Will of Fire: Kakashi Hatake

Chapter 9

The rest of the week consisted of the same schedule, as it had the previous week. Akira made steady advancements in all aspects of her training, and was becoming more confident in her skills as a shinobi with each passing day. She didn't see Somaru or Yuhi all week.

On Saturday, Kishi broke from his normal schedule in the morning to discuss the chunin finals with Akira. Their goal was to come up with a game plan for each potential opponent Akira would face. He said that even if she didn't become chunin this first time around, he wanted her to learn as much as she could from this experience.

They discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the other leaf genin, and Kishi informed her of some of the sand genin that would also be in the finals. One of which she would be fighting in her first round. They spent the morning coming up with counters for their strengths, and ways to exploit their weaknesses. They drew charts in the dirt with sticks for visual aid. Akira was quick to find ways to exploit weaknesses, but needed some work on finding ways around their strengths. That afternoon they spent working on the jutsus they had deemed the most helpful.

The next morning, Akira woke up to the sun already shining through her window. She groaned in annoyance. She had missed her morning run time. She would have to make up for it later.

Akira made herself an egg sandwich then made her way out the door of her apartment, meandering her way around the marketplace. She had the day off again today, and wasn't eager to immediately start training right away.

She made sure to pick up some samples from the morning farmers market, sucking on honey sticks and trying different jams. It was something she used to do with her mother. She hadn't been in a while, but she had been starting to miss the smells of the market. It was her first time going since the ninetails attacked months ago. It made her sad.

After the farmers market, Akira walked around the edge of the village, following the wall. Eventually she came to the little pond tucked back in a corner of the forest that not many people knew about. She only knew it was there because of her morning runs. She sat down on the banks and took her sandals off, sticking her feet in the cool water.

Akira leaned back on her hands while kicking her feet in the water in slow motions. She stared up at the sky, watching the clouds pass overhead. One looked like an ice cream cone. Another looked like a snail. She smiled, but it was bittersweet, as she remembered doing just this with her father on the roof of their house the weekend before he had died.

She laid down on the grass, crossing her arms underneath her head. Eventually, she started to doze off under the warm sun, but was awoken but a strange noise nearby. Akira propped herself up on her elbows, and watched a frog jumping through the grass towards her. She laughed when it landed on her stomach, and seemed to look directly at her. It cocked its little head, and Akira mimicked the movement. Then it made a ribbit noise, and jumped into the water and disappeared.

"Cute frog." Akira said under her breath. She pushed herself up off the ground and took her feet out of the water. She pulled her sandals on and stood, heading back towards the market. It was almost time for lunch.

After her lunch, she headed for the training grounds. She was bored, and when she wasn't actively training or doing something, she would start to think about her parents again. And Akira was already sad enough that day.

She had brought her weapons pouch with her, so she worked on her shurikan and kunai throwing. She did straight target practice for a while, then moved on to some of the more intensive exercises she knew. She went through each move slowly at first, then did it again at full speed, doing the exercise that Obito used to do all the time. When she was satisfied with that set, she moved on to Rin's.