Unexpected consequences

Time flowed like the sand in an hourglass.

The present that Pakura received from Teruya on her last birthdays worked like a charm, giving the two boys physical reprieve from her hyperactivity. Yet such a state of affairs did not last long, two weeks to be precise, when mothers of the trio managed to meet up.

Seeing an unusual opportunity for gossip and girls talk Sugawara swiftly invited the other two, before evicting Matsuura out of the house for the rest of the day. During their talk Sugawara gushed about her little princess and her birthday. She also talked about the presents that she received – one of them being training weights, which made the other two consider 'gifting' a similar set of weights.

After all, all of them were greatly accomplished shinobis, which meant they had skill and awareness about the dangers in their line of job. At the same time it also meant that usually they had to be away from home and their children, unable to train them, nor give them pointers in preparation for their inevitably danger ridden career.

'Making Sasori/Teruya wear weights will increase his survivability in the future.' The duo of mothers nodded in their heads, thinking from which shop they should get those.

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~

It was a day after the mothers gossip party.

The trio met up in Teruya's house for their typical outing as he was finishing his breakfast.

"Good morning." Pakura greeted Teruya and his parents excitedly as it was typical of her.

"'Morning." Sasori dryly muttered to Teruya.

"Morning? What?" Teruya answered their greetings, while being confused by Sasori's weird mood.

"You will know." He answered curtly.

"Okay." Teruya turned back to finish his sandwich with a confusion written on his face.

Seeing the exchange Koizumi smirked before she decided to enlighten her son.

"Sonny, yesterday me, Pakura's and Sasori's mother have talked about various things and one of them was about a Pakura's birthday, which we unfortunately couldn't be there."

"Okay?" Teruya replied, not really sure where she was going with it as he finished his meal. In the middle of her speech he did start feeling a burning gaze in the back of his head.

"We also heard about the great presents you two have gifted your friend."

"…" With each of her word the feeling of a burning gaze got stronger, while he himself got a bad feeling about where she was going with it.

"So we decided that you two will also wear some training weights. We wouldn't want for Pakura to feel uncomfortable – being the only one that wears it – so to amend such a situation we bought you two a similar set." She said with a smile that didn't look like one for Teruya.

"…"

"…"

"Can we talk about this?" Teruya ventured towards negotiation tactic.

"Nope." She said with a popping p, as she presented the set for him to wear.

"…thank you mom, you really spoil me." Teruya said with a sarcastic voice.

"Oh, anything for you sweetheart." She replied with a sugary voice, ignoring the pointed look she was getting.

After putting them on he turned towards his friends that were waiting for him, only then noticing a crimson coloured set of weights on Sasori's limbs which matched his hair.

"Oh." Teruya dumbly voiced out his state of mind as he approached them.

As the trio went towards the exit he got smacked on the back of his head by Sasori.

*smack*

*ouch*

"You're an idiot, 'older brother'" Sasori told him dryly.

"How was I supposed to know THIS would happen!" He pointed at the weights.

"Oh wow, our genius had a genius idea." Sasori said sarcastically. "Please do punch me if I will want to listen to your future 'genius ideas'.

With the change from nobody wears weights to everyone now wears them their situation deteriorated rapidly. Their main saving grace from being completely exhausted before was the limited number of hours they could spend outside before having to meditate and go back home.

Now the weights ensured that they will run out of stamina faster, while the main target of their plan will still push them for more.

The two continued to bicker as they moved through the village, and unlike the sun that was shining brightly, their outlooks for the near future were not so bright.

Meanwhile Pakura was following the duo with a joyful strut in her steps.

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~

Thanks to being a sensor, Teruya was able to compare chakra between each other, though only recently as only in the recent time Pakura got to awaken her chakra.

Pakura had the biggest pool of chakra, a bit more than twice the size of Teruya's. Clearly her physical activity helped it grow so much, it would be more surprising if it wasn't. The feelings that her chakra gave was that of a flame that was dancing with happiness.

'I guess I wasn't that far off when I called her a ball of fire.' Teruya thought with a chuckle.

Her chakra pool would probably be even bigger if she didn't struggle with meditation. The first time she tried to meditate she couldn't sit still longer than a minute. The part of the day in which we meditate quickly became the disliked one for her.

Sasori's chakra pool was also bigger than that of Teruya's, though only by around 30%. Though it was difficult for him to say whether it was from his older age that allowed him to start increasing it sooner or was it from innately bigger. His chakra itself felt mischievous, full of laughter but also full of passion.

After asking what their chakra natures were, Pakura told me that she has wind and fire nature, while Sasori has a fire one.

AN: Lore wise there's nothing said about his chakra nature, but it feels natural for him to use it. He killed Third Kazekage mid Third Great Shinobi War and I doubt he would be able to do it only with his puppets, as magnetism and iron sand is kind of a hard counter to puppets. As such I rejected earth natura as it has minerals inside of it (could be affected by magnetism) – Kakashi said that lightning nature is strong vs earth nature because of it – meaning: it's unsuitable to combat Third Kazekage. Water would suck on desert (cost way too much chakra for combat), wind would be too weak, while lightning just didn't feel right for him. With fire he could've melted iron sand to get to the target.

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~

"Teruya? Are you listening to me?" I heard my father's voice, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Yes, yes." I quickly answered her.

It has been around four months since Pakura's birthday, meaning I was now 3 years and 9 months old. Yesterday my father came back from a mission and told me that tomorrow I will be coming with him. Now we were a bit away from inhabited area of the village, away from others.

"As I was saying." My father said. "You've been working on your chakra pool for quite some time, so it should be safe for you to start moving to the next stage."

"Are you going to teach me ninjutsu finally?!" I said with a bit bigger excitement than I would be willing to admit.

"Unfortunately no." He said to my disappointment, deflating me like a balloon, at which he laughed.

"So what now?" I said trying to move the topic.

"Now I will teach you about chakra control."

"Chakra control?" I repeated at which he nodded.

"One needs control over chakra to use it in jutsus. What's the point of having huge amount of chakra if you cannot even use it?" He asked a rhetorical question at which I nodded.

"So all I need to do is just learn how to use it, right?"

"Not exactly." He shook his head. "Chakra control is a skill that one always develops throughout his entire life. A shinobi with a better chakra control uses less chakra on different techniques, do you understand?"

"Not exactly, how does it work?"

"Okay, let's give you an example: say that chakra is ryō and a technique you are trying to perform using chakra is house, while chakra control is a skill of negotiating. With your skill in negotiations being subpar you'd have to spent all of your ryō to purchase it. But if your skill is higher you could negotiate a lower price, saving up some ryō, or even being able to buy two houses at the price of one. With a better chakra control you can spend less chakra on a technique."

"…"

"What, did you not understand?" My father questioned after I failed to react.

"No, no, it's just that I'm surprised you – a shinobi - would give a financial example." I explained.

"When your equipment costs huge sums to create, you swiftly learn economics, finances and how to invest." My father said with a wry smile.

'I guess it's inevitable.' I thought.

"Okay, so how do we begin?"

"First you…" AN: ...make a cliffhanger *maniacal laughter*