Sensei

Six years ago

Kazuki had the best night's sleep he had ever had. It was a joy to sleep in a real bed at last. Breakfast in the morning was a godsend too. Even though it was merely toast, he was still grateful. After devouring the toast, Kazuki wandered through into the lounge, where he found Daichi sitting on an armchair waiting for him.

"Good morning, Kazuki." He said.

"Good morning, Sensei." Kazuki replied, bowing.

Daichi nodded in acknowledgement. "Take a seat," he said.

Kazuki eagerly threw himself down onto one of the comfortable armchairs.

"Today, Kazuki-kun," said Daichi, "we begin your training."

Kazuki was almost bouncing with excitement.

"First, I need to explain why we are the same." Daichi told him. "You see, we are both descended from the same clan."

"You mean… we're related?" Asked Kazuki.

Daichi smiled. "We are all related, Kazuki." He said. "In time, you will come to realise that…" He stirred the cup of tea in his hands. "All animals, even humans, are related. All connected. That is the key to our power."

Kazuki frowned. "So what is this power?"

Daichi raised an eyebrow. "You consider talking to animals not to be a power?"

"Well, yeah…" Kazuki mumbled. "But… is that all we do?"

Daichi sighed. "Your attitude is underwhelming, Kazuki, but no, there is more."

He leaned in closer. Kazuki leaned in as well.

"Talking to animals is one thing." He whispered. "The next step…" He took a sip of tea. "Is to become them…"

Kazuki gaped at him. "Are you serious?" He exclaimed.

He could see from the old man's face that he was.

Kazuki's face lit up. "Wow!" he cried. "I could really do that?"

Daichi nodded. "It's possible, assuming you are a member of the clan."

Kazuki suddenly turned sceptical. "Wait…" He said. "How do I know you're not lying?"

Daichi grinned. "I'll show you." He said. "Close your eyes."

Still sceptical, Kazuki did as he was told.

"Now open them." He heard Daichi say.

He opened his eyes. And immediately rubbed them. In Daichi's chair sat a slightly greying badger, holding a cup of tea between its paws. Kazuki looked around for his master, then stared at the badger.

"Do you believe me now?" asked the badger, grinning smugly.

Two weeks later

Kazuki was getting fed up. For two weeks, he had been doing nothing else but studying books of animals. Daichi told him he needed to know every animal inside and out (literally) before he could transform. He had been OK with it at first, but at the time he had no idea how long he would have to spend reading these books. Kazuki was a fast reader, so was getting through each book fairly quickly, but Daichi just gave him more and more. It was getting to the stage where Kazuki could name every bone in a badger's body and tell you the position and average size. Just when Kazuki thought he would spend the rest of his life in his room reading about the anatomy of a field mouse, Daichi called him into the garden. Daichi's garden was located in a large courtyard in the centre of the building, enclosed by walls on all sides. In it was a small pond populated by coy fish. Daichi was sitting on the grass next to it, feeding them. Kazuki sheepishly approached him.

"It is time." Daichi said, not even looking at Kazuki.

Kazuki almost jumped for joy. "Really?" he gasped. "I get to turn into an animal?"

Daichi nodded. "Control yourself." He added, just as Kazuki was about to pick up and kiss a coy fish.

The lesson involved an hour of warm ups and breathing exercises, but Kazuki was too excited to care. After 15 minutes of meditating while doing handstands, Daichi suddenly opened his eyes.

"We are ready." He said, gracefully turning himself the right way up.

Kazuki was shocked awake and immediately lost his balance, collapsing in a heap.

"The animal transformation," Daichi explained as Kazuki picked himself up. "Is essentially a regular transformation jutsu that they teach in ninja academy, except far more powerful." He started to pace up and down. "A regular transformation jutsu simply changes your appearance." He looked at the wide-eyed Kazuki. "Whereas our animal transformation jutsu changes anatomy and personality."

"Like what?" asked Kazuki.

"Animals are creatures of instinct," explained the old man. "This instinct is stronger than that of humans, who focus more on conscious thought. As such, when we transform into an animal, we are subject to unfamiliar feelings." He plucked an apple from one of the many trees in his garden. "For example, if you transformed into a herbivore," he said, taking a bite, "You will have the craving to eat fruit and vegetables rather than meat." He threw the apple down. "The opposite is true for carnivores." He suddenly looked at Kazuki very sternly. "Be warned, this is one of the most dangerous problems of animal transformation jutsu. If you transform into a carnivore, you risk losing your control and attacking people you care about."

He turned away from Kazuki's shocked face.

"Have… you…?" Asked Kazuki hesitantly.

Daichi stared into space. "Yes…" He choked back a sob. "Remember: predators will not see friends and family in humans; they will only see prey."

Kazuki gulped. Daichi looked at him again, a faint smile on his lips.

"Let's get started then…"

Daichi showed Kazuki the proper technique for the jutsu, including stance and hand signs. The signs were difficult to remember, but Daichi told him that he would not have to use such complicated signs once he was more adept at transformation. Daichi showed him an example. Standing with legs apart, he began moving his hands slowly, so that Kazuki could see the signs he was making. Then, once the sequence was complete, he raised his arms and cried:

"Animal transformation jutsu! White Tiger!"

In a flash of red, the old man's body seemed to turn to rubber as he contorted into the shape of a huge cat. When the light died down, Kazuki was gazing in awe at a large, vicious looking yet slightly decrepit white tiger.

"Of course, I didn't need to say that," Said the tiger, slightly boastfully. "It's just makes it easier for a beginner."

There was another red flash as Daichi transformed back.

"OK," he said, hungrily eyeing up the fish, "Your turn. We'll start off with something roughly your size: a deer, maybe."

Kazuki eagerly got into the stance and gave the hand signs a practice run.

"Perfect!" said Daichi, trying to avoid staring at the coy in the pond.

Kazuki beamed and breathed in, ready to make his first attempt. He rattled through the hand signs and was sure he had got them all right.

Raising his eyes he shouted: "Animal transformation jutsu! Deer!"

Bugger all happened…

Kazuki looked at Daichi, distraught. Daichi smiled at him reassuringly.

"Don't worry," he said. "No one does it on the first try."

Frazzled, Kazuki tried again. "Animal transformation jutsu! Deer!"

Nothing.

Daichi coughed. "Actually, maybe you should say 'Red Deer' instead; it's more specific…"

Kazuki tried once more: "Animal transformation jutsu! Red deer!"

This still didn't work. All through the day the two worked on it, but Kazuki never once managed to get it to work. They tried different stances, revising hand signs and changing the animal, but nothing made a difference. As the sun began to set, Daichi lost his patience.

"That's enough!" He snapped, after Kazuki failed for the hundredth time. "This isn't working!"

Kazuki was almost in tears.

"I'm sorry…" He said.

"Get some sleep." Daichi rasped, staring into his coy pond.

Kazuki left without another word, ashamed of himself.