A/N: Finally! It's Yoku's turn again! ^ ^ A little more OOC'ness, but bear with me. If I describe the techniques incorrectly, then tough luck. I describe them like I understand them to be.

Chapter 4 – Yoku's Training

~ * ~Yoku's POV ~ * ~

I struggled a lot more than Yume-chan did, all because she was too proud to help me. I was so embarassed when Deidara-kun-kun led her away after she had perfected all three basic techniques, and told me to try and relax. I wondered whether he disliked me for being so violent—it was the reason I never had any friends.

I tried taking Deidara-kun's advice and took a few deep breaths before focusing on nothing but mixing the body and mind's energy inside my body before releasing it and, to my surprise, a perfect after-image of myself appeared.

After a week or so I managed to replace myself with a large boulder or log and could successfully transform into Deidara-kun. I caressed a lock of the hair that looked exactly like his, running my fingers over the smooth skin of the cheeks that were exactly like his before getting a hold of myself and calling him in to show him I could execute the techniques.

"Did you take my advice?" he asked softly, and I nodded silently, looking at the floor, "Come with me, un."

I followed him silently through a few unfamiliar corridors until he opened a door and we entered a room empty of other people. The far half of the walls were covered in posters of explosions and there were white clay statues lying all over the floor and surfaces on that half, and my breath caught when I realized I was in Tobi and Deidara-kun's room. Tobi's half was completely blank, like Yume-chan and my room. I stayed in the doorway, waiting for him to finish whatever it was he wanted to do here, and he looked at me expectantly.

"Sit down for a moment, un," he said, gesturing to his bed before moving to the desk and starting to rummage in the drawers.

Heat rushing to my face, I crossed the room, careful not to step on his statues, and sat down on the bed, watching him search for whatever it was he was looking for.

Finally he took a roll of bandages, cotton wool and balm and walked over to me. My ears and tail sprouted despite myself as he kneeled in front of me and softly took my left hand in his.

My imagination ran away with me, and I saw him wearing a suit instead of the deep purple T-shirt and black pants he actually wore. The bandages were really a silver ring with a small diamond—

I winced as he touched the wounds on my knuckles and reality returned. He had been trying to apply the balm using the cotton wool, and his head snapped up sharply when I winced.

"I'm sorry. Please bear with me. Kakuzu is out collecting a bounty and he's the only medic we have, un," he said.

I nodded and he touched the balm-covered cotton wool as gently as he could to my wounds, but it still burned terribly. I was so stupid. Why would I hit a wall like this without thinking of the consequences?

It seemed like utter torture, but I managed to keep myself from screaming and yelling out in pain, and finally, after a while, my wolf ears and tail disappeared again. After what seemed like hours Deidara-kun finished bandaging my hands, and he caressed them once before looking up at me with a faint smile touching his lips.

I swallowed hard. I was going to do this, I was going to manage it, and I did. I choked out the words, "Th-thank you, D-Deidara-kun-kun."

He looked shocked for a moment, seemingly struggling with himself, and I looked away as my ears and tail sprouted again.

"No problem, un," he finally said, and he stood up. I looked at him just in time to note the faint pink-ish tint to his tanned skin.

After a few moments, he led me through more corridors and into another large room, but not quite as large as the first one. Kisame sat on a desk, caressing the bandages on his sword, until we entered. His eyes still totally freaked me out, and I cringed despite myself.

"Good luck, un," Deidara-kun told me before leaving. I kept my eyes on Kisame as his face slid into a smile.

"You're the one who doesn't talk, aren't you?" he asked.

'Well, duh!' I thought, 'I'm one of two new arrivals, and the other has already made her existance known to the whole world with that attitude of hers'.

"I'll just have to keep it simple, huh?" he said, "Do you know about chakra nature manipulation?" I nodded. "Do you know which element you are?" I shook my head.

He nodded and reached inside his cloak and handed me the small square piece of paper I recognized so vividly. I already knew about the reactions the paper gave to the elements, and I knew what to do with it. Struggling for a few long, embarassing moments, I managed to focus chakra in the piece of paper. Instantly it got soggy and a few water droplets dripped to the floor. So I was water.

"There aren't really any basic water techniques," Kisame sighed, "I'll start with the Water Clone. It's the easiest I can think of." I nodded and he continued, "I'll just learn from Itachi's mistakes and teach you to run up a wall first, shall I? Do you know about that?" I nodded. "Can you do it?" I shook my head. "Well, as you progress I'll teach you to land as comfortably as possible, but this might be a little difficult, since you won't talk."

I turned my back to Kisame and faced the wall. I followed Deidara-kun's earlier advice and forced myself to concentrate and stay calm as I folded my fingers into the necessary seal, and tried focusing a steady amount of chakra in the soles of my feet.

I didn't even manage the first step and fell to the ground, landing on my head. I let out a grunt of pain.

"See, when that happens, kick the wall with the foot other than the one that slipped to turn yourself in mid-air, then land on your hands to do a kind of back-flip," Kisame said as I got up, "It sounds a lot easier than it is, but you'll get there."

I nodded and tried again. This time I focused more chakra in my feet, careful not to focus too much, and tried again. I made the second step, and when it slipped I kicked hard against the wall with my other foot, but only ended up sliding on the wooden floor instead of just landing. Anger flared inside me, but I cooled it down with a deep breath. Kisame's stare was making me uncomfortable and I had a hard time concentrating, but I had no way to let him know that.

After only a few days I managed to stand upside down from the ceiling, and when Kisame grinned, I released the chakra, twirling in mid-air and landing lightly on my feet. I smiled at him. I had managed not to freak out over his eyes and gills anymore.

"You're doing really good," he complimented, "Are you ready for the Water Clone?" I nodded. "All right, but I think it would be a lot easier where there's water. Come on."

I was surprised at how nice Kisame was as he led me through a few corridors until we reached yet another dimly lit room, where a large pool set glimmering lights all around the room. I half thought there to be sharks in the pool but it was entirely empty.

"The Water Clone is a lot like a normal replication," Kisame explained, "Only, you use a lot more chakra, and you draw on the water for power. It's nearly impossible to execute a water technique when you're not near a water source, like a lake or ocean, which is a major downside. Water techniques also consume more chakra, but they're more powerful and cause raw damage to anything they encounter."

After nearly a week—Yume-chan and I barely even talked anymore. I just didn't want to see her. She made everything so much more difficult for me—I executed my first Water Clone, and I managed to croak out a short 'thank you' to Kisame before we headed to dinner.

Nearly everyone was already eating and talking and arguing across the table when Kisame and I arrived. It was chaos as always. Hidan was cussing loudly at Konan for making paper roses shatter to pieces in front of his face the whole time. Zetsu was growling angrily at Itachi for eating a salad, not that the sharingan user cared much. Kakuzu was counting money while eating and Tobi talking cheerfully with Yume-chan. After Kisame sat down I noticed there were only two seats open, beside each other. I headed to the counter just as the fridge's door closed and Deidara-kun emerged. I nearly jumped in fright, but managed to contain myself.

My hands were trembling. They still hurt terribly. I took a plate from the pile on the counter, pointedly not looking at Deidara-kun. I gasped softly in fright as a wave of pain shot through my hand at the sudden weight and it fell to the floor. I shut my eyes and braced myself for the noise of the shattering glass, but it never came.

When I looked down I saw that a clay bird had caught it, and it landed in Deidara-kun's hand, a small smile tugging at his lips. I blushed and smiled thankfully before reaching out to take the plate, but he shook his head.

"I'll do it," he said, "What do you want, un?"

I looked around at the food on the counter. Definitely not salad for fear of pissing Zetsu off, and definitely not fish for fear of pissing Kisame off. I silently pointed to the chicken pie.

"Go sit down. I'll bring it to you, un," he said. Running the tips of my fingers through my hair in embarassment, I sat down on Tobi's other side, leaving Deidara-kun to sit beside Konan.

After a few more chaotic moments, Deidara-kun arrived, setting my plate down in front of me before sitting down.

"Th-thank you, D-Deidara-kun-kun," I managed to stutter.

Everyone went quiet—Zetsu stopped yelling, Kakuzu stopped counting, Tobi stopped talking, Hidan stopped cussing and Konan froze with a paper rose still in progress in the palm of her hand.

"It fucking speaks!" Hidan exclaimed, and I felt my wolf ears and tail sprout yet again, my face just about as hot as the sun. Was it really THAT necessary to draw so much attention to me just because I spoke for the first time in days? "About time, too!"

"You have such a pretty voice, Yoku-chan!" Tobi cooed, and I started trembling with embarassment. I looked down at my food.

"Why do you sometimes sprout the ears and tail of a wolf?" Zetsu asked.

"It happens when she's embarassed or angry," Yume-chan said carelessly.

I glared at her and thought, 'Well, thank you for letting everyone know that. Now they'll know that, if I sprout ears near Deidara-kun, I'm embarassed, and then they'll know I like him!'

After that, I didn't speak at the dinner table again. I was utterly pissed. I just smiled at Deidara-kun when he helped me and, one night, he changed my bloody bandages again when he caught me struggling with them in the sitting room.

For the following few days I spent as much time as I could in the room with the pool, until I managed to make three clones at once. After that I pretended to step on the water and looked expectantly at Kisame and, to my surprise, he knew what I was talking about.

"You want to learn to walk on the water?" he asked. I nodded. "It's the same as walking on a wall. The chakra consumed is just a little more, and has to be made solid. You have excellent chakra control. You'll be able to do it in no time."

I smiled appreciatively and formed the necessary seal before focusing a steady amount of chakra in my feet and solidifying it as best I could. I gasped in fright as I nearly fell entirely into the pool, but Kisame caught me by my upper arm, steadying myself again. I smiled appreciatively.

It was a lot more difficult than it had sounded. Solidifying chakra took a great deal of concentration, and the effort it took not to start banging my head against the wall in frustration could have been used to lift a mountain.

One afternoon, a few days afterwards, I still had not managed more than a few steps on the water, as my concentration crumbled each time, I had been on the verge of punching the wall again when Kisame entered the room, and he stopped me right before my hand could make contact with the stone.

"Why are you so violent?" he sighed. I shrugged. "You don't know?" I nodded. "Did you inherited it from your father or someone?" I shrugged again, and he sighed, "How about we do some combat training for now? If your body is stronger, your chakra will be, as well." I nodded. "I presume you prefer *melee combat, seeing as you have a dual-bladed sword?" I shook my head, and he frowned. I sighed and imitated drawing an arrow on the string of a bow. "You prefer ranged combat?" I nodded. "Then why do you have a sword?"

I sighed and gestured for him to follow me, and led him to mine and Yume-chan's room. She wasn't there. I supposed she was out stalking Itachi. I grabbed at the hilt of my sword and showed it to Kisame, smiling and tracing the lines of the purple engravings on the black metal.

"You think swords look better?" he guessed. I nodded. "Well, seeing as your chakra control is so good, you won't necessarily always need close combat, but it would be good if you rather perfected training with the sword first." I nodded. "Follow me."

Kisame had me do basic target practices for a few days—they were roughly the shape of the human body and the red bull's eye marks were the vital spots. I sucked. For days on end I never got near the red mark with either the kunais or shuriken, though the stars were easier to handle for me.

After a few days he had me run around inside the base and do other basic exercises at noon so that I could get fit, train me with the target practices for an hour, followed by sparring with the sword for an hour—he had more trouble stopping me from cutting myself than cutting him—and walking on water for another hour. After that I was totally beat and barely had time to practice my Water Clone and other basic techniques before passing out.

Finally, one night, I was awake when Yume-chan returned to the room, grumpily saying, "Hi. Still not talking to me?"

"Still being a bitch?"

"What is your problem?" she snapped angrily, and I looked at her for the first time. There were deep circles under her eyes and she looked pale as a ghost. Unlike me, she lost her tans shortly after getting them, "I try to help you but you keep throwing it in my face. Why is that?"

"When do you try to help?" I cried, "You let me suffer for days after I practically beg you for advice and then you go and tell everyone why my ears and tail appear!"

"I didn't give you advice because I wanted you to ask someone on your own, so that you can start talking to people!" she yelled angrily, "I'm not always going to be by your side, you know! I'm not always going to be able to read your sign language and play Translator!"

"Why couldn't you just be gentler about it?" I asked. I felt bad now. I should have known. She always says things that seem rude at first glance but usually it's just to help.

"How?" she yelled, "Tell me how, and I'll do it next time!"

"I don't know—I—what about telling everyone about my ears?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Why didn't you want anyone to know about that?" she asked irritably, "Do you expect people not to get curious when you randomly get another set of ears and a freaking tail? What did you expect? And how in hell was I supposed to know you didn't want them to find out the reason? You never freaking talk to me anymore!"

"I …" I started, not knowing what I wanted to say, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine," she snapped, "Just stop jumping to conclusions all the time and start actually talking to people. I'm going to the sitting room."

With that, she left the room, leaving me feeling like a complete cretin. I fell down dejectedly on my bed. I realized that I had just been pissed with myself all along for causing me to barely be able to use my hands, and for not being able to talk to strangers, and most of all not talking to Yume-chan.

She was my best friend. I knew that, if she hadn't come with me, I would have suffered beyond reason. I wouldn't have been able to talk to Deidara-kun and Tobi that very first day, meaning I would have been killed and I would have never learned these awesome techniques.

I practically owed her my life. I vowed to myself never to jump to conclusions when she said something, or didn't say something, again. More than that, I was going to try my best to start talking, starting with thanking Deidara-kun and Kisame for their guidance so far.

I smiled. I didn't miss my old life at all. I was home.

It kind ends on a closed note, doesn't it? ._.

This isn't the end—in fact, it's far from that. There's going to be at least ten more chapters, no joke, so hopefully the story isn't too boring just yet.

For those who don't know, *melee combat is close combat, in other words, Taijutsu.