Chapter 6

The next morning, Yoruichi appeared in front of Karma as he was dozing off. Having practiced his chakra control for the rest of the night he was finally going to sleep after finally thinking, 'I never knew training was such a pain.' He did manage to make one very jagged claw on each of his hands, between the knuckles of his middle and ring fingers. Yoruichi grinned seeing him dozing off before grabbing him by the arm and launching Karma into the courtyard where she always had Ibaraki training.

By the time he got up, Ibaraki was already standing next to him with a happy smile on her face while Ailane was flying towards him. He caught her, only to fall down again due to the impact. This time he decided to just stay down.

"Get up, since you've reached 4 years of age it's about time to start your training. We're already starting late because it's troublesome. Himari, you'll be instructing Ibaraki in Kenjutsu starting today since she's adamant about learning it." Yoruichi announced to Ibaraki's joy as she appeared in front of the trio of kids.

"Yes, Yoruichi." Himari said, appearing behind them. She took Ibaraki and prepared to leave, glancing at Karma and hesitating.

"You don't have to guard him while I'm watching him, do you really think anybody in this village can do something to him while I'm here?" Yoruichi said. Himari nodded in response before leading Ibaraki away. Before leaving Ibaraki stuck out her tongue at the twins who hadn't even expected some kind of formal training. They always thought Ibaraki asked for it herself.

Being the most lazy, Karma thought it was unfortunate he couldn't be lazy until he graduated the Academy, but it was fine. He was no longer the same cat who slept for eons upon eons. He was going to be a new cat. A ninja cat that earned his strength.

"Aunt-" he started.

"I've told you before to call me big sister, I'm not old!" Yoruichi interrupted him.

"Big sister, can I learn senjutsu already? I know our clan doesn't have an age or chakra restriction for it..." he continued, although a little embarrassed to be calling his aunt like that.

"You're right, we don't have a restriction on how high your chakra levels need to be or your age for learning senjutsu. There are other requirements though. First, you're going to need to meet the Feline Sages. Depending which one gives their approval, you'll learn their breeds' Sage Arts. If multiple approve of you, then you'll be taught a combination of their Sage Art, giving you the benefits of each one that approves you. There are a total of five Sages.

That's not all, you need to have very good chakra control if you want to start early, since the natural energy will overwhelm you otherwise. That's the reason others require a massive amount of chakra to learn it."

"Sounds annoying..." Karma said.

"But Karma, if you succeed you'll be able to beat up Sasuke for being so arrogant. And you'll be able to chase stronger prey! If we learn it, we'll also be stronger shinobi!" Ailane exclaimed, convincing Karma to learn senjutsu.

"Then, big sister, take me to the Feline Sages!" Karma said.

"No can do. You think you have good chakra control because of the two tiny, misshapen claws you made? You're going to have to do a lot better. Probably, you'll be able to start learning senjutsu once you've made some actual claws. There should be 3 on each hand, and they should at least be as big as your hand, from the wrist to the tip of your middle finger. Now, we'll go over you chakra natures, and afterwards I'll train you in shunpo, the only clan art we have. Tomorrow, you'll wake up early and practice. At the end of the day every day from now on you'll spar with each other and other children in the clan. You'll continue to spar until you drop from exhaustion." Yoruichi said, taking out two sheets of paper.

"These are Chakra Paper. When you imbue a bit of chakra into them, they'll reveal what nature transformation you have an affinity to. You'll be able to tell based on how the paper reacts. For fire, the paper will catch on fire and turn to ash, for wind, the paper will split in half, for lightning the paper will wrinkle, for earth the earth will turn to dirt and crumble away, and lastly for water it will become damp. These will determine the nature transformation that I suggest you focus on. There are more nature transformations you can do, though they're extremely hard to pull off. Known to be impossible by most people. Usually, they are only passed down through the bloodline, like the byakugan and sharingan. Though you wouldn't be the first to ever learn a kekkei genkai or maybe you could even go further than kekkei genkai. I, myself, learned storm release, nature transformation done by combining the water and lightning nature transformations, through strenuous practice. Though, I'm rarely pushed to use it in a fight." She explained, taking the opportunity to gloat.

"Wow! Big sister, mew're so cool!" Ailane shouted excitedly. Karma was not impressed, so he just walked up and took a Chakra Paper from Yoruichi, making her think he was only trying to act nonchalant. She smirked as she handed Ailane her own Chakra Paper, watching as Karma imbued his chakra into his.

His Chakra Paper proceeded to split into 4 pieces, each piece reacting differently, one was wet, one burned, turning to ash, one became dirt, crumbling away, and the last one shriveled up. Karma wasn't surprised. Why wouldn't he not have affinity for everything? Yoruichi thought it was pleasantly surprised. Though she explained Karma wouldbe required to train even harder, since she had seen people get cocky because they had more affinities before. Affinity didn't equal skill after all. It simply meant they would have an easier time with the element.

"Karmnya!!! Mew're Ameowzing!!" Ailane shouted excitedly. She was happy Karma was talented. Karma in response to her yelling held his head up a little higher.

'So much for being nonchalant!' Thought Yoruichi.

Ailane excitedly followed Karma's lead and imbued her chakra into her Chakra Paper, revealing her own affinities to be wind, water, earth and lightning.

"Well, it looks like I have two more talented kits to make suffer." Said Yoruichi with a big grin on her face. They hoped she was joking.