Y'all join your minds and dive into the dream plane. You find yourself standing in front of Nura at night. The moon is full, and the stars shine brightly. The wind blows softly through the trees, rustling the leaves ever so slightly. This is Nura's dream, but you can slightly alter it as you wish.
Standing in a grassy meadow with a dark purple sky, you create a river of opinions and facts flowing between you and Nura. Understanding the conjoined thoughts y'all may share. Your hands are at your side, as you speak your innermost secrets to her, creating solid bricks of honesty to build upon. Although we're the same person, we're separate in this plane. After an hour, a solid wall has been created, and you feel like you can tell her anything.
However, on the other side are about 40 shadow clones. Their faces are unreadable, but they all seem hostile. They are also developing a wall of their own, which seems far stronger than ours. You decide that you can't let them win. You focus once again on honesty and create an even larger wall.
"I trust you, and you can trust me." She says in front of you.
"I trust you. I promise to never hurt you physically or mentally, and I'll trust you always."
"Could I ever be a real person? Unlike the other clones, I have a conscious."
"Your conscious is what makes me trust you. Let's go."
You look at the shadow clones. Readying yourself for their attack.
You and Nura wait for the wall of facts to come, but it doesn't. You both feel extremely safe with each other. That's all you need...right? Your thoughts racing.
"Yes!" You couldn't help but think out loud almost as if you were having an epiphany; reaching your hand to touch hers...
Nura jerks her hand away and stands up, leaving you in confusion. While her eyes gaze at the enemies "We should continue training."
The 40 clones attack. You defend yourself as best as you can and patiently wait for your chance to talk to Nura once more. She moved so gracefully, outclassing all of the clones.
"Let's do a Jutsu, Nura."
"What jutsu should we do?"
Nura taught you and the clones how to use advanced shadow clone style Jutsu. However, the 40 shadow clones learn how to perform their version of the 'Shadow Sewing Thread', and begin doing so against you, forming a chain of absolutely impenetrable rings around your entire body.
You struggle against your bonds as if that would help. Nura was quick enough to dodge it, and attacks the now unguarded shadow clones. With a single punch, she knocks out 8 of them. With another swift move, she cuts open the stomach of 2 more. After a few seconds of being punched and kicked, you manage to somewhat regain control of your body through the chains.
Unfortunately, she defeats all 40 clones in under a minute.
"Sorry I wasn't any help" You felt helpless, being caught off guard by the clones.
"Yes, you were." Her smile was so genuine, I couldn't help but smile back.
"Everything will get better, now that we're together," she says as she props you up begins mending your wounds. You smile again. Everything definitely was going to be better. How can a mere clone like yourself feel real feelings? It isn't' attraction as its more like a strong bond of friendship.
"Should we continue our training?" Our training may seem physical but we knew it was to strengthen Nura's mind. Creating consistencies with her psyche.
"You think you're up for it?"
"Hell yeah! Come on! Let's have a combat spar."
Nura smiles, and says, "I'll go easy on you, for now."
You laugh, and head for a more isolated spot in the woods, with farther trees and plenty of space. Nura follows, beaming. "Are we going to use new jutus on each other?"
"...Yeah," you say. "You can go first if you want."
"Okay!" She jumps into a combat stance you didn't even know she could do, and you want to laugh for how cute it was.
She began throwing punches at amazing speeds, it felt like they all hit you, even though most of them only landed every other hit. She switched to kicks, with equally amazing speed, and only landed one kick on you. Leaning back, you attempt to sweep her legs out from under her, however, she jumped over you instead, and you wound up falling on your back.
"Not bad!" She smiles, finally showing a toothy smile.
You make hand signs and focus your chakra. Suddenly, Nura starts to rise into the air. "I didn't know you could do this!" she says in amazement. Nura flails around for a few seconds, making you chuckle before managing to descend back to the ground.
"Come on, try to hit me," You dare her, still surprised at your own success. Her eyes widen, but she accepts your challenge.
She focuses her chakra to her palm as she tries to jab your chest area. Instead, you simply push her back with your chakra, and she falls back on the ground. "Oh? I didn't know we were allowed to do that!" She laughs and gets up.
Your turn. You perform the same jutsu as her, except this time you send her flying into a tree.
She gets up after a few seconds, laughing. "I guess I should've seen that coming.
"Come on Nura, get more serious."
Nura tightens her fists, and her knuckles grow red as her grip tightens. "Okay then," she says, with the voice of an experienced assassin.
She opens up with a flurry of jabs, most of which you manage to dodge. A couple manages to hit you, however, it would seem that she still was holding back quite a bit. However, it was very promising. For your part, you attempt to return blows with various punches and roundhouse kicks, only for her to block them all.
She palm press the air, sending you crashing into a tree. Overwhelming pain surges through your body for a quick second, but hey, that's what you asked for.
"That's what I'm talking bout!"
She's in your face again and tried to palm press again but you scouted it and send her flying backward with an uppercut to the body. She flips in the air, and lands on her feet; which makes you envy your finesse. You're starting to get a little tired, although you can't tell if it's your body getting tired or just your chakra reserves running low.
"How long do these sparring sessions usually last?" Nura asks, not even remotely winded. "Hours? Days?"
"I dunno, an hour?" You laugh.
She shakes her head.
"What does that mean?"
"One hour? In the real world, battles lasting one hour or even two are extremely rare. If you haven't ever been in a battle that lasts three hours, you simply aren't prepared for whatever may come. You need to always keep yourself at your peak performance for as long as you can."
You think about what Nura is saying. She's right to some extent.
"Do you ever plan on making me real and not just a clone?"
"Umm? Not yet, because I certainly haven't thought of it yet. But if my calculations are right, which they always are, you'll be ready soon."
You decide not to press the issue any further, although you have been curious about something for a while now.
"Hey Nura, why are you helping me? I mean, there's something that you aren't telling me. Am I some special snowflake that needs to be given all this extra attention?"
Nura looks at you in silence for a while, trying to read what is it exactly that you want to hear.
"Partially," She admits.
"What makes me special other than I'm the first?"
"You want the truth?" She asks, and you nod in response. "You're more special than you think. I'll give you a hypothetical scenario, how would you react if I told you that there was a specific time where, no matter what you did, there was going to be an unavoidable worldwide catastrophe? How would you feel knowing you could've prevented it, but instead you decided to dedicate yourself to your friends on some island in the middle of nowhere?"
You think about your answer before replying.
"Well the world is always in a state of turmoil, so I don't think I would do anything differently. But hypothetically, if such a time was coming, it would fall upon the shoulders of a hero to save everyone."
"Exactly! You would sacrifice the few for the good of the many! That's what a hero does, otherwise, they're nothing more than a villain, like the ones we fight every day."
"Wouldn't you..?"
"Sacrifice me for an unavoidable disaster? Maybe at one time. But now? Soon I'll do what needs to be done to make sure your future comes about."
You smile at her and ask her shall we call it a night? She nods that she agrees.
"Good, don't want me to get too strong too quickly." You joke, which causes her to giggle absentmindedly. Nura leaves her dream plane.