Valor and Harmony
Chapter 2: Admiration

A young, blond-haired child stood smiling before a strong, brown-haired man. The man ruffled the boy's hair playfully. Suddenly, a behemoth of a man attacked from behind, grabbing the brown-haired man and taking him away. The young one yelled into the distance in shock and fear...and eventually depression. "Father…"

Eventually, a new man approached in the distance. Another brown-haired one, this one a little older, with strange-looking crinkles around his eyes. He had a young child too. Soon, this one introduced another…and the boy looked in awe at the shirtless, white-haired man. He also looked in curiosity at the book the man was writing…

Arashi blinked, then frowned. A sigh leaked out of his lips. Old memories are still trying to take the forefront…the boy didn't have moments like this often, but seeing his friends hurt and being unable to do anything about it always brought his past back.

Arashi had been greatly affected by the Great Ninja Wars. His father raised the boy alone in a somewhat small apartment, but the arrangement was a happy one that neither regretted. Unfortunately, this all changed one day when the shinobi of hidden Stone village attacked Konoha…Kazama Aori sacrificed his life to protect his son from the marauding ninja. As such, the boy was orphaned at an early age, and he was going to be forced out of a home…

From this incident came his will to become a ninja…not so much to avenge his father…as to prove himself worthy of his father's sacrifice…in hopes of someday being willing to do the same thing himself for the people he loves. Not only that, but the boy also dreamed of someday being able to do something…that would end the wars. Sarutobi-sensei admired the child's strength in such a tough time, and decided to temporarily pay for the apartment so that the child could remain there. Once the child proved his ability, Jiraiya-sensei took over that payment, taking the kid into his own tutelage.

Since first becoming a ninja, there were few people that Arashi saw more of than Jiraiya-sensei. As a result, he had become very familiar with the man. His perverseness was ignored, but his heart and determination had rubbed off on the young boy. Arashi looked to Jiraiya as a father figure -- albeit an immature one.

Still, it was Jiraiya who had paid for the boy's apartment all those long years when he couldn't afford it on his own. It was Jiraiya who had taught him nearly everything he knew about ninjutsu. The man had withheld little of his own life from the young, eager boy, and Arashi was proud to be considered his student. And as such, it was he who had pulled the boy into the closest thing to a true family Arashi had ever experienced.

The kunoichi of the Sannin, Tsunade, had taken a liking to the boy and was proud to consider him a nephew of sorts. He didn't even think twice about calling her when this situation arose.

Watching her tend to the wounds of the poor girl on his sofa, he couldn't help but be thankful for the kindness she had shown him all these years. She was the first real motherly influence on his life, both in just being there to support him and in nursing his various wounds after missions.

These thoughts ran through the back of his mind, but his primary source of thought for the moment was concern for Uzumaki Narashima. "Tsunade-basan…"

Tsunade smirked a bit, her face turned away from Arashi's vision. His voice was so shaky…it was quite obvious he cared about her a lot. "Don't stress out, boy. You're bothering me." She heard him take a shy step back and nearly burst into laughter, only avoiding doing so because she was currently wrapping the girl's ribs. "You know I'm kidding you…"

Arashi chuckled and replied. "Aunt Tsunade, I don't know when you're kidding or not. You have too many mood swings." He saw her hands freeze in mid-wrapping motion and smirked. "And don't think I'll take that back…you and I both know it's true."

Tsunade didn't respond right away, instead carefully finishing the tight wrapping of the Narashima's ribs. A moment later, she smiled and stood up, turning to face the boy. "There. Anyway, whatever you two were doing out there did a number on her ribs. Everything else is secondary…she used up a ton of chakra, but that will recover with time. Her two lower ribs are broken, and I did some careful work to set them." Arashi nodded.

Tsunade continued on with her assessment of the situation. "She's going to need a few weeks to recover from this completely…and at least a few days off her feet so that the bones have a chance to totally set back into place. Make sure she knows that..." She saw the look of concern return to his face as he heard that.

"That's a bit of an issue…tomorrow's--"

"Tomorrow's your team's test, isn't it?" Tsunade smiled, watching the young man nod in reply.

"Yes. My team needs to be tested…and unless they fail, the missions after that…but I certainly don't want to leave her alone here either. I may have to call in a favor…"

Tsunade paused and thought for a moment, then turned toward the young girl, sleeping silently. For a split moment, her mind drifted. I wonder how these two became friends…she looks like she's about 19. He's only 16… "If push comes to shove I suppose I could take care of her."

Arashi looked to his honorary aunt, then shook his head no. "I won't impose on you like that, Tsunade-sama. You have important enough things going on in your life-"

Tsunade raised her voice. "And you don't, Hokage-sama?"

He paused for a moment, lifting a finger to his lips and pointing to the sleeping woman. Tsunade paused, and Arashi quietly responded. "She's my friend…I'll find a way to take care of her."

Tsunade looked intently at Arashi, seeing the focus in his eyes and knowing it wouldn't even be worth the time to try to change his opinion anymore. "Ok…if you won't consider me, at least consider the Hyuuga clan. They're nearby, and they have enough tenders to handle an extra person with little trouble."

With that, Tsunade took her bag and prepared to leave, and Arashi opened the door for her. "Thanks very much, aunt Tsunade, for coming on such short notice." Tsunade nodded, and after much talk at the door, eventually the two parted company.

Arashi turned, looking at the girl resting quietly, and knowing she probably would be out for a while based on how much energy she'd used against him. Speaking of which… "Ugh…I gotta get food now…"

Indeed, even the greatest of ninja warriors could be turned into a total weakling if left without food for too long. Ichiraku Yorui looked onward as - of all people - the fourth Hokage stumbled into his place, looking half-exhausted. "Fancy seeing you here," the old shop owner joked. Arashi had been one of his most frequent customers. "And fancy seeing you like this…"

Arashi chuckled. "Yeah…I…" He caught his tongue, realizing he was this close to blabbing out something he wasn't ready to tell people…that he had a run in with an old friend. "I kinda went overboard on my training earlier. Every now and then I forget my own limits…so then I have to set them further."

The old man laughed loudly at the joking comments of Arashi. "Well whatever…I'll give you double whatever you pay for just this once. Eat well and get back to full strength as soon as possible, Yondaime." Arashi bowed politely to the kind elderly owner of the Ichiraku Ramen Shop…it seemed today would be an interesting day.

"Okay then…4 bowls of shrimp ramen…and 4 of miso! To go!" Arashi chuckled as the shop owner's mouth dropped.

"You're not gonna eat all that! Trying to break me? The only person who eats that much is…"

"Uzumaki Narashima…who is staying with me tonight and needs to have food."

Yorui looked carefully at the Fourth…searching his eyes for any hint of a lie. Finding none, he pondered the reason…his thoughts, however, were interrupted. "I understand if you don't want to keep that offer. I'll be happy to pay for it. This was my intention before you ever brought that up."

The old man thought for a moment, then returned a genuine smile. "Nah…I won't go back on my word. In fact…on the house! Just don't tell anyone else I did that." Arashi slimed slyly and gave his word not to spread the news.

As he walked out, he yelled "Yorui is a softy!" as loud as he could, then ran for dear life.

500…501…502…the rug ruffled lightly beneath the legs of Kazama Arashi as he adjusted his position slightly. He lay on all fours on the wooden floor, keeping a set pace as he continued to do his pushups. On the sofa near him lay Nara-chan…on the table in front of her lay two finished helpings of ramen. Hers, however, were in the fridge since she had never awoken. What had begun for Arashi as silently waiting for Nara to wake up had eventually proceeded to quietly carrying on with the rest of his originally planned night routine.

Arashi silently did his push-ups, his mind attempting to plan out the perfectly cool, yet difficult test he wished to give to his students the next day. I need something that would be enjoyable if they do well…that would allow for teamwork to be an advantage…and that would require a bit of thought in order to have success. Having never planned one of these before, he was having a significantly larger amount of trouble coming up with an adequate test than he had expected.

Darn my arms are burning, he thought. He began to regret saying he'd keep doing push-ups until he finished planning the test. 509…

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Sometime after he'd gotten his plans for the next day, and eaten another bowl of ramen, he'd suspected she might not have the strength to wake up that night. Quickly, he showered and began to cool down and prepare for bed. As soon as he re-entered the room after his shower, he heard what seemed to be a belabored and pained moan from the living area.

With a start, Arashi jogged over to the wounded girl, and watched her quietly. Slowly, her eyes seemed to notice his presence and focus upon him. Eventually, she found her vocal cords.

"….wh….where?"

Arashi smiled just slightly, glad to know she was still coherent after all that had happened. "You're at my place. Don't…"

Nara snapped up into a sitting position as best she could, ignoring the extra resistance she was getting. His place? Why…The thought got lost in immense pain as she quickly slumped back into a prone position. She gasped hard, but refused to yell.

"Don't move…" Arashi continued. "Your bottom two ribs are broken, and they've been set so that you couldn't…just do that. I guess Tsunade underestimated your will power…"

Broken ribs? With a flood of emotion, the day's events suddenly flew back into Nara's mind. Arashi watched slowly as her expressions changed…pain, regret, disappointment…she suddenly seemed a lot less lively than she had a moment before. Recognizing it for what it was, Arashi decided to take that moment to go complete the dishes. Nara just lay there, lost in thought.

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched her silently lie there while he washed the dishes. After washing them and drying them as well, he felt the thoughts swimming in his mind, trying to find some legitimate reason for what had happened earlier that day.

What could she possibly have been doing? Was she really trying to kill me…a spy? Or was this a joke…a sick joke gone wrong? What could be the meaning of this?

Her silence was driving his mind to jump to conclusions. It had been 15 minutes since she'd first awoken, and the look on her face let him know she was having no easier time dealing with what had happened than he was. Eventually, it grated on his sanity, and he just couldn't avoid asking anymore. "Nara, I hate to ask this so soon after you've awoken, but I have to know...and I've never been good at small talk when something's on my mind." He saw her eyes lift up to look into his own. "What…the heck…happened today…and why?" Immediately, her eyes jerked away from his, seemingly in shame.

After a moment of what Arashi considered shaky breathing, he watched her try to contain herself. As she finally spoke, her voice came through loud and clear. "I had to prove something…to myself."

Arashi responded, a bit confused and a bit edgy. "So you fought me…without telling me anything…making me think you were from another village…"

She cut him off, replying…"You wouldn't have fought me seriously any other way and you know it."

Arashi paused, considering the meaning of her words just now. His voice expressed his curiosity and confusion. "So you wanted me at my best to judge yourself against…and you were willing to risk death to do it right…"

She frowned. "I was willing to risk death to prove my point…but I was under par."

Arashi listened, and noticed her silence after those last words. Taking a moment, he sat down at the chair next to the sofa, right by her head rest. "Under par? What ridiculously high standard do you have set for yourself? Do you realize what all you did today?" As he saw her gaze out into nowhere, Arashi pointed his index finger out, pinning his other index finger over it as he began to count off things.

"First, you had a fight with a Hokage. Even if it's just me, that's still a big thing." He flicked his middle finger out, pinning it down too. "Then, you used 10 kage bunshins…and you gave them enough chakra to perform their own techniques…beyond the normal bunshin and imitation. I've never seen a clone of any sort perform a Jounin-level technique of its own."

"THEN, you had your clones attack in conjunction, using weapons, teleports, and lightning attacks. Oh yeah, did I mention you did the entire thing while imitating the form of a rai-hunter nin? And making each and every clone constantly mimic the form too? All that…"

Nara could feel herself blushing as he continued to rant on her. "I don't even understand how you did half of that stuff…how in the world did you make a bunshin-kage or not-that could take a few licks…."

Nara smiled just slightly, then replied. "I found a way to control it…so that pouring more chakra into the jutsu doesn't just automatically multiply the number of clones you make. This way, I can make each clone have more chakra….quality clones instead of quantity."

Arashi just sat there listening. She's talking about how much crap she is, after showing that much chakra control. Re-freaking-diculous. After a moment of silence, he finally replied. "There are only a handful of ninjas that could even do that much, Nara…you did it while fighting a Hokage in what could have been a death match…while cloaking yourself and managing weapons and lightning attacks. THAT'S AMAZING…I can't think of too many folks who have more to brag about than you today. I know I couldn't have done nearly that much."

Nara looked up at him incredulously. "What about you? I never even laid a hand on you…with 10 clones and a bunch of super attacks, the most I was ever able to do was leg sweep you for a split second…nothing else I did even hit you. You totally dominated me…"

Arashi didn't know what to say, but he could hear in her voice that she still wasn't proud of herself. "Most people I would have fought in that situation…would have ended up dead inside of 2 minutes. You survived the whole match, and if not for the fact that the clone beneath my foot let go of me, you might have even killed me. Why are you so down on yourself?"

Narashima's every instinct took over, and she yelled out "Because I'm not most people! I've always been BETTER than..." Immediately, she got silent, knowing she was about to say something far too bold and not at all true anymore.

The silence he heard from his friend was quite unsettling. Arashi took a walk to the window, taking a look out. After a moment, he heard her soft reply, almost as if she were saying it to herself. "I…I've always been…better than you…or at least I always kept believing I was. You might have been great with jutsus, and even taught me some…but no matter how hard you tried, you were no leader. You just didn't have the confidence in yourself to stand tall. I could never be worse than someone like that, no matter how much he excelled. I always stood tall on that, no matter how far I fell behind you physically."

Arashi didn't move or reply, waiting to see if she would say more. He was rewarded. "But then…all of a sudden all of that flipped. You became not just a leader, but the Hokage. The guy I'd spent half of my life calling a coward became Hokage. How could I accept that?" Arashi turned back to face her, his shadow blocking the light of the setting sun from her eyes. "If I couldn't beat you…the coward…then I didn't deserve to be a ninja. If I couldn't stand in the face of a coward and make him back off, then what kind of a warrior am I? Not only that, but if you were still a coward, you…" Her voice broke.

Suddenly, Arashi began to understand, ever so slightly, why she had done what she'd done. It was a proving ground…for both of them. She'd wanted to prove her own superiority to him…and convince him that he wasn't ready for Hokage. He could hear her sobbing lightly, and his concern for her made him suspect that crying certainly wasn't a help to her ribs. "I understand, Nara. If I wasn't ready to be Hokage, you wanted me to know it. And you wanted acknowledgement. It's ok…I acknowledge you."

"Arashi…I'm sorry. For so long, I've set you up as a bad guy. As the evil rival I needed to motivate myself against…so that I could grow stronger. You becoming Hokage meant I could never surpass you…and I had to know if you had earned it, or if it was just because the "child prodigy" had come of age…"

Arashi frowned slightly; that whole 'prodigy' term never quite agreed with him, especially from her. "Don't say anymore. Get your rest."

Nara's voice began to break as the pain from her ribs and her thoughts combined…"You showed me…you showed me my own cowardice…my hypocrisy--" Her broken voice was cut off suddenly when she felt a light touch on her hand. Turning her head on the couch, she turned to see a strong hand wrapped firmly around her own. Looking up into the eyes of Arashi--tears glistening in her own--she felt so out of place.

Arashi smiled brightly back to her, putting a finger over her lips and telling her to shush. Cheerfully, he spoke to her, his smile unwavering. "It's been forgiven…drop it."

If there was anything difficult for Nara to do, it was to drop something unfinished, especially when it involved her own self-bashing. But, something in the look on his face just…made her comply. Nara smiled back to him, reaching up to his hand and rubbing a finger against his rough skin. A moment later, her heavy eyelids closed on her.

Arashi held her hand a moment longer, then pulled the covers up around her. "You're a lot cooler than you think, Nara-chan…"

-----End Chapter-----

It's funny writing two stories...that intertwine...and attempting to get to the point where you can alternate stories and keep going in combined chronological order...yeah I screwed that up a long time ago. But at this point, this story's actually close to catching up again.

Sorry for the semi-lackluster chapter...started the fic off with a big fight scene...but really this is going to be a romance fic, so expect a lot of talking and a lot less action than the first chapter. Especially considering one of the main characters is highly incapacitated for the moment.

It's a 3-day weekend! YEAH MEMORIAL DAY! I'll probably get more out today...maybe the rest of SoaN Chapter 4...but we'll see.