I watched Syekren take his mask and put it on. As I stared into the dark slits of his mask, I couldn't help but smile. He was back to himself, I could tell, by his renewed sense of flirting came back to him.
"Good natured to a fault, but always strong when needed. You're beauty is only matched by your wisdom, and I am happy to be at your side. Call should the need for me arise, and next time we meet..How about we go out for coffee? You know how to contact me!"This was the Syekren I knew and remembered. Seeing him leave on this note made me feel rejuvenated in my own spirits. As I sat in my office, I stared at the salamander as he peeked into one of the drawers. My mind traveled to the past when I had fought against Syekren. "I have a proposal for you," he had said, quite some time ago. "If that would be alright. I need to make myself stronger anyway, and I'm sure a beauty like you would love something to do. Train with me for now? Well it's actually a spar. Say I win, you let me take you on a date. As friends if you wish. Or, if I lose, you can choose your own prize. I believe that people who become more than strangers through a fight will be better suited to hang around each other. And my name..Is Syekren Uchiha."
It was from that moment that we began to have a spar. In the end he had won and I had to let him take me out on a date. But the fight was the thing to remember. It was brief, but it was nice. I treat fighting as a dance, a type of style. At the time I was young and still not as graceful as I once was, but thinking back to this moment had gotten me to remember my practicing that had happened earlier today. Back when I had sparred with Syekren, so long ago, I had felt disconnected from my second chakra nature: Raiton. Today, a shinobi known to teach and train students and genin about chakra natures and how to grow them was brought to me. He helped me rekindle my affinity for raiton that I had grown disconnected to over time.
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"I know what happened to you," he began. "I know that you believe you lost your connection to your second chakra nature since you haven't used it since that sparring match. As if something about it had made you lose it. I can see you believe it, too."
My face had taken on an expression of sorrow. Not pity, thankfully. I didn't want that from anyone--especially not from this teacher. But he showed genuine regret as he spoke. When I didn't reply he took a deep breath and continued. "You're wrong, Lady Kazekage. You can't just lose your affinity to use the raiton chakra nature. None of us can. Our chakra natures are just that; ours. They are a part of our being. I remember seeing you fight in the Chuunin Exams and how you fought many enemies of our village, climbing up to where you are now. That showed what you were capable of. It revealed your true potential." He paused, his gaze intense now. "You may believe you've squandered your affinity, or lost it. But I know better. I can sense the nature still inside you. I can feel it. It's still there."
I shook my head. "The nature may be there, but my ability to control it is gone. I'm not what I used to be."
"That's not possible," he said, his voice gentle. "Give me your hand." I hesitated only an instant before reaching out. He clasped my palm with both of his hands. "Close your eyes," he ordered, even as he shut his own. In the darkness I became acutely aware of how tightly he had clenched my hand: squeezing the flesh so hard I could feel the beating of the shinobi's heart through his palms. It was quick and urgent, and my already racing heart accelerated in response. I felt a tingling in my fingers, something beyond mere physical contact. The shinobi was reaching out with his chakra.
Suddenly I felt as if I were falling. No, not falling: diving. Swooping down into a great abyss, the black emptiness inside my very being. The chill darkness numbed my body; I lost all sensation in my extremities. I could no longer feel the man's hands wrapped around my own. I didn't even know if he was still standing in front of me. I was alone in the freezing void.
"Your chakra nature is still there, Lady Kazekage. Seek it out. Reclaim the lightning of your soul." As if in response to the man's words, I could feel a warmth rush up to meet me. Then I felt something else. A spark; a cackle of light and heat in the cold darkness. My mind lunged out and grasped at the source of light, and for one brief instant I felt the glorious power of raiton surging through me once more. Then the man let go of my hand and I grew worried, but I could still feel the warmth and see the light coming from within my hands. Suddenly the lightning burst through the cracks of my fingers and shot out brilliantly around me.
I opened my eyes with a jolt as if shocked by the lightning itself. From the expression on the man's face, I knew he must have felt something, too. I thanked the man several times and he even watched me perform a few raiton jutsus with my tonfas as I proved to myself that I indeed could still control raiton. The shinobi smiled happily as he left me in my office, my renewed confidence in my abilities giving me a new surge to get back to work.
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I refocused my mind to the present and looked outside the window that Syekren had leapt through. I needed to get myself outside of the office more. A whole bunch of events were unfolding and I couldn't just let others do all the work for me. A Kage needed to be active for her village. I had done all the legal work but was I active? Did the people of my own village really know who I was, what kind of person I was?
I shook my head in answer to my own question. This would change immediately. Springing up from my chair, I pulled my blue coat over my shoulders and marched out of my office door. Unlike Syekren, I would actually use a door for what it was made to do. I nodded to the shinobi standing outside in the hallway and then marched outside. The warm sun and the fresh air was glorious to feel and breathe in. My senses had grown dull over time being cooped up in that stuffy old office. How I had kept myself inside there for so long, I had no idea. Contently, I began to stroll around the village and began having chats with the villagers. I felt like a new woman as I walked through the sandy streets of my wonderful village.
[Exit Thread]
Training Raiton B-->A 3099/3000