Asuma's training is intense to say the least.
"When do we start?"
"Right now."
And he'd meant it.
We're in Masumi and Tsuyoshi's garden, with Ino and her two teammates who I now know to be Shikamaru and Chouji, watching from the porch. Asuma has me standing in front of the tree, and for the past hour he's had me throwing kunai knives at a painted-on target.
"No stopping until you manage to make the kunai stick." He reminds me as I bend over, my aching arms pressed against my knees. I'm only grateful he hasn't made me throw with my injured arm.
"Yeah..." I pant, "I know..." I straighten up, pick my kunai up off the ground, a draw my arm back to throw it again.
"How many times-" Asuma sighs, grabbing my forearm and pulling it down again.
"Crap-" I catch my mistake too late.
"It's all in the wrist." He tells me again, and presses my arm against my diaphragm.
"Right." I sigh.
I draw my leg back, foot turned to the side, lean back and twist my body, trying to gather as much strength as possible before jerking back to face the tree, swinging my arm wide and letting the kunai fly.
Thunk!
It glances off the tree.
"Ugh!" I cry out and flop back on the ground, arms thrown wide. Asuma walks over to examine the tree.
"Well..." He murmurs, and I raise my head until my chin presses against my chest. He's examining a small cut in the tree.
"Did I do that?" I ask, almost afraid to hope.
"Who else would have done it?" Ino leaps up from her seat and throws herself on top of me, squealing happily and dragging me up from the ground and into her arms.
"Hey- I'm not a doll!" I cry, trying to wriggle out of her grasp, pitching forwards when she finally lets me go.
"It's only a notch." Shikamaru sighs, but it'll take more than that to kill this feeling in my chest. I walk up to the tree and gently run my fingers over that little patch of exposed wood.
Maybe I can do this after all.
A/N: I haven't updated since July. Whoops? Hello to all readers old and new, hopefully I'll be updating more regularly from now on but no promises. This chapter's short because I just wanted to update so you know that this is still going, I was just writing another fic as part of a trade with an awesome artist. Thank you all for reading and voting and commenting!
Ta-ta~
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Maya - a Naruto Fanfic
FanfictionWhen Maya runs off to explore the strange gap in the fence at the back of her school, the last thing she expects is to crawl into a totally strange world, with no clue how to return. Alone, afraid, and trapped in a strange world, all she can do is...
