Chapter 8 - Genin Days

A - [Water Style: Wild Water Wave] (C Rank)

The user spews water from their mouth in a waterfall-like fashion to wash away the target. One can freely control the power of this technique by the amount of chakra kneaded and then released. While considered to be a basic Water Release technique, it has many variations.

________________

Chapter 8 - Genin Days

...

"Water Style: Wild Water Wave sounds more versatile," Shinji explained his reasoning. "Also I can learn the other jutsu later, right?"

"Of course, now let me demonstrate," Yamato smiled.

They walked towards the pond and Shinji could feel the excitement rise in his heart. This was something he hadn't expected before. Sayuri stood by the sidelines and looked on as if expecting something.

Yamato went through the hand seals, which were just three of them. Which was a lower number than Shinji had expected, especially from a C Rank Jutsu. The jonin took a deep breath and gathered his chakra on his throat, lungs, and stomach.

<Water Style: Wild Water Wave>

BOoOOM!

Water exploded out like a miniature river and smashed into the pond, Shinji could feel the heaviness of the attacks as his dark hair floated about, and his brown eyes were filled with wonder. Yamato saw this and smirked. "So what do you think? Gather your chakra in your stomach, throat, and lungs. The hand signs will help you where to draw chakra."

Shinji nodded and went through the hand seals, and felt the chakra start to gather to certain points in the body, and he imbued chakra consciously along those points too.

[Water Style: Wild Water Wave]

Boom!

A small squirt of water came out at first, which was gentle enough to water plants. Yamato chuckled. "That's better than most," he said, trying to encourage his student. "At first most people can't even spew out anything. Especially with jutsu like these."

But Shinji wasn't satisfied with this, and put more Chakra into the technique, and the small sprinkle of water burst out like an explosive hose. Smashing into the pond, creating a big splash that covered Shinji in water.

"Good, amazing even," Yamato nodded with pride, his eyes shone while he glanced at Shinji. "You are having an easier time than most with this. Even I wasn't this good at first, and my water style is said to be one of the best in Konoha, for now."

Shinji nodded, understanding that jutsu aren't something that can be learned in just one day. Especially C Ranks, there was a reason such ocular Kekkei Genkai like the Sharingan were feared and revered. Because with one look they could 'steal' and 'copy' days of hard work effortlessly. Tobirama was also said to be able to pull out a lake of water in the middle of the desert, but he wasn't anywhere near close to that.

'I need to work harder.' Shinji's ambition burned even brighter and Yamato who saw this smiled and silently encouraged his student.

…

It didn't take long for Shinji's chakra to run out as a C Rank Justu took a lot of chakra and at most he could currently use it six to seven times. Yamato explained that this was due to Shinji not being used to the jutsu and wasting quite a lot of Chakra when using it.

But did running out of chakra stop Shinji from training? No, because he immediately started sparring in Taijutsu against his jonin teacher. Of course, it didn't take long for him to get pummeled to the ground by the jonin and quickly grow tired trying to keep up against an opponent many times better than him in everything.

In the end, Shinji was laying down on the ground, breathing heavily, with sweat making his clothes stick to the body. While his willpower hadn't perished at all, nor dimmed, it had gotten stronger. But his body couldn't keep up with his willpower and mind for now.

"Have you had enough yet?" inquired Yamato, glancing down at his tired student. "You should rest a little. Your chakra won't recover enough to practice ninjutsu until tomorrow. But your stamina will. Remember, you asked for this hard work."

Shinji nodded, but not long after, a frown appeared on his face. Yamato noticed this and thought. 'He is just a kid after all, and it's natural for him to get irritated at the amount of work. Does he finally plan to change his training schedule?'

But before Yamato could say anything, Shinji spoke first, expressing what he was annoyed at. "Sensei, I think having a Genjutu book to read while waiting for my stamina to recover would be even more efficient. Because this waiting would just be wasted time otherwise."

Once again, Yamato was surprised by his student's words and knew that he had underestimated Shinji's drive. But not long after, a smiling Yamato had a stack of books and created a water clone to hold the books while his students read them. Yes, Shinji was tired enough that he couldn't even lift his arms to hold the book.

…

By the end of the day, when Shinji's chakra regenerated enough, he would try, and cast simple genjutsu, like changing the color of his eyes. They weren't able to go on any D Rank missions during the first day, and Shinji slumped on his bed as soon as he came home.

But the next day, as soon as the sun shone on his face, he could feel the sun's heat radiation on his skin and immediately woke up. Waking up before even the alarm clock sounded out, Shinji was ready to go to the training ground. Today Yamato had said that they would have to complete a D Rank Mission before training because a certain someone (Shinji) would otherwise be too tired for a mission after training.

As Shinji got out of his apartment, he thought he heard something from the neighboring apartment, but decided to dismiss such thoughts and go to the meeting place early. This way he would be able to train the Substitution Jutsu until everyone else came too.

…

When he arrived at the training grounds, a smiling Yamato was there waiting for him. "Shinji, you weren't thinking of training, right? When I explicitly told you not to."

"Of course no," Shinji lied without missing a beat and he looked offended that his jonin sensei seemed to even assume that he would do something like that. "I am only here because my neighbor woke me up."

"Neighbor?" Yamato seemed confused at first, but then realization seemed to dawn on him. "Oh right, you should live close to him. Then I can understand that."

Him?

Shinji was confused, he had just made up the lie on the spur of the moment and even felt nervous that Yamato might not believe it.

'Who is my neighbor? Yamato -sensei seems to know him.' Thought Shinji, wondering why he had not met his neighbor until now. He had been living in the apartment for almost a week now, so not meeting your neighbor even once by now either meant that they were busy or just they never stumbled upon each other.

Shinji shook his head, dismissing such thoughts, and while he was surprised that his lie had somehow worked on an experienced jonin, he didn't want to lie to someone who would help him in his journey. Especially about such a small thing, but at the same time, he couldn't just come out and say that he was lying.

The genin's thoughts clashed as he tried to think of something in a split second and the end he came with his answer. "Though sensei, if I had come here to train. Hypothetically, of course. Then I wouldn't have trained something that would drain my Chakra so much that it would leave me incapacitated to do the D Rank mission."

"What?" Yamato gaped, as realization drew on him. "Did you just lie to me?"

"Of course not, but I am just saying that if I had come here to train. I would have only trained the replacement jutsu which wouldn't waste a lot of Chakra." Shinji clarified with a cheeky smile.

The jonin got close and pinched his student's cheek. "How are you so good at lying?"

Shinji released himself from his jonin teacher's grip and his cheek had turned bright red. "I am not good at lying. You're just bad at noticing it. I made some stuff up."

Hearing that. Yamato's eyes narrowed. But Shinji acted casual, like anyone his age would. Due to his cautious nature, Shinji wasn't the kind of person who would trust someone easily. He had known his jonin teacher for only a few days. Yamato hadn't done anything untrustworthy, but Mizuki had been the same.

Still, he had enough common sense to not aggravate anyone and make it obvious that he wouldn't trust them with his life.

'Though with Yamato's power, I would be dead if he wanted to harm me. But as a ninja, it was good to be a little cautious.'

He noticed Yamato focused on him, thinking of something and then the jonin ruffled Shinji's hair, the smile on his face showing that he wasn't annoyed. "You'll make an amazing ninja," then the grip on the top of his head tightened, "Also you'll be a good liar. Oh wait, you're already good. You wanted to train Substitution, right? Then this is the best time to-"

*Poof*

Yamato's grip on him slipped, causing him to stop talking, and he saw that he was holding onto a log. It seemed like Shinji had already replaced himself. "Sensei, can you go easy on me?" a voice came from the forest. "I am a twelve-year-old kid, and hurting kids is abuse."

The jonin's smile turned frosty.

…

By the time Sayuri and Kota came, they had met each other on the road since they both were about to come here at the same time. But what greeted them wasn't the same training ground as yesterday.

Broken trees, the smell of ripped grass, some thick logs had been ripped from their roots. Water was everywhere, making the ground wet, and puddles were everywhere.

"What the hell happened here?" asked Kota, looking around curiously. He hadn't seen this level of destruction before.

"I don't know," Sayuri shrugged.

But her questions were about to be answered soon, as Shinji's body flew like a ragdoll. Their teammate's eyes were wide as an owl's and bloodshot as if he hadn't blinked in a while. All they saw next was a shadow shot towards Shinji and kicking his head off.

Both Kota and Sayuri's eyes widened in shock. Blood splattered out of the headless body, Shinji's decapitated head plopped on the ground. They couldn't believe what they're seeing. Shinji, dead?

"This time it's better!" suddenly the shadow that had killed their teammate started yelling out instructions. "While visually it was good, the smell of blood wasn't there. Any ninja with a brain would be able to tell that this is fake."

"Yamato!" Yelled out Kota recognizing his teacher's voice. He could feel his cautiousness slip into the wind. He pulled out a kunai, his grip tightening as he stared at his jonin teacher hatefully.

*Poof*

Suddenly, Shinji's 'corpse' transformed into a piece of wooden log. Leaving Kota feeling void… and kinda stupid now. So he just put the kunai back in his holster and coughed in his hand awkwardly. "I knew that of course. Shinji and I are eternal friends, we practically can communicate with just our minds. I was just trying to help trick Yamato -sensei."

Sayuri didn't say anything about his poor excuse, but her look said a thousand words. She obviously could see through such a poor excuse.

"Next time try and create a smell of blood, also during the kick, the log felt too light," Yamato's words brought the two out of their thoughts.

"What?!" Shinji's exasperated voice came from deep in the forest. "I have no idea how to do that? I don't even know any real genjutsu!"

Yamato suddenly stopped as he landed on the ground and with a thoughtful look on his face, he nodded. "Yea, you're right on that one. But still, I expect you to figure out such things quickly."

Shinji also came out of the woods, he was a little bruised, and his hair disheveled, and his eyes bloodshot, but seemed otherwise okay. "Damn, sensei, you should try and go slower. I can barely even see you," he rubbed his eyes, which he had to keep open for long periods. During the 'light' sparring, he didn't even dare blink, otherwise by the time he would open his eyes, Yamato's punch would be there to greet him. At least by now, he could do the Substitution without hand-seals. "Also weren't you the one who said I should try and keep myself in top condition when we start doing D Rank Missions?"

Fwish!

Suddenly, Yamato's body flashed again, and none of the genin could keep up. The next time his body became visible was when the jonin's elbow had sunk into Shinji's stomach. This caused him to spit out some saliva as his eyes rolled to the back of his head.

*Poof*

But again, Shinji had used Substitution, Yamato chuckled. "Am I that predictable?"

"Sometimes when you try to go easy on me, then yeah," Shinji was standing on one of the thick tree branches. "Though I have somewhat gotten used to your style. But I am not yet at a level where I can genuinely dodge even one of your real attacks."

Why was Shinji making himself visible and explaining his moves like a second-rate villain? So Yamato would be distracted and not notice the explosive tag behind the log he had used as a replacement.

*pshhhht*

Yamato caught on to what was happening, and his eyes widened.

BOOOOOOM!!!

The explosion was so loud that it made Shinji wince, and he tried to cover his ears. "That was expensive."

As the smoke cleared out, he felt his heart fall as a cocoon of earth greeted him, cracking up and revealing that Yamato was under it, a small nervous smile on his face. But he seemed to calm himself down easily. "Anyway, we should start doing the D Rank Missions."

Shinji breathed a sigh of relief at that, the only reason he hadn't been taken by surprise was due to his cautious nature. Which made him never drop his guard, even during a spar.

…

By the end of the day, Shinji had taken care of a baby as his D Rank Mission, trained himself to almost Chakra exhaustion, and as he walked home, it was almost evening, he looked towards the neighbors' doors. He wondered, should he try and get to meet them? See maybe if they were home.

Since Shinji remembered how Yamato reacted when he mentioned his neighbors, they might be some well-known ninjas. At least one of them was.

________________________

[Pick one, and put your choice in the comment down below]

A - Check who your neighbors are.

B - No, just go to sleep. Who knows what Yamato might make you train. You need to be well-rested.

C - Check who your neighbors are. But even if they aren't there, wait for them to come back, at least wait a couple of hours. Shinji would like to know who he lives next to, and not be completely in the dark about his Ninja neighbors.

________________

Status Update:

Water Style: Wild Water Wave [Mastery 0% -> 31%]

Konoha Leaf Style (Basic) [Mastery 70% -> 91%]

Replacement (E Rank) [Mastery 94 -> 100%]

Taijutsu 1 -> 1.2

Genjutsu 0.3 -> 0.5

________________

Author Note:

In the Manga, the Substitution Jutsu was more detailed, and for example, when Kakashi was attacked by the Demon Brothers during the Wave Arc, his body was ripped apart, blood spilled, and his limbs plopped to the ground. The anime censored that detail, but I just wanted to show that what Shinji is doing is within canon norms. Not something he suddenly came up with.

Pics of Shinji are in discord if anyone is interested. You can join discord where I also post the dice rolls of the chapter and their effects. Since there are quite a lot of them and I don't wanna fill the chapter with dice roll numbers.

Discord:

https://discord.gg/wbwRTqd7jr