I approached the team in the third training ground to see the black-haired kid and the blond sparring. I never did get their names yet. Maybe they’d introduce themselves today but really, I couldn’t care less. Kakashi-sensei greeted me with a nod and a one-eyed smile. I raised my hand in acknowledgement. He told the genin to stop sparring and turned his attention back to me.
“First, I want to see what you’re already capable of.” He explained while motioning me towards a training post. Attached to it was a target with several holes in it from previous uses. “Let’s see your aim.”
I sighed and pulled out four weapons; two kunai knives and two shuriken, one of each in each hand. With ease, I threw my hands forward. The kunai knives struck the center right next to each other and the two shuriken mirrored each other, each one stabbing the ring around the bullseye on the top and bottom. I looked back at the jounin. He looked rather impressed and so were the genin; especially the blond. He seemed to freak out a bit. It was probably because I don't look like much, which I admit is quite true. I don't think I'm anything special, either, but I can at least handle weapons properly.
“My strengths lie in genjutsu, accuracy, and endurance.” I explained while retrieving my weapons. “I may not know ninjutsu, but that doesn’t mean I’m not good at anything else.”
“I never said that.” The jounin responded with that one-eyed smile of his. “Why don’t you show just that stamina of yours, now? Do you mind sparring against Naruto?” He asked while nodded towards the blond. So that’s his name. I told him it didn’t matter who I sparred against and we took our positions in the clearing, the other three shinobi observing the spar.
He grinned and wiped his thumb against his nose. A confident grin was plastered on his face when he spoke. “I’m gonna be the Hokage someday, so don’t underestimate me!” Naruto announced proudly. I didn’t plan on it. I thought with a nonchalant expression. The moment Kakashi-sensei told us to begin, the blond charged forward without any hesitation.
With ease, I dodged his first punch by leaning to the right and threw one of my own. He blocked it with his left hand and swung from underneath for an uppercut with his right, but I blocked it with my left hand and landed a punch in his gut. Naruto stumbled back a bit, which gave me the chance to take the offensive. I began to throw rapid punches here and there, as well as kicks. I managed to land a few hits, but they weren’t hard hits. Nevertheless, he blocked most of them. As I started another series of kicks, he grabbed my ankle and my supporting leg lost balance, sending me to the ground.
“Ha!” He grinned and attempted to pin me down.
Of course, I refused to let that happen and grabbed his wrists with my hands. With a push off the ground, I kicked up and sent him flying towards the direction my head was face in. Without any moment of delay, I got onto my feet and sprinted towards him to deal another round of punches and kicks. He was already up and ready to counter-attack with a roundhouse kick. I jumped into the air to dodge and aimed to land behind him. Just as I was about to swing out my leg to kick him from behind, he grabbed my leg and spun me around. I kept my body off the ground and hit his elbows, forcing him to release me or his shoulders would pop. I landed with a light thud and began to defend myself as he began to attack with several kicks and punches himself.
“That will do.” The jounin called out after several minutes and walked towards us. Naruto and I were still catching our breaths by the time he had come over. The blond had a stupid grin on his face, but I couldn’t help but smirk a bit. He and I seemed to have the same amount of stamina, so I wouldn’t mind sparring against him again. “Not many people can last that long when sparring with Naruto. His stamina is rather…excessive.”
“I could say the same for myself.” I responded and let out a deep sigh, finally catching my breath. “The genin of Konoha are pretty tough.” He grinned from my comment while resting his hands behind his head.
My gaze shifted back to the jounin, who seemed ready for the next thing he wanted me to do. I nodded and he brought me back to the centre of the field. I guess it was time for me to use my genjutsu. “Show me your best.” Kakashi-sensei spoke with a nonchalant expression. I nodded and began to form a few hand signs. It wasn’t long before I released my chakra flow and infiltrated his. Manipulate the mind… I thought with my eyes closed while messing with his senses. I began with his sight.
The grass in the field began to slowly wilt and dark clouds began rolling in. The foliage turned brown and wilted away and the healthy bark of the trees dried up and became crusted. I made it seem like the water was a murky brown; polluted and filthy. Finally, I began to add the corpses and weapons. Here and there, spears and daggers began to appear. Some were rusted, others were snapped in two, and several punctured a corpse. There were limbs thrown around and all of them bathing in a pool of blood. I looked back at the jounin. He seemed rather impressed by my work, but I was nowhere near done.
My scene was set, but it was time to make it seem like he was experiencing the scenario. The scent of rotting corpses became stronger. I could tell it was working from the look in his right eye. No matter how many dead bodies one sees in their life, that stench just kills every time, I would believe. I can barely stand the scent of rotting food. The sound of the horrific water was a faint one, but it was there. Finally, I manipulated the wind to have it sound like screams of pain in the distance, as well as the sound of combat.
Last but not least, I threw out my arm. The moment I did, a splatter of blood seemingly appeared on the jounin and dripped a bit. I smirked and let my arms fall down to my sides. “Akuma no Yume.”
“Impressive.”
I released the genjutsu soon after, setting everything back to normal. The three genin seemed rather speechless from the scene I created. I had made them experience it was well; just to prove that I could use genjutsu on more than one person at a time. He seemed to take notice to that detail and gave me an approving look. However, he seemed a bit puzzled.
“Where did you learn to use genjutsu?” He asked. I opened my mouth to answer before I realized something; I actually had no idea. There was no response I could give to that. He scratched the back of his neck and approached me, speaking in a lower voice. “You said you’ve never had a sensei before, but somebody must have taught you what you know.”
“I’m…not sure.” My voice was empty but my mind was full of thoughts and questions. I’ve never bothered wondering how I knew what I knew. Kakashi-sensei gave me one of those looks that told me I was going to be talking a lot about myself soon. He brushed off the topic for now, however, and turned to his team.
“Well, for the next two months, we’re going to be teaching Riku how to just ninjutsu. Don’t worry though,” he added in the end. I noticed that he direct this last part mostly to the two males, “I’ll make sure you three get your regular training and missions.”
The female of the team, Sakura, was assigned to teach me the basics of ninjutsu while Kakashi-sensei trained the two males. She was intelligent and was clearly the one with the brains out of the genin. Well, I didn’t really know what the quiet one was capable of yet. All I learned was that his name is Sasuke and he was, well, quiet.
“First things first,” Sakura started with a smile. She was also kind; I didn’t mind her company. “Unlike genjutsu, ninjutsu inflicts real pain on the opponent. I guess you already know this, but I’m just making sure.” She clarified with a sheepish grin. I nodded, but let her continue.
“I figured I’d might as well go over it because knowing what ninjutsu is would probably help you perform some of the basic techniques.”
“Makes sense.”
She smiled again before continuing. “I suppose ninjutsu is a bit like genjutsu. Both types of techniques involved chakra manipulation. When you use genjutsu, you manipulate your chakra flow to mess with your opponent’s mind. When you’re using ninjutsu though, you manipulate your chakra to form clones, transform yourself, or control elements.” As an example, the kunoichi first made a clone of herself, made it disappear, then transformed into me.
It sounded simple, but I wondered how I was supposed to manipulate my chakra. Perhaps…transfer it to the outside of my body or something, I guess. “I think I get it.” I stated with some uncertainty. “Teach me the first technique.”
“All right!” Sakura grinned and explained the works of how to perform the Kawarimi no Jutsu, the Body Replacement Technique. It was apparently one of the easier techniques that fell unto the E-Rank category, so it made sense that she started with that. This technique would have been useful when I was running from those shinobi back in the Hot Springs Country.
Two hours after beginning my ninjutsu training, I became pretty worn out. I guess it was just too different from genjutsu, even though my chakra control is above average. Sakura seemed pretty impressed from the speed I was catching up on, though. I had already gotten the Replacement Technique down and managed to get the gist of Henge no Jutsu, the Transformation Technique, but that one required a constant usage of chakra and it was pretty tiring. She told me it was one of the harder ones and that I was already doing really well on my first few tries, but she’s probably just being nice. I smirked and breathed out a faint ‘thanks’ as I caught my breath.
“Sakura, Riku, you can head home now if you want.” We looked up to see Kakashi-sensei walking towards us. The other two genin were presumably gone already. The two of us nodded as the jounin disappeared into a puff of smoke. The kunoichi turned back to me and asked if I wanted to grab dinner with her, but I told her that I would stay back to practice some more.
“Alright, but don't wear yourself out too much. Good luck.” She encouraged with a grin. Before she left, she spun around once more to tell me, “Oh yeah, Kakashi-sensei wants us to meet at the Hokage’s Palace tomorrow. I think we’re going to do some missions and he said that you should get some experience, too.”
I nodded and she left. When she was out of sight, I sighed and fell onto the ground, exhausted from the training. I didn’t even spend that much time on it, either. While looking up at the sky, I watched as the white clouds looked orange and yellow from the sunset. I think I’m going to like it here.
[Reviews - 19]Chapter or Story
Table of Contents
- Text Size +
Chapter end notes: Akuma no Yume: Demon's Dream