Brilliant Minds and Black Hearts Ch2
Jan. 8th, 2020 08:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckling_ghostWARNING! THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS LANGUAGE AND THEMES UNSUITABLE FOR MINORS! So if you're under the age of 18 and have never heard the word 'fuck' before...well ya have now. XD
Chapter 2 – The Academy
==A Few Hours Later==
I sat in bed with ‘Ruko-chan’s head on my shoulder as I thoroughly analyzed the contents of the book labeled, “The Manual”. Naruko had cried for almost an hour and then held on for another one before I talked her into taking a bath. I had fished her out some adorable pajamas with little froggies on them from the dresser and shooed her off into the bathroom. Before I got properly turned to go hunt for the Manual the note had mentioned, Naruko poked her head back out and asked for help with the bathtub.
I had shown her how the tub worked and explained the soap and shampoo and bubbles and handed her the rubber ducky. When I turned around after fishing a towel out of the cabinet for her, I stopped and blinked because she had already ditched her shirt and was on her way out of her skirt. I smiled broadly as a disguise for how tightly I had my eyes scrunched shut, gave her the towel, told her to enjoy the bath and yell if she needed anything, and I’d see her when she got done. I quickly exited and closed the door behind me before covering my nose and trying to quell the blush covering my face.
Son of a BITCH, I thought to myself, Has nobody taught that girl not to disrobe in front of guys?! Has anybody taught her ANYTHING?! Mercy sakes alive…I could get her to do anything…even if she knew better, as much as she seems to trust me, I bet I could trick her into doing whatever I wanted…Nothing to do with her now, she’s way too young, but I could start setting up now for ten, twelve years from now when she’s… An image of what she’d look like at age 16 crawling across the bed to me buck naked except for some very sexy lingerie with a big smile flashed across my mind and blood spurted from my nose almost hard enough to snap my head back. And THIS is going to be a problem isn’t it? I thought irritably as my sinuses throbbed with little red hot flashes of pain and blood continued to pour across my hand.
Then it occurred to me that those damn bitches at that orphanage might have intentionally neglected to teach her anything so that she’d make mistakes and leave herself open like this, and I feel quite certain my face turned as violent a red as the blood on my hands. I scowled as the rage roiled through me, God, if she had run into a pedophile before me…
A horrible image of that sweet little angel hurt and broken flashed through my mind and I was narrowly aware of my chakra manifesting as a violent purple aura around me in response to my fury at the mere thought. Note to self, kill every pedophile I can find and investigate that damn orphanage. Dish out vengeance if appropriate. Fuck justice, nothing less than horrid bloody vengeance is acceptable if they were sabotaging ‘Ruko-chan like that.
I shook my head slightly, Gotta find that manual and get my mind off this! If I look half as scary as I feel like being then poor ‘Ruko-chan would probably be frightened if she saw me... Manual, manual, MAP. I snatched the map off the bed and headed for the library.
The library was a massive room and I realized then that it wasn’t one of the ones I’d seen, or if it was then it wasn’t a real one, because I was pretty sure I had never been in a room with that many books that wasn’t a full building unto itself, and rooms that size without stages, basketball courts or cafeterias in them were very rare as well. The ceiling was soaring and looked like something I’d expect out of European architecture, renaissance era maybe, definitely not Japanese though. There was a sizable table in the middle though, and on the table was a book about as thick as an average notebook, which looked to be hand bound in some kind of leather and had the words “House Manual” written on the front.
I nodded and took it back to Naruko’s bedroom to wait for her to finish in the bath. I had promised to listen for her and I intended to. If she had never been in a tub before she might not be careful when getting up to get out and fall. If she did I wanted to be able to get in there and help her quickly rather than her having to lie there hurt. Before I got comfortable I cracked the door to check and make sure she hadn’t gotten hurt in the brief time I was gone, “You okay in there ‘Ruko-chan?”
“Yeah! This is awesome!” she called back happily.
I smiled, “Alright. Have fun, but don’t stay in there all night, we do have class tomorrow and you’ll need your sleep.”
I hauled myself up onto the bed and got comfortable before opening the manual to read while I waited for ‘Ruko-chan. Just as I was finishing the section on the mechanisms of the door and the house’s unfindability, ‘Ruko-chan came out in her adorable little froggy jammies and crawled up onto the bed next to me. I smiled at her, “Did you enjoy your bath?”
Naruko nodded with a big smile, “Uh-huh! Ducky-kun and I had lots of fun!”
I smiled, “Alright, here, I found you a teddy bear.” I handed her a small stuffed bear, similar to the one I’d had on my first go round as a child. Naruko squealed a little with delight and hugged the bear tight.
I went to get up and she caught my hand, “Where are you going?” She asked with a worried look in her eyes.
I blinked, “Well I was gonna go to my room.”
“But…” Naruko started before stopping herself.
I sighed slightly, the look in her eyes said it all, and then I smiled, “Don’t want to sleep all by yourself huh? Alright, I’ll sleep in here with you. I’m going to stay up for a little while checking out the instructions for the house though, so you might have to sleep with the light on for a little while, kay?”
Naruko’s face lit up so much that I almost didn’t need the light. Now here I was, half under the covers with Naruko draped over my left side, trying to read the manual and keep my mind off the day when she’d be old enough for us to step up from sleeping together to sleeping together. Thankfully, the manual and the house it described were actually terribly interesting. The manual was basically an in depth how-to book for secure extradimensional dwellings and storage, and judging by the quality of the House, I’d have to guess that it was written by a world class expert.
If I was understanding it right, then fuinjutsu was actually going to be remarkably easy, and borderline absurd in how ridiculously formidable a swiss army superpower it was going to be. It was looking like all I had to do to make a seal was write the kanji for what I was wanting the seal to do and channel chakra into the ink or whatever other writing implement I was using to imbue it with the purpose and power to do what I was telling it to, using lines to direct it. More than just basic commands would be difficult to prepare in advance, but even basic stuff could be insanely useful. How hard was it to write “reflect” or “absorb”? According to what I was reading the chakra infusing the kanji would ensure the intent was followed, and the seals would maintain themselves as long as the chakra was able to recirculate in a balanced fashion.
As I read, I made constant notes of ideas in my head, and it seemed every new page brought a new one. Oh the things with which I must experiment…wonder if I can make a horniness seal…would have to be a genjutsu based seal…could have actually practical applications beyond the obvious… interrogation, it could be useful for interrogation…could do like that guy in that one story and use pleasure instead of pain… images flashed through my head of all the stories I’d read where pleasure actually got information and just generally worked better for persuasion in every way than pain and decided it was definitely worth looking into, and the obvious uses would be fun as well.
It was almost midnight by the time I felt drowsiness settle over me and closed the book, setting it gently on the nightstand and sliding down under the covers to curl up with Ruko-chan.
==The Next Morning==
Iruka had us out in the school yard, “Alright class, we’re going to start with some warm up exercises. Just follow me.” He proceeded to go through a variety of warm up exercises and stretches, then he had us do some standard exercise, push ups, sit ups, jumping jacks, so on and so forth. Those of you who’ve done some sort of workout in your life are familiar with the standard stuff and those who aren’t probably don’t care. I was a black belt at the time, granted a very rusty black belt who had just been bounced back to an approximation of his six year old body, but a black belt nonetheless so it was all quite familiar to me. As we went through the exercises, I was beyond delighted to find that my strength, speed and stamina had remained constant despite my change in size and weight, meaning it was all cake for me because I had twice as much power as I needed.
As we went through our standard exercises, Iruka prowled through the ranks, examining our levels of fitness. When he had finished judging our strength, “Alright, everybody run five laps around the track and then we’ll begin our taijutsu practice!” I was gone like a rocket. I had been fast even in my old body, with half the weight to carry and all the power? I was like lightning. I passed the other kids three times before I finished my laps, and I was the first one done. I wasn’t even winded as I stood in the taijutsu practice ring waiting with a grin, Is this what it felt like to be a kid?! I feel amazing!
Iruka shot me a glance as I peeled out off the track and then went back to watching the others. I was pleased to see Naruko was at the front of the pack alongside a few of the boys. The other girls except for two who I guessed (correctly) to be Ino and Hinata were lagging sadly behind, and it wasn’t hard at all to tell who the clan kids and civilians were.
When the others had finished their laps and come over to the taijutsu ring, Iruka came over, “Alright class, now that we’ve finished the warm up exercises, we’re going to see where you stand in your taijutsu abilities. I’m going to be fighting you all one on one.” That earned some mild cowering and balking from a lot of the class and piqued my interest. Iruka smiled as he walked into the ring, “Don’t worry, unless you’re really something else, I’ll be fighting on my knees. If you manage to force me to stand up, I might just have to bump you up to a more advanced class.”
He looked at me, “Koga, since you finished first and you’ve had a moment to catch your breath, you’re up first. I’m going to set this timer for two minutes okay? That should be enough for me to get an idea of your skill level.” He got down on his knees and put his guard up, “Now, I want you to come at me with everything you’ve got.”
“Elbows and knees allowed?” I asked calmly.
Iruka nodded, “Everything.”
I nodded, “Alright.” I settled into my guard and then launched forward like a shot from a bowstring, hammering out a sidekick towards Iruka’s face, which was about level with mine (and oh how much delightfully more flexible I had become!). Iruka blocked it easily and then repelled me with a gentle but firm palm thrust to my torso as I came around with a reverse punch. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to widen the gap between us enough that my punch missed. Then he blocked my follow up front kick with his elbow, my left jab with his hand as well as the follow up right hook with his other hand. That left him open for the front kick to the face though. It actually snapped his head back and disrupted his guard enough that I was able to hammer three quick punches into his face, an elbow strike right into his temple and a knife hand strike into his nose on my way out of his range.
Iruka regarded me warily as I watched him from where I had set my guard up, “Well, you’re better than I anticipated.” He raised a finger to his nose and snorted the blood out. Then he rose to his feet and settled into a stance, “Let’s see how much better.”
The whole class “ooh”-ed and I grinned, This just got harder. I launched straight forward and then just as I was entering Iruka’s range, I jumped. One of the surest and most satisfying techniques I had ever used on taller opponents was my flying piledriver. Tall people were just so unaccustomed to being attacked from above that they often never even considered the possibility of being whacked over the head, especially by an opponent shorter than them.
Apparently Iruka wasn’t that tall, missed that memo or was just really good, because he actually deflected my piledriver and threw a counter punch that launched me out of the ring. It wasn’t a hard punch, just the altitude that made me fly that far. I landed on my feet and grinned, “Actually fighting back now Sensei? Fun.” I walked back into the ring and set up with him again. Iruka set up in return and I gauged my options, flying piledriver’s out…sweep? Doubtful, he looks light on his FUCK!
Iruka launched forward and a punch rocketed out towards my head. He missed by a hairs breadth as I moved at the last second, and then twisted to throw another punch at me followed by a roundhouse and then a spinning hook kick which flowed into another round house, and then a sweep, all in less time than it takes to read it. I sprang back out of his range every time, and then as his leg came up in a front kick after the sweep, I ducked under instead of back and slammed my crossed arms into the bottom of his leg. He went flying off balance and before I could pat myself on the back I had a brief instance of OH SHIT! as he landed in a handstand and brought his legs swinging around in an upside down roundhouse that I managed to block, which still sent me flying with its momentum.
I rolled a landing and back to my feet, noticing that he’d knocked me out of the ring again as the timer buzzed. Iruka straightened up out of his stance with a smile, “Well Koga, I must say I’m very impressed! You’re very skilled for one so young, and much stronger than I expected. I didn’t expect to be forced to my feet right off the bat like that. Congratulations, I’ll be talking to one of the more advanced instructors after lunch about getting you bumped up to a more appropriate level for taijutsu class. Now if you’ll have a seat on this side of the ring, I’ll take the next volunteer.” He gestured to the side of the ring across from the rest of the class and I went and sat down.
Hinata, Kiba and Sasuke were the only other ones who managed to even touch Iruka. Nobody else could get through his guard. Kiba pulled it off only once with sheer ferocity and speed right out of the gate, after which she got curb stomped just as hard as everyone else. Yes, I did say SHE there. Yeah, Kiba’s a girl. It weirded me out at first too, but she did actually grow up fairly cute! (More on that later)
Hinata and Sasuke had an extremely difficult time getting past Iruka’s guard, but they did actually manage it a few times. They didn’t land any particularly good hits, and they certainly didn’t pull off any uninterrupted combos, but they did better than everyone else by a longshot. By my estimate, the two of them were about half to two-thirds as good as me, which while a sobering thought also made sense given what clans they came from. They’ve probably been training their butts off since they learned to walk. Wonder if I’ll get put in the same class as Team Guy…
Iruka spent the whole day on taijutsu, apparently Tuesday was Taijutsu day, and I met my new class that afternoon when they came out for their practice after lunch. It wasn’t Team Guy’s class, although they were there too in a different part of the yard. It was the same class Itachi had been in, which was now the graduating class. They didn’t take having someone just over half their age tossed into their mix terribly well, so they all made absolutely sure to provide enough challenge that I was actually still breathing hard when I finally got out the gate that afternoon. Apparently what had been standard black belt level of proficiency in my world was standard Academy Graduate here, which also made sense given that they were learning shinobi skills for six years. They had most probably all put waaay more hours into it than I had to be honest.
I was half surprised to see that Neji was in the same class, and my first impression of him was that he was the nastiest little bastard I’d ever had the pleasure of kicking in the balls. He really should’ve known better than to throw a kick at my head after I’d jammed over half the kicks thrown at me over the course of the afternoon in one way or another, but I guess some people just have to learn the hard way, and some people never do. Although after having a voice to match his long girly hair for an afternoon, Neji wisely never tried to kick me in the head again. In fact, I’m not sure he ever tried to kick anyone in the head ever again…and given how many MANY times we sparred over the coming years, it really says something about how much it must’ve hurt that he restricted himself to his hands and elbows after that.
In between fights, the instructors would give tips, and there were a surprising lot of instructors, enough for every six students to have one to give close observation and tips. To my shock when I realized who she was, our instructor was a girl not terribly much older than us who had only just graduated at the end of the previous year: Izumi Uchiha. Yeah, that Izumi Uchiha, Itachi’s girlfriend. After I realized who she was, I made a point to be very nice to her because I knew what was coming. She didn’t have more than a few years to live at most unless I was able to stop the massacre. After I fought her so she could discern my skill level, I got a little insight into just how dangerous Itachi and Obito would be in a fight.
To put that in perspective for you, Izumi was a genin. A genin very talented in taijutsu who had graduated a year early to be sure, but by no means a Rock Lee or Hyuga level specialist. She still kicked me around like a ball, and I had actually only become faster in this body without any loss in strength from my fully grown body. My guard was good enough that she had trouble hitting me, and I was apparently still very good even by this world’s standards at what I learned was called Karumijutsu, or Body Lightening Art, the art of being light as hell on your feet and hard to catch or hit.
The others in my group were astounded that she had only managed to penetrate my guard the half dozen times she did in that two minutes, but I know that it was only because of how good I was at dodging and staying out of her range. That girl’s hand speed is freakin’ frightening, and she didn’t even have her Sharingan active. Her strikes weren’t exactly light either, and I could tell she wasn’t going anything like all out. Those were just light touches for her, and anyone who bruised normally would’ve had angry purple imprints of her hands and feet all over their body. The only reason I didn’t was because I take two or three days to even begin to bruise for anything less than something with bone breaking force, and by then I’ve usually healed enough that I only turn a bit brownish yellow rather than purple or black.
Itachi and Obito were set to not just beat but slaughter an entire district full of people more badass than Izumi in one night without any flashy jutsu like Itachi’s Susano’o. That was a very frightful testament to their battle prowess. I immediately put them both on my list of people to avoid confrontations with and prayed that I was not in the body of some Uchiha’s missing lovechild that would make me a target for those two.
On the upside, Izumi was a very easy person to be friendly with. She was very sweet and an attentive and skilled instructor. She was also extremely pretty, which helped me be nice to her even if it did totally screw my composure every time I noticed it. If all the girls were swooning over Itachi, I wouldn’t have been at all surprised to learn that all the guys were smitten with Izumi. I had to take a punch in the nose to cover up how much my nose was bleeding when my mind strayed in the obvious inappropriate directions. It only got worse when she got right up in my face to make sure my nose wasn’t broken and I got a big dose of how beautiful she was right in the face. After fumbling out an assurance that I was fine that was apparently good enough for Izumi to go back to conducting the next match, I decided to take up wearing a mask ala Kakashi and find a jutsu or something to reduce the blood flow to my nose.
We spent the rest of the day fighting and after we left, as I was walking home with Naruko, I almost got a geyser of a nosebleed as I realized how incredibly effective the Sexy Jutsu would actually be if ALL guys got nosebleeds this bad so easily, which I had seen no indication that they wouldn’t. It was only by quickly averting my thoughts to the combat implications of such an effective distraction and thoughts of tearing people apart that I managed to keep it down to a trickle instead of a gusher.
Then Ruko-chan noticed and leaned in to check on me and I had to pass it off as a lingering injury from earlier. Definitely need a mask… I thought, This is gonna get embarrassing quick otherwise.
Author's Notes
Since a lot of these terms may be new to readers (or more hopefully sporkers!) here's a little glossary of sorts!
genin: low-nin, the foot soldier ninjas. Treated as a standard grunt in the shinobi villages with most shinobi of significant talent going on to become Chunin (mid-nin) who can handle riskier missions and even lead teams, and the very best becoming Jonin (elite nin) who are actually entrusted with field command of trainees and are almost invariably commanders
nosebleeds: anime shorthand for getting a boner. I wouldn't use it, but the source material made it into an actual plot point capable of KO-ing the Hokage
Hokage: Refers to the supreme commander of the Hidden Leaf Village, basically ninja royalty, there have been only 4 Hokages and they are all considered masters of the shinobi arts and wield cataclysmic power. Naruko's father was the Fourth, but he died the night she was born to save their village from a rampaging demon that had previously been contained in Naruko's mother. Naruko is the new vessel of that demon and this is the real reason why everyone hates her. Other villages have other Kage
taijutsu: used in this series as a catchall for any hand-to-hand combat
NEXT CHAPTER
Chapter 2 – The Academy
==A Few Hours Later==
I sat in bed with ‘Ruko-chan’s head on my shoulder as I thoroughly analyzed the contents of the book labeled, “The Manual”. Naruko had cried for almost an hour and then held on for another one before I talked her into taking a bath. I had fished her out some adorable pajamas with little froggies on them from the dresser and shooed her off into the bathroom. Before I got properly turned to go hunt for the Manual the note had mentioned, Naruko poked her head back out and asked for help with the bathtub.
I had shown her how the tub worked and explained the soap and shampoo and bubbles and handed her the rubber ducky. When I turned around after fishing a towel out of the cabinet for her, I stopped and blinked because she had already ditched her shirt and was on her way out of her skirt. I smiled broadly as a disguise for how tightly I had my eyes scrunched shut, gave her the towel, told her to enjoy the bath and yell if she needed anything, and I’d see her when she got done. I quickly exited and closed the door behind me before covering my nose and trying to quell the blush covering my face.
Son of a BITCH, I thought to myself, Has nobody taught that girl not to disrobe in front of guys?! Has anybody taught her ANYTHING?! Mercy sakes alive…I could get her to do anything…even if she knew better, as much as she seems to trust me, I bet I could trick her into doing whatever I wanted…Nothing to do with her now, she’s way too young, but I could start setting up now for ten, twelve years from now when she’s… An image of what she’d look like at age 16 crawling across the bed to me buck naked except for some very sexy lingerie with a big smile flashed across my mind and blood spurted from my nose almost hard enough to snap my head back. And THIS is going to be a problem isn’t it? I thought irritably as my sinuses throbbed with little red hot flashes of pain and blood continued to pour across my hand.
Then it occurred to me that those damn bitches at that orphanage might have intentionally neglected to teach her anything so that she’d make mistakes and leave herself open like this, and I feel quite certain my face turned as violent a red as the blood on my hands. I scowled as the rage roiled through me, God, if she had run into a pedophile before me…
A horrible image of that sweet little angel hurt and broken flashed through my mind and I was narrowly aware of my chakra manifesting as a violent purple aura around me in response to my fury at the mere thought. Note to self, kill every pedophile I can find and investigate that damn orphanage. Dish out vengeance if appropriate. Fuck justice, nothing less than horrid bloody vengeance is acceptable if they were sabotaging ‘Ruko-chan like that.
I shook my head slightly, Gotta find that manual and get my mind off this! If I look half as scary as I feel like being then poor ‘Ruko-chan would probably be frightened if she saw me... Manual, manual, MAP. I snatched the map off the bed and headed for the library.
The library was a massive room and I realized then that it wasn’t one of the ones I’d seen, or if it was then it wasn’t a real one, because I was pretty sure I had never been in a room with that many books that wasn’t a full building unto itself, and rooms that size without stages, basketball courts or cafeterias in them were very rare as well. The ceiling was soaring and looked like something I’d expect out of European architecture, renaissance era maybe, definitely not Japanese though. There was a sizable table in the middle though, and on the table was a book about as thick as an average notebook, which looked to be hand bound in some kind of leather and had the words “House Manual” written on the front.
I nodded and took it back to Naruko’s bedroom to wait for her to finish in the bath. I had promised to listen for her and I intended to. If she had never been in a tub before she might not be careful when getting up to get out and fall. If she did I wanted to be able to get in there and help her quickly rather than her having to lie there hurt. Before I got comfortable I cracked the door to check and make sure she hadn’t gotten hurt in the brief time I was gone, “You okay in there ‘Ruko-chan?”
“Yeah! This is awesome!” she called back happily.
I smiled, “Alright. Have fun, but don’t stay in there all night, we do have class tomorrow and you’ll need your sleep.”
I hauled myself up onto the bed and got comfortable before opening the manual to read while I waited for ‘Ruko-chan. Just as I was finishing the section on the mechanisms of the door and the house’s unfindability, ‘Ruko-chan came out in her adorable little froggy jammies and crawled up onto the bed next to me. I smiled at her, “Did you enjoy your bath?”
Naruko nodded with a big smile, “Uh-huh! Ducky-kun and I had lots of fun!”
I smiled, “Alright, here, I found you a teddy bear.” I handed her a small stuffed bear, similar to the one I’d had on my first go round as a child. Naruko squealed a little with delight and hugged the bear tight.
I went to get up and she caught my hand, “Where are you going?” She asked with a worried look in her eyes.
I blinked, “Well I was gonna go to my room.”
“But…” Naruko started before stopping herself.
I sighed slightly, the look in her eyes said it all, and then I smiled, “Don’t want to sleep all by yourself huh? Alright, I’ll sleep in here with you. I’m going to stay up for a little while checking out the instructions for the house though, so you might have to sleep with the light on for a little while, kay?”
Naruko’s face lit up so much that I almost didn’t need the light. Now here I was, half under the covers with Naruko draped over my left side, trying to read the manual and keep my mind off the day when she’d be old enough for us to step up from sleeping together to sleeping together. Thankfully, the manual and the house it described were actually terribly interesting. The manual was basically an in depth how-to book for secure extradimensional dwellings and storage, and judging by the quality of the House, I’d have to guess that it was written by a world class expert.
If I was understanding it right, then fuinjutsu was actually going to be remarkably easy, and borderline absurd in how ridiculously formidable a swiss army superpower it was going to be. It was looking like all I had to do to make a seal was write the kanji for what I was wanting the seal to do and channel chakra into the ink or whatever other writing implement I was using to imbue it with the purpose and power to do what I was telling it to, using lines to direct it. More than just basic commands would be difficult to prepare in advance, but even basic stuff could be insanely useful. How hard was it to write “reflect” or “absorb”? According to what I was reading the chakra infusing the kanji would ensure the intent was followed, and the seals would maintain themselves as long as the chakra was able to recirculate in a balanced fashion.
As I read, I made constant notes of ideas in my head, and it seemed every new page brought a new one. Oh the things with which I must experiment…wonder if I can make a horniness seal…would have to be a genjutsu based seal…could have actually practical applications beyond the obvious… interrogation, it could be useful for interrogation…could do like that guy in that one story and use pleasure instead of pain… images flashed through my head of all the stories I’d read where pleasure actually got information and just generally worked better for persuasion in every way than pain and decided it was definitely worth looking into, and the obvious uses would be fun as well.
It was almost midnight by the time I felt drowsiness settle over me and closed the book, setting it gently on the nightstand and sliding down under the covers to curl up with Ruko-chan.
==The Next Morning==
Iruka had us out in the school yard, “Alright class, we’re going to start with some warm up exercises. Just follow me.” He proceeded to go through a variety of warm up exercises and stretches, then he had us do some standard exercise, push ups, sit ups, jumping jacks, so on and so forth. Those of you who’ve done some sort of workout in your life are familiar with the standard stuff and those who aren’t probably don’t care. I was a black belt at the time, granted a very rusty black belt who had just been bounced back to an approximation of his six year old body, but a black belt nonetheless so it was all quite familiar to me. As we went through the exercises, I was beyond delighted to find that my strength, speed and stamina had remained constant despite my change in size and weight, meaning it was all cake for me because I had twice as much power as I needed.
As we went through our standard exercises, Iruka prowled through the ranks, examining our levels of fitness. When he had finished judging our strength, “Alright, everybody run five laps around the track and then we’ll begin our taijutsu practice!” I was gone like a rocket. I had been fast even in my old body, with half the weight to carry and all the power? I was like lightning. I passed the other kids three times before I finished my laps, and I was the first one done. I wasn’t even winded as I stood in the taijutsu practice ring waiting with a grin, Is this what it felt like to be a kid?! I feel amazing!
Iruka shot me a glance as I peeled out off the track and then went back to watching the others. I was pleased to see Naruko was at the front of the pack alongside a few of the boys. The other girls except for two who I guessed (correctly) to be Ino and Hinata were lagging sadly behind, and it wasn’t hard at all to tell who the clan kids and civilians were.
When the others had finished their laps and come over to the taijutsu ring, Iruka came over, “Alright class, now that we’ve finished the warm up exercises, we’re going to see where you stand in your taijutsu abilities. I’m going to be fighting you all one on one.” That earned some mild cowering and balking from a lot of the class and piqued my interest. Iruka smiled as he walked into the ring, “Don’t worry, unless you’re really something else, I’ll be fighting on my knees. If you manage to force me to stand up, I might just have to bump you up to a more advanced class.”
He looked at me, “Koga, since you finished first and you’ve had a moment to catch your breath, you’re up first. I’m going to set this timer for two minutes okay? That should be enough for me to get an idea of your skill level.” He got down on his knees and put his guard up, “Now, I want you to come at me with everything you’ve got.”
“Elbows and knees allowed?” I asked calmly.
Iruka nodded, “Everything.”
I nodded, “Alright.” I settled into my guard and then launched forward like a shot from a bowstring, hammering out a sidekick towards Iruka’s face, which was about level with mine (and oh how much delightfully more flexible I had become!). Iruka blocked it easily and then repelled me with a gentle but firm palm thrust to my torso as I came around with a reverse punch. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to widen the gap between us enough that my punch missed. Then he blocked my follow up front kick with his elbow, my left jab with his hand as well as the follow up right hook with his other hand. That left him open for the front kick to the face though. It actually snapped his head back and disrupted his guard enough that I was able to hammer three quick punches into his face, an elbow strike right into his temple and a knife hand strike into his nose on my way out of his range.
Iruka regarded me warily as I watched him from where I had set my guard up, “Well, you’re better than I anticipated.” He raised a finger to his nose and snorted the blood out. Then he rose to his feet and settled into a stance, “Let’s see how much better.”
The whole class “ooh”-ed and I grinned, This just got harder. I launched straight forward and then just as I was entering Iruka’s range, I jumped. One of the surest and most satisfying techniques I had ever used on taller opponents was my flying piledriver. Tall people were just so unaccustomed to being attacked from above that they often never even considered the possibility of being whacked over the head, especially by an opponent shorter than them.
Apparently Iruka wasn’t that tall, missed that memo or was just really good, because he actually deflected my piledriver and threw a counter punch that launched me out of the ring. It wasn’t a hard punch, just the altitude that made me fly that far. I landed on my feet and grinned, “Actually fighting back now Sensei? Fun.” I walked back into the ring and set up with him again. Iruka set up in return and I gauged my options, flying piledriver’s out…sweep? Doubtful, he looks light on his FUCK!
Iruka launched forward and a punch rocketed out towards my head. He missed by a hairs breadth as I moved at the last second, and then twisted to throw another punch at me followed by a roundhouse and then a spinning hook kick which flowed into another round house, and then a sweep, all in less time than it takes to read it. I sprang back out of his range every time, and then as his leg came up in a front kick after the sweep, I ducked under instead of back and slammed my crossed arms into the bottom of his leg. He went flying off balance and before I could pat myself on the back I had a brief instance of OH SHIT! as he landed in a handstand and brought his legs swinging around in an upside down roundhouse that I managed to block, which still sent me flying with its momentum.
I rolled a landing and back to my feet, noticing that he’d knocked me out of the ring again as the timer buzzed. Iruka straightened up out of his stance with a smile, “Well Koga, I must say I’m very impressed! You’re very skilled for one so young, and much stronger than I expected. I didn’t expect to be forced to my feet right off the bat like that. Congratulations, I’ll be talking to one of the more advanced instructors after lunch about getting you bumped up to a more appropriate level for taijutsu class. Now if you’ll have a seat on this side of the ring, I’ll take the next volunteer.” He gestured to the side of the ring across from the rest of the class and I went and sat down.
Hinata, Kiba and Sasuke were the only other ones who managed to even touch Iruka. Nobody else could get through his guard. Kiba pulled it off only once with sheer ferocity and speed right out of the gate, after which she got curb stomped just as hard as everyone else. Yes, I did say SHE there. Yeah, Kiba’s a girl. It weirded me out at first too, but she did actually grow up fairly cute! (More on that later)
Hinata and Sasuke had an extremely difficult time getting past Iruka’s guard, but they did actually manage it a few times. They didn’t land any particularly good hits, and they certainly didn’t pull off any uninterrupted combos, but they did better than everyone else by a longshot. By my estimate, the two of them were about half to two-thirds as good as me, which while a sobering thought also made sense given what clans they came from. They’ve probably been training their butts off since they learned to walk. Wonder if I’ll get put in the same class as Team Guy…
Iruka spent the whole day on taijutsu, apparently Tuesday was Taijutsu day, and I met my new class that afternoon when they came out for their practice after lunch. It wasn’t Team Guy’s class, although they were there too in a different part of the yard. It was the same class Itachi had been in, which was now the graduating class. They didn’t take having someone just over half their age tossed into their mix terribly well, so they all made absolutely sure to provide enough challenge that I was actually still breathing hard when I finally got out the gate that afternoon. Apparently what had been standard black belt level of proficiency in my world was standard Academy Graduate here, which also made sense given that they were learning shinobi skills for six years. They had most probably all put waaay more hours into it than I had to be honest.
I was half surprised to see that Neji was in the same class, and my first impression of him was that he was the nastiest little bastard I’d ever had the pleasure of kicking in the balls. He really should’ve known better than to throw a kick at my head after I’d jammed over half the kicks thrown at me over the course of the afternoon in one way or another, but I guess some people just have to learn the hard way, and some people never do. Although after having a voice to match his long girly hair for an afternoon, Neji wisely never tried to kick me in the head again. In fact, I’m not sure he ever tried to kick anyone in the head ever again…and given how many MANY times we sparred over the coming years, it really says something about how much it must’ve hurt that he restricted himself to his hands and elbows after that.
In between fights, the instructors would give tips, and there were a surprising lot of instructors, enough for every six students to have one to give close observation and tips. To my shock when I realized who she was, our instructor was a girl not terribly much older than us who had only just graduated at the end of the previous year: Izumi Uchiha. Yeah, that Izumi Uchiha, Itachi’s girlfriend. After I realized who she was, I made a point to be very nice to her because I knew what was coming. She didn’t have more than a few years to live at most unless I was able to stop the massacre. After I fought her so she could discern my skill level, I got a little insight into just how dangerous Itachi and Obito would be in a fight.
To put that in perspective for you, Izumi was a genin. A genin very talented in taijutsu who had graduated a year early to be sure, but by no means a Rock Lee or Hyuga level specialist. She still kicked me around like a ball, and I had actually only become faster in this body without any loss in strength from my fully grown body. My guard was good enough that she had trouble hitting me, and I was apparently still very good even by this world’s standards at what I learned was called Karumijutsu, or Body Lightening Art, the art of being light as hell on your feet and hard to catch or hit.
The others in my group were astounded that she had only managed to penetrate my guard the half dozen times she did in that two minutes, but I know that it was only because of how good I was at dodging and staying out of her range. That girl’s hand speed is freakin’ frightening, and she didn’t even have her Sharingan active. Her strikes weren’t exactly light either, and I could tell she wasn’t going anything like all out. Those were just light touches for her, and anyone who bruised normally would’ve had angry purple imprints of her hands and feet all over their body. The only reason I didn’t was because I take two or three days to even begin to bruise for anything less than something with bone breaking force, and by then I’ve usually healed enough that I only turn a bit brownish yellow rather than purple or black.
Itachi and Obito were set to not just beat but slaughter an entire district full of people more badass than Izumi in one night without any flashy jutsu like Itachi’s Susano’o. That was a very frightful testament to their battle prowess. I immediately put them both on my list of people to avoid confrontations with and prayed that I was not in the body of some Uchiha’s missing lovechild that would make me a target for those two.
On the upside, Izumi was a very easy person to be friendly with. She was very sweet and an attentive and skilled instructor. She was also extremely pretty, which helped me be nice to her even if it did totally screw my composure every time I noticed it. If all the girls were swooning over Itachi, I wouldn’t have been at all surprised to learn that all the guys were smitten with Izumi. I had to take a punch in the nose to cover up how much my nose was bleeding when my mind strayed in the obvious inappropriate directions. It only got worse when she got right up in my face to make sure my nose wasn’t broken and I got a big dose of how beautiful she was right in the face. After fumbling out an assurance that I was fine that was apparently good enough for Izumi to go back to conducting the next match, I decided to take up wearing a mask ala Kakashi and find a jutsu or something to reduce the blood flow to my nose.
We spent the rest of the day fighting and after we left, as I was walking home with Naruko, I almost got a geyser of a nosebleed as I realized how incredibly effective the Sexy Jutsu would actually be if ALL guys got nosebleeds this bad so easily, which I had seen no indication that they wouldn’t. It was only by quickly averting my thoughts to the combat implications of such an effective distraction and thoughts of tearing people apart that I managed to keep it down to a trickle instead of a gusher.
Then Ruko-chan noticed and leaned in to check on me and I had to pass it off as a lingering injury from earlier. Definitely need a mask… I thought, This is gonna get embarrassing quick otherwise.
Author's Notes
Since a lot of these terms may be new to readers (or more hopefully sporkers!) here's a little glossary of sorts!
genin: low-nin, the foot soldier ninjas. Treated as a standard grunt in the shinobi villages with most shinobi of significant talent going on to become Chunin (mid-nin) who can handle riskier missions and even lead teams, and the very best becoming Jonin (elite nin) who are actually entrusted with field command of trainees and are almost invariably commanders
nosebleeds: anime shorthand for getting a boner. I wouldn't use it, but the source material made it into an actual plot point capable of KO-ing the Hokage
Hokage: Refers to the supreme commander of the Hidden Leaf Village, basically ninja royalty, there have been only 4 Hokages and they are all considered masters of the shinobi arts and wield cataclysmic power. Naruko's father was the Fourth, but he died the night she was born to save their village from a rampaging demon that had previously been contained in Naruko's mother. Naruko is the new vessel of that demon and this is the real reason why everyone hates her. Other villages have other Kage
taijutsu: used in this series as a catchall for any hand-to-hand combat
NEXT CHAPTER
