Learning to Live (COMPLETE)

4.3.1

Author's Note: This was requested by Alannalim01 . Ahsoka is sixteen years old, and her trial has not taken place yet.

For Ahsoka Tano, training was always early in the morning. This was not the case with all Padawans, in fact, most of them trained in the afternoon instead, but her master was Anakin Skywalker. His days were filled with missions, meetings, assignments, and everything in between, and as his Padawan, she was required to either be at his side or not with him at all. The only time he could regularly set aside for her training was as the sun rose behind the Temple, so that was when she trained.

It actually didn't bother her as much as some of the other Padawans assumed it did. She had grown accustomed to early mornings, and it always woke her up for the day. No matter if they were fighting battle droids, or protecting a senator (usually a specific senator, in particular, Ahsoka had noticed), training prepared her mind and body. She wondered if, in several years from now, when she was a Jedi Knight if she would still train with her Master. Sometimes Obi-Wan would duel with Anakin, or meditate, or just polish their form. Once the Clone War ended, she would have a lot more time to get better, too.

Anakin was waiting in their usual training room for her when she walked in. He looked up at her, surprised to see her. "And I thought I was early. I wasn't expecting you for another few minutes."

She shrugged and shut the door. "I went to sleep early after our mission yesterday. I had no reason to wait."

"Then let's get started. We're going over fundamentals today."

Ahsoka nodded. Two years ago, she would have groaned at the mention of fundamentals, but she had learned a few things since then, one of them being that Anakin knew how to train effectively. If he thought she could use a brush-up of the basics, he was probably right. Not that she would ever say as much aloud.

"Start with your one saber strokes, regular grip," he instructed, and she pulled her first lightsaber off of her left hip. "Start slow, then work up the speed."

She did as he said, moving and pausing after each of the seven key strikes. They did the same with her parries. Eventually, Anakin was satisfied and started matching her movements with the matching counter.

When Ahsoka used both of her lightsabers, she was more likely to hold her longer saber with the regular grip. She liked holding her shoto in the reverse grip, or both one way or the other. At first, when she only had one lightsaber, Anakin would teach her to hold it in the regular grip, because she liked the reverse grip more. He had argued that there may come a day when being comfortable with both would be important. Now, two years later, he had been right.

The two of them walked through the practice strokes for her reverse grip too, though. They were mostly similar, but the concealed nature of the grip altered some of Ahsoka's movements, if not the stroke itself. She liked it though, and it worked well with her Form IV style. Not only that, but Anakin had been working with her recently to personalize her technique. One of the benefits of having a reckless master was that he taught her to explore options most Jedi wouldn't consider.

"Good news, you haven't picked up any bad habits recently," he praised her, only slightly sarcastically. "Let's get to work on your two saber strokes, though, some of your movements are still a little rough."

"A little?" She quipped. "I think it's more than that."

He smiled as she pulled her shoto from her belt. "Give yourself a break, Snips. You've only been trying this out for a month or two."

His encouragement didn't seem to help her. "You'd think I would have this down by now."

"You've been fighting with one saber for how long, six years? Seven? And you've already adjusted to holding two after the same amount of time, but in weeks, not years." Anakin activated his own lightsaber. "Let's try a light duel, and see where the rough patches are."