On a training field, a young girl was seen striking an thick wooden post with the tips of her fingers. The sun was setting, yet the young girl showed no sign of slowing down.
Today, she had lost a training match against her younger sister, five years her junior. The look on her father's face after the event kept replaying in her mind as she continued to land mechanical blows.
The call of a servant was what pulled her out of her trance. The sun had long set. It was almost time for dinner.
"I need to take a bath before meeting father and Hanabi," she thought to herself.
Despite her hurry, she still arrived late.
Her father ignored her entry into the dining room. The meal went on in silence.
At the end of the meal, her father gave a simple order:
"From now on, Hanabi will sleep in her own room. It has already been prepared."
When her sister tried to protest, her father silenced her with a threatening look.
At the end of the meal, she heard Hanabi let out a sigh of disappointment as she left the room. That was the only glance he had given her since the morning.
"It's alright, don't worry, I know you held back this morning," Hanabi said.
Hearing her younger sister console her, Hinata smiled. She was supposed to be the older sister, but the roles had completely reversed.
She then talked to her sister until a servant announced that her father had ordered her sister to go to her new room. After her sister left, she watched the servant collect the dishes and prepare to wash them. She offered to help, which the servant accepted.
This wasn't the first time. On her way to her room, she encountered her cousin, Neji Hyuga. When she tried to greet him, all she received was a cold glance. She watched as he walked away, but she overheard him mutter, "Useless as always."
She lowered her head. Their relationship hadn't always been so bad. It had deteriorated since her fourth birthday, and her uncle's death.
She then entered her room and noticed how empty it was. Her sister's belongings had already been moved. The room felt so empty and much less lively without her.
She lay down on the futon she had shared with her sister just yesterday.
She thought about their deceased mother, about how things were so much simpler when she and her uncle Hizashi were still alive. Then, without realizing it, the tears began to fall until she fell asleep.
She woke up in a cold sweat. She hadn't even realized she had fallen asleep. She felt a tightness in her chest. Something was wrong.
She turned on her room's lamp, but it didn't change anything. She rushed outside without bothering to get dressed properly, rushing into the courtyard. Everything was peaceful, but that did not ease her mind.
She finally understood what was wrong. There were no guards.
She activated her byakugan and was shocked to see that the entire residence was empty. But what really surprised her was that beyond the residential walls, there was nothing. The world seemed to dissolve beyond a certain distance, becoming increasingly blurry.
In shock, she began to wander. The more she wandered, the calmer she felt. She left the residential area, reaching the boundary of this new world. It stretched, revealing what must have been more. She wandered.
After some time, she returned to the compound. She had already understood that this couldn't be a genjutsu, and even if it were, it didn't matter... she had already failed to break it.
As she was heading towards the back training ground, she heard a sound. A splash of water coming from a hot spring. The one she used to share with her mother, and no one had used since her death.
Her heart trembling, she moved toward the source, slipping in quietly, ready for anything. But the person she saw there was the last person she would have expected to meet.
The name of the person escaped her lips before she could stop it.
— "Narume?"
As soon as she was called, the other turned around and then curled up like a child caught in the act.