Inseparable

All On My Lonesome

"Ash?" Her father's voice rang out from the first floor of their home. She ran downstairs to catch him standing by the front door with a bag packed. "You're leaving again huh?" A disheartened Ash lowered her gaze a bit. He leaned toward her a bit and picked his daughter's head up gently with his fingertips. "I'll be back before you know it. This job is really important." He said bluntly. "That's what you always say Dad." Ash pouted. He tenderly kissed her cheek then slowly stood up again. The man looked back before heading out the door and smiled at her "make sure you work on your exercises. I want to perform the water divination test with you when I get back." The one thing that made Her happy besides spending time with her dad was training. Her pout was replaced with a smile. "I won't let you down!" She said proudly. "That's my girl." He mused, then he was gone. "Well, I better get to training."

Every time her father left it was the same story. He'd pack a bag, head for the door, and be gone for who knows how long. Because His daughter was still young, leaving became harder for him. So he would start sneaking out to try and make it easier on her, but Ash would always catch him. But, there was a silver lining to him always being away, he could rely on Ash to be able to take care of and fend for herself. Of course the fatherly worry for his daughters safety. But, at least he knew she was strong.

Once she heard her father drive away on his motorcycle, Ash changed into some leggings and a t-shirt then headed to the backyard to begin her training to take her mind off of missing her father. She started with arms, then followed that with abs and she worked her way through her whole body, engaging every muscle."Damn I'm pooped" she huffed as she sat on the ground. She flopped to her back and lay there for a couple of minutes, letting her muscles relax. After her break, she continued to her favorite part, Nen exercises. She always began with the four basic principles of nen. She began by building a shroud of aura around her body with the first exercise called ten. At first, this took her some time to master, but as she practiced and got her body stronger until she was able to do it with ease. After holding onto ten for some time she moved on to zetsu. She closed all of her aura nodes and shut the flow of her life force off completely, rendering her undetectable. The next exercise was ren, where she built her aura as strong as she could. "Wow! I think it's gotten stronger since last time!" She was highly impressed with her improvement. And then she used hatsu to release that built-up aura. When she did, the trees around her moved about wildly, and the fence in front of her nearly blew over. "That... was... AWESOME!!" She said excitedly. That was the first time she was able to do all four exercises back to back without a break. Her body was sticky with sweat but she didn't care. All she could think about was that she couldn't wait to show her dad when he got back.

Once she completed her training for the day she walked back into the house and upstairs to her bedroom. She got out of her grimy workout clothes and took a nice shower. Ash loved showering after workouts, it always allowed her muscles to relax and become less sore. Then she got out and changed into some more comfortable clothing. It was early spring, so the nights still got a bit chilly. Ash hated the winter months and was glad that it finally came to an end, she always found it so hard to maintain her curly hair, it was always so brittle that time of year. She cleaned up her room a bit before heading downstairs to make herself some dinner. She opened the fridge, nothing. Then the cabinets, also nothing. "Shit. We have no food!" She groaned in frustration that she had forgotten to go shopping earlier that week. "I knew I was forgetting something. Oh well, time to take a trip to the store I guess." She closed the fridge and cabinets and got her coat and boots on.

There was a store just a couple of blocks away from her house. Ash looked up at the sky and realized that clouds were rolling in and it looked like rain was coming, "just my luck, it decides to rain tonight of all nights." Ash said to herself as she stood on the steps of her front door. She walked back into the house to fetch an umbrella. " By the looks of things I have about 2 hours before I get poured on." She began briskly walking to the store. And on top of the gray skies, it was dark out so she could barely see. After fifteen minutes she found her way to the store. Ash walked up and down the aisles with a shopping cart in hand and got everything she needed for the days to come. "Hello, Ash!" A voice called from behind her. She turned to look and it was the store owner Mrs. Brown. "Hey, Mrs. Brown! Hoe are you doing this evening?" Ash said with a smiley tone. "I'm doing well thank you! On your weekly grocery trip, I see. Is your father out on a work trip again?" Mrs. Brown said with a slightly sympathetic tone. "Yes ma'am." Said Ash. "You seem to be in a hurry so I won't keep you from doing your thing any longer. But, before you leave I have something at the checkout for you." She said. "I'll be sure to find you. Thanks a lot!" Ash said before getting back to her shopping.