Twiceborn: A Tale of Two Friends

Chapter Five: Toddler Training

It was the application which was the problem, as well as her calligraphy skills.

The swirls and various shapes all had different meanings when it came to fuinjutsu, and Risa knew what the basic ones stood for. She could figure out which components she needed to make the formula. It was oddly similar to maths in some respects, or perhaps science. She put the base components all together in a specified order to get the desired outcome. Like mixing a recipe, only a hell of a lot more time consuming and a hell of a lot more dangerous. Badly programmed seals could blow up in one's face.

Risa was only thankful it hadn't quite been a full-blown explosion. She'd just got the smoky side of things... probably because it was such a simple seal... such a simple seal that she'd failed to even draw correctly.

The brush in her hand snapped, old lingering fear coming to gnaw at her as she stared at the puddles of ink and ruined paper. How was she supposed to succeed at being a ninja – at staying alive – if she couldn't even master a basic seal?

She didn't have a family to rely on. All she had was her wits and her non-existent fuinjutsu skills.

'And me,' Inner added. 'Don't forget about me.'

Warmth curled up in the pit of her stomach, a small smile appearing on her face as she stared at the mess she'd made. That was right. She wasn't alone. She had Inner... and the fox too... Dimly, she thought she heard a contented growl from the depths of her mind... though it was more likely the growl of whatever rabid animal was said to haunt the lofts. She wouldn't kid herself. Kurama and her had a long way to go before they became friends, but with her talking his ear off every time she went into her mindscape... He'd become friends with her whether he liked it or not. Risa resisted the urge to cackle manically all of a sudden.

She'd been getting that strange urge a lot as of late, and she had no idea why.

Shrugging, she turned her attention back to her seal, silently trying to figure out where she'd gone wrong... and then to possibly practice her calligraphy skills, because whatever gods up there knew she needed them.

::

Her back was braced up against the closest alley wall, hidden behind the nearby trash dumpsters as she tried to calm her pounding heart. Footsteps could be heard, racing all around as the yakuza group she'd just stole from searched for her. "I think the brat went that way!" Shouts could be heard, and Risa was honestly surprised no ninja came to investigate. But then again... She was in one of the seedier parts of Konoha and was most definitely breaking curfew as she hightailed it back towards her home. Well, more like her temporary home. She didn't really have any family there, and one day she'd be forced to move out – likely once she graduated from the Academy and was granted funds from the Council... an orphan stipend.

If she'd graduate at all... though being able to run away from fully-grown civilian adults had to mean something. Either that or she just used spaces too small to creep away, but it was a strategy at least. 'You shouldn't have gotten caught in the first place, idiot,' Inner reminded her as she stumbled through the trees behind the orphanage, climbing up one so she could jump over and into the small garden she was so used to playing in... or running around in at the crack of dawn. From there came to drainpipe crawl, and she'd shimmied herself up it so many times – without chakra – so it was somewhat ingrained in her memories. She made it to the window she'd left slightly open in no time at all, her haul from the night soon safely stowed away underneath her pillow. It was likely she'd transfer it into a storage seal as soon as she could make one, which was looking to be years off at least if her progress in fuinjutsu was anything to go off. After her last disaster, involving her eyebrows and a faceful of soot, she'd decided to focus on theory and improving her calligraphy – because that was what let her down each and every time. Her hands and wrists were too weak, and that was something only time and practice could fix, and if there was one thing Risa could do successfully, it was practice like her life depended on it, because it actually did. She didn't live in a bubble of childish glee and ignorance. She knew what death was, and she knew how fast it could creep up on her. She'd got a second chance, and she wasn't going to waste it. Yawning, she pulled the covers up to her chin, readying to enter her mindscape for a few minutes at least, but then the hairs on the back of her neck rose all of a sudden and the cause soon became obvious.