Chapter 19: The Differences Of Ninken

Keitaro had watched from the side lines as his brother and the young ninken formed their bond. It had been a nerve wrecking few minutes as just like with the few children before, he couldn't see anything really happening. 

It had taken a minute to realize that the adults where actually sensing the chakra reactions of the children to determine ahead of time whether they were having positive reactions to their ninken or not, something that he obviously couldn't do at the moment, and as such had been forced to wait till the very end to see whether it was a success or a failure.

He had never really appreciated the visual effects that the manga would have shown that represented chakra, but now that he didn't have them as indicators to physically see chakra reactions, he understood why those without the Sharingan and the Byakugan had such a hard time judging their enemies' techniques and abilities. 

Still, having to stand to the side and watch as Kentaro played with his new ninken partner while he stood off to the side ,was a bitter sweet experience for Keitaro, 

It brought up the many bitter sweet memories of him and Fen from long ago, but he quickly pushed those thoughts away. He didn't want to think about Fenrir anymore than he needed to, which was hard enough as it was -being in a clan surrounded by dogs and all- and he didn't want to dampen his brothers big day.

He was truly happy for his older brother and couldn't wait for him and his new ninken partner to grow together. He refused to let such an important day be marred by his complicated feelings.

Instead he choose to distract himself by looking around at the other spectators now that things had come to a close.

It hadn't taken much for him to notice a simple enough pattern with all of the kids. That the quicker you were able to form a bond with a ninken the more animated the peanut gallery had become. Since Kentaro had been one of the fastest when bonding, then it should have gotten him some brownie points with the clan members and from what he was seeing Keitaro was happy to confirm his theory. 

The other adults were no longer looking on with barely disguised hostility and disgust, but instead had slight smiles and warm eyes. Some were even clapping and smiling as they watched Kentaro and his over eager pup interact. All of those things were good signs as far Keitaro was concerned since the less problems they had to deal with from the discontent of clan members, the better.

Even the elders, who had been watching on with careful eyes, seemed a lot more tolerant towards Kentaro's presence as none of them had said anything harsh or disrespectful...for now.

Content that everything was going well, Keitaro glanced towards his father who was standing off to the side and noticed that he seemed to be lost in thought. He wasn't looking at the smiling Kentaro and was instead looking off into the clouds with a contemplative look on his face. What he was thinking about Keitaro had no idea, but from how his eyebrows were crinkled it must have been something serious. 

Thankfully no one else seemed to notice his father's state or if they did, they simply weren't bothered by the large brooding man as they were too busy rounding up all the other kids and making sure that everything was in order. Once all the other children had been corralled, The elder with a pipe came forwards once more to address the crowd. 

"All right, all right no need to keep making so much noise."

He took another drag from his smoke pipe as the crowd quieted down. Once there was quiet, he nodded his head before speaking once more.

"I'm sure that everyone was thrilled at seeing the younger generation taking such an important step on their shinobi paths, but now we need to take all of them back so that they can complete all the procedures necessary to consolidate their bond, and to ensure that they understand how best to raise their ninken. If you have any questions you can direct them to Tsume who will be more than happy to enlighten anyone who has any concerns."

Once he was finished speaking he didn't bother with anything more and simply turned away from the crowd and began walking down the dirt path leading away form the kennels. He was quickly followed by the other elders along with the group of children who all held their ninken in their hands.

They didn't waste much time as they made their way out from amongst the collection of kennels and soon disappeared from sight.

Keitaro noticed that they were actually headed deeper into the clan but didn't think much of it. They were most likely going to register the ninken pups on a clan registry or something and it wasn't like he could do anything about it anyway.

No, he turned his attention towards Tsume as he had much more important fish to fry.

He quickly made his way towards Tsume who was standing off to the side looking bored out of her mind. Not all that surprising, since none of the other people who were watching from the sidelines made an attempt to approach her and had instead started leaving to do whatever it was they needed to do.

Why would they need clarification about anything that happened today when they must have all been through it themselves many years ago?

Keitaro on the other hand, wasn't going to let go of such an opportunity though. Who knew when next he'd be able to get his hands on someone who actually knew about the clan? He was going to milk Tsume for all she was worth one way or another and he knew just the way to do it.

Tsume noticed him once he got close to her and Keitaro swore he saw her eyes twitch for a second, though he could have been wrong.

***

Tsume sighed as she crouched down so that she and the young boy were face to face. She was regretting that she hadn't left immediately once the ninken choosing ceremony had been completed, but it would have been unbecoming of a clan head.

Hopefully the kid wouldn't take up too much of her time, she needed to get back to her baby boy as soon as possible.

"Do you have questions little man?"

She smiled as she spoke, not wanting to come across as hostile, as she had been told numerous times that she was to abrasive for her own good.

"Yes, I have a few."

Tsume groaned in her head but kept smiling gently. No need to scare off the kid, afterall he was bound to be curious when he didn't know anything.

Once more she felt a tinge of annoyance at Kuma for his stubborn pride that prevented his children from excelling as members of the clan, but pushed it aside when she heard his question.

"You said that what ninken you chose determines what type of Shinobi we could become in the future. Why is that?"

Tsume rolled her eyes around for a bit in thought before committing to an answering.

"Well... there are a few reasons why I said that. Even though our ninken look similar they actually have different abilities that make them unique.

Some of them are able to smell chakra. Being able to distinguish an individual by the scent of their chakra alone, allows them to find someone even if they've used a transformation techniques to disguise themselves or hidden or masked scent. This ability allows them to be amazing trackers even in crowded places where regular scent based tracking methods would fail.

Some have very strong claws and teeth and are able to channel chakra through them, making them excellent at combat and also ensures that they can make the best use of our clans' combat techniques.

Some have such sensitive hearing, that they don't even need to use their eyes to navigate the world around them. This comes in handy if they need to explore a cave or an area with low visibility, helps with discovering hidden rooms or secret passages or even with detecting whether someone's is lying or nit. It's also useful in combat situations where the enemy utilizes smoke bombs.

Some of our hounds are remarkably sturdy and can take quite a beating before it affects their combat ability, allowing them to excel in countering and deflecting throwing weapons or tanking hits that could otherwise grievously wound a shinobi, allowing them to trade injuries for an opportunity to take down an assailant." 

Tsume sat on the ground and she invited Keitaro to join her as her ninken sat to her opposite side. Once they were all seated and comfortable she continued to explain.

"There are some other cool things that they can do, but that's about it when it comes to their unique and special traits, but it's only one facet of our ninken.

More importantly though, every ninken differs in their natural affinity for certain physical attributes, and it's these attributes that determine what type of battle style best suits them. Some ninken are built for speed, some for endurance, some for explosiveness, and some aren't built for combat at all, but instead are built for stealth or utility.

That's why I said that the type of ninken you chose impacts your future. If your ninken is built for speed and has strong claws and teeth then the best style of combat for you might be one where your ninken focuses on speedy hit and run tactics, while you keep the enemy occupied. If your ninken is built for endurance then a style where you aim to outlast your opponent might be better. All in all you,and your ninken are one unit, two parts of the same whole. The clan has techniques to help you become stronger, but only you can develop your bond with and the strength of your ninken."

Tsume watched as the gears in Keitaro head seemed to turn and was slightly surprised that such a young child seemed able to follow along with what she was saying. Even more so when she heard his follow up question.

"Does our choice of ninken determine what jutsu we can learn from the clan?" 

Tsume thought for a second before giving him a slightly cheeky reply.

"Yes . . . and no."

Tsume laughed at the bewildered look on Keitaro's face, amused at how easy it was to get interesting reactions out of him. She contemplated for a bit whether to disclose some rather important info or not, but decided to leave it for him to discover on his own. It was an open secret of the clan but not many outside of the clan had managed to put the pieces together just yet.

If they had, then a lot more clans would have been knocking on their door in order to get their hands on the clans ultimate technique.

Instead she decided to guide his thoughts to better appreciate the fact that he was in a clan. He was still young and it'd help him to truly integrate into the clan if he understood why a clan was so important.

Not to mention if she managed to temp him into being more interested in the clan, then it might push his father to let go of the past and come back into the fold.

She took a moment to think about what she wanted to tell him before leaning back against her ninken as she gave him a more concreate answer.

"Technically our clan doesn't have that many unique jutsu. We actually focus more so on Tai-jutsu as our go to combat style. As such, most of our clans unique techniques are based around that. We do have a few elemental jutsu in our archives but they aren't as extensive as the ones you might find in the villages or even amongst some of the other clans. Of course you can only access the Villages archives with permission from the higher ups, and its pretty much impossible to gain access to another clans archives without being from their clan."

"If thats the case then why...?" Keitaro caught himself too late as he'd already started mumbling the question that had popped into his head. he glanced at Tsume hoping that she wasn't too offended only to see her smiling down at him. 

"Why bother keeping our own archive if the one in the village is better?" Tsume shook her head at the naivety of the boy but answered him all the same.

"No matter how extensive the jutsu in the village may be, they often times only give a simple explanation of the techniques you want to learn along with the accompanying hand signs. Everything else is completely up to you. All of the training and experimentation that you'll need to do? All of the resources that you'll go through while trying to actually master a jutsu? It is all on you. You're going to have to deal with it all on your own, but that's were having a clan comes in handy and gives a shinobi an decided advantage.

Even though our jutsu aren't as extensive, all of our jutsu not only have a more detailed explanation on how to perform said jutsu, but they also have many notes from previous shinobi that give pointers to future clan members that are simply invaluable to those trying to master said jutsu.

Tips and tricks, things to look out for while training, areas to improve on, ideal training methods. All of these are available to members of the clan from our archives, saving you time, resources and energy that you would have other wise wasted. Not to mention you'll have access to older shinobi that you can ask for help with your training."

Tsume glanced at Keitaro from the corner of her eye and was pleased to see the stars in his eyes. Knowing that she had him hooked, she just needed to real in the line to make sure she got the catch.

"Its not just our jutsu that are better documented, we also have many training methods that have been tested and improved upon over the years by various members of the clan, to ensure that our shinobi get the best results when it comes to training. Not to mention the training facilities we have access to that are specialized for techniques used within the clan. We have lots of training facilities for not only our shinobi but out ninken as well. Trust me when I say that if you want to be a great shinobi then you'll have more than enough help from the clan to make that dream a reality. I-"

Tsume was about to continue but was interrupted by Keitaro's stomach growling. Keitaro was appalled and blushed nonstop but Tsume was once more amused at the young boy before her.

"Of course you don't have to worry about that sort of thing for a good few years. Just focus on having fun for now and making friends. When it's your turn to pick your own ninken, and when its time to start on your training, that's when you should start worrying about that sort of stuff."

Tsume got up from the ground dusting off herself before turning and holding out her hand for Keitaro to grab hold of, which he tentatively held as he was pulled to his feet. 

"Alright, now you should get going. It looks like your dad is ready for you. Plus I'm sure you're more than ready for some lunch." Tsume couldn't help chuckling once more at the blushing boy and could only smile at how cute he was.

She waited until he was looking away from her to flicker away and gently landed on the branch of a tree not to far away. With a final look at the boy she and her ninken started heading home. She couldn't wait to see her babies smiling face, she only hoped he'd grow up to be as cute as Keitaro.