10 Chapter 9: Proving My Worth [Rewrite]

Over the next couple of months, Team Guy continues to focus on training. Sensei tells us he wants us excessively prepared before trying the Chuunin exams, that's why we are waiting, despite being qualified. I'm fine with that, it puts us in the exams with the main characters/my friends. Neji was put out for a while until I managed to convince him that we will be the best by a landslide this way, and he calmed down. 

I did meet up with Asuma every week since then until I got the hang of it fully, unless he had a longer mission or I did. I learned how to channel my chakra into the arrows from the base of the arrow instead of just the arrowhead. That was a lot of very painful lessons, because the sharp tiny arrowheads would stab me often when they went flying if I lost control. None of them were bad wounds thankfully, but I was often getting wrapped up by someone on the team. 

I did manage to master the 64 palms technique, and Neji and I both have almost completely mastered the Rotation defense. The biggest challenge with that one is chakra stamina, since it uses so much there are only so many times each day we can practice it. I have been working on increasing my overall speed since it seems to be one of my greatest strengths. Lee has improved in leaps and bounds too, his speed ended up rivaling my own after six months of Guy Sensei's training. I know he'll pass me soon in that regards. 

I did make an attempt with the third Hokage to learn the Flying Thunder God technique. It wasn't an immediate no, and after a long lecture, he put down that he will consider it once I'm a Jonin to be allowed to learn. It's better than nothing, but I may not be patient enough to wait that long. For now, I'm just focusing on getting through the training for the Chuunin exams, I will worry about the transporting technique later. Worst comes to worse, the second and fourth created the technique themselves, I could do the same.

After having the bow for a total of nine months, and right before my younger friends are all graduating, I finally made my trip to the blacksmith. I brought Neji along as well since he loves watching me arrogantly show off. I may be secretive about my bow, but I'm certainly not shy about it. I worked very hard to become essentially a sniper assassin with it.

"I'm back." I say to the smith as I enter, a smirk on my mouth. "I've come to prove my worth to you with the bow."

"It hasn't even been a year. You think you're already worthy?" He asks in a condescending tone. I glance at my twin and watch him smirk as well, he knows what's coming.

"Yes, sir. Where would you like me to prove it? Certainly not in here, I'll destroy everything." I sweetly say, looking around.

"Alright then, tomorrow, the gorge out by the south side of the village, in the forest. Meet there before sunset, I will have a target set up for you. Meet on top of the cliff." He orders me firmly.

"You got it!" I say cheerily before Neji and I bow respectfully but with a small smirk still tugging at our lips. We leave and go home, resting after we spar a bit more for the night.

Lee and Guy Sensei happily decide to join me as well in my demonstration the next day, so we all head to the cliffs together after training. We haven't had any missions after getting back from an almost month long C rank escort mission, of which thankfully we all had time to train during.

"Alright little lady," The smith says, and I irk slightly in irritation at the reference. "The target is set up one kilometer down the gorge. Should be easy for a master of the bow." He sneers at me.

I activate my eyes and ready my bow, finding my target. One kilometer is not outside the range of what I have been practicing. I search around and find the target, it's a decorative ANBU half mask inside of a standard paper bullseye target. The only problem is, it's taped to the back of a giant boulder, a boulder that is in between myself and my target. The only option would be to somehow get the arrow to turn around and double back to land on the mask. Which is both impossible, and not what I'm going to do. I smirk again as I take my aim, channeling my chakra into the arrow. I let it loose, and we all hear the resounding explosion of my arrow drilling straight through the boulder.

I turn to look expectantly at the blacksmith, who is gawking at the boulder before clearing his throat. "Don't get too cocky yet, kid. You had to hit the target, not the boulder." He says as we start to make our way to it. I already had caught Neji's eye after the shot, and he grinned at me.

We made it down to the target, Guy and Lee obnoxiously praising me the entire way. I'm used to it by now, they will praise anyone who tries hard, they are incredibly encouraging people. The smith looks at the large hole missing out of the boulder, and looks around at the destruction.

"There no way of knowing if you even hit the target, everything is destroyed." He tries to defend, grumbling to himself.

Neji clears his throat, standing by a tree that was slightly further down range. There, sticking out of the tree is my arrow, and resting on the shaft of it is the mask, which is pierced right through the eye hole, completely undamaged. I walk innocently over to the mask as everyone else gawks at it, I take it off and playfully put it on my face.

"Hmm, how was that?" I saw sweetly, "Did this 'little lady' prove her worth to you?" I saw with an edge. I watch the blacksmith stiffen at the tone, a hint of fear in his eyes. I also see a shiver run down Guy and Lee. They have each made the mistake of calling me that in the past, and have painfully learned not to anymore.

The blacksmith gulps, "You certainly did. That was incredible... How..." He clears his throat again, pulling out a scroll. "As promised. You have truly mastered that bow, and so quickly too. You really are one of the genius twins I've heard about. Use these well, honor them as you have that bow. I expect great things from you, Ami Hyuga." He bows lightly to me in respect, which I return promptly as I take the scroll that must contain my new fans.

"Thank you." I say genuinely, then add on cheekily, "I'm keeping this mask, by the way." I grin at him. The mask is a cute half face fox pattern ANBU mask with little bells on the strings. Clearly it's something for a festival, but I can still see through it. Could be fun to have, or just count as my trophy for the day.

The smith leaves and my team all crowd around me, the enthusiastic ones begging me to show the fans. I summon them from the scroll and open them up for everyone to see. They are stunning, all black but with pink blossoms on the inside. When I opened them softly, they looked to appear like normal fans, but when I flicked my wrist a little harder, the knives popped out of them. I inspected it as everyone 'oood' and 'awwed' at them. The knives were set on a retractable system, they were not meant to be thrown or dislodged, but there were empty cavities along the spikes of the fans, where I could store ninja needles for throwing.

"These are chakra enhancing fans, right? Try infusing your wind chakra into them." Sensei advised me. Everyone stood back as I aimed at the destroyed boulder. I infused my chakra into one of the fans and gave it a mighty swing. A huge gust of wind came out of it, but did little more than move the small pebbles around. I glared for a moment, then thought about what was different. I've been practicing on creating a single edge with my chakra on the arrows, but with the fan, it's more like a flow, a gust. I thought of a whirlwind and tried again, this time sending my chakra in one direction instead of two contrasting ones. This time, the boulder got scratched and scarred from the gusts, as if a bunch of blades had cut into it.

"Remarkable! You are truly a genius, Ami!" Lee praised as Sensei struck a 'nice guy' pose.

"Well done Ami, a little more work on that and it will be devastating. Let's go home and see how it works with the Rotation, you still need work on that move." Neji says encouragingly. I had worried he would feel resentful potentially that I am branching out and learning new things, but he's not. He has sharpened his Hyuga techniques so much that he is better than me in them, and he is quite proud of that fact. We are fairly even now, with him being the better Hyuga fighter and me being the better versatility fighter. The good thing is, I'm still an excellent Hyuga fighter, better than most all of them, and he has a good range in his sight as well, so he's still efficient at blocking from long range attacks, even if he doesn't have any himself. He practices with me often, me shooting my enhanced arrows at him while he defends himself. I've encouraged him to start to learn some fire nature techniques, and he said he will after he masters the 128 palm technique.

When we have officially been a part of Team Guy for one year, he took us all out to celebrate. At first I thought it was just another test, we all did, so we sat completely on edge at the fancy Onsen resort he had taken us to for the weekend, just waiting for the catch.

"Ha ha! Look at you all, always prepared for an attack!" Guy says proudly to us as we sit down for dinner. "Good, those instincts will keep you alive." He says seriously, then switches to a relaxed face. "But not to worry, today is a celebration. One year ago you all came to me as hatchlings, and now the power of youth flows through each of you in a brimming light! Tonight is a night to celebrate all your achievements, so relax today! Also!" He primes himself to say something epic, "You may now officially all take off your weights. I will not be replacing them. From now on, it is your choice to continue wearing them or not."

Neji pulls his off almost immediately. He's been dying to see how swift he can move without the weights, but he's been good at resisting temptation. Our increments stopped increasing by so much after six months for me and him, but Lee's kept increasing more. I hesitated, analyzed for a moment, then opted to keep mine on for now. Lee, however, took his off.

"Guy Sensei, I thank you for the weights thus far. However, I cannot wear these weights and expect to get stronger." Lee says incredibly seriously, and I turn to stare at him for a moment in confusion, before he starts to yell. "I need heavier weights if I am to prove myself the strongest in taijutsu! Sensei, please make me heavier weights!" He declares with tears. Neji and I just sigh in response. Guy goes into a speech about 'power of youth' as us twin's just ate our food.

"You're keeping yours on?" Neji asks me quietly.

"For now, yes. It has helped improve my strength, which was lacking. I'll continue to wear them, but maybe not continue to increase the weights so frequently." I tell him, and he thinks about it for a moment. He then puts his weights back on.

"I'll keep wearing these to increase my striking strength. At least until we go to the Chuunin exams." He says quietly when I turn a questioning gaze to him. I smile softly at that, glad he is still working hard. I catch Guy smiling at us as well.

We all head towards the baths after dinner, me going alone to the females bath while the boys go to their own. I undress entirely, and for once even take off the weights and unbandage my arms. I want to fully enjoy the open air bath, which thankfully is empty when I get in. I look down at my arms, seeing the numerous little scars I have earned in the past year from training wind style, plus the older scarring I earned from years of training with Neji. They are worth it in my opinion, but they certainly left their mark. I can hear Lee on the other side going off about training and motivating himself, then trying to challenge Neji about something. I smile at their rivalry, and sit back and relax listening to my team. Lee and Guy have become great friends to me over the last year. It's impossible not to get to know them, they are both so loud and yet so considerate. Guy has supported me and Neji in our goals to be better than the main family, Lee supports my extra training I do in wind nature, and is always willing to help with target practice. When I would shoot my arrows, he would strap on extra weight or time himself in how fast he can retrieve them again, using the rounds as extra practice. We've all really meshed well together, even Neji. It took him longer to get used to Lee, but he watched how he progressed, and he has grown to respect Lee, even if he doesn't say it to him. Sensei started to teach Neji basic fire jutsu as well, though he doesn't use them often. He just likes knowing them.

"Ami?" Neji calls out after we've been in the baths for a long time. I've been spacing out while reflecting on the last year. "We're heading back inside now, are you ok?"

"Yeah!" I call back to him, getting up. "I'll meet you in the room."

I get dressed into the Onsen's provided yukata's after putting back on my weights, but leaving off the bandages for now. Neji also has his bandages off when I see him, and I notice his scars too. He really goes hard when training, and it shows on his dominant arm. Both of Lee's arms are totally destroyed from his intense training.

I put my hand forward, grabbing both of Lee's and Neji's right hand, and put them in the center with both of mine. "Well look at us. Aren't we just the next hand models?" I say cheekily to them. "Put us on the poster for the Ninja Academy!" I joke and we all laugh, along with Sensei. It's nice to be able to sit back and relax together like this. We're always so serious all the time, we often forget to enjoy the calm moments. Our evening wraps up in chaos, as Lee accidentally drinks some of Sensei's sake, and we all learn about Lee's natural mastery of the Drunken Fist. It took all three of us to restrain him, and we did not escape unharmed, and unfortunately the resort we were at took a lot of damage, and we were banned. He sobered up with no memory of the event, and we all learned never to give him alcohol again.