The children stood lined up shoulder to shoulder on a stage behind the academy. My son was graduating today after only a year in the Academy; despite his rise from civilian status, I almost regretted it. To accomplish such a task he had poured himself into the academy forsaking any form of entertainment or childhood delight. Maybe it was because Shun was a spitting image of Garra the Sand's Kaziekage. Although this was unlikely since their techniques were completely different she still fantasized about her son becoming Hokage. Shun stood there grinning excitedly in stark contrast to the two boys on his right.
They appeared to be twins but that could just be coincidence, on the other hand the only difference she could find between the two was that one wore the "I'm-supposed-to-do-something-with-my-hair?" haircut in bright teal of all colors. The other boy had his in inch long green spikes. They both wore baggy black pants tied to their boots at the ankle and a short-sleeved shirt that mirrored the color of their hair.
Their appearance wasn't the only odd thing these boys were the only children on the stage that appeared totally unexcited about graduating from the academy. In fact had one word described them it would have been bored. She put the boys out of her mind and focused on her grinning son who stepped up to Tsunade-sama to receive his Konoha Headband and step into the life of a ninja.
He watched as the two oddities received their head bands without so much as a blink to acknowledge the accomplishment. The Hokage had announced them as "Ivan" and "Drake", so that meant foreigners. Ehhh, it was to be expected with foreigners you never could quite tell what they were doing. They were the second and third students to receive their headbands which meant second and third best grades in their graduating class. They walked off the stage blankly. Had he been in their shoes he would have been giddy with joy. He had graduated fourth in his class, and had barely been able to complete the chunin and jounin exams.
His daughter Ayumi was following in his footsteps by graduating fourth in her class. She had her blond hair tied in a pony-tail that hung to her shoulders. She was quite pretty with a childish face that made her look younger than 11, and had quite a muscular body without being Macho. She received her headband with a smile and wrapped it around her hips in a sort of belt. Ayumi turned and walked off the stage staring at Drake and Ivan with outright resentment. He wondered how Shun, Drake, and Ivan had beaten her out of the top spot in her class. She had received almost perfect scores on everything.
Michyo received her headband fifth and walked off the stage glaring with outright hate at the foreigners. She could nearly see her daughters long purple hair bristling. She talked about those two a lot because she despised them with a passion. Two weeks ago they had arrived and enrolled in the academy. They had asked for the entire years curriculum. Defying all logic the pair had completed everything the academy had to offer without missing a single point in two weeks. When charged with cheating, by Michyo of course, they simply proved they did in fact know everything the academy had to offer. Michyo got even more infuriated by this fact.
It irked her that her daughter had gotten distracted from her real purpose by these two. They were currently trying to get their family recognized as a clan with a bloodline ability. Michyo should know that their future clan was all important. It was ironic really that they didn't even have a name for their bloodline and they were trying to be recognized as a clan.
Michyo stepped off the stage and adjusted her clothing, She rewrapped the bandages that encircled both her arms, adjusted her thin shirt, smoothed out a wrinkle in her tight pants, tightened her sandals, and adjusted her kunai pouch. She forced a smile on her face and walked over to stand with Ayumi, Shun, Drake, and Ivan.
Ruzu, soon to be sensei of a group of genin, had decided on who he wanted to be his students. "Michyo, Drake, and Ivan". The Hokage blinked then smiled "you're a cruel bastard Ruzu, don't push them to hard"
And now begins the narrative of my teams 2 years as genin. The first 6 months after our initiation into the real shinobi world were awkward and still completely irrelevant. The most interesting bit of this whole time was the very first day, but still nothing happened other than my attempted murder of my teammates(I failed miserably). Until the chunin exam we lived the life of normal genin, a long series of D and C rank missions followed by an uneventful B rank mission.
I felt like quitting several times during this period due to the fact that the whole time we never used a single combat jutsu. How I hated sensei he drilled us in everything imaginable except combat. We knew how to run and travel quickly, we knew how to walk on water and swim at an unimaginable pace, we knew every relevant herb and plant in the forest, every formation and drill was pounded into us, we read tactical books and warfare analysis till I wanted to scream (sometimes I did), we'd study tanjutsu and ninjutsu techniques for days without ever trying them, and of course we had to do the moronic team build exercises.
Getting to know your teammates is a horrible chore when you hate them into the bones of your being. Sensei would have our team lecture each other about our techniques and skills. Strengths and weaknesses, I knew all of their problems and abilities. Ivan could move faster than should be possible, he even claimed to rival the 4th hokage in speed(This claim is outright laughable). His main weakness was a lack of any talent at ninjutsu, he claimed he could beat any current genin in tanjutsu (Even Rock Lee's son who was a year ahead of us!), but… he had barely been able to accomplish water walking. Drake had mastery over long range water ninjutsu he was horrible at maintaining Tanjutsu for long fights. This exercise became even more vexing to me as I was forced to hear them repeat the description of my jutsus. "You possess enormous physical strength due to your minor bloodline; Despite your affinity towards tanjutsu you use it mainly as a defensive technique to catch your opponent guard. Your primary technique is to stick throwing needles into your opponent and use them as focal points for your ninjutsu. You like to use lightning in particular, and like to use it to stun or incapacitate your opponents to avoid a real fight. Other techniques you have used in practice are: Turning your needles into explosives, changing the size and mass of the needles to make close range fighting weapons, disguising teammates as needles and throwing them to a particular point to surprise the opponent, and you most powerful technique is a storm of all 30,000 needles you carry on your person. This jutsu is theoretically impossible to block. Your weaknesses are: someone who is better at your style of long-range combat could beat you easily, if your opponent knows where the needles are your attacks become easily blocked, and your greatest weakness is anyone who can move faster than you can throw needles can defeat you easily."
I also discovered that the only person you truly earned my ire was Ivan. Drake was always polite and kind and seemed far more mature than his loud and obnoxious brother. Ivan always told you what he thought to be the truth if you asked, but if you didn't ask, he'd remain silent. He was rude obnoxious and always told the truth. The brothers always claimed to agree with each other, but their personalities seemed to clash with each other to such a degree that it almost seemed an outright lie. These months of boredom lead us up to now.
Introduction to true combat