Chapter 13 Aiko "Time Travel" Part 1
We finished a big lecture about how important it is to really know your capabilities so you can become strong and yada yada. They also talked about how you can effectively combine different powers to get an incredible team work.
My mother and many of the Jōnin had held the lecture for us to be educated. Doctor Atsushi was there as well, he talked about the importance of being healthy.
The adults decided that we should have a break before having a tag team battle tournament. It was just for fun. There was no prize or anything for the winning team.
I was hanging out with Shiori and Hisashi. We were discussing how our tactics should be.
"Alright if we keep being in the back while Shiori attacks them head on with taijutsu then the enemy team won't have time to analyze us because they will be busy handling Shiori" Hisashi was a clever guy, he is the one that came up with basic strategy that we could develop depending on the situations. I usually proceeded the tactics to more advance. Shiori always questioned our strategies, making us think twice and have back up plans.
Shiori started to get restless so she started to wonder around in the building. Me and Hisashi decided to follow her because it was safe to go as a group. We didn't want an outbreak in the Yamakage building. It didn't take too long until Katsuo wanted to join our little walk.
"Aiko! Are you hanging out with that freak again?" He questioned and I rolled my eyes.
"Well, she is my teammate and friend after all" I replied and walked closer to Shiori and away from Katsuo.
"Aiko!" Omi had also been in the lecture with the rest of us youths. I didn't really want them to be close to Shiori because of the risk of a fight.
"Oh Hi Shiori! Long time no see. Who are these guys?" They pointed at Hisashi and Katsuo so I explained that they were my teammate at and bodyguard, respectively.
"I'm the cool one" said Hisashi and I knew it was a pun to his kekkei genkai. I thought it was a really bad joke so I face palmed myself.
"Yeah right..."
"I'm way cooler than that guy!" Katsuo said and tried to steal the spotlight.
It ended up that the boys started to argue who was the coolest, it was in a joking manner so more people surrounded us to listen to the conversation.
"I'm a samurai who has high skill on swords technique!"
"Well I use ice kekkei genkai so I'm naturally cool" everyone was having a blast when they had their joke fight.
I realized that Shiori's chakra was slowly moving away from the crowd. I decided to follow her and Omi was also tailing me.
"Where are we going?" They asked and I said that I would follow my friend.
"Why following Shiori? Didn't you like having fun with the others?" They questioned.
"Yeah but I don't like leaving her alone" I explained and they nodded with a smile. I didn't understand their fascination about me and Shiori. We were like every other friends was. Maybe a bit more complicated but friends none the less.
We stumble upon Eri on the way and she stopped our tracks.
"What is it? I don't have time for thi-"
"Please hear me out" Eri pleaded and I sighed.
"I want to say sorry. About last week when I said all of those things. It was immature of me" she didn't look away or anything, she kept her sight on me, convincing me that she actually meant what she said.
"I forgive you, but think before you decide to take action" I said to her and kept walking towards the way where Shiori left.
After taking a turn to the right, we saw Shiori trying to unlock a door with some hair pins.
"What the hell are you doing?!" I had already been in trouble with my mother and I didn't want it to happen again because of one of my friends were sneaking in the Yamakage building.
"Unlocking a door? I have a quest to look what's inside this particular door" she explained and I started to wonder who would give her such a quest.
"Are those your pins? You don't look like the kind of person who wear those" questioned Omi and I was disappointed that it was the only thing they was thinking about.
"It's from a friend. She let me borrow it" Shiori answered and unlocked the door.
"Bingo" she said and sneaked in to the room.
"Shiori no!" I ran after her in to the room. Upon entering the room, I felt a sudden heavy atmosphere. It was dark and quite, I could locate where Shiori was however.
I followed the senses of her chakra and found Shiori examine an orb.
"What is that?" Omi asked and Shiori shrugged.
"Have no idea. But it's seems useless" she said and kept looking through the room which was filled with all kind of junk that didn't look important at all. I looked at the orb and felt a strange feeling, like that I was drawn to it. I walked up to the object to examine it but then, a sudden loud sound came from the direction where the entrance were.
"Hm? Oh look! It's those boys again!" Omi said and pointed at Katsuo and Hisashi that had accidentally fell on the floor.
"Hi Aiko" Hisashi said and stood up to shrug off some dirt.
"Did you guys follow us?" I asked.
"Yeah! You just disappeared from all the fun!" He said and I didn't really care what he said.
"What is that in front you?"
"I do not know. It's just an orb Shiori found" I touch the orb and a sudden bright light emitted from the object.
"What the hell?!" Shiori had came back and saw the shining orb.
"What did you do?!"
"I don't know! I just touched it and then-" the orb sucked us in to it and suddenly, we appeared in the middle of the sky.
"How the fuck did we get here?!" Hisashi yelled while everybody screamed in panic, except for Omi.
"Let me try something!" She said and made the seals for boar, dog, bird, monkey and ram, trying to make the summoning jutsu but nothing happened.
"What? Why won't it work!" Omi said and Katsuo started to bite on his nails.
"Shiori!"
"On it" Shiori took my arm, I assumed that she wanted to teleport but it was to no avail either.
"I can't teleport either?!" She said, but didn't let go of my if my arm.
"Let me try!" Hisashi made a hand seal and snow started to appear, trying to turn into a bird like creature but it disperse pretty quickly in to the air as we fell.
"I-I can't concentrate properly!"
It made me feel useless how my friends did everything in their desperation to protect me, they didn't think about them self at all.
"WE'RE DOOMED" Katsuo screamed as the end of the fall was growing closer and closer.
~~~
I was unconscious for a good while, at least that was it felt like. I woke up to see that I was bounded to a big log. I looked around and saw a big crowd of people in front of me with torches and hayforks. In front of the whole crowd stood a tall woman with the Yamakage attire. I recognized the woman as my grandma, as I've seen her in old photos before. My brain started to overwork itself as I couldn't believe what I was seeing, my own grandma being alive. Assuming off the circumstances, we must have ended up in our own village in the past.
"You're finally awake Aiko! Tell these bastards that we're good people!" I looked at the right side and saw Katsuo having a panic attack while also being bounded to a big log, all of my friends had been captured in fact.
"W-why are we being hostage? We haven't done anything that have upset you?" I tried to be as formal as possible so they thought that we weren't uncivilized.
"You crashed in to one of the sacred places in our village. You can't go without punishment!" I got a feeling of déjà vu as I heard my grandma say those words. I also realized that the sacred place was probably the library, again.
"We are really sorry for accidentally destroyed something but we appeared in the middle of the sky and couldn't really do anything for the fall!" I tried to explain but the villagers looked even more angrier.
"Just kill them already mother!" A voice came from behind the Yamakage.
"They're creepy! Especially the blond one!" Three girls came forwards so they were visible. The tallest girl had long black hair, the one in the middle had short brown hair, you could mistaken her for a boy, and the last one who was probably my height, had short blond hair, just like me.
"Akemi?" Shiori said and the younger version of my mother took a step back.
"H-how do you know my name? You freak!" She pointed at Shiori and grandma put her arm down.
"M-mother!" I accidentally yelled and Hisashi told me to be quite.
"Breath Aiko!"
"I CAN'T, IT'S MY MOTHER FOR HEAVENS SAKE!" I had the panic attack this time which made nothing any better.
"Mother? What the heck is she talking about?" Said the tallest girl which I recognized as my oldest aunt, Sakiko.
Mother had told me she had moved away from the village to make their own settlement. Many of the other from our clan followed her, leaving only grandma and mother left in the village. Aunt Tomoko left the village to protect the Himitsu Meadow.
"I don't know but she is creeping me out!" My mother nagged and Hisashi and Katsuo started to laugh.
"Hm she does look like Akemi" The old Yamakage said and examined me.
"Take the blond girl to the hospital. I want blood samples and D. N. A tests from them.
Kill the others." two medic-ninjas untied me while still holding me hostage.
"What?! I let you take the tests on me! Just leave them alone!" I yelled but my grandma didn't even glance at me.
"No witness is allowed!" I felt Shiori becoming more and more stressed and her intake of natural chakra was increasing. Four Anbu ninjas walked closer to my friends, withdrawing their weapons to finish them off.
"No no no! Don't make her stressed-" Shiori started to roar with rage.
"D-don't touch her!" She ripped apart the ropes and the weird grey skin color had spread to her arms and the left side of her upper body. Blades was formed on her arms and she immediately launched herself at one of the anbus and went toe to toe with them. You could see clearly on the anbus movement how unprepared he was for Shiori's sudden strength.
"Lord Yamakage-sama!" The Anbu shouted and my grandma rushed to the shinobis rescue and used the "fist rock" jutsu to grab Shiori so she wouldn't move. The Yamakage only needed to use one hand seal to make a huge "fist rock" technique, she was very skilled.
"This kekkei genkai... it is not safe to have her here!" My grandma said and struggled to keep my friend in place, as Shiori flailed to get out.
"This one is done for it" magma was emerging from the rock fist and I could see clearly that Shiori was hurt.
"Shiori!" I shouted as my best friend roared in pain. I tried to escape myself but the Anbu was holding me tight.
"Mom stop!" Shouted the small girl that was my mother. The magma from my grandma's fist dispersed and it became an ordinary "fist rock".
"Why are you stopping me?"
"T-they clearly are friends! So.. don't hurt her. You didn't hurt Shizuka after all. And they have some things in common" my mother explained while Shiori's blades and discoloring faded away.
"So you mean that they're connected?"
"Maybe" grandma let her go and examined my friend.
"Alright, I have decided. You're allowed to go "free" but you will have my daughter Akemi to keep an eye on you" My grandma decided and a few Jōnins walked forward to let go of the rest of my friends.
"You will still follow us to the Yamakage building" my grandma and the anbus separated me from my friends as we made our way to the Yamakage estate.
"You better not hurt her!"
"I can't promise anything" grandma replied without giving Katsuo a glance.
"Aiko! Aiko!" I heard Katsuo yell in the distance.
~~~
The sample tests wasn't so bad as thought.
"See, easy" my grandma said and I stood up from the patient chair.
"I will lead you back to your friends" she said as we walked out from the hospital.
"May I ask, what is that girl to you?" I understood that she meant Shiori.
"She is my older sister" I said proudly as she looked confusedly at me.
"You don't look like anything like her?" She asked further and I giggled.
"We are sisters by bond" I said and her frown disappeared from her face.
"I see" the Yamakage lead me to a small park where my friends was and my mother was sitting down on the plain grass and talked. I sat with the group and they all greeted me.
"Are you okey Aiko?!" Katsuo sounded really worried.
"Yeah. It was like an ordinary check up in the hospital" I explained.
"You will stay here in the village for now. Until we have figured out where you come from" said my Grandma and walked back to the Yamakage estate.
"I realized I haven't asked your names. We start with you!" My mother pointed at Shiori.
"I'm Shiori"
"Omi!"
"My name is Hisashi"
"Katsuo"
"And I'm Aiko" mother also said her own name, even though all of us had already figured it out.
"Can you explain again how you ended up here?" Everyone started to explain so we talked against each other a bit. My mother seemed to hear everyone, which is pretty impressive to focus on so many people at the same time.
"Alright, alright. So... you guys found an orb, and then you Aiko touched the orb and then you all got warped in to it and suddenly, you appeared in the sky?" We all nodded at the same time and mother frowned but just nodded with us.
"Okey... and then you crashed in to our famous library..." we all nodded once again, but slowly.
"We apologize for the disaster" Shiori said and my mother shook her head.
"You don't have to apologize anymore. I'm sure the construction-nin's are already working on to repair the place" she explained and I sighed in relief.
"Akemi! Akemiiii!" A guy from the distance was running towards us. He was pretty short, probably short as Shiori, maybe a bit taller than her. He also had black hair but he had green dull eyes. He also wore a green scarf that was too big for him.
"Hi Masanori!" The boy paced slowed down until he came to a stop.
"Who are these guys?" The boy asked and turned around to see us all. As he turned, you could see he had a small scabbard. The small scabbard was very familiar to Shiori's.
I had read in our library how my clans dōjutsu could see the chakra flow of a person, as well as their D. N. A structure. I had secretly training my Gōrudegan so I could use it more frequently without straining myself too much.
I activated my dōjutsu when everyone was focusing on something else. I analyzed Masanori's D. N. A and noticed it was very familiar to Shiori's. Piecing together the similarities between them, I assumed that he was Shiori's father.
"Ah yeah I think I heard something"
"you're so oblivious Masanori..." my mother teased as I still tried to comprehend that my mother and Shiori's father was friends.
"Sorry if I was too busy training!" He retorted as I got curious about their abilities.
"You know it doesn't matter how much you train! I'm always stronger than you. Now, can't you guys talk about yourself? I want to know more where you came from" Mother tried to change the subject but I wouldn't let her.
"Can't we watch you spar with each other?" I asked in excitement.
"It is not going to be an interesting battle, but sure" Mother said and rolled her eyes.
"I said that I have been training so you won't defeat me that easily!" Masanori said with confidence. His attitude wasn't matching up with Shiori's. Her father strived to become better, something that I haven't seen in Shiori.
"Let's go to the training fields!"
"But that is far away!" Mother said and Masanori rolled his eyes.
"But we can't fight in the park! It will cause trouble for more people than just the two of us!" He convinced and mother finally agreed to follow. As we walked through the village, I noticed they didn't have as many training fields as we had. When we arrived, Masanori already started to get ready for the battle.
"Give me a moment! Stretching is important, remember?" Mother said and stretched her limbs.
"Y-yeah right!" I remembered how strict the Jōnin teacher was about stretching before a spar or a training in general. After the stretching session, the positioned them self on the training field. We sat on the side to watch them.
"Ready. Set. Go!" Omi said and the battle started.
Mother was fast and threw shurikens at Masanori. He countered it by using his blade. I realized as he withdrew his weapon, that it was the same sword as Shiori. It confirmed my theory even further.
"Shiori.."
"I'm not stupid" she said, as it meant that she had also already figured out what Masanori was to her.
"What are you guys talking about?" Katsuo asked,not knowing what was going on.
"We think that Masanori might be Shiori's father, well when he was alive" Explained Hisashi.
"But what happened to your pa-" I hit Katsuo's head so he couldn't finish his sentence.
"Some things shouldn't be answered" we returned to watch the fight.
Mother was in an advantage. She could go par on par with Masanori with his tantō blade, while just using a kunai herself. She did a quick low sweep so the boy fell to the ground.
"See. You are no match for me" mother was walking out from the field, but Masanori stood back up and clenched on his blade.
"I'm not done yet!" He grabbed his sword tightly with both of his hands, as chakra started to emit from the blade.
"What the-" the chakra was getting stronger and stronger until he mixed his chakra nature to it, or his kekkei genkai rather.
Plasma started surround the blade instead, it was emitting its nature immensely, making everyone shocked that the little guy could unleash so much power. A rush of excitement filled my body. I got the determination to be able to use a cool looking jutsu like Masanori did.
"Plasma style: plasma slash!" The chakra became even bigger and he slashed downwards, making an explosion upon colliding on my mother.
"Mom!" I shouted but it was just silence, and the sound of the plasma swords energy surging through the blade. There was dust covering the field after the clash.
When the dust cleared out, you could see that my mother had used the "fist rock" jutsu to protect herself. The blade had only penetrated a little bit of the rock. I didn't know if my mother was so strong so she could endure the attack, or if it was Masanori who was too weak to be able the penetrate through the rock completely.
"I said. It. Is. Not. Enough!" She pushed the sword upward with a breath force that made Masanori lose his grip on his blade. The plasma around the sword disappeared upon him letting the sword fly upwards from the force.
Mother took the opportunity to smash the ground, making a small earthquake so Masanori lost his balance and he fell on the ground. As the little earthquake stopped, the sword that had flipped in the air, came back landed right beside Masanori's face.
"That's was a cool surprise. But you have to do more effort to defeat me" The fight was really over that time. Mother helped her friend up and they praised each others efforts.
"That was really cool!" I was still bubbling with excitement. The battle had inspired me to train more.
"Really? I ended the battle in less than five minutes" mother shrugged it off but most of us was satisfied with the fight.
"Let's talk about you guys now!" Mother was very curious about us. Well, if I had seen people falling from the sky and crash in to my village sacred library, then I probably would have been curious.
"I don't think that having a conversation here is suitable" said Hisashi and we all agreed.
"Do you want to go for some ice cream?"
"Ice cream?" My heart skipped a beat when I heard the word "ice cream" I hadn't ate it for years.
"No no no no. No ice cream for this girl" Hisashi grabbed my arms.
"Fuck you Hisashi! Just let me eat it this one time!"
"Yeah you can keep dreaming about that" Shiori commented and I felt betrayed.
"Not you too!"
"What the heck is wrong with ice cream?" Omi asked, not knowing the consequences of me getting ice cream.
"It's not the ice cream. It's Aiko"
"I've done nothing wrong!"
"Say that to my family's old destroyed sofa"
"That was one time!" I was struggling through Hisashi's grip.
"She destroyed your sofa when she ate ice cream...?" Katsuo questioned and my teammate nodded.
"She becomes a monster when she has eaten ice cream. So for the sake of the time line, don't give her the fucking ice cream!"
"Time line?" Mother asked so I started to over exaggerate to distract her from that thought.
"THIS IS MY ONLY CHANCE TO EAT ICE CREAM. PLEASE JUST LET ME EAT IT THIS TIME" I begged and held harder on my arms and tried to pull me down.
"I'M GOING TO GET MY ICE CREAM WHENEVER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT" Shiori held my body still and pulled me down to, making it feel heavier.
"I'm sorry Aiko but this is for your own good!" Katsuo grabbed my other arm and also pulled me down, so my legs started to give in.
"I have a feeling it won't end good if we give you ice cream" Omi just used her hand to push me down by pushing on my head. It became hard enough to me to remain balance so I fell to my knees as my friends was holding me down. Of all the weight that my friends did, Omi was the main source that made it really hard for me to resist. They were really strong for their appearance, as they were pretty small.
"THIS IS NOT FAIR!" I yelled and they held me even harder.
"I think you're going overboard with this.." Masanori commented.
"You have no idea the chaos she have done by eating ice cream" Hisashi stated, or warned.
"Lets give her a little bit? If things gets out of hand then we take away the ice cream. Does that sound good?" Mother offered and I said yes immediately.
"Yes! Sounds like a great deal!" I said but Shiori covered my mouth.
"Rather not"
"Just a tiny bit?" Mother argued but my friend didn't say anything for a short moment.
"Just a little. But we will still hold her in place while she taste it" Hisashi decided and Shiori freaked out.
"Dude really?! Do you even remember last time? She almost broke Takayuki's ribs!" Shiori complained. Hisashi boyfriend had tried to stop me but it ended up that I tackled him very hard. It was the last straw so mother banned me from eating ice cream.
"So much trouble for ice cream? Oh well. I stop her if anything happens" Omi reassured and it made me a bit worried. They were ridiculously strong after all.
Shiori sighed in defeat and let my mother go and get som ice cream for all of us.
"I swear to heaven Aiko, if you mess this up then it's not just us that will be screwed!" Shiori warned but I was too happy to care. I would soon taste the best thing in the entire world
It took a good while before she came back, but when she did, she also had someone with her. It was a boy who was a bit taller than mother. He had dark brown.
"Dad..?" I said quietly, feeling paralyzed by the sight of my own father.
"Hi! I brought my friend Tanaka. He helped me out to get the ice cream and everything else" mother explained as they set everything with blanked to sit on, bowls and spoons for everyone.
"Why is she being stuck by her friends?" Father asked and Mother got a bit nervous.
"Y-yeah they say something bad would happen if we gave her ice cream, b-but I wanted to give her a chance anyways!" You could see clearly that Mother had a crush on my Father Tanaka. It was adorable to see my Mother being so bubbly around him.
"Yeah we got the ice cream!" Tanaka said, I think. My body was stiff and afterwards I hoped they didn't notice. My father was there, in front of me.
"Aiko?" My focus switched to the box with ice cream that Father held and then back to Hisashi's confused face.
"ICE CREAM!" I screamed outright and my father flinched slightly.
"Uhh..." my father backed away but I forced myself forward to him, even with all of the people hovering me.
"She is going wild!" Shiori warned as I tried to shake them off.
"I don't know if I can hold her any longer!"
"Alright she is stronger than I thought!" Omi said and they let go off my head, so I was free. I push myself up to stand up and the rest of my friends let go off me too, thanks to the sudden force I emitted.
"Ah shit" I rushed towards my Father, snatched the ice cream and accidentally tackled him so he fell to the ground. I also snatched a spoon from mother and made space so I could sit down and eat the ice cream.
"What the hell?! What kind of weirdos are you hanging out with?" I could hear Father yell while I was gobbling up all the ice cream.
"S-She wasn't like this a moment ago!" Mother tried to explain but I could hear how Fathers steps sound more distant.
"She is scary! I'm outta here" I didn't realize the event that had occur when I got the ice cream. My friends had to come up to me and scold me about it.
"Aiko! Do you know what the fuck you have done?!" Shiori yelled while I kept eating the ice cream.
"No?" My mouth was stuffed.
"You just made your dad dislike your mom" Hisashi said and I still didn't understand the problem.
"This means you might not be born in the later future!" Shiori said and I stopped eating.
"Wait what..?" It felt like that my sugar rush had dropped in a second.
"You have fucked up really good this time" Hisashi commented. My mind was spinning, trying to find a salvation for the situation but I just got myself dizzy.
"We have to fix this before we return to our timeline"
"Not that we even know how to get back in the first place..." Katsuo retorted while I was curling up to a ball, feeling ashamed that I had let myself lose control over ice cream again. You could also hear my mother whining in the background.
"Well what are we going to do now?" Asked Omi and I let my panic attack let lose too.
"WHAT THE HELL I'M MOT GOING TO BE BORN?! WHAT THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSE TO FIX THIS?! I ALSO WANT TO EXIST" I screamed at the top of my lungs and the villagers probably wanted to throw us out.
"What do you mean what you will do?! You just made a fool out of me in front of my crush!" Mother yelled and grabbed my choker so I looked in to her eyes.
"Well you don't understand! This consequences means that I might not even exist anymore!"
"What the hell are you talking about?!" I realized that she didn't know about the future events.
"Never mind" I pushed mother off me and she let me go.
grandma appeared out of no where and grabbed both me and my mother by the collar.
"The villagers tells me that you're annoying them by being loud. What is going on?" Grandmas voice was harsh and stern. She was clearly not happy with our behaviors.
"I-I'm sorry Mother! But the "guests" made a fool out of me!" Mother explained, trying to be polite as possible. I felt that there was no idea in telling them the real situation so I just went with the flow.
"Is this true Aiko?"
"Yeah..." I replied lazily and grandma started to lecture me and mother in front of our friends. She let us go after scolding us.
"Your mom is pretty strict?" Katsuo asked my Mother and she nodded.
"Yeah. She really cares about the village. She sometimes priorities the others than her own kids" she explained.
"I have to show you we're you're going to sleep. You can do a little bit of whatever you want after that" Mothers voiced had changed. It wasn't this curious high-pitched tone. It was a bit deeper, a more seriousness in her voice.
"Come on. It's not so far" we all noticed that the atmosphere had changed.
"You can follow us Masanori if you want" We didn't say anything, we just followed her lead.
She lead us to a motel that we could stay in. She checked in for us and she showed us our room.
"Hisashi and Katsuo shares a room. Aiko and Shiori also shares a room. And Omi... you get your own room"
"Nice!" Mother walked with Omi to their room while the rest of us waited to be lead to our rooms.
"Guys. What have I done?"
"You want us to repeat your mistake?" Hisashi answered and I felt how a lump of regret just fell down my throats and down to my stomach.
"Well we can't leave until the relationship between Tanaka and Akemi turns to normal" stated Shiori and we all agreed.
"Alright but what are we suppose to do? Hook them up?"
"Obviously" the boys started to plan how we should fix everything. I was too stressed. I thought too much about what was the consequences of the change of the timeline.
"Hisashi and Katsuo" they boys followed mother as it became only me and Shiori left.
"Your breath is unstable. What is wrong?" Shiori pointed out and I flinched for a second.
"What do you mean? I'm fine, just a bit tired" I lied and Shiori kept looking at me suspiciously. She already knew what was going on, but I wasn't in the mood to explain everything to her yet.
Mother came back but didn't really make any eye contact with me. She interacted more with my big sis.
"You two get this room over here" she lead us to a two bed room that was pretty small but was big enough to have a table with two chairs, a sofa and of course the two beds.
"Okey this is what you get. There are bathroom outside where the halls are and-"
"Alright, cool. I'm going over to Omi" Shiori said and closed the door as she left the room, with just me and my mother. We just stood there for a while. Mother looked outside through the small window the room had. Her face was dull, barely any expression at all. I recognize that face very well. She was in deep thought.
"Your black haired friend, reminds me of my best friend. And you resembles me a lot too. I don't know what it means but it is very strange" Mother stated. She was clever enough to notice that our resemblance is a bit suspicious, she wasn't just oblivious and curious.
"I do know why. But I can't tell you" I replied honestly and she switched her gaze on me.
"I don't need it anyways" she retorted and left the room. I sighed for myself and sat down on the bed.
"What am I going to do..?" I whispered to myself. I thought about that I should go to my Father and talk to him directly. I didn't know where he lived however, and I was too afraid to ask Mother when she was pissed at me. I started to overthink that I might "die" if I didn't fix the time line as it should be.
"You're doing that again" I heard a voice say. I looked at the door, where I head the voice and saw Shiori standing there.
"What?"
"Breathing weirdly" she stated and I sighed in defeat.
"Do something. Don't sit here and think too deep. Keep you brain up and running with something else that doesn't stress you out" Shiori said and literally dragged me out of the room.
"Wh-where are we going?" I asked as I was proceeded to be dragged out of the motel.
"Back to the training ground" she said without changing gaze.
As we arrived, Shiori lead me further to where the training dummies are.
"Why are we even here?" I questioned as she pushed me towards one of the dummies.
"You're going to train to keep your brain from the stressful stuff" she explained and walked away.
"Shiori.." I watched her disappear by the many streets the village had.
It was always relieving to be reminded that Shiori still care for me. I started to practice my taijutsu skills. But after ten minutes of my training, I felt that it started to become really boring to practice the same thing everyday. I felt that my taijutsu skill has become better already.
I could practice my bukijutsu, but I didn't have any weapons, other than a kunai and shurikens, and I know very well how to use them. I came to a conclusion that I could train my jutsus to be a bit stronger, but then again I had already got a hang of my earth release jutsus, so I didn't really have to practice them either.
I started to think if I could try to learn Masanori's jutsu, but using fire release instead of the plasma release kekkei genkai.
I pulled out a kunai from my back pouch and started to focus on emitting chakra around the blade of the weapon. Surprisingly enough, I was struggling doing that practice. I didn't understand why it was so hard to infuse chakra in to the kunai.
I tried harder and harder but it just ended up that I put too much chakra in to my fists, which made the kunai fly away from my hand. It was too much force I guessed.
I fell down on the ground with a sitting position, and started to scold myself. Aiko, the freaking prodigy couldn't do something simple as adding chakra to a weapon.
I started to think what went wrong. I thought about how I accidentally put too much chakra in to my hands. I also realized that the kunai flew out of my hand in a spirally manner. I wondered if it was coincidence or if it was on purpose.
I picked up the kunai and repeated my action again. I got the same results as before, the kunai flew away, spinning. I also had payed close attention to my hands when repeating. My chakra apparently started to spin around my right hand and up to my forearm.
I tried again but without the kunai and just focused on my hand. The chakra started to spin again, even faster than before.
~~~
After trying a lot of times, I successfully made my chakra spin so fast around my hand, so it structured a lance sword like shape.
I tried one more time, but hitting the dummy instead. I charged up my chakra, making it go in a spinning motion so it got its lance shape. I ran towards the dummy, piercing it with my jutsu so it blew away, like if a tornado had hit them. The dummy got totally destroyed and marks from my jutsu was very visible on the ground. The strong force from my jutsu made me fall on the ground with my butt first.
I examined the destruction I made as I stood up again. Even the fences from behind the dummy had been destroyed. I was so happy and excited about the new jutsu I made and how strong it was. I felt so excited that I made a little silly dance as some kind of victory.
"That was so cool!" I heard someone shout. I turned around to see two boys who were behind a small bush. They had probably hide in it before.
"Meh. I don't know. She is pretty weird" said the taller boy, who I realized was my father.
"You're kidding right?! That jutsu was awesome!" The smaller boy praised as I tried to figure out who he was. He had black short hair and wore very baggy clothes.
"I also want learnt that technique too! Please teach me!" The small boy begged as he approached me. I realized that the black haired boy had a two scars across his face, making the scar look a cross. It was then I understood it was my Sensei!
"I'm not sure.. I barely know what I just did. By the way. How did you get that scar?" Makoto Sensei never explained the scar on his face, so I took the advantage.
"Oh umm.. I-I accidentally..."
"He was practicing throwing shurikens, but two of them collided with each other and got himself hit" father finished and Makoto Sensei became a bit embarrassed.
"Tanaka!"
"It's true. I was with you" father argued and they had a little fight.
"You could have at least let me explain it!"
"Then it would take a lot longer than it necessarily would have" I stood there awkwardly, waiting for their little argument to end.
"Anyways. What is your name? Who taught you that jutsu?" Sensei tried to focus on me.
"Umm.. I developed it myself?" I wasn't really sure if I could really claim it as "mine".
"Haha! Yeah sure. A crazy person like you? I don't think so" father taunted and I felt a mixed feeling of guilt and embarrassment.
"Hey, I'm sorry for what happened earlier. I didn't mean to do it. Moth- I mean, Akemi didn't know I was like that. I usually don't become like that to be honest. You don't have to accept my apology but, don't consider Akemi in this? She is a very nice person!" I improvised the whole damn apology, I wasn't ready to meet him for the rest of the day!
"She seem very sincere about this. I don't think she is that bad as you explained, Tanaka"
"Hrmm... sure" father said and turned around to walk away.
"It was nice seeing you. Goodbye for now" Makoto Sensei waved me goodbye and followed father.
"Are you still joining them to meet Shizuka?"
"Maybe..." I heard their conversation before they just became an echo.
I decided it was enough for that day. It had already become a little late. I didn't realize it was dark until I looked up at the sky.
~~~
I returned to the motel to see a maiden locking the room I was suppose to sleep in.
"Excuse me? Why are you locking the door?" I asked and the maiden flinched.
"Oh there you are! I have orders from lord Yamakage that we have to lock the "guests" room over the night" she explained as she unlocked the door for me. I thanked her and she left. I looked at Shiori who was "sleeping". I knew she was just laying there, thinking. It was the reason why she had hard times trying to sleep.
I sat down on the floor, beside her bed and laid m head on the mattress.
"Thank you"
"For what?" She asked with annoyance in her voice.
"For caring for me" I explained but she didn't reply. I scruff her hair and said "goodnight" to her before going to bed. She didn't answer that time either.
It took a good while of the night and I couldn't fall asleep. I started to think about the day, to make my mind tired and hopefully grow tired of it.
I wondered how that orb made us go back in time, and why we had it in the first place. I also started to think about the ice cream accident, and what the consequences would be of changing the relationship between my mother and father. I started to worry that my existen will fade because of my action.
My mind was still lingering in the thought not exist anymore, it made me anxious and nervous. I started to think that I wasn't the only one who would disappear if we didn't change back the time line, Harumiko would disappear also. I got scared of the thought of not being able to reunite with my beloved little sister.
My heart was beating fast, my breaths was uneven and It became warmer so I started to sweat. I needed to get som fresh air. I quickly got up from my bed and walk to the window, trying to get it open. It was with no success, as it seemed like they had locked up the windows too.
I tried to calm myself by talking deep breath, but my pounding heart wasn't beating any slower. I looked around the room to figure out how to get out. My only escape was Shiori. I walked up to her bed and gently shook her shoulder.
"Mm what do you want?"
"Teleport me outside" I said hastily, so she wouldn't hear how nervous I am.
"Why? And your breathing weird again.
"Please just teleport me. I forgot something important at that park" I lied and Shiori didn't say anything. She grabbed my arm and suddenly, I was at the park.
I breath loudly as no one was around to hear my panic attack. I curled up on the ground, slamming the ground for no reason. I was scared confused. I didn't know what to do. My parents didn't like each other and I didn't know how to make them like each other again. My existent was in danger. My little sisters life was in danger...
I tried so hard to not let myself cry, letting a lump grow in my throat. It hurt so bad that I started to cough, making my breath even worse.
My palms also started to get itchy. I tried to sit up and looked down at my hands that was shaking. I poorly tried to hug myself to I wouldn't scratch my palms, and to maintain myself so I wouldn't fall.
It wasn't too hot anymore, it had rather become a bit cold. My heart was still beating fast but my breath have calmed down. My body could barely move, I just sat there like a full sack.
"It's time to go ba-" Shiori had teleported to me. She was shocked to see me in this state. She probably barely understood what just happened.
"Shiori"
"Mm..?"
"I miss Harumiko"
"We will be home soon"