Fighting With One's Self

Chapter 5 - Candy-Coloured Skies

After Yume-chan and I had made up, Tobi seemed a lot more at ease. He took turns - when he wasn't out on a mission with Deidara-kun - to visit us, switching every hour or so.

After telling Yume-chan that I really was trying to talk, and that I just needed a little more time, she agreed to being my translator again, and asked Kisame if he could be a little harder on me at my request. His niceness and helpfulness kept me soft, and I needed to be hard if I was ever going to be allowed out on a mission. He had agreed with a confused expression.

A few weeks after Yume-chan and I started talking again, my hands were completely healed and I was able to hit bull's eyes in every target, but I was still too slow and took too long to aim. Kisame had me do five push-ups if I took longer than five minutes to throw at all three spots on a target.

I had started managing not to go anywhere near my skin with the dual-bladed sword, and had perfect control over it regarding the fact that Kisame didn't need to block hits that aimed for my own skin anymore. He still blocked every one of my hits, however.

By this time I could make ten Water Clones at once, and walk around flawlessly on water. In celebration, Kisame gave me a silver ring that looked like there was water flowing inside it, but wouldn't answer any questions about it. I wore it every day, on my left forefinger.

I was finally able get over my fear of talking in front of strangers for a few seconds at the dinner table, so I asked Yume-chan to pass the salt, and the whole table went quiet again.

"You're finally talking, huh?" Kisame asked, and I blushed.

"Aww, Yoku-chan, you have such a pretty voice!" Tobi said for the second time, clasping his hands under his chin affectionately.

"You guys are surprised now, but wait till she's completely used to you," Yume-chan said, "The trick is to get her to shut up."

"She can't be worse than Tobi, un," Deidara-kun said.

"You'd be surprised," Yume-chan said.

"She can't be fucking worse than you, though," Hidan said with a smirk.

"You'd be even more surprised," she replied, pointing at him with her fork.

"D-don't be mean," I stuttered.

"So how's your training coming along, both of you?" Konan asked. I gaped at her in surprise. She was actually interested? Obviously Yume-chan was first to answer.

"My Great Fireball set the whole room on fire!" she said gleefully, "It was so freaking awesome!"

"Don't exaggerate," Itachi said calmly.

"I'm not exaggerating," she said irritably, "You're so bloody mean. Give me a break, man."

"How about you, Yoku?" Konan asked.

"She can make ten Water Clones and walk on water," Kisame said with a smirk after I had gulped nervously, trying to swallow the lump in my throat.

"Hey, man, I want to walk on water, too!" Yume-chan whined, glaring at Itachi.

"Your chakra control is terrible," he replied in a deep voice and making her blush, "It'll take you years."

"I'll kick your ass one of these days," she said through gritted teeth, making several people chuckle.

"Good luck with that," Hidan said, "I can't even lay a fucking scratch on him."

"Yeah, but your scythe is a slow-ass piece of metal that you must've picked up at a scrapyard. Mine, at least, is a decent weapon," she snapped, causing Hidan to flush with anger and a few others to burst out laughing.