AN.
Did I say 2 weeks? I meant a fucking month...or so. Long chapter to make up for ruined expectations that is probably a fucking mess but hopefully you guys enjoy!
WARNING: MINATO HEAD CANONS AHOY! If you don't like headcanons...I'm sorry I did your version of Minato a disservice?
"Okay, stop both of you!"
The usual string of words meant for the other two boys of the team were oddly directed at another pair that usually tried to make an effort to behave themselves.
Tokina stopped her barrage of slaps and thrusts while Kakashi paused his blade mid swing, both of them looking at Minato a little bit aggravated at the abrupt halt of their spar.
Or death-match,
Whichever was the more accurate term.
Obito, who was overwhelmed by the "spar" consciously closed his mouth, scurrying away from a stray snake that was supposed to ambush Kakashi but instead slithered back to Tokina.
Minato sighed at their oddly dumbfounded look.
"When I meant 'no holding back', I didn't mean kill each other." The blonde jonin stressed with exasperated hand gestures. "I'm sure that you can spar without unleashing your best genjutsu-"
Tokina deactivated her Byakugan and looked slightly sheepish, holding herself and looking away, muttering a quiet "It wasn't even traumatizing…"
"-or throwing your practice sword for your real one."
Kakashi shrugged and sheathed his small blade, pointedly ignoring the broken bōken a few feet away.
Minato sighed again, a habit that he was not keen on picking up since it would make him seem like a stressed old teacher.
He was at the prime of his youth, for God's sake!
It is too early in his life to start getting wrinkles.
When he saw Tokina's skills first-hand, he was glad that Kakashi found himself a partner that would keep him on his toes that didn't involve screaming, a ton of green and insane amount of testosterone and energy drinks that don't even taste remotely good. He knew that Tokina and Kakashi would develop some form of rivalry, if their occasional quiet yet subtle glares were anything to pick-up on.
But this so called rivalry wasn't solely based on good-hearted competition but the drive of dominance and maybe an unhealthy grudge he wasn't aware of.
He wasn't like this when he was Jiraiya's student. Minato was the bestest, most kindest, most sincerestest student ever.
However, in those rare, once in a blue-red moon, instances where he would disobey his teacher's instructions (or if Jiraiya didn't know what kind of wise advice he could manage to spew out before his students got suspicious) he usually got rid of him in the guise of training.
"If you two really want to tire yourselves out, go and do a single lap around Konoha." Minato mustered all his "serious sensei" voice, even going so far to cross his arms and look stern, only for the children to simultaneously raise their eyebrows, shrug and go without another word.
Obito coughed,
Minato turned at him and raised an accusing eyebrow,
"Sensei, was that just a ploy so you could buy some time to find a deep lecture you could somehow come-up within ten minutes?"
Minato pushed down the blush coming from his cheeks; his modus exposed. He coughed it down and turned away, "N-no?" He paused and faced Obito with mild worry. "Do you really think they'll be back in ten minutes?"
Obito smirked, catching his teacher's mature facade broken, "I don't know about Bakashi, but I remember Tokina complaining about the very same thing when she was under Sannin-sama's wing when we had our dinners." the Uchiha who sat cross-legged confessed with a smile in a slightly reminiscent tone.
"Oh..." Minato's slightly disappointed tone told Obito everything.
So this is why they only give one prodigy to each team. Handfuls, the lot of them.
And sure enough, Minato couldn't think of a lesson to drill into their heads when both of them arrived. Tokina didn't look fazed by the "ordeal" however he could spot a few sweatdrops around Kakashi's barely exposed face. Minato looked at them a crude look and pointed to the nearby clearing in defeat.
"...go spar,"
Obito disguised his amusement with a cough,
Team Minato wasn't the "Team Minato" Minato fantasized about when he took these three under his wing. They didn't deserve to be called a "team". They were essentially just three young children trying to make things work out and not get killed in the process.
At this rate their bound to kill each other.
He didn't want them to go out on a mission without addressing this issue. There was no doubt that these three (yes, even Obito) could survive out there individually but how can he count on them to work together when they need it most?
Obito and Kakashi despise each other.
Tokina and Kakashi have this strange not-so-cold war going on.
So when he mentioned this to Kushina, she just laughed it off and said the most brilliant thing ever over dinner. "Why don't you just tie their ankles together and make them run around Konoha a few times?" She recommended with a spoonful of ramen.
He couldn't tell if he was a bad sensei for following through what was obviously meant to be a joke.
Well, instead of tying their ankles, he decided to tie their entire bodies save their head and feet together with ninja wire, which was way durable then rope, so it must be him and is sadistic streak.
...which he does not have, of course. Pfft, he was a good sensei that does not resort to cavemen tricks to teach his little students a lesson about teamwork.
But nothing could be better than seeing his little team glaring at him, Tokina and Kakashi not appreciating their lack of body space. Tokina was trying to shy away from Kakashi, who was in the middle of the little "Team Minato" sandwich, while Obito struggled to get into a comfortable posistion. Kakashi glared at Minato, conveying the betrayal he must be feeling right now.
They looked adorable.
It was a shame he didn't have a camera with him.
Minato left without another word.
Well, he sniggered but that didn't count as a coherent word.
And so silence fell upon the trio.
"Now what?" Obito huffed, gazing at the outskirts of Konoha, slightly turning green at the realization that, if they fall, they would surely die.
He closed his eyes and focused on not barfing at how high up they actually were.
Maybe he would barf. Kakashi was next to him, anyway. It would make a hell of a story when he's Hokage.
"Now we make progress." Kakashi stated simply, forcing the other two to move by attempting a really bad hop. Thanks to that, the Team Minato Sandwich tripped and almost rolled to the edge with Obito screaming his head off. Tokina, taking a page from Orochimaru, quickly opened her mouth and summoned a lengthy boa, quickly streaking through the air and using the ground to push the children from dying, its length keeping them from falling to their doom. Tokina summoned two more snakes from her mouth and used them to position them from before Kakashi's little mishap.
"Oh that is nasty!" Obito screamed while staring at his best friend's mouth, despite the team Minato sandwich peering off the ledge known as Konoha Wall as the snakes did their work. "I didn't know you could open your mouth so wide!"
Once they were steady again, Tokina instantly turned green and craned her head to the edge of the wall, letting out Rin's breakfast omelette in the grossest way possible.
"Disgusting," Kakashi, the tactful devil he is, regarded the situation with a raised eyebrow and eyes wrinkling in displeasure.
"Have rods that taste like dirt and dead mice shoved down your throat and see how you like it." Tokina instantly turned to the silver haired offender, letting her now bad breath wallow around Kakashi, a bit annoyed at the silver haired chunin's ungratefulness. "We can't all smell like fur and dog poop, sorry."
Kakashi narrowed his eyes, defensive about his natural body odor which was a result of puberty, mind you, even though he was just nine. "Well at least one of us wasn't doing anything and standing about. How else will we circle around Konoha?"
"Not falling out of Konoha, for starters." The Hyūga replied with venom and wit.
"Ugh," Kakashi wiggled, trying to cover his already covered sensitive nose. "Your breath,"
Tokina scoffed and turned away from Kakashi, a bit red in the cheeks.
There was awkward silence among the trio before Obito spoke up, uncharacteristically calm. "Look, maybe we should calm our heads and try to find a way to circle around Konoha without dying."
"That's rich, coming from you." Kakashi rolled his eyes.
"Can you stop being so antagonistic? For once in your goddamned life?!" Obito yelled, Kakashi flinching from his voice.
"Ow! Who pinched me?" Tokina tried side-eying the two boys in annoyance, unable the rub her thigh thanks to Minato's brilliant knotting skills.
"Sorry! I thought that was Kakashi's thigh." Obito quickly apologized, unfazed by the look Kakashi gave him.
"You were trying to pinch me? In this situation?" Kakashi shook his head disapprovingly.
"Shuddup will you?!" Obito yelled,
"Ugh, noisy brat."
"Oh, so I'm the brat?! Who's the one that won't cooperate? Last time I checked, it wasn't me."
"Is this the part where you scream even louder so you can sound smart?"
"Oh my sweet baby Jesus," Tokina muttered under her breath in English, which probably sounded like a stifled curse on untrained ears.
The two continued spouting threats for a time. Here they were, the promising Team Minato consisting of the two youngest prodigies in history and an Uchiha with the potential to become greater than ever imagined reduced to boys pinching their thighs and trying to kick each other's shins.
Tokina sighed, suddenly regretting all of her life's decisions.
"I swear, if both of you don't shut up this instant, I will poison the both of you and make sure the next time you'll see daylight is next month!" Tokina growled.
Obito narrowed his eyes, calling her out on her bluff. "You wouldn't."
Tokina opened her mouth and, refusing to gag, summoned two vipers that peeked out from her mouth to show how far her "bluffing" would go. Kakashi wisely closed his mouth and Obito instantly apologized.
Another round of awkward silence formed around the sandwich.
Tokina sighed. "Look, we aren't going to become the team the Hokage expects us to be if we can't even last two minutes together without threatening each other's moms and man parts."
Obito flinched at the little stern scolding Tokina sent his way.
"If you don't want to be friends with us, Kakashi, that's fine. We just need your cooperation without me having to threaten you to submission."
Kakashi clicked his tongue.
"So..." Tokina began hesitantly. "How are we going to do this?"
Obito tried to shrug, the rope binding them from that form of expression. "Maybe we could...waddle our way across Konoha?"
Kakashi let out a resigned sigh, "That would take too long." He reasoned. "If we tripped, and chances are with you here, Obito, that was likely, it would be the end of us."
"Hey!" Obito huffed out indignantly, causing the other two to wince. Tokina rolled her eyes. Desperation caused her to activate her Byakugan, knowing that it might be a fruitless effort. She examined the ninja wire, thoroughly tied and knotted in a way they couldn't untie it if they tried.
"Kakashi, can you perform jutsus without handseals yet?" Tokina questioned
"Depends on what jutsu." Kakashi questioned, raising a brow.
"Shadow Clone."
"...I can try."
The Obito and Tokina, much to their surprise, were happily expecting to see another Kakashi poof into existence. They waited and waited, the silver haired chunin even closing his eyes and...
A sorry excuse of a clone, much worse than whatever Obito could conjure up when he was a student appeared before them, sad and weak and fluttered against the wind like paper.
Obito tried masking his snort with a cough when he could practically sense the dirty eye Tokina was giving him, reminding him not to break the fragile truce they had.
"So much for that idea." The Hyūga girl tried smiling at Kakashi in good humor, if he could see it. "We'll come up with something."
Two minutes of silence ensured before Tokina spoke up again.
"...I could summon a snake to swallow us and slither us across Konoha." Tokina quietly recommended.
The two boys shuddered, partly for imagining their female comrade managing to open her mouth wide enough to summon a snake that big to swallow them to take them on a joyride around the village and the other half actually trying to imagine tolerating being inside a snake's stomach.
Surprise filled the air filled with awkwardness and dread when it was Kakashi who opened his mouth first (thankfully,).
And it wasn't even in a rude manner.
"Can you open your mouth big enough?" He quietly questioned, looking straight ahead and avoiding the gazes of the bread of the team Minato sandwich.
Tokina smirked before frowning at what she was about to do. "I can try."
She gulped in a huge chunk of air and opened her mouth, Kakashi closing his eyes, refusing to turn his head to Obito and the Uchiha instead favoring to stare in horror as a giant boa emerged from his best-friend's mouth.
That scene was and will forever be burned in his mind and will constantly remind him why he doesn't have a crush on Tokina.
It was worse than any of her genjutsu.
Angry Rin?
Dirty diapers?
Ghosts?
He tried prying his eyes, trying to look away from the grotesque image Tokina was feeding them.
He felt like he turned green.
The snake slithered around them, its muscles hanging off Konoha's wall since it didn't exactly fit their small part on the wall. Tokina, lacking in anything in her stomach, gagged loudly instead of vomiting for a while.
"Ugh," she managed to mutter in between her gagging, tearing up "No more..."
The snake wasted no time and gobbled them up, Kakashi keeping his eyes firmly shut and pursing his mouth Obito continued to scream in terror, which was being muffled by the serpent eating them up while Tokina seized the opportunity to pass out.
When the boa spit them out and poofed out of existance, Minato immediately took his shocked and slightly catatonic students and delivered them to Training Ground 3 in his arms, trying his hardest not to get that disgusting goop on him. He cut the rope, Obito immediately catching the passed out Tokina and shifted her body and carried her bridal style.
Minato beamed at his three students. This was arguably the most productive Wednesday he had! He did the laundry, finished all his reports, did the groceries for Kushina and hung out with friends for the longest time in a while. Of course he was ready to save his little student sandwich if they ever fell to their doom (which he almost did before Tokina pulled out a snake from the most unreasonable place in her body) but after Tokina's little stunt that scarred him for life and calculating how long that snake would take to circle the entire Konoha wall, he immediately informed the guards stationed there to not freak out when they see a giant brown spotted boa.
Tokina's stunt will probably be the in tomorrow morning's headlines.
Obito threw Minato's dashing and charming smile with a sneer that all Uchiha inherited, carrying Tokina in his arms, who was still passed out. The afternoon sunlight glistened against the digestive enzymes that were rightfully inside the snake. Kakashi, who still looked dignified despite his hair looking like a wet dog, glared at Minato.
"Good work team!" He announced with a smile. "Same time tomorrow?"
Minato, with Kushina's insistence when she finally got bored of seeing his team suffer after inviting her to witness their little teamwork training for the fourth time, recommended a new training regime for them to work on their teamwork without Obito missing out valuable shinobi lessons that were essential in every mission because it was painfully obvious that he needed a refresher course.
"I'll announce a new program for us. Since you all know the basics, we'll need to work on teamwork and formations. Although teamwork is a necessity—"
—A snort from Kakashi.
"—individual skills are also important. What is teamwork if you can't defend yourself?"
An approving nod from Kakashi.
"So I found a way to combine the two."
Tokina chuckled, making Minato lose his "wise-sensei" momentum.
Obito grinned at Tokina who had the decency to try and stifle it. "Sensei, just be honest that Kushina-san was the one that came up with this. We won't think any less of you."
Minato frowned, pushing back down an embarrassed blush that threatened to reveal itself to the rest of the world. "W-what do you mean? What made you assume this was another of Kushina's schemes?"
"I listen to Kushina-san's stories instead of giving her disgustingly sweet goo-goo eyes" Obito revealed his secret with a proud smirk. "She literally told us this when we went eating out."
"Hmph," Minato, the future fourth Homage in all of his reverence, crossed his arms childishly, pouting "if your such a good listener, what did she—I mean I—plan?"
"Every Monday, you're going to make one of us teach something the remaining two probably don't know." Obito shrugged. "Honestly, it isn't that hard to memorize sensei."
Before Minato could defend himself, Obito had a split-second epiphany. He grinned at Minato like he was caught in the act...which he wasn't!
"Sensei, is this just a ploy so you could spend more time with Kushina-san?" Obito rolled his eyes. Tokina shrugged, silently agreeing with the assumption. It seemed like Kakashi agreed with how he crossed his arms and said nothing. There was this accusing look all three of his students gave him that he didn't care for.
"N-no! Why would you say that?" The offended jonin blurted out. He coughed under his team's scrutiny. "B-besides, I'll still be monitoring you three so I'll be with you guys. Who knows, I might pick something up from you three." He grinned, trying to paint himself in a new light.
More disbelieving silence,
"How would we know that you didn't use a Shadow Clone to watch us?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow.
"What is it with all of you not believing that I want to teach this team?!" Minato groaned in frustration. "I deserve better than this."
Disbelieving eyebrows from team sandwich,
"Fine then," He sat down the grass with crossed arms and a pouty face. "You first then, Kakashi-kun, since you're so great." The blonde instructed pettily.
Eyes on Kakashi,
He blinked at them and slowly stood up, obeying the new program with a slight, sadistic glint in his eyes.
"I'll teach you the basics of tracking."
Tokina visibly paled,
"Minato-sensei, can't you make yourself useful and help us?" Obito scowled at his jonin instructor who was treating the whole "program" like a game. He was all smiles and humming while the productive ones, also known as Tokina and Obito, were busy trying to find a rubber ball Kakashi produced out nowhere and hid somewhere in the forest
"What are you talking about, Obito?" Minato innocently blinked at the Uchiha, racking his brains to remember if a cracked twig to the left was a sign the target went east or west. He should know this by now! He specifically remembered Rin teaching him this for the finals!
"Tracking involves listening, maybe you should listen better." He chirped a little bit too happily.
Obito gave a murderous look to his petty instructor, in which Minato rebounded with his natural charm.
The sun was already setting and they haven't seen hide or hair of Kakashi or the damned ball. Tokina was straining her Byakugan, using the knowledge of what Soma-sensei gave her to help her track. Whenever she tried tapping into that knowledge, she couldn't help but shudder at remembering the dark forest, eyes in every bush and the feeling of impending death and doom in every turn.
It was not a good memory.
Obito sighed, giving up with the twig and turned to Tokina. "Any clues, Kina-chan?"
She shook my head.
He groaned again and continued leading their small team into the forest of Training Ground 3.
He eyes Tokina after she left a sharp groan and positioned her hands in a familiar manner, ready to summon either butterflies or snakes to do her bidding. Minato instantly seized her up and slapped both of her hands down. "Ah-ah-ah, no summons." He gave her a bright smile. With how Tokina looked at sensei, Obito was quite sure how Tokina wanted nothing more than to give Minato-sensei a real slap.
An annoyed Hyūga with an urge to slap is not someone you should mess with. Obito knew this all too well.
"What if the ball is with Bakashi?" Obito thought out loud. "And he's been avoiding us while following us, if that makes sense."
Tokina rubbed her eyes, deactivating her Byakugan. "That would make sense however he would need to avoid my Byakugan, which requires him to adjust to how I angle my head." Tokina explained to the impatient Uchiha.
She activated her Byakugan and shook her head. "He's good but he's not that good."
Minato shrugged, continuing his annoying humming while Obito looked gave her a resigned look.
"Back to ball finding then,"
Kakashi wiped the sweat off his forehead. He was not prepared for the girl to shake her head like that.
He adjusted the purple ball on his hand while the clan kids began went back to searching for him. Minato gave him an obvious side-eye. He rolled his eyes and adjusted himself. The proud Hatake memorized the blind spot of the Byakugan, a necessity if you want to win against a Hyūga and trained with Gai to manoeuver around it.
Minato turned back to the children who were probably discussing plans and tactics to find the ball instead of continue their blind search.
This was, he admitted with slight surprise, fun when he's not the one on the other end of the fruitless searching game. Maybe one day, even with the slim chances of him getting a genin team, he would do the same thing in due time.
He tried not to scoff at the idea.
Him? A jonin sensei? Impossible.
The possibility of him getting a genin team was as thin as him thinking of Obito as a blood brother and Tokina as attractive.
Preposterous,
Impossible,
Nauseating,
Why would he even think of himself associated with that idiotic loud mouth who calls himself an Uchiha? He scolded himself before falling back to the shadows. He tensed before adjusting to the Hyūga who activated her Byakugan after rubbing her temples.
Kakashi repressed the urge to flinch when she opened her mouth to yawn, even if the girl did cover it.
…He tried hard not to shudder at the memory of her opening her mouth monstrously wide.
The silver haired ninja shook his head, trying to get that horrible memory out of his brain.
Back to business,
Obito was bored,
Deathly bored,
Bored and frustrated,
They were so bored and frustrated that when Obito began throwing random shurikens out of sheer boredom (and because the Uchiha stockroom has more shuriken they knew what to do with) Tokina didn't even scold him for using his ninja tools so wildly.
"Sensei, I have a dinner to go to and a younger brother to play with." Tokina complained, giving her Byakugan a break for the fifth time today. It was night time and Minato still didn't want to release them from their "training program" also known as "I'm too lazy to teach you guys so here, teach yourselves."
"We could do this tomorrow, dammit!" Obito screamed his frustrations out, deciding that the tree next to him needed more shurikens embedded on its bark.
Minato sighed at Obito's impatience, a deadly characteristic that a ninja could die from. At least Tokina-
"...I have a baby brother to coddle." The girl muttered quietly, agreeing with Obito before Minato could finish his thought.
Minato pursed his lips and then smiled when he realized what buttons to push to fan Obito's flame.
He just needed a little push,
"So are you admitting that Kakashi is better than you in every way?"
"N-no way!" Obito, tired and fed up, still tried to put some fight in him. "Bakashi will never be better than me! Never-ever-forever!" He fist pumped in the dark. Minato grinned cheekily at his successful manipulation attempt. He turned to Tokina expectantly.
She shrugged, her eyes darting to the far left and narrowed.
Minato saw the face of mischief flash for a second before turning back into her neutral face.
"I already accepted the fact that he is stronger than me in every way."
Obito looked crestfallen while Minato just raised an eyebrow.
She continued even when nobody even asked her to. "I mean, I could barely win against him in sparring, lost to him in the chunin exams and I can't even find a ball in a forest." Tokina sighed dejectedly. "What does that say about my skills as a chunin?"
"Tokina-chan..." Minato let out. He knew that her mental health wasn't the strongest in this time but he didn't know that the female prodigy had major self-esteem issues. She looked like she wasn't the type.
The Hyūga covered her face with a groan. "Maybe I really shouldn't have accepted that chunin promotion. I can't stand it being in the shadow of Kakashi if it's going to be like this."
Obito was about to reassure his best friend while Minato, sure that this was some kind of ploy, waited for something to happen.
Both flinched back when she deftly turned around, her Byakugan activated and her eyebrows narrowed.
"Vacuum Palm!"
Kakashi flew away and so did trees, rocks and the general forest bed, much to Obito's astonishment. She immediately rushed him, jabbing and sealing his tenketsu points so that he would be as mobile as a cripple. He groaned in pain, Tokina ready to jab his heart to finish the job.
"B-but how?" Kakashi groaned out, eyes barely open.
"I activated my Byakugan when I covered my face." Tokina explained. "Props to you for evading my vision," She congratulated him before jabbing his heart. Using her Byakugan, she searched for the damnable rubble ball they pulled their hair for and tossed it to Obito.
"I have a baby brother to attend to. Goodbye and goodnight." She bowed formally and left without a second later wasted.
Obito blinked while Minato sighed and walked towards Kakashi.
Kakashi blinked his eyes open. For some reason he had a massive headache and an aching heart. The last thing he remembered was Tokina's smirking face before everything turned black.
He wanted to face-palm himself.
...despite Tokina doing that for him already.
He let his guard down.
Why?
Because of petty compliments and praises,
How shameful.
What did it matter to him if a Hyūga girl praises him? He should be above this...this…preschool level manipulation tactics! Was there a hole in his sound psychology that she managed to tug?
Impossible,
He stopped his scowling when he realized that he was being carried like a sack of potatoes in familiar hands.
"You're awake," Minato said,
"Hn,"
Great, was he going to get lectured on how he was supposed to take his teammate seriously again? Or the value of team work?
He respected Minato, he really did, but some jobs are left doing alone.
He wanted those jobs.
Those two can do whatever they want.
"So, you aren't going to question me on why I didn't call you out?"
Kakashi rolled his eyes even if the older teen knew he probably couldn't see it, knowing well enough to not struggle from the older man's grasp. Besides, it was the middle of the night anyway. Nobody would see him in this humiliating position.
He'll make sure nobody would see.
"I'm sure you have your reasons, Sensei."
"So you don't want to?"
"Keep them," Kakashi snorted rudely, wincing at how disrespectful he was being. A trait he obviously picked up from Obito.
"Fine," Minato pouted childishly. "I even prepared a whole speech and everything. You're missing out."
"Its fine, sensei." Kakashi assured the man and continued his sarcastic streak. "I'll manage somehow."
Dammit! He tried to stop! That damnable Uchiha's influence…
"Kids and their sarcasm," Minato grumbled, unaware of Kakashi's internal turmoil. He sighed before smiling down to Kakashi "Oh well, at least I have a story to tell Kushina!"
A week passed of training and D-ranks. Tokuma's taijutsu was going surprisingly well. Not "Hyūga Neji" well but above average, Tokina admitted to herself with only a small tinge of jealousy. With more chakra control for precise stabs, Tokina was sure that her little brother will surpass her in terms of taijutsu. Not that she was focusing on her
taijutsu so she wasn't all that offended.
One day,
When she's super old and let her skills dull,
So she developed a prideful streak of being an elder sister. Sue her. What kind of older sibling liked being shown up by their younger counterpart? Not her, that's for sure.
The little bear didn't want to learn anything that wasn't taijutsu, though. She couldn't entice him with ninjutsu because, when Obito wasn't squatting about in their household, the house was literally dominated by support-nin. A medic-nin, an aspiring medic-nin and a genjutsu mistress. She didn't know what was up with Rin and mom but it seemed that they wouldn't teach Tokuma anything but medical-ninjutsu.
"But look, Tokuma-kun," Rin conjured a Mystic Palm like it was nothing, much to Tokina's eternal envy, on the practice teddy bear that they abused since Rin was sick of the house smelling like fish. The large tear began stitching up swiftly. In less than five seconds, the bear looked brand new. "Mr. Bear is all fixed up now! Isn't medical-ninjutsu great?" She smiled at the deadly toddler, low-key propping her ego up for the young toddler.
Who shrugged nonchalantly at her efforts to tempt him into medical-nin-dom.
"With respect, Rin-nee-chan, but I can do that with a string and needle." He got Mr. Bear nonetheless, and continued playing with him...it.
Mr. Bear is an it.
Tokina quickly decided that she should remove herself from Tokuma's presence whenever he played with .
"But what if you don't have a needle and thread, Tokuma-kun?" She attempted to convince the toddler patiently. "Who will fix-up your team ma—"
Tokina gave Rin a scathing look, Tokuma blissfully unaware by Tokina's overprotectiveness
Tokuma didn't see the exchange. "—your stuffed animals-" Rin wisely amended, "—when they get hurt?"
"If they get hurt," Tokuma rebutted with the dreaded finger-wagging, "I'll be super careful so my stuffed animals won't need to get tears and rips anymore."
Rin relented, unable to find a rebuttal that didn't involve blood and too much responsibility.
For now,
Tokina gave Rin an innocent smile, which she returned, a bit haggardly.
"Obito, it's your turn this week." Minato informed the late as usual Uchiha, not even bothering to work himself up over his student's tardiness, as usual. Obito shot his head up, making it painfully obvious that his head was in the clouds yet again, before masking his sheepishness by swaggering in front of Kakashi and Tokina.
Who both thought that he forgot that it was his turn to "teach" them something.
"Y-yeah!" He began eloquently. Minato gave him a patient smile and Tokina could have sworn Kakashi said "this is going to be rich," under his breath. Tokina smirked and absent-mindedly gave Obito a nod of encouragement to continue.
"I'm going to teach you guys about..." With a trained "Obito's bad habits" eye, Tokina saw how his eyes protected with an orange lens from this googles began shifting nervously, as if trying to find something to practice on. His eyes settled for a piece of ninja wire lying innocently on Minato's hip.
"The uses of ninja wire!" Obito announced, as if he planned the entire thing, even digging out his pack and brought out his own length of ninja wire.
Silence,
"...we studied this in the academy or did you even pay attention?" Kakashi scoffed.
"You were only in the academy for a year! How would you know?!"
"The fact that I remembered Inuzuka-sensei discussing this in the academy in my first and last year means that you weren't paying attention at all."
"Why you-"
"SO, THE USES OF NINJA WIRE?!" Minato's exasperated voice loudly stopped the fight.
How precious,
Obito glared at Kakashi one last time before continuing. "Well, not really the uses of ninja wire but how the Uchiha uses the wire!" He puffed out his chest at the mention of his family name with pride.
Tokina let out a disapproving sound from the back of her throat. "I don't know about the Uchiha but the Hyūga take great lengths to protect their Hiden Jutsu."
Minato nodded. "I believe that would be problematic for all of us. I don't want us to get in trouble with the Uchihas."
Obito shook his head in desperation, "I-It's not really a Hiden, anyone can do it! It's just that the Uchiha's invented it and kinda refused to share it."
"That is a Hiden, you idiot." Kakashi deadpanned.
Obito chose to ignore all their warnings.
"Fire Release: Dragon Fire." Obito announced hislesson that will not bring them strife with the Uchihas, explaining the theory behind it. He gave a demonstration and after a few minutes of him just repeating the hand seals over and over again, Tokina was left staring hopelessly at her ninja wire after he instructed for everyone to do the same after practically begging to let him teach this clan trick to them.
"An elemental ninjutsu, huh?" She gave him a crestfallen look. She knew that Kakashi had at least three elemental transformations under his belt as well as Minato. She couldn't help but bite the inside of her cheek in slight annoyance. It figures that, in a world where you could make the elements that made up this world your personal shotgun, she wouldn't have the power everyone has. If she had a wiki page, under her elemental transformations would literally just be Yin Release. It's pathetic.
"Yup," Obito answered her rhetorical question with a smile.
"...should I go?"
"Now, Tokina-chan," Minato put a hand on the dejected girl's head as a bad way of cheering her up. "You could at least try."
And try she did for fucking hours.
Kakashi and Minato did it in their first try while Tsokina was still struggling in chakra conversation.
What amazes me her is that they didn't fell for the genjutsu that fooled a Sannin when she attempted it, trying to fool them into thinking she actually did it with a really believable genjutsu. They broke through her little assortment of smoke-and-mirrors with a smirk, Kakashi looking irritatingly smug at catching her during her attempt at foul play.
The bastard,
"How did you manage to graduate early without a nature transformation?" Kakashi prodded a little bit pointedly.
"Academics and really good genjutsu." Tokina shrugged, focusing on converting her chakra once more. "Oh, and summons."
Kakashi looked unsatisfied with her answer but relented anyway.
Even when the sun began to set, Minato and his students were still in the training grounds trying to help little Ms.I-can't-do-it. Minato even went to the store and bought snacks for them while the boys watched her fail. Well, at least one of the more kind-hearted of the duo tried instructing her on how to convert her base chakra to fire. It failed, of course.
"I don't need to do this." Tokina haughtily declared after failing what she thought was a test of patience, throwing the ninja wire at the floor. "I made chunin without a single elemental transformation and I can continue living my life without one." Tokina announced, irritated at her oh-so special chakra for not cooperating.
Minato smiled at what he supposed was the girl's version of enthusiasm, "That's the spirit!"
"Don't encourage mediocrity, sensei." Kakashi snorted all high and mighty.
"'Don't encourage mediocrity' he says, can't even make a believable genjutsu to save his life." Tokina scoffed quietly aside herself even though the audience has ears.
Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Genjutsu isn't all that impressive, anyway."
"Hmph," The Hyūga girl crossed my arms and raised a challenging eyebrow. "So are cloth masks but you don't hear me moaning about your fashion sense."
Obito guffawed and Minato chocked on the water he was drinking. Kakashi, who Tokina suspected had red ears, turned to the side quickly, a hand faintly touching the part of his face covered in cloth but consciously stopping it midway.
"What does fashion have to do with being a great ninja?"
"Art of seduction one-oh-one? It was a requirement for all ninjas, even the boys. Did you take notes? I can lend you mine." She crossed her arms, giving him the thoroughly-hated up-down look that all kinds of people do when they belittle someone. "All black was so last era. It's all about blending in with the crowd, now."
"You got that out of a magazine," Kakashi accused, not offended by the slightest.
"And you got those shoes by a bargain-mart. I know, I was eyeing those very same pair last week." Tokina supplied, smirking at the way Kakashi's toes flinched.
Yep, not offended by the slightest.
"Now, now." Minato calmed the storm. "You don't need ninjutsu to be a great ninja." The blonde agreed with me. Kakashi gave him a traitorous look.
Oh no! His Minato-hime is paying his other students attention besides the faithful Kakashi! Call the police! The priests! Blasphemy to the highest degree!
"Look at me for instance," he pointed to himself. "I focus on fūinjutsu and I'm jonin."
We shook of the fact that the humble Minato-sensei was complimenting himself just to prove a point.
"But sensei," Kakashi began, almost sounding whiney. "I've seen you use Wind Release in our missions."
Tokina sighed and didn't take the painfully obvious bait. Obito probably saw what he assumed as defeat on Tokina's face. He immediately turned defensive and acted as a proxy for the girl.
"You're tooting that horn, Bakashi but all I've seen you use is that stupid Mud Wall." Obito gave him the Uchiha sneer that he's been practicing. Tokina was faintly impressed how stuck-up Obito sounded. She, however, still had problems with the Hyūga deadpan. Whenever she tried doing it, she had to double the effort not to laugh at herself. She, as Tokina thought, had already perfected the resting-bitch-face so it was probably no need.
"That's because I don't need to use my full arsenal on idiots."
"You say that but I bet your all talk!"
"I know all the forms of elemental transformations except Wind. You only know Fire Release, which isn't even that impressive, and throwing shuriken,"
"So what? At least I'm good at the things I do! Throwing rocks and spitting saliva doesn't count as Earth Release and Water Release!"
Minato and Tokina, watching the exchange, chuckled at Obitos witty retort. Minato thought it was the combined efforts of Tokina and Kushina's influence on him. He hoped that Obito wouldn't use that smart mouth on him.
Though the chances are, he probably will.
"I don't need to prove it to the likes of you." Kakashi calmly said, "Especially to ninja that couldn't tell he was being shadowed."
"Okay you two, settled down." Minato got between them again when Obito raised his fist and Kakashi preparing his tantō.
After training with Tokuma after a week, Tokina began reviewing the various medical-ninjutsu she was planning to teach tomorrow. She played with a chakra string all the while flipping the pages of her notebook. She toyed around with the chakra string, practicing her chakra control while she flipped through the pages of her medical-jutsu book.
Hyūga Tokina was and always will be paranoid and manipulative.
Something she sadly inherited from her first mentor, Orochimaru.
This was a perfect opportunity for her to teach Obito something that could be used to defend himself when Kannabi happens. She had a separate notebook for all the jutsu she remembered that was displayed on the show and, with her newfound knowledge of chakra and how jutsus work, began writing the theories of it and how it worked. She hasn't been practicing those said theories since she didn't have the time but now is a good time to do it. She summoned a fairly large boa from the sleeve of her night yukata which spat out the notebook containing the jutsus.
She spun around the string in my hand while she flipped through the pages.
Rasengan?
Even if she taught it to them, suspicion would arise from Minato. He's already began developing it and working through the theory of the famed spiral-destructo-ball, and even then it seemed that neither Kakashi nor Obito uses it often. It could be attributed to their chakra control, however.
…the repercussions wouldn't be worth it.
Mystic Palm?
It takes discipline and a studious nature to even stich up a scratch. She didn't have that kind of time.
The basics of genjutsu?
Chakra control, yet again, is the problem. They also didn't have the training wheels called Akinosuke to help them with it. They already know how to break through genjutsu when we did an allout spar anyway, so it was good that they can recognize it. Most of the genjutsu written here takes practice, which isn't something she can teach in one day. She needed a jutsu that would prevent Obito from getting ambushed by ninja, something that could protect him, something that he could use so that he wouldn't be crushed by a goddamn rock.
...cave in-s…
Protection of the Eight Triagrams 64 Palms saved Naruto and Kiba in a nasty one and she's been practicing the technique for some time now because a healthy paranoia never hurt anybody. Technically speaking, you don't need the Byakugan to deflect rocks, the chakra strings help and it isn't an official jutsu according to the jutsu library in the Hyūga compound which she visited regularly. However, with that all the other jutsu listed in her little theory book, it required immense chakra control that the Hyūgas had.
The summoned boa slithered around her arm, not bothered by the activity of her twirling the little chakra string like a ribbon.
Maybe she could dumb it down?
However that would require a lot of chakra to compensate for the control.
…But if her plans succeeded, he should have the Sharingan even before the little tragedy happened.
Chakra, reflexes and tons of determination were needed.
And Obito had that aplenty
"Okay, Tokina-chan, you're up." Minato called her up and front after a few warm-ups.
Obito gave her thumbs up while Kakashi gave the Hyūga an assessing stare.
"I've chosen to teach taijutsu." She started off, "However, it might be a little bit hard for some of you since it requires a lot of chakra control but I found a way to perform this technique without years of training."
This set off warning bells to Minato.
As it should,
She wasn't sure about the Uchiha since most of the Uchiha culture shown in the show is all about edginess and hate and how well black works with red but the Hyūga wouldn't hesitate to disown her if she even dared teaching them the basics of Jyūken.
Oh, and unfairly gorgeous men sans Obito.
"Tokina-chan, I appreciate the effort in this little program but you don't need to teach is Hiden Jutsu if it will get you in trouble." Minato said worried for the taciturn girl's well-being.
"I appreciate your concern, sensei, but it's not that necessary." She smiled at him, finding an obvious loophole at the whole Hiden thing. "Protocol states that I shouldn't share any known Hiden jutsu. It didn't say anything about developing jutsu and I haven't presented it to the head so I can list you guys down as…helpers."
"You made a new jutsu?" Obito looked excited at the prospect that his best friend made a new jutsu and that she was going to teach it to him. Minato looked at her proudly, reminding him a little of himself. Making new jutsu like it was nothing! Ha!
"Here let me demonstrate." She stepped a few paces back, the boys standing up, Obito was the most enthusiastic out of them all. "Just make chakra strings like so." she made some in my fingertips, finding it easier than weaving some in the palm of your hand.
"Make them sharper; stronger, flexible and just weave them." With her experienced arms, she weaved a net of light blue chakra strings around that was as sharp as blades. With quick movements and focus, they extended quickly, slicing the ground a bit. She showed off a little, doing a little twirl around her fingers, making the strings follow suit like a ribbon.
"However, since you all aren't…Hyūgas, it is common knowledge to use concentrated chakra to strengthen your blows. If you do this while performing this technique, then the end result should be the same, albeit weaker."
Tokina activated her Byakugan, "I'll use my Byakugan so I can see where your directing your chakra to, since all kinds of techniques demands some form of chakra control."
"So, what's it called? Your technique, I mean." Minato questioned with a smile after the two boys got into work. Of course he ignored Tokina's instructions of using concentrated chakra and managed to make a weaker version of a chakra net, though a bit slow. He was Minato Namikaze, for whoever's sake! The Rasengan demanded chakra control to be used.
"I was thinking Protective Eight Triagrams: 64 Palms since I based it on that." She stated with a smile. It wasn't a lie. She was already plagiarizing the Byakugan Princess herself, she didn't need to rename it.
Plus, she's pretty sure Hinata based it on that, anyway.
Minato frowned. "It does sound official but I think you can do much better."
She tilted my head, fearing Minato's naming streak. Tokina did not want him to ruin Hinata's jutsu. The unborn girlie deserves better than whatever Minato had in store for her signature-but-only-in-filler-and-video-games move.
"I was thinking something more original." He stroked his non-existent beard thoughtfully, a habit he probably picked up from Jiraiya. He thought of the name as the boys began flailing their arms wildly. Tokina abandoned Minato to his thinking and instructed both of them before Minato piped up. "Hyūga Style: Heaven's Light Weaving Protection!" He slammed his fist on his open palm with childish enthusiasm.
Tokina closed her mouth with a click while Kakashi eyed her weirdly, glancing at his sensei. "What's he on about?" He asked Tokina who was considering disowning this…this…goober.
"I don't know him." She rushed out, second-hand shame filling her. Kakashi raised an eyebrow before thinking that the whole situation wasn't worth his attention and followed Tokina's advice and resumed practice.
"Not good enough?" Minato slumped, voice oozing with disappointment.
She shook my head. Fervently.
"Okay, how about "Hyūga Style: Ultimate Defense of Heaven's Light Weave"!" He announced, Kakashi overhearing this and cringing.
Tokina would have thought Minato was being so adorable, hoping that his dorkiness would still be there once he'll be Hokage but since he was ruining the badass jutsu for Tokina, she just hoped that she wouldn't have to write that disgusting name down in official paper work
"Right," she nodded seriously. He looked joyful before she opened her mouth again. "Protection of the Eight Triagrams: 64 Palms it is then."
"No..." He whined.
whined!
"C'mon, it's not every day my new students creates her first jutsu! I want it to be special." He pleaded her with big, sad eyes.
He looked so sad and pitiful with those blue eyes and how he's literally looking at her like a kicked puppy even though he's taller and—
Tokina repressed the urge to groan, blaming her weak heart.
"I'll think about it, sensei." She beamed at him.
He nodded, looking eternally grateful. "That's all a teacher could ask for."
Hyūga Tokina then decided to forever live through the guilt of not registering the new jutsu.
AN.
OH SHIT I'M ACTUALLY NOT DEAD?!1?!111?1?1?1
Anyway, to get back into things, I've begun watching Boruto instead of watching clips from Youtube! Isn't it convienient how I decided to do this when the anime is finally up to par in terms of timeline with the movie? Totally a coincidence! Another reason why I made this extra long is because I really don't know when I'll post the next chapter even though my vacation ends at July 9 but I am determined to post at least two or three chapters before then.
Plus, to make sure I know what I'm writing about, I'm going to reread the previous chapters because after reading your reviews (omg I y'all I have reviews!) I really didn't remember most of the things you guys were reacting to. I literally had to ask my beshie who was more informed than me about my fanfic what some of you guys meant.
Hears hoping I don't cringe to death because I remember chapter one being littered with cursing. Don't hesitate to review guys! I genuinely laughed with my best friend at this one review that was like "If not dead, pls update" because that so relatable.
But like if its a hate review, please hesitate. There is a difference between hate and constructive critiscism. Attack me all you want but please put in a reason so I can get better at this! Not just "Ugh, terrible fanfic!". Was it Tokina? Was it my writing style? Maybe you just have a different opinion on things? I don't want to be left confused and thinking "wow this person literally put the time and effort to type out ew fanfic hate and not actually give me the reason why they hate it"
Anyways thats it, enjoy life :)