A Voice in the Wind

A pink tongue flashed once, twice, then was gone. Thin brown knees bent, and the lean body curved to circulate the still air around it. Even in the dugout hollow under the huge sandstone boulder, the air was still stifling.  A steady crunching was fast approaching the hidden spot, though vibrations rippling beneath the sandy […]

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Though he had hoped to see a scroll in the morning, there was nothing for him when he brought up the water. He would just have to wait. So Katsuro slowly returned down the winding stairwell with an armload of fruit…and no answers.  He knew this would end and they would have to leave. Then […]

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Swirling her chopsticks around the edge of her bowl, Sakura mulled the few things she knew about the boy. There wasn’t much. Grains of rice tumbled one at a time to the meager pile at the bottom of the dish. But how did he wind up with this bunch, she wondered again, tapping the sticks […]

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Rubbing his chin gingerly, Katsuro eyed the girl with astonishment. She stared him down, cracking her knuckles. “Ready for another?” she said with a ruthless grin. “No,” he said laughing. She laughed too, then extended her hand. She gave him a glittering smile as she pulled him up off the ground, hair flipping around her […]

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Hot breath seared across her cheeks. Through tear-blurred vision, Sakura could make out the biggest one, Raiden, raging and hurling curses into her face. Several of the men she’d healed were closing in behind him. But all her power to fight back was eclipsed by the most basic need for air. Her mind was screaming, […]

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Grey light seeped across the room. Persistent rustling hung in the air. A tiny pebble dug relentlessly into her stiff shoulder. In the dim light of morning, things were conspiring against Sakura. The rogues, who had plenty of time to rest the day before, were awake, shuffling and talking, inconsiderate of everyone. The din was […]

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Pink hair flipping suddenly into her eyes, the kunoichi crashed forward onto her knees with a sickening crack. She had been channeling chakra to soften her falls, but this one caught her by surprise. The moss-covered rocks were deceptively slippery, and Sakura had lost count of how many spills she’d taken. She’d remember this one […]

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Sakura lay in the tent a long time, watching the walls turn from leaden gray to the dingy ash color she had become familiar with by daylight. She had memorized every crooked seam, every dangling thread, every smudge of dirt. Lifting fingers into the air dejectedly, she examined her peeling, filthy fingernails. Sakura had prided […]

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Sometime in the night, the bindings on Sakura’s arms dropped away, and her hands slipped down the rough sides of the tree trunk. She blinked several times, the nighttime veil so thick she didn’t know if her eyes were open or closed at first. She had the vague sensation of a body beside her in […]

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Grey mist covered everything, only languid streams of light filtered down through lacy branches to reach the base of the giant tree. The air had a pungent tang of wet earth and wood, save for a faint thread of smoke wafting from some unseen fire. Sakura cracked her heavy eyelids open, but could not fight […]

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