My Dreams Are CRYSTAL Clear

Age : 30 Posts : 614

Aero laid awake at night, as the cold gusts of wind battered against the windows, producing their almost harmonic whistle. It was like a siren’s song to him, it brought about such a sense of serenity and yet a sense of curiosity as well. He had never been sure what made him feel this way, only that the feeling was omnipresent and that no matter how hard he tried to not think about it, he always had a need for more knowledge about the world. That was when a realization him, a realization that caught him off guard, a realization that made him look back at his life in a flash, curious as to why he had never realized it before.

Living in one place, caged in by walls, had prevented him from truly knowing everything that he wanted. He was being held back by this one mountain range that he had come to call home. In reality, the world was his home. Up until this point, he had been presented very one sided truths, and simply accepted the words that he had read from books in the library. No longer would he accept this, no longer would he sit around and absorb the experiences of others. He needed to find his own truths, find meaning of his own. He had to leave.

He closed his eyes gently, thinking of all the cheerful memories that Kumogakure had. The friends that he had made, the things he had done, the people that he had helped, and the nature he had embraced all came to mind. Still images were dug up from his memories, and played on the back of his closed eyelids like a slideshow.

As he laid there, although he was unaware of it, slow streams of clear and glossy tears flowed from the ends of his eyes, down his sharp cheeks, onto the pillow beneath his head. Of course such passionate memories would cause a stir when he thought about leaving, but he had to make himself first priority, and he was sure that everyone else could come to understand that. After all, he had never been interested in anything else but raw knowledge and anyone that knew him, was sure to know that and would never condemn him for pursuing his ambitions.

It was decided. He would leave Kumogakure to travel the world, and would not let anyone stop him. He understood that he would be classified as a deserter for this, and he could harbor that burden if it meant following his dreams, he could deal with it as long as nobody was hurt in his departure.

Although he was secure with his decision, there would need to be some planning, and that was no problem for him, but at the time, he needed sleep. Nobody could catch onto his trail, not even his parents; otherwise there could most certainly be a problem with his departure. He decided that he ought to sleep, ready to pack and plan the following morning so that he could make a sudden and swift departure the following night.

With his mind set, he turned onto his right side, and wiped his wet left cheek with his palm, and let the pillow absorb the moisture on his other cheek, and drifted into a lucid dream.

……
There he stood, at the outer gates of the village, his standard gear worn and a backpack strapped onto him with all of his other belongings. The bright stars looming beautifully overhead, only blocked by the occasional soft grey clouds that were dispersed throughout the sky. As he looked over his left shoulder, he could see everyone that he had ever met, standing there, silent. Their arms were outstretched towards him, their hands opening and closing as if to grasp him and drag him back to them.

He gave a faint smile in their direction, and a slight shake of his head as he brought it back to look at the wooden gates of the village. They looked larger now, about ten times larger.

A worried look fell upon his face, and as he looked back at those from his past, he could see them rapidly encroaching upon him. Suddenly, the Raikage emerged from the crowd at a full charge, except there was something different- her eyes weren’t foggy and glazed over. She wasn’t blind. Her sharp eyes were fixated on his person, and faster than he knew it, her hand was fastened on the backside of his neck.

He had been defeated, he had been dragged back into the darkness, taken from the knowledge that he would never know.

No. He wouldn’t let that happen.. He couldn’t, but what choice did he have?

“No!” He shouted into the empty night, and the most absurd thing happened almost immediately. He was no longer be dragged, and his feet were firm on the ground and the village gates flew ajar with brute force.

With another glimpse over his shoulder, he saw that everyone seemed to have disappeared…

…….

Aero awoke from his dream in a cold sweat. The freshly permeated beads of water remained motionless on his forehead, as if holding on to the inside of his pores still. He looked around for a brief moment to ensure that he was in fact purely sane and in his bed still, and much to his surprise, he was.

He gave a deep sigh before wiping away at his sweaty forehead with his forearm and rising gently to his feet.

The wooden floor was cold and lifeless, and caused goosebumps to riddle Aero’s body as he set feet upon it. He walked to the bathroom, and did his daily cleaning rituals which consisted of showering, brushing his teeth, the inspection of his clothing, his morning workout, and breakfast.

Once he had finished this routine, he returned to his room, and headed for his closet to withdraw his pitch black backpack, in which he would be storing a change of clothes, and two days rations off which he could survive before arriving at any sort of external establishment.

His next order of business was to write his parents a letter, explaining his departure and his goals for the future. He scoured his room for a few pieces of parchment, and an ink well and quill with which he could write. Once both items had been found, he laid on the ground, and put his quill to the parchment, and began to write.

To my dearest Mother & Father,

You have both taught me so much in life, about living, and about being a true shinobi, about being a man. I can not thank you enough for having bore me and dealing with me in my early childhood. I’m sure that I was a bunch to handle, although I don’t think I’ve turned out completely horrible.

In recent years, you have both been greatly busy with your assignments, and I have been in charge of raising myself. I consider this to be of the highest privilege since it has presented me with so many opportunities, the greatest of which has been getting to know myself better than anyone else.

As you both will know by now, my ultimate quest since I was young has been my search for true enlightenment. And since it is my quest, I must take risks to achieve the end point, risks that will compromise my status as a shinobi. You have both taken risks doing what you love to do, and I feel it is my time to do exactly the same.

I’m sure you are both intelligent enough to figure out by now what I mean, and I just wish to send a final thank you, and a final goodbye. Please know I will make my best effort to send letters to you whenever possible as this will not be an easy journey for me.

Please, take care and keep this quiet as long as possible. If I’m not home by the rise of the next sun, you may assume that I have succeeded in my departure.

Take care until I hear from you next,
Your son, Aero.

P.S. If Lady Raikage comes around, tell her I said thank you for all that she has allowed me to do in my stay in Kumo.

Well, that was it.

Once he let the ink dry, he rolled it into a scroll and secured it by means of tying it with a piece of red yarn and placed it on the top of his dresser. Next to it, he placed an emerald crystal rose that he had created a few weeks ago while sitting in the forest

At this point, the anxiety began to boil within him, it was about three in the afternoon now, and he had about five hours before nightfall, and only about two hours before his parents would return for the night. He wasn’t sure quite how long it would take him to reach the gate, and watch the night patrol, but he was sure that he needed to leave at least by midnight in order to give himself a few hours of space between himself and Kumogakure.

.........

As four rolled around, Aero headed downstairs, to search his kitchen for foods that he could bring in order to aide him for two days. He decided that bread and sealed chicken should be enough to keep him on his feet, and if he needed water he could travel upstream until he came to a decent resting spot.

Well, this was it he guessed, it was now or never. It was a long walk up to the top of the mountain range, and he wanted to seem as casual as possible in order to avert causing a scene, although most days he was dashing to his locations, and had decided that if anyone asked where he was headed, he would say he was heading out on a mission which required an overnight stay.

He made a pass at his door, opening it and stepping into the slightly warm air of the mountains. Slowly he walked up through the many districts, give cheerful waves to friends and villagers alike, even though it seemed to tear him up inside.

If only they knew these waves weren’t signs of hello, but of goodbye.

Regardless of the internal struggle that it was causing, he trudged on with a spring in his step.

The only other thing that caused such a panic was walking past the Raikage’s Headquarters, but only because he remembered the dream from the night before and how utterly frightening her face had been as she charged at him. He just hoped her eyes didn’t magically regain their connections to the optic nerves on this day. Nah, it was impossible, but it did not stop him from worrying that she might pop up somewhere along the road.

……

Finally, he reached the top of the mountain, and was right outside of the gates, watching the guards patrol the gates, looking carelessly. It was rather humorous that they didn’t even give one glance in Aero’s direction, simply because he was on the inside of the gates, and if they did approach, he was ready to tell them he was checking up on them for the Raikage, so long as she wasn’t present.

He was ready to leave, all he had to do was hope nobody came right up behind him in attempts to stop him, and hoped that nobody had been tipped off by his mother and father.

[24 hours on the clock]

Age : 29 Posts : 1797

Seven thirty in the evening, otherwise known as 'closing time' was a time when a young Albino enjoyed strolling the near empty streets of Kumogakure. Sure it wasn't really safe to journey out this late, but shops usually closed at eight o'clock and no body enjoyed having to look at an Albino when they shopped. It was the only part of the day where very few people could be found anywhere in public. Usually they'd be eating meals, playing with their kin, or getting ready to close shop. Luckily for this Schizophrenic ninja, his parents also owned a store. One that closed an hour later than all others. There were various reasons why, but the only thing he cared about was his evening stroll through these empty streets. Occasionally he'd stop by a closing store to check a few things out before leaving; but otherwise the white haired human ventured through dark alleys and open roads until the last bit of sunlight escaped the sky.
Ill prepared for what fate had in store for him, the careless Albino strolled through the streets until he happened to overhear a conundrum occurring in a nearby house. Yelling and screaming could be heard; something the ninja usually associated with a fight. To check things out, the unarmed ninja used his natural stealth to slowly sneak up on the house and eavesdrop. If he could save a life today, the somewhat noble individual would surely take the opportunity to do so. And while the sun slowly set, his interest began to peak more while the conversation ensued.

A womanly voice suddenly screamed out in agony, "Did you hear? That Kessho child from down the street is gone! What if that happens to our child!" It was obviously not a fight, but rather a series of grieving cries. Engetsu's first reaction was that of a missing child, but he had learned from experience to assume even the unthinkable things. What if that child was not lost, but rather dead? A child dying at night? Such a thing was not unheard of, but surely rare. If he were a reporter, Engetsu had just hit a goldmine of a story. Headlines could read "Murdered child found stabbed several times. Murderer still at large!" Alas; this was not the case. In fact, it was actually the more simple tale. "Look, I'm sure he'll turn up eventually. From what I heard, he left on his own accord. We have nothing to worry about." Responded a more masculine tone to the womanly shreeking.

After listening in on the exchange for another four to five minutes, the pale skin child's eyes lit up even brighter red than natural. 'What luck, fate must really be shining down on us tonight. To be given the opportunity to stop a future criminal right in his tracks!' Said a voice in his head, one that seemed to have a different dialect than his usual self. The voice was quickly followed by a more sinister, envious tone; 'All the fame and glory shall be ours. We will make the village look at us as heros instead of villains!' 'Or we could pretend we never heard anything and simply ignore the entire situation and just go home.' Yet another, far less interested, voice responded. Quickly, in an uproar a pair of other voices jumped in, and eventually began arguing with each other. With these imaginary figures shouting into the Albino's mind, he couldn't help but yell out in irritation.

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SHUT UP!" Off the top of his lungs the child screamed. The night now beginning to blanket the village of the hidden cloud. The darkness only making this situation more awkward. Not only did he just shout at complete random in the middle of the night, but also said it right next to a person's residence. Without a second thought he broke out into a sprint, but this sprint was not random. He knew exactly where to go, simply by studying the conversation that just passed. It intrigued him what kind of person would decide to leave the comfort of their own home for greater adventure. It wasn't until this red eyed creature arrived at the gates of Kumogakure no Sato in an exhausted pant. One that signified he was running for a good fifteen minutes straight, trying to not only avoid any onlookers to his random tantrum, but also to reach his desired location; hopefully before time ran dry. To his luck, there he was. At five minutes before eight he had arrived at the village gates; or at least relatively close to the gates.

The mask of the night was a perfect time to try an escape, and it seems that fate had given him another opportunity to prove himself. It seems as though the celestial forces were dragging him toward this encounter, one that would hopefully end in his own glory. There stood a man, or at least from what the white haired devil could make of it. The deserter. Of course, this was not even on his mind at this point. He knew the child was a ninja, but had no idea as to the age or ranking of this person. In a loud voice, but without shouting, the calmed male uttered; "Hey you, what are you doing here so late at night?" The Genin still had no knowledge if this was in fact the figure that abandoned his parents mere hours ago. Engetsu was testing his own intelligence. His own wisdom in how to deal with the situation. Still trying to act as calm as possible, even though the beads of sweat began to cool against his skin from the chilled night air, the ninja paced himself toward Aero. Almost completely unarmed, with only a kunai and a pair of shuriken to keep him safe, Engetsu had very little idea what was in store for him. Right now he was blinded by the taunts of this envious voice in his head. One that sought fame and glory more than the desire to remain alive. His hand dwindling by his side, he awaited a response from the future criminal. Hopefully arriving soon enough to stop him from making a grave mistake.