Suddenly, Kakashi-sensei fainted.
It had been a few hours since we arrived at the old man's house. I placed my hand on the door handle, about to open the door, when I heard Tsunami, the old man's daughter-in-law's voice, "Are you alright, Sensei?" she asked.
"Not really… It will be hard to move for about a week," Kakashi-sensei replied.
"It would be better if you didn't move at all."
"Hey, Hinoka, were you also about to check up on Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked as he approached, Sakura and Sasuke by his side.
"Yes."
I opened the door as the four of us entered.
"Kakashi-sensei, we came to visit!" Naruto exclaimed with a large grin across his face.
"Naruto you shouldn't be screaming around a sick person," I said.
"Sorry Kakashi-sensei!" he flinched realizing he had done it again, "Sorry," he whispered.
I chuckled.
"Kakashi-sensei, your Sharingan may be fantastic, but if it puts that much strain on your body, it may not be worth it," Sakura said, scolding our sensei, as though he were a little kid.
"Sorry."
"But you know… He did take down a really powerful ninja! We probably don't need to worry for a while," Tazuna said, the frightened and guilty man from before gone.
"Anyway, that kid with the mask… What was he?" Sakura asked, ignoring the bridge maker's comment.
Kakashi-sensei explained that Tracker Ninjas, like the ANBU black ops from the Hidden Mist village, wear masks and specialize in erasing all traces of rogue ninjas, preventing the leakage of vital village secrets by eliminating their bodies.
He paused for a second, thinking it all through.
"Sensei, you're feeling uneasy too, right?" I asked.
"Yeah, tracker ninjas take care of the bodies of people they've killed, immediately and on the spot."
"So what about it?" Sakura asked, glancing between the two of us.
"So, do you remember what that person did with Zabuza's body?"
"That masked one took Zabuza away," Naruto said, catching on.
"That's right. If he needed proof he'd killed Zabuza, he could simply have taken the head… And the question is, what weapon did the ninja tracker kid use to kill Zabuza…"
"A regular Senbon," Sasuke said, joining the conversation, his eyes widened, "That's impossible…"
"Right… it's impossible?!"
"What are you guys talking on and on about?" the old man asked, frustrated.
None of us said anything, but I could tell we were thinking the same thing. But it was as though if we truly did say it out loud, there would be no denying it.
"Zabuza's alive," Kakashi-sensei finally said.
"What the heck do you mean?!" Naruto exclaimed.
"But Kakashi-sensei, you made sure that he was dead!" Sakura continued, though I could tell she knew as well as I did that Kakashi-sensei was right.
"It's true, I did make sure," Kakashi-sensei began, "But he was probably in a state near death. The Senbon that Tracker Ninja used has a very low ability to kill unless it hits a vital spot… it was originally used for medical treatments like acupuncture therapy. From everything that youth did, he probably wasn't aiming to kill Zabuza but save him. I'll train you during this week to handle Zabuza if he shows up again."
"But... Kakashi-sensei, how can we possibly fight someone like him?" Sakura asked.
"Don't forget you guys were the ones who helped me this time."
"That may be true, Sensei, but—" Before I could finish, the door swung open, and a small boy ran in.
"Hello, Inari," the old man said with the warmest expression I had seen from him yet.
"Hi, Grandpa," the boy replied. Slowly, his gaze landed on us, his smile disappearing. "You better go back or you'll die."
"I am the person who will become the Hokage. There is no way I will go back! I'm going to become a hero!" Naruto exclaimed.
He scoffed, "There aren't any heroes in real life," he said before running off.
"You little brat!"
Before Naruto could run after the kid Sasuke grabbed him the collar stopping him.
"I apologize, he's really not a bad kid," Tsunami said, bowing before going after Inari.
"Calm down, Naruto; Kakashi was about to tell us something," Sasuke said, yanking him back forcefully.
He fell onto the ground in front of Kakashi-sensei as he said, "You'll be learning correct chakra control."
We all went to the forest for training. Kakashi-sensei talked about chakra and hand signs, things we already knew before finally getting to the main point,"What "What I am going to teach you is how to correctly use chakra. Although you can use chakra right now, you cannot use it accurately at any place you want," he said as we arrived in a part of the forest that wasn't too far from the old man's house.
"What we will train on is how to climb a tree without using your hands," he said.
Both Naruto and Sakura look at Kakashi-sensei confused while Sasuke seemed to understand what he was referring too.
Kakashi-sensei climbed up a tree, stopping only when he was standing on the branch upside down. "You'll need to learn how to do this."
We all selected a tree and started practicing. As Kakashi-sensei climbed down, I saw him look up at me as I was standing upside down on one of the tallest trees with a slight look of surprise on his face.
"My clan specializes in chakra control and taijutsu; this was a basic requirement," I said.
He smiled—or I think he did—"I should've guessed as much."
"So what's next, Kakashi-sensei?" I asked as I climbed down.
"Well, the next step would probably be walking on water, but for you, it might be a little difficult."
"Walking on water. That sounds cool."
I had never actually gotten the chance to try it; my teacher simply assumed I would be able to do it.
Sakura got it soon after a few tries, and Kakashi-sensei told us to protect the old man while he was building the bridge. But I left it to Sakura while I practiced walking on water.
I found a big, deep lake and was able to stand on the water after 1 try. But once I took a few steps, I fell in, and my trousers got soaked with water.
I threw my jacket onto the ground by the edge of the pool as I began to try again. After about half an hour, I was able to take a walk around.
I got too excited and tried running, only to end up falling into the water again. Since I was in the deep part of the lake, I got completely soaked.
I swam back to shore, pulling myself out while she laughed her butt off.
'Very impressive child genius,' she said between laughs.
"You know I didn't give myself that title; it was given to me!" I exclaimed.
In this life and the last, I never thought it was through, though.
I took a deep breath, calming down as I blocked her voice out before stepping onto the water.
I made sure my chakra was focused towards the soles of my feet, not too much or too little, before I began running across the lake. It wasn't as perfect as I wanted; I almost fell through once. But I did make it.
"I did it! I ran on water!" I exclaimed as I arrived on the opposite shore, jumping for joy. It was a sentence I never expected to say.
'Meh, I could have done it on the first try.'
"Hinoka."
I froze.
Turning around, I found Sasuke standing a few paces behind me. I'd been so focused on getting across the lake that I hadn't even noticed him arrive.
"Did you see that?" I asked.
Without thinking, I rushed over and threw my arms around him.
He caught me instinctively, taking a small step back to steady himself.
"I actually did it!" I laughed. "I ran across the water!"
"...Yeah," he said quietly.
Only then did I realize how close we were.
Our eyes met.
I quickly let go and stumbled back a step.
"S-sorry!" I bowed. "I got carried away."
He looked away for a moment.
"…It's fine."
An awkward silence settled between us.
Finally, he spoke.
"Kakashi sent me."
"What for?"
"Dinner."
"Oh." I scratched the back of my head. "Right."
We started walking back together, neither of us saying much.
After a while, I glanced at him.
"So... how's the tree climbing going?"
"I'll get it."
"You sound pretty confident."
"I am."
I smiled.
"Well, if you change your mind, I can show you what worked for me."
He was quiet for several seconds.
"…If there's a trick," he said at last, "tell me tomorrow."
I smiled, "Of course."