Chapter 9

After some hushed whispers, a young girl flowed out onto the field with a calm countenance. Her most striking features were her blood-red eyes and long dark hair, but her clothing was also more personalized. She wore a poncho like you’d imagine an old cowboy wearing from westerns, which draped across her shoulders, stopping at her chest and upper back. Beneath it, was a simple red undershirt that was snug fit for comfort. A floaty looking beige skirt sat atop chainmail leggings, which seemed popular among many girls in the academy.

“Sano Aburame versus Kurenai Yuhi! Begin!”

If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. Sano thought as she immediately raised her hands to use Genjutsu; Binding again, aiming for a repeat of her performance against Yui. To her utter shock, before she could even connect her hands, the very distinct sound of a flying shuriken and the barest glint of metal made her drop to the ground, abandoning her hand seals. Not a moment later, a single shuriken buzzed right over her head, missing by inches.

If she didn’t already know all tools used were blunted and not deathly sharp, that might have been the closest she’d ever been to death’s door. If you discounted her arrival in this world, of course.

Kurenai must have guessed that Sano didn’t have much faith in her taijutsu, purely judging by her last fight. She was correct in that assumption of course, which made the sight of the rapidly approaching girl a bad omen. With a push-up that launched her high enough to get her feet under her in a single push, Sano immediately took her stance in preparation for hand to hand combat.

When Kurenai saw her take an unfamiliar stance, her eyes narrowed slightly as she slowed in caution. Timing her arrival for close quarters combat, Sano shifted her weight and twisted her hips in a spinning roundhouse kick. This was one of her more powerful strikes, capable of doing some real damage even against the betters in her class. Kurenai dipped back, curving her body and using all her effort to stop her charge. It was only thanks to her caution that she narrowly avoided a full blow roundhouse to the hip. The force of it caused Kurenai’s skirt and poncho to ripple from the displaced air. Unfortunately for her, the second follow up kick using the momentum of the first to continue her spin didn’t miss, slamming into Kurenai’s forearms as she hastily blocked.

While Sano would have liked to have said that her followup was some masterful combination of taijutsu mastery, she actually didn’t know how to capitalize on her hit. Without knowing what to do, she reset her stance and backed up, raising her hands to sign again.

Credit where credit was due, Kurenai instantly launched another shuriken from her hip-pouch the instant her hands came together, unwilling to let her use any jutsu at all. Sano shifted her body to avoid it though, hands successfully forming the tiger sign.

‘Genjutsu: Shibari!’ (Genjutsu: Binding) She mentally commanded.

The strands of her chakra snaked outwards, aiming for Kurenai in less than a quarter of a second, but as Sano focused on her intrusion, she noticed, to her horror, that Kurenai was waiting with her hands already set to break the Genjutsu. Kurenai simply waited with her hands in the Tiger seal, waiting to be paralysed.

As soon as her chakra entered Kurenai and she began her Genjutsu, Kurenai used her Tiger seal to send a burst of chakra throughout her chakra system, bullying her out in an instant–it was practically a no-contest. “Kai!”

Caught flat footed, Kurenai surged to seize the moment. A punch, slap, kick… Kurenai wasn’t all that great at taijutsu it seemed, but she was definitely better than Sano. They went back and forth, Sano even getting some good licks in that almost gave her the momentum, but sadly Kurenai eked out her win when she pulled a kunai unnoticed, stabbing it into her blocking arm. It didn’t actually piece her arm, but it hurt like hell and crumpled her foundation.

The next thing she knew, the same kunai was sitting at her neck.

“Kurenai Yuhi wins!”

Sano was breathing heavily as the call of the end of the fight burst forth from Tanaka-sensei. Kurenai pulled back her kunai and took a shuddering breath as she collected herself to fight in the next round. Sano stood and gave the girl a slight bow for her win, which she smiled at. The girl earned it by finding the solution to Genjutsu: Binding. If you knew it was coming, you could prepare for it. It was something she’d remember for the future.

With heavy footsteps and a slight wheeze in her breath, Sano left the field and joined up with her classmates. Murakumo was staring at her slack jawed with a hint of excitement. “Sano! You did great!”

Knowing that he didn’t understand her sign language, she simply shrugged. She was surprised that she’d beaten Yui, but she did catch her by surprise. Genjutsu: Binding was one hell of a surprise, at that. While she wouldn’t call it lucky, she won fair and square. She used the tools at her disposal to the best of her current abilities.

“What did you do to cause Gengan-san to freeze in place?” Murakuma asked as they both watched the Nara girl stride onto the field.

At first, she was going to be annoyed with him. They both knew she couldn’t answer his questions. They’ve been through this time and time again. But when Murakuma pulled out a small notebook and an actual pen—something she hadn’t even known existed in this world—and handed them over? Well, that changed her mood quickly.

With a crinkled eye smile, she took the offered pen and paper and answered. ‘Genjutsu: Binding. It paralyzes.’

“Oh?” Murakuma looked intrigued. “It might be the parent jutsu to many of the jutsu my clan uses. Many of our jutsu also paralyze people. Ours include illusions to not make it too obvious to tell, though.”

‘How would an illusion help?’ She wrote, happy to be finally having a back and forth conversation with one of her classmates.

“Well, the jutsu I’m thinking of creates the illusion of vines and plants to entangle your enemy. For all your enemy knows, they’re not actually in a genjutsu, they think you used a ninjutsu to entrap them. They won’t think about breaking out if they don’t think they’re in one!” Murakuma explained, making perfect sense.

‘Wouldn’t they catch on? What kinda jutsu makes plants?’ She wrote.

Murakuma shook his head, acting superior with a smirk. “Why, wood release of course!”

Sano blinked lazily at him, unimpressed. Murakuma’s confidence faltered and he coughed to clear his throat. “You’d be more concerned about facing a wood release user like Hashirama-sama than thinking about genjutsu…”

… that was fair. Sano gave the boy a very slight nod. If she’d learned anything about the first Hokage, it was that he was considered the best of the best—the Tupac of ninjas. Hashirama Senju was the only person known to have access to the special Kekkei Genkai of wood release, and even history books tell the tale of how strong wood release was.

The man was said to bring entire forests to life to attack his foes and the village even has an entire forest of supernatural trees grown by the man himself somewhere nearby.

All in all, if you were facing a ninja and suddenly plants and wood came to life to attack you, you had every right to be very concerned.

Their small talk was disrupted by the distinct sounds of skuriken buzzing through the air. Both Sano and Murakuma looked to the field to watch the spar, finding Riba Nara wearing down Kurenai Yuhi with swift strikes and punishing throws full of handfuls of shuriken when the red-eyed girl tried to make distance to get a breather. Soon enough, Kurenai made a mistake, resulting in her pummeled loss.

As the fights wore on and on, each combatant took things much more carefully than the last. Things were pretty even between the classes, never breaking past two wins in a row. Sano looked to the sky, judging the sun’s position and time. School was running late today…

The final spar was the now winded Joji Akimichi and a boy named Tenka Nara. Riba didn’t make any remarks or comments about a fellow clansman taking part, and nobody else questioned it at all. She knew the Nara were a larger sized clan, but for two kids the same age not to know each other? Their clan must be larger than she thought.

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Sano fully expected this fight to go the same as the last. A slow going tactical meandering instead of trying to finish off your opponent as fast as you could like the starter fights. The evolution of combat here really showed how in tune the kids of this world took in and understood fighting. So, when Joji popped a green pill into his mouth then expanded his hand to the size of his entire body? “Bubun Baika-no-Jutsu!” (Partial Multi-Size Technique) Then slammed his giant fist into the poor Nara kid to knock him unconscious in a single blow?

Sano’s jaw dropped to the floor.

Of course, she’d heard about the Akimichi and their clan’s specialty. Their clan had a unique jutsu that could enlarge themselves, increasing their weight and power in accordance to their size. It was one thing to hear about it, and another to see it in action. If Joji’s fist grew to the size of his normal body, then how big would the boy be when his whole body was enlarged? He’d be a damn thirty foot tall giant!

“Joji Akimichi wins! Tanaka, it seems you win this bet.” The other class’ teacher ruefully shook his head, mock sullen.

“It seems that I do.” Tanaka-sensei smiled widely, radiating pride as he stepped forward to meet them all.

Without words needing to be spoken, the entire class lined up for his obvious incoming speech. The other class also lined up so their own sensei could talk with them as well.

“As I’m sure you’ve noticed, fighting with unknown adversaries with stakes on the line is different from simple sparring with your classmates. You do not know their capabilities, you do not know whether they’re gifted at ninjutsu, taijutsu, or even genjutsu.” Tanaka gave her a wink, which made her own heart soar with pride. She’d been recognised for her efforts!

“The stakes were not life or death like it will often be outside of the village against bandits or other ninja, and still you felt the drive to adapt and overcome. The urge to succeed and the will to do whatever it takes is not in everyone, but you all have it.” Tanaka’s serious glare raked across the class, showing a rare stern facade on his normally kind face. “The Will of Fire. The willingness to do what it takes to fight for those who you love, those you believe in, those you swear to protect, and the village as a whole. The same Will of Fire those that died in the war passed on. Their dreams and hopes now lie with the next generation, and that generation is you.”