She gave a good stare at the boy who talked smack earlier.
And just a boy he was.
He had brown, almost red hair that was short and mousy with bright mongolian-red colored eyes. He was dressed in a black long sleeved shirt, shinobi pants, and standard shinobi sandals.
He gave her a sheepish look, his face finally turning into a normal hue.
[Quest Alert]
Don't be a Kakashi
Objective: Become Friends with Uta
Rewards: Slight chance on teaming with him and Nanami.
Failure: No friends
"I didn't mean it." He began, a hand snaking to his neck as he rubbed it.
Failure is no friends? What the hell.
Tamako waved her hand back and forth as she dwalled, "No biggie, seriously." Well, the new quest stung a lot more in all honesty. She was waiting for her peers to wise up a little so she could interact with them as equals instead of seeing them as kids. But maybe she's the problem, it really wasn't healthy that all she did was train.
Uta shook his head, "No look. It wasn't cool of me." He glanced off to the side and rubbed the back of his neck, "I-i'm just jealous that you're better than me, okay!?" Uta admits with a bright red face, "There I said it!". He shut his eyes harshly like she would punt him in return.
This entire interaction was so childish and so much of it reminds her of her younger days in the playground, filled with playground drama. So cute. "Aah." Tamako gives him a curt nod. "I'm sure that if you train hard enough, you'll rise in class rankings." It was true, some of these kids trained could be great, if they adapted her inhumane training regime.
"Well—" He pauses, gesturing wildly before looking down at his feet, "My friend and I— we wanna invite you to train with us." He looks up, "You should join us! You never really hang out with the class so maybe—"
"Sure."
He flinches, "Really?"
Tamako gives him a slight nod, "Why not?" This was her chance! Prove [System] wrong.
I cannot be a Kakashi. I'm not Kakashi. Who said I was a Kakashi? Blasphemy.
"It'll be a good opportunity anyways. It's always nice to train with others, and it'll be interesting if there is competition."
Uta gives her a nasty look, "You still have a stick up your ass."
Tamako shrugs, not unsurprised at his language. "I'm not wrong though."
He laughs, "Whatever, I'll beat you."
[Quest Alert!]
Don't be a Kakashi
Quest Complete!
Uta seemed like a good choice as a friend. He wasn't some canon character so she could rest easy knowing that if something did go wrong, it wouldn't impact the world too much. Right? The day quickly went by and before she knew it, one Hoki Nanami had snagged her before she could leave via the window, giving her puppy eyes that grounded her back to the ground.
They ended up at one of the few indoor training grounds that the Suna Academy had, but unfortunately, the main training ground was walled off due to an ongoing Jounin Exam so they had to make do with sharing the smaller one with three other groups.
Hoki Nanami, for all the hyping Tamako had internally given her (because seriously it was really hard to find a rightly motivated kunoichi in the making who wasn't making goo-goo eyes at the Fourth Year's Sensei, was so incredibly hard), Nanami had the right temper.
"Hey! Uta! I thought you booked Training Ground 26 last week!" The girl, who Tamako figures out was still and is called Hoki Nanami (despite the extreme personality change). Said Hoki Nanami was well accustomed with violence, taking a fist before releasing it on poor Uta. Again.
They're so similar to Naruto and Sakura that I actually wanna defect to Konoha to get in on the Canon Action.
"Ow! Why do you have to be so mean Nana-chan?"
"Because maybe, I'll be able to fix your head!" The girl turned to her, clasping her hands together before putting on a sorrowful expression. "Sorry Tamako, I told this idiot to reserve our spot at twenty-six but this idiot forgot!" Nanami points at Uta like he was the scum of Suna before sneering with her teeth.
Tamako's face twisted into an obviously unsure face, "It's.. fine." She managed to say. The training ground was pretty large and they managed to snag the better corner of it. "Really, it's fine." She said again, reassuring them. "More importantly, what're we training on?" She asked, a bit curious. The Hoki Family probably had some interesting training techniques, and if Nanami accidently shared well... you know how it is.
"Sensei said I need to incorporate my poison into my own repertoire." Uta spoke first, his face twisting. "I made poison gas bombs but Sensei says I have to add it to my skill, not tools."
Tamako pondered for a moment, reaching a conclusion that almost seemed too obvious. "Have you tried incorporating poison to your senbon?" She asked curiously. It seemed like the obvious next step for a soon-to-be Poison Master.
He freezes and almost slowly turns red as he turns to her. "Why didn't I think of that?"
She offers him a shrug, and pulls her hand into the serpent seal, crystal soon forming at a satisfactory rate, and slowly dove towards the ground in front of her. Target practice was one of the main things she's grown, so this was no different. "There, that should do it!"
Que the silence enveloped the training ground as the two gawked at the sight. "That's so cool!" Uta shouts, clambering over to touch the object. "How'd you do that? I know you showed it off during the exam but this is so cool..."
Nanami's eyes glint as she takes another step closer to Tamako. "Are you from a Family like me?" Then her head tilted to the side with confusion. "I don't think I've ever seen someone do something like that. It's cooler than Pakura-sama's Scorch Release."
Pakura was honestly one of Tamako's role models. One of the strongest Suna Shinobi to ever grace the Village, killed by Kiri, supposedly. "Nah, Pakura-sama's cooler." Then she grins. "But one day, I'll be cooler than her."
Nanami laughed, "Yeah right." She crossed her arms and gave the other girl a look.
Tamako grinned, "Just you see." Then finally turned back to Uta and gestured at the targets. "Practicing as a mid-distance fighter should nail down your specialty, and by practicing senbon until you could hit all of the vital spots with good accuracy." She emphasizes by launching the summoned projectiles, nailing them directly on a target. "Will basically ensure it. Once you finish, try running while aiming." She snaps her fingers and a new dummy popped a couple of feet away, courtesy of shoving them into her inventory from last time.
The boy in question quickly scampers off, leaving the two girls to their devices. Tamako appeases the girl by taking her a bit more seriously in training.
"Alright, Nanami, you're from the Hoki family right?" She nodded, "The Hoki family specializes on Healing Ninjutsu, as a Medical-nin, you need to have extremely good evasive skills. You must be the last person to die on the team. So to start, we can spar for a bit. See what needs to be improved."
Nanami nodded with her hands clenched. "Yeah! That sounds good. I really do want to become a medical-nin, but I also want to beat our clan heiress. Her name is Hakuto. Just her name makes me so mad." She clenched her fingers as cheeks puffed out in anger, "She stole her older sister's role as heiress and acts spoiled. She isn't required to even go to the Academy. A civilian leading a family? I won't accept it."
Tamako took a mental step back from the familial political problems and ignored the TMI, but tucked the information deep into her head. For future reference, of course. "Oh, that sucks." She offers carefully. "Let me see your defensive stance."
Tamako really didn't want to get into family politics, so she wisely changed the topic back to training and continued to blatantly ignore childhood angst. This wasn't her problem, nope. Not hers.
Nanami eased herself into a familiar stanza, one that the Hoki Family must teach. It's a good one, more defensive than Suna's Standard but it's probably due to their arts being much more subtle than frontal assault shinobi. "That looks good." Tamako offers, walking up a little closer before relaxing into her own stanza. "Now, I'm going to attack you."
Nanami face warped into horror quickly as she stutters out, "W-wait, I've haven't really sparred with anyone outside of my cousins—"
The short haired girl chuckles, "Don't worry, I'll use Academy kata, and I'll tell you where I'm going to hit and go at Academy speed."
Nanami nodded in determination.
"Right leg" Nanami jumped, repositioning herself to the side.
"Torso" Nanami blocked with both arms, sliding back just a bit at impact.
"Head" The girl swiveled her head to the side sloppily, twisting her body at the movement to counter back in a well-practice movement that Tamako easily blocked, grabbing ahold of the girl's outstretched arm and threw her in the air. Nanami caught herself and stumbled a bit, keeping her wide eyes trained on Tamako as the girl tried to unlock her inner sensei.
"That wasn't so bad, but it could be better. Let's try that again, okay?" She gives Nanami a slight smile and reassures her with a nod. Nanami wasn't bad, no. She had the basics, just lacked practice.
By the third time Nanami slips from an unorthodox move, Tamako knows it's a complete waste of her time. She could be training, perhaps doing something of more substance. She forms a shadow clone based on memory and feels her vitality sapped by half. She nods at the new window about her new skill, before patting the shoulder of her clone, letting it train in a new ID dungeon she'd found last week. While she didn't gain any levels through this method, she was able to retain about a quarter of the farmed experience for skills at the very least. It was better than nothing, and maybe this friendship would be fruitful in the future.
After a few hours of Nanami's sweat and tears, Tamako had finally called it a day and held her hand up. "You're already improving, see? It's not that hard."
Nanami sighs, collapsing to the ground, "Aaah, I'm so tired! We should all go for dinner!"
At the sound of dinner, Uta comes running over, "We going out for dinner?" Like a dog to treats, Tamako imagines a tail wagging back and forth.
Tamako, in all honesty, was more inclined to have a nice cold shower than to eat while feeling groggy. "I'll pass. I have a curfew anyways."
Nanami snickers, "The Great Tamako has a curfew?"
She rolled her eyes then flicked a ryo coin in the air, catching it between her fingers. "Barbequed skewers by the Fourth District then. That's as far as I'm going."
Uta groaned, "Are you talking about the one near Kakeiko's Clay Pots?" He shuttered, "One time the owner of the stand glared at me cuz I took too long to pay."
Her new dormitory was located in the Fourth District in the upper-half closer to the Kazekage Tower. Her commute wasn't so bad, just a few minutes of Ninja Hopping and she honestly didn't want the two over at her place.
"Saruna-jii-jii isn't so bad. He taught me this cool katon trick." She signed twice, ending on horse and blew out a controlled spew of fire, lighting up the darkness that was the training ground.
"Woah, what the hell? You got old man Saruna to teach you something? All he does is yell at the Fifth years for stealing his skewers!"
. . .
"Tamako and Kinji.'' Sensei read out, a clipboard in hand and a pen in the other.
The first spar of the day.
Tamako glanced at her partner, who's eyes widen and visibly sweating, and it's a shivering boy
"No weapons, no jutsu, only Taijutsu. Your goal is to push your opponent out of this circle or until one admits defeat"
Observe
Name: Okura Kinji
Age: 9
Level: 9
Class: Academy Student
HP: 225
CP: 245
An aspiring...
He doesn't know what kind of shinobi he wants to be, he also doesn't have much talent either. Not even chakra control. He's only barely in the class due to his smarts, which is barely allowing him to attend the upper echelon class filled with clan students and prodigies.
All he needs is that small push
While the teacher counts down, Tamako eases into a comfortable stanza while the boy ahead of her gets into a sloppy one, eyes burning with determination.
"Start!"
Kinji charges recklessly, once he was a couple of inches away from punting the girl, she merely stepped to the side, arms crossed behind her back as she gave him a look at the poor lousy attempt of tackle. What was sensei thinking? Pairing her up with him? He would benefit much more at a more evenly-skilled opponent and a few pointers.
A fight with her only will end up demoralizing him.
The boy barely manages to catch himself from throwing himself out of the circle with that built up momentum, but a solid kick to his already plunging figure, sends him forcibly thrown out in two seconds flat.
-10 HP
"Winner! Tamako!" Sensei shouts while patting her back with praise, "Very clean and neat. A great example!"
Now, Tamako doesn't need her pride to be stroked by sensei, she already knows how great she is. But it still fills up.
She turns to the boy on the floor, defeated. Tears in his eyes.
Maybe she should calm down. The boy is nine and she's basically an adult. She should be better than this. But she's young, hormones are flush in her system and she almost preens at the praise.
He doesn't concern her now, or ever. After all, she was only his peer. Shrugging her eyes from him, she walked to the center of the crowd as Sensei continued to talk about the intricacies of her slight movement, somehow attributing her "technique" to be well-versed in low energy and high return. It sounded like he was pulling this out of his ass but whatever.
"Woah, that was so cool!" A girl exclaimed, hopping up and down in the air with a bright grin.
"Yeah! How did you end it so quick!" Another boy vied, inching towards the girl as she gave back a grin and a peace-sign.
"It's not a surprise, Kazekage-sama's personally coaching her, and she was paired up with that loser." Another boy reasoned
"Zenko!" Sensei said sharply. Bullying was fine in the Academy, and while it was looked down upon, it still often happened. This was to reinforce that so the weak wouldn't graduate, comparing it to Konoha who often forbade bullying to evoke teamwork and friendship, they're just a bunch of softies. Back in the other world, she was bullied. It built her character to be honest, and it was mostly her primary grade teacher that reassured her about herself.
"Hai, sensei" Zenko drawled, the boy smirking when he heard the next name.
"Up next, Zenko and Nanami!"
"This will be a piece of cake!" He boasted, walking into the circle while Nanami shook with anger.
"I'll get'chu!" Nanami shouted, pointing a finger at him.
"Start!"
Zenko charged at Nanami and pulled his fist and aimed for her face, the targeted girl grabbed his wrist and pulled. Unable to stop, Zenko rushed towards the end of the circle with Nanami releasing his wrist, using the arm to elbow him in the spine and sent him further along.
Zenko barely stopped his own body from crossing the circle before growling. He charged again and tried to trip her over with a low kick. Nanami jumped and smacked him in the chest with a strong jab. Air was forcefully knocked out of his lungs, and he dry heaved. Nanami was quick to use his stutter to her advantage and kicked him in the torso, knocking him out of the circle.
"Winner! Nanami!"
"Hell yeah!" Nanami jumped out and down with joy, scampering over to Tamako, "Didja see? Didja?" Her face was a little flushed with excitement rather than from the physical activity beforehand, and it was a little cute how Nanami came to her first. Tamako forced herself to stop herself from gushing, her class was just too cute!
"Nanami, where did you learn that?" Sensei walked forward while writing down a few things, "We haven't covered defensive maneuvers yet, and it was well executed." Nanami blushed at the compliments before pointing a finger at the younger girl.
"Tamako helped me with Taijutsu and defending techniques."
"Aah, as expected." Why were Instructor's so obsessed with the clipboard?
They were left alone as Sensei continued to call out names one by one as Uta walked forward to join the two girls.
"You guys did really well!" Uta gave them a grin, brushing his hair away from his eyes. "I'll win my match, you'll see!"
"Uta and Raidon!"
"Good luck!" Nanami shouted as the girl beside her merely gave a thumbs up.
"3"
"You might as well give up," Raidon said, side glancing at the crowd before nodding at Tamako's direction when their eyes met. She tilted her head, confused. From what she could remember, Raidon was top in physicals, but nothing else.
"2"
"Shut up." Uta growled, his eyes fraying towards Nanami and Tamako as the older girl gave him a smile
"1"
"Come at me, teme!"
"Start!"
Uta rushed over to Raidon, giving him a solid kick to the torso. Or that's what Uta thought, Raidon already blocked it and was landing quick jabs at Uta's face, all meeting their target. Raidon finished his combo with one last uppercut to his face and Uta flew airborne before falling back into the air.
Uta slowly stood up shakily, and was on defense.
"You think going into defense is going to help? One flick and I win." Raidon taunted, and Uta snapped. He charged at Raidon and slammed into him, or tried. Raidon dodged and did exactly what Nanami did to Zenko, an elbow to the spine. Uta was pushed out of the circle and laid helpless and in defeat.
"Winner! Raidon!"
"He's quick." Tamako noted quietly, getting up to get a closer look. He used a taunt, which worked on someone as young and quick to anger as Uta. It was a strategy she didn't use, it felt a little too cruel to mock someone so much younger than her.
"Tama! Now's not the time, Uta needs to get to the infirmary." Nanami said before rushing to Uta and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
"Nanami, take Uta to the infirmary, the rest of you, return to your positions." Sensei said before writing a few things about the fight to his clipboard that he held.
The class responded in unison, stepping back from the circle.
She went back to her original spot and sat down while a figure began to walk toward her, sitting beside the girl. It was the boy Uta was up against. Raidon if she recalls. His taijutsu was really good, probably the best in the class.
"You live up to your namesake. You're fast." She complimented, "Those jabs are really quick, and judging by Uta's expression, they packed a punch too."
"You think so? Thanks," Raidon nodded at the compliment before striking out questions about her own taijutsu. She told him she was self-taught, and she dabbled in a few spars with other students. He criticized the way she pivoted her legs to launch a high kick, and said if she placed too much shifted weight in real battle, she won't be able to block or dodge without twisting something important. He… made good points. He came from a background well-versed in taijutsu.
Liking how this conversation was going, finally, someone who matches the intelligence far greater than six year olds! Their constructed criticism turned into a Q&A about their techniques, finding out that Raiden was the best at Taijutsu before she, and the rest of her peers, entered the class.
Raidon was average looking, with brown hair, brown eyes and wore decent quality clothing. To be honest, he was bland. He wasn't "good looking" like Sasuke, nor was he unique in looks unlike Naruto, Sakura and Ino, with all of their unique hair color and eyes. In other words, very forgettable. He looked like an NPC you would find in the background while you shopped around the market.
Perhaps it was a little vain of her to say, after all, she's been keeping in contact with Temari, who was growing up incredibly pretty with her blonde hair and seafoam eyes. It's honestly hard to believe that Kankuro was even related to her in how he looked, not that she would say that to his face. She sometimes saw him around at the Academy, but she didn't dare chime in a hello when he was surrounded by his uptight elite friends. She just didn't want to deal with that sort of thing.
Tamako answered his question with honesty, but in quick and clipped answers that soon devolved into lengthy explanations when he returned her with equal enthusiasm.
"So, instead of enhancing your entire leg, you decided to strengthen specific muscle strands?" Tamako clapped her hands with awe.
She's never thought of it like that.
"Yep!" The boy grinned, "It was taught to me by my father. It can only be used in short bursts before the muscle itself gets too tired, so you can't maintain it long, but the effects are worth it. It's also a lot less chakra intensive as well.."
Ding!
[+2 WIS]
The conversation was interesting, definitely eye-opening, and once class had ended, Tamako regretfully ended the conversation and instead visited the infirmary to find the duo.
When she had arrived, the two sat on opposite sides of the room, facing the other way.
The environment was.. tense.
Character Status
Name: Tamako
Class: The Gamer
Age: 9 Years Old
Title: Momma's Little Gem
Status: Happy. Normal
Level: 38
HP: 1,550- HP Regen: 1.2 per 5 seconds
CP: 2,850- CP Regen: 1.3 per 5 seconds
Strength: 48
Vitality: 49
Wisdom: 47
Intelligence: 46
Dexterity: 53
Agility: 52
Luck: 39
Fame/Infamy: +30
Parents and Students whisper about you
Money: 50,290 ryo (5,029 USD)
Unspent Points: 29