Kane hadn't ever given much thought to the fish in the river. Their presence neither comforted nor bothered him; they were just there. A constant.
Now, they had his sole attention. Kane picked out a specific fish that was alone and close to Kanes position from atop the bridge. He watched the fish gently swam around; no true purpose in its movements, just another creature living life.
His eyes narrowed as he focused on the feel of the water around the fish.
He willed the water to grow warmer. Not the entire river, just the area around the fish.
As the water quickly grew to an uncomfortable temperature, he could feel the distress from the fish. It began moving frantically, trying its hardest to swim away from the uncomfortable heat.
And as the fish moved towards cooler waters, Kane willed it to begin heating, too.
The water was not boiling; not even close. And yet, it was too hot for the fish to survive in. Kane felt the moment the fish succumbed to the heat; the moment it stopped trying to escape.
And then, the fish began slowly rising towards the surface. Kane continued to focus on it, no longer bothering to heat the water, and watched as the fish submerged to the rivers surface, gently floating downstream. Dead.
Kane smiled to himself. He was getting better at this! He didn't need any help. He didn't need Kakashi-sensei, or Sasuke, or even Naruko. He didn't need Team 7. He didn't need anybody!
He didn't need Konoha.
He could figure this out on his own. Just like always.
Kane would grow; he would master his strange abilities, and he would become a true Shinobi. He wouldn't let the others continue to leave him in the dust.
He would become strong.
"I told you, I can't do it." Kane rolled his eyes in annoyance as Kakashi-sensei frowned at him.
"Keep trying." And he went back to reading his Icha Icha.
Kane sighed in annoyance as he once again began attempting to perform D-Ranked Water Ninjutsu at the lake. Kakashi-sensei was determined to get him to learn it, but Kane saw it as a futile effort. He'd spent a lot of time trying to do this on his own, and nothing Kakashi-sensei told him was something he hadn't already thought about or tried.
Really, he'd rather be practicing his Kekkei Genkai.
Kane had finally decided he would call it that. A Kekkei Genkai. He didn't have the 9 tails, he thought bitterly, and according to Karin he was part of a clan, so it was what he finally decided to accept his strange powers as.
Kane still hadn't told Kakashi-sensei about his Kekkei Genkai. He hadn't told anybody. Why should he? It was none of their business, as far as Kane was concerned.
Maybe Kakashi-sensei could help him learn how to use it, but he still refused to tell the man.
So, here he was, practicing D-Ranked Water Ninjutsu once again; only this time he had somebody else to be disappointed in his lack of progress.
Kane rolled his eyes at the thought as he continued to fail at his training.
He found he no longer cared what Kakashi-sensei thought.
As soon as this farce of a lesson was over, Kane would go home and continue practicing on his own. He wouldn't allow himself to fall even further behind; he would keep training until he became strong on his own merit.
Kane smiled up at the water above the table. He'd grown quite good at this, he liked to think.
The water was split into four different blobs around the size of his head. The first blob was doing nothing; it was simply floating.
The second was warmer than the others, but not too warm. Kane was able to stick his hand into it without feeling any pain.
The third blob was boiling, consistent 'Pop!'s echoing around the library.
The fourth blob was doing all three. One portion of it was cool, one was warm, and the other was boiling.
Kane could cause the water to go from cool to boiling in less than three seconds. He was confident this ability would become useful later. How exactly he wasn't sure, but surely there was a use for this.
If only he could use Water Ninjutsu. It could be quite deadly to add boiling water into all of those jutsu.
But, he couldn't. Kane accepted this is fact; he couldn't use Water Ninjutsu. Instead, Kane would focus all of his time and energy on figuring out what he could do, and working on that instead.
Like he was doing right now.
Kane smiled as the four blobs began circling each other in the air, and then quick a quick dash the four connected to each other, forming one large body of water. Well, large compared to what they were when separated at least.
It was quite interesting to feel multiple different layers of competing temperatures all interconnected.
Kane willed the entire body of water to cool down, and within three seconds the water was entirely cool.
Kane dropped it on his head, soaking himself.
And then willed all of it back into the air.
Can fixed his somewhat messed up, albeit dry, hair with his hand as he smiled.
He could will the water to cool down, however Kane had learned that he couldn't will it to get colder than it originally was. Only warmer. He wasn't sure why.
Kane glanced at the main desk that the lady who worked at the library every day normally sat at. The woman had worked here for years; in fact, she was the same one who booted Kane out of the building over half a decade ago.
Kane launched the water at her desk, completely soaking the wood and chair.
He knew that by the time the woman returned, it would be dry once more. She most likely wouldn't even realize what he did.
It still felt good, though.
Kane paused as he dropped several cup ramen into the cabinet. Today was Friday. He suddenly remembered exactly why Kakashi-sensei wasn't metting up with him today.
He was supposed to go to the west gate and help Mrs. Takanashi and the workers with rebuilding and fixing damage in the area.
He scoffed as he closed the cabinet.
As if he was actually going to go.
He cringed as he gently rubbed the cut along his arm. Kane had always been a slow healer, so he was reluctant to intentionally bring any form of harm onto himself. However, Kane had nothing else to do. He was wide awake and completely free for the day, seeing as how he was ditching his 'punishment', but now he was bored. He couldn't go to the library, Kakashi-sensei wasn't training him, and he didn't want to try practicing his abilities by the river in broad daylight where anybody could see him.
So, he decided he'd just practice with his blood, instead.
Kane decided he didn't like using his blood. It felt plain, boring, whereas the water always felt calming and pleasurable. Kane felt gross when he manipulated blood; what kind of freak manipulated blood?!
Kane supposed he could use tapwater, however ever since gaining his Kekkei Genkai he'd come to realize just how disgusting the water in this apartment was. It was filthy, and he hated both drinking it in his cup ramens and manipulating it.
He'd done it once, but all he'd done was bring the water to a boil. He didn't correlate boiling the water with actually controlling it; the feelings the water caused him had come long before he realized he could heat it up. It wasn't the same. At least, that's what he told himself. So Kane wouldn't manipulate the tap water.
He refused to.
Kane wouldn't sully the only good thing going for him right now by using it on such a disgusting source. Really, it wasn't that bad, Kane tried telling himself. He'd been drinking the water since he was six, and nothing bad had ever happened to him, as far as he knew.
Still, he refused to do it. He may be willing to continue using the water in his cup ramen and drinking it, but he wouldn't manipulate it.
So, Kane was left with one option. His blood.
Kane watched as the blood flowed through the air, the same motions as water.
After doing this for some time, Kane noticed the feel of the blood was... harsher. It was more difficult to control. It felt murkier; like water from a swamp compared to water from a clean river. It was thicker and heavier.
It wasn't fresh, Kane realized.
Blood dried up quickly when it left the body, and that was exactly what was happening right now.
So, Kane tried heating the blood up.
And suddenly, the blood felt normal again.
'So I can keep the blood fresh, as if I just recently cut it out, just by heating it up.'
It was a chore, constantly having to heat it up, but at least it seemed he had a built-in solution to the problem, and it's not like he really felt the loss of Chakra all that much.
'You know, I still haven't figured out exactly how much water... or blood... I can manipulate at a time. Really, it almost feels like there's no limit with how little Chakra it uses...'
Kane watched as the now fresh-feeling blood continued to float through the air.
'I should probably figure that out.'
After several hours, Kane heard a knock on his door. Before he could even stand up, the door opened, and in walked Kakashi-sensei.
"Sure, come on in." Kane said with annoyance. Thank Kami he wasn't in the middle of manipulating his blood through the air anymore. That would be hard to explain.
Kakashi raised his eyebrow at Kane.
Kane glared at the man. When had he started glaring at everyone? After he learned the truth, he supposed. Kane knew he was much more hostile these days, but he couldn't bring himself to fix his attitude.
"So is there a reason you just barged into my apartment?"
"Is there a reason you didn't go help Mrs. Takanashi today?" Kakashi fired back.
Kane imitated Kakashi by raising one of his own eyebrows.
"I didn't feel like it." Kane snipped.
Kakashi's eye narrowed.
"Have a seat, Kane. I think we need to have a little chat."
Kane glared harshly at the man.
"No." he spoke with finality.
Kakashi genuinely looked surprised at his refusal, "No?"
"No. You're not my guardian; I don't even have one. You're just my sensei. I don't have to listen to you, you can't just order me around." Kane spoke spitefully.
Kakashi sighed, "Kane, I'm worried about you. So are Naruko and Sasuke. Naruko keeps asking about you; even Sasuke has come to me more than once to voice his concerns. Talk to me, Kane. Tell me what's wrong." Kakashi said gently, disarmingly, and with a slight plea in his voice.
Kane only glared in response.
"No. There's nothing wrong, I just want to be left alone."
Kakashi's eye spoke of great sadness, "The Fourth Hokage wants to see you first thing tomorrow. You can explain to him why you skipped out on your duty."
Kane continued to glare.
"Get out of my apartment."
With a final sigh, Kakashi left.
Kane decided he seriously needed to build a lock.
He wasn't stupid, or at least he liked to think he wasn't. He knew the saying "fool a ninja once, he's as good as dead. Fool him twice..." and he liked to think he didn't fall for the same tricks over and over again.
It's not like it was his choice to not have a lock on his door; he'd just never had one. He couldn't afford to have one built in, and he had no clue how to install one even if he did manage to steal everything he needed to do so.
So, really, it's not like he was being fooled by not having a lock, he just didn't have one.
That's what he told himself, at least.
So there he was, finding for the third time, that not having a lock could be quite detrimental.
A quick knock at the door, and by the time he stood up the door was open.
"I already told you Kakashi, I want to be left-"
Kane stopped talking as two men he didn't know entered his apartment.
If you could even call the tall one a man.
'Well, that's definitely not Kakashi.'
Kane felt fear engulf him as he found himself staring at a large, blue fish-man with a shark-like gaze and a shorter, black haired man staring him down with triple-tomoed Sharingan eyes.
Both were wearing black cloaks with red clouds on them.
End of Chapter 25.