Alone Together...

Lessons On Etiquette

"Okay Sakura, we'll start our lessons soon." She informed me and I nodded as I stared up at her. She was making tea, and by the smell, it had to be jasmine tea. From what I could tell by observing her, Madoka wasted no time with her movements. She knew exactly what she was doing just as if in her element. I wonder if it was really from all the baking and house chores or if she was secretly hiding something. But who was I to suggest anything, my own mother was always quite precise about her movements. When the tea was ready, she placed the teapot on a tray along with two cups.

"Come on Sakura." I followed her into the living room and as I suspected, we turned left into the space at the back where I had initially thought was used for this. She placed the tray on the table and sat down on the shorter end of the rectangle shaped side. She tucked her legs beneath herself and sat with a straight posture.

"Sit, Sakura." She said as she motioned her hand towards the other end. I nodded and sat just like her, making sure to make some unnecessarily hurried movements along the way. She smiled at me with pride in her eyes when I managed to sit like her.

"Great Sakura! Without you even knowing, you have already shown some skill in this." I tilted my head at her exclamation.

"You were able to sit down correctly, but you still have a long way to go. Today we will only address a few things." I nodded, waiting for her to continue.

"When you get older Sakura, you might have to go to meetings and gatherings where you will have to sit like this. You will have to sit for a long time and you mustn't show your discomfort. When you practice more, you won't even feel that discomfort anymore. Today you will sit like this for as long as you can or until I tell you to get up, okay? This is to see how much you can endure." I nodded over at her as she gave a rundown of what we would be doing.

This...I can already see why Kioshi said this might be harder than ninja training. My legs underneath were already beginning to become numb. When I was back in my world, I could at least last a while longer than this. However, it wasn't as necessary to sit like this over there as it is here.

"Uhm...Is this all we're doing today, mommy?"

"This and I will give you some important information that you will have to remember." She said which I eagerly nodded to.

"If mommy or daddy ever have friends over...like Mari our neighbor, you have to address them in a certain way. You can't call her Mari, or Marianne, you are younger than her and just out of respect you have to add -san to her name."

"So... I have to call her Mari-san?" I asked and she nodded. For sure this part of the lessons would be the easiest. Having to sit like this for so long? I wasn't sure I would last so long.

"And not just her, it's best if you just add that to everyone's name for respect. Later when you get more associated with each other, you can change it to -kun for a boy and -chan for a girl. After that when you have become really close or important to each other you can just call them by their given name." I smiled widely.

"Like what mommy and daddy do?" She nodded at my question.

"So it's rude to not add -san?" I asked for clarification. She needed to know I was serious in learning and actually paying attention.

"Well that can apply sometimes, or it can mean your very close to them, or there is something very important going on that you just forget about formalities. Also, when addressing very important people like the Hokage, you have to add -sama; and add -sensei for your teachers." Hmm, In the real world I wouldn't really use honorifics unless I was in a place that actually used them or the moment deemed it fit. Now I would have to teach myself to use it often.