Knowledge (Fenn)

"Mommy, why are we here?"

Akihana turned her contemplative gaze to her nearly six year old. His birthday was fast approaching but his body seemed to have gotten a bit ahead of itself as he had shot up at least three inches in height over the last few weeks. Akihana hadn't even realized how tall her son had grown until she looked down towards him and realized the distance was no longer as it used to be a short month ago. Arata was healthy, happy and growing every day, something that both made her happy and worried her.

"Because Mommy wanted to meet Fenn Ni-san somewhere private." she answered to the best of her ability. There was no point in explaining the training ground was always too crowded, too distracting, and she had also come to do a bit of personal research on the area and inmates. It was definitely not worth telling her son that she was an interrogator on top of being his mommy, no, Arata was certainly not ready for that.

The inmates she was supposed to be "interviewing" were currently held here, and Akihana always liked to scope out their files as well as their general aura before she went into an interrogation session. But that was a different story for another day. For now, she would meet Fenn, they would train in the wide, spacious yard behind the kumo prison and then maybe she could ask him to take Arata home while she went on with her research. She knew the night warden well, he enjoyed a brownie now and then, especially once laced with hints of sake. The blonde carried half a dozen such brownies with her today, sealed safely in a scroll strapped to her thigh.

Dressed in her usual dark brown shorts with her ANBU tattoo barely peeking through the hem o the garment on her upper thigh, the kunoichi had today dispensed with her usual red vest in favor of a loose dark red t shirt Yaju had given her what seemed like forever ago. The blonde had figured she didn't need her top game for a simple training session and everything else had been in the laundry, recent events quiet distracting the blonde from more mundane housework.

"Mommy, my sensei recommended me for the genin exam two weeks from now," Arata's words caught her off guard, making the medic look down curiously at the boy, or more precisely, the hesitant tone in his voice.

"What's wrong, sweetie? You don't need to take the exams if you don't want to," she young woman soothed, crouching down to her son's height and holding out her arms for him. For the first time ever, Arata did not comply with the motion and resisted the invitation for a hug, instead turning to his side with a thoughtful expression clouding his dark eyes. The rejection, small as it was, stabbed at the blonde but now was not the time to examine that particular emotion.

"Come on Arata, talk to mommy, what's the matter?"

The boy looked at her silently for a moment, as though trying to gauge her reaction before he shook his head, his dark hair scattering atop his head with the movement. "Do you not want me to be a ninja, mommy?"

The question was one she wasn't expecting, and her golden eyes showed the kunoichi's surprise at being asked such a thing. "Why would you say that?"

"Because you never teach me any jutsu!" the boy finally spoke up, a small noise of irritation in his voice. "Everyone offers to teach me stuff. Fenn, Yaju-sensei, Odin Nii-san, almost everyone says I will be a strong shinobi one day, except you mom." He isn't old enough to know what a challenging tone is but Akihana highly suspected this was it, or close to it.

"That's only because I don't want you to feel like you have to be a shinobi, sweetheart. You can be whatever you want to be and I will still love you more than anything in the world."

"But what if I want to be a ninja?"

"Then you will be the best ninja this world has ever seen," the blonde confirms without an ounce of hesitation. "And you know how I know that, sweetie? Because you're Arata and whatever you do, it will be fantastic."

"Mooommmm," the exclamation is accompanied by a roll of his obsidian eyes but Akihana can see the smile lurking just out of sight.

"That's right, I am your "mooommmm", and moms get a hug," she quipped, opening her arms out once more and this time, the boy smiled and walked into her embrace, wrapping his own small arms around her neck as he hugged her.

Fen and Akihana had made plans after the dinner of the night they did the mission to take care of the beast, they decided some training was needed, cause fen found Akihana's surfing trick to be awesome, so he decided he wanted to learn water as his next element, and after a talk with Akihana about the training she has been through and the mission she recently completed, Akihana had been on the ball, and Fen had seemed to been slacking, so they decided it was time Fen and Akihana had a training day together, even Arata would be joining in, this was something they had been missing in all of their lives as of late, fen could feel it on the last mission that him and Akihana had went on, he missed them, both of them, Fen even missed how he felt around them, The demon he recently had made a deal with was being rather silently lately even the nightmares had stopped, so in the morning after he woke up from a peaceful rest, and he would awake and get dressed, wearing his phoenix armor, and his Gilgamesh on his back, where he always put it, and his pouches would hold his other stuff, his breakfast was held at Akihana's house, whatever they would have for breakfast there, and then he would help Akihana pack a lunch knowing her as she would most likely have one packed, and Akihana could see something that was once bothering him had stopped recently, he knew akihana could see it, they were a team way to long for her not to see it, But before she could ask anything he would just raise a hand and shake his head saying to her "do not ask, not at this time, Later maybe I will let you know" Fen would let out a sigh and sends a soft thank you to the demon inside of him, fen would then look around at the prison that they would have eventually walked their way to and then raised an eyebrow he wanted to know why she wanted to meet at a prison of all places, and so he would ask her "So why a Prison of all places?" and then Fen would look down at Arata and smile softly and offer him a hug, sure of the fact that if Arata hugged him, fen would stand up to his full six foot stature as the aging pills he had taken had jumped him ahead by four years, his muscles were a little more defined, and his smile seemed like it was never ending while he was around these two, if he had a family, this would be his family, he was sure of it, but where and how he would fit he did not understand exactly, fen would search deeper on this while he was around the two of them, but meanwhile, he would be paying attention to akihana, listening to whatever she had to say, and following after her if she moved, he would also set Arata down softly and would help usher him towards his mom and he would walk behind arata, fen's mind would also be running back to the black forest, thinking about that wyrm he was going to be testing himself against, fen would shake the thoughts from his head, he needed his head in training state with akihana, so he would Ask her, "So Akihana, I want to learn the Water Element, do you have any pointer's for it?" and fen would wait for her response and would put all his attention on her words so that he may be able to fulfill whatever it was she said to do

"So why a Prison of all places?"

"I have to go meet the night warden later," Akihana replied in way of explanation to Fenn's question. He would understand from that much that it had to do with her work for the Black Ops. Interrogation in a way suited her. It allowed her to extract information as peacefully as she could and even the blonde was pleasantly surprised when hardened criminals crumbled at something as simple as a soft, kind human touch and voice. The medic had all the unkind means needed to get a confession but why use them when kindness would get the job done faster.

But now was not the time to focus on that part of her job. As the redhead asked her if she had any pointers on learning the water element, the kunoichi looked up at him, trying to verbalize the feeling of learning an element. It was taking some used to looking up to Fenn with his new height and face. But inside she knew he was still the same person she had known for years. Of late her teammate had seemed preoccupied and she had picked up on it too well, enough that even he had picked up on her picking it up and requested she not ask any questions. Trusting him, Akihana had obliged. Fenn would tell her when he was ready. Until then, she would be supportive in any way he needed her to be.

"Well to be honest, it has to come from inside you," she explained, reflecting on how she herself had learned it. "I was told that my third element was wind. And I kept trying and trying to focus on it but nothing happened. And then, one day when i was trying to make my chakra flow like the wind, a jet of water squirted me in the face." The blonde laughed a the memory.

"So that got me thinking that wind doesn't flow as much as water. Also, it depends on the kind of attraction you feel towards the element to awaken the ability inside you. For example-" The young woman stopped, bringing her hands up together to for a seal for the Rain Tiger At Will jutsu. The clouds above darkened the clear skies immediately as Arata pulled out an umbrella, his onyx eyes bright as the first trickle of water began to rain down on them.

"Mom, you made it rain," the little boy exclaimed in wonder

"I sure did, sweetheart," Akihana grinned back at him before turning her attention to Fenn once more. "This is usually a jutsu, but I'd like you to think of it simply as water. See if you can blend the way your chakra flows to the pouring rain. If you have the natural affinity, it will sync itself when the corresponding element is near. Give it a try."

When Akihana spoke her sentence in response to his question he would give the 'Ah' face, but say nothing, as he kept his mouth shut and was silent about why she was really here, Arata did not need to know that kind of information, then he would continue to listen to her about what he had asked her about the Water element, she said it had to come from within, well Fen already seemed to flow like water through out his whole life he rolled with punches life threw at him, so this could very well be easy for him to accomplish, so fen would then sit crossed legged in the rain, he would reach down deep into himself and begin to pull at his chakra and began to get it to flow from him, out and out till he touched the rain with his chakra, he could feel akihana's chakra all around him, this jutsu was impressive, he could not believe she knew such a jutsu, but as he poured a little chakra into each rain drop it would fall and drop away from him, and he could feel his chakra hit the ground, and this would keep going for awhile, eventually he would be drenched in the water, and while drenched in the water, as he sent out his chakra once more, he aimed for rain drops a little higher up, and as he did, he could feel it take awhile, till his chakra finally synced with the flow of water inside the rain drops, and they would begin to stop all around him as he would hold his chakra in them and would begin to make them circle him like a ring around the planet called Saturn, eventually he would allow the water to drop down around him and hit the ground, and he would stand up and turned around, his focusing he was doing had negated all sounds he could have possibly been hearing cept for the sound of falling rain, that was what had helped him to keep his patience, and to eveutally pull this off, fen would then begin to look around for akihana with his eyes, as the rain would negate any sign of and chance of possibly tracking her chakra signature, upon finding her, he would run up to her with a smile and pointed in the direction it happened in and asked her happily "Did you see what I did Aki, did I do it right?" Fen would have a big cheesy grin right now

TWC-1044- Water Element

The kunoichi smiled as the artificial rain surrounded them both, or rather, the rain that had been subtly nudged by her chakra. There was nothing fake abotu the downpour currently drenching Akihana and Fenn and splashing off Arata's yellow umbrella as his feet drowned in the puddle of chakra infused water. Her jutsu simply managed to hasten the natural process of cloud condensation leading to rain. This, the blonde supposed, was what it felt like to be in tune with nature and not against it. She was going by the book, encouraging and not opposing natural elements to get the desired results. Perhaps it was simply her ideology behind techniques that made her learn them faster and there really was no such laws governing what was right and wrong, but the medic always held the strong belief that no matter how mercurial the subject at hand, there was a clear line between right and wrong.

there always would be.

This was the first time she had managed to create the Rain Tiger jutsu in proper battle settings, so while her partner attempted to sync his own innate affinity with the pouring drops of rain, Akihana took the time to test her own sensory range too. As it turned out, it extended far beyond what she'd hoped, making her realize too how it could be of great help when combined with other water based jutsu. Having created the water beast on their mission, the kunoichi now noted how if she were to create another beast, it would not only be much larger in size due to gaining volume from the chakra infused rain but could virtually last for a long, long time from the chakra present in the water. It was an interesting realization. Perhaps she wasn't as frail as she had initially thought when it came to fights. While Akihana was certain she was never going to be as good as her more accomplished comrades, perhaps what little she could do would be just enough to keep safe the ones she cared about most.

"Did you see what I did Aki, did I do it right?"

"I did, you were amazing," the blonde grinned back, reaching up to give him a high five. It was still odd to see Fenn so much taller than her but it was a change she was starting to get used to and like. Still drenched in the chakra laden rain, Akihana continued with the next part of her personal strategy.

"Usually people who have an affinity for water also tend to have one for an element that works well together with it. My first was fire and lightning came almost too naturally soon after because both these elements form my advanced one of light," she explained, pushing a wet lock of hair behind an ear as she continued. "So working on that assumption, I'd like to see if you can awaken a lightning affinity too. It might not work but then again, it might," she concluded, her topaz eyes glowing with the natural optimism she possessed in spades.

"Use the rain again, but this time, try to feel out my chakra in the drops of water. Since my chakra is already based off lightning, if yours matches, you should be able to feel and separate it. It might feel like a little zing in your system but if you can isolate and detect electrical particles then it means you have the affinity too," she explained. "It's easier to do in the rain as water conducts electricity. Go on, give it a try."

Fen would continue to smile, and he would say "Thank you" when she gave him a compliment, and then he would raise his right hand up and gave her a proper high five, not to strong but not to soft, he would then go quiet as she began her next series of words, then after listening to her words he would nod and give her a soft smile, then he would step back out to his spot, he would take a deep breath and reached deep down inside of himself, grabbed a hold of his chakra and began to pull it up and pushed it out words with it, he would begin to try a similar technique as last time, and he would start up high with it, already knowing what would happen at any lower then that level, his chakra would be pushed into the water droplets, just above his head, and right around the time they made it to his waist in height, they stopped, and then as they would have the lightning in side of his chakra activate and become known, lightning began to jump between the water droplets, and Fen would begin to repeat like before, spinning the rain around him, and thanks to the lightning inside the droplets, it seemed as if it was going at a high speed, the light becoming one big blur, and then fen would lose concentration as he got shocked a little to much from playing with the lightning a little much, and he would look over to Akihana and await her praise and approval

Once more, Akihana watched Fenn attempt to sync his chakra withe the lightning element present in hers. This time it seemed to take him a lot faster to learn which made the blonde wonder at his proficiency with elemental control. Despite their months of working together, the kunoichi had never seen him use his own advance element, preferring to stick to earth style and taijutsu moves for the most part. But given how quickly he was learning, Akihana gauged Fenn would be great at Darkness Release too. She understood if he wanted to keep that element private though. Not everyone felt the way she did about her own Light element ability, namely the need to let it shine when it wanted to. A memory from long ago dredged up in her mind, reminding her that Akari are the light in the darkness and the blonde shook her head. She no longer subscribe to the clan values but her nature hadn't changed. She would still believe that one single ray of light was all it took to keep complete darkness at bay.

Perhaps that was why the redhead couldn't release darkness jutsu around her, she somehow cancelled them out. It was not a nice line of though to pursue.

"Good job, Fenn," the medic called out, overjoyed at his quick mastery of the newly developed elemental affinity. "You clearly have an affinity for lightning because you managed to pick out of of my chakra combination of water, fire and lightning. That's actually a pretty advanced thing to handle so quickly," she praised with a smile. Keeping the rain going because the water would only help with further training, the young mother brought her hands into another formation of seals.

"Okay, now be careful here. I'm going to teach you a lightning technique but it will be super effective surrounded by water so I'm not coming at it with you, just showing you how to form it." The blonde turned around, away from Fenn and made sure she was an appropriate distance from both him and Arata before performing the Raiton Jibashi jutsu, sending the water around her zinging with the tech. If she had been aiming to hurt, she would have done some serious damage. As it was, the blonde controlled the jutsu and kept it for demonstration purposes only.

"Now give it a try, see if you can perform it using the water as your medium to add potency to the jutsu," she encouraged with a smile.

Fen heard the part where Akihana told him good job, but dispite getting shocked earlier, he would once more pull at his chakra and push it out into the rain around him, once more it would start above his head and as it got to about his waist, the water would stop and then the lightning would begin to spark from droplet to droplet, and he began to make the circling ring or lightning again, utilizing the water to do so, he was so concentrated on dancing around inside his little circle to dodge to little sparks of lightning, that he did not hear Akihana talk about the water mixing with this particular jutsu she was about to show, so when she fired off the Jibashi, Fen had still been in the way of it, and thankfully Akihana had cut down on the power of her jutsu, and then suddenly fen saw his lightning water ring battling the jibashi to help more or less protect him, then both lightning things just kinda dispearsed and he looked at Akihana a little shocked, thinking she was adapting to ANBU style of training of 'if you survive this then your doing good' risudal lightning in the water shocks fen a bit and he would react to it as such, and he would shout out to Akihana, "Hey what was that for?" He was not upset, just shocked, Pun intended, and surprised, did she really mean for that to happen? or was it happy coincednce of her just trying to show him a jutsu he could learn, either way, Fen was rather impressed at the effectiveness of it, and he could see while in water that jutsu she used could be very handy, he would walk over to Akihana and raise an eyebrow at her as he would ask her "So I am sorry I was not paying any attention, what jutsu did you just use?" as he asked he pulled out his jutsu encylopidea and was already looking up Lightning jutsu that had the same effect as the jutsu she just used, right around the same time she would most likely be telling him what jutsu it was, he would find it in his book, while both reading and this time listening to her, he would see all the effects and applications he could possibly use it for, with a jutsu like Rain Tiger at Will, and the right intent behind it, this jutsu could be very dangerous, fen would close the book probably around the same time she would finish her explanation of the jutsu and most likely any applogies she would feel she might need to say for the accident, but it was his fault for not paying attention and he would make sure to tell her that too, then Fen would turn his back to them, ensuring Akihana nor Arata could get hit, as he would form the handseal for the jutsu, and he would begin to reach for and pull, with difficulty, the chakra that seemed to jump around the most, this seemed rather fitting to be his lightning chakra, so he once he was able to get a strong hold of it, he would then release it as the technique intended, aiming for infront of him, but as he flubbed up a bit, he would become the one suddenly shocked by the jutsu, thankfully enough he did not use enough chakra to make if full powered as he was just testing the jutsu out, but it still stung quite a bit, he would, once done looking like Alfred Einstien, would kick at the ground and huff from his failure, but then taking a deep breath he would try once more, and this time he would be successful at not electrocuting himself or anyone else, but it did not travel for nor last very long, and then he could hear Arata make a comment saying "Does anyone else smell smoked ham" and Fen would lower his head in defeat, leave it to Arata to pick on him for messing up, just like a little brother, but Arata made up for it with a hug to his waist, and a comment saying "They looked like fireworks the second time around though, Fen-Niisan, and fen would smile down at Arata and hugged him softly, getting down on one knee to do so properly, and then he would stand up back at full height and would turn to look at Akihana, and then asked her in his usual cool demeaner " So Akihana, what shall we do next?" Fen smiled softly at her, some how, Akihana and Arata made it so he could smile in the face of defeat, and some how come out on top in the end

As Fenn attempted the jutsu once more, the blonde called out a warning. She hadn't missed him shocking himself earlier but it seemed minor and she didn't want to point it out in case it made him feel bad. This time however as the shock frazzled his hair, Akihana moved towards him with haste, hands always glowing green with healing chakra to repair any cells damage that might have occurred. The line of worry on her forehead and clear concern in her golden eyes was abated a moment later when not only Fenn seemed okay but performed the jutsu as well as anyone used tot eh lightning element could have done. It was really amazing to see him pick up the techniques as fast as he was doing.

"Here's a quick tip for when you get hurt in the middle of training or even mission when there's no medics around," she suggested, touching his forearm with a glowing fingertip and assessing cell damage from the shock. "Its basic medical ninjutsu so you don't need to know much. Just imagine your cell structure and focus on repairing any damage the injury caused on a cellular level," she explained, showing him how she focused her own energy into the healing chakra. "It won't work on major injuries, and it's more field surgery and you should still see a proper medic afterwords, but this will stop most bleeding and do some basic healing when its needed."

Akihana personally believed that everyone should learn some basic medical ninjutsu, even if they were not medics. It was a handy little thing to have on your arsenal for when you or a teammate got hurt. Chances are there would always be a medic on team but the one thing she had learned during her ninja career was that it never hurt to be prepared.

"Here, try it yourself and you'll feel your body coming together. Fatigue will go away marginally and you'll generally feel more energized. It comes with cell repair and rejuvenation that the jutsu induces."

Fen would nod to her and would use the three hand signs she told him to use, even though she took care of most of the damage, the left over damage he could feel begin to heal from inside his own body, it seemed he could not do much at this point in time, but he could tell how it would be effective for certain circumstances, he would smile at her a nod to her "Thank you Aki, but I doubt I will ever need it with you by my side" And fen would nod to her and look down to Arata and would tell him "And with you at your mommies and mine side, we are unstoppable " He would smile at Arata, as he would jump up and down shouting "Unstoppable, Unstoppable!" and fen would begin to laugh at the energy this kid seemed to have, and then suddenly something came to his mind, the body he had ditched outside of the town as not to cause a mass panic, he would look to Akihana and then to arata, and then back to Akihana "I have something to show you and ask you about Akihana, but it is not best for little ears and eyes" and he would gesture to Arata really quick with his eyes and then would look back at Akihana, waiting for some sort of response from her as to what they should do about the kid, as she was his mother it was completely up to her, and he would just wait, till she broke the silence, meanwhile, ideas ran through his head as to how he could utilize these new jutsu he was learning from her