My point is that the SI hasnt got any special training that other characters wouldnt have gotten if they showed interrest in it so why should he reach jounin-level in it when sasuke with similar ressources (a few pointers and advanced reading material) only reached high-genin
And lee is a bad counterexample because he had access to a dedicated teacher that gave him step-by-step instruction on what to do so of course lee improved fast
My point is that the SI hasnt got any special training that other characters wouldnt have gotten if they showed interrest in it so why should he reach jounin-level in it when sasuke with similar ressources (a few pointers and advanced reading material) only reached high-genin
And lee is a bad counterexample because he had access to a dedicated teacher that gave him step-by-step instruction on what to do so of course lee improved fast
Key word being showed interest. The moment any of those special snowflakes actually showed interest in the setting it took them a few months at most to master the relevant jonin level skills. Thing is, they are currently snot nosed brats that want to play games and have fun while the SI is actually putting in the effort here and working towards his goals.
If anything he is learning really slow compared to canon characters. Take Naruto learning tree walking, the literal worst of his special group took days to get down tree walking. Meanwhile SI learned it in weeks? DId I say a little? I meant a lot slower. Naruto at that point in time had memeticly bad chakra control. He just has the drive to even bother learning this stuff this early which is really buffing his foundation for later training.
So again what's your point? Also are you giving up on the rest of my post? Admitting it has a point?
As I was making my way home, I couldn't help but look skywards and breathe a massive sigh of relief.
'A whole week, a whole fucking week.'
It's entirely understandable, that not everybody shared my enthusiasm regarding everything chakra-related, but, my god, those two turds should be very grateful to whatever deity when they are actually able to make a living by being a shinobi.
During the fourth day when Boy Number 2 still hadn't figured out how to keep his feet sticking, I was so close to losing my composure, that I was ready to channel my inner British tv-chef and go on a profanity-riddled rant.
'Whatever, a deal is deal and I got what I wanted.'
First I had them show me the hand seals for the Clone Technique and after the third time observing them stumble through the sequence I asked to look into their advanced books to memorize the respective depictions.
Luckily I had more than enough time, while they were struggling, to get familiar with the other hand seals, too.
Satisfied, I watched them do the jutsu multiple times and even a few times with my sensing focused on them to detect certain shifts during the forming of the jutsu.
My relief arose from me doing three acceptable clones and those two high flyers finally running up the trees.
I gave them a not entirely genuine smile, a thumbs-up and told them in no uncertain terms that we were done here.
I also reminded them to keep this whole episode to themselves and hoped the unspoken 'or else' was received.
Something unrelated but just as nice was actually the result of a spur of the moment decision by me when I collected a bit of money at the administration building for my groceries.
As I watched the genin sitting behind the counter count the money, the same one that agitated Suzume with his lazy attitude, I waited for him to finish and just asked him if he knew a spot where an academy student could go for a swim.
Apparently I hit the right tone of chill, because he kindly gave me the directions to a stream, which was running some ten minutes away from the cemetery.
I gave him a nod in thanks, which he lazily returned with a small salute. Yeah, the guy was a real dude.
Depositing my groceries in the kitchen area, I folded the dry clothes that I had kept hanging across my window and sat down cross-legged on the floor.
Closing my eyes, calming my breathing and sensing inwards I settled my chakra in the most docile state possible.
I grabbed a pencil and put it in front of me, the tip pointing towards the ceiling.
My eyes focused on the blunted graphite I gently hovered my left index finger above it.
Slowly I settle my finger down on the tip and closed my eyes again.
I coaxed my chakra in what felt like slow-motion toward the point where I keenly felt the pencil press into my fingertip. Having a good feeling I slowly raised my left hand and opened my eyes.
The pencil was sticking. Relieved I gave myself mentally a satisfying pat on the back and just lay down on the floor.
Just basking in the moment, finally having accomplished another step towards working on the single blade of grass.
___
Despite my current frown, I was actually enjoying myself.
The water of the stream was gently rushing below my bare feet, my T-shirt on the shore and the sun warming my skin.
I observed my clone with a critical eye as it ran past me.
The appearance was more than fine, I made sure of that with a couple of hours spent in front of my mirror.
Funnily enough, the appearance was actually the easiest part involved. If I had to guess, using what I read in Hifumi's old book and my own theories, it had to do with the tiny amount of yang chakra used looking to regain its basic form on its own.
This coupled with the significantly larger yin-part actively guiding it into shape and I understood why it's one of the most basic jutsu thought to young children.
Incidentally, this was probably also the reason Naruto struggled so much with it compared to the Shadow Clone Technique.
The proportioning heavily leaning towards the yin-chakra with only a comparatively tiny amount of yang-chakra involved didn't do him any favors given that he was basically leaking with yang-chakra compared to normal children his age.
In its most basic form, the jutsu would almost form itself as long as the right amount of chakra and the simplest of nudges were used.
Obviously with the right amount of expertise regarding the subject you could make the jutsu just a bit more lifelike and that might give you some valuable seconds when you are in a pinch.
One aspect was the locomotion of the chakra construct. A perfect copy is fine and dandy, but you would never fool anybody with a motionless mannequin, so you had to feed your clone with your intent using your yin-chakra.
This was the part I was working on. I wanted to go from simply running in a straight line to complex maneuvering and later right up to the correct facial expression to fit whatever situation.
Dismissing my clone, I cut the chakra of my feet and let myself plunge into the water.
After some lazy strokes, I made my way back to the shore and waited for the summer sun to dry me.
Still wet but getting restless again I sat up and thought about my other idea regarding the Clone Technique.
I could easily admit that perfecting the Clone Technique was just a way to get used to molding my chakra and because I just couldn't stop doing jutsu. It was the same with tree walking and now with water walking.
Extending my left arm I stared intently and concentrated. I had an idea, which might actually see combat use.
I used my experience with gathering minuscule amounts of chakra at the smallest places and gathered what I hoped would be the right amount and the right combination of yin and yang-chakra at my elbow.
Slowly going through the hand seals I closed my eyes again and visualized a second forearm extending from my elbow.
I stared wide-eyed, it definitely looked unnatural, but it worked.
My theory actually worked, if you dialed down the yang-chakra even more, upped the yin-chakra to fit your visualization and then gathered it at just your desired body-part you could actually just sprout limbs.
Nothing fancy and super easy, but I thought a fist or hand holding a kunai speeding towards your face suddenly doubling or even tripling at the last second might give you quite the scare.
Nothing fancy and super easy, but I thought a fist or hand holding a kunai speeding towards your face suddenly doubling or even trebling at the last second might give you quite the scare.
Where treble has to do with threes, there is no substantive difference between it and triple. Treble is favored in a few specific contexts (in the game of darts, for instance), but triple is generally favored everywhere else. Even in British English, where treble is most common, triple appears approximately three times for every instance of treble. In American English, treble is almost unheard of except in relation to sound and music.
This bugged me enough to research and comment on it. Enjoying the chapter otherwise though.
Where treble has to do with threes, there is no substantive difference between it and triple. Treble is favored in a few specific contexts (in the game of darts, for instance), but triple is generally favored everywhere else. Even in British English, where treble is most common, triple appears approximately three times for every instance of treble. In American English, treble is almost unheard of except in relation to sound and music.
This bugged me enough to research and comment on it. Enjoying the chapter otherwise though.
I have to admit that so far I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would, your SI is taking logical steps based on his pre-existing knowledge.
Often people who get annoyed at the OP gimmick trope take it to the opposite end and essentially keep their characters from using any of the other methods of gaining skills/power due to the fear of it becoming a gimmick which honestly kinda annoys me since as long as it isn't detrimental and anyone can do it you have no reason not to.
(a good example of this is not learning the rasengan, sure it's extremely chakra heavy and using it has a whole load of complications both societal and messy in combat since it's meant to be rather chakra intensive, but learning the chakra control exercises it brings should help with a lot of other applications right? Or just learning the regular shadow clone, having 1 clone out studying whilst you do physical supersizes would grant you a few extra hours in the day even if you can't reliably use more than 1 for a long period of time)
How large is his chakra pool atm? since he's been training it for years now it should be substantially larger than most gennin right?
As I got closer I got a better read on the two chakra signatures and guessed that they were only slightly bigger than mine. I started to wonder how old these two individuals were going to be.
Daiki started with a below average chakra level, at this point he's 6 years old and managed to reach the level of an average academy student near graduation.
Daiki started with a below average chakra level, at this point he's 6 years old and managed to reach the level of an average academy student near graduation.
For my tastes, I don't think it really matters how powerful he becomes, so long as it makes sense within the context of the story. So far he has been taking logical progressions, and I think that is the best way. I, however, would prefer that his growth is not artificially stunted given what we have seen of him already.
Really the main problem with strong OC's is not that they are strong, but the way the narrative bends around them when they are made into Mary Sues. So long as everyone does not automatically like the character and there is actual tension and hardship with worthy challenges, then this should be fine.
As far as elemental transformations, Sasuke was able to master fire transformation at the age of 5 or 6 and lightning transformation within the small break between the 2nd and 3rd round of the exam. With this, I can't really see the main character taking very long for his primary element at least.
The MC just has to keep up his physical and spiritual exercises to build up the respective energy reservoirs, and then make that into chakra.
There's no reason why he should have a lower than average chakra supply for his age with all that he's been doing.
Of course, Sasuke and Naruto will probably still outpace him due to having several lives worth of chakra migrating to their current selves.
EDIT: That is how it works in this story, right? That's what I got from the wiki.
That's why I will orient myself by the original Naruto series, Shippūden will be a non-binding guideline and some stuff will be disregarded (e.g.Minato being a perfect Sage).
I don't think there will be much focus on them because the SI just doesn't want to be any part of their drama. That said I don't even know how much of canon I will actually use.
It was half a year into my first academy year when the roles were reversed and I was caught unaware after some intense training.
After bringing the class up to snuff in the physical department Iwana started to introduce us to the basics of hand-to-hand combat.
There were no styles or even katas involved yet, but countless repetitions of the most basic kicks and punches.
This was the reason why I was out here in the woods behind the academy. For the first time, I actually had some catch-up to do compared to some of the other children.
After we did the various movements and mastered our footing to Iwana's satisfaction we were sent to the poles lined along the yard and were tasked with striking them.
It sounded easy enough, but from the get-go I struggled to commit my punches and kicks fully, always mindful and honestly somewhat scared of the looming agony originating from the body part I would use.
Just the thought of kicking with my shin full force against the rough and unforgiving wood made me squirm.
Apparently I was a bit of pansy when it came to hurting myself.
Anyway, we were basically told not to worry, due to training and, of course, chakra our bodies would adapt to the strain and someday we could even shatter rocks…or something like that.
At the time I was busy cradling my stinging hand and getting laughed at after I finally decided to man up and punch with all my strength.
It was a satisfying thunk and I actually didn't break my hand, but holy shit did it hurt like hell.
I dimly remembered far eastern martial artists punching and kicking hard surfaces repeatedly to toughen up their bones from my old life so it made all the more sense in this life to just bite the bullet, go into the woods after class and hammer away at a random tree.
Still, looking at my now bandaged hands I couldn't help but favor simple kicks aimed below the elbow straight at the liver or low-kicks at the shin or thigh of my imaginary opponent.
Shaking my head I concentrated again and changed the chakra covering my palms the way Hifumi taught me.
Keeping my focus steady I gently guided my hands along my bruised shins.
The bruises wouldn't disappear, but it would encourage the natural healing process and it soothed the surrounding skin and muscles.
It was perfect to prevent or relieve sore muscles after a hard training day, too.
A gasp startled me out of my concentration and the healing chakra faded away.
"How are you doing that?"
I wiped my head towards the voice and was greeted by the sight of a little girl with three puppies.
I would have been slightly annoyed if the little girl wasn't just so damn adorable with her big brown eyes and the little puppy in her arms.
"Excuse me?"
She sat the puppy in her arms down next to its siblings, which were running around her feet and pointed at my hands.
"You just used medical ninjutsu!"
Standing up, I wiped my hands at my pants and shrugged, trying to downplay the whole thing.
"Yeah, but it isn't the real deal. It's just, you know, basic stuff." I was struggling here as she narrowed her eyes.
"Doesn't matter, even basic medical ninjutsu is incredibly advanced. How old are you anyway?"
"Alright, alright." I held up my hands in surrender. "Listen, I was always fascinated by chakra and a caretaker from my old orphanage is just teaching me a bit. Could you, you know, keep this to yourself, I know six year olds aren't supposed to know stuff like that."
Silence.
"Fine," she picked up another of her puppies to its delight. "I'm Hana."
"Daiki, nice to meet you."
'Now what?'
"You seem to have some experience with medical chakra yourself?" I sat down again, deciding to continue with my self-treatment when I was at home.
She sat down, too, and nodded at her tree dogs, which happily rushed off.
"I want to become a veterinarian like my aunt. So I help in her clinic and sometimes she uses medical ninjutsu, too." I nodded, she's obviously Hana Inuzuka and some bits were starting to trickle back into my memories.
"So, what are you doing out here?"
She absently took out a little paper-bag and pointed at one of her dogs, that was sniffing around some distance away.
"I'm training my ninken." Noticing my questioning stare she elaborated.
"We are looking for forgotten or discarded kunai and shuriken. After a week there's always something to find." Almost on point, we heard a barking nearby and Hana motioned for me to follow.
We found one of the triplets barking up a tree, it turned and barked once towards Hana, who after a glance suddenly jumped up one branch after the other.
A grab between the foliage and suddenly she held a shuriken. Landing gracefully, she took a dog-treat out of the paper-bag and threw it to the excited puppy. That done, she showed me the shuriken.
She seemed to notice my lack of experience after a second and took my hand, gently guiding my finger across one of the edges.
"It's blunt, but the edges are uneven, that means it isn't a blunted training shuriken. You could sharpen it yourself and use it again, but I have enough so I'm going to sell it."
I oh'd, suddenly remembering Hifumi telling me something like that. I racked my brain for a name.
"The weapons shop south of the academy, right?" She scowled at me.
"Don't even think about it, this is my business!" I smiled, she was adorable.
"Don't worry, I wouldn't be able to compete anyway."
"Say, you are from a clan, aren't you?" Already knowing the answer I still waited for her to reply.
"Yeah, the Inuzuka clan," she pointed at the markings on her cheeks, "you can recognize us by these."
I thought for a second on how to phrase my thoughts and Hana looked like she was wondering where I was going with this.
"You saw me do medical ninjutsu earlier, you probably also know that it takes quite a bit of chakra-control to do it." I looked at her for confirmation and she nodded affirmatively.
"If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that you are pretty good in class and know quite a lot more than I do."
She looked at me like I was stupid.
"I'm ten and you probably just started at the academy." She pointed out and I shrugged.
"My point remains, I know a lot of advanced chakra-control and you know a lot about the advanced academy stuff and seem pretty smart." Another puppy suddenly jumped out of one of the bushes and dropped a kunai in front of Hana.
She smiled, ruffled it behind the ear, gave it a treat and pocketed the kunai in her pouch.
I waited until her eyes were back on me and walked up the tree she just jumped down from, showing that I actually had something to offer.
"Look, it's just an idea. You show me only stuff you feel comfortable with and I teach you everything I know about chakra-control."
It sounded like a bad deal for me, but I wanted her to get used to the arrangement and I honestly didn't want to pressure her as I did with those two other kids.
"We keep Tai-jutsu and weapons out of the deal, though." I saw her thinking it over, eying my feet sticking to the tree. "And we meet whenever you want to."
She nodded once probably more to herself and thrust her hand out to me.
"Deal!" I genuinely smiled and shook her hand.
"If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that you are pretty good in class and that you know quite a bit about the stuff, that isn't part of my curriculum yet."
She looked at me like I was stupid.
"I'm ten and you probably just started at the academy." She pointed out and I shrugged.
"My point remains, I can teach you advanced chakra-control exercises in exchange for things my class has yet to cover."
Another puppy suddenly jumped out of one of the bushes and dropped a kunai in front of Hana. She smiled, ruffled it behind the ear, gave it a treat and pocketed the kunai in her pouch.
I waited until her eyes were back on me and walked up the tree she just jumped down from, making sure her eyes were still on me I sped through the handseals of the Clone Technique and let a couple run down the tree on either side of me.
Her eyes widened, clearly not expecting such a display from a six-year-old.
"Look, I'm pretty advanced for my age, even I can see that, and I'm bored in class so I need projects to keep me on my toes." I kept my gaze on her. "With me so far?"
"Yeah."
"I have a feeling the teachers at the academy aren't very keen on showing preferential treatment to singular students, especially to ones as young as me, so I have to help myself in a different way."
I pointed at her.
"You are a different way. The idea at the start would be like this, I will teach you the tree-walking exercise," I made a cartwheel along the stem of the tree for emphasis and because I felt like it.
"and you will teach me the Transformation Technique for example."
The Transformation Technique actually was the only thing, that came to my mind for the time being.
Weapons and Tai-jutsu were things were I couldn't afford to learn something the wrong way, which is why I reserved them for my academy teachers.
The same applied to the Body Replacement Technique, because I just couldn't wrap my head around its mechanics and didn't want to risk any mishaps.
It might sound cold, but apart from the Transformation Technique and maybe glimpses into her advanced books I was banking on her connections as the Inuzuka clan head's daughter to various experienced shinobis,
who would readily teach her, and by extension me, something interesting like the Shunshin, which I couldn't wait to learn.
I was met with silence so I casually made my way down the tree and came to a stop in front f her.
"Listen," I toned it down a bit, trying to sound a bit gentler. "just think about it. I'm an orphan with more than enough time on my hands and we would meet whenever you want to. I'm usually here anyway."
I indicated the trees around us.
She mulled my words over, nodded once probably more to herself and thrust her hand out to me.
I understand the development and it makes sense... but it still feels like filling the standard beta Japanese main character trope, completely rolling over for the first girl that appears, even has comment of just how adorable she is..
I understand the development and it makes sense... but it still feels like filling the standard beta Japanese main character trope, completely rolling over for the first girl that appears, even has comment of just how adorable she is..
I tried to make it look like a pleasant opportunity for the SI.
Hana is the daughter of the Inuzuka clan-head and subsequently connected to various shinobis, who would probably readily help her.
Furthermore, the SI remembers her as a medic-nin, which means while not jonin-level power she's at least a very competent individual.
I honestly don't want to sound like a creep, but compared to two near-pubescent boys, who showed no aptitude, a young girl with big brown eyes and three little puppies, who is actually showing potential and connections is a great opportunity nice alternative.
Not to mention, that the SI might become somewhat protective of her and wants her to become strong.
You could compare it loosely to Clementine or Ellie from the respective games.
Yeah yeah, and unlike Random Dude #1 & #2 she's also a canon character. It feels weird to see him being so... chummy with her. He's too warm, too friendly towards her, both in thought and in act. What I mean is that he came of like a pragmatic little psycho in previous chapters, it seems like his personality changed at the drop of a hat in this one.
I don't disagree at all. It really does all make quite a bit of sense. It just all happens to line up perfectly with the trope, even what you just said about him likely becoming protective of her and wanting her to become strong.
The meeting girl, seeing some kind of positive physical attributes, rolling over for her (helping, giving better side of deal, or just putting up with more than one should of bad attitude), then protecting her, and helping her become stronger, is the trope precisely because it is what always happens. It is what always happens because it usually makes the most sense in context of whatever particular story, like the girl is high positioned or whatever the case.
Kiba would be a better choice to avoid the trope slot, both being male and having much greater potential, but timeline makes him infeasible. Given available characters at this time she really makes about the best sense, so it is really all quite understandable.
Probably about the only suggestion I might make to try to avoid the trope coming off as strong is to make him a bit more savvy. I get you don't want him to be some genius but maybe he could still use his adult level conversational skills against what is still a little girl and present his position better. Offering from a position of strength as an opportunity rather than seeming to be begging. In market terms he has the scarce good of skills not obtainable in the academy except through him, as far as she knows at least, while she has the bog standard common good of standard academy training that he can get from any other student by offering the deal or just wait till it comes up in class.
Yes we know that he is not bargaining for her academy knowledge but the connection, but she does not know that. To her she sees some super genius that knows skills she doesn't like medical techniques and tree walking just starting out who then starts groveling to her to please let him teach her everything he knows and she doesn't have to help him with pretty much anything but some basic textbook theory when she feels like it. That must seem very odd to her. If anything it would not have been strange for her to be begging him to teach her even a little of what he knew after seeing him use medical chakra, reversing the situation with her offering to help him get ahead of all his peers in taijutsu, theory, anything else she could think of. She could have instead been peeking at the tail end of his training, first amazed at seeing a bit of tree walking then unable to avoid her exclamation at seeing the medical chakra, giving all the justification for her to present the deal instead.
Crouching on a branch high up in the trees I eyed my prey, my weapon held loosely in my hand.
Just past two more trees and I would be at the edge of the clearing and within jumping distance of my target.
Deciding that further movement on ground-level was more feasible I eyed the branches beneath me and silently dropped myself from one to the next, always mindful to absorb the impact with my legs and back.
I dropped the last part onto the ground and…
"Found you!" I looked up and saw that she was indeed pointing straight at me. Blindfold still in place.
Sighing, I seamlessly shunshin'd right in front of her.
My god, I loved this jutsu, whenever possible I used it, whenever I trained I made sure to involve some kind of obstacle course, which I did until I fell to my knees forcing me to use my medical nin-jutsu to prevent cramps and so on.
And each week I got better and better, from my spatial awareness during high speeds to the speed itself, I was steadily improving in all departments.
The best thing was that the continuous use of the jutsu was also improving my regular speed and dexterity.
So far this was the closest to the plain old super-powers I got.
"What was it this time?" I handed her my water bottle as she took off the blindfold.
She poured a bit of water in her hand and washed away the salve she got from her aunt's clinic that was spread under her nose, blocking her sense of smell.
This whole exercise was primarily meant to train my stealth, I was still aiming for that silent-killing style, and for her to train her already superior hearing.
"The weapons in your pouch," I slapped my forehead, they have been a recent addition from the academy. "but you are definitely getting better."
"Thanks, I guess it's my turn now." She nodded and gave a short whistle.
She eyed me.
"You look awfully confident today." I smiled, refraining from commenting.
"The same as always?" I asked as the Triplet burst through a bush.
"Yes, five minutes head start, half an hour for you to hide and one hour for me to find you."
I nodded, given my speed and the Shunshin five minutes were more than enough for me to put some distance between us.
She pulled out an old alarm clock and I was off.
I had a plan, maybe slightly over the top, but I was struggling to put up a challenge for her tracking abilities.
I raced over the rooftops, made a slight curve around the cemetery in case somebody was paying their respect or grieving and ended up at the stream where we practiced our water-walking.
Without pause, I landed on the water and sprinted downstream.
More than half a mile later I found what I was looking for. A bag weighted down by small rock, which I put here earlier this morning.
Being careful I deposited the contents on the ground, took the empty bag and went straight into the woods for about a quarter of a mile.
Having found a good spot I took of my sandals, shorts and T-shirt and put them in the bag, which I then hid behind a tree.
Retracing my steps I came back to the stream, crabbed the small bar of soap I put here along with the freshly cleaned set of spare clothes and dived into the water.
Giving myself a hasty cleaning I put on the cloths and dived back into the water. Following the stream again, I stayed for as long as possible underwater, only coming up for a breath of air.
When I felt I made enough distance I went ashore again and made my way into the woods where I would stay for the rest of the time or until I was found.
Settling down, I closed my eyes, controlled my breathing and waited for Hana to inevitably enter the range of my sensing.
I sighed when I noticed a small chakra signature slowly making its way towards my position and I knew the jig was up.
I frowned however when I heard the puppy bark, it wasn't loud, but definitely noticeable.
A few seconds later and a bigger signature followed by two smaller ones converged on the position of the dog that found my trail.
I waited until they were standing near my tree and dropped down, signaling my defeat.
Hana smirked and tossed me my bag I left as a distraction.
"Not bad, you definitely managed to gain some time with your little diversion."
"What was it at the end?"
"We split up and Hai," She pointed at the one that was dozing on his back. "found a scent, that didn't fit with the environment and I recognized it as your soap."
I nodded, this was it. I was at the end of my rope regarding these exercises.
"Let's go," she flung her arm over my shoulder, I looked up as she was still easily a head taller than me.
"You are having supper at my place today, Mum finally wants to meet the boy, that has his scent all over me."
My back straightened immediately as she was guiding me along, I wasn't particularly fond of meeting new people, especially when it wasn't on my terms.
"Her words by the way and don't worry. She seems brash, but she's actually pretty easy-going."
"Alright." There was no point in making a fuss about it.
"Say, is there a way for you and the Triplet to communicate over longer distances."
She looked down at me, a questioning stare.
"I mean, when Hai found me he barked to signal you, didn't he?"
She nodded and I continued.
"It wasn't loud by any means, but I definitely heard it nearby."
I paused, I honestly didn't want to paint such a grim picture or reveal such thoughts in a seven-year-old body, but I felt like it needed to be said regardless.
"Let's say I was an enemy, a real enemy that was out to hurt you. The second I heard your dog I would have attacked it, either to injure or worse. And then set a trap for your arrival knowing that your focus would be on your dog."
She paused in her step and I followed suit.
She had a big frown, clearly painting such a picture in her mind.
I gave her light shake, she snapped out of it and looked at me.
"Listen, this is just the worst-case scenario and we are still in the academy so there's plenty of time to work on a solution." I resumed our walk and this time I dragged her along.
"Furthermore, you ain't the first Inuzuka around so I bet there is a bunch of ways around the problem."
"You are right, I will have to ask Mum later."
"It's probably something obvious, besides your nose your ears are just as sensitive. Just teach the Triplet to signal you way earlier and bit quieter."
She shrugged. "We will see."
She was still contemplative so I tried to change the subject.
"Is there something that you want to focus on from now on? I feel like I can't offer you much regarding your tracking anymore?"
"Hmm, I will probably step up my effort with your chakra-control exercise."
We settled into a comfortable silence for few moments during the walk towards the Inuzuka compound.
"Do you have any plans?"
"I might have to ask Daikoku-sensei to introduce me to the Replacement Technique."
I frowned, it wasn't my preferred course of action, because I actually only wanted to approach my academy teachers when the regular curriculum had nothing more to offer.
My Tai-jutsu and physical abilities were at the top of the class, in the theoretical aspects I was at the top and due to hours of training I was rapidly gaining on the clan kids in the weapons department.
I had hoped that by showing them my mastery of the Academy Three upon approaching them I would be able to ask for extracurricular subjects like Gen-jutsu or nature transformation.
"I could ask Mum later." I startled and stared at her, she just shrugged.
"You said something along the lines of learning from a professional and Mum is a Tokubetsu Jōnin. Plus the Replacement Technique is a somewhat big part of our fighting style given our partners."
"You are the best, you know that?"
"I know," we reached the cemetery. "you can bring your bag home. I wait here."
feels like mc getting a bit of a friendship which is nice cold characters are cool but it's always nice to see character interaction and bonds between them
I am not actually the most familiar with Hana's character so maybe she is serious enough to go out of her way to annunciate each individual word, but most 11-year-olds would use the contraction.
Mum makes her seem very British, so I would recommend mom instead.
Possibly take* instead of bring for an 11-year-old, but that particular use of a child's vocabulary may be more regional.
I'll wait here.*
While I do like him having the body flicker and his training method with it, I have to wonder where he got it. You seem to imply that this is the first time he will meet her mother and it seems a bit odd for an 11-year-old, even a clan one, to have it.
