It was incredibly difficult to not just run off to a training area to test out what Orobas could do. This was the second Persona Sakura had awakened that she had yet to really test out and the anticipation was absolutely killing her.
Orobas was a tall combination between horse and man, with mostly red hair covering his lean, yet muscular, body. Though the hair near his hooves and mouth, as well as his hands and chest, were all stark white. Orobas had a long flowing mane of black hair that climbed down his back and he manifested in an extravagant pose with both hands out.
Sakura had assumed that, as reflections of her inner self, all of her Persona would be human; as they had been thus far. Leanan Sidhe’s elf-like ears notwithstanding, of course. Orobas, however, completely threw her for a loop.
“W..Why are you a horse?!” she shouted up at her new Persona.
“Because I am! Is my mane not beautiful? Look at how it flows in the wind!” The horse-man spread his hands wide with excitement as they began to emit a green glow and a gust of wind burst through his mane, tousling it like he was in an ad for expensive hair products.
“How did that guy come from your bond with me?” Naruto wondered.
Sakura, unfortunately, knew the answer immediately. She had an innate understanding of which part of her personality each of the Persona represented. Leanan Sidhe was a personification of her (though she would never admit it aloud) flirtatious side, one that was logical to connect to Ino. Orobas, meanwhile, represented the quality that Naruto embodied: confidence.
It may have been odd that her confident side took the form of a large equine fighter declaring his beauty to the world, but what could she do?
Though she really wanted to test out his apparent wind powers, she knew that it was much too late, especially when they both had training to resume in the morning. So, instead, she forced patience onto herself and headed home for the night, eager for the next morning.
Unfortunately, Sakura underestimated just how tired her body would be after training all day and then awakening a Persona and she ended up oversleeping for training. By the time she made it to the hot springs to continue water walking training, Sakura was nearly an hour late.
She prepared herself to apologize for her lateness to Ebisu-sensei, but walked into an unexpected sight. Ebisu was unconscious, his eyes closed and his mouth hanging open pathetically.
A large man in a red custom shinobi outfit that bore the hidden leaf symbol crouched nearby, hugging the space between a wall and curtain.. He was rapidly switching between spying on the women in the baths and talking to Naruto, who was beside him, but not making any attempts to be stealthy, in a hushed tone.
From behind, the man’s massive head of spiky white hair almost made him look like a tree. Neither of the two turned around as she approached.
“What the hell is going on here?!” Sakura asked, shooting a glare at the white haired man, who turned around, but didn't look surprised to see her there.
“Sakura, you gotta hear this, Pervy Sage offered to take over our training after he knocked out Ebisu!” Naruto declared, attempting to assuage her concerns, but so far it wasn’t helping.
“And why did he knock out Ebisu-sensei?” Sakura asked through gritted teeth.
“It was an accident!”
“He caught him spying on the baths!”
They had both answered at the same time.
“And don’t call me that you little punk, I am an artist!” The large man declared with a wink.
“Creepy.” Sakura deadpanned with a frown.
“He’s a super strong ninja though! Pervy Sage here is Jiraya of the Legendary Sannin!” Naruto said, attempting to reel the increasingly uncomfortable Sakura back in.
“I don’t buy it..” Sakura countered, refusing to accept that this creepy moron was a legendary ninja, and she turned to walk away.
“He’s right kid, there’s a lot I could teach you.” Jiraya suddenly spoke up, taking his eyes completely off the baths for the time since she arrived. As they made eye contact Sakura could finally feel the danger that lay behind his soft expression. Perhaps it wasn’t a lie.
“And staring at the baths?” Sakura questioned, her patience running thin for the old man.
“It's research, I know you’re young but surely you’ve heard of my work,” Jiraya said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out an extremely familiar book.
“Kakashi-sensei’s creepy book!” Sakura pointed to the cover. “He reads that thing everywhere!”
“I’m the author,” Jiraya bragged with a lecherous grin.
“I’m leaving.” Sakura declared as she turned back around. There was no way she was going to hang out with the guy who was giving off that many red flags, regardless of who he was.
“C’mon Sakura, he’s a Sannin! They have loads of strong jutsu!” Naruto pleaded with her from afar.
“I’m sure he does, no thanks though!” Sakura shouted and gave a small wave without turning around, leaving the duo behind. Whatever that guy was planning, Sakura was 100% sure that she wanted nothing to do with it and, with Ebisu seemingly out of commission, there was nothing for her there.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hours later, Sakura found herself, once again, alone on a training ground. She was surrounded by partially destroyed training dummies, her body covered equally in dirt and sweat, but she felt accomplished.
She managed to gain a decent understanding of the abilities of both Leanan Sidhe and Orobas.
Orobas was much simpler, he had a pair of wind jutsu called Garu and Magaru, both of which were low level ninjutsu that blasted the target with green, chakra-enhanced wind. They were likely D-rank, C-Rank at best if she took a longer moment to focus before launching it. The only difference between the two were that Garu was focused on a single target while Magaru could hit multiple targets at once, affecting a larger area with slightly reduced power.
Sakura also noticed that while she was using Orobas that her stamina returned to her faster than normal, when she asked Orobas about it, he informed her of something she hadn’t yet learned about Persona.
“Some of us, myself included, are blessed with passive abilities. These abilities do not require chakra and are a part of our very nature. I am blessed with the wondrous ability of Regeneration! It is only first-tier for now. However, if you deepen your bond with our favorite excitable blonde, then it, like the rest of my abilities, will grow stronger.”
“Ino?” Sakura retorted, causing Orobas to give her a flat look. She hadn’t even known horses could make that kind of face. “Okay, okay, what do you mean by first-tier?”
“While we awaken new jutsu as your bonds are deepened, passive abilities simply grow more powerful, and are separated into tiers.” Orobas recounted.
“How do you know all of this?” Sakura wondered.
“We Persona are aware of our nature, if you reflected deeply surely you would know this information too, thou art I, young lady. That means that you are just as brilliant as I am.” He reminded her with a wag of his finger.
Discovering that simply having Orobas summoned would passively heal her over time was a massive boon to Sakura. It wasn’t powerful enough to make a difference in the middle of a fight, sure, but after a fight was over? Sakura would be ready for the next opponent much faster with this new ability on her side.
The purple-clad elven Persona, Leanan Sidhe, was a bit more complicated. Her jutsu were completely unable to actually target the training dummies, all of them requiring a mind to take hold. After talking with her flirty self for a bit and just attempting to use the jutsu, even without a target, she was able to get a grasp on what they did.
In theory, anyway.
There was the already used Marin Karin which was a genjutsu, carried on a wave of chakra, that opened the target to her suggestion. For now, Sakura had no idea what the limits of the technique were but she’d have to find someone willing to let her practice.
Stolen story; please report.
Leanan Sidhe could also use Psi and Mapsi, which were downright bizarre jutsu. As far as she understood, they took the mind altering effects of genjutsu and somehow transformed it into a ninjutsu that attacked the mind directly. It reminded Sakura of how the Mind Transfer Jutsu felt like it was somewhere on the line between ninjutsu and genjutsu. She decided it was worth discussing with Ino in the future.
This became Sakura’s routine for the next two weeks. Every day she would get up, eat, and go training. After she was either too tired to move or had expended all of her chakra, she would make notes on what went well, what needed improvement, and what wasn’t working at all. During this time she grew more comfortable with Athena and Orobas then ever before but training with Leanan Sidhe’s mind affecting powers was falling drastically far behind.
It was while she was reflecting on this disparity, that Kiba happened upon the area she was training in. The slightly mangy boy had just been passing by but stopped to give her a wave and called out to her.
“Hey Sakura! Training hard for the finals?” He asked with a grin, she was surprised to see a lack of envy on his face, especially considering the way he lost. Akamaru, his ninja-dog companion, was perched on his head, resting.
“As well as I can on my own.” Sakura responded with a sigh.
“Where’s your Jonin-sensei?” Kiba wondered.
“He took Sasuke for special training, but he set me and Naruto up with a decent instructor, a guy called Ebisu.” She answered.
“The Hokage’s grandson’s instructor?! How come you aren’t training with them then?” Kiba asked with widening eyes.
Sakura gave an even longer, and deeper sigh than the previous one before she answered. “Some supposedly super strong pervert knocked him out for trying to stop him from peeping and then, somehow, Naruto and that guy became thick as thieves in just a few minutes. They’re training together now and I decided to just wash my hands of the whole thing. That Ebisu guy was a little weird anyway.”
“Yeah, that sounds like Naruto,” Kiba scoffed, his expression darkening for a moment before he seemed to put those thoughts aside, as he realized the implications of what she was saying. “But doesn’t that mean you are left with no instructor? The finals are in 15 days!”
“Well, it is what it is, I guess. I know nobody can really train me on how to use my Persona because they come from a Kekke Genkai, but I really wish I at least had someone to practice on.”
“That’s what you call the weird summons? Persona?”
Sakura nodded.
“I’ve got some time,” Kiba said with a casual smile. “I’m supposed to be helping my sister at the clinic but I’m sure she’ll understand if I’m a little late.”
“Are you sure? I really don’t wanna hold you up if you have other things to do,” Sakura tried to hide the excitement she felt at his offer but knew she wasn’t doing the best job, she was itching to really see what her Persona could do.
“Oh yeah, you’re chomping at the bit for a real opponent, that always makes for a worthwhile sparring partner,” Kiba declared as he started pulling his arms into a light stretch. A predatory grin began to stretch over his lips. He gently pulled Akamaru down from his head and placed him on the ground.
“If you’re sure, then I will absolutely take you up on that offer,” Sakura replied with matching fervor.
“Let’s go Akamaru!” Kiba yelled, shocking the dog out of his previously relaxed state, but he immediately responded with an excited yip.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fighting Kiba and Akamaru was a completely different experience to the fights Sakura had experienced since awakening her Persona. Whenever she had engaged with multiple opponents, they were the type that relied on their own individual strengths, and thus used only limited coordination.
Kiba and Akamaru, however, were all coordination.
Every time one of them struck, the other was anticipating how Sakura would respond to that strike and was ready to follow it up. This pattern continued for attack after attack leaving Sakura contending with a constant onslaught.
Athena’s shield was useful for blocking in extreme moments but it was impossible to catch both of her combats in an Arrow Rain at the same time and they always capitalized on the moment of focus it took her to use to the technique.
With Orobas, she noticed something else. It was easier to land blows on her opponents while he was out, but the blows that did land seemed to do significantly less damage than when she was using Athena. His wind attacks fired out more quickly than Athena’s arrows as well. This made her consider that the strengths and weaknesses of whichever Persona she was currently using may have had an impact on her own body as well.
This concept was further confirmed when she finally switched to using Leanan Sidhe. Sakura felt just as fast as when she was using Orobas, but the hits she took hurt significantly more and the ones she landed were pitiful. Leanan Sidhe’s jutsu, however, were a different story entirely.
When Sakura fired off a Psi for the first time, multiple waves of pink energy shot out towards Kiba. The boy tried to dodge but the waves seemed to have some type of tracking as they swerved directly into his head. Kiba gripped his skull for a moment as, according to Leanan Sidhe, psychic energy rattled his brain.
“Fuck…what was that!?” Kiba shouted as the pain finally began to subside, his hands still cupping the sides of his head through his grey hood. As he looked up at her for a response, Sakura noticed his nose bleeding lightly, but was sure she had never landed a blow on his face.
“It felt like genjutsu, but the damage was real. I can smell the internal bleeding.” He continued.
“Sorry about that, it’s new!” Sakura responded, giving a light bow before batting her eye lashes a bit in the hopes he wouldn’t be too mad. It was a trick she picked up from Ino, who she found herself thinking about more often whenever Leanan Sidhe was summoned.
“We’re fine.” Kiba grumbled. “But you still didn’t tell me what it was.”
“A jutsu called Psi that Leanan Sidhe can use, she says her chakra has a “psychic affinity” but I’ve never heard of it before.”
“That…sounds made up…but it hurts like a bastard,” Kiba groaned before reaching out a hand for Sakura to pull him up.
The elven woman floated down to the pair, her eyes carrying a soft glow of the same pink color she had fired off before. It had a paler, more ethereal quality to it than the bright glow of Sakura’s pink chakra.
“Oh it’s real, little boy” The Persona remarked in a singsongy tone. She bent down towards him and brought her lips right next to his ear. “That same energy lets me make it so you’ll do anything I want.” She whispered before backing away giggling at the blush that spread across Kiba’s face.
“Thanks for the help, Leanan Sidhe, that’ll be all.” Sakura deadpanned as she dismissed her companion with a wave of her hand. “Sorry about her, she can be a little feisty.” She said with an embarrassed grimace.
“Didn’t you tell me earlier that they were all you?” Kiba retorted with a chuckle.
“Ah, no, you must’ve misunderstood, that was all her. Promise.” Sakura declared without making eye contact.
“Alright brat, playtime’s over!”
A gravely yet feminine voice suddenly yelled out from across the field the duo were currently occupying. They both turned to see a woman with an incredibly hostile expression, flanked by a large black wolf.
The woman appeared to be in her 30’s and had similar, though heavier, makeup to Kiba’s. She wore the standard Konoha shinobi flak jacket and black underclothes, her wild hair seemed to spike out in every direction and the wolf at her side radiated an aura of danger.
The black wolf had a white undercoat. One side of his head was missing an ear while the opposite side bore an eyepatch. Behind his one visible eye lurked the icy darkness of an apex predator, along with an uncanny intelligence.
Sakura knew immediately that this woman was likely Kiba’s mother. The resemblance was so uncanny, that she wouldn't be surprised to learn Kiba had no father and had instead split off from his mother like a cell.
“M-Mom!?” Kiba stuttered. “I was just about to go back to the clinic, I swear!”
“Yeah right, you were goofing off again. Sparring with this little girl instead of helping with the pups that are coming in.” The woman chided as she continued her approach.
“Training isn’t goofing off!” Kiba tried to argue back.
“Building bad habits, even with a partner, isn’t training.” The wolf suddenly commented, causing Sakura to nearly jump out of her skin.
“He can talk?” Sakura inquired as she stared down at the wolf with trepidation.
“Well duh, he’s a ninja-dog.” Kiba shrugged. “And what bad habits?” he asked, looking down at the wolf with his arms crossed.
“She’s not using her partners well at all. Their coordination is garbage. You should train with the family if you want to go against someone who fights with an ally by their side. Anything you learn with her is a waste for when the real fights come your way.” The woman admonished him without ever looking Sakura’s way.
“But-” Kiba started to respond but Sakura quickly cut in.
“Our coordination is garbage?” Sakura asked, slightly offended. Sure, she couldn’t work with her Persona as well as Kiba could with Akamaru, but surely that was a high bar, right?
The woman let out a huff before shaking her head. “Kiba, go help your sister, I’m gonna teach your friend here how to work with her allies a bit before she gets herself killed.”
“Really?” Sakura asked in excitement, eyes taking on a glow as she stepped forward with her arms together in a pleading pose. All earlier feelings of offense were completely forgotten. “Anything will help! I’ve only had them for a few weeks and it just feels like there is so much to learn.”
“Uhhh, are you sure about that Sakura? Mom can be a little intense.” Kiba tried to warn as a fist smashed down onto his head.
“Oh, I’m too intense for you, you little brat?” she scoffed, driving her knuckles further into his noggin. “Just like your father, too weak for a real take-charge woman!” she admonished with a devilish grin.
“Now go help your sister while I make sure this kid doesn’t embarrass herself.”
Kiba took off before another blow would come from his mother, giving Sakura one last look back as he sped away. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you Sakura! Good luck!”
The woman watched her son run off with a lot more pride than Sakura would have expected, based on her words and attitude so far, before turning back to her.
“The name’s Tsume Inuzuka, kid. I’m a Tokubetsu Jonin with Konoha’s Tracker Corps. expert in combat with a ninja dog companion and earth style ninjutsu, along with having the privilege of being that punk’s mother.” The woman listed off, holding up a finger at each statement. She ran her eyes down Sakura’s body like she was observing a particularly unimpressive worm before the manic grin returned with a vengeance.
“Now, who the hell are you?”
