When Kiseki arrived home, he immediately went to find his father, after what had happened outside the Academy and seeing Hiruzen speaking with Itachi, he still felt a strange uneasiness inside him, and the only thing he wanted at that moment was to keep training and become stronger as quickly as possible.
He found Kizashi inside the house and quickly approached him.
"Dad, can we start training now?"
Kizashi raised an eyebrow slightly when he noticed the anxiety in his son's voice, Kiseki was normally excited whenever training was involved, but this time he seemed especially impatient.
"Calm down, Kiseki, relax a little, let's have lunch first, then we'll train."
As he spoke, Kizashi affectionately ruffled his son's hair.
Kiseki wanted to insist, but in the end he nodded, after all, training properly on an empty stomach would not exactly help him either. A short while later he sat beside his father at the table, the food was not ready yet, and very close to them Sakura was watching him with those large curious eyes that seemed to follow every movement he made.
Kiseki looked at her.
His little big-foreheaded sister.
Since they still had a few minutes before lunch arrived, he decided to entertain himself with her. He extended both hands and began concentrating his chakra with considerable effort, a small amount of pink crystal slowly started forming near his fingers, his control over his Kekkei Genkai was still terrible, so even creating something so simple required quite a bit of concentration.
Little by little, he managed to shape it into a small crystal tiara.
Kiseki smiled proudly at his creation.
"Look, Sakura, your big brother made something for you."
Sakura simply moved her little hands toward him, trying to grab the shiny crystals, Kiseki quickly kept them out of her reach and carefully tried placing the tiara on her head.
Then he encountered a problem.
It did not fit.
Kiseki blinked and tried again.
Nothing.
He looked at the tiara, then at Sakura's head, and finally at her forehead.
"..."
"Seriously?"
His little sister's forehead was simply too wide.
Kiseki tried gently widening the tiara without breaking it, nothing, he moved it slightly farther back, that did not work either. For the next several minutes he continued trying to find some way to fit it properly.
Five minutes.
Ten minutes.
Fifteen minutes.
Sakura seemed to be having a great time, waving her hands and constantly trying to reach the shiny thing her brother kept holding over her head, Kiseki, on the other hand, was beginning to get frustrated.
"Come on... just a little more."
He tried expanding the crystal slightly with chakra.
Crack.
Kiseki immediately froze.
The little tiara could not withstand the pressure, and because his control over Crystal Release was still poor, the structure began breaking apart into dozens of tiny fragments. Kiseki reacted immediately, pulling the small crystals away from Sakura before any of them could fall on her.
That was exactly when Mebuki arrived with the food.
She looked at Sakura, then at Kiseki, then at the tiny crystal fragments scattered across the table.
"Kiseki, stop playing with Sakura and go wash your hands, we're having lunch."
"Yes, Mom."
Kiseki quickly gathered what he could and went to wash his hands again. A few minutes later, the entire family was seated around the table eating, Kiseki devoured his food with quite a bit of enthusiasm, partly because he was hungry, but mostly because he wanted to finish as soon as possible and start training.
While they ate, Mebuki spoke.
"Kiseki, once you finish training with your father, we'll start practicing Suiton, I want you to build a good foundation before moving on to more complicated techniques."
Kiseki immediately looked up.
"Today?"
Mebuki nodded.
"Today."
A smile quickly appeared on his face, that meant he would train chakra control with his father and then begin seriously working on his Suiton nature with his mother, however, as he continued eating, a question that had been bothering him for several days returned to his mind.
He looked first at Kizashi, then at Mebuki.
"Dad, Mom... I have a question."
Both of them looked at him.
"Why haven't we seriously trained my Kekkei Genkai yet?"
Kiseki looked genuinely confused, ever since discovering that he possessed Crystal Release, he had expected to begin practicing it almost immediately, after all, it was his family's most special ability and probably one of his greatest advantages in this world, yet until now his parents seemed to be deliberately avoiding teaching him how to use it.
Kizashi and Mebuki looked at each other for a few seconds, eventually, Kizashi placed his utensils down on the table.
"Mainly because we want you to have a good foundation."
Kiseki frowned slightly.
"We know perfectly well how much you want to start using your Kekkei Genkai, but learning more advanced techniques before building a proper foundation would be a mistake."
He pointed slightly toward Kiseki.
"First, you need to improve your chakra control, then you need to learn how to properly use Suiton, once you have a good foundation in both, we'll start seriously training your Crystal Release."
Kiseki listened carefully.
"Good chakra control will let you create crystals with much greater precision while wasting less energy, and learning Suiton will also help you understand nature transformation better."
Kizashi smiled slightly.
"So be patient, we're not refusing to teach you, we're preparing you so that when the time comes, you'll be able to learn it properly."
Kiseki understood the logic perfectly well, in fact, he knew his father was right, trying to use a complicated Kekkei Genkai without even properly controlling his chakra would probably only cause him to waste enormous amounts of energy.
The problem was that understanding it did not stop him from feeling disappointed.
"I understand..."
He lowered his gaze slightly and continued eating.
Mebuki immediately noticed the small expression of sadness on her son's face, she watched him for a few seconds before suddenly standing up.
"Wait here."
Kiseki raised his head in confusion.
His mother disappeared for several minutes, while Kizashi continued eating calmly, almost as if he already knew exactly what his wife was doing.
About five minutes later, Mebuki returned carrying a book.
It looked fairly old, the cover was worn and several corners had been damaged by time. Mebuki placed it in front of Kiseki.
"If you're that desperate to learn about Crystal Release, you can start with this."
Kiseki's eyes immediately lit up.
"What is it?"
"Basic notes about Crystal Release, there aren't any dangerous techniques or anything too advanced inside, but it explains some of the fundamentals of our Kekkei Genkai."
Kiseki immediately picked up the book with both hands.
"Can I read it?"
Mebuki barely managed to smile.
"That's why I brought it to you."
Kiseki almost instantly stood from his chair and hugged his mother enthusiastically.
"Thank you, Mom!"
Then he quickly returned to the table, finished the little food still left on his plate, grabbed the old book and practically ran toward his room.
Mebuki watched him disappear down the hallway, while Kizashi could not help laughing softly.
"He really was desperate to learn about the crystal."
Mebuki shook her head with a small smile.
They could still hear Kiseki's hurried footsteps from upstairs when Kizashi raised his voice.
"Kiseki! We start training in one hour!"
"Yes, Dad!"
The answer came immediately from above.
Kizashi laughed again, at least now his son had something to keep himself busy while he waited.
Meanwhile, Kiseki had already sat down in his room with the old book open in front of him, and he could not stop himself from smiling.
At last, he was going to begin learning a little more about the true power of Crystal Release.