Chapter 2

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The outfit was nothing but a white shirt with the hidden stone's insignia on it in black and red shorts that cut off above the knee. I made my way through the door and entered a large room that looked like it could be a gym, however this room had a fighting ring in the center. As I looked around the room there were benches carved from the stone itself with steps in between the rows all around the ring. I had to say it was impressive how these people carved stone in such ways. Once I climbed the stairs and walked into the center of the ring and began to wait for my instructor.

Soon I heard footsteps coming from the same direction I had come from. What came into view next was underwhelming. The man who brought me here was walking behind a boy who looked around the same age as me maybe a year older. Now the boy in question had a mop of silver white hair with deep dark brown almost black eyes. His skin, toned but still pale which lead me to believe he wasn't the son of a worker or of a lower-born family like myself. He wore the same outfit that I had on, I guess these were like the academy's workout uniforms or something to that respect.

"Now then let's get this over with, listen kid your entrance exam will be simple all you have to do is last five minutes in a fight with Jin here,"

Easy? Try a waste of time, how tough could this kid be? Five minutes? This will be a cakewalk.

"Okay sounds good to me," I said.

"Sensei, why am I wasting my time on this runt?" Jin asked. "I have class in a bit,"

"Then end this quickly I don't really care Jin," the man said. "Now get ready,"

We both settled into a fighting stance mines had to look like I was an amature because I could see the smirk on my opponent's face.

"Begin!"

Jin disappeared and in that same second was driving his knee into my gut. The pain from that blow was excruciating but he wasn't done. I began to receive and barrage of punches and kicks, some I tried to dodge I was putting everything I had into this task of dodging and I just couldn't. He was too fast I wasn't able to keep up, I took an elbow to the side of the temple knocking me to the ground.

"Tch, that was fast kid didn't even last a minute,"

I was in shock but I couldn't quit I asked for this. I began to push myself up I could feel the blood oozing from my head and dropping on the ground and my shirt. I wasn't done yet I was still breathing as long as I was alive I wasn't quitting.

"Oh, sensei look he's standing looks like he'll last a bit longer can we keep going?" Jin asked.

"Fine, just don't kill him, I don't think you want incur the wrath of the queen of battle,"

"Oh, she wouldn't be a problem after all I'm part of the main house of the Tsu clan," Jin responded.

My head was pounding and I was a bit dizzy. I needed a new strategy one that could keep me out of the line of fire for a bit. Jin came at me again but this time I jumped back and away from his kick. He was on top of me again throwing punches and I put my arms up and began to tank the blows, before moving myself clear of his reach. Now my arms felt like lead from blocking all those attacks. The onslaught was unending I would clear his range only to be struck from my flank or behind. His attacks were well thought-out and he was adapting to any plan I had to stay away from his most damaging blows. I was out-classed.

He launched another combo fainting a right straight and as I put my guard up he slammed his foot into my chest knocking the wind out of me and again I hit the ground. This time it was harder to get up, my body was aching all over. Everything hurt EVERYTHING, but I caught my breath and got on my feet again.

"Man you must like getting beat up or something, I'd just stay down if I were you," Jin said. I spat blood out as a response. Knowing how much time had passed would be a nice consolation prize for this beating I was receiving, oh well I just have to keep fighting. Jin moved after me again but now I was kinda getting used to the speed of his attacks. To explain what was going on was impossible but it's like my mind was slowing things down for me and my senses were getting sharper. I slipped a hook and closed the distance and aimed for his ribcage but he slapped my arm out of place and clocked me right in the jaw. My leg went limp for a second but I caught myself and kept myself up.

"Man you're a tough kid, hey sensei how much time does he have left?" Jin asked.

"Two more minutes,"

God, two more minutes?! I don't know if I can last that long. My vision was blurring and some black spots were beginning to appear. It was a task to keep myself upright, my head was pounding and my mouth was swelling bad. Not to mention the cut I received earlier was still throbbing painfully and I was still losing blood at a quick rate. Hell I'm surprised I'm still conscious, either this body of mine was built to take this kind of abuse or I'm merely standing off willpower alone.

"Hey kid, just call it quits you can comeback next year, no point in killing yourself it obvious you are not-"

"NO!" I shouted. I said no but oh my mind did entertain that notion of quitting, it was like the devil whispering in Eve's ear 'go ahead and take a bite of the apple you know you want to'. My body wanted to quit hell my mind was close to quitting too but for some odd reason deep down I knew if I quit here then I might as well kill myself, I wouldn't survive in the shinobi world. "I asked for this and I'm going to see this through all the way to the end no matter what happens, if I die here then so be it but I will not quit, so come at Jin like you are trying to kill me I won't accept anything less!" I yelled. I wasn't trying to sound cool or anything but that's how I felt if I passed this test I wanted to earn it not have it given to me.

"Heh, alright kid don't blame me for what happens to you," Jin said before bolting after me. I readied myself steeled my resolve and blocked his fist, then a kick came I ducked and went for a leg sweep he dodged with a backflip. While he was still airborne I tried to kick him which I regretted as he grabbed my foot and rotated me with him and slammed me on the ground right before landing. That knocked me for a loop but I forced myself back up spitting out blood again and what looked like a tooth or a piece of it. I lunged back at Jin who started to dodge all my attacks, slipping punches with ease like it was second nature. All I did was tire myself trying to land a blow and if I wasn't careful his next attack would knock me out cold if he landed it.

"Man your not bad, but this is where it ends," Jin said. He charged at me and judging by his body language he was telegraphing a punch, or so I thought when I put my guard up to block it he dropped his center of mass low and came up with a kick. It slipped right through my forearms and connected with my chin sending me straight up into the air. I felt him appear behind me and went for an elbow that was blocked and he jabbed me in the face. He then rotated my body and grabbed both my legs and he began to spin us.

"Sorry kid," he said before launching me back down to earth. In that split second I made a decision before impact and prayed it would work. I relaxed my body and used the force he threw me with and got my legs towards the ground, god this was gonna hurt but fuck it. I hit the ground with my feet and heard the snapping of bones I started to collapse but caught myself with myself with my arms and held my upper body up. I bit my lip as a counter to the pain which was assaulting my senses.

"Sensei how much time do I have left?" I asked. He was dazed for second still staring at me before glancing down.

"Fifteen seconds," he said.

My arms were at muscle failure so I rolled over so I could just sit seeing as I sacrificed my legs just so I could stay conscious after that last attack.

"Whoa kid, how did you manage to break the fall?" Jin asked as he walked up to me.

"With my legs, it evenly distributes the impact and splits it in half however you'll break something doing it," I huffed out.

"Why didn't you just enhance your body with chakra? That would have prevented that," Jin said

"I… don't know actually," I said.

Jin let out a snort before laughing hysterically. I couldn't laugh I was too busy trying to stay conscious.

"Times up,"

Once he said that I allowed the darkness to take me into oblivion

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Waking up out of unconsciousness is always a weird and jarring event one minute you are aware if everything that is going on around you, the next you are waking up in a completely different situation. At first I tried to move to see what state my body was in. First I moved my fingers and felt soft cloth, I pushed down lightly and my fingers sunk in. No point in wiggling my toes my legs were busted from the fight, I cracked my eyes open and saw darkness and it wasn't just because the lights were out.

How long was I out for?

I tried to sit up and regretted the decision quickly as dulled pain shot through my back and I plopped back down into the bed. There were curtains surrounding me it looked like I was in the nurse's office or an infirmary.

"Hello is anyone there?" I asked. Nothing. It was weird at night in the land of earth. There was no noise at night like crickets playing their nighttime tune, or owls hooting at the moon. No just the wind howling and whipping through the mountains. Which made nighttime here a bit unsettling for me and I hated places that were too quiet. Suddenly the lights came on and the curtain surrounding my bed was pulled back to reveal a middle aged woman and a group of kids.

"Oh you're awake huh? Well this may be a bit more painful for you," she said before turning back to the group. "Alright class today you'll have a bit of practical exercise our dummy here has broken both of his legs, well more like caused multiple micro fractures throughout his entire lower half. As medical ninja you have to prevent any more harm coming to the patient and at the same time heal them and get them back into the fight as quickly as possible,"

Woah wait a damn minute.

"Excuse me sensei, your not gonna let these kids attempt to heal me are you?" I asked.

"Of course I am," she said turning back to me. "It's not everyday someone injures themselves like you did this will be great training for them,"

"NO!" I exclaimed. They laughed.

"What choice do you have?" someone said.

"Yeah it's not like you can run away,"

They had a point. Still I didn't want some kids in medical training trying to fix me but what choice did I have? One by one they came up and each began to heal me. They started at my right foot and began what I assumed to be the tedious process of mending my broken bones. The kid's faces wrinkled in concentration as they set the bones back in their proper place and began to heal them. Each attempt grew my confidence in them as I virtually felt no pain as they did their work. Before I knew it I had dozed off again.

I thought next time I would awaken I'd be in much better shape. Then I felt a jolt and jerked away from the person on my left where the pain came from.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to put you in pain," came a female voice.

I gritted my teeth.

"Doc, I think your student is screwing something- argh," I ground out. The woman move quickly and pushed her student away and finished her work. The pain subsided and I was able to relax again.

"Aoi! How many times must I tell you to pay attention to your work?!" The woman scolded.

"I'm sorry sensei, I'll do better next time,"

"I've told you numerous times in this line of work there is no such thing as a next time! What if this was a heart complication? Or pneumothorax?"

The teacher continued her verbal assault. The girl; Aoi looked more and more deflated with each passing insult.

"Excuse me sensei, don't you think that's enough? I think you've made your point," I said.

"You be quiet," she snapped back.

"But insulting her isn't going to get her to perform better, in fact it will do the opposite she's still a human being," I shot back.

"Oh and what do you know about teaching? Hmmm do you have any experience to backup your claims?" She said turning towards me. I did I was a former sergeant in the army. Leadership, mentoring, teaching, these words were the cornerstone of my life at one point. I knew the kind of person Aoi was and she wouldn't respond well to what I called 'yelling correction'.

"No but that's what my father told me," I said.

She scoff at my statement and finished my treatment and order her students out and back to their classroom.

"A little piece of advice for you kid, you shouldn't involve yourself in everyone's problems it will get you in trouble here, I'll be back shortly to fit you for your casts,"

With that she left shutting the lights back off. Her words echoed in my head before I shoved them to the back of my mind.

"Tch, tell me something I don't already know," I whispered. I rolled over and faced the ceiling and let out a sigh. I moved my legs a bit and felt the pain shoot through me telling me not to do that again. I'm such an idiot why did I try to break my fall like this I mean I survived my entrance exam but now I'll be bedridden until further notice and probably have to be pushed around in a wheelchair for the foreseeable future.

Which was detrimental to my development as a shinobi because even with excellent treatment it would be a six month process of rehab and getting my legs strong enough to hold me up and walk, let alone move at shinobi speeds or at least thats what would make sense. Oh well no point crying over spilled milk I need to focus on what's next; graduation.

The lights flicked back on and the curtains were pulled back to reveal Jin.

"Sup kid, how are you feeling?" He asked.

"Better I'm not in pain or anything," I responded. "However I'm not looking forward to the rehab,"

"Yeah, but you'll be back in action in a month or two,"

Wait…what?

"That sounds rather...um fast,"

"Trust me this is minor compared to some of the injuries seen here,"

Again...what?

"What do you mean?"

"Oh man you should see some of the things that happen in taijutsu class, ruptured lungs, broken arms in like five different ways, nasty dislocations. It gets ugly sometimes, which brings me to my question, what brings a squirt like you here so early?"

"Am I really here before I'm supposed to?"

"Are you stupid or just pretending to be? Kids don't enter the academy until at least five years old sometimes as late a six, you're four,"

"I don't recall telling you my age," I said eyeing the boy.

"Well of course I know how old you are Yuudai, we come from the same clan, plus everyone knows the Queen of Battle's son,"

"Ok ok I'm confused. Clan? Queen of Battle? What are you talking about?"

Jin looked lost for a second before bursting out into laughter.

"Hahaha, oh man you really don't know anything do you? Man you're a weirdo and an idiot who would have thought, but I guess it's the senpai's job to teach the kouhai. Listen up because I don't like to repeat myself,"

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"That about covers it you pick all that up?" Jin asked.

"Um, yeah I think I got it," I said unconvincingly. Oh well if I can't retain all that info someone will remind me later.

"I hope so, as much as I'd like to keep talking with you I have to get going, got class coming up,"

I just nodded. Jin turn to leave.

"Oh, by the way that was good fight we had. Your battle sense is impressive especially for someone with no prior training, I hope we can fight again,"

"Be careful what you wish for," I said.

"Don't get cocky, you still have to recover and master basic shinobi arts you're way behind me and others in our class, but you got potential. Oh also if it's not a one on one conversation between us call me Jin-sama,"

"Why?"

"Because I'm the heir of the Tsu clan idiot were you not listening? Alright later man,"

With that Jin exited the room. Which left me with a lot to think about. I was currently in a very peculiar position, I was the son of the Queen of Battle. Which meant there were expectations of me right out the gate to be a legendary shinobi. That was unsettling because I had a small margin for failure if I couldn't surpass my mother I'd never get out of her shadow.

Which gave me a goal. I'll be honest up to this point I had no real resolve to be a shinobi. I figured because it ran in the family I might as well not be the one to rock the boat. Now I had a goal and I knew what I had to do to achieve that goal. It wasn't going to be easy but that what made it fun the fact that it wouldn't just be handed to me. I was beginning to like my new world already, high stakes high rewards. All you had to do was pretty much survive in a world where everything is trying to kill you and if you can manage that and improve your skills and knowledge quickly then there wouldn't be many who would oppose you. The key thing was surviving which I'm currently 0-1 all time right now.

What really had me on edge was the fact that Jin only talked about what my mom did during the second great shinobi war not once did he mention the third. I'm not overthinking this but if the second war ended a little over a decade ago then that means the third should be right around the corner. The irony was incredible I just died in my old world fighting in a war only to come here and get thrusted into another one.

"Man God has a sick sense of humor," I said after I finished chuckling.

Oh well nothing you can do about it but prepare for it. I wasn't talented in a lot of things but war was my forte. I'll show them that.