Bokuden glanced back over at the girl for a moment, examining his unwanted spectator. The girl was small and frail looking, obviously not a trained shinobi. She had long black hair that was worn in two very large pigtails which extended all the way down the length of her back. Her facial expression was nothing short of gloomy. Little signs of emotion other than perhaps a tinge of sadness, but that was of course pure speculation. The real question was what was she was doing out here, watching Bokuden train in silence? You figure the least she could do is say something before she decided to just stare at them while they are obviously trying to focus. “Whatever,” Bokuden thought to himself, “As long as she doesn’t get in the way I suppose it’s fine.” Bokuden closed his eyes and took a deep breath as she once again began focusing on molding his suiton chakra, but was interrupted by the sound of footsteps splashing in the water around him. He opened his eyes to see the little girl now standing right in front of him, staring straight up at him with an inquisitive look.
Before Bokuden had a chance to say anything the girl spoke first. “What are you doing mister?” she asked as she tilted her head slightly to right, emphasizing her curiosity.
Bokuden paused for a second as he found himself not sure how to answer her. The question was simple, but he was taken aback by the suddenness of her question. And why the hell did she have to run up so close to him to ask it? “I’m training,” Bokuden replied after shaking off the surprise.
The look on the girl’s face made it obvious that Bokuden’s answer had not quelled her curiosity. “Training? Really?” The girl continued skeptically, “Because it looked like you were taking a nap just a few moments ago.”
Once again Bokuden found himself taken aback by the girl, now also slightly annoyed that she would insinuate that he was napping during his training session. “I was not taking a nap,” Bokuden answered, “I was merely resting. It wasn’t a race, I was in no rush to exhaust all of my chakra as soon as my training session began.”
“Sooo…. Why didn’t you “rest” on the ground over there where it is dry instead of in the middle of this water submerged rice field field? You could have avoided getting your clothes all wet.” The girl inquired, insisting on continuing this conversation. She wasn’t being sarcastic either, this was a legitimate question. She also made a point, but Bokuden had been so frustrated with his struggles that at the time logic meant nothing to him.
“I wasn’t napping!” Bokuden snapped back, “I was just taking a rest to pace myself and preserve chakra to train for an extended period of time!”
“Chakra? Then are you a shinobi? Are you from the village at the top of the mountain?” the girl asked, “It’s a bit weird that a shinobi would be napping out here in the open. Aren’t you supposed to have your guard up at all times in case of danger?” This girl just kept asking questions, much to Bokuden’s annoyance. There wasn’t much he could do about it either. What was he going to do, threaten a child? A little girl at that? No matter how much of an annoyance she became Bokuden wasn’t some mindless savage that he would endanger a child for no reason. The only real options he had were humor the girl’s curiosity and put off his training or kindly ask her to leave him in peace, he chose the latter.
“Indeed I am,” Bokuden replied with a smile as he patted the girl’s head, “And this training is kind of important for me to get done. Do you think it would be possible for you to get a safe distance away from here. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if you were injured because I was irresponsible and let you stick around knowing it could be dangerous.” Without saying a word the girl nodded her head up and down, a look of disappointment in her eyes, and turned away to run off. Bokuden closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief as he once again began attempting to focus his suiton chakra. This feeling of relief however, was cut short when he reopened his eyes to see the girl had retreated to the exact same spot where she was when he first noticed her. He hung his head for a moment and exhaled before raising his head to lock eyes with her. “Uhhh… That isn’t exactly what I meant,” Bokuden said as he rubbed the back of his head, “I think it would be safer if you didn’t stick around to watch me train. Less chance of something happening, you know?”
She looked back at Bokuden with a confused look and remaine silent for a brief moment. “But… what else am I supposed to do?”
Bokuden was not really sure how to answer that question. Was this girl really asking him to tell her what to do with her day? Bokuden scratched his head for a moment and began to answer her. “I don’t know. What do you usually do for fun out here? I’m sure you can go meet up with your friends or something, I saw a bunch of kids around the rice paddies on the way down here.”
The girl’s eyes shifted towards the ground, breaking eye contact with Bokuden as she wrapped her arms around her knees and sort of curled up into a ball. “I… don’t really play with the other kids. They think I’m weird. That’s why I thought that maybe I could watch you… I promise I won’t be in the way…”
Bokuden almost felt his heart sink into his chest as a feeling of guilt surged through him. He wasn’t even particularly sure why if he were to be honest. It wasn’t like this was the first time he had ever heard a sob story, but he sympathized with this girl in particular. Maybe it was because he himself understood the feeling of being alone as a child or maybe it was because this girl made him think of his own sister. Maybe it was both. Regardless of the reasoning Bokuden had a change of heart and walked over to where the girl was sitting, gently placing his hand on the top of her head. “Weird? I don’t know what you mean,” Bokuden said with a smile, “Don’t worry about it, you can hang out with me today. I’ll just be extra careful.”
The girl’s eyes lit up as she raised her head with a smile and almost a look of disbelief. “Really? Do you mean it?” she asked, the excitement evident in her voice.
Bokuden nodded his head reassuringly before removing his hand from the top of her head. “Now sit tight and watch. I’ll show you some shinobi techniques. I’m training to use my suiton jutsu more effectively.” Bokuden then walked back to the center of the submerged field and waved back to the girl with a smile notifying her that he was about to begin. He took a deep breathe once again and began focusing his chakra down into the water immediately surrounding his feet. He slowly began using his chakra to manipulate the shape and behavior of the water, creating two streams of water which shot up violently in a double helix formation around him. Bokuden intended to then manipulate the streams into different shapes, demonstrating his control over the suiton element and entertain his spectator, but they fell back into the water beneath him just as quickly as they had risen. It was the same problem he had been having all morning and the reason why he was out here training in the first place, he could manipulate the water and cause it to come forth with potency, but he could not seem to maintain the shape manipulation for longer than a few moments. His face grew tense as his frustration returned prompting him to try again this time using more chakra. Once again the streams sprang forth in the helix formation this time going even further up into the air, but still dispersing and falling back into the water immediately after. Now even more frustrated Bokuden simply decided to pour a huge amount of chakra into the water causing it to erupt more like a geyser than the double helix shaped streams he had produced before, but in the end they too immediately ceased and fell back into the submerged field. He hung his head in disappointment as he let out a deep sigh, feeling slightly embarrassed knowing the little girl had seen him fail miserably at his suiton training.
“You won’t ever get it if you keep doing it like that, you know.” The girl said suddenly from the edge of the field.
Bokuden looked up surprised before responding. “What do you mean?” he asked.
The girl stood up from her seated position at the edge of the field and walked into the water, wading her way through it until she reached Bokuden’s location. “I know what your problem is. I can help you if you want,” she said cheerfully as she clasped her hands together behind her back and circled around Bokuden.
“Do you now?” Bokuden said with a smirk, curious as to what this girl was talking about, “And what exactly is my problem?” The idea of this little girl from the rice paddies being able to help him with his jutsu training was absurd, but it wasn’t like he had anything to lose at that point. She had already seen him fail, it’s not like he would embarrass himself any further by hearing her out.
“You’re a raiton user. A powerful one at that, your raiton chakra is more violent than a normal shinobi’s,” she explained, “I could tell it was different from the moment you began forming it. You are used to just gathering up the chakra necessary to perform your jutsu and then just releasing it indiscriminately, just letting the sheer power of your raiton do the work for you. Suiton isn’t like raiton, you can’t just release it and expect to see perfect results.” The tone in which she spoke surprised Bokuden. Gone was the hesitant and unsure stutter that she used before. The way she was speaking now was much more confident, much more self-assured, almost authoritative. It was like he was speaking to a completely different person.
Bokuden stared at her silently, unsure of how to respond to her explanation. The way this girl spoke about the suiton element so freely let on that she knew much more about it than a normal little girl from the rice paddies should, his interest had been piqued. “Alright then,” Bokuden answered back confidently, “I’ll bite. Elaborate on why my method isn’t working and how I can fix it."
She unclasped her hands and raised one in the air, pointing her index finger to accentuate her point. “Well, think about it. Would a standing puddle of water hurt someone?” She asked “Then why would your suiton be as effective as your raiton if you aren’t truly controlling it. You might as well just be shooting out a puddle of water. You have to think of your suiton as an extension of yourself. You can’t just throw your arm out there and expect it to do what you want of its own accord, can you?”
Her words made more sense than Bokuden really cared to admit. Here he was being lectured about one of his own elements by a little girl who as far as he knew wasn’t even a shinobi. He looked down a the water around him before locking eyes with this now mysterious girl once again. “An extension of myself? Like… my sword?” Bokuden asked, gripping the hilt of his katana.
“Exactly!” she exclaimed, raising her hands into the air as she spoke. “What is a sword in the hands of an inexperienced wielder?”
Bokuden gripped the hilt of his sword tighter as he thought processed her words “Useless…” Bokuden said as he stared down at his sword before looking up at her and continuing, “Just like my suiton.”
The girl frowned as she saw the expression on Bokuden’s face change to one that portrayed disappointment. She ran over to him and pulled on his can before speaking again. “Oh don’t be like that!” she insisted while jumping up and down, her long pig tails getting dangerously close to the water every time she landed, “Come on, I can show you!” She stopped jumping up and down and released her grip on Bokuden’s hands before running a couple of meters away from where he was standing. “Water on its own is not all that useful,” she said before raising a stream of water up from the submerged field beneath her, shaping it into a small sphere of water in the palm of her hand, “But when you learn to use it correctly there are few things that can match its power. Think of the chakra you put into the water as the hand you wield your katana with and the water as your sword. Would you expect your hand to just do what it needs to do without guidance?”
Bokuden only became more suspicious as the girl displayed her ability to manipulate water. Was this girl a shinobi after all? Bokuden didn’t really suspect her to be a threat, but years of training dictated that he could not afford to cross off that possibility. Still, from what he knew of her so far he liked the kid. He would go along with whatever she wanted to do for now. Maybe he could even get some suiton pointers from her after all. “Well actually yes,” Bokuden replied, “ I’ve spent years training my body and honing my reflexes to allow for my body to respond effectively when I need it without the use of-“
“Yadda yadda yadda,” the girl interjected, cutting off Bokuden mid-sentence. She seemed to be getting more comfortable with Bokuden, this newfound confidence was a stark contrast to how she behaved earlier. “But you haven’t had that kind of training with suiton, have you?” She continued, asking Bokuden in a playful manner. Bokuden raised an eyebrow and shook his head while grinning, waiting for her to continue. After seeing his response she continued to speak, “Good! So listen to what I say. Consider it retraining your body to use master the use of a new sword. You’ve done that before, right?” Bokuden once again shook his head with the same amused expression on his face. “Then it’s settled! I’ll help you practice!” she exclaimed as she grabbed a hold of one of Bokuden’s hands and started pulling him in the direction she was running, “Now come with me, I know the perfect place to train!”
Suiton Training- Word Count: 3143