Bonding Time [Private]

Riku returned to the Hozuki clan compound with Tsughi in tow. The taller of the two sisters wore a yellow yukata with a white obi and the shorter had on a dark, pinstriped shirt with black pants. Tsughi's hair was pulled back into a bun, but her older sister let her hair hang free, framing her face. The younger looked around excitedly while the elder was more focused on where she was going. She took in her surroundings as well, but with a more analytical attitude.

Tsughi held Riku's hand, their arms swinging back and forth between them, while she chattered at her sister excitedly.

"Does Kishi-oji have a garden? What's he look like? Does he like animals? Do you know his favorite tea?"

Riku laughed at her sister's exuberance. The excitement of reconnecting with family had helped Tsughi recover from the shock of learning they'd been kept away from their father's relatives. The rest of the Mizushima household was more than willing to follow suit. Or, at least Riku was. Taji agreed to visit Kishi, but not at the Hozuki compound while Anzu was still unsure if she wanted anything to do with her ex husband's family. However, Anzu had said she would support the rest of them reaching out.

They reached Kishi's house, a round structure with a tiled roof and wrap around porch. Its size was modest for the Hozuki district, but still dwarfed Anzu's house.

They entered, Kishi having given Riku permission to come and go as she pleased, and set their shoes aside.

"Kishi-oji, we're here!" Riku called out.

The man approached and smiled at his nieces. "I thought that was you. Who's this?"

"I'm Tsughi!" the shorter of the blue-haired girls chirped bowing before bounding up to Kishi and hugging him around his middle.

The man hugged back, chuckling quietly. "You've grown so much since I last saw you. Thank you for coming."

"You really do look like Tou-san…" Tsughi marveled.

Kishi's smile tightened a bit. "I am his older brother after all. Do come in, would you like tea?"

"Can we have green tea?" Tsughi asked, following her uncle into the dining room.

"Anything you like. Riku-chan?"

"Green is fine for me, too. Can we have it with honey?"

"Only because I like you two."

---

After they chatted over a few pots of tea, Tsughi got impatient with sitting still, so the group went to the garden in the back. A willow tree grew next to a large pond ringed with rocks and koi swimming in it.

Delighted to see the fish, Tsughi splashed into the water to try and catch one.

Riku laughed at her younger sister’s antics. “There she goes.”

Kishi smiled fondly.  

“Kishi-oji, what did you focus on when you were an active duty ninja?” the genin asked.

“Hozuki techniques, water ninjutsu, taijutsu, bukijutsu, a few other things. Things were different then, I had to become combat oriented to help fight off the Inazuma clan.”

Riku tilted her head curiously. “Can you show me one of your jutsu?”

The man narrowed his eyes at her. That innocent curiosity was just a veil for her shrewdness. He softened his expression a moment later and smiled goofily. “You’re a lot like Lee was when he was about your age. Let me show you this.”

Kishi held his hand up and liquefied it to form a floating blob water which flew forward and engulfed Riku’s head.

Startled, the girl liquefied and ejected to foreign water before reconstituting herself. “Oji-san!” She protested.

Kishi tilted his head back and laughed out loud, shoulders shaking from his chuckles. “I got him with that one, too.” Calming, he said, “Let me make it up to you, I’ll teach you how to do that.”

Riku held up three fingers. “Three new techniques and I’ll forgive you.”

“Alright, Ojou-chan, three new techniques it is. This first one I just showed you is easy. It’s one of our clan jutsu, ‘Drowning Water Blob Technique’. You just need to liquefy part of your body and then control that water. Come this way.” He led his oldest niece to a few training dummies on the other side of the yard.

“Try it on these.” He gestured towards the practice dummies.

Riku nodded, wiping her hair out of her face before concentrating for a few moments. She was able to reproduce the technique and surround the head of the dummy after about a minute or two of focusing.

“You’re a quick study.” Kishi nodded approvingly.

The genin smiled at her uncle and released the technique.

Moments later, Tsughi bounded over with an orb of water suspended between her hands. Inside the orb, a large white and gold koi floated, seeming unconcerned with being trapped.

“Look!”

Riku marveled at Tsughi’s growing control over water chakra and petted the younger girl’s head. “You’ve improved your control substantially.” She smiled proudly.

Kishi raised his eyebrows. “How long have you been training Tsughi-chan?”

“Since I could walk!” the pre-teen chirped. “I started the Academy just before Riku-nee graduated.”

Their uncle nodded, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “I see. Do you want to come to the training grounds? I owe Riku-chan some training. I have some techniques I want to show her, but this garden is too small.”

“Sure!” Tsughi bounded back to the pond and put the fish back, petting it before the creature swam away.

Then, all three headed for the clan’s training grounds.

“The next technique I show you is a flashy one, so it’s more suitable for open areas or direct combat.” He folded his hands together in the snake seal and inhaled deeply before spitting out an intense deluge of water. It surged forward and Kishi jumped atop the wave and rode it across the field.

“Woah!” Tsughi exclaimed.

Riku’s eyes widened. Impressive indeed.

Kishi released the technique and turned to his nieces, watching them expectantly.

Riku jumped forward, hands in the seal to repeat the technique and send a wave of water at her uncle.

In response Kishi raised a flat pool of water in front of himself. A wave of water to match Riku’s gushed out.

Once both techniques finished, Riku fell into the puddle of mud and water left behind. “Kishi-oji!” she shouted, sounding annoyed. She stood and manipulated some of the water to rinse herself off.

“You’d best be prepared,” the man chuckled. “Let me show you a defensive technique as well as that one.”

Pouting, Riku agreed.

Tsughi giggled in the background, snorting in amusement. It had been a long time since she’d seen Riku act so carefree and expressive. She smiled softly while Kishi walked Riku through the steps of creating the water mirror he’d used to reflect her attacks and another defensive technique that created a wall of water.

“Now that you have a few techniques under your belt,” Kishi said, “Let’s see how well you can defend against something like this.”

Before Riku finished processing his words, her uncle had formed the ram seal and they were surrounded by needles made of water. They flew towards her at high speed.

Knowing that the techniques he’d shown her couldn’t protect her on all sides, she fell back on the Water Prison Technique to form a protective bubble around herself.

“Good,” Kishi commented once the attack receded. “You’re catching on.”

“How did you do that?” Riku asked.

“Since you’re so quick on your feet, I’ll show you. You use the tiger seal.”

Riku nodded and folded her hands together. Several needles made of water formed in the air.

Kishi grinned.

[//EXIT]
[1262 words]

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