Chapter 10: An Overwhelming Defeat

"Do you have it?" a boy no older than 7, dressed in simple black garb and a black hoodie with a face mask was sitting next to a roadside Ramen stand as he slurped up the ramen in front of him. "Yes." The man in the usual Chunin attire of Konoha replied as he slid him a scroll. The boy quickly pocketed it while looking around for any prying eyes, "That concludes our deal then." The boy paid for his meal and got up to leave. "I do have a question though." The man's words stopped him before he left the shop, "Why are you acting so suspicious, Shin?" The man asked with a raised eyebrow. Shin pulled down his face mask and gave a brilliant smile, "I'm practicing Haruki sensei! You never know when I might be sent for espionage or intel gathering." The boy explained while hand chopping the air a few times. The grown man laughed as Shin took his leave, "Here you are!" The shop owner put down a large bowl of ramen in front of Haruki, surprising him, "I didn't order this." "The boy paid for it." The cook commented before going back to his work.

Shin took out the scroll after he got home, it was regarding fuinjutsu. He had already mastered the one he had gotten during the school year and could easily make simple explosion tags himself, in fact he had caused a scene when he "accidentally" triggered it and had to throw it out the window, causing an explosion that shocked the whole street. Shin had gotten a stern lecture from many well meaning adults before his mother chased them away. Shin wanted to thank his mother but she hugged him tightly, yelled at him for doing so dangerous, hugged him again and finally yelled at Haruki sensei for giving him such a dangerous thing.

Haruki sensei however was stunned to learn that Shin was already making explosion tags, in the end he promised Shin to give him a more advanced scroll that contained simple seals if he graduated in the next exam. Little did Shin know that he was the reason his bet had doubled and he actually had to "treat" his friend to some expensive meals before getting the advance scroll, afterall Konoha fuinjutsu techniques were heavily inspired and downright copied from the works of the Uzumaki clan due to their close relation and that caused Konoha to be heads above all the other ninja villages and their seals to be widely contested over by other villages.

Shin went over the whole thing, it was akin to programming only if the code was reliant on the programmer's understanding of the system itself. It was rather fascinating and Shin could just read up on it during his workout routine so it was no bother for him, the only time spent would be in actually practicing it. He had been trying to use another language as a replacement and wondered how the effects would differ compared to the original but thus far the progress was slow.

This was his routine during the new year holidays before he was finally assigned a Jonin sensei. Atsuki had been practicing on his own as Shin did his own thing, the duo only meeting up once a week for some chat and a meal. Shin's mother's reaction to his early graduation was an initial shock before a surprisingly calm response; she said that they would talk about it after he passed the Jonin sensei's test.

This is how Shin spent his new year and birthday, a small party with his mother and Pineapple. Some rice cake he got as a gift from the shop next door and some barbeque at an Akimichi restaurant along with a black color for Pineapple with dark blue and red threads woven in between.

After the new year holidays Shin went back to the Academy one last time to meet up with his new Jonin sensei which was what brought him and Atsuki to this training ground. The boys stood face to face with a purple haired woman as Pineapple rested as per usual, her hair cut short until they reached her ears and wearing the simple Jonin garb with a purple handkerchief tied to her neck with a side knot. Shin saw a pair of purple eyes scan them while he shifted in excitement.

The woman smiled, "So you two are this year's geniuses huh." He remarked, "My name is Fujio Hatake and I'll be your Jonin sensei, let's get along alright?" Shin's eyes widened for a second as he heard the clan name which caught the woman's eye, "Something wrong kid?" she asked Shin, "Ah no, just… I thought Hatake had white hair?" he reluctantly asked. "Oh this?" She grabbed a lock of her hair, "My mother hooked up with some rando. Must've gotten it from him." she casually replied.

'WTF! Is that something you tell people you just met?' The boys were left dumbstruck at the sudden and very much unwanted revelation. The woman in question however simply grinned at their reactions while continuing, "If you are offended by such a truth then you aren't fit to be a ninja. In the end the only thing that matters as a ninja is strength, Hashirama ended an era because he had strength, Konoha has been through 3 wars and still stands strong because its strong." The woman lectured as she saw the shifting expressions of her new students before continuing, "In the end it doesn't matter what clan's name you carry and who your father was, in the end the only thing that matters to a ninja is how strong he is." She paused before her smile turned into a wide grin, "And I'm strong, can you say the same?" she challenged. "Yes!" Atsuki replied with determination, "Then prove it." she challenged, "If any one of you can take these bells then I'll call you Ninja but if you can't, I'll fail you and you'll end up back at the academy and won't be able to apply for graduation again for another year!" Her words shocked Atsuki, "You can't do that!" he yelled which only widened her grin, "Oh can't I? I am a Jonin of Konoha while you are just two runts that somehow got lucky at the academy. If I fail you, not even Lord Hokage would challenge my decision!"

Atsuki's eyes widened as he looked to Shin for help. Shin only lightly smiled at his friend and nodded, "A2." he said while Atsuki processed his words before nodding. Fujia watched with a raised eyebrow when suddenly she saw the duo rush at her with Shin in front and Atsuki on his right. The duo sent shurikens flying at her which slightly curved midair, coming from two directions. 'Nice throw.' Fujio simply dodged them and waited for the oncoming attacks. Shin slashed at her from the front while Atsuki moved to her left, Fujio back stepped so she was facing both of them and waited as Atsuki attacked her left side again instead of her exposed front which she found odd but realization dawned on her as Shin in a burst of speed went from her right side to her back. 'Not bad, Haruki wasn't lying when he said they had excellent teamwork.'

*Puff* Just as the two kunai connected, a wooden log appeared in a puff of smoke as Fujio hid in a nearby tree to observe their reactions. The boys stood back to back as they looked around before Shin whispered to Atsuki and the two disappeared into the woods. 'I wonder what they are up to now?' She followed the duo as they went deeper into the woods, she saw Shin open a scroll and summon a lot of wire and kunais that the duo split between them as they nodded in silent understanding and went to work. 'What are they..? Oh, the wires have bells on them and the kunai seems to have explosive tags, where did these two kids even get so many tags? Unless they are fake.'

Fujio looked for a while before deciding to test the waters by triggering an alarm bell which immediately resulted in Atsuki sending over shurikens, she easily dodged those and flickered behind him, sending him flying towards Shin with a kick. Shin caught the boy and started to retreat as Fujio followed but just as she got closer to Shin *BOOM*. An explosion went off that started a chain reaction, causing all the tags to burst into flames, 'Shit! They are all real!?' she cursed as she escaped the explosions while the boy ran away around the explosions for a pincer attack.

Fujio saw their ruthless methods and decided to get serious and engaged in a taijutsu match with the duo. Relying on her superior speed she dodged most of the attacks while often redirecting them towards the each other, this however proved to be harder than she had thought; as soon as she would redirect someone's kick or punch towards the other, the first person would simply halt their movement and allow the other enough time to move out of the way. 'They are completely in sync! How the hell did you train them Haruki!?' she cursed.

She was very impressed by their performance and realized that Haruki's praises were not in vain, sadly they were just too outclassed. Fujio decided to end things and with a burst of speed she grabbed Shin's arm and flung him towards a tree and moved around to kick Atsuki so he crashed into Shin who was just getting up.

"That's all you two can do?" She smirked at them, she had already decided to pass them but that didn't mean that she couldn't have her fun. The duo slowly got back up as Shin smiled, "You made a mistake sensei." Fujio was surprised at his words, she unconsciously moved her hand to touch the bell, it was still there. "Oh? And what was that?" she decided to play along. Shin smiled as Atsuki replied, "We aren't a two man team!" he declared which confused her greatly. "What do you mea…" On instinct she dodged as a black shadow moved from the tree behind her. She looked at what it was only to see the shadow jump towards Shin and resting upon his shoulders, it was a furry black cat with red and blue eyes, its mouth holding a shiny round object that it deposited onto Shin's hand before the boy started to pet the purring cat, "Good girl."

Fujio looked at Shin holding a bell and smiled, she straightened up and said, "Well this is a surprise, I totally forgot about the cat. I admit my defeat." she smiled. Atsuki fist pumped the air, "Yes! Does that mean we pass!?" he asked Fujio who replied with a nod, "You pass! Well done. Come back tomorrow at 7 am sharp and we'll officially start your training." "Great, see you later sensei." Shin quickly dragged an excited Atsuki away as she smiled before speaking up, "Hey! Return that bell! I borrowed it!" she called out to them but that only made them run away faster.

'Meh, I'll just get it tomorrow.' she thought as she walked towards the village *Jingle* 'eh?' She looked down and saw the bells hanging from her waist, just as she had put them there. She pondered in confusion before facepalming herself, "I can't believe Igot fooled by those brats!" She was very embarrassed and decided to give her precious new students some "extra love" during the training starting tomorrow.