Iruka watched from a distance, his new disguised form settling over him as he followed after his former student. It was a pretty rudimentary form all things considered, taking the form of a rather generic looking depiction of a random enemy ninja. Heck, the symbol he put on the forehead piece wasn't even a real village symbol, just a random little shape that he came up with in the moment - a general head shape with some non-indented eye shapes.
The smoke dispersed as he jumped between trees and overtop of buildings, using the experiences from long ago to stay hidden from the purple kid's sightlines. After the events of the mission she had been brought on to do, things almost immediately shifted as she jogged off to who even knows where. From the busy streets up onto the rooftops, then a rather rapid trip across the village into one of the rarely used training grounds. If what his information said about the Genin team's tests had said was true, this was the same exact clearing that Ami's own team had been brought to do their own test, and promptly failed at it.
Once she arrived with Iruka in quiet following, the kunoichi closed her eyes. She drew in a deep, audible breath that stretched the muscles across both her chest and back. It had been hard to tell before due to the jacket she had been wearing up until now, but her shoulders were actually a fair bit bulkier and broader than they had been before. Maybe not on the level as someone like Gai, but the signs were actually there.
Just what were they feeding this girl.
The Chunnin instructor's focused snapped back into a razor-sharp watch as the girl's form shifted into the opening stance of a kata, the influence of the Strong Style immediately apparent as she swung around with a swift kick. The grass around her shifting as the attack whipped up the slightest bit of wind, almost like a gust of air had blown past it. Just as swiftly as it came, it was followed up with a cross, then a jab. A two-one combo wasn't unheard of, but it wasn't the usual opening that one would expect. Power jabs had their uses in close bouts, especially when trying to throw an opponent off and hitting them with an unexpected attack.
Whilst the kata was snappy and quick, it didn't yet have that fluidity that would indicate that she had actually mastered the form. Still, the fact that she had even gotten this far with what could only assumed to be mostly minimal instructions, even if Gai had contributed some experience to her understanding of the art, was nothing short of a miracle. If she keeps up this progress with the same passion and intensity, then she might even make Tokubetsu Jonin in a couple of years.
At least, that's assuming that the rest of what he's read was also true. Physical strength and martial arts was one thing, it was another thing entirely to show that you can stand your ground when the time comes to fight for the village.
"Let's see if I really did fail you as a teacher, Ami." Iruka muttered to himself as he pulled out a kunai, dropping out of the tree he was hiding in and down towards the ground. "Sorry in advance if I end up going too hard on you-"
The moment the sound of his feet touched the ground made the grass squish underneath him, the head of purple hair whipped to face him, eyes wide for just long enough that the Chunnin could recognize the surprise. The wide eyes were colored with what seemed to be a purple aura, Chakra that he couldn't quite tell the purpose of as the wide eyes narrowed with complete - familiar even - focused intent.
Killing intent, if completely unrefined.
"Wha-"
Then the very next moment, a poof of smoke covered the hand of giant blades that were heading right where his heart was still beating. A second poof followed right after it as his form was replaced with a log, which took the hit for him instead. Five blades puncturing the wood and then pinned to the tree behind it, Iruka couldn't help but feel his stomach drop as his brain caught up to the rapid-fire events that had just unfolded.
He hadn't been expecting... Anything like that.
"Wh- What the hell?! You could have killed with that!" He yelled at her, holding his hand over his chest. "Just what do you think you're doing swinging something like that around?!"
An answer didn't come immediately, as Iruka looked at the weapon covering Ami's entire hand. Wood splintered and cracked as he individual, blade covered fingers started to spread apart, eventually causing the log to explode into various pieces to finally free her hands. Looking over her shoulder to meet Iruka's gaze, there was a sense of familiarity in her expression. It was like she had done something like this before.
"What do you think this is, some sort of game?" She instead replied with a question of her own, stepping around to reveal that her other arm was covered with a matching weapon. The size of the objects in comparison to her own body made them look almost ungodly heavy, but she somehow seemed to carry herself with them just fine. "You somehow manage to break into the strongest ninja village in the world, clearly with nefarious intent, and expect me to pull my punches on you? No... I don't think so."
Ami took a step towards Iruka, slamming her metal covered fists together with a harsh clanging sound.
"And if you've managed to get all the way through here undetected, then that either means you're blessed with ungodly luck, or you've got enough skill to get through undetected." She continued, looking him in the eyes as her body moved into the opening stance of the Strong Style once more. "Either one means that if I don't go full lethal right now... Then there's no way I'm winning."
...Iruka wonders if he's somehow made a massive mistake with this plot.
"N- Now hold on just a second." He awkwardly stammered, taking a step back as he tried to find a quick way to explain the truth to his former student. "There's no need for anything like that, y- you see I'm actually just- AHYEE!"
Ducking backwards, the Chunnin barely managed to avoid a swiping attack from the now very close Genin attacker. In his attempt to explain himself, he hadn't noticed her rush him with Chakra enhanced speeds. Catching his weight with his hands, he had to further make distance when she followed up with a downwards stabbing attack, allowing him to regather himself for a brief second as he clawed hand got stuck in the dirt. That moment of respite didn't actually end up lasting as long as he hoped, as the claw was then torn upwards from the ground, chucking a whole bunch of dirt and grass up into the poor teacher's face.
"Ah! My eyes!" He panicked as he covered his eyes, jumping up into the air and landing on a nearby tree branch. "Seriously, wait a minute! I- I'm not an intruder, it's a disguise! Wah!"
The blades cut through the branch like red hot knives through warm butter, forcing yet another dodge to get out of the way. Watching as the cuts of wood clattered down to the ground in a heap, Iruka realized he was actually going to have to give up this whole idea if he didn't want to actually fight his student.
He was starting to realize just how out of practice he had actually become over the course of his teaching career. While under typical circumstances he likely wouldn't be on the receiving end of this much pressure against a Genin of all things, he hadn't exactly spent much time improving or even maintaining his skills beyond just what he needed to teach in the academy. As soon as this is over, he's going to take a look at this schedule and try to squeeze some training into his routine again.
A cloud of smoke covered him as he released the transformation, covering enough of the battlefield that he could make a couple more feet of space between himself and the girl that had decided to stab first and ask questions never. As soon as he was done releasing the technique, he raised his hands in mock surrender.
"Se- See Ami, it's just me! You know, y- your old sensei Iruka..." As he looked at the girl's unchanged expression, a bead of sweat began to drip down the side of his face. "You ehehe... You don't believe me, do you..."
"With how many people that are trained in using the transformation technique, I can't rule it out..." Ami at the very least paused in her assault, which the teacher was eternally grateful for. "Under normal circumstances, one of the ways we're supposed to check for imposters is ask them about our ninja codes... But if you were an intruder then you might have figured those out to begin with, so I won't ask you about those. Instead, I'll ask you a question only the real Iruka would know about me..."
She paused, guard still raised.
"When we were introducing ourselves on the first day of your class, you has said you wanted us to share what our goals were. So tell me..." There was a slight clip in her voice as she asked the question, personal and seemingly exposing an echo of something raw. It meant a lot to her; the older ninja could tell that much. "What did I say... That my dream in life was?"
How could he ever forget something like that? Especially with how much he had been thinking about the purple girl lately?
"Ah... Yeah, I think I remember that." Iruka muttered as he pinched his fingers to his chin. "You had said back then that you wanted to become a 'really awesome shinobi' like your mom, right? Aside from the clan students, I remember that you were one of only a few that had a ninja as a parent."
Things turned quiet as his answer sunk in, air blowing past them as though the world itself was trying to fill the silence that had been created in that moment. The longer it went on, the more that the instructor began to wonder if he had somehow made a mistake or misremembered the answer that badly.
He thought that to be the case when he had to duck under another attack, only for him to realize that it was a simple punch rather than a stabbing or cutting strike, even though it still cracked the trunk of the tree with the impact.
"What the actual fuck is wrong with you sensei?! I was actually trying to fucking kill you, you jackass!" Ami yelled at him, her face screwed up in both rage and panic as continued trying to pummel her former academy instructor with her metal covered fists, who was freaking out trying to dodge the all-out barrage. "What kind of stupid personal test kind of bullshit are you on?! Stupid! Idiot! Moron! Asshole! Bastard!"
"I- I'm sorry! I really am! Please stop trying to punch me!"
"No! Fuck you! You deserve to get hit! Stop dodging me and let me punch you!"
"I think I'm laughing so hard that I've looped back around to not laughing at all. This is by far the funniest thing I think I've ever seen." Kakashi said to the other occupants in the room as they watched the Chunnin being chased by a royally infuriated Genin across the training grounds. "But I think we can all agree on it now that she's showing off quite a lot more strength and skill than what her academy records initially indicated."
"I hardly held any doubt about it, especially with the verified accounts from both yourself and Gai..." Hiruzen nodded as he decided to cut off his Chakra from entering his crystal ball, which went inert as the view of the events faded away. "As interesting as this is to see, I unfortunately can't become too involved personally in this situation, since even if she has shown great improvement, young Ami is still a Genin."
Gai leaned closer.
"...But?"
The head of the village let out a sigh.
"But, I also know of someone who can train her without impeding too much on the established structure." Reaching over to pull out a pen, the old man began to draft up a letter. "He's an old bastard, but he also knows how it feels to be in a situation like hers. That and he owes me a favor for all the times I've let him keep the position he wanted."
Hayate ended up being the one who had to take the letter from the head of the entire ninja force.
"You'll find him at the edge of the village, probably making something in that ungodly large wok of his. Just let him know that his fellow old bastard is cashing in on the favor."
Unable to refuse, the man covered his mouth to cough.
"Yes sir. I'll deliver the message right away."
Once he was gone, there was a silence over the room.
Kakashi looked over at the crystal ball.
Hiruzen noticed it.
"...I'll bet 200 Ryo that she'll run out of steam before she can land a solid hit."
"You're on."Last edited: Yesterday at 12:24 PM
To be honest, I thought you were going to chase after our dear old sensei for a little while longer. He kind of deserves it for spooking us like that if I'm to be completely honest.
As much as I would love to, we have some actual training and study to get through. And if I'm not feeling better about it later I can just pull a Naruto or classic me and prank him so badly he wishes he had never been born. Maybe with itching powder in his under-
That might be a bit too far, if I'm being honest. Especially since we're trying to be a better person now, right?
"Right..." I let out a sigh as I walked back into the clearing, which was now Chunnin free, at least for the time being. "Right. I think today I was trying to practice that new kata that Gai had shown me. He was adamant back in Wave that it would be a great help in refining my Strong Style a lot further."
I took a breath to calm what was left of my nerves, which had been agitated by the false alarm from a certain former teacher of mine. The rapid pounding in my heart was still going strong as I inhaled for five seconds, held it for five, and then released for five. A technique that those memories of my apparent past life had taught me, usually as a sleeping aid to help calm myself for the night. It was practically meditation, so I figured it would help to balance myself for more than just trying to put a nap in.
"Huuuuuuu..." On the last exhale, air rushed back into as I threw out a kick towards the head of an imaginary target, one that was taller than I was and had such an ungodly punchable face. The mental image dodged backwards as I followed it up with a rapid cross punch from the back of my guard, rocketing forwards to impact the air. "Ha..."
It was then immediately followed with a pressing power jab, which had an even quicker movement than the punch before that, to the point where I could swear I was starting to feel heat from the friction it made against the air. I honestly doubt it, but maybe in the future I could use some of the techniques that Gai had done with punching fire like that. That might take a couple of years at least, and that's not even taking into account all of the other skills that I was splitting my attention with, especially in terms of being a ninja.
I was going to be the best, master everything that I could and then some.
Each of the individual movements were rapid, yet still disjointed from each other. Even I could tell that I hadn't gotten to a stage yet where I could properly chain all of the motions together into a true combo, I still needed more practice to achieve that. Ducking under and imaginary attack, my right elbow cut through the defense and dug itself right into their stomach.
Someday, somehow, I hope that the guy on the receiving end of these body shots would be that ghost Uchiha mother fucker. But that would be a long way down the road, and there was still so much left that I needed to learn and experience before I could even think about a fight like that.
"Ha!" With one last unleashed bit of effort, one more set of attacks landed on the mental projection that I had created, a knee to the chest followed by a hook and finally a massive uppercut. I'm sure that if this were still the academy I would be able to lay out literally any of my former classmates. Even Sasuke or Naruto at that stage probably wouldn't have been able to handle something like that.
Of course, that doesn't mean that they've stayed stagnant since then, especially after we got dragged along with them in Wave.
"I'm still not sure that I actually made things better there..." I muttered out loud, looking down at my wrapped hand as I clenched and unclenched it a couple of times. "I mean, they never did really get the justice that they deserved for all the shit that Gato had put them through, and now there are a pair of unredeemed monster ninja running around doing who knows what. What if it butterflies into something even worse than what we think we know?"
...We work harder and get stronger than them? Gai's usual solution seems to be punching harder and that's worked out for him so far.
Are we Gai? Are we a great beast of Konoha?
Not literally, but if it works for him then it should work for us. Work smarter, and work harder.
Rolling my shoulders, I let my body relax a little bit as I thought about what kinds of training I could do next.
"In that case, let's work on our kicking some more. Ten thousand a piece." Bouncing around with an energized determination, I made my way over to my favorite tree, seeing how all of my past sessions had pretty much torn all of the bark off and left what was underneath almost completely exposed. Dropping into a squatted stance, I began to throw kick after kick. None of them were at full strength since I didn't want to outright knock down the tree, but the repetition allowed me to start actually refining and fixing the strike with each careful attack.
When that quote was made, I don't think that they ever imagined that someone would take it this far and actually try to practice everything to the degree that they were thinking of. I wonder if that makes us the perfect embodiment of that lesson, or the worst one that's ever existed...
I threw another light effort kick into the tree, noticing that my knee was ever so slightly off from where the force of my kick was going. Adjusting it over the course of a couple more strikes, I noticed the improvement almost immediately.
Maybe both? It's not like they ever anticipated the idea that a magic wielding ninja from another world would ever happen upon the knowledge that they shared based in the limits of their own world.
Shrimpy? I'm trying to focus right now.
And I'm trying to get you to call me something other than fucking Shrimpy! Seriously, isn't there anything that you can call me other than that?!
Come up with something better, and I might agree to change it.
Mira, Towa, Yuga, Fuka, Masato, Chikawa...
The onslaught of names began to fade into the background as I went back to focusing on all of my kicks, letting Shrimpy go on until she inevitably tired herself out.
Which...
Kirishima, Momo, Launch...
Might take a while. And why were so many of those names just straight up stolen from stuff in our last life's memories?
"Well well well, look what the cat dragged back in." Kakashi chuckled, pocketing a couple of bundles of Ryo as the Hokage stewed in a gamble lost. "Do you see what we've been trying to tell you when we brought up Ami's massive improvements?"
Iruka groaned as he nursed his aching jaw, just one of the many injuries that had been given to him by the former student. Even when the girl had finally put away her gauntlets, her fists felt like blocks of iron that were wrapped in sandpaper. Though really, he couldn't help but feel a little like he deserved it.
"Yeah, I think I get it." He admitted, sighing as he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. "So Ami is a... What's the word that they use for it again? A dark horse?"
"Of a sort. Like I said before, I don't think she would have achieved even a quarter of what she's improved by if it weren't for the specific circumstances of her Genin exams. It was an essential wakeup call that's brought her this far." The scarecrow explained as he patted his now noticeably thicker pocket. "I wouldn't beat myself up over it if I were you, there was no way you could have known about her potential unless you went and saw it for yourself."
"Kakashi is absolutely right, Iruka!" Gai stated with a smile and a thumbs up. "There's no need to work yourself up over it. After all, it's not like you coul see the future and know what's gonna happen ahead of time!"
The Chunnin exhaled through his nose at the though. Not quite a laugh, but it was something.
"I guess so. But I just wonder if there were any signs that I should have been looking out for with her, maybe something that showed her real potential." Closing his eyes, Iruka thought about it for a moment. "The only thing that I can think of is that she didn't really ever seem to review her notes, just writing stuff down once when I first talked about it. While her test scores were always pretty average, I'm starting to wonder if that's in spite of her lack of effort rather than just the limits of her abilities..."
"Laziness can often be the greatest enemy in unleashing the true power of one's youth. It leads to being complacent and eventually finding yourself being left behind by the peers you once stood besides." Big, bushy brows furrowed into a more serious expression as Gai spoke on the topic. "It's why I always try to push all of my Genin in each and every one of our training sessions, regardless of what it is. Even if they have great talents, it won't matter if they don't put in the work to actually unlock it."
"Then I think we've reached our final conclusions about this young talent?" Hiruzen puffed on his pipe as he addressed the rest of the people in the room. "You and your fellow Jonin instructors can continue monitoring her progress as you see fit, I certainly won't complain about another of our ninja receiving assistance from our best and brightest. Just be wary not to let your interest in her abilities outweigh your already existing teams."
"Speaking of, I have some things that I need to begin setting up for Team 7." Kakashi acknowledged as he started walking over to the door. "It seems that the mission in Wave has been a real source of motivation for a certain pinkette in my team, maybe even more than Naruto and Sasuke. I agreed to help her train her endurance, and... I'm starting to notice she's taken an interest in medical techniques and Genjutsu research. Might need to pick up some books for her to study."
He paused as his hand grabbed the doorknob, his one exposed eye seeming to curl up into a smile at the undoubtable bombshell that he was about to drop on them.
"Oh, and axes. Turns out she really has a talent for giant axes." As soon as he finished speaking, the door closed behind him. The room felt cold for longer than it should as the implication sunk in.
"Do- Does Kakashi mean that Sakura is the one who wants to learn how to use axes?" Iruka stammered, his face looking a little bit pale as he tried to imagine such a small girl wielding something like that. "That can't be right. Sakura wouldn't ever want to do something like that, right?"
"Ha ha... Sounds to me like the next generation of ninja might become the most unexpected yet." The Hokage smiled as he took another puff of his pipe. "Between these two girls, the clan heirs, and Naruto, it sounds like the shinobi world is shaping up to really rock itself in the next couple of years. Wonder how much of it I'll get to see before I kick the bucket?"
Gai was wondering if he should start training Lee to use his nun chucks. It might be a skill he'll need a lot sooner than he may have first thought...
So much youth, so little time...
"Is this what he's finally calling in all of those favors for?" The old man asked as he read over the letter. "I ain't sayin' no, just... Really? Not even asking for his little grandson specifically? Why this random girl he was told about? Is she a clan heir that I don't know about?"
"Young Konohamaru is being trained by a Tokubetsu Jonin already, that and according to him, you're in a better position rank-wise to instruct her." Hayate coughed lightly into his hand, watching as narrow eyes read over the contents of the letter. "And as far as clans go, none could claim her as part of her ranks. Ami doesn't even have a family name..."
"I suppose I could at least see what's going on. Must be a pretty hard worker to get so much attention so soon after graduating." Standing up on his prosthetic leg, Kosuke smiled slightly. "Tell that old bastard that I'll look into it, and have my decision ready for him in the next week or so."
The younger ninja nodded and quickly left the clearing, intent on getting this information to the Hokage as soon as possible. And once he was done with that, he was going to see if Yugao wanted to have a night out.
He really needed a