Chapter 2 – Forgotten Powers and New Bonds
Everyone got their things and made their ways up to the entrance of the cave, where someone was leaning on the wall near the opening of the cave looking out in the night. This person had a feminine body with long, dark hair.
"We're back." Said Dosu.
"Good, I was getting bored just standing here." Said the girl leaning on the wall.
"Don't die from boredom, Kin." Said Zaku.
"At least I saw my death coming." Replied Kin, a little annoyed by Zaku. As Himoto and Kino come to the entrance after everyone else, Himoto sees Kin and for some reason feels as though he's met her somewhere at least once, but then forgets about it. "So this must be your brother, right Zaku?" Asked Kin as she turned her head to see the shape of Himoto coming closer to the cave's entrance.
"Yeah, he is." Said Zaku as he too was leaning on the wall, but on the other side of Kin.
Kin laughs quietly and looks at Zaku, "I think you brother might have been checking me out, but who knows? I could never see that great in the dark."
"No I wasn't." Quickly replied Himoto.
"Sure, but what's your name?" Asked Kin turning towards Himoto.
"Himotomaru Chiha… Abumi, I mean." Answered Himoto.
"And yours?" Asked Kin who now is looking at Kino.
"My name is Kinohimihata Kinuta, but you can call me Kino or Genny either of the two is fun." Answered Kino.
"I didn't know you had a sister, Dosu." Said Zaku.
"Wait, Dosu that's you? Well… I really don't know any of you." Replied Kino. Himoto sighs and points to every one of them and says their name.
"I think you were checking me out, Himoto." Said Kin with a smirk.
"No, I just thought you looked familiar, that's all." Replied Himoto who is a little embarrassed.
"It's okay. Weren't you the guy in the second fight in the preliminaries? You were the second fight, the one with the power to use shadows. Yeah, it had to be you. Said Kin.
"Yeah it was me." Answered Himoto with unseen shame.
"It was pretty impressive. It didn't even take you a minute for you to finish that fight." Said Kin.
Brandon steps in and interrupts the conversation, "Enough talk, we must leave now."
"I don't think it will be just that easy to leave." Replied Dosu as he pointed a walking figure coming towards them.
Himoto becomes defensive and walks in front of everyone, "Why are you here?"
"Well, well you're still alive after the attack or did you die and you came to be reunited with your died friends?" Laughed the figure.
"Himoto, who is this guy?" Asked Kino.
"I think I can introduce myself. As you know well enough that you were going to be my apprentice. My name is Orochimaru." Answers the figure.
Brandon steps forward in astonishment, "You're still alive?!"
"Don't interrupt me you old bag." Said Orochimaru, cutting off Brandon.
"Why have you come here?" Asked Himoto for the second time.
Orochimaru smirks to the question, "I'm here for the supposed 'sacred' water in the cave you are standing in front of. You see while I was fighting the Hokage at his final breathes, he decided to steal my arms away by cutting my soul's arms off. And if I drink that water it should allow me to regain my arms again, but it looks like being here gives me my arms back. Also it allows dead souls to come back to life, although it only works once."
"First you have to go through all of us." Said Himoto.
"Us? What do you mean by 'us?'" Asked Kino.
"Before you get cocky, if a soul drinks the water here, nothing will happen. If you drink it outside of the peninsula, then they'll come back, but there is a draw back. It requires the death of someone with the same blood as the person who wishes to come back to life." Said Orochimaru.
"Don't expect me to be as weak as I was last time we met and fought." Said Himoto.
"If you're so confident, I'll let you have a free shot." Laughed Orochimaru.
Himoto goes into a taijustu stance, but instead places his right hand with his fingers spread out on the ground. "Earth Pulse Justu!" Yelled Himoto, but nothing happened.
"Intimidating me won't be that easy." Said Orochimaru. Almost right after he said that a rock pillar with a sharp point came flying out of the ground at fast speeds at Orochimaru. With little time to react, it impales him and as Himoto expected, Orochimaru used a replacement of mud. He reappears from the puddle of mud, "I can see you have gotten a lot stronger since we last met. The reason why I wanted you to become my apprentice is because you want strength and power."
Himoto laughs at Orochimaru, "I don't desire power or strength anymore. Nothing like I did back then. I have achieved that goal of having power." Said Himoto with a smirk as he put his right leg forward and opening his left hand a foot away from the side of his head.
"This might be entertaining." Smiled Zaku.
"Don't hurt yourself Himoto." Worried Kino.
"I bet this kid is all talk no show." Sighed Kin.
"Replacement Justu! Hand of the Titan of Water!" Yelled Himoto as a ball of water consumed his left hand and half of his wrist.
Brandon becomes stunned, "When did you learn this?!
"You were gone two days, remember?" Asked Himoto.
"It seems like whenever he fights, he has a new ace, but I think this is his ace of spades. In a way, he is a pretty scary person." Stood Kino as she grew more confident in Himoto.
"He might actually have a chance. He's kind of cute in a rage. Not that I like him like that. I wonder if he was actually checking me out?" Wondered Kin.
Himoto moves his hand and aims it at Orochimaru. With this movement, he prepares for the worst. "Water Bolt!" Said Himoto casually. A ball of water launches out of the water around his hand and wrist at high speeds towards Orochimaru. He easily evades it, but he notices that the ball became ice and shattered into senbons that flew in all directions and hits Orochimaru only in the arm a few times.
"Not just water, but ice as well!" Thought Orochimaru.
"Water Whip!" Yelled Himoto as he caught Orochimaru off guard and hitting him only once on the chest as he dodges all the other attacks. "Your name suits you, you roach. Hard to kill, but that makes it all the more fun when I kill you."
"I'll make sure your death is painful…" Glared Orochimaru.
Himoto starts to laugh, "Don't make me laugh. I'll show what I can really do. I'll kill you with the pride of water. An entire sea!" Everyone becomes shocked and they start to hear the sound of a wave rise. Soon enough, in the moon lit night the tidal wave appeared, but it was coming slowly.
"You fool! You'll kill me, but you'll kill everyone in the village behind us!" Yelled Orochimaru.
Himoto continues to laugh at Orochimaru, "You honestly think I care about them? That village is full of corrupt and sick people. Their fate is nothing I care about."
Everyone becomes worried while Orochimaru thinks on how to get out of the situation. "You should also remember that your friends behind you will be in the wake of your destruction." Said Orochimaru with his smirk.
"Maybe I forgot to mention this. I can control water. I can make a divide in the water around us and move the water back at the sea before it hits the village." Replied Himoto.
Orochimaru begins to laugh, "You're good, you're strong, but you don't know how to use that unique power of yours just yet. Ten Thousand Earth Shurikens!" Orochimaru stomps on the ground, shattering it. Then rock shurikens come flying out of the broken up ground at Himoto's direction. The whole time Himoto was raising the wave, he was completely defenseless. He realizes that he can't multi-task with his water abilities, so he drops the wave and springs up a wall of ice that blocks all the shurikens. The wave crashes early, but was close enough to wash over their feet. "You didn't have enough chakra to begin with. Your wave would have washed me away, but it wouldn't have killed me." Said Orochimaru as he turned around and walked away.
Minutes late, Himoto collapses due to exhaustion and lays unconscious on the ground. Kin and Brandon were the only ones still on the surface because everyone went back into the cave for several reasons. Kin walked over to Himotomaru's unconscious body and checks his pulse.
"It's kind of slow." Said Kin as she moves her hand to his stomach to feel his breathing. "It doesn't even seem like he's breathing at all."
"Well put your ear over his mouth and it would help if you watched his chest." Replied Brandon.
"I'm not going to give him CPR, and I'm pretty sure he would like it." Awkwardly answered Kin.
"I think he wouldn't mind especially if he isn't breathing, but it wouldn't hurt to check." Said Brandon with a serious tone. Brandon walks back into the cave and leaves Kin and Himoto alone without her noticing.
Kin does as Brandon told and listens, for a minute. "He's… He's not breathing…" Said Kin to Brandon who is not there anymore. She turns around to notice no one was there and feels a little less awkward about giving CPR. "I'm sorry about this…" She looks around one more time to just make sure no one was really there watching her. She knows that he most likely wake up while she's giving him a breath, but still goes through with it. She puts her lips to his and begins mouth to mouth, but hesitates slightly. "Ah! How do I do CPR? All I know is that I have to give them a breath and do compressions, but how many? Why did Brandon have to leave?" Worriedly wondered Kin. After she finishes her breathes, she does the compressions and didn't do enough, but she gets ready to do more breathes. She closes her eyes and gives Himoto a breath with little hesitation. After Kin gives the second breathe, she kept her eyes closed and didn't notice that Himoto was somewhat conscious again and doesn't know what is going on. When Kin is going down to give the second breathe Himoto opens his to see this happen. He taps her arm when she is giving him the breath and she jumps in surprise and moves back a few feet sitting on the ground.
"I'm sorry!" Yelled Kin in complete shock.
"Eh, were doing CPR?" Asked Himoto as he sat up.
"Uh… Yes I was and I didn't like doing it at all it was unpleasureable." Awkwardly replied Kin
"Is 'unpleasureable' even a word? Anyways thanks for saving me." Smiled Himoto.
"No problem…" Said Kin as she became embarrassed. "I didn't even know you for a half an hour and you made me perform CPR on you!"
"Why are you so embarrassed?" Asked Himoto. "Sure, you're a girl doing mouth to mouth on a guy, but if you think that of that as kissing then you need to be a little more mature."
"It's not that I'm immature. I just don't know you." Softly said Kin.
"Well it doesn't really matter anymore. It's the past, but if you wouldn't have done it, I would have died and if I did I wouldn't be a soul like you. I would be permanently gone." Said Himoto with a serious voice. After they sat there in silence for a minute, Himoto got up and started to walk to the village, leaving Kin sitting on the ground. Hey! Where are you going? Everyone is going to think I did something to you." Said Kin.
Himoto stops and looks back, "Then come with."
Kin got up and caught up to Himoto who was still standing where he looked back. At the same time everyone came out of the cave with a jar of water, "Well, well, looks like we have us a pair of love birds." Jokingly laughed Zaku.
Kin quickly turns around with anger in her eyes, "I do not love him! He's just a friend."
Himoto stops and doesn't turn around, "Shut up and get over here."
Everyone walks to where Kin and Himoto were standing and Himoto noticed the jar of water Brandon was holding in his hand. Kino walked up to Himoto and inspected him, "So are you feeling better?"
"Yes I am, thanks for asking." Answered Himoto. "Brandon, is that the water Orochimaru wanted?"
"Yes it is." Nodded Brandon.
"How about we split it up four ways so we all can come back." Greedily asked Zaku.
"Ever since you joined my team for the Chunin Exams, you've acted like an idiot. Remember what Orochimaru said?" Asked Dosu with a disgraced look.
"Yeah we get to come back to life if we drink it." Excitedly answered Zaku.
"Yes he did say that, but if you did drink it you would kill Himotomaru and if I drink it I would kill Kino." Said Dosu as he gave Zaku a serious glare.
"Damnit! Every time something good is given to me, it turns out to be just an illusion or have draw backs." Disappointedly responded Zaku as he put he puts his arms behind his head.
Dosu eases up and looks at Himoto, "And if Brandon drinks it…"
"I'll drink it…" Interrupted Kin with a serious voice. "I've got almost nothing to lose."
"Okay then, step out into the village and Himoto will hand you the jar of water." Said Dosu.
Kin walks through the arch and instantly disappears from Himoto's and Kino's sight. Himoto follows with the jar of water, looking at it, "So is this stuff 'sacred' water?"
"Who knows?" Saided Brandon.
Himoto holds the jar out and waits for Kin to take it from him. Right before his eyes the jar's weight disappears and he lets go of the jar and watches it float. It starts to unscrew itself and Kino looks as if she is thinking, "This is kind of awkward to see a jar randomly floating…"
"Maybe it's floating to you, but we can see Kin." Said Zaku.
The jar opened and tips up making the water slowly disappearing into nothing. The jar drops from the air and shatters on the ground. Kin slow starts to appear to Himoto and Kino with a pale, sickened face.
The water tasted like iron or some type of metal and it didn't feel like water either." Weakly replied Kin as she held her stomach. "It kind of tasted like blood."
"Kin, you are right about it tasting like blood. You see, it's like you're drinking their soul and blood instead of water. Himoto you might want to help her, she won't be conscious much longer." Said Dosu.
Himoto walked over to her and as he was, she fell to her knees. Himoto laid her down as she went unconscious and he picked her up in his arms. Himoto looks up to Dosu handing Kino something and all of them walk through the arch and the gate. Kino walked over to Himoto looking at Kin, So what should we do now?"
"We should go to my house." Answered Himoto.
They were getting close to Himoto's house when a Mist shinobi stops them, "I couldn't help but notice that your friend in your arms. She is from the Land of Sound and your other friend here is from another country as well."
"Yes, I am from a different country." Explained Kino.
"Then I have to tell you two to leave tomorrow morning, when it's light out." Said the shinobi.
"Tomorrow morning may not be possible for this one." Said Himoto looking down at Kin who is running a fever and breathing deep and loud.
"Do you want me to take her to the hospital?" Asked the shinobi.
"No, I can take care of her." Answered Himoto.
The shinobi escorted them to Himoto's house and left them outside of his house. Kino put her hand on Himoto's shoulder, "Hey listen Himoto, I'm going to leave now. I will meet you back in Konoha. Niner and I will see you there."
"Okay, be safe on the way back." Softly said Himoto.
Kino smiled and jumped away and out of the village. Himoto watched her go off and when she left his view, he looked up in the still early night sky seeing the moon. In the sky were no clouds, just the full moon lighting the night. He looks back down at Kin and for some reason he felt anger, but it wasn't towards anything. He didn't understand why he felt like this. He ignored it and walked into his house.