Graces of an Inferno[DONE]

Bookwoman twitched at the sound of her teacher's voice.
He was again being pathetic. Was he really a Kage before?

She formed a scowl on her face, closed somewhat harder her eyes and kept on 'meditating' in her sitting form, ignoring the moans and groans that came from in front of her.
She was determinded to ignore the Idiotic Rapunzel until he actually spoke normally, on a normal tone and didn't ask for something she didn't have.

Thus, she kept silent and listened to the silent desert wind.

Bookwoman heard her tutor walk away, probably going to look for something to eat or drink. Idiot. They were in the desert; food and water were non-existant in the barren wasteland. This was ridiculous as situation. They should have crossed the darn desert in one trait and only start training, or whatever for thing they had been doing the day before, before actually stopping in the middle of nowhere.

Well, nowhere was inappropriate, since Sunagakure was at less than an hour distance from where they were. At ninja pace, of course. For a normal human, it'd take around four hours walking.

"Ha...choo!"

Idiotic Rapunzel did after all regret not having kept his shirt on, huh?
With a sigh, feeling responsible for some reason about the younger man, she stood up and followed him, while taking his shirt off, making sure not to loose the piece of paper she had tugged under her own shirt, into the bindings around her chest.
"Oi! Sunagakure shouldn't be far from here. If you are a ninja, you could reach it in less than an hour." she called after him, folding the shirt in an unnecessary gesture. "And stop wandering like an idiot in the middle of those mountains of sand, looking for something that doesn't exist in this place."

"...I can't believe that you were the former Kazekage. Even I, a total stranger to the desert knows-"
Bookwoman stopped in the track of her words. She knew where it was. How? She had never been to the village before. Then why did it seem all so clear?
The dune to the north-east, turning it's point to the south-west, directing them to the twin dunes at less than two miles away. And then, moving in between them, you'd arrive at the dog valley, a simple place with five dunes of sand surrounding it, which would guide you, if you too it to the south, to Sunagakure.

"...We need to travel south." she finally muttered. "To the twin dunes, then the dog valley and then ten miles south, following the demon dunes."

Bookwoman's face paled. She was quickly motionsick and everything that "flew" in the air was her archnemesis. She hesitated for a second, looking right and left, in hope another solution would appear by miracle.
But alas, miracles don't happen and thus she was forced to trust her teacher and climb on the sand platform. Somehow, she couldn't help but compare herself to a pig that was soon going to be put in an oven, ready to be cooked.
Shaking the ridiculous image out of her head, she sat down, ready to try to meditate while they moved. There was no way in hell, or heaven, that she was going to look sick in front of the Idiotic Rapunzel!

"I'm ready."

Bookwoman had closed her eyes through the whole five minutes journey, barely breathing. She was finally relaxing thanks to the body heat of Yakate (she wasn't a perv, dammit!) when the sand platform suddenly vanished from under them.
Before she could even squeek a single sound from her lips, she felt herself flying forewards, loosing abruptly the nice warmth and feeing of solid sand under her. In shock, she opened her eyes and saw a thick, ugly stone wall coming close with the seconds passing.

In shock, Bookwoman let her body react on itself, bringing old instincts up again and she twisted herself in the air, moving her body so that she'd land against the wall with her two feet. Sadly, she forgot she wasn't wearing any correct shoes for such activity and her wooden heels slammed hard against her heels from the impact with the stone, pain shooting through her legs.
The young woman, in consequence, fell ungracefully in the sand, face down first, rolling a few feet away from the obstacle. And she remained like that, not even twitching anymore.
Hunger had finally won over her worn out body that hadn't gotten anything fresh in it's system for over 24 hours.

Bookwoman didn't even notice that Yakate was dragging her along with him.
Tired and exhaustion had made her drift into a deep sleep, filled with random images, memories, people and words, not making any sense or giving her any direction.
She simply wandered in her mind, passing all events like she'd pass paintings hanging in a museum. It was all very confusing and yet, it made sense, leaving the woman in a labyrinth she seemed to know and decipher without any difficulties.

The random pictures and people started to take more form; the memories becoming irregular paintings and the people becoming shadows, like people you see in the street but never take enough care to look at them to have a clear image of them. The walls became more visible, decorated with patterns that ressembled strangely chakra patterns she had seen on a picture Chomesuke had shown her and that she had read in many of the medical jutsu books she had read. And the colors, weren't colors. It were just ideas of those, vague impressions of them, fading more and more away with each step she took. In the end, she didn't see anymore. Asako didn't see, she only felt and followed chakra patterns. And yet, her eyes saw the corners of the walls, the forms of the people. Heck, she could even tell what their hair color was. But she didn't see it.

Suddenly, she stopped. The walls around her had stopped having pictures hanging irregularely around and were now of a perfect stark white, almost blinding her. She narrowed her eye and placed a hand above it to get some shadow.
A man, no a boy was standing in front of her...

Asako held her breath in front of the man. She wasn't sure if it was a man or boy anymore. Heck, it could even be a woman. It was so...blurry. The colors twisted, moved, only leaving the eyes visible. Rich eyes, filled with experience, sadness, joy, regret, hopes.
But, suddenly, a dangerous feeling made her shiver, made her feel cold and aware of imminent murder auras coming from the walls around her.
The shadow was gone, long ago.
It were now lots of others, shadows that were of her height, her size, her age. She couldn't see their faces, but she just knew. It were the other students of the Bookman clan, those who had died and failed while learning the arduous and cruel training. All those who had refused to let their humanity slip had been killed by the hands of the other students.
How many had she killed? It didn't matter, they were there for revenge.

'Move. Move. Move.' she ordered her body silently, body that refused to follow her demands. 'MOVE!'
But a puddle of black with eyes and small hands were already pinning her to the ground, holding her hands and legs in place, letting the shadows come closer and closer, death now dancing around Asako.
'No! I didn't mean to! I didn't want to die! I wanted to see xxxxx back! And xxxxx! I couldn't die!'
But the words refused to slip past her lips and the names were nothing more than dead silence. She couldn't remember the names.
She couldn't remember the names.
And the walls went all black.
She couldn't remember the names.

Bookwoman shifted in her sleep. Something was creeping into her shirt, tickling and irritating her. But she wasn't ready to wake. She didn't want to wake up.
Those names were so close in her mind, she could almost feel them. One of them was covered with sand, sand she couldn't move, the other one covered with scales. reaching her hand out, whe was about to wipe the obstacles away. A meter...thirty centimeters...Five...

That thing in her back kept on tickling her, making her shift and move uncomfortably. And finally, Bookwoman's limb body was hitting a wall, her head against a water pipe.
"OW!" she screamed out, holding the sore spot while rolling on the ground in spasms made by the intense pain and trying not to laugh from the sand that was tickling her sides.
Trying to glare through the tears that formed in her eyes and that she refused to shed, she barked at Yakate:
"You are the worst brother, Idiotic Rapunzel! S-stop your sand al-"
But the sentence was muffled by something that ressembled a snort and yet growled too much.
And after struggeling for a half a minute more, Bookwoman finally started to laugh.

Bookwoman was trying to get the last rest of sand out of her shirt, still catching her breath back from laughing and refraining any other disgracious sounds slipping from her mouth, when she saw the fruit fly towards her.
Barely managing to catch it, she tripped over her own feet and hit the water pipe with her head again. The young woman innerly cursed and muttered a 'troublesome thing that shouldn't be there' while she rubbed the anew sore spot. She was so going to have a black and blue bump and since apparently it was becoming a habit of being clumsy around Yakate, she didn't even try to snide at him for his irresponsible actions.

Then she heard the younger man's words and saw his jaw muscles slacking off.
"Close your mouth, Idiotic Rapunzel. You're not a koi fish."
She made a grimace at the fruit in which he had already bitten in. But since she hadn't much of a other choice as food or liquid - the desert fruit was filled with a watery juice that didn't even taste sweet - she bit out of it and threw it back at Yakate.
"No, you're a sister, Idiotic Rapunzel." she added, sarcasm dripping from her words. "No, of course you are a brother! Really, how stupid can you be? Or did you have a gender swap without me noticing it?"

Bookwoman rose an eyebrow.
"Interesting choice of words...?" she asked, slightly surprised, walking closer to Yakate.
She grabbed the fruit our of his hands before he could bite in it once again, and with a loud, satisfying crunch, she let some more of the fresh flesh enter her mouth, juice dripping down her chin.
"Questions can wait." she replied, observing the people walking in the adjacent street. Nothing much had changed in the trends of the Desert Village. But she couldn't see a single familiar face. And the streets were totally unknown. The main place was gone, replaced by a large crossroad that led to many smaller streets, which led to alleys and so on, making it resemble an irrigation system.
In the back of her mind, she wondered if the medical garden was still existant at this time.

Bookwoman ran a and through her hair, red dye sticking to her hand, revealing now a large part of ink black hair.
"Ew...And, I'm too lazy to go ask people now. As well as tired and hungry. And we need a bath." she finished, giving absentmindly the unnamed fruit back to Yakate.

Bookwoman stiffened a chuckle and stepped out of the shadows of the small alley. Walking up to a woman, who was carrying a few heavy bags, she bargained with her for a few minutes and picked two of the four bags the woman was carrying. The young woman bowed with a honest smile and walked behind her, towards an unknown place.
Yakate could follow her if he wanted to, or manage on his own. But she had already a place to sleep, take a bath, have a decent haircut and eat.

The lady, of around 40 years old, guided her to an abandoned house that was next to hers. Bookwoman recognized it as a place made with the architecture that was used in the time of Yakate Tsuno. And it was vaguely familiar with her.
"Who was the owner of this house, if I may ask? Since you are willing to let me live here under your good graces." she asked kindly.
"Ah, it's the only house in Suna that people don't dare to trade it. It's said to be haunted by a poisonous cloud that tries to kill all intruders."
Bookwoman blinked.
"Wouldn't that be simply a ridiculous belief from the inhabitants and dust that would give a psychological reaction, leading to symptoms that some kinds of poison can give."
"Well..Maybe, but, the previous owner of the house was Asako Tsuno and her brother, the previous Kage."
And on that, the lady took her bags and entered her house.
"It's clean inside and you can use the water tabs in there. For some reason the building lets me clean it without killing me." Bookwoman heard before the door of her neighbour shut.

...
For some reason, Bookwoman felt annoyance build up in her. Why did this stupid name have to cling at her everywhere she went to?!

Bookwoman had already started taking a shower when her brother finally came 'home'. Her hair was black again and with a frown she looked at it in the mirror. She also looked at the rest of her reflection.
She was thin, pale; the training at the Bookmen clan had worn her out, making her loose all muscles and flesh she had. In fact, she was more bones than anything else. Poking a rib in disgust, she thought for a moment of asking or not her neighbour for some food or go look for a job instead. But laziness had washed over her in this place, a laziness she disliked and thus tried to shrug it off her shoulders.
She grabbed some of the clothes she had found in 'her room' and put them on, letting her old ones soak in water, on the floor of the bathroom. She'd clean them thoroughly later that day.
The picture was again in a pocket, this time under the green vest she had found hanging on a chair. It was as if the inhabitants of the house (yes, Asako Hyosuke and Yakate Tsuno) had left the place without packign anything for a long journey. Well, it wasn't as if she had planned to get kidnapped on her way to meet...who again?

Deep in her thoughts, Bookwoman left the bathroom, fully clothed and stepped inside a random room, that just happened to be the one in which a stark naked Yakate was walking around.
"What the hell?!" she shrieked, slamming the door quickly closed. "Pervert! I knew you were into incest!"