Cue the Rocky Music

The girl look dumbfounded and confused at the same time even though they are the exact same thing. “umm’ she started off again, not sure where this was going. How does it feel? she savoured this question in her mind as the though of al the time she made contact with water. When she showered, when she drank it, etc etc. The girl pushed the button once more and let her fingers dab in the water as she pondered the question.

“Well it’s... wet” gg, the young girl stating the obvious. What can you expect from a six year old? or five year old? I forget how old. “It’s heavy to!” She remember filling a cup up with water, and it being heavier than she expected. “And it can be strong..” She recalled a time she belly flopped in a pond only to be met by the stinging sensation across all her body from impact. Some things you have to learn the hard way. “I don’t know this is hard!” She announced as she held her head with her small hands. She was too young to be thinking about such philosophical questions. If this is what it took to be a ninja and learn things then gg, she quits... but not really. She hoped Ashi would cut her some slack and spill the beans on the answer as she had no idea of what it could possibly be.

"Good," Kaya had gotten further than Ashi had expected logic-wise. "Water can be both strong and weak. Sometimes it flows and sometimes it crashes. Keep this in mind when you start trying to channel the water nature."

The Inuzuka would have liked to go a bit deeper into an explanation, but also wanted to retain the younger girl's attention. Honestly, she wasn't too experienced with this type of teaching. Sure, she taught plenty of older academy students. Yet, Kaya was a bit different insofar as age went—Ashi'd encountered more immature kids than her if you can believe that. The trick she figured was to keep moving and not dwell on the little things. So, on she went.

"Channeling is chakra is easy enough," Ashi brought her hands into the ram seal prompting a translucent blue flame of chakra to wreath her body. "I'm sure you can do this easily. It will get harder when you try to transform your raw chakra into water. I suggest by starting the transformation inside your body. It is much easier to maintain as you have complete control of the chakra within you."

She broke the ram seal. As much as she wished she could explain the exact way a transformation happened she couldn't. The methods for transformation varied from person to person. Some people had an easier time with than others and some could never progress past their natural born affinity. How such things worked was beyond Ashi. What she did know is that Kaya would have to find her own way.

"When I channel the water nature I imagine a creek running throughout my body. It feels cool and fluid, but also unyielding. Give it a try; make the raw chakra within you change."

All she could do now was support the girl's attempts at the transformation.

The young girl was pleased that her answered didn’t seem to far off. Even though Ashi didn’t blow out any confetti, the simple word she used brought the young’un all the reassurance that she needed that she was on the right track. Her teacher continued on with her explanation, going on and on about chakra transformation and this and that. Kaya focused her young brain as hard as she could to understand what seemed like a complex riddle that left the woman’s mouth. Suddenly, a blue fierce flame encircled the woman and the Genin just stared in awe. If it wasn’t clear yet, it was quite easy to impress the young girl.

Kaya continued to listen to Ashi explain what she envisioned when she channeled the water element. She closed her eyes and tried painting a similar picture, trying to feel the cool touch of the liquid. “Okay! I’ll give it a try!” The girl announced as she formed the ram hand seal herself. Her eyes remained closed as she focused on painting a picture to help her form the water. Her picture wasn’t a creek but a waterfall within a rainforest. The crashing water of the falls roared as it hit the rocks that were below. They seeped in-between the cracks to find it’s way into the body of water below.

The image she painted was so calming. With her eyes still closed, she wouldn’t realize that her raw chakra began to form small droplets of water around her, slowly becoming the wreath just as Ashi’s had. Though suddenly her picture perfect image began to turn sour as a storm began to brew. High winds knocked down the luscious trees as a monster began to erupt from the body of water.

In the real world, The water that surrounded the young girl turned green before it suddenly dropped all around her as she opened her eyes. The liquid burning the grass that surrounded them and part of the water fountain. “The beast!” She shouted, not really frightened but alarmed. She had come across him a lot since coming to Konoha and while her father and brother were attempting to help her control it, the thing inside her had been quite stubborn.

Ashi watched Kaya with a strict attention to detail. To actually instruct one had to be aware of where one's pupil is at. Moreover, a teacher couldn't let ego cloud their assessment of what someone actually knew. Too often the Inuzuka had seen-and had-teachers who firmly believed that the way they taught others was flawless only to blame the student when they failed to understand a concept. In Kaya's case, Ashi felt a responsibility to monitor the small girl's chakra so as to better guide her as a teacher.

At first, everything seemed normal. In fact, the girl in green was doing surprisingly well. She manifested a blue wreath of neutral chakra around her with ease, which was impressive in its own right considering her age. However, she actually went a step further and began to transform the neutral chakra into water. Moreover, Ashi didn't even need chakra sensory to notice a change, because the air around the small girl grew damp and eventually formed droplets of water, which promptly fell to the ground in a gentle staccato.

Then everything went wrong. The clear water droplets turned a sickly green and sizzled on the ground they fell on. For a moment, Kaya's chakra flashed to something evil that Ashi'd never felt before. It felt as if something were trying to escape the small girl's body. And then there was the smell, that smell of caustic chemicals that the anbu operative had gotten all too familiar with after a mission to that ended in a drug dealer's ill-organized lab.

"The beast?" Ashi repeated with unconscious concern creeping into her voice. "Kaya, what happened? Are you alright?

The woman kneeled down a short distance from the girl wondering it was safe to get closer. A beast? Hadn't she been talking about a beast in her stomach back in the restaurant? Something wasn't quite right here, but first thing was first: make sure Kaya was ok.

“HAHAHAHAHA” His roaring laugh boomed within the girl’s subconcious as Kaya suddenly found herself in the cave with the beast. “Not again!” She yelled, frustrated with the creature that resided in her body. “Just open up this cage girl and I’ll let you be.” His tempting voice spoke like a chocolate cake in front of an obese man. As much as she wanted the cake, she knew she couldn’t give in to the temptation of never having to deal with the thing again. “You’re gonna be sorry when I tell my poppa how annoying you’ve been!” The beast didn’t seemed threaten but before he could get another word in, The girl placed an open palm in front of her and suddenly the beast was gone, pushed deep into the cave that he was located in.

The young girl held her head with her hand on her temples. A piercing headache erupted as she felt the beast trying to fight it’s way once more. It seemed like every time she used even a sprinkle of chakra, it tried to fight its way through her and overcome her. It was a good thing she had that training session with Kasuga as it didn’t take long for the girl to push the beast into the very deep parts of her mind. locking him up and throwing away the key. She waited a few moments for the piercing headache to disperse before returning to a rather calm state.

Suddenly, she heard Ashi’s voice breakthrough the ringing that had developed in her ears, her concerned voice becoming clear. “Yeah, I’m okay. I’ve dealt with the beast before.” She said tiredly. He had become a large hinderance on her training. “I told you earlier!” She exclaimed, as if telling a husband for the third time to put the seat down in the bathroom. “I have a beast in my tummy! one of those tailed thingy mabobbers?” She said, uncertain of what they were called. “He always try to break free when I use my chakra but I have locked up now like a puppy! Boy is he stubborn though.” the girl continued rambling on and on, not realizing that the thing within her was something of great power; and also something that was largely feared. She would read the possible expression on Ashi’s face before asking the question. “Have you heard of him before?"

Reaching out a hand it appeared that the Inuzuka had found her heart. For a moment the woman's eyes linger on Kaya's shoulder, is this what people did? Then, with her hand a few inches from the girl in green, Ashi's hand dropped. Instead of clamping the small girl on the shoulder and pulling her close in an attempt to comfort the child, she ran her index finger through the small amount of green liquid by Kaya's feet.

The liquid felt strange. At first, she could have sworn it felt like soap, but when she rubbed the liquid between her index finger and thumb only for a faint burning sensation to evolve. It didn't really hurt the anbu's calloused hands though she did promptly wipe it off in the dirt by her side. Whatever the substance was it wasn't water. In fact, even with her limited knowledge of chemistry, Ashi would call it some sort of acid. The real question, however, was why the small girl had created the acid or rather how?

Standing up Ashi considered what the small girl had said back at the restaurant, a beast in her stomach. At the time, the Inuzuka had discounted it as just something the kid said. She certainly seemed the type to make such things up. However, imaginary monsters didn't turn water into acid. No, this beast, whatever it was, had to be real. Though, as to its true nature? She couldn't be too sure and the one place she'd find out more was in the library, but that would be for later. Better not to act too alarmed.

"Tailed thingy mabobbers? Sure, I know them."

Wait. Surely she didn't mean a bijuu? No, a small child couldn't be holding such a powerful beast within her; there had to another explanation.

"Well, as long as you keep him in check we should continue," Ashi's face betrayed none of the worries zipping through her mind. "After all, you were so close before. Did you feel your chakra change?"

Ashi hoped to move the conversation away from the acid episode and the best way to do that was to keep moving forward. Keep things normal and all that.

The taller woman crouched down towards eye levelled and almost reached for the girl before bending down and observing the goo that she formed. “O, Squishy makes that sometimes. It’s like water that burns people.” She said as the girl ran the goo through her two fingers. The green haired girl for the most part seem unfazed compared to the Inuzuka who seemed rather shook. Well maybe shook wasn’t the right word but she definitely seemed a little off after taking in that the young girl actually had a beast in her belly; or she was at least poking at that possibility.

“Oh u do!? Well then you know that they are a pain in the -- “ The girl paused for a moment, looking around to make sure the coast was clear before finishing her sentence off in a whisper. “ass” She said, covering her mouth. She screamed it out loud in her head though just so the beast would hear. “Yea I’m pretty sure I can keep him under wraps! My brother has helped me with controlling him.” She confirmed, hoping they could move along with her training.

“I did!” the girl confirmed excitedly as they were back on track. Kids do have short attention spans after all and can switch topics almost instantaneously. “I pictured a beautiful rainforest and there was a waterfall and -- “The girl closed her eyes as she began to picture it once more. Her chakra began to surge through her body as she collected the moisture within the air. Droplets formed first before the came together to form one big sphere of water. The girl would open her eyes to see the large blob of water in front of her. Not being able to help herself, she took a big chunk of the water before the rest splashed into the ground. “I was thirsty!” She exclaimed, her green garb half wet now. For the most part, the girl was pretty sure she had the whole water element thing now, or at least, good enough where she could begin to try forming techs. “What’s next what’s next!” The girl was absorbing the knowledge like a sponge in the middle of -- well, that fell flat. Point was, she was excited to learn more.

Ashi's hand sprung to her mouth to help suppress an involuntary laugh at Kaya's assessment of the beast within her. The girl in green certainly did have a personality and, despite the Inuzuka's best efforts, it was growing on her. Every time she found herself starting to like the girl she remembered who her father was—blood is hard to dismiss. Though, the more time she spent with Kaya the more Ashi began to think of her as separate from the current Hokage. Yes, they shared the same blood, but, from what the older woman could tell, they were very different people. Or perhaps she was missing something? It wouldn't be the first and nor would it probably be the last.

What next, indeed?

There were a few ways to go when teaching a student. One could cover new ground very slowly or one could hammer out the basics. In Ashi's experience, the basics often went neglected in favor of more flashier techniques. Kaya, the anbu thought, didn't need anything too flashy. Rather they'd go back to the basics, learning the water element was probably as advanced as the two shinobi would go. Yes, time to backtrack.

"Let's talk about genjutsu," Ashi's tone shifted into something one might find at the head of a lecture hall. "I don't know how much you know about it, but it is a type of jutsu that affects the mind. Practitioners disrupt and alter their target's chakra to create illusions. They can make you see things that aren't there and not see things that are, quite the handy skill."

Ashi paused for a moment to allow the information to seep into Kaya's mind and to give her attention span a break.

"However, as you can probably expect, it can also be dangerous to wallow in such illusions. As such, the genjutsu release has been created. This release allows you to reset your chakra and break the illusions. It's a shinobi's bread and butter, so let's try it out."

She brought her hands into the tiger hand seal before continuing.

"You make the tiger seal and then focus your chakra in an attempt to overpower the genjutsu you're under. If you're releasing genjutsu on someone else you'll want to focus your chakra to your hands and then touch the person to give them a chakra reset of their own. Sounds pretty easy, right?"

Allowing her hands to drop to her side, Ashi gave an encouraging smile.

"Why don't you give it a try?"

“Genjutsu??” The girl said in a whisper, as she collected her thoughts to any remnants of this thing. It took her a minute to remember what exactly that it was as Ashi continued one. “Ooo, the thingy that makes people daydream right!?” Kaya asked the woman to confirm if they were on the same page. The young kunoichi had never experiences such a thing but in theory it sounded pretty cool. Making people dream about whatever they wanted! .... well now that she thought about it a little harder, those who used it on her probably wouldn’t transport her into a fantasy of juice muscled men -- say what?

“Oh sounds simple enough.” The girl responded, following the girls instructions as she placed her hands together to form the tiger hand seal. “So now I just focus my chakra right?” She asked, as she let her chakra flow through her body. For her age, her chakra control excelled even that of most Chunin. Sad to say, but it was true. What could one say, she was naturally gifted. If this was some sort of game, one could say she placed a lot of points into the chakra field... But this wasn’t a game. How silly would that be?

The girl focused and focused and focused. She focused so hard, that in the midst of all her focus, and in the silence of the training fields the overall environment around them. A flatlined release of air from her exterior exit released through the baby plum cheeks. At that exact moment, Kaya stopped focusing on her chakra, and her focus came on the intestinal odour that began to flood that surrounding area.

Now someone who was reading down on her story would know that she contained a bijuu that held the capabilities of the acid element. Yet, one would never know of the lethal explosion that gag enducingly popped its way from out her anus, a smell so foul that the unlucky souls who weren’t able to escape it would suffer the effects of the bodily discharge.

Of course, Kaya was a creature of grotesque nature, so she oddly found the smell quite favourable. Of course, not something she’d snort, but still, she had created the beauty of a scent. On the other hand, she was among company... company that unbeknownst to her, was known for their enhance ability of smell. Lord have mercy on Ashi’s nose.A nervous laugh filled the possible awkward silence that was left between the two. “I think I got it!” Kaya replied, trying to avoid the awkward conversation about the fact that she just passed gas.

"Yeah, I suppose they could cause daydreams," Ashi confirmed with a half nod.

Perhaps she should've mentioned that these daydreams could cause pain. And, worse than pain, they could alter memories and ultimately kill, but the Inuzuka didn't feel all that comfortable dropping reality on the head of an eight-year-old. Kaya had plenty of life ahead of her to learn hard truths—Ashi thought it better to let her grow up normally. Or, rather, as normally as a shinobi can grow up when surrounded by life and death situations. No one is ever quite right when they might have to kill another human on any given day.

"Yes," she continued. "Just focus your chakra into a burst and aim to dispell anything that might have a hold on you. Once you get better at it you will be able to release genjutsu without a hand seal."

In fact, while Kaya worked up her concentration, Ashi turned her attention inwards and to mastering the genjutsu release. Without hand seals the process was a bit harder and she found it required a bit more concentration. Hand seals so often acted as a crutch to the user and allowed them to easily channel chakra. However, without them, the anbu found herself a bit out of her depth. She had never been all that good with ninjutsu-based techniques and chakra release fell within that description.

However, Ashi was not one easily deterred. She gathered her chakra by focusing it on a single point in her body much like a hand seal and then released it in a burst. The burst felt much the same, which pleased her to no end. As it turned out all one had to do was find a point on the body to act as a focal point from where the burst would emanate from. Easy as pie, right?

The mastered genjutsu release, however, would not save the well-practiced anbu from what happened next...

The smell hit Ashi's nose like a ton of bricks. She doubled over, which only made it worse, and even tasted a bit of her earlier dinner in the back of throat. Normally, the Inuzuka did not react so adversely to harsh smells thanks to her training, but she had let her guard down around the small tike. That certainly wouldn't happen again.

"Ok...ok," Ashi coughed standing up straight once more. "I think that's all we have time for tonight. Shall we call it a night?"

The smell still lingered in the woman's nostrils like some infection—she'd need to get a better scent before heading to bed or her dreams would be haunted by the unsavory smell.