Winter, 10 ANT

Sudden desperation from the skies caused the angel to cry. Alone and fragile she began to weep. How cold and unforgiving you are to ruin the beauty that is winter with the harshness of desperation, the young woman recited in her mind as she ignored the endless nonsense coming from her father's mouth. She readjusted the ends of her kimono with calculated grace and feigned a yawn just to irk the man attempting to talk to her. She retained her neutral expression but smirked on the inside as she noted the man's eye twitch increased after her yawn. He wouldn't be offering his hand in marriage to her ever. He craved attention that he lacked from his parents and the young woman wasn't about to give it to him.

"Danshaku Sakaguchi," one of the upper-class merchants began with a gesture of his hand. "Do forgive my boldness, but might I inquire as to when your daughter shall open to the public?"

"I have no intention of giving Lady Miyano's hand to any man," Danshaku Sakaguchi informed as he took a steadying drink of wine. The only time he drank wine was to calm nerves and announcing that a Danshaku's daughter wasn't eligible for marriage was very very bold.

Everyone in the room stilled as they let the information sink into their dead craniums than they turned their gaze to the young woman seated at the side of the room. The young woman readjusted the ends of her kimono and remained solemn before her father was pounded with questions from the surrounding nobility and upper class. They demanded to know why she wouldn't be available to the court and what use a woman would be without being married off.

Haruka or Lady Miyano let out an annoyed breath of air from her nose and quietly slipped out of the room. She walked down the hall her shoulder pulled back and head raised high. With silent footfalls, she journeyed out to the garden in back to rest beside the pond. The garden had been a request of her mother's when she married her father. It was still as beautiful as it was all those years ago.

The moon was gleaming off the water's surface making the reflection in the pond a mystical portal to another place. A place that was far from the tense and restraining politics of the Land of Waves. The soft croon of nightingales and the serene calls of the owls calmed the tension in Haruka's step as she crossed over the bridge to glance at her darkened reflection.

Pale skin that was only marred by an aching tiredness, soft features capable of morphing into any expression she desired. A beautiful girl with striking features. Long silky black hair that was longer on her left side than her right; always tied into two low pigtails allowing the hair slack and relaxed softness. The bangs along the left side of her face hid her bright yellow iris as her left red eye was visible to all. The eyes were the one thing that made part of her ashamed. The one part that made her father ashamed. It was the mark of lowly shinobi. The mark of the Miyano clan.

Haruka glanced up again to regard the garden in silent contemplation. She sweet scent of winter tickled her nose as she felt the briefest shift in the air as the winds changed directions. It would snow tonight covering her precious pond in ice and faint layers of frozen angel tears. Heaving a small sigh she stood to return to her bedchamber and prepare for another lesson from her uncle in the morning. That was when she heard the soft whispers in her mind.

They've come to kill...