Bonds

Chapter 1: The Hard Way

"Here we go Kid," the voice shouted.

The pebbles came flying at him from all directions. Instinctively he began to dodge, which was a pretty hard thing to do while balancing on a rock in the middle of a pond. He jumped and weaved his way through the barrage, even kicking a few of the pebbles out of the way.

"I'm going to make it," he thought to himself.

As soon as had he thought this however one of the pebbles nailed him straight in the middle, knocking him off the rock and into the cold water.

Kurogane let out a sigh of exasperation as he watched Syaoran pull out himself out of the water and back onto the rock.

"Man that kid has a long way to go," he thought.

As Syaoran readied himself again on the rock Kurogane held up a hand signaling him to stop.

"That's enough for now kid," he called out to the dripping wet boy.

"Hai," came the boy's timid reply, his voice sounding weak and unsure of himself.

Kurogane let out another sigh at the sight his pupil slowly making his way over to where the ninja stood under the shade of the cherry trees, limping slightly from where a pebble had bruised his knee earlier in the day. The boy looked truly miserable as he was soaked from head to toe and shivering from his repeated trips into the pond. As he limped towards Kurogane one hand gingerly touched a rising lump on his forehead.

Seeing this Kurogane motioned the boy to come closer. As Syaoran stood in front of the giant ninja, he looked down at his own feet embarrassed at his performance during today's training. He was totally unprepared when Kurogane grabbed his chin and forced him to look up at his.

Syaoran trembled when he felt Kurogane's hand grab him and almost pulled away; fearing that the older man was angry with him, but quickly realized how wrong he was. Kurogane's grip though firm was gentle as he held Syaoran's head up. His stern eyes were gazing not in anger but with care as he studied the injury to Syaoran's forehead.

Syaoran winced as Kurogane gently prodded the lump with one finger, making sure there was no serious injury. As he did so Syaoran stared up into the man's eyes, wondering why he was showing such care.

Kurogane noticed the kid looking up at him with those puppy dog eyes.

"The Mage gave you the perfect nickname for this world," he thought to himself.

He smirked at Syaoran's face saying, "Hey what are you looking at, Little Puppy?" His smirk grew wider as he watched Syaoron's cheeks turn red with embarrassment.

Syaoran felt his face heat up at the mention of the nickname Fai had given him. It wasn't that the nickname bothered him, he secretly enjoyed how Sakura thought it was cute. He was embarrassed though, by the fact that Kurogane was teasing him. He wanted to make this man proud of him to see that nod of approval.

As Kurogane let go off the boy's chin he told him," You're gonna have a nasty lump for few days, let it remind you not to rely on your sight to dodge."

"Hai," came the boy's weak reply as he looked down again, still blushing in embarrassment at the nickname.

Syaoran had a particularly difficult day in training. Kurogane realized they couldn't go back to the pebble training with the boy depressed like this. It would sink his spirits even lower. But dealing with feelings and kids wasn't his forte; he left that for the mage to handle.

Sighing in again in defeat he pulled out the strip of white cloth. As he did so he noticed Syaoran's eyes widened in fear for a second at the sight of the cloth.

"What the…," Kurogane thought as he handed the cloth to the boy. This was something he hadn't seen before.

Syaoran hesitated for a moment before obediently wrapping the cloth around his head, plunging him into darkness.

As he started to move towards the bridge he felt Kurogane's hand gently grab his shoulder.

"You know the drill kid," Kurogane said in calm slow voice as he leaned down to the boy's height, "Just take it nice and slow."

Syaoran simply nodded. Though he seemed calm and collected on the outside Kurogane's hand felt his heart beating rather quickly. The boy was afraid of something.

Deciding that he'd talk to the mage about it later, Kurogane released Syaoran's shoulder and walked away.

As Kurogane left to go about his own business Syaoran heard him call out, "And try to be home before dinner this time."

Hey all I'm back from my long hiatus. Please review and rate. I'll be redoing my profile page so you can see my ideas for various stories and how my updates are coming along.