For the next four weeks, Shizuka went through hell.
It took her four days to finally figure out the secret and to utilise her Chakra as wind.
The wind was basically the movement of air through pressure differences, and in her case, she had to create this pressure through her Chakra.
At first, she started to control wind like slaps and gusts, and then she started to sharpen the focus, the point of impact.
Once she figured it out, she had to hold the shape, constantly keeping the point sharp by revolving the air through fine and focused pressure.
However, the real nightmare came when she remembered exactly what the task was.
She had to write her name as fine as she could write on paper.
Her first few attempts resulted in the trunk being ruined as she lost control or cut too deep into it. She even destroyed a few trees by accident, and when she finally managed to write her name, it was so ugly that she wanted to drown in the nearby river.
At times, she even wanted to cry her eyes out. Even after figuring out the secret, she was unable to execute it, and God was this training tiring. She could hardly practice for four hours every day before her Chakra Reserves would fall to unsafe levels.
And then she also daily had to meditate with Enma keeping his eyes on her and her Chakra Flow.
On the 28th day, she arrived at the training field feeling very low, and her eyes were vacant.
She felt like it would take her years before she would be able to write her name as fine as she needed to. That's how hard it felt to her now.
"Let's take a break today and try something else."
She curiously looked at the Uzumaki, who was brightly smiling, and was surprised when he offered her a pair of beautifully designed, knuckle knives, whom she fell in love with at the very first sight.
These blades were similar to the ones she had seen Asuma-sensei use during their Mission at the Akagahara Forest, and she quickly tried them on.
"Thank you." She sincerely said to him when she felt the blades conducting her chakra more freely than any chakra blade she had ever tried.
"Let's have a spar today." He said to her, and she grinned at him before quickly entering her battle stance with the knives.
Enma simply took a willow leaf stance with his hands, covering them in his wind chakra, and he gave her a warning.
"If you are not careful, these knives will be ruined."
Shizuka did not want to lose the knives the day she received them, and she quickly imbued her wind Chakra into them before engaging with him.
She had not had this much fun in a long long time, and she kept fighting her heart out against him, testing the limits of her Taijutsu.
At noon, when she was completely exhausted, she sprawled on the soft grass and laughed heartily.
She heard Enma chuckle as he lay by her side, in a lot better shape than her, and she blushed when she looked his way.
Shizuka then sat up and carefully stored away the two Chakra Blades after fondly looking at them, and then she clenched her fists and crawled close to her friend.
"Enma."
"Yeah..." His mouth was soon closed by her lips, and she, as inexperienced as she was, tried to kiss him as best as she could.
"Thank you." She shyly pulled back, but then yelped when he grabbed her and pinned her under him.
Having been tossing in the bed every day with Anko, he had grown quite proficient in the art of kissing, and he showed her how it was done.
Minutes later, when he separated from her, he left her desiring for more, and Shizuka was burning in a very furious blush.
"You... kissed me!" She blurted out, and Enma confusedly tilted his head at her.
"You don't want me to kiss you?"
Her heart skipped a beat at his question, and she grew very nervous.
"Fine..."
"No, no... it's okay." She immediately made it clear, and then lowered her head. "You can kiss me."
"Okay." He smield. "You taste sweet. I like it."
She blushed even harder at his words.
"Thank you." That was all she could say to him before she quickly walked towards a tree and sat under it to meditate.
It was incredibly hard for her to clear her mind, but she managed to succeed and focused only on the flow of her chakra.
When she opened her eyes again, it was nearly evening, and she had recovered her Chakra Pool.
Standing up, she looked back at the trunk of the tree, and instead of writing her name, she wrote down Enma's name on it.
Shizuka smiled when she was done, and then froze as she stared at it.
It was fine... finer than anything she had managed to write in the last four weeks, and she subconsciously wrote down her own name right under his.
Seeing the improvement, she was stunned, and then she felt a wave of happiness wash over her.
She wanted to run back to him and hug and kiss him, but controlled herself when she saw him sitting by the river, fishing with his sister.
"Hey, how was your day?" Karin smild at her when she approached them, and Shizuka excitedly told her about the gift that Enma gave her, their spar, and that she had made some improvement in her Nature Transformation Exercise.
The Uzumaki Princess patiently listened to her and then told her about her own day, and how fun it was.
Anko had taken her to the Shelters inside the Hokage Mount, and showed her places of the Village she had never seen before, including the Jonin Tower.
Shizuka stayed with them until the sky started to darken, and then they stood up and walked back towards the village.
"Good night!" Karin waved at her and then grabbed her brother's arm as she skipped down the road towards their home.
They walked in a peaceful silence for a good hour, until they reached the bridge and entered the Uzumaki Forest.
"Nii-san."
"Yes?"
"Did you kiss her?"
Enma curiously turned his face to her, and she looked right into his covered eyes.
"Yes. How did you know?"
"Just a hunch." She said, and he smiled a little.
"The range of your Mind's Eye has improved. You were spying on me."
Karin did not deny his words and nodded her head.
"You are upset."
"Yes." She admitted.
"Why?"
She kept looking into his eyes and then turned her face away.
"Shouldn't I be? You are supposed to marry me."
Enma smiled at her words and planted a kiss on her head.
"No one can replace you in my heart, Karin. You do not have to worry about anything or anyone."
She blushed at his words, and after a while started happily skipping again.
When they arrived at the Gate of the District, they found Sasuke sitting on top of it, brooding.
"Hey!"
She waved his way, and he smiled at them. A smile that was not really a smile.
"You don't seem happy." The Princess pointed out, and the Uchiha sighed.
"My team is giving me a headache."
"Oh, what happened?"
"Naruto makes everything a competition and he is upset that Sakura likes me."
"Did you tell him that you don't like her?" She smiled.
"No."
"Why?"
Sasuke stayed silent for a few moments and then sighed again.
"She pushes him to grow stronger, and it's healthy for our team if he grows stronger."
"Yes, but that's not all. Is it?"
He furrowed his brows at her words, and then closed his eyes.
"I want him to grow stronger, and I want to stay ahead of him so that I can always beat him."
"That's the truth, but why?" She confusedly looked at him.
"I don't know. That's just how I feel. Perhaps, I just want to prove something to myself by defeating the Jinchuriki of the strongest Tailed Beast. I don't know what it is, but I just want to always prove that I am better than him. He gets on my nerves."
The two of them and Akane were the only people in the world whom he could talk his heart out to.
"You shouldn't be looking at him as the Jinchuriki of the Nine Tails," Karin sighed.
"But that's what he is. That's his true source of strength. Without the Kyubi, he's not even worth my attention."
The two Uzumaki curiously looked at him, finding his words a little funny. The next instant, the two jumped and sat down on either side of him.
"What happened?" Enma lightly asked, and Sasuke lowered his head.
"He's progressing fast, all thanks to Kyubi."
"So?"
"Kyubi is not his natural strength. It's a foreign power."
"So?" Karin smiled.
"He shouldn't think of himself as my equal when he is not even close to me when it comes to inherent talent. He should be competing with the likes of Kiba..."
The Uzumaki Princess giggled.
"He's Half-Uzumaki, you know that right?"
"I know."
"And his father is the Fourth Hokage." Enma reminded.
"Yes."
"Namikaze were a branch of Senju Clan."
Sasuke felt unwell at those words and furrowed his brows.
"He may not be as naturally talented as you, but he is very talented. You are just an outlier." She calmly said and then giggled. "But you know that already. You know he is talented, and you fear that with Kyubi, he might surpass you one day."
Sasuke frowned at her words and clenched his fists.
"I won't let that happen."
"Good. So, only focus on growing stronger. Don't let his identity as a Jinchuriki cloud your mind." Enma lightly said.
"Besides, didn't you take a vow to become stronger than me?" Karin grinned. "If you are going to compete with Naruto... I am afraid you will never be able to catch up to me."
"You wish." The Uchiha grinned. "And don't slack off, he might really surpass us."
"Not going to happen." Karin shook her head. "At least, not in my case. I dont know about you though. You get intimidated very quickly..."
"Shut up."
Both Karin and Enma laughed at his reaction, and Sasuke irritatedly looked at the latter.
"Let's have a spar."
"Taijutsu?"
"Yes."
"Come." Enma jumped off the gate and landed on the ground below, and Sasuke followed him.
Karin happily watched the two spar with with each other, enjoying the show, and keenly observed Sasuke's progress.
Just like how he always wanted to stay ahead of Naruto, she always wanted to stay ahead of him. She wanted to stay ahead of everyone, and stay second only to her brother...