A Senju's Family

Chapter 2 🌟

••Runa's POV••

The water is cold and my clothes are wet, my hair is sticking to my face, everything is uncomfortable, I've been practically dunking myself in this lake for the past twenty minutes-

"You know......I didn't think this would be such a struggle." Shinji deadpans, raising his sunglasses from the bridge of his nose to the top of his head, pushing back his long dark hair.

I send him an unimpressed gaze, he's been having the time of his life watching me fail over and over again, even going as far as to bring out a chair and sit down with a bottle of beer to do so.

Luckily for me, auntie Sakura has been trying to help, and if it weren't for her pregnant belly I just know she would've been chasing around my uncle with a raised fist and threats on her lips.

"That's because you've done nothing but drink beer and tell her to try again every time she falls!" Auntie Sakura chastised, slapping the back of his head as if she were scolding a child.

"Hey! This is the type of training I received!"

"Honey, the Akatsuki did not train you by pushing you in a lake and telling you to concentrate your chakra to your feet, only to then sit back and watch with a bottle of beer." Sakura gritted out with an irk mark on her forehead, whispering the name of whoever trained Shinji so that I wouldn't hear.

".....Okay maybe the beer is a bit much, but they sure as hell pushed me off of multiple high surfaces and told me to figure it out." He insists before taking a sip out of his bottle.

"Shinji! This feels impossible!" I complain, pushing my dark locks out of my face and glaring at him. He snorts in amusement, flinching when Sakura sends a glare his way.

"Listen Runa, don't feel too discouraged. You're still just a kid and normally it takes people time to get the hang of these techniques."

Auntie Sakura and I both raised our eyebrows, feeling pleasantly surprised by how mature and comforting his words were!

"Except for your mom, she ate shit every time she tried walking up a tree for at least two months, I'd consider that below average. But hey you're above average so next time you wanna fight her just rub it in her face-" Shinji laughed, disappearing in a flock of crystal ravens when Sakura sent a mean punch his way.

"I saw it coming," he claims, waving off my look of shock as he appears standing on the lake where I'm currently submerged.

"C'mere kid." He sighs, grabbing my hands and hauling me upwards and above the water. "Go dry off inside, we'll continue your training later."

"What?! But it's so soon? I wanna keep trying!"

"Yeah but Haru wants you home early, your brother's in town and you know how she gets."

"Yeah, I do," I mumble with a small pout, slapping his hand away before he could pinch my cheek and tease me further.

"Why'd you look so bummed out?" He asks, taking me by surprise with the question. I look bummed out? If I made any faces, I really didn't mean to.

Shinji arches a brow as he awaits my response. He's always known of my on and off again relationship with my mother.

From before I could even coherently think for myself and would unconsciously push her away as a baby to now whenever we'd get in these petty arguments, Shinji's been a bystander to it all.

He's always tried to tell me about just how much my mom loved me or whatever, and I know she does. It's just that the treatment between all of us is so unbalanced!