I'd like to start off by saying Guy sensei is INSANE. Training starts at 5 and ends at 10. In the morning that is. Afterwards, we generally do 2 D rank missions a day.
After training we usually have a snack. Then we do 1 of the D ranks. When we finish, we have lunch. Afterwards we do the second D rank. The first day of the new routine I thought after the second mission that we'd be done for the day. Couldn't be more wrong. We still had to do 2 hours of " light " exercise consisting generally of your basics but like a minimum of 200 of each. Like I said. The guy's insane.
It does start to show results though. After doing 10 D ranks a week for a whole month, sensei finally decides I'm ready for a C rank mission.
We're basically just escorting a merchant to a village a days travel from ours. A day for a ninja that is. At respectable civilian speed we'll probably only reach it by the third day. I'm really glad to be leaving the village. Naruto has gotten really sullen ever since I became a Genin. I thought he'd be over it by now.
Part of it is Sasuke's fault. He and Naruto are sorta friends. Both overshadowed by their older siblings. They feed each other's angst. Ugh. Luckily Naruto doesn't hate me. As much as his attitude annoys me, I genuinely do love him. I just hope he matures more.
He's not the idiot he was in canon. I've beaten some intelligence into his head. What's more, I've actively encouraged his trap making. Yes. He was a prankster. I've managed to cultivate that talent and put it to more productive use.
He's pretty creative. I've only taught him a few jutsu, so he tends to use them in out of the box ways. I've told him that I won't teach him a new wind jutsu till he masters the second stage of wind manipulation. Cutting the flow of a waterfall. Without clones it should take him almost a year.
Im slowly managing to instill some sense into him. He's coming to appreciate that things work out better if you start at the beginning. Chakra control being the case in point.
The journey is slow going. We depart the Leaf in the morning. After about 4 hours of walking we stop for lunch. After about an hour's rest we move on. 5 More hours on the road and we stop to make camp.
" Youthful Hikaru, go and collect some fire wood then start a fire. I'll see about finding us some game. " I nod my head and create 2 clones. While they go looking for wood I start digging a shallow pit. I create a third clone and have it looking for anything edible around us.
The clones I sent for the wood arrive first. Both bearing sizeable loads. They place them down by me and then dispell. I start making the fire. Before long, a merry flame is burning. Yes. I cheated with a low ranked fire jutsu. I remove a pot from a scroll and rummage around my scroll for some oil.
The third clone then arrives. A decent bounty of wild yams and onions as well as edible mushrooms and a clump of herbs is in its arms. I tell it to start peeling and chopping and rinsing it. I remove 2 bowls and fill them with water I keep stored in a scroll. After half an hour the pot is on the fire and a pleasant smell fills our clearing.
It's then that sensei arrives. A brace of fat rabbits already skinned and cleaned with him. I take it from him and cut the rabbits into pieces, then put them in the pot. Silence falls in the clearing as we all consumed by our own thoughts. A pleasant one though.
After almost an hour the stew is ready. It's delicious. We all eat our fill then the merchant heads into his tent to sleep. " Hikaru you shall take 1st watch. Wake me up at 12 then I shall take over. " Yes sensei " I reply.
The rest of the journey is uneventful. On the road back home we stop after 4hours of travel and start training. We work on my reaction time. Its the only real weakness of my nintaijutsu at the moment. Fortunately as I've said before, I'm quite fast.
Realistically only Jounin will be a challenge to fight. And because of my age and size they'd likely underestimate me. I know that with such opponents, I'll likely only have the element of surprise once. I intend to make it count with killing blows.
I've long come to make peace with the world I live in. Letting your enemies live is a surefire way of letting them come back later to stab you in the back. Danzo and Orochimaru being the perfect examples.
That's not to say I'll just go around killing people. There's plenty of shinobi who have no homes and aren't criminals. Perfect to subvert. I'm thinking here of Haku and what a shame it was that he died.
I wish sometimes that I was born earlier. That I was born in a civilian village. That way not only could I reverse engineer jutsu without any scrutiny, I could also have taken all the lonely kids I know from the anime and like founded my own village.
By the time the gates of the Leaf come into view, I'm done daydreaming. I've been thinking a lot on our journey back home and I realised something. It doesn't matter how good my fighting form is, if I can't reach my opponent. What am I to do when I face an adult of equal or greater speed?
I need something to extend my reach. I've decided on a sword. A katana to be precise. I've given it a lot of thought. Obviously I don't really have the time, or if I'm honest the inclination to learn a style, what I actually just need is the basics.
You probably wondering why. You see my sword won't be ordinary. I've decided to create my own psuedo zanpaktou. Without the Rinnegan and its creation of all things technique, I can't actually create life or a sword with a consciousness, but what I can do is mimic the effect of certain zanpaktou using seals.
Jiraiya sealing up ameterasu is a perfect example. I've decided that to begin with, the abilities of squad 13 captain Ukitake's sword is perfect. His Sogyo no Kotowari's ability to absorb and then redirect attacks is perfect for me.
This then brings me to the how. I intend firstly to place a fire absorbing seal on the sword. Secondly a seal to absorb and store chakra. Not unlike Samehada. Finally and the most difficult, is to create a permanent space-time barrier within the sword. The inspiration for that comes from my father actually.
I'm talking about the barriers he uses to absorb tailed beast bombs. He uses the Flying Thunder God jutsu to send them away. Luckily I'm not that ambitious. I'll merely be absorbing a jutsu and then redirecting them.
There are limits of course. Earth style jutsu can't really be absorbed though I suppose they can be disrupted...but anyway. I'm getting ahead of myself. First I need to find a teacher. Luckily Guy sensei isn't the type to be insulted if I sought to improve myself with the help of someone else.
After we sign in I say to him " sensei, I've been thinking, against adult shinobi opponents, I don't really have the reach I need to seriously injure them in a physical fight. To close the gap as it were, I've been thinking about taking up a sword. I'm not really interested in specialising in kenjutsu, but I'd like to learn at least the basics and have a sparring partner if possible. So do you have any ideas on who I can approach? "
I almost regretted asking. Tears were running down his cheeks and he had a blinding smile on his face. I cringed internally knowing what was coming.
" SUCH YOUTHFUL FIRE! Truly I am blessed to have a student like you! I happen to know a kenjutsu master and I will beseech him to fan the flames of your youth! I will see to it right away. "
" Sensei! We need to report to the mission office remember. " He sheepishly laughs and we depart for the missions office. After completing our report he tells me he'll find me tomorrow and give me an answer. I nod my head and depart.
POV change
She's such a dedicated student. Such youthful fire. She seemed nervous of asking me about her interest in kenjutsu. As if I'm angry! No the flames of my youth have been stoked to burn brighter! There's nothing more satisfying than having a student who doesn't accept their limitations and decides to push beyond it.
As I approach the bar my friends and I usually frequent, I nod my head. I can see the fire in my student. Both literal and figurative. Hikaru. She was aptly named. Light. I'll make sure your daughter burns so bright, that the entire world is illuminated Lord Fourth.
As I enter I look around. Hayate would be perfect to teach her. I'm not sure if he's in the village right now. Is that...my eyes widen. I hurry over. " My eternal rival! It's been a while since we've had a contest of youth! What say you? " He slowly looks up and eyes me " huh, you say something Guy? ". This guy! My eyes burn. " You and your hip attitude Kakashi! Nevermind. I can't get sidetracked. Have you seen Hayate? "
"Why are you looking for him? Hope it's not to challenge him " he says. I shake my head. " No. I was actually hoping he'd be willing to teach my youthful student the basics of kenjutsu. She's realised that because of her age, she doesn't quite have the reach to deal with adult shinobi of superior skill. Hence taking up a sword. "
" Kenjutsu huh. I'd have thought you'd focus her on taijutsu. It is your speciality after all. " I nod my head. " It is true, taijutsu is my passion and the source of my springtime of youth! However, my student is a genius. She has created her own personal style of taijutsu. Or rather nintaijutsu I should say. Utilising fire chakra, her form is magnificent! She's fully embraced the power of her youth!"
He looked stunned. " How is that possible. Nintaijutsu. She's only 10. " So I told him about her usage of shadow clones and I told him about her end goal. Of eventually using it to fly. He looked skeptically at me.
I however had full confidence in her. I see the determination in her eyes when she talks. The same kind of determination I used to see in my own eyes at her age. I knew that her flames of youth burnt brightly. Brighter perhaps than anyone I've ever seen. Time will tell.
I tell Kakashi to tell Hayate to find me if he sees him. I say my goodbyes and leave. To look around the village to find Hayate. If I don't find him I'll walk around on just my hands for an entire day!
Back to Hikaru
Before I go home I decided to go to a weapons dealer. Or rather The weapons dealer. Motoi Higurashi. AKA Tenten's dad. His shop sold the best quality weapons in the village. As I entered the shop, a bell rang. It wasn't long before the man himself appeared.
" Welcome to my shop young ninja. How may I help you? " he said. I looked at him for a moment." I'd like a katana made. One that's longer than normal and can channel chakra. How much would such a blade cost? "
As I speak, I watch his brows climb into his hairline. " What you asking for won't be cheap. Chakra conductive metal is very expensive. My rough estimate of the price would be about 1 million Ryo. " It's my turn to be surprised. I sigh. " Very well. We have a deal. I'll come around with the money tomorrow if that's fine with you? "
He looks even more incredulous but agrees. Promising that he'd have the design ready for me. We shake hands then I leave, heading home.
You probably wondering where I get the money from. Remember when I said I bought the building I live in? Well, I've been renting it out to merchants who come from outside the village to trade with the Leaf. Naturally, for security purposes I only take in those from the Land of Fire.
Anyway. Rent for civilians in this village is paid on a weekly basis. Now when the Uchiha moved in here, the building was fixed up. Bastard landlord. There are 14 apartments in the building including ours. I charge 1000 Ryo per week.
Let me put that into context. The average civilian earns triple that a week. The average D rank earns about 250-500 Ryo. The average C rank about 10-20 000 Ryo. Average B rank 20-50 000 Ryo. Average A rank 80-250 000 Ryo and the average S rank 500 000 to a million Ryo.
It's been 2 years since I've bought the building. That means I've made 13 000 Ryo per week. 52 000 per month and so on. I have enough to buy the Katana though it will take the bulk of my savings. I'm actually thinking that when Naruto passes, I'll get him 2 sets of chakra conductive claws. Like Sora had. But instead of just 1, he'll have 2. One for each hand.
When morning arrives the next day I find, as I reach our training ground, that sensei isn't alone. There's a vaguely familiar form with him. Hayate Gekko. After introductions are made, we agree to a tentative schedule. Everyday that I'm in the village, I'd give 3 hours of the afternoons to train with Hayate. After working out the logistics, he leaves and sensei and I engage in the usual madness.
Over the next couple of months we only go on C rank missions. They get progressively more unpleasant. The third C rank we had was to eliminate a bandit camp. While I'm prepared to kill if I must, the idea of killing people who have no hope of actually hurting me causes me to want to get it over with quickly. And by that I mean judicious use of the shadow shuriken jutsu.
Before I know it 5 months have passed since I became a Genin and as I arrive at the training ground one morning, Guy sensei is waiting with a package in his hands. " Good morning my youthful student! I come bearing good news. See this package? I've nominated you to enter the Chuunin Exams! I didn't bother asking if you wanted to enter because I know how brightly your flames burn! Meet me at the gates of the village tomorrow morning. Pack for a month! "
His smile is blinding. I take the package from him and smile back. Finally. Time to move to the next phase of my career.