Ride - I'd live for you (and that's hard to do)

After eating quickly, she paid and went away. She didn't know why she did it and it wasn't until she was one hour away from the village that she realized she didn't need to run.

"Why am I running?" she asked herself aloud.

Kurama yawned. 'Dunno. I was waiting when you were going to realize it on your own.'

"Ugh! Why didn't you tell me anything?!" she whispered harshly as she ran a hand through her hair.

'What am I, your mother?'

Huffing, she crossed her arms but didn't comment on it, choosing to continue on her way. Though this time, choosing to walk on the path instead of running across the trees. She grabbed a leaf from the nearest tree and continued her training. She chose Lightning manipulation as her next element to practice, in honor of the Sasuke she left behind.

'Sure, it is because of that blasted Uchiha,' Kurama scoffed, sarcasm lacing his tone. 'I'm sure it wasn't because of how cool you think his techniques are.'

She blushed. 'It is because of that bastard, really!'

'Admit you just want to get one over him and look cooler while doing so.'

'Oh, shut up.' She grumbled for a while longer.

Ignoring Kurama's cackles, she returned to her training. She needed to make the leaf wrinkle, which was hard because she had to do it without drying the leaf.

Easy in theory, but hard on—

Wait, no. It was hard in theory, too.

The only advice Kurama gave her, after explaining in the most basic way he knew of, because it was too hard to follow otherwise, was to picture her chakra vibrating. When she was sure it was vibrating enough, she needed to pour it into the leaf.

Or something.

Which, yeah. She tried but was having trouble with the vibrating part. At one point in her walk, she tried to wrinkle the leaf directly without making her chakra vibrate. She wanted to try it like that to see if she got lucky and managed to do it. Maybe if she did it so once, she would be able to repeat it again later.

Kurama told her once it wasn't done like that, before leaving her on her own. After a couple of hours of trying it by herself, without clones, she kind of managed it.

She stared at the brown leaf for one second, not knowing if she managed to do it correctly or not.

Should she feel elated?

Maybe this is how it looks when it's too wrinkled? Like, it was so crumbly, it appeared like dirt.

A smile was already appearing on her face, but, at that moment, Kurama talked, dousing her happiness with cold water.

'Congratulations, you've got the first phase of the training for Earth manipulation done,' Kurama deadpanned. She pouted, wanting to protest, but the fox ignored her, continuing instead, 'Wait, what? You were trying for Lightning instead of Earth? Really? How did you manage to make such a mistake if you had the advice of the mighty Nine Tails on your side?'

She blushed. "Hey, now—"

'It's as if you hadn't listened to what he said and chose to do whatever you wanted. But, no. How could someone be as stupid as to ignore the being with literal centuries of experience?'

"Okay, I get it! Sorry, okay?!" She took a deep breath and clenched her fists. Instead of continuing to talk aloud, she said mentally, 'I should have tried your way, but… well, I didn't understand.'

'Yes, I know. Why didn't you say so, though?'

'Huh?' She blinked, confused. 'But you already knew I didn't know…?'

'Naruto,' he said and geez, she knew it was bad when he called her by her name and not by 'brat'. 'You need to learn to vocalize your problems aloud. In the beginning, when I explained the theory, I continued to dumb it down because I knew you didn't understand. However, I stopped because you started to take it for granted. What you need to understand is that others can't always guess what you're thinking about. They can't read your mind like me, after all.'

That made her wilt. "Oh."

'Yes, 'oh'. That's why I stopped explaining and waited for you to ask me when you needed help.'

"Sorry," she murmured, hating how small her voice came out.

Kurama sighed. 'I know you've grown used to solving your own problems with little help. Sometimes even with none or purposely given advice that was wrong, but. You're no longer alone, okay?'

"Okay," she said aloud, a promise behind that simple word. "I will try to do better."

'Good.'

Naruto smiled widely before going inside her mind, touched by the sincerity of his words. She walked across the opened gates of Kurama's old jail and gave one of his tails a hug. 'Thank you, Kurama.'

She then looked up and grinned at him. 'You're a big softy, you know.'

Kurama rolled his eyes, holding the tail she was hugging up and moving it, dangling her along with it. She laughed, giving him one of her famous foxy grins.

'So, brat. I think there's something you need to ask me?'

Naruto nodded quickly. 'Yeah, Kurama-sensei. Could you explain how the lightning transformation works, once again?'

Kurama looked at her enthusiastic smile for one long moment before leaning close to her and saying, 'No.'

'Ah, awesome! Thank you for—Wait, what?'

She blinked a couple of times, Kurama chuckling at her. She pouted, but didn't need to ask for an explanation because he continued on his own, 'You learned the first step to master the Earth element. Better to continue with the second step and progress with it instead of choosing to do lighting.'

Naruto groaned. 'Earth, really? Aw, man.'

'Yes, indeed. What have we learned today, though?'

'That I should follow your instructions better?'

'That, too. But the main point is: Kurama is always right.'

Naruto blew a raspberry at him. 'Yeah, yeah. That's why I have an awesome woman's body instead of my manly one.''

'Manly?' Kurama cackled. 'Sure it was manly, brat.'

'Oh, shut up,' she grumbled, but there was a smile on her lips.