That year, Akemi and Asuna both turned six. They had started at the Ninja Academy just a few days earlier, so Tsunade, Hatake Sakumo, and Heizo Hattori came over to share their experience as older students and help the girls settle into their studies quickly. Although the sisters had already begun learning at home, they still found Sakumo and Heizo's stories about everyday school life fascinating.
The older sister, Akemi, was warm and outgoing, often taking the initiative to ask about interesting things at school. Even Heizo Hattori, who wore a cold expression all day long, would answer her questions—a rare occurrence that made Tsunade and Hatake Sakumo nod approvingly. Heizo had always seemed unapproachable. Most children grew frightened just from having his eyes fixed on them, so Akemi really was a brave child to question him directly.
Unlike her cheerful older sister, Asuna simply sat quietly to one side and listened. Her face looked as cold as Heizo Hattori's, giving her the makings of an icy beauty. But as frequent visitors to the Kazemori family home, all three knew that Asuna was not truly cold by nature. How should they put it? She was probably just poor at expressing her feelings, which made her seem difficult to approach.
Since they intended to become ninja, Akemi could not help asking about Ninjutsu. The girls had only recently begun learning about chakra, and having grown up listening to the storybooks their father wrote, they were deeply curious about its wondrous powers. They wanted to know whether it really was that amazing.
To let the girls see the wonders of chakra for themselves, the three prepared to give a demonstration. However, neither Tsunade's nor Heizo Hattori's Ninjutsu was easy to demonstrate. One specialized in saving people, the other in killing them, and