Like with the first year, it isn't until the second day that we get started on the physical training. The serious training.
After the first day, I feel a little... Wary... Ami wasn't quite herself when we got home. She was more distant than usual. It made me uneasy. I hadn't exactly wanted to change classes either, but Ami seemed very upset over it, or rather trying not to be upset over it.
It doesn't immensely help I haven't been COMPLETELY truthful about how much time I've spent with Sasuke...
"Alright, students, for those of you who didn't practice your taijutsu over the break, make sure to pay great attention. Spars will be starting at the end of the month." Daikoku-sensei declares after a morning lecture. At least since I'm not doing physical exercises in the morning, I don't need to hold back on my run. I can run until I'm ready to pass out. I thought Suzume-sensei was boring when teaching, but so far, Daikoku is insufferable. He reminds me of a teacher I had in high school back when I was Paige. He had a doctorate and so took great insult whenever anyone called him mister and seemed to always bring stories back to his time in high school as a straight-A student. Daikoku is the same. He likes to brag, but I've noticed none of his brags are really about himself. No, he talked briefly about the third war, how he WOULD have been a jonin if he hadn't, and I quote, 'heroically sacrificed himself for his squad' getting hurt. I don't believe it; we live in a world where people can weave muscles back together; exactly what injury was so debilitating?
"Ya! I can't wait!" Kiba yells out loud smirking while he is eyeing the others like they are his prey.
"B-but Daikoku-sen-sensei?... What if we hu-hurt someone?" Hinata asks, moving her pointing fingers to touch each other again and again, not meeting the teacher's eyes. Daikoku gives a tight condescending smile. How long until Iruka replaces him again? Wait... How does Iruka replace him?! He will do that, right!?
"Don't worry, Hinata-san. I will interrupt before things can go too far. For now, we start with getting a baseline. I want everyone to run laps until they can't anymore." Daikoku-sensei says, and I blink because he can't actually be serious, can he?! I hear groans from my peers, his students from last year and realize that, yes, he is that serious. "Remember you are being marked on speed and endurance; take too long, and you're out," Daikoku adds as everyone begins to run, the clan kids having a clear lead. Ami is somewhere in the middle. I smile, proud of that. Still, I push past most others. I have my goal, third best, not too good to have too much attention, but not low enough to be ignored completely. This class is definitely better than my last one, and the pace is higher and the running longer, but I barely feel out of breath at this point.
Parkour Expertise level has risen x1
Parkour Expertise Level 21
The ability to get for point A to point B quickly, whether through flips, climbs, or straight running. Skill with all parkour movement increases per level. Stamina cost decreases with higher levels. Speed increases by 1% per level while performing parkour. Base 200% speed. Current ability, speed 221%.
As most of the lower kids and even those in the middle get disqualified, I start to feel my heart pound in my chest. This is, as much as I hate to admit it, a better group of peers to challenge me. Sasuke is in the lead, followed by Kiba, then Naruto, then a few others, then Ino, actually.
"This is easy, ya know!" Naruto brags from up ahead, not even the slightest bit tired, but what do you expect from him?
"Uzumaki-san, your out!" I then hear Daikoku say, scribbling something furiously on his clipboard. Does the Hokage really let teachers get away with this? Naruto is right now in the top three!
"What, why?!" Naruto protests, and Daikoku frowns.
"For distracting your competition, I will not have that sort of unfitting behaviour in my class!" Daikoku declares, and I continue to run but decide to test something out. I pull back more to Ami.
"I hope you don't mind me transferring here..." I begin to say while running Ami is separated from her friends, who begin to tire. Ami doesn't respond, and it looks like she is running out of breath and begins to pull back. I sprint ahead, going temporarily at the same speed as Sasuke before slowing long down to be just behind Kiba and Sasuke but ahead of Ino. No response, and I was loud, so it was prejudiced against Naruto then.
When running finishes, we move onto basics like push-ups and sit-ups. It's a familiar rhythm and downright boring.
Body Conditioning Proficiency Level 65
The overall conditioning of your body. Increases the rate at which your STR, AGI, and DEX increase by 1% per level. Increases the value of VIT stamina by 1 point every 10 levels. Current ability 165% training speed, VIT value 26 stamina.
"Line up for shurikenshutsu!" Daikoku-sensei calls, and I can't help but sigh in relief. Finally, something interesting!
POV Daikoku Funeno
I always knew I would be a ninja like my parents before me and their parents before them. As a student in the academy, I was near the top of my class, not the very top but acceptably high up. I always knew I was meant for great things, incredible things, not like most of my classmates and later teammates. No, they wouldn't be great, but I WOULD.
Then I was injured towards the end of the third great ninja war and missed out on the final battles. I missed my chance to make a name for myself, unlike my once teammates, Minato Namikaze and Mikoto Uchiha. No, both made a name for themselves, alright.
I had come from little. Sure, I wasn't a bastard child like that daughter of a whore, or an orphan with a make-believe last name. I had good parents, shinobi parents.
It had been a great insult to be placed on the same team as them, a scrawny slip of a kid who had graduated two years early and a girl who was a year past the graduation age. The only reason I didn't opt out was that the third Hokage clearly believed in me to have me serve under his own student Jiraiya. However, much to my complete shock and utter disgust, my new sensei was hardly a respectable ninja, and even worse, he seemed to prefer my blond teammate over me!
Our team wasn't together very long at all. The war broke out, and Jiraiya was needed on the front lines. He could not be troubled with a group of genin. We were together for only two months. Then our squad was no more.
He had barely taught us anything other than 'teamwork.' The only reason we even passed the bell test was because that geek Minato had memorized the rules of genin squads.
With the sannin gone, Mikoto was whisked off to a group of older ninjas to protect her Sharingan. Among these ninjas was her future husband, Fugaku. (would she have been mine had Jiraiya not left?)
Minato being the brat his is (was), joined the patrol unit the same as I did, though we rarely worked together. I sharpened my jutsu while he scribbled away in his notebook.
Jiraiya didn't return until after the war, by which time we all had field promotions. He stopped by to 'check up' on each of us. However, there was only one of us he was really interested in. Those scribbles turned out to be seals, one of the things Jiraiya was renowned for. Mikoto herself had the fledgling start of a spy network, but Jiraiya thought a seal master was more important. So Minato, the genius, got all the attention and became Jiraiya-sensei's apprentice.
Time passed, and peace bloomed. My teammates became jonin I didn't. It seemed the world had forgotten about me, then the next war started, and I couldn't contain my excitement. This time I would make a name for myself!
I worked hard on the front lines and fought valiantly, and right before the deciding battle of Kanabi bridge, I ran in a little too fast trying to take out the enemy and got the brunt of an earth jutsu and landed in a coma.
When I woke up, Minato was a hero, and I was nothing. Even Mikoto has married the head of the Uchiha clan and was now the clan's matriarch! I couldn't accept it, I wouldn't, and I swore to make them see I was ready for active duty and worked ten times harder! Someone missed the memo, though, because they seemed to think I ENJOYED working at the academy, and I was stuck there, stuck there to watch Minato become HOKAGE.
I hated life. I hated my teammates. I just hated it all. Then came the nine-tails attack, and my one-time teammate sacrificed himself.
I lost my parents and many of my friends that night. I lost so much. Everyone did, so I lost even myself for a time, right until HE came.
Itachi Uchiha, Mikoto's son who would one day, I was sure, put Minato's genius to shame. The kid was dishing out jonin level jutsu within the first year.
When he graduated, I realized something. I had taught a future legend. I had been the teammate to a legend. Maybe I wasn't meant to be the hero. I was meant to make them.
I pushed the kids hard and got great results, but none were comparable to Itachi. I was trying to make something out of nothing. Then the Hokage once again recognized my purpose when he sent Itachi's younger brother Sasuke. That was something I could work with.
Watching the metal stars hitting the target, I know I am right. However, my eyes slide to the second genius in my class, whose score are nearly on level with Sasuke. Sayori, a no-name orphan in an even worse position than Minato was.
Time to make a legend.