~ Sunagakure no Sato, Wind Country ~ "I'm back home..." The young genin said as he entered his family's apartment within the Hizashi compound. The hall leading into the dining room was dark, and the house was still. Hotaru stood there for a few moments, lingering as if there would be someone home to respond. It had been weeks since he'd graduated from the Hizashi Academy and become a proper shinobi of the Sand. And yet, neither of his parents had come home to greet him or even written a letter. This was actually normal for the young genin, and as he began to step down the hall towards the empty dining room, left untouched since he'd left his apartment that morning for training, he stopped to glance out the window. He could hear the exited shouts, cheers, and laughter coming from the other apartments where his fellow genin and even academy students were also returning to their homes after their own training sessions.
It wasn't long before the young Hizashi found himself sitting in front of his family shrine, honoring his ancestors and deceased relatives, most of whom had died in service to Sunagakure as shinobi of various skill levels and reputations. It was here, where as he lit the incense and chanted a prayer for his parents to return home safely, that Hotaru whispered another type of prayer, this one just for himself. "Okaerinasai." As he had done, alone, for nearly six years now, ever since his parents went off to fight in the various conflicts of the Great War. As with most afternoons once his training was finished for the day, Hotaru was left to pursue his own interests. Without anyone waiting on him at home or demanding he do chores, he spent most of his evenings getting in extra practice or praying at temple.
Other days however, such as the one he was having today, Hotaru found himself consumed with a sense of frustration due to his loneliness. Of course, there were plenty of members of his clan he could go spend time with, training with his fellow Hizashi genin, or even go bug some of the older shinobi of the clan standing guard around the compound. Over the years, Hotaru had burned enough bridges with his outbursts that few of his fellow clan members would invite him over for dinner or even go out of their way to include him if they could get away with it. His graduation ceremony had been a strictly formal affair, most had only left minor gifts or letters at his door for him to find after the actual ceremony itself. With the fact that every time he'd worked up the courage to ask someone of his parents fate, he'd only be informed they were busy with more important matters than him. Hotaru knew they were alive though, if they had died during the war, surely someone would have told him. Hopefully.
Hizashi were known for their hot temperament, but Hotaru specifically had developed quite the passionate streak for acting out. It was something he was becoming increasingly aware of himself, just could stop himself from doing the things he did. It was like all the uncertainty, loneliness, and resentment growing inside him would spill out like embers on the wind, and there was no telling when one could catch spark and engulf him in an inferno. Today it seemed that the ember caught upon thee wind was the sound of laughter, children running around outside, playing while their mothers prepared their diner. Hotaru turned from the window to his own kitchen, remembering a time when he was very little, his mother teaching him how to wash vegetables while they splashed each other with water and laughed. He still remembered which greenhouse they picked those vegetables from as hot tears begun to fall from his cheeks. It was all so overwhelming, which itself had become a familiar sensation to the young genin over the years. Hotaru stood there and cried for a few moments, cursing himself and his weakness. Soon his body temperature began to rise and his pain turned into anger, and then he was out the door, running out of the Hizashi compound, wiping the tears from his face.
Eventually, Hotaru found himself standing atop a neighboring building of the Hizashi compound, panting and thirsty. Quickly finding a fountain with fresh water in the center of the greenhouse, Hotaru put his face in the fountain, gulping in large amounts of water before coming up for air. Pulling his wet headband out of his eyes, he found his anger had faded back to sadness, but he refused to allow himself to start crying again, instead kicking a small rock across the greenhouse and stubbing his toes in the process. His anger flaring once again, Hotaru ran over to the rock and tried to break it by stomping on it. Instead, a sharp pain ran through his foot. His frustration growing, Hotaru picked the rock up and threw it, right through one of the glass panels of the greenhouse with a loud crash. Instantly he knew he was in trouble, the greenhouses were practically sacred, if he was caught, and he knew well enough that he would indeed be caught, he'd be taken before the clan elders to receive a scolding and any other sort of punishment. They wouldn't be able to ignore him this time, a thought that lingered in Hotaru's mind. The same thought that caused him to pick up another rock, readying to throw it at another panel.
