Systematic Shinobi - Chapter 17.1

"How's this?" Daiki asked, standing back to admire his handiwork.

'Eh, it's decent I suppose, but not really to my liking.' Isobu replied half heartedly.

"What's wrong with it?" Daiki gestured to the pond he was standing before. He'd cleaned it all up, got rid of any nasty crap laying around in it and even replaced all the stones and stuff in it with nice shiny new ones.

Literally, he fucking sanded them down to make them smooth and glossy because he couldn't find anywhere place that sold crap like that.

He really needed to learn more earth jutsu.

As it was, he was forced to use the Coral Palm Jutsu to create some coral structures and the like to spread throughout the pond.

Not to mention the literal structure he'd created for a mini waterfall, now that was a pain in the ass, he'd had to send clones to the library and have them search for hours to find out how to do that.

He'd put a lot of work into this damn pond.

'There's not enough vegetation in it, I like some moss in my water at the bottom, and while the coral structures are nice, I'd prefer ones with openings at the bottom I can get beneath and relax out of sight,' Isobu rattled off, 'Also, I'd like some rocks that are easy to get atop that stick up out of the water like small platforms so I can come up and enjoy the sun as well sometimes.'

'You've thought about this a lot.' Daiki deadpanned.

'You're not one to talk,' Isobu snorted back, 'Your training would be going so much better right now, if not for the fact that the extra clones you've been able to make since we got fully started, have all been used to study house repair guides and manuals and creating the perfect 'bachelor pad' as you like to call it.'

Daiki winced, he had no come back for that. He was up to having thirty clones out at all times a day now. The same amount were still being used for training though, while the new extra nine clones running around, were all assigned to maintenance on his new place.

'Alright, alright, I'll give it a tune up,' Daiki relented. It wasn't like he'd filled it with water yet anyway, 'Any preferences for wild life? People won't pay as much attention if there's a bunch of other critters in there with you.'

'Get some koi I suppose, they draw the eye a lot, maybe add a few lily pads and some frogs I suppose,' Isobu mused, 'By the way, that girl is still hanging around outside the property.'

'I know.' Daiki nodded, it just wasn't an issue, she wasn't exactly causing any harm.

Nearly two weeks had passed since he returned from his mission to the Village of Artisans, built within the Land of Loot, sorry Land of Rivers.

He hadn't saw Sasuke much of all since he dropped the big news bomb on him. The older boy had collected the money Daiki owed him for the new place, and they'd sparred twice, but the boy was in an odd state between focused and distracted, it was weird.

He'd actually saw Hinata more than Sasuke, she popped up at training ground sixty-nine every few days to spar with him, and Daiki definitely wasn't go to turn her away. The experience of fighting a Gentle Fist user, was not only helpful for his own fighting experience, but learning from her movements as well.

If he really needed to, Daiki was sure he could copy some of the Gentle Fist and close tenketsu. It wouldn't be viable really mid-fight, because the taijutsu style didn't mesh well with his way of fighting, but it could definitely help for capturing people if needed and keeping them docile.

Plus, watching her stellar rack bounce around with like every movement she made was a treasure for the eyes for sure.

A week ago though, he'd noticed something. Hinata had a little follower who followed him to his training ground, and now to his new house.

It was a girl too, who was 'spying' on him.

Adorable little Hanabi Hyuga.

'I suppose I'll fill it up for now.' Daiki mused, putting the little girl out of mind for the moment.

What Isobu wanted added, could be done later once it was full, he'd leave a clone to it.

Focusing his chakra, Daiki brought bought hands into a seal and spread his energy out into the air around him, "Hidden Mist Jutsu." he said.

His chakra threaded through the moisture in the air and moments later, a thick, blinding mist spread throughout the property, it was so thick and full of chakra that without focusing chakra into his eyes, he couldn't see more than a few feet in front of himself.

Grunting, Daiki focused on the chakra filled mist, before using his chakra to draw it all together.

The mist cleared up in moments, coming together and forming into a large sphere of water, hovering over Daiki's head.

He flicked his fingers down, and the water sphere formed into a stream and poured into the pool, filling it up.

Daiki whistled, "Damn, has to be a good few thousands gallons in there." he noted, impressed with himself.

It had taken a ton of chakra, but he put the training in water elemental manipulation his clones had been going hard at, to good use.

'Yes, this'll do, the water is much more pure and clean than normal thanks to your chakra.' Isobu noted, pleased.

Good, good.

Daiki nodded, before bringing his hand to his neck and cracking it, 'Suppose I'll deal with my little admirer now as well.' he mused. While he didn't mind her watching him for the most part-

It would be kind of hypocritical of him to do so considering he could peek into the hot springs on the other side of the village from his living room with his eyes and had done so a few times, totally accidentally of course.

But yeah, while she was watching him, he couldn't really go about his more…clandestine training.

Quickly, Daiki made a clone and switched places with it a split moment later, too fast for a little girl like herself to keep up with for sure.

He hid his chakra completely using his eyes, before dipping around the building and moments later, silently landing behind his target, leaning against the outer west wall of his property, veins visible around her eyes and peering straight through the wall.

Hmm, odd.

Her hair was cut pretty short, framing her face. He was sure that only happened after the time skip and it was long during the chunin exam finals.

Then again, it was just a hair style change, so not really worth focusing on.

"Getting a good look?" He spoke up, crossing his arms and eyeing the girl in amusement.

Hanabi gave a startled jump, before whirling around, Byakugan blazing and falling into the Gentle Fist opening stance on instinct, "You!" she glared.

"Me." Daiki agreed with a nod, he was himself of course after all.

"Very well, since it's come to this, I'll just have to defeat you!" the little Hyuga declared, grandly.

"Okay?" Daiki replied lamely, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Feel the might of the Hyuga Clan!" Hanabi shouted before lunging at him, two fingers out on each hand and filled with chakra.

She launched into a barrage of blinding fingers strikes, aiming for his tenketsu, and he had to admit, she was pretty damn fast for her age.

…Faster than he was when he became a Genin actually.

Not fast enough though.

Without even uncrossing his arms, he dodged and weaved between her rapid fire finger strikes, stepping back every now and then for some space.

Finally, he just got bored of that though, and lashed out with both hands, grasping her wrists and yoinking her up into the air.

"So, why are you spying on me little Hyuga?" Daiki asked.

"You'll never make me talk!" she snarled, like a cute little puppy, "Hyah!" she lashed out with a strong kick at his unprotected side.

A dull thump echoed as her kick made impact.

And Daiki just stared at her, "No really, why are you spying on me?" he repeated his question.

"My strongest kick had no effect?!" Hanabi went wide eyed in shock.

Well, his ribs throbbed a tiny bit from it, but he took harder hits from his clones, multiple dozens of times a day, so it was easy to ignore.

"You're pretty good for your age Hanabi," Daiki chuckled, "Really good actually, but I'm the best Genin in this village, so you'll need to get a lot stronger if you want to beat me."

"Neji is the strongest Genin in the village!" she glared cutely at him, before blinking her pupil-less eyes slowly and then going wide eyed in shock, "Wait, how do you know my name!?" she demanded.

"You're Hinata's little sister, she talked about you sometimes," Daiki shrugged, not actually lying, Hinata did mention her sister during small talk after they sparred, "And no, Neji is the second strongest genin in the village, maybe third actually depending on how a few others go about fighting, I'm the definite strongest, but you already know a bit about how strong I am with how much you've been spying on me the past few days, right?"

"So you knew!" she gasped, "Here you trying to lull me into a false sense of security then and ambush me like you have here?"

"No, I just didn't really care you were spying on me," Daiki shrugged, "If I had to guess, this has something to do with Hinata's new attitude."

"Fine, yes it does!" she growled cutely, "Sister has changed greatly in the last few months and I have deduced that it is because of you."

"Pretty much," Daiki nodded, not denying his involvement, "What's the problem?" Hinata getting more confident and using her strength properly was a good thing, wasn't it?

Hanabi stopped glaring at him, and a lost look appeared on her face, "…I do not understand, Sister is weak, she cannot even beat me," she said, "Even with her new attitude, she has still lost to me…yet she…her new confidence remains…and when I followed to to find out why, I saw her fighting you, she was much stronger than she was against me and much more ferocious."

Damn right that girl was ferocious. Seriously, it didn't matter how many times he put her on that nicely plump and shapely round ass of hers, she bounced right back up and came right at him like a lioness fighting for her next meal.

But, Daiki could understand the girls confusion. He remembered vaguely, that Hanabi always looked up to her sister, but the weakness in Hinata, slowly squashed that as she was promoted to heiress over her and claimed to be her better in every regard by her father and grandfather.

It wasn't until after she saw Hinata's resolve, a newly created powerful jutsu of her own and Hinata facing off against Pein to save Naruto, that Hanabi realised, her sister had always been strong.

"It's because she's kind," Daiki answered simply, "You're her precious little sister after all."

Hanabi's eyes slowly widened in realisation at his words, "But…but it is Hinata's fate to be weak." she whispered, and it looked almost as if the little girls entire world had been turned up side down.

Like she couldn't understand at all, why Hinata was strong now.

"It was her fate to be weak," Daiki stated firmly, he didn't deny that. The canon Hinata, was pathetically weak, "The thing about fate little firecracker, is that there isn't just one path and a single decision can send you down an entirely new road. All I did, was give her a little push down a different road than she was travelling before."

There was no use denying it really. For one, some kind of destiny shit did exist in this world, it might not be absolute, because he knew for sure he could go kill Naruto right this very moment and the prophecy about him uniting the Bijuu would never come to pass.

Not that it would actually anyway, because Isobro was with him now, and he didn't plan on letting anybody rip out his bro and stuff him in a nasty ass looking statue

'How many times are you going to keep calling me that?' Isobu griped.

Plus, convincing someone like Neji or even Hanabi here that fate wasn't actually a thing, would require a bunch of speeches and some fighting against unwinnable odds and stuff.

So, the best thing to do, was just take his own spin on things. Just because fate was already written in the stars, didn't mean he could take a rubber to it and replace it with a different tale.

"Multiple paths?" Hanabi mumbled, "So…it's not just my fate to lead the Hyuga Clan?"

Daiki lowered the girl to the ground gently and shrugged, "If you want it to be, you can run right down that road," he told her, "But if you want to go a different path, you can do that to. You can do anything you want if you're strong enough."

"So fate can be changed if you have enough strength, I see." Hanabi nodded slowly, understanding dawning on her.

Right, now for the big finish.

"If you're not strong enough, all you have to do is throw yourself fully into the grind until you are strong enough," Daiki confirmed, "When you are, you can accomplish anything you put your mind to." he added, and thrust his right palm up, channelling chakra through his hand.

The air rumbled and distorted as he unleashed a powerful shock wave with the Force Palm Jutsu, followed by a second, third and then more in rapid succession.

"That…that's!" Hanabi gaped wide eye at him, "The Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm! You can use one of our clans most advanced techniques and in rapid succession!"

Daiki paused and blinked, "Huh, it is quite like that, isn't it?" He mused, before shaking his head, "It's not your clans technique though, I created this technique of mine not long after I became a genin, in fact it was the first technique I created, pretty cool huh?" he bragged proudly.

"I see, I understand now why you claim to be the strongest Genin, non even Neji can use this technique yet," Hanabi said slowly, gazing at him almost in awe, "Hinata-nee-sama followed your teachings, and has become much stronger for it, so strong that even throwing fights against me in front of the entire clan, has no effect on her confidence."

Well…kind of?

"More or less," Daiki shrugged, "Your sister has always been strong and beautiful, she just needed someone to teach her how to use what she had better."

Hanabi furrowed her brows at his words, "…Then, can you teach me how to use what I have better?" she asked.

Daiki froze.

He wasn't exactly against it. It would cut into some of his time, but teaching in of itself might be a good new way to progress himself in the grind.

Also, Naruto had his own mini-me disciple squad. Konohamaru legit took on and beat one of Pein's paths, full on clan head Jonin weren't even capable of that.

"Maybe," the tan genin replied, "The question is, what exactly do you want to accomplish? Like, what do you want me to help you with?" that was kind of important, right?

"I don't know," Hanabi shrugged, "I like to train and I like getting stronger, is that not enough?"

No dream, huh?

"No, that's perfectly fine motivation," Daiki totally approved, that his literal reason for the grind as well, he liked getting stronger, granted, there was the tidbit about stopping the apocalypse and all, but he didn't exactly have a 'dream' or overall super 'goal' like Naruto or shit, "If you want me to train you, that's fine, I'm all for it."

"Ah," Hanabi blinked, before smiling ever so cutely, and bowing politely to him, "Then I'll be in your care Daiki-sensei."

Daiki-sensei?

'That just sounds wrong somehow,' Daiki shuddered, "Call me aniki instead." he said, before reaching over to pet her gently on the head.

"Okay, aniki!" Hanabi nodded vigorously.

Ah, she was so cute!

Hanabi yelped as his hand moved to her shoulder and he bodily picked her up and hung her over his own shoulder, "…What are you doing aniki?" she asked.

"Let's go get some food and we can talk about what way you want me to train you," he replied with a grin, "What's your favourite food?"

"Em, okay," Hanabi wrapped her arms around his neck and hung on as he began walking, "I'm partial to to banana's and milk, and I absolutely disdain mitsuba."

Milk and banana's huh?

As expected of a Hyuga, even while eating she was cultivating her bloodline.

                                                                   ____________

"Right, first things first," Daiki declared an hour later after filling his belly and getting a good run down of his new students thoughts on her abilities, "Before we get down to the training, I need to show off a bit to you."

"What do you mean aniki?" Hanabi, once again hanging over his shoulder asked, confused, "Isn't showing off a silly thing to do for a shinobi? Father always said that the ones that need to show boat about their strength, do it for validation to feel good about themselves because they have no true belief in their own abilities."

…That did sound like Hiashi Hyuga, that was for sure.

"In a way, he's not wrong," Daiki nodded in agreement, "But this isn't about me showing off to make myself seem cool and stuff, it's about showing you a bit of how strong I am." he explained, walking along the paths between the training grounds

He was not headed towards training ground sixty-nine for now though, he had something else to take care of, another destination that would allow him to kill multiple iwa shinobi with one jutsu as the saying went.

Damn rock humpers.

"What do you mean?" Hanabi repeated her question, "I don't understand the point of you showing off your strength for me."

"It's about trust," he stated simply, "So you can see proof and have faith in me, like, if anything or anyone super strong popped up, you wouldn't need to be afraid cuz' you know I'd kick their asses and make them my little bitch."

"You're very crass aniki," Hanabi noted, but nodded in understanding, "But yes, I understand now, thank for you explaining."

"Not a problem, if you've got something you don't understand, just ask me, I'll do my best to help you out," he flashed her a thumbs up, "Just make sure you don't let go of me, the place we're going is a little bit dangerous."

"I will not." Hanabi promised.

Their destination, was training ground forty four, or, using its other name, the Forest Of Death.

He needed to test out the summoning contract he'd been working on for Isobu. Training ground forty four, was the best place to do so, it was filled with massive, powerful beasts after all.