NOVEL NEXT 1.15
I had just turned twelve. It was the start of the year. It was the last day of Academy.
The past years were a blur of training. I had improved, a lot. Even if no one in the academy knew the full extent of my capabilities. All that chakra circulation cultivation nonsense might not have been nonsense. I still refused to boost my body with chakra during training, or boost at all. I still used the ankle and arm bracelet seals, and I even added a necklace seal. I had no idea how much they weighted at the moment. Every time I got used to the weight, I amped the voltage, so to speak.
At some point, I stopped paying attention to numbers. I had obsessed about them a bit too much. Even so — surprise surprise — I wasn’t the worst in my physical classes. In terms of physical strength, I was top of class. Top of year even. I was stronger even than adults. My hodgepodge taijutsu landed me firmly upper middle of the pack. I had more endurance than all the kids, Naruto excluded, he had his own cheat. All without using chakra. Still wearing the weight bracelets. Damn, talk about a cheat.
I lagged bad in jutsu. I knew the Academy three. I could perform them flawlessly. But I knew only the basic three. Without a clan to support me, didn’t knew where to learn more. The academy only offered the basic three. The village asked for mission points. Ninjutsu training with the clan kids was bad. More than once Iruka-sensei had to intervene, mostly because Depresuke always tried to burn my face off. I even gave up on having long hair, after the fucker burned it for the third time.
Instead of a long hair, I had a bob cut. I liked it, but still, long hair rulz.
I wasn’t top of the class with hand-seals. Some were better than me. But I was still in the top 5 of the whole year. I had unmatched chakra control. The other students were baby when compared to me, but the academy didn’t measured that. There were a few basic exercises here and there to promote control, but I think the consensus was that any Genin would train that by themselves. For the last year, aside from all the habitual multitasking, I had started training one hand jutsu and using jutsu without hand seals. I mean, I had mastered the three jutsu I knew with one hand, and without seal. It wasn’t even difficult.
One day Iruka-sensei warned us that during a battle, an enemy might be so proficient with one particular jutsu he might use only one hand, or no seal at all. That, of course sparked my control training mania. It was the first thing I did when I returned home. It took a few minutes to figure things out. Once I did, I could use it, seal or no seal, one or two hands. It was a bit disappointing. I struggled recently with ways to train my control, and for a moment, I had gotten excited I had found a new way to practice. Guess I shouldn’t have expected much. After all, these were E-rank. Basic of the basic-est.
Over the last years, I started to gravitate more toward my future team members. I wasn’t the best when dealing with bugs, the smell freaked me out a bit, but Shino was cool. Kiba was a loudmouth like Naruto, but I’ve been trained to endure Naruto’s style of annoyance for years. Kiba was an amateur on that regard. I made sure to make friends with the others. I’m not going to lie here. But I ignored all other classmates that weren’t in the rookie 9. Which left my only female friends Ino and Sakura.
My fan-girl moments usually got out of control with them. I mean. I loved them. Really. I even loved myself. I was Hinata. I wanted their autograph. There were some spots of fan-girling sometimes, but class got used to it quickly. I didn’t suffer with bullying too much. At least not aside from the first years.
I was the mute girl, the weird girl, the bringer of sweets. Anyone who bullied me didn’t get sweets. Easy as that. Know thy enemy and all.
Without tooting my own horn too much, I was a pretty good shinobi. Despite my lack of jutsu — something I planned to address as soon as I had mission points — I was competent at taijutsu. Due to that same quirky of chakra, I was immune to any genjutsu that tried to mess with my mind. I had ‘mastered’ fuinjutsu. No, that was a lie. I knew a few seals, I knew all the common building blocks. I could improve on what I knew: storage seals, exploding tags, but I had no way of truly creating something new.
I was stuck. Worse because each seal seemed to use a different logic altogether. Like different languages entirely. My dreams of flying god seemed even more distant. I had the time space logic there on storage seals, but no matter what I tried, it just didn’t work. Same with using chakra to create seals. I was stuck to ink and cumbersome logic. It was frustrating.
That and explosions. I mean, what was a girl without explosions? We trained with explosive tags in the academy. I managed to take a few home with me. After deciphering it, creating my own explosive tags was par for the course. I had a lot, really, a lot of explosive tags. Not just the basic ones. No, I improved on them. Let’s just say the Konoha police wasn’t happy with me. But I was training on a training ground. Those Uchiha police should have been thanking me for being alive. Not that they knew it.
I was pretty sure I was stronger than your average chunin. I dare hope I even matched number by numbers some newly promoted jounin. Of course I didn’t think I had a sweeping chance against the lowest of chunins out there in a real battle. Good jutsu and real battle experience counted for a lot, after all. And I lacked both.
But I got off track.
Emosuke was still sullen and depressed. The gaggle of girls still thought he was hot shit. Naruto still thought he was Sasuke’s rival. I had passed the first two exams, today was the third one. All of the class had passed one or another, except for Naruto who failed two. I wasn’t worried. Naruto was ninja Jesus after all. Things would work out in the end, somehow.
I flicked my wrist, pushed a bit of chakra in the seal there. My communication board v5.7 sprang to life over my arm, pen and eraser ready. I took the pen, wrote. Turned the board around so Shino could read. “You think Naruto will pass this time?”
Cool guy Shino just shrugged. Loudmouth Kiba fell down laughing. I should have expected that. Kids will be kids. Even if they were trained to kill.
Iruka-sensei walked inside the class, called out for order. “To graduate, your final test is a Bushin no Jutsu. When you’re called, come to the next room.”
I waited. When my name was called, I walked to the test room. Kiba gave me a thumbs up in encouragement. Inside, I saw Iruka-sensei and Mizuki behind a desk. Forehead protectors displayed arrayed in the desk in front of them.
“Please demonstrate your Bushin no Jutsu.” Iruka-sensei called out.
I nodded. Walked to the center of the room. The hand-seals were easy. Ram - Snake - Tiger. I pushed my chakra on the last seal. I didn’t need to hold back anymore. Five other clones appeared around me. I took a step back. My clones stepped forward. Each performed a different routine, while I ran through some of my self made katas.
When done, I dismissed the jutsu. Bowed. Mizuki had a calculating stare. Iruka-sensei smiled ear to ear. “Amazing. That was amazing Hinata-chan.” The man waved me over. Gave me the forehead protector. I bowed. “Be here Monday morning to see which team you will be assigned to and who is your jounin sensei.” I bowed again. Turned. Left the room. Stepped through another door to the courtyard where a group of kids that had passed waited.
I took a pose. I did the V for victory. Everyone looked at me like I had grown a third head. Damn, I forgot it doesn’t translate. My shoulders slumped. I gave them a thumbs up. The crowd cheered. Some patted me on the back. I took a seal from my pouch. Summoned an array of cupcakes. The kids cheered even louder. I huffed. They wanted me only for my sweets. Bunch of hyenas.
The rest of the class trickled over, except for Naruto. Soon, parents also joined the crowd celebrating with their kids. I cast my gaze about. On a far tree, sad, lonely, depressed, on a tree swing, was Naruto.
I walked over. Sat by his side. I knew everything was going to be fine. But it broke my heart seeing him like this. I summoned my special cupcake. Sunshine and Orange. Decorated with cat whiskers. I offered it up. Naruto took it. I hugged him while he cried.
It was going to be okay. I wanted to say. I might have cried as well. I regret not doing more to help him. I didn’t because I was selfish.
