4 Chapter 3
In the blank space with nothing; there sat an old man in the meditative position
"Master, Is there something wrong?", asked Old lady Aide
"He is coming", said the sage of six path
"Who?"
"Yokai"
"W-what but why? why now"
"He is taken the interest in the boy, who inherited my will and gained space-time affinity"
"What should we do master, should I take Taiga and run?"
"No... he still will be able to find you and once he does, you would not be able to fight him at that moment, I am going to take care of him myself"
"Master you still are not healed from your previous fight, you can't"
"Don't worry I know what I am doing, I will use Heavenly flames one of the ancient celestial Arts and if it still doesn't work I will use Shikon's Space-Time Ninshu Barrier" (Ancient Time-Space ability)
"But that Still won't solve the problem master, Yokai is-"
"I know that's why you have to erase all the evidence of Taiga's existence, they must not know that he got blessed by my blood"
"Yes Master"
"Also, Teach him the flow of time; make sure he can only change the time for himself and not others"
"Yes Master"
"At the same time start Flying Raijin level 3"
"Yes Master"
"I will depend on you"
"Yes"
-------
"Grandma, what is this neckless?", asked Taiga who was offered a neckless from his grandma
"Taiga, promise grandma that you won't take it out at any cost what-so-ever"
"But Grandma if it falls on its own?"
"Don't worry the neckless cannot fall, no one can take it as well not until you take it out yourself"
"Hee-Hee will you teach me a new technique If I don't take it out"
"You naughty kid, alright Grandma will teach you a new technique but promise not to take it out at any cost"
"I promise", Taiga grinned at his victory not knowing he played right into the hands of his Grandma
Grandma smiled meaningfully
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"Alright, Listen since you have Space-time chakra, all you have to do is put the space-time chakra into the kunai and throw it, once you do that you can control the flow of time around your chakra it allows you to accelerate the motion of an object, usually a throwable weapon by increasing that weapons overall speed and lethality to extremely high levels, making a single strike fatal."
"you can slow it down as well"
-------
He throws the kunai at the wooden dummy at an extremely high speed, all there was a silver light from the kunai before it hit the dummy
No matter how hard he tries he can not flash with the kunai, it was extremely fast for him to be able to react
"IDIOT, use your chakra, your chakra is space-time related once you put it in your time you can see things in slow motion no matter how fast the other thing is and once you put it on your body you can increase your reaction time by far too much, use these two and you will be able to keep up, now do it again"
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Next day, 05:00 AM at Training Ground 44. (Forest of Death)
"Are you the ones that Genma tests?"
Standing in front of Taiga Ken and Yakumo are two ninjas
"Yes," Ken answered and Taiga alongside Yakumo on side nodded.
"Well then good luck kids. It's been a while since we saw Training Ground 44 test" Izumo said with a smirk.
"Anyway, look at here…" He pulled out some paper and expanded it to reveal to us it was a map.
It was a map of Forest of Death. Izumo pulled out a stick and pointed it to the tower in the middle of the map.
"Your's goal is to reach this tower and deliver the object we give to you. Genma is already waiting for you in there and the two who delivers the object first are the ones who will pass the test." Izumo explained to the bunch of 12 years
"The time limit is four hours, if you keep walking from here to the tower it will only take one hour normally, however..." Here he smirked before he turned to the table not far from him and took three... Orbs made of glass? "These three are the items,..." He handed them to Taiga Ken and Yakumo and they were very light... That means...
At their face, Izumo's smirk widened as if he just found something amusing.
"Yes, it's very light which means this thing is fragile... One normal strike even from ninja academy student will break it." Izumo stated, "If you won't be careful it will break when you are on your way and let me tell you..." He leaned slightly forward to make an intimidating effect, Yakumo Ken and Taiga appeared to be disturbed, "This forest filled with creatures that even can kill Chunin ninja, this place is not a playground especially for someone, who just graduated from the academy, like you three... If you are not careful..." He paused and there was slight killing intent from him "You might die..."
"Well!" Izumo leaned back and clapped his hands in a cheerful manner "Now if you are ready, let's start the test! You two can put that in your backpack. Afterward, follow me and Kotetsu here! We will start your test separately" He said with a big grin.
"Eh?" Yakumo blinked "We will not do it together?"
"You will do it together of course! But you will start it from a different place." Kotetsu stated with a nod as he folded the map he held "Remember, the first one to arrive will pass the test and you can use any means necessary to pass." He said with a slight smirk.
Yakumo Ken glanced at each other and Taiga, who for some reason is not intimated, even though he was just as nervous as other two
Kotetsu seemed to notice Taiga's look and he only laughed, much to Genin's annoyance
"Alright, let's begin the test! Follow me."
"But before that remember Taiga, No space Jutsu to store Glass ball at any given cost"
-------
Moment later.
Yakumo gritted her teeth in annoyance as she jumped and dodged an attack from spiders. The spiders were big, bigger than her, they were about her own size and there were a lot of them!
The Chunin and instructor before were clearly not lying that this forest is dangerous.
It had been just fifteen minutes after she started walking and she is already barraged by giant leeches which fell from the sky! She was barely able to dodge them! Heck, even few of them managed to land on her hand and it was lucky she brought salt and used it to separate leeches from her.
However, the wounds were already opened, the leech was able to inject something that makes her wounds stay open! Her blood loss was big and her condition due to her isolation is not helping!
And not long after escaping from the leeches she found herself surrounded by a group of giant centipedes! And, mind you, there were so many of them! They were large!
Seriously, what's wrong with animals here?! All of them are bigger than normal! She means, what kind of centipede sizes about 4M?! And what kind of leeches is bigger than someone's hands?! And there are spiders too!
But even it was hard she can't fail! She can't fail in here!
She finally became a Ninja! She finally did! Becoming Ninja is her dream and her goal is to become a great one. As the last survivor of Kurama Main Branch members, she had responsibility and job to do!
It was her own fault that her parent is dead...
So it was her job to atone it... To bring Kurama clan back to its glory... She had to! And she can't do that if she will not become Shinobi!
She wasn't that bad, despite her isolation and quite a weak body, but still, she was better than average Genin. Thanks to that woman training her at a young age, she also knows high-level Genjutsu.
Her Ninjutsu though is only average, however, she can perform three basic academy ninjutsu quite well. Her taijutsu... Well, she is bad at that and her shuriken jutsu is standard.
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Sarutobi Ken a boy with genius parents, a boy with huge dreams, he worked harder than anyone else, sadly his talent is mere Medicore, he who was deemed as prodigy deemed as worthless, he is just another sarutobi in a large clan
He saw the tears of his mother, his father expectations, he saw them sad, disappointed, he does not want to see it anymore he wish to become strong, no matter what anyone says he is sure he will become someone of great status, he is sure to make his mother happy, his father proud
A spider launched at him trying to swallow him whole, he rolled to the side and fired a fireball at it
*Huff*Huff*
Not noticing a small spider who bite at him
ACK
He seethed in pain as the glass orb fell on the ground
His eyes widened when a silver light flashed and the orb disappeared
Another three silver light flashed and a yellow flash came and struck a seal on a spider, flash again to another kunai put a seal on another spider, flash again to another kunai, put a seal again
The kunai were going extremely fast, and yet the flash happen again and again till all the spiders were put to sleep, it didn't even take 1 entire second
"Are you alright", Tiga handed Ken the Orb of glass
"Why did you save me, we are enemies"
"What are you talking about, we are going to be team-mates"
"B-But only 2 who reached first will be gennins"
"Then isn't it simple, we all reached at the same time", grinned Taiga, "let's go we have one more member to find
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Yakumo saw one spider launched a web to her through its mouth and she jumped again to dodge it. As she soared in the sky she failed to notice one spider crawling above the tree and it let out a screech as it jumped down.
Yakumo turned upwards and saw what was coming, but it was too late to react as the spider slammed her and... passed through.
The group of spiders who were seeing this seemed to be confused as they found their prey in the sky slowly dissipated like a mist.
Not far from them, Yakumo panted while hiding behind a tree.
'The glass!' She immediately went to her backpack and tried to find the orb and to her relief, it still was fine. She let out a sigh of relief at that before she carefully placed it back 'I don't know how close I am to the tower now, but... It already an hour! Only three hours left!' She gritted her teeth in annoyance as she realized she was wasting time now!
She immediately jumped and resumed her journey to the tower. While on her way she couldn't help but fear that her fellow ninja candidates may already be there or be closer than she was now!
She was wasting too much time when threated her wounds from that leech. Seriously, those things are very dangerous. She doesn't know maybe some Goddess of Luck at that time protected her from them.
As she was jumping from one branch to another her vision suddenly got blurry and her eyes widened.
'!? M-My head, c-could it be that I lost too much blood? Those things only latched to me for a minute!' Yakumo thought with panic as she tried her best to focus her eyes.
Sadly, her fate clearly was not that good.
By reason of a headache and blurry vision, she lost focus on her footing and she tripped over some branch. She immediately let out a scream as she fell from the tree.
'The orb!' She thought with panic.
BRUK!
It was lucky that she was able to twist her body to land on her stomach rather than the bag. If she did, the orb would be destroyed by now without any doubts.
But to her bad luck too, falling from eight meters and landing on your stomach is obviously not good for your body save for if you are trained ninja and able to endure pain. And since Yakumo is not that type of ninja thanks to her isolation it was bad.
"Ughh..." She grunted as she tried to stand up 'I-I think my ribs fractured a bit and bone on my foreleg cracked.' She thought with pain sensation on her chest and leg.
Damn it! Her situation is bad! With this wound and conditions, there is a chance she won't reach the tower in two hours! She can't afford to reach the place just in time since it better if she will arrive as soon as possible!
"I hope things won't get worse..." She grumbled as she tried to stand.
Oh, she just had to say that, hadn't she?
And in response to her words, suddenly, from the bush large tiger appeared. I mean really large, larger than Yakumo herself. The girl cursed inwardly at her situation as she fell into the stance.
'Only one, I could trap it in genjutsu...' She thought as she tried to perform hand seals. However, suddenly her vision got blurry again and she felt very exhausted and it was preventing her from casting the technique.
The tiger seemed to notice Yakumo's attempt to attack it and before she could, it decided to attack first. It let out a growl and lunged at her, much to Yakumo horror, she was feeling helpless while staring at the incoming tiger.
'Okaa-san, Otou-san, I... I'm sorry...' She thought as she closed her eyes and accepted her fate to the tiger that lunged at her.
BANG!
A loud voice echoed as she heard something hit the flesh, she immediately opened her eyes and sew the boy, Ken appeared and kicked the tiger on its right cheek.
'W-What?'
Ken wasting no time pulled multiple shurikens from his pouch and threw them to the tiger which crashed at the tree. Tiger which just stood again after the impact just in time to see multiple projectiles launched to it and the shurikens hit it in the head, killing it in a second as its giant cat body fell to the ground, lifeless.
Ken seeing the enemy's death turned to Yakumo who was staring at him with wide-opened eyes and gave her a smile "Are you okay?"
"E-Eh?" Yakumo blurted out, snapping from her daze and shock.
Ken decided to approach her openly and Yakumo was about to move, but she was feeling too weak and before she was able to do anything she found herself grabbed by Ken and...
"The wound on your back... It is still bleeding... You are losing too much blood." Ken muttered as he observed the wound on her back in rhomboid part.
Why do you care?
That's what Yakumo wanted to ask but she found out she couldn't speak somehow.
"At this rate, in only two hours you will be dead... The wounds are still bleeding after all... Wait a moment..."
Suddenly, Yakumo felt something touching her back and she hissed before felt slightly better, she could feel the flowing warm liquid that wet her back now stopped.
She was barely able to glance and see Ken's hands glowing green and he healed her wound with medical ninjutsu much to her surprise.
She blushed, in her 12 years no boy other than her family ever touched her
"I already closed the wound, but you still lost too much blood..." Ken informed before he rammed through his pouch and pulled out brown red small pill "Here, eat this..."
"What is it?" Yakumo hissed, her tone clearly shown she does not like her situation and there was distrust in her tone.
Ken was not feeling offended and only offered her a smile "This is Zōketsugan (Blood Increasing Pill), Taiga gave it to me this pill will speed up the formation and increase blood in the body. It tastes bitter, but at least you won't die." He answered.
"How do I know you are not lying?" She asked with a glare.
"If I wanted you to die, I wouldn't bother to looking for you or save you from that tiger," Ken replied with a sigh and as patient as he could, he now at least know this girl appeared to have a trust issue
In the meantime, Yakumo showed sincere surprised look at Ken's answer. He was looking out for her? "Why?" She asked with a confused face.
"Taiga told me after saving me that none of us wish to go back to being an academy student, all of us has a dream we wish to fulfill at all cost, so it's simple, we all reach the tower at the same time this way there won't be a second or a third that way no one will have to go back to being an academy student."
A Small smile form on her lips, "Yea, I guess you are right"
A group of tigers appeared from the bushes and they all were surrounding them.
"Ame-no-Ukihashi", a voice came out of no-where
A silver Kunai made its way towards Tigers, it was extremely fast as it hurts one tiger in the leg before the tiger could even begin to react; kunai disappeared and come out of no-where from the back of another tiger damaging it's leg before it could move; disappeared again, comes out from the side of another tiger damaging its leg before disappearing again
A kunai which flew among the group of Tigers, and the defeated group of tigers
A single Kunai appeared and disappeared defeating a group of Tigers without them even moving a muscle, it was terrifyingly fast and extremely lethal which makes Kurama, and Sarutobi mouth wide open
Taiga Jumped down from the tree
"Dude, How the hell did you do that?", asked Ken
"What oh this, well it's actually using two techniques; Time flow, and Ame-no-Ukihashi"
"B-But what happened to that kunai it disappeared", asked Yakumo
"I Used Ame-no-Ukihashi to store it"
"But where did you store it?"
"In another Dimension"
"..."
"..."
???, "what happened to you two"
"Nothing let's go"
"Yea let's go"
"W-wait at least tell me what happened"
-------
They defeated another group of Tigers
"The effect won't be instant, come on. Let's go..." Ken said and swooped up Yakumo in bridal style before she could do or speak anything. The boys jumped and left the group of paralyzed tigers behind.
Yakumo face turned to a shade of red as she felt ken's arm was holding her firmly. She didn't know whether she should be feeling grateful, but now she was more embarrassed than the last time.
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Taiga grandma walked till the blacksmith store
"Hello what do you want", asked the cheerful smiling girl (Ten-Ten)
"Hello Dear, would you make a kunai for me"
"Yes, do you want to purchase a readymade or you want to purchase a custom"
"Custom"
"How many do you want"
"3 sets, with 10 in each set"
"That would cost you 600 yen"
"Alright"
"What type of Kunai you wish me to make"
"This", she took out fourth Hokage's Kunai
"I-Is this fouth's Kunai?"
"Yes little girl, now can you make it?"
"Yes, wait an hour", she nearly squealed and run inside to make the kunai
-------
"Let me go!" She squeaked out of embarrassment as she started struggling.
Ken clicked his teeth, he immediately complied and gently put Yakumo down when he was sure their current position is comfortable enough to stand.
Taiga in concerned tone asked, "Are you able to walk Yakumo San"
"Y-Yeah..."
"Good, but don't push yourself okay?" Ken said with a grin and Yakumo only grunted while turning away. Ken only chuckled in amusement before his eyes widened, he immediately dashed and stood in front of Yakumo while performing one-handed seal.
"What are you-"
"Katon : Endan (Fire Release : Flame Bullet)"
Ken spewed out a blazing flame bullet and burned three spiders that were crawling on the wall and were about to ambush Yakumo from behind.
Yakumo seeing this had eyes open wide before she began to look around and noticed there was a group of spiders around them.
"Above!" She shouted as she saw spiders jump down at them like rain. There were countless yellow flashes as spiders fell one after another
Yakumo throws shurikens at remaining ones and pulls them into Genjutsu before killing them with a barrage of Shuriken
Dozens of fireballs launched from Ken's mouth and they struck the remaining ones that were not struck by Yakumo or flashed by Taiga.
The girl appeared to be surprised at Ken and Taiga skills in ninjutsu as her eyes widened 'They're good!' She thought in awe.
"Let's leave! We can't stay in one place for a long time!" Taiga yelled and Yakumo nodded
"This glass... I don't know what, but there is something about it that attracts animals to us, I'm sure of it! Damn that old man, he certainly doesn't make it easy!" said Ken before moving alongside his groupmates
Two hours thirty minutes later
"Well... I must say I'm surprised, never thought you three will come like this." Genma remarked with an amused smirk as he saw Yakumo Taiga and Ken's conditions.
There were dirt and bruises covered them, mostly on Ken. Yakumo, meanwhile, seemed to have lighter wounds, while Taiga seemed to be mildly hurt but that's not because any animal was able to hurt him straight on it's definitely because he was attacked in an ambush
'I need to work on his senses as fast as possible, that's holding him down quite a lot'
Genma wasn't surprised by that, but what surprised him is he saw that Yakumo was carried by Ken's piggyback style. The girl pale skin now turned to the shade of red, there was a bad bruise on her left leg and it seemed she wanted to hide due to embarrassment she had.
It was when they were on their way, they were attacked by a group of bears and this time the bears were clearly stronger than the tigers. Ken Taiga Yakumo managed to beat them all, however, one of them still somehow managed to hit Yakumo.
The girl practically threw herself so she was wounded further and thanks to that their glass orb did not break, yet she clearly broke her leg.
"Do you have the object?" He asked.
Taiga, Ken, and Yakumo brought out their Objects without a single damage
"Hmmm....what to do, I clearly said that the first two who reached the tower will be in this team, and the remaining one would go back to the academy"
"That's the thing sensei", said the grinning Taiga
"we all have come together", said the polite Ken
"That means there is no second and no disqualification", finish the serious Yakumo
"Well since that's the case, Ojou-san..." Genma smirked with a nod and Yakumo's eyes twitched at the nickname, "You all have passed the exam"
Taiga grinned, Ken smiled, and Yakumo nodded with a smile on her face...
"Well, I guess now congratulations in order." Genma chuckled "We all are now officially Team 2 and you three are officially Genins from now on!" He stated with a smirk.
Ken gave a grin Taiga grinned too and Yakumo also beamed as she smiled at him, the girl was practically too happy. After years, she was finally allowed to continue her studies and she finally became Ninja!
She unconsciously tightened her hug on Ken and her face scrunched to full smile of happiness. Ken seemed to be slightly choked, but when he noticed Yakumo's smile, he only rolled his eyes and accepted it. Well, this girl deserves a moment of happiness after being isolated for such a long time.
"Alright! I know, you are all happy, but Ojou-san's wound should be treated. You can act lovey dovey to your new boyfriend later." Genma remarked with a grin of amusement.
Yakumo blush reawakened and she let out sputter of denial while Ken only gave a flat look at him that was clearly stating he is not amused by the joke.
"I will carry Kurama-san to medics then..." Ken said and Genma nodded before he left.
"I will go back to Grandma then", said Taiga
"Taiga wait", said Genma
"Yes sensei"
"That jutsu that you did with tigers what is it called again?"
"you mean Ame-no-Ukihashi"
"Yes where did you learn it, and why did you not use it in our battle yesterday"
"Grandma taught it to me, as for why I didn't use it yesterday I just learned it, Grandma said What I learned is just the basic of this Jutsu"
"During the spider battle, you were able to keep up with you Kunai Ame-no-Ukihashi, How?"
"Grandma taught me that as well"
"And Flying Raijin?"
"Grandma"
"Alright, thank you for answering, Be a good grandchild alright?"
"Yes", before Taiga ran back
'Grandma huh? just who is this mysterious Grandma that knows space jutsu so well'
Unknown to anyone they were being watched from the very same grandma
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On his way to the medic, Ken heard a whisper from Yakumo.
"What, Kurama-san?" He asked.
"We are teammates now..." Yakumo muttered, there was a slight blush on her face "You may call me Yakumo..." She said timidly.
Ken blinked before he burst into a laugh "Okay then, Yakumo-san!" He replied as he left.
Genma who was watching them only shook his head, it seemed working with them will be amusing.
And now seeing those three, maybe, it will be interesting. Especially when he will see their expression when they will meet D-rank mission later.
"You watched it, Hokage-sama?" He asked as he turned and saw there Hiruzen standing in the corner of the hall room, hiding behind the wall.
"I've had watched it since the beginning..." Hiruzen said with a chuckle as he went down through stairs, " The boy is really good at Space-time jutsu, That Jutsu Ame-no-Ukihashi, it was just the basic version and yet he was able to defeat at least 4 tigers at the same time without a single scratch, think what would this technique will grow into once it fully evolve, maybe another Hirashin"
"Lord Hokage, I know this is not my place to ask this but... who is this boy grandmother and how does she know so many space-time jutsu, including Hirashin"
"That lady is very dangerous Genma, but don't worry she lived here for 12 years, and I can assure you she will not harm the village in any way, Given nothing happen to her grandson", said Hokage as he remembers her prowess
"But Taiga is a shinobi, Things are bound to happen to him", said Genma
"That Old lady is Over-protective of him, don't worry I am sure she must have marked him or done something similar in order to guarantee his safety", said Hokage
"Sigh...I don't like Overprotective Parents, They always come in the way", Genma stared at the direction boy left with a smirk.
"Teaching him will be interesting..." Genma remarked with amused smirk and slight glee in his tone.
