The words were out, and the line had probably sounded pretty cool.
But looking at Neji, who was still a baby, Kazan had no idea where to start.
If he kicked the boy straight into a pride of lions, Neji would become fertilizer in a matter of days rather than a trained fighter.
The Ghost of Konoha, the strongest man of this age in the Shinobi World, the third Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, master of the Fourth Sacred Land—the Forest of Death—Iron Fist Kazan.
And right now, he had no idea what to do with this little brat.
"Kurama?"
The Nine-Tails said nothing, lying there and basking in the sun.
Ask him to hiss, and he could do that. But teaching someone to train? Wasn't that asking too much of a fox?
"Hakimi?"
"Roar!"
Hakimi roared, then rolled over to expose his belly, playing with his cubs.
"Two useless freeloaders."
Kazan stood imposing with the Kubikiribōchō on his shoulder, his face as resolute as cast steel.
His second disciple's eyes held nothing but admiration, unaware of the melancholy filling his teacher's heart.
"All right, you're not old enough to train yet, but you can start by watching."
"Go through all of the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist techniques first. Once you're familiar with them, your training later will yield twice the results for half the effort."
Neji looked troubled. "Teacher Kazan, I'm from the Branch Family. I only have access to some of the Gentle Fist secret techniques."
The Hyuga Clan's Main Family barely did anything decent.
They dumped all the dirty, exhausting work on the Branch Family, yet never let its members learn inherited secret techniques such as Rotation and Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms. Those were passed down only within the Main Family.
Neji would eventually master them because he was an