Chapter 2: The easy life

(16 years later)

Santoro was walking through the forest as he was returning home after a long mornings hunt, the sun was shining high in the sky and there was a gentle breeze flowing through the air to help keep him cool as he continued to walk towards a clearing in the trees. Slung on his back he had huge black boar that he had been tracking for the pass couple days, the creature was the largest one he had ever caught. He was quite happy with the kill, normally this would last him a couple of weeks at best or even a month if it was rationed for himself but because of the new addition to his household unlucky for him it wouldn't even last a full day.

The years have been kind to the huntsmen only a couple of winkles were under his bright green eyes and a grey streaks of hair going down both sides of his head, even though he appearance has changed slightly now wearing something that would suit his age. He was wearing more smart traditional clothing rather than his old GI. He wore a smart looking black tunic with white cuffs that had buttons going down to his left hand side from his collar, the tunic was also stretched down to his calves. He wore matching black trousers, the only thing that was from his original outfit was his shoes he was wearing.

As he passed the final two trees, the area opened up revealing a small Asian style wooden house with stone two pillars out front. The building was perfect for it to be hidden away from mankind's troubles. "Ah home sweet home. Now where are you?" His sentence was rudely interrupted by a humanoid looking black blur darting towards him from the tree line. The blur quickly made its way to Santoro, his eyes were focused on the blur as it started to dart around him looking for an opening.

"You know it's not much of a sneak attack if you do this every time I come back" He sighed in a bored tone waiting for it to make its move. Soon enough the blur came straight at him and in one swift movement he grabbed an out stretched arm out, pulling it towards him making the person go off balance, the person stumbled forward he quickly chopped the back of their neck with his hand.

"See what I mean predictable, very predictable."

The person fell to the floor causing a small dust cloud. They had long black spiky wild hair going all the down their back. "I will get you one day" In an annoyed feminine voice as she slowly started to get up. She brushed herself down getting the dirt off her clothes which was one of Santoro's old training Gi uniforms; he kept everything the same from that day she was found deep in the woods except she had her tail wrapped around her waist. She turned to her mentor after brushing her shoulders off as she started to cross her arm. She was shorter than her master probably 4ft 10inch she looked quite young for her age, she was well built but with very feminine. She stood up straight, her sky blue eyes staring at her master with a scowl which quickly turned into a smile.

"Any way I'm glad you're back, I was starting to get bored being here all by myself"

She looked at the boar on her masters back and her eyes quickly lit up with joy. She dropped her up tight demeanour and started slowly side stepping closer to her soon to be food.

Santoro quickly raised his hand at the girl telling her to stop moving she stopped in her tracks. "Lottus I know you're hungry but you will have to wait first I need to prepare this properly, you don't want a repeat of what happened last time don't you?"He stated with a smile etched on his face.

Lottus stopped moving as her face went green remembering the time she ate unprepared pork, her whole body shuddered a little thinking back to the experience. "Yeah you're right. How long until its ready I've been starving all morning."

"A couple hours at least" Santoro raised his brow. "Maybe you should get in more training while I prepare this."

She let out a loud groan "Arghhh, alright. So what will I be doing today?" she raised her head waiting for the huntsmen to respond. By her reaction you would think she didn't like training but actually she loved training almost as much as she loved food. Almost.

Santoro threw the boar of his back hitting the ground with a thump. "In the house in the basement there is chest with a symbol that looks like two axes crossing over each other. Inside that chest there are some clothes I want you to put them on and then come back to me."

Lottus crossed her arms and him a peculiar look. "Ok... but why would changing my clothes make anything difference?"

His green eyes gave her a gentle stare. "You will see." He started to walk away towards a small tool shed next to the house.

She was baffled by his answer "Always with the cryptic messages." She shook her head and started to walk towards the house. As she entered she was greeted by a big open square room with Shoji (A/N Japanese room dividers) on each side. The room was styled to look like a dojo with white floor mats covering the floor she removed one of the mats revealing a hatch, she opened the hatch and made her way into the basement.

The basement was filled with old training equipment from standard barbell weights to wooden men fighting posts. She looked at some of the posts cracking a small smile as touched one of the wooden arms that reminding her of the first time she used them in training, it used to be her favorite form of training equipment but she had to stop using them because she kept on breaking them.

"Enough getting distracted I need to find this chest." She thought to herself, she started looking around for the chest. At first she couldn't find the thing until she noticed a beige blanket lying on top of a rectangular object. She pulled the cover off unveiling a green chest with twin axes crossing each other.

"Ah there we go." She opened the chest to see what was inside. There was a pair of clothes black and white in colour they looked the same as the current Gi that she was wearing. She quickly started to change into her new outfit but there something different to it than her old uniform it felt heavier than the one she was previously wearing as she was going through the chest she found some leg weights which she quickly strapped around her calves. she pulled up her new trousers as her tail looking for a hole in the back of them "Ah there we go" her tail quickly found its way out of the trouser then promptly wrapped around her waist. Finally she put on the finishing touch a pair white bracers, with her new uniform on she quickly started to feel the effects of the weights. At first she couldn't move properly as she lugged herself towards the ladder, as she began to climb she could really feel the difference in weight. She soon made her way to her master who had just finished skinning the boar.

"Ah good you have it on. So do you feel the difference?" He said with a gentle smile.

"Yeah I can feel it" she was a little uncomfortable with her new Gi but she was getting used to it.

"Now this will be the only thing you wear from now on ok? The only time you take it off is when you're sleeping, bathing or unless you really need too."

She replied with a nod while she was stretching her arms getting ready for whatever her master told her to do.

"Now I want you do 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats and a 10km just to get used to the weight ok?"

Lottus was shocked with how basic her warm up was in her old clothes she would normally do 10 times that. "Why so basic that's a bit easy don't you think?"

"If it's so easy then you should be able to do it quick then." Santoro winked at Lottus.

"Fine then" She said as she started doing her 10k run. "But if I finish this in 10 minutes I'll get more of that pork then"

Santoro smiled as he watched the girl run off into the forest.

(1 hour later)

Lottus ran off to her favorite location to train it was an inland cliff edge overlooking the forest below, could see nearly everything from Santoro's house to some mountains off in the distance. The area was very peaceful and it really helped get in touch with herself"95…96…97…98…99…100…and I'm done" She had just finished completing the last of her push-ups. "I would of finished ages ago but these weights are making it a lot harder than it should. Now I wonder if breakfast is ready." It was now high noon as she began to make her way back to Santoro who now has probably mid-way through cooking the boar.

She returned back home the aroma of cooked pork filled the air, she quickly picked up her pace as after her training she was now beyond starving. As she stumbled through the tree line wasn't greeted by Santoro, there was chunks of cooked boar on a place with some vegetables on a table, there was a note next to the plate. Lottus instantly started to tuck into the meal not looking at the piece of paper.

After she finished devouring her meal she sat on the floor patting her stomach with a gleeful smile. As she laid on the grass she noticed a piece of paper stained with juices from her meal, she picked it up and started to read it. "Dear Lottus, I have been called away on an assignment. I should return home soon, Signed Santoro."

She placed the paper back on the table and started to look up at the blue sky. "Hmm that's odd why would they need him now? They never did before." She pondered for a bit before jumping to her feet. "Well might as well keep training. I want to wear this thing like its nothing." She said in a victorious tone as she jumped up on one of the pillars outside the house and started doing one handed handstand push-ups. "Ok…1….2…."She started to resume training as she got used to her new Gi.

(A/N Sorry about the long time in between uploads, I've just been really busy IRL at the moment. I'm going to try and shorting the times in between uploads to make it more consistent. As why I did a 16 year time I want to get her to the main RWBY story, but I am going to fill in the 16 year time skip with some flashbacks and what not to fill that void ^^. See you guys on the next upload.)