Who are you?

Part 51

It was the day of Shiori's test, and she was ready for it. For the past few days, Anko-sensei has been teaching her a lot. She would provide her with various scrolls about the basics of poisons and then show her their real-world applications and how she could make them.

She was also teaching her how to control the potency of poisons by adjusting different ingredients. It wasn't anything dangerous, such as mild paralysis, prevention of blood clotting, or disorientation, but nothing too dangerous that a high-level shinobi couldn't fight by burning through with their chakra. However, it should still give her an edge.

Her training was going to last one more week before she had to leave for her exam. She wouldn't be a poison master by any means, but her previous knowledge combined with the training and knowledge she was getting now meant that she was getting a better understanding and knowledge to build upon.

She was learning how to experiment and grow on her own, and that was the most valuable lesson anyone could learn. It may be slower than directly learning from a source, but a strong foundation was valuable and more feasible in her case.

But today, she was going to get another valuable lesson. She knew that Hokage must somehow be behind this. Apparently, Anko-sensei managed to gather four jonins who will gather today to oversee her training. Then, she would get one day of training with each of them before having a few last days with Anko-sensei.

She still had some time before their meeting, but she decided to go early and warm up. She did not want to strain herself in case the test was anything like her first session with Anko-sensei, so she just focused on stretching and warming up her mussels and chakra exercises.

She was nearing the end of her warmup when she felt it. It was barely there, but it was—a small tingly sensation on the edge of her senses. She subtly focused her sensory zone to detect more subtle shifts of chakra.

Her chakra web latched onto the area without being aggressive. She did not want to give away that she knew she was being watched after all, so she couldn't use more chakra beyond her usual output since she didn't want to alert her watchers.

She doubted that they were hostile, but being watched meant that someone cared about her and her presence there. She could sense five people, and none of them seemed hostile, but she didn't have enough chakra in her web to get a better read.

It was most probably the people who were going to oversee her training, but why were they not coming out. She decided not to ponder as she finished her warmup. And just then, one of the watchers decided to come out.

They were no longer hiding their chakra, so Shiori could immediately tell it was Anko-sensei. To give away the fact that she was aware of her presence, Shiori turned back to face the direction she was coming from before she made any noise to alert her of her presence.

The grin on Anko-sensei's face told her that she was aware of what Shiori did. She came to a stop a few steps away from Shiori. "Ready for your test, gaki?" She said as she was given a hair ruffle.

By now, Shiori knew that trying to dodge was pointless. She would just chase her around until she managed to restrain her and get all the hair ruffles she wanted. So she bore through it. "Are your friends going to come out and say hi?" She asked, and by the reaction on her sensei's face, she realized it was the correct thing to say.

Just like that, 4 people sunshine into the clearing. Shiori observed them more carefully now that they were not hiding. The first one was a man in green spandex. She could barely feel any chakra from him, but she could feel the raw power coming from him. He was clearly the strongest in terms of raw power. But that was not just it. His power was not raw. It was refined into a blade that would cut anything that stood in its path.