"Hinata," said her father, his face stern and not looking back as they walked towards their clan's compound.
"Yes, Father," said the nervous eleven-year-old girl.
"You will include studies of what Brisingamen can show you on a daily basis. Weekly, there will be a time set aside for you to meet up with the Uzumaki child."
"Ye-yes Father."
Hiashi nodded and was silent for some time. It wasn't until they reached the compound that he broke that silence. "Try and comport yourself with the dignity of the Hyuga clan at all times."
One week later:
Hiashi Hyuga didn't facepalm. But it was a near thing.
"Tag! You're it, Hinata!"
"This is training?" asked Hiashi of apparently no one.
"Well, actually, yes."
Hiashi Hyuga did NOT jump as that would be beneath the dignity of a Hyuga.
The ANBU mask depicted a single tear from the right eyehole.
Hiashi considered the figure. Female, perhaps twenty-four or so years old. Spiky-looking dark-brown hair. Not one he was familiar with. There was a momentary temptation to flash his Byakugan and look beyond the mask, quickly suppressed. "This is training?"
"Ah, Hyuga-san, you see only the surface. Look past that."
Hiashi frowned ever so slightly, but did as the ANBU had suggested. True, the two were running and dodging and Hinata was now on the attack - but this was hardly the Jyuken. It lacked grace of any kind.
"There," said the ANBU as Hinata diverted her pursuit in order to run up the side of a tree and onto a branch.
"WHOA!" cried out Naruto, loud enough to be heard all the way over where the observers stood. "How did you do that?!"
"That is nothing," said Hiashi. "In order to use the Jyuken, pinpoint chakra control is necessary. The tree-climbing exercise is but one step along that path."
"And from that, he has to learn chakra control - something he is particularly deficient in," said the ANBU. "In order to teach, she must overcome her hesitation and learn patience. Is this not so?"
"Perhaps," said Hiashi. "Yet this game is still taking valuable time away from her studies."
Hinata apparently said something, followed by a brief glow and then Uzumaki fell over for no apparent reason.
"What?" asked Hiashi, his Byakugan activating without hand-seals so that he could observe better. Fading glows from her necklace and from around the boy's legs told the story.
"One of the weaknesses of the Hyuga style," said the ANBU, "is that everyone who knows of your clan knows what you can do. If one had to fight a member of your clan, using ranged and area-effect jutsu would be the first choice of an attacker who doesn't have a specific jutsu to limit your mobility or counter your techniques."
"Which is part of the reason for my agreeing with this in the first place," said Hiashi.
"She's learning," stated the ANBU. "When she first acquired the device Brisingamen, she lacked the chakra reserves to manage even low level functions. Now she can get at least some basics done. It'll be interesting to see where she'll be in a year."
"Did the Hokage assign you to watch over the boy?" asked Hiashi.
"Yes, I was due for some low-stress missions anyway," said the ANBU. "Decompression after more involved missions. When I go back to the more demanding tasks, another will be rotated in."
"Ah," said Hiashi. Yes, that WAS something that frequently happened.
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(Posted Tue, 07 May 2013 17:13)
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