Chapter 19 – The Fire Burns Again
It is the day after Yang received her new arm from Hesta. Taiyang, Naruto, and Yang are currently stretching for the day's training while Zwei watches in the background wagging his tail. Yang then asks, "So, what exactly are we doing today?"
"Just some light sparring. Don't wanna overwhelm you too much" Naruto answered.
"I know she went through a lot, but how do you know she'd get overwhelmed?" Taiyang asked.
Naruto does not answer as he did not want to call Yang out for yesterday. Yang then reluctantly says, "There was an in incident yesterday, but I don't really wanna talk about it…" Even though she knows Naruto did not hold it against her, she is still ashamed that she hit him yesterday.
Hearing this makes Taiyang look a little concerned, but he knows better than to press the issue. He tries to keep things positive as he exclaims, "Okay, I'll go first!"
Yang nodded and took her fighting stance. Taiyang leaped forward and threw a kick which Yang managed to duck and then Taiyang followed up with a swinging backfist. Yang managed to weave out of the way of the backfist, but does not retaliate. As Taiyang is about to strike, he notices Yang still on the defensive which is not like her. Upon further inspection, he also sees her fists shaking and he contemplates if he should still attack. However, he knows it will not help Yang if he holds back too much so he did a leaping roundhouse kick. Yang managed to duck the kick and then tried to back off, but Taiyang managed to grab her arm and over-the-shoulder throw her to the ground. He is about to follow up, but he sees the panic in her eyes, and this makes him back up with concern showing on his face. Yang then realized what just happened and is upset with herself as she hit the ground in frustration.
Seeing Yang's reaction, Naruto teasingly says, "What was that about not being impatient?"
Yang then sits up with annoyance on her face as she says, "Shut up." Her response caused both Naruto and Taiyang to snicker.
"Now it's my turn!" Naruto exclaimed. Yang then got up and took her stance again. Naruto thought to himself, "I should probably hold off on using Orange Spark until she's more comfortable fighting again."
"At this point you've become strong enough again to where not using your weapon is in no way an advantage for your opponent" Kurama tells him. ""My fists hit as hard as any weapon" is what I believe you've been saying."
"…Crap" was all Naruto could internally respond with. He ran in and threw two straight punches and then a reverse roundhouse kick. Yang managed to guard against each strike and then tried to gain some distance. As she did, Naruto did a flying kick that knocked her over. Once again on the ground, Yang started to panic a little.
Naruto, instead of following up his attack, grabbed her hand and told her, "Yang, you gotta breathe." Yang just stared back at him wide-eyed and heavily breathing with anxiety.
Taiyang then also approached told her, "Yang, look at me." Yang did so as he said, "Everything's gonna be okay."
Yang started to breathe a little easier. As she calmed down her anxiety a little, it was replaced with frustration as she shouted, "Damn it!" This caused Naruto and Taiyang to share a concerned look.
"Let's give it another try" Naruto told Yang. Yang simply nodded and got back up.
Still a little panicked, Yang closed her eyes and punched forward. Naruto easily dodged that punch and then Yang threw another one which Naruto caught. Yang's eyes shot back open and seen Naruto up in her face causing her to further panic. She closes her eyes and throws another blind punch. Naruto catches that one as well and he can feel Yang's hands trembling. He calmly asks, "Did you calm down before we started this second spar?"
Yang's eyes opened a little and looked down as she answered, "Not really…"
"Okay, then that's what we're gonna spend the rest of the day focusing on" Naruto told her.
Confused, Yang finally looked back at him and asked, "Isn't the sparring supposed to do that?"
"You need to learn to calm your anxiety down first" Naruto informed her.
"Okay, but how?" Yang asked curiously.
"By being still" Naruto answered without a beat.
Yang shook her head further in confusion and responded, "Wha?"
"You're not trying to teach her Sage Mode, are you?" Kurama asked. He was as stunned as Yang at Naruto's suggestion.
"Of course not!" Naruto responded to the fox. "Sage meditation is good for more than gathering Nature Energy, ya know! Is also helps calm your mind…to a degree." Kurama simply nodded. He meditated for gathering nature energy too and it helped him gain a sense of serenity as well.
Hearing Naruto's suggestion, Taiyang walked up and said, "Ya know, it's not a bad idea. I'll do it too."
Yang then sighed and says, "Fine."
Naruto smirked at her reluctant response. He then sat and took a meditative position with both Yang and Taiyang following suit. After a few minutes, Yang started to fidget a little. Meditation goes against her personality. However, she trusted Naruto's word that it would help. Zwei then walked over and tried to meditate as well…but he fell asleep. Despite his eyes being closed, Naruto was able to tell what just happened with Zwei and he just smiled. Then, after a few more minutes, Yang has managed to fully calm down.
Yang's eyes slowly opened, and she looked at her hands that were no longer shaking. In disbelief she said, "I can't believe that worked…"
"Remember the night you and your team fought that Super Ursa?" Naruto asked.
"Oh yeah…that was a real rough night" Yang answered.
Taiyang's eyes go wide hearing about this. He had heard about the Super Grimm from Qrow, but he did not hear about Yang and Ruby fighting them. He then turns to Yang and asked, "Why were you fighting a Super Grimm?"
"Oh, we were looking for one since we found the first one" Yang answered. "Well, Whiskers did."
Taiyang wanted to follow up on the Super Grimm, but he found it impossible to look past what he just heard as he asked, "Did she just call you Whiskers?" Naruto did not respond.
"Yup" Yang answered. "On the day we met I noticed those six whisker marks on his face, so I started calling him Whiskers." This causes Taiyang to burst into laughter.
Naruto started grumbling as he said, "Something big has to happen like my head getting put through a wall for her to use my actual name…"
Wiping a tear from his eye from laughter, Taiyang simply says, "That's my girl."
With annoyance in his voice, Naruto asked Taiyang, "Did you give "cute" names to either of your wives?"
"Of course not" Taiyang responded proudly.
"That's because mom pretty much ran the relationship" Yang said upon hearing the pride in Taiyang's voice.
"Wha…why would you tell him that?" Taiyang asked Yang. He felt betrayed.
Now Naruto was the one laughing as he told Taiyang, "And here I thought Yang learned it from you. Guess not."
Feeling humiliated, Taiyang told them both, "Oh I'm gonna get you two for this." Hearing this made both Naruto and Yang smile. Yang's smile in turn made Taiyang smile.
"So, is there gonna be anymore sparring today?" Yang asked.
"I just want you to focus on calming meditation for today" Naruto answered. "We'll get back to sparring tomorrow."
"I gotta agree with him" Taiyang said agreeing with Naruto. "We're in no rush."
"Yeah, okay" Yang said relenting to their points. She was about to go back to meditating, but a thought occurred as she asked Naruto, "What part of your training required being still?" Naruto hesitated to answer with Taiyang being there. Yang picked up on that and said, "Eh, you know what? Tell me later." She then went back to meditating. After a little while she said, "I can't take this anymore! I need to DO something!"
"What about a jog?" Naruto suggested.
"That'll work" Yang said in agreement.
"Then I'll go get started on dinner while you two are out jogging" Taiyang told them. He then went back into the house.
Naruto and Yang started jogging and Yang asked him again, "So what part of your training involved that meditation?"
"You know about my "Sage Mode" Semblance, right?" Naruto asked her.
"Hard to forget" Yang responds.
"Back where I come from, Sage Mode is a difficult and complicated power where you have to draw in nature energy from your environment and mix it with your own" Naruto started to explain. "The key to draw in nature energy is to be completely still."
"And your Semblance does the same thing?" Yang asked full of curiosity.
"Yeah, but to a much lesser extent, ya know" Naruto informed her. "But the bright side is the version I get from my Semblance doesn't make me have to stay still."
"That's actually pretty lucky" Yang told him. Ironic considering a couple days ago she called him the unluckiest person she'd ever met.
"Well, ever since I got my new weird…Chakra…Aura…orange stuff I haven't been able to use my Semblance" Naruto admitted.
"Oh, that stinks…" Yang told him.
"Luckily I'm way stronger now than I was with my Aura Sage Mode, so I'll be fine until I figure out what the problem is" Naruto told her.
Yang smiled at how easy going he is about it. She then remembers him bringing up the night of the warehouse fight and she asked, "You mentioned the Super Ursa?"
"Oh yeah" Naruto recalls the point he was trying to make. "When Ruby screamed out in pain I got distracted and that multi-color haired girl really laid into me."
"Yeah, you mentioned that before" Yang comments.
"I used my sage meditation to calm down and refocus" Naruto explained. "Then my Semblance activated."
"Wow, that is really lucky" Yang commented. "Maybe you got so much back luck when you first got here the universe gave you a credit or something."
Naruto snickered at that response and said, "Maybe."
Coming to the end of their jog, Yang said, "I wanna get to the next sparring session as soon as we can."
"First thing tomorrow morning" Naruto answered as he and Yang entered the house.
It is now the following day. Naruto and Taiyang have finished warming up, but Yang is nervous despite her saying she wanted to do this. Taiyang enters his fighting stance which makes Yang enter hers.
"Gotta remember to breathe, Yang!" Naruto shouts over to her. She takes a deep breath and her eyes become noticeably more focused.
"Get ready, here I come!" Taiyang announced before ran up to Yang and started with an extended side kick. Yang side stepped the kick, but Taiyang flawlessly transitioned into a Superman punch and continued his combo with a right elbow strike. Yang was able to weave out of the way of the superman punch and block the elbow strike. So far, she is keeping herself together and throws a right hook. Taiyang weaved the right hook, but Yang continued to attack with a forward-stepping left hook followed by another forward-stepping right hook. Taiyang dodges them both and can already tell Yang is doing better than yesterday resulting in a slight smile.
Taiyang went on the attack again with a scissor-kick and upon landing he followed up with a one-two punch combo. Yang stepped back to avoid the kick and managed to block both of his follow up punches. She is about to throw her own punch in return, but Taiyang threw an uppercut and landed a glancing blow. Taiyang's fist making contact, even though it was just a little bit, made Yang start to panic. However, she takes a breath and keeps her stance. Taiyang then continued his assault with a forward-stepping right punch. Yang was able to block it and even managed to duck his follow up kick. However, Taiyang followed up with a spinning-backfist into a roundhouse kick combo which overwhelmed Yang and knocked her down. Once again, her eyes were wide and panicked.
Taiyang ran up to her and said, "Yang, Yang it's okay!"
Naruto walked up as well before sitting by her and saying, "Remember what we practiced yesterday."
Yang then assumed her meditative position and focused on her breathing. After about two minutes she was able to calm down.
"Are you okay now?" Taiyang asked gently with concern in his voice.
"I think so" Yang answered. Taiyang breathed a relieved sigh.
"Hey, you lasted a lot longer this time, ya know" Naruto informed her.
"Is that true?" Yang asked with skepticism.
"It is!" Taiyang exclaimed. He is delighted to see how much progress was made after just one day.
Yang smiles hearing this and looks at Naruto before saying, "I'm ready." Naruto smiles as he gets up and takes his stance. Yang then did the same before saying, "Come on!"
Naruto ran at Yang and threw a flurry of punches; seven in total. He is holding back his attacks, but he did not change the way he fought. Yang managed to block the first five, but she was glanced by the sixth and got hit directly in the gut by the seventh. Naruto followed up with a leaping roundhouse. Yang managed to duck and then remembered that Naruto is faster and much more unpredictable to fight than her father. And now that she knows about his past, she knows he has more effective battle experience than even her Uncle Qrow. All this meant she had to be even more on guard.
Naruto ran towards Yang again, but this time he slid and kicked Yang into the air. She managed to guard up, but she lost sight of Naruto. He appeared above her and she turned around just in time to guard against his axe kick. However, even guarding against the kick did not stop it from sending her plummeting back down and hitting her back hard on the ground. This knocked the wind out of her and caused her to panic a little. She saw Naruto coming back down and was able to roll away to avoid him. She got to her feet and started backing up with a cold sweat beating down her neck.
"That's enough!" Naruto announced to let Yang know she can start catching her breath. He then stated to feel bad about putting Yang through this.
"Get over it" Kurama told Naruto. "Remember, this is about how she feels, not you."
"Okay, you know what?!" Naruto indignantly started to respond to the fox in his head. He then stopped himself as he knew Kurama was right.
As Naruto was getting a short lecture from Kurama, Yang was looking at her trembling hands before she started to slow her breathing. She then looked at Naruto and said, "You're still really hard to get used to fighting."
Naruto gave a slight chuckle before saying, "They did used to call me the number one unpredictable hyperactive knucklehead ninja!" Yang could not stop herself from laughing at that name.
It is now the fifth day since Yang's rehabilitation training started. On the third day she lasted a whole sparring session with Taiyang without getting overwhelmed. She did still get overwhelmed against Naruto on both the third and fourth day. However, she was able to last longer each time. We now join them in the middle of Yang and Taiyang's sparring session.
Taiyang threw two sidekicks and Yang managed to block them both. They then both attempted a roundhouse kick which clashed with each other before they hopped back and retook their stances. Taiyang then said, "I don't ever remember you being able to handle kicks this well."
"My friends gave me some lessons" Yang retorted before glancing over at Naruto who has a smile on his face.
Taiyang seen her look away and dashes in with an elbow strike. Yang managed to guard up in time, but was knocked off balance. Taiyang then followed up with a leaping roundhouse kick. But even though she was off balance, Yang was able to drop down to avoid the kick before shooting back up and landing an uppercut into Taiyang's chest and then landed a follow up reverse roundhouse kick. This resulted in Taiyang getting sent tumbling away.
Naruto was impressed by what he just seen as he yells out, "Way to go, Yang!" Yang does not respond right away as she is surprised herself that she pulled that off.
Taiyang gets back up and takes a deep breath after Yang's hit to his chest left him unable to breathe for a second. He looks at Yang and says, "I've never been so happy to get knocked on my butt." Yang gets a chuckle out of her father's comment before she stretches a little to make sure she is ready for Naruto.
Naruto got up and asked, "You ready?"
"You know it!" Yang responded. "Today's the day I go the distance!"
"That's what I like to hear!" Naruto exclaimed as he slammed his fist into his hand. Yang at the same time slammed her fists together as she usually does.
Looking on with curiosity plastered on his face, Taiyang wondered, "Is that some pre-match ritual they do or was it a coincidence?"
Naruto initiated the match with a dashing punch into an uppercut and palm strike combo. Yang was able to sidestep the punch before blocking both the uppercut and palm strike. However, she needed to step back in order to keep her balance. Naruto then reaches back and threw a heavy right punch and Yang did the same making their fists collide. This resulted in a small shockwave that sent the fallen leaves scattering. Naruto then backed off and started running around Yang at increased speed. Yang simply closed her eyes and concentrated. Naruto then attacked from the left, but Yang was able to cross counter his punch, surprising them both. Naruto was knocked back, but he had his signature grin.
"Gotta say, wasn't expecting that cross-counter, ya know" Naruto said to Yang with a complimentary tone.
With excitement in her voice, Yang responded, "Me neither!"
"Woooo! That's my girl! Hit him again!" Taiyang cheered.
"Oh I will!" Yang exclaimed before she rushed at Naruto.
Yang threw a series of hooks at Naruto, all of which he dodged or block. However, he could feel his guard getting worn down little by little. The old Yang's combat instincts were returning, which Naruto was overjoyed about. As a result, Naruto started going on the offense which in turn made Yang have to start blocking. He then managed to land a kidney shot on Yang that shook her to her core.
Naruto then thought to himself, "Now we'll see how far she's come." He kicked Yang in her chest which knocked her off her feet. However, instead of getting overwhelmed, she rolled back onto her feet into a squatted position before leaping back at Naruto and throwing a fast but impactful punch. Naruto guarded against it but even he was forced to slide back a little. Yang then retook her stance and was ready for him. But instead of attacking, Naruto lowered his guard and started laughing.
"What the? What's so funny?" Yang asked in confusion.
"Now that's the Yang I remember!" Naruto exclaimed.
Yang blushes a little from this and asks, "What do you mean?"
Naruto pointed at Yang still in her stance and said, "Instead of getting overwhelmed, you jumped right back in ready for more!" Hearing this, Yang's eyes widen before she looks at her fist not shaking at all. She realizes she is not feeling the overwhelming anxiety she was when they started and feels an immense sense of relief.
Taiyang runs up and hugs Yang saying, "I knew you could do it!"
Yang hugged her father back and continued to smile as she looked to Naruto and asked, "What's the next step?"
"There's one last test that Kurama came up with for you to pass" Naruto answered.
"Who the hell is Kurama?" Taiyang asked.
"He's a mutual friend of ours" Yang answered. "Really knowledgeable on this kind of stuff."
Naruto gave Yang a look that showed he really appreciated the cover so he did not have to lie again. He then said, "But not today since I'm gonna go visit Hesta. He'll probably be leaving today."
"Hold up, I wanna come too" Yang informed Naruto.
"Wait, who's Hesta?" Taiyang questioned.
Yang pointed to the HG on her arm and said, "The guy who made my arm."
"Oh, then I'll go too!" Taiyang announced. "I wanna thank him in person."
Yang looked at Naruto and Naruto responded, "He'd love to meet you!"
"Then I'll get the car!" Taiyang exclaimed before walking off.
Yang then looked back at Naruto and asked, "Are you sure?"
"Yeah!" Naruto answered. "Besides, now we don't have to walk."
"Uh, you know that since I have two arms now we could have just taken Bumblebee, right?" Yang inquired. Naruto just stands there for a few seconds before he looks down embarrassed. This makes Yang start laughing as they head to the car.
After a forty-five-minute drive our group arrives at the refugee camp. As they start making their way through, Taiyang finds himself in a state similar to Yang's when she first seen all the refugees. He is horrified to see how many people were displaced. Last time he was here there were not nearly as many. Anything else he heard was from the news. But it is one thing to see them on the news, it is another to see them in person. Taiyang's heart sinks even further when he sees the children.
Yang turns back to see her father lagging behind. She calls out, "Dad! You coming?"
Taiyang snaps himself out of it and responds, "Yeah, on my way…" He then continued walking.
Naruto sees the look in Taiyang's eyes and asks, "You okay?"
Taiyang hesitates before he answers, "I just…I wasn't expecting so many…"
Naruto looked upon all the refugees and said, "It's a sight you don't get used to."
"It makes you realize how good you have it…" Yang said in a moment of self-reflection. They then see a couple Atlas supply ships and a passenger carrier fly in.
"That might be Hesta's ride. We gotta get moving!" Naruto said as he started running with Yang and Taiyang following. They finally see Hesta looking like he is ready to go, and Naruto calls out, "Hesta!"
Hesta looks and sees Naruto running towards him. He smiles and says, "Hey there Naruto!" He then sees Yang and says, "Looks like you kept your word!"
"Come on, Hesta. I never go back on my word. That's—" Naruto starts to say.
"Don't mention your nindo" Kurama tells Naruto. Naruto struggles but he stops himself.
Yang then chimes in saying, "You look like you're ready to go."
"Yeah…it's time" Hesta says with a little sadness in his voice.
"Before you go, my dad wanted to meet you" Yang informs him.
Taiyang then walks up and says, "I'm Taiyang. Thanks for making Yang a new arm."
"Ah, I was happy to do it!" Hesta happily said. He then looked to Naruto and Yang before saying, "Now you two take care of the girls. I won't be around to fix 'em up anymore."
"We will" Naruto responded.
"You can count on it" Yang responded as well.
An Atlas official then walks up to Hesta and tells him, "Sir, it's time to go."
"Oh I know! Keep that expensive lookin' tie straight" Hesta told the official. He then looks to Naruto and Yang before saying, "If you ever end up in Atlas, come find me."
"We'll make it priority" Yang tells Hesta.
"I know we'll see each other again Hesta" Naruto tells his first Remnant friend. He shakes Hesta's hand before Hesta follows the official onto the passenger carrier.
After watching Hesta get flown away, Taiyang comments, "He wasn't what I expected."
"What did you expect then?" Naruto asked curiously.
"You know, a sophisticated...sciencey type" Taiyang answered. Naruto cannot help but laugh at the thought.
While Yang also laughs, she says, "To be fair, I'm pretty sure dad thought he was from Atlas."
"He's not?" Taiyang questioned.
"Nope. He's a Vale crafter through and through" Naruto answered. "I practically had to drag him from his broken-down shop in downtown Vale, ya know."
"Okay, I get it now" Taiyang states. "So you two ready to go?"
"Hold on a sec!" Naruto said before he went rummaging through the stuff brought in from Vale. Once he found what he was looking for he put it in a bag.
"What's that for?" Yang asked, not having a clue what it was.
"Something for tomorrow's training" Naruto answered. Yang and Taiyang looked at each other confused as they all headed back to the car.
It is now the following day and Yang is in the middle of her sparring session with her father. Just like yesterday, Yang seems to be more like her old self again. As this is going on, Naruto is looking at the inside of the bag he brought from the camp and is scared of what it might do to Yang.
"She won't be ready if she can't get past this" Kurama reminded Naruto.
"I know you're right…but I think maybe we should wait" Naruto internally expressed.
"You're wrong. We need to make her confront it while it's still fresh in her mind" Kurama responded. Naruto clenches his fist in hesitation, but he cannot argue with Kurama's logic.
"Whiskers come on!" Yang shouted over. "It's your turn now!" Naruto took a deep breath before walking over. Yang saw the look on his face and asked, "Why are you so nervous?" Without saying anything, Naruto reached into the bag and pulled out a White Fang mask.
"A mask?" Taiyang asked in confusion. He then looked over to Yang.
Yang was staring at the mask. All excitement had left her voice as she asked, "Why?"
As Naruto looked at the mask he said, "I fought the guy that took your arm that night. I won, but I know I didn't kill him. So that means he's still out there."
Taiyang looks shocked as he heard this. Yang had not told him how she lost her arm, but now he knew why she had such trauma from it. He simply said, "Oh my Sunny Little Dragon…"
Naruto then put on the mask and said, "You might end up facing him again, ya know. You need to be able to fight if that happens." Yang gave no verbal response, but showed she was in agreement as she took her stance.
Naruto started to rush in, but Kurama told him, "Naruto, stop!"
Naruto was able to stop before getting to Yang and he asked Kurama, "Why'd you make me stop?"
"You should try to fight more cold. More reserved" Kurama told him. "That's how that red-haired Faunus fought."
"Okay…yeah you're right" Naruto told Kurama in agreement. He then slowly approached Yang and instead of an all-out assault, he threw two straight punches and then waited for Yang to respond.
Yang blocked both punches, but she was thrown off. She felt no energy or passion behind those punches. Considering Naruto is practically bursting at the seams with passion when he fights, there not being any behind his punches right now just felt so…wrong. She then threw a couple punches of her own which Naruto blocked. He then had to force himself not to retaliate.
Seeing Naruto struggle with his instincts, Kurama told Naruto, "I'll tell you when to attack."
"Thanks Kurama" Naruto said in gratitude. "I'm bad at fighting like this…"
Yang continues to hesitantly attack. Between the cold and reserved fighting style and the expressionless look from the mask, she starts feeling more and more unnerved. Then, for just a second, she sees a flash of Adam attacking her and she freezes up.
"Attack now" Kurama calmly tells Naruto. Naruto then threw a gut punch to the unguarded Yang. It hit its mark and Yang fell to the ground in a panic like she did before the training.
Naruto threw off the mask and dropped to his knees by her and said, "Yang, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Hearing Naruto apologize profusely, Yang turned to him and saw the complete opposite of the cold monster her mind had flashed to a moment ago.
Seeing the progress they had made with Yang seemingly undone, Taiyang ran over and kicked Naruto in the chin causing Naruto to get knocked over before yelling, "You stay away from her!"
Naruto was feeling his throbbing chin as he thought to himself, "I deserved that…" As this was happening, Yang was trying to calm herself by being completely still.
Taiyang walked up to Naruto with anger in his eyes and said, "Get out and don't come back."
"I…" Naruto said trying to speak up. But he saw the state of Yang so he decided Taiyang was right. He got back up and started to leave.
Hearing this, Yang opened her eyes watching Naruto leave. She shouted out, "Wait! Don't go!"
"What?!" Taiyang shouted in shock. "After what he just did?!"
Yang looked at her father and shouted back in frustration, "He just proved he was right to be concerned! I completely froze when I was forced to think of the one that took my arm!"
Hearing the frustration in his daughter's voice, Taiyang forced himself to look at the situation logically and had to admit, "That's…that's true…"
Yang gripped her fists tightly and said, "I wanna go again."
Naruto and Taiyang both looked surprised as Naruto asked, "Are you sure?" Once again Yang gave no verbal response as she stood and put her hands up. Naruto reluctantly put the mask back on and they got back to it. They would spar several more times into the night. Yang would get overwhelmed and panic every time. However, each time made her more determined to get past this. Unfortunately, the mental stress made her skip dinner and go straight to bed.
As Yang laid in her bed, she was not able to get much sleep. She simply could not get the image of Adam out of her head. Of course, this is not the first night that this has happened. The first few nights after the fall she had Adam stuck in her head as well. The image of Adam would keep scaring her awake. However, this night was different. This night her anger was overwhelming her fear. Anger about feeling so helpless. Anger about Adam causing Blake to run away. But most of all, anger about sending Ruby off because she knew she would be a liability to her sister. She tried to shake herself of these thoughts, but she couldn't. She then opened her eyes to the sun beaming in her window. She got out of bed and started warming up. She wanted to get right back to sparring. She then walked out into the living room where Taiyang and Naruto already were.
They saw the state of Yang and Taiyang asked, "Want some breakfast?"
"No" Yang answered quickly. Naruto is about to say something, but Yang cuts him off as she stared at her shaking fist and said, "Today. Today I'm getting past this." She had extreme determination in her eyes. While Naruto and Taiyang were concerned, Zwei gave a cheerful bark as if to cheer her on.
Naruto sighed before he said, "Okay." He then grabbed the mask and headed outside. Yang followed him outside and despite how tired she is, she could not be more focused. Naruto put on the mask and was just standing there. Yang thought he was trying to taunt her to throw her off guard since that is the part he is playing. In reality, Naruto was struggling to get himself to think like Adam would in a fight. Adam's cold and calculated way of fighting is his polar opposite.
Yang jumped in the air and threw a punch at Naruto. He dodged it but Yang did not follow up. She was hoping to bait him in, but instead he just backed up; much to Yang's annoyance. She then stepped forward and threw a series of left and right hooks which Naruto either parried or dodged. He then parried one last time before he hit Yang in the jaw with a quick right uppercut. She fell down and started to panic sweat. However, that did not stop her as she rolled back onto her feet. Naruto then started laying in strikes making her feel overwhelmed again.
Yang then screamed in her head, "NOT AGAIN!" She then caught one of Naruto's fists as her eyes turned red. He was surprised, but he made sure not to let up as he threw another punch. Despite her anger, Yang keeps herself in control as she swats away Naruto's punch and catches him by surprise. She then channels all the anger she's been feeling into her fist as fire erupts behind her along with a blue energy that Naruto is all too familiar with. This distracts him as Yang punches right through the mask and into his face. He gets sent flying back and then skids across the ground.
Taiyang's jaw dropped as he did not know she could do that. Yang then looked at her fist and wondered, "Was that the Chakra he was telling me about?" She then smiles until she realizes how hard she hit Naruto. She ran over and started to help him sit up.
Naruto could not see straight as he said, "Ugh, I think it worked…"
Yang smiles again and said, "Looks like it." She held his face to help him straighten his vision so she could look him in the eyes as she said, "And thank you. Thank you for helping me through this."
"That's what friends are for" Naruto responded.
Yang's smile turned into a face of disappointment as she said, "Just friends, huh?"
Confused, Naruto said, "You're the one who said things were up in the air."
Yang shook her head and said, "I just wanted to see you squirm a bit." Naruto then got a big smile. Guess things weren't over for them after all.
They then walked back to the house as Taiyang hugged Yang and told her, "I knew you had it in you!" Zwei was playfully barking as if to congratulate Yang as well.
Yang petted Zwei as she said, "Okay, I'm starving." Taiyang then ran back into the house to prepare something.
As Naruto also petted Zwei, who clearly wanted him to do so, he looked at Yang and asked, "So what do you wanna do from here?"
Yang went quiet as she thought about it. After a few minutes, she looked at her hand and said, "I wanna learn to use my Chakra and then go after Ruby."
Naruto smiles as that is exactly what he wanted to do. He then commented, "Finding them might be a hassle, ya know."
"Not necessarily" Yang said in response. Naruto simply looked confused at what she said.
It is now the following day and Yang woke up excited for the first time since before the Fall of Beacon. She was going to finally start learning about this mysterious power that has been creeping up when she got angry; the power that she now knew was called Chakra. A power that her current boyfriend was the world's foremost expert in. Naruto on the other hand was a little nervous. He never thought he would be the expert on anything. Now it was on him to teach Yang all about something he had complete mastery of, but poor skill putting it into words.
Naruto is currently sitting on the couch when he notices Yang come sit next to him. He says, "Morning."
"Morning" Yang said returning the greeting. "So, how'd you sleep?"
"Okay. This couch beats a tree any day" Naruto answered. "What about you?"
"Definitely better than the night before, but I was kept awake some of the night from excitement" Yang informed him.
Hearing Yang's excitement made Naruto even more nervous. He tried to hide it as he jokingly said, "Now you sound like Ruby."
Yang took it as a compliment as she said, "Hey, everybody loves Ruby's excitement."
"Even Weiss?" Naruto questioned.
Yang went quiet as she had to think about it. After some thought, Yang responded, "She just hides it well."
"Then what about Blake?" Naruto further questioned.
"Yeah…her too…" Yang said hesitantly. She tried to hide it, but Blake leaving clearly still hurt.
Naruto picked up on this and said, "Sorry…I shouldn't of brought her up."
"No reason for you to apologize, Whiskers" Yang responded. "After all, you've actually been here when I needed you. But yeah, it hurt a lot when I learned she left. I hope one day the team comes back together. And when that day happens, me and Blake will have to have a long talk."
"You're talking about her like she's a sister you need to reconcile with, ya know" Naruto commented.
"That's a pretty apt description actually" Yang responded. "Honestly, if I didn't already have feelings for someone else, I might have considered going for that."
Naruto then blinked several times processing what he just heard. He then said, "Wow…didn't know you swung that way."
Yang then started stretching as she said, "It's nothing like how I feel about you if that's what you're worried about."
Naruto smirked as he jokingly said, "Well I have to be concerned, ya know! Blake's a lot better looking than I am."
Yang simply rolled her eyes but kept her smile. She then asked, "So, how do we start?"
Naruto could not put it off any longer. He was going to have to figure out how he was going to explain Chakra to someone with no basis to start with. Kurama then told him, "Just give it your best shot and I'll fill in the gaps in your knowledge." Kurama telling him this made him feel relieved…but also a little dumb. He never thought to ask Kurama who is a millennias old being literally made of Chakra. There would not be anyone more knowledgeable on the subject except the Sage of Six Paths himself.
Naruto beckoned Yang to follow him outside which she did. He then manifested his new orange energy in his hand and thought about the lectures Sakura would give him. He then told Yang, "First we gotta start with what Chakra is. Chakra is the manifestation of mental and spiritual energies mixed with the body's physical energy."
Hearing this definition, Yang immediately had a thought and asked, "Is Chakra being part mental and spiritual why it was responding to me getting mad?"
Naruto muttered to himself, "That would make sense…" He then internally asked Kurama, "Well?"
"That is accurate" Kurama told Naruto.
"Yeah, that's how it works" Naruto finally told Yang.
Yang stared at Naruto as she said, "That…that took you a bit to answer."
Naruto rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment as he admitted, "I was asking Kurama…"
Yang dawned a sheepish grin before asking, "So is Kurama gonna be my teacher while you're just the go-between?" Naruto got a really annoyed face at the question causing Yang to start laughing. She then took a breath before saying, "Okay, I'll stop."
Naruto sighed before he continued to explain, "Beings with Chakra have a Chakra network in their bodies with most of your Chakra pool at the center of your body. There's also Chakra points that the Chakra can cycle to and leave your body."
Yang then looked at her hand and thought out loud, "Maybe the Chakra trying to find its place in my body was why I felt all that pain back then."
"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked curiously.
"When that blue energy stream went into my body, I felt a lot of pain for a little bit" Yang explained. "At the time I just assumed it was the aftereffects of having fought the Super Grimm."
Naruto then thought about how he felt pain when he first got here when he was getting his Aura. He then asked her, "Can you describe how it felt?"
"It was like I was exploding on the inside…" Yang informed him.
"I felt pretty similar until my Chakra left…" Naruto said thinking out loud.
Kurama then started theorizing before he said, "You already had a pre-built Chakra network that your Charka escaped through instead of wrestling with the Aura that had just entered your body. The people here don't so their bodies had to acclimate to both energies faster."
"Wait, so are you saying having Chakra before Aura is why it took so long for me to start using both?" Naruto internally questioned.
"Maybe" Kurama responded. "This is all nothing but guess work right now."
As interesting as this all was, Naruto decided to move on from it since it did not matter right now. He then told Yang, "Today's goal is to get you to manifest Chakra on your own instead of on accident."
"Okay…how do I do that?" Yang asked as most anyone would.
This explanation Naruto needed no help with. He told her, "First thing we gotta do is get you to recognize Chakra. After that it'll be simple." Yang was now itching to get started. It has been so long since she learned anything new when it comes to combat. Naruto then sat down in front of her and patted the ground inviting her to do the same. She does and Naruto tells her, "Close your eyes." Yang does so before Naruto continued, "Remember the incident on the train. Remember what happened during the second round of the tournament. Remember what happened yesterday. Try to remember the feeling welling up inside of you during all those times. There must have been more than just anger."
Yang started concentrating on those memories. As Naruto pointed out, she recalled another feeling well up besides the anger. As she recalls the other feeling, she feels something start to stir inside her right now.
Naruto noticed the change in Yang's facial expression. She clearly felt something, but just needed a little help. He told her, "Open your eyes." She did so and Naruto further said, "Watch me." He then held up is right hand and closed his thumb, ring finger, and pikey finger inwards while keeping the index finger and middle finger extended and touching. "This is the Seal of Confrontation hand sign. It helps concentrate and mold Chakra. Make this sign and then concentrate on that recalled feeling."
Yang slowly makes the Seal of Confrontation to make sure she got it right. Once she did, she closed her eyes and went back to concentrating on that feeling she recalled. Her physical and mental energies were now starting to intertwine. As she further concentrated, she felt a pool of energy gather at her core before it started getting carried all throughout her body. Her eyes shot open in shock as she felt sensations shooting through her.
Naruto was amused by her reaction. He was born with Chakra, so he does not know what it feels like to have it course through your body for the first time. His closest experience would be when he felt his Aura for the first time, but that hardly compares. Aura envelops you. But to feel something course through every part of you, even down to your cells, has to be a jarring experience.
Yang finally managed to collect herself and said, "That was such a rush! Is it always like that?"
"Not exactly…" Naruto tells her hoping she is not disappointed. "Now that your Chakra is flowing properly this is just your normal state now. That rush you felt was just from experiencing it for the first time…kinda like when you try a new bowl of ramen!"
Yang shook her head, still not used to her boyfriend's ramen obsession. She then looked at her hands trying to come to terms with the fact that this feeling is her new status quo. She then smirked and said, "I like it."
Happy to see Yang likes her new state of being, Naruto tells her, "Now that your Chakra's circulating, the next step is to learn to channel it." He then gathers his new energy in his hand making it radiate orange. Yang then looked at her own hand and tried to do the same, but failed causing her to get an annoyed look. Seeing this made Naruto remember his old days of trying to get the basics of molding Chakra. He was a failure in everyone's eyes back then. He then looked at Yang getting frustrated before grabbing her hand and saying, "Maybe wait for me to tell you how first, ya know?"
Yang blushed from embarrassment before she sighed and said, "I don't ever remember being this impatient…"
"Well, I've always been impatient. Maybe I'm rubbing off on you?" Naruto told her with a grin.
Yang let out a giggle before responding, "Should I be worried about sudden noodle cravings?"
"Oh, ha ha" Naruto said sarcastically. He then got back on track and said, "The flow of Chakra's kinda like a river. Remember, Chakra's as much mental energy as it is physical energy, so visualization is key."
After hearing Naruto's explanation, Yang closed her eyes again before forming the Seal of Confrontation and picturing the flow of Chakra in her mind. The Chakra then started flowing into her metal arm. She opened her eyes again and while there was no visual change, she could definitely feel it.
Naruto was impressed that she got it so quickly. He then told her, "We'll be practicing gathering Chakra into different parts of the body for the rest of the day."
"Do I really need to be able to gather it anywhere besides my fists?" Yang questioned.
"While that's what you'll probably be doing the most often, learning to gather it in other parts of the body will strengthen your Chakra control needed for other techniques" Naruto informed her. "Besides, don't you wanna to be able to do this?" He then walked up a tree and then hung upside down from a branch with just his feet.
Yang's eyes widened as she admitted, "Okay, yeah I wanna to be able to do that."
Naruto smiles at her reaction and said, "It lets you walk on water too."
"Now I know you're messing with me" Yang said with skepticism.
"Next time we see a body of water I'll prove it!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Oh, I'm holding you to that!" Yang exclaimed back. It would be a win-win for her. Either she learns she can walk on water or she sees Naruto fall through the water and get embarrassed.
Naruto and Yang would then spend the next several hours practicing channeling Chakra through their bodies. Yang struggled more when she was trying to channel Chakra to her feet. At one point she complained, "How can it be easier to channel Chakra into my fake arm than my actual feet! This makes no sense!" This of course made Naruto laugh as they kept going.
It is now the middle of the afternoon and Yang is exhausted. They are taking a break and Taiyang has brought them some water. As Yang downs a cup, Taiyang asks, "So, how's the special training for Beacon first years going?" Upon hearing that, Naruto gave Yang a look that conveys, 'That's what you came up with?'
Now put on the spot, Yang tried to keep a straight face as she said, "It's going great, dad!"
"So…why did they start this secret training program you two are practicing?" Taiyang inquired. Yang's eyes went wide as she was not expecting a follow up question. She then looked to Naruto, practically begging for his help.
Naruto kept trying to think of something, so he went with a partial truth as he answered, "It's 'cause of those Super Grimm."
Taiyang nodded as that made sense. He then said, "Qrow said even a basic Beowolf of those things is really dangerous."
"They are" Naruto said in confirmation. "My first encounter with one almost killed me."
Yang looked at her father and seen he was buying this. She decided to chime in and say, "My team's first was an Ursa. We all barely made it out alive."
Taiyang looked back at Yang with a disapproving face and said, "You mentioned that you and Ruby were looking for those things..."
Yang then tried to defend herself as she said, "W-we were looking for the Dust that made the Super Grimm so more couldn't be made…"
Taiyang's eyes narrowed before he said, "That's not any better."
Feeling cornered, Yang motioned to Naruto and said, "Whiskers was the one who actually started the search." She then looked away from Naruto as she could feel the glare he was giving her.
"So, it's your fault my girls got involved?!" Taiyang exclaimed in faux outrage.
"It wasn't like that!" Naruto shouted back defensively. He was trying to think of what else to say.
Taiyang then dropped the angry dad act as he said, "Oh who am I kidding? I know they got involved on their own. They probably heard about these Super Grimm and decided to follow you, right?"
Naruto and Yang were both stunned at Taiyang accurately guessing what happened. Naruto started to ask, "How did…?"
"I know my girls" Taiyang answered. He then looked at Yang with a smile as he said, "That's how Summer and I raised them." Yang also got a big smile hearing how proud her father is of her. Taiyang then said, "So go ahead and spill! I wanna hear all your Super Grimm stories."
Yang then did so starting from when they heard Naruto tell Ozpin about his encounter. As Yang is telling these tales, Naruto looked at Yang and Taiyang and then wondered to himself if he would have had that kind of relationship with his father if he lived. He started to smile as he imagined a kid version of himself running up to Minato and telling him about his day. He was broken from these thoughts when he heard Yang say, "And then our de facto leader makes us all get in a circle saying something like "back's only to each other" or something."
"Backs only to each other. Trust those who stand next to you to the end" Naruto said, completing his quote for Yang.
"Sounds like you did a really good job getting them all coordinated like that" Taiyang said to Naruto. He was genuinely impressed.
"It helped that we all trust each other" Naruto responded. He then looked to Yang and said, "Don't forget about Jaune and Ruby. Jaune went, "It doesn't matter how many of you show up…""
Yang then finished it saying, "And then Ruby said, "we won't back down!"" Taiyang's smile only grew from hearing that. He was beaming with pride in his kids. Yang then continued, "That formation managed to keep us alive until Uncle Qrow was able to get there to back us up. Then the cavalry arrived."
"Yeah, but so did that stupid Super Giant Nevermore and turned Ironwood's ships into scrap" Naruto commented.
"Wait, seriously?" Taiyang asked in shock. He seen the size of some of those ships. A single Grimm tearing apart those ships is a scary thought.
"Oh yeah…I try not to remember past that point…" Yang said as what happened clearly still bothers her.
Seeing the look on her face, Taiyang gets concerned and asks, "What happened?"
Naruto hesitantly answers, "I might have gotten a little hurt…"
"You almost died! We were all crying our eyes out!" Yang snapped at Naruto.
Naruto looks down defeated and said, "I said I was sorry, ya know…"
Taiyang chuckled before he looked at Naruto and said, "I could tell you were reckless."
"You can?" Naruto questioned.
Taiyang nodded before he said, "I was on a team with Qrow. I know what reckless looks like." Hearing Taiyang's answer, Naruto looked at Yang. She had calmed down now and simply shrugged at her father's comment. Taiyang then got up and said, "I'll let you two get back to your "special" training." He then headed back to the house.
After Taiyang was gone, Yang commented, "I can't believe we got away with that."
"I could have used a heads up about your story, ya know" Naruto told Yang. He did not like having to scramble at the last second.
Yang sighed and said, "Sorry about that. Guess I'm just not used to lying as much as you." There was a silence after that as Yang then looked over to see Naruto with his head down disgusted with himself. Yang meant it as a nothing comment, but she sees it clearly was not a nothing comment to Naruto. "Naruto, I didn't mean—"
Naruto cut her off saying, "No, no you're right…"
Yang now felt horrible. She walked over and sat next to him before saying, "In your situation I really don't know what I would have done."
Naruto sighed before responding, "That doesn't mean I should have done it."
Yang then leaned on his shoulder and said, "I'm sorry I said that."
Naruto smirked and asked, "Is being mad at myself a sure-fire way to get you to come close?"
Yang smiled back and said, "Nope. Next time I'll just deck you."
Naruto could not help but laugh. He then said, "This might make me a bad teacher, but I kinda just wanna stay like this for a while."
"I guess I must be a bad student since I wanna do the same thing" Yang commented. She continued to lean against his shoulder as they started into the sky and enjoyed each other's company until they returned to the house.
Over the next three days Yang's training continued. She has been learning to maintain consistent Chakra control in order to walk up a tree. Needless to say, she has fallen down a lot over these past few days. Naruto tried his best not to laugh, but one time Yang landed right on her butt, and he could not hold back anymore as he let out a snicker. He received a glare from Yang when that happened, but it could not be helped. However, through all the pain she received falling from the tree, her skill with her Chakra control continued to grow to where yesterday afternoon she was able to walk up the tree. We join them now doing the same training.
Naruto is standing there with a timer in his hand as he watches Yang. The timer then goes off and he yells over, "That's five minutes, you can stop now!"
Yang, who had been hanging upside down on a branch using her Chakra, dropped back down to the ground landing on her feet. She started catching her breath as doing this still clearly caused a lot of strain.
Naruto put the timer down before he walked up and said, "You're learning all this really quick."
"You really think so?" Yang asked skeptically.
"Totally!" Naruto exclaimed. "Thankfully you're not a dunce like I was when I was learning this stuff."
Yang smiled as she took the compliment and asked, "So, what's the next step?"
"Kurama and I had a talk about that last night" Naruto told her. He then starts to recall that conversation.
[FLASHBACK]
Naruto is laying on the couch after Yang and Taiyang both went to bed. He enters his inner mind to converse with Kurama. Kurama seen him and asked, "What's keeping you awake?"
"I'm having trouble thinking of what to do next for Yang's training" Naruto answered.
"Hmm…" Kurama said now deep in thought. He contemplated for a few minutes before saying, "It might be a good idea to try training in Chakra nature."
"What?!" Naruto responded in shock. "I didn't even learn that until way later! And I needed that extreme shadow clone method to learn it!"
Instead of getting into a shouting match with Naruto, Kurama calmly responded, "That was because you were supposed to learn change in Chakra nature much earlier." Naruto stopped his indignant responses and let Kurama finish his point. "But, because you were my Jinchuriki, those who could have taught you despised your very existence."
Naruto then looked down, reminded of the cruelty he was forced to endure as a child. He reluctantly said, "That's a good point…"
Kurama then continued, "On top of that, once you got your own sensei in Kakashi, he was too busy trying to keep Sasuke from doing what Uchihas do."
"Hey, don't talk about Sasuke like that!" Naruto shouted, reprimanding Kurama. However, Naruto understood why Kurama felt the way he did about the Uchiha. Between Madara and Obito subjugating him as their own personal beast, and Sasuke imprisoning him in a Planetary Devastation, Kurama has only had very bad experiences with the Uchiha.
Kurama moves on and says, "My point is that the reason you started so late in learning change in Chakra nature is because of special circumstances. And as for the extreme training, that was because you were being taught to add change in Chakra nature to the Rasengan; the ultimate change in Chakra form. That was something even Minato couldn't do. You won't be teaching Yang anything so complex."
After Kurama put it like that, Naruto nodded and said, "Okay, I'm on board!"
"We'll need to figure out her nature though" Kurama stated.
Naruto smirked and said, "Come on, Kurama. It's obvious, ya know."
Kurama looked at Naruto strangely before realizing he was right. Kurama then said, "Okay, so here's how you make the Chakra change…"
[FLASHBACK END]
"I'm gonna be teaching you to use fire Chakra" Naruto informed Yang.
Yang's eyes widened as she said, "You never mentioned that Chakra had elements."
"I just wanted you to focus on the basics for a while" Naruto informed her. Yang was in agreement with that. What she was doing was overwhelming enough at first. Naruto then continued, "So everybody's Chakra has a nature it's naturally good at. Normally we'd need to figure out what yours is, but it's so obviously fire."
Yang simply nodded as her nature being fire is the least surprising thing to her. She then saw Naruto go and pick a bunch of leaves off of a tree. He then handed her one making her tilt her head in confusion as she says, "You've lost me."
"To use fire Chakra, you need to make your Chakra flare and spread" Naruto told her. Seeing this only confused Yang more, Naruto continued to explain, "Try to picture the Chakra in your hand encircling the middle point of your hand and then continue to spread to the middle. Then make it flare or expand slightly like you'd see a bonfire do."
Yang gave an annoyed look and asked, "Is it gonna be this complicated every time?"
"Only at first" Naruto said, speaking from experience. "But once you get it down it becomes instinctual."
Yang is a little relieved to hear that. She then looks at the leaf she is holding and asks, "So that's the deal with this?"
"It's the training method my teacher used with me" Naruto answered. "You keep that leaf between your hands and try to use your fire Chakra on it. My nature's wind so it got cut. For you the leaf will burn."
Yang took a deep breath and got started. She pictured her Chakra encircling around her hand and spread before expanding. She then opened her hand, and the leaf was the same as before. She then tried again, but no luck. Then again, and again, but still no change. She then looked to Naruto and asked, "Is this gonna be another several days thing?"
"Yup" Naruto answered, not trying to sugarcoat it.
Yang sighed, but she refused to let herself get discouraged. She continued her attempts well into the afternoon.
As he was watching Yang practice, Naruto decided to get his own practice in. He applied his new energy to one of the leaves using the same visualization as he did with his wind Chakra. Instead of a cut, the leaf is completely shredded. This left Naruto stunned and then he checked his hands which were protected by the same energy just like Aura. It looks like he is going to need some more work to keep this new power in control.
Yang looked up at him and wondered if her Aura and Chakra will ever merge like that. Another hour passes and Yang had still not gotten the leaf to burn. She sat down frustrated and then looked back at Naruto who is still working on getting better control of his new Aura. She asks Naruto, "Was it this frustrating for you?"
As Naruto shredded another leaf he responded, "Oh, big time. But I absolutely needed it if I was gonna catch up to Sasuke." He stops his practice and looks back at Yang before saying, "Training like this will seem impossible without a goal in mind."
Yang took that information and thought deeply on it. They originally started training for her to overcome her anxieties and trauma. The Chakra training is entirely different though. She thought to herself, "Why am I trying to master this new power?" Sure, it was neat, but that is not enough for her to put her everything into this. She then closed her eyes and thought about what truly pushed her past her fear during her sparring session with the masked Naruto.
There was her anger about feeling helpless of course, but she cannot rely on constantly being angry. She then thought deeper on the source of the anger. She again remembers losing her arm, but that is not it. She again remembers Blake being scared and as a result not being there. This made her angry, but that is not it. She then remembers that day a few weeks ago. Hugging her sister before Ruby left and she could not follow. Her eyes shot open, before she got back to her feet and put the leaf back between her hands.
Naruto shredded another leaf with an annoyed look on his face. He then started to smell smoke and thought, "Smoke? Out here?" His eyes then widened as he turned towards Yang.
Yang moved her top hand away and the top edge of the leaf now has a smoldering burn. Upon seeing this she smiles and whispered to herself, "Just wait for me a little longer sis…"
Naruto walked up to her and shouted, "I knew you'd do it, ya know!"
Yang smiled as she said, "Thanks, Whiskers." She then held her hand out and said, "Can I get some more of those leaves?" Naruto smiled wide at this. Clearly Yang had found her motivation to keep moving forward.
Two more hours had passed and Yang was taking a break due to exhaustion. She then asked the question that has been on her mind for the past couple of hours. "Whiskers, when can we leave?"
Naruto put a lot of thought into this. Despite how much both of them wanted to go after Ruby, he didn't want to do so before Yang was ready. He finally said, "We can continue your training on the road, but not until you master manifesting fire Chakra. So not for at least another few days."
Disappointed, Yang asks, "Is it really gonna take that long?"
"Unfortunately, yeah…" Naruto answered reluctantly. He was able to hear the disappointment in Yang's voice when she asked the question. He remembered that the reason he was able to rush through the basics of nature transformation was because of his shadow clones and massive Chakra reserves. Yang does not have that luxury.
Yang took a deep breath and said, "Whatever it takes to go join Ruby." She then dawned a regretful expression and said, "I'm sorry…" She then looked over to Naruto who had a confused look and explained, "I know you wanted to go with her and watch her back. But you felt obligated to help me…"
Naruto's eyes widened as he shouted, "It wasn't an obligation!" Yang looked surprised by Naruto raising his voice at her. Naruto calmed back down and said, "I did wanna go. It felt weird just sending her off. I'm worried about her too. But Yang, do you really think I told you that you're the most important person in the world to me on a whim?"
"…I…I guess not…" Yang said with a little shame.
"I meant every word of it" Naruto told her. "So don't ever think I stayed because of an obligation."
Yang now felt terrible that the thought ever occurred to her. How could she ever have thought his feelings were ever not genuine? While still feeling bad, she was also heartened knowing for sure that she meant so much to him. She smiles and said, "At least we'll find her together."
Naruto smiles back and said, "Okay, back to it."
It is now three days later in the early morning. Naruto and Yang are out behind the house while Taiyang is preparing breakfast. Yang has made tremendous progress in the past couple of days. Her goal of going off to find Ruby pushed her to train harder than she ever had before. They are in the middle of checking her progress.
"Go walk up the side of the house" Naruto told Yang.
Yang did so with relative ease and then asked with a confident smirk, "That all?"
"Now jump off the roof as high as you can" Naruto told her. This confused Yang, but she finished walking up to the roof before jumping off of it. Upon doing so, she was startled as she was now well above the trees. She has never gotten this high up from a jump before. Seeing Yang's startled expression, Naruto explains to her, "Even without concentrating Chakra in your legs, the Chakra flowing through enhances all your muscles without you even having to do anything."
Upon landing, Yang noticed no strain on her legs from coming down from so high up. She was now even more surprised as she thought to herself, "It's almost like in those superhero movies when they first get their powers."
"And it's not just your muscles, ya know" Naruto continued to explain. "Your senses and reflexes will have gotten a boost too." Yang is all too happy about this development. Naruto then handed her a handful of leaves and said, "You know what to do."
Yang grabbed the leaves and burned them in no time. She is still a little surprised considering how much she struggled with just one a few days ago.
"Now concentrate more fire Chakra in your hand" Naruto told her.
Yang did so and then actual fire appeared in her hand. Her eyes widened and then without having to be told, she made a fist and the flame engulfed said fist. The flame did not burn her at all which made her wonder if the flame was actually effective. She then put her ignited fist by some grass and the grass started to burn. She quickly pulled her fist away before she shouted, "Now this is awesome!"
"Way to go, Yang" Naruto said congratulating her. "You've improved to the point where we can continue our training on the road." Hearing this, Yang gets a gleam in her eye. It has been nearly a month since the Fall of Beacon, and she is ready to set out into the world again. However, Naruto got a solum expression as he asked, "Have you figured out what you're gonna say to your dad yet?"
Yang's excited expression turned crestfallen as she said, "Nothing I think of is gonna soften the blow. So I'm just gonna say what comes to mind during breakfast." Naruto simply nodded as they both went inside for what they were sure was going to be a difficult meal.
As Naruto, with Zwei sitting by him, Yang, and Taiyang sat down for breakfast, everyone was quiet. After about four minutes of silent eating, Taiyang broke the silence saying, "You're leaving, aren't you?" Naruto and Yang both dropped their forks with dumbfounded expressions upon hearing this. Taiyang gave a chuckle and said, "I'm not stupid. Did you think I was under the assumption that you were doing all this training so you could hang around the house?"
"But…but…but…" Yang stuttered out clearly flustered. "I was racking my brain trying to figure out how to tell you! We saw how panicked you were when Ruby left!"
Taiyang sighed before he explained, "I panicked because it had only been a few days since everything happened. She had just woken up for one day before she headed off for who knows where with no real plan. Sure, her friends are with her, but I don't know them." He then looked right at Yang and said, "But that's not how it is with you. I watched you work hard to deal with your trauma. You've healed mentally and physically. You've also been training to make sure you're ready for whatever's out there. And unlike Ruby…" He then glanced over at Naruto. "I know who you'll be traveling with. Now, like any good dad, I don't think he's good enough for you."
Naruto could not help but snicker at the sudden lighthearted turn in his explanation. Yang on the other hand rolled her eyes at her father's comment.
Taiyang smirked at his daughter's reaction before he said, "But, after getting to know him over the past few weeks, I know two really important things. Number one, he's strong. Number two, which is more important, he's fiercely loyal. So, I know you'll have each others backs out there."
"I give you my word I'll always have her back" Naruto told Taiyang. "And I never go back on my word." Naruto tried hard not to mention his nindo as Taiyang gave him a nod.
"I don't know what to say…" Yang said, almost in awe at everything her father just said.
"Don't get me wrong, I'll still be worried" Taiyang continued. "But even though you'll always be my little girl, it doesn't change the fact that you're becoming a woman. One that I'm extremely proud of…and I know Summer is too." Yang then tried her best to hold back the emotional tears as she hugged Taiyang. As Taiyang hugged her back, he asked her, "So who are you going after? Raven or Ruby?"
As Yang backed up from the hug she responded, "Technically both."
Taiyang raised a brow until he realized what she meant and said, "Oh, that's clever!"
Naruto just looked confused as Yang told him, "I'll explain later."
After breakfast, Yang started packing everything she needed for the journey. She then dawned a new outfit. She is now wearing a tan jacket that is unzipped halfway to show an orange crop top. The jacket has brown short sleeves and a thick collar. There are two long gold-trimmed detachable tails on the jacket as well. She has black fitted pants, a brown belt, knee-high brown boots, a purple bandana tied around her left knee, and a pair of black fingerless gloves.
As Yang finished packing, she looked back at the family photo in her room and said, "We're on our way, sis." She then walked out of the house where Taiyang and Zwei were waiting on the porch.
Taiyang hugged her one more time and said, "Be careful out there."
Yang hugged him back and said, "I will." She then petted Zwei who looked very sad to see Naruto and Yang leaving. Yang then started walking towards Naruto who is leaning against the tree Bumblebee is parked next to.
Taiyang seen the saddened Zwei and petted him before saying, "They'll be back. And with Ruby in tow."
As Naruto seen Yang approach he exclaimed, "Whoa, you look amazing!"
Yang smiles and said, "Thanks. Can't travel around looking like I have the last few weeks."
"I mean…I thought you looked good in that too, but what do I know?" Naruto commented. Yang smiled and shook her head at his comment. Naruto then said, "Give the place one last look. Won't be back for a while." As he and Yang looked back at the house, Naruto saw the saddened Zwei.
In the realm inside Naruto, Kurama opened his eyes and also seen the saddened pup. Kurama closed his eyes again and said, "Guard the house." Zwei then proudly sat at attention and gave an affirmative bark as if he received orders from his general. Naruto smiles at what he just witnessed but Taiyang just stared at Zwei confused.
Yang looked confused as well as she put on a pair of aviator sunglasses and mounted her bike. She still had a perplexed look, so she asked, "What just happened?"
As Naruto was getting on Bumblebee as well, he said, "Oh, I forgot to tell you. Remember when Zwei got mailed to Beacon and he did those strange movements when he was looking at me?"
Yang had to think about it, but then she remembered and said, "Oh yeah…that was pretty weird. So what about it?"
"Somehow Zwei can sense Kurama inside of me and he was mimicking Kurama's movements" Naruto answered.
Yang's eyes widened as she took off her sunglasses and looked back at Zwei as she said, "That dog is such a mystery. So then why the sudden mood change?"
"I think Kurama might have a soft spot for the little guy" Naruto stated. Kurama growled at this which made Naruto snicker before he continued to explain, "Kurama told Zwei to guard the house and Zwei reacted like he received orders from his pack alpha."
Yang burst into laughter at the absurdity of what she just heard. What made it all the funnier is that she knows it is all true. She then put her sunglasses back on before starting up Bumblebee. She then drove off with Naruto and thought to herself, "As crazy as my life is getting, I must be crazier since I'm looking forward to it."
CHAPTER END