Sleight Advantage [Naruto SI] (Old version)

RogueDruid · May 13, 2017

HA, you thought it was early but no, it's me, ~~Dio~~ the Update!

But yeah, finished up the chapter, just needed to finish editing. this is a bit of a... weird chapter, but it introduces a character for later, and Finally, gives us a bit of conflict. and impetuous to do something. Also, the one-sided beatdown is to show exactly how far ahead the other party is ranked.

Enjoy.

I flexed my hand and gave my fingers a quick run through of the alphabet, frowning at the layer of bandages that now wrapped my palm, before looking up at the nearly bisected straw doll across the clearing. The massive three-pronged shuriken was embedded up to the ring on its side, the point of the blade pushing out its opposite side. I had thrown it a bit faster than I needed, and my grip had slipped slightly, the curve of the pointed end scoring a line across my palm. With the hand wrapped up tightly, I strode across to grab the Shuriken, readying to yank it when

Move MOTHERFuck!

I dive backward, that sudden itch on the back of my skull, the faint subconscious yell, instincts I barely knew I had going rampant-

I'm not fast enough, the figure that suddenly stands next to me, a figure that the only impression I get is an impression of Black clothes and white mask, kicks out, planting a foot in my stomach, before shoving me backward.

I go limp from the push, and then tense, slamming one foot down and using it and a flicker of chakra to flip backward and low to the ground.

I lash out even before I right myself, a dozen senbon being thrown in a loose spread in front of me. But by the time my eyes focus, I already know I missed, because of the figure, of which I now catch an impression of blue streaks on white, is beside me.

They (he, she? He? He!) plants a hand on my now flat parallel to the ground torso and shoves. Again, I go limp, letting my reflexes take over, slam my legs down slightly, make the impact slow down, with my arms lashing up, a deck of cards all but bursting from my sleeves.

There a flinch, and I'm already pulling my chakra, readying t-

Slam, foot to side, another kick, not intended to hurt, but to move, I'm up in the air once more, cards around me, I struggle to hold on to my chakra as-

I skip off the water of the river, and focus, flashing chakra out to try and find some form of friction, to try and catch myself even the slightest bit. I eventually get a second of balance and shove, send myself up to the cliff face, at an angle, and slam my feet on the rock, chakra sticking me to the surface.

And when I look up, the guy, the ANBU is gone. I take a short breath, and ready myself eyes flickering back and forth across the tree line. With a thought I release my hold on the wall, twisting to glance above me and then when the only thing I see is the sky, slam one foot down to twist once more, back at the trees.

Wait, What is- There's a small bundle of cloth, dark green and black, sitting where I stood.

I focus and glance around, sliding the two long senbon in my left sleeve to my hand, holding the rounded teardrop ends against my wrist and the long thin diamond shaped blades between my knuckles.

I step my way to the bundle slowly, ever so slowly. I take almost fifteen minutes walk only 100 meters, at most. That feeling at the back of my neck is gone now though. Stepping close, I use one of the long senbon to grab the note on top of the bundle, next to it in a neat deck are the cards I tried to use earlier, which I only now notice are not spread over the grass of the bank. I focus, and I can feel my chakra in them. I turned my attention back to the paper.

The note was simple.

Work on your speed, young one.
-A friend of your Grandfathers.

I blinked, and looked at the bundle, slowly pulling it p. It unfolded smoothly, revealing a sleeveless long jacket. I blinked at the weight, it had to be almost twenty pounds. Beneath it was a small box of weighted panels, and a small manual explaining how to raise or decrease the weight. Along with the weights were several strips of cloth, which could be used to change the size and fit of the jacket. Among those were loose flowing sleeves, a broad hood, a face mask that could attack to the hem, a matching long scarf, and panels that would make the jacket longer, as it was, it was a bit wide across the shoulders, but the buckles that laced across it took care of that, folding the cloth together.
Huh. Nice. I blinked and then voiced a thought that came to mind.

"OK, seriously, who the fuck is my grandfather?"

-----

I sighed as I felt the bruised flesh from the attack loosen up, the steam and hot water of the pool helping. Good news, I'm not being distracted by the bacterial colony growing anymore, bad news…

"Ow." I had unrolled a thin case of actual surgical acupuncture needles, and held my arm out, looking at the bruise along the forearm that represented a barely effective block from the fight. I don;t exactly remember when it happened either.

Regardless, I continued slowly pressing the various pressure points along the bruise, slowly opening my chakra paths from the slight swelling of the bruise. The freer the flow of chakra, the faster my natural regeneration would be. Not hours or minutes, but probably a week instead of a month.

Sadly it only works on bruises and muscle aches.

I sunk deeper into the water, eyes, and ears still alert as I focused on the weight of senbon strapped to my good arm.

A lot of senbon.

Just in case.

------

I shouldered my bag and finished up burying my fire after having breakfast on the last day of my trip, looking up at the dark clouds that moved in overnight. A few minutes to retrieve the hood, and I'm pulling on the new coat as I stood. The weight was… reassuring, in a way. The myriad of pouches across it now filled with bits and bobs of my arsenal. Yep, calling it the arsenal. The fact I have a dozen varieties of sharp pointy throwing objects scattered across my outfit will prove my point. I swing my satchel over my shoulder with a grunt, the weights for the coat making me grunt as it weighs me down. I pull out a specially marked deck that I had been messing with most of the week, and flipped through the cards, slowly leaking chakra into them. The cards were the current prototype of my experiments with chakra infused paper and reinforcement.

As well as my first semi-stable attempt at Fuinjutsu… sort of.

See, one of the first concepts of Fuinjutsu could be boiled down to a single word.

Containment.

It's a staple across 90% of all common sealing techniques, but usually, it's to keep fuinjutsu stable, it's simple really, very symbolic. Circles symbolize containment. Spirals symbolize Drain, Any polygon shapes indicate Direction and action, More unique shapes represent a unique Meanings.

But the Circle is everywhere. Need to keep your exploding tag stable till it burns? Circle. Want to keep a trigger from reacting with a sequence? Circles.

Prevent a chain reaction? Circles.

So I took that into account. I drew a simple circle on the back of each card, writing in an ink tinged with blood. The paper is bound to me by the resonance ritual, the ink to me by blood. The first few attempts ended with the paper either disintegrating, burning, or exploding with compressed chakra. then I added a triangle, for equilibrium and balance.

Then it worked, sort of.

The charge was faint, the seal leaking. I doubled the circle, two lines wrapping the outside, and inscribed the kanji for Seal on the paper.

Success! It stores chakra without exploding. Issue! I can't retrieve it. I doubled the triangles, one inverted to represent change, one properly oriented, to represent balance. Try again…

And that worked. It's rough, it's crude, any real fuinjutsu master would be up in arms at the lack of economy or style. But the design is simple and fits on my cards just fine. I spent a week working out the kinks and drawing it till I knew the design and its exact measurements like the back of my hand, and then I got a fresh pack of playing cards and got to work.

Now each card in this deck stores the amount of chakra your average bushin takes. But it does take some time to charge the full deck. I could do it in under an hour, but that's a drop from 100% to 20%, and then a long nap afterward. However, i already use cards all the time, adding a low flow of chakra into them over the course of the day is a far more efficient use of time and effort.

One of the things that I really like was the fact that it was far easier to channel my chakra through them as targets, the resonance making them act like a mirror for my signal. I could Kawarimi with any of my cards in a 100 meter radius, or so though the further out the more likely the card… shall we say suffers? From the jutsu. At about 20 meters, they burn out the array. At fifty, the cards rip and tear. At anything above 70 meters… well, 'Confetti' sounds accurate. The distance also increased the chakra cost. The three 100 meters tests were exhausting and took almost half of my chakra pool. My training with them this week had al but drained a few of them, and more and been utterly ripped apart by the stress of use. So I started to shuffle the remains of the deck, sending softly pulsing chakra between the cards to recharge the seals.

I took my time heading home, and as the rain started to drizzle slightly, I slid the cards away. My bag was waterproofed, and my new jacket kept the rain off all but my arms.

I noticed the path was empty and felt a silly urge come up. Mentally translating, I began to sing softly, the cadence was… a bit off, but it worked okay.

"I'm singing…. In the rain…."

By the time I reached Konoha streets again, I was far more relaxed and cheerful.

Always liked that song.

RogueDruid · May 16, 2017

Politics. Politics never change...

They just happen earlier at Konoha Acadamy.

Konoha Academy has a bit of a weird class division. For the first five years of class. It's clearly supposed to be a mixed bag. Clan kids and civilian kids and orphans all mixed up and divided into classes.there's some politicking that goes on that means that certain clan kids always end up in the same class as other clan kids. For instance, the rookie nine are all in the same class already. And that's All the major clan heirs in one class. I call BS on that being a fair and random division of class. Most of the other years it's far more subtle. Oh look, that class has the three branch Hyuuga kids in it. That one has the main Hyuuga. Two members of the Nara clan are each in separate classes, but each has a Yamanaka or an Akimichi in them anyway. My class was always mostly civilians, Asako and me both being a civilian born ninja.

The final year is a bit different.

I look around my class as the final year of the academy starts. I know most of them. Hell, most of them are on friendly terms with me. After all, I don't really have a… rival. I'm kind and polite enough to know their names and something about them. Hell, I've had lunch or sparred with everyone in the room at one time or another, but friends? Not really, the only one is Asako, and that's because she actually came to me to be friends. Apparently, I was a mystery to her, the "The only locked box in a room of open scrolls" as she once put it.

But this class is supposedly the advanced class.

Anyone who has what the higher-ups deem 'potential'. More than half the class are clan kids. Two Hyuuga, both branch family, a Yamanaka and two Nara's, but no Akimichi. Two members of the Inuzuka clan, twin sisters, and their Nin-dog companions. One Aburame, and a dozen assorted orphans or civilians, including me and Asako.

And of course, Asako has to focus her fact gathering on me instead of the clan kids.

Asako has to be an intelligence specialist in the making, I'm positive. Probably pegged me as a man with secrets, and is hoping to learn those secrets. Considering I'm rather private and keep trying to underplay my accomplishments, it's slightly disconcerting how fast she saw through it. It's become a game between us, I keep weaving simple white lies and omissions into my words as we talk, and I occasionally see her eyes get this… glint, when she notices. She'll ask how my day goes, and I'll make a few statements, 'Morning was good', 'swung by the markets this morning for a minute', 'did you know that this happened'? Etcetera.

Then she starts asking for details, talking back and forth and forcing me to double down or contradict myself. In these instances I often find myself taking the path of the Kakashi. "Hmm? Did I say that? How foolish." I swear, if she was any better, she would have already ferreted out how much training and Information I have undergone. I've had to lose her on occasions to train in peace. As well as testing some of my more… esoteric skills. Like the playing cards, which I;m currently working on using my techniques.

The good news of having her as a friend is I've gotten quite good at evasion. At least from where I was at before she started tracking me down. She's supposed to be only an academy student, like me! I have, what, an extra decade and a half of usable experience reading and deceiving people and I still trip up occasionally when she lays it on, and often only barely get away.

As we settled in, Asako sitting at the table behind me and the chair that gives her a clear view over my right shoulder. The door opens, and I glance over, hands hiding the fifty ryo coin I had been dancing among my fingers. I take a look and almost do a double take. Tall, broad build, bandanna, three long slashes across his face
.
Ibiki Fucking Morino. Future head Interrogator of the Konoha torture and interrogation division. Certified badass, torture survivor, and the man who will proctor the Rookie Nines Chunin Exams if canon holds true. Behind him were two other kids. Apparently being escorted to class. But… escorted to class by the future head of the T&I? That means they must have come from out of the village, right? I know things like this have happened before, it's happened in classes earlier on where young kids from out of village joined classes. Some were outcasts from the more isolated clans or apprentices to a retired ninja. Some were just kids who had nowhere else to go and wanted to be a ninja for one reason or another. Most of them usually stay out in the country, becoming village Ninja, or taking up occupancy working as guard forces for small towns off the main roads.

However, these two were being dropped off by the head interrogator. That means they were… interesting. Either potential refugees from another country, or someone that isn't supposed to be here. Shuffling a deck of cards, the green skull once again beneath the pads of my fingers, I looked the two new arrivals over.

The first was a taller pale skinned boy with black hair done in a short braid over his shoulder. He wore a loose vest over a dark gray shirt and black cargo pants, with a short sword slung across his shoulders. Across his arms were what at first glance were some form of clan tattoos, but I recognized at least one of them as some sort of storage seal, but that's it.

The… fuck, I can't tell their gender at a glance. But they were shorter and slimmer than the boy, their brown hair done in an asymmetrical pixie cut, left side falling past the shoulder while the right barely passed the lips, with bright red highlights along the lower edge. Eyes were dark green, almost black, and their outfit consisted of a flowing black shirt and loose dress pants, under a loose fur lined jacket.

They look like a goddamn pair of kids out of a punk rock anime. I am not jealous. I swear. Just… annoyed I didn't decide to dress up like that first. I chose the slightly edgy rogue look, dammit!

They step inside, getting a few glances, but the teacher quickly draws attention, the usual spiel about how we are to learn about the history and pride of Konoha, to better ourselves., blah, blah, blah. I keep one eye on the new kids, however. The boy holds himself a bit loosely, but… something about him is tense. I force myself to dissect what is throwing me off, it's the slant of his posture, leaning forwards slightly, legs shifted so his feet are steady, and his shoulders bent down as if tired, or carrying a heavy weight. He looks… Worn. ready to fight of only because he had to keep fighting. He has a sort of quiet… gravity, about him.

The other one is far harder to read. It seems like they are relaxed, but that expressionless face, which I now notice is covered with faint traces of makeup. Slightly dark eyeshadow, slightly paler lips, faint traces of some sort of powder that make their feature seem… delicate, innocent in a way.

I noticed most how... Still, they were. With a start, I realized what they reminded me of.

The Hyuuga clan members, well, almost. Stoic and silent, nearly motionless. Perfect posture and expressionless features. Maybe someone from an old clan? Hmm.

I tuned back into the speech as I mentally reviewed what he had said. Let see, boils down to. "Welcome back, Konoha and I are glad to see you hope you kept in practice, this year focuses on practical skills over theoretical. Expect heavy physical training compared to last year, More spars longer tests, extra practices held after classes for you all if you wish to polish your skills."

Okay. Now, what are the last parts?

"-I hope by the end of the year, to see most of you pass the graduation exam. Before we begin our first class, I would also like to introduce our new students."
Huh, perfect.

"Please, Introduce yourselves."

The tall boy stepped forwards first, bowing somewhat awkwardly. "Hello, I'm Rinha Reiji, and I look forwards to learning with you all. I enjoy Kenjutsu and am fond of fiction novels." he gave a soft grin. I raised my estimation of him. He was… interesting. It was hard to put a hand on, but he seemed far more focused than he looked. Like he was assessing the class, and when he made eye contact, I knew I was right, his eyes somewhat squinted, were far more… piercing than he appeared. Our gazes met and a sort of understanding came to us, we would keep out the facades for now. And we broke eye contact as smoothly as we made it.

I shifted my gaze to his companion who gave a slow and formal bow from the waist.

"Greetings, I am Kohaku Shimo. It's a pleasure to meet you all, and I wish us all a prosperous future. I am fond of music and seek to be a great Ninja." They rose and you considered her. And yes, I decided that it was likely 'her'. The cadence of her voice and her choice of words simply helped confirm it.

The teacher was quick to point the seats that were empty, one next to me, and another a the nearby table.

Rinha sat next to me, and Kohaku sat at the other table. As he sat by me, I greeted him with a smile and turned back to my cards. I kept flipping them between my hands as Thought about my new classmate. I wondered how this was going to turn out.

-----

"Let see how your practice over the summer kept up, shall we!" Sensei led the class outside, and broke us into lines, and hand us line up around the sparring pit.

"Nara Sarin, Yato Shivo, your up."

The two stepped in, Sarin seeming lethargic, as usual, and the civilian kid across from her was nervous looking. I don't blame him.Sarin may look lazy, but she's fast and goddam vicious.

Sensei signaled them to start, after making the symbol of conflict.

Ten seconds later I stepped aside as Yato got thrown past me.

And so it went the two new kids were being kept out of it, for now, they needed to have the teacher assess them after class, I grew slightly nervous as the time wore on, and I watched most of the class fight. Just as I wondered if I wouldn;t be called today, I got pulled in.

My opponent was Ashi Inuzuka. She just so happened to be one of the best Taijutsu fighters in class. Only behind her twin, Kegawa, and Hyuga Tsuru, who's gentle fist while not perfect, was definitely good enough to take on the rest of the class who isn't fast enough. Ashi was a berserker though, all instinct and aggressive attacks. I could maybe use that.

Fuck.

I sighed slowly and relaxed letting my arms hang by my sides as Ii dropped my coat at the edge of the circle. I was wearing only a black tank top, ninja sandals. and the straight black pants I had chosen to wear underneath the coat today, with my two supply pouches on my belt my only accessory.

I stood at my side of the ring and when called to, I made the seal of conflict, before getting in a stance. It was a soft looking style, arms up almost like I was boxing. Legs set loosely.

The hand came down, and like her usual, Ashi charged, her speed and strength letting her flash across the ring towards me.

I breathed out slowly, and let my mind plan out the next-

-Ashi flew past as I swung around, foot sliding back in an arc, knee bending as I half crouched-

-Step!

I slammed my now pulled back knee forwards and up, almost but not quite a high kick, using chakra to hold my other foot to the ground.

Ashi brought her arm up and blinked in surprise as she got shoved back a full step, and almost stumbled.

And then I was in close.

I started simple, shoulder check to keep her off balance and snap my arm up in a hard right straight, aiming for the shoulder. she steps back again, mouth opening for a yelp only for my other fist to flash out, straight to the diaphragm, making her yelp cut off as a gasp, before snapping my other fist back and into a solid cross at her head.

And then she kicks out, and I have to step back, leaving her a second to cough and recover, wiping the spit off her lips.

"Damn Toru, you aren't fucking around anymore are you." She gives a fanged grin

"No-: She's moving as I speak, but I expected it, ducking under the swipe of her left hand and- "-pe, had time to get-" -elbow coming down, sway back letting it pass, but shoot my hand up, and snag the sleeve as it passes, pulling forwards, and planting my other hand on her other shoulder, and then my knee comes up- "-BETTER." -knee slams into her nose, my other foot had left the ground as I pulled myself up and delivered the knee to his face. My other foot finds purchase on a leg and with a push, I'm flipping over her, off balance as she is, I shove down, hands on shoulders as to drive down with a handstand off her shoulder, aiming to slam her back first downwards, my weight pushing down on her unbalanced one. At the last minute, she manages to twist, and I can't land cleanly, having to roll off a bit.
I stagger from the roll, and take a step, turning at the sound of shifting ground just in time to see a grinning Ashi slam from a crouch fist first into my face.

'Oh god dammit.' is my primary thought as she dives at my now unbalanced form.

The next minute and a half are a mostly frenzied grapple with my dialogue best translated as 'Oh get the fuck off me" "so help me god, my foot is going to go up your ass!!" and "OW, my fucking nose you dick."

And it ends with a bloodied and bruised Inuzuka with a broken nose pinning me on the ground with my arms behind my back, and my own nose bleeding, if not broken, and what seems like a black eye. A few moments later, we perform the seal of reconciliation.

"Alright you two, good match. Ashi, you jumped in too fast, you gave yourself an opening to let Shusho take control, and lost momentum. Shusho, you need to work on your strength, but good control, if you had more strength and were a bit faster, you could have kept it, and controlled the match."

""Hai, sensei.""

As we step away, Ashi gives me a grin. "That was an impressive counter early on. You've gotten really agile Toru!"

"Thanks." I grin, rubbing my arm, where a bruise was forming right on top of my old one. I;d need to do some acupuncture tonight,

RogueDruid · May 18, 2017

Alright, hashed this out last night, edited it up today. Oh, and I mentioned it in chapter... two(?) but most of language and speech you read are actually in story Japanese or the elemental equivalent that sounds and reads and has similarities to Japanese, but for some minor variants.

Also, love the comments and feedback! keep them coming, probably gonna post another mass reply to them later tonight.

Oh, and thanks to Tactical Tunic for throwing ideas at me, Tsuru is based of one of his suggestions.

"So, what's the plan today? You normally try to avoid taking me with you to training." Asako asks, dressed in simple black shirt and skirt, the long sleeves tied to keep them close, and the skirt parted to keep her from losing flexibility. She looks nice, shoulder length straight black/purple hair and pale skin clashing with the dark brown eyes and light makeup she prefers to use. nothing fancy, not like some fo the other girls in class. Or Kohaku.

She also is taking in the deserted corner of training ground 12 with curiosity, it's a small clearing with sparse trees around it, private somewhat, but also easy to be seen by anyone approaching.

I nodded, hands pulling out a very specific deck from my coat. It was dark gray color, with a bright red eye emblazoned on the back, the design similar to the eye of Ra, from my past life. In the center of the eye, there was a small seal, looking like a pair of spirals circling against each other. I shuffled it to calm myself, and order my thoughts, a habit Asako is well acquainted with as her quirked lips show. she knows I'm not exactly a... social butterfly. If I'm not talking to someone about something I know well, or without being on the verbal offensive, I get twitchy. Faking it's easy but being... somewhat truthful makes it harder. Fucking social anxiety crossed over with my reincarnation. I glanced at the backs of the cards as they flowed, the swirls in the eye seems to spin slowly.

"I got a scroll for a Genjutsu, and I was wondering if you'd let me practice setting chakra in your coils, and casting them." I held up a copied scroll, with only the instructions for the Hell viewing technique is written upon it. I was keeping my grandfather's notes… 'in house', so to say. "If you let me, I'll let you learn and practice it on me. Besides, this way you get to practice sensing and dispelling genjutsu."

"Hmm..." Asako hummed to herself as she looked at the scroll and clearly considered her options. "Why, I do believe I'm up for it. Go ahead, hit me with your best shot!" Asako grabbed the scroll and stepped back, looking at me with a grin.

I closed my eye's, focused my chakra, and then looked at her, chakra circling around my hands in erratic waves as I tried to get it under control, hands coming together in the ram seal as I focused on the flow of chakra. A few seconds later I felt it began to flow steadier, and focused back on Asako.

To help modulate the flow, I added a trigger phrase.

"Genjutsu: Contact."

---

Another day of class, another sparring session.

I sighed and held an ice pack to my lip, the swelling of my lip from a clean hit going down. I had to face Ashi again, and after a few minutes of us doing our best to dodge and counter, she landed a clean hit. I made her pay for it, as she was nursing a black eye, but it still hurt. Waiting for the session to almost end, and the hour break for lunch to start. I headed to the boy's restroom, I pulled out an increasingly familiar small leather bundle and unrolled it on the sink counter. Sighing I pulled a small set of acupuncture needles out and slowly poked my chin, using the mirror to feel out my nerves and chakra coils slowly. A few minutes of treatment and the pain started to fade away, and the swelling began to go down somewhat, the pressure that had been building slowly changing from annoying to uncomfortable.

The door opened and I turned to see Hyuuga Tsuru Limp in, eyes half closed in pain and face bruised. Across his shoulders and arms are more bruises, evidence that, as usual, he got matched up with Kegawa Inuzuka, Ashi's stronger, faster, sister.

"You look like you got hit by a horse Hyuuga-san."

"Yeah, Kegawa got… enthusiastic." The Hyuuga mutters, massaging his bruised arms with a hiss. "Damn, it stings."

I always enjoyed hanging out with the branch Hyuuga member, he was… relaxed, and just mischievous to play along when people played pranks or jokes. I looked at his arms and noticed the swelling was blocking his chakra flow, I think. That would explain why him rubbing his arms didn't do much, normally he could do something similar to my acupuncture treatment. Without the chakra control from the swelling, it means he was having difficulties.

"Hey, hold out your arms, I'm going to reduce the swelling on your pathways." I motioned him to the sink and unrolled the leather bundle again.

"Hmm?" Tsuru tilts his head as he steps closer, pale eyes roving over the array of needles in the satchel. "What do you mean?"

"It's' the same thing you were probably trying to do, I'm betting your chakra control is… sketchy, with those bruises. I'm going to ease them open, you should be able to use your technique to heal them faster if I get them clear."

He looks skeptical, and after a moment flickers on his Byakugan, the veins around his eyes bulging and tightening, the pale blue eyes now going glaringly white. "Show me?"

I nod and start, needles slowly tracing the bruised muscles. Every few millimeters I release a small burst of chakra. The energy flowing out and pushing his coils open slightly. Slowly, as I move the needle, the swelling goes down slightly and by the way. Tsuru's gaze is focused, watching something interesting.

As I work, I swap the needles out, tracing the larger coils with thicker needles, tracing off it with thinner points. The unfamiliarity of having to find the coils on someone else's arms is harder than I expected, and what takes me about five minutes takes close to fifteen. With a final poke of chakra, he flexes his hand, looking at it through the Byakugan.

"Interesting, So you channel chakra to force the coils open slightly, and allow you to increase the pressure against the swollen muscles, allowing the swelling to lessen. Interesting." he channels chakra, the tips of his fingers letting go the faintest wisps of blue energy. "This seems similar to the Gentle Fist technique."

"Meh, Same concept, different application. I'm good at that." I muttered, reaching for the other hand only for him to stop me.

"If I guide you through the main coils, would that help?" he asks, head tilted.

"If you could, that'd work fine." I reach into my kit and pull a simple ink pen, passing it over. "Just trace the chakra pathways, I'll follow after."

He nods and quickly and smoothly sketches a series of branching lines from shoulder to fingertip, a bit more than I did on the other arm.

Nodding in thanks, I proceed to trace the lines, taking only a few minutes to finish. At the end, he grins and runs his hand down the lines, smudging the ink. "Thanks, Toru-san, this is great."

"No problem, and please, call my Shusho." I grin back at him, the needles vanishing as I palm them. A few minutes later, we're back in class, enjoying the last of the short break after sparring.

Asako gives me a sort of sideways questioning glance, but I just smile and wave it off.

---

I'm back at Training Ground 19, once again, my new arsenal arrayed around me. With a flicker of movement, I start grabbing the weapons around em and smoothly throwing each one at the targets, alternating target and distance at random.

I've been doing this whenever I've had time recently, trying to get used to reflexively swapping types of the weapons on the fly. The longer it goes, the more tricks I've tried to pull while training, making shuriken curve into the target, making the senbon pin shuriken to the target, making shuriken rebound off each other in mid-air.

It's taken almost a month of hard practice to build up my skill with the new tools, and even now they are a more difficult to use. I figure in a month all my arsenal will be mostly on the same level, except for the windmill shuriken, that's going to take a while. And Wire Manipulation. That's also trailing behind… Meh, tomorrow's Shusho can work on that, I'm going to keep throwing my array of sharp objects at the targets.

The wind blows and for a split second, I can hear the creaking of a tree branch-

And I spin, shuriken snapping up and arcing around and into the leaves of a tree. A split-second later, there's a yelp of surprise and a young girl dressed in a pink Chinese-style shirt and her hair in buns drops from the tree.

"Hello Forge Girl, Nice of you to drop by." My voice and the smirk are enough to snap her out of her funk, making her jump to her feet.

"You!" she gets in a pose, finger pointing at me and eyebrow twitching.

"Me." I raise a hand and catch the spinning tri-blade shuriken as it arcs back around. "Any reason you keep watching me forge girl?"

"Why are you calling me forge girl! And it's because I like weapons, and your one of the only people who knows what they're doing near my age!" She glares at me and considering I'm almost two years her senior, it's fucking hilariously cute. I spin the shuriken on my finger and grin.

"Well, Forge Girl, I call you forge Girl because I don't know your name, and you smell like a forge, Girl." The smile on my face is so wide at that you can count my molars. I snap the shuriken closed, collapsing it and storing it in my pocket.

She glared, and huffed, stomping her foot. "My name! is! Tenten!"

"Ah, Forgive me then forge girl Tenten, I didn't know!" My grin has passed into the fabled 'Shit-eating' territory, of this I am sure. Yes, the months of being sarcastic and backhanded in my first life are indeed useful!

"AGHH!" Tenten growls in aggravation, and her hand comes up and throws the pair of blunted kunai at me.

I'm already in motion, my three-pronged windmill shuriken coming out and spinning as I pull it from the counter, sliding the blades open and into the fan configuration, and then swinging it to knock the two weapons up into the air. "Now now, Tenten-chan, You shouldn't throw weapons at fellow shinobi you could cause some dreadful injuries like that." My grin is even worse now, not just shit-eating, but shit-eatinglysmug.

A split second later, I step forwards, and leap forwards, the sudden motion catching her off guard. A quick leg sweep followed by her kunai being returned leaves her pinned by her sleeves to the ground. She lays there, struggling and muttering curses at me.

"Have a good day, Tenten-kohai, See you around."

A few minutes of gathering up my weapons later and I'm heading out, kicking the kunai out from her sleeve. As I leave, I give one last bit of advice. "Practice your drawing speed, you project your movements too much, and the names Toru Shusho, Tenten-chan."

And then I kawarimi away, making sure to only leave a playing card I stashed among the trees earlier, a spare joker from the half shredded training deck, embedded in the ground.

Bout time I got to use that trick, I've stashed that card there for every day of training this week.

The price of being a badass is high indeed.

---

I sat at the library once more, surrounded by several scrolls and my notebook, as well as two new journals. In one of them, I was recording the design and effects of the card seal, in another, I was marking down notes on the genjutsu training. I was writing it in a mix of English and katakana, interchanging grammar, word structure, and lettering between the two. I hadn't done this before because I didn't see the point, and I kept my notes secure, or so I thought. My grandfather finding the journal was annoying, and so I've started to step up my game.

I flip through 'Chakra manipulations- Volume 4: Developing control' to a passage I remember, something about… ah, here.

How to change the physical nature of chakra. It is a short paragraph, connected to the explanation on the leaf sticking jutsu… just two lines, but I just need confirmation….

Hmm. perfect. I note down what I found, going back and editing a line I had written earlier.

"So Genjutsu is projection of chakra, Ninjutsu is the release of chakra, Taijutsu is the reinforcement of chakra, Fuinjutsu is the containment of chakra…"

I flipped a card from my sleeve, looking at the burned out symbol on the back.

"Containment and projection…. Containment and release…. Hmmm."

I flip my first journal, the one in chakra in general, and look over a section I wrote on how the academy jutsu work.

I was onto something, I could feel it, but I needed more jutsu for reference, more seals for efficiency, more data I couldn't get before graduation.

"Suppose I just have to graduate then, don't I," I muttered, before packing up and returning the books and scrolls to their places.

As I left the library, I pulled out the new deck of sealing cards, inked only the night before, and started to shuffle.

Six months and counting, till Graduation.

(About three chapters or so, The High-Priestess chapters start with graduation and cover it and the first week or so of being a Genin.)

RogueDruid · May 25, 2017

Here we go, second to the last chapter before the Genin Years. next chapter should be them going in for the Acadamy testing

As always, comments and questions much appreciated, and i'll do another mass reply sometime tomorrow.

I lean against a tree, taking deep breaths as I slowly let my coat slide off my shoulders, the late afternoon chill of the setting sun a blessing across my sweat soaked skin.

I glanced at the sun and the markings I had painted on the stone wall nearby, where the shadow of a hanging pole for a flap was resting out of the wall. From what I could see based on the shadow and the marking, I just ran a 28-minute lap of Konoha.

I wanted to hit 20 minutes by the end of the year. I looked up again and nodded as a dust cloud came racing along the path. That would be Maito Gai, completing another twelve-minute lap, on two fingers.

I look behind me at the path I was following, a dirt road that circled just inside the city wall, across town to beneath the monument, and back. I took the time to rest, catch my breath, and sip some water from my canteen. Refreshed, I pulled my heavy weighted jacket back on again, and crouched, before sprinting off, chakra flowing through me.

That Anbu moved faster than I could even think to react. I need to be faster.

I can squeeze out another lap or two tonight.

---

I stood in the clearing and my hands flickered through a shortened set of two hand seals, my chakra seeming to waver and shimmer along my limbs. Time to test it.

First, I walked over to a stump and snapped my foot up and in a high kick. Aiming about chest height. As my leg moved forwards, it almost looked like there were two legs flashing next to each other. Close… So close. I focused on my chakra. Focusing on my grandfather's advice. Split the flow, make it swirl and coat your leg, like casting a Transformation. Make it loose and intangible, like the Clone, then, kick, let the chakra flow off naturally, the images take shape. I stepped back and cocked my leg back and snapped it out again, once twice two, five, a dozen. I let my leg fly and smash at the post, eyes opening.

And by the fourth kick, I saw it, I felt it. My chakra was shifting and projecting a dozen variations of where my leg was at any time. I sped up, and it looks like there was a veritable storm of intangible legs striking at the log from a dozen different conceivable angles.

Suddenly I felt a cramp, and my leg seemed to burn as the chakra flow stuttered, and I stumbled back.

"Wow. Headrush." I muttered, wincing as the pain from the sudden drop of chakra. I feel like I just completed a few hours of clone practice. Ow. I quickly focused on my chakra and winced at feeling how I had dropped below forty percent in what had to be maybe a minute? Ouch, no wonder my leg feels like it's on fire, I've probably got some mild chakra burns from over stressing my tenketsu and coils. Goddamnit, I got caught up in the moment,

I sigh and dig through a pouch at my belt and pulled out a mouthful of honey soaked willow bark, which I steeped in some warm water for few days, sort of like tea, before boiling it back down to the chewy mouthful. It wouldn't do much, but it was easier to get a hold of then pain medication and could be foraged easier, which means fewer questions about why I'm in pain. I popped it in and started chewing, letting the honey and slightly acrid taste distract me from the coarse stringy texture of the bark.

Not very effective on that front, but meh.

I sit up and consider something about what I just did. I had an idea to try based off that move, that I've been wondering about since I first read it. It should take far less chakra, theoretically.

I hold up a single senbon and hold it between my knuckles as I run through the hand seals. My chakra wreathed up the senbon, and I slowly moved the needle back and forth in front of my eyes. As the metal line moved, I watched as the clone like illusions superimposed themselves around the senbon.

I flip it once and blink at seeing the dozens of senbon images that float for a second before fading.

Grinning I spin it again and then cock it back, seeing the illusion of a dozen hands and senbon overlaying and passing through my own. I fired the senbon as hard and fast as I can at a training post, seeing the metal blur.

And I blink at seeing a genuine swarm of twisted and moving senbon surrounds it. For a second, it looked like a cloud of silver floating between me and the target, and then the senbon slammed home, and with a flicker, the illusions faded.

That was impressive, still, only a single senbon being thrown, but that looked damn impressive.

I relaxed and laid back down, folding my arms behind my head and starting to meditate in an attempt to make my chakra flow smooth out and my leg stop getting as agitated. If it works, then by the time I head home, I should be able to walk without limping. Hopefully.

----

I sat in my corner of the workshop, doing maintenance on my tools. The blades of my kunai were sharpened, my senbon both straightened out and filed to finer points. My shuriken were all balanced and sharpened, my windmill shuriken honed to fine edges and the gears and sliding rings oiled and smoothed for near silent deployment.

Beyond that were my new set of close quarters weapons.

Six long and thin single edged daggers, each shaped with a long smooth recurve edges and honed to a razor sharp finish. The metal was mostly enameled a dark gray with a matte finish, and the hilts were all wrapped in soft black leather, soft enough to grip, thick enough to take an impact. I was currently tooling up two sheaths for them, one to go under my kunai pouch would hold two, another across the small of my back under my coat to hold the other four. These were for stealth. Cleaner sharper cuts than a kunai, with better grips for steadier slices.

I had realized something about Kunai, they try so hard to be anything and everything you need. They are the jack of all trades of weapons, they can be throwing weapon, close quarters weapon, camp tool, trap equipment, etcetera. To be fair, it did all of its jobs well, but at the same time, none of them were really done great. As an aspiring weapon expert, I needed to be better at specific tasks. My knives were an example of that, the blades sharper than a kunai, the recurve better for cutting and slashing, the hilts designed for a better grip in close quarters.

I sort of wanted another weapon, but I didn't have time to master one. The basics of knife fighting are already covered for kunai use, and with my daggers, the weight and size are similar enough to make the transition somewhat easy. I just had to focus more on slashing then stabbing.

As for the rest of my arsenal, with the last month and a half of practice, i was confident enough to start carrying some of them with me to class, particularly the various shuriken. I left most of the senbon varieties in my small corner of the workshop, but I did keep a small leather bundle with a set designed to carry poison and a vial of the paralytic I've been practicing with. I could set it up in just a few minutes, and if I needed it for a live fire exercise of some sort, I wanted it on hand. Beyond that was about three dozen standard shuriken, a dozen each of the trifold and the six point, about fifty full senbon, and twenty half-length senbon, and a brace of a dozen kunai. Add in two of the daggers and I'll consider it my basic D-class arsenal, and I'll add the windmill shuriken and double the quantities for C-rank missions. Everything else will get sealed up in small scrolls for supply or storage.

I finally turned to the more personal part of the bench, an open topped box filled with over a dozen pack of cards.

A dozen fully charged packs of chakra sealed playing cards.

They were all basic, the same red colored backing you could find everywhere, and each had the same painstakingly carved Pseudo-Fuinjutsu design on the back.

That box held close to three times my current chakra reserve.

I picked one up and shuffled it, feeling the power brimming under my fingers. The issue so far was using the stored power.

I could use them as relays for the kawarimi just fine, but clones? Henges? Any sort of genjutsu?

Nothing. I just couldn't draw the power out and control it. I could release the power, but without control, the card simply burned away. The array combusting without direction.

I drew a card from a deck, and looked at it, holding it up to the lights of the room as I leaned back in the seat at the workbench.

The Queen of Diamonds looked back at me as I tilted the card this way and that, feeling the chakra underneath my fingers.

"How do I make this work? You store chakra, you store more chakra now than before, with my getting better at the mark. You;r the equivalent of five-minute long Bunshin, but I can't use you. You're stable, you keep the chakra sealed with a loss rate of less than 1% a day, and I can throw you just fine." I demonstrated by turning and throwing the card at high-speed curve across the room, watching it spin as it curved back towards me, the arc taking it close to the walls of the workshop as it flew.

"So what's the damn problem!"

----

I sat with Asako, leaning back in the booth at the sushi bar we tended to frequent recently. She had the genjutsu scroll rolled out in front of her, and I was looking over it as she walked herself through it, watching the long strings of notes and steps.

Then she nodded and looked at me. I willingly met her gaze, and as she put her hands together in a seven seal combination ending with ram, I almost flinched. I could feel it, a feeling like an ice cold needle tracing the pathways in my upper arm, where she was apparently using a tenketsu to receive a jutsu. I snapped my finger on that arm, and not feeling it, focused and tried again. The snap was clumsy, but it worked. I had pushed chakra into my arm, forcing my flow through my tenketsu to back spiral and stutter for a split-second, the flow sputtering along my arm. It showed that along my arm was now a single back mark, and in her hands was an ink brush, again.

She sighed as I stopped her going for a second mark, each one meant to represent five seconds of nonresponse. "Felt it, too focused on my shoulders tenketsu. Try and split the entrance a bit more, maybe the R17 and the R15 tenketsu? You were using the R16, right? But for now, my turn."

I held up one of the red Eye of Horus styled playing cards, and muttered, "Fuingen: Unblinking Gaze." I send chakra through the newly marked faint lines that spiraled inwards around the eye design on the card, the paper reacting to it by growing stiffer under my touch. I focused and can feel the mirrored interlocking spirals in the center focusing my chakra, and then projecting it.

This was always the strangest part. For a moment, I could feel my chakra across from me, layering over her skin, her eyes, and then I could feel her chakra, her tenketsu. I let my chakra settle, like silt in a river or snow during a flurry, slowly shifting it into her coils. Connection made, I mutter again "Hold 'Em high"

I slowly fan the card sideways, revealing three more of the cards beneath it, fanned out back facing her and I watch her gaze as she looks at the cards.

"...Five cards." she finally mutters looking at me again, dark brown eyes focused, but I can see her gaze is slightly off, out of focus. That's a sign it worked.

"Wrong, off by one." I dropped the genjutsu, letting her body's natural flow push my chakra out again, and let the mental image of there being a fifth card fade.

She blinked looked at my hand of cards again and slumped. "You, You are unfair, you know that right?"

I grinned back, "Ah, but Miss Deduction! I can only bewitch the Senses, you can ensnare the Mind. Like seriously, that numbing my pain response thing? It's scary as fuck."

She blushed and grinned. "Well, Mister Illusion, when you are friends with Rise-san, you can occasionally get some good advice from his family on the art of genjutsu."

Ah, yes, Yamanaka Rise, older second cousin to the clan heir Yamanaka Ino. Probably going to be a T&I interrogator, and also Asako's crush.

And God, watching Asako, the cold as ice, and perfectly in control girl facade breaking down and crushing on the blonde pretty boy bishounen was hilarious. Rise was cool though, with the same bright blonde hair that all of his clan had, and sharp regal features clearly developing. He was also fairly relaxed and calm, polite and friendly to most of the class… with the exception of Nara Yumi.

And that was hilarious. Nara Yumi had apparently been set to be betrothed to him when they were younger by their parents. Apparently, when they were young, they were practically inseparable, the whole best friends, undying declarations of love, fake marriages, etcetera. But as she and he grew older, apparently there was a falling out. Rumor say Rise fucked up some big way, and it lead to Yumi systematically dismantling any case and comment about the arrangement, and she eventually made such a compelling case that the contract was canceled and ritualistically burned. I admit that the story impressed me, especially since from what I could find, it was all true.

That apparently left Rise open to being eyed by fangirls, and Yumi open to being hit on by half the damn guys in our year. That didn't last long, the second time one of them got casually defenestrated was enough for most of them to back off.

I broke out of my musings and shuffled my deck of cards once more, and set them aside, before looking at Asako again.

"Your move."

She started her hand seals once more.

RogueDruid · Jun 4, 2017

Time for us to move out of the start, and prepare for the true story, the Genin Years.

I sit on the roof of my house, lying flat and staring up at the stars. I should be sleeping right now, but I'm nervous. I'm rested, I took a nap earlier just in case my nerves acted up, but I wasn't expecting it to be like this.

'Tomorrow…. Tomorrow is the day I become a Genin. I know I have the skills to pass, and practice with the academy three and studying the syllabus means I'm as prepared as I'll get. I've always performed well under pressure anyway.'

My thoughts wander to my room, and the outfit I've laid out. My coat and a close fitting but flexible mix of black shirt, wire under mesh, and close fitting black cargo pants, the full 'D-rank' set of tools and weapons, and two decks of the still only partly working Chakra Cards. I lean back and stare up at the stars. Taking note of the crescent of the moon and, then the stars beyond. I feel a bit of loss at the fact I don't recognize the constellations my memories tell me should be there. No Orion, no Scorpio, no Ursa Minor or Ursa Major.

It makes me feel a bit… Melancholy. No real term to describe it, beyond that. But I take a moment to center myself.

I am Toru Shusho, I am, I act, I am. I am the young Ninja, not the old student or the silent writer. I decided this long ago when I first learned of the memories haunting my mind. I may be a reincarnation, but I am my incarnation now. I am the son of merchants and craftsmen, I am a learning adept in the fields of sleight of hand and illusions, I am Me.

The knowledge is simply a part of me.

Feeling a renewed confidence in myself. I relax, and start to fall closer to sleep, the cool spring air making me relax.

Then I hear a subtle step next to me, and the roof creaks as someone sits by my side.

"Hmm? Shouldn't you be sleeping in your bed, grandson?" come the voice of Grandpa Kosuke from beside me.

I smile and relax, my grandfather's presence has always been comforting and the lack of his visits for the last few weeks, while he was out on a mission, has been… noticed. "I took a nap earlier, Grampa, and I plan to at least get a few hours of sleep. Just… trying to settle my thoughts."

Gramps nodded and settled down beside me. "Ah, I know that sort of feeling well. The first day of school, first dates, graduations, first missions… All very nerve racking." he chuckled and I look over at my grandfather. He's dressed in a simple brown kimono and hakama combo, and as I watch he pulls a wooden pipe from his pocket and winks. "Don't tell you mother." he mutter's, side eyeing me before lighting up. I know that mom doesn't like tobacco in the house and nod, just relaxing next to my grandpa.

"Hey, Grandpa?" I ask quietly, eyes closed and enjoying the scent of the smoke, sweet and subtle, relaxingly so.

"Yes Shu-Kun?" he murmurs softly.

"Can you tell me a tale?"

"Hmm…. I believe I have the time for a simple one. Let's see… Well, It was back before the second war, after the first by a few years, but it was… quiet if not quite peaceful." he started. "I had a mission about a Pig, a boar to be exact. The client wanted it caught, and delivered..."

He went on to describe the scene.

It wasn't long before I drifted to sleep.

---

I woke bright and early, the early false dawn visible out my window even as my alarm clock went off by my head. Apparently, Gramps decided to put me to bed last night. Gotta thank him for that later. I stretched, and tapped the alarm clock, silencing it. I slid to my feet and headed to the bathroom down the hall from my room, and did my morning routine of shower and ablutions, before returning to my room. In the spirit of the day, I dressed to kill… in only a sort of metaphorical sense, anyway.

I pulled on my black clothes, and the green coat over it, having removed the sleeves and shortening it from long coat to jacket last night, leaving me with a vest that showed the mesh sleeves that ran down my arm to my elbows. I considered bringing my trick sleeves but finally decided not too. I still wanted a surprise for whoever my sensei and team became. Though… it's likely they knew about the sleeves already? Goddamn Ninja MIndgames.

I spent a moment to load up, concealing several senbon under the mesh on my body, and settling the two pouches at my waist and the single kunai holster on my leg, wrapped with matte black dyed cloth instead of the bandages that seemed so common.

Around my left hand, I wrapped a similar black wrap, up to my mesh sleeve and back down, lacing between my fingers and knuckles like a taijutsu expert. Layered under the ribbons on the back of my hand and arm were some of the half sized senbon, forming a slightly ridges metal guard that would stand up to a kunai if necessary, or an emergency set of weapons in a pinch.

Satisfied with my outfit, I gave my hair a quick once over, the loose bangs that hung down to my eyes being held back by another black ribbon.

And with that, I headed down. My mother was placing the table as I stepped up and I gave her a hug and sat down. My mother and I made small talk, and I knew my dad had already headed to open the stall. I finished a fairly solid, if light, breakfast. Rice and eggs and bacon, and headed out, passing by the stall and hugging my dad before heading out to the academy early.

I walked slowly, not in any real rush. I mean, yeah, today was test day, but i was… confident, at least that I would pass. But I was also hesitant. This step.. this change in my life would be intense. I would be joining what amounted to the military, I would be committing myself to a life of war, and violence, and super-powered fighting. I was… conflicted about that.

But a part of me, the part of me that was a writer, a fighter. It was eager. It was willing and ready to go. The rest of me may have had reservations, but that part of me was ready. It wanted to go forth, and be a fighter, to take on impossible odds and win, to learn everything about this wonderful, frightening, Impossible world.

I wasn't sure how I felt about that.

----

I settled into my seat as my classmates started to slowly wander in. I was early, with the majority of the class only just starting to arrive. Coin in hand once more. The same one that Asako had marked all those months ago. The one that still held the scratch that marked my first true friend in this world. I ran my finger around the edge, worn as it was. I palmed it and hid it once more, the coin finding a resting place under the wrapping for my kunai pouch.

Settling down, I watched as the class filled. And at 8:00 on the dot, Sensei walked in. He addressed the class.

"Today is the final exam for the year. If you pass, and I expect most of you to do so," he shot a glare at some of us, "Then you will go on to become a genin. Make me proud, work hard, and show what you've learned. First up, the written test." he pulled a sheaf of paper from a file he had brought in.

Passing it out, he had us pull out pens and pencils and then brought out a timer. "You have one hour. Begin."

----

I stood with the rest of the students outside next to the taijutsu rings.

Sensei and both Mizuki and Iruka stood across from us, and each took a section of the field. "When we call your name, come and present your skills, the match ends at two minutes or if one of the participants are removed from the ring or pinned."

I stand and watch. Both Inuzuka put on good showings, as does Tsuru. All managing to get their proctors (Who are definitely sandbagging) out of the ring or by pin. A few others get pinned themselves, including Rise and a pair of civilians who I doubt are making genin. Reijo gets pushed out of the ring, but he fights for it, and both the Nara stay in the ring the whole time but are unable to score a solid win. Asako fights for it, but she overextends herself and goes flying, and then It's my turn.

I step into the ring with Iruka and instantly take my stance, vest on and arms up and tight, I've refined my stance over the year, and countless duels with the rest of the class have helped lead to great strides in my ability. But I already know I'm outmatched.

Which is why I removed the weights in my jacket last night.

All eighty pounds of it.

I lead with a sharp kick, pushing off and low as soon as Iruka calls start, the motion smooth and fast, and foot coming from low in a sharp curve, aiming for Iruka's hip. He sways back, dodging it smoothly and adjusting to a more evasive stance, and I respond by planting both hands and lashing out up with my other leg in a modified donkey kick.

He dodges, as I expected, but by then I'm already swinging around, planting the first leg, my right foot, on the ground and the other out, in an imitation of a sprinter's crouch, and then I'm kicking off, Iruka only barely off balance from the dodge, but I'm up close now. Lashing out with a series of sharp combinations of jabs. He ducks and bobs around me, hands coming up to deflect and block most of my more accurate strikes.

He's giving me a smile and starts fighting back, trying to gain the momentum. And that's when I go for it.

He goes for a strong right cross, and lean backward, feet flashing up and wrapping around his extended right arm, as I put both my chakra and my full body into a backwards flip, taking Iruka off guard and sending him rolling over me to avoid a broken arm.

And then I kicked out and catch him in the shoulder, as he tries to rise, and he takes a step, off balance.

And he steps out of the circle.

"Match to you, Toru-san." He says as I roll to my feet.

"Thank you, Iruka-sensei." I grin and bow before we make the seal of reconciliation and I step out of the ring, just in time to see the last of the class finish their bouts.

-----

We lined up at the target ranges next, and the class cycled through, ten Kunai, ten Shuriken.

The class average was about 16/20, from what I saw. With a few, like the two Nara, Tsuru, and Surprisingly Reiji and Rise getting perfect scores. And then I went. I stood at rest, hands in my pocket and at my side. And waited. When Mono-sensei said fire, I blurred. Hands coming up and flicking out three times, once with a stack of shuriken, twice with a half brace of kunai each.

A three count later and the dummy was a pincushion. Both eyes, throat, the artery on the neck and a line across the chest with the shuriken and then ten kunai in a close cluster on the chest, all aiming for lungs heart and stomach.

Mono-sensei looked at it and nodded. "Good spread and good speed. 20/20"

I grinned and nodded, before returning to the line.

----

Finally, I walked into a side room where Mono-sensei awaited.

"Perform Bushin please." he said, looking at me with only a polite expression of interest on his face.

I nodded and snapped my hand together in a ram sign, mentally adding tiger and snake to my chakra changes, and suddenly there were four ghosts of me, all perfectly mirroring me and surrounding the room.

Mono-sensei smiled and nodded, before checking off his list. Then he reached into a wooden box near him and pulled out a black cloth backed headband, the iconic spiral leaf on it.

"Congratulations Genin Toru." Mono Sensei nodded and handed me the band.

With slow and precise motion, I wrapped it around my left thigh, the plate above my knee, letting the plate shine against my black pant leg. I bowed and stepped outside of the room.

I did it. I was a Genin.

Now things get Interesting.

End of Act 1- The Magician

On setting out, the Fool immediately encounters the Magician (1) and the High Priestess (2) - the great balancing forces that make up the perceived world. It is a feature of the material universe that as soon as we name some aspect of the experience, we automatically evoke its opposite.

The Magician is the positive side. He represents the active, masculine power of creative impulse. He is also our conscious awareness. The Magician is the force that allows us to impact the world through a concentration of individual will and power.

RogueDruid · Jun 6, 2017

Office Of the Hokage: New Genin Assessment

Graduating Genin: Toru Shusho

INSTRUCTOR: Mono Daisa (Chunin. See records for further Information)

General Genin Rankings: Rankings are marked out of a total of 10, with five being the Acadamy Standard for excellence. 1 is unskilled by shinobi measurements, and 10 is approaching a mid-Chunin level capability.

Taijutsu: 4/10. Technically skilled but still somewhat undeveloped. It is recommended for Toru to learn the basics of a soft style, possibly several, to augment his current personal style. Note, when weapons are added to taijutsu skills, rank increases to 7.

Genjutsu: 7/10. Knows at least one D-rank Genjutsu, Adept at both projecting and dispelling Genjutsu.

Ninjutsu: 5/10. Academy standard skills. Knows the A3 set and theorized to know several variations of the same.

Speed: 7/10. Training with weights has above standard speed and precision.

Strength: 4/10. Weights again, He is strong enough to outrank most other Civilian Students physically but has not yet equaled Academy Standard yet.

Intelligence: 8/10. Unable to provide a measured report, but it's estimated that he is in the top 5 percent of his class mentally.

Stamina: 6/10. Weights once more, they seem to have had a positive effect of staying power. Very determined.

Chakra Reserves: 5/10. Above average for Civilian Born, about even with projected academy standards.

Chakra Control: 8/10. Knows Tree walking technique, attempting to learn Water Walking. High control compared to original expectation.

Additional Capabilities: Noted beyond Genin expectations and untested.

Deception: 6/10. Has some skill with Deceit, has been constantly sandbagging his capabilities. (ANBU General Surveillance Report 1437-Academy Confirms) Toru Shusho has been keeping several Jutsu/ Weapons/ Skills hidden from class and me.

Sleight of hand: 10/10. Has come close to surpassing my experience and capability to follow his actions when attempting to conceal actions.

Shurikenjutsu: 9/10. Generally referred to as highly Adept, Has shown an innate understanding and use of mid-ranged throwing weapons, with a pointed preference towards Senbon usage.

Fuinjutsu: 3/10. Currently still only in the basics of Fuinjutsu, Toru has nevertheless shown a talent for using the basic concepts in a variety of ways to improve himself.

Stealth: 6/10. Proven to be remarkably adept at using both crowds and urban environments to navigate without drawing attention.

Recommendation: Train with the eventual goal for admittance to either Black-Ops, Infiltration or Intelligence work. Has marked potential in those fields. Advise that he be taught both Poison Use and Applied Infiltration, with a marked focus on increasing both stealth and deception, as well as training Physical Fitness to match. Advised to be taught Psychology and Disguise skills.

Regards: Mono Daisa.

RogueDruid · Jun 6, 2017

Comparison/ Rookies and Shusho
	Shusho Toru	Naruto Uzumaki	Sasuke Uchina	Sakura Haruno	Shikamaru Nara	Rock Lee	Negi Hyuuga	Tenten (canon)
Taijutsu	4	3	7	3	4	10	10	8
Genjutsu	7	1	5	2	5	2	5	6
Ninjutsu	5	6	7	4	7	2	4	5
Speed	7	7	8	4	4	10	9	7
Strength	4	6	6	2	5	10	4	7
Intelligence	8	4	7	10	10	4	7	9
Stamina	6	10	7	3	6	10	7	6
Chakra Reserves	5	10	6	2	6	5	5	4
Chakra Control	8	2	6	10	8	1	10	7

Total Ability Rank	54/90	49/90	58/90	42/90	55/90	54/90	61/90	59/90

To lay out roughly how Toru compares to some of the rookie nine. Note, a 10 is maxed out on this scale, and are mid-level Chunin ranked or higher. Consider every 10 on the board as adding something close to a +5 to total ability of that person, and this doesn't represent the unique non-recognized skills which help push them all up close to 30-50 points higher when ot comes to actual combat capability.

Also, Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, Shikamaru are all fresh from the academy in this ranking, while Gai's team is Entrance to Chunin Exams (1 year as Genin).

Kioras said:
Sounds like they still don't have a strong feel for his abilities, his Jonin sensei will have to properly push him to know his actual skill level.

Looks like civilian background are a negative for him, chakra reserves, strength and stamina are all things that Clan kids got above him due to specialized training and a genetic advantage. He has an advantage with how hard he pushes himself though.

Good eye, glad I got the message across of where his downsides lie.

ptbptb said:
What you did there, I see it.

Heh Sorry, was that a bit too sharp? I'll hone it down.

TheLurker said:
Huh. Y'know, anko would actually probably be a really good teacher for him

Probably.

RogueDruid · Jun 13, 2017

Sorry for the wait, it took a bit to map out all the characters and their specializations on paper. suffice to say, all of the teams have been carefully considered.

Anyway, onwards! enjoy the chapter.

The two-week long break after becoming a Genin of Konoha was busy. I had to fill out a stack of paperwork affirming my personal history, family information, legal information and set up a bank account. Alongside that, I also had to get my ID taken, and my status affirmed with the various Shinobi Services.

The upside is that I got a chance to talk to some of the merchants my family works with, +all of them connected through one of the local commerce guilds. Well.. Commerce Guild is a bit… much. It's more a bunch of old merchants who get together a bar once a month and bitch about prices and customers. On paper, they call themselves the South Konoha Commerce Guild.

Whatever. Anyway, now that I'm officially a genin, I can browse some of the more… specialized stores. Which means I now have some shinobi grade medical supplies and a new book on sealing, as well as the thicker heavy duty wire I wanted for a while now. Grampa Kosuke also swung by after the test and handed me a new book on seals, and two scrolls on basic jutsu.

The first, was a D-rank Earth jutsu, the Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique. It wasn;t too complex, but it was the basis for many of the other Earth travel Jutsus. The other scroll was even simpler, a full breakdown on the Bunshin technique. Again, Gramps had gone through and added notation, pointing out useful anecdotes and weird reactions. I grinned and hugged him, and we sat and had tea for a while.

However, before the first week was up, gramps had another mission to go on and was expected to be out of the village for a month up to half a year. We said farewell and I buckled down to train until the day we were assigned teams, this time taking care to focus on my flexibility and balance, my new jutsu could wait. I didn't want to use it and fuck up and bury myself by accident.

I strung up a simple web of the high-grade ninja wire around the second floor of the alley behind the shop and practiced stepping across it often while doing my normal shuffles and card tricks, trying to keep my balance and my cards together. It was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be, the shifting of the cards and the sway and elasticity of the wire was… annoying. Still, by the end of the break, I was confident that I could wire walk if needed, though I would need to practice more sooner or later.

As the second Monday from the test rolled around, I walked my way to the academy, cards flickering between my hands. 'Draw Heart Ace, cut and slide, palm king/clubs, slide, count, slide, flip, slide, show the Ace and the King, shuffle, slide show the rest of the cards, slide, shuffle King and Ace missing…' the pattern calmed my nerves. I didn't know how this would go.

Regardless, as I reached the classroom, the cards all fell back into a single deck and I vanished it in a pocket of the jacket.

I found my seat, as usual along the inner wall. I sat back and slid my hands into my pockets, my fingers carefully tracing the cards and coins and blades hidden there. Asako all but skipped into class only a few minutes later, though she managed to keep her movements calm and collected.

And then I saw her eyes and knew that inside she was giddy as a school g- ...wait, that's a bad comparison, she is a school girl. Fucking Idioms... Fuck, where was I. Asako slid into the seat above me and I checked her off my mental list.

Nevermind. Focus Shusho. Focus!
I focused on relaxing and leaned back against the wall as Ii waited for the rest of the class to show up. One by one they all came in.

Let's guess the teams, shall we? If the memories of canon hold true then the Rookie and Kunoichi of the year should be with the dead last. That would be…Probably Hyuuga Tsuru, Kegawa Inuzuka and the dead last would be… not Yamanaka Rise, but one of the two civilians? Maybe? I was distracted by the genin exams and didn't get a chance to see who performed the worst. Fuck.

Okay, other logical teams? Rise will probably end up with one of the Nara girls, definitely not Yumi, however, since Yumi and Rise have a history. So Nara Sarin is a likely bet. But maybe… Fuck, I could see Asako joining them as a research and intelligence unit. But who else… maybe Hyuuga Sho? He's quiet and studious, but maybe that would work? Who else…. I could see Rinha Reiji and Inuzuka Ashi being on an assault team, with maybe Nara Yumi being their third? Her style would act as a good support class, taking lethal potshots while the other two tank and aggro…. But fuck, Yumi would be way better as an infiltrator and subterfuge expert… Hell, Yumi and I might be on a team due to our infiltration and stealth scores, I think we were both top four? Damn. There's also Aburame Inago, who is the perfect example of present and invisible. He's a solid fighter but seems to prefer his specialization of a tracker.

And then there's Kohaku Shimo, who showed herself to be a fire jutsu specialist so far, with a specialty of, surprisingly, quick and effective fire jutsu. Lots of small fire Jutsu's that are remarkably nimble. On top of that, she has to be the most diplomatic person in class, though… she's distant.

Let see who else is notable… there's Tetsu Shimoda, aspiring kenjutsu expert, and civilian born. Yato Shiva, potential medic. And another Four civilians who don't really have much going for them one way or another. Hmm…

I was dragged from my thoughts by Asako poking me in the shoulder, looking somewhat serious. "Hey, Shusho. What's on your mind?"

I blinked and raised an eyebrow, before responding. "Trying to map out potential team formations. Its… Difficult."

Any further questions were cut off by Sensei entering the room.

"Alright, Listen up." Sensei set a clipboard on the desk and stood before it. "Today you are all about to take the first step. The first step beyond these halls, beyond your beginnings. Clan members, Civilian born or otherwise, you all have proven you are skilled enough to become Ninjas of Konoha. You all have proved to be worthy of the title of Genin." he paused, and looked around. By this point, everyone, including me, was sitting ramrod straight and attentive in our chairs, looking at out sensei.

"The roads ahead of you all are dangerous. You all will face unknowable dangers and unfathomable foes. I expect you all to survive, to triumph. I know you can."

He paused and then picked up the clipboard.

"Now, Teams. Teams one through twelve are currently on rotation. So we're starting with team thirteen. Thirteen is Hyuuga Tsuru, Inuzuka Kegawa, and Kaito Reo. Your sensei is Hamaki Himura." I nodded, Kaito as dead last makes sense. He wasn't horrible by any means, but he just wasn't great by any measure. " Team fourteen is Nara Sarin, Yamanaka Rise, and Mari Asako, Your sensei is Nara Daen." I glanced back to see Asako looking conflicted, on one hand, she kept glancing at Rise with a soft smile, on the other she looked at my direction with a frown. Apparently, she wanted to be on the same team as me. I shared some of her disappointment, but now I was also curious. "Team Fifteen is Hyuuga Sho, Aburame Inago, and Yato Shiva. Your sensei is Inuzuka Gaku." Huh, that's a support team build. Yato is an upcoming medic, though not particularly outstanding yet. Inago and Sho, however, are scouts. They're a search and rescue team in the making. "Team Sixteen is Inuzuka Ashi, Rinha Reiji, and Tetsu Shimoda.Your sensei Is Dōtō Akimichi." Huh, a team for close quarters? Reiji and Tetsu are both swordsmen, though Tetsu might be lacking a bit compared to Reiji. And Ashi and her Nin-dog companion Sanji might be a good match, with a better hand to hand expert on the team.

"Team Seventeen is Nara Yumi," Kay, "Kohaku Shimo" Kay, "And Toru Shusho."Oka- huh? Wait, that's a weird mix? a highly intelligent future femme fatale, a fairly androgynous royal blooded girl, and me?

I took a second to process that, then I was dragged back by sensei continuing.

"Your sensei is Yamanaka Santa."

Huh. I wasn't expecting that.

RogueDruid · Jun 20, 2017

Took longer than I planned for this. And no, I wasn't planning to write most of this, especially Kazuki. The Guy just showed up and I had to shift to cover for it.

As the last team (the remaining three civilians) got assigned to team 18, I was lost in thought. Mostly I was considering my team. I noticed that Yumi has a similar look, while Kohaku was inscrutable as ever, though looking towards me and Yumi.

Hmmm…

First? Take a step back, look at this from an outside perspective.

Kohaku has to be some form of nobility, just going by bearing, style, and mannerisms. How does that factor into this? Well, there's potential for Information, maybe even Infiltration? Being a noble and knowing the in's and outs of upper-class society means that she's rather uniquely suited for a variety of diplomatic and infiltration missions. Add in the fact that she's a fairly skilled user of Fire jutsu, and moderately skilled at stealth, and that makes sense for an infiltration team. Or a Diplomatic role, of some variety.

As for the other team member, Yumi is a skilled containment expert. It's expected, of course, her whole clan is renown for their shadow techniques, particularly the ability to take control of another's body. She ahs potentially one of the highest intellects in class, an affinity for stealth and concealment that put her ranking at second in class. In fact, her skill was just above mine in concealment and only barely under Aburame Inago's in the rankings, (though I was best at urban infiltration... not important. Moving on). Add on top of that her clan's renown genius intellect, her own drive to succeed, A startling ability to direct and manipulate gossip without seeming too, and the fact she is really good at hiding her thoughts, and she's a fairly solid base for a future and leader or high-level infiltrator and Intelligence operative.

Her and Kohaku together definitely makes sense in that light.

And there's me. A bit of a wild card, good at misdirection, tools, stealth, and sleight of hand. I'm fairly sociable, and polite, I have a fairly high level of combat capability for my age (especially as a civilian), and plenty of skill with thrown weapons and ninja tools. On top of that, I'm fairly well versed in merchant style politics and diplomacy. Part of that come from covering for dad on the stall some afternoons, and part of it comes from living in the middle of the southern market. The sheer number of people and sales and trade that happen literally on my doorstep has given me a very good foundation for dealing with money and people. its when it comes to social situations where I get hesitant. When I'm talking and theres no real end goal, I start to wander and falter.

That means this is shaping up to be a fairly high profile team.

And our Sensei is a Yamanaka… That means body mind jutsu, mindscape information jutsu, and maybe a sensor? I don't remember how much of the clan has the ability of a sensor, but I remember that they had at least some, Ino is an example of that. There's also the fact that he's likely affiliated with the T&I department, at least by association.

The rest of the morning was a basic review of general shinobi protocol. who to go to for certain information, places to check in or visit during an emergency, basic regulations that apply to us, and so on and so forth. most of it was stuff we all should have picked up as we got affairs in order, but some of it was new to me. like the fact that Shinobi were expected to schedule at least one month worth of off time over the course of a year for health and mental stability. There were exceptions made for long-term operations and times of emergency. For Genin, this usually was covered by having the Jonin-sensei give one day of the week as a 'Free Day'.

As Mono-Sensei finished up and dismissed us for two hours to get acquainted with our teams, I looked at my two new teammates with a question of my face.

Both girls looked at each other, and in a flurry of body language hashed it out. I barely caught it, but it went something like.

'Should we follow his lead'

'Why not?'

'Pride?'

'He can pay for lunch'

'Cool'

Or at least, that's what I caught of the conversation.

Girls are scary. My past life knew this well, and I respect his knowledge on this. I'm not the one who grew up in a neighborhood where I was outnumbered 7 to 1 by the girls my age. Damn… poor past me. He only had one bro. Anyway. The girls both looked back and nodded, and we all got up, the rest of the class chattering loudly as teams got together and started chatting. I could also hear the loud chatter of the other classes in the hallway. And made a decision, motioning with my head to follow, I chose a different route.

I made my way across the room to the window and turned around to the others before waving for the two girls, who were still trailing after me to follow. I leaned back, before falling out of the open second story window, twisting back and around to land on my feet, and rolling to break my fall, the two girls both leaped out a moment later, Yumi vaulting the window sill and landing with a crouch and Kohaku leaping almost gracefully to land with only a slight twist to lessen the impact.

"So, can we talk now?" Yumi deadpanned, making me shuffle a bit and rub the back of my neck.

"Sorry, but it was going to get loud, and that makes me… not quite nervous but let's say uneasily." I grumbled hands flashing as a deck of cards slid into place, and started flipping slowly. I glanced from Yumi to Kohaku. "You have a preference for lunch? cause I have a place in mind..."

"Can we get Tempura?" Kohaku spoke up, head tilted as she looked at me and Yumi.

"Tempura sounds fine," she said, shrugging and sliding her hands in her pocket, the classic Nara laziness presenting itself. I did see her eyes were still sharp and focused, however, making me think that for the most part, the lazy look was just an acquired trait. Interesting.

"Alright, that works. our closest option is Fubuki's, but could we hit Kazuki's Street stall instead? it's only a bit further away."

"Kazuki's?" came the double reply from both of them.

"Wait, you've never been to Kazuki's? Well, I think I know where we should head. Kazuki isn't quite as great as Fubuki's grill, but he makes up for it with the atmosphere in my opinion." I started, as we start walking, cards bridging my hands before I started cycling them, forming a sort of figure eight pattern of cards flicking back and forth.

I focused on relaxing, my nerves were still trying to murder my stomach, and that was bad. I let myself bleed into my hands, meditative focus kicking in as I began to divide myself, only a small part of me focused on the conversation at hand, while the rest devoted myself to the motion of the cards.

For a moment, I slipped into a moment of meditation and there was nothing but a faint awareness of the world next to me, focused on the cards in my hand.

Yumi and Kohaku were making small talk, something about Kegawa looking at Tsuru like he was a piece of meat. I know I heard the word Tsundere in there somewhere.

I shuffled faster, and with a blur of motion, two cards from the deck got flicked out, moving in high slow arcs over and back from around my head. They came right back with gravity and landed on the rest of the cards, two queens. Clubs and Spades. Huh.

And like that, the world came rushing back, and I realized we were almost at Kazuki's.

It was the work of but a moment to lead the girls down the fairly clean side street to the stall, where it was in a half sized back lot. "Yo, Kazuki-San! You here?" I called out, the stall was empty at the moment, as we had beat the usual lunch rush by... three hours?

"Cards? That you?" came the reply, before an older man with salt and pepper hair and circular glasses leaned up over the counter. He was thin and smiled upon seeing you and your companions. "Cards! You come bringing guests that aren't that Asako brat! What's the occasion!"

"Oh you know, you go to school, you graduate, you get a Team, You decide to introduce them to the most deceptively knowledgeable old coot. You know, the usual." Both my teammates glanced at me and then Kazuki. Yumi narrowed her eyes, mouth quirked as she put it together. Kohaku was only a second behind, eyes widening slightly in surprise as she realized something.

Kazuki responded by leaning forwards and grinning. "What do you need, Cardsmith?"

Ah, the wonders of being a merchant's son.

Interesting Connections.

"Tell me while you cook Kazuki," I said, pulling out a deck with a crudely drawn bag on the back, with the ryo symbol prominent. "What is the draw for info on the jonin Yamanaka Santa."

"Hmm… Red seven should cover it." he murmured, and I almost winced. That boiled down to two weeks labor for Kazuki to get the card back or the ryo of a week of shop work and a few days of selling my creations at the stalls from the card. Not particularly… cheap.

I nodded regardless and pulled out a seven of hearts, across the face of the card was a simple sealing array. Single use, and only just big enough that it covered practically the entire card. Funnily enough, almost two years of reading about simple sealing scroll have given me a level of efficiency when it came to storage seals. I also drew out a two of clubs, and tapped it saying "for lunch" Kazuki nodded.

Kazuki grinned, his hand swept over the cards, and they seemed to disappear. He looked at my teammates, both of whom were both looking curious at our transaction. Kazuki took our orders (plain tempura pork and vegetables for Kohaku, teriyaki glazed beef for Yumi, and a sweet teriyaki bowl with pork gyoza and tempura vegetable for me.) before he started talking.

"I'm guessing Cards didn't tell you anything, based on how you're acting, so let me introduce myself," Kazuki said, even as his hands got to work. "The names Kurama Kazuki, retired Shinobi. I run a tempura stall, listen to gossip, and keep my customers satisfied." he looked at the girls, both of whom were mighty interested.

"Cards here is also one of my favored customers, and you might be as well. I offer an information service for young Shinobi. Nothing classified, nothing crazy, but if you have a mission with a new teammate, or are looking for advice on who to choose for a mission from the independent genin and chunin, I can help you out. Cards here has been here for a year almost, starting when he came with a girl he knows, Asako. She's a bit too inquisitive for my tastes, and she doesn't like my air of disrepute," He said, gesturing at the shadowy back alley the stall was in, "But Cards is smart. It helps I know his family, including his grandfather. And I've known Cards on and off since he was a tiny little kid."

"You know my gramps and you still won't tell me about is reputation," I muttered, as Kazuki grinned at me.

"Ah, but your grandfather called in a token to seal that story from you. Sorry," he said.

He started dishing up the orders, placing them in travel boxes.

"Now, Onto the deal. Yamanaka Santa is obviously a member of the Yamanaka Clan and is very skilled with the clan techniques. He's okay at Kenjutsu, enough to be considered Anbu proficient, but not much more, and prefers Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and Taijutsu in combat. He is also a skilled sensor. He's 22, turned jonin three years ago, and while not a rising star, is considerably accomplished. He specializes in poison, infiltration, information gathering, and undercover protection detail." he slid our orders out and kept talking, and I immediately starting eating, minding my manners as he spoke. Following my lead, the girls did as well.

"He is your jonin sensei, and as such will likely be focusing on the basics first, as this is his first time with a team. If you ask politely, I expect he'll help you develop some basic sensory skills and stealth. That's All I got for now."

I paused in my consumption of pork Gyoza (tasty tasty pork gyoza…. hmmm) and nodded. "Thanks, Kazuki." Oh, yeah. I pulled out a notebook, scribbled down the team compilation, and handed it off. "Genin teams, Class 1." he took it, read it, nodded, and then slid the 2 of clubs back across the counter.

"Thanks, Kid, now finish up and get out. Don't want you around for the next deal." I nodded and stood, a box of food coming with me as I waited for the girls to get ready to go.

"Thank you very much, Kazuki-Senpai" Kohaku murmured, bowing her head formally.

Yumi followed suit, but much more relaxed. "Yeah, thank you Kaz-san, It's been... Enlightening." The glance and raised eyebrows at me were enough to make me nervously rub my neck. the fact that Kohaku had this slight smile that seemed to positively radiate annoyance only made this worse.

The old man chuckled and waved us off.

Now, why did I get the feeling from the looks I was getting from my team that I was going to be interrogated.

Or maybe tortured.

RogueDruid · Jun 29, 2017

This... This was a pain. And before you say this is way too smoothly handled, the issues brought up in this will cause problems for quite some time. but all the members here are intelligent and levelheaded enough to find middle ground here.

I narrowed my eyes at the boy, my new teammate, who was nervously fiddling with a pen, the plastic and metal circling and spinning in his hand. I don't think he was even thinking about it, it was just reflexive. Measuring weight and speed and distance in his hands without looking. The pen did a flip, coming up half a foot and spinning erratically before he caught it and kept it spinning down and around as he twisted his hand, not breaking the movement.

This was fucking annoying. How the hell did I miss Toru's mind? I knew he was perceptive and sly, but this level of foresight, while not like that of my cousins and family, was still way more than I expected.

Fine, time to reevaluate.

Toru Shusho.

Physically? Tallest boy in class, but only by about two inches over Hyuuga Tsuru, and slim. Long limbs and thin torso and shoulders, sharp features though not aggressively so, though that may be the fact it's still blunted by a bit of baby fat, though even that is thin. Not particularly handsome by traditional measures. His hair is a pale brown color, feathered and stained by the sun, and maybe a forge? That would explain his strange tan, which seems to be focused on his front. Though that usually isn't noticeable. Dark blue eyes, which remind me of sodalite minerals, dark and streaked with pale shades that seem to radiate from his pupil.

His clothes are definitely ninja-grade gear, even if it's not quite standard. His long dark green jacket reaches to just above his knees and is split up to his waist on the sides, forming a sort of layered skirt around his hips, but giving easy access to his pouches. Beyond that, it has more pockets and seams then expected. I've counted a half dozen concealed pockets that he reaches into without thinking, often to pull some distraction or another free, but also senbon, or shuriken. His outfit under that is far less conspicuous. A dark blue shirt stretched almost skin tight and under that a long sleeved mesh shirt, that ran to his fingers. His pants could pass for standard shinobi cargo pants, but they are straight and clean cut, and if he didn't have his kunai holster and dual shuriken pouches strapped to his thighs I could almost consider them dress pants.

Mentally? I've heard him and Asako go at it. Both of them playing games of deflection and evasion. I have no doubt that he could lie and deceive me if he needed too. But I also know that the busy hands are a distraction. They only really come out when he is nervous. And when he lies? He's not nervous.

But what have I missed…

Let's find out. I look to see Kohaku has a similar line of thought, and so we both box in Shusho, her on his left me on his right. And we both give him the Look. He finches, hands almost stumbling as he keeps the pen spinning.

"So, Toru-kun. What was THAT." I start, voice sweet and kind, but instantly I see him pale and flinch. Huh, smart man.

"Yes, Toru-Kun. What was that?" Kohaku echoes from the other side, and I watch and can see him flicker through what looks suspiciously like the stages of grief, in miniature.

He sighs and fidgets, before, looking at the pen, and then sliding it into his pocket and stopping. Hands in his jacket pockets as he looks up, taking a breath. He looks… Really nervous, actually. Then he begins. "I'm… not good at making connections with people. I'm a bit awkward. I can run a con and lie with ease, but talking to people without some sort of goal is… hard. We're gonna be teammates. Possibly for years. So I wanted to try and… I guess to show you what I act like. That probably wasn't the best… option for it, Me and Kazuki have a lot of subtext between us. And the whole, 'Follow me' thing was badly done, but I needed to think. Sorry." he rubbed at the bridge of his nose.

Surprisingly, it's Kohaku who spoke up. "You're a moron."

I watch with interest as I see the instant the mask goes up, the nerves being covered up with a flash of false sorrow. "I'm Offended!" he starts, with an overdramatic hand to the chest. "I'm no more an Idiot then you are! I am, however," he leans in, "A total smart-ass."

That actually gets a smirk out of both me and Kohaku, and I cut in. "I don't know, you look more like a dumbass, and you certainly aren't a wiseass."

He paused and gives me the most over the top look of betrayal that I've ever seen, making me chuckle, and then freeze.

"You just…" I turned and looked at him, suddenly feeling a chill as I realized that he had just disarmed my reactions, and made me far less focused on him. Kohaku noticed my reaction and then froze. I see the mask fracture and he flinched away and I barely hear him curse.

"Yeah, see? Put me on the defensive, give me a goal to work towards, and then I can talk my way through things. I can be sociable and calm. I know both of you well enough to know how to play your buttons, and I'm… I'm trying not to. Sorry." he sighed and pulled out his deck of cards. "Let's just… head back. Yeah?" he said, taking a step back towards the academy.

"No, wait," I said, grabbing him and spinning him so he faced both me and Kohaku. He fumbled a card, and he missed grabbing it, but Kohaku grabbed it. She looked at it and then turned it, and I saw that across the face of the card was a strange circular shape, full of angles. It looked like a series of overlapped triangles wrapped up in a braided circle. I shook my head and refocused, seeing him blink in annoyance, his lips in a slight scowl. he took the card back gently, and Kohaku let it slide from her fingers without a fight.

That was… weirdly honest looking.

"Listen. We don't know you that well. Neither do we know each other, very well." I gestured at me and Kohaku. "But we're stuck together. We're going to be a team."

I take a breath. "So Hi, My name is Nara Yumi, I'll be your teammate. I like games of chance and numbers and specialize in capture and tactics. I hate pickles and cabbage, but love carrots. My dream is to be an Anbu tactician and commander." I give a short bow, seeing the surprised look on Shusho's face.

He pauses and then slowly a smile, natural, unsteady, and obviously unpracticed, but definitely genuine, smile spreads across his lips. He fans his cards, and gives a deep bow, before starting. "Hello, Nara Yumi, I am Toru Shusho. I like misdirection and card tricks, and hate absolutely loathe cauliflower. I also dislike getting into a straight fight. I aim to be the best infiltrator and intelligence agent in Konoha. I specialize in misdirection, thrown weapons, and sleight of hand."

Kohaku looked between us before bowing her head slightly. "Ah, Greetings. I am Kohaku Shimo, second daughter of the head of the Kohaku clan. I appreciate both yakitori and good Drama's, both plays and books, and dislike perverts and fanatics. I aspire to grow to be a great ninja and serve my older sister and younger brother in running my clan. I specialize in my clan's fire techniques, focused more on form and function then power. I also have been trained and well versed in politics."

We all looked at each other then, and then, slowly, Toru chuckled. Before he skipped backward. "Come on, we're running late! Gotta go meet our Sensei!" Kohaku and I looked at each other, and smiled, before following.

"Oh, and one more thing," Toru said, as we all joined up, with him to my left and Kohaku to my right. "I nominate Yumi for the team leader." making me snap my head to the side and eyes widen, and behind me, I heard Kohaku's soft voice speak up.

"Agreed."

"But?" I muttered, looking back and forth at my teammates. "Tsk, Troublesome."

Sleight Advantage [Naruto SI] (Old version)

Recent threadmarks

Recent threadmarks

Recent threadmarks

Recent threadmarks

RogueDruid

"You are in my way, And simply unecessary"

RogueDruid

"You are in my way, And simply unecessary"

RogueDruid

"You are in my way, And simply unecessary"

RogueDruid

"You are in my way, And simply unecessary"

RogueDruid

"You are in my way, And simply unecessary"

RogueDruid

"You are in my way, And simply unecessary"

RogueDruid

"You are in my way, And simply unecessary"

RogueDruid

"You are in my way, And simply unecessary"

RogueDruid

"You are in my way, And simply unecessary"

RogueDruid

"You are in my way, And simply unecessary"

Recent threadmarks

Recent threadmarks

Recent threadmarks

Recent threadmarks