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"Sa-chan!"

"Hime!" Terasu spoke reproachfully, trying to pull the heiress back. But Elruda slipt under the older Hyuuga's arm, as she rushed forward and gave Sakeme a hug: regardless of the current conditions.

"Now now, chiisai-hime..." Spoke a nurse, not unkindly, as she gently pulled the child back. "Let her rest. And you need to as well."

"I should be thanking you, rather." Replied the Nara quietly, as he watched the nurses take Elruda away.

The Hyuuga woman, gave an elegant, sweeping bow to the child in bed. "Thank you for saving our princess."

With her words, Shikamori stiffened slightly. Those of the Hyuuga clan do not waste words. It became clear: Elruda-hime would not have been able to survive that attack. But the revelation did not justify...if at all, it only made him feel guiltier. Even if Sakeme had better chances of surviving the attack...

"The fault is mine." Replied Shikamori, apologetically. "I have been careless...that mistake might've costed chiisai-hime her life...or yours." A soft pause. "Sakeme...please take care of yourself. I hate to think how chiisai-hime would change so, if she should lose you." His words for her: to live on.

Because Elruda would be broken if something should happen to Sakeme.

A soft sigh escaped his lips, before he took a seat next to Sakeme's bedside. "Elruda inherits the position as heiress to the Hyuuga clan through her mother's lineage. But her father...Hyuuga Rasen was the former Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, his long reign before Lady Cerbi's and Lord Akane's. So ever since she was small, she saw very little of her parents. Whatever memories she does have of them are probably blurry: she doesn't remember what the love of parents should be like. Her brother...and one close childhood friend...they were the only truly precious people in her short life." A soft pause.

"The Elders in her clan...well, they were...rather hard on her. She had an older brother, from her father's previous marriage...but with no connections to the head family, Jurei-kun was no good for inheriting the clan name. They were...very unfair to Jurei-kun, to say the least. Raising the heiress in the shadows, thinking that her brother would always be better than her...always the chosen child...because she was always too weak, too pacifistic in nature...unfit to be a shinobi. The Hyuuga Council wanted to twist that weakness, even if having to resort to twisting her feelings for her brother with hate..."

"They would've succeeded, if Jurei-kun hadn't so suddenly been killed...on his last ANBU mission. Elruda was devastated. Part of her had hated him, even wished for his death but...when he was gone... Though she was only his half-sister...Jurei-kun had loved her more than anything in the world. Never had she regretted anything more: to have not appreciated his presence when he was still alive."

"Chiisai-hime likes to put on a strong front. To think that she would grow so close to another again...losing another would break her."

Shikamori looked away. "After that...her views on Hyuuga were never the same again. She was raised sheltered: to be proud of the family, of the lineage she was born to...but instead...the Hyuuga Council's plans had backfired. Of that incident, she felt most betrayed...it was unclear how she found out, but she did...that her dear brother was only a puppet heir - only to give a factor to drive her on - something which made her truly angry, because he did have talent and great potential...all that were passed off. So from then on...Elruda did everything she can do go against traditions."

And though intellectual-wise, Elruda-hime's test read even higher than his...instead, the child chose to mask genius under the mask of a prankster. A small smile at the girl in bed. "You know, those of the Hyuuga family are supposed to be really selfish. Rarely are they touched in battle...and their eyes grow sharper with the passing time: they are quite proud of their clan's skill. But her brother died protecting his team with his kempo: Jurei-kun never used it for himself. I think that...in many ways...Elruda-hime too. No matter how much they say it is unwise...she wants to use it...for you." A soft pause.

"For even with all the wisdom and insight granted by their ancient doujutsu...their sight is as short as it is wide. The Byakugan limit is a gift - and like with all those who bear gifts, gifts they never paid for, they can grow arrogant. You are, for Elruda-hime, the one to make sure she never misuses that gift."

Like the sky and sea: never mixing but always complementing one another.

"...do you know the trouble with prodigies? They have a tendency to fall into brooding. They overthink things, and miscomprehend." A small smile at Sakeme. "It's natural to desire power. But depending on "the why", one may become too enraptured. It is no different for Elruda-hime, as happy and carefree as you may regard her now. She is too kind...too easily monopolized...there is no guarantee any other friends she may make from now on will not try to do so."

"There will come a day when she will have to stain her hands, with human blood...that is the fate of all shinobi..." A soft pause. "There will be things she doesn't understand, meaningless hatred and inter-village rivalries...political and domestic entanglements...and in due time, she will become the center of a even greater tug-of-war: Konoha's Council of Elders will not let the matter drop so easily. ...daughter of Hyuuga and Lord Rasen's legacy..."

"Long days will come and pass, before Elruda-hime will earn her right to live between two villages (Sannin recognition). Until then, it will be a hard, arduous trail...one that she will need all the support she can have. There will come a time, when she will be able to perform the whole Juuken Kempo school flawlessly. And...my dear Sakeme...it is one of the swiftest killing arts in existence."

"If she loses sight of the reason to gain power - to gain power to protect - then as with all other prodigies of ancient clans, she will fall under the possibility to abuse her blood inheritance. So all the more important...though it's easy to say all you have to do is keep being yourself..."

"...when one falls to darkness, there's always someone who needs to be their light - and guide them back to the right way."

Shadow walked into the hospital, with a wide grin on his face. He had hurried ahead of his new friend because he wanted to get patched up as quickly as possible so she wouldn't have to spend hours in the waiting room. His ears twitched and his nose crinkled as he smelled all the vaccines in the premise. Despite this he started to look for a doctor and a sick bed. It was odd, as he walked people muttered something about him being like a 'Henka' Shadow shrugged it off and instead just found a bed, and decided to lie down in it until a doctor came by.

Shadow looked over at Shuiro raising an eyebrow. He wasn't entirely sure whether being compared to this other clan was an insult or a compliment, though it didn't really matter.

A Henka eh? Sounds interesting, i would enjoy meeting one! He sat down on a bed and within moments a doctor came in and tended to his bruises and broken bones. He was fixed up and treated in no time. He grinned and then sat up looking at his friend. Alright, cool! So where would you go to get missions? Decide on what weapon you want yet?

Shadow looked at her and shot out a little grin. The Fuuma Shuriken was one of his favorite weapons, it was the first weapon he had ever really used... Well outside of his normal shurikens and kunai. He bounced up and down excitedly at the idea of teaching what he learned to someone else.

Oh, but it's great! The Fuuma Shuriken is actually a really versatile weapon! Though most just see it as a compact large ranged weapon to do damage, you can actually use it in melee combat! And you can even use it to disarm opponents! It's really great actually! If you got a Fuuma Shuriken i could teach you what i know and how to throw it!