Chapter 8: Wind Training [Rewrite]

I received the bow a few days later, and immediately took it out to a private training ground. I don't want anyone else besides my team to see me use it. It's good to have a special weapon, an ace up my sleeve. I know I can't channel the chakra into it just yet, so I spend hours just getting in standard target practice. With my new skills as a ninja, I am immeasurably better than I ever was before. I can hit the bullseye nearly every single shot with it. I know I can push it further in the future, and use my advanced eyesight with it too. If the wind natures can add speed and strength to the arrows, then I imagine I will basically be like a sniper. The possibilities make me glow as I head home to proudly boast to my brother. He's excited to see those futures too, and he forces me back out late at night to show off my shooting skills before we go to bed late. 

After about another month of training and missions, I'm finally fully proficient at my bow without using any chakra nature. I practice every day with it, either during training or at home. Guy Sensei gave me a sealing scroll to use to keep it hidden and stored when I'm not using it, and to make it more convenient to carry on missions. 

We've done a total of 14 D rank missions around the village, so the Hokage started sending us on short C rank missions too. Those missions have been either bodyguard ones or bandit raids. Neji, Lee and I all had our first actual kill while in an all-out, deadly bandit fight on one mission. I thought with my past life it might have made me more uncomfortable, but it didn't. I didn't walk away without a slightly heavy conscience, but I didn't let it consume me at all. Same with the two boys as well, we just took it in stride. 

Since I had advanced so much with my bow, even using it well with my Byakugan, I decided it was time to meet Asuma. As we were running back home after an escort mission to a nearby land, I approached Sensei about it.

"Sensei," I start to say as we speedily ran through tree tops. Our stamina has vastly improved in the last four months, even with me wearing an extra 175 kilograms. "You mentioned to reach out when I'm ready for wind nature training. I would like to start that soon. I want to use it with my bow, and to learn other techniques."

"Yes! The power of youth! Striving to be better and stronger than yesterday! I will contact my friend, he will train you!" He replies enthusiastically.

"You are so amazing Ami! Already have you mastered your new weapon, you truly are one of the genius twins. I shall work twice as hard to meet up to your level one day." Lee vows to me. He does this often, and each time he does he has Guy Sensei add more weights to his training or ask for more reps out of him specifically. He really is becoming a 'genius of hard work' that he becomes in the story. 

As I have spent more time lately learning my new bow, I have not been progressing as much as Neji has on the advanced Hyuga techniques. He has moved on to learning the Rotation technique, having already mastered the 64 palms. I am near mastering it, and do still practice it daily, but I'm not quite as good as him in it anymore. I'm still better than most all of our other clan members though, and my eyes are improving rapidly from my archery practice. My range of sight is now better than Neji's by a little bit.

A week after I requested, Guy Sensei shows up at our house and borderline kidnaps me. Ok, perhaps there was no border. He just grabbed me as soon as I opened the door and ran off with me in an iron grip. I was lucky I had my shoes on already.

"And here she is! This is Ami Hyuga, my little wind user!" Guy says as he places me on the ground not so gently. I catch myself skillfully before I fall. I glare lightly at my Sensei before turning to stare directly at Asuma. My eyes widen for a moment in recognition before I bow politely in greeting.

"Hello, my name is Ami Hyuga, it is nice to meet you." I say to him with a smile, trying really hard not to grin.

"I'm Asuma Sarutobi. So I hear you're a fellow wind user. Not too many of us here in the Land of Fire." He says casually to me.

"No, not even her twin is a wind user." Guy says proudly then turns to me, "Alright, I'm off now. Have fun!" He says then disappears promptly. I turn with an awkward chuckle towards Asuma, who has a bewildered expression on his face, like he doesn't know what's going on.

"Umm, I'm going to assume that he properly asked you to help me train and didn't just leave me here with you, without you knowing why." I say boldly with a soft smirk.

He sighs loudly, clearly indicating that is not what happened. "Well, no matter. Did you want to learn some basic techniques or did you have something in mind?" He asks me politely.

I take out my scroll and summoned my bow. "I have this bow, it's apparently enhanced when combined with wind nature chakra, and I would like to learn how to fully master it. Also, I would like to learn some wind techniques if you can teach me them. Thank you." I bow again politely since I'm asking a lot from him.

He whistles in appreciation at the bow, "I always knew someone would pick this one out. I tried it a few times, but archery was never my strong suit. I'm much more suited to close combat. But you being a Hyuga, you likely are as well. How have you been doing with the bow so far?" He asks skeptically.

"I've pretty much mastered it. As you said, I'm a Hyuga, so therefore my enhanced sight aids me greatly in my use of the bow. I'm curious how much the wind nature will aid it." I tell him with arrogance.

"Could I see a demonstration of your current skill set with it?" He asks in amusement, I nod and agree, and he guides us to a nearby training grounds that is empty. I take my bow and rapidly shoot off three arrows into each of the three targets in front of us. I then activate my eyes, and scout a bird flying high in the sky. I adjust my aim to account for wind and the birds flight, but manage to drill the arrow into the birds head from 200 meters away. This impresses even me since I haven't done anything quite that fancy so far, but I play it off like it happens all the time.

He gawks for a moment, looking at where the bird fell from the sky. "Well, alrighty then. Let's uh... Let's put that away for now and focus on your chakra nature control." He pushes the bow in my hands, indicating to put it back in its scroll. I smirk to myself as I do as he asked of me. "I'll show you how I use my chakra weapons." He takes out his knuckle blades and demonstrates. I activate my eyes again so I can more clearly see the flow of his chakra as he is demonstrating. "I can throw one of the blades with no chakra enhancing it and get average results," He does just that, throwing a blade into a nearby tree. "Or, I can enhance the blade, and channel my wind nature chakra into it, and then throw it." He focuses his chakra into the blade, and I see how it flows in two contrasting directions along the surface of the blade before he throws it. This time when he threw it, the blade cut a hole straight through the tree and into the boulder behind it.

"That's impressive." I comment with wide eyes. "You're creating contrasting flows of chakra over the blade. That made it sharper, didn't it?" I ask him.

"You're astute. Yes, I finely ground out the chakra into a razor sharp edge, channeling right over the existing edge. It made the blade a lot sharper, but also added extra force to the throw. Here, you try." He says as he goes to retrieve his blades.

I take one in my hand, and try to visualize the chakra along it. I see a blanket of it wrap around the blade. I try to make the contrasting layer next, and a strong gust of wind throws the knife out of my hand and into the air, cutting my hand in the process lightly.

"Too much force at once. I'm guessing you tried to add a second layer after the first?" He asks and I nod, rubbing my stinging hand. "That won't work. You have to picture them at the same time, create an equilibrium. Try again." He handed me back the blade.

I tried a few more times until finally I got it to work without exploding out of my hand. I could tell something was still off about it, but I wanted to see how it flew. I threw it into a tree, and while it did pierce more than a regular throw, it only went maybe an inch more.

"Better. You just need to flatten the chakra. Picture that a piece of paper is between the two flows, then imagine flattening everything down to lay just right at that paper. Also, try using less chakra next time, you don't need a lot with the blades, they hold it more easily." He advises me.

Several more attempts later, I start to get the hang of it. I can't quite make the blade go through the tree, but I can make a good size dent through it. "You did good work today kid." Asuma tells me as we wrap up for the day. "You can practice on those arrows you have. They channel the chakra the same as these blades. Try first to focus it on the arrowhead, then when you feel confident with it, you can try to channel it back from the bow string. We can meet up next week to practice some more, I'll be back from my next mission by then. And tell your Sensei to calm down with the yelling next time, I still have a headache from this morning with him." He grumbles out.

"I think I would meet a hyper Nara before I ever saw a calm Guy Sensei. Let's not ask for miracles, please." I joke to him with a chuckle. "Thank you for everything today, I really appreciate it. I will see you next week!" I wave as I walk away to the sound of him laughing at my joke.

"How did your wind training go?" Neji asks me curiously when I get home.

"Excellent! Asuma Sensei taught me how to channel my chakra into the blades he uses. It hurt a bunch when I got it wrong," I show him my cut up and bruised hand and he blanches a paler shade. "But it was worth it when it worked. I can use the concept on the arrows now for practice." I tell him and he just stands up and takes me by the elbow into the bathroom. He cleans my wounded hand and wraps it up for me. This happens so often to us both from training that he just leaves his right hand wrapped all the time these days, and Lee has both of his wrapped.

"Look, we match again." He jokes to me once he's done. We grin softly at each other. We've both been a little sad that we aren't totally identical anymore. My hair is much longer than his now, reaching to my knees. His build is also broadening more now, and his muscles are larger thanks to the weights we wear. I wear slightly less in weight that he does.