A/N So sorry its late guys and my proof reader still hasn't returned this weeks chapter either, So I am looking for a new proof reader all I need is someone with a critical eye for punctuation and spelling (preferably English UK) PM me if you are interested.
Anyway! as always HUGE thanks to your guys! my readers. A huge thanks to my beta reader Agasintnormal and my loyal first fan/poof reader Pazzesca. and thanks to my other proof reader Bryan! hopefully you wont be busy for much longer as your normally a great proofer
Do I really need a disclimer at the start of each chapter? If I didn't own Naruto at the start I still dont now. Sad state of affairs I know *sigh*
Chapter 8 Water and Lightning
He had worked her hard. She had forgotten that she had already trained the entire day already and in her excitement she totally forgot her chakra depletion. Amaya hadn't wanted to be seen as weak, so when her vision started to blur she dug deeper into her reserves and pulled her head together. When she stumbled over her own feet she tried to laugh it off, even though Kakashi and Tsunade looked at her suspiciously. But when she blacked out it was Kakashi that caught her and immediately started walking home, her prone figure in his arms with a smile on her lips.
That was four days ago. Kakashi had shown her how to produce the mist; it was hard work trying to contain it though. They discovered it was far too corporeal to control properly; all they could do was stop it spreading too far. Amaya had gone to sleep thinking of the problem and last night had dreamed of an answer. Kakashi was amused, to say the least, to be awoken by the excited kunoichi. She was talking fast, gesturing a lot. She sat down on the edge of his bed and looked at him expectantly, "Well? What do you think?"
Kakashi sat up, stretching his arms above his head. His spine and neck cracking and popping, "I'm sorry Amaya-chan I didn't catch that, can you repeat it please?"
He really liked it when she was this excited, as her whole face (well, what could be seen over her bandages) lit up like a child's on Christmas morning.
She turned to face him, tucking one leg under her.
"Well, I was thinking about how trying to form the mist into any shape would be pretty hard unless you add wind to it, and it's hard enough making mist without trying to do wind jutsus as well as your lightning, and I started thinking maybe if we made the mist more viscous. I know you can make the mist thicker and thinner but how thick have you made it before?"
"Could we do it so it's so thick it's like trying to swim through the air? I've also been thinking what jutsu you are going to be using, all we have focused on is my own. Maybe I would come up with something better if I knew what you had up your sleeve. I know you can't throw lightning per se, but you can do a lightning hound cant you? Could you use that to electrify a mist?"
Kakashi leaned back onto his pillow thinking. He hadn't really thought about what he was going to do. They had been so focused on what she was doing they'd kind of forgot.
"That's a good point. And yes, the lightning hound would be my best attack for this collaboration." He rubbed his eyes, "I will go make breakfast for us, then I have something to do for a couple of hours. I will be back about 10 and we can train, OK?"
"Hai Kakashi-san" She gave him a curious look, before turning it into a huge grin that he could see over her bandages, "I will grab the first shower then"
She jumped off his bed and practically skipped through to the bathroom. Kakashi just chuckled to himself. The last few days had been pretty damn good. Amaya had calmed down a lot - she certainly wasn't acting like a frightened animal - but nor was she being an amazing bitch. However, that didn't mean this was the same Amaya as before. This one still seemed quite fragile to him, like she was a shell made of the finest glass that would shatter under the slightest tap.
He could tell already from her eyes what most of her moods were now. She was very good at putting on fake emotion, and he now realized that a lot of the smiles he had seen the previous two years had been fake - especially now he had seen some genuine ones. Although the fake ones reached her eyes, her eyes didn't sparkle in the same way.
He walked into the kitchen, grabbed some eggs and started to makes some omelettes. He heard the shower turn off after a couple more minutes, and the warm smell of steam mixed with Amaya's scent filled the room. As he was sliding the eggs onto a plate and setting it down on the breakfast bar Amaya came through, fully dressed and rubbing a towel through her hair.
She sat down. "Itadakimasu" she said before tucking in. They had both gotten used to the other as their eating habits were similar; there was no small talk during meal times. They sat beside each other, each facing slightly away so the other could enjoy their privacy,
Kakashi finished first. "I'm going to go for a shower, then I'm heading out. I will be back in a few hours though. Don't do too much chakra training because we may need our full strength to test out some theories." He patted her on the shoulder as he walked past to go get washed and dressed.
After she jumped up from Kakashi's bed and ran into the bathroom, Amaya turned on the shower and, while she waited for it to heat up, she stared into the mirror as she removed her bandages, deep in thought; She felt strange. Amaya stepped into the shower, sighing as the hot water hit her aching muscles - this training was going to kill her.
She giggled quietly to herself. Shaking her head, she tried to look at what was happening from a different angle. Her first impulse when she woke up had been to go and speak to Kakashi. She never even gave a second thought to walking into his bedroom, where he could have been sleeping naked. Not only did she wake him up, she then sat on his bed, what the hell had gotten into her? It wasn't like her to invade anyone's personal space like that.
She supposed it was just because they were living so close together now, wasn't this what the Hokage wanted? She wanted them so close that they were intimately familiar with each other. Not as in a relationship, necessarily, but close enough to know what the other was thinking, and to not feel those twinges of impropriety at over-stepping one's boundaries with the other.
As she washed her hair, she scrubbed all thoughts of Kakashi out her head and replaced them with jutsu ideas. Raising a slender hand palm up, she focused her chakra into her palm letting it gather and swirl, pulling the shower water into its apex until a miniature water spout was dancing in her hand. She smiled at the simple beauty of it, pleased; a new idea blossomed in her mind.
Grinning, she quickly finished in the shower and jumped out, towelling her body off quickly before sprinting into her room to get dressed. She walked through to the front room and stopped dead when she spotted Kakashi in the kitchen. He was standing there in a form-fitting sleeveless black top with attached mask, and loose training pants, which were so low-slung she could see flesh peeping out. It was the smallest bit of skin, but it was enough to make her feel very hungry suddenly. Those two dimples sitting on his narrow hips and just above his… She shook her head hard. "What the hell was that?" She began vigorously rubbing her hair dry, purposely covering her face with her towel so Kakashi couldn't see the faint blush that had appeared above her bandages, relieved that he was heading straight out and wouldn't be back again for hours. Amaya breathed deeply once she heard the front door close.
It wasn't until after she had cleaned the breakfast dishes away that she remembered that she had wanted to tell Kakashi her idea.
"Damnit, Me and my twisted mind" She sighed heavily. He had said not to use her chakra, but she wanted to see if this would work now while it was still fresh in her mind. Where did he go anyway? She had meant to ask, but it never seemed important enough until now. She sat on the sofa and picked up her book but couldn't concentrate. Maybe she should trail him next time; Kami knows, she needed to refresh her espionage skills.
She sniggered at the thought of her tip-toeing behind him while he went about his business, shopping for groceries and whatnot. She considered tracking him down but banished that thought as soon as it appeared. She really shouldn't be thinking like this, what if it was the other way round? How would she feel if he had been stalking her?
OK, she couldn't use jutsus until he returned, so that meant training was out for the next few hours. She was too distracted to read properly as well. Suddenly she came to a decision. He was gonna be back later, she had time to do something nice; maybe she would get the chance to apologise for her horrible behaviour before.
Smiling, she stood up and went to get her money. She would make them a nice picnic style lunch. If she was quick enough she could get most of the shopping done and be nearly finished cooking by 10 o'clock, which would give the food time to cool properly and be packed away. It also meant she would have the opportunity to talk to him about her ideas without invading his personal space and his room again. She sped out the door, a shopping list in her head and a smile on her face.
A couple of hours later, Amaya had nearly finished chopping the last of the fruit she'd bought. She made a chilled wintermelon and shrimp soup - perfect for the weather they had been having recently, some cold soba noodles and dipping sauce, and was finishing a fresh fruit salad with anko. She started singing quietly to herself, feeling perfectly relaxed and at peace.
"I wonder if I will get more days like this one? So far it's been really good." She smiled as she tossed the fruit together in the sharp syrup.
She had turned and was stretching as far as she could to try and reach the bowls on the top shelves, "Nearly there." Reaching as far as she could, her fingertips just brushing the smooth sides of the bowls, she lifted one knee on to the unit and was about to use it to lever herself higher.
"Yo."
Amaya squealed and nearly fell off the side unit. She hadn't heard Kakashi come in.
"Here let me help you." He easily grabbed the bowls and handed them to her with a bemused look in his eye. Amaya grabbed the bowls and huffed loudly, "And just how long have you been standing there watching me struggle?" she placed the bowls down and put her hands on her hips, scowling up at him.
"Not long Amaya-chan," He gave her a smile. He had gotten quite a good look really. The further she reached, the higher her top went. He chuckled in his head at how flustered she was as well.
"Well I thought I would make us a treat. Look, I know we have an hour or two to kill before lunch, so why don't you go relax, then in an hour's time we can go to the clearing, have our lunch there, and get started on those jutsus?"
She bent down to grab the picnic basket out of one of the lower cupboards, and began to put the food neatly in, she looked out everything they would need, even a flask of cold green tea and four bottles of frozen water for after their sparring that she kept in the fridge and the freezer.
Once finished, she walked into the front room. Kakashi wasn't there and she was a bit confused until she heard the sound of the shower. "Oh yeah, he didn't have time for a shower this morning. Well, that's more time for me to chill."
She sat back on the sofa with her feet up, watching the little sparrows flitting about on the branches outside the window. Her eyes felt quite heavy until Kakashi was shaking her gently awake. He was dressed in black again, his damp hair falling over his Hitae-ate.
"Are you OK Amaya-chan?"
"Hnnmph." She replied muzzily. She stretched. "Sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep. I was watching the birds while waiting for you. Are you ready to go now?"
He nodded and pointed to the picnic basket that he had moved and left near the front door.
"After you, Hime."
He hefted the basket up and they both walked to the clearing further into the forest.
After eating their lunch, and quite a few compliments from Kakashi - the soup being his new favourite, they both stood and began their warm up exercises. Flexing. Stretching. Bending. Doing high kicks and low punches. Amaya doing some back flips and somersaults. Kakashi dropping to do push ups and sit ups.
Amaya called over to the silver haired shinobi." I was doing some thinking in the shower this morning."
"hnn?" All kinds of filthy images immediately sprang to his mind then he berated himself internally, blaming it on Icha Icha for warping him.
"Well I was playing around with the water in there; I can already make pretty good water spouts. I can produce mist when there is no water around as well, so I'm wondering if I can make water spouts with no water."
Kakashi smiled widely at her, "There are some jutsus. I was thinking about showing you some today. What did you have in mind for these water spouts?"
"Well" Amaya looked at him; she was currently bent in half, her forehead flush against her knees, peeking through her legs at her partner. "I have been thinking about how Kotetsu and Izuma produced their jutsu. They didn't produce one element and add another to it, they produced two separate jutsus and merged them to make a totally new one. They also did their jutsus at the same time. Having me make a mist and then you electrify it, though it's a very good technique, it's not a unique complete jutsu."
Kakashi nodded at this, her points all making sense.
"So you're suggesting we combine at the same time. That wouldn't work with the mist because it needs to be made and then you and I need to jump clear from it. Come sit on my back please, I need some resistance work, I can think at the same time."
Amaya straightened, walked over and perched, cross legged, in the middle of his back. "Is this high enough Kakashi?"
He grunted in affirmation and resumed his press ups.
"OK, well we need to find a way to fuse mine and your elements together. I wonder if calling forth an elementary dragon would work like it did for them?"
Amaya's eyes went wide. "Do you really think we could summon a water and lightning dragon? Wow! Now that would be awesome."
"Well first let's concentrate on simple forms like hounds. If you can make water clones then you should be able to make a hound out of water as it's similar."
They got to work. Amaya got the hang of Clones quickly, and soon enough she had made a small water hound as well.
"Now here is the difficult bit, a water dragon requires 44 hand seals, but a fire dragon requires only one. We will need to find out which seals are needed, a lot may be intuition. Did you notice that Kotetsu and Izuma's dragon only needed 10 seals? The reason a water dragon needs so many is because they are hard to form, a lightning one is even harder, with wind being the most difficult and fire the easiest. From what I have observed, I think the hand seals needed will fall roughly between the numbers for the two separate elements. Plus we need the correct seals for that element. For instance, the tiger seal is needed for fire."
He lifted his hands into the tiger seal and breathed out a fire dragon with a shout of "Katon: Gōryūka no Jutsu". Amaya grinned at the pure power of the jutsu as it flew up and faded into the blue sky above.
He lifted his hands again and threw the seals for a lightning dragon. It roared and crackled. Giving himself a small secret smile at the entranced look on Amaya's face he was half tempted to keep showing off.
"Well, since I won't be making a water dragon, per se, I don't need to learn the jutsu, Just yet." She grinned at her last words. "You will teach me that soon though."
Kakashi gave her a nod. "Kotetsu and Izuma used two very low level jutsus. They basically just caused the correct conditions, which was wet earth. We need to create our correct condition, which will be electrified water, and then infuse our chakras at the same time and test out different seals until we get it right."
Kakashi grinned, they were getting close, he could feel it; these last two weeks were definitely not for nothing after all.
"OK, can you soak something? Hmmm, hang on." He flipped some more seals, the earth rumbled a bit and a bowl shaped rock began to push its way out of the ground. "Here, can you fill this with water? I will shock it and if you keep focusing your chakra on it I want you to try all the seals while there is still a current going through it."
Amaya nodded and filled the natural bowl to the middle. She did as asked and made all the seals as quickly as she could.
"I felt the chakra in the bowl flare slightly when you used the ram seal. I am going to shock the water again, start with ram and do all the seals again."
"Hai, Kashi-san."
They continued in this pattern until Amaya had a string of 50 seals worked out.
"Now Amaya-chan, when I shock the water I'm going to go through the seals with you this time, we are looking for a large surge in the chakra flowing through the water."
He hit the liquid with a large bolt of pure energy. Both their hands flew through the seals again, until the water in the natural bowl lurched and the lightning crackled louder than before, changing colour slightly. Amaya's eyes went wide.
"It seems we have found the right combination of seals, we now need to name the jutsu, it helps you concentrate harder on the form. Tell me Maya-chan, when you performed it there and you felt that last seal click did anything come to your head?"
"Hai Kashi-san. In fact I nearly called it out. It feels like this Jutsu is called, Ranton: Arashiryuu."
Kakashi's grin grew even wider, that's exactly what he'd felt too. "OK let's try this again. Amaya can you add some more water to the bowl, and we will give this a real try."
As Amaya filled the bowl with a simple Suiton, Kakashi hit it hard with his Raiton, they both instantly flew through the seals and called out "Ranton: Arashiryuu." The water flared. The lightning changed colour, from pure blue white into a deep black blue. An elemental dragon flew up into the sky, its horns and whiskers were water with a visible current of white running through each. It screamed defiantly at the azure expanse above.
Amaya gasped, losing her concentration, and the dragon began to dissipate, sparks of electric coming from it as the water in its body evaporated and rained to the ground below.
Amaya laughed in delight. Eyes shining, she threw her arms round Kakashi's neck. "We did it! We actually did it." She laughed happily before remembering herself and slowly removing her arms while blushing lightly.*Ahem* "Sorry about that. We have to tell the Hokage. She will be anxious to hear about any improvement, and I have to say this is a massive breakthrough."
Kakashi smiled down at the blushing jounin, glad that she seemed to be genuinely happy. "Tell you what," he draped an arm around her shoulders "let's take the picnic basket home then I will treat us to a meal in town. After we have eaten we can track down the Hokage and tell her what her favourite little ninjas have done"
"Wow. You're offering to pay, Kashi-san?" She elbowed him in the ribs. "You must be happy." She giggled at the wince and fake puppy dog eyes he gave her.
"I won't be, if you keep abusing me Maya-chan"
"Gomen Kashi-san! I promise I won't abuse you again." She gave him a small mocking bow before grabbing the basket. He reached over and took the basket from her and with his arm still flung about her shoulder he pulled her back home, feeling surprisingly at peace and excited at once.
~Glossary~
San/Sama/Sempei ~ Terms of respect
Kun/Chan ~ Terms of affection
Hime ~ Princess
Ano ~ A questioning sound like 'Um'
Gomen ~ Sorry
Arigatou ~ Thank you
Kekkei Genkai ~ blood line limit or a special justu that is passed down by genetics and cant be learned or copied.
Hai ~ Yes
Iie ~ No
Kunouchi ~ Female ninja
Hopefully I will get the next chapter back in the next day or two, I will post it as soon as I get it. Have a great weekend everyone ^_^
