Will of Fire: Kakashi Hatake

Chapter 10

***Drawing is done by me, this is Akira during the final stage of the chunin exams.***

After that day things mostly returned to normal. For the most part the strange feeling was gone. Time seemed to pass more quickly, racing towards the the final rounds of the chunin exams. Akira found herself working harder than ever, pushing her body to its limits during training and studying jutsu before she went to bed. She developed plans for every opponent she would be facing,

During the last week before the exams, more and more people started coming into the village. The ANBU were working overtime to keep up with the load, ensuring the safety of the village, so Akira didn't see much of Kakashi. Kishi was unperturbed by it, and pushed Akira harder than ever up until the last few days before the exam.

Akira had never felt stronger.

She had to buy new clothes because her old ones had been wearing through from training. Her muscles had a new definition to them, and were noticeably bigger than a month ago. Her ninjutsu had improved tremendously, now that she and Kishi had broken down the ins and outs of how her chakra functioned, which she learned was different than most ninja since she could sense chakra so well.

But most of all, her taijutsu had improved the most out of everything. Kishi had taught her how to handle opponents of all sizes, and she had explored her own strengths and weaknesses to the point that she knew what moves she would be most exposed to in a fight, and how to counter them effectively to remove herself from a situation that could potentially make her lose a match.

The Saturday and Sunday before the finals, Kishi had given Akira off. She still did her normal everyday workouts, as well as working on her various shurikan exercise routines. Kakashi had taught her his set that he had used to train with when he was on Team Minato. Akira had felt pride in the fact that she knew all three of Uncle Minato's students' sets now, and had almost mastered them all. She had run Kakashi's so many times after he taught it to her that she was able to gain more speed and push herself even harder than before.

On Sunday afternoon, Akira ran into Yuhi in the marketplace. She hadn't seen her in a few weeks, and was excited to see her again.

"Yuhi!" Akira called, waving her hand at the older girl. Yuhi turned to look, and her face lit up when she saw who had shouted her name. She ran through the marketplace over to Akira, and surprised her by embracing her in a hug.

"Akira! How are you? How did your training go? You look amazing!" She let go of Akira and took a step back, looking Akira up and down with a grin on her face.

Akira looked down at herself too. She had started training in a different outfit, and was wearing that today. She had a long sleeve mesh shirt on, with a black short sleeve shirt on over it. Both were fairly fitted, and the outline of her biceps showed through. She had standard ninja pants on, but the ones she was wearing were gray instead of navy blue or black. Her weapons pouch was strapped to her right leg.

"What do you mean?" Akira asked Yuhi, looking back up at her.

Yuhi rolled her eyes with a smile. "Oh come on, I can tell you've been working out a lot! You look stronger."

Akira smiled. "Thank you! You look great too! How did your training go? I heard you were training at the hospital?"

Yuhi's eyes widened. "Yes! It went great! I love the hospital, I learned so much. Now I know some medical ninjutsu."

They started walking through the marketplace as Yuhi went on about her training at the hospital. She was very happy with herself, and Akira was happy for her. She seemed like she really enjoyed herself there. Eventually they made their way over to an open air restaurant. It had small curtains hanging in the opening, and multiple long tables lining the inside. The girls ordered some dumplings to share, then picked a table and sat down.