Red Lightning Guardian - A Naruto Fan-Fic

Chapter Twenty-Three - Disquietude

Hel-LO my fellow Wattpadders! Here's the next chapter in the RLG story. I'm sorry it took so long but if you read my other and only work, you'll know the reason. I can't be bothered to type it up again. I'm just so eager for you to get reading!

Jiraiya and his Sage Art pose or whatever you call it ;) ^^

- Akai's P.O.V -

Naruto giggles excitedly, eyes closed and a broad grin on his face.

"Oh, alright then..." Jiraiya sighs raggedly as he stands in front of him, back hunched over and a weary look on his face. "Are you ready to move on to the second stage?"

Slowly opening my eyes, I glance at the two from the corner of my eye from my seat of a boulder before turning away, exhaling a low sigh. I'd rather sit on the side lines than train.

When I woke up, I felt...distant to everything. The familiar sight of Naruto's blonde head suddenly felt wrong as well as his presence so close to mine. Jiraiya also felt erroneous and his quiet demeanour did little to dispel that too.

"Yeah!" the blonde confirms, raising a fist into the air. "Enough with the kid stuff! What's next?! Weapons or..."

"There you go," comes to dreary reply, causing the ecstatic grin on Naruto's face to fall off as he catches a white ball thrown at him.

"A rubber ball?" he asks, staring at the object in his hands before facing Jiraiya with a dry look, his eyes transforming into white upside down triangles. "You're kidding me right?"

Jiraiya extracts another white rubber ball from his kimono and holds it up. "Let's see if you can pop this one." he says, flowing chakra up his arm. I watch nonchalantly, the irritating sound of rubber being scratched reaching my ears before the ball in his hand pops.

Naruto gulps and I hmph quietly, turning away as I bend my leg at the knee and rest my arm on it, staring at the village below the training spot through lidded eyes.

"And let me tell you, it's a lot harder than a water balloon." Jiraiya expresses lightly. I hear Naruto take a step back and probably lift his hand to mimic the action Jiraiya demonstrated.

A wind blows gently, swaying my hair about and raise my hand, gazing at it. The encounter with the green-eyed man plays in my memory along with me attacking him with a mysterious power I have, causing me to frown marginally.

I then remember last night, what Mezasu said about me committing more vile acts than him. He's lying, isn't he? That wasn't me before I lost my memory. I'm not cold hearted like that.

Sure, I'm apathetic and cold in demeanour but not cold-hearted. I could never commit vile acts as he so claimed. But then...why do I feel so uneasy? It's like my stomach keeps twisting and turning with nervousness and I'm not sure what to do about it.

Then fractions of after my fight with Mezasu keeps popping up in my mind, making that out of place feeling grow. It suddenly doesn't feel...right me being here. With Naruto and Jiraiya. I don't know what to do. There's no one I can turn to who'll understand me.

This is all just so confusing.

"The first element is rotation," Jiraiya's instructing voice snaps me out of my reverie and I turn around, seeing him holding up one finger then another. "The second element is force. But this object is solid. There's no water inside so it's far more difficult to exert your chakra rotation on it."

"Yeah, I can see that." Naruto agrees, the rubber ball held between his two palms. I stare blankly at the ball in his hands.

That reminds me... I think, snapping my attention away from the ball at the suspicious glimpse of Jiraiya's eyes. I understand why he's sceptical around me but that look was much more different than the last time.