The Next Dimension Over

Chapter Seven

She'd put up with the training methods throughout much of the day.

Aside from the reading assignment. She really couldn't say she 'put up' with something that gave her such satisfaction. A part of her hoped he would be idiot enough to try it again the next day, just so she could enjoy his expression when she collected his dirty books and tore them apart again.

The rest of it, however, she tolerated. She took the opportunity to explore more of the island while they slept, and she relived her genin days right down to the pointless D rank missions. It was just as droll and boring as she remembered it being, and far less difficult.

As the day went on, she rapidly lost any concept of respect for his ability to judge skill and train according to that. She was most certainly not going to waste eight precious months of her time on retaking genin missions and practicing menial labor she'd long ago mastered. She wasn't going to stay for eight months at all if there were any physical possibility of her leaving before then...but wasting them as a genin? No.

That said, it didn't actually surprise her it was the children who broke first and complained.

"As they said." She nodded, crossing her arms. "If these skills are required to learn that jutsu, then there's no reason for me to waste any more time on this."

He glared at the three of them, puffing up like an offended old bird. "You think so? Well then!" He pointed to a small boulder behind where she stood, which they had passed not long before he'd started in on about swimming and the boys had begun complaining. "Move that boulder! Until you possess the strength to move that, you're not ready for my advanced techniques!"

Krillin stuttered in shock as he stared at it. "Wha-there's no way that anyone could ever move that!"

It was a quarter of the size of the rock she'd shattered a year and a half before. But then, he'd said move it, not shatter it. She turned toward it and walked up to where it was, dimly aware of Roshi beginning a stock lecture about training. She'd heard its like many times before.

Even as she lifted her hand, her body was already unconsciously supplying the chakra she needed. She'd practiced it for so long, that it actually took conscious effort not to use her chakra-enhanced strength now. It was a little known secret of the Fifth Hokage's jutsu that the masters of the technique didn't need to summon chakra at all. To her, the activation of her chakra network in the action was no different than the activation of her nervous system required to move.

One hand pressed to the rock. "Hup." The sound was to catch the attention of the three chattering boys more than anything else, as it was such a small load she could probably have knocked it across the island with her finger, if she really wanted to.

As it was, the shove simply sent the rock sliding across the field, and then tumbling down the small hill they'd climbed to get up to the lake. There wasn't any need to be excessive beyond that level. She did like to keep her limits a secret, after all.

She settled a challenging look over her shoulder at the old hermit. "Is that advanced enough for your taste?"

He gaped at where the rock had been for a few moments, stuttered and coughed to himself, and then...laughed. Much too loudly. "Hahaha! Oh! Oh, silly old me! I chose the wrong size. As you can see, anyone of any skill could move a tiny little rock like that!"

He cast about desperately for a moment or two, while the two boys stared wide-eyed up at him. As if they actually believed him.

"Ah!" He scrambled off a few feet to the right, and pointed his cane triumphantly toward a rock...slightly larger than the one that had guarded Gaara's body. "Here we are!" He cackled and settled his arms behind his back. "Yes. Move this one, and your physical training will be complete."

While she still walked, observing the old man's mix of triumph and concern at her approach, Goku ran excitedly up to the rock. "Okay then! Let me try!" He pushed first with one hand, and then with both. For a few moments he groaned and grunted, struggling to gain some sort of leverage with his feet and turning multiple shades of red from effort.

Naturally, as happened with anyone who hadn't mastered her technique or didn't possess truly monstrous strength, the rock did nothing.

"Ouugh..." He panted as he collapsed against the side of it. "It's no use...I can't move it at all."

The old coot brightened immediately, apparently deciding that he'd chosen an appropriately impossible goal this time (as it was clear that was his actual intent. She'd seen similar techniques from many teachers before). "As I said! Without proper training, it's impossible to move!"

"If that's the case, you'll show us-"

"I get a try on this one too, right?" She cut into Krillin's question before it could continue on. The three of them immediately fell silent, and looked at her with...varying shades of suspicion. Goku's expression was actually surprise, but the other two were wary and suspicious. As if they were the ones who'd woken up kidnapped by strange people in a strange world in the middle of a war.

Frankly, getting to punch a rock this big would be something of a stress reliever, under the circumstances.

"Goku, can you move out of the way?"

He blinked, and then nodded, trotting over to stand next to Krillin again.

"Now...Sakura, don't be-"

She cocked back her fist, and with a shout summoned a spiral of extra chakra, punching the rock square in the middle of its base.

It didn't roll like the other one, nor did it go tumbling over the edge of a cliff, but it did get a bit of air time, before it slammed into the ground a few feet ahead of her with an almighty crash that nearly knocked her company off of their feet by the reverberations in the ground.

Now...

That felt kind of good.

When she turned back to look at the old coot and his students, satisfied smile on her face, not a single one of them said a word.

(*)

Occasionally, he felt like complaining about Sakura getting to skip through the grueling, sometimes monotonous, training and get right to learning cool flashy moves at home instead. Those kinds of feelings vanished every moment he looked over at the gigantic mountain of rock she punched clear across a field.

She was a monster.

She appeared out of the sky, she could fly on a cloud, stick to walls, and punch mountains.

That Sakura girl was a monster. That was the only reasonable answer to the situation.

And it made it totally okay that he still couldn't stand her, because that was the only reasonable response a person could have to a monstrous girl like that.

Most of the time, though, he didn't even complain. The training got easier at time went on, even though it got more severe. His hands and legs didn't go numb any longer, the dorky shells they were forced to wear didn't slow them down on runs any more, and he hardly ever got stung.

Soon, he was sure that soon he'd be able to move on to real training. That rock was still pretty intimidating (and not just because it was a sign of the deadly weird chick they had to live with) but Goku seemed totally pumped and determined to get it done. It was kind of infectious, his optimism.

So there was that.

He still wasn't ready to try to push it himself, though.

(*)

In retrospect, she occasionally looked back at displaying her power and wondered if it might have been a mistake. As a subtler bait than some of the other attempts he'd made, she'd fallen for the taunt. But even without using her full strength or potential, the display had actually impressed (and quite clearly frightened) the old man anyway.

And it had gotten her what she wanted. While the boys worked through the day to strengthen themselves in tried and true methods, she studied. Actual books and techniques, not the perverted nonsense he made the boys read. It was probably one of the more important things she could have learned while present, in fact. If it wasn't a dream.

Ki.

From what she'd figured out, it was essentially chakra, but drawn upon differently. And, when manipulated, it seemed to have an easier potential for powerful release of it with less strain on the user. And, notably, without an elemental basis. It must have been using Yin or Yang chakra, or some strange combination of the two.

Most exciting: it wasn't a kekkai genkai.

The most difficult part, unfortunately, was managing to summon 'ki' instead of chakra. The method seemed to bypass creating it using stamina, but a lifetime of ingrained training wasn't easy to shake. Nor was it something she wanted to shake, outside of her attempts to master the ki technique.

"You're concentrating too hard." The old man huffed. "If your ki doesn't flow out naturally, you'll never be able to manipulate it properly. You own energy will blow up in your face."

A part of her immediately bristled at the concept that she wouldn't know how to control her own energy, ki, or chakra. Whatever the term that happened to be used, it was an insult to imply she couldn't.

A larger part of her controlled herself, as she closed her eyes and focused. When it came to ki, at least...she didn't have nearly the skill she did with chakra. It remained to be seen if the talent she showed for control of chakra would actually apply to this alternate style or not.

The trouble was...although the time had passed quickly, though she'd been studying and working hard, time still passed. From days, to weeks...to months. The frustration and despair that she felt every time she thought about home, thought about how long she'd been trapped and unable to return to where she belonged, nearly made her collected energy explode out of her every time.

It was, apparently, much more respondent to emotion than chakra. She didn't find that to be something in her favor.

"Now you aren't concentrating enough!" The man's knotted wooden cane smacked down on her knee. "Ki isn't a science! It is an art. If you can't feel the way it flows through you and adapt your mind and actions instinctively to it, it's useless to teach you anything about it at all."

She settled an irritated gaze on the old pervert, antagonized both by her continued failure, and by the mild soreness left in her knee from his repeated smacks. And the way the ridiculous turtle shell he insisted she wear chafed her shoulders. "Perhaps you should attempt to use chakra-"

"Grandpa! Grandpa!" Goku burst into the room, startling her out of her concentration and speech. "Grandpa! Come quick, come quick!"

She stood even before the old man did, frowning. "What's wrong? Has something happened to Krillin?"

He glanced up at her for a moment, then reached out to grab both of their wrists, excitedly sprinting out of the building with them. "Come on! Come on, this way!"

"Goku-!" Roshi struggled to speak as he stumbled after the much shorter young boy. "W-what exactly is going on? Goku!"

Either by design or overwhelming excitement, the child refused to respond to the question, simply chanting 'this way, this way!' as he ran across the island. Eventually, she realized that they'd run up to the lake that held the rather impressively large sharks. For just a moment, she worried that something had gone wrong and Krillin somehow managed to get eaten.

Fortunately enough, that worry was dispelled once she saw the small one standing several feet away from the water.

Next to that rock she'd knocked over the first day.

...Oh.

She glanced over at the old man, who looked...very bewildered, more than anything else. Was the expression disbelief, or actual confusion? It was difficult to read him at times, given the irritating sunglasses he wore almost constantly.

"Goku..." She started, turning her attention back to the two young boys who beamed with pride. "Could it be that..."

Krillin planted his fists on his hips. "We can move it now!"

For a few moments, Roshi simply stood still and stared at them, and then at the rock. Actually, it was long enough, she was beginning to wonder if he even remembered the challenge at all, or if he had altered his memories to make himself believe he'd simply given her different training out of the goodness and wisdom of his heart.

Finally, though, the old man spoke.

"...What."

AN: The reason for quite such a rapid release here is actually that chapters six and seven were going to be one chapter, but then I realized that it was double the normal length, without anything particularly substantial happening to make it worth that extra length.

So, instead two chapters of not-quite-filler. There wasn't too much to put here that wouldn't have dragged incredibly, because Master Roshi's training is pretty monotonous, and it's essentially a training montage.

That said, don't worry too much about the pacing, because it will slow back down. There was simply a lot of things that needed to be glossed over without being entirely ignored in these two chapters.