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how long has it been?
It seemed like time was passing her by unrelentingly, and her mental capacity couldn't keep up.
There was no improvement to her training, and she was attempting to quit this already.
Time was scaring her. The nights were only lasting for a moment, yet the day were so rigid and cold-hearted.
Everyday, it was raining, thus hindering her training to chakra control. Until now, she found this final task-splitting the forest river in two—utterly absurd. A dumb request. A waste of time, energy, and effort. Yet she needed to complete it, because it was condition they agreed with.
Akane wanted to ask Jiraiya some hints, but she was too stubborn to do so.
And it's too awkward, duh??
She piped to herself mentally.
She just loved talking to herself; it was helpful to relieve some stress in her brain.
The final assignment was too forbearing, and trying and trying all over again was the key to free herself.
And alas, across the said river, she had enough multiple shadow clones standing. The river's current was as usual so turbulent to disturb her focus. The hardest part was to cut the water in two without falling because she couldn't keep her balance. She had to mind the chakra she was providing on her feet while simultaneously releasing the chakra to her palms to strike the water.
Plus it was raining . . .
The river was angry.
And whenever the chakra on the soles of her feet got unwillingly switched off, she would get caught to the current as waves of panic would surge up to her chest and thought of drowning. At least it was that way for her. For a moment, she thought she was dead, or about to become dead.
But Jiraiya summoned a toad to retrieve her.
Just like now, the toad chased for her with its tongue and took her by the ankle. Once she returned on the surface, she thanked the toad.
"How about taking a break first?" The friendly toad advised.
"Okay," she agreed, because she needed it. "Thank you, Gamasetsu, you can take a rest, too."
After saying that, the toad went pooof to go back to Mount Myoboku.
Jiraiya would only supervise her from a distance and would leave when he needed to buy her food or drinks. On that time, he was out for a moment.
Akane only sighed and went back to her resting place. As she wrapped herself with a thick towel, she opened the umbrella she got from her sensei last time.
