The next day was surprisingly similar to the previous one. She had agreed to meet Ensui at a hidden training ground to practice, but she hadn't expected him to bring friends along.
"Yugao-sensei?" she asked, surprised when she saw her in profile.
"Seina! Good to see you. You can just call me Yugao if you like," smiled the woman, turning to face her. "I've heard we'll be at the same level soon."
"Eh. Yeah, if you're talking about jonin rank," she chuckled, knowing that Yugao was anbu.
"You already know Yamato, but I don't think you've met Seichi Onikuma."
"Another anbu?" she asked tiredly. "Nice to meet you."
The stranger was tall, strong, lean, with short light brown hair and grey eyes. He seemed friendly, like Yamato, and very calm. He smiled at her and nodded.
"Following Kakashi-senpai's advice, we're here to help you train for the jonin exams," Yamato smiled, "and also to train ourselves."
"According to him, you never give it your all when you train, so he thinks that fighting against stronger opponents will help you push your limits."
She nodded at Yugao's words. As soon as she heard it, she started thinking about how on earth she was going to handle the training ahead. Ugh. Damn Kakashi-sensei.
"Let me help, midget," Kurama said, almost vibrating with excitement. "The other day, I was itching for some action."
"Alright. They asked for it," she grinned from ear to ear. "I'll use your chakra and my powers. I'm not going to use a single jutsu. Let's see what they can do against us."
"I see you're ready for this," Ensui chuckled. "Why don't we get started?"
Seina accepted Kurama's generous chakra, feeling lighter than ever. She saw the dark orange glow surround her like a cloud of smoke. Before they could blink, she shot off at maximum speed. Ensui couldn't dodge her punch, even though he had covered his face. She jumped into the air, grateful for her ultra-enhanced reflexes, dodging a kick and a punch from Seichi and Yugao. Yamato tried to catch her mid-air with a branch, but he couldn't due to the speed of her disappearance. She reappeared behind him, unleashing a torrent of magical water with one hand and a massive lightning bolt with the other.
She focused on dodging their attacks, realizing that Kurama's chakra was enough to match her speed with that of the anbu. As soon as Yugao lunged at her and she saw Ensui molding his chakra to trap her with shadows, she used a lumos solem to blind him, smiling at the sound of pain. Even so, Ensui already knew that trick and used his shadows while keeping his eyes closed. She disappeared again. She reappeared behind him.
"Levioso, depulso," Ensui was lifted into the air with a gasp and shot toward Seichi, who was already charging at her again.
She invoked one of Yamato's branches, threw it back at him, and turned it into a small dragon with a spell. She watched him struggle to free himself without much success and then vanished again. She observed them while diving from above. Yugao sensed her first, looking in her direction and leaping into the air to intercept her. Bad decision.
"Levicorpus, stupefy."
She left her hanging upside down in the air, noticing that the other opponents were ready to attack again. Before hitting the ground, she saw the shadow hidden among some branches, so she pulled out the wakizashi and used it to avoid touching the ground, planting it into the earth and using it as a pole. A millisecond later, she was no longer there. She appeared right where Seichi was throwing a punch, so she blocked her face with one arm and, with the other free arm, cast a curse.
"Locomotor mortis."
She stifled a laugh when she saw his wide eyes as he felt his legs glued together like cement. Still, his balance was such that he managed to jump to a tree branch with both legs stuck together. Ensui and Yamato wasted no time attacking her from both sides with kenjutsu. She summoned her wakizashi, wounding Ensui in the shoulder, and conjured another wakizashi out of thin air. However, it was clear she wasn't prepared for a kenjutsu battle against two expert anbu. A pair of feet on her back sent her flying across the clearing, and before she could escape, she was trapped in a wooden coffin. Luckily, she could touch the wood with a finger, so she made it disappear, falling to the ground.
Fortunately, Kurama's chakra helped her get up before Ensui could trap her again after recovering from his surprise. She teleported several times to confuse them, escaping before they could figure out where she was.
"Petrificus totalus."
Ensui fell face-first to the ground, stiff as a board, but still conscious. An invisible hex in Yamato's direction, who was preparing to use mokuton again, made him fall repeatedly, preventing him from molding his chakra to attack her. She appeared behind him, casting another stupefy. The last one standing, left for the end, was her new comrade Seichi, who almost looked intimidated.
"Accio Seichi's vest," she intoned mentally. The ninja yelled as he felt himself being pulled inexorably toward her. He tried to attack her with several kunai, which she dodged. "Stupefy."
The fight ended there. Seina stopped using Kurama's chakra, suddenly feeling all the exhaustion at once. She had to kneel on the grass to catch her breath, panting and sweating more than ever before.
"That was amazing! We kicked their butts!"
"Of course. They don't know how to defend themselves against my spells," she admitted. "If it weren't for your chakra balancing out my physical condition, they would've beaten me in under a minute."
"As your body matures, you'll have the same endurance as these ninjas. Don't worry," Kurama reassured her. "The fact that you can beat them now using your unknown kekkei genkai doesn't take away from your achievement."
"I'm going to revive them."
She revived everyone and un-petrified Ensui, who was the first to sit on the grass, staring at her in complete amazement.
"That was incredible. I've just realized it's impossible to beat you," he admitted finally, without even blinking. "Your kekkei genkai gives you too much of an advantage."
"Along with the Nine-Tails' chakra," a voice said from behind her. "How old did you say you were?"
"Twelve," she replied. Then she thought to herself, "More like 132..."
Suddenly, for no reason she could understand, the thought crossed her mind of what might have happened if Voldemort had access to her ninja training along with his powers as a dark wizard. She shuddered involuntarily. She would never, never have been able to kill him, not even with all the luck in the world. If wizards and witches from her world had access to chakra, they would have ruled the planet.
Something similar was happening in this strange ninja world. Right now, her only rivals were the ninjas because they could use chakra. However, she had so much knowledge, so many spells and curses available that it was laughable. Magic was a kekkei genkai too powerful to be countered by ordinary jutsus. She hadn't even used her worst enchantments to attack them, but she could imagine a thousand ways to kill these four anbu without the slightest effort...
"We just got beaten by a 12-year-old," Seichi said, staring into the distance with a huge grin. "All four anbu."
"You know what this means, right?" Yugao asked. "We need more training."
"No. We need more training with Seina," Ensui corrected. "Right now, she's become the perfect person to train against."
"Why do you say that?" she asked, curious.
"Because there's no way to defeat you! We don't have enough information about your powers to come up with a strategy against you. And what does a person do when they encounter something or someone they can't conquer or defeat?"
"Train harder and better until they can."
"Ugh..." she groaned, realizing they wanted to use her as a training dummy.
She debated whether to refuse or not. After all, if she wanted to fight an anbu, she had Kakashi-sensei on hand, but in the end, she gave in. Once a week wouldn't kill her. Speaking of Kakashi-sensei...
"How long have you been there?" she asked, having sensed a genjutsu for a while.
"You caught me," Kakashi-sensei chuckled briefly, deactivating his bracelet and dropping his new genjutsu. "Since you started attacking. I knew you were coming, so I've been waiting as quietly as possible. The genjutsu gave me away, didn't it?"
She nodded. The four anbu groaned in frustration simultaneously when they saw him. Not only had a twelve-year-old girl beaten them, but they also hadn't noticed Kakashi-sensei's presence, and he didn't even have her kekkei genkai.
"I'm impressed," her teacher admitted, directing it at her. "But you're still holding back your powers..."
Seina raised a hand without saying a word toward a massive tree in the distance. One spell later, the tree flew through the air, reduced practically to sawdust. The pale expressions of her training colleagues didn't surprise her.
"What do you want, for me to kill them?" she said sarcastically.
She repaired the tree as if nothing had happened, under the astonished gaze of the ninjas.
"I don't know about you all, but I'm off for a shower," she said, bidding them goodbye. "See you next tuesday."
Kakashi-sensei walked beside her, hands in his pockets. She noticed his sidelong glance, letting out a sigh she couldn't suppress. She raised a tired eyebrow at him.
"Don't you feel better after training with them?"
"You know I do, Kaka-sensei," she replied teasingly. "The problem is, now they'll want to train every other day."
"Didn't you want to join the anbu?" her teacher smiled mercilessly. "This is what's in store for you."
"... I feel like every time Sasuke and Naruto catch up to me, I leave them behind again."
"That's normal. Neither of them has your powers."
Kakashi-sensei draped his arm over her shoulders, consoling her when he saw it was one of her real worries.
"But, neither of them is training with higher-ranked ninjas, except for me."
"Maybe they should join the training."
"What Naruto and Sasuke need is to become chunin so they can advance. They're stuck in a dead zone right now," Kakashi-sensei acknowledged. "Luckily, they're smart enough to push themselves forward without falling behind. Otherwise, the gap between you would be unbridgeable. Plus, remember, you spent almost two months in Konoha without doing missions while training with a sannin. Neither Sasuke nor Naruto has had that luck or free time."
"Yeah. I don't think the old perv spent 12 hours a day training my brother when they went looking for Tsunade-sama."
"Neither do I," Kakashi-sensei chuckled. "Don't worry, Seina. You'll see that, little by little, things will sort themselves out. In fact, having you on their team is a good thing. You heard what Ensui said."
"Ugh."
"Come on, why don't I treat all of you to yakiniku?" the jonin said, giving her shoulders a squeeze before putting his hands back in his pockets. "We could celebrate the end of february."
Seina accepted his words of comfort and opened her link to speak with her team. As expected, the moment she told them Kakashi-sensei was treating them, they didn't think twice. They ate at the barbecue restaurant for quite a while, chatting animatedly about the training with Team 10. As they made their way back home, walking calmly through the village, Kakashi-sensei received a notification summoning him to the Hokage's office.
"What's happening now?" asked Sasuke. "The last time he left so abruptly was for the chunin exams."
"I have no idea."
"Maybe it has something to do with the prisoners you guys captured?" Naruto asked mentally.
"Could be..."
Once they got home, Seina headed to her study. She left her clones to study, as she usually did, while she worked on crafting some lights for Shikamaru. Her idea was to create twelve metal spheres that could be activated and deactivated at will, connected to an enchanted pouch so Shikamaru could summon them without needing to collect them. The light should be enough to cast shadows within a radius of a few centimetres to two meters, depending on the sphere. If her friend was as smart as she thought, he would know how to use them wisely to trap someone even in complete darkness.
The genjutsu was another matter entirely. For starters, the idea of making someone believe time was passing much faster than normal was good, but... how fast could time pass without someone noticing something was off? For the illusion to be useful throughout the day, half an hour would need to pass in the illusion for every minute in reality, at most. That, after doing several calculations, meant that if Shikamaru used this jutsu at noon, it would take at least eight minutes to make someone believe it was night-time or, in other words, to make them think it was 8 or 9 in the evening instead of noon.
Those eight minutes were nothing when someone wasn't in mortal danger, but for Shikamaru, they could represent eight minutes fighting for his life. Even so, if she made time pass too quickly, she was sure they would realize something was strange, because even if the brain was being manipulated to think it was night, anyone could check the time on a clock and notice the discrepancy, even if they were convinced it was night.
She wondered what would happen to a person in that case. What would weigh more on them? The genjutsu or the undeniable fact that it was impossible for it to be night-time at noon because they knew the time thanks to a clock? Could she mentally break someone because of that? Too many questions without answers, though it was very interesting. In the end, she decided it was better to have this genjutsu than none.
She spent the afternoon researching which areas of the brain were responsible for everything that needed to be altered. She stayed in the study all evening. When she came out for dinner, Kakashi-sensei still hadn't returned, and the other two were training in the dojo.
The next day, she realized Kakashi-sensei was on a mission when she was summoned to Shikaku's office herself.
"Here. Take this scroll to Sunagakure. It contains details about some contracts between our villages, so there are people very interested in it," said the jonin commander, tossing her a scroll. "No one should get their hands on it."
"Who should I give it to?"
"The council of Sunagakure. They still don't have a Kazekage, so they're managing the village for now."
"Still?"
"Yes. Don't ask me why."
"Oh, by the way. I have something for Shikamaru. Can you give it to him?"
She handed him the package she had prepared for her friend along with some instructions. She wanted him to start training with it before the next monday. Why not take advantage of the fact that his own father could deliver the gift?
"What is it?" asked Shikaku, somewhat surprised as he touched the small black velvet bag containing the spheres.
"I'll let you discover that with Shikamaru," she smiled. "I'm out of here."
The last thing she saw before leaving the office was Shikaku's curious face, examining the package without opening it. She knew he wouldn't open it until he gave it to Shikamaru. A shame to miss their reactions, but that's life. She wrote a note for her team and sent it home with a clone. Since she already had everything with her, she headed to the main gate on the west side of the village.
She signed in, as usual, and left at a brisk pace until she found a clearing far from the main road.
"Kuchiyose no jutsu."
She summoned her thestral, reminding herself that she had more creatures than just her dragon, and under an invisibility spell, she flew off toward Sunagakure. It was a real shame she didn't have one of her stones sealed with the shiki jutsu to shorten the trip. Still, she realized she could toss them from the air as she flew toward the Land of Wind. For hours, that was her only task: throwing sealed stones from the air and staying undetected.
Hours later, when it was already lunchtime and she had crossed the border with the Land of Rivers, she didn't stop. She ate one of her pre-prepared bentos in the air, keeping her creature flying straight, and thought about how ridiculous this mission felt. She kept flying without stopping until she reached the border of the Land of Wind a couple of hours later. She pondered whether to stop and stretch her legs but decided to keep flying.
Shikaku had given her this mission because he knew some of her abilities. He likely knew she would use one of her creatures to travel faster. That meant he was counting on the fact that no one would catch her in the air. Which, in turn, meant that it wasn't entirely safe to travel on land with the scroll in question. Otherwise, other ninjas could have taken it to Sunagakure.
She arrived at the ninja village of the Land of Wind as dusk began to fall. She stopped near the massive stone barriers surrounding it and removed the spells. She walked calmly for a few minutes, observing the entrance gate guarded by a few chunin. Perhaps jonin, considering the precarious situation they were in.
"Halt!" called one as he saw her approach. "From Konoha?"
"That's right. I have a scroll from my commander."
She tossed the scroll from a distance, letting him study it as much as he wanted, but they didn't make her wait. She signed in at the entrance without protest, under the watchful eyes of three ninjas.
"Where can I find the council to deliver the package?"
"Wait here. We've called someone to escort you."
That someone turned out to be Gaara. The moment they saw each other, she noticed a hint of surprise on his poker face.
"Seina? Long time no see," he smiled faintly in her direction, then nodded to the other ninjas. "Are you on a mission?"
"Yeah. Acting as a messenger, can you believe it?"
"I'm surprised you're in perfect condition. Not a grain of sand on your clothes."
Seina raised an eyebrow with a smile in his direction. Gaara raised one back, looking amused.
"You flew, didn't you?"
"Of course."
"I should have guessed… How are Naruto and Sasuke?"
"Eager for the next chunin exam."
"No surprise. You were promoted to tokubetsu jonin, right? The jonin exams come before the chunin exams, so you can't have taken them yet."
"Exactly. I passed Tsunade-sama's exams to become a medical ninja."
"Congratulations."
They chatted along the way, walking through his native village. It was entirely different from any other village or city she had seen. The houses were rounded, some entirely circular, sandy-coloured with small windows. The streets were incredibly narrow, and some structures even seemed connected by tunnels on the surface.
"What's it like living here?" she asked. "I mean, the climate, the houses... Everything is so different."
"Almost all life happens indoors because there's always sand or sandstorms outside. Plus, it's windy nearly all day, making it impossible to do certain things outdoors."
"So, no picnics, huh?"
Gaara let out a soft laugh. "No. I'm afraid it's entirely different from Konoha."
"I don't know… Despite everything, it has something mysterious and charming."
"...You must be one of the few foreigners who think so."
"That's because people rarely know how to appreciate what they see or what they have. It's a human flaw."
Gaara observed her in silence, contemplating her words. Then he almost seemed to look at his village with fresh eyes.
"Do you think I should appreciate it? This village?"
"These houses and this sand haven't caused you pain," she said, looking at him intently, "but its people have."
"...Do you think I'll ever be forgiven and finish paying for my actions?"
"Of course. Let me tell you something someone once told me: It doesn't matter what you're born as, but what you become. Maybe you acted like a monster until recently, but what really matters is that you've decided to change and make amends. What more could be asked of someone who's genuinely remorseful? If people can't see how much you've changed and how hard you're trying to repair the damage you caused… then those people aren't worth your time. But I'm sure they'll be the exception, not the rule. If you don't try, you'll never be at peace with yourself, right? So, what are you waiting for?"
They walked the rest of the way in silence. Gaara was completely lost in thought, and she was observing the village. The Kazekage's mansion was large but in the same style as the other houses. Gaara escorted her to the council, where only a few people were present, accompanied by guards who were clearly jonin.
"Baki-sensei," the redhead beside her greeted.
"Gaara. I see you're escorting the Konoha envoy. Welcome to Suna."
"Thank you. I have the scroll here."
Seina made the transaction under the watchful eyes of several people. They verified it was the official scroll and stamped her mission scroll to confirm it had been delivered. It only took 10 minutes before she was out again, once more escorted by Gaara.
"Do you want to see my siblings?" he asked. "They're home right now. If you need to rest for a while, you can."
"Thanks. Stretching my legs after so many hours of flying wouldn't be bad."
Seina accompanied Gaara to his house, which was just as rounded as the others. It was a fairly large two-story structure. Honestly, it didn't surprise her, considering his father had been the late Kazekage. The interior, however, couldn't have been more different. The walls were all white to provide lighting due to the somewhat smaller windows, while the floors were stone covered by easily shakeable rugs.
"I'm home. I brought a guest."
"Who?" Kankuro asked, appearing at the door. "You!"
"Me!" she mocked. She heard a female laugh approaching. "Nice to see you again."
"Stop whining, idiot," his older sister smacked him on the head.
"What are you doing here?"
"On a mission," she rolled her eyes at the obvious answer, avoiding making another joke at his expense. "Gaara invited me to rest for a while before I set off again."
Temari and Kankuro exchanged a quick look at their brother, with surprised and vaguely pleased expressions. Maybe he didn't invite many people? They offered her tea, which she gratefully accepted. They chatted for a while about everything and nothing. It was fun noticing the differences between these people and the villagers from Konoha, but she didn't dislike Suna or its inhabitants. In fact, something told her Gaara would resolve his issues with the people of Sunagakure in no time. She just hoped she was right.