Chapter 11 - A Prodigy In the Making

Shikadai, Inojin and Chocho lined up in front of their parents after their defeat. While their parents were lecturing them on their performances, Mirai retrieved her headband. By the time she put it back on and came back, the children's lecture was over.

"All in all... you guys weren't too bad out there. But we've got a lot of work to do," Shikamaru said.

Shikadai sighed. "So we've got to this again? What a drag... The three of us might not even end up on the same team."

Mirai popped up from behind and wrapped her arm around Shikadai's neck. "And there you go being pessimistic again! Lighten up a little."

Shikadai grunted and tried tapping out. "How about you lighten up your grip first, big sis?"

"Thanks again for your help, Mirai," Shikamaru said.

"Hey, that's what family is for, right?" she responded

Mirai tussled Shikadai's hair before letting him go, then disappearing in a puff of smoke. Now that training was over, the Ino-Shika-Cho families left the training grounds together. They said their goodbyes and parted at the gate.

Inojin noticed Hana walking with him and his mother. "Hana, you're coming with us?"

Hana shook his head. "The house I'm staying at is this way."

Inojin hummed as he, Hana and Ino walked parallel to a riverbank.

Hana observed his surroundings like he was sight-seeing. Konoha was such a beautiful place. While his heart remained in Guruma, being located in the Land of Iron meant that any type of vegetation was rare. People rarely saw flowers. In fact, Hana had been told that his namesake was born from this fact. He was named Hana so that there would be at least one flower alive in the snow (though, the person who told him this was Tsubame, so Hana knew to take it with a grain of salt.)

Konoha was a delightful contrast. It certainly lived up to its name as the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Everywhere Hana looked, he found a different flower – cherry blossoms hung from the trees, yellow camellias grew from bushes, red roses had grown over fences, amaryllises were blooming in small patch of grass Hana and the Yamanakas passed by. When Hana saw a certain flower, he stopped.

Inojin stopped as well. "Hana, what's wrong? Did we already pass your stop?"

Ino noticed Hana staring at a patch of sunflowers. "You like flowers, Hana?"

It took Hana an extra two seconds to respond. "H-huh? Uh, yes. I like flowers a lot."

"I guess sunflowers are your favorite then, huh?"

Hana turned red for some reason. "To be honest... I didn't pay much attention to sunflowers until recently."

Ino raised her brows. 'Oh~ Could Hana be...' She smiled slyly and crept beside him.

"Hey, Hana... Do you know what the other name for sunflower is?" She asked while observing Hana's flustered expression. "It's Himawari."

Ino's killing blow was as devastating as she had hoped. Hana's face went a red as the roses they had just walked past. She laughed at his adorable reaction and continued to tease him by rubbing his head and chanting "Himawaris are really pretty... Lots of people like them... If you don't pick them at right time, somebody else will..."

Inojin saw Hana moping at his mother's strange behavior. "Mom? What are... doing?"

"A few years and you'll understand, Sweetie. For now, just let mommy have her fun."

Hana endured Ino's teasing for a while longer. All the while, he kept looking at the sunflowers. He wondered what a particular 'sunflower' was doing at that moment.

Himawari watched her older brother hit the dojo's floor with "thud." "Thud" had become a very familiar sound in the past hour. Himawari heard it as much as she heard Hanabi shout "Again!" Bolt glared at the dojo's floor for a few seconds before picking himself up. In front of him was not one, but two opponents; both slightly older than him. He took the Gentle Fist stance and faced them for what had to be the thirteenth time that afternoon.

From beside Himawari, Hanabi shouted "Begin!"

Four palms versus two. That was training Bolt was forced to endure. He parried their strikes the best he could, but the two he were fighting were superior in speed as well as number, and a stray palm always slipped through. In the end, a "thud" was still heard.

"Again!" Hanabi shouted.

Himawari cringed as she watched her brother struggle to his feet.

"Hanabi, is all this really necessary?" an older voice asked.

Standing beside Hanabi was her father and Uzumaki siblings grandfather Hiashi. He was just as pained by his grandson's struggle as his granddaughter was.

"Don't act soft now, Father. You were much harder on sis and I when we were young," Hanabi said.

"I admit I was hard on you two, but what your doing with your niece and nephew is a different case entirely."

Hanabi looked away. "Begin!"

Bolt and the two young Hyugas began a new round. After getting pummeled for a few minutes, Bolt caused another "thud" to echo throughout the dojo.

"Again!" Bolt stayed on the floor. "I said... again!"

Bolt waited a few more moments before pushing himself up.

"Hanabi, you have to stop this..." Hiashi pleaded.

"Father, just like what you did was for the clan, what I'm doing is also for the clan. Bolt and Himawari are the first half-Hyugas, and somebody needs to make sure whether they were born with the Byakugan or not."

"Even if they were, you can't control when they'll unlock it."

"...begin!"

Bolt cringed. The two facing him saw his hesitation and hesitated themselves. Byakugan or no, they got no pleasure for abusing their kin.

"None of you can hear? I said begin!"

Bolt gritted his teeth and engaged his opponents. Though they pitied him, his opponents decimated him just like they had the first fourteen times. The fifteenth "thud" was heard.

"Again!"

Bolt stayed on the floor, and didn't intend on moving. He didn't care what Hanabi said.

'Screw the Byakugan... Screw the Eight Trigrams... Screw the Gentle Fist... None of it is worth this crap!'

Hanabi realized that her nephew was planning on staying still, at which point she shrugged. "Himawari, your turn."

Bolt's head jerked up. "Auntie! Just because I won't fight anymore, doesn't mean you can't make Hima-"

"Shut up and move. Himawari is fighting next," Hanabi said definitely.

Bolt balled up his fist and then struggled to his feet. He and his sister passed by each other on the way, and Himawari could see the resentment boiling in her brother's eyes. She shook the sight away and faced the two in front of her. Hiashi had an uncomfortable look in his eyes as he looked on from the sidelines. He remembered putting his daughters through equally harsh trials, but that made it no more easier for him to watch what was happening.

Hanabi shouted "Begin!"

The two Hyugas stepped forward. As did Hanabi. Her aggressive style surprised them, but didn't slow their reflexes. They thrust at her at in unison. Again to their surprise, she disappeared. At least, from their perspective she did. From the sidelines, Bolt, Hanabi and Hiashi saw Himawari quickly duck and roll under the strikes before they landed. She was now behind them, and she used her new advantageous position to deliver eight palms to the back of the taller one.

When the taller one coughed and fell, the shorter one turned to face Himawari. The shorter Hyuga saw the confident look in Himawari's eyes. They engaged, and after a short exchange, a "thud" was heard.

Himawari took a deep breath, then helped opponents stand. "Sorry if I was too rough."

Bolt's eyes were shaking so much, his vision was almost blurry. Fifteen times he had fought those two. For an entire hour, he was pummeled by their palms and fingers. One of the young Hyugas literally almost slipped in a puddle of sweat Bolt had left, and yet, Himawari defeated them in one inning. It was that time with Roku all over again.

"Unbelievable... Is this what Himawari was capable of?" Hiashi asked, still astounded.

Hanabi nodded. "She doesn't have the Byakugan, but she's already showing twice as much talent as all the other youngsters in our clan. She even beat Roku once."

"Roku? He's one of the new geniuses of Hyuga. He's shown as much potential as Neji did when he was young!"

"Well, I guess Himawari will grow up to be even stronger than Brother Neji was. She's a prodigy in the making."

Bolt listened to their conversation and blinked. This was great. He wouldn't have to worry about Himawari so much now. She was going to be able to look for herself more. So why wasn't his stomach agreeing with him? What was this churning he kept feeling in gut? Why was his heart beating so fast? Why was he staring at the floor?

Unable to find a answer, Bolt simply left. He walked out of the dojo as fast he could. He ignored his aunt and grandfather and shut the sliding door behind him. Himawari gazed at the door for a while after her brother left.

When night fell, Bolt once again found himself staring at the Hokage Monument. The rooftop of tallest building in the Hyuga estate still didn't give nearly as good a view as his house did. The fifth, sixth and seventh heads were completely out of view, but at least the first four were still visible, if just barely. Bolt had to squint to make out the Fourth Hokage's face.

It helped that he was familiar with it. In his house was a small shrine dedicated to the Fourth Hokage, his wife Kushina and his Uncle Neji. Bolt knew the Fourth as "Grandpa Minato" before he knew him as "the Fourth Hokage." For a long time, he never even realized that it was Minato's face sculptured on the mountain. He just thought the Fourth Hokage and his grandfather looked a lot alike.

'Somebody who everybody in the village acknowledges – that's who gets their face put on the Hokage Monument.' Bolt recalled his mother saying.

His grandfather did a lot for the village. He won lots of battles for the village in the Third Great Ninja War, and always put its well being first. He even died protecting the village as well as Bolt's father. He was amazing, and his techniques were equally impressive. He got the title Yellow Flash of the Leaf due to his speed and his mastery of the Flying Raijin. He even created his own jutsu – the Rasengan.

"AKA: the jutsu I still can't get the hang of..." Bolt muttered bitterly.

He held out his hands and stared at them. Without the Byakugan these hands would never master the Eight Trigrams, but at least Bolt could use them to follow in his father and grandfather's footsteps.

"Alright! Let's give it another try!"

Bolt stood up on the roof. Like earlier in the training grounds, he held out his right hand whirled his left over it. Chakra started to swirl.

'This time, I'm going to do it! You better believe I am!'

Bolt stopped. A blue sphere was swirling in his hands. All he had to now was contain.

Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it. Contain it.

''Keep it together, dammit!'

Bolt gripped his wrist as tight as he could, and did his best to concentrate, but it was all in vain. The sphere whirled out again. The burst it emitted was forceful enough to disrupt Bolt's footing. On the verge of tumbling off the roof, the blonde looked down. Even he wouldn't be okay from a fall from this height.

Just as Bolt was about to take the plunge, a pair of small hands caught the back of his shirt and reeled him in to safety. After Bolt's back hit the tiles, he felt his heart. A festival was being thrown in his chest.

"Are you alright, Brother?" Himawari asked, checking her own pulse.

".Yeah... Thanks, Hima. I don't think even the Hyuga clan's medicine would have saved me from that one."

Himawari laughed nervously. Her heart was still restless.

"What were you doing up here anyway?" she asked.

"Just checking out the Hokage faces."

"You seem to do that a lot when you're thinking about something."

"I wasn't really... thinking. My head just got a little hazy, so I needed something to take my mind off things."

Himawari wanted to ask what was troubling him, but she didn't want to bring his anxiety back. Instead she asked "What about the Hokages makes you feel better?"

Bolt scratched underneath his nose. "...I guess the fact that they all had way bigger problems than me, but survived somehow. And not only that; they also made everybody else acknowledge them in the process." Bolt stared at the monument. "The Hokages are incredible."

"Even Dad?"

Bolt snorted. "You can't see his face from here, y'know."

"Oh. Wow. You really can't. I can still see Grandpa Minato's face, though."

"Yeah. Barely."

"Remember how you never knew that it Grandpa Minato's face on the monument? You didn't even know he was the Fourth Hokage until Shino Sensei brought it up in one of your classes."

Bolt grunted. "I know he's was the Fourth now, so who cares...?"

Himawari giggled at her brother's frustration. "Brother, that jutsu you were using; it was Grandpa Minato's, wasn't it?"

"You saw?"

"Yeah. I recognized it from when Dad used it. The Rasengan... its kinda of a household jutsu for us."

"Not really. It's not a Kekkei Genkai like the Eight Trigrams, or anything like that. Plus, Grandpa Minato's last name was Namikaze, not Uzumaki."

"Yeah, but still..." Himawari stared at monument with her brother for a while. "Have you mastered it yet?"

Bolt breathed heavily from his nostrils. "I think I'm getting the hang of it."

"Can you teach me then?"

Bolt looked at his little sister and bit his tongue. He felt like a "No" was going to come out of his mouth. He didn't know why. What harm was there in teaching Himawari the Rasengan?

Bolt slapped the roof's tiles and stood. "OK. Let's give it shot."

Himawari stood enthusiastically. To prevent repeating the earlier event, the Uzumaki siblings walked away from the roof's ledge.

"OK. To be honest, learning how to do the Rasengan right off the bat is pretty much impossible." Bolt confessed. "There are three major steps you need to know before you can do it right."

Bolt held out his right hand, and chakra began to spin wildly in it. "Step one is rotation. You have to whirl your chakra in different directions. Then you make it a little denser..."

More chakra began to spin in Bolt's hand. "And you get step two: power. And for the final step, you combine the first two steps and try to maintain your chakra's shape... Like this!"

Bolt started whirling his left hand over his right. The chakra in his hand was weaved into the shape of a sphere. Himawari's blue eyes widened as the Rasengan's glow lit up her face.

Bolt grinned. "And this is how you make a Rasen-"

Once again, the sphere whirled out and Bolt was thrown on his rear. He punched the roof.

"Dammit!" he cursed. "...well, Hima, that's how its supposed to work. Actually getting it to work is a whole nother story."

Himawari helped Bolt to his feet and nodded. "Okay. I think I got it. Can I try now?"

"Uh... yeah, go ahead."

She held out her right hand. "First comes rotation..." Chakra began spinning in Himawari's hand. "After that is power..." The chakra got thicker. It looked like a whirlpool now, much like Bolt's did. "And then you combine the two... and maintain shape..."

Himawari whirled her left hand over her right. After a while, the chakra came together into a sphere. Bolt watched the sphere expectantly. He was ready for it to burst; ready for it to fizzle out; ready for it to spin out of his little sister's hand.

But it didn't.

Himawari's face lit up with a smile. "Brother! Brother, I did it! I made a Rasengan! It's a lot smaller than yours was, but I still did it!"

It was smaller than his, but that wasn't the point. Himawari had performed the Rasengan on her try. Bolt had been practicing for a month, and he still couldn't do it. It was the same with their training at Hyuga estate – despite training longer and harder, Himawari was still better at the Gentle Fist than Bolt was. Even with two years separating them, she was superior. Finally, Bolt understood what he felt earlier – jealously. He was jealous of his little sister. Her talent, her skill, her strength – he couldn't stand the fact that they all surpassed his; and that realization made him sick.

Suddenly, Bolt clapped his hands onto his sister's shoulders. She was so surprised, she lost the Rasengan's shape.

"B-brother...?"

Bolt took a deep breath. "Hima... You're awesome! I can't believe you learned the Rasengan so fast! Even Dad didn't get it on his first try! Man, Mom isn't going to believe this! I'm gonna head home and tell her!"

"You don't need to-"

He was already gone. Bolt scaled carefully but quickly off the building. When his feet touched the ground, he tarted walking and he didn't stop. If he stopped, Hima would catch up to him; and right now, he didn't have it in him to play big brother.