Naruto: Systematic Shinobi-Chapter 232: Prelude To Finals - 11

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Hanabi resisted the urge to click her tongue, and instead rolled her eyes, "Should I say as expected of aniki?" she sighed, walking over to him, "But just a few days huh? And here I am struggling after over two weeks." she looked down.

Aniki truly was a monster

A hand settled on her head, patting her hair gently, "I told you didn’t I? I cheated," he chuckled, "You’re doing great Hanabi. You’ve already basically got it down. You’ve not even graduated yet, and you’ve basically got a C-rank lightning jutsu down and have the chakra to use it in spades. By time you’d normally graduate, you’d probably be a match for a Jonin. I wasn’t anywhere near that strong when I graduated."

She leaned into his touch, lips twitching into a smile as she shyly ducked her head, eyes zeroing in on the ground.

His praise made her chest flutter and her cheeks burn. And gave her this odd flippy floppy sensation in the core of her stomach.

Neither father nor grandfather ever praised her so warmly and earnestly, no matter the effort she put into her training before.

"...Aniki..." Hanabi giggled quietly enjoying the moment, before his words truly registered. She blinked and tilted her head up to look at him, even as he ruffled her hair, "What do you mean, by time I’d normally graduate?"

His smirk widened, "Caught that did you?" he said, "Exactly what I said, normally. Come the end of the chunin exams, I’m going to be promoted straight to Elite Jonin, the paper work has already been completed. I’ll be having you graduate early and taking you as my student officially."

Her jaw dropped, "You can do that?"

Daiki snorted, taking his hand from her head and spreading his hands wide, "Hanabi? Of course I can," he laughed, "I’m HIM."

...This was what she meant by how he said weird things all the time.

Him who?

And why did he emphasise it so much?

She did not bother questioning it. It would just lead to more questions that would confuse her. It was better just to accept aniki’s odd quirks.

...Besides, they were quite amusing.

"Won’t there be calls of nepotism?" she asked, worried, "Since I am a child of the head of the hyuga clan, and your apprentice already?"

"So?" Daiki brushed it off with another snort, shaking his head, "The hokage’s word is law. I swear people seriously forget we’re a military village, there is no democracy here. Whatever the hokage says, goes."

"You’re not the hokage yet though aniki." she pointed out.

"I’ve already confirmed all this with the old man." Daiki just shrugged.

"Won’t it be odd though once it’s official," Hanabi shook her head, amused again despite herself, Aniki was really like a force of nature, he just ran roughshod over everything in his way, "You’re only a year or so older than me."

She did not know why she was emphasising how small their age gap truly was. And refused to comment on how she knew exactly how far apart in age they were. Or that he was one of the youngest of his graduating class, while her big sister was the oldest.

There was nothing weird about her own research. Not at all.

"Still don’t care," Aniki just shrugged her words off, before hopping to his feet, "Anyway firecracker, I didn’t just pop over to check on you, I also got you a gift."

Her head perked up, "A gift?" she asked excitedly. It was rare for her to receive gifts

"How are you with a bow?" Daiki asked, and flexed his hand, and was suddenly holding the oddest bow she’d ever saw, bone white, with twin strings and looked like it was shaped like a manta ray of all things.

"Oh..." she tried to hide the disappointment, she’d really rather something more....fashionable than a weapon, "I’m decent." she told him, she didn’t no why he got her a bow of all things though.

"Good, this is a pretty special bow," Daiki grinned and held it up, pinching at the pair of twin strings and drawing them back...and her pure white eyes widened as an arrow of pure chakra manifested between his fingers, and then her jaw dropped as he fired it into the air...and it rapidly expanded in size until it became an enormous arrow of blinding green chakra, well over fifty feet in length, and wider than a man was tall. He flicked the back string, and the arrow of chakra, abruptly changed direction and shot towards them, only for Daiki to hold up a palm and casually absorb the chakra, "This is the Ray Bow, a pretty special bow. It fires arrows of chakra. And comes with a few nifty surprises, including that little chakra amplification ability to increase their size. I added that to it myself, actually." he thumbed his nose proudly and held it out to her.

Hanabi took it from him, and he pat her head again, "...Wow." she uttered, truly impressed.

It was an incredibly formidable weapon she understood, just from that little demonstration. The ability to fire chakra arrows, the ability to amplify the chakra arrows size and destructive power and even the power to control their trajectory.

...Paired with the byakugan, she could lay devastating attacks upon enemies from miles away.

"Right? I knew you’d be the perfect one for this weapon," Daiki boasted proudly, "Once you get good with it and master Elekiter, I’ll take you shopping to celebrate and you can pick out any clothes you want, all on me."

Her head snapped back to him and she went wide eyed, "Eh?"

Daiki poked her forehead with a single finger, "You’re always staring at clothes on display when we go out to eat in the village, but I never see you in anything beyond training clothes," he pointed out, "I figure your old fuddy duddy of an old man is pretty strict about that kind of thing and doesn’t let you spend money on stuff like that, even Hinata always dressed pretty plainly until she started hanging with me. But I’m Daiki, the next hokage and what I say goes, and if you want clothes to celebrate or anything else, you can have them!"

For a moment, Hanabi just stared mouth agape at the completely unrepentant arrogant boastful older boy, because that was definitely what he was.

Tears prickled at the corner of her eyes despite herself, and before she even knew what she was doing, Hanabi had her arms wrapped around him, burying her face in his chest as she sniffled, "Aniki!"

He laughed once more, wrapping his arms around her and hugging her back. He was so strong feeling. And solid.

And warm.

It had been a long time since anyone had hugged her. Not since she was a small girl, before she was forced to compete against her older sister.

She sniffled happily into his chest.