Honōka gets used to running into Kakashi and Minato at the Third Training Ground. Sometimes she and Kakashi spar, or run D-ranks by themselves, or C-ranks with Minato. They avoid B-ranks—mostly because Minato really doesn't want to drag Honōka (or Kakashi) into any battles with foreign shinobi.
Sometimes Minato teaches them a new jutsu. Specifically, he teaches Kakashi new techniques to keep him from demanding more missions, and Honōka listens.
It's a rainy day in June, a couple days after receiving her first custom armor from Mitsuha-obā-chan, when Minato attempts to teach Kakashi Suiton.
"A day like today is the perfect time to learn Suiton!" Minato promises. "With all this rain and humidity, there's plenty to draw on for the jutsu."
Kakashi is vaguely irritated with said rain and humidity—it's saturated his spoofy silver hair, which is valiantly attempting to defy the extra weight slicking it down. Despite the miserable weather, nothing is enough to break his single-minded focus for learning new techniques.
"So, Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu—it's a pretty versatile Water Release with many variations. It's also a breath style technique, so you begin by kneading chakra in the stomach, then condensing it, transforming it, and finally expelling it through the mouth."
Minato demonstrates by beginning with a deep breath in. Honōka bets that if she could see chakra, she would see the surrounding water and its chakra being drawn into the technique. She can't though, so she watches the hand seals instead. Tiger. Ox. Tiger. Rat.
He expels a great volume of water through his mouth that blasts a nearby tree. She compares it to a fire hydrant. She ran through one as a kid and it blew her off her feet. But for a ninjutsu… it is underwhelming.
Kakashi imitates Minato step by step and produces a sputtering spray similar to that of a large toy water gun. She laughs. Kakashi gives her a dirty look between wet coughs.
"Your turn, Honōka," he baits. "You can't laugh at something you haven't first tried yourself."
Minato winces at Kakashi's harmless provocation.
"Ah, Kakashi, I'm not sure if Honōka-chan is ready for nature transformations—at least let her find out what her affinity is before trying. She might have a fire affinity—"
"I don't."
They both register surprise, then shake it off.
"See, Minato-sensei? Her teacher is Orochimaru-sama. Of course she knows what her affinity is already." Smug satisfaction. He's looking forward to Honōka coughing up a lungful of water, apparently.
"I don't have an affinity at all."
Shock, then incredulous looks shared back and forth.
"It's true." She tells them. "My body is weird—or the way it handles chakra is. An affinity is a natural source of chakra that the body is sympathetic to, but my body filters all external chakra before internalizing it. We think that's why genjutsu has no effect on me and why I can mold chakra without triggering any reaction in chakra paper."
A twinge of guilt from Kakashi for baiting her, and a louder pang from Minato.
"Does that mean you can't use nature transformation at all?" Kakashi asks. He makes it sound like the worst thing in the world.
She shrugs.
"I don't know. Orochimaru-sama hasn't gotten around to testing any of our theories."
"Testing? Theories…?" Minato suppresses a shiver of doubt.
"Un. Like—maybe it's possible, but it might compromise my genjutsu immunity." She twists her longest strands of hair around her first knuckle. "Or, maybe it won't work at all; or maybe it'll work without affecting my genjutsu immunity. Who knows?"
Kakashi crosses his arms at her. The answer is obvious to him—test it out. He's awfully bossy for someone who isn't even seven yet.
"Jaa, you should try it, Honōka. Nature transformation is an important skill to have as a shinobi." So says the boy who could use chakra intense Earth Release techniques before the Academy.
Sometimes, Honōka thinks Kakashi thinks he is the teacher.
"Would you like to hear the instruction again, Honōka-chan?" Minato asks.
"I'm fine. My friend has been trying to teach me Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu in our spare time. It sounds pretty similar."
"Obito?" Kakashi asks, surprised but not.
"Un. His grandmother yelled at him for catching the yard on fire; we've been practicing at that big empty lot next to Uchiha-ku ever since. You should come over sometime."
Kakashi hides his reservation behind a put-upon sigh and reminds her what the seals are. Minato sighs for a totally different reason.
Honōka takes a deep breath and tastes the rain. She draws it in, samples its flavor deeply, and swallows it down into her belly. She forms the seals.
Tiger. Think water. Wishy-washy, like Minato.
Ox. Wet. Sensitive like unshed tears.
Tiger. Fluid. Shifty—adaptable, a solution for every situation.
Rat. She breathes out.
Honōka produces a misty spray similar to Kakashi's—though she can immediately tell there's less substance. She thinks she built up more pressure than Kakashi did, but didn't have enough volume. She runs out of juice and spits out the tickly remnants and wipes her mouth with the back of her wrist.
That was fun.
She thinks Kakashi's dropped his jaw—there's a little pucker in his mask. Minato is similarly flummoxed.
"She got it on the first try…!"
She clears her throat and casts the seals again.
"Minato-san, can you cast a genjutsu on me this time?"
"?!"
"So, I learned the Water Bullet Technique from Minato-san the other day—"
Orochimaru flashes her a look that's three parts irritated and one part jealous. She swings her legs from her seat on a table in his lab office and tries to look remorseful.
"—and I asked him to cast a genjutsu on me while I was molding and transforming nature chakra. I'm pretty sure there was no affect."
He raises an eyebrow, a touch of good humor returning. He loves hearing how the perfect Minato manages to be humanly imperfect.
"'Pretty sure'? Do you have doubts about Minato's ability to cast a simple genjutsu?"
"He didn't want to cast it while I was performing the jutsu—I think he was worried I would drown myself."
"And you convinced him to anyway? How?"
She gives him Guy's signature thumbs up.
"I asked him to do it for science."
Orochimaru is so baffled that a surprised grin cracks his feigned impassive face.
"Indeed, for science. Would you mind repeating the experiment?"
She looks around. There's a lot of delicate looking instruments in the office. A wicked impulse strikes her and she puffs up her cheeks.
As expected, Orochimaru nips her lips between two fingers with a no-nonsense glare. He doesn't get to warn or reprimand her before she laughs, water coming out through her nose and the corner of her unsealed lips.
"Really, Honōka-kun?" he seethes, shaking the drooly water off his hand. "What has gotten into you? I thought you had better manners than this…"
She's half coughing, half crying, choking on her laughter. Orochimaru hands her a handkerchief to clean herself up with.
"There is a courtyard to utilize at times like these, unless you are planning on flooding the neighborhood with your new spitting technique."
They adjourn to said courtyard, which isn't so much a courtyard as it is an entire Zen garden.
"Very well. Proceed."
Honōka focuses on the taste of water and feels the subtle change of her chakra spinning in her lower dantian become a churning current instead. She gives her sensei another thumbs up.
He frowns, turning an unvoiced question over in his head before casting a genjutsu with a one handed seal.
As usual, nothing happens. She signs 'mission failure', which irks him to no end. He hates it almost as much as her 'so-so' sign.
"You are certain you are properly transforming your chakra?"
She blows bubbles at him—big, glossy, totally gross, bubbles. He scowls at her.
"Ah. I see you have discovered the joys of shape manipulation." He blows an encroaching bubble away with a chakra enhanced breath. "Desist, now."
He's plenty grossed out, but actually quite impressed with her.
"How long did Minato waste teaching you this asinine technique?"
She frowns at him for two reasons: her bubble blowing jutsu is not asinine—it's fun; and Minato didn't teach her—she taught herself.
"Minato-san taught me and Kakashi Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu on Friday. On Saturday it was too rainy for Obito to show me Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu again, so I showed him the Water Bullet Technique instead. We noticed the consistency of the water could be changed while in the molding and transformation stage."
"You figured this out in a single day… while playing?" he's genuinely shocked and not sure what to feel beyond that.
"Un."
"And your friend, Obito-kun, he learned this as well?"
"Yes? It wasn't that difficult after I explained it to him, and he can already do two Fire Release techniques besides—and they're all breath techniques. He's had loads more practice than me."
Surprise—and exasperation.
"Honōka-kun. Water is fire's opposite—theoretically, water should be the most difficult nature transformation for Obito-kun to learn." Pause. "Assuming fire is Obito-kun's affinity."
She shrugs. She doesn't know. He feels kind of like fire—quick to anger, quick to burn out; never doing anything in half measures and going wherever the wind blows him.
"What about the other one—Rin-kun. Was she able to learn your modified Water Bullet Technique?"
"Rin's father feels unwell when it rains. She was helping run the shop and couldn't hang out." They'll show Rin next time. She's pretty sure Rin has a water affinity. "We're calling it Suiton: Kihōdan no Jutsu. We're allowed to name it, right? Since we made it up and all."
"Call it whatever you want," he replies, shaking his head to himself. "Does it require any hand seals, or did you just—" he makes a single-handed flapping gesture, "wing it?"
She considers. Hand seals are supposed to be pathways for chakra to mold to, giving specific directions to be followed when focusing alone isn't enough.
"We didn't need any. Just, think water; soapy, light, and slippery. And, instead of forcing it out under pressure, a fast and steady exhale will do. Or, slower for bigger bubbles."
He finds his tempo again and rolls his eyes. "I suppose with those characteristics, an adequate amount may very well succeed in sabotaging a potential enemy with a sudden and unexpected fall."
She blows another sloppy bubble at him that he ruthlessly assaults with a senbon.
"Enough, child. Go home before you sabotage my lab with more of your… spit—" a shiver, "bubbles… Go on, dismissed."
She bows to hide her smile.
"Bye-bye! Enjoy your evening, Orochimaru-sama."
Honōka skips into the kitchen through the back door, humming. She's been having so much fun with her sensei and learning new things and then teaching her friends those new things. It's the most fun she's had in her entire life, she thinks. It'll be sad when she has to use it against other people—but she'll always remember the fun she had first.
"What are you smirking about, brat?"
She stiffens—wants so badly to freeze, but forces herself to face her father. The expression melts off her face at his sneer.
"…"
He stomps across the kitchen, and she does not let herself flinch or shrink away. He stops in front of her, hovering, and her mouth goes dry.
"I asked you a question, brat." He radiates annoyance. Sweat beads on the back of her neck and she swallows.
"T-the weather is nice today?"
His face blanks, and she allows herself the smallest amount of relief.
Then he grabs her hair and gives her a firm jerk. He's testing her. Does he want her to cry or be silent?
…
CRASH!
The low table breaks under her body and she lets herself go limp. Does she curl or stay prone? Should she get up and run? She rolls onto her hands and knees.
CRACK!
She rolls. Pain explodes in her cheek and she numbly holds her eye socket, afraid her eye is coming out in the strange wetness coating her hand and cheek.
Her fear-terror-choking-can't-breathe paralyzes her and is so overwhelmingly loud that she can't even begin to gauge what her father is feeling for a long moment.
Stay/go…stay/go?
Annoyance, sharp, foul tasting, annoyance.
"Whoops—I gotta be real careful. That old geezer Ōkawa told me your kind make magic happen by putting your hands together…"
Something not nice crosses his mind and he smiles. Honōka blanks from the sheer terror she feels, and then he's holding the rusty nut cracker they used when they could afford to eat crab.
Her breath comes out in short pants and she mouths 'no' over and over. Her legs feel heavy as he grabs her free hand.
…
POP—CRUNCH!
She chokes.