Water's Blessing (Part 1)

Prologue: I've always heard that drowning is one of the worst ways to die… the panic, the helplessness, the darkness. All things which I wish I didn't understand, but in my experience, the lull of consciousness fading was perhaps the most at peace I've felt in a long time. I wish I could say that my life flashed before my eyes, but I barely remember how I ended up drowning. It's odd... I don't think I lived near water. Almost as quickly as the peace came, it left.

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Sprawled out on the floor, a young boy - no older than 7 - coughed up mouthful after mouthful of blood-tinted water. His face seemed to shift from pain to confusion and back again. After heaving for a few minutes, he seemed to finally catch a breath which he used to roll over onto his back. As his senses slowly returned to him, he eyed his surroundings. The rough ceiling overhead seemed to be barely holding itself together while chipping beige paint clung to the walls.

A small pillowless bed positioned in the corner under the window beckoned him. With what strength he managed to gather, the boy pulled himself up to his feet and began his shuffle to the bed. As he lay down, a small scroll, no bigger than a high school diploma, on the bed caught his eye. Oddly, the scroll described how to stick a leaf to… 'Wait', he thought, 'that reminds me of the chakra control exercise described in Naruto. Why would I have something like that?'

Then, all of the memories came flooding in. Two lives. In the first set of memories, he was American on Earth, living a cushy nondescript life, until losing control while driving over a bridge. Death had seemed so far. He never imagined it would all come to end… he was supposed to graduate in the upcoming spring. 'What was my name? I must have had a name… it feels so distant now.'

He remember a warning sign on the bridge had cautioned about ice, but the road had seemed clear. He felt the wheels lose their grip. His stomach lept into his throat. Crashing into the side of the bridge, he couldn't tell up from down. Then it hit! The car suddenly slowed - with the impact, his memory gets foggy. Concussed by the impact with the river, he regained consciousness just in time to remember the cold almost frozen water quickly sending his body into shock as he struggled to catch a final breath.

The second memories were much shorter - 7 years total, not that he remembered his early years. His first memory in this life was of the orphanage matron, Erena-san calling him and the other children in for dinner. Still wanting to play, he hid, hoping for a few more minutes outside. Erena-san, familiar with his tricks, went to his usual hiding place a hollowed-out log that the children often played on.

"Hayase-chan," She called - 'yes, now I remember… that was my name in this life' - "come out soon. You wouldn't want to miss dinner. I promise you'll get some more time to play after you eat."

"No!" he shouted - his childish voice shocking himself as he remembered the incident. Erena, not one to waste time when so many other children needed her, whispered "hold on tight!" and then proceeded to lift the log up onto her shoulder. With amazement in his eyes, he popped his head out of the log to exclaim, "Erena-san! How are you so strong?"

With a smug smile threatening to break her stoic exterior, Erena replied, "I used to be a genin. Maybe if you start coming to dinner on time, I'll show you a trick or two." And with that, Erena's plan came to fruition. Hayase was never late for another dinner.

That beautiful old memory shined in his mind, haloed by a beautiful green shine. Each memory was associated with a color. With green, his birthdays at the orphanage, the first time he saw a jutsu performed, and his first day at the academy. Red memories are shown almost as brightly, the anger at his inability to remember the taijutsu kata as fast as the other civilian children, the frustration at losing his first spar… and the rage that consumed him on the day that he learned how his parent died. They had been merchants traveling in the land of fire.

Too poor to hire a shinobi and too weak to defend themselves, their business quickly found itself on the edge of bankruptcy. When word reached them that the loan sharks had grown tired of waiting for them to repay a loan, they dropped Hayase off at the orphanage knowing that they didn't have much time left. The Konoha police force had little time to worry about poor civilians in over their heads with money they shouldn't have borrowed. Their failure spurred Hayase to be stronger and never let himself fall into a similar situation. That's why he entered the academy… if only it was as easy as he hoped it would be.

The third color shining in his mind was a deep blue, almost dark enough to be mistaken for black. 'The color of the river.' These memories were his darkest moments. Times so steeped in loneliness and hopelessness that all other feelings seemed to dull. After entering the academy at age 6, he quickly found himself at the bottom of his class's social hierarchy. Unskilled at taijutsu, the clumsy Hayase was quickly targeted by upper-year civilian students like Shinji who, after being outshined by clan children, shored up his ego by tormenting Hayase.

In those moments, the deep blue quenched the rage that motivated his shinobi journey. With barely the energy to make a fist, Hayase took his beatings quietly. His low sobs barely echoed in the desolate corners of the academy where he had the misfortune to be caught. On those days, the only thing that kept the feeling from consuming him was the rage that sparked inside him when he remembered that this is how his parents must have felt! 'Weak! Helpless! Worthless!'

It was on one of those blue days punctuated with a searing red, that seemed to be his most recent memory. Unlike the others, this one seemed to evade his attention as he tried to remember what had happened… finally seizing the memory, he realized why. The feeling of drowning that concluded his first life once again seized him.

***Flashback (hours earlier)***

After a long first year in the academy, he felt hope knowing that his tormenters would be graduating. 'Maybe I can finally get some peace,' he had thought hopefully. Unfortunately, Shinji and the others hadn't forgotten about him. After corning him, Shinji spit, "It's losers like you that give non-clan kids a bad name! They think we're all weak like you. Can't even perform the taijutsu kata correctly let alone ninjutsu."

"How are you any different from a normal civilian?" another said, as he punched Hayase in the gut. After the usual beating, Shinji told the others, "Hold him up! I've got something special for him" Not comprehending the situation, Hayase caught a glimpse of Shinji finishing the hand signs for jutsu (Tiger → Ox → Tiger → Rat) and then saying "Water Release: Water Bullet Technique!" After that all Hayase remembers is waking up soaking wet, his back aching from being thrown against the wall. As he made his way home, the rage began to bubble up. He kept seeing the hand signs in mind! 'If only I could use jutsu, he thought, I can barely do the leaf sticking exercise. That's not good enough to try a jutsu… NO! I have to try! How can I be a shinobi without ninjutsu?'

After getting home, all of those thoughts still racing through his head, Hayase froze in the middle of his room. Balling his fists up at his sides, he tried to remember the hand signs of the jutsu that Shinji had used on him. 'Tiger → Bird→ Tiger → Rat, right? No… maybe Tiger → Ox → Tiger → Rat, was that the whole sequence?,' he thought, trying to think of any jutsu that he could try. In his rage, other jutsu that he had seen but never tried escaped him. Only the water bullet jutsu, moments before smacking him in the chest came to mind.

Shakily, Hayase began shaping his chakra - 'Tiger → Ox → Tiger → Rat' - feeling something welling up inside him, he took a deep breath - hope welling up inside him -, but the pressure kept building. As he tried to exhale, he felt water rush into his windpipe. His excitement was soon replaced with fear as his water-logged lungs nearly burst from the pressure. He had done something wrong, something terribly wrong. 'There must have been another hand sign,' he thought as the oddly familiar shock set in. His last thought was, 'how could I have been so stupid?'

***Exit Flashback***

As the memory ended, the panic and drowning feeling went with it. 'Did I die and transmigrate?' Hayase wondered. 'Did I just remember my previous life or did I (whatever my American name was) replace the real Hayase?' Looking over the memories, Hayase felt that although he almost died, he still felt like himself. There were similarities across both his lives that he couldn't deny. In both lives, he tended to towards being introverted as he grew up, but he loved exercising and being out in nature. Even something as mundane and silly as the way he built a fort in a bush in both lives. Each of the memories felt like him. Although the duller memories of his old life were telling him that this world was fictional, Hayase's life felt far from it.

His memories of reading and watching Naruto reinforced how dangerous it was to be weak in the shinobi world. When the strength of the chunin felt so far away, the Madara's slaughter of the Allied Shinobi forces seemed closer to legend than reality. Searching both sets of memories to figure out where in the timeline he was, Hayase remembers hearing about the genius Hatake Kakashi graduating earlier in the year.

Memories falling into place, Hayase is reminded of the Third Shinobi War looming in the background of his studies. Having entered the academy at age six like most civilians meant that he was a year older or so than Kakashi since he supposedly graduated at age 5. Unlike in the manga where the academy had students from ages six through eleven, the wartime conditions reduced the graduation age to nine. He only has two more years, he thought trying to come to grips with being sent to the battlefield so soon. The war began this year (Konoha Year 56), and his vague memories tell him that Kakashi was a teen by the end of the war. If anime's depiction is accurate, then - by a conservative estimate - he would have survived at least 5 years on the battlefield. 'There's no way that I can survive 5 years of war as a cannon fodder genin,' Hayase thought in a panic, 'is leaving the academy an option? There's no way that they would let me leave…' Indistinct yelling in the distance shook him from thoughts. There's no way out. He would be sent to the battlefield, it was up to him to find a way to survive.

Frustration at his situation drove him to sit up and make his way to his table where a ragged notebook promised a brief solace from his dread. Considering his options, he tried to write out his thoughts…

Increasing Survivability:

(1) Cardio (to run away???)

(2) Practice his nonexistent Taijutsu (last a couple more seconds until help arrives)

(3) Try to learn the standard 3 academy Jutsus (effective against inexperienced genin, which is more than I can say about my other skills) → need to improve chakra control first

(4) Practice begging for mercy?

"Fuck!" Hayase muttered under his breath, crumpling the paper and tossing it across the room. The more he wrote, the more frustrated he felt. Taking a breath, Hayase thought, 'I'm thinking too much like an academy student. I need to think like a transmigrator… but maybe more realistically since so many things like nature change are much more dangerous and difficult than were depicted in the show. THINK!' Thinking out loud, Hayase whispered, "has my chakra increased? It doesn't seem like it… do I have a system? STATUS! SYSTEM! CHARACTER SCREEN!" *Silence* "I guess I'm on my own." he comments, defeatism consuming him. Thinking back on the many characters in the series that faced hopeless situations but didn't rely on plot armor like Rock Lee.

'If I can just find the motivation, maybe I can overcome my lack of talent… Hell, even Kurenai somehow survived this period. What is my version of YOUTH?' Hayase pondered, 'the only emotion that comes close is… spite, that anger has been what kept me going this long. It doesn't have the same ring to it that youth does, but it'll do..'

Checking the time, it's a quarter past seven. 'It's too late to go to the library and start planning. Physical conditioning it is, I guess,' he thought tentatively. Running outside to a clearing near his small apartment, Hayase planned a brief workout modeled on his past life memories of being a wrestler in high school. After warming up with some calisthenics, he planned out some circuit training in his mind. 'Alright just bodyweight exercises, lets's do burpees, jumping jacks, sprints, and then finish by practicing the leaf kata,' he thought hopeful that his body could withstand the exercise.

Twenty minutes later, the remaining sunlight barely lit Hayase's silhouette as working his way from the leaf kata. Sweat poured from his body, a bystander would quickly notice his legs shaking before he finally dropped to the ground. With every deep breath, he could feel pain radiating in his chest. He had done it, by earth standards, that kind of exercise would be an impressive accomplishment for a seven year old child. But, in this world of super-powered child soldiers, it was far from enough. 'It's a start though,' Hayase caught himself thinking, 'I'll need to drop by the hospital tomorrow though. This shouldn't be as painful as it is.'

Almost back to his apartment, Hayase is stopped by his neighbor, Old man Sato. He was a kind enough old man most of the time. Seeing Hayase on the way back to his apartment, the old man half-shouted (as many older people do), "what's got you so worked up today? Never thought you were one to train outside of the academy?"

As naturally as he could, Hayase said, "just finished my first year today, let's just say the war feels closer all of a sudden."

"Good luck boy. Don't go dying on me, it would be a pain to find a new tenant. I've emptied out enough shinobis' rooms just this last month" with that, their brief exchange concluded.

Old man Sato rarely left his apartment due to an old war injury that made walking for a long difficult to manage. Luckily as the owner of the apartment, most tenants came to him to pay rent. Unfortunately, he was no super secret expert that would turn into a brilliant mentor or anything. No, he like many older veterans exhibited what, Hayase's 21st century memories called dementia. The accumulated result of much untreated psychological damage from genjutsu in the past ways. Before the Yamanaka clan began offering treatment, shinobi were simply left to deal with the damage on their own. Hayase would sometimes hear Sato wandering the halls in the evening trying to remember which door was to his apartment. After too long, Hayase would take pity on the old man and try to guide him to his apartment which was next door to Hayase's. Sometimes he was thankful, other times he mistook him for a tenant who had forgotten to pay his rent.

After fixing up a rudimentary meal with the scraps that he had available and Hayase sat at his table and let his mind wander. 'I still don't have much of a plan,' He thought bitterly. 'All I can do is grind my chakra control and try to get in fighting shape with my taijutsu. Given how badly the water bullet jutsu went... ' a shudder passed through him and his chest tightens '... I hope that water isn't my affinity though, I'm not sure I could spit out water without…' pausing Hayase grabs a glass of water and prepares himself. Taking a sip, he freezes, barely able to bring himself to swallow. 'This gonna be a fucking problem,' he thinks cursing his past stupidity and weakness. Setting down the still mostly full glass, Hayase makes his way to his bed where he lays down. As he is falling asleep he thinks, 'I should probably go by the hospital tomorrow, breathing was hurting more than it should earlier. Just what I need another issue to deal with.'

***The next morning***

Not able to afford curtains, the morning sun wakes him. After completing his morning routine (brushing his teeth, making some toast, trying to drink a glass of water), he made his way down to a branch of the Konoha hospital. As he walked by a small storefront selling fresh fruits and vegetables (a bit of a luxury in this wartime period where enemy shinobi would sabotage each other's food supplies and agriculture), he caught a glimpse of himself in the window. His brown shaggy hair hung on each side of his face framing his petite features and blue-grey eyes. "Note to self - cut hair later (use a kunai if you have to)", he mocked under his breath.

Although the sun rising in the distance, the streets were quiet except for the muffled clatter of store owners preparing their displays and updating the already inflated prices. During the year, the village offers discounted food for academy students. It's mostly what was about to go bad in the shops, but their young chakra-enhanced bodies could handle some mold. Most students didn't need the discount. Among the orphans that could use the discount, few preferred to eat the still not cheap vegetables over cheaper and tastier options like ramen cups. It seems that Naruto's eating habits were far from abnormal (at least in this time period). Reminded of his need to improve his diet, Hayase resolves to look for a cheap source of protein. Hunting was always an option, and getting permission to leave the village during wartime could be cumbersome. Brainstorming, he concluded, 'Maybe I could do some odd jobs around the apartment building for old man Sato, then I could at least afford some protein even if it had to be tofu.'

Finally, at the hospital, Hayase was surprised by how empty the building was. 'Few patients and even fewer staff, I guess they must have been pulled to the battlefield to serve as medics.' Approaching one of the few desks with an employee, Hayase politely asks, "Nurse-san, is there any way that I could be seen today? My lungs have been hurting."

"Bah! Did you start smoking or something kid? You're too young to have lung problems"

"No! I don't smoke! I just experimented with a jutsu…"

Groaning, the Nurse sizes him up, "Still in the academy eh? Jutsus aren't something to play with brat. Go to the first door on the left. I'll check on you after finishing with this paperwork"

Nodding, Hayase seated himself in the room as requested. After 20 minutes or so, the Nurse finally appeared in the doorway, "Alright brat, which jutsu did you try to do?" the nurse asked.

"Water style: Water bullet jutsu" he replied, too nervous to make eye contact

With a sigh, "how far did you get into the jutsu? Manage to make any water or spit it out?"

Hayase sputters, "Um I definitely made water, but it felt like it was stuck in my chest. I ended up coughing it up not long after, but there was some blood in it."

"Kami kid, I don't know who taught you that jutsu, but you're obviously not ready for it. By the sounds of it, you could have died. Jutsu like that are dangerous. You're lucky that it wasn't a fire style jutsu otherwise…."

Taking out a stethoscope, the nurse had Hayase take deep breaths and checked his vitals.

"By the looks of it, I think you'll need some mild treatment for some of the damage to your lungs. Stay still, I'll see what I can do", he said with his hand glowing green with the light of the mystical palm technique.

After 15 minutes or so of mild discomfort, the procedure appears to finish. "Alright kid, you'll need to come back in a couple more times. It's worse than I thought. I'm not even sure how you walked in here. You'll need to come back in for the next couple of days. I don't have the chakra or the time to finish up right now."

"Thanks, Nurse-san! I'm feeling better already", Hayase said.

"No exercise until I'm finished you hear! Also, I'll need the name of your parents. Healing this type of injury isn't cheap"

'Fuck! How could I think this would be free?' Hayase said internally, "I- er… don't have any sir… but I'll find a way to pay."

"Calm down kid, I shoulda figured with you coming here by yourself. That's my fault. The Hokage normally has funds set aside for this sort of thing, but we're a little short on funds. How about you help out around here a little bit? I could use the extra set of hands and the academy shouldn't start back up again for a couple of weeks. I can set aside some of my pay if you help lighten my load a bit"

"Thank you so much Nurse-san!"

"Enough with the Nurse-san stuff brat, the name's Michiaki. And don't get too excited, this isn't an apprenticeship or something. I won't have time to teach you anything. It'll mostly be paperwork and all the stuff I hate doing haha you might even hate me after this." Michiaki said, "Now walk home and rest for the day. I need you here bright and early tomorrow alright? Hope you're ready to change bedpans hahaha!"

Looking a little green, Hayase thought, 'it could be worse I guess, at least I won't end up like Hayate Gekkō, coughing in the middle of a battle. Talk about giving your enemies an opening.'

"Thanks again Michiaki-san! See you tomorrow"

Picking up some food on the way home, Hayase considered looking for Teuchi's ramen but decided against it after thinking about all of the debt that he was in. Instead, he resolved to go home work on chakra control, and then go to bed.

***The next day***

Michiaki said "Office worker style secret technique: delegation!" as he dumped what was a stack of paper two feet tall on the desk where Hayase was seated. In his mind, Michiaki joked, 'see the might of my skills haha! Even the Hokage doesn't know this technique!'

Beginning to work through the pile, Hayase remarked, "Michiaki-san you didn't tell me that you were weeks behind on paperwork!!!"

"Tough luck brat! If you want reliable lungs, you should get back to work"

***Later that day***

*indistinct muttering* "stupid fucking bureaucratic bullshit, why do we need so much paperwork, it's not like this world doesn't have computers! It doesn't make sense!" Hayase, clearly at a breaking point, muttered.

After nearly nine hours of paper, Hayase went looking for Michiaki to tell him that he had finally finished the pile only to find him laying down on a hospital bed for a nap. "Michiaki-san! this is what you've been doing?!?!" Hayase shouted with as much killing intent as an academy student could muster which was none, but he was clearly angry.

*YAWN* "ah Hayase-kun, did you finish already? I thought that would take you a week at least. Most genin can't sit still long enough to study let alone paperwork" Michiaki said while rubbing his eyes. "No one has been asking for me right? I'm going back to sleep" he said while getting comfortable again.

Shaking Michiaki awake, Hayase shouts, "at least do my healing for the day so I can go home!"

"Fine. Fine. Demanding brat, you're lucky that I hate paperwork more than I like sleeping"

After the healing session, Michiaki went back to napping and Hayase went to collect his things and go home. On his way out though, he noticed a mostly abandoned office with a small bookshelf. His curiosity getting the better of him, he silently began perusing the shelf. Most of the titles completely flew over his head: Applications of Cellular Activation on Borborygmus, Alternatives to the Mystical Palm for Rhinorrhea, etc. However, two short books caught his eye: one on wartime first aid and the other on intermediary chakra exercises for medical shinobi.

Seemingly alone, Hayase stuck books under his shirt and hoped that no one would question him. Unbeknownst to him as he made his way home, Michiaki observed him from around the corner, "Interesting! let's see what you can accomplish brat, it's been awfully boring around here" he said with a smirk.

***Back in Hayase Apartment***

Setting the first aid book aside, Hayase began reading about chakra control. Many of the exercises were too advanced for him, the introduction to the book mentioned that the author was assuming that the reader has already completed water walking and combined it with the leaf exercise. 'Other than the bit about doing the leaf exercise while walking up a tree or doing water walking, this book is too advanced more me,' he bitterly thought, 'still it is a good reminder that I need to get creative. I've stalled out at around 3 minutes with the leaf-sticking exercise, maybe I should mix it up, but how…'

After a short brainstorm, Hayase decide to try a simplified version of the water walking exercise where he tried to prevent his hand from sinking into a bowl of water. 'Focus! Focus!,' he thought, "come on…" *splash* "dammit"

After a few more tries, he started to have some success. Trying to relax before his last attempt, he thought to himself, 'what am I doing wrong? I am thinking about this too mechanically, do I need to resonate with the water or something??' Somewhat ironically, he was reminded of the Bruce Lee quote about being like water.

Bent over his table, his hand above the bowl. In a hushed whisper, Hayase said "Be like water… Be formless… shapeless… put water in the bowl, it becomes the bowl" Lowering his towards the bowl, he urges his chakra out of the tenketsu in his hand. And…

The hand drops through the surface… it failed, or so it appeared. Dismayed Hayase began drawing his hand out of the water -- his muscles still relaxed, his mind no longer tensed -- and with his hand a small strand of water followed. Staring at the water in the air, Hayase realized what he had done and with that, it dropped to the table below it.

'What was that? It seemed closer to water bending than ninjutsu, but… how did that happen?' Hayase thought, hoping this would be his ticket to surviving the war. Attempting it again after refilling the bowl, he could seem to figure it out until he remembered the mindset he had been in. Pulling the pieces together, Hayase thought, 'The spiritual dimension of chakra was always lacking in this world. It's seen like a tool, only Rikudō Sennin and his ninshu approached it in a more spiritual way. Even senjutsu training which emphasizes meditation seems to lack the spiritual or philosophical approach to chakra.'

Attempting the exercise again, under his breath, he could be heard saying "Be like water… be like water… be like water!" *whoosh* And with that, some of the water once again followed his hand out of the water and hung in the air. Trying to calm his excitement, Hayase tried to direct the water to move. Unfortunately (or fortunately), it shot off in the right direction and hit the wall with about as much force as a water balloon.

"Yatta!!!" he shouted before fatigue overcame him and he had to sit. 'This is great,' he thought, 'I could work with this! I just need to work on using the chakra more efficiently.' For the first time in a long time, he fell asleep with a smile on his face.

***The next day***

After Hayase completed another stack of paperwork, Michiaki had him help some of the other nurses with cleaning patients' rooms and… some patients. 'I'm not sure I'll ever be able to look at a sponge the same way after today,' Hayase thought with a shiver.

Having completed his work for the day, Hayase went out to find some standing body of water to practice his new ability. Remembering the simple push and pull exercise from Avatar, Hayase eventually got approval to go to a nearby pond not far from the village. He had to borrow a fishing rod from Old man Sato to have a believable excuse, but it worked. They took pity on him as a young academy student but made him promise to come back before their shift ended at midnight.

After casting a few lines into the pond, Hayase took in the scene around him. The dense forests next to the pond felt like they could conceal anything. Crickets and toads could be heard as the temperature began to drop. Standing in the shallow water up to his ankles, Hayase took a few deep breaths. Centering himself by reminding himself of why he was doing this, he had to give this training his all if he wanted to be strong enough to show up to that bastard Shinji. Moreover, he had to be even stronger if he wanted to survive the war.

*Deep Breathes* Assuming a relaxed stance, Hayase began pushing his hands away from his body and then bringing them back in slowly. His chakra slowly began to circulate faster as he continued this motion, it seemed to pulse with his movements and breathing. After his chakra seemed to have found a rhythm, a small wave formed in front of him. 'Push… Pull…' he thought.

***10 minutes***

Hayase was pulled from his meditative exercise by his fishing line start to be pulled. He had lost track of how many times he had done the exercise, but he hadn't quite exhausted all of his chakra yet which was a good sign. By the end, the small wave had about doubled in size. Still small ultimately, by it was about 2 feet in height on the last push.

Rushing over to the fishing rod, he carefully reeled in an 11-inch fish. 'It looks like a carp or salmon or something, I need to pay more attention in the academy's survival lessons,' he chuckled internally, 'either way, it's nice to have some protein.'

And like that, two weeks went by. Helping Michiaki at the hospital during the day, and then training his water bending at night. His lungs were finally healed as well so he returned to the circuit training and tried to do it each morning before going to the hospital. He had made some good progress on the water bending, the wave could now knock over a small child (not that he had tried). Oddly with that practice, it felt like his health had improved. 'Maybe the light exercise was good for him,' he thought, 'water bending was supposedly based on Tai Chi so that wouldn't be a surprise. I need to find a taijutsu that is similar in this world. I only remember a few stances in from Avatar and even fewer from seeing Tai Chi martial artists in other media. That will only take me so far.'

Unlike other exercises, the motivation to practice pushing and pulling the water came naturally to him. It was something unique to him in this world. He had even tried out some other water bending moves that he could remember with some marginal success. None of the ice techniques worked for him, but Hayase did manage to form a water whip. Although it was weak now, he practiced it by bringing out a stream of water from the pond, twirling it around him, then sending it back into the pond as smoothly as he could. With the proper stances though, he could feel himself hitting his limit. It was the smooth motions of the stances that let his chakra resonate with the water. His chakra's reaction to his movements helped up correct some of his movements which helped reduce his chakra consumption, but he would need help soon. Moreover, he had begun keeping a small gord filled with water on him throughout the day.

To motivate himself to do standard physical exercise, each morning, he would review his memories and reaffirm his commitment to not be weak any longer. His spite was strong, but water bending was perhaps too therapeutic. Either that, or he was lazier than he thought. Although he felt healthier, he wasn't doing much better exercise-wise. Following his chakra fluctuations he began smoothing the movements from the leaf kata. With these new movements, he could perform that kata for almost twice as long. The extra stamina has gone a long way in familiarizing him with the movements. The movements almost felt natural now, which was good. Hayase had always felt like he was just going through the motions with the kata so he was proud of this improvement.

The other good development in these last few weeks was bonding with Michiaki at the hospital. Although Michiaki had told Hayase that he had more than paid back his debt, Hayase decided to continue helping. 'Even if the labor is menial,' Hayase thought, reflecting back on his time,'I think I'll miss it when I'm back at the academy.' The break would end in a couple of days so Hayase had begun planning for the academy. In the academy, besides teaching them survival skills, history, and chakra theory, the instructors would also be testing their chakra control, taijutsu, and shuriken technique on the first day. The start of the new year was also when classrooms shuffled. If he could make a good impression, then maybe he could get into the class with clan children. Even if that doesn't happen, it's a chance to show everyone that he is not an easy target.

Given that he had neglected both shuriken practice and chakra control, Hayase thought the spars would be the best opportunity to show his growth. That said, he decided to test himself on each area and spend the next couple of days preparing.

Seating in the clearing near his apartment, Hayase collected himself and began the leaf-sticking exercise. Clearing his mind as he does at the pond, he felt at ease as he willed his chakra to get the leaf to stick to his head. Five minutes later, the leaf seemed far from falling. 'This is great!' he thought, 'I'm not stuck at 3 minutes anymore.' Grabbing a second leaf and bringing it to his forehead… it stuck! 'Okay deep breathes, most students drop out when the second leaf is added,' he inwardly said. Another 5 minutes pass and sweat is starting to drip from Hayase's head making it even harder to hold the leaves in place. 'One more leaf,' he thought begging himself, 'with that I could be in the top 5.' *drip* Three leaves stuck to the brown-haired boy's face, the pensive look on his face clearly indicating his struggle. 2 minutes passed and, with a big breathe, Hayase laid down on the grass. The leaves floated gently to the ground beside him.

"This might just be possible," Hayase says while trying to catch his breath.

"What might be possible brat?" he hears from behind him.

"Old man Sato, I'm surprised to see you outside. Er... I was just thinking I might be able to get moved into the better class at the academy" Hayase admits embarrassed at his thinking.

"Meh, that kind of thing isn't worth much kid. It's more important to fight against strong opponents that's why you brats are so weak nowadays. I bet you haven't even fought to the death yet! Bah!", he spat, "and don't forget this month's rent. I may be senile but I'm not THAT senile."

And with that, Sato limped back to the apartments - grocery bag in tow.

Under his breath, Hayase muttered, "but you are that senile old man, I paid you two days ago. Grimy old geezer, if he's not senile then he's squeezing money out of me"

"I can hear you brat, I've still got a shinobi's ears!" He laughed out

'Is he just screwing with me?' Hayase thought, having learned his lesson. 'Whatever at least, I know I can stand in chakra control now. Did practicing water bending really improve my control that much?' he wondered. Using the remainder of the evening to practice the katas and review his shuriken throwing, Hayase went to bed feeling good about his chances in a couple of days.