7 Keeping Up with the Inuzuka 2

It was morning once again.

Somehow, she'd managed to crawl back to her room last night after that extreme marathon session.

"Venerable One... I have this burning question in my mind."

"Speak."

"Why do I keep waking up with five tails?"

She pointed at the five-branching horse tails on her back, which slowly shrunk back before finally disappearing from sight.

"Those tails are extensions of This One's chakra. If they shows up unprecedented, that means This One's chakra is leaking out because your body is not strong enough to contain This One."

"Ugh..."

"They receded rather fast these days, are they not? Your body is getting accustomed to This One."

Kokuo didn't want to admit it, but all the running seemed to work to some extent...

"So, I just need to get stronger, then they won't appear again?"

"Precisely."

"That, I can do."

She leaped out of the bed. At least her new body was suitable for training. A night's sleep and the fatigue were all gone. Perhaps Tsume's foods had something to do with it?

After finishing her housework, she was called by the landlord again.

"Keep at it."

"Fue?"

That was all. No further instructions, just 'keep at it'.

Urk... another marathon? Even though she'd wanted to take it a bit easier from now on...

Back at the creek, Kiba was still playing with Akamaru at the exact same spot from yesterday. This time, she tried not to alert the boy. Instead, she ran around the nearby hill so she could take the upper ground.

And then, she jumped.

"What the f-!?"

Kiba nearly fainted from fright as the girl came crashing down out of nowhere.

With a swift motion, she stole Akamaru from his grip, placed him on top of her head, and then ran away.

Again.

"!@#$%"

Another storm ensued as the kids ran like a pair of lightning bolt over the entire village.

Say, didn't this boy got faster compared to yesterday?!

"Godamnit, stop! If I ever catch you, I'll-!" Kiba roared.

"Then I can't stop, can I?!" The girl cried out in return.

Feeling the wind smacking on his face, Akamaru was beyond ecstatic as he enjoyed the fleeting scenery passing by at breakneck speed. He kept barking at random times, inciting Kiba to increase his speed, in turn making her go faster in response.

When dusk arrived, two kids were sprawled out on the backyard. As usual, Tsume threw them in for dinner.

---

The routine continued until the fifth day. Kiba was nowhere to be found.

It seemed the boy had finally grown some brain cells and avoided the creek. After searching for a few minutes, she just shrugged and called it off. Not her fault that the boss's son avoided her, right?

Unfortunately, Tsume had already predicted what her son would've done. When the girl returned, she handed her a scroll.

"What's this?"

"My stupid pup's usual hiding spots. Go find him and drag him to train."

"..."

'Boss Lady, if you already know where your son is, shouldn't you go by yourself instead- you know what, nevermind.'

She was already wet. Might as well dive until the bottom.

The first place in the list was the public park. No sight of the wild-haired boy. A failure.

The second place was a ramen stall.

"What's a ra-men?"

"Some long, tube-shaped human food. This One is not sure."

"Tube... sounds like wheat noodles (mein)."

She stopped for a bit, marveling at the sight of surrounding buildings. They looked fragile and rickety, but somehow they were able to stand as tall as mountains. It was far too different from the architecture of the Yang Dynasty and its preceding era.

"I still can't believe that these houses haven't fallen over yet."

"You humans like to live in strange places... This One likes the tranquility of the forests better."

"It's possible to live alongside nature instead of erecting these overgrown shacks. If only I could bring you back to the Yang Dynasty, I would've showed you the beauty of Chang'an... oh wait, isn't that him?"

At the alley by the side of a stall with 'Ramen Ichiraku' written on it, three children could be seen lounging around, doing nothing in particular. The first one was a plump boy. The one beside him was a thin boy with spiky hair tied in a ponytail. The last one, who was crouching down with a pup slouched lazily on top of his head, was none other than the target of her operation.

"Venerable One, let me show you the result of my elementary stage training."

She tapped the ground once with her feet, and then made a quick leap toward the wall. She only made a brief contact before she leaped once again, continuing in zigzagging fashion until she landed gracefully on the roof nearby building.

"What a nimble movement!" Kokuo remarked. It hadn't detected any movement in her chakra pathway, meaning that the entire sequence was done purely with physical effort!

"This is also a part of basic training, Qinggong. Not to brag, but I was quite good at it in my previous life. I should be able to move better if only I can use qi."

"..."

That Qing thing... how to pronounce that?

"Nevermind that, let's get closer to our young master."

The girl stealthily jumped from one roof to another, until she reached the ramen stall. She scooted toward the edge of the canopy until she could hear what the kids were talking about.

"Maaan, this is boring... hey, let's go get something to eat," the fat boy complained.

"Choji... you just ate an entire bag of chips just now."

"I'm growing, alright? Hey, Shikamaru, what do you say? How about getting us some bowls of ramen?"

The ponytail boy stared lazily at the clouds above, not paying attention to his friends' bickering. He just made circular gesture with his fingers and answered briefly,

"No money."

"Ngh..."

Well, money was indeed a problem...

"By the way, Kiba... your stamina is getting better these days, what happened?" Choji squinted. This guy couldn't have secretly trained without telling them, could he?

"Tch, don't remind me. There's this crazy chick who keep on stealing Akamaru, so I had to chase her throughout the village for the entire day!"

...Huh. What a weird situation.

"Brown hair, black eyes, wearing dark-colored robe?"

"Yeah," Kiba nodded. "Wait, how did you know?"

Choji pointed above Kiba's head.

A pair of hands were lifting the little pup away. When Kiba looked up, he saw the face of that 'crazy chick' he'd talked about just now.

"Whoops. Bye!"

Placing Akamaru on top of her head as usual, the girl grinned at him before quickly sprinting away.

"Raaaaagh!"

Showing unprecedented dexterity, Kiba jumped onto the roof in one single leap, and then took pursuit, leaving Choji and Shikamaru in the dust.

"..."

"...Should we... help him?"

"...Nah. It's such a drag."

"...Okay."

Thus, the so-called beautiful friendship was abandoned just because it was 'too troublesome'...

By the way, the result of today's chase: two kids laying dead in the backyard, and one happy pup.

---

The merry (?) occasion continued for a month, until one morning Tsume told her that she could stop.

"That idiot pup finally decided to stay at the academy. Heheh... I guess he's afraid of getting tailed by you!"

"..."

So... she didn't have to be a dog thief anymore, right?

"Hey, do you... want to attend the academy as well?"

Tsume stared at her with inquisitive eyes. Something in that question made her feel like she was being prodded.

"Not interested," she promptly replied.

Even though her actual techniques had been erased by first cup of Five-Fragrance Tea, the knowledge on how to train them still remained. She'd rather followed the tried-and-true methods from her previous life than starting from zero.

Anyway, anything that she had to know regarding this new world, she could just ask Kokuo for answer.

Tsume seemed satisfied with her response. She didn't pursue the topic any further.

Anyway, now that she was freed from the stalking job, she could begin the next step in her training.

"Since I've finished building the foundation for my lower body, it's time to extend training to the upper body as well."

"Why not train both from the start?" Kokuo inquired.

"I'm just copying my master's words, but I also believe that a strong lower body is the basis of all martial arts."

Without proper stances, there would be no martial arts to speak of. In a sense, strengthening lower body was tremendously more important than upper body! Before wanting to make your punches stronger, work on your kicks first!

"Thus, we'll borrow these tools for our next training: water jugs!"

She made a ta-da pose toward the two water jugs in front of her. They were as tall as herself.

Seeing Kokuo's confused face, she quickly explained.

"It seems that the house usually draws water from a well, but it'll also be a big help if I can get some down the river. Tsume already agreed to it."

"Isn't that just another chore then..."

"Don't underestimate water carrying!"

By adjusting the amount of water inside the jug, the amount of training could be customized at will. It was definitely more versatile than standard weights!

"Master taught us not to rely on overly-complicated tools! I also trained by carrying water jugs up and down the mountain back in the day!"

"...Could it be that your master was just poor?"

"..."

She cut the conversation right then and there.

The creek was a bit too shallow to draw water from, so she decided to go to a wider river at the other end of the village.

The jugs themselves were light. She thought that with this young body, she could only fill them around eighth part before they would be too heavy. To her surprise, she was able to lift half-filled jugs.

"Is... is the people's body in this era blessed by Heaven?"

"Since you have chakra coursing through your body, is it not normal?"

Chakra... that mysterious energy also strengthen physique? That's really similar to qi. Perhaps she should research about it later...

Anyway, for now, the goal was to keep training until she could lift completely-filled jugs!

"So you lift it... now what?"

"We run like usual."

"..."

Just lifting them while standing in one place wouldn't be efficient enough. If she was to run while having these weights on, however, she would be able to train her legs as well. Two birds with one stone!

"Well, let's go-"

She was about to run toward the village when they heard a small yelp coming from one of the jug.

"...Venerable One... did you hear..."

"...Aah..."

The girl and Kokuo turned their gaze up toward the source of the noise. A small white blot jutted out of the opening of the jug. Its mouth parted, and then it panted delightfully. Although not visible from below, the thing was wagging its tail, expressing its excitement.

"...Ah, damn, isn't that Akamaru...?"

"...This One believes so..."

"...Then, that means..."

Kokuo quickly hid back inside her soul, right on time when a wild-haired boy in hooded jacket came into the picture with a sliding dash. He was covered in sweat, perhaps because he'd run all the way from the academy to the edge of the village.

"Hikari, you bastard! Give back Akamaru!"

"Hwaaah?!"

Seeing that face distorted like an Asura, the girl panicked and threw a jug to the kid.

"@#!@$ Agh! Heavy!"

Before he could react properly, she'd already fled the scene.

"Why are you running?" Kokuo asked in confusion.

"I don't know!"

It was just reflex, alright? Besides, that face was too scary...

Woof.

""Eh?""

Both human and Tailed Beast looked up. Ah crap, why was Akamaru in this jug? She had thrown the wrong one!

"RAAAAAAH!"

Hearing that roar from hell, she sneaked a glance behind her. Something scary was approaching, still carrying the half-filled jug she'd thrown earlier.

Crap crap crap. Gotta run!

Meanwhile, up ahead in the streets,

"Ah, The Inuzuka kids are coming again..."

The stall owners sighed before pulling their wares away from the middle of the street. As expected, two kids quickly passed through, leaving dust storm on their wake. The villagers just waved their hand to clear up their breath.

It had already became such a common occurrence that the villagers regarded it as a natural phenomenon. But...

"...Why are they carrying water jugs?"

"...No idea..."

Ah, yes, they also wanted to know, but not sure whether it would be worth their time to ask...

Anyway,

The chase this time ended at dusk. As the two kids were left sprawled on the backyard, their legs and arms twitching, Akamaru jumped off the jug, feeling really satisfied.

---

The same thing happened for the next three months.

Somehow, Akamaru kept on popping up in her training. Even when she'd changed where to draw water from, the little pup always managed to sneak in and hitched a ride. It would be too late when she'd found out.

Wherever Akamaru ran off to, Kiba would naturally follow.

She'd tried throwing the correct jugs multiple time, but it seemed like Akamaru kept on switching to her side of the jug, not Kiba's. She had no idea how or why, but that just happened.

At the very least, it wasn't all for naught. She'd managed to carry completely-filled jugs with ease now, even exchanging the jugs she was using with bigger ones.

Ah, no, it was more like the jugs she and Kiba were using... since that kid got involved against his wishes, he ended up carrying weights all over the village too.

As a result, Choji would grumble that Kiba had gotten buff all of the sudden, even though he kept on skipping classes...

But she couldn't know about that.

At the moment, she was just happy that the physical conditioning part was done!

"Right now I should be around the peak of elementary stage. Once I breakthrough, I will become a Qi Condensation stage practitioner... or that's supposed to be the plan."

"But?" Kokuo inquired. The beast was rather intrigued with her strange way of training, which was a bit different from those shinobis. It produced result, though, so the beast wouldn't complain just yet.

"I can't feel qi in this world... or maybe I'm searching for the wrong thing."

Everyone in her old world could sense qi if they hone their instinct, but it was an acquired process, and they had to know what was 'qi' in the first place, hence the need of masters to show them the right direction.

What she was searching was based on the 'qi' that she previously knew. If she couldn't sense them, then it was either that there was no qi in the first place, or the qi in this world was different from what she was trying to sense.

"That's why... Venerable One, can you teach me about 'chakra'?"

Kokuo snorted.

"Hmph, so in the end you have to rely on This One... fine. This One shall tell you about it."

"Thank you!"

It was already nighttime though, so they agreed to postpone the topic and rest for the time being.

The next morning, she rose up lazily from the mattress, feeling the usual sensation of something silky pressed beneath her. The tails. Even though the frequency was greatly reduced now that she was at peak elementary stage, they still showed up from time to time whenever she wasn't conscious.

Not a big deal. They were usually hidden under the blanket while sleeping, so nobody would've noticed.

Just as she was about to retract them back, she suddenly noticed a presence in the room.

"Not good!"

Kokuo yelled in her mind.

Sprawled at the corner of the room was Kiba, with Akamaru clutched on his chest. The boy's gaze was focused on the white tails jutting out of her back, the finger he was pointing with trembled uncontrollably.

"...That... what is that?!"

"..."

Welp.

Godamnit.