Chapter 15 – Sparring part 1

“Did you read it?” Sango didn’t even sit properly, and Sakura whom sat beside him turned to him and asked that.

“That what?” He asked back, how did she expect him to understand what she meant with just that.

“That! The new book just published!” She looked at him like one would look at an animal at the Zoo “Everyone is talking about it. It sold out the same day it was published!” she told him.

It would have been strange if he didn’t know about it, after all, he wrote it. Thanks to the Hokage’s advertising efforts, there were long lines everywhere it was sold. He underestimated the value of that book, to his displeasure, he didn’t want to create such commotion, now it was too late to change anything, he just had to deal with it.

Making a face as if he just remembered something, he took something from his backpack, “You mean this?” He asked, presenting his book to Sakura, “T-this! How did you get it!” Sango thought the shock on her face was exaggerated, “I got lucky and bought it.” He had some copies on hand given by the Hokage, not like he needed them but Kurenai asked him to give her several copies.

Sakura looked at the book with clear desire in her eyes, “Don’t you have one?” He asked, for a bookworm such as her, it was unusual for her not to have a copy, “I waited in line for hours, but it sold out before it was my turn.” she replied with a downcast expression, he didn’t think it would be that bad, he hadn’t paid attention as he was busy with training , “Then take this, I already finished it.” Sango extended the book to her; he didn’t have a need for it and if it would acquire him some points with Sakura all the better. “Really!?” She seemed shocked by him simply giving her the book, “It is worth a lot if you resell it!” Sakura didn’t hide anything as she told him so.

Sango nodded, “It’s alright, just take it.” Sakura embraced him tightly, the book pressed between them “Thank you!”.

Not bad. Thought Sango, it was worth it in his mind.

Sakura separated from him and looked into his eyes, just to remember that he always had them closed, “Why are your eyes closed?” Asked her out of the blue, maybe since she felt closer to Sango, she asked something personal. There was no shortage of shinobi with strange physical differences, it wasn’t like Sango was such a rare view, usually people didn’t ask about them if they weren’t closer to the person.

“I can’t open them.” He simply said, he himself didn’t know why that was and how he could see just fine like that, but he felt the answer will come on its own.

“But you can read?” Her question made sense, how could he read books if he didn’t see, after all, there was no braille here.

“I can see, even with them closed.” He wasn’t bothered by her inquires, it wasn’t a secret or anything and he didn’t mind talking to her. In his previous life, while watching the anime he also made some research on the internet, he learned that people disliked her, but he thought it wasn’t fair, after all she wasn’t given a chance to blossom.

“So strange.” She kept on looking into his eyes, as if they were open.

Her curiosity satisfied, she took the book from his hands and handled it with care, her love for books showing in her actions, then she stored it in her backpack, they hadn’t yet learned how to use Enclosing Technique to seal objects and ninjutsu into scrolls, facilitating transport.

“And?” Sakura then turned to him and looked into his eyes, expecting some kind of answer, “And what, he asked, puzzled.” She looked at him annoyed. “And what do you think of the book?” She clarified her meaning. Since he was the author of the book, the he should give some good review on it, by this point many in the class were focused on their conversation, “It was eye-opening.” But he didn’t feel like it, his answer seems to have not satisfied Sakura as she pouted, but since he didn’t seem to want to expand on the subject, she dropped the matter. She also had a copy of the book now so she would understand it herself soon.

He didn’t expect the book to have acquired such notoriety just a week after it was released, as expected of the Hokage and his network. Sango left everything to the Hokage, he wasn’t that much interested about how the book was published, he didn’t have that much time on his hands as he began to invest much of his time to the study of chakra. With Kurenai’s help and with the research material given by the Academy; results began to show.

“Can you believe it?” Even if Sango didn’t have anything more to say, that didn’t apply to her as Sakura continued to speak “Even the Hokage recommended it!” He didn’t know about that, now that explained the speed at which the book gained notoriety.

“They say that…” She continued to speak animatedly, she was a bit of a know you all but a good girl nonetheless, she opened to him rather fast and now they had similar conversations on a daily basis.

Her relationship with Ino was still good as they spent much time together even outside school, he hadn’t spoken with Ino that much, but he came in contact with her on several occasions thanks to Sakura.

Sakura’s speech was interrupted by the sound of the opening door as Iruka-sensei entered the classroom. The entire room become quite as all the children returned to their seats, Iruka-sensei looked at the entire class and began to speak “Good morning children, today we will be doing something special.” his words captivated the interest of everyone “We will be doing some real sparring outside.” excited mumblings were heard through the classroom, everyone wanted to prove themselves, more so children of their age.

Only Sango wasn’t as excited, because their skills and training couldn’t be compared, for him sparing with them would be the same as sparing with a dummy, but he had no choice.

He sat up together with everyone else and followed Iruka out of the room in an orderly line. They walked to an empty training field; the ground was bare of grass indicating that it was a widely used field.

They stopped at the centre of the field as Iruka began to explain the rules.

“One versus one, the goal is to immobilize or push your opponent out of this circle.” He said, indicating a drawn circle on the ground with around three meters in diameter. “The winner will move on to the next round and the looser will have additional homework.” Groans could be heard as soon as Iruka finished his speech, that meant everyone but the final winner, will have additional homework.

Even if they weren’t happy, they had to obey, so Iruka had them do several warmup exercises before everyone formed a circle around the arena as Iruka began to call the names of the first contestants.

“Shikamaru and Choji!” Two almost simultaneous groans were heard as a chubby boy with marking on his cheeks in the form of swirls and spiky hair walked inside the circle together with another boy with shoulder length black hair tied in a spiky ponytail and a bored expression.