Hi.

Shoutout to my man Tony McNucklz for spotting and pointing out an error where Tenten is frankly uncharacteristically disrespectful to someone of the stature of Onoki of the Twin Scales. Found that, fixed it. Knowing myself, I probably forgot how to spell 'Tsuchikage' so I used his actual name as a placeholder to go back and fix later, only to forget. Ugh, how embarrassing.

(Also, yes, I do have mad plans for Tenten. Sadly, I can't go the UBW route since Third Fang had that covered and doing it would kinda feel like a blatant ripoff, but there's plenty of ways to kick up the skill level of someone with so much damn potential with weaponry, even just using her base canon skills, and I'm gonna have fun all the way there. Creativity is the name of the game, and we're gonna be getting into some high-level shit and libations for EVERYBODY! (well, not really everybody but you get the idea...) as the story goes.)

(Also also, I did somewhat misexplain the Nara's Yin alignment, but I'll leave that one in as a character error since he's an SI and I do mess up like that sometimes. It'll be revised in a bit by someone else, and Minato himself will discover that he was a bit off in a later chapter since he doesn't know that much about it and the balance of Yin-Yang Chakra Alignment is a very advanced theory, high-Chuunin level stuff at least, and he won't be touching it for another eight months after graduation, minimum.)

Also, finally somebody called me out on Hana using Sakki on a freakin' Academy Student! Shoutout to Slitherx679. Don't worry, that'll be explained today. Won't necessarily make you agree or un-revoke whatever good guy card she had, but it'll make some measure of sense considering her character and what she thinks of Minato.

(Also, no dude, it's not gonna take that long, relax. Academy Arc will only be up to a maximum of six chapters. We've all had enough of the slow stuff. And I really don't want to take that long getting to the really good parts, that takes a level of time and commitment I don't want to test.)

Decided to answer those ones publicly so I don't have to explain the same thing to anyone else. Just in case.

Enjoy!


Chapter Five

Pain and Gain - Part 2


Adding Tree Walking on top of everything else was ridiculous.

I almost regretted it.

First of all, I already had a lot of work to do.

For simple perspective, here was one day without me adding Tree Walking on top of everything:

5:30 a.m., I woke up, feeling a little rested but my muscles still had some small lingering ache from the activities of the previous day. I went through my ablutions, went over my notes, ate some breakfast, and at 6:45, I was gone and headed to the Academy.

7:02-05, I arrived, fully intending to do some warm-ups before class would begin. I went over those alongside Lee (and, beginning from February, Tenten every now and then) for an hour, and then went to assembly at 7:50, then 8:00, classes began. Except the Final Year was nothing like conventional classes, see, because we were supposed to know everything we'd been taught for the past three years (see why it was so important for me to go over all those years of knowledge again?), and therefore each day Hagane-sensei spent grilling us over and over again with historical questions, mathematical questions, tactics, mental situational exercises, and more on theory while I used a grip strengthener Hagane-sensei had given me at some point in my detention in the middle of her drills. Then we took a break at 11:00, and 11:45 called for our return to class, upon which Hagane-sensei pulled us out to the field, drilling us through warm-ups, kunai and shuriken throws, Leaf Concentration, and Ninjutsu and Taijutsu practise until 14:00, after which everyone left school.

Except Lee and I stayed behind, deciding to go through even more exercises under the subtly watchful eye of Hana Hagane, going through various strength exercises with my friend and partner, jogs, more bukijutsu, log punching and kicking (which fucking hurt) and me practising Ninjutsu while Lee practised his stealth. Every time he made any sort of noise, then I, using low-key chakra-enhanced hearing, would throw a stone at him. It helped sharpen my aim, and it helped that he did not allow himself to dodge, saying that the pain motivated him to do better at trying to sneak up on me. So far, 15 March, we'd done that exercise 26 times over the course of thirty days, and he had only caught me four times.

(He hadn't quite figured out that that was how I was doing it, but that was fine, because the challenge of trying to catch me unawares perfectly simulated trying the same thing with a more advanced ninja than either of us.)

Our training session went on until 17:00, and only because we both had to get home or stop along the slowing market, arranging some food to go for the night with before the market closed up. We usually visited the Academy Nurse before going to the market, who gave us a Healing Pulse each with a shake of her head, and we moved on afterwards.

After that, home time, and for me, more studying, chakra experimentation, and trying to increase the speed of my handseals until I went to sleep. I was getting better, taking only a second and a half - at least, according to Hagane-Sensei - to chain together the three handseals required for Henge and Bunshin, and two and a half for Kawarimi, which required five.

Now then, to multiply that route by six, for the six days we went to the Academy. Then multiply that by twenty-six days. Six hundred and twenty-four hours, and each and every one was packed ridiculously tight with exhaustive training, every goddamn day but Sunday - and even then, I stuck to studying.

No freakin' wonder I hadn't really practised Tree Walking before all that - I was busy enough as it was!

Naruto was bullshit. Naruto with his Shadow Clone Training Method was utter bullshit. I knew I most likely did not have the reserves to make even one measly clone, because I didn't have enough to do anything with a Fireball beyond producing a pathetic plume of smoke, and therefore I could not risk trying to produce one clone. I'd probably actually suffer from chakra exhaustion, as would my clone, probably, then I wouldn't be able to actually do any training.

To say nothing of the feedback from the clone dispelling, which I didn't exactly have a Bijū in my gut to mitigate...

There was only one solution. Loath as I was to admit it, if I had one additional hour for the day, I could possibly achieve tree walking, but at a pace too slow for my liking - maybe I could put another hour to it after school.

So, out of the six hundred and twenty-four hours, I could likely get an additional twenty-six hours of training if I woke up an hour earlier and trained, and possibly even fifty-two with added after-school time.

More, even, I figured, if maybe I do just a little bit of training on Sunday. One hour, tops. Rest for the rest of the day.

So, I decided, let's put that to the test.

I cleared one wall, went to bed, blanketed up, and went to sleep.


2 March.

I woke up at 4:30, warmed up, and spooled my chakra, now used to simply chanelling it through my body without needing to call it up with the Ram seal.

I did not have a tree handy inside my apartment, which was a pity, so the wall would do.

I focused on directing my chakra towards my feet, not enough to do anything with it but just to get my chakra ready to use there, and walked towards the wall. I put my right foot up on the wall, relaxed, and channeled more chakra to my right foot, all the way to the soles of my feet.

My eyes widened as an interesting sensation took place. A ton of surprisingly painless pinpricks burst out of my feet, and I felt my chakra actually clutch onto the wall. Is this how Peter Parker feels every time he runs up a wall? I wondered. I pulled away, trying to keep my chakra stubbornly bonded to the wall at the same time. My first attempt was a failure; my mind was set on the decision of 'letting go' of the wall, and my chakra thus went with it. I tried a second time, and met the same result.

I hummed as I considered the problem. I may have to try and see if... hm, could multitasking work? It could; I do have to try to move my foot away while also trying to stick my foot onto the wall at the same time. Gotta use the seal; I didn't want to, but I can't exactly run up the wall, it's not that tall. Before you run, walk; before you walk, stand; before you stand, crawl. Take your training one thing at a time. For now, my goal for the end of the hour is to stand exactly at ninety degrees to the wall. To do that, I have to learn to stick, then I have to learn to support myself.

Ram it is.

I brought the seal together, and my chakra burst into brilliant awareness, and I tried once more, to move my foot off the wall and keep it there purely with chakra adhesion.

My third attempt failed, but it was much better than the first two times; instead of stonewall failure, I felt a moment of magnetic resistance before I pulled my foot off the wall. Progress!

My fourth attempt was much better; I almost ripped off the drywall with how much effort I needed to pull my foot off.

(I did have five seconds of panic there, thoroughly inspecting my wall for any potential damage that I might have to report to the Konoha Orphan Trust Association, which would get a chunk eaten out of my stipend as a fine and partly payment for the property damage. Thankfully, there was nothing.)

I decided to test my right foot for the same, and it was easy enough to do after a couple of attempts to acclimate channeling adhesive chakra to my right foot.

That was step one accomplished.

Step two: both at the same time.

I took a breath, putting my left foot up and, with a Ram, adhering it to the wall. Then, with a grunt, I hopped my other foot off, simulaneously focusing my chakra to it and landing it on the wall.

I had a momentary slip down, but it was a problem easily solved by just a bit more chakra - remember, I told myself, visualizing the reminder in my head, accelerator control. The more you put your foot down, the faster it goes, the more chakra you use. Just enough to suit my -

"Ah!" I yelped, my concentration slipping with my feet. Thankfully, I was only a couple feet off the wall, and landing on my feet was cake.

Okay. Let's try this again.

My second attempt was a bit more successful, but maintaining the same level of chakra was channelled to my feet and ensuring that it adhered to the wall was the real issue, not to mention having to contend with the incredible level of strain it took to keep myself stuck to the wall. I wasn't even in a perfectly horizontal position, so it was really insane how much I needed in order to stay there.

My third attempt went the same.

Same with my fourth.

Fifth.

Sixth.

Tenth.

Fifteenth.

Okay, enough. Super hold the fuck up. What the fuck am I doing wrong? I wondered. Haven't I mastered Item Concentration? I know the muscle strain plays a significant part here, but why else is it so difficult to remain stuck on the wall? Is it the angle? Is it the fact that I'm not moving?

I turned over the Tree Walking training scenes in my head. Kakashi had bidden his Genin to run up the trees, marking their progress with kunai. The moment they made it all the way to the top... then what?

Maybe there's a good reason Kakashi had them run up and down the tree instead of walking then running? I mean, I remember he did walk, but he told them to run, I think. Unless that shit was fanon, but either way, the end result was, he walked, they ran. Am I overcomplicating things? Or is it really that I have to use a backwards method to master it instead?

Lemme try again, one more time, confirm... maybe if I change up the flow of my chakra, we'll see what happens.

I called my chakra to being and weaved two seals, holding the last. Monkey. Ram.

Then I stepped on the wall. My eyes widened when I noticed it came surprisingly easier then, and I held myself there for another five seconds, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eeeight, forty-niiine, fiiifty, fifteeee -

I bucked under the insane strain and fell.

It was significantly longer than I'd managed previously, but I still fell.

Okay. I nodded as I lied down, letting my muscles recover from the workout. I get it.

Even with my chakra flow smoothed out, I still slip from a standing position. The strain is too much, and it makes my concentration slip and take my feet with it. So maybe the real solution is that I have to run before I can walk. If I run, I force my body to adapt to releasing and re-rooting chakra to the surface in quick order. My eyes widened in realization. It makes sense. The slower I can go up and down the tree, means the better my grip, means the better my control. And water walking takes it to a whole different level, because the constant chakra streaming and adjustments would demand more strain from my chakra and a higher level of chakra control at the same time. If I just stand, my grip weakens - I'm not used to it, and I clearly don't have my muscle strength adapted to it yet. Maybe I can, if I focus on running first and slowing down after to increase the strain until it's second nature to walk, then I can really, genuinely master this.

Conclusion: this is one method I have to master in reverse. Fast, then slow.

Okay.

I'm definitely gonna need a tree for this, then. Shit.

The alarm bell rang.


"Oi, Lee-san," I called, on our daily warm-up routine. "Wanna see something cool?"

"What is it?" he asked.

"Check it out." I rolled my shoulders and gently kicked out, limbering myself up. Then I tensed, feet sliding to a ready stance to run, and my chakra swirled around to my legs. I held up a half-Ram seal, gaining great awareness of my chakra, and ran at a nearby tree.

My heart trembled a little when I took off a bit faster than I expected and anticipated, but I managed. Chakra on my legs means chakra on my muscles means more power means faster movement. Should've expected it, to be honest.

Awesome!

With a small grin, I made it to the base of the tree, completed the Ram seal, and leapt to the trunk. I made five, six, seven, eight, nine steps up to the nearest branch, from where I kipped off the trunk and landed on the branch.

It was much easier than I anticipated. I was right! Metaknowledge analysis for the win!

I grinned at the new view, and the sight of Lee gaping up at me. But I didn't stay up for long - instead, I ran back down, which was faster and scarier, enough that I decided to leap off some, what, ten feet from the ground, instinctively performing a front flip and ending my trip in the air with a slightly rough front dive roll, dissipating the kinetic energy with previously practised ease.

Yeah, I'd definitely have to practise my parkour again. But imagine, chakra-enhanced parkour!?

Yeah, I would definitely practise my parkour again.

"Hahah!" I grinned, brushing some imaginary dirt off my shoulder. That was a (mostly) clean dive. Loved it.

Man, I told 'em. I told my parents the parkour would pay off for me!

Okay, but they were technically kinda right since I didn't use it that much because my country didn't have a lot of useful spaces to parkour on, but I was still right and it paid off for me even if it was in another life -

Anyway, Lee was a bit more excited about it than I was.

"Uwooooooh!" he exclaimed. "How did you do that?!"

"What, the climb, the run down or the landing?" I smirked, trying to keep it cool.

"All of it!" he gesticulated wildly. "Everything!"

"I figured out a new exercise!" I blurted out happily, unable to contain my excitement. "So I was-I was doing Item Concentration, right?" He nodded - that was a story I'd had on the ready for a while to explain my tree climbing ability. "And I'm thinking to myself that yes, it's an important control exercise and I'm getting really good with it since I can stick other items to me, but is it really the key to ninja becoming stronger and faster? So I had to really think about the next step, then I came up with this idea. If we can use chakra to stick things to ourselves, why can't we use chakra to stick ourselves to other things?"

Lee scrunched his brows for a couple seconds, but when he took the time to think about it and it clicked, his eyes lit up in this amazing way. "Ohhhhh! I see! If you do that, then you could move yourself up walls, or trees like this!"

"Yeah, exactly!" I nodded. "And it's really challenging and difficult to do. I'm thinking if I can master this stuff, maybe I can do it while also doing Leaf concentration and Item Concentration at the same time, so I can take my chakra control to insane levels! Though I'm not sure why it's easier to run up and down surfaces than to walk. Maybe I'll ask Hagane-sensei."

"Maybe I'll answer," the devil we spoke of said from behind us, scaring the shit out of us both.

"Gah!" Lee and I yelled, jumping away from her on instinct.

"Interesting discovery, Yakushi," the short-haired scary teacher went on with this air of absolute nonchalance, "and your creativity is definitely commendable. Not many Academy students have thought of anything like that. I was only joking when I said I would hold you up to the standards of the likes of Uchiha Itachi and Hatake Kakashi, but it seems perhaps I was on to something with that idea after all."

My eyebrow twitched. Oh God, what have I done?

"To answer your question, Tree Walking Practise - and it is indeed a real technique - is a very strenuous exercise. The more you hang on to a surface with your chakra without moving, the more you feel the burn in your legs and your core. Inversely, the more you can do so, the better your control since you have to use your chakra to not only stick to the tree, but to also support your leg and core muscles as you stand. Usually, it's recommended that whoever tries this for the first time has to run, and the reason for that is because it builds the strain over time and at a reasonable pace. In addition, it encourages the user to adjust their chakra to stick and unstick on the fly, also subconsciously supporting themselves while doing it."

"Huh..." I nodded, casting my eyes about in a thoughtful manner. I knew it, I knew it! "It does make sense. So the slower I can move on the surface, the better my control..."

"And the stronger you are in a physical sense," Hana finished. "Very good. I expect great things of you, Yakushi, Rock. Keep warming yourselves up; assembly will be in thirty minutes. You are definitely on course to pass the First Exam at this rate. Work harder."

Then she vanished.

Lee and I slowly turned our heads to each other.

"Dude. That..." I whispered.

"Was..." he continued.

""AWESOME!""


"Good, good!" Tenten nodded as I threw my last kunai. Ten throws, seven bullseyes, the rest only one notch off or straddling the first notch and the bullseye - all three thrown from my left hand. All of them rated debilitating/severe, as they sunk to the hilt. "That's the way. Keep practising that and you should definitely be ready for the more advanced stuff, like throwing more than one at once."

(Fun fact: Given Tenten's natural mastery of thrown weapons, Hagane-sensei allowed/volunteered her for assistant-teaching/studying the art of Bukijutsu with the others. It was fun at times, though she did grind on the nerves of some of the students. Envy and all that.)

"Great," I nodded. I was beginning to really understand why my kunai throws were wrong. It wasn't that I was or wasn't flicking my wrist, I was simply over-exaggerating that flick, which threw the aim off slightly (that, and I didn't have any chakra before the Hyūga doctor did me a solid). And considering the distance and the weakness of my throw, it was, as she said, a bloody miracle that all of them hit the target before she noticed the flaws in my technique and improved them. "Thanks for the tips, Tenten-san."

"You're improving insanely fast these days," Tenten nodded. "It's good to see the old you finally making a comeback."

I grunted in protest, idly spinning a shuriken in my hand. "Was I really that bad?"

"W-well, more surprising than bad, really," Tenten stammered. "I don't mean any offense, really, it's just... y'know, you used to be one of our best students in the second year. Then all of a sudden your performance is dropping, your grades are dropping, you're not really competing to stay in the top ten, never mind the top six, you don't seem interested in pushing yourself as hard as you used to..." She shrugged. "Y'know? What happened?"

"Reality." I shrugged. "I got a reality check. If I fail this year, that's it for me, innit? I'd have to re-study and reacquaint myself with civilian stuff that stuff that all eight to twelve-year-olds know already. Kami knows how long it'd take me to get caught up when I could be doing better stuff instead... I'm a nobody. Where would I start? Where would I go? At least, as a ninja, I have a known path. I have a set path. Genin, Chūnin, Jounin, whatever lies ahead. So I had to give a damn." I glared at the targets, burning with determination. "And I'll give a damn all the way to the end."

"Good," she smiled, patting my shoulder. "Hope we'll see you up there at the end of the year, Detention Boy."

"That's a bad nickname and you know it."

"Can you blame me? You certainly earned that nickname."

"Okay yeah, I did, but that doesn't mean -"

"No, no, you earned it, we'll put that topic to rest -"

"No, c'mon, that's unfair -"


It took me twenty-three days to halfway master Tree Walking.

It was honestly technically somewhere closer to the span of around 59 to 69 hours, but it did me a massive boon of favors. The fact that I was always stringently working on my chakra control and understanding my seals really helped ease the difficulty of the exercise. All I had to do was sustain my slower movement for longer periods of time, and all I had to do to that end was practise, practise, practise, build my muscle.

The benefit it had in building the strength in my legs and core wasn't all that fast, but it was definitely noticeable. My kicks had more snap to them, each kick I delivered to the log was becoming more destructive sixteen days down the line, and I was starting to notice some serious musculature on me.

I had a six pack, for fuck's sake! I had Christiano Ronaldo's legs! I used to be a one-pack brother even when I played rugby in high school!

Hana-sensei had given me an idea during one of my detentions as it became easier to Tree Walk. Sure, I'd decided a long time ago that Spidey-Crawling was not super effective, even if it did let me live my boyhood/manhood dreams, but, thanks to her, I could bring some form of it back to life.

(And no, it was definitely not as good as it sounded.)

So instead of walking perfectly horizontally, I decided to handwalk up the tree.

That's right, I walked up the tree using nothing but splayed hands/clenched fists, my body hanging out as horizontally as I could in relation to the ground.

It. Was. A. Fucking. Nightmare.

My body still shook with the unreal effort I needed to keep my body horizontal, even with my arms and upper body supported by chakra, and a whole week and a half into this exact exercise to boot. While I could admit that, on a technical level, it was easier to use my hands to climb than just my feet, using my hands alone was an absolute slobberknocker on my body. I could only, so far, keep it up for about three minutes before the strain overcame me.

Honestly, it was an insane level of gain considering that a week and a half ago, I could only go for a minute at my absolute best before it was too much.

"Ten! More! Seconds! Mi! Na! To! Kun!" Lee called out, punctuating each syllable with a punch on the pole. His fists were a bit bloody, but the pole itself was in slightly worse condition.

I was so focused on the exercise that I couldn't answer back, but he knew I heard him. I held on for those ten seconds, and at the mark, I finally let my body swing back down onto the tree, grasping it with most of my body. The relief was instantaneous and so damn good I almost let go of the tree and fell.

"Oof," I panted. "Oh, Kami. This is insane."

"I know!" Lee punched on. "But it's worth it, right?!"

"Absolutely, my dude! Everything for the grind and all that!" I turned around and decided to practise another control exercise - Tree Walking, but instead of trying to stick to the tree, I had to slide down. I was trying to find the fine point to straddle between sticking to the tree and not sticking to the tree, which would let me slide down the tree at a tightly controlled pace.

The key, obviously, was chakra control.

"Yiiiiiaaaaaeeeeoooowww ohnonononononnonooooo!"

... I-It was a work in progress.

I landed roughly, having to roll to disperse the excess kinetic energy, and... Lee...?

What the? Lee was nowhere to be seen.

"Huh?" I subconsciously chained the Monkey and Ram seal, focusing Chakra on my ears.

Couldn't see him. Not a peep on my ears that wasn't unusual...

*Tup*

Wait! Behind me!

"Wait!" I yelled, turning around to find and point at...

Lee... who wasn't there.

"Nice guess!" Lee laughed, tapping me on the shoulder from behind. I was so startled my first instinct was to roundhouse kick him in the face.

"Gah! I'm so sorry, Lee!"

"No, no, it's all right!" he waved me off. "I should've expected it and dodged accordingly. But it's incredible!"

"Why do you seem more excited about me kicking you in the face?" I asked. "Are you a masochist?"

Lee tilted his head innocently, making me remember that despite everything, the man was only eleven years old in peacetime. "What's a masochist?"

My eye twitched rampantly - I was not giving this motherfucker The Talk, never mind that Talk. "Y-y-you know what, never mind. You don't need to know for now. You okay?"

"I'm fantastic!" he yelled enthusiastically, even with the growing bruise on his cheek. "I finally snuck up on you, Minato-kun! Three hundred attempts, and I finally got it! YOSHAAAAAAAA! I did it! My training is paying off!"

I snorted and shook my head, letting myself relax. "That you did, buddy. Congratulations!"

"Thank you! This is a really awesome day! I finally did it!"

We celebrated his successful sneak, went into our cooldowns, and I logged the end of my detention, we both got a hit of that Heal Pulse, went to the market to buy some shit, and we went to our respective homes.

Six more days to the March Aptitude exam.


The training I did, and therefore the boons to my chakra control and reserve increases, was awesome.

Thanks to my rapidly increasing levels of chakra control and how well I managed to balance between my increasing reserves and how well I controlled them, I finally managed to cut one seal from each Academy jutsu. With how much I'd practised imitating it to supplement my warmup exercises, needing to use the Snake seal for Kawarimi and Bunshin was finally quickly becoming a thing of the past, which cut the former down to four seals and the latter to two. I cut Ram out of the equation for Henge, also leaving me to two on that end.

It still wasn't combat practical, because my spooling and compression was somewhat imperfect and it took two seconds to make it work, but it was definitely on its way somewhere damn good.

The next seal once I mastered Snake, I figured, would have to be either Monkey or Tiger.

The former was because the change in flow of my chakra was such a damn standout that I felt the effects distinctly, especially during the first days when I used it as a sort of Training Wheels/Crutch for my Tree Walking until I didn't need the seal focus to get moving any longer (that also really put my chakra streaming up another level and helped me increase my speed and the power of my taijutsu), that I felt, for the most part, I could imitate it more easily than the other seals with some time and practice. Offshooting from there, I could even learn to cut out Ox and Dog using what I'd learned from Monkey as a base - not at the same time, mind, but it wouldn't take me more than a few months of concentrated training.

The latter had a great argument because of one idea I'd developed.

I wanted to fuck with Chakra Disruption.

I wanted to chain the Disruption process so that any layered genjutsu I would happen to fall under would also be broken down, layer by layer by layer. If I could master that - perhaps with the supplement of Monkey seal soothing to circumvent any potential internal damage - I could eventually become straight-up immune to any genjutsu user I was aware of.

I wasn't sure if it would work, but it was surely worth a shot.

(Of course, the fucking bullshit that came with the likes of Tsukuyomi, Mugen Tsukuyomi, Izanagi, Izanami, and Kotoamatsukami was another story entirely, but. Ya know. Lemons and lemonade. I'd find a solution, even if that solution was anything as simple as destroying those stupid fucking eyeballs. Learning Zabuza's famed Kirigakure no Jutsu and other such sight-obscuring jutsu - perhaps a chakra-based version of Solar Flare - might be a good first step, though...)

If I could learn to disrupt my chakra and chain that, then I could take the next logical sidestep and learn to heat my chakra by 'rubbing' it and directing the friction to my lungs or wherever else I'd need to vent out some fire... not including my asshole. Or my pisshole. Yeesh.

(Brain, why do you do this to me? Why the abusive images? Why the abuse?)

Monkey had a much greater argument, though, because learning it would help me out with some initial steps on learning how to simulate at least three other seals, including Tiger. So yeah, lot of important lessons to be learned.

I was brimming with ideas, creativity, and passion, building a very good foundation for what would be one dangerous ninja with each day that passed, and I loved every moment of it.

I couldn't have been reincarnated to a better world, that was for certain.


D-Day.

Day of the March Aptitude.

Easy enough.

I sat down, did my writing, and we all moved on to the next stage.

My match was against... Tenten. Fuck.

She was insane. Fast as fuck, movements obviously driven by stuttering - but still majorly effective - chakra streaming, each blow she gave rapid, driving and precise, as if she was trying to stab me to death with her bare hands. I had to resort to an unusual combination of Chakra Gripping, which I'd derived from a month of Tree Walking, and an unfortunately, ultimately failed attempt at Chakra Slipping - to give her a very difficult time in the fight. She won, putting me in a triangle choke I couldn't get out of, but she walked away with a limp, a black eye, and a cut in her cheek. If it wasn't for the nurse, she'd have been feeling that fight I gave her the next day. Myself, I got bruises on my neck, chest, arms, and generally I was feeling like shit.

Thankfully, I got healed up nicely, and we moved on to bukijutsu. Ten out of ten, all sides.

Then, the ninjutsu portion, that was where shit got all fucked up.

So, there was a new invigilator, first of all - for every ninjutsu test, there would be three. It was this one old man, and he had a pasty face and looked at me over his glasses with this hint of a sneer, like I wasn't even worthy to wipe the dirt off his feet. At first I didn't really care about him, I was there to do my job and pass, but yo. It was fucking amazing. The way that old man went up my shit list so fast... he went from 'couldn't care less' to 'on fucking God, kill on sight' as far as he was concerned.

I didn't do anything wrong, I was certain of it. I didn't even cut a single seal, doing each one at a good, practised clip, performing each jutsu well, crisp and clean, far, far less smoke than most of the rest of the class.

And then this old fuck failed my Henge. My Rock Lee Henge, indubitably perfect and practised multiple times to the point that it was pretty much my preferred form, compared and contrasted with both Lee and Hagane-sensei to the point of approval from the both of them, and what did he have to say about it?

"The executions are decent; however, I do not like the speed at which he cast his seals. Too slow, a ninja worth the mark would have done it much faster than this. You must work on escalating the speed, Yakushi."

I was fucking seething, because the two other invigilators went along with it, critizing my seal speed. Because bitch, what? I got two of those in a second and a half, and Substitution in two seconds! They'd never judged me on those even when I was fucking slow with them!

I pleaded my case, even showing them that I could cut one seal on each jutsu, and while they were impressed, they couldn't count that effort since 'I'd already shown my hand on the first chance I was given.' That old fucker at work again.

As a result? I got a 68% on my Ninjutsu. Which, considering my high marks on my theory, 89%, my perfect Shurikenjutsu score, my 91% taijutsu score, only meant that I got a 69% on my overall score. Because Ninjutsu was the most important, and I did not pass it.

I failed.

I passed everything, and I failed anyway.

I failed on a bullshit fucking technicality.

I would've not been so upset if, maybe, my work wasn't up to par. If maybe my chakra spasmed at the wrong time and fucked up my jutsu, I'd accept that, too. If I flubbed the Bird seal by complete accident or something, sure, I'd be cool.

But that fucking raisin failed me because of a fucking rule he made up. And the others fucking went with it! And I thought bullshit refereeing decisions were limited to football!

I was so fucking pissed off that when that Homura, Hamura, Hadada, Hadamaya, what-the-fuck-ever kid came to laugh at me, I fucking knocked him out and left.

I'd never been so mad before, not in either lifetime.

"It's really motherfucked up!" I ranted, flinging a stone at a tree so hard it actually stuck in there. "My seal speed was the problem, he said! How? How?! That's fucking bullshit, no one ever judged me on that before! It's like the wrinkly fucker just made up the fucking rule! Was he there because he lost some fucking bet or something? Because that'd explain it!"

"It really was uncool of him," Lee agreed. "I, too, failed to understand why he would judge you on that. Perhaps he was operating by wartime rules?"

"Wartime rules, my ass!" I growled. "I saw him! That fuck had a grudge with me from the first minute! I don't know what the fuck it was but I saw it in his eyes! He was looking for any fucking excuse!" I sat on the ground heavily, taking deep breaths and trying to force myself to calm down. "I-I'm sorry, Lee. I just..."

"No, I understand," he said. "I understand. It was wrong of him to do it. Maybe we can plead your case with the Headmaster..."

"No, no." I refused, set with a fierce scowl. "I'll show that fucker. I'll show them all. They want perfection? They'll fucking get perfection. I'll blaze them so fucking hard they'd have to send a blind examiner to fail me. In fact, they already fucking did, but I'll make him see what I'm made of. I'll spite him. I'll spite them all!"

I was gonna step it up a massive fucking notch. I wasn't getting fucked like that and letting them get away with it for long.

They wanted escalation? They'd get escalation. I'd give them a show they'd never forget when the Final Exam rolled around.

Step one? Cut the Monkey seal.


Hana Hagane sat in the conference, regarding the Headmaster and all the other teachers and proctors with a watchful eye that had never gone away from her ANBU days.

"Alright, now let us proceed on to the subject of Yakushi Minato," Tomioka Shimura proposed, the rest of the room following along with the 90-year-old former clan head. "I must say, you had quite an interesting proposal for how we had to examine him, Hagane-san. Now the boy utterly abhors me for the judgment I passed on him, and how I cost his exam despite such an outstanding score, especially in comparison to the first two Aptitude Tests. Why did I do that, Hagane-san? Explain it to me."

"Yes, Shimura-sama." Hana stood up from her seat. "Yakushi is... an interesting case. Two years ago, he was the sixth-best student in his year, only falling behind clan children and Tenten. He was a hard worker, setting very high standards for himself throughout the year and inspiring most others to do the same. Then, due to some unknowable reason, during his third year, after the initial Aptitude Test, his marks dropped sharply. He simply stopped putting as much effort as he used to, allowing himself to pass with only the bare minimum pass percentage and coasting along on technically satisfying marks. When I first came here during my appointment as a teacher this year, I thought little of him. Yet another child with wasted potential and no drive, one of many. Yet, it seemed, after an initial blip at the beginning of this year, which you'll find in his report, he regained his determination, and in spades. He works harder than any single student of his year, and his only equals in the effort he puts in are Lee Rock, Hyūga Neji, Aburame Tenchi, and Tenten. After the First Exam, which I am reasonably confident he will pass, he has a very high chance of making it within an inch of the top six, jumping a minimum of seven positions from his current." She paused, letting the committee take her words in. "In addition to his effort, he is showing notable aptitude in not only creativity and lateral thinking, but his chakra control and reserves rise side-by-side with each week that passes. I suspect he is on the level of an average to high-level Genin in terms of his chakra reserves alone, and he has a magnificent aptitude for using them with such control that he never comes near the point of chakra exhaustion due to excess wastage - he has a mind for much tighter control of his reserves than an average subject of the Inverse Chakra theory. In fact, in using and thoroughly mastering the Leaf Concentration exercise, he not only figured out another application in which he can use his chakra to adhere various, heavier objects to him, but he also reverse-engineered Tree Walking without a single hint from anyone, simply because to him, it was the next logical step from Leaf Concentration. If I may quote him, 'I had to really think about the next step, then I came up with this idea. If we can use chakra to stick things to ourselves, why can't we use chakra to stick ourselves to other things?'"

The room erupted into whispers and awed sounds.

"In addition," Hana spoke over the noise, attracting attention and a surprised comment of "There's more?!" from none other than Orochimaru's contact, Tōji Mizuki - the real reason for her 'retirement'.

"In addition, if you may look at his records, he is the most frequent visitor of the Library this year, and while you'll notice that he has had several weeks of detention this semester - he willingly put himself in that position in order to earn extra time to train and receive training tips from me. His training has served him very well so far."

"Oh, man," Umino Iruka covered his mouth in obvious amazement. "What a resourceful student he is!"

The Library and Detention systems, unknown to every child that did not ask, actually served additional purpose in that they tested the child's level of resourcefulness over the year. There was much additional information about the world to be found in the Library that simply wasn't taught in the classrooms due to time constraints, some of which would serve the students well in finding an idea of what they would want their specialties to be in the future, and what the adults felt would suit them best. The teachers only advised them twice a year to visit the library, but did not actively encourage the students - that was left to their own initiative.

Minato Yakushi was by far the most frequent visitor of his generation, the time he logged in outweighed only by Orochimaru and Kakashi Hatake, the latter of whom had used that key information, among other circumstances, to graduate very quickly and form the foundation that would help him ascend all the ranks but Kage by the delicate age of ten.

Detention tested their patience, discipline, and whether or not they were willing or even had the mind to turn those bad circumstances to their advantage. Those were good traits for any shinobi to have, and thus whoever took advantage of that system to do anything ranging from simple studying to training to, like Minato, asking Hana for extra advice, would earn bonus points in their Final Exam Resourcefulness percentages. Minato, at the moment, was simply unmatched on that mark - on her advice, he'd not shared that information with anyone else; after all, while Konoha did value its comrades greatly, it also valued their initiative and creativity to help them solve a variety of problems - and what good was a shinobi told to their face that tools were there to use but did not use them?

"Man, he's gonna be a shoo-in for graduation if he passes the First Exam," Touji noted. "He's a sharp one, it seems."

"Indeed. At this point, he has almost mastered Tree Walking, now able to walk, if only quickly, and from what I've deduced, he practised it for a cumulative total of about 65 to 70 hours."

Gasps erupted through the room.

"That's insane!" Ruko Kurama gaped. "That's almost three days! He's gotten that good with it in such a short time on top of everything else?!"

"You see now why he has my attention," Hagane nodded. "My intention, Shimura-sama, everyone, is to hold him to very high standards, and provoke him into giving his best and far more besides. His potential grows with each day, as does his ability. With his creativity, chakra control, and the sheer work he puts in to maintain both as well as his physicality, his growth, should it continue this way for half a decade, will make a notable shinobi out of him, especially with direction from an experienced Chuunin or Jounin. I expect that during his teenage years, he might well reach B-Rank, A at the highest, with the potential to cross the threshold to S in his adult years."

She paused, letting her words sink in. "Not only that, but speaking from experience, there is a possibility that someday, he may be asked to join the ranks of ANBU, most likely before he turns 16." Hana paused, recieving an influx of memories. She held a hand up to give herself time to assimilate them properly, and she cracked a small smile at the result. "A Kage Bunshin I had trailing him to observe his reactions has confirmed my theory. He is very angry, and I apologize for that, Shimura-sama - but he is also even more determined to work as hard as possible to pass the First Exam with little more than as high a mark as he can get."

"I see," the former Shimura clan head nodded after another moment of awe from the committee. "Interesting. Very interesting. Let us -"

"Is this why you used your sakki on him, then?" Suzume inquired.

Almost everyone in the room suppressed a sigh. They'd long been over that particular topic, Hana had recieved her fine and given her word that she'd make it up to the boy, but the uptight flower-pressing teacher was bringing that particular annoying subject up for the third time, only to get the same answer every time.

"Yes," Hana admitted bluntly, before anyone else could decide to give her flak and cause her to give them flak, which would devolve to a noise of utter nonsense.

"And you -"

"I wished to test his resolve," Hana interrupted firmly, looking her in the eye, daring her to interrupt. "As you know, a Hyuuga that examined him discovered that his spiritual energy is very strong. Not 'strong for his age', or 'developing very well', but simply 'very strong'. When I asked her how the balances were between his Yin and Yang alignment, she could not give me a concrete answer due to the incident that necessitated her examination. As we all know, she will be arriving here with a team during April, before the First Exam, in order to inspect the health of each student in our year and ensure we do not have another potential chakra-stunted student. And when she does, I expect that, due to his training as of late, she will judge his Yin-Yang ratio to be closer to 65-35, with the potential to train it to be very close to 50-50 by his adult years."

Everyone froze at that comment.

To achieve such a close balance in their physical-spiritual energy spoke of nothing but a shinobi of immense quality, no matter the rank they were adjudged to be. Every shinobi had various balances to their Yin-Yang ratio that determined the potential of their specialties and abilities. The knowledge was not refined and definitive as there were outliers and complications that defied convention, but the general consensus was that as thus:

The closer one was to Yin, the sharper their mind and the better their Yin-related abilities - genjutsu, iryoninjutsu, Nara hijutsu, and Yamanaka hijutsu, among others. Strengthened spiritual ability gave them means to master their chakra control much more easily, diving into those specific abilities more easily than most. While it did come at a measure of cost to their physical abilities, it did not necessarily mean that that would become their weakest point - only that they had to work harder than most to overcome that skew in their balance. Those who could not but were determined anyway, would usually simply find workarounds to those issues, which complimented their strengths and propped up their weaknesses to points where the enemy could not properly leverage them against said shinobi.

Notable examples were any Nara that managed to learn the Shadow Strangling technique and other similarly advanced techniques, due to that they had to undergo intensive, specialized physical training and conditioning, as well as meditation within shadows to connect more closely to them and find ways to better manipulate them. The founder of the clan, Nara Shikatsu, was said to have trained himself so strongly that his shadows were a real physical threat, where he was able to use the likes of shadow kunai, shadow spikes, and - though it remained an unconfirmed rumor - an actual deer head made purely of shadow that he used to skewer his enemies. No Nara had managed to replicate those feats to this day, though some had certainly come close.

Others were Tsunade Senju, who, instead of resorting to intense physical exercise, only did enough physical exercise to supplement her control levels, which she used to create her Super Strength techniques, and the Kurama clan, who had a skewed Yin-Yang alignment in favor of the latter, giving them notable prowess in genjutsu, but sometimes produced shinobi with a near-perfect balance by default, which allowed their own genjutsu to blatantly affect reality.

The closer one was to Yang, instead, the stronger their physicality. The Inuzuka clan was one such example, with their bodies adapted for ferocious strength and speed-based feats, able to spin at extraordinary speeds without losing themselves to dizziness, and even adjusting their transformations to give them dog or wolflike states, and achieving even more with their ninken partners. Another was the Akimichi clan, who mixed their raw power with an odd form of chakra control that remained an exclusive secret of their clan, that allowed them to extensively adjust their bodies for their most famous jutsu.

All those people had balances much closer to 70:30, or 30:70, sometimes even 80:20 and 20:80, and Rock Lee, due to his defect, would likely be one of the only shinobi ever to have a ratio of outright 10:90, for all the resultant strengths and shortcomings that would bring him as a result.

On the other hand, there were exceptional examples that managed to achieve a much closer balance to 60:40 or even up to 50:50. The Uchiha and Hyuuga were two such examples, the latter able to manipulate their balance in instants by using the Sharingan to study the ways techniques were executed, which allowed them to copy ninjutsu as long as the shape manipulation was not too complex or sealless (such as the Rasengan), as well as various taijutsu forms. It was said that it wasn't impossible that the Uchiha could copy the hijutsu of the Nara, Akimichi, Hyuuga, Inuzuka and Yamanaka clans, but none had ever dared test that theory. Not only would there be the risk of costs to their physical prowess if they tried the likes of the Akimichi and Inuzuka hijutsu, but there was also the risk of severe downturn of political relations between the Uchiha and the other aforementioned clans - and it was bad enough as it was before the Uchiha Massacre. The Hyuuga, on the other hand, had very strong Yin chakra, which allowed them to use their extraordinary Byakugan and also process all the information given from those eyes with some measure of ease. The Hyuuga were intelligent enough to supplement that strength with their physical prowess and chakra manipulation abilities, which made them one of the most feared clans in battle.

In Hana's opinion, they had the potential to go to even greater heights, but it was not her place to express such an opinion, nor would they take any such comments lying down, content to coast by on their complacency - it worked for them so far, as they were indeed one of Konoha's Noble Clans, and currently its strongest clan to boot. Maki Hyuuga was an outlier, sadly, and not a commonality.

The real monsters were the ones that came within a modicum of the long-desired 50:50 balance. Not only was that tremendously difficult to achieve, demanding extensive physical and mental exercise, but anyone that played into the strengths such a balance would give them would truly become utter monsters, tight chakra control, volume, and quality balanced out by immense physical prowess. In Konoha alone, such balances were achieved by the likes of Senju Hashirama, Uchiha Madara, Uchiha Kagami, Uchiha Itachi, Hatake Sakumo, Hatake Kakashi, Namikaze Minato, Uzumaki Mito, Uzumaki Kushina, and Sarutobi Hiruzen in his prime years.

A ninja that strengthened his mind at the same level as his body would grow to be an insane threat on the battlefield, one not many would love to face.

To say that a known former ANBU making such a claim of a child of no known pedigree was a massive fucking statement was in and of itself a massive fucking understatement.

"Are you serious?" Suzume gaped.

"Absolutely. As such," Hana continued, "I decided to test his resolve with only a twentieth of my Sakki. He could not resist it, of course, but to this day he still approaches me for training tips. He has the resilience to shake off that kind of trauma, to willingly interact with the same person that frightened him as much as I did and use me to earn himself detention and extra training. If you still feel the need to question his mental strength despite the facts laid out before you, then I have to question why you're even here."

Suzume's protests died a pitiful death.

"Holy crap," Tōji gaped. "Konoha's makin' another monster. Is there something in the water some of us didn't get?"

"Very good points, Hagane-san," Shimura nodded. "Keep us apprised on his progress - such talent cannot be allowed to go to waste any longer. I will make a proposal to the Hokage to allow you to pass on Genin-level training to the child from the month of June onwards."

"Of course, Shimura-sama," Hana nodded, and sat down.

The committee continued its discussion, branching onto other topics, especially the contents of the upcoming First Exam.

Many teachers went home with a lot on their mind, and Minato would be overcome with the desperate, frustrating question of fucking why he was suddenly overcome with a sudden one-man epidemic of sneezes.


Author's notes:

...Okay, that was a bit longer than I anticipated O.O

(I have no idea if Suzume's a canon character - she's most likely fanon, but I did remember reading of a character like her some time back but I forgot the name of the story. I felt it would be perfect to use her to bring up that point she did. If she's definitely fanon, all credit to the author that created her - who I also forgot! T^T)

That's all for now, folks. See you next time!