Konoha:
Maruku focused on the lead in the palm of his hand. Kurenai-sensei had finally deemed him ready to start learning elemental ninjutsu. After he had been tested for a particularly strong fire attribute, he had been tasked with his current exercise.
The goal was to burn the leaf using nothing but his chakra. So far it was slow going. He could singe the edges but that was about it. Ichijin, however, had made serious progress. The boy had began to study the sword and Kurenai had taught him how to apply genjutsu to weapons.
The only one falling a bit behind was Hinata. Their failure in their first mission had shaken her confidence. As much as Maruku wanted to say something, he couldn't. He had far too much to worry about. He needed to get as strong as possible as fast as he could, that way he could go on missions and earn money.
Flower's Landing was already feeling the effects of Tensei's absence. The ex drug addicts that he had employed and kept off the streets had returned to their old way of life. Just the other night Maruku had to escort an elderly couple because they were being harassed by some thugs.
Maruku wasn't the only one having a hard time. Ichijin struggled to get Masuri's medicine and her health was starting to decline. With her declining health, Ichijin's attitude had gotten much worse.
They had only been doing menial D-rank missions since their disastrous failure of their first one. The lack of meaningful income was just another stressor for the two boys. The frustration Maruku felt bled into his chakra, and the leaf he had been trying to ignite burst into a small flame.
"I did it!" He said in surprise. Kurenai was by him in a flash, inspecting his palm for burns. "That's odd." She said, frowning thoughtfully.
"What is?" He asked.
"Ordinary, holding fire chakra requires advanced manipulation to form a thin layer between the skin and the flame in order to avoid burning oneself. While you've worked to develop that particular skill, to do something like this completely subconsciously…" Kurenai trailed off as she shook her head.
"It doesn't matter. Good work. Now do it again, until you can do it consistently. After that we'll review fire safety and application. Once I'm satisfied you won't burn your teammates, I'll teach fire ninjutsu." She instructed. Kurenai left to check on Hinata, leaving the boy to his own devices.
"Hey. Meet me after training." Ichijin said, sneaking up on his friend. Maruku nodded and grabbed another leaf from his pile. While he wanted to patrol Flower's Landing after training, knowing where Ichijin's head was important. He didn't want his friend doing anything stupid.
Later:
Maruku met Ichijin in Masuri's tea shop after training. He sipped his iced matcha while he waited for his friend to gather his thoughts.
"I need your help. The old lady isn't getting any better and some dope fiends have been loitering around the area lately. I need your help scaring them off." Ichijin explained, polishing his new sword. Maruku nodded at the simple request.
"There's also something else I wanted to talk to you about." Ichijin fell silent as he stared off into space. "I finally managed to get her to a doctor's appointment. She's not going to make it. Her kidney is going bad and she's at the bottom of the transplant list. She's got maybe two or three months." He said quietly.
"Oh, Ichijin." Maruku started.
"Don't! Don't look at me like that! I didn't tell you because I wanted pity." He stated, standing suddenly and gripping his sword tightly. Maruku stood, gently took the sword from the other boy and pulled him into a hug.
"It's alright. I'm here. It's just us. Let it all out." Ichijin shook in his grasp as his tears slowly began to fall.
"This is so shit!" He cursed, his voice watery.
"All because she's a civilian! How? How can people get away with treating others like this? So what if she is not a ninja or from a clan? Why does that make her life less valuable? She's still a person goddamn it!" Ichijin raged, angrily wiping his tears away.
Maruku pursed his lips as he empathized with the boy's frustration. He had felt this way before and he had seen others fell this way before. It wasn't a good line of thinking but he didn't have the words to settle his friend.
"I'm sure I don't have to tell you how people who don't come from a clan are seen as less than. Treated as second class citizens no matter where they go. Isn't that bullshit?"
The masked stranger's words came flooding back to Maruku. He clenched his fist at the memory. Their actions may have been wrong but their words were right. This was bullshit.
"The best we can do now is help her pass peacefully and uphold the things she leaves behind. Tensei left me his bar and I'm sure Masuri will leave you her shop. Let's merge. I'm sure that the two of us will be able to make the type of community they would have wanted." Maruku said.
"It's useless." Ichijin said stoically.
"This is a ninja village. We can't help anyone, let alone a whole bunch of people if we don't have the influence of high level ninja." Ichijin said, sitting down. Maruku was silent as he sat back down. He looked at his scarred arms and then to bandages concealing his sealing tattoo. Ichijin was right. As they were now, they couldn't fix anything.
They were too weak.
They came to the realization at the same time. That to accomplish anything in this world, they would need power.
Power was everything. All was possible through power and power alone.
"Wanna spar?" Maruku asked. His voice was different. A little deeper and slightly colder. The unfairness of the world and the masked stranger's words chipped away at his idealism little by little, leaving him just a bit more cynical.
"Yeah." Ichijin sounded similar as he mentally counted down the remaining life of his only maternal figure.
The Next Day:
Kurenai watched her team complete their mission with a blank look, careful not to display how she was feeling. Something had changed and she didn't like it. Her two boys were giving a hundred and ten percent in their training. While ordinarily there was nothing wrong with that, it was how they were acting that worried her.
Normally, one of the two would invite Hinata to hang out after their dailies were finished. The girl would always respectfully decline as her obligations to her clan ate away at whatever free time she had. However a wedge had now formed between the three of them between because of it. While they weren't rude or acted untoward to the girl, it was clear they were actively excluding her, not speaking to her unless necessary.
That wasn't the worst thing though. Ichijin was growing in genjutsu quickly. Too quickly. She feared that another of her students might undergo Sparking. If word got out that two out of three of her students went through Sparking, the Hokage would have no choice but to disband her team.
Sparking was a blessing and a curse. While she had never experienced it herself, she knew several of her comrades who had. Guy, Kakashi, and Anko to be exact.
All of them were elite level ninja with insane power and potential. And all of them lived with permanent repercussions of their Sparking, whether it be physical or psychological.
A Sparking ninja was just too valuable a resource to not be utilized. The enhanced power and bloodlust clouded the judgment and meant that a ninja would take any mission, no matter how dangerous, if it meant they got to fight to their fullest. It was a loss of humanity and she didn't want that for her students, especially when they were so young.
It wasn't like she could prevent it however. As far as she knew, Sparking was entirely random. There was no way to predict or prevent it. All she knew was that excessive combat and life threatening conditions tended to make it appear.
She needed to know more. Unfortunately, all information about Sparking was need to know only. If she wanted to study it, she would have to observe her students through it.
Kurenai let Hinata give the mission report as practice while she stayed silent. Once the girl was done and they were dismissed Kurenai took the chance to speak to the Hokage privately.
"Lord Hokage." She greeted. Horizon puffed his pipe as he studied some documents.
"Kurenai." He said simply, waiting for her to begin.
"I would like to make use of The Depths trading field for two months. I'm sure my team will benefit greatly from it." She requested.
"Usually, I would deny such a thing outright. However, given the circumstances it's probably best to accelerate their development. I'm sure I don't have to tell you, but the Chunin Exams are coming soon, and your team will be participating. It'll be held in Kumo. You have permission for three months. Dismissed" the Hokage said.
Kurenai left to prepare a training regiment. Three months should be plenty of time to study Sparking and come to some conclusions. Perhaps this time together would help repair the teamwork that had deteriorated.
The Depths:
Maruku felt a bit anxious as he stood within The Depths. In the far corners of the Leaf Village's jurisdiction were The Depths. Said to be made by the First Hokage himself, there were trees so tall that they blocked out the sky, leaving the surrounding area perpetually covered in shadows and darkness. The wildlife had evolved to be more ferocious within The Depths as well.
"Now that we're all here, I'll explain what we'll be doing and the purpose of our training here." Kurenai started. She stopped and gave a hard look at Hinata who was already shaking slightly. Being under the scrutiny of her teacher got here under control but it was clear she was still nervous.
"We will be here for three months. During this time, no one is allowed to leave. I will push your combat, survival, and stealth skills to the max during this training. I will provide each of you with instructions for things I want you to work on and medical supplies. After that you'll be on your own." Kurenai said seriously.
She handed each of her students two scrolls with one of them being marked for medicine. After that she faded from view with the use of a camouflage genjutsu.
As Ichijin and Hinata began to unfurl their scroll, Maruku stopped them. "We need to find a water source and establish a base of operations before we do anything else. If we stand in the middle of the open like this, we'll get eaten." He said.
The others nodded at his logic and put their things away. "Hinata, you take point, Ichijin you take center, and I'll take rear." He directed. The order made sense, with Hinata's vision and Ichijin's genjutsu they could see and quickly subdue any threat in front of them while Maruku's Hollow Barrier could protect them from the rear.
They moved carefully through the darkness. Hinata was the only one who could see and they didn't want to disturb anything and cause unnecessary trouble.
"Oh!" She gasped in quiet surprise.
"What is it?" Maruku asked, just as quiet.
"I see a leopard over to our left. A really big leopard. It has more chakra than animals are supposed to have." Hinata said back.
"Is it looking at us?" Ichijin asked, his voice hard.
"No. It's just lounging around." Hinata answered.
"Then we wait and follow it. It has to get thirsty eventually." Maruku said. He was proven right ten minutes later as Hinata reported that the leopard began to move. They quietly stalked it to a gently flowing river and watched it drink before it slinked back into the darkness.
"Maruku, start boiling and filtering some water. I'll climb these trees and see if there's somewhere we can stay for a while. Hinata keep an eye out." Ichijin said tersely, already walking up the tall trees.
The others moved to do their tasks, working in silence. Ichijin's horrible mood was understandable. Masuri was going to die and now thanks to this training he wouldn't be there when she passed. Without Maruku there to watch over Flower's Landing things were undoubtedly going to get worse.
In short, nobody was particularly happy to be here, but they had resolved to make the most of it and get maximum value from the training.
"Do you see anything?" He asked as the water slowly filtered. Hinata shook her head as she sat against the base of an enormous tree with her Byakugan active.
They sat in silence, neither knowing what to say to the other. They both felt the distance that was growing between them and neither knew how to close it. Maruku wasn't sure if he even wanted to close it. He needed to be much stronger, and he couldn't let any distractions deviate him from that goal.
As he sat there in the dark, he could just barely make out her face. Maruku couldn't help but think the girl looked lonely. He looked away quickly, not knowing how he felt about that.
"Hey. I found a pretty big tree hollow. Once we clear it out, all of us can sleep comfortably there." Ichijin said, making his reappearance. The two followed the boy up the gargantuan tree trunk for several minutes until they finally came to their first branch.
Ichijin pointed to the big tree hollow entrance. "I can sense a few presences but I'm not sure how strong they are." He said looking at Hinata with a touch of impatience. She activated her Byakugan again, breathing hard as the strain heavily taxed her chakra.
"There are four giant squirrels. They seemed agitated." Hinata said quietly.
"Stay here. I'll handle this." Maruku said, weaving hand signs. He placed a Hollow Barrier within the entrance, trapping the squirrels inside. They immediately went berserk, scratching and throwing themselves at the barrier. Their eyes were red and they foamed from the mouth.
Maruku tied an explosive tag to a kunai, opened a small hole within the barrier, and tossed it right in one of their eyes. It was a modified tag that he had made himself, as such the explosion was much more powerful. Blood and viscera splattered against the barrier as the bodies dropped.
"Are there anymore?" He called out.
"No, that was all of them." Hinata called back a moment later. He dropped the barrier and pulled out a sealing scroll. He sealed away the bodies then chucked the scroll away as hard as he could. They didn't need the blood and decay to attract anything.
Once everyone had made their way inside, Maruku placed sealing tags around the entrance and a Hollow Barrier appeared.
"That should keep us safe for now but we should probably still take turns keeping watch." Ichijin nodded his agreement and began making a fire for light.
Once the fire was going, Maruku distributed the drinking water and settled against a wall. He pulled out the scroll Kurenai had given him and began reading. There were lots of fire ninjutsu and their uses written down as well as some sealing techniques.
He wasn't the only one reading. Hinata let a small noise of surprise as a bow and a quiver of arrows popped out of the scroll. As well as a piece of chakra paper. The others watched with interest as her paper crumpled and became soggy.
"Lightning and water. Lucky you." Ichijin said. He was the only one that didn't know his nature affinity as Kurenai had deemed it more appropriate for him to focus on genjutsu.
"Have I done something to you two? I can't help but feel there's something driving us apart." Hinata asked very quietly. She wasn't one to speak up like this, and Maruku knew it had to have taken a lot of courage.
"It's nothing you've done. We have our own shit to deal with." Ichijin said stoically, looking deep into the fire.
"Maybe I could—."
"You can't help us either. Someone like you wouldn't understand." Ichijin said, cutting her off.
"What do you mean someone like me?"
"He means someone from a clan. Someone who inherently doesn't have to worry about or think about the same things we do. Someone who, by chance, was born with every advantage imaginable." Maruku said quietly.
There was deafening silence between the three as their feelings were made public. Hinata took a deep breath, gathering her resolve before she spoke again.
"Don't you think you're both being unfair. We've been training and working together side by side for almost two months now. The two of you are getting so strong so fast, that I can't keep up. And everyone knows it." She said so quietly that she was practically whispering.
"Maybe we are being unfair. But you can't help how you feel. People from clans are treated better than those who aren't. That's simply how things are." Maruku said. There was anger and frustration in his voice, but it wasn't directed at his teammate.
"What's it like having a family?" Ichijin asked suddenly. Hinata started to shake at the boy's tone.
"What's it like not having to worry about your next meal? What's it like not having to worry about whether or not you'll still have a place to call home when you finish training." Ichijin pressed, his eyes burning with frustration giving him an ominous look in the firelight.
"What's it like knowing you can obtain any resource you need simply due to having a last name?"
"Ichijin, that's enough!" Maruku tried stopping his friend, but Ichijin wouldn't be quelled.
"What could someone like you possibly know about watching the only person in your life who gives a damn about slowly wither away?!" The boy exploded in rage, getting in the girl's face.
WHAM!
Maruku punched the other boy in the face, knocking him to the ground. "That's enough. Calm down. I know you're upset, but you're getting angry at the wrong person."
Ichijin rubbed his jaw as he backed off. "Sorry." He muttered, not making eye contact with anyone.
"My mother." Hinata said so quietly that the boys had to strain to hear her.
"She died when I was young. It was a rare sort of eye cancer that's only found among the Hyuuga clan. She suffered every day that she was alive to experience it. There was nothing that could be done to save her. Around the same time my father—." Hinata cut herself off as she mentioned her father.
"My father had decided that I was too weak to carry the burden of clan heir and had tried again for another child with his mistress. My sister, Hanabi, is his pride and joy. She received all his attention and love while my mother was left to wither away, and I was discarded as a failure"
There was an undeniable bitterness in Hinata's voice as she spoke of her family and her normally kind face was frowning.
"I didn't know. I'm sorry." Maruku said emphatically.
"How could you have? It's not something I advertise. I don't understand what you go through, and you don't understand me. But I want to. I don't agree with the way the clan is run and if I want to change it I need to be much stronger.
"Then that's one thing we all have in common. We don't agree with how things are run either and if we're going to change things then we'll need—." Ichijin spoke.
"Power." They all said at the same time.
The distance that had been separating Team 8 melted away at last. They were finally united under a singular goal of the accumulation of strength.
"Get some sleep. We have a lot to do." Maruku said. The others nodded their agreement, but none found respite. Their minds were too active for sleep to come.