By the time we get back to the Leaf Village I don’t feel injured, and I finally received money of my own. I bought a small wallet to keep the rest of my money safe. Right after I close my bedroom door so I could rest, Tomoko appears in my room.
“Not tonight Tomoko. I want some rest,” I say as I get into bed. She yanks them back. I sigh, but let myself be sent to Shikkotsu Woods. I groan as feel the forest ground beneath me.
“Hurry up and lets start learning earth jutsus. Otherwise you’ll never learn wood technique.” I feel Tomoko’s talons on my head. I brush the dirt off of my pjs, as I get up from the dirty ground.
“You’re going to have to forget about your water nature for now. Only think about earth. Unfortunately I do not have earth nature, I am a wind user.”
“Then how am I supposed to learn earth nature!”
“You’re going to have to make earth of your own chakra first. So go ahead and try,”
I do try, and I fail.
“Try visualizing the earth chakra on your left hand, since your water chakra is on your right. That way one palm has one and the other palm has the other. That’ll help you,” Tomoko advices.
I do as she says, I leave my right hand to water, so I switch hands. It feels weak, I’m a righty not a lefty. But I remember the feeling of my earth chakra, and put all of my energy into my left palm. I see rock beginning to form at the center of it.
“Do you see it! Tomoko I’m doing it!”
“Concentrate!”
The rock grows just a bit before it falls onto the ground. Sweat running down my back, dirtying my clean pjs. I dug my toes into the dirt, trying to feel the earth, that helps me visualize my chakra.
“Earth is strong, and stable. It takes a lot of chakra to get it right, it is the most versatile element, so don’t goof around!” Tomoko gives me a hard peck on the forehead. I get back to work, and time passes too.
And that is how I spend three more months of my life. I went on missions regularly, and I’ve been lucky that I haven’t gotten injured in any of them. The Moon hasn’t even made its move, maybe now they understand I don’t belong there anymore. I juggle my time at the Leaf Village and the Shikkotsu Wood, thankfully no one has noticed me yet. My life soon began to settle in a regular beat, and I don’t complain about the lack of danger, for once I tasted the life I want.
Kakashi’s POV
She’s changed, Kiyoko has transformed right in front of me. She was no longer the scared woman we brought, she’s grown into a strong person. And she was as stubborn as can be when it comes to protecting the village, it makes me remember why I became the ninja I am today. She reminds me of so many of my late comrades.
Her eyes were warm again, and her smile was more vibrant these days. Kiyoko’s true colors were showing, and I hoped they stayed forever. After what she has been through, I can’t imagine what goes inside her head sometimes. I don’t know where she goes off to sometimes, but I wait for her everyday to come home. It always looks like she’s been training, and it remindes me so much of Naruto. She’ll become a jounin really soon. I saw how she made the water whip deadlier, who would have thought she would have that chakra control to do that. Her chakra control was already at jounin level.
We still don’t know about her though, the beast inside her. But it seems like it doesn’t bother her anymore, if it does, she hides it very well. I hear her knock my bedroom door, before she opens it. She appears on the other side, a smile glued to her face. Kiyoko holds her wallet in front of her.
“Dinner?” Kiyoko tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. I take my time to really look at her, she’s as bright as ever.
Kiyoko’s POV
We walk down the street, I was finally going to repay Kakashi for all he’s done, in bits, but its the thought that counts, right? We decided to eat ramen tonight, he told me Naruto absolutely loved this booth. Ichiraku’s we’ve eaten here before, I’ll try something new today. I feel at an all time high at the moment, this is what I’ve always wanted. Becoming jounin was a dream that I could actually feel. My fingers skimmed it.
I have been trying to learn earth jutsus,but its hard to get them right, Sage Moriko has been helping me with them. I’ve been going to one place to the other non stop, and I was really feeling it these past couple of days. Some ramen should energize me.
We enter the booth, someone is eating there too. It seem like Kakashi knows him.
“Iruka,” He says. Iruka waves hello, before he sips his noodles.
“My name is Kiyoko,” I introduce myself.
“Iruka,” he replies. I look over the menu while Kakashi and Iruka talk for a bit. I try not to eavesdrop, but I hear parts of their conversation over the sizzling noodles.
“Its been quiet without Naruto around. I’ve gotten used to the lack of noise, and complains of the villagers. How’ve you been,” Iruka asks Kakashi.
“Busy as always, but I’ve been training on my own. I feel tension rising,”
“Ya, so do I. Master Jiraiya has his hands full with that knucklehead.” I see Iruka pay for his ramen.
“I’ll see you around Kakashi. Its nice to have met you Kiyoko,” He says as he exits the booth. My order is set in front of me. A steaming pork ramen bowl, Kakashi ordered a large bowl of shrimp ramen, the smell was heavenly.
“So Iruka knows Naruto?” I ask Kakashi.
“He was his academy teacher. He really helped Naruto, Iruka was one of the first people to see Naruto as a person and not as a monster,” he says.
Iruka must have really shaped his thinking, I’m glad he had someone like him.
“I’ll be home late, I have to go talk to Lady Tsunade,” Kakashi says as he slurps the broth. I nod, as I finish my bowl as well. Kakashi doesn’t pay tonight, no way I’ll let him. I pay for the ramen, and a new sense of independence takes over me. I walk out of the booth with my chest out and chin up. I walk the streets, but when I see my surroundings I see that Tomoko has summoned me. Sage Moriko is standing there in front of home tree, back to the forest.
“You have to warn me when you summon me! I was having such a calm day,” I pout.
“Sorry, but your training with earth nature is going slower than we expected, today I’ll help you learn earth jutsus,” the forest sage begins. I sigh, I was really looking forward a warm bath.
“I think one of the most basic earth jutsu is earth wall. There are two ways to make a wall. The easiest way is to use pre existing earth, and using your chakra to manipulate the width and height. I’ll show you. The hand seals are tiger, hare, boar, dog. Then you just send your chakra through the ground.” Sage Moriko shows me the steps, and soon there is a wall in front of her.
“This wall however is easier to break through,” She punches right through the wall, like it was paper. I keep in mind to never anger her, otherwise there will be a hole in me.
“If you use your own chakra to make a wall it’ll be more resistant, but it does use chakra, so using one of the two depends on your situation,” She makes another wall this time one made of her own chakra.
“Go ahead try to punch through that wall,”
“I’d rather not break my fingers today if you don’t mind.” She shrugs and punches it herself. It didn’t crumble like the other one. She waves her hand, it was my turn to try.
“Oh and one more thing, try adding a layer of chakra surrounding your wall, then it really will be indestructible.”
She punches her wall with a fist infused chakra, and even though it was made of her chakra it fell quickly.
I try the harder one first, I’ll use my own chakra to make walls. I do as she instructed, the hand seals, the focus, the wall I wanted. It has to be strong, my chakra is indestructable. The earth wall began to rise before me, I visualize my chakra surrounding it, and use it to fortify it. My finishes wall isn’t perfectly square, and it isn’t tall. It was deformed and about a few inches taller than me. At least it was a wall.
“Lets test it out,” Sage Moriko says. Its gonna fall I know it is. Its a work in progress, especially because I suck at earth nature. She infuses her fist with her chakra, and strikes the wall. I see a crack spread throughout the wall, but it doesn’t fall. My wall doesn’t fall!
“Ugly, but strong. Just as I expected your chakra is even stronger than my own. You really are something Kiyoko,” she looks at the wall for a while, before she asks me to do it again. I try several times, and the more I practice the more shape the wall begins to take.
“Continue to practice it on your own. That is a great defensive jutsu, as for offensive. I’ll show you a jutsu that is all ranges. It is called Flying Stones. Just like the wall it could be formed two different ways, but I have a feeling you’ll use your own chakra. The key to this jutsu is making the fragments of rock as sharp as possible. This jutsu on the other hand has two ways to begin. You can either slam your hands on the ground, and project them from there or you can project them from your mouth. It is like the wild water wave, the base is at your mouth, and then you shoot sharp earth fragments from your mouth. Learning both is preferable.”
She shows me the hand seals, these were lengthier than the last. She shows me how to project them from my mouth, and then she shows me how to use the earth I stand on.
“If you enhance the earth with your chakra you can even move the rock to your desire, since it is your chakra it is made of. It is like a flying kunai that never misses. Lets practice, I’ll be your target,” she stands before me.
“I don’t know, I hate to use you as a target. What if I injure you,”
“Like you could, remember I am one of the oldest Sages alive.” She smiles. I didn’t mean it to sound so rude, she may be better than the Kages. I have yet to see both at their deadliest. She stands meters away from me, while I take in chakra at the base of my throat. I focus only on my earth nature.
After I feel like I have the correct amount of chakra, I leave my mouth open just a slip. If the opening is smaller, my jutsu will travel farther and faster, I’ve learned that from the wild water wave. It’ll help it shape into a spear. I send one her way, and then another. I use all of my chakra before I focus more. I see Sage Moriko split one of spears right down the middle with her bare hand.
“You’re focusing too much on the speed and shape, and you forgot to apply your chakra to the surrounding. Your earth chakra is still to soft to be effective without the chakra vail,” My wipes the dirt off her hands on her kimono. She never wears anything else, always that brown kimono, it blends with the wood.
I spend the rest of the evening training, and getting dirt everywhere. Sage Morkio sends me back home just seconds before Kakashi opens the door. I lay there in the living room ground, exhausted and dirty. I look at the clock above the door, it was almost one in the morning. Kakashi opens the door, and stops when he sees little dirty ol me laying there.
“Training again huh,” He helps me to sit against the wall. He sits besides me.
“You even have dirt in your hair,” He laughs quietly. He picks the bigger chunks of dirt out of my hair. He looks down to me, his face is the closest it's ever been to mine. I could smell his breath, and I could feel his warm hand still on the top of my head. I could see his cheek go red and I could feel my own face get warm.
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Chapter notes: Here is another chapter! Hope you guys enjoy!
Chapter end notes: Let me know how this chapter went! Sorry its a short chapter! So Kakashi..... ;)
Until next time!