A tickling sensation and a slight weight on my chest woke me up from my sleep.  I tried to shake it off, but the attacker was persistent.  I sighed and groaned.

"Okay!  I'm up!"

The tickler ceased their efforts as I sat up with a groan.  The weight that was on my chest dropped down onto my lap.  Glancing down with a playful glare at the little weasel squirming around on my lap.  "Hey Taibakaze.  What's with the early morning wake up call?"

My familiar finally flip himself over and looked up at me.  Through the chakra bond, he was able to remind me of the team training that Yugi-sensei assigned to us for the day.  I hummed.

"I guess that is a pretty good reason to wake me up.  Let's go."

I flung the blanket off of myself and sprung to my feet.  Digging through my pack, I found a spare change of clothes that would be comfortable to move in, and suitable for training.  Taibakaze hitched a ride on my shoulder, which was quickly becoming his usual spot for travel, and we made our way to the bathroom.

It was across the hall, and the door was shut.  I couldn't hear anything going on inside, so I tried the door nob.  It was unlocked.  I shrugged, and opened the door.

Probably one of the most embarrassing moments of my life.

I froze at the sight of someone who was very much not male, and very much not clothed, with the exception of a towel wrapped around her body.  Light blue eyes met dark blue eyes, and we both froze.  It wasn't until we heard a squeaking that sounded to be something strangely akin to laughter that we broke out of our trance.

"Pervert!  Knock before you just waltz in, will ya!"

A sandal went flying across the room and landed right across my face.

"OK, OK!  But maybe you should lock the door next time!"

I turned around and closed the door, but not before reaching around the door to lock it.

I sighed and rubbed my aching face.  My teammate had some scary good aim with that sandal.  It almost makes me wonder how often she throws them.  The little weasel on my shoulder was still squeaking out in his version of gut-wrenching laughter.

"It's really not funny, Baka!"  I lightly karate chopped his head.  He just kept on laughing at me.

"I'm guessing you walked in on Ayana?"  Yusuke walked up next to me.  "She does the same thing back home, forgetting to lock the bathroom door, I mean.  So it's quite often that someone walks in on her doing something."

I looked at the ground with a mutter.  "No wonder she has such good aim."

Yusuke glanced at my face, saw the bright red print from the sandal, and burst out laughing.

I sighed in exasperation.  "Not you too!"

The bathroom door opened, and Ayana stepped out.  "OK.  I am done now.  You guys can use the bathroom now."

Her twin rolled his eyes.  "Sure.  Thanks.  It's about time."

Before she could walk away, I stopped her.  "Hey, Ayana.  Sorry about walking in on you."

She eyed me before turning away.  "If it was a mistake, and it doesn't happen again, that I guess I can forgive you.  Just make sure you knock next time."

I nodded, before joining her brother in the bathroom.  He was jumping in the shower, and I was just changing.  I had taken a shower last night.

About 3 minutes later, I was dressed and headed out to leave Yusuke to have the bathroom to himself.  I went back to the room to find that Ayana and Yugi-sensei were engaged in what seemed to a very serious topic.  I sat down next to Ayana.

They both glanced at me, and Yugi-sensei smiled.

"Perfect timing, Utagawa.  We were discussing the matter of the team training for the day.  Ayana had some questions.  Do you have any suggestions?"

I thought for a moment.  "Well, what did you want to practice on today?"

She looked down at the ground, before speaking quietly.  "In the past, I've only been able to cast very simple genjutsu, such as making it seem like something, or someone, had disappeared.  But that isn't enough if I want to become proficient in genjutsu.  But I know that, in order to do anything more advanced, I need to have fairly good chakra control, something that I currently lack."  She glanced at me.  "However, you seem to have a lot of natural control over your chakra.  Just remembering back to the bell test, you were able to signal us using chakra pulses, something that I didn't even think of doing until you sent one my way.  And then, it still took a while for me to respond back then..."

"She's right.  That control that you have is almost scary."  Yusuke plopped down on the other side of his sister with a towel around his neck.  "And I have little to no control over mine!"  He stated this piece of information with a shit-eating grin.

Yugi-sensei gazed at Yusuke.  "What do you aim to achieve with your taijutsu?"

Yusuke tilted his head up to fix his gaze on the ceiling.  "Well, I've read in a few scrolls when I was younger that taijutsu users often reinforce their limbs with chakra to either pack a bigger punch, or to protect their own limbs from damage against the force.  So I also need to get some better control if I want to get further along."

Yugi-sensei smiled at all of us.  "Well, it sounds like you have a plan now.  Good luck."

We all nodded and stood up.

Once outside, we saw team seven heading into the woods together, with Kakashi on crutches.

I ignored them, and made for the clearing that I was at yesterday, where I had encountered the Kamaitachi.  My teammates followed me silently.

Once we got to the clearing, I turned to them, and sat down in the middle of the clearing.

They looked at me confused, until I signaled for them to also sit down.

Yusuke spoke first.  "What are we doing?"

I smiled softly.  "The first thing that you must do before even considering to control your chakra, is to learn more about it.  You both started learning more about your chakra when you found out what chakra nature you both had.  But now, you have to actually learn about you chakra."

Ayana raised an eyebrow.  "How do we even do that?"

"It's simple, really.  Meditation.  You both are going to meditate for a while, but I want you to focus on a few things while meditating.  So...it's kind of not meditation, but it is, if that makes any sense."  I shook my head.  "Anyways, what I want you to do, is find your core.  It's the place in your body that always seems to feel the warmest, as if there is a pulsing energy contained in that spot, just waiting to get out.  For me," I placed my hand on my stomach, just above my belly button, "my chakra comes from here.  Technically speaking, you are trying to locate your chakra coils."  I glanced between the two.  "Does that make any sense."

Grim determination settled in their expressions as they nodded.  They closed their matching eyes, and began the process that I explained to them.

It took a while before there was any type of change in them.

It happened to Ayana, first.  What appeared to be a faint grass green glow emanated from her stomach, and she gasped quietly.  The glow disappeared.  Her wide eyes found mine, and she opened her mouth.  The question that she was going to ask was obvious, so I just nodded to her.

A few minutes later, we watched as the sweating Yusuke finally started glowing a faint, dark red.  It wasn't an angry red, but the kind of red that reminded me more of the warm, welcoming red that you might see as a flame in a hearth.  Yusuke grinned brightly as he opened his eyes and pounded a fist in the air.  "Yes!"

I smiled at both of them.  "Perfect.  Now tell me.  What color did you feel that you chakra was?"

They both were confused instantly, before Yusuke suddenly had a realization.

"Mine was red."

I nodded.  "What type of red?"

He furrowed his brow.  "Almost like fire.  It moved like fire, too."

I turned to Ayana.  "What about you?"

She closed her eyes again, and was silent for a moment.  "Green.  Grass green.  It moved delicately, like a breeze that would blow through tall grass on a windy day."

I stood up.  "OK.  That's perfect."

As I started to turn away from them, a question was asked in a duo-tone voice.

"What is the color of your chakra?"

I glanced over my shoulder.

"Indigo.  As if the colors of the ocean and fire tried to mix, but the ocean was more dominant than the fire ever will be.  It flows and jerks randomly, like it has a wild mind of its own.  But at the same time, it is extremely eager to do and learn whatever it can."