Maruboshi faced his student, anticipation hidden behind his eyes. It had been ages since they had met like this, and he wanted to see how Takuma had improved in that time. The last time he had seen Takuma in action was during the basic training tournament, so he had a rough measure of where his student stood back then, but in the two fights he had seen, one of them had been fought in an injured state.

He wished to experience Takuma's progress firsthand.

"Come, child," he smiled.

Takuma assumed a stance.

'A solid stance… good,' he noted to himself.

Takuma wasted no time and dashed for Maruboshi and launched a barrage of punches mixed in with palm strikes, trying to overwhelm him. Maruboshi parried away the attacks and batted away a strike here and there to check for Takuma's recovery.

'He still likes to open with his hands,' Maruboshi hid a smile as his student's habits surfaced in his mind.

Takuma planted his leg hard into the ground and used it as a pivot to launch a vicious spinning back kick for the side of Maruboshi's head. Maruboshi's eyes widened a fraction as he received the kick with his forearm. He struck with a straight punch for Takuma to bob his head to let it slide past his head while simultaneously adjusting his positioning to create just enough of a gap between them to launch the next attack.

Takuma chambered his leg to build muscular tension before lashing out toward Maruboshi's head, who pulled back at the last moment to make it miss. Takuma pulled his leg toward his torso as soon as the kick missed and immediately punched out with a front kick for a speedy second strike.

Maruboshi simply caught the kick with his hand and pushed Takuma back with it.

'He has gotten more aggressive,' Maruboshi moved closer to Takuma.

Takuma spun in the air to land on his feet. The moment Maruboshi entered his eyes, he launched a flying kick that Maruboshi thwarted and did the same with every strike Takuma unloaded before touching the ground.

"I see you have picked more of the Hidden Leaf kata. A fine choice," said Maruboshi as he mimicked Takuma's stance. "It's the choice of the majority of the Leaf shinobi. A tried and tested taijutsu created by the First Hokage himself for the generations of Leaf shinobi to follow."

For the first time, Takuma paused in his attack and circled with deliberate yet light steps.

Maruboshi held back from switching to offense. He wanted to observe more before he stopped the fight. He glanced down at Takuma's feet, and just at that moment, Takuma dashed again.

'No weapons?' Maruboshi hummed. He knew better than most that bare-hand taijutsu wasn't his student's strong point, which was why he had ensured that Takuma was comfortable wielding his kunai so that his opponents would, at the very least be conscious of the blade and had drilled in the importance of using shuriken and senbon to create distance whenever needed. Takuma had never taken to the latter advice to the level Maruboshi wished, but as long as he was aware of the option, Maruboshi wasn't overly worried— time and experience were great teachers.

Maruboshi spoke calmly as he danced with Takuma. "The motive behind the Hidden Leaf kata is to allow the shinobi who practice it to create their own tai—"

Takuma threw a feint, and from its shadow came a strike toward the throat. Maruboshi struck the arm on the side, redirecting it. Unfazed, Takuma let the arm fly as he bent his knees and launched an elbow strike aimed at the groin. Maruboshi shifted his leg and let his shin meet the elbow.

Maruboshi looked at Takuma in a different light than moments before. His student had been fighting.

When he had trained Takuma to fight, his focus had been to teach Takuma the basics of taijutsu so he could protect himself. He had taught Takuma to protect himself first and strike others second. And, he knew that the basic training taught the genin to incorporate all other combat skills into one to get them prepared and experienced with real-world combat scenarios.

Takuma had never tried to target points like the throat and groin when he was still in the academy, and Maruboshi couldn't remember any point in the tournament fights where Takuma had tried to target them. If his memory served him well, Takuma focused on knees, head, and body shots to damage.

It was clear that his student had either fought or seen someone who fought with those moves and had adapted them into his own moves.

'Is it from his sparring partners?' Maruboshi thought as he parried a heavy hook punch from Takuma.

"You have grown interestingly, young Takuma," said Maruboshi.

He thrust a palm into Takuma's crossed arm guard that staggered him back a few steps. Takuma didn't get to re-group as Maruboshi closed the distance in a single step.

A strike to the shoulder destroyed Takuma's upper body stability. Takuma saw the knock to his side placed perfectly below his guard coming, but the previous strike robbed him of his ability to guard. Maruboshi swept Takuma's legs as he finished with a punch down at his chest to slam him into the ground.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Get up," ordered Maruboshi. The familiar command made Takuma follow it subconsciously. He was on his feet with a ready stance. "Ease up."

Takuma breathed a sigh and bent forward by his hip with his hands resting on his knees. "I can still feel the hits on me," he groaned.

"You have clearly improved," said Maruboshi.

Takuma smiled.

Maruboshi continued, "However, I'm curious as to why you didn't use your weapons."

Takuma froze, it was for a fleeting moment, but Maruboshi noticed. Takuma awkwardly chuckled as if embarrassed, "Me and my sparring partners haven't been using weapons. Getting injured with a mission around the corner can be bothersome. I guess I was still in that mindset."

'Half-truth as a lie,' Maruboshi couldn't help but feel a conflicted sense of pride.

"So, what do you think?" asked Takuma. "Were you able to figure it out?"

Maruboshi pointed at Takuma's feet. "It's small but evident at the same time. You square your feet before you jump. You do it before a running start and even before a standing jump. It frankly is a glaring indication of what's about to come."

"Ugh, for it to be visible to you after just one fight," Takuma let out a frustrated groan.

"I was deliberately seeking it out."

Takuma groaned as he sat down on the floor with his knees half-bent. "I'll need to get rid of it," he sounded half-worried and half-frustrated.

"That you'll need to do."

Maruboshi crossed his legs as he sat down on the ground in front of Takuma and watched his student pull on grass as he stared at the grass with a faraway look.

"How are the missions going?" asked Maruboshi.

"Hmm?" Takuma thought for a moment before shrugging. "Nothing special, I would say. I like the fact that I'm jumping from job to job, so things don't get monotonous. It would be nice to have an office job, at the same time, every day, around which I can build a daily schedule—but I think I prefer what I have right now. I get to meet some nice people, you know. There are some awful shitty Patrons, too, though."

Maruboshi studied Takuma, "How have you been spending your mission points? Ninjutsu, perhaps?"

Takuma clapped his hand and jumped up to his feet. "I did learn one that I want to show you," he said as he skipped several feet away.

Takuma immediately weaved hand-seals that Maruboshi partially recognized to be for a Doton jutsu.

He sensed a charge of chakra permeating into the ground.

'I need to ask him to work on his chakra control,' thought Maruboshi.

Using more chakra than required by the jutsu not only wasted the chakra but also alerted the enemy. It wouldn't be a problem for Takuma in the short term, but once he encounters skillful opponents, they could sense chakra discharge— not to mention sensor type, who could pick up chakra signatures from a distance— wasting chakra while casting jutsu was nothing short of sending up a flare.

The ground around Takuma broke loose into soil particles and rose up to the sky until they met a point two meters above the ground, forming a thick earthen dome.

Maruboshi knew that Takuma was given the reward of C-rank jutsu for winning the basic training tournament. He knew there were two dome-shaped Doton jutsu. Narrowing from that, he recognized the jutsu as the Doton: Tsuchi Domu (Earth Release: Earth Dome).

After a moment, the dome crumbled from the top, and Maruboshi saw the thickness of the dome, he found it surprisingly not lacking by much. Even though the thickness of the 'wall' only partially showed the defensive capability of the wall and the real strength came from how tightly the ground particles were held together by the chakra, it was still an indication of the progress that Takuma had made.

'He must be blessed with a strong Doton affinity,' Maruboshi felt joy for Takuma. A strong primary affinity went long ways in terms of combat strength and survivability.

The dome crumbled enough to reveal Takuma, who stood up. "I love that I chose this," he chuckled. "I used the jutsu to create myself a tent while I went camping last time— imagine using a C-rank defensive jutsu for camping." He patted at the dome wall, "I just need to master it enough that I can crumble it away from the side rather than the top to give me more escape options."

Maruboshi stood up and waved Takuma to him

"Yeah?"

"They are dangerous people. You know that, right?" said Maruboshi.

Takuma looked confused. "Huh, what do you mean?"

"I know they offer mission points," the moment Maruboshi said that Takuma froze like a stone statue.

"You know—"

Maruboshi silenced Takuma with a finger on his lips. He didn't want Takuma to say anything to him. Even though he already knew about it— the less he knew, the better it was for both him and Takuma. He would have preferred not to talk about it at all, but Takuma was his precious student. He needed to say something about it.

"I don't like what they do," he continued. "I don't blame you, child. The allure of mission points is strong, and I do know that they pay handsomely." Takuma looked like he wanted to say something, but Maruboshi continued on, "But, I want to make things very clear, Takuma. Those people are not good people. No matter how they act, no matter how well they treat you— they don't care about you. They only care about themselves. Don't trust them, for the moment you lose your value, they will scavenge and extort what remains before throwing you out."

Despite not having a liking for what it stood for, Maruboshi couldn't deny the aid that it provided to the shinobi. It was a darkness of the Leaf village, but even the darkness gave something or it wouldn't exist, but it also took away. He had seen good, talented, competent people who had been tied down by their circumstances rise from their problems with the aid that it gave them. However, he had also seen how it had ruined similarly good, talented, competent people.

What people got out of it differed from person to person.

He simply didn't want Takuma to be the person who lost more than they gained.

"D-Do you want me not to— because I will if you ask me not to," Takuma stuttered as he asked.

Maruboshi shook his head as he ran his hand through Takuma's hair. He was honored that Takuma held him in such high regard. And that made him so profoundly sad. "I do not want to dictate your choices, Takuma. I have cautioned you about the nature of that place. No matter how valuable it might look, it is a gateway to a place that drags people into the darkness…. If you want to continue, that is your choice. If you wish to leave, even that is your choice. The one thing I wish is for you to be careful.

When the time comes where you think it is time to leave, do not think about it, simply leave without looking back."

Maruboshi smiled sadly.

He couldn't tell Takuma what to do.

For taking this away from Takuma would mean that he would need to replace it with something else.

He possessed that something… alas, he was unable to provide it to Takuma.

And for that, Maruboshi despised himself for his own… cowardice.