Trip to the Market [lonely]

[HakunnaMattata]

Yakunna did it. He had managed to make his way through the Academy and become a Genin. He was finally a Genin! Shizori was filled with joy, however, his uplifted mood would not last for long. As he pushed the dark blue hair out of his eyes, he continued to walk, his boots hitting the red hot sands of the Suna.

"What did Sy want again? Oh she's going to get mad if I don't bring home the groceries AGAIN!"

Yakunna kept walking, his feet not being lifted, more like dragging along in the sand. He had a habit of doing this, and it always got worse on a hot day, like today. The Blue Haired Genin really wished he would've brought his hat along to protect himself from the rays of the harsh sun, but there was no turning back now. Yakunna smiled at a few neighbors, most didn't do anything, although a few children smiled widely, as if it stretched from ear to ear at him. He always got along with the younger children, except for the mean ones. They made fun of him because some were taller than him and his hair color was.... different.

Now that he thought about it, Yakunna realized it wasn't just his hair color that was being made fun of by the children, it was everything that was made fun of at the academy. Back in the academy, everything about him was different. Especially when they did training exercises.

"So what if I wasn't strong like them? Fighting wasn't my specialty. I want to be the best I can be, and just because I wasn't good at fighting didn't mean anything! It wouldn't hinder my abilities at all! I could still fight! I remember when they told me I couldn't do jutsu! Even the teachers said no! And you know what I did? I went home and I tried for hours and hours and hours!"

---

Yakunna's mind goes back to when he was an older child, possibly 10-12 years of age. Instead of his smile, he's gritting his teeth, and he looks at his biggest enemy yet. The forty foot tall tree in his backyard. He's been spending half an hour just staring at the tree, deciding if he wanted to do anything or not, but then he remembered that if he never practiced, he'd never get anywhere, and that was something he'd need to do! He needed to get somewhere! He needed to grow from this. If he just stared at thieves robbing a local Oasis village, would that stop them? No! Would this climb the tree? Just staring at it? No! Yakunna took a step on the tree, trying to focu his chakra onto his feet, and he took another step, hanging at a 90 degree angle from the tree..... He's doing it! He starts scaling the wood, his feet seem to stick to the tree, as if it were a normal surface. A bird flies past Yakunna, a blue bird, which Yakunna quickly swats away, being terrified of these. This caused Yakunna to lose conecntrating and he suddenly slips on the tree! Yakunna falls from halfway up the tree, and he reaches for something to save his fall. He shouts for help, and he wraps his hand around something. A branch! Yakunna felt relieved, although now he had to get down, and he was easily fifteen feet in the air. He was a shinobi in training, he could just jump. But.... but he didn't want to fall and get hurt. Just because he was a shinobi in training didn't mean he wasn't able to get hurt. Yakunna felt like shouting for Sy, she'd come rescue him, like she always had. No! He had to find a way down himself. He would never get better if Sy was always with him. He couldn't depend on his mother like that forever, and when he was a Shinobi in the middle of the battlefield, would his mother come save him then?

---

The flashback in his head turns to something else, young Shizori Yakunna looking across a lake. The water is still, and it's one of the main water sources at Suna. Yakunna, having travelled far to get here, would not back down now, and he thinks one last time about this. All he needs to do is run across the lake, reaching the other side, focusing his chakra on his feet so that he can float. Without thinking, he places a foot on the water, and he takes another step onto it, and another, and another. He's in the middle of the lake now, and he throws his hands up to celebrate, which throws him off and he starts to stumble a bit on the lake. He tries jumping up to save himself, but that only causes him to turn in mid-air, making his feet go flying and his head go crashing into the lake. Yakunna gets brought down into the filthy water, and he tries swimming out of it, but Yakunna has never learned to swim, as there was never enough water to swim in! He opened his mouth, as he was running out of air, but that only caused water to fill his mouth and go down his throat, and he didn't know what to do! He tried opening his mouth for air and to spit out the water, but it only made it worse and worse! Yakunna blacks out from lack of oxygen...

---

"It's alright. I'm here now. Let's go. You know, you shouldn't be practicing techniques you can't do outside of the academy. It's there so you can improve and so that if you do anything unsafe, we're right there."

Yakunna felt a grip around him, and being pushed through the air while being held. He closed his eyes, until he felt his feet safely on the ground, and he opened them. There, he saw one of the leading figures at his academy, the one who led his class. Yakunna turned red with embarrassment, and he couldn't say anything, he just nodded his head and run off. How did he get there? It didn't matter. What did matter, however, was that he was safe. He went back into his house, ignoring his mother and his drinking father, who seemed three quarters drunk, and he went to his room and held his head in between his hands, ashamed. He will never be a true shinobi. He will fail like his father did. He will be like his father when he grows up, an alcoholic who only cares about the good feeling of numbing the pain away with Sake. Tears filled Yakunna's eyes, and he cried himself to sleep, skipping dinner...

---

Yakunna woke up in his bed, his clothes were removed, and he laid there in a towel with the heat from candles around him trying to warm him up.

"Never go off like that again! You scared us! We had to all for someone to go and get you. Do you hear me Shizori Yakunna? You NEVER do that again!"

Yakunna saw his overprotective mother Sy staring down at him, with a worried look on her face, and it looks as if she'd been crying not too long ago. He just kept still and took her hour long lecture and then as soon as she left, he went to sleep, turning over onto his back and tearing up, occasionally sneezing from the sickness he got from the water. Him chasing his dreams failed and made his mother sad. He was awful. He always would be.
[/i]

---

As he looks back on all that.... Yakunna just shook his head. He continued walking to the market, and once there, he nodded politely at the vendor, shook his hand, and did a slight bow to him, which sort've made the vendor uncomfortable, at least, that's when Yakunna thought from the expression on his face. Yakunna just grabbed a few basic items, some fruits and vegetables and a few sets of cloth to make clothing, as his mother often made Yakunna's clothes for him, which he gladly appreciated. Yakunna paid for the items and walked off, going the opposite way. He walked home, happily exchanging glances with a few children, waving his hands at a few adults, and even high fiving a toddler. Yakunna smiled, and when he got home, he pushed the door open, placed the food and cloth on the table, and then headed outside, where he saw the tree. He examined the tree, which had marks on from the many times Yakunna failed from running up it. He felt the rough bark, and he was glad that they could get the tree in their backyard. The tree was a certain type which, like cacti, grew long roots to get water from the ground, so that they could use water for good reasons, such as bathing and drinking, not wasting it on a garden. It was the benefits of having a mother who was a high name in the community, friendly and loving, and she gave to the people and they gave back to her, which led to her cactus garden and of course, the beautiful tree. Yakunna looked at the tree and backed away, and then took a few large leaps, running up the tree with concentration, and he ran around the side of it, circling it over and over again, and he reached the top, and he pushed his arms into the air.

"I never gave up, and I never will! I am the Water in the Sand, and I will be the greatest Shinobi the Suna has ever witnessed! I will keep training and I will never, ever give up! Hi-Yah!"

Yakunna shouted, kicking the air and dropping to the ground from the height, which, because of his frail body and awkward balancing, made him hit his knee.

"OW! Sy!!!!!!!!"

Yakunna screamed and shouted for his mother, and he quickly used his Bandage lijutsu while holding his leg, and his overprotective mother came out and came to his rescue, and nursed his leg back to health. Maybe he should take things a bit slower. Oh well, he'll learn from experience.