The moment Byakuran came to it was if as ice water had been doused directly down her spine. Resisting the urge to gasp at the sensation she instead tightened her hold on the thankfully still calm Toshiro and hefted him up closer to her torso. Glancing downwards she saw the slow rise of his chest and knew he had fallen asleep. Whether or not it was under the influence of a genjutsu - the same one that snared her - was yet to be seen but she was thankful for this small mercy.

She didn't think she could deal with her cousin's panic and fear on top of her own.

Swallowing harshly, Byakuran internally cursed herself for her folly. How stupid could she have been to have succumbed to a genjutsu? Most of her clan who possessed the kekkei genkai were impervious to the stupid things because the volatile chakra they kept inside them and seeing as how she had fallen prey to the illusion, she was beginning to think she either didn't have her family's bloodline.

God, she was turning out just as useless as everyone said.

Fiercely hoping for it to merely be a case of late blooming, Byakuran stilled as the sound of footsteps neared her and she narrowed her eyes.

"So the child is awake now." A deep voice stated and Byakuran tensed, protectively shifting her spot on the ground until her little cousin was sitting between her legs and her arms were caging him in.

The man with the black hair and the bright blue eyes offered a smirk before crossing his arms and she wanted to spit in his face.

"Oh? So is the little one going to protect the littlest one from the big bad shinobi?" He mused amusedly and despite the fact that she knew it was a bad idea to provoke her captors, she found her lip curling up over her teeth in a disgusted sneer at his condescending tone.

"I'm sorry," She murmured dismissively, making sure to add as much venom as she could to her tone. "I don't answer to trash."

Listening to the man chuckle, Byakuran watched as he knelt down and hissed and turned away when he got too close to the small bundle in her care.

"Protective aren't we?" He questioned as he stared into her violet eyes that watched him like a hawk and Byakuran really did almost spit in his face but her self-preservation instincts kicked in and stopped her from doing anything foolhardy.

Like spitting in his face.

Deciding not to answer right away, she instead let her mind wander to the seal her uncle had given her and knew she needed to activate it - but the question how?

They would sense something as sharp as a pulse of chakra and so she was stuck until she figured something out.

"I'm his older sister." She told him pompously as she looked down her nose at him. "It's what we do."

The man's grin turned crooked.

"Well, I'm sure you'll do a great job." He said and Byakuran couldn't guess if he was being sarcastic or not but it didn't really matter what he thought.

She was going to protect her cousin with her life if it was the last thing she ever did.

Settling back into her position she watched as the man moved away and with an internal hum she quickly set about figuring out her predicament. Byakuran couldn't use her chakra to activate the seal, she knew that much and she couldn't cut herself to bleed on it - blood carried chakra in it - because if she needed her body to be capable of quick and precise movements and if she was injured she wouldn't be able to do that.

Not to mention, they had confiscated her weapons so there was nothing to cut herself on.

Her bright eyes traveled along Awai's holster that was strapped the annoying guard's hip and she felt the overwhelming need rip it away from him. Smirking faintly to herself, Byakuran hoped the man would try wielding it - it was probably emptied of her chakra by now which meant the blade was hungry and the hungrier it gets the more energy it would take from the next wielder.

And hopefully, Awai would take it all. After all, it needed more from a non-Hanazono entity than it did from someone in the clan.

Now quite amused, she could feel the vindictive smile curling her lips more and more every second and she jumped when a ninja appeared in her face.

And it wasn't Mr. Annoying.

Staying stalk still she resisted the urge to lunge for his throat with her teeth and instead hunched protectively on Toshiro.

"Yes?" She asked and the man sneered.

"What's so funny?" He grunted out and she couldn't think of anything not insulting to say and so she didn't say anything at all - but the man didn't like it and so he grabbed her by the hair and pulled it sharply.

Hissing at the strain that had her head canted fully to the left, by reflex she quickly turned her head in a half circle and sunk her teeth into his wrist.

He let go with a holler and moved to strike her - as she moved to put Toshiro further away from the action zone - and a rapid movement the annoying one had the trigger happy one by the forearm.

"Leave the girl alone Kabuki." He sighed as he forcefully made the other man lower his limb. "We don't need her marked up - yet."

Tensing at his last word, the white haired child scowled and spat the blood in her mouth out on the angry ninja's shoe.

"You little shit!" He bellowed as he started forward again but the other man stopped him and Byakuran gave him a cheeky red grin.

"Go cool off." The blue eyed nin said and with one final glare the man left and he turned to view the young Hanazono.

"You didn't have to bait him."

She snorted hard enough to hurt.

"And you didn't have to kidnap me," She said with a dark look in her purple eyes. "so I guess we all don't make the best decisions."

Flashing her an amused look - that ruffled her feathers - and he retook his sentry seat in the corner.

Taking care to ignore him - while simultaneously keeping an eye on him - she refocused on the bracelet her uncle gave her and decided that if she couldn't use her chakra to activate it, she was going to Sen chakra.

From what she had researched and been told on the subject, it couldn't be overtly sensed by people unless they could use it themselves, if they were sensors, or if they were more powerful than the average ninja and from what she had seen, these people were run of the mill kidnappers.

Now she wasn't underestimating then but picking up on the movement of nature chakra took unprecedented skill and it was unlikely that these rag tag men weren't on that level - not mention nature chakra wasn't very well known. Besides, they definitely weren't expecting a young child like her to be able to utilize something like that.

Biting her lip, Byakuran allowed her head to cant forward and her hair to fall into her face and she closed her eyes.

Taking a silent but deep breath, she felt outwards at the always present and eager energy wafting around and hesitantly grabbed ahold of it with mental hands. It was a wily thing and considering she hadn't done anything with the stuff since her mother told her not to, she was doing pretty well.

Now if only it would stop trying to meld into her body instead of connecting with the seal on her jewelry.

Huffing a bit as she finally managed to wrestle the energy to her wrist - it kept slipping away towards her instead of to the bracelet - and when the chakra brushed feather-light over the seal - once, twice, three times - Byakuran smiled in grim success as she felt the material around her arm grow warm and tingly. Sighing as she let go of the chakra - that didn't seem to want to leave - she chanced a glance up at the ninja in the room and froze from behind the curtain of her hair at the considering look he was giving her.

Internally cursing, Byakuran resisted the urge to hunch her shoulders.

If he didn't say anything, he didn't know anything and she wasn't going to give herself away and she had almost convinced herself that everything was okay when he chuckled.

"You're full of surprises little one." He hummed with a grin and her muscled tensed.

Fuck.

He knew.

God, it's been so long and this chapter definitely isn't long enough to make up for that sorry lol.

I'm just glad I finally updated especially since I love this story. Also if anyone is wondering how she manipulated the Sen chakra so easily, it's partly a natural gift and she wasn't trying to pull it inside her but was just moving it around externally.

Thank you all for sticking with me and if you get the chance, go check out my other stories.