Suna's Ninja (Gaara Love Story)

5: Mailiman in training

Author's POV

In the afternoon, Akimi and Ling walked down the streets to deliver the non-supplies packages. Luckily, Ling handled the delivers, so Akimi just pushed the cart. Ling was pretty open about he was the fastest and the best worker, but when Akimi tried to get some tips from him, he just laughed. After delivering all the packages, they returned to the gate towers to get another stack of packages.

"No good, do it under 0.001 seconds," Jini frowned, holding a stopwatch. Akimi was with Jini again, trying to scan the boxes with chakra.

"That's so quick!" Akimi yelped. "I can't do--"

"Say that again and I'll fire you," Jini snapped. "All of us are working hard to keep the village safe, while you're yapping off your mouth. If you dare say that again, I won't hesitate to rid you."

Akimi hung her head meekly. "I'm sorry."

"Again! Hurry up! You still have your share of one hundred boxes left."

"Right!" However, after one hundred boxes, Jini still wasn't satisfied. Akimi acknowledged the fact that her chakra control wasn't stable enough. Too much could result in failure. Too little could result in no detection. Also, to check under 0.001 seconds prompted by Jini was too little time for her. It usual takes her ten seconds to thoroughly examine something. However, that's too long, according to Jini's standards.

"Akimi, if you don't pick the pace up, I am going to fire you," Jini threatened, walking away. "By the time tomorrow morning comes, you better be perfect until then."

"Right!" When the day's work ended, Akimi trudged home, heading towards the Center. "I'm going to make myself some dinner I guess."

She went to her own room, then after finding a few key ingredients, she attempted to make some Beef Bourguignon. However, as soon as she started cutting the vegetables.....

"I'm losing my touch," Akimi whispered, gripping her right hand. She slid to the floor, staring at her hand in disbelief. "No, this can't be happening. I can't lose my touch!" In a fit of rage, she instantly began practicing her cooking skills all over again. Who cares about sleep! She was going to work until her hands would bleed.

"Not good enough, again!" She snapped harshly at herself, glaring at the fish she had cleaned. "This time, be perfect!"

"Not good enough!"

"Not good enough!"

"Not good enough!"

Over and over she repeated this phrase, drilling into her mind that everything she did was below perfect. It wasn't enough. She need more.

"Again!"

"Start over!" She pushed herself, ignoring all distractions. She needed to keep her skills up!

Hours passed, and Akimi stared disappointedly at the mess she had created in the kitchen. "I need to continue this..." She glanced at the clock, and her eyes widened in horror. "I'm going to be late!"

"You're late by two minutes," Jini scowled. "Late one more time and there won't be any third chances. Get to work!"

"Hai!"

Oh no! I didn't practice my Chakra control!

Akimi set to work immediately, trying to even out her Chakra. Thankfully, Jini was pulled away to examine something else, so he wasn't here to fire her immediately. Most of time, she found herself still counting up to ten seconds when she was examining the boxes.

Akimi lifted her head to see her teammates examining the boxes at least six at a time. They would stack three in a row then three on top, then scan accordingly. Their movements were precise, smooth, and efficient. Judging how fast they went, Akimi could tell they had a lot of Chakra control.

"Newbie, shouldn't you be working?" Ling sneered. "Hurry up. Otherwise, we'll tell Jini-Sempai."

"Good one," another boy named Kosei laughed.

"Hai!"

"If you can't do under 0.001 seconds per package, you're done for," Kui added.

"Please teach me then, Kui," Akimi begged.

"No can do. Figure it out yourself. I have things to do than help someone like you."

"Yeah, since you obviously think you are too good to practice," Pearl agreed.

By the time the day ended, Jini was less than amused.

"You call this a job well done? You're hopeless. I have yet to test you, so go home, get some sleep, and come back tomorrow. It either fail or pass. Get out, now."

"Right." Akimi ran from the towers.

Akimi returned home, looking horrifiedly at the mess she had yet to clean up from her cooking yesterday to morning. She cleaned up the mess and crawled into bed, not wanting to wake up.

Suddenly, an idea popped in her mind. However, she was still uncertain of it.

"It may not work, but I have to get better," she whispered determinedly.