Small Steps
A sleepy kunoichi—nicknamed the Narcoleptic Ninja—has big dreams. Wanting to save her teammates Obito, Kakashi, as well as her sensei and his love, the sleepy kunoichi will have to work hard to see her dream come true. Reborn!OC
young akemi-chan: working
years til nine tails: 10 years, 0 months
akemi: 8 years, 4 months
location: hidden leaf village (fall)
Hard work is quite literally hard work.
(I think I almost forgot this fact when I was preoccupied with the future.)
"Your body's too weak to work on Body Techniques," Nishi tells me. "We'd have to get you fit and lean before we can teach you any attacks. Even then, you'd still have to have muscle memory and the ability to fight... it's too much. As for Ninja Techniques and Illusion Techniques... you'll need to master chakra molding—which will take too long. Though with your crappy reserves, you won't have much of a future with it.
"The only real thing you can do is Weapons Techniques. The basics don't require chakra and you don't need to be fit and lean to start out. However, if you want to be a ninja, you can't have that fat."
"Right..."
Nishi writes down my workout schedule for the next week and, looking at it, I think I'm going to die.
"Since we need you to get strong fast, eat lots of proteins. Try to skip anything too fatty. Use this protein powder if you seriously can't eat any more meats."
The diet she puts me on is a thousand calories more than what I usually eat. To think I struggled to fill my stomach before this...
I start the workout routine when my family is asleep or at Nishi's shop. To help me get stronger, she thought I should use one kilogram weights (as if suddenly working out wasn't hard enough). The pain, the soreness, it's a bit too much...
Five days a week, I get to Nishi's shop a couple hours before it opens so she can tell me the lesson for the day and give me my objective. While I remain there, I work under the shop practicing in what Nishi calls her weapons den, a basement area where she stores the rest of her weapons.
A space (that I had to make) is sectioned for me to practice Shuriken Techniques—throwing handheald weapons like kunai and shuriken, exercise, and weapons practice.
Nishi spends most of the first three months teaching me weapon parts, what weapons are made to do, and why it works so well. As my muscles gradually begin to grow stronger, every day I get closer to actually holding weapons instead of watching.
"Sleepy," Nishi calls.
Reluctantly, I get off the floor and rise. My noodle, fatty body is at its wit's end. "...yes, Sensei."
"The workout?"
"...mmm... thirty push-ups, sit ups, lunges on both sides... er, twenty pull ups... a meter run in fifteen minutes."
"How many sets?"
"Uh... sometimes two."
"Alright, good enough. Come with me. Don't act like you're dying here—isn't today a rest day? Get up!"
In the weapons den, Nishi puts a small box on the table. In it, shiny kunai and shuriken reside.
"Today's your first weapons lesson. If I had taught you earlier, it'd be underwhelming. Your muscles were so weak, you couldn't get it to stick to the target even if you were a centimeter away."
"Nishi-sensei... are you exaggerating?"
Nishi looks me up and down. "I was, but... that might've been the truth."
(So cold, Sensei...)
"Since you're still sore, we'll begin with shuriken. Shuriken are lighter than kunai and do little damage. Why? They're a distraction, not a lifeline. Say you're leaping away from the enemy. If you don't want them to come for you and take advantage of the fact you can't change direction midair, throw shuriken and force them to block or dodge until you land.
"Aiming to kill with shuriken is stupid. You'd have to be a god or lucky to hit anything vital. With its hole in the center, it loses a lot of weight needed for real damage—unless you chuck it hard enough. Even though it doesn't do much, still missing your target can hurt friendlies or will screw you over in combat. Here, watch."
There are four shuriken in her hand, placed so the razor sharp point doesn't stab her, one blade held by the side of her knuckles. All four are thrown and hit the centermost circle perfectly in the center. One hundred percent accurate.
"That's harder than it looks, you know." Nishi places the four shuriken in my hand properly, forces me to tighten my hand so that the blades will leave imprints. "Throw."
Just like her, I draw back my hand and throw.
And...
The shuriken go all over the place. Not a single one hits the target. Or any other targets nearby.
"Huh," I comment.
That really is hard.
"Ugh," Nishi exhales, "even your first throw is horrible. Okay, I watched you and you did absolutely nothing right."
"...gee, thanks, Sensei."
"When you throw, keep your arm and hand straight. Pretend you're a super rusted machine who can't even twitch. Or... you have arthritis. Whichever works. If a finger loosens or if your arm isn't parallel to the ground, you will never be accurate. Some people intuitively figure out when throwing, you're just a human slingshot, but you don't have that time."
With her suggestions, the shuriken stop going in all directions. But without real muscle power, the shuriken hit the board and bounce off.
"Don't get discouraged," Nishi says. "You can't expect a newborn to kick a can far. And without enough strength, you can't be as accurate as you want. If you don't go faster than air resistance..." Nishi gives me a thumbs down. "Air resistance will mess up the throw every time. Well. Practice."
I do... for hours... Returning home, I have make my tiredness seem not that bad. Plus, my new diet... my dreadful, new diet...
I think... if I eat another slice of fish... my stomach will explode and I will die. Unfortunately, I haven't met my calorie quota, so in my belly this fish must go.
Mom is giggling. I find she's watching me. "It's just... it's just you've been eating a lot more now! Is working at the shop tiring you that much?"
"...your cooking is excellent, Mom," I skillfully dodge.
"What? I haven't tried anything different, so don't admit that," Mom blushes.
Sayaka swallows her last bite of food, ready to join the conversation. "An-chan looks so stuffed, like a little teddy bear! If you don't want to eat that, I'll take it off your tiny hands!"
Having started this diet, I realize Sayaka eats a lot. I'm guessing all ninja have to eat a bunch to stay active.
I split half of the fish with her and force myself to eat the rest.
A month later to the date, Nishi introduces throwing kunai. With the ring of the kunai on her finger, she twirls the weapon until it's a grayish blur. "Kunai can be used for a bunch more stuff. This can be thrown, but it takes more effort, moves slower than shuriken, and will give heavy damage. You can stab, slice, deflect, cut, or climb with a kunai. It's your new best friend. It's so versatile, you don't even need to learn about it much. That's why you're going to master this."
"Eh? But... it's so easy to use..."
"I know that. But mastering a kunai is different than just using it to serve a purpose. See this?"
She stops twirling the kunai and does a fancy hand trick to get a better hold. Her other hand grabs four shuriken and throw without missing a beat. Shortly after, a kunai rips through the air, collecting the shuriken and landing directly in the center. The four shuriken, pierced in the middle by the kunai, wiggles slightly.
"If you saw that, I threw the shuriken sideways and to an angle. It's... really tough to get shuriken completely together in one throw, so when I throw the kunai, I had already compensated for gaps in between shuriken, aimed for their middle, and also aimed for the target's center. Both weapons were thrown at a curve. In action, most see a straight line of travel."
My jaw drops. "...wow."
Nishi smirks at my expression. "It's not impossible... but if you're not a genius, you'll have to work for it. If you ask a random ninja on a street to do that, they can't. Doing something like that requires a special understanding. And, besides, what good does the trick do in combat?
"If you were a master, being able to do this means if an opponent is throwing shuriken, you can not only eliminate the threat of shuriken without getting close to the opponent, but you can also wound the opponent in more ways than one."
I stare at the kunai, almost graceful with the four shuriken trapped on it like deadly rings on a finger. It looks so easy... but I know it can't be.
"So... what if your opponent... isn't good at throwing shuriken? That... one kunai can't get them all, right?"
"If they're that bad, just use a kunai per shuriken. You can safely throw up to three per hand," she replies easily.
"But... that means three kunai... one hand... three directions."
Nishi grins wide. "See? Only those who master kunai care to understand things like that. It's different to throw kunai to just stab a person, but to use kunai to prevent a terrible shuriken thrower takes a bit more brains.
"Only masters can make those fast calculations. So if you're in a battle, don't be stupid. Do the easy thing: dodge or deflect. This skill is something I'd do."
Five months after beginning, I'm able to make good progress on my Shuriken Techniques. My throws aren't horrible. They all hit the target. Sure, it's nowhere near the center when I try hard, but it's progress nonetheless.
The routine becomes so engrained in my system, I start dreaming of our practices while I sleep. Sometimes I forget if I can do things in reality or in my dreams.
(Ah, actually, I'm rarely sore in my dreams.)
"Hey, An-chan, you're walking a little funny." Sayaka pats my bad shoulder from behind, making wince. "Are you sore? Ahh! That's so cute! Look at the little hardworker!"
She pinches my cheeks and stretches them like taffy.
I push her hands away. "...don't you have work to do?"
"Eh? Like what? I'm not on a mission and my teammates don't need me. What else can I do but love my An-chan?"
"Didn't Mom... put you in charge of the Minakura Clan emblem?"
It's Gramma's goal to have a clan, with is why so many people live in this home together-eight people. All I know is that Granpa would've wanted the Minakura to be something more than a mere family. It makes sense after all. We are the largest provider of civilian-nin services.
That also means it's an unspoken certainty that all offspring will have children and return them to become members of the Minakura Clan. Thankfully because marriage exists and the outside world is diverse, there is no chance of intermarriage. I don't think Gramma cares about the so-called "purity" of Minakura members like a Hyuuga might.
Sayaka gasps and races to her room. Being as creative and fashionable as she, she was chosen to create the new logo. We have yet to see a prototype, however. Days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months. Still no prototype.
It's also the seventh month of my training when Nishi teaches me another weapon.
"I thought about this hard," she frowns. "The only weapon I can trust you with without hurting yourself is a staff."
She gives me a pole that stands half a head taller than me. The oak staff is weighted and has tapered ends. It's rough enough so that it doesn't slide through my fingers too easily.
"There's no blades and it's not too heavy. If you hit yourself, you probably won't need to go to the hospital. Plus, it's slightly more ranged than a sword, so you can keep your distance and use Shuriken Techniques."
"Ah," I comment. "What if... I fight someone who has a sword?"
"What about it? Isn't obvious? If it's a single blade, attack the unsharped edge. If not, attack the flat face. I don't know if you read weird stories, but don't use a staff to hit a sword's sharpened edge or point. At least, not this version."
Curious, I say, "Can... some staffs be used against swords?"
"Oh, duh. But I don't want you worry about trying to fight a sword with a staff, just use it for its intended purpose." Nishi points to the side of her head. "The staff is made to cripple without being as violent or dangerous as a sword. A master only aims for weak areas of the body like the temple, nose, eyes, neck, diaphragm, stomach, groin, and knees. Every ninja knows if you're worth anything, you're aiming to cripple them, so they'll stop you. To beat this, it's your job to confuse 'em."
Nishi has own own staff that stands a bit above her height. "Those fancy spins you see are there to confuse the enemy. And because you're keeping your staff in motion, it's way easier to block enemy attacks. If you don't spin, you'll just be deliberately telegraphing to your enemy where you'll hit next, giving them the advantage and ability to counterattack. Alright, dodge me."
Nishi picks up and lowers the staff. I move out the way before it hits me.
"Excellent. Dodge this next."
Nishi spins the staff faster and faster. She twirls it behind her back, switches hands. Spins with the staff, spinning and—
My shoulder hurts. I grab it, watching her still.
"Your reaction speed is slow," Nishi says.
"Ow," I complain.
"You'll be fine. Today, we'll work on holding, stances, and basic techniques. If it makes you feel better, that includes spinning."
Holding, stances, and basic strikes are easy. With the staff training, Nishi teaches me forms which combine different stances and strikes and has me striking imaginary enemies. I'm slow and lack much power, but Nishi keeps telling me my form is excellent for what it's worth.
Spinning, though, is hard. It's heavy and awkward. Not to mention how much spinning requires my entire body 's muscles, not just upper body. If my lower body is the slightest bit unbalanced, I'll topple over.
Even so, I keep going.
I can't let myself give up now.
Thrust. Thrust. Strike. Turn. Horse stance. Thurst. Thurst. Strike. Crouch. Reverse thrust. Horse stance.
I imagine I'm hitting really mean people who also happen to be very incompetent ninja. Nishi tells me if I don't visualize where each hit will land on a person, then it's as good as me passively learning the weapon. Then I won't know what to do in a real fight.
When my back and legs hurt, I move on to Shuriken Techniques, still vying for perfect accuracy. Everyday, I get closer and closer. I want to ask my body why can't it just do it today... but I doubt I'll get a response.
When I'm tired, I doze off.
Somehow, every single time I do, Nishi is there to wake me up.
"We need to keep your training moving," she says today. "Please tell me you've been working on chakra control and hand signs in your free time. I gave you so many months so you wouldn't be rushed, sleepy."
I nod and yawn. Chakra control lessons are easy when I have such a small reserve. I can feel such a tiny, hardly intense energy spiraling within my core. Sometimes that energy expands to reach my arms and fingers, my legs and toes, but it's all so itty- bitty it feels like it's hardly there. And because I don't have much chakra, corresponding hand signs with the movement of my energies took a long time. I couldn't manoeuvre my chakra to more than three signs in a day without fatigue.
"Good. Okay. At this rate, you might not be strong enough. You're doing fine, but a few months of exercise isn't the same as starting since you were three. So, you're going to add chakra into your weapons to help."
She puts shuriken and kunai between us. "Chakra adds a bit more power and force you can't do. If you need perfect accuracy but know you're not going to get it, add a bit of push from chakra. You'll likely get that perfect mark. This isn't as easy as it sounds. If the chakra doesn't hit the weapon evenly... just like if you don't apply an even force, your throw is wasted and more deadly because you have a powerful force in effect. Example—"
She puts a shuriken in her palm. A light blue color covers the weapon and her hand. As if a ghost took it, the shuriken launches itself to the target, perfect accuracy. "That's if you're really tied up or want to be extra sneaky. You'll be learning how to throw weapons with a touch a chakra."
"How much chakra... would this take?"
"That's why we're learning this early. You don't have much chakra, so make your throws count. This is exactly like using Ninja Techniques—you don't get the chakra back. How much it takes depends solely on your chakra control and the size of the weapon. Do you want to do the easy route and use shuriken or is it the hard route with kunai?"
"No both?"
"'Fraid not. If your chakra gets too low, your body can't recover properly. You'll do more harm than good, sleepy. Now, choose."
Shuriken or kunai? Shuriken or kunai...? I clench my fists in thought. Knowing Nishi is watching makes me more nervous.
Shuriken is best but I want to push myself. I have so much so lose if I don't make it into the Academy.
If I use kunai, I can't throw much of them at all.
Decisions, decisions.
What would Nishi want me to do?
I rack my brain but just her harsh words enter my mind. The only few things I remember not being so Nishi is when she was first teaching me about weapons, about their points.
...ah.
"...Most ninja prefer to use a big point, much like a Jounin can do A- through D-Ranks easily, but sometimes it does the job so well, you'll probably end up hurting people far worse than using a small point."
"...Sensei, if I can master kunai... won't it be simple mastering shuriken? Instead of... working my way up? Like a Jounin-level ninja... can do a D-Rank with ease."
"Well, I learned shuriken to kunai," she says, face expressionless. "I can't say it's easier, although I do know my ability to add chakra to shuriken improved once I learned to add chakra to my kunai."
"Kunai," I decide.
"Don't overwork yourself..." Nishi pauses, brown darting around. "Er, even more so than usual. It's your butt if you don't make it."
Nishi describes it as wrapping the weapon with a layer of chakra so it'll react more easily than just pushing it out my hand, then using the rest of my chakra to eject it. The force of chakra has to balance.
...as soon as I try it out, my kunai spins madly in the air. We both run for cover.
My routine is so tightly managed that a rainy day, a chilly day, and even a snowy can't stop me from coming to the store if it's not a rest day. Nishi, however, doesn't come and teach me if it's too bad. She just closes her shop once letting me in and goes upstairs to her living quarters.
Since the weapons den is below ground, it gets cold real easily. I have to work out for a while before the cold fades away, but sometimes I forget it's chilly until I touch the freezing weapons.
I show up to practice sick three times. All Nishi orders for me to do is to practice meditating and review. Also, to do everything I can to stop being sick.
Why is working so hard?
small steps chapter 3 | working
"Accuracy, fitness training, Shuriken Techniques, Staff Techniques," Nishi counts. She hums to herself, tapping her fingers on the table. "Okay, I don't trust you with anything too risky, heavy, and bladed. That disqualifies most weapons except for one."
"Huh," I comment. A weapons apprentice who can't use actually weapons.
"You'll need this!" Nishi gives me four metal rings. They are heavier than they look, made out of iron or steel. A small tab is edged onto the sides. "These types of rings are called rope rings. Guess what they're for?"
"Rope?"
Nishi places the rings on my middle fingers. "Rope, cord, or ninja wire, actually. This helps a wimp like you keep a solid grip."
"Wow..."
"I don't need your sass," Nishi says. "Anyway, for someone like you, if you get into a fight, you're better off running away. But since you have something to prove, you probably won't. That's why I'm teaching you Rope Techniques. Because, technically, a rope is a weapon because it's a tool."
"Oh," I comment.
"Don't think I can't tell you're judging me! Look, it's the art of restraining people! A ninja can't really hurt you if they can't move."
"But... a ninja can just use the Replacement Technique, or anything, really... to escape."
"No duh. You're not actually using regular rope. Well, you should for non-ninja. But for ninja, you need rope that stays. Chakra attracted rope. As the name implies, yours truly has made rope that binds to a person's chakra, meaning techniques like Replacement or Body Flicker will carry the rope with it. Its only flaw is that it doesn't work on any clone technique. That is to say, the rope sticks to the chakra of the clone and falls apart when the clone disappears."
Oh, now I'm intrigued. "Ninja should use that more often..."
"Please, ninja who want to learn Rope Techniques are as rare as Illusion or Sealing specialists. And there's nothing flashy about flinging a rope, you know. But if you're my pupil, you need to start flaunting my products for Lord Hokage!"
To start, Nishi teaches me fundamentals tying and the strengths and limitations of rope (which starts to get into physics and hurt my brain). She then brings me a full body training dummy trapped in the rope technique of the day where I am supposed to analyze how the rope was used to bind.
She then tosses me a rope. "Your tuuuurn!"
With a weary look, I step forward-
"No, sleepy, that's not how this works. Use your chakra to take this rope and tie it." My face must telegraph my confusion. That or my stillness. "Look, an average ninja would just use chakra to create weapon. That takes a lot, so all you're doing is using already existing rope. It's like how Lord Tobirama had the option to create water or use existing water for techniques."
Ohhhhh. Of course.
The technique on the dummy falls under fast rope techniques: a quick hold for a short period. The binding falls under informal with a short rope length and few complicated ties. I'm pretty sure a kimono has more ties than this. Six hand seals are necessary for any fast rope technique but each time the chakra moves differently.
I imbue my chakra into the rope, feeling the inner workings and threads like muscles and visualize the simple binding. Satisfied, I mold the chakra to take away the rope in a puff of smoke and, soon appears once I lose a far amount of chakra.
We both judge the result, trading a blank look.
"Um," I say, kinda woozy, looking over to my teacher for confirmation.
"The knots are nice, but... the rope has to be on the person."
The rope is tied perfectly... just not on the dummy's body at all.
I'm only able to learn many informal fast rope binds and one and a half formal fast rope binds before Nishi agrees to teach me more at later date.
small steps chapter 3 | working
My ninth birthday passes and my tenth is eight months away. With my first year skipping out the Ninja Academy entrance exam, Nishi continues to teach me as she sees fit.
"Your upper body strength isn't poor, but I doubt you're a puncher." Nishi turns my hand into a fist. "The inside of your hand is adapted to being abused by weapons. The outside is still weak and soft. No point in teaching you punching because you need years to build a resistance and withstand the force. Or you'll just break all your fingers. That's why we'll focus on your feet. After all, they're abused every day and they're protected by shoes. It's more efficient that way."
Nishi teaches me balancing exercises before going into basic kicking martial arts.
"Rule number one of kicking," she says, "kick and recoil. If you leave your leg dangling for the world to see, someone will grab and probably break or stab your leg. I cannot stress this enough. When you kick, bring your foot back."
I don't think I've ever seen others do that.
(But experts can break the rules, though...)
"Listen, I'm not a pro at this, so I'll teach you enough to learn on your own," Nishi admits. "Learning to kick and use a staff with both hands will make you kind of a complete package, so keep that in mind."
The stances for kicking are still the same thing. I balance on the balls of my feet, knees bent, body loose yet sturdy. From there, I can do basic kicks.
Kicking requires precision and power. It's not enough to throw my foot out and hope for the best. The smoother my body moves, the more precise I can aim. The more sturdy my body is, the more power. In this style of kicking, the goal is the land hits using the foot, shin, and knee with the most power covering the least amount of surface area.
Once I get the basics down, I add weapons. When my muscle memory starts to grow, Nishi and I spar to practice.
And when my tenth birthday is two months away, I keep quiet about it. Because that would mean...
"The entrance exam for the Academy is almost here," Nishi says to me on a rest day. "Do you understand how it works?"
I shake my head.
(Does she really think I'm ready?)
I would think after so long... so much hard work and sacrifice I would be excited. Yet if I'm working twice as hard to get half as far... I could be reaching the end of my dream.
(Nishi would be so disappointed in me if I fail...)
"Kids with potential show up and tell adults who they are and what they can do," Nishi says, explaining the exam. "Adults decide if the kid is worth their time and move them on. You perform solo in one of many rooms led by an Academy teacher. Then they all pool their results, select their kids they want or get stuck with the ones they don't want, and any kids who aren't picked... go home."
"Hmm," I say.
"If the Ninja Academy wants you as a student, you do realize that you'll need a guardian to register you in at that point. For example... parents who don't want you to be a ninja."
I look at the door. "Oh. No."
small steps chapter 3 | working
Rope Techniques are called hojoujutsu. I emphasize this because many Japanese now use the technique for erotic binding and so searching rope techniques won't yield the same results as its true name. But back in the days, it was a form of torture and interrogation. So... well, rope can't really have good connotations, can it?
Rope Techniques learning was inspired by one of the very early episodes of Naruto when Naruto used the skill to bind Sasuke Uchiha for a good while. Third episode to be precise. (Man I wish those funky new techniques were used more...)