I passed out as soon after I locked my door last night. When I awoke, I sleepily looked at the clock on the nightstand ‘6:55am’ it said blinking red. “Crap!” I jumped off the bed and into the bathroom. I washed my face, and then bolted into the kitchen, thanking whatever deity that had blessed my fridge with food. I found a riceball, shoved it into my mouth and charged out the door. I berated myself on the way to the meeting spot; you had one job, meet this man on time in front of the Hokages office!
It’s a good thing they put the apartments close to the Hokage building.
My feet created a dust cloud as I forced them to a stop. Now, I’m here, but where’s Hatake-sensei? Taking the scroll out of my back pouch I glanced at the photo attached. A man with tired eyes and a mask and spiked silver hair… How could I miss him?
I looked around when I heard a deep voice behind me “Senji-san?” “Hmm?” I said while turning around. I saw a book flutter to the ground and bent to pick it up. I was about to hand it to the man in front of me when I glanced at the cover, ‘Icha Icha Paradise’. People still read this?! And in broad daylight?! Slowly, I lifted my gaze for the book to its owner. The first thing I noticed about Hatake-sensei was the scar running through his left eye and the mask covering the lower half of his face, of course. Other than that, I also noted he was slightly taller than I was as my eyes were level with his nose. “Thank you, Senji-san.” He said with, what I assumed was a happy expression through the mask.
We then proceeded to the training grounds, an open field surrounded by trees just outside of the village.
“Ok, Senji-san, we’re going to spar.” I smiled apprehensively “Huh? What do y-!” He did not allow me to finish before launching a frontal attack. I jumped back into a crouch when he disappeared from my sight. Dammit. He’s behind me. I need time to think. I jumped high over him and ran for the trees. Once in the relative safety of the trees, I took stock of myself. I have no weapons or scrolls, but I do have the element of surprise, he doesn’t know my abilities just yet.
~“Heighten your senses, Tomoe.” “Mom, I don’t get it!” “Try again.” I sighed but tried again. I closed my eyes and searched to feel the chakra around me. I could feel everything within a six-foot radius of my body. The grass, the trees, even the insects crawling under my feet, I could feel their chakra pulsing around me. Mom was outside of my area of perception but her life force was too strong to ignore. I felt her start to move. From the left! Eyes still closed I turned to the left and ducked under her sweeping kick. I pivoted on my left heel and brought my elbow into her back. No connection. Where is she now? She not on the ground. I realized a millisecond too late that she was attacking from above and barely managed to bring my arms up to guard my head. The force of her blow caused the ground around me to crack and sink.~
I’ve come a long way since then.
I sensed him from above; I jumped to an adjacent tree and intercepted his path downward, launching a kick to his side. He blocked me. I pushed off his block and flipped away. We landed on opposing tree trunks, I didn’t let up on my attack, speeding toward him with my fist outstretched. He responded, grabbing hold of my arm and deflecting me into the ground. My senses piqued when I realized his body wasn’t preparing to jump but reaching into his pouch. Kunai, shuriken, scroll? Which is it? Only a spilt second was needed for him to answer my question. Three kunai came at me from different directions. I dodged them but not perfectly, blood ran down my right arm, just a scratch. I ran for the open field; he has the upper hand in the forest. I grabbed a kunai embedded in the ground as I sped through the trees. I have one weapon and he has… a lot more. Great.
Finally, I reached the field. I turned on my heel to deflect the multiple shuriken that were previously hurtling toward my back. The kunai I took proved to be immensely useful as I used it to block what I couldn’t dodge. He came from behind and I dropped to the ground to avoid the cut aimed at my throat, I swept his legs but he anticipated and jumped. I stood up as he landed. He started charging forward, too fast for me to dodge, I raced to meet him in the middle. Sparks flew when our kunai clashed. I quickly realized that he outmatched me in strength; I applied more force and I felt him push back, once he did, I released the pressure and stepped to the side. I watched Hatake-sensei fall into my punch. I took full advantage of the contact, I stepped into the punch, using my core, shoulders, and his forward momentum to finish my strike. He flew backwards. After his body landed, it dissipated into smoke.
“You coming?” I called back to the forest where the silver haired man resided.
He created a shadow clone without alerting my chakra sense. Damn.
When Hatake-sensei came out from the forest, I made sure that he was the real one. I could feel him weaving hand signs. A gigantic ball of fire came hurtling at me. I took a deep breath and calmed my mind; my eyes perceived the chakra at the center of the flames. I reached through the fire and bent the chakra, the red sphere broke into multiple pieces then extinguished itself. I sensed my opponent weave more signs. A wall of water was next in his assault. The chakra isn’t in the center; it completely surrounded the liquid making the jutsu more difficult to disperse. Jeez. I jumped and landed on the wave, the chakra at my feet formed a wedge cutting through his web of control over the water. After popping the wave, I hit the ground running. Sensei saw me and put up an earthen wall.
My turn to drop in a clone. I gave my clone the kunai and hid. My clone rounded the wall, he wasn’t there. He burst from the dirt beneath my clone’s feet with a wind jutsu in hand. Such a small, tight shape is not going to be unraveled quickly. I need distance. The one thing I don’t have. More clones could buy me time to make distance however. I had my clone make three more copies of itself. The wind jutsu tore through the extras, thankfully giving my main clone enough time to jump back. Sensei came at full speed. My clone took advantage of his speed and deflected the hand that held the jutsu.
What I didn’t expect was his back arm to hook my clone’s neck, my copy disappeared with a ‘pop’.
I jumped out of the trees. I enhanced my speed with chakra approaching my opponent’s back. I heard crackling as I came closer. Lightning release. Another handheld ball of whirling chakra, compact and extremely lethal. Which hand is it in? I created more clones as a fail-safe. He whirled around quickly while my clones had him surrounded. The lightning ripped through my copies, but as it went through the clones the chakra unraveled enough to the point where I could dismantle it. My hand met his as he finished turning, I took apart the chakra strand by strand. The ball became smaller and smaller, as I pulled the last few chakra threads, the electricity left his hand. I put my hand over his and shook it.
“Good bout Hatake-sensei!”
His eyes widened the slightest bit and I guessed he was surprised. “How?” “Lots of training.” I grinned. He leaned against the wall of rock we battled around while asking “Why didn’t you attack?” “I did.” “With jutsu?” I laughed sheepishly “I… can’t.” “Then how did you negate my jutsu?” “Umm…”
How do I explain this? Mom always told me just to feel it. If I said that he would accuse me of lying. My stomach chose to growl at that moment. Perfect excuse. “Ah, all that sparring makes me hungry! We’re done here right? Let’s go eat! Have any place to suggest, sensei?” “Yes, we’re done, but let’s not get so off topic, ne? Oi!” I didn’t wait for him to hear him finish as I left a clone and started running into town. The sounds of my copy and sensei sparring became quieter as I ran farther.
When I stopped running I realized… I was completely lost.
I glanced around; I was in the old part of Konoha, most of the buildings were built of wood. A ramen shop caught my eye as well as my stomach. I walked through the short curtains that read “Ichiraku Ramen”. “Welcome!” said the employee. The food smelled amazing! I quickly sat down at the bar and ordered a pork ramen. As I waited I noticed there was a screen with moving pictures in the corner of the room. Is this a mass genjutsu? All the patrons seemed to be entranced by it. How odd. The woman on the screen was sitting across from a man dressed in orange. The man from yesterday! I kept watching and I learned his name is Naruto Uzumaki, he’s married with two kids and is successfully keeping the peace between the Great Nations. I made a personal note that he did not always end his sentences with ‘Believe it’; so he was doing it to rile me.
My thoughts were interrupted by my ramen arriving. I thanked the employee and ate with vigor. Full with delicious soup and noodles, I paid and left the shop.
I walked onto the dusty roads of rural Konoha with no idea where I wanted to go. I was about to pull the map from my pouch when I heard voice coming from the ramen shop. “Excuse me!” I turned. “Excuse me! I’m Sarada Uchiha, the girl you healed yesterday!” “Oh! Hokage-chan!” seeing I acknowledged her, she came closer “What’s your name? I want to thank you properly.” “I’m Tomoe. Nice to meet you!” “Thank y-” she didn’t get the chance to finish her sentence.
I pushed her away from me when my chakra sense alerted me to a sinister presence.
“Hey! What’s going on?!” Sarada yelled, landing in a crouch. A pair of hands broke through the earth beneath my feet. The hands took hold of my ankles attempting to pull me down. I jumped away before the soles of my feet broke the surface. More presences made themselves known. Five? No, there were six in total.
Sarada ran back to the ramen shop to get her team while Tomoe took on the six that had surrounded her. The young Uchiha wanted to help but she didn’t know how strong these attackers were. “Konohamaru-sensei! My friend is being ambushed!” Her team snapped to attention when they heard Sarada’s call. Urgently, they ran down the street. Team Konohamaru stopped short when they saw the scene unfolding before them. Four unconscious bodies lay on the ground. A woman was fighting off two shinobi simultaneously, one came up behind her with a blade slicing across her back, she bent forward the cut severing fabric not flesh. A well-aimed kick sent the man flying, his back hit a tree with a thud. Her other opponent was not able to complete his jutsu before she appeared behind him, her elbow came down hard upon his back. He fell to the ground, limp. She stood for a moment, her back to the quartet.
Through the torn fabric of her shirt, the crest of the Senju spread across her back.
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Chapter notes: Battle scenes are difficult D:
Chapter end notes: Sorry for the masses of text, I'm working on it. Thanks again for reading to the end!