Here we are on Chapter number four and I've got to say that it's about time I got around to working on this. Honestly I've got this all planned out and yet I had no idea how to start this one. Fortunately I did and I'm sorry about the delay!
Thanks to all for my reviews and don't be stingy on giving a compliment here or there. Hell, I'll even take criticism because it means that my writing can only get better.
Disclaimer- 'grumble' these things are reeeaallly getting annoying, but I don't own Naruto only the ones that you don't recognize which include our nameless heroine (Who shall get a name in this chapter!) and Hoshi which means 'star' in Japanese. You'll see why I named him this later on in the story, probably in this chapter.
And now I shall snap my fingers and Naruto shall be mine! (Snap) Damn it, didn't work!
Quote- "Women will stop buying tea kettles when kettles stop merely whistling, and start yelling 'nice ass!'" (I cracked up laughing when I read this and I couldn't resist putting it in here! Thank you to anyone who made this up!)
On with the story!
Chapter Four
"I've Always Wanted to Name Something"
What is in a name? How is it important? Is it not just a word that which people call us by to distinguish us from many others around them? Somewhere in the universe is another being with the same name. So why is it special? Does it make us unique in the ways of the world? What about people who do not have something to call them by? What do they have if they have nothing, not even a name? Are they nobodies that are looked down upon from haughty noses and damning eyes? They couldn't be.
It is said in a religion that all beings on Earth were created equally and everyone has strengths and faults that distinguish us from the rest of humanity. Are names really important? Do they make us unique? The common ones, the strange ones, and even ones that have special meanings...what do they really give to a person? A feeling of importance, of originality?
How would we know others? Only when they present their name we know them. Complete strangers are nameless and are forgotten in the next moment. They are not worth the notice or the remembrance. Yet, for the humans we do know, if only their name, they become something within hearts of men and women. Other people noticed the ones hiding behind shadows of doubt, and became their ray of light in their darkened world of despair just because their name was spoken. They were acknowledged for who they were. Wouldn't they become the most precious person in their eyes?
It was all because someone took three seconds out of their time to give a greeting.
Now that one person would think twice about their decisions just because someone would care about them. Someone would remember them. Someone would mourn for that one child or adult. Someone would never forget that one whispered sentence in a crowded world.
"My name is…"
Take time to say a greeting to the ones that passes by unnoticed because when the day ends and night falls, they are given too much time to think.
Learn their name because it might be the only thing they have, and when it is given, don't forget. Underneath the mask of sadness that is worn upon the faces of people, lies a new friendship that is waiting to blossom. And aren't the latest blooms that most beautiful of all?
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"Oh come on, girly, it isn't that hard. Just concentrate and just…let it go."
"Oh, easy for you to say, Mr. I'm-a-freaking-squirrel-reincarnate!"
"Alright, alright kiddo. There's no need for name calling."
"Don't get me started! I'll give you insults squirrelly man!"
"Oh ouch, I think you hurt my pride with that one."
"Oh shut u-ahhhh!"
With a scream, her control vanished and again the girl plummeted back down to the ground for the thirtieth time that day, at least. Her new sensai had decided to teach her chakra control, and his first suggestion was to walk up fifty kilometer high trees…without the use of her hands. Never before had she felt such…such animosity towards one person. Well, technically he was the only person at the moment that she had ever met before, but dammit he was frustrating!
Her back painfully connected with the ground but as least the fall wasn't from that far up. Storm blue eyes clenched in pain as the dust cloud that she had created settled down to reveal Hoshi grinning down at her with a beaming smile. He was mocking her. Honestly, the man never stopped grinning like an idiot, but deep down inside, behind that smile, he was laughing at her. He just had to be. No one could have this much patience with a dunce like her.
Her limbs felt like there were weighed down with several pounds of lead and her legs were as heavy as if someone was sitting on them. The girl tilted her head and saw that indeed someone was. She learned quickly that her oddball of a guardian had no meaning of personal space. Days of changing out in the open where she thought no one was around, were over just as soon as Day One of Crash Course Ninja School began. Apparently, Hoshi had found her soaked body by means of an energy signal that had the strength rivaling that of a spotlight.
Now she wished that she had drowned in that rainstorm. This guy was just too cheery to be normal.
When the girl had woken up from a nightmare that was forgotten during the say, but came back at night, and had the feeling of life back in her body, it was decided that she needed training. Not knowing why, she was very excited at the chance to become a new person in this world. Hoshi had thought that she was from a ninja village, Konoha because of her screams of the demon fox. However, before her ninja life could begin, she had to learn the history where she was so called from. Throughout the whole time, the orphan was silent, just watching her guardian's worn face. At times his thin lips would twist into a grimace of regret and his sea green eyes would sparkle with the presence of tears.
He had said that his family was killed in the incident. Hoshi had a child of nine years of age, seven less than her own and a beautiful wife that he clamed was his one true love, his soul mate.
So because of his inability to shed tears for his fallen, she did it for him.
"Why do you cry?" His softly whispered question came from beside her.
Not even did she bother to hide the evidence of her tears. Silently she turned to the man who had become her whole world in a matter of seconds and wrapped her fever-burned arms around his thin waist and buried her head into his muscled chest which came from years of intense training. She could feel him tense from the intimate contact, but her instincts told her to not release him. She could feel his pain. She wanted to make it stop.
"Because I cry for you and I cry with you. You had a family. You had a life. But yet you lost it all. What if the same happened to me? Did I let myself mourn the deaths of my loved ones? I will never know, but I vowed to make myself a new life and that entitles going through happiness and sadness. Maybe the pain is still too fresh for you and the wound too great to heal, but..."
Her head lifted from his chest and red-rimmed eyes gazed into his own. She could see so much there. It seemed to be true, that old saying that Hoshi had told her. "Eyes are windows to the soul." From what she could see through that open window, his smiling face was just a mask to keep from other people to see his suffering. Right now, that fake smile was gone and the girl could see the true man beneath it. He was alone, just as much as her.
"…but maybe we can mend that rift together."
There, she had said it. For only the brief time that they were in each other's company, the nameless girl had wished for nothing more than a new start. That included a…a father figure. She wanted for him to be there with her. To make her laugh, to make her smile, to hold her when times were bad. She wanted new memories, ones that included him, her guiding star. Hoshi…her guardian, her north star in the overwhelming darkness.
Nobody moved and finally the ninja averted his gaze to the floor and she started to unravel herself from his body. At the last second, however, two hesitating arms wrapped around her back and tenderly brought her back to the warmth of his opening heart. This time, tears of happiness leaked from her storm blue eyes as she happily placed her head on his shoulder.
She was safe in the arms of her father.
Shaking away her thoughts, the girl concentrated on being angry. A growl reverberated from her throat and her left leg, her dominant side, swung up to try and knock him in the gut, but like always, she was too slow and him too fast for her to even come close.
A chuckle swept through the air and a finger was pressed against her sweat covered forehead. Her eyes crossed trying to disintegrate the offending object that was connected to the hand of her dictator. It didn't work apparently because it was still there, mocking her just as his smile was.
"Ah, girly, at least we know that you weren't born with the name of a bird. The many times that you've fallen were big clues," he deducted.
The man was a genius.
"Hell, you might be an earthworm! You're just as dirty as one and it seems that you like eating the ground. I think I'll call you…Kohana! Yeah, it's perfect! 'Little Flower' because you spring up from the ground like a daisy and no matter how many times I try to kill you, you pop right back up!"
A mighty sweatdrop fell from her head at his reasoning for her new name. Isn't it great that he spends so much time thinking of a name for his new victim, oh I mean, student and yet doesn't lift a finger to help he up the stupid tree? Hell, he could throw her up there and she'd just be as happy so that she could at least say that she saw the top! His determination for finding the perfect name for her was that he always wanted to name something before. Obviously the guy had never owned a dog and it really was degrading to actually point out that she did not want to be called Miss. Fluff.
Shaking her head to get rid of the pressure on her forehead, she brought her hands up in the signs of the zodiac and let loose one of the few jutsus that she was taught. Maybe she couldn't climb a damn tree, but she sure as hell could inflict pain! Hoshi saw the signs and immediately recognized the signaled technique, but didn't move. An aura the color of an amethyst gem surrounded her body and concentrated its pure energy at her crossed fingers.
"I'll show you a freakin' daisy," she yelled out triumphantly.
In a blink of an eye, in the span of less than a second, there was nothing on the sparring field. No clue as to where the ninja-in-training could have gone, except for a thin stick. Hoshi didn't even bother to move from his spot on the dirt where the many imprints of his kiddo had smothered the green grass. In fact, he looked up at the scarred tree where many kunai had left their mark in the bark. Maybe she didn't have very good chakra control, but she sure as hell had enough power to back up her many threats. The problem was that she was scared to not have her feet super-glued to the trunk and with too much she couldn't get very far.
The jounin sighed. She had to learn on her own. That was how he was taught by his own sensai. "Words may point out mistakes, but the lesson sticks only when the student is injured enough to not do that stupid trick again." So now he was passing that on. Hoshi just hoped that she didn't knock herself unconscious once again just out of sheer stubbornness.
A chuckle formed when a memory of one of his many suggestions for her new name came to mind. Because of her unwilling nature to give up, he had called her a donkey and the kid had taken offence to his comment when he explained what it was. Her face had gone so red in anger that he wasn't sure that her head could take that much pressure. Oh…he had gotten hit well. Girly there had one hell of a left hook. Hoshi sent out his chakra in hopes of spotting his student, wherever she was, before he got caught by surprise. She was cunning and didn't mind giving low blows in hopes of winning…which she never did but the girl kept trying. He remembered a lesson that he gave her about the guidelines of an honorable fight, but her smart-ass answer of "I'm exploiting the weakness of my opponent. It doesn't matter if he's a man" made him roll his eyes and shake his head. At least the kid was honest; blunt but honest and her wit was a sharp as her tongue.
As he waited for her to strike, the jounin continued to think. He had to return to Konoha, both of them. His extended leave could only last so long from his hometown. Girly really may have been one of the numerous victims of the nine tailed fox about four years ago now, but one thought kept bothering him at the back of his mind. She looked to be about sixteen, and she would have been twelve at the time of the incident. She should have graduated from the academy. With her chakra high and at such a level then she would've been training with her own sensai or might already be a chuunin.
He hadn't found any marks or items upon her body to suggest where her homeland was. There wasn't a hitai-ate anywhere on her as he guessed that she would have. The thought of her running away crossed his mind and then being robbed by rogue bandits came to mind. After getting to know her, however, Hoshi knew that such a thing couldn't happen with her attitude and her pride. Besides, there weren't any injuries upon her body except for a few minor scrapes and hypothermia.
She definitely was a mystery and he would be damned if he wouldn't spend the rest of his life trying to figure everything out about her. He may have missed her actually growing up from a child into adulthood, and his own kid had died too soon to find out what kind of person she would have turned out to be, but maybe his nightly prayers had been answered. She was a blessing. Underneath her crude mouth and overwhelming sarcasm, there was a pure gem that only needed a little polish around the edges to become a priceless treasure. And he would always keep her safe.
Suddenly, there was a rumbling coming from underneath him and the jounin instantly recognized the technique that she had used. He was surprised that girly had actually gotten that jutsu down so fast. In a flash of dirt came the kid like…a daisy, and clasped his shoulders to gain a hold before she swung her leg out to clock him one in the head. Too bad that he saw it coming. With a swipe of his hand, Hoshi caught the offending appendage and used the momentum that she already created to swing her around. The offender in question was now yelling out obscenities at her failed attack as well as him before she felt the hands that held onto her, release. Boy, did she go far.
She flew through the air like a bird and in a moment of pure bliss and triumph that she saw the top of the damned tree, the girl realized that gravity was always in play. Thankfully, her sensai had thrown her in the direction of the lake. Drawing in breath at the last possible moment, she practically cannonballed into the water creating a literal tidal wave that she hoped would at least get her guardian wet. Her feet touched the bottom and she used that to shoot up out of the lake to get a fresh breath of air. Black hair the color of a raven's wing flopped over her head and created a curtain that blocked her eyesight. Sighing in defeat, she dunked her head back under the water and smoothed it back before tiredly heading back to shore.
As her powerful strokes brought her closer to the sandbar, Hoshi decided to come to her.
"Hey! Swim like a normal person! Walking on water is just showing off," she yelled, offended at his level of skill that she could only now dream of achieving.
Yet he didn't laugh, not even did he smirk or rub it in her face. He looked serious and damn was it scary. Really, she was thinking of just turning right around and try to make it to the opposite side of the lake. Instead, she just watched as he came to a stop next to her and squatted down to put a hand on her soaked head. He looked intensely into her eyes before a humongous grin spread across his face and made the forming wrinkles at the edges of his eyes seem more prominent than ever.
"It's perfect," he whispered half to himself.
"What?"
"Your name. Amaya…it's perfect."
She looked amazingly up at him with question in her eyes. Where did he come up with that one? Looking around her to look for his source of inspiration, she only found water.
"Hey, if that has some meaning of a fish then I don't like it."
He laughed, "No, no, kiddo. It means 'Night Rain.'"
She raised a dubious eyebrow, "Where did that come from?"
"Just think for a second even though it might hurt." The girl growled at this. "I found you in that storm at nightfall and it only came to me when the water came up from your splash, which I give a nine by the way."
It was silent for a moment as she thought it over. Somehow, the name seemed familiar as if some part of it she had heard before. Besides, she liked it. The now dubbed Amaya gave a shining grin and popped out of the water to give her sensai a hug which threw him off balance and into the water with her. Hoshi came up spluttering and gave her a mock-glare.
"You did that on purpose."
She gave him an innocent smile, "Now why would I do that? I'm just an earthworm infested daisy. I'm too cute to pull a trick like that."
All around the field was the sound of their carefree laughter and screams of mock-terror as an all-out water war broke out between father and daughter.
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I loved writing this chapter and I almost cried as I wrote about Hoshi's past. But I decided to break away from all the drama for a moment to put in something that would warm people's hearts. It did for mine. What's your opinion?
Next chapter coming soon! REVIEW!
