The month had passed without anything new happening. I wrote out my report and turned it in, and with a guess I decided that I was Kankuro's target.
Low and behold, as I checked my grade, I was correct. To be honest, I could have just bull-shitted my report, because I doubt Nakomi-sensei has every known piece of information about each kid in his class, and if he did, I would have feared for my life. I would have gone rogue at that point.
As we wrapped up the first month of class, we moved onto full chakra control exercises. He first began by having us meditate, feeling out the chakra and our network.
I sat in the soft sand of the desert, feeling the warm rays of the sun on my back. The others around me rustled about, and as we sat in silence, the shuffling of each grain of sand became ten times louder.
I sighed, reaching inside my self as I imagined the swirling ball of chakra in the pit of my stomach. My chakra pulsed throughout my body with each beat of my heart. So, the higher your heart rate the faster chakra travels?
As I felt my chakra, I noticed that it felt much weaker on my right side, and much stronger on my left. On my left it felt choppier. Presumably because of my burns.
I emerged from my meditative state. As I looked around, some kids, like Kankuro, Temari, and Gaara were doing well. Yuno seemed to be struggling. Then there were a few others, who I didn't know the names of, that seemed to be just fine. Nakomi-sensei, sitting in front of our half-circle, was also meditating.
I sighed quietly, closing my eyes and zoning myself into my chakra once again.
.
.
.
As I walked through the front door of the orphanage, I froze upon spotting a shinobi in the kitchen, speaking with Reena-san as she cooked dinner.The shinobi himself wore his light brown hair pulled back in a topknot with his shinobi headband around his forehead.
"Is this Himoko?" He asked, raising a brow at me as he analyzed me for a few moments.
"Yes, this is Himoko, Himoko, this is Nakahana-san, he wanted to take you on as an apprentice," Reena-san explained.
I paused. What did they want me for? Were they trying to manipulate me? Are they going to force me to spill my secrets?
Nakahana-san sent me a small wave before approaching me and crouching down to my level, delivering a small grin, "I bet you have some questions. But the general gist of the matter is that your sensei believed that you have much potential in stealth and espionage. I'm pretty good at it myself. So if you agree, I would technically be adopting you," he explained.
I stared at him tensely, unsure. "I know that you're pretty young, but you have an anonymous sponsor that will be paying for your living expenses,"
Sponsor? Anonymous? I feel like those two words are never good together. I looked towards Reena-san, begging silently for possible advice.
"I personally think you should. You'll excel quickly, and I'll have one less mouth to feed," she chuckled, while stirring the soup.
I looked towards Nakahana-san as I slowly nodded my head. "Okay, fine."
What could I loose?
"Great! Go get your things packed up, and we'll be on our way. By the way, you can call me Shiruma-sensei!" He stated, ruffling my hair and sending me out, before turning towards Reena-san. "So, where do I need to sign?" He asked.
I didn't have many belongings, so I didn't have much to pack. Just my clothes, books, and the marbles.
Once I had everything packed I made my way back into the living room where I saw Shiruma-sensei handing some papers over to Reena-san. He jumped slightly as I stood next to him. "I didn't hear you there, Himoko-chan!" He chirped. He seemed way to happy to be a jonin. "Lets get going!" He said as he ruffled my platinum blonde hair once again.
I followed him through town, and he led me to a run-down looking apartment building. It didn't really seem like a step up from my previous place, but I guess it would be quiet here.
"Yeah, don't blame me, blame your sponsor or whatever, he's the one that chose the place," he chuckled. He rummaged through his pocket and pulled out two items. A key and an envelope, handing them to me.
"Here's your house key, and some money. Your rent will be paid for by your sponsor, so this is for food, along with a little bit extra. To be honest, if it were up to me you'd live with me until you at least have a genin team, but your sponsor wants it this way," he chuckled.
He walked up to the door, pulling out his own key and unlocked it. Swinging it open, I could tell it was low quality. The floor was made out of hard sandstone and the paint was peeling and chipping off of the wall.
Although whoever my tenant was, was at least kind enough to furnish the place, and the furniture was actually decently high quality. A couch in a little enclave of the room, a bookshelf on the left adjacent wall, and a coffee table in the middle. The kitchen was a dining room combo with three tables.
Overall it was a fairly small room. Shiruma-sensei plopped down onto the couch. "You can go explore the rest of the place, I'll be right here," he ]huffed.
I nodded making my way down the short hallway. The first door on the left was a closet with three towels and wash cloths. The door right next to that was the bathroom, with just a sink, toilet, and shower. Then a bit further down the hallway on the right was the bedroom. Just a queen sized bed, book shelf, a desk, and nightstand with a lamp on it. In the corner of the room was a closet.
It was a plain apartment, but it was better than the living conditions of my past life by far. I don't even have to pay rent! I laughed to myself as I made my way back to the living room, where Shiruma-sensei was still waiting.
He hopped up off of the couch. "Alright then, since you have a lay of the land, let's get you some training, see where you stand!" He chirped, strutting out of the door.
I still didn't trust him. The village was planning something, they wanted to use me. This was all just a façade.
But I didn't really have any other option.
.
.
.
I found myself standing next to Shiruma-sensei in a training ground, number two I believe. It was like the rest, except all of the targets were lined up in a row in front of me. "Let's see what you got, kid," he crossed his arms, a lopsided grin on his face. "Throw some kunai for me."
I stared at him. "No stretches? No running?"
He raised a brow at me, seemingly incredulous. "What is Aoba teaching you kids? You want to run??"
"No," I responded, staring up at him.
"Just throw the kunai already!" He stated, gesturing to the bag on my leg. He seemed vexed.
I nodded, quickly grabbing three kunai for my targets, and then rapid firing them towards them. All while Shiruma-sensei seemed to be crying to himself. "what does Aoba teach you?? Does he just give you kunai and tell you to go ham?"
"That's is about the gist of it," I nodded in agreement as I collected my kunai.
"So, he just gives a couple of 7 year old's kunai, and tells them to knock themselves out. Don't get me wrong, he's a great guy, but come on?? Aoba! I'm going to have to have a chat with him." He groaned.
"Well either way, you need to stop rapid firing, you're going to waste kunai like that. You gotta be efficient, professionals have standards!" He exclaimed, "you want to be slow but precise. Then you can move onto being quick and deadly, alright?" He stated, placing his hands on his hips. "Now, do it again, and you are not leaving this training ground until I say so."
I sighed, throwing the kunai. Trying to throw as straight as I could, but cringed slightly as I 1) missed completed and 2) felt a painful twinge in my arm and shoulder along a single muscle.
"One thing, no hard feelings. Second thing, you want your arm to be straighter than that." Grabbing my arm, he pulled it outright and adjusted it to be sticking out in front of me. I felt that twinge of pain in my arm and cringed a bit.
"What's with the look?"
"It just feels weird when my arm is like that," I explained, dropping my arm back to my side again.
Shiruma-sensei had a thoughtful look on his face for a moment, before stating, "mind rolling up your sleeve for me?"
I nodded, pulling up my sleeve. To which, Shiruma-sensei gets down to eye level with my arm, running his calloused fingertips along the scarred tissue of my arm. "Well, you were in a fire right, as a baby?"
I nodded quietly in response.
"What might've happened is that your muscles and nerves in your arm may have suffered the consequences. I'm going to have to take you in to get it fully checked out, but things like this are pretty hard to heal, especially nerve damage. So right now lets work on making you left handed!" He declared before standing up. I let my sleeve back down.
"Alright! I want you to throw, write, eat, drink, and do everything with your left hand." He stated.
"And if you continue using your right hand, I promise I will make sure that you can't use it. Then once you become accustomed to using your left hand, you're allowed to use your right again, as long as it doesn't bother you," he explained.
I responded with a single nod.
To be honest, I could probably get used to this Shiruma-sensei.