Naruto AU: The Untold Story

Chapter 33: Questions of the Heart

Her hand went to grasp her crystal as she ran it along the silver chain in thought. Right now, she realized that if she were to use this crystal as a katana in a fight again, it would be a liability. She couldn't wield it like she needed to. She needed to train and practice with this sword if she wanted it to be useful.

"Well, no sense in having them being the only ones to train," Hisako finally relented as she turned to walk to her own small section of the deck.

She took off her crystal necklace and a moment later, it had transformed into her crystal katana again. She let out a sigh and held it high over her head before swinging it down in front of her. She did it again, cutting the blade through the air with more force. And again, and soon it became a repetitive motion of raising the blade over her head and bringing the blade down again.

Neji stood a few feet from Hisako, "Hisako, what are you doing?" Neji asked.

"Training with the katana," Hisako replied, she saw Neji's quizzical look and she paused swinging her blade to stand up straight shrugging, "What? I don't know what else to do. I have this katana but no idea how to use it. Honestly, I don't really know how to train with it either. But, I figured practicing swinging it would be a good place to start right?"

Neji frowned in thought, "I suppose," he muttered, turning to Guy Sensei, "Guy Sensei, do you know of anyone in the Leaf Village who knows how to wield a katana who could assist in Hisako's training?"

Guy Sensei paused his pushups to look over at Neji turning his direction to Hisako before going back to Neji, "Honestly, that's a good question," He replied, going back to his pushups and talking through his exercise, "the art of wielding a katana is becoming a dying practice. The ninja have begun to take more of a liking to more easily concealable weapons like kunai knives and shuriken. You might want to ask a weapons master. They're people who have specialized in all different types of weapons. I know the weapons shop owner and his daughter are pretty skilled at that in the Leaf Village. You might want to ask them for some pointers,"

"Weapons shop owner?" Hisako repeated, placing a hand on her chin in thought before snapping her fingers together, "Oh! It's Tenten!" Hisako exclaimed.

"Tenten? The girl who didn't graduate with our class?" Neji asked.

Hisako nodded her head, "she only didn't graduate because she concentrated so much on studying weapons that she forgot about the other aspects of being a ninja. Ninjutsu and stuff. I also remember her saying that her family owned the weapons shop," Hisako replied.

She brought her katana up over her head again, swinging the blade down, "When we get back, I'll go visit the shop. But in the meantime, I'll keep swinging," she said as she brought the katana down over her head again.

~~~~~~~~~~~

A week later, and Team Guy Saw the village gates to the Leaf Village again. It's been almost two weeks, arguably this has been the longest mission Team Guy has been on and they didn't have much time to prepare for the Chuunin Exams now.

"I think my arms are jelly," Hisako grumbled, rubbing her sore aching arms as they walked through the village gates.

The entire time on the riverboat, she spent every waking moment either swinging her katana or meditating with Neji. She had to get better at using her katana, but she also had to improve upon her chakra reserves so she could use higher ranking jutsus without it draining her chakra. She felt confident that both have been improving during her time on the riverboat. But, she was glad to be back in the village.

After they had their mission report meeting with Lord Hokage, Hisako split off from her team and went right for the Leaf Village's weapons shop. A high pitched ringing sounded from a bell that was placed on top of the door when Hisako entered. The shop was small, but it held every weapon a ninja would ever need. Everything from kunai knives to paper bombs and scrolls to summon weapons.