Suna's Ninja (Gaara Love Story)

32: Recalling the Past

Author's POV

"So as I mentioned before, Aki, there are a lot of risks when trying to use Snap," Jini said. He and Akimi were seated in the watchtower's miniature library. "First, Snap is nothing more than a way to provoke you to fight emotionally. When an enemy tries taunting you, what are they counting on?"

"They want me to be emotionally out of control."

"Yes, you got it,"Jini praised. "As you already understand, any ninjutsu requires a ton of control and attention. However, if you are not in control, the enemy can overpower you and destroy you. Do you follow?"

"Hai."

"Good. Now, Snap is basically a taunting order to provoke you into action but leaves behind enough control to fight. Therefore, I'm going to train you, is to recall a memory that leaves extremely emotional, to the point where you are overflowing with emotion. That's the first step. Good so far?"

"Uh, maybe?" Akimi looked confused.

"Okay, Aki, write a simple for each memory that you had that made you angry, frustrated, or agitated."

Akimi wrote in a spare notebook according to his instructions. After an hour or so, She looked up. "I'm done."

"Good. How many do you have?"

"About thirteen."

"Now choose seven that you know definitely made you so angry, you saw red."

More scratching sounds came from Akimi's paper and pencil. "Got it."

"Now, I want you to rank each memory on a scale of one to ten, with one being not-so-angry at the memory and ten being extremely negative about that memory."

"Can two memories share the same number?"

"No."

"Okay."

"After that, I want you to choose your highest ranking memory and tell me what happened.

"You want me to tell you want happened?"

"No, I want you to tell me about your stuff animal collection," Jini deadpanded. Akimi grinned at his sarcasm and continued writing.

"I'm done. By the way, my highest ranking memory...is it okay that my memory is childish?"

"Childish in what way?"

"This memory is the time I saw someone waste food. I happen to like food," she added defensively.

"Don't we all. Your lunches are the best. Tell me what happened in detail," Jini encouraged.

"So this incident happened during the time I was in Totosuki Insititute. My team and I were selling gelato during a festival. We were doing fine until a large group of upper class men came up to us and placed an order of twenty cones of double gelato and asked for two different flavors for each cone. When we gave it to them, they said that they didn't order those specific flavors, leaving us with twenty cones of double gelato that they wouldn't take nor pay for. In order make a profit, our team leader sent two of our teammates to sell the extra gelato with a reduced price. That alone would hurt us, but at least it was better than throwing them away, right?"

"And this is where the drama happens," Jini cut in.

"But it was their fault," Akimi said, almost childishly. Jini smiled slightly, noticing her emotion was slowly building up.

"Those upper class men tripped our teammates, causing all twenty cones of double gelato to crash to the ground."

"Oh? What did you do?" Jini asked, amused.

Akimi grinned happily. "I scooped the fallen gelato off the ground with one of the cones and flung it right at them. Back then, I didn't care if we got penalty, I was screaming my head off at them about wasting 'our precious gelato'."

"So you got punished for 'throwing food at customers', right?" Jini asked.

"Nope," Akimi grinned. "They were absolutely furious, but when Erina saw them, she talked them down. We only got a harsh warning." Akimi sighed. "I had nearly gotten my team expelled."

"Good, now I want you to recall that memory so clearly and vividly, that I want you to go on rampage when it's over."

"How do I do that?"

Jini grinned. "Let's go find the others."

Meanwhile (in the middle of nowhere), two people stood before the closed door.  They opened the door and stepped inside, taking in the brightly lit room.

In the center of the room, lied an intricate pentagram of some sort with the body of a young boy. Another figure crouched beside the boy and unwrapped the soiled bandages from the boy's leg.

Not a single word passed among them; only the sound of shallow breathing and scissors snipping at fabric was heard faintly. The two figures watched as the third man treated the boy, but whether it was poison or medicine, no one will know.