10 Why Are You Wiggling Your Hands?

The Great Tailed Beast, the Five-Tails Kokuo, had a problem.

Its Jinchuuriki had been stuck in depression mode.

After carrying that Kiba kid home and unceremoniously dumping him on the backyard, she returned back to her room and slept through the entire day, missing lunch and dinner altogether.

She only crawled out of the blanket comes morning the next day. Like a ghostly apparition, she floated toward the kitchen, and then stuffed loaves of bread into the toaster.

"...You hungry?" The beast tried to make some small talk.

"...Hmmhmm."

"..."

Without bothering to spread jam on the bread, she swallowed the popped loaves whole.

"Why do you look so down? You learned how to control chakra now, isn't that what you wanted?"

'Ugh'.

She gave Kokuo an angry glare.

"Don't remind me about it. That kid broke through first! It's so unfair! Aaargh, thinking about it makes me angry! That stupid kid!"

"..."

It turned out that she was just mad that someone else had succeeded before her.

...How petty.

"Who're you calling stupid kid?! A-achooo!"

Right on cue, the stupid kid slithered into the kitchen through the back door while throwing epic sneezes here and there.

"Oh, you caught a cold? Congratulations. Careful so you won't catch bronchitis," she mumbled while munching on her bread.

"Why are you suddenly so cranky?! Besides, you're the one who left me in the backyard for the whole night, godamnit! Haachooo!"

She just turned away and ignored his remark.

"Give me that," he was about to grab a loaf when she pulled the plate away.

"No. Mine."

"..."

His hand shot out even faster than before, snatching two loaves before she could react.

"Hey! I'm eating that!"

"Was."

Opening his mouth wide, he devoured them in one big munch. And then, he sneezed again, throwing bits and pieces onto the kitchen floor.

"..."

"...Don't you dare comment," he growled.

After he was done with the food, he turned to her with a serious expression.

"Alright, fess up... what happened to me yesterday? I was following your stupid method and suddenly my body's going all weird, and then craps happened."

"First, it's not some 'stupid method', it's the method of qi refining," she frowned. "Apologize to all the ancestral masters in the afterlife!"

"Yea, yea, whatever, just get to the point."

She let out a long, exaggerated sigh.

"You've broken through into Qi Condensation stage."

"Broke... what? I did what?"

"Nothing much. It's just the name of a cultivation stage. In summary, you've successfully established the sea of qi... err, the sea of chakra. Your energy capacity had surged in an instant, which resulted in improvements to your overall physique."

While it sounded fancy, Qi Condensation stage was just a beginning step for a cultivator. It was just a stage that separated people who merely trained their body with those who had grasped the concept of qi.

Unfortunately, from Kiba's explanation the day before, she'd deduced that everyone in this world had chakra in their body in one way or another. That means, they were technically already half-step through Qi Condensation stage just by the virtue of being born. It was only the matter of training to increase the density of their chakra production.

In other words, it wasn't anything special.

Even by her old world's standard, geniuses had entered this stage at the tender age of four. At their age current age, reaching early rank of Qi Condensation stage was hardly an accomplishment, more like a couple years too late.

Of course, Kiba wasn't privy to these details. He was just delighted when he heard that he'd gotten stronger.

"Really? Now that you mention it, I do feel like my chakra reserve is bigger than usual. Hehehe... this is great!"

"Yeah, yeah, congratulations... tsk."

Kokuo was amazed with how petty this old soul could be toward a little boy...

Nevertheless, her old habit of mentoring his disciples kicked in. Even when she was annoyed with him, she still gave him tips for his further training.

"Keep doing chakra circulation with your dantian, but make sure you're in a tranquil state while doing so. If you're distracted during the process, you might experience qi deviation."

"Dev- what?"

"It means your chakra will go nuts."

He almost choked on his tea when he heard that.

"Don't disturb me. I'm going to start closed door cultivation. Also, take a bath. You stink."

"Ah hey, wait-"

Without waiting for him to finish his sentence, she slammed the kitchen door before scurrying back to her room.

---

A month quickly passed by.

Aside of doing her daily chores and getting some food, Hikari was holing in her room the entire him. She sat in a lotus position, tirelessly circulating her chakra like there was no tomorrow.

Finally, she had reached the density to form a sea of q- chakra.

"Haah..."

Her robe was soaked with blackish substance perforating out of her skin. Unlike Kiba, she was used to the mind-numbing experience, allowing her to withstand the pressure and stayed awake through the whole ordeal. When the purification phase was done, she rotated her chakra one time to confirm that she had indeed broken through to Qi Condensation stage.

"Finally!"

There was still a problem at hand. Chakra was really hard to refine. At this rate, she might be able to advance through Qi Condensation stage just by enlarging her chakra veins, but breaking into Foundation Establishment stage would be nigh-impossible since it required an entire load of purified energy.

What to do, what to do?

"...I'll just think about it later."

She was satisfied with what she had at hand. Because, by reaching this stage, she could finally train in the martial art techniques from her old world!

"You... you look so smug right now, it's kinda annoying..." Kokuo commented.

"Really?"

She touched her cheeks. Aah, not good, she was grinning too much.

"I'm just happy that I can train now, heheheh..."

"..."

This girl... she really was a training junkie, wasn't she?

"Before that, I have to do something first."

"And that is...?"

"Taking a bath," she sniffed on her sleeves, and then frowned. "It stinks like hell."

"..."

---

To celebrate her breakthrough, she didn't train for the day, instead opting to lounge around on the living room's tatami.

"Haa... this is heaven... I should make this carpet thing when I return to the Yang Dynasty..."

"You sure it's fine to laze around like this?"

Kokuo didn't dare to materialize out in the open, so it could only communicate from within her soul.

"Taking a break when needed is crucial for your cultivation. Besides, I kinda need something from the Lady Boss."

Lately, Tsume had been disappearing with Kiba. From what she'd gathered, the mother and son pair had been secluding themselves in the clan's training ground since around the same time that she had started her closed-door cultivation.

Whatever they were doing, Kiba didn't look too keen about it, since the boy would usually came out battered and bruised at the end of the day. It was to the point that he'd wished he could go to the academy instead.

Unfortunately, it was by his own mother's behest. What could the academy do? They could only leave him to his mother's own device.

If they were following the same pattern, they should be done around this time of the day.

As expected, Kiba staggered into the living room before planking on the tatami, completely spent.

Tsume came in shortly after.

"Oh? You're finally out of your little world."

"Un," Hikari nodded in response. "Lady Tsume, I have something to ask."

"Speak."

"I wish to borrow a weapon."

The smile on the wild-haired woman's face was distorted ever so slightly.

"...Why would you need one?"

"It's for my training."

She decided to just tell her the truth. Anyway, she was going to train inside their house. Tsume would definitely notice if she brought weapons from outside the compound. It would be better to borrow it from her directly. Since the clan was a member of Beggar Sect... err, shinobi, they should have supplies of their own.

Tsume stared at her for a full minute, her gaze seemingly trying to gauge the girl's real intention. In the end, she relented.

"Follow me."

Leaving the half-dead Kiba in the living room, Tsume led her toward the clan's warehouse.

The front part of the building was filled to the brims with racks upon racks of medicinal pills and canine training tools, a testament to the Inuzuka clan's ninja dog-rearing business.

On the back, hidden behind a fake cabinet, was a chamber containing the clan's stored weapons.

"Pick whatever you like. I can only give you one, though."

Even if she said that...

Kunai, shuriken, kusarigama, metal claws... they were all armaments for ninja. Not really compatible for her style.

Maybe a staff would be better?

"Oh, wait."

She pulled out a short sword from the racks.

"A ninjato? Planning to learn kenjutsu?"

The Inuzuka clan preferred smaller weapons that could be deployed while they moved about in high speed. If she fancied the sword, nobody in the clan could teach her the techniques.

"Hmm, kind of. May I have this?"

"I did tell you that you can pick anything... well, fine. Don't come crying to me if you can't handle it later."

To the contrary, this sword was actually still too short for her liking. However, it was the closest thing to what she had in mind, so it had to do for now.

She moved to the back garden, scrutinizing the weapon under the sunlight.

The sword was around three-fourth the length of a standard Jian sword from her old world. It was single-edged, which made it more akin to Dao swords. There was no particular care put in its creation, just a standard run-of-the-mill mass-produced weapon.

She gave it a few test swings. It felt a bit too light. She'd had to adjust properly.

"You're really going to learn kenjutsu?" Kokuo asked. "Not a ninja, but a samurai, now?"

"What? No. I don't know about that 'kenjutsu' thing, but what I'm going to learn is Emei swordsmanship."

During her thousands years traveling through the mortal and immortal realms, the old soul had amassed tremendous amount of manuals in her memory. Among all of those forbidden manuals, the one that she was eyeing to learn at the moment was the techniques of the Emei Sect, which was based on Nine Yang Manual and Nine Yin Manual.

Located in Emei mountain, the eponymous sect was hailed as one of the Four Great Sword Sects. It boasted techniques that were best suited for women's physique. With movements that alternated fluidly between offense and defense, its practitioners were known as some of the best swordsmen and swordswomen who had ever roamed the wulin!

Kokuo naturally didn't know what Emei mountain is, since that place didn't exist in this world. The beast just stayed quiet though. It already got used to the girl spouting random words at this point.

"Emei-style martial arts focused on the movement of the wrists, giving the practitioners absolute control over their attack. There are twelve movements that form the core of this style: Heaven, Earth, It, Heart, Dragon, Crane, Wind, Cloud, Big, Small, Darkness, and Light. By practicing these movements in order, we can strengthen our meridian and build up our qi... err, chakra, efficiently."

"That sounds... really sketchy, to be honest."

"It's not! Here, let me show you the first movement!"

She lifted one of her hand, and then straightened the fingers.

And then, she began to wiggle her hand.

Starting from the tip of the fingers down to the wrist, they swayed back and forth rhythmically like waves crashing into the beach.

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle...

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle...

"...Oi."

"Hmm?"

"Why are you wiggling your hands?"

"This is called 'Silkworm Hands', a movement technique encompassing Heaven and Earth aspect of the twelve movements. It loosen up qi flow within our body, especially around the arms. Combined with the movement of dantian, it would double the output of the practitioner's qi refinement!"

She explained with a proud smile on her face.

Kokuo, however, didn't buy it. Definitely didn't buy it.

"...And you achieve all that by... wiggling your hands..."

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle...

"...Pretty much."

"..."

Ah... it seemed that the girl got scammed.

The Tailed Beast couldn't help but worry about its Jinchuuriki's future...