Aoi no Aka

Chapter two

I woke up with a startle. A tiny drip of sweat poured down my forehead.

Another dream.

I yawned getting out of bed and smiled." One more day, then I'll be a fully fledged ninja."

It had taken me so long. So long to get here, but I never gave up. "Tomorrow is finally the day." After 16 years I would finally be on equal terms with my first classmates. The ones I should've graduated with years ago.

I shook my head. It didn't matter how long it took me, or that they are still ahead. I finally made it.

I got up and stretched, loving how the morning felt. Despite my nightmare I was going to have a good day. There was no way something like that would ruin it.

I got dressed and looked at myself in the mirror smiling. I began to brush my long dark black hair that reached to my waist. Looking into my identical black eyes when finished, I winked at myself and skipped along.

Both my mother and father were in the kitchen. I could smell the breakfast mother was making, which caused my stomach to growl. My father laughed. "Looks like someone's hungry." He said with a grin. I wasn't going to protest.

"A growing ninja needs her food!" I said giggling my way to the kitchen table. They both turned to me smiling.

"Asami, you've grown so much." My mother said giving me a proud look while my father nodded in agreement.

"You were so strong, never giving up on your dream. No matter what anyone else said." His eyes gleamed.

That moment I've never been happier. Even before I found out about my illness was I ever this happy. Ever since I found out I was always put down, restricted with the limits of what I could do. One of those restrictions was being a ninja, my dream.

A ninja, a person who protected the village they were raised in with the people that were in it. Someone who fought for the better of their own home. Something I respected with all my heart.

And tomorrow I'd finally be one. It was funny how on the same day it would be my 16th birthday. I was too excited to even notice. While waving goodbye to both of my parents I made my way to school.

Everything looked so much clearer, brighter. I was just in such a good mood that everything looked beautiful. The tree's leaves were a bright orange color due to the autumn season. It was a favorite season of mine because of it.

Since I was in such a happy mood I started to sing a familiar melody. I didn't remember where I had heard it from, but I've know it as long as I could remember. Mother must have sang it to me when I was younger. I closed my eyes and let the song take over, filling in my empty surroundings. It wasn't long till then that I got to school, my best friend Hikari came running to my side. "Asami!" At full force Hikari hugged me with a large grin on her face. "I can't believe your graduation is tomorrow! Congratulations!!"

I smiled at her and hug back. "Thank you Hikari, it means a lot." It really did.

She just hugged me tighter and I laughed telling her I couldn't breathe. It was nice to see Hikari, I had been so busy training I didn't even visit her as much as I used to. "We'll have a party tomorrow to celebrate! Okay?" I nodded, happiness overflowing. I had the best friend ever. Another one of my old classmates waved over calling Hikari. Class would be starting soon. She waved over at me too, congratulating me. I smiled as a thanks and patted Hikari. "It's time to go, thank you Hikari, for believing in me." She almost teared up when I said that and hugged me one last time.

"I'll meet up with you later! Love you Asami!" She said running off and waving. I closed my eyes feeling the breeze of wind blow through my hair. For the people I care about, for their sake I have trained this hard. I want to become a ninja who can protect and save my loved ones. I smiled and walked to my certain class on the other side of the school. Since I was older than the other classmates who I should be with they put me in another class. It was more like tutoring since it was only me and one other teacher, and she was the only medical teacher in the school.

"Sakurakoji-sensei." I said knocking on the door before coming in. She was sitting on her chair looking through a pile of papers on her desk. Mumbling to herself as I walked over. "Sakurakoji-sensei." I repeated again peering over her shoulder. With a startle she turned around and shuffled the papers away.

"A-Asami! Don't scare me like that..." She said taking a large breath of air. I smiled quietly laughing to myself. I love my teacher as well, she was so sweet and funny, but most of all she believed in me also. "I'm sorry Sensei, I didn't mean to scare you."

She looked at me and almost rolled her eyes. "Sure you didn't, now sit down we have work to do." With a grin still on my face I did as told and sat down. "Now Asami, these few years we spent together I have trained you to the best of my ability. You have tried and worked very hard. We never expected you to progress so much. You broke the boundaries we set for you before you could say anything. Our village is proud to have you as it's new ninja." She looked at me, her eyes were sparkling. I had no words myself to say, she left me speechless with happiness. She smiled and hugged me. "I know I've been tough in you, but I did it because I believed in you."

"Thank you...Sensei." I said with a broken voice feeling so happy. "Thank you for never giving up on me." I hugged her back for a few seconds then she pulled away.

"Well now that that's settled, I have one more thing to teach you before you graduate. Of course it's very difficult so I don't expect you to learn it by tomorrow." She made her way to the courtyard behind the building. I looked at her curiously because we would never come out here unless it was for physical training which I never really did. My body was weak, and because of this I could never handle actual fighting. Not only was my stamina low, but I had no force in power. This wasn't the only reason I was becoming a medical ninja though. I also wanted to help people in a way I wouldn't have to hurt them. I wanted to protect everyone. Honestly, I disliked war and violence the only reason I did learn how to protect myself and become physically stronger wasn't only the benefit for my illness but also to protect those important to me when absolutely necessary. Even then I wasn't sure if I could ever hurt a person.

Wondering what my Sensei was going to teach me I followed her outside. She stood in the middle of the courtyard looking straight at me. I was surprised to see her so serious.

"What I'm about to teach you," She paused making it seem like she was hesitating. "Is something that will take a long time to master." She turned her gaze towards me and I stared back. She knew about my illness, and how much time I had left. Possibly not enough to complete it's training.

"What is it?" I asked curiously. If it was something that would take time to learn, time I didn't have then it must be very important. My Sensei knew that more than anyone. Sakurakoji-sensei put her hands on my shoulders and looked at me with sadness in her eyes. "Asami, you have so much potential. Your chakra is like nothing we've seen before, the jutsu you could master..." She stopped pulling herself away. "It's at bad chance you are under these circumstances." I only smiled which gave her an even more sadder look.

"Thank you Sensei," I said again because there was really no limit to show how grateful I was to her. "Being a medical ninja has always been my dream, such talented jutsu is wasted on me."

She sighed. "Well, I've called you here because I do believe you can accomplish this jutsu. Even with your body being weak, training has made you a lot stronger." She licked her lips. "There is one thing though." She glanced at me with a worried look in her eyes. "It might be too powerful. There is no saying your body can control it's power."

This to me was very surprising. I never really cared to learn jutsu that wasn't related to healing. In fact, I wasn't allowed to because of what it would do to my body.

My teacher looked me sternly, her face was completely serious. "As a last request, I want you to learn this jutsu. But if it /ever/ starts to have any effect on your body, do not practice it. Forget everything about it." I simply nodded at her words. I believed I could do this. If my Sensei had faith in me, then I knew I could master it.

"Then, lets begin our training."