Chapter 5 – Starting Line

He hid it well, the exhausted expression of his did not fit well for his young appearance. With every meeting that occurred with him, her respect grew more, every insights he provided, allowed her to grow.

The only sad thing was knowing that these meetings would be ever anticipating but no longer fulfilled.

~XXX~

"You should leave." She spoke bluntly to the Uchiha teen in front of her who feigned a hurt expression while stepping back as if in shock at her words.

"How cold, after all I've done for you." He looked pointedly at the several snacks he brought for her with his earnings as a mean of a reward for when she accomplished more than he instructed from her. Maybe the rewards could be seen as a person training their pet but the way he expressed it did nothing to prove of his mindset going to that direction.

Sana sighed and shook her head at her wordings, it sounded rude and after all the teen had done for her, she allowed her walls to be accessible to him as a person to be trustworthy. He gained nothing for teaching her and that was a mean of pure generosity she has felt, even the caring she received from Sensei lacked this much of kindness.

Nevertheless, her way of speaking always led her to be more of speaking bluntly without further explanation which she has tried to fix as of now. "Sorry, let me rephrase it better," she cleared her throat before speaking once more after gaining a nod from the teen when his pitiful acting came to an end, "I say this because you look unwell, I'd rather not have to carry you for help if you fall sick."

Shisui simply grinned at her words and coo 'ed while wiggling his brow, "Does the little Princess actually care for my well-being?"

"Say it how you want, it's just worrying." An immediate answer which had caused the boy to stop joking around before smiling sadly with a sigh. Only then did Sana actually see the real effect of his expression of exhaustion, his facade slightly broken down enough for her to see the actual difference between his normal appearance to…this.

"Don't worry about it, I may be tired but the matter is…personal." He said with grim look as he walked to the clearing area of the training ground. "Even then, I don't want you to worry about my burden."

Sana shook her head and walked towards him. "I can't do anything crucial to help you," she paused as she spoke slowly to get the right words. "But, I can at least listen to help you release some of the..stress."

"Heh, is that so." He smiled softly at the girl before stepping back a few distance from her. Sana stood in the same space as she watched him move back with a raised brow before he clapped his hands together. "Then, how about this," he brought out a few kunai and threw it close to her foot. Sana silently acknowledged the silent request and picked up the weapon and held it tightly.

"Let's see if you've improved your own eccentric fighting style compared to my own." Shisui's expression changed from that of a joyous teen to a serious expression as he got into a ready position. "No holding back Sana, all out and fight as if to kill me."

"Will…this really help you, Shisui?" She too got into her own position. The two were stationary in the same position as if they were statues. "Can't say me going all out even without you using the Sharingan will help me measure to you."

"Don't worry about that. I'm limiting myself to even the playing field, this spar will help me, more than you think you know."

Sana closed her eyes to his answer before nodding her head, if this was the method he desired for some sort of relief, then she'll will simply have to oblige to it. She breathed in deeply before exhaling and looked at him dead in the eye. The world around gave no sound but her heartbeats thumping to a quick rhythm, the cool air around her felt vacant to her as she held the handle of the kunai tight to which she could muster.

Shisui flared his clan's bloodline before her before it disappeared a second later. The slightly raised brow while he did so before deactivating it had him grinning for some reason. She could no longer tell what he was muttering with the way he moved his lips but it had to be something she did to have caused such abrupt expression to occur in his current serious face. "This is merely Taijutsu?" She had to ask, misinterpretations, lack of information or even key facts were important from what one of the pages had said from Hagami's note.

"Of course, just Taijutsu," he pondered for a second, "and one technique." He added soon after. How cruel, the technique he used could be anything that would already give him a higher chance in her defeat. The only silver lining right now what that he would not use the Sharingan. The amount of chakra it would drain must be the case from what she had understood. There was also the fact that he was restricting some of his movements to around her level, it all came to if she had a quick enough thinking in actually beating him.

Shisui brought his hand out to his face and performed the seal of confrontation which Sana soon mimicked. The distance between the two was ridiculous since the Uchiha was taller than her. It merely showed how serious he was of the matter.

Sana waited patiently for any sudden movements from him. From the previous encounters she has learned from Shisui, he utilised his speed of some sort of teleporting with his style of combat in order to outmanoeuvre his enemies. Although, that was simply without the use of his eyes when fighting her, she would no doubt be frightened with how fast he would really be if he did use it against her.

Sana felt her eyes sting from her constant stare and blinked, she jumped on instinct and watched to see a punch almost having landed to her ribs. The fist has sailed without contacting before he had instantly appeared behind her before she could land on the ground. She grunted silently and twisted her body, spinning mid-air to escape the clutches of Shisui when he tried to grab her.

He still had the upper hand as he was still in the air but, he did not have her flexibility at least, she landed on her hands and pushed back to land on her feet a few meters away from him.

The teen did not let up on his relentless as he appeared in front of her once more and threw a punch toward her head. That teleportation of his was an annoyance which she could not find a way to counter with the way Shisui moved his body. Sana flipped backwards, allowing another punch to pass with no contact before she shot her legs and wrapped her calves around his arm.

The quick shock to his face allowed Sana to notice the teen was unprepared for the action as she locked her feet to the shoulder joints while twisting her body. The popping sound that was heard and she knew the pain he would be feeling as she had experimented it onto the Giran while learning the most effective pressured joints with Hagami's instruction.

With her body now locked together with his arm, as if she was a leech, she channelled her technique to her hands while still latching onto him and started to drain his chakra. The one technique use didn't really contemplate her to decide on what she would use since she had no other Jutsu that was learnt or taught to her besides the Absorption Jutsu. Nevertheless, with the teen's arm being hugged by the girl. That teleportation of his won't allow him to appear out of nowhere and arrive wherever he pleased. There was also the fact that he could no longer perform the technique to move away from contact which was denied from her when she was close to hitting him. It felt refreshing being the one looking at their opponent frantically thinking of ideas for countermeasures.

The quick submission lock she held wasn't really strong since the Uchiha still had another arm which he used to swing towards her. The attack struck gold and caused her to flinch of the slightly difficulty in breathing. Sana growled before bring down her arm, halting the usage of draining his chakra and latched onto the teen's neck which was behind her head. She curled herself up into a fetal position, before landing her knees hard onto Shisui's spine. As the two of them landed onto the ground, Sana used her chakra and the momentum, crushing him in front of her with a shoulder flip.

Sana didn't halt her grapple of the teen as she wrapped her arms around his neck once more while using the knees to push him to the ground. The strained breathing was heard before realising that what she was doing was too much and let go immediately. Any more than this could no longer be called a spar. "I'm sorry." She said instantly when Shisui caught his bearing and coughed several times before a strained chuckles soon came out. He let out a few more coughs before standing up.

"That…was harsh, but I did say to get serious." He moved his neck slightly before hearing a crack and giving a relieving sigh. He looked at his dislocated shoulder and moped, "Didn't expect this to happen to my shoulder, seriously how much did you change?" He brought out his hand for the seal of reconciliation which she slowly did the same although with some shame.

"Again, I'm—"

"Calm down~ you now at least understand what moves are actually more useful to facing a fast opponent, though I never expected any of that movement from you."

"I'll fix your shoulder right now," Sana grabbed onto his arm and pushed it back into place, hearing the familiar pop sound. It was funny watching a five year old grabbing onto a larger boy but Shisui didn't protest and looked at the sky as if he was refreshed.

"The shoulder may continue to ache but, you can get some treatment for a quicker recovery." She gave him a grim smile, which he frowned at before rubbing her head roughly.

"Like I said, calm down, I'm not mad. I wanted this," Shisui looked at the sky and festered her to do the same, "you helped me a lot when I come to visit y'know? I feel more at ease for your future. And of the village."

Sana raised her brow at his words, "The future, you talk as if my future won't have you to guide me."

"Who knows, all I can do is simply try my best for survival no matter where I am."

"Would that include inside the village as well?"

Shisui nodded at the question, "It means especially the village, while this is my home. There will always be those who will try to stab you on the back or even be the ones faking their true intentions, nature and even their real character to those around them."

"I've never thought things like that." Sana looked at her bruised palms, the cuts and torn skin showing her the aftermaths of all that strict training she had done to merely…survive this world. "I focused so much in trying to survive that I never imagined what it would feel to be betrayed by someone close."

"It's a cruel thing to experience, but it just shows you what this world is really like beyond these walls of Konohagakure," he brought out a light cream coloured scroll which he brought out from his wrist with a puff of smoke appearing before handing it to her. "I've enjoyed my time teaching you with the bare minimum of what I can expend for you, now it's up to you to truly start your like as a future kunoichi of Konoha."

Sana slowly reached her hand to the scroll and grasped it gently as if it was fragile. "What is it?" When she proceeded to open the scroll, Shisui halted her hands and shook her head. "I can't open it?"

"Only until a few years during your time in the Academy." He chuckled at her blatant full eyes looking at him as if he was serious. "Hey now, the things you learned from the…Hyūga may have given your insight of what is taught but, that is also when you should learn to gain trustworthy allies and friends alike."

"Only to make…friends?"

"That and to enjoy your life more as a child. You grew up to quickly and it wasn't your fault," he tapped the scroll in her hand, "don't cut corners while you are there and don't rush things. Gain enough information that you can receive from there and find out what can be used to amass your growth."

The violet eyed girl merely raised a brow as if challenging him, "…What if I just open it without you noticing me doing so?"

"Then nothing, I won't say anything but to just trust me on this and wait for a few years before opening it."

Sana sighed before nodding her head. She could just wait before opening the scroll, him trusting it to her in the first place was an act of trust of some sort so she too would do the same. "I will not open it till I find it is time."

"That's all I ask." He smiled, Shisui got up from the ground before giving a loud yawn and sighed, "Guess I'll call it a day and rest."

"Okay, I'll see you next time, Shisui." With farewell words, Sana left the training ground not noticing the sad smile to his face as he watched her leave with the scroll.

"…I hope there is one, Sana."

~XXX~

It seems the caretaker found another way to trouble her with her outings once more, if you decided to not join the academy to become a future 'killer' for the village, you could not leave the building of the orphanage without some sort of escort. It was fortunate that she leaves during the night unnoticed. Even then, the rules didn't hinder her much since Giran was besides her occasionally as well as Hagami.

Having someone like Hagami who wanted no part of the main branch of his clan still had perks of being a member of a prestigious clan like the Hyūga. The respect was always present before him and she could only watch as some adults bowed their heads to a child. With the last remaining books and notes from Hagami being nearly complete, there was nothing else to pass the time with the books inside the building. They were typically basic and practically held no value but to cover the space for appearances.

Playing with the other children was already a no for her since the caretakers had already isolated her and being the lickers of children trying to gain their good sides, they had ignored her unless required. She was never invited but at the same time, she would deny the invitation if she ever got one in the first place. Although, the words of Shisui came back in mind in trying to gain allies and make friends. That seemed to be impossible to do with the children she slept besides with.

Isolation. Hunger. Cold. Each is bad enough alone, but together, it was horrible. It wasn't long before the hunger had caught up to her drastically. Starvation through their blatant neglect was the last straw. Without nutrition, her health would decline and she rejected any signs of wanting that to happen. Her decision became rash, and she had enough. Sana asked to start at the ninja academy.

~XXX~

"Sana-san."

Violet eyes turned her head in the direction of her name being called from and met with a woman wearing a white coat across the waiting room. She was currently at the hospital in order to be tested in how healthy she was and if she had the capability to become a ninja in the first place.

She got off the plastic chair before walking towards the woman. She nodded, and motioned for her to follow. The path was long and seemed disorganised with the way each room number was placed. It seemed confusing and strange but said nothing to the woman. Said woman casually walked slowly for the girl to match her rhythm of walking pace before they arrived at unoccupied room for her to enter.

The woman set a folder on the desk near the bed before opening it, her scrunched face revealed something wrong before she searched through her pockets. It seems she forgot to bring something with her since she continued to search frantically around her clothing of pockets. "Alright, kid. I'll return soon, I just must of forgot some files that are important."

It was common to be forgetful to some of the simple of things around us, Sana didn't comment and just nodded with saying anything. "Good. I'll be back shortly." And with those words, she left immediately. She could hear the light tapping of her sandals which indicated that she was running. The woman doesn't seem to be one to waste time on her job, that was something the girl could respect.

It was perhaps the first time actually seeing a doctor properly. Some don't seem to have that sense of…spirit? like other ninjas she had spotted while coming here. They seemed to possess something even in his laidback posture that showed they were prepared. Maybe there is different qualifications needed to be a medical ninja or so they were called.

Looking around the room, there was another table in the corner, two plastic chairs for patients, and a more similarly comfortable chair for the medic. There was tools which Sana has never seen before. Everything was plain just like the wall colouring scheme being white. Her attention came back to the door handle which was pushed down as the same woman returned with some grumble that Sana couldn't make out.

"Okay then, let's get started." The woman grumbled some more and sat herself down on the chair. She grabbed the file on the desk while placing another file she brought with her and attached it. It seemed to be satisfactory since she acknowledged the files she was reading with a nod. "Some questions first to begin, nothing too hard, just your age, birthday, medical history and such." She paused, "You get all that?"

Sana's lips thinned briefly but nodded nevertheless at the question. From the way she spoke, the woman expected an answer right away. July 1st. I am five years old."

"Do you know your medical history?"

It was quite obvious the woman was the patient type of person who could wait but still expressed their slight annoyance to repeating themselves.

"This is my first time being here." The woman sighed and rubbed her temple before reading the file again. "Seems like you appeared out of nowhere from what I'm reading." She flipped to another page. "But that'll be understandable since this is your first time." She stood up from her chair and walked towards the table on the corner of the room. "Hop up on the examination table, we'll try to do this quickly."

"You seemed to be quite annoyed being here."

"That obvious huh, it was meant to be my break about now. Open wide." The woman agreed and pulled the girl's mouth open. Looking down at her throat. "Though it's not something that can be your fault, just my Senpai being stuck ups."

It felt like a few hours had gone by with the woman assessing her body, measuring her weight, height, even her blood was drawn and placed inside a small tube to be tested. An vaccination was injected before channelling her green chakra to heal any numb parts of the body. She brought a small piece of paper which she showed to her.

"Aren't you going to use it?" She asked with a frown.

"Is this a chakra paper?" Sana gave her own question which caused the woman to raise her brows.

"I'm surprised you know about that, but no, this is somewhat different." She brought back the paper to her side and flipped it to show a scribbling symbol at the bottom. "It's to assess your chakra and other things." Sana nodded before taking the paper back from the medic. The paper was more thick, but smooth. Channelling her chakra, she clothed her eyes as she pushed the feeling of her energy go towards the paper. The medic instructed her to hold onto the paper and keep on releasing chakra on it until she was told to stop.

The symbol on the back started to brighten before expanding to the whole space covering the small paper with more symbols. The woman told her to stop before studying it like it made sense to her. Perhaps it did since she wrote down whatever she was looking at. The woman nodded again with a sigh before looking at the girl. "It's quite impressive. Your chakra seems to be twisted…. You have a guardian? I'd have to give a review of the results of your blood and your physical to them."

Sana shook her head, giving a simple answer; "Orphan."

"…In that case, I'll have to go through it with you then. I'll come back again with the results of your blood work. The people in the lab should be done with it by now." Sana looked at the paper she was still holding. The scribbles of symbols made no sense to her and yet it fascinated the girl into what it meant. It was a mystery that she just wanted to know. It was after nearly half an hour later the medic returned again with another file.

Sitting down beside her on the chair, she threw the files down on the desk and crossed her arms before looking directly at her who was continuing to analyse the paper. "You can give it to me, it's not important anymore."

Sana continue to stare at the paper before looking at the woman. "What are these markings?"

"Seals."

Before Sana can ask more, the woman interrupted her. "Alright. Good news, you have an acceptable height and weight for your age. Still too short, but that's probably malnourishment from what I can see from the results. Your organs are clean, so are your chakra pathways. Physically, like I saying before, you are malnourished therefore I suggest having more meat into your diet. Your blood level is quiet worrying because of that reason but it's a minor thing if you follow the suggestion." She swapped a paper with another. "Your chakra while clean is disoriented. It's something I've seen to others and can be fixed no doubt but…" The woman rubbed her chin in amazement. "It's more troubling than I thought it was when I saw the complete results."

"Meaning?"

The medic pointed at the paper Sana was still holding, "The paper you used your chakra into has a seal which is used to diagnose the patient. To measure the capacity of your chakra, and the ratio of physical to spiritual energies. When I mean disoriented, I mean the imbalance between the two energies are more drastic than other patients I have seen before. Most common ratio is having around say fifty, fifty or even forty-nine, fifty-one."

"Will that cause a problem for me to attend the academy? Would it change anything?"

"Hmm, how do I explain in simple terms? I don't know what I say will be understood to you but if you still want to, I can?" Sana nodded her head which the medic got as confirmation. "The other question of you joining the academy. There's no problem there, in hindsight, you'll probably find everything there to be below your expectations in theory."

The medic handed out a paper from the file to the girl which she took and looked at a design structure of her inner body design of her chakra. "Coming back to what I was saying about your disoriented chakra. You have spiritual imbalance which can hinder you in using higher level Jutsu. As I said previously, most people have common balanced chakra of half spiritual and physical energies. Those balances can change overtime will some taking favour to one to the other. Your ratio is thirty-seven physical, sixty-three spiritual."

That was…a massive difference.

"In other words, there are Jutsu that require more physical energy or spiritual energy. Separating your chakra between the two is impossible. An example would be say if a person with a high physical energy using a Jutsu that has a heavy physical energy cost, the consumption will be less that with someone who is more spiritual energy." The information was enlightening for the girl but at the same time it was worrying all the same to what she could do then. "You following along?"

"I will be using more chakra than needed with Jutsu that are more physical energy related. But the opposite is the same being that Jutsu that focuses on spiritual energy will cost less. Right?"

"Good," she smiled. "On the bright side, your chakra is dense, so you most likely have a decently amount of reserves."

"You said this disoriented chakra can be fixed. How would I do it?"

"An excellent question." She nodded in approval. "In simple terms, performing a large amount of physical activity will shorten the gap a little. The best I can see you wanting to achieve is at least forty, sixty ratio. With that said, mental actively increases spiritual energy. Sad to say but it'll be impossible to not keep yourself occupied in tasks relating to intellectual activities for the rest of your life."

"So working out will help then?" Sana specified for clarification.

"Yes. The best idea I can think of is to exercise while studying in some manner of way."

"Got it. Thank you for your time and help." The girl got off from the table before walking towards the door, "I've learned something new."

"That so." The woman hummed. "Good luck in becoming a kunoichi, I have a feeling you'll be well known sooner or later."

Sana looked back at the smile the woman gave and returned it with a short one, "I doubt that, I'm nothing special."

XXX

A/N: So its been a while since I updated this story, and there really any excuse of just pure laziness and just playing games and whatnot. Since it is the Summer Holiday and my second year of University is over, I have more free time now to do some more work. Anyway, getting off track. This chapter is mostly just a summary in what Sana's current capability is along with her imbalance which will come to be understood further in the next few chapters AFTER THE ACADEMY ARC and becomes a Genin.

For those who have found my story to be interesting and worth a read, I hope you enjoy but I suggest again that if the story does not make you happy or you would like something to spice up the story in any way, I am more than willing to check them out for ideas. Although, if the comments is more based on just insulting me creating the story and such, don't read. If it's not for you, then it's not for you.

That's about all I'll say now from this point. I do encourage you guys in commenting my story for me to know if there are mistakes I have to fix or suggestions that would bring me to curiosity into what that path would lead to.

Thank you reading and I'll see you guys next time!