[T]o Name the Wind

The days were growing longer in Konohagakure, slowly but surely the swiftness at which the night set upon the land was receding with each day and soon the long, halcyon days of summer would be upon them.

For Aozora Aoi, this was a very welcoming thing as the grass he tried and usually failed to meditate on was less and less chilly each night and the sun made sitting out later more and more bearable. This had resulted in him more rapidly reaching conclusions he had only just touched upon earlier in his meditations becoming more and more clear.

In the weeks before, just as Lady Night gave upon him her chilly embrace, he had noticed that the air seemed somehow lighter if he let himself focus upon it. In the time since then, he had noticed it more and more, and had finally confirmed it to himself that the density of the air was not static, it certainly changed and constantly changed.

Once he had confirmed this, he had the perhaps even more daunting task of figuring out why exactly this was the case. For the first two weeks, he'd operated under the assumption that the air came and went like the tides, though thankfully much more subtle manner.

However on the third day of the third week since he'd probed that line of questioning, a cold front had come through and its arrival had turned his entire hypothesis on its head and provided far more questions than answers.

Howling out of the north, the front had brought fast winds and rapidly made what appeared to be an otherwise warm day cold. It also brought with it clouds, and drizzling rain that made meditation during that period nearly impossible for someone as unexperienced as he was, and yet what little actual meditation he did manage to do had yielded interesting results.

The air was less dense than it was normally. This was true of the mornings and evenings, as well as the afternoon during the time it had been there. The notions of this had set his mind and imagination racing. He speculated why this phenomenon could have occurred.

Perhaps the cold front was some sort of wind related tsunami or rogue wave that made the sky a far more dangerous place than one might otherwise think? Aoi didn't know and his grades really suffered during the week the front was there, his mind focused less and less on classes and more and more on on the sky and temperature.

By the following Monday however, the front was gone. The warmth of the day returned and with it, the weight of the air came back too. This was puzzling and for another week entire Aoi's mind failed to find focus in the Academy and equally failed in finding a solution to his quandary.

That was, however, until his mother, vexed with his inattentiveness in class and failure to do multiple articles of homework mentioned that "If he did not get his act together, he would find himself in boiling water." a thought which his imaginative mind took a little too literally, likely because she was boiling something for dinner at the time.

And then it dawned on him, while he sat there listening to her lecture him on needing to focus more, the most important revelation of his entire life. The air was heavier in the kitchen than in the rest of the house and specifically, near the boiling pot.

After dinner, he observed the same thing in the showers and after another day or two of careful consideration, he felt confident enough to mark it down as another vital discovery. The density of their was not like the ocean tide. It was related to heat and to a lesser degree humidity. He had also heard it was easier to breathe at the edge of the sea than on top of mountains, which made him believe that altitude also likely factored in.

This was revelation and one that kept his heart true and stoked him on further to pursue his studies of the wind and to keep true to his promise to one day claim the sky. And then more time passed and there was not another revelation made and Aoi began to find himself frustrated with the entire notion of it.

Soon nothing came from it. Meditation became harder even as the days grew longer and more peaceful, his mind growing more practiced at tuning out the world. Feeling the wind on his skin became less and less interesting, as cute girls at school, his new friends, conversations had in class took the forefront of his attention.

In his mind a sort of resentment towards the whole thing began to develop. Why did Noami sensei ask them whatever it was she had asked to make him to cause him to claim the sky as his own. Was that even possible? Were humans even made to claim the sky or were they supposed to be on the ground? It was irritating enough that he had very nearly accepted the futility of the situation and was about ready to give up.

That was until one faithful day, when Aoi would finally have another revelation. It was once again after his classes at the Academy when he found himself in his quiet place, away from the world, eyes closed and mind's eye turned inward. He found nothing new about the density of the air. It merely was as it was, as it always would be obeying its cycles of increasing in density, and lessening in density.

The only thing of note was a slight breeze that teased him and laughed as he failed to comprehend it. The hours after school soon were carried away on that gust and as night began to fall, Aoi relented from his meditations and began to return home. He felt crushed and frustrated.

Yet as he made his way through the buildings and up the hill towards his home, the strangest of things happened. The small, relaxing gusts of wind that has caressed him through out his meditations suddenly whipped into a frenzy, snaking and winding their way between buildings, increasing in speed as they twisted and blew trash from toppled cans, sand, and plant matter.

At first Aoi ignored it, and marched on passing through the narrow streets until he reached a more open field. Again the winds died down and the gentleness returned. A curious observation, but not one especially helpful to the young student. He tried to push it out of his mind but it lingered, and did so again until he came to the next set of buildings and like clockwork the wind whipped itself up again.

Revelation dawned on him at last.

Aoi sprinted home now! Faster and faster, darting through the streets and taking as many pathways into open areas as he could. A pattern burst forth, discovered by his brain specially crafted to recognize them. In open areas the winds were calm and gentle, but there in the narrowed streets and twisted alleyways, it burst forth like a torrent from a dam uncapped.

When Aoi made his way home, there was a rekindled hope in his heart. The winds of change were upon him. He had discovered something new, maybe not for the rest of the world but at least to himself. There was understanding where before there had been clarity. There was something undiscovered, but related to his previous meditations, and he would learn what it was.

((WC = 1259))