Night Rain
Chapter Eleven

When Dai and I had to find our way to the training ground alone the next day we were late with half an hour. At times like this I wished Kakashi had been our teacher. Genma took it way too seriously and didn't as much as move a muscle while I fell in the water for the umpteenth time. He had given Dai a simple Doton Jutsu to try and left him to fail alone, while he observed me with a frown.

"Okay, stop for a second," he finally told me. "You can climb a tree effortlessly, which I always thought was the harder exercise, but can't walk on water. I just don't get it."

"I don't get it either," I said while squeezing my hair.

"Can you swim?" he suddenly asked and I dropped the strand I was trying to dry.

"I think so?" I said furrowing my brows. "Yes."

As Amaya I hadn't been to a pool, a river or a see to 'learn' how to swim. At the same time, swimming was a skill like walking and running, which should be locked in my muscle memory no matter how many lives I've lived and since I once learned how, I came to the conclusion I should be able to swim now too.

"Okay," Genma shook his head. "What do you find so hard?"

"Well," I began, having been waiting for a chance to complain. "The water wouldn't stop moving under my feet. It's like a nasty jelly; like walking in mud. The trees stay pretty solid when I try to walk on them."

"Well then, infuse more chakra!" Genma suddenly shouted, getting Dai's attention, like that was the most obvious thing.

I scowled, feeling humiliated and exceptionally stupid, and went back to the coast with reluctance.

I tried again, this time putting twice more effort in transporting the chakra. At first, when I stepped on the water, it felt so hard I thought I'd slip. It was like using ice skates for the first time. I put some more weight to that leg and closed my eyes.

'You can't slip,' I kept repeating. 'It's like stepping on hard ground.'

I've made around 5-6 steps before I couldn't stand it any longer and fell in the water. The feeling from the walking was different this time, due to the difference in the chakra amount, which is why I couldn't keep it any longer. It was hard to manipulate chakra.

Tired and wet, I dragged my feet behind Dai on the path home when he suddenly stopped and I bumped in him, nearly collapsing.

"Why did you stop like that?" I asked, frowning.

Dai didn't answer, in fact did nothing for a few more seconds, and then, moved to the side. I looked, where he was standing just a moment ago and saw none other than Sasuke Uchiha. He was not just passing by, he was here with a purpose and was looking straight at me.

"I want to talk to you," he said, loud enough to not be heard by the other people around.

"Um, okay."

Dai sent us off with suspicion in the eyes.

"So wha-"

"Were you there during the massacre?" the Uchiha asked, then, glanced at Dai to make sure he couldn't hear us.

I blinked. The last person I wanted to deal with now was him.

"The massacre? What are you talking about?" I tried to look confused, stared at him for a second, and added after I gaped. "Oh, that massacre."

He eyed me carefully but said nothing more.

"I think you are confused. If I had been there, I wouldn't be alive now. Right?"

"I can't know that," he murmured.

"Sasuke," I began again and saw him flinch, when I used his name. I continued with my honest opinion. "The…uh, massacre, happened years ago. You should stop looking in the past and searching for things that aren't there."

His eyes widened. I angered him.

"What I do is my business. You have no right to tell me what to do!" he said louder and, after a last glance, left.

"What did he want?" Dai asked when I returned.

"I think he's going crazy. He was questioning me about places I've never been at."

Dai didn't seem to believe me but said nothing.

That night I didn't sleep well. My mind was over how to get rid of Sasuke, who I knew, didn't buy my crap. I still hoped he'd forget about me sooner or later, however, I wanted to have a plan B – a lie, just in case. Only, nothing I came up with was fooling enough.

Another guy that doubted me today was Dai. At least for him I was certain – he wasn't ready to learn the truth behind the eradication of the Uchiha clan and the fact I had witnessed it. I wanted to test his trust carefully before revealing any more dangerous information.

After Kamiko, I had to be very careful.

And after I had managed to doze off, my dreams were haunted by the Sharingan nightmare again.

The days passed and I still couldn't stay on the surface for more than 2-3 minutes. At least, I was certain I wouldn't slip and that I had the right amount of chakra in my feet. With time and the many tries, I got used to it and knew when I'd put too much or too little. Genma had given me some chakra exercises for endurance that I practiced before falling asleep in my bed.

After seeing we preformed the basics nearly perfectly, our sensei, (he finally let us call him this way, even though only as a form of address.), revealed his training plans.

"You two are my apprentices, which means I will teach you everything I know," he explained. "And if you haven't already noticed I specialize in senbon." He pointed to the one in his mouth. "To be able to use senbon properly you need two things – chakra control and aim. Excellent aim. I saw already that Dai meets the first condition without even trying. Amaya, you, might not be suited for that. Now I want to test your aim."

And he revealed a big red target on the tree behind him.

He ended the lesson a bit disappointed as neither me nor Dai showed anything particularly fascinating.

"Precise chakra control is a gift but aiming is a skill – it can be learned and perfected," he said bitterly.

The next few weeks passed in only aiming exercises. Kunai were all over the training ground, the trees had many cuts and furrows and the red targets were getting more and more attention.

Genma, as laid-back and cool he looked, was ruthless when it came to training. He'd keep us without breaks, lunch and until it was so late and dark we couldn't see the targets anymore, when we as much as made a joke and couldn't concentrate. Sometimes it happened so that the other teams – Team 7, 8 or 10 – passed by our training ground heading for lunch or just home, while Dai and I couldn't catch our breath and weren't having the chance anytime soon.

That, however, paid off and by the end of the month we showed significant improvement. For the first time since we started training with him, he let us go home earlier as an award for job well done.

"So, what are we doing now?" Dai asked when we left in the early afternoon.

I had a bright smile on my face.

"I don't know. Do you have anything in mind?"

"Yeah, food!" Dai exclaimed and rubbed his stomach.

"Oh my God, can we go to Ichiraku's, please?" I honestly couldn't remember the last time I'd eaten there.

"Yeah, let's go, I'm starving."

It was indeed a strange hour to eat lunch and the shop was empty. We ordered our food and sat at the end, as usual, to wait. The ramen came rather fast and we dug in. We were so hungry and ate so fast and loudly, we didn't even notice someone else had entered before they spoke.

"Oh, man, I'm so hungry!"

"So am I! Are you, Sasuke-kun?"

I froze, a bunch of noodles hanging from my mouth.

You should eat, Sasuke-kun. You need your strength back, that mission-" Sakura chattered.

He wasn't listening to her. I could feel his eyes fixated on me.

I sucked in the noodles and tried to ignore Team 7, while in the same time wondering if they were back from their Wave mission. Not a second later, Dai turned to them with a wide grin.

"Hi, guys," he said cheerfully.

"Oh, hi, Dai, Amaya," Naruto greeted back.

Now that attention was drawn towards us I couldn't ignore them more.

"Hi," I muttered.

Something in Sasuke's eyes sparkled.

I hurriedly turned back to my bowl and almost shoved my head in it. The trio took their seats next to us and started a conversation with Dai and me, although I stubbornly didn't lift my eyes from the food. The only other person that didn't bother with talking was Sasuke. He also barely touched his ramen, when Teuchi came back with their orders, and looked deep in thought.

"So, who is your teacher anyway?" Naruto asked casually when the conversation reached the subject of training.

"Oh, he," Dai stuttered, not sure if he should tell them.

His obvious loss for words caught even the Uchiha's attention.

Not once have we had problems when it came to our little secret. Mostly due to the fact we didn't socialize like normal 12-year-olds. At first I had feared that the rumor will spread, that people with point fingers at us when we crossed the street but, thankfully, no such thing happened. Apparently, the authorities in Konoha were capable of keeping a secret. Figures, when you think that Naruto didn't know who his parents were for 16 years.

"I'm sure you haven't seen him around," Dai blurted out. "He doesn't really leave the training ground and we as well with him." He laughed nervously.

"I wish Kakashi-sensei did that as well. We could train so much harder, you know!"

Even I sighed in relief in my empty bowl when Naruto unintentionally changed the subject and forgot about his initial question.

I kept a close eye at Sasuke and noticed he observed me too. He obviously wanted to talk to me and my goal was to not let that happen. - That glimmer in his eyes from before; he knew something more than the last time we spoke.

"We better go," I said anxiously and nudged Dai in the ribs, signaling him. "We have a job to do."

"Uh, yeah," he played along.

We paid and, saying our goodbyes, left. While we walked away, I heard Sasuke saying he had to go too.

I kept glancing behind our backs the entire way to home and the Uchiha was on our trail.

"See you tomorrow morning," Dai said as he entered his apartment.

I nodded.

Coming through the door of my own flat, I wondered if Sasuke thought I'd wait for him and let him talk.

My mother saw me and quickly hid something, which I believed was the same book I had seen once. I didn't have too much time to think over it as someone rang in the front door.

"I'll open," I said, not even bothering to look through the peephole.

I opened the door and-

'Damn, that guy is stubborn.'

"We really need to talk," said Sasuke Uchiha in a monotone.

My mother was peeping out of the kitchen so I couldn't shut the door in his face. (Not that I dared, anyway.)

With a sigh, I moved away and said, "Come in."

My mother disappeared in her room with what, I swear, looked like smirk.

"Please, sit down," I pointed at the couch.

He instead sat in one of the armchairs next to it.

"Anything to drink?" I asked irritably.

He glared at me and shook his head.

"Let's just talk," he sort of hissed. "I know it was you."

"What, did you have a pre-death vision or something?" I asked as if careless as I sat on the couch.

His surprised expression was priceless.

"I don't see how that matters. So, what were you doing there?"

This time I couldn't beat about the bush and lie.

"I just got there," I stated simply.

"How?"

"I don't see how that matters."

Sasuke grit his teeth.

"Okay, then, why aren't you dead? You alone said last time we talked that you'd be."

"I never came across your brother."

"Nonsense!" he suddenly shouted. "E-everyone was already dead when I got there - you can't have missed him; it's just not possible."

I bit the inside of my lip.

If I admitted that Itachi let me go Sasuke'd just get more suspicious. His evil big brother, who murdered his own clan singlehandedly, decides to leave a little girl that had witnessed everything just go. It wasn't logical.

"As you say. I don't see why I should go back to these scarring memories for you," I snapped back. "What are you trying to find anyway?"

He stared at me for a while and finally sat up.

"I'll ask you again sometime and then you won't lie to me," he threatened. "Thanks for the chat."

"You are welcome." I sent him off to the door with a frown. "Good night."

My wasn't going to be.

"We are starting off with a simple task," said Genma the next morning, when Dai and I arrived. "I want you to transfer some of your chakra into those." He gave us a senbon each. "Don't ask questions, just try."

For about 10 minutes I struggled to rush my chakra to my fingertips and in the needle. Needless to say, I barely managed to do the former but transferring chakra to the senbon was impossible. With hands left shaking from the strain, I looked at Dai's result, actually expecting him to have succeeded. I was wrong – he was having just as much trouble as I did.

Genma came to inspect shortly after and a smirk graced his face.

"I would've been more than surprised if you could do it. To be able to work with your chakra so well, you have to start simple first. So, for what do we need the right amount of chakra?" he looked at us expectantly. After neither of us answered he continued with a scowl. "Amaya, you said it once on our very first lesson. Ninjutsu. Ninjustu is one of the best ways to get to know your chakra better and is, in the same time, one of the most important shinobi skills."

"Oh," I let out, a bit ashamed I didn't think of the answer.

"Dai, I gave you a jutsu to practice while Amaya learned Water Walking but you couldn't do it, right?"

He nodded.

"That's because you didn't know and therefore apply the theory."

"This is how our training will go from now on – We will begin with kunai, shuriken and senbon throwing, then, each of you will practice a jutsu in accordance with his chakra nature. We will finish with what we start. Also, at least once a week you'll have taijutsu only spars. Am I clear?"

"Yes!" Dai and I said simultaneously, although we didn't at all like the idea.

"Okay then, you know what to do with the targets."

One hour and many targets hit later, Genma let us rest, while explaining what we'll do next.

"As you should already know, to perform a certain jutsu we use hand signs. You've studied them in the Academy, although perfunctorily-"

I shivered, struck by the unpleasant memories of memorizing when I should've slept.

"-today I will recall them to you, adding additional details. Starting with the twelve basic seals, which you better know," he eyed us. "Monkey, Dragon, Rat, Bird, Snake, Ox, Dog, Horse, Tiger, Boar, Ram and Hare." He did each one after saying its name. "Now repeat and do them."

We got the names but other than that failed.

"You are expected not only to know them by heart but also to be able to perform them fast enough so you opponent can't see what you're up to. Now repeat."

We kept going and going, to the point we were irritable and hysteric. I had to hold back tears when I failed to do the Bird for the 100th time. Genma had a neutral expression but deep down he must've been truly amused.

I stopped, shut my eyes closed and sighed. My wrists and fingers throbbed.

"I don't remember giving you a break," Genma said immediately.

I glared at him and continued. All I needed was a second to calm down, he however didn't approve.

"Now. In front of me – do it faster," he ordered.

We simply failed.

"Again," he barked.

The second time was better, although a few fingers were sticking out randomly.

"See, that was, although insignificantly, better," Genma 'reassured' us. "Now try again."

We kept doing it fast until both of us began twisting our fingers, having reached our limit.

"Good," Genma nodded. "Now go on slower; like before."

More and more hours passed before one of us had had it.

"How much more of that?" Dai groaned. "Don't we have more theory to learn?"

Genma, who was chilling under the thick shadow of a tree, raised his brow.

"I will teach you the rest, when you master that completely," he stated flatly. "Now, let me see them fast again."

A complacent smile graced his face - we'd done it perfectly.

"Now, we can proceed," he said.


A/N: If anyone was confused and didn't understand what the 'jounin test' from the last chapter was, it's how I named the test jounin instructors give to their genin. An example is the test with the two bells. I've corrected it but wanted to make sure it was clear to all ;)