"We will warm up and do light stretching first, then we will move through a kata and spar." Misa said
I followed Misa through the warmup and did my best to memorize everything she was doing. I wanted to be able to practice on my own once I left the compound.
The warm up and stretching were simple enough, but the kata was…weird. The movements flowed like water before hardening to stone right before delivering a strike.
The Academy taijutsu style was basic, and the Nara style was tailored to evading and defending to create space to use the shadow imitation technique; this style seemed tailored to evading strikes and retaliating once an opening was present.
"What style is this?" I asked Misa as we went through the kata again.
"It is one of the taijutsu forms that the Hyuga used before the Gentle Fist was developed. It is called Flowing Fist." Misa said as she slowly demonstrated the movements. "We do not use it much anymore due the superiority of Gentle Fist, but we retained a number of scrolls detailing its use. Hiashi-sama was generous enough to teach me personally yesterday. He is very skilled."
I couldn't help raising an eyebrow at her. The clan head taught her how to use this style personally? That's significant. What was Hiashi's goal there?
"That is enough." Misa said, standing from her stand and walking across from me. "Now we will spar. I will take note of your mistakes and inform you of them after each match."
It stung my pride a little that she was already talking as if she'd win every single fight, but I also knew that she probably would win every single fight. I took my stance and attacked.
We sparred for two hours, with Misa pointing out my errors and making corrections each time I lost. I didn't win once.
When all was said and done, I was dead tired, had bruises covering my torso and limbs and was covered in dirt. Despite all that I was smiling.
The pain couldn't detract from the warmth I felt. I was making progress. I was being taught a strong, albeit somewhat outdated, fighting style that would let me take on a role that wasn't support-based.
Naras were expected to be backline fighters, but I didn't want to have to hide behind others. I wanted to be able to stand in the front and have my enemies hide from me. An ambitious and perhaps arrogant goal for right now, but hopefully I would achieve it some day.
"Thank you for all of your help, Misa." I said bowing to her. She'd walked me to the Hyuga compound gate after our training session and we were saying our goodbyes. I decided to drop the san since she did not say anything and her mother did not mind it much. I don't think that the same could be said about her father though.
"You are welcome, Kagen." Misa said, bowing back. "I look forward to studying with you tomorrow."
We'd agreed to alternate what we worked on by day. We'd spar and do physical training one day, then study the next.
I'd invited her to my house to study where I kept all my books. I still needed to clear it with the Nara gate guards, but they were pretty lax about inviting friends over so I doubted it would be an issue.
"I'll see you at school tomorrow. Have a good night." I said before departing.
On the way back home, I stopped at a blacksmith and bought some practice kunai and senbon. They were all dull so as not to harm the user if something went wrong during training, but their dimensions and weight were correct to the real thing.
The Academy had a bunch of them, but we weren't allowed to take them home with us, and I wanted to practice on my own, so I needed my own.
When I got home, my parents still weren't back. Whatever mission they were on had been going for over a week now. I didn't mind. It just meant I had the house to myself.
I cooked myself some dinner. Ah yes cook. I might be a six year old but I had the experience of an adult. I needed to show my parents that I could take care of myself to prevent them from sending me to the orphanage or sending a caretaker to look after me.
After eating, I finally went to the Nara library. I had a few hours left before the sun set and I wanted to make use of them.
The Nara library was far bigger than the one available to all Konoha ninja, but I figured that was likely because the Naras actually kept scrolls in this library while Konoha stored such things in undisclosed locations.
"Um… Hi." I said as I approached the guards lazing in front of the library. "Shikaku-sama said–"
"Aiko! That troublesome brat's here!" one of the guards yelled over his shoulder before going back to staring at the sky. It was a miracle no one had stolen all the Nara's secrets with how unconcerned these two were with doing their jobs.
The door to the library swung open and a wrinkled, elderly woman peeked her head out. "You must be Kagen." she said motherly, a bright, welcoming smile on her face.
"Shika told me all about you. Come in. Come in!" she encouraged, swinging the door wide and shuffling out of the way.
"Thank you." I said, stepping past her. I looked up and my jaw dropped. There were bookshelves all along the walls. The center of each of the upper floors was cut out in a square to let you see all the way to the roof.
Each floor was just as packed with shelves as the first, though the books steadily turned to scrolls the higher you got.
Who would have thought that the lazy Naras had so many books and scrolls in their library? Certainly not me. I could see a lot of jutsu scrolls too which made me wonder why would Shikamura or any other Nara for that matter would just use the Nara secret techniques.
At least, they could use earth jutsus to help them with shadows instead of finding unique methods to do the same.
A merry chuckle drew my attention as Aiko stepped up next to me. "It sure is a sight, isn't it?"
"How much do we store here?"
"More than you could learn in a lifetime. Even a motivated Nara couldn't get through it all. Now," Aiko took shallow steps as she led me towards a table in the center of the room.
There was a stack of books on it with a trio of scrolls lying next to them. "It's good to meet you, Kagen. I'm Aiko Nara. Shika told me you'd be coming, and told me you were troublesome. That's a compliment coming from him." She said the second part in a hushed, conspiratorial tone as she leaned down to wink at me.
"He said he didn't want you hurting yourself, so I'm going to supervise all of your studying in here. I may not look it, but I was a chunin before I retired. Watching you will give me something to do."
I was more than a little surprised. The number of ninja that died of old age in a generation could typically be counted on two hands. The fact that Aiko survived to retirement meant she was either very skilled or very lucky. Actually, it was probably both.