My New Life is Harder Than Expected(Naruto SI-Waifu Catalog) (Patreon)

Chapter 19

(Hinata POV)

“Let the match begin!” Hayate announced before jumping away from the arena.

Immediately after saying that both teens got into a fighting stance.

“It seems you have changed a bit, Hinata-sama.” Neji said with a slight sneer on his face. “There is some strength in your eyes.”

“However, that will not change the outcome of this match, Fate has decreed that I win this battle. Even if you’ve gotten a bit stronger it doesn’t change the fact that you’re still just a failure.”

“You’re wrong Neji-nii san.” Hinata denied with a shake of her head feeling sad at seeing her cousin be consumed by anger for what happened to his father and her uncle.

“There are people who believe in me and I will not let them down.” Hinata declared strongly also activating her Byakugan trying her best to appear strong since her teammates and more importantly Akari-sensei were watching her.

With an unseen signal both teens launched at each other before engaging in a deadly taijutsu match where any slight mistake could spell the end of the match.

‘Did you get slower Nii-san?’ Hinata thought while easily dodging everything her cousin threw her way. ‘Or am I actually faster?’

It only took Hinata another minute to discover that she was indeed faster as Neji was moving almost in slow motion to her eyes.

Taking the initiative, Hinata delivered a strong palm strike to Neji’s abdomen sending the teen stumbling back while clutching his stomach in pain.

“Gggghhk! I-Impossible.” Neji stuttered out with a bit of blood leaking down from his lips.

“No Nii-san it is not.” Hinata said with a shake of her head. “While you might have been stronger than me before, thanks to Sensei, I have finally become stronger than you.”

“What a bunch ‘cough’ of n-nonsense!” Neji coughed and got back into a fighting stance. “Once a failure, always a failure!”

Saddened by those words, Hinata took on a look of concentration before releasing chakra from the tenketsu in her hands and a moment later a shroud of chakra enveloped them taking the shape of guardian lions.

“W-what’s that? I have never seen that technique before.” Neji whispered wearily while eyeing Hinata’s technique with a critical eye.

“Gentle Step Twin Lion Fists (Juho Soshiken).” Hinata whispered before launching herself at her cousin at a speed faster than he could react and proceeded to rain down blows on his torso.

Despite Neji’s attempt to dodge, most of Hinata’s blows still struck true and he found himself down on the arena floor moments later.

“M-my chakra. I see, your technique drains the chakra of everything it touches.” Neji whispered in realization before falling unconscious.

“Winner! Hinata Hyuga!”

“I promise that from now on I won’t be weak anymore Nii-san. I’ll even help you let go of all that hatred in your heart.” Hinata quietly promised, bowing her head to Neji in respect for a moment before finally turning towards the viewing stands and smiling at what she heard next.

“That was awesome Nee-sama!” Hinata’s sister Hanabi cheered loudly with a giant grin on her face.

“Great job, Hinata! I knew you could do it!” Yakumo came next.

Last but certainly not least was Akari, her Sensei and secret crush, was giving her a wide smile with his eyes closed making him look more handsome in her eyes.

‘I did it everyone.’ Hinata thought with her smile widening in length.

=====

(Regular POV)

“Great job Hinata. It seems you can pull that technique of yours off almost immediately now huh? That’s a huge improvement from before where you needed a couple of seconds.” I complimented the girl with a smile.

“This is all possible due to your training Sensei. Without you, I wouldn’t even have thought of this technique.” Hinata said in embarrassment with a cute blush on her face while she poked her fingers together.

“Hahaha you give me too much credit. With your particular fighting style, I’m sure you would have figured it out eventually.” I said with a sure tone in my voice knowing it was true.

After all I had only retaught her a technique that she would go on to develop in the future and nothing more.

“Sensei’s right Nee-sama.” Hanabi said in agreement throwing her arm around her sister and pulling her in for a side hug. “You learned the technique way faster than I could so I’m sure you were meant to learn it.”

“Wahahaha I got to hand it to you young Akari-kun.” Came a boisterous yet worried sounding voice from the side interrupting our conversation. “All of your students are amazing. It speaks volumes of you as a teacher.”

“Guy.” I said as a form of greeting as I turned and met the green weirdo that had managed to go toe to toe against SOSP Madara in taijutsu.

“Wah! Why must you be so hip and cool?” Guy exclaimed with an exaggerated gesture for a while before suddenly adapting a serious expression. “Actually Akari-kun, could you take a look at Lee whenever you get the chance? The other Medic ninja said that his injury would require your expertise.”

“Haah sure. I was going to do that anyways after seeing how he ended up.” I said in agreement not minding lending aid.

Guy was one of my favorite characters while reading the manga. The dude was just super genuine in everything he did and most importantly was one of the best teachers in the series even with his blatant favoritism for Lee.

“Oooohhhh! I knew I could count on you Akari-kun! In return allow me to give you this!” Guy said with tears in his eyes as he pulled out a green jumpsuit from somewhere and tried to hand it to me.

‘Now if only he wasn’t so annoying most of the time.’ I thought in a deadpan. “No thanks.”

=====

(Several Hours Later)

“Akari. Report! What happened in the forest when Orochimaru confronted Team 7?” Hiruzen asked with a serious look on his face while sitting back on his desk in the Hokage Tower.

Knowing this was coming I straightened my posture and looked at the old man in the eyes.

“Around 3 hours into the second exam one of my clones spotted a large chakra signature too big to be a Genin so I went to investigate. Upon arriving however Sasuke had already been branded with the Cursed Seal and Naruto was unconscious with Sakura the only one awake at the time.”

“Deciding to lend a hand I stabilized Sasuke to the point where he wouldn’t die from the seal and also removed the Five Elements Seal that had been applied to Naruto disrupting his connection to the fox before finally leaving. Then I spent the next 4 hours scouting the forest for any sign of Orochimaru before finally giving up. You know the rest.” I explained before taking a breath and remaining silent.

“Haah if you weren’t able to sense him then he no doubt escaped as soon as he managed to mark young Sasuke-kun.” Hiruzen said with a tired sigh looking even older than he currently was.

“My thoughts exactly.” I nodded in agreement.

“What do you make of this Jiraiya?” Hiruzen asked casually turning towards the window.

‘So, he’s finally going to acknowledge him huh?’ I thought also turning towards the window as it was slowly opened revealing the said man sitting on it.

“Yo Sarutobi-sensei. Long time no see.” Jiraiya said in greeting with a small wave of his hand before his gaze focused on me and gave me a smirk. “And this must be your latest pupil and the guy that took down the Yondaime Mizukage.”

“Yo.” I greeted nonchalantly giving the man a two fingered salute.

“Haah great another Kakashi.” Jiraiya muttered with a sweat drop before turning towards Hiruzen again. “From what I was able to gather he retreated back to Sound; the new village he is rumored to have formed in the Land of Rice.”

“Hmm I see.” Hiruzen muttered with a pensive tone as he scratched his beard. “I also got a letter that one of my Chunin found addressed to me threatening to attack the Leaf if I cancelled the Chunin Exams.”

“So, he’s after the Sharingan huh?” Jiraiya surmised while giving me a brief look.

“Seems like it.” Hiruzen nodded turning to me as well. “Since Akari and Itachi are too strong, he decided to go for a weaker target in Sasuke-kun. Orochimaru has always had a fascination with learning every ninjutsu there is after all.”

“There is more Sarutobi-sensei. I just learned that Orochimaru belonged to an organization called Akatsuki.” Jiraiya revealed and then took the next few minutes explaining to us what he knew about the Akatsuki.

“This is troubling news indeed. A gathering of so many high ranked ninjas can’t be up to anything good. What’s the possibility of them targeting the tailed beasts?” Hiruzen asked in a worried tone.

“You read my mind. Which is why I’ll be handling Naruto’s training from now on.” Jiraiya concluded with a serious look on his face.

“Haah very well but you will have to speak to Kakashi about this first.” Hiruzen agreed with a nod before turning to look at me with a serious look on his face.

“Akari. I want you to closely monitor Sasuke this month. While I don’t believe Orochimaru will make any move, we can never be too careful and Kakashi unfortunately is not strong enough to oppose him.”

“Of course, I’ll lend Kakashi one of my Kunai.” I nodded in agreement then slightly rolled my eyes. “That lazy ass needs to get his shit together and start training again.”

“Hoh, so you have mastered that jutsu?” Jiraiya asked while looking at me curiously.

“He has.” Hiruzen answered for me as a proud gleam entered his eyes. “I dare say that his mastery over the Hiraishin matches or even exceeds that of the Yondaime.”

“That’s high praise indeed even if a little doubtful. The Yondaime was a genius that only comes once in a generation.” Jiraiya said in boast for his past student.

‘Hah! Well, you’re precious Yondaime is probably some thirsty girl’s boy toy right about now.’ I thought in slight amusement not saying anything back and instead listening in slight interest as Jiraiya and Hiruzen went back and forth for a while on who had the better student.

“Ahem, if there’s nothing more. I’ll make my way out. I still need to check with my team if they need me to train them for the finals.” I said interrupting their conversation.

“Actually Akari, wait a moment. There’s something I need to talk to you about.” Jiraiya unexpectedly asked me as he finally focused his attention on me again.

Raising an eyebrow in confusion I nonetheless nodded my head before following behind the man as he took off after a brief farewell.

‘The hell. What could he want to talk to me about?’

=====

“So, what do you want to talk about?” I asked while casually making a chair for myself with my bloodline on top of a cliff overlooking a small waterfall that Jiraiya was already peeping down at.

“Me, I don’t actually want anything from you.” Jiraiya said letting out a perverted giggle all the while never taking his eye off the small telescope, he was using to peep on the women down below.

Blinking in confusion I thought about it for a minute before giving up when I couldn’t think of why the man said that. “Okaaay? Then who wants to talk to me then?”

“The Great Toad Sage. He divined your future years back and wants to have a chat with you.” Jiraiya said nonchalantly still with his eyes glued to his ‘research’.

I felt my heart skip a beat when I heard that remembering that the Great Toad Sage, or Gamamaru as it was later revealed, had the gift of foresight or divination. The toad was the one that actually taught Hagoromo Sage mode and gave him a prophecy foretelling that a mischievous blue-eyed boy would unite the tailed beasts and change the world. That same prophecy would then later be retold to Jiraiya when he was young shaping his future.

The thing was that when I arrived on this world, I didn’t have Trace Defense which protected me from the gift of divination and only later got it about a year after my arrival.

‘Could that old geezer have seen the future? What did he see?’ I thought with my mind slightly racing thinking of the many possibilities before dismissing them away a moment later. ‘It doesn’t really matter in the end. My path is already set anyways and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.’

“That’s…strange. To my knowledge I have never interacted with the Toads from Mount Myoboku.” I said in response a second later thankful for Stress Defense allowing me to keep a cool head after hearing potentially dangerous information.

“The Great Toad Sage has the power to see glimpses of the future. Anyways as you might have already guessed only people that have signed the Toad Summoning contract may access Mt Myoboku. Well, there are exceptions of course.” He said finally turning my way and giving me a pointed look obviously referring to my Hiraishin.

“Ookay and when am I expected to meet the Great Toad Sage?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

 “Right now.” Jiraiya answered shortly giving me a small grin.

“Of course, it’s right now. Haah whatever.” I said in a deadpan before looking at him seriously. “In return though I have a request.”

“Hoh, you want my autograph?” Jiraiya asked teasingly with his grin increasing in size.

“Tsk, why the fuck would I want that?” I immediately let out a small scoff at that and shook my head. “No, I want you to allow Kushina the opportunity to sign the Toad Summoning contract.”

“Kushina huh? How is that brat doing nowadays? Has she matured into a beautifu - Whoah!” Jiraiya was cut off midsentence as he rapidly turned his head to the side narrowly avoiding the lightning infused kunai that zoomed past his ear.

“Finish that sentence and we’re going to have problems.” I said menacingly losing control of my chakra for a moment cracking the ground underneath us and causing a small rockslide startling the women down below.

“Geez kid relax. It was just a joke.” Jiraiya said sweating nervously and taking a few steps away from me.

“Says the self-proclaimed super pervert that writes porn.” I said in return with my face still set in a glare causing the man to flinch a bit before he let out a sigh and sat down on the ground.

“Alright, alright. Kushina is off limits understood.” Jiraiya said with his hands raised in a placating gesture. “Now since you scared off my eye candy let’s get a move on, shall we?”

“You never answered my question.” I said letting out a small sigh at letting the man get me riled up already knowing his personality.

“Sure, sure. I’ll have a look at the kid and if I find her compatible, I’ll let her become a toad summoner.” Jiraiya said in dismissal with a wave of his hand.

“Appreciate it.” I nodded in thanks and got to my feet before summoning a tri pronged kunai and throwing it at the feet of the man. “Here, I assume you know what to do.”

“Tsk, of course I do! Or did you forget the fact that I used to be the Fourth’s sensei? Kids these days, no respect for their elders I swear.” Jiraiya childishly pouted as he summoned a small toad before dismissing it. A second later, he disappeared in a puff of smoke when someone used the Reverse Summoning jutsu on him.

Moments later I felt a new marker appear in my senses quite a bit far from my location and also disappeared this time with a blue flash.

‘Let’s see what that senile old geezer has to say.’