All characters and settings belong to Kishimoto. Also I made a slight reference to one of TheEdgyBubble's stories… so I hope she doesn't mind ^_^
Chapter 3: Mizu (Water)
Sakura sat up and wiped the tears from her eyes. She hated it when she had those dreams, the ones about that year when they were first team seven. It was always her watching Sasuke and Naruto. They really were like brothers, fighting, struggling, and arguing with one another. But every now and again, when no one was looking, they would crack a joke, smile, or help one another with something.
She scooted out of bed; such dreams always put her out of sorts in the morning. She looked out at the sunny day and then remembered. She had to find Kakashi. She changed into her long-sleeved mission outfit and determinedly put on her black gloves.
"There's no point in crying over the past." she ordered herself. "I have a duty to my village and to my friends; I'm not going to let that old hag beat me."
Walking downstairs she walked past the kitchen and called to her mother, "Don't make me breakfast. I'm doing an errand for grandmother today." she explained.
"Alright," her mother replied, "thanks for telling me, but be sure to eat something!"
"I will!" she assured her.
After leaving the house she contemplated her next move. Where would she look for Kakashi? I could try his apartment, she thought, that would make sense. I know he doesn't have a phone. Besides, I have never actually gone to his apartment; it would be interesting to see at least the outside.Unfortunately, when she arrived at said apartment, she stared dumbly at the door. I should knock. She suggested, but her hand remained stationary. But what if he's busy? I don't know what he's like when his personal time is intruded on. After all, men are weird creatures, I might get to meet crabby Kakashi, and that wouldn't be pleasant.However her grandmother's grinding voice shouted in her ear again. She set her jaw determinedly and knocked. She waited a little while and knocked again. Oh great! He's not home! She felt annoyed, but also a little relieved.
"So, where does Kakashi sensei go when not at his house?" she asked. "Let me see, last time I saw him he was looking at the bookstore. It's a long shot but I might as well try it."
Shikamaru was busy contemplating the logic behind smiling when heard someone sigh exasperatingly. He turned his head and noticed the Haruno girl leaning against the bookstore wall.
"I know it's a bother to ask," He began lazily, "but who are you looking for?"
She looked up at him, "Oh hi Shikamaru. I'm looking for Kakashi, would you happen to know where he is?"
"Oh, well at this time of day he is frequently exercising on the lawn by the bridge or he's assisting with the building project about five blocks from here." Shikamaru explained without hesitation.
"Really?" Sakura asked in disbelief. "I never realised that Kakashi was helpful like that."
"He's not as lazy as he looks." Shikamaru replied, sounding irritated.
"Ok, well, thanks." she replied, then just before she left she turned and asked, "By the way, how did you know that I was looking for someone."
"You never stop by a bookstore, you prefer the library. So you would have been looking for someone else there. Only two of your acquaintances typically buy books, Sai and Kakashi. Since Sai is on a mission, I knew you were looking for Kakashi from the beginning." Shikamaru finished plainly with no self praise, just an air of fact.
"Ok," Sakura replied, flabbergasted. Also there's the matter of him knowing Kakahsi's routine. I doubt he even studied that, he just calculated by noticing and remembering the times when he saw him pass by. People like that frighten me.
As she approached the building site the sounds of hammers and saws filled the air. She looked around at all the workers, many of them were carpenters, but she recognized several ninjas trying their hands at a new art. Despite the cool weather many of the workers were shirtless. Sakura chopped it up to one of two things; either they were working hard, or just showing off. Judging by how one of the carpenters waved at her, she figured it was mostly the latter.
And that's when she noticed an ever familiar hat. "Inari!" she yelled.
The boy turned and smiled, lowered the small beam he had been carrying to run over to Sakura. "Nice to see you! But I have a question. Do you know where Kakashi is?"
"Yes I do, right there helping to raise that wall."
Sakura followed Inari's gaze and saw the silver haired ninja raising a wall with two other men. Once it was upright she walked over.
"Ah, hello Sakura," he said, "odd how we keep running into one another."
"Actually I came looking for you." she corrected. "Um, would it be alright if you could do a bit of a favour for me. I know this is out of nowhere, but could we do some training?"
"You have something specific in mind?"
"Yes, actually, I'm learning a ninjutsu and I would like your advice on chakra form and type."
"Really?" Kakashi asked, seeming rather surprised. "So I take it you are expanding you horizons. Well, since we are technically on leave, I could probably help out."
Sakura smiled brightly, "Thank you very much!" she bowed. "So let's get going."
"Wait," he said, "right now?"
"Of course!" Sakura replied. "You taught Naruto, I should be a breeze."
"Um, would tomorrow be better?" Kakashi said hesitantly, "I just started here and-"
"Don't keep your little lady waiting Hatake!" Izumo yelled cheekily.
"Yeah!" Genma joined in the teasing, "You shouldn't let her get desperate and nee-" his voice cut off suddenly and he shuffled back from the legendary jounin's glare and returned to what he had been doing.
Sakura had been clenching her fist and staring at the ground in irritated embarrassment. She looked up wondering why Genma had cut off. She had missed Kakashi's reaction completely.
"Well that settles it," Kakashi said in his normal dull manner, "let's get going."
"Great!" she exclaimed, forgetting her awkwardness.
As they walked down the street Kakashi pulled out a book as he interrogated his former pupil turned pupil again. "So, why the sudden interest in ninjutsu?"
Sakura sighed heavily. "Yesterday I met with my grandmother. She wants to train me in a Haruno clan jutsu, but before she can, she wants me to learn how to use my chakra type. She has fire style and I don't."
"So which type are you?" Kakashi asked as he turned a page.
"Lightning." she replied.
Kakashi stopped and looked at her in surprise. "Lightning?" he asked.
"Yes." she replied.
"That's very, uncommon. I figured you for an earth type."
Her face twitched, "Are you implying that I'm common?"
"You are lightening style, so obviously not." he assured her, crinkling his visible eye.
She huffed angrily. "All you ever do is read those books by that perver-" it was then that she noticed something she had felt was off the whole time. "Wait, what book is that?"
"Huh?" he asked. "Oh, it's by Kaoru Suzuki."
"That's Ino's favourite author." Sakura said in shock. "My next question is why are you reading some cutsy romantic comedy?"
"Seems to be right up my alley." Kakashi said brushing her off.
"They're written for adolescent girls." Sakura replied dryly.
"So?"
"It's creepy, very creepy." she explained, shuddering. "I can imagine Miss Suzuki's face if you ever went to a signing, she would freak. All that is in those books is emotional porn with loads of breathless kissing, promises of undying love, and recycled plots."
"Actually the writing is quite good." Kakashi said. "You should read it."
"I have," she replied wearily, "I made the mistake of trying to have something in common with Ino. In fact it was the volume you are reading now, the part where the "heartthrob" Gendou makes out with Natsume in the hot spring and they dunked under the water to see how long they could stay under… it was disgusting. The image is burned in my mind!" she stopped talking when she noticed Kakashi frantically flipping the pages. His eye widened, obviously having arrived at the said passage.
"Pervert!" Sakura exclaimed. "Give me that!" She tried to grab the offending book but Kakashi nimbly avoided her. "You know you're just going to get weird day dreams and someday you're going to accidentally act on one and get in tonnes of trouble."
"Uh, Sakura," Kakashi said, "I think you need to watch your volume, you're gathering a crowd."
Her hand immediately folded innocently behind her back and she smiled a golden smile to the onlookers as she spoke out of the side of her mouth, "Let's just jump there, ok?"
"Sure." Kakashi replied.
With that they both leapt up to the nearest roof and proceeded to the central park and stood by the bank of New Lake.
When they both landed Kakashi said, "You know Sakura; if you were a little less uptight you would embarrass yourself so often."
"If you weren't so relaxed you wouldn't be an embarrassment." she shot back then sighed, "Alright, truce? I'm sorry for being such a "Miss Priss"."
He smiled, "What can you do thus far?" he asked, getting to the point.
Sakura bit her lip and made the signs, then held her hand forward. She winced awaiting the pain. There was a white flash and her hand jumped back. "Ow!" she cried, shaking her numb hand.
"Huh" Kakashi mused. "You don't know what lightening chakra looks like. You already use it with your healing technique, and I can tell right now what your secondary style is."
"Huh? How?"
He pointed at his revealed sharingan, "I saw how you formed the chakra, you think like you are water style, even though your natural one is lightening. The way you think and apply chakra is frequently a sign of what your second style would be. In your case you have the capability of learning water style, but before you can do that, you have to learn to think like and use lightning. It's quite obvious."
"Are you done boasting?" Sakura asked. He was only teaching, but it was the ridiculously superior tone that got on her nerves.
"No," Kakashi replied evenly, "How could I be done? I wasn't boasting, just pointing out your incapability."
Sakura smiled determinedly, swallowing her irritation. If I'm going to be instructed, I need to put aside my pride. Tsunade has really rubbed off on me. "Then how do I think, sensei?" she asked humbly.
Kakashi thought a moment before replying. "Recognise, that unlike the other forms, lightning is chaos. It's pent up energy, restless for release, always seeking for a way to the ground, or some other place for it to scatter." he took a step toward her, closing the space between them to only a step wide. "Now, cup your hand and move it to about the level of your heart in front of you."
Sakura raised her right hand, following his instructions.
"Now," he continued, "the cupped hand is important. Because lightening chakra wants to escape, you need to pull more than push to contain it and not waste the jutsu. So, as soon as you start to move the chakra into your hand, pull back with all your might to keep it contained. Start moving the chakra into your hand now."
Her hand glowed green, she shook her head discouraged.
Kakashi nodded and explained, "Stop thinking about healing, make it wild, and destructive, constantly vibrating."
Suddenly the chakra turned a bright blue and dissipated. Sakura's head fell forward. "It's just so different!" she muttered in frustration.
"Relax, we just started. I'll try a trick my teacher did." he replied. He moved one of his hand and rested the fingers against the backs of hers. "Now, you put out the chakra and pull it back. I'll get you started and change the style."
"O…K…" Sakura replied. It felt weird having his fingers on hers, however she hurriedly brushed the feeling aside and started to focus chakra into her palm. She felt a stinging sensation in her fingers and she watched as the chakra changed in her hand. A spark leapt from her thumb to her middle finger, making her wince in pain but she kept focus.
Kakashi guided her further, "You need to force the energy away from the edge. Form it into a dilating egg shape above you palm."
Before Sakura's eyes a marble sized, sparking body appeared in her hand, but with it the pain increase. "It hurts." she said, biting her lip.
"Yes, lightening and fire style are the two forms that cause physical pain, however lightening is far worse. You need to learn to simultaneously insulate your body with chakra. But for now," he said, placing his other hand on her wrist, "I'll do that for you."
Thankfully the pain subsided, though it was still there. "Is this why it takes so much chakra to use this style?" Sakura asked. "Between the insulation, the forming and the containment it must be a lot to think about."
"If you think about it," Kakashi said, removing the hand holding her fingers, "It's not too much different from your healing jutsu, which also has all those elements but takes much more thought. Healing ninjutsu is one of the most controlled forms and you have the best chakra control I've ever observed. Not even I can use more than the most basic form of healing technique and I have tried to learn it with the sharingan."
"So you think I might be able to understand lightening style without too much trouble?"
"What do you call what you are doing now?" he asked.
She looked down at her hand in surprise. There was her little marble of lightening, still pulsing and raging in her hand. She smiled, showing her teeth. "Wow!" she exclaimed, "I can do it!"
Kakashi nodded happily, but his eyes widened in surprise when the ball of lightening shot of tiny bolts every which way, causing Sakura to jump back in surprise, right off the bank into the lake.
Sakura gasped at the cold water against her stomach and legs. "Cold!" she exclaimed she moved to climb back up the bank.
Kakashi extended his hand and she took it. Unfortunately, the bank crumbled under his feet and he too ended up knee deep in the water. Though his eyes looked as dull as usual, behind his mask his face was stuck in a surprised expression. The very next sound was the sprinkling of rain drops.
Sakura slumped forward dejectedly and climbed up to stand on the water's surface, but her frazzled chakra from her lightening attempts didn't cooperate, and she found herself falling face first to the water. She arms flailed and grabbed the only thing she could, the back of the neck of Kakashi's jounin jacket. Kakashi was forced to fall back in to the frigid water or have his windpipe crushed.
A few moments later, the two of them we back on the bank, soaked and muddy and being ruthlessly pattered on by the rain. Their clothing was clinging to them and letting heat escape their bodies.
"We need to get dry." Kakashi said, pointing out the obvious.
"Know anyplace with some towels?" Sakura asked.
"We could buy some in town, but my place is closer, about a half block away."
"That'll work." Sakura agreed, knowing they were going to get hypothermia in the cool February weather.
Within a few moments they were in Kakashi's apartment and the heat vents were running full blast. Kakashi went into the bathroom and brought out three towels. "Here," he said, "use these."
"Don't you need one?" Sakura asked.
"I can just change." he replied.
Sakura worked quickly drying her hair and squeezing her clothing. Finally she wrapped herself up in the beach towel and sat on the sofa in front of one of the heat vents.
Kakashi re-emerged from his bedroom wearing an almost identical set of clothing, minus the jacket.
"I'm sorry." Sakura said.
Kakashi scratched the back of his head, "It's not like we wouldn't have gotten wet from the rain the way it is pouring out there."
"Yeah, but still, we could have been a little less wet." Sakura replied.
"Look on the bright side." Kakashi replied. "You got to be one of the lucky women to stop by my pad."
Sakura twitched in anger. "Pervert," she scolded. "As if you have ever had a girlfriend. Otherwise, why else would you read those books?"
He smiled cheekily and replied, "They have some great tips for when I do get a girlfrien-"
"Okay!" Sakura exclaimed standing up. "I think I'm dry enough." she said walking towards the door, not wanted to hear anymore of her captain's perverted thoughts.
Kakashi smiled in amusement and followed her.
"Why are you coming with me?" Sakura asked.
"I have to return to the building project, your house is on the way." He explained casually.
The two hurried down the street until they arrived in front of Sakura's home.
"Kakashi,"
"Yes?"
"When I used the lightening style, I felt different." she said thoughtfully. "I was wild and my thoughts were all over the place. It really was chaotic, and kind of frightening, as if I had less control over what I was going to do."
Kakashi nodded. "When you use different styles, you do get a different set of emotions running through you. Eventually you will learn to control them. However, I think you are looking too narrowly at what lightening is. Raise up your palm." he ordered.
She did and then to her surprise he met her palm with his. She felt chakra invading her hand from him.
"You see," he said. "this is lightening too. Of the five elements, lightening is the one closest to life. Furthermore, try to pull your hand away."
Sakura tried but discovered that her had was solidly stuck to his. Interesting object lesson, she thought. but this is getting kind of awkward.
"Now push back with your own lightening." he ordered.
A new sensation passed through her body. First, chaos as their lightening fought one another. But then Kakashi adjusted his to match hers. Now she could feel it, a constant cycle completing a circle. Electricity travelling between them in a constant, orderly style.
"Get it? Lightening can be gentle too. You could use this style especially in medicine." Kakashi explained. "By the way, what type of ninjutsu were you planning on learning?"
"Umm," Sakura said, trying and failing to pull her hand from his. "Just a really basic one, raiken, to start out."
"Oh, that one is simple," he nodded. "and useful in a pinch, from what you learned today you could probably figure that one out in a couple days by yourself. It's all about releasing at the right time and controlling it."
Sakura looked up at his visible eye, "Speaking of release, how about my hand?" she asked. The energy abruptly stopped and her hand flung back from his. "Thanks, for everything." she said at last, as she walked over to her door.
"See you around." he waved. As he left her felt a little pang of guilt. Perhaps he should of chosen a better way to teach that last lesson. He actually felt a little uncomfortable with it in retrospect, though not enough for him to actually let go. She probably is just going to chop it up to me being a dirty old man. He sighed remorsefully.
Sakura walked into her house, looking at her hand. It felt so different now, as if any moment it would erupt into a chidori. Don't get ahead of yourself, she thought, but at least I know I can do this."Sakura?" her mother spoke up.
"Yes mom?" she replied turning to her.
"What were you and Mr. Hatake talking about for so long."
"Uh," Sakura replied hesitantly, "just ninjutsu."
"You had to hold hands?" her mother said in slight disapproval.
"Oh mother!" Sakura rolled her eyes. "Actually yes, we did, it was about chakra points and other stuff."
"Oh I see, my bad." she laughed. "It just looked very odd. You know that if Mrs. Kimura next door saw that she would begin a whole gossip train, the nosy hag." Mrs. Haruno covered her mouth. "D-don't tell anyone I said that!"
Sakura put a finger to her lips. "I'll keep a secret if you do. Now," she began with a mischievous grin. "I have to get changed, I couldn't get completely dried off at Kakashi's place." With that she ran up the stares, laughing as her mother lectured her on decency.
Once Sakura closed the door to her room Mrs. Haruno laughed and stopped her fake lecture. "Mama sure has put some motivation into that girl." the mother observed.
And so ends chapter 3! Tell me what y'all think? I greatly enjoyed writing this one. Btw, does anyone think the cast is acting out of character? I'm not entirely sure that I'm portraying them right, so opinions and suggestions are welcome!
I honestly have no idea what I am going to title the next chapter but I will be keeping with the one Japanese word theme though. Sadly, it might actually be a while before I update this again, I have yet to come up with plot for the next chapter. I have ideas for many chapters after that, but not the next one. (-_-') So, just hope that inspiration with smack me in the noggin soon!