Hi everyone, I want to apologize as it was brought to my attention that the previous chapter 7, was actually chapter 8. A goof on my end that is now rectified. Read on the actual seventh chapter of MaW.
Chapter 7 - Two Years Later
"Dude why was sensei such an ass today?" Kaito groaned out as he walked with Shinji and Emi back to his home. Being a nice woman, Kaito Nakamura's mother, Hina Nakamura, had invited all of his friends for dinner after their final exam was over. Shinji, not seeing the sense in missing free food, happily joined. Seeing Shinji was going, automatically meant Emi was going due to her infatuation with him.
Emi shrugged her shoulders and sighed, "I don't know but that Ayumi girl got me good in our spar, kicked me right in my side." Emi nursed the bruised rib.
Shinji, who was being awfully quiet at this point, merely stayed that way. Noticing this, Emi looked at Kaito who already knew, however they stopped and turned to Shinji who was standing still and looking at the ground.
"You alright Shinji?" Kaito asked, a little nervousness sliding into his voice.
"I gotta ask you two. What's your guys' goal? It's something my mentor asked me a while back. I assume you guys wanna be shinobi, but what's the reasoning? Why do you want to be a shinobi?" He asked in a serious manner. It was rare for Shinji to be like this so his friends listened to what he said.
"I want to help Iwagakure win this war, Shinji. Those tree huggers have killed too many of our shinobi. My dad included…" Kaito spoke with passion, but trailed off at the end. Emi didn't know what to say to Shinji, she was just following him.
"I-I don't know." She mournfully responded.
Shinji remained quiet.
"I need to get stronger." He stated. "But I guess my real question is what are you willing to become in the name of your goal? Something to think about I guess." Shinji finished before he looked up and saw Kaito and Emi giving him weird looks.
"Sorry about that. Been buried in my work recently." He quietly said as he walked ahead, leaving Kaito and Emi to follow.
Upon returning from dinner with Kaito's family, Shinji fell into the couch like a sack of bricks. A few too many all nighters got the better of him as he would soon fall asleep.
"What are the signs we use?" Grandmaster Imad asked the three young witchers before him. These three children were the only ones to survive the only trial his school had performed. Varric, Aldrin and Gaston proved to be stronger than the rest and overcame the mutations they had been subjected to.
Varric called out "Igni, Quen, Aard, Axii, Yrden and uh.. What's the last one called?" Varric proved to his fellows that he did not know all the signs.
"You dumbass, Heliotrop old man Imad." Gaston finished.
"Who the hell are you calling a dumbass you muscle headed-" Varric started, only to be cut off by their master.
"Children, that is enough!" Imad put on an angry face and used his loud voice to subdue the newly mutated witchers.
Imad rubbed the bridge of his nose to relieve the stress building up from the actions of the children. "Equip yourselves, it appears you need another lesson in…self defense." The boys grew nervous at the old grandmaster's face and scrambled to arm themselves.
"These are no longer one on one matches, I want you all to show me what you got!" Came the angry cry of Imad of the Manticore School. Using a wooden sword, Imad brought down a heavy swing on Varric who barely managed to block the strike.
Seeing an opening, Aldrin went to slash at the torso of Imad, only for the elder witcher to correct his stance and block the strike. "You will have to do far better than that Aldrin!" Imad, in a show of his cunning and strength, used Varric as a projectile and kicked the boy into Aldrin. The boys let out a mighty heave as they collapsed to the ground, leaving only Gaston who had yet to throw a strike.
Imad pointed his blade at his physically strongest student, "For all your bravado, Gaston, you lack the courage to stand by your brothers in defeat!" With picture perfect form, and moving so fast, Gaston couldn't even react to it, the boy's blade was disarmed and tossed aside as he received a vicious strike to his collarbone.
Gaston cried out in pain, "Your first mistake was letting go of your blade. Don't ever let that happen." Imad stated coldly to Gaston. "Now pick yourselves up and go rest. You'll need it for sign training later."
Shinji awoke the next morning, hair covering his face, sweat coating his skin, and knocking at the front door that was getting increasingly louder.
"Holy shit-I'm coming!" the boy shouted angrily as he moved to the door.
He swung the door open to reveal Kaito and Emi standing there with nervous smiles on their faces. Shinji corrected himself before inviting them inside.
"Sorry about the mess. I just woke up." the boy said while holding back a yawn.
Kaito looked around Shinji's house and noticed the dining room table and its organized chaos. "Guess that's all of your work right?" Kaito asked with a chuckle.
"What do you guys want?" Shinji asked.
Emi stepped forward "We're worried about you Shinji. You've been quiet for…days now. Do you want to talk about what happened?" The girl asked in a caring tone. Shinji knew they cared, he did. But it was better for them if he didn't talk about it.
"Listen, there's no need to burden you-" However he was cut off by the same girl, who now had small tears in her eyes.
"You're not a burden, you idiot! We really do care about you shinji, even if you don't think so and right now it hurts to see you like this!" Emi was now sobbing and pleading with her crush. "So please…just tell us what's wrong."
Shinji's hair shadowed his expression, which was that of cold indifference.
"Please just tell me what's happening so I can help you!" Fringilla pleaded, makeup running down her face.
"I'm sorry, but I have to go. I need to do this." Shinji explained to Emi, as if repeating it in memory.
"That's really it man? That's all you're gonna say after everything we've been through?!"
"I'm sorry." The black haired boy stated coldly.
"You son of a!" Kaito went to throw a punch at Shinji, but Shinji was no longer a boy that would allow himself to be thrashed by his father and instead moved around Kaito's punch and counter by thrusting his pointer and middle finger into the center of his chest. Kaitos' breath was taken away and he was left clutching his chest and groaning in pain.
Kaito was larger mass wise than Shinji, but was slower, which is what allowed Shinji using his ever developing combat style to slip under Kaito's guard and strike at the squishy part.
Shinji stood over Kaito, "Out of respect for you being my friend, get out of my house." He looked toward Emi with the same expression. Shocked and broken-hearted, Emi helped Kaito up and began to leave.
"I can't believe I ever considered you to be anything more than a beast." She ground out angrily with rage filled tears rolling down her face as she slammed the door shut on her way out.
"And how fucking long were you standing there?!" Shinji yelled at the shadow hiding in the hallway. Oni stepped out of the shadows.
"That was a good strike kid, but I've been here since you got back." the masked man replied nonchalantly.
"Tsk." Shinji clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Either way I've made my decision." Shinji spat out as he sat on the couch.
"Oh do go on, runt." Oni beckoned.
Grimacing from the insult, Shinji explained, "I'll graduate early. Considering the chunin exams are in six months, I don't have a lot of time." Over the course of Shinji's academy career, it was noticed he was continuously receiving top marks in every grade. Oni was the one bearing the Tsuchikage's offer of early graduation.
For the last few days he wrestled with the decision, the full offer from the tsuchikage was that this would be Shinji's last year and he would go into a direct apprenticeship of the Tsuchikage's choosing.
"You really wanna blitz through the entire process huh? Just like that?" Oni tested the child.
"Faster it gets me to ANBU the better." Shinji stated in a cold demeanor.
"I suppose you're right, but Shinji, the chunin exams are no joke. Even you would have to do some serious training in order to even make it, especially solo. Are you sure you wanna take the exams this soon?"
The eight year old remained determined and looked angered by the insinuation he was backing down. "I just hope my mentor isn't a slouch." the boy complained before rising from the couch and moving to his 'research desk'
"So is that the final design?" Oni asked from over Shinji's shoulder, looking down at the now refined design of the same person sized chamber Shinji had previously done.
"I think so, all that's left is to build it but that'll take me a while so just have to see." He said with a proud smirk etched on his mouth.
"And what about the formula? You said a couple years ago it was already finished, is that still the case?" Oni inquired.
Making a wishy washy gesture with his hand, Shinji explained there were some complications with it upon second viewing, so he would make adjustments at a later point.
After a few more hours of discussing the trial Shinji was investing so much time in, Oni eventually left, leaving Shinji left with the rest of the day. Stretching out his limbs, he felt it was appropriate to blow off some steam at a nearby training yard.
Blitzing to his room and dressing in his proper attire which consisted of an outfit he had custom made by Stoneheart Armaments that resembled a manticore school design. His outfit consisted of a black combat shirt with a dark leather tunic on top that had different seals for different functions.
All of the nights spent at the library proved themselves to be not only useful, but necessary as he would've never discovered the mystical art of sealing. He was terrible, as he could only create storage seals, explosive tags that were a hit or miss and a vague understanding of true sealing jutsu.
The journey to the training field was only a few body flickers away, when moving at insane bursts of speed that is granted by this particular jutsu, shinobi who use it can reach their destination in a fraction of the time it would normally. However this comes at a sometimes large cost to their chakra depending on the distance traveled, if one masters this technique to its fullest, the potential it wields is immense.
Shinji took a few deep breaths, remembering the hand seals he's practiced a dozen times over at this point, and suddenly, as if possessed, flew threw hand seals at a mere blur.
"Earth style: Rock Clone!" In that moment a clone formed from the environment surrounding shinji, forming an exact replica of himself made of stone. Together, Shinji and his clone threw hand seals and called out in unison, "Earth Style: Rock bullet!" a pair of massive boulders ripped from the ground formed into shapes that resembled large bullets, and were fired toward another boulder in the distance.
The pair of jutsu slammed into the other boulder with such force it left a sizable crater in the ground. "Damn, that was slow." Shinji noted to himself before continuing his personal test of knowledge.
"Earth release: mudslide technique! earth release: rampart! earth release…" Shinji went through his entire library of ninjutsu, and before him lay what looked like the remnants of a battlefield. Broken earth walls, remnants of mud and landslides, craters, and spikes.
However he was not done. Shinji turned to his clone, and bid him to draw his sword. That blacksmith was becoming his favorite place on earth as it allowed him to have his own sword made. It was a two handed broadsword fit for his age and height, its razor sharp dual edged blade and a curious carving of a strange creature in the pommel left it for a nice piece of work.
Shinji and his clone and other clones he would make to fight would go until the boy dropped from exhaustion. Due to his chakra depletion, Shinji forced himself to walk through the village wherein he stopped at an open restaurant at this time of night.
He hobbled back to his bed proper, and fell into a deep sleep, falling prey to his all too common nightmares.