Fuko Hino was abruptly woken up in the middle of the night to a loud noise that came from Sora's bedroom.
She quickly stood up, slowly creeping out of her bedroom door and toward Sora's room. She placed an ear to his closed door to get a better understanding of the situation.
"Hmmmphhhh… staarr ovvuh…" A drunken voice came from the other end, followed with a loud thump.
Fuko rubbed her sleepy eyes and pushed the door open, her eyes widening at the spectacle.
From one end of the room to the other was a golden rope and Sora was walking across the rope with his hands at his sides and a sleeping expression.
His hand suddenly flinched, subconsciously trying to balance himself.
But instead of balancing himself… He suddenly punched himself in the face, falling to the floor and slowly picking himself back up.
"Staaard ovuhhh…" He slurred, drool dripping from his mouth as he stood back on the golden rope and repeated the movements.
Fuko just stared at him incredulously with a raised eyebrow. "What on earth is this lunatic doing?" She entered the room, not stopping Sora but just watching him curiously.
He did it about three more times before he fell onto the floor and dispelled the rope, finally sleeping.
Fuko coughed awkwardly and picked him up before throwing him onto his bed, purposely making his head slam against the wall.
Sora groaned and his eyes fluttered open. "What did I do wrong now, old man…" he said sleepily as he picked himself up, looking around the room groggily. "Huh?"
Fuko started giggling at Sora, covering her mouth.
He quickly understood what was going on, he was dreaming about training and had somehow woken Fuko up. "W-wait!" He said, his face immediately flushing red as he covered it with a pillow.
Fuko burst out laughing, a hand on her stomach and the other pointing at him. "I am never going to let you forget that! I'll be talking about that in 50 years to come!"
"I hope you die before that happens…" Sora lowered the pillow, his face still bright red. "Get out of my room before I shoot you."
Fuko just wiped a tear from her eye and chuckled one more time before waving at Sora as she left the room.
…
…
The next morning, Sora arrived at the dojo a little later than usual. "None of this would've happened if it wasn't for that foid." Sora spat on the floor before he pushed open the doors to the dojo.
His eyes immediately widened when he did, Yukio was holding a damn sword! And the old man was standing opposite him and very clearly instructing him.
"Woah, what the hell guys?" Sora immediately yelled in outrage, the feeling of betrayal hitting deep. His eyes immediately shifting to battle mode.
Yukio's eyes immediately widened and he waved his hands, not wanting to upset Sora. "W-we were just waiting for you!" He stammered.
Sora was not having it, he stormed off into the room next door and stood on the rope. Takeo and Yukio walked into the room too to check him out.
Yukio was nervously fidgeting and Takeo was just watching with a raised eyebrow. Sora took a deep breath.
He relaxed his body, his mind clearing up. His muscles relaxed and he fully calmed down. He opened his eyes, face stoic.
He walked forward at a steady pace; no wasted movements, no change in expression. He was doing it, but he didn't care. He just wanted to get this over and done with. He wasn't excited nor bothered, like a machine.
He walked to one end and immediately did a 180° turn before walking back with the same stoic expression.
Once he reached the starting point, he did another turn and walked back and even repeated this process ten times before he decided to hop off.
His eyes back to the sun like pattern, he smirked and walked past Yukio and the old man, who were both stunned still.
The old man was especially surprised. Just yesterday Sora hadn't even been close to perfecting it, but now… he had just done it ten times over perfectly! 'Kids sure are interesting when it comes to being spiteful.' He mused.
Yukio was extremely excited at Sora's development and eager to see how he would react to this new training he and Takeo had started.
Sora walked over and grabbed a wooden sword before standing in the middle of the room with a pout.
Takeo walked over and told Yukio to stand in front of Sora. "Okay you two… for this exercise I will tell one of you to attack whenever you are ready. If your body makes any indications that you are going to attack, I will stop you and you will start over. Do not actually hit each other, stop before contact." He said, sitting on a chair close enough to the two for him to hit them when needed.
"Sora, you are first." He said, holding his sword ready. "Attack Yukio when you are ready."
Sora stood in front of Yukio, his face calm and his sword gripped tight. 'Okay, so I just have to catch the old man off guard and show no indication that I am going to attack.' He mused, not letting any emotion show on his face.
He waited fifteen more seconds before he was ready.
He clenched the sword handle and—
*THWACK!* "Start over."
Sora grit his teeth and barked at the old man. "What the hell did I even do? I didn't even attack!" He said, anger evident on his face.
The old man just sighed. "Your hands clenched, an enemy could easily see and exploit that. Your body confesses before your hands do."
Sora immediately calmed down, suddenly understanding exactly what he had to do.
"Yukio, it is your turn now." Takeo said, smiling gently at Yukio.
The younger boy nodded enthusiastically and got into position.
Sora looked at Yukio and the pale boy stared back.
He took a breath, waiting for the right moment. He and Takeo had done this a few times before Sora had arrived and he had come up with a few ideas.
He waited for the old man to blink and immediately swung his sword but—
*THWACK!* "You've been looking at my eyes since the start. It's obvious what you were going to try, start over. Sora, it's your turn."
Yukio just rubbed the back of his head and sighed dejectedly.
Sora smiled and got into position.
As soon as he got into position, he immediately rammed a chakra intrusion into the old man's skull, disorienting him before he swung his sword at Yukio.
Takeo flinched at Sora's intrusion and wasn't able to hit him on the back of the head in time.
Sora had won.
*THWACK!* "Well, that's just not what I told you to do, is it? Start over." Takeo looked at Sora with a disappointed look.
"Seriously?" Sora sighed, embarrassed.
Hours went by and neither of the boys managed to complete the exercise.
Sora and Yukio left the old man's dojo, covered in bruises. "This is such bullshit… god, how many other exercises do we have to complete until we can actually use the swords?!" Sora said, sighing while rubbing the back of his head.
Yukio just kept fidgeting uncomfortably. He understood where Sora was coming from, but he didn't really agree with him. He actually enjoyed all of this training, it was slow and steady and he could tell that every singular exercise was worth it.
For example, ever since Yukio had been training his balance, he hadn't fallen over or tripped or even been caught off guard. Overall he just felt much more stable and he was excited to see what this new training would help him in.
Nonetheless, he was far too insecure to tell Sora his opinion, so he just smiled faintly and nodded. "I-I think there will be a few more before we can actually use the swords… but if we train really hard then I'm sure we can get there very quick!" He looked at the floor.
"Hmm… I suppose you are right." Sora nodded before clapping his hands. "You are so right! Let's just train super hard and get these dumb exercises over and done with so we can get to fighting!" Sora suddenly grinned. "Hey, it's not that late yet, do you wanna go to our little training area and keep going?"
Yukio's face immediately brightened and he nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! Let's go!"
The two immediately started jogging over to the little area they had neglected for the past week or so, Sora running in front and Yukio lagging behind.
After a few minutes they finally arrived at the training area and both picked up some twigs from the floor before standing in front of each other.
"I'll go first!" Sora said quickly and took a deep breath.
…
…
Two days later, back at Takeo's dojo.
Yukio and Sora were now fully prepared and stood in front of each other with calm, stoic expressions as Takeo stood off to the side with his sword at the ready. "You go first, Yukio." He said, signaling Yukio to go ahead.
The pale boy took a deep breath and stood ready. His face was expressionless and his eyes seemed empty, showing no sign of any intentions.
Sora smirked, he could tell that Yukio was in the zone and ready. Takeo squinted, not seeing any indicators.
Not a singular shift in expression.
Not a twitch anywhere on his body.
He was just standing still, not a singular thought behind his eyes—
*FWOOSH!*
Takeo's eyes widened as Yukio swung his sword at Sora's neck, the wooden blade just a few inches away from him. Sora didn't flinch, he was confident in Yukio.
Both of the boys grinned and looked at Takeo, who was taken aback. 'Incredible… none of my students had ever made it this far in such a short amount of time…' he thought to himself, impressed. "Great job, your turn now Sora."
Sora just nodded and got into position. Yukio's smile just grew a little and Sora's face became calm, doing the exact same thing that Yukio had done.
His face was unreadable, heartbeat steady, eyes unfocused, muscles relaxed and—
*FWOOOSH!*
Before Takeo could even get prepared, exactly 2 seconds after he got into position, Sora's blade was an inch away from Yukio's throat.
Yukio did flinch a little, but after that he quickly grinned widely and Sora mirrored his expression and grinned even wider.
The two then looked at Takeo, who was bewildered. He had expected Yukio to do pretty well and for Sora to take a while longer, but to his surprise…
Sora had not only managed to master it at the same time but he was also even better than Yuki—
*FWOOSH!*
Takeo's eyes suddenly shot wide as both Sora and Yukio had swung their swords toward him, unable to react before the swords were just mere centimetres away from his neck.
Unfortunately for the two, Sora's blade was stopped by Takeo's hand and Yukio's blade was blocked by his sword.
"Incredible… both of you, I am beyond impressed." Takeo said with a smile. "Now… how about I teach you some tricks regarding chakra in return for that sense alteration ability." He said, his smile widening.