Sasuke and Naruto were competing all the way through dinner, even after training was long done for the day. One of them apparently had to eat more than other, because whoever ate more had a better chance of getting to the top of the tree first. Of course, that was ridiculous and Sakura and Akira didn't shy away from telling them they were idiots. Even Kakashi told them that eating too much wasn't good - though Akira was sure he also wanted to call them idiots. Akira even went so far as to smacking Sasuke upside the head. Sakura took care of Naruto.
However, the food craze died down when Sakura asked about the torn photograph hanging on the wall in the kitchen. This made Inari, who had been quiet during the entire meal, get up and leave, his mother following right after him. Tazuna explained that the person missing in the picture was Inari's step-father, Kaiza - he had been the father he never had. He was a simple fisherman with grand ideas. He helped the village, brought happiness and courage. But while he was defending the village and its people, Gato came. He beat him down and, in front of the entire village, Gato's goons executed Kaiza. Tazuna said that that had been the last day he'd seen Inari smile.
"He always said, that if you cared about something, you had to protect it," Tazuna said, shedding a few tears. "And he did. He saved the village on more than one occasion. But since that day, everyone has been too scared to do anything."
Akira stared at the torn picture. Inari looked so happy - why did this have to happen to him, to Kaiza? Neither of them deserved this. Akira believed in something too. She couldn't imagine what would happen if someone shot her down like that, if someone ruined the only thing she lived for. The girl looked down. What if someone told her she couldn't lead the Military Police? What if someone made sure she couldn't become the greatest ninja she could be? Akira couldn't imagine the pain she'd feel. Suddenly, Naruto stood up, legs weak from all the training. But he fell flat on his face.
"What're you doing down there, Naruto?" Sakura asked.
"He fell. Are you blind?" Akira retorted. The pink-haired girl glared. "You need a hand, Naruto?"
"No, I'm fine," he said simply, struggling to get back up.
"You should take the day off," Kakashi-sensei said. "No more training. You've used too much chakra. If you push any harder it could kill you."
"I'm gonna prove it!" Naruto said on his hands and knees, looking up at Tazuna.
"Prove what?" Akira asked.
"I'm gonna prove that it's true - that in this world there are heroes!" Naruto finally stood up, legs shaking. "I'm going out!"
"Naruto! Sensei is right - you're going to kill yourself if you use too much chakra!" Akira protested.
But it was too late. Naruto was already heading out the door, his destination and goal clear in mind. Akira sighed. 'He shouldn't be training this hard', she thought. 'It's too much for his first time doing this.'
"If we find him dead somewhere, you can tell him 'I told you so', Akira," Sasuke said, deadpan.
"Sasuke!" his sister shouted, crossing her arms and glaring at him. "If you trained that hard, you'd be in the same shape as him!"
"Are you saying I'm not training hard enough?"
"Maybe I am. What're you gonna do about it?"
Sasuke poked her forehead and stared her. Instantly, she sighed and slumped her shoulders, suddenly calmed down.
"That."
She pulled a face at him.
"Whatever."
Naruto wasn't in his room when Akira woke up early to check on him. It was possible he'd never came back after training, or he set out earlier than Akira had expected him to. She guessed the latter - waking up early didn't seem like Naruto's style, even if it was for training. Either way, Akira didn't go back to sleep after looking into the room Naruto was staying in. Instead, she went outside on the dock to look out at the ocean alone. However, Kakashi was already there, doing the same thing she'd planned.
"Good morning, Sensei."
Kakashi turned around, seemingly surprised by Akira's presence.
"You're up early," he said stated.
"I wanted to check up on Naruto, but he wasn't there," Akira said.
"He's been out there all night."
"And you know this because?"
"I was awake."
"Did you not sleep at all, Sensei?"
Kakashi let out a breathy laugh and looked over at Akira. Her dark blue eyes were wide with curiosity and concern. Her curiosity did get the best of her sometimes. Kakashi had only known her for a few months, but he knew that much. One day, that curiosity of hers was going to get her in trouble. The concern in Akira's eyes would be the end of her, if it ever came. Caring too much for someone was noble, but extremely dangerous. If Akira cared deeply about everyone, she would end up just like her...
"Sensei?" Akira asked.
Kakashi snapped out of his thoughts and smiled, placing a large hand on her head.
"Your hand is warm. Like Sasuke's."
"Like Sasuke's?"
"You'd figure his hands would be as cold as him, right?" Akira said. She chuckled a little. "He says it's because he has an affinity to the fire nature-type."
"What do you think?" Kakashi asked, removing his hand from Akira's head.
"My dad had an affinity to fire," Akira said, looking from Kakashi to the ocean. "His hands were cold."
"What about you?"
"My hands are always cold."
Kakashi laughed a little.
"I mean your nature-type."
"Oh!" Akira exclaimed, a little embarrassed. "I don't know. People keep telling me Lightning and Water, but I've never actually tested it. I just do lightning jutsu because they look cool. It's also something my family wasn't known for. I wanted to do something different."
"Sasuke is very good with his fire techniques," Kakashi-sensei admitted.
"He mastered the Great Firebal jutsu in a week." Akira sighed. "Got my father's approval right away."
"I'm guessing your father wasn't the nurturing type."
"God no," Akira laughed. "He was honourable and respected. He was stern, paid little attention to Sasuke and I, he couldn't be impressed by anything less than amazing, he rarely smiled... But I looked - look - up to him, anyway." Akira turned to her sensei. "What was your childhood like?"
"Boring, regular."
"I doubt that."
Kakashi looked at Akira who as still facing the ocean. A breeze blew her hair back. They stayed this way for a while until Akira bent down, putting her fingers over the water.
"What do you think will happen if I send chakra to my fingers, sensei?"
"Your fingers will walk on water," Kakashi said. Akira raised an eyebrow at him. "I doubt anything would happen, Akira. It's not like- "
"'It's not like' - what?" Akira asked. She followed Kakashi's gaze and gasped.
"It's not like you can control water," Kakashi continued, staring avidly at her hand. "Do that again."
Akira calmed herself and focused chakra into her hand like she did with her feet yesterday. Suddenly, the same tickle reached her fingers and the smallest stream of water rised out of the ocean to caress her fingertips.
"What the -"
"How much chakra are you using?" Kakashi asked rapidly.
"A lot," Akira said, feeling herself getting tired only after a minute of holding her chakra this way. "I'm already getting tired."
"Stop, stop."
Either anxious, or scared, or all of the above, Kakashi grabbed Akira's hand, and the connection between water and chakra was immediately broken. Akira heaved a great sigh and leaned back, unwillingly falling on her back and onto to the dock. How could lifting a little stream of water use up that much chakra? Better yet - how could she lift any water at all? Ninja weren't masters of the elements, they simply used them to amplify their already existing power.
"I'm going to take a wild guess and say that, that's not not normal," Akira said, breathing heavily and staring at the sunrise directly above her.
"What isn't normal?"
Akira bent her head further back to look behind her. Sasuke was standing there, his arms crossed.
"Your face."
Sasuke rolled his eyes and sighed at his grinning sister, then returned inside to where Tsunami was making breakfast with Tazuna. 'When did they get there?' Akira thought. She sat back up, her smile vanished and replaced with concern. She looked at her sensei who was staring at her hands intently.
"Sensei?"
"Not a word, Akira," he said sternly, looking up at her face. "Not until I know more. And don't try that again unless I'm there to supervise."
Akira nodded and went inside with Kakashi just as breakfast was being served. Sasuke glanced at his sister suspiciously, seeing the nervousness clearly plastered on her face. However, Kakashi looked as cool as ever, so Akira tried hard to mimic him. Then she noticed he was picking at the metal plates on his gloves. He was worried too. Just then, a sleepy Sakura walked into the room, rubbing her eyes and yawning. She didn't notice anything wrong and her entrance provided Sasuke with a distraction.
"Good morning, everyone," she said, yawning.
"Naruto's not here?" Tazuna asked. "Looks like he was out all night."
"He's gone completely crazy," Sakura said, after taking a sip of tea. "He's out climbing trees in the dark. He could be dead by now. You know, from using up too much of his chakra."
"Well, I certainly hope he's okay," Tsunami said. "A child spending the night in the woods alone..."
"There's nothing to worry about," Kakashi-sensei said. Akira suddenly felt nervous again. "Naruto's a goofy kid, but he's also a full-fledged ninja. He can handle himself."
"Sakura's right," Sasuke said. Akira choked on her tea. "Naruto's such a loser, he's probably lying out there dead somewhere."
"That makes more sense than you agreeing with Sakura," Akira commented, earning her a glare from the pink-haired girl.
Without a word, Sasuke got up and headed towards the door.
"Sasuke? Where are you going?" Sakura asked.
"I'm going for a walk."
"But we just started eati- huh?"
Sasuke's plate was already empty. Akira looked at it confused.
"That was fast," Sakura said, looking at his plate too.
Akira frowned and stood up. She swayed a bit on her feet.
"Akira, are you okay?" Sakura asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Hey, where're you going!?"
But Akira was gone just as fast as her brother was. When she stepped out, she stared at the water nervously, but moved past the feeling and tried to catch up with Sasuke. Eventually she did, and she came up beside him, huffing and puffing.
"Why do you walk so fast?"
"Since when do you get tired from running this little?"
Akira's breath hitched in her throat, but she played it off well.
"Trained too much yesterday, didn't get much sleep, ate too fast 'cause of you!" Akira said, flicking her brother on the side of the head. She looked back to the front. "You worried about Naruto?"
"No."
"Then why're you heading towards the forest?"
"If he's weak, he makes the team weak."
"Right," Akira said skeptically, smiling.
"Shut up," Sasuke snapped almost playfully.
Akira spotted Naruto at the center of the glade they were at yesterday, sitting down cross legged as someone made their way towards her and Sasuke. Despite the pink kimono and the long hair, Akira knew it was a boy walking towards her. As she and her brother passed him, they stopped to stare at him. Akira's brows furrowed. Why did she react that way? Why was she doubting this person's innocence - he hadn't done anything that she knew of. Maybe it was just the concern about her hands stretching to this.
As Sasuke and Akira approached Naruto, he looked up, confused as to why Akira and Sasuke - mostly Sasuke - were coming to check up on him.
"I've seen a lot of weird things in my life before, but this definitely takes the cake!" Naruto said, glancing at Sasuke.
Suddenly, Sasuke punched Naruto on the head.
"Hey! What did you do that for!?"
"You twerp! Did you just forget about breakfast?" Sasuke said, his arms crossed and face still looking indifferent. "You're such a loser."
Akira couldn't help but display a soft smile. It was definitely Sasuke's type of concern, adding an insult into the mix. Even Naruto laughed a little, which made Sasuke glare at him, of course.
"Come on, kids," Akira said, pulling out two kunai from her pouch and holding them out to the two boys. "Let's get you up those trees, shall we?"
"All right!" Naruto cheered. "You gonna give us more tips, Akira?"
"I'll do it step by step with you if I have to."
Which is what Akira did, after all. And after a few hours, Kakashi-sensei and Sakura finally came to the glade to try and find them. Naruto was obviously the first to pop out. Suddenly, there was a kunai at Sakura's feet, just where Naruto had thrown it. Kakashi and Sakura both looked up to find Naruto lying down on a horizontal branch.
"Woah... Naruto can climb that high using his chakra, now?" Sakura said, a little dumbfounded. "That's great."
"Whaddaya think? High enough for you guys?" Naruto called. "I mean, it's a long way down, huh?"
He then stood up and wobbled, suddenly falling over. Sakura screamed and closed her eyes but when she didn't hear anything fall, she opened them up and saw Naruto hanging upside-down just like sensei had done.
"Just kidding!" he laughed. "You guys really fell for it!"
"We were worried about you, Naruto!" Sakura yelled, annoyed beyond belief.
"Why do I think this is going to end badly," Kakashi-sensei said.
Just then, Naruto's feet actually detached and the look of pure horror on Sakura and Kakashi's faces were priceless.
"You just had to push it, didn't you? Show off!" Sakura yelled.
Suddenly, Akira and Sasuke appeared out of nowhere and each grabbed one of Naruto's legs. This time it was them hanging upside-down. Sakura smiled and cheered them on - mostly Sasuke.
"You really are a total loser," Sasuke sighed.
"Ah! Sasuke, Akira!" Naruto shouted.
"You're welcome," Akira said, mildly annoyed.
Kakashi sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"If I'm still sane by the time I'm done your training, it'll be a miracle..."