Iris [Naruto Fanfiction]

Lessons

My mother and I were both walking out the house's backdoor that led to our backyard. I took a breath of fresh summer air as the sun waves hit my body. It was one of those perfect days to be outside. A perfect day for a swim.

"What are we doing out here mommy?" I asked. I was holding my mother's warm hands as we walked towards the pool. Her warm honey brown eyes looked down at me as she smiled to me.

"We're just walking, honey," she replied in her sweet, silky voice. "It won't take long."

She led us to the edge of the pool, where we sat and dipped our feet in the water. I giggled as I watched my feet move around in the water, the water ripping every time I shot my foot out of the pool. And the drops hitting the water, and watching the water ripple in the sun's light.

This has always been the most relaxing activity to me. The water made me feel calm. The water always takes me somewhere else.

I closed my eyes to imagine myself in an ocean instead of my backyard's pool. Then, I felt a hand on my upper back that pushed me into the water.

I gasped for as much air as I could before I fell completely in the pool. I swam to the surface of the water as fast as I could.

"Mommy-" Two hands pushed forcefully down on my shoulders, forcing me to stay underwater. I flailed my legs and arms around while holding my breath.

I could feel my little bit of air disappear. The water went up my nose, in my mouth; burned my eyes. It felt like my insides were turning into lava. The insides burned. I could barely move. My arms went still in front of me, and all I saw was black.

My body jumped in my new bed. I was panting and my body felt moist. I shot up in my bed and I realized I've been sweating, probably the entire night. Even my sheets and pillow was wet.

I just hope it doesn't look like I wet the bed.

I wiped my forehead as best as I could, but it didn't do much help. I looked around my new bedroom. My bed was just by the window, with plain purple sheets. A wooden closet stood at the edge of the bed, and there was a nightstand next to my bed. By the door, there was a wooden desk with a white chair, and one round wall mirror that hung on an empty wall.

It was nothing like my old room, but it's better than nothing.

I stayed in my bed trying to wrap my head around the nightmare I just had. It was my mother? My own mother did this to me? But why? Why would she do that? Why would she do that to me?

With tears already gathering in my eyes, I grab my pillow and pull it close to me as I start weeping into it. I'm not sure why, but I feel like I did something to my mom to make her that mad at me.

But what could I have done? I can't help but overthink it and blame myself for what happened.

"Good morn-" Aiko says cheerfully as she entered my room, but her smile quickly disappeared when she saw me. "Oh, dear, what happened? Did you have a bad dream?"

I lift my head up and nod in response. I see the pity in her eyes. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No," I quickly say. "I don't wanna talk about anything. Can we just, start with my training please?"

Aiko looks like she wants to say something back, but she just nods her head yes. At least she could tell when I want to be by myself.

***

"Are you sure you're ready for this training?" Aiko asked. "It's pretty intense." We were walking into the forest for whatever we were planning on doing here. The area was mostly grass, for training I guess. There was a big straw dummy in the middle and a target on a tree.

"Yeah, yeah," I replied, nonchalantly. We walked towards the middle of the area and faced each other, and Aiko punched me in the face with her right fist.

Ouch! I flew off of the ground and landed right on my back. I whimpered and cupped my left cheek with my hands.

"What was that for?!" I exclaimed angrily. "Why'd you hit me so hard? What kind of training is this?"

"I told you, this training is intense. You're gonna have to learn to dodge my hits and counterattack with your own punches and kicks. And we only have a week till I have to send you to the academy so get your self together."

"A week?! Only a week?! But... this is too much for me. I can't do all of this in a week!"

Aiko placed her hands on her hips and gave me a stern look. "Stop underestimating yourself. You're gonna catch up to those other kids at the academy if you just work hard enough. You'll be fighting like a real ninja and controlling your chakra like it's second nature by the end of this week. I promise you, you can."

She walked over to me and stretched her hand out towards me. I accepted her help and let her pull me off of the ground. She smiled at me and retreated back to her spot in the training grounds.

"Okay. Let's try this again."