Chapter 10

I ran my hand through the black sand at my feet. It felt warm, and fine like silk. Without thinking too much, I removed my sandals.

"You will be living here, with my tribe. You will train beside us, hunt beside us, fight beside us. You will live like we do, when you are not with the Master." Enma spoke simply, watching me sinking my feet into the sand. "However, the Master is not someone who will train a whelp like you. So we must toughen you up."

Enma turned and gave a long whistle toward the forest. After a moment, the edge of the bone white forest turned black, as dozens, hundreds of monkeys appeared. It was a genuinely staggering number, and I gripped Ichi up to my chest in nervousness.

"Well, we gotta see where you currently stand. You'll be fighting against one of my daughters, Ilya." He said that, and a slender monkey leaped down to the ground. Ilya, presumably. Honestly, she looked a lot like her dad. White fur, long arms, long hair, and a serious expression. When she had leaped down, I took the liberty of releasing the Wisps to the ground. I connected threads to Ichi, Yon, and Go, leaving Ni and San laying limp in the sand. I watched Enma raise one arm, and I gave a short bow to my opponent. Then, Enma dropped his arm, and the fight began.

In a flash, I threw my hands together. I quickly cast the Earth Wall jutsu, preventing a direct approach. As I did so, I watched Ilya begin to casually walk toward me, circling wide around the wall.

I decided to play it safe, and intercept her with Yon. Her eyes narrowed as the doll rocketed toward her, and when he was only ten feet from her, he fired a metal blade from his mouth. Attached to it was a thin, nearly imperceptible wire, useful for reeling it back in. Ilya reacted quickly, using a kunai to deflect the blade into the sand, before grabbing the wire and yanking Yon toward her.

A bell chimed.

Ilya looked confused for a moment, before a second chime, and then a third rang out. Her eyes defocused, and she released the wire to grab her ears. I decided to speak, to explain.

"My Wisps have a little surprise, for those who try to knock them around. Each one has a bell, and when the first one rings, I ring the others in a special sequence, to trigger the Chiming Bell jutsu."

She looked up, trying to look at me. But all she saw was a blur, and she could see doubles, triples of me. And each time a bell chimed, it just got worse. But I knew, this fight wasn't over yet.

She knelt down, and pressed both of her hands against the sand. She shifted her palms slowly, gradually burying her hands into the sand. Eventually, she found the bedrock hidden just below the surface. And in a move I could never have anticipated, she ripped the ground up, lifting an entire slab of bedrock out of the ground, and forcing me to lose my footing. As I fell backwards, I tried to catch myself with San and Ni, and she used the moment to come crashing through the stone, slamming into me with the force of an ox.

...

It was a few hours later, that I finally woke up.

I was inside a small cave, with a small hearth off to one side warming the room. I tried to sit up, feeling a deep pain in my stomach as I did so. I looked down, and saw that my torso was wrapped in grey bandages. At the foot of the mat I was laid on, my Wisps were all lined up. Except...

"Where's Ichi?"

I looked around the room, and even connected myself to the other four to help me search. I started to feel a bit anxious, starting to even panic. That was when I started to wander out of the room, trying to find him. I looked around. I was in a village, from the looks of it. Not quite as big as Konoha, but the village looked as though it stretched upward, along the cliff-face.

I wandered around a bit, before I finally saw my missing Wisp. He was in the hands of a really small monkey, who was playing with him, along with a number of other dolls. I hardly paid it any mind, as I threw a thread over to Ichi and brought him back to me. The little monkey's head whipped around, watching the Wisp fly away back to me, before he jumped up and came over to me.

"Hey mister! How did you get him to move like that? I've been trying to get him to do it since I saw you fight. Tell me! Tell me, tell me, tell me!"

He was... hyper, to put it lightly. He seemed genuinely interested, though, so I sat myself down and started to talk him through the concept of chakra threads, and intent transference. I even let him practice on Ichi, since I wasn't so anxious anymore. After almost an hour, he at least managed to get a thread connected to Ichi. He couldn't yet move it, or trigger any mechanisms, but it was a start he could work on.

After I got him to that point, I actually looked around, quickly realizing that I had a small audience. About a dozen or so adults, gathered around me, listening intently to my teachings. Among them was Enma, who seemed rather impressed by something.

"That technique of yours, it reminds me of my time fighting alongside Sarutobi in the Third Shinobi War. That man from Suna was a clever bastard, using all manner of puppets to fight. His style was unlike anything the rest of his division practiced. Did you know that?"

That information was rather... No, it was definitely shocking to hear. To hear that my puppet style was used by someone during one of the great wars? I couldn't really believe it.

"Sarutobi never told you, did he?"

I was sinking into thought, as my mind raced with dozens of possibilities. A technique used by a mysterious man from Suna. An appearance unlike anyone else within Konoha. I've never known my parents, nor could I ever find anyone who knew them. My technique was held by someone, for years, before they left it for me on my birthday. My skin was a different color, and my features resembled none of the villagers. No-one, not even I knew when my birthday was. What did all this mean? Why?

My mind raced through everything I knew, and everything I didn't. And it came to only one conclusion. My family was from Suna, and my father once fought against the Leaf.

Enma simply watched me, recognizing that I came to understand what he was implying.

"Sarutobi told me, on the night you were brought to Konoha, that your father had defected from Suna, but died during the escape. It was the same night as one of the worst tragedies to have ever befallen Konoha. Thus, he wanted to keep your arrival a secret. He hid you away, with the rest of the orphans of that night, so that you may grow up, normal and happy."

Normal and happy? Is that right? Haaa... I'm going to have to deal with that old man's sense of 'normal' some day. I stood myself up, collecting my dolls into their satchel as I brushed the sand off of my butt. After I settled my physical self, I took a long moment to compose my mind. The information I was just told was big, but it wasn't world-changing. It didn't change anything I knew. It didn't change my friendships. So I will just accept it and move on.

"Have you finished? Good. We will now be going to train. We showed it earlier, but your physical body is quite lacking when put beside your techniques. We will start with simple physique training."

...

I was splayed on my back, drenched in sweat and panting heavily.

I have trained myself almost all my life, but this... This was hellish. Ten hours of non-stop running. Have you ever tried running on sand? It. Does. Not. Work. After that, I was strapped to a tree and made to walk. I carried a tree, three times my weight, as I walked along for another two hours.

Beyond that, I can't even begin to describe what I had to do. Weights, push-ups, more running, and all of it wrapped up with a spar against Ilya again. The training ended, and I was more exhausted than I have ever felt in my life. That was when Enma spoke to me again.

"We will be doing this training every day, with rest on the sixth day. In three months, you will be strong enough to meet the Master. For now, we will be taking you to the Yang Pools, to recover."

He picked me up, and carried me off. After walking for about half an hour, we ended up at a cave located in the Forest of Yin.

"The waters within these pools naturally gather immense amounts of Yang chakra from the environment, leading to them having a strong healing effect on living beings. Additionally, they are the reason that the forest is devoid of Yang, and created the Forest of Yin."

Without much fanfare, he forcibly stripped me down to my shorts, and dropped me into the water. It was warm, a bit like a volcanic pool, but I knew it was simply an effect of so much Yang being concentrated in one place. I soaked it in, feeling the blood in my body thicken and start to race through my body. It felt as though I was being reborn, so much power was flowing through me.

Eventually, the exhilarating sensation faded, and relaxation began to fill my senses. I resisted, but it was enough that I eventually passed out.