"Well, Asuka-chan," Kushina hummed thoughtfully while the girl in question was cooling down from their training session. "You've certainly improved in nearly everything."

Two weeks had passed since the halfway mark assessment against Kakashi. It was true that taijutsu had gone phenomenally better than the mess before, and it definitely felt a lot better although improvement was always an option. Asuka noted that she definitely needed to increase her speed –something she had begrudgingly requested that Hige and his beast would continue to work on her with; she had lost a lot of pride with that one, but decided to get over it for the sake of improving– and to continue to spar with Kushina to make her move set fluid.

Kushina continued. "I think starting tomorrow we can begin incorporating weapons into the spars. I would say ninjutsu as well, but your small chakra coils seem to only be primarily able to focus on enhancing your physical capabilities. If we continue to refine your chakra control until you take the genin test, though, you should be well off enough to perform both the clone and transformation techniques in one go, other than that I'd say you'd probably be able to get by with one other less restraining jutsu in a battle until your reserves grow a bit more."

It was slightly irksome, that Asuka's chakra reserves were the size of an above average civilian. With it, she would never be able to use any helpful jutsu in battle, at the most just using it to enhance her muscle strength, speed, and the likes. Even with expending her chakra reserves enormously at the end of each training session to increase the capacity for the life energy, it didn't seem to be growing too much. As aggravating as it was, Asuka was relieved to hear that it wouldn't necessarily pull her down on her journey to become stronger –and she was almost resigned that it would make her better, as it didn't quite feel like cheating– nor would it stunt her fūinjutsu lessons later on, as the art itself wasn't as chakra intensive as other jutsu. The only thing that was aggravating, really, was the fact that Asuka's kekkei genkai training had hardly improved.

There was only so much one could do in the terms of boosting photosynthesis in premature plants and explosions. Even Minato seemed particularly stumped at how to improve and template the ability into one that would be harmful in battle, but benefit the user. They had managed to determine that no, it wasn't at all like the supposed Sage Mode Minato could enter, as it didn't actually absorb into her body and merge with her chakra except when injured to boost the healing process. If anything, Minato had observed, it was more like a giant release of energy by using raw chakra from nature. That, however, still hadn't helped Asuka into developing it so she wouldn't get damaged in the aftermath of an explosion.

Asuka's face screwed up with displeasure at the thought of her lack of successful training on her ability. Kushina caught it, and immediately understood what the expression was for.

"As for your ability," Kushina added with a contemplative frown. "I've requested that Taiki join us for that portion of training from now until we can get a hang of it whenever he's available." Taiki surely wouldn't be pleased with that. "And as for developing it, well, I've started thinking about a couple theories that we could try out."

Asuka eyed Kushina attentively, moving to take a seat across from the redhead with interest. Theories were always welcome.

Seeing that she had Asuka's undivided attention, Kushina continued. "You mentioned before that keeping the natural energy moving refrains it from detonating, right? What if you were to…encase the still energy by the moving to act as both a guide and shield?"

There was a pause as Asuka considered it. The idea was definitely worth a try; by controlling the moving energy around the still –which would perhaps need a certain amount of multitasking to accomplish properly– or to specify a certain area of raw chakra to erupt and letting the natural flow of the surrounding chakra to absorb the after math. The latter option had a less chance of working, though, because that was essentially what Asuka had been doing up to current training; so if she were to use moving chakra to act as a guide for the explosive chakra, it would have to be moving quite rabidly opposed to the lazy natural flow. It was a possibility that could just lead to success regarding her ability.

Asuka found herself nodding, raising her jade eyes to meet with Kushina's. "It could work. We should try it."

Kushina's face molded into a wide grin. "Fantastic, 'ttebane! We'll start tomorrow with Taiki, and then you'll master it in no time!"

"Well, first we'll have to see if it actually works," Asuka countered blandly. "Although I suppose it's a better start than everything else we tried."

Those had obviously all ended in disaster.

"What do you think we should name it?"

Asuka shot her teacher a raised eyebrow. "What, the explosions? I think that's kind of self-explanatory."

"No," Kushina shot the caramel-haired girl a mildly irritated look, swiftly reaching around Asuka to slap the back of her head before the younger girl could blink. "That's definitely not how things work, you brat. It's a special technique, so it needs a name."

"Yeah," Asuka replied with a deadpan face. "If we actually know what it does other than super-sensory abilities, sun imitation, and blowing things up. If you think about it, those are pretty much names in themselves."

Kushina smacked the back of Asuka's head once more, ignoring the irritated glare. "Speaking of 'super-sensing', we should really start to incorporate them into a fighting scenario. It might just give you the upper hand in a battle."

"Yay," Asuka cheered unenthusiastically. Her senses flared slightly, managing to catch the inch of movement as Kushina lunged to dig her knuckles into the top of Asuka's head for a noogie a bit too late. Asuka fell back with a yelp as the redhead's weight fell on top of her as the tormenting continued.

"What was that, Asuka-chan?" the redhead grated with a laugh as Asuka wriggled frantically to escape her grip. "I don't think I heard you loud enough!"

"Kushina, no!"

Her knuckles ground into Asuka's head harder.

"Come one, I know you're secretly enthusiastic, Asuka-chan! Say it with me!"

"You asshole, let me go!"

"I can't hear that enthusiasm, 'ttebane!"

"Kushina, stop!"

"Not until I hear you cheer with me!"

"Kushina!"

Finish Line

The day off from academy classes once a week usually meant that afternoon training with Kushina would be moved to the morning. It was a nice change, and it allowed both Asuka and Kushina to break off and complete separate tasks and errands that they were planning to do during the week. For Kushina, it usually meant spending time with Minato if he was around, or taking up a quick mission to make up for time lost during the week. This particular day off, the redhead seemed to be in luck because Minato was actually available.

Asuka herself preferred to work through the holy bible of herbal concoctions that Hanako-baa had gifted her. She hadn't had as much time to go through it and create the various brews as much as she would have liked, as she really only had the one day to dedicate it to. Still, she made up for it by diligently gathering the herbs after the morning training session from an assortment of areas in Konoha's walls and spending the rest of the day going through Hanako-baa's last teachings to duplicate the lethal mixtures. Kushina had rented out one of the rooms in her apartment block that held no windows for Asuka to safely work with the herbs without disturbing anyone else –after a bit of badgering, of course.

Which was why Asuka was out collecting herbs scattered through a particular training ground. It wasn't the one she and Kushina frequented, but she had spotted the patches of flowers once or twice when theirs was already occupied and were forced to find another one, and she had mentally noted that it would be a good place for gathering.

Her fingers were working swiftly in a routine under the rubber gloves reaching up to her elbows, cutting, plucking, picking, and stowing them into the various jars inside the basket that lay on a sealing scroll that Kushina had taught her to use a few months back. She hummed absentmindedly to a song from her past life as she worked, pausing the odd time to go through her mental checklist of herbs that needed replenishing. Asuka was so into her work, that she hadn't noticed the familiar sparking chakra approach.

"What are you doing?"

His tone wasn't as curious as it was condescending.

Asuka resisted the urge to roll her eyes, instead choosing to continue in gathering the herbs without turning to look at him.

"Oi, I'm talking to you."

"Oh, sorry Kaka-pyon. I didn't hear you," Asuka replied tonelessly. His chakra spiked with irritation, as he knew that she had noticed him, and probably because of the childish nickname that had become a bit of a habit to call him. "I'm surprised; the next assessment isn't for a couple weeks, so what are you doing talking to someone as unworthy for your time as I am."

Kakashi scoffed. "I wouldn't bother wasting my time with you, but I saw you doing something weirder than usual when I was passing by. Have you finally given up and decided to change careers? A florist would suit someone like you better."

Asuka fought the frown off of her face to try and show that his comment hadn't irritated her. If only he knew.

With a swift motion, Asuka snapped her rubber gloves off of her hands and placed them on a separate spot from the basket on her sealing scroll. She infused a small amount of chakra into both, and watched as they flashed briefly before being replaced with simple black kanji. She rolled up the scroll in her hand before standing up to face the silver-haired boy.

"That's cute, Kaka-pyon, but there's actually a point to being 'weirder than usual,'" Asuka replied, a smirk twitching onto her face as his chakra once again spike with irritation.

She may not be able to win in a spar so far, but as far as verbal challenges went, Asuka came out as victor more often than not.

"Yeah? And what's that? Going to fight enemies with some flowers?"

Asuka lightly tapped his shoulder with the scroll as she walked past the young chūnin. "You're not far off," she sang slightly, heading towards the exit of the training grounds closest to Konoha's market. There were a couple things that Asuka could quite find naturally in the area, so she had to purchase a few items. Kushina wouldn't mind it on her tab. "But you're not going to find out anytime soon, Kaka-pyon."

Kakashi had caught up to her quickly, and she sent him a mildly curious side-glance as he stared ahead with a bland expression. Usually he would try to stay as far away from her as possible. It was definitely strange that he was accompanying her of his own free will –even if it was just to torment her.

"What are you doing, anyways? I thought you'd be off training or something," Asuka commented wryly.

"My sensei is out with yours, and he suggested I babysit you. I figured your pathetic presence would at least amuse me."

Her eyebrow twitched at his jab.

"You can always go fuck yourself. That's surely more amusing than me."

Kakashi didn't seem impressed, and they mutually ignored each other's presence while walking down Konoha's busy streets. His form seemed to slouch and his expression hardening into a glare as they walked on –albeit at a faster pace than before. Asuka noted the gossiping citizens as they passed, and she spared a glance in his direction.

Her hand twitched, and she smacked him once more on the shoulder with the scroll in her hand.

~…~

The third assessment passed quickly with the usual biting comments and beat downs. Asuka had lasted much longer than any of her last assessments in the spar portion, though, and had actually managed to catch Kakashi surprised once.

That image would forever be ingrained in Asuka's mind, she thought with glee.

Minato had also commented on her rapid improvement, congratulating both her and Kushina.

By that time, Asuka was ready to move into the nine-year-old class –the final class she would attend before taking the graduation test. They all sneered at her when she entered the classroom –those two Uchiha she had gotten into a fight with so many months ago even more so– but Asuka hardly let it faze her. She had already moved through so many classes that she could hardly be bothered to feel threatened by their unwelcoming glares.

She had taken a seat somewhere in the middle of the class, leaving the aisle seat next to her open. Asuka vaguely wondered who it was that would sit next to her, after being told briefly by her new chūnin teacher (who surprisingly hadn't been the one that had caught the tail end of the fight months ago) that it was a full class of students. Every other seat was filled with a child, so she honestly couldn't help but wonder just who it was that hadn't appeared yet.

And then she saw him. She saw the flash of green. The spandex. The bowl cut.

That is a whole separate take on eyebrow game.

He was in the seat next to her in an instant, while she could only sit in mild shock.

"Hello! I am Maito Gai. Who are you?"

Asuka blinked. "Hitsugaya Asuka," she replied.

And then Gai struck a pose. He shot her a thumbs up with a wink, and a grin that Asuka was almost certain it blinded her a little. "How wonderful! It is very nice to meet you Asuka-san! Have you been in this class long?"

"No. I just moved up into it today," Asuka said, trying her best to keep her voice from wavering. The stun of his first appearance still lingered. She wasn't sure if the students surrounding her pitied her or was amused by the situation. Surely they must have gone through the same treatment?

"Amazing! For someone brimming with youth such as yourself to be so determined to become a ninja of Konoha!" Gai shot his fist in the air, nearly startling Asuka out of her seat. "Alright! You've inspired me, Asuka-san. When we graduate, together we shall make two-hundred laps around Konoha on our hands!"

Asuka thought that Kushina was slightly crazy, but this boy –this boy had to be the most eccentric person in the entirety of the planet. And he just happened to be the one to take the seat next to her. He just happened to declare their newfound friendship to the class, ignoring her attempt at rejecting it. He just happened to completely blow her mind when they reached the taijutsu portion of class. Maito Gai, with all things considered, was an anomaly.

From that point onward, Asuka just seemed to see Gai everywhere. Everywhere she turned, he was running through the streets of Konoha doing some sort of vigorous exercise for an obscene amount of reps. For the most part he had just charged past her, but occasionally, like the situation Asuka currently found herself in, he would notice her and talk –if one could call what came from Gai's mouth 'talking'.

Asuka was sitting at a table with an empty stick of dango twirling in between her fingers as she idly sifted through the new text, courtesy of Rin's older sister. A lot of the material was calculations, which were relatively simple once properly worked through.

"Asuka-san!"

By now, after an enthusiastic greeting every morning amongst separate occasions, Asuka was used to the green spandex wearing boy's reception. She glanced up from the text, sending Gai a quick smile before turning back down where she worked out different calculations. "Hello, Gai," she greeted.

"Working hard as usual, I see! The Power of Youth is surging through your veins!"

"If 'Power of Youth' is what I call motivation, then yes, I suppose it is," Asuka replied. She glanced at him, where he was diligently performing squat-jumps on the spot. "Would you like to take a seat, Gai? A small break before continuing, perhaps?"

Gai, by all means and purposes, wasn't actually as bad as Asuka had originally thought. She was still apprehensive around him, not particularly used to his special type of vigor, but once she actually managed to wheedle him into a calmer conversation, his company was actually somewhat bearable –more so than Kakashi, at the very least.

He flashed Asuka a grin before complying with Asuka's offer. "What motivates you so, Asuka-san? There is hardly a ninja as young as yourself that works hard like you have this past year!"

Asuka closed her text, using the stick that once held her dango as a bookmark, and hummed in thought. "Strength," Asuka revealed after a moment. "Personal enhancement. Beating Kakashi in a spar that doesn't involve words."

There was a brief moment where Gai frowned, but he didn't remain contemplative for too long. "Kakashi-san? I see! He invokes the Power of Youth in many, it seems! I myself have trained more after being inspired by Kakashi-san!"

"It's not so much as 'inspire' as 'wanting to bring an asshole down a couple notches,'" Asuka retorted blandly, her eyebrow twitching with slight irritation at the thought of Kakashi motivating her to do anything. Maybe he was, but she sure as hell didn't want to admit it.

There was that frown again. "Asuka-san, I do believe you must have met Kakashi-san at a painful time. He wasn't always as cruel, I believe that he has lost some of his youth on the way."

Asuka raised an eyebrow. "Care to elaborate on that, Gai?"

Much to her chagrin, Gai shook his head. "I apologize, Asuka-san. It is not my story or feelings to tell. If you keep trying, your youth should eventually coax him into revealing his story," at this, Gai flashed her The Pose again. "Now! After this lovely break I must return to completing three hundred laps around Konoha! Your motivation is welcome to participate!"

She was slightly irritated that Gai had brushed of her inquiring about Kakashi, but quickly realized that the boy wouldn't reveal anything without a permission of sorts. Asuka supposed it was an admirable trait, but it was aggravating at the moment. She glanced over his offer –a ridiculous amount of laps around the village– and was about to decline, when a thought had struck her. Gai's taijutsu was fantastic and could possibly be up to par with Kakashi's. If she were to train with someone like Gai, then surely Asuka could bump herself up to a higher level.

Asuka quickly sealed her text into the scroll on her hip and stood up. "You know what? Yeah, I will join you."

It was difficult to keep up with Gai. Asuka often found herself having to stop short in each exercise before she completely dropped from exhaustion, and despite Gai being a genuine (although somewhat insane) person, he was absolutely brutal in a spar. He had quickly taken up Asuka's offer to join her whilst training taijutsu with Kushina, who had approved of the idea with hopes to get Asuka used to fighting against different taijutsu styles. Asuka had quickly learned that abusing her chakra sense in a spar with Gai was a lifeline.

Training her raw chakra manipulation with Kushina and Taiki had also gone fairly well. The theory Kushina had suggested turned out to be the bridge between control, and Asuka had spent hours upon hours to practice manipulating the raw chakra to stand still and move rapidly simultaneously. Taiki's healing assistance was definitely needed during the sessions –much to his irritation– as Asuka often found herself adorning burns of different severity and size after attempting to control the blast each time. Eventually, though, she had managed to get the hang of the simultaneous rapid and still chakra sometime after she realized it was somewhat similar to the exercise of rubbing one's stomach while patting their head at the same time that preschool teachers would have the class do.

When she had first gotten it to more or less work, Asuka was completely dumbfounded. Not because it was absolutely burn-free –she could feel the pain licking her fingertips, but it wasn't too bad– and not because it was some euphoric all-powerful attack. If anything, it was somewhat disappointing, because it had painfully reminded Asuka of something she remembered seeing in a different anime her niece made her watch. It was annoying, because the controlled blast actually looked almost identical to that ridiculous attack from Dragon Ball Z.

Anime had never really been relevant to her life, even when she started down the track to ninja hood because she couldn't actually remember anything from Naruto except for the word chakra, an orphaned protagonist named Naruto, and a person named Dara who was incredibly mad. But now, as Asuka stared down the remnants of her blast, an anime could never have been more relevant in her life.

"I think I know what to call it," Kushina and Asuka said at the same time, one tone excited, and the other tasteless. Taiki sighed from off to the side, knowing that an argument would soon follow.

Kushina took the lead. "It's an Energy Release!" she declared.

"Kamehameha," Asuka contrasted without further explanation. Surely it wasn't plagiarism if it was theoretically from different dimensions. She looked at Kushina, whose expression twisted into an unpleasant one.

"Asuka-chan, you can't just name it something gibberish," the redhead berated.

Asuka scowled, crossing her arms over her chest. "It's my ability; I should be able to call it whatever I want. Besides, why should I call it 'Energy Release?'"

"Because that's the logical thing to call it?" Kushina countered, with an equally fierce scowl and narrowed eyes. "It's literally a giant release of energy. Plus, that also leaves extra naming room for different variations you come up with."

"Kamehameha leaves extra naming room for different variations," Asuka argued. She belatedly registered Taiki's presence slowly inching away.

"But your name makes no sense!"

"It makes perfect sense." They were full on glaring at each other. "Karma is a bitch, and Irony likes the entertainment."

Kushina threw her arms into the air with exasperation. "That makes no sense!"

Eventually, they mutually decided to call it Energy Release: Kamehameha.

~…~

The last assessment was set the day after the graduation test. Asuka had taken a rain check on the two hundred laps around Konoha while walking on her hands in celebration, recognizing the need to keep her body in top shape for the spar tomorrow. Unlike the last three, where it was just taijutsu, the last spar with Kakashi would be an all out fight with weapons, jutsu, exploding tags and the likes. It was designed specifically as a second exam to test Asuka's capabilities in the field, her capabilities as a ninja and to check how soon it would be before she would take up missions that were more dangerous.

It was a little frightening, to realize just how quickly a year had passed and just how much closer Asuka was to putting her life at risk on nearly a daily basis. Yet, at the same time she couldn't help but feel proud; smug at her newfound strength, her abilities, how quickly she had accomplished what would take a normal genin years to do.

She arrived at the training grounds much earlier than the designated time that morning, taking extra caution to check and re-check all of her supplies before leaving and upon arriving, before performing a quick warm-up to limber up her body. Once her body was warm and stretched, Asuka did the one thing that could truly calm her mind in her flash of nerves. She danced.

The beat to the silent song was a slow one.

Asuka stopped just as the sun was reaching the time where they would all be meeting. She had left a note for Kushina on the kitchen table with a small stack of pancakes (Asuka had discovered that Kushina rather enjoyed the western breakfast food) saying that she would be leaving early, and not to panic when she wasn't there when the redhead woke up.

With another quick glance at the sun, Asuka made haste to slap together a quick trap, placing it strategically in a tree that made it look obviously there without being blaringly so. The familiar chakras were approaching closer, and Asuka barely had enough time to jump into another tree before the group made their appearances.

It seemed that it wasn't just Kushina and Minato evaluating how the day went, seeing as both Hige and Taiki were trailing along behind them. Which, upon reflection, made sense that offering different opinions about her skill level would better her evaluation.

Kakashi, as per usual, did not look impressed. Asuka watched as he glanced at her haphazard trap through the corner of his eye, his chakra flaring in what actually might have been a scoff –if chakra could scoff– and gave a visible eye roll. She smirked slightly, taking it as her cue to jump down from the tree she was currently perched in with a slightly frazzled appearance. Asuka glanced towards the group in the corner of her eye, painting her face to look like a caught child for a moment before washing it blank.

Hige was the only one who gave her a suspicious look, probably able to smell the deceit.

Instead of greeting Kushina, Minato, and Kakashi, she cast a glance over to Taiki and Hige with faux curiosity. "What are you guys doing here?" she questioned, eyeing Futaaimaru somewhat warily as the beast's tail started wagging. It was never a good sign when the giant fuzz ball's tail started wagging. Usually she ended up face down in the dirt.

"We were asked to participate by judging your final examination, Hitsugaya," Taiki supplied before Hige could cut in with some sort of sarcastic comment. The Inuzuka looked somewhat put out, but took it in stride.

"Yeah, it's always fun to watch your ass getting beaten."

Asuka leveled Hige with a dry stare. "Yeah," she commented tonelessly. "Let me just go grab some more ammonium, why don't I? Let's see how much fun you'll have then."

Hige's eyes narrowed.

"While this is great and all," Kakashi cut in with his bored tone. "I'd like to get this over with so I won't have to waste any more time with this brat."

Asuka shot him a look, which was promptly ignored. She then developed a sweet smile. "Of course, Kaka-pyon, wouldn't want an old geezer like yourself to keel over from waiting too long."

They glared at each other.

Moments later, Kakashi and Asuka were standing directly across from each other, waiting for Minato's signal to begin the spar. Asuka spared a moment to tighten the new hitai-ate wrapped around her ponytail, making sure the small senbon pressed into it were still more or less held in place.

"Begin!"

Instead of charging right away like their normal taijutsu battles, Kakashi's fingers flew into a flurry of hand seals. Asuka couldn't catch any of them, but she felt the fluctuation of his chakra.

"Lightning Release: Lightening Hound!"

And then holy fuck there was a beast as big as Futaaimaru charging at her made entirely of lightening. Kushina had not prepared her for this.

Which, in hindsight, might have been the point to test how Asuka would react in this sort of unfamiliar scenario.

She managed to dive to the side just in time for the sparking beast to singe the ends of her ponytail and a small patch of clothing on her bicep. Asuka quickly rolled up, charging towards Kakashi while whipping out several kunai to disrupt his next jutsu. It worked, because mid-hand seal, Kakashi had to whip out the short sword from its sheath attached to his back to knock the kunai away.

Where the hell did that tantō come from?

Asuka ducked under the swing of the blade, feeling the streak of chakra that followed the blade above her head. She punched towards his torso, swinging her heel stealthily to hook with his as he twisted his torso away from Asuka's fist, and then kicked her connected foot in front of her body to bright Kakashi's body to the ground. Asuka's hands tugged out several shuriken from her left hip pouch, shooting them at Kakashi while the chūnin rolled to recover from the fall. One of them nicked the hand that was holding the tantō, and Asuka fought the smirk that wanted to appear.

He stabbed at her leg, and she watched as the sword glowed white with the movement. Asuka quickly jumped up, swinging one of her legs into a kick towards Kakashi's head as he lifted himself up from the ground. She landed a hit on his shoulder as he moved his head out of the way, crouching as her feet met the ground again. Her back was facing him, so she flared the raw chakra around them to sense his movements.

She shot another volley of kunai towards him blindly from behind, in hopes to distract him from his next strike. The attempt was made in vain, judging by the fresh slash across her shoulder blade. Just as his blade finished the swing, Asuka jumped into a rotating kick while her arms simultaneously rose to grab the senbon lodged into her hitai-ate. Her heel met with Kakashi's arm-guard, and she pitched her weight forward onto him in an attempt to knock him unbalanced. She wasn't too deterred when his arm strength won over, and he tossed her off to the side before switching his tantō to his other hand.

Asuka slashed at the leg closest to her once she landed with the two senbon in her hand, luckily managing to tear a scratch through his pant leg. She flicked her wrists up to send the senbon towards his face as another distraction, only to be kicked in the stomach by Kakashi's other leg. She landed on her back with a grunt from the force.

Kakashi's blade glowed with electric chakra as it came down on her, slicing where Asuka's body was before she rolled out of the way and crackling sparks into the air. Kakashi's weight landed on her shoulder blades just a moment later, a twitchy, unsteady hand pressing somewhat torpidly into the gash from the tantō. His chakra jumped as he prepared for an attack, and Asuka forced herself to act before he landed a finishing blow. She dug one foot into the ground, using it to push the lower half of her body up as she kicked her other leg up in an arch. Her kicking leg collided with Kakashi's head, and he shifted his weight just enough for Asuka to use it as momentum to get herself back up from the ground.

She didn't wait to see what he was going to do, instead darting for the tree with her haphazard trap. Asuka sucked in greedy breaths of air as she observed what Kakashi would do next from her perch, as he was very much aware of the trap she had set. He didn't know that Asuka had deliberately set it up so obviously, and she prayed that the plan would work. If he didn't come to attack her because he didn't want to set off the trap, he was either going to become immobilized by the paralyzer surging into his veins from those nicks she had given him, or she would have to use her last resort. Asuka hoped the spar would end soon, because the gash on her shoulder blade was bleeding a lot heavier than she had originally assumed, and was already feeling lightheaded from both the lack of air, blood, and chakra from extensive enhancements. Her last resort was looking like an option for a quick finish.

The move Kakashi made wasn't something Asuka had anticipated.

He stabbed his tantō into the ground, using his good hand to reach into the pouch strapped onto his thigh to bring out a kunai. Then he dug the kunai into the small wounds on his hand and leg with an unperturbed expression.

He was bleeding out the paralyzer.

Asuka needed to move fast if she wanted to win.

She moved her wrists to face each other, fingers pointing away from the opposite digits into the classic Kamehameha stance, urging the raw chakra to gather together. It was slow moving, the still chakra jumping with her agitation. Kakashi wasn't going to let her have the time to prepare for this.

His bloodied kunai sailed through the air, forcing Asuka to halt gathering the natural energy to avoid the small weapon. She stopped too late, and let out a small cry as the kunai was lodged into the side of her stomach.

Kakashi's chakra was already gathering into his hands. It was at a sluggish pace, his bleeding hand was twitching and stiff, still numb from the paralyzer, but they were still moving into a series of hand seals.

Asuka once again manipulated the raw chakra in the air.

"Lightning Release: Lightening Hound!"

"Energy Release: Kamehameha!"

The energies clashed in a frenzy of chakra, leaving Asuka blind in both her senses and eyesight.

She didn't catch Kakashi appearing behind her; she just registered the pain in her temple before blacking out.

Thus concludes Asuka's Academy Arc. Things are going to be getting crazier for Asuka now that she's become a genin.

So, we've met Gai (I hope that I've portrayed him well enough), had some more bonding (?If we can call it that?) with Kakashi, a little bit of insight on Asuka's mad training schedule as well as developing her kekkei genkai. And then the final exam spar (which I also hope was okay. Action scenes are difficult)

A bit of a whirlwind, I think.

I'm really excited about all the feedback from the new story preview from last chapter, and I will definitely be getting on the plotting stage with that one in between work and writing DS.

Thank you all so much for the reviews/follows/favorites from the last chapter! I find it really motivating to read through all of the reviews when I'm in a bit of a block, and I love to hear what you guys think of the story so far.

I promise I'll get on with replying to your guys' reviews tomorrow, but I really wanted to get this out before I went to bed!

Anyways, see you all next chapter, and don't forget to leave a review telling me what you think ;)