As Uzumaki Usagi watched her son leave their house to join Warai for dinner, her smile softened. He hadn't even been home a day and he was leaving again. And while she was more secure about her son's safety now than she was previously, she could never fully get over the aching that took hold of her when she saw him leave.
After closing the door, she slowly came back to the couch, and sighed. It had been around 10 years since her husband died, and every day that Kannin was around, he was looking more and more like him. She was honestly surprised how much he took after his father--Uzumaki genes were supposed to be quite strong. She brought out a photo of her late husband and looked at it longingly, before realizing that Kannin probably had no idea what his father looked like, aside from his own appearance.
Usagi had spent the last ten years trying to survive the grief, and much of that involved trying not to remind herself. Kannin probably never really thought about his homelife as deficient, as missing something, but to Usagi, for every day that passed, the gaping void left by her husband grew larger. Looking at her husband's face in the photograph, she told herself that she'd show Kannin when he got back.
-
When Kannin did get back, his mom was waiting on the couch, with a photograph clenched tightly in her hand. He could guess what she was doing, and tried not to draw attention to it, but then he heard, "Come here, I want to show you something."
Kannin lumbered over to the couch and sat down beside his mother. She handed the photograph to him and pointed to a man on the left-hand side. He looked to be in his mid-to late 20s, with the same grey hair as him, slicked back behind his ears instead of with the hairband like Kannin did. He stood almost a head taller than his mother, who looked much younger in the picture than she was even in Kannin's oldest memories. His face seemed serious, with slight crow's feet and deep lines beside his mouth--but nonetheless he had a gentle smile on his face. He looked so much like Kannin.
"That's your father"
"I had guessed" He said with a smirk
"His name was Suigine. He was half Uzumaki, but he still had his grey hair." She looked over at Kannin and said "He was the finest shinobi I have ever met, and he died in action." She handed him the photograph, "Keep it. You deserve to have it." And got up and went to her bedroom.
Kannin was left with a lot of questions and a single photograph. He knew his mom probably wouldn't be able to answer any more questions tonight, or maybe for a while, so he took what he could get.
'Suigine, huh..." He muttered, 'It's at least a start.'
He folded the picture up and put it in his jacket and went up stairs so work on his chains a little more.
-
By the end of the day, his shadow clones returned to him, and he learned that his counterpart hadn't found any worthwhile kenjutsu teachers yet, but his other clone had memorized a number of wind release jutsus that he would be learning for the time being.
There were actually a number of jutsus that synchronized with his sword quite well, like Vacuum Blade, which shoots out a blade of wind chakra from the user's sword. On top of the basic wind summoning, there was another that summoned a whirlwind around him for protection, and another allowed him to enhance his speed in battle, though it would likely be a major drain on his chakra.
For now, Kannin needed to sleep. The dinner with Warai and Tetsu was a lot of fun, but also a major drain on his mental battery. He changed into his pajamas and slept like a log
-
After he got ready in the morning, he again split into three and began training. One stayed at home to work on the Uzumaki chains, another went to an empty training field to practice wind release, and the third wandered around Konoha wondering how to learn kenjutsu.
At some point, the clone working on wind release realized he had enough chakra to split even further, which nearly doubled the rate at which he was progressing. The real Kannin tried the same thing to help with the chains, but his chakra reserves were too low after splitting to focus hard enough on forming the links. The good news was that since he wasn't on a mission, and was able to devote much more of his focus on creating the links, it was going much faster. He estimated that at the pace he was on, by the end of the month he'd have a chain almost 100 meters long.
As for the last clone, he walked around the village looking and asking for kenjutsu teachers. He'd walk into weapons shops, look at the blades on the walls, ask the owner, and leave. Then he'd walk up to any higher class shinobi he could find and ask. Each time they'd either tell him they didn't know, or tell him to scram. It really was slim pickings for kids in Konoha.
Just when his clone was about to give up, he decided that he would ask Harakaze-sensei. Now only to figure out where she was. So he wandered a little more, asking around, and eventually found her eating lunch at none other than Ichiraku Ramen. He sat down next to her, and after a moment, cleared his throat and asked,
"Umm, sensei, do you know anyone who could teach me kenjutsu?"
Shin jumped a little and turned around, "Oh, it's you. You nearly gave me a heart attack." She put her chopsticks down and thought for a moment, "You want to learn kenjutsu? There aren't many masters around anymore, but I do know one guy..."