Chapter 8
"Instead of talking about chakra we're going to try working with it," Kisame says once we reach the training grounds.
"Okay, how do we do that," I ask.
"First we're going to meditate, try to feel for your chakra," Kisame replies as he sits down. He brings up his hands holding up his middle and pointer fingers while the other fingers are down. "You are to hold your hands like this."
"Okay," I reply slightly unsure. I sit down with my legs cross just like him then place my hands in the same position.
"If it helps close your eyes," Kisame say closing his eyes. I do the same waiting for further instructions. "You want to try and feel chakra. It's inside every living creature. It is all around us."
Nothing else is said, so I mediate trying to figure out what chakra feels like. When we last talk about chakra he said it was spiritual and mental energy. That's cool and all but...what in the world does that feel like? I've never heard anyone talking about what energy feels like. How can anyone talk about what it feels like, there is nothing physical about energy, it's...invisible. Maybe I'm over thinking and...no there's still no physical form because Kisame mention it's all around us. So what am I looking for?
Energy, Fat Ass says Fukatemono. Oh look, he's back. I mentally roll my eyes.
"I get that," I mutter under my breath.
He doesn't reply, how helpful of him. Maybe I should ask more about it. Yeah that would be smart instead of sitting her like an idiot.
"Kisame," I say keeping my eyes close. "How exactly am I supposed to look for chakra? What does it feel like? Am I supposed to imagine a color? I don't know what to do."
"You can imagine a color if you want," Kisame replies. "Try to search for something warm and comforting, that's how it feels like for most people. Chakra feels different for everyone."
"Arigato," I reply not finding his answer that much help.
Okay, so I need to stop over thinking this. Maybe...I should try to be more in-tune with my senses to feel chakra. If that is the case that can explain part of the reason for meditating. Meh, that means I got to try and not make my mind wander off.
Okay, Kisame said for most people it feels like it is warm and comforting. So I'll try to...somehow search for a feeling similar to that. Where am I supposed to find it? Should I try to be feeling for it around me or inside me? This is confusing, but then again I haven't dealt with this back home so of course it will be confusing. There should be a manual when traveling to other worlds to tell someone how they're supposed to do things. It should also have pictures to help show how things are done. It would make things easier.
If I want I can imagine a color. What color should I imagine? Green sounds good, it also happens to be my favorite color. Now that's figure out, what do I do next? Taking a deep breath I try clearing my thoughts and only imagine the color green. I sit there for what feels like a extremely long time. My one leg feels sore while the other one is numb. Seriously, I'm trying to feel for this warm and comforting energy around and inside me, but I feel nothing. Imagining it as the color green isn't helping either. I try not to get agitated with this, no one said it was going to be easy, but damn it all I want to get this over with.
"Anything yet," Kisame asks after another long period. Both of my legs are numb now.
"No," I reply opening my eyes and letting my body go slack. "This is all absolutely confusing to me. I try using your advice but I feel nothing."
"It takes practice," Kisame replies and goes to stand up. "When we're not training, you should meditate and try to locate your chakra."
I wanted to ask how he can be sure I have chakra, but he mentioned before that every living creature has it and that it is everywhere. He also had mentioned that it was energy. So even though I'm from a different world, I should have this chakra. But what if...because I'm from a different world the chakra I have is different? Should I bring this up? Maybe I should try doing some research. Yeah, that's what I'll do. I'll take the kids to the library tomorrow so I can check out a bunch of materials to do research. I'll even go looking through the scrolls in the living room.
"Alright," I reply uncrossing my legs. I try to stand up, but fall down. Chuckling I say, "I'm going to need a minute for my legs to start functioning again."
"You've got one minute," Kisame says seriously.
I nod in reply as I bite down on my lower lip for a moment. "Hey Kisame, I saw Konan jump about twenty feet in the air onto a tree branch. Can everyone do that?"
"Hai," he replies. "Once you're able to feel your chakra and get the chance to mold it, you'll eventually be able to do it as well."
"Awesome," I reply with a excited grin causing Kisame to chuckle. I can't wait to start being able to use chakra. Walking on water like Jesus will be kick-ass amazing, and doing what Konan did...man I'm going to be so awesome. "Oh I have another question," I say. "About scrolls; the other day when I was out with Konan I saw she used one to store the stuff she bought for me. She said I'll learn about it later in my training and well I thought since you're teaching me this week I can ask you. How exactly is a scroll used? What does it do? Can you teach me?"
"Slow down," Kisame says with a chuckle. "Scrolls have multiple uses. Someone can use them from summoning creatures, people and objects. Some scrolls are summoning contracts and others are used as storage. Depending on the type of scroll depends on how one makes it work. A majority of scrolls are used with chakra and others are used with blood. I can teach you how to use them at another time."
"That's...freaking epic," I say as I start to stand up. I wince in pain from the feeling of a billion needles stabbing my legs. Damn, it hurts a lot and it intensifies when I move my legs.
"Are you ready to move on to our next bit of training," Kisame asks chuckling.
"H-Hai," I reply trying to shake my legs one at a time.
"Our next training is taijutsu," Kisame says. "It doesn't require any chakra."
"What is taijutsu," I ask slightly tilting my head to the side.
"Hand to hand combat," he replies.
"Oh," I reply with a small frown. "I've never done any hand to hand combat before."
"You're going to be learning now," Kisame says with a smirk. "Here is a simple basic stance."
Kisame moves into the stance, legs slightly parted with both arms help up. His hands are not held closed in a fist but are open. I've never seen anyone do that before, but then again I have to remember different world means different rules and other things. So I copy Kisame's stance.
"Ready," Kisame asks.
"For what," I ask as my body slightly tenses.
"Taijutsu training begins now," Kisame says with a smirk.
Within milliseconds I'm being flipped through the air and land on my back hard. I'm in too much shock to feel any pain. Kisame stands over me shaking his head, his lips keep twitching.
"You're supposed to block," he says.
"I didn't see you move," I say as I stare up at him with wide eyes.
"Get up, I'll show you some basic moves and then we'll try again."
I roll over onto my stomach then push myself up. Standing up, I don't bother dusting off any dirt. Kisame gets back in the stance he showed me and I copy him. For the next twenty minutes he shows me some basic moves. Then after that he lets me practice the moves on a dummy for thirty minutes. Kisame keeps on getting on my case when I hold my arm up wrong or I'm moving my body the wrong way. I keep myself from snapping at him, I don't like when people nag at me for doing something wrong.
After practicing, Kisame then tells me it is time to practice with him. We both get into the fighting stance. I quickly think up a plan, if I move first I won't go into shock like I did the first time. So I go to attack Kisame first but I don't get a hit on him. I'm on the ground within seconds. I get back up and try to attack again only for Kisame to attack me first. And so the rest of our time training is sparing. I end up on the ground one hundred percent of the time. Not once do I land a single blow on Kisame. It just annoys me a tad bit, but then again I've never done any of this before so it just wouldn't be right if I picked up on it right away. Though I wish I could so I wouldn't end up on the ground nearly the entire time.
"That ends our training for the night," Kisame says about two...maybe three hours later.
"That's great," I mumble into the ground exhausted.
"It wasn't that bad," Kisame says. "You showed some guts instead of just quitting."
With shaky arms, I push myself up into a sitting position. I slightly glare at Kisame which only causes him to laugh. None of this is funny, I'm sore, dirty, and it feels like I was hit by a train...multiple times.
"I'm going to my room," I say, slowly standing up my legs slightly shaking.
Kisame nods replying, "You're going to need your rest."
Yeah Fat Ass, says Fukatemono. I can't believe you actually continued with training. Why didn't you just quit?
I keep quiet, ignoring his question as I walk out of the training grounds with Kisame following beside me. He takes the lead and I follow him. We end up in the kitchen and I quickly walk over to the cabinets. Pulling down a cup, I fill it up with water. Greedily, I inhale the water quenching my thirst. Kisame pulls out a glass and goes to the fridge to fill his up with something. I look over to where I had taken the brownies out to see them all gone. I frown; I should have known all the brownies would be gone. Shrugging I place backing sheet into the sink along with my cup. I'll wash all of that tomorrow.
"Goodnight," I say to Kisame as I walk out of the kitchen.
"Later kiddo," Kisame replies.
I make my way to my room. Once there I close and lock the door then head to the bathroom. Removing my clothes I leave them lying on the bathroom floor as I get into the tub. I turn the water on making sure it's warm and just stand under the falling water for about ten minutes. I then go through the process of scrubbing myself clean. When finished, I turn the water off and step out grabbing the only towel in the room. I should add towels onto my list of stuff to buy.
I dry myself off then place the towel on the shower rack thing. Opening my bathroom door I peak into my room to see no one has picked the lock and enter, though I don't see why anyone would want to (unless it's Deidara to scare me) but you can never be too careful. So I walk out of my room over to the dresser. Pulling out clean undergarments, I put them on then climb into bed. I'm adding pajamas to my list of things to get as well.
Pulling the covers over me I relax closing my eyes. I decide to meditate for a short amount of time before going to sleep. I try to search for chakra, but just like before I have no luck, but I continue trying. It doesn't last long because I am soon slipping into the world of dreams.
I wake up the next morning, feeling sorer then when I went to bed. With a groan I push the covers off, climbing out of bed. I go to my closet and pull out a pair of clothing. Once completely dressed I walk out heading for the living room. Until it is time to make breakfast I will busy myself with cleaning like I told Leader I would get done before leaving for work.
When I reach the living room I stand frozen in the doorway. Standing by the bookshelves is some redhead person. I watch the person for a moment scanning my memory to see if I have ever seen them before but I come up with nothing. There is no one in the base with red head.
"What are you doing awake this early," the redhead asks as they turn to me two scrolls in his hands.
"I always get up at this time," I reply. "Who are you?" Look, I'm sure that all of the members were here when they were discussing about killing me off or not. If they were all here then I have every right to be suspicious of this person.
If they are not another member why should you be getting suspicious, Fukatemono asks. They could be your ticket to escape; though if they are a member this might play well into your hands by earning their trust if just a tad smudge of it.
The redhead doesn't reply and I frown. Instead he just turns around and starts going through more scrolls. I'm leaning to the fact that this person is not an intruder. At least they're not acting like one. Is there a certain way intruders are supposed to act? Shaking my head, I walk over to the bookshelves. The person can ignore me all they want I'll do the same.
I stand in front of the bookshelf that has books. None of the books are in any specific order; they look like someone just tossed them in. It's a complete mess. I start pulling down the books and place them on the floor in stacks of tens. I can feel the redhead watching me but I try to ignore them. Meanwhile this gives me time to think about a lot of things.
Once getting all the books down I take a seat on the floor. I start going through the books, checking the name of the authors. I start changing the piles into alphabetical order while dusting some of the books that look like they haven't been used in ages.
My body freezes as I feel something cool being pressed to my throat. Slowly, I take a deep breath and carefully continue putting the books in order as I keep them at a distance. If I get my throat slit I don't want blood getting on the books, they would get ruined.
"If I was an enemy of the Akatsuki you would have just been killed," says the redhead.
"But…you're not an enemy," I reply.
"What makes you so sure that I'm not," he asks.
"Your previous sentence," I reply, as I collect my thoughts. With my thoughts collected I continue with my reasoning, "Also about twenty maybe thirty minutes ago you asked why I was awake this early indicating you know about me being here but not my sleeping patterns. If you were an enemy you would have not only known about me and everyone else here but our sleeping patterns as well. Since I've only been here for a few days knowledge about my presences here or anywhere wouldn't have traveled that far even if there was a spy amongst your ranks. The same goes for the knowledge of my sleeping patterns since I keep my door lock." Now that I think about that I better buy some more locks for my door as well.
Damn you actually said something smart. I mentally roll my eyes. Replying back I tell Fukatemono that I am smart, just because I don't apply myself all the time does not make me a baka even though nine times out of ten I make the baka choices. Of course I tell this to him mentally so not to be heard out loud from Mr. Redhead.
I feel whatever was pressed to my neck being removed. My body relaxes and I let out a small sigh. Turning around I look at Mr. Redhead, watching as he places some sort of weapon away in a pouch on the side of his leg.
"If someone wants in your room, having it locked wouldn't stop them," Mr. Redhead says. "As for the other things you mentioned, you're correct."
I nod then ask, "So who are you?"
"Sasori," Mr. Redhead replies.
"Not true," I reply crossing my arms and slightly narrowing my eyes. Mr. Redhead looks at me in a way that reads are-you-calling-me-a-liar at least that's what it looks like and I nod my head. "Sasori is short about this tall," I uncross my arms to show Sasori's height. "He was hunched over and scary with a very pointy tail, which you are none of those."
Mr. Redhead stares at me for a moment. His lip just slightly twitches into a smirk. "You had seen Hiruko."
Shaking my head I reply with, "No that was Sasori. That is what Deidara called him. Sasori also had a gruff…rough type of voice. Your voice is smoother and…soft spoken as if you're bored and don't care about anything."
Sasori stares at me for a moment. I stare right back. I'm totally up for another staring contest. Everyone else is asleep (as far as I know) so I should win this time.
"Not a bad analyze since you've seen me a small handful of times," Mr. Redhead says. "Hiruko is my puppet armor, I am Sasori."
I open my mouth then close it. Puppet armor…well I use Itachi as a human shield so I guess it shouldn't be weird to hear that there is such a thing as puppet armor. But how can puppet…never mind it's a puppet of course it is going to seem like it was talking.
"Hypothetically, let's say I believe you," I say tapping my index finger against my mouth as my brows come together in slight confusion. "How does the puppet armor work and where were you?"
"You don't have to believe me and I don't need to tell you," Mr. Redhead says then starts walking away with some scrolls.
"Please," I say quickly getting up. The whole puppet armor concept is kind of cool. "I would like to know more."
"You're already engaged with another activity," Sasori says as he continues walking away.
"Fine," I mumble under my breath as I turn around. Looks like I will have to do research about puppet armor as well. That's okay; it means more things to learn. I like this world a lot.
I go back to placing the books in alphabetical order. Once finished I went to get a rag and some water then clean off the bookshelf. While letting the bookshelf to dry, I move onto the other bookshelf with the scrolls. There isn't much dusting for the scrolls indicating that the scrolls are used more often than the books. Since the scrolls don't have an author's name on them I place them in order from largest to smallest. By the time I finish the other bookshelf is dried so I'm able to put the books up.
Yesterday I had cleaned the living room floor and walls so I have it completed. I head into the kitchen to clean up the very small amount of dishes. When I'm done I stand in the room trying to think of what else I'm supposed to clean. Do I have to clean everyone's room? Do I do everyone's laundry? If so, where am I supposed to wash the clothes? I should have thought about these questions before so I could have asked. Maybe I could ask Sasori but that means having to track him down and possibly get lost. I need a tour of this place.
Shrugging my shoulder I get started on breakfast. When completed, I place the food up in containers wrapped with towels that I head heated up to keep the food warm. I place them on the table and then set the table. I don't bother yelling out that breakfast is finish since I don't want to risk the chance of waking someone and they threaten to make me voiceless.
With nothing else to do, I head to the living room and look through the books to research up on chakra. I find a few books and take a seat on the couch. I spend the next few hours learning about chakra. The things I learn amaze me that I get giddy to continue with my training. It turns out these people are ninjas and they use it for so many things. I'll get to learn to walk on water like Jesus, which will be cool if I can do it back home. Some of them can breathe out fireballs; that is just epic. There is so many cool things they can do with chakra it almost seems magical and there is no ending to what things they can do with it. However, I am unable to find anything that can help me with trying to locate chakra. It just means more research because I am so psyched to be able to eventually do some of these things.
"Ayano," I hear Konan say pulling my attention away from the books.
"Yeah," I ask as I look to her with a smile.
"Deidara will be escorting you today," she replies. "You're to leave in three minutes."
"Nani," I say with disbelief. "Why does it have to be Deidara?"
"It was Leader's decision," she replies. "Do not question his motives?"
"Hai," I reply with a sigh as I close the books. "I'll be ready in time."
Konan nods and walks off. Grabbing the books, I go place them back in their correct spots. I make a run for it to my room to get my shoes. With my shoes on, I run back to the living room and find Deidara waiting with a scowl on his face. When he sees me her glares and I glare back.
"Turn around, un," he says as he roughly grabs hold of my shoulder and forces me to turn around.
A blindfold gets placed over my eyes. He ties it tightly and manages to pull out a few strand of my hair causing me to wince. I don't like this anymore than he does so there is no need for him to be acting like a jerk. This is a really bad idea. I wouldn't doubt if he tries to kill me.
My eyes widen behind the blindfold as my body becomes frozen. What if he actually does try to kill me while we're gone? No one would know. He could totally get away with it. I'm not ready to die. I still have to pay back Konan and learn more about chakra including this world. I'm too young to die. Leader is fucked up in the head. What if this was planned all along? I am so doomed.
"Move it, un," Deidara growls.
I feel a hand roughly grab my wrist and yank me forward. I stumble trying to catch my footing as Deidara continues to pull me along at a fast space. Hello, I have a freaking blindfold on can't we move slow?
Just moments ago you were worried about dying; now you're worried about not being able to walk.
"Oh shut up," I mumble in reply.
Soon I can feel that we're outside. Deidara stops moving almost causing me to collide into him…or a tree since I can't see. A moment later I'm being roughly picked up and then thrown. I scream in surprise until I land on something squishy, the feel of the breeze gone. What in the seven wonders is going on?
"Um…if I say please would you tell me what is going on," I ask but get no reply.
Suddenly I fall down on all fours as my stomach feels like it has fallen up. I get this sick feeling that I am moving up but I'm not even sure how. Forget this I am not wearing the blindfold.
Moving my hands to the back of my head, I go to undo the knot. As I'm trying to get the blindfold of, my body lunges forward. Holding out my hands I end up colliding into more squishy stuff. With a growl I get back to work to remove the blindfold.
I never get the chance to remove the blindfold because then it starts to feel like my body is going through weird spinning flipping motions. My body is constantly colliding into squishy…walls…something and I start feeling sick to my stomach. Thank goodness I actually didn't eat any food or I'd probably be puking my guts out
After a long amount of time, I'm probably exaggerating though since my body is just tumbling around like clothes in a washing machine, everything stops moving. I moan feeling both sick and dizzy. Something then grabs hold of me and yanks me forward. I grab onto this squishy substance to keep myself from lunging forward, only for the substance to clump into my hands and my body continuing to move.
"Ouch," I yell out as I feel something bite me and I go to yank my hand away then land on my butt hard.
"Shut up, un," I hear Deidara say.
Seconds later the blindfold is ripped off me. It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness but once it does I narrow my aqua eyes at Deidara. He narrows his eyes in return.
"What the hell was going on," I ask as I stand up on wobbly legs.
"I wasn't going to deal with you being slow and stumbling around, un," he replies as I notice a giant white bird behind him.
I look behind me to see the village then look back at him. If that is how we travelled here then…I look down to my hand to see the white substance I had gotten. It is the same white color as the bird, and as I move it around in my hand I realize it was clay. So we had travelled by a giant clay bird. Okay I don't know how that was possible. I do know I didn't collided at all into Deidara through the traveling and obviously I didn't fall off so that must mean…he put me inside the stomach of a clay bird.
"Jerk," I growl out as I chuck the clay at him with a glare.
Deidara moves his head to the side causing the clay to miss and land on the bird. He gives me a glare that promised death. I squeak realizing my mistake of having my anger get control of me. Since I don't have my human shield Itachi (that's right I am going to be calling Itachi that from now on) I take off running into the village.
While running I constantly look behind me to make sure I'm not being follow. I even look up in the air to make sure I don't see him chasing me down with the bird. After a few minutes of running and constantly checking I come to the conclusion that he's not chasing me. With a sigh of relief I stop running and head for Honoka's home.
"You're early," Honoka says after answering the door to see me.
"That not a bad thing is it," I ask.
"Not at all," he replies and lets me in. "The kids are eating lunch."
"Same rules apply as yesterday," I ask.
"Hai," he replies.
Honoka says farewell to his children promising his son that he'll be back then leaves for work. After the finish their lunch we spend an hour playing soccer in the backyard just like yesterday. I let them win again...they won by thirty to twenty points. I blame that on the fact that I'm sore and have some bruises from my taijutsu training last night.
After spending time playing soccer I decide to head for the library. With the promise of sweets the kids agree to come and lead the way. We spend about thirty minutes in the library as I search for more books to do my research. The library was small and what books I found were of no help since there is copies of them back at the hideout. Getting no help from the library I take the kids back home and as promise I bake them a batch of cookies.
We spend the rest of our time playing more games. Both of them have friends that come over and I allow them to be involved in the games. With more kids I teach them a game called four square and other multiplayer games. But then it soon led to another game of soccer and since there were more kids I had to tell them all of the rules. I became the referee since I was too sore to participate in any more games. Besides I knew that back at the base after dinner I'll be doing more training…and ending up on the ground.
When Kei's and Hotaru's friends left, I sent the two kids up to take a bath and got started on what they would be having for dinner. At five thirty when their father got home he greeted his kids and then I informed him about the events of today just like I did yesterday. I then said my goodbye and left to g meet Deidara at the gates.
So here I am, outside the village waiting for Deidara. I'm walking back and forth in front of the gates. I'm actually surprised no one has come over to me to ask me what I am doing. I don't think anyone notices what I'm doing. But yeah, I'm walking in front of the gates like I have been doing for the past hour.
I knew this was a bad idea, now I'm stuck out here waiting while the sun sinks lower. What is taking him so long? Am I stuck waiting because of earlier in the day? Is he even going to bother to pick me up?
Does it matter? You could be escaping but you're waiting to be picked up? For someone who is smart you're being a baka just staying here. You could have been at least a couple of miles away from here, Fat Ass.
I blink in surprise then frown. Fukatemono has a point; I could actually use this as a chance to escape. But then again my stuff is at their hideout and if Leader would know that I said anything about them to someone, I'm sure he would know about me running away.
"Not going to happen," I mumble to him in reply.
Forget about your stuff Fat Ass. If you live through this world and make it back home you can just get copies of your books. Plus there is plenty of food back home for you to munch on.
"I don't care," I reply rolling my eyes.
"You're still waiting? Can you try to run so we can eat you? Don't say that, you know we're not allowed to eat her. We should, I don't see how she is of any use."
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I apologize for the late update. Yes, I could have updated this on Wednesday but then it would have been rushed and badly written, I figured it would be better to take my time and have this late then have my readers read a poorly written chapter.
Kyoki no Megami, thank you for your review and giving me your opinion about the pairings I will keep it in mind. She is nice, it is not an act and she is polite because that it the way she was raised. I also have no opinion or preference of who is paired with, I am making it solely based on my reader's choices. Though it would be nice to see people's reasoning for who they think she should be paired with. You also mentioned you wanted to see her have more interaction with other members. I will make sure that happens.
Well the poll is obviously still up and the options have not and will not change. So this is actually the last time I am going to say this; the poll is still up for whom Ayano should fall in love with. You can pick anyone in the Akatsuki with the exception of Leader/Pein and Konan. I will inform you readers when the poll will come to an end.
If you have any ideas or would like to see something happen, go ahead and tell me. I'll be happy to add it into the story. I like making my readers happy.
Anyways, the Akatsuki and entire Naruto world belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I only own Ayano, any other OCs and the plot. Thank you to everyone who has been reading this as well as reviews, adding this to their favorites/alerts and voting. Reviews are much appreciated, until next time. ^.^
Preview of next chapter: I stare in complete disbelief. All of that…I went through all of that for nothing.