During the early morning training session, I tested trying to extend my ki outwards but it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. There was no progress by the end and the only results I had was getting hit many times by swinging objects.

"What's wrong, couldn't sleep?" Teru asked with a mischievous grin.

"I was just trying to see if I could feel my surroundings with ki." I said, pouting a little to show him how I felt about his sneak attack last night.

"Ah." He nodded, realizing the reason for my morning performance.

We set off after breakfast and after an uneventful day, we reached another village where we stayed the night. It rained overnight and we had to deal with muddy roads the next morning. During the day, after we had just taken a lunch break on the road and everyone was resting a little, Teru brought me to a small clearing.

I looked around for the ropes to tie up, but he hadn't brought anything along.

"We won't be doing that. A change of pace will be good for you." He said. "You were complaining that you couldn't jump high enough?"

I nodded.

"Many people who use ki haven't trained their bodies to the extent that they can reach the height of trees in a single bound. I'm not sure how others do it, but I'll teach you a trick I came up with."

I straightened up after hearing what he said and paid close attention.

"First, gather your ki around your feet. Then you pack it tightly together. While you are doing that, concentrate on what you want to do with that ki, you want to use it to assist your jump." Teru bent his knees. "Once you have that image, release all your built up ki downwards, out through your feet, and jump." He leapt off the ground and landed on a tree branch.

"Whoa."

"Remember, the image in your head is just as important as using your ki correctly. Now you try."

I stepped into the middle of the clearing and began gathering ki in both my feet. I gathered and compressed the ki together and then imagined the ki boosting me like rockets. Bending my knees, I readied myself as I released the build up of ki and jumped.

I wasn't ready for how fast I would move as I jumped right into a branch and ended up hit my head against it before I fell to the ground.

"Ahhhh ssssssss. That hurts." I sucked in air as I rubbed my head.

"Not bad for your first try." Teru said as he landed next to me.

I caught the sheath of his sword just before it was about to tap my head from my position on the ground.

"Oho, you're finally catching on."

"Yeah, don't let my guard down especially in situations where I can be easily distracted."

"Good."

Later that day, after we made camp, I was practicing with the swinging objects on my own as it got darker. I was wondering how Renji did what he did when a sudden thought occurred to me.

'What if I use what Teru taught me?'

I built up the ki in one of my hands and imagined extending it so that i can touch something from further away. I then released the build up of ki and I felt a rope with a rock tied to it swing across the path where I extended my ki, like passing through a hand that wasn't actually there, an invisible ki hand.

'It worked?' I was elated.

I tested it a couple more times before I called Teru over to help me with training. I was waving around one hand and sending out ki to feel around me while I was blocking with my other hand and dodging.

"How did you do that?" Teru questioned.

"I used what you taught me." I explained to him what I was doing.

"That's an interesting use." Teru commented.

"Wait, thats not how you do it? Isn't that why you taught me your trick?"

Teru shook his head.

"How do you dodge everything then?"

"By using my senses." He tapped his temple, right between his eye and ear. "Mitsuhide-sensei put me through hell back then. A lot of students left the dojo, thats why he doesn't do this type of training anymore."

"It's not that bad."

"You're lucky I'm just giving you love taps. Mitsuhide-sensei used to leave me bruised all over." Teru shook his head. "He believes pain is a good motivator, why do you think his dojo doesn't use any protective equipment?"

"Yeah, that doesn't sound fun."

'I thought it was because of the time period we were in.'

"Heh, I wonder what that rascal Kuro is going through as his disciple." Teru chuckled with schadenfreude.

'And to think I wanted to be his disciple once.'

He must have seen something on my face because he said, "I'm thankful to Mitsuhide-sensei. I was a troublemaker back then, so he forced me to attend the dojo. I would probably be peddling wares right now if it wasn't for him." He laughed. "But compared to me, you and Azu are doing well."

"Looks like it's going to rain again." The swordsman said as we were setting off the next morning.

He was right, by late morning I could smell the change in the atmosphere as the clouds began to gather and by noon the first drops of rain started coming down. We all retrieved our bamboo hats and rain cloaks—called kappas, and double checked that the wagons were completely covered.

*Boom*

Thunder roared as the rain became heavier while we were making our way through a mountain road.

The swordsman called out from the front wagon, "We need to move quickly! It's dangerous here!"

We picked up the pace and after travelling for a couple minutes, I felt rumbling in the earth.

"GO!" I heard the swordsman shouting.

The wagons in front of us started speeding and Shohei, who was caught by surprise at the increase of speed, fell from the back of the wagon in front of us.

"Stop!" Teru grabbed the reins for the horses from Mister Bando's hands and I had hold on at the abrupt stop.

Looking up a could see stones starting to fall from the mountain above us.

"Both of you turn around NOW!" Teru yelled as he cut the harnesses holding the horses in place before jumping onto a horse and galloping towards Shohei.

"Run young Zai!" Mister Bando shouted as he mounted the other horse.

The rumbling started getting louder. Not wanting to leave my things behind, I quickly grabbed my pack before deciding to grab Teru's and Mister Bando's packs as well.

I leapt from the wagon and ran back the way we came at full speed. Mister Bando caught up and Teru soon after, Shohei riding with him, and I turned to see a huge mudslide, mixed with some rocks and trees, come down and wash away our wagon, blocking the road in the process.

"My goodness." Mister Bando breathed out.

"Let's go, its not safe here." Teru said.

I passed one of the packs to a wide-eyed Shohei, and then Mister Bando helped me get mounted onto his horse as we retraced our path back down the mountain.

"Are we still getting paid?" I asked.