Chapter 18
HIKARI HYUGA
"Chakra control," Asuma Sarutobi began as they gathered in the Training ground for their first formal training session.
"That will be the focus of our training for today," the Jounin began as the blonde was quick to protest at his words.
"But we already did that during the academy. I want to learn something new. A cool jutsu, like the one Sakura was taught by her sensei," and he was not aware that she had met with the pink-haired girl before.
The jounin frowned.
"The way you are, teaching you any jutsu would simply be useless," and she took that as an insult.
"How many clones can you make?" he asked, and Ino frowned.
"I don't know. Thirty, maybe a bit more," she answered as the jounin turned towards Shikamaru.
"What about you?" and the Nara heir frowned.
"Fifty-three," he answered, surprisingly accurate with his number, as that gaze finally landed onto him.
"Around a hundred fifty," he answered, as both Ino's and Shikamaru's eyes widened and even Asuma Sarutobi seemed impressed.
"He can make almost three times the number of clones as Shikamaru, so it should mean that his reserves should be three times his size, shouldn't it?" he asked Ino, who nodded, still eyeing him with surprise.
"Yes," and then the man smirked.
"But that's not really true, is it?" he asked him, and the man was right.
"His reserves, while truly substantial for his age, are about twice the size of Shikamaru's, yet the reason that he can create so many clones is because his control over his chakra is amongst the best in the village," and that was not an exaggeration.
"You will never have more chakra than boys, and you shall face many scenarios in life when your opponent has far larger reserves than you," and it was a very pragmatic and practical lesson, one which few ever understood.
"So that is why you will train chakra control, is that understood?" and Ino nodded reluctantly.
"And when I deem you ready, I will teach you a special technique just like the one taught to you by your friend," and so with that, the training began. Both Ino and Shikamaru already knew how to walk on trees, but then the Sarutobi jounin had them start standing on water.
It was quite fun to watch them struggle, but Hikari was given a task of his own as the jounin walked up to him, as Izuna fiddled with a charred leaf.
"Katon, huh," he whispered, as Hikari turned to face the bearded man who eyed the leaf with interest.
"You are already way ahead of the two of them in terms of chakra control, so I won't waste your time with it," and he was thankful for that, as the man took out his cigarette and tapped out the ash.
"So, tell me what you want to work on," and Hikari was not one to deny such a generous offer from an experienced jounin such as Asuma Sarutobi.
So, he reached into his scabbard and took out the sword, which he had just gotten repaired after their initial test, and showed it to the man.
"I am afraid I cannot help you when it comes to kenjutsu," the man teased, with a chuckle.
"I know my way around a sword, but I have seen you fight, and you are far ahead of me when it comes to kenjutsu," and that was not what he was going to ask him about.
"While I doubt that, that is not what I am about to ask of you," and with that he closed his eyes, and pushed his chakra into the blade and watched those eyes narrow as the blade gained a slightly blue hue, but not before the metal began to gleam a slight red, and Asuma Sarutobi's experienced eyes spotted the problem before he had voiced it out.
"It's becoming brittle," he spat out, and that was why the Sword had broken as quickly as it had during their short battle. The smith had mentioned how the metal had become brittle, and after some experimentation and thinking, he was able to spot the reason.
"Yes," Hikari whispered, as the blue hue vanished, yet the sword, as the Sarutobi man frowned.
"It is rare for a shinobi to use Katon to augment their weapons," and that may be true.
"Haven't you trained Futon as well? Wouldn't that be easier?" and it would be, but Futon was not what he had in mind.
"I have a technique in mind that I wish to use, and for that, I need to augment my weapon with fire nature chakra. A lot of fire nature chakra," Izuna clarified, and the man gazed to the side at his two teammates, each of whom was going about their assignment in different ways.
Shikamaru sat at the edge of the pond and had his hand placed on the surface, with his eyes closed, while Ino stood at the edge, knee deep into the water, and was trying to use her leg to stand tall on the surface.
"Well, I might not be able to help you out with your kenjutsu, but you have come to the right man for this," and there was a sense of pride in that tone as he said that.
"Because there is no one better at katon and Chakra augmentation than myself in this entire village," and Hikari knew that, as he reached for his sword, and began to examine it, its metal and sheath and all there was to it.
"How much chakra would this technique of yours need?" Hikari thought about it.
"Nearly two-thirds of my current chakra reserves," but the number would fall, for as he was entering his puberty, his reserves were growing at an astronomical rate, and while he would never have Naruto's reserves, he would have more than average.
"That much," and with that, the man rubbed his chin.
"No metal alone can handle that much chakra. Even if it was Futon, you would end up causing microfractures in the metal and destroy the whole work," and while that may make it sound impossible, Hikari had learned one thing in his time as a ninja that nothing was impossible.
"So that leaves us with only two solutions," the man whispered, as he handed him back the blade.
"Either you start carrying a large number of blades on you. A simple storage scroll should be able to do the trick, but that would be very pricey and wasteful," and shinobi were anything but wasteful.
"What's the other solution?" he asked.
"Fuinjutsu...."
0000
KURENAI YUHI
The Hokage had surprised them all with his tea selection this year. The pairings had been quite inspired, as the Sandaime-sama chose to part with traditions of old.
This was Kurenai's first year as a teacher, and she had expected to get some familiar faces in her team. But she was given a rather inspired bunch.
Inuzuka Kiba was more like his mother than he would admit. He was all brash and loud, much like the rest of his clan, but the boy was a hard worker and was not one to give up so easily.
Haruno Sakura was young and naive, but few girls weren't at that age. She was also at the top of her class and for good reason. She may not hail from a shinobi family, but the girl had talent in spades. Her precise and studious nature made her the perfect candidate to utilise her genjutsu, and already Kurenai had begun teaching the girl the art of becoming a genjutsu mistress.
The last student was a bit challenging. Choji Akimichi hailed from a clan with a great history. He was a plump boy with the kindest heart she had ever seen. He cared for his comrades, yet she feared that his kindness might prove to be rather painful for him in this world.
They had been under her care for more than a month now, and it was their first time stepping out of the village, as they were given a C-ranked mission of guarding a shipbuilder from the Waves.
"Do you really want me to put my life in your hands?" the old man teased as he downed his bottle of sake.
"How old even are you kids?" he asked.
"We are not kids," Kiba retorted as they traversed through the forest, on the way to their destination.
"We are ninja. Real ninja," he argued, but he was not convinced.
"You are nothing but kids," he taunted, as Kiba tried to retort, but she stepped in.
"You need not worry," she assured him, calmly.
"You are in capable hands," and the mission was a C-ranked protection mission, which would hardly involve anything more than a few bandits or robbers.
"And what about you? You barely look an adult yourself," and any other time that would have been a compliment for her, but Kurenai's face twitched at those words.
"I can assure you, Tazuna-san, that I am an adult," she responded kindly, yet she let her chakra come out, as the man's pace slowed and his face paled.
"A very deadly adult," and with that, they continued to walk forward for a day until they reached a lake.
"We will make camp here today..." Yet just as she was whispering that, she felt the air shift as she commanded on instinct.
"We are not alone," she whispered, and the three genin all perked up at her words, as her Kurenai let her senses expand as the air around her began to thicken.
It was not a genjutsu, yet she could feel chakra lacing the thickening air, and Kurenai knew of only one village that employed such a technique.
"Kirigakure," she whispered.
"Manji formation, now!" she ordered, and the three genin immediately took their positions around the shipbuilder, who was far less surprised than she and her team as Kurenai began to mold her own chakra and use it to keep away the mist.
"I am not usually the kind to give offers," and the voice that came out was that of a heartless killer, and Kurenai did not show, but she could sense his chakra, along with that of two others.
They were facing a total of three enemies, a number she would have been confident in taking on, except that one of them was not a regular jounin. No, his chakra had an edge to it.
A character. A demon-like characteristic that only came after decades of experience. The other two weren't so special and seemed rather similar to one another. Barely a chunin level.
"But for once I will make an exception," and she focused in on his chakra, her mind racing with indecision as she thought of their next move.
They could try and fight, but as proud as she was of her students, were they ready to face such a battle? This was to be a C-ranked mission, yet the type of enemy and circumstances they faced made it clear that it was at least a B or an A-ranked mission.
The lack of surprise on Tazuns-san's face showed that the man knew about it, so they were operating on faulty intel, which further complicated things.
"Hand over the shipbuilder, and I will make your death quick and painless," and Kurenai's decision was made.
"Kiba, Sakura, Choji," she whispered.
"We retreat on my signal," she ordered, and the three nodded in unison as she began to mold her chakra.
"I am afraid I cannot do that," and then Kurenai moved, as she cycled through a set of handseals quickly as she faced the tree to her right.
"Katon: Fire Bomb Jutsu!" and she whistled out a massive torrent of fire, as her genin rushed back, and as the chunin tried to circle her, she felt chains wrap around her body.
"You are dead!" and indeed they were Kiri nin, and they wrapped those chains around her and pulled at them, to shred her body.
Yet the figure entrapped in their chains quickly turned into nothing but a giant tree, for she had already trapped them within her genjutsu as she caught her genin.
"What are you doing? My town is the other way?" Tazuna-san retorted.
"Oh, we are going to discuss that and a lot of other things, Tazuna," and the respect was now all gone from her voice, yet she stopped suddenly as she felt that same foreign chakra rush forth and jump in front of them.
"Where do you think you lot are going?" he questioned, and he wore baggy pants, and bandages covered his mouth, yet that headband and that sword told her exactly who their opponent was.
She had expected them to be a Kiri jounin, which would have been bad enough. But this. This was a disaster.
"You rejected my offer," he whispered, his voice raspy and ominous like a demon, for that was who he was.
The Demon of the Bloody Mist. Zabuza Momochi, the wielder of the Executioner's blade.
"Now I am going to take my sweet time butchering you lot...."
00000
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