Today, the sunshine was in everyone's bones. Its heat radiated outwards and into the bright day. Usually, with weather like this, it was as if the people were glowing, their aura so happy on these summer days. Instead, Akira was fighting in her family's dojo, sweating profusely as she kicked and punched the training dummies scattered throughout the room. Her feet pounded on the tatami, droplets of sweat seeping through, and even with the door open to let in the smallest of breezes, Akira's mind was starting to go fuzzy with the heat. As her feet landed powerful hits on the dummies, the impact made Akira sway more and more until, finally, her legs gave way and she fell on her back. The impact was absorbed by the tatami, but the wind was knocked out of her regardless.
Akira let out a mixture of a sigh and a groan. She reached out a hand without looking and felt her way towards the towel she'd brought with her. After wiping the beads of sweat from her face, Akira brought the towel down to her neck and turned her head to look outside. Her eyes fell on the foliage outside the dojo or lack thereof. In the beds that were once filled with colourful flowers, sat grey and lifeless earth, and even though the trees seemed alive in the sunlight, Akira couldn't help but feel they'd been neglected as bad as the flower beds. Her eyes turned to the walls of the dojo, clean and pristine, then back to the lifeless dirt.
Akira sighed and stood, swinging the towel over her shoulder. Leaving her shoes in the dojo, Akira walked over to the flower beds and stuck her toes in. The dirt was dry and crumbly and burned in the heat of the relentless sun. Even the grass around the dojo was lifeless, yellowed and dry. Akira frowned at her surroundings, but only ended up grabbing her shoes and walking away from the dojo.
She went the long way back to the apartment, passing by the lake near the compound. At the edge of the dock sat Naruto, giggling as he stared at his toes in the water. Akira let out a breath of laughter and went off the trail, steadily heading down the hill that led to the dock.
"What're you up to, Naruto?"
The boy shrieked and in his panic, he fell into the lake. Akira rose an eyebrow at him and held up her towel in front of her as Naruto splashed water at her.
"Whatchu scaring me for!?" he shouted.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to," Akira said with a chuckle.
Naruto pulled himself out of the water and snatched Akira's towel. When he was dry, he tossed the towel back at her.
"I was thinking about pulling another prank on—"
"Oh, no, don't you dare!" Akira said sternly. She began to walk off again. "You've not pulled another one of your practical jokes in a while, and that's a good thing. The village is finally calm—"
"Yeah, and that's boring!" Naruto groaned. "I need to keep people on their toes, you know?"
"And by people, you mean Iruka-sensei who, once again, will have to run around the village chasing after you like some dog who's broken off its leash."
"Well... not if you help me."
"No," Akira said sternly.
"Oh, come on, Akira! If you help me, I won't get caught—you're the best!"
"I appreciate the flattery, Naruto, but I'm not using my talents for pranks. Although..."
"What, what, what?" Naruto repeated excitedly.
"I think Kai could be persuaded. He's been itching to do something as of late."
"Awesome!" Naruto cheered. "Thanks, Akira!"
As Naruto was about to leave, he paused and slowly turned back to Akira. He opened his mouth to speak, but Akira interrupted him.
"I'm fine, Naruto."
"How did you know I was gonna ask that?"
"You get all quiet when you're serious," Akira said with a small smile. "Besides, it's all anyone's been asking me. Better yet... how are you?"
"Me?" Naruto looked a little surprised by the question.
"Yes. Something happened during that fight, Naruto. I felt it."
Naruto looked away. He looked uncomfortable, worried even.
"Hey, I'm not going to push it if you don't want to talk about it," Akira said softly. She gently put a hand on his shoulder. "Go on. Go push Kai into driving Iruka-sensei insane."
"Well, I don't think it's such a good idea anymore. Maybe I'll convince Kai to do it, tomorrow," Naruto said with a shrug. "Can I hang out with you instead?"
"With me? I'm not even out of my workout clothes." Akira vaguely gestured down at herself. "I was just going to go home and get out of this heat."
"Aww, can't we at least go get ramen together?"
"Ramen? Naruto, it's a million degrees out here!"
"Come on, come on, come oooon!"
"Okay! All right! Ramen it is."
Naruto cheered and ran off, leaving Akira to try and catch up behind him. She groaned and called after him, her legs aching as she ran. It seemed to take forever to get back into town, and once she and Naruto had made it back, they were both sweating like crazy. Teuchi shook his head when he saw the two of them sit down.
"Did this kid drag you into this, Akira?" he said.
"Yes," Akira said with a groan.
"I'll take the works, mister!" Naruto said gleefully.
"You got it, kid."
"Hot ramen... You're insane, Naruto. Mr Teuchi, do you serve any cold noodle dishes?"
"Not usually, but I can whip something special up just for you. No sense in overheating more than you already are."
"Oh, thank you. I think I'd die if I had anything hot to eat," Akira said with a sigh.
"Preference of protein?"
"Pork, please."
Teuchi nodded and he began to prepare the two friends' meals. Ayame, Teuchi's daughter, brought them drinks that she said were on the house due to the heatwave, and Akira drank half of it in one go.
"Oh, mango," she sighed happily.
"You like the mango ones?" Naruto asked. He nodded to himself. "I'll remember that."
"Why?"
"Well, you always bring drinks and food to us when we're training. Now I know what you like so I can bring something for you next time."
Akira smiled.
"This doesn't have anything to do with our last mission, does it?"
Naruto laughed nervously and shook his head.
"Of course, not!" he insisted. "Just being a good friend!"
"I told you, Naruto, I'm fine," Akira said. "But..."
Teuchi came back with Naruto's steaming bowl of ramen and set it in front of him, and he placed a bowl of sōmen noodles in ice water in front of Akira. He came back with several dipping sauces and gave a quick flavour profile of each of them. Akira grabbed her chopsticks and immediately went for the milky sesame sauce. She marvelled at the taste of all the dipping sauces and thanked Teuchi for going through the trouble of making it for her.
"But what, but what!?" Naruto whined.
"But... I do admit that I've been having problems... adjusting."
Naruto was quiet. He took a few bites of his ramen.
"He didn't deserve to die."
Akira put down her drink and sighed.
"No, he didn't."
"Then why did you do it?"
"Why?" Akira scoffed. "Naruto, I meant to kill Zabuza, not Haku."
"Then what happened?"
Akira sighed.
"I was angry."
"Yeah, and?"
"And he got in the way."
"That's it?"
"That's it, Naruto," Akira said. She sighed and put her chopsticks down. "I was angry. Zabuza was being... irritating. Kakashi-sensei was already going in and I—I was just so angry that I went in too. Kakashi-sensei didn't want me to, but I was so... blinded by rage and so sure of myself that I didn't care. I'd confronted death before and I wasn't afraid to do it again. I never expected Haku to throw himself between us and Zabuza. And then I—it was too late. The next thing I know, Kakashi-sensei's arm and my blade had pierced through Haku. There was... blood everywhere—it was on my face, my hands, soaked into my clothes. Sometimes... when I'm washing my hands or looking in the mirror, I can still see the blood. I scrubbed my hands raw that day—it just wouldn't leave."
"Sakura said you were tired that day... she lied didn't she?" Naruto said softly.
Akira nodded.
"When Sakura came to check up on me, there were probably bloody rags everywhere. She must have figured I wouldn't want to see anyone." Akira scoffed. "She was right."
"I still think about him, too," Naruto said after a little while.
His ramen had gone cold by now and both bowls of noodles had gone soggy. Their drinks were creating rings of condensation on the counter, and the warmth of the sun on Akira's and Naruto's back was seeping to their bones again, the cool sensation of their drinks long gone.
"Especially when it snows."
"It's never snowed much in Konoha," Akira said with a smile. "It's a nice thought that he's with us when it does."