After a lovely nights rest, as well as a similarly lovely morning, I am finally making my way over to the academy.
Except that is kind of a lie, it would be more accurate to say that I slowly meandered my way over to the academy, getting detoured a few times.
I decided to take a page out of future Kakashi's book, only I am going to be three hours late, because fuck them kids.
Not literally though.
Anyway, I eventually make my way to the correct classroom.
Walking through the door, I see three sets of impatient eyes snap to meet my form as I enter, one of the kids has drool on his face and was clearly sleeping on his desk, the other two just look annoyed.
Fun.
"Yo, are you guys Team 8? I'm your Jonin-sensei, Hanabira." My unenthused voice is interrupted before I can say anymore by the kid who was sleeping on his desk.
"Why are you so late!? It's been hours!" He shouts, looking all self righteous and full of justified frustration.
I just shrug and back to the door.
"Adult reasons, I'll tell you when you're older. Now, follow me."
With that, I leave, the kids scrambling after me with cries of 'wait!' that I ignore, of course, they catch up shortly, since I'm only walking and they quickly stop trying to talk to me once they figure I am not going to respond.
After a few minutes of walking, we are in one of the various training grounds around the village.
Walking up to a clearing of flat grass, I take a seat and gesture for them to do the same, forming a semicircle in front of me.
"Now them first things first, introductions.." After no one says anything, I specify with a raised eyebrow, "That means introduce yourselves, likes dislikes, dreams, that sort of thing."
"Why don't you go first Sensei? So we have an idea of what to say?" Questions the drool kid.
I get the feeling he is the most extroverted here.
Still, I have no problem doing so, so I go ahead and get the ball rolling.
"Sure, my name is Hanabira Haruno, I like having fun and I dislike not having fun, in the future I dream to have fun, there, now you go, Señor Drool."
"Sena what?"
"Just do your damn introduction already."
"Right, ahem, my name is Hayate Gekko, I like Kenjutsu and I dislike my friends being hurt, uhm, in the future, I want to be Konoha's greatest Kenjutsu user."
Hayate is a pretty average looking young boy, he has shot brown hair with a long fringe that goes between his eyes in a way that wouldn't work in the Before, but I guess the physics here just don't care, he has a bright look to his eyes that speak of innocence.
Somehow I don't think that is going to last the day.
Honestly, it's not even an impossible dream, if you don't consider the fact that every ANBU carries a tanto and is trained in the use of the katana.
That reminds me, I need to stop forgetting to buy a good katana or two, I haven't used my Kenjutsu skills since that Samurai mission.
Thoughts for later I guess.
Without saying anything, I look to the next kid in line and he gets the message.
"I am Ibiki Morino, I like solving puzzles, I dislike maize. In the future, I hope to join Konoha's intelligence division."
Ibiki has a strong jaw and cheekbones, he has steel grey hair that is shaved down to an almost buzzcut, he has an intelligent glint to his eyes, and seems eager for something, based on his likes, I would assume he's trying to figure me out.
I still don't really remember who he is, his name is annoyingly familiar, but his face rings no bells, maybe once he's older I will be able to notice it.
I look to the last kid and wait for his introduction.
"My name is Tokara, I like steamed eggs and I dislike salmon, in the future I want to open a Ninja style restaurant!"
Tokara is perfect mob material, he has short brown hair and black eyes and absolutely nothing remarkable about him.
Cool, so I have two ok Genin and one that they will need to carry.
That's good enough.
"Alright then, now, despite what you've been told, you are not actually Genin yet, see, your Jonin-sensei gets to do their own test, and if you fail, you are sent back to the academy for another year."
""What!"" Two of them exclaim in shock, Ibiki meanwhile looks thoughtful.
Unsurprisingly, it's Ibiki who asks the important question.
"What is the test, Hanabira-sensei?"
Oh I am so glad you asked little Ibi-kun, I put a lot of thought into this after all, and I figured, what better way to get rid of hesitation that could cost you the Chunin exams than this.
So, hiding an evil smile, I manipulate the earth behind me, to reveal three people who had been buried in the ground, bound and gagged.
Hayate and Tokara seem confused, but I see horror edging into Ibiki's eyes, so I think he's already figured it out, such a smart kid.
"These three are all prisoners of Konoha who have already been visited by Yamanaka specialists in T&I, unfortunately, they didn't have any useful information or personal connections, so they have been slated for death."
None of them move to go past me, instead just staring at the people behind me who are awake and staring fearfully in our direction, wriggling in a vain attempt to escape.
All three are boys, around sixteen years of age if I had to guess.
"Well, are you wating for an invitation? Each of you will kill one of them, any of you who do not will be sent back to the academy. What are you even hesitating for? You know we are at war right now? People are killing and dying constantly, that is the way of war, that is the way of Shinobi."
Suddenly my previous lax posture vanishes and I give them a look conveying incredible severity that has them unconsciously straightening their backs.
"Kill them, or you are not fit to being a Shinobi. You have thirty seconds."
Suddenly having a time limit makes them scramble into action, I even help them out a little by throwing a kunai by each of the prisoners, so that they don't have to use their bare hands if they didn't bring weapons.
The next twenty seconds are spent with all three of them standing still, wither staring at the prisoners, at the kunai in their hands or alternating between the two.
That changes once I start counting down though.
"Ten."
They jolt out of their thoughts and look to me as one.
"Nine."
Ibiki looks away, back to the prisoner, while the other two are still staring at me.
"Eight."
The other two now follow Ibiki's lead, but he is already kneeling by the heads of one of the prisoners.
"Seven."
Ibiki strikes, pushing his kunai into the boy's throat, killing him quickly before shooting upwards and stepping back a few steps to fall on his ass.
"Six."
Hayate and Tokara stare at Ibiki as he stares at the blood on his trembling hands in shock.
"Five."
Tokara starts crying and Hayate seems to be hyping himself up.
"Four."
Hayate and Tokara both copy Ibiki and kneel by the head of the prisoners, who start rapidly shaking their heads and crying.
"Three."
Hayate goes first, looking away as he drives the kunai into his prisoners chest and leaving the kunai there, unfortunately, because he was looking away, he missed the heart.
"Two."
Hayate is still crying, but he hasn't looked back to his prisoner yet, so he doesn't know he's still alive. I start walking towards him.
"One."
Tokara panics and stabs his guy in the neck, quickly killing him, before he falls backwards on his ass like Ibiki did, except he then starts crawling backwards, trying to get away from what he's done.
"Zero."
All three of them breathe out a sigh and Hayate closes his eyes as he slumps down further into his knees.
"Hayate."
His eyes snap open to see me standing in front of him, with out eyes locked, I move to stand beside him and a step backwards, then I kneel down to match his height.
"You looked away."
He keeps his eyes locked onto mine, shining with the fire of defiance even behind the tears, but I just smile at him.
"Because you looked away, your prisoner is still alive."
His head snaps to look at the prisoner so fast I'm surprised he didn't get whiplash, and he stares at the kunai embedded in his chest with growing horror.
"You should never look away Hayate."
As I say that, I tie Hayate up with a rope from my tattoos before he can even realise anything is happening, and when he does, it's too late. He looks to me in shock, and flails his arms uselessly for a moment.
"Never look away Hayate."
I grab his head and turn it to face the prisoner and I sigh a sigh full of disappointment.
"The punishment for your mistake is simple, you will witness why you should never look away. You will watch this man die, slowly, and know that his suffering is all because you were to much of a coward to watch the result of your own actions."
Hayate starts shaking, and his eyes are blown wide open in fear as he stares at the man before him as life of so slowly drains from his tearful eyes.
"Remember Hayate, never look away."
The kunai had pierced one of his lungs, so he starts coughing up blood through his gag, painting it red, a little bit makes it passed the gag to splash on Hayate's face.
Meanwhile, the other two are now both staring at Hayate and I in muted horror, shock and fear, I'm sure the pity for Hayate will come later, once the shock wears off, as Hayate watches and cries while my face is stony and emotionless.
Eventually, the prisoner breathes his last, and I let Hayate go, my rope returning to where it came from.
I clap my hands, bringing three pairs of listless eyes to my figure, with a smile I speak up, ignoring the corpses and the general mood.
"Well team! You passed my test, congratulations, now we will do a short set of exercises so that I can get a handle on each of your abilities."
Doing something normal after an event like this will help normalise it in their mind, it's a thing that usually happens naturally, but I don't want to waste time.
See, generally, after a first kill, or some other type of traumatic event, a person who keeps living will be walking down the street at some point and they will realise something.
Nothing has changed.
The world isn't different, no one is looking at me differently, strangers ignore me just the same as they did before.
Everything is just.. the same.
And they will start to wonder if that traumatic event is even anything special, since it clearly had no effect on anything.
At least, it happens sometimes, with things like rape I'd imagine it's rather a different story, or, it's the same story, just more depressing because the eventual thought is likely to be something more along the lines of how the universe is cruel and uncaring.
Which is true, but that doesn't mean it's fun to think about.
Anyway, I spend another hour just running the kids through various exercises and making them spar against each other, I would have sparred against them myself, but I get the feeling they will just let anger overtake them and that would be counterproductive right now.
They can try to kill me later, when it is more beneficial to them.
The day comes to an end and right as I send them off and am about to disappear myself, Ibiki stops and asks me a solemn question.
"Hanabira-sensei, why. Why did you make us do that?" His tired voice whispers to me.
I don't say anything for a moment, just looking at them.
"Don't be such pussies, Shinobi are murderers and thieves, this is what you signed up for. Besides, I was like, half your age."
My piece said I disappear in a shunshin, heading for my flat to make some food, and maybe see what Tsunade is doing.
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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
I can't wait until I finish this fic, imma spend like a week just reading, because I have hardly been able to read anything with this bullshit 2 chap a day schedule
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