Red Is A Pretty Colour

120

Hiko's pov

After that mission things continued as normal for a little while. Well, almost normal. Shikamaru and I had our date and since then I just had this warm feeling in my chest and a constant sense of nervous excitement, it was like nothing I had ever felt before. This new feeling was definitely welcome and it spurred me on in my work.

I had the new team 7 with me at the training grounds. It was freezing out and the snow was begining to fall. The kids weren't exactly thrilled about the weather but the show must go on.

"Hiko~Sensei, can we please just go home? It's so cold! Why can't we just train in summer when it's warm?" Toka whined.

"You have to go on missions regardless of the weather, training is no different." I said.

"But Sensei, we've mastered the shadow clone jutsu." Akira said.

"Yeah! And the transformation technique! And the tree climbing jutsu! We even fixed our taijutsu too! Can't we just have a break?" Toka whined.

"No can do, today we're learning about chakra natures." I said.

"Chakra natures?" Itona questioned.

"Yup, there are 5 chakra natures, Fire, Wind, Lightning, Water and Earth." I explained.

"Then don't we all have fire since we're from the land of fire?" Toka asked.

"If that was how it worked what nature would you have if you were from the land of tea?" I said.

"Tea nature obviously!" Toka said confidently making me laugh.

Toka was definitely the Naruto of the group, she was loud, obnoxious and definitely not the sharpest tool in the shed but she was driven with an immense sense of purpose. Akira reminded me of Sakura, he wasn't too confident in his abilities and was struggling to come into himself. He looked to the others on the team for help and encouragement often and he could be a bit over the top. Finally there was Itona who reminded me of both Sasuke and myself. He was distant and quiet but he was a prodigy just like Sasuke and yet he had some sas to him like I do.

"No, that's not how it works. It's true that the majority of people in the land of fire have fire style and people in the land of water have water style but not everyone." I explained.

"Can't we figure out our chakra natures inside?" Akira asked.

"No, we do it here incase one of you cause damage." I said, crossing my arms.

"So how do we figure out our chakra nature?" Akira asked.

"Oh, oh! Do you do some super cool jutsu?! Can you tell by what we look like?! Is there some kind of special test?!" Toka asked excitedly, bouncing on her feet.

"No, nothing like that. We use these to figure it out." I said before holding up some chakra paper.

"Paper? That's so lame." Toka huffed.

"These are special papers that grow from a rare kind of tree. They're called chakra papers, they let us know what nature each of you possess." I explained. "I'll show you, Akira, take this paper."

Akira hesitantly took the paper from me and held it up to examine it. The paper became damp, loosing its structure and flopping down in his hand.

"I don't think it's working, the snow is ruining the paper." Akira said, seemingly upset.

"It has worked, look." I said, showing that the papers I was holding were unaffected by the snow. "You have a water nature."

"So thats how it works." Itona mused.

"Me next! Me next!" Toka said excitedly, grabbing for a piece if paper.

"Alright, calm down." I said with a chuckle before handing her a page.

As the page went up in flames she quickly dropped it and jumped away. I couldn't help but laugh at the reaction.

"This is why we had to do it outside, incase one of you had a fire nature and set something alight." I said.

"That's so cool! I can conjure fire!" Toka said with a proud grin.

"Itona, its your turn." I said, offeringnhim the last paper.

Itona took it and the paper immediately crinkled.

"Did I do it wrong?" Itona asked, looking at the crumpled page.

"No, not at all. That means you have lightning nature." I explained.

"Now teach me a jutsu! I wanna know how to shoot fire!" Foka said.

"I can't. I don't have a fire nature. I'll need to find someone else to teach you that, don't worry though I have a few people in mind." I explained before turning to Akira. "This weather right now is perfect for water style if you want to start now Akira."

"I guess I can start." Akira said. "But what will the others do?"

"Toka, Itona, I want you two to practice your Taijutsu together while I work on water style with Akira." I said.

"Yes Hiko~Sensei." Toka and Itona chorused before heading a bit away from us to practice.

"Now, the first jutsu I'm going to teach you is a very simple one. It's called Water style: bubble stream. It allows you to breath out a stream of bubbles that will burst in your opponents eyes, temporarily blinding them." I explained.

"Is it hard?" Akira asked.

"It may be a little difficult at first because you've never used nature jutsu before but it'll get easier. Here, I'll demonstrate." I said before I began performing hand signs slowly so that he could see them. "Water style: bubble stream."

Akira watched in awe as the bubbles floated past him before flinching as they began violently popping.

"Once you get really good at it you'll be able to make the bubbles more powerful to do actual damage." I explained. "Until then let's stick to small bursts."

"Okay." Akira agreed.

"Well, give it a go." I said.

Akira was very hesitant to try it but he did as he was told. He made a few hand seals and attempted to blow out a stream of bubbles. One singular bubble came from his mouth and it was as small as a raison. The bubble popped immediately and Akira jumped back in surprise.

"Well done! You got that pretty quickly." I said, ruffling his hair.

"But- but It wasn't like yours." Akira said looking pretty upset.

"But it was your first time, the fact that you managed to produce anything is impressive." I praised and Akira smiled at me.

It was important to praise him when possible to try and build his confidence. I didn't want him to end up like I did when I was his age.