Chapter 3. 2:
.....
After the written exam… which wasn't difficult at all, as it only covered basic material from the first year… the day went on…
First came the taijutsu classes.
Nothing new there.
The training field was the same as always: hard ground, dry heat, and that slight dusty smell that lodged itself in your nose and wouldn't leave. The sun beat down mercilessly, but no one complained anymore.
Well, Karura still occasionally shouted, "This is inhumane!" with dramatic flair… and then went right on running like it was nothing.
The taijutsu instructor was another chunin from Suna. One of those quiet types, but with a look that screamed, "Do it right or you'll be licking dirt." Kiba liked him. He preferred hands-on instructors. Less talk, more hits.
During the exercises, Kiba moved smoothly.
Thanks to his obsessive, nonstop training, he had more raw strength than all his classmates, and his speed was far above the others as well. His coordination was razor sharp. Every move he made was calculated. He'd learned to be economical with his movements…
And when it came to hand-to-hand combat drills, his radar did the rest: painting the battlefield in his mind with zero need for sight.
"Kiba, behind you!" Karura yelled during a three-on-three sparring drill where only taijutsu and bukijutsu were allowed.
"Already know," he replied just before ducking and sweeping the legs out from under the teammate coming up behind him.
The guy hit the ground with a very satisfying "ugh!" He was the last of the three opponents left standing, after Karura, Kiba, and one random classmate had taken out the other two. Well… Kiba had taken out the other two quite quickly and easily… thanks to his unique taijutsu, which far outclassed everyone else in the academy.
Karura laughed loudly.
"And they say you have no reflexes!"
Kiba rolled his eyes internally but smirked slightly, amused.
He used to hear that kind of comment all the time… now it wasn't so common. Of course, Karura still loved bringing it up for laughs.
…
After taijutsu, they returned to the classroom.
Theory class. Back with sensei Kaede.
And that's when the real torture began.
Clan history, prominent families, shinobi geography, mathematics applied to mission logistics… all delivered in Kaede's deep, unyielding voice without a single pause.
Kiba didn't mind learning. In fact, he loved understanding how this world worked.
What he couldn't stand was hearing information he already knew, for hours, while his brain slowly melted from sheer boredom.
Karura, as usual, didn't last half an hour awake. Her breathing slowed, became steady… and once she started those tiny snores, Kiba knew she was completely out.
'Am I gonna have to wake her up again…?' he thought, while manipulating a thread of chakra stretched between his fingers, shaping invisible patterns beneath the desk.
Oh yes…
Because even if the class was mind-numbingly slow, he didn't waste time.
He was training… as always. Not exactly in secret… but sensei probably wouldn't be thrilled to know he was more focused on this than the lecture. Or maybe he didn't even really give a damn, who knows?
Anyway, Kiba had been doing this since his first year. While the others scribbled notes on scrolls, he practiced his chakra threads, refining his control to be more subtle with every movement.
Everything had to be so precise, so controlled, that no one would even notice he was using them. At first, it had been impossible. The threads were unstable, clumsy, too visible. But over time…
Well, now he could make them as fine as hair and as stable as wire. Plus, it was a technique he could practice all the time without worrying about chakra depletion, since the puppet technique consumed very little chakra unless you added extra techniques…. but just moving puppets with chakra threads barely used anything.
An yea, that was one of the main reasons Kiba was so dedicated to improving… it meant that even if he was low on chakra in a fight, he could still use puppets.
Although, truth be told, the main reason had been a mission he got when he first awakened his chakra at four years old…
The mission seemed simple… at first:
[Quest: Welcome to Sunagakure!
Details:
1: Learn to manifest and use standard chakra threads used for puppetry in Suna.
2: Gain control over three puppets simultaneously.
Reward: Hiruko Puppet + Human Puppet Creation Technique
Penalty: None]
Yeah… that's how this whole puppetry obsession really started. He slowly discovered the pros and cons of the technique… Of course, he hadn't been too interested in doing the mission at first, preferring to focus on more essential skills than puppetry…. but he quickly realized the system wouldn't give him a new mission until he completed this one. So he eventually gave in and tried to see the bright side…
He just never expected controlling chakra threads to be so insanely difficult when applied to more than one puppet. That's when he truly understood that Sasori was a damn monster.
It wasn't until he was five that he managed to manifest the chakra threads properly for the first time and use them to control a puppet… yeah, just the first step, since controlling one was a process on its own…
At six, he finally managed to operate a puppet without it collapsing mid-action.
Now, at seven, he could handle two…. though not perfectly.
That's why he kept practicing. To finally complete that damn mission he'd had for three freaking years… with no updates.
Of course, there was also the fact that Kiba was pretty competitive.
He didn't say it out loud. But whenever he saw Yoshiro control three puppets like they were extensions of his body… something inside him burned. It wasn't toxic envy.
It was that inner spark that said, "I can do it too."
And he would.
Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow.
But he'd get there.
His biggest motivator might've been that cursed mission at first…. but it definitely wasn't his only one anymore.
The problem… as always…. was talent.
And to control multiple puppets at once, and make them move with surgical precision… you needed insane control and almost perfect efficiency… and again, talent. Something Kiba was trying to brute-force with pure consistency and relentless training.
So there he was, playing with chakra threads beneath the desk while the teacher droned on about post–Shinobi War peace treaties, and Karura dreamed about who-knows-what.
When class ended, sensei Kaede walked down the aisle and stopped right next to him.
"Kiba. Good chakra control today. I saw you moving your fingers under the table…"
His voice carried no scolding. Just a kind of recognition that felt… genuine.
"Thank you, sensei," Kiba replied without changing his tone, as if he wasn't the least bit surprised he'd been noticed.
Karura woke up just in time to hear that, yawning with a half-smile.
"Did you get sent to the corner?"
"Nah. Got a compliment. Were you dreaming about Miss Wakama's candy again?"
"hUH? Oh no… This time it was explosive mochi. You know… from that time Pakura pranked you," she said with a mischievous smile.
"Yeaa… much more original," Kiba sighed, shaking his head and standing up…wanting to forget that incident. That little demon was a hazard to everyone.
Who the hell thought it was funny to prank someone with explosives in food? Yeah, definitely a few screws loose there.
"Let's go" Kiba said, dismissing the memory of Pakura's insane pranks.