Lost (A Naruto Story)

Chapter 9

After the incident, everyone except Kakashi and Naruto was wary of Kagome. When it was time to sleep, Kagome told Kakashi she would be sleeping somewhere else. He protested along with Naruto, but Kagome disappeared without leaving them for a second comment. Kagome had gone back to the island of the hounds and slept in her little cottage. The leaders of the canines slept outside of her house, feeling that they should protect their mistress. Kagome came back to Tsumani's house the next morning with everyone to eat breakfast.

"Good morning."

The team replied with a morning on their own. They ate peacefully with Naruto stuffing down his breakfast in a hurry. He still wanted to beat Sasuke in training. They all got up to head back to the forest when Kagome stopped Sakura. 

"Sakura, I want you to come with me." Kagome stood by the pink-haired girl. 

"Huh, but Kakashi-sensei wants me to guard the bridge for Tazuna." Sakura was confused about why Kagome wanted her.

"That'll be fine. I'll send a clone in your place," With that, a clone had appeared beside Kagome and headed toward the bridge to guard, "Come, let's go to the river."

Sakura followed Kagome, keeping her distance from her. Sakura had felt Kagome's gigantic Ki yesterday and secretly she was in awe with Kagome. But at the same time, she was scared of Kagome too.

When they arrived at the river, they stopped at the edge of it. The river was calm and was running slowly.

"So, why are we he-"

Before Sakura could even her sentence, she felt a push on her back. That push had caused her to fall into the river. Sakura quickly stood up from the water, entirely soaked. Good thing the river wasn't as deep as the water only reached up to Sakura's waist. She glared at Kagome who gave her a blank face in return.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" Sakura screeched at Kagome. 

"As a shinobi, you have to be more careful about your surroundings. I'm going to be training you, Sakura. I have heard that you have excellent chakra control so we are going to start water walking."

"Water walking? But how?"

Kagome answered Sakura's question by walking toward the river. Sakura thought that Kagome was to fall in, but instead, Kagome was walking normally on top of the water. Her mouth was wide open at the scene. 

"It's actually like tree walking. But you have to put your charka to match the movement of the water. Balance is the key, don't try to fight it. Go ahead and try."

Sakura took off her weapon pouch and tied her hair up to a ponytail. Sakura walked back to the river's side and prepared herself for the training. She gathered charka on her foot and stepped onto the water. Sakura immediately fell in the water. 

"Again." Kagome standing on the water, looking at Sakura's soaking state.

Sakura's POV

Sakura grits her teeth and tried again. Again she failed and again Kagome told her to do it all over again. It was harder than tree walking since Sakura couldn't just command the water to stay still. Water was always moving and Sakura couldn't keep up with the water's speed. Sakura was tired. She had never had training like this before. Kakashi hadn't trained the team that much and Sakura felt embarrassed that she couldn't complete this training in front of Kagome. But she couldn't give up, she has to prove herself. For the first time, Sakura didn't think about proving to Sasuke in her mind. 

'What did Kagome-sensei say before? Balance?'

On her seventeen attempts, Sakura slowly was able to stand on the water before falling again. She saw how Kagome smiled when she almost got through ten seconds of standing on the water. Determined to make Kagome proud of her, Sakura found new energy explode inside of her. Sakura got up from the water feeling that she could do it. Sakura focused her mind on her charka. She lifted her leg, ready to step on the water. Her eyes closed in concentration. When she stable her right leg, she got her left leg to stand on the water too.