Chapter 9

"Oi, Madabaka, where do you think you're going?"

Madara flinched, slowly turning to the direction the voice came from.

Shiori stood a couple feet away from him, her hair pulled up and an Uchiha black shirt hanging off her skinny figure. She wore black leggings and sandals to complete her new look. Personally, he thought it was way too dark for her personality, but somehow it suited her.

She grinned, knowing she caught him and jogged over to the boy. "Where ya headed, Madabaka?"

Madara sighed, realizing he wouldn't be able to get away from the girl.

"I'm going to the river."

"For?"

"Forrrrr a swim."

"Uh huh. A swim."

"Yeah, a swim."

Shiori smirked. "Then would you mind if I came along? I'd love a good swim myself."

"No! You can't come!"

"Ehhhh? Why not, Madabaka?" Shiori whined, giving him a small pout.

Madara sighed, "Because you can't, Shiori. Sorry."

"Are you going to see a lover or something? Is she not part of this clan? Is that why you're not letting me go?" Shiori grinned mischievously, herhand coming up to cover her mouth. "Don't worry, Madabaka, I won't tell anyone about your forbidde-" "I DO NOT HAVE A LOVER!" Madara seethed.

He sighed, rubbing his temples. "Okay, you can come, but you have to SWEAR not to tell anyone. Especially my father."

Shiori nodded, smiling in victory. "I promise, Madabaka."

oOo

"Madara? Who is that?"

Shiori was surprised to see a boy across the river they stood at. He was around 15 or 16, her age, and had short brown hair with straight bangs on his forehead. Overall, he seemed relatively normal.

Madara sighed. "This," He gestured towards her. "Is Shiori. She's a friend of mine."

Shiori waved towards the boy. "Hiya."

The boy waved back to her, hesitantly. He was obviously very skeptical and cautious, Shiori thought.

"Don't worry, she's safe." He assured him. Then he turned to her. "That's my best friend Hashirama. He's crazy strong like I am."

Shiori tilted her head, "Ehhh, that's pretty cool. Also, you don't have to pretend, Madabaka, if he's your gay lover, I fully support-" "HE'S NOT MY LOVER!"

Shiori cackled at the boy's reaction. Across the river, even Hashirama let out a little giggle.

A bandaged arm caught her eyes. She stopped laughing and beckoned Hashirama to come to her. "Are you injured?" She asked, pointing to his arm.

The brunette blushed, waving his arms in the air in an act of dismissal. "O-Oh it's nothing, Shiori-san! It's just a scratch."

"Scratches can lead to infection. Infection can lead to death. Just come over here." She ordered, rolling her eyes with a playful smile.

Madara smirked. "Just do it, Hashirama, this is gonna blow your mind." He promised.

The boy faltered as he jumped over the river in a jump. He landed in front of Shiori and presented her his arm. She unwrapped the gash on his arm with one hand and the other positioned itself over his wound. She focused her chakra to her palm, which began to glow green.

Within a minute, Hashirama's wound began to fade off his skin. The boy's eyes widened bigger than Shiori thought they could be as he gasped. "H-How did you do that?" He asked, flabbergasted.

"I taught myself," She answered truthfully. "I don't know, it just kind of ran in my family."

"Can you teach me?" Hashirama asked, pleadingly.

Shiori blushed, looking over to Madara for advice. He only shrugged. "Up to you."

"U-Uh… I've never taught anyone how to before…" She admitted.

"That's okay! I'm sure you'll be an amazing teacher." He persisted.

"E-eh… Okay. I can try." She sighed, smiling at the boy. His eyes lit up with glee.

"R-really?! Thank you, Shiori-san!"

"You don't have to call me Shiori-san, just Shiori is fine."

"Or Stupid Shiori." Madara interjected.

She scowled. "Shut up, Madabaka."

"Mada….baka?" Hashirama sounded out, smirking towards the embarrassed boy. Madara growled. "Damnit, Shiori! You had to mention it in front of Hashirama?"

She giggled. "Awwww don't worry Madabaka. Once I know Hashirama well enough, I'll give him a dumb nickname too."

Hashirama paled. "Please don't…"

Her eyes brightened. "I got it!"

"Oh god…"

"Hashi-chan!" She declared, pointing towards the brunette.

"Pft," Madara tried to hold in his laughter, but couldn't contain it. "HAHAHA! HASHI-CHAN IS PERFECT!"

"S-SHUT UP MADABAKA!"

"SHUT UP HASHI-CHAN!"

"FIGHT ME, MADABAKA!"

Shiori watched as Madara charged into the other boy, throwing them both in the water that was flowing very quickly downstream. She giggled, a warm feeling filling her stomach. So, this was what it was like to have friends.

She wondered why she isolated herself for so many years.

oOo

"Okay now that you two," She sighed, drying Madara's hair off with his dry shirt, "Are somewhat calm, I'll start the lessons."

Hashirama was wringing his shirt next to them, his ears perking up at the sentence she said.

"Madabaka, do you wanna learn too?" She asked, coyly.

He scowled at the name, but gave her a short nod.

She clapped her hands together and moved to sit on a rock nearby. "Okay! So, I'm assuming you both have a decent amount of chakra. This mainly involves chakra control and focus. If you lose focus, you can mess the entire healing process up. My mom used to say that, 'If you lose your focus, you lose your patient too.'" She quoted with a small speck of sadness twinging in the corner of her eyes. Only Madara caught onto it, though. And it was only because he had spent enough time with Shiori to know that when she talked about her parents, she was going to get sad.

"So the first thing I want you both to do is use your chakra to stand on water. That was the first exercise my mom had me do."

"I know how to do that." Hashirama stated.

Madara nodded in agreement. "Me too."

Shiori smirked. "Good. That means we get to go to stage two… Hey boys? Go to the middle of the river over there."

They looked at her, confused, but obliged. Once they were in the middle, Shiori picked up a pebble and chucked it as hard as she could towards Hashirama.

Hashirama squeaked, losing his concentration for a second to dodge, but a second was too long. He plummeted into the water, sputtering and gasping for air.

Madara was cackling beside his friend, but it didn't last long since Shiori also chucked a rock at him too. Madara fell face first into the water, making the laughter stop.

Shiori smirked as they came to the water's edge and glared at her. "What was that?! You made me lose my focus!"

"Exactly," She said, "You lost your focus from one, measly pebble. In a life or death situation, you can't lose your focus over small things like that. You must remain calm."

"... You just want to throw things at us." Madara deadpanned.

"Nope. This was the second part of my training with my mom. However, I didn't have as much chakra as you two, so my training only lasted an hour. You boys can go for longer. Which means you'll be able to learn quickly."

They smiled in hope at her last sentence.

"... And it gives me more chances to find things that are bigger than rocks to throw."

The smiles faded.