Ok, it's spring break now, I guess I shouldn't have an excuse for updating this late but...I had to sleep for 56 hours straight in order to make up for all of the lack of sleep I received (or didn't receive I should say) throughout the quarter. I started reading this comic montress and I l-o-v-e love love love it! That also has to do with my not writing...I've been reading a lot of comics but anyways~~
Let the writing commence!
The sun beamed through the large window as a tanned woman lay in bed, her knees to her chest, the blue haired vixen did not wish to move. If she decided to get up she would have to go, she would have to watch her little imouto leave her again, and if she was honest with herself, she didn't think she would be able to handle it.
She felt a lingering pressure on her forehead and smiled ever so softly.
"I know what you must be feeling right now, but you have to see her off, what will she think if her ane-chan doesn't watch her as she goes? She'll come back, I promise"
The orangish brown eyed woman spoke, sitting on the edge of the bed and stroking her companion's blue hair. They stayed like this for quite some time, one silently comforting the other, who was grateful for her presence.
The vixen looked at the small oni.
Her chestnut hair was down framing her chubby face. She was dressed in her normal attire, her firm abs relaxed from her sitting position. Her glasses were low, at the bridge of her nose and the worry was blatant on her face.
The vixen couldn't help but feel as if some Kami had blessed her. Without the presence of the little demon, The purple eyed fox honestly did not know how she would have survived all those years ago, and watching her now she didn't know if she even wanted to live in any world without the woman before her.
The demon blushed at vixen's obvious staring before cuffing her face and looking into her lovely purple eyes.
"She'll come back I promise, Now please get ready so we can see her off, I know you won't forgive yourself if you miss it"
The fox looked down and smiled, she really had no idea how she would function without the tiny ball of fury beside her.
Before the sun had risen into the sky a certain different colored eyed 4 year old was already up and ready to go.
She had tried to practice floating for awhile and it worked for a bit, she was sure she floated for at least ten whole minutes. But after awhile she got bored of that. She had done many things to keep herself busy, she had played with the vines, she asked Yashin-san about things, much to the dragon's dislike seeing as she was attempting to get some sleep.
Nay Yashin-san, what's it like being a dragon? Why's you bond yourself to your old master? Who is dis old master anyways? People keep sayin' it's because of him that I have my eyes and stuff but no one ever said who he is. Nay nay Yashin-san answer meeeeeeee
Azayaka mentally spoke to the dragon who simply grunted in response to all the things she asked. Seeing that the dragon was going to ignore her for the time being, Azayaka pouted and crossed her arms.
It was still an hour or so before sunrise and she had nothing to do. She was so excited about going to train, the thought of falling asleep again never crossed her mind.
"I had a feeling you would be up at this time lil lamp"
Azayaka turned and saw Haaku standing in her doorway, his arms crossed and his eyes closed.
"Haaku-ani!"
Said four year old ran and hugged the legs of her big brother. He smirked and wrapped one of his arms around her.
"Now tell me little imouto, why are you awake at such a time?" He asked after the two separated from the hug.
Seemingly ignoring Haaku's statement, Azayaka pulled him by the sleeve of his yukata to the large window in her room that was left opened. She pushed him slightly, making a pouting face when he firmly stood.
Understanding what the child wanted, Haaku smiled at her insistence and sat on the ledge. A tiny "yay" could be heard and she climbed into his lap. Once comfortably seated she reached up and grabbed his hair, twisting the locks into semi-passable braids.
After she began braiding his hair Azayaka spoke,
"I can'ts sleep Ani! I'm too excited about going with Shifuku-san! I'm gonna start getting stronger and stronger, its da greatest"
As the small child spoke Haaku began to hum, his rich deep voice vibrating in his chest. He wrapped one arm around Azayaka and closed his eyes.
"It's gonna be...so...funs..."
The soothing warmth that was the Hikarikage wrapped around her, and no sooner had she started talking did she fall asleep, three strands of hair still in her hands, and rosey cheeks resting on his chest.
She's gotten so big over this past year...She'll be even bigger when she comes back...
Haaku mused to himself as he kept humming a random tune. This was the last time she would be his little imouto and he was going to enjoy it for a little while longer.
"Aza-chan...nay, Aza-chan wake up"
Azayaka faintly heard while in the void between the conscious and unconscious state. Deciding that sleep was a much better option, the small child nuzzled into the warmth that was enveloping her and tightened her grip on the fabric between her finger.
"Aza-chan, we can't keep Shifuku-san waiting now, get up you have to start your training don't you?"
At the word 'training' Azayaka's ears perked. That's right, she needed to get up in order to begin her training so she could become the most powerful ninja ever. The 4 year old groggily opened her eyes to a smiling Haaku.
"Atta girl, it's time to get up now. Let's go now, Shifuku-san should be about ready now, it's time for you to go"
"Hai Haaku-ani.." The red wearing girl yawned and rubbed her eyes, trying to wake up as best as she could, training was going to be so fun.
The gates of Gekkokakure were in actuality not gates at all. They were massive vines that could be traced back to Big Mama. One might assume that this was a terrible structural defense against invading forces. Whoever said this however, has never been to the gates of Gekko. The Vines themselves are infused with so much chakra that if one were to input the incorrect sequence of chakra into it, it would backlash and destroy whoever attempted to force entry.
Currently at the gates of Gekko was a small child, her hair messy and unkept, her yukata as red as blood and her feet as barren as ever. To her right stood a proud vixen with blue hair, her dark red Chinese kimono revealed fans strapped to each of her thighs. Her purple eyes looked glossy. Beside the vixen was a tiny Oni, her glasses were low as she gently rubbed the shoulder of the vixen beside her. The Oni's chesnut hair was down framing her chubby face, and her doctor's jacket was in its usual unbuttoned fashion, revealing a bandaged chest and firm abs.
To the different colored eyed girl's left there was a tall man. He had extremely pale blonde hair that went towards the middle of his back. His golden almost black eyes were closed as a smile graced his pale features. His pale blue Kimono hid his feet and the left side of his torso was left exposed.
In front of the girl was a man she did not really know, but she felt she could trust him regardless. His hair was a sandy brown and he wore an outfit composed solely of black. His eyes however, were a rich blue color that looked as though she could swim in them.
"Ready to be off Azayaka-chan?" the blue eyed man asked.
"Hai!" Said girl replied as she ran forward to be next to him.
Turning around Azayaka smiled to her family.
"When I come back you won't even recognize me!"
"I'm sure we won't" said the Oni
"You'll better be able to beat me in a spar!" Replied the glossy eyed vixen.
"Be safe and prosperous, that's all I ask" the gentle giant retorted.
With one last look, the girl in red scampered off from her one true home. The vines of the gates twisted close, and Azayaka felt that her training was truly beginning.
After a day of walking, the new sensei and student pair stopped to make camp. The blue eyed man in charge had carried all of their supplies, and made a fire for the two to sleep around.
"Nay, Shifuku-sensei, wheres we goin?" The 4 year old asked as she stared at her instant noodles, waiting for them to finish cooking.
"Well my dear student, we are going to a place full of water of course! Water is what I am going to show you how to use therefore water must be around don't ya know?" The short man finished, patiently waiting for his noodles to finish cooking.
After a relatively silent meal, the two went to sleep and awoke at mornings first light.
"Ok little one, let's start your training now. We are about a week's travel away from our training/ living place. I have all our supplies here, do you think you can run with me? We will run for as long as possible mmkay? Think of it this way, the more we run, the faster we will get to our training destination!" He yelled that last bit, flashing a blinding smile.
After momentarily shielding her eyes, the small child screamed "Hai" before running off at her top speed.
Arashi smirked, he liked that type of enthusiasm, grabbing all their supplies he ran after the girl, slightly surprised that she had started running in the correct direction.
After almost 6 hours of running Arashi had to carry the barefoot tot. She fumed, angry that she couldn't run longer, but after some encouragement from her new sensei, she allowed herself to be carried. After another 5 hours passed she was able to run again, making it another 6 hours before almost passing out.
Arashi smiled as he saw the sweat run down her chubby face. She was so young yet she was so dedicated as well. He promised to himself that he would be the sensei she needed and more.
The next few days were much like that one. She would run for as long as possible and then he would carry her a for a decent amount of time before running again.
It was on the fifth day of this routine that Arashi asked how it was she was able to run and keep up with him.
"Welps, my chakras helps me of course! Whenever I am getting tired, I justs uses my chakras and stuff. Sometimes if I focus real hard, I can even get the chakras from the trees and stuff to help me"
The child flashed him a quick smile before devouring their meal of fish and rice.
Hm, as I thought...she doesn't even realize that what she's doing is unusual..better keep it that way Arashi thought to himself before saying
"Nay, Azayaka-chan, we are really close to where you will be training for the next year and a half or so, do you mind if I carry you the rest of the way? We will make it there before sunset if we do it this way!" He yelled
After pouting for about ten seconds, Azayaka nodded her head. No sooner had she done so was she picked up in a whoosh of wind and she was moving at a speed unknown to her.
What about the things we left there!?
She mentally yelled as she gripped onto her sensei for dear life. After about 4 hours of the worst roller coaster ever, the whipping and jerking stopped.
Daring to look away, Azayaka broke her eyes away from the black shirt and was met with a sight she had never witnessed before.
They were on a white sand beach, with the ocean spreading out as far as the eye could see, well beyond the horizon. She could smell the salt in the air, and practically taste the freshness of the sea.
"Nay...this is where we live?" She looked up with unmatching eyes, unsure of how this would work.
"Hahahahahahah! No no silly child! There is a place, another place hidden well behind the waters! That is where we will go. Here is your next training assignment! You have to hold your breath until we get to our home ok?"
After Azayaka nodded her head, Arashi ran threw a quick sequence of hand signs causing a crater to form in the ground. He discarded there traveling equipment into it and closed the hole.
"Now do you know how to swim? I would assume not because you're definitely a land-lover. While we're underwater I want you to hold onto me ok? I'll swim as fast as I can so we can get to our training ground and home! Understood?"
Azayaka nodded and braced herself as he hoisted her on his back.
"Now remember, I won't be able to hold onto you while I'm swimming so you'll have to do that, and remember, hold your breath for as long as you can!"
With a smile he was off, running and jumping a considerable height before nose diving into the ocean.
A burst of icy water enveloped the small child and she held onto Arashi with all the strength her little arms could muster. She expected to be whipped around viciously like she had been when he held her on land, but it was different.
While they were moving at a blinding speed, the water seemed as though it offered little to no resistance to the man treading through it. It reminded her of Haaku-ani's door, sometimes it was so light she didn't have to do anything to get it open.
As the initial shock of being plunged underwater faded, Azayaka dared to open her different colored eyes. She was met with a world of color and amazement. There were schools of multi-colored fished swimming near and around them. Off in the distance she could see large creatures she didn't even know the name to. They looked as though they were flying in the water, with big flappy wings.
A thought passed through her little mind, if she could see this much with her regular eyes, how much could she see with her special eyes on? Feeling giddy with this realization, Azayaka quickly began pumping chakra into her eyes, excitedly waiting to see everything.
Flashes of color, sea creatures fighting, a father seahorse giving birth, sharks, whales all the creatures in the area were in her view, she was delighted she wanted to scream! Never had she seen so much wildlife before.
Then she saw something dark and shadowy. Its was massive and hidden inside a cave of some kind. Deciding to focus on that, she zoomed in, squinting and willing her eyes to only look at that one thing.
Big red eyes opened in the cave and looked right at her, she felt an ominous presence begin to develop in her stomach, and she felt a wave of something pass over her and it made her scream, the air escaping her lungs she began to panic.
Arashi noticed this and propelled them with speeds no other human could match as they burst out of the water and landed on the cold floor of a cave.
"Yayyyy you did it! You did it! You did it! You passed your first exercise!" Arashi yelled and finished with a 'nice guy' pose.
After Azayaka regained her breath she smiled, she did do it...but she'd have to ask Arashi what that thing was later.
Azayaka then took a moment to assess where they were. They had emerged from a clear water pond that was in the center of what she believed to be a cave. The roof of the cave had a giant hole in it, and somehow she could see the sky and the clouds and the sun. The sunlight filled the cave, and on the far backside there was a small hut. It was made of a tan colored wood with giant leaves as the roof. The lining of the cave was covered in many pretty colored crystals, which reflected brightly due to the sun.
"It's not the classiest place in the world, but I promise you'll like it" Arashi said while still smiling.
Azayaka stood up and lightly grabbed two of his fingers with her small hand as they walked to the hut.
Inside everything was simple. There were two futon mats on the floor where she assumed they'd sleep. When she asked about the kitchen he laughed and said the kitchen was a firepit outside. When she asked about the bathroom he laughed even harder and said 'we are in the ocean'. There was however, a rather large stack of scrolls behind the hut and she couldn't help but get a little excited. Scrolls meant learning Justus and being great!
Arashi said she should get used to her new home while he began planning on what they would do the next day. Having nothing better to do Azayaka went to the sides of the wall and started climbing the gems that stood out. The walls of the cave were at least 80 feet high. It reminded her of climbing the vines to get to Debu-san's sweets whenever she ran out.
She made it about 7 feet off of the ground (Granted that was with much falling and stubbornly climbing back up) before she heard Arashi call her name. Quickly scrambling/ falling off the wall, she ran to her new sensei who was sitting next to the pond.
"Alrighty! We have our next training exercise right here! Now, we need to eat in order to have all the energy to train! In order to do that we gotta catch it! The key here is patience and practice, looky here!" Arashi said.
He put his hand in the water and sat there, as still as a tree. Soon more than 20 minutes passed and Azayaka was getting kinda impatient. She wanted to know what was gonna happen.
"Nay what's supposeds ta hap-"
"Got'em!" Arashi yelled as he yanked his hand out of the water. Four fish fell on the ground and began wiggling.
"NAAAYYYYY HOW DID YOU DOS THAT?" Azayaka yelled amazed at what happened.
Arashi smirked and put his hand back into the water, using his other hand he tapped his eyes. He did this motion for a few seconds before looking at the water and being still again. Azayaka thought for a few seconds before a light bulb went off in her head.
She activated her eyes and looked at his hand. There was a thin string of chakra going down into the water, that bloomed out into a net. Once a small school of fish swam into it he pulled his hand up and once out of the water, the net disappeared and the fish fell.
"…" Azayaka was at a loss for words, she had never seen that before!
"If there's one thing you're gonna need for water, its chakra control, this is the perfect exercise in my opinion. First I want you to practice making a string only, try to make it as long as possible, the longer it is the more fish we can get. If you only have the line, you can catch at least one fish. As soon as it touches it, you can bend the chakra around it to form a hold and pull it up. We can worry about making the net later." Arashi said looking at her with a more firm face.
Azayaka nodded and put her hand in the water. It was kinda like straightening the vine, only there was no vine. All she had to do was straighten an invisible vine and make it long.
Sweat began to form on her forehead as she concentrated, every time her chakra went haywire and failed, she began again. This process went on for three hours, and by the end of it Azayaka was exhausted and had not managed to catch a single fish.
"Alright Azayaka-chan, that's enough for now, the fish is ready so come eat!"Arashi yelled from the fire pit that was in front of her new home.
With her shoulders slumped and her head hung low, Azayaka slowly walked over to the fire, disappointment evident on her face. She took a seat on the ground, her clothes sticking to her from not properly drying off after her sudden swim.
She looked at the ground as she slowly bit into the fish, chewing as if it were the nastiest thing she had ever eaten.
Not enjoying the usually excited child so sad, Arashi stood up and walked over to her, picking her up without warning and putting her on his shoulders.
"Naniiiii?" Azayaka said as she was suddenly so much taller.
"Nay, Azayaka-chan look up there, do you see all the crystals and gems on the wall?"
Azayaka nodded slowly, still in no mood to respond. Arashi assumed she said yes and kept going.
"You know, before they were crystals they were rocks? But they worked so hard and kept trying that eventually they became those beautiful things you see now. The point is, no matter how much they failed, the rocks kept trying until they became beautiful crystals. That's what I want you to do, keep trying because one day you'll be a beautiful crystal just like them"
Arashi finished as her felt the child hug the top of his head.
Azayaka then remembered all the things that Sutinga-oji-taichou told her about how failing was needed to get better. She remembered Haaku-ani's, and Rakka-ane's and Naosu words about trying harder to get better. She was a little mad at herself for forgetting what they told her before but now she would never forget.
Sensing the child was in a much better mood Arashi smiled.
"You'reeee gonnnnaaa beeeeee" Arashi said as he lifted Azayaka off of his shoulders
"THE BEST!" He yelled as he threw Azayaka in the air and caught her, and repeated this several times as the child was put into a laughing fit.
Once it was all said and done, the food eaten, the fire put out and Azayaka more determined than ever, they laid down on their respective futon mats and drifted into blissful sleep...almost.
Azayaka opened her eyes and found she was in the endless dark space of her mind .
YASHIN-SAN YASHIN-SAN YAYAYAYAYYAY YASHIN-SAN! YOU HAVEN'T TALKED TO ME IN SOOOOOOOO LONG!
The child yelled into nothing as she excited spun around waiting to see the lavender and red dragon.
Soon the large dragon appeared, her mismatched eyes looking impassive as the child floated over and hugged her nose.
Hello there small child...it has not been so long, merely a week or two...stop all this infernal hugging! Release my nose!
The dragon roared which only caused the small girl to grip onto her tighter, much to her annoyance. Once the child let go she finally began to speak.
Now that your official training has begun, I believe you are ready to show you the basics of what my eyes can do. You now have the Ryu no Hitomi, and as such you much learn how to use it. It has many properties, such as, common language, appearance deception, reversal of a genjutsu, and lastly curse of the fallen. I will explain all of these as you learn them. First is common language. It allows you to understand the language of anything or anyone. For instance, if an animal has something to say, you can understand it. Or if something is written in a language long forgotten, you can read it.
Now, activate your eyes. You have the ability to use only the Teiseigan if you want, but you can also only use the Ryu no Hitomi as well. Eventually you will reach a point where you can use both simultaneously, the Ryu no Hitomi in one eye and the Tesisegan in the other. But that is not for many years. You have practice activating the Teiseigan but not the Ryu no Hitomi, it is almost the same. Just imagine you are using my eye instead of yours.
After that blast of information Azayaka was a little bewildered, but she would try nonetheless. She had to just use her other eye mainly instead of her Teiseigan eye. After what felt like a mini eternity, Azayaka was stumped, she had no idea how to do it.
Our time here is almost up, worry not small child you will activate it soon...practice while you are awake as well, your sensei will understand...I will see you tomorrow..
Yashin's deep voice echoed in her head as the world became lighter and lighter, she opened her eyes to see Arashi with his hand out as if he was about to wake her.
"AH! You're up and I didn't have to wake up! Good job! Now let's get ta workin!" Azayaka smiled, she was going to give everything her all.
End of Chapter.
Again I wanna apologize for the extreme lag, during spring break I didn't get any writing done and first week was just plain hell! But now I'm back and I'll try to stick to my once a week update pattern but no promises, this is going to be my busiest quarter yet.
I really wanna thank those who reviewed and did the following and favoriting! It makes me happy that people like that story and it encourages me to update faster!
This is the beginning of the first training arc that Azayaka will be in, there will be about two more major training arc's but those are waaaayyyyy in the future!
It's everyone's favorite time! Rough translations!
Ryu no Hitomi- Eyes of the Dragon
(Just in case you forgot)
Runpanashi Azayaka- To shine without light
Shifuku Arashi- Blissful Storm
Yashin- Ambition
