It was the fifth day of their stay in Kumiguri, and Gera was testing Pakin on everything he’d learned so far.

  She had him punch, kick, chop, block, dodge, and roll. He threw his shuriken, kunai, and senbon at a painted target one of the locals had made for them. Finally, she had him try to stick two leaves to his palms with his chakra.

  Now, they sat cross-legged in a copse of pine trees near the cliffs. Pakin nervously waited to see if he’d passed muster, but the impassive mask of her face wasn’t giving him even the slightest clue.

  “So,” Pakin jumped as she started to speak, “in summary. Your taijutsu is sloppy, your strikes are rigid and slow, and your blocks are flimsy. Your bukijutsu is laughable, you only managed to hit the target four out of ten times, and that’s not even accounting for accuracy. Your chakra molding is barely passable, but you have practically no control or finesse once you try to use it.”

  Pakin visibly flinched at each indictment. She wasn’t wrong, but it still hurt to hear. He could tell that everything she said was true, but he didn’t know what he should’ve done differently. Now, as she stared him down, he couldn’t help but wonder if he wasn’t cut out for a shinobi’s lifestyle. He lowered his head in defeat and felt frustration bubbling in his gut.

  “However, for only two weeks of training, it’s a pretty decent start.” Pakin jerked up in surprise. She didn’t let his sudden movement distract her, but continued, “For you, though, ‘pretty decent’ isn’t good enough. That result is partially my fault, though. I haven’t been pushing you nearly as hard as you can take it.”

  She shook her head as if disappointed in herself. “Part of the issue is that you can’t rush the basics. Rushing now leads to bad habits that you’ll have to correct later, so we could only move so fast. The other half of the issue is that I underestimated how far I should be pushing you with the limited time we have available. Things are changing from here on out.”

  She reached into a pouch attached to her lower back and pulled out a piece of paper to hand to Pakin.

  “That’s your new morning routine. You’ll wake up earlier and do your conditioning before working on my weapons. I need more time after lunch for your instruction.”

  Pakin scanned the paper and the instructions she’d written for him. His new workout schedule seemed more difficult, but not enough to scare him. He kicked himself for not thinking of waking up earlier to fit in more practice. His body was still that of a child, so he’d been trying to get about ten hours of sleep every night so he’d be more likely to hit his growth milestones. That was now a luxury he couldn’t afford.

  He put the paper in his pocket, and Gera continued her explanation, “Your taijutsu, bukijutsu, and chakra training will remain the same, but I will be introducing new elements to increase the difficulty of your exercises. This should start producing the results you need to truly be ready for the Academy.”

  Gera stood and motioned for Pakin to do the same. “While conditioning, I expect you to practice using your chakra. I’ll teach you a few ways to circulate your chakra without actually making it do anything.” She removed all her sheathed weapons and pouches as she spoke, placing them in a neat pile next to a tree. “Your bukijutsu training will evolve to include more fighting techniques with your weapons, to get you used to handling them with more familiarity.”

  Gera held up one hand, making half the seal for Tiger, and said, “Hold up your right hand and make this same seal.” Pakin did as instructed and immediately felt his chakra jump to attention.

  “This seal is often used to focus your chakra before completing a jutsu, to activate various seals, or for tasks requiring intense concentration and control. It also has one other specific use. You make this seal at the beginning of a spar, that’s why it’s sometimes called the Seal of Confrontation.”

  Oh yeah, it’s the one those huge stations in the Valley of the End were making. Those were Uchiha Madara and Senju Hasirama right? I wonder if there’s anything similar in the Land of Lightning? Pakin’s thought drifted for a second before returning to the present. Are we gonna fight right now?

  Gera released the seal, moved into a neutral stance, and said, “Every day from now on, we are going to spar. I’ll restrict myself to your level of speed and strength, but I want you to go full force. Use everything you’ve got to land a hit on me, in return, I’ll try and strike you with pulled punches and kicks so you can learn to keep your eyes open during a fight and train your reaction. However, if for any reason I suspect you are pulling your punches, I will attack you with the force you should have used. Is that clear, Pakin?

  Pakin swallowed a lump that had formed in his throat and nodded, saying, “Yes, Gera Sensei.”

  She stared at him with a now familiar intensity. After a few tense seconds, she nodded and said, “Good, you may now begin.”

  Pakin’s heart hammered in his chest, and he felt his mind go blank for a second at the thought of attacking another person.

  “We’re burning daylight, Pakin. Attack or I will.”

  Her words set his body into motion. He brought his hands up into the neutral defensive pose she’d taught him and slowly made his approach. His heart continued to beat fast and grew faster with every step he took towards his teacher. When he got within striking distance, he hesitated; he’d never even hit someone before, not even as a joke. He’d come from a place where violence was practically nonexistant, both in this world and his old. How did he even begin? What had Gera told him to do? Start your engagement with probing attacks or something?

  As his thoughts tripped over themselves trying to figure out his first move, Gera moved her right leg behind her and brought her hands up to guard. Before Pakin could figure out what was happening, in one fluid motion, she tilted her body and whipped her back leg sideways in a perfect side-kick.

  Without meaning to, he brought his left arm up into a guard and tucked his head close to his chest. He closed his eyes and felt the leg impact his arm with a light pat and was surprised to find the pain far milder than he’d expected.

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  Opening his eyes, he tried to react, but Gera followed up with a straight punch towards his right side. He yelped and jerked his torso to the left, forcing him to take a few faltering steps sideways. Looking towards his opponent, she simply returned to her neutral stance and waited for him to make the next move.

  Pakin centered himself, letting out a long, low breath to slow his breathing, and reoriented his stance towards Gera. He moved back into striking distance much quicker this time and opened with a right-handed backfist towards Gera’s temple.

  She easily dodged back, but shouted, “Good! Again!”

  The encouragement bolstered Pakin, and he followed up with several jabs towards Gera’s sides that she gracefully avoided.

  She dodged one of his jabs by sliding her foot back and presenting her profile. Pakin saw her exposed back and tried to capitalize, moving closer and throwing a left hook towards her kidney. She dropped low to avoid his hook and quickly said, “Very good! But remember your legs,” as she performed a textbook leg sweep that took him to the ground.

  He hit the floor with a “URF” as the wind was knocked out of him. It took a second for him to get back up and catch his breath, but Gera patiently waited for him to reassume his stance.

  The two went back and forth like that for a few exchanges. Pakin would close in to try and hit her, and she’d dodge a couple times before shouting some advice and knocking him around a little.

  On their fifth exchange, Pakin threw out an elbow after a quick punch. Gera ducked, and he capitalized on her position by going for a shin kick to her knee. Pakin felt like it was going to land, and that thought brought him up short. Gera lifted her shin to meet his, and he saw her frown as their legs made contact without making a sound.

  Quicker than he could see, her leg whipped into his, and he felt pain explode in his shin.

  “Fuck!” He cursed as he fell sideways onto his ass, reaching for his injured leg.

  Gera walked forward and stood over him with all the stern disappointment of a frustrated teacher. “Do NOT pull your strikes, Pakin, it defeats the whole point of these spars. You’re not at the point where you could seriously hurt anyone in a spar, and I know you’re too smart to think you might hurt me. Learning to fight without commiting to each attack is a good way to ensure you get your ass kicked.”

  Pakin blinked the tears out of his eyes and looked up at his teacher, who stared down at him with more intensity than he'd ever seen her muster.

  “That kind of hesitation gets shinobi killed, Pakin.” She leaned away from him and walked a few paces away, resetting into a neutral stance before telling him, “Get up, let’s continue.”

  Pakin hissed through the pain as he stood back up on his leg. He shouted “Yes, Gera sensei.” as he readied up.

  Pakin and Gera walked to the edge of Kumiguri, an awkward silence hanging between the two.

  Pakin had continued to subconsciously pull his strikes all through the rest of their spar yesterday. After his first punishment and lecture, Gera simply hit him with as much strength as he held back and reset the spar.

  There wasn’t any major damage; he’d just woken up very sore this morning. However, the memory of the pain his teacher had inflicted upon him hung like a cloud over his head. It seemed silly; he had felt worse pain during his conditioning and some of his taijutsu training, but something about her directly hitting him made it feel different.

  So, this morning, he awoke early as instructed and completed his new workout routine. Gera eventually woke up, gave him a terse but satisfied assessment of his weapon care, and they packed up to leave.

  On the way to the road, Pakin thought about why it felt so different from all the other training he’d done. As they neared the road, he unraveled why he felt so bad about their spar.

  It’s because I didn’t think she would ever actually try to hurt me. Of course, intellectually, he knew the pain was in service to a greater lesson and would ultimately keep him safe when he actually needed to fight against someone who meant him serious harm. That fact didn’t change the emotional impact of her attacks.

  He’d lived a pretty cushy life before now, both in Fuwayama and his old life. So, he’d never experienced abuse or serious psychological trauma. Of course, it felt bad to discover the people who cared about you could also hurt you, and easily at that.

  He looked at Gera for the first time that morning and saw that she looked very uncomfortable.

  Ah. It probably doesn’t feel too good to beat the crap out of a kid you promised to keep safe. Especially when it seems like he looks up to you so much. Pakin felt like an adult when he was with Gera; she treated him like one. She never assumed he wasn’t smart or mature enough to understand things. She didn’t try to hide the harsh realities of ninja life from him, and frequently highlighted the grimmer aspects of her job to answer his questions during their lectures.

  Still, he looked like a child and sometimes acted like one, too. He felt in control of his new body, but he also had moments where he suspected his child-like brain was taking the reins for a little bit. So, while Gera still respected him like an adult, she probably actually thought of him as a very mature kid.

  Pakin and Gera had reached Kumiguri’s exit while he was thinking. Gera turned to him to talk to him, and Pakin could see that her typical relaxed demeanor was nowhere to be found.

  “Alright, Pakin. The next leg of our trip is a town about a two-day walk from here. It’s more inland, so we have to cross a mountain to get there, which means we’ll have to camp outside one night. I brought all the necessary supplies in my pack, so don’t worry about that. You’ll skip your conditioning tomorrow since the travel will be conditioning enough. Instead, I want you to practice with your new exercises. I don’t want you to miss out on building though skills, just because we’ll be running all day.” She looked at him, no grin or smirk that usually marked her face, and asked, “Is that clear, Pakin?”

  Pakin looked at her for a moment before replying, “Yes, Gera sensei,” and jumping forward to give her a hug. It was extremely embarrassing, and probably the most child-like thing he’d done since waking up in this body, but it felt like the right thing to do.

  “Uhhhhh…” Judging by her stiff arms and tense back, Gera also seemed a little embarrassed.

  “Thank you for teaching me so much. It’s painful and exhausting just like you said it would be, but I feel like I’m getting better every day and I really enjoy learning everything you teach me. I know being a shinobi is hard, but I feel like after all this training I can do it.” He could feel his cheeks heating up, but he didn’t let go. He wanted her to feel the trust he had in her.

  “You're welcome, kiddo.” She returned his hug with a light squeeze and pulled away.

  She tousled his hair and laughed. She grabbed his shoulders and pointed him towards the road ahead, saying, “Alright! Enough sappy stuff, we’ve got a long run ahead of us and it’s not getting any shorter. Follow me, my illustrious student!”

  Gera took off, and Pakin followed behind her, laughing and managing to get out a “Yes, Gera sensei!” in between his giggles.