Accidents (Odin)

"You would do that...for me?"

"You are now a Genin of Cloud, Onimusha-san," the blonde spoke, bestowing a warm smile upon the teenager. "And in Kumo, we look after our own. We are blessed with a Kage who cares, an economy that thrives and ninja who are ready to lay their life on the line for their comrades." As she spoke, Akihana could feel the spirit of her village filling her heart. This was probably how Yaju felt when he looked down to survey all that he and Misaki had built. "And being so blessed, it is unconscionable that we do not help were we can. We might all be different in nature but in home, we are the same, and by extension, you are a member of our family." The young mother finished with a smile, putting his worries at ease.

"The procedure itself would take only a few hours," she explained, trying her best not to use technical terms. "Depending on the severity of your injuries as well as my skill, I'd say two to three hours, minus any illnesses or remains of poison I might have to extract. But you should know that getting used to your new found vision will take you at least a week. Too much visual stimuli will be overwhelming at first, causing you to stumble and second guess yourself until your depth perception returns."

Having delivered the warning, she continued. "Come to the hospital one of these days and make an appointment for eye surgery. Ask for me. They'll give you the date and time and hopefully, the procedure will be a success," she finished with another kind smile, her golden eyes glowing warmly beneath long eyelashes.

"We might all be different in nature but in home, we are the same, and by extension, you are a member of our family."

Pride swelled up in Odin, his eye glimmering with a twinkle of happiness.  His eyes locked to the golden eyed medical chuunin's.  Odin thought about her offer, his schedule was open.  He didn't even have a place to stay.  He was renting out a room by his favorite ramen shop in the village.  He wasn't doing anything except training for the past days....maybe weeks...no months since he's been in the village. 

"I am willing to do anything to gain back the hinderance of my blind spot.  I had quite a struggle in the Ninja Academy.  If you are confident enough, I would do it tomorrow!"  

He gets up, stretching his arms, thinking it was time to stand.  His body was getting restless due to all the excitement of being able to see after all these years,
"It's been about ten plus years since I have had vision with both eyes.  It might take more than just some time," he smirks before continuing, showing his childish side for the first time in years, 
"But I got you now so I ain't worried much anymore!"  His grin widened even more.  

He giggled for a moment before stretching some more.  Even more psyched with a better sense of purpose in life now.  

"You rev'd me up!  Mind if I join you for a jog or whatever you came to do?"

It was nice to hear the confidence in his voice, even if tomorrow might be entirely too soon. They could start the paperwork and get the surgery underway. Still, it was refreshing to see the teen imbued with new spirit. "Well then, go down to the hospital tomorrow and make an appointment. We'll go from there and soon enough, if things go right, you will be able to have a full twenty by twenty vision in both your eyes again," she assured, the note of hope always present in her voice.

When he asked to join her in training, Akihana too slid gracefully up from her position, tossing her golden braid back. I usually like to jog as a warm up, perform an exam on my muscles and check bone density as well as chakra flow, then get down to any actual jutsu." With that the blonde brought up her fingers in front of her and made the appropriate seals. At first it looked like nothing had happened and then, out of a halo of light, another Akihana stepped out to stand beside the original.

"This helps a lot with training." the clone Akihana explained with a similar smile. "Now that there are two of us, why don't you try and focus your chakra to see which one is the real Akihana?" the medic suggested as her clone winked mischievously. "Try to do it without using a jutsu or physical force. My basic Element if fire, see if you can sense it. If you do, you might have the affinity for that second element too."

The last part was explained by the clone who tossed her own silken blonde braid back in perfect imitation. The task would require focus on the boy's part but that focus will reveal both the nature of his chakra as well as his powers of perception and any analytic skills he may have at his disposal. "You may ask us three questions in total to help you decide, but they cannot be obvious ones like which is the real Akihana. The point of this exercise is to focus and challenge yourself."

Odin's one eye blinked in wonder as he watched Akihana split into two beings.  He watched both of them carefully, noting any subtle changes between the two.

"Try to do it without using a jutsu or physical force."

He had never been able to track anyone before nor had he even attempted such a thing. He closed his one working eye. He put his two fists together, meditating on the thought of which one was the real Akihana. 
He focused on his own spirit at first, opened his chakra channels, emboding his own chakra around him.  He stood there for a moment or two, realizing he had to consider three things.

He looked at the last Akihana to address him, focusing his chakra element and hers before questioning her,
"Which one of you was the last to flip back your hair?" his eye opened, taking note of any subtle signs one might exibit.  He focused all his attention on her golden eyes when she answered. 

He also honed into their lightning elements, seeing if he can tap into any chakra that might radiate off of either Akihana.  If not, his questions and intuition would be the last line of support to finding out which was the real one.
This is a whole different level of training than I've ever done before, he thought, trying not to smile.

"Which one of you was the last to flip back your hair?"


Akihana watched him focus, looking over his technique as he tried to differentiate between her and the clone. Traditional chakra sensory wouldn't work because chakra was equally distributed among bunshins and especially with her brand of light clones, but if he manged to grasp on to the core of chakra, probably trying to sense out his own lightning affinity in her, than he would get somewhere.

And then of course there was the point of reasoning. The activity wasn't simply to teach him to focus but to encourage him to ask intelligent questions that pointed towards a solution. Hopefully she would teach him the second element of fire before this training was through but for that, he would need to show that he had the capability of learning. Most people determined elemental affinity via leaves or papers and other methods but Akihana was a firm believer in chakra being rooted to a person's being, as much a part of someone as was blood and, more ambiguously speaking, soul. If there was even a sight bit of a chance he could learn fire, she would find it.

But for now his task remained identifying the real medic, and his first question was posed. "I was," the clone replied politely, her casual smile still in place and identical to her creator's.

Odin focused on trying to open his chakra channels in order to better receive any chakra vibes that came from the real Akihana.  He wasn't sure if it would work but he had to give it a try.  He reached out through his opened chakra channels, trying his best to be more spiritually receptive to the chakra around him. 

He could feel the chakra in the air, the ground, the animals, and the people around him. After a minute or two, he finally could feel the lightning element that corsed throughtout Akihana's body.  He felt a fire burning in her core as well.  He could feel her immense chakra radiating from both Akihanas. 
He sucked his teeth in fustration.  He still had no idea how to sense her out through meditation.  He did feel accomplished that he opened his channels this much.  It was a while since he did anything else beyond physical training. 

He knew he only had his wits left to help him. 

"I was,"  one of the Akihana's said, smiling just like her twin double.

Odin studied the two Akihanas closely. 
Perfect twins, he would have assumed if he had not see her use a clone jutsu.  He had a hunch which one was the real Akihana but he was still anxious regardless.

He pointed to the Akihana that answered his question, "I believe you are the fake one,"  he concluded. 

"Since I can't seem to tell the difference between the clone's and the original's chakra, it must mean that your chakra is perfectly split.  Maybe it was somehow  shared between the two of you.  Furthermore, I saw that one of you had your hair forward and the other had your hair behind yourself.  The original put her braid behind her before the clone transformation.  I knew who the original might be but I wanted to make a one hundred percent assurance." he deduced.  He hoped his guess was right.

"I believe you are the fake one,"

Both Akihanas contemplated his declaration, both sets of golden eyes quietly amused as they appraised the teenager. He seemed to be confident in his choice and his receptivity to chakra seemed to have become vastly improved in the mental exercise. The blonde waited for him to give his reasoning before bestowing a small smile of congratulations on the redhead.

"Well done Onimusha-san," the clone spoke before disappearing in another flash of light. Most generic clones appeared and disappeared in smoke. Not light clones though, they simply faded, leaving the viewer surprised at whether he had actually seen something or not. Visual arts were Akihana's specialty and as her clone dissipated into the mist, she herself took up the conversation.

"I could feel you trying to use chakra to find me, which is a great start. As I'm sure you noticed, Lightning chakra was easier to detect simply because you're more familiar with it. It makes up your core and you recognize it better in others. Much harder to detect would have been my core element of fire." The medic paused, a faraway look in her eyes.

"I'm originally from the land of fire," she added as an afterthought before continuing with the lesson.

"But you did recognize the fire element, which means on some level, you do have an affinity for that element," she explained, her tone kind and encouraging. "So lets try it again. And make it fun." This time when the Kunoichi raised her hands to form the appropriate seal, two clones appeared, flanking her on each side.

"I call this clone tag," the kunoichi laughed. "Now combine your chakra receptivity with physical exertion. We're going to go jogging and you have to decide which one of us is real and come after that one. We'll be jogging at a speed of 15 but for every wrong clone you catch, the remaining will increase the speed by 10... so good luck."

And with that, the trio of blondes shot off in different directions around the training ground.

After being praised, Odin's eyes strained to see through the shining light of whatever jutsu Akihana just despelled.  It was some alternative form of shadow jutsu.  Something to do with those beautiful golden eyes of hers.  The flash of light was just as golden as the chuunin's eyes herself. 

He noted her further praise, smiling while thinking about the new found chakra sensing she just tried to install in him.  He thought about the fire burning within the former konoha kunoichi.  He thought about the potential fire burning inside himself as well. 

He found himself lost in thought when Akihana transformed into three versions of herself.  She taunted him as they all ran in different directions, not before explaining that he must now use the sensory technique while traveling now! 

I had never tried to meditate, searching for chakra while moving!  How will I be able to do that and concentrate!? 
"Wait I-"

He studdered as the three Akihanas ran off. 

Damn, I don't know where to begin! 

He just had to think about the technique and his meditation rituals, while traveling. He planted his feet for a moment, this time he kept his eyes open.  He focused his chakra channeling, this time focusing on the fire within each of the Akihanas. 

He felt everything around him once again. He started jogging at a pace of 9 for now.  He needed to first find any of the three Akihanas.  He jogged around the first bend of the training ground, struggling to concentrate on finding the Akihana that ran that way.  All he could do was scan the area for a brief second before breaking concentration. 

He paused for a moment, opening his chakra channels to see which way Akihana was.

The three identical medics took different ways, one taking north, one taking south while the final one, the real one, jogging into a straight line and towards the track that led to the children playing around. The blonde and her clones weren't exactly running, more moving at a fast jog. The point wasn't really for the boy to give chase, it was try try and identify the real Chunin while on the move. Better he take half an hour to find the real Akihana than catch a clone in five minutes and end up having to chase the two remaining kunoichi running a the speed of 25.

"Mommy, are you playing clone tag again?" Arata called out, raising his inky head from the ground where he was pretending to burrow like a mole as he'd seen Fenn do countless times. "Can i play too?"

"Not right now sweetie, but we can play on the way home," the medic called out, golden braid bouncing behind her as she jogged, keeping her clones in sight. Just like her, the light clones were also passing by other people, exchanging interactions. Her clone to the north was jogging around one of the older ninja doing Tai Chi, asking after his health while her second clone jogging tot eh south has fallen into step beside another young mother, exchanging greeting and anecdotes about their children.

All in all, the two clones were behaving exactly as Akihana would have on a normal day, making it impossible to distinguish the real from the copy, impossible unless the teen running after them could sense their chakra cores, looking past his own unconscious preference of lightning natured chakra to identity the core of fire within the real Akihana.

Odin stood his ground.  Running while trying to find these kunoichi would just turn this little game into an all night event. His breath was heavy and he could feel the sweat of fustration falling from his headband. Yet he loved the challange of this new game he was playing. 
I need to concentrate hard.  If that requires complete concentration and not moving around, so be it. 

Odin sat down again, getting into a meditative stance.  He closed his eye in order to not be distracted by anything in plain sight.  He tuned out the other ninjas training for their noise would break anything he was attempting to do.  He cleared his mind of all doubts and woes in order to make room for any information or any senses that might wave over him. 

It took several minutes for him to be in a complete meditative state but he had done this several times while trying to calm the angers, woes, and sadness of his past.  He used this to douse the burning fires he had in his mind and body. 

But then he meditated over the thought of fire.  The burning fuel inside a shiobi's chakra channels.  He always felt this fire inside him but mistaked it as rage or anger.  It burned to get out somehow or someway.  Odin just never believed it to be anything he could harness. 
So he focused on this flame inside him. 
He opened his chakra gates and channels to take in anything and everything from his environment. 

He listened again to the children playing, the people passing by and gossiping about their lives, the birds who sang and chirped in the distance.

He opened his eye to take in all the visual stimuli around him.  He scanned the area with his eyes but searched with his chakra, reaching out and finding the fire that burned inside any and all living things. 

He soon located a small child.  This child had a small fire burning inside him as well but there was an enormous, energy he could only describe it, nearby.  He had felt like this being was engulfed in flames itself. 

This is my only lead.  If I happen to bump into another ninja, I will just say sorry and be on my way and try again. 

He picked himself up, honing in on the huge flame in the distance.  His eyes were just used as a precaution to not bump into anything.  He was really seeing with his third eye for the first time in a long time. 

He started jogging at a pace of 8, slowly picking up speed as he felt the passion inside him grow as he drew closer to whatever he was going to find.  His speed climbed to a 10 as he began to make some distance.  

A children's playground? He asked himself, looking at all the children, seeing their different energies, noting the potential shinobi of Kumo were in this very playground. 

Odin didn't let himself get distracted from the true goal, focusing and honing in on the huge burning bright aura nearby. 

Odin began to jog toward Akihana, not really knowing if she was the real one or not.  Just acting on pure instinct and following the fire burning inside him now.