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Torima's Vessel	By : jenniferboka Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 1195 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Chapter 3: Anything's Possible

This chapter, for now, is still in Sakura’s POV. Short chappy for now. I’ll try to make the next one longer, and it’ll probably be in Kakashi’s view this time.

The next morning, she’d woken to the sound of rustling sheets and shuffling footsteps. Grabbing the kunai she always slept with beneath her pillow on missions, she’d cracked one eye slightly to peer out beneath her lashes. She saw a few strange people stretching out still-tired muscles and riffling through dressers. She’d been so focused on the others in her front vision that a hand on her shoulder caused her to whip around in the strange bedsheets that housed her, point of the kunai aimed for the offending arm.

The clang of metal-on-metal resounded in the room, launching the others in the room who were still sleeping awake with varying degrees of surprise. Her kunai met the broad side of another as her vision, still a little cloudy from sleep, kept her from seeing her supposed attacker’s face.

“Sakura,” came a familiar, calm voice. “If you still want to watch me teach, it’s time to get up.” Her vision finally clearing as she rubbed at her eyes with her free hand, and some guttural groans sounding as others rolled over to try and gain another 40 winks, she now saw that it was Sano-san who had woken her. And it wasn’t even light outside yet!

“Why so early, Sano-san?” she asked quietly, stretching herself to try and waken her tired limbs and replacing the kunai beneath her pillow. “The earlier you start, the more time you have to do what you want. It’s said ‘the early bird catches the worm’. Now, come on, if you want to watch me teach,” Sano-san finished, giving her shoulder a sisterly shove and returning her own kunai to its rightful place, before moving to the door of the bunkhouse where a few of the others were already waiting patiently on those still dressing. She’d gotten quickly dressed in her black undershorts, red tunic, and black sandals, pulling out her Leaf Village hitae-ate to tie around her hair as she made her way to the front of the bunkhouse. “Is everyone here?” Sano-san’d asked quietly of the group, slight murmurs of ‘yes’ being her answer as she lead everyone in the group outside. Looking around at those in the group as the made their way toward the river, she counted 7 shinobi, including herself and Sano-san. The others were: Takeshi in an olive training outfit with a black ox symbol on his back, Ange and Shina in gray training outfits with vertical dark blue stripes on their sleeves, Ryoji with an outfit similar to the one she’d seen Ko-sama wearing yesterday, and Banyuu with a simple blue outfit over a mesh top. Each of them wearing the hitae-ate of their original homelands. Even though she was still a little wary of the others, she held a semi-confidence in Sano-san - after yesterday’s encounter with Akai and his pack - that she wouldn’t let anything happen to her if she could help it.

Reaching the river, she watched as the others dipped their hands in the ice-cold water, bringing up water to splash their faces as she did the same. Sano-san walked on top of the rapid flow to the middle of the river, dipping her hands beneath the surface to do likewise, before vanishing beneath its surface entirely. Her eyes opened in surprise at this. Had an enemy gotten a hold of Sano-san? She opened her mouth to call out, but Banyuu’s hand in front of her stopped the words as she looked up at his calm, yet determined face. “Just wait,” he said as he watched the spot where Sano-san had gone in. A few moments later, a slight splash was heard as she whipped her head around to see Sano-san’s now-drenched form emerging from the exact same spot from which it had disappeared, her breathing labored and her green body shivering slightly. Regaining her footing, Sano-san made it back to shore to give them all a rigid look.

“Kine, 1 lap around the barrier. The rest of you, 20 times that,” she said as she took off herself, leaving the others to follow in her dust. She did her best to keep up with the others, but found herself tiring quickly. The length of the barrier was just as she’d thought previously – large enough to hold a family of blue whales. The rest of the group lapped her five times before she’d even made it a third of the way around the inside of the barrier! By the time, they’d all made it back to their original spot, most of them were breathing heavy, and she was on the verge of collapse. “Alright, now that we’re all warmed up,” Sano-san declared in a firm tone, “it’s time to begin the training.” Pointing to a large sequoia about 500 meters back from the river, she continued, “Everyone here’s to be at the top of that tree in two minutes, or you’ll all miss out. And I do mean everyone here, understood?” A resounding ‘poof’ as Sano-san’s clone disappeared set everyone running for the base of the tree. Standing beneath it, she got a sense for how large this singularly-standing tree really was. The first branches on this tree didn’t start until about 150 feet above them, as most of the others took off up the trunk using their chakras to hold them to the tree. But a question from Takeshi brought her out of her daze.

“Kine-chan, do you know how to climb a tree without using your hands? If not, I can give you a lift,” he said smugly, turning his back to her and leaning over in an obvious offer to carry her.

Indiginity set in as she looked back at Takeshi, about ready to give him the boot. But another, better idea popped to mind at his position. “Thanks, Takeshi, I appreciate it,” she said with a false smile, backing way from his proffered hand enough distance to give her a good running start. “But…” she finished angrily, running toward him again, as she summoned the chakra to the points in her feet. She jumped, ricocheting off his arched back, a ‘umf’ sounding from the unintended springboard’s back, before landing feet first against the tree about 100 feet up. Using her chakra, she ran the rest of the way to the first branch, before absorbing the chakra and bouncing the rest of the way up.

“I knew there was a reason I called you ‘Kine,’” Sano-san smiled as Takeshi grumbled a few choice words the last few feet behind her. “Well… now that you’re all here. I’m going to teach you all…” she stopped for a slight dramatic pause, as she eye’d them all from her spot leaning against the tree above them, “…how to fly.”

A resounding, and loud “WHAT?!” sent birds for miles around winging to the sky.

A chuckle issued from Sano-san as all of them stared at her in disbelief. “What’s the problem? You all don’t want to learn?”

“Enough with the jokes, Sano-sensei!” Takeshi grumbled angrily. “What’re you really gonna teach us?”

Sano-san’s face grew serious at that point, “Just what I said, Takeshi, to fly.” “But that’s impossible,” he blustered back quickly, his hands waving in frustration. “Anything’s possible,” she stated calmly, arms crossing over her chest. “Why would I teach you something that’s impossible to do?” Luckily, Takeshi didn’t have an answer for that.

“Do you trust me, Takeshi?”

“What kind of question is that?!” he yelled back, as a ‘poof’ resounded a clone of Sano-san appearing in front of him, smiling. At his startled look, the clone, with a now-serious face, shoved him off the branch into the darkness and then vanished again with a ‘poof.’ The look on Takeshi’s and their faces was one of pure horror. “SANO-SENSEI, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” she turned over her shoulder to see Banyuu yelling, but Sano-san wasn’t in her spot anymore.

Turning back to Takeshi’s predictament, they all saw Sano-san hurdling after Takeshi through the air in a straight dive, head first, a look of utter surprise on Takeshi’s face. Takeshi reached for Sano-san’s hands, which she took and put around her waist. Before she could blink, Sano-san went from a vertical to a horizontal position with Takeshi sitting on her back and her body spread eagle, a blue glow enveloping her body. The glow shifted to the underside of her and reached a near-blinding intensity. It took a moment before she realized they’d stopped falling, and instead were just hovering there about 200 feet above the ground. Sano-san then cocked her head towards the rest of them still on the branches above as the glow began to pulsate brighter, and she and Takeshi slowly got closer to them. They were getting higher?!

There’s no logical way she could really be doing this! her inner self screamed, yet she was seeing this with her own eyes. She looked up at the others and watched as all their faces changed from surprise, to disbelief, then to awe and back again, until finally the two of them reached their level again. Takeshi apparently didn’t need any advice about getting off Sano-san’s back. Her surprised stare at where Takeshi had sat on Sano-san’s back earned a chuckle from the lady, as the blue glow on her chest, hands, legs and feet receded until the glow was barely noticeable.

Maintaining the position of her body, Sano-san floated towards her, a pleased grin on her face. “Well, Kine,” she said, tucking her hands under her chin in a semi-relaxed pose, “what do you think?”

“This has to be genjutsu!” she muttered back in Sano-san’s face, shaking her head in disbelief, her mouth slightly agape. “If you really believe it’s genjutsu, then break it, Kine,” Sano-san instructed seriously, sustaining her eye-level position with her.

“Alright,” she answered, her hands making the seals of the snake and tiger in rapid succession as she closed her eyes to concentrate. “Release!” Moments passed as her mind whirled through the possibilities of what she might see if she opened her eyes.

Okay. If the release worked, it’s as I thought – just genjutsu. If it didn’t work, I need to learn a stronger release jutsu…or get counseling for the next ten years of my life. But it HAS to be genjutsu!

No, it doesn’t, rang the same sing-songy voice she’d heard last night around the campfire. The sound of it in her head snapped her eyes open to see who’d spoken. But… in her vision… was the still hovering… still smirking… Sano-san.

“Alright, Kine. So we’ve established that this isn’t genjutsu,” Sano-san stated earnestly, leading her in a deductive manner, trying to break her from the stupor her eyes had taken on. “What else could it be?”

“Umm…” she stammered, putting her head in the palm of her hand while the other arm held it all up. Staring at Sano-san’s back, she was aware of the others eyeing Sano-san and herself as her thoughts took on a simple line of reasoning, trying to weed out the most obvious first. She’d seen Sano-san use metal wire before, so…

“Would you come closer, Sano-san?” A response of "sure" was issued as the woman drifted closer, until she hung just a foot in front of her. Her hands pushed down against Sano-san’s shoulder, as she watched the woman’s hands for even the slightest movement. Yet, as she lowered the woman’s position by force, no part of her body seemed to move and no parts of her clothing stuck up in place as would be expected from an anchored person. Maintaining her balance, she’d then waved her hands above every part of Sano-san’s backside, eventually coming up with nothing.

“Not wires, either, apparently,” Sano-san acquiesced, returning to a non-invasive distance. “What’s your next guess?”

As thoughts tumbled though her head – all the while, the inner her screaming and scratching at the walls of her mind to ‘let her out of this crazy shit!’ – one struck her as odd. Last night when describing what she would teach, Sano-san had said "…one requires immense chakra control, the ability to shift your chakra to any point in the body at random or in combinations and maintain that level for extended periods." Chakra?! I thought she just meant to get up the tree! But is it possible to control chakra to such an extent that you can FLY?! Then, she remembered the blue glow that had pulsated beneath Takeshi and Sano-san as they had risen the remaining distance to their height here. Now, she closed her eyes and opened her awareness about her even further. She could feel it… it wasn’t intense, but she could feel it.

“You’re using your chakra to help keep you at certain elevations above ground level?” she intoned, a partial question hanging off the edge of her words as she gauged Sano-san’s reaction. “I knew there was a reason I thought the name ‘Kine’ suited you,” Sano-san resolved, the blue light on her underside flaring slightly, and then fading from everywhere except the soles of her feet, as she righted herself to a standing position in midair, crossing her arms to gain everyone’s sight on her.

“I perfected this technique during a life-and-death crisis years ago to escape capture by enemies pursuing me. It requires a large amount of chakra and concentration to maintain your elevation, and be able to control your body in midair. I don’t expect any of you to get it on the first try, so we’re gonna take this one step – or floating step, as the case may be – at a time. The beginnings of this technique are similar to those used to walk on rushing water. One must gather chakra in the soles, and push it through in a steady amount towards the ground enough to counteract one-and-a-tenth of your weight, at the very least. You’ll also want to route some chakra to your hands to keep yourselves steady, if you can manage it. If you can get yourselves to float about 3 inches above the branches you’re standing on now, we’ll see about moving up the next lesson. Now, begin!”

“Yes!” was the universal cry from the others as she swung her head around to watch the others give it a try. Surprisingly, Banyuu, Ange, and Shina after a few rattled attempts managed to levitate an inch above their branches, before each of them descended again rather roughly, panting but none of them giving up; Banyuu handling the tree for support, while Ange and Shina took turns supporting each other as they tried it. Takeshi (like the trooper he claimed to be) sat on his bottom, seemingly contemplating Sano-san for a moment.

“What’s the problem, Takeshi?” Sano-san asked moodily, as she drifted higher to meet her student’s gaze eye-to-eye. “No problem, Sensei,” Takeshi answered smartly, regaining his stance on the wide branch. “Just trying to figure out how much you weigh…” Seeing the growingly peeved look on Sano-san’s face, he wisely recounted the statement, sweatdrops forming on his face, with “… I mean you were able to hold both of us up after a while, right? How much chakra did it take to keep us up and get back up here?”

“About a third of it,” Sano-san rejoined exactly. “But that’s after years of practice. Since you’re a beginner at this,” she looked Takeshi critically up-and-down for a brief moment, “I’d expect you to use about ¾ of your chakra to just get yourself a couple inches above that branch right now. Now, if you were better at chakra control like Ryoji…” who’d already managed to get the required three inches off of her branch, she noticed as the medic-nin-in-training lightly gripped a branch above her for balance as her purplish-blue chakra flowed.

“I’LL SHOW YOU WHO’S GOT BETTER CHAKRA CONTROL!” he hollered in Sano-san’s face, his face turning red as a beet. Not affected by her pupil’s temper, she watched as Sano-san floated within inches of Takeshi’s snarling facade, eyes lowering in challenge. She uttered two words only, “Prove… it!”

With the speed of a rabbit with a fox on its tail, Takeshi clapped his hands together in concentration, as a surge of yellowish-orange chakra revealed itself on the soles of his feet. Grunting with the exertion, the chakra grew in intensity as Takeshi managed to get himself an inch above the branch, before toppling towards Sano-san. She caught his arms and held them tight. “Good. Now, maintain it!” she instructed Takeshi as she swung his arms so they were out at his sides in a cross formation, their chests almost touching. At his brief nod, he closed his squinting eyes in concentration and the amount of chakra released steadily began to grow as he elevated himself another inch above the branch before collapsing in exhaustion.

“Not bad for a first try,” she shouted to everyone in the group, a slight smirk tilting her mouth as she watched the lightening horizon. “But since Ryoji was the only one able to make my deadline, she’s the only one who gets to continue to the next lesson today. The rest of you, head down and practice on the ground. Dismissed.” But before she could turn to follow the others slow descent down the large sequoia, Sano-san appeared in front of her a wistful smile on her face. “Want to watch the next lesson?” she’d quipped curiously, cocking her head to one side in an innocent gesture. Looking down as the others moved down the tree, she remembered how high up she was and a wave of nausea hit her. Sano-san’d obviously seen her discomfort as she continued, “Next time, I guess. Here, I’ll give you a lift down. You’re probably not as heavy as Takeshi.” Extending her hand, Sano-san waited patiently for her response. Closing her eyes with a sigh and a thought of I know I’m gonna regret this, she grabbed hold of Sano-san’s hand and with her help, vaulted onto the young sensei’s back, seating herself comfortably.

“Hang on,” Sano-san commanded as she nearly doubled the chakra she was using, propelling most of it into her feet, hands, and chest as they slowly descended toward the ground in a circling pattern, much like a vulture would, until they reached a height enough to where she felt she could get off of Sano-san’s back easily.

“Your sensei’s probably waiting for you, anyhow,” she stated, before cocking her head back up the sequoia’s height and righting herself to an upright position, ascending quickly with a blast of chakra that almost knocked her back on her butt. In no time at all, Sano-san was back in front of Ryoji, holding her hands out to her advanced pupil as Ryoji took her first hesitant step out into the sunrise-colored sky. Watching this from below, all she could think of was WOW!

“Quite a sight, huh?” came a familiar husky voice from behind her. Turning around, she saw Kakashi-sensei leaning against the nearest tree in full uniform, briefly glancing up and chuckling when Ryoji let out an uncertain shriek. She’d never seen her sensei like this before, he looked so at home here, so comfortable. “Well, we’d better get started too,” he said, jerking his head over his shoulder back toward the clearing. Dutifully, she followed Kakashi-sensei.

Only one thing bothered her. “Kakashi-sensei?”

“No, Sano-sensei didn’t teach me how to do that,” he answered as if he’d read her mind.

The rest of the day had gone on like any other. She practiced her jutsu with Kakashi-sensei, some of the others joining in at one point, until the call for lunch sounded. Sano-san though hadn’t joined them, and when she asked, she was told that Sano-san had gone out to get a few supplies for everyone. After lunch, they’d continued training. Her concentration practicing taijutsu broke at one point when she saw Sano-san come back astride a blue roan with quite a few packages strapped on and another red roan loaded down with even more, earning her a sore stomach as reprimand for her lapse in concentration. They’d eaten dinner, laughs resounding around the room at various intervals, and then after another couple hours of training, she realized the sun was setting and excused herself to go wash.

The river had looked a little intimidating at first, but after undressing and gathering her shower supplies, she washed quickly due to the river being bitterly cold. Even the air around her felt warmer when she got out, her teeth chattering violently as she dried herself off behind a bush, hopefully out of sight.

“Should have said something,’” came a familiar voice not too far behind her. Whipping around in surprise, she saw Wabichi also bathing. She’d probably just surfaced from rinsing her midnight hair, as her green eyes flashed in the half-moon light. “Even the dead could hear your teeth chattering. Could have warmed it for you.”

“H… How? Isn’t it m… mmmm….. moving too… f… fast?” she quipped her teeth chattering making her stutter.

“Not really, but it would have been a little warmer than what you felt. Just ask next time, okay?”

With a single nod, she redressed and hurried back to the bunkhouse. Even though the river’s icy coldness had reawakened her senses to a point, her body was still bone weary and needed some sleep to refresh her for the trip back home tomorrow. But as she crawled beneath the covers not too long after, she realized she hadn’t really done or learned much while she’d been here in Kosenjou, other than this seemed a safe haven for people, regardless of where you came from.

Here, it didn’t matter where you were from; all that mattered was who you were.

That’s what Sano-san tunes into when she teaches, she realized as she drew the covers up around her ears to keep the cold from invading underneath them. But, she knew - as she remembered when she’d turned back to watch Sano-san and Ryoji barrel-rolling in place in the sunrise of the bright sky - that she’d never forget the day she learned that to a shinobi, anything’s possible.
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Torima's Vessel