Akina's solo Training

Akina was walking through the forest. Lately, her dreams have been bothering her, and she was having trouble sleeping. Her hands were becoming harder and calloused, but she was happy to be becoming stronger. She found herself thinking of Viper often, but he had been busy lately and had suggested that she go train on her own. She nodded shortly at the suggestion, and despite being busy, she had found the time to come out to the forest to train today. The forest was cool and damp. The coolness drifted past her silk kimono. She found her thoughts wandering toward how many new things she could try perfecting. The time alone could help her try these new justu. Finding a slight clearing in the forest, the girl wandered to it.

The clearing was somewhat warmer than the forest, and the birds seemed to be chirping and the day seemed to be perfect. But perfect day would soon be tempered by toil and sweat. There was a slight smirk on her face as she slipped into a loose fighting stance and thought of where to begin her day. She activated her Byakugan and began channeling the chakra within her body outward. It was high time that she practiced her other jutsu that she had learned by training with Viper. The world began to tilt and spin as the girl twirled her body around and watched as a light blue dome surrounded her. The blue faded away after a short time and the spinning stopped then. Akina’s head was spinning slightly, but she decided to not work on that technique for a little while. Instead, she changed stances quickly and began to push her chakra away from her hands in a manner that caused the charka to form a wall of wispy lighter chakra that moved away from her in a straight line. She mused on how to make this jutsu slightly better than it was, but shoved her thoughts deeper within her mind, trying to focus on the things that she could do rather than the things that she was uncertain that she could accomplish. For now, the girl merely wanted to see what kinds of jutsu she had acquired from her training before she began tweaking elements here and there with the techniques themselves. She began to wonder if she knew and could replicate the jutsu of her predecessor. The woman who was known to her as Hinata-sama. She had only been able to read about Hinata here and there at the library, a place that she had found herself frequenting when she was not busy training with Viper or spending time with Primrose.
Akina sighed and closed her eyes as she concentrated on her chakra and how it was flowing to her hands. She focused on pushing her chakra out of herself, while making the chakra sharper and thinner. The chakra came out of her palms like small senbon at first, and a thin layer of blue shone around her. Once the jutsu had faded, the girl found herself breathing heavily. Akina decided to move onto what she had been learning the last time she had really trained with someone properly.

Walking over to a dead tree, the Hyuuga girl picked up a branch that had fallen from that tree. It was not exactly a sturdy branch, but it should serve her purposes adequately. She used a slight transformation jutsu on the branch and watched as it took the shape of a simple wooden training katana. [Requesting Henge Mastery] She wondered if she still remembered all two of the foot movements that Viper had showed her. Her legs shook slightly as she remembered the last time that her hands had held a sword. Her shins were not nearly broken and bleeding this time, but it at least caused her to be a little more cautious in the forest. Silver eyes darted around slowly, taking in her surroundings. She twirled the katana with her wrist slowly. The soft sound it made as it sliced through the air was somehow comforting to her. Only birds hopped slowly from branch to branch every now and then, and only the winds blew softly through the trees. Once the girl was more comfortable with the reassurance that she was alone and secure in the woods, she began her first movement by holding her blade as though it was contained within a sheath and gracefully shifted her left foot behind her right one before she twisted her body to the left slightly while gripping the katana with her left hand. The sword flew out to the left swiftly and powerfully. There was a slight smirk on Akina’s face as she attempted the same stance with her right hand. It was difficult balancing grace with sheer power she thought. Her arms kept wanting to pull at the blade. Such an action would have destroyed the purpose of learning how to move her body in such a way so that it appeared as though she did not move, but her blade still contained a lot of momentum and power when it left its sheath. The girl noted that her right hand gripped the fake sword very tightly, and she had to relax her body to get her hand to loosen its painful grip by a little bit. Once this was done, Akina tried to repeat the footwork and movements once more. This time, the blade moved in less of a jagged motion and it flowed through the air fairly smoothly.

Her smirk widened ever so slightly. She was rather enjoying herself in this time that she had to herself. Her thoughts wandered to one of the concepts she believed she had mentioned to the Hokage during one of their training sessions. What if her chakra could be channeled through her fake blades? Was that the secret her mother was hiding from her within her cryptic message? It was one of the rare times she had been able to see some form of her mother, and the circumstance behind that meeting still caused her to look down at her shins with a shudder. When she thought back to how easily Viper could have done her in with such ease and such simplicity on his part, it somehow encouraged her to become stronger. The Hyuuga girl closed her eyes for a moment and tried to picture the sword she was holding in her hand as an extension of her own arm. It was a very difficult thing for the silver eyed girl to accomplish, since she was never really taught that method of thinking. It was like asking an ant hill to consider a small grain of dirt to be an extension of the whole. A sigh echoed through the forest, and she nearly threw down the illusionary blade down to the ground as her face contorted into a vision of rage. “Damn it!” Her body jumped back as the girl was coming to the realization that she had just swore a curse to the land and the sky. Of course, she kept reminding herself that she was alone, so that a minor curse such as that probably would not matter much.

It was that stupid piece of wood’s fault; at least, that was what she was choosing to blame in a very childish tantrum. Had Viper Uchiha been there, the Hyuuga girl probably would have acted in a very mature manner. She was rather mature for her age, but when it came to difficult things, at times she lost her patience with the task at hand, and often would lose her temper when extra trials arose. However, the girl also realized that she enjoyed challenging herself in the very things she also despised. Every failure was not as shameful as the notion had once been when she had been living in the Hyuuga compound with her aunt and uncle. They had been very traditional Hyuuga and expected their niece to be raised in a very strict manner. Their dreams, however, were almost shattered when they observed the way their brother doted on his daughter with such a careless loving free manner that it made them shudder. Imagine their shock and surprise when they realized that their brother was killed and his daughter had been left to their care. Certainly, they were saddened at this turn of events, but they had trouble showing it in front of the young girl, as it went against their policy of tradition. The girl, they knew, was to become the head of the Hyuuga one day, but they managed to keep this a secret from the girl, blaming the harsh training on the expectations her parents had for her.

As Akina thought of these things, she realized that she had forgotten she was holding a sword in her hand. When she closed her eyes again, envisioned her own chakra network, pumping with vitality and life. She pictured the sword as an extension of her arm. It was something she could feel now, at least a little bit. The sword felt less like a blade and more like a thing that was beginning to meld with her hand. Now, there was only another obstacle to tackle. She gently began to push her chakra from its source and felt it move slowly down her arm. She moved the chakra down her hand and was slightly dismayed that the chakra barely trickled down the blade before it faded out. She sighed, wondering if more chakra would help or hinder her situation. One thing was certain, she had to be very careful out in the wilderness all alone. She had to constantly remind herself that she would have to be the one dragging herself to the hospital, though she prayed that this would not be happening today. The girl bit her lip as she decided to attempt pushing more chakra into the sword. The same thing happened once more, but she seemed to sense that the idea would work. It would just take more time and energy than what she had within her body right now to complete the task at hand. The girl decided to leave the sword alone for the minute. When the branch that appeared to be a sword tumbled slowly to the ground, it began to slowly morph back into what it actually was. Sweat dripped off the Hyuuga girl’s chin, and she wondered if the weather had become warmer or if she had just been working herself that hard. Regardless, the sweat disappeared into the sleeve of her kimono. Silver eyes glanced up to the sun, and she looked away quickly. It was nearly noon, meaning she had been out in the forest for quite some time. The girl was trying to think of what to do next, when she heard her stomach growl. Akina ignored the feeling of hunger and decided to begin working on the flexibility of her body. After all, she was training to fix some of her clan’s flaws and fatal weaknesses. She was taking what Viper had so far revealed to her into her mind, trying to develop what she saw as solutions for the problems. She began by stretching her body forward and back and from side to side. There was no doubt that the girl had quite a bit of work ahead of her. After her stretching for about five minutes, she felt that her muscles were warmed enough for what exercises she was about to begin. She wanted to begin by testing how well she could maneuver her body around when she was balanced on her hands. With her feet lifted into the air, she began to teeter back and forth slowly. It took a few moments for Akina to become completely still while standing on her hands. The girl had watched her geta slip off her feet and fall in front of her during one of her motions forward, barely missing her hands. She sighed a breath of relief and began forcing herself to move her body forward by moving her hands forward. Moving forward was slow and kind of jolt-like, but the girl needed to know how her body would move in this stance. Eventually, she became comfortable with the movements she had been making, and so she started to force her body to lean forward slowly. The tilt of her body was causing her abdomen to stretch somewhat painfully, but the girl began to move forward with her legs held steady and bent somewhat forward. This task seemed more difficult than the last one; the girl could feel her body loosening up little by little, and she remembered that she was still warming up.

There was a long way for her to go to before she reached Sanin, but she would begin by pushing herself to become stronger. Her body needed to become faster and stronger yet and her stamina was in need of some serious work. Thankfully, persevering despite hunger and remaining on her hands while stretching her body also helped with some of those areas. Slowly, the girl kept bending her body forward, increasing the tension in her body, until she found herself standing on her feet once more. The girl began twisting her torso around to the right, stopping when she was facing straight ahead and then twisting to the left. Once she had done roughly twenty of these, she began twisting her body in a diagonal motion. She groaned as she completed another set of twenty twists in that manner. She felt very sore whenever she looked at her abdomen, but she would not stop. Deciding to give her stomach muscles a break, she began running in place for a moment or two. She then began running through the forest, trying to dodge the trees and their branches. Every now and then, a branch would cut her shallowly in a leg or an arm. Eventually, the Hyuga girl began to twist her body in and out of the trees as she moved forward, running at a speed that she felt was comfortable enough so that she would get the idea of where the trees were and how she should move to avoid the trees. While she ran, she began to feel cold, since the wind rushing in her face was cool and harsh. The girl smiled lightly as she moved.

Akina slowed her pace to a brisk walk before slowing her gait down to a walk once more. As she slowed her movements down, she focused on steadying her breathing. When she stopped moving, she found herself in the middle of the woods, but she could remember the path that she had taken through the trees. She began thinking once more of what she could do to make the time pass by. Finally, she decided to make use of the environment that surrounded her once more. She began striking out at the trees in a gentle fist manner, minus the chakra bit of striking at the tree. She began to figure out different ways to strike out at the trees in such a manner that made it look as though her arms were striking out at the tree as a venomous snake would its prey.

At first, her fingers shrank back in pain. It felt as though her blood vessels within her fingers were going to burst, but the girl was relieved to find that it was merely the initial shock of hitting something as sturdy as a tree with something as weak as her fingers. She began to channel her chakra into her palms slowly. The girl wanted to find power within subtly. It was something of a quirk of hers, but she was determined to try something new.

At first, the chakra flow through her fingers as she struck out at the tree were course and rigid. Much to her chagrin, the girl found the tree’s chakra being over flowed with her own. The girl was a Genin, so she knew how to walk on water and trees well enough, but the problem before her was causing her to shake her head. She wanted to figure out how to use her Gentle Fist to cut through the tree. The silver eyed girl had often wished to find flaws within the Hyuuga clan’s style and try to make them better. Her thoughts wandered off to a slightly happier world. This world was one where she and Viper were able to live happily side by side without the fear or worry of becoming targets for assassination. The girl sighed heavily and a blush crept upwards into her cheeks. She had found herself thinking of him more and more lately. It was as though he and his power were becoming a disease for the girl. There was no antidote, sadly, at least there was none that the girl knew of, and so she had to become a captive to her mind, which seemed to be controlled by her heart and emotions more and more by the day. And yet, somehow, the Hyuuga girl felt as though she was running out of time. With each passing day that she felt herself growing closer to the idea that Viper represented in her head and closer to him as a person, the more she was reminded that the ticking of clocks and the grains of sand falling from an hourglass waits for no one, even if the person thinks that he or she is a master of time and space jutsu itself. Eventually, the Uchiha clan and the Hyuuga clan, with all the power they possessed in their own rights would die away and be no more. Even Viper, with all the power he obtained, and Akina, with all the power and possibility that was laid at her feet must one day succumb to the fate that time had dealt them. A shiver entered the girl’s spine as she found herself thinking of such macabre things. With a shake of her head, the thoughts seemed to disappear, and the Hyuuga girl seemed to regain part of her focus. She did her best to recall the jutsu to her mind that was spherical in nature, and yet was not the ultimate defense of the Hyuuga clan. That jutsu would be dealt with later into the session. The girl tried to remember how she had made her chakra sharper than normal while she used the other jutsu. Fatigue was quickly setting in, but the girl knew that it was necessary that she push onward in her search on the ever winding path that was to become her future. She sighed as she began again at the beginning, deciding to analyze the tree’s chakra structure one more time. She felt the semblance of a very loose smile touching her face. The information that she was trying to recall had finally come back to her. Taking a very calm breath, the girl placed her hand on the tree. She waited calmly and patiently, trying to feel the life force from within the tree. She listened for its faint breathing in the world. She was trying to feel its lively heartbeat with the rest of nature and the earth. After a while, her breath seemed to fall into a very rhythmic breathing pattern. As she fell into a deep trance like state, the girl felt as though she was being sucked into the tree. She was feeling life itself course through her veins and she felt like she could conquer the world.
Even though the feeling of life was burning through her veins, Akina was still feeling something else. It felt as though she could feel the earth's heart beating and with each rhythmic movement, her sorrow increased. The wind sighed through the tree's leaves as the Hyuuga girl focused on strengthening her chakra within her. As she was working on whittling down the chakra in such a way that she had not tried before, by condensing it into a very thin thread, the tree seemed to groan, and the earth seemed to shake. Akina shuddered and closed her eyes tightly. When she opened them again, she found herself floating in darkness. At first, the genin thought she had been trapped in some type of genjutsu, but such an explanation would not make sense unless the tree that she had been practicing on was somehow a reincarnation of another who lived before her time.

A wind entered her ears as a sigh, but the sigh slowly became sharper and more distinct. It became a dull, reverberating moan. Akina gasped lightly, she had begun to hear words within the wail. "So, Hyuuga," the wailing stopped and the voice became deep and throaty, "You wish to become stronger and fix the flaws within yourself." There was a deep, hoarse laugh that entered the girl's thoughts. "You made a few mistakes so far, girl, but if you don't want to listen to an old tree spirit...then, there is not much that can be done for you." The girl sank down to her knees and pressed her forehead down to the darkness, still amazed at the fact she was just floating there. "Oh great spirit of the tress I h--"

"Do not bow to me, girl. I am surprised that one such as you is so well versed in the old ways, but there is a problem within your heart..." The tree laughed again, and Akina found herself standing in the training grounds as she had been before, as though nothing had changed, but she could still hear the tree breathing. The girl began to calmly wonder if her chakra had somehow triggered a reaction with the tree's life force. Of course, the girl realized that this could all be just a dream or some hallucination brought on by hunger, but she chose to keep her theories and thoughts to herself.

"There is a man, is there not?" Akina nodded simply, her cheeks betraying more than she thought possible.

"Yes, there is another, great one." The tree wheezed out a laugh. There was something within how the tree was moving within the wind that seemed to make it more human and more sarcastic.

"Tell me, how does one as soft as yourself become a ninja? From the look of you, you hate dying, and yet...this man seems to like you. That's rather odd, wouldn't you say, since he also seems to be much stronger than you. Tell me, how did you come to this point?"

The girl was somewhat puzzled by why a tree was being philosophical with her when she came out here to train her mind and not her body, but she decided to humor the tree with its game. Wisdom came from ancient things, at least, that's what she had always been told, and maybe this ancient tree had something very important to teach her, so she merely bowed her head for a moment before looking up into the tree's leaves. "We met in a library once, when I was looking for a way to unlock my Kekkei Genkai a little bit more effectively..." She paused for a moment, wondering what all to tell the tree, but she had long ago decided to be honest with herself and with this otherworldly being. "Before that, though, I believe there was some type of party that I met him at, though that can only be confirmed through my dreams and what he has told me of his.

After the incident at the library, the Ho--I mean Hokage-sama began to train me in order to make me stronger. He and the man of whom I speak are one in the same." Her cheeks burnt a furious red hue as the tree chuckled, and its leaves bent forward in almost a nodding gesture. "You would be correct. He is far superior to me in way of strength, but..." her silver eyes hardened, "I do not fear him, even though he could strike me down in one swift movement and I would cease to be." Her mouth set in a firm line.

The tree sighed once more. "Your honesty is refreshing, girl, so much like that of the other Hyuuga woman I met here once, long ago. She too, made friends with an Uchiha sword smith and warrior, though the Uchiha woman had to come up with some sort of story for her family as things were very...unstable back then. It could be you are related to her, though it was quite some time ago." The tree laughed and a branch touched Akina's shoulder lightly. "You are as noble as she was, however. So, I feel that you have passed my first test."

The Hyuuga girl was quite bewildered by what the tree was saying. She had a feeling that the spirit was talking of her mother and Uchiha-sama, who, as Akina speculated, was Viper's mother, but as the tree said, there was no real way to be sure, other than the fact that the girl had been having very strange dreams lately. "I hear you and kindly ask that you would continue, spirit." Her voice was very gentle.

The tree sighed again, seeming at peace with the world. "Could you kill that man of whom you have spoken? Could you look him in his eyes, and seeing them devoid of the personality you knew him to be, forget the man who he was and sacrifice what's left of him to the eternal rest?"

Akina found herself sitting on the grass in front of the tree. Her face had contorted into a very confused visage. "I doubt that I could ever kill him truly, spirit, unless it was he himself who requested such an act from me." Her voice was somewhat pained, but she waited patiently for her emotions to subside before she spoke yet again. "I would hope that such an ailment would not befall him. I have gone out of my way to avoid bloodshed in general, even though I am a shinobi of Konoha. It's not because I am afraid of killing, but I am not known to favor unnecessary loss of life." Her words stood strong and true, as a rock in the midst of a raging waterfall. She felt as though something within her was becoming unlocked through this. Her body felt lighter somehow. The girl wondered if the freeing of her mind would somehow strengthen her body.

The tree spirit made a sort of thoughtful groan as it considered what it should say next. The answer that the girl had given him both pleased and disturbed him at the same time. The tree had been around for quite some time and was quite knowledgeable on what it meant to be a shinobi. Yet, the tree could not help laughing gently. "In some ways, girl you are very wise, and yet in other ways, you have a lot to learn. You are aware that ninja often are forced to kill as a requirement of the missions they are sent on. Some of those missions are no doubt very painful to complete, and yet the ninja is very aware of the duty he has undertaken. There are times in which death cannot be avoided." The tree made a type of yawning sound as he studied Akina. She appeared to be a very lovely, innocent girl, and while the wise spirit hated to be the one to disillusion her from her innocence, he knew that the task must be completed before she could hope of making her body stronger and attaining her ultimate goal. It will be interesting to see how the girl will awaken as a Sanin...no doubt with my slight probings, she will become a fine one indeed.

Akina lowered her gaze from the tree for a moment. What he had said was indeed true, but the girl had always thought the situation of killing could be avoided if the ninja being asked to complete such a mission simply declined the order. Now she realized how foolishly she had been living her life. Orders were orders, and no matter how much she may prefer to avoid the tragedies in life, there were simply some of the orders that could not be avoided. The insight that the tree had given shook her to her core. At first, Akina was very angry at this new found information, but then, her anger turned to sorrow, which eventually flowed into a strong feeling of loss. She looked up at the tree once more. "Of course, I am...now enlightened as to what you have said. While I may wish it to be some other way, I cannot change some things, and so, while I cannot forgive some things that I disagree with bur cannot change, I am forced to accept them." Her voice was low but bold, and a feeling of purity washed over her being, restoring the lost feeling from its destruction.

The tree hummed lightly. "It seems you are a quick learner, and you have succeeded in freeing your mind just enough that you may begin to train your body in earnest. I will call you again when you have decided to rest for a while, and we will work on other matters that are not physical." With this, the tree's whispering slowly vanished from Akina's ears and returned once again to a rushing wind through the tree leaves.

The girl staggered slowly away from the tree. Her body now seemed heavy, and when she looked up to the sky, she noticed that the afternoon had faded away into the coolness of evening. Taking this change in time to her advantage, the girl decided yet again to run through the trees after marking the mysterious tree with her headband. She was getting better at running through the woods, she had noticed, though the fear of running head first into a tree was still very present in her mind. Once she began breathing heavily, the girl stopped for a moment, resting her hands on her knees. She had found herself thinking about what the tree had said when she rested for a while, but she felt nothing calling her back to the tree, so she watched the other trees in the forest for a while. Some movement caught her eye and she saw a bunch of willows in a small clearing she had not noticed before. The willows swayed gracefully in the wind, and Akina's lips parted in a slight smile as she imagined her mother and Uchiha-sama practicing their footwork for swordplay in the midst of the dancing willows. The girl walked over to the trees slowly, there was something of a bounce to her step.

While she wished to practice her footwork with Viper the next time she had the chance, she decided on working with her overall flexibility as the trees swayed in the wind. She needed to learn how to dodge attacks quickly with her fighting style if she was ever to have the upper hand in close range combat. Long range combat was still something of a mystery for her, but she hoped the tree might have some good advice for her concerning her weaknesses. Little did she know that the tree would address her weaknesses in such a way that it would cause something within her to awaken, but the girl happily focused on the willows for the time being.
The willows seemed to bow to her under the gust of wind that moved her hair upward. The wind did not seem to cease in the small clearing, and the willows were soon dancing again. The girl watched the willows carefully. No doubt if one of them hit her, it would leave a mark or two, but the blow should not be strong enough to knock her unconscious. Seeing an opening in the trees' swaying, Akina jumped into the ring of willows, tumbling out of a forward somersault as she entered. The girl landed in a crouching manner, which was a good thing, since the willow toward her left flank whipped over her head. Once it was safe for her to raise her head, the willow in front of her swept toward her feet. Even though she jumped up, it was not quite enough. She watched the land tilt upward and found herself on the ground looking up at the sky. She groaned slightly as the willows continued to whip about wildly. A couple of the willows were blown around hard enough that they reached out and whipped at her face. The girl rolled out of the way quickly as another willow blew out toward her face, but she was able to rest on the balls of her feet. This made it possible for her to bend over backward just enough that the willow passed above her just barely. She was getting a lot of practice on how to effectively use her Byakugan as well. At first, it was strange to see an attack coming at her from behind, but, after a few cracks of willow against her back, she was able to slide out of the way of her attacker. She soon found herself flowing in and between attacks instead of rigidly calculating where the next attack was going to come from.

Soon, the girl was getting used to how the willows moved, and as such, she was beginning to be able to counterattack the willows whenever they did not sway away too quickly. She found the strikes to hurt at first, as she was attacking fairly thick wood, but soon, she found herself able to block out the pain and the bleeding of her hands from striking the trees too hard sometimes. She was barely noticing how much time had passed, but her body, on the other hand, was becoming very bruised and very sore. She had felt her body "awaken" muscles that she was not too familiar with. She was breathing heavily when she bowed and backed away from the billowing clearing. She decided to move in between the still trees with some of the twisting and sliding maneuvers that the wind and the willows had taught her within a few hours. She knew that she would have to go back to better refine her movements, but she hoped Viper would see the improvement that she had been determined to make. However, her mind suddenly felt heavy and her body felt lighter. She wondered, as she neared the place where she had left her headband. Pulling out some bread she had brought with her in a messenger bag. She had packed enough food for three or four days, but since she found the tree, she wondered if maybe she should have packed more food. Sitting on the ground, she rested her body against the trunk of the tree with a wince. She wondered bitterly how long it would take her bruises to heal up. Her eyes closed lightly, for the moon had risen high in the sky, and the girl felt as though she had been both mentally and physically spent.

Her breath soon became heavier, and the girl thought she would soon find herself in a dream, but the tree bellowed, calling her from her near slumbering state. "Oh, there you are, tree spirit!" She exclaimed happily as though she was not tired at all, "I was wondering when you would call on me again." When her eyes looked on the sky, she noticed a light blue hue and the chirping of birds. Had she really stayed awake all night? She was about to ask the tree whether or not she had been asleep, when the tree answered her with a deep laugh. "Child, you had slept longer than you thought you did, on the contrary. Now, shall we talk some more?"

Akina nodded lightly, wondering what the tree would wish to speak with her about this time.

"Child, may I ask you your name? It is easy to tell that you are a Hyuuga, but it is boring me to have to keep calling you girl or child. It is not fitting you as it first was. You are not so childish as you once were. Your last words to me were spoken with the wisdom of one who is much older than the years you possess."

Akina felt a heat rising to her cheeks as the tree complimented her. "I was only saying what I felt in my heart, kind spirit. And, my name is Akina." Her voice was soft and gentle.

The tree laughed once more, and the Hyuuga girl realized that she felt as though she was full of life once more. She wondered what exactly caused this feeling, but once more, her body felt heavier than her mind. She waited attentively for the tree to start another discussion to tease her mind with. The tree sighed lightly. "About the man in your life, would you consider him good or evil?" The question was spoken with a solemness. No doubt the tree was posing this question for a reason, but it was giving the Hyuuga girl a headache that mirrored the ones she would get when she was trying to use her Kekkei Genkai.

The girl was stumbling over the question that she was posed. She knew something of the Hokage's past, and knowing all that had happened to him was blurring her inner sight. She bit her lip slightly and thought over the question that was posed. Not everything in Viper was necessarily good, in fact, there were many things about the man that she knew most people would consider evil. There was also something within her that guessed that Viper was very power hungry, but then again, could it have been possible that she was seeing the light within his darkness? The puzzling look that was on her face must have looked fairly humorous to the tree spirit, because he was laughing at her gently, in a way that he was urging her to take her time.

After a few moments of silence, the girl began to speak. "Most people would probably consider him evil because they fear him, and he is very powerful, but when I am with him, he seems to be good." Her voice shook at first, but as she ended her thought, it had strengthened. Her silver eyes flashed with a strange brightness. It was as though she was determined to defend her point until the end of the argument, but at a touch of a branch on her shoulder, she relaxed a little.

The tree sighed once more, waiting for the girl to calm down a little. Once he sensed her body had relaxed a little, he spoke once more. "It is impressive that you were able to deduce such an answer to that question with what knowledge you had on the subject at hand. It again proves your wisdom and inner strength." The tree's leaves started to shimmer in a strange way, and soon, in the middle of the tree, there appeared a pendant of a ying yang. The cord holding the pendant was made of a very soft leather. A branch from the tree twisted around, slipping the cord of the pendant onto it carefully. The tree's leaves rustled lightly as though the tree itself was shifting around so that it could face Akina more properly. "This pendant," the tree's voice was heavy and somewhat sad, "belonged to the other Hyuuga girl who trained herself in the way of blades with the Uchiha. She left it on the ground one day and thought it was lost forever. She had told the Uchiha woman that it had used to be a very ancient symbol of the Hyuuga clan, though that was a very, very long time ago. Today, I give it to you to remind you that within evil there is a little bit of good, and likewise, within good, there is a little evil." The branch shifted the pendant over to Akina, who had bent her head forward slightly. The pendant was heavier than what she had thought. It was cool against her skin, but the girl bowed her head down to the tree in a sign of her thanks.

The tree laughed slightly at the girl's actions. Something within his laugh was sounding sadder than normal. It seemed as though the tree spirit was becoming sadder the more he talked with the Hyuuga girl. She picked up on that notion, but she left her observations unnoticed. She wondered why the tree would be feeling sadder simply by talking to a human girl. The Hyuuga girl was about to turn and leave the tree, but the tree made a sound as though it would have been clearing its throat had it been a human and not a tree spirit. She stopped and turned to face the tree once more.

"I suppose that you are in love with this man?" The tree's voice sounded as though it was happier on this note, but his question left the girl wondering how to answer him. So far, she had been truthful with the tree spirit, but was it really a wise idea to betray her deepest feelings to an ancient spirit? She pondered which way was the right way to proceed. Licking her lips slowly, the girl saw a picture of Viper in her mind and she decided on her answer with a nod. There was a wide smile on her face as she nodded, as though she was the happiest woman alive.

The tree spirit laughed heartily but then sighed heavily. It seems that I will have to yet again break her spirit in order for there to be the right amount of balance within her being in order for her to be able to awaken her truest form of power. The tree's leaves shifted again. "You have again passed another test. Go and train your body again today and come back again when you decide to rest."

Akina nodded and silently walked away from the tree. There was something mysterious about the tree spirit. He seemed friendly enough, and things with her seemed to be more in balance than the first time that she had encountered him, though her body still felt slightly heavier than her mind. She was wondering whether or not the willows would welcome her again in the afternoon heat. Time seemed to have passed quickly yet again. This time, before running toward the clearing, the girl picked up a fallen tree branch and used a slight transformation jutsu to cause the branch to have an appearance of a wooden sword. The girl found the billowing clearing fairly easily. The area seemed cooler than what it was on the day before, even though it was quite a warm day. The trees seemed to bow to the girl yet again, and as before, the girl jumped into the circle when she saw an opening, except this time, it was she who launched the first attack. The willows' leaves seemed to rustle in the wind as though they were applauding her improvement. The swaying of the willows seemed to stop for a moment before the winds had changed.

Suddenly, the winds of the clearing became somehow more subtle. The girl noted that the trees movements had become more calculated and deliberate. Akina Hyuga realized that she would have to dodge their attacks while figuring out how to draw her sword. The first attack caused her to step to the side by placing her right foot behind her left one as she gripped her sword with her right hand and twisted her body to the right, drawing her sword out with enough force to make a resounding thunk against the tree that had attacked her. Another tree, however, had thwacked her in the back. The girl groaned harshly. It seemed that she had been hit in the same spot as last time. The girl had guessed that the trees would help her figure out how to use her feet and sword more effectively as a unit. When the tree to her left whipped toward her, the girl bent her body backward while allowing her feet to move over to the right, and the girl's sword was drawn out once the tree started to sway over to the other direction. The tree behind her whipped at her ankles and made a shaking motion to her as though she was still inexperienced and a beginner when it came to swordplay.

The girl sighed for a moment. The sun was starting to set behind the trees that lined the horizon. She was not so sure why she found this footwork so troublesome, but she wished that it would become easier as she went along. Her thoughts wandered to what Viper had successfully taught her...right before he nearly took her legs off at the shins with one swift movement. Her gaze was tilted upward while she waited for the willows to begin their assault once more. As she waited, she knelt to the ground as she normally did while her aunt and uncle were at home and had fixed a fancy dinner. Her sword was at her side, slanted downward, almost poking into the ground. Her eyes were closed for a few moments while she thought about what to do. Her mind had to work in balance with her body. Her left hand clutched her ying yang pendant tightly as though doing so would bring to life her mother or at least her spirit. The girl wanted to be better at swordplay and its movements but she needed guidance. The girl opened her eyes and nodded at the willows. Akina thought she knew what she was doing this time. When she saw an attack coming at her front, she gracefully moved out of the way, thunking her sword against the tree, and as the attack from behind came toward her, she used the basics of her footwork to spin herself around and used her sword to block the attack. As she smiled at the slight success that she had achieved, the trees changed up the difficulty level. The girl was struggling quite a bit at first, but she soon fell into the flow of things. Grace had mixed with speed and strength. The trees rustled their leaves at the girl long after the early evening had turned to night once more.

The girl hurt more than the first day she had worked with the willows. She found herself staggering toward the tree where she had this time left her messenger bag and her headband. She all but slid down the tree to the ground. Hungrily, the girl opened her bag and withdrew a piece of meat, bread, and some cheese. She chewed on these as she groped around her bag for one of the bottles of water she had packed. Her fingers found the bottle of water and greedily opened the lid. As the cool water slid down her throat, she looked up at the tree. Akina wondered if the tree would talk with her again tonight. She was getting tired of the cycle in which she found herself. Whenever she finished training her body, her thoughts were jumbled, and whenever the tree had finished speaking with her, her body felt heavier than normal. At least she could say that her mind and body were beginning to become one it seemed. It also seemed as though talking with the tree caused her to become more enlightened to how things really were in the world. She wondered if something of significance was going to happen if she learned all the tree had to teach her. Whatever was next for her to learn, she had a feeling that the next lesson would be very difficult to take. She was remembering what the tree had last asked her when she leaned her head back onto the tree.

"Ah, there you are, Akina." The tree's voice seemed louder than normal.

Akina nearly jumped to her feet. As she recollected her senses, the girl smiled and bowed to the tree. "Yes, it is I, tree spirit."

The tree seemed to sigh again.

"Is there something that bothers you, tree spirit?" The girl's voice was concerned as her eyes took in the height of the tree. The tree seemed to extend one of its branches, causing it to brush against the girl's shoulder.

"You intend to marry him, don't you? If that is the case, then I have something I must show you."

Akina affirmed that she intended to one day marry the man who they had been talking about for a couple days. Her face was a very deep scarlet hue as she did so.

The tree seemed to hang its crown as a wind caused many of its leaves to bend over. "Very well, but I warn you that you will not like what it is you will have to endure until the end." There was a slight chill in the air as the tree spirit spoke.
The girl shuddered lightly as the chill seemed to come from the earth itself. Akina wondered what it was that could cause the tree so much sorrow. She was very curious, but if the learning was going to cause pain, the girl was not sure if she wanted to continue down the path she found herself on. It took courage to continue when time brought her to hardship. Finally, the girl nodded slowly. "I believe I am ready, tree spirit, for what it is you must show me."

The tree seemed to nod solemnly. Even the winds seemed to become colder and moister than they had been. The tree's branches seemed to wrap around the girl's small frame of body and seemed to hoist her up into the air. The girl shuddered slightly under the grip of the branches. She was not afraid of heights, but she was somewhat leery about the motives of the tree. So far, the tree had done nothing to harm her, but there was always that occasional chance that the ancient tree spirit wanted to try and gain her trust only to consume her body or spirit once he had fooled her.

All of these thoughts vanished quickly as the environment around her began to shift and blur. Her body began to vibrate slowly, and as the wind blew, it caused the tingling to feel icy and nearly painful. The girl groaned slightly under her breath and closed her eyes tightly. She wondered when everything had begun swaying back and forth. It began softly, but it soon turned into a very violent motion. In a few moments, it felt as though the girl was falling through the air and back down towards the earth. The girl opened her eyes when her body bobbed up instead of continuing its descent toward the ground.

It seemed as though she was floating in a very strange sphere. The land around her seemed to be shifting from fertile to decaying to desolate. Akina's hands clutched her head as everything seemed to spin, making her nauseous. The tree's laughing was grating at her ears. The gentleness of the sound had gone away and it seemed to spin with everything else. "Are you awake, Akina?" The booming voice caused all of the motion and the spinning to stop.

Akina's eyes scanned the very fertile land and was wondering when the other two landscapes would come into play. "Yes, tree spirit, I have recovered from my spell." Her voice sounded colder and more mature somehow. "What is it that you wish to show me, tree spirit?"

The tree's gentle laugh had returned since the spinning stopped. "This is your final test, and it is by far the most difficult test you will have to face. Our bodies are still very much alive and well, but we are now in the realm of our minds. I have had to slowly ease you into the right frame of mind that you would be able to survive what I am about to show you." His words were very cold and solemn, but Akina nodded her head very slowly, showing that she was ready to face the challenges that lay ahead.

The tree seemed to nod to the girl. A deep wind blew across the fertile land, revealing a great gathering of people who all seemed to be readying their bodies for some type of confrontation. It took a few moments for the girl to recognize that the people groups were going to fight against one another. She cast a quick glance at the tree, but she was prodded by a branch from the tree to merely watch what was happening. Red trickled out over the lush green of life. The grass beneath the red soon turned black. It seemed as though it was the beginning of the end for this landscape. After a very brutal clash, the few survivors came together, and with tears in their eyes, they seemed to have reached some type of agreement, for they bowed toward one another. The scenery shifted slightly, and there was a village built on top of where the war had been. Everyone seemed to be living in peace and harmony until the shift occurred again and the village had been destroyed. Another shift and it was rebuilt. The landscape around the hovering Hyuuga girl and the tree.

The human girl and the tree were now in a dim room that Akina could easily identify as part of the Hyuuga compound. There was a very young woman who had a ying yang pendant hanging from her neck. The woman was bowing down in front of a veiled person, who was hidden behind a curtain. He spoke roughly at the woman, who he had called "daughter", saying that she had failed her mission because she had not killed the man she had been sent after. The woman was holding a small knife in front of her throat. The man in front of her nodded curtly...The woman moved the knife across her throat slowly...blood splattered on the pendant. The scenery was changing once again. Akina held back her tears.

This time, the Hyuuga compound was lighter than before. It was a shade of gray. There was a young girl about Akina's age standing in front of another girl who had dark hair. The Hyuuga girl standing in front of the other girl was clutching a ying yang pendant tightly in her right hand. As she waved to the other girl, she slipped the pendant around her neck. A prideful smile spread out across the Hyuuga girl's lips as though she had made a friend or found something she would never lose. The scenery blurred again to reveal the same girl as a young woman. She was crouching low in a bush, observing something. The viewpoint of Akina changed to reveal that the young Hyuuga woman was looking at a young Hyuuga boy. The same dark haired girl from a few moments earlier was beside her as well. Then, Akina noticed that both of the women were holding bamboo shinai in their hands. Sweat glistened off them as though they had been sparring recently. The dark haired woman made a comment, and Akina chuckled lightly as she watched the Hyuuga woman blush.

The scenery changed yet again to reveal the young Hyuuga woman in a white silk kimono. The young man she had been eyeing before was now walking down an aisle, looking at the woman ahead of him nervously. A cup filled with some clear liquid was presented to the couple from a person who was standing under a gleaming mirror. The dark haired woman stood to the left of the Hyuuga woman. People cheered as the young man and woman walked stiffly out of the temple they had been in. Akina's heart began to race. She was slowly piecing things together.

There was a dark room once more. Akina heard wailing from a person who she could barely recognize as the same Hyuuga woman from earlier. The man was next to her, gripping her hand tightly, but the woman kept wailing out a name. She kept crying out for her sister "...Uchiha!" The words struck Akina's body as though they were a whip. Her heart beat faster as a baby girl was brought into the world as the Hyuuga woman breathed her last breath. The man started to shake visibly. Tears glistened in the candle light.

Akina had not noticed her own shaking. She was floating on her knees, and the tears were not stopping their descent from her silver eyes, which felt like they were becoming darker from all the negativity in the visions that kept coming.

Finally, the scenery shifted and blurred into a desolate waste land. Akina recognized her father. He was standing in the midst of a very gory battlefield. He had been injured by many, but he had felled twice the number of those who injured him. Akina had heard stories of his might, but seeing him stand there in front of her looking proud and regal somehow made her happy. The man was smiling up to the sky. It was evident he was tired of fighting, even if he had been fighting for a noble cause. It was then that his blood trickled out of his body and onto the ground. The blow was fatal, and as the man fell to the earth, he whispered out one word: Akina.

As the visions ended, the Hyuuga girl found herself back in her body, convulsing in front of the tree. Her sobbing and shaking would not seem to cease. The tree had stopped talking to her, and for once, her body and mind felt as though they were equally light. Her tears seemed to have purified the silver from her eyes, and they now glistened a pure white. As the last of her tears fell down her cheeks, they felt as though they were warm and thick like blood. These final two tears left red stripes from the outer corners of her eyes down to the middle of her cheeks. Her face also seemed to be pure white in this form, and her lips were a deep crimson color. The girl's feet finally carried her into a standing position. The tree tapped her lightly on the shoulder. "I am sorry that I had to show you that. Go train with the willows one last time and you shall truly awaken."

Akina bowed lightly, hardly aware of what was happening to her. She ran through the woods, flowing in and out of the trees as the willows had taught her to do. She had picked up a branch and began reviewing her movements of the sword that the willows had taught her the second time she trained with them. As she approached the willows, they were standing still. There was no wind, and Akina stood in the center of the circle with ease. The trees bowed to her and waited for her to move. She instinctively flowed her chakra through her hands. She felt a hot power coursing through her. As the willows moved, she activated her Byakugan and was able to slightly predict their movements, since they were similar to the first to sessions. Not one willow thwacked her, though many came close, and she found that she was able to slice through the willows with some ease. When she looked down at her hands, she realized that her chakra had become white. "Akina, we acknowledge you!" The willows rustled in the wind, and the girl felt a hot burning on her forehead. When she looked into a stream, she noticed that the Hyuuga symbol had been burned with a blue tint into her forehead. The girl was very startled at her new appearance as she walked back to the tree, gathered her things and left the training field. She was now the innocent child no longer, but she had awakened a new power that had been within her.

The thoughts of what the tree had done to her plagued her mind, and her body was very sore from all the training she had done. It felt as though she would sleep for a week and a half before everything would be alright with her. She wondered how Viper would take all the things she had seen if she told him. There was something about her parent's marriage that seemed joyous and sorrowful at the same time. The girl hoped there would only be joy at her wedding, but with all that the tree had shown her and advised her on, it seemed foolish to always think so positively, even if it was in the confines of her own mind. The girl tried to keep her head up as she walked back to Konoha, more specifically the place that she had been calling home for a while, imagining that everyone would be happy to see her. Her stomach warned her of its coming wrath if it was not fed soon, and so the girl started on instinct to walk toward Ichiraku Ramen shop. She was hopeful that she would see Viper again soon. It had seemed like an eternity since she had seen him, and she hoped that her new appearance would not disturb him too much.

Despite all of the horrific things that had happened to her, Akina was still able to smile, and perhaps that was a sign of better times to come. Still, it felt as though everything had been a dream, and the only thing that had kept her within the logic that what she had gone through was real was the simple fact that she was stumbling over small roots and gravel in her geta, which was something of a nominally because she had been walking in the sandals since she was two or three years old. That was a testament to how worn her body, mind, and emotions seemed to be from training. She was glad to have been training very hard, and she hoped that Viper would be happy with everything that she had been able to achieve by herself. The sun was setting on the third day of her training as the girl was beginning to see the outline of Konoha over the horizon. She smiled widely, and there was a bounce in her step as she neared the village she was proud to call her home.

[Exit 10,460 words]

[Fully trained Henge Mastery, fully trained the gentle fist and will learn the techniques when my stats hit the proper level for each.]

Approved all plus +50 Stats +100 Jp