As the sun fell down on Tazuna's home, his daughter began preparing a meal with the little ingredients they had. Somehow, and with the greatest possible cooking skill Akira had ever seen, she made it stretch enough to feed the family and the ninjas that were staying with them. Sakura and Akira helped out, while Tazuna set the table, but Inari was nowhere to be found until dinner started. While they'd been training all day, Sasuke and Naruto's competitive spirit didn't leave once they'd sat down. After everyone had eaten their fill, Naruto and Sasuke continued wolfing down everything they could muster since, apparently, eating the most meant getting to the top of the tree first. Akira and Sakura didn't shy away from telling them it was ridiculous, and when Kakashi said that eating too much wasn't good, they protested.
However, the strange competition-fueled frenzy died down when, curious, Sakura asked about the torn photograph pinned to the kitchen wall. Inari, who'd been silent for the entire meal, suddenly stood up and left the room, his mother following right after him. Tazuna sighed and apologised for Inari's behaviour. When Sakura asked about the picture again, he explained that the person missing in the photograph was Inari's step-father, Kaiza, who'd died at the hands of thugs. He had been the father Inari never had, a simple fisherman with grand ideas. He helped the village, brought happiness and courage to the citizens, but while defending them, Gato came. He beat him down and, in front of the entire town, his goons executed Kaiza. According to Tazuna, that was the last time 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 looked at the torn picture, her heart heavy. She'd known tragedy in her life, but unlike Inari, her dreams and her happiness weren't consistently shot down by a man like Gato. She had friends and acquaintances that believed in her, and while there were a select few that feared the massacre, feared Akira and Sasuke, they weren't beating down on her like Gato was beating down on everything surrounding Inari and this town.
Akira's attention was brought away from the photograph and to Naruto, who'd suddenly stood up, legs shaky from training, and fallen back down again within a second.
"What the hell are you doing down there, Naruto?" Sakura asked, tilting her head.
"Nothing, nothing!" Naruto said, struggling to get back up.
"You should take tomorrow off," Kakashi said. "You too Sasuke. No more training. You've both used too much chakra, and if you push any harder, it'll kill you."
"I'm gonna prove it," Naruto said, looking up at everyone as he struggled to his hands and knees. "I'm gonna prove that it's true—that there are heroes in this world!" The boy stood, legs shaking. "I'm going out!"
"Where do you think you're going?" Akira protested. "Kakashi-sensei is right, you're going to kill yourself."
But it was too late. By the time Akira had finished her sentence, Naruto was out the door.
"If we find him dead someplace, you can't say that I didn't try," Akira said with a sigh. Then, Sasuke stood as well. "Oh, you can't be serious?"
"If you find us both dead somewhere, you can tell me 'I told you so'," he said, deadpan.
Akira rolled her eyes and slumped as Sasuke went after Naruto. Sakura complained a little while, worried that Sasuke and Naruto (mostly Sasuke) were going to end up killing themselves. Kakashi, Akira and Tazuna half-listened, until Tazuna got up and nearly ran off, which prompted Kakashi to interrupt Sakura and shoo her and Akira off to bed. Both girls spent a short while debating Sasuke's and Naruto's survival rates before going to sleep, and Akira stared at the ceiling for a while longer after that, listening to Sakura's soft breathing. It wasn't until she focused on the waves' push and pull in the distance that Akira was lulled to sleep.
Akira woke up early to check on Sasuke and Naruto. None of their beds, including Kakashi's, looked as if they'd been slept in. Akira sighed and closed the door—it was likely neither of them returned from training last night at all more than it was that they'd gone out early. Although she wondered where Kakashi would be at this hour, and debated going out to the forest to see if they were all there but decided against it once she laid eyes on the crystal clear waters outside Tazuna's house. So, quietly and without disturbing the others who were asleep, Akira slipped out the front door and went to the docks.
"Oh, good morning, Sensei."
Kakashi jumped a little when he heard Akira. He was sitting at the edge of the docks, staring out at the water.
"Morning," he said lazily. "You're up early."
"I wanted to check on Naruto and Sasuke," Akira said, taking a seat beside Kakashi. "Have they been out all night?"
"Yup."
"Have you been up all night? Because even jōnin need to sleep, believe it or not."
Kakashi let out a breathy laugh as he turned to look at Akira. There was an unimpressed look on her face, but there was concern in her eyes despite this. He dropped a hand on Akira's head and slightly ruffled her hair. Instead of protesting this time, Akira smiled.
"What?"
"Nothing," Akira said with a shrug. "Your hands are warm, like Sasuke's."
"Are they now?" Kakashi said, removing his hand from Akira's head.
"You'd figure they'd be as cold as him. He keeps saying that it's because of his fire nature-type, but I don't buy it."
"Why's that?"
"My father's hands were always cold."
"Hm, what about you?"
"Me? My hands are always cold."
"I meant your nature-type," Kakashi said with a laugh.
"Oh," Akira chuckled, a little embarrassed. "Well, it's definitely not fire."
Akira stared out at the water and sighed.
"Well, I don't know, really," she lied. "But it's not fire, and because it's not typical Uchiha," Akira said in a mocking tone of voice, "my father never really helped me explore it. I just sort of... figured it out on my own. It wasn't like with Sasuke. He mastered the Great Fireball Jutsu in under a week. Got my father's approval right then. As for me—I still can't do it well."
"Seems your father wasn't the nurturing type."
"God, no," Akira laughed. "Never even heard him say, 'good work' after hours of training."
"And yet you want to run the Police Force like he did?" Kakashi asked.
"He was honoured, respected. Everyone in our clan looked up to him. I want people to look at me the same way they looked at him. Now they just..."
Akira sighed and, suddenly feeling the need to distract herself from bad thoughts, she bent forward and played at the water with her fingertips. Kakashi watched as the water rippled and Akira's gaze grew distant.
"What was your childhood like?" she said after a few moments.
"Boring, the usual," Kakashi said simply.
"I doubt that."
A small gust of wind blew towards them, and as Kakashi continued to gaze down at Akira's fingertips running across the water, he noticed that the water wasn't rippling the same way as it was in front of him. He reached out and stopped Akira's hand, and the water suddenly rippled normally.
"What?" the girl said, turning to look at Kakashi.
Kakashi pulled Akira's hand towards the water again, and she watched as the rippling water stilled wherever her fingers touched it.
"Interesting," Akira stated, an eyebrow raised. She traced the water and watched the water ripple and become still as she went. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say this isn't normal."
"What isn't normal?"
Akira and Kakashi quickly turned toward the voice and pulled their hands away from the water. Sasuke was standing a few feet behind them, arms crossed and frowning.
"Your face," Akira said quickly.
Her sister's nervousness went right past Sasuke, and he rolled his eyes before going inside where Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter, had started making breakfast. Akira breathed a small sigh of relief and sat turned back to Kakashi, who was staring at her hands, deep in thought.
"Sensei?"
"Were you using chakra?" he said.
"Not consciously, no," Akira answered.
"And you've never noticed this before?"
"Well..."
"You have?"
"Not per se," Akira said, awkwardly scratching the back of her neck. "I've felt... something before while playing with water, but I never put much thought into it. Besides, the water's never moved before."
"That may be my fault."
"Your fault?"
Kakashi said nothing and stood. Tsunami called for him and Akira just as breakfast was being served.
"We'll explore this later," Kakashi said. "For now, not a word."
Akira nodded and stood, then followed Kakashi inside. Sasuke glanced suspiciously at her, now seeing the nervousness clearly plastered on her face. She tried to mimic Kakashi's laid-back attitude, but she found it hard under her brother's harsh gaze. As they sat down to eat, Akira noticed Kakashi playing with the tips of his fingers, eyes focused on the ocean outside the window. Her eyebrows furrowed for a split second, just until Sakura came into the room, rubbing her eyes and yawning, providing Sasuke with a temporary 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 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. "Weren't you out all night, too? Shouldn't you know how he's doing?"
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 took one last bite of food then stood, swaying a little. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said, a little confused. Akira looked at her hands for a moment and shook her head. "I'm going out."
"Hey, where're you going!?"
However, Akira was gone just as fast as her brother had left. When she stepped out, Akira looked over at the water, a little nervous, but moved past the feeling and jogged off after Sasuke. She met up with him at the edge of the forest, huffing and puffing.
"Why do you walk so fast?"
"Since when do you get tired from running this little?"
"I... don't know actually," Akira said honestly. "This morning has been a little strange, to say the least. But it's probably because we all trained like crazy yesterday, and I didn't sleep very well, so that doesn't help either."
"What about Kakashi?"
"Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke, jeez."
"Don't avoid the question," Sasuke insisted.
"Yeah, that too... I'll let you know if it's something you should be worried about, all right?" Sasuke nodded and looked ahead. "You worried about Naruto?"
"No."
"Then why're you heading back towards the forest," Akira asked. "It's because you love him, isn't it? That first kiss of yours—"
"You're lowering the IQ of this whole village by talking, right now," Sasuke shouted, smacking his sister on the harm. He sighed. "Look, if Naruto's weak, he makes the team weak."
"Uh, huh."
"Shut up."
Sasuke and Akira continued until they spotted Naruto at the centre of the glade they had been training in the day prior, sitting down cross-legged on the ground. The siblings shared a look as someone was leaving Naruto. Akira could tell it was a boy despite the long hair and the pink kimono, and she and Sasuke stopped to stare at him until he was out of sight. There was a strange feeling in Akira's stomach again, and she didn't like it at all. What was it about this boy that made her uneasy?
"I've seen a lot of weird things in my life before, but this definitely takes the cake," Naruto said, looking over at Sasuke. He punched him over the head, much to Akira's dismay. "Hey, what'd you do that for!?"
"You twerp!" Sasuke shouted. "Didn't you forget about breakfast? Jeez, you're such a loser."
A small smile reached the corners of Akira's lips, recognising the ill-mannered way Sasuke displayed his concern for others. Even Naruto laughed a little, which only made Sasuke's glare worse, but it was a welcome distraction from the strange sensation looming in the air.
"Come on, kids," Akira said, pulling two kunai from one of her pouches. She held one out to each boy. "Let's get up those trees, shall we?"
"All right!" Naruto cheered, snagging the kunai. "You gonna give us more tips, Akira?"
"I'll even do it step-by-step with you if you want."
Which is what Akira did in the end, after all. With Sasuke and Naruto on either side, she slowly went through how she managed to get up the tree and, after a few hours, Kakashi and Sakura came to spectate their progress. However, they were met with a nearly empty glade, with only three kunai at its centre. Looking up, Sakura and Kakashi found Naruto lounging in a tree.
"Woah, you climbed that high using your chakra, Naruto?" 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 Kakashi 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 said.
Just then, Naruto's feet actually detached and looks of pure horror appeared on Sakura and Kakashi's faces. However, in an instant, Akira and Sasuke appeared each grabbed one of Naruto's legs. This time it was them hanging upside-down, and Sakura cheered them on.
"You really are a total loser," Sasuke sighed.
"You're welcome," Akira said, mildly annoyed.
"Heh, yeah, thanks," Naruto chuckled nervously.
"This is what you get for showing off, Naruto!" Sakura shouted from below.
And as the bickering resumed, 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..."