Developments

'5 weeks and 5 days left.' My counter for the Academy's beginning sounded out in my head as I opened my eyes, the thin beams of dawn rousing me from a deep and satisfying sleep.

As painful as Tokei's training had been, it was leagues beyond anything I had managed to do by myself, the workouts he had me doing not only made me work harder as someone was watching over me, but they were also more effective as he fixed my improper stances and forms. Even though we had started out on the wrong foot, we had gotten a little more amicable.

The annoying thing is, since our first session he had outright banned the use of Chakra until I was "less insubordinate". Ridiculous.

When he said that I had to stifle a chuckle, who the hell calls a kid "insubordinate"? Is he a drill sergeant? I guessed that he might have a military background.

I got up from my bed and stretched, groaning a little as my sore muscles were pulled, actually being exhausted was a strangely satisfying feeling. They were a testament to the fact that you had worked hard and were improving, I turned my gaze to the child who snoring away inside a crib.

Kuma was sleeping soundly with a small smile on his face, looking at the boy I couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness.

They did not know what fate their parents had succumbed to.

I didn't need to be told, I had figured it out when a man in an ANBU uniform came to our house and gave Tomo a slip, I was excited beyond belief to see an ANBU ninja for the first time but that excitement was shot down once I saw Tomo's sour expression.

The kids inside did not know, in fact, other and Tomo and I, nobody else was aware. Even Sasuke was left in the dark for now… he was attending his last day of school for the year and we hadn't found a way to break it to him. Sasuke didn't know them outright, but he was praying for their safety alongside everyone else.

Kuma and Numa's parents were attacked on their mission, I knew none of the details as Tomo refused to show me the slip, and my information was limited to what she had relented after I badgered her for information.

The twins' mother had died on the field, their father was currently missing and assumed dead.

I expected the worst but was still devastated, I didn't know them at all nor did they know me, but I didn't want the pure and innocent faces of the kids to be tainted with the sorrow that came from being orphaned.

'Poor kids…' I thought.

My days usually started on a sour note such as this one, every time I looked at Kuma I felt worse. 

I was always the burden, always the glass child that was cradled and cared for, in my previous life I never got the hint of a chance to look after someone; even to a small extent.

Kuma was the first person I was tasked with taking care of, knowing that he would soon realise what had happened, I couldn't help but feel a smidge of guilt. It was ridiculous I know, I have no control over who lives or dies in my surroundings but I couldn't fully stifle that emotion. 

'I need to get strong.' was my main takeaway from this tragedy.

If I get strong enough, I can control the fate of others. I only just started living properly and got to know some wonderful people, I will do everything in my ability to preserve that peace.

'And to become strong… I gotta train…'

Thankfully, training was never dull, the excitement and novelty of moving my body helped push through the pain, although I was getting more used to it, my steady improvements made me push myself even harder.

My body was still sore from the workouts that Tokei had me doing, since we started our sessions 3 weeks ago we had focused on physical workouts, which according to him, would give us better insight into how my body differs from most.

I was very pleased with the results.

Not only were my base strength, speed, endurance and reflexes far above what Tokei had described as the baseline for children my age, but the level of improvement that I experience is also multiple levels above what was expected. I had a sense that Tokei regretted telling me what was normal for someone my age as I may have gotten a slightly big head.

Even still, I know I cannot coast off that alone.

I had pushed him to teach me more about Chakra but he flat out refused and forbade me from using Chakra at all unless it was under his supervision. I had the urge to try it out alone but even I knew that it was a dumb idea, the risk outweighed the gains and so I refrained from trying to sense it again… until today.

Tokei had only gotten me to promise to never use Chakra if he would teach me someday soon, after constantly annoying him whenever I had the chance, he caved in and chose today as the one where we would finally begin to train my Chakra.

Hiruzen said it so himself, Tokei was a placeholder who would help assess the differences in my body, him teaching me was just an added benefit I received, not to mention, that the Hokage was also curious as to the state of my body and I'm sure Tokei would be reporting to him.

I wasn't particularly fond of that fact as I'm sure that other people who didn't have my best interests at heart *cough* Danzo *cough* also get those same reports. 

My Chakra was something integral to my future and it only makes sense that Tokei would want to test it soon, the earlier we catch any abnormalities, the better.

So far, I have encountered one quality of my Chakra that wasn't normal. The burning. 

I talked with both Tokei and Sasuke about Chakra, the former having much more experience but the latter being someone closer to me in age. Neither had experienced any discomfort or burning when they "pulled" on the Chakra, when I told him that I felt this way, Tokei damn near blew up again but restrained himself to get as much information out of me as he could.

Hopefully, today would yield some more answers.

I did my morning routine, freshened up, brought Kuma downstairs, and helped Tomo with some chores alongside Sasuke who was in his holiday phase, relaxing the days away.

While I waited for Tokei to arrive, I played with the twins some more. Amaya was quite shy but was warming up to me recently, I was reading her a picture book when I was interrupted.

*knock knock* someone wrapped at the door.

I placed Sasuke in charge of reading the rest of the book to Amaya and ran outside, Tomo wasn't too fond of Tokei so I did my best to keep their interactions to a minimum.

"Ready?" I asked Tokei, opening the door to meet his eyes. 

He nodded and without a word, flickered us both to a field for training.

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"Right then Aoki! Upper body today." Tokei said in his trademark cheerful voice. It was kinda silly how hard he tried to act so whimsical, was he trying to imitate someone? I'm sure that the stressed-out Tokei from when I pulled on my Chakra was the only time I saw him without a mask on.

'Should I tell him it's cringe?' I thought offhand.

'Nah not yet, if I get stronger than him I'll do it hehe… revenge for making me wait all that time while he stuffed his stomach and lazed around' I decided.

I started doing my exercises that focused on the upper body cheerfully, by now Tokei had nothing to comment on as my form was as good as it could get, after Tokei was satisfied, he had me run a few circuits, following some cones he set up in an oval shape.

Running was the toughest of the bunch, Tokei had me run at my fastest to expend as much energy as possible, I would then go for as long as I could, only when I was dead tired was I allowed to stop.

Before he had me jog at a reasonable pace but I took longer than expected to get tired so he went with this instead.

After some more time of warming up, he called me in for the main event.

Tokei started yapping about how dangerous Chakra was and how it was paramount that I listened to him and stopped when he wanted, I nodded along eagerly while silently yelling at him to hurry up in my mind, the man liked to talk a lot.

In the ninja world, respect wasn't just something you earned by treating others well and showing them the same respect, no, it was something you earned with your ability. Even though Tokei was annoying at times, I knew his strength was far beyond me right now so I did my best to not look uninterested as he listed off his warnings and threats.

After what seemed like another hour of nagging, he finally came to a pause.

"Sit down like before… But don't you dare start anything until I say so," he ordered.

I resisted the urge to salute sarcastically and sat down as instructed, Tokei followed suit and after a few moments, shifted his Chakra within me.

'...' I grasped around for the mystical sensation from before.

'There it is.' I felt it a lot quicker than the first time, the strange sense that I now had made it much easier to recognise the mysterious energy within me, I had a growing sense of familiarity with my own Chakra.

Tokei immediately chimed in as soon as I felt it, it seemed that he somehow could tell that I had made contact, "Good. Grasp onto that feeling gently, don't move it or pull it, simply feel." he instructed.

It felt as if I was tracing along a bulb of heat with a hand I never knew I had, the bulb was strong and bright, but it felt pliable… like a putty of sorts.

"Keep feeling, don't try to interact with it." he reminded me.

'Did I traumatise him last time? Jeez.' I complained internally at the man's incessant nagging.

Minutes passed by, and I started to get a feel for how the Chakra sat within me. My first instinct of calling it a "bulb" was wrong, it was more like thick water and it wasn't solely present in my gut; it moved and circulated through my body in a thin stream.

I only grasped the central pit in my stomach as the thin strands were difficult to feel, my invisible hand-like sense that I used to sense my Chakra was phasing through them.

'This feels so cool…' 

It was hard to not get excited, I doubt anyone from my previous world could stay calm when exploring a sensation as foreign as this one.

"Good… now I am going to move your Chakra ever so slightly, don't fight me, don't move any of it on your own, don't do anything but feel… nod if you understand," Tokei said after a few more moments.

I nodded.

Wispy strands of foreign Chakra swam along the pool of Chakra within me and hovered over it, as if magnatised, thin strands from my own Chakra pool started to string out and follow their lead. I had no control over it but even just by observing, I knew that his control was leagues beyond anything I had ever done, it was fascinating.

Only now did I understand the true gravity of how stupid my previous actions were, now that I had the context… maybe Tokei wasn't overreacting all that much.

What Tokei was doing was akin to delicately pulling out a noodle from a bowl of ramen, it was separate and wasn't tied to the rest of the dish, whereas my reckless attempt was closer to grabbing a loaf of bread and trying to rip a piece away. 

Tokei did this for almost half an hour more, getting me familiar with the process of manipulating Chakra, after a while, the foreign Chakra within me subsided but did not disappear.

"Your turn."

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[A/N: One of the final chapters for Chakra exploration, this is needed for the plot I have planned for the future! The Academy arc starts soon, in about 3 chapters, and I'm terribly excited about it!

Words = 2175, 400 power stones or 25 reviews for an extra chapter. 

P.S. Moving houses soon so the update schedule may vary for the rest of the month, I may post more or less, thanks for your understanding! Luckily it's much closer to my university ]