the storm bringer | ✓

Chapter Twenty-Four ~ the Past

~Chapter Twenty-Four~

Where... where am I?

The girl drifted in a sea of darkness, the shadows consuming her slowly. The bandages around her right eye slowly unraveled and disintegrated away. She hesitated before opening both of her eyes slowly. She blinked and closed her eyes before opening them again. She was standing in a field with frost slowly creeping over the blades of grass. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Why do I feel like something bad is happening?

She started wandering around, confusion brewing within her. "Mama?" A small voice called out making Winter's heart skip a beat. "Mama? Why aren't you waking up?" The voice was shaking and sounded on the verge of tears. "Mama please!" The voice broke and tears started to sting in the back of her eyes.

No... anywhere, anywhere but here.

Against her will, Winter started walking in the direction of the pleas. "Papa! Nii-san! Anyone! Please help me!" Leaves bitten by frost swirled down from the trees decorating the landscape and Winter stepped over a frozen stream her heart sinking. Against the white slowly taking over the world was the bright scarlet color of blood.

I-I can't see this. Not now, not ever.

A little girl with short black hair and bright turquoise eyes wailed in horror as she struggled to wake her mother up... her mother that was impaled with several kunai and bleeding in the forest. A sinister laugh echoed throughout the forest as a women with pure black hair and brown eyes walked out. "W-Why?" The younger Winter screamed at the women, her eyes angry. "Why Lady Hakuei?!"

"Poor little, naive Yuki." Hakuei snickers at the little girl, "Your mother knew too much and now so do you." The women raised her gold staff, black energy start to form at the tips. "You see my daughter was the best, the smartest, and people praised her for her talents. But then lo and behold the Storm Shinobi make their annual appearance and suddenly my darling Misaki was no longer important. She was thrown into the background as the villages gave their thanks and praises to the Ookami clan for keeping them safe."

Hakuei's face contorts into one of fury, "And yet the Ookami clan refused to share anything with us. They wouldn't teach us their 'sacred jutsu'." She spits out. "Because those are clan secrets!" Little Winter says defiantly. "It doesn't matter, because eventually all of those jutsu and secrets will be mine. First I'll kill you, then I'll torture every single member of your clan until they give me what I desire. Hmm, I think I'll start with your precious nii-san. What was his name, Aiden? I can't wait, I can imagine his screams to be most delightful."

The mad woman licks her lips grinning at the horror clear on little Winter's face. "Hmm maybe I'll visit the Leaf Village and pay a visit to your fiance and your other nii-san." Something inside Winter snaps and she shrieks in anger. The air ripples around them and grows thick with electricity. "Don't. You. Dare!"

Lightning flashes in the sky before finding its target. Hakuei screams and her staff clatters to the ground, the left half of her face burned. "You little brat!" She screeches in pain, her eyes landing on the small girl crouching over her mother's still body protectively. Shout and howls were heard in the distant making Hakuei stiffen. "I'll be back for you." She hisses, her eyes flashing angrily. Hakuei spins on her heel and dashes away.

Little Winter sways and Winter dashes forward going to catch her, but the little girl just falls through her hands landing right next to her mother. Their faces are turned towards each other, the lifelessness in her mother's eyes making little Winter start to cry. She curled up next to her dead mother, the blood soaking her clothes as exhaustion hit her hard.Five minutes later this is how her older brother and father found her, covered in blood with tears stains visible.

She never talked about that day ever again, locking the memory in the deepest darkest pit in her mind.

***

Kakashi was the first one to wake up, clearly shaken by the piece of his past he relived. He sat silently next to Sakura who had managed to move them under the cover of some trees. Lady Misaki was next, her eyes shining with unshed tears as she stared down at her hands. It took ten minutes until Naruto woke with a start, his hand going to his stomach. He looked sick and didn't say one word, very uncharacteristic of him.

Sasuke woke up seconds later with his Sharingan activated and his face paler than normal. The four slowly came to their sense, still shaken from the memories they had seen. Sakura cast a worried glance at Winter who lay under a tree, her face eerily calm. The others had shown some level of discomfort while they were out yet she lay there perfectly still, her breaths steady and her face smooth.

"Why do you guys think Winter hasn't woken up yet?" Sakura finally asks quietly making the others glance at the girl. "Maybe..." Surprisingly it's Sasuke who speaks up first, "It's because her memory is longer." Winter suddenly jerks in her sleep like state, her hands curling into fists. Her nails break the skin and blood drips onto the snow.

Lighting sparks and races along her skin, her clothes smoking and her hair singeing from the heat. "Don't..." The words are whispered through her lips, her face still perfectly calm. "You dare..." Those two words are spoken angrily, "Threaten my family... or the Uchiha's..." Four eyes looked towards Sasuke who'd blanched. "Ever again!"

Lighting explodes around her, flashing and striking the girl several times before vanishing. "Winter!" Sakura scrambles forward, the girl sitting up and blinking sluggishly. "Huh? Sakura?" She looks at the pink haired girl who is staring at her worriedly. She then looks around noticing the gazes of the others on her.

"What'd I miss?"

Picture of Hakuei to the side or up top. Does she seem/look familiar?