Chapter Text
Several months passed since you’ve started to work as the Second Hokage’s assistant. During this time, your improvement was notable for anyone who met you.
You already had your qualities, which granted you this position, but then you’ve learned more than you thought to be possible for someone in your professional area, since your superior became something close to a master for you: with Tobirama Senju, you’ve learned the most practical methods of organization as well as to think as a strategist, so that he trusted you to accomplish tasks of the most varied levels of complexity.
And though you were not a shinobi, he taught you some techniques for personal defense, including the use of kunais and shurikens. He stated that not being a ninja wasn’t an excuse for one to not know how to identify dangerous situations in order to protect themselves. In this case, you discovered some interesting traits of your body that otherwise would remain a secret even to yourself: though your physical strength weren’t prominent, your movements were fast, for which you were able to deflect and avoid attacks with relative efficiency, as well as disarm your opponents; the things you became capable of doing weren’t enough to face a true shinobi, of course, but you could easily deal with common people if they tried to cause you problems.
It was true that you’ve never wasted your time with what you couldn’t accomplish, but you were interested in learning more about your limits, and many times you talked about this with the Hokage. For example, there was a time when you asked him if wasn’t really possible for you to become a ninja.
- Though I haven’t been training since my childhood, I’m still young, Tobirama-sama – you argued – There must be enough time for me to develop my chakra pathway system. I just have to keep working as hard as I do today.
Tobirama didn’t dismiss your statement, nor he tried to dissuade you from it. Instead, he explained that things were not as easy as you imagined.
- Y/n, you’ve already started to develop your pathway – he explained – You must have noticed an improvement in your physical strength, which now matches your speed. However, it takes years of training for one to achieve their full capacity, and you have been working for a few months only. Besides, unlike a shinobi student, you don’t spend entire days on your training. But you’d need to do this to compensate the lack of preparation in your childhood.
You sighed.
- So, the answer is no.
- I did not say that – he smiled – I know you’ve been working hard since I started to teach you. I’m just saying that you will need twice the time of a regular student to accomplish things such as being able to use ninjutsu. And I cannot give you hope telling you how much you will be able to do, no matter how hard you work, for it doesn’t depend on my will. This is the kind of question that you must wait for time to answer.
It did not disappoint you to know that you might never become a shinobi. Instead, it motivated you to do your best in everything you were taught. Your best was enough for you, as well as for him.
Since you communicated freely with each other, conversations like this were a common part of your days, and even more when you started your training. You’ve come to know each other in deeper levels, as you were part of the same family. Because of this, you never hesitated to ask him for help and advice when you needed, and always listened when he had something to say. However, with the growing closeness between you two came some matters about which you’ve never thought before, and for you didn’t know how to deal with them, you decided to keep them for yourself.
One day, during your training, you attempted a strike using a kunai. You were now confident about your speed and were developing a new technique based on it; you were trying to find a way to not be disarmed with a surprise attack, which would lead to problems during a real fight, and Tobirama was teaching you how to anticipate possible tactics an opponent could make in such case. He decided to make things a bit difficult for you this time, as if learning how to face him would turn your fights with any other person something that you could easily handle.
You were concentrated on each movement, in everything you were seeing, and started to gain confidence in the success of your performance, but somehow he managed to find a gap in your defense: when you came close, he found a way to hold your wrist with one hand and immobilize you with the other. You didn’t even understand what he did: in one second you were attacking; in the next one, you had him holding your wrist above your head, and with one simple movement of his fingers he made you drop the kunai; then he trapped you with his other hand on your ribs. Everything happened so fast that you thought he did both things at the same time.
Tobirama didn’t hurt you. However, for a moment you found yourself unable to move, and your breath escaped from your lungs. He kept you close to him, his arm wrapped around you, the heat of his hand sensed on your skin even through your clothes, the vision of his fingers closed around your wrist as if doing it was no challenge for him – and it wasn’t.
Maybe he sensed the discomfort in you, for he immediately released you and said you were finished for that day.
You came to your home and took care of your regular tasks.
You were tired, but you took a long time to get to your bed and to sleep. You couldn’t stop thinking about that moment. And you soon realized there was a reason behind it. You realized that you never really knew the Hokage’s strength and experience until that day; that was the first time you felt them in yourself. And, still, you knew he was restraining them, as if he was playing with a child. It was like he wanted you to understand that, despite knowing he would never hurt you on purpose, you must not forget who you were fighting against.
Since that day, you started to pay more attention to your training and to your performance. You became able to identify moments like that, when the sensations you had at that time would come out: the surprise, the fast heartbeats, the warmth on your skin that grew deeper every time you got close to him. You didn’t notice at first – or, let’s just say, you didn’t want to admit it – but you started to seek for those moments.
It was strange, but inevitable. You would never say it out loud, but deep inside you knew that you started to see them as the most interesting part of your days.