Chapter 12: Training
Tenten coughed out blood as her back collided with the stone wall for the umpteenth time. Her vision was hazy. Everything seemed to be fading away. No amount of blinking made any difference. Her body wouldn't move.
"That's enough Lucas." Mifuyu stated with finality, concern evident in her tone.
Lucas gave no reply.
"So this is supposed to be our master, ey?" Yue remarked with sarcasm.
"Yue! How could you say such a thing?" Mifuyu scolded.
Griselda said nothing but the hardened look she had while staring down at Tenten's struggling form said it all.
"Get up." Lucas demanded, his tone cold and merciless.
Tenten wanted to curse him.
"Get. Up." He repeated, a hidden threat notable in his tone.
Tenten was on her feet once again but could barely keep herself up.
"Is this all you've got?"
Tenten glared at the fire expert with all her might.
Raising his sword once again, Lucas positioned himself to attack. Tenten watched in desperation as he charged towards her. But before he could get any closer, a black rope entangled itself with his blade.
"I said that's enough." Mifuyu stood a few meters away with her whip in hand. Her calm soothing voice was replaced with a venomous one. "We've already seen her fight. We know all her strengths and weaknesses. There's no need to continue this."
"Mimi's right. I don't think we'll be seeing any more surprises from her Lucas." Yue added without looking at the two, busy playing with his wooden staff. "We should just call it a day."
Glancing towards Mifuyu's determined form, Lucas gave Tenten's worn out body one more look before bringing his weapon down.
Realizing the fight was over, Mifuyu drew her whip back.
Without saying a word, Lucas sheathed his sword and headed out of the training arena.
Mifuyu quickly tended Tenten's wounds.
"Will she be alright?" Yue asked out of courtesy, his tone lacking in sympathy.
Mifuyu nodded. With this both air and earth guardians took their leave as well.
Tenten scrunched her eye brows in confusion, feeling the exhaustion leave her body slowly but steadily. She opened her eyes to see Mifuyu holding a ball of water.
"What are you doing?"
"Healing you. It's part of my blood limit." Mifuyu clarified.
"Healing me, with water?" Tenten stated in disbelief.
"Let's just say each element has, along with it, special skills. With mine, it's healing." Mifuyu smiled.
"So, how about all the other elements?"
"In Griselda's case, she can talk to animals through her eyes. She has an unexplainable sensitivity on land." Mifuyu paused in deep thought. "For example, she can sense certain vibrations on the floor so she can immediately tell a person's position without looking. It's very useful for tracking." Mifuyu explained.
Tenten nodded. Her silence urged Mifuyu to continue.
"As for Yue, I honestly have no idea. You see, of all the elements, his element has the most 'possibilities'.
"What do you mean by 'most possibilities'?"
"Well, he can do anything with it. He could water bend using air, control fogs, mists and clouds as well but only for a certain extent. He could also do sand bending using air but it's not as good as Griselda's of course. He can fire bend using air as well but as long as he has a source." Mifuyu explained.
"Wow. That seems somewhat… unfair, don't you think?" Tenten asked with humor in her tone.
Mifuyu only giggled. "It's a fake way of bending so it still holds no candle against the real thing."
Tenten nodded. "What about Lucas?"
"He can bend lightning. Electricity, in other words. He can also make his own by separating the negative and positive chi in his body." Mifuyu finished.
"By bend lightning, you mean the real thing?" Tenten asked incredulous.
Mifuyu only nodded cheerfully. "Took him a while to master it. It got him the most disgusting burns trust me. It was like trying to sew back minced meat."
Tenten scrunched her nose in disgust.
"Needless to say, you'll have to master all of the elements, including all the special skills of each." Mifuyu said as she smiled.
Tenten gave no reply. After all, what was she supposed to say to something like that?
"There. I've healed most of your wounds."
Tenten looked in awe. All her injuries were gone. Even her cracked ribs and the giant slash on her back were nowhere to be seen. Not even a scar was left as proof.
"You're amazing!"
Mifuyu bowed dramatically. "Now let's go. I'll show you to your room. You need to rest."
Tenten glanced at the room which would serve as her home. It was much larger than her apartment. If the gigantic feather bed and plush furniture were any indication, she would say the Avatar clan had a pretty spoiled life. Staring at the wood burning fireplace, she couldn't help but sigh. She always wanted one of those but could never really afford a place that had one. Glancing at the stone walls, she noted how it was occasionally adorned with paintings of nature. It soothed her somehow.
Taking her luggage from the floor to the only table in the room, she began to unpack. Opening her bag, the first thing that caught her eye was the item wrapped haphazardly in newspaper. Carefully rolling away the crumpled pieces of paper, she stared at the photograph with glazed eyes. The smiling little girl in the picture seemed decades away.
Mifuyu entered the room with a loud bang of the door. "You know you went too far Lucas! She's just a child!"
"She's a child with a lot of responsibilities and she needs to grow up." Lucas argued back.
Mifuyu scoffed in disbelief and annoyance. "Oh! So you plan on making her 'grow up' by almost killing her, is that it?"
"If she can't deal with something as simple as that then how do you expect her to carry on as the leader of this clan?"
Mifuyu slammed her hand against the wooden table across from where Lucas sat. "Yes she needs to toughen up but you need to know your boundaries! She's this weak because we left her alone to fend for herself. She grew up with no family at all, not knowing who she was and where she came from. We sealed her blood limits for God's sake! Aren't you even surprised that she made it through this far all on her own? You can't expect her to be unbeatable in a blink of an eye! That's why we're here."
Lucas opened his mouth to retaliate but Griselda cut him off.
"I understand what you're saying Mi, and I'm pretty sure Lucas does as well. However, my opinion on this matter is, we all have different ways or ideas on how our heiress should train. Sometimes you just have to push a child off a cliff to make him stronger."
"But this is our one and only heiress we're talking about! The last direct descendant of the main family. We need to take good care of her!" Mifuyu reasoned.
"If you keep on protecting her, she will never learn."
"If you keep on hurting her, she may never want to learn."
Griselda sighed as she looked at the two in exasperation. "Needless to say, we all get the chance to train the heiress. So how about we just mind our own businesses? Whatever type of training the other uses is none of our concern. That way, we lessen arguments and reduce the risk of compromising teamwork." Griselda looked at the three to seek their approval.
"Fine." Lucas was the first to answer.
Mifuyu folded her hands on her chest as a form of resignation.
Yue chuckled to himself. "Wow. The rock actually has a brain."
"Say that again airhead?" Griselda threatened as she cracked her knuckles.
"Enough." Lucas stated with finality. "We will brief the heiress about her training tomorrow. We will follow the natural cycle. Air, Water, Earth and then Fire."
Tenten woke up at the sound of soft knocks. The door opened to reveal a smiling Mifuyu. "Tenten? Oh it's good to see that you're awake. Come with me. We're going to have a meeting."
Tenten groggily sat up as she rubbed her eyes. "Meeting? For what?"
"We're going to brief you about your training."
That definitely woke Tenten up. Rushing out of bed, Tenten hastily put on her shoes as she grabbed a sweatshirt over her pajamas.
Mifuyu could only laugh at the frantic but excited demeanor of the Avatar heiress.
Mifuyu directed her through the halls. Right. Left. Up. Left. Another left. Right. They had been walking through a series of similar looking hallways making it almost impossible for Tenten to recall her way around the place. After what seemed like forever, they finally arrived.
Tenten looked in awe at the huge marble room filled with intricate designs and some precious stones. She stopped adoring the room when she felt Mifuyu drag her towards a huge table.
Mifuyu motioned her to sit on one of the large marble chairs. When they were all seated, Lucas began to speak.
"Mifuyu must have informed you on."
Tenten nodded as she took a seat on the plush marble chair. She felt like a queen. "She told me that this was a briefing about my training."
Lucas nodded as well. "We just want to make one thing clear. Before you can learn bending, you must first learn the different ninjutsu related to each element."
Tenten blinked. She failed to hide the incredulity etched on her face. "E-Excuse me?"
"You have to learn all the jutsus related to the elements." Griselda reiterated almost monotonously.
"In other words, the first part of your training is ninjutsu." Mifuyu clarified with a smile.
"B-But. Why?" Tenten whispered, mustering up what was left of her sanity to stop herself from sinking down the chair and falling off.
"We need to keep our clan a secret. You can't use your blood limit whenever and wherever you please." Lucas explained firmly.
"Then what's the point of teaching me if I can't use it?" Tenten reasoned, trying her best to stop herself from whining.
"It can come handy during life and death situations." Yue added with amusement.
Tenten replied with a grunt.
"Your training will be long and hard. You need to learn how to control and maximize the uses of you blood limit as soon as possible." Griselda explained.
"You will have a lot of powerful enemies in the future and you need your power to protect yourself." Mifuyu added.
Tenten let out a long composing sigh. She nodded. Determination filled her eyes. "When do we start?"
"Today. Right after this meeting." Lucas stated with finality. "Your training cycle is air, water, earth, then fire."
Tenten nodded.
"One more thing." Lucas paused to give Tenten a meaningful glance. "We need to take care of the Dragon Seal."
"Oh." Tenten almost forgot about that one important detail.
"Afterwards, we can begin training as soon as possible."
Tenten's attention shifted from Lucas to Yue. The white-haired air bender gave her a saccharine grin, his smiling eyes seemed warm but secretive. Tenten looked away. If he was doing it to reassure her, it wasn't helping at all.