eyes would take on the strain on a developed Byakugan, purely opal in color. "I am a Hyuuga...." beginning, "...but not one native to Konoha and familiar with the main branch. No, my family was essentially outcast before I was born and fled here, to Sunaga." Sakaiza said this in a slightly warming tone, letting Ashie know that her lie was okay as he did too, letting her know that he had not been accepted by the main branch, letting her know that he too was different.

Realizing that Ashie's hands seemed to be inflamed from punching the wooden pillar, he came to the conclusion that she must not have had the most training with the palm strikes. An experienced veteran would like be accustomed to the pain, but she did not seem so. "Your hands...I can heal them." Sakaiza let out compassionately, referring to his newly found ability of medical ninjutsu.

Whether or not Ashie accepted or declined Sakaiza's offer, he would go on to reflect more on the Byakugan and Sharingan. If she did accept, Sakaiza would let out "Never before have I seen the combination of two doujutsu...how did it happen?" while healing her hands. But if not, then he would simply say the same thing right after she declined his offer. He understood that the situation was a peculiar one and possibly frightening to Ashie, but he still needed to satisfy his curiosity. 

(WC: 705)

She noticed he wasn't happy, but what he wasn't happy in particular she wasn't sure. It could've been her eyes, it could've been because she lied, or it could've been that...he knew she was a dirty mutt, just like the Konoha branch had hated. Then he had admitted that he was also fibbing, a small smile forming as she realized that they were playing the same game. He had told her that he too was a Hyuuga, this made her more nervous of course as he's sure to ask further about her eyes. She listened to his sad story, a small family outcast by the main house. Of course...such is the prideful Hyuuga clan. They didn't care if you were family or not, if you were an eye sore, you were cut off like a dead branch on a bonsai tree.She felt bad now, they both lied, and because of it, she could've possibly ruined the chance at making a good friend here in Suna. She tilted her head back up surprised as she heard him ask if he could heal her hands.

"You can if you want to, I'm the one who forgot my mat at home. I used it to help cushion the strikes, striking the human body doesn't do as much damage as a tree or rock." She chuckled slightly, both out of nervousness and joking. She held her palms face up and in front of her, they were red and some of the rocks had made small cuts in her hand, it did hurt. She heard him ask further about her eyes, she looked down trying to hide her sad look,

"I was born like this...and because of it, I couldn't really ask any of the Hyuuga to teach me how to perfect the technique, my mom could...but she's...busy. So I read, a lot, my dad had this huge library full of scrolls, and I happened across the one hundred and twenty-eight palms. I know, silly of me. Sadly I like how the stances are, I like knowing that without my chakra I can fight with my hands." Ashie smiled gently, she remembered how she was trying to show her brother how to hold a stance, and how to focus his chakra into his hand, but that was before...No...she can't do that here. Still trying to forget. She forced her charming smile on her face, "I can understand if you don't like me, or trust me. I mean, that's why we lied right? We didn't trust, we both have a hard time trusting, which is something I need to work on, specially if I'm going to protect everyone someday!"

(451)