A/N: Not much dialogue in this, but world building. Thanks for the follows and favourites!
"You're enjoying...this...aren't you?" Hoshi panted, walking on his hands around the cabin, on his thirty-sixth lap.
"Come now, you should be able do a fifty!" Jiraya gave an exaggerated laugh from the roof, keeping an eye on the other three as they went through taijutsu forms. Hoshi had been stubborn enough to stay after the thirtieth lap to exceed the jounin's expectations.
Hoshi grunted with exertion, slowing down here and there to keep his balance, feeling his arms and shoulder blades burn in protest, but going around one more time...and just one more, in order to impress Jiraya. He knew the jounin was pretending to have ridiculous expectations, but he had decided he would show him so he would show him.
He'd had quite enough of just aerobics and eating in the first few months. Jiraya meant well and was knowledgeable in building up their malnourished frames, but it was a mind-numbing routine between lectures and learning to adjust sleep cycles for him, and chakra meditation.
Hoshi could definitely feel the chakra, but he felt it around him, not within. And it was not detailed enough for practical use, just enough that he felt four people besides him. Not any idea about how much each of them had like a true sensor but...he was sure it'd come into use someday.
"Ho, I think that's enough." Jiraya spoke, raising an eyebrow around the fortieth lap. In truth the Toad Sage had expected half the number he had been using to egg his student on, but their antics just reminded him that these weren't academy students. They didn't have games to play, friends to hang out with at an arcade or homework or chores to do at home to preoccupy their time.
You said you'd take care of us until we were ready, but you'll abandon us when it becomes inconvenient to look after us. Yahiko had told him sombrely. We need to learn all we can while you're here.
"Ne...ver!" Hoshi gritted his teeth. Internally he knew too much exercise would be counterproductive, but he needed to endure more. He'd held it in well when Jiraya had told him he had no chakra, but now the frustration and anger at being short-changed by fate was back full force.
Rasengan. Chidori. Tree and water walking. Replacement and Transformation. Summoning Jutsu. Chakra-powered leaps. Sealing.
I was born to be a muggle. God-
"-damn it!"
"Well if you feel so strongly about it, carry on." Jiraya took mock offense. "But just so you know, you passed a fifty three laps ago."
"I- what?!" Hoshi fell over, making a small splash. Jiraya refrained from mentioning he was still seven laps away, but that was clearly not the way to handle this student. Hoshi had a frightening amount of endurance. Even if his pace was a crawl, he had not stopped.
"Hmm, I think that's enough for today?" Jiraya jumped down, not making a sound even as he landed on water. Hoshi only moaned, feeling like throwing up from overexertion.
"Right." The jounin picked him up with a single hand. "Tomorrow we train your legs."
And next morning had the white-haired boy and his friends going around in circles in frog-leaps after the obligatory running, clearly wondering just why oh why had he not expected this from Jiraya.
In the afternoon they were back to chakra exercises, Konan ahead of them by a clear margin. Leaving the three boys to concentrate on their own to push up small paper shurikens from the back of their hands (Hoshi still had his on the forehead), Jiraya took the girl aside and handed her a few blue origami papers.
"As I've said before, chakra can be conducted through nearly everything," Jiraya began.
"Like trees, water, walls." Konan supplied like a student at the top of her class.
"And even paper," he allowed that to sink in as the girl looked at the sheet in her hand. "Today is all about getting the feel for your chakra as it travels through paper. It's okay if it tears, you can always ask for more."
The first try did just that, tearing the paper neatly in line with her thumb as she imbued it with chakra. Not letting it go to waste, Konan used the remaining paper to adjust her flow.
Like the paper is a biscuit and my chakra is milk. She thought, thinking of the way those biscuits crumbled if she dunked them in her watery milk.
Carefully dunk the biscuit in the liquid –her chakra crept into the paper- carefully, and now to withdraw the chakra so it the biscuit didn't crumble and fall into the milk itself...
Her paper ripped.
"It's only been three months." Jiraya said, giving an encouraging smile as she looked towards him with disappointment. Instead he gestured with his chin towards Hoshi, still stuck on the first exercise but refusing to give up.
The jounin looked over the children, all of them engrossed in their task before surreptitiously sending a clone off to capture lunch.
Hoshi clenched his teeth, going over what Jiraya had taught them in lectures.
Physical energy + Spiritual energy = Chakra. Where my physical prowess is ahead the other three but the latter part of the sum is barely there, according to Jiraya. Is it because I died once that I lack spiritual energy? What was it exactly? What is honed by meditation and mental effort, the one thing I am not applying enough...
Emotional content, The thought came to the forefront of his mind. Hoshi balanced his breathing, five in and five out. Focusing not on the chakra that ran through his body from his navel, which was not his purpose. That was the finger pointing to the moon, the distraction from the heavenly body.
A drop of sweat slid across his jaw and dripped from his chin, and he was aware, of the power within him and it surged, trying to burst out- no, it did not want to go out. It didn't want escape, it wanted purpose.
The paper shuriken on his forehead shot upwards, hitting the wooden roof of the veranda with a soft thud.
"I'm done." Hoshi said impassively, but lost his fight against the grin that splayed on his face. Utter joy blossomed within him on having violated the laws of physics, though the others understood his elation as something simpler, the joy of finally getting something down.
"About damn time! I thought you wouldn't be able to learn ninjutsu," Yahiko smirked. "But we're still way ahead of you, isn't that right Nagato?"
"Um, don't be mean Yahiko. And congratulations, Hoshi." Nagato smiled. Konan beamed alongside him.
"Yes yes," Jiraya nodded sagely. "Now back to practice, shoo. And Hoshi, you need even more of it to catch up! I'll even let you wear a toad-suit for the rest of the day if you can do it ten times successfully."
"If I do it twenty times, can I refuse that punishment?"
"Of course- wait, punishment?! Don't you know what an honour it is to wear one of my special, awesome-" And Hoshi smiled wryly before picking up his paper shuriken again and getting back to practice, tuning the jounin out as he went on a surprisingly long tirade about how special toads were.
And true to his words, Hoshi did it twenty times, even if it meant staying out for an half an hour more. The concept and mental preparation got easier each time, but his fatigue grew.
I feel like I've watched a whole twenty-four episode anime.
He had ample time to rest in the afternoon before leaving with Konan in the evening to get dinner. The ninjas in the area had lessened and Jiraya had deemed it safe for them to go hunt on their own.
"So, who'll get the bait?" Konan asked conversationally as they walked.
"Not me." Hoshi made a face. Due to how much it rained, there was no shortage of worms.
"Prissy." Konan called and Hoshi glared back.
"I do not fear them, simply dislike them." As if to prove his point, he scanned the soil around them before picking one up. "Here, keep it safe," he tossed it the girl who took it with an amused smile.
"Alright, but you're still prissy." Konan's hand disappeared in her sleeve.
"And you're still pretty." Hoshi flashed a smile, giving her a youthful thumbs-up.
"That's a compliment," Konan spluttered, obviously not expecting it.
"Here I thought we were saying untrue things about each other." Hoshi blinked innocently, soppy white hair contrasting with doe-like eyes to look like a wet puppy.
"Oh. Bastard," Konan muttered, picking up another worm and shoving it down his yukata's collar. Even as he yelped and ran forward to get it out, Hoshi couldn't help but think it had been worth it.
They shared the task of skewering the live bait on hooks attached to ninja-wire, before plunging them into the river.
"You'll carry the fish." Konan said as they waited. Hoshi said stared into the rain impassively, their wires moving erratically in the river's current.
"Half of them?"
"I carried all of the worms."
Hoshi tried not to shiver and the corner of Konan's mouth twitched. None of them were truly averse to carrying fish, but it was still cold to hold and tended to leave its smell on you.
After dinner that night (punctuated by the sky turning black, no sign of the rain letting up)Hoshi and Konan found themselves sitting down with paper and an inkwell in front of them, brush in hand. Yahiko and Nagato cleared and washed the utensils in the sink behind them.
"Now, before any of you complain how this has nothing to do with ninjutsu, I've come to realize you're not exactly educated. Therefore, you must learn to read and write." The jounin picked up a brush and dipped it gingerly, before moving it along the paper with a flourish and then held it out in front to show them the Kanji.
"Toad," Hoshi deadpanned, "just what did I expect?"
"Ho, aren't you smart?" Jiraya shot back, trying not to sound peeved at the boy's accurate guess. Hoshi shrugged, then as if an idea came to him, grinned brightly.
"Well," He took the brush from his teacher's hands, before dipping it gently in ink. "I do know many things." And he wrote down hiragana and katakana, measured strokes with almost surgical precision as he called out their sounds. Then he wrote the kanji for star i.e. Hoshi, and circled it neatly.
Jiraya gave his page one blank look. "Alright, memorize them and practice writing." He handed Hoshi's paper to Nagato.
"Um, I don't know kanji but I know the rest." Nagato pointed out. Jiraya had no shortage of writing material and soon the redhead was supervising his other friends that didn't know how to write.
The teacher and student with matching hair colour occupied the opposite side of the table. "So," Jiraya began, unfurling a small scroll. "Why don't you show me how good you are with the brush and paper?"
Hoshi gave one cocky smirk, remembering hours upon hours of calligraphy and drawing once he had gotten enrolled into a school in the previous world. Jiraya's calligraphy brush was thicker and foreign to hold, but it would do.
The boy set the scroll vertically in front of him, left index finger and thumb sliding down the paper and taking measurements. He looked at Jiraya's face from the corner of his eye, gently dipped his brush and then started.
In the middle he wrote the kanji for toad, drew two lines above and below it. Hoshi paused, before enclosing the word in a rectangle and then dipping his brush again before drawing a fluid line nearly perpendicular to it, letting the natural motion of his wrist travel up again.
The other three kids were long done with their lesson by the time Hoshi finally put down the brush.
"Wow, you drew Jiraya-sensei!" Konan exclaimed, comparing the drawing to the real person. Hoshi only nodded, frowning at how the nose had come out, the way ink smudged around one of the eyes, how the bangs on the left side weren't as long as the other, how the distance between the upper lip and chin seemed off...he sighed.
"If I draw three or more times it will come out better. This is not good at all." Hoshi bit his lip. He needed practice. His hold on the brush didn't quite match one with a pen, and that one manga about drawing manga did not cover this topic for him.
"Not to say you suck, but what a waste of paper man." Yahiko said.
"What did you say?! Even this third-rate sketch of my handsomeness, if used as an advertisement will bring a fortune at the hand of female customers alone, have princesses sending messengers for marriage interviews and raise the morale of all lady patients in a hospital, soothing their pains and healing all wounds, even those within their hearts from their men not living up to my legend!" Jiraya exclaimed.
"Sensei," They all groaned collectively.
"The kanji looks good, very good in fact, nice strokes, and curve of the jaw he did in one movement, nice transition from thick to thin..." Jiraya scratched his chin, pretending to be oblivious.
"Didn't he say it was a third-rate sketch?" Konan asked rhetorically.
"He's not exactly praising the sketch." Hoshi supplied.
"Or maybe he doesn't want to admit the lame sketch looks just like him." Yahiko said smugly.
"Hoshi," Jiraya began, uncharacteristically serious, ignoring everything that had been going on. "Draw this." From somewhere he took out an explosion tag.
"...are you sure, Sensei?" Hoshi took the paper with apprehension.
"If you don't want to, I won't push you." Jiraya replied evenly. The student gazed at the teacher, not a hint of emotion or body language for him to pick up on.
There was something Jiraya wanted to see, and Hoshi would be damned if he let the opportunity to learn about Fuinjutsu go. He picked up the brush again and rolled the scroll further, paying attention to every little squiggle, cut and design, going over the motions in the air before dipping the brush and copying the design.
Drawing with a reference was always easier, and the Kanji in the centre he wrote with leisure after having drawing the complete design.
Hoshi pushed the scroll towards Jiraya and the sound returned to his world. How long had Konan and Yahiko been chatting and when did Nagato move behind him to look at his work?
Jiraya inspected the design, not bothering to double check with the tag itself. At his level he probably knew a plethora of designs by heart. And he knew from a glance Hoshi's first try had been better than his own.
After thinking the boy to be like him, witnessing his struggles with the basic chakra exercise and drive in training what he could do, the brat had gone and pulled an Orochimaru on him; a near-perfect explosive tag on his first try in less than half an hour.
And what Hoshi had discovered was that, along with memories and knowledge, he still had an exponentially easier time learning skills he had before. Even though this body was nothing like his previous one.
"Hoshi, I don't need to ask to know if you want to learn Fuinjutsu. But," There was always a 'but' wasn't there? "You're not allowed to tell anyone; even if they need help they must not know you can do Fuinjutsu."
Hoshi nodded slowly. "Why though?"
"If you can learn it, you'll be the first Fuinjutsu specialist in Ame. You will be an active target of shinobi from many a village. It will be different from just being a thorn in some people's side."
Oh. Hoshi tried not to gulp, gave no response and letting the silence stretch into awkwardness.
"You think we'd let them just take him? I'd like to see them bastards try." Yahiko snorted.
"Yeah, let them try." Nagato spoke barely above a whisper, Rinnegan burning with conviction.
"If he can learn it in the first place," Konan teased and then ducked to evade a paper shuriken, courtesy of Hoshi.
"Is my handwriting really that good?" Hoshi asked Jiraya, not rising to her bait.
"Well, that and it doesn't require a lot of chakra control." That he used chakra in bursts, Jiraya didn't say. Instead of moulding it and allowing it to pass with control, his student released it as soon as it was formed. Strangely enough, it worked for him.
"I see." It looked like Hoshi had swallowed something bitter but agreed with his teacher's assessment. "How long does it take?"
"Hmm, nearly half a decade for the basics, and then your mind is the limit," They whispered furiously wondering how long Jiraya actually planned to stay with them while the jounin went on, "what you can manage to do with sealing has no known limits. But enough castles in the air, time to get started."
Hoshi smiled. Calculus or sealing, which was harder?
When attending school, many a students, rather countless people argued against the system being designed for those with superior memorizing capabilities. Not every student had the same capacity or attention span; they needed further catering, even as they made life hell for teachers simply trying to do their job.
Although Hoshi had not paid much attention to the argument since he was happy to just go to a school and did his best to memorize and extrapolate concepts to the best of his ability to not fall behind the actual purpose of learning, he was feeling much sympathy for everyone he had considered a privileged whiner.
There were hundreds of thousands of Kanji. He woke before the sun was up, taking advantage of the fact memorization was several times faster in those moments after sleeping that he would revise yesterday's lesson (much longer and harder than his other companion's, they were learning to read and write, not seal).
Then Jiraya would watch over their warm ups, thankfully designed without being related to the movement or life of a toad. It did not fail to stop him from matching the rhythm of their movement with his recital of a poem by toads.
Then they went through the entire order of taijutsu forms they knew, doing a hundred reps of punches and kicks before it was light enough to know the sun was up behind the eternal shield of clouds.
If it was not his turn to capture breakfast Hoshi would sit down with a wooden board and take out his carefully kept brush Jiraya had given him and practice drawing shapes, washing the board to remove the ink and using the other side before repeating the progress. It saved a lot of paper and ink (which was mixed with water to ease its removal as well and increase quantity).
After breakfast was a small break to allow food to settle, before launching into exercises, each day reserved for certain muscle groups. Because they were not ready to admit where their limits lay, especially Yahiko (and Hoshi if he got pissed by a joke), Jiraya had to judge for himself when to call for stops.
When it came to sparring, initially Jiraya took them on himself to take care of the bigger problems himself before allowing them to spar amongst themselves. The jounin also scoured a few battles to steal a few weapon pouches for his students.
After lunch they worked on meditation and chakra control exercises, with Jiraya reviewing their hand-seals and speed daily, but no jutsu. Even in a hidden village, besides the Academy Set, access to jutsus was restricted unless they were obtained from one's family or clan, or by stolen without being caught (at which point it the genin had actually earned it).
When Jiraya told this to them, it clicked to Hoshi why Kakashi had not taught any jutsu to his team or seen any other genin claiming to be taught a jutsu by their sensei regarding his knowledge of anime.
Most of them had clan techniques Naruto learned shadow clone by himself, Sakura's offensive arsenal came after the knowledge that she had made chunin, Gai taught Lee out of sheer favouritism, Kakashi waited until Sasuke went up against a freakin' Jinchuuriki to teach him Chidori (No wonder he defected).
When it came to chakra, Nagato had the largest reserves among them; Konan had better control, Yahiko fell somewhere between the two and Hoshi was the most obstinate despite having the smallest supply.
He made up for it by working hard at taijutsu. Very much inspired by Bruce Lee and trying to incorporate chakra into his offense and defence, the boy spent much longer working his body.
When one year passed, Jiraya deemed it acceptable enough to teach them Substitution and Clone techniques. Going beyond his expectations, Konan and Nagato learned it within a month, Yahiko following a few days later.
Frustrated due to his lack of progress and Jiraya's still basic lessons where he learned little more than drawing with precision than any Fuinjutsu theory, Hoshi drove himself to chakra exhaustion by throwing caution to the wind but managed to get the techniques down on his forty-sixth day.
The Clone technique Hoshi could not use well besides using it to create an afterimage of a feint in taijutsu, projecting the charka to form an image and then exiting it with physical effort. But the substitution worked all too well for him, since it was a spur of the moment move.
Nagato was taller, Yahiko had weight on him and Konan fought at range, but Hoshi had the better reflexes and strategies (He was sure to have nearly a five or six more years of mental age as well).
"Too bad you're exhausted, now I can't teach you how to make a basic seal tonight." Jiraya sighed dramatically at dinner, and Hoshi's eye-twitched throughout washing their dishes, but after a warm bath he fell asleep at soon as his head hit his cushion on the futon.
'I heard my dad say your people are bad. They killed our people and keep killing them. They also say that in school.'
And you don't know my dad is dead because your people killed him, right?
'I'm sorry.'
Just drop it. Let's play football before the rainclouds completely go away.
Suddenly, there was an explosion to his right-
Hoshi woke up to the clatter of bowls in the sink to his right. A spike of pain shot through his core muscles as he struggled to get up fast.
"Good morning Hoshi," Nagato greeted. The sun wasn't up, but their day began nearly an hour and half before it shone.
"What time is it? Where are the others?" he asked curtly.
"They're outside, warming up. Your breakfast is on the table." Nagato supplied before scurrying off. Hoshi was a morning person whose annoyance was directly proportional to how late he woke up, and the timid boy did not desire to tell him he had woken up late at all.
For the usually cool-tempered and adult-like Hoshi to lose his cool was the funniest sight to ever be seen according to the others, but Nagato felt it was mean of them to all band against him.
Trying to shrug off the strain and exhaustion from his training, Hoshi set about his routine. The last one to wake up had to fold up the futons and blankets, as well as do the dishes. Jiraya made them bathe before sleeping so there was no need for a morning bath, just washing his face and rinsing his mouth was enough.
Drying his face, Hoshi checked his visage in the small bathroom mirror. The bangs on the side of his face were longer, and he let the fringes in-between cover his forehead to hide the natural partition in the middle. It was not his face, but it belonged to him regardless.
His eyes unnerved him. No matter how hard he tried, no matter where he took the mirror to see, Hoshi could not make out any structures within his iris, or even his pupil. Once or twice he'd tried using chakra to see if he had some sort of Byakugan but gave up when nothing happened.
It was unnatural, but nothing he could help, Hoshi concluded as he sat down for his meal; a small loaf for carbohydrates, fish for proteins and other nutrients and an apple for vitamins. A year and a half ago he would have been wandering markets and stealing from beneath the noses of shopkeepers and merchants, picking the occasional pocket for money to actually buy something.
It was a relief he had never had to do that since Jiraya decided to keep them on a proper diet, no matter where he kept bringing the food and gear from, though he had a good idea about their weapons. They had to be wiped clean before Jiraya blunted them for their use.
In minutes he was finished and did his chores before walking outside where Jiraya was supervising a three-way spar between the other children. According to the rules any hit to a vital or a strike that would incapacitate would eliminate one participant.
"No training for you today." Jiraya's tone brooked no nonsense as Hoshi stood next to him, whereas he should have been resting inside.
"Not even a good morning Sensei?" Hoshi mumbled but Jiraya paid him no more attention than he did to the raindrops falling over them, and soon another spectator stood on the ground.
Yahiko charged at Nagato, throwing three shurikens in arc towards Konan as she charged him from the right. Nagato readied his stance to counter Yahiko but jerked his head back to avoid a shuriken courtesy of Konan, followed by a roundhouse kick to push the other boy back, using the advantage of his longer limbs.
Or would have been an advantage if Yahiko had not deflected the kick with the forearm guarding his ribs, and sensing his hesitation closed the distance with a punch to the solar plexus as if to say now is NOT the time to be nice.
The redhead regained his balanced and turned ninety degrees, bending at the stomach in a desperate attempt to avoid the blow.
At least he didn't cover his face and blocked this time. Hoshi thought, eyes drifting to Konan as she took the opportunity to use a few shurikens to scatter the two boys.
Primarily a long range fighter, she did not hesitate to engage in hand-to-hand combat as she quickly rounded on the Nagato, whose hands were already flipping through seals for substitution with any of the numerous rocks Jiraya had strewn across their improvised training field.
Chakra-enhanced feet danced on the slick battlefield as Yahiko forced Konan into close-quarters from the side as Nagato escaped, pressing the advantage of his upper-body strength.
Konan took his punch straight to the shoulder, snaked her arm around his, gripping his biceps to cut off any dodging attempts as she tried to knee his stomach. Yahiko blocked it with the palm of his free hand before butting his head against hers, making her see stars.
The broke apart when Nagato approached them from both sides using a Clone jutsu, managing to react before any closed in. Their kunais passed through the both harmlessly, before Nagato used another substitution to return to his position, levelling a kunai inches away from Yahiko's throat.
"Well, shit."
"Yahiko, you're out!" Jiraya shouted over the distance, offering a grin as Yahiko made a face, grumbling as he extracted himself from the field, leaving only Konan and Nagato.
Unsurprisingly, Konan took the initiative, whipping out a kunai as she leapt, the redhead spreading his feet apart as he swung his arm, his momentum allowing him to meet the blue-haired girl's charge mid-air, blades clanging loudly.
Konan spun and Nagato evaded her kick with another substitution, her shin colliding with a rock.
"Bastard! God damn it!" Konan's eyes scrunched in pain as she rubbed her leg.
Nagato wisely did not yell back an apology, but ran towards her again, guilt plain as the nose on his face. He didn't have much time to be surprised as nearly a dozen shuriken headed his way, a third of which were made of paper. Panicking, he stopped mid-charge and ducked.
"Get him Konan!" Hoshi couldn't help but cheer, seeing her new technique.
"You took me out, don't you lose Nagato!" Yahiko took the chance seeing Jiraya wasn't minding the disruption.
Both fighters were evenly matched, turning the spar into a series of blocks, ripostes and dodges.
The moment Nagato knocked her kunai out of her hand Konan ducked low and carefully surveyed the battlefield before throwing the last of her shuriken, all of them paper before quickly flying through some hand-seals.
Using the substitution jutsu on the rock she had made Nagato was moving towards, Konan used his own tactic against him, taking out a kunai and slipping past his hasty block to hit his chest with the tip.
"Nagato, you're out!"
"You did good Nagato." Hoshi said as they walked back.
"What about me?" Konan asked expectantly, sweeping her bangs to the side.
"You were amazing. All those time you were making paper shuriken I thought you were practicing your control. To think they could be used like that is...pretty cool." Hoshi admitted. He turned to Yahiko. "Are you feeling left out?"
"I don't need you to tell me I'm awesome."
"Hoshi hates lying anyway." Nagato added all of sudden, smiling shyly.
"Oi Nagato, since when do you make fun of me? Hoshi-jiisan you corrupted him didn't you?" Yahiko smiled cheekily.
"I am not that old," Hoshi glared, covering his hair defensively.
"Sure, Hoshi-jiichan," Konan said in a singsong voice.
"Oh, just you wait until the next taijutsu-only spar." Hoshi muttered and immediately their laughter took on a nervous note.
Jiraya looked over them, smiling gently. No matter how hard he pushed them, no matter how unreasonable his demands sounded, from wearing his toad costumes to practicing a thousand reps of taijutsu forms, meditating and performing chakra control for morning till afternoon they complied.
Sure they grumbled, sometimes outright refused as children were won't to do but got the job done. Perhaps more than genetics or innate ability, circumstances made a genius, the sage mused.
How would a tree know its strength unless it is forced to part with its leaves against the harsh weather, learn to stay rooted against the perilous winds, grow through it all to face the spring? Hmm, on second thought I have too many sayings related to forests and leaves. Jiraya mused.
"We still have a lecture to analyse your spar. After that do what you want, it's your free day." Which came after half a year of training and even then they were up for a spar before the sun rose without grumbling much.
"Yes sensei," They chorused. They reached home and switched their Hop-In planks to show the red side from white indicating that they were in. The planks were nailed to the wall with a string, and had cute little toad face drawn on top.
"So, Konan," Jiraya began. "You've come a far way with your inventiveness. Paper shurikens, finally used them in a fight. But that last tactic? Was it a Creative use of Substitution jutsu? Yes. But would you have tried that with Hoshi? You assumed you had fully gauged your opponent. Even if it was correct, that is a bad habit, and many a bad habit has killed countless good ninjas.
"There are people out there who stop breathing but do not die. You had neither a back-up plan nor a back-up to your back-up plan. Think ahead of 'ahead'."
Konan nodded, instead of looking down. Jiraya felt grateful that he didn't need to mince his words with his students.
"Next, Nagato. You've got big chakra reserves for your age, and you've got the basic jutsus down solid, but you think too much. Konan should not have been able to get the drop on you so easily. You moulded chakra inefficiently and were too tired to react properly. But good work on using Substitution without hand-seals."
"I'll practice twice as hard on chakra control," Nagato promised.
"And you, Yahiko. You've got guts, and your taijutsu is great, but your main tactic is to close in and force the fight to continue without ninjutsu, despite how much you insisted I teach it to you," The orange-haired boy blushed slightly and had the grace to not interrupt as Jiraya continued, "and you need to focus more on multi-tasking, try to think of more things besides taking the enemy down. I know you can do it."
"Yes sensei." Yahiko acknowledged.
"Starting tomorrow you can spar on your own. Now, I need to think about my novel." The jounin shooed them with his hand and they scrambled to their feet.
"Hey look, the rain has nearly stopped!" Yahiko jumped out the house, looking up easily without the rain to pester his eyelids. One by one they walked out, silently looking at the brightest sky they had seen in their lives.
"I'm going back to practice Fuinjutsu." Hoshi called after them. Turned and walked away to the safety of shelter and his mentor, before the sky completely cleared.
