The blades clashed, and Iwabee tried to utilize his body weight against her. While he was sweating and straining profusely, she hadn't broken a single drop of sweat. Her slate grey eyes bore into his dark brown as she kicked his shin before over powering his grip on his sword, knocking it from his hands. She aimed the blade at his throat but didn't move to harm him.
"Brute strength isn't enough. Never get so strong that you forget to use your brain," Sakiya scolded as she lowered her blade. She sheathed the sword before kicking his Jo over to him and stated, "that's enough for today."
He couldn't stop himself before the question slipped out, "Where did you learn all of these things?"
She looked to him for a moment, then looked away. Sitting on the railing of the balcony she grasped a bottle of water and twisted off the cap. She brought the bottle to her mouth, gulping down a few mouthfuls before righting the bottle and recapping it. Iwabee wordlessly joined her, taking a small drink from his own water bottle.
Looking up at the night sky, she smiled at the moon and answered, "My mother didn't come here alone. She was part of a three man team. The other two who arrived with her were Kiyoshi and Minori Takahashi. They were cousins. My mother was very skilled in empty hand combat and flash step. Kiyoshi is a skilled swordsman and healer, he gave me kendo lessons when I was little, for two hours a day, and then two hours learning about herbs, medicines and healing techniques. My mom drilled me on flash step and our version of taijutsu for two hours, and the remaining two hours I was taught kido by Minori. I suppose you could call it our version of ninjutsu. We don't use hand signs, but incantations, and therein lies the main weakness of kido. Due to the incantation it can allow for someone to counter the spell or negate it. However someone with expert or master level skill in kido can forgo incantation with a lot of spells except high level kidos."
She looked to Iwabee while concluding, "that's where I learned everything. My mom and Kiyoshi were both seated officers in a squad that operates as close to shinobi as we can. That's where I learned to throw shuriken, as well as use throwing knives and kunai. That's also also where I learned what you call Taijutsu, and rapid movement techniques. Ninjutsu for me started as kido and overtime with observation I began learning about chakra, and chakra natures from observing shinobi. I realized while passing as a Shinobi that I had a dual chakra type. Water and Earth, I combined those to make my own nature style."
"It's definitely unique. I've never known anyone else to use it," he agreed.
"Because they've never seen me use it, bet on it. If anyone did and they could use both water and earth, they'd try to copy my style. I love copy cats but not when I'm the one being copied," she joked.
Iwabee chuckled, shaking his head as he corrected her, "I would never want to use your ninjutsu."
She rolled her eyes as she elbowed him and said, "are you blind? It's the best!"
"Oh yeah, I'm so terrified," Iwabee sarcastically jested.
She shook her head and playfully flicked his nose. The two looked up at the bright white orb against the navy blue night sky, various sprinklings of white adding to the contrast. Closing her eyes, she could hear the crickets in the grass, the owls hooting in the trees, and smell the scent of the cherry blossom tree on a farm roughly 3 hours away from them.
"If there's ever a day when I'm not around, for whatever reason—promise me you'll be strong without me," she requested, breaking the silence between them.
Iwabee was wide eyed for a moment before he scoffed and looked to her. He was silent for a moment before asking, "do you even know me?"
Sakiya smiled and nodded her head in agreement at the underlying message in his question. He would be okay without her. Maybe not right away, but eventually he would be. She'd raised him to be strong, as strong as she knew to make him while still giving him a secure attachment that he could trust.
Then he added, "Nah, if you ever do leave I guess—the thing that would be hardest would be if I become a shinobi genin, then a chunin, and then a jonin—I'd want to share that with someone, but without you, who would I share that with?"
Sakiya regarded him for a moment, the pained look on his face was intense, almost as if he were thinking of losing a parent. She then asked him, "Where is your heart?"
Iwabee looked to her slightly annoyed, then pointed to a spot on his chest. His finger turned into a fist and rested against the center of his chest, slightly to the right as he stated, "I think that's right."
"Well, anatomically, yes," Sakiya confirmed. She then looked to him and stated, "where my mom's from—there's a high ranking officer who believes that the heart resides here-" she brought her fist half way in between them.
He looked to her with his eyebrow slightly raised but she had his full attention. She gained a sad smile as she explained, "when two people meet a bit of 'heart' is born between them. That heart shares joys, accomplishments, dreams, sorrows, fears and no two hearts are exactly the same. When my kind die, our bodies dissolve and become the spirit particles that make up our world. So then what happens to our 'heart'? Well, that's kind of easy if you think about it."
She eyed Iwabee as she concluded, "We entrust it to our friends. That's why no one should ever die alone, even if their body isn't there, their heart can still live if it's entrusted to someone. Those same people you would entrust with your heart, are the ones you should celebrate with in my absence, should the day come."
He gave a light laugh at the simplicity of it and simply remarked, "that makes sense." He stood up and turned towards the building. He looked back to her as he announced, "I'm gonna head off to bed."
"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow," Sakiya replied as she drank down some more water.
Iwabee nodded and then stopped as he turned back to her and inquired, "I almost forgot. This kid in my class, Boruto, he likes spicy food and burgers—I just wondered umm could he maybe I don't know, come over for lunch or dinner sometime?"
Sakiya stifled a giggle as she glanced at Iwabee knowingly, "the same boy you dishonoured yourself against by trying to use your Jo in a fight when you had previously declared that no weapons would be used?"
A slight hint of pink appeared on the boy's cheeks. She had that affect on him. Whenever she spoke like that, about dishonouring himself, he felt like he dishonoured her as well, and the shame made him blush. She gave a small sigh and nodded, "alright. Sure. I'll see if I can whip up something spicy for the kid. Might be best if he comes by tomorrow or a week Thursday though, otherwise it's going to be tough with time constraints."
"I'll let him know," Iwabee agreed.
