The day to train with Raido finally came and Hachi was more than ecstatic. He all but sprinted out the door at the second it turned 7:30 to get there early and warm-up. Kakashi just yawned in response to the disappearance of Hachi. He didn't process what was happening as there were only blurs of Hachi within his vision.
When he finally awoke fully and gained his bearings, he realized that Hachi went to train with Raido. It has already been about a week since Hachi came under his wing and Kakashi saw much progress in Hachi's openness. It was fulfilling to see.
However, Kakashi couldn't help the slight twinge of worry in the back of his mind from festering. Raido Namiashi was a brutal individual. He wasn't sure how Hachi would come back home today. He shook his head to get rid of the negative thoughts and got up to get ready in the bathroom. Hopefully, training goes well for Hachi.
Hachi arrived at the training ground slightly red from the sudden run to get there. Seeing that Raido didn't arrive yet, he started warming up by himself. He stretched to make sure he didn't exert his muscles.
After about 15 minutes passed, Raido appeared with a puff of smoke, making Hachi cough slightly.
"Oh. You're here early." Raido observed with one hand under his chin. Hachi could only nod with brightened eyes. He could finally train after so many years. This was sure to be fun. Even when he was seven, Hachi wanted nothing else but to train with his older brother. Though it was a distant memory now, he brought up the thought with nostalgia and yearning.
"Get ready. I'm not going easy on you." Raido said, a dark gleam glistening in his eyes.
This statement only made Hachi smirk. He had been on the run for more than three years now, surely Raido's training was nothing to compare.
Hachi was right. It was nothing to compare because what Hachi was feeling right now was something that no one should ever experience. It was certainly something completely different from his past experiences that Hachi couldn't compare at all.
His whole body burned from frustration and physical exertion.
Raido found out that none of his basics are solid so they restarted everything. He had to relearn years of basics from when he first started training in just a few hours. This included weapons training and sparring.
Hachi knew his weapons training was lacking ever since he went shopping with Kakashi and Kakashi had to teach him how to throw shuriken and kunai again, but he hadn't realized his skills were rusted over this badly .
"Again," Raido stated with a stern voice. Hachi grit his teeth and charged at Raido for what seemed like the umpteenth time.
He pulled back his right arm to get ready to punch Raido, but Raido just sidestepped out of the way, frustrating Hachi once again. He felt his body shift forward from the momentum and he was soon falling to the ground.
Hachi quickly shifted his weight and while using his arms for support, kicked backwards towards Raido with his feet.
While the shift in momentum was a clever move that surprised Raido for a split second, Raido simply caught Hachi's ankle and pushed him away. Hachi slid away, but didn't waste a second and was back on his feet for another attack.
He couldn't use his speed as a means of attack anymore. This spar session was strictly taijutsu with no chakra, which was a huge disadvantage for Hachi. For every lacking part Hachi had physically, he would use chakra to try and fill the gap. Now that Hachi couldn't use chakra, he realized just how weak he truly was.
It was a bitter epiphany.
Hachi clicked his tongue in annoyance at Raido's carefree pose. He ran towards Raido, this time getting ready for a roundhouse kick. Raido jumped out of the way but was soon met with Hachi's other leg. Having no time to dodge, Raido grabbed Hachi's leg.
Hachi hung upside down with Raido's support and grabbed his ankles. Using his entire strength and the built-up momentum, he pulled Raido's ankles up and forced his own leg down. The sudden force caused Raido to lose his balance and roll forward. While the two of them fell, Hachi twisted his body so that he straddled Raido's torso with a kunai to Raido's neck.
Hachi had a small smirk of triumph at Raido's surprised face. He was certainly surprised that Hachi would think of using momentum and the opponent's strength against themselves. He was impressed at Hachi's intelligence again.
With a returning smirk, Raido said, "Good job."
Of course, Raido wasn't the one attacking, only defending himself. Still, Hachi had figured out his movements within the first hour of sparring: something that most enemies would take multiple run-ins to interpret.
To figure out Hachi's strengths and weaknesses, Raido had set up a series of tests. The first was weapons training, in which Raido soon found out that Hachi had below-average skills in. Bukijutsu was one of the basic skills all shinobi needed, but Hachi had close to none. It was a little disappointing, to say the least.
Hachi had his excuses, however. During his stay with the feudal lord and the Doctor, Hachi had no use in throwing meaningless weapons. He also didn't have access to any weapons in case Hachi would use them to hurt them, which they couldn't afford.
But Raido didn't know that. He didn't know anything about Hachi, and to be honest, he didn't want to. Training Hachi was all he needed to do, he didn't want to overstep his boundaries and throw away his duties to the Hokage. If the Hokage wanted for him to train Hachi, that was all he would do. Nothing more, nothing less.
The second test was chakra control, which Hachi excelled in. It surprised Raido only slightly since he figured Hachi had some sort of know-how during his last fight. What surprised Raido was the extent to which Hachi controlled chakra. It was absolutely perfect. Hachi didn't waste a single drop of chakra to get what he wanted.
For Raido to witness such an event, he thought he was really lucky. While most shinobi gain a certain control over chakra throughout their life, he had never seen anyone use it perfectly. Hell, even he didn't use it this well. Chakra control was something Raido didn't need to worry about. He moved on.
His next test for Hachi was sparring. He had sparred with Hachi during the last fight, but he couldn't truly tell the extent of Hachi's abilities. The use of chakra to cover up his weakness also blurred a line between Hachi's true sparring capabilities and what he showed to Raido that day.
This test needed to be without any chakra. He wanted to see how long Hachi would last without his chakra. While Hachi, himself, couldn't see it, anyone with a trained eye could tell. Chakra was a lifeline for Hachi: a skill that he always fell back on.
Take away this lifeline and what do you get? That was what Raido wanted to find out.
The test was simple: don't use chakra and take Raido down using only taijutsu. It was necessary to find out Hachi's taijutsu level.
Raido figured during the last match that Hachi was slightly above genin-rank with the way Hachi manipulated his body. After the test, he was certain.
Hachi had a very flexible body that listened to his every word. If he wanted to do a backbend, his body would allow it. While it wasn't the most peculiar thing, it was certainly an advantage that Raido could exploit to further improve Hachi.
The sparring session confirmed many things for Raido. Hachi doesn't have any strength nor speed. He didn't need to comment on that though. Hachi was already beating himself over it in his head. Raido could see Hachi's depressed expression.
What surprised Raido was that Hachi's speed was all chakra. During their first match, Hachi's speed was one of the main things that Raido was impressed with. Hachi went head to head with Raido with speed alone, but for it to all fall apart without chakra, it seemed like a genjutsu being broken.
He couldn't dwell too much on the sparring session; he had other tests to run.
"Alright, time to test your ninjutsu," Raido said, cutting off both Hachi and his own thoughts. Hachi seemed to be even more distressed at the mention of ninjutsu.
"What do you know so far?" Hachi stayed quiet, a bit too embarrassed to admit that he didn't know any jutsus.
Hachi muttered something, but Raido couldn't hear it.
"What? Speak up!" Raido snapped, getting tired of Hachi's actions.
"I said I don't know any!" Hachi retorted, his voice ringing throughout the training ground. Hachi's cheeks were red as if someone had slapped him. This new information stunned Raido.
How can one be a shinobi, but not know a single jutsu? His mind wandered to Might Guy and his student. It was possible, he guessed.
"Do you know any hand seals then?" Raido asked, making Hachi shrink even more. Hachi shook his head and all Raido could do was sigh. How was he gonna train this kid for the graduating class in the academy if he didn't know hand signs?
"Just show it to me right now. I'll try to memorize them." Hachi murmured. His pride as a shinobi was a bit tattered.
"Fine, look carefully," Raido warned and he started going through all the motions slowly.
That's it? Hachi thought. There were only twelve hand seals and they were not too overly complicated.
"Show me the sequence for a simple jutsu." Hachi said, gaining his confidence back at the simplicity of hand seals. Raido was taken back at Hachi's burst of spirit.
"Fine. I won't show you the hand seals though, since you seem quite confident." Raido said with a smirk, but Hachi just replied with an excited head shake. "The sequence for the transformation jutsu is dog, boar, and ram."
Hachi quickly followed Raido's words. Nothing happened, of course, Hachi didn't plan on it. He just wanted to show Raido that he knew the hand seals. Raido knew this. Time to up the level.
"Transform into me now. You have to think about who you want to transform into, do the hand seals, and it should work." Hachi nodded, eager to put his new skills to the test.
He followed the hand seals again, thinking hard about Raido. He wanted to get everything about Raido right. With a puff of smoke, Hachi had transformed.
Hachi looked at himself, expecting a dramatic change. Raido stared at Hachi with an expressionless face. Hachi did transform, but it was nothing close to perfection. He had Raido's face right, but still had Hachi's clothes and height. It was a little disturbing to see his face on Hachi's body and Raido could only shudder.
Hachi was disappointed, to say the least. He thought that nothing had changed with him since his body and clothes stayed the same.
"You could do better."
"I know. Nothing changed."
"What do you mean? You're wearing my face." Hachi looked up in surprise and pulled out his kunai to get a look at his reflection. Raido was right. The person who stared back at Hachi was not himself but of his new sensei, scar and all.
"I did it." Hachi cheered, making Raido grimace.
His face could even make that kind of expression? It creeped Raido out.
"Change back. My face on your body doesn't look right." Raido said, quickly turning his head to look away. He couldn't look at Hachi anymore.
"You're right. I need to have my handsome face back." Hachi said and Raido's eyebrow twitched at the snarky comment. Hachi stopped the flow of chakra that seemed to flow towards his face and with another puff of smoke, he felt his face return back to normal.
"You have the perfect chakra control for using jutsus, but you don't have the imagination," Raido spoke up. His words confused Hachi.
"What do you mean?" Hachi asked, his face twisted to one of perplexity.
Raido sighed before explaining, "When you use jutsus, you need to imagine what the jutsu will do. You need to see the end goal to achieve it. If you just use hand seals and pour chakra, randomly hoping for some result, you won't get anywhere. This doesn't just apply to the transformation jutsu. It goes for everything."
Hachi fell into deep thought. It did make sense.
"Try again," Raido said. Hachi did the hand seals again and tried to get a clearer image of Raido. He transformed again. This time, Hachi could feel a difference. He was significantly taller.
He was now at eye level with Raido. Raido was silently observing the transformation until his gaze was fixed on Hachi's clothes. It was clear that there was something wrong. Instead of the standard attire for most Konoha shinobi that Raido wears, there was a murky mix between Hachi's clothes and Raido's. The image was so muddled, you couldn't tell the difference between the separate articles of clothing.
Hachi looked down at his clothes and knew what was wrong. He focused too much on Raido's physical body that he completely forgot about external forces.
Raido shook his head before saying, "Again,"
Dog, boar, then ram. These were three simple hand seals made to mold chakra to perform a simple jutsu. But Hachi just couldn't get it. It was frustrating.
With anger in mind, Hachi transformed again. This time, trying to compensate for the clothes, Hachi completely forgot about Raido's face or body. When he realized he didn't grow any taller, Hachi wanted to rip all his hair out.
While Hachi's annoyance brought a small smirk to Raido's face, it quickly faded when Hachi almost kicked a tree down on top of him.
"Oi, stop throwing a temper tantrum and just get it right." Raido said, a little irritated with his close call with death. Hachi glared at him in response, but he knew Raido was right. It was a simple jutsu. Why did he have such a hard time with it?
Every time he tried the transformation jutsu, he would miss something. He would then overcompensate his loss and focus too much on that to get the entire transformation correct. It was a never-ending cycle.
"Calm down. Being so agitated won't help you with the jutsu." Advised Raido, his arms crossed. Hachi took a big breath to try and get rid of his negative emotions and thoughts. It's his first time trying this jutsu, of course, he would fail. He tried to reassure his self-worth.
Hachi regained his composure, his ragged respiration from before completely gone. He cleared his mind and tried to only think about Raido. He thought about Raido's face and body but tried not to forget about his clothes. Everything mattered in a transformation jutsu.
At a slower pace, Hachi recalled the hand seals. Within seconds, smoke covered his vision. Hachi looked straight ahead to see Raido's eyes. He, at least, got his height right. Hachi's gaze went down to his clothes and noticed that everything looked normal. It was as if there were two Raidos.
"Good job." That was all Raido said. Hachi visibly brightened at Raido's encouragement.
"But," Hachi froze, "next time… don't forget the scar." Raido stared at Hachi's face bitterly. It had been a long time since Raiddo saw his face without a scar. It was one of the most distinctive facial features that marked him different from the rest of his peers.
He had missed his old face. Raido bit his lip, angry at himself for even thinking such weak thoughts. He was a shinobi . Shinobi kill all emotions.
Raido turned around, unable to face Hachi in this situation. "Let's move on. We can practice more jutsus tomorrow."
The next test: genjutsu. This was something Raido was looking forward to. Last time, Hachi had slipped a genjutsu that was basically undetectable right under Raido's nose. This certainly dented his pride as a shinobi. To be bested by someone that hasn't even graduated from the academy was almost laughable.
He definitely could not tell his friends about that incident. They would never let that down in a million years.
Raido was a bit weak in the genjutsu department. Something like this was better suited for his former teammate, Kurenai Yuhi. Nevertheless, it was his task to train Hachi, not Kurenai or anyone else for that matter.
He set up multiple genjutsus for Hachi. To know how Hachi reacts to the most brutal of situations, Raido purposefully set up the genjutsus of his worst nightmare. All Hachi needed to do was break free.
Hachi clenched his fists with determination.
The training ground seemed to melt and out came a new background. The melted grass and dirt morphed into test tubes and needles. The trees faded into large beds with straps. Hachi's eyes widened in terror as he realized what he was seeing. It was the prison in which he was trapped for two years.
Hachi's hands were the first to start shaking. It wasn't long before his entire body was quivering. The familiar room was one that frequently haunted him.
His legs gave out underneath him as the sound of heels clicking the floor came closer and closer. Hachi's eyes darted from side to side, trying to find the source of the noise. The door opened and all he could do was try not to pass out.
In the doorway stood both the Doctor and the feudal lord. They both had malicious grins.
"G-get away from me. Don't come any closer." Hachi stuttered, trying to back away as they walked closer and closer. They were silent, knowing that Hachi's attempts to run were futile.
This was a nightmare. He needed to get out of this genjutsu, but he didn't even have the strength to push his hands together.
It wasn't long before Hachi found himself strapped to the hospital bed. He was stripped down and Hachi could feel the cold air breeze across his bare body. Laughter was all he heard. Needle after needle started to get injected into Hachi's body. Foreign substances found their way into Hachi's bloodstream.
Hachi wanted to scream, to shout, or at least fight back. But nothing happened.
The feudal lord found himself on top of Hachi, licking and leaving hickies from his neck to his torso. Tears quickly pooled up in Hachi's eyes.
Every time he tries to forget about everything, he remembers these horrid memories. His thoughts, his voice, and his body weren't his anymore. It was theirs.
The two people that have single-handedly destroyed a child were living a happy life. Hachi wanted to laugh bitterly, but nothing came out.
It wasn't until the feudal lord seemed to stop his actions did he regain his consciousness. Hachi glanced down at his body absent-mindedly. The feudal lord's seemingly masterpiece broke Hachi's state of mind.
He was enraged and he was miserable. The state in which his body was in snapped a string in Hachi's head.
"Kai!" Hachi all but screamed. He let chakra flow throughout his body.
The sudden disruption was more than enough for Hachi to break free from his genjutsu. Hachi awoke with a sharp gasp, surprising Raido.
Raido knew what he had done when he saw Hachi's expression. The sheer emotion and pain that radiated off of Hachi were immeasurable. He saw the genjutsu unfold within Hachi's mind. To say that Raido was shocked was an understatement.
He never guessed that Hachi had suffered so much. His chest tightened. This is why he didn't want to know Hachi's past; He would get attached.
Hachi glared at Raido with tears in his eyes. Raido expected nothing less. He deserved it. He just made a genjutsu in which Hachi got raped . Hachi should be itching to kill him.
"Go fuck yourself," Hachi said quietly. He got up shakily and tried to run. Raido was faster than that.
"Where are you going? Your training isn't finished." Raido's voice was so still that it surprised even himself. He started to hate himself for that. He just tortured Hachi and he had the audacity to talk about his training ? Even Ibiki wouldn't do this. Raido hardened his heart.
Hachi looked up at Raido with a gaping mouth. Training? Unbelievable. Hachi pushed Raido off and started running with chakra in each step.
Raido just stared at Hachi's disappearing figure. He didn't have any right to chase after him, so he wouldn't. He stared at his palms and noticed they were shaking. Raido just sighed and grasped them together.
He wanted someone to beat him up. What he did was beyond harsh. It was beyond brutal. It was inhumane. Was he trying too hard to be a shinobi? Raido always thought that being a human and being a shinobi were two different things. After what he did just now, Raido realized what he had become: the perfect shinobi.
Hachi couldn't stop running. His legs burned, but that was a feeling that Hachi was used to. Hachi's eyes watered at the wind that whipped from the sheer velocity that Hachi was traveling at. Or maybe his eyes watered because of the trauma that he had to endure once more? It didn't matter.
Hachi didn't even know why he was running or where he was running to. Of course, he wanted to get away from Raido as soon as possible, but after that goal was accomplished, Hachi still didn't stop his legs.
What exactly was driving to go to such lengths? He didn't know. He was just running away again like he always does. There was never a time where he faced his problems. He didn't want to.
He wasn't ready to face anything or anyone. His fear was enough to swallow him alive. He didn't need confrontation.
Hachi's eyes were closed. Tears ran down his cheeks. When Hachi opened his eyes, it was already too late.
Hachi grabbed his ass which was stinging from the sudden impact. He had run into someone. It didn't matter, he got up quickly and tried to run off again. He couldn't afford to waste a breath on someone that wasn't important to him.
As he was about to take off, a hand grabbed his wrist. Hachi looked down in surprise. A boy around his age had an irritated expression.
"Aren't you going to apologize?"