When I arrived at the training field the next morning, I saw the three genin waiting around in the training grounds. Kakashi-sensei was nowhere in sight. Although all three of them visible acknowledged my presence, I wasn't really surprised when only the dark-haired one didn't greet me in any way.

"Good morning… Riku-san, right?" The female greeted while jogging towards me. When I nodded, she grinned in self-satisfaction. "Oh, we never properly introduced ourselves yet. I'm Haruno Sakura. This here is-"

"Uzumaki Naruto, the sixth Hokage!" Naruto introduced himself loudly, which got Sakura to reveal that apparently easily irritable side of her.

I furrowed my brows in confusion. "Sixth Hokage? Then who was that woman I met in the office yesterday? I thought villages were only supposed to have one Kage, and that they were supposed to be the greatest shinobi in the village. I thought you were a genin. What's the Hokage doing under the guidance of a jounin?"

The two of them gave me a disbelieving look. I could only return a blank, confused stare. Finally, Sakura broke the silence by clarifying everything. "Ah— No, Naruto's just being an idiot. Tsunade-sama's our fifth Hokage. This idiot thinks he's going to become the Sixth but like you said, Hokage's are supposed to be great shinobi. There's no way a guy like Naruto would be the Hokage, so you can just forget about what he just said!" She spoke with a shaky laugh, though Naruto seemed more than ready to argue about that subject.

"I guess I will." Although I still wasn't quite sure if I understood what was going on, I wanted to change the subject before they got into another dispute. "Is this where your team usually meets?"

"Oh! I never really though about it, but I guess it's become our meeting spot. This is the training field where we officially became genin, after all." Sakura's ability to change emotions in a blink of an eye was something that'd always be incomprehensible to me. "Did you find your way here alright? Maybe we should show you around the village later."

"Let's bring her to Ichiraku Ramen!" The blond sure seemed excited about that ramen, though the idea was quickly shot down by his teammate. These two were starting to remind me of a cheap comedy act.

I interjected before Naruto could propose another idea fated to be rejected. "It's fine, I'll find my way around eventually." I had to ask around quite a bit to find my way here, but the villagers are pretty nice. It wasn't hard to get directions. While scanning the field, I spotted the dark-haired genin and realized I still didn't know his name. "Who's your third teammate? It doesn't look like he'll be introducing himself anytime soon." I commented while looking over to the third genin.

Sakura's cheeks immediately turned red as she fidgeted a little, as if I said something to embarrass her. "That's Sasuke, the last of the Uchiha clan. He's also our year's strongest genin, and he's super cool!" I didn't really understand Naruto's Hokage humor, but there was definitely some kind of unrequited love going on here. On the other hand, Naruto seemed to be sending death wishes to Sasuke through glares. I looked over to the Uchiha as well and immediately held back a laugh. The way these two glared at each other reminded me of toddlers in a playground.

"Oh? What's with this intimate eye contact between you two?"

Seemingly out of nowhere, Kakashi-sensei appeared with an orange book in hand. Within less than a second, the two genin snapped their heads away. I tried to conceal the grin in my eyes, amused at the flustered expression Sasuke had. I guess I was wrong; he wasn't completely void of emotion.

"Kakashi-sensei, we're used to it by now, but you should have at least changed your habit of being late for Riku-san!" Sakura scolded the jounin with an annoyed expression. Aha… She's so strict with everybody except for Sasuke.

"Sorry, sorry!" Kakashi-sensei apologized sheepishly, which surprised me. The Kakashi-sensei that I saw yesterday was a lot more serious, but now he seemed rather laidback and maybe a bit of a ditz. I was beginning to think that all shinobi were idiots in some way, though some more than others. "Sasuke, what are you doing all the way over there? We're getting started, so come over."

Once everybody was gathered, the air around the jounin returned to the one that I was more familiar with. His attention was now turned to me. "First, I want to see what you're already capable of." He explained while motioning me towards a training post. Attached to it was a target with several holes in it from previous uses. "Let's see your aim."

I sighed and pulled out four weapons; two kunai knives and two shuriken, one of each in each hand. With ease, I threw my hands forward. The kunai knives struck the center right next to each other and the two shuriken mirrored each other, each one stabbing the ring around the bullseye on the top and bottom. I looked back at the jounin. He looked rather impressed and so were the genin; especially the blond. He seemed to freak out a bit. It was probably because I don't look like much, which I admit is quite true. I don't think I'm anything special, either, but I can at least handle weapons properly.

"My strengths lie in genjutsu, accuracy, and endurance." I explained while retrieving my weapons. "I may not know ninjutsu, but that doesn't mean I'm not good at anything else."

"I never said that." The jounin responded with that one-eyed smile of his. "Why don't you show just that stamina of yours, now? Do you mind sparring against Naruto?" He asked while nodded towards the blond. I told him it didn't matter whom I sparred against and we took our positions in the clearing, the other three shinobi observing the spar.

A confident grin was plastered on his face when he spoke. "I told you gonna be the Hokage someday, so don't underestimate me!" Naruto announced proudly. I didn't plan on it. I thought nonchalantly. The moment Kakashi-sensei told us to begin, the blond charged forward without any hesitation.

With relative ease, I dodged his first punch by leaning to the right and threw a punch of my own. He blocked it with his left hand and swung from underneath for an uppercut with his right, but I blocked it with my left hand and landed a punch in his gut. Naruto stumbled back a bit, which gave me the chance to take the offensive. I began to throw rapid punches here and there, as well as kicks. I managed to land a few hits, but they weren't hard hits. Nevertheless, he blocked most of them. As I started another series of kicks, he grabbed my ankle and my supporting leg lost balance, sending me to the ground.

"Ha!" He grinned and attempted to pin me down.

Of course, I refused to let that happen and grabbed his wrists with my hands. With a push off the ground, I kicked up and sent him flying towards the direction my head was face in. Without any moment of delay, I got onto my feet and sprinted towards him to deal another round of punches and kicks. He was already up and ready to counter-attack with a roundhouse kick. I jumped into the air to dodge and aimed to land behind him. Just as I was about to swing out my leg to kick him from behind, he grabbed my leg and spun me around. I kept my body off the ground and hit his elbows, forcing him to release me or his shoulders would pop. I landed with a light thud and began to defend myself as he began to attack with several kicks and punches himself.

"That will do." The jounin called out after several minutes and walked towards us. Naruto and I were still catching our breaths by the time he had come over. The blond had a stupid grin on his face, but I couldn't help but smirk a bit. He and I seemed to have the same amount of stamina, so I wouldn't mind sparring against him again. "Not many people can last that long when sparring with Naruto. His stamina is rather…excessive."

"I could say the same for myself." I responded and let out a deep sigh, finally catching my breath. "The genin of Konoha are pretty tough." Naruto grinned from my comment with his hands resting behind his head.

My gaze shifted back to the jounin, who seemed ready for the next thing he wanted me to do. I nodded and he brought me back to the centre of the field. I guess it was time for me to use my genjutsu. "Show me your best." Kakashi-sensei spoke with a nonchalant expression. I nodded and began to form a few hand signs. I released my chakra and infiltrated his mind, messing with his senses. I began with his sight.

The grass in the field began to slowly wilt and dark clouds began rolling in. The foliage turned brown and wilted away and the healthy bark of the trees dried up and became crusted. I made it seem like the water was a murky brown; polluted and filthy. Finally, I began to add the corpses and weapons. Here and there, spears and daggers began to appear. Some were rusted, others were snapped in two, and several punctured a corpse. There were limbs thrown around and all of them bathing in a pool of blood. I looked back at the jounin. He seemed rather impressed by my work, but I was nowhere near done.

My scene was set, but it was time to make it seem like he was experiencing the scenario. The scent of rotting corpses became stronger. I could tell it was working from the look in his right eye. No matter how many dead bodies one sees in their life, it's always the stench that seems to get to them. I don't blame them; I can barely stand the scent of rotting food. The sound of the horrific water was a faint one, but it was there. Finally, I manipulated the wind to have it sound like screams of pain in the distance, as well as the sound of combat.

Last but not least, I threw out my arm. The moment I did, a splatter of blood seemingly appeared on the jounin and dripped a bit. I smirked and let my arms fall down to my sides. "Akuma no Yume."

"Impressive."

I released the genjutsu soon after, setting everything back to normal. The three genin seemed rather speechless from the scene I created. I had made them experience it was well for a little surprise twist, just to prove that I could use genjutsu on more than one person at a time. Kakashi-sensei seemed to take notice to that detail and gave me an approving look. However, he seemed a bit puzzled.

"Where did you learn to use genjutsu?" He asked. I opened my mouth to answer before I realized something; I actually had no idea. There was no response I could give to that. He scratched the back of his neck and approached me, speaking in a lower voice. "You said you've never attended an academy before, but somebody must have taught you what you know."

"I'm… not sure." My voice was empty but my mind was full of thoughts and questions. I've never bothered wondering how I knew what I knew. Kakashi-sensei gave me one of those looks that told me I was going to be talking a lot about myself in the near future. He brushed off the topic for now, however, and turned to his team.

"Well, for the next two months, we're going to be teaching Riku how to perform ninjutsu. Don't worry though," he added in the end. I noticed that he direct this last part mostly to the two males, "I'll make sure you three get your regular training and missions."


Sakura was assigned to teach me the basics of ninjutsu while Kakashi-sensei trained the two males. She was intelligent and was clearly the one with the brains out of the genin. Well, I didn't really know what the quiet one was capable of yet. All I learned was that his name is Sasuke and he was, well, quiet.

"First things first," Sakura started with a smile. She was also kind; I didn't mind her company. "Unlike genjutsu, ninjutsu inflicts real pain on the opponent. I guess you already know this, but I'm just making sure." She clarified with a sheepish grin. I nodded, but let her continue. "I figured I'd might as well go over it because knowing what ninjutsu is would probably help you perform some of the basic techniques."

"Makes sense."

She smiled again before continuing. "I suppose ninjutsu is a bit like genjutsu. Both types of techniques involved chakra manipulation. When you use genjutsu, you manipulate your chakra flow to mess with your opponent's mind. When you're using ninjutsu though, you manipulate your chakra to form clones, transform yourself, or control elements." As an example, the kunoichi first made a clone of herself, made it disappear, then transformed into me.

It sounded simple, but I wondered how I was supposed to manipulate my chakra. Perhaps…transfer it to the outside of my body or something, I guess. "I think I get it." I stated with some uncertainty. "Teach me the first technique."

"All right!" Sakura grinned and explained the works of how to perform the Kawarimi no Jutsu, the Body Replacement Technique. It was apparently one of the easier techniques that fell unto the E-Rank category, so it made sense that she started with that. This technique would have been useful when I was running from those shinobi back in the Hot Springs Country.


After two hours of ninjutsu training, I was pretty worn out. Ninjutsu is really different from genjutsu and despite my above average chakra control, I could be a lot more efficient when it came to using my chakra. At least Sakura seemed pretty impressed by how quickly I was picking up the technique. I had already gotten the Replacement Technique down and managed to get the gist of Henge no Jutsu, the Transformation Technique, but that one required a constant usage of chakra and it was pretty tiring. She told me it was one of the harder ones and that I was already doing really well on my first few tries, but she's probably just being nice. I smirked and breathed out a faint 'thanks' as I caught my breath.

"Sakura, Riku, you can head home now if you want." We looked up to see Kakashi-sensei walking towards us. The other two genin were presumably gone already. The two of us nodded as the jounin disappeared into a puff of smoke. The kunoichi turned back to me and asked if I wanted to grab dinner with her, but I told her that I would stay back to practice some more.

"Alright, but don't wear yourself out too much. Good luck." She encouraged with a grin. Before she left, she spun around once more to tell me, "Oh yeah, Kakashi-sensei wants us to meet at the Hokage's Palace tomorrow. I think we're going to do some missions and he said that you should get some experience, too."

I nodded and she left. When she was out of sight, I sighed and fell onto the ground, exhausted from the training. I didn't even spend that much time on it, either. While looking up at the sky, I watched as the white clouds looked orange and yellow from the sunset. I think I'm going to like it here.


Thanks for reading :D