[One Week Later]
Tessai Hinanoya, a man in his fifties, has been wasting away for a while now. He had fought in the first great ninja war, got all his daughters married except one and has been living his life on his pension.
His clan was known for puppetry. His clan were essential in defeating the land of wind because they reverse engineered the foreign art of puppetry that the sand shinobi used.
Tessai especially was sent to counter the sand shinobis puppets with his own puppet. And he did just that. He was respected by his teammates for the things he did in the war. But the civilians had other opinions—his wife had many opinions.
He didn't care, he was a hero afterall. If it wasn't for him many would have died and much more would be lost.
That was what Tessai told himself every night in front of his late wife's shrine.
It was the only thing he could do now that his wife wasn't here to be his guiding light, his north star... His conscience.
Satoru watched a drunken man cry himself to sleep next to a shrine dedicated to a woman. The man has defiled the shrine by splatteree with beer from the shattered glass bottle nearby.
He looked into another room and saw a little boy—having a striking resemblance to Reiko.
"W-why did you leave me..." *Hiccup* "...My love?" The crying man said, slowly falling asleep.
"Look how the mighty have fallen... Pathetic." Satoru walked away and left Reiko's house.
---
Satoru looked at Shinichi with a nervous glint in his eyes. Shinichi looked at him for a few seconds before giving an approving nod.
In this one week Satoru had learnt how to use body flicker.
"The speed is still slow," Shinichi said, "but that is the body flicker. No doubt about that."
Satoru gave a sigh of relief, then began stretching for the taijutsu training. After every major training requiring chakra, Shinichi made him work his taijutsu.
But this session was different.
Satoru took out Fumikage, katana that he received from Keiko as a gift. He covered it with just enough chakra to protect its sharpness and help in adding more strength into each of his swings.
Shinichi in response took out his sword. Satoru rushed at Shinichi, slashing horizontally.
Shinichi tapped Satoru's sword just enough for it miss it's aim. Shinichi did a small skip, jumping over the slash and swung his own sword downwards.
Satoru sidestepped and slashed diagonally—from down to up. Shinichi brought his sword up to defend only for Satoru to perform another swing.
A chakra slash came out and flew towards Shinichi who casually punched the slash, breaking it before swinging his sword through the dissipated chakra.
He released a stronger slash using Satoru's own chakra, forcing him to jump to the side to dodge it.
The moment he did, Shinichi reappeared in front of him, thrusting his sword forward. Satoru instantly bodyflickered away appearing a little far away.
"Already applying it in spars? Good." Shinichi evaluated Satoru. He had seen Satoru weave the handsigns while he evaded the slash.
Shinichi did the same, appearing in front of him, a backhand strike heading straight for Satoru's face. Satoru redirected the backhand with his sword, losing his stance and balance.
Satoru adjusted himself just quick enough to slash downwards. Shinichi moved himself just enough as Satoru missed, forcing him to land a pommel strike at Shinichi's side.
Shinichi caught him by his wrist, lifting him in the air before slamming into the ground with a violent thud.
Mitsuki sat in the distance. She watched the two shinobi train with mild boredom. She was asked to heal Satoru everytime he becomes unable to fight, so the tort—training must keep going.
Mitsuki didn't enjoy watching a genin getting bullied by a grown man with a sword. She stood up with a tired sigh. She will have to heal Satoru, again.
---
A few hours passed and Satoru sat near Mitsuki's feet cleaning his katana. He had so many cuts from the failed attempt to use the body flicker mid training.
"You don't end the training until it's time for dinner," Satoru said doubtfully, "So, why did we stop?"
"I'm thinking what to teach you next. I will squeeze every drop of opportunity to make you stronger. There won't be any training for today from my side. Ask Mitsuki if she wants train you."
Satoru looked over his shoulder to see Mitsuki with a devious smile on her face. Satoru lost all hope upon seeing that smile. His fate was filled with endless suffering.
"You waste a lot of chakra and time when you heal. That chakra string ability especially very wasteful. We will work on that." Mitsuki said, ruffling Satoru's hair.
"Too bad Mitsuki Sensei... I ran out of chakra, guess we're not train—"
Mitsuki took out a suitcase filled with drugs and syringes out of nowhere. "I have the solution to your lack of chakra."
"Isn't the excessive usage of those pills bad for health? Extra bad for young people?" Satoru asked, desperate to not be pumped full of chemicals with the intention of becoming stronger. He had seen enough supervillains in his previous life to know what would happen.
"Don't worry. I have the child friendly versions as well! They are less effective but definitely much safer." Mitsuki said, "At least that's what princess Tsunade told us when she visited our hospital."
Satoru was dragged off to hell by Mitsuki where he was torn apart and healed over and over again.
---
"So, had a fun weekend?" Hinanoya asked, looking at Satoru who held an ice-cream to his bruises.
"Nah, pretty boring actually. Went by too quickly." Satoru said. He was walking with a limp.
"What did your Sensei do to you?" She asked with an amused smile.
"Shinichi Sensei kept beating me up. Mitsuki Sensei made me heal myself, and then force-fed me chakra pills. Rinse and repeat." Satoru said with a look of a war veteran recollecting his dark times.
"Thank the gods that my Sensei wasn't that strict with me when I worked under him. If my friends hadn't become a chunin... Maybe I would have suffered like you. Well, it was fun while it lasted."
"Your team didn't take part in the chunin exams." Satoru said.
"It was an internal promotion. They did really good so they were rewarded." She said with a smile. It seemed off. The smile that is.
"What about you? You didn't become chunin..." Satoru looked at her as if things didn't connect yet, "...You never went back."
The shine in Reiko's eyes dimmed. "Yeah, I never went back." She looked uncomfortable.
Satoru took a step forward, his eyes narrowed as if they wanted to know more. "What happened?"
"He-he kic—" her breath hitched, tears forming in her eyes, "He kicked me out. He said he didn't want an insubordinate genin in his team."
Reiko looked at Satoru in a way that he didn't understand. "When I listen to you complain about your Sensei... It leaves a hole in me."
"Why? Lord Hokage said that you will not be punished."
"S-sensei said he won't take a girl who would abandon her mission to follow a boy she just met." Reiko's eyes couldn't contain the tears anymore,
"They called me names—my teammates, they laughed at me, insulted me. I couldn't do anything when Sensei put up a request to kick me out."
Satoru listened in disbelief as she began crying, "My career is gone, I don't get missions and I'm left to wash dishes in my cousin's restaurant. My teammates told me I'm better off in the seduction corps since I'm already fond of boys so much."
---
"The next thing you will learn is to create a personalized fighting style. Genins learn the basics, then the chunins create a solid base. It's time for you to create your base." Shinichi explained.
"What do jonins do?" Satoru asked. "Jonins specialize. Once a base is created, they take the thing they are good at and jump into it till they are a master of it."
"So for me... Will it be Yin and Yang release?" Satoru asked, "What is it for you? The specialization, I mean?"
"Ninjutsu. I have three chakra natures." Shinichi said, then glanced at Mitsuki, "Did you know Mitsuki is really good with senbon needles?"
"Yeah, I did. She taught me." Satoru said, taking out a senbon needle and threw it at a tree nearby. He wasn't looking.
It missed. It wasn't even close.
Mitsuki had never looked more disappointed in her entire life.
"If you want to ever become a jonin, then you'll have medical ninjutsu as your specialization. But for now you will focus on your goal of becoming as strong as a jonin."
"Do you know who is the jonin instructor of Reiko Hinanoya?" Satoru asked. Shinichi frowned as if he already knew where this was going.
"Do not go there. Do not mess with a jonin, Satoru." Shinichi said in a warning tone. Shinichi only used people's names when he cared for them or when he was serious.
"I don't know what you are talking about." Satoru said, still having the eager look to know more.
"Jonins are very hard to beat and unlike chunins, they have political power. If you mess with that man..." Shinichi had a look that said 'This conversation ends now.'
"Fine." Satoru said backing off, "What are you teaching me today?"
Shinichi sighed, then continued, "Your compressed gale is a crude version of an already existing jutsu. It is great that you remodeled wind style breakthrough as per your circumstances..." He held up a finger, "But, It is untested, dangerous and very weak."
"I see." Satoru nodded, "You know, I don't like it when you compliment and insult me at the same time."
Shinichi ignored him and weaved handsigns, the air around him started coalescing around his finger. But then something unexpected happened.
The ball started heating up. It wasn't much but the ball was definitely wasn't room temperature. Shinichi pointed the ball near Satoru and fired it.
The ball hit the ground and exploded, decompressing instantly. Satoru suddenly felt a chill for a second or two. He looked at Shinichi with curiosity.
"What was that?"
"That is a heavily guarded jutsu invented by Lord Danzo. It is meant to be used to understand how vacuum jutsu work, but it is good on its own."
"Not that. How did I feel hot and cold?" Satoru asked.
"You have studied chemistry, have you not? What happened when pressure changes while volume is kept the same?" Shinichi asked back.
"Temperature changes." Realisation dawned on Satoru.
"Lord Danzo is so proficient with this jutsu that he can melt through several metal armors and then freeze large areas with only one of these bullets." Shinichi created another one in his fingers.
"Im good enough to set the bullet on fire or completely dissipate medium level fire jutsu with the cold." Shinichi added, shooting once more.
This one was on fire, then it exploded and uprooted a tree, leaving behind a low pressure zone that filled up quickly.