"Alright, time to elaborate on what I meant when I said your balance sucks," I start to circle the three genin like a predator determining the most effective route to taking down its prey. They twitch as I find my way behind them, wanting to turn around no doubt. But they follow my orders zealously. Stay absolutely still.
I push against Rin first, deciding to use her as my example for the moment. It's a light push, one that should have barely made her sway, but just as I expected she wobbles forward. "Unbalanced."
Obito's next, and boy does he try hard to remain stiff as a board. This hardly makes a difference except to make it worse. He stumbles a few paces ahead. "Unbalanced."
After seeing how his teammates are faring, Kakashi steels himself for my push, clenching his hands at his side and trying to keep himself relaxed but not overly so. My hand finds the spot just between his shoulder blades and I nudge him forward. He teeters, much the same as Rin. "Unbalanced."
He scowls, but keeps his mouth shut. My lips curl inwards and I bite down on them gently to keep myself from smiling. It's funny when he finds out that not everything comes naturally to a prodigy. I hop lightly back in front of them and try my best to appear like Papa when he's lecturing me about equilibrium.
"That was just a gentle nudge and yet you guys all moved. You all tried different approaches to remaining upright but it didn't work. Your internal balance is off center. Balance is founded in your core and dispersed evenly throughout the body, but what happened was you focused the balance near your head and shoulders, or your knees and ankles. That's a one way ticket to getting knocked over." I point to each of the individual points on myself as I explain to them what they were doing wrong. Rin nods like it makes sense, but both Obito and Kakashi look like I either need to go into more depth or like I just need to move on.
I start to sway ever so slightly. "Standing still is just one piece of balance, and that can be mastered through a simple thing like meditation. But the thing you have to be aware of is that even if you're standing still, you're constantly moving. Therefore you must be in tune with what's going on inside as you focus on the outside. And this is where dancing comes in."
Slowly I put my left foot in front of my right and raise my hands in a loose defense formation. My right foot slides around in a graceful arc, guiding my destination around the genins once again. This time they turn around to follow me and I weave in a hypnotic back and forth rotation, making sure that not one single part of me stays still, yet every action strengthening and rooting me like a great tree. Being the leaf, free and flowing, but also the foundation which keeps the rest steady.
I close my eyes and listen to everything; the tiniest of shifts coming from Obito, the gentle sifting of grass beneath my feet, the steady beat of my heart. I am infinitely aware, yet firmly grounded. My chakra hums with the sounds of the koto and what I've dimly come to recognize as a bass intermingles with each other without overlapping. It's a taste of what equilibrium is supposed to be like, but I know I'm not there to true balance yet.
"Well don't just stand there! Follow my lead and," My eyes snap open joined with a smirk. "Try to keep up."
The chunin exams are in just a week and Obito feels relatively confident about them. Relative being a loosely applied term. Sure, he's getting good training, but what does that even mean if he feels like his improvement is going slower than a snail?
Obito absently reaches up to twirl the stick of his sucker, savoring the sweet hardened syrup of the treat. A sigh escapes him as he watches the clouds float along from his spot on the ground. He isn't oblivious to the fact that he's been dead last in pretty much everything. Ninjutsu, taijutsu, even genjutsu. And to add to his frustration he hasn't even gotten his Sharingan yet. But then, he always makes up for his lack of skill through sheer force of will. Minato-sensei said that was a pretty good thing in most cases. But he knows that sheer force of will won't win him everything, especially not against that no-good Kakashi.
The only thing he can do right now is just keep training and hope that somehow it'll be enough to get him through the exams and straight to being promoted to chunin. He's got a feeling though that it's not gonna be as easy as that.
"Ooooh who needs to get up and come train with me? U-chi-ha Obi-to!" Suddenly Ame's small face pops over his and he finds himself trapped in the gaze of her large, innocent eyes. Her dark hair falls almost like a partial curtain around him, shielding him from the sun's rays. She grins at him, and he grins back.
"That's an interesting tune," he chuckles, trying to turn the conversation away from training even though technically he should be jumping every chance he gets to do it. Ame pulls back so he can sit up, tucking some of her hair behind her tiny ears.
For a second something that looks like annoyance flits across her face as her thoughts run somewhere else but it disappears just as quickly as it came. Instead she just shrugs her shoulders and leans forward on her hands. "What's botherin' ya? I know you well enough by now to know that when you avoid the topic of training that something's on your mind."
He just shrugs, shifting the sucker to the other side of his mouth by pushing it with his tongue. Ame seems to take notice of this for the first time and her eyes narrow ever so slightly. Before he can even blink she's plucked it out of his mouth and covers it with what looks like a towelette before stowing it away in her pocket. Then she turns to him with a hint of a reprimand in store.
"No candy," she says sternly. "The sugar will coat your lungs and the chakra from your fireball jutsu will get stuck eating at it since sticky sugar is a steroid version of natural energy. So it's especially important that you don't eat any hard candies during the duration of the exams!"
His head cocks to the side as he processes the new bit of information. Huh, now that she mentions it I usually do end up choking on the fireball if I've been eating candies before hand.
This boosts his motivation a little. Standing, he offers his hand to help Ame up. She takes it readily and hops to action.
"Today let's throw some ninjutsu into the dancing," she chirps, winking. "I've got something I wanna try and I know that now you wanna do some testing of your own."
Obito grins. Sure, he may be dead last in everything, but that doesn't mean he's gonna let it get him down. And with Ame there to encourage him he feels that now the chunin exams won't be so hard.
I'm gonna show everyone the might of the Uchiha and the future Hokage so look out world, here I come!
"Ugh why did I let you convince me to come to this thing again?" Rikuro gripes under his breath like he thinks I won't hear him.
"Hush, it's not like you wouldn't have come anyway to cheer on Guy and his team," I jut my chin out in indignation before turning ever so slightly to give him a sly fox grin. "That and you were so going to go sit by Yūhi-san to watch anyways."
Rikuro instantly flushes, his face contorting spectacularly as he tries to deny my claim. But every second he spends trying to negate it, he only further proves me right. I snicker and he brings his fist down onto my head. It just sends me into a giggle fit and the people around us shift in mild annoyance and amusement. The matches haven't started yet, but the adults still don't like kids fooling around here.
My cousin's lovely berry shaded face burns like a beacon as he settles down, trying to pretend that he's setting an example. I grin at him and continue teasing him for his crush on Yūhi Kurenai, very much to his annoyance. But then the loud voice of the Sandaime is booming through the arena and that signifies the tournament is about to begin.
The first match doesn't strike me as anything significant. In fact it seems rather dull. There's hardly a thing I can remember about it, having spaced off half way through, only jolting out of my stupor as the next match gets announced. Luckily the next match is the one I came here to see, mostly. (I may or may not have grudgingly agreed to watch Kakashi's performance to Minato-sensei.)
Around me the adults start trading bets, Obito vs Guy. Most of them seemed fairly varied, but it seems that people are expecting a show from Obito because he's an Uchiha. My hand inches slowly to my lips and the process of gradual worry begins.
It's not that I don't have any faith in Obito, I do really, it's just that I understand that he's nowhere near prodigy level. He's not gonna be what the people are expecting and that's gonna send of tons of waves of disappointment all around me. And to be quite honest it's not a fair way to judge him. They're never gonna see the cool guy that I know.
I lean on the edge of my seat, bunching the fabric of my coat in anticipation. The match is called to begin by the proctor. I pray with every fiber of my being that Obito doesn't start the match with smack talk.
Thankfully Obito just sends in a quick thumbs down before getting into a familiar stance. A grin creases along my face and I relax just a fraction. Good good, maintain balance throughout the match and you've already got one upper hand.
Guy seems to flicker and Obito almost gets a foot slammed into his face. He leans back an inch and all he receives is a breeze. He grins and dodges another attack, but barely. We only had a couple of weeks to actually work on his balance (or really lack thereof) but he has definitely improved to the point where he's just short of naturally being steady on his feet. However, Guy is a tremendously quick opponent and Obito can only go for so long just barely managing to avoid getting hit.
He does a handspring backwards to put some distance between him and the Green Blur, quickly launching a volley of shuriken and kunai from his pouch, a few tagged with explosives. Guy dodges them with ease, but unaware of the tagged ones he lets them fly too close and let's just say that now his eyebrows are slightly less bushier.
Around me the crowd titters in excitement as Obito dives in and lands a right hook into a stunned Guy's jaw. I watch with bated breath while Guy teeters backwards and Obito lithely maneuvers to the side to brings his elbow down the same time his knee comes up, creating an almost audible crack. Moments after delivering the painful blow he kicks the other boy away from him a little. Guy hits the ground, and hits it hard enough that he stays down.
Obito cautiously (thank you brutal training) moves over to investigate if his opponent is truly down. For a second, just one second, he lowers his guard ever so slightly as he probably thinks something along the lines of "He's down for the count." It's all it took to take him down.
Guy is on his hands in an instant, using his momentum, surprise, and body weight to fling his lower body into the air and land a powerful kick into Obito's jaw, sending him flying. He hits the ground like a bag of lead weights, totally out cold.
My shoulders sag and I feel the moment of euphoria dissipate as the adults that lost the bet start to pay up to their friends very grudgingly. The match is declared in Guy's favor and medic-nins haul Obito away. I make a move to stand up but a hand clamping down on my shoulder and a look from my cousin tells me I need to just sit and stay. With an annoyed sigh I ease back into my seat to watch the rest of the performances.
Obito sits outside the stadium nursing a bruising jaw and an oncoming sour attitude. Such an idiot! He internally curses himself. Why?! Why did I let my guard down?! I should have suspected he'd play possum.
His sourness turns dark after he learns that Kakashi is as good as ready to claim the title of chunin from the people filing out of the stadium. Winning all of his matches in record time, doing it so flawlessly, he's better than that Uchiha boy!
Things like that keep reaching his ears, making him wince over and over. He resists the urge to grit his teeth to prevent from hurting his jaw even more. Instead he settles for flexing his free hand often to give himself some sort of movement to focus on. It helps for a while and he barely notices the people who pass him by.
I wonder if Rin thinks I'm a loser too. He wonders glumly to himself as the anger turns into heavier feelings. I hope Ame isn't disappointed either.
He couldn't even begin to thank the little girl enough for all the help that she put into training him. Her lessons on dancing and balance really did him some good in that fight, just not enough to replace common sense is all. Obito sighs heavily through his nose. What if she actually starts to like Kakashi too just because he's clearly better.
"Obito! There you are," He looks up to see the child in question bounding towards him through the throng of people. She naturally weaves through them like a leaf on a breeze until she stands before him with a worried look on her face. "Are you okay?"
He's about to open his mouth but then decides against it, opting to nod his head instead. She frowns and joins him on his bench. Her little legs automatically begin to swing back and forth as if they were following a tune he couldn't hear. For a moment silence bridges between them, only the sound of dispersing people being the only audible thing. He tries to think of something to say, possibly lighten his own mood and distract him from his loss.
A good chunk of time (he really is starting to believe it when people say that he has no sense of it) goes by and they learn that Kakashi has indeed made it to the ranks of chunin via some of the other genin from his graduating class. This just causes him to let out another deep huff and he crosses his arms over his chest in irritation. He feels all kinds of awful; angry awful, disappointed awful, sad awful. It's so frustrating to the point that in no time he feels the tears pricking the corners of his eyes. Stubborn pride is the only thing really keeping them at bay.
"Do you wanna talk about it?" Ame asks quietly. He glances at her before shaking his head and committing himself to staring at the stony ground. This, obviously, doesn't do the trick. Ignoring Ame never does, as he should have gathered from all the experiences Kakashi presented.
"Aw come on Obito, it's not like you'll never get another chance," Her small hand lightly pats his back. "Chunin exams happen twice a year, yeah?"
He sighs, accepting that since there's gonna be no way around this, he's just gonna have to go straight through. Carefully he opens his mouth, making only slight movements to speak, relying mostly on not opening his mouth more than a few centimeters apart. "Yeah I know, but it's just another thing Kakashi's beating me to. It's just, I want to beat him so bad, yet I'm always so far behind. What do I gotta do to keep up with a guy like that?"
His mouth shuts and he drops some of his tense posture so he can slouch. He expects that Ame will remain silent, but she surprises him with an immediate response.
"Stop comparing yourself to him," Her voice is hard, firm. He glances at her and flinches just a little at the intensity of her stare, her eyes almost looking like there's fire trapped within them. Strangely it reminds him of a source of untapped strength.
Her tone becomes more gentle as she continues to speak, but still keeps its firm edge. "If all you do is measure your skills to Kakashi's then you're never gonna think that the progress you make is enough. Obito, you've advanced so much."
The fire in her eyes cools and both of her hands take one of his. With a cheeky smirk she says, "And despite what everyone says, you did awesome in that match. Those people don't know what they're talking about because they've never trained with you. You're unique Obito, you've got things that even Kakashi doesn't, you just aren't aware of them yet. It's like the story about onigiri people with an umeboshi on their backs."
His eyebrow rises and a corner of his mouth tugs up. "I don't think I've ever heard that story before."
Ame pretends to be offended that he hasn't heard this story, but brightens considerably and launches into what can probably be considered one of the best life lessons ever. She describes each of the people being unique in their own way through the umeboshi on their backs because they were different in every way. But each onigiri thought that they were just plain and unoriginal, especially whenever they saw the umeboshi on someone else's back. That wasn't true though because they weren't just plain rice, they too had something that made them special which no one could ever take from them.
"Kakashi may have a rather prominent umeboshi on his back that you see more often than not, but don't forget that there's one on yours too. And if you need anyone to remind you that it's there then just come find me," Ame points her thumb at herself, giving a scrunchy eyed grin. "Besides, you're gonna be the future Hokage, so don't worry if you don't get to the same level as Kakashi right away. A dream that big takes a lot of work to get to."
His chest begins to swell with a warm sensation. Obito stares mutely at the girl, an uncontrollable grin splitting across his face. For just a second she seems to get brighter, the sunlight collecting around her tiny frame and just illuminating her with this magic. He blinks and the light disappears, but he knows that whatever that was, it had been a sign of what a great person she is. Obito laughs and reaches to embrace her. She gasps a little in surprise but returns the gesture almost immediately.
"Thanks Ame," he says, still laughing. "I was feeling down on myself, but when you put things like that I realize that it made no sense to feel that way. You're right, my dream's gonna take a lot of work, and by no means am I going to take any shortcuts on my way to it. So if you wouldn't mind sticking around for a while then I'd really like that."
He can feel her smile burning through his coat. It's all the answer he needs, and with that he leaps up, taking her with him. It hurts to be grinning so much, but every second of pain is worth it. True he may not have gotten promoted to chunin today, but there was always next time. He'll work hard to make sure he gets it. Even in loss there is some sort of victory. The road ahead of me won't be easy by any means, and I'm sure I'll wanna give up sometimes, but…
He looks down at Ame as they start to head towards a ramen shop for a celebratory meal. If I've at least got one friend by my side, then I'm sure I'll make it no matter what.
And that is a promise.
[TD]: *screaming* I used the Spongebob theme song with Ame's little thing to try and get Obito motivated to do some training with her and I hate Spongebob but it works so well and ugh. On another note I'm just gonna tell you the other reference that I used since I'm not sure if anyone is familiar with Fruits Basket. The story of the onigiri people with umeboshi (plums) in their backs was a story that Tohru used to help Kyo feel less jealous of Yuki, and I thought it would work really well in the case of Obito and Kakashi. I also think that for all of Obito's tough talk he's prone to moments of self doubt so it was fun to work with that theory/headcanon. And what?! Almost 60 followers and 40 favs? Oh my goodness thank you thank you thank you!
In answer to lizy2000's question:
1) Did you mean Obito? Because Kakashi doesn't get KIA'd until the Pein Arc. But regardless I will most likely go into some detail either way.
This chapter is brought to you by: the Naruto openings on repeat because I'm trying to watch the anime again even though I really hate fillers
Next chapter: "She doesn't know how to swim. Push her into the river and let the current do its job."
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"Team 7, you are going to capture the Iwa-nin in our territory after Hiroshi Ryouta's squad completes their intel recovery. Capture alive unless the situation dictates otherwise, do not let any of them escape. Dismissed."
"This is odd coming from me, but I've got a bad feeling about this mission."