A day had passed since Wendy and Lapis' first mission in the ninja world. Tsunade congratulated them for doing a good job and allowed them to rest until further notice.
At that moment, Naruto was walking around the grounds of the village.
"Ah, how good it felt to eat all that ramen. I can't eat any more. Now, I wonder what I should do next." said Naruto putting his hands behind his head.
It was then when he heard something that caught his attention and made him stop. Feeling curious about it, he followed the trail of the sound until he reached a clearing in the forest, just as an explosion happened that caused a curtain of smoke
By the time the smoke cleared, Naruto discovered that, in the middle of the clearing, stood Wendy breathing heavily.
"Wendy?" asked Naruto confused by what the sky dragon slayer was doing.
"Sky Dragon's Wing Attack!" shouted Wendy shooting a pair of tornadoes from her two arms that hit a couple of trees that were knocked down in the process.
Wendy propped herself up on her knees as she was panting from exhaustion. Just as she stumbled and was about to fall, Naruto reached her in time and caught her before she fell all the way down.
"Naruto?" asked Wendy surprised by the jinchuriki's arrival.
Later, Naruto and Wendy were sitting on some stumps while Wendy drank from a bottle of water to refresh herself.
"May I know what you were doing here?" asked Naruto, causing the sky dragon slayer to stop drinking to concentrate on the question.
"I was training." said Wendy.
"Training?" asked Naruto arching an eyebrow.
"Yes. I don't want something like what happened on the last mission to happen again. That's why I decided to get stronger. So I can survive in this world until I can return to my own." said Wendy with a serious expression.
"Ha. That's very good. In fact, you remind me a bit of me." said Naruto with a smile.
"Oh, yes?" asked Wendy.
"Yes. I used to train continuously with the intention of getting stronger and being able to accomplish my goal and more so when I discovered the nature of my chakra." said Naruto.
"Nature of chakra?" asked Wendy confused.
"Oh, right. We never explained it to you. You see, chakra has five types of elemental natures. There are ninjas who can only use one element, while others can use more than one or even mix them to form a different one." said Naruto.
"Sounds amazing." started Wendy seeing more similarities between chakra and magic. "So what is the nature of your chakra?"
"This will surprise you, but my element is wind." said Naruto.
"Really?" asked Wendy surprised to learn that her new friend had elemental abilities like hers. "Does that mean you know a lot of wind jutsu?"
"Well..." began Naruto before rubbing the back of his neck with a nervous smile. "To tell you the truth, I only know how to use one wind jutsu."
"Only one?" asked Wendy.
"Yes." began Naruto before making a clone appear at his side and then the clone set about ripping the air over the original's palm.
To Wendy's surprise, a sphere of blue energy formed in her hand.
"Is that a wind jutsu?" asked Wendy in amazement.
"Not quite. It's called Rasengan, it's a ninja technique where you use chakra to form a sphere in a whirlpool-like fashion. It was a technique taught to me by Jiraiya-sensei." said Naruto.
"Jiraiya-sensei?" asked Wendy as Naruto undid the energy sphere.
"He was an old friend of old Tsunade's. I was traveling with him for a few years, and he helped me become very strong. You could say he was like a grandfather to me." said Naruto with a nostalgic smile.
Wendy could see in that smile and the way he talked about him that this person was no longer with them. She could tell that she knew what Naruto was feeling at that moment.
"I would have liked to have met him, honestly. He sounds like a great person." said Wendy.
"Don't think so. He may have been powerful and wise, but he was nothing more than a perverted hermit." said Naruto with a frown.
"Perverted?" asked Wendy confused that he would talk that way about a person important to him.
"Yes. When we were traveling together, he would leave me alone to go peeping in the girls' bathrooms for his 'research' for his new book." said Naruto.
"New book?" asked Wendy.
"It turns out he's the author of a famous adult novel called 'Icha Icha'. In fact, you can see Kakashi-sensei reading one of those books all the time." said Naruto.
Before, Wendy thought that Jiraiya must be a respectable person as the master of his guild, but with the fact that he spied on naked girls and wrote adult novels, she now thought that he must be like those old perverts that the guild girls always told her to watch out for.
"By the way, what does the Rasengan have to do with your wind jutsu?" asked Wendy remembering the main point of the conversation.
"Oh, yes." began Naruto realizing he had forgotten that. "My wind jutsu consists of transforming the chakra you used for the Rasengan into wind jutsu, which causes four shuriken-like antlers to be added to it."
"Wow. Sounds impressive." said Wendy.
"Yes. Unfortunately, I can't use it continuously. The first time I used it, I ended up getting so hurt that Tsunade banned me from using it again." said Naruto not counting the fact that he could use it if he went into some of the modes he had.
That made Wendy starts to think about the situation and after thinking about it for quite a while, an idea formed in her head.
"I've got it! Why don't we train together?" asked Wendy.
"Train together?" asked Naruto confused before Wendy nodded in response.
"We both use wind-based attacks, and we could both learn new tricks." said Wendy telling the good side of her idea.
"I like the idea, but you use magic, not chakra." said Naruto.
"True, but it's okay to try. Besides, I think it would be more fun if we trained together, right?" asked Wendy with a smile.
Naruto paused to think about what the sky dragon slayer was saying. Magic and chakra may have been different, but it was also similar. Besides, he could learn more jutsus if he trained with someone of the same element as him.
"You're right. Let's get stronger together." said Naruto with a toothy grin and extending his hand towards her.
"Yes." said Wendy before grabbing the jinchuriki's hand and shaking it.
For a couple of hours, Naruto and Wendy were training. At some point, they would give lessons to the other to help them develop a new technique and other times they would practice fighting each other.
All the while, the two were having fun in the process.
Later in the day, Lapis could be seen walking leisurely through the streets of the ninja village. She felt better knowing that Wendy was going to be gone most of the day, since the last thing she wanted was to be around that...
"Lapis!"
Well, it was nice while it lasted.
Lapis turned to the side to see Wendy approaching her as she waved.
"Where are you going?" asked Wendy.
"Nowhere. I just want to walk for a while. ALONE." said Lapis emphasizing on the last word.
"S-Sorry, I just wanted to say hi, I was just leaving." said Wendy feeling sad about the water dragon slayer's rejection.
"And where are you going?" asked Lapis.
"I was going to see Miss Tsunade. I'm going to ask her to teach me ninja medical technique." said Wendy.
"But you already have healing magic and that support magic." said Lapis confused with the intention of the sky dragon slayer.
"I know, but if there's any chance to get better, I'll take it. I don't want anything that happened in the previous mission to happen again." said Wendy with a serious face.
"I told you. It's not your fault. These are things that happen and even more so in this world." said Lapis.
"I know that too, that's why I want to get stronger. To prevent more people from having that happen to them." said Wendy with determination.
"You mean Naruto and the others?" asked Lapis.
"Yes and also... you, Lapis." said Wendy with a smile.
"M-me?" asked Lapis in surprise.
"You may not want to be friends, but that doesn't mean I don't care about you." said Wendy.
Lapis couldn't help but blush slightly at the sky dragon slayer's words.
"W-Whatever. Do whatever you want." said Lapis with a frown before walking away, leaving Wendy behind who went back to her business.
When she got far enough away, Lapis looked down as she hugged herself.
"You care about me? Don't talk nonsense. If you knew what I did, I'm sure you wouldn't say the same thing." thought Lapis.
Tsunade was in her office with Sakura in front of her who was delivering a report.
At that moment, they both heard the door being knocked on.
"Come in." said Tsunade allowing passage.
The door opened slightly, and Wendy peeked out a little.
"H-Hello." said Wendy nervously.
"Don't worry, you're not interrupting anything." said Tsunade gesturing for her to move forward, causing Wendy to enter the office. "Well, what did you come for?"
"I-I... I... came to ask you for something, Miss Tsunade." said Wendy nervously.
"And what is that?" asked Tsunade with an arched eyebrow.
Wendy was shaking with nerves at what she was about to ask, but she knew that if she wanted to get better, she needed to do that.
So, immediately, Wendy bowed to her.
"I'd like you to teach medical jutsus!" said Wendy to the surprise of the two listeners.
"You want to learn medical jutsus?" asked Tsunade in surprise and confusion, receiving a nod from Wendy that went up before that.
"But you already know that healing magic and support magic. As far as I'm concerned, you know enough." said Sakura.
"No it isn't. I want to get stronger so I can protect the people I care about and I'll be able to do that if I improve my healing skills." said Wendy earnestly.
"You know that your healing magic and medical jutsus aren't the same thing, right?" asked Tsunade seriously.
"Yes, but still, I plan to get better at what I can. I don't care how hard it is." said Wendy.
Tsunade stared at the sky dragon slayer, or rather, her eyes, a look that showed how determined she was on that subject. A look she had commonly seen on a specific ninja.
A smile formed on her face.
"Sakura, take care of teaching her the basics until I get there. I have to finish a few things first." said Tsunade.
"Understood." said Sakura before leaving with the sky dragon slayer.
Soon after, the two were walking through the halls of the Hokage's building.
"You're lucky. Not many can learn from Princess Tsunade herself." said Sakura.
"Naruto told me she's an expert in medical jutsu." said Wendy.
"The best, without a doubt. She was the one who taught me everything I know and I'm sure you'll learn a lot, of course, I'll be sure to teach you a few things." said Sakura.
"Thank you very much for the help, Sakura." said Wendy.
"You're welcome." said Sakura.
Night had fallen over the Hidden Leaf Village and at that time, Wendy and Lapis were sleeping on their futons.
After their meeting that morning, Lapis was walking around some more until she decided to go back to the apartment, where she decided to stay for the rest of the day. By the time the sun was setting, Wendy finally returned looking very tired from the day's training. After a silent dinner, the two dragon slayers went to sleep.
"Wendy, are you asleep?" asked Lapis quietly, hoping inwardly that she wasn't.
"Yes." said Wendy, much to the water dragon slayer's disgrace. "What's wrong?"
"What you said before. About how you cared about me. Did you mean it?" asked Lapis without turning around to look at her.
"Of course I did. And I also want to tell you that, if you ever need help or someone to talk to, you can count on me." said Wendy without turning around either.
"You say that as if you know me, but you don't know anything about me." began Lapis in a saddened tone, which Wendy noticed. "Tell me, if I told you that I did very bad things in the past, things that would make me seem like a terrible person, would you still say the same thing?" asked Lapis.
Wendy could tell that Lapis had been through something very bad in her past. She didn't know exactly what it was, but she did know that it hurt her inside. She might not want them to be friends, but at the very least, she would try to comfort her.
"Whatever you did, it doesn't matter." said Wendy to the water dragon slayer's surprise. "That's the past. What matters is the now and even though we've known each other for a couple of days now, I can tell you're not a terrible person."
Lapis fell silent, taking in the sky dragon slayer's words.
"Good evening." said Lapis.
That may not have been the answer she was hoping for, but Wendy went to sleep thinking she had managed to give her the answer she was hoping to hear.
On the other futon, Lapis could be seen trying not to shed tears at the sky dragon slayer's words that had managed to reach her heart.
"That's the past. What matters is the now and even though we've known each other for a couple of days now, I can tell you're not a terrible person." said Wendy in Lapis' mind.
"That... That was the same thing he said." said Lapis shedding a tear.
