Pebbles and Stones Loosen Rocks

Pebbles and Stones Loosen Rocks

__________

"I'm not sure how you managed to do it," Juro sighed. Today was the first day of our semester evaluations, and he had pulled me to the side just before the start of class. "You'll be sitting the written exams in room four-fourteen," he explained, before shaking his head and crouching down to pat my shoulder.

"Look Kazuo," he continued. "I know I didn't teach you for very long, or teach you all that much, to be honest," he said with a slight smile. "But I'm glad to have had you in my class. Please be careful out there, and feel free to come to me if you ever find yourself in a difficult situation," he finished supportively. I smiled up at him gratefully.

He wasn't the most memorable personality, generally coming off as a run-of-the-mill hardass, but in some moments he would show how much he really cared.

"Thank you, Juro-sensei," I replied in honest gratitude.

After that, it was time for me to depart.

__________

"Alright class! If you haven't noticed, there's a few new faces here with us today!" spoke the loud, somewhat unkempt man at the front of the class. "You'll also probably notice that some faces are missing!" he continued in his overbearing tone.

This man was everything that Juro wasn't. While Juro was disciplined, even-tempered, and held-together, this man seemed uncouth, brash, and unrestrained.

"That's because they got lazy!" he continued, making me wonder if he had an inside-voice. "They thought that because they got to the top of the pack, they could sit back and relax," he carried on. "Well guess what? They're gone now!" he shouted, before looking at each of the students before him in the eye.

"All of you made it to the last stretch, and you might be 'thinking things are gonna be easier now,'" he started again, taking on a high-pitched voice towards the end. Presumably, he was trying to mock us. I idly considered that he might be drunk.

"Well I'm here to tell you there's not a damn chance!" he roared. "If any one of you tries to take it easy for even a second, you'll be lucky to get even a Chūnin team instructor after you graduate! Am I understood?" came his shout.

"Yes! Masaru-sensei!" shouted the class in return. Most of the students here were used to this seemingly deranged teacher.

Iwata Masaru was a loud man in every way. His uniform just barely met regulation; he was covered from head-to-toe in a forest-camouflage jumpsuit, which might have helped him blend in on the field, but made him stand out significantly in a crowd. He wore massive, navy blue boots and gloves, once again meeting the letter of regulation but certainly not the spirit. His hair was a wide mess of black spikes, dyed with streaks of grey and forest-green. The only 'normal' portion of his outfit was his Chūnin vest, but alongside the rest of him it also managed to stand out.

I had to hold back a laugh at the thought of a supervisor confronting the man. In all likelihood, Masaru would blend into the forest just as well as any other Chūnin, leaving no real recourse for attempting to force him to change. One could likely attempt to escalate the matter to a Jōnin, but that would definitely be a waste of time and energy.

"Alright then," Masaru said, satisfied with the class' response. "To the fields!" he directed, kicking open the door and strolling out.

I had passed the semester exams with relative ease. My academic knowledge and chakra control were well beyond even some genin, and the rest of my skill set was above average at worst.

"We've got a special brat with us in this class!" Masaru announced once we got to the fields, singling me out. "He's the tiniest kid to ever join this class," he continued, walking over to me leisurely, and squatting down to look me in the eye.

"I'm not so sure you belong here though," he said more sinisterly. I looked him right in the eye, unafraid. I was here on Suien's endorsement. A Chūnin academy instructor held no real sway in comparison. "How's about a little challenge, squirt?" he taunted rhetorically.

"Noboru!" he shouted suddenly, "You were last in Taijutsu last semester!" he continued, airing the student's failures to the class. Given the boy's lack of reaction, it wasn't unusual. "Beat the crap out of this kid and I'll let you swap a Taijutsu grade for full marks at the end of the semester," he informed. Noboru's eyes immediately perked up and he ran over to the ring. Masaru then looked back over to me.

"And you," he said. "If you lose, you get to run laps all day for the rest of the week," he finished with a grin. I narrowed my eyes, doing my best to look heavily motivated. What Masaru didn't know was that I would be ecstatic to get seven hours of uninterrupted physical training for a full week.

Noboru and I stood at opposite sides of the ring. He gave me a small smile.

"Sorry kid," he offered apologetically, "but I really want that free grade," he explained. I nodded amiably, but on the inside, I was a little irritated.

'Does he really think I would have made it to this class by being an easy opponent?' I questioned in my mind rhetorically.

"I'm sorry too," I said as I made the seal of confrontation, "but I really hate losing," I informed honestly. I really didn't care about the laps, I just didn't want to lose to an eight-year-old who was purportedly bad at Taijutsu, and wanted to make sure everyone knew I wasn't an easy win.

"Begin!" came Masaru's shout, and Noboru shot forward immediately. He thought I would be a pushover, given my age, and I decided to leave him with that impression for a few more fractions of a second.

He managed to avoid telegraphing any specific blow until the last moment, but just before he stepped to my guard his leading leg and trailing shoulder tensed.

As I anticipated, his right arm shot forward in a powerful straight, but I was able to sway to my left rather easily, dodging the blow. As I moved, I dropped my center of gravity and squared my shoulders. He had enough height on me that it wasn't too difficult for me to lower my neckline to his waist, so I sprung forward.

My right shoulder hit his right hip, and he folded easily, betrayed by his own momentum. With most of Noboru's weight on my shoulder, I heaved back with all of the strength in my tiny body, probably forming an immensely amusing image to any onlookers. At the top of my arc, I channeled more chakra into my legs, and jumped up into the air.

My back slammed into his waist, and his head came back up from under my legs to stare at me in horror as he realized what was about to happen. I shot my legs up and slammed my butt into his chest, bringing us both to the ground.

The impact stunned him completely, pushing all of the air from his lungs and leaving him lightheaded. I rocked forward into a seated position and tapped his neck, signaling an end to the spar.

"Winner, ring one, Kimoto Kazuo," announced Masaru, looking at me with great amusement and obvious approval. There were a few snickers in the crowd, and I couldn't help but feel a little bad about humiliating the kid.

'Don't be so cocky when your skills clearly need work,' I said in my mind.

In fairness, from what little I had seen the kid wasn't awful. In terms of speed and the forms I had seen he was a little worse than Mitsuo. Unfortunately for him, I was much better.

Unfortunately for me, I wasn't good enough to win the next match.

__________

"Winner, ring four, Murai Chiyoko!" Masaru called as I flew through the air.

Masaru hadn't played it safe, like Juro, letting me move up the rankings step by step. For my second match, he had pitted me against a kunoichi in the middle of the pack in terms of strength. The girl had taken the match far too seriously, fearing the risk of a similar humiliation, and had gone straight for the kill.

She had manipulated me into a hold that wasn't too hard to escape from, but had shocked me by spinning and tossing me out of the ring.

In the next match, I went up against someone a little less skilled, but still beyond my current capabilities. From what I saw of Noboru's two other opponents of the day, I wasn't amongst the bottom three of the class, but I didn't know where else to place myself in terms of Taijutsu.

__________

"So is the fourth year class as bad as they say?" asked Mitsuo eagerly.

Five of us were seated outside Akari's teahouse, sweating heavily while sipping cold mugicha, a naturally caffeine-free tea made from Barley.

"Nah," I replied, "As long as you're not a slacker," I continued, kicking Sho lightly in the shin as a joke, "you'll be fine," I explained.

"Hey!" Sho shouted petulantly, but without any real sign that he felt offended. His comical pout changed to a smile as Hisoka giggled and Kou let out a small laugh.

"So what'd you do today?" Mitsuo asked, still curious.

"A lot of the same stuff as normal," I answered, taking a sip. "We started with Taijutsu, but after that it was all classroom stuff," I finished. Mitsuo's eyes lit up.

"Did'ja win?" he asked excitedly. I nodded proudly.

"My first match," I informed. "I lost the other two though," I continued, shifting to a frown.

After a few months, sparring with just Sho, Hisoka, and Kou had ceased to produce as drastic an improvement. Knowing Mitsuo's zeal for Taijutsu, I had asked him to join, and he had jelled with the group wonderfully. He benefitted greatly from sparring with the others two-on-one or three-on-one, and I had taken to sparring against two of the younger students while they worked with Mitsuo. I wasn't quite ready to take on all four at once, but I was getting there.

"Wow, they must be really good then," he said, thinking fondly about having stronger opponents. Mitsuo was a total battle maniac, and the idea of having so many strong sparring partners in the same class must have been a dream come true for him.

"Yeah, most of them are already stronger than some fresh genin," I said, not exaggerating. I was in the 'Jōnin-track' class, which consisted of students determined to have the highest likelihood of becoming Jōnin in the future. Generally speaking, not even a fifth actually made it that far, but the majority of academy classes wouldn't manage to produce even a single Jōnin. As a result, these students were far more advanced than most academy students. Most members of my class could have graduated with an 'easier' academy class the previous year, but the academy didn't like the idea of tossing promising youth into the world without doing the most to build them up. As a result, children in the Jōnin-track only graduated when they couldn't develop any further in the academy.

"That's awesome," Sho said admiringly. Over the past few months, I had grown at a slightly faster rate than the other child. As a result, we were essentially the same height, and he had mentally started to group me with the 'older kids' even though I was technically younger.

If only more children could treat me like Sho.

The five of us continued to make idle talk while seated on the patio of Akari's tea house. Rest was an important part of physical development, and spending rest time with friends made it far less boring.

__________

The five following months passed by before I noticed. Everything had gone too smoothly for me to really register the passage of time. It helped that my daily routine involved constantly exhausting myself both physically and mentally. Akari had continued to try her best to get me to slow down, but I had started avoiding her lately. I would be graduating soon, and the pain I would cause her when entering the field just wasn't something I was ready to think about. As such, I simply threw myself even further into my training. With Hana and Sora both regularly out of the village, the number of people I interacted with personally dropped even further, giving me even more time.

The results of my efforts were, fortunately, extremely apparent. I had finally defeated the former class leader in Taijutsu with only a week to spare. In chakra exercises and academics, I had been at the front of the pack from the moment I entered. As such, Ninjutsu and Bukijutsu were the only subjects where I was simply 'above average.'

Leading the class in three of five subjects, thankfully, was enough to graduate as the 'Rookie of the Year' – a title that actually existed much to my surprise. In the long run, I knew it didn't mean that much; however, it meant a lot to my pride. I was extremely happy that no one from a group of actual seven, eight, and nine-year-olds had managed to keep up with me. My fifth birthday had passed two months ago, so, unfortunately, I didn't beat Kakashi (if he even achieved the same feat as his fictional self), but I was still relieved that I at least hadn't potentially been outdone by a five-year-old.

As I reminisced about the preceding months, Masaru finally walked into the room.

"Alright, brats!" Masaru yelled, quieting everyone down. "Looks like you all made it," he said, turning down his volume slightly and breaking out into a grin.

"I tried my damn hardest to break you down, to stop you from getting here," he started, "but every single one of you that's sitting hear managed to get past me," he continued, trailing off into a pause. "And for it, you have no idea how proud of you I am!" he bellowed, leaping up and slamming down heavily onto his desk.

There were several shocked stares from the class. Not because of his antics, we were all used to that, but because of his praise. Masaru never gave praise. He might have joked around, and never offered serious insult, but he never gave praise.

"You!" Masaru shouted, pointing at a class member, "You! You! You!" he continued, pointing randomly throughout the room. "You! You! You! You! You! All of you!" he shouted at the top of his lugs, a slightly manic look entering his eyes.

"All of you are gonna be awesome!" Masaru informed us, with nothing but complete honesty showing in his eyes. The guy had been an unlikeable asshole the entire time I had known him, but I had to give him props. He knew how to put on a performance to get students spirits up after breaking them down for almost half a year.

"Alright, that's enuff a' that," Masaru said, hopping nimbly off the desk. "Hideki will give you your team assignments, keep workin' your asses off and the lot of you will be fine," he finished, smoothing out his jumpsuit. "See ya around, genin!" he offered, walking out the door as an exasperated-looking Chūnin entered.

"I apologize for my colleague's," the newly identified Hideki started before pausing for a moment. "Exhuberance," he continued, finding the word. "I am Kuwahara Hideki, and I will be giving you your team assignments," he explained. "I will call your names, and name a training ground. You will have to report to the training ground by ten-hundred. Am I clear?" he asked.

"Yes, sir!" we echoed, having been frequently told that we needed to address superiors that weren't teachers quite differently.

"Very good," he said in acceptance. "Adachi Mako, training ground one-twenty-nine" he started, reading off his list. My anticipation grew as he approached 'K.'

Finally, after what felt like hours, my name came up.

"Kimoto Kazuo, training ground three," he spoke. I looked up in shock the lower-numbered training grounds were reserved for senior Shinobi. A number as low as three… A grin stretched out on my face. I didn't know who Suien had managed to wrangle into teaching me, but it looked like I was in for a good time.

"Thank you, mister Kuwahara," I said with a bow, before quickly leaving the room. I couldn't wait to meet my new team.

__________

I arrived at the training ground with almost an hour to spare. I paced around restlessly, thinking about how to make a good impression. After a decent bit of deliberation, I decided to take out a book on chakra theory from my pack. It would show that I was dedicated to training, but smart enough to avoid tiring myself out in case I was going to be tested.

The hour passed by at a disgustingly slow pace, but after what felt like a century of agony I was finally broken from my reading by a shadow flickering into the field. I looked up in surprise. I knew that it was still far outside my level of ability to sense a Jōnin coming, but to experience it was always a shock.

As I took in who stood before me, though, my mouth fell open.

There, in the center of the field, flanked by two young Chūnin, was one of the most powerful shinobi in Takigakure, and one of our few shinobi who was actually known and respected around the world. He was the only shinobi from our village, that I knew of at least, to have an official moniker in his Bingo Book entry: the Swordfish of Waterfall.

He had gained his name during the Second Shinobi World War by first faking his own death, and falling into the water off the shore of the Land of Hot Water. He had waited for a few minutes until his target had discounted him as a potential threat due to the amount of time he had been underwater. Once his opponent was distracted, he had burst from the sea, and sliced through the abdomen of one of the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen of the Mist.

"Sup, shitty brat," came a gruff voice from the imposing, incredibly accomplished man. He looked down at me with an amused glint in his eye and a wide, slightly frightening grin.

As far as I knew, the man should have had no time at all; especially not enough time to take on a genin. I should have known rather well, since I had a different name for him than what was written in some book.

I just called him Uncle Suien.