nd Chapter

----Later That Day----

Young Shikaeru was sitting in a small clearing between a few buildings in his clan's forested estate with his mother and Hayato laying his head in the young boy's lap. Shikaeru had his eyes closed and was trying to integrate with his shadow while in contact with Hayato who would move his head back and forth from time to time.

Ina spoke with a small grin, her tattoos making her look positively feral, "From time to time on a mission, or even in day to day life you will make contact with something outside of your expectations while integrating with your shadow, it is imperative that you do not lose concentration, life and death may be decided by it.

Continue to meditate on this later tonight, for now we will begin the Inuzuka basic kata's, as you may not receive a dog, I will teach you to fight how our ancestors fought during the warring clans period. We were known as feral, fiercely loyal to our pack, but we would hunt alone. Our ancestors were known as the wolf clan before we took on our name, and one clan member in each generation whom cannot bond with a nin-dog for whatever reason becomes our lone wolf, hunting and stalking it's prey alone, but fighting for nothing but the pack. You will be that wolf little shadow, your bloodline begs for it."

Ina stands and bares her fangs at her son beckoning him to stand and follow her movements then using her hands and feet as claws she swiftly attacks thin air, as if there's an invisible human in front of her, throat, artery, artery, stomach, leg artery, leg artery, heart with each of her limbs in a disco of limbs and movement like a beautiful dance of terror. Shikaeru stood there stunned watching his mother tear apart an invisible person he almost felt like he could see.

"The Wolf's Encounter is meant to disable and kill efficiently and without remorse. Quick and precise, the first kata goes for the arteries, and the second for tendons, it is a short and simple Taijutsu, but deadly if mastered. You will practice everyday until I believe you've mastered it enough to bond with the Alpha of the clan, your aunt Tsume. The bonding will give you the tattoos of the clan as well as much more pronounced fangs and claws and a communication with the nin-dog of the clan."

Ina walked to the side and said, "Begin!" Shikaeru nodded with a slightly bewildered expression but mostly just looked like he enjoyed spending time with his mother, taking it all halfheartedly.

After a few minutes he gets tired and starts to whine, "Kaa-cha--"

*whack*

Ina whacks Shikaeru on the back of his head hard as he falls to the ground, "You will do this until I am satisfied and you will take this seriously. End of discussion." She then picks him up by his scruff, "Now, pup!"

Shikaeru settles teary eyed onto his feet and does as he's told. His eyes now heavy with grief with small amounts of determination peeking through the corners.

Several hours later the sun is starting to go down and he's still standing there going through his kata's one move at a time, sweat pouring from his adolescent body, his eyes now filled with nothing but determination. Ina is looking on with proud eyes and a small feral grin at the corners of her lips. "Good, that's enough for today, get a drink and a shower, come eat dinner with your Shadow siblings then off to bed mister."

Finishing with his last set he smiles happily at his mother and jogs off as if all the exhaustion from moments before never existed.

----About an Hour Later----

Young Shikaeru walks down the steps in his dark family home and out his front door freshly showered and heads over to the communal eating space where his brothers and sisters eat.

Walking in a young girl only a few years older than him with onyx pigtails and deep blue eyes notices him and squeals slightly before turning red at her brother's and sister's stares. "Nii-sama! Come, come, everyone's been waiting for you to eat." Laughing boyishly at his older sister he scampers over to her.

"Hi onee-chan," he then looks around to everyone else, "onee- and onii-sans! It's good to see all of you!" They all wave back as everyone turns to the food in front of them and conversate freely.

Shikaeru turns to the girl who squealed when she saw him with excitement in his eyes and said, "So, Yui-nee, I started training today. Kaa-chan showed me this cool Taijutsu style and and I got to play with Hayato while integrating! He's so cool and cute and nice and fuzzy and and--"

You giggles softly at him while covering her mouth, he blushes a bit and scratches the back of his head. Going off on another rant about how awesome his mom and Hayato are, Yui just sighs internally, 'So cute...'

----Clan Info----

The communal eating area is the only place to get food for aspiring shadows. It has been that way since the Neru clan was founded, to bond the children not just to their parents and close cousins but to their family as a whole. The community within the clan is based heavily on the bonds each person has with each individual person.

The Neru are not just a clan with familial ties, they are a family, an amalgamation of shadows. The leadership is simply the Clan Head, the strongest shadow, and every active ninja. The retired, if they live to that age, or are hurt in the line of duty, help teach the younglings different crafts and arts that they may be good at, for mental health and mental growth and stability.

----The Next Morning----

(AN: From now on I'm going to call MC Eru and his father Shikaeru in non speaking sentences to simplify. :))

Getting up early in the morning with a slightly bloated stomach from over eating very nutritious foods the night before Eru grabs his practice sword with excitement, the shadows around him practically shaking along with him, and runs down the stairs as quick as he can nearly tripping towards the bottom and slides into his seat at the table almost knocking it over.

Shikaeru stares smugly at his wife as she pouts at the excitement Eru is showing towards swordsmanship. 'I had to smack the shit out of him just to get him to try and 'Eru (AN: the dad, it's her pet name for him, sorry if there's confusion) gets this hyped up raring to go little cutie? Unfair.'

"Now now little shadow, you must always be calm and measured, the consequences of not being calm can be disastrous, such as at the end of the stairs back there, what if you had hurt yourself, or worse? And the table, almost knocking it over, what if you broke it? Then your mother and I would have to buy a new one, right?" Eru nods the excitement falling away and in its place shame. "Excitement is good and there's nothing wrong with it but you must temper yourself to become a great man, or shinobi, and you must temper yourself even more to become a master at Kenjutsu. Eat breakfast at a normal pace, clean your dish then take your sword out to the field to meditate on your actions for thirty minutes, then we will begin."

Shikaeru goes back to eating his breakfast with his wife calmly as his son slowly understands his words and puts them into practice as best he can, with a bit of rushing and impatience.

----In the Field Thirty Minutes Later----

Shikaeru sitting with his sword over his lap chuckles in his mind at his son copying his posture remembering similar things from his younger self copying his own father's positioning. "The sword," he speaks abruptly, "is simply a tool for a man to kill easier." Shikaeru stands and beckons his son to follow him with his eyes.

"For a shinobi however, the sword is his lifeline, his greatest friend, and his only family in the field. Everything can be sacrificed on a mission, including your own family, but your sword can not be. If it breaks, you break. If it dulls, you dull. If it chips, you do as well. A sword is not used to kill, you are the killer, your sword simply facilitates, as family does. To begin, we will do five hundred chops." Eru nods, heavily inspired by the speech his father just gave and goes to swing his sword but his father hits his fingers along the hilt. "Incorrect."

Shikaeru repositions his sons fingers to the correct position and shouts, "Again!" After twenty swings Eru's fingers slip into the incorrect position and gets another slap to his fingers, another repositioning, and another, "Again!"

After the five hundredth swing he drops his sword and gets a seat to the head, "You'd let your only family drop and hit the ground?!" Eru looks sad at what he'd done and picks it up carefully, his fingers trembling, the insides of his hands bleeding heavily, his shadow licking at his wounds healing them slowly. His father simply says, "Now the stab, begin!" Eru looks up wearily for a few moments, takes a deep breath, gets into a stance he didn't realise he knew because of his father's smacks to his legs, watches his father stab ten times, then begins.

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