Another Boring Uchiha Power Fantasy.

The offensive stalled on the fourth day.

The higher-ups called it a consolidation, which meant they needed to stop pushing and start breathing. Ame’s reinforcements had thickened the valley’s southern defenses to the point where another push without fresh troops and resupply would cost more than it gained. So Konoha dug in, established a camp in a cleared section of forest, and waited for the next phase.

Mikoto didn’t waste the opportunity.

”Training starts at dawn. Everything I would teach you if we had the chance for a normal genin team. We don’t, so I’m going to have to do the best I can with the time I have.” She told her genin on the first evening.

”The best?” Nawaki asked.

”Mhmm.” Mikoto nodded. “Don’t get too comfortable you won’t be resting much.”

”I wasn’t planning to!” Nawaki grinned.

”Neither was I.” Emi said, her tone making it clear that whatever Nawaki was planning, she was planning to do it better.

Nonō just nodded a little nervous about what Mikoto-sensei was planning.

Dawn came and Mikoto broke them.

Physical conditioning first. Laps around the camp, which was roughly two kilometers of uneven forest floor, roots, rain, mud, and inclines that turned the run into a scramble. Push-ups in the rain. Sit-ups in the mud. Squats until their legs shook. Nawaki threw up after the first morning for going too hard too fast. Emi didn’t throw up but her face said she wanted to. Nonō finished everything without complaint, though she was the last to finish every set.

“Pace yourself, Nawaki-kun… I know you’re eager, but haste makes waste.” Mikoto reminded him.

“If you almost puke on me again, I’ll kill you. I mean it.” Emi promised.

Nonō softly inhaled and exhaled, she was tired and trying to catch her breathing.

They did it again.

They did taijutsu after conditioning. Mikoto sparred each of them individually with her Sharingan active, reading their styles, finding their habits, correcting their forms. Nawaki was all-or-nothing. He hit hard and moved forward and didn’t think about what happened if the hit missed. Him missing didn’t even seem to be an outcome in his mind. Mikoto punished every overcommitment until he learned to make his first hit count and made sure it actually landed. It took him thirty repetitions to stop lunging. Thirty-one to start defending along with attacking. Thirty-two to remember that his feet mattered as much as his fists.

He learned with his body. Through doing it wrong, feeling the consequence, and adjusting. Mikoto recognized the pattern immediately. Chōza had been the same way, although far less stubborn and more willing to learn. Some people’s muscles were smarter than their minds, and the best thing a teacher could do was give those muscles the right problems to solve.

Emi was different. She only had to have a mistake pointed out once during their sparring before it was fixed in the next round. She wasn’t perfect but her comprehension was excellent. She was the most naturally talented of the three.

Nonō learned steadily. Not as fast as Emi, not as stubbornly as Nawaki, but with a consistency and calmness that neither of the other two matched. She absorbed each lesson, practiced it until it was solid, then moved to the next.

”Good work everyone.” Mikoto smiled after the first morning’s taijutsu session.

”Sensei, I want to spar Emi.” Nawaki said.

”Not interested.” Emi immediately rejected the suggestion.

”Scared?”

”Of what? Losing to you? That’s impossible.”

”Then let’s go!”

”Why should I lower myself to your level for your ego? I don’t get anything out of playing with an idiot.”

”You think you’re so much better than me but I lasted longer against sensei than you at the end!”

”Sensei was going easy on you because you were stupid enough to risk a hit just to land a hit.”

”Sounds like I was smarter than you and you’re just jealous about it. Sensei had to go easy on you knowing you’d throw a fit and cry if she didn’t.”

”I was going easy on both of you.” Mikoto confirmed.

They fought. Nawaki came in hard and fast. Emi read his patterns, sidestepped, and countered him with ease. Nawaki ate the counter, struck back. Emi got pissed and adjusted. Nawaki adapted to her adjustments. They went back and forth for several minutes before Mikoto called it.

”Enough.” she said.

”I almost had her!” Nawaki protested.

”Not in your wildest dumbest dreams.” Emi corrected him.

”I was about to crush you!”

”Not. Even.”

”Enough.” Mikoto said, though she was smiling. Rivals who pushed each other were worth more than friends who held back. ”Save it for the enemy.”

Chakra control came after lunch. Tree walking practice with the leaf concentration practice. Holding a leaf to the forehead with chakra while simultaneously maintaining a second leaf on each palm. Then once they got that down, try to do it while walking up trees. Then once they can accomplish that, do it while running and spinning the leaves. Then after doing that can they do it while someone threw kunai at them, which Mikoto handled personally.

Nawaki could stick one leaf while walking up a tree. Two was a struggle. Three was impossible for now.

Emi held three leaves while walking on her first afternoon. She could run with one. Mikoto assigned her a fourth leaf on her knee.

Nonō held two leaves steadily while walking. Her chakra control was already excellent. Mikoto started her on the fish exercise that evening.

”Heal the cut, but remember. Not too much and not too little.” Mikoto said, placing a fish with a small incision on a rock beside Nonō.

Nonō wove through hand signs before her hands glowed green. The fish’s cut closed. She did it again. And again.

”Sensei, is it normal to learn this jutsu this quickly?” She asked on the fifth fish.

”No. It looks like your determination and chakra control helped you learn much faster than the average medical-nin.” Mikoto somewhat lied.

”Really?” Nonō smiled brightly.

”Really.” Mikoto nodded.

Nonō looked at the fish with a determined happy look on her face.

Ninjutsu training ran parallel to everything else.

Nawaki’s water style was his strongest area. Mikoto taught him the Water Wall for defense and the Water Clone for support. His Senju-Uzumaki reserves meant he could practice longer than Emi or Nonō without hitting empty, and he used every minute of it.

”Your reserves are your greatest advantage,” Mikoto told him. ”Most genin your age can use one or two chakra-intensive jutsu before they’re drained. You can use a lot more compared to them. Use it. But don’t waste it.”

”Sensei, can you teach me more jutsu?”

”I’ll teach you the ones you need. Quality over quantity. A genin with three jutsu he’s mastered is more dangerous than a genin with ten he’s memorized.”

Emi’s affinities were stacked: Wind, Fire, and Earth. Three natures at twelve. It was exceptional. Mikoto looked at her and made a decision.

…

[Ding!]

[Weekly Sign-in available!]

[Signing in…]

[Obtained: Desert Cookbook!]

Name: Mikoto Uchiha

Age: 14

Rank: Special Jonin

Affinity: Lightning Affinity, Fire Affinity, Yin Affinity, Water Affinity, Earth Affinity

Unique: Immense Chakra Reserves, Sharingan (Two Tomoe), Advanced Growth Rate

Skills: Fire Style Mastery, Water Style Mastery, Lightning Style Mastery, Yin Style Mastery, Earth Style Mastery, Shurikenjutsu, Elite Taijutsu (Ninja Art: Bare-Handed Blade Block), Superb Genjutsu, Ninjutsu (Body Flicker, Clone Jutsu, Substitution Jutsu, Transformation Jutsu, Ninja Art: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu, Amplified Summoning Jutsu), Perfect Chakra Control (Chakra Enhanced Strength), Uchiha Style: Kenjutsu, Stealth, Survival Knowledge, Cooking, Medical Ninjutsu (Mystical Palm, Chakra Scalpel, Poison Extraction Jutsu), Fūinjutsu Mastery (Sealing Jutsu: Release), Pedagogy Mastery, Space-Time Ninjutsu Mastery, Seven Heavens Breathing Method, Musical Talent, Craftsmanship Aptitude, Needle Mastery

Equipment: Kunai, Shuriken, Senbon, Smoke Bomb, Explosive Tags, Poison Gas Bomb, Flash Bomb, Gas/Sleep Bomb, Food Pills x90, Wire Strings, Shark Skin, Bingo Book, Training Weights, Fūma Shuriken x87, Hero Water x10, Desert Cookbook

How neat a cookbook. Mikoto thought as she flipped through it. The recipes were mostly from the Land of Wind it seemed. Spiced meats, flatbreads cooked on heated stones, honey-soaked pastries that required ingredients she couldn’t find within five hundred kilometers of her current position.

She found a recipe for date-filled cookies that looked genuinely delicious and planned to try it for after the war.

…

”I have something for you.” she said on the third morning.

She secretly pulled out the Giant Folding Fan from Shark Skin’s mouth earlier. It unfolded in her hands, the metal body gleaming, three purple circles running along its length.

Emi stared.

”This is a war fan, I got from a Sand shinobi.” Mikoto said. ”Three moons. Each moon represents a level of power. One moon open is a gust. Two is a gale. Three could flatten a forest.” She held it out. ”With your wind affinity, this can be your most devastating weapon.”

”You’re giving this to me?” Emi’s composure cracked for the first time.

”I’m entrusting it to you. There’s a difference.” Mikoto placed the fan in Emi’s hands. ”Wind style through the fan amplifies your output several times over. But that’s just the obvious application. The fan can also be used as a shield, a striking weapon, and a way to empower your fire style. Wind feeds fire. A wind-enhanced fire jutsu through this fan would be something even jonin would avoid.”

Emi held the fan. She opened it one moon. The weight was substantial but her grip was steady.

”I’ll also be training you and Nono in genjutsu,” Mikoto said. ”Your excellent chakra control makes you naturally suited for it, and your intelligence means you’ll pick it up quickly. Genjutsu combined with wind style and this fan gives you a combat profile that covers every range and every approach.”

Emi looked at the fan. She looked at Mikoto with softness in her eyes.

”Thank you, sensei…” She told her.

”Don’t thank me. Show me you deserve it.”

Mikoto introduced the Seven Heavens Breathing Method on day four.

She sat Nawaki and Nonō down in the clearing while Emi practiced wind chakra through the fan nearby. Mikoto had long mastered the Seven Heavens Breathing Method.

”This is a taijutsu breathing technique,” she said. ”It works through oxygen, not chakra. You breathe in a specific pattern that saturates your blood with far more oxygen than normal breathing produces. The result is a massive boost to your physical body.”

”How massive?” Nawaki asked.

”Five times at the first activation.”

His eyes went wide.

”The First Activation is marked by white eyes and a yellow aura. It lasts about thirty seconds at the beginner level before the strain becomes too much. With practice, you can hold it longer. There are seven activations total, each one more powerful and more dangerous than the last.”

”Can you do it, sensei?” Nonō asked.

”Yes.” She answered.

”I want to learn!” Nawaki said immediately.

”I know you do. That’s why we’re starting now.” She demonstrated the breathing pattern. Deep inhale, pushing the lungs past their comfortable limit. Hold. Controlled exhale. Repeat, each cycle pushing the oxygen intake higher.

Nawaki threw himself into it. He was a physical learner and this was a physical technique, built entirely on the body’s capacity to push past its own limits. He couldn’t think his way to the First Activation. He had to breathe his way there, and breathing was something he felt he could do easily. 

It was not something he could do easily.

Mikoto helped them a little after a couple hours by pressing her fingertip to their chest and tracing the path the oxygen needed to follow.

…

Genjutsu training was Mikoto’s favorite to teach.

She worked with all three of them on recognition first. Placing them under illusions without warning and timing how long it took them to notice and break free. Emi was the fastest. Nono was right behind her. They caught genjutsu within seconds.

”Good,” Mikoto said. ”Now cast one on me.”

”What?”

”Cast a genjutsu on me. Anything. The simplest one you know.”

”I don’t know any.”

”Then I’ll teach you one.” Mikoto showed them the hand signs for the d-rank Demonic Illusion: Death Mirage Jutsu. Emi and Nono learned it in half an hour. Emi cast it on Nawaki during their spar and he spent a minute screaming and running from an enraged version of Tsunade.

”THAT’S CHEATING!” he shouted.

”It’s a simple genjutsu.” Emi sneered.

”Mikoto-sensei! She cheated!”

”She used a skill she learned to gain an advantage in combat,” Mikoto said. ”That’s not cheating. That’s being a shinobi.”

Nawaki’s face cycled through several shades of red. ”Teach me how to break it faster!”

”I already taught you. Disrupt your chakra flow.”

”I did!”

”You did it after a minute. Do it in three seconds.”

Nawaki sat down in the mud and started practicing chakra disruption with the intensity of someone who had just discovered a personal vendetta against the concept of genjutsu.

Emi laughed as she got back to her own training.

…

The days blurred together in the best way.

Mornings: conditioning, taijutsu, sparring. Nawaki and Emi fought each other every day. The rivalry pushed them both forward at a pace that would have taken months under normal instruction. Nawaki’s fighting style became less suicidal. Emi learned how to utilize her fan up close. They still seemed to hate each other but they were both getting stronger because of it. Nono sparred with both of them as well but it could be seen that she was lacking a bit compared to the other two. At least when it came to straight up fighting.

Midday: ninjutsu, chakra nature, and specialized training. Nawaki was mastering water style more proficiently. Emi was taught a defensive wind jutsu. Emi’s and Nono’s genjutsu mastery was growing. Nonō’s medical ninjutsu was advancing.

Afternoons: chakra control, genjutsu recognition, Seven Heavens breathing exercises.

Evenings: Mikoto cooked. She always cooked more than they needed, and the extra always found its way to whoever was nearby. Other squads in the forward camp started drifting toward her fire during meal time. She didn’t turn anyone away. The genin ate together, argued together, and gradually developed the rhythm of a team that spent every waking hour in each other’s company.

Nonō’s medical ninjutsu accelerated faster than expected. By the fifth day, she could heal injuries on living patients, at the medical tents. Mikoto supervised every attempt, giving her instruction when needed and watching when not.

Nawaki was the slowest out of the three, but he had something else to make up for it. Determination. Focus. The stubborn refusal to be left behind that made him practice water jutsu until his reserves hit empty, then practice taijutsu until his muscles failed, then practice breathing exercises until Mikoto told him to sleep. Despite being a slow-starter, once something clicked for him, it clicked firmly.

”Sensei,” he said on the sixth night, lying on his back beside the fire, too tired to move. ”Do you think I’m getting stronger?”

”I know you are.”

”Like, actually stronger? Not just sensei-telling-me-what-I-want-to-hear stronger?”

”Yes.”

He grinned at the sky. ”My sister is going to freak out when she sees how much I’ve improved.”

”She’ll be proud.”

”I want her to be more than proud. I want her to see me and think ’he can handle himself.’ I don’t want to be the baby brother she worries about anymore. I’m going to be the freaking Hokage, you know? How can I hold my head high as Hokage with my sister worrying over me like I’m a baby?”

Mikoto looked at him with mud on his face and stars in his eyes.

”It would be funny, don’t you think? Imagine being Hokage and your big sister is still worrying over you.” She giggled.

He groaned. “I’d be the lamest Hokage ever if that happened!”

”Get some sleep, Nawaki. Tomorrow’s going to be long.” She told him.

“Sensei, your eyes glow in the dark, you know? It’s really creepy and cool.” He chuckled before rolling over.

Mikoto’s fist clenched. “Don’t tell girls their eyes are creepy, you knucklehead.” He definitely needed some extra care during his training tomorrow.

He rolled over and was asleep in seconds.

She banked the fire and went to check on her other genin. Emi was asleep with the fan propped against the tree beside her, one hand resting on the metal handle. Nonō was still awake, sitting cross-legged with a scroll in her lap.

”Nonō. Go to sleep.”

”Five more minutes, sensei. The mistakes I made in the medical tent. I don’t want to repeat them again.”

”Sleep. You can learn tomorrow with a fresh brain instead of a tired one.”

Nonō rolled up the scroll, set it down, took off her glasses, and curled up on her bedroll. 

Mikoto watched her three genin sleep. Three kids who were measurably stronger than they’d been six days ago.

The offensive would resume soon. Command wouldn’t wait forever. The valley’s southern end was still in Ame’s hands, and whatever was down there needed to be taken.

Her genin would be ready this time. She’d made sure of it.

She just hoped she’d made sure of enough.