The Bending Ninja

Chapter 6

(Hani POV)

We arrived at Tazuna's house a while back. I still felt useless for not helping against Zabuza. I've been out of it since then. We've just been waiting for Kakashi to wake up. It's been 20 minutes since we last checked if he was awake so we go check and find he was finally awake.

I listened as they talked about tracker ninjas and the incident at the end before kakashi said, "the truth is, Zabuza is alive."

"What!?"

He explained how he came to the conclusion since the boy "tracker" took zabuza away instead of working on him immediately, and the use of senbon needles that are rarely fatal. He also states that he would be training us, and how hw only defeated Zabuza because of us. "You've grown. Naruto, you've grown the most."
"You noticed! Things are going to be better,  believe it!"

"I don't believe it!" A young boy shouted. "Nothings going to be good!"

"Inari, my boy!" Tazuna smiled at the child.

The boy that goes by Inari runs into Tazunas arms. "Grandpa!"

I stopped paying attention. I've been doing this a lot since the fight, I know. I've noticed.

"Hani...hey Hani."

"Hm?" I turned to the group once I realized Kakashi was calling me.

"We are a team. We can work better if we know more about our fellow members you know. Maybe you want to explain you're, style, to the group?"

"Style?" Naruto asked with confusion on his face. Sasuke seemed so focused on me I felt like lasers would come out of his eyes. Sakura was just looking at me expectantly and Kakashi just seemed to be waiting to see if I actually would explain.

I guess it makes sense that my teamwork skills aren't that great. I always trained as a one man team and never really made friends of my own. They've always been through my brother. Even if I didn't have teamwork thought, I should have still been quicker.

I looked out the window when I began speaking.

"My family, has a kekkei genkai. It allows us to infuse the elements water, earth, fire, and air with our chakra and in a sense, control it. We call it bending. We don't need to make hand signs for it either."

While watching the tree leaves and clouds outside, I heard Naruto's voice speak up. "Wait! So if you can control water, couldn't you have just move the water trapping Kakashi Sensei to free him?"

"No. When it comes to the elements from a jutsu, bending is weak. It would take a larger amount of my chakra to control the water trapping Kakashi, because my chakra would have to be strong enough to push Zabuza's chakra out. And since Zabuza is such a strong opponent, who knows how much chakra that would be."

"So is this the reason you didn't go to the academy?" Sakura asked. "You home studied so you could work on your bending?"

"Yes that's part of it. We can't use any typical ninjutsu, or genjutsu. I can't make shadow clones or use substitution, and I never will be able to. Besides bending, I can use chakra in taijutsu, but I can't extend it further than my body, into ninjutsu or genjutsu. So there was also a lot that I wouldn't have been able to do, or that wouldn't apply to me."

"Ooohhh." Naruto seemed to understand I guess..."so what's chakra?" I turned to look at him surprised because, chakra was such a basic concept in the ninja world.

Sakura began lecturing Naruto on chakra and I smiled because even though I just explained what made me different, everything moved on naturally and put me more at ease about it.

"So that's it huh?" Sasuke spoke to me. "A kekkei genkai. You should have mentioned this earlier to us." Unlike the last few times he's approached me about it, he was more laid back about it this time. "Does everyone in you're family have it?"

"I think so. My family is just down to my brother and I."

We turned to look at Kakashi as soon as he started speaking, including Naruto and Sakura as the lecturing had ended.

"Shouta Kizimi, training under Hakota. He's a strong shinobi, and well on his way to becoming a jounin."

I was so proud at how strong he is, but him becoming a jounin frightened me a bit. He would get tougher missions and possibly even busier.

But he is my brother and I will support him. Giving a soft smile I speak up, "Yeah. His whole team is."
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"Ok, now that everyone knows and understand what chakra is now," Kakashi began while glancing at Naruto, "I'm going to teach you chakra control."

"What's the point of this?" Sasuke asks. "We already use chakra energy in our jutsu?"

"You haven't mastered it though. Not even close. You're just guessing at it. If you don't use enough, the jutsu won't come out properly. Use too much, and you're just wasting it and run out of chakra in the middle of a battle. You need to train so hard so it becomes second nature."

"So what do we have to do?" Sakura questioned.

"Climb a tree...without using your hands."

"Huh?"

Sensei focuses his chakra and starts to slowly walk towards and up a tree. My team seemed startled but I've seen my brother and his team do similar things.

"Focus chakra to the souls of the feet and use it to connect to the tree. This is one way to apply the power of chakra."

Sakura: "How will this help us fight Zabuza?"

"It's the only way to fight him! To climb the tree, you need the precise amount of chakra, and the feet are the toughest place in the body to focus chakra. It's difficult even for advanced ninja. If you master this, you'll be able to master any jutsu. Theoretically. Another point is to maintain chakra levels, which is even tougher to do in battle, which is why it need to be second nature and effortless." He threw us all kunais. "Ise these to mark the highest point you can climb without using youre hands. Then keep trying to cry higher each time. Start by running so you can take advantage of the momentum until you get used to it."

We each grabbed a kunai. I watched as they focused chakra using a hand sign. I then closed my eyes and focused chakra to my feet without hand signs. We ran at the same time. I went up the tree as far as I could and marked it when I felt like I was slipping before jumping back down.

The first thing I noticed was Naruto rubbing his head and I chuckled a bit. Looking back up my tree to see my mark and compared it to Sasuke. He had dented it with his chakra below his mark. His chakra must have been to great. I never realized how difficult this would be. My mark was higher than Sasukes by about 2 feet. Not much more. I looked at Sakura's tree and found her sitting on a branch. "This is fun!" She called out.

"Looks like Sakura is the best at chakra control. Well done Sakura. I think someone talked about becoming Hokage. I guess Sakura has the best chance. The great Uchiha clan might not be so great after all. And maybe being trained by a brother was ineffective and nothing but a distraction."

'The hell did he say! I'll show him!' I sighed. 'If I want to get higher, I'll have to stay calm and relaxed.' I took a several breaths. 'Ok. What knowledge can I apply here. This is about precision and control. Not too much and not to little.' I feel the wind. 'Air is flexible. It can be firm, soft, or powerful. So is water. It can also be as steady as the beating drum.' I used the image of a firm steady river to focus my chakra and try for my second time.

I didn't know what to expect the first time. Hopefully this will turn out better. I ran up the tree again and marked my highest point.

Once I was back on the ground I looked up and smirked. I went far beyond my first try. I went higher than Sakura's branch by about 15 feet.

I could feel them looking at me, some shock, jealousy, and impressed, looks.

I look at Kakashi. "Sensei, don't don't insult us. And especially, don't imply anything negative regarding my brother."