"Life's not about waiting for the storm to pass…"
I woke up this morning, and looking out the window, immediately realized the world was wet. In every direction, as far as I could see (which is impressively far with the byakugan), the earth was spongy and sodden, dotted with puddles, being slowly grown with a hanging mist. Great. I hate the rain.
I rose regardless of my instantly foul mood and began my morning routine without change. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, I was not permitted to ignore the wetness in the air. My hair stuck to my face, I couldn't sit in the grass to meditate, and everything, I mean EVERYTHING, was slippery. I couldn't stand holding my temper around my house so I abandoned the effort and left for the training grounds earlier than usual.
Maybe a dozen steps past the gates to my home's complex, the heavens decided they weren't finished ruining my day. Within no more than ten feet, my clothes were soaked through to the skin. Surrendering to Mother Nature, I continued my journey, foregoing the option of acquiring a change of clothes, an umbrella or a towel. I pushed chakra into my feet and sped towards the woods, where I could at least avoid the embarrassment of being seen looking like a wet rat.
I slid in the mud as I abruptly stopped myself under the canopy of trees. The tall branches slowed the heavy pour of rain, only sporadically dropping larger splashes of water as collected rain became too heavy to be held by the leaves above. When what felt like an entire bucket of water landed squarely on the crown of my head, I was convinced some higher power had a really sick sense of humour. Part of me wished I was undignified enough to throw back my head and yell in frustration, but my pride drowned out (ha! Pun!) the urge.
Trudging forward, I resigned myself to this terrible day and prayed it would be over soon. The sound of splashing drops compelled me to slow my pace, lengthening the time I had before I reached the training clearing in which my team would meet, like clockwork. Loud claps of thunder nearly completely covered the subtle sound of footfalls in the puddles that would have formed above the saturated earth. I knew I couldn't have taken that long to arrive; it must still be early in the morning. Even on pleasant days, I was always the first of any Konoha nin out for training. I couldn't speculate as to who would voluntarily leave their home early enough to beat me, exposing themselves to extra time horrendous conditions.
Tenten. I was surprised to see her familiar pink shirt darting around the hazy clearing, darkened by the thick canopy of clouds imprisoning the sun in their grasp. True, I would have been more surprised to find one of my less-dedicated comrades, but I thought I knew Tenten fairly well, and I still never would have predicted her choices this day.
It took just a moment of watching her train to realize she wasn't training at all. She was dancing. I'd never seen her move quite like that. It was easy to see shadows of her grace with weapons as she flowed with the rain, but here was no aggression in her being. All at once, she was connected with every aspect of her universe, but that universe existed separately of the one in which I resided. She was momentarily the ocean in the desert, bringing power with serenity and magnificent beauty.
I couldn't explain my reaction to seeing her in this state. I should have been angry with her lack of noticing me, her lack of attention for potential dangers, but I couldn't muster a negative emotion within myself. She was lost in a way that I could never be. I would hate to be in a state of such vulnerability, but I envied her ability to do so. Even watching her expression of freedom, I couldn't lose myself in it. I was firmly grounded in logical reality, and I yearned for her to take me with her to wherever she had escaped.
She stopped. Not abruptly; it was just as graceful a stillness as her movements had been. Her arms were limp at her sides and I could see droplets slide from her fingertips. Her eyes were closed. She had completely retreated away to some other place and my brain went wild wondering how she could send her mind away and where she had sent it.
Soon, she blinked the rain water from her lashes and turned to notice me. She smiled sheepishly, embarrassed at getting caught, silently wondering exactly how long I'd been standing there. I was still perplexed by the absolute differences between her and me. As her hair was, for once, loos about her, it was matted and clung to any exposed skin it could reach. Unlike the drowned woodland creature I felt I resembled, she looked wild and free, almost like a nymph. I realized I must have been scrutinizing her too obviously when her gaze turned questioning.
She arrived before me, but remained silent. The look on her face was one foreign to me; she looked at absolute peace, the way one would describe a sleeping child. She reached out and took my hand. I let her lead me from my safe, semi-dry place among the trees, into the danger of the evil storm. Somehow, with the warmth of her palm in mine, it lost its power over my mood. It felt different. The drops became the tears of the sky, crying for the blood shed on earth's soil, attempting to wash it away. The wind became whispers of a tale just out of earshot.
A smile fell across her lips and I wondered what expression had befallen my face to cause it.
"Close your eyes," her soft voice mixed easily with the sounds around me, as if she were a part of the storm, not a human like me. If it weren't for the touch of her hand, I may have questioned her corporality. "…and no cheating."
I closed my eyes, and actually didn't cheat.
"It's only rain," she began. "It doesn't taunt and it doesn't hurt, but you can't control it and so long as you try to, it will feel like a losing battle."
Her hand slipped from mine, but I heard no footsteps, so she hadn't left my side. I still had no idea what she was doing, but she was a person I could never be, so, with curiosity, I let her be. At the time, it hadn't crossed my mind that nobody else could come near the level of trust I had in her.
"This is how I meditate, Neji," she said. Her voice was too far away. My eyes sprung open and she was nowhere in sight. Where had she gone? How had she moved without a single sound? She had been so close, but had vanished with ease. I thought I heard her laugh, but even with the byakugan, she was nowhere to be found. It was like she had become the rain she was so like.
I lowered myself to the wet forest ground. I crossed my legs, laid my palms flat on the earth and closed my eyes. I tried to feel what she felt, go where she went. I remained there, unmoving, until I heard her laugh again. Hours had passed. The sun had broken through the clouds as they thinned with lost weight. The rays held her for a moment, when she re-entered the clearing, before Lee bounded after her. My gaze met hers and the sly smirk playing at her lips was all I had to be sure the events earlier in the morning had been real. She had done it, reached in my mind and taken me away with her, to a place I never would have been let into alone. We'd both know, but never bring it up again.
"It's about learning to dance in the rain"