Waking Up With Five -Tails

"Venerable One... I have this burning question in my mind."

"Speak."

"Why do I keep waking up with five tails?"

Hikari pointed at the five-branching horsetails on her back, which slowly shrunk back before finally disappearing.

"Those tails are extensions of This One's chakra. If they show up unprecedented, that means This One's chakra is leaking out."

"..."

Was this beast low-key telling her that she was too weak?

"They receded rather fast these days, are they not? Your body is getting accustomed to This One."

Kokuo didn't want to admit it, but all that running seemed to work to some extent...

"In other words, they won't appear anymore if I get stronger."

"Precisely."

"Can do."

At least her new body was suitable for training. A night's sleep and the fatigue were all gone. Perhaps Tsume's foods had something to do with it?

She was wondering about it while mopping the floor when Tsume suddenly popped up and said,

"Keep at it."

"Fue?"

That was all. No further instructions, just 'keep at it'.

...She had a feeling that Tsume wasn't referring to her mopping the floor…

"...I guess I'll have to find that brat again."

She went back to the creek at noon.

The boy was still playing with Akamaru at that exact same spot from yesterday. This time he looked more alert, snapping up each time he heard any sound.

So he did learn something from yesterday's incident. It seemed that he wasn't entirely stupid.

"Do you want to run over and grab the dog or…?"

"Just watch."

Hikari took a detour to a nearby hill overlooking the creek. First, she threw a rock to distract the boy. Right as he turned around to check on the sudden noise, she quickly jumped down.

"What the f-!?"

Kiba nearly fainted from fright as the girl came crashing down out of nowhere.

With a swift motion, she stole Akamaru from his grip, placed him on top of her head, and then ran away.

Again.

"[email protected]#$%"

Another storm ensued as the kids ran like a pair of lightning bolt over the entire village.

Say, didn't this boy got faster compared to yesterday?!

"Stop, goddamnit! If I ever catch you, I'll-!" Kiba roared.

Y-You'll what?

Either way, she didn't want to know, so she kept on running!

Feeling the wind smacking on his face, Akamaru was beyond ecstatic as he enjoyed the fleeting scenery passing by at breakneck speed. He kept barking at random times, inciting Kiba to increase his speed, in turn making her go faster in response.

When dusk arrived, two kids were left sprawled out in the backyard. Just another day of Tsume throwing them in for dinner.

The routine continued until the fifth day. Kiba was nowhere to be found.

It seemed the boy had finally grown some brain cells and avoided the creek. After searching for a few minutes, she just shrugged and called it off. Not her fault that the boss's son avoided her, right?

Unfortunately, Tsume had already predicted what her son would've done. When the girl returned, she handed her a scroll.

"What's this?"

"A record of my stupid pup's usual hiding spots. Go find him and drag him to train."

"..."

'Boss Lady, if you already know where your son is, shouldn't you go by yourself instead- you know what, nevermind.'

She was already drenched. Might as well dive to the bottom.

The first place on the list was the public park. No sight of the wild-haired boy.

The second place was a ramen stall.

"What's a ra-men?"

"Some long, tube-shaped human food. This One is not sure."

"Long tubes... that sounds like wheat noodles."

She stopped for a bit, marveling at the sight of surrounding buildings. They looked fragile and rickety, but somehow they were able to stand as tall as mountains. It was far too different from the architecture of the Yang Dynasty and its preceding era.

"I still can't believe that these houses haven't fallen over yet."

"You humans like to live in strange places... This One likes the tranquility of the forests better."

"It's possible to live in harmony with nature instead of erecting these overgrown shacks. If only I could bring you back to the Yang Dynasty, I would've shown you the beauty of Chang'an... oh wait, is that him?"

At the alley by the side of a stall with 'Ramen Ichiraku' written on it, three children could be seen lounging around, doing nothing in particular. The first one was a plump boy. The one beside him was a thin boy with spiky hair tied in a ponytail. The last one, who was crouching down with a pup slouched lazily on top of his head, was none other than the target of her operation.

"Venerable One, let me show you the result of my Elementary stage training."

She tapped the ground once with her feet, and then made a quick leap toward the wall. She only made a brief contact before she leaped once again, continuing in zigzagging fashion until she landed gracefully on the roof nearby building.

"What nimble movements!" Kokuo remarked. It hadn't detected any change in her chakra pathway, meaning that the entire sequence was done purely with physical effort!

"This is a part of Qinggong. I was rather proficient at it in my previous life. I should be able to move better if only I can use qi."

"..."

That Qing thing... how to pronounce that?

"Nevermind that, let's get closer to our young master."

The girl stealthily jumped from one roof to another until she reached the ramen stall. She then scooted over toward the edge of the canopy until she could hear what the kids were talking about.

"Maaan, this is boring... hey, let's go get something to eat," the fat boy complained.

"Choji... you just ate an entire bag of ch.i.p.s."

"I'm growing, alright? Hey, Shikamaru, what do you say? How about getting us some bowls of ramen?"

The ponytail boy stared lazily at the clouds above, not paying attention to his friends' bickering. He just made a circular gesture with his fingers and answered briefly,

"No money."

"Ngh..."

Money was indeed everyone's biggest problem...

"By the way, Kiba... your stamina is getting better these days, what happened?" Choji squinted. This guy couldn't have secretly trained without telling them, could he?

"Tch, don't remind me. There's this crazy chick who keeps on stealing Akamaru, so I had to chase her throughout the village for an entire day!"

...Huh. What a weird situation.

"Brown hair, black eyes, wearing dark-colored robe?"

"Yeah," Kiba nodded. "Wait, how did you know?"

Choji pointed above Kiba's head.

A pair of hands were lifting the little pup away. When Kiba looked up, he saw the face of that 'crazy chick' he'd talked about just now.

"Whoops. Bye!"

Placing Akamaru on top of her head, the girl grinned at him before quickly sprinting away.

"Raaaaagh!"

Showing unprecedented dexterity, Kiba jumped onto the roof in a single leap, and then took pursuit, leaving Choji and Shikamaru in the dust.

"..."

"...Should we... help him?"

"...Nah. It's such a drag."

"...Okay."

Thus, the so-called beautiful friendship was abandoned just because it was 'too troublesome'...

By the way, the result of today's chase: two kids lying dead in the backyard, and one happy pup.

---

The cat-and-mouse routine continued for an entire month until Tsume suddenly told her that she could stop.

"That idiot pup finally decided to stay at the academy. Heheheh... I guess he's afraid of getting tailed by you!"

"..."

So... she didn't have to be a dog thief anymore, right?

"Hey, do you... want to attend the academy as well?"

Tsume stared at her with inquisitive eyes. Something in that question made her feel like she was being prodded.

"Not interested," she promptly replied.

She was following her own method of cultivation. Too many cooks spoil the broth. She had Kokuo to consult about this new world anyway.

Tsume seemed satisfied with her response. She didn't pursue the topic any further.

Just about right, it was time to proceed to the next step in Elementary stage training.

"After building the foundation for my lower body, next is to strengthen the upper body."

"Why not train both from the start?" Kokuo inquired.

"This is just copying my master's words: a strong lower body is the basis of all martial arts."

Without proper stances, there would be no martial arts to speak of. In a sense, strengthening the lower body was tremendously more important than the upper body. Before wanting to make your punches stronger, you had to work on your kicks first.

"We'll borrow these tools for our next training!"

She made a ta-da pose toward the two water jugs in front of her. They were as tall as herself.

Seeing Kokuo's confused face, she quickly explained.

"It seems that the house usually draws water from a well, but it'll also be a big help if I can get some down the river. Tsume already agreed to it."

"Isn't that just another chore-"

"Don't underestimate water carrying!"

By adjusting the amount of water inside the jug, the amount of training could be customized at will. It was definitely more versatile than standard weights!

"Master taught us not to rely on overly-complicated tools. I also trained by carrying water jugs up and down the mountain back in the day!"

"...Could it be that your 'master' was just poor?"

"..."

She cut the conversation right then and there.

The creek was a bit too shallow to draw water from, so she decided to go to a wider river at the other end of the village.

She had thought that she would need to start small, but surprisingly she managed to start with half-filled jugs right away.

"Is the people's body in this era blessed by Heaven?"

"Since you have chakra coursing through your body, is it not normal?"

Chakra. That mysterious energy could also strengthen one's physique? That's quite similar to qi. Perhaps she should research about it later.

For now, the goal was to keep training until she could lift completely-filled jugs.

"After lifting it... now what?"

"We run like usual."

"..."

Just lifting them while standing in one place wouldn't be efficient enough. If she was to run while having these weights on, she would be able to keep training her leg strength. Two birds with one stone.

She was about to run toward the village when they heard a small yelp coming from one of the jugs.

"...Venerable One... did you hear that?"

"...Aah..."

The girl and Kokuo turned their gaze toward the source of the noise. A small white blot jutted out of the opening of the jug. Its mouth parted, and then it panted delightfully. Although not visible from below, the thing was wagging its tail, expressing its excitement.

"...Isn't that Akamaru...?"

"...This One believes so..."

"...Then, that means..."

A wild-haired boy in hooded jacket arrived at the scene with a sliding dash. He was covered in sweat, perhaps because he had run all the way from the academy to this far end of the village.

"Hikari, you bastard! Give back Akamaru!"

"Hwaaah?!"

Seeing that face distorted like an Asura, the girl panicked and threw a jug to the kid.

"@#[email protected]$ Agh! Heavy!"

Before he could react properly, she had already fled the scene.

"Why are you running?" Kokuo asked in confusion.

"I don't know!"

It was just reflex, alright? Besides, that face was too scary...

Woof.

""Eh?""

Both human and Tailed Beast looked up. Ah crap, why was Akamaru in this jug? She had thrown the wrong one!

"RAAAAAAH!"

Hearing that roar from hell, she sneaked a glance behind her. Something scary was approaching, still carrying the half-filled jug she'd thrown earlier.

Crap crap crap. Gotta run!

Meanwhile, up ahead in the streets,

"Ah, The Inuzuka kids are at it again."

The stall owners sighed before pulling their wares away from the middle of the street. As expected, two kids quickly passed through, leaving dust storm on their wake. The villagers just waved their hands to clear up their breath.

It had already become such a common occurrence that the villagers regarded it as a natural phenomenon.

Just...

"...Why are they carrying water jugs?"

"...No idea."

The villagers decided to give up thinking at that point.

The chase ended at dusk. As the two kids were left sprawled on the backyard with their arms and legs twitching painfully, Akamaru jumped off the jug, pleasantly satisfied.

The same thing happened for the next three months.

Somehow, Akamaru kept on popping up in her training. She had changed location again and again, but the little pup always managed to sneak in and hitched a ride. It would be too late when she had found out.

Wherever Akamaru ran off to, Kiba would naturally follow.

She had tried throwing the correct jug this time around, but it seemed like Akamaru kept on switching to her side of the jug, not Kiba's. She had no idea how or why, but that just happened.

At the very least, it wasn't all for naught. She had managed to carry completely-filled jugs with ease now, even exchanging the jugs she was using with bigger ones.

Ah, no, it was more like the jugs she and Kiba were using... since that kid got involved against his wish, he ended up carrying weights all over the village too.

As a result, Choji would grumble that Kiba had gotten buff all of the sudden, even though he kept on skipping classes...

But she didn't care about that.

At the moment, she was just happy that the physical conditioning part was done!

"Right now I should be at the peak of Elementary stage. Once I breakthrough, I will become a Qi Condensation stage practitioner... or that's supposed to be the plan."

"But?" Kokuo inquired. The beast was rather intrigued by her strange way of training, which was a bit different from those shinobis.

"I can't feel qi in this world... or maybe I'm searching for the wrong thing."

Everyone in her old world could sense qi if they hone their instinct, but it was an acquired process, and they had to know what was 'qi' in the first place, hence the need of masters to show them the right direction.

The flow of energy that she was trying to grasp was based on that 'qi'. If she couldn't sense them, then either there was no qi in the first place, or the qi of this world was different from what she was used to.

"Venerable One, can you teach me about 'chakra'?"

Kokuo snorted.

"Hmph. In the end, you have to rely on This One... fine. This One shall tell you about it."

"Much obliged."

She kowtowed once again, giving the Tailed Beast a sense of satisfaction.

It was already night time, so they agreed to postpone the topic and just rest for the time being.

The next morning, she felt the usual sensation of something silky pressed beneath her. The tails. Even though the frequency had been reduced now that she was at peak elementary stage, they still showed up from time to time whenever she wasn't conscious.

Not a big deal. They were usually hidden under the blanket while sleeping, so nobody would have noticed.

Just as she was about to retract them back, she suddenly noticed a presence in the room.

"Not good!"

Kokuo yelled in her mind.

Sprawled at the corner of the room was Kiba, with Akamaru clutched on his c.h.e.s.t. The boy had a blank stare as he looked at the swaying tails on her back.

"...That... what is that?!"

"..."

Goddamnit.