SO: CHAPTER 4 (Patreon)

Chapter 4

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Hinata spent almost all of the money she had on her at the time, buying Raki some food.

Raki thought that was nice from her, and her already good impression of the girl increased even more.

Raki made sure to not spend all of Hinata's money though, and then both of them returned to the Academy late.

Iruka didn't scold them, since Hinata has never been a person to be late unless it's really important and even Raki was on time most of the days.

After which, classes continued normally and the end period came.

"The graduation exam is near, so I hope all of you are training at home." Iruka sensei said in front of the class. "That's all for today. Class dismissed."

The students cheered aloud with their school bags over their shoulders and then ran out of the door the moment Iruka left.

At the back of the class, Raki and Hinata were sitting together. When the students started to leave, Raki stood up first and pulled Hinata by the arm.

"Hinata, let's go to my house!"

"Alright…" Hinata nodded with a small smile.

Raki and Hinata made no delay before heading to Raki's home. They entered the small house and headed up to the second floor again. Like yesterday, the windows were closed and so Raki turned on the lights.

"Okay, Hinata, today show me the Substitution Jutsu first."

Raki said to Hinata while sitting on the bed.

Hinata rubbed the back of her head and nodded. "Substitution isn't my best Jutsu because of its process. First we need to perform the hand signs which will push chakra and blood to our heart, and therefore increase blood flow throughout our body. That will allow a momentary increase in our overall speed and reaction time, using which we will–"

"–Move away from the incoming attack and grab something from the side and put it in our previous spot. Right? I know the book definition!" Raki interrupted Hinata's deep explanation, which caused the girl to get flustered.

"O-oh… sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you're dumb… Just that your grades aren't that good in the academy so I assumed you didn't know…" Hinata blushed, looking away and twiddling the fingers of her two hands.

At that reaction, Raki couldn’t help but feel a bit weird. This girl was shy… too shy. She needed help, and since Raki had taken a liking to her, she will fix her problem overtime… No, she will do it soon.

"Hinata~" Raki stood up, walking over to hug the Hyuga girl. "It's fine, it's fine. I didn't mean to sound annoyed, I am excited to learn this with you. Though I am surprised that you care so much about me and have even remembered my grades. So go on, keep explaining~"

Hinata made a small smile and nodded. She then went a bit deeper into the explanation of the Jutsu, which was honestly not that important in Raki's opinion. After which, Hinata finally went on with the main process.

"Substitution Jutsu, for a newbie, has five hand signs. I will show you all of them so please watch carefully." Hinata said, and seeing Raki nod, she proceeded with the Jutsu.

Tiger → Boar → Ox → Dog → Snake.

In a deliberately slowed motion, she made those five different hand signs under Raki's careful observation. The moment she formed the fifth hand sign, smoke burst out from her body and when it dissipated, Hinata's spot was taken by a body pillow that was behind Raki until a moment ago.

Raki turned behind her and found Hinata on the bed, sitting while looking cute.

"Did you memorise all the hand signs properly?" Hinata asked with a soft smile. "I can show you again if you missed any."

"Nope, no need. I got it."

Raki shook her head at that and stood up. She grabbed the body pillow from the ground and handed it to Hinata after brushing dust off it.

"Here, grab this." She handed it to Hinata, who took it and then Raki jumped down to the floor again.

With a serious face, Raki brought her hands in front of her and started to perform the required hand signs.

Like yesterday, Hinata was surprised to see Raki perform the hand signs perfectly and then drown in a puff of smoke.

She was more surprised when the body pillow from her arms disappeared and Raki appeared in its place, her hands wrapped around Hinata’s body.

"Uh….Huuuh?!"

Hinata panicked, trying to back off, but that only caused her to fall on her back with Raki on top of her.

"Why are you panicking, girl?" Raki asked, looming over at her. "I am not going to eat you up… not yet, at least."

Hinata didn't get the joke, but for some reason, she couldn't help but blush and look away from her eyes.

'Something feels weird…'

Hinata’s face was red and her eyes were shut tightly, seeing which Raki burst into a giggle.

But she also realised the Hyuga girl might actually lose her consciousness if pushed too far. So, Raki crawled back without doing anything more, allowing Hinata to quickly stand up from the bed and clear her throat.

"Do you have enough chakra, Raki?" She asked softly. "If not we will continue this tomorrow-"

"I have enough," interrupted Raki, performing the hand signs for Transformation Jutsu to turn into a perfect copy of Iruka-sensei. "See?"

"Oh…" Hinata was again surprised at this. "So your chakra reserves also increased just after a single day…”

Hinata smiled softly. ‘She’s very talented… If she was born in a clan, her future would have been bright… But then we wouldn’t be friends…’

Despite that thought in her mind, she didn’t let her smile dim and praised Raki. “You are very talented Raki… you’ll surely become a great ninja… Maybe even become a Jounin.”

At her words, Raki transformed back and raised her nose in the air with a proud smile, but that was honestly just a facade. This was… nothing in Raki's eyes and even seemed pathetic to some degree. How low has she fallen exactly…

'Sigh… Jounin my ass.’

To think she’ll once be congratulated for having the potential to become a Jounin… This was just sad at this point.

Though of course, she didn't present the sadness in her face and instead smiled at Hinata, "That’s all because my great teacher here, isn’t it? Speaking of which, Sensei, can you show me the Clone Jutsu?"

Hinata giggled at that and nodded immediately. "Okay, sure."

Then, she proceeded with the hand signs of the clone Jutsu. Like last time, she performed the Jutsu very slowly, allowing Raki to observe properly and at last, smoke burst out from and beside her standing spot. Upon clearing up, the smoke revealed two more Hinatas.

"Hmm…" Raki hummed for a moment before standing up and performing the same hand signs.

Just like Hinata, smoke burst out from her body but only one clone formed beside her. However, just like Hinata, her clone also looked like a perfect copy of her.

"You did it, Raki!" Hinata cheered from the side and cancelled her Jutsu.

But Raki didn't seem so happy. She walked around the clone and poked its cheeks just as her finger went through the thing as if it was an illusion.

Because it really was an illusion.

Hinata, who was watching her, understood what she was doing and spoke. "Um, the clone Jutsu we learn at the academy simply makes after-images, or in other words–Illusions. They don’t make actual clones. There's something called Shadow-Clone Jutsu, and…" she leaned over to whisper the next words. "Multi Shadow-Clone Jutsu, which allows a Ninja to make actual solid chakra clones, who can perform tasks that any other human can. The normal Shadow-Clone Jutsu can easily be earned from the Hokage after you complete enough missions, but the latter is a forbidden Jutsu that's been banned from practising."

Raki took in her words–remembering the details from the anime–and nodded softly. "I see… Thanks for letting me know."

So Ninjas can receive new Jutsus from the Hokage himself by completing missions… But that’s cringe, she didn’t like the idea that much. If only she had her old ⟨Wisdom Eyes⟩... or even if she had her Sharingan unlocked, she could copy any Jutsus at sight.

But… Raki didn't have much info on how to unlock the Sharingan. She only knew the eyes unlock themselves when an Uchiha feels extreme negative emotion. That would be hard for Raki, she has experienced too many things in her long life to feel extreme anger or any other extreme negative emotion unless the situation is really really special.

So she needed a way around this.

'Speaking of which…' Raki’s eyes landed on Hinata's white eyes, the Byakugan.

"Hinata?" she leaned over very close to Hinata's eyes. "Do you know how that…Sasuke kid's eyes work?"

Hinata's Byakugan could see the flow of chakra on a person's body, and even act like an X-ray to see the organs and bones of a person. She's been in the academy for 6 or so years, and Raki doubted she ever looked into Sasuke's Sharingan eyes with her Byakugan active. If so, she must know what the difference is between a pair of normal eyes and a pair of Sharingan, right?

"Oh…" Hinata seemed uncomfortable at the question and even hesitant if it was right to talk about that–as this was a breach of privacy. But… she also feared how not answering her new friend might affect their relationship.

So, in the end, she stuttered out her answer. "W-well, I don't know… I don't like looking at people's eyes… Especially Sasuke-Kun's eyes. They are scary… and they become scarier when he uses his Sharingan…"

"...Oh…I see."

Raki deadpanned.

'Of course. She's fucking shy.'

Raki wasn't angry or annoyed, she just found this sad. Hinata's such a nice girl, but she's too shy to be a functional Ninja.

'Guess it's my turn to teach her stuff.'

Raki nodded and promised herself that she will fix Hinata, enough for the girl to kick some ass.

—★—

Raki had received her monthly rations so she didn't hold back from working on her mental domain that night.

After another long night, she went to the academy and did her classes, sitting beside Hinata again.

After the lunch break, there was a sparring class and Hinata kept praying on her mind to not get matched with Raki, fearing that it might ruin their friendship.

Luckily, she wasn't even picked for today's sparring match at all. But unluckily… Raki was matched against the last Uchiha.

"Alright, Sasuke and Raki, get inside the battlefield." said Mizuki, the one in charge of today's class–hiding a smirk. "For today's match, you're allowed to use weapons."

That caught the students off-guard a little. The students did get training on weapons, like Kunai/Shuriken throw and Kenjutsu classes, but they weren’t allowed to use weapons in academy spars as the matches were called "Shinobi Hand-to-Hand Battle”.

Seeing their reaction, Mizuki laughed and waved it off. "You all are about to graduate, so it's finally time for you guys to learn how to use those weapons in actual fights, don't you think? Also, shh, this is a special privilege that only I am giving, so don't tell any other teachers about this. Am I clear?"

The puzzled students immediately had their eyes sparkling with anticipation. "You're the best, Mizuki sensei!"

The students were always interested to see how Sasuke would go in an actual fight since he always attained top scores in kunai and shuriken throws. And as the students had expected, Uchiha Sasuke went over to the armoury and picked up a few kunais and shurikens.

Like any sane kid, the students also expected Raki to do the same but…

The girl walked over to the armoury and reached out her hand to pick up a sword.

"Raki!" Mizuki yelled before she could grab the sword, a tinge of annoyance present in his voice. "You never took any Kenjutsu classes before, so what's the bright idea?"

Kenjutsu classes are optional, so most students tend to avoid them. That’s what Raki’s been doing until now, too.

Raki looked at Mizuki's face with a sarcastic smirk. "Ahh, sensei. I thought you said we are free to choose any weapon we are okay with? Going back on your words so fast, ey?”

Mizuki was shocked at her choice of words and facial expression. He clenched his jaws and suppressed a grunt. 'This bitch is more annoying than that Naruto brat… I was planning to fuck that demon up today, but eh, this isn’t bad either.'

"Alright, fine. Do whatever you like." Mizuki said, scoffing softly as Raki turned around.

Then, as her hand touched the sword and she picked it up… Mizuki might have imagined it, but the world seemed to slow down for a second.

Uchiha Sasuke’s Sharingan acted up on its own when Raki walked in front of him with her hands grabbing the sword as if it was a casual stick.

With that, the spar between the last remaining Uchihas started.

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