Requiem

「序章」: The awakening

"Don't know what's going on with me, but all I know it's haunting me."

- The Way I still love you, Reynard Silva

***

A blood red sunset illuminated the Hokage mountain, giving it a soft glow.

This evening was particularly cold, Shiranui Genma thought as he shivered in his jounin fleece jacket. He wandered around the outskirts of Konohagakure as he just got off of his patrol and had spare time while he headed home. He glanced at the red and orange hues of the sky. Red is the colour of passion. Red was representative of the Will of Fire. It wasn't exactly an ominous colour, but Genma felt off.  Suddenly a gust of chill wind blew at his hair, tousling his brown strands, making it wilder than ever. He turned to look at the source of the wind. It was from the forest that surrounded the footpath. It seemed like a dark, long, winding tunnel amongst the dense vegetation. Genma stopped chewing on his senbon, a tingle ran down the side of his body. His fingers twitched for an unknown reason. He stood there for a long while before slowly entering the forest, gently pushing away the overgrown grass and weeds.

After a long trek into the woods, he came across a clearing surrounded by a ring of trimmed trees, the flood was devoid of grass, mainly dirt and sand. Several training mummies were propped against the roots of the trees, some kunais were imbedded in the targets that were placed on the trunks. What intrigued him was a small bundle that laid curled up on the ground.

A girl, with pink hair? He silently acknowledged. She wore a dark vest with beige coloured shirt underneath. A pair of black pants with small sandals. Her hair were spread across her face, her closed fist laid next to her head. Genma placed his senbon inside his breast pocket as he walked over and examined the girl. A couple of grazes on her elbow and knee. Probably stumbled and took a fall. Chakra signature is weak. She looks like she has been trying to use her chakra to train, so chakra exhaustion. He concluded.

Without any effort, he lifted the girl up as she nestled in his arms. Genma now has a full view of her facial features. She was doll like, she had a wide forehead, a small button-like nose, and soft lips in the shade of pink just like her hair. Her face held a lot of baby fat, her limbs were thin, overall, her build was small.

A child of around 4. A 4-year-old is a bit young to be out here alone and train to the point of unconsciousness. He thought. But then again, he knew many who were full-fledged ninjas when they still haven't grown their adult teeth. Many who are the age of comparing toys with their friends, laughter and joy but instead are his colleagues, who bathes in blood every day for the sake of their village. Genma sighed, the girl stirred. He shouldn't leave her here as it will be nighttime soon. It will get really cold. So, he took off towards the hospital with the unconscious girl in his arms.

***

Genma was welcomed by the strong sterilised smell as he walked further into the hallways of the hospital again.

"Shiranui-san are you here for Haruno-san?" A nursed approached him, her hand clutched a board with a medical report.

"Aa, yes. I'm just coming in to see how she's doing."

The sound of the heart monitor machine beeped in monotone syllables.

"Haruno-san is still not awake yet. Right now, we cannot figure out the reason behind her unconsciousness." The nurse scribbled on her report.

Genma's eyebrows furrowed in thought.

"It's not chakra exhaustion?"

The nurse's head lifted up again, "well, partly yes due to chakra exhaustion. But after being in observation this long with her chakra replenished, she is still not awake. So, we figured there must be something else we missed. But right now, we can only wait and see."