It had been a few weeks since I baffled Asako, and while she hasn’t bugged me since, she does keep glancing at me out of the corner of the eye whenever I do coin tricks. I would think she’s a fangirl, there's plenty in the class, but she hasn’t shown any of the traits I’ve come to expect. No blushing, not stammering or constantly watching, just a higher level of interest. I would go out on a limb and say she’s trying to figure out my tricks, and so every time I notice her looking, I repeat the trick I used on her the first time.

Each time I see her frown slightly, definitely intrigued and annoyed.

Maybe it's my time spent working on deception, and maybe I'm just that much of an asshole, but I can work with this.

“With the ramifications of the defeat at the border of Grass and Fire country-”

I’m currently sitting in class. I don’t have Iruka or Mizuki teaching for my grade, but I do have an older sort of burned out teacher, Mono Daisa. He’s not from a clan as far as I know, but he had a fairly stable, if boring, career. Genin at 12, three tries in the exams for Chunin at 17, a teacher at 22, and now still teaching at 34. I looked up his records, and it was mostly B and C ranks. He's old but he knows his stuff, and even if he doesn’t seem to have much drive, he knows what we’ll listen too, and what we won’t.

I’m idly listening as he expounds on a rather in-depth examination of the losses of the second shinobi war and how it changed the political landscape. And how it lead to the build up for the third war.

“-which lead the second Mizukage to-”

Most of its boring, but he’s following the books close enough that it’s nothing really new, I've read ahead for the week already.

“-and so we can see how the trade embargo-”

I’ve so far been splitting my attention between him and the coin I keep using chakra on, trying to move it with the leaf balancing exercise without touching it. This was one of the fundamentals of the chakra control book I had been reading recently, and the basis for a few more interesting applications. Due to the coins lack of organic matter, it's resistant to chakra manipulation, but occasionally I get a short flicker of movement, the coin sliding an inch or two in one direction or the other. I remember a few stories where Naruto learns to weaponize the tree climbing technique, and ideas that it's the basis of Tsunade Senju’s super taijutsu. I’m not aiming for that though, due to reserves and my control, I’m never going to be anything close to a medic, or Naruto’s powerhouse BS. Instead, I was thinking of something else, throwing faster senbon being the more immediate idea bouncing around my head.

“Shusho, what was the name of the general for the Wind forces at the battle of Archways.”

“General in command was Daichi Moto, he died in combat and passed his mantle to his subordinate, puppet master Ebizo.” I spoke out, eyes never leaving the coin on the table, watching as I got a half spin out of it.

“Correct. Now after the transfer-”

In my three-plus years of the academy, I’ve grown fond of senbon, even though they’re not really on the curriculum aside from a passing mention. The main reason is that they’re light and subtle enough that I can palm them and throw fast. Shuriken are also a useful weapon, particularly once I got the hang of bending them around things, but to throw them requires a bit of a larger exaggerated motion, same with Kunai. Senbon are stealthy, though, and far, far quieter. I can use shuriken and kunai regardless, the wider motions perfect to conceal a drop or palming a weapon, such as senbon.

If I’m going to be a ninja, I’m going to BE A FUCKING NINJA. Not to say I won’t try to build some ninjutsu skills, but I'm focusing on stealth and misdirection for now. Figure if I can get some slightly flashy but rather direct Jutsu, and pair them with a senbon and poison in an off hand, then I should be a bit better off. Especially with my civilian reserves. Early on when I first realized I was embarking on an uphill battle, I briefly considered hunting for a MacGuffin. A few months of trying to realistically plan out a way to go about acquiring some form of bloodline later, I stopped considering it. I decided the payoff wasn't worth the effort or consequences. If I stumble across some sort of useful samples, I'll take them, maybe even use them for something, but I doubt I’ll run around with a Sharingan or anything anytime soon… though if I do, acquire a MacGuffin, then I’ll probably seal it as a trump card. And by that, I mean it stays secret until I'm on the edge of certain death.

Anyway, still have a bit more than a year and a half before I’m expected to make genin, and three years after that to work my ass off before Naruto and the rookies get to make genin.

I gathered my things as the class wound down and, when we were finally dismissed, I took off.

As I passed through the academy gates I considered my plans for the afternoon. On one hand, I could head to the library and continue my research, but I was getting tired of sitting in the underground room. It was a nice day, the sun was shining…

Flip a coin time! Heads for library/tails for practical. The coin goes up, I let it settle… Tails it is!

I set course for a lesser used throwing range nearby, open to Academy students, yes, but just far enough away to make the other students less likely to show up. I particularly like this training ground, Number 19, for its throwing range, instead of a dummy or a post, it’s an actual range, somewhat like a shotgun range. A long counter and large square boards with targets staggered backward. It’s a popular favorite with genin and chunin to get basic movements and experimentation down. I’ve seen plenty who use it to toss around kunai and shurikens, usually checking the quality of weapons and practicing drawing speed. However, that's weekends when genin teams are off for a day or when chunin have free time. Today's a Tuesday, and it's not even five o’clock yet, the training ground is deserted when I get there, which is fine with me. And since it’s empty, I do believe it’s time to set up at the range.

I’ve been using it to practice what I affectionately have taken to calling my 'Bar Tricks'.

Interesting shots that are designed to impress, to draw the eyes. They're opportunity makers, a chance to pick a pocket or poison someone. My current favorite trick I've succeeded with is the Smokers Bane. I set up a fake cigarette and spent three weeks trying to cut the tip off with a shuriken from ten meters away while having the shuriken return to me. Then I did the same with playing cards. And curving shuriken, especially making them turn horizontal halfway through, is a bitch to get right. The cards were way easier, the flatter and lighter shape letting it curve back to me.

For today, I was working on something else. I had the idea down, today was a day for ingraining it into my muscles and getting it to reflexive motions.

I opened three small boxes that looked like pencil cases and spilled a hundred senbon out of each on the table before the targets. Besides them, I start lining up stacks of blank ryo coins, made of a low-quality copper/iron alloy, and without any markings, they weren't money, but they were the right size, weight, and shape to perform tricks with. And I wouldn’t have to worry about wasting money or breaking laws by damaging legal currency. I stacked them three high in each little row.

Prep work finished, I took a deep breath, listening to the world around me. My head tilted slightly as I took in what I could without sight… hmmm. Interesting. I opened my eyes and flicked my hands out in a snapping motion, fingers loosening up.

I started slow, palming three blanks and three senbon. I toss the coins up and at the target, before flicking my other hand up and jerking it three times, trying to pin them to the five-meter target with a trio of single senbon.

“Two hits, one miss. Damn,” I looked at the blank coin with the senbon embedded in it that lay in the ground. “Again.”

Palm the coins, flick them up, senbon in motion. Hit all three, but one senbon was off target.

Again, but two misses

Then only one miss.

And then “Three for three.”

But the next is only two.

Then two.

Then three

And on and on it goes.

When I get the motion down, I work on ingraining it as a muscle memory, trying to burn the motion into my mind, my nerves. I start palming and throwing before the previous set settles down. I start flicking the senbon faster, the move becoming more fluid, the act of palming the coin or senbon from in front of me faster.

I almost grin when without meaning to, I make two jerks with my hands and see three senbon hit the post.

By the time the sun starts to change colors for an hour and a half later, the target I’ve been using is embedded with dozens of senbon, and almost as many fake ryo that are hanging from them. I’ve also collected and reset four times.

Almost twelve hundred senbon throws,

I always did like the idea of practicing a single trick a thousand times. What was it that Bruce Lee said, I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but the man that has practiced one kick 10,000 times.

I pause, my hands bleeding slightly from a rough edge on one of the blanks slicing my thumb open. I send out the last set of senbon and grin as I pin a trio of bloodied blank ryo to the board, the metal of the coins ringing as they bounced against the senbon.

Three for three, seven times in a row. That's my new record for this.

I smile, looking at the short stretch of dirt covered in the thin silver needles, and cheap copper blanks.

A rummage through my belts for my first aid kit and a quick application of herbs and a bandage cover and disinfect my cut up hand. And then I start collecting my needles. I replaced them in the boxes, stacked 100 per each box. I had to keep fifteen out of the boxes though, these had either been bent or broken by hitting the coins at bad angles.

Of the coins, almost a fourth of them were damaged. I still took them, but they were scrap now. I’d melt them down for new coins later.

Finished, cleaning up, I paused and took a breath. The several boxes laid on the counter with the pile of damaged coins.

Let's see...

First slide the boxes away, and then the good coins, each going into pouches on my waist. Then I started plucking coins out of the damaged pile, as I started to juggle them a bit, flipping coins from hand to hand as I moved, and then starting to drop them. One in each boot, another in each pocket, a few up my sleeves into the cuff of my jacket, another few into the seams of my jacket. One behind my ear, held with the touch of chakra before falling into my collar. Another under the belt, and the rest scattered to the pockets carefully stitched across the seams of my shinobi outfit.

Well, my acadamy outfit, the sleeves I used with my tools were left at home on academy days for now, simply due to the fact I would rather keep some stuff secret. Ninja life habits. Instead of my mesh sleeve shirt, I was currently wearing my blue and green jacket over a short sleeved blue shirt with a grinning skull painted across the front in bright neon green. It was to draw attention when I wandered around, but the colors were broken up enough that by zipping my jacket up, I have a somewhat effective camouflage. The neon skull was also so when I do card and coin tricks in front of it, it fucked with someone's attention, the color just off-putting enough to make them focus on it.

Turning away, I paused and then spun, deciding to throw in one last coin and senbon combo, dropping a ten ryo piece into my hand as I moved, then snapping my hands out, one after the other. I see the flicker of metal flashing through the air.

I smiled, listening to the thunk of metal into wood, and the ring of metal on metal.

The coin was pinned just left of the bullseye, senbon still shaking from the impact.

“Damn. Still a bit off. Guess I need to do this again another day.” I sigh and flip a blank coin into my off hand… which, is a sort of misleading statement. At this point, while I'm not ambidextrous, I’m damn close. I start flipping it across my knuckles and through my fingers.

"Wonder what's for dinner... Hmm, heres hoping for fish."

I wandered back downt he path towards the city streets, breifly glancing back just as I turned around a corner to see a figure standing looking at my target, and the single coin there.

I knew I sensed someone. That smell of molten iron is distinctive.

Thats for another day, however.