“For sage art you must feel the energy around you. If you do not concentrate enough you will not feel the earth, if you concentrate too much the nature energy will take over your body. You must be strong and flexible like wood style. The first exercise is to sit still and take in nature energy, feel it within your self and connect to the earth beneath you. Flexibility will keep the balance of the strong headed, and you must be strong no matter what goes on in your surroundings. Listen to nature, feel its complaints and sorrow. Be independent but let others depend on you.” Sage Moriko says. We moved to the west of the forest, the trees here have a different smell aura to them.
“This first exercise, taking in nature, you must be mentally strong. Sitting still, and taking in nature chakra will teach you to be strong against the overtaking nature. It will teach you to understand the earth. Feel the pain it has gone through since the beginning of time. Feel its emotions as it was drenched in blood during the wars. You will be able to understand the pain of every living thing on this planet. Sage art is a very powerful thing. I will demonstrate,” She says. She plants her feet on the ground, and she closes her hands.
Sage Moriko claps her hand in front of her, and I immediately feel the chakra beginning to collect at her core. Her breathing is calm and she stands perfectly still. I see the red marking around her eyes darken and a circle with a dot appear in the middle of her forehead. She opens her eyes, after a thirty seconds of silence.
“Sage Art is a great weapon. Everything is enhanced, your genjutsu, your ninjutsu, and your taijutsu. A punch to the gut wouldn’t hurt as much as it usually would. This does have a limit, for me it lasts about eight minutes, for others it lasts more or less. It depends on how much nature chakra your energy and body can handle.”
“If I take too much chakra in, what will happen to me?” I ask her.
“You turn into a tree. Like these ones,” She pats the tree beside her. No wonder they smelled different. A little like Yuudai the human tree hybrid.
“You just trust yourself and receive nature chakra without fear. If wood style didn’t kill you, sage art won’t. Well thats what I hope anyways. You can do this Kiyoko.”
I stand firmly on the ground, and put my hands together like Sage Moriko has done. I couldn’t move and I kept my eyes close, I had to stabilize my breathing and keep concentrate on nature. I begin to feel the earth beneath me slowly seep into me. I could feel everything it has gone through since the beginning of time. The wars before ninjutsus, they were just as bloody as the more modern wars. I swallow my nerves, its part of its history that I must learn. I sense the wind brush against me, it carried the many smells of the world. Sweet, sour, bitter, musty, there were too many to know where they came from. I heard clashing noises, of swords, and nature sounds of peace. After I sensed the world and its pain, I slowly began to feel something in me form. A little place at my core began to feel warm, and slowly it radiated all over my body.
“I can’t believe it,” I hear Sage Moriko softly say. I feel my chakra click together with the new warmth and I finally feel like it was appropriate to open my eyes. I see Sage Moriko and Tomoko staring at me with wide eyes. I clench my fist, for some reason my entire body felt lighter and stronger at the same time.
“You did it! You got into sage mode!” Tomoko flaps her wings.
“I expected you to take a couple tries to grasp the concept, but with your chakra control and the pain you have experienced it came quickly to you. I am not surprised about that though, its the markings,” She trails off and comes a bit closer to me.
“They aren’t like mine and Hashirama’s. They have the circle and the dot on the forehead, and the eyelids and under the eyes are the same except the line near your nose goes beyond your face, and they are green not red, let me see your hands,” She tells me and grabs my arms. I see the green line wrap around my arm like a single vine around a lamp post. I tug my pants up and see that the green markings wrap around my legs as well.
“What does this mean?” I ask her. Am I going to die, maybe I took too much chakra in and I’m slowly becoming a tree.
“Those who failed chakra intake simply turned into a tree without the markings, so your life is not in danger, I hope. Perhaps this is a more advanced wood sage than my own. How do you feel?” She asks me, closely looking at the green lines.
“Like an indestructible feather,” I say. Sage Moriko gets into sage mode, without a heads up, she punches me with great force, it sends me flying into the trees behind me. I cringed, waiting for the pain, but it never came. I had a few scratches but they healed in record time. I see Sage Moriko clutch her fist, and say a few curse words.
“You are much stronger than myself, I think I broke a few fingers,” She winces as she adjusts her knuckles. I stare at her, how did I manage to get stronger than her.
“Why do you think this is happening?” I ask her, afraid to come too close and accidently hurt her.
“I don’t know. Maybe its the blood that runs in you, perhaps Sasuke and Orochimaru were right. There is Senju and Uchiha blood in you, or perhaps its the beast thats making the difference,” She says and clutches her hand.
“Either way this sage mode is a great weapon, lets see how long this can last,” Sage Moriko charges at me once more, this time with an earth spear attached to her arm. I make a an earth wall of my own, and it stands against the attack, it completely shatters the spear. She keeps coming at me for a while. I see the green vine like markings disappear.
“That was ten minutes, it seems that you can contain and control nature energy longer than myself as well. You never seem to stop growing in accomplishments. You weren’t taken over by the nature chakra in small forms of mutation either. Like the toad sage, Jiraiya, he takes some toad qualities, but you do not. I believe you can master sage art well within a few months instead of an entire year.”
For the rest of the day I practice getting into the sage mode, every time I left it, it seemed to drain my energy with it. By the sixth time, Sage Moriko has noticed my frail posture and decides to send me home. I arrive back in the living room, she kindly left me on the couch. I see Kakashi walk into the living room with a towel around his shoulders, if I had the energy to blush I would, but I simply closed my eyes.
“Kiyoko,” He whispers and I feel his hand on my cheek.
“They really pushed you this time. I’ll get you something to eat.”
Kakashi comes back with a large bowl of rice and diced fruits.
“How did the sage training go?” He asks as I finish the bowl of rice in record time.
“Great, but tiring. I managed to get it on my first try, but its different.” I take a long drink of my water, while Kakashi waits for me to go on.
“The sage mode of Sage Moriko and Hashirama’s is not the same as mine. When I enter sage mode I get green markings like Hashirama on my face, but they extend all over my body. That and I can use for a longer time. My jutsus and basically everything about me is stronger, Sage Moriko’s jutsus didn’t hurt me, they harmed her. She thinks its because of the two bloodlines that run in me and the tailed beast has something to do with this.”
“You’ve already become stronger than a sage. I can’t even wrap my mind around your strength, but it seems like it is tiring.”
“Hmm, ya it is.”
New Years came around once Christmas was gone. We had to throw our christmas tree away and put the ornaments in storage, it would be another year until we hung them up again. It was kind of difficult to seal the box of decorations, this christmas has brought so many new and wonderful memories. And during those months I trained sage art, which was always an adventure with Sage Moriko. The biggest challenge was learning wood styles that matched my sage art. True several thousands hands, was one jutsu that could only be used under senjutsu, it was an enormous statue made of wood and it really did have thousands of hands. I am still far from mastering it, the hands still didn’t move the way I commanded them.
My others wood style jutsus were stronger in sage mode, but they aren’t as giant as the thousand hands jutsu. I was getting the sense of the earth and how it worked. Like the forest, its all connected. There is one life force inside every single one of us, but they are all connected. Its like a maze of chakra of all kinds. I was beginning to understand why Yuudai become one with the tree.
Spring came and melted all of the ice away. It was different like every year, but I fell into a routine. I had practice six days a week, most of the times I would be away on missions. Kakashi was always home, waiting for me to arrive. It always warmed my body to see him in the living room reading a book. On my days off we would spend them together if he wasn’t busy. Other times I went to go visit Rin. She was a bustling baby now, she could flop around and keep her head up on her own. She made gurgling noises at Eri, they had conversations of their own.
“She’s a loudmouth isn’t she,” Rokuro says as Kakashi and I enter the house. We heard her let out a yell of joy from outside.
“Which of the two are you talking about?” Kakashi says loudly to make sure Eri hears him.
“I heard that Hatake!”
I couldn’t help but laugh, even Rin let out a giggle. I go over to Rin, she layed on the floor on a nice fluffy blanket.
“How’s she doing?” I ask Eri who appeared besides me.
“She’s great, a little loud while she’s sleeping,” She says.
“She’ll be loud as Eri thats for sure.” Rokuro teases his wife. Eri crosses her arms, “I was a great ninja, so I don’t have to worry about her safety. She’ll be able to defend herself, and I’m sure she’ll be just a beautiful as me.”
I smile, its nice to see Eri high and confident with herself. For some time she complained about the extra weight she gained after having Rin, but she did say that Rokuro hasn’t treated her differently. I reassured her that rokuro loved her no matter what. Eri would then tease me about Kakashi and my relationship. I wouldn’t say much after we got into that conversation. I liked to keep that to myself.
Kakashi and Rokuro leave Eri and I and migrate their way to the kitchen. I hear the refrigerator open, they were probably going to get a snack and sit to talk about missions and the future of the Leaf. I follow Eri to their bedroom to change Rin’s diaper. I hand her the wipes while she lays Rin on the bed. Rin smiled and kicked her legs. She enjoyed having her diaper changed, I remember all too well.
“How are you and Kakashi?”
“We’re doing great.”
“Hmm really. How long have you two been together?” She asks and throws the dirty diaper into the trash.
“Well its almost nine months. Its already been a little more than year since I arrived at the Leaf.”
“Its serious isn’t it,” She whispers and smiles. Eri pats Rin’s stomach and pulls her pants back on. We sit on the edge of the bed, I can feel this conversation take a serious tone.
“What do you mean serious?”
“I can tell that Kakashi loves you very much, and I know you deeply care for him too. Have you thought about your future together?”
“We’ve never really talked about it. When he was a little drunk he said that he would spend the rest of his life with me, and I don’t mind. I do want to spend the rest of my life with him,” I whisper. Saying those words out loud made me feel exposed for some reason.
“Its a great relief to find that person, isn’t it. Knowing you don’t have to be alone ever again. if you ever need to talk about anything let me know, okay Kiyoko.” She squeezes my shoulder. I nod and smile.
“Lets get into detail for a little bit. Have you two had sex already?”
“Eri!” I feel my face burn hot. I look around, that word was so bold. I didn’t like it.
“Oh my, you did! Ahh! How was it? Was it big you know?” She whispers and points to her crotch.
“Okay, I am not going to talk about this.”
“Oh come on. Its not like Rin can understand yet. Right, you’ll keep this between momma and Auntie Kiyoko right,” She asks Rin. Rin simply looks at her.
“Okay then I’ll tell you about my first time with Rokuro. We were dating for about seven months. And it was so not magical, I always thought it would be romantic but now that I look back on it is hilarious. He wore-”
“Don’t tell me! I don’t need to know. I’m just going to go get a drink water,” I say and walk out the door.
“Haha, don’t get too thirsty.”
I ignore her and go to the kitchen. Kakashi and Rokuro stp their conversation to look up at me.
“Are you okay Kiyoko. You’re red. Do you have a fever?” Kakashi stands up from his chair. I shake my head.
“I’m fine,” I tell him. I gulp down a glass of water.
“Eri had one of those talks with you didn’t she.” Rokuro asks and laughs when I choke on my water. Eri comes back into the kitchen feeding Rin a bottle of milk. How can they be so casual about things like this. I couldn’t stand talking about it with others. I only talked about it to Kakashi and even then its a bit embarrassing.
“Hey as long as you two are using protection right,” Rokuro claps his hand on both Kakashi and my back.
“What?” Kakashi says. I grab his hand and pull him to the living room where I grabbed my light jacket.
“We’re leaving!” I tell them and pull Kakashi out before they could tell him what they were talking about.
“Kiyok what was all that about,” He asks me before he slow down to a walk.
“It was nothing, they were just teasing me a little too much.”
“Its bothering you, its not nothing. Tell me Kiyoko.” He stops us. I look away, I can still feel my face burn.
“They were talking about us. About the things we do together,” I say quietly. Kakashi looks concerned and confused.
“About the things we do at night... in bed.”
Finally Kakashi catches on and I see his ears turn a little red. He clears his throat.
“Its nothing to be that embarassed about. Every couple does it, but I understand you’re shy about things like this and its quite attractive. I’m glad that I only get to see you. Now lets get home, so no one else sees you this flustered.”
Kakashi holds my hand while we walk back home. I was glad Kakashi wasn’t overreacting about it too. He was more accepting about it than I was talking about it. He wasn’t embarrassed that other people knew we were together in every way. We were on our way when we hear someone call his name. We turn to see Shizune running our way.
“Kakashi you must come to the Hokage office immediately.”
“Is something wrong?” Kakashi asks. Shizune shakes her head.
“There is someone here to see you.”
“Is it okay if Kiyoko comes with me?” Kakashi asks and squeezes my hand a little harder. Was her nervous. Shizune nods. Kakashi and I run the fastest we could back to Lady Tsunade’s office. I had mixed feelings about who ever was here to see him. Was it an old enemy or someone I don’t know. I was afraid and nervous for him. I could tell Kakashi was trying to think about who was his visitor.
“Who do you think is here to see you?” I ask him. We made our way up the few stairs.
“I don’t know. I’m trying to go through my head of people that might come see me urgently. Shizune looked a bit shocked, that can’t be good.”
We stop in front of the the green door, he hesitated to open the door, but with shaky hands he managed to turn the knob. I see Lady Tsunade sitting in her desk, in front of her was a middle aged woman. Her hair was a dull brown, probably losing its vibrant color with her age. She turned and smiled. Kakashi and her had similar chins along with the same formed ears. If it wasn’t for his black eyes and white hair, they could pass as mother and son. My heart falls when I see Kakashi’s hand fall from the knob and land on his side.
“Kakashi.” The woman says with a soft voice. Kakashi shakes his head.
“No. whoever is playing this sick jutsu, dispel it now!”
Kakashi clenched his fists to his side, this was no jutsu. Kakashi’s mother was right in front of him. We both knew it. But how? She died when he was very young, how is she alive and in front of us right now.
“My mother is dead,” I hear Kakashi hiss.
“Now settle down Kakashi. Your mother has come from a very long journey to reunite with you. Listen to what she has to say,” Lady Tsunade tells him. His mother wore a grim expression, reuniting wasn’t going to be an easy task.
“Kakashi, my son, please listen to what I have to say. Please,” Kakashi’s mother pleaded. It broke my heart to see the tearing woman and the broken Kakashi. I needed to help, having a mother back was a blessing. If only my mother could somehow not be dead, perhaps we could have had a second chance. I clear my throat, if Kakashi will not try to fix this then maybe I can push him to.
“Excuse me for interrupting. My name is Kiyoko Tsukino. I am um, Kakashi’s girlfriend. You’ve had a long journey why don’t we go back to our home and you two can have a talk there,” I say. Kakashi snaps his head up, looking at me to see if I was serious. I give him an encouraging smile. He can do this, she’ll tell him the reasons of her disappearance. Kakashi’s mother nods, and smiles.
“Thank you. My name is Ume Miyahira.”
Kakashi’s mother bows a bit, I greet her as well. Lady Tsunade smiles a bit, I was glad that I came. Who knew what would have happened if Kakashi was going through this alone. It reminded me about the time I found Suzu again. I know what he is going through at an extent. I squeeze his arm, and go over to help Kakashi’s mother, Ume, with her bags. Kakashi held a blank face and turned around to head out the door. He walked before us, not too far, but far enough to feel disconnected from her.
“I must thank you, and pardon for the sudden appearance. I will try to not burden you too much, Kakashi isn’t very comfortable with me here. I’m sorry,” Ume tells me. She walks besides me, for some reason I feel like I related to her. I didn’t feel hostile towards her, I wanted Kakashi and Ume to fix their relationship, it doesn’t have to be immediately here. Over time I hope they can have a normal mother and son relationship.
“I am shocked to see you, well alive. But I am glad that Kakashi does have his mother. I don’t have, um, neither of my parents so I think no matter how small of a connection there is left, just hang on to it,” I tell her. I decided to not think of my father as my father anymore. I’ve never really had parents, so it was true.
“Kakashi is quite lucky to have you Kiyoko.” She was short in stature, I’m sure Kakashi didn’t get his height from her. She was a wide woman, her age wasn’t kind on her. Like I analyzed before Kakashi and Ume shared the same chin and ears. Looking closer Kakashi has taken equal features of both his parents. I’ve seen a few pictures that he has shown me of his father. She wore a long brown dress with a jacket to keep her old bones warm. She looked at Kakashi ahead of us and smiled, but her eyes were sad. I hope things get resolved.
We arrive to the apartment and I take her bag that she carried so she could easily walk up the stairs. Kakashi leaves the door open for us, when I set her bags in the living room, Kakashi has taken shelter in our bedroom.
“I’ll go get him,” I tell her.
“Ah, Kiyoko why don’t you leave him for a bit. He needs to think about it. I’ll wait,” Ume stops me. She was right, he needs time to process.
“Then would you like to eat something or take a bath?”
“A snack and a shower does sound great.”
Ume and I travel to the kitchen where I popped the rice in the rice cooker. I quickly sauteed a meat and vegetable stir fry.
“I didn’t even ask if you like beef meat-”
“I love it. It smells delicious. I’m glad to see that Kakashi is well fed. When we were seperated all I could think about was how he was doing. If he was eating correctly. If he was making friends. If he chose to stay away from the vices.”
“I didn’t know Kakashi when he was a child, I’m sure he would like to tell you how it was for him.”
“How did you two meet?” I serve the bowls and fill her cup with some orange juice. I sit across from her, and we begin to eat. I took the pause to try to explain our whole encounter.
“I was living on my own for a very long time. I just traveled the country, looking at the villages. It was quite an adventure, but sometimes I was vulnerable. One day I was attacked and I nearly died, but Kakashi and his team saw me and brought me here to the Leaf Village. I’ve stayed here for a year, and I’ve become a ninja. I’ve finally got a stable life, one that I have always wanted.”
“If I may ask how long have you two been together."
“Almost nine months. It seems shorter than that. We often times go on missions together, other times I can’t. We understand that a ninja’s life is busy.” Ume nods and eats the meal I quickly put together. There was still enough for Kakashi if he wanted to join us. I kept looking at the hallway, hoping he would want to eat with his mother but he never came. I showed Ume the bathroom and let her take a shower. I wrap the leftovers and put them in the fridge. I clean up and decided to go check on Kakashi. I slid the door and saw him leaning on the window sill. He leaned on his elbows, in a deep train of thought.
“Kakashi, there are leftovers if you are hungry. Your mother is in the shower, if you don’t want to eat and see her it’ll be better to go now.” I tell him.
“She isn’t my mother,” He responds back.
“You can’t ignore this. Don’t you want to know why? Don’t you want to know the truth? You have the opportunity to have a mother again. She wants to fix your relationship with her. She is being genuine. Aren’t you happy to see your mother is alive?”
“You are only siding with her because you wished you had your mother in front of you. Well I did one hell of job raising myself. I don’t need her!” He raised his voice. It hurt a little that he thought I was choosing sides, which I wasn’t. If I did I would choose him.
“But she needs you! She’s suffering for reasons you don’t know yet. Give her a chance.”
“She deserves to suffer after she decided to fake her death and leave my father and I.”
“No one deserves to suffer. I thought I did, but you told me that everything happens for a reason. You are not letting her tell you her’s. Listen to her, just listen, you don’t have to talk to her. If you don’t want you don’t even have to see her. Please Kakashi, you won’t regret it.”
He sighs and rubs his face. He finally turns to me, his eyes are full of angst.
“Will you at least be in the same room, when I talk to her?”
“Ya of course. I’ll be there.”
Kakashi sighs once more and then unties his forehead protector and unzips his vest. I hear Ume slide the bathroom door open.
“Do you want something to eat?” I ask him, but he shakes his head. He looks so lost, he doesn’t know where to begin to ask. I go over to give him a hug. I’ll be here for him, because he’s been through worse for me.
“Okay, I think maybe I’ll be able to go through it. I just don’t think I’ll be ready to hear her excuses,” He says into my shoulder.
“You don’t have to accept them, just listen to her reasons. I’m sure she’ll explain everything,” I give him a squeeze, and let him go. He nods and pulls his shoulders back before he marches out to the living room. I smile, he has a lot of courage to go out there, but I’ll be there to support him if he falls.
I see Ume combing her thinning hair in the living room, and stops when Kakashi sits on the farthest seat from her. I sit besides him, and Ume smiles in relief.
“I want to know why you left me?” Kakashi said. His heart was broken again with those few words. I was afraid that her answer wasn’t going to repair the patches. She held her hands in front of her and took a deep breath. It was going to be hard on both of them.
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Chapter notes: I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, because I love it. There is progress and humor and plot twist. ;) I hope you guys enjoy it. This chapter is a bit of time filler.
Chapter end notes: I hope you guys enjoyed it. Let me know what all of you thought!
Until next time!