Fallen Grace: A Naruto Fanfiction (Book 2, vol. 1)

Chapter 26: The Past Watches From Afar (3)

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POV: Naruto

"No! Do it again! Again!" I heard Aoi repeat from the side. And so I did it again, showering the field in front of me with endless slashes.

"Nope. You're doing it all wrong." I sighed, looking to the side as she demonstrated once more. She had no katana in hand, but she went through the motions of swaying her blade.

"You gotta be at ease! You're tensing at every moment you swing! Only tense up when necessary!" She ordered me around, swinging an imaginary blade once more.

"Man... you're like a fucking slave driver, Aoi." This was her way of wielding a katana, not mine; and she is aware of that, but is merely doing it to torture me.

"Shut it. You asked me to teach you and I'm teaching you-- you can't complain."

"When I asked you to teach me, I had wanted some pointers and not you critically analyzing everything to the point where I can't even form a style."

"That's too bad. You do as I say."

Seriously, when it comes to wielding a katana, this lady was a complete nut job that obsessed over every tiny detail.

It is her bread and butter, after all.

It's her specialty and she has been entranced by the blade, having an unnatural amount of talent even before her Chakra Vow had taken place.

"... Fine," I conceded, doing as she said. Arguing with her took too much effort for me to care enough to do it. For all that she was stingy of, I did notice a difference in attacking.

Her style suited me much better than Mifune's style that I had copied and completely messed up along the way. But Aoi's style focused on fast, but precise and fluid movements.

To be like water, she had said before.

So fast and fluid to the point where she did appear as nothing but a water slope. I had continued on with my training to the point where the swoosh of the blade that I had wielded was the only thing that I could hear.

The shouts and yells from Aoi had long since drowned out of my ears, and only the beat of the blade that made the air shimmer under its gazing slash was all that was left.

"Put some heart into it bitch!" I had only heard one sentence, a single yell, that managed to reach my ears. To put some heart into it, huh?

Then I'll put everything into it.

SWOOSH--!

I tried replicating the way my sister had swung that wooden blade that one time, trying to remember the way she had effortlessly made her arms disappear under the guidance of her speed.

Thinking back now, I regret not activating my Sharingan for that brief moment so I could copy that type of movement. Of course, it wasn't guaranteed that I'd be as good as her.

After all, I needed to put my heart into it.

"Yeah! That's more fucking like it!"

I had knocked myself out of my thoughts, and crashed down, my hair disheveled and the wooden blade plummeting down.

I still had quite a bit more to go before I could call myself a great swordsman.

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