"I was told to wake you up for morning training…" A soft voice called and my eyes opened timidly as I saw a small girl with rabbit ears, Amy. "Give me a minute…" I said while I crawled out of my bed and threw on some clothes and brushed my hair. I probably should've taken a shower, but I was too lazy. I did however catch a glimpse of what I looked like. Short, sandy hair with over sized fox ears and of course my tail. My skin tone was still a white color and my eyes were now an onyx color.
"It's strange to see the differences, huh?" Amy stated and I nodded. Amy had snow-white hair and red eyes. Her hair was chin length and she was a small stature, slightly smaller than me. She took me to the training room and I looked around. There were maybe twenty people in the clan and I saw Eric walk up to me. "Since you're so new here, we'll have you work with the other new guy, Dex. He's been here for about three weeks now/ and is still week. He's fused with a hamster and he acts like one too." Eric said while pointing to a boy across the room with the targets.
He had shoulder length brown hair and tannish skin along with hamster ears and a small tail. He was wearing a plain white shirt and some black cargo pants and looked to be slightly taller than myself. "Go ahead and practice that throwing of yours. I heard you failed at it." He said and I nodded with a scowl while walking up to the kid.
"Hey, kid." I called out and the Dex kid turned around. "You're the new kid here?" He asked and I nodded my head. "My name is Sage." I said while holding my hand out for a handshake. He shook it while saying his name. "So how do you even hold these?" I asked, picking on up. "I'm not sure, Blake said it's like this." He said while moving my hand to the correct way of holding. It felt awkward but I kept testing the grip until it felt a bit better.
I threw it at the target and missed. Typical me. "It's easier if you point your foot to your target when you throw it." Dex said and I nodded my head before trying again. I tired again, and hit the target but outside of the circles. "Just keep trying, you'll get the hang of it. Blake said once we master this we can move onto sneaking around or taijutsu. Once we master those we can finally start chakra training!" Dex said and I noticed a small shimmer in his eye at the word chakra.
"What's charka?" I asked, aiming again and once again missing. "It's like an energy inside of you. It lets you do jutsus and walk on water and even let you become super powerful!" Dex said with excitement and I smiled. "Is that so, I guess I have a bit of motivation now." I chuckled while continuing on my throws. By the end of the day, I got one whole kunai within the actual target.
1 Week Later
"You suck." Dex said while I threw another kunai. It's been a week since I came here and after the third day, Echo has failed to visit me. My kunai skills were still shitty and I heard I also had to be able to throw shuriken as well, so chakra was a long way from me. "After this, want to hit the library. I heard that Chakra was made up of physical and mental energy, so we'll need to train our brains as well." Dex said and I nodded.
"Might as well, don't have a TV in this hell hole." I huffed, throwing and missing. "Well most people are already leaving, so shall we go?" He asked and I nodded. We walked to the rather large library and were amazed by the sheer size of the place. Dex apparently hadn't gone to the library yet, so he was in heaven. "Let's check out these books first. We can take books out if you want, so take as many as needed." Dex said and I nodded, grabbing a book on psychology of the shelf.
What the fuck was psychology? I didn't understand these books, but decided to read them either way. I sat down with the book in hand and Dex came next to me and started reading one of the many books in his stack. Some were stories, most were textbooks you ready at schools, like this book. I found out psychology was the scientific study of the mental functions and behaviors. The book was actually extremely interesting that I didn't realize how long I had been reading until I closed the book after finishing it. Dex was still reading besides me and I looked at the book. It was on chakra, typical.
I looked at the clock and realized it was dinnertime and nudged Dex out of the library to eat. The meals weren't as luxurious as the first two meals I receive when the servants gave them to me. These meals were still decent though and I was able to enjoy them.
Next Day
"Wake up, it's free for all day!" Dex said as I grumbled from my small hole. Dex was now the one who was tasked to wake me up, since he was an early riser. "I'm getting up…" I grumbled while stretching out and yawning loudly before rubbing my eyes and going to my closet. I heard the door close and got dressed in my usual and went with Dex.
Everyone was gathered at the south hall that we normally wouldn't be able to go through and it was opened. We walked as a group and got to the training room I had first seen. Dex smiled before running ahead of me. It was hard to believe he was a year older than me and I was more mature than him. Yes he was thirteen while I was still twelve, ah the wonders.
"Sage, let's go and find others!" Dex said before someone I didn't recognize placed a hand on his shoulder. "Blake!" Dex said while looking up at him. So this was the strongest one in our block. He had messy brown hair and light brown eyes. He had small ears on the top of his head and he was rather tall and wore a dark brown t-shirt with long sleeved fishnet under along with some black pants and ninja sandals.
"You have to practice your aim, it's just like any other day just a different room." He said and Dex sighed before nodding. Damn this guy was tall. "You, I haven't met you yet. I'm Blake." He said while waving and I nodded before waving back to him. "I'm Sage." I said while waving and he nodded. "What are you working on now?" He asked and I looked at Dex. "She sucks worse than me at throwing, so she'll be with me." Dex said while putting an arm around my shoulder.
"You're worse than Dex? That makes you the weakest one in the block." Blake said while putting his hand on his side. "Thanks…" I grumbled out while lowering my ears in disappointment. I was hoping this guy would be a bit nicer; this is what I get for hoping. "No problem now let me see for myself how shitty you are." He said with a chuckle while dragging us to the throwing section.
There were few people here, but it was more than usual for us. I was given a kunai and Blake instructed me to throw it how I usually threw it. I did, and I hit within the circle but far off from the center. "Well your stance is shit as well as your grip." He said while whistling and was suddenly behind me. "Here stand like this and hold the kunai like this." He said while positioning me the correct way.
His hand was on mine and he threw the kunai with my hand and it hit dead center. "See, not so hard." He said while standing up straight again. 'I only got it because I was helped…" I said while grabbing the kunai and positioning myself the same way he did before and got my grip right. I aimed it and it was slightly easier to control. "You'll get the hang of it." He said before waving off to do whatever eighteen year olds do. Wait…how old was he?
"How old is he?" I ended up asking Dex. "He's turning nineteen soon." He said, throwing a kunai then cheering once it hit almost on the bullseye. "Congrats." I said, throwing another kunai. "I'm doing pretty good, huh?" Dex said with his hands on his sides. "Sage…?" I heard a voice behind me and spun around. There she was, in all her glory. "Echo!" I shouted out before running up and hugging her.
"How have you been?" She asked me and I shrugged. "I'm practicing throwing." I said with a crooked grin. "Have you gotten better?" She asked me and I nodded. "A lot…where have you been?" I asked her and she looked at me with sad eyes. "Its just training is taking a lot out of me lately, I'm sorry Sage." She said and I smiled. "It's cool, it's all good. How far are you in training?" I asked her and she smiled.
"I'm practicing chakra control right now." She said while rubbing the back of her head. "Lucky, I have to master kunai and shuriken throwing not to mention taijutsu before I get to start on that." I said with a huff. "I'm doing all that right now. I don't get out of practice until dinner time and only get one break for lunch, what about you?" She asked me and I looked at her.
"I start training at around six and stop at lunch time for the day." I explained and she looked at me oddly. "So it's true…" She mumbled and I looked at her confused. "What's true?" I asked her and she covered her mouth. "It's just a rumor that the lower levels don't care about being stronger as much as us, so they slack off." Echo said and I frowned.
"It's not slacking if you do stuff after practice. I hit the library with Dex after practicing now." I said with my arms crossed. "Oh, I didn't mean you Sage. Like I said it's just a rumor. Besides we have to read right after dinner so you probably get to read far more than me." She said and I nodded. "Anyway, I have to get going back to my group…" Echo said and I nodded. "I'll see you the next time you can visit, or maybe next week at training." I suggested and she nodded.
"Echo, get back here. You need to train, get away from the dead lasts!" Some girl called and Echo froze. "Don't take what she says personally." Echo said and I glared over at the girl before looking at Echo. "Make sure to tell her I said to go and fuck herself for me, okay." I said and Echo chuckled a bit before running back to her group.
"Your friend is in the Fire?" Dex asked me and I nodded. "Ya, I was surprised she was so good at what she does." I said and Dex nodded. "Don't be, some people are just given the natural advantage over people." He said before getting back to practice. That's what we did until sun down, practiced. Although the words dead last left a nasty taste in the back of my head.