Naruto (Kira's Story)

***The First Day of Training: Reaching New Heights***

{With Kira}
The early morning sun shone through the branches of the trees in the forest just a few yards from the bridge builder’s home. Kira held back a yawn. She wasn’t used to getting up early and two days in a row after all of that traveling was pushing it. Currently, she was leaning against a particularly inviting looking tree at the back of the group of genin surrounding Kakashi as he stood with the aid of a pair of crutches.
“So, it’s decided. The new training regimen begins today,” Kakashi said happily.
Kira bit back a groan as Naruto yelled in excitement. He was far too peppy for this early in the morning for her to deal with, tired as she was.
“But first, let’s discuss the basis of your ninja powers: the body energies known as chakras,” Kakashi said, holding up a finger.
Kira sighed. She’d heard this lecture many times before. She banged her head against the tree and kept it there as she stared at the dappled sunlight filtering down through the leaves above her head. Birds twittered sweetly and she found her eyes closing against her will. Before she knew it, she was asleep.
“KIRA!!”
She jolted awake and bolted up the nearest tree, which happened to be the one she was leaning against. She looked below her to see Kakashi standing right in front of the tree with wide eye. It was obviously he who had awoken her. She sighed in relief and put away the kunai she had drawn in her panic while calming her breathing and racing heart. She sighed again, and released the chakra which had been keeping her feet stuck to the bark of the tree’s trunk and allowed herself to fall to the ground, spinning gracefully to land lightly on her feet in front of her sensei. She straightened her clothes and looked into his startled eye.
She raised an eyebrow. “Did I miss something?” she asked, looking around at the genin who were equally as surprised as their sensei. “What?”
“You….just completed the training,” Sakura said breathlessly.
“I wha-?” she asked, confused.
“Our training was to climb the trees using only the chakra in our feet.”
“Oh,” she said. “Well that explains a few things. Have you not done this before?”
“No.” They shook their heads.
“Oh.”
“Are you saying that you have?” Kakashi asked.
“Yeah. My parents taught me this about four years ago,” she said, looking him in the eye.
“’Four years ago’?!” they exclaimed.
Kira jumped in surprise. “That’s what I said.”
“But…but that means, you must have started training when you were very young.”
“How old were you when you started training?” she asked them.
“Er, seven.”
“Oh, really?” she said, shocked.
“Yeah, how about you?”
“Oh, uh, well…”
“What’s the big deal? You couldn’t have started training too much before us!!” Naruto exclaimed.
Kira flushed.
“Just tell us,” Sasuke said, mildly irritated.
“Okay,” she took a deep breath. “My parents started training me not long after I was born. I wasn’t even one yet.”
Everyone just stared at her for a second.
“You’re joking right?”
“I wish I was,” she replied sadly. “Anyway, what am I going to do about training since I already know how to do the exercise?”
“Hmm,” Kakashi said, thinking.
The others looked between each other, concerned again that she was changing the subject. It seemed that every time they got close to finding out anything important about her, she would start dodging the questions.
“Why don’t you review with them and maybe offer some tips since you’ve completed this exercise?” Kakashi suggested.
“Sounds good,” she said wearily. “Carry on.”
She looked at the single kunai sticking up from the ground at the feet of each of her teammates and then at the one at hers. She bent down and picked it up.
“So where were we in your lecture?” she asked Kakashi.
“Use the kunai blades to score the bark at the highest point you can climb to. It will serve as a reminder later when you try again.”
He walked with the aid of his crutches to a tree to his right and walked up it. A good way up, he walked out on the underside of a large branch so he hung upside-down by the soles of his feet.
“Your goal is to make a mark on a higher spot each time you climb,” he continued with his instructions now that he was at a vantage point. “I don’t expect any of you to reach the top on your first try except perhaps Kira as this is a review for her.”
The others looked at her quickly when he said that, but she kept her eyes locked on her sensei.
“A running start will probably give enough momentum for a good first effort. All right?” he asked from his perch.
“No sweat! I could do this one before breakfast!” Naruto called out boastfully. “I’m the fastest-developing ninja on this team!”
Kira gave a mental headshake. Just because he was progressing the fastest didn’t mean that he was the best. Everyone else was silent as well.
“Less talk and more action. Choose your trees and go.” Kakashi ordered.
Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke closed their eyes and focused their chakra. Kira watched the different colored energies collect in different amounts around each genin’s feet.—Sakura’s was a pale pastel green that matched her eyes. Naruto’s was a light blue, the color of the sky. And Sasuke’s was a dark blue that was almost black.—As soon they were sure they had the right amount, they charged at their prospective trees.
Kira stayed back from the first charge and watched their first tries. Each one had varied levels of success. Naruto slipped and hit his head as soon as his foot touched the trunk because he’d used too little chakra. Sasuke did much better but still wasn’t entirely successful. He was dislodged from the tree when a burst of chakra splintered the trunk of the tree underneath his foot about halfway to the lowest branch. His landing skills were revealed as he neatly performed a flip in midair and landed in a crouch on the ground. But it was Sakura who did the best of the genin. She sat happily on a branch high above the levels of the other two.
“This is easier than I thought!” she called with a giggle.
Kira smirked and chuckled softly. That was about how she thought about the whole exercise.
“Sakura?!” Naruto cried in shock.
“Interesting,” Kakashi said. “It seems the one with the greatest chakra control is Sakura.”
“Heh!” Kira laughed. “Perhaps.”
“Hmm?”
Kakashi raised an eyebrow.
Kira simply smiled at him before walking towards the tree he still hung upside-down from. Everyone followed her with their eyes as she continued towards the trunk. A spiral of golden chakra wound about her entire body without the help of a hand signal. It was beautiful, contrasting with her red and black outfit wonderfully and enhancing her golden eyes.
The chakra faded from view though it still affected her body in the desired fashion. And with the eyes of her comrades still on her, she placed a foot on the trunk of the tree and proceeded to walk up the tree. But that wasn’t too shocking as they had seen Kakashi do it twice (once while Kira was asleep), Sakura once, and Kira, herself, had done it just a moment ago. What was amazing was that her clothes and hair acted as though there had been no change in the direction of gravity. They fell loosely towards the tree instead of towards the ground. Even Kakashi was shocked. He’d never seen anything like that before.
She ignored the sounds of amazement and walked up the trunk and onto the branch that Kakashi was hanging from. Her clothes acted as before and fell the opposite direction of the pull of gravity, even her hat stayed on her head though it should have fallen off.
“Perhaps,” she repeated with laughter in her eyes.
Everyone was staring at her in awe. She closed her eyes in a smile and stuck out her tongue, mock-saluting with two fingers as she dropped her chakra and began falling to the ground. She turned in mid-fall and landed soundlessly on the leafy floor. She grinned happily, reveling in their admiration.
“Well then, now that I’ve satisfied the desire to show off while in this rare mood let me point out a few things.”
The shocked stares didn’t go away but she continued on regardless.
“Sakura.”
She looked down with a gulp at the smiling kunoichi.
“You did perfect. Just like Kakashi-sensei said.”
Sakura beamed, glad of the praise and that it was from Kira whom she viewed as a distant and mysterious rival.
“Incredible! You go, Sakura! That’s my girl!!” Naruto screamed out as Sasuke grunted.
Kira smiled and continued on with her observations.
“Sasuke,” she said as Sakura hung her head in disappointment at the lack of praise from Sasuke.
Kira knew that she had been hoping for praise from the Uchiha. She was unlikely to ever get that though she seemed unwilling to accept it.
He blinked, waiting for her verdict.
“You used too much, which you’ve probably figured out. You need to maintain your focus on the level of chakra you emit.”
Sasuke nodded.
“Hah! You messed up!!” Naruto yelled triumphantly, pointing at him.
“Naruto!” she said more sharply than to the others.
“Huh?” he asked, turning to look at her.
“You didn’t use enough to even get off the ground. You have no place to criticize him. He managed to get much further.”
She saw Sasuke smirk as Naruto’s face fell.
“But that’s no reason to get discouraged. And he’d do well not to let it go to his head,” she added, giving Sasuke a meaningful look.
Sasuke’s smirk disappeared and he looked at her in disbelief while Naruto grinned at the encouragement.
“Try again,” she ordered, glancing at Kakashi who nodded.
{With Kakashi}
Silently, he was impressed as he watched her manipulate the emotions of her teammates. She never let one get too high or too low and influenced the spirit of each person as necessary seemingly without thought or effort. The previous showing off had been such an act as well he realized now. By proving her superiority, she made it possible for her to fill a teaching role without seeming to overstep his authority. And they were surprisingly vulnerable to her opinions, reacting immediately to any comment put forth by the young kunoichi.
He was most shocked to see Sasuke and Sakura reacting that way. Naruto he knew reacted well to the slightest encouragement and badly to any criticism from anyone and so he wasn’t surprised by his reaction. But Sakura, Kakashi knew, was jealous of Kira and for that reason it surprised him to see her willingly perform orders from her and take every one of her comments to heart. Sasuke, too, was jealous of her. Kira surpassed all of his current students without contest and though they all knew it, Sasuke alone seemed to realize by how much.
Perhaps he accepted her commands and criticism because he did realize that. He knew how good she must be and put up with the indignity because it offered a chance to progress faster under her guidance. And as for Sakura, Kira was being surprisingly sincere and nonjudgmental in each of her reprimands. She showed no favoritism and spoke bluntly without being heartless or over demanding. She was also a more involved teacher than he was. He wondered if her parents had been this way during her lessons.
He began walking down the tree and caught her eye. She met it and nodded, finishing off her last statement. She met him at the base of his tree and he silently marveled at her skill again.
“I’d like you to go and perform the guard duties for our employer now. It’s about time for him to begin his day and besides…,” he said, speaking softly to prevent the others from hearing.
“You want them to begin functioning as a proper three-man cell, right?” she finished for him.
He stared at her before nodding.
She smiled. “I understand.”
Without another word, she turned and walked in the direction of Mr. Tazuna’s house. He watched as she ignored the curious glances of the others and waved without looking back. And with that, she disappeared into the shadows underneath the trees, leaving him alone with his original students.
{With Kira}
She left Kakashi with his real students and walked purposely back to Tazuna’s home. She knew why he had wanted her to leave. She was instructing them instead of letting them discover what they were doing wrong on their own. And instead of looking to each other for guidance, they were looking to her to tell them what to do. Kakashi didn’t want that because eventually they would be on their own and she wouldn’t be there to tell them what they were doing wrong. They’d have to figure it out on their own.
It was because she knew this, that she didn’t feel slighted. She understood that she was an extra wheel on the team. She wasn’t really needed anywhere. She had no place. She was here simply because she had no other choice. Or rather, she had another choice, but it was too loathsome to even consider. So she smiled, and tried her best to fit in even though she knew that she never really would and tried to tell herself that she was happy with it that way.
These thoughts filled her head as the house came into view. Inari was seated at the edge of the porch with his feet dangling in the water. She felt something stir inside her at the sad look on his face as he stared at the waves lapping against his thin shins. She wondered vaguely if it was pity, but then thought that it was sympathy. His were the eyes of a person who had loved and lost a person of immeasurable personal value. She knew with absolute certainty that he was mourning that person as surely as she was mourning the loss of her parents.
She walked up next to him and stopped, looking down at the top of his hat-shrouded head. He said nothing, nor reacted in any way to her presence. She sat next to him, placing her feet in the water as he had his. She looked at the water, thinking of her own grief and, perhaps, of what she should say to the suffering boy beside her.
“What do you want?” he asked her suddenly.
She was silent for a moment, thinking over the question. “I think you know the nature of what I want,” she said. “You feel the same pain I do.”
He looked at her. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve lost someone special to me too. My father.”
She saw something spark in his eyes.
“My mother.”
His eyes crinkled in sympathy.
“My entire clan and family.”
He looked back to the water quickly as if unable to imagine such a tragedy.
“And my brother is cursed to remain in a body that is not his own. Trapped in a living prison.”
He said nothing.
“It feels so pointless to carry on doesn’t it? Like all the joy in life has been taken away. I want more than anything else for things to go back to the way they were before. But they can’t. Nothing will ever be the same ever again.” Her eyes were half lidded.
She heard a sob rack the small frame sitting beside her. She placed her hand on his shoulder. The next thing she knew, his head was in her lap and his arms were around her waist. He clutched at her like she was the last stable piece of land in a world falling totally underwater in a mad torrent. She gently stroked the back of his head in an unconscious mimicry of the way her brother would comfort her as a child.
“But I haven’t given up on life. I haven’t given up on the people still here. My brother is still here even if he’s not in his original form. That’s enough for me.”
She spoke softly, but she knew that what she was saying was touching him in a way no one else had been able to. She didn’t think about what she was saying. She didn’t have a plan. She simply said whatever came to mind.
“And you have so much to keep living for. Your mother loves you, and your grandfather talked fondly of you on the way here. He’s fighting so hard to make a world where you can be free and happy. Your mother also wants you to be happy. More than anything in the world, she wishes for that.”
She fell silent and stared into space as Inari continued crying. Eventually, the tears stopped and his sobs quieted. He sat up and she dropped her hand as he wiped at his eyes. But he still said nothing and Kira knew that he was thinking about what she had said.
“Don’t give up on life just yet,” she said and stood up. “It may still hold some joy for you.” She turned to walk into the house.
“Thank you.”
She stopped and looked back. He was looking at her and his eyes weren’t as clouded as they had been before. She smiled at him. “No problem.”
She walked into the house and found Tazuna standing at the window. He had watched her comfort Inari. He turned to her and looked at her with eyes she could not read. They simply stared at each other for a long time, saying nothing. There was no need to. Their eyes spoke to each other: ‘Thank you.’ from Tazuna’s and ‘You’re welcome.’ from Kira’s.
With a nod, she walked past him and gathered her weapons from the floor of the main room. She buckled them into their proper places and whistled for Miko. He ran into the room and waited expectantly.
“We’re to guard Mr. Tazuna at the bridge today,” she told him simply.
To Tazuna’s astonishment, he nodded and moved to the door.
“Are you ready?” she asked the bridge builder.
“Yeah, let’s go.”
They walked out the door and Kira noticed that Inari was no longer on the porch. She shrugged it off and followed Tazuna as he led her down the path they had first taken to the house. Kira found herself recognizing particular parts of the landscape. They served as markers to tell her that they were close to the clearing that had become a battlefield in their fight against Zabuza. Sure enough, the next turn brought them to it. It looked peaceful. There were barely any signs at all that a life-or-death struggle had occurred there. It seemed like a long gone memory though it had only been two days.
“Do you think he’ll be back?” Tazuna asked.
Kira didn’t need to ask who he meant.
“Most definitely,” she replied. “And we’ll be ready.”