Chapter 15: Chapter 15
Yeah, no mistakes there. That's the voice of Hatake Sakumo.
"Hatake-san...?" he whispers, hoping the doubt in his voice is minimal. Still, as his teacher said, Sakumo is his new teacher. So he stands up from his seat and walks towards him and bows.
"My, what a polite child." With a last nod to his old teacher, he grabs his shoulder lightly and proceeds to move them to the outside of the Academy. He then lets him go. "Well, now I think it's time for us to know a little more about each other.
"However, first let's see if you can keep up," he says before running away. It takes him less than a second to understand his words and follow him. They run across rooftops. First, the speed was mediocre, but as the time keep passing on, Sakumo gradually increased his speed until Souma had to do his best to keep up.
By the time they reached a training ground, Souma is lightly sweating, his breathing is not as even as he would have liked either.
"You've got good speed, Souma-Kun. Slightly higher than a genin, while your stamina has easily reached chunin levels. Let's now see your combat prowess."
With a last deep breath, he takes the basic Academy taijutsu stance."
Sakumo hums. "I thought you had a sword"
"It broke a week ago." Sensing his doubt, he adds, "I wanted to buy a new one but I was not sure where to buy a good quality one. I was hoping for a sensei to teach me the best places."
Sakumo nods once. Then, strapping the sword behind his back, he gives it to her. "I wish to see you serious."
"Me too." he says around a smile, before taking the sword and smirking, "I also wish to see, seriously."
That startles a laugh out of Sakumo's mouth.
Like the last time, it's nice to see him not sounding tired. And alive, mostly alive.
"Okay, okay. Are you ready?"
Souma takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, trying to expand his Kenbunshoku Haki as much as he can until he faintly hears it. The breathing of the steel in his hand.
The breathing of all the things around him.
It's faint as his Kenbunshoku Haki is not at an advanced level, but it's still enough for him to hear it. For him to sense it. For him to finally see.
"I'm ready," he says, racing forward as he slashes the mid-section of his new sensei. He evades, but there's a small trench left where he once was. It's small as he can't use Boushoku haki yet to harden his swings.
He does not think much about it. He can feel his teacher moving near, kunai in hand. He parries the kunai with the sword, his strength for one second more than the kind Sakumo used. He can feel his surprise like a beat of a drum. However, it lasts for less than a second before he fixes his grip, putting more pressure on his strikes.
He knows that from now on, his sensei won't misjudge his strength again.
Sakumo moves back when he has a better understanding of his strength, then launches a couple of shurikens he easily parries, before moving back, already knowing his sensei is doing hand seals.
A gale of wind comes toward him, and he has to let go of that faint state he was in to use his open water pouch to form a whip of water and strike the wind in front of him. It makes the water and wind disperse together. However, while the wind returns to the air, the water is left floating before it quickly turns into ice senbons which Sakumo easily evades.
The next second, there's a blade near his neck.
Souma tenses for a brief moment before relaxing. He gives the sword a twirl before positioning it with the handle out. "Your blade, sensei."
Sakumo nods and grabs it. "You're good, kid. Your strength is chunnin level, while the ease in which you use water shows you're already slightly above chunnin level in control. The change between using the sword to water techniques is not smooth at all, though. You seemingly lost a certain awareness when you started using the water whip."
Souma nods slightly surprised by all the man could deduce from that short battle.
He understands his point, though. The breath of all things is something he's at the moment able to use when he's focusing on the blade as an extension of his body. When the connection is abruptly broken by him it used to take him a couple of seconds before he was able to use water-bending.
Now that Katara's template is at 50%, at least it only takes him a second. However, a second is too long for someone in mid-battle.
He needs to improve. And what better teacher than the White Fang.
Though he does admit to being curious about the reason the man decided to be his sensei. He'll have to ask when they're not being watched.
Sakumo probably knows about it too as he has been friendly, but mostly polite in his mannerisms. Not showing they've met before.
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