The next morning, Hitomi was in better shape than she had been in months. She had pushed so hard and so far that her reserves only needed a day to replenish, against a week when they had started training. And yet, they were considerably larger, at least ten times bigger than they'd been before. Most of her progress had been made now, and chakra control exercises weren't enough anymore to put her in a state of chakra exhaustion, even if she spent the whole day throwing weapons and sticking leaves to her limbs.
She couldn't wait for time to bring her its own expansion: around her fifteenth birthday, her reserves would be at least ten times larger than they were now. She understood now why her clanmates had been called Tailless Beasts once. If her grandfather and mother could muster such power, they probably never had to suffer from chakra exhaustion. It explained, too, how Kurenai had become a Genjutsu Mistress, able to fool even some Uchiha. Genjutsu, the art of illusions, required a constant flux of chakra from the caster to their victim to disturb the internal circuit of their own chakra through their meridians. Most people couldn't maintain an illusion in place for more than two minutes, but the rumour said Kurenai could keep one going for days before she got tired. As for Shinku Yūhi, her grandfather, she didn't know much about him, but she knew he had been a terror on the battleground.
After she was done greeting the sun, Hitomi followed Ensui to a clearing. For the first time in ages, it snowed in the Land of Fire, and the little girl wasn't sure she liked the drop in temperatures that came with the white snowflakes upon the lands. To keep warm, she had to get her chakra coursing faster through body and wasn't adept enough yet to do it by reflex.
"Today, you're gonna tackle an exercise most ninjas don't practice before being out of the Academy. You're gonna climb trees without your hands. With each try, mark the trunk with a kunai, as high as you can. Stop only when you don't have chakra left, or when you master the exercise. Got it?"
Hitomi nodded. She didn't even need him to demonstrate, since this exercise was so similar to the leaf one. It would probably require more chakra, and better control on her part. She was glad for it. She needed to continue emptying her reserves for at least a few more weeks to reach her full potential. Then she would just have to wait for the years to pass. She probably already had the best reserves in her generation, Naruto excepted. None of the other children had shown really good chakra reserves in the canon.
It had become rare, Ensui had explained one night she was particularly sick, for parents to make their children go through such training. The Hidden Villages weren't at war anymore, hadn't been for more than ten years now, and no parent wanted their child to suffer night after night for months, for results that weren't so great most of the time. This training was truly efficient on kids from the Yūhi and Uzumaki clans, with their predilection for larger reserves. For the other clans, there were other valuable skills to work on: Hyūga children learned the Gentle Fist, Uchiha children trained in Fire Release, Sarutobi children worked on Wind Release techniques… As for the Yūhi, they were gone beyond recovery in a few generations only, burned away by the wars they had helped win. They had been so willing, all of them, to die for their country.
For a moment, Hitomi stayed motionless in the centre of the clearing, convincing her chakra to go in her legs. When she was ready, she ran to the tree she had chosen, an oak rising high over its peers. She only needed a few steps to get to its roots, then an adrenaline rush in her veins to overcome the fear of falling that wanted her to stop and start climbing. A few more steps to adjust the quantity of chakra needed in her feet to stick to the trunk without damaging its bark and she climbed up without difficulty, only stopping when she reached the tree's summit. She planted her kunai as high as she could then settled on a branch wide enough to support her weight. "Is it supposed to be this easy? Can we start water-walking now?" she chirped.
Her cheekiness made Ensui burst out laughing. He knew this would happen – all the chakra control exercises were similar and, once a student mastered the first, it was quite easy to master the others as well – but he still felt the tiniest bit of surprise. He carefully reached out to the point where he kept his meridians' perceptions, so he didn't suffer from them. He then probed in her direction and was baffled to feel how strong her reserves had become. The quiet whisper had become a roar against his skin. He hadn't expected such progress, not even with her innate advantage. He couldn't have been prouder.
Water-walking came next, as she had guessed, and it was harder than tree-climbing. She constantly had to adjust the quantity of chakra she used on the water to answer its constant movements, and to strengthen the surface so it could support her weight. She needed a few weeks to master it and, before that, her reserves reached their maximum capacity.
It was time, then, with her reserves expanded and her control improved, for her to learn the first Nara Clan technique. Most clan kids learned that kind of thing at that age and worked on it through the Academy, after classes. The Nara, though, were even more diligent: even the civilians born in the clan had to learn the theory behind the techniques. That way, if a new war was to erupt and kill all the clan's ninjas, the knowledge wouldn't be lost. The children would still have someone to teach them. It wasn't an ideal solution, but already better than most clans had. Who remembered the Uzumaki and their jutsus today?
"Shadows are our best allies," Ensui started one night, as the fire was declining in the cave they had found for the night. It was raining hard outside but spring was there, giving back their tender green shades to the woods. Ensui didn't say it, but Hitomi knew they were going to go back in a few months. Before the start of the Academy's new year, she'd see her family again. This made her happier than she could express, but she also felt something close to melancholy. She wanted to go back, of course, but Ensui had become such a precious person to her. She didn't want to lose him.
"I know you already know your mind well," the mentor continued in a soft voice, "and this exercise will push you even further, deeper than the barriers you surrounded your Library with. Go down and down inside yourself, until you get there." He brushed his fingers against the skin above her navel, but she knew he was talking about her Gate of Wonder, where part of her reserves laid. She shivered, feeling her chakra react to the touch, then closed her eyes and obeyed his command.
She found herself in the centre of her Library and relaxed as she watched over her lair. The meridian cage refracted the light from her lightwell, splashing colour everywhere. It was so pretty… And yet she turned her back on it and walked through rows and rows of shelves until she reached the end of the ground she had imagined to support the whole structure. She had never been there after creating her Library, had never needed a book from this section. It was like discovering it anew.
The only thing in front of her now was nothingness, an infinity of velvety, peaceful darkness. She took a deep breath and stepped out of the ground, letting herself fall into the void. The sensation was incredible, beyond words. She could have stopped her fall at any moment, but she knew she was far, far away from the Gate Ensui had told her to reach. She could see them now, eight stars brilliant enough to light up a whole sky, hearts of blueish pure light lost in a sea of darkness.
Finally, she was able to touch it. She didn't have a body in her own mind, and yet she was able to sit, to touch, to breathe. She didn't know how to describe it. Perhaps it was just her thought process trying to wrap itself around a wordless experience. An energy wave hit her and, in the physical world, she started oozing chakra from all the pores of her skin. Without her huge reserves, the effort would have killed her in a mere couple of minutes.
"This is where you'll find the subconscious link between your shadow and your corporeal self. Find it now." A voice. Low, husky, like a wave and a hug. A voice she loved so deeply.
Obeying to Ensui had become natural after all this time. Sometimes, his instructions didn't really make sense at first glance; she had to reach the goal he had set for her to understand what he had truly wanted and struggled to put into words. She had to touch the precise point in her Gate where the line between her body and shadow disappeared to understand, deeply understand, the link he was speaking about.
In the physical world, her shadow reacted violently to her contact, writhing far beyond its natural reach, the one the fire gave it. She stopped breathing for a moment, then the deep and quiet rhythm resumed. She was peaceful, so much so that someone could have thought her asleep if she had been lying down.
"Your shadow is an indolent fire, but a fire nonetheless. It will hurt you if you don't treat it with the proper respect and carefulness it deserves. From tonight on, you'll meditate for an hour next to your Gate of Wonder, until you can stretch your shadow at will."
That first night, and the twelve nights after that, she failed despite her best efforts. The fourteenth night, however, under Ensui's intense stare, she managed to stretch her shadow until it almost brushed against his. The edges were clearly defined, and the dark shape didn't seem to want to snap back to her, like an overused rubbed band. She hated the feeling and was happy not to have it this time.
"Congratulations," Ensui whispered, pride gleaming in his dark grey eyes. "You're ready for the next step. Tomorrow."
The following day, he didn't wait for nightfall to act. Instead of the sparring exercises he gave Hitomi ever since she didn't need to empty her chakra reserves anymore, he made her stand in front of him, back straight and shoulders relaxed, in a pool of sunshine. Spring had started to settle in the Land of Fire and, once or twice, they had stayed in an inn for the night. She knew what that meant but refused to acknowledge it.
"You're able to command your shadow when you meditate. It was the hardest part of this training and you managed to do it in a decently short span of time. I didn't expect anything less from Shikano's daughter but still, I'm very proud of you." He hadn't mentioned Hitomi's father for months now, not since he had told everything he knew about him to his apprentice. Hearing his name surprised the girl and made her stand a little prouder, a quiet satisfaction on her features.
"You now need to find a shortcut for that ability. You have to be able to connect to your shadow instinctively, to make it answer your commands immediately. I'll let you find the most appropriate way; it's your mind, after all."
With a smile on her lips, Hitomi sank in her Library, a content sigh escaping her chest. She felt safe here. The ribbons made of light floated in their crystal cage, always ready to serve. A deep feeling of peace settled inside her. Her body slowly raised its hands, the fingers from the left curling vertically around the index and middle finger of the right. The Rat hand seal.
She needed something she could touch as soon as she came into her Library. The only object she could reach was the pillar supporting her crystal cage. On the side facing her, she carved the emblematic animals of both the Nara and Yūhi, a deer and a cat supporting each other with a stare. Ensui had told her about the cat, but there wasn't much more he knew about. The only way to learn more about her own roots would be to go meet her grandfather again. She hadn't seen him since the morning after the Kyūbi's assault and she wasn't even supposed to remember.
"You're on the right path," Ensui hoarsely whispered in the physical world. It still felt strange, when she was in her Library. She wasn't isolated from the outside, could hear, smell, feel, but she could only see the infinity of books surrounding her. She crouched in front of the two emblems and chose the place carefully, halfway between their eyes. It was there. The place she could touch with her mind in an instant, without even having to consciously go to her Library, the place that would summon her shadow.
In the world she had built inside her mind, everything was possible. She could shape her own chakra, make it visible and solid, without losing any of it. A pale blue ribbon made of light appeared between her fingers. When she turned her head, she saw it stretch to the very edge of the floor then fall in the darkness. She knew it was connected to her Gate of Wonder without having to check. It was the most intimate place, the one where she became the shadow and the shadow became her, but she didn't have time to lose herself there, not now.
She stood up and the ethereal body she used in her Library grabbed the ribbon. Instantaneously, her shadow stretched and caught the one expanding from the Cinder Clone he had left for her to train. Cinder Clones were the Fire Release solid clone technique, and way less powerful than any shadow clone, which allowed her to use her shadow on it without losing all her chakra. She couldn't catch him, that was for sure. He was so much more powerful, so much stronger, the effort would kill her in a matter of seconds. She fully came back to her senses and tested this new ability, making sure she could use it quickly enough for it to be useful in a fight.
"Looks like you're ready."
The young girl tensed and met her mentor's eyes, her hands slowly breaking the hand seal. Her shadow, obedient, came back to her. "I… Ready, shishou?"
"Yeah," Ensui sighed. "You didn't think I'd keep you away from the village forever, right?"
Stunned, she shook her head, the movement stiff and a bit shaky. As if he felt her sudden distress, Ensui knelt in front of her and made her raise her chin with the tip of his fingers, the touch delicate and tender. "I'm not going anywhere, okay? I left active-duty years ago. The Third knows he can't trust me on the field."
It was the first time Ensui really admitted to Hitomi how serious his feud with Hiruzen was. His situation in the village was complicated, but she had had time to guess that. It didn't stop her from taking her mentor's hand, so much longer and larger, between her own, gripping it with all her strength. Right now, she looked like the child she should have been, a troubling sight for her master, used to a mature mind inhabiting her frail body.
"I'm gonna work for your uncle, for Shikaku, help him manage the clan until Shikamaru is old enough to do it so he can focus on his Jōnin Commander duties. I'll have all the time in the world to train you, Hitomi, I promise."
It was the first time he used that word to talk about her, but it didn't really comfort Hitomi. She realised, sometimes, like she was now, the extent of the dangers she'd face in the future. She needed Ensui right by her side to rise to those challenges. Her shoulders shook, her knees went weak, and then…
And then she felt another chakra touch her skin, a strength she'd identify among a thousand others. Ensui. These past few months, he had given her chakra transfusions to try to lessen the effects of exhaustion. He couldn't do much, not when she needed to empty her reserves to stress them into expanding, but it had helped. The touch was soft, familiar and comforted her body and her mind alike.
"I'll always be there to watch you grow, Hitomi. I'll always be there."
Whispering those words like a prayer, a promise and a wish, he pulled her in a warm embrace and she closed her eyes, accepting his words and his arms for what they were. The assurance she would never have to face any danger alone.