Takamura Kaito was many things, but a teacher was never one of them.
For as long as he could remember, Kaito has always been without friends.
He knew a lot of people, some people knew of him, and some people knew him.
Being a shinobi demanded the first.
The few who knew of him only knew him as the Inu. That was his codename in the ANBU black ops.
And those who knew him only knew as much as he let them know.
As a child orphan and refugee in Konoha during its early years, Kaito was among the hundreds of orphans who were put through the Shinobi program.
He had an affinity for Chakra and was enrolled into the academy.
In the academy, he was able to remain focused solely on the idea of being useful in order to be seen as such.
At the age of 8, he was prominent enough to receive attention from the village administrator and later 2nd Hokahe, Tobirama, who after a series of tests, drafted him into the ANBU foundation.
His talents were nurtured properly and with that nurturing came a program.
A program encoded in his mind.
Showcase a certain level of your capability and remain useful.
This was a program he was comfortable with…
Until now.
Kaito came to a halt in front of training ground 8. He looked at the sky and thought. 'I told them sunrise, but didn't stipulate the time.'
Kaito was disturbed on whether this was worth considering, but remembering the order he received when he was sent back from the Frontline, his mind cleared.
'Whatever my standards are must be met.' He concluded and jumped onto a tree, heading inside the training ground.
A few steps into the space, he picked up on a familiar presence. 'Oh? One came early? That's…Murakami, if I'm not mistaken.' he thought to himself and paused, then closed his eyes, his senses zooming in on Murakami.
He noticed the way Murakami stood, his right palm facing a direction, but that wasn't his concern, what piqued his interest was the way he hadn't perceived the boy's chakra flicker despite being close to him.
'But that's impossible.' He concluded and opened his eyes sharply, narrowing it on Murakami, walking towards the training posts. 'This kid…is interesting.'
Kaito smiled to himself and was about to reveal himself, but just then, Murakami, said. "Now how do I explain this?"
'Hmm.' Kaito paused and continued to observe as Murakami looked at the two halves for another second before shrugging and turning it over.
He smiled to himself then sat on one. "Since you're already here sensei, why don't you join me?"
'What!?' Kaito screamed internally as his forehead furrowed. 'He noticed me? But that's impossible. No. Wait, that's the second time I'm saying this. How is that possible?'
Thoughts ran through Kaito's mind as he continued to watch Murakami who still spotted a smile on his face.
'This kid…acting all mysterious.' Kaito thought to himself, not wanting to believe that the fresh out of academy Genin could sense him.
Kaito had perceived Murakami's presence and had him locked on, Kaito determined that there was no way he wouldn't have noticed if he was being counter observed.
"You don't need to wrack your brain over this sensei, I initially didn't sense your presence, but the moment I perceived your spiritual energy, I knew it could only be you."
'Spiritual energy…this kid…how does he know that?' Kaito's mind paused for an instant before instantly began to process the information he was getting and comparing it to prior information.
'This wasn't mentioned in his profile.' Kaito concluded. 'Could he be a spy?'
"Hah… No. I'm not a spy of an enemy to the village." Murakami sighed and stood up.
Kaito immediately tensed. 'Can he read my mind?'
"No. I can't read your mind, if that is what you were thinking. Since I sensed your presence, I just noticed your energy switching towards the aggressive side." Murakami explained himself.
"I would have preferred to remain under the villages genius rader and I still prefer that I remain there, but I have a feeling If I don't make use of this opportunity properly, I would come to regret it."
'What is this kid talking about?' Was all Kaito could think as he heard the boy ramble. 'Under the village genius rader? What the hell is that? Can this kid be arrogant much? But since he could really sense me…hmmm. How do I approach this..?'
Kaito still needed to make regular reports on his students. He knew that, and his thoughts were quite inclined to reporting this kid as his.
"I know that whatever i and my teammates do and say will be reported directly to the Hokage's office, and that is exactly what I would like to prevent early on." Murakami receiving no response took his as a tacit gesture to continue and said.
"My teammates will be here shortly, I'll entertain you enough to make you interested enough in me so we can talk about our…" Murakami paused, then clicked his fingers. "Relationship… yeah, our relationship going forward."
There was a moment of silence in the training ground and Kaito was already at his wits end as to how this kid was able to say exactly what he was thinking, I could be luck, two was suspicious, but three times?
Kaito was very inclined on putting Murakami on the spy list. 'There was no way a kid this mysterious was ordinary. But he's interesting, perhaps this experience could be quite entertaining.'
With his mind made up, he activated his chakra and flickered from his spot in a less than the time to took for Murakami to blink, he appeared right in front of him.
"You have some explaining to do, boy." Kaito said in a deep voice, hoping to intimidate the boy, but Murakami smiled, unbothered by his momentum.
"Haruki Murakami, Kaito-sensei. Looking forward to working with you." Murakami said as his lifted his gaze to meet Kaito's.
As their eyes clashed, there seemed to be an invisible pressure that met in the space between their eyes, and they remained in that position for a while before a voice broke their atmosphere.
"Ah? Sensei is already here? And who's that other person..wait…Murakami-kun?"
As the sound of the voice invaded their ears, the two blinked and the invisible pressure between them vanished as though an illusion.
Murakami smiled casually and waved to the owner of the voice. "Sora-kun, I'm glad you made it quite early."
Kaito narrowed his eyes hearing that. 'This kid…could he have calculated this?'
"What do you mean? Sensei said to be here by sunrise, he didn't give a specific time." Sora and stole a glance at Kaito, hurriedly defending himself as though Murakami was picking on him for it.
"I know, I expected that from you, I just made a bet with sensei here that you would be the next person to arrive, and you helped me win the bet." Murakami waved his hand and said, then turned to Kaito. "Isn't that right sensei?"
'This kid is quite scheming.' Kaito concluded, but didn't respond to Murakami and just crossed his arms.
Murakami chuckled then sat down and gestured for Sora to join him.
"Why does it seem sensei is angry?" Sora whispered to Murakami as he sat.
"Ignore him, sensei is being a sore loser." Murakami said softly, but he was sure Kaito-sensei heard it.
"Wait, is this not the post that was here yesterday?" Sora, as of realizing he was sitting between two posts with the one in the middle now split in half.
"Yeah..who would've thought a senior would come here to train in the night." Murakami said, his tone giving off a bit of awe.
Kaito who was by the side looked taken aback at how Murakami effortlessly shifted the blame from himself. Is he that confident..?
Kaito couldn't understand what was going on in the young boy's mind but he knew he had to keep an observant eyes on him.
Sora was going on about how smooth the cut was how it probably couldn't be replicated with years of practice, how the sword must be sharp or how fine chakra had to be controlled to cut such a post.
Murakami just nodded along then suddenly smiled, "Looks like Hideki is here."
"Oh?" Sora immediately looked up but didn't see anyone coming then looked at Murakami and saw him smiling.
"Don't worry, he'll be here in a bit." Murakami said then tapped his forehead. "I'm a sensor, and my range of perception is quite…special."
Kaito narrowed his eyes at the hesitation in his tone. 'A sensor with a special perception range… I see.'
"What do you mean special?" Sora asked what Kaito was also curious about, but Kaito was sure that if Murakami was a person of intelligence as he has shown so far, then he wouldn't be forthcoming with his secrets.
"Hehe, now that would be telling my secrets, wouldn't it?" Murakami put a finger on his lip, then turned to Kaito.
"Kaito-sensei, I'm actually looking forward to the kind of evaluation you have in mind for us this morning." Murakami said, his tone challenging.
Sora seemed to sense something but couldn't put a finger on it, he stole a glance at Kaito who stood intimidatingly by the side, then looked at Murakami who didn't seem to notice their sensei's vibe.
He didn't know what kind of madness came over the calm and collected Murakami from the night before, but just as he was about to say something, the sound of someone running rang.
And in no less that 5 seconds, the figure of Hideki came into view.
"Huff. Huff. Huff." He came to a halt as he came into the clearing and took in large breaths of air. "Heh. I might be the last to arrive but the sun hasn't yet risen."
He declared proudly with his hand on his waist, his chest heaving up and down.
There was a long moment of silence over the clearing safe for the sound of Hideki breathing.
No one really knew how exactly they should react to that declaration.
He just directly exonerated himself with a sound argument, but the problem lay in the fact that there was no argument in the first place.
Now, no one knew what to say, but just then, a sharp ray of light tore through the clutter of leaves as the sun slowly rose.
"It's sunrise." Kaito said, as though waiting for the perfect moment to speak.
Murakami nodded internally to himself first then commended his sensei for his good use of the situation to farm his aura.
'Indeed, this would make for an interesting experience.' Murakami thought to himself in anticipation. He knew there was no way they would be sent back to the academy and the so called test was merely an evaluation of the genin by the sensei.
Being in a team with three boys, Murakami didn't hold any illusion that there was a possibility of not fighting.
There would be a fight, and this was the perfect opportunity to go all out and see how strong his combat strength amounts to.
It was a gamble.
There was a possibility of Kaito reporting this, but there is also the possibility of Kaito being accommodating.
Whatever the outcome, Murakami was ready to face it since it would all still take him into the war.
The only difference was whether he would be in the intense part of the war or the less intense side.
Murakami wasn't looking for fame or violence, his utmost pursuit in this world was strength, and organized as he liked his life to be, he understood one simple truth.
Strength could never be gotten in a garden.
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I had to take a short break to do some research (Watch Anime and donghua🫣) I'm still watching them but I felt like writing since I had this new idea in my head. enjoy your read. vote is you like and... yeah, ciao😁