Kotetsu was pretty sure he had literally worked himself to the bone. He couldn’t see them yet, but he was sure they would come popping out of his skin at any moment. After his exciting revelation with his Chakra nature the previous day, Kotetsu had taken to the training routine Solomon left him with new vigor. He didn’t leave the crevice until nearly the end of the day, and ended up dragging himself to bed without eating much. He awoke the next day with a fiery determination, ate breakfast, and rushed off to practice. He spent the entire day working on his newfound ability to flow Chakra through his body, trying to imagine different things to see what helped the most. The best one seemed to be imagining himself standing under the sun, letting the heat spread across his skin and into his clothes. With this, he found himself running faster and jumping higher than he ever has before, and he spent several minutes playing around, hopping across the stream and only slipping into the water a few times. There was a sensation across his body that felt like air passing into his lungs, but for his whole body. After running and doing the exercises, he slumped to the ground, unable to move, just staring up into the sky.

  He stayed like that on the ground for a whole hour. Wondering how Solomon and Emilia were doing on their mission. They weren’t supposed to arrive until sometime tomorrow. Thinking of how one day he would need to do missions just like Solomon, he sighed and got up. By then, the sun was just getting to the horizon. The days were getting shorter. He began to walk his way back to the camp, resolving to do all the exercises again tomorrow, and to jump over that creek without slipping in.

  The camp came into sight and Kotetsu was soon back on flat familiar ground. As he was walking toward the wash basins, he heard shouting and turned to see a commotion at the western edge of the camp. He wandered in that direction, speculating about what was going on. He didn’t know if anyone else was supposed to come back from a mission today. When he got close enough, there were familiar faces. One of the faces he saw made Kotetsu drop into a full run, his face lighting up with surprise and excitement. The group had made it back a whole day earlier than expected.

  He slowed down when he saw everyone's faces were downcast. He stopped at the edge of the gathering of adults and kids who had crowded around the group. Niko was standing there near the edge, a blank look on his face. He turned to look at Kotetsu approaching him, eyes widening. Niko took a step to the side, revealing the scene to Kotetsu.

  Kotetsu couldn’t think of anything to say. All he could do was stand there, and stare. He absently itched the scuffs and bruises that lined his arms from the day. He pulled his hand away to find blood in his fingernails. He had dug into a deep scratch he didn’t know was there. He turned to look at the scratch, wondering for a moment at the blood running down his arm. Wondering why his skin looked so dirty. He needed a bath, he thought. The stream of loose thoughts that ran through his head were a distraction from the scene he refused to acknowledge. The body lay there, wrapped in a grey tarp, unmoving. He forced himself to look at it. To look at him. Solomon's face was calm, his eyes closed, but his skin was too pale. His hair had been left messy, which Solomon hated. He was always trying to get Kotetsu to brush his hair.

  Niko was looking directly at Emilia. She stood there, talking to another adult, repeating the same story she had told the last two adults. Her eyes were vacant and her voice was distant. He saw the small shake in her hands that had never been there before. The blood that covered her fingers and ran down her clothes from small punctures. The other two had bandages wrapped around them, Jimpei's abdomen and legs, and Otoha's leg and shoulder. Emilia had no bandages. The entire group parted when a set of adults showed up, Masato and Syuka. The two looked down at their broken children, one carrying the other in a tarp.

  No one in the family slept that night.

  —

  Kotetsu watched the sun rise. He had stayed to watch the burial process, which he had only been allowed to see one other time. The Hyuuga burial custom is to destroy the vital parts of the body, then let the body return to the water. The small wooden platform floated across the lake under a half moon, thin enough that the body was dragged under water when the wood broke. Kotetsu barely felt the sun on his face. Tears finally began to fall as he thought of his best friend.

  “You do know that you’ll never get better at fighting if you sit around like this all day, right?” Solomon had said.

  “I am getting better.” Kotetsu had responded.

  “Oh, really? You call that lousy performance getting better?”

  “I’m getting better at relaxing, clearly.” Kotetsu smugly stated, looking up at Solomon.

  Solomon looked down at Kotetsu for a second, then plunked himself down on the ground next to Kotetsu.

  “I’ll beat you at that too, then.” Solomon said before stretching out and instantly falling asleep. Kotetsu was left speechless.

  Kotetsu awoke from the dream to find a figure standing above him. The sun was just reaching the top of the sky. It was the clan leader, Masato. He reached down and offered a hand to the boy. Kotetsu hesitated, then reached up to grab the hand. He was yanked upward and set on his feet.

  “Let’s go for a walk.” Masato said.

  Kotetsu said nothing as he followed along behind the adult. Kotetsu had been laying outside of the camp near the lake. Masato walked along the lake shore, and Kotetsu stepped from stone to stone. They meandered like that for a while, just walking in peace. Masato eventually broke the silence.

  “Your mother and father were brave.”

  Kotetsu looked up in surprise at the topic. He continued walking along as Masato spoke.

  “They taught me a valuable lesson, before they died. You remember the story. I could do nothing against the man that took their lives. I wanted you, Emilia and Solomon to learn this lesson as well.” Masato continued in a tired voice.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “What is it?” Kotetsu asked with small words.

  Masato turned a weak smile down at Kotetsu.

  “You should never give up.” Masato's eyes were hard as he looked down at Kotetsu. Kotetsu found himself unable to look away.

  “You will find yourself in an impossible situation one day. You may not be able to get around it, but I want you to understand that giving up will never solve the problem. You have to keep going forward, one step at a time, until you beat that problem into the dirt.”

  As Masato spoke, his voice grew from tired to rough. His eyes grew darker as he looked down at Kotetsu. Masato looked away, and continued to walk. Kotetsu's entire body felt cold, as opposed to feeling nothing like he did earlier. He welcomed the cold, letting it wash over him. Then he saw the tear stretching down the side of Masato's face. Suddenly, from deep within himself, a warmth appeared. It grew rapidly and overtook him. It was like jumping directly into a boiling pot of water after sitting in the cold rain. Kotetsu stopped and let out a ragged sob. Masato turned around and picked his son up into a hug.

  —

  The next day, Kotetsu found himself wandering to the crevice. He had walked off picking the last berries of the season all day yesterday, and needed to escape the oppressive feeling of the camp. When he got to the crevice, he found someone already there. It was Emilia. Kotetsu stopped dead in his tracks when he saw her. Kotetsu hadn’t seen Emilia all day yesterday, and assumed she had gone off to tear down a forest or something. She spoke before he could turn around and leave.

  “I want to see it.” She said, turning to face him.

  “I want to see how he trained you. I want to see if it was worth it.” She continued.

  Kotetsu gulped.

  “We were training with swords recently. I mean, Solomon and-” Kotetsu started.

  “Don’t say his name.” Emilia cut him off. She took a step toward him.

  Her face and hair was an unkempt mess. Kotetsu was pretty sure she hadn’t even cleaned herself off fully since coming back. He watched as she raised one hand, palm open and facing him. The other hand stayed loose by her side. The two watched each other carefully.

  “Come at me.” Her words were harsh. Kotetsu only considered the point for a heartbeat, making his decision.

  Kotetsu closed his eyes for a moment, imagining the sun beating down on his entire body. The warmth was the hottest it had been. He felt like it was suddenly the middle of summer. The feeling of rushing power coursed just under his skin. As the sweltering heat built up, Kotetsu felt anger rise alongside it. He could sense the anger she held for him. The accusing nature of her words dug at him, and Kotetsu felt like the anger would really explode out of him into flames. He jumped straight at Emilia.

  And that was all. A loud slap was all he felt as his head was forcefully pushed up into the sky from a single, powerful strike. He was knocked out just like that.

  Emilia looked down at the limp body of Kotetsu, and the red mark that appeared on his chin. After staring for a few seconds, she fell to her knees and burst into silent tears. She didn’t expect him to move so fast straight for her. Her reaction had been instinctual, and she just barely pulled it back in time. She got up and left.

  Kotetsu woke up alone and in the dirt. He had been doing that a little too often recently. He found some new bug bites adorning the bottom of his legs, telling him it was time to get up. His chin was sore from where Emilia had hit him. He moved his mouth experimentally, finding that his jaw was fine for the most part. Kotetsu went over the experience, thinking about how fast she was. Solomon had never attacked him like that. Knowing this, Kotetsu began to understand just how hard it was to truly fight someone. He stood.

  —

  Emilia had gone off back to camp and took her time cleaning herself off. She looked down at the hot water of the wash basin around her, feeling her anger melt away with the cleansing water. After getting dry and dressed, she found herself sitting in her tent alone. She did not want to be alone at that moment, but she also didn’t want to be around anyone else in the camp. She left her tent and felt a tug leading her out of the camp. It had been a few hours since she left the crevice. She suddenly felt disgusted with herself after the way she left Kotetsu.

  Spending a few minutes of walking, she heard noises and stopped just before reaching the crevice. Moving slowly, she crept forward, until the area came into view around a bend. Kotetsu stood, panting, hands on knees. After a few seconds, he got down on the ground and started doing… Sit ups. Emilia watched for a while as Kotetsu went through a variety of menial exercises. Then he would get up and start jumping back and forth across the stream that ran through the crevice.

  The stream was 5 or 6 feet across there, and he was barely clearing the gap. He jumped back and forth multiple times. Then went back to the exercises. At some point, Emilia sat down on a stump, amused by his over exaggerated movements.

  She watched Kotetsu for hours, expecting him to give up at any point, or at least stop and take breaks. Just when she assumed he would tumble over from exhaustion, he switched exercises. Her amusement turned to silent surprise as the hours passed by. Just as the sun started to go down over the trees, Kotetsu collapsed completely. He began to drag himself toward the stream, which he flopped into with a loud groan. She barely kept the bark of laughter from escaping. Kotetsu suddenly sat straight up in the stream, looking around. Emilia covered her mouth and ducked down behind a bush, then came to a decision, standing up and out of hiding. Kotetsu's eyes widened, then his hands came up in a stiff protective stance around his head.

  “Did he… Did Solomon show you hand signs?” Emilia asked.

  “Uh… What?” Kotetsu said with a stunned look on his face, before it shifted to realisation.

  “N-No.. He had not. I bugged him about it but he said I would be better off… Learning sword stuff instead. For now…” Kotetsu said sheepishly.

  Emilia walked over to the stream and put her hands together in a formation.

  “I can’t teach you directly. But, What’s the harm in letting you watch me train?”

  Kotetsu suddenly felt the water around his body stop flowing and begin to rise up around him. He looked down in alarm, moving to get out of the water, as the stream began to flow up and out of the crevice unexpectedly. He watched the process for several seconds, eyes as wide as plates. Then his attention turned to Emilia and the shape her hands took. He couldn’t tell which fingers were splayed and which were interlocked, but the shape was very distinct. He watched with a serious intensity as her hands contorted and shifted, flipping between multiple hand signs. The bubble of water began to grow larger and more defined in shape. Then, just as quickly as it had formed, the water splashed back down to the ground, sending muddy liquid spraying out in all directions and coming up to Kotetsu's knees. He looked down in dismay at his dirty sandals, then glanced over at Emilia to see that she was completely untouched. She laughed at the dumbfounded look on his face.