Chapter 6 – Cherry Blossoms and Sunshine

==Year 2, Konoha Shinobi Academy==

I cackled as I walked into the classroom. Naruko looked at me with a grin, "I know that sound, whatcha got planned for Iruka-sensei this year?" "ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!" I declared with a massive grin that had to have been visible even from behind my mask, "Imagine how paranoid he'll be!" I howled with laughter, "After everything I did last year, for me to come back and not do a thing? Oh it's gonna epic! And then, when I actually do unleash a prank, I'll double layer it! One teeny little harmless prank that'll make him think I'm off my game and then a HUGE one that he won't even realize has been sprung until after everyone's laughing!"

I paused in my laughter as I heard a timid voice speak up, "Y-you shouldn't be so mean to Iruka-sensei! He's really nice! Why are you so mean to him?!" I turned and looked in confusion, someone was actually talking to me other than 'Ruko-chan or Ten-chan or Izumi-sensei? I blinked as I registered the very vivid pink and then I straightened up with a smile, "Oh hey, Sakura right?"

Sakura immediately blushed in surprise, "Um, yes?" I smiled a little bigger, "You don't need to worry Sakura-chan, Iruka-sensei and I have an understanding. I prank him to keep his shinobi skills good and sharp, and he tries to defend himself as best he can to sharpen mine. If I don't get him then he gives me detention and if I do then he gets laughed at, and then I still get detention but that's more just extra training time for me than actual punishment. Pranking is actually a very wide spread pastime among the upper echelons of shinobi, it's a good harmless way for us to keep each other on our toes. And there's no need to act so timid around me, I'm not going to bite you unless you're made of candy." I leaned forward slightly and gave her a teasing smirk, "You're not made of candy are you?"

"No!" Sakura exclaimed, apparently genuinely terrified that I might consider eating her. I chuckled and 'Ruko-chan was suddenly right next to her stage-whispering with a mischievous grin, "He actually might nibble you a little if you're into that, but between you and me, he's much more a kissy-kissy romantic. The nibbling's more my thing." Sakura shrieked at the inappropriateness of 'Ruko-chan's teasing and I had such a nosebleed that 'Ruko-chan had to catch me to keep me from collapsing.

Sakura was immediately concerned, "Is he alright?!" 'Ruko-chan laughed, "Yeah, he always gets like this whenever he sees or hears something he really really likes, like me for example." "He…collapses whenever he sees you?" Sakura asked in confusion. 'Ruko-chan laughed and pulled my mask loose from my face so the blood could drain out, "No silly! He just gets really bad nosebleeds. You can ask your parents about it this afternoon." I coughed and spat out some of the blood that had gotten into my mouth, "You're, not supposed to know about those things yet 'Ruko-chan…"

'Ruko-chan snorted and licked my carotid artery in a way that could only be termed almost feral, sending an electric shock of pleasure straight into my brain and a geyser of blood straight out my nose, "Then why are there so many books at home on it? It's only nature." I was starting to get really light headed, "Fine, fine, shame on me for not sorting out and hiding the mature stuff, but please for the love of kami quit making my nose bleed like this, I don't want to have to be dragged in to class unconscious." 'Ruko-chan giggled, "No promises!" I groaned lightly, "We really need to have a talk later…and you need to show me whatever books you've been reading…"

'Ruko-chan's voice made it clear she was grinning from ear to ear, "Sure thing Koga-kun, we'll talk after class." Then she whispered in my ear in a voice that was way too sexy and loaded with WAY too much innuendo to be coming out of a seven year old, "We're going to talk…all. Night. Long." That did it, I was out.

I woke up about three hours later, and noticed that the room was decidedly lacking in girls. I snapped bolt upright and looked around, "'Ruko-chan?" then it registered with me that the entire room was looking at me and then they were sniggering. Iruka was trying hard not to laugh, "Well Koga, I'm glad to see that you're finally awake. The girls have all gone to kunoichi class which will now be held on Wednesdays in the mornings. If you would please open your military strategy textbook to page two hundred and forty three, we're on the section about the Nine Situations. If you would please read we're on the second paragraph."

I opened my textbook and quickly scanned the words before reading them and then I hung my head with a grin as I tried to hold back the nosebleed and extended a hand to Shikamaru, "Shikamaru, I'm gonna need to borrow your textbook if you don't mind. This one is definitely not military strategy." Shikamaru roused himself enough to look at me in confusion, "Then what is it?" "A work of fiction by our wonderful Sannin Jiraiya, which Naruko undoubtedly planted in my military strategy textbook's cover to catch me off guard and make me have another massive nosebleed for laughs. I can't very well read this aloud to the class, so if you would please let me borrow your textbook Shikamaru."

Iruka squawked, "WHAT?!" Then he seemed to teleport to the back of the room, snatched up the book in question and upon reading a few lines immediately had a nosebleed that made the one 'Ruko-chan had given me earlier look like a teeny little trickle. Iruka was down for the count almost immediately. I looked at him and then smacked the table three times and gestured towards the window with my thumb, "ONE TWO THREE! YOU'RE OUT!" That got the whole class laughing.

Iruka weakly raised a hand and pointed at me, "Koga, detention. You know the drill." I rested my face in my hand with a smile, "Damn it Naruko…" Then I realized something was off, "Guys, why is my hair pink?" They hadn't been truly laughing before. NOW they were laughing about hard enough to fall out of their seats. "Well," I mused aloud, "At least now I know what she was reading. Can't decide if I should kick Jiraiya's ass for lending her that kind of ammo or thank him." I thought about it for a moment, "Ah what the hell, she's a natural anyway. Might as well thank him next time I see him."

Looking back on that moment, I have to wonder if Naruko planned it that way. The humiliating little incident actually seemed to serve to humanize me to the rest of the class and they all opened up to me a lot after that. At lunch, I found myself the center of attention as the entire class's worth of guys all wanted to know more about their class's enigmatic ace.

Sasuke was the first and most prominent questioner wanting to know how I had gotten so strong. I scratched my head, "Mmm…well, in what way? There are many kinds of strength you know. If you're referring to my chakra, that's a kekkai genkai the same as the Sharingan. It's called Typhoon Release, it gives my chakra a lot more oompf. That may also be why my physical abilities are so much higher than everyone else, chakra is half physical you know, so if my chakra is more powerful, then my mind and physical must be strong too. If you're asking about my personal strength, that comes from experiences, bad ones that you don't want that I don't want to talk about, and I've got someone who I want to be strong for, so that helps a lot."

"You mean Naruko right?" Choji asked. I nodded, "Mmhmm. That's right." "So, so is she your giiirlfriiiend?" Choji sing-songed. I blinked and pondered that for a moment, "I'd have to ask her, but I'd say yes." Then came the obvious and immediate chorus, "Koga and Naruko sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

Then a pair of orange and white clad arms wrapped around me and long blonde hair brushed over my shoulder. Naruko grinned at them over my shoulder, "Every day boys!" Then she kissed me through my mask, winked at me and skipped back to the girls' table. I blinked after her in surprise and then looked back at my stunned classmates, "That would be a big happy yes on her being my girlfriend. You all have my full permission to be jealous now." I took another bite and enjoyed the stunned silence.

Then, "He's got the cooties!" some bright spark exclaimed. There was an immediate shuffle to get away from me. I blinked at them and then my face split into a wicked grin. I rubbed my hands together quickly and then flexed my fingers like claws as I allowed my weird purple chakra to manifest around me and lend me a sinister air, "THE INFECTION MUST BE SPREAD!"

I took just a second to revel in the looks of absolute terror on their faces. Then I lunged at them cackling evilly and what ensued was an immediate game of impromptu tag that took the rest of lunch. They certainly got their exercise that day. I hadn't known they could move that fast. Apparently the threat of pink hair courtesy of my Transformation Jutsu was an incredible motivator.

Choji was the first one I caught, but Shikamaru gave him a "cootie shot" as he was completely unfazed by my threats of "infection". I allowed the jutsu to dispel on Choji out of sympathy for the little butter ball. Everyone else was stuck with pink hair for the rest of the day, or until they could get to Shikamaru for a cootie shot without me tagging them. Needless to say, since I sat right next to Shikamaru, nobody else escaped their pink hair until after they left for the day. Well, nobody except Iruka. He dispersed his immediately when he realized he had it.

I allowed a slow transformation to seep across my hair as the afternoon went on, turning it slowly back to its natural dark near blackish brown, but I let the red in my hair all coalesce in my sideburns and the bottoms of the spikes that characterized the untamable bird's nest my hair had become upon waking up in an anime world. If it worked like I intended, it would look a bit like Ryuko Matoi's hair from Kill la Kill. Even though she was a girl, I had to admit her hair looked pretty damn cool in Kamui form. I'd copy her color pattern for at least long enough to see if 'Ruko-chan liked it. If she did, I'd keep it. If not, it was a transformation, I could get rid of it in a heartbeat.

Military Strategy class lasted the rest of the morning, then the girls came back and Naruko was quite openly possessive of me, making a point to play with my at that point very pink hair while I was getting comfortable to meditate. I let her go for a minute and then I smiled at her as I cracked an eye, "Okay 'Ruko-chan, that's enough. You need to meditate before you get in trouble." 'Ruko-chan snorted at me, "But it's so useless! We've both already unlocked our chakra, and I can use all the jutsu I need to graduate except for the clone jutsu…Why do I need to meditate?"

I exhaled, "Because 'Ruko-chan, it will make your chakra stronger and increase your control. If you don't refine your control, you won't be able to do the clone jutsu. You know that. It'll also help you learn to be still and quiet, which is good for your stealth skills, and it gives you time to think. Thinking's important you know." 'Ruko-chan laid her chin on my shoulder and pouted into my ear, "Spoilsport. Alright, I'll meditate, but I want ramen tonight." I smiled, "Then ramen we'll have." 'Ruko-chan made a little pleased noise and then slid back over to her meditation mat.

I watched her get into a comfortable position out the corner of my eye and then closed my own as I settled into my own meditation. It was really something, having chakra to mess around with. It was a bit like having a seething inner core of goo that responded to my thoughts and actions. My "goo" was cold, and gave me a sensation like a bittersweet drink, bit like a soda on a hot day, and my emotions shook the bottle, increasing the power and making it erupt in a blast of metaphorical fizz. The one time I had directly interacted with 'Ruko-chan's chakra, it had been warm. Not unpleasantly hot, but warm and welcoming like the blanket you curl under to wait out the thunderstorm raging outside.

That had been one hell of a day, Naruko had unlocked her chakra with help from Jiraiya and we had all been taken aback when her chakra manifested like mine had, as a huge glowing nimbus of power. Well, comparatively huge. It was about twice as big as she was. Mine was usually about triple my size if I had my emotions running high. As one might've expected of her, it was a fiery orange chakra as opposed to my bone-chilling purple.

Jiraiya had been the one to suggest we wade into each others' chakra fields to get a feel for it. I churned mine out first since I was a little more practiced with doing so, and when 'Ruko-chan waded into it, it was like she had been fed a can of pure energy. Her eyes lit up, her face split into a huge excited grin and she was almost trembling with excitement. She looked like she had guzzled a twenty four pack of energy drinks, and even after I allowed my chakra to dissipate, she was still extra bouncy for the rest of the day.

When I had waded into 'Ruko-chan's chakra, it had almost brought tears of relief to my eyes with how comforting and safe it felt. I had to battle the urge to throw myself at her, hug her and break down in tears. I instead managed to throw myself backwards out of her chakra and scrambled back away panting and staring. 'Ruko-chan had looked very hurt and confused, then I asked, "How can anyone be that…wonderful? Nobody could withstand that…" Jiraiya had looked from me to the very confused Naruko, back to me, and then he stuck his hand into Naruko's chakra field and went to his knees with tears pouring. I looked at him, "Told ya."

"What's, what's wrong?" 'Ruko-chan asked, looking like she was almost in tears herself, "Did I do it wrong?" "Turn it off 'Ruko-chan and I'll be able to hug you without breaking down into tears," I told her quietly, "Your chakra feels so good, so wonderful and warm and kind, that I don't think anyone with a heart could touch it without feeling as though they've come home after a long horrid journey…It's too much for me to keep up my scary tough guy routine…" I added with a small smile.

'Ruko-chan took a moment to register that and then, "So, you two were crying because you were happy?" "So happy that if I hadn't gotten out of your chakra when I did I would never have been able to leave," I told her with the utmost honesty. Then curiosity got the better of me, "So…what did my chakra feel like?" 'Ruko-chan smiled, "It was like…like having the wind at my back and running just as fast as I could and leaving everything and everyone else in the dust, and it had this sort of excitement and power to it…"

"You two are something else…" Jiraiya groaned as he managed to pull himself together, "A pair of totally addictive chakras with titanic magnitude. If you two ever have kids, I hope the world survives their reign, because nobody could resist such a charisma as what the two of you together would produce…" I blinked at him and then an evil grin split across my face as wicked thoughts began to boil in my mind. Naruko and Jiraiya blinked and then Jiraiya got pale as Naruko's expression changed to match mine. I could just almost hear Jiraiya thinking, Oh kami, I've created a monster…

Ironically I think he might have actually explained the monster slayer known as "talk-no-jutsu". If Naruko's words were laced with that sort of warm, comforting, welcoming chakra, then they would be able to make people want to believe them, and the more was poured into it, the more they'd want to believe it, an incredibly subtle hypnotic genjutsu which would undoubtedly have the power to change the world.

That night she had blindsided me with her chakra after we got to bed and I'd had no choice but to fire back to keep from becoming completely overpowered by my body's natural urges. If we had been older, we would've had sex. Wild, torrid, unrestrained, borderline manic sex. Even with our ages being what they were, it still almost happened. That was the first time I ever had to raise my voice at Naruko. Jiraiya was right, the combined effect of our chakra was an almost irresistible aphrodisiac. My body very nearly started acting without me. If Naruko hadn't been startled into releasing her chakra when I shouted at her, I might've been overwhelmed and crossed lines that night. When I recovered enough to talk, I made her promise not to use her chakra like that around me for at least the next seven years and threatened to move to my own room if she did it again.

Apparently that was a sufficiently terrible threat to convince her not to do it again because she was as good as her word. She never tried to blindside me with her chakra again. I had made sure to explain to her why she couldn't be blindsiding me with her chakra like that yet, narrowly skirting the edges of explaining sex to her while still making it clear that it could get her seriously hurt, make me seriously hurt her, and she had seemed to understand as she apologized and promised not to do it again. By the time we were ready to try mixing our chakras again, we were fifteen, and hoo-boy was that a wild night…but anyway, back to the story.

I had managed to refine my control significantly over the summer. Of course, that had been about all I did, was practice and focus and try to increase my control. It had taken a lot of time, and I still didn't have the level of control I wanted. I couldn't pin point aim my chakra, it was just too powerful. Trying to turn a leaf was like trying to use a cannon to shoot the flea off a rat's butt crack without hurting the rat. I could turn a frying pan, but a leaf? A single leaf? No way in hell. Unfortunately, that was the kind of control required for subtle jutsu.

As was, I could be a devastating warrior. Drop me onto a battlefield, and I'd have been able to wipe it clean of all but the strongest warriors in minutes. So, I would've been fine if I wanted to be a samurai, or a frontline massacre machine, but that's not what I was trying to be. I was trying to be a shinobi, a ninja, a ghost. That requires subtlety, and subtle is one thing my chakra was most emphatically not, which means little jutsu, like Substitution, standard Clone and Transformation? No way, couldn't do it. The transformation I was using on my hair and everyone else's? That was a seal induced jutsu using fuinjutsu to extract the equivalent of an eye dropper full from the raging sea of my chakra. It was in the palm of my hand and it constantly refilled itself, a teaspoon eternally dipping out of a lake.

The upside was that such a tiny amount of chakra would respond to my thoughts as easily as any of my limbs and do whatever I wanted. I didn't need hand signs to do the jutsu the seal enabled once such a tiny amount had been summoned forth and isolated from the rest, a mere thought was sufficient to charge it with purpose and control the jutsu. The obvious downside was that I couldn't do it without help. By Jiraiya's estimate, with the amount of power my chakra naturally put into jutsu, I'd probably end up inducing permanent change on a much grander scale than I intended, like permanently turning their whole body vibrant pink instead of just their hair, or simply blowing things up. What's worse is that because I had a crutch, I'd have to force myself to train until I didn't need it anymore, or risk losing it and control of my subtler abilities right when I needed them most. Yes I'm paranoid like that.

So now I balanced a book on my head and spun it with my chakra. The book was significantly lighter than my frying pan, but it was still heavy enough that it didn't get launched flying by the force of my chakra. I focused and began trying to reduce the amount of chakra moving on the surface. I couldn't stop my chakra altogether, stopping the deep current of my chakra coils would've been death, or at the very least temporary paralysis, the important bit was the surface of my chakra, the bit shinobi dredged up chakra from to power their jutsu. Chakra control at this level was all about manipulating the surface, how much you took, how much you affected mentally. Ninjutsu was almost exclusively surface use, that was the difference between it and genjutsu, which concentrated on affecting the deep currents.

Genjutsu was the chakra equivalent of invasive implant surgery done on the fly. You would need a frightening intellect and lightning quick analytical and observational skills to be good at it, no doubt why the Sharingan enabled such powerful genjutsu. With the rapid observation and comprehension the Sharingan allowed, genjutsu would be much much easier. An ordinary genjutsu user might be able to lay a genjutsu the likes of the Tsukiyomi if they had a few minutes and a preexisting understanding of the enemy's chakra, for example as a medic, or if they had been spying on their target with the Byakugan for a little while, but with the Sharingan's ability to comprehend at lightning fast speeds and a bit of practice, you'd be able to gain that understanding in seconds and fire off even powerful genjutsu because you'd already know exactly what you needed to do to make it take and be able to react to changes in the target's chakra much quicker than anyone else. It would be the difference between having an exact map and instructions for traversing a wide sunny highway or stumbling about through a briar thicket in the dark. Little wonder a brainiac like Itachi was an absolute monster with it, it was like giving a tank an impenetrable forcefield for a battle against kids with water balloons, just plain damn overkill.

Medical jutsu was to Taijutsu what Genjutsu was to Ninjutsu, deep vs surface. Taijutsu was using chakra to strengthen the user's body, or destroy the enemy's. Medical jutsu focused on repairing or dismantling the body at a much deeper and subtler level. A Taijutsu user would apply their chakra to their own body and then their body to that of the enemy to deal crushing damage. Offensive Medical jutsu took out the middle man as it were and just applied the user's chakra directly to the opponent's body with destructive intent. Again, dojutsu made that a lot easier as evidenced by the Hyuga Clan. Gentle Fist was basically just ultra-blunt offensive Medical jutsu, a bit of a middle ground between medical and taijutsu, calculated stabbing vs sadistic surgery.

And fuinjutsu is…what?…SHIT! I was snapped from my reverie by the sound of conspicuous quiet and narrowly managed to block as Iruka swung the padded stick at my head. It wasn't very padded, it just had maybe a half inch of cloth around it, but it was a nice touch. He certainly didn't have to pad it. I blasted chakra through my forearms and blew him back with a little shockwave (something else I'd learned to do over the summer). Iruka backflipped midair and landed on his feet in a relaxed pose with the stick on his shoulder and a grin. I had to give him props, that was pretty damn smooth and I told him as much, "Now why are you trying to hit me in the head with a…oh wait, I get it. Fair enough, continue."

I went back to meditating as Iruka explained to the class that from now on he was going to periodically be whacking people to make sure they were maintaining an awareness of their surroundings as we'd need to be able to maintain our chakra control even in the heat of battle and that many a shinobi had been offed by less skilled opponents simply because they were caught off guard and couldn't ready their chakra in time to defend because they were startled. There wasn't a lot of progress made that day, everybody else was too busy waiting for Iruka to sneak up behind them and get them with the stick. I was focusing on keeping the surface tension of my chakra high so that I could unleash another shockwave if Iruka tried to swat me again. Then another thought occurred to me and I readied to emit a wave of chakra from my head.

When I did, I tried to make it a thin layer and keep it connected. I could tell from the sound of rapid air flow that it hadn't worked like I wanted. It also didn't have the intended effect of acting as a sensory field. I think that was because I hadn't been able to keep it connected. That was the other issue I had with Substitution, it was really hard to keep my chakra connected once I sent it out. I could move it at will, but keeping it connected was extremely…I stopped and then a wicked grin slid across my face. I opened my eyes and shot glances around the room. I launched globs of my chakra at first Shikamaru on the far left and then Kiba on the far right the way I would for Substitution. Then once they'd stuck I grinned, SWITCH! I felt them move and then I heard them yelp in surprise.

I quickly looked left and right as a huge grin broke out over my face, IT WORKED! I cackled and pumped my fists as I rocked back and forth with glee, "YES!" Even if I couldn't move myself with Substitution yet, being able to move other people with it was just as good if not better and I'd never even heard of anyone else being able to do it! Then I paused and shot glances around, I wonder how many I can move at once? In seconds I had attached my chakra to everyone in the room, and then I drew a little line down the middle, marking each of them in my head with a number, then SWITCH!

Everyone in the room was immediately substituted with the person I had paired them with in my head. I must've looked slightly manic with glee, but that was some seriously epic shit right there. If I could get to where I could force other people to Body Flicker wherever I wanted the way I had just forced Substitutions on my classmates, I'd be able to throw entire armies off cliffs at will! I'd be able to control entire battlefields like that little game with the three cups and the pebble! This was one of the ultimate tactical abilities, to be able to force the enemy into any position I wanted, no matter how compromising it might be or how many of them there were so long as I could tag them with my chakra. Then I realized another use and my excitement grew, if I could move objects that easily, I'd be able to make it rain boulders, logs, blades, anything I wanted, anywhere I wanted! With this jutsu, I'd be able to completely dominate any battlefield I could see! Then the power potential if I could unlock the Second Hokage's sensory abilities occurred to me and I went slightly slack jawed with awe at my own awesomeness. Conceited? Maybe, but this was insanely powerful stuff I'd just accessed. I wasn't like a kid in a candy store. I was the kid whose parents just bought the candy store and said he could have as much as he wanted.

I looked down at my hands with a sense of wonder and then my face twisted back into a wicked grin, "I wonder what else I can do…" Iruka whacked me over the head with the bamboo, "You can quit disturbing everyone and experiment later is what you can do! This is meditation time, not ninjutsu experimentation time!" I rubbed my head and glared at him, "Spoilsport."

Iruka snorted at me and tapped the bamboo stick on his shoulder, "There will be plenty of time for experimentation this afternoon. Speaking of which," he looked at the rest of the class, "I'm going to start having voluntary tutoring sessions after class five days a week for ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, and written and extra subjects. You are all welcome to attend any time you please, and barring exceptional circumstances detentions will now consist of mandatory attendance to these sessions. There's no reason for detention to be a fruitless waste of time after all. If any of you wish to get a leg up on your competition in one of those subjects, I recommend attending."

I rubbed my head, "Are ya gonna talk the other more specialized instructors into helping out with these extra sessions occasionally?" Iruka nodded, "I thought about it. I might also get specialists to drop by and do guest tutoring. It promises to be quite educational for all in attendance. I'll make announcements in class if I get any guest tutors." I raised an eyebrow, "Cool. Well I'll be there, but you knew that already." Iruka grinned, "Yep, now everyone back to your meditating. I want to see some serious concentration!" There was a little grumbling but everyone went back to meditating.

==That Afternoon==

I stepped into the ring across from Iruka, "Ya know Sensei, I kinda figured you'd do ninjutsu or genjutsu today. I wasn't expecting taijutsu and bukijutsu." Iruka smiled as he brandished his wooden practice kunai, "Part of being a shinobi is being unpredictable." I drew my wooden katana and settled into my stance, "True. Ready?" "Fight!" Iruka declared before rushing me.

I sprang up and spun horizontally over his head before landing and bringing my sword around to slash across his back. Iruka spun and dodged around my blade before crossing his kunai and forcing my blade down to the ground to keep me from using it to block the roundhouse kick he spun out at me. I twisted my blade and brought it sliding out from under his kunai and up to catch his leg. The force of his kick was still enough to drive me back and sideways because he'd caught me off guard, but not far, and I was able to twist my blade and bring it down across the upper part of his leg, a crippling strike if we'd been using real blades. I followed up with a thrust into Iruka's ribs and grinned as I felt it slide under his flak jacket into his left kidney, "Checkmate Sensei, you're dead."

Iruka stumbled back and laid a hand over the point of impact, which was undoubtedly throbbing even though I hadn't put a terrible amount of force into my strike. He looked at me with a pained grin, "You've improved! Who's your tutor? Maybe I should ask him to do a guest spot…ow…" I smiled as I resealed my practice blade, "That would be Kakashi-sensei. I pestered him nonstop until he agreed to teach me. That and 'Ruko-chan gave him the puppy dog eyes of irresistibility."

I walked over to the weapons rack and pulled out a pair of practice knives, "Want to see how my knifework is?" Iruka straightened up and slid into a stance, "Sure." I crouched into my stance, "Ready?" "Fight!" We launched at each other and as always Iruka's guard and speed were frustratingly good. Keeping out of his range was extremely difficult, and with kunai in hand getting inside his range would be suicide even if I could strike quickly enough. The only way to win was through attrition, to force him to block and make him pay for it, targeting not his body or vitals but the very arms and hands he was fighting me with. Once those were disabled, his defenses would crumble and he'd be like a wounded deer running from a hungry wolf. Unfortunately, Iruka was wise to my tactics and we wound up in a stalemate of testing and dodging each other. After two minutes, the timer rang and neither of us had found sufficient opening to deal a significant blow. Iruka straightened up, "Very good. I suppose Kakashi-san has trained you in this area as well?"

I nodded, "Yep. 'Ruko-chan's been learning too." "Don't go getting his expectations up!" 'Ruko-chan exclaimed from the sidelines, "We both know you're some kind of superhuman, don't make him think I'm on your level!" "Koga-san is really strong," Sakura agreed, "He's fighting evenly with Iruka-sensei." "I bet my nee-san is stronger," Sasuke declared. "Nah," 'Ruko-chan replied dismissively with a smile, "Koga-kun's the best."

"Don't argue with him on that one 'Ruko-chan," I told her, "Itachi is Izumi-sensei's boyfriend. You know, the same one she says trounces her every time they spar like it's nothing? I'm still not strong enough to beat Izumi-sensei, so anyone strong enough to beat her is leaps and bounds above my level. Give me a few more years of training and practice before you go setting me up to fight Jonin yeah? Chunin are quite tough enough, I'm not ready to go biting off such big bites yet."

"I guess my reputation precedes me," Itachi declared around a rice ball. We all did a double take as we realized he had popped up seemingly out of thin air crouched between Sasuke and Sakura. "If by reputation you mean that I've heard how incredibly scary your abilities are, yeah, I've heard," I replied as Sasuke tackled him with a delighted hug. Unfortunately, Naruko immediately wanted to see me and Itachi fight to see who was stronger, and after a second Sasuke was on board with the idea, and then Sakura too.

I shook my head at them, "No, I already know Itachi's strength is far beyond mine. There is no need to fight him to see which of us is stronger. Even with three of me at my current level, I doubt I could beat one of Itachi." "What about four?!" Naruko demanded. "Not even ten would be sufficient," I replied, "Itachi is a prodigy with genjutsu as well as being extremely skilled with fire release. I'd need sensor abilities good enough to fight blindfolded to even begin to consider facing him, and his fire is the natural counter to my wind release. If you do not believe that he is strong, then I have an idea to prove it to you. All three of you fight me at once, and then I will fight him so that you may see just how strong he is."

I tossed them the practice knives and Sasuke and Sakura caught them. "Come on. I'm still fired up," I sprang back and landed in my stance, "let's see how you three do as a team." They looked at each other and then Naruko drew her own practice sword from its seal with a grin, "Well if you insist Koga-kun, we'll kick your ass." Sasuke bounced up grinning, "Right! With all three of us even you can't win!" Sakura had looked nervous at first, fighting wasn't her specialty, but now she was getting swept up in Naruko and Sasuke's enthusiasm and she got up as well.

I smiled as they rushed me, "Somebody call the school nurse. This might get a little…bumpy." I resisted the urge to test my Forced Substitution and simply rocketed forward, closing the distance much faster than any of them had anticipated. In an instant, I disarmed Naruko and proceeded to sweep Sasuke and her both before turning my attention to Sakura who had pulled up short. Now she was looking scared at realizing two of the top fighters in our age group had just been flattened before she could even think of making a strike. I jumped and made to drop a tremendous overhead slash at her only to intentionally miss and instead launch a flat handed shove into her midriff with enough force to launch her out of the ring. Naruko cried out in surprise and immediately found the edge of her own practice blade whistling down at her face. I pulled it mere inches from her face and then twisted to intercept Sasuke who had recovered and was trying to rush me from behind. Naruko swept me as my attention focused on Sasuke and as I rolled away I let her have her blade back by relinquishing my grasp on it. I didn't need it, and I wouldn't be able to restrain myself as well if I kept it.

Sasuke was trying to rush me again and he ran right into my right jab in the gut. Naruko tried to duck around him and keep me busy with her sword but I drove a straight fingered jab in under her guard and crumpled her like a tin can. Then Sakura popped out from behind her with her knife coming at my neck, and in the blink of an eye I'd caught her hand and twisted it behind her back before taking her knife out of her hand and laying it to each of my opponents' throats in turn, "Dead, dead, dead." I declared with a smile, "But that was very good determination from all three of you. Maybe you'll be a genin cell one day."

Then I turned to Itachi, "Now if you three will please clear the ring, I believe I owed you a chance to see a pro in action. If Itachi's agreeable that is." Itachi nodded as he rose to his feet, "I suppose since they're so eager." It was amazing how quickly the three of them caught their second wind to scamper out of the ring and watch with rapt attention as Itachi entered.

I settled into my stance, "Shall we go all out?" Itachi shook his head, "No, I think a clash of our ninjutsu would demolish the area and hurt somebody. Just taijutsu I think. You wanted them to see how strong I am, do you mind if I use my Sharingan?" I smiled, "If I can make you resort to that, then I'll consider myself quite an accomplished fighter." Itachi nodded, "Very well. Ready?" "Fight." I declared and immediately got launched.

To call Itachi's speed merely blinding would be understating it. Before I even landed, he was clotheslining me and then hammering an axe kick into the back of my head before sitting on my back with a practice blade at my neck. "Dead," he said calmly. The entire "fight", if you could even call it that, lasted maybe two seconds. MAYBE two seconds.

I looked at the three utterly stunned members of my audience with a bit of sourness, "Told ya. You don't pick fights with Jonin if you want to live, especially ones who are renowned as bad asses among bad asses and always remember that no matter how good you are, there's always someone better, and nothing is impossible. Even with my ninjutsu, Itachi would probably have snared me in a genjutsu before I could get a single shot off and learned all of my abilities and tricks before the fight even began, assuming he didn't just stick a blade in me or roast me before I could break the genjutsu."

"Don't sell yourself so short," Itachi said as he lifted his blade away from my neck and got off me, "Your taijutsu and bukijutsu are several years ahead of where they should be. If your ninjutsu and genjutsu are of similar caliber, then I expect you could graduate from the Academy within the year." I smiled as I pulled myself to my feet, "You are too kind Itachi-san, I know I am not yet ready to be a genin. I still have much to learn and my control is still sorely lacking. Your kind words are greatly appreciated though."

Itachi nodded with a smile, "Fair enough. I will look forward to sparring with you again one day. Should you ever feel yourself ready, come seek me out and I will be happy to spar you. For now though," he turned to Iruka, "if you will excuse me Iruka-sensei, I must be getting Sasuke home. I've got a lot of promises of shuriken-jutsu tutoring to make up to him." "Really?!" Sasuke asked delightedly. Itachi nodded at him with a smile, "You up for it?" I hadn't seen such a glomping since Naruko met Kakashi. I found out a few days later from Kakashi that Itachi had retired from the ANBU that day and was going to be taking up regular Jonin duties instead.

Sakura looked slightly put out that Sasuke was leaving, but 'Ruko-chan and I made sure her mind was kept thoroughly off it by running her completely ragged for the next forty-five minutes or so. She did improve a lot though even in such a small amount of time, and I made sure she knew it. She needed the help, and I'd hate to see her get hurt down the road and know I could've gotten her the help she needed then and not done it.

When her mom came back to pick her up at the end of the study session (Iruka had explained it to her at regular let out time and she'd been agreeable), I grinned through my mask at Sakura, "Come on back tomorrow Sakura-chan, you improved a lot today. Keep training with us and you'll catch up to us in no time." Sakura had looked at us with wide eyes and then smiled with a blush, told us she would, and never missed an after school training session again unless she was out sick.

After we left and were walking to Ichiraku, 'Ruko-chan looked over at me, "Do you really think Sakura will catch up to us?" I looked up at the sky, "I doubt she'll ever have the raw power we do, but there's nothing saying she can't learn phenomenal control and chakra efficiency to get titanic effects to rival ours even with such small chakra. She's a smart girl and not that tough physically yet, so if she decides to continue with that balance of abilities as she grows older, then she may grow into a very powerful genjutsu user or a med-ninja or fuinjutsu specialist, perhaps even all of them if she really capitalizes on her strength in smarts. If she does follow one of those paths, then she'll be a rarity as very few choose to specialize in such difficult arts, but that rarity will only make her more formidable, and as I said, there's nothing stopping her from learning all three. She'll just have to devote a lot of time and energy towards her studies. If she does, then even as strong as we'll be, she may very well one day be capable of confronting us on an equal footing. If she has the strength of will to do it, then I think she can. Never underestimate the power of determination 'Ruko-chan, it can move the world if it's strong enough. I may be wrong about a lot of things in life, but I'm right about that."

"So, what do you think I'll be?" 'Ruko-chan asked. I looked over at her and smiled, "Whatever you want 'Ruko-chan. The power at your disposal, once you tap it in full, is far greater than mine. You'll be strong enough to shake down the world one day, and even before that day comes, you'll be strong, but not because of your chakra or your mind or your body, no, I think your greatest power is one even rarer and stronger still." "What?" she asked me curiously. I smiled and poked her in the heart, "This right here."

She looked at me in confusion, "My heart?" I smiled at her, "There's something about you 'Ruko-chan, I don't know quite what. It manifests when you radiate your chakra aura, and I don't think anyone could resist it. It's a sort of magnetism I suppose, a charisma or something. You're just so darn likable…I think you could make anyone with even a shred of decency in them your friend if they gave you a chance to talk, and that's a rare and incredible power indeed." She raised an eyebrow at me, "You really think so?" I raised an eyebrow right back, "You made a best friend out of me with just a hello didn't you? I'm a total hermit, but you cracked my shell like it was nothing. You've got something special about you 'Ruko-chan, and I know you'll use it right as life goes on."

Naruko blushed and looked away, "Why do you always have such a high opinion of me? It's kind of embarrassing 'tebayo…I mean what if I can't live up to your expectations?" I caught her by the shoulder, "Oy." She looked at me and I smiled at her, "You're alive aren't you?" Naruko frowned in confusion at me, "Yeah, why?" I pulled her into a hug, "Then you've already exceeded my expectations for my life. Just you being here with me makes it better than I could've ever hoped. So don't ever think I'm disappointed in you, because I never will be. Got it?" A small voice in the back of my head asked, isn't that what love is? I was so surprised by the thought I almost voiced it aloud but instead I just hugged 'Ruko-chan tighter, Eh, she knows already.