"To be honest, Uncle, I've heard about you before. You're very strong and could definitely help me get stronger. But I want to become like Tsunade-sama, a strong yet beautiful kunoichi, and I don't think I can train the way you do. I also doubt my parents would allow me to train under you. So, I'm sorry, but I can't become your student." She politely refused.
"Haha, little girl, I know exactly what you are worrying about," Guy said with his hands on his hips. "You don't have to worry, you won't turn into one of those overly muscular kunoichi, like those from the Hidden Cloud who try to copy the Raikage's training routine."He then laughed. It wasn't the first time. Every time he tries to help a Kunoichi, they refuse.
"My style of Taijutsu isn't suitable for you. I was not going to teach you that. If you become my student, I will teach you basic taijutsu, some common knowledge about ninja and ninjutsu, and prepare a training routine suitable for you." He again gave her a thumbs up and a wide smile, showing his bright, sparkling teeth.
"So, I wouldn't have to follow your training routine? The one you're famous for?" Sakura asked cautiously. If she didn't have to do those hellish training sessions he did, then she saw nothing wrong with becoming his student, except he would definitely try to push her beyond her limits every day, and that would hurt. But a little pain was nothing if she could become strong.
"Of course not. You're still young, and your body can't handle intense training just yet," Guy said with a reassuring grin. "We always start with the basics. As your body adapts, I'll gradually increase the intensity. At first, I'll teach you various Taijutsu forms, their stances, and movements. You'll need to memorize them, and they'll also help develop your overall physical strength and coordination."
"If so, I'll become your disciple," Sakura replied, crossing her arms. "But if I don't like your training sessions, I'm leaving," she wanted to act like she was trying to get the upper hand in a deal. It will maintain the persona of a hardheaded girl in front of Guy.
"Yosh! Then it's settled. From now on, you are my student!" Guy declared with a wide grin, followed by a loud laugh.
"Haha, Kakashi! I finally beat you. I got a student first, which makes my score one point higher than yours." He laughed heartily, full of triumph. He has finally won for the first time. And he can't wait to let Kakashi know about this.
"I'll inform him immediately. This will surely ignite his competitive spirit!" And just like that, he vanished in a blur, leaving Sakura surrounded by another cloud of dust.
"Huh, what happened?" As the dust and her coughing fit settled, Sakura found Guy gone.
"Did he just leave? He just accepted me as his student." Sakura was bewildered.
"He just left like that. He didn't even ask my name during this whole conversation." Sakura was confused.
"He didn't even tell me when my training will begin. How will I contact him, and how will he contact me? Does he even know where I live? " Sakura was getting angrier as she asked these questions aloud. "Where are we going to train? When are we going to train? What am I going to be trained on? What should I prepare? Will I have to pay him? Will he pay me?" Her brain was going to crash.
"I don't know. I don't know anything. Am I still his student?" and the threshold was breached.
"You bastard! Now I know your priorities, beating Kakashi is more important to you than even knowing my name! If I find you, you're done for!"
Her brain was now being powered by anger, to release the anger on Guy. There was only one thing it could do now: target Guy. Fueled by pure rage, she took off at full speed, chasing after the fading dust trail left by Guy.
"I have never seen such an irresponsible person in my life."
"You wanted to take me as your student just to show off."
"I am going to remember this and beat you in the future when I am stronger than you."
"Just you wait, I will train like there is no tomorrow." As Sakura got angrier, her speed also increased.
[Making enhancement permanent.]
[Failure]
[Failure]
[Failure]
[Failure]
....
[Success]
Unknown to Sakura, her ability activated in response to her irritation with Guy, finding the emotional trigger sufficient. The system quietly worked in the background, making one of the enhancements permanent.
Everything besides Sakura was passing in a blur. Her anger had clouded her mind, so she couldn't notice her surroundings and was fixated on following Guy.
*****
On the other side of the village, Kakashi was sleeping peacefully. He had just returned from an ANBU mission and hadn't had proper sleep in three days. During missions, he could only manage three or four hours of rest per day, and only when Itachi was on watch. He didn't trust the others; they were too weak, in his opinion. For this reason, he was genuinely thankful to Hokage-sama for assigning Itachi to his team.
"Kakashi, I have finally beaten you."
"I know you have returned. Don't try to act like you aren't here."
"I took a student first, finally beating you! That makes my score 654 and yours 653!" Guy declared proudly, his voice booming across the quiet neighborhood. "Haha! Now I understand that attitude you always had toward me, it's the attitude of a winner! I feel it too now!" He struck a dramatic pose, trying to act cool.
"Woof" "Woof" Hearing Guy's loud sound, Dogs started to pour out from the neighbourhood, barking at the Guy.
"He's here again." "Oh god, please kill me. Can't a man even sleep peacefully these days?"Kakashi's neighbors groaned in agony as one by one, the lights in nearby houses flicked on.
"Dear, didn't I tell you we should've sold this house and moved somewhere else?" "I tried! But no one wants to buy it. Apparently, everyone already knows Kakashi lives in this neighborhood."
"Quick, release the dog we bought from the Inuzuka clan. Maybe it'll teach that maniac a lesson."
"Guy! Can you please shut up?! Why do you have to come yelling like a lunatic every time? Can't you talk to Kakashi during the day like a normal human being?"
"I say we wake Kakashi. Better he be disturbed than all of us." "You know what, I agree. Let's go wake him."
"Kakashi, wake up!" "Kakashi! Wake up!!"
"What is happening…?" Kakashi groaned, rubbing his eyes as he staggered toward the balcony. He could hear all kinds of sounds, from dog barking, humans yelling, to children crying.
"What happened?" he asked groggily, peering down from the balcony.
"Kakashi, you are finally here." He could hear Guy's voice. "That explains everything," he mumbled.
He turned to his increasingly irritated neighbors and bowed. "Sorry for the disturbance. Please don't mind him. He's… not mentally well."
One of the neighbors crossed their arms. "We know. But if this happens again, we're going to have to file another complaint with Hokage-sama."
"Aren't you going in too?" one of the neighbors' wives asked her husband.
"He's already woken me up, so I might as well see what he does today," the man replied, saying with a mentality of watching a show. Every time Guy visited, he did something new and ridiculous. So, he didn't want to miss it. And frankly, it had become one of the few entertaining parts of his otherwise uneventful life.
"Whatever," she muttered, turning back inside. "I'll try to get some sleep while I still can. I'm the one who has to manage the house and the kids. You have no idea how exhausting that is."
"Now that everyone has gone," though Kakashi could still hear someone screaming, and it was becoming louder and louder. "Guy, what did you think was important enough to disturb the entire neighbourhood early in the morning?"
"Kakashi, I have finally defeated you by accepting a student first, making my point 654, higher than your 653," Guy said with his hands on his hips and his chest wide with pride.
"Oh," Kakashi wasn't disappointed in the slightest at losing. But annoyed by the sound of someone yelling? It has only become louder. He turned to look at the source of the sound and saw a pink blur coming towards him. Before he could react,
"Shannaro!" He heard a sound of someone shouting something, and a boom followed by a huge cloud of dust. He was completely awake now.
*****
Sakura was running at the speed she shouldn't have been able to as she followed the dust trail left by Guy. After a while, she found Guy standing in the middle of the road looking at a house. Sakura, who had her mind clouded by anger, decided to give Guy one of the most famous kicks in anime, the flying dropkick straight to the waist.
"Shannaro!"
Guy was sent flying, crashing through the wall surrounding Kakashi's house and into his yard.
"You dared to leave me in the middle of the street after accepting me as your student," Shakura yelled and followed with a punch to Guy's stomach. The force of her punch cracked Guy's bone, the yard and house of Kakashi. The shockwave made Kakashi nearly fall from the balcony.
*****
"What happened?" Kakashi looked around in confusion. His wall was damaged, his yard was in shambles, and large cracks ran along the ground and through the side of his house. He tried to piece the scene together in his mind.
First, he remembered seeing a pink blur that slammed into Guy, launching him through the wall into his yard. Then came a voice shouting something, and tremors shook the ground. It hadn't felt like a proper earthquake, just a few powerful jolts. The first was the strongest, while the rest were weaker, more like the thuds of massive impacts than tectonic shifts.
"Where is Guy? Is he alright?" Kakashi quickly leapt from his balcony.
He landed beside an unconscious Guy and a little girl, also unconscious, lying next to him. Around them, the yard looked even worse up close, with deeper cracks and crumbled debris.
"What happened here?" a ninja asked, arriving on the scene to investigate the source of the disturbance. He looked at Kakashi, who could only blink, still unsure of what, exactly, had just happened—though he definitely knew more than the newcomer.
*****
(The neighbours of ninja- ep 1, The neighbours of Kakashi, after the interval)
"Earthquake, it's an earthquake. Everyone, get out of your house." One of the neighbours shouted.
"What? earthquake, but I don't feel anything." The neighbour who was a little far from Kakashi's house shouted.
"Yes, I also didn't feel anything." Few followed and shouted.
"I also felt an earthquake." The one near Kakashi's said. The neighbourhood was again in chaos.
"Look, Kakashi's wall is destroyed, and his house seems to have cracked." The neighbor with keen eyes pointed out.
"See! I told you it was an earthquake. How dense are you to not feel such a powerful tremor? My whole house was shaking like during the Nine-Tails attack!" one of them began, launching into an exaggerated tale. He started making dramatic references to the Nine-Tails incident, even boasting how calm he had been back then, guiding his family to safety, and just now, how he had calmly walked out of his house.
"Oh, that's why I had a bad dream. Last night, I dreamed a large toad was chasing me. I couldn't run properly because the croaking sound of the toad was shaking my heart and body. Fortunately, I saw a temple and hid in a temple protected by Buddha. My dream must have been trying to warn me about the earthquake." One of the neighbours with a richer imagination said.
After being married to her husband for decades, the neighbour's wife knew now it was her turn.
"Yes, he woke up in the middle of the night asking for water, saying 'Toad, toad.' I went to the kitchen and brought him water. He then told me about his dream. Ever since I woke up today, my heart hasn't settled; I keep fearing something bad might happen." She also added how, before every disaster or when someone fell ill, he always had a bad dream the night before.
"His hiding in the temple must have meant we'll survive. If the toad had caught him in the dream, we'd have died today." She concluded with her own explanation of the dream.
"My left eye has been flickering like crazy since I woke up. I also knew something bad was going to happen." One of the ladies also joined in the made-up superstition talk.
"Isn't the flickering of the left eye of men an omen and of a woman an indication of fortune, and vice versa for the right eye?" One of the men pointed out.
"It must be like that in your family, but ours is different." The lady then ignored him and continued chatting with the other ladies.
But, there was a man among them standing with a shocked face because he knew what had happened, and it was stranger than fiction.