5 A Pebble Tumbles of a Cliff

A Pebble Tumbles of a Cliff

__________

"Good morning class!" called a stern-looking man at the front of the room. His face sported a litany of scars and was topped off by a grey bandana, which seemed to cover the remnants of a run-in with a fire-release technique given the pink skin peeking out.

'There's no end to the handsome faces this world provides,' I idly noted, somewhat disgusted by how desensitized these children must have been for them to completely fail to react to the man's appearance.

"Good morning Juro-sensei!" chorused all but one or two stragglers. The vast majority of this class had spent at least one year in the academy already and knew the drill. They had been given their teacher's name in writing, Arai Juro, and if they couldn't keep track of it they had no real business being this far along in the academy.

"Very good," he nodded. "You all have shown that you require less than two years of development and training to become qualified shinobi," he started.

"I do not care how young you are, how important you think you are, or how skilled you think you are," he continued, taking a pause to look around the room. "My job is to spend the next year breaking you down, so that when you enter your last year you can be reforged into proper weapons for this village. Do you understand?" he finished, building up to a shout by the time he had finished.

"Yes, Juro-sensei!" the class chorused.

"Good, we will begin immediately," he stated. "I want you all to look around," he instructed. "Is there anything you notice?"

We all started to look around the room. The first thing I noticed was the other 'undersized' student. She wasn't as small as me, but she wasn't much bigger either. I placed her somewhere between five and six, but that was all I needed to have an answer. My hand shot up.

"Ah, our youngest student. Let's see if you actually belong here mister Kimoto," Juro said, gesturing for me to answer.

"Juro-sensei, most of the students in this class seem younger than average. I'm assuming this is meant to be some sort of advanced class?" I stated questioningly. Unfortunately, my four-year-old mouth still found it difficult to enunciate complicated sentences, prompting a handful of snickers from the class.

"Silence!" Juro bellowed, glaring one by one at the students who laughed. "As amusing as mister Kimoto's voice may be, he has still proven to be smarter than any of you," he admonished.

I groaned internally, knowing exactly what the tone was going to be for the year. I had almost forgotten that by skipping the first two years of the academy I would be skipping over the 'build self-esteem and self-confidence' stage, and would be thrown right into the 'break down egos and encourage competition' portion.

'I'm going to come out of this class with a bunch of jealous assholes after me,' I realized. That was probably exactly what Juro was hoping for as well. I would constantly have to work to prove I belonged here, and they would all be fighting to not be outdone by a child.

"Kimoto Kazuo is indeed correct," Juro explained in his authoritative voice, breaking me out of my thoughts. "This class has gathered students who have shown exceptional talent or ability. If you are here, the village has determined that you have an elevated likelihood of reaching the pinnacle ranks. Should you continue to excel, you may be one of the lucky few to be noticed by a Jōnin upon graduation," he explained. A few sharp intakes were heard at his declaration.

"However," he continued, as if he sensed our building excitement. "You will have to constantly work to prove that you belong here. Each quarter some of you may be moved out of this class in favor of others who have shown themselves more worthy," he explained in an imposing tone.

"Fortunately for you," he started again, decreasing the nervousness in the room slightly. "I will simplify things. You will come in and give me your hundred percent every day. In exchange, I will build you into worthy shinobi, and will allow you to continue to grace my classroom. Do we have an agreement?" he asked.

"Yes Juro-sensei!" the class chorused. Juro's explanation and promise had certainly had its intended effect on the classroom.

I assumed that almost all of the students had entered thinking themselves exceptional, and were more confident now that they had been somewhat vindicated. His warning, though, would serve to motivate them even further.

"Good, then let's continue," the scarred man stated.

__________

The first day of classes proved to be somewhat distressing. I was pleased to find that my physical abilities weren't that far off from the pack. Given that almost all of the exercises conducted were relative to one's bodyweight, my small stature allowed me to mostly keep up. I was certainly the weakest of the group, but that was to be expected given that I was three or four years younger than the vast majority of the other students. Fortunately, at the rate I was improving, I didn't doubt my ability to reach the top of the class by the end of the semester.

Chakra though was a whole different animal. At the end of the day, chakra capacity and chakra control were all that matter, not chakra capacity relative to one's size. As a result, I was far behind the curve. Our first chakra exercise had involved leaves, much like most beginner exercises. We were told to levitate a leaf over each palm for as long as possible, without letting it drop down or fly off. I had been able to keep it up for the full hour, but felt far more strain than I saw on the face of anyone else in the class.

It pained me greatly that, as far as I knew, there was nothing I could really do about it. I meditated daily and exhausted my chakra reserves nightly, which were the only ways I knew to intentionally train chakra reserves. The rest came with increased age and physical ability, and unfortunately there were no shortcuts that I had been able to find with my resources. Regardless, my poor performance on the first day stung fiercely. Intellectually I knew that the other students here had trained for at least as many years as I had, if not significantly more, but it did nothing to improve my mood.

That evening I returned home with disappointment burning in my heart, fueling my desire to improve.

__________

Unfortunately, I had plans which stopped me from addressing my shortcomings immediately. Sho, Hisoka, and Katsuo met up with me at my aunt's teahouse, like we had planned earlier. I showed the trio the exercise we had completed in class today, and we worked together on it for about an hour. By the time they had left, my already drained chakra reserves were treading dangerously close to empty, but I had enough in my tank for what I wanted to do.

My destination was a newly available resource I had yet to take advantage of: the academy library. There were many libraries and archives which dealt with shinobi skills, but they were closed off to civilians. Academy students were technically civilians, but the academy held a selection of books and scrolls with knowledge that was deemed either harmless or common enough to be entrusted to academy students.

With a flash of my shiny new ID, I was allowed into the large library which occupied an entire two floors of the academy's main tower.

I pulled out the largest and most advanced-looking books and scrolls on chakra theory, and began my search. A lot of it was information I had known for a long time. Chakra natures, yin and yang, physical and spiritual energy, and similar information. There were the odd bits of useful information though. For example, one book theorized used rock samples to theorize that chakra had not existed in its current quantities before around twelve-hundred years ago. To most, that would just be a throwaway piece of trivia, but it was a horrifyingly frightening consideration given the knowledge that I held.

The chance that Kaguya might be a very real threat managed to motivate me even further, and I continued to scour through words.

A little after dark, I finally managed to find something helpful.

'Some monks found that meditating in certain significant locations helped dramatically increase the quantity and potency of one's chakra,' I read from A Primer on Monastic Chakra Theory.

The wording made me immediately think of natural energy. Oddly enough, despite all the reading I had done on chakra, Senjutsu and natural energy had never been mentioned. I supposed that it must have been controlled information, and slid it into my repository of 'things to never say shit about to avoid a fun trip to interrogation.'

There was a free spot right next to 'jinchūriki.'

I thought a little further about what I had read. Takigakure had a very obvious 'significant location' which was both a part of nature and most assuredly involved a large amount of chakra. Not having come up with any better ideas, I dropped off the books and scrolls I had picked out, and headed out the front door of the academy.

The Lake of Heroes was around two kilometers across, and contained beautifully clear water which gave away only the barest of currents. In the daylight, one could see thousands of river rocks dotting the lakebed. Each of these rocks bore the name of a Waterfall shinobi that had fallen in battle. The Mother Tree was almost even more beautiful at night, with the moon peeking through the leaves. The way the lights of the surrounding apartments danced off the surface of the water only added to the beauty of the setting.

I hopped off the road, and made for the lakeshore, where I took off my clothes and folded them neatly. I then jumped into the water, and realized it was the first time I had gone swimming in this new body. I could have walked around and used the bridge, but that would have been much less fun. I let out a gleeful laugh as I began to paddle for the central island. Swimming hadn't even been one of my favored pastimes before, but for some reason it now brought me an incredible amount of joy.

I made it to the island shore in decent time. I might not have had much experience swimming with this body, but my fitness levels more than made up for it. I clambered up to the tree, and chose a solid looking root to plop down on. There were a decent number of shinobi here, meditating, reading, or just relaxing with what little free time they had.

I folded my legs, closed my eyes, and fell into a trance as I breathed in my surroundings.

__________

I stayed like that for almost two hours, before I was so filled with excitement that I couldn't keep up my meditative trance. It wasn't an immense effect, but the sheer liveliness of the trees presence was contagious. The bone-deep tiredness that tended to creep up as chakra exhaustion approached was nowhere to be found. My chakra hadn't replenished anywhere near completely, but it was still far more than I'd achieve from an hour of rest otherwise.

I leaped off my perch with a happy shout, landing gracefully on the ground. I took in the beauty around me again with a deep breath.

Then my heart stopped.

Judging by the lights, it was late.

Akari was going to kill me.

__________

After being thoroughly scolded for causing my aunt so much worry, I developed a convenient plan of action. Rather than exhausting my chakra reserves in bed each night, I snuck out to the mother tree with a sleeping bag. There I would meditate and conduct my chakra exercises to exhaustion, before passing out for the night. I ended up waking up far earlier than normal, and far more refreshed, which meant I had plenty of time to get home and start my workouts to avoid arousing Akari's suspicion.

My first week at the academy passed by as such. I would work out in the morning, head to the academy, then meet up with my friends. After showing them what I had learned in class, which would in turn help my comprehension, I would head home and work out again before sneaking out for the night. The following Monday though, things started to get a little more interesting at the Academy.

__________

"Alright, we'll be heading outside to the rings today!" Juro-sensei announced. "Today we will begin spars," he informed. Despite the students' uncanny level of discipline, excited murmurs broke out throughout the classroom. Taijutsu was far more interesting than the theory, conditioning, and chakra exercises we had focused on so far.

Once we had lined up by the rings, Juro starting calling our pairs of names.

"Kimoto Kazuo and Iwamoto Maki, ring five!" he announced, calling my attention. I walked over to the large dirt patch, and was joined by the same young girl I had noted on the first day. Maki was a stern-faced girl, who's round cheeks betrayed her standoffish demeanor. Her deep-brunette hair and white yukata made me wonder if she was of some distant relation to the Hyūga, but her eyes were such a dark brown that they seemed pitch black: about as removed from the white Byakūgan as one could get.

"You should all know proper etiquette by this point," Juro stated. "Go ahead and form the seal of confrontation," he instructed. "You will begin on my mark."

I reached out with two fingers, giving Maki a smile. She did the same with a flat look on her face, and I hid a wince. I had tried reaching out to the girl a few times, hoping to make another friend, but she seemed to strongly dislike me. I supposed that she had expected to be the 'prodigy' of the year, and had been praised for her genius all her life. My existence meant that she wasn't actually that special.

'The sad thing is that she actually is exceptional, I'm essentially cheating,' I remarked in my mind. I didn't think of myself as a prodigy, despite constantly being told I was by Hana and Sora. I just had an unfair advantage.

I brought my hand back and readied myself.

"Start!" came Juro's shout.

Once again I jumped back, not wanting to take the offensive when I knew nothing of her abilities. Unlike the last young student I had faced, Maki also broke off.

We circled each other a few times, and I idly noted Juro sensei announcing another spar's victor in the background. Realizing this wasn't going to go anywhere, I took a page out of Katsuo's book.

I charged forward with a highly telegraphed punch, trying to come off as incompetent. I didn't have much experience with this kind of misdirection, but thankfully Maki took the bait. As I approached, she shifted her legs and lowered her center of gravity, likely aiming to pull me into a grapple as my punch went wide.

She ducked directly under my punch, which was when I sprung my trap. I pulled my arm back and down immediately, and dropped all of my weight onto her back and shoulders. I kicked my legs out behind me, and we both fell to the ground, with her head directly under my chest, and my head over her back.. Her face slammed into the dirt, and I scrambled to get a hold on her.

Unfortunately, she was far better trained than Katsuo, as she immediately moved to escape my grasp. Realizing that she was likely a more skilled grappler than I was, I immediately abandoned any plans of getting her into a lock, and forced all of my weight onto her shoulder blades while I grabbed one of her elbows to stop her from doing a push-up and coming free.

She continued to struggle for several moments, before Juro's voice came ringing.

"Ring five, winner, Kimoto Kazuo!" he shouted.

Maki went limp and I hopped off her. She shot up off the ground, furious, and grabbed my fingers before she stormed off. I sighed in dismay, feeling bad about bruising a young girl's pride. I knew I shouldn't have cared all that much. This was what she signed up for. Unfortunately for my conscience, she was a child, and I wasn't, regardless of what my physical appearance implied.

I laughed bitterly to myself. 'You signed up to revolutionize this world, and steeled yourself to kill anyone in your way, yet here you are whining over making a little girl sad,' I thought.

Not wanting to dwell any further, I shook away my thoughts and walked over to where some students were practicing katas.

__________

For my next spar of the day, I was paired off against another boy who had won his first spar. He seemed to be around seven years old, with black hair and a forgettable face. He was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt: an outfit I'd expect of a young boy in my past life.

"Start!" called Juro, prompting us into action. My opponent immediately started with a kick to my leg, but the way he had shifted his weight forward had left him easy to read. I leaped back and avoided the kick neatly.

He came at me with a straight punch next, but his speed was definitely lacking in comparison to those I had been sparring with for the past several months. With a neat step to the side, I was able to pull his arm forward and aim a kick at his tailbone, pushing him out of the ring.

"Winner, ring four, Kimoto Kazuo!" came Juro's shout. My opponent was clearly embarrassed, so he walked off immediately after he gave me his hand to make the seal of reconciliation.

__________

"Start!" came Juro's shout for the third time today. Once again my opponent took the initiative, but this time he hadn't telegraphed in the slightest, and came at me with far more speed.

I squared my forearms and did my best to deflect the blow, but still felt a decent amount of pain as he connected. Not wanting to let him capitalize on his success, I immediately rolled my body to the right and shot out a sharp kick to his hip.

He leaned into my blow, softening it, and moved to trap my shin with his elbow. Thankfully, I managed to lower my leg in time. My opponent used his downward momentum to drop into a crouch, and immediately shot his leg out in a sweep.

Caught off guard, I fell to the ground. I rolled onto my front immediately, aiming to push myself up. Before I could complete my movements, a weight slammed down on my back, knocking my breath away, and my arm was pulled out from beneath me into a lock.

"Winner, ring one, Kuno Toru!" Juro announced. I winced slightly as Toru moved off me.

"You're not too bad kid," Toru said as I stood up and reached out to take his fingers. "You'll probably be better than me soon," he reassured, probably feeling like I did earlier about beating a child.

"Thank you," I said honestly, appreciating his words. My loss still burned, as I saw myself as less of a child than him, but I was grateful for his effort.

"No problem," he said lightly. "I'm pretty bad at Taijutsu anyways, so you'll probably get way better than me," he added.

'Ouch,' I thought to myself, not sure if he was telling the truth or was just giving himself a fallback in the case of a future loss. 'Beaten by a kid that apparently sucks at Taijutsu,' I thought sourly.

As we left the fields for the day, returning to the building, I put all of my effort into contemplating ways to improve.