Disclaimer: I do not own NARUTO.
WILL OF STONE
CHAPTER TEN: "Eye of the Storm"
Past midnight Rock Lee found her in the ruins of a collapsed metal tower on the outskirts of Bliss.
The tower had fallen a long time ago, but a part of the steel walls still stood, and here the rainwater collected, making a large pool tens of meters deep. It was an unlit place, forgotten and lonely. It was hard to see what it had been before. Maybe a school, or a library. Faded copies of books still floated in the cold water. Sakura thought it was a good place to train.
"Sakura-chan!" Lee said, dropping down alongside her, onto the surface of the water. "I found you!"
"Hey, Lee," she said.
The boy smiled. It was hard to see him in the darkness, but she thought he looked a little nervous. "Do you know how I found you?" he asked.
She shook her head. "How?"
"Don't you remember, Sakura-chan? I will always appear when you are in trouble."
Lee had last said that line to her during the Konoha chuunin exam, when she was about to killed by Orochimaru's sound-nin flunkies and he had saved her life. The second time wasn't quite as romantic.
"I'm not really in any danger right now, Lee," she said.
"It is true your body is not in danger… but your heart is troubled." Lee grinned. "That is most dangerous."
Sakura had to laugh. "Yeah, okay. I guess you got me. I couldn't sleep tonight." She paused. "What happened between Gai-sama and those Rain ninjas yesterday… this place, Lee. It doesn't feel right. I tried to talk to Gai-sama, but he wouldn't listen." She trailed off. "All I can do is train."
She thought Lee would say something like, "Don't worry about Gai-sensei!" or "Gai-sensei is the greatest!" Instead the boy was silent. After a pause he spoke.
"You're right, Sakura-chan!" he said, very seriously. "The best cure for a troubled heart is hard work."
There was nothing really for them to say after that. Instead the two of them trained.
Sakura was still working on Walking With Water. Now she sunk herself beneath the surface of the pool in the ruined tower for the hundredth time that night. For the training she wore only a simple white kimono, drenched by the rain and failed walking with water attempts. But as she submerged herself in the water she used her chakra to push the water back into a bubble that wrapped around her body, so that the kimono still clung flat to her skin. When she breathed the air blew from her lips into the bubble, rising in tiny ripples across the curves of her face to the top of her head. There they broke through the bubble and popped on the surface of the pool. The chakra projection field was complete.
But it was taking all her concentration just to keep up this one field. To maintain the chakra projection field she had to constantly eject chakra at just the right levels from all the tenketsu over her body. It wasn't much chakra, since all she was pushing back was water… but the problem was one mistake and the whole field would collapse. In motion maintaining the field was exponentially more difficult.
Could she move? Very slowly she tried to push her hand forward. The water gave way, the bubble held. The other hand. Then her feet… one over the other… yes! She started to walk, ever so slowly, walk with the water… she was doing it.
"Beautiful movement, Sakura-chan!" Lee called from above the pool.
Sakura smiled, but just as she did so she pushed her chakra field a little too far and the bubble collapsed. Water rushed in, and all of a sudden she was swimming. Sinking. Her kimono billowed in the water. "Fuck!" she said, and that all came out of her mouth was a stream of bubbles.
"You almost have it, Sakura-chan!" Lee shouted from above in encouragement. "Hold on, let me show you!"
Lee dove beneath the pool with practiced ease, using his chakra field to push against the water and speed over to where she was. The boy took Sakura's hands in his own. "Now remake the field," he said.
Lee's chakra field extended over to encompass her, slowly rippling along her hands, up her arms and then over the rest of her body. Sakura helped him as best she could, and then when she had recovered her balance she concentrated and recreated her body's own field, taking it back from Lee. But now, with Lee still holding her hands, the two chakra projection fields touched and flowed into each other, mutually reinforcing. It was one chakra bubble that extended around the two of them in the water, a rippling pocket of air in a dark wet sea. It was like their own private universe. Like the eye of the storm.
Lee smiled. "Move with me," he said.
He took a step backwards, and Sakura followed. Two steps. Three. His hands were calloused, rough with constant training, but the touch was gentle. It was easy for Sakura to let him guide her. Lee would strengthen Sakura's chakra field whenever she made a mistake. Soon they were moving faster and faster. Lee led her in loops and twists and turns, back and forth.
Sakura giggled. "It's like we're dancing."
Lee giggled too. "Rock Lee, the Handsome Green Flash of Konoha, will show you dances you have never imagined before!"
As they slow-danced in the water Sakura began to notice how the chakra field Lee was projecting was different from hers. It was stronger, of course, more dynamic, but there was a more essential distinction. She hadn't noticed it until they had begun moving together. What was different was the rotation. Sakura and Lee basically ejected chakra out of their tenketsu in the same pattern, but the chakra Sakura ejected didn't rotate much, while Lee's chakra spun aggressively, rotating in thousands of tiny circular loops along the edge of his field.
"The way you're spinning your chakra in circles. How are you doing that?" Sakura asked Lee.
"Um, just like I told you before. Feel the chakra field. Like, really feel it. And then, uh, follow the chakra back inside you. But it has to be all the way inside. Then, uh, move it. Do you understand? Sorry, I'm not good at explaining stuff." He made an apologetic face.
The explanation had been nonsensical before, but now Sakura thought she had a glimmer of understanding—it matched with the jutsu theory that Neji had described to her at the beginning. Feel the chakra field… follow the chakra back inside you… Sakura tried to imagine the chakra as an extension of herself. No, it was herself. And herself, then, was also the network of tenketsu and chakra vessels through which the chakra flowed. Now she saw that it was the rotation of the chakra, not just the quantity or power, which was keeping the water back. The rotation multiplied the field's repulsive force and made the field more stable. But where was the rotation coming from? From the tenketsu? No …all the way inside… from the Chakra Gates! The Gates were like the master control centers of the chakra circulatory system. Not only did the Gates limit the flow of chakra, they also shaped its spin and direction. She had to move them—move the Gates… just slightly, just enough, to change the chakra's rotation… and the rotation would have to be different for each part of the body…
Suddenly everything clicked. One very long moment of intense concentration...
… and suddenly Sakura had it.
Sakura's chakra field rippled outward with strength, matching Lee's field motion for motion. "Whoa!" Lee said. "You really got it this time!"
"Dance with me," Sakura said.
They danced. Truly danced, not like before, when Lee had been leading her at every step. Before it was like she had been in a wheelchair. Of course Lee was still far more skilled, far more practiced. But now she had legs too, just the same as him.
The combined chakra field became taut around their bodies, so tight the water rippled and wrinkled along their bare skin. Then the water turned aside at their command, parting as if air, and the surfaces they moved on were sometimes flat, sometimes twisting and turning and making loops, at the whim which they choose. Under the dark pool of rainwater, in the ruined tower, it was like everything else had disappeared; and there was only the two of them. There was only the chakra field. There was only the dance.
In the darkness they could barely see, but they could feel each other by touch, both physical and spiritual. At first Lee led, then after Sakura gained confidence she started to lead, drawing him into a whirlwind of living motion, the dance called the Giving of Fire, the traditional thanksgiving ritual of Konoha. But it in the water it was another thing; magical, miraculous. Lee's hands were twined against Sakura's own, then around Sakura's waist, and once he picked Sakura up and threw her up in the water, so that she came down a spinning whirlpool and he caught her in her arms. "You look like an angel," Lee had time to whisper, and Sakura laughed. Far into the night they danced. They danced until they were breathless and they had to pop up for an instant to the surface to collect air, before going under the water again.
At last, dead tired to the bone, drained of chakra, Sakura and Lee crawled out of the pool onto a rusted metal shelf that ran into the center of the tower base. Sakura fell backwards onto the floor of the shelf, lying there exhausted. "That was… that was great…" she managed.
"Yes. Walking With Water. You did it in three weeks. You really are a genius, Sakura-chan." Lee shook his head. "And also a very good dancer. Even better than Gai-sensei!"
"Thanks," Sakura said.
The two of them lay there for a while, not saying anything. Cold drops of rain fell continuously onto Sakura's face. She closed her eyes and let them fall. Then a thought occurred to her.
"Can I ask you something?" Sakura said. "Your chakra control is so good… why can't you use ninjutsu? I don't understand."
Lee sat up to look at her. "Well, I can, sort of. At least there's nothing wrong with my body. I'm just… too dumb." He poked his head. "Just too stupid to learn how to use ninjutsu, I guess. You know… it was hard… for a long time. In the ninja academy everyone always made fun of me. But then I found Gai-sensei. Now I don't care. I'm going to prove to the whole world I can be a strong ninja without ninjutsu! With just my arms and legs!"
Again they lapsed into silence. Long minutes passed. This time it was Lee who broke the quiet of the falling rain.
"Oh! I almost forgot. I made a gift for you. Here, look…"
Sakura half-cringed, remembering that Lee's last gift to her had been a jar of insects. But this time Lee slipped his hand into his ninja bag and pulled out a strange-looking kunai.
The kunai looked like it was made of layers of folded glass, brilliant mirrors within mirrors of white crystal. In the darkness it almost seemed to glow, a pure white light. Beautiful, Sakura thought. Carefully Lee put the kunai into Sakura's hands.
It was hot to the touch, and a sense of power, of life, pulsed from its every surface.
"What is it?" Sakura asked, enchanted.
"It's chakra!" Lee said. "All of it is pure chakra." He grinned. "See? It's called a chakra-cast kunai. I made it from my own chakra. Neji helped, too. Um, there's like a theory behind it and stuff, but basically I used chakra field projection to push my chakra out and made it hard and shaped it into a kunai. It is very difficult, I spent a month making it! Anyway Neji says it is way faster and sharper and stronger than a regular kunai. You can use it during the chuunin exam!"
Lee paused. "Um, well, do you like it?" He wrung his hands nervously. "It's, uh, better than the jar of fireflies I gave you before, at least? I really tried this time you know! I tried not to make it 'totally disgust—"
"Lee!" Sakura interrupted. "Rock Lee… listen to me… I love it!"
"You do?"
She nodded her head. "Really, I do. You are the #1 most romantic ninja!"
The boy stared at her, eyes wide. For a moment he was stunned speechless. Then he giggled. "Haha! Yes, I am!"
"You are," Sakura said. "Thank you, Lee."
Lee's eyes were bright in the darkness. "For you, Sakura-chan… anything. Even my life."
Sakura stared at the boy. He was so… so pure, Sakura thought. So innocent. So unlike Sasuke. Even when they had first met, when she had told him that he was gross, and he had sworn to protect her with his life. He would, Sakura was sure. No matter what happened, no matter what changed. Because Rock Lee loved her. He would never forget.
"I know," she said.
Lee reached his hands over to grasp her own, hand holding hand, with the chakra-cast kunai shining between. Then he moved in close. Their gazes locked. Sakura stared into Lee's eyes, and there she saw all the desire, the pain and the longing. She tried to see her own reflection, but she could not. Slowly the boy bent down his head.
His lips almost touched to hers—
"OH YEAH! Let the passion of youth explode!" a booming voice suddenly shouted. At the same time there was a bang and a large cloud of white smoke appeared beside them.
The smoke dissipated, revealing a man wearing a ridiculous green jumpsuit standing on top of a large turtle.
Maito Gai made a pose. "Well, go on, you two, make out already! The tension is unbearable!"
Sakura's mouth fell open.
"Gai-sensei! What are you doing here?" Lee shouted, spluttering. His face was beet red with embarrassment. "Shouldn't you be preparing for your duel to the death or something?"
Maito Gai grinned. "Pah, don't worry. I'm gonna kick Tosuken's ass!"
"You were spying on us!" Sakura said.
"I was keeping an eye on you." He wagged his finger. "Ha! You guys are such the epitome of adolescence." The leaf jounin looked up at the night sky, sighing, and tears actually flowed down his eyes. "It brings back such precious memories of youth…"
"Go away, Gai-sensei!" Lee shouted. "Please!"
"I ought to punch you in the face for that remark!" Gai declared. "You're lucky that I, too, have known what it means to be in love in my glorious youth. Haha!"
Lee sagged to the floor, utterly deflated. "I was about to kiss Sakura-chan…" he mumbled.
"Buck up, Lee. If you're not going to be a man, then you'll just to follow me. Watch Gai-sensei in action! Yeah! It's finally time!"
"Time for what?" Sakura asked.
"Why, time for my fight against Tosuken, of course!" Gai pointed high in the distance. Across the steel towers of Ame, one tower loomed over the rest, breaking against the never-ending storm. But even through the thick layer of storm clouds a faint light shone through, a glimpse of the blinding heaven beyond.
The spire at the top of the Asylum flashed gold in the rising sun.
It was dawn.
"Come on, you two lovebirds. Let's go! Youth never waits!"
Next: CHAPTER ELEVEN: "Asylum, Part One"