Directionless

Damnation

The woman's smile widened, "What's your name, my child?"

She stared at her, a frown stretching across her freckled face. "I... I'm Kaliga," she muttered after a moment, wary of the mother.

"Kaliga? That's not a name of any child from Ka no Kuni and those eyes, they're so... so red. Where are you from, Kaliga-chan?" The woman asked in awe, admiring the exotic blonde who stood out in a room of dark haired, dark eyed, tanned citizens of Ka no Kuni.

Kaliga pulled back gently, frowning in displeasure. "No, I'm not from Ka no Kuni. I'm from a land..." She dropped her head, pale-blonde hair forming a curtain around her face. "... far, far away from here."

"A foreigner, huh?" The woman smiled gently, her own dark hair shifting as she tilted her face. "Don't worry, child, you're safe with us. Once we're off this ship, we'll all be foreigners in So no Kuni, whatever you're running from won't find you here."

Kaliga tried to hide her surprise but couldn't, the woman in front of her had such a relaxing presence that the girl had let her guard down around her. Quickly, the frown was back on her hollow cheeks as she stared down the mother.

"Don't worry, Kaliga-chan." She reassured her, "You're amongst friends. In fact, I'll even tell you my name. I'm Hatsune and this darling here," she gestured to the slumbering newborn in her arms with a smile, "is Kaii."

 "Chan?" Kaliga leaned forward slightly, "why do you keep calling me that?"

Hatsune seemed surprised before it soon fluttered away, "Perhaps you're not familiar with it from where you're from. It's a term of endearment, I suppose, nothing to worry about. You'll come across it a lot in So no Kuni so you best learn it."

There was a sudden loud screech, followed by the trembling of the ship right from the core. Several of the passengers lurched forward in place, including Kagliga. She tumbled out of her spot, falling on top of Hatsune and her baby Kaii.

The first thing she noticed was how cold they were.

"I'm sorry!" She lurched back as if they had stung her, "I didn't mean to fall on you."

Hatsune waved her off with a smile, "don't fret. Kaii is fine and so am I."

Kaliga couldn't help but smile, the woman's joy was so infection as she stared down at the bundle in her arms. "May I?" She asked, already feeling comfortable in her presence.

Hatsune nodded encouragingly and Kaliga crept forward, gently taking the baby's hand in her own. Dread settled in when she felt an immediate chill run up her arm.

Kaii's hand was stone cold, frighteningly so. And when she moved to check his pulse, Kaliga dropped his hand in horror.

"Hatsune... he's-" She stared up at the woman, expression twisting in horror. 

Hatsune just smiled down at her.

Kaliga looked back to Kaii, reaching out to lift the blanket covering his face. Slowly, she shifted the fabric aside to see what was behind it. As soon as she did; she lurched back with a gasp of disgust.

There was a clean cut hole barrelling deep into the child's skull. The remnants of some kind of metal shards still engraved in his bluish skin and the dried blood still coating his youthful face. Kaliga was no doctor, but she could recognise an arrow wound any day.

Looking back at Hatsune, the woman only smiled; dark eyes crinkling in what was now terrifyingly joyful.

"Isn't he beautiful when he sleeps?" Hatsune gently stroked Kaii's bloodied cheek with her finger, cooing down at him. "He's such a good boy, slept right through the journey. Not a peep out of him, he's nothing like his sister, she was always such a fussy child."

Kaliga felt sick to her stomach, quickly covering the baby's face to stop herself from retching at the sight of him.

She felt horrified, she felt disgusted but more than that; she felt sad. Staring up at the delusional mother of a long-since-passed baby boy, it really was a sad sight. Her stomach churned as she frowned, tearing her eyes away from Hatsune's blinding smile.

"Yes... he's beautiful." She really, really wanted to get off this ship.

But as the ship lurched again, sending tens of people tumbling forward while another dozen retched their already empty stomachs, she realised things wouldn't be that easy. 

Kaliga eventually crawled back over to her little corner, having no energy to walk. Her whole body burned with agony as she settled against the wall, shivering violently. With her pale-blonde hair twisted in knots and her red eyes beginning to droop, Kaliga tried her best to ignore the cries around her.

She wanted to go home but there was no home to go to. There was no going back and no way to return even if she wanted to. She could only continue forward, even when she had no clue where she was headed; there was no other choice.

When she woke up; she would be in So no Kuni. In the wake of a war, surrounded by strangers and monsters, she would attempt to find some peace of mind.

But, for now, she would just sleep.

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So no Kuni =  Land of Ancestors - an original country of the Naruto world (famously known for being the location of the God Tree)

Ka no Kuni = Land of That - a neighbouring and warring country of So no Kuni

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Directionless will be a long and slowly updated book. It is entirely OC centric like anything else I write. The beginning will be slow and it'll take awhile for any of the heavy-hitter canon characters to start popping up but please be patient with me - they will appear.