"Again!"

Hisato picked himself up out of the dirt and rearranged his arms and legs into the resting stance of the sea-spray style. His arms were positioned loosely in front of his chest, waiting for the strike coming towards him. He knew even before contact was made that the stance was no good. He was too tired to really stand his ground anymore.

"Ooof!" He'd managed to sidestep the first of his father's blows, but had failed to defend against the hard blow to his stomach. He fell to the ground once again, clutching his middle and breathing heavily.

"Again!"

It took him more than a few moments to pick himself up again. His knees were shaking, and his chest burned as he gasped for breath. His eyes stung too, but he didn't dare go ahead and cry; the consequences for him would be much harsher if he did so. He settled himself into the resting stance of his family's taijutsu style once again and tried to slow down his thrumming heartbeat, forcing himself to pay attention.

He ducked the first sweeping blow, dropping into a roll backwards and bouncing back to his feet. His father lunged again, but this time Hisato sidestepped, pushing his father's arm away. He tried to twist it up and around, like he was supposed to, but the older male was too big and strong compared to his stick thin child body, and his fingers simply scrabbled at his sleeve a little, barely gaining him any momentum. His father kicked out and swept Hisato's legs from under him before he even had a chance to react, and he was painfully reacquainting himself with the dirt once again.

"Again!"

Hisato felt dizzy. That last fall had been a bit too hard, and he'd been unable to stop his head from making painful contact with the ground. He'd been trained to fall properly, protecting the weak spots on his body in a tangle of cushioning limbs, but it hadn't worked out this time.

"I… I can't…" He wheezed. "Please… Father… I…"

"AGAIN!"

Hisato held back a whimper and lurched to his feet, swaying slightly as he clumsily took up his stance.

"Honey!"

Hisato flinched, bracing for the blow that never came. His father was distracted for the moment by his mother's call from the back porch. He used the precious few moments that he was distracted to gulp a few lungfuls of air in, trying to recover from his fall.

"Shouko." His father sounded annoyed. He dared not look up to see if the expression on his face matched the tone of his voice. "We're sparring, please don't interrupt."

"Hisato's had enough now." Shouko said firmly. "You two have been at it for over an hour. Dinner is almost ready anyway."

There was a long moment of silence while Hisato prayed. Then finally, a sigh. "Fine." Hisato looked up to look at his father through the yellow strands of hair that made up his spiky bangs. His father looked less than pleased, but at least he didn't look fierce anymore. "Go inside and clean up. This isn't over. You will pick up your taijutsu grades." His expression was narrow. Hisato decided to cut his losses and go for the easy escape. Not trusting himself to not say anything stupid, he just bowed low to his father to thank him for the 'friendly' spar and scurried back to the house.

His mother's finger's brushed the top of his head in a comforting pat as he passed, but he dared not stop. He hurried into the house and retreated to the bathroom to wash off the layer of dirt and make a bad attempt to disinfect the various cuts all over his body. He tried not to think about dinner and what a tense atmosphere that would bring. He just grimly concentrated on the bandages, winding them around his body like it was the most fascinating task in the world.


A/N:

So yeah... things got a little serious there... I know that I said I had a plan for this fic, but really, it's a super vague one. This sort of came out of nowhere. Sorry.

Big thanks to all of you that favourited or followed this little fic of mine :) Biggest thanks goes to Anahissa for the review. If I've made you curious about my characters then I feel like I've done my job here properly!