━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Chapter 7 ━☂

❁ཻུ۪۪ ━ ❝ With power comes great sacrifice.

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"So... what you're saying is that you took great pity for that cursed demon that you threw it far from here using one of your God's Breathing forms?" Sanemi asked him, glaring down at the small boy who stood at 5'6. (Y/n) nodded, gulping. "Yes, sensei. Please, forgive me! I deserve any punishment that you deem fit-"

"There's no way this little kid is your disciple." A new voice commented, a snake hissing following soon after. Not daring to look up from his seated bow at the newcomer no matter how curious he was, (Y/n) closed his eyes tightly. Sanemi looked over at the snake boy and glared. "He is, Obanai, so shut up." Sanemi snapped at him and looked back down at the seated bowing (Y/n). 

"Get up, your punishment will be served shortly." Sanemi sighed as he stepped back, motioning for Obanai to step up. Tsking, Obanai walked in front of the now standing (Y/n). "Greetings to the Snake Hashira, I am Katsuo (Y/n), the disciple of Sensei Sanemi." (Y/n) greeted him, bowing a perfect 45 degrees. 

Obanai nodded, "Stand up, I'm not really fond of those "respect bows"." Looking away from the boy, Obanai glanced down at his snake as he hissed, slithering away from his friend's neck and towards the (H/c)-haired boy. 

Feeling something slither on his shoulder (Y/n) quickly looked down only to see a pure white snake looking up at him, flicking its tongue for a few seconds only to slither up to his neck and wrap himself around loosely on (Y/n) neck.

"It seems that Kaburamaru likes you." Obanai commented, walking over to his friend as he tried to convince Kaburamaru to slither back to him only for the snake to look away from his friend, slithering on top of (Y/n) head and staying there. 

"Are you that little of a friendly person that even your snake prefers a stranger over you?" Sanemi snickered as Obanai sent a glare his way. "Like your one to talk." Obanai shot back earning a growl from Sanemi. "Come here and say that-"

"Sensei! Look!" Turning around to face (Y/n), Sanemi's angry gaze softened as he saw (Y/n) creating small gushes of wind with his sword that carried the snake making it seem as if it was flying. "Kabu-chan seemed to really enjoy it the first time I did it, and I just couldn't say no to those cute little eyes of his! It was as if he was asking me to help him fly!" (Y/n) exclaimed, the cute little snake still flying around with the wind as small flowers bloomed around it. 

Deadpanning as he saw his friend play around with the small kid, Obanai tsked and tried to grab Kaburamaru only for the snake to take advantage of the wind and dodge his attempt. "Kaburamaru! Come on, stop playing with that kid!" Obanai demanded, though Kaburamaru still dodged him again and again. 

"Sanemi! Tell your kid to stop indulging Kaburamaru!" Obanai yelled at Sanemi who had his arms crossed. Sanemi sighed, "(Y/n), enough fooling around, we have to talk about your punishment." Once hearing this, (Y/n) quickly put Kaburamaru on top of Obanai's head and bowed down at his sensei. 

"Yes, sensei." (Y/n) stated, his eyes closed as Obanai began to quietly scold his friend. Groaning at his friend's words, Obanai walked back over to Sanemi's side to look down at (Y/n). "(Y/n)-Kun, right?" Obanai asked him, his friend wrapping around his neck gently. 

(Y/n) nodded in confirmation as he said a small "yes". "The reason why I came here was to help you with your training as compensation for something that your sensei helped me with, and so, what is it that you need help with kid- I mean, (Y/n)-Kun?" Obanai corrected himself thanks to the small nudge that Kaburamaru gave him. 

"He needs help with being at peace with his mind. The fourth stage of his sixth form depends a lot on how much control he has over his mind, and since he doesn't have much of that his fourth stage falls short near the very end of the start. Basically, he needs help with maintaining focus." Sanemi answered for him, walking over to his student and pulling out his sword. 

"Nothing is wrong with his sword, either, so it must be his control over his mind." Sanemi theorized as he sheathed back (Y/n) sword, (Y/n) not minding that someone other than himself touched his own sword. 

Obanai nodded, "So... the reason why you used that compensation card on your student was that since I invented my own breathing style that I would know more about (Y/n)-Kun's problem?" Obanai asked him, looking over at Sanemi. Sanemi grumbled, clearly mad that he didn't use the compensation card for something humiliating like making Obanai propose to Tengen.

"Yeah, yeah, that's the reason. Now go do some magic, I have a mission that I have to get to." Sanemi stated, turning around to walk away only to stop and run over towards (Y/n), whispering something in his ear then running away as his raven appeared out of nowhere, screaming at him to hurry. 

Once Sanemi left Kaburamaru quickly left Obanai's side and slithered over towards (Y/n), wrapping around his leg. Glaring down at his friend who left him for someone else, Obanai looked over at the shy (Y/n). 

"I really can't believe that someone as shy as you can deal with someone like Sanemi." Obanai scoffed as he walked over towards (Y/n). "Now, I don't know how your Breathing Style works, but how I trained as that I went over towards a waterfall and meditated. The constant water rushing at you trying to knock you off course is a great way to ignore everything and just focus on your mind." Obanai informed him, climbing up a tree and laying down on the thick tree branch.

Looking up at his new teacher in surprise, (Y/n) raised an eyebrow. "Is that all, Obanai-sama?" He asked, walking under the tree as he looked up at the relaxing figure of Obanai. "Yes, that's all, now leave." Nodding firmly at his command, (Y/n) ran away from Obanai and towards a waterfall all the way to the other side of the mountain. 

Once arriving, (Y/n) inspected the waterfall as he saw that it was about 23 feet tall. There were three stones under it, getting a full splash of all the water that was going down from the river up above. Sighing, (Y/n) gently grabbed Kaburamaru and put him down on a stone along with his black Tobi shoes.

Taking off his obi, (Y/n) placed it next to the rock as he took off his haori, folding it and placing it on top of the rock along with the Nagajuban leaving him only with his white Tobi pants that he keeps under his kimono.

Jumping away from the ground, (Y/n) jumped on top of one of the rocks only to slightly stumble as the rock was slippery because of the water. Once regaining balance, (Y/n) closed his eyes and began to try and concentrate on his heartbeat only for the sound of rushing water and the constant water pouring on him to distract him from his task.

'Come on, do this for sensei! This is our punishment for not obeying orders so I must power through! For sensei!' (Y/n) yelled in his head in determination, only for that to make things worse as everything seemed to come at him at once. 

'Focus... focus...' Grunting as more water began to fall on him, (Y/n) tried to continued breathing only for the water to block most of the air to go into his system. 'This is bad-' Before he could finish his thoughts (Y/n) slipped from the rock and fell, being carried by the quickly rushing water. 

"Dang it! I have to grab onto something!" (Y/n) yelled out as his head was put inside the rushing water, only for his head to pop up again as he tried his best to stay afloat. Looking around he saw a thin branch pointing out from a tree, even though it was still a dangerous option he was desperate, he didn't even have his sword with him. 

Grabbing onto the branch (Y/n) tried his best to try and pull himself onto land again only for the fateful sound of a snap to be heard making his heart plummet. "F-"

Being pulled down onto the river water (Y/n) tried his best to try and swim back up only for that to highly backfire because of a tiny little detail; he didn't know how to swim or float.

Watching as the sun's rays become less seeable (Y/n) felt that he was going to be out of breath soon. 'I wasn't able to prove myself to my sensei...' (Y/n) thought, feeling as if he was crying but he couldn't tell due to the large body of water dragging him to his death. 

Closing his eyes, the last bit of his breath escaped his throat as he floated lower down the river floor, only for that to be stopped by a hand grabbing his own, pulling him out of the water and onto the shore. Checking the male's pulse, Obanai sighed in relief as saw that there was still a pulse. 

Looking down at (Y/n) (L/c) lips, Obanai gulped as a blush appeared on his cheeks. "Here goes nothing..." Obanai whispered as he leaned down, about to plant his lips onto (Y/n) own only for the said male to cough up water, spitting it right onto Obanai's face as he quickly got up from his laying position. 

Taking in deep gulps of air, (Y/n) looked down as he saw something slithering up his arm and circling his neck. "K-Kaburamaru, how-?"

"It was me, you idiot." Obanai stated as he wrung out the water on his haori, his hair also being wet from the water from the river. Looking over at his temporary teacher, (Y/n) froze before smiling warmly at him. "Thank you so much! Really, what's up with powerful people and me indebting my life to them?" (Y/n) chuckled, looking over at Obanai only to see that his bandages were wet.

"Oh, dear..." (Y/n) trailed on as he crawled closer to Obanai, putting his hand on top of his bandages only for his hand to be roughly grabbed. "Don't touch me." Obanai hissed, glaring harshly at the surprised (Y/n). 

"I'm sorry, it's just that your bandages are wet-"

"That still doesn't give you a right to touch me." Obanai growled, pushing away his hand and turning back around to focus on drying his clothes. Frowning sadly at this, (Y/n) bit his lip and walked over towards where his clothes were and picked up a roll of white bandages, walking back over towards where Obanai still was.

"Here, I think you might need it." (Y/n) smiled warmly at him, placing down the roll of white bandages on the floor as he walked back towards his clothes, putting on each layer before putting his hair on a ponytail, wrapping the sword belt around his waist and running back over towards where they usually trained, thinking that maybe Obanai needed some alone time.

Looking down at the roll of white bandage wraps Obanai hesitantly picked it up, staring at it intently. Hearing his friend begin to hiss, Obanai nodded in agreement at what Kaburamaru said. 

"I guess... I can give it a shot..."

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Taking off his Tobi pants (Y/n) hanged them on a tree branch to let it dry out. Walking back over to his favorite sitting spot (Y/n) sat down and touched the place on his neck where the blood moon necklace used to be, slightly missing the cool feeling that it gave him.

'One day, I know you and I are going to meet again, and when we do, if for some reason you don't recognize me, or if I don't recognize you, then let my present for you join us back together.' Clutching his haori tightly, (Y/n) eyes began to water as he remembered his friend. 

"Warriors don't cry, did anyone ever tell you that?" Flinching at the sound of the familiar voice, (Y/n) snapped his head up to look at Obanai who was clutching the roll of white bandage rap that he gave him with Kaburamaru circled his neck. 

"Obanai-sama!" (Y/n) squeaked out as he quickly wiped his eyes from the tears and sat up straight. Sighing, Obanai walked over towards him and pushed his shoulder down making the boy sit back down on the floor. Sitting in front of (Y/n), Obanai handed (Y/n) the roll as he quickly took it. 

"It's your fault my bandages are ruined, so you'll be the one to fix it." Obanai commented, bringing his hands up to his face as he went up unroll the bandages only to stop short, his hand not being able to do it. Smiling sadly at this (Y/n) brought his hand up towards Obanai's own.

"I know it's rather inappropriate for me, a student, to touch their teacher, but if it helps how about I unwrap them for you? I'll grab your hand the whole time while all that you gotta do is close your eyes, and trust me." (Y/n) reassured him, smiling warmly at him. 

Gulping, Obanai nodded and closed his eyes as (Y/n) rubbed circles on his hand, bring his left hand to unwrap the bandages only for Obanai's other hand to stop him. "I don't want you... to look." Obanai whispered under his breath, his eyes squeezed shut. 

Bringing his hand that was stopping his own, (Y/n) kissed it making Obanai gasp and look up at him. "Obanai, no matter what you look like, it won't change the fact that I care about you even though I barely met you. You saved my life, and that says a lot about someone. You can look like a blob demon and I would still wish to hug you. So please, let me see you for then I can love you for you." (Y/n) stated firmly, his eyes serious yet holding a sort of warmth that made Obanai melt. 

Sighing shakily, Obanai nodded. "O-Okay, just do it slowly..." Nodding at his request, (Y/n) still held onto his hand as he unwrapped his bandages, Obanai's eyes closed shut. Once his bandages were off of his face, (Y/n) gasped. 

Panicking, Obanai tightened his hold on (Y/n) hand. "I know, I look like a monster-"

"You look so cool!" (Y/n) exclaimed as she traced a finger over his scar. Opening his eyes in surprise, Obanai looked up at him. "W-What?" Obanai asked him, confused about his reaction to seeing his scar. "These scars tell so much! They tell about what you went through, about how strong you are, they tell about how no matter what you went through you still survived! So cool!" (Y/n) squealed as he unconsciously went over and traced small kisses over both sides of the scar, fanboying about how manly it made Obanai look. 

At what (Y/n) said Obanai froze. "You think... you think I look cool?" Obanai asked him in a quiet voice, not wishing to look up at him. (Y/n) nodded enthusiastically, his eyes shining. "Yep! I wish I could stare at your face all day!" (Y/n) sighed dreamily at the thought. Bringing his hand up to his scars, Obanai smiled as his whole face became red as he remembered the kisses that he gave him.

(Y/n) sighed in disappointment as he unraveled the roll of white bandages as he gently wrapped it around his mouth. Once finishing (Y/n) brought out a small knife that Sanemi gave him as he cut it off, putting it back inside his haori.

"Can you... can you hug me?" Obanai asked him in a hushed tone, too shy to ask bravely. (Y/n) stared down at him in surprise before smiling, nodding his head happily. "Sure!" Enveloping Obanai's figure in a hug, (Y/n) dug his head onto Obanai's chest as he listened to his heartbeat. 

"Hey, (Y/n)-kun?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you hug me every day?"

"Mmmm... sure!"

𑁍┊𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐑 ˎˊ˗

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ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴀ ɢᴏᴏᴅ ᴅᴀʏ/ɴɪɢʜᴛ ᴍʏ ʟᴏᴠᴇꜱ!

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