Once I decided to be a ninja, I didn't hesitate any more. I got ready for the day and headed out to discover how strong or weak I really was.
Strong, incredibly strong. Now I know why Original Sakura didn't feel any need to train hard anymore. Jumping over 10 feet in the air, easy. Running over 100 meters in less than five seconds, easy. Throwing ninja weapons wherever I wanted them to go, easy. Doing hundreds of pushups, pull ups, crunches, easy. Running over 20 miles, easy. Katas done correctly and accurately, easy.
This is already better than super soldiers, while not as good as Spider-Man, it is definitely stronger than Captain America.
It is normal for a 12 year old girl to let this kind of strength go to her head and think that she doesn't need to train anymore, she was already stronger than her Genin parents.
The one that really blew me away was how fast I was. Due to our shape and wind resistance as humans run faster than 100 meters per 10 seconds things will become exponentially more difficult. The air will become like an invisible concrete wall, just leaning down with our arms behind us while running is not enough to eliminate this effect.
100 meters in 5 seconds was actually faster than what Master Roshi ran in the original Dragon Ball before training Goku. The reason being that running 100 meters in 5 seconds is definitely much more than 2 times as difficult as running 100 meters in 10 seconds, it is more like 100 times more difficult.
The reason I can run this fast is due to chakra. Obviously, chakra increases my strength, but not enough to run that fast or jump that high. I just leak chakra out of my skin, around my body making the chakra slippery, and the air just slides right around me. It's an easy technique that all ninja use.
It is a part of the ten ninja techniques.
Ten not three, there is no such thing as the academy three. No one calls them that and the academy taught 10 ninja techniques on top of all the other things a ninja should know.
1. Putting your chakra on your skin and making it sticky - the Leaf Concentration Exercise.
2. Putting your chakra on your skin and making it slippery - the Rope Escape Technique. Also used to run and jump faster.
3. Adding your chakra to an object and letting the object's color and pattern blend into the environment, this is normally done with a sheet or cloak - The Cloak of Invisibility Technique. Often used by Konohamaru to sneak up on Naruto.
4. Covering yourself with your chakra and using it to change how you look - The Transformation Technique.
5. Covering an object with your chakra to make it appear to be yourself - The Body Replacement Technique.
6. Shaping your chakra in the air to appear to be yourself - The Clone Technique.
7. Using your chakra to give yourself a boost of speed - The Body Flicker Technique. Often used during The Body Replacement Technique and to gain distance to hide from an enemy.
8. Sealing something, usually into a seal scroll - the sealing technique. The scrolls made with Fuinjutsu do not do this for you automatically, you still have to learn this technique to seal things. This is just the basic sealing technique.
9. Unsealing something - the unsealing technique. These two techniques are actually different techniques. Often used with explosive tags.
10. Chakra pulse, used to release yourself or others from illusion - The Release Technique.
These ten ninja techniques are the foundation for becoming an excellent ninja.
They use very little chakra, are easy to learn, are very life saving, and even teach you a lot of different ways to manipulate your chakra, making it easier to learn new techniques.
My proficiency in all of them is very high, even better than my parents. This explains why Original Sakura's growth as a ninja exploded when Tsunade trained her for 3 years, while Naruto's time with Jiraiya was spent practicing his foundational skills and he didn't appear to get much stronger during that time, but after he came back from this training he started to get stronger like a rocket.
A strong foundation gives you the ability to get stronger faster. This is why, so called, geniuses learn faster than normal people, as you know more, it becomes easier to know even more, and it snowballs.
There was a joke back in my old world that said one year of constant effort is not as good as one month of cheating. This was obviously referring to Sasuke's speed equaling Rock Lee's one year of effort in only a single month before the third round of the Chunin exams.
This joke is humorous, but untrue. Guy once said that when he met Lee he didn't have any talent, not even in taijutsu. When Rock Lee became his student his foundation must have been terrible.
Sasuke's foundation is actually extremely strong. Currently, he is only a little weaker at chakra control, but he beats me in every other foundational skill. Once he learns tree climbing during the wave mission he will become much stronger than he is now, while tree climbing will not actually increase my strength much because my chakra control is the least of my problems.
It has nothing to do with genius. There is no such thing, in order to become great so called geniuses have been working hard when other people have been playing around.
He didn't say this exactly, but Jiraiya once told Naruto that there are two ways to get stronger. One way is to strengthen and make up for your weaknesses and another way is to strengthen your strengths to the extreme, this is right before he taught Naruto to summon toads, instead of continuing to teach Naruto chakra control.
I already know both my strengths and my weaknesses, the question is whether strengthening my strengths or my weaknesses can keep me safe in the future.
Obviously, I don't have a lot of time to get stronger, my main worry is not about Kakashi's test, I don't need to be any stronger to pass it. My worry right now is about the wave mission. I have about a week and a month to prepare for it. Original Sakura didn't fight at all during it, during all the fighting she was standing in front of the client protecting him according to the mission requirements, but that doesn't mean that I will not have to fight either. The future has already changed and I cannot guarantee my safety. If Zabuza saw an opening on the client he would take it
I once heard a conspiracy theory that Kakashi never trained Original Sakura like he did Sasuke because she did really badly during the test. He was testing her in genjutsu, which the ninja school had marked down as her greatest talent, and she lost instantly at the lowest level of test.
This is unlikely, Kakashi is not actually obligated to teach me anything. Jonin leaders of Genin are not obligated to teach the Genin anything. They are called sensei, but they are not actually teachers like Iruka. We are actually his subordinates.
This was also common in Japan in my previous life, many people are called sensei, but they were not actually expected to teach anyone anything. People under them are just given a chance to watch what they do and copy them, while working for them.
Original Sakura's strengths were a double personality, chakra control, and great memorization ability.
During the Chunin exams Ino got into Original Sakura's mind and confirmed that Inner was a separate personality. Since I got here I haven't noticed any signs of a separate personality, but this doesn't mean that I have lost the talent that came with it.
In the world of Naruto, a second personality is a sign of being talented at genjutsu and Yin Release, but it is usually only there because the person is unable to handle their own talent, and it doesn't bestow any real benefits, the second personality disappearing is a sign that the main personality has become strong enough to handle their own talent. So, I am not worried about Inner Sakura being missing, the talent should still be there.
Me having a talent for genjutsu is already known by the Konoha higher ups and my classmates. The Original Sakura was constantly tested in genjutsu, Kakashi and Iruka both tested this talent after the she graduated. Even Sasuke got the her to brag about the class number being wrong, when she was obviously spacing out. The only time she failed was during Kakashi's test, but she never did anything with this talent.
Medical ninjutsu is actually the hardest kind of jutsu. While this is true for all medical ninjutsu, it is especially true for Yang release medical ninjutsu. Despite Tsunade's wishes, we will never have enough medical ninja to put one on every squad, they are just too rare and precious.
The reason for this is that medical ninjutsu requires a very large amount of biological knowledge. The people who are able to memorize a large amount of knowledge easily are generally of the Yin nature. Yin nature is the power of the mind. Being Yin natured means that using Yang Release is extremely difficult, like trying to teach a Fire Natured person Water Release.
On top of this, this person also has to have very good chakra control.
The difficulty of being able to do this at all is so high that actually being talented at it is definitely at a cheat level.
Original Sakura was definitely a talent at medical ninjutsu. She became one of the best in only three years. The normal speed for smart people to learn is more than ten years.
It would be like going to the hospital and finding out the doctor is actually only 15 years old, most people would not even believe it.
This is an amazing talent, although this talent doesn't look as amazing as doing an eye replacement surgery in a cave while ninja could swoop down to attack at anytime at 12-13 years old like another character in the show.
Original Sakura's weaknesses were lack of chakra, techniques, and ninja mentality.
However, this is only when comparing to clan ninja. Even in Konoha which has the most clan ninja, most Genin do not have much chakra or techniques.
Most Genin only know the exact same techniques that I know right now and have a small amount of chakra just like me. In addition, most Genin do not have a strong mentality either, even Naruto completely froze during his first battle, not even as good as Original Sakura who jumped in front of the client.
Original Sakura was actually quite strong for a Genin, the main problem is that she was having to compare with Jonin, and Genin as strong as Jonin.
The way ninja battles normally go at the Genin and Chunin level are mostly taijutsu with a few ninjutsu as a trump card. E rank jutsu at the Genin level and D rank jutsu at the Chunin level.
Only Jonin level battles and above use ninjutsu as if they were normal attacks.
The normal way ninja level up is by spending time at the Genin rank leveling up their taijutsu and E rank ninjutsu until they become Chunin. At Chunin rank they continue leveling their taijutsu and learn a specialty, usually ninjutsu of their main elemental, until they become strong enough be at Jonin level in their specialty, which is when they become a special Jonin. As a special Jonin they learn another specialty or different elemental jutsu to make up for their original specialties weaknesses. Once they make up for their weaknesses and therefore no longer have any weaknesses they become Jonin.
The problem is I simply do not have time for the normal way. I need to be able to save my life from an elite Jonin soon.
However after thinking it though, none of progressing the normal way, strengthening my strengths, or making up for my weaknesses could save me from an elite Jonin in the time I have.
Taijutsu is the foundation for all levels of ninja battles, but I could not get good enough at it, fast enough to save my life. I have no one to teach me taijutsu, the only way I could get better at it is by simply pushing myself as hard as a can in exercise. Just grabbing a heavy rock and exercising with it would be the best I can do right now, since I don't really have any money of my own right now for specialized equipment. Even once I make money from missions and can buy specialized equipment I would not be able to become strong enough fast enough.
Genjutsu, medical ninjutsu, or other new techniques would take someone to teach me to learn and no one with access to them would teach me right now or before the wave mission. In addition, medical ninjutsu would take to long to learn enough to save myself even if there was someone to teach me.
My lack of chakra is unlikely to be fixed for my entire life, let alone by the wave mission.
My chakra control is already very good and while learning to climb trees and walk on water would help me, they are not enough to save me from an elite Jonin.
My mentality has already improved from Original Sakura, as she was very hesitant, but I have never fought anyone in my life, let alone to the death, and I have no idea if I would do any better than her. In addition to this, the only way I could train this would be to think of hypotheticals before they happen and try to come up with what to do in those situations, so I do not have to think when those things occur. Do this would not be enough.
Except this is not completely true, thinking about it, my current strengths are not just double personality, chakra control, and great memorization ability not just having a talent for genjutsu and medical ninjutsu. What I am currently strong at is the ninjutsu I know right now. The ninjutsu taught at the academy. The ninjutsu that take the least amount of chakra and are the most life saving.
I quickly thought through the list of techniques I already know looking for something that could save me in a pinch. I realized that, most of them actually had some potential.
Chakra pulse would be useless since none of them used genjutsu. However, all of the others actually had the potential to be life saving, even the Cloak of Invisibility Technique, which no actual ninja ever uses.