We're baaaaack! And with twelve thousand views. That's a two thousand view increase. Whoot! Our first four chapters also all have at least one thousand views each, and our fifth chapter seems to be coming along that way soon. Thanks to Kaiya Eri Ishikawa, Malix2, snobunniex3, Rena the pirate jedi wizard, Lady Rini, Alternative Angel, and Ratt1993! You guys are all awesome and we hope you are all planning on sticking around for the next chapter!
The days of a genin were quiet and predictable. And boring. Downright boring. If Nara had to pull out one more weed, or pick out one more discarded tin out of the river, she would throw a fit. And those damn cats. Did the people of Konoha have ANY respect for their pets? At the rate they ran away, Nara half suspected some sort of underground organization that experimented on cats. And why hadn't they been freaking declawed yet? Nara could easily count five different instances, with five different cats, where she went home with enough scratches to scar an army.
When they weren't doing lower class missions, Sakura had them practice basic taijutsu. It wasn't as bad as it could have been for Sarunte and Nara, but poor Haruna, despite being in excellent physical shape for being only ten years old, simply couldn't keep up. The last group of weeks had been hard on her, and the jeers from Reniko were not helping. Sarunte had become slightly nicer, but only slightly. His niceness to Haruna was in direct relation to the proximity of Reniko. The closer Reniko was, the meaner Sarunte would be.
Sometimes, Nara suspected that Sakura had in fact married Lee, and he had given her a couple of lessons in determination. There was simply no conceivable way that this could have been the same Sakura that her father had told her about. That Sakura was violent sure, but…but not this. She was tough for sure, but not violent. She was almost distant to a degree. It only occurred to Nara after a week of missions that they knew nothing about their new sensei.
That wasn't to say for lack of trying. Once she had received this enlightenment, Nara had tried to strike up several conversations with Sakura-sensei. On good days she would receive a 'that's not important at the moment, focus on your training'. On bad days she would receive a harshly worded 'That's MY business. Not YOURS' and something a look that clearly meant she was repressing the temptation to hit her.
As the days slowly passed into monotony, Nara would occasionally have instances where she just slowly forgot everything. It never lasted, but sometimes she would forget she was the Kyuubi container, and that there was a mad man with the sharingan after her. Sometimes she would forget Saruntes' heritage, or that Sakura-sensei once knew her father. But it would never last. After the mission, the meal, or the infinite laps around the track on her hands, Nara would remember again, and lose any happiness or satisfaction she might have gotten from a hard day's work.
Finally, after almost two weeks of doing nothing but D rank missions, Haruna confronted Nara about something.
"Hey, Nara, can I ask you something?"
Nara shrugged nursing her newly received cat wounds. "Sure, go ahead."
"Can you teach me how to do that?"
Nara blinked in utter confusion. "Do what? Rescue a cat from drowning?"
Haruna shook her head violently. "No…no…that…jutsu you did…"
"The invisibility jutsu?" Nara asked, not any less confused.
"No…when you walked on the water! That jutsu!" Haruna exclaimed. "Do you know how well controlled your chakra would have to be to do that? You have to teach me! Then Reniko can't taunt me about it anymore!"
Sarunte had described the bell test to Reniko in extreme detail. He had found the epic Zajigan failure to be hilarious and had been giving Haruna flak about it for days now.
Nara had completely forgotten about that. She had used the walk on water jutsu so much; it had become second nature to her. It had been a natural graduation to it after the climb on trees jutsu. She might have never learned the multiple ninja rules that they were quizzed on, or the substitution jutsu when she was living with her parents, but they had taught her how to concentrate her chakra on her feet.
Nara nodded. "Sure Haruna, I'll teach you how to walk on water, no problem."
Haruna jumped up eagerly. "Really? Thanks Nara! That'd be awesome. Meet me after today's missions at my house! O.k.?"
Nara nodded as her wounds were finally healed away completely and she got up. "Yeah sure, that sounds fine. I'll be there."
xXx
The Cataki compound was absolutely dwarfed by the sheer size of the Hyuuga and Uchiha compounds, but by no means was it small. There was a nice amount of land in between the houses, and the houses themselves were semi grand in nature. Compared to the apartment Nara had, they were huge.
She got some weird looks from some of the Cataki clan members, and Nara was half surprised to see they all had the same pale blue eyes. Their hair was either a dark pink, or a pale red. It struck Nara as almost funny, to see plenty of people who looked so similar to her team mate.
Haruna bounded over from one of the houses. "Hey Nara!" She said breathlessly. When the other Catakis saw that the strange blonde was a guest of the young kunoichi, they quickly lost interest, and went about their business.
Haruna dragged Nara into her house, which was light and airy. There were many windows, perhaps to let in as much light as possible. It was certainly an optimistic place to grow up in.
A tall man with pale blue eyes and dark pink hair in a ponytail stood at one of the doorways. At his side was a young woman with bobbed light red hair and the same blue eyes. Nara briefly wondered the unfortunate implications of parents clearly from the same clan. Although, her mother had mentioned that the Hyuugas usually intermarried as well, although they usually married something along the lines of a mothers-sisters-husbands-brothers-wifes-kid variety, so Nara didn't see any problems with what was most likely the same scenario here.
"So you're the girl who's been causing the ruckus with the Hokage." The father replied dryly, but clearly not maliciously.
Nara pushed her forefingers together. "Haha, something like that. I didn't think that Granny Tsunade had minded that much."
Harunas father tilted his head. He gave what looked to be a half smile, before retreating back to a closed room with his wife, who mouthed a time limit to Haruna, before retreating with her husband.
Haruna looked at Nara in wonder. "Granny Tsunade?" She asked incredulously.
Nara shrugged. "Granny Tsunade, Tsunade-baachan, it's just my nickname for her. My father called her the same thing."
"But she's the Hokage-sama! You can't do that!" Haruna said in astonishment.
Nara shrugged again. "My dad did, and Tsunade-baachan never told me to stop."
Haruna just shook her head in amazement, before redirecting Nara outside. "There's a pond a bit back, it's small but it will work."
Nara shook her head. "That's advanced. You're just beginning. First thing we need are some nice tall trees."
Haruna was confused once again, but complied by walking to a nice, tall, tree.
Nara nodded in improvement. "Good. This'll work. Now you have to climb it."
Haruna raised her eyebrow in question. "You're joking right?"
Nara shook her head. "Climb it without using your hands."
Haruna gaped at her in shock. "How can you do that?"
Nara smiled and proceeded to do as instructed. Focusing her chakra on her feet, she effortlessly walked up the tree. "Like that." She replied simply. "All you have to do is focus your chakra on your feet."
Haruna bit her lip. She was so tempted to just use her Zajigan, but the fact that it didn't work on her sensei was why she was here in the first place. She couldn't take shortcuts this time around.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she focused all of her chakra at her feet. She took a step into the tree-
And the bark gave way and part of the tree as well, causing Haruna to fall back.
She fell flat on her back, muttering made up words.
Nara landed on the ground. "To little chakra and you don't stay stuck, too much, and you break the tree." She withdrew a kunai from her ever handy bag. "Here, use this to mark your progress."
Haruna groaned as she sat up. "I feel so stupid. I don't usually mess up that badly" She grumbled.
Nara smiled nicely. "Don't worry," She said comfortingly. "You did better than my first time. My first time, I ran into the tree."
Haruna giggled. "Really?"
Nara nodded.
Haruna got back up, determined to try again, and Nara didn't have the heart to tell her that while it was true she had run into the tree, she had been three at the time, and it was probably the first jutsu she had ever learned.
The afternoon passed, and soon Nara had to leave to get some sleep. Haruna stayed behind practicing and practicing. Bit by bit, the notches got higher and higher. At first it had only been a couple of inches higher than her arm reach, then those couple of inches became a couple of feet, then it became nearly twice as high as her, then it began to reach to first branches of the tree.
xXx
The next day, after a mission involving finding a dog (it was a wonderful change; it was immediately solved by Saruntes genius involving some very well placed bacon), Nara headed back to the Cataki compound with Haruna.
Haruna didn't waste time to show her progress. A quarter way up the tree she had gotten. The progress started all over again, with Nara bringing up helpful pointers and hints.
Three days later, Haruna had reached the top of the tree.
The day afterwards, Haruna could fully stand upside down and sideways on the trunk and on any of the branches. She was so incredibly light that even some of the twig like branches supported her weight.
The next day, it was time to start on the water. Haruna picked on it a lot more quickly, but it still took her almost three days before she could do it without falling.
On the fourth day of walking on water, Haruna ran around effortlessly in sheer joy. She had done it. She had succeeded. She practically felt herself getting stronger. Take that Reniko! Take that Sarunte! Take that Sakura (sensei)!
Nara smiled and congratulated her. Training someone was harder then it looked, and she was plumb exhausted oddly enough. She waved Haruna goodbye a couple of hours earlier then the norm, intending to catch up on some much needed private training.
But Haruna wasn't finished. After Nara left she had one goal, and one goal only. Make a fool out of Reniko. She raced over to the Nara household, it was currently 6pm, definitely early enough for a challenge…
She knocked furiously on Renikos door.
It was answer by a girl with two low dark pigtails. "Who are you?" She asked annoyed.
"I'm looking for Reniko" Haruna said breathlessly.
The girl looked at Haruna for a couple of seconds. "Aren't you a bit young to be dating my brother?"
Haruna turned a bright red. "I'm not dating him. He's my rival."
The girl shrugged. "Oh. Isn't he a bit stupid to be a rival?"
Haruna nodded. "Yeah, he is, that's why I'm here, to show him that I'm better than him."
The girl shrugged. "I wish you luck pinkie." She turned to the inside of the house. "OI! RENI! COME DOWN HERE!"
"AGH! WHAAAT? Troublesome sister, I was-" He came to a complete stop when he noticed the pink haired runt at his door.
"What are you doing here runt?" He asked coldly.
"I'm challenging you, that's what I'm doing!"
Reniko rolled his eyes. "Why would I want to fight you? So you can use your Zajigan and brag about how you cheated?"
Haruna stomped her foot indignantly. "NO! Not a fight! A challenge! There's a big difference. You say I can't do any jutsus right?"
Reniko nodded. "Don't think. Know. Is this going to take much longer? Ketsuki-sensei has us getting up really early tomorrow and I don't wanna be tired like last time."
Haruna shook her head violently. "Just come with me to the hot springs. I bet I can use a jutsu that not only has nothing to do with my Zajigan, but one that you can't do."
Reniko narrowed his eyes. It was on. "Bring it runt. Let me get my sandals on, and we'll go."
xXx
Haruna, Reniko, and his older sister (who was called Shikari apparently) were all gathered at the hot springs.
Shikari was there for one reason only, to watch her brother fall flat on his face because of a girl who was at least four years young then him and a full two heads shorter than him.
If he won, then Shikari would congratulate him…on beating up someone akin to a toddler. Real talent there…
Either way, it was a win win situation. Shikari was happy.
Haruna smiled widely, and after a moment of concentration, stepped on the water. She smirked, as she took another step, and just to purely show off, did a cart wheel.
Shikari stifled a smirk. This was over. Reniko hadn't been taught chakra control yet. This shorty was smart. Not many people would be brilliant enough to choose the hot springs for a challenge, without worrying about sending off the wrong message.
Reniko gulped. Shit. Shit. SHIT! He couldn't do that! How'd she learn!?!
No, he had to calm down. If this was Haruna doing the jutsu, it had to be incredibly simple. Calm down…o.k.
She was obviously using her chakra on her feet to keep her up, that much was obvious. Time to try it out.
Reniko shut his eyes and clenched his teeth as he focused his chakra on the water. He took one step- so far so good. He took another, and proceeded to fall straight into the water. The boiling hot water. He jumped out, cursing and raging and quite humiliated.
Haruna stuck her tongue out and gave him a rude hand gesture that they had used on her many times. "I think I win Neko-baka."
Reniko sat at the water's edge, yelling obscenities. How was this fair? The girl who never had to work for anything in her life, was now better than him at some awesome jutsu. Who taught her that jutsu and why hadn't they been lynched? He had been working his ass off to prove himself, and here she came along with her arrogant smiles and stupid kekkai genkai acting like she was graced by Kami himself.
His pride damaged, Reniko finally calmed down enough to walk quietly home. He attempted to block out Shikaris jabs at the loss, but it was futile. He would get stronger, he would ask Ketsuki-sensei about a walking on water jutsu tomorrow, and next time they faced each other, there would be hell to pay. He could guarantee it.
Haruna didn't care about revenge of any sort, she had finally done what she had wanted to do for all these years, beat Reniko at his own game. She was happy.
xXx
Sakura groaned from her warm bed. Knocking. At the door. She despised knocking. It was waking her up. If it was pranksters or her genin with some petty problem there would be murder…
No, the chakra was too strong-
Really, really strong. Sakura opened the door to reveal a masked ANBU.
"Sakura, your presence is required by the Hokage."
Sakura nodded. "Hai. May I ask what before I go?"
The ANBU nodded. "You need to get your genin too after the briefing. This will be their first B ranked mission and you need to make sure they are ready."
Sakura blinked in astonishment. "B ranked? Like hell they are ready! What could be so urgent that it needs me?"
The ANBU looked sheepishly at the ground (although Sakura couldn't tell with the mask covering his eyes). "It's Sunagakure. The Kazekage is dying."
To Be Continued