Strong. Unusually so. Shogi felt the stone crumble between her fingers. Ground to the finest powder. Almost dust.
Taking a step back, she settled into a stance—hands raised before her chest, knees bent slightly forward. Then she punched with her right fist. Air parted around her, rushing past her face, screeching as something tore through it in a faintly visible wave that pushed away the grass and dirt ahead.
Her fist trembled as her heart began pounding in her chest. A giggle escaped her lips as a decade of worry finally began to ease. The sound soon twisted into an ugly laugh as tears ran down her cheeks, choking her throat as she struggled to catch her breath.
She had just moved faster than she could even think.
Twelve years of burning out, just to have this dropped on me.
Fucking hell. This changed everything. Depending on how strong she was, she wouldn't even need to aim for chuunin. She could just serve her ten years as a genin and then walk away.
Just from the speed of the punch—never mind its power—she knew she was beyond any of her teachers at the academy. She couldn't be sure, but she was certain she'd almost broken the sound barrier. And she hadn't used chakra or even tried that hard. If this was her strength at twelve, then all she had to worry about was finding a quiet place to train.
Grinding missions, applying for patronage or apprenticeships, getting certifications for different divisions—screw all that. If she could make do with just her strength, she would do the bare minimum and walk away. Shogi took a few minutes to calm down and began packing up her things. She knew she had just found the key to her freedom. But she had yet to truly discover her limits. She couldn't be seen testing her powers, so she would keep them as a trump card—a backup in case anything went wrong.
She had taken every precaution to come out here and test her power. A full day's travel from the village to an isolated mountain range, and even then she knew she wasn't completely immune to being observed. She wouldn't test her limits here. No. Maybe during a trip outside the village to a town near the Land of Fire's border, where any damage could be written off as the work of nukenin.
God knows the bullshit I'd have to endure if anyone found out about my strength.
To be fair to Konoha, it wasn't like they had any shortage of clans or bloodline bearers applying to join. One of her friend's families had recently completed the process to be recognized as a minor clan focusing on sword techniques. There was another girl a year above her whose clan specialized in taijutsu—of course, her father being a Jōnin helped. Considering just how few Jōnin there were in the village, there were very few restrictions on them.
The point was, there were a lot of people with unique traits in the village, but for the most part, proving their usefulness fell on them. The village wasn't ready to invest any resources or give preferential treatment unless they reached at least Chuunin rank along with a few other requirements. There were even clans who retired from the ninja side of things altogether and left the village.
But for her? She wasn't ready to get involved in all that at her age. Besides, she'd rather die than be responsible for raising a clan chained to this place, no matter the benefits. Never mind that weirdo Danzo.
Packing up her camping supplies, Shogi began her trek back toward the village. Since it was Saturday, she had time to get back. Hopefully she wouldn't be late to her class's graduation party tommorow.