Hoshigaki

Where Skies Go

Three year old Hoshigaki Sakura was only allowed out into the village at night when most of Ame's citizens had retired for the day and only the adult establishments were open and bustling, but Papa never took her near those. He said she wasn't old enough.

But she didn't care about not having to go as long as she was able to spend time with him. Normally on these days, her and her Papa would walk down a path to one of the training grounds in the village to work on cultivating her skills. She had to wear a cloak too because Papa didn't want her to get sick—but it wasn't like the pretty one he always wore.

Once, she asked him if she'd ever get one like his.

He tried to hide a sad smile from her and answered:

"I hope you never do."

She still didn't know what that meant, but at least now she understood that red clouds mean "'katsuki" and that "Leada-sama" was in charge of everything. As she kicked up puddles and walked down the dark streets with her hand in her father's, her curious stare darted from the buildings glowing softly in the moonlight up to the rain that fell to the tips of her toes.

"Why no moon?" she asked. Kisame tipped his head down at her, the tassels of his hat shifting across his shoulders.

"Because when it rains as much as this, the clouds cover the sky and you can't see anything else."

"Star?"

"No stars either."

"Sun!"

"The sun's a star too, pup, but it's a special one that only comes out during the day," he said, patting her hood covered head. "But I guess you've only seen the sun in your books, huh?"

Pein never stopped the rain and Sakura knew no different than that, so he took it upon himself to get as many picture books as he could to show her that skies could come in all kinds. The day after he'd done that, Sakura spent all her free time looking outside her window to look at the clouds above. 

She asked why it never stopped.

Kisame laughed, pat her head, and said that "God" had a bit of a complex.

"I'll show you the light one day," he promised as he sobered up from the memory. She beamed at him. "I'll take you out of the village so you can see the moon and the stars and the sun. Whaddya think?"

She hopped into a puddle and let her yellow boots get covered in the muddy water. She giggled.

"Yeah!"

But the night wasn't just for late night walks and answering the infinite number of questions his little girl procured, but it was also his opportunity to train her without the rest of the village's wandering eyes. He taught her how to properly hold kunai and shuriken and had her aim for the crudely marked targets he carved in the trees. He started bringing her out when she learned to walk on her own and had her practice until she said she was tired.

Normally, she'd aim for the targets and ask questions about the types of trees she was trying to hit or why there wasn't a lot of grass when there was a lot of dirt. Kisame didn't know all of the answers, but he made sure to look them up and tell her the next day.

Though today, she started to ask some questions he hoped she wouldn't ask until she was older.

"Why we do 'tis?" Sakura asked. She stopped throwing and held up one of her kunai so her father could get a closer look. "Game?"

"This ain't a game, pup. You need to learn to protect yourself from the people that might come to kill me."

Confused, she tilted her head to the side.