It was dark inside the forest. Absentmindedly, Moriko had followed the shinobi (ninja) into the heart of the forest without realizing where she was going. Stupidly, she realized that he had disappeared. Looking backwards from where she came from, she could no longer see the house she had left not too long ago. Moriko stopped for a moment to survey where she was.
The forest was a little creepy in the middle of the night. Vines hung low from trees, branches looked like hooked claws, everything looked sinister.
Moriko blinked a couple of times, rubbing her eyes. Though the canopy of leaves blocked any source of light from coming in, she could still see perfectly in the dark, something she hadn't noticed. Another thought struck her and she looked back to where she had run from. It should have been a long way as she'd never been this far into the forest before and she was hardly breathing quick.
Though physically she was different, her sense of insecurity was starting to rise. Doing her best to shut her ears to the faint whistling of wind, to the crunching of leaves as small animals scrambled over them, she closed her eyes, which made it worse.
"What are you doing here so late at night? Shouldn't a kid like you be sleeping inside their house?"
Moriko's eyes snapped open as the ninja she was following stood in front of her, leaning casually on a tree trunk. She nearly fell over in surrpise. "I-I mean ... Um... I didn't mean to bother you or anything. I-I-I..." Moriko looked downwards, annoyed at herself for her continuous stutters. She loosened her tongue and then continued. "I was just wondering if you could help me." Where'd those words come from? She was supposed to ask him if he could show her something that had to do with ninjutsu and chakra.
Before she could correct herself, the ninja opened his mouth to reply. "Help you on what?"
Moriko rubbed her right elbow nervously while chewing on her lip. "Um..well .. you see. My parents won't let me go to the Academy. And ... well, all I really want to do is learn ... from there..."
The ninja walked over to her and crouched down so that they were looking at each other eye to eye. "What's your name?"
"Umm...Moriko, sir."
The man smiled friendly-like. "No need to call me sir. I'm not that old."
"Oh. Sorry ... umm... what's your name?"
"Hatake Kakashi." he paused for a while. "So you want to learn how to become a ninja?"
As if that statement instantly evaporated the girl's insecurity, she nodded excitedly. "Can you teach me something now?"
Kakashi made his next statement very clear. "Becoming a Genin isn't something that can be done overnight. You'll need lots of practice and skill."
Moriko made no movement, but Kakashi knew that she understood. After thinking a while, he said, "Okay. We'll do one basic thing, alright?" Moriko didn't have to answer. Kakashi exhaled. It's been a long time since he'd taught someone skills this basic. "Alright. Stand up straight with your feet touching. Close your eyes and feel for two streams inside your body. One should feel calm and the other should be bubbly."
Moriko did as she was instructed and found them right away.
"Now, in your mind, visualize them connecting into one stream."
A purple flame shape engulfed the girl. Her face was illuminated and Kakashi could see that her face was very relaxed, unlike the usual pupils who had tightly concentrated faces. He was surprised at how fast she did that. She's a natural ... "You can open your eyes now, by the way." he said to her. He watched her face light up with excitement and pure joy. "That's your chakra."
"And then you do the hand seals to release it, right?" she asked him.
"Yeah. That's right."
"Can you show me something now?" there was an eagerness in her voice that Kakashi couldn't resist. He decided to show her a basic skill, but none that everyone knew, nonetheless.
It was a short series of hand seals, but an exact replica of Kakashi appeared beside him in a puff of white smoke.
Moriko looked at it curiously. "Clone jutsu?" she asked.
Kakashi released his technique and his clone disappeared. "You've heard of it?"
She rubbed the back of her head nervously. "I've stolen a couple of glances now and then at the Academy." She turned to herself and performed the hand seals. A replica of her appeared to her right. "Is it something like that?"
The Jounin (a rank of ninja) was surprised at the rate she was learning at. "Yeah. You use this technique when you want to replace yourself. But your clone doesn't have chakra, so for high level ninja who can determine whether or not one has chakra, you wouldn't want to use this."
Moriko nodded and released her technique as well as her chakra molding, so the purple flame surrounding her died down.
"You've got a natural knack for ninjutsu."
The girl blushed at the compliment, not used to being praised. She looked down, rubbing her elbow. "Oh... erm, thanks."
Kakashi was interested now and his newfound student seemed willing to absorb everything he presented to her.
A/N: Reviews please...?
