( 16 July- year 12 AK )
I was honestly nervous. I studied critically my reflection in the mirror one last time before leaving.
I was around 1,90meters tall, with a bulky build, thanks to the road Guy had set me on so many years before. My hair was still of a dirty blond, I had cut it short, choosing that the advantage of a moving braid was not worthy of the necessary hours or money spent in haircare.
My eyes were still of a steely grey-blue, I remembered them being less... distant when I was a kid, but anyway, I had seen a lot in the meantime.
My assessment of my facial bone structure had revealed itself true: I had high cheekbones and a square jaw. I trailed my hand on the smooth skin. Shaving was a must, since at nineteen my beard still grew too randomly to be kept.
I sighed. I am not going to be any readier than this.
I left the yurt and flickered to the academy, where I spotted Kurenai waiting for her clue to enter.
We still had to exchange more than two words in a random meeting, and I had the idea that she was somehow avoiding me.
I shrugged. Not my problem.
I was so distracted that I almost lost my name being made to my team.
I hopped in through the open window without a sound. I hadn't prepared any kind of speech, so improvising it was.
"Training ground 10, as fast as you can," I said, my tone didn't admit any kind of reply. "Now." I narrowed my eyes.
Shikamaru sighed but rose from his seat, while Ino was already dragging Choji toward the door. I nodded towards Iruka, winked at Sasuke, and vanished from their sight.
I watched over my future genins critically. All the over the top flaws already there. Ino tended 'to harpy' to get her way, Shikamaru lacked direction, and Choji hadn't actually realized what he was in for.
It took them fifteen minutes, mostly because of the fact that they walked in the wrong direction for five before Shikamaru bothered to suggest the right way.
It looks like Ino can make them move when needed.
They reached the tree customary wooden posts in the center of the field. Ino whirled on herself, looking for me and berating Shikamaru at the same time, who had chosen to fall on the grass to cloud watch better. Choji was playing peace-maker offering some of his chips to both of them.
I blinked, surprised. To Ino too, uh? She refused, screaming something about... a diet? For real?
They were kids, I got that, and if I had the four years Guy had with me, I was pretty sure I could force them in the hazy abyss between A and S class. Sadly, I had eight months.
Shock treatment it is. I sighed, hidden among the leaves of a tall poplar tree. I brought my hands together, one flat against the other, finger to finger, palm to palm, as if I was about to pray. Sadly, children, you'll be the ones to pray.
I stilled, my chakra seeped through the distance that separated us, taking in a 'taste' of natural chakra, and dripped into their coils. Unseen, unfelt, I overlapped it to their senses, letting the environment do my work for me.
The grass they were on, the clouds Shikamaru was watching, the wind Ino was struggling against to keep her hair in her perfect ponytail, even the taste of Choji's chips. Everything that they were perceiving of the outside world was the foundation of my genjutsu. On that, I was going to build.
...
( INO POV )
I hated everything. I wasn't in the team with Sasuke-kun, Sakura-pig was. Instead, I ended up with a scary-looking sensei that sounded even scarier. There was Shikamaru of all people in my team! Shikamaru! Gaaah!
I couldn't even think about how much I hated everything. Choji was in my team too. Ugh. Not exactly the best thing under the sun. And he keeps trying to fatten me with that junk food.
Worst of all, there was this insistent breeze that turned into a proper wind and was messing with my look. Aaaaargh!
I sneezed all of a sudden and turned towards the two boys lazing around, searching for the origin of that... smell.
It wasn't a fart, thank Kami at least for that, but it was pungent and almost heavy at the same time. The disgust towards my teammates dimmed a bit while I brought my gaze back to the village.
"Is..." I stammered. "Is that smoke?"
...
( CHOJI POV )
I sat down on the grass and popped open another pack of chips. The sensei didn't look friendly, not like Kurenai-sensei at least. But it looked... fearsome. I nodded. It was a good word to describe him.
Shikamaru had yet to express his opinion, so I wasn't sure I was on the right track. But Ino was ranting pretty bad about the whole situation, so maybe I got that right.
I closed my eyes and focused on my chips. Sometimes I ate only one, slowly crushing it against my palate with my tongue. Sometimes I took a handful and filled my mouth to the brim. I alternated feeling strong and feeling full.
All in all, it wasn't a bad way to pass the time.
I was focusing on my food almost too much to hear Ino talking, but the expression on Shikamaru's face told me everything I needed to know.
...
( SHIKAMARU POV )
Since I can remember, I've always loved clouds. The white, aimlessly floating ones. The dark ones were always foreboding of something. And while I knew that the only difference between the two kinds was the height of the cumulus above, I still had a preference.
When the teachers at the academy yelled at us to do something or lectured us about stuff that I had read out of boredom years before, the white clouds floated around uncaring.
I also liked the sharpness that my thoughts assumed when I was playing shogi, especially against dad. Even if I never won, it will probably be years before I could manage to land an 'almost' win. And I knew that it wasn't about winning, but about playing a beautiful game, it could turn sharp, steady, broken, confused, but it still could be beautiful.
In all of the chaotic and honestly aggravating games I've been in, the clouds had kept their ways. Hell, even when Kaa-san is mad they just don't care.
With all my supposed genius, I couldn't figure out a way to be just like that. Floating aimlessly without harming anyone, instead of sharing my sense of quiet happiness with all the ones who took their time to look at me.
If I could be bothered, I would have felt irked by the choice of our sensei. He was a slave driver, I could already tell. Besides, how does a ninja gets so bulky?
So I wasn't in the best of the moods when I had to force myself to correct Ino. Nor I did feel up to whatever he was going to push us through.
I just stared at the clouds for a while, slowly fading into the back of my mind, like a forgotten memory.
I barely felt the taste of Choji's chips when I took one, but it made him feel appreciated, and who was I to negate him the occasion to smile?
I kept my eyes half-lidded, barely distinguishing the clouds from the sky, but it was perfect exactly for that reason. It would also be beautiful being the sky, if not for the storms, those looked like a hassle...
I was deep into my mind when Ino's voice made me arise. It wasn't for her words, no, but why would Ino suddenly feel dread?
I rose from my seat, letting my mind break down what the kunoichi had just said.
But I didn't need the meaning my brain offered me to notice something was wrong. My eyes took in everything, from the crumbles on Choji, to the sheer 'not understanding' on Ino's face, to the wind that had taken another direction, almost pulling us towards the source of the problem.
Konoha was burning.
"It comes... from the academy?" I asked.
...
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