Chapter 1-6
I didn't like Ichirō Yamanaka.
The guy just rubbed me the wrong way right from the get-go.
I stared at the Go-board, which made me frown even more.
I didn't dislike the game; I just sucked at it and Ichirō was always quick to point it out.
As if I didn't realize it myself after I lost the fifth game.
The real kicker, however, was that he also was bad teacher.
The very first day after our initial meeting, almost three weeks ago, I described my sensing exactly as I did to Hifumi.
'Sounds about right' he had said, shrugged and pointed me to the empty board.
Then we started playing, I was polite, I was patient.
Maybe he was gathering his thoughts and made a plan on how to proceed.
After my first and thankfully quick loss, I finally asked what his plans were going to be.
"So, any plans?"
"What plans?" And that's when I was starting to recognize his kind of type.
I was pissed the whole way back to the orphanage.
He was one of those adults, where you question how they even reached adulthood in the first place.
He was one of those guys whom you give responsibility only as last resort when no one else is available, and you have to spell out in the simplest way, that they are in fact responsible for whatever task you give them. But deep down you know something will go wrong and you will have to waste your time to check and correct again, because he just didn't care or because he didn't understand it in the first place.
Seriously, screw that guy. Maybe being teammates with the guy gave Hifumi the chance to get used to him.
'He's the way he is' or 'He means well' just wasn't going to fly for me.
I had to literally worm the information regarding sensing out of him with some guided questions and had to hope for a somewhat useful tidbit that I had to check at home.
I couldn't be to direct, because at the end of the day I was still a dumb five-year-old child.
One such example was when I inquired about people, that developed the sensing abilities.
"My clan was always pretty famous for it." He had told me proudly, while I had fruitlessly waited for him to elaborate.
This had me thinking about the Yamanaka clan and their specialization. Some faint memory and Hifumi's first lesson about chakra itself gave me the idea that the Yin part, my mind, might have played a significant role.
Having the mind of an adult in the body of a child probably tipped the balance of my chakra heavily to the Yin-side.
Channeling said chakra with such a high percentage of Yin-release to my head during the leaf-exercise seemed to have unlocked the skill.
Why couldn't the guy just give me straight and helpful information?
"Make your move." I held up my hand, not looking up from the board, following a rather important train of thought and willing the other guy to be quiet.
I had asked about applications in the field, variations, limits, etc.?
And the guy started to talk about how he lost his arm during the Second Shinobi War to a hidden Suna puppeteer, who used a new kind of poison.
Apparently Hifumi managed to contain the poison long enough in his arm for an antidote to be used, which was distributed by Tsunade, who passed through their camp.
I might have thought it fascinating if Hifumi told me about it during one of our talks, but at that moment I just didn't give a single fuck about the guy's life story.
Maybe I should have pitied the guy, he probably just used me as an opportunity to actually talk to someone, maybe even impress someone for once.
But I couldn't, not when my current train of thought was always lurking in the back of my mind.
I was wasting my time!
Deep down I knew Hifumi was happy, that I was spending time with her old teammate and thought that everything was going swimmingly given the way I always smiled when she asked. I was such a coward.
Those last three weeks sensing was occupying my thoughts and the meetings with Ichirō, not to mention the walks to and fro, my time.
Maybe I was overly dramatic or fatalistic, but those games of Go really opened my eyes, when I started to see them as shinobi fights in regards to strategy, seeing underneath the underneath, sensing traps, etc.
My games always started rather carefree, placing random stones on random places on the empty board.
At some point I would start to go after Ichirō's stones.
I would manage to trap a handful of stones, but only when it was too late I would notice, that I wasted too many resources for too few gains while losing track of my opponent's placements.
Placing just a few stones and he would suddenly start capturing more than double the stones I did by that point. I would obviously try and fail to do damage control and could only watch him wipe my stones off the board.
This is what had me worried. It wasn't just one or two games, by now it was a dozen times.
If I faced a shinobi in combat, would I be able to keep track of everything, could I spot signs of traps?
I wasn't an idiot, I wasn't dumb, but I also knew that I couldn't hope to compare myself to most high-level shinobis the way they pulled strategies out of their asses at the drop of a hat.
I needed to make sure, that I was strong and more importantly fast enough to always have the initiative.
Force the opposition to react, keep them under pressure and best case scenario end it as quickly as possible. Worst case I needed a safe exit strategy to potentially reengage.
Thankfully I already had vague directions and skills in mind that I thought had potential and feasibility.
Sensing, while useful, would need to be relegated to the sidelines for future development.
I managed to get it to the point, where I could sense an adult chakra-level in an adjacent room without too much trouble anyway.
Which meant…time to make this short and simple. Let's reign in my temper and not piss off the Yamanaka, who could potentially delve into my mind.
"This will be our last game."
"No problem, you can come this Wednesday again." I shook my head.
"No, there won't be any further meetings from now." I bowed slightly "Thank you for your time and effort." and signed my surrender regarding the game.
He stared at me uncomprehendingly. I stared back, nodded and made to leave. Tree-walking was already on my mind.
"Wait!"
"What?" That might have sounded too harsh given the way he recoiled slightly.
"…nothing." I probably should feel bad, but the guy gave me serious deja-vus about people I disliked in the previous chapter.
Whatever, out of sight, out of mind.
Lying on the grass, my feet firmly sticking to a tree, I had been certain that there was more to the exercise than initially portrayed.
Glad for my decision to start with baby steps as I was proven right after my first few tries.
Starting with bare feet I had no problem to get them sticking, however the moment I put on my shoes again I had to significantly increase my chakra output.
Maybe it was just my age, but I did notice some strain after a while.
The strain was the reason I was glad I started by lying on the ground instead of running at a tree full-tilt.
Using chakra only at your feet during the exercise and you would just end up hanging off a tree by the soles of your feet.
Maybe a Genin who learned the exercise did it subconsciously and didn't even feel it anymore, but your whole body had to be strengthened by your chakra to give it the much-needed rigidity to fight against gravity.
This was the task I set for myself during the four-month period until the recruitment test for the academy.
Get to the point, where tree walking was second nature and the strain to my chakra was negligible.
I was fairly confident, that this at least was within my reach.
Overall I was feeling confident and actually quite content.
The night after I decided to quit meeting Ichirō I was doing my breathing exercise, but instead of meditation to feel my chakra or to sense the caretakers in the orphanage, I used it to gather my thoughts and to bring them in order.
I had worked out a preferred model, which I was going to aim for.
Haku's speed, flexibility and precision and a variation of Zabuza's fighting style involving silent killing and water-style ninjutsu plus certain skills to augment the whole construct.
How was I going to reach that?
I have a high chance of a water affinity.
Do I know how to make use of that?
Not yet, but it wouldn't hurt to experiment on it during my academy years.
Wind chakra meant cutting a leaf, maybe I could work on the moisture of the leaf?
Speaking of wind. I knew what exercises are involved.
Did I want to potentially waste time on a nature I had no advantage on?
Yes, if water didn't show any progress without a teacher.
I have exceptional chakra control for my age, which I will keep on improving by starting the water walking exercise at the earliest opportunity.
Sheer speed and dexterity only required continued dedication towards training and the augmentation through chakra and potentially various techniques like the Shunshin, which I hoped to combine with my sensing. The Eight Gates were a technique I wanted to look into as well, which in turn brought me to medical ninjutsu.
I reminded myself more than enough, that I was not an academic, but I had hopes that my chakra control and enough practice would be enough to get me to the point where I could do the chakra equivalent of first aid and more importantly massages to immediately alleviate potential strains caused by the Eight Gates.
A potential go-to strategy will probably involve the Hiding in Mist Technique and my sensing to avoid a prolonged confrontation and deal a fatal blow without giving the enemy the chance to react.
Again my chakra control seemed to be a blessing, because I couldn't think of a reason not to augment the mist with hidden genjutsus.
The more I thought about it the more I was beyond pumped to actually start at the academy.
The second I was an academy student, a shinobi in training, there was a real legitimacy to my efforts.
No one could question a dedicated student, unlike now where I was still scared to flaunt my skills outside of my clearing.
Furthermore, if I went at it the right way, asked the right people the right questions and so on, there was no reason not to learn advanced techniques while still in the academy.
I mean, what teacher would deny a bright, dedicated and dutiful student the chance to learn such lowly d-rank jutsu like the Shunshin or the Kirigakure Jutsu to keep him motivated?
No to mention the academy jutsus, particularly the regular old Bunshin had me giddy to try out some of my ideas.
Keeping my feet sticking to the tree I started a new set of sit-ups. No pain, no gain after all.
'1…2…3…'
Tree walking
'4…5…6…'
Enter the academy
'7…8…9…'
Get used to and master the academy curriculum
'10…11…12…'
Start Water walking
'13…14…15…'
Try to befriend older academy students
'16…17…18…'
Get on the good side of my teachers
'19…20…21…'