A strange new life

2.12

Oka-san, I learned her name was Tsunami and was full of mom energy because, well, she was a mother. Her son, Inari, was even a bigger brat than Naruto. That’s to say, the two hit off like brothers. They bickered all the time. Sad boy Inari trying to convince Naruto the world was bleak. Sunshine ball of positivity Naruto hollering he was a hero. It was nuts, it was funny. The gentle gaze I often caught on Tsunami’s face said she agreed.

Tsunami somehow decided I needed to be mommy’ed over, with constants murmuring complaints that translated to ‘children should be playing, not fighting for their life’. I kinda agreed with her, but didn’t really. I chose this life. I was happy with this life, even if a bit lonely. I let her fuss over me. I even enjoyed it. If it meant the client was satisfied, why should I deny her the chance to do what she wanted?

I summoned another set of clothes. Threw the blanket over Kakashi-sensei’s face, and let the woman help me get dressed. It was embarrassing, I’ll tell you that. But after a grueling awkward session, I was dressed, with the bloodied and dusty clothes set aside for cleaning.

“I’ll wash them for you,” Tsunami said.

I bowed deeply in thanks. I couldn’t move my right arm, my shoulder hurt a lot whenever I tried. I also felt a bit woozy, but not enough I thought I needed to be in bed.

That same night, we sat down around sensei futon, food bowl in hand. It had been a while since I ate someone’s else food. It tasted nice. It tasted like a mother’s food. Tsunami’s Oka-san powers were over 9000.

“Can you explain your last message Hinata-chan?” Kakashi sensei broke the silence.

“What message?” Naruto asked. Sasuke looked at me suspiciously.

I nodded. Took a kunai. Repeated the message the same way I did before, tapping the kunai to my protector. The ringing sound spread in the room. Enemy alive, enemy gone.

Kakashi nodded. Sasuke looked thoughtful. Naruto was just confused.

I took my board. “I can feel chakra. Always could ever since Daikoku-sensei helped me sense chakra at the start of academy. Everyone has chakra inside them, unless they are dead.” I wrote, remembering the dead ninja who tried to kidnap me.

Sasuke glared at me. Naruto tilted his head. Gasped in surprised. Pointed at me. Hollered. “That’s how you always won the hide and seek games!”

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I stuck my tongue out at him. Naruto gaped. I erased my board, wrote the rest of the message. “Even after the hunter-nin killed Zabuza, he still had chakra, which shouldn’t be possible.”

Kakashi-sensei nodded. “I should have realized that.” The man admitted. “Hunter-nin disposes of the body immediately, they don’t take it away. And a senbon is a strange choice for a killing weapon.”

“What do you mean, sensei?” Naruto asked.

“Like Hinata-chan said, most likely Zabuza is alive, and that second ninja was his accomplice.”

Naruto’s face changed. He had determined eyes and a grin spread across his face.

“You guys needed training. You are improving fast. Especially you Naruto. You’ve improved the most!”

“But if Zabuza is alive, couldn’t he attack at any moment?” Sasuke finally broke his silence.

“I don’t think so.” Kakashi said, “Inducing temporary death has consequences. Zabuza shouldn’t be fit to fight for a while. So we train until then.”

We had arrived in afternoon. Now was the crack of dawn of the following day. My shoulder still hurt, but it wasn’t bad. Didn’t felt that serious. Maybe the attack hadn’t been as dangerous as it looked? Kakashi-sensei walked in front of us with his crutches, and we followed him out of the house, into the nearby fields and forest. By sensei’s own words, we needed training.

“We’ll start with the training.” Sensei said.

“Hell yeah!” Naruto yelled.

“But before that, I want to talk about chakra.”

Naruto tilted his head. “Chakra, what’s that?”

I blinked. Even Sasuke looked surprised. Kakashi-sensei slumped. Looked about a decade older.

I gave Naruto the run down. Physical and spiritual energy combine to created chakra. The use of hand seals to force the chakra into jutsu.

“Hey, hey.” Naruto scratched his head. “I didn’t understand that complicated explanation, but isn’t that something you learn with your body?”

For once, Sasuke agreed with Naruto. “Naruto is right. We can already use jutsu.”

“Nope!” Kakashi said cheerfully. “You are not using chakra properly.”

“What?!!” Naruto yelled.

“Like Hinata-chan wrote earlier, to release chakra means to bring physical and spiritual energy and mix them inside your body. Even if you are able to release a high amount of chakra, unless you control it properly, the jutsu will be weakened or might not even work at all.”

“What are we going to do, then?” Naruto asked.

“Tree climbing.” Sensei delivered.

I wanted to face palm. I had forgotten Naruto and Sasuke were still newbies. Things I’ve been doing for years they were just starting. Yet, they were still strong enough on their own. Was that the power of the protagonist? A spike of sadness punctured my heart. I thought I was strong. But I couldn’t even beat a simple water clone.

“We learned that in the academy!” Naruto whined.

“This isn’t the normal tree climbing. You’ll climb without using your hands.” That caught the boys attention. “Watch well,” Sensei said. He did a hand seal, his small bundle of chakra stirred. The man walked over to the tree and kept walking.

I nodded. That would have been cool if I didn’t knew about it as well.

Kakashi was upside down, eye turned into a crescent. “You understand now? Gather chakra in the bottom of your feet, and climb up a tree. This is something you can do once you can use chakra well.” Sensei threw kunais at our feet. “The purpose of this exercise is to teach you control. If you can master this, you should be able to master any jutsu,” The man sighed, said in a lower voice, “in theory.” He looked at us again. “That also helps you build stamina needed to control chakra properly. Get some momentum, use the kunais to mark how high you went. Your goal is to climb the highest you can.”

“This training is nothing to me!” Naruto hollered. “I could do it before breakfast, ‘cause I’m the most improved!”

“Why don’t you stop bragging, pick a tree and hurry up to climb it?” Sensei said.

Sasuke and Naruto did just that. Concentrated for a moment, their chakra bubbling. They ran toward the tree. I watched, still dejected. I wanted some more chakra training myself.