Quest Chosen: Eye for an Eye
*Thunk*. My head rings with the sound of me hitting a tree. Son of a bitch, that hurts. I mean seriously, did the Shodai make these things out of iron or something?
Standing up, I glare at Goku-sensei. The old monkey seems to be perfectly content to wail on me. He calls it training, I call it sadism. (I can use big words too, you know?)
We’re in a clearing outside of Konoha’s walls. One of the innumerable training areas that the Shodai made for ninja to practice at. This one is designed around straight matches. There isn’t any debris or terrain to use for combat, just the ground.
Goku sits in the air using, his tail to support him while resting one leg on his knee.
“It took you a minute to fall down that time.”
“Thanks, Sensei,” I say, rolling my eyes.
“Used to be five seconds,” he says.
I hang my head at that. It’s not that he’s wrong, just that saying it like that makes me sound like a loser.
“Even so, Sensei...,” I start to complain.
He cuts me off.
“If you hadn’t broken my staff, I wouldn’t have to push you so hard.”
“It was the tiger!” I shout defensively.
“A thousand times, a thousand times I’ve told you, hard on hard, soft on soft. If you keep missing that fundamental concept, then I have to teach you another way.”
“By beating the crap out of me?” I say, annoyed.
“No, by having your body learn what your mind apparently cannot. The beating is just a side benefit. If nothing else, you’ll have more endurance when you finally reach the next level.”
“Gee, thanks, Sensei. You’re all heart.”
“That I am, where’s that Hinata girl anyways?”
I feel myself stiffen and look to the side. I had only seen Hinata at class for the last few weeks. After the mess with Shino, we had slowly integrated him back into our little band which was good, but both Hinata and Sasuke stopped really hanging out with me.
Well, I shouldn’t say that. Sasuke came home the other night and gave me a hug, which admittedly freaked me way the hell out. But after that, he’d hung out with me and Shino most days I wasn’t training. I offered to let them meet Goku-sensei, but they both said no. Apparently their styles aren’t really good for merging with mine or something.
Hinata, on the other hand...I dunno, whenever I try to push she just gives me this adorable smile and tells me she’s okay. I don’t know who taught her the Mystic Puppy Eyes Jutsu, but they were mad, mad I tell you!
What do you mean it’s not a real jutsu?
“Naruto, are you okay?” Goku’s voice shakes me out of my thoughts.
“Er, yeah. Sorry, Sensei, Hinata’s just been busy with Clan stuff lately,” I say, still half distracted.
“Clan stuff, eh?” he muses, leaning back on his tail.
I shrug.
“Yeah. Won’t tell me much about it.”
“Well, maybe you can find another one of her clan members and ask them about it?” Goku asks.
Geez, sensei, do you show this much compassion for me? No. On the other hand, Hinata is pretty awesome.
I think about it. I do know another guy; Neji, but he’s kind of a jerk... okay, he is a jerk. I’d probably have to beat it out of him...and he did hurt Hinata...you know what? I’m on board with this plan.
Goku seems to look at an apparently random tree.
“In fact, I know there’s a Hyuuga boy watching us from the trees right now. Why don’t you catch him?”
There’s a rustling in the tree branches and I can see what looks like...Neji? Dropping from the tree and running toward Konoha.
Hmm I could chase him now, or I could confront about it during the Academy tomorrow.
What do I do?
Behold the Naruto Character Sheet! I've substantially changed the mechanics. I will explain how in the next post.
Naruto Sheet