Shattered Destiny:

Chapter 11: Conflict

If there was anything orphaned children learned, it was to fear those with abilities different than the rest.

Because they always come with tides of blood to herald them. It's because of stories like this that Satu keeps her distance from her team now.

Throwing fire and lightning isn't a Kekkei Genkai, anyone can learn to do that. Satu pulls her scarf down and huffs, a puff of smoke drifts out past her lips.

Once the smoke is gone she pulls her scarf back up over her nose, it's freezing cold after all. Two floors down Zabuza and Keiki are sparing with sensei watching close by with a pencil and paper, taking notes of their progress.

Zabuza is a killer, and while Satu and Keiki didn't get much of a choice in the matter she didn't see Keiki as what she's been told to expect from a Kekkei Genkai bearer.

Without seeing his regeneration first hand she'd never have believed him or his Kekkei Genkai 'Shattered Destiny'.

"Something wrong?" A Frost gennin asks, sitting down next to Satu.

…

"Common, we're allies." He throws his arms out and lays back. "You can trust me."

Can she really?

"Name's Koki Tsuchiyama, My team's been tasked with making sure you Kirigakure shinobi don't get into trouble." He suddenly says. "I think Our sensei's have met already."

"What do you want?" Satu asks gruffly.

"Why so grumpy?"

"What do you mean?"

"When you got here with your team you were happy, now you're not." He scratches his chin. "Have a falling out with your team?"

…

"Okay… what's your name?"

…

"I gave you mine!"

"Satu Matsuo."

"Thank you!" Koki says.

Satu watches as the rest of Koki's team greet hers, putting an end to the spar. Keiki sits down immediately and drops his tonfas, exhausted.

"Do you like it here?" Koki asks.

"It's a bit cold." Satu admits rubbing her hands together, they're cold despite the gloves.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"What's wrong?"

…

"Whatever it is, you'll have to come to terms with it eventually." Koki huffs. "You look like you have something on your mind that won't leave you alone."

"How can you tell?" Satu turns to look at him.

"Your eyes." He puts his fingers next to his eyes.

…

She doesn't know anything about this boy, so why's he prying? "Just… thinking."

"About your team?"

Instead of answering she looks down at her team, they seem to be getting along. Keiki's showing off his fire… as he loves doing. Satu can't help but let out a sigh, will those flames be turned on her home?

Koki sits up. "Ah, so it's him." He says noticing the fire. "Are you jealous?"

"No." That's one thing she knows for a fact, she is not envious of her Teammate's abilities.

She's afraid of them.

"Yes you-"

"I'M NOT!" Satu snaps, steam blasting from her sleeves scarf, melting the snow around her and turning it into more steam.

"Cool!" Koki says after a delay. "I've never seen someone shoot steam before!" He has a large grin on his face as he wipes away at droplets that ended up on his face, the skin an angry red where the steam touched him.

"It happens, nothing special." She brushes off.

"Well, it's cool." Koki continues grinning. "I bet you always have hot water when you want."

"... Yeah." Satu nods slightly.

"That means… No waiting for water to heat up for hot chocolate!" Koki sounds like he's just had an epiphany.

"I… guess?"

"Besides the whole jealousy thing-"

"I'm not jealous!"

"Do you like your teammates?"

"W-we've been a team for less than a week." Satu stammers.

"But how do you like being with them so far?"

…

"Take your time."

How well does she know her teammates? Other than the ambush there wasn't much time to develop team cohesion… If you could call it that.

"It's…. Complicated." Satu eventually says, looking back down at her group.

"Is he holding fire!?" Koki points down at Keiki, who's showing off his flames.

"He does that."

"That's awesome, you don't see many elemental release prodigies… at least that's what my sensei told me."

"What do you think of your team?" Satu asks him.

"They're awesome." Koki says with a large grin. "We've been a team for a year now, keeping the peace and keeping tabs on Hot Water and Lightning." He leans back again.

"What about at first?"

"It was weird at first, but we got over it."

"Weird how?"

"We didn't even know each other's names and we were tasked with diplomacy with Lightning."

"Don't tell me that you guys are allies!" Satu sputters with eyes wide.

Koki laughs. "We're allied with you, Lightning wishes they could be allies with us." he boasts with a large grin. "They want open borders so they can start negotiations with Hot Water."

"Why?"

"I dunno, can hazard a few guesses though."

…

"Find the words yet?"

"For?"

"How you feel about your team, I told you how I feel about mine."

"... I don't know." She brings her scarf up over her eyes in an attempt to hide.

"Not something easily put into words?"

Satu shakes her head, keeping her scarf up over her eyes.

"Well, what're their names? You can start with that."

Satu pulls her scarf down. "The… uh… back haired one is Zabuza Momochi."

"What can you tell me about him? if you can."

"He… really wanted to be a ninja, I don't know much about him." Just don't mention that he killed an entire academy's worth of students to get there… don't even think about it.

"Okay, how about the brown haired one?" He points at keiki.

"Keiki Sekine, we were in the same class." She starts.

"Then you must know a lot about him!" Koki settles down for a long story.

"As time went on he distanced himself from the rest of the class, being in the academy bored him."

"Why's that?"

"He could already do that." She points down at Keiki, who is currently sending a stream of fire into the air with a grin on his face. "He only tried if the instructors forced him too."

"A deadbeat?"

"Kinda." Satu nods thoughtfully.

"Was he bullied a lot?" Koki asks, hurt in his voice.

"He blew the arm off of the only person who tried, accidentally."

"He- what!?" Koki's eyes widen. "How do you accidentally blow someone's arm off!?"

Satu just shrugs. "After that, nobody wanted to be near him."

"Did that include you?"

"Sometimes the others would give me a hard time, Keiki would give them this look and they'd run over themselves." She smiles fondly at the memory, not that Koki can see it.

"Ooooohhh, Satu and Keiki sitting in a-"

"Knock it off!" Satu forcibly shoves Koki, almost knocking him off the balcony.

"Watch it! A fall from this height would hurt!" Koki says with a start.

"You deserved it." Satu says, trying to hide her red face behind her scarf.

"Where'd you get the scarf?" He changes the subject.

"It was my mothers, it's the only thing I have left of my parents."

"Oh, must be special then."

"Uh huh." Satu pulls her scarf down, eyes to the ground.

"Why the long look?"

"Kekkei Genkai users are killers." She finally lets out.

"All shinobi are killers."

"Not like them, every so often they'd go on a killing spree until they're killed, or if they've killed enough." Satu wasn't alive since the last 'culling' but those living within the sandbar wall still remember.

"Wow… and Keiki..."

"He has a Kekkei Genkai." Satu nods.

"Fire Release isn't that uncommon of a bloodline, Steam Release on the other hand."

"It's nothing special." Satu waves off.

"If you say so, do you want hot chocolate? I want hot chocolate." Koki gets up.

"I'm good." Satu waves off his question.

"I'll bring you some then, after waiting for the water to boil… Where's Sakue-chan?"

"Inside, where it's warm."

"Talk to you when I have hot chocolate!" Koki rushes inside the ice covered stone structure.

Satu returns to her thoughts. She doesn't have a Kekkei Genkai, she's not a serial murderer.

The skill constellations hover in the void around me, I can hear people talking around me.

The constant sparring with Zabuza finally netted me a level up, so I'm looking at what's available and what's farther down the line. Speech has something for shouting, but how it talking really loudly helpful? And why does it have a 'cooldown'?

What's in Elemental Ninjutsu?

Elemental Ninjutsu Mastery: Elemental Ninjutsu Jutsu costs 35% less chakra, and Elemental Ninjutsu jutsu's are 0.25% more powerful per level of Elemental Ninjutsu.

Why not?

Elemental Ninjutsu Mastery 2: Elemental Ninjutsu Jutsu costs 50% less Chakra, and Elemental Ninjutsu Jutsu's are 0.5% more powerful per level of Elemental Ninjutsu.

I return to the land of the living, the stars fade and the world around comes back into sight. Some Frost shinobi stopped by to say hello, but nothing much.

Satu is still watching from above, if she wanted to say hello she could have come down and said hello. "So, your regeneration only starts up after you're out of harm's way for a short time?" Zabuza asks.

"Yup." I say rubbing my neck, where two kunai stabbed me. I wish I knew more about this Kekkei Genkai. I'd be able to help out more.

"That's so weird!" Zabuza says.

Sensei is writing stuff down in her folders, she's been furiously writing stuff down ever since I opened up. I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a little annoyed, I feel like a test subject.

Team Four:

Return to Kirigakure:

There's no going back the way we came, Sensei told us that Hot Water shinobi stopped by to alert the kage that we were in his borders, and that they failed to stop us.

Little did they know that we're hiding in plain sight… Why isn't my stealth going up if that's the case? This is so confusing. "What're you going to do once we get back to Kiri?" I ask him.

"Train, I'm going to be one of the seven swordsmen!" Zabuza answers with pride. "What about you?"

"Hopefully learn how to use more jutsu, find a way to work around my Bloodline." I tell him.

"Get rid of that limit of yours." Zabuza nods understandingly. "What'd you take?"

"Talent?" When we were interrupted I told him that I 'leveled'.

"Anything you didn't tell me about?"

"No, no." I hold my hands up in surrender. "Elemental Ninjutsu Mastery, my fire is stronger and doesn't use as much chakra."

"Taijutsu Mastery, One Handed Mastery, Elemental Ninjutsu Mastery?" Zabuza shakes his head.

"Don't Forget 'And the Universe Listens'." I point out.

"What's that."

"I regain health, stamina and chakra by shouting." I offer.

Zabuza shakes his head in wonder. "By shouting?"

"Not by shouting exactly, 'Regenerate equal to your shout cooldown in seconds'."

"What's a cooldown!?"

"Beat's me!" I shrug helplessly.

"Sensei!" Zabuza shouts.

"Yes, Zabuza-kun?" Sensei sets aside her project.

"What's a cooldown?"

"Scientifically or?"

"Sure."

"Waiting for something to recover enough to be usable, kinda like waiting for a hot meal to cool down enough to not burn your tongue."

Now I'm even more confused.

"I'm back!" Koki returns with two mugs of hot chocolate. "Sakue-chan says hi."

He hands Satu a mug. "Thank you, I thought you left with your team."

"They're gone?" Koki looks down, it's just Kiri's Team Four talking amongst themselves.

Minus Satu.

"We'll meet up later, still skulking?"

"I'm not skulking!" Satu argues, pulling her scarf forward enough to sip her chocolate milk without lowering her scarf.

"Sure you aren't." Koki settles down next to her. "Then what were you doing?"

"Thinking."

"About?"

Instead of answering Satu just looks down at her team.

"Still believe that he's a cold blooded killer, despite you being similar to him?"

"I'm nothing like that!"

"And I bet he's nothing like that either." Koki says calmly. "War makes people do things they'd rather not do, I'm just lucky that we've managed to stay out of the line of fire for so long."

"Have you killed anyone?" Satu asks.

"Yeah… turncoats and bandits." Koki admits. "But am I am I a serial murderer for protecting my village?"

"No…" Satu says meekly, setting her unfinished drink aside.

"Give your team a chance, they might just surprise you." Koki taps Satu's shoulder.

"Why'd you come talk to me anyways?" Satu asks warily.

He finishes his drink, trying his best to get the last drops. "You looked sad, like my brother used to be."

"Where is he now?"

"Gone."

"When will he be back?"

"Not that kind of gone." Koki stands and makes his way to the door.

Realization dawns on Satu. "Oh… I-I'm sorry."

Koki turns around with a large smile on his face. "Don't worry about it, someone's gotta smile for him." He gives her a thumbs up.

"O-okay." Satu says flustered, tightening her scarf and pulling it up.

"You might want to finish that before it freezes." And with that, Koki walks into the building again.

Authors Notes: yeesh this took awhile and I apologize for the delay, I wanted to make sure this would be a good chapter and ended up changing what it would be about three times (A little peek behind the curtain). And as always I hope you enjoyed this bit and the previous chapters, and I hope you'll stick around for more!