A/N

barely hearable

Karin's POV

I looked at the sign saying Urahara candy shop. I was about to have my first training session with Toshiro. I couldn't hold my grin anymore. I was finally going to train to become a shinigami! I went into the shop, not even bothering to knock.

"Hey!" I yelled, "Anyone here?" Urahara came out of the back.

"My, Karin, you are certainly early," he said with his usual grin in place, "You were first supposed to be here in ten minutes!"

"Yeah, yeah," I said dismissingly, "where's Toshiro?"

"He's in the basement!" Urahara said, "I'll take you to him!" I followed him, as he stood up and went to the back. He opened a hatch and went down. I followed him down the ladder and promptly burst out, when I saw the basement:

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

"I never get tired of peoples reaction when they first see it!" you could hear the grin in the shopkeeper's voice. But could you blame me for yelling? His basement was a freaking wasteland. Literally, completed with sky and rocks! Scratch that, sky and MOUNTAINS!

"Are you going to gape like a dead fish all day or come down so we can train?" I heard Toshiro's voice from beneath me. I looked down. How come the basement was more than five meter tall?! I could see the white of Toshiro's hair a little away from the ladder. I hurriedly climbed the rest of the way down.

"What do we start with?" I asked when I reached him, eager to begin the training. He sighed.

"Come with me," he said. I followed him between some of the mountains. On the ground were some odd marks.

"What are those marks?" I asked and pointed to them.

"They're for the barrier," he answered. I cocked an eyebrow.

"What for?" I asked yet another question.

"For your reiatsu," he answered. I suddenly felt stupid.

"Oh…" I said. He just sat on one of the two stone within the circle. He motioned for me to sit down. I obeyed. I looked around. "Shouldn't you activate the barrier?"

"Tessai already have," he answered. I looked around wide-eyed.

"Seriously?" I said, "I can't see it at all!"

"You usually can't see barriers," he said. I simply nodded. "You can put your reiatsu into a soccer ball, right?" I nodded again.

"How do you do it?" he asked.

"Well…" I thought a bit about it, "I feel the reiatsu as a sort of tingling sensation. Like I have too much energy or something. So I just sort of get frustrated and pour it into the soccer ball!" Toshiro looked at me with what seemed like disbelief. Then he sighed and put his head in his hand.

"This might be harder than I thought…" he murmured and ran his hand through his hair. He then looked at me, "Alright then, close your eyes," I obeyed, "then focus on that tingling sensation. Then, instead of pouring it into a soccer ball, imagine you have a ball inside of you, right in the middle, that you pour the reiatsu into." I tried to do it. I could almost see the ball and began pouring my reiatsu into it. I was brought out of focus when Toshiro yelled: "WITHOUT letting it out again!" I opened my eyes, confused by his outburst. Then I noticed that the pebbles that was on the ground had been pushed towards the barrier.

"Ups…" I said. The white haired taichou in front of me simply sighed.

"Let's try that again, alright?"

-o-

"This isn't going to work,"

I had to agree with Toshiro. After a little more than half an hour of trying to meditate, my reiatsu had dug a small crater around me.

"Okay, we'll try something else then," Toshiro said, "close your eyes again. Good, then think about Yuzu. You want to protect her, right?"

"Of course!" I yelled. Toshiro grimaced.

"I know," he answered and continued with the lecture, "Your reiatsu, the tingling sensation, is a danger to Yuzu. You need to capture your reiatsu. So, imagine that you put it into a small prison inside of you. A box, a sealed jar, anything works. That's good…"

-o-

"You can get out of the meditation now, Karin," I heard Toshiro's voice from right in front of me. A hand touched my shoulder. I opened my eyes and immediately lost sights of the ice cave, I had sealed the reiatsu in. I looked at Toshiro. He looked over his shoulder. "…Maybe we should train on how to keep your reiatsu hidden when you have your eyes OPEN as well…" I didn't get why Toshiro was saying that. I looked over Toshiro's shoulder too see what he meant. The rock he had sat on was smashed to pieces.

"…You're probably right," I would have sweat dropped. Toshiro sighed and removed his hand from my shoulder. I vaguely wished he had left it on my shoulder. It had been a bit cold, but not uncomfortably so…

"It's a quarter past six," Toshiro said, promptly shaking me out of my thoughts.

"ALREADY?!" he nodded, "SHIT! I have to go!"

"Don't…" Toshiro began, but was interrupted by me unceremoniously banging into the barrier, "…do that," he finished. I rubbed my head.

"Ow…" I said, "I completely forgot that was there…" Toshiro sighed (he did that a lot).

"I know you eat at half past six, but be a bit more careful, alright?" he simply said. I nodded. "The barrier is down now, just so you know," I looked around. I couldn't see any difference. I carefully walked out of the circle. I would have sweat dropped if I could when I went out of the circle. Yeesh, I'm turning into a manga character!

"…You have to teach me how to see the barrier," I said. I then took of running and yelled over my shoulder: "See you tomorrow, Toshiro!" I heard a vague "yeah" from behind me. As I began climbing up the ladder, I couldn't help, but think about something that had been odd about Toshiro after the training.

…Since when did he have a black stripe in his hair?

A/N Apparently I love one-sentence endings. And sweat drops. Though the last one was too good to pass up XD I don't really like fics that makes Karin learn everything super fast and it probably seems like this is one of these fics. IT'S NOT!... I hope. Since she's very protective, I think she would learn that part easily, if it was to protect someone. The rest is going to be a bit harder for her to learn XD

Thanks to RukiaLuvsChappy and luwen for following, to WereCat-Yoruichi for favoriting and to RSwinford for doing both!

MomoPeachFlower: You're not the only one ;-) To both things

forever122: Thank you! And I'm way ahead of you with that dancing game!

biganimefan18: I don't know if I should be surprised or not that everyone comments on the arcade thing. Anyway, I think so too! I get my best idea when I'm writing :-D

emachiin: Me neither XD But we got some training and a soccer match first, so you'll have to wait a couple of chapters. Which means, you'll have to wait about a week. Don't hate me!