Shadow of the Snake - Debut

It was hard to focus.

I was trying to pay attention to the fights: who was called up, how they fought, and how it ended. But it was all a blur compared to the searing pain from my crushed left hand. I kept still, because moving it, even a little, caused the pain to spike.

Pain, pain, go away. Come again another- argh.

In my urge to distract myself, I'd noticed that the kid I fought last time wasn't here.

Maybe he doesn't come every time. You're thinking too much-

I winced at another surge from my hand.

Honestly, I wanted to cry.

This is doing wonders for my pain tolerance, but can't I just get down there now!? That damn wretch, call me down!

"Next fight, Yumika and…"

The name was vaguely familiar, but as usual I didn't give it much attention and instead rushed to get down. Which wasn't my smartest decision. Especially since the other guy seemed to have decided to take his sweet time getting down.

Come on, I want to get this over with!

He eventually got down and I recognised him. It was the kid I'd fought the first time.

It also made me remember something else…

"Good luck, have fun."

I managed to growl out the statement, while I offered my good hand.

The boy, with his hands in his pockets, looked down at the offered appendage, before slapping it aside and glaring at me.

So that's how it was going to be.

He was going to win this. My hand basically put my entire left arm out of commission and locked me out of any drastic movements, like the ones needed for a good kick.

It was perhaps for the best. I wasn't feeling forgiving.

I can get one good hit if I trade with him…

I slid my left foot forward, leaning my weight back on my right foot. I let my left hang, while I held my right at my hip.

"Begin."

Like last time, the boy rushed me.

My instincts told me to back off or intercept, but I didn't. I held my ground, and intensified my glare.

He got close, planted himself, and then threw a right handed hook towards my face.

Meanwhile, I stepped into a straight punch with my good hand into his diaphragm. Nothing was held back.

I didn't even register any pain before I blacked out.

…

When I woke up, there was a slight buzz in my head. I was quick to figure out that I was still in the arena room, but up in the overwatching balcony. My hand had also been fixed up, but probably didn't warrant an extended stay.

I know I need skills, but quickly figuring out where I am after being knocked out… ugh.

I pulled myself off the ground, and then registered that I wasn't alone.

Despite myself, my limbs stiffened, and a small fire burned.

"Sir?"

Why would I address him!

The overseer turned to me, and spoke with sadistic mirth.

"Why so tense?"

You know, you just want me to say it.

"We have an agreement…"

There was a glint of irritation in his gaze.

"When I said we'd meet if you were still standing, that wasn't an invitation to knock yourself out."

The damnable mask stopped me from getting a read on him.

He stepped closer, a hand reaching out for my neck, while I remained frozen.

Compared to the room, his fingers were warm, and I tensed, waiting for him to clench down….

"You need to work on fighting with injuries."

…instead he let go and left.

I waited.

He didn't come back.

Dinner was silent.

Natsuhi had lied to me about Issai. It's obvious that I'd find out about that once I met the man responsible. It would be the most obvious thing to talk about now, and it would be a confrontation, not a conversation. In other words, it would be uncomfortable.

At least, I imagined that was what she was thinking.

Honestly? I didn't mind the lie, or the silence.

It can't have been fun to experience, and it wouldn't have been fun to talk about. He'd gotten himself injured on my account. That sucked to know, and how could she know I wouldn't have done the same if she told me?

As for the silence, talking about Issai would mean talking about the… arrangement I made. She wouldn't be happy about it, and I really didn't want to face that. Though I did feel a bit bad for being misleading. I'd come back fine, so it must look like I managed to resolve things without issue.

When the meal had finished and we were left staring at the scraps, one of us finally came up with a different topic to talk about.

"So what's your plan?"

I pondered the question for a moment. It would be too complicated for me to explain, so I brought out my writing supplies.

"In general? The first step is to survive and become a genin. Step two, see if I can move back home and take on missions. Step three, get strong enough to take part in the chunin exam in the Hidden Leaf and…"

…defect.

I couldn't admit it to her. Face to face with Natsuhi, it was so obvious that I wouldn't just be betraying the Hidden Sound village, I would be betraying the Land of Sound. My home, and home to Natsuhi, Issai, Ichino, Tatara, my brother, and my father.

"...I don't know."

Natsuhi nodded along with the explanation, seeming to go over each part.

"Why Konoha?"

I leaned back, lying down to look up at the roof.

It's the centre of the story. If it's the chunin exam from the series then I can actually use some of what I know to my advantage.

Then I leaned forward to continue writing.

"It's an opportunity. Konoha is the closest of the five major villages. Orochimaru is a traitor from that village, so they won't align with him, and it'll be harder for him to stop me from doing… something."

"...and the chunin exam will be a good excuse to be there."

I nodded at the clarification. I wasn't surprised she knew about the exams, father had probably visited as a spectator for the tournament.

"Why do this? Why take any of these risks?"

"What risks?" I asked rhetorically out loud, before returning to the paper. "These people are the same ones watching over father at home. The only difference is that those guys are pretending they're not a whim away from a coup. This isn't a village, this is Orochimaru's private army."

The reactions were subtle, but she picked up on what I meant.

This isn't a village…

The nations and the daimyo were around before the villages. When the ninja were just wandering clans. A single clan could try something, but the daimyo could just pay other clans to stop them, since the daimyo controlled the flow of money. In other words, none of the clans had a monopoly on power.

On the other hand, villages did hold a monopoly on power in their nations, so what kept them in check?

The short answer was loyalty.

To explain, the ninjas of the villages actually lived in them. They'd have favourite bars or restaurants, houses or apartments, celebrities they liked, familiar stores, and etc… On top of a reliance on the more civilian side of things, there is an actual likelihood of attachment. These were also the things the daimyo held power over. Ripping out the civilian government would leave too many loose ends.

I'd been instructed on this exact topic, by Natsuhi.

So when I said this wasn't a village? She knew exactly what I meant.

This place was a worst case scenario. Everything went through Orochimaru. Removing the Daimyo? That just removed the middle man between Orochimaru and the money.

It's no wonder that basically every kage level shinobi from a minor village went rogue.

'But what about Pain and Hanzo from the land of rain?' You ask.

The military dictators?

That was just proof that my fears about Orochimaru are valid!

We were left in the room with a dark mood.

"Nothing to do but keep going then."

I had some time before I needed to sleep, and I was in need of a distraction, so I figured I'd try to work some more on the 'leaf' (read as paper) exercise.

Have I gone about it wrong?

Up until now, I had tried to shuffle chakra up to my forehead from the rest of my body. I had compared my chakra to a pool of water… Absolute basic fluid dynamics: liquid and gas will try to spread evenly in its space. If this sense of chakra was similar…

I tried just shoving chakra out of my forehead, and observed.

Hm!

I grabbed the small piece of paper and tried to place it on my forehead.

It didn't stay there, but it didn't fall either. Instead it blasted away, like I'd blown on it.

The chakra in my forehead? About as full as it was.

The chakra network did most of the heavy lifting!

A few minutes later, I visualised again, but nothing came up.

Huh, that usually works.

Then, I blacked out. Chakra exhaustion…

…I had been planning to sleep anyway.

Natsuhi couldn't refuse to let me help out with the large meal this time. Without Issai, there was just too much to do, and she was still reluctant to leave me on my own.

It was while handling the large number of ingredients that a question struck me.

"Natsuhi, how… are we going to buy more without Issai?"

A sigh and a side hug was my answer.

I wasn't crying.

I wasn't.

Damn it all.

…

"You actually came back."

I nodded.

Then, Natsuhi and I handed out food in relative silence.

They… weren't all the same people as last time.

"Brat, I'm the one in the cell, why are you looking down?"

I couldn't meet his gaze.

"We're going to run out by the end of the month…"

The gorilla of a man sat back.

"So much for your big words."

Yeah…

I was like a spoiled brat who was told to give up their pet project. I hated the accuracy of the comparison.

I noticed that one of the guys in the back wasn't coming to get anything.

"What's… wrong with him?"

I saw the man trace my gaze out of the corner of my eyes, before he looked back.

"Infection, some of the surgical scars went bad."

Sanitation.

Just when I thought I'd found the bottom…

I ended up sitting next to Kin in class again. It… wasn't maths this time.

"So as we- that's how-"

So I was having trouble keeping up.

I could read from the board easily enough, but without context it was all garbage.

Just do what Natsuhi said, treat this as a language lesson.

"...we'll continue after twenty minutes."

I collapsed down on my desk, covering up my feeble attempts at note taking.

"Pfft, you're pathetic, you know that?"

I groaned.

"It's not even that complicated you know."

I gave her an angry side eye.

"Then why don't… you explain it… to me, your majesty."

She huffed indignantly with a smirk.

"I guess I can entertain the worm before me. You see, we're covering the hidden stone villages's general strategy for the first shinobi war…"

Wait, your actually-

I scrambled to take some notes down, and even managed to ask some questions before the teacher came back.

Kin seemed very satisfied with herself.

"Alright, settle down. So…"

The second half of the lesson wasn't nearly as painful.

I thought the next time I would see Kin, it would be at the practice range.

Why is she here?

Here being, on the way to the Arena.

"Evening" she greeted me.

"Yo" I answered, as I stared back dumbly.

"Come on, there's no way I'm letting you miss my debut."

I shook off my surprise and jogged to keep pace with her confident stride.

"So how does this work anyway…"

It didn't take us long to reach our destination. Kin went in first and I just followed silently behind. Keeping an eye on the overseer for a reaction.

He noted Kin, and as usual his gaze lingered on me for a couple of seconds.

I internalised my relief when he didn't turn any of that animosity to Kin.

Kin wanted a front row seat, so we ended up right by the railing.

The first fight was called and I focused.

A light-brown haired boy versus a black haired boy.

Black was nervous, and his stance was shaky.

Light-brown was excited, and was practically bouncing.

"Who do you think is gonna win?"

I glanced over at Kin in the corner of my vision, then back down.

Analysis Begin

Subject: who wins?

Brown has the morale advantage.

Black has the skill advantage.

Strength, speed, and stamina? Slight advantage to brown.

Black needs to luck out on the fight or flight reaction.

Brown needs to not self-destruct via stamina depletion or accidental injury.

Advantage brown.

Analysis End.

I pointed at the brown haired boy.

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

The black haired boy ended up losing.

She asked the same question with the rest of the fights. Some I got right, others I got wrong. It made me think though, and she seemed to enjoy it.

"Kin Tsuchi- Yumika-"

That was our cue to get down.

While passing the overseer, he stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.

Hate.

"Same as last week."

"Meet me afterwards if you're still standing."

I nodded and got ready across from Kin, fully tense.

She looked over with that smirk of hers, before flicking her hair behind her.

"You know I'm better than you, why don't you give up now?"

Ha, as if. You haven't seen me fight!

I buried my confidence and embraced the urge to be cheeky.

"...but then you… wouldn't get any training."

I took my starting stance.

"Good luck, have fun."

Of course, she was completely unfazed, and we had a moment of silence before…

"Begin."

I started with a step forward, while she reached into one of her kunai pouches.

Hold up!

Danger! Incoming! Sharp!

I stumbled to the side barely avoiding the kunai she threw.

Fortunately I didn't stop there, somewhere in the back of my head I remembered that she liked to follow up throws, doing them with pairs.

So I jumped and rolled to the side, barely dodging the other throw.

Back on my feet, I pointed at her with the full power of my indignancy behind me.

"That can't be allowed!"

She shrugged.

"Anything goes."

She rested a hand on her hip.

"Why don't you bring out your bow? Make it fair? There's no rush, I'll wait."

I flushed red in embarrassment.

"I didn't bring it!"

Her smirk evolved to a predatory cheshire grin, and she crossed her arms, ready to throw the two kunai in each of her hands.

"Shame."

Oh no

…

Naturally she won.

She hadn't even moved from where she started. There had been an opening when she needed to switch pouches that I'd used to get close, but by that point I was barely on my feet from all the running. It didn't take any effort on her part to get a knife to my throat.

I didn't take any direct hits, but had an assortment of tiny nicks thanks to a few near misses. They stung.

Hence why I was sitting on the edge with my legs hanging off the balcony looking over the fights.

"Tsuchi, you need to keep your distance while you have the advantage."

The overseer turned to me.

"Yumika, you shouldn't have let her control the battle like that. Bring your weapon next time."

I managed a nod, and together with Kin said

"Yes, teacher."

Kin was happy with herself from the win, and we were back to predicting the fights.

Then the session was over.

"You're staying?"

"Got to… meet with the boss."

She seemed curious, but it didn't look like she was going to push it.

"See ya."

"Bye."

The door closed, and I was alone with the overseer, who stood with his arms crossed.

"You have a preferred weapon."

I nodded stiffly. Wondering if maybe one day I'd be shooting him with it.

"I didn't think… it was allowed."

He stared.

"Come on."

We entered the arena, he cracked his knuckles, and later I woke up on the lab table.