A Single Drop

Wind Dance~

A single drop hits the ocean

A monkey reaches

towards the moon

Even though it may

know it can’t reach it.

Maybe a reflection of it could make it feel whole

A burning sensation filled the boy’s neck, bringing him to reality, the air was still and thin. Morning mist filled the tent that surrounded him. His eyes dance silver and sakura like petals of a flower. He wiped his eyes a simple attempt to discard the sleeplike veil that covered them.

“What am I doing here again…?” The boy muttered to the empty tent as he looked around as he noticed supplies packed, objects belonging to him.

He hung his head, allowing his blonde curls that bordered on silver cover his eyes as he remembered fully, the cold steel placed at his neck and piercing of his heart in some way. As he felt the cold feeling he looked at his chest, not injured or anything similar to it.

“I guess I failed again in that case..” his voice was solemn as he slowly got to his feet, he shook slightly, no longer powered by adrenaline when choosing to move. A broken stumble announced his exit from that place he remained in to a place known for its city of Lightning, Raimei. Mutters were the songs of life, filling the streets as the boy heard of someone being defeated by the strongest fighter after they attempted to seek them out.

He grit his teeth at the little information he got as he wandered, not known as shinobi or any other designated faction. His mind thickened by the hazy clouds of this land as he remained within his mind.

Impact.

The boy looked up as he noticed a man with gear meant for fishing, his eyes a light silver as he looked at the peculiar sight. A boy who appeared lost. The boy opened his mouth to speak only to be stopped by the warm sounding voice of the man.

“Sorry ‘bout that.” His eyes instinctively analyzed the boy he bumped into.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t steal anything off of you.” The boy spoke lifelessly before continuing to move, not even making an attempt to lower his head out of respect.

“That much was obvious...just a bad habit of mine you know?” The man watched as the boy passed him, reaching out to grab his shoulder.

The boy’s hand instinctively twitched to defend himself, restrained by his own mind. He controlled his breathing, carefully releasing his breath, focusing his mind.

“Let go….please.”

The man let go, his ear flickering as he felt the boy’s focus, akin to a tiger waiting to pounce on an enemy. Despite this the man seemed almost unafraid at this, smirking through the cloth over his face.

“Calm yourself, I just want to talk. You barely look like you’re from around here and on top of that and you look too young to be out here alone, what’s up with that, Sunflower?”

The boy let out a sigh as he shook his head, correcting the man almost instinctively.

“Masaki.”

He cursed himself silently as he muttered the nickname before turning to face the man before him, analyzing his large, hidden frame.

“And it totally isn’t suspicious to have random men approach travelers with weird looking sticks on their back.”

“Staff.” The man said, his eyes noticing analyzing him slowly. “So you do that whole analyzing people thing too?”

“It keeps me alive, but then again I guess it doesn’t do much when it comes to helping some else though….” Masaki sighed.

The man gave a nod to him as he heard him. He stretched out, revealing his bandages limbs hidden under his dark obsidian cloak.

“I know this is abrupt, but if you don’t have much business here...do you want to come fishing with me. Just to take your mind off of what’s troubling you.”

Masaki stopped short, preparing to question how that could be read before accepting his state with a single sigh.

A leap of faith..

“Fine, where to?”

\*\*\*

A steady mist covered the coast of the country. A hazy veil hiding all from the eyes of Masaki and the man. The light sound of chittering filled the air as the smell of the sea surrounded them.

“So this is the place, still getting used to walking distances like that...Geez.”

“When you travel around enough you get used to it, trust me…” The man said, drawing out symbols along his wrapped arms, funneling chakra out into them.

Masaki shifted his gaze towards the man, wind swirling around his arms as a scroll was summoned before him. His eyes widened as his hand rested on his blade.

“Fuinjutsu….?”

“So on edge… I can tell you definitely don’t travel much, Sunflower.” The man said jokingly as he focused his chakra onto the scroll. Smoke rolled off of it, giving form to a pair of fishing rods with a single can of bait.

Unable to shake his suspicion, Masaki kept a deadly stare on the man. His hand catching a rod as he shifted his gaze up at the fog. The man fell back onto the sand, taking a seat near the shore, leaving multiple staff behind him.

His eyes followed his rod as he focused his breathing, throwing out his line, letting it descend into the empty fog. He let out a sigh as he heard the hook meet the sea. The fog became his mind as he tuned out the world around him. A sight echo of a familiar voice filled his mind, calling out to him like an illusion.

“Kid…

….Kid?”

“Masaki!”

The cold hand of reality snatched the boy from reality. His lotus colored eyes blinked at his fogged reality as he realized it was the same annoyingly warm voice calling to him.

“What?” Masaki said with an annoyed sigh.

“I asked you a question, I hope you don’t do this to your girlfriend if you have one.”

“Quiet yo— Ask whatever you want.”

The man gave a cheeky smirk under the cloth shielding his mouth, an unreadable expression of joy as he answered.

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

“No.”

“Oh? That’s too bad, you seemed like you needed advice about something like that.”

Time passed, fish never met Masaki’s line, yet the man appeared to be amassing a small pile he could feed off of for weeks.

“You’re a fighter, aren’t you?”

“The sword didn’t give me away.” Masaki said with a sarcastic chuckle.

“Nowadays with bandits and rogue shinobi running around without a care you’d be stupid to not carry something to defend yourself….but the air around you is different.” The man said as he threw his line out.

“Different? Explain.”

“That whole focusing on your breathing thing, being so on edge, analyzing people the way you do. Who trained you?”

“My...mother, or at least she was like that, but what about you. If you could recognize all that off one meeting then I’m guessing you are too?”

“Nope.”

A quiet chuckle escaped the man’s lips as he pulled another fish from the water. He turned his gaze to the boy for a moment, quickly throwing his line back out.

“I’m just a fisherman.”

The quiet irritation settled as Masaki pulled his line from the water. His eyes closed to the dark before opening them, his pride swallowed.

“So how do I start catching some fish anyway, Fisher?”

“Understanding.”

“As if that isn’t vague enough.”

The Fisherman pulled at his line bringing forth another fish. He shook his head as he put his rod down beside him.

“Understand your goal, what you actually want out of all of this… and actually go after it.” He said, his eyes locking with Masaki’s as he spoke.

“What I want out of all of this...I can’t tell if that’s overly simple or needlessly complex…”

“Good, then you can shut up and listen for once… in life people try to seek understanding and try to connect all the time, the bonds they make aren’t always what they are…”

Masaki gave a slight nod, his mind flickering to crimson chains surrounding his body. Instinctively his hand moved to his neck.

“We say things like we understand when sometimes we don’t have a clue about anything… if people were all the same we wouldn’t have many conflicts, yeah?”

“...yeah.”

The Fisherman centered his sight on the boy, an inquisitive look.

“You don’t sound like you understand.”

“Not that...just reminded me of something.”

“Someone?”

Masaki gave a nod to the man, dark hair flooding his mind as the pain in his neck seemed to grow, his chest feeling cold.

“Aye...someone close who I thought I was close to, but whenever I try to understand to try and stop her from the path she’s on I keep being betrayed…”

“How much do you actually know of her, kid? Or have you just been chasing your own image of her?”

The sounds of the sea stopped as the Fisherman spoke. The world stopped for Masaki, the dulled tone of his eyes focused onto the man.

“Tell me what she’s like, Masaki.”

“She’s…. blunt, rude a lot of the time. Very hard to read as if she’s obsessed with the past and future. Prideful—

“Uchiha?” The Fisherman jokingly asked.

“How did you even… yeah.”

“You haven’t said a single good thing about her yet...why exactly are you after her again?”

“I love her.”

“And why is that, you felt so empty when you said that you know…”

“Emotions are hard.”

“That and every other thing that’s a minor inconvenience in life, Masaki…. If it was me I’d be after a cute Yuki wife or something like that.”

The Fisherman burst out laughing at his own attempt at a joke. The sound echoing through the landscape.

“Listen Masaki, I won’t be the one to say whether you’re right or wrong...but right now you're blinded by whatever is holding you back.”

Masaki’s eyes looked at the fog around them, still unable to see the sea no longer how much time actually passed.

“Raimei...at least for me is an illusionary place, nothing is always what it seems and people are the same...the best we can do—

A current of wind passed by the two of them, a staff finding its way to the Fisherman’s hand, a fanlike structure at its end. Light white chakra leaked off the Fisherman’s body as he held the staff tightly.

A single silent mutter came from him.

“Fūten: Calling of the Sea.”

The Fisherman slashed the wind with his staff, chakra released in the form of a small tornado over the ocean. Sea fell from the sky like light droplets of rain as the fog cleared.

“Is clear out whatever is clouding our minds and be sure in our own resolve.”