Meditation

"You did pretty well for a beginner" Netero obviously had much more battle experience than me.

The headache I had was the stuff of legends. During the fight i had managed to land no more than 3 punches.

Sakamoto had approved of my fighting talent and I was able to enroll in the dojo.

Every student got their own room. It was pretty basic.

a desk with some books. a plain bed and a closet to dump my stuff into, not that i had much.

After the fight it felt heavenly just to lay down and rest. I went over the fight in my mind.

My strength and speed were pretty good, but I had no technique. Luckily I was at the right place.

I turned towards the wall and drifted off to sleep.

"WAKE UP!" I opened my eyes to see Netero standing in the doorway, it was morning.

the cocky grin from yesterday still hasn't left his face.

i put on the Gi i got yesterday, and followed him down the hall.

I could see other students receive the same wake up i got, it made me feel better.

Sakamoto told me the routine yesterday.

Endurance training after breakfast, which consisted of a 10km run.

After that it was Sword katas for 4hours. Lunch, and then parring followed by free time.

We where supposed to train on our own then.

Around me i could see about 30 students, some doing stretches before we started to run, i adopted it as it was probably a good idea.

it didn't take long before Sakamoto gathered everyone together.

"you know the drill, so GO!"

I followed the seniors along the route. the 10km run was not a problem for me, it was just a small portion of what I did everyday back home.

When we got back Sakamoto called out to me

"Follow me"

I was led into one of the practice rooms. it was just five people there, Netero was among them.

"so you want to learn Nen huh?" asked Sakamoto

"Yes sir" I answered.

"How much do you know about Nen?" He asked.

"I know is power that can give you great strength, and every human has the potential to cultivate it. it's also called aura, and everyone has different abilities" i tried to remember from my time watching the anime.

"not a bad summary, but it's so much more, Nen is to realize and cultivate the human potential. There are a few things you have to do before cultivating Nen.

A strong body is a prerequisite, and a strong will. to open up yourself and let your aura flow you need to let the aura circulate inside, following your meridians.

after you master this you can let your aura flow thru the pores in your skin."

"so meditation is the only way to use Nen?" i remembered how they awakened in the anime.

"no, another nen user can awaken you, but to do so is folly. You lose a part of your potential if you do it this way." He answered.

It made sense, and I had the time to do it the right way. but what he told me did still differ from what i had expected. Especially the way to circulate it before bursting thru the pores in the skin.

"So what you need to do is meditate" there was no arguing with this man. I could see everyone in the room starting to meditate after Sakamoto had finished.

I guess I better get to it then, nothing comes for free.