House of Bleach and White

You took your coat off and stood in the rain
You were always crazy like that
I watched from my window
Always felt I was outside looking in on you

It was raining again...

Somehow, even when the bright cloudless skies in the distance were as still as a mountain, by nightfall a tremendous downpour had begun. Only recently this odd weather pattern had appeared, but as days turned into weeks, Hana's weary eyes soon grew tired of the everlasting night showers. With only a pittance of attention spared to the water logged world outside the window, Hana's eyes drew from the darkness of the village streets and back into the warm, comforting room that had been hers since the day she had taken her first breath.

'And still, since then nothing has happened in this boring, stagnant place I call home...' She thought bitterly, eyes glancing over the wooden tray of cold ramen which had been abandoned hours previous.

Stifling the urge to rampant the room with an arrogant rage, Hana slowly unclasped her chilling hands from around her knees and stood with a creaking lurch. Since the beginning of late evening, as the vibrant red moon cast an uncompromising stare across the busy village, Hana's soft blue eyes cast an inquisitive stare upon the outside world, watching; waiting; wishing through a single window that had been her company for thirteen long years.

"Hana, why haven't you eaten your dinner?"

Staring for a good few seconds, the deceitful blue eyes of Hana landed suspiciously onto her mothers, staring into the dark brown that made them both so utterly different. "I wasn't hungry..." She replied curtly, turning her gaze back towards the window.

"You should have said that when you brother brought it in for you," the woman spoke as she leaned over and retrieved the tray of cold food from the floor.

"I told him when he came in. He didn't listen, and neither did you." Hana spoke, her blue eyes dulling as her mother gave an un-empathetic stare from her place in the doorway.

With a scolding shake of the head, her mother's dark eyes gave a disappointed and demanding voice that reverberated louder than any command from her calm throat. "You know Hana; my answer will always be the same. I listened to your request, and I said no- it's as simple as that."

"That's not simple at all!" Came Hana's shrill reply. There would be tears to accompany the painful exclamation, but they had drowned out years before the rain came to provoke.

"Please Hana, don't raise you voice like that. I get enough trouble from your brother and his tantrums... You should understand by now, you simply cannot leave this house." With a sigh, not in compassion but in annoyance, her mother turned from Hana's vicious gaze and walked towards the open door. "Your father will be home soon, so I suggest you tidy yourself up, he's bringing guests."

Her head sunk, the locks that naturally curled her brown locks into waves and long thick curls falling past her shoulders and down her back, covering her forlorn face. She could still see through the river of waving hair, like a drowning animal looking up into the world before its breath is ripped from its tired body, her mother gently gave another stern look from the hall and turned on her heels as she walked out of sight.

Blue eyes that could never match the brown, hard, solid wooden ones of her mother, Hana was constantly losing the longing battle to see what was on the other side of the hollow glass she looked through each night. It was frightening, to never win a single glance of sympathy, to once gain a strand of trust within the untrusting hairs that skewered her body- the one Hana loved dearly, held close and cried for and over, it was tormenting to never see any signs of understanding from the woman, from her own mother.

She stood, a protective casting of hair across her face, honey in colour, dancing defiantly as it slowly slipped to her shoulders, releasing her hollow face and allowing her cold blue eyes to view completely once again. With one last glance back at the empty windowsill, the water logged glass blurring reality from her fantasy world; Hana let out a constricted breath and left the sterile room. Such an obscure grasp of the reality of her own village was distressing.

Feet bare upon the cold wooden floor boards, mind numb from bitter thoughts and eyes glazed with cold emotions, Hana's face shadowed with an angry wrath of an uncertain temper. Something more commonly shared within her family, behind closed doors.

That was always how she walked, as that was how she felt. But it wasn't always the deathly still hallways which lead to her family's bedroom- unused by day. Hana, barred into a slowly placed sanctuary of people without consent was a prisoner to this world. There was nothing but her house, her family and visitors to keep her company in this ward- a place she reclined in, but only upon orders. Being terminal had many disappointments beyond that of a certain nearing death...

You were always the mysterious one with dark eyes and careless hair
You were fashionably sensitive, but too cool to care
Then you stood in my doorway, with nothing to say
Besides some comment on the weather

"Hana, you didn't put on anything else?" Your mother lectured as she rushed around the kitchen, preparing dishes with fish and rice hastily.

Feeling more than a little annoyed at the comment, Hana was sure her baggy shirt and shorts were fitting to show her true status in this family. Any visitor was sure to know her sickness; her clothes mirrored those found in an institution. Comfy, loose and easily replaced. There was no remittance paid to her satisfaction, Hana was imprisoned and therefore acted as if she were in a hostile environment- her mother knew all too well how stubborn and purposefully vindictive her young daughter had been raised to be.

Hana gave a slow glance towards her huskily working mother before resting on the bored looking boy sitting cross legged at the large table in front of her. "No... I prefer these," she replied simply before ignoring the slight grunt from her mother and pacing slowly to accompany her unamused brother at the table.

"Hey Hana-chan, you know who Dad invited over tonight?" Hana's little brother brought up in a rush, his brashly shinning brown eyes flashing with hidden agenda- quite unusual for such a carefree, young boy.

With a glance at the broody looking boy, whose hands were currently stabbing random places on the wooden table with a chopstick; Hana couldn't help but smile at the energetic brother her parents so distressingly managed. "Hm, is it someone important?" She asked, baiting his apparent temper. With his grip hardening on the chopstick, the utensil cracked in his fist and Hana's eyebrows rose as her brother threw the broken wood aside and balled fists.

"Of course they're important! When doesn't father invite important people over? Geeze Hana-chan, even I'm smart enough to figure that out..." The boy announced obnoxiously, his eyes flattened as both of them heard a loud chuckle come from the kitchen. "Mum, stop eves dropping on our private conversation!"

"Sorry, but you do talk excessively loud Kanuko, dear!" She replied quickly.

"Yeah, so anyway, guess who's coming?" With a quick glance at Kanuko Hana shrugged, ready to hear an answer she couldn't have possibly known. "It's those damn Uchiha folks!"

"Kanuko! Please, do not speak like that about people you do not know!" Their mother scolded with a raised voice, her arched brows and sloping frown making Hana's own mouth crease.

"Oh, I know them. I know the stupid Uchiha Sasuke! He's always being all lonerish and shy, keeping to himself all the time, but he's always getting everyone's attention and getting super good grades. You know, before he came everyone in school used to think I was strong, now everyone just likes stupid Sasuke-baka..."

"Sounds like every other guy in your Academy class which gets a better mark than you." Hana let out with a slight laugh, her eyes lighting up as her little brother pouted with glaring eyes straight back at her.

It wasn't strange for the two to get along much better than either did with their parents; they were siblings to the same, overly-pragmatic parents after all. A chuckle, a laugh, a smile: these simple things were recognized as only Kanuko's doing. He was a cute little boy, still lacking understanding into life and such, but his blissfully ignorant attitude still had yet to make Hana feel uncomfortable. Childhood innocence was a contagious thing.

Hana brushed a hand over her brother's head, ruffling the dark black spikes which he sculpted each morning under her flattened hand. Flicking her wrist away with a simple swish of his hand, Hana watched as the brooding young Kanuko stood in a huff and stormed away to have another temper tantrum, somewhere more isolated and away from scrutiny.

It was still and boring without her brother to listen to. The entire house seemed that way, at least most the time. The cold wooden floor boards constantly creaking as the night grew darker and later, still white walls devoid of paintings and portraits, merely bare walls that lacked any taste or tact. Just as Hana's previous home for months was, the more secluded home that she was raised in was no longer a place of comfort. Her room was reserved for that, and the hospital-like home was just that to her- another hospital.

"Hana, we have company. Quick, go fetch your brother before your father has to find him!" Came the call of Hana's mother, the clashing of dishes once again quickening as she could hear the front door open.

Standing from her spot, Hana pushed herself onwards and slowly, with almost lethargic movements, came upon the same hallway as before and crossed the silent cold path, heading towards the door of her younger brother's room. The young ninja enjoyed his alone time more than Hana would care for, her time was always spent in these halls wandering aimlessly- but the feelings of her loneliness were somewhat unclear to Kanuko, he was ignorant to her suffering and tended to sparingly spend his precious free moments with his older sister. Sighing at the thought, with a hand drawn upwards, Hana brought one of her pale, delicate and thin hands to the frame of Kanuko's door and knocked lightly, waiting for permission to enter from the similarly temperamental boy.

"What?" Came Kanuko's angry reply, his face popping into Hana's view, his father's old hitai-ate messily pinned to his forehead.

"The Uchiha's are here. We have to see them in..." Hana took a long stare at the rusting, gaudy headband and wanted to there and then throw it back into a box to grow webs and be forgotten. "You shouldn't touch father's things, even if they are old, they are treasures to him." Blue eyes met brown, again for the second time that day a misunderstanding was met and the dull eyes of Kanuko flickered elsewhere as he loosened the headband and threw it to his bed unhappily. Hana frowned, allowing Kanuko to trailed listlessly around her and stomp down the hall ahead, chin peaking up as he tramped onwards.

The walk was slower this time, the discontent shared between the two siblings to meet these strangers -these rivals- it was unnerving to be so uncomfortable in such a place of lonesome sanctuary. Home was a place that Hana had spent years recollecting in, pacing paths with unorderly thought and disjointed sight, but this time the rigid condensed air of disapproval was present. Meeting strangers was something the young girl was not accustom to, and having to relate, to talk, interact with people that she had never known- it was like that fantasy world, the one she looked out of every night...

"Ah- there you are, my children." The corner was the slowest part, time standing as the constricting atmosphere of hate, interest, discontent and shyness collided, the first image being Hana and Kanuko's father smiling upon them in that stern, stiff way he somehow managed to force.

His dark hair, dark eyes, dark skin, he was a sincere man but the innards of his gill like lungs lacked to understand anything akin to emotion or feeling. He was a very misunderstanding man who stole away speech, encrypting the form of thought which most people abide their minds by and grappling a hanger of weapons upon those he wished to hold onto; he suffocated those he held dear. A great man to many men and ninja in this village, and that sacrifice made him a dismal father figure. Enlistment in the force would have been a similar endowment.

"This is my youngest son, Kanuko, and my eldest daughter, Hana." He introduced simply, wavering a gestured hand towards the two children whom had no positive thought in their minds as they looked lazily towards their father.

Hana folded her arms grumpily, unsatisfied with the interested eyes which grazed upon her reclined form. A quick drawing glance over their heads, there were two adults, the young Sasuke looking timidly in your direction with worried eye, and another son, an older one. Taken aback, she had almost forgotten that the Uchiha's had more than one son.

Hana blinked, stunned for a second.

Long black hair, much like his mothers, tied into a loose pony tail, all with matching darkly alluring eyes. Unlike the hardened brown of her dissimilar family, his were more onyx and more stone in nature. He wore what any Uchiha his age would, a large clan marked shirt with white short, and his feet clad into the usual ninja-styled sandals. At first he seemed shocking, having someone so audacious become so suddenly noticeable sent shivers up her already chilling spine; he was a mysterious character that she had indeed seen before, same dark eyes and careless hair. Even his bored gaze, almost more fierce and forceful than noticeably intended, sent a thrilling twinge of disparagement through her body.

'Uchiha Itachi...' Hana thought as her eyes skimmed past him, colder than before, still and almost steel in colour.

There was a strange awkward silence from the four children, both siblings from both sides wishing to be elsewhere rather than wasting such precious time doing uninteresting social favours for their communalizing parents. Hana had already met the small young Sasuke before, and countless times she had seen the older Itachi converse stoically with her father, if only for a brief few seconds and under the intensity of a tense, hidden agenda no doubt.

"Well- Fugaku, Mikoto, Itachi, you must be famished. Would you like to join us in the dining room?" Hana's mother moved politely, gesturing for the smiling Uchiha parents to join them for some dinner, "Sasuke, if you'd like you can go and play with Kanuko in his room. Hana, you may go rest now..."

With a reguardless glance towards her parent's friends, Hana turned with a scowl and walked with her same slow pace back around the corner and away from all their prying dark eyes. For even a second she didn't bother to pretend, hide her emotions and thoughts, merely masking her face with discontent as her cold blue eyes wandered back towards her oncoming room- hungerless, tired and worn Hana was ready to collapse onto her softly covered bed. One thing awaited her to cure her of the exhaustion she suffered from after fatiguing days filled of nothing.

Sleep.

With a struggled sigh, Hana closed her aching eyes and rested her now throbbing head. As she pathetically sprawled across the large bed, her hands fumbled with the blankets so she could finally warm her chilled body. It was a slow process, and by the time Hana had crawled into the deep embrace of her warm bed, her body gave a churning lurch, ready to be rested as her rotting insides ticked onwards, waiting to give into the sickening pain they were subjected to so eagerly each and every day- ready to die.

Well in case you failed to notice, in case you failed to see
This is my heart bleeding before you, this is me down on my knees
These foolish games are tearing me apart
Your thoughtless words are breaking my heart

There was a loud crash, the echo of its dull thud contemptuously drowned out by the loud husky laugh of the parents in the dining room, joyous and blissful as they downed another round of Sake. But their blind eyes and un-tuned ears were not as near as Hana's, the loud thud and thunderous cries of rage afterwards ringing harshly in her ears. The chilling night's waking air was frosty at best, the unmotivated blue eyes of Hana staring in annoyance up towards the roof as the arguing young boys across the hall never ceased to hush a word of silence, offering discomfort to the worn pale girl.

"Kanuko... "Hana called in warning."Kanuko, don't be a brat. Kanuko!" Hana yelled angrily, the drafting cold air in the room rushing to her once again chilling body as she ripped the cover off her frail body.

With the withdraw of her warm cocoon, the exhausted Hana swerved off her bed and slowly, creaking both floor boards and bones as she shuffled across the hallway, away from the comfort of her room, jittering as she forcefully slid the door to Kanuko's door open and stared disgracefully upon the two screeching children. Hands caught in each other's hair, pulling tufts hard enough to bring tears, angry raw pink faces glaring and watering as they grappled fierce yanks upon each other. They cried and huffed as their grips tightened and nails came down to scratch each other's eyes out.

"Stop it, stop it now!" With a lunge forward, Hana grabbed at the shirt of her brother in a desperate attempt to separate the two, both their cries still taunting the throb in her head.

With a tug of Kanuko's shirt the bigger boy came stumbling off the fuming Sasuke as his own harsh pants and seething grinding of teeth became like that of a wild dogs, "Sasuke-baka, you little punk!" Kanuko provoked, Hana's grip on his shirt still secure.

"You're the punk! Take what you said about my brother back!" The small Sasuke yelled, standing defiantly with balled fists, hot tears still streaming down his face.

"Not until you take what you said about my sister back!" Kanuko barked, twice as harsh.

"Stop it, the both of you! You're acting like spoilt brats." Hana stated, her blue eyes once again met with a misunderstanding with the dark one's of the two boys, stark, roughed and crying and both boys began to stare like two lost puppies, intent on finding condolence within one's comfort. "Please, you don't need to fight, both of you are getting carried away. Pitiful childish tantrums are for spoilt little brats, and I know neither of you are immature enough to act like this... please don't fight."

"Hana-chan..." Kanuko turned, looking over the ghostly girl as her eyes were shallow and her face was pale. He seemed almost scared, staring at such a haunting face, tinged with purples and greens as the exhaustion of the day caught up to her vulnerable form.

"Sasuke, you're being annoying to our hosts."

The voice was deep, almost haunting in all respect, harshly blunt towards the now shocked looking young boy before her. With a slight turn of her neck, Hana's deeply drained eyes flickered over the frowning figure of Uchiha Itachi, his position in the doorway incriminating the little brother's as he paced his actions with surplus. He was commanding in some indefinable way, his mere presence suffering a blow to every offender in the room.

"Aniki... I- I didn't..." Sasuke looked down, his round black eyes watering as the taller brother before him seemed unsightly harsh upon his younger sibling.

Hana, with a deep distaste towards the older boy's actions, gracelessly stood with a rigid movement and gave the slack headed Sasuke a slight smile of encouragement as his brother stared. "As long as you say you're sorry, Kanuko will apologize also..."

"What- I never agreed to that! Why would I apologize to Sasuke-brat for saying you're a weirdo?" Kanuko screeched, Itachi giving him a passive glance.

"Kanuko... you're the one being the brat here." Hana stated, her brother groaning in annoyance to her blunt truth.

"If you don't mind, I'm very tired so I'm going back to bed... and Itachi, I don't think you need to be so critical of you brother. He's just a child, after all..." Hana snarkily added, her blue eyes wandering off all human life and vaguely disjointed vision laid flickering light upon the doorway which lead to her room.

Itachi stayed deathly silent, his stone eyes passively watching as Hana lurched her way back towards her room, taking note of the provocative sway to her head and stutter in her step as she almost drunkenly made her way back into her room. Analyzing the weak girls form, Itachi then turned back towards the almost stunned looking boys and then back towards the door Hana uncarefuly left slightly ajar.

"Aniki?" The small voice of Sasuke piped, rippling a wave of realization back into his brother's mind.

"Sasuke, maybe I should walk you home now. Kanuko, I'm sorry for everything." Itachi spoke, Sasuke clambering across the messily floor to join his brother in relief, finally free of the house in which he knew nothing of. "Please tell Hana-san my apologies for disturbing her."

"Sure, whatever..." Kanuko muttered, uncomfortably looking towards Itachi's and Sasuke's forms as they drew away from his door and disappeared around the end of the hallway.

Shuffling around the room a little longer, kicking messily strewn objects on the floor into less obstructive messes near the walls of his room, Kanuko sighed with discontent and decrepitly sat down on his bed with a harsh groan. Glaring once again, the young boy ripped the covers off his bed in slight anger, and with a grunt from his sore throat, dozed quickly into a sleep of warmth and comfort.

While the racket of the two brawling boys laid to rest as Itachi accompanied his younger brother home, the sleepless Hana was drained of energy and longed for a rejuvenating slumber- replenish the lost stillness within her decaying body. But as the circulating drunken laughs of her and the Uchiha parents persisted, the careless blue eyes that didn't match her families store with unwilling emotion as the cold Autumn air sapped away thought and feeling.

Only a vague image in her head laid her to rest, as the harsh goodbyes of the joyous parents left the house miserably quiet, just as the hospital used to be. A pair of glaring red eyes, black pins spinning as a focusing kaleidoscope does. It was strangling all hope, all happiness and all oxygen out of her body. Leaving the red eyes to stare through the seams of her eyelids, at the back of her mind the quivering Hana slept with haunting images of a murderous red eyed man, strangely at ease to the frightening concept of death...

You're breaking my heart