The Only Truth

The first time it occurred, she wasn't ready.

She was too young, too small, too… she was a kid. She was five years old and barely developing friendships. She was excruciatingly shy, her only friend, seventy-two years old and related to her. So when that cute little blue-haired girl started talking to her, dirt smeared on her cheeks, cute little pink dress stained with mud, she couldn't help but give her a tiny smile.

Her name was Umi.

Umi was nice. That little braid that hung on the side of head with a green ribbon at the bottom made her cute. That smile she gave her made her sweet. Those flower crowns she braided together for her made her kind. She was the dream friend she had been looking for. Someone who understood.

So when she told her she was adopted she expected her to keep it a secret. She expected her to give her a hug and pinky promise it was going to be okay. So when the Umi stood up and smiled and said, 'Oh so that was the big secret? You're adopted? The future leader of the Kumohime clan isn't even blood related? They are going to love hearing this. They should pay me and my family double actually. A freak like you just earned my family a bonus. Thanks!'

She couldn't move.

As she watched the blue-haired braid swing as she walked away towards the village, she couldn't think.

Her eyes were blurring, her bottom lip quivering, her hands formed into fists as they lied on her lap. Even when she stood up and ran off and grabbed her by the shoulder and turned her over she knew there was nothing she could say to stop her so-called friend from telling the world. Even when Umi smirked at her and spit on her face and told her to fuck off and get a life, she felt her world tumbling back. She felt every bone in her body turn into sand.

And it ate her up whole.

It took over her body like a virus.

It damaged her insides and then sliced up her outsides.

It turned her into what Umi, with the cute braid, with the ability to make flower crowns, with the sweet smiles, called her.

It turned her into a freak.

She gave out a booming laughter which made the little girl turning around, eyebrow raised and arms crossed. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

She kept laughing though, her knees giving in and falling on the floor, her hands pressing against her stomach. "Oh God! This is too good."

"You're so odd. I'm leaving." Umi started turning and walking away.

"Wait!"

Wait. She murmured something inaudible, her bones straightening out and lifting her up. She wasn't sure she was all there. She wasn't sure what was going on her she felt pain jolt through every single one of her members. She wasn't sure what was going on, but she wasn't scared. She was just… there.

She was just there as she watched her fingernails and toenails extend, growing sharp and jagged. Her mouth burst open while blood poured out, her gums and tongue bleeding from her spiked teeth which were growing longer by the second. Her dark eyes dilated, her back curving downwards, her breath speeding, and her hands folding together while she couldn't pull an answer to what was going on.

It hurt.

It was excruciatingly painful.

Not only the fact that her bones were tearing out of her back like featherless wings, ripping her skin apart, or that large, boney thorns were slicing through the front of her thighs, but it hurt that for months she didn't see this coming. She knew that her family had lots of enemies because of the great power they held. She knew. So how didn't it strike her as odd that someone all of a sudden would start acting nice towards her? Kids threw rocks at her each time she went outside. So why would she all of a sudden gain a friend?

Why?

But it only took her seconds to forget to give a damn about her. It only took her mere seconds to run towards the cute, little, Umi and lunge her nails into her stomach quickly tearing them out, blood spurting out of her mouth like a fountain. She fell on her knees, grabbing onto Chan's purple shorts, begging her to stop.

She smiled down at her. "I'm not done yet. I wanna play some more."

She grabbed her by the hair and started dragging her deeper into mountains, deeper and deeper until she knew no other person would be able to hear the Umi's screams. And she smiled.

---

When she turned eight it happened again. She had been under the training of the Raikage for two years and although she had learned inner peace, nothing could stop her anger against the village children who had been teasing her, harassing her, and abusing her good wills for years.

The Raikage knocked her out before she fully turned and told the children to keep it a secret or something bad would happen to their limbs. When she woke up she received ten different kinds of beatings, something she had earned for being too rash. He told her that she had to learn how to restraint herself, how to train her body to handle those urges and those kinds of emotions that would only lead her to getting herself impaled by the town.

So he taught her how to hold it in. How to control her inner monster. How to be better. How to be stronger. How to be great.

He taught her how to use this power at her will. How to make it work to her advantage. How to make use of it all the way through and still be able to pull back just enough to to have no regrets.

As she stood there, cracking her fingers and looking at her opponents she gave a short shrug, letting her body loosen up and her pores open wide. It came quick. The burst of pain that spread across her body she easily disregarded by cracking her neck and fingers, letting her nails grow, her skin tear apart and turn her into that little monster that she always felt she was.

She gave Kisame a smirk.

He didn't return it.