I get up earlier than usual and finish my laundry. I neatly fold Kakashi’s clothes, and leave them on his dresser, I quietly close his bedroom door. The sun has yet to rise, but I had to practice the new jutsu. Only six days left, and I needed all the time I could get. I grab my jacket, it was getting colder every day. The new year was about a couple weeks after the exams, I couldn’t wait to smell the traditional food and the entertainment. I wanted to wear a kimono, for the first time in my life, and I want to style my hair. I wanted to feel like a woman, beautiful and strong.
The puddles were still there, the lack of sun hasn’t been able the evaporate it, I am glad. I start off with forming the sphere , its a lot easier now, the feeling is familiar, and the chakra is at a great balance. The tricky part is adding the rotation, it needs to be quick and sharp, so when it makes contact with an enemy it tears its flesh. Thats the reason its called tearing torrent. I work on the rotation until Kiba shows up, with Akamaru at his side. Akamaru barks, when he sees me. I let the water fall, and smile at them. Friendship makes teams stronger, and I wanted friends. Friends that I could rely on, friends to protect, and friends that will protect me.
“Good Morning Kiba.” The red paint on his face always looks vibrant, I wonder if its permanent, because it doesn’t smudge when Akamaru licks his face. His eyes are focused and determined, today will be a make or break, if we would be a great team or if we will be a horrible one. Akamaru and Kiba take the liberty to sniff me, invading my personal space.
“We’ve memorized your smell, it makes Akamaru and I feel closer to new teammates,” He explains, that’s understandable. Kiba looks at his watch, its five till ten, Hinata should be on her way.
“So what is your specialty?” Kiba asks. “We need to know each other’s skills, so we can combine attacks.”
I nod, “Why don’t we wait for Hinata to get here, I don’t really want to say it twice.”
We watch the horizon, and a small figure gets closer, an arm in the air, waving. It was Hinata, her hair was dark, so it made it easier to spot her. She had a smile on her face, just being around her made me feel happier, it was contagious. She looked so peaceful, but determined to work hard and get results. Always trying to see the good in others, before the bad. Its polar opposite of me. I see the bad, before the good. I’m always weary of others, I always think they are not trustworthy, that maybe all they want from me is the beast I hold inside me.
“Good morning, Kiyoko, Kiba, Akamaru. I’m sorry I kept you waiting, but I made everyone lunch boxes, I think we’ll be here for a while.” She holds a large bag, only Hinata would think of this.
“Thank you Hinata,” I say with a grin. She sets the bag under a tree, keeping it out of the sun rays. I see Kiba clap his hands, and rubs them, “Alright, lets get started. I know how to combine my attack with Hinata, because we are in the same team, so Kiyoko what about you, tell us everything we need to know.”
“Hmmm, well. I know how to make a massive amount of shadow clones, because I have a vast amount of chakra. I can concentrate chakra into weapons, so they fly faster in the air, and cause more damage. They can go through rocks and logs, so I think that is helpful. My chakra nature is water, but I am barely learning jutsus. I like to believe I am fast on my feet.”
I think about all of my years of running, it helped me some how. I’m faster than your average ninja.
“Shadow clones, that’ll come in handy. I think we can incorporate in our offense, while Hinata is on the defensive, with her gentle fists. Your shadow clones can take fatal shots, while you attack. They can also make a barrage, Naruto beat me with an Uzumaki barrage. Your clones can distract while, Akamaru and I do our combo attack. I think this will be a great team.” Kia thinks about our roles in the team, and I’m glad he thinks I’m not completely useless. I had a feeling he would be tough to win over, especially after what he said at the tea shop.
“Neji has been helping me, so my gentle fists has improved. I can block other weapons that come at us, and I can immobilize our opponent, by hitting their chakra points.” Hinata offers her role of importance, those eyes of hers are a gift and a wonder. Does she see the world differently?
“Akamaru and I are synchronized in many jutsus. Human beast technique, fang wolf fang, and I also know how to make shadow clones, but I don’t focus on them, all I need is Akamaru. Our style is forceful, while Hinata’s is more gentle. They aren’t too similar, but it works, Kiyoko on the other hand is a mid range, rather than close. Looks like we don’t have a long ranger user, but that doesn’t hinder our strength at all. It’ll make our team stronger, so how should we start,” Kiba concludes. We can start with shadow clones, I make ten of them.
“We attack my shadow clones as a team. Then we can have a feel of everyone’s rhythm. Of course my shadow clones will also be on the offensive, so give it your all,” I say. I hold a kunai full of chakra, ready for the first shadow clone to move, Hinata takes her stance as Kiba and Akamaru transform. I make the first move, sending my kunai flying toward one of the shadow clone, it moves quickly, and hits the clone. It didn’t have time to react. The clones scatter, attacking separately.
It takes a minute for the clones to diminish.I only got three, the others were Kiba’s and Hinata’s. Maybe ten were too little. But I felt their presence, Kiba rammed into its opponent, their spinning bodies rotate around each other. Hinata let’s the enemy come to her, using her byakugan to see their movements. She doesn’t let the weapons come near her, she uses her gentle fists to inflict damage. I notice that our backs are guarded by one another, we self consciously moved to protect our blind spots, well Hinata had 360 degree vision, but she protected ours. We don’t speak, and I make twenty clones. Everytime we defeat them, I increase our numbers, the max we can take is forty, anymore and we are left with too many openings. We take a lunch break at two in the afternoon.
The lunch box was delicious, the rice was a little dry for my taste, but the noodles were great, Hinata was a fine cook. We eat in silence, regaining the energy we have lost, I am not too tired, but I can see Hinata and Kiba are short of breath, they had less chakra than I. My body has gotten used to training everyday, and my muscles no longer screamed in pain at night. I was getting stronger, and I and glad that I’ll be able to protect my friends from any danger. I’ll protect my comrades, no matter what. That is my way.
“I think we’ll make a great team. All this hard work will certainly pay off,” Hinata interrupts the silence, Kiba nods, he’s too busy chewing.
“We’ll be able to face any teams that come our way. No stopping us,” I say with enthusiasm. Akamaru barks in agreement.
“Can you go for a few more hours? You are the one providing us the shadow clones.” Kiba stretches his body.
“Ya, I can go for days.” Literally i can go for days at this pace, but I don’t think my body would keep up. We walk back to the field, and I make twenty shadow clones, I’ve retrieved my kunai and shuriken before lunch so I’m stocked and ready to go. This time it doesn’t take us time to find our rhythm, its just there. It takes us less time to defeat all the shadow clones, the sun was bright, and the rain clouds were disappearing. The sweat ran down my face, we went on with this pace for two more hours, before we called it quits. Hinata had to go home to train with Neji, while Kiba and Akamaru had to go clean the dog house. I waved good bye to both of them, Kiba riding on Akamaru’s back, and Hinata’s dark blue hair swayed in the wind.
She is such a reserved girl, while Kiba is very loud. I laugh at the difference, I am glad I got to train with them. Who would have known this was a great team already. I go back to my individual practice, the puddle was getting smaller due to the sun’s rays this afternoon, I didn’t know how to produce water like Yamato yet, so I hoped it would be enough to get me through the day. I do the required techniques for the jutsu, it feels like a second skin, it was beginning to become second nature. I added the rotation, it was faster than the last time.
“Looks like you’re almost there.” Yamato comes out of the trees in front of me. “Add just a bit more chakra to your rotation, and it’ll enhance the sharpness of the water.”
I do as I am told, and the water looks identical to Yamato’s.
“I’ve never seen anyone master this technique in two days. You have extraordinary chakra control, I can’t believe you aren’t a chunin or a jounin.” Yamato says as he looks at my tearing torrent in my hand. The rotation makes it feel lighter than before.
“Go ahead throw it at the log. The momentum will keep the water going, its more efficient at a close ranger. But I got the feeling you are a close range fighter, so this is perfect for you.”
I step closer to the log in fornt of me, and I throw the torrent at it, the sound of breaking wood rings in the air, and once the water slows down and stops, the log is left with a whole in the middle. Pieces of wood are scattered everywhere, I can’t believe I did this. Its amazing.
“Its a lot like Naruto’s rasengan, but its not as powerful. Though I think with your chakra control you can make it faster and more destructive.”
I feel giddy inside, now I have this new power, power of my own, not the beast’s. I want to cry of joy because I no longer depend on the beast’s power for survival, I can do this on my own. I can, and I can imagine Suzu smiling down at me, this is what you wanted right?
“How long have you been out here?”
“Before sunrise, I needed to master this jutsu as quickly as possible, and now that I have, I need it to become second nature to me.”
He nods in agreement. Before I can get started on another tearing torrent, Kakashi appears in my field of vision. He walks closer as I rotate the water in my hands.
“So you’ve mastered it already,” Kakashi says. I nod and try to make it go faster, it was easier to control it with every second that I touch it. I want to test the strength against the weakness of water, earth. Earth is stronger than water, so this jutsu isn’t very powerful against earth chakra nature. I want to surpass my limit. I see a decent size bolder to my right, maybe if I don’t release it then it’ll be more powerful, I’ll strike with the torrent still in my hand. I run to it, keeping my hand at my side, keeping the chakra flow fast and steady. The sound of the water crashing against my chakra is in some ways reassuringly peaceful. When it comes in contact the water struggles against the hard surface, but I don’t budge either.
“Kiyoko it isn’t completely mastered yet.” Yamato says, I let the water fall from my hands. I thought this was the finishing product.
“You can do this by forming the orb first and then adding rotation, but its not the fastest way. There are hand seals that let you begin rotating as the water materializes from your chakra. like this, Boar, dog, ram.” He shows me the seals for every animal, the water begins to move in a circular motion as is appears in his palm. He didn’t use the water that existed instead he uses his chakra to create the water.
I mimic his seals, but the water in my palm doesn’t rotate like his. I try again, but it ends to the same result.
“You need to rotate your chakra and create the water with your chakra at the same time,” Yamato comments. But that’s like looking right and left at the same time. I imagine my chakra forming the water, and my other hand helping the chakra rotate. I put it to the test, one hand creates the water while the other creates the rotation. I have two hands, so in a way i am looking right and left at the same time.
Half of me concentrates on one task while the other does the other task. Man did this take some energy to do, my brain hurt just doing it. I grunt as the water begins to take shape, remembering the feel of the orb I originally used. I didn’t know how long I spent creating this torrent, but sweat began to run down my back, and my arms felt stiff in holding them in that position.
I taste blood in my mouth, and I realize I’ve been biting my bottom lip. I let my raw lip fall from my teeth. The water was beginning to appear in my palm and it began to spin. I was doing it. It was a lot harder now, it made the other way look easy.
“Incredible,” I hear Yamato whisper. The water began to spin faster, and it was shifting to a comfortable position in my palm. The water rushes and I know then that its where I want it to be. I throw it the slightly dented rock. The tearing water makes it through the solid rock, I sigh in relief, its much more powerful with chakra enhanced water.
“You adjusted so quickly. I thought it would be impossible to master this jutsu in a week, but you did it in two days.” Yamato stares with wide eyes, but I’m too tired to say anything back. All the shadow clones were finally getting to me, and this adjustment took all the energy I had. Now all I want is food, a shower, and sleep.
“Lets get you home, you have training tomorrow.” Kakashi kneels in front of me, bringing his hands to the back of my knees and my back. My body feels heavy in his arms. Yamato goes his own way, while we walk to the apartment.
“What kind of training did you do with Hinata and Kiba?” He asks. My voice comes out tired but strong.
“I used shadow clones, we got used to each other’s rhythm.”
“How many did you create?”
I think about it for a while. Our limit is forty and we continued for about four hours.
“Around hundred fifty.”
“No wonder you’re tired. You should really consider pulling back tomorrow. Using too many shadow clones will cut your endurance by half every time you create one. I can barely make ten, but you, you're on a different level.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
He sets me down, my knees are wobbly as he opens the apartment door. The smell of food fills my nostril.
“Eri came to give you a new recipe she made, but you were training. I thought it would be nice if we ate it. I didn’t want to eat it without you, so...” He fades away. My tired body feels warm, I smile a little. He guides me to the kitchen, the warmth of his hand on my back stays when he lifts his touch. Eri made dumpling covered in some sauce, the rice is still warm in its container. We eat in silence, my body slowly regaining its energy, the drowsiness in no longer present in my mind. After dinner we clean in silence, there is no need for words, his presence makes me feel at ease. I can’t explain the feeling I get when I steal glances at him. The way he wipes the dishes, his hands look rough from all they have experience. There are small scars, each of them telling a story. He bids me good night, as usual. There was something about those two words that makes me feel safe. They are familiar, and they never change, while a lot around me is constantly changing, his words don’t. Good night, they have more meaning than what it seem.
After a hot shower, I finally let my eyes close, and my mind wanders into darkness. I am too tired to dream tonight, all I could think about are Kakashi’s words and the challenge that lies ahead of me.
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Chapter notes: hope you like this chapter
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comment, likes/dislikes, suggestions, all feedback is welcomed
I think the next chapter is going to be the beginning of the chunin exams, or maybe the chapter after it, still not sure, but another bump in the road is heading towards Kiyoko.