Chapter 23 – Training Part 2

Left alone together, the air grew silent around the duo. Sango turned to Hinata, “I may not be the best teacher, but I will do my best.” He believed those words, he wasn’t yet able to meddle with her clan’s inherited chakra and eye techniques, but he could improve her fighting technique for now, he was confident to be able to improve her chakra-dependent abilities at a later time.

“N-No… Thank you very much!” Despite her difficulties caused by her shyness, she managed to infuse strength in those words, surprising him.

“Hahaha, anything for you.” His words, a bit cheesy, yet worked like a charm to improve his standing in her young heart, not that his heart was any older.

She smiled shyly giving off a cute appearance, able to awake the feeling of protection in others.

“Let’s begin.” His teaching method was simple, demonstration and execution then practice, the best way to go about that was to be her opponent while demonstrating his teaching then letting her execute the taught elements and practice with him as the opponent.

“Listen carefully, I will teach you misdirection.” Yes, the principle was simple, yet it wasn’t very developed in this world. It wasn’t like it wasn’t in use, the closest thing that could barely count as misdirection was the traditional ‘feint’, yet it was a very rough and ineffective display of something much wider of a subject, the stronger shinobi had a better use of the art but much of that came from experience and not fundamental theoretical knowledge. That was why he wanted to teach Hinata from a younger age, she would have a much better time at dealing with her future opponents while the knowledge would enable her to develop her own strength better as she grows and gains experience.

“Misdirection?” She tilted her head at the alien word.

“Yes, the best example would be my previous fight with Sasuke.” He proceeded to meticulously explain the whole process in which he defeated Sasuke.

After listening to Sango, she had a vague understanding, but she was still far from completely understanding.

“I-Isn’t that a feint?” She asked after reaching her conclusion.

“Close, but not right.” He patiently explained, “Feint is designed to draw defensive action towards the point of assault. It is usually used as diversion to force an enemy to focus more manpower in a given area, weakening the opponent in another area.” His words were well received this time, Hinata, despite her young age, understood his words better than he expected.

“I u-understand!” She exclaimed, his words were easier to understand than her father’s and the concept was much more refined than what she was taught before.

“Feints work very well together with misdirection, don’t forget that.” He emphasized that fact. “Misdirection is the art of drawing the opponent’s attention to one thing to distract them from another more important action.” He explained. “Let me show you a simple example.” As he spoke, he moved swiftly. Sango drew his hand in preparation for a punch, only his arm moved, and the rest of his body didn’t move an inch. The unexpected action attracted her attention as Hinata focused her gaze on the area where she saw movement. In the same moment as her eyes began moving to focus on his arm, Sango’s other arm moved and he pinched her cheek, causing Hinata to reflexively jump back.

“T-This…” She was already in a battle stance, her training taking over her body. Seeing Sango, she relaxed as she knew he didn’t try to harm her, but she wasn’t sure about what happened, she as a member of the Hyuga clan was caught unaware by someone in front of her.

“See? If I was a member of the Hyuga clan I could have sealed one of your chakra paths just now.” He paused for her to absorb his words before continuing, “My sudden movement attracted your focus because the rest of your field of view remained unchanging. I limited movement to only my arm and the rest of my body remained still, you were forced to focus on the only area that behaved in a way you didn’t expect, if only for a short instant. As your eyes began to move to focus on my arm, in that short instant, you lost focus and I took the opportunity to make my move.” He explained in detail what happened, even if she didn’t understand it yet, he just had to have her practice and answer all her questions as she did. “Of course, it will be hard to use this technique against a Byakugan user, you didn’t use Byakugan so you fell for my trick, but against someone without Byakugan it would be rather effective.” Of course, even against Byakugan the technique could be useful but that needed a very high degree of proficiency.

That was just a fundamental use, it required great timing and reflexes to execute, perfect for the Hyuga in every way. Using misdirection in combination with the Byakugan would take the art to a whole new level in the future, Sango was expectant, not that he cared about the whole Hyuga clan.

“It’s time for you to try, even if you didn’t understand it completely. I will guide you through the process.” He said patiently and his words awakened determination in Hinata. She understood instinctively the importance of what Sango was speaking about, she wished for strength which her father would recognize.

What followed was a long training period. Sakura and Ino joined from time to time to train together with Hinata while Sango trained with Kurenai, they spent much time together and that brought them closer.

No more trouble came to find Sango as most people just observed from a distance, waiting for the right time to act for the good of their plans.

Like that, more than three years passed and the time for graduation was near.