4 Training and the First Grindstone

5 Years Later

Jaune was running.

He had started this form of training when he turned five years old before this he had learned to meditate to calm his mind and emotions. Jaune had met a man in his dreams, which had spoken to him, telling him that if he wanted to be a great hero like his ancestor he needed to start early. The man was covered in shadows, but from his outline Jaune could see he was a large muscular man. He seemed to have a tail that occasionally fluttered behind him. All Jaune could understand was that this man was great man, no scratch that, he was a hero. The man gave off the same feeling that his father, a huntsman, gave off just on a higher degree. After the shadow man had appeared, he told Jaune that he needed to start training asap if he wanted to be a great huntsman in the future, like his father and ancestors. Knowing this is what he wanted to do, Jaune decided to follow the man's words.

What Jaune did not know, was that he was the first person to hear this man speak in this world. Unknown to him this man was thousands of years old. This hero was one of the most well known heroes of his old world.

The only thing that bothered Jaune was why he had appeared before him.

Jaune was from a large family. He had seven sisters that took care of him like he was one of the girls. He knew he was a man, he had checked. He also knew he had a responsibility to protect his family.

He just didn't know how to do that.

As if the man had known his questions he explained that Jaune needed to train his body so that he could later use his semblance properly. A strong body creates a strong mind, a strong mind creates a strong spirit, a strong spirit creates a strong aura. This is how he would gain strength, strength enough to protect his family from the horrors that lurked outside the gates.

One step at a time.

He kept running until he was covered in sweat and could not run any more. Upon the completion of his run Jaune stretched before he started meditation where he steadied his breath, relaxing his muscles and allow his aura to begin its work. With the help of his excessive amount of natural aura, Jaune was able to heal from training at a faster pace than others, making his training speed that much faster. Jaune just didn't know about this. All he knew was that he healed faster than others and didn't get as tired for a longer period of activity.

Deep within his soul, a scabbard of a famous sword sat. This scabbard had the ability to heal the owner from many wounds, though it used up his aura at an atrocious speed. But since this is only training it has not activated. In-fact Saber had asked Tama to place a seal on the sheath to keep him from relying on it too soon. Once Jaune received a life threatening injury would the scabbard activate.

After he had meditated for a short while he felt refreshed and proceeded to get cleaned up and ready for his chores on the farm. It was the first thing the man had Jaune learn. It was something that the great hero had never really achieved in his previous life, only when he went to the Throne of Heroes where he met the other heroes and finished learning meditation in its final forms. It had actually helped him control his anger at the gods. By focusing the rage down into a point rather than letting the energy rage around him weakening him in a fight, like it happened in his last battle with the gods. Plus, with the essence of one of his past students in Jaune's soul, Jaune needed to learn the concept of control quickly.

Chiron actually wished to give Jaune the power to fully control the berserker rage that he had lying within him. Every person and every hero had the berserker battle instinct within them, especially for those who fight against monsters. The best way for him to do that was for him to learn immediately. Since that was the case, Chiron, appeared earlier than he had planned when he saw Jaune had a hard time dealing with his anger.

One effect of Chiron's intervention was the merging of the life experiences of Chiron, which had begun to infiltrate Jaune's dreams. Chiron, as well as Tama, worked together to focus the dreams on the more peaceful parts of Chiron's life as to not negatively affect the very young Jaune. This was the secondary need for Jaune to learn meditation so early. If he was not able to parse out what he learned he would not be able to handle it in the future and be scarred by the experiences that Chiron went through. This didn't even bring into account the other heroes experiences. So meditation and physical training were started early.

That is when the five-year-old Jaune began his training to become a huntsman.

Jaune was the only son in a family with seven sisters. There was no way that Jaune would not get aggravated and eventually angry at this and his sister's treatment of him. But he had never once hurt his sisters, nor said a bad thing about them. He was just angry at the situation, since they picked on him all the time. So Jaune took it out on his chores around the house. The essence of the hero of legend played a part in this, as the essence was the wisps of his life force and experiences without solid form. This included the anger and berserker rage the hero had during his life. His father, Gole, seeing Jaune's anger sent Jaune to his brother's place to work a farm for a few months to help calm him down. Jaune had been there since.

During that time Chiron, appeared in his dreams for the first time and proceeded to tell Jaune what he needed to do to control his anger, as well as focusing his mind on his objective of becoming a huntsman.

During his time on the farm, Jaune had gotten used to the hard work and proceeded to increase his work load at the behest of his uncle, after he saw Jaune working so hard and so well. Using this as training Chiron had Jaune wake up earlier and work longer to help build a schedule he would follow for the rest of his life.

Before he could begin his real training, a certain event happened that put the world into focus for Jaune, as well as motivated him to become stronger so that he could protect his family. This unfortunate meeting Jaune had with one of the grimm that appeared on the farm. This was his first time meeting the enemy of all humanity and Faunus on Remnant.

During his chores, after he had finished running, Jaune was finishing picking the eggs from the chicken coop. When he exited though, a singular large beowolf grimm had appeared not far away from him. The grimm stared at Jaune and growled. Jaune being a child could not control his legs, which were shaking so badly he could barely stand. Jaune's fear also closed up his throat so he couldn't even utter a sound due to how scared he was. Jaune was wondering what to do, when he spotted a hatchet out of the corner of his eye. One his family members must have left it near the coop, in the case of foxes and other animals. Chiron, along with the other heroes, saw this within Jaune's soul. They could only prepare and give Jaune the push he needed to survive this situation.

Chiron's main aspect he had given Jaune was the instincts he had honed over his long life and archery skills. Right now the skills of his archery were at their most basic level, the higher levels could only be unlocked when Jaune produced enough aura, and enough training to activate them permanently. This aspect mixed with Shirou's natural instincts making Jaune's basic level of archery on the level of a journeyman even if he had never practiced archery/marksmanship.

After a few seconds, Jaune heard the voice of his young cousin Maddy, who was calling out for him. The beowolf hearing the call of the younger child turned its head in their direction. Realizing what was about to happen, fury unlike anything he had felt before rushed into Jaune's body, filling his mind with his over active instincts. The essence within Jaune was in an agitated state and flowed more freely soaking into Jaune giving him focus, instincts, and strength. These instincts told him what to do and he followed them without question.

Dropping the egg basket, Jaune raced to the hatchet leaning on the side of the barn, right as the beowolf started its race to the weakest meal. As soon as he grabbed the hatchet Jaune with all the force of his small body, he swung the hatchet over his head with one arm in a throw toward the head of the beowolf. The throw was so strong that Jaune lost feeling in his arm as he felt something tear, though he didn't make a sound, save for a grunt of effort.

Before the beowolf could round the side of the barn towards the tasty morsel a club hit it upside its head, dazing it for a few moments.

Jaune hadn't stopped when he finished his throw; he rushed toward the beowolf. The hatchet had hit the beowolf with the flat edge and bounced back toward Jaune as he ran forward. In some form of miracle Jaune grabbed the hatchet with his one good arm. After he grabbed hold of the hatchet, Jaune swung in an upward arc since the beast was so much larger than he was. He had instinctively placed his body between the grimm and the direction Maddy's voice came from. The height difference did not prevent the deadly blow from the child from landing though. The sharp edge of the hatchet cut through the neck of the beowolf opening a wide gash on its neck. It was deep enough that in a short time the beowolf would disperse.

But not short enough that it couldn't kill both Jaune and his cousin before expiring.

The beowolf, knowing it was about to die, swung it's massive clawed hand smashing Jaune backward straight into the side of the barn. A few of the stout boards cracked. As Jaune fell to the ground, he coughed a few times as he tried to regain the air he had lost. His aura, which he had activated instinctively, had protected him from the greater part of the hit but was not able to stop the majority of the impact between Jaune and the barn. Jaune had a few broken bones and deep bruising that would take a while to heal.

The beowolf, seeing it hadn't finished the young one off with that blow walked forward as its last moments came closer to it. It would finish off this enemy before it died.

Jaune, seeing that the beowolf was not done, attempted to stand. It took him three tries before he stood firm with his back against the broken boards.

He had to finish this beowolf off, if he didn't then his family would be in danger. As if a switch had been flipped the aura around Jaune flared as his bruising healed at a fast speed. Enough with this new infusion of aura, he could only make one more move before he passed out from pain and aura loss. Amazingly he still held onto the hatchet. He leaned forward getting ready to sprint toward the beowolf.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jaune saw his younger cousin, Maddy, who had come to see what the noise of the breaking boards was. A scream of a child reverberated throughout the farm alerting the rest of the family that something was wrong. This was almost a death sentence for Jaune, as when he took his eye off his opponent it took the opportunity to attack.

Looking back, just in time, Jaune was able to get a majority of his body out of the way before the teeth of the beowolf clamped down on his shoulder and arm. A loud crack could be heard as a few of Jaune's bones broke from the pressure. But Jaune's aura saved his life as it prevented the teeth from entering his flesh. Luckily the grimm had attacked his already useless arm, from when he threw the hatchet. Squeezing the hatchet tightly Jaune screamed for the first time as he swung for the already open neck. His hatchet hit bone and bounced back, but Jaune did not stop swinging the hatchet until there was a large CRACK, screaming all the while. The jaws of the beowolf released as its body started to dissipate into motes of darkness. Jaune dropped to the ground as his family members tore around the side of the barn and saw an unbelievable sight.

His uncle Jesse, his aunt Dian who was carrying Maddy, and their older children, who were already huntsman and huntresses raced over to Jaune as he lay on the ground hissing in breaths. Before his uncle had said anything Jaune looked at him and asked in a rush, "Is Maddy ok? I think this was the only one but I'm not sure. There might be more of them."

"Relax son. You have already done enough. We came from multiple directions so we were able to see there was no other beowolfs nearby but that doesn't mean they aren't around. We need to get you inside. Maddy is fine she is just shaken up after what she saw. She thought you died after she screamed and ran. Now tell me what happened." Jaune's uncle Jesse said in a calming voice as he picked up the nearly delirious Jaune.

"Thank Oum she's ok. Uncle Jesse, I-I just reacted. It was standing not far from the chicken coops and when I saw it. Maddy called out and the beowolf turned towards where she was and I-I just moved. I didn't know exactly what I was doing. I was so angry I've never felt anything like it before, it felt like I was burning from the inside out. I grabbed the hatchet and threw it hitting it in the head. I ran toward it and caught the hatchet and swung at its neck hoping to kill it. But it only made it mad. It sent me into the barn wall. I stood back up when Maddy appeared and screamed, the beowolf bit me then but I was able to pull most of my body out of the way. I just started swinging till it released me." Jaune explained the events that took place in as much detail as he could even in his broken and battered state. Jesse walked with Jaune in his arms as he listened to his nephew describe what happened on the way to the farmhouse.

Jesse was once again flabbergasted at what he had just heard, seeing it was one thing but hearing it from a not yet 6 year old was out of his expertise. He quickly came back to himself as he said, "You did well Jaune. You live up to our ancestors. You will become a great huntsman in the future. Thank you for protecting Maddy. I owe you more than you can imagine."

"What are you saying uncle? You don't owe me anything. I only did what any family member would do." Jaune said not understanding with his small understanding of the world.

"Hardly." Jesse said as he laid Jaune down to rest on his bed in the farmhouse. He felt bad about showing an ugly truth of the world to one so young but after what he had seen and heard he knew he couldn't hide this from him, "Very few people in this world your age, would or could, do what you did for a family member. The fear that grimm has placed within our people is deep and it affects a person in their actions. So very few people in this world would have the courage to do what you did, let alone survive what happened. Even for family. You are extremely lucky to have survived. I still owe you even if you can't understand it at this time. I will pay this in full in some way." Jesse explained. When he finished Jaune had already fallen unconscious. Jesse looked at his wife Dian, who just nodded as she handed Maddy to Jesse, while she went to begin Jaune's healing. Jesse consoled his daughter as much as he could. His other children appeared and shook their heads indicating there were no other grim. A while later, once Jaune was asleep and healing, Jesse called his brother to explain what had happened.

After Gole had calmed down, with the help of Honeydew, Jesse began to explain what he saw and what was needed, as he was the more experienced huntsman of the family. His time as a huntsman allowed Jesse to meet with a lot of influential people, as well as powerful huntsman and huntresses. On one of his many missions he had come across a person lost to memory and befriended her. He had helped her to get to Atlas to fix the machinery given to her, after which she offered her guidance in the future should he ever need it. On another mission Jesse had met with another antisocial huntsman who worked alone, they became friends after a few missions and a lot of drinking.

Thinking of these people Jesse told Gole that he would be calling in some favors for two special people to train Jaune in the future. Gole, as well as Honeydew, after hearing about everything and knowing their family's history could only begrudgingly agree to this. These two special people would be called and asked to give their guidance.

A certain drunk crow.

As well as an old Grim Reaper.