𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘉𝘌𝘋𝘌𝘝𝘐𝘓𝘌𝘋 𝘓𝘌𝘎𝘈𝘊𝘠 | ⁿᵃʳᵘᵗᵒ

Preparations For The Storm

PREPARATIONS FOR THE STORM

✧

Hana sat on the deck off the main household hallway, legs tucked into her chest. Her chin resting on her knees, she stared off into space, gazing intently at the grass. It was late at night, the rest of the family having gone to bed earlier. The moon was the only source of light, along with the few fireflies glowing a neon color in the dark backyard.

It was a year after Daichi's death. Yet it felt like just yesterday she was saying goodbye to her last living parent. Losing another family member.

While her younger cousins had survived on that mission, they fell too only a month or so later. The thought made Hana sick to her stomach when she thought back on it. They scraped by death when her father hadn't, only to be taken not too long after.

She missed her cousins dearly.

But Hana never thought... she never thought the day would come where she would have to part from her father. Never having known her mother in the first place, the longing for that figure in her life had never been more than a dull ache. The longing to know what it was like to be held by a mother. To have her brush her hair. To have her sing a song. She didn't know what it was like—so there really was nothing to miss.

But her father... there was plenty for her to miss.

She missed the big smiles he would flash at her whenever he made a cheesy joke. When she had a bad day or was feeling sad, he'd pull her into his lap and tell her a story about great big dragons that lived in the mountains. He'd describe them in such detail, she felt as though she was there in the moment, staring the scaled, whiskered creatures in the face.

Now that he was gone... she finally knew what it was like to experience a great gaping hole in her heart.

"Hana, what are you doing out here so late at night?"

The youngest Uchiha looked up, meeting the gaze of her older twin.

Asami had always been the more responsible one out of the two. Firm. Confident. Strong-willed. Hana was jealous of that at times. How strong she could be even when everything had the power to crush them without wasting a breath.

Asami settled on the deck beside her, legs hanging off the side, toes barely grazing the grass as she swung her feet. She waited for a moment, allowing the silence to rest between them. Asami was patiently waiting for an answer. She didn't prod for her to continue. Hana always appreciated that about her sister. They may have been young, and she may have been a little more troublesome than other girls their age, but Asami was probably the best sister she could have ever asked for. No—without a doubt, she was the best sister she could have asked for.

"I can't sleep," Hana answered quietly. Placing her chin on her folded arms, she avoided meeting her sister's gaze and watched the fireflies.

"I get what you mean."

The two sisters stayed out on the deck until the early morning. No more words were passed between the two. Just the gentle breeze, and the comfort of one another's presence. Letting each other know while they may have been losing a lot, they hadn't lost everything. They at least still had each other.

Pretty soon the months rolled into years. Before Asami knew it, she and Hana were reaching their sixteenth birthday. Many more of their family members had fallen in battle. The tablets scrawled with names of those who'd died were piling up, and Asami had begun to wonder when, not if, her name was going to be added to the growing list. She'd participated in a couple of small missions, but never a full-blown battle. A war between two or more clans. But with growing tensions between the clans also bordering the land of fire, it seemed everyone knew a fight wasn't too far away.