Kurenai stood in a small clearing in the middle of the forest in the middle of what was training ground 11. She liked these grounds best of all because they were almost completely wooded, ideal for training to work in the dense forests that surrounded Konoha and that covered most of the Land of Fire. It was where her sensei had taken her and her team when they were genin.
In front of her were her new charges. The three stood in front of her, Kiba looking bored and tapping his feet, seemingly impatient. Hinata, not surprisingly she thought sadly, was looking down at the floor self consciously and playing with the hem of her jacket. Shino just stood there stoically waiting, looking at her from behind those glasses.
An Aburame, a Hyuuga and an Inuzuka. She had to admit this was unusual and that she should probably consider herself lucky to get such a team. Here were three juniors from what were some of the most prestigious families in Konoha. Not only that, but they had talents that complimented each other. She knew that part of the reason this team had been selected was to construct a team that specialized in scouting and reconnaissance. This could be very valuable for the village, but also it was very dangerous, as they might expect to eventually be sent deep into enemy territory since they were to specialize in tracking, information gathering and avoiding detection.
Looking at her charges, especially the impatient and hyperactive Inuzuka and the painfully shy and unconfident Hinata, she could tell it might be a long time before they were anywhere close to doing anything that lofty. Getting them to work together would be the first step in the right direction.
Kurenai began, "Ok, as I have already told you my name is Yuhi Kurenai, and I will be your new sensei. Since we don't know each other why don't we start with some introductions? I will go first. My name you already know. I like kind people, my genuine friends, and I'm a great fan of music and the arts. I dislike cruel people, bigots, people who underestimate me because I am a woman, and overly salty foods. My dream is to become an even better Jounin for my students, and to one day soon begin an in depth research into genjutsu and genjutsu theory. Though I doubt I'll ever be a Sanin or anything of the like, I would love to one day reach that sort of level in genjutsu at least."
"Me next sensei!" said Kiba, "My name is Inuzuka Kiba and this here," he points at the dog on his head, "is Akamaru. I like my pack, spicy dishes and kicking people's butts with Akamaru. I dislike stuck up jerks, people who disrespect me and people who talk trash about those precious to me. My dream is to become a great ninja and master all the techniques of my clan. And oh yea to marry a real pretty girl who loves dogs one day."
Kurenai nodded, and signaled Shino to go next.
"My name is Aburame Shino. I like some things. I dislike those who kill insects for no reason. My dream is to breed a brand new strain of insects for my clan to utilize, and to become an asset as a shinobi to both my clan and the village."
Kurenai nodded, surprised he had said that much. It seemed like the boy did not like to talk much, and that was likely the most they would hear from him for a while. She turned to Hinata, "Ok, you next."
"Umm.." the young girl began, her gaze coming up and going back to the floor again after a quick look at the others present, "I like… um… p-people who are really nice and keep trying even when they keep getting put down by everyone… I um… I dislike mean people, and when people are angry… my d-d-dream is to have my father and my c-clan… other important people… acknowledge me… and to get stronger" She said the last part in a hardly audible whisper.
Kurenai frowned. Maybe Anko's assessment of the girl as needing serious work on her mental state was not far off base. She would definitely need a lot of remedial help with that body language and her apparent lack of any meaningful self confidence. As her Jounin, it was her responsibility to help her with this. But unless it was a special situation, she didn't really feel comfortable showing favoritism and spending a lot of extra time with one of her students if she was not going to do the same to all the others. It was also seriously frowned upon by the Hokage and the administration. But she could tell Hinata would greatly benefit from someone taking her under their wing.
Anko may not have been the best choice… but this girl, it had became clear to her in just a few minutes, did need some mentoring outside of what Kurenai could give her just in a team setting. That much was clear judging from her stammering responses, her body language and what she had actually said. Not to mention how her asshole of a father treated her.
Kurenai would do her best for her, without a doubt, and Kurenai suspected that if the girl got close to her teammates and began training with them on a regular basis she would gain some confidence. Still, as she was, Hinata did not have a bright future as a shinobi if she did not have a dramatic change in attitude and confidence. Anko was willing, though for what reasons was mostly mystery to the red eyed Jounin. She had some good guesses, and she wasn't sure any of those motivations were essentially the best. Kurenai mentally sighed. She had already said yes. Sure, why the hell not? It might also do some good for Anko, to have to spend time with such a nice, quiet, non-violent girl. She hoped the younger girl might rub off a little on the older one. She also quietly prayed that the older one wouldn't rub off too much on the younger one.
"Allright everyone, great introductions" began Kurenai, "We are now Team Eight, so that means we will need to work on working well as a unit. We will also be doing a great deal of training together, but as each of you has your own clans, a great deal of your training will be done at home. Now that you are out of the academy that doesn't mean that training gets easier, but instead it gets much harder. Is that clear to everyone?"
"Hell yea!" said Kiba with explosive enthusiasm, "we are going to train hard every day until we can kick anyone's ass, right Akamaru?" the small dog responded with a cute bark.
Shino just nodded, and Hinata politely nodded as well. So it was on.
She spent the first half of the morning sparring them, so she could get a sense of their abilities and they could start to get a sense of what each of them was capable of.
She limited them to taijutsu, and in that matchup Shino turned out to be the strongest of the three. When he and Kiba fought, the Inuzuka was much more wild in his moves and attacks, some of his moves no doubt learned from his clan. However, Shino's stances were much stronger, and Kiba could rarely get past his guard. In contrast, Shino attacked much less, instead waiting patiently for an opening and then hitting Kiba almost every time. By the end Kiba had many more scrapes and bruises that the bug user, and was also noticeably more winded, so after a small break she had Hinata pair up against the Aburame.
The match had been revealing, to say the least. Hinata activated her Byakugan and got into her Juken ready stance. At first Shino began to attack, and Hinata was able to parry all his blows with relative ease. She even managed to hit Shino's arms and shoulders a few times, closing some of his tenketsu points.
When Shino began to feel his arms going numb, he realized he couldn't take it easy on the girl and that he was at a serious disadvantage against her when it came to taijutsu. So he began to attack her all out, trying to use his superior size, his strong stances and superior strength to break through her guard, attacking much more aggressively. As soon as Shino started to go all out, Hinata seemed to falter. To her experienced eye, Kurenai could see that it wasn't necessarily that Hinata did not have the skill to deal with such an assault, but that when the bigger Shino started pushing her her concentration gave way, and she looked to Kurenai to be frankly intimidated by the bigger boy's aggressiveness and power.
After that the battle turned decidedly in Shino's favor, and he began to land many more hits than the young kunoichi did, though he was being considerate enough to pull his punches at the last second, hitting her with only a fraction of his real power. Though that was nice, Kurenai would have to talk to the boy and tell him to hit Hinata just a hard as he would hit Kiba. Enemy shinobi would not pull their punches against the girl, and he was not doing her any favors. Though for today she was glad Shino pulled his punches, otherwise Hinata would probably have disintegrated in her fighting even more.
After a break, it was Kiba and Hinata's turn. The fight, to Kurenai's disappointment, went much the same way as Hinata's previous one. At first it seemed like Hinata was holding Kiba and that she was the one in command of the fight. When Kiba realized taking it easy on the girl was going to lead to a swift defeat, he began to attack with renewed speed and ferocity, growling and making animal noises in battle in true Inuzuka fashion. At this point, Hinata's focus faltered, and it was plain to Kurenai that she was intimidated and mentally out of the fight when the intensity seem to ratchet up. Again, Kurenai was left with the impression that the girl just did not believe she could really handle herself in that situation. Her mind gave way long before her skills did.
Kurenai called for a break. After the fight was over, she ventured a look at Hinata. The girl was looking down at the ground, looking downcast and depressed. Kurenai's heart went out to the girl. Kurenai suspected that whenever the girl performed less than some arbitrary standard (most likely established in most part by her father's expectations) it just seemed to reinforce to the girl exactly what she thought was wrong with her. With just a few minutes of watching the Hyuuga heir (or ex-Hyuuga heir, thought the shift in title had not been made official yet), Kurenai's opinion of the Hyuuga clan went down at least a few stories. This girl needed support and encouragement, and she was willing to bet gold to lead that was the exact opposite of what she was getting.
As the two teammates walked back to where she and Shino were sitting, Shino surprised her by saying quietly, "you could have beat us both, Hinata." The other girl just nodded and seemed to shrink back a little in on herself, in a way that did not seem like she was too convinced about that but did not want to argue the point with the other boy. Kurenai was impressed at the observational powers and insight of the bug user, noticing that Hinata had the skills to beat them both but just lacked the mental fortitude to do so. Kurenai was reminded that she had three students, not one, and she dedicated herself to examining and learning as much as she could about her other charges as well.
After a break for lunch, and then some team building exercises, Kurenai dismissed them to go home, saying they would start on missions tomorrow and to meet here at field 11 at 9am. As Team 8 was leaving the training grounds, Kurenai spoke up,
"Hinata, can you stay behind for a bit? I want to talk to you about something."
Hinata looked back at her, seemingly a little worried about what her sensei would want to talk to her about. "Hai, Kurenai-sensei" she said.
Kurenai waited until her other two charges were out of earshot.
She looked at the girl in front of her. Hinata was fidgeting, unsure of what to do with herself, looking self consciously, or perhaps worriedly from side to side. What it was that made the girl so uncomfortable Kurenai couldn't be sure. Her hands were in the pockets of her jacket, and when that didn't seem to satisfy her she took her hands out of her pockets and started pressing her index fingers together in a nervous gesture. Kurenai sighed before she began.
"Hinata, I need to talk to you about your future."
"Hai." Said the girl in a small voice. Given what had transpired yesterday with her father, however, Kurenai couldn't blame the girl for being really uncomfortable with all this, or with feeling somewhat depressed today.
First off, Kurenai needed to find out what it was the girl wanted, what it was she was willing to do, before anything could be decided or anything could be done. So she began,
"Hinata, I know you said you want to become stronger. To earn the respect of your family" she didn't want to say father, being afraid she might say the word with some venom in her voice. "So, I take it you will not be trained by him anymore?"
Hinata seemed to shrink into the ground. "No sensei my father said he won't train me. He says I'm… he says its better if he spends time training my younger sister, Kurenai-sense."
She nodded. Kurenai had gathered as much from their meeting the day before, she just wanted to confirm whether Hinata had been told any differently in private. Then she asked, "so, is there anyone else in your clan who will train you then?"
To Kurenai's surprise, the young girl shook her head. "If otosan says he won't train me, then no one else in the clan is allowed to train me without his permission. H-He said he didn't want anyone wasting their time with me since… since I'm a failure." The girl was looking down at her feet, and seemed to look even smaller and more vulnerable now. Her eyes watered, and Kurenai saw the girl was trying bravely not to cry. She sniffed loudly, but to the girl's credit, not a single tear rolled down her face.
Feeling a lump in her throat, Kurenai asked kindly, "well, honey, if no one is allowed to train you how are you supposed to get stronger?" she remembered Hiashi-sama had said about wanting his daughter to fight like a Hyuuga.
Hinata swallowed a lump in her throat, but spoke in a more or less steady voice, "I already know the fundamentals of my family style, I just have to work to get better at them… if I was any good I could already… but I can't…" then a few tears really started falling down the girls face, and her sleeve went to her face to dry them off. After just a few moments the girl got her crying to stop, though she was still sniffly and her voice cracked a little, "I'm sorry, Kurenai-sensei" she said.
Inside, Kurenai was seething in rage at her family. What kind of a people could do this to a young girl? It was like she did not matter much at all outside of what abilities she could develop, or what she could do for the family name. But that was not the kind of attitude Hinata needed from her right now.
"Hinata," Kurenai began, "even if you already know what you are supposed to do, without someone supervising your training you won't get very far. Without someone there for you to guide you every step of the way, it's very unlikely you will get as good as you want to."
Hinata looked at her teacher, and the look in Hinata's eyes said the girl already knew that… that her father was condemning her to almost certain failure. Of course that wouldn't matter to him, Kurenai thought bitterly, since the man had already decided his eldest daughter was a failure and wanted only to make sure she didn't damage the Hyuuga family name. That this young girl had to live with that knowledge really wrenched at Kurenai's heart.
Still, she had to know what the girl wanted, what the girl was willing to do. Only then could she know if she could help her.
"Hinata, do you want to be strong?"
The girl looked down at the ground, and kicked the earth with her foot. "Yes" she muttered.
Kurenai frowned. That wasn't good enough.
"Hinata, look me in the eye."
The girl looked up at her, and met her eyes. Hinata's eyes were hurt, lost and just a little bit scared. Still, Kurenai had to know.
"Hinata, do you want to be strong?"
Hinata held her eye. And then she saw it. Behind all the hurt, confusion, fear and self doubt, she could see a little bit of steel in the girl's eye. It was small, but a bit of determination inside of her that had not been completely driven away by her father shone through and let itself be known. "Yes" the young Hyuuga said, voice still shaky, but still holding Kurenai's gaze.
Kurenai looked at the girl, and nodded. Good. You couldn't build something from nothing after all. And now she knew they had something they could build on with this girl.
"Hinata, me nor anyone else outside you clan can teach you to fight in the Hyuuga style. Only you or a member of your family can do that. And I can't train you in a conventional kunoichi way, I'm not really allowed to spend a lot of extra time training one of my students as opposed to the others unless it is under very special circumstances," Hinata nodded, looking disappointed but not like she hadn't been expecting something like it. That kind of attitude made Kurenai curse Hiashi in her mind again.
"However," she continued, and she could see Hinata perk up a little, and she was glad at least the girl still allowed herself to get her hopes up, even if just a little, "I do have a friend who is aware of your situation. She is willing to train you. In fact," she pulled her face close to Hinata and whispered conspiracitoriously, "she practically begged me to let her train you," At this Hinata's eyes went wide. It was nice to get such a reaction from her.
"She is a very, very good kunoichi," Kurenai said as she straightened up, "and as I said she seems to have taken a special interest in you," Hinata seemed about to ask why, but Kurenai held her hand up to silence the girl so she could continue, "but she will not be able to train you in your family style, any more than anyone outside your house could. Though I suspect she will integrate some of your family style's strengths in whatever training program she might assign for you,"
"But, you will be trained in a way of fighting and battle philosophy that I can guarantee will be much different than that of the Hyuuga clan. I can also guarantee that your training will be hard, demanding, and in some ways will seem insane and unduly dangerous," Hinata's eyes widened a little bit but the young girl said nothing, "and it will require a profound level of commitment. But, I can also guarantee that she can make you one hell of a kunoichi."
Kurenai stopped and crossed her arms as she looked at the girl, waiting for her to respond. She could not see her eyes because she had gone back to looking back at the ground. Eventually, Hinata said, "won't my father be mad about that? Even if I do become stronger, he will be displeased that it wasn't in the Hyuuga family style."
Kurenai felt like letting out a weary sigh, but instead she put a bit of steel in her voice to make her point, "I'm not going to lie to you Hinata. You father has set the stack against you, basically he has set you up to fail, and I don't like it one bit. You know this is true, I saw it in your eyes a little while ago," the girl lowered her head a little lower, and it was clearly a sign of shame and confirming what she had said, "so," Kurenai continued, "as I see it you only have two choices. Play by your father's game, your family's game, and almost certainly fail to meet their expectations using the Juken style and prove them right. Or you can seek strength your own way, with people that will support you, and then you can become strong enough to impress everyone in your family. Well then after that your father can complain all he wants about it being textbook Juken or not. But while they might not like what you have done, they will certainly respect you, your father will respect you, because if I know anything about the Hyuuga's is that they respect strength."
The girl did not move or change expression, but Kurenai could see the gears working in her brain. The girl looked very conflicted, and for good reason. This might be the very first time she was considering doing something that might displease her father.
The girl looked up at her teacher, hands together in front of her. "Ano… this friend of yours… why would she want to teach me?"
Kurenai shrugged, "I'm not sure myself" she answered honestly, " I guess you'll have to ask her yourself, if you want to know."
Hinata nodded, and took a deep breath. "Kurenai-sensei… I think I would like to receive training… even if it's not Juken style…" Hinata bowed deeply to her teacher, "Please, sensei! I would be honored to learn whatever your friend is willing to teach me!" She said in a rush.
Kurenai smiled. For some reason, she really liked this girl. "OK Hinata, this is how it's going to work. You will be with me and your team from 9 in the morning to noon, training. From noon until about four to seven, depending on the day, we will be taking care of whatever D-Ranked missions are assigned to us,"
"Your father gave you to my care, formally. So now I have to explain what all that means, though you probably know most of it by now. Though you are legally an adult, since you are part of a clan by clan law you are subject to the authority of whoever is in charge of you as far as training and mission goes until you are fifteen. You know this already. Your father gave that authority to me, and I will be giving that authority over to Anko if everything works out, so she will set your training and train you. However, as your Jounin, I also have a great deal of authority over you as far as what you do, when you do it, missions and things like that. On top of that your father also has authority over you. So in essence, it's a legal mess," she said, scratching the back of her head as she tried to sort it out, and failing, "but essentially we will be in charge of everything except your family life. Got it?" the younger girl nodded her understanding, though not looking entirely sure of what all this actually meant. Oh well, thought Kurenai, it's not a big deal unless something happens.
"So if it all works out, you will meet Anko at 5 in the morning," this elicited a bit of a widened stare by the girl, "everyday, and train until about eight. Then she might have you do another hour or two after we are done for the day, depending at what time we finish," the girl paled a little at hearing the training regimen.
"Are you sure you can handle that, Hinata-chan?"
"H-Hai.." said Hinata, though Kurenai could see the girl was not entirely sure if she was going to be able to handle it. Well, thought Kurenai, she would grow into it or she would not.
"One more thing Hinata. We will enforce this schedule if you decide you want to do this, and we will not ease up on it at all no matter how much you beg. However, tomorrow is going to be the first full day, and as such it is a trial day. If you go through tomorrow and decide that this isn't what you want to do, then come and tell me and I will understand. Anko will not train you, and you can just be a standard genin with your team, and I will do as much as I can to help you out."
The girl nodded. "Hai, thank you Kurenai-sensei."
Kurenai looked down at the girl for another second, then said, "by the way. The name of your new teacher is Mitarashi Anko. Meet her in field fourteen in the morning. I know her well, so believe me when I say that she will not really be trying to kill you… it probably will only feel that way. And… she's never really killed any innocent people, despite what you might think after spending some time with her." Kurenai felt really odd defending her friend in this way beforehand, but it seemed sensible that someone like Hinata should have a bit of a heads up ahead of time.
Hinata's mouth, in the meantime, had dropped open, "Umm.. Kurenai-sensei… are you sure it will be… you know… safe?"
She thought for a moment, then said, "Probably not, but you won't die, and she can definitely take you where you want to go. Just have a little faith, and it will be fine."
Hinata gulped, but just nodded.
Kurenai smiled. "OK then, I guess that's it. I'll see you tomorrow Hinata-chan"
Hinata gave her a small smile, and another deep bow, "see you tomorrow sensei."
Kurenai turned to leave, and then added one more thing. "Hinata, you… shouldn't mention Anko to your family. Some… things happened in the past and they don't like her very much because of it. In training, it's often best to keep what you are doing secret. It would be best if this whole thing was not known to your family, for your own good and the good of your training as well."
Hinata paused. "So… should I lie?" she said in an uncertain voice.
"No," replied Kurenai, "you should be a shinobi. See you tomorrow Hinata-chan."
And with that, Kurenai took off, leaving the young Hyuuga girl alone with her thoughts.
000
Hinata arrived at field fourteen with a few minutes to spare until the time she was supposed to meet her new sensei. She had always been a morning person, but getting herself out of bed at a bit past four in the morning was a bit much even for her. The girl yawned loudly and brought her hand up to cover her mouth. She wondered if she could handle this schedule every day she did not have a mission early in the morning. Hinata supposed she would get used to it, and with that sat next to an old, large tree.
The sky had that pre dawn glow that happened before the sun rose over the horizon. As she sat back she heard the world around her, hearing the rush of water through a small creek nearby, the birds waking and starting to chirp in the early morning dew, the rustle of the wind thought the leaves. She loved nature. She loved being outside, where she could be quiet and she could just be without anyone around to make her feel … well, she didn't want to dwell on that.
She was leaning back with her hands on the soft grass when she felt something cold and scaly going over her fingers. Hinata yelped in surprise and jumped to her feet, whirling around to see what had touched her.
There was a small green and yellow snake, very thin and about three feet long. Hinata looked at it curiously as it looked around, seemingly searching for something. She recognized it, part of their training had been to identify potentially dangerous wildlife. This was just a simple grass snake, not poisonous or dangerous at all.
The snake finally turned to her, and Hinata could have sworn it was looking right at her. Instead of turning and going away, it started heading towards her.
Hinata was surprised and puzzled by the boldness of the animal. When it got close she jumped to the side, landing a good eight feet away. The snake turned to face her and started slithering towards her again.
The young Hyuuga frowned, not sure why this snake seemed to be following her. When it got close she would jump away. It would then look around until it found her, and started slithering towards her again.
Hinata jumped away from the little snake a few more times, before realizing it didn't want to leave her alone. She thought for a moment, and then came to a decision. Sure, why not? It was harmless, just a little grass snake.
She crouched down and held her arm out as the snake approached her. When it reached her it slowed down and looked up at her curiously. The snake seemed to be at least somewhat intelligent in how it regarded her, and it made Hinata wonder all the more about the little snake.
After a few seconds, seemingly satisfied about something, the snake crawled up her arm. Through her jacket she could feel it's scales wrapping around her arm so it would not fall off. It felt kind of weird, and cold, but… nice. She giggled a little as the brightly colored snake crawled up her shoulder and tried to get close to her face.
Hinata moved her other hand in front of the snake and gently led it away from her face. It then started crawling onto her other arm. She held her arms up in fascination as she watched the snake entwined around one arm, and slithering itself onto the other. Hinata laughed in happiness and amusement. This was one of the neatest things that had ever happened to her.
She couldn't help herself, she knew it was silly but she started talking to the little snake in a quiet voice. "You're a good snake aren't you? Yes you are, of yes you are! I like you." She said to the snake, imitating some of the things she had heard Kiba say to his dog the day before when the boy had been playing with the him. She moved one finger to scratch it under its chin. To her surprise, the snake seemed to like it, moving its head and rubbing it against her finger. It made the smile on her face widen.
"You like snakes, do you?" she heard a playful voice come from above.
Hinata looked up, startled by the person suddenly sitting in a tree branch overhead. It was a young woman, maybe 24 or 25, with wild purple hair held in a pony tail that seemed to defy gravity behind her head. She had purple eyes that were just a shade lighter than her hair. The woman wore a short (very short!) tan mini skirt and a same colored trench coat that looked like it went all the way down to her ankles. She wore a (gasp!) fishnet bodysuit that ended about mid-thigh. The suit, she noticed with a blush, was sheer see through but somehow hid all the things it was supposed to hide around her chest area. To complete the outfit the woman wore metal shin guards above standard shinobi sandals.
The first thing Hinata thought was that this woman must have … incredible … self confidence to go around dressed like that. The second thing she thought was that she wished she had that kind of confidence, but that immediately made her blush. No she didn't mean, you know, she wanted confidence, but not… no… not so she could dress like that!
The woman smirked at her, then jumped down from the tree to stand in front of her. She stood with her hands on her hips with an almost arrogant demeanor about her, a bit of a creepy mischievous grin on her face.
"Hinata, right?", began the woman, "I'm your new sensei."
Hinata stood back a little and bowed low to her new teacher, saying what she had planned to say to her, "thank you for taking me as your student, Mitarashi-sensei. I promise I will do my best!" the little snake squirmed in her hands a little.
Mitarashi looked at the young girl with an odd look on her face, then said with a dismissive wave, "don't be so formal, I really hate that kind of shit. Just call me Anko or sensei, that will be good enough for now."
"A-Ano… I'm sorry sensei…" said Hinata, suddenly a little nervous and feeling insecure at having already done something to displease her new teacher.
Anko raised an eyebrow and gave Hinata a small lopsided smile. "What are you apologizing for? There is no need to apologize for being polite. Damn silly girl."
"Uhm… sorry Anko-sensei…"
"What the hell are you apologizing for now?" said Anko, now clearly amused at the girl. "And I just told you, call me Anko or sensei, I don't want you calling me anything else stupid girl."
Hinata was starting to go into a state of mild panic. She had not even known her teacher for a full minute yet and she was already screwing up. Like she always screwed up.
"…sensei, I'm s-s-sorry sensei, I didn't mean…"
"Stop!" Said Anko sharply. The young girl was starting to panic inside Anko could see. This was going to some serious work.
"Do you always apologize this much about everything Hinata-chan?" she asked in a much darker but still amused tone.
"Ano… I'm so-"
"STOP! Don't apologize to me, just answer the damn question!" said Anko with some anger in her voice (for theatric effect).
It seemed to work, because the girl seemed to shrink and collapse in on herself more, but she didn't start with another apology.
Hinata was wondering what she had done already to upset her new sensei… she didn't know. She felt she should have known, but she didn't. Part of her automatically attributed that to her being innately deficient in some way. There was always something about her that made her screw up, wasn't there?
Anko had been in the interrogation squad of ANBU and had learned to read people's faces and body language like an open book (thanks to Ibiki's fine tutelage). It was clear to her by seeing the emotions passing through Hinata's face that the girl was taking all the blame for her displeasure into herself, thinking it was all her fault. Anko suspected it was the same way in most things in her life, that somehow her father treating her like shit was entirely her fault.
Anko also knew from her extensive psychological training that if an individual thought they were intrinsically flawed, that undermined the whole mental structure of what it took to be a confident human being. Well, she had to show her somehow that she wasn't intrinsically pathetic, at least in one aspect of her life. That would open the door to confidence in all the other parts of her life.
The Special Jounin laughed a wicked laugh inside. She knew just how to do that. But first things first.
After a minute, seeing that Anko was still expecting an answer, Hinata replied honestly.
"Ermm.. yea.. I-I guess I do apologize a lot about things…" she stammered. She noticed she still had the small snake in her hands. She gently kneeled down and put it down in the glass. To her surprise, it slithered next to her foot, rolled itself up in concentric circles and just laid down next to her.
Anko noticed it but didn't say anything. Inside though she was pleased. If this little guy had taken a liking to her then things were going according to plan, for now.
The Special Jounin cleared her throat, and then swept her arm dramatically, as if making a royal pronouncement. "Well Hinata, your training starts right here, right now. From now on, under no circumstances are you to apologize to anyone about anything. I don't care if it makes people angry or you feel like you've done something wrong. Off duty and on duty, you will not utter a single apology until I've cleared you to do so." Anko looked at her student dangerously, letting some of her killer intent leak out, "And I'm serious about this, Hina-chan. If you do apologize at any time I will find out. And you will not like the 'corrective steps' I will take if you do, do I make myself clear?"
Hinata was shocked by this new rule set up by her new sensei, very intimidated by the woman's frightening killer intent (she didn't know this was only a small fraction of it), and very puzzled by this new rule. No apologizing? What did that have to do with training her to become a stronger shinobi? Did this woman really want to train her, or was she just… having a laugh at her expense?
Still, Kurenai-sensei trusted this woman and she didn't seem… bad, really. Even if a little odd. And Hinata really was determined to do her best to get stronger.
"Hai sensei… I will do what you ask" the young Hyuuga replied.
"Great!" said the older woman with a smile on her face, "I'm sure you won't let me down Hinata-chan."
The younger girl blushed a little at this, and nodded. But she had to ask, "Erm… sensei…? Wha-What does not apologizing have to do… with getting stronger?"
Anko smiled the smile of a serpent down at the younger girl. "Ask me again some other time, if I deem you worthy of receiving the answer then I will give it to you."
The girl simply nodded, adverting her eyes from the older woman and looking down. She felt like she should apologize for some reason, but she wasn't sure why. She sighed. Well… she wasn't happy about this, not really in the least. She had been raised to be polite and that not having manners meant one was little more than some low-class wench or drunkard off the street. Hinata could not see the point, but she was determined to be dutiful and follow her Jounin sensei's instructions.
When the girl looked up, she found that her sensei was gone.
"Sensei…?"
"Over here" came Anko's voice from behind Hinata.
Hinata turned to see the woman standing about twenty feet from her. Before Hinata had turned all the way, the woman did a fast motion with her arm. It took Hinata a split second to realize that her sensei had thrown a kunai at her, faster than she had ever seen a kunai fly before. For some reason, the thought that it was her sensei, a Jounin, who had thrown the kunai, the highest of ninja made her freeze. Hinata did not react in time but stayed frozen as the kunai headed straight in between her eyes...
To Hinata's utter surprise and shock, the kunai stopped within an inch of her forehead. The girl had been so frozen she had not even closed her eyes. It seemed to hang in the air in front of her eyes for what seemed like a long time, when in reality it could not have been more than a fraction of a second. Then the kunai was yanked backwards, and it flew through the air back to its thrower.
Hinata looked closer, and she saw the reason she wasn't dead. Her new sensei had attached a strand of ninja wire attached to the ring on butt of the kunai. The young Hyuuga did not feel any emotion at all for the first few seconds after, Anko-sensei standing there holding the kunai with wire casually in her hand looking at her with an unreadable expression.
Then Hinata felt the first feeling from her brief would-be brink with death. Shame. Hinata hung her head and had to struggle not to cry. She was so pathetic. Here she was, a shinobi of the leaf, and she couldn't even move when a simple kunai was thrown her way. That she had been caught by surprise was no excuse. Her sensei had hardly even met her yet and Hinata had already shown her that she was pathetic. Hinata knew she wasn't any good, but she had hoped, hoped, that maybe she could keep that part of herself hidden long enough… to where the new teacher would give her a chance. Were she might… oh she didn't know what! Maybe she shouldn't even try, she was so patheric…
Hinata knew her new sensei probably wouldn't want to train her now. Maybe she had taken pity on her before, but by this display she would no doubt decide she would rather not waste her time, and Hinata could not blame her for it. She could just imagine what her father would say if he was here. Hinata imagined her new sensei would do a similar job of letting her know how much of a failure and a useless shinobi she was, as her father seemed to think she needed constant reminder. If she was lucky her new sensei would train her for a little while longer before deciding she wasn't worth it and ditching her. For some reason Hinata felt like barking a laugh. Not that it would be a surprise if her sensei did do that. Along with the traditional feelings of uselessness, shame and pain, there came a new feeling that Hinata was not used to: bitterness. It genuinely surprised her that she was feeling bitter for the first time she could remember as her mind went over the same kinds of thoughts she almost always had every time she trained with her father.
She looked over at her sensei, expecting her to have a displeased look on her face and to start listing her inadequacies at any moment. To her surprise, her sensei was standing casually with her arms crossed, a playful smirk playing on her face.
"You can do better than that. I know you can." Anko said to her. Hinata was surprised; this wasn't what she had been expe…
In the blink of an eye, the kunai was flying at her again, this time much faster than before, so fast it had turned into a blur. This time Hinata didn't think, her body just moved, her many years of shinobi training kicking in this time. She moved to the side and dropped the same knee on that side so her body would move out of the way faster, something you normally would never do but the blade came at her so fast she had no other choice. The girl felt a sharp pain as the kunai nicked her neck as it flew past her head, imbedding itself with a loud thunk in a tree behind her. The movement caused the young kunoichi to fall on the ground.
The young girl looked at her sensei wide-eyed, panting, and the older woman was just standing there grinning at her. She wasn't reaching for any more weapons though, and looked to be giving her a bit of time, so the young Hyuuga felt (somewhat) safe at the moment. Hinata turned her head to look at the kunai that had been thrown at her. It was there imbedded in a tree about twenty feet behind her, the ninja wire still attached to the ring on the butt. The woman had let go of the wire, throwing it harder then she had when she had failed to dodge it. Hinata remembered what Kurenai had said. About it seeming like Anko trying to kill her.
"Ano… sensei… I missed… how-erm… you… you could have-… you know" killed me! She wanted to scream, but she was far too polite and unsure of herself to do anything like that.
"Nonsense Hina-chan. I knew you would be able to dodge it, no sweat. I had faith in you, see? If I didn't I wouldn't risk spending some time talking to the ANBU over a training accident. I'd never be able to live down killing my first student on the first day, thought it might make some interesting stories… hmm and I'd be able to get out of teaching for life most likely…" she said, while tapping the side of her head with her finger as if she was contemplating that such a thing had possibilities.
Hinata gulped and looked at her sensei with wide eyes. Would her sensei really… kill her so she wouldn't have to teach anyone ever again? The thought was madness, she would have dismissed it earlier in that day that no one would be so cruel as to do that… but Anko was a scary woman, and she found herself having a tiny bit of doubt in her conviction right now.
Still, another part of what she had said resonated in her head. I knew you would be able to dodge it, no sweat. I had faith in you, see? How did this woman who hardly knew her have such faith in her… so much faith in her abilities that she would risk her (Hinata's) life on them? Especially after the dismal presentation just a few moments prior. She didn't trust her own abilities to the point of putting her life in the hands her skills, why did her knew sensei who didn't even know her make her take that weight, that responsibility? A small part of her, however, ate up her words like would a starving man in prison. Though she knew the woman had nothing to base those sentiments on, a part of her inside felt warm and... happy at just hearing those words. Even if it as small, it felt good.
And a scary thought came over Hinata. With real surprise at the suddenness of it, she realized she would gladly risk her life like this if it earned her the recognition of her teacher, her Jounin Sensei, Anko-san. It all at once saddened her and embarrassed her as well as made her nervous and just (if she was brave enough to allow herself to feel it) a little bit of hope. That she would suddenly be craving the recognition of this woman she had hardly met and didn't know made was what made her feel somewhat embarrassed and pathetic at being so needy for attention and praise.
But if someone were to recognize her, if she were to feel like she earned it… Hinata quickly cleared those thoughts away. Given how dismal she was, she doubted such a thing would come to pass.
Still, she would try, even if she knew she would likely fail. She would not know what to do with her life if she gave up… it was too dark an outcome to contemplate. So she would try, she would, she would do her best.
Hinata stood up, ignoring the dribbling of blood down her neck. She faced her Jounin Sensei head on, a look of determination on her face. "What now, sensei?"
The snake woman looked at the girl in front of her, and smiled, inwardly pleased. You'll do just fine. You can do much, much better than you realize… and you will, if I have anything to say about it.
Anko reached into one of her pockets and produced a scroll. Hinata stared as in one smooth motion, her new sensei opened the scroll and laid it down in front of her, the small scroll unrolling to almost fifteen feet across.
The woman bent down and placed her hands on the scroll, letting her chakra flow into it. Within a few seconds the chakra spread, covering the whole scroll and making the whole thing glow. Then there were a series of pops and suddenly the whole area around the scroll was covered in white smoke.
A few seconds later the smoke cleared, and Hinata gasped. In front of Anko where the scroll was there were now dozens, no hundreds of kunai, all of them looking very real and very sharp to her keen eye.
Anko picked up a handful in each hand and shoved them into her coat pockets. She then shoved more into pockets all inside her coat, and even more disappeared somewhere inside her coat, Hinata could only guess she had a kunai pouch under her heavy coat or hidden pockets or something.
The woman grinned wickedly at the young Hyuuga as she picked up four more kunai and held them in her hands. The girl paled as she could clearly see where this was going.
"Now, for your training. For the next three hours I'm going to try to turn you into a kunai pin cushion. Your job is to not let that happen. Do whatever you think is necessary, but you are not to leave the training grounds," the woman gave the young Hyuuga an evil and spine shuddering smile, "I'm not going to kill you, but you had better give me all you've got. If I think you're slacking off or not trying your best I'm going to hurt you. I'm going to hurt you bad. And you're going to wish you had never even heard of crazy 'lil me," as she said this, she licked the blade of one of the kunai in her hand in a decidedly unfriendly way that sent more shivers down Hinata's back, "and I keep all my promises. Are we clear on that Hina-chan?"
Hinata just nodded, too stunned and scared to come up with an intelligent reply.
"Good!" said Anko merrily, like she hadn't just been threatening her student in a most graphic and intimidating way. She crossed her arms around her chest in preparation to throw her projectiles. "Shall we get started then?"
000
A/N: I hope you liked. I plan on making this story quite long, playing out (at least, there may be more) how Hinata matures. Suggestions welcome, constructive criticism a plus, flames hmmm not so much. Please review.
I hope to post within a week. My goal is once a week posting.
Thanks for reading.
