Endurance: my ninja way

Chapter 29

Hiruna's POV

A week has passed, my bruises have healed, Hato is talking now and my life has never been better.

My brother is with me, my friends are all around me, I can show my face to the world - or well all those who matter at least - I can openly be a girl now and my hooded days finally seem to come to an end.

All good things have been happening but one, I can't find the track of Kakashi...

I remember him rescuing me after in that inferno that my brother so kindly left for the villagers to clear out, I remember him comforting me, I know that he held me close when I was about to lose consciousness - I will tease him about it - but the thing that I can't recall is where did he go after leaving me here.

I was aware enough to feel his arms leaving my motionless dusty form on the hospital bed, I can recall those touches, but my hearing was dead by that time and so was my vision.

No one from the village are telling me about him, Ol' Grampa Hokage visits me often - still kind as ever even after my brother blew away half of his precious training grounds and he had to answer to the nasty tempered village elders - he tells me to not worry about Kakashi, that he's on a mission. I may be slow witted in some aspects, but I'd classify myself well outside of the range that encompasses the absolute retards, I know he's tailing the culprit, I know he's in grave danger, and I know that I can't lose him.

For the past few days, I've started training myself secretly, I know its not the wisest decision, but hey, I wasn't always the most mature one anyway, that's Hato's department and  He blew himself, so no one can judge,  right?

I've been training and I aim to find Kakashi before he gets to be the subject of experimentation.

Those people, they're dangerous, no matter how wise you are, they can harm you.

Today has been a pretty calm day, no interruptions, no Guy trying to challenge m-

"HIYA HIRUNA! HOW HAVE YOU BEEN?" Speak of the devil I guess...

"How would you think? Its been 3 hours since you last visited and no, I'm not accepting your challenge." Oh yeah, Guy had visited and tried to coax me into a one on one...

"You don't have to be so sure! You see I've known Kakashi all his life, and no one was as astrange as him, I was able to make him challenge me, I'm sure there's something YOU would break for!" That loud YOU almost made me lose my balance, I'm not sure if I'm denying for his sake or my ears'...

Oh wait, he's known Kakashi all his life, maybe he can give me a clue for where Kakashi has been! I mean, tit for tat, I'll humor him and he might break!

"There's no possible way GUY!" Trying to reciprocate his excited vocals, "I can't do that to you."

I had to make the deal seem believable, it can't be suspiciously easy!

"I KNOW I can do that! I've never failed, my victory has only ever been deferred for some time!" His over-the-top reply.

"Don't mock me Guy, you know I can blow up the entire grounds if I want to!" Maybe I went a little overboard with my response? I love this place and would never let anything happen to it.

"Oh but the trick is to avoid the enormity of your powers with the limited amount of mine!" Okay that might have triggered me a bit...

"Alright then, you're on!" That came out sooner than I had planned.

To describe his amount of appreciation and excitement would be blasphemous in my limited vocabulary, he looked like I just gave him all of his life's birthday presents at once.

We took positions, I lowered my surging chakra from the training before to a bare minimal. I virtually switched it all off. I remember when I lost it for a bit on Kakashi and how that ended up, I would never hurt any of my friends. I'm desperate to find that annoying masked runaway, that's making do this even.

He took his position, hands up front, eyes focused as ever.

He made the first move, sprinting towards me, I must say at a surprising speed - even by my standards - I was caught offguard, still managed to dodge it.

I can't attack him at all. I only plan on dodging him until he runs out of juice, which seem to take much longer than i had anticipated.

He charges towards me again, and I dodged, with much ease this time around. Again, he repeated his move.

"I KNOW why you agreed Hiruna," he sped towards me, I couldnt move a muscle, I was too  shocked "we both care about Kakashi, but we need to be compatible in order to find him together!" He exclaimed quitely in my ear. I knew what he meant, he knew all about my distress. From this time onwards, it wasn't a mere play for me, I wanted to show him that I can handle it.

The next move, I initiated it, keeping my energy to the bare minimum, I threw an energy ray towards him. He dodged, thankfully, but the rock behind him got pierced with a chared hole in the middle.

His smile was an evident statement of his acknowledgment of my abilities.

I kept aiming for him and shooting, he kept dodging until i heard "You don't plan to fight a real enemy with these skills do you?" So what now, he's instigating me?

I upped my game a notch and using both my hands I carefully engulfed him in the energy ball that emanated between them and grew to be the size of a man in an instant. I carefully manipulated the chakra so that even when he's in it, Guy doesn't get hurt.

When I released it, all I saw was a shocked Guy sitting with his eyes opened wide. I freaked out, maybe I did hurt him!

I ran towards him and sat beside him to heal, while in the hospital I've picked up a few tricks of my own.

He looked at me and said "I never knew there's someone like you in this world! I might even fall in love with you! That place, it was beautiful!" Wait WHAT! Have I damaged his brain or something! Beautiful? It was supposed to be a death trap!

"Guy, you need to stop talking while I heal you, I think the damage is deeper than I thought." I told him nonchalantly.

"NO listen to me! You can create beautiful places! Why did you take me out! It was precious!" To listen something as odd as "precious" from the MIGHTY GUY, I think I'm going to have a damaged brain!

"What are you saying? I created a place? It was supposed to be a death trap!" I tried reasoning with a dazed Guy saying words like "precious".

"Yes! Death? I was in heaven! Maybe that's what you mean by death?" He answered, a little more sober now.

"You mean that it was not scary but nice?" It's starting to sound a little odd now. Maybe I'm not aware of my powers to the full extent.

"Yes! Listen to me, inside that dome, I saw all the things that were calming me down, chirping birds, Kakashi smiling, my friends and I having a meal together, it was all I'd ever wanted! But you weren't there, I was thinking of you, but I couldn't find you. It would've been perfect if you were there too!" That was a weird thing to listen to, I was extremely confused. Guess I have more questions for Hato on my next visit to the hospital...

"Okay Guy, thanks for the thought. I've been developing this technique for a while now, I didn't know I was pleasing my offender inside of it, that was not my aim... " I tried to reason with him.

"Maybe not, but that's what I saw and felt! I was at peace and I LOVE YOU FOR THAT! Its been so long since I felt all that!" And with that he hung himself on my shoulder and started bawling his eyes out. I need some sanity back. I missed Kakashi so much, I want to see him smile too...