Despite the lack of any real expression on his face, Hikari could tell by his eyes that Kuro was a bit taken aback by her words, or perhaps the change in her attitude. It was unexpected, for sure. Hell, she was more surprised than anyone by it, because she knew herself and she knew how completely uncharacteristic it was. She had no explanation for why, instead she had a thousand more questions. For a moment silence crept up around the until he finally spoke, or rather muttered. He wasn't looking her way, but she smiled nonetheless. It was a small but sweet smile, one that managed to actually brighten her features, if only barely, and bring a hint of warmth to her usually cold blue eyes. After a brief moment she snapped her gaze away.<span style="font-style: italic">What the hell was that?</span>It was very rare for anyone to see her smile like that nowadays. She simply didn't do it. She rarely had a reason to. Once upon a time that was pretty much her default, a happy, bright, warm smile. Now it was a rarity that few ever saw.<br/><br/>She looked away from him, staring off into the distance at nothing in particular. She stayed like this as the minutes ticked by until he stood and spoke up again, saying that he was going to go for a bit. His voice was jerky and uncertain and she was tempted to pass it off as him not liking to talk, but he'd never spoken this way before. No. This was something different, or at least she thought it was. But she hardly had any room to talk. "Okay." she replied, her voice soft, almost a whisper, a hint of her own uncertainly coloring her voice. She sighed lightly as he left and she was left, once again, with nothing but the sound of silence and the company of her own thoughts. Of course, that was generally how she liked it, so she really couldn't complain, except that she had too many thoughts right now, and she didn't want to think about any of them.<br/><br/>She dropped down from the tree, putting her things back into her bag and replacing it under the tree next to her hooded cloak, which she had removed earlier. Once this was finished she leaped back into the tree, returning to her previous position and staring up at the sky for several minutes before she made the shadow clone symbol, sending one of her own clones to the top of the tree to keep a look out. It wasn't that she didn't trust his clones to see whatever might come their way, but her own clone would be able to warn her more easily if something were to happen. She slowly sunk down against the tree trunk until she was laying down. Her mind was filled with thoughts but she had learned to quiet them, at least temporarily, which allowed her a brief reprieve, during which she managed to drift off to sleep.<br/><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Trees flew by as a young Hikari and three other ninja, Isamu, their squad leader, Takeshi, and Haru, jumped nimbly through the trees. Hikari was only seven years old and had recently been promoted to a chunin. This was her first mission after being promoted, actually. It wasn't supposed to be that difficult of a mission, it was only a C-rank mission gathering information. Now they found themselves running from a group of ninja who weren't far behind. Hikari had detected that they were being followed yesterday and they had sent word to Konoha, requesting backup. They weren’t more than a day and a half away, so their best bet now was to hold these guys off until back up arrived. They didn’t necessarily have to defeat them all, just outlast them.<br/><br/>“Get down!” the voice of the young girl called out. Moments later she, and the three other shinobi accompanying her all dropped out of the trees to the clearing below. Purple eyes darted around the area as the other three dropped into their usual defensive formation. Hikari had sensed something, and she was never wrong. Something, or more accurately someone, was coming. “Six…Seven…Eight…Ten enemies approaching! Two from the north, two from the east, two from the west, and four from the south.” The young girl informed her comrades as her eyes darted around, counting the enemies that still remained beyond their field of vision. <br/><br/>The four of them moved, adjusting their formation based on this information. They didn’t need to talk about it, they knew what to do. The one with the strongest defense would face the most enemies. Hikari was the smallest and fastest of the group, she had the strongest defense, and her offense was stronger than either Takeshi or Haru, and given a few years, it would no doubt rival Isamu's. For this reason, she was most equipped to handle a larger number of enemies. She could hold them off for longer and get away more easily than the others. <br/><br/>Isamu would take out his two and then help to relieve Hikari unless the other two were overwhelmed. If one of the others finished theirs off first, they would do the same. It was a strategy they’d used many times before. It hadn’t failed them yet, they all just hoped that today wouldn’t be the day that it did.<br/><br/>“They’re almost here.” Hikari warned her comrades before going through a series of hand signs too quickly for the eyes to follow. “Ice Release: Ice Armor Jutsu!” with that a layer of ice covered much of her body. Moments later the enemies dropped out of the trees and the fight began. They managed to take out most of the enemies, but it wasn't enough. Isamu had taken out both of his opponents, although the last had been a hard fought battle that he barely won. Takeshi managed to take out one, but required Isamu's help to take out the other, and he was badly wounded in the process. Haru was wounded by his first opponent and wasn't able to finish off his last opponent. Isamu and Takeshi came to his aid as soon as they could, but it wasn't soon enough. Takeshi lost his cool and got himself hurt again fighting Haru's last opponent, leaving him severely weakened and unable to fight, or even stand, really. He was losing blood and fast.<br/><br/>Hikari had trapped two of her opponents inside of an ice prison while she fought the other two. She managed to take the first one out without a whole lot of trouble but the second one was stronger and took longer than she would have liked and allowed the other two time to break from their prison. She managed to take out the second opponent before she had to go on the defensive again. By this point she was sufficiently worn out and it took everything she had to keep her opponents at bay. Isamu tried to help, taking one of them off of her, trying to give her a chance to go on the offensive. But it didn't work, Isamu was soon on the defensive and his defense was wearing thin. It was clear to her that he wouldn't last much longer, and at this rate, neither would she. She was forced to retreat back far enough to create a dome of ice around herself. She tried to do the same for Isamu, but she couldn't. She wasn't strong enough to erect two of them, not yet.<br/><br/>She hated it, being helpless to help her friends, forced to hide behind a barrier of ice to keep herself alive while they died. Haru was already dead, Isamu wouldn't last long, and Takeshi was barely clinging to life. There was no way he'd make it until their backup arrived. She mentally cursed, knowing she was, once again, alone. She waited behind the barrier, holding it up for what felt like days, but in reality was merely hours, until backup finally arrived. The two remaining enemies were slain by the squad before they instructed Hikari to let down her barrier.<br/><br/>She let her barrier down to find her fears realized. She'd known they were all gone, she'd been able to see them with her Issekigan. Yet it was different, seeing them now. It brought back memories of her mother and her father, lying in the dining room, bloody and lifeless. She felt a sense of dread setting in, bordering on panic as she looked around at them. She felt tears filling her eyes sliding down her cheeks as the reality of it all set in. She clenched her fists and without thinking, spun around and punched a nearby tree, ice covering her fist as she did, before she sank to the ground, tears falling unhindered, despite her best efforts. They were gone, and once again, she was alone. </span><br/><br/>Hikari gasped as she awoke from her sleep, sitting up straight like a stalk once again, but this time her cheeks were damp. "Damn it!" she cursed, looking away from the campsite in case Kuro was there, and burying her face in her hands for a moment, wiping the tears away as she did. It wasn't uncommon for her to dream about her past. It was a nightmare, and it haunted her nightmares. But usually the dreams weren't this vivid. Was it because she'd seen her brother? Was that it? She sighed and looked up at the sky, seeing that the sun was beginning to set. They'd be able to go out within the hour. Good. She needed to get away, needed something to distract her from everything.<br/><br/>After a brief moment she looked around the campsite to see if Kuro had returned. She didn't bother to hope he hadn't, that he hadn't seen her tears or heard her outburst. Hoping was a pointless endeavor, in her experience, and she'd long ago given up on hope. She'd forgotten how to hope, really. At any rate, he'd seen her awaken from a nightmare before, and she'd seen his tears when he'd awoken from his, it hardly mattered at this point. If he hadn't seen, great, if it had, what difference did it really make?<br/><br/><br/>Arashi ate his food in silence, giving the girl a nod when she thanked him. He supposed he didn't usually actually defend her in these types of situations, so it didn't surprise him that she seemed surprised by it, or that she thanked him for it. He generally just hoped that she would speak up for herself, but she didn't. He knew by now that she wouldn't, which was partly why he' finally done so. She let everyone walk all over her and it drove him crazy, mostly because he didn't understand. He didn't know how someone could just take all of that without fighting back. Some girls were like that, he supposed, and even some men. He supposed that in some ways she reminded him of Hikari, not because she was anything like her, they were quite different, but she was about her age. Had someone had half the things these guys said to Sen to Hikari, she would have put every single one of them in their place. But she was like him in that regard. They didn't take anything from anyone, and they didn't like seeming weak in any form or fashion.<br/><br/>Once he'd finished his food he leaned back in his chair silently, waiting for her to finish, but making sure it was clear that he wasn't rushing her. "We'll go together today." he informed her. It wasn't because he thought she was going to screw up again, but with the remaining targets they had to be extra careful, which meant that they were all going in pairs, rather than going alone like they had the first time. He didn't want her to be stuck with any of these other buffoons, so he'd volunteered to be her partner. He left it at that, allowing her to finish her food in peace.