Chapter 11
The next day, Tazuna had to get back to work on the bridge that he claimed could help the entire country get out from under Gato's influence. I was left with guarding him since I could do the Tree Climbing and Water Walking exercises. Kakashi-sensei claimed that he had nothing he could teach me that would make a difference in the limited time we had before Zabuza might show up, so I was left disappointed in being told to watch the old man all day.
I was mostly fine with it, but it left me so bored. I had some Water Clones helping out the workers, but my own body couldn't do anything to help since I needed to be right here if anything happened. I yawned in my boredom, stretching my arms out above my head as I did.
"You always this lazy?" a familiar voice called.
I could feel a twitch in my eye as I looked over to see Tazuna himself carrying a beam to be used on another part of the bridge. How dare he think I am lazy! What about the help my clones are providing?!
He either didn't see my irritation, or chose to ignore it. "Where's that weird blond kid and the one with the attitude?"
I deflated a little before answering, "They're training by climbing trees with only their chakra to keep them up. It helps with chakra control."
"Too tough for you?" Tazuna scoffed.
If this man didn't stop, I was going to have to do something about his big mouth, client or not. I didn't like his impression of me, despite the fact that it was one of my dragon friends that helped to protect him while I helped Team 7 rescue our Sensei.
"No," I answered stiffly at first. Relaxing a little, I knew I shouldn't let my temper rile me up around someone I was meant to be guarding. "I already knew this training and the one that is beyond that for chakra control training. So now Sensei sent me to be your guard while you are continuing your efforts on the bridge."
"You're joking…"
This guy!
I stopped thought when I saw one of the workers come towards Tazuna with a regretful expression on his face. From the conversation I was hearing and the look of outrage and disappointment coming from Tazuna, I knew that this man was quitting. I couldn't help but feel bad for Tazuna. He is the pioneer who is trying to pave the way for all of his people to gain their freedom back and have some hope light up their eyes again. I can imagine he has lost some friends along the way from this as well. As much as I felt bad for him though, I also couldn't help but feel proud of him, and I hoped that he felt that way about what he is building here. He definitely reminded me of another stubborn fellow that I know.
Since Tazuna was going to have us break for lunch, I quickly stood up to go join him. Before we left the bridge completely though, I focused my chakra and brought my hand in front of me. It was challenging, but after a few moments, I was able to bring in front of me a tiny ball of water from the air. I was beginning to grow frustrated with this training even if I knew it was important to help me with my manipulation and Flash Step.
I couldn't help but hope that Mom knew what she was doing in making me do this.
000000000000000000000000000000000000
Flashback…
As I continued to watch both Naruto and Sasuke try to climb up the trees with just their feet and their chakra, I was growing restless. I wanted to train as well. I wanted to be stronger, and continue getting stronger alongside the two boys that I cared about. I wanted to be able to protect them.
"Kakashi-sensei?"
"Hm?" He hummed as he turned his singular visible eye towards me. By this time, he had come back down to ground level and was observing the boys as they kept making marks on the tree to show how far up they could get. Now, he looked at me with curiosity at what I could be trying to ask him.
"Is there anything I could learn right now that I could learn in time before Zabuza potentially shows up again?"
Bringing his hand up to his mask covered chin in thought, I knew he was going through a list of ninjutsu and other techniques that I could try to learn and gauging whether the timeline matched up. "You said a week at most, correct?"
His tone didn't inspire confidence in me, but I nodded my head to confirm this.
"I do not think anything that I have to teach you could be done in one week only. I could teach you with more time, but for right now, it won't work. Instead, how about you guard Tazuna as he works on the bridge starting tomorrow?"
I deflated a little at his assessment. This was exactly what I didn't want to hear. While I knew that guarding the bridge builder was our mission's main objective, I didn't want to be sidelined in continuing to grow stronger like…
A thought just hit me, and I decided to act on it.
Biting my thumb to draw blood, I quickly performed the familiar hand signs and slammed my hand on the ground, gaining everyone's attention as I called out, "Summoning Jutsu!"
With a puff of smoke appearing before me, I stood up with the biggest smile on my face. I was waiting for the plume of smoke to dissipate, and when it did, it revealed one of the most beautiful people I had ever seen in my young life in this world: my Mom.
She stood before me with loving smile as she saw that I was the one to summon her, but she also knew that I would be the only one to summon her here. Her dark navy irises glowed with warmth and gazed down at me as everyone could now see her majesty with the smoke now cleared. Mom had hair similar to Sensei's in color, but hers reached down to the top of her calf as it flowed down her back uninterrupted. Her bangs reminded me of Hinata's straight cut, but hers were also straight cut along her cheeks as they slightly curled in to frame her face and they were separated in a center part from her hairline. She wore her normal clothes of a green sleeveless shirt with gold trimming (which reminded me of a Chinese qipao) and around her waist was a dark green sash. Completing her outfit, she wore dark pants that cinched 3/4 of the way down her calf with standard ninja sandals on her feet.
To me, she was the complete embodiment of a gorgeous Mom.
"It is so good to see you, Little One," Mom beamed to me.
"HEY!"
Glancing behind me, I could see Naruto looking at Mom with suspicion and surprise, but more of the latter than anything else. Sasuke was giving Mom a warm smile, which almost made Naruto gag on air when he saw it. I had to giggle internally at their interaction.
"Who the hell is this lady?" Naruto questioned loudly. "How did she get here? I thought you were summoning a dragon?!"
This time, I really did giggle and so did Mom.
"Forgive me for not introducing myself," Mom apologized. "My name is Sora of Mount Ryuumoto, and I am Akina's guardian. It is a pleasure to meet her Genin team."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am," Kakashi-sensei nodded his head to her since he couldn't bow easily with crutches. "My name is Kakashi Hatake, I'm the Jonin sensei in charge of overseeing Team 7." He gestured to the two boys now. "The blond is named Naruto Uzumaki, and the serious boy over there is Sasuke Uchiha."
Mom smiled at the three of them. "It is good to meet you all. And Sasuke, it is so good to see you again."
At the introduction, Naruto faltered in his suspicion. He looked over to Sasuke again to see that he was completely fine with Mom being here, to which his eye started twitching in irritation. I could tell he was trying to figure out why Sasuke, the normally stiff as a board guy, was looking at Mom with the affection he was.
"How the hell does Sasuke know who she is?"
"Naruto," Sensei reprimanded softly. "I'm sure if you let them explain, it will start to make sense and it will make things go faster if you stop questioning them every few seconds."
I giggled at Naruto's grumbles. "Mom was visiting one day and Sasuke came in unexpectedly, so he was introduced to her right then. He's also been with me to Mount Ryuumoto a couple of times."
"Then why hadn't I been with you before?" he grumbled again.
Is he jealous?
"The fault would be mine in this," Mom replied for me. "I did not allow Akina to tell anyone about the dragons and Mount Ryuumoto unless they already knew about it, which is also a very short list. Only the Hokage and a few Jonin knew about Mount Ryuumoto, but many in Konoha did remember about Tsubasa and her dragon summons. I was Tsubasa's partner in battle, so after she passed, Akina came to live with my family."
Naruto seemed to be appeased a little, but not happy.
"I didn't mean to keep it secret, Naruto," I began apologizing to my best friend. "It was by accident that Sasuke even knew about it all. But you've known for a little while now, right?"
Sighing, Naruto seemed to find no fault in my explanation, so he nodded at me. "I guess it's fine. I just wish I had known sooner, ya'know?"
Giving Naruto a soft smile of understanding, I nodded to him before turning to Mom.
"Is there some training that I could do with you, Mom? I need to learn something that can improve my skills within a week at most as far as time goes. We have an enemy threatening our client that could return at any time, but at most, he will be back in a week. It also needs to be something that I could do while watching our client as he finishes his bridge, on the off chance that an attack to his life were to happen. Do you have anything in mind for me?"
Mom seemed to contemplate something for a moment. I was really hoping that she did have something though. She knew that I wanted to be more of a combat medic, so I assumed she was thinking of something I could use in a fight more so than a medical ninjutsu that would help me at the moment. Anything I could train in to help get stronger and be able to support my teammates and friends would be well worth my time as I would be sent to guard Tazuna.
A smile started to melt away the contemplative look on Mom's face as she glanced back up to meet my eyes. "I think I have just the right training in mind for you, Little One."
She then turned her gaze over to the rest of Team 7. "This training will involve explaining some clan secrets, so I will be leading her a little further from here. After I have finished, she will come back to this location. Is that favorable to you?"
With a nod from Kakashi-sensei, Mom steered me over to the next clearing of trees to explain how this training would help me improve my ability to use the Flash Step.
End Flashback
000000000000000000000000000000000000
I sighed in exasperation as I tried to continue to bring out water from the vapor in the air. The point was to be able to improve my ability to draw on the power of the water in the atmosphere. This way I could then begin to detect water instantaneously so that I could use my manipulation to travel easier and faster with the Flash Step. Since this technique relied heavily on my own ability to sense water all around me and my mastery of my element for the Flash Step, it was important that I improve this skill so that it would no longer tire me out after only a couple of times of using it. This training was to not only improve my mastery, but improve my stamina so I could perform the Flash Step many times without wasting chakra and tiring out.
At least, in theory.
So in a way, I was also using this training as a means to learn better chakra control with my chakra's elemental nature. I could practically hear Mom telling me how to better understand this training exercise.
"Water is the element of change. It is graceful, flexible, and its uses are numerous for both offense and defense. You must remember this, and feel for the life in the air, for water is in all living things. It is in the streams, trees, ground, and in the blood of living creatures as well. It is all around you. The trouble is in knowing how to find it and how to draw on it for your own purposes."
This was why Mom wanted me to try to draw water from the air, since this was the hardest place to find water most of the time. It would be easier in the Land of Waves due to it being surrounded by the sea and frequently immersed in mist. Plus, this worked out for me to be able to improve on this skill in a week and work on it even longer after this mission as well. I can always continue to improve my ability to manipulate my chakra element, at least until I become a master.
So that was why people were giving me strange looks at the water I was pulling from the air and then releasing onto the ground as I walked with Tazuna on the streets of town.
"So where are we going?" I asked the old man.
"You want to eat tonight, don't cha?" he grumbled at me. "I got to pick up some things for dinner."
Nodding in understanding, I followed along with him as I glanced around the town. It was sad to see how people were depressed in the way they walked and carried themselves. I could even hear in the distance a man crying out about a thief and I saw a boy, running for his life with a loaf of bread in his hand, slipping into an alley just ahead of us. There were children on the sides of the street with rags on their bodies, looking malnourished and their eyes shone with such hopelessness, that I wanted to just give them a big hug and try to make things better for them.
"Here we are," Tazuna remarked, catching my attention.
We stepped into what looked like a market, but upon entering, I could see the reality of what it really was. It was a store that had barely anything. Some of the selections had only a single piece to choose from, and the prices were higher than I had ever seen before.
Suddenly, I had a feeling that someone was behind me, and his presence didn't feel friendly at all as it got closer to me. Without thinking, I swung around with my leg raised high and yelled the first thing that came to mind with an older man approaching a young girl.
"Get lost, pervert!"
This resulted in the man losing his footing as he tumbled down to the floor in a spiral from my roundhouse kick. I didn't look to him in sympathy as I did with the children earlier as he hit the ground and immediately lost consciousness.
"Wow," Tazuna exclaimed, surprised. We had just left the market after quickly paying for everything despite the interruption to our shopping. "You really surprised me back there. Girls around here don't fight like that."
I huffed for a second. "Everyone should be able to defend themselves from perverts, or anyone trying to harm them, not just girls."
Just as suddenly, I felt another presence behind me again, and then felt a small hand grab my clothes right on my behind. My first reaction was to turn and kick again, but I didn't feel any ill intentions from the presence, so I just turned around to give this person a piece of my mind on where to touch someone.
I was surprised to see that it was one of the children I had seen earlier who had gotten my attention. I could tell the boy was hungry as he lifted his hands in front of him in a begging gesture towards me and smiled so warmly.
"Please."
My heart wanted to break. This little boy was asking me for some food. I wanted to take away his hunger pains, and make sure that he always had food. I wanted to be able to give him all the assurance that he needed that today, tomorrow, and far into the future, he would be okay and well-fed. But I couldn't do that, and I hated that I couldn't guarantee that for him.
Instead, I rummaged in my bag for some of the snacks I knew I carried around with me in case Naruto or Sasuke needed a quick something. I found some fruit bars and a couple rice balls in my bag which I carefully gave to him. He looked so thrilled to see so much food.
"Aw, thank you!"
Smiling as softly as I could, I nodded to him. "Be sure to share some of it with your friends."
Nodding excitedly, he turned tail and ran as quickly as his small legs could carry him. He was heading towards friends who were not too far away by the sides of the building where I had seen them earlier. As I saw this, I felt tears prickle at the edges of my eyes.
Trying to wipe them away before they could fall, Tazuna stepped closer. "This is how it's been since Gato came here. The children suffer, and the adults are afraid to stand up to him. They've lost all hope. That's why we have to finish the bridge. It will bring commerce and trade. But much more importantly, that bridge is a symbol of courage. We must restore the spirit of our people."
Hearing this, reminded me of someone I once knew who also had a face filled with hopelessness long ago. I remember wanting to help him too, so I can understand how Tazuna was feeling now.
"When the bridge is finished, people will start to believe again. They'll believe that they can live with dignity. We can't let Gato stop us," Tazuna finished.
His message stuck in my head now, I raised my hand again in front of my face. I concentrated so hard, that I feared I might have a migraine latter. I swiped my hand through the air and balled my hand into a fist. A cold draft emanated from my hand as I could feel something take shape within my shaking fist. Turning to Tazuna, I held out my hand to him as he glanced at me with curiosity. Opening my hand, I revealed an ice sculpture shaped in the form of a flower. In the middle of the flower were upright petals which curled together closed, and three more petals sprang out from the ones in the middle, creating a triangle like shape. Tazuna looked to me with wonder.
"This is an iris flower. I've been told by a classmate that flowers have many different meanings to convey to the one you are giving them to." Tazuna still looked confused, so I clarified. "The iris means wisdom, valor, faith, and most importantly, it means hope. I want to give some more hope to you."
Now smiling at the gesture, Tazuna took the icy sculpture in his hands and observed it from all sides with care. Looking back to me after his inspection, his eyes held a sincere gratitude within their irises. "Thank you."
I nodded, and couldn't help but hope that the boys better be working their butts off in their training, because we just had to help these people.
000000000000000000000000000000000000
It was now dinner time, and I think my teammates believe they are pigs. How else would one rationally explain why they were eating so much food so fast? I was starting to get annoyed with the whole thing, but Tazuna seemed greatly amused by all of it.
"Hahaha! Hey, this is fantastic," he laughed. "It's been ages since we've had so many guests around our table."
Meanwhile, Naruto and Sasuke were stuffing their faces with an enormous amount of food, and neither of them were showing any table manners in this whole fiasco. I was starting to get even more annoyed with each passing bite from them.
"I want some more!"
Both of the two pigs had said this at the same time!
So this was a competition between them, I thought with even more annoyance.
Sasuke and Naruto gave each other glares that seemed to meet with electricity flying between them, but they both cut off short. They both turned blue and quickly swiveled around to proceed to throw up on the floor.
THAT'S IT!
I lean over the table slightly and punch both of the boys on their heads, resulting in matching groans from both disgruntled boys. "IDIOTS! Stop eating so much if you're going to do that! You are both cleaning that up!"
Sasuke stopped rubbing the sore spot on his head and wiped at his mouth. "I have to eat."
Now Naruto looked over as well. "And I have to eat more than him. It's the only possible way I'll get strong enough to beat him."
"That's true," Kakashi-sensei agreed. "But puking won't help you."
"The last thing you idiots need to do is have some sort of bulimia problem!" I almost growled at both knuckleheads. "SO STOP THROWING UP AND WASTING FOOD! GOT IT?!"
Both boys seemed petrified of me now, but they both nodded and practically ran to get towels for the mess. Once they were done with that, they sat back down and ate normally until they were full.
After dinner, Tsunami had told me to take a break from washing dishes, and was going to finish them up for me. Reluctantly, I had agreed, but now I was standing awkwardly in the corner of the room. I stepped up onto the upper part of the floor so I could get around Kakashi-sensei and Naruto to go back to my seat, but then a picture frame caught my eye.
I looked at it curiously. It was all of Tazuna's family, but there was something about the picture that was off. Everyone in the picture seemed to be smiling, even Inari, but that wasn't what was strange about it. The corner of it was torn off. Despite that, I could still see the figure of someone who was standing behind a smiling Tsunami with his hand ruffling the hair on Inari's head.
Naruto must have noticed that I was standing there, because he asked, "Akina, what is that?"
I turned to answer, but then I noticed everyone looking at me now, and I began to feel uncomfortable.
"I'm sorry," I directed towards Tazuna, "I didn't mean to pry. I was just wondering about the picture."
"About the torn part of it, right Akina?" Naruto asked.
The air in the room tensed up as I could feel the family's negative emotions as though they were swarming all around us. I really hadn't meant to draw attention to it, and I know that Naruto didn't mean anything by asking either. He was just always curious.
"It's my husband," Tsunami said sadly.
"They used to call him a hero in this land," Tazuna looked down with what looked like regret in his eyes.
From beside Sasuke, I could see Inari get down from his chair. I had a feeling that this wasn't something he wanted to hear. I had an idea of what was going through his mind if I was right about everyone's feelings right now. The man in the picture caused the family to feel sad and regretful.
Hearing her son walking away, Tsunami called out to him. "Inari, where are you going?"
Ignoring his mother, Inari simply went to the door and walked away as he closed it shut behind him. Tsunami appeared worried about him, and started to go after her son. Before she left the room, she looked over her shoulder at Tazuna. "Father, you can't talk about him like that in front of Inari, you know that!"
Regretfully glancing over to Tazuna, I tried to apologize. "I'm sorry, Tazuna. I didn't mean to upset Inari like that."
"Hmm," Kakashi-sensei chimed in. "Is there a story behind this?"
"He wasn't his real father," Tazuna replied. "He came into our family later, and he brought so much happiness. He and Inari were very close."
Naruto seemed to grow interested in the story. I could understand why he would be interested as well. This was starting to sound a lot like how he and Iruka are.
"In those days, Inari used to laugh all the time," the bridge builder began to shake with so much emotion. "But then, all that ended."
Tears began to hit the table, and as I stood by Naruto now, I wanted to look away. However, I knew that I couldn't, because this man was showing us something important, and I would not dismiss that in favor of my own feelings. That would be so selfish of me.
"He never laughs or smiles anymore, ever since the day everything changed. The word courage was stolen from this island. We were left feeling powerless, hopeless, and Inari suffered the most ever since it happened."
"Tell us," Kakashi-sensei urged him on. "What happened to Inari?"
Tazuna wiped his eyes as he started his tale for us all. "First you need to know about the man, his father: the man who taught us the word courage, who was a hero in this land."
"A hero," Naruto seemed surprised, "really?"
I placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder as I sat beside him once again at the corner of the table now. He was someone who always wanted to be a hero to others, and he was striving so hard to do that by becoming Hokage. Naruto wanted to matter to people and be treated with the same respect that a hero is given.
"You can decide that for yourself," Tazuna replied to Naruto's question. "He came here about three years ago. Inari was having trouble with some older boys who liked to bully him. They had taken his dog away from him and thrown him into the water. But Inari froze in fear when he was given the opportunity to save him because he didn't know how to swim. Interestingly enough, at that exact moment, Pooch figured out how to dog paddle."
I'm not sure that is actually very interesting considering Inari was probably trying to not drown at the time, I thought with a little concern for the boy, despite knowing he is okay.
"It wasn't long after this that Inari went underwater and had fallen unconscious," the bridge builder continued. "And when Inari woke up next, he discovered that he had been saved from drowning. That day, he taught Inari an important lesson: live your life so you have nothing to regret. If you care about something, protect it. No matter how tough, no matter how sad, you've got to keep trying. Even if you have to put your life on the line, protect it with both arms, never give in."
Smiling at the lesson from that day, I could completely understand what this man meant by his words. It was the same way I felt about my friends and family. I would protect them with everything I had in me, never stopping until they are safe.
"His name was Kaiza. A simple fisherman who'd come here from another land to follow his dreams. After that, Inari and Kaiza were inseparable. The boy had never known his real father, so you can imagine what it meant to him to have Kaiza in his life. He looked up to him and followed in his footsteps, like a real father and son. Kaiza spent more and more time with us, until he naturally became a member of our family."
Naruto looked on with a new fire in his eyes. I could tell that this man was someone he wanted to be like now.
"And then when this town needed him, he became something more. A flood had threatened the village and we could not get the flood gates to close. The only way to do so would have been to have someone swim to the opposite side with a line so that the gates could be pulled closed, despite the flood waters creating a very strong current to rush by the gates. Kaiza volunteered to be that man. He swam through the current with strength and determination until he finally reached the gates and he tied the line until everyone was able to close the flood gates, saving the lower district from flooding. From that time on, Kaiza was considered a hero in this land. He taught us all the meaning of courage, and Inari was so proud to be his son."
Tazuna suddenly grew somber. "But it wasn't long after that Gato showed up and took over. He terrorized the whole village. Only Kaiza stood up to him. Gato couldn't have a local hero getting in his way. It took his whole gang to stop one man. They had to shatter the bones in his arms to stop him, but it soon got worse. Gato had a public viewing of him the next morning. He wanted people to know what would happen to anyone who disturbed his order. Unfortunately, Inari was there among the crowd when they publically executed Kaiza."
That poor kid… To see his Dad executed like that…
"Since then, Inari has changed," Tazuna admitted with a sad expression on his face. "So did Tsunami, and all our people. We lost our will."
A fire growing in my gut, I wanted to prove something. From the look on Naruto's face, I could tell he did as well. We both got out of our seats, but Naruto fell down almost immediately after getting up. I kneeled down to help him up again.
"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked, surprised.
"You better take the day off," Kakashi-sensei instructed. "No more training. You've used too much chakra. If you push any harder, it could kill you."
"Do you really have so little faith in me, Kakashi-sensei?" I was beginning to think that he doubted my skills as a medic. At the very least, I could call on Mom to heal him up if I couldn't do it.
Naruto's determined voice interrupted my thoughts though. "I'm gonna prove it."
Smiling, I nudged Naruto a little from his place on the ground. "You mean we are." I received a nod from my best friend at the amendment to his statement.
"Prove what?" Tazuna questioned.
"Akina and I will prove that it's true," Naruto replied as he shakily got up from the floor. "That in this world, there are real heroes."
What I found funny was that Naruto thought he had to prove he was a real hero. To me, he already was. He was Naruto Uzumaki, my best friend, and a real hero of this world.
Author's Note
So I just wanted to thank everyone who has Favorited and Followed both this story and me as well. It really means a lot to see such a wonderful reaction to this story that I have been dreaming of writing. I'm glad you all like it.
Also, to my reviewers, thanks so much for your feedback. I love reading them, and it just gives me that much more motivation to get back to writing.
One last thing: if you want to see some pictures that I have of what the characters look like, go to DeviantArt. Here is my account name: Moonlight-Wolf16. Find my account and have a look. I have pictures of Akina, Tsubasa, Sora, Ichigo, Nami, and Ryuujin up so far. There will be more on the way, so check them out!
Thanks to all of you again! I hope you liked this chapter :)