The Red Maelstrom

[51] Seethe, Burn, Burst

Two nights before they were to carry out Akano's plan to deactivate Sasuke's cursed seal, Kohana was tortured by nightmares for the fourth time that week. Her paranoia got the best of her that night, and because it was four in the morning when she'd had enough of trying to fall back asleep, she decided to practice for her upcoming fight. She knew she needed something to reassure her that none of her nightmares were real nor would they come to fruit. She needed familiarity and comfort and a space to train. She needed to be among the trees and the silence of the forest.The Third Training Ground was the natural solution.

When she arrived, she was surprised to find a shadowed figure sitting atop the tree stump in the middle. Kohana made to politely avoid the ninja, but her mere presence alerted them. Red eyes met Kohana's in the dark. For a while, Kohana just stood there. Her mind was still recovering from her latest nightmare, now long forgotten but it had done enough damage; Kohana wasn't quite sure if what she was looking at was real.

"Kohana."

She blinked at Sasuke. "You're real?"

Red eyes narrowed. Now that Kohana's eyes were adjusting to the darkness, she could vaguely make out his signature frown.

"What are you talking about?"

Kohana deemed the response rude enough, but she was too tired to feel ashamed about being unable to distinguish illusions from reality. In hindsight, it made sense Sasuke would be here; he always was the earliest to rise in Team 7, and the Third Training Ground meant something to each of them. Kohana approached the stump next to him and propped herself up to sit on it. "Couldn't sleep?" she asked.

"Something like that. You too?"

"Yeah."

"It's too dark to train," he pointed out. Kohana just rolled her eyes at him. Obviously. Even if her senses were far better than they were when she was still at the Academy, she didn't have the sharingan to augment her perceptive abilities. Besides, she didn't need light. She waved her bokuto around.

"I was just gonna go through some kata."

Sasuke considered the practice weapon. He was eyeing it with great interest, so when he basically commanded her to practice in front of him, Kohana only grinned and dropped off the stump.

"Osamu-sensei's been teachin' me a lot of stuff, y'know?" she explained through her fifth set. "You won't get much of an edge on the fight by watchin' me practice." Sasuke huffed.

"I know that," he replied snippily. "Do the second one again." Kohana humored him, going at her usual pace knowing full well that Sasuke with his sharingan would still be able to follow every minute detail. She shifted into an iaido stance for a new set, and sliced through the air in a wide arc. Osamu was proudest of her for this; even though Kohana tended to be aggressive and flashier with her fighting style, her swiftness was perfect for the Satoru Clan's iaido stances. She'd seen Osamu demonstrate this kata a few times. The first had been too fast for her eyes to catch, but with practice, she figured it out.

Kohana shifted seamlessly to the next stance, moving the wooden sword lower by her opposite hip to slash upward, slicing through the air diagonally. Kohana eased back into a returning stance to sheathe her weapon.

"I've never seen you train with a sword." Sasuke's observation was simple enough—too simple for the sheer brilliance and grace Kohana just demonstrated, surely, but his brighter tone revealed some of his excitement.

Kohana shrugged. "You 'nd Sakura are the only ones. She walked in on me once or twice, but it's not like I'm hiding it. Osamu-sensei wouldn't mind if you sat in or trained with us, y'know? He likes knowing things about the people I love and making me train with 'em, so he kinda complains about not being introduced." She demonstrated another iaido set. Sasuke watched her move with the same intensity that could likely only be achieved by a sharingan user. She hoped Sasuke would agree to train with her; Osamu would definitely get a kick out of it in his own way.