Beautiful Silence

Chapter 6: What She Really Wants

"Get back here you little brat!"

Riko's gaze turned almost immediately towards the shouting voice. She found two ninja running after a boy. He had bright blonde hair and was holding a bucket of paint. It was Naruto. Instead of looking distressed at the fact that he was being chased, he was actually laughing mischievously.

"How dare you paint over the great Hokage stone faces?!"

The young boy laughed mockingly.

"Shut up, dattebayo! None of you can actually do that, can you? But I can, because I'm great, dattebayo!"

A few shinobi ran past Riko and went into the Hokage's mansion. It's been already few years since Riko came to the village. She was now twelve. She attended the Academy every day, in hopes of becoming a ninja. However, her jutsu always had extremely unexpected effects. Kurenai and Iruka always tried to help her out. The problem was that she was certainly capable of performing them, but it didn't work each time. What's even stranger, was that, without even performing the jutsu, it would cast itself. One day, Kurenai went up to Riko's room and found a bunch of clones running around, while Riko was clearly sleeping. She had tried to release the jutsu, but she couldn't. She then decided to wake Riko up, which made the clones disappear immediately.

Riko went home, after witnessing Naruto's daily mischief. Kurenai was also back from her mission. It had been a while since Riko was able to spend time with her, since Kurenai became a Jounin recently.

"How was school, Riko?"

Riko shrugged. That day they had to perform the transformation jutsu, but she was the only one who couldn't.

"You couldn't perform a jutsu again?"

Riko slowly nodded.

"I know how much you want to be a ninja, Riko, but it seems like the abilities that you have are not even based on chakra."

Riko looked at Kurenai, confused by what she was saying. If what she was doing wasn't based on chakra, then was it even considered jutsu?

"I'm just as confused about this as you are, Riko. According to what Iruka observed, there is no chakra that is produced when you try to perform jutsu. Unintentionally casting jutsu is unheard of. Even then, I tried sensing any chakra flow, but there was none."

Riko looked even more confused. If she couldn't perform jutsu, then how was she going to become a ninja?

"Even when it comes to Taijutsu, your body is too frail to handle combat. You're very good when it comes to agility and speed, but in terms of strength and endurance, you're way below average..."

Riko looked at the ground. She knew very well that she was falling behind her whole class, even though she practiced ten times harder than everyone else.

"Look, let's see what happens at the finals. If you pass, then you'll be a genin, but, if you don't, I suggest not trying to take it again..."

Riko was shocked and discouraged. She didn't want to give up on being a ninja. She wanted to graduate and go on adventures. If she didn't become a ninja, then, she'd be left without any other dreams.

"I know it's hard, Riko. The other option for you, if you absolutely want to be a ninja, is to specialize in something. I don't know what, though, since you can't use jutsu..."

As Kurenai was thinking of a way to help Riko, the latter noticed that the kunoichi had a scratch on her hand. It wasn't deep and probably stopped bleeding a while ago, but it worried Riko to see any type of wound on anyone. Instinctively, Riko took Kurenai's hand in her own and looked at the wound.

"What is it... Oh, that? I wasn't being too careful and a weapon from the enemy grazed me..."

Riko's worry caused her to want Kurenai to be healed and... that was exactly what happened. Her strong emotions and feelings made her wish materialize and the wound completely closed and only left smooth skin behind, as if it never had been hurt before.

Kurenai looked at her hand in surprise.

"How did you...? Riko... You can heal people? I didn't even feel any chakra going in my wound... Could it be that..."

Kurenai was thinking intensely. Riko was confused at her reaction. Usually, when she did that to her mother, it wasn't such a big deal. Her mom would just thank her and give her a warm hug. Was this considered that impressive?

"I've got it!"

Kurenai made a fist and tapped it on her open palm, in an act of realization. She then looked directly into Riko's eyes.

"Riko, is it the first time that you do this?"

Riko shook her head. She then made big motions with her arms, implying that she did it a lot.

"So it isn't your first time... You've done it a lot before. Can you do it any time you want if you see someone who need your help?"

Riko vigorously nodded. She hated seeing people in pain. Kurenai then got up and got a piece of paper and a pen.

"I want you to write to me what you're feeling and what you're thinking when you have to perform, let's say, the transformation jutsu."

Riko then looked at Kurenai, confused by what she was getting at. She then took the pen and paper and started writing:

I usually try to empty my mind so that I can concentrate. Then, when it doesn't work, I feel very frustrated while doing it.

"I see... Now write how you feel when you want to heal someone."

Riko took the pen and thought a bit about what words to use. She then wrote again:

I hate seeing someone hurt, so I feel like I really want to help them.

Kurenai then took the paper. She looked at it and compared the two feelings: frustration and wanting to help someone.

"I think I've figured it out... When you think of really wanting to do something, it happens. However, it seems like it doesn't work on everything. It has to be something that you really want for a reason. That reason seems to be something that is engrained in your ideals. You deeply care about others. This is something that your whole being is convinced about. But, when it comes to other jutsu, you might be seeing the point on surface, but, deep down, you don't really know why you're learning this."

Riko started slowly nodding, trying to process all this information.

"I think we've found what you're really good at... Let's take a trip to the Konoha Hospital."

As soon as Kurenai said that, she got up and headed out, with Riko running after her, still a bit confused as to what is happening.