HOT SPRING!

That creek in his neck, he could feel it. Oh, all he had to do was move his head slightly to the left and that the spine would crack, ooo it would feel it. His neck was sore from last night escapade with his bed, he had a tough fight it seem, his body squirming trying to find a comfortable spot for him to settle it seem, but the mattress was a merciless one and it defeated his body. The one thing that could damage him was his own bed in his apartment

But he couldn't let that get him down. Today was a good day. He woke up sore but things were going fine when he decided that today, he was going to the hot springs. It was a day for his body to sit down, relax, let the hot steam of the water fill his nostrils and the warm water melt away all of his situations both physically and mentally. His imagination let him drift away to that pleasant sensation. He could jump for joy if he wasn't so sore from his bed. He had to keep reminding himself to get a new mattress but he tends to lose interest the moment he thinks about it.

The old hot springs from Konoha had went through a bit of remodeling. The old set up was much flawed. In the last fifty years, there had been a huge increase of population and because of the huge increase, the economic factor of Konoha had skyrocketed. It wasn't long before the huge buildings came around, the towering skyscapers that held large companies and the corporations began to fill the place with not only it's propaganda of wealth and prosperity but of course with seemingly positive influence, the stress in the world became overwhelming to the people

The bath shops, the spa and the major player in this, the hot springs became overtaxed by the amount of people coming in and out. It was not enough for them to handle such a load. With that, five years prior, they closed it down so that it could rebuild the hot springs yet again. Of course, only special privelege were allowed in and that was for some of the corporations, the hokage and a few shinobi. That few shinobi was one of him and he was ready to get into the hot springs. When given to him at first, he didn't really want it but the insistance of them wanting them to have a pass during there entire reconstruction. Hell, why not use it now.

When he made his way to it, he saw on the board it said "Closed for construction" Of course, this was all folly. In honesty, it was very much open but the people weren't aware of that. Heiki made his way down two buildings past the hot springs and made a left into an alleyway.

“Oh, what the- Those lying sons of bitches." Those words were whispered in a nearby tree right outside of the so called “hot springs” in which a spikey haired blonde guy that Ayame could have sworn she had seen before had recently walked in. Her binoculars had taken refuge on her chest as Ayame let go of them once he had completely walked, yet still bounced off of her due to the strap on her neck. Ayame was wearing her new oversized orange hoodie along with a pair of black, orange striped cargo shorts that went along with her black shinobi sandals and her hair in its usual spiral braid.

Ayame’s formerly green eyes started to change into a lighter version of red to signify her irritation towards the Kusatsu Onsen for their false advertisement towards the general public. Ayame’s been trying to sneak in there for months now but was never able to see anything throughout all 37 of her infiltrations and there was never anyone to follow inside to see what was really going on there. But really though, who works at a construction site with barely any people going in and out of that place, they don’t just imagine the building finished, don’t they.

Keeping that unimportant information in her short term memory, Ayame decided that it was time to head out and check on what was really going on inside those hot water walls.
Being careful not to get seen or heard, Ayame quickly hopped off of the tree branch she was on and inside the pile of bushes that habituated themselves near the tree. She would then quickly run through her usual infiltration route via means of a quick Shadow Clone, Sexy transformation technique, some very distracting sweet talk and the rest of the story can pretty much tell itself.

Taking precautions but still keeping up with the strange man, Ayame maneuvered from place to place, wall to wall, using Ninjutsu to Ninjutsu until she was finally able to get a good look at the guys face and accidently blurted out. “Hey, I know you.”

Heiki stopped walking, hearing a all too familar voice. He turns around slowly and not to the surprise of his own thinking, it was the blonde hair little girl who he met stealing a scroll. No, a fake scroll at best. What in the world was she doing following him. Well, that was a dumb question to ask himself cause he knew why she would follow him. Her eyes flickered a flame of determination. Seeing that he was going to the hot springs that was under construction, she was trying to find a way to get inside.

Could he lie his way out of it? Well, he could. It wasn't improbable for him to lie. He was good at lying, since his younger days, the one skill that got him out of working those pesky d-rank missions more towards c and b rank missions was the fact that he could persuade some people. He could say he was going to take a piss in the alleyway. He done it before, though the Hokage wasn't too please when ANBU found him pissing, he done it.

But his mouth had already spoken and all the excuses he wanted to speak was blocked when he said "Well if it isn't a crazy chick that's trying to kill me, it's a crazy chick that follows me. Ade, why do I attract the crazy chicks?" he put a palm to his forehead and shook his head slowly as if to have a headache of this problem. He turned to her. They were still kinda close to the main street, Heiki took on her collar and pulled her away so that the shadow could hide there presences-geez, with that action, you would think he was coming on to her-from the onlookers.

He leans over to eye level with her "I swear you are one pretentious little kid. Following me, stealing from people, gosh you are just a troublemaker waiting to happen" he smiled at the statement "Can't let you start talking about how you saw me go into the hot springs otherwise the Hokage will have my head. So let's break a deal. I'll let you come inside and wont tell all the genin how you fail at stealth if you dont tell everyone that they still let people come inside? Deal?"

Ayame scuffed jokingly at the older guy’s comments about “attracting all of the crazy chicks”. ‘Maybe you’re the one that needs to learn not to appear in the places where I go, like say on top of a building, working for an old, chubby guy you didn’t even like.’ Ayame let that thought flood into her mind for a good second right before she was suddenly grabbed by the collar out of nowhere and dragged into the shadows, causing her instinct of verbal self-protection to kick in as she soon landed in the shadows, causing her to suddenly yell out random thoughts. “Hey, my granddad’s a captain of the ANBU so if he finds out I’m missing, things will go down.”

It took her but a few seconds though for her common sense to break into her mind and remind her that this wasn’t an attempt at kidnapping or rape so she was safe for now. Once she was actually placed back to her usual state of mind, her eyebrows raised as the spikey haired guy leaned in and started speaking to her, his first statement already getting Ayame in that rowdy mood. “Oh right, this coming from the same guy that attacked me, threatened a guy with death in the middle of broad daylight and got in a fight with some strange lady all in one day, and I’m the pretentious one.”

Ayame’s eyebrows perked up after hearing the guy’s proposal put down on the table. The fact of the matter is, Ayame was always the type to be the curious one and the type to set up deals after deals to fill this curiosity; whether the deals involved money or just a few minutes of being pushed on a swing set, Ayame, more so than not, has gotten the job done. The young blonde crossed her arms and thought about the deal thoroughly though before making a decision and after a few seconds, she nodded. “Deal.”

Once the deed was done, Ayame took the initiative and started walking in the direction the man was going, taking a look back as if asking if he was coming. “Oh and I don’t ‘fail’ at stealth, I just rock too much at kicking ass to worry about sissy stuff like that.”

"The word is audacious for me, little girl, not pretentious" he said in spite of her comment. "I WAS prententious back in the day but I changed it to audacious now" Though now he still would be considered prententious regardless of how he said it, he wasn't insulted by it, in fact he was quite flattered by the comment. He did things that were bold in order to show a point. Now that he was in this predictament, what point did he have to show this time. It was a head scrather in honesty.

"Sissy stuff?" Heiki questioned. The alleyway felt longer to him but that was only because he had now heard her say that stealth was sissy. "And you passed to become a genin how? Geez, they are getting softer these days. What's more, badass? Tch, I've seen turtles more badass than you. You got style kid but badassery isnt one of them yet" He turned his head and saw the door that open to the hot springs. He pulled it open and then bowed his head in mockery "After you, miss badass. Please wipe your badass feet before you badassly walk to the springs" he would let her in and he would peep his head out to see if anyone notice. When no one did, he closed the door behind him.

Heiki and Ayame would walk over a small bridge that was over top a large hot spring river that lead into many spots in the hot springs. Heiki notice a few things different, notably how large the women, the men and unisex section had increased. Looks like they weren't actually lying he thought to himself. But in a sense, they were cause he didn't hear any drilling, hammering or anything along the lines that would be heard in construction. They were done but they were still closed from the public. A few things popped into mind and one of which was right on the spot. Heiki slid open the door towards the reciptent area. Over the desk was a young woman in her mid twenties. She glanced to see who was standing in front of her. She saw Heiki, who she didn't reconize right away then she saw Ayame, who was standing beside him.

"I'm sorry, but we are still not open to the public" she was stating this to Ayame rather than to Heiki. She figured out who he was after a minute or so

"She's with me. I'm...." hmm, what could he say in order to pass her by through. He knew saying daughter would be too obvious of a lie, a family member maybe, yeah, that could work they both had blonde hair and had blue eyes. He was ready to say sister but instead his mouth was quicker than the thought "apprentice" he cursed at himself saying that. Oh well, no time to look at it in hindsight, he might was well disembark on this whacky thing "She had a long day of training and I believe she deserved a good hot spring bath before returning home. It's the least I could do for pulling off a hard training session"
What Heiki thought she was going to say was something that was to prove they were sensei and apprentice. It wasn't the greatest lie to give but hell, his big mouth said it regardless. If she were to check Ayame, she would see no signs of training fatigue, dirt on her chin, or even the slightest of blood. She was cleaning looking and to be honest, they were definitely not in position to convince anyone else they were apprentice.

But the attendent didn't pay attention to Ayame after her first glance at her. She clapped her hands together and let out a "Awww". Like it was sweet of him to train a young girl or something. He thought it was a bit weird but hey he was rolling with it now "Well, my boss would say no but how could I? She's had a long day I can imagine" she looks at her. Oh crap, oh crap, she doesn't look tired does she? The attendent tilted her head "You can go change in the womens room to your left. Please, have a nice stay" She smiled a geniuine smile, which was rare seeing it from her seeing that customer service is the one place you see dead and fake smiles.

Heiki nods at her and makes his way to the mens room. He grabbed a large towel and then two small ones as he made his way. The floor was carpeted and it was highly warm in here. Leaving his clothes on any further and he would feel like he was cooking. Heiki undressed him self, placing his uniform on the seat and his weighted clothing on the floor. It made a creaking noise as he set it down, he hoped his weights didn't go through the floor. The payment and complete and utter embrassment of that when he was young was fulfilling for his master to laugh.

He wrapped the towel around his naked body and walked over to the sliding door to open. He peered to see that it was al open to him, the large pool of hot water around a nice relaxing background. He saw that there was the women's spa to the left of him and the unisex one up ahead. He wouldn't have to worry about anyone seeing his body, which is fine in his case since the wooden wall blocked all seeing eyes but they would be able to hear him. He let the towel go and slowly creaks his way into the hot water.

"oooooo, that's nice. That's reaaaalll nice" he said with soft ectasy and then sat down on the stone created benches where he laid his head back on the towel he made. He looked back at the blockade, he wondered when she would get in there. Oh, he would know

‘Pretentious, audacious, not like I know what any of them mean so it’s whatever to me.’ To be perfectly honest, Ayame never knew what he meant by calling her “pretentious” in the first place but figured it had something to do with trouble or troublemaking so she instantly took it as some sort of insult or judgment, something of a negative manner, due to the way that he initially used it. “Context clues” is what Ayame remembers the phrase being called.

Hearing the spikey haired guy repeat her phrase for the way the shinobi world portrays as the “key aspect of being a shinobi”, Ayame responded. “Yep, sissy stuff.” It was then that the guy would start to verbally abuse her integrity and worth as a shinobi, which her quick tempered mind almost responded to with violence, but she just responded in her usual fashion in situations where she just wasn’t in the mood for fighting and that was to verbally abuse the person back and/or defend her right as a kunoichi. “Ok, first of all, I earned my rank as a ninja with hard work, dedication, and a bit of cheating, but that’s beside the point. I’m gonna be a great leader one day and there isn’t anything that you or anyone else can do about it. Plus, I don’t see you popping off any real hot stuff, if you want to criticize me, then surely you’re 'badassery' levels are through the roof.”

But taking into account that they already made it over to their destination, the guy didn’t seem to have any time to do anything about it, either that or he just didn’t want to, so he “politely” opened the door for Ayame, who angrily stepped through the door. What happened next is that a woman at the desk would look up to see the duo and would look directly at Ayame as she tried to play them (her) off.

Ayame responded by starting her way over to the woman, saying. “Hey, look lady, I know damn wel-" but she was interrupted by the guy trying to come up with some relation to “who she was” to the woman, so she just stared at him, waiting to see what he was going to say as the woman stared too. As soon as the word “apprentice” came out of his mouth, the woman looked at Ayame again. “Apprentice?” Ayame would be looking at the guy with the same confused face as the woman, repeating right after her. “Apprentice?”

As Ayame’s “sensei” continued to talk, she just kept on staring at him with that same expression and no comment until he was done. “Wha- I mean, yeah…” she quickly tried to recover herself from the confusion as she looked at the woman once again with some fake smile on her face. “We were just going through some… some major training; I’m soo, sooo very tired and well… what better way to end a hard day’s work but with a nice hot dip in the Hot Springs, right?” Ayame ended it with a bit of a nervous laughter while breathing a bit hard; the woman might take it as a results from her “training” but it was really her nerves.

The scheme seemed to have worked though since the lady made that weird “aww” noise Ayame hasn’t heard since she was a little toddler, directed her towards the woman’s room and then gave her some very odd smile. Ayame had to stand there for a few seconds first, looking dumbfounded before shaking her head and making her way over to where she directed her. Ayame took a quick note that the room was actually quite big for a dressing room and wondered what it’d be like with other people here. Ayame just shook it off however as she lowered her zipper and proceeded to remove her jacket.

Within about a couple minutes, Ayame was down to nothing but a towel tied and held right above her chest and her hair was unbraided and ran down to her shoulders, something Ayame certainly was not used to on a regular basis, not counting her going to bed. Whatever though, it was a new day and all Ayame had to think about was hanging out in the springs and just relaxing.

Once she was all ready to go, Ayame headed out of the sliding door that led to the hot springs, checking out all sides until she found what seemed to be the female side of the area due to the wall in the other side of the spring. Taking this as a good opportunity to finally get some sweet old fashion alone time, Ayame made her way over to the hot spring, testing it by leaning over a placing a finger in the contents before dipping into the contents of the pool, allowing her towel to slip off as she dipped lower into the spring. As she got deeper and deeper inside, she could feel the heat of the steam overcoming and instantly relaxing her muscles, creating an immense soothing feeling. Ayame leaned on the edge of the wall that separated the other half of the area and closed her eyes for a little bit before she heard a strange and oddly familiar sound coming from it. “You know it’s just hot water, right 'sensei'?” the young girl laughed a bit before quickly leaned her head over from one side to another, making cracking noises in her neck.

An eyebrow rose underneath the towel over his eyes. Removing it, he sits himself up and spreads his arms across the stone edge of the spring. He smiled at her comment "Don't get too comfortable saying that. If I wanted to train you, I would but right now..." he paused, He remember her say that her grandfather was apart of ANBU. He wondered at that moment, which section of ANBU he partook in. He didn't remember anyone of either male or females that appeared that Ayame in ROOT. Maybe he was in another division, or perhaps he was much older and left before Heiki got involved in ANBU.

He turned his head to the wall and said to himself "Akira Ayame" Akira, yes, he thought it was familar before when he met the girl not too long ago. At the time, he didn't particuarlly care about the girl but the last name was sparking light bulbs in his head. Akira, what was so special about that last name? He couldn't put his finger on it, it was on the tip of his tongue but alas, he was unable to reach it. Heiki continued "It looks like you have all the necessary skills to survive. Besides, since you believe you dont need any stealth skills, your abilities are surely enough to handle top qualified nin. Even if those top nin are pretty weak." he takes in a deep breath, the warm air filled his nostrils and then his lungs then he let out a relieving sigh that was warming just the same.

Akira, one of the clans in Konoha that was a long descendant from the clan of the Uzumaki Heiki now remembered. They were once powerful fuuinjutsu users, rivalry skills like the Senju. The Hokage is a Senju, a mokuton user. Perhaps....he was getting ahead of himself. He couldn't rationalize that the Hokage was just repeating. It seemed too convienent for his taste.

She is an Akira, meaning that she has some irrational thinking. History states that one of the kages, Naruto Uzumaki, was a hot-headed, quite dim witted individual who always pressed forward with a challenge. If that is the case, then that personality trait would pass down to the later generation. Perhaps that would be the case for Ayame. He wondered what he said would get her a bit steamed. If not, then Heiki replied "I believe it's best for someone of your calibur to only do D-rank and C-rank missions, you know clean up the trash and collect little fees from little old ladies who loses their cats"

(WARNING: Im sneaking on and rushing it so it's going to be low quality)

Ayame heard the comment made regarding whether she was going to actually be trained or not by the man who was to play her sensei for the most part during this hot spring trip, causing her to give a little smirk. “Well, I don’t even know what you can teach me anyways, you never did show me what you could actually do skill wise, all might sensei badass. For all I know, you could be the cleanup guy for the Hokage or something.” Ayame let out a little bit of a chuckle a little bit as she leaned back on the edge of the spring.

Being so close to the wall, Ayame was able to hear him utter her name. Hearing this, the young girl opened one of her closed eyes as she leaned back just a little bit more. ‘I don’t exactly recall giving him my name.’ Ayame knew that her brain power wasn’t exactly the strongest amongst the village but she wasn’t exactly an amnesiac so she was sure that she hadn’t formerly introduced herself despite spending quite a bit of time with him despite only meeting the guy like yesterday. It made her wonder a bit on exactly how much he knows about her.

Ayame decided to give that thought a little time off and worry about that later as he started to “evaluate” her abilities as a shinobi. At first, his comments were beginning to upset her but she decided to play it off. Ayame chuckled as he continued his onslaught on her talent and once he was finished, she started to laugh louder until she eventually responded. “Well, like I said, you haven’t shown much of a reason to be respected yourself so how am I supposed to know what you can do? Maybe we outta check each other out before we even think about starting this whole thing we got going on.”

Ayame didn’t exactly know why she was being so relaxed, usually, she’d take those kind of insults as a means to start a fight or something closely related to violence but this hot spring water was just too good to let something like that get to her at the moment.

Heiki liked her answer. She was straight-forward and to the point, wanting to test him out as well without the means of being agressive with the blinding answer. He could see her winning some arguement when she was clearheaded and it was probably due to the warmth of the springs but her agression in arguments would surely not win her any good debates.

He lean his head up and rubbed his chin, wondering what he could show her without getting out of the water. His body felt so comfortable that he could've slept in the hot tub for a good set of hours before waking up to a pruning body. He thought for a moment so there was a quietness between the two. Finally, he decided to show her something. Well, not show her, he was still kinda weirded out by the fact that he would have to display something to a little girl. It was the fact that he was trying to leave an impression to the female variety and he was always taught not to use jutsu or show off for impressing.

But he got to prove it to her that he was a suitable teacher which was odd cause it was usually the reverse with students. Well, not with every teacher but the one on one training, it was pratical for one to is willing to teach be able to prove themselves to the teacher. But Heiki was one to say fuck all of it and decided to ride the wave with this one. It'll be interesting to see what in store he had with this girl.

"Alright" he said finally breaking the silence "I suppose I could show you something without necessarily get out of this spring" he pulled a hand away from the edge and bit his two left canine's together pinching skin and ripping it slightly to spill blood on his thumb. He than pulled both hands together and begins to slowly and say it out loud the handseals "Boar → Dog → Bird → Monkey → Ram " he said and then said alot "Kuchiyose no jutsu" he slams his hand on the ground and the poof and the smoke. Heiki sees through the smoke a tiny toad that was sitting on the top of a lilipad. The toad laid across it lazily, licking on what appeared to be a snow cone.

The toad turned to Heiki, it's face looked disappointed and unpleasant "It's funny cause I'm thinking I'm being summoned for a reason and then the reason fades away when I realize I basically have no skill. It's ridiculous"

"Good to see you too Gamafuu"

Her eyebrow rose-if she had hair there it would definitely furrow up- and sighed a 'oh well' sigh. "Long time no see, Heiki. I don't mind the summoning me for no reason, I just love to be summon in the middle of a..." he looks around seeing the steam rise above her "A hot spring?"

"Yeah"

"Well, I guess it's not that bad. Though, my snow cone melted. You owe me one you know"

"I dont travel to Mount Myoboku and how the hell do you get a snow cone in that place"

"It's better not to question such oddities"

"I'm questioning it now. That place is as warm as a summer sun. How in the shit do you do it?"

She paddled her way through the warm water and jumps off onto the stone pathway "]Like I said, you owe me one and it is not wise to question it"

"Tch, whatever. I'll buy you a damn snow cone" he turned his head in irritation. He did like summoning her only to get her better in training but she has a way of being a condenscending bitch that make woman in the red light district in Konoha seem bearable. "I need you jump over the wall to talk to this girl, hope you dont mind"

"I mind alot" she said. She jumped to Heiki's head "Why do I want to do that? You impressing some chick or something. Seeing your taste in woman, bet she is some ugly-" her words got cut off with Heiki's hand over her mouth. She struggled at first, it was impossible for her to move Heiki's hand away, he was alot stronger. He finally moved away and she open her mouth to spout out every cuss word imaginable, hell today she might just make up some new ones.

"I need to show a kid an example of what I can do. I aint gonna summon your grandfather or father here"

"You could've" in a responsive that was quick and sharp

"Yeah, no, I aint pissing off your father or grandfather so that leads you"

"What about my bro-"

"Quit complaining and jump over the damn wall" he got in her face, stern with her.

She back away from him putting her hands out in false surrender "Geez, fine. Whatever. Damn, gotta be so assertive"

"Well, it's kinda agitating when you're being so fucking incomptent about it"

She pauses and for a moment the silence between them was cut down when Gamafuu stated "I dont know what the hell incompetent means"

"Get over the wall!"

She jumps over the wall casually and without strain, she was graceful in it but that sudden grace was lost when Heiki saw her stick her tongue out at him. His left eye twitched slightly and he had a slight snarl on his face. Gamafuu landed over the barrier and onto another stony path. There she saw a girl of about thirteen. Gamafuu could say that she was the same age as herself. She had a slight grin on her face which looked very sarcastic at first glance. She was a person who thrived on sarcasm, it was the way of making the world go round.

In the aspect, the young girl was pretty. She would say that she was very young for Heiki's taste and almost screaming the word pedophile over and over again.

"Sup" she said "Heiki annoying you? He's kind of a asshole once you get to know him"

"I heard that...." Heiki said, his face still twitching and irritated

"I know, I wanted you to hear that"

After Ayame gave her response to the guy’s “evaluation", she took it upon herself to let her body and muscles relax a bit in the hot water. Allowing her arms to slip from the edge of the hot spring, Ayame’s body started to slowly sink inside the water, bubble starting to surface on top of it as Ayame’s mouth started to enter along with her body. It was a good thing Ayame had a talent in holding her breath because this would definitely give her a bit of time to just stay in her current position and think about a few things.

As she began to close her eyes, Ayame could’ve sworn she was starting to hear some voices in the background but soon, her meditative state would begin to drown that out, no pun intended. Ayame’s mind went ahead and drifted over into deep thoughts while she kept her body within the water. She got back to wondering a bit more about this person that seemed to know her in some way. With her mind clearing out, she was getting a less hazy picture of this situation here and was able to cleanly ask herself, just who is this guy?

Her thoughts went back over to the time where they had initially met; from what she could get from that was that he had some speed on her for no matter what, he was able to catch up to her with relative ease and with but a flick of the finger, he was able to stop her completely, she definitely figured he had some training in the physical arts. Personality wise, she could see that he was a bit on the sarcastic side and, though without being as blunt with it as Ayame was, he was probably equally as cocky with his abilities.

Next up was figuring out a little bit of what was going on inside his mind. She figured that he wasn’t a mind reader and that Ayame didn’t have a name badge on her so did he look her up? Perhaps asked around? She really wasn’t exactly sure but he was certainly a mystery alright. Ayame guessed that the first thing to actually knowing the guy was probably going to be finding out his name. Should be simple enough, she could just ask around or better yet, simply ask the guy himself for his name, then maybe she could figure a bit more later on.

The next thing she knew, Ayame’s ears picked up the sound of someone greeting her, but instead of questioning exactly why there was someone suddenly talking to her in a previously deserted hot spring, Ayame raised her head a little bit so at least her chin would rise from the surface and she would be able to give her own greeting. “Hey.” She then heard the stranger’s comment about who she called “Heiki” that she figured was the only guy that was across from the fence and it caused her to laugh a bit as she turned her head. “So Heiki’s his name? Yeah, once you think about i-”

It didn’t dawn on her for a minute but is she talking to a toad? Ayame whipped her eyes and started to wonder what the steams were doing to her brain. But just to make sure, Ayame rose up a bit from the steam water and leaned her arm over to touch the toad, realizing it was real. “I’m talking… to a… toad… a talking toad…” Ayame went silent for a few seconds with a few imaginary question marks dancing around her head but then she just suddenly yelled out with a big smile on her face. “Holy crap, that’s so cool! A talking toad! What’s up, how you doing, what’s you name!?”

It was coming soon Gamafuu thought. She had landed on the stone path and saw the young girl that Heiki had taken in. She was young, she could say that much, probably around her age or so but young regardless. He digs chicks like this I suppose She had to hold in the giggle for the moment and make fun of him later when she had the chance. She would forget when she would get her snow cone laced with raspberry syrup, her absolute favorite, and her tongue would engulf the sugary concoction.

Ayame had heard someone speak. She appeared serene to the point of falling away in the steam and letting it overcome her with waves of entoxicating relaxation speaking to her mind and muscles to set aside the worry of work and let it do its job. The voice woke her from this trance. She raised her head to see who had greeted her. Her eyes appeared sleepy and her face was tranquil as a sleeping monk. "Hey" she replied "“So Heiki’s his name? Yeah, once you think about i-”

Gamafuu latest thing is getting to introduce herself to other human beings. It wasn't an everyday thing where she gets to meet humans outside the realm of the mountains. Rarely does anyone ever come to visit the mountain of toads for a normal visit. Heiki had come few times over the years, seeing herself grow from a tadpole to what she is now. He'll probably continue, she was already sure that he wouldn't stop visiting the frogs. But Heiki was too, what is the word humans use sometimes meaning random? Oh, he was unpredictable. He was very hard to freak out and even very hard to get agitated. What happen just a few seconds ago wasn't even him agitated, not the slightest.

Ayame was the first other human she has seen before and she had some type of theory that there would be a freakout, a revalation of them speaking to a talking toad. Hell, what are the odds of a toad talking to you asking how you are and how the summoner is a complete dick at times? Close to zero percent, people don't experience this everyday so the realization hits hard.

She lean forward at Gamafuu and lightly touch the top of her head. What in the world is wrong with this chick? She think I'm a toy or something? she felt the rough outer skin of Gamafuu and then she would realize she was the real deal “I’m talking… to a… toad… a talking toad…” It was sinking in and usually by now, the realization would hit hard and instant. The expecting of her being excited or being heavily freaked was just a second away.

But it didn't come. Well, not right away at least. She was thinking. Thinking? She was thinking about how a toad is talking and it should probably hit home by now. Oh it did, her eyes widen and her face, once placid, turn into a wide grin "“Holy crap, that’s so cool! A talking toad! What’s up, how you doing, what’s you name!?”"

Gamafuu was ready to comment, to ready herself with remarks about how she thought slowly and how she had some mental issues with revalations. But she dropped it "One question at a time missy. I dont have ten heads to answer all your questions"


Heiki had laid his head back on the towel he set up, he was in a light sleep, his eyes covered by another towel as they were speaking. His neck pain had settled, gone now and away and now the steam was affecting him like it was affecting Ayame.


"My name is Gamafuu. You can call me fuu if you want" she answered politely holding away from any remarks unless Heiki had to say something. He didn't so she continued "I'm a bit pissed that my snow cone melted but I suppose that can pass. Heiki is getting me another one. I looooovvveee snow cones, especially raspberry flavored ones. They dont have in the mountains but they have it here, I hope it gets it" now she was getting excited too without even realizing it. They haven't said much but it was like they've known each other for a long while and it's been so long since they have talked.

"You didn't know his name was Heiki?" Gamafuu asked. She answered her own question "Well, he isn't exactly the person who likes to greet himself. He's a weird one if you ask me."

As the toad who called herself “Gamafuu” or “Fuu” started to answer her questions, Ayame was leaned up against the edge of the spring with a very happy, hyper, and intrigued look, nodding her head frequently and holding on to a few more dozens of questions that were quickly formulating in her mind at the same time and not stopping anytime soon. Ayame couldn’t help but think it was so cool that she was actually talking to a live animal; of course, despite the fact that the toad was the real thing to her, there was a possibility that the hot spring steam was finally going to her head and that she should maybe get out of it, but she wasn’t exactly considering that theory at the moment.

Ayame simply listened and caught the mention of a mountainous area that apparently didn’t have a snow that was melted according to Fuu. This new set of information caused Ayame to tilt her head a little bit as she thought to herself ‘Mountains?’ Gamafuu continued the conversation about Heiki however and this caused Ayame to momentarily forget about what she was thinking of as she responded. “Yeah, he is sort of weird. I never gave him my name either and yet, he already knows it.” Ayame then leaned forward, indicating that she was going to whisper something. “I have this odd feeling that he might even be a stalking. He seems to have this real fondness of stealth if you know what I mean.”

Ayame leaned back into the hot springs and decided to lean back a little and allow the water to carry her body slowly over to the slightly deeper end. It was then that she had recalled that she had never introduced herself to the new guest as well. “Oh, how rude of me, I never told you my name either. The name’s Ayame Akira, at your service. Why don’t you relax yourself? The water’s pretty soothing if you ask me.”

"Ayame" she repeated. It was a nice name for a girl like her. She didn't know what it mean, maybe later she'll find out, maybe not but it was befitting name. "Nice name" she said back and began to look at the options of jumping into the hot springs. There are hot springs in the mountains, they are pretty much all around once you get closer to the volcano that was dormant and had that dreary dragon that would roar when it had the chance. She was always scared to go up there only because of that roaring she heard when she was a younger toad. She still has nightmares about it at times and her reluctance going towards that place made her feel like a coward at times.

But now that she was not near that mountain and in the land where humans dwell, she could comfortably got into a hot springs with that fear of the fire breathing toad. "Sure, why not?" she jumps up high into the air and flips her into the pool of warm water. She breaches up the surface and spits out water. She was floating on her back with her webbed hands behind her head "Oooohhh yeah....that feels sooooooooo good" she floated herself in a small circle in the hot springs with Ayame.

The drowsiness effect that had effected Heiki and Ayame was now affecting her. She began talking saying "Heiki, stalking? Well, that could be a possiblity. I know nothing about the guy myself, I've seen him a few times with my dad and gramps but other than that, hell, he could be the best stalky stalk stalker in the world.." he lets out a loud laugh that had a croak within it.

The croak had taken Heiki out of his sleeping trance and he sat up. He heard a bit of laughter and talking over the wall. He didn't say it nor did he admit it, he would never tell her and she would never find out from him but he smiled at this. It wasn't everyday that he heard the vibrant laughter of two beings who were enjoying themselves. Outside, the drones of those villagers laughing didn't have that laughter Ayame and Gamafuu had. No, it was clear, direct and pure...that's the word Heiki couldn't find, it was pure.

Heiki cleared his throat "Enjoying yourself with Gamafuu eh?" Heiki replied "I could give you the skills necessary to summon her and others if you want, only if you don't tell about this place"

As Fuu accepted Ayame’s invite to join her within the confounds of the hot springs, she started to lean back even more with it and close her eyes to further extend her relaxation. She had to admit that despite the fact that she was a bit skeptical about this place at first and that it was completely deserted due to “still being in construction”, it was an extremely good place to take the weight off of your shoulders, especially considering the fact that it was her first time in a hot spring. As Fuu expressed her own self soothing within the water, Ayame chuckled a bit. “It’s amazing, isn’t it? I think they put something in these waters.”

She then listened carefully as Fuu continued on about Heiki’s stalkish personality. It seemed weird to her that Fuu didn’t really know much about Heiki despite obviously being involved with him. Just how much of a mystery did he want to remain to the public, anyways? Ayame’s mind even started to gain a few crazy series like him being some sort of insane killer or just being a blimp on the map that was waiting to surface, a lot of her classmates did usually say that it was always the quiet ones.

After a little while, Ayame started to hear him speak for the first time since he had brought Gamafuu over and what he said would certainly be put into Ayame’s attention. ‘Wait… they’re others?’ After giving this a few seconds to sink in, Ayame had quickly jumped out of the hot spring and hopped towards the edge of the fence, stretching her arms upward in order to catch it and then leaned up until she could give herself leverage via her elbows on the edge, not necessarily taking into account that her towel wasn’t on. “Right now, let’s do this right this very moment.”

He didn't get a immediate response, instead what he got was Ayame coming out of the water from the other side of the hot springs to where he was. Her body, naked and dripping wet from the hot springs, hit Heiki home in the head like a brick hitting him full on in the face. He lets out a loud groan and said "Did you THINK before jumping? No, you didn't. I dont want to see a thirteen year old's naked body while I'm trying to relax on my day off"

Oh there isn't any use of telling her off now, she's here already and there the point of even telling her that would simply go through one ear and out the other, god, he wasn't that excited to show her anything, especially being reminded of what a thirteen year old's body look like. He would have to get out of the water but not the way she out of the water, oh no, he believes in privacy. What Ayame heard was a swink and then a large breeze flow past her spreading out the steam away from the hot tub. In that brief moment, it was severly cold, cold enough to give a person goosebumps all over. The warmth of the hot springs came flooding back warming up the surrounding spring. The door to the men's changing room was closed but it open just a moment later with Heiki in a tank top and blue shorts.

He had a hand over his eyes not wanting to blind himself anymore with images of Ayame. He had the general idea as to where Ayame was standing and he had two towels at hand. He threw it at her and waited for her to put it around herself and over her hair. When she got herself properly clothed he open his eyes and lets out a sigh of relief. Gamafuu was beside Ayame by the time Heike arrived, her tongue out in a mocking gesture and but her eyes stared as to what is to come for Ayame.

"Well, we can't start your summoning training without you having a blood seal for the contracts of the toads, otherwise you'll be sent to some land that I have no control over". His hands did the summoning tecnique only much faster and he slammed his left hand down this time. The poof then smoke, a red toad who was five times as big as Gamafuu but the same height as Heiki, had what appeared to be a smile on its face. It was mute for the time being. On its back was a large scroll. Heiki wraps both hands around it and slides it out the loop of the harness that was holding it.

He set it down on the ground and rolled it out. The long paper had outstretched and gave out a list of names of people in the past. One that said Jiraiya, the other Minato Namikaze, another was Naruto Uzumaki and then another Hokage who had passed years ago. The next name on the list was Heiki. Kibou was his last name apparently. It was written in a dark red color ink that looked like it was written in paint. Only, that wasn't paint, it had a faint aroma of iron, the scent of blood.

"You must make a pact with the frogs with your own blood. Once you sign your name on the contract, it will be official. The handseals are Boar then Dog then Bird then Monkey and lastly Ram. Whatever you summon...well, that'' depend on what your skill level is. I have an idea on whom you might summon but I'm not going to give it away"

Heiki glanced at Gamafuu who was staring at Ayame, waiting for her to place her name on the contract.

Ayame was confused at first by Heiki’s immediate comment, it still hadn’t quite registered to her that she wasn’t clothed at the moment as she responded. “Well, first of all, I’m fourteen, and second of all, what’re you-” It was then that it finally dawned on her that she didn’t actually feel anything covering her skin and she then looked down, seeing her completely naked body just out in the open. This caused Ayame to slowly turn red hot from the bottom to the top of her body as it was finally registering. Ayame would then immediately cover her chest with her arms and tighten her legs, completely embarrassed at this situation she was in.

She wanted to take just a second to get her clothes from the female section but now that she realized that she was completely naked, she wasn’t exactly in the comfort zone for climbing. ‘Ok… even I have to admit… bad move, Ayame.’ Soon enough though, Heiki quickly maneuvered himself out of the water and towards the men’s dressing room, coming out soon enough with his own clothing and a couple of towels that Ayame could only guess were meant for her, holding her right and out while still covering her chest Ayame quickly caught the towels and wrapped one around her body tightly and then placing the second one on top of her head after shaking some of the hot spring water off, not being on to do that towel cone thing she’s seen many times.

Once things finally got settled in, Ayame noticed that Gamafuu had made her way over to the men’s side as things were finally going to go down. After giving a quick explanation for the need of some sort of contract, he formed a few quick handsigns and slammed his palm on the ground, causing a puff of smoke and another toad to appear. This toad was much bigger than Fuu and seemed to have a scroll with it, which Heiki took soon afterwards.

Once he laid it on the ground, Ayame took a peak at what was inside of it, seeing the names of him and a few known legends in the ninja world. “So my name will be down next to some of the legends of ninja society? Awesome.” After listening to another explanation, Ayame was ready to get things started so she quickly bit her thumb hard enough to cut it and pressed each of her fingers on it, slowly writing in her name in the contract and her fingerprints.

Ayame clapped her hands together. “Alright, now that that’s over with, it’s time to get to summoning.” Ayame took into account the handseals Heiki told her and formed them, slamming her right hand into the ground, a special seal then appeared on the ground and a puff of smoke appeared, Ayame hoped that there was going to be some mean looking huge toad coming from the smoke. But then, as it cleared, what came into her vision was a bouncing tadpole bouncing around. Ayame slowly took the towel from her head as she watched in utter silence and disappointment.

What Heiki expect was right on the money. It wasn't that much of a surprise to him, it was rather amusing to see her start off summoning a tadpole. They were all silent, all of them didn't even say a thing and only watched the tadpole sqiurm in its own liquid. Ayame was embrassed, Heiki didn't look stun, Gamafuu look down at one of her species and speared the silence "Wow...good job" she said. Her sarcasm rolled out of her with relative ease, she liked Ayame but damn, when someone pulls out a tadpole for there first summoning, it is a tad bit disappointing and downright sad.

Heiki pressed his hands together in the kai seal and the tadpole disappeared back to whence it came. He rubbed his eyes together and then took a deep breath "Damn...that's, ok ok ok ok, first time that's all. Don't get too discouraged"

"Yeah, otherwise you wasted some damn paper with your blood" Gamafuu injected

"Shut it, Gamafuu. Give her a break. It's not you've mastered your medical ninjutsu so let's not start talking bad about her ok?"

Gamafuu didn't respond, Heiki did hit one hell of a nail in her. She was also bad at her techniques for now, she hasn't even gotten to her advance training yet with her medical ninjutsu, only reaching to a basic knowledge of sewing up wounds and cleaning them. She turned her head away. Heiki walked up to Ayame "All right, listen, I know you are excited and that's fine but you need to concentrate when you are summoning. You need to envision whom you are going to summon. I believe you would've summon at least a samurai toad but your chakra control is out of whack"

He takes a step back "All right, heres what you need to do. First envsion, then control, then release otherwise you'll be summonding tadpoles in battle. Won't lie, they'll get pretty pissed off if you keep on summoning them. Remember, it is all about control of your chakra. You gotta know what amount you want to give in order to sacrifice" The larger toad hops his way over to the hot springs and lowers himself into it. The spring filled up to the rim but didn't spill out. It let out a soft sigh and put his mouth in making bubbles.

"Now keep that mind and have control all right?"

Ayame just continued to stare at the tadpole after she summoned it, even after the tadpole was de-summoned, Ayame would just continue to stare at the spot in which her hand was momentarily slammed. ‘Just what in the world was that?’ Was all she could think to herself for a while. Being as excited as she was to start get up and start busting out giant toads everywhere, Ayame wasn’t exactly expecting the result she had gotten so ti had struck her pretty hard when she had come up with a tadpole instead of Mr. Sword swinging giant toad guy.


She didn’t even bother to let Gamafuu’s insults register for a bit as she had stood there in that same trance for about another half a minute or so, until she finally broke out of it. Once she had heard Heiki talking to her. Trying to play it off however, Ayame simply waved her hands in a nonchalant manner while giving off an nervous laughter. “Oh, I’m sure that was just a bit of a mishap on communication, I’ll definitely get it this time around, believe that.” She nodded her head as she began to shake the cobwebs out of her head. “Right, concentrate, got it.”

Ayame took what Heiki was telling her into heart, envision what she wants to summon, control it and then release that should be easy enough. Ayame closed her eyes for a second, inhaling deeply, holding it in for a little while and then exhaling greatly. “Alright, envision, control, release, let’s do this.” Ayame shook her head and arms before she formed the seals once again, doing the exact same movements that she had done before and slamming her palm on the ground, producing the same smoke that appeared. This time, Ayame had her concentration in mind as she did this so she was pretty confident that she was going to succeed this time. When the same tadpole made its way to the ground, Ayame’s shocked trance returned with a vengeance as she slapped her forehead with her palm.

Heiki had crossed over his arms and watched as Ayame settled herself. The mildness in her eyes changed into a focusness of a shaolin monk. She repeated what he said to her, putting the envision in her mind, have the control of her chakra and then releasing it. The words would reverberate in her head over and over as her hands performed the hand seals. Looking good so far, she hadn't lost control her composure and she seemed to be in control. Maybe this time she could do well and maybe this could be a chance to summon a geniune toad.

Her hand slams on the ground, the white smoke rose, mingling with the steam from the springs. Heiki walks forward and stopped just a few feet away from where Ayame had summoned and the toad. Heiki couldn't see a small silhouette of any of the toad species and could already tell that it would a disappointment. When the smoke cleared, there was a tadpole yet again but this time it had two hind legs. It moved sluggishly across the large stone it was summon on and Heiki couldn't help but reply "Well at least this one has legs..." Ayame slapped her forehead with her palm out of sheer angst that she failed yet again.

Heiki had lean up against the wooden barrier "All right....I guess that didn't go too well huh?" he didn't wait for her to answer "Your chakra is pretty much out of whack; the control that should've been taught in academy classes. Something tells me you didn't do so hot in that part of lecture" he unfolded his arms "Tell me, have you learned how to walk on water or walk up a tree? Those are the basics of chakra control. Wood is easy because of its solid matter but liquid is mightly difficult"

He lean off the barrier. He holds a hand out motioning her to look at him "All right, now watch me carefully" he didn't do any hand seals "Watch my feet" When she would look down, she would see that there was wind pulsating away from the outer part of his foot. He was placing chakra in his foot, big fucking deal. He raises a foot up and sticks it on the barrier. It stuck to the barrier easily, he rose his other foot, not losing balance and stuck to the wall. He then began to walk up to the top of it slowly then stopped at the very top of the ten foot high barrier

"This will show you control. You'll have to determine how much chakra it's necessary to hold your self and walking up the barrier without loosing balance and falling. Too little, you'll fall off. Too much, you'll put your foot through the barrier" He flips off from the barrier and lands softly on the ground "Now, you try"

After smacking her forehead with her palm, Ayame took a quick second to reevaluate her standings in this summoning district. She kneeled down right next to the place where she had summoned her tadpole and just looked at the spot. Something was missing; something was truly missing but what was it exactly? Ayame was started to wonder if even Heiki honestly and truly knew himself. Perhaps she just wasn’t putting enough oomph to it, maybe she was rushing it too much, or maybe, just maybe it had something to do with the fact that she was still standing here with a middle aged man in nothing but a towel wrapped around her body. Yeah, it’d probably be a good idea if she went to fix that soon.

Ayame’s mind was placed back into reality as Heiki started to speak once again. At first, she started wondering when the point was going to get across, but then the mention of chakra control started to bring back a couple memories… memories of agony. Her last year in the academy was around the time that they started teaching them about chakra control much. Something about if you could climb a tree, you had the potential to use any jutsu or something like that. She did remember the tree climbing exercise though, they require you to climb a tree in order to graduate now so it was pretty much forced on her.

But, she would always remember the scars on her head caused by that. Almost every time she fell off, it was on her head so she had at least 3 concussions by the time she had finally mastered that skill. It was still somewhat worth it though to finally get out of the academy and start doing some field work, or at least be one step closer to doing real ninja work.

Back to the subject at hand, Ayame had already learned the tree climbing technique but he mentioned something about walking on water, something she did not really know anything about prior to just now. Ayame tried to mention this little tidbit to Heiki, but every time she opened her mouth, he’d have something else to say so she eventually gave up on telling him and just letting him guess after the demonstration was complete.

After he had finished up, Ayame still took note of the towel being wrapped around her naked body so before she was going to climb anything, she’d need to get her clothes first. Holding up a finger while mouthing. “One sec.” she quickly darted into the men’s room and out of the doorway, careful to hide below the vision of the secretary as she slowly crept into the women’s room, taking a quick search for her clothes and throwing on her undergarments as well as her white T-Shirt, black pants and orange zipped down hoodie. She would then go through the slide door that led to the hot springs and hop the barricade once again. “Ok, I’m ready now.” Taking her own quo, Ayame ran over to and on the wooden fence, just like as if it were the tree in the academy and backflips off of it, taking a quick look at Heiki once she was done. “Now, what’s this about walking on water?”

Ayame left through the mens room as she had a sudden revelation. Oh, the train of the thought came into the station and finally realized that she would need to get some clothes on. He could tell that when it cmes to the physical aspects of being a shinobi such as fighting, that would be her strong suit. She was one who needed a bit of physical motivation and more likely physical pain in order to learn. That would be the simpliest to teach her, he was a master of taijutsu and the art of the body. But it would not be long before she would have to understand the ways of the shadow.

He knew that to teach her strictly taijutsu was to weaken all of her other surviving techniques that she could learn through the years. He wasn't about to limit her because of the first few steps. Some start off slower than others, Heiki was a quick learner and he showed it when it came to individual skill but he remembered a teammate of his who was simular to Ayame. His potential was great but it just seem to be lacking. If someone were to guide him on the path of his potential, someone with enough patience and enough skill to teach him, he would'nt had to suffer through the costly chunin exam and barely survive, he wouldn't had to struggle to reach levels of a specialized jounin. He wouldn't had become such an outcast to Konoha because of his lack of skill.

He wouldn't had died on that mission either....

Heiki jumped up high in the air and landed feet first on the toads head. The toad didn't react, he calmly blew bubbles out into the relaxing hot water. He sat down, his legs folded underneath him and folded his arms waiting for her to show up. After five minutes or so Ayame returned wearing a T-Shirt, black pants and orange zipped down hoodie. Heiki unfolded his arms and set his hands on his knees. "“Now, what’s this about walking on water?”

Heiki rose an eyebrow and placed a fist underneath his chin "The concept is somewhat the same in honesty. The only difference is the fact that the surface as changed. With a tree or a wall, it's solid. The molecules stay together and it's really just controlling how much chakra you put in your feet" he points to the water "Water is free moving to its container and of course, not solid. Your chakra has to constantly change because the liquid molecules will continue to move. Not only at a molecular level but if you were to go towards a rapids, which I doubt but let's put in a scenario, your chakra will have to majorly fluxuate with the current of the water"

Heiki tapped his chin, his eyes drifted left and right, trying to find something that would be a good analogy to this situation. He snapped his fingers with the idea in mind "Think of it as your chakra and the water are magnets. The water continue to change poles, one minute it might be the north pole and another minute it might the south pole. Your chakra has to continously change in order for you to repell off the surface. So, if it's north one minute, then your chakra has to be north too and vice versa otherwise you'll sink" The toad made a gurgle sound and then continue to produce bubbles close to it's mouth. "Make sense?" Heiki asked. He shrugged and pushed himself up with his hands on his knees and placed a foot on top of the water. He placed his other foot on top of the surface of the water and stood there without even having a conscious thought of falling in

He made it look so easy. Heiki folded his arms "All right, let's give it whirl. See how you do on your first few tries"

"The concept is somewhat the same in honesty. The only difference is the fact that the surface as changed. With a tree or a wall, it's solid. The molecules stay together and it's really just controlling how… And right around there was pretty much where he lost her. ‘Uh… what?’ was mainly on the mind of the young kunoichi as Heiki have off his explanation on that water walking jutsu she had heard about. Once he appeared to be finished with his explanation, Ayame’s only possible reaction was to tilt her head a little bit to the left in an attempt to grasp a hold of it, but it would always slip by every time.

Figuring that Heiki had caught the message by then, Ayame propped her head back up as he went on with another approach. "Water is free moving to its container and of course, not solid. Your chakra has to constantly… Lost her again. Ayame just scratched her head as she begun to wonder how this turned out to be so hard to understand. At this point, Ayame was wondering if she was ever going to get this stuff because if she had to learn all this chemistry, she’d have no hope whatsoever in this jutsu.

Heiki then got into it on another level and Ayame tried to listen carefully this time. "Think of it as your chakra and the water are magnets. The water continue to change poles… Yep, lost her again. Or did he… Ayame continue d to listen all the way and decided to put two and two together. ‘Wood is solid, water is liquid, the poles are constantly changing, my chakra has to change with it…’ Ayame was started to get the concept now. “So wait, all I have to do is make sure my chakra is going at the same rate as the water?”

Once she thought she had it, Ayame was now eager to try it out. Quickly making her way to the edge of the hot spring even before Heiki had told her to start, Ayame looked at her reflection in the water for a second before recalling her tree climbing exercise. ‘You just focus your chakra to your feet and get started.' She formed the quick handsign for better focus and concentrated her chakra down to the bottom of her feet. She then took a slow step forward with her right leg, making sure to have the right concentration of chakra before placing her foot on the surface of the water. ‘Now, just get you control to be constant.’ Once she thought she had that done, Ayame leaned forward and shifter her weight forward.

Next thing she knew, Ayame was underwater and burning intensely from her body not being used to the temperatures of the water any longer. Taking that in mind, Ayame was quick to yell out as she dived out of it and landed at the edge that she had begun her “walk” in. This time though, Ayame didn’t hesitate to go again. "I’m definitely going to do this here and now, I don’t need anything else to get this done.” The next time she actually attempted however, the exact same event. Attempt number three, same thing. Number four however, she was actually able to lean in a bit before falling, not much of a step but someone with a good eye would notice.

Attempt number five wasn’t much better, though she actually noticed the little progress going on that time though. Number six was a bit of a leap this time as Ayame was able to completely lean on that one leg before falling once again. Lucky number seven though was the time when Ayame actually performed a complete step before hitting the waters. About 20 something minutes later though, Ayame was on number 13 and was actually walking a little bit before she started slowly and slowly sinking in before she fell once she was shin deep.

"Ok, number 15 on the rocks; I think I got it now. The tides are going up and down continuously as they flow and all I have to do is flow my chakra up and down with it. If the tide is low, put more into it, if the tide’s high, just calm down and ride the waves a bit. It’s just like surfing, Ayame." As she whispered to herself the mental notes she was taking ever since attempt number five, Ayame nodded and formed the handsigns while concentrating her chakra. She then leaned her right foot on the water, watching the wave patterns as she focused and just flowed with them. Giving a bit of a hop, Ayame let her entire foot land on the water. Instead of trying so hard to stress ad focus it though, Ayame just let her chakra flow naturally as the waves hit her feet.

She took a walk around the hot springs and notice that this time, she wasn’t sinking as if she were in quicksand; she was actually walking as if she was on the ground. ‘Alright, just to make sure I got this down right.’ Ayame thought of a little experiment to take on herself and relaxed her muscles right before she spontaneously hopped and rotated into a handstand, sinking just a little bit as her “flow” corrupted a little bit but gained it back quickly as she stood on her hands. After staying in that position for a few seconds, Ayame let her right hand lean out of it so she could balance on one for a bit. After she was done with that, Ayame let her body lean back onto her feet and gave herself a bow as she looked over in Heiki’s direction with a smile on her face. “Viola.”

Heiki took a step back from the edge of the spring to give Ayame room to move and practice. He already knew that she was about to get soaking wet. He said to himself that she had potential and that was correct, she has the ability to do this but she wasn't a genius or prodigy that could gain the knowledge by looking at it once and then have it down with only one try. She was a person who has to learn it the hard way and by that, she would have to get wet. The toad also moved away from the edge to where Heiki was standing, he may had been a mute but by far he had the brain to know that she would begin to fall into the water over and over again.

To his left he saw that Gamafuu had a blank look. She was focus on watching Ayame practicing. He had a sudden realization that she was actually, well quiet. She would usually say some callous words, either harsh, sarcastic or just down right ridiculous comments. He remembered her talking about him when she was a youngling. She had the personality of her grandfather who would put comedy and deadpan snarker to another level. She was funny at times but of course Heiki would get on about how she should shut her mouth. But now, she was quiet for the first time watching Ayame try this out.

He had a finger to his chin. Both Ayame and Gamafuu were about the same age. Gamafuu was probably younger but it wasn't a huge difference. Heiki could see Gamafuu being a good helper to Ayame in the near future. Heiki couldn't teach Gamafuu anything, not really. He wouldn't have the time to keep on summoning her and Ayame but it would get them to connect from time to time. Heiki watched Ayame attempt to walk on water. Her face was full of concentrated intent on success. He saw that part easily.

But looking the part does not successfully control chakra. She placed her right foot on the top of the surface. It didn't sink in so that gave her a bit of confindence. She looked to be adjusting it so that she wouldn't fall over. When she felt comfortable, she placed her other foot. Immediately, she fell into the water, Heiki cringed away when she disappeared in the water. She got out of the water, undeterred and her determination still strong. Heiki, however, knew that it would still be awhile. He walked towards the tpad and sat on his head. The toad didn't mind a bit, he had fallen asleep and didn't even notice Heiki even sitting on his head.

A few minutes went by. She tried it a second time, the same results occured, her putting one foot then falling into the water when her other foot touched the surface. She tried it a third time, then a fourth, then a fifth. After the sixth time, Heiki had closed his eyes and waited for her to finish up. After the sixth one, she was starting to see the pattern. Slowly she was seeing it but at least she saw it. It would be a killer if she was taking two hours to do this. He was grateful that didn't happen. The splashing of the water, the mummuring of her voice almost seem to fade away and Heiki was ready to dream. The warmth of the steam filled his nostrils and even with the light clothing on, he felt that sudden serene feeling when he was in the water. He waited for a good twenty minutes and in those minutes he began to dream...

Heiki eyes slowly rose and she was standing at the edge this time. She didn't have that determine look in her eyes anymore. It was replaced with contemplation. She was looking at the water like it was a complex condrum of calculus that she had the answer to but just couldn't put it into words. She said softly "Ok, number 15 on the rocks; I think I got it now. The tides are going up and down continuously as they flow and all I have to do is flow my chakra up and down with it. If the tide is low, put more into it, if the tide’s high, just calm down and ride the waves a bit. It’s just like surfing, Ayame."

He suppose it was like surfing. How he got the concept down was what his master said to him when he was younger about becoming water. Don't resist against it for it will consume you; become one with the water, when water is in the cup, it becomes the cup, when it was in a pitcher, it becomes the pitcher. His master taught him this and he remembered when his jounin sensei started to teach them about control. His masters voice repeated in his head and he got the concept down. He saw Ayame put his right foot, no longer was she resisting the water but rather flow with the current, repelling not against it and repelling with it. Then she had her left foot and she saw a bit of tension, expecting to fall into the water where she would have to start from the beginning.

But she didn't fall. This time, she was standing on top of the water, standing and now walking. She was walking on the water! Hell yeah. She was proud of herself that she bowed. She bowed gracefully like a dancer who just copmleted her routine. She looked to Heiki with a smile "Viola"

Heiki got up from the frog. From how long he was sitting there, his knees were asleep almost most. He stood on top of the water rubbing his shins to get his blood moving "All right kid. Step one is complete. You're able to stand and walk" he walks over off the water and goes into the men's changing room. He sees his pouch filled with his assortment of weapons and grabs it. He walks back out holding the pouch and takes out fifteen kunai "All right. Here is what I'm going to do. I'm going to throw these at you at three second intervals. I want you to dodge them" he points to the toad who was now awake and alert by blowing bubbles "What he is going to do is manipulate the water so that it's a bit shaky. Standing on water is fine but in combat, you'll be either on land or water and if the water is shaky and you fall in, you're dead. Ready?"

He gave her chance to adjust herself. Behind Ayame the toad heard what he was suppose to do. He lowered his head down so that he was fully underwater. He open his mouth and began to create large amount of bubbles. It was not violent to cause the water to explode outward but it was definitely enough to make the water move more than what she was practicing on. She would have to concentrate going with the flow of this as he was throwing.

The first throw was a kunai that was ready to cut her through her shoulder. After the three second wait, he threw another one. He had thrirteen regular kunai and had twenty five shuriken. If she would dodge, he would wait for her to stablize or to the three second and then throw another one. The kunai and shuriken stuck to the wall. Gamafuu watched as Heiki threw them at Ayame. Bah, she was getting bored now watching. She had to move or her legs would fall asleep. She jumps over to where the kunai and shuriken were sticking and began to grab them while there was that three second interval. She would then grab them all and then return them to Heiki to repeat the process

‘Well, that celebration didn’t last long.’ Ayame thought as she caught the sight of the ninja pouch Heiki was holding and listened to his new “exercise”. “Ok so basically, you try to kill me while I’m balancing on water. Kay, gotcha.” Ayame had to admit though, despite her usually above all attitude, this seemed pretty dangerous. ‘Oh well, whatever happens, happens.’ Ayame simply shrugged off all her doubts in a mere second as she began to prepare herself for possibly the worst yet to come.

Soon enough, Ayame started to hear the toad behind her get within the water and it suddenly started shaking up a bit, causing Ayame to continuously tilt her balance over while looking down at her feet and keeping her chakra flow intact. Once she felt that she had a good feel of her balance, she started to look up just in time to see a kunai go straight for her, causing her reflexes to react and she automatically side stepped her right foot to a 90 degree angle of her left just in time for it to barely graze the right shoulder of her jacket. Ayame took a quick look at her shoulder but noticed that she wasn’t bleeding so she waited for the second weapon.

The next one seemed to be conveniently going for her left leg; this would prove to be a bit of a problem as it would cause her to shift her weight once again while still keeping her concentration as well as her balance so she had better get her multitasking abilities on point. As the second kunai went for her, she quickly lifted up her leg as she shifted her weight to her right, causing her to hop a little bit towards that direction. Though the waters constant shift due to the toad’s bubbles were causing a bit of a balance problem, Ayame still had her concentration on point.

The next one though was aimed at her right leg so Ayame was quickly starting to wonder just how long that would last for her. This time, Ayame let her right leg up as yell, making a small jump and landing on the water As she landed, Ayame noticed that she was sinking a bit as she was again tipping a bit too close to the falling in the water side. She tried to keep her cool as she was teetering on the water, attempting to follow the pattern that the bubbles were setting for her.

Fast forwarding to kunai number 11 and shuriken number twenty… something, Ayame lost count by now, you would see a blond girl breathing heavily as she had a wet red spot on her left shoulder as well as right under a cut on her right cheek as well as a torn up clothing on her arms, legs, shoulders and rib areas. You could also see this same girl still standing in her spot though with that same determined look in her eyes basically whispering to Heiki’s own eyes. “That all you got?” Ayame whipped the blood off of her cheek as she waited for the other shots.

By now, Heiki had turned up the heat a bit and became a little less predictable with his throws, going from 1s to 2s to 4s to 3sm still on 3s to 4s and so on and even changing his timings from 3 seconds to 2s and the same randomness as his weapon numbers, but at least she was finally starting to get the hang of things.

As the next interval came at her, Ayame was quick to flip back into a back handspring before dashing to the right, keeping her balance as if she were on the ground. This whole thing went down for the next few minutes with Ayame performing acrobatic dodges instead of the basic “get out of the way” philosophy until he finally threw the final kunai straight to her face. As the tip aimed directly in between her eyes, Ayame looked straight at it as she quickly grabbed on to the handle of that kunai, placing her finger into the whole as she spun it around in her right hand and threw it directly in the water.

Once that was all said and done, Ayame looked up at her teacher as she held her determined look for a few more seconds and then gave just a bit of a smile as she sat down on the water, holding her knee in the air so she could lay her right arm on it. “Well, I think that concludes step two.”