When Zakuro turned two years old, Hanada took him out to one of the Hyuugas' training grounds. There were several post standing in the ground with straw filled mannequins tied to them. She then gave Zakuro his birthday present.
"Zakuro, I know that you won't be going to the ninja academy for six more years, but it is vital that you begin your training as soon as possible. That is why I am giving these shuriken. You are to practice throwing these for at least half an hour every day from now until you enter the academy."
Zakuro gleefully reached into the basket of ninja stars and started tossing them at the various targets, but they all went off in random directions and with no seeming order to their travel.
"No, no, no! Practice is not just doing something repeatedly. If you were to do this for the next fourteen hundred days, you would be no better at it than you are now. True practice is to throw one while paying careful attention to how you throw it. Notice how it flies, where it goes, and the path it takes. Does it go strait to the target? Does it rise into the air and descend to the target? Does it curve in from the side? And always see if it hits. These are eight sided practice shuriken; they will stick well in the targets, but would not do much real damage in a fight. In the academy, you will use real weapons, with only 4 points. They will do more damage, but the principle of throwing will remain the same."
Zakuro nodded with the seriousness that looked comical on his childish face. After some practice and careful observation, he saw that when throwing a shuriken horizontally he needed to quickly snap his wrist, but when throwing them over his shoulder he had to keep his wrist straight. He begged his mother to let him stay to practice for more than thirty minutes, but she only gave him an extra fifteen minutes.
"This practice may seem fun, but it is still training, my little Zakuro-kun. If you practice for too long at first, you will be sore tomorrow. It will take time to build up the necessary endurance to do this for hours on end. Now, let's go for a run, neh?
"Hai, let's run run run!"
The days turned into months and the months turned into years. By the age of five, Zakuro became proficient with throwing shuriken over the shoulder and with the sideways wrist snap. Thrown horizontally, he could even make them curve in from the side. He and his mother would go running everyday. At first they only ran a mile or less, but by the age of five, they were doing two laps around the city of Konaha every day, a staggering ten mile run. He would do fifty chin-ups, one hundred jumping jacks, and fifty pushups everyday before breakfast. His life was devoted to training to become a shinobi. From the moment he woke up to when his mother would tuck him into bed, everything was part of training. He even had to practice dodging his mother's attacks whenever he ate.
On his fifth birthday, Hanada began to instruct Zakuro in the art of the kunai.
"The throwing of a kunai is a more exacting task than that of a shuriken. The range and damage that it can inflict is also increased. While you have graduated to using four pointed shurikens, a kunai only has one point."
"I know that, Mother!"
"Ah, but have your realized that as a kunai spins in the air, it will only strike every four quarter turns instead of each one."
"That much is obvious."
"Indeed, you are no moron, obviously."
"Hn."
"So, my little Zakuro, the kunai must be thrown from a certain distance, with the kunai making a half turn each arms length. Therefore, you must learn to throw the kunai from the handle and the point; and you must be able to accurately judge the distance between you and your target, and throw from the appropriate end accordingly. You must be able to do this instantly and without hesitation, for in the moment that you hesitate, you may die!"
"But there's no pressure here, right Mother?"
"Sarcasm does not become you, ninth son."
"So, I have to be able to throw these kunai, but isn't there more to them than that?"
"That's right, my child. There is much more to them. A kunai can be used as a slashing or stabbing weapon. Properly used, they are a highly lethal weapon. But even that is not their true purpose."
"Nani? Then what is their true purpose."
"Zakuro, remember this if you forget everything else about the kunai. A kunai is a tool to protect yourself and those you defend. Kunai are not a true offensive weapon. You teachers in the ninja academy will tell you different. They will think that a kunai is the staple for a ninja offense. But the truth is that kunai are designed as a means to defend yourself in a last ditch effort. The blade can be used to block and parry attacks, and the ring at the end of the handle is designed to trap arrows and bladed weapons. I want you to emphasize that aspect of a kunai in your fighting style. Attack with you strongest or fastest weapons and jutsus. Defend with your kunai. If you can counterattack with you kunai, that is a plus, but defense is your main use for them."
Zakuro spent his fifth year focusing on kunai and shuriken throwing while moving. He finally was able to hit his targets from any distance, using whichever weapon fit the distance. The time flew quickly and Zakuro would later look on those times as the period that he was happiest.
The training in traditional Hyuuga style taijustsu began in earnest during Zakuro's sixth year. The training in stamina truly paid off as he was tasked with mastering the basic stances, strikes, and blocks in a very short time.
The stances gave way to forms and sequences, also called kata.
The strikes gave way to combos and chains of combos. Despite his failure to insert chakra in his hands in the typical Hyuuga gentle fist style. The tenketsu that disrupted chakra when attacked also served as pressure points to cause seizing of the joints and muscles when attacked with greater force. Zakuro began to call his style the "Firm Fisted" style, as he had to attack with significantly more strength than the typical Hyuuga to damage his target. This also slowed down somewhat the traditionally lightning fast Hyuuga style, and despite his best efforts, he always seemed to come in second to any sparring partner.
The blocks gave way to parries, which gave way to counters. His mother said, "Why simply stop my attack when you can redirect it to give you an opening for a counterattack? Why parry and not take advantage of the opening? And why should you not take the counterattack and use it as the starting point for a combo attack of your own?" This style of countering allowed Zakuro to always advance toward his opponent. Even if the opponent took the offensive, his style allowed for him to reverse the flow of the battle and guide it in his favor. By his seventh birthday, he could take an attack and counter it into a sixteen hit combo counter attack. He could take a blocked attack and use the force of the opponents block or parry to push forward with an even deadlier attack.
When Zakuro turned seven, his mother took him out to the courtyard where a table had been set up with a variety of weapons laid out upon it. As he gazed on the rows of shiny and pointy objects of various shapes and sizes, his mother began to speak.
"I have decided that to compensate for your slower speed, you will take up a weapon. There are a variety of swords, daggers, kamas, nunchuckas and chain based weapons to choose from."
Zakuro looked at the wealth of weapons and slowly walked around the table.
"I want a sword, but I don't want anything that will be cumbersome or slow. I want to be able to defend readily and make use of my counter-attacking style even when armed. What sword best does that?"
"The sword you want is either a wakizashi or a kodachi. They are both short swords that lend themselves well to fast attacks and still allow you to be able to block an edged weapon. When duel wielded, they can create a wall of steel to shield you and allow you to push your opponent to his destruction. They are usually either used as a single weapon or in conjunction to the slower but stronger katana, however."
Zakuro looked at the blades and picked up what looked to be a short wooden tube about twenty-eight inches long. When he pulled at both ends, he unsheathed twin straight-bladed kodachis from the tube. The handles blended in with the sheath to give the appearance of a single stick of wood. "I'll take these" he said.