How to Adapt and Overcome

A New Beginning

Hey hey! This is a story that I've completed and have posted on another site, TONFA, the Original Naruto FanFiction Archive. A few friends told me I should try this site out, so I'm currently revising the story to improve it from its original draft, which was written from 2010-2012. That being said, I hope you enjoy this first chapter enough to continue reading (: - Shannon

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The brief glimpses of sun shone off a pair of light grey eyes. Strands of chestnut brown hair moved over the grey orbs swiftly as the figure hunched on the floor on its hands and knees suddenly shot upward.

"You know, I reaaaally don't see how cleaning the cracks of a hardwood floor with a friggin' tooth brush for forty five freakin' minutes can be considered stamina training, you sack of diluted, expiring chakra!"

The Raikage smirked as he calmly took a sip of tea. "You must endure a seemingly unimportant task and keep a level head in the process. While exerting physical pressure, your mental state needs to be relaxed so you can fully embrace..."

The tooth brush was caught between the Raikage's pointer and middle finger in mid-speech. He opened an eye to glare at the girl before him.

"I'm sure you've given me that speech, along with two hundred others old man." The girl sat back on her butt and reclined while staring up at the ceiling.

"You realize if you were anyone else, I would have surely annihilated you for throwing this at me." The Raikage held onto the tooth brush with barely any force as a bolt of lightning incinerated it.

She barely turned her head to look at him. "This isn't much of a goodbye present 'ya know..."

The Raikage frowned. "It isn't a goodbye...don't ever say goodbye..."

"Because goodbye means never coming back, and never coming back means letting go and forgetting what you've left behind," the two said in union.

"Even if I tried I wouldn't be able to forget you," the Raikage said with a warming smile.

"I'm not surprised...but I'm sorry to say that unlike me, you're pretty easy to forget old man." She spoke with a joking undertone.

The Raikage chuckled. "Do as you will with your memory of me, but don't let all that I've taught you slip away. It will prove useful in your near future, Rayne."

Rayne looked down at the floor. "It's already proved useful...it's saved me more than once, A. You re-taught me what I've already been taught, but more efficiently." She turned her head to face him. "I walk in your footsteps, and will tread a new path in Konoha."

He suddenly stood up and slammed his fists down onto his desk, instantly creating a defined crack. Rayne's grey orbs instantly filled with excitement; she knew what was coming. The Raikage wiped a tear from his eye.

"You have made me so proud...one more time, just for the hell of it."

'This is the A I know. Over excited and happy, yet stern and wise.'

"You saying that you walk in my footsteps is true. You really have become extremely similar to me, Rayne."

"Frightening, isn't it?" She scoffed as she disappeared in a puff of smoke. The Raikage jumped from where he was standing, and moments after he did, Rayne came crashing up through the floor. She landed with her legs spread, one on each side of the hole she had just created, balancing herself over it.

"What the hell do you think you're doing up there?!"

Rayne shot a glance down at the Jounin beneath her, staring up with his mouth agape.