11
Hawk's gliding shadow
Sends prey fleeing for their lives
Seconds of warning
"The family jutsu?" Inazuma's father asked in surprise, "Why the sudden desire to learn it?"
When she'd come back, everyone had been going crazy looking for her, and she'd had a hard time explaining away her sudden disappearance from the middle of class. In the end, she waved it off as a practical joke, and said that she was seeing how long she could go before she was found. ("I was just making sure that all the stuff I learned in stealth class actually works," she said, smiling as innocently as possible at her irate, spatula-weilding mother.)
"There will always be ninja stronger than me." Inazuma had never really understood that until she'd seen those explosions in the Land of Earth. "But if I can strike them down before they have a chance to get me, how can they attack back?"
Her father's lips pulled into a smile, "For a nine-year-old, you're pretty practical. And intelligent, though I'm sure all fathers say that. Fine. I'll teach you a good, speedy jutsu after my next mission."
"Teach me now! You never know when an attack might happen. And we both have time off this week." I'm as practical as I am impatient.
He raised his hands in defeat. "Fine, fine," he laughed. "Though I warn you, it's not going to be easy."