Title Here: Multi-fandom Writings

[minuseven]

Chapter Twelve!
Scarhead can do jutsu, too!​

Lee did pass, when the day came. I gave him a pair of nunchucks as a graduation gift. He was probably going to wear them down before three months were past, but I couldn't resist it.

He got put in a classic three-man formation with a Hyuuga that was his class' 'rookie of the year', a girl that used throwing weapons and a Gai-sensei, who he really wanted to impress. He was a lot busier as a genin, so I'd barely seen him in the following month or so.

Which wouldn't matter too much, because my own end of year exams were around the corner. And I needed to do well in these.

The seventh and last year of the Ninja Academy was different from the others. It was shorter, only nine months ending with the graduation in January. Breaks were smaller. Very little new material was on the syllabus, the year was focussed on perfecting and testing what we'd been taught until then. And there was only a single class of students.

This was a bottleneck.

I found myself in front of a panel of teachers. My case was to be discussed. It was a familiar position for me. Every year I had to re-justify and prove my commitment to the ninja path.

"Haruno Sakura. Your theoretical grades are still excellent." Naturally, after getting a handle on the language. It wasn't like they required literally mastery from us. Memorization and math I could do in my sleep.

"Top ten in taijutsu, and good marks in weapons and tool usage." The teacher, a familiar young man that also had a large scar on his face, put down my papers. "There's been some improvement in your chakra control but… well, considering the handicap you are working with, do you think that's enough to become a genin?"

I took a deep breath. "Sensei, I-I have news actually. I've made progress with my self-studies."

The chuunins traded looks. "How so? Can you perform any of the three basic ninjutsu?"

"Kinda" I hurried to explain. "I can use Henge but only to transform into certain animals? But I managed to figure out my own fire jutsu and a genjutsu."

"Really. Demonstrate your transformation, please."

So I showed off my… horned seal. And horned fish. Ta-da, I could transform my body! The teachers gave off the distinct impression that they were scratching their heads about me. Because my transformations looked perfect, but their subjects were not. The main teacher rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Alright… How about your, fire jutsu, was it?"

"Of course." I turned to the side, since I didn't want to set them on fire, and ran through the four handseals that stabilized this move. "Honô-ton: Hinoko no Waza!"

An inhalation, and I spat out a plume of fire that wasn't quite strong enough to hit the wall of the classroom. The temperature of the room had spiked, and the suddenly dry air made me cough. First time using Ember in a confined space. Perhaps I should have modulated it better, but well… I sneaked a peak at the teachers. Eh. Eyes wide, mouths open.

I cleared my throat, noting how bad it was. That worked in my favor, I could only use it once a day. "I… don't think I can repeat that… but," cough, "hmmr! Genjutsu."

Suzume-sensei wrote down something on her papers. "Of course, of course. Drink some water, Sakura."

I thanked her. "Alright. I'll use my genjutsu next. Ready?"

I looked them in the eyes, seals woven. "Niramitsukeru no Waza." And I Leered.

My eyes, the whole thing, glowed red. My interviewer reacted in different ways, some shifting defensively, others stilling. I knew from using it on Lee and Ino that Leer's defense lowering effect worked somewhat like a genjutsu on people. Which meant it could be fought off mentally, but that chakra release techniques had limited effectiveness. I wasn't targeting their system with my chakra directly. Somehow. Moves got weird.

What followed were a series of questions about Niramitsukeru's effects, another demonstration, and more question how I had basically 'invented' my jutsu. There was little to say there that wasn't fantastical. My story was true, I'd gotten there by modifying handseals through trial and error until both the 'right' feeling and 'right' effect were achieved. I just applied them to the move pattern that a seemingly higher entity imprinted onto me. It was a tripartite venn diagram of frustration. I was getting better at it, my move and handseal sample pools expanding as I worked at it.

I passed, their complaints not void but attenuated. Sure, I still couldn't do the Academy basics… but I could do better stuff. Of course, now that I'd shown my hand, I was going to have to somehow improve on it.

---

Sakura finally reveals she can ninjutsu and genjutsu. She wasn't going to be held back (Lee wasn't) but she figured now was the best time to reveal her progress. Due to the moves available to low-level pokemon, she has more things like Leer and Growl available in her arsenal. After all, she can only use one move per pokemon every hour.
I'd say graduation will come in chapter 16.​

 

[minuseven]

Chapter Thirteen!
The ninja candidates are going to be a headache!​

I started the new year feeling good. I was going to be in Ino's class, along with her childhood friends-slash-required-limpets, Chouji and Shikamaru. I liked Ino, and Chouji too from the times we'd met at her birthday parties. Shikamaru I was reserving judgment on, since we never really talked and I knew better than to trust a preteen's opinion on boys. I knew half the people in my new class, but the rest would be from Ino's old class, which included a lot more famous names from our history lessons than mine.

I finally remembered where I knew the teacher with the scar, Umino Iruka-sensei, from. I'd seen him year after year, every tenth of October, at the memorial for Nine-Tails' victims. Specifically, the memorial for ninja casualties. The matron took me and some other kids there on the day, back when we were younger. He wasn't that much older than me, so he must have lost family to it. I hadn't been to the memorial on the anniversary of the attack since I'd gotten my own place and scheduling freedom. Too many people.

I reached the Academy as the bell was about to ring like always, fresh from my newspaper run. Everybody was already there or loitering near the door. Entering, I sought out Ino and found her sitting next to, unmistakably, Uchiha Sasuke. She was completely absorbed, talking to him. That's right, she had the biggest crush on him. There were no empty spaces next to her and, honestly, I wasn't looking forward to being next to my best friend as she tried to get a man's attention. I could be a wingman but…

I surveyed the girls that would be my classmates. Was Uchiha catnip or something? Ugh, preteens.

Instead, I climbed up to my usual row, at the very back. "Is this seat free?" I asked a boy sitting alone.

"Y-yes. G-go ahead." He stuttered out. I caught a glimpse of white Hyuuga eyes. It had been a while since I'd seen those. I hadn't known there was a guy from that clan in our year.

"Thanks." Actually… " Hey, you… would you know a boy that just graduated, Hyuuga Neji?"

"N-n-neji-nii-san?" He startled, head lifting from the collar of his jacket. It was adorable and I also wanted a nice jacked like his. "H-how d-do you k-know N-n-neji?"

"He's in the same team as my friend Lee. I've never actually met him, honestly. Just got curious."

I was going to keep the conversation going, but Iruka-sensei chose that moment to shoo in the kids outside and close the door behind him, signaling the start of classes. The bell rang, right on time.

We started with introductions. Name, favorite subject, a personal detail. I noted all of those down, of course, because Suzume-sensei's lessons had taught me well. I would never be a social animal and crap at engaging most people, but I'd become surprisingly detail-aware. And these little things people told you without meaning too were a lot easier for me to gather and parse than trying to weedle out of them by directing conversations. We were supposed to start with Aburame Shino, from a clan that I tried not to think too hard about, but Inuzuka Kiba interrupted because his ninja puppy Akamaru technically came first. I forgave him, because Akamaru was a ruffly, adorable, fluffy ball of hidden murder. Shino absolutely didn't.

We were almost at my name, which was in the later half of the syllabary, when the classroom's door rattled and opened, letting in a blonde and orange cannonball.

"I'm not late!"

… He so was.

Uzumaki Naruto. Hard not to have heard of the biggest troublemaker in the Academy. I vaguely remembered he'd been in one of my classes in the very early years of school. I did not remember him being so… loud. Uzumaki was the bad orphan example. When we behaved badly, and only when we behaved really badly, that was the one they would compare us to. We were behaving just like that Naruto. We didn't want to be like that Naruto. It felt almost prejudiced, but aside from his bright hair he didn't look like any different from most people in Konoha, already a diverse group. On the other hand, the punk was yelling in front of the whole class and I could already feel a phantom migraine.

Oh, and of course that triggered counter-yelling. My eye twitched.

The excessively loudmouth ninja prankster… and the perfectly brooding ninja idol (plus entourage). I let my forehead thunk against the desk's top and ground it left and right. I hoped this was not an omen. Then I remembered that part of this year's focus would be team exercises. Group projects.

Hyuuga was probably looking at me weird when I released a low moan of "Nooooo…"

---

I think the Hinata is a boy is a funny gag, honestly.​

And yes, Sakura has no idea of the irony being visited upon her self.​

 

[minuseven]

Chapter Fourteen!
The pastures are green for the noble beasts of Konoha, what!​

"Sakura-chan!!"

"Hey Lee-eee!?" What the fuck. "Wha-wha-what-t's with the… chan. And the… haircut?"

Rock Lee posed, actually idol-posed, in front of me. Bright shiny grin, had he treated his teeth? Hair cut in a perfectly round bowl-cut shape. A victory 'v' in front of his eyes and a wink. That was… something.

But the green form-fitting onesie? Hmm, doubt.

I couldn't say anything about the orange leg warmers. Orange was an awesome color that I regretted not being able to wear in large swathes anymore on account of the pink hair.

"Sakura-chan! I am in the springtime of Youth! Gai-sensei has accepted me as his personal pupil!" Lee expounded with much too vigor.

I blinked, processing the sentences.

"Indeed I have!" Holy– a man dressed exactly the same as Lee appeared next to him. "Hello, Sakura-chan! I am pleased to meet one of Lee's most youthful friends!"

"Errr… who are you?"

"Sakura-chan, this is Gai-sensei!" Lee rocked in place, shocked.

I was the one shocked! "You never described him to me! Physically!"

"Ah." He blushed and turned to his sensei. "My apologies Gai-sensei!"

"No harm done!" Gai gave him a thumbs-up. The most thumbs-uppy thumbs-up I'd ever seen. "Anyway, Lee wished to introduce me to you. I am Maito Gai, a jounin specializing in taijutsu! I have witnessed Lee's fires of youth–"

"Gai-sensei!"

"–and pledged to do my best, no! I will push myself to my limits to help Lee achieve his dream!"

Honestly, good for Lee. He deserved more people believing in him. He had an infallible working ethic and was a good person. "Did Lee mention my chakra problems?"

"That's right!" "I apologize if I was too presumptuous, Sakura-chan! But I think Gai-sensei could really help you too!" "Your concern for your friend does you credit, Lee!" "Gai-sensei!"

I raised a hand, weakly. "Hum, Lee, you know that I don't train as much as you because I just don't have the time, right?" Also, Lee didn't comprehend the meaning of fatigue, probably.

"Perhaps you could join us for fourty laps around the village before sunrise!" Gai proposed.

"Newspaper run job." I countered.

"Twenty warm-up laps an hour before sunrise!"

"Sleep is an important part of an exercise regime!"

"Good point! What do you do after classes?"

"Warehouse job, cleaning job, bar job. Homework, study. Then preparation for the day after." I raised one finger. "Except today, I do extra practice here, as usual. And tomorrow, which is a resting day."

"A most youthful schedule!" Gai nodded, then thought. "Hmm, are you in the habit of studying quietly or while doing some sort of exercise?"

"Yep, I know that trick. I stretch or do isometric exercises." I really, really didn't have a lot of time, which was why I enjoyed my very early nights in a comfy bed, and a good nap on the grounds of the Academy during the day.

"Sakura-chan, the fires of youth burn brightly within you too!" Lee yelled.

Hm, no. "I just really need money and really want to graduate."

"Nevertheless, the passion of youth is clear within you!" Gai leaned forward. I kept my face blank. "Somewhat… hip and cool as well." What? "Regardless, join us for training today! When Lee and I have no missions, we should train together!"

And that was how Gai-sensei started giving me extra taijutsu lessons. Once or twice a month. I wasn't going to lie, after the first time, I could barely crawl home. I was very glad that they only happened occasionally.

Lee… I couldn't say anything when he was this happy. And getting so stronger. I could only glimpse his progress and it was shiver inducing. Even if… well, his master's eccentricity had

It was two months later, after we'd 'warmed up', that Gai politely asked to assess my musculature. Which would probably ring some alarm bells if the eccentric man wasn't also an accomplished physiotherapist. Probably. He certainly knew his shit forwards and backwards.

I watched him poke my calves with professional hands. "Your muscle tone is good. And you are already twelve, is it not? Good! Then, I believe you can benefit from weight training like Lee does!" He raised a hand before I could remind him of my circumstances. "Lee! Show Sakura your progress!"

Lee jumped to attention. "Yes, Gai-sensei! Sakura-chan, look here!" And he lifted his now customary leg warmers, showing me a band of white fabric with rectangles embedded in it.

I blinked. "Wait… are all of those… weights?"

"Yes! Lee uses these weights to continuously train his body!" Gai-sensei explained. "These are special ankle weights that increase the strain on the legs, allowing Lee to train his legs and speed. This is especially important for the Dancing Leaf techniques I am teaching Lee."

Oh. "Oh, so wearing something like this I could train even while I work."

"Exactly! However, you are not ready for such a training yet!" He patted my shoulder. "Also, these weights could interfere with the taijutsu that your sensei will want you to learn when you become a genin!"

I already knew Gai-sensei enough to guess what came next. "Different weights then?"

I will skip the youthful declarations. I was happily instructed on finding a good set of light weights for myself, how to use them without hurting myself and how to progress to a certain level.

Needless to say, life became harder.

---

That was hard to write. Also! ... Star Rail came out ahahah.... Tho, about the weights, they will never be as heavy as Lee's. I kinda want to get to the part in which Kakashi blanks out for two seconds flat as he realizes who sakura is friends with.
Wanted to get a Lee confession scene here too but it didn't work out. As one might expect, he will be refused because Sakura is quite gay.​

 

[minuseven]

Chapter Fifteen!
A conversation with the strongest!
​

The thing about a hard life was that it passed by very, very quickly. It also paid its dividends, and not just in my growing strength and ability to kick ass. There were fewer things happier than jumping in the branches of the Konoha trees and realizing I had become capable of rooftop hopping like I had dreamed of as a child.

I had… summoned something repeated!

Absol! My beloved! I could be a beautiful, ominous detector of doom for twelve full seconds!

Whismur joined that restricted group too, today in fact, and with ten move types present in my arsenal, I actually felt somewhat confident about being a genin. I had Absorb and Protect, Thunderwave, Supersonic… It was hard keeping the smile off my face.

"Hey, Sakura, are you going to visit the memorial tomorrow or another time as usual?" Ino asked me before classes started. My friend had grown her hair and become a beauty. I was acutely reminded that she was not only just twelve, but also very straight. The hormones had started last year, but they hit at the weirdest times.

There had been… incidents, this past year.

I shook my head. "The usual. Well, maybe a bit later than usual tonight."

After Ino had returned to her seat, I felt Hinata's curiosity. She tended to start fidgeting when she wanted to talk. She. Because Hinata was a girl.

I had mentioned incidents, hadn't I? Meeting Hyuuga Neji had started a whole thing. It had ended with Hinata becoming my friend too, but the trip there had been rough.

"My parents died in the fox attack twelve years ago." I waved off her concern before it manifested in a full-blow Hinata Stutter. "Doesn't really matter. Anyway, on the tenth there's always too many people for my liking, so I tend to go the night before."

She nodded, and I felt more than heard her very little "Okay." and "I'm sorry."

I gave her a thumbs up.

Class was soon derailed by Naruto getting dragged in by Iruka-sensei. Right on time.

Knowing that tomorrow I wouldn't have to go for my usual early morning job, I let myself reminisce through work and later dinner. My home was still the same, two years later. But now, the empty walls were decorated with photos and shelves contained a collection of improvised flower pots and their little plants. Ino had learnt that plants had to be resilient near me. A good set of weights gathered dust in one corner, too light for me at this point. I hadn't sold them yet because they'd been a gift from Lee.

I was doing well. I would make sure to tell the Harunos that.

It was dark and nearing eleven when I made my way, leisurely, to the memorial. The big stone monument had been carved with names since the founding of the village. With time, more and more of the stone had been raised from the ground, so that more names could be added.

The Harunos were here too. Their bones were interred in the cemetery, which I visited when March ended. But for the remembrance of their deaths, not the life they'd brought into the world, I came here. Part of it was habit, from the time of my early childhood. Hunting down the graves of two people was too much for the caretakers of orphans, who had too many kids to handle. They brought us to a single place instead.

When I was a toddler, I cried a lot in front of this stone. Not for these names, but for all I'd lost from before. Funny how I barely remembered who those people had been.

I sighed.

Thank you, for protecting this body. I was doing my best to live a good life. I had pictures of it as proof. I'd found friends. I was keeping healthy. I hoped you found peace, or at least oblivion.

"I hope to not see you soon." I joked, as usual.

"I would hope not." A voice answered from behind me.

I whirled around. Stopped, disbelieving. I'd only seen this man a few times in my life, but the white and red hat, the robes, the weathered face… The Hokage. The most powerful ninja in the village, and one of the five most powerful people in the world.

And he was just a meter or so away from me.

I mentally shook myself, closed my mouth, straightened up and found myself at parade rest, staring straight ahead and coincidentally at the memorial monument. This was crazy. I was wracking my head over what to say to the supreme leader-slash-general-slash-president when the man itself approached. He settled next to me, cane hitting the ground quietly.

"There's no need to be afraid, I too, came to pay my respects." He chuckled.

"That's… easy to say. But…" like, he could ruin my life. Not to mention how powerful he just physically was. I bet he could break my spine with his pinky. I glanced at him, turning my head as little as possible. "Hm, should I leave you to your, hm, alone, sir?"

"There's no need."

"Because I'm finished, I can go home, now."

He chuckled. "Please wait a little, Haruno-san. Indulge an old man in his reminiscing." There was a moment of silence, as he pondered the names on the stone. "... I remember the day the Nine-Tails attacked Konoha. It came out of nowhere. Konoha was dealt a grave blow that night."

"Hm, yeah." The night I awoke, drenched in blood in a tiny baby body.

"We lost many ninjas and even more civilians. Minato… the Fourth Hokage, made the ultimate sacrifice. And my wife too…" The sigh that escaped his lips seemed to curve his entire body.

Was it hard? I was sorry? I hadn't known the Third Hokage had also become a widower. "Oh."

I wasn't very good at words.

The Hokage shook his head. "It was… many years ago now. I have had time to mourn. And I wasn't the only one to lose loved ones that day." He looked at me. Paused like he was thinking about what to say next.

"I don't remember the Harunos at all." My heart beat once before I realized I was the one who had spoken up. "What I mean is… sorry. But I didn't lose anybody, because you have to have something to be able to lose it."

"Is that so?" I thought I could detect a hint of surprise in this face. "Mmm, but you could have had a normal life with your parents if the Nine-Tails hadn't attacked. That is something you lost."

The Hokage had a point. But still. "Maybe. Or maybe they wouldn't be good parents, or maybe something else would kill them anyway. They were ninjas." I shrugged. "It's just pointless what ifs. I'm not going to dwell on that, that's my opinion."

"An uncommon opinion." He closed his eyes as he smiled. "Very peculiar. Tell me, Haruno-san, what do you think of the Nine-Tailed Fox?"

"... I don't know? I guess…" I rubbed my jaw as I thought. "I guess, I think it was scary. It almost destroyed Konha in a single night." That sort of power was, frankly, unimaginable. Even in a world where people could break rock with their bare hands, jump several meters in the air and breathe fire.

"Do you hate it?"

Hate?

"No."

"Most people who fear something also hate it." The Hokage said wisely.

I couldn't see myself hating a mysterious monster. Fear, always, but hatred? Hatred was human. The Nine-Tailed Fox had killed the Harunos, perhaps even all three of them, but the death I remembered hadn't come from the jaws of a monster. It had been the rumbling of the earth, the confusion before a quick crunch.

"It's pointless. To hate a monster like that. It'd be like hating storms, or floods. Earthquakes." There was a quote I'd never managed to forget. I didn't know where it was from, who'd said it. I looked at the Hokage and shrugged my shoulders. "The dead are gone, the living are hungry."

---

I envisioned this scene fairly early, and for somebody who's not planning ahead, that means something. Yes, the Hokage was sorta interviewing a future candidate for Naruto's team, because of the Kyuubi factor.​

Should I apologize for the 100 quote? Because that turn of phrase will probably never leave my head, unlikely everything else about it.​

 

[minuseven]

Chapter Sixteen!
School is ending!​

The second week of January was the most important week for all us ninja hopefuls. Five days in which we were all evaluated and tested on the various facets of being a ninja.

Combat, taijutsu only or using jutsu, against our teachers and between ourselves.

Accuracy, basic weapons standing, crouching, running, under fire, into static or mobile targets.

Jutsu, demonstrations of our mastery of the techniques taught, handseal speed and recognition.

Theory, from geography to maths, logical tests, tactics and large scale strategy.

Of course, I was sure we had been continuously evaluated throughout the year. Namely, things like survival, awareness, social exercises and the like… or endurance and fitness. This week was just to put our feet to the fire, and determine who really couldn't make it.

I, like Lee before me, had different criteria for certain tests. Namely, nobody ever asked me to perform the Henge, Bushin or Kawimari. I just couldn't be taught those jutsu. It would be like asking a blind man to describe color. Instead, I'd been told plainly, I needed to do exceptionally well in other areas. And, of course, demonstrate what I could do with my own special techniques.

My taijutsu and my theory scores were great. They'd been my focus for years, and I had Lee and Gai-sensei to help me. Ninjutsu and genjutsu were a breed apart, but I knew I would be able to impress with some of my moves. Weaponry was where I faltered a bit. I was more than handy with kunai in hand, especially in close-quarters. Hikkaku no Waza in particular had required me to invest in better knife-fighting. But throwing kunai and shuriken?

Well.

For one, pulling more pokemon meant I had less money to use on tools. So I practiced less with those I had, which were of inferior quality. For another, something in my schedule had to give to accommodated for my jobs. My friends had been very helpful and put me through my paces the last two weeks. I was no longer mediocre. I could pass as average. I hit the targets at the regular distance but had trouble with anything further away.

The final test was saturday and, fittingly, was about ninjutsu.

Any of the three 'true' ninjutsu they taught at the academy could be selected for the final test. This year it was Bushin.

For everybody else.

I was the last person to go by design. Iruka and Mizuki were behind a desk, a few headbands primly displayed in front of them.

"Sakura." Iruka greeted me with a smile. He had a sheet of paper in his hand. "You already know how this goes. Bushin no Jutsu is, like you wrote in the theoretical, used as a complementary technique in offensive or evasive actions. Please demonstrate a technique that could be used in the same role."

I'd thought hard about this one. There were two possibilities when it came to this test. Either Bushin or Kawimari would be tested for. Kawimari, defensive, I could emulate with a Quick Attack or Barrier. Bushin was a bit trickier. I had plenty of offensive techniques, and I wasn't doubting I could pass using them, but Iruka was a professional. He'd dock me some points.

So instead I used something that, properly channeled, could have that effect. "Doku-ton: Sumoggu no Waza!"

Inhaling through my nose, I expelled a cloud of toxic fumes from my mouth. The handseals for this technique had one slight variation, one more seal than it normally would. I'd been working on Sumoggu for years, and I'd long since feared poisoning Lee in a spar… so this version was deliberately weak. The dark grey cloud that I aimed at my feet billowed into an impressive smoke screen, however.

When it blew away, I saw Iruka and Mizuki-sensei smiling. "Congratulations. You pass, Sakura."

I received a forehead protector and was, finally, an official ninja. I tied the band around my neck for now, and left the room with a bow to my teachers and a smile I couldn't quite contain. I threw Ino a victory sign and returned to my place, briefly touching Hinata's elbow as we crossed each other. It was her turn after me.

When I plopped down, I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I felt nauseous and my eyes stung. Despite my best efforts, I'd still inhaled just a bit of Smog. A poison-type move with a status chance.

"Ah… Really had to go poison yourself, didn't you, idiot?" Was I going to need to pass by the hospital after this? Lame.

I couldn't wait for the rest of my ninja career. Getting a team and a jounin sensei, finally going on missions, getting paid… it was just a bit daunting.

Well, I think I was going to do ok.

---

So this is where the first or second "chapter" would end. The end of the Academy phase. Might start crossposting this now. At least onto Wattpad (ah the place where shame is but a fictional concept).​

I set graduation at January 15, Japan's hm, adult Day? It's an important enough date that currently defaults to the second week of Jan but before 2000 (when Naruto was first published) it was on the 15th. By the by, I've been setting the Naruto timeline as if it was set in 1997 in regards to week days and moon phases. 1997 because that's when the original Naruto one shot was published. It also fits the one day of the week we have been given according to the timeline.​

 

[minuseven]

Chapter Seventeen!
Introducing Team Orphan, I mean Seven!​

And on the sixth day she rested. (It did turn out I had a light case of poisoning.)

I met up with Ino, and her guys, and we celebrated graduating. A nice lunch at a restaurant, the last paid for by their parents. We were about to start becoming financially independent. Lee and his team were out of the village for a couple of days, but I knew I would be aggressively congratulated as soon as they returned.

I was a bit short on money, on account of pouring all my reserves into as many pulls as I could for the past few months. Graduation deserved something special so I treated myself to a proper 'ninja outfit'. Like Lee and Gai-sensei had their thing. Well, parts of one. I'd been thinking about adding an emblem to my clothes for ages, as an homage to pokemon itself. The uncolored version of the pokeball logo. So I ordered a shirt with it, Rayquaza green with the yellow sigil. Rayquaza was my favorite, and his shiny form was just plain awesome. My clothes were all going to be patterned after it.

Black with yellow patterns, green and-or pink as tertiary accents.

Well, when my income improved. I went to Lee's house so his mother could help me turn my forehead protector into a belt like his. But pink to match my hair, which I now wore short like a guy because it became such a pain to maintain it on my own. Black pants, for now unadorned, and a dark green sleeveless hoodie completed the look.

I went to the Academy to take a picture for registration at the time I was told to, and then spent the rest of the day finishing up with my clients. I wasn't going to be able to do small jobs anymore, as a genin. I had quite a few people to say farewell to.

Monday rose bright and early. It was weird to not have to do a newspaper run. It was just like any other day, except we all had our headbands and we all knew this was the last day.

One single surprise: Naruto, who had failed the final graduation test, had somehow managed to pass… somehow.

Iruka-sensei was definitely doing the fond fatherly-brotherly smile, so I stopped wondering about it too much. Instead, I asked Hinata. If anybody knew the tea on Naruto-related news, it was her. Unfortunately for my curiosity, she had no clue either. But she was undeniably happy.

Good for them? Hm, I wondered if Hinata would survive being on the same team as her crush.

"Alright, pay attention!" Iruka-sensei yelled from the blackboard. "I will be announcing the teams, and I won't repeat myself!"

A gaggle of twelve years old, and me, leaned forward in anticipation.

"Team Seven: Haruno Sakura–" So I was lucky number seven, nice. "–Uzumaki Naruto–" I retracted that statement. "–and Uchiha Sasuke." Oh, come on!

I dragged a hand over my face and peeked between my fingers at my new teammates. Several seats ahead, both were too busy glaring murder at each other. Had I offended the Hokage somehow that night? Was that it? Did he have something against me? Who had thought this combo was a good idea?

Two random orphans and Uchiha Sasuke, who was –a lightbulb went off in my head– also an orphan.

"Are you kidding me?" I whispered to the gods. "Team Orphan, really?"

Nobody answered.

I used my lunch time to get mentally prepared. Uchiha, Sasuke I supposed, would be easy enough to work with. Probably. He was a quiet but intense person. Naturally. It was just super awkward to be on a team with the guy whose defining life moment, and tragedy, had been the thing that made me take life seriously. Not that I was ever going to tell him that. Now Uzumaki Naruto… I was probably going to snap at him within the week. I could handle joking and cheerful people. I could even handle loud people in a world where earbuds were the height of technology, and thus too expensive for me. I could not handle the jokester archetype. There was a limit of seriousness, and Naruto better hit it quick.

I returned to our old classroom, steeled for anything.

And I waited. And waited. And waited some more.

Actually, we three schmucks waited for… several hours.

Everybody had already been picked up by adult ninjas that looked cool or professional. At least, none of them looked as eccentric as Gai-sensei. Which was a worry in and of itself.

Five minutes in Naruto was fidgeting. Sasuke was brooding. And I had not brought any books to entertain myself. The only thing that kept us from leaving was Iruka-sensei's assurances that no, somebody would come for us, sooner or later. Much later.

Doodling in my pocket notebook it was. This sort of doodling in organized patches had had a name in my past life. Triangle something? Should I start doing push-ups? Not training or working or doing anything was getting to my head.

We weren't talking with each other either. If I talked to Naruto first, it would feel like leaving the emo in the corner too alone. If I talked to Sasuke first, well Naruto would get jealous or rowdy. Plus, I was female, I was not going to initiate a conversation with the king of preteen crushes. Pass. And addressing them both… yeah, I wasn't that bored yet. To be frank, I wasn't hopeful about the guys, so I wanted to see who our teacher would be first.

"Why is our teacher so damn late!" Naruto exploded. Like he had every five minutes since Iruka-sensei had left.

"Naruto, I will pay you to shut up." "You can't buy me!" "Urgh."

"I know…" He snickered to himself and started rummaging around. Sasuke and I followed him with our eyes as he giggled to himself and started setting up the most basic of door traps. If a regular door had water bucket pranks, then sliding doors had wedged erasers.

"Like a jounin would fall for that." Sasuke rolled his eyes, but I noticed he was smiling behind his brooding and planning pose. Did the kid actually have a sense of humor?

"You should probably take that down." I said. "We might get in trouble." Not all jounin were Gai-sensei, after all. Only Lee was like Gai, but my point stood.

"No way, he deserves it!" Naruto raised his chin, hands behind his head in his classic confident pose.

The noise of footsteps stopping in front of our door quelled us. I hadn't been paying attention, shit. I got up from my seat but it was too late. The door opened and the eraser fell on the ground, missing the ninja by scant millimeters. No, from the tiny plume of chalk dust, it had brushed his hair on the way down.

Naruto was pouting, Sasuke was cringing and I… I was probably pale. The man let an eye rove over us in the silence. "How do I put this… I don't like you."

---

Me, being original? not today
Team Orphan will be the joke of the arc, I'm telling you. It's even funnier if you consider Kakashi also counts but will never tell them.​

 

[minuseven]

Chapter Eighteen!
Let's all get to know each other!​

"Follow me." And just like that the jounin left.

We scrambled for the door but the man was lazily walking down the hallway. He was nothing like Gai-sensei. The energy was simply not the same. Not even there for this man. He looked absolutely done with life. Done with us, I couldn't help but think. This was very much not a good start.

Did Naruto chatter and try to ask why he was so late? Did Sasuke snipe back at him? Rhetorical. They did. All my mental preparation was fraying. I was going to open my mouth and get weird and sarcastic. It was such a headache-inducing struggle.

We got taken to the rooftop, a nice little area that followed Konoha's motto of 'there is always space for more trees' by having an entire miniature park on top.

Finally there, the jounin did something rational and had us sit down. "Let's start with some introductions, hm?"

"Who the f-heck are you? You haven't even told us your name yet." I immediately blurted out. That had been bothering me.

My teammates assented, Naruto demanding. "Yeah, introduce yourself first."

"Oh, me? My name is Hatake Kakashi." He leaned against the railing. "I don't particularly care to tell you about my likes or dislikes. My dream for the future's… hm, well, I have a lot of hobbies."

Almost every word in those sentences sounded a bit like a question and an affirmation at the same time. I examined the lazy-looking dude. He wore a basic uniform, the sort that you could buy several of at a discount, but it looked like the high quality stuff. A jounin vest and a leg holster that had usage marks but looked well-stocked. Equipment wise, he looked the part. Now his face… I'd like to describe it but I could only see one ear, one eye, the respective eyebrow and half a nose. He had shaggy gray hair. Instead of using his headband on his forehead, he had it tilted over one eye. He also used a half-face mask that covered everything below the bridge of his nose. Maybe he was heavily scarred.

Still, something about his name sounded vaguely familiar. I was certain I'd heard it somewhere before. But where?

"Alright, now it's your turn. Let's go clockwise." Hatake pointed at Naruto.

"Ahah! I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" The blonde jumped in. He was dressed, as always, in a rough orange jumpsuit. He'd traded his goggles for a forehead protector but he was still the same as ever. Short, loud. "I like ramen! Cup ramen but even better, Ichiraku's! And I love it even more when Iruka-sensei's the one to pay! I dislike… the time it takes for ramen to be done."

I liked ramen too but wasn't this…

"My dream is to be the greatest Hokage ever! Everybody is going to acknowledge me!" He boasted, tapping his forehead protector. "Believe it or not! My hobby is pranks, I guess."

Odds were against him but at least he was consistent. I was sitting in the middle, somewhere between keeping the boys separated and keeping an eye on the situation. I was next.

"My name is Haruno Sakura." Tho, if that was who I was, was up for debate. "I like dragons, ninjas and girls. Get any and all hopes out of your head because I'm competition. If I ever marry I want a beautiful wife." These sort of things were best said right out of the gate. "I dislike asinine bullshit and gambling." Yes, the gacha was why. "My hobbies are photography and self-improvement. My dream…"

Maybe children thought about things like dreams. Or wanting to be astronauts or volcanologists or circus performers. But my soul was old. In the end, what I wished for, at the end of my life…

"My dream is to face death without regrets."

On a bed or in the battlefield, I wanted to be able to die without panic, without fear. Without a last moment of agony where all one can think of is why me why me why is this happening I still had so much things I wanted to do–

"Whoa, that's kinda…" "Hmm." My teammates were looking at me askance.

"Whatever, Uchiha's next." I pointed with my thumb to the person with an actual tragic backstory.

Uchiha Sasuke dressed in blue. A dark blue shirt with a high collar he could hide his face into, contrasting nicely with a light pair of shorts. All his accessories, arm and leg guards, were of those colors too. I'd say he did have a pretty face, but the way he kept it neutral or neutral-displeased all the time ruined it for me. I was not, a, straight, b, an actual preteen girl.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I dislike many things and I don't like a lot of things." He didn't have to imitate Hatake. "I wouldn't call it a dream, but my ambition is the revival of my clan. And to kill one man."

I suppressed a sigh. If you knew, you could almost see the ghost of Konoha's most infamous missing-nin hovering over his shoulders. That was something I wasn't willing to touch with a twenty-foot pole.

"Ok, that's enough." Said Hatake. "We will start properly tomorrow."

I supposed, since the sun was already starting to set. January days were short and this guy had been three hours late!

"First we are going to do a little something just the four of us." He nodded to himself. I had the distinct impression he was smiling. At Naruto's hurried questions, he continued. "Survival training."

---

I will write a Kakashi perspective one day. But I won't put it under this threadmark, maybe.​

You really get a handle of your character when doing these introductions. Sakura is not a kid in a lot of ways and it's reflecting in certain things in her life. Namely, now that we'll see her in more action scenes, the death trauma and claustrophobia might return here and there. Just because one did mental process it several years ago doesn't mean trauma is gone. Boy, I wish...​

 

[minuseven]

Chapter Nineteen!
The very fishy survival exercise commences!
​

The morning of the sixteenth of January, my first proper day as a genin, dawned in increments. It was stupidly early. I was munching on a light breakfast as I stared at the printout Hatake had given us yesterday. According to him, this could also be my last day as a genin.

"... Yeah, something is very fishy about this."

There were a myriad of issues with what we'd been told yesterday. I wasn't discounting the possibility entirely, because this was sort of the military and Hatake was effectively our commanding officer. He sure could make things unpleasant for us. But.

Anyway, I hadn't had time to consult with Ino yesterday. It wasn't a coincidence. We were instructed to be at Training Ground Three at five-thirty. (An interesting choice of where to train.) We had to scramble home to get good enough sleep. There were two possibilities, either Hatake was going to be as late as yesterday, or that had been a feint and he would be on time today. Or, if he was a bastard, he'd be watching who was late and who wasn't and adjust his strategy. Mind games.

Well, I could play the game too. He said to bring all of our tools, but that was stupid because everybody had way too many tools. Couldn't disobey an order like that… or a person could be like me and not have that many tools. Ahah, I'd gotten him there. The breakfast thing sounded like plain intimidation and, product of my active lifestyle, I needed to eat a fair amount. I would honestly rather vomit than have my stomach hurting me, so I ate something light.

Sasuke was there at the same time as me, right on time. Naruto was five minutes late.

And then… we waited. Yeah, no, screw that.

The meeting spot was open and fairly wide. I started with a warm-up jog, then moved on to stretches. At some point Sasuke started meditating and Naruto was running through some katas, being loud and obnoxious. Possibly on purpose. And still, warm-up done, time spent… Hatake wasn't there.

"I'm going to take a nap while I can." I told the boys. "Would one of you stand watch and wake me up when he finally appears?"

"You're going to sleep?" "It's called efficient time management." Naruto and I argued. Sasuke grunted. "Go ahead, I'm not lowering my guard."

Shamelessly, I did. I had a very nice nap in the morning sun, like a cat. Did it matter? No. Because it was ten in the morning when Hatake appeared, calmly walking.

"Hey guys, good morning." I suppressed the urge to curse him out. Almost five fucking hours. "You're late!!" Naruto didn't.

The jounin brushed him off and started setting up our exercise. He took out an alarm clock and set it for noon, then showed off two bells like the ones people tied to cats. "Your objective is to take these two bells from me before noon." He continued. "If you can't get a bell before the clock rings, you get no lunch. I'll tie you to those posts and eat it in front of you." He pointed at three stumps at the edge of the training grounds.

"So that's why he told us to eat no breakfast." Naruto was cringing and clutching his stomach. I'd eaten, sure, but it had been over five hours. I was hungry too.

"You only need to get one bell. There are only two, so one of you will definitely go hungry. And the one that doesn't get a bell… fails. So at least one of you will get sent back to the Academy." Hatake shrugged. "You can use your weapons freely. You won't succeed unless you come at me with the intent to kill."

No, we wouldn't succeed anyway. A jounin was a completely different beast from the chunnin teachers we had at the Academy. Naruto and Sasuke might not know, but I had trained with Gai-sensei… A genin defeating a jounin was impossible. Not if he took us seriously… unless… I felt my eyes narrowing in concentration. No, something was definitely fishy about this.

"Ah!" Naruto scoffed. "Easy then! You barely dodged my trap yesterday!"

Hatake blinked once. "The talentless bark the loudest. I'm going to ignore Mr. Dead Last over there and–"

Naruto growled and launched himself at him, kunai in hand. He got one step in. Then Hatake was there, holding him by the head, arm twisted so his own kunai was pointed at his nape. I hadn't seen him move, was barely even able to react to his sudden appearance by getting into a fighting stance.

"–start when I say start. Calm down." His voice was as still and calm as ever. "The initiative is good, so I guess you aren't entirely hopeless. Ready?"

Absolutely not.

"Start!"

---

These chapters get a bit long because of the dialogue (not this one yet). Also wanted to have the bell test go a little different towards the end, because this is not the same Haruno Sakura, and her experience and maturity will have an impact on the team dynamics. This is not Team Minato/etc reborn... but the Sandaime saw something there nonetheless, and it's up to Kakashi to evaluate the hokage-wannabe deadlast, the arrogant prodigy and... another sort of prodigy. Wondering if she'd remind him of Itachi with her uncommon maturity and outlook, even if hidden beneath a foul mouth and a weird sense of humor.​

 

[minuseven]

Chapter Twenty!
A jounin predictably kicks my first teammate's butt!​

I didn't travel far. We scrammed from the jounin's immediate vicinity but I knew that he could catch up to us in a matter of instants. As I circled his position from the trees, I pondered my strategy.

Brute force wouldn't do it. Weakening him with status moves was an option, but I wasn't confident that it would bring him down to a manageable level. Hatake was going to hold back. He was testing us somehow. I wasn't sure what he wanted to see.

There was a lot of emphasis placed on there being one failure no matter what.

Well, Naruto had decided not to hide at all and was instead challenging him head on, so I stopped on a tree branch. I would wait and see for a bit, to get a measure of what Hatake would do. If Naruto distracted him enough, I would even nail him with some of my weakening moves.

And in response to Naruto's challenge, Hatake took out from his pouch a book. And started reading it nonchalantly. A taunt and a showing of his skill, as he effortlessly dodge any and all of Naruto's attacks. Nothing for it, I supposed. I moved my hands to prepare a focussed version of Growl that wouldn't also catch Naruto in its area of effect.

"Nômaru-ton: Nakigoe no Waza." And I yelped, power in my voice. Both of the combatants' eyes moved in my direction. I was already moving, and cursing Naruto for getting distracted.

"Looks like you had some help there." The jounin loomed over Naruto, who'd turned his head away. "But a ninja should never get caught from behind." And thus Naruto was sent flying into the lake.

Ah, my bad, Naruto… There'd been no way I could warn him, anyway.

I prepared another Nakigoe no Waza, my second and last use of it for an hour. Naruto was attacking from underwater so I was free to strike without hitting him. Hatake didn't even turn his eye towards my position this time. Still no sign of Sasuke either. Suddenly, several Narutos attacked from the water. Not just the regular Bushin either. When had that clown learnt something like that? I struck Hatake with Nakigoe, seemingly without effect again.

Hatake replaced himself with one of the clones and Naruto's clones began… fighting among each other. …maybe they were a bit too independent?

The problem is that I had lost track of the jounin. I did not curse out loud.

"A bell!" Naruto cried and got caught in the most predictable trap ever. I got the feeling that it was retaliation for yesterday's attempts.

Hatake returned to taunt him and that was when Sasuke struck. Blood spurted… genjutsu, of course. This was a jounin we were up against. But if I'd gotten a handle on his general position, so had Hatake. Our position had been reversed and now we were the hunted. I jumped out of the shrubs and approached Naruto's position, eyes carefully watching out for an attack.

"Sakura! Hey! Scary Pink Demon! Get me down!" A blond midget yelled as he contorted himself.

Why did Naruto have to remember that embarrassing nickname? "Ugh, keep your voice down." I told him and pulled out a kunai. "And don't move around so fucking much."

A pinch at my ankle. Fuck. He'd boobytrapped the ground around Naruto. Two mint fresh genin hung from a tree.

"Nice job, weirdo." "See the kunai in my hand? Shut up."

I cut us both down. This confirmed Hatake had to be holding out on us. This sort of trap was too simple and easy to get out of.

Naruto patted himself down. "Alright. I could've gotten out myself, but thanks for the save!"

"You were the one who asked for my help…" I muttered. Our foe was probably chasing Sasuke right now. "We need to come up with a plan– Hey!"

Naruto was facing away from me, squinting at the distance. "Our lunches are still over there." He grinned. "Kakashi-sensei said that a ninja is supposed to look underneath the underneath, ehe. So I'm looking underneath this survival exercise!"

How did that make any sense? "I'm fairly sure that's not how you're supposed to interpret that saying. No."

He stuck his tongue out. "Suit yourself scary weirdo, I'm hungry!"

"Did you really not eat anything before coming?" "You did?" "Something light just after waking up, yes." "Bah, I can't fight when I'm this hungry, so I'm going!"

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I'm telling you it's a bad idea!" I thought to tell him we should find Sasuke instead, but he was already on his way. As if on cue, a distant rumbling was heard. Ninjutsu being used. "Ah, screw it." I bounded over into the trees.

If I could find Sasuke and support him like I had Naruto before, we might have a chance.

---

Not a great teamwork start, but that was predictable. Since most of Sakura's nin-genjutsu are ... well, weak, she prefers hitting people with a lot of status moves. She wasn't going to waste the opening Naruto gave her either. Fighting fair is for tournament arcs and chumps!​

 

[minuseven]

Chapter Twenty-One!
My second teammate watches me fight neck-deep in the dirt!​

I found Sasuke's head. There is a saying about ostriches burying their heads in sand. Uchiha Sasuke was currently a very grumpy-looking reverse ostrich.

"What the heck happened to you?" I said as I knelt down.

"He came from the ground. Ninjutsu." Indeed the earth around him was disturbed and not packed tight. Good, he could have suffocated if it hadn't. He could dig himself out eventually, but I started taking a kunai to the ground to help him out. Jounin were scary. What if Hatake was swimming beneath the earth right now. Sasuke flinched. "Look out!!"

"Mamoru!" I had just enough time to make a handseal. A green barrier sprung into existence inches away from my skin, deflecting away the kick aimed at my back. Opportunity missed, I tumbled away, setting into a fighting stance a distance away from Sasuke's head.

"Oho. That's an interesting jutsu." Hatake retracted his leg, only briefly looking away from his book.

"You can use ninjutsu?" Sasuke was boggling at me from the ground, a fact I'd find amusing and vindictive, if Hatake hadn't put his foot on his head like it was a football.

"That's a misconception." I told them, hands held in front of me ready to move. "I can't use regular j–Hinoko no Waza!" I spat a blast of fire, forcing him to dodge back.

"Fire as well… not on the level of Sasuke's Gôkakyû." Bitch I don't care! "What about taijutsu?"

Hatake jumped towards me and I found myself in a familiar position, facing a superior opponent ready to plummet me. Thankfully, I'd had the forethought of raising my toughness with as many Hardens and Defense Curls as I could. He was going at it stronger than Lee did, but nothing like Gai-sensei, I could withstand that. Every blow that looked like it would matter, he would skillfully deflect, taking no actual damage.

I was being tested.

If he wanted killing intent, I could give him that. I herded him away from Sasuke's struggling form so it wouldn't hit him. Point-blank, I screeched. Nômaru-ton: Iya na Oto no Waza! I rarely used this one because it required too many handseals to focus on a single target, but this should be far away enough. Hatake actually winced at that and I took the opportunity to grab his wrist, do a half Electric seal and unleash a shock, or rather, a thunderwave. "Denki-ton: Denjiha no Waza!"

My body sparked up, before shooting a weak but paralyzing shock in the area around me. Hatake was no longer in my grasp. In the blink of an eye, he'd twisted his arm away and substituted. I'd lost him again.

"Sakura!" Sasuke's voice came from– My legs were swept away and I slammed into the ground, breath leaving my body. I rolled, crouching and glaring at the jounin carefully opening up his book again. He was immaculate and I was panting harshly.

"Is that it?" He asked.

"Well… I have one more trick." I had no idea if this was going to work. I didn't bother with handseals. I just pushed my power to act in its most natural form, chakra flaring around me.

Niramitsukeru. Nenriki. Four Leers hit him in the space of a second, my eyes glowing dementedly, before my mind rushed forward as an invisible, intangible hand. It grabbed the bells, ringing sound echoing, the threads holding them snapped.

Hatake grabbed them, disrupting my weak Confusion. He sighed. "That's twice now. Maybe I should be taking you more seriously too." His hands flashed. "Magen: Nara–"

The ground rumbled. Not thunder, something else, something more dangerous– I had to get to cover, a wall, a doorstep, a table– Away from the trees– I tripped, covered my head and waited for the worst to pass. Whatever came, it was too late!

"-kura! Sakura! SAKURA!" A hand shook me.

I gasped, eyes opening. Half into the ground, Uchiha Sasuke was holding onto my shoulder. "What–"

"You got caught in a genjutsu." He let go of me and made quick work of releasing the rest of his body from the ground as I caught my breath. Of course it had been a genjutsu. Konoha didn't have earthquakes. "Are you okay?"

I nodded, still on the ground. I didn't feel like my legs were steady yet. "Y-yeah. Just, never been caught in a genjutsu like that."

The dark-haired boy frowned. "You should have been able to release yourself. Your grades were good in that area."

I chuckled. "Kind of. My chakra flow makes it that regular genjutsu are less effective on me. The things they had us break in the Academy only ever half-worked on me." What Hatake had hit me with had been the real deal. Had he overpowered the thing because of my resistance? That was a jounin for you.

"I thought you couldn't use ninjutsu or genjutsu." There was a question there.

I pushed myself up and tested my limbs. "Like I said, that's a misconception. My chakra pathways are distorted, so the handseals and jutsus everybody can use just don't… work for me. But it's not like I can't use chakra. I just had to find my own way of doing it."

Now Sasuke was looking at me somewhat contemplative. Probably. He had a good poker face. "I see. I'm going to try again. Are you coming?"

"Let's go. Hey," I remembered, "Naruto decided to go for the lunches. If Hatake hasn't taken care of him yet, we should get him on board."

Sasuke scoffed. "That idiot. What do we need him for? We have a better chance with the two of us." He didn't say what we were both thinking. One of us three was going to fail… so Naruto…

Something was really bothering me. "Look. Don't you think there's something suspicious about this–"

The clear sound of an alarm clock rang in the distance. I checked the sun's position. We had run out of time. Sasuke cursed.

---

Really need to get a Kakashi perspective written because it's hard to convey Sakura's wack fighting skills from her own perspective. Fortunately, Sasuke didn't see the Leers she used, but Kakashi is inwardly a) intrigued, b) confused, c) having a nagging feeling of familiarity.​

Next chapter is where I switch things up.​

 

[minuseven]

Chapter Twenty-Two!
I, the third teammate, am forced to explain things!​

Ten minutes later, our stomachs rumbled as we sat, awaiting Hatake's judgment. Well, Sasuke and I sat down. Naruto was tied to the post. Moron. We were at the very edge of the training ground, and several meters in front of us, the stone monument

I wondered again why this training ground in particular. Was it because we were Team Orphan?

"Maa~, you guys look really hungry." He smiled beneath his mask. None of us deigned to give him an answer. "So, about this exercise. Sakura, get up." He beckoned me closer.

Crap. Whatever trick there was to this, it looked like time had run out. Still, me? What had I done wrong? I'd fought no worse than Naruto. Had I not been proactive enough? No, something about this was still niggling at me. What was he trying to do. Nevertheless, I got up, ignoring the guys' looks and walked to the jounin chin up.

Let's say he did fail me… somehow. I'd get an apprenticeship with Gai-sensei or something, a job, whatever. This was not the end of the world.

Hatake looked somber as he patted my shoulder. "Of you three, Sakura is the one who will have to go back to the Academy."

I ignored the cries of joy as Naruto celebrated behind me, shushed by Sasuke. My own eyes narrowed and my mouth opened to retort, but I stopped myself. It was still bothering me… how…

Hatake met my eyes, something I couldn't read in his face. "The two of you," he addressed the boys behind me, "must quit trying to be ninjas."

What? "What!?" Behind me I heard Naruto yell. "Quit being ninjas? We didn't get a bell but isn't that– why do we have to quit!?"

The jounin put a hand on my shoulder. He was looking over my head, speaking to them directly. I didn't dare take my eyes off him. "Because you're both little punks who don't deserve to be ninjas. Nothing more than bratty little children." He was calm as he said it.

I could believe Naruto was a punk but Sasuke–? "Ghk!" The hand on my shoulder tightened unexpectedly and suddenly Hatake had turned me around. The cold, sharp edge of a blade dug into my neck. I stopped myself from swallowing. Over my carotid. He was serious. Now in front of me, Sasuke had stopped several steps into charging at us.

"And that's what I mean." Hatake sighed behind me. "Try not to relax too much."

I blinked, still stunned. That last part had been subvocalized, said only to me. The kunai dug in with a dull pain and a warm drop of blood started beading on my skin.

"Sasuke. Back off or Sakura will get hurt." His tone was so cold that I had to repress a shiver. Theoretically I had a way out of this but… no, I had no choice but to trust a Konoha jounin wouldn't just kill a genin in front of two witnesses.

Sasuke held his hands to the sides. His face was twisted in a grimace and our eyes met. He backed off. I let out a breath, slowly. I knew he would back down. Totally. Neither of them is stupid.

The kunai moved away from my skin, but Hatake scoffed. "You're all underestimating what ninjas are. You think this is a game. Did you ever even think about why you were all split into teams and are doing this exercise?" That was when it all clicked together. I sucked in a breath. "Did you think about what this exercise was all about?"

"What… it was all about? Wha'ddya mean?" Naruto was almost meek as he asked.

"Sakura." I glanced up to see the jounin looking at me. "Why don't you tell your teammates what the answer is?"

I wasn't entirely sure, but… I licked my lips and steadied myself not to make it into a question. "It's about working together."

He nodded. "That's right. Teamwork. Sakura was the only one who showed even an ounce of teamwork, assisting Naruto and coming to Sasuke's help. That's why, at least, she deserves to go back to the Academy. She understood that only by working together you might be able to get the bells."

Doubtful. But I could see the outline of Hatake's thoughts now. What he wanted us to show him in this test.

A beat later, Naruto's thoughts completed whatever trajectory they did in there and he restarted his struggle. "Wait, wait! But you said one of us would fail! There are only two bells!"

"Of course. This exercise was designed to make you fight among yourselves. Its objective is to see if you can overcome your own self-interest and work together even in these circumstances." His voice was derisive. "Yet Naruto, you just did everything on your own, like a fool. And Sasuke, you assumed from the start your teammates would get in your way. Arrogant. That sort of mindset is unacceptable in a mission and can even get you killed."

The kunai he'd pressed to my neck was waved around for emphasis. Finally, he let go of my shoulder and patted me on the back before pushing me gently towards the boys. I looked over my shoulder but he just told me to get back to my place with his chin. My legs were still a bit shaky as I sat back down next to the stumps. Sasuke joined me on the other side of Naruto. Both kids were frowning and quiet, but Sasuke in particular seemed to be biting the inside of his cheek.

"While individual skills are important, teamwork is even more important. Missions are done by squads. That's why the Academy teaches you formations and group tactics. An individualistic mindset can and will disrupt the team and put your comrades in danger." Hatake continued speaking. He'd straightened up, shoulders less slouched than when he'd been fighting us, and was looking out at the memorial monument.

He set a careful hand on the monument and my imagination started making all sorts of inferences before I forcefully shut it down.

"The many names carved in this stone… are all heroes to this village."

I couldn't help the sardonic twitch of my lips. If to be a hero you only had to die…

"Alright! Hey hey!" Naruto started yelling again and I glared at him. Ineffectively. "I'm going to get my name on that stone too! I want to be a hero too! That's what I'll be!"

Somebody choked and made a high-pitched noise somewhere between a whine and a deflating balloon. Then I realized that was me, face frozen in a rictus and eyes bug-wide as I glared at Naruto. I just… He couldn't… Just…

"Oh? These aren't just any kind of heroes. Sakura, you know this stone, don't you? Would you like to explain it to Naruto?"

I whipped my head back to Hatake. Why was I the exposition girl?! He met my eyes over his shoulder. This one time, what I could see of his face was softer.

"What is it? What is it? Just tell me already!" The blonde fucking ignoramus was wriggling against the ropes.

I took one deep breath. Why not? I was about to ruin Naruto's day. I turned to him with a fake smile. "I know this memorial very well. My parents' names are engraved there."

Sasuke flinched a little bit, where he sat behind Naruto. Smart kid, I thought as he averted his gaze. Naruto did not connect the dots. "Whoa, your parents were heroes? How come I never heard of it!"

"Well, they're dead." I stated simply. "That's the memorial stone for shinobi killed in the line of duty."

Dead silence. Naruto paled slowly as he processed my words.

"Sakura's parents, members of the Uchiha clan, even the Fourth Hokage… My best friend's name… they are all carved into this stone." Hatake spoke softly, looking at the stone. "They understood what teamwork was and how important it was." He turned back to us. "I'll give you three one last chance."

---

Really wanted Sakura to not figure it out until the last moment. The scene in which Naruto declares his wish was a lot more hostile and Kakashi was pushier, but I felt this flowed better. I think it's better than people immediately knowing what the exercise is about. Sakura does adequate helping out her teammates, but never is put in a situation where she has to choose among them, so Kakashi tests her resolve a little bit.​

 

[minuseven]

Chapter Twenty-Three!
Team Seven's first exercise concludes!​

I opened the lid of the bento box. Simple but nutritious. Also, I was ravenous. Om-nhom-nhom!

"Ah, I needed that." A stomach rumbled. "You hungry Naruto?"

"Urgh. No! Ahaha, I can totally handle it!" He was sweating, trying to speak over the sounds coming from his middle. "... I'm fine."

"I see. I see." I picked at the rest of my rice. I glanced at Sasuke, who was looking uncomfortable. Not yet, I see…

Then. "Hm, Sakura… I, uh, sorry." Naruto mumbled. "About your parents."

I blinked. Uh, guess the kid wasn't so bad. "It's fine." I'd been more pissed off that I'd been the one put on the spot. Also, how didn't he know about the memorial? He was an orphan too, right? "They're only there on a technicality anyway."

"A technicality?"

"You know the Nine-Tails attack when we were babies right?" At least that, please. "Every ninja that died last night got their names added to the memorial, even if they were off duty." There had been too many casualties to determine what exactly had happened. Who'd run, who'd fought. During a village-wide emergency like that, a catastrophe, a ninja had the universal mission to preserve the village, no matter who they were or what they were doing before. I guess my father was there legitimately. My mother, well, she'd been on maternity leave. She had only saved one single life…

"Oh." I looked back at Naruto, who had hung his head, biting his lips. That had hit him hard… were his parents maybe here too?

Well… I wasn't going to pry. "Don't stress it. Really. It's not like I remember them or anything."

Still, an uncomfortable silence hovered over us now. Surprisingly, Sasuke was the one who broke it.

"Hey." He addressed me. I only knew because he was actually looking at me. "How did you figure out the goal of the exercise?"

I snorted. I could tell him, but well… wouldn't that be undermining this exercise? Well, on second thought… "Well, have you figured out what this afternoon's exercise will be about?"

"Wait, it's not going to be about teamwork?" Naruto cried out. His stomach rumbled louder with his sudden movement. "Urgh!"

"Hn." The Uchiha grunted, looking away. "Here." His bento was thrust under Naruto's nose. "You'll just be a liability if you don't eat. So, eat."

"Wait, but–" Naruto was dumbstruck. There was a hint of a blush on his cheeks. "Sensei said…" "I can't sense him. We should be safe." "Eh. Thanks."

I pulled out a kunai and started sawing at his ropes. The kid couldn't feed himself without his hands. And I wasn't going to feed him either. "I sorta knew something was fishy about this exercise from the beginning." Two-thirds of all graduates failed back to the Academy and we, Academy students, never saw a hint of them? Fishy. "But it was the way Hatake worded the exercise that made me think teamwork was the answer. He put too much emphasis on there only being two bells and somebody always failing."

Something exploded. Scrambling, yelling, we reached for our weapons only for the voice of the devil itself to boom. "YOU–!!"

Hatake Kakashi loomed over three twelve year old genins. I prayed I was right.

"Pass." You could hear the unspoken 'Tee-hee' in his expression.

I heaved a huge sigh. Tension that had accumulated in my limbs drained away and I plopped down. I'd been right. All the posturing and instructions he'd given us about following the rules, that he was the law, to not feed Naruto… this exercise had been about whether or not we were capable of breaking the rules to help each other out.

"You guys are the first." He said, confirming my hypothesis. "All the others were morons who couldn't look underneath the underneath. Those who break the rules are trash… but those who leave their friends behind are worse than trash." He smiled down at us. "Today's training is over. You all pass. Tomorrow Team Seven will begin their duties, officially."

"Yeah!" "Fuck yeah!" "Ah!" This trio celebrated. We were ninjas, stamped and certified. "Team Orphan is a go!"

Three and a half pairs of eyes stared at me. I lowered my arms, then crossed them. "What, it's true." I pointed at myself. "Orphan." At Naruto. "Orphan." And Sasuke. "Also an orphan."

Hatake Kakashi sighed. "I'm not going to comment on that. Off you guys go, dismissed." He shoo-ed us. "One moment Sakura."

I paused, the boys paused. They looked over at me, suspicious, but Hatake waved them off. I didn't blame them for being suspicious. Hatake shot a look at the trees after they were gone, and then they were really gone. He huffed. "Took the lesson to heart." I told him.

He nodded, and to me it seemed fond, or happy. "We need to treat that." My neck, that was. It was already scabbing, but several droplets of blood had run down into my new shirt. "May I?"

Well, he looked… contrite? Responsible? "Hm, yeah, sure." But I was still being asked to present my neck to him after he'd put a knife there.

"I apologize for the deception back there." He told me as he opened up a field first aid kit. "I didn't intend to hurt you, but I scared you."

I nodded. It was true. "I'll get over it. Soon-ish. We got into worse scrapes at the Academy." None of them with knives so close to my carotid.

"Still. I won't do it again." And I appreciated that, and that he'd apologized. After he was done disinfecting the little cut, he asked me to elaborate how my thought processes during the exercise. "Sasuke might be the overall better ninja, but you display an outlook that's uncommonly mature for your age." He said at the end.

So I'd been told before. I shrugged. "'Tis who I am. Are you concerned that I didn't really… hm, pass the teamwork exercise?" The trick to the exercise fell apart if the people under scrutiny knew about it. If you knew you had to work together and that you might not get failed, the pressure that made the exercise so effective was lost.

He made a thinking pose. I was starting to learn that Hatake liked to take things leisurely… on the surface at least. "Aah, that's hard to tell, right? Mm, alright. Why don't you evaluate yourself, give me your own perspective of your suitability to work with Naruto and Sasuke?"

"Well…" I thought about everything I knew from before, and had learnt today. "I can work with them. Naruto is very disruptive, but he'll probably grow up with a bit of guidance. Hopefully. It's not my favorite dynamic, but I'm… kinda used to a similar person already. I just need to establish some boundaries and let him run roughshod otherwise. Sasuke's a bit of an incognito, but he is professional most of the time. Just being competent around him will probably be enough."

"I'm more worried that he and Naruto will clash. They're… like complete opposites, and on top of that they're preteen boys." I grimaced. Good thing I'd made it clear I was not into guys. "I don't think I can do anything about it. I don't think I should. I'm not their babysitter." That was Hatake. "I'm not going to sacrifice my own well-being to play peacekeeper between two brats." I met his eye, aware of the importance he apparently gave to being there for your comrades. "Not if they aren't making at least the tiniest bit of effort. If a team is three people, one single person can't be making all the effort to keep it together."

To my relief, he nodded. "No, you are correct."

"Right. Of course, all of this… I mean…" I stopped my hand from coming to rub at my neck. "This is all for normal situations. We're ninjas, like you said. We're going to face life or death sooner or later and to be honest: I don't know how I'll react. I wanna say I'll… live up to my dream and do the right thing, but I also don't like lying. I don't know."

A hand ruffled my short hair. "Maa~ You're a very dependable kid, aren't you?" Hatake Kakashi told me then. "Don't worry so much. I have faith in you."

---

Bell test complete! Wanted to get a bit of Sakura's overall thought process described here, from her initial suspicions to what cinched it. But also to get some Kakashi bonding (and a responsible Kakashi). As an adult, she's going to be more likely to feel comfortable talking as an equal to him over Naruto and Sasuke. For his part, Kakashi is getting that his 'clever kunoichi' is a breed apart although he'll only really understand how much until later.​

 

[minuseven]

Chapter Twenty-Four!
Introducing the important parts of being a ninja!​

Hatake, well, Kakashi-sensei's stamp of approval meant that Team 7 was cleared to take on missions. It didn't mean that the man learnt what punctuality was. Once was normal, twice was a coincidence. Thrice was enemy action.

I wasn't going to give a grown man brownie points for only being an hour and a half late. My professional senses were tingling, my piggy bank was raging at the wasted time. I wasn't even spending the couple of hours I waited for him having fun! I was having to endure an awkward silence with two kids with whom I had very little in common. Not helped by the fact that Naruto was the ADHD kid that didn't like reading, so I couldn't even give him a book so he wouldn't be terminally bored.

Bored Naruto attrited at Naruto's base concepts of personal space, boundaries and ability to read the mood.

Kakashi was probably the sort to know and let us have it if we were the ones late. Urgh.

"Independent training while we wait for lazy-sensei tomorrow?" "He's always so late!" "Might as well."

Regardless, "Yo." "You're late!!" ""..."" he eventually showed up.

As an introduction to actually being a genin, Kakashi-sensei took us on a small tour of places we were now authorized to be in. Some we'd already seen as part of the later Academy curriculum, but others were new. Like where we would have to file some paperwork or where we could collect our payments, or an expanded library. Most of this was in the facilities attached to the Hokage tower that the Ninja Academy was behind.

We got fitted with a set of short-range communicators. The secure, expensive kind. How nice to see that Konoha too was improving in its technology. Maybe one day we would actually have TVs!

Then we took a picture.

This I liked. Another picture to add to my wall. We put Naruto in the middle, because he was the midget among us, and he looked adorable raging at the camera. Kakashi was leaning down to our height, each hand ruffling mine and Sasuke's hair. The difference was I was smiling and he was scowling. The boys looked so much like kids, I was going to hang this one in a place of honor.

The morning done, we headed to the Mission Desk.

A mission! A paycheck!

I was almost skipping. I hadn't worked a day since before my registration as a ninja. Five days. I was getting twitchy about not getting any money. It was probably a bad sign considering my mentality. The gacha was a slow, strangling struggle. I wasn't on the edge of poverty or anything. Although I would stop receiving village funds in three months, a period of grace after my graduation, I still had my parents' money. Unfettered access to it at last too. I was going to keep withdrawing only enough for basic expenses the rest of the year, because I didn't know how my costs were going to evolve.

On the one hand, I would now be getting paid a fair amount. On the other, I needed to get my equipment to genin standards, I would need to replace it more often, to improve it and finally, I was going to need to eat more as my body and chakra grew.

A not-inconsiderable portion of a ninja's income was spent on food. The highly-caloric, nutrient packed meals we could buy and that the restaurants in Konoha specialized in were expensive. Or maybe that was just for taijutsu-based fighters like me. The rest was weapons, weaponry and weapon-like tools.

Anyway, the Hokage, to us presented that day… a D-rank mission: trash collecting in a sector of Konoha.

Did you know that trash cans in Konoha were collected and cleaned by genin? No? Well, it explained a few things. Who handled sanitation concerns, for one. We were just going to pick up free trash in the streets. The can were handled by night-shift ninjas.

A thought occurred to me. "Do trash ninjas have to check the trash for bodies or explosive tags?" I asked Kakashi.

Naruto yelped. Sasuke made a weird face. Kakashi blinked. "Yep."

"Hm, that makes sense. Ok, that was all the questions I had. Let's go!" I pumped my fists in excitement.

"Scary Sakura, you want to go pick up trash?" Naruto was baffled.

"Kakashi-sensei already explained the rationale behind low-level missions. And, fellow orphan of mine," I grabbed him by the shoulders and imposed on him the gravity of our mission, "they're paying us each a fat one thousand and five hundred ryou. For a single afternoon of hard work."

"Ack, Kakashi-sensei, save me from the Greedy Demon!!" "Get your butt in gear Orange Orphan. You move too Blue Orphan. We have money to earn." "... don't call me that."

Naruto in a headlock and Sasuke following us sedately, we headed out for our first paycheck!

I paused suddenly. My team looked at me. "I need to review Konoha tax laws."

---

Starting to catch up to my buffer. Also gonna put up the first part of Kakashi's perspective sometime later.​

After a brief dynamic entry interruption and a talk with Kakashi about her powers, we should be moving on to the ever present ever important c rank mission in wave. Because I will not be expending too many of my brain cells trying to be original for a self indulgent fic.​

 

[minuseven]

Chapter Twenty-Five!
The eternal rivalry!​

Lee and Gai-sensei returned to Konoha two days after my team's first mission. I knew because my morning run was interrupted by a green blur.

"Sakura-chan!" Lee hugged me.

"Lee! You're back!" I hugged back.

If Ino was my best girl friend, Hinata was my reliable possibly-neuter friend, and Lee was my little brother friend. Last year he'd apparently asked Ino for help asking me out… yeah. But he bounced back from that heartbreak like a champ. I'd offered his crying face a hug, because he looked like he needed it.

I had not noticed how touch-starved I was until then. Funny fact.

It was different with Ino because I was starting to notice girls again and I did not want those feelings about my best friend. I could hug Hinata, if the environment was quiet. Hinata was a shy animal. Possibly just as touch-starved as me, but that was a topic I hadn't wanted to barrel in. I just made sure I was always there, available for a hug.

Lee was a great hugger. So was Gai-sensei but common sense was about the only thing I'd ever give Gai-sensei a bad grade on.

"You have graduated! I believed in you! Tell me everything!" He jumped in excitement.

"I'm in Team Seven with Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke. They're… well they're okay." "Sakura-chan, do not let your world-weariness keep you from forming bonds with your comrades! Neji has become my most dear rival despite our first impressions!" "Fairly sure that's not reciprocated. Anyway, our jounin sensei is Hatake Kakashi–"

Then Lee gasped. "Gasp!" His eyes shone, sparkled even. He was getting to the squeeing point. "Sakura-chan, you're in a team with Gai-sensei's best rival!?"

I blinked. Was there where I had recognized Kakashi-sensei's name from? "Gai-sensei knows him?"

But Lee wasn't really listening anymore. He had a dangerous look on his face. A look that said he was happy, full of energy, and ready to drag whoever off into shenanigans. "We must tell Gai-sensei!!"

His hand closed over my wrist and then all thoughts flew from my head. I needed all my brain and muscle power to keep up with Lee as we bounded across the village.

"Lee-kun! Sakura-kun! Good morning!" "Gai-sensei! Sakura-chan is on a team with Kakashi-san!!" "Gasp! Sakura-kun, Kakashi passed your genin team?"

I took a breath, wheezed. "Gimme a moment." My lungs! "Yeah, he did. You know Kakashi-sensei, Gai-sensei?"

The flames of youth and passion let up behind Gai-sensei. I immediately regretted opening my mouth. "Yes, Kakashi and I entered the Academy together. We have been eternal rivals ever since, and competed against each other in many contests! To think that Kakashi would become your sensei…" His eyes teared up. "Kakashi! Your heart has finally opened up to the passion I knew resided in you!" Whoa. Was I getting the sordid but heart-warming backstory of my lazy and mysterious teacher?

Suddenly, Gai-sensei was by my side and picking me up like a bag of rice. Or less. He struck a pose, pointing at the horizon, and I was slung under his other arm. Wait, wait, wait–

"Let's go! We must find Kakashi!" "Yosh, Gai-sensei!"

The landscape blurred into indistinct shapes as we accelerated. I just gave up. In record time, we were back at Training Ground Three and heading towards the memorial stone. Hmm?

"Kakashi!" The Blue Beast of Konoha greeted my teacher enthusiastically. "You too have decided to foster the flames of youth in the next generation!"

From where he'd been paying his respects to the fallen, my teacher turned with a sigh. "Gai…" He blinked, eye wide, as he took in our party of three, which was about as much of an about-face as I'd ever seen him make. "... Why do you have one of my students?"

I lifted one palm in close imitation of his customary greeting. "Yo."

Gai-sensei dumped me on the ground, letting me land in a crouch. He approached Kakashi-sensei and threw an arm over his shoulders. "Sakura-kun is a good friend of Lee's and I have given her some guidance on taijutsu while she was still in the Academy. I had no idea she was going to be in your squad this year. What a coincidence!"

"Ah." Said Kakashi-sensei.

"Kakashi, I was teaching Sakura-kun some basics, but I will leave her in your capable hands." He clapped my new teacher on the back. "Hokage-sama is truly wise! The man who knows a thousand jutsu", whoa, what, "is the perfect teacher for Sakura-kun!"

I looked at the gray-haired man in the unforgiving grasp of Gai-sensei's friendship. Kakashi-sensei looked right back at me. I'd say… curious?

"How so, Gai?" He asked his friend.

"You haven't told him, Sakura-kun?" The noble beast of Konoha gasped!

I shrugged. "I've known Kakashi-san for less than a week. You're the only other person I've told aside from my friends."

"Told what?"

I looked at Gai-sensei. He gave me a wink and a thumbs-up. Well, I supposed if he was truly friends with Kakashi-sensei, then my teacher couldn't be a bad person. Actually, he looked… a lot more human and soft in Gai-sensei's arms. Uh. I'd subconsciously relaxed just now.

"Okay." I nodded. "How my chakra system and jutsus actually work. Well, the term that applies the best is hidden technique."

My power wasn't quite a kekkei genkai, a bloodline limit like Hinata's Byakugan, because I had no clue whether or not it would be inheritable. I also had no desire to have kids, so that point was moot. It was definitely something closer to the secret techniques passed down within certain clans like Ino's Yamanaka Clan. Those hidden techniques might or might not have a genetic component, I didn't know what was the real difference between that and bloodline limits.

"My," said Kakashi-sensei, "that's interesting."

He had no clue. I was going to break this man's worldview so bad.

---

If Kakashi wasn't ace, he'd probably be doing (and being done by) Gai, tbh. Men be platonically married for seven years, yo. This be the point where Kakashi be: oh, oh that makes sense, of course my weird genin knows Gai, that's why the taijutsu felt familiar.​

Two more before this arc is done, one an exposition session for Kakashi that I'd like to see explored more in his POV and one mini-epilogue to tie loose ends before the pre-Wave timeskip. .... there were lot of pulls done between those times.​

 

[minuseven]

Chapter Twenty-Six!
I wish I could make a power point presentation!​

If I made a chart, I would be able to track Kakashi-sensei's punctuality improving. Amazing. He was only… regularly between fifteen to twenty-five minutes late by the end of our first week.

After Gai-sensei had, thankfully unsuccessfully, badgered Kakashi-sensei about a team competition, our teacher had taken one of us at the time for a talk. Getting a good idea of our complete strengths, he said. Naruto complained a lot that he had gotten a quiz of all things, and ambushed, but I thought he was just salty that he only had the Kage Bushin to show off. Sasuke was happy that our training was being given some consideration, but it was hard to tell with him.

I knew what it was really about. Not to be a narcissist, but it was because of me.

My day arriving, I followed our jounin to a training ground, armed with a pen, a notebook, and two-thousand ryou I had saved up from the missions we'd done this week.

"Alright, this should do." Kakashi-sensei sat down on a log in a corner of a wide clearing.

It didn't have water for my fish transformations, but otherwise it was ok. I nodded. "So, do you want me to explain what's going on with me?"

"That would be helpful." He pulled out his orange book but kept it folded on his knee. "Your files say your chakra pathways are displaced and so you are incapable of learning 'standard jutsu'. But you had good ninjutsu and genjutsu scores in your last years of the Academy."

I could work with that.

"Okay, so the problem is twofold and connected." I started sketching on my notebook. "But I'll start with the obvious one. My chakra pathways are not standard. And I don't mean the natural variation of tenketsu positioning between individuals. I mean, my Eight Gates aren't in the right places."

He blinked. I knew that blink. It was the 'that's impossible' blink and the 'how are you still alive' blink.

"Ask a Hyuuga. Lee can't use ninjutsu and genjutsu because his output and modulation are screwed." Apparently? It was more medical theory than I'd ever needed to learn. "I can't use 'standard jutsu' because all jutsu in the modern era were developed from the teachings of the Great Sage, and all of those are based on humans having regular chakra pathways. Handseals change the way our chakra flows and surges in and from those pathways. Different pathways equals known handseals useless." I circled that in my presentation sheet. "More deeply, focus and control exercises like the forehead-sticky-leaf were optimized based on the tenketsu position of normal people. I have a different structure, so I have more trouble or more ease focussing chakra in different places. Questions?"

"Yes, Sakura-sensei!" He raised a hand, cheeky bastard. "So you can use jutsu. You just can't be taught jutsu."

He'd grasped that fast, as expected. "Correct. All my jutsu are… well, I'd say I figured them out myself but that connects to the second point."

"Your secret techniques." He was interested.

I reminded myself that Gai-sensei wouldn't be friends with a bad person. It was hard to trust people with this. Especially adult ninjas. Gai had been the only person I'd told about the gacha part of my powers. I'd eventually had to tell Lee, but that was it. Even Ino thought I just figured out my transformations somehow by experimenting around.

"Right. So. You're going to think it's cheating." I prefaced. "It's not. Not anymore than bloodline limits are. And I worked hard for it, yeah?"

He nodded. I couldn't get much from his body language.

Deep breath. I started drawing a grid on my notebook, and a button. "As long as I can remember, I've had this in the back of my head. I can't explain the feeling more than a ninja can explain the feeling of chakra to a civilian, or colors to a blind man. I just, have these two things up here." I tapped my forehead, at the corner of my scar. "There's a storage grid, and there's a lever."

"I use the lever and it gives me the power of a monster. Randomly. The power then is stored in the grid. I can use that power to transform into the monster, or to use any of the jutsu, the moves, that the monster knows. Doing it drains the power temporarily and I can't use it anymore for a period of time. Finally, using the lever means I have to pay for it. That's the basics. Should I elaborate or do you have questions about this part? I'll demonstrate later."

Kakashi-sensei was staring at me. I stared back.

"Monsters?" "Best name I got for them." "You pay." "With money." "To whom?" "I assume the gods because it just vanishes from my hands." "I thought you didn't like gambling." "Yeah, might be the fact that my personal development is dependent on a gambling mechanic." "I think you should elaborate now."

So I did. The proportions, the levels, the rarities, my experiments, why I trained my custom handseals, how my chakra interacted with everything. And I showed him. Not just all of my moves. I demonstrated all of my transformations. He saw tiny Natu, physics defiant Solrock, scary Shuppet, regal Absol, massive Snorlax, creepy Mr. Mime, gigantic Onix, and all the others. I flopped on the ground as Goldeen, trying to breathe, I set the grass on fire as Slugma. It was the most intensive session I'd ever done. I'd never deprived myself of all of my daily transformations before. I discussed my forms with him, tactics I wanted to use, ways I wanted to use my power to its maximum efficiency.

Finally, I pulled on the gacha. Once with my money and once with a couple of bills provided by Kakashi-sensei. Just like I'd expected, the money vanished from my hands like a greedy god and come down and snapped its fingers, leaving no trace it had ever existed.

I got Feebas again.

And then, then, then! "OOOOOOOHHHHH!!!!" I pulled a five-star, ultra-rare pokemon. A Legendary. My first. Regirock. I needed to use other people's money more often!

And Kakashi-sensei? From the way he was dragging his hand over his face, he was grasping very well what my secret techniques meant.

---

Again, I do want a more detailed view of several moves and pokemon but, hm, well, not in the main story. It would drag along sooo much. This is more to set up the Kakashi POV of whatever the fuck a transmigrator's power looks like from out of context.​

Fortunately this bit of exposition was in the second arc right? Right? ahahahah aaaa, sorry.​

 

[minuseven]

Chapter Twenty-Seven!
We are Genin!​

"Hey, Sakura, over here!" Ino called out to me. I raised my arm back in greeting and squeezed between tables to reach them. "Hello people."

Most of teams Seven, Eight and Ten were here. Kiba hadn't made it, he had something with his family, apparently, and Naruto had tried to convince Sasuke to come as well. Thankfully, he hadn't succeeded, so I could spend time with my good friend, Ino. She was the one who had decided we were owed a graduation party lunch as the teams that had not only graduated but also kept their senseis.

I'd been right. It was hard to un-genin a genin. Jounin, however, were freer to determine which students actually deserved to learn directly from them full-time. It made sense. All the time they were spending baby-sitting genin was time they weren't spending on better paid, more exciting missions. I suspected genin baby-sitting got paid, but I wasn't sure. Kakashi-sensei took a cut from our missions and, well, he spent them reading his little adult books.

"You're in a good mood." Chouji greeted me.

"I have a well-paying job." I grinned.

"""Ah."""

You guys could say whatever you wanted! I'd gone from pulling once every two weeks to pulling twice a week! And that was because I was slowly replacing my weapons and getting a good set of armored clothing! One day, I was going to renovate my house! Or maybe even move into a better place!

"We're having boring missions every day." Naruto complained. "It's all clean this, babysit, clean that, urgh!"

"These are the sort of missions we genin start with." Said Shikamaru, slumped on the table. He hadn't changed a bit. "They're easy."

"Well, I want to get to the exciting missions now, not later!"

"Your sensei having you do missions every day is strange. Why? Because our team has days allocated solely to training." Aburame Shino interjected. He seemed more lively than usual.

"It's because our team is really not good at teamwork." I explained. "The boys keep getting into trouble during our D-rank missions, fighting each other, the clients, random animals…" Naruto shrank under my observations. "It's pointless to train together if we can't even do chores correctly as a team."

"Hey–" "Shadow Clones. Fence. Paint." "Urk!" Critical hit.

Next to me, Hinata tried, and I mean tried, to encourage Naruto. The words wouldn't leave her mouth. But hey, she hadn't checked out yet, so she was improving. Get him girl, at least you like a guy for his personality, even if it's a completely incomprehensible choice to me!

"Sasuke-kun's not coming?" Ino pouted.

I resisted the urge to sigh. "Nope, he had stuff to do, apparently. Hey, tell us about your sensei, he looked cool. Ours was five hours late, five hours." Please Ino, take the bait.

"Eh!?" "Gods." "That is unprofessional. Why?" "Kuren-nai-sensei wouldn't ev-ver do that."

I was vindicated, vindicated I say!

Ino rolled her eyes. "Asume-sensei smokes like a chimney, it's disgusting. Did you know he's the Hokage's son?"

No, I had not known. I had not known the Hokage had children. I vaguely remembered he was married, because he had told me so himself, but kids? Then Naruto revealed he knew Konohamaru, which was… a name, who was the Hokage's grandson. A vast conspiracy of gossip unraveled as we tried to determine if Konohamaru was Asuma's kid from a previous marriage because apparently the Team Ten jounin had the hots for Team Eight's jounin… Who was a very pretty lady that I had not girl-crushed on, no sir.

At the end of lunch we were almost kicked out for being too loud, see Naruto, and had to split an enormous bill. I was trying not to blame Chouji here. And we also got laughed out of trying to split more than one single beer between us. That had been Ino's idea but Shino's execution.

"That was nice!" Naruto was smiling widely as we walked home. We lived more or less in the same direction, although my house was much closer than his. "We should meet up more often!"

"It's only going to get harder to get all of us together." I told him, thinking of my friendship with Lee. "The moment we start taking out of village missions, even just a farming D-rank, we're going to keep missing each other."

"Man, that sucks." He put his hands in his pockets. "Hey, do you think that bastard is never going to come?"

"Don't call Sasuke a bastard." I reminded him again. "I hope not, but you can't make people like to hang out. Some people just like their alone time."

"That's so weird." "Not everybody's an extrovert like you, Orange. If I don't get my daily dose of peace and quiet I get real cranky too, ya know." "Ok, ok, I get it! Why do you have to be so scary like that?" "Gotta keep you boys on your toes."

Life was good. I was getting stronger, my friends were growing up, the village was at peace. Sooner or later, we were going to get into the hard part of being a ninja, but for now, I was going to enjoy the sun.

---

Tiny epilogue to the second arc. Wanted a friendship moment between these kids who all know each other from years together and are now separated while they start their new job.​

We're basically jumping right into the Wave Mission next chapter, because my brain is not processing and just reacting irl rn tbh.​

 

[minuseven]

Chapter Twenty-Eight!
Taking the next big step in my ninja career!​

To his credit, Naruto almost made it three months.

Between February and March, our team settled into a routine. Before we met up each morning, we usually trained by ourselves, then we relaxed for fifteen to twenty minutes as we waited our our chronically late jounin. Most days we did D-rank missions, usually short missions that didn't pay much, but also longer, full-day missions that fed my wallet. On the rare days we didn't do missions, we trained as a team, under the lazy but sadistic eye of Kakashi-sensei.

We did do a lot of missions. A lot, more than other teams, apparently. I took full credit. Kakashi-sensei arrived and asked us something along the lines of 'what do my cute little genin want to do today?'

Missions. I wanted missions. Unless the boys managed to interject, that was how it went.

And interject they (Naruto) did. Loudly and physically. Training days happened because Naruto attacked Kakashi-sensei or got into a fight with Sasuke, or with me. So instead, it was sparring time, or competition time, or race time, or jutsu demonstration time or Kakashi-sensei has the novel idea to have us work in formation to do… whatever. Buy him groceries. Help an old lady cross the road for shits and giggles.

We did end up learning stuff, like radios and signals and practicing formations, I suppose. I had opportunities to practice my moves and show my transformations to the guys. Such was sorely needed with the amount of times I was pulling on my power.

And maybe, just maybe, helping out counted as learning charity and an open spirit. Kakashi-sensei had his depths… but he was also his own sort of lazy.

So inevitably, Naruto literally sat his ass down in front of the Hokage and demanded a C-rank.

I wasn't surprised. I was already ready to apologize on behalf of the team. He'd had to do it on one of the days the Hokage himself was in the mission room too. He couldn't have thrown a tantrum in front of a chunnin or something, no.

I was surprised the Hokage acquiesced. "I'll give Team Seven a C-Rank mission." He smiled from beneath his hat and veil.

A C-rank? I schooled my face back into neutrality and searched my brain for details on the higher grade. Those missions could actually involve combat, that was the biggest difference between D and C-ranks. It didn't mean combat was certain for all C-ranks but… I looked between my teammates. Sasuke was reliable, Naruto was… being generous, he was improving, ok. I was starting to have to try to beat him in taijutsu. And Kakashi-sensei was apparently very strong, if Gai-sensei wasn't exaggerating about his rivalry.

"It's an escort and bodyguarding mission. Personal protection for a certain individual." The Hokage had picked up a scroll lying on his desk and was signaling to an attending ninja. "Calm down," he said to a suddenly very energetic blonde teammate of mine, "I'll introduce your client in a moment."

Just a few moments passed before we heard somebody being led from one of the reception areas. As a whole, Team Seven turned to see who we were going to be protecting. My first thought was 'old fisherman', with a rope tied around his head and strong, scarred arms. My second thought was 'dead drunk by midday'. The man stank! He already had a bottle opened!

"It's a bunch of brats?" He squinted behind a pair of oval glasses. Amazingly, he wasn't slurring his words. "Are you really ninjas? Especially the short one with the stupid face… can they really keep me safe?"

I preemptively put Naruto on a chokehold. Kakashi-sensei ruffled my hair and bonked Naruto. Sasuke snorted.

"They are, although they are only novices." Kakashi-sensei said. "But I am a jounin. Don't worry."

I would take umbrange at the uncertain look on the client's face, but I was fairly busy keeping Naruto restrained, Sasuke was pretending he didn't know us, while our teacher, well. Hatake Kakashi didn't look like the most reliable jounin at a first glance. The Hokage cleared his throat and we got back on track.

Mission details: Tazuna, the client, was actually an architect and bridge builder. He needed escorting to return to his village. He would also need to be protected while he finished building a bridge. He'd been harassed at his construction site by local thugs who thrived off smuggling and threatening local fishermen. The pay was fairly generous. Eighty-five thousand for a bit under two weeks of work.

Math done, I was convinced.

We headed out this afternoon, and our destination was the Wave Country. I checked a map while packing. Wave country was a small island nation off the coast of the Land of Fire. They'd probably avoided being annexed into the Land of Water by being so close to us instead. Regardless, it was so small I didn't remember it appearing in any meaningful way in our geography lessons.

More importantly, the route we were going to take was fairly typical of the Land of Fire, forested and hilly at most. Weather was predicted to be sunny but not warm for the next week. It was spring and we were going to be lodging near the coast, so it was better to take clothing for wet days.

I packed appropriate rations, tools, and changed from my comfortable but worn sleeveless hoodie combo. My first mission outside the village, I might as well take what was shaping up to be my typical outfit. Finally in a green so dark it was practically black, with Rayquaza's designs in yellow, I had a set of trousers and a tunic. Pink undershirts, pink gloves, pink ankles wraps and forehead protector. That last item not on my forehead, but tight over my waist sash, I was ready to go.

"Oh, no, wait." I was a dumbass. I hurried to remove my training weights. I was so used to having them on for D-ranks I almost left with them still on.

---

Beginning of the arc I think I'll call Wave kicks Sakura's ass, although, we've caught up to my buffer so much that I haven't written or decided most of it. The perils of rolling the dice as I write and dealing with it.
A lot of this will probably be familiar and I'm trying. I'm trying so hard not to copy dialogue and scenes so much. The more time passes the easier and more divergent this will get. Also, I need to decide if I include some fillers or not, hm.... Anyway, set up chapter done, we're caught up to Sakura and Team 7's misadventures: lots of bickering, some growth, but mostly just people getting used to working with each other. Sasuke's still distant, Naruto is still annoying, but both are slowly getting better. Sakura is also kinda distant, but at least she tries??​

 

[minuseven]

Chapter Twenty-Nine!
Ambushed by a taste of the real ninja life!​

"How long 'til we get to the Land of the Waves again?" Three guesses as to who had asked.

"Still two days. And it's Wave Country, not Land of the Waves." I told Naruto.

"Uh? Why?" "Only nations with significant geopolitical influence get to have pretentious names like Land of the Whatever." "Has anybody ever told you that you're too honest?" "You'd be the first Blue."

We were a day off from the village's gates and the excitement of traveling outside the country, outside the village outskirts to be honest, had mostly faded. The only violence we'd had to stop, and to implement, was to keep Naruto from Tazuna-san. I couldn't blame the kid too much. The man was a drunk who occasionally made condescending comments in his direction. If he wasn't so blatantly alcoholic, I would have told Naruto to be more professional. Or, well, I would be less gentle about it.

We kept a rough formation as we walked. Us three at the front, the client behind us and Kakashi-sensei bringing up the rear. We were in charge of scouting while he read his little books, and occasionally we talked to the great architect Tazuna-san.

Of course, Naruto was getting bored so… There was a metallic rustle. From behind.

We spun, just in time to see Kakashi-sensei be snagged by chains, two shinobi, two enemies on either side of him. "One down." The chains pulled and there was the rip of cloth and squelch, like a chainsaw, and blood was flying everywhere. "Two down." I flinched. They'd already run inside our formation and their chains were going around Naruto–!

I fumbled for my kunai. Sasuke jumped in. With pinpoint accuracy, his throw had shuriken hitting the chain. He didn't stop, using kunai to pin the chain to a tree, and the rest of his movement to get into the men's guards and nail them with a spin kick.

Not that easy, they disconnected their chains from their gauntlets. These were Kiri missing-nin, I noted, settling in position automatically. They were coming for us, no– the client! The handseals were–

The thing about a real fight, the sort of fight that has adrenaline sharpening everything, is that training makes all the difference. And I had one maneuver trained for this.

Tokubetsu Waza: "Iwâku no Henge!"

I coiled, my rock body turning into a barrier around Tazuna. Get away! I screeched. The enemies flinched. They didn't stop, too professional for that, but between my transformation and move, they hesitated. A two-stage debuff like Screech was something you felt.

And then Kakashi-sensei was there. "Yo."

My stone eyes briefly took in the logs where Kakashi's body should have been. Again, a genjutsu. Our sensei was really good with that, he'd gotten us all believing his gruesome death. I glared at him, unable to speak. Had that been necessary? Was he testing us again? In one move, he'd taken out both missing nin, and even slung them casually under his arms.

"Nice job, Sasuke, Sakura. It's okay now." He said.

Sasuke nodded, putting his hands in his pockets nonchalantly. I gave a big, rock snake sigh and de-transformed. Suddenly behind me, our client staggered. Well, he'd just been surrounded by me, a giant rock snake.

"Naruto, sorry for not helping right away. I got you hurt." All of our eyes turned to Naruto, who blinked. Shellshocked. There were several scratches on his hand. The enemies had targeted him after apparently killing sensei, Sasuke had interrupted that. "I didn't think you'd freeze like that."

I hadn't been expecting him to freeze either. Sasuke snorted. "Hey, are you alright, scaredy-cat?"

"Really, Sasuke, really?" I snapped at him over Naruto's indignant cry.

He blinked at me, somewhat surprised at my tone. "Sakura?..."

"All of you, save it for later." Kakashi-sensei's commanding voice made us all stand down. "Naruto, their claws are poisoned. We need to take care of that quickly, don't move too much or you'll spread it through your body." He turned to me. "Sakura, you alright?"

My teeth were chattering. My whole body was shaking. I forcefully clenched my every muscle, held it and exhaled explosively. "Adrenaline crash. I'm good." I hated when this happened. I was fine, but the chemicals in my body made me look so pathetic.

"Good." Kakashi-sensei nodded, then turned his eye towards the fifth element of this entire equation. "Tazuna-san. I need to talk to you." Right, of course. We'd just been attacked by missing-nin. "These are chunnin originally from Kiri."

"Whoa." Kirigakure? I had noticed their headbands but now I registered it. The Hidden Mist? That was one village with a nasty reputation. Brutal ninjas particularly known for never retreating and, more recently, for an ongoing civil war and purges. Purges of all sorts and kinds, all excuses for the Mizukage in charge.

I was glad I hadn't been reborn there. I would have left immediately… or died trying.

Kakashi-sensei tied them to the nearest tree with frankly frightening expertise, no fuss. I kept my eyes on the enemy even then. In my mind, they had become far more scary the moment I'd stopped to think about their origins.

"How did you discover us?" One of them asked. Their rebreather masks distorted their voices, likely on purpose. Along with the custom headbands they had, with a horn, their clawed gauntlets, the chain they'd used… it was all geared towards intimidation, but the fact that they had also laced their weapons with poison… lethal. These men were cold-blooded killers, no doubt.

"It's a nice sunny day, hasn't rained the whole week… a puddle of water like that shouldn't exist." Our sensei said, and I felt like smacking myself. Now that I thought about it, I could remember seeing a puddle. I hadn't thought anything of it. Suzume-sensei would kill me for my inattention.

"Then why let the kids fight?" Tazuna asked.

"I could have killed them instantly, if I wanted to." Our sensei, the lazy jounin, said. There wasn't an ounce, a gram, a speck of emotion in his voice as he spoke. It was merely the truth. He'd had these men's lives in his hands the moment he'd noticed them. "But I wanted to find out their real target."

"W-what do you mean?" The client said, and even through the alcohol I sensed his sudden tensing.

"They were either after us, or you." He said simply. "And we weren't told shinobi would target you. That exceeds missions parameters, and is not as simple as protecting you from thieves or gangs. It's at least B-rank, a much more expensive mission. Was that why you lied about the mission details?"

"I… I didn't know they would send ninjas…" But he'd suspected, went unsaid.

Fuck. I rubbed my forehead. What a shitshow. Wrong mission details, a poisoned teammate, enemy ninjas above our rank…! And clearly, Kakashi/sensei was also thinking the same.

"RaaaA!!" Naruto stabbed himself. He screamed and stabbed himself in his already injured hand.

"What the fuck! Naruto!" What the hell. I dashed forward to get the knife away from this child.

"We're continuing this mission!" He yelled again, teeth grit in a bloody smile. "I'll protect the geezer, I swear it on this kunai!"

That was all well and good… but he still stabbed himself! If this didn't kill him, I was going to!

---

I'm kinda lost on the road of life rn tbh. Once again bad coping mechanisms.
The adrenaline crash is an SI element I've wanted to incorporate for a while. Also, turning into Onix as a defensive measure. It's a scene I've had in my head for a while now. Sakura's arsenal allows her to do some really impressive things, so long as she's willing to expend their use for the whole day.
As to why she won't loot the guys... well, she's sorta worried about her idiotic teammate right now lmao.

 

[minuseven]

Chapter Thirty!
There had to be a tragic backstory involved!
​

"Let's continue the mission!" Naruto railed. Kakashi-sensei was bandaging his hand.

I stood next to him. "Why?"

"Huh? 'Cuz we have to! We accepted the mission!" "We accepted a fake mission!" "The old man needs protection!" "Which we aren't able to provide." "We can't run away with our tails between our legs now! I'm not giving up!"

"Okay kids, break it up." Our sensei put a hand on both of our shoulders. "First we need to know exactly what's going on."

As a unit, we turned our eyes to the man with the answers. Tazuna was looking back at us. The man I'd taken as dead drunk was clear eyed but resigned. "You're right. Let me explain the situation. There's a terrible, dangerous man after me."

And explain he did.

Gatou. I hadn't known the name, but Kakashi did. A shipping magnate. And magnates were never good. He was this world's equivalent of a super-rich, and on top of it all, Tazuna claimed, unsurprisingly, that he was even richer and more powerful than people thought because he was a criminal. Shocking, truly. A great deal of his illegal dealings had been rerouted through Wave Country, due to its geographic position and the fact that nobody gave a fuck about that tiny island. Gatou had basically taken over, going full feudal overlord. The current daimyo, or the real feudal lord, was the weak son of the last lord, conveniently dead.

Tazuna was his target because Gatou's full control of Wave was based on his takeover of Wave's shipping lanes. And Wave had no bridges connecting it to the Land of Fire, its closest neighbor. When I'd heard Tazuna was a bridge builder, I was thinking about regular bridges, not the kind of straight-spanning, sea bridges that I used to see in documentaries. This man was actually building a mega bridge. A thing many kilometers long and wide enough for an army to go over.

This wasn't just another bit of civil architecture, this was a game changer.

A game changer that had to have the approval of the Land of Fire's own daimyo. It seemed, however, that Wave was too tiny and far away. The project had financial backing but Tazuna's requests for protection had been dismissed… or something more sinister was at work here.

So Tazuna had gone directly to Konoha for protection. He'd gathered enough money for a C-rank, but not quite enough for a B-rank. Gatou's violence and taxes had impoverished the country to that point. I could see why he hadn't pulled the tragic backstory on the Hokage. Ninjas weren't mercenaries above all else, not since villages had formed and allied themselves to nation-states, but our reputation from the Warring Eras wouldn't disappear just like that. Especially for civilians of countries without any ninja of their own.

He'd gambled on Gatou sending weak fodder after him, a single man, that we wouldn't make too much of a fuss. Then we'd gotten two Kiri chunnin thrown at us. That was not weak fodder.

"It's fine, I can go on on my own." He said. "My cute grandson will cry, he's only ten too. And my daughter, who knows what will happen to her if Tazuna's goons appear. The people of our village will probably be punished for my defiance, but that's just how life is."

Hey. Hey, that was blatant. You were almost begging us on your knees and now you pulled this?

But he was serious. Dead serious.

"What do you say, Sasuke, Sakura?" Kakashi-sensei asked us.

"I don't care either way. We might as well." Sasuke tried to pretend to be unaffected.

Me, I was more conflicted. I could mentally detach myself from the situation. "Realistically, can we do it or is it a suicide mission?"

"Don't you trust me?" Kakashi-sensei asked.

I smiled. Yeah, if he wasn't confident in our survival, this wouldn't even be a choice. It really was up to me. He'd respect my decision, I had the feeling. "Ah well, in that case…" I'd decided years ago what I wanted to become. It was the sort of decision you made everyday, if you wanted to get stronger. If you wanted to die without regrets. "I wonder how much I'll get paid, hm?"

---

Been kinda busy. This one has been written for a while. Tried to go for some worldbuilding and a justification of Gachakura's spproval to continue the mission. She's the holdout in this world, bc she has, well, a rational female brain most of the time. (men and their pride, let's prove ourselves nonsense).

 

[minuseven]

(Hatake Kakashi 1)​

It was January again and Hatake Kakashi was invited to take a stroll with the Third Hokage. Another year, another genin team. Lord Hiruzen assured him that this year the candidates were interesting.

He couldn't deny that. Minato-sensei's son… he hadn't been expecting him to be such a slob. And Uchiha Sasuke. He was almost expectable, considering his bloodline.

Now, he entered the apartment of the third one. A kunoichi… "She lives by herself?" He surveyed the apartment, smaller than even Naruto's. Not that his looked that bigger, considering the atrocious degree of clutter the boy had.

Naturally more organized than boys at that age, Sakura's apartment was very bare nonetheless. It appeared busy, with pictures decorating a folding screen, and small plants giving it color, but the amount of actual things she owned was small. Plates, bowls, tools, furniture, all of them presented signs of great use and various repairs, but also care in how they were treated.

If he had to give it a one-word description, it would be practical.

"Haruno Sakura." The Hokage huffed. "Daughter to Haruno Mebuki, chunnin rank, and Kizashi, a genin. Both deceased the night the Nine-Tails attack, twelve years ago. She left the village's care at the usual age. "

"And you're putting her on a team with Naruto?" That wasn't a great outlook. He wouldn't have a genin team with that kind of feud, it made him very uncomfortable to even think about.

The Hokage smiled. "There's no need to worry. Sakura harbors no hatred for the demon fox. I verified it myself." They left, not before Kakashi caught sight of a picture depicting two adults instead of children, randomly scattered amidst all others.

What a team this year: A hopeless fool, a skilled protegé and a clever kunoichi. It was painting a very familiar picture. He asked the Hokage about it, because it couldn't be a coincidence that he was jounin assigned to them.

"Very much like Minato's own team, wouldn't you say?" The Hokage chuckled.

"So you did choose me on purpose." Kakashi fiddled with his drink. He couldn't disagree with the Third's rationale either. Between Naruto's status as the Jinchuuriki and Sasuke's Sharingan, he was obviously the best, if not the only teacher. He could only trust the Hokage's knowledge of these genin hopefuls was also accurate about their ability to work together.

He watched the children, real tiny kids that couldn't be more than six or seven, run around the playground. One thing was bothering him.

"What about the girl? Why put her in this team?" It was still a large gamble to trust teenagers, not even grown ninjas, to overcome their hatred and base emotions, even in the face of a shared history and comradery. It could break the team when, not if, she found out about the Nine-Tails. He said as much.

But the Hokage laughed. "Kakashi, I believe Sakura will surprise you in many ways. She is a very interesting child. We had a very interesting conversation, where I remembered again that one is never too old to learn new things." His eyes were playful, if one knew the Hokage.

"Really?" What kind of Academy student was he talking about here? "Is she some sort of hidden prodigy?"

"Hmm, while Sakura's scores do not reflect her own ability, due to a medical condition…" He was going to have to look it up himself, said the Hokage's look. "It is more that she possesses an outlook on life that's unbefitting of her age. A maturity, perhaps from working as she has… I was unsure if she would be the best fit for this team, but in the end I decided to believe her teacher and teammates will provide what she needs."

It was a lot of trust the Hokage was putting in Kakashi to not completely ruin these kids' chances. He was not meant to be a teacher, one could see from the last times he'd been put in charge of genins.

Well, he'd take it one step at the time, as always. First, they'd have to pass his test.

---

The older I got the more I liked Kakashi and his traumatized ass. As a character, I really like his depection of being a semi-functional adult.​

These scenes are not entirely compliant with Eps 360-361 of the anime, as (you will later see) Gai is not informed of Kakashi's future team. I cut a lot of canon conversations because I didn't feel like re-hashing them when I'm already going to re-hash my own chapters.​

 

[minuseven]

(Hatake Kakashi 2)​

He was lost in his head when he arrived at the Ninja Academy. If Kakashi was honest with himself… well, he wasn't so it didn't matter. Ah, he had a trio of genin that didn't need explanations as to why he was a bit late.

He opened the door to the classroom. A board eraser started falling from where it'd been wedged. A classic prank. If he'd stuck his head in, he would let it hit him to gauge their reactions… Sasuke was the prodigy of the batch, he might notice if he purposefully hunched over now, hm.

Oh well, he watched the genin as the would-be prank dropped to the floor, just touching the edges of his hair.

"Darn it, almost got him!" Naruto spoke up without fear. The obvious perpetrator.

But had he had help? Sasuke was in a corner against the window, pretending he hadn't seen the whole thing. Sakura was on her feet, an open book on her desk. Posture set to intervene, turning fearful. Her lips pursed but she said nothing, observing Kakashi carefully.

"Hm…How do I put this…" He couldn't see any teamwork at all. "I don't like you."

Hatake Kakashi did not derive joy from watching the faces of his would-be, maybe-so, probably-not squad fall. Not a lot anyway. Before they could process it, he turned on his heel and bid them to follow him.

However, he hadn't been lying about his first impression. Lord Hiruzen was devious. It didn't take a lot of effort to start interposing his team over these green hopefuls, particularly the boys. Naruto was confident, loud and bold in a way that reminded him so much of Obito it hurt. He could see his young, foolish self in Sasuke too. A genius that didn't believe the others could offer him anything. He was already creating a distance between himself and his teammates. Fortunately, Sakura didn't remind him too much of Rin. She was quiet and diligent, at a first glance, but there was a hint of roughness there, a survival streak that could get in the way of teamwork.

He couldn't deny that his interest had been piqued, both by the legacies the boys represented, and the curiosity that was the girl.

"Let's start with some introductions, hm?" He observed the children arrayed confrontationally against him.

Sakura was surprisingly the one to speak up, biting off a curse. She'd been so very quiet until now. "You haven't even told us your name yet."

"Oh, me? My name is Hatake Kakashi." He leaned against the railing. It was kind of cute how they leaned forward to listen to him. Too bad for them. "I don't particularly care to tell you about my likes or dislikes. My dream for the future's… hm, well, I have a lot of hobbies."

Watching their expressions fall was, again, fun.

Well, they were ninjas, they could stand to learn how to work for intel.

Naruto went first. "I like ramen! Cup ramen but even better, Ichiraku's! And I love it even more when Iruka-sensei's the one to pay! I dislike… the time it takes for ramen to be done. My dream is to be the greatest Hokage ever! Everybody is going to acknowledge me! Believe it or not! My hobby is pranks, I guess."

Kakashi had learned more from visiting his apartment. Naruto had a tendency to shout who he was to the entire village. Still, it was interesting that he'd turned out like this.

His eye moved to Sakura, who'd heard Naruto with a facial expression somewhere between exasperation and disappointment.

"My name is Haruno Sakura. I like dragons, ninjas and girls. Get any and all hopes out of your head because I'm competition. If I ever marry I want a beautiful wife." She confidently proclaimed, almost in defiance towards the boys. "I dislike asinine bullshit and gambling. My hobbies are photography and self-improvement. My dream…" And then she paused and her gaze moved from the bridge of Kakashi's nose to over his shoulder, far away. "My dream is to face death without regrets."

That wasn't the discourse of a normal Academy student. There was an ease to the girl's bearing that came with experience, and not the cockiness of a graduated kid. Her declaration regarding her sexuality (something fairly novel at their age, and definitely impactful on the usual dynamics in a mixed-gender squad) had been overshadowed by her dream.

Facing death with no regrets? A near impossible dream, if he took her words seriously. Kakashi had seen many, many ninjas die. Almost invariably, they died in pain, torment, full of regrets and unsaid, undone things. For the tiniest moment he wondered whether— he killed that line of thought and shoved it deep down.

Well, less than ten sentences into knowing this child and he was already having… Interesting thoughts. The Hokage had been right about her.

The boys were also staring at the girl, who quickly deflected to Sasuke.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I dislike many things and I don't like a lot of things. I wouldn't call it a dream, but my ambition is the revival of my clan. And", ah, there it was, "to kill one man."

As expected. But how would that single-minded ambition of his mesh with the other two? Naruto was looking scared, but he wasn't grasping what Sasuke was talking about, unlike Sakura. That girl knew exactly who the Uchiha meant, and seemed to pity him, if anything.

Kakashi sighed. Well… he still hadn't seen any teamwork. Nothing so egregious that he could dismiss the squad out of hand, gods knew Obito had gotten in serious scuffles with him, but nothing that gave him confidence either.

Now, if Kakashi had a favorite part about this process, it would be this one. "Ok, that's enough. We will start properly tomorrow. First we are going to do a little something just the four of us." He nodded and allowed himself a smile. "Survival training."

---

A note on Kakashi's comment about Sakura's sexuality. It's not that the GAYS don't exist in Narutoverse (my executive decision), it's just that at 12yo, the majority of girls are boy obsessed and those that are not, aren't likely to know or announce their own sexuality to the world. In my own experience as well, unless you know what a lesbian is, it takes a few more years until you figure it out. Until then, you're more likely to just feel like you're 'not like other girls'. (i wanna pinch my younger self's cheeks and whisper, no, you're genderqueer sweetie)
Hopefully, I got the Kakashi voice down. Man got blindsided by Sakura's dream, but he's great at compartmentalizing! (did obito face death without regrets?)​

 

[minuseven]

(Hatake Kakashi 3)​

Naturally, they were confused. "Naturally, this isn't normal training. This time, I will be your opponent." And Kakashi allowed himself to chuckle as the genin stared at him in confusion. "Eheheh."

"What's so funny, huh!?" Naruto burst. In a team with two quiet and respectful teammates, he'd become their voice. Not that Sasuke disagreed, he was just the type to not involve himself unless absolutely necessary. And Sakura, well, that one was far too cautious, observing him with clear suspicion.

"Ah, well, don't mind me. It's just, eheh, after I tell you this, you guys are totally going to freak out." He lowered his voice to explain while maintaining a happy facade. "Of the twenty-seven academy graduates, only nine will actually become genin. The rest will be sent back to the Academy. This training has a failure rate of 66%."

Naturally, all of his maybe-squad paled. Sasuke's eyes widened and his entire frame tensed for a moment before he deliberately loosened it. Sakura downright twitched, mouth loosening in shock before tightening, a suspicious glare in her eyes. Naruto didn't have their control.

"W-what!? No way! You're lying! What was the point of graduating in the first place then!!" He rose to his feet.

Kakashi shrugged. "That was just to select those that had a chance to even become genin." To be honest, the Academy's standards were fairly lax in the current times. To be fair, on the other hand, Konoha wasn't at war. Not all genin needed to be battlefield ready the moment they graduated. The current prosperity allowed for the rank of genin to have less restrictive meaning and functions. "Anyway, tomorrow you'll have the chance to prove your skills to me. Bring all your tools and don't be late. The details are all in this printout."

"Oh, and skip breakfast, you might throw up." He smiled at them. Finally, he checked the psychological state of the three before walking away. Sasuke was determined, Sakura was pensive and Naruto was anxious.

Perfect.

Before the day was over, Kakshi had only one last thing to do. Reading the kids' files.

Usually, the files kept by the Academy weren't worth much. He'd had some flags raised previously, especially the first team that had been shoved onto him. Those he knew from the paperwork that they wouldn't make the cut. But as a rule, a quick read would only tell him which were their best and worst areas, or which buttons to push to better put them under pressure.

He had a feeling, knew it almost, that these three would be different.

He spread the three folders he'd gotten from the Academy's archives on his kitchen table, plus a few others. "Now let's see…" He'd go in the order the Hokage had taken him through their homes.

Naruto's files were… thick. He leafed through them. Disciplinary notice, disciplinary notice, absence notice… from the Academy, they painted a grim picture. Barely adequate grades, a lot of cooperation and authority issues, only his psychological profile redeemed him. That and the village's need to have the Nine-Tails under control. Umino Iruka had done a detailed breakdown of what Naruto was, pretended to be and needed. He mentally jotted down the name of the chunnin. According to him, Naruto would flourish with guided care and proper attention.

Well, Kakashi would sort of agree. There were issues but, if the team did somehow prove themselves worthy, they were correctable.

The other pile of files were the highlights of his surveillance records. The last three years only. Those files were actually less telling about Naruto, but more about his environment.

So, he could work with Naruto, maybe. His profile was good for teamwork, as long as he surpassed the attention-seeking behaviors he was conditioned to.

Uchiha Sasuke, Kakashi was less certain about. He was familiar with the mentality the twelve-year old was exhibiting, personally so even. His files also contained surveillance, but unlike Naruto's there were less personal details in the Academy files. He was a very well rounded ninja, top grades in almost everything. No issues with his classmates, absolutely none baring a note that he'd been the target, but not involved, of several schoolyard scuffles. Girls at that age, it seemed, were always the same.

Sasuke was unlikely to pass his real test, Kakashi surmised. At best, he was probably going to act like he had when Minato-sensei had tested them. The impulse was going to have to come from outside, from Naruto or Sakura. On the other hand, he wasn't likely to fail the test… probably.

Sasuke's career as a ninja was going to hinge on his teammates. Pretend teamwork could evolved very naturally into real bonds.

Finally, Sakura, the mysterious one. She didn't have surveillance records, but a lengthy medical file instead. He decided to start there. First record of note was from eight years old and… oh, well. Chakra pathway defects? He read on, interested. It seemed she was like Gai's student, but… he cross-referenced the medical and school records. So she'd become able to use ninjutsu later, that was something.

If anything, Sakura was an anomaly. Unable to use ninjutsu, she'd become a taijutsu specialist, then started showing strange but remarkable progress in the other ninja disciplines. Her files were all over the place. Taijutsu second only to Sasuke, ninjutsu and genjutsu that had to be evaluated separately and had little comparison to her peers, near perfect theory, a bland psychological profile and… he leafed through a series of records, a kid holding a minimum of three part-time jobs since she was nine. He could see where the rough edges she had came from.

So she was reliable and mature, but had lived as an independent for years. Almost like an adult. Kakashi was going to have to put her on the spot. The distant attitude she'd taken towards both the boys and himself had him leaning towards her being more likely to fail the second part of his test. A good ninja, perhaps, but not the kind Kakashi… wanted to nurture in his, hypothetical, team.

He didn't want to repeat his generation's mistakes, true. But it wouldn't do to make entire new mistakes as well.

---

More Kakashi POV.​

 

[minuseven]

8Jun2024 edit: minor orthography fixes and changes to the stats at the end. changed time limit from 330 to 305. put stats in courier new for aesthetics!

---

|1|

The colorful neon lights on the other side of the horizontal blinders created stark contrasting lines inside the hotel room. His form broken by the black shadows and lines of light, a boy sat on the single bed. He let out a sigh and rubbed at the bridge of his nose.

'This is... seriously a problem.' Truthfully, to call his situation a problem was the same as saying the ocean was just a bit of water. In his free hand, he held a suicide note. The note was a rant on the life of Hisashi Tetsuya until this day, a two page long essay on why he had decided to end his life.

Tetsuya had been a child with big dreams. His parents had passed away when he'd been young and he lived with an uncaring uncle. He'd always wanted to be a hero, like Endeavor, and defeat villains. Unfortunately, when his quirk had manifested, it had been as a green gem embedded in his flesh that did nothing. He could move it around over his body, but nothing else. With a weak quirk unfit for heroics, his dreams had apparently been shattered. But Tetsuya knew his quirk was more than that, instinctively feeling that the orb was gathering energy and would reveal its true power when he really needed it. In between this strange belief and his strong personality, he spent his time getting into fights and being mocked. Nobody believed him about his quirk, but it turned out to be true. On his eighteenth birthday, his quirk finally fully manifested.

In the form of a shield.

Not even a big shield or a special shield. In fact, now Tetsuya couldn't get rid of it, and on top of that, it hurt him like a shock collar if he tried to pick up any weapon to use with it. His strength or speed had not improved. After years of being labeled as basically quirkless, all he'd gotten was just that shield.

The universe had been laughing at him, his dreams were finally shattered, once again the object of ridicule.

'And so you ended here, with a pilfered bottle of sleeping pills.' The person inhabiting Tetsuya's body thought. 'And you succeeded for once. But really… killing yourself over a childhood dream? 99% of people don't pursue those and they don't throw themselves off the roof.' Tetsuya hadn't even been heavily bullied or had an abusive guardian. His life hadn't been all roses, but he scowled at the thought that the kid had given up because he just couldn't accept not being a hero. 'He could have become a firefighter or something if he really wanted to save people.'

With another long-suffering sigh, he got up and stretched. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep on the train. His night classes were slowly killing him and he'd nodded off like a baby. He'd woken up to an unfamiliar ceiling, soon followed by an unfamiliar body and a weird object attached to his arm.

Evidently, he'd been transported into another world.

'I read too much manga, but it's true.' Not only that, as he got his bearings together and explored the clues left in the hotel room, he recognized the world he was in and the shield strapped to his arm. 'That new Hero Academia manga that I hadn't caught up with, and the awful anime with the cool Shield Hero power.'

The former, he was only familiar with the first two volumes, skimmed at a bookstore a few months ago. They'd been on his to-read list. The world was interesting, and he'd gotten the gist of it online. 'So I sort of know what the world is like, but no clues about the plot.'

The latter, he'd quit after two episodes and spoiling himself about the rest of it. The protagonist's power was interesting and cool, but he was not on board with a plot that was ok with slavery, torture and rape if it was done to the wrong people. 'Just thinking of it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. At least I know and like how the Shield works.'

"First, I should test if it really is the Legendary Shield." He told himself. 'Maybe just thinking will do. Status Window?'

Before his eyes, a semi-transparent white window displaying his statistics opened. It moved with his vision, just an overlay. "... It actually works." He'd been only half-expecting it to work.

||... Hisashi Tetsuya (##### #####) ...||
|| HP 100 :: SP 5 :: ATK 1 :: SATK 1 :: DEF 30(40) :: SDEF 20 :: MOV 10 ||
|| Legendary Hero's Shield :: DEF+10 ||

'I don't know if those were the original's statistics but… it reminds me of another classic game.' It almost felt like it was plagiarizing from yet another source, but then again, wasn't he already in a sort of crossover?

He explored the options presented by the status window. The Shield appeared to function more or less like the original. He had access to an inventory by using the Shield's gem, he could unlock new forms by consuming materials, he could improve his stats by mastering shields, and he could strengthen the Legendary Shield by using essences. The latter was the only unfamiliar function to him. He'd explore it later, because it looked like it involved sacrificing shield forms.

Instead, he slumped back on the bed. "So now I have a potential awesome superpower in a superhero world… and I'm Tetsuya, male, 18 years old and less than a year away from starting uni." He paused, mulling it over. "... It's kind of a second chance. The kid died and now I'm here. I could go to university again but in an area I like better. Or even into a technical school. Those have good employment rates. I mean… do I have to follow the plot?"

|| Objective: Become a Hero Student. T-305d. ||

He stared at the words overlaying his vision, red-colored like a stop sign. Then he closed his eyes and groaned loudly. He'd just had to jinx it, hadn't he?

---

My writing has been so slow lately... well, this idea was originally an MCU civilian thrown into YJ but I've been very inspired by Debut or Die (an idol time travel and body changing with gamer powers manwha and novel). I might switch my MHA OC into YJ and make that the other story. That one has Dauntless' powers (from Worm).
As you can tell, it's a modified MHA world and Shielder powers (bc they are already too much and I don't like RotSH tb-perfectly-fucking-h). The oc-insert was also not originally male, tho it's a small detail that's missable.

 

[minuseven]

|2|

'Well, I can be half-grateful that old-Tetsuya made preparations.' He shuffled forward another bit as the line advanced. His cellphone had been left without a password, and his wallet had been easily visible on the bedside table. In between that and the hotel's spotty wi-fi, he'd managed to get enough information about himself and the world to not get arrested on suspicions of body-snatching. It was probably a thing in this superhero world.

"Next, please." It was almost his turn. Since he'd already been in the middle of Tokyo, he wasn't going to waste any time. In his flailing against an apparent horrible fate, old-Tetsuya hadn't changed his quirk at the registry. That was his first priority, since he was going to be training with it and didn't want any awkward questions asked. It would also be a good excuse to give if asked why he'd absconded to the city.

"Next, please." A truly spindly receptionist sat behind the glass. "How may I help you?"

Tetsuya was glad he'd trained himself not to stare at all the different body morphologies of this future. She looked like a stick-bug had donned human skin. "Hm, I'd like to make an alteration to my Quirk Register. Name and description."

"Quirk Registration changes will be reviewed before approval. Do you have a medical statement? Your ID please."

Tetsuya had read that changing the name or description of his quirk as an adult didn't necessarily require a new examination by a specialist. However, big changes to his registration could demand a new examination. This was likely going to be his case. He just wanted to get the ball rolling as soon as possible.

Previously, Tetsuya's quirk had been 'Embedded Orb', a heteromorphic-type quirk that was described as 'an orb embedded on the skin that can freely move over the body's surface'. Tetsuya's insistence it had a special power had, of course, been ignored by his guardian, doctor and authority figures. The proposed change was for it to be called 'Orb Shield', a possible change in classification to composite-type, and the description to 'attached shield that can change properties by absorbing substances through orb'. He wrote down a quick and half-invented summary of his discovery of how his quirk worked on the 'reason for change' field, and signed the papers.

Not a single notable emotion passed through the worker as she skimmed the papers and then filed it. "Expect an answer by message within 10 to 15 business days."

He left the government building with the weird feeling that such an extraordinary thing as changing his superpower description was the same as changing his address or renewing his driver's license.

Was there anything else to do here before he returned to Tetsuya's home? It was an urban area, so there wasn't a lot of materials he could collect to unlock new shield forms. He'd already fed the Shield several pamphlets from the hotel and the registry, discovering the Paper Shield. It required quite a bit more paper to unlock the form, so he was still limited to his starting form.

|| Discovered! :: Paper Shield (32%) ||

"Well, maybe there is something…" He opened up his phone and booted up a search. Thinking about it, there was one shield form he remembered well and that could be useful. Lucky for him, there were several second hand shops in the city.

'This shouldn't take too long.' He told himself as he stepped into the train. He headed straight to his desired location, making his best to not stare at everything and everyone. The future was simultaneously the same and completely different. 'Ah… I have to focus. If I don't dedicate all my attention to becoming a hero student, I'll seriously die.'

In theory, the shield hero's power was top class. Plus, as any game-like power that evolved its status, its growth potential was unlimited. The original power had a level cap, but not a status cap; and Tetsuya's version didn't even possess a level. That didn't mean he wasn't limited. The greatest constraint was time. No matter how many shields he unlocked, his base stats would remain the same until he mastered those shields. Mastery required experience: more time. He would need to spend his every moment with a shield he hadn't mastered yet.

To that end, discovering and unlocking shields was his first priority. The bookshop was useful for that. As a second-hand store, it had the usual: either old books that were worth something due to their age or newer books that had quickly been outdated. Like software manuals… and a surprising amount of manga. He ended up buying a hefty-looking but cheap guide for a software he'd never heard of, and indulged himself in a single hero-themed manga. For the price it had, he supposed whoever that had been had not become popular.

|| Unlocked! :: Book Shield :: SDEF+1 :: <Read I> ||

"Oh, a skill. Read, hm?" The shield looked like a plain, medium-thick hardcover book strapped to his forearm, the orb embedded in the cover. Tetsuya flipped through the manga before deciding it was worth experimenting. He hovered a hand over the closed volume. "<Read I>." His palm gloved very slightly, he had a flash of insight, and then he was reading the manga. The book was closed, he could even close his eyes, but his brain was still receiving the information crystal clear. He could even flip through it or zoom in for a closer look like he was actually doing the physical motions with the book.

Tetsuya's grin was malevolent. Sure, the speed of reading wasn't as good as his normal rate, but the skill was only Grade I. And well, now he was full of ideas. If he could read, could he not record? Write? Listen? And if he could do that, why not project or turn the volume up? Like that pro-hero. He shouldn't let his imagination be constrained. Different types of skills were also granted by the Shield and he had to make the most out of it.

But first, setting up for the night. He had old-Tetsuya's luggage stored in the Shield. Money was tight but enough to survive for now. To maximize it… in Japan, an internet caffe would be the best bet. He could research there too, and look for a part-time job to sustain him for the rest of the year.

Alright, he could do this.

---

Just been having fun with this story lately.

 

[minuseven]

|3|

For somebody who had wanted so much to be a hero, Tetsuya had left himself in a poor position to become one. 'To be fair, he never planned on anybody taking over after he was gone, but still… Should I be grateful he didn't blow the last of his money before offing himself?' For some reason, old-Tetsuya hadn't splurged everything he owned on food or drink or other things before he took the final leap.

He had, however, taken a train to the middle of Tokyo. Before that, he'd quit school, if the emails on his inbox were anything to go by. Little money, incomplete education, few if any friends and family to support him. Tetsuya had kept his, now, phone on. Nobody had bothered to call. There were a few old messages telling him to stop acting out and get back, but nothing more. He wasn't terribly surprised. He'd read the suicide note. The kid inhabiting this body had not been the popular type. If anything, he'd been the weird and intense obsessive kind.

"The only thing you left me was a body in good enough shape… I'd like to say that. But now my physicality is entirely tied to the Shield's system so that's a moot point." He grumbled to himself. "Aah, what a mess. Damn, damn, fuck."

He wasn't panicking. Yet.

Hisashi Tetsuya's eighteenth birthday had been the 28th of October. Two days later he'd been in Tokyo and 'unalived' himself. It was currently the last day of October. According to his research, the post-secondary institutions that had hero courses, the so-called hero academies, held their entrance exams in February and March. So far, so good.

However.

First and most importantly, Tetsuya had quit school. One of the requirements to enter a hero academy was, naturally, to have a high-school diploma. He'd almost despaired then and there, but, as someone who had a bit more experience with the bureaucracy of higher education institutions than a highschooler would have, Tetsuya went and read the small print. What he needed was a High School Graduation Equivalency Diploma. The dates for those exams were in August… and in November.

'So I just have to learn all the subjects that a japanese highschooler in the uncertain superpowered future would need to know. Biology is probably different too…' He'd gotten through university. He could probably study up in the remaining… two weeks.

So that was bad enough.

The other problem, more of a suspicion than something certain, related to the time limit he'd been given. It was too long. Effectively, his time ran out in September of next year. Why? After his research, he became aware of an ominous coincidence. Some hero academies also accepted applications in autumn. Apparently that was because the greatest hero academy of them all, U.A., didn't start their academic year on April, but in September like the western model.

U.A, with 99% of their graduates retaining their probationary licenses after one year.

U.A., with the acclaimed hero course that old-Tetsuya had wanted to enter so much it had been named in the last words he had written.

U.A., which started their term on September 1st. The very day the timer would end.

There were coincidences, then there were flashing, neon signs.

"Aurgh. Focus. First you need to pass highschool. Again." He grumbled to himself and got up. He stretched, put his phone in the Shield, took his wallet out of it, and left his cubicle.

He'd found himself an internet café more on the expensive side he felt, but only for his first night as Tetsuya. Moreover, it had a bunch of services free of charge that he was going to make the most of while he could. As he browsed the cup ramen section, he noticed the printer and remembered he still had a paper shield to unlock. His eyes roamed the area, looking for things that he could use to unlock good shields. After some thought, he picked up three things in addition to his ramen.

The first was just a soda. What interested him was the can. It was made of aluminium, so instead of chucking it in the garbage, he surreptitiously fed it to his orb.

|| Discovered! :: Aluminium Shield (2%) ||

The second was a small flash drive. It was cheap, but the possibilities intrigued him. So far, he'd deliberately kept the Shield from even analyzing his wallet and phone, afraid it would eat them by accident. While he could discover and unlock shields without losing the initial materials, it was less efficient than having the Shield consume them. The thumb drive was perfectly disposable.

|| Unlocked! :: Flash Drive Shield :: DEF+1 :: <Embedded System: Digital Memory> :: [Upgrade: Digital Memory] ||

He kept himself from squeeing at his new shield through sheer force of will. Rectangular and not a lot bigger than his forearm, it looked like his arm was covered by a gigantic USB drive with the central orb near his wrist by default. It was black and polished, without any great details, just that futuristic look expected from commercial electronics. It certainly didn't look very resistant, but he supposed that was what 1 DEF gave him.

What the Flash Drive Shield had were its bonuses. One unique and one not, which meant it could be used anytime after he mastered it! [Embedded System: Digital Memory] was more or less what it said on the cover. The Shield had now gained a digital data storage. Granted, it wasn't accessible until he mastered the Flash Drive Shield, but afterwards, he would be able to use that memory for any other systems the Shield gained in the meanwhile. That was why it was an Embedded System, and it confirmed that different shields could interact in some way.

'The next step would be to confirm it… if not my phone then, wait!' He remembered he did have something. He quickly rummaged around in Tetsuya's duffel bag. It was practically empty, all the clothes and heavy items in the Shield's inventory, and only outside to allay suspicion. But one of the things that had stayed in was his phone charger. 'Which is a modular electronic… thing!'

|| Unlocked! :: Power Adapter Shield :: MDEF+2 :: <Embedded System: Power Supply><Electricity Resistance +5> :: [Upgrade: Power Supply][Electricity Absorption I] ||

"Not exactly what I was expecting… maybe even better." The Shield's powers were inherently turned towards defense after all. But still, this gave him what was effectively a weak quirk on top of what he already had.

Quickly, he turned to the computer and opened a note to jot down the sudden ideas he had about more shields. Like batteries and cables, screens and… he should have not thrown away the ramen's disposable chopsticks. Too late. Regardless, before he forgot, he had one last thing he wanted to feed to the Shield. If this worked, it might be the linchpin that saved his life.

Tetsuya opened the bottle he'd gotten from a vending machine and put a handful of white pills in the green orb of the Shield.

|| Unlocked! :: Caffeine Shield :: SP+1 :: <Caffeinated III> ||

---

Don't know if we'll get to UA but if we do, I do like mixing things up sometimes. Not the characters, but the setting and stuff.
Making up shields is fun.

 

[minuseven]

Spoiler: notes on canon and deafness

I honestly don't remember half of CG and just about... 5% of R2. But like, screw it.
Also, I did not consult as much as I could about deaf people and deafness. Errors and misunderstanding likely abound. Also, Britannia is horrible to everybody, very much including the people with special/different needs, and even Ruben Ashford is prone to certain ingrained prejudices.

---

Soundless, Part 1.​

When the dean of Ashford Academy reviewed his meetings for the day, he did notice the block of time earmarked for a meeting about a potential new student enrolling. It wasn't uncommon for various nobles to wish to talk with him before they enrolled their children at his institution. Or for other worried parents to look for assurances. He did always prefer the second type of meeting. What had called his attention was how quickly the meeting had been scheduled; days only.

He took a note of who he'd be meeting. Claudio Schayes, who wished to know the academy better before enrolling his cousin. Curiously, the file of said cousin was missing. Not alarming, secretiveness was the pastime of half the Britannians he knew.

Now, the man himself was escorted into his office and greeted him with a smile. "Dean Ashford, a pleasure."

"Likewise, Mr. Schayes. Although," he had noticed from the way the young man stood and moved almost immediately, "unfortunately, I have not been informed of your rank." On purpose, for sure.

"Colonel." The suddenly much more dangerous man in front of him offered him a thin smile. "Currently on leave, although I will be transferring to Area 11 in the next few days."

"I see." He indicated a chair for his guest and sat at his solid desk, arranging his papers as he thought. "You must have hurried from your assignment to arrive in Area 11 a week before the Viceroy." The haste was now understandable. "Ashford Academy prizes itself in its discretion and security. We understand that our students are precious", to avoid saying vulnerable, "and sometimes, rules have to bend a little for children to get the best education they are afforded to. Without… outside factors."

It was no issue if certain dates on official documents had to be changed to ensure a young person could go to school without their family connections mucking everything up. Be it to nobility or the military. In the wake of His Highness' murder and the renewed terrorist activity, this was to be expected. A slew of different military and governmental workers would be following, and anticipating, their new Viceroy into Area 11.

And Cornelia Li Britannia prized very different qualities in her retainers.

For the Colonel's cousin, Ruben Ashford was willing to bet they might not even be related in truth.

"Right to the heart of the matter, Mr. Ashford." Colonel, if not Sir Schayes, nodded. "My father had nothing but praise for your work. I'm glad to see you are the same kind of man he described you as."

Which was funny, because Ruben Ashford had never met any Schayes before. "Indeed? I'm afraid that in my old age acquaintances are ever more difficult to remember. Your father…?"

"General Andreas Darlton."

And well, did that not answer quite a few questions? It took all of Ruben's considerable political skills to not let his shock and alarm show on his face. But he quickly calmed himself. Andreas Darlton was known in certain circles for adopting several promising young men and women into his family, to circumvent the rigid and unforgiving system. Claudio Schayes Darlton was merely one of them, and despite his age, he was very unlikely to have known certain elements that Ruben kept close at hand.

"I am honored that General Darlton still remembers me." He chuckled. "Tell me, how is young Sir Andreas? I hear only of his worldly exploits in Area 11."

No, he was probably here for the actual reason he stated. To enroll a student. Either from his own birth family or from the family of one of his siblings. In that regard, Ashford Academy was the best place in Area 11 for anybody not given to military affairs.

"Father is well. He will be following Her Highness here after finishing with establishing Area 18."

"Area 18 already? My… Remarkably fast." Nothing could stop Britannia, now could it? He shook his head. "Well, enough reminiscing. Shall we move on to more pressing business?"

"Yes." Claudio nodded, his military countenance in full display. "There's no way to hide it, so I'll be direct. We wish to enroll a… close friend of the family at Ashford Academy. We would usually prefer that she continue her education privately, by tutors, or at a less known establishment." Now, one of the dean's eyebrows arched, almost urging him to continue. "However, the infrastructure and personnel in Area 11 is, bluntly put, insufficient, lacking in security and professionalism. Ashford Academy is the better choice."

Ruben Ashford nodded. "I would be more glad to be compared so favorably but, well, as you have already been able to assess… things have not been the best in this corner of the Empire."

The young man grunted, but did not fluster at the slight critique against late Clovis. Good.

"Yes. Aside from that, well." And he paused. "Ashford Academy came to our attention for a particular policy you mention… 'to provide all the means necessary for our students to achieve their full potential, irrespective of the obstacles in their path', followed by a clear picture of one of your wheelchair-accessible entrances."

"Oh." Ashford's face was a study in polite interest. "Is that so?"

The silence was heavy for a few seconds as both men studied each other. Finally, it was Darlton that broke it. "My cousin… she has a few requirements…"

"We understand that our interpretations of the world are not universal but… I'm sure you are aware of my family's history before… that abominable incident. And in its aftermath, I was forced to reconsider how certain ideas might impact those I was responsible for." The old man's smile softened almost grandfatherly. "Ashford is a safe place. For all the good it did, my Academy was designed for everybody to be able to attend it and profit from a full education. From the building to the staff, I spared no expense."

He was rewarded by the noticeable loosening in the young man's shoulders. What a time to be reminded of his own age. "That is… comforting to hear. Thank you, Dean Ashford."

"It is but the truth. But perhaps I might be able to set your worries at ease if I knew the details of what your cousin needs."

He nodded. "Of course. Tina is deaf. Her hearing was completely damaged in an accident several years ago. Effectively mute as well. While she is perfectly capable of speech, she does not use so, merely as a matter of preference. She can read lips however. She's also fluent in sign language." His eyes were judging as he stated, "She is fully capable otherwise and has kept abreast of her age peers in all scholarly matters."

"I do not doubt so." But Ruben was already thinking about his staff. The fact that they had managed to teach a young girl sign language was more impressive than anything else. Ruben didn't believe he had anybody on hand fluent in the language.

The fact was, Britannia didn't accommodate for anything. Braille was a french invention, and when he had invested time and money into the topic, he had also discovered the fascinating world of sign languages. Naturally occurring languages developed by those who could not hear or speak. Once upon a time, Britannia had possessed its own burgeoning sign language.

After Darwin? If books in braille had burned, so had those about Britannian Sign Languages. Certainly unofficially, somewhere, the deaf existed and 'spoke'. If nothing else, the military churned out many 'failures', from those mutilated to those hard of hearing from artillery shelling. Despite what the nobles liked to believe, the lower classes adapted and evolved better than those decrepit snakes. However, schooling for the deaf did not exist in Britannia. Deaf-dumb-stupid. Why bother teaching the deaf? Typical. What little did exist was private, like Ashford, and focussed on disguising deafness. He could tell the young girl must have had some education of the sort from the skills described.

"I do believe we can ensure a proper education for your cousin. Written evaluations, class transcriptions, full access to written resources. I will make sure her teachers take care to facilitate lip-reading and do not interrogate her in class… If I may, which sign language does she know? I do believe we may have somebody with a passing knowledge of french sign language, but I can make inquiries among my professional circles."

On they went, back and forth, discussing details. Claudio Darlton would much prefer that his 'cousin' did not attend classes with the rest of Ashford's students. His naturally protective nature was inflamed. Easily understandable, considering Britannian teenagers. He would however, concede that it would be both attention-grabbing and difficult to impose onto an isolated, eager young woman. Ruben Ashford gathered the crumbs provided, building in his head the portrait of a kind, energetic teenager, quiet… if the pun could be pardoned, but hiding a strong personality. The profile of Justina Darlton ignored her circumstances, painting her as just another student to be welcomed at Ashford Academy. It would be nice, if his instincts weren't constantly reminding him of a crucial factor.

Their allotted time was dwindling and still… Claudio Darlton had not said everything. He fidgeted. He was reticent. He observed Ruben oh so very carefully after giving him Justina's doctored file.

What was it?

As they sat in silence,most matters taken care of, it came to the fore.

"Dean Ashford…" The young man started, brow furrowed. "There is… one last thing. A consideration, taking into account… your past acquaintance with our superior, Her Highness Cornelia, and her family." His gloved fingers tapped a short, nervous rhythm on his chair's stuffed arm. "Some things are just better shown. I trust," he said as he unfolded a photograph from a pocket, "that you will understand the gravity of the situation

Ruben took the proffered image, already steeling himself for several scenarios, and saw a pair of young women, flanked on both sides by two men. Sir Gilford and Sir Darlton, he recognized peripherally. His eyes were naturally attracted by the tall, warrior-goddess between them. Purple hair disheveled, a custom piloting suit hugging her broad shoulders and more womanly attributes, Cornelia li Britannia was every inch the deadly valkyrie. And a smile he had not seen in the news that depicted her, for over a decade, rested gently on her lips, crinkling the corners of her eyes. Her arm hugged close to her a familiar younger woman, light-haired and–

He audibly sucked in a breath as he realized whose image he was beholding.

Wavy hair –dyed, of course!– and facial structure –not altered by photographic manipulation, here– all aside, who would ever mistake those purple eyes for anything but the mark of royalty?

He groped around for support as he realized what he had brought down on this refuge.

Justina. As: Euphemia Ursula Justicia li Britannia.

---

Spoiler

guess who hyperfixated on this old show they don't even particularly like, like... dude, so many girls killed for man-pain. Poor Euphy. yeah, guess who my favorite character was...

 

[minuseven]

The cry of an unfamiliar bird shocked awake the guests at a little room in a sleepy town. Four heads jumped up in alarm, hands moving to weapons before they inevitably got tangled in bedsheets or hit the bed frames. In Tiona's case, she rolled all the way out of the bed, and belly-flopped all the way from the top bunk. The other three girls shared a collective wince.

"Argh! I hate how this hurts!" Tiona complained as she got up, nursing a bloody nose and a split lip, new bruises to join the collection.

"That looks bad." Her sister frowned, poking around the swollen nose. "You need to be more careful, you know things are really different for us right now."

"I knhoww~" Tiona whined.

"Maybe we should ask Ms. Gilda if she has a potion for us to use, just this once." Lefiya suggested, sitting on her spot on the bottom bunk across from Tione. "We don't want to make a bad impression today." Although, really, it wasn't like there was anybody in town who didn't know Tiona (and Tione, often) was always covered in bruises from her recklessness.

Tiona lit up. "Oh yeah, we're getting our partners today! Finally! I can't wait!"

Tione was more moderate, but her own excitement manifested with frustration. "If it weren't for those damn thieves… They'll pay when I get my hands on them."

The girls got ready. Their backpacks and such had already been prepared. Their journey was supposed to have started a few days ago, before the professor had been robbed. So it was just a matter of putting on their new clothing and going down the stairs to get breakfast.

"Good morning girls!" Their host, Ms. Gilda, a cheery if a bit absent-minded woman, was already at the counter preparing breakfast for the hungry legion that was the stomach of four fit and active teenagers. Lefiya hurried to help her, the only person anybody trusted around sharp implements, much less the rest of the kitchen. "Oh dear! What happened to your nose!"

It turned out that yes, Ms. Gilda did have a potion in the medicine cupboard.

"So girls, today is finally the big day." Over rice, fish and vegetables, she asked the girls that had been staying under her roof for the last two months. "Are you excited to finally get a partner and start your journey? I remember my brother was bouncing in excitement when it was his turn."

Three affirmatives (with more or less good manners) answered her.

"I'm glad." Then, not wanting to leave their last member out of the conversation, but hesitating a bit, she asked the person that had remained stubbornly in silence until now. "What about you, Ais?"

The golden-haired girl paused in her chewing, looking up to see four pairs of eyes trying not to stare at her with concern. She avoided their gazes. She didn't want to lie but…"I guess. Thanks for the meal." She got up and took

Her friends watched her leave, dishenhearted. "Oh dear." Ms. Gilda sighed. "That girl… Her Pokephobia hasn't been getting better at all, has it." It wasn't a question.

"Well…" Lefiya chuckled awkwardly. "It's not… as bad as before."
"It's not much better anyway." Tione rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I never thought Ais would be this type of stubborn."
"Getting a partner pokemon will help." Tiona crossed her arms, huffing. "If Ais fights alongside a pokemon, hm… their feelings will break through, yeah!"
"I'm not sure if that's how it works…"
"Well, being all alone like this is not helping at all." Tiona countered Lefiya.

It was the truth. As far as Ais was concerned, the last syllable of pokemon stood for monster, and no argument could change her mind. Two months since they'd crashed through space-time, and Ais' progress regarding the creatures that inhabited this world had gotten stuck at 'not looking for an angle of attack' every time she saw a pokemon.

Unwilling or unable to connect to the world around her, her attitude was isolating her and it worried her friends. Unfortunately, they couldn't make Ais talk about it if she didn't want to, so they were stuck.

Professor Elm, who'd been more than helpful and kind in not only helping them find their bearings in a new world, separated from everything they knew… but had also dedicated a good portion of his time to figuring out a way home for all of them, had proposed they leave New Bark and explore the rest of Johto.

It was culturally expected of preteens to take the pokemon they had grown up with and start exploring the surroundings of their hometown. Within a few years, many went backpacking through the region, a journey of both external and internal discovery, until they returned home or settled elsewhere and started learning whatever profession they wanted. But those that aspired to be trainers almost universally took on the Pokemon League and journeyed to challenge the gyms of Johto or Kanto.

All that sort of details that only Lefiya knew or cared about. It was basically a tournament.

Traveling and fighting while they figured things out, while aiming to be the strongest? The twins had already gone on a similar journey out of their homeland. They were not at all opposed. In fact, it sounded perfect!

Lefiya saw the benefits of going on a pokemon journey. She too had left her home forest to travel and learn about the outside world. In the meanwhile, she could help the professor with both his researches, all while she learned about everything!

And Ais? Ais was going to tag along and hopefully… something inside her heart would change.

---

Spoiler

i told you i was gonna punt people from danmachi out. guess who's been playing pokemon again too.
the girl squad (tiona tione ais and lefiya) are my favorites. going with a friendly semi-anime pokeworld to further cognitive dissonance ais. how fun!
oh yeah, and no falna. minuseven houserule: away from danmachi world the blessing gets locked. prevents cheating gods.

 

[minuseven]

Three plucky girls and one unplucky girl reported to the front door of New Bark's own Professor Elm. A large two-storey building

Tiona didn't waste any time and prepared to burst in– Tione grabbed her before she could and politely knocked instead. Nobody answered. Tione took a deep breath, but it seemed little in the face of her fuming. If the professor had gotten distracted by his microscope again, today of all days… She raised her fist to knock one last time. Lefiya's ears twitched and she suddenly scrambled to grab her arm.

Professor Elm opened the door. "Oh, excuse me girls, I was just… ah, Tione?" He blinked at the fist that had stopped halfway to his nose, held back by a pale elf.

The Amazon, who had not heard him as she usually would, squeaked. "Nothing, sorry!"

Brushing away that little hiccup, he ushered them in, giving Ais, sour-faced and looking at her own feet, his best smile. Sentret chirped at his feet. No answer. The professor and his partner traded sad looks.

"Alright!" He clapped his hands and led them into the center of his workspace. "So, after that horrible incident, I contacted professor Oak from the Kanto region. And since fortunately the thieves left behind one pokemon, it was easy enough for the professor to send us one of his starter trios. We managed to get the cross-region transfer system to stabilize, somehow, last night. So we have exactly four pokemon for you, and they're all different to boot!"

Originally, Elm had managed to secure two trios of the pokemon traditionally bred in Johto for promising trainer apprentices. But someone, or a group even, had broken into the lab, severely injured the guard Suduwoodo, and taken five of the six pokeballs in the exhibition stand. The police suspected a single assailant.

"They've all been raised from egg to be great around humans, and professor Oak and I already explained to them that you're not used to pokemon. They, hm, also know about Ms. Wallenstein's situation…" He rubbed the back of his head, somewhat embarrassed. "Anyway, all of them are ready for you. Are you girls ready?"

"Yeah! Come one, show us what they all look like! We've been waiting for weeks!" Tiona burst out, eyes shining. "I agree, enough with the suspense." Her sister was also smiling, eyeing the four pokeballs on the table.

"Okay, okay, just a moment! Give us just a bit of space, perfect." He started releasing the pokemon.

A small blue reptile appeared in an angry beam of red light. Standing on his back feet, red spines ran down his back and he sported a yellow v-shaped marking on his chest. "First, this is Totodile. He's the one that was left while the others were taken." The crocodilian growled at that, and they all felt his displeasure. Elm smiled sadly. "Usually our Totodiles are playful by nature but it seems he's taking the theft of his brother and sister to heart."

Totodile snapped his jaws and glared at the four girls.

"Don't worry, we understand." Tiona slung an arm over Tione's shoulder and pulled herself closer to her sister, who huffed but let out a smile. "Tione and I are sisters too, and I'd beat up anyone who hurt her."

"Oh please, as if anybody could hurt me." Said Tione. "I'm more likely to go around beating people up because you don't take anything they say seriously."

"Would not." "Would too!"

Before the situation could escalate, Lefiya intervened, forcefully loud. "What about! The pokemon from Kanto!? Professor! I'm sorry…" She finished in a whisper.

Sweatdropping, the man grabbed another pokeball. "Right, so from Kanto."

This time, a turtle shell came out. After a second, an eye peered at them and the rest of the turtle popped out, chirping happily. "Squirtle. He's a water-type just like Totodile. Squirtles are very good at defense, obviously, but they can also gain incredible offensive power if trained right." The turtle, only a bit shorter than its counterpart, turned big brown towards the girls. He was almost hopping in place with the excitement, rising on his hindlegs. "He volunteered to come all the way to Johto. He really wants to go on an adventure."

"The grass-type I was going to give you was Chikorita, but instead we have Bulbasaur. A reliable pokemon with an even temperament." Elm freed another pokemon from a ball. A green-shaded toad-like pokemon appeared, sporting a huge bulb on its back. "This girl is a bit older than the others. None of the other Bulbasaur wanted to come, but she's apparently very curious." A small vine-like appendage detached from the bulb to wave at them.

Lefiya waved back a little. "Hi."

"And finally, we have our fire-type." A lizard-like pokemon was released, orange with a cream underbelly. A live flame danced at the tip of his tail, wavering happily and raising the temperature in the room a degree. "Charmander. They are a very popular choice, since they can evolve into dragon-like Charizard. See the way the fire on his tail is burning? That means he's happy to meet you." The lizard chirped, wagging his tail.

Four humans faced four pokemon.

Between them, the only actual human in the room cleared his throat. "So, pick the one you want to be your partner. Ah! And please don't fight about which one…" The very prospect seemed to tire him.

The Lefiya, Tione and Tiona discreetly glanced towards Ais. The golden-haired girl had taken a step back somewhen in the past five minutes. If the way she was scowling at the sole fire-type, they could take a guess.

The twins shared a look. "Well, since there are two water pokemon, Tiona and I will have them." "What Tione said! They wouldn't do well with Ais anyway, considering she can't swim…"

The girl in question seemed to choke on air. Lefiya sweatdropped at the amazons' blunt methods. And it wasn't like it was untrue… Lefiya flashed back to the terrifying moments of two months ago, just after landing in New Bark's lake. The fear when all three of them had surfaced, knowing something was wrong, and found Ais hadn't swum up. Thank the Gods the sisters were such great swimmers. The water-types truly fit them.

Tiona bent down to grin at Squirtle. "You seem my type. Let's go on an adventure?" The turtle barked, and hugged her knee. "Squrr!"

Tione walked up to Totodile, meeting his serious eyes. "How about it? I promise we'll keep an eye out for whoever stole your friends." The serious pokemon snapped his jaw and waddled the rest of the way to sit at her feet. "Di."

Lefiya opened her mouth to offer Ais the last choice, only for Ais herself to walk up and point to Bulbasaur. "That one." Then she turned on her heel.

And left.

Silence reigned after the last of Ais' golden hairs had rounded the corner. The professor wrung his hands. "Oh dear." And Tiona crossed her arms with puffed out cheeks while Tione shook her head slowly. The rest of the pokemon seemed similarly lost, but none more than Bulbasaur. She took a tiny step forward, looking confused. "Bu-ba?"

Lefiya hurried to kneel beside her and gave her head a few pets. "I'm so sorry about that. Ms. Ais is… she's the one that the professors told you about. She's…" The elf struggled to express the feelings of her friend, mostly because she herself didn't understand them. "We come from a place with actual, very scary monsters. And Ms. Ais fought them for a long time so she hates monsters."

"Bu." The pokemon was downcast.

"No, no, she doesn't hate you." Tiona spoke up. "Nobody could hate a cute thing like you."

"Ais is just… clinging to the views of the past. She can't let go." Tione spoke with finality, and a bit of personal perspective. She looked down at the Bulbasaur. "We're counting on you to shake her out of it."

Meeting the gaze of all three girls solidified something for Bulbasaur. She nodded, sad eyes returning to the door Ais had disappeared to.

"You won't be alone." Lefiya promised, before turning to Charmander and extending a hand for him to smell. "So you and I will be partners then. I used to have a fire spell, so I'll be a good trainer for you." The lizard pokemon sniffed at her fingers and seemed to accept her. "Chrr."

Professor Elm sighed deeply. "Goodness, I think that went as well as it could have been. I suppose she's not going to want to nickname her pokemon…" His head shot up as he remembered something. "Oh, a couple of things! First, since Tione and Tiona want to participate in the Pokemon League, I registered you as professional pokemon trainers. Your trainer cards are a bit different than Lefiya or Ms. Wallenstein."

He passed them four laminated trainer cards. Lefiya took both hers and Ais.Indeed, the twins' had different borders and a little more information on the back.

"I also placed an order for a couple of official badge cases. They should be waiting for you under your name at Cherrygrove's Pokemon Center, in the next town. Be sure to pass byyy—"

"Wow, really, you didn't have to!" Tiona thanked him with a rib-cracking hug.

"It was nothing! Please, let go!" The man wheezed. Amazon strength was truly something. He coughed as Tione bonked her sister over the head and made her apologize. "Besides– besides that. Professor Oak also included a little something extra in his package, and this morning I took the time to reconfigure it to Johto standards."

With a smile, he grabbed something from a desk nearby and held it up. A red metal book-like device shone in the light.

Lefiya's eyes lit up. "Is that–!"

Elm smiled. "That's right. A Pokemon encyclopedia. This is the latest pokedex version, straight from Professor Oak's own labs!" He himself was excited.

The elf had to stop herself from grabbing it. "The inventor of the pokedex actually gave it to you, professor?"

The man's smile widened and he laughed. "To me? No. I already have my own, and it wouldn't do me any good, sitting in the lab as I do most days anyway. He gave it to you." He held it out to her.

The girl received the advanced piece of technology with almost trembling hands. "Me?"

"I've already registered you as the owner. I know I should have asked before, but in an official capacity–" The professor straightened and cleared his throat. "Ms. Viridis, would you be willing to assist in my research and to contribute your own field findings as my assistant?" It would just be more of the same work and reading she was already doing for him, in the end. Reliable trainers were often sources, part-time assistants or full-blown researchers on their own rights.

Lefiya nodded frantically, speechless. Tears had gathered in her eyes at the trust she was being given. Tiona helped her close her hands around the pokedex. "Lefiya agrees a lot. We'll help out on your research thing too."

"Every bit we can help is a step towards home. We haven't forgotten." Her sister piped up, a bittersweet smile on her face.

"But of course!" The human sincerely placed his hand over his chest. "I also promised to help you girls get home.

It would be a long, long journey. So long they didn't even have an inkling of its length. But the first steps were being taken right there in New Bark Town.

---

Spoiler

wadda'ya think of everybody's starters? no worries, ais ... ah who am i kidding, her character arc still has a waaay to go.
undecided on nicknames, and the plot of this is still so very barebones, brrr. it's set before the events of RBY tho, so that gives me stuff to play around.

 

[minuseven]

Spoiler: chronological notes

because this is a snippet thread and this thing is flowing out into my mind absolutely not in order, also, revised estimates for their stay in New Bark lowered to 1 month. no, the other snippets haven't been corrected, the timeline is still in flux

---

Squad Goals x1:The Fight

The day was winding down to a close. After the twin's impromptu, but highly anticipated sparring match, they had spent the rest of the time calmly hiking through the trail. The Hiryute had wanted to fight a few wild pokemon that had wandered closer to the path, but for once Lefiya had put her foot down and absolutely forbidden them from fighting anything for the rest of the day. It had been an eventful first day.

Now they set up camp. Lefiya was in charge of preparing everybody's food while the twins had the hard labor: digging a fire pit, mounting their tent (a contraption similar enough to what they were used to). Ais was trusted to forage for firewood, and berries (if she found any).

She found herself in a patch of woodland. The setting sun stained the leaves pink and brown. She located a good, appropriate-sized branch. A few test swings made it clear how different it felt to use, not just from Desperate, but from any other sword. Even the Little Blades she had used in her youth didn't feel this cumbersome. It wasn't because it was a regular bit of wood, having trained with and even fought with vaguely sword-shaped objects when the situation required it.

Without Loki's blessing, Ais was not the Sword Princess, no longer that fearsome adventurer. Just Ais. Just a girl.

It made a whirlwind of emotions rise inside her belly, so many she couldn't count and they choked her at the throat. All but one, right now. Her frown returned, but this time determination was clear in her gaze. She hated it.

"AAAHHH!" The treetops rustled with wingbeats as things fled the area.

She'd swung down with all her might. No rush of wind, just the feel of a moderately fast object cutting through air.

Again, again again, she swung.

Until the beat in her blood matched her heart and not her head. Her arms burned with exertion. One month without training. She flowed into the forms she had been taught, testing them out. Nobody had let her even touch a blade after those disastrous first days. Desperate locked up somewhere in that town. Unable to sneak out and have her early morning practice.

If there was one good thing about leaving on this journey, it was that they would be able to begin training again. Tiona and Tione were right about that.

A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead. Her harsh breathing filled the space between trees. A familiar calm and peace settled over her shoulders, and Ais lowered her sword. She was so very out of shape.

They hadn't come look for her yet, she considered as her breathing regularized. Maybe, she'd still have time for one last thing.

Fighting not to scowl, she opened the pack she'd settled against a tree and took out the red and white sphere that was the bane of her thoughts. Ms. Gilda's stylized green sticker was set carefully on the red part. She thumbed the button that kept the monster inside.

"Tch."

Fine. They wanted Ais to work with a monster? She could do that.

Wordlessly, she released the creature out in the open, clutching the pokeball with unsteady hands. The thing, the Bulbabsaur, materialized from shining light. It looked like a green, smaller Frog Shooter. With two eyes and a plant growing on its back. And a different behavior.

It looked at her with, dare she say, curious eyes.

Ais raised her practice weapon and settled in a guard position. "...You're my… partner now. So you'll help me?"

"Buu…" It gave a small step forward.

"You saw Tiona and Tione, this morning. They're strong, they fight. I was strong… I will be strong again." Her hands tightened their grip on the branch until her knuckles were white. "So come on. Fight me. Attack me."

The creature trembled and shook its head.

Why? Why wouldn't it act like it should? Did it think Ais was weak? Was it mocking her?

"Come on. Attack! Scratch! Tackle!"

It took a step back.

Ais felt her teeth grind together, splinters digging into the palm of her hands. "Do it! You… you stupid frog! If you don't…" She couldn't. She wasn't going to prove– she'd promised she wouldn't.

The edges of her vision were blurry with sweat. She blinked. "Bu-basaur…" It was looking at her like— How dare it. How dare it look at her with eyes like that!

And finally, it frowned. No, its eyes narrowed. Its body lowered close to the ground. Ais knew these signs. Countless battles had taught her to read the movements of her opponents, and there weren't any foes she had hunted, fought and slayed more than monsters. Just Frog Shooters, hundreds and hundreds, maybe thousands.

The monster unfurled two vines like whips from its back. A ranged attack. That too like a frog shooter. She had to prepare and deflect the first, dodge the second– dodge both– then attack before it could retract them. Her entire world contracted, seconds stretching under her focus.

There! A vine flew, so fast! And Ais, tired, found herself unable to respond in time. She watched in dismay, but inner triumph, as her sword missed the monster's attack and it hit her—

It flew past her.

A bright light engulfed the pokemon before retreating, taking with it the Bulbasaur. Ais blinked. Almost dreading what she would find, she turned and looked. The pokeball she had discarded behind her after releasing the creature sat alone on the ground. It had aimed for the button on its centerline, knowing it would pull it back in.

It refused to fight her.

The branch fell from limp hands. The sweat that stung at her eyes mingled with something she didn't want to name. "AH!" With a yell, she kicked the sphere away, sending it rolling weakly across the grass.

It didn't make her feel any better.

---

Spoiler

getting into Ais' head. these bits are always a bit difficult because the SO manga's translation hasn't reached this part yet and I haven't read this in either of the light novel series yet, though, i'm afraid that's what's next after i finish SO4.
Ais is very much in denial, trying to justify, refusing to acknowledge certain things. needless to be said, she's going on a journey because Tiona put down her foot after she sent Lefiya crying. she's feeling guilty enough about that so she promises ok. her isolationism and distancing are also blinding her to the stuff that the other were going through, which will come up.
and desperate... well, i'm still unceratin, but NO ONE was going to let her keep it, especially not after she threatened the lives of several pokemon with it. due to its emotional importance, it's being held safely until she i quote: calms the fuck down.

 

[minuseven]

Spoiler: edits

22.07.2022 switched images, correction of orthographic errors, some tiny edits

---

Synaptic Architecture//Demon Somatic 0.0

This feels like a really weird dream. And it was a dream. A lucid dream, maybe, but definitely a dream. Everything was fuzzy around the edges, and wobbly.

Wee! They spun in place. Nothing but rocks, covered in a strange green fog, surrounded them. What a boring dream… They wandered around, exploring. The air was ominous, but monotonous. There was always just another boulder around the previous boulder. Just more dark green fog. Sometimes some sparks. A growl from behind. A growl from behind? With a strangled chuckle they looked over their shoulder. Out of the fog, shapes began to emerge. Many-limbed, many-eyed, chitinous insectoids.

"Oh shit." They bolted. The dream was now a chase. There have been many dreams like this before. Something primal from the days of cavemen, when man was prey and not predator. Run, went the instincts, run!

Chase dreams always ended in one of two places: something woke them up and they forgot. Or they tripped. Down they went, like clockwork. Their breath squeezed between their ribs, their legs unresponsive because of some stupid dream logic. I hate sleep paralysis. I hate it so much. Breathing exercises, just got to manage to inhale, oh my god, I feel like I'm going to die and on top of this the nightmare? Fuuuc-

​

Wait-

​

What- This is new. But familiar. …I've been playing too much Warframe. It didn't matter. If there was a choice, like it appeared, then they could choose none other than the lightning-bringer himself.

Suddenly, they could breathe again. A surge of energy rushed through them, pure adrenaline. With a yell, they dropped down to the ground. A wordless interjection of shock came from their face. They stared at their fingers. Touched a helmet that did not have a mouth. Everything moved so well. No pains or aches. They felt awesome.

Chittering and screeches broke through. All around, smoking carcasses were dissolving. The dream had transformed, but it was still a chase. And if they had anything to say about it, they were no longer prey. They shadow boxed through basic stances. The responsive nature of the dream did not disappoint. Still: "No weapons?"

"Oh. Hm. Great!" This dream was shaping up. "Rifle, stealth secondary aaand… staff."

The weapons materialized on them. They noticed the heads-up display for the first time. Then there was no more time to think as a multi-limbed creature shot out from the fog. In an instant they had the Braton up against their shoulder and firing. A hail of bullets ripped through the thing and it dropped, dead. They released the trigger, shocked at the noise.

That had been instinctive, and so were the next minutes, spent running and shooting. Rolling awkwardly but more confidently each time, reloading with movements they shouldn't be familiar with. Yet every time they became faster as they got used to the weight and recoil. Still dismayingly slow by Tenno standards, a true rookie… but at the top for a regular human being.

It was… FUN! Ahahah! Whoo! Hey, how do I bullet-jump!? No time to stop and figure it out. Every time a blow managed to find them, there went a chunk of their shields.

Then the bullets ran out. Armored hands went automatically to their leg holsters and knives flew… with questionable precision. The moves were worthy of a space-ninja, but the space-ninja wasn't quite worthy of the moves.

They eyed the steadily decreasing number at the corner of their vision. Kunai weren't infinite either. But they weren't limited to game mechanics, they discovered with glee as they used the last little blade left in their hand to stab the eyes out of another creepy-crawly. Half their secondary ammunition gone, they grabbed the staff slung magnetically across their back. Attacking was fairly simple and the reach was nothing to scoff at.

They let instincts guide them for another couple of moves, instead of using what little bojutsu they knew, as they thought about their options. No stance mods I'm betting. No mods at all, duh. Still haven't used abilities… only two shots tho. I need them to back up. Heavy slam. How do I heavy attack anyway– doesn't matter. Up we go AND—

They slammed down from a jump staff first. The ground erupted in blue-white fissures and all the monsters went flying, suspended in the air for precious seconds. Seconds they used to crouch, aim their course as well as they could, and launch themselves into the air.

Dreams are weird. They thought as they pushed muscles they didn't have in directions that shouldn't and re-impulsioned themselves. Double jump. Steel fingers gripped rock like the machines they were and they scrambled up the huge boulder they had chosen with seemingly uncharacteristic clumsiness.

But the higher-ground didn't offer many good news. The sky, if there was one, was obscured by the sick green and black cousins of the auroras borealis. Everywhere they looked, nothing but desolate rocks, noxious mists, spike-shaped rocks and monsters running through the fog. Everywhere but in one direction. A craggy hill rose in the distance. Crudely carved steps climbed one of its sides, lined with menacing stalagmites, and on the top shinned a white-golden light.

If there was an objective, it surely looked like that. As they squinted, they managed to mark it on with a waypoint.

"If that's not a sign…" Wasting no more time, they jumped. Skip and hop, they jumped from boulder to boulder like a child crossing a stream. If they fell however, they would have to fight monsters. All in all, not too distant from what a child experienced when exploring the woods.

A great leap took them from the last rock on their path to the stone steps. The hill rose above them higher than it looked from a distance. Behind them, monsters were already scrambling up. The whole place was coming down on them. There better be a solution up there! The warframe sprinted up the steps. Now used to the movement of Volt, they wished their second ability was unlocked, but alas. Instead, they chanced to throw a hand behind them with fury, hoping that their dream-instincts wouldn't steer them wrong for the first time.

Bolts of lightning sprang from their palm and smashed into the enemies.

YES!

The top was almost within reach and they saw the light waver like a mirage. A human figure became distinguishable, burning golden and reaching out for them.

They stopped. Chest heaving with breaths they didn't need to take, they locked eyes with the woman. Eyes? This was not the Lotus. Who was this? They looked over their shoulder. "No time for twenty questions." Dreams hated indecisiveness. They stepped forward and took their arm.

They did not wake up.

---

Spoiler

EDIT: WHY YES I HAVE BEEN HAVING FUN WITH CAPTURA AND FREE NOT!PHOTOSHOP
actually have been wanting to write one of these for a very long time, but for some reason i insisted on having images... are the neutral pronouns annoying?
Very much inspired by Manuke na FPS Player ga Isekai e Ochita Baai (When a Stupid FPS Player Falls to Another World). Took me a while to decide on warframe. mostly because i've been pushing warframe in dragon age SIs around in my head for years. ... look, playing warframe is a power fantasy rush for a filthy casual like me ok. and dragon age makes me mad ok.