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If Anakin didn’t know better, he’d say that Obi-Wan was attempting to dissuade him from using two lightsabers. His Master’s attacks were downright brutal and savage, the sixteen-year-old hadn’t really known that Obi-Wan was capable of such aggressive attacks. Anakin had been aware that Obi-Wan could fight like it, he had seen the recordings from his battle against the Sith on Naboo and studied them relentlessly, but it was very different to experience Obi-Wan fighting seriously. None of that harshness in his moves translated to his mind, of course. Obi-Wan was the perfect picture of serenity and even amusement in the Force. Anakin could feel his joy every time he managed to block one of his strikes, happy that his student was learning, yet his strikes didn’t lessen in power.
“Right arm up!” Obi-Wan ordered as he attempted to strike Anakin from the right, where before he had left himself defenseless.
Anakin parried his blade successfully, even if his grip on the training ‘saber he was using slipped. He, therefore, wasn’t fast enough to twirl the blade around when Obi-Wan initiated the next attack. The low-level blade halted right in front of Anakin’s throat.
“Solah,” Anakin called and watched as Obi-Wan stepped back into the ready-stance.
He wiped the sweat off his brow and adjusted his grip on his lightsaber. His own sat perfectly in his hand. He had tinkered with it relentlessly, still sometimes found a way to change or improve it. Obi-Wan had commented on it a few times since it apparently wasn’t so usual for a Jedi to work as continuously on their ‘saber as Anakin, but he couldn’t deny the results. Anakin just felt like his weapon needed to reflect every lesson he had learned, the path of the Force was always easier to follow when it rang harmoniously.
“I still think practice would be more fruitful if I actually had a blade that fit me,” Anakin said as he fell back into the first stance of Jar’kai.
He had trouble sticking to the very basic form and not immediately try to work in the stances he knew from other forms. Obi-Wan insisted that the groundwork had to be there first before he could branch out, but to Anakin it was all instinct.
And his instinct said that he needed two blades that both fit the hands they were meant to be wielded with.
“You’re not building a second lightsaber, Anakin,” Obi-Wan replied, faking an exhausted sigh.
“Yet,” Anakin added and attacked Obi-Wan once more. He held himself against his Master a little longer this time but was soon pushed to the defensive again. Anakin definitely wasn’t a fan of staying passive, but Obi-Wan cared more about having a good defense than a good offense.
If you could counter your opponent’s every strike and had more endurance than them, a passable offense could defeat them. If your defense sucked, you died.
Obi-Wan had cited old Jedi philosophy when he had begun instructing Anakin in combat, but that was what his lecture had boiled down to.
The next thing he had told Anakin was that if you could fight dirty, you should. Anakin had been taught that lesson years ago on Tatooine. Survival was never about pride or honor, but about enduring and not losing yourself.
Anakin blocked another strike, then feigned an attack towards the right. Obi-Wan adjusted his steps only minimally, but Anakin knew that he had fallen for it so he threw himself to his right faster than Obi-Wan could react and managed to reach his side to a far closer degree than he had expected. Obi-Wan jumped back again before he could connect, but Anakin had succeeded in breaking his offense regardless.
He spun his ‘sabers around with a victorious grin. “How was that, Master?”
Obi-Wan smiled and turned off his blade. “Well done, Padawan. Or what do you think?”
Confused, Anakin looked at Obi-Wan, needing a moment to realize he wasn’t speaking to Anakin at all. Instead, he had turned to a group of Initiates standing at the entrance of the training hall. There were about seven of them, all around the same age, staring at Anakin and Obi-Wan with big eyes.
“Super cool!” The first Initiate cheered and soon after the rest of the group joined in.
Taking Obi-Wan’s acknowledgment of them as an invitation, the children entered the training hall, all babbling and asking questions. Anakin felt his cheeks heat under all that praise. He was good, he knew that or Obi-Wan wouldn’t have moved up his training or he wouldn’t score so high in his classes, but Anakin always felt like he wasn’t good enough yet. There was something he had the strange feeling that there was something he had to be prepared for and his current level wouldn’t be enough.
He had to get stronger.
“What can Padawan Skywalker and I help you with?” Obi-Wan asked the children kindly.
Anakin could still go a couple more rounds before he needed a break, but he figured he might as well use the time to grab a drink. He deactivated his blades, clipped them onto his belt and then walked over to the benches where he had stashed his water.
The Initiates all looked amongst themselves, suddenly shy. After a few seconds, they seemed to have agreed on a speaker as a young Nautolan Initiate stepped forward.
“Master Kenobi, we are here to ask whether you would do us the honor to debate us for our Introduction to Diplomacy I final exam.”
Anakin couldn’t help himself, he snorted, earning himself an annoyed look from Obi-Wan. This was the third group of Initiates to approach Obi-Wan about their final exam. Obi-Wan’s reputation as a genius negotiator had started to make the rounds – praise his Master more than deserved in Anakin’s opinion – and many had decided that challenging him and having him accept that challenge was a great honor. Anakin himself had debated Quinlan for his final exam. He wasn’t a particularly good speaker, likely also never would be as he got too invested too quickly and tended to bulldoze through arguments. However, no amount of Jedi Shadow training and secret undercover missions Anakin wasn’t supposed to be aware of but knew about anyway because Quinlan tended to leave Aayla in their care when he was gone, could defeat first-hand knowledge of how the Hutt’s reign in the Outer Rim worked. Anakin had won that debate based on personal experience, but he had won it.
Anakin didn’t mind that all these Initiates were now crowding around Obi-Wan so often, honestly, he thought it was pretty adorable actually, but he would prefer it if they chose to approach Obi-Wan when he wasn’t training with Anakin.
Resigning himself to the fact that the rest of the afternoon would be spent watching Obi-Wan trying to talk himself out of being one of the examiners for the Initiates, Anakin began to put his water bottle away and collected the tunics he had thrown on the floor while sparring.
“Padawan Skywalker?”
Anakin looked up to see that one Initiate had separated from the group. She was a little shorter than the other children her age, but she looked twice as determined.
“Can I help you?”
The girl nodded seriously. “I’m Initiate Shallan Rom and I request your aid in preparing for my Introduction to Diplomacy I final exam.”
She clasped her hands behind her back and bowed once formally before resuming her previous position. Anakin smiled apologetically at Shallan.
“I’m sorry, I’d love to help, but I’m really not good at all that diplomacy stuff,” Anakin explained. He shrugged and then ran his hand through his grease hair. “I’m better at fighting.”
“My rhetoric marks are excellent,” Shallan continued, proving her point as she spoke with carefully selected words. “I’d like your help when it comes to finding arguments.”
“Arguments?” Anakin repeated. “What topic do you want to debate?”
Now the girl blushed slightly, though the dark color of her skin and the green tattoos on her cheeks almost hid it completely.
“You’re the only Padawan who has been granted early access to the upper-level greenhouses by Master Windu. I want to go there as well and have decided to debate Master Windu for that right. My crèchemaster told me you might be able to help me.”
Anakin’s face split into a grin as he heard her words. He had pretty much bullied Master Windu for the right to get access to that greenhouse when he had been eleven so he could keep taking care of one of the flowers he had inherited from Qui-Gon and didn’t have to hand it over to somebody else. The plants in those greenhouses were extremely delicate, hence not wanting any children in them without supervision. Most of them only wanted in there to prove they could sneak in and not to actually care for the greenery in there.
“And why do you want in there?” Anakin asked.
“We keep a couple of plants from Kiffu up there,” Shallan slowly. “It’s my homeworld. I’d like to see something real from it.”
That was a sentiment Anakin could relate to. He glanced at Obi-Wan, but his Master was still busy fending off the other Initiates.
“Alright, sit down,” Anakin said. Shallan smiled at him, practically vibrating with happiness and excitement. “First things first, the plants up there are very sensitive and/or dangerous, so you will want to show you can be responsible and know how to deal with poisons…”