Solitude

Chapter Four: Training

❝Forgive yourself for what you aren't able to do. If you want to know who you are, you have to look at your real self and acknowledge what you see.❞ ㅡ Itachi Uchiha

▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂

CHAPTER FOUR:

TRAINING

A tense silence surrounded her, only broken by her agitated breathing. Her eyes had yet to become used to the cold darkness that invaded the cracked building, thus she was almost blind to any possible danger. Fortunately, the earpiece she carried with her connected her to the rest of her team, and most importantly, to Maki. Not to disrespect her other teammate, but Maki's abilities were way more useful and needed at that moment than Kazuo's. The boy was currently waiting outside the building in case Rei needed his help, yet she was managing just fine for the time being.

"Rei, you've got two on the left and one on the right," Maki's muffled voice came from the earpiece.

And just after Rei was warned, she felt someone running at her from the right. Still not used to the inscrutable darkness, the girl could only trust her instincts to fight. Quickly pulling out a kunai from her pocket, she threw it in the direction of the approaching footsteps. A sound of metal clashing echoed throughout the place, and that was enough for her to know her weapon had been blocked. Despite the situation, the brunette tried to remain calm and not let panic take control of her body. Eventually, she closed her eyes, for they were being of no help at that point, and focused.

"Chakra," Tora's words crossed her mind. Not many days ago, the woman had forced her to waste almost all of her chakra in training. Ironically, said action had helped her to improve her physical skills and stamina.

Doing her best to ignore the rapid beats of her heart, Rei concentrated on gathering the last bit of chakra and sent it to every fibre of her body in order to create a shield around her. Of course, she knew she couldn't rely on it as much as she wanted to, but it provided her the protection and confidence she needed.

"Rei, the one on the left is almost on you!" Maki's voice warned her through the auricular just before the brunette received a punch to her right cheek.

Caught completely off guard, Rei could only grab a hold of her enemy's wrist as she was thrown to the ground due to the force of the impact. Fortunately, she managed to drag her adversary with her. As her head slammed on the solid surface, pain crept down her spine, almost knocking her out. Suppressing a moan, Rei rolled over them and quickly plunged a kunai right through their chest. Smoke immediately hit her face as the clon disappeared.

The girl ignored the burning sensation coursing through her head and clumsily stood up; her eyes tried to blink away the shiny dots that flooded her sight. It was still dark, yet she knew she couldn't let her guard drop or else it would mean her failure. And as she had explained every time she was asked, Rei hated losing.

She could hear Maki shouting through the earpiece, but for some reason, the brunette couldn't quite comprehend what she was saying. Thus, she mentally cursed and tossed the piece of plastic to the darkness behind her. Sweat was rolling down her forehead — she soon noticed — and she rapidly wiped it with the back of her hand. Oddly enough, she kept sweating as though she had just run from Konoha to Suna in a day. Shaking off the bad feeling pounding through her veins, Rei began to focus on expanding the chakra around her so that way the useless shield that was supposed to protect her became stronger. As she did, she could feel her heart beating fearfully-fast and her breathing turning more laboured. Her throat tightened and her muscles tensed.