Iris [Naruto Fanfiction]

Training

Our night ended with Aiko looking unharmed and neat and me looking all beat up and raggedy. My cheeks and stomach were bruised from all of her kicks and punches. I had a black eye. And my knuckles were all scratched up from punching too hard. And my body is so sore.

We were now in the living room, where Aiko is trying to patch me up. She places an alcohol pad on my knuckles and I jump as the material touches my cuts. She laughs nervously and gives me a guilty look.

"I may have gotten carried away there," she says sympathetically. "But I really am just trying to prepare you for what's to come."

I give her my unconvinced look. "Oh really?"

"Yes, really," she sighs, then hands me two ice packs. "Use one for your cheek and the other for your stomach. I'll heat up some ramen for the both of us. I hope that's enough to make you forgive me."

I smile at her, to show her that I accept her apology. She smiles back and starts preparing our breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

***

After we ate, I realized that I wasn't only bruised, but I smelled pretty bad. I spent the whole day in the sun, just getting beat up. It's understandable, right?

I started preparing myself a bath. I let the hot water fill up the tub, just a few inches below the tub's rim, and added some pink liquid soap I found in the bathroom. I squeezed the bottle tightly and let the liquid splatter into the tub. My hand ran through the water so it could turn bubbly. When the bath seemed good enough for me, I took off my towel and let myself sink into the tub.

I could feel my once tense muscles loosen themselves out, and I sighed heavily and I laid my head back.

All was well until I closed my eyes and I had to relive my death.

My eyes shot open and I started panicking. My eyes scanned the bathroom, looking for anyone in the room. I'm worried that someone might try to drown me in my tun this time instead of a pool. Is this what you call paranoia.

My hands tightly grasped the rims of the bathtub as I tried to relax myself. "No one is here," I whisper to myself. "You'll be fine. You'll be fine. You'll be fine."

I repeat those same three words to myself from the bathroom to my bedroom, where I said those words until I drifted off to sleep. I'll stick to showers from now on.

***

Today, Aiko is making me practice throwing knives, or 'kunai'. And of course, I suck at it.

The twenty knives I used were every else, but the actual target. Seriously, the knives were stuck in trees, on the ground, or around the bullseye. But Aiko won't let me leave until I get bullseye at least once. We're gonna be here for a while.

***

Well, I finally hit the target after my 500th time, but the kunai fell out of place right after. Aiko ignored it and let us move to the next exercise. I guess she was just as aggravated as I was.

Now she wanted me to work on one of the hardest tasks I'll ever have to do in my entire life- control my chakra.

First of all, I barely even understand what chakra is, and now I have to control it? I'm having second thoughts about becoming a ninja.

"Okay, Iris," Aiko says. "Just sit here and try to blend your physical and spiritual energy. In most cases, chakra will be blue. So, just sit here and try to find that chakra within you. Got it?"

My face said it all. I was confused. I was lost. I didn't know what I was doing. But I still replied with, "Got it."

I crossed my legs Indian-style and rested my palms on my knees. I was trying to focus on finding my physical and spiritual energy or whatever so I could get chakra. Do I actually need this stuff to be stronger?

My brain wanders to everywhere else than the blue thingy I'm supposed to be looking for. Sigh. This is gonna take a while.

***

It's been like, fifty years, and I still can't find any chakra. I'm such a failure.

I sprawled my body across the ground and started sulking. I heard Aiko sigh from a few feet away from me and hang her head.

When she walked over to me, she asked, "You really don't know anything, do you?"

"No," I said dully.

"God, can't you do anything?" Aiko says, with obvious frustration in her voice. "First, you can't dodge or even throw a punch, second, you could barely handle a kunai in your hands, and now, you can't even find your chakra. The Hokage didn't put the life of a child in my hands- instead he left me with a joke."

My body froze at her outburst. I... I really thought she cared for me. That she could be a loved one to me. I thought I would have someone here who really cared for me, but I guess not.

I slowly sat up and tried my hardest to hold back my tears. "Don't call me a joke," I say, failing to keep my voice from wavering.

"I just call it how I see it, and I just see a weak little girl who can't only fail to control her chakra, but fail to control her emotions. You wouldn't last a minute out there if you were a real ninja."

My eyes couldn't hold back my tears anymore at this point. I just let them fall. "Stop talking down to me!"

"Then stop acting like a joke! Learn how to fight! Learn to control your chakra! Do something to prove to me that you aren't a joke!"

After getting frustrated and angered by all of Aiko's comments, I throw my hands up and scream. Aiko was lifted off the ground and thrown into a tree by an invisible force.

I stared at her body from the ground with my eyes and mouth open in shock. Did I do that? Is Aiko alright? Did I kill my caretaker?!

I was about to get up until Aiko beat me to it. She placed both hands under her body for support, then placed the bottoms of her feet to the ground and stood up all at once.

Instead of receiving the face of anger and hatred that I was expecting, Aiko smiled at me. A smile filled with joy and excitement, but by her eyes, I could tell she was curious.

I am, too.

"How did you do that?" Aiko questioned.

"I-I don't know. I think I just got mad and then, bam! You went flying into a tree."

"Uh-huh. You do have some hidden abilities. The Hokage told me to look for them, but I honestly didn't believe I would find any. But I thought wrong."

I stared at my hands in confusion while I tried to figure out if I did that or not. I have no idea what hidden abilities she's talking about. Maybe it was something else. There's no way it could've been me.

Do I actually have hidden abilities?