Week 1, Nin/Tai/Gen/Weapons: A Dawning Realization

"Arrgghh! Why can't I get this?"

Airisu paused what she was doing to glance over at her friend. It wasn't typical for Haru to have such a temper when training. That's one of the reasons they got along so well together. Well, that and their similar silly streaks.

She sighed as she watched him. "Why don't you take a break? Maybe you need some water or something?"

"Water is the last thing I need while trying to do a fire jutsu!" Haru yelled at her. He turned back toward his target to start his hand signs again only to be hit in the back of his head with Airisu's bo staff. "Hey!"

"Don't 'hey' me. You totally deserved that." She leaned against her weapon. "Now take a break before trying again."

Haru grumbled but did walk over to get a drink. "I just don't understand." He set the water back with his things after taking a few gulps. "I keep going over what Byakko-sensei said about the fire within and how control is key. And then I think about Fujihara-sensei's lecture on how remembering to breathe will harness both the control and power needed to accomplish difficult jutsu."

"Really? They said that? I guess I was so focused on my breathing techniques I didn't hear Fujihara-sensei's lecture." Airisu laughed.

He aimed a pointed look at his friend. "My charka strength is lightning. So shouldn't fire jutsu come almost as naturally? They are brothers in the element world." Haru started pacing back and forth. "That combined with the techniques we've learned should allow me to get at least a small flame, but…" Quickly going through the hand signs and movements he aimed a fire blast at her. "… nothing."

She moved to swat him with her staff again but he ducked. "Don't aim fire jutsu at me!"

"Sorry." The pacing had landed him right next to her. His figure towered over her small frame and allowed him to ruffle her hair quite easily. "I didn't mean to scare you." He teased with a glint in his eyes.

A well placed jab nearly hit his stomach as he jumped away from Airisu. She stuck her tongue out at him. "Yeah. Scared." Her eyes rolled.

Haru smirked.

"But I think you did say something important for once." She said in a serious tone.

He just looked at her. "What? Fire within? Control? Remembering to breathe?" Haru checked off the things he could remember on his fingers.

"Nope." Airisu turned back to the post she'd been practicing on before he had distracted her. "Brothers."

It was like a bucket of water had been thrown on him. He knew Airisu was right, of course. That didn't mean he wanted to follow her train of thought… to Hade.

He wasn't always the easiest to talk to, especially if he'd been drinking or if a certain bishie priest was anywhere nearby, but he was his older brother. And maybe he could actually help him passed this ninjutsu block he was having.  Maybe.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Finding Hade was relatively simple. Find the Bishie Priest and you find his brother. And he did.

"Hade! Hade!" He yelled out when his brother blatantly ignored his approaching form. "I need to talk with you!" He followed the blue haired man down the avenue.

"Go bother someone else," was the brisk reply.

Haru pulled Hade to a stop. "I need your help. I didn't know who else to ask."

With a fleeting glance toward the Bishie Priest he'd been secretly following, he moved his focus to Haru. "Walk with me. I'll see what I can do to help you." This was his younger sibling after all. If he didn't fix things, who would?  

They ambled around the main part of the village for a while. Haru explained his dilemma while Hade listened.

Several times they were interrupted by squealing fan-girls and even a few fan-boys. Normally Haru didn't mind flirting and dodging the attention both he and his brother received, but today he was impatient to get through this conversation.

Haru's frustration must have become clear on his face because Hade guided them to a lesser used path and away from the hustle and bustle of the village.

It was only after a few minutes of silently moving down the path that Haru realized where they were headed. "Why are we going this way?"

"Because it's the perfect place for you to sit and think about your problem, that's why." Hade put his brother in a head lock and began dragging him toward the intended destination against his will. "I know you come here to be alone and think. Now do it." He dumped Haru on the steps of the Haikan Shrine.

"Jerk." Haru griped. "I already have. I've gone over and over in my head all the lessons on fire jutsu. On lightning jutsu. On jutsu in general. I've even gone over the lecture on breathing and patience and control. I just can't get any fire to come out of me!" He yelled the last part and stood up.

Hade pushed him back down. "You idiot. Take a deep breath and then tell me what you know of fire."

Doing as he was told he sat and breathed deeply before going into definitions and textbook explanations.

"Okay, okay. I get it. You know it backwards and forwards. Now how are connected to it?" Hade gave him a sympathetic smile. He knew exactly what the issue was, but it was something his younger brother needed to discover for himself. There would be no getting passed the block otherwise.

The question posed made Haru raise an eyebrow.  "How am I… what?"

"You have plenty of fire in you, but how is it connected to you?" Hade turned and began walking away. "Find the answer and you'll see why you are having trouble."

"Fat lot of help you were!" Haru called after the retreating form. To himself he said, "Connected to fire, huh? Lightning can create fire…"

He crossed his legs in a standard meditation pose but leaned back against a pillar. Unconsciously he slid into murmuring the mantra "Remember to breathe, remember to breath, remember to breathe" as he regulated his breathing and thought over any possible connections to flames.

As the day slipped into night Haru's meditating turned into a light doze.

Images crossed his mind. At first most were blurry forms he couldn't make out; bits from his subconscious that tried to make themselves known.

He knew his dream self was moving down a path, but it was only after the image of a large, pink hibiscus appeared that his feet seemed to know the destination. They took off at a sprint.

Suddenly the images around him began clearing, and just as suddenly he stopped running. There in front of him was a woman. She was dressed in a traditional kimono of pale pink, a hibiscus much like the one he saw earlier tucked into her hair.

Haru jolted awake, bumping his head against the pillar behind him.

"It's because of her." He whispered. "That's the connection blocking me."

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

"So did you find the connection?" Hade called out to his younger brother as he walked down the corridor of their home.

Haru sighed. "Unfortunately. Not sure what good that's going to do, though, knowing it's because fire was her element."

The blue haired man gave an incredulous look. "What good?!? It gives you the answer's you wanted." He exclaimed. "You can know all the jutsu in the world, all the elements, but that will never be enough if your heart isn't in it."

"So you're telling me I won't ever be able to do fire jutsu?" His shoulders slumped slightly. "I should just give up on that?"

A fist swiped at his face but Haru quickly dodged it. He countered with a punch of his own and the two boys scuffled a bit before Hade took the upper hand and put a headlock on his opponent. "I get you with that every time." He laughed and released his brother before the rest of their siblings heard and came running to join in the battle. "You don't give up. You keep practicing the fire signs. You keep working on remembering the breathing techniques. You work on everything until your heart aims at something, or someone, else."

Haru shook his head. "There is no moving on from her." It was said with such finality.

Hade made to interrupt, but Haru kept going. "Thank you for the advice. I will keep working to become a better ninja. I'll just need to adapt my training to cope without fire. Perhaps Byakko-sensei will have some ideas…" He retreated to his bedroom and shut the door.

"There's a lot of fire still inside that boy," the eldest Kobiru murmured to himself, "and one day it will get out, even if he doesn't believe that now." Turning down the lights and poking his head into bedrooms to see that his remaining siblings were where they were supposed to be, Hade got ready for the night as well.

"It will get out." He declared once more before turning off his own light and crawling into bed.