Songs For The Heartbroken: That's What You Get

Chapter 6

Akira-sensei had been quiet for quite some time; which was unusual given that he was our sensei and a member of the Inuzuka clan at that. I had been listening to Hotaka and Takahiro go at each other's throats for the best of an hour, so I had turned my attention elsewhere. Watching Sensei had been my Plan B, so I noticed almost immediately when his demeanor went a little too relaxed and he stopped attempting to break the fight.

"Hey, Hotaka-kun. I bet you haven't awakened your Byakugan yet! So lame..." Sensei raised an eyebrow at me skeptically. I just decided to flash him an innocent smile.

Someone has to give them a heads up.

"Of course I have! And what do you care? You don't even have the Sharingan yet!" I feigned arrogance as best I could. Puffing up my chest and raising my chin as I walked straighter.

I needed him to locate the enemy for Taka and me, since Sensei must have already have an Idea of where they were.

"The Sharingan requires emotional trauma to be awakened. It's more complex than your useless Byakugan. I bet your range isn't that big either!"

As expected, Hotaka refused to let me win the battle for Clan pride, and without much more taunting, activated his kekkei genkai. The reaction was instantaneous, his eyes widened and he sucked in air harshly. Without wasting more time, he gave us the location of our enemy through a series of academy issued hand signs.

And so, my job was done. The entire team was now aware of the threat and on their guard; and by the time the three Iwa-nin tailing us attacked, our own plan had already been set in motion. The enemy was at least chunin level, I realized, by the way they chose to orchestrate their ambush. Two of them went straight for sensei, clearly thinking we weren't much of a threat, while the third one came to us wielding a rather old set of kunai.

Their mistake though, wasn't their strategy that failed them, no. It was the fact that they didn't take into account one detail: Sensei was an Inuzuka. And Inuzuka shinobi are known to work with canine companions. Considering the size of the average Inuzuka nikken, this was a pretty big mistake on their part. And they only realized it when Kosuke, Sensei's companion, came out from the woods and took down one of them in one swift motion. The man was screaming in terror before his team mates knew what was happening. His black figure hunched over the fallen shinobi biting into the shoulder and collarbone of the man, drawing blood instantly.

Akira-sensei took a kunai out of his pouch and engaged the second attacker. He met the steel blade of the enemy katana with his own blade, making a sharp screech echo through the clearing when metals collided. The third and last shinobi came for us, hopeless little genin in his eyes. Vulnerable, incapable of protecting ourselves.

He wasn't wrong, on our own we couldn't hope to defeat a chunin, we were still not powerful enough. But working together, maybe we could by enough time for Akira-sensei to come to our aid. What we didn't realize at the time was that Sensei would be dealing with his own enemy and trying to help his companion a swell; help wouldn't come.

Hotaka srtiked first; full-speed and Byakugan active, blocking the enemy's tenketsu and rendering him incapable of reaching out for his chakra. Around them, Takahiro, improvised a wire trap; immobilizing the enemy once our team mate retreated. The man was restrained before he knew what was happening, and just as he was reaching out for his pouch to try and get rid of the wires; I started to mold my chakra. Before long, I made the signes needed and our enemy was unable to dodge the Fireball coming his way.

I didn't know what to expect when the huge ball of fire left my lips and reached the man. I guess I'd never given much thought to how different a human target would be to a practice dummy. I sure as hell hadn't expected what I saw. The person slowly burning to death before our very eyes, the noise, the smell; the fact that we knew we had done that. It served as a reminder, of what the world was and who we were. We were training to be killers, and now one of us was. The world was our battlefield and we fought to stay alive.