Naruto - Azure Awakening

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<<<>>>

Kaoru stood alone in the middle of the training field, a wide open space carved into the cliff's side. The ground beneath him was damp, the air thick with moisture. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of tiny water droplets floated around him, suspended in stillness.

'Yes, this is much better. Even if I still can't move them all at once, I can feel every single one of them.'

It had taken him two months to reach this point. Two long, exhausting months of intense training under Ogashi's strict guidance, but he had finally mastered it. Kaoru could now instinctively sense every water particle around him, so long as they weren't inside a living being. In those cases, his chakra couldn't connect unless he forcefully tried.

'After Grandpa Ogashi explained how the Suijingan actually works, improving my technique, something I had been stuck on for so long, suddenly became so much more real.'

He closed his eyes. Even through his eyelids, a soft glow leaked out, evidence of the activated Suijingan beneath them.

Slowly, the water droplets began circling around him, like tiny planets orbiting their star. Kaoru expanded his domain until the entire training field was covered. He could feel every shift, every shimmer in the air. The connection between him and the water was constant, steady, instinctive almost like breathing.

Then he took a step forward.

Instantly, a handful of droplets slammed into him, getting his clothes wet.

"Tsk." His eye twitched in frustration. 'I still can't make them follow me when I move. Why?'

His control over water was vastly superior to anyone else in the village. That much he was sure of. But for some reason, unlike Mizuki's fiery butterflies, which could hover around her and move in unison, trailing like loyal soldiers. Kaoru's water droplets wouldn't move unless he personally directed them.

'How does she do it?' he wondered, his jaw tightening. 'My control is much better, so why…'

He let out a long breath, shaking off the irritation.

'Calm down. Think it through.'

He extended his hand and summoned ten droplets, floating neatly above his palm. With a small motion of his fingers, he guided them into a slow orbit, like a lazy spiral. They moved exactly how he envisioned.

Then he stopped controlling them.

The droplets kept spinning, continuing the exact pattern he'd left them in, like little toys wound up and released.

'So far so good…'

He moved his hand slightly.

Nothing changed. The droplets kept spinning, ignoring the new position of his hand entirely.

He narrowed his eyes, repeating the same test with different speeds, sharper angles, and even subtle fluctuations in chakra flow. Nothing. The droplets followed the original path and refused to adapt.

"I don't get it…" he muttered, voice edged with frustration.

With a flick of his wrist, he crushed the droplets hovering in his palm. They burst into harmless mist, dissipating like they'd never existed. His glare shifted to the remaining droplets hovering lazily in his domain. The coldness in his eyes made it look like he was about to punish them too.

'What am I missing?'

But he didn't lash out again. Instead, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and sat down.

'Let's try something else.' He calmed his breathing and allowed his chakra to settle.

He didn't force the droplets to move. Instead, he observed them. Felt them. Tried to understand them as extensions of his own energy, not just tools to command.

The training field remained silent, the only sound being the faint whisper of water brushing against itself in the air. The droplets hovered, waiting.

Kaoru stayed like that for a long time, still as stone, his thoughts sharpening.

'Maybe I've been going about this the wrong way,' he thought, scratching his chin. 'Mizuki's technique doesn't work because she controls each butterfly individually, it works because her entire technique is made of her chakra. And her chakra follows the instructions she gave it when she cast the jutsu.'

His eyes lit up. He could feel it now, that moment just before a breakthrough.

'It's like when someone casts a fireball. It travels on the initial path but can't change direction mid-flight. Mizuki's butterflies are the same. They orbit her, but she can't give them new instructions afterward.' He grinned. 'I'm different. I'm not shaping the droplets out of chakra, they're real water particles. My chakra is just the thread holding them together.'

At that realization, every droplet surrounding him dropped to the ground, pooling.

Then, Kaoru extended his hand and formed a dark blue sphere above his palm, letting it hover with a steady flow of chakra. Next, he recreated a dozen droplets and had them begin to orbit the sphere like moons around a planet.

'Okay, this is it,' he thought, holding his breath. He moved the sphere slightly to the right, and the droplets followed.

They followed.

"Hell yeeeeaaaah!" Kaoru shouted, swinging his arms with a triumphant laugh and dispersing the water in all directions. He looked like someone who had just solved the universe's greatest riddle. He even came close to high-fiving himself, twice.

'If Grandpa Ogashi hadn't told me that my chakra is constantly distorted, I never would've figured it out.' His grin widened. 'The anchor needs a constant connection, but because of my distorted chakra, I kept losing control over the droplets. Now, by using that sphere as a stable medium, I can move them however I want.'

He could already tell that this wasn't just a workaround. This was better than what he'd been trying to do from the start.

'This version of the domain might be even stronger than I first imagined. That sphere doesn't just hold the technique together, it can be a guardian. A weapon. A shield.'

His Suijingan flared to life, casting a bright cyan glow across the training ground. Streams of water pulled from the air and the nearby pond rushed toward him, spiraling above his head. They began to mold together, the sphere morphing, changing.

It didn't stop at a sphere.

Tentacles formed one after the other, wrapping around his body with precise curvature and balance. Within seconds, Kaoru was wearing the fully formed upper half of a water-crafted octopus. Its limbs hovered protectively around him, suspended in a subtle ripple of chakra. The abdomen covered his entire body like armor.

Then came the droplets - hundreds of them, forming once more like a heavy rain frozen midair.

Kaoru's grin returned, but it was more than an expression of happiness, there was a trace of smugness in it.

'Alright… let's see if it works.'

He took a step.

Then another.

The entire current of droplets shifted with him, orbiting the water octopus like they'd been waiting for this moment all along.

Each movement he made sent ripples through the orbit. Not a single droplet fell behind.

'It works. It finally works.'

Kaoru stopped mid-step, a wide grin still stuck on his face as he admired the octopus he had crafted. With a flex of his will, he made it grow - its limbs stretching, body lifting higher off the ground. The shadow it cast now covered most of the training field.

'Hehe, I have my own Susanoo,' he laughed inwardly, raising one of the tentacles and slamming it down with a thundering crack. The ground trembled under the pressure, a visible dent appearing where the dense water limb struck.

"Should I call this Water Susanoo just to piss off the Uchiha?" he chuckled out loud, already picturing Fugaku's disapproving frown. 

'That boy is a menace,' he'd say. And I'd take that as a compliment.'

His laughter slowly faded as the thrill wore off. 

'This is just the beginning. Still so much left to refine,' Kaoru thought, breathing deeply. 'But by the time I go back… I'll be Jonin-level. No doubt.'

He had already turned down the option to visit Takimura twice. Every week he spoke with Maki through Yko's communication device, even exchanging letters with Mizuki through the notebook seal.

'Akane and Mizuki are still training. If they're not back yet, what's the point of me returning? Might as well make every moment here count.'

Just as he was preparing to dive into the next round of training, a loud crash rang out.

A massive blade slammed against the water octopus, failing to pierce through but making dozens of droplets scatter. The blow echoed across the cliffside training ground, and Kaoru instinctively dropped into a guarded stance.

A familiar voice followed, cutting through the silence like a knife.

"Oh? The loser finally made some progress." Sona's smug tone rang out as she approached, a long, curved blade resting on her shoulder.

Kaoru turned to face her, an eyebrow raised. "Didn't expect you this early, Sona."

She grinned, sharp and cocky. "Couldn't wait to ruin your morning. Let's see if all that Suijingan hype finally means something."

<<<>>>

"Gaara, father wants to see you," Temari called out softly, her voice composed but distant. Despite being his sister, their bond was thin and fragile at best. Gaara's lack of control over the One-Tail had left too many scars on those around him.

"I'm coming," he answered flatly, no emotion behind the words.

Inside the council room, the atmosphere was heavy. Rasa sat at the head, surrounded by Suna's key figures - Ebizo, Baki, Yashamaru, and several senior advisors.

"Are we really sure about this?" Baki asked, breaking the silence as he turned to face the Kazekage. "Gaara is dangerous, not just to the enemy, but to us."

"He's not dangerous," Yashamaru cut in quickly, voice taut. "He's just… a kid. A warm one, too. He just can't control the One-Tail." He realized too late that this wasn't the room for emotional defense. But Rasa didn't correct him.

Baki didn't back down. "That's exactly the issue. Gaara might not want to hurt us, but he will. Whether he means to or not. So putting him on a battlefield, especially a high-risk mission like this… how is that safe?"

"We don't need safe," Rasa said coldly. "We need strong."

Silence followed.

Rasa's voice lowered, but his tone remained sharp. "Akatsuki won't keep working with us unless we pay more. And we have nothing left. Not after the last war, not after the drought. This is our last card."

He had been using his gold dust technique to keep funds flowing, but it wasn't enough anymore.

"They agreed to one final assault," he continued. "One strike against Iwagakure. A clean, decisive blow. If it succeeds, we can weaken their front lines and gain a chance of surviving this war. If it fails…"

He didn't finish the sentence.

"We use Gaara to break their formation. He's our secret weapon. Their army won't expect a kid jinchuriki to be participating in the charge."

He wasn't blind to what he was doing. He was sending his son into the heart of the storm. But there were no easy decisions left. And Rasa had made peace with the fact that in Suna… even family could become a sacrifice.

"Lord Kazekage," Yashamaru stepped forward, his voice steady and calm. "Please allow me to accompany Gaara until… until we retreat safely."

The room went still.

Everyone understood what Gaara's role in the coming battle truly was. And for Yashamaru to make such a request… it meant only one thing - he intended to die with his nephew, or die while trying to save him.

"You have my permission," Rasa replied quietly, forcing a bitter smile.

'A father sending his own son to die. And an uncle asking for permission to die beside him,' thought the Kazekage, clenching his teeth so hard that the crackling sound was audible. Rasa had made many decisions he wasn't proud of. But this… this one he would never forgive himself for.

'Anything for Sunagakure.'

It was the same line he had been repeating to himself since the moment this plan first took shape. He exhaled sharply, forcing himself to move forward. Even if it meant that life itself would become his hell.

"We move at dawn," he declared, his voice barely above a whisper.

**

A/N - 

It was my birthday on June 29th, hence 1 day break <3

Water Susanoo was nothing but a joke, Kaoru's domain still needs a name though xD Any suggestions?

Reminder - Break Tomorrow

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The link is also in the synopsis