Check out Animescale on youtube for how I am scaling Mika...
Anyone want to draw Mika for this story?
This was... humbling and I loved writing it!
It hurt her heart to admit, but there was a silver lining to Mika having to remold his skills as a fighter due to the loss of his eye. One really, but a real silver lining that only Tsunade could see. She would, finally, get the full measure of the boy's skills. She admired the boy, but if he ever went rogue they would have a real trouble, he bested a Seven Swordsmen at Thirteen for crying outloud! The boy was progressing at an abnormal pace! He was borderline A rank, though his ken taijutsu skills were easily A rank, and his medical skills would reach there in a year tops.
She had no real understanding of Mika's ninjutsu skills, of his genjutsu skills beyond what Unkai had bragged about, how advanced his sealing was beyond what he told her. She needed to see it all, everything, to make a list of how to have her lesser ninja defeat him. Kabuto taught her a lesson, of how a much weaker ninja could defeat a far stronger one with just skill, nerve and patience. Had he gone for the kill, she would have been dead, and so she learned to never underestimate anyone. Mika could likely fight someone as strong as Asuma and win with the right plan, fight Kakashi and do some damage with the right plan. He could outright kill Kurenai, that much she was sure of.
What scared her most though was not his skill as a combatant, but his potential as a leader. He swayed epople with kindness, direction and teaching. Most of his class was loyal to him, and most were afraid of him. Even Ino, gossip she was, refused to let Sakura insult Mika out of sheer terror. Of course Ino also deeply respected Mika for teaching her the basis of chakra enhanced strenght, so that played a part.
Tsunade cared for Mika, but she would never allow herself to be blinded by his potential risk, and so she assigned her shadow clones to do her paper work while she watched his sparring with Neji and Raido, making sure that she knew exactally what he could do.
"""
Mika wanted to cry as he fought Neji, he was adapting well. It had been three days since he started to train with his new form, without his eye, and he was making progress. He was dodging strikes, lashing out with his own strikes, blocking, not slipping on his own feet... it was nice.
There were some slip ups iover the last few days, some really embarrasing, for example when he first used the shushin.
"SHIT!" He screamed, having to throw himself to the side as a tree appeared far closer than he wished. "What the..." He frowned, squinting. "Weaker depth perception... damn it..."
Or when he first sparred Neji.
Dodging a Gentle strike to his side, Mika lashed out with a left fist, only to watch as the blade blasted right past Neji's face when it should have clocked his partner's face in. Mika had not missed so bad in,.. months. "What, that should have hit you?" Mika frowned, slowly repeating the motion, missing again. "Fuck, Neji this is so hard, I am losing myself." He hated how weak he sounded, but the hard work he had used to mold hismelf so badly into his style was...
Well it was killing him to see it evaporating.
Neji grabbed his arm and put it on his own chest. "You just need to relearn how to adapt to your new state, you can do this. You are a hyper genius, you are one of the best taijutsu users in the village already, comparable to Lee and me and honestly you could probably beat Hiashi with the right plan. You can do this, Mika, you can do this."
Mika leaned against Neji, head against his partner's chest, just sighing. "Thank you... for just... being there."
Neji kissed Mika's temple softly. "You helped mold Hinata into a badass that easily bested Sasuke and I... just mold yourself into someone better. Think of it like teaching yourself, like you've taught so many others."
Or when he nearly died when fighting Raido.
Slashing at Raido, Mika moved with high speed, blade against blade, barely managing to hold his own against the far more experienced Raido. Mika was far faster, consideralby stronger but Raido's raw experience gave Raido the edge. They managed to fight for ten minutes before Mika, moving to his advantage, slipped up and literally stepped on his own foot, just as Raido slashed up, carving a razor thin path across Mika's chest.
Gasping, Mika collapsed, the pain rather intense. His hands moved to heal himself, sighing hard.
"Kami fucking damn it!" He screamed, so utterly pissed that Raido actually recoiled from his raw killer intent.
"You are going to adapt, kid, you've made yourself this good by yourself, you will retrain yourself to reach your old level soon enough."
"I hope so..."
Focusing, Mika dodged Neji's strike to his chest, appreciating the Neji was not going easy on him. Grabbing the boy's arm, he twisted and kicked his feet out from under him, flipping him as he fell. Lashing out, Neji barely threw himself away as Mika's fist slammed into the ground making a small crater. Yanking his arm out, he chopped at Neji and dodged and flipped back a few times before thrusting his arm out.
"AIR PALM!" And sent a ball of compressed air at Mika who bent back to dodge the strike, flipping to a standing position.
"That's new!"
"Hiashi just taught me that jutsu."
"It's impressive."
And then, when Neji charged, Mika tried to block his partner's strike, only to miss and recieved a hard strike to the shoulder that disarmed his chakra point. Neji pressed his advantage as Mika lost control over his chakra, annd lashed out with two more strikes until Mika was on the ground, losing soundly.
Sighing, Mika groaned. "I will be grateful I could hold my own, but it sucks. I used to be able to beat you in most fights but now... now I have lost most fights in the last three days! I know I am making progress, but this fucking sucks!"
Neji plopped down next to Mika, and pulled him close, using a variation of the Gentle fist to reopen Mika's chakra points with a massage. "I give you a few weeks, the full month and you will be at full power. You just need to adapt."
"I know, still sucks... I am glad my ninjutsu and sealing is not effected by this." He turned to the side, to where a clone was practicing sealing with a new scroll. Hanabi was there, reading the scrolls Mika assigned her on earth jutsu, asking questions that Mika's clone could answer for her. He smiled warmly. "There is a great advantage to this training, Hanabi gets a full month of solid training with me, and I get to train in sealing more directly... and I may be able to make a few jutsu. I also get to work more on medical, I really hate that life has been making me negelct it. I want to try to mix chakra scalpels into my style, I know Kabuto could do it, according to Shizune, but is insanely hard. I also want to work on poisons, we saw what it could do to me...
So much to do, so much to work on. We are going to get my chakra reserves up, I will reach Jonin level reserves by the years end, that will happen. I will not let myself not reach that. I will not let this month off be wasted. If I am forced to become crippled, I will make sure that no one ever beats me like that again."
Neji nodded, smiling at Mika. "And I will be there every step of the way... so... when we are done sparring, wanna go get tea, or something." Neji was red and embarassed and Mika loved it.
Kissing the boy soundly, Mika nodded. "There is a tea shop, not far from my old apartment actually, that is really good. I hate sweets but I adore sweet tea and they have some really good dango. It's open late, so after we rest and get washed up, we can go and get the tea. Sound fair?"
"Sounds perfect."
Chapter end, tell me what you think in the reviews.
Next, Mika's date with Neji! I am so proud of where I am going with this story...
Love, your Ninja Overlord,
Mika.
