Night Rain
Chapter Ten

"I have one more task for you," the Hokage said. "While you teach them, want it or not, you will get close with the kids. Try to find out what's special about them because something apparently is. Even if it's just the slightest clue or the most bizarre idea, let me know."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

"Also, do you believe their story?" he asked, resting his chin on crossed hands.

"The boy's story seems alright. We can always ask Naruto to be sure. And as for Amaya," Genma began. "I thought it might have happened this way but since you think their village has something to do with the incident... I have to give her credit for bravery, though. I wouldn't have dared to lie in front of the Hokage."

"There is something about her, true. That's why I want you to be extra careful in inquiring information."

"I understand."

"Protect the kids, Genma," Sarutobi said finally. "Dismissed."

"Will do, Hokage-sama," the jonin nodded.

"So what do you know about that Genma guy?"

I threw Dai a questioning look. It took me a while to realize what he meant.

"Well, he wasn't a character that showed up too much. He seems to be okay but I can't tell you anything for certain."

Dai's face shaded. I thought it was because of my answer but then I looked ahead of me and saw Taichi amongst the crowd. He was heading in our direction.

It was around noon and a lot of people buzzed around in the streets making it tricky to fulfil what we'd been told and not communicate.

Dai suddenly cursed.

"What?" I asked.

"The final test! We had to be there exactly at 7 today! We failed," he then added silently. "And screwed Taichi as well."

"Oh shit."

I had completely forgotten about the stupid test. (Not that we could show up even if we had remembered.)

"You idiots!" the third member of our team screamed, finger pointing at us. A few bypassing people turned to look at the scene.

'There goes that 'no talk' warning.'

"Sensei plucked me because of you!" A vein was popping up on his forehead. "How can you be so calm, you bastards! I will murder you, I swear!"

"Okay, okay, calm down," Dai put a hand on his shoulder, which he pushed away. "We didn't choose not to come."

"Yeah, really? I'm pretty sure you wanted to screw me up, because you hate me! Well, guess what - I don't like you either," he clapped his hands. "And I will make sure I make your next year at the Academy hell!"

"I'm sure you will," I waved goodbye as he stormed past us. "Really, we are sorry!"

I, then, pushed Dai forward to make him speed up and avoid the odd stares of the crowd.

I gulped hard and pushed the door handle down, imagining the expression on my mom's face ones she sees me. I didn't know if anyone had told her something or if she was kept in the dark. I also couldn't decide which of the above would be the better scenario.

I entered the living room and closed the door behind me soundlessly. My mother stood by the sink, polishing the porcelain cups, probably in an attempt to take her mind off of her anxiety.

"Mom?" I spoke unsurely.

She looked up and at me, eyeing me from head to toe until a sorrow expression graced her face.

"Aya," she uttered and came closer, pulling me in a tight hug from which my ribs cracked in protest. "You scared me to death!"

"I'm sorry, mom," I said, while breaking the hug, and wondered what more to tell her.

Thankfully, she continued before I revealed what I shouldn't have.

"Genma-san – I think was his name – told me you and Dai got lost in the woods," she explained, then, added much more strictly. "Don't you listen to your teachers when they warn you not to enter alone?"

I smiled weakly to cover up my astonishment. As it turns out Genma was just as bad of a liar as I was or, as I liked to refer to it, clever enough to know the wildest lies worked the best.

"Are you hungry?" my mother wailed. "You are so pale." She turned around and opened the fridge, listing all the food in it.

"No, mom, I'm fine. … Thank you, I'm not hungry," I stressed after she showed no sign she'd heard me.

She, however, continued ignoring me stubbornly, and placed a bowl of soup on the table.

"It's vegetable soup so it's going to taste good even if cold," she explained.

I looked at the dish and, disgusted, convinced myself further that I didn't have appetite.

"Thanks mom but I'd prefer to go to bed," I said, not for a moment losing my subtle smile.

She looked at me, then, blinked a few times and finally said, "Oh okay. Get some rest."

I hurried into my room and sprawled on the bed. Of course, I wasn't really planning to sleep. As it went, I probably wouldn't be getting any sleep soon.

The moment I laid my head on the pillow, tears began streaming down my cheeks. They were uncontrollable.

My life here wasn't supposed to take this route!

I turned to one side and let my mind wander back to the moment I stabbed Kamiko.

The memory was still freshly locked in my mind and in my hand, which went numb when I tried to squeeze it in a fist. My ears could still catch the sound of the kunai piercing her flesh.

I shuddered and closed my eyes tightly shut. I tried to shove the feeling out of my head, quite unsuccessfully. When I, finally, concentrated on the events past the murder – I got goose bumps again - I only choked on my tears that were falling faster than ever. My neck muscles were straining from the effort I put to not let a sound out and compromise Genma's lie.

I had revealed my secret to Dai.

It hurt me this much because I couldn't bring myself to believe in him. I just didn't feel safe with the promise he had made. Promises could be broken easy. I knew Dai well but I didn't know what lay in the blood of the Narutoverse people. I knew that people from my world were completely capable of giving away anything for their own benefit. I'd experienced it and the bitter memory was locked so deep into my brain I didn't have the ability to change it anymore.

Dai, my best friend, I was certain, still didn't know what power he had with this knowledge. If I could just protect him, not let him be tempted.

'Yeah, this sounds like a nice plan.'

Despite the ridiculousness of it, I managed to take a few deep breaths and, lying on my back again, stopped crying. My eyes hurt and I had a lump in my throat but I felt happy. The Hokage himself protected me so why was I so stressed?

'Yeah, I have nothing to worry about.'

I slept the entire day and night and woke up early on the next morning. I tossed around the bed for a while and deemed I wouldn't be able to fall asleep again.

I caught a glimpse of myself in the bathroom mirror and stopped to inspect. My eyes were puffy from the crying, my hair disheveled and my clothes ripped, stained with dirt and blood. My cheekbones were swollen from the beating, although surprisingly – and luckily – it wasn't conspicuous.

Turns out my round face had its pros after all.

Without hesitating, I jumped in the shower and allowed myself a good half an hour to chill under the cool water.

I went in the kitchen/living room and saw my mother seated on the sofa, reading a book. Her eyes shot up at me and she momentarily put it away.

"Morning, Aya," she stood up and fixed her hair. "Are you feeling better now?"

I raised my brow subtly but decided not to bother with her odd behavior now. The book, I glimpsed with my peripheral vision, she had put faced down on the table.

"Yeah, a bit," I finally answered.

She nodded and hurried to the fridge with a determined look. I was about to reject her attempts when my stomach made an angry knurring sound and I realized it was aching - the last time I ate something was a foggy memory.

While I ate my meal, furiously stuffing the food in my mouth and not even chewing it before swallowing, she took the book, carefully pinning it to her chest so I couldn't read the title, and put it away in her bedroom. She came back and carefully observed me finishing it in a totally un-girly manner.

I saw the disapproval written on her face when I pushed the dish away from me. A few oddly awkward seconds passed in which we stared at each other before I spoke again.

"I think I'll go check on Dai."

"Alright," she agreed. "Just don't stay there for too long."

I nodded and headed out.

I was greeted by Dai's mother at their apartment door and she kindly invited me in. Like awhile back, she offered me breakfast and I had to reject, because I was full.

"Dai is still in his room. You can go if you want but he might be sleeping."

"Okay, I'll be careful," I assured Mrs. Izumi. "Thank you."

Dai's room was situated exactly below mine - something I realized just now we could use to signal each other.

I cracked the door and glimpsed inside.

As a boy, Dai didn't really keep his room clean. But because he had to clean it three days ago, (I realized it had passed just so little time since the accident, yet it felt like more) I found it odd the floor was messy.

I entered the room and as I saw he was sleeping, closed the door cautiously to prevent it from making any sounds.

Unlike me, it seemed Dai had remembered to take all the dirty clothes off and now they were lying in a pile on the floor. The room also had the distant aroma of male shower gel.

I stared at him a few seconds more than what I'd be comfortable with if he was awake and felt my cheek burn ever so slightly. Needless to say, I felt like a creep - staying in a room darkened by blinds and staring at a sleeping person. Although in my case it was more like gazing.

Dai's brown locks were spread on the pillow, one strand covering his cheek, tempting to be moved away. My eyes went down and this time around, I blushed heavily. He was naked or at least bare-chested in bed.

My past self instantly judged me for enjoying the view of a kid, years younger than me. Then again in reality, Dai was older than me with two months. The thought made me feel a bit better and I smirked to myself.

He moved a bit and slowly opened his eyes. Scowling sleepily he sat on the bed and looked at me expectantly.

"Good morning," I greeted and gave him a toothy grin. "Sorry if I woke you up."

"It's alright," he murmured with a raspy voice.

He pushed the covers away and got up, revealing that, yes, he wore only shorts.

Something deep in me purred.

Ashamed, I hurriedly looked down at my feet, like they were suddenly very interesting.

"Why are you here so early?" Dai, who was currently putting on a T-Shirt, asked after checking the time.

"I just wanted see how you were," I mumbled. "Also, I expect Genma to contact us anytime and didn't want to give him a bad impression."

"What worse impression can he get than seeing us kill a person," he whispered the last words.

I choked back a laugh.

And my presumptions did turn out to be correct. Soon after Dai and I joined his parents to have breakfast, (for someone the second one already), Genma knocked on the front door.

"Oh, you are both here. That's great!" he seemed full of enthusiasm. "You look ready to go, don't you? Come with me."

He led us outside and, to my surprise, we walked to one of the training grounds.

"Why didn't we shunshin?" I wondered aloud.

"You are too inexperienced to shunshin so often," he said half-serious-half-proudly. "I also hope you remembered the route because you will train here every day."

Dai and I both stayed silent, which the jonin apparently interpreted as a confirmation.

"Good. Now to clear out some things. I will not treat you like other jonin instructors because you are not a three-man team. Obviously," he chuckled. "As you should remember, you failed to even attempt your sensei's test and now you should've signed documents for the Academy again. I don't want you to feel like you got away so I'll make sure these lessons are hell for you."

There was that thing about Genma - he could change from easygoing and humorous to serious and strict by the second.

"You will also rarely go on missions unlike your nine coevals, who managed to graduate," he continued. "As for what we are doing today." He took out a few pieces of paper from his pocket. "We will start with the basics and that's determining your chakra nature."

I got excited about the idea and looked at the little chakra papers with interest. Then something occurred to me.

"Aren't we a little too young for that?" I asked. "I mean to perform jutsu other than the basics."

Genma raised a brow at me.

"Why do you think so?"

"Well, um, we can't... mold the perfect amount of chakra and," I stuttered, trying to remember what Kakashi had told Team 7.

"You have no idea. I'm the teacher so I decide if you are ready or not," he said coldly. "Now take one - if you dare." He spread them in front of us like cards. "If your paper turns to ash, it means you have Fire affinity. If it splits in two, your nature is Wind. If it wrinkles – Lightning. If it crumbles away – Earth and, finally, if the paper becomes wet – you have Water Release."

I noticed my hand was shaking when I reached for a piece. Dai looked pretty astonished as well.

Unconsciously, while I held the trembling paper, I closed my eyes and thought: what chakra nature would I want? Fire was the most common for the Land of Fire, obviously, and it sounded good enough. I knew Wind was the rarest and feared Genma wouldn't know what to teach me. Water and Earth were both boring. Lightning was probably the coolest out there. Simply out of curiosity I wanted to know the feel of the charge running down my hand and there was so much more to it. Maybe I could someday learn Chidori? Yeah, definitely cool.

I opened my eyes and looked at the paper. At first look, it seemed to be safe and sound. Then, when I moved it a bit I felt it was damp.

I scowled for a second but had to conceal it before Genma saw me; I just don't think he would've taken it well to see me hating on my chakra nature. Instead, I glanced at Dai's crumbled paper.

We got the two boring chakra natures.

"Okay then," Genma concluded after checking both of our results. "Now I want to see your chakra control."

He led us to an area of greenery on the training ground, which was obviously split in that for field training and cemented space for sparring. Just a minute ago we were standing on the latter, now we were situated under the impressively thick shadow of the trees.

"Okay now, climb that tree," Genma ordered, sounding a bit too sure we wouldn't be able.

With a smug grin Dai and I began climbing to the top without too much effort. I didn't want to disconcentrate myself by looking at Genma's expression but I could particularly hear his mouth gape.

We jumped back down with ease and stood before him, waiting for further exercises.

He cleared his throat and hid his scowl, "Impressive. I will skip leaf sticking in that case," and he grinned like a child that had been offered candy. "How are you with walking on water?"

He aimed the question at me particularly as I had Water affinity.

"Not good, I suppose," I answered.

"We haven't really tried," Dai added.

"This will be your first lesson then. Follow me," Genma said and sank deeper in the woods.

As it turned out they were a shortcut to the river.

"I suppose you know the theory?" Genma asked, crossing his arms.

I nodded.

"Push chakra to feet," Dai recited.

I silently cursed my choice to shower this morning. There was no way on Earth I managed from the first try.

I was right.

To begin with it was damn hard to gather the right amount of chakra. (Not that I could control how much went to my feet.) Then, it was tricky to step on the water, because it felt like jelly underneath our chakra enhanced soles. It was slippery and wavy and the fact that I didn't know when I'll flop in the water didn't help either.

However, Dai didn't seem to have those troubles. All he had to do was try the surface by pressing his foot on the water and putting different weight. After just a bloody minute he was walking freely, like Jesus himself.

The rest of the lesson, with other words the rest of the day, turned out really wet for me. My personal record was now five steps from the shore; five very, very slow and controlled steps. There was no doubt that my leg muscles were going to hurt from straining but I felt my mouth had taken the new natural position of a pout. When I kept falling, again and again, Dai and Genma could hardly hide their amusement and were still clutching their stomachs as we went home.

"We will continue with the same exercise tomorrow," Genma said. "I suggest you bring a second pair of clothes, Amaya."

I glimpsed Dai hold back a laugh.

"Dai, I will find something to keep you occupied too, don't worry," he added.

The last hard thing I had to do that night was to choose between sleep and food.

I didn't feel hunger while I slept like a baby.

A/N: I am still alive in case you wondered... Thank you for the patience ^^