Summoner Nin

Page 12: Chakra Nature

Part Two: The Search

Chapter Five

Shikaku-sensei had said that she needed rest and that they wouldn't move for the Lightning Country until after she was well again. Taken aback by this, Hinata watched everyone buckle down in the inn and refuse to leave her side. She was often amazed at how they worried over her and she often wondered if her father had any such feelings.

The only way to gather information about the outside was by summoning small creatures to do the spying for them.

"Summoning Jutsu, Snake," Anko-sensei chanted, prickling her finger for a drop of blood.

Hinata always looked away whenever someone else was summoning because when they were summoning, they needed blood to activate the blood-pact contract. When she had asked Shikaku-sensei why she didn't need to shed blood to summon, he merely waved her off and murmured, "You're a summoner-nin. It's not so much as blood as it is your soul."

Hinata didn't know whether it was a good thing or not. But she never had much time to think about it when Shikaku-sensei decided that she needed more training, even when bedridden. He had decided that she needed to see further distances and gave her a set of exercises to do in order to increase the distance of her sight.

Anko-sensei also took her out of the inn at the end of the day to get some "fresh air," as she told Shikaku-sensei. But Hinata had the suspicion that he knew exactly what they were doing. Although Anko-sensei had said "fresh air," she really meant "more training."

Anko-sensei had determined that she needed more practical training, and even with Hinata turning pale and light-headed at the thought, her sensei began to instruct her the weak points of a human body. Where to slice to produce the most blood, which bone to crack for the most pain, and where to hit to disarm the opponent most effectively.

Always bleak at the thoughts of Anko-sensei's teaching, Hinata would close her eyes at night in bed, trying to sleep. But Shibi-sensei knew better. In fact, he would raise her up in the middle of a night for a long walk where they talked about noncommittal things.

"I'm scared," Hinata had confessed one night.

"There is nothing to fear," Shibi-sensei had said.

Frowning, she looked up at him for guidance. "There is failure."

"You should not fear failure," he had said. "Failure is another stepping stone for furthering your strength."

"I-I can't," Hinata had admitted. "Ev-Everyone's c-counting on me."

"On all of us," he had said, glasses gleaming in the moon.

She had looked confused for a moment.

"The kikaichu work together for a common purpose as we do for the Legendary Summons," Shibi-sensei had lectured.

"So..." she had trailed off, thinking deeply.

"So you should not fear failure when there are so many people to share the burden," he had said. "Come, I have something to teach you."

Hinata had nodded earnestly, always one to drink up knowledge like a parched man at an oasis. That night, and several other nights after, Shibi-sensei had taught her how to concentrate on more than one foe at a time. He had sent many kikaichu bugs at the blindfolded Hinata, causing her to activate her blood limit to see the many sprawling chakra signatures.