Be a Dragon: Learning Lessons (ch.11) (Patreon)

There has been a few changes to chapter 9. Neo nearly drowns Adonis in lube rather than shoving anything in him, which slightly changed the interaction with the teen titans. Nothing too much, only Neo stealing the money is the reason for conflict. 

...

Anime ruined me. When I thought about learning magic, I thought of grand schools filled with wizards and warlocks, filled with teenagers with overpowered abilities. And in this day and age, those shows would be filled to the absolute brim with fanservice -- tripping and falling on top of a girl to reveal her panties? Accidental groping? Anything short of tripping and falling into actual sex? All fair game. 

For the longest time, I hated it. If I wanted to see that stuff, I would just watch hentai, which was better by default since there wasn’t any teasing involved -- no conveniently placed sunrays or steam clouds. I could actually see the nipples and booty that anime teased. Fanservice was distracting at best and irritating at worst. 

Now, of all times, where I would want that kind of scenario, it never happened. 

“You need to calm your mind,” Raven commented, sitting across from me, her legs crossed, much like mine were. Her hands were outstretched, meeting mine in the middle as she held my hands in her much smaller pair. Her thumb pressed down on my palm, her fingers covering the backside and…

A small sigh escaped me before I tried to do what she said. This is about as far as I expected when I took Raven up on her offer to train me. I mean, this was what I expected, but it sure as hell wasn’t what I wanted. At the very least, she took me to a scenic location up in some mountains. Not sure where exactly, but the view was great. 

A mountain range below us, the sun rising in the distance, dying the sky shades of red and orange...if only I could see it rather than sitting with my eyes closed-

“You’re drifting again,” Raven pointed out. And she was right. “Learning how to conceal your magical presence is the most important step you can take right now. We can’t risk something powerful noticing you before you’re ready,” she reminded me, making me nod as I took in a deep breath for frigid air and let it out slowly. 

The air up here was a lot thinner. I’ve lived at sea level for pretty much my entire life, and I didn’t do well out of that environment. Like how I went out to Vegas with some friends and suffered the entire trip there. The air was so dry and the heat so unbearable that my skin started to crack. I had to take like five showers a day and drink gallons of water, but even then I was completely miserable. So, I expected to struggle to breathe at such a high elevation, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Was it because I was a dragon-

Annnnd...I’m getting distracted again. 

Instead of going on another tangent, I focused on myself and tried to make myself smaller. Like a boulder becoming a rock, then a pebble, and that pebble being covered in a layer of sand until no trace of it remained. I kept that train of thought going on repeat -- boulder, rock, pebble, gone. Over and over and over and over and over again. 

Each time my mind began to wander, I shifted tracks and refocused on the task at hand. I didn’t feel much of a change, but apparently Raven did. 

“That’s it. I want you to hold onto that feeling, no matter what. With your presence like this, you’re not any different than a normal human. At most, someone would think that you have some latent magical power, but that would be it,” Raven said, sounding relieved. Following through with what she said, I kept hold of that small feeling, picturing myself as the pebble beneath the sand. 

Opening my eyes, I saw that Raven was staring intently at my face. I wouldn’t have thought anything about it if she hadn’t turned away sharply. My curiosity flared, which made my control slip and I was right back where we started. She let go of my hands, still looking away, “you figured out how to do it rather quickly. You have talent,” she commented, floating until she stood up. 

I leaned back, using my arms to prop me up as I gazed at the sunrise. The clouds below blocked up a lot of the view, but in a way, they enhanced it that much more. “Doesn’t mean much if I can’t maintain it,” I admitted, as Raven stood next to me. Hinata had said the same thing about my chakra control -- only with it, I had so little that my control was fantastic while she started putting me through exercises to expand my reserves. The little that I currently had wasn't enough for a single jutsu, but that was changing as the days went by. 

Even still, I couldn't help but wonder where all of this talent was coming from. Was it just because I was a dragon? I was running out of room to stuff weird crap under that rug. I felt it. I was missing a piece of this puzzle. 

"Progress is still progress," Raven refuted flatly as she turned to watch the sunrise with me. "You've done it once, so it'll become easier each time. It just takes time," she said. During the past couple of days, I learned that Raven was a surprisingly encouraging teacher. Not only that but she seemed to have a seemingly endless well of patience. 

There was a small lapse in conversation as I refound the feeling of making my presence small. "Do the Titans know about me?" I decided to ask after a few days of waiting. During our first lesson, I was convinced that I would be walking into an ambush. Instead, Raven took me here and she began to teach me how to harness my magic. 

Raven glanced at me, her eyes lingering on mine before she looked away, deciding to retake her meditation stance and hovered next to me. "They do," she answered, making my heart clench. "But I've explained the situation to them and how you don't want to be involved with the lifestyle. And how I'm teaching you to protect yourself. Nightwing decided to let me handle this." 

That was a relief...but… "So...my house is filled with bugs and stuff?" I hazarded a guess, earning a sideways look from Raven. She didn't answer for a few seconds before a soft sigh escaped her. 

"That's a possibility," she admitted. "If...you want, I can help with that," she offered with some hesitance. "I would have to visit your home to cast the wards...but since you're still learning, it would be prudent to take it a step further. Your home, where you practice and live, should be kept in a pocket dimension," she said like that was a normal thing. But, for her, that might be the case. 

"You can do that?" I asked, wrapping my head around that tidbit of information. Raven seemed to give the idea some thought before she nodded. 

“I can. It’s not as difficult as it sounds,” she told me, but it sounded pretty difficult. Though she was the expert and I was the ignorant pleb. “It could take some time to prepare, which is the hardest part. To everyone the house isn’t attuned to enter, it will look the same, but to those that have access to the pocket dimension, they would be able to see the house for what it is. You’ll be hidden in plain view.”

That sounded useful, “yeah...yeah, I would appreciate that.” I said, thinking that was going to save me a lot of pain down the line. Kitten was due to stop by at some point, and I would rather her see an empty house rather than Hinata or Neo. She made it clear that we were just friends with benefits, but something like that didn’t stop jealousy and I saw first hand how vicious Kitten could be. No point in doing that to myself. 

“I’ll start making preparations when I get back, but it’ll have to be in a few days,” Raven said, the conversation lapsing as I took that in. My house was going to be in a pocket dimension. That was awesome. I couldn’t wait until I could do stuff like that. 

Which brought me to the next topic that weighed heavily on my mind. “So, now that I’ve gotten a handle on suppressing my presence, when am I going to learn some flashy magic?” I questioned because of course that was my major concern. Raven looked at me, cocking an eyebrow. Amusement danced in her eyes when she saw that I was serious. 

“Haven’t you heard the phrase, walk before you run? I thought you wanted to keep your head down? Why would you need to learn ‘flashy magic?’” She asked, and I could practically see the air quotes. That was a completely fair question, and I don’t think she would accept the answer of ‘because it’s cool.’

“You know, just in case,” I argued. “I’m not sure I want to use the dark flames of darkness since I don’t know what they’d do to someone if I was trying to hurt them. And the white ones…” Gizmo was never going to recover. His legs were gone. The rest of his body had too much in common with an overcooked steak. He was lucky to just be in a medically induced coma rather than dead. Raven said that there was always a possibility, but...that’s not something I wanted to use on people if I could avoid it. 

Raven couldn’t sense my emotions, but they must have been fairly obvious because she nodded in understanding. “Fair point,” she allowed before she vanished into the ground. I looked at where she disappeared to, then around, before I saw that she was behind me. 

On the stone slab was a pentagram. Apparently, there was a lot of mixups about magic with Christianity in this world. They didn’t belong to the devil, or anything like that, but were used for ritualistic magic. In this case, it was to prevent my magic from being felt by anyone even when I cranked up the heat. It was roughly twelve feet wide in every direction, with me sitting at one of the points and Raven at another. 

“Your magic is fundamentally different than mine, or any other. Teaching you how to attack isn’t just difficult, but dangerous...and I don’t think you are the type of person that wants to attack anyone,” Raven said, giving me a chance to argue. I didn’t because she wasn’t wrong. I had no problem throwing hands when the situation called for it. 

There are things worth fighting over. However, I never threw the first punch. Getting so angry that I started a fight wasn’t in me. It wasn’t who I was, and I knew that. 

“You’ll have to learn eventually, but for now, let’s leave that alone until you’re more experienced,” Raven continued, a corner of her lips tugging upward into a smile. “Instead, I want you to walk towards me...but I want you to do it in one step,” she instructed, making my brow furrow in thought. I looked at the space between us -- with this body, I could probably jump the distance. Only that would defeat the purpose. 

Pushing myself to my feet, I stared down at the space between me and Raven, looking up at her for instruction, but received none. 

I had options. Could I make some kind of treadmill that would take me to her? Maybe, except that was more complicated than anything I tried to make before. Not to mention, I would have to make some kind of power source for it to make it move, and I’m pretty sure that was out of the realm of possibility for me at the moment. Maybe one day. 

One step. What could I do that could let me move twelve feet in one step? I had ideas using the white flame, like spring shoes or something, but that was going to make me look stupid as hell. And if there was one person that I didn’t want to look stupid in front of, it was Raven. So, if white flames wouldn’t do it, then what about black?

Could I destroy the space between us? No, that would mess up the pentagon...but...that did give me an idea. 

After a few days of training with Raven, I made some progress in terms of channeling my magic. Summoning it became easier, more natural, and I could do it from different places other than my hands. Black flames flickered around my boots before I willed the flames to spread. They inched forward, towards Raven as they covered the pentagram. Once they were close enough, I took a single step forward. 

Teleportation was way weirder than I thought it would be. The lack of a transition was discomforting in a really jarring way, even if it was only twelve feet or so. One second, Raven was far away and all of a sudden she was inches away. I towered over her -- Raven wasn’t short, but I was tall. She reached my chest, forced to look up, her lips parted in surprise…

And she took a step back, looking away from me as she pulled up her hood. “That was interesting. What did you do?” She asked, pointedly not looking at me. Raven was a really tough person to read simply because she was so used to controlling her emotions. There were moments that I thought she was showing interest, but given who she was, I doubted myself. 

Which meant I was going to have to start showing interest, and that was a recipe for disaster. 

“I destroyed the space in between us. At first, I was going to destroy the actual ground, but I figured that would be a bad idea,” I explained, taking a step back as I let the flames fade. “So, with the black flames of doom, five steps became one.”

Raven seemed to mull that over for a moment, nodding to herself, “creative. Unlike your names,” she pointed out, the awkward moment had passed and now she was looking back at my face again. Though it was hard to tell with the color of her skin, but I think she was blushing. 

“I suck with names. I’m going to keep cycling through them until I find something I really like,” I admitted, completely unashamed. 

“At least we know that the black flames of doom can destroy more than physical objects,” she said, somehow managing to say that name seriously. “And you have an additional method of running away. That’s good. Until you’re strong enough, the goal is to buy enough time until someone can rescue you,” Raven continued in that same serious tone. 

I nodded, “that’s why you’re on speed dial.” At that, I was certain that she was blushing. I pretended not to notice in favor of thinking about what I just did. It was rough, but I just teleported. That was...so damn cool. The moment that I could, I was going to start practicing it until I could teleport wherever I felt like. Not to mention what else I could do with the black flames. 

If anything, they were more overpowered than the white ones. 

“Are you wanting to head back?” I asked her, knowing that she was on a tight schedule and I felt the session drawing to a close. Superheroing was rough. They had strict schedules of who was patroling and who was getting downtime because burnout was dangerous in their kind of work. What’s more, they patroled way more than just Jump City. They could afford to with two speedsters on the roster. 

Between everyone, nearly all of California was patrolled. It wasn’t perfect, and the crime rates were high enough that I would spit a mouth full of water if I saw them back in my old world, but between everyone, it was safer than most places. Which was a scary as hell thought. To say nothing of Gotham. Not sure why anyone lives in that city. 

Raven shook her head, “no, I-” she started, only to cut herself off. I looked at her, waiting for her to continue, but she didn’t. Right. That sounded like a conversation that needed a suitably dramatic backdrop. 

“Come on,” I said, jerking my head to the side and leading her the mountain’s edge. I took a seat and patted the spot next to me, an easy-going grin on my face. Raven looked down at me for a moment, her eyes displaying uncertainty before she sat next to me on the cold stone. Thank god for winter clothing. “What’s up?”

Raven didn’t answer for a long moment. Long enough that I thought I was going to have to pester it out of her. Instead, a sigh escaped her, her shoulders slumping. And even then, it took her another minute to start. 

“Beast Boy...a while ago, he had this thing with Terra. You’ve might have heard about it,” she said, not looking at me in favor of gazing out at the sunrise. “He didn’t know it at the time, but he was in love with her. Head over heels. Then...then she betrayed us. She was working for Deathstroke as a double agent -- it broke Beast Boy’s heart, but, in the end, she chose to betray him and side with us...at the cost of her own life.” Raven began, and if I had to put it in words, she sounded tired. Exhausted, even. 

“That was worse. For the longest time, I felt this lingering sadness behind every smile. We...started to grow close then,” Raven began, making my heart slow in my chest. I was really glad that Raven couldn’t sense my emotions because she would have noticed my dread when she said that. Were...were her and Beast Boy a thing? I know they were a popular ship, but...fuck man… 

“He stopped being so annoying and became more endearing. I started to have feelings for him, but at the time...I didn’t let myself feel them. I couldn’t afford to. When my sixteenth birthday came along, and my father nearly destroyed the universe by using me as a portal to this realm, after I sealed him away...only then, for the first time in my life, I could explore my feelings. Happiness, joy, sorrow, and fear -- they weren’t destructive forces of nature anymore,” Raven continued. And I thought my parents sucked. 

“I had feelings for him, and once he moved on from Terra, after years, he harbored feelings for me as well,” Raven said. I frowned, a growing suspicion forming, but I chose to listen instead of jumping to conclusions. But if Beast Boy cheated on Raven, then I’m smacking the shit out of him the next time I see him. “I didn’t know how to act on them. I didn’t know if I should. But, as time passed, his feeling grew stronger, as did mine...until they became love.” Raven paused, slumping in defeat. 

“Then Terra returned. She was alive after years of being a statue...and everything Beast Boy felt for me vanished. Like it wasn’t there in the first place,” Raven said with a touch of bitterness in her voice. “We weren’t dating, or lovers, or anything. And...maybe it’s my fault for hesitating for so long...but it hurts seeing that love just disappear because Terra returned.” 

Fuck me, that was a lot more complicated than I was thinking. Honestly, I figured that many people in one place as an introvert would be hell on earth. 

“I guess...let me ask you this -- do you think if you were dating Beast Boy when Terra came back, would it have changed anything?” I asked, making Raven draw up her shoulders, her jaw set. 

“I don’t know,” she admitted, “but-”

“Then,” I said, interrupting her, “it’s for the best. The correct answer was ‘Yes, it would have changed everything’ because anything short of that isn’t good enough in a relationship. I don’t have any advice for making the pain go away, or how to deal with Beast Boy...because, in the end, he’s free to feel whatever for whoever. The only advice I can give is to take a step back. Terra isn’t better than you, it’s not your fault for Beast Boy feeling as he does and you’re not wrong for feeling hurt.” 

I scratched at the side of my head, wishing I had the magic words that she wanted to hear. “Heartbreak sucks, but, in the end, all you can do is move on,” I said, stealing a glance at her. That was genuine advice. Would I like it if she ended up with me? Yeah, but at the same time, she was looking for a relationship. And I wasn’t sure if I was. Not with Hinata and Neo in the equation or with the craziness of my life. 

Or...the craziness in hers because I still didn’t want to get involved in that kind of conflict. 

Raven nodded, letting another small sigh, “that’s the plan…” she muttered more to herself than me before she sharply glanced up at me. “Thanks for listening to me,” Raven said, sounding genuinely thankful. She gave me a small smile and I found myself smiling back. “But, I should get back to Titan’s Tower. Are you ready?” She asked me...and, honestly, the answer was no.

“Yeah, takes us back,” I said. A shadow stretched underneath us before we sunk into the floor. The cold stone underneath me became transformed into a soft familiar cushion. The frigid air became room temperature and the sounds of nature replaced with lofi music and chatter. I looked at Raven to see that she was still smiling to herself even as she looked at me. 

“I’ll see you later,” Raven said before she left me behind. I looked at the spot she vanished at, idly brushing snow out of my hair before anyone would notice and replayed the conversation that we had. I felt like I could have handled that better...and I’m certain that I would think up of a thousand better things to say on the drive home. But, in the end, I think I gave decent enough advice. 

After I picked up a cup of coffee, I left Raph’s and headed out. Malvin wasn’t at the tollbooth, and he never would be again. I settled in for the drive back, tuning into the Jump City news. It was like there was always something going on in this city, and more often than not, streets were blocked off and traffic was backed up. 

However, as soon as the radio guy started to speak, a red streak blew past me so quickly that, for a moment, I wasn’t sure if it was just my imagination or not. Then I remembered that the Flash was real, and two Kid Flashes were based in this city. So, at the very least, I didn’t have to worry about petty crime blocking up the streets, only villains of some kind. 

After spending about a week here, I realized that the Teen Titans didn’t have a lot of street-level threats anymore. They had a bunch in the beginning, but those had moved onto greener pastures when the Teen Titans began to expand their roster. So, now the only ones that wanted to fight them were those that could fight a team of speedsters, Wonder Woman expys, and various other superpowered individuals. 

And anyone that looked at that and thought ‘I want to fuck with them,’ I didn’t want to fuck with. 

Even still, the drive home was peaceful. The wind in my hair, and as I predicted, I thought about a dozen better things to say. But, it was too late for that. Pulling up into the driveway, I hung up the key and started to make my way up the stairs. And, a couple of days ago, what I walked into would be a little weird. 

For starters, we had pool boys. Pool men. Whatever. And they weren’t real, thankfully. Neo was sunbathing, completely in the nude, while two illusions of men that would have made me feel inadequate before I became a dragon lazily fanned her. While a third offered a coconut, a little umbrella that was identical to her weapon of choice sticking out the hole alongside a twisty straw that she sipped from. 

A few minutes ago, I was watching the sunrise, and now the sun was nearing noon. I’m guessing I had been in the swiss alps or something. Neat. I always wanted to visit Europe at least once. 

“Welcome back,” Hinata said, smiling at me as she looked up from her cookbook that displayed a different kind of pastry each. The kitchen itself was in a real state -- bags of ingredients ranging from flour and sugar, to chocolate to berries to just about anything that could be used to made any kind of dessert. Beyond the mountain of ingredients that covered every surface in the kitchen were pans, tins, and molds to make any pastry in existence. 

“Glad to be back,” I said, starting to go over to give her a kiss, but the possible presence of bugs and security cameras was an unsettling deterrent. It shouldn’t be because if they were here, then Dick Grayson apparently knew exactly what we had been getting up to...but now that I knew they were here, I had to do something. Hinata noticed my hesitation, her face shifting from a gentle expression to concern. “Is there something wrong?”

I answered by summoning upon the dark flame darkness and dropped it onto the floor. It splashed out like water, spreading out like a ripple, and expanding over the floor, over furniture, over everything in the house. Only whenever surface had been cleaned did I feel the flame wink out of existence. “I was just taking care of a bug problem,” I said, walking over to Hinata. 

Pressing my lips against hers in what I intended to be a quick kiss, I felt her hold on to my jacket to make it last a few seconds longer. I smirked into the kiss, placing a hand on her waist and pulling her in, deepening it for a long few seconds before pulling back. Even despite the blush that warmed her cheeks, Hinata looked serious. “A bug problem?”

“You know how I’ve been getting lessons on magic with Raven?” I said, leaning against the counter as I crossed my arms. Hinata nodded -- she knew I was in contact with the Titans, but so far I hadn’t seen any of them other than Raven. Hinata supported it, hoping that the conflict that they were in with the Titan would fade from memory or never come up...and, while she hadn’t said anything, I knew she harbored a hope that she would be able to return to her world. 

I hadn’t brought it up with Raven yet -- I mentioned that I was from a different universe, but I didn’t mention either Hinata or Neo. Raven let me off the hook with the Fearsome Five since she viewed it as a heroic action. Shoving a massive dildo down someone’s throat, trying to shove it up the ass of one of her teammates and making off with a bank vault’s worth of money...was less so. 

The moment Raven made the connection, we were done for, so I figured it would be best that I didn’t mention them. The sorceress was looking into it, but I hadn’t heard anything on the topic so far.

“Well, there’s a possibility that one of her teammates bugged our place -- basically placed microphones where we wouldn’t notice to listen in on us,” I explained, and Hinata’s expression shifted from concern to, if I didn’t know any better, vengeful. 

“I see,” was all she said, but I knew the topic was hardly dropped with her. 

“I don’t know for sure, but I figured I’d do it just in case. Raven seemed surprised when I brought it up, and she said she’d talk with him. Not sure it’s going to stick, so we’ll have to keep an eye on it,” I admitted with a small shrug of my shoulders. Hinata nodded, accepting that for now, and I decided to change the subject. “So, what’s on the list today?” 

Hinata realized what I was doing, but allowed it all the same as she passed me a clipboard covered with various requests -- five orders of a dozen cupcakes, three cakes -- chocolate, strawberry, and with the latter being an icecream cake…meaning that I would have to make whatever flavor that Neo wanted. Then there was an assortment of cookies, danishes, and so on to be made. 

My eyes lingered on the addresses as I flipped through the pages. “We’re seeing a lot of repeat customers,” I said with some excitement and more than a little pride. I know that it was because of my unnatural ability to cook, but my business was already starting to support itself. 

I started my own company and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be since all I had to do was flash my magic card in people’s faces and everything was taken care of. I just showed them it and they saw whatever they needed to see and gave me whatever paperwork that I needed. It was awesome. 

Though, it was a lucky break that Neo stole that money, at the end of the day. I had to drop money on advertisements and those were a lot more expensive than one would think. I also had to spend money on ingredients since I couldn’t make them out of magic without tipping my hand and leading people right to me. But, I figured out how to make an oven with my powers, so I had that going for me. 

So, right now, the company cost me a pretty penny, but I was well on track for making my money back. 

“I’ll have to start a bit earlier today, but I can take care of it tonight,” I confirmed with a nod. One of the perks of not needing to sleep -- I just took care of work while everyone was asleep, and I could do whatever during the day. 

Then Malvin picked up what I made and delivered it. He was probably the best-paid delivery boy in existence at this point. 

“Then we should begin your training then,” Hinata said, smiling at me. I hesitated for a moment, desperately hoping that some excuse would come to mind, but none did. I nodded in response with more than a little resignation. That just made her smile grow a fraction as she led me outside, into the backyard where Neo was enjoying herself. She gave us a wave as I stepped out to the pool, taking a sip from a coconut. And when she caught me eyeing her up, she gave me a wink.

When I began stripping out of my clothes, she mimed a wolf whistle, much to my amusement. 

As Hinata gathered the balls we would be using, I took in a bracing breath and let it out slowly. Once she was done, only then did I step forward onto the infinity pool’s surface. Much like teleporting, stepping on water and not falling through the surface was weird. It was the lack of expected feedback that threw me off as I cautiously took another step forward so I was standing above the shallow end. 

The current tried to push me forward, but I remained firm. It was like I was standing on two foot sized pieces of land, the water flowing underneath them, which left me standing still. It took a moment for me to get it just right- 

My thoughts were cut off by a ball hitting me in the face hard enough that my head snapped back. My control slipped, plunging me into the water with a splash. My boxers soaked through, my hair plastered to my face as I stood up easily enough, letting out a sigh. 

"Thanks, Neo," I commented when the nude girl had her pool boys hold up signs that said 10/10 EPIC FAIL. She looked all too pleased with herself as she took another sip, a mixed drink funneling through loops until it reached her waiting mouth. 

"Maintaining the correct amount of chakra must become second nature to you. Or you'll never be able to focus on anything else," Hinata stated, her voice soft but firm. "This is the best way to increase your reserves as well," she reminded, bringing my goal to the forefront of my mind. 

I didn't mind hard work. Not really. I've had two jobs for long enough that it felt normal for me. This was the closet thing I've ever had to a vacation. But, it opened my eyes to alternatives. Staying up all night working when I didn't have to sleep was fine. I didn't mind it. 

But do you know what would be even better? 

Sleeping while a shadow clone did the work for me. Not only that, as the demand increased, we would be able to meet it beat for beat with what was essentially free labor in the form of copies of me. It was the best of both worlds. 

I tucked away the possibility that I could create a clone of myself with the white flames of creation in the back of my mind. I was afraid to try it because I wasn't sure how it would work, or that I would succeed and create a living being on accident. I would wait for shadow clones instead since I understood the variables involved. 

"Yeah, yeah," I grumbled to myself, raising a foot to step back onto the water surface. Hinata nodded before she turned her attention to Neo, her eyes flickering away every time she looked at the woman. Something that Neo took more than a little enjoyment in. 

“Neo...would you care to learn as well?” Hinata questioned, an olive branch if there ever was one. Something I learned over the days was that Neo and Hinata didn’t get along at all. They hadn’t clashed physically, or had an actual argument yet -- mostly because Hinata was Hinata and Neo was mute, but it was clear that they didn’t see eye to eye. And, in the end, they couldn’t be more different in personality. 

Neo tilted her head at the offer, taking a long sip from her coconut as she mulled it over. One of the pool boy’s sign displayed a question mark on it.

“I would have to help you awaken your chakra network, and it would take time, but you could learn with Nero,” Hinata offered. Neo’s mismatched eyes flickered to me, or rather how I stood on the water’s surface. I don’t know what I was more surprised by -- the fact that she was considering it, or that she had a chakra network in the first place. I figured aura would have replaced it.

Even more surprisingly, Neo dismissed the illusions with a wave of her hand as she got out of her chair. She agreed to it. Her eyes flickered between me and Hinata, considering something and, for the briefest of moments, I thought she was going to offer to awaken our aura’s. Instead, she created an illusion of a pink, white and brown bikini as she walked to meet Hinata halfway. 

Aura seemed easier to use that chakra, but chakra was more rewarding in the end. I thought about pressing the issue, but I couldn’t without tipping my hand that she had aura...though, I think she suspected that since I gave her a spanking. But, I guess it was for the best for now. I had enough on my plate as it was with learning magic, chakra, opening a business and adding more on top of that would be a pain. 

“Nero, I want you to run laps around the pool’s surface, and keep going for as long as you possibly can. Your reserves won’t grow unless you strain them,” Hinata instructed, taking a seat in front of Neo, who did the same, her face a mask of curiosity. It was almost enough to hide the determined glint in her eyes. 

“Sure thing sensei,” I agreed, enjoying the flush that crept up her neck at the pet name. Neo seemed to enjoy it more though. It really was amazing how snarky a person could be without being able to utter a single word. With that, I started to jog, trying to make the constant adjustment of chakra needed to remain on the surface while distracting myself. It was way more difficult than it seemed in the anime, that much was certain. 

All the while I practiced hand signs. Apparently, they were training wheels, in a way. Except the training wheels were on a motorbike prone to exploding if you didn’t use it right. Each hand sign was associated with molding chakra in a particular way, so the easiest comparison I could make was each hand sign created a building block and stacked them on top of one another until the jutsu was complete. 

Still, understanding the mechanics didn’t make me feel any less stupid as my hands slowly made the correct forms. Especially making them in public. 

Keeping an eye on Hinata and Neo, I couldn’t help but smile. Things really were going my way, weren’t they?

Naturally, that was when the back door slid open, revealing Kitten in some kind of uniform. Her gaze met mine, her eyebrow cocked upward as she pointedly looked at me standing on the water’s surface. 

“So, unless I fucked Jesus, I’m going to need you to explain that to me.”