Pakin moved through the forms with focused restraint. His scythe cut through the air in slow motion, as his wrist levered downwards, bringing the blade straight down.

  “No. Again. The scythe is not an axe, Pakin. It’s made for scything, not hacking at wood all day. Your wrist should angle the weapon down as you pull it towards yourself.” Gera demonstrated with the curved stick in her hand, exaggerating the motion and repeating it several times for Pakin.

  It’d been a few days since he’d gotten the Kusarigama, and every day since he’d practiced with the weapon. He did his best not to show it, but he was getting a little frustrated. This is getting to be exhausting. Gera had reached new levels of exacting as Pakin learned to wield his gift. They’d been at it for at least two hours, and he was feeling the strain in his arms, hips, and chest.

  Flowing through each movement at such slow speeds was killer on his muscles. Gera would tell him to stop and switch arms when he started to shake. She explained that it was to build all the stabilizer muscles that would keep his weapon stable and secure in his grip. He trusted his teacher, but this was excruciating, mainly because the heavy chain had to be wrapped around the arm not wielding the sickle.

  He repeated the movement as she instructed. Finally, after his fifteenth rep, she called for him to rest. He lowered his arms to his side, panting, and Gera passed a bottle of water to him.

  “You know, all this weapons training has me feeling nostalgic.” She commented lightly.

  Pakin was too busy alternating between gulping air and gulping water to respond.

  “How would you like to meet my sensei?”

  “Wha?” Pakin exited his thirst-induced fugue and stared dumbly at his teacher.

  She grinned and asked again, “How would you like to meet my master? I think it’d be good to meet your martial granddaddy, plus I just know he’s gonna wanna see you after learning I’m in town.”

  Pakin’s fatigued mind slowly digested Gera’s words, and once he processed them, his eyebrows rose along with his excitement. “Wait, your teacher? Whoa, the teacher of my teacher. Teacher squared.” Pakin spoke reverently.

  Gera’s grin evolved into a chuckle at his silly rambling. “I’ll set up a dinner with him this weekend, you’ll like him. We’ll go somewhere nice and make the old fart pay for it. Mwahahaha.” Gera wrung her hands and laughed maniacally.

  “You really like making other people pay for your stuff, huh?” Pakin remembered the trip to the Mission Hall they’d made yesterday, to submit all the receipts from the trip. Gera had been the picture of an angelic kunoichi, batting her eyelashes at the clerk helping them. Pakin imagined a few extraneous purchases were waved through by the blushing teenager behind the counter. As they’d left the building, Gera had pulled out the same cartoon villain act she was.

  A crippling weakness of the shinobi administrative system.

  Gera broke character at his comment, and she shrugged. “I’ve got a broke girl mindset, kiddo. Saving money in any way makes me giddy.” They left the balcony, and Pakin waved to Kintaro in the loft.

  The bird waved lazily back, stifling a yawn behind one of his enormous wings. During his stay, Kintaro had been an excellent conversation partner. Pakin was endlessly fascinated by the bird’s ability to speak about any topic for hours on end. Kintaro also expressed a kinship with Pakin.

  “Truth be told, I’ve grown rather lonely as of late. Chie has been obsessed with finding a mate this past year and has often left me to my own devices.” He’d confided in Pakin one night, as the two shared the apartment alone.

  The bird had also become Pakin’s chakra tutor, helping him whenever Pakin struggled with a particular hand sign or transitioning between them.

  Pakin washed up, while Gera moved to the couch and picked up a book to read. After his shower, Pakin joined Gera in the kitchen, for the latest addition to his training regimen.

  “So, first you want to ensure your pan is nice and hot. Then, add a generous amount of butter.” Gera instructed Pakin from behind. She was giving him a crash course in homemaking, since he’d be living alone in a village-provided apartment when school started .

  He finished the omelettes, bacon, and toast, as Gera set the table for four. Chie walked out into the living room in her pajamas, and Pakin did his best to avoid staring. Living with two teenage girls was a much bigger challenge than he had imagined.

  “Morning Kintaro, Gera, Pakin. Breakfast smells lovely.” Chie greeted everyone as she shuffled to the dining counter top. Kintaro flew down to join them at the bar as she sat down. He’d shrunk to a much smaller size, about what was normal for a vulture so that he could eat breakfast with everyone.

  The four roommates enjoyed Pakin’s breakfast, Kintaro praising Pakin for his progress.

  “You’ve certainly grown as a chef, young Pakin. I have to say, I’ll miss these homemade meals of yours. Chie and your teacher were constantly eating out before you joined us, a shame since this dining area is lovely.” He commented while gulping down a large bite of omelette.

  Pakin thanked him and asked, “If you guys eat out so much, why shouldn’t I do that?”

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  Chie swallowed a bite of toast and answered, “It’s because of your stipend while you’ll be attending the Academy. They put you on a budget and expect you to manage your finances while you study. It was even worse when Gera and I attended, we were scraping by with a couple hundred ryo a month.”

  Gera sighed wistfully and recalled, “I remember eating nothing but rice noodles for a month, cause I spent most of my budget on a knife. Luckily, the grocer nearby was trying to get rid of extra stock, and I managed to get a whole box for like, three hundred ryo.”

  Chie giggled and said, “Dude, I remember that. You were so hungry that month,, and I swear you started to develop scurvy.”

  Pakin cleaned up the dishes and listened as Chie recounted other incidents caused by Gera’s terrible spending habits from her first year in Kumo.

  Pakin and Gera walked through the streets of Kumo, making their way towards the Golden Pillar District. It was easy to spot, given the yellow ore crawling up the pillar in exposed veins. On one of his trips out on the town this week, he’d asked the fruit stall owner what the lustrous metal was. The ore was pyrite, or fool’s gold, giving the pillar its other name, The Fool’s Pillar.

  Pakin and Gera were walking towards a public arena on the south side of the pillar. Gera explained as they walked, “The arena is often used by shinobi for sparring, training, and showing off.”

  Gera was taking Pakin there to join her weekly spar with some friends. “It’s really more a social thing, but we’re shinobi, so we can’t just meet up at a diner or something. We’ve gotta beat each other up just to hang out.” Gera joked as they reached their destination.

  The arena was packed between a dozen buildings and pressed against the pillar, forming a backboard for the rectangular space. It was a little bigger than a soccer court with dozens of nicks and scratches marring the huge stone tiles that decorated the floor. Three tori gates, one on each open side, towered above the arena. Printed on a sign hanging from the top of the gate, the seal of confrontation greeted those arriving to the space.

  As they passed underneath, Pakin looked back at the other side of the sign and saw that it displayed the sign of reconciliation.

  “That’s cute.” Pakin said to himself.

  Gera poked her student to get his attention, and he turned around to see two teenage boys waiting in the arena’s center. One was huge, probably close to two meters, and built like a brick house. He wore a green flak jacket, like the classic variety from Konoha. Underneath, he wore a simple black jumpsuit that looked incredibly tight over his massive frame. He had short, cropped blonde hair and a pair of heterochromatic eyes: one blue, the other grey and slightly glassy.

  The other boy was about average height with medium length, brown hair, and hazel eyes. He wore a blue crop top and long-sleeved mesh, with white shorts and mesh down to his shins. His navel was exposed, revealing a mesmerizing tattoo underneath. The tattoo was four braids of ink coiling around his belly button before splitting off and retreating into various points on his clothes.

  Gera waved to the two of them, speaking up as she and Pakin joined them in the center of the arena. “Hey guys! What’s up?”

  The big teen answered first, in a surprisingly high-pitched voice, “Not much, Gera. Who’s your friend?”

  Gera beamed, placing one hand on her hip, and using the other to gesture to Pakin, “This, my friends, is the one and only Pakin of Fuwayama. My first and greatest apprentice.”

  The two boys stood in shock, mouths open, as Pakin waved politely and said, “Hello, it’s nice to meet you.”

  The smaller boy recovered first, moving forward and shaking Pakin’s hand, “Hey kid, I’m Sho. Good to meet you.” His voice carried a subtle lisp that Pakin couldn’t place.

  The larger teen shook his head and laughed, shaking Pakin’s hand after Sho, “I’m Tsuyo. Best of luck under her tutelage, kid.”

  “She’s really not that bad, but thanks.” Pakin responded defensively.

  I don’t know why everyone keeps dunking on Gera, but it’s starting to piss me off. He thought to himself.

  Gera slung an arm around Pakin's shoulder and said, “Oh, I’m sorry.” Gera mimed searching across the horizon and asked, “Where are all the young shinobi clamoring for your tutelage? Oh, that’s righ,t there are none. So, suck it nerds!” She flashed the boys the middle finger, and they laughed at her antics.

  Pakin giggled, some of his frustration eased by Gera standing up for herself and the clear banter between the three teens. Tsuyo waved his hand at Gera and said, “Fair, fair. Although some of us aren’t so privileged to get a whole month off to run home and recruit a gifted protege.”

  Gera let go of Pakin and hopped forward, saying,“That’s because neither of you has hit chunin yet! Let’s get this spar started so I can whip you boys into shape for the next exams!” The boys shook their heads, and all four of them started stretching.

  Pakin almost stopped himself, falling into the motions out of habit, but decided it’d be awkward if he didn’t follow through.

  “Do you think anyone else is coming today?” Tsuyo asked.

  Sho shook his head as he pulled one arm and then the other behind his back. “I don’t think so. Kouki was back for a minute, but then his platoon got an assignment, so he’s out for at least a month or two.”

  Gera tsked and inhaled sharply, commiserating, “Shit, I saw him on the road as he was headed back to Kumo. I hope he at least got to rest, his trip didn’t go as well as mine.”

  Pakin crossed his legs and bent at the waist, feeling the comfortable warmth of his muscles waking up. He vaguely remembered the boy from their overnight trip to Yoshiwara, and Gera had told him in the morning about the meeting. All Pakin could recall about him, was his butt high in the air and his face buried at the end of a meters long furrow.

  Tsuyo piped up and said, “I’m not sure, but you know him. He’ll sulk for a bit and then find some random hobby to fixate on. Remember, when he was super into those puzzle boxes.”

  “Oh my god!” Sho exclaimed, “He sucked at those! He got his finger stuck inside one for, like, three days.”

  “Duuuude. He tried to pawn a bunch of them onto me, when he released he sucked at them.” The rest of the group laughed and shared more stories about Kouki’s strange hobbies as they finished stretching.

  As they stood up, Sho pointed to the young man across from him and asked, “Is Pakin joining our spars today?”

  Pakin pointed to himself and looked at Gera expectantly.

  She said, “If you guys don’t mind. He’s still pretty fresh, but I’ve put him through the ringer this last month. I’m sure he’d only benefit from sparring with someone besides me.”

  Tsuyo and Sho looked at each other momentarily before coming to a consensus. Tsuyo gave a big thumbs-up and declared, “Sounds good to us! Are you ready to show us what you got, Pakin?” The older teen asked.

  Pakin nodded vigorously and seriously declared, “I’ll be in your care, senior brothers!”