Form for the initiated is an elaborate sequence of esoteric moves. Without understanding its intention the movement is useless, and so unable to penetrate the end, the means are dismissed at a glance. Two-thousand years of coded purpose mixed with the mask of pride cast from arrogant and chauvanistic rival houses had made it difficult to spot the genuine from the fake.
Guarded as he had been so long, having training for over twenty years in the short movements and hard counters Crane forms, a little over a year to gain the body needed to endure the rigors in the true teachings of the Tiger, the Dragon School, though it had a lineage in common, had shown demarked differences in its 2000 years of separation and isolation from the Root Art. The means of generating power came from a shifting, fluid base, always moving, always coiling, the point of balance ambling from one leg to the other before springing the force of the body behind a single point in an instant. Unlike the fanning of the Crane's wings or the smashing of the Tiger's hand, Ochazuke found difficulty in chambering the movement, from the extensions of a long hand to even the most elementary parts of the opening hand, three claws revolving to protect the pearl of knowledge held within the fist.
But after all, what is a Dragon, but a Snake with the face of a wolf armoured by the scales of a fish? Like the Crane it flew, its shape and means irrelevant next to its intent. Understanding the function behind each movement was the point, and where form suited function, he did his part to assist Samson. The foundational stance had its roots in the same art; knees bent shoulder-width, tension held, breathing from below the naval there in the Tanden to balance.
The Crane stood tall, his stance narrower, wings always raised forward with muscles tensed to fly.
The Dragon's base was wider, force was concentrated on the distal end, shooting from the base of the ribs and cast out in full extension. Affixed there, Ochazuke found his base, where the style intersected, and gradually expanded his knowledge from there.