A boy with messy white hair excitedly ran through a tidy collection of white and grey tents. He split his attention between watching his step and carrying a small but unwieldy sheathed blade, failing to do both. His current goal was to simply get out of the camp without accruing more cuts and scuff marks. The cleared and flattened land of the campsite led to an uneven and open field filled with tall grass and scattered trees. The boy continued his way along a barely visible path until he came to a large crevice that swallowed a stream which flows from a nearby lake. The boy began to move slower, and eventually came to a full stop. He knew that the game had started.

  Standing completely still, he focused as hard as he could on his surroundings. Looking for any sign of disturbance, any movement, sound… Then, the cold touch of a metal blade found itself on his throat. The blade moved away quickly, as a voice came from behind him.

  “I win again, Kotetsu. You really suck at this. I’m telling you, just go back to picking berries.”

  Another boy, barely older than Kotetsu, stood behind him. He was slightly taller and lanky compared to Kotetsu, and his hair was an opposing black in color and well-kept. Kotetsu turned around dramatically and kicked dirt up from the ground. The clod lodged itself directly into the boy's eyes. Yelping, he fell backwards as Kotetsu charged and tackled him to the ground. The two fought until the older boy got a solid grip and tossed Kotetsu to the side.

  “You said the first one to go down loses. That means I win this time, Solomon. Who’s picking berries now?” Kotetsu smugly declared, wiping dirt from his own face.

  “Nuh uh! Your hand totally touched the ground first!” Solomon stated.

  “Did not!”

  “Did too!”

  “Prove it.”

  Both boys glared at each other. Neither were going to give up the point. Solomon sighed.

  “Dad said I have to be the adult. That means you have to listen to me. So I’ll tell you what: You win this time, but just this once. Okay?” Solomon said, easing his glare.

  “...Fine. I’ll let it go since you cheated anyway.” Kotetsu said.

  “I did n-” Solomon began, then took a deep breath. He let it out slowly.

  “Look. Do you want to learn sword stuff today, or not?” Solomon changed the subject.

  “YEAH!” Kotetsu said, popping up from the ground.

  “Okay, but we have to hurry it up this time. I have to get ready tonight for my big mission, and I don’t want to be tired.” Solomon said, attempting to brush the dirt from his face and body.

  Kotetsu retrieved the blade he had dropped during the earlier skirmish. The blade itself was barely longer than a tanto, coming just under two feet in length. It had been left dulled more recently as Solomon took Kotetsu out to train regularly.

  “You haven’t been keeping the blade sharp? If dad finds out, you and I are both dead.” Solomon said after looking at the poor weapon.

  “It hasn’t been claimed by anyone. Who’s gonna use a tiny little blade like this anyway? Now stop talking, I wanna see that sword blocking style again! Please?” Kotetsu said.

  Without much more talking, Solomon pulled his blade, and began to teach. Solomon had been taught swordsmanship from a young age; the result of being born into a clan of noble shinobi. Even though Kotetsu was barely younger than Solomon, he had not been given the same teaching as himself. Solomon had never really paid much attention to it until his father asked him to teach Kotetsu personally, where no one else could see them training. The two had been going off to train outside of the camp for the last few months ever since then. Solomon was surprised at the speed and ferocity Kotetsu took to the training, but considering he started by grabbing the wrong end of a sword at first, Solomon figured it would take a while before Kotetsu was actually good enough to fight properly.

  Today, Kotetsu seemed different. Where he would normally take time to rest after sparring, he instead jumped right back up and demanded to go again.

  “Eager to get your butt kicked, huh?” Solomon teased after putting Kotetsu down on the ground for the 9th time.

  “No. I’m just trying to catch up. You get to go do your first real mission tomorrow. I need to get better, fast!” Kotetsu eagerly stated.

  “What, so you can do missions with me?” Solomon asked.

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  “Well, if you really need the help. But I’m catching up so I can do missions better than you!” Kotetsu challenged.

  As Kotetsu was bent over brushing off his chest, Solomon swept his legs out from under him, sending Kotetsu down to the ground with a grunt.

  “That’s number 10, by the way.”

  “That doesn’t count!”

  The two continued to train and argue for a few more hours. Eventually, the sun got close to the horizon, bringing the red haze up toward the center of the sky. The pair found themselves tired, hungry, and happy. Solomon was happy to get away from all the talk of clan discussions, which he was now apparently required to attend. Kotetsu was happy he got to put Solomon on the ground a second time. The two walked mostly in silence back to the camp.

  “Hey, Solomon?” Kotetsu asked after some time.

  “What?” Solomon said.

  “What’s it like to use Ninjutsu?”

  Solomon considered the question.

  “It’s… It’s like having a third arm. You have the two right now, and you don’t really think about moving them all that much. It just sort of happens. But imagine you have a third arm now. And imagine that it constantly moves around your body, changing in shape. You also don’t know where it is all the time. It could be coming out of your chest, or attached to a leg, or suddenly on top of your head.” Solomon rambled.

  “...What?”

  “Also, imagine that the only way to get this arm to move is to communicate with it using a secret handshake. You have all sorts of ways to talk to it. And talking to it in each way lets the arm do something different. Like spew water or blast a gust of wind. When you talk to the arm, you have this feeling of something building up inside of you. And when you finish your conversation, the arm does what you tell it.” Solomon continued.

  “Uh…”

  “And if you don’t tell it exactly what you want, you might get the arm to do something completely different. That is always bad.”

  “I think you lost me at… A third arm.” Kotetsu said.

  “Well, just ask dad then. Or Emilia. We’re coming up on the camp.”

  Kotetsu looked down at his hands in suspicion.

  The two went from a walk to a jog as they got closer to the camp. Shortly after arriving, Solomon excused himself and veered off in a different direction. Larger cleared fields separated by tents were filled with adults and older kids practicing and sparring. One group of older kids were performing one on one duels, which Kotetsu hesitantly approached. He stayed on the outside of the group of kids as they watched the spar. Kotetsu was not allowed to spar with the other kids. Apart from not knowing how to fight properly, he had been strictly forbidden by the clan elders. He watched the fight unfold.

  In the center of the group of teenagers stood two contrasting fighters. One was an older boy with short dark brown hair, who Kotetsu knew was just over 14 years old, barely staying in the fight against the top skilled fighter of the group. Solomon and Kotetsu's sister, Emilia. Though she wouldn’t claim Kotetsu as her brother out loud. Emilia was the same height as Solomon, with the same pitch black hair, but the hair flowed out to either side and down her shoulders. Kotetsu watched as Emilia treated the fight much like Solomon had treated their sparring earlier that day; a training lesson. The Hyuuga clan did not fight with weapons often, instead opting to use their hands and feet. Kotetsu watched in fascination as his sister did not fight with closed fists, but with open palms. Though this was the customary fighting form of the Hyuuga clan, it was rather the manner in which she hit her opponent that fascinated Kotetsu. Every missed strike was met with a loud slap to some spot on the boy's head, which Kotetsu could see was already beet red. The fight continued on like this for only a few more minutes before the boy slumped to the ground, pleading timeout.

  “Come on, get back up. I haven’t even seen how you’ve progressed with swords yet.” Emilia ordered.

  “Please.. I just need 5 minutes…And a cold rag…” The boy pleaded.

  “If you won’t fight, then you’re out. Who’s next?” Emilia stated.

  She looked around the arena, watching all the boys and girls take steps back. Kotetsu was already far enough back. He watched one boy take a step forward.

  “I want a turn, Emilia.” The new boy said, a sly smile on his face.

  Emilia turned to look the new challenger up and down.

  “Looking to have your face beat red as well, Gakuji?” Emilia goaded.

  The boy on the ground had slowly gotten to his feet and moved carefully out of the ring. The other kids parted as he stumbled through, trying not to fall back to the ground. His eyes were almost swollen shut, which caused him to stumble right into a distracted Kotetsu. Kotetsu was pushed into someone else, who shoved him back at the swollen boy.

  “Hey, watch it!” Kotetsu said.

  Kotetsu knew the swollen boy's name was Niko. He consistently stuck around Kotetsu and his siblings. Kotetsu wasn’t too sure why he stayed around them.

  “Sorry, Kotetsu. Hey… Could you get me some water?..” Niko slurred. He brought one hand up to hold his head.

  “Emilia really put you through the wringer.. How is your face that red?” Kotetsu wondered.

  Suddenly, the sound of a body slamming the ground echoed through the clearing. Kotetsu looked back at the fight to see that in a matter of seconds, Gakuji, the boy that challenged Emilia, was flat on his back. Kids were gasping and whispering, and adults from the other half of the yard glanced over to see the commotion. Emilia's hands were balled into fists. After standing over Gakuji for a second, she turned suddenly and strode out of the circle, all the kids in front tripping to get out of her way. Kotetsu watched her walk out of the yard and toward their family tents.

  “I should get back before it gets dark. Try not to hit your face on anything else, Niko.” Kotetsu said as he turned and waved goodbye.

  NIko stuck his arm up in an awkward little wave.