Chapter 4

It took several weeks for Kuma to balance his schoolwork and his training, but in this time he managed to figure out how the Glass Forming Jutsu worked.

Basically due to his Glass Mirror Bloodline, when his Chakra was channeled outside his body, it transformed anything it touched into glass. The toughness of the target material, the depth of the glass, the weight of the glass, and the thickness of the glass all factored into how much Chakra it used up.

Although it was still rough and slow acting, Kuma could now create a 5ft wall of standing glass in front of him. He nicknamed this method 'Glass Style: Glass Wall Jutsu'. This new technique still used up 15% of his Chakra, and it was easy to break, but Kuma found that he could rebuild the broken wall very quickly for only 5% of his Chakra.

Kuma was exhausted everyday from practice, but it felt worthwhile and fulfilling. He understood he could transform the air in front of him into glass, but Kuma wondered why it was so hard to shape it into things like kunai or throwing darts. Everytime he tried, the glass either shatter half way, or it looked nothing like it supposed to be.

Today however, Kuma found a familiar face at his usual training grounds. It was his classmate at the academy, Sasuke. He debated finding somewhere else, but decided to just practice with some distance away. Sasuke watched him with a frown at first, but continued using the trees for shuriken throwing practice. When Kuma started to practice his Glass Style Jutsu Sasuke was surprised at it, but thought it was useless in battle. After several days, Sasuke became a somewhat regular at the area, and noticed that Kuma was getting fustrasted about some kind of Jutsu he was obviously failing at.

Getting annoyed with his constant sighing, Sasuke left the area for somewhere else, and it made Kuma feel slightly hurt and lonely. "I really need friends if I need Sasuke of all people to keep me company." Kuma muttered to himself. Recently his usual crew of Shikamaru, Choji, and Shino were almost always training with their parents. In the case of Shikamaru and Choji, when they had free time they hanged out with Ino, which Kuma didn't get along with at all.

Kiba and Kuma were in a weird situation. Although Kiba's dog, Akimaru liked him, they tended to butt heads too much. They didn't exactly dislike each other, but they just didn't have any patience with each other either.

In the case of Naruto and Sasuke, Kuma hadn't really had a real conversation with either. Naruto always seemed hard to approach to him because Kuma knew so much about him when he shouldn't, and Sasuke seemed too edgy to deal with.

Sakura accidentally overheard him call Sasuke 'too depressing' and apparently has made it her purpose in life to make his life in the academy hell. Ino is just too much girly girl for him, though her family's flower shop is nice to visit sometimes.

All in all, his friends were few and were always busy now. It didn't bother Kuma much that he didn't know who his parents were, but it did annoy him when Sakura would bring it up as if that has anything to do with him being himself.

SIX MONTHS LATER

Today was the day for the graduation test, and Kuma was giddy with excitement in the classroom. Sakura had backed off him by now, Kiba had gotten used to his taunts, and Ino had gained some kind of understanding about him, becoming nicer to him after seeing him help Hinata when she fainted one day.

Kuma still sat at his own table alone towards the back of the room, but everyone could hear his chair squeaking from his constant jittering. "Hey could you calm down a bit? It's a pain to heard that over and over." Shikamaru asked. Kuma gave an awkward laugh, and rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, sorry. I just can't wait to be a genin." He replied. Shikamaru looked at Kuma like he wanted to say something, but Iruka sensei entered the classroom.

"Everything listen up, when I call your name, follow me into the exam room and we'll evaluate you. Abrume Shino." Shino got up from his seat and walked with Iruka out of the classroom.

Kuma had calmed down slightly, and now sat silently while letting the grin on his face show his eagerness. In the recent months, he's made sure to practice the Clone Jutsu, Transformation Jutsu, and Genjutsu Cancel in case they might test that instead. His personal Glass Jutsu has made some progress as well.

Kuma now has several Jutsu from his Glass Style: Glass Wall Jutsu(5ft version, 10ft version), Glass Ground Jutsu(5ft radius), Glass Needle Jutsu, Glass Needle Barrage Jutsu, and Mirror Wall Jutsu(5ft), and Mirror Needle Jutsu. Although his small amount of Chakra was already starting to hold him back, Kuma felt like his talent for Chakra control rivaled Sakura's.

After everyone's names had been called, Kuma got his turn. Kuma entered the room where two other examiners sat at a table, and Iruka sat in the middle of the two. "Please perform the Clone Jutsu and Transformation Jutsu the best you can." The examiner with long pale blue hair said. Kuma was confused why they were asking for two techniques instead of one, but managed to perform both anyway.

"He's average. Average Ninjutsu, average Taijustu, average grades, average teamwork skills, no special talents. I don't see why he should take a spot for the others." The examiner with black hair said, which prompted a nod from both Iruka and the pale haired one.

'....Huh?' Kuma thought, standing frozen in shock. Spots? Average? No talents? Where was all this coming from? Sure he wasn't the best or worst at school, but his trap making skills were pretty good, his Glass Style was battle ready despite only existing for barely half a year, and he got along on some level with most people. Spots? Since when was this a competition?

The examiners continued to discuss with each other, but Kuma had blocked them out. The more he heard, the worse it seemed. He'd worked hard everyday for the past year to catch up with everyone. Kuma didn't have anything save for his Glass Bloodline to fall back on, no family, no connections, no outstanding talents. Sure he made traps for fun, but an average ninja could probably avoid them.

Hearing Iruka speak his name, Kuma snapped back to reality. "Kuma, you pass graduation, however you have been denied the rank of genin. Please-" Before he could finish, Kuma stopped him.

"WAIT, WAIT! What if I had a talent? Something really cool? Like something only I could do?" Kuma asked, holding himself back from crying. He knew it might not be good to reveal it, but Kuma was desperate. He'd waited for this moment, waited to join a team, have adventures, and become a real ninja.

Iruka sighed, and gestured for Kuma to begin. Kuma went through his mind to find which technique would best impress them, but something made him stop and think. "Iruka sensei, you all said something about spots. If I pass, does that mean someone else won't get into a team?"

His question stunned Iruka, and his sensei nodded. "There is actually only one spot left, but we rarely fill all the spots unless there are special circumstances."

'Special circumstances....Like Naruto? Is that why nobody really opposed Iruka when he passed Naruto off the book?' Kuma thought. He didn't like the idea of giving up his newfound dream, but he also couldn't imagine taking away the dream of someone that would become a legendary ninja.

Kuma stood in silence for a full minute before speaking up, however his usual personality had been replaced by a serious determination. "Is there any other way for me to become a ninja? I don't care what it is or how, but that last spot is for someone who will be Hokage one day." Iruka's eyes widened as he knew who Kuma meant, but not why. The examiners looked at each other, giving some kind of unspoken signal.

At first, Kuma was hopeful, but those hopes were quickly dashed with the next words he heard. "Not everyone is cut out to be a ninja. You just don't have what a ninja needs Kuma."

Kuma was sitting on a random roof watching the stars at night. It'd been several days since everyone but him became a genin and got their signiture Hidden Leaf Village headbands. Kuma had taken the rejection pretty hard, and been keeping to himself. He still practiced everyday at the training grounds, but it felt empty and worthless.

Kuma considered traveling to another world, but he felt like it was too soon. He just wasn't ready to let this world go yet. Sitting up abruptly, Kuma frowned at his own behavior. This can't be it. There had to be something.

The next day, Kuma snuck out of the orphanage early in the morning to his usual training grounds. Many parts of the ground laid broken shards of glass from his past sessions. Looking around, Kuma grew more and more fustrasted at his own results. He used Glass Wall Jutsu to create several targets, and destroyed them using his Glass Needle Jutsu. Kuma built, destroyed, and rebuilt over and over again, faster and faster each time.

The sounds of glass being broken resounded throughout the forest, meanwhile Kuma struggled to continue. His eyes became blurry, and his chest hurt. Finally, Kuma broke down in tears, wailing out like the child he is. After his emotions settled down, Kuma passed out on the ground.

A white haired adult wearing a facemask walked up to Kuma and crouched next to him. "Hmm. Not bad kid. Never heard of a Glass Style Jutsu before, but for a kid you did pretty good with it." Kakashi said, carrying the kid over his shoulder back to the orphanage.